Joe Miller: Hey, Dave Gambrill, welcome to Titans of Transition today. 

Dave Gambrill: What's up, Joe? Thanks for having me, I'm excited for this. 

Joe Miller: Oh, I am too. I know there'll be a lot of people tuning in who already are aware of your digital marketing mentorship offerings and Facebook group and various other things.

 I'm really excited to have a discussion with you about your transitions, which I think are a pretty powerful story really, that many people go through. I don't want to give it all away, but you were a Corporate America kind of guy, right?

Dave Gambrill: Yeah. I was locked into that thing, you know, following the path that your parents put you on and um doing okay with it. But yeah, I got to a point where I figured out it wasn't really what I was supposed to be doing on this planet, and it was kind of circuitous route to get there, but we can chat about that.

Joe Miller: What was your lane? What area did you work in? 

Dave Gambrill: Uh, what areas didn't I work in? So I did a little bit in technology recruiting. From there I went to professional sports and I worked in minor league baseball, and then I worked in major leagues for the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers, and pretty much anything that went on at those arenas there, which could have been the circus or concerts or whatever. So that was a really fun experience. And then I went from there to selling drugs out of the back of my car. 

Joe Miller: Oh boy. What kind of drugs? 

Dave Gambrill: Pharmaceutical companies for about, I don't know, 12 years or so, and then kind of moved into my leadership development lane, which is where I came across you. And then in that, is where I was doing a lot of stuff online before it was popular to put a lot of that stuff online. And people were asking me how I was doing it. And I would usually schedule calls with them. And then it got to the point where I just couldn't do one-on-one anymore, and I had to scale it, and that's how some of my other, my Facebook group and my podcasts, and some other things came about because I was getting a lot of the same questions from people in different spheres of influence, actually. And I'm wanting to figure out a way to serve them in a way that was scalable for me, and would allow me to live a life of what I wanted to do without being tied to helping people 24/7. 

So you ripped through a number of different things you did, which were quite varied, but I guess had a lot of commonality and kind of the way you're wired, I would imagine, but was there a moment when you said to yourself, I got to go all in on this and leave the other stuff behind, or was it really gradual? I mean, I'm just kind of curious about what that transition was like for you. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, so I was doing this growth process, you know, my dad, the situation wasn't great. I remember getting one of those situations, when I was like 15 or 16 when I was essentially quote, "grounded for life". I don't remember what I did to earn that, but my dad basically said, you can come out of your room when you give me a book report on How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Dave Gambrill: So he put that book in my hands and that was kind of my personal growth beginning, which I did it begrudgingly obviously, as a teenager, but I saw some value in that. And so I continued to kind of do that through all of those different that I was talking about, I was reading books by John Maxwell and, um, you know, Earl Nightingale, listening to those cassettes and things like that, Jim Rohn and just putting a steady stream of that in, throughout all of my life, really. 

Dave Gambrill: And as I was moving and going through these different things, what I had figured out was, Jim Rohn talks about, work on yourself harder than you work on your job and not saying to not work on your job, right? Work hard on your job and be the best person you can be for your employer. But if you continue to work on your skills and your talents and your abilities, then you'll be more marketable in the next thing, and that's why it was so easy for me to make a transition from this thing to that thing, because I was working on my communication skills, my selling skills, my marketing skills, my networking skills all the while. And I kind of kept that top of mind. So when I was taking on new opportunities or new challenges or moving from one thing to the next, a lot of it had to do with, obviously money and paying the bills and things like that, because I had a growing family at the time, well, I mean, I still have a family, but they were little, and somehow I didn't always chase the dollar.

 I had this idea of like I needed to do the next thing that was right for me, not just right for my budget or my wallet or whatever. So that was kind of going on all the time, and I guess the biggest transition was when I finally decided I was going to go off and do my own thing, moving from Corporate America, in a pharmaceutical sales job where I was getting paid a lot of money, had a company car and a pension. Some of your listeners probably don't even know what a pension is, a 401k with matching really good dental and medical benefits, you know, crazy. And everybody that I talked to that said, you're going to do what? 

Joe Miller: I know. They think you're crazy, right? 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, you're crazy, I got that a million times and people, like my parents were like, well, you know, we support you and all, but like, are you sure?

Joe Miller: You really don't want to think this through? 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, so I got a lot of that, but right in between that spot, I had another personal growth thing, that's why I gave you a 4-minute answer to a 10-second question. 

Dave Gambrill: I was doing this thing with Simon Sinek, the guy that wrote, Start with Why and his Ted Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action. I was doing a deep dive, I was helping his team launch like a beta of his course. It was Start with Why, like a deep dive.

Dave Gambrill: So I was doing it with some mutual friends that we know through John Maxwell and going through this course and what it was doing was like helping me understand what my gifts and strengths really are, my talents. And I've done Strength Finders and DiSC and all these other assessments. But through this thing, we had to work with partners, and then we had to essentially in corporate terms, come up with our own mission statement and our own, you know, pillars of excellence and stuff like that. I don't remember exactly what he called them, but that's kind of what it was like. And what I figured out through that entire process, what I distilled was, what I really liked to do, and what I'm really good at in this life, is helping people unleash their awesome, which became the name of my podcast eventually.

Dave Gambrill: But whether it was coaching my kids or when I was in pharmaceutical sales, helping my physicians understand the different products that I have and how they could get better outcomes for their patients, whether it was working in Corporate America, doing advertising sales for you know, the big sports teams and saying, listen, I can get you the exposure that you're looking for for your company in order to help you drive revenue or conversions or whatever you're trying to do.

Dave Gambrill: So for me, what it came down to was, I liked helping people take the next big step or have success in whatever it is that they were trying to do. And then once I figured that out, I was like, okay, and that's definitely a marketable thing, you just have to figure out what niche you want to do it in.

Dave Gambrill: But that was a moment where I thought okay, it's time, it's time for me to go figure out how to do this on a bigger scale. 

Joe Miller: Yeah, so you're getting some external validation, right? People were coming to you and they were getting positive results. And so that was sort of a validation. I want to kind of swing back to and talk a little bit about gaining skills versus having sort of a natural gift for something. And a lot of commonality, you know, selling, promoting, you were doing that from a very early age in everything you did. I think you mentioned that you realized that you needed to really lean into that and it would pay you benefits in anything you would do from there on out. 

 So there is skill development, but there's also natural ability or natural gifting and yes, you can become skilled at something, but my view, and I'll get your opinion on this, my view is yes, you can be successful, develop skills in a lot of things, but you may have to work really hard at it versus going with your natural giftings. How does that play in? 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, I agree with that. You know, people will pay for world-class and if you're not really good at something, it's going to be really hard for you to be world-class.

Dave Gambrill: So if you're already good at something and you could work on that and make that world-class, then people will pay for it. I think that the difference for me, and a little trick, so here's your first little takeaway for your audience, is if you can combine two things that aren't usually combined, and whether it's a skill, a niche or a skill and like a problem, and the way it's solved that maybe you solve it differently. 

Dave Gambrill: So for me, I did Strength Finders and I figured out WOO is one of my things, Winning Others Over and, whatever, they have some word for networking or connecting people. And I kind of figured I was good at that, and then that was some validation that I was good at that, and then as I did more of that, what I started to figure out, and I know from your corporate background, I got really good at being able to translate and synthesize through my pharmaceutical background, really complex information and synthesize it into very bite-sized nuggets that people could digest easily.

Dave Gambrill: And I was like, oh, so I could take this digital marketing stuff, this online marketing, and basically translate it to any audience, including like a leadership training audience, people who are speakers, trainers, coaches, consultants, who really don't focus on A, the marketing piece, and B, the technical or the digital side of marketing.

Dave Gambrill: So you already have the digital marketing pieces combined, but then you have these people that are used to standing in front of a classroom and facilitating, or being on a stage and doing all these things, but they don't really know the first thing about converting that to the digital landscape. So it basically combined those three kind of things, because a lot of people thought digital marketing was just being on social media. I'm like, no, there's actually some methodology behind the marketing piece, and then you can put the social media piece on it and obviously build your email list, which I talk about all the time. But then when I brought that to an audience that wasn't familiar with it, and I could also speak their language, which I think is important, I could use metaphors and similes and examples and stuff, that helps translate it to them and all them are like, oh, now I get it. You know? 

Dave Gambrill: So it was like, yeah, I stayed in my strength zone and there's some things that I wasn't as good at, but instead of figuring out how to do it better, I just figured out who I could outsource it to, or which tools I might be able to use to not have to worry about it, just let the tools do it for me. 

Joe Miller: Right, right. And that's a big area for you, I know you add a lot of value, answer a lot of questions to your community about comparing different tools. And I remember a conversation we had a year or so ago where you basically said, well, it kind of depends on what you're trying to accomplish, which was great. It was great, even though I have a lot of that sort of strategic viewpoint in my background, without saying that, you say those kinds of things to people from all different kinds of backgrounds. So it's a big value-add to make sure they don't spin their wheels on something that may look real shiny, but not really going to accomplish their end goal.

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, and unfortunately, a lot of people just don't even know what they're trying to do, right? They're like, okay, I'm here and I want to get there. And I say, ok, have you looked at a map of, you know, what the terrain looks like? And they're like, no. I'm like, so how could you choose the vehicle that would get you there, right?

 If you've got to go off road and stuff, and you're going to try to do it on a pair of roller skates, probably not going to get there, right? So it's, you know, helping people understand where they are, where they're trying to go and then say, okay, let's figure out what that looks like and what part of it could you do, and then what part of it should you maybe outsource to either other people or tools or systems or something? 

Joe Miller: Okay, so let's pivot a little bit, because I think this would be interesting to delve into, you obviously interact with a lot of different people in various different journeys. And you just brought something up about this whole idea of not having clarity about direction, you know, and vision for where they want to go.

Joe Miller: So in my coaching experience as well, I know you coach as well, but in my coaching background, I spent a fair amount of time talking to people about this and about what their vision is for their life and where they want to end up. And they contact me because they just have this sense of lack of clarity and something's not working.

 And they're reaching for things they're hearing to provide a solution without doing that deeper work on solution to what? And so I'm just kind of curious what part of that you see in individuals you coach and work with, that is conditioned in them, that they're fighting that conditioning and that mindset, and what part of it is something else. 

Dave Gambrill: It's mindset, predominantly. 

Joe Miller: Predominantly. 

Dave Gambrill: Um, you know, you've heard me say this a lot and I teach off of this framework of mindset, skillset, toolset. It doesn't matter if you have the skills and it doesn't matter if you have the tools, if your mindset's not right, you're not going to do any of it.

Dave Gambrill: And even if you've become world-class, which we've seen recently in the last two Olympics unfortunately, people that are very skilled at what they were doing. And at one time their mindset was locked on and they had the skills and they had the talent and they won gold medals and did all kinds of amazing things.

Dave Gambrill: But in these last two Olympics that we've seen, you know, world-class athletes who got a little sideways in their mind and their mindset was not right, they couldn't even compete, they were crashing into gates in the ski thing and, you know, were afraid for their own safety on the gymnastics scene.

Dave Gambrill: So, you know, that's just more proof, unfortunately, negative side of it, but that you got to get that mindset, right? So it doesn't really matter what they're trying to do, you know, a lot of people look at this backwards, they say like, I'm going to buy the tool. They don't say this or articulate it, but this is what they're thinking, I'm going to buy the tool and it's going to solve all the problems. And I'm like, well, do you know what those problems are? So we start working backwards and they're like, nah, I don't even know what the problems are. I'm like, do you even know what you're trying to do? And they're like, no, I don't even really know what I'm trying to do, I want to live the laptop lifestyle or whatever. 

Dave Gambrill: I'm like, okay, so let's stop for a second. And I take off this framework, which I haven't shared publicly, I don't think very often. Here's this thing called VS4T. Stands for Vision, Strategy, Tactics, Team, Tools, Telemetry. I think I got them right.

Dave Gambrill: There's 4 t's, right? So if they don't understand what their big kind of vision, whatever it is they're trying to do, so that might be the laptop lifestyle. Okay, so how are you going to do that? What's the strategy? What are you going to teach or what tactics or what's the overarching strategy?

 Are you going to grow market share or are you going to steal market share from somebody? What niche are you going to be in? And then the tactics piece of, okay, so what are the daily things? What are the daily activities you could be doing or the weekly or the monthly benchmarks, you know, that you could be looking at to make that happen?

Dave Gambrill: And then the next two, you can change team and tools. You know, if you're a wantrepreneur moving to an entrepreneur, you're probably not going to have a big team, so you can have tools there instead of a team. So if you pick the right tools to help you manage your projects or do whatever it is you're trying to do, that's helpful.

Dave Gambrill: Uh, if you're a little bit bigger and you're going to bring on a team, then I recommend you start bringing on some team first, before you decide the tools, because some of those team members can help you with what tools you might want to use. 

Dave Gambrill: And then the Telemetry just happens to be a fancy word that starts with T that fits in my little thing there, of what kind of dashboards do you have set up, what kind of measurement things almost like remote measurement things set up, that you could just see on a daily basis, to say, I'm on track, that leads you back to whatever that grand division is and the strategy and the tactics and all that stuff. So each day you can kind of have your finger on the pulse of what's going on.

Dave Gambrill: And so, when I share that with people, it just blows their mind because they never thought about the steps of it. And obviously, the mindset and skillset and the toolset piece of it all fits in there too, especially when I'm talking about vision, strategy, and their mindset and all that jazz. 

Dave Gambrill: But I think what it comes down to, when people are going to make these transitions, you're one of two people. And I think you and I are actually a little bit opposite and I'll let you decide. 

Joe Miller: Okay. 

Dave Gambrill: If that's true, right? When you're going to make this transition, you're probably either a 'wow' person or 'how' person, right? And so, I'm a 'wow' person. I'm like, cool, that sounds like a great idea, let's go do it, and I just kind of figure it out as I go. 

Dave Gambrill: There's other people who are like, man, I could never do that. They're more like a 'how' person. They go, okay, this sounds kind of cool, but how am I going to do that? And they need to figure out the pieces first before they'll kind of make that jump.

There's no right or wrong there, but you have to know that they both also come with some severe blind spots, right. So, if you're the 'how' person, a lot of times analysis paralysis gets in the way and you just don't ever do anything, right? It's just, you spin your wheels and you're like, ah, just get stuck thinking about all the hows and then all the problems that could happen.

Dave Gambrill: Yeah. 

Dave Gambrill: On the 'wow' side, sometimes you're just like, literally the idea of jumping and building your wings on the way down, like you're just, it could be a disaster if you don't have some idea, so... 

Joe Miller: Yeah, I would have to say actually, I am more like you and the way I usually present this has to do with this one instrument that I use called the Kolbe index. And we may have talked about this in the past but, I'm what they call a quick-start. So I only need a couple points to sort of verify, a couple of data points to verify direction and I'm all in, versus the other style, which is predominant style in technology and science, is a fact-finder.

Joe Miller: And a fact-finder needs to have, not just how, but needs to have enough data to reduce risk, and there's never enough data. So the tension is that, when I'm interacting with the fact-finders, they always want more and they're not ready to take an action. There's always one more thing they need before they think they need to take action.

Joe Miller: So the blind spot for them is, they never take action. The blind spot for myself and maybe for you is, you might get your knees bloodied, because you're willing to jump and build your wings, and sometimes the wings don't foil the way they're supposed to. 

Dave Gambrill: No. 

 At the end of the day, finding a balance or finding other people on your team to compliment you, I think is really helpful. But that dynamic, I can't tell you how many times I run into that. And actually, it brings to mind something I think we chatted about before, and that is, you interviewed Seth Godin, and I think it was this time that you interviewed him, he was taking questions from the floor and someone was asking a question, and he just, there was this long pause and he just said, you're stalling. 

Joe Miller: And it was this idea that this individual would never have enough data or facts or comfort level before they were willing to take an action. And I just thought that was kind of a brilliant, uh, statement for him to make, and I think it kind of speaks to. So you get into this all the time because people approach you, maybe they come initially, at least to your social sites to, you know, they've heard of a tool or they know they need to get something so they can do what they think in a vague sense they want to do, and then they arrive. So I imagine you get into this territory quite a bit. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, we do, and for those people that want more data I say, here's an idea, why don't you do something? Measure your data, stop measuring other people's data. Like, the number one scoreboard is revenue, so why don't you start making some money and you can measure that? And they're like, oh my gosh, what a great idea. I'm like, yes, it is. 

Joe Miller: So, 

Joe Miller: if we could, let's pivot again, I'm just curious, 

Joe Miller: once you were out on your own, was there another point in time that you could point to, and I don't know, I'm just throwing this out there live, point to where you picked something up, maybe from one of your mentors, you have got some real gold plate mentors that you've been partnering with, 

Joe Miller: that really helps you sort of keep the turbo in on your business? 

 Probably quite a few moments, but 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, there was a ton of stuff that I got but I think actually, the challenge was there's a lot there and it's like, how do you stay congruent with what it is you were trying to do, and stay on your path for it, for what you want? And so, I have some of these really great people, I'm not going to name drop, but yes, I can reach out to them and have some good conversations if I need to.

Dave Gambrill: But a lot of this stuff I get on a daily basis comes from podcasts and books and things like that. And I think, you know, while I'm staying in the hunt and I'm doing my own thing, but I also consult with people and coach people, and so the people that look to me for advice, their problems are kind of top of mind, and the situations I have are kind of top of mind. And I'm listening to these books and listening to podcasts and, pretty much a few times a week, things jump out at me. I go like, oh, well, wow, it's hard to 

Joe Miller: Take one out. 

Dave Gambrill: Chase those things down, it's like shiny object syndrome, but what I do is I say, okay, and I just kind of put them somewhere where I can look at them, like, in the corporate world, they call it a parking lot, park it over in this Trello. I use Trello for a lot of my stuff and I just put it over there, this idea and I go, okay, maybe this is going to you know, be the solution for somebody somewhere somehow, and maybe I'll be able to apply it. So I just kind of put it over there to get it out of my head, and as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm starting to forget things like the second I think that, I got to jot them down somewhere. 

Joe Miller: Let's not go there 

Dave Gambrill: Because I'm an idea machine. Like I just said, they come and they come and they come and like, I'll have an idea and I'll be like, whoa, and then I'll have another one, and I will have forgotten that last one. Like totally. 

Joe Miller: So that's really interesting because going back to wiring and, you know, quick-starts idea machines, distraction can be a problem. So your model that you put for this a few minutes ago is a structural system that keeps you ultimately focused on your end game and your end goal. And yes, I'm sure you refresh it at least annually, maybe more often, but that is something that you've built, probably habit patterns around, you know, to use the old Atomic Habits, wonderful book, habit patterns around to keep you from going way off on a bunny trail and spinning your wheels too much.

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, because the original question you asked me was like, did I get some good advice, or was there something that jumped out at me? And a lot of times it's just good advice that might not be appropriate for me at the time. 

Joe Miller: At the time. 

Dave Gambrill: But I know it's good advice, and you have to be able to discern if it's not either good advice for me now or my exact situation, but maybe it'll be good for me later.

Dave Gambrill: And frankly, this is a strange one. You didn't ask me this question but maybe push them back a little bit on your mentors. So I have a relationship with Dean Graziosi, who's pretty well-known and has some stuff going on, and I had a conversation with him one time and, you know, he wants to grow like this billion dollar empire and just help all 8 billion people on the planet, like he's got these really grand plans. 

Dave Gambrill: And I was saying to him Dean, I don't really want that. I don't, I want to have more of like a lifestyle business where I can just kind of help people when I want, on my own terms, and to me, you know, I just want to be able to do what I want when I want with who I want and not have to worry about really anything else. That's kind of what I'm shooting for. And he's like, man, that's not a problem, then I'll be like, that's cool, like that's cool that you want to do as long as, you know that's what you want to do, stay focused on that. 

Dave Gambrill: And so we had a really good conversation around how do I apply some of the stuff that you're suggesting in a place where I don't want to scale that big? To me that's like a headache, I don't want that. I want to try to be like, this sounds bad, but I can't think of a better way to say it, I want to be like the laziest, most successful person. And by laziest, I mean like putting systems and tools and automation in place where, you know, I basically just have to show up and stay in my skillset and really do that, which doesn't feel like work, right? It's like, oh, okay. And then when it's done, just the automations kind of do their thing, and I might just have to spot check a little bit later. 

Dave Gambrill: So that's really been kind of the struggle, the shiny object syndrome of all the advice, because you could get so much really good advice, but here's what I'll say, which you didn't ask me this, but I think one of the biggest problems that people get when they're trying to make a big transition, which I know is the focus of this podcast is, is they ask blind people to proofread their vision. 

Joe Miller: Oh boy, yeah, 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, there's your tweetable moment, right? Ask blind people to proofread their vision, and, you know, I talked about my VS4T thing before, so Vision is the first one, what is your big overarching vision of what you're trying to do? And if nobody else in your current friend group or your family has done something like that and you ask them, Hey, I think I'm going to go do this, what do you think? What do you think they're going to say? Just like me, when I left Corporate America, you're going to do what? You're insane, right?

Dave Gambrill: So you're asking quote, blind people, who don't understand your vision, can't see your vision, don't have the vision, you're asking them for advice and strategy. And in this case, you know, talking about Dean is what made me think of it, when I explained to Dean what I was looking to do, what my things were, he like it changed, like with the stuff he was talking about changed. Now, not totally, but he's like, okay, so if that's what you want to do, then you might want to look at this or focus on this, or figure out how you can automate and systematize and whatever, outsource as much as you can, so you could run your business from beach if you want. 

Joe Miller: That's great. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, as you're going out on this journey, those of you that are listening, just be smart about who you share those things with. You probably want to share your vision and your ideas with people that can already handle big ideas, because here's your other tweetable moment,

Dave Gambrill: big ideas don't fit well in small minds. 

Joe Miller: There you go, I love it. 

 And I'm not saying like your friends are small-minded and your family, but like if they're not big thinkers, if they're used to just being in Corporate America, doing their thing, working their 9 to 5, just tolerating their existence, when you have a big idea and you share it with somebody like that, they can't even begin to wrap their head around it. And so you got to find other people that you can kind of share those things with. 

Joe Miller: That's really good, and that's a mistake that I think I fell into over the years, and a lot of people fall into it. It's natural. You know, you go with the flow, you go with your community, you go what's closest to you, and so that's the people you ask and you don't think about who are you asking and for what advice, what verification? The other thing I would say is that a lot of people in their careers may be frustrated that they're not moving forward enough, or it's just not making them happy or joyful. 

Joe Miller: And they don't know why, because they have all this conditioning that says you should be so happy. Like you said, you were making a great salary in pharmaceutical sales, right? You had all the extra benefits. Yeah, it was good, but it wasn't really lighting you up. And so if you went and turned to the people who were in that community and ask them, they're going to repeat the same mantra of people who are in that community, and they're going to say, what are you thinking? Look how, you know, it's just the echo chamber what's not solving you, solving your problem, what's not serving you. 

Joe Miller: And so I think that you have to, you got to go deep and have these conversations with yourself, do that work in internally and be okay taking a different path. Be smart about it. I mean, I think there are some people who just say, oh, this isn't made for me anymore, and I'm just going to, you know, without any preparation for it or any thought or anything. 

Joe Miller: And maybe there's some people listening in now that really want to do what you do, Dave, and they're just like, okay, I'm going to jump out and do it, and they haven't done any homework, any of that preliminary work. And uh that can be a dangerous thing too, but absolutely, make sure you're thinking very intentionally about who you're asking for this kind of external validation. I think that's huge. 

Dave Gambrill: And even when you get on the path and you think you're around people like that, you know, I had a situation, it was during this Simon Sinek, Start with Why thing that we were piloting, and the guy that I was partnered with, I kept talking about like, yeah, I want to do this thing, I want to call it like Unleash the Awesome, and I want us to be like, (bah!) and he was a little more conservative and he's like, I don't know, I don't really like that. Makes me think of like skateboarding people or something. And I was like, man, really? And I was like, ah, I guess I shouldn't do that. 

Dave Gambrill: But then I thought about it. It was like a couple of days before we got together to work in pairs again. And I was like, no, you know what, I'm going to do that. Just because he doesn't like it, 

Joe Miller: Doesn't mean. 

Joe Miller: a thing 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, so you have to make sure your own heart and mind are aligned with what you're trying to do, and then, you know, as you're looking for this external help and getting around people that are on the path, also know that, just like I with Dean, like having a little bit of pushback or I'm like, no, I don't really want to, like, that's not me. Because it's hard for other people to give you advice or give you guidance or give you mentorship, if you're not clear about what your boundaries are, what your goals are, what you're trying to do. And so this can be a really delicate thing, and that's why, like this whole conversation for, I don't know, 30 plus minutes now, has really been about mindset stuff. 

Joe Miller: Really is. 

Dave Gambrill: If you don't get it locked on and continually stay attuned to what's happening with your own mind and what you're trying to do, you can just be all over the place and not, you know, chasing down the thing that you're trying to get after.

Dave Gambrill: And that's what I see a lot from people is just, they start doing something, they forget about why they were doing it, and then they see something else and they're like, oh, let's go do that now. I'm like, well, what about this other thing? Yeah, we're going to go do this now, I'm like, man, some of you were pivoting more than a top. You're making me dizzy. 

Joe Miller: And that takes a lot for someone who's wired to jump out of the airplane, right? 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah. Yeah. At some point you got to stick around long enough for some of this stuff to work, you know, it's not overnight. It does take, yeah, it's not going to be easy. It takes work, it takes effort.

Dave Gambrill: Yes, there's plenty of days and nights where I either stayed up awake or literally, I remember days where I just laid in the fetal position in bed, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I just did this. Or I'm so scared or whatever. And just had to be like, okay, dude, all right, let's snap out of it now, and let's go do something, and let's get back on the path, let's go do like, there's plenty of failures and things that got in the way, but my why, my purpose, my thing was big enough. Cause I think what happens on this journey, this transition, is your passion will push you to your point, like some people will just leave, right?

Dave Gambrill: And if you're going to leave, make sure you're running to something, you're not running from something. But as you're doing that, your passion is going to push you until your purpose pulls. Right? And if you don't know what your purpose is, then you'll get pushed, cause you're like, oh, this is so exciting. And then you go to this new thing and you go, oh man, I have to learn something new, uh, this is frustrating. And then you just revert to your comfort zone, right? 

Dave Gambrill: Or if you know what your purpose is, if you know your why, if you know why you started this thing in the first place, then you'll stay after it. 

Joe Miller: Yeah, that's great. Those are some gems right there. I knew you'd bring them. 

Joe Miller: The other thing you did that you mentioned, I just want to swing back to when you were talking about seeing all these other things, you know, the different podcasts, you sample books, you read and then maybe a nugget, or I thought wasn't what you needed right then, or content may not be something you would share with your tribe right away, you had a practice of digitally filing that away. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah. 

Joe Miller: Yeah, and I think that's a great practice, you know, uh, John Maxwell, well, he's written over a hundred books now, isn't it, or something like that? 

Dave Gambrill: Yep. 

Joe Miller: And, uh, I remember him telling us, we're both in that Maxwell community and I remember him telling us that he started early, and back in the day clipping, and I think he still does do a lot of this on paper, and has a filing system, and he may not, you know, later on, he has an idea to write a book about a certain topic, and then he goes he has them all tagged in a manual sense and pulls them all together, and, uh, that's a great practice to have. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, he used to laminate them. He does work off an iPad now, though, he does a lot of his stuff in there. Um, yeah, I mean, for me, I've gone for different things, I used Evernote for awhile, I honestly use Evernote a fair amount, but the Trello for me is a tool that became pretty good for me, because the app is easy to use on the phone, and the reason why I like doing it digitally is that if I ever need to outsource this or ever need to find it, and I'm like not around my own stuff, like if I write it in a physical journal and it's sitting over there on my bookshelf, and I am in Phoenix, Arizona, and my house is it's not very helpful.

Dave Gambrill: So when I figured out ways to put it in places where I know I can go find it if I need to, and those things have evolved over time, but one of the most profound things that I learned from Tim Ferris, I talk about him a lot on my own podcast, he wrote the Four Hour Workweek, and a bunch of other books, Tribe of Mentors, Tools of Titans, he's got a great podcast, I highly recommend it. He taught me years ago, he's like, did you know that you can highlight the books that you read in Kindle? I'm like, yeah okay, duh, Tim, I know that. He said no, but if you go to your Kindle or your Amazon account, you can see all of the highlights of all of the books that you've ever had in Kindle.

Dave Gambrill: And what he did is then he took them and he put them in an Evernote file and then he could just, you know, search them and do whatever. And I was like, that's two, that's pretty amazing, yeah. Because like how many times do you highlight something in a book or write something in the margin, and again, that book is home on your bookshelf and you're out taking a walk around the neighborhood or something, you're like, whoa, I have an idea. For me, I could just, I have my phone with me everywhere, I just go, okay, let me look it up. And I could annotate it, and if I need to, I can move it into a Trello board to take action on later if I want to.

Joe Miller: That's awesome. That's awesome. Okay, let's pivot again, and let's just kinda wrap up.

Joe Miller: And if you were to summarize, you know, lots of times I ask what advice would you give to your 25 year old self? But you know, we don't need to do that. If you were to summarize key lessons learned, you know, just kind of go back over this conversation and if there's anything missing, that you would want to bring forward for someone who's looking to take a transition, maybe more specifically going into their own business or something like that, what would you say? 

Dave Gambrill: Know who you are, know who you're not and work on the skills that can take you to the next level. Well, you know, work on those skills that you're good at and make them world-class. And if you have issues, unless, unless those weaknesses are something that are going to hold you back. So I think that you clearly need to know how to communicate with people in the written word, doing this kind of stuff, you need to work on that some way, somehow. 

Dave Gambrill: Maybe it's not on video, maybe it's just on audio. Maybe it's in the written word, whatever, but you have to figure out how to communicate, and I think the more you work on those things, the more you're working on yourself and your skills, then those things are all transferable to whatever niche you're going to go work in. 

Dave Gambrill: And I think once you learn how to communicate and do that well, that helps you network a little bit better, because you can explain what it is you're trying to do and how it can help people and how you can help other people you meet and connect with other people, those kinds of things. So I think those are the biggest things. 

Dave Gambrill: For my kids, I have three boys, one's out of college, one's going to graduate in a couple of months, and then I have one in high school, he's a junior. But for the academic side of things, when they're in high school, my wife mostly took that, she was like the really book smart person, did really well, she's got her doctorate, right? So we figured out, ok talk about knowing your skillset. She's like, okay, I'm going to help do the scheduling for the boys in their high school when they're picking their electives and their courses and all that stuff. I'm like, that's a great idea. 

Dave Gambrill: And when they have problems with their homework, they go to mom, right? They know what's up. Unless it's marketing or psychology or something, then they come to me. But the only, the only non-negotiable requirement I had with all three of my boys, I said, you must as an elective in your freshman year, take public speaking. Period. And they're like, I won't do that, and every single one of them will tell you to this day, that is the best thing that they ever did in high school, because as they even went through their own high school career, there were plenty of times where they were given the opportunity to do a group project or do a presentation and they're like, I'm going to do a presentation, that's easy. Most people are afraid of speaking in front of people, but that's a skill that I knew they would need, and, you know, I learned this from Warren Buffet. If you ask Warren Buffet, what the best investment he ever made was, it's not a stock, it's not a real estate investment. It's not, it's a Dale Carnegie public speaking course.

Joe Miller: Wow. 

Dave Gambrill: That was like none of the a hundred bucks. You know. And so when I heard that, I was like, wow, that guy's pretty successful, maybe I should model that and so, I worked on public speaking. I did Toastmasters. I did the John Maxwell thing, working on public speaking. 

Dave Gambrill: I've done some other things to work on this craft, because it doesn't matter how good your idea is, it doesn't matter how great your product is, if you can't tell people about it and market it, it's not going to sell. And I would give you the example of McDonald's. You can't tell me that McDonald's makes the tastiest hamburgers in the world, but they sure do sell a lot of them. And it's all behind, it's all because of their marketing machine. 

Dave Gambrill: So the people, you know, you asked me the question about the people who are making this transition. Your idea could be the greatest idea ever, but if you can't figure out a way to communicate it to the world, it does not matter. I mean, you could watch Shark Tank, right? These people who go on Shark Tank and they may have really good ideas and they just can't. 

Joe Miller: Yeah. They cave. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah. 

Joe Miller: That's awesome. 

Dave Gambrill: Yeah, work on your communication skills and your psychology and your marketing skills, that will help you. 

Joe Miller: That's great stuff. Thank you so much. And hey, listen, let's take a few minutes because by this point, I think people are probably really interested in maybe getting ahold of you or getting into your community, because you share so much of this, I mean, multiple times a day, folks. Um, Dave's out there. Tell us now a little bit about your stuff and how people can reach you. 

Dave Gambrill: Awesome, thanks for that, Joe. If you want to do a deeper dive on the mindset stuff, my podcast called Unleash the Awesome, that's where I spend a fair amount of time talking about this stuff and the psychology, and I've had some good guests on there from marketing and psychology background, including Dr. Robert Cialdini, who is 

Dave Gambrill: the father of influence, right? So I would check out my podcast if you're into that. 

Dave Gambrill: If you want to work on the digital marketing side and you want some help with tools and things like that, I do a Facebook group called Digital Marketing Mentorship with Dave Gambrill.

Dave Gambrill: And then I do have a thing called Tech Tools Tuesday, it's like an email list thing where I send out a blast almost every Tuesday, I'd say maybe 45 Tuesdays out of the year, where I talk about some of these tools that I've come across or that my colleagues are using, or some of my coaching clients that are really making a difference in our business.

Dave Gambrill: And for a lot of you that are transitioning, you need to find some of these tools that will help you automate some of the systems and processes and whatever. And then if you find the right tool and you put it to place in your business, that frees up a bunch of hours in your week to do other things that you would rather be doing.

Dave Gambrill: So, if you go to gambrill.com, which is my website, but gambrill.com/ttt, for Tech Tools Tuesday, you can opt into that and you'll get the next one when it comes out, on Tuesday. 

Joe Miller: And they're are great. I am definitely opted in, I do get that list and 

Joe Miller: look at those suggestions very, very often. All of these links I'll put into the show notes, so you guys can get to Dave and his offerings that much quicker. 

Joe Miller: Dave, thank you so much, I really appreciate, been a great conversation. I appreciate the relationship went well and how you've helped me. Thanks again for being on Titans of Transition, you certainly are a titan and I appreciate your time.

Dave Gambrill: Thanks, Joe. This has been fun.