November 22, 2024 • 37 mins
In this episode, I am chatting with Marketing Strategies Consultant Dan Woodroffe, who has a real human story behind the fancy job title. Dan shares his journey from a corporate cubicle dweller to a world traveler. He discusses how he uses his “3 Freedoms” to make decisions and how, today, he spends his time helping others discover what they truly want. This is Dan's story! Dan Woodroffe on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danwoodruffstrategy/ Dan's website:
https://odinstrategies.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danwoodruffstrategy/ Dan's website:
https://odinstrategies.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nobodies are somebodies, all right, everybody, it's Chadvice. Welcome to
the Nobody's Are Somebody's Podcast. And I got another brand
new episode for you right here, right now, and I
can't wait to share this with you. A little bit
of backstory. When I recorded this, it was several hours
(00:21):
before the apartments that we were staying in, living in
for the better part of four four four four years,
flooded out of nowhere after a huge rainstorm. And since
that time in July when I recorded this with Dan Woodruff,
(00:41):
I never lived there again.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
That was end of it.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
There's a lot of repairs to be done, the insurance company.
Nobody want to do anything. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Nobody cares about that new place, bigger, farther, but cooler.
It's great and I can't wait to start doing new
podcasts recording in this new willing but to close out
the past chapter of my life and the Nobodys Are
(01:06):
Somebody's podcast from there. Dan Woodroff as the guest of
honor for that, and a little bit about him he's sharing.
He's sharing his journey from the corporate cubicle world to
becoming a world traveler. He talks about how he uses
his three Freedoms ideas to make decisions that basically got
his life and how he now spends his time helping
(01:28):
others to discover what the three freedoms truly mean and
what they want to do in their life. So he's
going to discuss that here on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast.
We did this over zoom. We'll give you the audio
for it. Of course, you can find more about Dan
Woodroff by visiting his LinkedIn page at LinkedIn dot com
search for Dan Woodroff, Dan Woodruff's strategy. You can search
(01:48):
for you can go on his LinkedIn fie. You can
find out more about Dan Woodrooff on his LinkedIn profile
Dan Woodrof's Strategy, or visit his website. Odin Strategy. We
talked about odin the course of the Norse God mythology,
and I think I hope I recorded this part. We'll
see at the end, but we talked when he talked
(02:09):
about Oden the Norse God, talked about the Black Sabbath Record,
one of my favorite Black Sabbath records that is based
on that the record tier which nobody knows because it's
not featuring Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James deal of course
with Tony Martin. But I think I mentioned that at
the end. Hopefully that part got recorded, but if not,
I'm telling you about it now without further ado. It's
(02:31):
my conversation with Dan Woodrooff here about three freedoms and
how they can apply to you in your life and
the freedom of listening to a great podcast. Nobody's there
Somebody's podcast. Get it anywhere you get your favorite podcasts
and visit sebcamco dot com for more information. Now check
this out, Dan Woodrooff, Nobody's are Somebody's podcast with me
(02:52):
chad vice.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Dan.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It's good to meet you, good to talk to you,
good to have your conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
How are you. I'm good. Thank you for having me
on chain for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Thank you for reaching out and being a part of this.
So I want to talk to you about your story.
You've had a journey from a corporate job into a
world of traveling, and you have things that help you
make decisions in life, and one of those decisions was
getting out of your corporate world. I want to hear
basically how that all started and who Dan Woodroff is.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
The the original Dan Woodroff did a lot of should right,
like so you should go to college, and then you
should get a job, and then you should retire from
the said job, and you know, you should have a
four to one k and.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
A pinsion and what everybody should do right.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I enjoyed it, like I really did, Like I
worked for a lot of really big companies here in
the States. And where are you any us currently? I'm
in South Florida, South Florida. Okay, yeah, well I guess, yeah,
I guess Central Florida. But anyways, I did a lot
(04:06):
of how should I say this, I put in, I
put in the time right, I climbed the ladder, and
I built my reputation. And I had a lot of
fun though, like I was running creative teams and I
was working within marketing organizations and doing fun work, fun projects.
But it was it was still it was good, and
(04:29):
deal it wasn't And then there was specifically, remember one
day I went in early and then I at some
point I realized what time it was when everybody else
was going home, and I realized I hadn't seen or
been in the sunshine that day, and I was I
was working in Florida. You would think I should be
(04:50):
I should be right there, and it was. It was
one of those moments where I said, yeah, I'm in
the wrong place, like this isn't this is doing it
for me and more, and so I decided it was time,
it was time to start looking. And then, just like
with everybody else, the pandemic hit and affected me, and
(05:10):
that was opportunity. Really, it was like that opportunity to
make that clean break and with that having the time
to sit back and say, what do I want? Then?
What do I really want? And keep asking that question
over and over and it gets it and challenging myself
(05:31):
and really digging deep and understanding, Okay, what do I
really want? And out of that it was like, not
what I had built and spent so much time and
energy building in the past. I wanted something completely different. Ultimately,
what I came up with was I wanted freedom.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I understand that totally. Did you when you the pandemic
send everybody home, did you still work for them or
did you completely break from it at that point? Were
you still kind of employed the.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Time I had, I mean at thirty days after.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Thirty days after the after or so after everybody went,
I was working at home. Yeah, yeah, and then he decided, okay,
I'm not doing that. I'm not bringing this into my home.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Basically, it was it was it became absurd at some
point because it was like, well, you don't have anything
else to do, you can't go anywhere, so you might
as well be working. Yeah, I think the seven am
meetings or that, and then they that eventually always got
canceled and then you know, and then rescheduled, and then
(06:33):
you know, it was rescheduled in seven thirty at night.
You know, it was like, this isn't this isn't what
I want. No, this is this will end someday, right, well,
we'll get back to normal.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Suff Yeah, we're all told every month it was going
to be a couple more weeks, a couple more weeks,
and then I turned into twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
We already know that. Yeah, yeah, and so I knew,
you know, I knew eventually I had the time to
plan for what was what was going to happen, and
that was what Dan to two point zero was going
to be.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
To me, It's always the scary thing because obviously what
we should do is make our money, pay our bills,
support our family, do what we need to do. So
was there a concern like when you after thirty days,
you thought, okay, I'm done with this, But did you
have an exact like next day plan, like oh what
am I going to do to make an income? Or
did something just volunteer your lap? What would happened?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I think because of the rules were so broken for
everybody at that time period that it was I just thought,
there's nothing but an opportunity out there right, like, I'll
figure it out. The beauty of it is at no
point other than this in my life, like I'm the
most confident, the most educated, the most trained. I have
(07:49):
all the skills that I've ever had in my entire
life right now, right here today. So it's like somehow
I made it through my twenties.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, yeah, sure you made another side.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I didn't know what I was doing, Yeah, just trying
to figure it out. And now I actually know what
I'm doing and I have gray hair and people listen
to me. So yeah, Like, so I convinced myself, and
I think rightfully so, that I had the skills and
the confidence to do it whatever it is or was.
So what did you do then?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Basically what transformed, like you obviously left that job, and
did you move into what you're doing now or was
there a transition to something else? Like where does your
story taking at that point?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
There was definitely transition, and ultimately it was figuring out
what I wanted And to me, that's the hardest question
that any adult ever has to answer, and that is
what do you want? And giving myself the space and
(08:54):
the time to really dig into that question and explore
things and kind of put on other identities and because
for the longest time it was Dan the creative director,
like he that was that was what I I wore
as my identity, and then almost I was thinking. I
kept thinking about it like a changing room and going
(09:15):
in and just trying things on. It's like, what what
does a world traveler look like? You know? Does wear
a door? Explore the door, the explorer.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Micro class a magnifying glass and take a look and
explore everything with a big magnified class.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah. Yeah, so I was. I was just trying on
these these personas really and saying like does this fit?
And do am I comfortable in this? And do I'm
granted I knowing too, I'm it's going to change, like
it's like purpose changes or or at least it evolves
(09:53):
throughout just time and so being you know, wise enough
to understand that what I was choosing wasn't my next
twenty years. It may only be my next five years
or two years.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's good to think of it, because you think, Okay,
what am I going to do for the rest of
my life if I don't do this, But what's the
rest of my life going to look like? A lot
of people think that way, myself included. It's like, well,
it's this or it's that, But we don't think in
that small capacity. We think of it's this and to forever.
And that's what scares people, and they're like, oh, I
don't want to know if I would want to do
that forever. I don't know if I can do that
or make it last forever, so they don't do it.
That's a really unique way to think about it. Never
(10:28):
thought about it that way.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He presented that. So is putting those those on and
giving myself the grace to make mistakes and understand that
I can pivot and figure it out. It almost felt
exactly like after I graduated from college, that time period
where it was I'm not sure what I want to do.
(10:50):
I have a general direction, so I'm just going to
run toward it. And a lot of that is always
telling myself to be running towards something and not away
from something. Yeah, because that's such a different mind shift
of you're fleeing an accident scene and it's on fire,
(11:14):
and like that's adrenaline. Yeah, when you're running towards you know,
a loved going or a giant piece of cake, you know,
it's like that is that's excitement.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, ran towards something you want to have, So something
you ran towards. Obviously you chose a world traveler. So
how did that start? I mean where did you start going?
And I guess And obviously that has to support you too,
because that sounds like an expensive endeavor. So how are
you making that work for you?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, it's you know, it's really I have to go back.
Like I was traveling. My wife and I had gotten married,
so we were later in life. We got married and
we were traveling quite a bit and it was picking
up steam and we're really enjoying it. And we were
in Guatemala and t Call visiting the Mayan ruins and
(12:08):
there's some very overweight I would say, like Midwestern Americans,
you know, really really struggling in the in the jungle
heat and trying to.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Discross the ruins of the calls. Yeah, yeah, I get you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And you know, they're they're bright red and they're sunburned,
and they're they didn't look like they were quite enjoying
it the same way I was, you know, and and
and they looked like they were newly retired, like they're
probably living their dream and and and you know I wasn't.
I bring the story up not to mock them, but
(12:51):
just to use that as an example of I don't
want to I didn't want to wait till then.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
To start, yeah, start living, enjoying, yeah, which most people do.
Tire and then you enjoy life or whatever's left and
hope your health you know, holds up and everything else.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah. So it was it was a lot about how
do I pull that forward and then bring closer sooner Yeah,
and then just say like I'm going to do this,
and now I kind of have to figure out what
that means and how to do it. So I really
jumped in, and again it goes back to what do
(13:25):
you want? Right? Like, so just like, oh, I want
to travel. Well that that's a little vague you, I'll
get you in the right direction. But I built this
this well, I just did this exercise of like made
to a list of all the things that were stressing
me out, and then I started circling the things about Okay,
this is sort of the same. And so let's just
(13:46):
say it's like, I don't have it when I'm working
full time. I don't have enough time to work out
or meditate or read read like I want to, or
travel like I want to. Then I noticed, okay that
there was a lot of stress around time, so it's okay,
I got that one bucket. Then there was a lot
of stress around finance. And then there's a lot of
(14:07):
stress around location. It's like, wow, do I want to
live in one place or multiple places throughout the year.
And and that's how I developed my what I call
my three freedoms. Yes, and it's my freedom of time,
freedom of location, and freedom of finance. And I specifically
used the word of again to be running toward it
(14:29):
as opposed to running away from something. So it's not
freedom from debt.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's what you hear a lot, yeah, yeah, freedom from
this free yourself from your job, for yourself from your debt,
free yourself from your spouse, for you do what you
got to do. Yeah, it's free of.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And really trying to personalize and say, these are my freedoms.
You know they're they're not universal freedoms that everybody has.
Did you hear somebody? Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Did you hear somebody else talk about this before? Did
you kind of I'm not asking if you created it,
but did you did you just pop in your head as.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
An epiphany one like? Where did this? Do you think
this came from? This idea? I've been trying to I've
been trying to figure that out because you know, it's
one of those things is you're you're a kid and
you read a comic book and I was, when you're
twenty seventy, have this idea about this man that got
bit by a spider. I think there's something here for me.
It's archy archie comics. Yeah, oh yes, So I probably
(15:23):
read it somewhere and you know, just kind of made
it my stored and then one day I thought, when
when you needed it most, it came into your conscience.
Yeah yeah, yeah, So as I built that out and
now that's my decision making framework, and I say, is
this thing that I want to do going to bring
me any closer to my three freedoms? And there it's
(15:46):
always a working kind of balance of it's a decision
making tool. But then also when I'm feeling stressed about
something I can I can look at that and say like, oh, okay,
like this is probably why I'm stressed because it's working
against one of those freedoms. And it might be a
subtle thing where like taking a job or working on
(16:11):
a project and realizing I don't have the time that
I that I that I want, I'm devoting too much
time to this project. Those those three freedoms have helped
me make decisions but also have empowered me to know
what I want and give me that directional beacon throughout.
(16:34):
So that's how I got there. And then the travel
part of it was it was something my wife and
I just decided we were going to make a priority
and kind of going back to a fresh out of
college mindset, and so in twenty explore Oh yeah, and
(16:55):
we were traveling so much in twenty two because the
world had opened back up up and we're like, let's go,
let's just go right. So we during our travels and
I think, you know, half heartedly, one night we said,
why don't we do this full time? And then the
idea stuck and we kept like, how can we make
(17:17):
this happen? So in December of twenty two, we put
everything in storage, ended our lease on our apartment, and
we just decided to well, we had a plan.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, there was a takeoff and see where we rand up.
Grab a globe, point in the direction we'll head there. Yeah,
we didn't just jump on charger, go across, go through
Key West and just head out to the ocean.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
We so we had it, we had it mapped out,
and we we we went to Europe. We spent about
four months total in Europe. We went to Japan, we
got to Alaska. We did a lot of really big
bucket list stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Very unique in different places, very uh when extreme to
the next place is too wow.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Interesting, And part of it too was uh, we wanted
to live like locals, and we wanted to go to
the market, and we wanted to really understand have a neighborhood,
bar and and really be part of it. So we
each chose a place in the world that we wanted
to live for thirty days, and I chose Madrid Spain nice,
(18:27):
and I mean, and then why not? My wife was
also like I like Spain two sessions, she just savi
Seville and it's it was like we were there, we
were part of the community, right and it was and
and we were both working during during that time.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And I wanted to ask you, was it easy to
find work in these places? Like, let's let's use Spain
as the first example. When you got there, you're you're
coming there on a visa, probably not a work visa,
or maybe you are. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
We don't need to discuss all that, but I mean.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Basically, how did you get in there to start working?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Like?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Was that possible? Was it hard to do? Especially and
we'll start with Spain. Did you able to find a job?
No problem for both of you?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I wish luckily, or we didn't even try to untie
that Gordian knot of visas and things like that and
work visas and everything. I still have my clients here
in the States, and my wife she was still working
with she's a writer, so she's still submitting articles and things.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
There's still be obviously American citizens. You're traveling over there,
but still to still be able to work.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You're allowed to.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I don't know all the rules, and we could have
a whole podcast on that, but you're allowed to work
for a certain amount of time or some crap. I
don't know, there's you can do it. Yeah, But was
it was it easy to find a job?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Then? Basically at my asking is what I'm asking, it
was it was it would be no different than if
I was here, okay, as I was just working with
within my network.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
And even if you didn't speak the language, I know
they speak English, but of course obviously Spanish is a
big thing over there, Portuguese, so all.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
My clients were were US based. So it was the
only thing that Yeah, the only thing that was awkward
was the time change.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
When we when we were in Japan, I took a
couple of like three a m. Meetings because it was
like that's what you had to do. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And so to be clear, you weren't working at the
corner store there. You weren't working like at a McDonald's
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You didn't have it, I don't know, you.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Weren't walking in with your resume or c saying hey,
I need a job. You actually still had your career
in the in the US. Yeah, yeah, good, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And and but but also that the time frame was
really great because I could get up in the morning,
we could go maybe museum or explore and do something,
and then back to the apartment by two o'clock and
then at that time everybody's waking, the emails were starting,
and then I worked into the it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, you can start your whole day. Start,
you can start your whole day, get set up, and
then have your fun and then oh, I guess we'll
start working now, right, that's pretty cool. Yeah, kind of
things change of mind.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
It's just a it's just a shift. But yeah. And
then also, like for me, any success is just really
putting an l up front and saying, hey, like I'm
in a hotel and there's gonna be noise, you know,
like room service is going to come in at some point,
or just say sorry, sorry, it's going to happen. Yeah.
(21:24):
So with the same same kind of thing, you just
build those up expectations up front and saying like, you know, hey,
this is a three am meeting for me, I may
not be as sharp as usual. So but here we go,
let's do it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, better there than not do, better to be present
than not right. Yeah, obviously your wife was on board.
You guys did this together. But your family, your friends
when you first told them you were going to do
this and when you were doing it, did you have
full support? Did you have a lot of questions? Did
you have a lot of people looking sideways at you?
What was kind of the response from your your circle
when you decided to do this or actually do it?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I love the The question that came up the most
was how are you going to get your mail?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's impossible?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
What if I got to send you a card or something?
Or your bills?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
How can you escape your water bill?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
How are your property tax? How are you going to
get out of that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That makes sense. You can see where people's mindsets are at.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Right right exactly. Yeah, it's like, where are we going.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
To can't do that? You won't get your mail? You're right,
I'll just stay here, throw your hands up in the
air and sit back down. That's funny. So did they understand?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
The question did they understand you? Or do they support
I assume they support you. No one said no, you
can't do that or I hope not, but I'm sure
they didn't understand it, as as you pointed out right,
they didn't quite understand why you want to do that,
because most people don't think like that. They're in their job,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah. I think there was a lot of questions of
probably not so much why, but how, like logistically, how
is it going to work? And then you know, from
our parents and things like well, what are we going
to see you next? You know? Or you know, are
you going to go home for you know, your cousin's wedding? Yeah,
(23:06):
things like that, you know, and then also just that
well how are you going to be safe? Right? Are
you gonna how are you going to go to the
dentist or you know what medical care?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It's all these things because they were you're doing something
or about to do something they would love to everybody
would love to do for the most part, you know,
then they can't or won't for whatever reason. So there'll
be a question, well, how come you can do it
and they can't? I can't, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah, there was there was a lot of that, and
at first I've kind of fielded those questions and just
said oh, yeah, you know, you can do it too,
like like and tried to be encouraging, but ultimately I
found people didn't really want to do it. They said
they want yeah, right, but not enough.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
To get not enough to make that change or use
the three freedoms like you talked about.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, not enough to be uncomfortable. Yeah, Like it wasn't easy,
Like travel's not easy. It's a you lose a day
and you know, you jump on a plane and a
ferry and then a you know, two subway stops, then
a bus and another plane, and twenty two hours later
(24:19):
you're at your destination, ye, putting all your stuff in storage,
spending half a day trying to figure out health insurance,
and then just going like, well fuck it, I don't know,
I guess we'll go on inshirt like those It wasn't easy,
(24:39):
but you have to, you know. So ultimately it's like
people don't make that choice to be uncomfortable to go
after it. It's like it's just how much do you
want it? Yeah? And I don't I don't judge anybody
by that.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Did you ever help anybody like try to actually get
there do it and then say like okay, I see
what makes you uncomfortable? Here is what I can Like,
did you try to coach people on that or did
you feel like you can offer that what's interesting?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Every situation is unique? Right? So yeah, well it truly
is so so that's my that's my day job as
I'm an executive coach.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Right, yeah, me too. But yeah, it's a natural progression
because that's what seems like the next step would be, Okay,
well how do you if you can do it, can
you help me? People would be asking that question too, right.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I don't specifically coach on how to travel or how
to how to but I do coach on hey, what
what do you want? And then how can we get
you there? And then you know, it's like a framework
like the three freedoms. If that works for them, great,
Like but like you said, it's like everybody's situation is
(25:49):
so different and everybody has different wants and desires, and
you know, it's not up to me to judge that
at all. If you want to rolex on each on
each hand, like cool, like I help you, i'lp you
get there? You get that dream? Yeah? Yeah, like whatever
it is, But just I'm going to challenge you and
(26:10):
say well, why do you want that thing? And what
is it you truly want? And like the example I
gave before is like freedom from debt is one thing,
but freedom of money is something completely different. And let's try.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
To just can you explain that a bit for anyone
who would shoe? Yeah, myself included obviously.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
It's it's just shifting how you view things where the
role ex example is right, like, well, what do you
really want? I want a Rolex? Well why do you
want that? And then you start digging a little bit
and it's like, well, you want status, or you want
to impress a friend, or you want to attract a
(26:56):
mate or right, And then all of a sudden, the
onion it's it's you're peeling back, peeping back, feeling back,
and then ultimately it's well I want to have respect
or status. And it wasn't a huge jump to get there,
but it was like, okay, well we can work with that,
(27:16):
and maybe there's other ways to get you that immediately
instead of saving for a rolelex. And and then it's
like how can I get how can I have my
clients get that? Those little winds and then build the
momentum and then as they're working towards something bigger. So
just shifting those just even the words you use and
(27:37):
how you think about that is again running towards something
as opposed to away from something, empowering yourself to get there,
like I can do that, I can chase my dreams
or travel or or buy a second house or whatever
it is, as opposed to focusing on I'm going to
be in so much debt if I do that, or
(27:58):
how will I get health insurance if I do that?
Mm hmm. It's just it's it's it's a small shift,
but it makes such a difference.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
With the way things are online, people working from home,
people doing stuff like you're doing, not exactly, but they're
doing similar type of helping people with different things and
aspects in their life. Did you find there's a lot
of competition and other people trying to sell people on dreams.
I'm not saying you're doing that, but do you think
people are out there doing that?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Does it?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Is it hard for you to kind of put yourself
out there and get to people and show them that
you're willing to actually help them in a reasonable region,
reasonable expectation way versus people that are out there quote
unquote selling a dream. Has that been hard for you
in your business?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Do you think when the right when I'm doing, when
I'm talking to the right people, I know it, So
getting to talk to those right people, Yes, it's been
it's been difficult finding the people that are ready to
do the work, ready to be uncomfortable, and ready to
(29:05):
embrace the change that's going to happen. Like those are
those are pretty big obstacles. Most of the time when
people reach out to either a therapist or a coach
or or whomever personal trainer, they want results, but they
don't want to really do the work. That's the other
want instant gratification.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Like as soon as I talk to you, should be
able to show me the one thing I need ready
to go.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, here we go. Imagine can you send me that
in an email?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, if you just don't write down to a text. Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, It's like, well, I'm sorry, this is going to
take This is going to take a lot of work
and a lot of work on your part. Yeah, And
I'm here to help and assist and help hold you
accountable what kind of whatever you need along the journey.
But it's going to be a journey.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
So is that is that how you weed out the
right people?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Then?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Is that how you figure out when they come to you?
Like I assume a lot of people will come to you,
A lot of people will come to you. But getting
down to a how many people you can take on
and be the right people?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Like? How does that?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Can you give a little behind the current of how
that works?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
All giving away too much? Obviously? Yeah, it's it's a
lot of It's a chemistry test. Really, it's like do
I want to work with you? Do I? Do you
want to work with me? And another piece of it
is is the problem big enough? I have to be
interested in helping you solve the problem too. And if
it's you know, I'm not getting a liner with my boss,
(30:32):
well you can probably just sit down and have a
cup of coffee with your boss and figure it out
or try. You know, you've actually people come to you
for that, I think sometimes sure. Yeah, Mostly it's like, hey,
can I pick your brain? I kick the tires of it.
That's the new way of kicking tires now. But if
(30:55):
there's a companies like you know, I'm a CEO, and
I think it's time for me to step back or
step away before I'm irrelevant, but I don't know what
I want to do. Like, Okay, that sounds interesting. That's
a big problem, let's jump into that. And so I
(31:17):
know that that person is going to be serious because
they're plotting out what they're next, the next mountain they're
going to they want to climb. It's like if it's
big enough and scary enough, they're.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Ready to do the work right And you get you
get that impression too when you start talking to them.
You have, like you said, a kind of a chemistry
test where you start talking to them and right off
the bat, you can pretty much tell when you talk
to anybody, how what their motivations are, what they're thinking about,
or what their true intentions are. Right and a lot
of people so to me, my question about that then
is isn't that a little bit time consuming? Speaking about time?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Uh? Time consuming for you?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Does that take a lot of your energy and focus
when you're trying to help people who really are willing
to do the work, When you get so many people
just kicking those tires, how do you kind of manage
your time to kind of get the best of the
people I do want your services versus people who are.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Just you know, wasting your time. Yeah, that's a pretty
good that's a really good question. A lot of it
is what am I putting out there, and if if
it's not resonating with somebody, or if they just want
something for free, they're probably not going to resonate with
the content or the conversations I'm having. There's again setting
(32:32):
up that expectation right at the beginning and saying like,
this is what I'm looking for, and here here's how
I can best serve you as your coach. If this
isn't aligned, like, I'm sure we can have a conversation,
but ultimately, you know, is is it going to be
beneficial for both of us? And I've turned down plenty
(32:53):
of clients, and there's been plenty of prospects that have
ghosted me too.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
I was going to say, you gotten to a point
where you've helped somebody to maybe halfway or a third
of their but what they wanted to get to, and
then they just kind of ghosted you or dropped out.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Has that ever happened? Yeah? Yeah, It's kind of like
let's say you want to lose one hundred pounds and
you lose seventy two pounds and you're like, yeah, I
feel good enough, right, Yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It's like, okay, they drop out and more for the status.
Have they gotten to a point where you thought you
could help them and then they dropped out and they
didn't even get to that point? Has there ever been
a case of that. They don't get the seventy two pounds,
They might get one or two and they're like, I disappear.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
They just dropped out the face of.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
The earth, you know, sure, which is again more weird
times that you invest your time in trying to help
these people. Okay, you think this person's interesting or their
situation is interesting, They're willing to do the work. Everything
looks good, you passed the chemistry the chemistry test, and
then after that they're just dropping out. That's a that
must be frustrating for you too. Yeah, I look at
it that it's it's not the right time right now.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We could we could come back to it. You know,
maybe they're just not Maybe they've realized, well I tell myself,
they've realized how much work is actually going to be
involved and they're just not ready for yet.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
There you go, with the time we have left, it's yeah,
here for sure, it's a zoom count time. We have
about five minutes left. But one thing I want to
ask you too is since we talked about how many
plans like increments, five ten years, how long do you
see yourself doing this a portion of your life, this
stage of your life, helping people, coaching people. Do you
have a next ten year plan? What's your next five
years look like?
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Do you even have that? Yeah, that's such a great question.
I think on some level or in some capacity, I'll
be doing this for five, ten, fifteen years, whatever, whatever
it is. I I feel like I've got one or
(34:50):
two more big mountains to climb, but this is this
is where I need to be right now. And version
three or four point zero of Dan is out there
and I'm not going to uh, I'm not going to
get married to my identity like I have in the past.
(35:10):
That's a great way to put it. Yeah, that's amazing
because your identity becomes an anchor and you're you're just
you're I don't want to say stuck. I mean, but
you know.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
You your way down by like an anchor, right your
way to it on many levels, right emotionally, physically, mentally, Like, yeah,
it didn't really mess you up. Yeah, when people want
to reach out to you and find you to get
your help, and hopefully they're serious about it and don't
kick those tires. Where can people do? Where can they
reach down woodroof?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I'm I'm on LinkedIn, Dan Woodruff, let me free start
doing I'm on LinkedIn or else they can go to
my website and that's Odinstrategies dot com. That's perfect that.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I'll get the link up where people can see that too,
Odin Does that come from something? Is that a special
meaning for you or where does that come from?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, that's our that's our our dear friend, the Nordist
god d Yes plucked out his own eye and traded
it for wisdom. I mean, come on, that's badass.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
That is Yeah, that's a great way. I thought that
just popped in your mind when you were thinking about
a website or thinking about building their franchise.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
That just pop.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Something about that just hit is a great analogy, obviously,
But that did that just come to you? Did you
think about a few things? I was a curious about
that process.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I was so focused on strategy and and like what
is what is strategy and what is the plan? Right? Like,
there's a master plan for for everything that we're doing,
and and for businesses, for organizations, for me, and so
I cann't just Google, like what what is the god
of strategy?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Google is your best friend?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah, and through many rabbit holes on Wikipedia. Yeah, oh Odin,
of course that guy's pretty bad ass.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
He is a lot of songs written about him, some
of my favorites. Yeah, Odin's Court, Yeah, Val Halley, it's all.
It's all good stuff. Norse mythology, it's great stuff, for sure,
it is. Dan. I appreciate the time, appreciate you sharing
your story as much we could have dug into. And
maybe we can do it again, for sure, maybe if
you have a five or ten year chapter. If you do,
Dan three point zero, I want to be a part
of that too and see where you win. Say, remember
we talked about this before. Yeah, that's done. I'm on too.
(37:23):
I don't know. I'm helping the I'm clean up the
city streets or whatever you're doing. You're helping the helping
the nation out whatever it needs. I can't wait to
chat with you again.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Nice. Appreciate Chad, thank you so much. Thank you Dan.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
You've been listening to the Nobody's or somebody's podcast with
me Chad Wece and this podcast has been voted the
number one podcast by people that don't vote.
Nobodies are somebodies, all right, everybody, it's Chadvice. Welcome to
the Nobody's Are Somebody's Podcast. And I got another brand
new episode for you right here, right now, and I
can't wait to share this with you. A little bit
of backstory. When I recorded this, it was several hours
(00:21):
before the apartments that we were staying in, living in
for the better part of four four four four years,
flooded out of nowhere after a huge rainstorm. And since
that time in July when I recorded this with Dan Woodruff,
(00:41):
I never lived there again.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
That was end of it.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
There's a lot of repairs to be done, the insurance company.
Nobody want to do anything. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Nobody cares about that new place, bigger, farther, but cooler.
It's great and I can't wait to start doing new
podcasts recording in this new willing but to close out
the past chapter of my life and the Nobodys Are
(01:06):
Somebody's podcast from there. Dan Woodroff as the guest of
honor for that, and a little bit about him he's sharing.
He's sharing his journey from the corporate cubicle world to
becoming a world traveler. He talks about how he uses
his three Freedoms ideas to make decisions that basically got
his life and how he now spends his time helping
(01:28):
others to discover what the three freedoms truly mean and
what they want to do in their life. So he's
going to discuss that here on the Nobody's or Somebody's podcast.
We did this over zoom. We'll give you the audio
for it. Of course, you can find more about Dan
Woodroff by visiting his LinkedIn page at LinkedIn dot com
search for Dan Woodroff, Dan Woodruff's strategy. You can search
(01:48):
for you can go on his LinkedIn fie. You can
find out more about Dan Woodrooff on his LinkedIn profile
Dan Woodrof's Strategy, or visit his website. Odin Strategy. We
talked about odin the course of the Norse God mythology,
and I think I hope I recorded this part. We'll
see at the end, but we talked when he talked
(02:09):
about Oden the Norse God, talked about the Black Sabbath Record,
one of my favorite Black Sabbath records that is based
on that the record tier which nobody knows because it's
not featuring Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James deal of course
with Tony Martin. But I think I mentioned that at
the end. Hopefully that part got recorded, but if not,
I'm telling you about it now without further ado. It's
(02:31):
my conversation with Dan Woodrooff here about three freedoms and
how they can apply to you in your life and
the freedom of listening to a great podcast. Nobody's there
Somebody's podcast. Get it anywhere you get your favorite podcasts
and visit sebcamco dot com for more information. Now check
this out, Dan Woodrooff, Nobody's are Somebody's podcast with me
(02:52):
chad vice.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Dan.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
It's good to meet you, good to talk to you,
good to have your conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
How are you. I'm good. Thank you for having me
on chain for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Thank you for reaching out and being a part of this.
So I want to talk to you about your story.
You've had a journey from a corporate job into a
world of traveling, and you have things that help you
make decisions in life, and one of those decisions was
getting out of your corporate world. I want to hear
basically how that all started and who Dan Woodroff is.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
The the original Dan Woodroff did a lot of should right,
like so you should go to college, and then you
should get a job, and then you should retire from
the said job, and you know, you should have a
four to one k and.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
A pinsion and what everybody should do right.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
And I enjoyed it, like I really did, Like I
worked for a lot of really big companies here in
the States. And where are you any us currently? I'm
in South Florida, South Florida. Okay, yeah, well I guess, yeah,
I guess Central Florida. But anyways, I did a lot
(04:06):
of how should I say this, I put in, I
put in the time right, I climbed the ladder, and
I built my reputation. And I had a lot of
fun though, like I was running creative teams and I
was working within marketing organizations and doing fun work, fun projects.
But it was it was still it was good, and
(04:29):
deal it wasn't And then there was specifically, remember one
day I went in early and then I at some
point I realized what time it was when everybody else
was going home, and I realized I hadn't seen or
been in the sunshine that day, and I was I
was working in Florida. You would think I should be
(04:50):
I should be right there, and it was. It was
one of those moments where I said, yeah, I'm in
the wrong place, like this isn't this is doing it
for me and more, and so I decided it was time,
it was time to start looking. And then, just like
with everybody else, the pandemic hit and affected me, and
(05:10):
that was opportunity. Really, it was like that opportunity to
make that clean break and with that having the time
to sit back and say, what do I want? Then?
What do I really want? And keep asking that question
over and over and it gets it and challenging myself
(05:31):
and really digging deep and understanding, Okay, what do I
really want? And out of that it was like, not
what I had built and spent so much time and
energy building in the past. I wanted something completely different. Ultimately,
what I came up with was I wanted freedom.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I understand that totally. Did you when you the pandemic
send everybody home, did you still work for them or
did you completely break from it at that point? Were
you still kind of employed the.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Time I had, I mean at thirty days after.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Thirty days after the after or so after everybody went,
I was working at home. Yeah, yeah, and then he decided, okay,
I'm not doing that. I'm not bringing this into my home.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Basically, it was it was it became absurd at some
point because it was like, well, you don't have anything
else to do, you can't go anywhere, so you might
as well be working. Yeah, I think the seven am
meetings or that, and then they that eventually always got
canceled and then you know, and then rescheduled, and then
(06:33):
you know, it was rescheduled in seven thirty at night.
You know, it was like, this isn't this isn't what
I want. No, this is this will end someday, right, well,
we'll get back to normal.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Suff Yeah, we're all told every month it was going
to be a couple more weeks, a couple more weeks,
and then I turned into twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
We already know that. Yeah, yeah, and so I knew,
you know, I knew eventually I had the time to
plan for what was what was going to happen, and
that was what Dan to two point zero was going
to be.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
To me, It's always the scary thing because obviously what
we should do is make our money, pay our bills,
support our family, do what we need to do. So
was there a concern like when you after thirty days,
you thought, okay, I'm done with this, But did you
have an exact like next day plan, like oh what
am I going to do to make an income? Or
did something just volunteer your lap? What would happened?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I think because of the rules were so broken for
everybody at that time period that it was I just thought,
there's nothing but an opportunity out there right, like, I'll
figure it out. The beauty of it is at no
point other than this in my life, like I'm the
most confident, the most educated, the most trained. I have
(07:49):
all the skills that I've ever had in my entire
life right now, right here today. So it's like somehow
I made it through my twenties.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, yeah, sure you made another side.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I didn't know what I was doing, Yeah, just trying
to figure it out. And now I actually know what
I'm doing and I have gray hair and people listen
to me. So yeah, Like, so I convinced myself, and
I think rightfully so, that I had the skills and
the confidence to do it whatever it is or was.
So what did you do then?
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Basically what transformed, like you obviously left that job, and
did you move into what you're doing now or was
there a transition to something else? Like where does your
story taking at that point?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
There was definitely transition, and ultimately it was figuring out
what I wanted And to me, that's the hardest question
that any adult ever has to answer, and that is
what do you want? And giving myself the space and
(08:54):
the time to really dig into that question and explore
things and kind of put on other identities and because
for the longest time it was Dan the creative director,
like he that was that was what I I wore
as my identity, and then almost I was thinking. I
kept thinking about it like a changing room and going
(09:15):
in and just trying things on. It's like, what what
does a world traveler look like? You know? Does wear
a door? Explore the door, the explorer.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Micro class a magnifying glass and take a look and
explore everything with a big magnified class.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah. Yeah, so I was. I was just trying on
these these personas really and saying like does this fit?
And do am I comfortable in this? And do I'm
granted I knowing too, I'm it's going to change, like
it's like purpose changes or or at least it evolves
(09:53):
throughout just time and so being you know, wise enough
to understand that what I was choosing wasn't my next
twenty years. It may only be my next five years
or two years.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That's good to think of it, because you think, Okay,
what am I going to do for the rest of
my life if I don't do this, But what's the
rest of my life going to look like? A lot
of people think that way, myself included. It's like, well,
it's this or it's that, But we don't think in
that small capacity. We think of it's this and to forever.
And that's what scares people, and they're like, oh, I
don't want to know if I would want to do
that forever. I don't know if I can do that
or make it last forever, so they don't do it.
That's a really unique way to think about it. Never
(10:28):
thought about it that way.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He presented that. So is putting those those on and
giving myself the grace to make mistakes and understand that
I can pivot and figure it out. It almost felt
exactly like after I graduated from college, that time period
where it was I'm not sure what I want to do.
(10:50):
I have a general direction, so I'm just going to
run toward it. And a lot of that is always
telling myself to be running towards something and not away
from something. Yeah, because that's such a different mind shift
of you're fleeing an accident scene and it's on fire,
(11:14):
and like that's adrenaline. Yeah, when you're running towards you know,
a loved going or a giant piece of cake, you know,
it's like that is that's excitement.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, ran towards something you want to have, So something
you ran towards. Obviously you chose a world traveler. So
how did that start? I mean where did you start going?
And I guess And obviously that has to support you too,
because that sounds like an expensive endeavor. So how are
you making that work for you?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, it's you know, it's really I have to go back.
Like I was traveling. My wife and I had gotten married,
so we were later in life. We got married and
we were traveling quite a bit and it was picking
up steam and we're really enjoying it. And we were
in Guatemala and t Call visiting the Mayan ruins and
(12:08):
there's some very overweight I would say, like Midwestern Americans,
you know, really really struggling in the in the jungle
heat and trying to.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Discross the ruins of the calls. Yeah, yeah, I get you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And you know, they're they're bright red and they're sunburned,
and they're they didn't look like they were quite enjoying
it the same way I was, you know, and and
and they looked like they were newly retired, like they're
probably living their dream and and and you know I wasn't.
I bring the story up not to mock them, but
(12:51):
just to use that as an example of I don't
want to I didn't want to wait till then.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
To start, yeah, start living, enjoying, yeah, which most people do.
Tire and then you enjoy life or whatever's left and
hope your health you know, holds up and everything else.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Yeah. So it was it was a lot about how
do I pull that forward and then bring closer sooner Yeah,
and then just say like I'm going to do this,
and now I kind of have to figure out what
that means and how to do it. So I really
jumped in, and again it goes back to what do
(13:25):
you want? Right? Like, so just like, oh, I want
to travel. Well that that's a little vague you, I'll
get you in the right direction. But I built this
this well, I just did this exercise of like made
to a list of all the things that were stressing
me out, and then I started circling the things about Okay,
this is sort of the same. And so let's just
(13:46):
say it's like, I don't have it when I'm working
full time. I don't have enough time to work out
or meditate or read read like I want to, or
travel like I want to. Then I noticed, okay that
there was a lot of stress around time, so it's okay,
I got that one bucket. Then there was a lot
of stress around finance. And then there's a lot of
(14:07):
stress around location. It's like, wow, do I want to
live in one place or multiple places throughout the year.
And and that's how I developed my what I call
my three freedoms. Yes, and it's my freedom of time,
freedom of location, and freedom of finance. And I specifically
used the word of again to be running toward it
(14:29):
as opposed to running away from something. So it's not
freedom from debt.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's what you hear a lot, yeah, yeah, freedom from
this free yourself from your job, for yourself from your debt,
free yourself from your spouse, for you do what you
got to do. Yeah, it's free of.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
And really trying to personalize and say, these are my freedoms.
You know they're they're not universal freedoms that everybody has.
Did you hear somebody? Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Did you hear somebody else talk about this before? Did
you kind of I'm not asking if you created it,
but did you did you just pop in your head as.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
An epiphany one like? Where did this? Do you think
this came from? This idea? I've been trying to I've
been trying to figure that out because you know, it's
one of those things is you're you're a kid and
you read a comic book and I was, when you're
twenty seventy, have this idea about this man that got
bit by a spider. I think there's something here for me.
It's archy archie comics. Yeah, oh yes, So I probably
(15:23):
read it somewhere and you know, just kind of made
it my stored and then one day I thought, when
when you needed it most, it came into your conscience.
Yeah yeah, yeah, So as I built that out and
now that's my decision making framework, and I say, is
this thing that I want to do going to bring
me any closer to my three freedoms? And there it's
(15:46):
always a working kind of balance of it's a decision
making tool. But then also when I'm feeling stressed about
something I can I can look at that and say like, oh, okay,
like this is probably why I'm stressed because it's working
against one of those freedoms. And it might be a
subtle thing where like taking a job or working on
(16:11):
a project and realizing I don't have the time that
I that I that I want, I'm devoting too much
time to this project. Those those three freedoms have helped
me make decisions but also have empowered me to know
what I want and give me that directional beacon throughout.
(16:34):
So that's how I got there. And then the travel
part of it was it was something my wife and
I just decided we were going to make a priority
and kind of going back to a fresh out of
college mindset, and so in twenty explore Oh yeah, and
(16:55):
we were traveling so much in twenty two because the
world had opened back up up and we're like, let's go,
let's just go right. So we during our travels and
I think, you know, half heartedly, one night we said,
why don't we do this full time? And then the
idea stuck and we kept like, how can we make
(17:17):
this happen? So in December of twenty two, we put
everything in storage, ended our lease on our apartment, and
we just decided to well, we had a plan.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, there was a takeoff and see where we rand up.
Grab a globe, point in the direction we'll head there. Yeah,
we didn't just jump on charger, go across, go through
Key West and just head out to the ocean.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
We so we had it, we had it mapped out,
and we we we went to Europe. We spent about
four months total in Europe. We went to Japan, we
got to Alaska. We did a lot of really big
bucket list stuff.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Very unique in different places, very uh when extreme to
the next place is too wow.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Interesting, And part of it too was uh, we wanted
to live like locals, and we wanted to go to
the market, and we wanted to really understand have a neighborhood,
bar and and really be part of it. So we
each chose a place in the world that we wanted
to live for thirty days, and I chose Madrid Spain nice,
(18:27):
and I mean, and then why not? My wife was
also like I like Spain two sessions, she just savi
Seville and it's it was like we were there, we
were part of the community, right and it was and
and we were both working during during that time.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
And I wanted to ask you, was it easy to
find work in these places? Like, let's let's use Spain
as the first example. When you got there, you're you're
coming there on a visa, probably not a work visa,
or maybe you are. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
We don't need to discuss all that, but I mean.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Basically, how did you get in there to start working?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Like?
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Was that possible? Was it hard to do? Especially and
we'll start with Spain. Did you able to find a job?
No problem for both of you?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I wish luckily, or we didn't even try to untie
that Gordian knot of visas and things like that and
work visas and everything. I still have my clients here
in the States, and my wife she was still working
with she's a writer, so she's still submitting articles and things.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
There's still be obviously American citizens. You're traveling over there,
but still to still be able to work.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
You're allowed to.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I don't know all the rules, and we could have
a whole podcast on that, but you're allowed to work
for a certain amount of time or some crap. I
don't know, there's you can do it. Yeah, But was
it was it easy to find a job?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Then? Basically at my asking is what I'm asking, it
was it was it would be no different than if
I was here, okay, as I was just working with
within my network.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
And even if you didn't speak the language, I know
they speak English, but of course obviously Spanish is a
big thing over there, Portuguese, so all.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
My clients were were US based. So it was the
only thing that Yeah, the only thing that was awkward
was the time change.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
When we when we were in Japan, I took a
couple of like three a m. Meetings because it was
like that's what you had to do. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And so to be clear, you weren't working at the
corner store there. You weren't working like at a McDonald's
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
You didn't have it, I don't know, you.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Weren't walking in with your resume or c saying hey,
I need a job. You actually still had your career
in the in the US. Yeah, yeah, good, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
And and but but also that the time frame was
really great because I could get up in the morning,
we could go maybe museum or explore and do something,
and then back to the apartment by two o'clock and
then at that time everybody's waking, the emails were starting,
and then I worked into the it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, you can start your whole day. Start,
you can start your whole day, get set up, and
then have your fun and then oh, I guess we'll
start working now, right, that's pretty cool. Yeah, kind of
things change of mind.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
It's just a it's just a shift. But yeah. And
then also, like for me, any success is just really
putting an l up front and saying, hey, like I'm
in a hotel and there's gonna be noise, you know,
like room service is going to come in at some point,
or just say sorry, sorry, it's going to happen. Yeah.
(21:24):
So with the same same kind of thing, you just
build those up expectations up front and saying like, you know, hey,
this is a three am meeting for me, I may
not be as sharp as usual. So but here we go,
let's do it.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, better there than not do, better to be present
than not right. Yeah, obviously your wife was on board.
You guys did this together. But your family, your friends
when you first told them you were going to do
this and when you were doing it, did you have
full support? Did you have a lot of questions? Did
you have a lot of people looking sideways at you?
What was kind of the response from your your circle
when you decided to do this or actually do it?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I love the The question that came up the most
was how are you going to get your mail?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's impossible?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
What if I got to send you a card or something?
Or your bills?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
How can you escape your water bill?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
How are your property tax? How are you going to
get out of that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:15):
That makes sense. You can see where people's mindsets are at.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Right right exactly. Yeah, it's like, where are we going.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
To can't do that? You won't get your mail? You're right,
I'll just stay here, throw your hands up in the
air and sit back down. That's funny. So did they understand?
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
The question did they understand you? Or do they support
I assume they support you. No one said no, you
can't do that or I hope not, but I'm sure
they didn't understand it, as as you pointed out right,
they didn't quite understand why you want to do that,
because most people don't think like that. They're in their job,
that's it.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah. I think there was a lot of questions of
probably not so much why, but how, like logistically, how
is it going to work? And then you know, from
our parents and things like well, what are we going
to see you next? You know? Or you know, are
you going to go home for you know, your cousin's wedding? Yeah,
(23:06):
things like that, you know, and then also just that
well how are you going to be safe? Right? Are
you gonna how are you going to go to the
dentist or you know what medical care?
Speaker 1 (23:18):
It's all these things because they were you're doing something
or about to do something they would love to everybody
would love to do for the most part, you know,
then they can't or won't for whatever reason. So there'll
be a question, well, how come you can do it
and they can't? I can't, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Yeah, there was there was a lot of that, and
at first I've kind of fielded those questions and just
said oh, yeah, you know, you can do it too,
like like and tried to be encouraging, but ultimately I
found people didn't really want to do it. They said
they want yeah, right, but not enough.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
To get not enough to make that change or use
the three freedoms like you talked about.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, not enough to be uncomfortable. Yeah, Like it wasn't easy,
Like travel's not easy. It's a you lose a day
and you know, you jump on a plane and a
ferry and then a you know, two subway stops, then
a bus and another plane, and twenty two hours later
(24:19):
you're at your destination, ye, putting all your stuff in storage,
spending half a day trying to figure out health insurance,
and then just going like, well fuck it, I don't know,
I guess we'll go on inshirt like those It wasn't easy,
(24:39):
but you have to, you know. So ultimately it's like
people don't make that choice to be uncomfortable to go
after it. It's like it's just how much do you
want it? Yeah? And I don't I don't judge anybody
by that.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Did you ever help anybody like try to actually get
there do it and then say like okay, I see
what makes you uncomfortable? Here is what I can Like,
did you try to coach people on that or did
you feel like you can offer that what's interesting?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Every situation is unique? Right? So yeah, well it truly
is so so that's my that's my day job as
I'm an executive coach.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Right, yeah, me too. But yeah, it's a natural progression
because that's what seems like the next step would be, Okay,
well how do you if you can do it, can
you help me? People would be asking that question too, right.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I don't specifically coach on how to travel or how
to how to but I do coach on hey, what
what do you want? And then how can we get
you there? And then you know, it's like a framework
like the three freedoms. If that works for them, great,
Like but like you said, it's like everybody's situation is
(25:49):
so different and everybody has different wants and desires, and
you know, it's not up to me to judge that
at all. If you want to rolex on each on
each hand, like cool, like I help you, i'lp you
get there? You get that dream? Yeah? Yeah, like whatever
it is, But just I'm going to challenge you and
(26:10):
say well, why do you want that thing? And what
is it you truly want? And like the example I
gave before is like freedom from debt is one thing,
but freedom of money is something completely different. And let's try.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
To just can you explain that a bit for anyone
who would shoe? Yeah, myself included obviously.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
It's it's just shifting how you view things where the
role ex example is right, like, well, what do you
really want? I want a Rolex? Well why do you
want that? And then you start digging a little bit
and it's like, well, you want status, or you want
to impress a friend, or you want to attract a
(26:56):
mate or right, And then all of a sudden, the
onion it's it's you're peeling back, peeping back, feeling back,
and then ultimately it's well I want to have respect
or status. And it wasn't a huge jump to get there,
but it was like, okay, well we can work with that,
(27:16):
and maybe there's other ways to get you that immediately
instead of saving for a rolelex. And and then it's
like how can I get how can I have my
clients get that? Those little winds and then build the
momentum and then as they're working towards something bigger. So
just shifting those just even the words you use and
(27:37):
how you think about that is again running towards something
as opposed to away from something, empowering yourself to get there,
like I can do that, I can chase my dreams
or travel or or buy a second house or whatever
it is, as opposed to focusing on I'm going to
be in so much debt if I do that, or
(27:58):
how will I get health insurance if I do that?
Mm hmm. It's just it's it's it's a small shift,
but it makes such a difference.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
With the way things are online, people working from home,
people doing stuff like you're doing, not exactly, but they're
doing similar type of helping people with different things and
aspects in their life. Did you find there's a lot
of competition and other people trying to sell people on dreams.
I'm not saying you're doing that, but do you think
people are out there doing that?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Does it?
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Is it hard for you to kind of put yourself
out there and get to people and show them that
you're willing to actually help them in a reasonable region,
reasonable expectation way versus people that are out there quote
unquote selling a dream. Has that been hard for you
in your business?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Do you think when the right when I'm doing, when
I'm talking to the right people, I know it, So
getting to talk to those right people, Yes, it's been
it's been difficult finding the people that are ready to
do the work, ready to be uncomfortable, and ready to
(29:05):
embrace the change that's going to happen. Like those are
those are pretty big obstacles. Most of the time when
people reach out to either a therapist or a coach
or or whomever personal trainer, they want results, but they
don't want to really do the work. That's the other
want instant gratification.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Like as soon as I talk to you, should be
able to show me the one thing I need ready
to go.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Yeah, here we go. Imagine can you send me that
in an email?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Yeah, if you just don't write down to a text. Yeah,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
Yeah, It's like, well, I'm sorry, this is going to
take This is going to take a lot of work
and a lot of work on your part. Yeah, And
I'm here to help and assist and help hold you
accountable what kind of whatever you need along the journey.
But it's going to be a journey.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
So is that is that how you weed out the
right people?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Then?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Is that how you figure out when they come to you?
Like I assume a lot of people will come to you,
A lot of people will come to you. But getting
down to a how many people you can take on
and be the right people?
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Like? How does that?
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Can you give a little behind the current of how
that works?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
All giving away too much? Obviously? Yeah, it's it's a
lot of It's a chemistry test. Really, it's like do
I want to work with you? Do I? Do you
want to work with me? And another piece of it
is is the problem big enough? I have to be
interested in helping you solve the problem too. And if
it's you know, I'm not getting a liner with my boss,
(30:32):
well you can probably just sit down and have a
cup of coffee with your boss and figure it out
or try. You know, you've actually people come to you
for that, I think sometimes sure. Yeah, Mostly it's like, hey,
can I pick your brain? I kick the tires of it.
That's the new way of kicking tires now. But if
(30:55):
there's a companies like you know, I'm a CEO, and
I think it's time for me to step back or
step away before I'm irrelevant, but I don't know what
I want to do. Like, Okay, that sounds interesting. That's
a big problem, let's jump into that. And so I
(31:17):
know that that person is going to be serious because
they're plotting out what they're next, the next mountain they're
going to they want to climb. It's like if it's
big enough and scary enough, they're.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Ready to do the work right And you get you
get that impression too when you start talking to them.
You have, like you said, a kind of a chemistry
test where you start talking to them and right off
the bat, you can pretty much tell when you talk
to anybody, how what their motivations are, what they're thinking about,
or what their true intentions are. Right and a lot
of people so to me, my question about that then
is isn't that a little bit time consuming? Speaking about time?
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Uh? Time consuming for you?
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Does that take a lot of your energy and focus
when you're trying to help people who really are willing
to do the work, When you get so many people
just kicking those tires, how do you kind of manage
your time to kind of get the best of the
people I do want your services versus people who are.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Just you know, wasting your time. Yeah, that's a pretty
good that's a really good question. A lot of it
is what am I putting out there, and if if
it's not resonating with somebody, or if they just want
something for free, they're probably not going to resonate with
the content or the conversations I'm having. There's again setting
(32:32):
up that expectation right at the beginning and saying like,
this is what I'm looking for, and here here's how
I can best serve you as your coach. If this
isn't aligned, like, I'm sure we can have a conversation,
but ultimately, you know, is is it going to be
beneficial for both of us? And I've turned down plenty
(32:53):
of clients, and there's been plenty of prospects that have
ghosted me too.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
I was going to say, you gotten to a point
where you've helped somebody to maybe halfway or a third
of their but what they wanted to get to, and
then they just kind of ghosted you or dropped out.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Has that ever happened? Yeah? Yeah, It's kind of like
let's say you want to lose one hundred pounds and
you lose seventy two pounds and you're like, yeah, I
feel good enough, right, Yeah, I'm good.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It's like, okay, they drop out and more for the status.
Have they gotten to a point where you thought you
could help them and then they dropped out and they
didn't even get to that point? Has there ever been
a case of that. They don't get the seventy two pounds,
They might get one or two and they're like, I disappear.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
They just dropped out the face of.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
The earth, you know, sure, which is again more weird
times that you invest your time in trying to help
these people. Okay, you think this person's interesting or their
situation is interesting, They're willing to do the work. Everything
looks good, you passed the chemistry the chemistry test, and
then after that they're just dropping out. That's a that
must be frustrating for you too. Yeah, I look at
it that it's it's not the right time right now.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
We could we could come back to it. You know,
maybe they're just not Maybe they've realized, well I tell myself,
they've realized how much work is actually going to be
involved and they're just not ready for yet.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
There you go, with the time we have left, it's yeah,
here for sure, it's a zoom count time. We have
about five minutes left. But one thing I want to
ask you too is since we talked about how many
plans like increments, five ten years, how long do you
see yourself doing this a portion of your life, this
stage of your life, helping people, coaching people. Do you
have a next ten year plan? What's your next five
years look like?
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Do you even have that? Yeah, that's such a great question.
I think on some level or in some capacity, I'll
be doing this for five, ten, fifteen years, whatever, whatever
it is. I I feel like I've got one or
(34:50):
two more big mountains to climb, but this is this
is where I need to be right now. And version
three or four point zero of Dan is out there
and I'm not going to uh, I'm not going to
get married to my identity like I have in the past.
(35:10):
That's a great way to put it. Yeah, that's amazing
because your identity becomes an anchor and you're you're just
you're I don't want to say stuck. I mean, but
you know.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
You your way down by like an anchor, right your
way to it on many levels, right emotionally, physically, mentally, Like, yeah,
it didn't really mess you up. Yeah, when people want
to reach out to you and find you to get
your help, and hopefully they're serious about it and don't
kick those tires. Where can people do? Where can they
reach down woodroof?
Speaker 2 (35:42):
I'm I'm on LinkedIn, Dan Woodruff, let me free start
doing I'm on LinkedIn or else they can go to
my website and that's Odinstrategies dot com. That's perfect that.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I'll get the link up where people can see that too,
Odin Does that come from something? Is that a special
meaning for you or where does that come from?
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Yeah, that's our that's our our dear friend, the Nordist
god d Yes plucked out his own eye and traded
it for wisdom. I mean, come on, that's badass.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
That is Yeah, that's a great way. I thought that
just popped in your mind when you were thinking about
a website or thinking about building their franchise.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
That just pop.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Something about that just hit is a great analogy, obviously,
But that did that just come to you? Did you
think about a few things? I was a curious about
that process.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I was so focused on strategy and and like what
is what is strategy and what is the plan? Right? Like,
there's a master plan for for everything that we're doing,
and and for businesses, for organizations, for me, and so
I cann't just Google, like what what is the god
of strategy?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Google is your best friend?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Yeah, and through many rabbit holes on Wikipedia. Yeah, oh Odin,
of course that guy's pretty bad ass.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
He is a lot of songs written about him, some
of my favorites. Yeah, Odin's Court, Yeah, Val Halley, it's all.
It's all good stuff. Norse mythology, it's great stuff, for sure,
it is. Dan. I appreciate the time, appreciate you sharing
your story as much we could have dug into. And
maybe we can do it again, for sure, maybe if
you have a five or ten year chapter. If you do,
Dan three point zero, I want to be a part
of that too and see where you win. Say, remember
we talked about this before. Yeah, that's done. I'm on too.
(37:23):
I don't know. I'm helping the I'm clean up the
city streets or whatever you're doing. You're helping the helping
the nation out whatever it needs. I can't wait to
chat with you again.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Nice. Appreciate Chad, thank you so much. Thank you Dan.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
You've been listening to the Nobody's or somebody's podcast with
me Chad Wece and this podcast has been voted the
number one podcast by people that don't vote.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.