Good Life Project - Scott Dinsmore: A Legend Lives On

Episode Date: September 22, 2015

This is the first episode I've ever wished I didn't have a reason to air...On Sunday, a good friend of mine, an amazing man, husband, brother and son, founder of Live Your Legend and beloved member of the Good Life Project family, Scott Dinsmore, lost his life.Hiking Kilimanjaro with another amazing soul, his wife Chelsea, Scott was killed in a rockfall.He was only 33.I've shared more thoughts in writing here.For now, I wanted to do something to keep Scott's beautiful energy and words alive. So, I'm airing a conversation Scott and I filmed a few years back as an audio podcast in tribute to him.My heart is heavy, and my love and wishes for healing go out to Chelsea, to her and Scott's families and to all who've been touched by Scott's message, his presence and what he's created and now left behind.With love & gratitude,Jonathan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So this is really hard for me. It's Monday, September 14th. Yesterday at 7.12 in the morning I got an email from a friend's wife, Chelsea Dinsmore. And the subject of that email was news about Scott. They had gone off the grid a couple days earlier announcing that they were going to hike Kilimanjaro together. So getting that email with that subject line from her immediately sent off signals for me that this was not going to be good.

And in fact, it wasn't. Chelsea shared that Scott had been involved in an accident on the mountain and didn't survive and it was a devastating blow to me, of course to her and her family and my heart goes out and to just a tremendous community. Scott is a longtime friend and he touched a lot of people's lives. He started out, really wanted to make a difference, coming from a place of just absolute heart-centered giving and generosity and built a community called Live Your Legend, rose to notoriety as a blogger,

as somebody who then built a global organization with groups and chapters around the world and was spending the last eight months or so just traveling the world and visiting all those places and saying hello and and making dinner with a lot of different people with his wife so um this is a big blow um and uh a lot of people are reeling from it. Scott lived an extraordinary life, even though it was incredibly short. And, uh, I wanted to share a conversation that I recorded with him a few years back in Portland, Oregon.

We originally filmed this in video. Uh, if you're interested in actually watching the conversation, it's just over on our site at goodlifeproject.com. I'm going to air the audio of that conversation here as a tribute episode to Scott. I'm Jonathan Fields. This is Good Life Project. Awesome to be hanging out with you today. It's good to be here, Jonathan, man. Thanks.

It's going to be kind of like a really fun back story that ties into the exact moment that we're hanging out and having this conversation. Yeah. So it was literally probably like two years ago to the day. Yeah, I think it was today. So we're in Portland right now filming this

you know like on the the eve of World Domination Summit and and I'm in town and a mutual friend of ours your running partner

yeah about you know from Zen Habits in San Francisco a buddy of yours is in town and I'm a friend of Leo and I get a call from Leo

one day he's like hey I got a buddy of mine Scott he's in town and we're gonna go to the Chinese Gardens get let's get some tea, come hang out. So we all went there and hung out and had this epic lunch where we were jamming on all sorts of ideas. And you had this seed of an idea. You're just kind of like,

there's something I want to do. It's amorphous. It's kind of gray. I'm not sure what it is. But I have pieces of it and we're just kind of tossing around ideas. Flash forward two years from there, you've built this stunning global community, like a website that with tremendous content and value with resources, you've built programs and services that are helping people sort of like really create amazing assets and skill sets to be able to embrace life. What an amazing two years for you. It's been, it's been a wild whirlwind. I mean, two years ago, it's kind of embarrassing to think about the conversation we had, because I'm sure you've heard that from so many people. Like,

I think I'm going to start this website. I have this idea. I want to make an impact or something like that. And we were so like gracious, like, hey, let me know how I can help. And you probably, I'm guessing, didn't really think you were going to hear much from me after that or what. Well, you know, it's interesting because, I mean, so I get approached by a lot of people for help, which is awesome. I love it. To the extent that I can do it, it's great. But it's a lot of people. And it's interesting, too, because one of the things that you have gone out and created to help people is essentially a training program that tells people how to connect with other people.

Right. And, you know, so the approach to me was through Leo, which gave you this sort of like, okay, he's a buddy of Leo's. He's cool. Right. And maybe he's legit. Like, he's going to do something with this. So we had, but it also, it became clear to me pretty quickly in the conversation that

you were, you were asking the right questions. And that's something which is really unusual. You're asking questions, not just how do I make money? Not just how do I build a company, but it was more like, how do I make a difference? Do you remember that? Oh, no, I do for sure. Because it wasn't, whereas I was just thinking about how to manifest it on the internet and use these new tools. It had been something i've been thinking about for a long time i mean for years i've been helping people really on the topic of finding what excites them and like kind of building a career around that it started out by just people just wanting to have lunch with me and they knew i was really

into it because i had a really bad job situation way back which i'm everyone seems to have that kind of story i'm miserable we can probably talk about it but more people ask for help and it got to the point where like 80 of the people I would sit down with for lunch would quit their job within like two months of sitting with them. And it was, I was really proud of it. It was awesome. You know, I mean, that was, I realized like, I really got to stick my flag in the ground there. And it wasn't because I had something magical. It was mainly asking people like, why are you doing what you're doing? And most would say, well, cause I'm supposed to, right? I'm supposed to be doing this, this thing because everyone says, I mean, you know, there's this whole success that you're supposed to follow

this whole thing you hear about. And, and so I've been doing it just in the like regular world, just one-on-one for a while. And, but then I probably three or six months, probably about three months before I met you, I met Leo and some of these other guys in San Francisco. And it totally turned my perception of what's possible on its head. I mean, I met, like, for instance, he has a family of, what, eight. And he supports with his website and his simple blog. I know. You hear about how he's a blogger and he's married with six kids in San Francisco?

Right. Really? Yeah. And he has this unbelievable lifestyle. Great person. I mean, you and I are both very close to him. And there's a lot of other stories like that that I started to just be around on a pretty consistent basis. And when you do that, your thinking transforms. Because for a while, I knew nobody who did any of this type of alternative lifestyle type business

that were really using their passions and talents and skills to help people in a meaningful way. And I didn't know you could really do that. And when I saw it so much, it changed my thinking. It turned it from like, how could I possibly do this to how could I possibly not and so when I caught you live at that tea house that was right when I had that realization and then the world domination summit was hitting and I was about to surround myself with it was gonna be even more overwhelming and so you got like hundreds of people back then it's 500 that this year right yeah but that and that just transformed my belief of what was possible instead of thinking like you know maybe i could do this

one day it was like how you know i i have to it's like you you can't not do it and so i was so excited to sit sit with you and the other people that weekend it took it to that new level and made it real and and then from there i started to kind of then you piece together like okay what does it actually mean to build something in the virtual world and have it connect in the real world? And you're always learning. I love that. So what's interesting to me about this is that

you're, and this is so fascinating to me, right? Because so many of us don't take action because we don't believe that what we want to do, like that dream in our head is possible, right? And it's like, we go along, I don't believe, I don't believe, I don't believe, I don't believe that what we want to do, like that dream in our head is possible. Right. Right. And it's like, we go along. I don't believe, I don't believe, I don't believe, I don't believe.

And then, and people are always like, well, it takes time to develop the belief. And, you know, you got to build up and like, you got to do things, change your mind. And sometimes that's the process. But, but other times there's a moment that can literally flip a switch. You know, it's like the Roger Bannister moment. Yeah. For forever, people believed you couldn't run a four-minute mile. One guy does it.

Yeah. And, you know, like in the weeks and years after that, everybody's doing it. Like, it gets shattered. Yeah. Did human performance, did human potential change? Were people's bodies automatically rewired because of that moment? No. Right. But, you know But their belief system, their limiting

belief that it's not possible changes. And just, it's amazing. So like you literally, you see one guy, basically you look at Leo and then you meet another person, another person's like, and in the moment, like a flip is switched in your mind that says, wait, oh, this is possible. Yeah. It's possible. And it's, it's not just possible, but it's, it's possible. And it's not just possible, but it's probable. And it's likely if you learn about what the process was. It's not easy. None of this stuff is easy. And I don't think any of us would ever sell that.

Oh, it's like la-di-da. Yeah, right. That's the biggest myth. But what's exciting is that once you realize it can be done, I mean, if you don't think it can be done, you're never going to attempt it. You know, it's that four-minute mile. It gives me chills because it's the perfect analogy. And, and then when you see it, you, instead of finding reasons or excuses why you can't act, you find instead of reasons why, more proof to, to back up your, your new beliefs.

And then you can, you find, you know, different paths that people have walked at work and you kind of, you can find, you can find models and things like that with people. So in your mind, like what is this thing back then? Cause I imagine it's changed a lot. So in your mind, what is this thing back then? Because I imagine it's changed a lot. But in your mind, sitting here two years ago, what is this thing that you think you're going to build? So I just, I mean, it goes back from probably 10 years ago or so or more when I remember my dad gave me a copy of What Color Is Your Parachute by Dick Bowles, who actually lives

in our hometown. We got to know him a little bit. And I remember reading that book and I just had this realization that doing work that was really embodied who you were is a right if you do the work and you understand yourself and kind of go through the process to the hard kind of grueling self-discovery process to make that happen. And it's something that a lot of people don't want to take the time to do. And so when I first realized that, I kind of put my thinking on a different level. And so I kind

of approached things differently going forward. Now, of course, I still, once I actually lived in Spain for about, what, a year after university, and I kind of had a business out there and actually was like teaching businessmen English and things like that as a tour guide. And that can really brainwash your belief on what's possible as well, because out there and actually was like teaching businessmen English and things like that as a tour guide. And that can really brainwash your belief on what's possible as well, because out there they prioritize things very differently. And that was one of my big aha moments. It was that these guys, okay, they prioritize happiness and community and family and just enjoyment over work and money. So you're talking about like European communities?

European communities and specifically I was in Sevilla, Spain, and it was just, it seemed like the epitome of it. And it was just so refreshing because you, at least in the U.S. and a lot of Western societies, you grow up thinking there's just only one route, and people kind of brainwash whatever that success is supposed to be. And anyway, I came home with this big thought of, like, I'm going to do something different and meaningful. And of course, I listened to my old school mentors as soon as I got back, and I got the

big job with a good training program at the Fortune 500 company and all that. And that's when I kind of had this experience where I realized that was my job role was, well, it was automated in almost all of our competitors. And it was just like literally monkey work. And so I quit after about seven months. And my goal was I want to find something I can screw up. That was like how I put it. I was so know, and it wasn't even like in a positive light But that's when I went on this discovery process for myself and eventually started having different You know coffee sessions and lunches where people started, you know

Get that I got the quit rate up to 80% but so the one I when I saw people doing this online and saw how they could leverage these tools to to just Scale it from you know, I could have, what, eight lunches in a week. Well, seven maybe. Or you double up. But now we can reach it on a much bigger scale and be much more effective. So that's really what I wanted to build is a community that showed people that it's not crazy to think that you can do things a little bit differently. That you can actually pursue a path that is enjoyable to you, that you're good at, and actually make an impact in a meaningful way.

Because I think if you do something that matters to you, it's going to matter to the people around you. I mean, that's just how things seem to work. And that becomes contagious, and that creates a ripple effect. But let's test that theory. So if you do something that matters to you, it's going to matter to other people. A lot of people would be like, you know, I love to do something that really doesn't matter to anybody else. You know, like I love crocheting, you know, like miniature art out of cat hair. And the response is like, that's just like, okay, there's no way. Like, you know, like that's way. It's interesting to me.

I love doing it, but nobody's going to care outside of me. So I think I know how it ends, but I'm curious what your response is. Yeah, so I think there's two types of response to that. One is that if you start out, let's say you were going to be totally selfish, like I want to do what I love spending my time on. That alone is going to cause you to treat the people around you a lot differently. I mean, if you spend your time doing work you enjoy and it's fulfilling and using your strengths, talents, whatever, you're going to treat your wife differently at night and your kids, you know, and your server at lunch. And that ripples are going to treat the other people

differently. So just on that level, even if the work you're doing doesn't specifically, let's say, teach someone to be a better person or something like that, indirectly, I think that the impact is very powerful. But I also think it turns out that most of us when we unpack it enough the things that we that embody who we are and that we enjoy doing and want to create a career around involve helping people in some way i think that just from all the different examples i've seen however you shape it it comes back to just moving the needle for somebody else in in some different way and so that was the the vision i had we create a community where people feel like they're not crazy for thinking differently, but that it's normal, then they operate on this new level.

And I see that as like, live your legends. And that movement's core purpose is one just to show you it's possible. And so I call it brainwashing the impossible. The fastest way to do the things you don't think can be done is to hang around the people already doing them. And you do that enough, you don't even have to change your goals, really. I mean, you will, but you don't need to because your standards come up. It's like the Jim Rohn quote, which is what I live by more than anything. It's the average of the five people you spend most time with. And I don't care if you want to lose 50 pounds, you want to run a marathon, or you want to change jobs.

It's all the same. But it goes both ways. It's a scary thing. No, exactly. I mean, if you're hanging around with five people that basically think that life is here to beat you down, then you're all going to be beaten down together. And again, the thing that's interesting, and it's part of both of our philosophy, is that this has nothing to do with things being handed to you.

This has nothing to do with a sense of entitlement. This has to do with clarity and work. And it's funny because in the Internet world that we both move in and out of on a regular basis, I see so much, hey, go do what you love and all this stuff, and the world is just going to give you what you want. And to a certain extent, there's a sense of alignment that really does support you in a certain way. But the thing that always troubles me is when I see people saying, just show up and be you. And people are going to start handing over fistfuls of dollars rather than do the work. And sometimes, you know what?

It might actually take you years to develop the skills and the craft and you know and sometimes you know what it might actually take you years to develop the skills and the craft and the resources and the relationship yeah to to create like to get to that place in your head where you see yourself but you know it's not about you know it's not about ease it's about is it worth it yeah is it worth it and when you find it and you can feel it, you don't often have to really find that motivation. And that's what's thing is such a misnomer because that seems to be, at least in the old school online world, what sells. Like you, what would get people excited. Like, you know, the kind of the quick money-making type thing. Now I think it's the total opposite. You see that what really connects people is like, listen, don't sign up for this if you're not going to work your ass off and just put all the sweat equity into it.

And the thing is, it's no fun anyway. If you didn't work for it and you didn't really build something meaningful, then you're not going to stay committed to it and you're probably going to jump to something else if some new interest comes up. And it's just, you don't experience it the same way. I mean, it's like, it's interesting. I think the internet has trained us to a certain extent. And not even making money on the internet, but just the speed at which we operate around the online world. And now that we're amplified on our iPhones and constantly connected, we have an expectation

of instant in every part of our lives. We want to develop personally like that. We want to develop physically like that. We want our interest in our career paths to develop rapidly. We want things to just happen in the blink of an eye and there are some things that that connectivity and technology can really accelerate and make happen way faster right but the same time they're like internal processes that it takes i mean there's a famous ira glass quote that i'll completely bastardize but he was talking about becoming really good at radio and we essentially he essentially said is, you know, like, what makes me different and what makes creative people who succeed different than everybody else is we start out with taste.

Like, we have taste, which means in our heads, we know where it is. We can hear what we want to sound like. We can see what we want this thing to look like. If we're artists, we can see what we want to create. But the challenge is we can't create it yet. We don't have the craft to actually take what's in our head, the taste, the sight, and put it through our bodies and our hands and make that the output that we're creating in the world. And the only way to get from taste to manifest taste is insane amounts of work.

And, you know, do it over and over and over and over. Like if you're in radio or video or an artist or painter in business you know like just keep creating over and over and over and over time and it takes years you know you start to close the gap between taste and and creative output right and then that frustration because you keep looking in the early days you're like oh this just isn't good it's not what i want It's not what I have in my head. And most people bail early on because they see where they want to go, but they can't create it yet. Right. And they want to do it now.

Whereas, like, if you set the expectation, like, you know what, to get to that level, there are certain processes, there are certain neurological, like, synaptic connections, like pathways that have to form that are going to take time and work and effort. And I've got, so in a way the internet, I think it enables so much, but it also creates an expectation that frustrates so many people. It, I mean, yeah, the, the overnight, the overnight expectation is a, is a total killer

of just, of I think plans or ideas for a lot of people that get into it quickly. But there's a couple of things. I mean, one thing people miss with the internet is that it's not like, the internet isn't the thing. It's just the tool that works really well to spread something out. What matters is you find a way that, to really add value to the people around you,

to the world. Now, the internet allows you to magnify it like crazy if you do it right. And yeah, it's not overnight, but it's also pretty wild how, how quick it can be. I mean, two years, four years, five years, that's pretty damn fast. Not saying it's going to happen like that, but no longer do you have to necessarily be in something for 20 years straight slogging out before you start to have some progress. So it, it's definitely

not overnight, but it's not, it doesn't have to be that long either. Yeah, totally agree. And I think also what you can do along the way is, as you're developing internal craft, you can develop networks and channels and resources and relationships and audiences and tribes in a fraction of the time that it used to take. So that when you get to that point where you're creating magic, boom, everything takes off. And since you have the tribe, you can better understand how to create magic for the tribes. And you can't really, it's impossible to create something of value if you don't work with somebody who needs help with it in the process. That's why these communities are so fantastic. You never really need to build something without knowing it's going to be really useful.

Unless you're lazy and you just want to sit in your four walls in your office and create something you think people will want. But I think the thing about, you mentioned about, you know, the hard work and the time and all that, what happens with a lot of people is, and this has happened to me a number of times as I've kind of gone through different kind of areas of thought and working on different projects. But you look at the people who've done really well and you see like, you could look at, let's say, you know, how you've built things up, or let's say like Leo was in Habits or something, or I mean, in any bestselling author, whatever, people like to look at where they are now. they then they think oh yeah i want i want that it's like well if you're you get into this topic of modeling like in terms of how to you know

unpack what someone's done to get where they are well it's not about what they're doing now it's what did they do when no one knew who jonathan fields was no one who knew who leo about to us or whoever this people are when they're just slogging away, working their face off and doing work that most people would never be able to really stomach or want to stomach. But when you can see that, it takes your rose colored glasses off. And that's why these surroundings become so powerful is that when you're around that stuff and you don't just see what's written in the book and what's talked about in just, you know, the interview or the product.

But it's like, no, I see we talk over beers or wine and we go on a run together and I see, whoa, it was that hard? You did this for those three or four years? Okay, now it's more realistic. Now I can adjust my expectations. And you also know what works instead of just assuming it's going to be this fast thing. And then you put those those different people in your corner who've done well like that they'll also of course want to help you along the way as you'll be i mean it's a it's a win-win type of thing if you if you find the right way to add

the value to what they're doing too even though um sometimes it can feel like if you're talking with a guy who's been around it for a long time i can't do anything for them but i think there's always a way that you can add value to make that connection and when you do you can just the the realism becomes much more part of your life you know i mean it's so much fun to be able to actually play even the smallest role in helping somebody light a fire that turns into a blaze right you know it's like even like and you never take credit for it, because it's not you, but just to play some sort of, like, some role. Oh, yeah.

You know, whether it's a conversation, whether it's just, like, a moment of illumination, whatever it may be, like, to see somebody, you know, who you are interested in and would love to see succeed, turn around and succeed. Right. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. It's a pretty awesome experience.

Part of the reason I do what I do, it's a big part of the reason you do it. pretty awesome it's a pretty awesome experience part of the reason i do what i do it's a big part of the reason you do it you doing a lot of people that we know um do it because you know and i'm curious also i mean you know with with your journey and like we said it's been a stunningly intense and short and successful two years for you and we're talking about like so you're talking about like look at all these other people and look at the struggles and all this and so for you yeah right behind the scenes

of the last two years because when the outside looking in a lot of people are going to look at you and be like the dude exploded onto the scene

overnight success he's built a huge community he's built experiences and products that serve that community he's making a great living doing it he's serving a lot of people in an authentic, meaningful way.

It seems like everything Scott does is just touched by gold. Oh, God. So what's the behind the scenes for you? What's the reality for you that people should see? Well, so first of all, people will start maybe when they had first heard of, let's say, Scott Dinsmore, Olivia Legend, when I first put that stake in the ground. But that was not step one. I mean, step one was four years before that when I hacked together a blog. I didn't even know it was a blog on Yahoo Site Builder. I read a book that said,

oh, you could create a website without code. I don't know anything about code. I thought, let's experiment. I'm writing these articles about book reviews that I was reading a lot of personal development books, things like that. And literally for four years straight, I had the same, it was like 111 followers or something. And there were only three reading it. It was my now wife, Chelsea, my two, my parents, my mother and father, and everyone else was just kind of doing me a favor, friends, that it's kind of zero growth, like literally. And it was very frustrating. I was about to shut it down. I mean, if you have, if you have no visible progress and no like, even really like response or like community to, to tell you like, oh yeah, keep

going and keep doing this. And I didn't, I didn't know when to be in the space or anything like that. So it was very frustrating, disheartening in a lot of ways, but I love the writing and I loved the few people I would sit with or that I'd written, written an idea down. And because of that, I'd have a better conversation with them. It was helping me and it was a powerful process. But four years of it going nowhere is a little bit different than exploding on the scene. So those four years helped develop that in a lot of ways, helped develop my writing, my understanding. And that is when I decided, okay, I want to really refocus this.

And I was actually about to shut it down. I was so frustrated and it just wasn't a good use of my time. And like friends that didn't get it would be like, why are you spending all your time on this site that like no one looks at? And, um, I don't spend a whole lot of time with them anymore, but, um, but then, uh, I, that's when I moved to San Francisco and also started to meet these people online that had these lifestyles. And that's then we've already, you know, talked about what happened since then, but that's where the switch in my head just flipped. And instead of saying, let's shut this down, I said, okay, let's take this seriously. I see a path here. I see that it can be done.

Now we can get to work in a really focused way. Whereas before it was just fumbling around, but the fumbling is an important part of the process and you can do that. You don't have to do that full time. I did it on the side and just learning and messing around and I didn't even necessarily know it would turn into something but I cared about it and I wanted to spend time so you're fine it's funny like that there's a window I call the thrash and so I have talked to so many entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs about this where they feel like they're fumbling and like they're just trying a million things and and they don't like it's not working and they don't feel like they're moving

forward and you're like and it's just like they're not cut out for this. And there's uncertainty. Is it ever going to work? Is this the right thing for me or is this just insanity? Should I hold or should I fold? Is that feeling in the pit of my stomach? Is that that this really matters to me and I need to move into it? Or is that this is idiotic and I really need to shut it down and stop wasting time?

These are really tough questions that people struggle with, sometimes for months, sometimes for years. And it's so uncomfortable very often that you just want to walk away. Yeah. But it's this window where people just still don't want to be there. But I don't know a single successful entrepreneur that hasn't moved through that. Not only once, but every time you move into a new threshold. I know, yeah. You move through it again because you go into that place of uncertainty and you go back into the thrash.

Because everything, all the systems and the rules that got you to where you are don't work anymore. To get to the next place, which means you have to go into this place where you don't know how it's going to end again. And again, it could take days, weeks, months, or years again to figure it all out. As soon as you think you have it figured out, you know, okay, there's probably another dip coming, and then it's going to hopefully come follow a growth phase or something like that, kind of like the path to mastery

that you hear about where it's like you have growth, you have a plateau, and then you have a frustrated little dip, and then it goes again. You have to have that faith know, you have growth, you have a plateau, and then you will frustrate a little dip. And then it goes again. You have to have, I mean, if you have that faith and also the people around you to keep it, keep you on track. I mean, if you try and build this stuff on your own, I'm not saying like actual partners, but whatever, even just like buddies, you'll just, you'll go running with your tail between your legs. It's too intense. I mean, especially the path of like entrepreneurship and building something on your own. I mean, you know as well as I do

as anybody that's built something. I mean, the swings, the emotional swings are nuts. You know? And I don't know if they ever go away. I don't know. I mean, like I said, for most entrepreneurs, and it's not just entrepreneurs, I think for anybody who is on a creative path,

and this could be, you could be working at a large organization. You could be like, you know, working on an innovation team in a Fortune 100 company. But if you're on a path where part of what you feel like you're here to do is create something from nothing, is to bring into life something that just didn't exist before you or make some sort of substantial change or improvement, you've got to go to that place.

And it's just so uncomfortable for so many people that we literally will shut down what we're here to do we'll shut down our forward movement in our business in our lives in our relationships because we don't want to spend time in the thrash figuring it out because it doesn't feel good rather than reframing that saying yeah it sucks it's it doesn't feel good but you know what it's also this is the necessary step to get to the next place. So you approach it. I love this line from Ben Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, where he's like, when I do something and it doesn't work out.

He's like, normally in the past, it's like, ah, it sucks, blah, blah, blah, like cursing, whatever it is. The reframe is, you look at it and you're like, how fascinating. Right. And it's so funny. I heard him say that. I was in the audience one time for one of his epic key bits. Oh, he's unbelievable.

Mind-blowing. And I was so inspired that literally from that moment forward, I find myself all the time when I'm in the thrash myself, and I'm thinking, what's next? How am I going to figure this out? And something really didn't go the way I wanted it to go. And I literally will stop myself and say, how fascinating. Yeah. You know how fascinating. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Okay, what's this giving me? Like, what's the lesson here? What's the knowledge that I'm going to get from this? Yeah, like, what pieces of the puzzle is it filling in? Like, what positive constructive role can I play? It's not an easy reframe.

No. And it's, I mean, it's a habit that has to be built over time. And you have to, I think it gets built by being proven that, that it's true. I mean that if you have things that go, go poorly at first, especially in the beginning, you'll,

you'll want to throw your hands up. You're like, Oh, this is ridiculous. Everything's out to get me all this kind of things. You can figure out the victim mentality, but when you, when you find reasons why the stuff has worked well,

I mean, over time it starts to be that, that just ban the habit as soon as it happens. Okay. What I learned. Awesome. Like, I'm not going to do that just, bam, the habit is as soon as it happens, okay, what I learned, awesome. Like, I'm not going to do that again. Cool. Like, that surprised me.

But you do that over time, that compounds in a pretty powerful way. Yeah. And I think it also becomes a really powerful reframe for fear and just anxiety, which is really just, what does Seth Godin say? Like, anxiety is experiencing failure in advance or something like that. Yeah, right. It's like anticipatory failure. But let's take a, I kind of, I'm curious about, I want to take a bigger step back with you. Okay.

Because I kind of, you know, I know fairly intimately the last two years of your life and, you know, we've talked a number of times about, you know, the three, four, five years before that. I'm curious about like, you know, like Scott is more like earlier in life. You're like, Where he came from. What's Scott the Kid all about? That's interesting. So you're talking way back. Yeah.

Scott the Kid was a lot of trouble actually. I'm very close to my parents. They're some of my closest friends. We have a great relationship. They've always encouraged ask why not and pursue things that are interesting and that type of thing, which, I mean, has been, talk about starting with the right surroundings.

It's been very powerful. But in the beginning, I don't know how they put up with it. I mean, I was like the leader of, like, the tensions in school and not, like, for really bad stuff, but just, like, general just defiance and being kind of a pain in the ass. And that was really all through like middle school. And then when I got to high school, something happened where I remember they sent me on an outward bound course when I was in, what, finished eighth grade. And it was like a couple weeks in the wilderness. And I don't remember that being some aha moment.

But I look back and it's the only thing I can recognize is like where I stopped being such a pain to my parents, really to everyone. And I started to actually take things seriously. But that was where it really started. I mean, I had a fun, like, as far as I was concerned, a fun, enjoyable upbringing. Now, if you ask them in the beginning, it was a challenge. I mean, they never say it in a bad way.

They're fantastic. But that's where it began. And then, let's see, and then through, what was it at Santa Barbara where did you actually grow up? I grew up in San Francisco east of San Francisco

like 30 minutes in like a little suburb cool yeah and then spent almost all my time there and then moved to Santa Barbara for school lived there for a little bit

and lived in Spain for a bit as well which is where that that big shift in thinking happened but I mean anything specific about the childhood stuff I'm happy to dig into

I don't know what you no I mean it's fascinating to me to sort'm happy to dig into I don't know what you no I mean it's fascinating to me to sort of like see that some so often what you see

is people who become really motivated creative professionals entrepreneurs are people who had fairly high levels

of defiance or like they were outliers as kids they weren't the kids who very often sat in the classroom and said

okay where the teachers would look back and fondly remember them as model students whether it's academic performance or behavioral issues or something like that. And like, it's, so I'm always curious, you know, with somebody who's like out there in the world doing big, powerful things and creating, you know, communities and, and building things, you know, like what, was that a trait that, you know,

was always there or was there some moment in time that just kind of flipped? Well, the defiance was there in different ways. And the defiance, I guess, is now bigger than ever and I think in a more positive way. And I just always question, why do people do the things they do and why does everyone think they need to do them that way? And always having, I guess, my wife and she'll kind of roll her eyes at this because she knows that no matter what, if something happens or if someone talks about some idea, I'm always thinking, what's the, what's the contrary? Like, what is the road less traveled path to that? You know? And, and generally that leads to positive, interesting, different results. Other times can lead to frustrating conversations and things like that, you know, for you, probably for the other person. But that from early on, just that, that habit and just that, that

way of going about life of questioning things and just saying, well, wait, why are we supposed to do it this way? And a lot of times you hear, especially in like typical school systems, like, well, because you're supposed to, and that word, like, because you're supposed to is just ingrained in my mind. It's just like, that is the thing that,'s like if you say that to me it's like no way absolutely i'm just not even going to listen to what you say next you know because if you don't have like a real reason why for things and let's um we need to unpack that a bit more and make sure we're not wasting spinning our tires on that you know um so yeah i mean it's and that that question i've asked that question to myself really since since the beginning i Having a father who was in entrepreneurship and worked on building things and had his fair share of swings in intensity.

Something I don't remember so well because I was pretty young. I wish I was older when he was in the throes of it. So do you feel like that was actually something that really opened you to the notion of entrepreneurship? It certainly was. And not just entrepreneurship, but doing something that is meaningful to you and to the world and making some type of a difference. Because I don't think it necessarily is about being an entrepreneur. I mean, for a lot of us, that's the fun, most creative way to go about it. But most important to me and what we do certainly at Liberty Legend and the way I spend my time with people is just find something that embodies who you are.

It's congruent with the person that you are and the things that you're good at and also with the things that you're not good at and make sure those things are all, everything's aligned properly. That might be in a big company. Um, but I think for more and more people, it's, it's a more off the beaten path type of thing. Maybe it's working with a few people, maybe it's working in a company of 10 minutes on your own. Um, so, but yeah, the idea of approaching a career as an entrepreneur, even if you're not the, I mean, the CEO of your own life, that's the thing. It's like you have this brand. Your most important brand is you, right?

And everything you do builds that brand in a positive or negative way. Now, that might be in a company, and that might cause you to get a promotion, manage more people, get a more meaningful project, whatever it is. But it's the ultimate job security, right? It's like being really harnessing and believing that you're in control of this brand and that you can build it how you want and having a vision for that, that brand you, um, it, it's better than any type of idea of some like pension or some contract you have with an employer or whatever it is. Cause that, that creates that resilience. Yeah, no, no i totally agree i'm curious also about your i want to go back to your time in spain oh yeah because um and you were talking about there's

a very different value set i think what you were getting at but i want to actually unpack it a little bit is is how and it's been my experience also how it's not just europe but how almost all of the rest of the modern world that's not the United States or sort of like, you know, the U.S., Canada, define success very differently than a lot of people in the U.S. do. And it tends to really bring in a lot more lifestyle and family relationships. Right. And, yeah, it's the whole simple difference of you can live to work or you work to live type of thing. And in Spain, it's like they do enough work to do the things they want to do. And granted, they don't have a ton of money and they're one of the poor countries in the EU and don't do so well like that.

But if you're out with them and you see the way they spend time with community and big community in the evenings and afternoons, whatever, you see what that's about. You feel that. And that's a very different experience than you see you see what that's about and you feel that. And, and that's a, that's a very different experience than you see around here, where it's just constantly the racing. And so what's interesting about that definition of success is that in the U S most people don't even have, I've never thought about that. Their definition of success. It's not, not only is it not their own, it's not anybody else's, it's the societal definition. And so it's like you, you're trying to appease some just like gray body of something out there that, that no one can actually get to the bottom of. You never get there anyway. And you notice the people that,

that are climbing the ladder to, to nowhere, the ladder that's leaned up against the wrong wall. It's like you, no matter how well you do a hard work, if it's just about the achievement thing, it's like and the achievement of like the checking the boxes of the money and the status and all that it's a it's just kind of the road to nowhere so that um but people don't stop to even think about that and so that's where it came back to asking like that one question when i'd sit with people for lunch why are you doing what you're doing it just it caused them to think about wait a second i don't know and if you ask why enough with anything i feel like it really gets to think about, wait a second, I don't know. And if you ask why enough with anything, I feel like it really gets to the heart of, well, positive or silly decisions.

No, I totally agree. So you've got to know what my next question to you is. Why? Why are you building what you're building? I really believe, at Live Your Life, we have a tagline that's changed the world by doing work you love. And I believe that if you focus your time on spending, well, at least your working hours. Now, for us, I feel like when you do work you love and it's passionate work, it ends up embodying your whole life in terms of just the people you hang out with, the people you like to spend time with. It's all kind of the same.

But if you do work that you really care about doing, you're going to, one, impact people with your work in a positive way, whatever you create. But you're going to treat the world around you differently. And that's when those people, you have a positive impact. When I go down the street after this interview, I'm going to feel great about it. I love this conversation. I love talking about the stuff, the work that we're doing. I'm going to share more smiles on the street. And as a result, there's going to be more smiles shared with the people I share them with. I mean, all that stuff's contagious.

Now that's on the small level. What about the conversation I have with someone tonight, you know, or this weekend or, or throughout, you know, the rest of our, just the work we do, those have ripple effects. You know, it's just like you said, you like to be a part of somebody's story and then like be a part of even some small part of lighting that fire well if you do like think of how contagious that is now how um compounding that can be over time you know it's so much more of an impact than any one of us could have so that's really the reason i think it could dramatically change the way that people interact in the world i really believe that in my core and and what's funny though is i feel like i had it all wrong for a while i don't have it anywhere near figured out and the more you figure out the more you realize you don't understand kind

of the whole picture but that's the whole fun of it but the big thing i realized that a living legend at first was all about tools to find out what you're excited about what you're passionate about and how to build a career around it like just the nuts and bolts which is important now there's a lot of different tools out there there's maybe thousands of books written on purpose and career. Yet whenever someone tells me they hate their job, I say, well, have you ever read a book on maybe how to change it? Like, oh no, what do you mean? I'm like, there's a thousand at the bookstore, but they're not willing to do that work. So I realized all the tools in the world don't matter if the people around you say that you're stupid for thinking differently, say that you're crazy for trying. And that's why the shift at really what my focus

has changed, not just from the nuts and bolts tools, but just let's take it back to the foundation of the community and of the surroundings. And that's why that's been the, that's something I missed for a while. And that's the only reason I created what I did is because of, you know, the people I met in the surroundings. And that's why that's why that's become a huge focus for the long term focus, the bigger, more powerful thing is how you teach people to surround themselves with the right folks because we like to think we can do it on our own

Yeah, and we can and we've talked about that's one of the big awakenings for me very early on in this project was that the sense of belonging and the community, the like-minded community, curating that and bringing that, creating mechanisms to create that for people, is more enabling than anything I've ever seen in my life.

Knowledge is great, but like you said, there are a lot of different places to find the knowledge if you really want it. Mm-hmm. Finding people, like finding those people, finding those dozen people, whatever it is,

100 people to five people to two people that sit down with you and say, I'm on your team. I get you. I get what you're about. I get why you're doing

what you're doing. And I'm not going to go along and necessarily just say, yeah, it sounds wonderful, but I'm going to listen. i'm not going to go along and necessarily just say yeah it sounds wonderful but i'm going to listen and i'm going to look at your lens and i'm gonna i'm gonna engage with you on a level where you know you may have to convince me and let's have real conversations right i'm here because i want to see you flourish right that's so powerful and it is so missed in society today it's such a big missing piece so it's like yeah that's been a huge piece of what we're trying to build here is

what you're trying to build and increasing I think people are getting turned on to that as both a source of pain that they didn't know was the source of pain and also the source of possibility that they never experienced or they didn't realize how empowering it can be. Yeah. They don't even know that it's their problem. I think like, oh, I'm overweight. I don't like my job or whatever it is.

Well, wait, that's not it. You know, it's foundational. It's like, you don't necessarily need to know more. Right. Even if like, let's say, I think the fastest way even to like, if you have no idea what you're excited about, what you want to build a career around, just hang around inspiring people because it's different things are going to trigger and you're going to be able to take notes, write it down when you're inspired by someone. What is's say it's just like a big group that, you know, just are all part of, let's say, your community through our Live Your Legend community, bring them together in the same room.

And I've seen where there's people just in tears. And the thing is, they're not in tears because like, let's say I'm on stage and I say something really clever or something like that. They're in tears because finally the people to the right and left understand them. They're in a place where people believe what they believe. And I took that for granted for a while because I've had that for a long time. I think you've had great surroundings for a long time. A lot of us have, and we've curated that and cultivated that. But you realize most people, like for the first time in that, you know, when you bring those people together in the room, it might be for most of these people,

the first time they've ever felt that way, where they feel at home. And then the guard comes down and then all of a sudden you can be you and and when you allow someone to be themselves it's like that that's the magic not only I mean not only we have a fan for life of your community you'll you'll dramatically change the foundation of what they're going to build and what their potential is of buildings it is it's amazing to see that process happen and maybe the most fun thing that I've been involved in. Yeah, yeah.

So it makes you want to do more of it and create more of it. And it's simple, too, you know? It is. So the name of this project is Good Life Project. So when I offer that term to you, to live a good life, what comes up? Yeah, so Good Life Project. I mean, to live a good life, I think it's two. One, spend your time doing the things that you enjoy with the people that you enjoy and respect.

The things that you're good at and you really care about and making some type of an impact. An impact that you believe is moving the needle in some way. It's not necessarily have to be changing, you know, solving world hunger or something crazy and huge. But just to feel like your things will be different, you know, because you've decided to, to be intentional about things. I think that's a, that's a very rewarding feeling. And you couple that with, with people who you really, you know, make you smile to be around. And I don't know, you can't, you can't go wrong, you know, because since you never get there, then, then you stop, hopefully stop worrying about it sometimes and just have some fun. Cool. Awesome. Great conversation. It's been so much fun just getting to know you over the years

and also riding along to watch what you've built and to see how many people you've impacted. It's been just a lot of fun. Well, your fingerprints are on that in a big way. So I'm Jonathan Fields. My guest today has been Scott Dinsmore, founder of Liberty Legend, signing off for Good Life Project.