With David Wood, a former consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies. He built the world’s largest coaching business, becoming #1 on Google for life coaching and coaching thousands of hours in 12 countries around the globe. He coaches high-performing business owners to double revenue, and their time off by focusing on less and being 30% more courageous in their business or career.

Alongside helping clients achieve extraordinary success, David is no stranger to overcoming challenges himself, having survived a full collapse of his paraglider and a fractured spine, witnessing the death of his sister at age seven, experiencing anxiety and depression, and a national Gong Show!

Join us for this inspiring conversation as we discuss how courage, mindset and focus are must haves to lead you to a better life and business.

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Biggest takeaways (or quotes) you don’t want to miss:

• “The worst thing that can happen to you is a thought… it’s what you believe in.”
• Mindset is everything.
• What do you really want if you were step out of all the busyness?
• Where should we create a forcing mechanism or a structure?

“It’s hard to let go of the shore in favor of the open ocean.”

-David Wood

Check out these highlights:

• 07:06 If you were given five years to live, what would you change? (About your hobbies, your projects, your relationships …)
• 16:00 You can having anything you want in life if you are willing to ask 1,000 people.
• 22:32 How habits can turn into ruts if we don’t have a major life event, a transformational course or a coach.
• 27:00 What does “Mouse in the Room” mean?
• 37:05 “I’m into ideas that will travel. And I think this will travel.” Listen to David share why he thinks this book and concept will change our language.
• 45:31 You’re doing great, and there is always a way to do it better (and faster and have more fun).

How to get in touch with David:

On social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/extraordinaryfocus/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_focusceo/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/focus-ceo/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/_focusceo

Learn more about David, by visiting his website here.

Special offer for listeners: Get a chance to enroll to his 8-week Samurai program for $990 (regular price is $2,000) where you will be given an extra couple of weeks to complete the program, and once completed, you can get 100% refund! Click here for more info – http://www.myfocusgift.com

David has also published his book, “Mouse in the Room” which launches this week! You can get the Kindle version on Amazon for only 99 cents!

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below.

GGGB Intro  00:00

Here’s what to expect today…

David Wood  00:02

If we were constantly jumping off cliffs, we’re not going to live very long. So there’s something ingrained about, well, this is what I know. So let me stick to what I know, I have coffee in the same coffee cup every day, I brush my teeth the same way. So we get into habits, those habits can become ruts. And if we don’t have like a major life event, or a transformational course, or a coach or something that can pop us out of that bubble, then it’s easy to just go a year, five years, 10 years. And, you know, we might get inspired by a movie, look what they did. But translating that into our own life isn’t natural for most of us. So we need some kind of outside impetus to see what do you really want if you were to step out of all the busyness? What does life look like?

GGGB Intro  01:02

The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit and Great Business™ podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:35

All righty, welcome. I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I’m an attorney and legal coach based here in Seattle, Washington, serving entrepreneurs throughout the US and the world. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit and Great Business™. I’m super excited to bring you today’s guest, David Wood. Welcome, David.

David Wood  02:00

Thanks. Hello. It’s good to see you.

Heather Pearce Campbell  02:02

Yeah, it’s so great. It’s so great to have you here. I know, we were chatting and we’ve, we’ve talked a couple of times by phone and because of having to reschedule a few times. It’s taken a bit to get you on the podcast. But I know today is going to be a super fun, interesting conversation. I’ve heard many of your other conversations on some of my friends and colleagues podcasts. So I’m really looking forward to this. Awesome. For folks that don’t know David. David is a former consulting actuary to Fortune 100 companies, he built the world’s largest coaching business, becoming number one on Google for life coaching and coaching 1000s of hours in 12 countries around the globe. As well as helping others David is no stranger to overcoming challenges himself, having survived a full collapse of his paraglider and a fractured spine, witnessing the death of his sister at age seven, anxiety and depression at a national Gong Show. I don’t even know if I have to ask you about that. I’m not even sure what that is David. David coaches high performing business owners to double revenue and their time off by focusing on less and being 30% more courageous in their business or career. David, I love your intro. It is so unique. And I know one of the themes that you and I talked about previously, is your expertise on the topic of difficult or I think as you call it tough conversations. Yep. Where would you like to start today? Yeah, I feel like within your realm and your work and the people that you support, there’s a wide variety of topics we can touch on. I’d personally love to hear your own entryway into business or the entrepreneurial space. Are you willing to share a little about that journey?

David Wood  03:59

Yeah, I am. As you were sharing it, you know, going through that intro, I realized what I know, things I really care about, I care about courage. I care about living a life that we can really feel proud of so that our deathbed, we can look back and say I gave it everything I really did. I don’t want people to have regrets. Like, oh, I should have spoken up more, I should have asked for what I wanted I should have. I should have been bolder. My job is to help people do that. Now, even though it might be awkward and uncomfortable. Sometimes I think it leads to a greater life. So I care about authenticity, courage, connection, intimacy, and I happen to be a business coach. I happen to have a background where I did, you know, I was consulting to Sony Music and Ford and Exxon and my job was numbers and systems and money. So I just happen to be really good at that. So I’ve chosen to work with business owners. And I’m happy to work with people on making more money because they love that. They’re like, yeah, I want to double revenue. So okay, great. So I created a semi program, which is about eight weeks to help people really dive in and do the things they need to do to find the low hanging fruit. But I tell everybody, if all you want is more money, you should go and work with somebody else. Because I care about your life. So we’ll start with more money, then we’ll move on to leveraging so you can have more time off to enjoy your life. But what are you going to do with that time? And how are you going to show up? My favorite clients are the ones that are like, yeah, let you know. I’ve got business stuff, let’s do it. But I want to grow as well. I had one guy posted on a forum. I feel like it’s more like I’ve hired Yoda than a business coach. And that was one of the nicest things.

Heather Pearce Campbell  05:58

Fabulous reflection.

David Wood  06:00

Yeah, so we can talk about mindset and courage because I think they lead to a great life and translate directly to make more money. So there’s a nice crossover that we can feel proud of ourselves and keep growing the business.

Heather Pearce Campbell  06:17

I love that. I really I’m a personal fan, also of the topic of courage, you know, God’s anything that really takes us digging deep to make decisions around speaking out on. And I love your reflection about you know, at the end of your life. I think a lot of people when they think about regrets that they might have at the end of their life, they think about things they should have done or places they should have seen or, you know, relationships they should have nurtured. But I love what you said just a minute ago about like, I wish I had spoken up on that. And wish I had said something.

David Wood  06:55

Right? I wish I’d apologize. I wish I’d said I love you more often . You know, these are common regrets people seem to have towards the end of their life. And we can look ahead. And here’s a really great question that I will pose to listeners right now. If you were given today, you were given five years to live. Some disease, you know, whatever, your five years? What would you change? About how you’re living? Now, if there’s nothing, you wouldn’t change what you’re working on your projects, your hobbies, your relationships, you wouldn’t change anything. Okay, you might be set. But if you’re like, No, I wouldn’t be on, I would be unhappy with my current path. If that ends in five years, then we should talk. We should talk now about, well, what’s different because this is a great way to access your own wisdom and intuition and your own guides, and work out what you need to do to live your life. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  08:01

Yeah, I think a lot of people probably don’t expect this kind of stuff from a business coach. 

David Wood  08:06

But yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. I mean, you know, classic business is what you should focus on, so what I should do is probably just focus on business coaching alone, or life coaching alone. I’m unwilling, and just unwilling, I like looking at the big picture and how everything fits together. You know, some highly successful business owners are in tears, sometimes on our calls, as we go into some, some deep stuff. Sometimes it’s like, you should, you should maybe continue that with a therapist, but I love doing the deep. The deep work.

Heather Pearce Campbell  08:41

Right? Well, and I, you know, there’s just no separating work from the rest of your life, you know, your business or your entrepreneurial path from the rest of what you’re doing. Like, it should be all intertwined. And it should, from a purpose, and a goal and, you know, Vision standpoint, it should all fit together. So I love that I love that you don’t separate it. You mentioned mindset, being one of your favorite areas, you want to talk to us a little bit about some of the work you do with your clients around mindset.

David Wood  09:16

Yeah, mindset is everything. The way we operate is that there’s a world out there. And if we can change what’s out there in the world, then we’re going to be good. Are we happy or make more money? I get the house when I get the partner if I can just do this. I’ll be happy but it doesn’t seem to work that way. Because everything we have or don’t have or one comes through our filters of the mind. Everything. And so it’s almost like there’s not anything out there. There’s only what our minds present to us. And Byron Katie said it so well. She said the worst thing that can happen to you If there’s a thought, that’s the worst thing. It’s not losing a leg. It’s what you’re believing about losing the leg. It’s not someone breaking up with you. It’s what you’re believing about. So that’s good news. Because then we can hack, we can hack it. And it also says, We should really make sure our mindset is awesome. Because any upset in our life can be rectified through whatever we’re thinking.

Heather Pearce Campbell  10:29

Right? How many people keep themselves in prison? Just what are their thoughts?

David Wood  10:33

Yeah, yeah. In fact, I think it’s the only prison I actually go into here in Colorado. And I haven’t had that experience of actually being behind bars as a prisoner. But, you know, I see inmates who are happy. And then inmates who are miserable. And then I see people on the outside who are happy and are real on the outside who are miserable. I don’t think it’s the bars. And it’s not the circumstances. Now. I’m a fan of changing circumstances. I’m a coach. I’m the Get It Done guy. So it’s like, yeah, let’s get you more money. But often, when you’re upset, or stressed, or anxious, or depressed, or whatever, there’s something else we can do that’s even faster. And one of the things I find so useful is courage. We’ve gotten so good at sticking to the comfort zone, we don’t want to feel uncomfortable. God forbid I’d have a cold shower. Right? I hate cold showers, and I’m having them every day. But it’s like that in life, our chair doesn’t recline enough in the plane and my tea isn’t quite hot enough. We’ve gotten so pricy about life. And unfortunately, that can feed into our business as well that it’s a I don’t want to ask, I don’t want to ask that person to work with me, I don’t want to try and make that sale, or I’m not going to pitch myself to that TED talk is probably not going to work out. We’re not going to ask that person to write the foreword to my book. And I want to, I want to push everybody a little bit to start considering okay, what is my mind hiding from me? What are the opportunities that might take some chutzpah? I don’t even normally use that word, but it’s going to take some grit. It’s going to take something that might be uncomfortable, I want you to find your edge. And so here’s an exercise that can help you with this. Right at the top of a piece of paper. If I was fearless, what might I do over the next few months in my business? And then you can have another page for personal things like what might I do in my life in my relationships? And so let’s take the business page first. You might have a section on the page for who would you ask to be a client or a customer? What are your ideal alliances? You know, who would you like to be promoting? You are handing out a pamphlet for your product or whatever? What stages might you want to speak on or podcasts? Would you like to be on? Yeah, I just did something recently that was edgy for me. Jack Canfield wrote the foreword to my book 11 years ago. And I think it was something like that 10 years ago. And I haven’t asked him for anything. Since then he has done that. And since he came and spoke at my event, which was incredible. I haven’t wanted to bug him. Well, now I have a book coming out. And it’s been a long time. And I sent an email yesterday saying, hey, look, I’d love to interview you around the book launch, I’d have to reconnect. And I wonder if you consider an endorsement. That was edgy for me. In fact, I decided around this book launch, it’s time for me to reach out to 20 to 30 influencers and thought leaders and friends and colleagues and have a call with them. Find out what they’re up to in their life. And if there’s a way I can help them, see if they have any ideas, brainstorm who I should talk to her and the book, get a referral to an agent. Right? That’s hard for me. And I’m a very outgoing person.

Heather Pearce Campbell  14:35

Yeah, and I think on that point, I think it’s hard for most people, right, even those of us who are outgoing, it is just hard to make the ask out on this point. I’ve got a sister in sales and we were talking a couple days ago and she was at the end of q1 being pushed really hard by her manager to make certain numbers and she’s phenomenal in sales and it’s all also a newer position. And so she’s getting to know her clients, she’s, you know, getting to know the landscape and this new sales job and. And she had called on a number of people and wasn’t getting anywhere. And she had like, literally a couple hours left. And there was a client that had just purchased it. She was really hesitant to call them up and be like, Look, we could double your order, we could do any number of things to add some additional product. You know, I know you’ve just purchased and I need to make my numbers like she was very vulnerable with them about where she was at. And they said, Yes, they went with it, totally because she had already worked hard to develop a relationship in the short time they knew her. They said yes. And she came away. She was like, you know, I just have to remember, it’s always a human on the other side. And sometimes you just have to ask, and I thought, Oh, the simplicity of that. And yet how challenging that feels.

David Wood  16:01

Yeah. Katie Byron, Katie says you can have anything you want in life if you’re willing to ask 1000 people. Yeah. And you know, sometimes, you know, people, even even friends of Jack Canfield have said to me, how did you get him to come and speak at your event? And I said, I asked him. Now, that took a lot for me to delete up to that to get to the task. So anyway, now I’m reaching out to like 2030 people, and it’s edgy for me and I resist it. And I want to go off and make a cup of tea and I want to do anything, but because maybe they say no, maybe they’re not. Maybe they don’t want to talk to me, maybe, you know, I have to deal with some kind of rejection. And I’m doing it anyway. So right on this list, what are the things that you do if you are fearless? Now I’m not asking you to be fearless, right? This is just an IF to get your mind to access? What might be edgy for me, what might be bold? Maybe it’s to create a new product, maybe it’s to get rid of five products? Maybe it’s, I don’t know. Let’s move to the personal page. What would you say in your relationships? Is there something that you’re annoyed about? Is there something that disappointed you and you’ve never shared it? Is there something you desire, maybe something in the bedroom? You know, is there anything you’re holding back? Like if you are fearless, what would you say? What would you ask for? Who would you be? Would you move across the country? Would you go and live in Italy? For three months? Would you like I don’t know how to be? Would you go and start singing lessons?

Heather Pearce Campbell  17:47

I want to be an actor.

David Wood  17:50

Right? We’re talking about that before we hit the record. Yeah, that’s big in my life. I yeah, I’ve been wanting to act for 10 years, or 20 years, I’ve been like I just one day, I’d like to get into it. And then I’d never really told people about it. It was just like a private thing. One day, one day, I finally started speaking eight months ago, I said, I wonder if it might be time for me to move to LA. And someone said, Oh, I did that. I’m like, really? And we got talking. A week later, she called me up and said, Do you want to come to this audition with me? And it’s for a play. And it’s a professional production and it’s paid. And it’s a production of Dracula. And I was like potom. He’s like, hell no, I haven’t even had a class yet. Why? Why would I do that? And then another part of me is like, well, this is what courage looks like they’re going and doing it. And so if you’re watching the video, I’m going to flash up a couple of photos now. Oops, I actually got to be in the lead.

Heather Pearce Campbell  18:57

And are you a vampire? 

David Wood  18:59

Yeah. So I actually they cast me as Dracula. So I got, I got to get paid to do this. And then since then, things have really taken off. And I’m moving to LA in three weeks to continue the journey of acting. I’ve done six, two commercials, six short films and a play in the last eight months.

Heather Pearce Campbell  19:21

I love it. That is such a great example of courage. And I think it’s a unique kind of courage. When you talk about how we get in our comfort zone and we settle in, I think it’s really easy for that to happen to folks who you know, they’ve arrived in their career, they have an established business that’s creating great income. They’re things are working, right, they’ve got a machine going. And I think that can be a really hard time to make a change like that.

David Wood  19:51

Yeah, it’s not hard to make the change from coaching because I’ll continue coaching. Yeah, it’s hard for me to leave the wonderful life that I’ve, I’ve set up here Boulder, Colorado, you know, it’s hard to let go of the shore in favor of the open ocean. And that’s what I’m doing now. So that’s, that’s edgy. And it didn’t happen overnight, I did things and I got coaching and I helped prepare myself and I did a recon trip to LA. And I talked to friends, and this has been coming for Yeah, for at least six months. So write down, if you are fearless, what you would do, and you don’t have to do anything on these lists, you might find that you want to circle two or three of them and say, yeah, that I’d like to do. And if it’s too scary, alone, get a coach get support, you don’t have to white knuckle it, you don’t have to go cold turkey, you don’t have to jump off a mountain in Nepal with a paraglider strapped to your back or walk over hot coals or get up on stage and sing in front of people. You don’t have to do any of that stuff. Pick something that’s an edge for you. It’s not way over the top, it’s not comfortable. And it’s going to push it’s going to be some growth there. And if you can cultivate this mindset, I actually each of my clients fills in a self coaching form before our sessions. And one of the questions on the forum every week, is if I was fearless, what would I do? And if I were to dream bigger, just what would that look like? And it’s just a way of accessing that part of the mind. That’s looking beyond the comfort zone, and you’re gonna feel better. And I think you’re gonna make more money. So why wouldn’t you want to feel better and have more money?

Heather Pearce Campbell  21:45

Right? Do you think I’m curious what your thoughts are just with the sheer number of people that you’ve coached through this process? Around what keeps people either stuck or playing small? Is it actually fear of taking a step? Or is it the unwillingness to believe that it’s possible?

David Wood  22:09

What came up when you posed the question was, I imagined that, you know, part of it could be an evolutionary trait. If we were constantly jumping off cliffs, we’re not going to live very long. So there’s something ingrained about, well, this is what I know. So let me stick to what I know, I have coffee in the same coffee cup every day, I brush my teeth the same way. So we get into habits, those habits can become ruts. And if we don’t have something like a major life event, or a transformational course, or a coach or something that can pop us out of that bubble, then it’s easy to just go a year, five years, 10 years. And, you know, we might get inspired by a movie, look at what they did. But translating that into our own life isn’t natural for most of us. So we need some kind of outside impetus to see what we really want. If you were to step out of all the busyness. What does life look like? I’ve had a client we’ve been working together with for several months now. He came to me saying, I want more meaningful goals. I’m working a lot. And I want to create more meaningful goals. He resists it because there’s something in him that says, keep working, keep working. And he likes his work. So he hired me to make sure he couldn’t hide out and he couldn’t slide. And we’re finally getting to, you know, he did some really great homework. I said, what might be more compelling than work? No one’s asked him that. So now he’s looking for what might be more compelling. And I said, if you died in five years time, and you didn’t do anything on this list? What would you not really care about and what would feel incomplete? And he’s like, Oh, well, this is a no brainer. This is an O’Brien I need to do this. And these other things. I honestly don’t care. Okay. Already, now we know what to bring in your life. And then sometimes we’ll just work and work stuff because he really cares about that. But my job is to not drop the ball and make sure that he can’t get lost in that. That’s why he hired me, don’t let me get lost in this. I had another client hire me. She said, I will only work. Why did she say this? Or is this just a good story? She wanted to pay up front for a year. And one of the reasons she wanted that is because she said look, I know that on my own. I know what to do, but I’m not going to do a lot of it. I just won’t do it. But if I know I’ve got to show up each week and see if I did it or not. I will do it. Now I like to think she got a lot more out of the coaching than that. But some people know themselves they’ll Like, I want to structure a forcing mechanism to keep me moving forward into the places I might not go along. Yeah, like I never said that before.

Heather Pearce Campbell  25:11

Oh, it’s a good one. Well, and it’s so true. I mean, I was talking on the podcast the other day with somebody in the financial space. And she’s a trained financial advisor, she moved into, like wealth coaching and financial coaching. And, and I asked her, I said, how much of your work is just the accountability for your clients, right? And she was like, oh, huge. She said, literally, in my business. I’ve got, like the folks that do the financial coaching, including myself, and an accountability coach that goes along with them. Right. It’s like, she said, it’s huge. And I’ve experienced the same thing, even around finances. My husband, and I finally found somebody that it’s helping us get on track and be on the same page and do some things that we were not able to do before on our own. Yeah, but the accountability having somebody to report to can just make

David Wood  26:06

I just got it. I just got a health coach and my god, the things that are happening in my life, I’m, I got a constant glucose monitor stuck in my arm, I got an hour a ring. I’m having cold showers every day, I’m doing 16 hours of fasting every day. And that’s the beginning. But without that coach, I wouldn’t. It just, I got other stuff going on, I’m not going to show up and do it. It’s an authority figure to get an authority figure, someone you believe and you have faith in, okay, you say it, I will do it. Whereas I could read four other books or 10 books and hear podcasts and whatever, and I’m just not gonna go and change my habits. I’m a creature of habit. So yeah, I like that you brought that up. And we’ll talk at the end about accountability with the samurai program. I told you, I got this thing I’m testing where I’m actually testing it out. For accountability so that people who do the program actually finish it, they have accountability for finishing it versus this is another thing that goes on the shelf and that I never completed. Right? That is fine.

Heather Pearce Campbell  27:20

Yeah, I love that. And I think all of us should be asking that question of, how do we incentivize? Because it’s like, we have to kind of pressurize or incentivize or add additional incentive to the things that we know matter most. Because we do because we do have limited time and attention, just a product right now of being human. We have limited time and attention. And so you know, whether it’s an authority figure, whether it’s some other method of accountability, it’s just really huge.

David Wood  27:52

Yeah, what we’re talking about is hacking yourself. We’re talking about hacking your brain, so that you can get yourself to do the things that are going to be good for you. Now, short term gain, we don’t need, like short term gratification, like eating ice cream, we don’t need anything for that. But the longer term things that are going to be good for us feel awkward. That’s where we want to create a forcing mechanism, create a structure. So that you don’t like one example, I realized I was not exercising for a year, I just wasn’t doing it. I hate going to the gym. And I realized, all right, I need a structure, and a structure and a forcing mechanism. And if there’s going to be exercise, there’s got to be a game attached to it for me. So I went and joined a gym that’s got a squash court, and I set up for regular games every week. That’s my forcing mechanism. I’d have to call someone and cancel if I wasn’t going to show. So even when I don’t feel like getting out of the house. I go out when I go and do it. So yeah, I love this whole thing about hacking ourselves. One other thing I wanted to say about courage when you’re writing that list of what you do with your feet, if you’re fearless. I want you to write down what you would say, if you’re fearless. And I’m writing a book right now. I think it’ll be coming out about the week that you’re releasing this podcast. Yeah. And, and it’s, it’s all about saying what’s true for you. Now that can be very uncomfortable sometimes, Hey, I didn’t like it when you said that. Or I felt a contraction when this happened. Or I have a desire that I feel awkward about asking, or yeah, I’ve been putting up with this thing for a while and I’d like to change this. Can we change it? Like there’s so many things that we do not do not make it out? Because we either haven’t realized what’s going on inside us or or we’re worried about what would happen if we didn’t say it well. And so this book is called mouse in the room, because the elephant is not alone. It is all about courage in being you in the world, and I’m talking about with your kids, with your partner, with your boss, with your co-workers. It’s amazing for leadership, no one’s going to trust you, if you if you’re not being real. This was after a lifetime of learning how not to be real for most humans, and to just present to the world, what’s going to get us the best result, or what we think will give us the best result. This is a map to how to bring the real you to any situation.

Heather Pearce Campbell  30:45

Yes, yes, we all need this. And isn’t it interesting that when we hold those parts of ourselves back, and I think there are ways even around tough things I know, I’ve listened to you talk about difficult conversations and how to do them well, and it’s something that I love and have studied for years. Our feelings and what we think about any situation or you know, something that we want to change leaks out anyways. Right? I don’t think that for most of this, we hold it in even if we’re not saying it, and what a gift to be able to address it in a way that we choose, rather than having it kind of accidentally or inadvertently leak out if that makes sense.

David Wood  31:30

Yeah, you’re right, it will inadvertently come out even if the people just pick it up. Subconsciously, they’re like, Wait, something’s off, something’s wrong. This book is about maybe even checking in Hey, what’s, what’s going on? This embraces tough conversations, this will give you a map for how to handle tough conversations. And the aim of the book is that a lot of those conversations will no longer be tough. It’ll give you a map of how to bring it in a way that the other person might be like, oh, oh, yeah. Tell me more about that. Let’s work this out together.

Heather Pearce Campbell  32:10

I love that I think, particularly around difficult conversations, people need maps, because it’s something that gets your fight or flight response going. Right. And I mean, for a lot of people, that’s how challenging I think those types of conversations can be. And you know, whether it’s in your personal life or your you know, your business side of your life, it’s, it’s a challenge. It’s an ongoing challenge for most people.

David Wood  32:36

Yeah, that is an example like with my co author, I felt upset by something that she sent me. Now, if I brought that up the wrong way that can create more havoc. But the way I did bring it up, fortunately, she was really unfun to receive. She’s like, Oh, okay. Yeah, tell me about what you’ve got. And she was wonderful at really hearing it. And then we actually did 1015 20 minutes of our call today, naming her mice now, like what’s going on for her and what she’s feeling and everything, and me naming mine. We did that for the first 20 minutes of the meeting. And in fact, we did something that I haven’t done before. I said, Let me guess what yours are. I want to see if I can name what you’re feeling and what’s going on for you. And then you can correct me. And then you take a shot at what you understand about what’s going on for me, and then I’ll correct you. And we did that. And it was great. And we got to a point like, okay, we’re complete. Let’s get into action. Let’s get moved from the relational to the transactional. Yeah, now we’re done. The relational stuff, which I was clear about, was more important than any actions we’re going to work out. And what we’re going to do, we had to be aligned. And that’s one of the concepts in the book is to prioritize connection over content. So we prioritize the connection, and then we’re able to move on and get a lot of stuff done. But

Heather Pearce Campbell  34:08

I love that and were you guys able to accurately guess each other as mice?

David Wood  34:13

Yeah, she really did a great job of everything I’d been sharing over the last week. And then I was able to fill in some blanks and she said, I got almost everything that she was feeling and she got to clarify a couple of things, Mike, okay. Yeah, totally get it

Heather Pearce Campbell  34:30

real. And that is like, you see the really capable, beautiful sight of humans when you tune in like that, right? The ability to really get into how somebody else feels but it does take slowing down and being very intentional about it.

David Wood  34:49

You know, I feel a little sad. Like the way I grew up, no one ever said, David, what are you feeling? They didn’t say, David, what’s happening in your body right now? So I didn’t have any attention to that. And I just grew up very logical and left brained. And we’ve got all this stuff going on all the time. And yet no one’s shown us how to identify it, and then how to bring that into space. And so we just say, well, I’ll just keep that to myself. I’ll go and complain to someone else about it. That’s what I’ll do. And this book is to change that. I think this could change the world. I want to bring the world closer, and it’s a little cheesy. Oh, look what I just did. One mouse at a time. I see us coming closer.

Heather Pearce Campbell  35:37

Well, you know, I think it’s an issue of like, when I think of that, and the clarity that being able to adequately and skillfully and really, like helpfully handle those conversations. Like, to me, there’s just a huge correlation with not only our mental health, but our physical health, right? Like the, the ripple effects, I think are so big. And I’ve personally witnessed, as you know, somebody that lives in the legal side of the world, what happens when people carry around the weight of conversations that they either should be having or stresses related to things unsaid or misinterpretations? It’s a lot. I mean, I’ve had clients show up that have been dealing with, you know, troubled clients, or a troubled business partner or something in their business for months, and they’ve been losing sleep, and they, you know, they just can’t resolve it. So anyways, I am fully on board. I love that you are writing the book I love. I mean, the mouse in the room. I love the title, because it sounds so readable. Like it invites you in to figure out what that is, versus having some heavy title that scares you away, right?

David Wood  36:55

Yeah, I think without a title, I wouldn’t have written this book. It was to put the concept into one line. Mouse in the room. Did you know there’s a mouse in the room? And I think, I mean, the idea is that I will travel. And I think this is an idea that will travel, I want to change our language. I want kids going up to parents saying, Hey, Mommy, can I name a mouse with you? I want people in boardrooms saying, Alright, I just want to name a mouse just to get it out there. And, you know, so I can move on. And people go, Oh, I know what you’re talking about. I want that, because we don’t really have that Brene Brown has brought in this concept of let’s rumble. And I liked that we’re gonna rumble. I think this goes along, compliments this, right?

Heather Pearce Campbell  37:45

Well, and the choice of language is really interesting. Because you know, mouse, it just sounds like Oh, it’s this little thing. Like maybe it can be easily addressed or easily talked about, right? I don’t know, I think it’s impactful. 

David Wood  38:00

And yeah, it doesn’t have to be hard. That’s why I didn’t go. I was gonna write a book on tough conversations. But you know, a lot of people don’t want to have tough conversations. Yes. And it doesn’t sound very sexy. And this is so much more approachable. If this goes well, or even if it doesn’t, I’d like to find an author who’s an established children’s author who wants to write the version for kids. And we’ll call it “Mouse in the Playroom”. I think something like that. And then there could be “Mouse in the Bedroom” or “Mouse in the work room”. So yeah.

Heather Pearce Campbell  38:33

I love that. Let’s see. That is super fun. All right. So I know and I know we’ve got a little bit of time left. I love you, you know, your discussion and your exercises that you shared on mindset. I know you’ve got multiple other buckets within your system and your framework. Do you want to just touch briefly on what else you cover with your clients?

David Wood  38:54

Yeah, sure. So I’ve identified three big buckets for people who want their business to be better. The first bucket is mindset and productivity, courage, setting goals and working out, a lot of people are not very productive. It’s like we’re like minds like a monkey on crack. So it’s like, well, let’s get that handled so that you’re producing twice as much in half the time. That’s in the first couple of weeks. The next bucket is sales and leads. Do you have enough traffic? What are your traffic sources? How’s your conversion, how your upsells, let’s look at the money. And then the third bucket is leverage that it’s looking at. Should you be doing everything that you’re doing right now? And how are you going to put systems in place to automate everything so that instead of having 20 jobs, you actually have a business? That’s an asset and you can have time off? I got one client right now who is working 10 to 14 hours a day. We’ve just started so don’t blame me for that. He came to me like that. 10 to four 18 hours a day, six, six days a week, and then half a day on the seventh day. And I’m like, I don’t think it has to be like that. So we’re working on leverage with him to get it down. And what would be more compelling than work. So it’s going to draw you away from that otherwise, I work with a lot of people who are very driven. They’re too driven, it’s hard to get off the treadmill. So those are the three buckets in the samurai program. And it takes about eight weeks to go through the program. The reason we can do it in eight weeks, as I keep my training videos short, like four minutes, five minutes, because I don’t want people watching two hour training videos. No, let’s watch the video, take the action, boom, modules complete.

Heather Pearce Campbell  40:51

So now I love that. I personally love the disclaimer, he came to me like that I’m not responsible for the 14 hours.

David Wood  40:58

I didn’t like him like that. We’re working on it. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  41:02

People are like, ooh, done 14 hours that there’s out for me. I’m joking. But I also really love the question because I think a lot of people, particularly in entrepreneurship, need to hear this. What is more compelling than work? Right? And, and, you know, work can be plenty compelling. Like most of the folks that I serve, and that are probably listening to this podcast, are very mission driven entrepreneurs, there is a greater purpose attached to their work. But we don’t get to ignore our personal health, or family or anything else for very long if we care about a holistic, healthy life, right? And I think people can end up getting into such imbalance that they learned some of those lessons the really hard way. Yeah. David, you’ve got a lot of fun things coming up. I’m so excited for your move. I love your personal demonstration of courage. I am super excited about your book. And I’ll be very happy to publish this episode near the time of the launch of your book. For folks that are listening in that want to connect with you and find out more about your work, whether it’s the samurai program or something else that you do, where would you like to send them?

David Wood  42:20

Thank you for the book, it’s really easy to mouseintheroom.com. And I would love your support, particularly during launch week, we’re going to offer the Kindle version for like 99 cents, we just want to, you know, create a best seller on Amazon. So go and get the Kindle version. If you think it deserves a five star review, leave a five star review, it really makes a difference in the rankings. And posted on social media so that your friends can also be naming mouse with you. It’s harder to do it in isolation. Oh, I love it. So I want to create a mouse naming movement. So that’s mouseintheroom.com. And if you’re interested in the samurai program, which is a group coaching program, I’ve got a special offer for listeners. And that is it, I used to charge $2,000 for the program, what we’re doing is a test is charging $0 Instead, I take an accountability bond from you. So you put up $990 And then we’ll give you an extra couple of weeks to complete the program. So I’ll give you 10 weeks, short video lessons, go through it, send me an email in that time to say I did it, I have completed all the lessons, I will refund 100% of your bond, I only keep the bond if you don’t complete the program. So the link for that is double revenue.net. I created a redirect that’ll take you to this page. Otherwise, if you go to my website, you’d have to pay $2,000 for the program. How about revenue.net will take you to the page with the bond. And if $990 is too much of a stretch for you cashflow wise, I created a coupon just before we hit record, you can use a coupon code to reduce the bond by $500. So I’d say if you can afford it, get full accountability. Don’t give yourself half accountability. But if it’ll make a difference to you use this coupon code guts. Gu TS uses the coupon code guts. And you’ll only put up $490 As the bond. And then when you complete it, I’ll refund it and love it. Oh, you can tip me, that’s totally fine. But just know that

Heather Pearce Campbell  44:38

This is so generous, and I’m not sure I can recommend it as a business model David.

David Wood  44:44

Yeah, well, we’ll see. I want to do a test to see if 1000 People go and do it and complete it and I give them their money back. I’m still okay with that.

Heather Pearce Campbell  44:55

Well, if you’re listening, you should be running to that offer. You’re getting David Wood and I’m somewhat familiar with his work. It’s phenomenal. If you’re having any of the challenges that we’ve talked about, or any others in your work or your life, you just go test out his course it’s going to be amazing. David, what final thoughts would you like to leave our listeners with today? And by the way, just so I don’t forget, if you are listening, you can find these links and any others that David will share with us whether it’s social media or anything else at the show notes page, which can be found at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Alright, David, what final thoughts do you have for it? 

David Wood  45:36

Listen, I thought, you’re doing it great. You got this far. Life is good. You don’t need to be fixed, you’re not broken. And there’s always a way to do it better and faster and have more fun. And if I can serve you in that way, I’d love to hear from you.

Heather Pearce Campbell  45:55

So love that. Especially the fun part. David, thank you so much. I wish you so much success in your transition here in the next few weeks. And I really hope we can be in touch again soon.

David Wood  46:06

Thank you. It’s my pleasure, and I had such a good time on your show.

Heather Pearce Campbell  46:09

Excellent.

GGGB Intro  46:13

Thank you for joining us today on the Guts, Grit and Great Business™ podcast. We hope that we’ve added a little fuel to your tank, some coffee to your cup and pep in your step to keep you moving forward in your own great adventures. For key takeaways, links to any resources mentioned in today’s show and more, see the show notes which can be found at www.legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please give us some stars and a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so others will find us too. Keep up the great work you are doing in the world and we’ll see you next week.