Making Money & Losing It with Daniel Mangena #557

From the dizzying heights of early success to the crushing blow of losing it all, Daniel Mangena’s story is a testament to the resilience and growth that comes from life’s toughest lessons. Our exploration together takes you through the highs and lows of his extraordinary life journey, laying bare the raw and often unspoken truths about wealth, mentorship, and the transformative power of knowledge. As we unravel Daniel's experiences, you'll see how they mirror the broader themes of embracing unique paths, the necessity of evolving our informational diet, and the influence they have on personal development and success.

Opening my heart, I share the deeply personal challenges that come with adult autism, anxiety, and a harrowing period that brought me to the brink of suicide. It's a chapter of my life that spotlights the critical importance of emotions and intentions in shaping our existence, and the liberation that came in April 2015, igniting a new purpose that continues to guide me. We examine the lasting echoes of childhood stories, discussing how we can nurture the positive influences that enable us to break free from those ingrained behaviors and beliefs that once confined us.

We cap off our conversation by traversing the intricacies of entrepreneurship, the value of traditional employment, and the redefining of masculinity against the backdrop of societal expectations. Daniel introduces his Beyond Intention paradigm, a powerful framework for listeners ready to embark on a transformative journey towards personal excellence and fulfillment. This episode is a beacon of hope for anyone, from Mexico to Brisbane, seeking to navigate the complexities of life with courage, intention, and an open heart.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

Did you finish school with the desire or the belief that your life would change if you earned a million dollars? I know I did come out of school. That was like the pinnacle of success. Today's guest, daniel Mangina, made his first million dollars at 19, lost it, repeated it and lost it again, and the cool part about all of his experiences is that we can learn from it. In this conversation. Daniel had to go on this huge, I guess, journey of discovery, of working out why he kept losing wealth and what was important to him. So we speak about, obviously, him making his first million dollars at 19 and what that was like. We talk about what stories do you hold in your mind? We talk about finding a burning desire to grow, why you should stop thinking that you know everything, change your information input and why the journey is different for everyone. Even though you may have a similar goal, a similar outcome, the journey is different and we need to learn to be accepting of that. So this was a really fun conversation. So Dan joined us from America. He's been on CNBC and a lot of the big TV programs around the United States as a performance coach as well, and I took away so much from the conversation. So I'm sure whether you're tuning in for the first time or you're a old school, I was going to say the OGs, the original listeners. I appreciate you guys coming back. There's so much value for this and also the feedback on last week's episode with Maddie Lancashire has been unbelievable. So if you haven't heard that one yet, make sure you definitely check that out. And next week we have James Hallwell, a former Wallaby captain, which is the Australian Rugby Union team, coming on the show.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Now I want to start doing something different. One thing that I've never really done is read out reviews that we've gotten. So I'm going to read out the first three, and this was obviously a couple of them are years old, but if you want to get in there and write your reviews, you can do that over on Apple Podcast or you can just leave a rating on Spotify. So I appreciate everyone who takes the time to do that. One here from John Great one mate, your journey is impressive and it's cool. Sorry, it's good to know you're achieving a higher level of consciousness. And the second one I'll read out is from Harp C71. Love the content, the raw honesty and the no BS Frank approach. The emotional intelligence podcast has really helped me with self analysis in areas where I'm dropping the ball, so thank you. So, thank you guys for leaving reviews. It's awesome to read them. So if you haven't done that yet, really appreciate it and you might even get read out one week. So I'm going to start doing that.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Just a reminder we're kicking off the next game plan tonight, okay, which is Monday, the 30th of May, and we start that the first Monday of each month. I know it's the end, but tomorrow is the first, so we're good. I'm sorry, the next day is the first, so it's close enough, we'll rip into that. So if you're wanting to be a part of a community of men who are ambitious, striving to be the better version of themself, which will, in turn, help you be a better father, better business, own a better employee or just better in any area of your life, make sure you head over to the man that cam projectcom forward slash strong man of value and hit your application. And then we've got a few to get back to today, which is exciting as our community from around the world continues to grow.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Let's get into today's episode the man that cam project podcast. Podcast in power. We're driven men to live more fulfilling lives. We are here to challenge your beliefs, redefine success and talk about the important stuff in a relatable way. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. My name's Lockies to it. Let's get into it.

Speaker 1: 4:40

So, daniel, you're a podcast host, a best selling author, international speaker and a successful entrepreneur. You've also been featured in Forbes entrepreneur magazine and appeared on Fox, cnn, cbs. You've written multiple books, like I said, and your podcast is incredible. I've listened to, I think, four or five episodes now and, as I was just saying, to offline your energy and the way that you communicated something that I aspire to one day be able to just be so engaging and really inspiring with your delivery. So I'm excited for our audience to get to listen to you today and also I'm just excited to be on the receiving end of the conversation, which is going to be incredible, but with all of that incredible stuff you've achieved thus far, that wasn't just given to you. So I'd love to hear how you climbed from the bottom, or your rock bottom, to creating your dream life today, and I'd love to share, I guess, what that journey's been like.

Speaker 2: 5:36

Something Well. Again, thank you for having me Really appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all and to share a little bit of my journey. It's really interesting that when we realize that by listening to someone else, you can take advantage of the fact that they've gone through a load of stuff and not have to go through it yourself, a big part of my journey has really been mentorship and listening to others, whether it's through a podcast like this, through a YouTube channel, through books. There's so much wealth of experience that's available that we don't have to go through the pain ourselves. I'm glad for the opportunity to share my story so people can learn from it.

Speaker 2: 6:11

So, yeah, it was an accident. That's how I got here. I didn't. It was a glorious accident. Now, there's no such thing as accidents. You know what I mean. I didn't plan it Right. Yep, I was just like oh, I'm going to concoct a divide plan for me to live my best life.

Speaker 2: 6:31

No, I literally this whole journey that we're on right now, although for the most part, it started in my teens, I was reading books like Thinking Grow Rich, and I was a teenager I was studying books like Psycho-Cybernetics, ordering Take from Nightingale Conant, so I made my first million when I was 19.

Speaker 2: 6:47

I promptly lost it Like, oh, I'm fine, oh, good to go do it again, did it again and then lost everything a second time. The second time, bro, I hit rock bottom because I became so caught up in this identity of being number one, the guy who knew it all, number two, the young upstart success. Number three, the guy who couldn't get knocked down. And here I was looking at the bismill, decimated pieces of those illusions I was holding being brought, and I was like there's nothing more for me and I wanted to check out. The only reason why I didn't actually go through with the suicide attempt is because I was so beat down by those experiences that I literally thought, if I try and do this with the loserville that I'm in right now, I'm gonna cock that up. And I couldn't be the loser who couldn't even kill themself on top of everything else. And so I set off on the journey that leads to where we are today, and the journey was be less of a loser so that I can commit suicide without cocking it up.

Speaker 1: 7:54

So that was a motivator behind it.

Speaker 2: 7:56

That was a motivator and that's why I say complete accident I had. No, I wasn't like I'm gonna go and better myself so I can win at life. I'm like no, I was obsessed for years. Obsessed with understanding what was wrong, what I'd messed up, what I didn't understand, where I've been lied to like, where the holes were with the system, so that when I go through with this suicide attempt it's perfect and I fade to black. I didn't want a big pomp and parade. I didn't want someone to have to cut me down from somewhere. I didn't want any drama. I wasn't gonna even do a suicide note, I was just gonna just fail out and just be done with it. That was my plan.

Speaker 1: 8:34

And so prior to your, I guess, earning a million dollars at 19 and having it crumble and then doing it again up until that point, had you ever sort of struggled with confidence or mental health issues. So it was really a response to having those two failed business attempts, that sort of yeah, right, yeah, yeah, I mean, I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was 27.

Speaker 2: 9:00

And the crazy thing is that my I truly believe it was my Asperger's that saved me, because I don't have the capacity to make impulse decisions. I can't do impulse decisions. I literally don't have the wiring for it. And so I sat there and was like, okay, I'm gonna do this thing. Very calm, it was like, oh, I don't wanna kill myself. I was really calm, like okay, cool, logically, this is the best thing for me to do, just to not be here anymore. And I ran through my options and none of them made any sense as being something I could pull off. And that's literally because of the way that my brain works, being an autistic brain, and that's what happened. It's insane, absolutely insane.

Speaker 1: 9:35

Just to even touch on Asperger's. So Asperger's, from my understanding, is like intellectually, like logically and rationally, everything fires. It's more like social cues and emotional cues where there's a bit of a disparity. Is that correct, yeah?

Speaker 2: 9:49

yeah, so we've got some of the wiring mix. It's apparent for different people in different ways, but certain of the wiring for those social interactions don't exist naturally, and so they either have to be hardwired through practice or, like me, I studied social dynamics. It's how I got over my social anxiety that I had for years, and I understand the systems and structures, and those systems and structures reduce my anxiety. And then the way that I hack the system is I only really hang out with people that I connect with at heart and soul level, but I've got the structure that stops me having the anxiety, so that I can find my tribe and then just connect with them at the heart and soul level.

Speaker 1: 10:26

That's awesome. So when you found out that diagnosis at 27, was that like a shock to you, or how did that impact your influence?

Speaker 2: 10:33

Oh, even thinking about it now I just feel the lightness that just came Because I was suffering with severe social anxiety, severe general having insomnia that would last for periods, and it was actually a particularly rough experience of insomnia that sent me off to the doctors to try and get sleeping tablets. He gives me the sleeping tablets. They don't work. He sends me off to go speak to a therapist. The therapist he sends me to Dr Helen McEwen. Thank you, dr Helen. Always shout out love. It a bit Happened to be a cognitive behavioral therapist that specialized in working with adult autism. Again, completely should just happen to be the person that got the call and happened to be someone that specialized in that Saw. What was really going on wasn't that I had sleep issues, it was my nervous system was off because I was a neurodivergent person who was unaware, operating in a neurotypical world and suffering from anxiety as a result, and that's all.

Speaker 1: 11:27

It's crazy how the world sort of points you in the right direction. If you're open to looking and receiving that feedback, it all seems to fall into place. It's funny for me when I really tune into that sort of stuff and things start happening. I'll go. I wish I did this all the time. Obviously my mood and emotion can sometimes distract me and I can get in my head a lot, but when things are going well I'm like all I gotta do is just keep this up, keep being open to opportunity and sort of projecting what I want in my life and it starts to happen. But obviously we know that life can be challenging. But one of the next steps for you like after that diagnosis, so 19, and then you made another business and then you went through a couple of rough years really trying to figure out how you could not mess up suicide Within that process what changed? Because you're still here today. You're thriving.

Speaker 2: 12:17

Yeah, so I mean. So no shade at TEDx, just in case they let me do another one. But I actually did a TEDx. I recorded a TEDx that tells this whole story and speaks about this whole thing, but the title it doesn't look like they really agreed with the title, so they're like nah, we're not publishing this, so who cares? I'm popping it, we're ripping the audio, I'm popping it on the podcast. So we're still gonna share the story. And I actually decided today, on the 13th of May, that my next film project I'm gonna build a whole film around this whole concept anyway. But when we look at who we are as humans, right, we've got our physical body that moves through time and space. Right, our little meat soup.

Speaker 1: 12:55

Everyone's familiar with the phrase.

Speaker 2: 12:57

Meat soup. Everyone's familiar with the phrase mind over matter. Right, it's a scientific fact that our mind has an impact on our physical reality. A mum in a crazy situation gets super human strength. Rips at the door of a car like your ability to move through time and space can literally change depending on the stories that you hold in your mind. Everything that we experienced in our world began as a vision in the mind. Right, we've got mind into matter. But it's also a fact that we can only think to the level of our current emotional state, the thoughts going on in my brain now and limited to the emotions that I have the capacity for and that I'm feeling in the moment. So we see that there's this sort of downward trickle effect from the emotions into the thoughts, into the actions and behaviors that become the reality, right? So, like I said to you, I didn't sit there and say I want to choose life. There was no point in the journey that was like I choose life now.

Speaker 2: 13:51

I woke up one morning I think it was April 2015. I just got back from Thailand, had an amazing trip with my cousins the time that I was there, the business that I then built up. I've made over a hundred grand. Over that time that I was away, I'd taken one phone call with Joe, my assistant. I'd lived my best life. I was in a beautiful home in Highgate. I had fancy stuff but also great connections in my family. I was working out and feeling good in my body, great friendships Everything was just working.

Speaker 2: 14:18

And I realized, huh, oh, my God, like I'm actually enjoying my life. And I hadn't been in the dark place for a long time. And even when the dark place tried to rise up, I was like yeah, yeah, I'm good, like I was unconscious. I'd become unconsciously competent in my ability to live life in my own terms. And tracking back the journey to that is now what my book, that one here, steppenfield Intention that's what that puppy's all about. It goes through that whole journey and the four step process that I actually built off the back of it.

Speaker 2: 14:49

But all of that to say that the thoughts had to have changed, otherwise my environment could have changed, because my unconscious habits and behaviors wouldn't have changed, which means that my emotional state had to have changed. But what leads to our emotional state? Our emotional state is impacted by our environment. And here's the thing for a couple of years, all I was doing was obsessively reading books, listening to tapes, having conversations and having discussions purely about this kind of stuff personal development, spirituality, evolution of consciousness, behavioral patterns, mindset. I taught myself to translate Arabic and Hebrew and all this kind of stuff. So I pummeled my brain and accidentally reprogrammed it to choose life.

Speaker 1: 15:35

It's such.

Speaker 1: 15:37

I can relate to that story so much because, like that's exactly the path that I went down. It was more so. I didn't necessarily the same as you choose life, but I made a decision that I just didn't want to hate myself anymore, Whatever that looked like and books, podcasts, audios and then you do wake up one day and you're like I'm actually proud of who I am and like it's such a phenomenal experience and I don't know whether you can relate, Daniel, I'm sure you probably can I talk about how I used to think, act and behave eight years ago when I was really not liking who I was. It's almost like I'm so disassociated from that version of who I was. It's laughable.

Speaker 2: 16:14

But when I was going through it.

Speaker 1: 16:15

It was the most painful experience ever so when I see men and people who are going through turmoil, trauma, pain, I'm like you know. Obviously I can't always understand what you're going through, but there can be light at the end of the tunnel. There is exactly another way you spoke about the four steps. In the book there Is that related to the Beyond the Intention paradigm.

Speaker 2: 16:38

Yeah, the Beyond the Intention paradigm. That book breaks down the paradigm how it works, why it works, where the steps came from, stories of it playing out my journey, that's what it's about. So for, someone.

Speaker 1: 16:49

Just to take it back a second. The environment. I'm massive on shifting your environment, because we can all read a book, we can all set a goal, but if you're hanging around a group of people that are doing the opposite to that, you're generally going to fall back into that pattern. And so for anyone who's wanting to improve themselves, be happier, be fitter, I'm like change your environment. It may be hard, you may not know where to go, they may not even want to hang out with you right now, but what would your, from your experience, or even your advice, what would you give to someone who needs to change their environment, to go into the person that they need to be?

Speaker 2: 17:25

Unless you really want it, you're not going to do the work anyway. So don't bother trying, because the frustration of you trying and the failure of trying is just going to double your disappointment and make you even more miserable. So if you don't want to be even more miserable, only go for it if you really want it. And here's the thing it's okay for you not to want it. Some of us are so deeply programmed into the despair that that's who we are, and if we just gave ourself a mission to do that, then that actually could give you the space to want to be different, something different. But if you're resisting who you are, you're going to hit a brick wall. So the thing is wanting it enough, but wanting it because you want to be better, not because you don't like who you are. It's about wanting to grow, being desirous of growth. When you are desirous of growth, there's this weird thing that happens because growth is our natural order. When we actually desire, when it's actually burning within us to want to grow, then the challenges, the road bumps, the speed bumps, the speed humps, all of the things that will get in your way for growth tend to either be dissolved or easily navigated because you'll have the momentum to go through it.

Speaker 2: 18:36

One of the illusions I hear people talk about is getting to the end or getting over it. It doesn't. The journey doesn't stop, the growth doesn't end. I don't heal myself completely of magically of depressive thoughts. What happens is that my capacity to navigate those thoughts shifts wildly and when they show up it's like oh, that again and I can navigate it. Life doesn't get easier. We get stronger. That's the key. But that strength has to be based on a desire to grow, not a desire not to be who you are, because that's just going to keep you locked in more of who you are and keep you living the same life over and over.

Speaker 1: 19:13

Such a good point. I think, from my experience, we are trying to grow out of who we are, but I think we can never really avoid that. It is just how can we be stronger to deal with the challenges that and ultimately, as you say, when we're growing, we're bringing those challenges into our life. It's there to test us, to see how strong we can be. I think it's very important to when you do hit a road bump or you do hit that obstacle, what kind of reps do I need to do in order to be able to work through this? Because it's all about sets and reps. Sometimes you're fatigued and sometimes you're feeling like you've just come off a three day, three rest days, and you're feeling stronger than ever, moving forward as well. After you got to that point and you started realizing, hey, I'm just living my best life. Now I'm super, super happy. What then led you into the space that you're in now and really helped you continue to move forward and grow? What's the burning desire now?

Speaker 2: 21:11

I recognize that growth is a natural order of things. If I'm not growing, I'm dying. So I'm always looking to improve. I never accept or believe that I know everything. Anytime I go into conversation, come into this podcast. I'm not coming to teach. I'm coming to learn from the experience. I'm coming to grow in the space. I do my best to go through all of my things. My son's 18 months old on Sunday coming. I don't look at him as someone that I need to show. I'm looking at him as someone that I get to co-create more life with. It just so happens that I've got some pieces of the puzzle, but not the complete pieces. He's got pieces that I don't even know are possible, and that's how I approach my life. I approach my life at all times looking for how can I be expanded by it, what can I contribute to it? What can I give because I know everything? What can I contribute so that everybody grows from the experience?

Speaker 1: 22:03

How did you develop that approach? Because even just the fact that you're saying you're learning from your son, that makes me so happy on the inside. I'm like this is incredible, because we can learn so much from each other, but it also shows to me that you're an engaged dad. That's something that I just love. More than anything is the fact that now men are stepping up and obviously the world's changing, but they're really wanting to be engaged in their children's lives and even in their partner's lives.

Speaker 2: 22:31

I think humility came for me in a really rough way. My humble pie was stuffed down my throat until I nearly choked. It was a big part of my journey because one of the things I came to realize about why I messed up so many times when I was younger is because I was running around thinking I was Johnny Big Sox that knew everything. That's what led ultimately to losing everything twice. Not being open to counsel.

Speaker 2: 22:58

I spent six figures a year on my personal development. One thing that I invested in last year alone was a hundred grand just one of the things I invested in for myself. I continued to do that, just seeing the results that come from being open to what life can give you. If you just actually pay attention. It's like when something works, you do more of it. That led me to continue that journey of growing. I think there was a moment I know there was a moment when I specifically made the conscious choice to go in to learn a lot from my son, ethan. So when I came home from the office once and he waved at me and now it seems very ordinary, right, but I want you, to anyone who's listening to this, to tell me do you remember the moment that you learned to wave no. And then I thought even things like do you remember the moment that you understood what it was to read?

Speaker 1: 24:00

Never.

Speaker 2: 24:02

You probably remember books that you read when you were a kid at school. But the point at which you started to look at these squiggles on a page and assign meaning to them my wife's Russian, my son's mum, he's Russian, and I decided I'd refuse to be the only person in my house that doesn't speak Russian. So I started to learn Russian and that was when it really hit me that letters are just squiggles that we've assigned meaning to. If I showed you the letter H, you'd say that's a letter H, it's a half sound, it's a. Really it's a nuh sound, right, what we look at as a P a put sound, it's a ruh sound in Russian, and so it's like but it's just a squiggle. But the squiggle has a completely different meaning.

Speaker 2: 24:42

I don't remember when that meaning became a sound that I attributed this understanding and value of. I don't remember it. So I'm looking at Ethan waving. I was like, oh my God. At the time I think he was about one years old. I don't remember being one years old, let alone being one years old and learning whatever I learned at that age. My stepdaughter's six and she's got these little crazy things that she does. I don't remember being six years old. And yet in that period of time between about his age and about her age is literally when the foundations of who we are being constructed, all of the programs, all of the patterns, all of the foundations are being built at that time. And yet very few of us can remember the points of inception of some of these ideas that literally become the habits and behaviors that we exhibit as adults.

Speaker 2: 25:26

So when someone comes to me and is a bit of a douche speaking from their pain body, I don't know what experience happened to them where they thought it was okay. When someone expresses hate, whether it's for somebody's race, somebody's religion, somebody's gender choices or sexuality choices, I don't know what the thing was. My nephew was at school the other day when apparently my nephew's nine KK is nine and he came home and told him. Apparently one of the kids at school came to him and said well, at least I'm not black. A nine year old is spewing hate Now that nine year old is just coming off the back of his analytical function building.

Speaker 2: 26:03

But that's purely what they picked up from, whatever their living situation is that they then began to accept as being correct behavior. They probably don't even know that there's something wrong with what they were doing. They're just spewing what they're spewing, and yet that person, in 20 years time, in 30 years time, what are they going to be doing? What are they going to be showing in the world?

Speaker 2: 26:22

And so it gave me a sense of compassion for the people around me and also gave me a level of respect for what's going on with my inputs, because every single input, every single environment that I'm in is either supporting those programs that were built when I was a kid or disrupting them. And all of these people that are having these experiences, this kid who was racist to my nephew. I've learned something from him too. Using one of these experiences gives me the opportunity to challenge, to engage, to support or disrupt what's going on inside of me, which is going to become an outcome, which is going to go back and become more of an experience, and it's just so much to take from I went on a little bit there's so much to take from our world and from these experiences that can grow us or leave us small.

Speaker 1: 27:10

That was powerful to listen to and I think it feels like you just take responsibility for everything that's coming your way good, bad and indifferent and able to use that experience, as you said, to better who you are and better your outputs.

Speaker 1: 27:24

And for a long period of my life, I was really unaware of all the stuff that I was consuming, from the news to the conversations that I was having with mates at the pub, and I was wondering why I was continuing to walk around really confused, unhappy, unsatisfied and just lacking, I guess, meaning for a better word within my life. And the moment that I started having conversations with people like yourself or reading books, the input changed and I started realizing that the conversations that I was having was impacting my moods, was impacting my emotions and ultimately impacting my output. And while I'm still not perfect at it, I do. Still I'm a bit of a I don't know how to say it yet but I love to experience new things and often I might find myself at events or meeting with people for coffee where I'm like you know as much as I can learn from it.

Speaker 1: 28:18

I wish I was spending time in another situation with, maybe someone who is going to really stretch me and really challenge me. That's one thing that I'm really focused on. Moving forward is being more intentional with that, where my time's going, what the input is. So how important is that to you? Are you I know you briefly just touched on this, but with your environments now? Is there a lot of stuff that you'd look to cut out, or are you just sort of yeah?

Speaker 2: 28:45

I'm ruthless with my environment. Ruthless have you.

Speaker 1: 28:53

I was going to say have you noticed any negative impacts as a result of that? Like, have you lost friendships as a result of that or disappointed people as a result of that?

Speaker 2: 29:02

Well, I mean, first and foremost, if we're not putting ourselves in a position where we're nourished and served, then how can we serve and nourish anyone else? And so somebody may be disappointed, but I'm actually doing this both for service. If I'm pulling us out of a situation where we're not serving each other because we're not even being expanded by the situation, that time and energy that we're both putting into this connection is holding us back from something that might expand us. So I'm actually helping us, regardless of how either of us might feel in the short term. There've been situations that I haven't necessarily wanted to walk away from, but I recognize the lack of alignment with where I want to move with my life, which isn't for my benefit, it's for contributive benefits. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 29:43

Definitely. So you talk about alignment. How does that show up for you and how do you find that? Because alignment's a word that I've heard coming up a heap for a lot of people and it's something that I probably seek to find. So what does that look like and how did you establish that in your life?

Speaker 2: 30:00

I think, if we look at the breakdown of the word alignment, the word alignment requires two points the thing that we're aligning to and the thing which is being aligned. And a lot of people don't have to think that they're aligning to because they're not being intentional, they're just running on programs. And so you can't, in my opinion, have alignment without an actual conscious focus that we're moving alignment to. Otherwise you're not aligned, you're just in flow with whatever. And so it comes down to intentionality. For me, that's what's the life that I want to live, and for me, the life I want to live is how can I be of contribution in a way that serves me, serves as I'm contributing to, makes the world a better place. Not for me to go like, hey, what a big world, a better place, because I feel really good when I'm actually contributing to the world being a better place. So it's selfish, right?

Speaker 2: 30:44

I think it's Adam Smith that said it's not from the charity of the baker in the butcher that we get our bread and meat, it's from their own self-interest. Self-interest can exhibit itself healthily in this respect. So when I've got that vision, I'm saying well, all the parts of me. We spoke about my mental experience, my actions and habits, my behaviors, my emotional state. I'm aligning those up to support that outcome coming to bear, that life that I want to live coming to bear. And that's what alignment is for me. It's all of me mind, body, soul, mental, physical, emotional being lined up with supporting the bringing forth of the outcome that I've consciously chosen.

Speaker 1: 31:24

So do you believe success is unattainable without intention?

Speaker 2: 31:28

No people put chance upon success, and I think there's a weird danism that I've got, which is that you've never found anything. People say what do you mean? I haven't found anything, I didn't get that job, I didn't get into the college I wanted to go to and my business didn't work out. Actually, your unconscious mind, which operates at 10,000 to 10 million times the speed of the conscious mind, never fails as a terminator. But what there is is there's a disconnect between what's going on at the unconscious level and what I'm consciously choosing.

Speaker 2: 31:59

For me, intentionality is interjecting with what's in the program and consciously being involved in the choice. The program can be hardwired for success. You can actually be one of those people who charges upon an outcome that happens to feel good for you consciously. That also is what you're programmed with unconsciously. I was successful in staying alive. It wasn't what I wanted to do and I was successful without that intention. I've heard it said that success is getting what you want. We're always getting what we want unconsciously. So I like to tweak it that success is really getting what you want consciously. But to get what I want consciously, I need to be consciously involved. So that requires intentionality, because I'm disrupting the program with what I consciously want, rather than flowing successfully into something that I don't want.

Speaker 1: 32:51

So for that as well. So you know how you just mentioned, some people can be hardwired for success and others not so much. Do you feel that's more, if when you grow up, some people grow up in wealthier families or entrepreneurial families or sporty families, do you reckon that sort of is a big indicator as to why some people may be hardwired for certain levels of success across different areas?

Speaker 2: 33:17

Yeah, but I do want to just quickly bring it like an economic truth to the thing. Like there's a lot of rich hating right now. They were born into the average wealthy family. Lose it after three generations of the person who actually created the wealth really being born with a silver. Yeah, do the check, check it out the average. You get the odd that managed to build a dynasty, right, that lasts, but most is gone within three generations. They say the first one builds it, the second one breaks it, or third one loses it, or something like that. I don't remember exact exact words.

Speaker 2: 33:51

So it's really funny that a lot of people are all that person was born with a silver spoon. They're so lucky and, statistically speaking, you are better off as the person creating a dynasty than receiving it, because the probability is that you're the one that's going to be more successful. Now, are there certain advantages to some of this? Well, of course, you've got access to different education, different resources, but access to something doesn't mean that you're going to use it, or even use it positively. So when you look at drug addiction, you look at alcoholism, you look at mental health challenges, a lot of those actually exist amongst the families of the wealthy. And yet people are betraying their capacity to actually create by saying I can't do it because I haven't got the leg up, when the people who've got the leg up actually aren't doing as well as you think they are? Does that make sense? Definitely.

Speaker 1: 34:42

So being in the position to create the dynasty obviously means you know finances are important to a degree is to create the life that you want and to create, I guess, a life full of purpose and passion. Even Do you believe financial freedom is a big part of that?

Speaker 2: 35:02

I think it's a great place to be because you're in a conducive space to create. If you're not thinking about money, then you're good, and it's one of the reasons why I mean. People say why do you focus on helping people to get rich and be millionaires, daniel? But it's not the most important thing. It's not. But for years, all I was hearing people say about why they couldn't live their ideal life is that they didn't have enough money. And now, for years, I'm seeing people that have got financial freedom, able to live their best life, not because of the money, but the money gives them the space to be able to do that.

Speaker 2: 35:30

Think about it the average person who works a 40 hour week. You've got an hour each way to work. That's 50 hours of the week. If that 50 hours was back in your pocket, you could go and be a contribution, you could go and live your best life, you could go and do that hobby, you could go and start a charity or play the instrument or be with your family. More Money is just a tool that makes things easier.

Speaker 1: 35:49

That's it, and so a lot of you were saying as well just a moment ago, like there's a lot of people hating on the rich at the moment or the wealthy. Why do you feel?

Speaker 2: 35:58

that is Because they don't have to take responsibility for their life. If the problems in the world are the fault of the rich people, then you're not responsible, you can get away with it and you can stay the same and not have to do anything because it's Elon Musk's fault, or it's well, Jeff Bezos is going to space. What about all the hungry children in Africa? Blah, blah, blah. Jeff Bezos isn't as rich rich as you think he is. Most of his wealth is tied up in shares in Amazon, which are also propping up your pension fund Right. So his success is your success, which is propping up the stock market, which is holding back the tides of financial cataclysm, which will be a mess when it finally kicks in. There was 10 times more toxic debt running around in the world before COVID than in 2008, when the world literally nearly didn't make it, and it's these people who are creating value. Does he treat his work as well? I've heard it said not too well. Yes, and he's just one person.

Speaker 2: 37:05

I had the pleasure two, three weeks ago I was on Necker Island, Richard Branson's private island got to hang out with him, Some other very, very successful people who are committed to supporting positive change, who do look after their employees, who do add value, who do pay fair value for things, who do honor and respect the people that they serve as clients and customers. Not everybody's a twat. That's the business person. Not everybody's a twat. That's rich and if someone has like so.

Speaker 2: 37:32

Richard's made 400 companies, $7 billion businesses. If he wants to own a private island and play tennis all day, he's earned the right to have a private island and play just but to say, oh, we need to take all his money to feed the poor or whatever. He's done his part. He's created jobs. Now again, some people are twats. You get it. Jeff Bezos may be a twat, but these small handful of people who are twats are not an excuse for us to sit at home just pointing angry fingers and not doing anything about changing our own life. That's just a recipe for disaster and staying the same.

Speaker 1: 38:11

Do you feel that taking responsibility is the biggest thing holding people back from, I guess, creating financial freedom for themselves? One of them.

Speaker 2: 38:19

What would be a couple of other ones.

Speaker 2: 38:23

Another one is, I love to say action is the least and the most important thing at the same time. It's the least important thing because by the time we get to the action piece, our mindset's already set, our emotional state's already set, the unconscious mind's already kicked into the actions just following on. Without action, we don't get anywhere. So it's the least and the most important thing. So I think action definitely is one, and another thing is being obsessed with one part of the puzzle. One of the things I love to share with people is I've got catchphrase stop meditating. What do you mean? Stop meditating, daniel. It changed my life. It's the most important thing in the universe.

Speaker 2: 38:57

It's like well, yes, and If you've got a goal and you just sit and meditate on it all day, is it going to happen? No, and even if it does happen, are you going to be able to enjoy it if you lock tight in your meditation? No, it's one piece of the puzzle. You can meditate all you want about being successful. If you've got a belief system that doesn't allow you to believe that you're successful, you're not going to be able to see it. If you don't take any action, you're not going to do it.

Speaker 2: 39:20

I can sit here in lotus position praying for the love of my life to show up If I'm just in an ashram in the backwater mountains of India and that person doesn't happen to be there too, even if they walk past the room, but I'm in lotus position, I'm not going to see them because my eyes are closed. I mean deep prayer and meditation in another dimension. Dear God, I'm in this dimension with you, but where's the love of my life? I don't leave the dimension. How can I enjoy it? It's like it's ludicrous. So definitely responsibility. Action is the least and most important thing. Don't over rely on any one thing to save you.

Speaker 1: 39:56

That's so powerful. I remember I was reading that you said don't meditate and I was like what? This is absurd. I had that exact same reaction Stop meditating, don't meditate, stop meditating and then when I looked into it further and I was like, okay, I can definitely understand, because people get so in the motion. They feel like they're doing something, even if they become like personal development junkies where they go to every event, read every book listen to every podcast and they're telling you about it and like so, have you implemented that yet?

Speaker 1: 40:28

No, no, no, no. I just need to figure out this next step.

Speaker 1: 40:30

I'm in the river of change, right, you probably heard that one yes, and it's all well and good, but you've got to take some action now to actually get the next bit of feedback for you in your because, based on our experiences, the people that we get to network with or surround ourselves with, we've all got different skill levels and experiences levels. So, creating financial free if we were both to go back to 19 Daniel creating, you're a millionaire at 19,. I was far from a millionaire at 19. I was still the master of my elbow, but I was.

Speaker 1: 41:05

If we were to go, okay, let's create financial freedom, this is the roadmap to do it, the journey would look very different for us, based on the beliefs, experiences and everything that we had, for that matter, and we're not going to understand what that looks like if we don't just take action. I could have sat there and continued learning about business, reading about business and getting mentored, but if I didn't take the risk, I never would have gotten there, and I think I'd love to actually know your opinion on this. Do you believe not everyone, but people who want that financial freedom should have a crack at entrepreneurship or should have a crack at creating their own business?

Speaker 2: 41:40

Not everyone, because a lot of people aren't built for this life, man, A lot of people aren't built for it. I think it's 85% of businesses fail within five years, or something like that.

Speaker 1: 41:50

Yeah, I think it's even a bit more or less years. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 41:54

It's staggering, it's a wild thing, and yet everyone's buying a course from a funnel that they saw on Instagram or whatever. Not everyone's built for this life and if everyone's the chief, then who's there to be the worker? Right? Everyone's a boss who's going to get things done. I mean, I love to talk about ending job saving. There's nothing wrong with having a job. People, I've got my nine to five. I've got my job. I'm an entrepreneur. I've got my nine to five. Own your job with pride. Do a job that serves you and serves others and feels good and meets your needs, but do it with pride. Not everyone's an entrepreneur. A lot of people trying to be entrepreneurs. Really, you're not.

Speaker 1: 42:35

And that's why you're struggling.

Speaker 2: 42:38

I think I did an article I don't know if it's been published yet in Entrepreneur About the nine to five entrepreneur. You just made a job for yourself and for most of it it's a job that you don't like and you're not very good at. Yeah, yeah, but I thought you'd be an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 42:55

So I was saying I sometimes go through this thought process that I wish people would have a crack at business just so they could understand all of the decisions and things that need to be weighed up. Because as a business owner and I often see people who are an employee and they're criticizing everything and I can understand both perspectives, but when you're running a business there is a lot of pressure that people don't understand and think about. So I think to create more empathy, it's like have a crack at it and see just how much is going on there.

Speaker 2: 43:26

I see where you're coming from. Yeah, it's like that Walk in my shoes, walk in my shoes.

Speaker 1: 43:29

Yeah, exactly Understand my pain. So to bring more of that empathy, but I really love it. He said most people aren't built to be entrepreneurs and we shouldn't be shaming the nine to five, because some people I've heard Gary V say, like a position two, an entrepreneur, wouldn't be as successful as they are without everyone else. It's what drives everything together. A plane still wouldn't fly if it didn't have an engine, even though the pilot's in control. So everyone sort of fits their role and I think if we can stop shaming that, everyone will be able to really embrace and thrive in their acquired position.

Speaker 1: 44:07

And I think about it or talk about it regularly with men in our community who are unhappy and they're working in a job that isn't fulfilling. They work extremely long hours, the sacrifices are stuff that they don't necessarily want to live with and I'm like well, why don't you just literally go work at Mackers? You know you've got a certain shift and you'll be done at that time and then you can spend time with your children or you can go for the run or do the adventure stuff that you want to do. Why do you feel the pressure to have to keep the status in that role? So I guess why do you feel that is for a lot of us, that we do want to uphold status and position and be the I guess, the top dog?

Speaker 2: 44:49

Because some of us give more credibility to the thoughts and opinions about the people that we do for ourselves. I mean, when I reflect back on my dalliance with suicide, it is my obsession with what I believed other people were believing and thinking and that led me to thank God, not have the capacity to do but nearly go to take my own life. How many others are burning out to keep up with the Joneses because they need the country club and the diss and that and that they don't even really want those things? But because society has given us this lack of conscious connection to what's going on inside of us, we're playing this out. Playing this out and burning out as a result.

Speaker 1: 45:27

Yeah, we really need to figure out what we want and, once we get there it's like, solidify those beliefs and build the environment to support us doing that so we don't fall in that trap of keeping up with the Joneses, exactly. But, daniel, I know you're a busy man so I want to respect your time. I've got one last question for you before we can find out all your books and the podcast and everything like that. But what does it mean to be a man for you? It's a quickly give you a bit of framing. I ask everyone because, especially in Australia, we've grown up with a stereotypical belief of what it means to be a man, but obviously suicide rates are continuing to grow. So we need to get more people like yourself, well respected people who are thriving in life and definitely would have given it some thought what it means to be a man, because there's going to be people out there who resonate with it.

Speaker 2: 46:17

I think the idea of what it means to be a man is being challenged in recent years because there is all these discussions going on about gender identity, gender allocation, people I mean I can't remember the name of the trans woman who swam in their swimming race and everyone was getting mad because the thing so gender is becoming a very, very different thing now. So I don't think being a man now can be locked into this gender. I think Elaine Page became trans. Trans man is now Elliot Page. It's new for many of us, right? This wasn't something that was happening a generation ago.

Speaker 2: 47:00

And so I think what we're really talking about when we say what's a man is, we're looking at a. We've got the gender identity, but then we've also got the natural manifestation of masculine, primarily masculine energy, and for me, that's what it really is about Not so much being a man, but being a healthy expression of the divine masculine and how we show up. And what is that? That's a container, that's the direction, but none of that really matters if it's not playing in harmony with a counterpart energy. That doesn't mean we need a woman.

Speaker 2: 47:39

Feminine energy is all around. How am I in relationship to the idea of flow? How am I in relationship to surrender? How am I in relation to intuition? How am I in relation with nature? So it's the container that I am that's dancing with the divine feminine energy that naturally expresses to, and then what I do with that. For me, that gets added to the identity under that of a dad, of a leader, of a brother, of a son, of a husband. But again, all of these are all going to be based on how I show up, initially under that guise of a man, which is just a physical manifestation of a naturally occurring container for that masculine energy.

Speaker 1: 48:20

Thanks for sharing that. Where can people find you? So, if they want to listen to the podcast, if they want to attend your workshop, see, speak. Read your books. Give us a rundown.

Speaker 2: 48:31

Well, what I've done is I've just been making some notes as we've been talking. I'm going to have my team produce a resource page. So if they go to dreamwooddancom forward slash man, that can. Dreamwooddancom forward, slash man, that can. I'm going to pop on a. We've got a program called Beyond Intention Introduction. It's about 90 minutes worth of audio but walks you through learning my beyond intention paradigm. I'm going to put some other little pieces in there as well A couple of my articles for entrepreneurs and podcasts, links and stuff like that. But yeah, and also a link to book a call with us and when you register for that it will pop you on the email list. If anything calls happen, you'll get to come to it. But dreamwooddancom forward, slash man, that can pop some resources that will support them applying what we spoken about today.

Speaker 1: 49:14

Awesome. Thank you so much for your time, mate. It's been a wonderful chat and hopefully when I get over to Mexico one day, we can link up.

Speaker 2: 49:20

Sounds like a good one to me, man, and before I come back to Brissy, we'll have a call If you do come back to the Sunshine. State yeah, it's not so sunny at the moment.

Speaker 1: 49:29

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