The Wrong Motivators

 

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Today we’re gonna go all in and we’re going to talk about some awesome things and I want you to share this out with at least three people today because this is going to be an incredible episode. It’s from a good gentleman. You know, I’ll start and call him that right off the bat. I just met him a little bit ago but amazing personality and Australian wakeboarder champion not once but three times and he launched his coaching business in his grandmother’s spare bedroom. Does that resonate with anybody that’s listening out there? How you first get started with things and Daniel Tolson Welcome brother.

 

Mike, great to be here. Really appreciate it. I was actually down in Orlando a couple of years ago, probably 15 years ago, maybe more 20 years ago, training for whiteboarding, a beautiful place in the world.

 

That’s awesome, and so I don’t know much but it is. Yeah, and it’s beautiful here today. This is a we’re actually doing a remote studio podcast today, which is our first ever which is pretty awesome. So thanks for being our guest today. I’m curious about wakeboarding. You know, I know just a little bit about the sport. But what’s the deal with it? Why did you dive into it? Why is it so much fun?

 

It was in the blood. So my dad, he was a champion barefoot water skier, and on the weekends, we’d go down to our local river, which was the Hawkesbury river. It’s only about 110 kilometers long. This river and we would just ride down the river all weekend and ride home in the afternoons, and so it was always in the blood and I just picked up a photo the other day and I was on a set of water skis, and I was probably around about five years of age. So by the time I was an Australian champion, it was definitely 21 years of solid writing.

 

Wow, that’s amazing, man. How old do you know?

 

I don’t look at I have 50

 

I’m looking at you. I’m 21 years old, bro. That’s a long time for a man to have to be in the spirit of Oh, like you. You must have started when you were like 15 or something.

 

Yeah, I am. Well, we started waterskiing. We were always on the water. So it was my dad who did what my cousin’s did, and it just evolved. So after school, I was really lucky because we had a cable ski park. There’s a beautiful big one there in Orlando called Orlando watersports complex. We had one near one of the local football stadiums. So I live between a cable ski Park and the best river in Australia. So we were right in the mecca of that. So it was just normal for us to be on the water, and beautiful. It’s really beautiful.

 

For sure, I’ve never dived into that a little bit. You know, I’ve been waterskiing a few times. I’ve been jet skiing a few times, which is a lot of fun. I’ve been snowboarding once, you know if you’re talking about those types of sports. I mean, that’s an interesting topic, right? Because they’re similar, but they’re different surfaces.

 

I gotta tell you that I don’t like them. I was about 16, and if you want a jet ski, or if you’ve ever been on a jet ski, you know that as soon as you take your finger off the throttle, you lose control of the jet ski, you can’t steer, and there’s no breaks, and with a wakeboarding boat, you’ve got this huge wake behind it. So what the jet skis would love to do, they’d love to hit the wake and launch off it and their jet skis could go, you know, maybe five to 10 foot in the air, but they’re traveling at 50-60 mile an hour when they do it. So let’s get right behind me and my brother when we’re writing. One guy just trailed me one day and I turned around. I said, Can I swear on this one, but you can imagine what I said. I told him to go somewhere off, and he didn’t like it, and he kept trailing me and I stuck my finger up at him. And then I just hopped off the water and I went up to the app on the scene. And he drove his jetski right up onto the under the sea and I was about 16 He must have been about 30 I was about 70 kilos. He must have been about 120 and he just punched me right in the head. Oh made up. Go over there. And so yeah, I’m not a fan of jet skis after that experience.

 

Yeah, no kidding. Big Black Owl. It’s a different breed of people.

 

Totally different breed. Where I live. If there were any deaths on the water, it was always caused by jet skis, and they are a different breed because these jet skis, these sea doos now some of these things can do 70 and 80 miles on the water. But as soon as you take your finger off the throttle, there is no control. So kids were getting killed. adults were getting killed and actually banned them on the river. They were that dangerous. So I’ve had fun with them. But I’ve also seen people seriously harm a friend of mine who was riding the jet ski with his girlfriend. On it, she fell off the back of the jet of water and just went there when she fell off the back of the jetski, went right up inside of cavities and just tore to pieces. So yeah, I stay clear of that these days.

 

That’s interesting, you know, where my mind is going with this conversation is pretty intriguing, at least to me it is because you’re not in my head yet. So I’ll let you in my head. I’m almost comparing this because, you know, we’ll get into your coaching thing in just a bit, and this is probably a good segue into it right into your grandmother’s spare bedroom. I started to think about like the, the all the coaches that you see that exists right now, because I don’t know if I’m not on Facebook, much like Instagrams, my main platform, and I see all of these, you know, advertisements pop up for some sort of coaching all the time, and I tap on these just to look to see what’s going on, and almost every single one of them is pictured in front of like a Lambo, right or, or, you know, or maybe secondarily, a Ferrari, and I don’t talk about this much unless it comes up because I have an Aston Martin, you know, it’s a 2019 Vantage. 

 

When you’re talking like the difference between the wakeboarders and the jet skiers, I’m starting to compare this to like the quote unquote, coaches that exist in this world right now that are there, and they’re trying to present this, this image, you know, and I get it, you want to have a, you want to have a credibility piece that exists like, at the conference I just spoke at yesterday, when I was keynoting. My very first slide has this nice tag on a banner. Below it says like, it’s all the logos of the media appearances that I’ve had, right, because I go on global media all the time. I mean, I’m talking about big global Bloomberg News, Max, chatter, news nation, even ticker news in Australia. They’re calling me all the time, you know, which is writers now, you know, I do all these appearances, and it’s like, hey, when I start my talks, like we should establish right away, you know, that in order for you to listen to what I’m saying, and actually see me as somebody of an authority or a thought leader, we need to first establish credibility, right. Are you with me on that? Say I, you know, and they’re all like, if that’s the reason? Yeah. Like, that’s the reason why it’s on there. But going back to the exotic cars and all that it’s like my Aston, I don’t really talk about it. I did when I first got it, just because I was super excited about it. You know, I did one photo shoot with it three years ago, because I’ve had it for three years, and I use those photos, maybe twice in posts. 

 

That’s it, because I didn’t get it to be like, Hey, look at me. You know, and just like, the difference between like, I almost see like the mindset difference between a jet skier like they’re out there trying to blaze through things and say, kind of like, Hey, look at me, I’m doing the cool stuff that’s out there. Just like the coaches. This is where I want to segue into this because I believe that you’re probably a pretty badass coach. You’re not one of these guys, that’s out there with a Lambo. I mean, if you have a Lambo, it’s okay. They’re actually still kind of cool cars, you know, but I think I think you’re tracking with me, as far as like the difference in the mindset, you know, in bringing value and then just getting things like that, because it’s fun, and it’s something that’s in you like that, like a generational wakeboarder. You know, versus like, I’m gonna hop on a jet ski and I’m just gonna piss people off and you know, cause some danger on the water. Just like coaches, the bad coaches can cause danger in the coaching business and seriously, sink some people’s lives brother, just because they’re giving him bad advice, because all of a sudden, they’re like, I’m going to be a coach someday, and they haven’t done the stuff themselves, but they’re going to make it look like they have because they’re in front of a Lambo. Thanks for my brand. You got me going on something here this morning. But

 

Let me be transparent. I don’t even own a car. How’s that? So if you can see me, have a photo in front of everything. It’s gonna be Yellow Taxi, and that’s, and that’s authenticity. Many, many years ago, I sold my car. It was 2008. So my car went overseas and I never bought one. Because I know my numbers. And when you buy any car, you’re gonna lose around 23% of its value the first day you want it. So you don’t spend $100,000 on a car and drive it out of the showroom bank. $23,000 last, and then it’s going to depreciate at 17% every year after that. 

 

So when I actually started my coaching business, I could only afford to catch the bus. That was it. I could afford to catch the bus because all of my money had to go to educating myself. I had to re-educate myself. I had to retool like any good builder would get a rig tool, and then I caught the bus and I had to make sacrifices. I did that for many years. Then when I went back to Australia, I drove my mom’s car, and I didn’t tell my clients that I didn’t own a car. I just was honest with them. I said I drive my mom’s car because this is what I believe in until my business can sustain itself. I can’t try to fool anybody. And I’m not going to fool anybody. Because that’s not what my business is about. So today, it’s 2022. If I catch a taxi, I can afford a car. But the reason why I don’t have a car anymore, is because if I drive a car, I lose time. If I have to drive into Taipei, I’m going to lose an hour of time there and back that hour in each direction enables me to spend quality time with my family. I can get a driver to drive me in at a 10th of what I could earn, if I was on the telephone, doing deals. So yeah, if you see a photo of me in a car, it’s gonna be Yellow Taxi. That’s it.

 

I love that man, and I appreciate that perspective. Because I was just having this conversation with someone else the other day, I don’t remember who was and wasn’t on the show. It was around where you’re devoting your time. You know, and it’s such a mindset shift, to say, well, I could hire somebody to do these things, you know, and it’s always been, like mowing my own lawn, right? I live in beautiful suburban Chicago, a great, great home, you know, pool, backyard, all of this. Even before that, it was like when I did not live in an apartment or a condo, and I actually had a lawn because there’s many houses that I’ve had before this one. I never wanted to cut the grass. It was just something that I looked at, you know, part of it maybe a little PTSD from when I was a kid because I was like the de facto lawn mower, kid, you know, because I was the oldest and everything and, you know, my dad would throw me like five bucks. 

 

My parents were pretty poor, you know, he would throw me five bucks to just show the value of hard work. That was it, but I hate doing it. You know, even for that, you know, I learned real quick it’s like it, why would you want to do jobs that you absolutely hate, and then it came down to later on in life. I’m like, the same thing. I’m like, Well, I don’t want to do this. But maybe that’s what I do. But it’s something that I put in place because this lawn mower you know, I can have somebody come out just like you’re saying, and I don’t have to be there. I don’t have to wait for it. At my house, I can be somewhere making money, I can be somewhere pouring into somebody’s life, I can be somewhere just fulfilling my mission, my purpose on this planet and shifting that over takes a struggle I’ve seen too. If we tie this back to the dudes that are taking pictures in front of the Lambos most of the time at least when they’re starting because you’re like, Hey, I’m driving around my mom’s car. I’d love your voice by the way. I know I’m talking like you got me going on some rants today, you know, I’m in a good mood man, in a really good mood that when I first started, I drove a Saturn, right, they don’t exist anymore.

 

They had some sort of interrupted quota. They had one of the blessed guarantees on any car. That’s everything’s good. Yeah, it’s got it and they are renowned around the world. We’ve now bad in Australia, the guarantee from a certain car company, that’s a man that we don’t even sell them.

 

It was like a people’s car. Exactly. It was made to be like for low income, you know, reliable, and we would just want to make sure that you’re taking care of you’re absolutely right, you know that the customer service aspect of that company was freaking amazing. They’re owned by GM too. It was a complete shift away from typical car interactions and sales process and there wasn’t even any haggling. You know, it was like the first thing where there wasn’t any haggling is like the price and the cars the price of the car. It’s as simple as that. It’s amazing. But when I first started, you know because now I’ve got like I said an Aston Martin. I also have a BMW X seven m, I’ve had Mercedes the S Class, I’ve had Audi A7, I mean, just amazing vehicles over the years. But when I started, I was driving a Saturn dude, you know, and trying to get the thing going, but not like one of these coaches or anybody that’s starting a business and like literally, you know, this is what’s happening. I’m gonna rent a car. Or even better, like I’m gonna walk up to some dude’s car in a parking lot and snap a selfie of myself and then post it on Instagram being like making bank today. Authenticity is the key to running a successful business. That’s the very first thing that you are presenting who you are. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

Many years ago, I was traveling around the world teaching Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog. And he wrote a great book. And that was a great program and he’s a top guy in student training materials. And the first thing that I realized was that the average high net worth individual had a burn rate of about 30 days, meaning that if they were earning an excess of $250,000 a year, if they didn’t get paid within 30 days, that’d be broke. So for me while understanding these ultra high winds net worth individuals, and also coaching and consulting with them. I could see the financial mistakes they were making when they were actually buying or leasing these vehicles, and so as part of being a coach, it’s also learning about life. And you get some really good lessons from your clients who are failing, they come to you. They say, Look, these are all the things that I’ve done and I’ve found it. So you make a little mental checklist. Don’t buy this. Don’t buy that. Don’t buy that, because it leads to these financial problems. The other thing for me, Rick, is my clients don’t drive Lamborghinis. They don’t drive Ferraris. 

 

Some of them drive rain drivers, they drive Tesla’s but in my community of clients, if I rocked up in a Ferrari, they would slap me in the face. I’d say, Daniel, what are you doing? We know that you can’t afford that. I’ve got clients who are banking 100 million a year through their businesses, they don’t drive Lamborghinis. They don’t wear Rolexes. I borrowed one of my mates’ omegas. One day, it was the James Bond, 007 one that said, I want to wear your watch, I’m gonna go on television, and I want a nice watch to wear just how it looks, and he gave me his omega and then I went to a business meeting. I said to the business owner, who’s my cousin, and he employs about 500 people in his business, but I consulted with them. I said, Hey, how do you like my new watch? He looked at me and he smiled, and he says that yours and I said, Don’t be stupid. He goes good, because if it was yours, I’d slap you. He said, You’ve got to take that money, and you have to reinvest in your business. 

 

So when I look at this generational wealth that some of these people are creating these legacies, they go without these luxuries temporarily. They don’t buy these things to give them instant gratification. They say, we’re past that extrinsic motivation. We’re all about intrinsic motivation. We’re clear on the influence of the impact on the income we want, and all of our energy goes into it, and we don’t need something shiny to give us confidence. So I learn all these lessons there you go. I’ve got a beautiful big scar on my arm when four guys tried to kill me, I’ve still got two plates in four metal pins in there. I don’t wear a watch. I’m happily married, I got diamond rings, and I don’t even wear them. Because in my community people that I work with, I’ve got clients who own billion dollar businesses, and they don’t wear that. So I looked at them and I learned lessons and I sold them. You know, it’s not that important. I’ve got confidence and that’s what I’m selling to a lot of people. I’m selling competence on selling peace of mind. And if we can do it without that when the time’s right, all of that’s just a bonus.

 

That’s pretty awesome, and as you were talking about watches too, I had mine sitting. I’m like, Oh, I forgot to actually put it on today. So I put mine on while you were talking and it’s just a tag cover. I have watches that are higher than this and I’ve got one that’s lower than this guy two. This is a cool travel piece just because I like the way it looks. It’s got the silicone band and I want to get into the six people who tried to kill you because you piqued my interest in that you know a little bit because I’m sure it formed you in some way shape or form today. The watches I’ve always done as a you know, I don’t have a lot I have like seven or eight of them right now. But I’ve got you know, ones as low as you know, a Vermont that was like $4,000 all the way up to a huge blow. 

 

Saying blue, that’s pocket and black diamonds. It was like 5000. Well, you know, it’s frickin gorgeous, right, and there’s also one that’s really near and dear to me and I’ll tell you why is a Bulgari Octo phinisi Mill, you know, the thinnest automatic movement in the world. It’s all titanium. And I got it as a special edition at the Fifth Avenue boutique in New York. That’s when I was on the Jumbotron and spoke NASDAQ, you know, so all of these things that I picked up, were like, after something had been accomplished. It was like a milestone for me. So it wasn’t something to boost my confidence. It was actually more of like a celebratory thing after something had been accomplished after after money had been made, you know, so it’s like awesome, I don’t need to do this, but it’s something I can and it’s something that solidifies me in the moment so I can remember everything I went through to get to this win. And it can be done with anything I mean, it can be done with a bottle of scotch which I’ve I’ve done those things with you know, this is just something I’ve chosen, it can be done with a glass of champagne, it with a with a loved one, any of these things, you know to mark those moments in your life but doing it ahead of time. That’s where people get caught up, man and all the money goes down the toilet.

 

So dangerous. My first mentor when I was in real estate, he said to me, he said Daniel, if you’re going to buy a vehicle, you should only be valued at about 10% of your yearly income. And he said anything over that you are batting above your paygrade, and he said, “Don’t go into debt, trying to look wealthy, he said, it’s not going to work in this area.” So I’m from the western suburbs, and it’s typically a blue collar area. These people are hard workers, you know, the area that I live in is the second wealthiest area in Sydney. But people don’t look wealthy. They’re not dripping in gold, and the jewelry. So where I grew up, was a little bit frowned upon to have, you know, a fly car with 21 inch wheels, you know, you could have your subwoofers that was all good. But you know, big wheels and chrome wheels was another story.

 

Those but you can hear those right at the subs. 

 

You can hear that from miles away, and my boss said, Look, if you’re gonna get a car, make sure it’s less than 10% of what you’re earning. I said, Well, how much you’re gonna pay me. And he goes, I’m gonna pay you $35,000 a year base salary, andI said, so how much can I get a car for? He said three and a half $1,000, and I’m a very literal person, meaning that if somebody who’s succeeding, and they say, Daniel, this is a good strategy to follow for financial security for career security, I’ll follow it because I look to them and say, I’ve chosen you as my mentor. I’m going to accept your advice, whether I like it or not, whether I agree with it or not, if you say this is the right path to take, I will do that. So I went and bought a very modest Ford Fairlane car. It was, it was actually $4,000, that was the cheapest I could get. I drove that around during my real estate career and I would keep it clean, I’d park it out the front, my customers say I’d love how clean your car is. That was it. But I was winning the business. I wasn’t in debt because of a motor vehicle. Because my mentor said, Daniel, after you get the car, because you gotta take your customers around, then you gotta buy your own property. And I’m not going to put you into sales until you’ve bought your own property, and I said, Why would I buy a property? Before I get into sales? Can I just get into sales? 

 

Now make the money to buy a property and say no. He said because of a thing called empathy. He said, with no empathy, there can be no sales. Selling a house is the most stressful thing that anybody can do. Buying a house is one of the most stressful things that people can do and if you want to succeed, you’ve got to be able to empathize with them. But you can’t go around and say I can walk a mile in people’s shoes, if I haven’t done it before. So what he did was he put me out there as a sales creator, knocked on 500 doors a week, made 500 telephone calls, did the numbers then once I had my deposit, he said, I’m going to invest in your first property. So you and I are going to do this together, we’re gonna go get a property together. So we bought the property and it was stressful. It wasn’t stressful, just buying but it was all the sacrifices that I had to make. It was all Wednesday night that I couldn’t go out for a drink with the boys. It was all day, Friday nights that I couldn’t go out chasing the girls. It was all these sacrifices in doing all the numbers that I finally had the money in the bank to purchase my first house and so I got the first house and he put me in sales. 

 

Then he said, Now I’m going to teach you how to sell. And then I sold, sold, made a ton of money. And I said, What do I do now? He said, Well, you need to buy another property. And I said, Well, you’re gonna do it with me. And he said, No, I’ve done that with you already. You need to go and leverage somebody else’s money. So I went and bought another property. But it was just through good choices. And especially when it came to money instead of trying to look good. I was just trying to do the best I could in my career. And one thing I remember he said, Daniel, enthusiasm outsells experience 10 to one, he said people aren’t going to look at your car and sign you up as a real estate agent. They’re not going to look at that. They’re gonna look at you and your personality, and I have a joke with my wife, Rick, here in Taiwan. We use some of these cars, and I don’t know what they do. But some of these Mercedes, that sounds like an old diesel tractor going down the street. When a guy goes down the street, he’s gone too fast. I said to my wife, “You’re pretty hot, bye for him. Does that car turn you on?” She just looks at me. No. So, you know, I think there’s a lot of perception and I like to agree. If a car is important to you, and you’ve made the money and you don’t have to go in debt, and then spoil yourself, get it. But don’t do it thinking that it’s going to give you confidence. Don’t think that the car’s gonna get people to like you. Because if you don’t like yourself, and you don’t have confidence within yourself, then nobody else will have it and get the car at the right time.

 

For sure. I remember I was in sixth grade. So would that make me 11 years old, something like that, and I was never a popular kid in school and I remember looking around because I remember I was telling you that my parents were always poor. My dad was an insurance salesman in the ghetto, my mom stayed home and just watch kids even had like a daycare in the house, like what the other people’s kids do that I don’t even know not my friends, you know, just that that’s how she supplemented income in the home. I remember looking around and looking at all the cool kids, or at least the popular kids and like, man, he’s wearing Nikes. Okay, and then Reebok pumps came out. I don’t know if you remember those, right? But I’m like, Oh my gosh, now they’re wearing Reebok pumps then I’m looking down at my feet. Of course, Air Jordans were out to man, this was like 1989 1990, you know, right at the right when he was starting all of his, his sponsorships of these things, being the spokesperson for Nike, and they had these lace locks that were on the shoes, you know, so you didn’t have the time you thread the things through and they were like, acrylic man, they just looked amazing, right? And I’m looking around, I see all these cool kids have these shoes. And I’m looking down at my feet. And I’m like, I have pro wings. I don’t know if you know what those are. But in the US, there’s a store called Payless shoe store. It’s been around forever,

 

So we’ll remember the smell of it?

 

Oh my god. It was horrendous. I remember this exactly. You know, because that and you know, that’s a whole nother discussion is like the quality of things and what you know, literally the cliche you get what you pay for. But yeah, your feet stink in these things in the proceedings, you know, but just looking around and seeing like all the cool kids had had these flashy shoes, you know, Air Jordans, just another Nikes Reebok pumps, and I’m looking at it’s like, oh, man, it’s like this really like, says what my class is in this world because I’m wearing pro wings. So I was pushing hard on my parents. Like I need Nikes I need Nikes I need Nikes so they got me like the least expensive Nikes that could exist. I remember trading no joke trading for these lace locks from Air Jordans. It was like I saved up, you know, five desserts from my lunch that I packed for a kid and I traded them like five chocolate cupcakes or something for these lace locks. So I had Nikes, I had Air Jordan lace locks and everything a little like, cool. Here’s me. I’ve arrived. Now I’m a cool kid. And dude, the thing is, nothing changed.

 

The grades didn’t get any better. No, my grades are running. 

 

I don’t know, man. But that’s the thing.

 

It’s like the girls didn’t

I wish I knew you at that time, you would have been like, don’t buy those just stick with the stick with the pro wings right now let’s build and make some real money. You know. It’s that lesson in life stuck with me in the visualization, while it matters to a certain extent because you can tell when somebody has their self kept together. But when you translate that to almost like a class, it’s not going to matter for you because people can see right through it and this is back full circle to the authenticity that we were talking about. It’s like those Nikes that I begged my parents for and those air jordan lace locks actually made me fake, more fake rather than being more authentic.

 

We call it an extrinsic motivator. And the problem with an extrinsic motivator, if you get a pair of narcotics, and a new version comes out next week motivation is gone. Because now somebody’s got a pair of shoes.

 

iPhone. Yeah.

 

Yeah, I shouldn’t show you mine. It’s an iPhone eight. I am about them. I gotta show you my iPad. I was in Sydney one day, and I was doing a presentation and I went to take my iPad out. And it slipped out of the case. I was in my mom’s BMW and it fell on the concrete. And it broke the screen. And I got so pissed. I was so pissed off about it. The whole day just went terrible. So I got the iPad, and I had better win because the screen was already cracked, it went back and I hit better. I don’t know why, but I was angry. I was angry. Yeah, I let the rage out on the iPad, and it broke the screen, and I refuse to let it go. So it’s been sitting in my drawer for about three years. I took it down the street the other day. I turned it on and it actually still worked, and I took it down the street and they said it’s gonna be a sound like Scrooge McDuck took it down the street and they said it’s gonna be $800 to replace the glass. I’m like 100 bucks, worth 800 bucks. I’ll get a new one for 1200 bucks, and I’ll just slap one of these plastic covers on it. So it’s right here as a reminder to me that you don’t lose your cool steak house. And the iPad still works. You can see all your leads. So I have a marketing campaign, and this old broken iPad, the iPad Pro just comes in, and I just see all the leads on it. And it’s my little reminder about controlling my emotions.

 

It’s incredible, dude, do you have a lot of those things around you? I mean, we’ve because we’ve talked about watches for me as being like a reminder of like, a success and a milestone moment, you know, but even, I mean, I broke it down and got, like, even a glass of champagne. It’s good, you know, whatever, you know, or, or if you, you know, I remember, really, really early on and in my marriage that Valentine’s Days were spent a taco bell because we didn’t have a lot of money, either, you know, but that was, you know, or ordering some Chinese food, you know, we made do with what was there? So it can literally be anything, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. But do you have those little reminders of these moments that are around you like the cracked iPad? You’re laughing.

 

It ‘s my 11th wedding anniversary tomorrow and literally, like in 70 minutes from now, it’s our wedding anniversary, and my wife and I were talking at dinner tonight about when we got married, and every year, we had the same conversation about when we got married, because both of us have no idea of the date. So normally three or four days after my mum will message me and say, Did you remember your wife’s wedding anniversary? I said Mum, it would have been nice if you could send that three or four days earlier so you can remind me before it happens for our bridesmaids messages. For me, Rick, I must have a little bit of alien DNA. I’ve lived out of my country, consistently since I was age 22. So I’m 41 this year, so it’s almost 19 years outside of the country. But what I’ve done with my life is I’ve just created some really, really amazing memories, and it’s not that I don’t have some nice little tokens. I got a couple of beautiful Louis Vuitton wallets, in my drawers a little token. But I don’t tend to have a lot of these tokens and I think what’s happening is with the choices that I’ve made over the years, with improving my awareness and following through on my passions, every day, is a reminder that I’m living my dream. 

 

Every day I get to coach and I get to impact lives. And that’s a huge reward. My wife says to me, “Daniel, you need friends.” And I said, “I don’t she said, Why don’t you need friends?” I said, Because I podcast. She loves him, he’ll say, I get to make these incredible people all around the world every single day. So for me where I’m at in my life at the moment, I really don’t have a lot of those tokens because I don’t tend to need those extrinsic things. I am a big advocate for intrinsic motivation, to find your strengths, and to play to your strengths, to find your life’s purpose and to make the sacrifices continually until you achieve your goals. Sometimes psych me records want to impact a million lives and people say, well, a million, that’s a good number, and I said, Yeah, it’s gonna take me my whole life. But the thing is, my compass is pointed in my true north. I know that if I just keep going in that direction, I’ll eventually get there. But because I’m on the journey, I’m on the right path. I get those dopamine hits. Every day, I get that serotonin, I get that adrenaline. So I don’t need anything external to reinforce it. Other than, like we talked about before, microphones, I love microphones. That’s another story. I tell my wife, these aren’t for me, these are for business.

 

So dude, I’ve used that excuse so many times to still work. So it’s a different bucket. 

 

It’s awesome. Like, that’s where I am and I love being a dad, and I think it sounds so cliche that, you know, a lot of parents say that they love being a parent, whoever. Yeah, I’m teaching my children what I know. So the other day I was so proud that our cases have gone up here on the island in Taiwan from like, our will literally at four cases for COVID and it’s just shut up to about 10,000. We won’t do a hotel stay next week. My daughter said I don’t want to go , she’s nine and a half. You said I’m a little bit concerned about COVID and we said, look, it’s a family trip. Let’s go together, meet you, Mom and Susie will go to the hotel, and she didn’t really want to go. She rang my wife on Wednesday night and said, Mom, I’m at my grandmother and grandfather’s house. I don’t really want to go To the hotel, but I also don’t want to let you down. 

 

Now, that’s a nine and a half saying I don’t want to let you down. So I picked her up from school yesterday, then we walked home. I said, Baby, I said, Mum said that you were going to come to the hotel and the resort with me and Caesar and mum. But you didn’t really want to leave the family and I said, let me ask you, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? Do you want to come with us? Or do you want to stay at school and stay with your mother, grandpa, she said, Dad, I’m the model student. Now my daughter has been a model student three times. She’s one of the highest grade point averages in her class in her school. And she said, Dad, this is a nine and a half year old. She said, you know, Dad, I’m the model student, I’m a role model to the other students in my class. And I don’t think it’s wise that I go and stay at a resort for three days. Because that’s not what a role model does. A role model should be in school, showing up doing their homework. I came out of my daughter’s mouth. And I looked at her and I said, so I’m going to support you, what do you want to do? She said, “Dad, I want to be a good role model and I want to stay at school.” So you know, those types of things I get to have every day. I love that, and I think that’s just so important to me where I’m at right now. Maybe in a couple of years, it might change. But I just love that part about being a dad, especially to mixed race children. You know, I’m Taiwan’s 95%, Taiwanese, there’s very few expatriates here. They welcomed me as a part of their community. But my kids, they look Ozzy, they sound Ozzy, but they think so differently, because they got that culture of the Taiwanese and the LZ in there. So yeah, the beautiful part of life where I’m at at the moment.

 

For sure, man, that’s heartfelt. That was absolutely amazing. I’m taking a look at, you know what I have prepared for me here today. I haven’t even touched any of my questions. That I mean, it’s just been an awesome conversation. I’d love to invite you back on and make this a part one of two. We could just publish these back to back because I want to get into your scars that you have, you know, because I think there’s some amazing stories there. I want to talk about your career, you know, especially your grandmother’s spare bedroom, which we didn’t even get. It’s just been like getting to know Daniel Day. It’s been awesome that way, but yeah, I think we’ll bring the fire on part two and just really go gung ho into some things in life. So I’m good.

 

100% my let’s do it. We got Sam, we got plenty. We’ve got plenty of stories, a little preview on Friday, the 13th October 1998. I had a major accident, and I got some bigger scars, and I think that’ll be a good conversation.

 

There’ll be alright, and that’s what we’ll start part two. So everyone listening, that’s going to be next week. All right, when he listens to this All right. Thanks, Daniel. Everyone can find you at Daniel tolson.com and Daniel danger Tolson endangers your middle name, baby. 

 

It’s like Austin Danger powers.

 

Awesome, brother. 

 

Thanks, man. 

 

We’ll see you on the next one.

 

Thanks, Rick. We’ll see you soon.