High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 589: Discover Your Why, How and What with Dr. Gary Sanchez, Founder and CEO of The Why Institute

Episode Date: December 30, 2023

Dr. Gary Sanchez is an International speaker, author, dentist, and inventor. He is best known as “Dr. WHY” for discovering the 9 WHYs, developing the WHY Discovery Tool, the WHY.os Discovery (WHY Operating System), as the Founder and CEO of the WHY Institute.   Many people talk about the power of knowing your WHY, but Dr. Sanchez took it from concept to reality to activation when he created the world’s first WHY Discovery tool to help people accurately and quickly discover their WHY in under 5 minutes. In 2021, WHY Institute launched the WHY.os Discovery which discovers your WHY, HOW, and WHAT and creates your personal brand message for you in under 10 minutes.   Dr. Sanchez is the author of the book The Power of the 9 WHYs: How People and Teams Get Clear, Stand Out and Play Bigger which helps readers deep dive into understanding who they are, strip away their mask to see their real gifts and then equip them to be themselves by living their WHY. In this podcast, Gary and Cindra talk about: The 9 Different Why’s How you can create a personal brand message  Why people don’t take time to understand their why Why you should understand your why   HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/589 FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ FOLLOW CINDRA ON X: 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  

Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Dr. Cindra Kampoff, keynote speaker and founder of the Mentally Strong Institute. And today we are talking about how you can discover your why, how, and what with Dr. Gary Sanchez. I recently met Dr. Gary at a Genius Network event and I thought, yes, I need to have him on the podcast because I think that today what we're going to talk about is what a lot of people don't really take time to consider and that is your why, how, and what. Dr. Gary Sanchez is an international speaker, an author, and former dentist. You know, many people talk about the power of knowing your why, but he took it from concept to reality to activation, where he created the world's first why discovery tool to help people accurately and quickly discover their why

in under five minutes. And in 2021, the Why Institute, where Dr. Gary is the founder and CEO, launched the Why Operating System, which helps you discover your why, how, and what, and helps you create a personal brand message for you in under 10 minutes. Dr. Sanchez is the author of the book The Power of the Nine Whys, How People and Teams Get Clear, Stand Out, and Play Bigger. And in this episode, Dr. Gary and I talk about the nine different whys, how you can create a personal brand message and why that's important, why people don't really take time to understand their why and why you should understand your why.

If you'd like to see the full show notes and description of this episode, you can head over to cindracampoff.com slash 589 for episode 589. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review. If you are on Apple Podcasts, for example, you can just scroll up and leave us a rating review there.

Or wherever you're listening, we would be so grateful. This just helps us reach more and more people each and every week. All right, without further ado, let's bring on Dr. Gary Sanchez. Dr. Gary, thank you so much for joining us on the High Performance Mindset Podcast. I'm so excited to talk to you about the Y Institute and the Y operating system. So welcome to the High Performance Mindset. Well, thank you, Sandra. I'm excited to be here. This is going to be fun.

We got a lot to talk about. We have so much to talk about. And I thought we could just start. And why don't you just tell us a little bit about what you're passionate about? Well, obviously, at this point, it's about knowing your why, right? When you know your why, what you do has more impact. But it hasn't always been that way, for sure. I was a dentist, Sindra, for 32 years. So what does a dentist know about knowing your why? Not much, right? When I got out of dental school in 1988, seems like yesterday, but it was 1988, the advice that I was given by the gurus of that time was build a great product and people will come, right? Go out and do the best job you can. People will naturally and mysteriously find out about you is what I was told. So I spent 20 years doing that, reaching the highest levels you could get in the industry, studying with the

best mentors, building a beautiful practice, buying all the technology, training a great team, all the stuff. I had a great what, but I still blended in with everybody else who says, yeah, I'm a dentist too. And so maybe some of your listeners can relate to that feeling like, hey, if I just, right, if I just do a great job, people will find me. And I became very disillusioned with that. My practice was not growing like I thought it was. I'd never worked so hard at something and not gotten the results that I thought I would. And that's when I heard about this concept of why. So that was 14 years ago. I heard Simon Sinek's TED Talk. Have you heard that? Of course. I love it. And one of my pillars of my book is knowing what your purpose is. So I think today's conversation is so aligned with both of us and what we do and why we do it.

Yeah, exactly. And that's a great concept. Knowing your why sounds wonderful. Sounded great to me too. I listened to that podcast probably 20, 30 times. I read his book many different times and I said, man, got a great what, but I don't know my why. And so I called Simon and I said, I need you to help me discover my why. So he and I spent about eight months together going back through my life, looking for clues. He didn't really have a process back then. And we just kind of kept working with it and working with it. I finally figured out my why. My why is to find a better way and share it, to find a better way and share it. Everything in my life has always been about finding better ways to do things and then sharing them with the world. I have a lot of patents and products and inventions that are better ways of doing things. So I stopped talking about what we

do in our practice, right? Crowns, bridges, fillings, all that fun stuff. And I started talking about why we do what we do and what we believe, right? We believe that life is better when you have great teeth. In fact, you can't have a good life if you have bad teeth. That's true. Yeah. And so my practice is attracting all the right people to us. And we went from just getting by, having four to six new patients a month, to having abundance, having 35 to 45 patients every month. And this went on year after year

for many years in a row until I finally sold my practice. But the two most important things I learned during that time were this. Number one is if you talk about what you do, I'm a coach, I'm a lawyer, I'm a dentist, I'm a whatever it is you do, you blend in with everybody else who does what you do, right? When you talk about what you do, you blend in with everybody else who does what you do, right? When you talk about what you do, you blend in with everyone else who does what you do. But when you talk about why you do what you do and what you believe, you stand out from everyone else who does what you do. But in order to do that, you have to know what your why is. So this concept of knowing your why is just that, a concept, unless you know your why. Yeah. And I think what's hard is people just say, well, okay, what's my why? And that's really hard

to figure out. I think it's like, I could imagine that eight months with Simon Sinek, you're like pulling back the layers of, like the layers of an onion. Like, why is it that I do what I do? And it's hard for people to really understand it. And that's why I like your operating system is because I did the assessment and we'll talk a little bit about that today, but because it's, it helps you really hone in on that. It doesn't take months to figure out. No. And you know, since my why was to find a, is to find a better way and share it, I went back and figured out what Simon was trying to do and I made it better. So instead of taking six or eight or 10 months, I could sit down with you in about an hour and help you discover your why. And I did this for

thousands and thousands of people for free all over the world on stages, on Skype. And you got to remember what I was a dentist, right? So while you're sitting in my chair getting numb, I'm going to help you discover your why. So you're doing both for a while. Both for many, many years. And I never did this to build a business. This was not what I set out to do. It's just something now that I feel like I have to do because I feel like I cracked this code on knowing what your why is. I did this for so many people that I started to notice patterns and trends and similarities. And I figured out, Sindra, that there's only nine different whys. And that was the most important thing that I discovered. Once I figured out there was nine whys, then I had an endpoint. Then we could get to a place.

Then I could help people do this in about 15 minutes. Then I could train other people to do it. And then I got lots and lots of data. And with that data, I was able to develop the algorithm and write the software where in 2016, we launched the why discovery that just found your why. And I gave it away to hundreds of thousands of people for free to test it. And I've done more why discoveries than anybody in the world. And I was only about 70% accurate. So of everything you do, right? Your passion, your purpose, your direction, your messaging, your marketing, your branding,

all of that is based on your why. And you don't have it right. It's probably not a good thing. Yeah, that's not. So the why discovery was 100% accurate. And then in 2021, we launched the YOS discovery that finds your why, your how, and your what, and builds your message for you in about eight minutes. And that's the one that you took.

And so I know that was helpful, but it kind of brings us up to speed, I think. Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell us a bit about your journey of just starting the Y Institute. And then we'll dive into the nine Ys. But I'm curious, when did you then say, okay, I'm done being a dentist, sell your practice and just do this full time? And then tell us a bit about what the purpose of the Y Institute really is. Well, like I said, I started doing it more and more and more. And as what happened is, dentists, I was in these dental study groups and they started asking me as my practice took off, they said, can you help me do the same

thing? So I started helping dentists and I helped a few hundred dentists. And then I started getting calls from lawyers and chiropractors and financial groups. And the businesses kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And now we've done this with over a thousand companies and we've helped many hundreds of thousands of people discover their why, how, and what. But what really happened, Sandra, was I went to this event in Santa Fe about three and a half years ago and maybe ate and drank a little bit too much and woke up with a really bad headache, took a couple Advil, went back to bed. Not a big deal. Not unusual. I mean, not that I did that often, but I mean, it, um, one of the Advil didn't dissolve and it lodged in my GI tract and it actually burnt a hole right where there was an artery. And I started bleeding

internally and I didn't know it. Wow. And 11, uh, I, uh, was in Santa Fe. I came back to Albuquerque where I live, actually went and worked out, just wasn't feeling good. And then I started throwing up blood and blood was coming out everywhere. I ended up going to the ER. They made me wait 11 hours there. By the time they finally admitted me, my blood pressure was 60 over 30. I'd lost half my blood. I know you weren't expecting this story, but I wasn't.

I didn't know this. Actually, what happened. So I got, I was finally admitted blood in your GI tract acts like a laxative. So you have to use the restroom a lot. I got up to use the restroom, blocked the door behind me. Cause I wasn't in a private room and I passed out, hit my head on the sink and ended up in a pool of blood in the, in this bathroom. And luckily I woke up, I pushed the door open and then I passed out again. Next day I know I wake up, I'm in a bed, all my clothes are cut off. I have the two pads on me. They had to revive me off to surgery, couldn't get to the bleed. They did a CAT scan to see if I'd stopped bleeding and they blew out my arm. I started

getting blood clots in my arms, growing into my lungs. Doctor comes in and says, hey, we've got to treat those blood clots because if we don't, you're going to die from the blood clots. But if we do, we can't stop the bleed. And you're going to die from the bleed. I said, that's not a good option there. And I said, what are we going to do? And he said, I don't know. And then my phone rang and it was a buddy of mine that's a cardiologist at the hospital. And he said, Hey, I saw that you're here and I saw what they're going to do. And I don't like what's going to happen and I'm going to take over. So anyways, I was in the ICU for nine days. A lot of crazy stuff happened in there, but obviously I survived. I had to go to bed one evening with an IV of heparin in and hope that I

didn't bleed, which I didn't. And then things got better. But when I got back to my practice syndrome, one of my patients that was in his middle 80s sat down with me and he said, you know, Gary, you got a second chance on life here. And when you get to be my age and you look back on your life, are you going to be glad you stayed a dentist? Are you going to wish you took this Y thing to the world? I said, I'm going to wish that I took this Y thing to the world. He says, well, I think you know what you need to do. And so that's when I sold my practice. That's been about three and a half years ago. And it's been an amazing ride. A lot of mistakes. What does a dentist know about A, creating software? What does a dentist know about bringing this to the world? Not much. But when what you do is in line with why you do what you do, you have passion for what you do. I have unbelievable amount of passion and energy for this. And we're going to take this to a billion people in the next 15 years. I know that's going to happen. And it's been a fascinating ride, which we could talk more about if you want it, but it's not what you were expecting me to say, probably. Not what I expected. And when you were just

telling me this story, I just got goosebumps, right? Because I was just thinking about these really crucible moments in our lives that changed the trajectory of our whole lives. I was actually at the 2013 Boston Marathon, the day that it bombed, right? And honestly, this is a really interesting connection to you is as I sat in that room, actually, we were trying to decide if, you know, what we're going to do. And we had heard that there was, you know, there's a rumor that there was a bomb near us or in our hotel because we were like two blocks away. All I could think about was my purpose and my why. And that was actually that moment that changed the trajectory of my own life. I wouldn't have had this podcast. I wouldn't be a speaker. I wouldn't have written a book. I mean, all these things that I was like, hey, this is my last,

this is, you know, we only got one life. Can you really live it on purpose? And what a powerful story that a patient gave you that advice. How cool is that? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I'm so glad I got that advice. You know, I was doing both things. I was trying to help people discover their why on the weekends and at nights and between patients.

And then I was trying to be a dentist during the day and probably not doing either of them. Well, for sure, not doing either of them to the level that really needed to be done. But it's hard because at this point, my dental practice was great. I was only working three days a week. I was making great money. I had it all set up. I could have just wrote it out. I did, you know, playing golf and doing all those things and not, not really having to, I wasn't living my passion. I was just living. Yeah. Yeah. That's powerful. And you had to give up something that was, you know, well-established that you had been working decades to, to build, to really follow your passion and your why. Tell us a bit about, because I think as people listen to your bio and hear of all the things you're doing,

they might say, well, this must be easy for Dr. Gary. But tell us about those failures along the way, because I think those are really powerful. Because as people are following their big dreams, it's helpful to be inspired when other people don't have it perfect, even though we might see that they're perfect on the outside. Yeah. And, you know, back in 20, let's see. So 2009 is when I discovered my why. And then I developed all this over the next couple of years.

And then I partnered with a couple of people that were not the right ones to partner with, not bad people, just the wrong ones doing it for the wrong reason. And I thought it was going to help me and it ended up hurting me. And I had to blow up that company and start all over in 2016 and start from scratch again. And I didn't know much about the internet world. I didn't know much about which CRM to pick and which web developer to use and what people to hire and how to do any of that. And I fumbled and made mistakes and threw away money and wasted time and did a lot of stuff that a lot of people listening might have done themselves. But that's just what you have to go through, at least for me. And so now I'm at a much different place. What happened was, and you and I talked about this before we got on today, is I had

developed a process that I was using to sit down with somebody to help them discover their why. And so it would take us about an hour. And then I taught other people how to do this. And as soon as I taught other people how to do it, they started doing it on their own. And then I wasn't getting any compensation for what they were doing. And it was something you developed. It's something I developed. So they're kind of stealing my IP and I didn't really understand how that all worked. And that was very frustrating. And that's when I decided again, this isn't the right path.

But once I turned it into software, if I'm the only one that can help someone discover their why, and it takes me an hour to do it, how many people am I going to help in my lifetime? How big of an impact am I really going to have? Not much. Now that we've been able to turn it into software and now that we've been able to help you not only find your why, but your how and your what

and build your message for you and it takes about eight minutes. Now I can help people all over the world, which we do. Now we have hundreds of coaches that are utilizing this software. Now we can speak at large events. And instead of talking about the concept of why, the audience actually gets to discover their why, their how, and their what, and know how to say it so they can use it in their life. So we went from concept to application to now scaling it. Yeah, that's incredible.

Concept to reality to application to now scaling it. So it's been a fascinating journey. Again, not straight lined. Never did I expect that this is what I would be doing. Not that I even wanted to do this, but I feel like I have to do this. And I love every minute of it though. Love every minute. And I can tell by the conviction in your voice that it's not something that you feel like you have to do, but you want to do and you're inspired to do and you're passionate about. And especially 1 billion people in 15 years, right? You need a system to be able to help 1 billion people really get to understand their why. Let's talk about your nine whys, and then we'll go into the operating system, and you can describe that a little bit to us. But your book, The Power of the Nine Whys,

explores these whys. Tell us first, like, why should we know our why? Well, when you know your why, what you do has more impact, has more meaning. And a lot of people, when I say that, they'll say, yeah, I know my why. And, and they'll take out their phone and they'll show me pictures of their kids and say, well, this is my why, this is why I do what I do. Or they'll show me a picture of a little red dress and say, I got to get into this dress in six months. So this is why I'm working out the way I'm working out. Or maybe it's their business or their book that they just wrote. And what they're talking about is really valuable, but that's a short-term motivation for doing things the way they're doing it. When their kids grow up or their business moves on, they lose their why. So what we're talking about is something even more profound.

Why you do what you do everywhere you go. Why you operate the way you operate. So let me ask the audience some questions. And obviously, they're not going to get to answer, but just something to think about. Think about this for a minute. Why do you do what you do? And maybe even more importantly, sometimes, why don't other people just do things the way you think they should be done? Why do they do it their own way? Why do you have energy for some things and not others? Why are you passionate about some things and not others? Why do you walk into a room and quickly connect with some people and others you don't connect with at all? Why do you act the way you act? Why do you react the way that you react? And why should I choose you? And those are some very challenging questions. But when you know your why, those questions become very easy to

answer. And you know it when you can say it. When it's not just a feeling or a thinking, I kind of know what it is. It's when you can say it and you can use it, that's when you know it. And that's what the why discovery and the YOS, the why operating system discovery will help you do. But in doing this, Sandra, for so many, I was working with this big group of lawyers in Florida. I was supposed to be on stage for about 45 minutes. I ended up being on stage for 13 hours and about halfway, I had to take one at a time up on stage with me and discover their why in front of the audience. And about halfway through the day, this one lady raised her hand, this lawyer raised her hand, and she said, hey, Gary, how many whys are there? I thought, I don't know.

I never even thought of that. And I started to keep track. And as I kept track, the same nine kept showing up over and over and over. And that's where the nine whys came from. But here's something for everybody that's listening, that's trying to do something at a very high level. So here's what happened to me. Imagine trying to create an amazing painting. You're a painter.

And you become emotionally involved with this painting, physically involved with it. You spend months and months developing this masterpiece up on the wall. Once it's on the wall, there are other ways now to get to that same painting. You could do paint by numbers. You could take a picture of it and break it down and create the outline, and now you could paint it. That's what happened to me. It took me years to figure out there were nine whys.

But once I saw that there were nine whys, I figured out another way to get to them where I didn't have to listen to story after story after story. Yeah. Because your why is, yeah, it's a lot better when you don't have to take the long road. There's a shortcut to it. Well, when you asked those questions, Gary, I thought to myself like, okay, how do I do things different than anyone else? And why do people come to this podcast versus others? And I just got this compliment last week from a guest who had been on and then she started listening to like all the other episodes. And she said, you know, what I love about your podcast is it's really simple. And it's like, easy to implement,

you always create tools or always share that, the how, right? And that, that comes from my own experience as a college athlete who was really successful and then got in my own way and got in my own head and couldn't figure it out because I was reading all about these, this theory of performance psychology instead of the how. And so that's actually part of my mission and my purpose is to make things really simple, to break it down into tools so people actually know how to implement it. Instead of just kind of say, you know, things like, oh, just be positive. That doesn't always help people. Right. And so when I took the assessment, the thing that was really cool and I'll read you my results.

My why is I believe that success happens when I contribute to the greater cause, which is true. Like I believe success happens when I make the world a better place or when I contribute in a powerful way. My how is how I do that is by finding better ways and sharing them, which is true. I want to like make it simple and easy to understand. It needs to be something that can make sense or people aren't going to implement it if it doesn't make sense to them. And then the what is ultimately what I bring are solutions that make sense,

which is true, right? Like, can I help people develop this toolkit so that, you know, they, they know what to do when instead of just like struggling. And that's what I do in my private practice when I work with, you know, entrepreneurs or business leaders or athletes is like help them figure out a tool that makes sense so they know how to implement in their lives. So when I got the results, I was like, absolutely. This is, this is, it felt like it was described me to a T. Hi, this is Cyndra Campoff. And thanks for listening to the High Performance Mindset. Did you know that the ideas we share in the show are things we actually specialize in

implementing? If you want to become mentally stronger, lead your team more effectively and get to your goals quicker. Visit freementalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free mental breakthrough call with one of our certified coaches. Again, that's freementalbreakthroughcall.com to sign up for your free call. Talk to you soon. Yeah. So let's go back to that. What Cinder's talking about is there's the why discovery that finds just your why. And then there's the YOS,

why operating system discovery that finds your why, how, and what. And so Cinder took that one. And what it tells us is that you feel successful when you're able to help other people have a bigger impact, right? You want to be that pebble that causes the ripple effect in the lives of others because the better they do, the better you do, right? Yes. How you do that is by constantly searching for better ways. You're always on your podcast. I mean, people are sharing better ways one after the other, after the other. That's true. You're sharing a better way today.

Yeah. Yeah. So like 588 episodes, I think you said, or 89 or whatever it is. You might be 589, I don't remember. But ultimately what you bring are solutions that make sense, right? Yes. And so if it doesn't make sense, do you want it? No, because people can't implement it. People don't know what to do with it, right? And so that's actually one of my biggest pet peeves is when people in my field, they might give a talk and then they're so high level and it just seems like they're just talking to say words and they don't give people the tools or the step-by-steps or the, this is how I did it.

It's just mumble jumble, right? Like that I can't implement it if you're just like up here. So if you're listening at a place where you can write something down, write this down, write these three words down, contribute, better way. Well, it's more than three. It's going to be five words. Contribute, better way, make sense. So, Sindra's why is contribute, to contribute to greater cost. Her how is to find a better way. And what she brings are solutions that make sense. So, those three words, if you have an idea that you want to bring to Cindra and you want to get her buy-in,

her decision-making process is, it has to have an impact. It's got to be better than what we're currently doing. And it's got to make sense. That's true. Yep. Yeah. And if I showed you that, if I said, Cindra, let me show you how this is going to help you have a bigger impact. Let me show you how this is better than what you're currently doing. And let me show you how this makes sense and it's easy to implement. How do you feel about it? Well, I think about things I've recently decided to do in my business that it made better sense than what we are doing in a way for us to contribute. And it, you know, it was better in terms of we weren't doing this system before. So absolutely. And I love that when you know someone's why, you can understand more about how they make decisions.

And how, tell us a bit more about like how, if I can find out, let's say people in my businesses, in my business, right? My sister, for example, who's my partner. If I knew her why with your operating system, how could that also help me? And tell us about the bigger, you know, the bigger impact you can make in organizations by understanding everyone's why. Yeah. So if I were coaching now, Sindra, I would know exactly how to develop a program for her where she's going to love doing it because it's going to be about contribute better way and make sense how she can have a bigger impact how it makes how it's better than what she's currently doing and how it makes sense so i'll know now i know the language that cindra speaks so i can talk to you we're all familiar

with the golden rule right right? Golden rule is treat everybody the way you want to be treated. Well, what if you don't want to be treated the way I want to be treated? That's not going to work then, right? So that's why we use the platinum rule, which is treat others the way they want to be treated. Well, how do you do that? Well, you do that by knowing their YOS, because now I know what language Sindra speaks. So I'll know how to connect to her in a way where she feels heard, where she feels valued, where she feels like and knows that I get her. I understand her because it's all going to be about contribute, better way, make sense. Now, if you can do this for your entire team,

you can make sure that each person on your team not only feels valued, but you can put them in the right place where they love what they're doing. And there's such a big difference between being able to do something and loving what you're doing. So if you can build your team around loving what they're doing, you can take them from good to great, average to good, not good to better. I'll give you an example. I was in a golf tournament about, well, it was in 2014. And what happens to me kind of everywhere I go now is somebody will say, hey, Gary, can you help so-and-so discover their YOS? Right? So this was the new baseball coach for New Mexico State University. His name is Brian Green. You can look him up.

He took over the worst program in the nation. 10-year slump. And so I sat down with him. We discovered his why, how, and what. His why was to create relationships based upon trust. His how was doing things the right way. And ultimately what he brings is a way to contribute. He said, man, that is me to a T. And he said, I need you to help me with my team. That's what I talk about. That's what I preach.

I need to get this message across to my team. So I went down and worked with him, his assistant, assistant, his coaches, assistant coaches, and their entire team. And we developed this matrix that had who they are, what position they played, what's their why, how, and what. When we went to lunch, I said, Brian, I want you to circle your favorite players. So he starts circling all of his favorite players. They all ended up having the why of trust or right way. And I said, Brian, if you could have a team made up mostly of those players, how would that feel to you? He said, man, that is what I'm looking for. I would love that. So he started using it to recruit and to build his team based on that. He ended up having the

biggest turnaround in the history of the NCAA. He went on to have four 34 plus win seasons in a row, nine all-Americans and 12 players taken in the major league draft. Well, they never had one in the history of the school. He gets hired away to Washington State, which is on its own 10 year slump, turns them around. And then I just saw him a couple of months ago and I said, how are things going, Brian? He said, well, I just hit the pinnacle of NCAA baseball. I'm the new head coach for the Wichita State University. And that's one of the premier programs in the nation. And I said, why do you feel like you've had so much success?

He said, I think the secret to my success is I build everything around their YOS. I know who I have. I know where to best utilize them. And I know how to build a team based on that. And now he travels around the country speaking on it, but that's what got him to where he is. So this podcast is about performing at the highest level, right? Peak performance. Yes. I believe that the first step in performing at the highest level is self-awareness. And I know you do too.

I believe that too. Yep. Yeah. You need to understand yourself and understand, you know, what are your triggers? Well, what, what, what, what are you passionate about? You need to understand yourself before you, you can even be at the highest level for sure. And the first step in self-awareness is knowing your why. There are a lot of great assessments out there. Myers, Briggs, Colby, Strain Finder, DISC, I go on and on and on, and they're really good. And we like them and we use them. But those are how you take action, not why you take action. Start with the why. The rest will be even more powerful. So step one is discovering your why.

And even better is discovering your YOS, your Y operating system. It's not a matter of YOS is better than any of the others because it's not. It's just a matter of sequence. And everything really comes down to sequence. You got to do the right things in the right order to get the right result. Start with it. It makes all the rest better. I also liked in your book when you were talking about the nine whys and your book, again, The Power of the Nine Whys, you talked about how you could use this

why, how, and what as a personal branding statement. And I thought, wow, isn't that cool to think about how not only can you use it to build a better team, but also how you can describe to people in a better way why you do what you do and how you do it. Tell us about how people might use that as a personal branding statement. Yeah. I'll give you an example that everybody's going to know. And that is Steve Jobs because everybody's familiar with him. Steve Jobs, why is to challenge the status quo and think differently. So if you, again, if you have a pen or pencil, write down challenge, how he does that is by finding better ways and sharing them. And ultimately what he brings are simple solutions. So it's challenge, better way, simplify, challenge, better way, simplify.

So if you know anything about his life, you know, he went off to college, didn't want to go the way that they said he should go, dropped out, challenged it, dropped out, found a better way, sneaking into the classes he wanted to go to, and then simplified it down to just a couple of classes. So in everything he does, he challenges the status quo, finds better ways, simplifies it towards usable. You know how he dressed, right? Same thing every day. Black mock turtleneck, jeans, tennis shoes. That is also, Apple is a reflection of steve jobs

in everything apple does they challenge the status quo what was do you remember what the phone was before this phone before the iphone remember everybody had oh yeah the flip phone i don't know what that was called it It was a Samsung. You had the BlackBerry? Remember the BlackBerry? Oh, BlackBerry, of course. I know the BlackBerry. Yes. Do you remember how many buttons on a BlackBerry?

There was a lot. It was, you know, all the letters of the alphabet, at least, you know, what, 40? I don't know. Plus all the... Let's say 40. Okay. If all he was going to do was make a better BlackBerry, he'd have 42 buttons instead of 40. Instead, he challenged what it was to be a phone.

He found a better way using glass. And then he simplified it to where a three-year-old and a 93-year-old can use it with just their finger. Every one of Apple products is a reflection of what Steve Jobs believes. It's what their messaging is. Do you know what their tagline is? I don't. Different. Where do you think that came from? Steve Jobs Y and the challenge part. Yep.

Yeah. Everyone that's listening, your business, if you're the visionary or you're the leader or the owner, then your YOS is the YOS of your business. It's a reflection of you and it's why people would choose you. And it's how to determine who your ideal client is as well. So if you're somebody who believes in challenging the status quo, is always looking for something better, but wants it simple and easy to use, Apple is the right company for you. If you don't believe that, they're not the right company for you, and that's okay too. But that's how you attract the right people to you. When you use your YOS for your messaging, you're not going to build your message around your Colby or your disc or your colors or

any of those, but you better build it around your why, your how, and your what, because that's where it comes from. It makes it very easy to do. Yeah, Gary. And I was also thinking about when I speak, right, when I'm on stage or if I'm speaking on the podcast, the people know why I do what I do. They also get more connected to me pretty quickly than just saying, hey, this is what I do. And I was thinking about how I could use this, you know, your why, how, and what as a personal branding statement. You know, I believe that success happens when I happens, when I contribute to the greater cause, how I do that is finding better ways and sharing them. And ultimately what I bring is solutions that make sense. People are more likely to hear what I have to say greatest benefits of knowing your YOS and the YOS of the people around you is so that you can make better connections faster. Better connections faster. The first connection you're going to make faster is your connection with yourself.

Knowing who you are. The next thing that happens is you can make better connections with the significant people in your family. I mean, in your life, if you know their YOS, because what happens is when we meet somebody for the first time, or even if we've known them for a long time, we create a narrative around what we think we see, right? Like we look at their hairstyle, we look at their facial hair or jewelry or whatever, their clothes, their posture, their look, and we create a narrative around what we think we see. And that's who they become to us.

But when you know their YOS, it strips all that away and it brings forward what's really there. So we know the language. I know now what's really there. So we know the language. I know now what's really important to Sindra. I know how she thinks. I know how to help her find her passion. I know what direction to steer her in, or I know what things that she's going to enjoy and love. And I know how to talk to her in a way where she will feel heard.

Because I've stripped away what I thought I saw. And now I know what I am looking at. Does that make sense? It does make sense. I appreciate it that you said, you know, you make connections faster and you really know what's important to the other person. Tell us about your YOS and how it shapes the Y Institute. Yes. So my why is to find a better way and share it. How I do that is by making things clear and understandable first for myself and then for others. And then ultimately what I bring

are simple solutions. So my why is better way. My how is clarify and my what is simplify. So if it's not better, clear and simple, I don't want it. It's got to take you to a page that breaks it down into a very simple layout. Very simple and easy to understand. You've been there, Cinder. You know what I'm talking about. It was simple. Yeah. It took me maybe 10 minutes, if that. So here's the thing that people won't know. Just to get to your why, there's over 1,500 possible question options. To get to your why OS, there's over 4,000. But I used what's called logic-based programming. So when you answer one question, it wipes away all the other ones that you don't need to answer. And so you'll only have to answer about 10 to 12 to get to your why and about 30 to 35 to get to your why, how, and what, and your message. So that's why we don't call it an assessment or a quiz or a test or any of those because it's not.

It's a discovery and it's very complex in the background, but very simple up front. So it delivers something that's very, it's better, it's clear, and it's simple. It's easy to use and anybody can do it from probably age eight to 88 can easily use it. Dr. Gary, why do you think people don't spend time really thinking about their why? And what do you think the barriers are on for people who haven't really even thought about it or wouldn't spend time taking the assessment or discovery, I guess I should say, instead of assessment. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of people may have tried, you know, over 61 million people at least have listened to Simon Sinek's TED Talk and probably a hundred people figured out what their why is. It's very hard to do, very challenging. And most people won't spend the time

to get there. And the other part that was really hard when I went through that process was, you don't know when you're there. You don't know if that's actually my why. So how useful is it? Don't know. So it's a very, there was no end point point what's going to be great for those of you that have tried and not been able to figure it out or maybe tried to help one of your clients and not really been able to get there is that you will get to an end point very accurately very quickly very easily and it's very usable so a lot of times when people have tried to do it, they end up with something kind of airy-fairy that they don't know what the heck to do with it, but I worked all day on this thing. And this is my why as far as what I feel like it is right now,

but I'm not quite sure if it's right, but it kind of sounds neat. Yes. Right. So then they don't have they can't do anything with it. So this will get them very quickly to their why, how and what in the simplest form that now you can do something with it. Why doesn't have any impact in your life if you don't know what it is? That's true. You don't have a big in your life when you do know what it is. So we can talk about some of the ways to use it. When, if your parents have ever told you, or you have ever told your kids to go find your passion, live your passion. That's so hard.

Yeah. Great mom. Great dad. Thank you. That's wonderful. And it's almost like a lifelong journey to figure that out. Well, how do I do that? And they're like, I don't know, just go find it. Go try some things out and find your passion. Oh, well, thank you. That's very helpful. Well, here's the thing. If what you do is in line with your YOS, you will love what you do. You will have passion for what you do. And passion is the fuel that gives you the energy to pursue your dreams. Passion is the fuel that gives you the energy to pursue your dreams. Passion is the fuel that gives you the energy to pursue your dreams. Without passion, you'll give up. You'll quit. With passion, it gives you that grit to hang in there when times are tough. So let's use you as an example,

right? If we put you into a position where you get to help people have a bigger impact, you get to show them better ways and you get to show them solutions that make sense and are doable, will you enjoy doing that? Absolutely. It doesn't really matter what I'm doing as long as I enjoy that task in general, but you're right. I can see that it's more about the purpose. And, and, um, I remember having an author named Richard Leiter on my podcast. He wrote the book, The Power of Purpose, and he was talking about how you can live your purpose, which I think is similar to your why and what we're talking about today. If you're working at the grocery store or, you know, the bookstore, or if you're speaking or you're a bank teller, it doesn't

matter, right? It's more about that you can find that fuel from your passion and your purpose, which I think is similar thing, what you're saying today. Yeah. So if we talk about what's the difference between purpose and why, you have one why, but you can have many purposes. Purpose is how your why plays out. So you could have a purpose as a mom. You could have a purpose as a spouse. You could have a purpose in your business, but you're bringing your one why to all of that. Got it. And so knowing your purpose is critical, just like knowing your why is. And I'm not saying one's more valuable than the other. It's just more along the lines of sequence.

When you know your why and your how and what, it helps you to figure out your purpose. And so if somebody were to say to me, so what's your purpose here on earth? Why were you born? Why are you here? And for me, it's all been about, I'm here to help people find a better way, and then for me first to find the better way, and then to share it with others, and I've been doing that since I was a very little kid. You've been living your why since you were a little kid. Yes. And so, you know, I'll get the question. Is your why God given or is your why environmental?

Okay. So I want those of you that are listening to picture this. So you're now standing in front of an audience, you're on stage, standing in front of an audience of a thousand people and somebody raises their hand and ask that question. And no matter what you answer, at least what you think, you're going to upset half the audience. Sure. So how do you answer that?

And so the way I answer it is yes. Because it doesn't matter where it came from. I can't prove it one way or the other. I can tell you what I think. But all that matters is that you know what it is. So that then you can use it in your life. Because it's there. Like gravity. Whether you feel gravity or not it's there whether you feel your why or not whether you know your why or not it's there yeah and the interesting thing gary is like i think my my why came from difficult

moments you know probably some of it was innate within me because I think that, you know, I even look at my boys and how their personalities are different, right? I think, so I would say both, but I think a lot of it came from times where I struggled. Yeah, and I don't disagree. But can I prove that it wasn't there before that? Can I prove you weren't born with it? Can I prove it wasn't a God-given thing? No, I can't. Sure.

So why go in a direction that we can't? All we're going to do is upset half the audience. That's true. Nature versus nurture, I think, is what we're arguing here. We're discussing. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Gary, tell us where people can find the operating system. Where can they take the discovery?

And then I know you also have a certification program that I'd love for you to tell people about because there's a lot of coaches and other people who might be interested in the certification program who listen. So tell us a bit more about how we can follow up. Where can we find the discovery? Yeah, if you're a coach, well, if you're anybody that's listening, discover your YOS. Just go do it. It's not expensive. It's $97, $97. It's going to save you so many headaches and it's going to help you get very clear on yourself very quickly.

So you just go to why institute.com. You can do the Y or the YOS, but I would just do the YOS because it'll give you everything at once. And there's a lot that'll come with it as far as how to use it and videos and a lot of stuff. But you'll get clear on yourself very quickly. Now, if you're a coach, I would still recommend that's where you start. Go discover your YOS, experience it for yourself. And if this is something that you want to bring to your clients, if this is something that you've tried to help your clients discover, then I think you're going to know you will wish you have it as a tool for you. Because we have a certification program that allows you to use this as your own tool in your own practice. And there's a lot of really cool stuff in the background with the dashboards that allow you to use this as a prospecting tool.

So I don't meet with anybody on the phone or in person unless I know their YOS. I don't care who they are. I'm not. What are we going to talk about? If I don't know your YOS, where are we going to go with that? So how are your kids? Where were you born? What are you interested in? You know, but if I know your YOS, man, we have phenomenal conversations and I'll know that person like no one has ever known them. And when they know that I know them in that way, they cannot wait to work with me. And you'll find that exact same thing.

Because that's what they're looking for is certainty that you're the right person. When you know them in that way, because as soon as you know somebody's YOS, you not only know what they do really well and how to speak to them, you also know what's not going well for them. I know somebody with the why of contribute as yes to many, many different things and gets going in many different directions. And sometimes it's hard to get your own stuff done, right? Because you're helping so many other people. And there are solutions for that. But I'll know that in advance. I'll know that before we even get on the call.

So it's very helpful in taking someone from a prospect to a client to building the right program for them that they're going to love and they'll get results with because they'll have passion for it. So many of our clients, we meet in social situations. Since it only takes eight minutes, almost any social event, you could have them discover it right there. So when people come up to me and say, hey, you know, tell so-and-so about this Y thing that you do and say, you know what, instead of me telling you

about it, just have you discover it. And then we'll have a really great conversation. And that's how I worked with the air force. I was having a beer with a buddy of mine and his friend joined us and said that exact thing happened, you know, tell, tell Matt about this Y thing that you do. And I said, instead of me telling you about it, let's have you discover it. So he sat down in the corner, had a beer and discovered his, in this case, it was just his why. And it came up as the why of trust. And I was telling him all the great things about it and all the challenges that come

with it. You know, with the why of trust, they want to be the trusted source. They want to be the one that others can count on. And you can trust them and they can trust you. The sky's the limit. But if you break their trust, probably won't ever get it back. And it feels like a knife in the gut to them. So that's what I said. When someone breaks your trust, how does that feel to you? He said, no, no, that's a deal breaker. And he said, that just happened to me today. He said, it turns out he was the commander here at the Kirtland Air Force Base. And he said,

that just happened with one of my subordinate. Didn't tell me the whole truth and it made me look bad. And now I don't know if I can trust him. He said, we got to have this at the Air Force. So he brought me in there to work with the Air Force because he knew that that's what he needed. someone who's a coach and looking for the right clients, you'll be amazed how this helps you take someone from prospect to client for you. So if that's something you're looking for, reach out to me. I'm happy to talk with you. Gary at yinstitute.com is my email. Just send me an email. Say, I heard you on a syndrus podcast. Love to talk with you.

Perfect. Awesome. So Gary at the why institute.com, the why institute is the website where you can find more and you can take the discovery there. You can find out more about the certification. Gary, I'm so impressed with what you've built and how you've, you followed your why and made the transition from dentist to full-time at the Why Institute. A couple of things I really appreciated that we talked about. Your goal of reaching a billion people in 15 years. I love that big, audacious goal. We talked about the nine different whys and how those powerful questions you asked us to think about as you're having us a process and think more deeply about our why, such as why do you do what you do? Why do other people do it differently than the way

that you do it? And then the reasons why you should really discover your why to connect better, faster with other people, because we know what's important to them when we understand their why. And I love at the end when you're talking about the difference between purpose and why, that our purpose is as how our why plays out. So, Dr. Gary, thank you so much for being on the High Performance Mindset podcast. I learned a ton from you today, and I'm grateful that you spent time just sharing your wisdom with the audience here today. So, so grateful that you're here. Is there

anything you'd like to end and wrap up with? Any final advice you'd like to give to the people who are listening today? There is. And I think this is the power of having a vision for what you're doing. And when you, when you share your vision, it allows people to raise their hand and say, I want to help you do that. So my vision is to be the first step in self-awareness, right? And when I shared that with people, they're like, yeah, I get that. Now I see what you're trying to do. I'm going to help you. And so the more you share your vision, the more accountability you have to that vision, and the more people will raise their hand and say, I want to help you get there. So decide on

your vision, share your vision, and then go live it. And people will push you right along to make it happen. So, Sindra, thank you so much for having me here today. And I'm excited for us to stay in touch. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dr. Gary. 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 dot com. See you next week.