High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 456: Making our Mark with David McNally, International Business Speaker, Author and Thought Leader

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

Today on the podcast we hear from David McNally who has a cutting-edge, life changing topic he speaks on related to leaving your mark and finding your purpose in the world. David has spent a career studying the attitude and behaviors that drive personal and professional success. McNally is a member of the Speakers Hall of Fame and through his best-selling book, films and work with many of the world’s most successful companies, he is recognized as a foremost thought leader on what motivates and inspires people. David is the CEO of Transform Corporation based in Minneapolis. Transform is a business consulting company focused on developing purposeful leaders, inspired organizations, and iconic brands. In this episode, David and Cindra discuss: How your life is unique How to better understand your purpose The two benefits of considering the past Ways the desire to contribute is in our DNA Strategies to connect with the mark you are leaving HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE:https://www.cindrakamphoff.com/429-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2/ FB COMMUNITY FOR THE HPM PODCAST: https://www.facebook.com/groups/highperformancemindsetcommunity FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901

Hey, my name is Cindra Campoff and I'm a small-town Minnesota gal, Minnesota nice as we like to say it, who followed her big dreams. I spent the last four years working as a mental coach for the Minnesota Vikings, working one-on-one with the players. I wrote a best-selling book about the mindset of the world's best and I'm a keynote speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with showing you exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best. So you can accomplish all your goals and dreams.

So I'm over here following my big dreams. And I'm here to inspire you and practically show you how to do the same. And you know, when I'm not working, you'll find me playing Miss Pac-Man. Yes, the 1980s game Miss Pac-Man. So take your notepad out, buckle up, and let's go. This is the High Performance Mindset. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset podcast. This is your host, Dr. Cendra Kampoff, and thank you so much for joining me here today for episode 456 with David McNally. Our podcast guest today said this, your mark, your contribution matters. Use this knowledge as your compelling reason to get up in the morning to face the challenges of the world and create the life you want. He also said, your life and my life has never been

lived before. That's what's new. What we create is truly original and no one else can lay claim to that creation. My friends, you are in for a treat today. Today on the podcast, we hear from David McNally, who has a cutting edge life changing topic he speaks on related to leaving your mark and finding your purpose in the world. David has spent his career studying the attitudes and behaviors that drive personal and professional success. He's a member of the Speaker's Hall of Fame. And through his best selling books, films and work with many of the world's most successful companies, he is recognized as a foremost thought leader on what motivates and inspires people. David is the CEO of Transform

Corporation based in Minneapolis. Transform is a business consulting company focused on developing personal leaders, inspired organizations, and iconic brands. David and I talk about in this episode how your life is truly unique, how to better understand your purpose, the two benefits of considering the past, ways that we all desire to contribute and how it is in our DNA, and strategies connect with the mark you are leaving. If you'd like to see the full show notes and description, you can head over to cindracampoff.com slash 456. I got a text message today from my podcast editor and she said, this one is her favorite. I know you'll enjoy.

Without further ado, let's bring on David McNally. All right. We got it. All right. We got it. Thank you so much, David McNally. I am so excited that you're here on the High Performance Mindset Podcast. How is your day going today? Yes. No, it's going well. Thanks, Indra. Yes. Things are good. Thank you very much for asking. I absolutely loved your book, Mark of an Eagle. And that's one of the things we're going to be talking about today. I thought I found it really inspiring. I couldn't put it down. I wanted to keep reading it even late at night, the wee hours of the night. So maybe just to get us started, David, tell us a little bit about what you're passionate about just to get us rolling here well i'm very passionate about inspiration i really am and and i do know that that sounds like um uh but what are the benefits of inspiration

and and but i know that everything great starts by someone being inspired now being inspired is not enough you've then got to take action but at that same time that when people are inspired and when I talk about inspired I mean that their spirit is engaged in something meaningful so that that they see some possibility out there that they now want to get out and become a part of so inspired employees for example are much more committed they're more creative they're more innovative so all of that starts with the the notion of being inspired. Love it. And tell us a bit about, you have several books,

and your latest, Mark of an Eagle. Tell us a bit about why you chose to write about an eagle and what that means to you. Well, I was very, very fortunate. So my first book was called Even Eagles Need a Push. That was came out, believe it or not, 30 years ago, was still in print. It was a bestseller by any stretch of the imagination. was an accidental metaphor that came to me after I'd watched a wonderful little animated movie, which was that movie was called To Try Again and Succeed. And what I saw was a mother eagle trying to coax its little eaglet off of the edge of the nest to get it to fly.

And the the eaglet was resisting. And then the eaglet would then go off and then be tumbling down and in a panic. And the mother eagle swept down and picked it up, brought it back up and and started to help coax it again until finally it was able to soar. So what came to me at that particular time was, isn't that interesting? Even eagles need a push. So that became the name of the book. And then I got connected to eagles. And I realized that it was such a, in this country especially, such a powerful metaphor. So Mark of an Eagle is actually the third book in a trilogy. My second book was called The Eagle's Secret.

And then this was Mark of an Eagle. Yeah. Yeah. And I was thinking also about my reaction when I see an eagle. You know, I saw one the other day when we were on a local lake and we were on a boat and there was just an eagle flying above us. And it's so magentic, I guess, is the word that I would use. Yeah. And I think we connect eagles to that tremendous sense of vision. You know, they have, they can be soaring, you know, way above either the hills

or the trees and then their vision can focus on what they want to accomplish, of course, which is pray. But at the same time, you know, it teaches us that when you have vision towards something that you want to accomplish, it's a powerful way to take you to focus towards that accomplishment. Yeah. You know, and what I loved about your book, David, is the personal stories that were weaved within, if it was with your grandchildren and, or just, you know, your observations. And there was a powerful story at the beginning that it was related to a business deal that you were in and how there was legal action.

Tell us a little bit about that story, because I think that story could be really powerful for everyone who's listening. Yeah, I think it's a powerful story in terms of when ambition can get a little bit out of control. And so I was very young. I was in my mid-20s and I was incredibly ambitious and had achieved by the time I was 26 a very high level of success. You know, fancy cars, a beautiful home. I was living in Europe at that particular time. So it was, quote, the lifestyle of the rich and famous. And then the business collapsed. And I was, as I tried to rescue the business, an individual wanted to invest in the business. And I, in my desperation to try and save the business i allowed that individual to do that and in rep respect i should never have allowed the

individual to invest in the business because uh the amount that he was able to put into the business was insufficient to meet our needs by a big way. But I did allow him to do that because I was desperate. So the story is a story of, in some ways, a lack of integrity. And the lesson in it is let nothing compromise your integrity. That no amount of success, especially financial success, is worth the way you feel about yourself. That, as I said, that integrated sense, I'm whole. So I was able to make amends. I was able to repay the gentleman everything. Finally, not right away. I was able to repay him everything and and make the situation whole but i had to go through the crisis and the self-examination to understand that as an

individual we can do that sometimes when we're overly ambitious uh and the other powerful thing about it was that i also had to be able to do two things. Number one, forgive myself for having a lack of integrity. And number two, then let go of it, but use that as a foundation along upon which to build my future and another business. And to make that declaration, I would never do that or allow that to happen again. And fortunately, that's the way I've been able to live my life since then. Yeah. Well, what I'm hearing there that I really took from that is, you know, that you had to go through the crisis. And while you're going through it, you're really examining yourself and learning about yourself that then changed how you did business later. Yes, for sure. My wife likes to use the expression,

we are perfectly imperfect human beings. I think that as Mother Teresa or someone like that said, that doesn't kill you, strengthens you. And I certainly know that that's what happened to me, that I've been through a number of crisis, and my ability to survive that crisis has given me both a sense of self and a strength that no matter what happens in my life, that I may not like it at the time, but I have that sense I can definitely handle it. Yeah. And I was reading the story. I remember you saying that, you know, during your self-exploration that you maybe went to an Alcohol Anonymous meeting with your uncle. And then you saw these principles of AA. And I was curious, like, which principle do you think hit home for you and helped you make the change? Even though you weren't, you know, addicted to alcohol at that time, it kind of shows you the power of some of these

principles that allow people to move on past addiction in our everyday life. Well, for sure. I mean, I think it's the fourth or fifth step in the 12 steps of AA. And again, you're right. I fortunately I have not had an addiction issue. And, but when I went to that AA meeting, and I and they handed me the 12 steps, I didn't realize what a powerful influence they would be. And then I can remember that one night, I just saw them on the side of my bed, and I picked them up, and I started reading them. And it was at a time where I still hasn't resolved the situation with this gentleman who had invested in the business, it wasn't resolved. And, and in fact, I was feeling at that

time more like I was the victim. He wasn't the victim. I'd lost everything at that time. But then when I read this, it was the fourth step. And that is to do that thorough inventory of yourself to see whom you might have harmed. And light came into my head. And I said, I was responsible for that. That was me. You know, I withheld important information that if he had known that information, he may not have invested his money. So I realized that I was in the wrong. So that was the first of the steps that I took accountability for. Then the next step was to make amends and I'm not sure what that step is but it's that you seek to make amends with the people you've

harmed and that's when I reached out. I found out what money was still owing to this gentleman because I'd been paying back some of it and when I got that amount I unfortunately was in a position where I was able to pay him in full. So they were very, very, very powerful. And it's not easy either. It's not easy being that ruthlessly honest with yourself. It's not easy knowing that there's some tiny dark side inside of you, that you have that capability to be able to do that. But once you do know it and you make amends, well, then you, as I said earlier, you can move on. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like you learned a lot about forgiveness with others, but I heard you also say forgiveness and compassion with yourself, which is so important. And right, we all make mistakes, whatever that means, you know, but I like what your wife says, imperfectly perfect. Yes, exactly. I think it's very hard to forgive others if you haven't forgiven yourself. I mean, because it takes a great deal of humility to be able to do that. And it's not about, you know, being falsely humble. It's about that recognition. Oh, my gosh, I was capable of doing this, and I'm very sad about it,

and I want to make amends. Yeah. I think that's important. Yeah. Yeah, wonderful. You know, there was the beginning of the book really caught my attention right from the beginning, and there was a part that I want to read to everyone who's listening. And I'd like you to expand on it, David.

And so you said, your life and my life have never been lived before. That's what's new. What we create is truly original and no one else can lay claim to that creation. I felt that was really powerful because I think right now, especially during COVID, people are really searching for their purpose and why are they here and what their uniqueness is. And that's one of the reasons I loved your book. Tell us a bit about what this idea means to you that your life and my life have never been lived before and that what we create is truly original yes i

began to understand that when i first when i wrote my first book even eagles need a push and send it out to publishers and i had an excellent agent in doing that but it was soundly rejected uh by a lot of people a lot of of big publishing companies. And so one goes through that challenge of saying, well, it's not a very good book, or it's worthless, or you've never said anything original. And then, and I think this is a wonderful book for anybody to read it's by robert fritz called the path of least resistance and that's a book about how do you uh create what you want for your life but in a very very uh unique way and and what robert fritz says in the book is exactly uh and I paraphrased him in my book, is that he said, you know, when people tell you that nothing new has ever been invented in the universe,

because people tend to say that, right? And he said, that's not true. New things are being invented every day. And your life, again, your life, you have a unique story. No one has your story. Another person that I love is the philosopher and theologian John O'Donohue, who is magnificent. And one of the things that he says is that, you know, everyone has a different face. You know, and the miracle of the fact that none of us have the same face.

You know, we could say go into a supermarket we could look at someone shopping and we say oh my god there's cinderella over there i'm going to go say hello you go over there she turns around oh it's not cinderella right oh it's not david it's someone else because that face and that body may have seemed similar, but the face is different. So we are, and it's not cliche-ish, we are genuinely unique. And so in that regard, it's part of our journey to say, okay, what is it that I want to contribute to the world? What is it special for me that I want to contribute? Now, you know, people say I've got to find my purpose. Well, let me give you a little shift on looking at it. Look at it in a little different way. Number one, when you look at people

who are quite happy and fulfilled, and I'm not saying jumping up every day with joy. I mean, life can be very difficult at times. But primarily they say, yeah, I'm going in the right direction. I am fulfilled. I am happy in many ways. Then you'll find that there are two things. One is that they are learning and growing. So they're evolving as a human being, and they're making a deliberate attempt to do that. The second thing that they're doing is that

they're contributing to the world. So they're involved in contributing to others and contributing to where they work, contributing to their friends to their family in other words providing value to others doing something that is worthwhile and significant to the other person or relevant so you put those two things together learning and growing and then contributing then what you do is to say okay okay, that actually is my purpose. I call it, in the bigger picture, the march of humanity, is that we're all about learning and growing, evolving, and contributing. So for each individual, it's more about finding out how I could do that best, right?

How I could do that best, right? How I could do that. And if I look at my own children, right, I have five children, four girls and a boy, okay? So my eldest daughter is now senior manager learning development at an airline. My next daughter is an esthetician doing skincare and facials and all that. My son has his tree business. My fourth daughter is, my third daughter, my fourth child is an artist, but does tattoos as well, right? And my fifth child is a family therapist. But they're, so they are all, but they all love what they're doing and know that their happiness comes from serving others in that capacity.

So I think that's an important way to look at finding your purpose. I thought the most impactful thing, I loved everything you just said, but I was thinking about what is it that I want to contribute to the world and really asking yourself that. And I think there's a lot of people, David, that are unfulfilled in their job. Maybe they don't see their job as contributing or they're going through the motions. It really doesn't fuel them. Do you find that as well? Yes, I think that's very, very true. And so when I come across that uh you know the obvious thing is you will find something that you might find fulfilling right that's an obvious thing but that

what i also know is that's maybe not also very pragmatic right now very practical right that family concerns family issues financial, all come into play. So what you're left with potentially is shifting your perspective and not looking outside of yourself to find that purpose. How can I find it inside myself? And I'll give you a classic example, right? I had a family friend who was an airline mechanic at a major airline, right? And I interviewed him for my first book, Even Eagles Need a Push. And I said, tell me about your job and what you do. And he was in a very, very toxic culture where he was working. And he said, it's very, very difficult, David. And I said, well, I said, have you ever felt like you could leave and go

somewhere else? And he said, David, look, I've got four children. I've got a 401. I've got a pension. I've got all of these things coming up. There's no way that I can leave. And I said, well, how long are you going to have to live like this? He said, well, at least another 10 or 15 years. And I said, what does that feel like? He said, it feels damn lousy. And I said, oh, okay. I said, so when you go to work, what are you thinking about when you think about the job you're doing? He said, well, I definitely want to do my best and make sure the engines are in good shape and all that. I said, well, let me give you a way of looking at why your work is so important. I said, I want you to think about me. I want you to think about your

children and your family and all of my family when we get on one of your planes i said i want you to think about us and i want you to think about why it is so important that that we feel safe on your planes and we feel safe because of you because of your commitment to what you're doing we feel safe and I said so you know when you're looking at your work you know this is a magnificent purpose that you have helping us to feel safe well he took a pause cinderella and he said oh my I have never thought about my work like that. And I said, well, if you think about it that way, maybe I'm not going to say you can change that toxic environment, but at least you can manage yourself within that environment until you can get into something else. So so he went within himself, discovered that purpose, realized how important his work was, and then started to live his life in that way. That's powerful. And it shows you that people don't always kind of think about the ripple effects that they create by doing the work that they do or contributing to society the way they do. And there was a part in your book, David,

that it was, you know, people that sometimes have a question where they say, well, you know, I'm not famous or I'm not on TV or I'm not the president of the United States. You know, what difference do I make? And sometimes I honestly think that sometimes, David, you know, well, I'm not on TV

or I'm not doing this or that. But that part spoke to me. And you said in your book, you know, well, I'm not on TV, or I'm not doing this or that. But that part spoke to me. And you said, in your book, you know, that that we all have this perfect purpose. And you said, I guess what I was thinking is, you know, sometimes I think I'm just one person, what difference do I make? I'm not famous, you know? So how would you react to that? Whatever famous means? Well, it's a great it's a great question. And it's one that we all suffer from in many ways, because sadly, we we live in a world of comparison. We're always comparing ourselves to other people and looking at celebrities and looking at people on television and saying, look what they're doing, and I'm really not doing a great deal. But, you know, I've been in this field now professionally

for 45 years, and I have worked all over the world, spoken to hundreds of thousands of people, worked with many of the world's biggest companies. i say that not to brag but but i to say it to to identify the fact that one thing i know is that not everybody can be the president of the united states only one person every four years has that chance right but more importantly cinderella not everyone wants to and people have different levels of motivations and desires. And it's their motivations and their desires that they need to be honest about. You know, you know, if you don't want to if you're happy to drive, you know, a Honda Civic, admit I'm happy to do it. I don't need more than that. You know, i so but if you want to drive a jaguar or

a bmw sure no harm done but you need to be very very honest so we all have different levels of motivation my i have a brother in australia a younger brother who has the lives the simplest life on an island and he i'm a guy who has always been driven and ambitious. He has the most beautiful, idyllic life on this island, water all around him, a fishing boat and all that. He's so happy, and I am so happy for him. I couldn't personally do that. So that's one part of it know know what you really want be honest and don't be influenced by what you others tell you you should want right that's that's one thing um the second part of your question uh is let me just think i just lost my thought i'm sorry i've lost my thought on a live broadcast let Let me have a look.

It's totally fine. I think I was, what I asked about was, you know, I'm just one person, what difference do I make? And I think a lot of that question that, you know, got it. Yeah, I got it. Okay. So the other thing about all of my work is that everybody, and think of the title of the book, Mark of an Eagle, How Your Life Changes the World. And that's the title. And it's a reason for that is that one of the things I've learned is everyone leaves a mark. In every human interaction, you are leaving a mark. And that mark ends up being your legacy. So whenever you go in and you're interacting, buying your coffee at Starbucks or Caribou or wherever you might go somebody there respectfully, kindly, you are leaving a mark on that particular person, whether it's your mail carrier or your garbage guy or whatever it may be. You're leaving marks. We all do. We leave this trail of marks, you know, over a lifetime. So what I'm saying is, for example, and I mentioned in the

book, at the church that I go to, we have a group called Community Meals, where we serve to the homeless, meals to the homeless once a month, right? Well, you wouldn't know who those people were volunteering, right? But I can tell you right now that the people who are our clients who are being served, they know who we are and they are deeply, deeply grateful for the kindness and the practical food that we bring to them. So we all make impressions that leave marks. Yeah, that's really powerful, David. When you think about every interaction, you're leaving a mark and then ultimately that becomes your legacy. It makes me take a step back and think,

am I showing up in those everyday conversations or interactions at Starbucks or with a mail carrier or at the grocery store the way that, yeah, I really want to. Exactly. And there's a lot of work, for example, as you know, about the whole notion of building a personal brand, right? And one of my books is called, other books is called Be Your Own Brand, which is about building personal brands. And the greatest lesson in that book is that people cannot see inside of you. They can't see your intentions. They can only see your actions. So if you want a strong personal brand, make sure that every day your actions enhance the way people perceive you. Because as a result of the impressions you make every day,

as I mentioned, you make your mark, or you build your brand. So it's very, very critical, every one of those impressions. Yeah, that's powerful. I'm thinking about, you know, the question that you had us think about is, what is it that I want to contribute to the world? What else should we consider when we think about our purpose and how to uncover it or live by it, I guess. Well, you know, I'm at a stage in my life where, you know, I'm enjoying flying at 35,000 feet, right? And what I mean by that is kind of looking at the world and humanity in a very global sense. So, of course, when we were younger and I had my five children, what are we doing?

We're working hard to survive, you know, pay the mortgage, save for college, whatever we're doing. So, you know, we're driving along on a freeway more than flying at 35,000 feet. So what I would say to anybody is that we have to understand that the generations that follow us, no matter how young we are right now, the generations that follow us are building a planet built on our actions and what we do. And so part of our purpose is to look and say, are my actions, is my contribution really contributing to making the world a better place? Because I am the beneficiary of people who were committed to doing that, no matter what it was.

And I say whether they built businesses that, you know, employed lots of people and provided provided security and the ability to do all the things that they wanted to do. And that's when I work with CEOs. I'm always coaching them and saying, look, just understand that if you did not do anything for charity, that if you run a business that provides a lot of people with the ability to live a financially successful life, then you've made one heck of a contribution. Now, there's obviously many other ways we can do it. One of my best friends is the executive director of a wonderful not-for-profit,

and she's built this fantastic organization in the Twin Cities. And so she does it in a different way. But we all, if we look at ourselves as, hey, my little bit matters, right?

One of the people I quote in the book says, you know, on planet Earth, on spaceship Earth, there are no passengers, only crew. Right? So, you know, that we're crew, everyone on the planet is crew, whether we know it or not, but we are. That's powerful. And I'm curious, as you kind of think about, David, the people who are listening,

and it, you know, I think maybe that's, it's hard to keep in mind every day, that your little bit matters. And and maybe you what you're saying is comparison right we can compare ourselves to other people or we can think you know do this my this my little part as being a crew really matter so how would you encourage people to keep that in mind or live with that idea every day well by becoming right, consciously raise your level of awareness so that when you start your day, you start. One of the disciplines that I've had for 40 years is making sure that I have at least a half an hour in the morning to reflect and think about my day before I get into the day. Because that is a way of moving away the cobwebs of negativity and looking at to the possibility of that particular day. That is a very important discipline. And then as a part of that, I say, David, be aware. And so when I go out into the day, I'm endeavoring to make sure, again, I'm coming back a little bit, is that I realize that whoever I meet, wherever I go, is an opportunity to make a connection.

Right? And in some way, whether we realize it or not, we can make a person's day merely by smiling at them. And so it's often in the simplest acts because what we don't know is how that person is possibly struggling. You know, I do this only because of my own children who's worked their way through college being waiters and waitresses

and being stiffed on tips so often, right? And saying, oh my God, Dad, I worked for this table for 12 and for three hours and they each gave me a dollar and something like that. And so what I do today is I don't care whether the service is bad or whether you know whatever it is I never tip less than 20 percent only because I can afford to do it and if that person is working in that way then I know that that makes a huge difference to them so there's so many things we can do, Cindra.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. One of the things I also liked about your book, David, is when you were talking about, as a team, finding purpose as a team. And you were talking about, I think you said, all winning teams are aligned behind a common purpose. So how would you proceed if you're working with a team or for us who might work with a team? How could we find our common purpose? It begins with understanding the difference between cooperation and collaboration.

So although they're kind of synonyms in the English language, in the business world, I think that we have learned to distinguish the difference. So you can have a really good working climate where everyone's cooperating, but they may not be collaborating in the way that they could be collaborating. And let me explain what I mean by that. So purpose always asks the question, why are we here? That's what it's asking. Why are we here?

So the team has to come up with the answer to that question. We are here to our purpose is to whatever it might be so that is our common purpose and and that can take that that can take a lot of wrestling i mean we we spent mornings at least sometimes a day or so with a team coming up with a common purpose statement uh because you're shifting people's perspective because people are so oriented towards what are our goals, right? Well, goals follow purpose because if we are fulfilling our purpose, then we will be achieving our goals, you know, or we have a better chance to achieve our goals. So you have your common purpose and everyone agrees that is our purpose.

Then collaboration is then identifying how each member of the team can best contribute to that. So, you know, knowing exactly what the individual strengths and weaknesses are of each team member. So then you make sure that each team member comes from a place of strength. So, you know, if you do a sporting analogy, you're a sports psychologist, is that right? Yes, yes. Yes, sports psychologist. So you've got a team out there. Well, if you, they're playing in the best positions, whatever that may be. Well, if you shift them around into positions that are not their strength, you have a very weak team.

And so you have a group of people who have a lot of strength, but they're not collaborating in the way that they need to be collaborating. So you have to move people into their position of strength. And that's how you get an aligned team working well together. That's at least the beginning of it. Yeah, that sounds wonderful. I could imagine that it takes teams a while to write their common purpose statement. And I appreciate the question that you just gave us, is why are we here and helping us answer that as a team. It's very important. Yeah, yeah. And tell us about why you see the importance or tell us a bit more about that, David. Well, unless we know what we are supposed to contribute to the company or the business,

for example, then we're going off and doing our own thing. So one of the common problems in businesses that we know is what they call being siloed. Right? Businesses are siloed. Everyone's in their own area doing their own thing, very little communication between each of the divisions or the groups that are supporting each other. So they're siloed. Now, why that causes problems is because, again,

they don't know how what they do impacts their teammates in another group or in another division. So I, for example, work with a group that were in the financial division. And the man in charge of that was called the controller, right? He was called the controller. And what he saw as his job was to control the money, right? He was controlling the money because he wanted to make sure none of these salespeople, you know, got out of control and spent too much money. Or any of some of these other managers in these other divisions. I'm going to control everything.

Well, what that did was that made, set up a them and us situation. It was them against us. And rather than him realizing, no, you're not about controlling the money. You're about helping people understand why we need to make a profit and why we need to control our expenses to help make that profit. But it's not about coming down hard on others because they're spending too much money. It's educating and teaching. So when I come from that place of, okay, this is my contribution, it changes the whole dynamics from a them and us to a we. Does that make sense? Yeah. That makes complete sense.

Yeah. We're focused more on we and through these individual silos and we're able to come together and work together towards a common goal once we've decided what that purpose is. And I also could see then you feel more like you contribute to the main mission, right? You can see your individual contribution really mattering. Well, and what is really critical about that also is that when each team member has identified what they want their contribution to be, then what you have within an organization is that you have, and we started at the very beginning talking about inspiration. Well, now you're getting to people who are starting to feel a sense of engagement. They're starting to feel, oh, OK, so what I do every day does matter. I mean, if I don't do this well, that impacts this person and that impacts that person, and you have that chain effect.

But if I do do my job well, I have the opposite. In other words, I'm making an impact, and that ripple effect is a positive impact. And then people get inspired, they get engaged, and you have, again, as I said at the beginning, a whole new level of creativity and innovation. Yeah, wonderful. You know, there's also a part in your book where you're talking about the past, and you said, you know, the past contains two primary benefits, good memories and wisdom. And I really loved the wisdom piece. And I'm thinking about how you have so much wisdom, David. But, you know, so many people kind of beat themselves up for the past. And I think

that kind of gets in the way of living with purpose and contribution and connection. And I'm curious, you know, what wisdom would you have to help us each channel our own wisdom that we have to help us leave a mark? Well, as you mentioned, we have to reconcile that we can't do anything about the past except to, if we have harmed people, to do our best to make amends, but we cannot undo it. So reconciling that, and it's not necessarily easy, and it can take some But unless we do it, then we're carrying a backpack of unnecessary regret. And so we're going into the future with a heavy load. Right. So what we have to do with everything we've learned is then the mistakes we've made or how we've failed is to then say, all right, let me now do an inventory of of what i have learned and that learning is the wisdom that i'm carrying forward and unfortunately most wisdom isn't passed on it is earned we earn our wisdom by by the mistakes that we that we make in life uh so what i'm sharing with you and and your audience today is simply

uh the result of living having lived you know a fairly good length of time on this planet so uh so we all have even i know let me give you a classic example of what's happening to me right at the moment right so I did share a little bit before we got online here um three years ago uh when I it was in the spring of 2018 I was doing an inventory of my life because one of the things that we do with our clients is that we put them through and when we're working with them, envisioning the future, we try to personalize it and just say, okay, all of us have a one day I'm gonna list.

For example, people come up to me and they say, oh, you grew up in Australia? And I say, yeah, I did. They said, oh, one day I'm gonna go to Australia. So it's that sort of list, whatever it is. One day I'm gonna skydive or one day it's that sort of list, whatever it is, one day, I'm going to skydive, or one day, I'm going to write a book or whatever it might be. So I was thinking to myself, wow, okay, what's on the top of your list? And I said, one day, I'm going to go to

college. I had never spent a day in college, I paid for college for my children, but I never been to college myself. And I said, well, you're going to be 72 in a couple of months. You better get going. So I did everything I needed to do. And I enrolled at the University of Minnesota and I became a freshman. I'm going to be the longest freshman in history. It's going to take me five years to get the credits I need before I'm a sophomore, but that's another story. story but but so I'm coming right back to wisdom so I'm in a class right now believe it or not my second writing class even though I've written books I love to do these writing classes and so 20 of the students are somewhere between

18 and 22 they're they're to seniors. And every week, we have to write an essay, and then we give feedback to each other on the essays. So now, now just think about this. You've got 18 to 22 year olds, and people would say, well, what wisdom do they have? Well, these are personal essays. So we're learning about each other from reading these essays. I, Cinder, am blown away by what people are writing. These young people, the lives that they've lived, what they're sharing, and the beauty of how they've evolved and survived some of these most challenging situations. So no matter where we are, we have wisdom. And we can share that with others.

Thank you for sharing that. And I'm thinking also, personally, you keep growing and learning, right? Which is, you said, is one of the attributes of somebody who is fulfilled. So, David, this is the way I want to close. There was this powerful statement in your book that I'd love for you to talk about. So you said, it is the outcome of realizing the enormous potential that exists within you, the belief that there is a special purpose for your existence, the awareness that you share, responsibility for what happens in our world, and the commitment to fully utilizing your gifts and talents to create a rich and rewarding life.

I put a couple stars by that and highlighted it. Tell us a little bit more about that statement as we close. Well, what I discovered was that we don't set out to make a mark. Making a mark in the world is a result. And so all of the things that you just mentioned are how we do make a mark. It is by living our purpose, finding a purpose and living it out. It's about taking the time to really look at, okay, what are my attributes? You know, what am I good at?

What do I find easy to do? What is one of my special abilities? By taking the time to do an inventory of that and then taking responsibility for what happens in our world uh it is it is that recognition that my actions as we talked so much about in this uh interview uh make a difference they they truly do they make a big difference in the in the in that marsh of humanity uh my i my father passed away several years ago uh was his birthday yesterday and my morning journal was just writing about my dad if you've never heard of most people

on the planet hasn't heard of uh but he had he left a legacy with me and he left a legacy with my two brothers and the tributes to him on Facebook a man who'd been gone eight years were amazing so we it's very important not to diminish what we bring to the world thank you David you delivered a very powerful message for each one of us today um I most appreciate here's here's some of the things I wrote down as a way to summarize I appreciate that you said you know the people that report feeling most fulfilled are the ones that keep growing and learning and they contribute to the world. You asked us to think about how our own actions make a difference.

And you asked us to think about what do we want to contribute to the world? You shared with us a little bit about our brand and helping us think about how every action matters, even the grocery store interactions or the interactions we have with the mail people who drop off our mail. And then you talked a little bit about teams and how we can each come together with thinking about why we're here. So for those of us who are joining live, I want to thank you for joining us live. And Tina has a question about where can we find

your books and where can we order them? Well, thank you for that. Well, first of all, that great warehouse in the sky called Amazon. That's always the way you can get any of my books. And that's actually the best place. I mean, you could send me an email. If you wanted an autographed copy, you could send me an email to info at davidmcnally.com. And I'd be happy to ship one to you from there. But yeah, both places you can get the books. And all of my books, except one, is on Audible. So if you love to listen to books, they're all on Audible. And that's a great way to really learn. Wonderful. And the book we talked about today is Mark of an Eagle, How Your Life

Changes the World. Thank you so much, David McNally. I'm really grateful that you spent the time with us today. And I appreciate all that you do in the world and helping us understand the mark we leave. So grateful for you. And I appreciate you joining us today. Thanks a lot, Sandra. My pleasure. And thank you too. Bye bye now. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes

and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.