245: Dan Waldschmidt – Edgy Conversations (Ashley Talks ASH10)

Podcast highlights:

• 13:55 The four behaviours of high achievers - 1) use extreme behavior, 2) disciplined activity, 3) giving more value than you take and 4) being human
• 35:25 How do you know you're doing the right thing? - Staying grounded to core principles and "be, do, have" as a template for successful people. Also, what are you willing to do to get to where you want to be? Examples of Dan's friends moving to the natural gas-rich North Dakota and of another friend who postponed her wedding for one extra year
• 51:50 "You don't have to be reckless but you don't have to play it safe" - if you have this feeling that you're meant for more but don't know how to tap into that, lean into that feeling and raise your hand so we can guide you

Podcast notes:

• 00:05 ASH10 - Ashley Talks with Ashley Galina Dudarenok
• 00:10 Welcome Dan Waldschmidt of Edgy Conversations - international best-selling author, business strategist, speaker and extreme athlete to Ashley Talks
• 01:00 What is the story of Dan? How did he arrive in Asia? The unfair advantage of being raised by strict parents who forced him to learn and be disciplined, reading 3,000 books and learning early on that he was good at growing businesses
• 06:20 You have to love to learn with so much information out there - people make the mistake of getting locked in, "I already know, I don't want your advice", which holds them back from learning. But if you learn, there's so much greatness for you and no limit to your capability
• 08:40 Business leaders don't set aside time to be quiet - take a step back and quietly look at what's really going on and also the unfortunate state of the human mind programmed to link several things together that should never be linked together - especially when you're having a bad day
• 11:30 Dan Figuring out that he was so good at turning around businesses and making money early on - is it a skill? Can you learn it? Have you always had it? Is it your personality?
• 13:55 Four behaviours of high achievers - 1) use extreme behavior, 2) disciplined activity, 3) giving more value than you take and 4) being human
• 16:45 Giving Value - how do you put out a strategy about giving first but still staying profitable and growing? The example of a major software manufacturer in Silicon Valley giving value that eventually led to $300M in new revenue and how to create the Theater of Success to give value
• 22:15 Being human - we're great at a lot of stuff, we're not robots, we make mistakes - but successful people hack that by using their flaws in humanity to help people achieve a high level of success - disrupting the "stiffness" of emails, resumes, by using curse words for people to get the sense that you meant it
• 26:10 Who influenced Dan? How has he become so positive and is he always like that? Having that belief that his life was destined for greatness because he was unwilling to quit. Also, Dan using ultra-running as a way to stay in his mind, to be positive and realistic, and continue
• 30:30 How did Dan start his blog? How impactful was it for his business and why does he keep going? Shifting his blogging from whatever he wanted to blog about into focusing on just one subject for a whole month to force himself to be disciplined and telling the story of Hollywood action star Sylvester Stallone in their blog
• 35:25 How do people know they're doing the right thing? - Staying grounded to core principles and "be, do, have" as template for successful people. Also, what are you willing to do to get to where you want to be? Examples of Dan's friends moving to the natural gas-rich North Dakota and of another friend who postponed her wedding for one extra year
• 42:35 Why are there so few businessmen who are willing to go through those lengths? Because they don't need to.