The Vault Unlocked - Why You Can't Outgrow Your Own Identity (The Real Reason Your Business Results Are Stuck)

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Most people think their problem is strategy. It isn't. You can change your offer, your funnel, your team, and your calendar, and still land in the exact same place six months later. The reason is sitting underneath all of it, and almost nobody names it out loud.This episode names it. Daniel Linares, Founder & CEO of DLE Event Group joins Kayvon to break down why your identity is the ceiling on your results, and why no amount of tactics will move you past a self-image that says you don't belong at the next level. The conversation moves fast and stays concrete. Kayvon lays out the line that reframes the whole thing: you cannot outpace, outsell, or outgrow your own identity. Daniel shows how the people who keep leveling up are doing one thing differently, and it has nothing to do with talent. They get into how Kobe built the Black Mamba and how Beyonce built Sasha Fierce, not as nicknames but as a new set of operating rules they stepped into before the results arrived. They unpack the reversal most people get backwards, the belief that you have to acquire the thing before you can become the person, when it works the other way. They walk through the self-imposed rules that quietly cap a founder's growth, the difference between waiting in line and finding the third door, and David Cook's SFT framework for resetting back to baseline under pressure the way the one percent do. This is for founders, operators, and high-agency builders who have already done the obvious work and are still hitting the same wall. If you are looking for motivation, this is the wrong room. If you want to understand the actual mechanism behind why your results have plateaued, stay. The discussion connects identity, mindset, and self-belief to the hard mechanics of business growth: how high performers think under pressure, how to take radical responsibility for outcomes, how to become resourceful instead of stuck, and how to ship before you feel ready instead of waiting for a readiness that never comes. It is a conversation about the inner game that drives every outer result, and the leadership decisions that compound over time. Topics covered: Why identity sets the ceiling on results, income, and growth The Black Mamba and Sasha Fierce as built identities, not nicknames The Be, Do, Have reversal most founders get backwards The self-imposed rules quietly capping your growth Third door thinking and how to stop waiting in line David Cook's SFT framework for resetting under pressure Why shipping at 70 percent beats waiting until you feel ready The role of trust and faith when the outcome is uncertain Looking to dive deeper into these conversations and connect with our host and guest? Follow Daniel Linares @DanielLinaresTV Youtube Instagram Facebook LinkedIn TikTok Website Follow Kayvon: Instagram Facebook LinkedIn TikTok     Want to go deeper with Kayvon? Subscribe to the newsletterBook a discovery callGet your Revenue Engine Scorecard™️Hire the right salespeople  

Most founders think they have a strategy problem. More leads, better funnel, a new offer. But it's not the strategy. It's the identity underneath it. You cannot outsell, outgrow, or outscale the identity you have handed yourself. The ceiling you feel in your business is the ceiling you set in your head. My guest today is Daniel Lanaris. We get into how identity shapes vision and how vision turns into results.

The C-field trust model that the greats actually run. why most of the rules holding you back are fiction and the one decision standing between you and the thing you keep delaying. Let's unlock it. Awesome, awesome stuff. I'm happy to have you here, Daniel. I know today we're going to be going deep and I think this is very important because I love everything about identity. But today we're going even to a deeper level about how our identity shapes our vision and that same vision that we can hold in our minds and our hands is the vision that equals our results. And why I think it's so important to speak about this is as business owners, as marketers,

as I just even think human beings every single people every day, what you think about what you can see, the vision you can have is a direct reflection of your identity. And if you don't know your identity or if your identity is mixed up and the wrong things and you're wanting results and they're not coming, this episode is for you. Daniel, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited to get into this topic, quite honestly.

So I'm going to ask straight up the big question. What is identity to you? Yeah, identity is who we think we are and who we show up in the world as. What does that mean? What do you think you're capable of? How successful of a level do you deserve based on your own beliefs? And so it's this like beautiful package around what we believe about ourselves, what we've learned through our surroundings, our family, our friends, our school,

our mentors who we grew up with, the neighborhood we showed up at the church group we were around. It's all of what is shaped as who we believe we are and therefore who we show up in the world as. Now, people that can continue to grow. You know, you and I are entrepreneurs. I know a lot of entrepreneurs, business people are watching this or high performers are watching this. People that are looking for new levels are watching this. And sometimes the subconscious identity that is driving people's day to day has a set of rules that is holding people back. And so for people that somehow are able to figure out how to grow, time over time, what are they doing differently? They're challenging their current level of thinking that brought them to where they're,

they are right now. And what is a new level of thinking? What is a new belief about self that is a little uncomfortable that is ultimately what I've learned this over time, but for people who are new to this, it is ultimately what is required for new levels of growth. I love. Why I love what you're saying, it gets me excited is this is, I think I spent, I would say 20 years at least deep diving into this stuff into my own personal shit, right, and my own personal identity. And I love it because I do believe this is one of those foundational things that if you can tap into this and really understand what was just even said, what you just said, it's not just understanding it. It's about knowing how to accept it and then the tools to fix it. So indirectly what you just said is you can't

outpace your own identity. You can't outwin your own identity. You can't outsell your own identity. You can outgrow your own identity. You can't out love your own identity. Meaning the identity that you put on yourself, not anyone else puts this on you. The identity that you put on yourself and limitations that you put on yourself and your identity is the bar at which you're living. So if someone's sitting here and this isn't about motivation, this is actually like facts. There's science behind it.

It's reality. I know I can't wait to get into some examples of everybody that we know of. who understood this at the highest level. If you fully understand the reality of how your identity is your limiting factor in many things, then you know what to do or at least have the awareness of what you can do to fix that. We show up in the world is so good, by the way. We show up in the world as, you know, in school that one person stole your apple and therefore now that's developed a reactionary or personality side of it. you. Somebody bumps into you and it was an accident, but you thought it was on purpose. And therefore,

it, like, hit your ego just a little bit. So all these, like, little, little micro life experiences kind of start creating a narrative, like, of what, of who we are, of how we react. What did mommy or daddy say about that thing? And therefore, well, if they taught it to you in this way, well, that that's just the way it is. You know, there's a family in my neighborhood that every time their nanny is walking these two kids. I hope my neighbors, who I don't really even know, don't see this episode. But anyway, they are always saying, oh, she's really shy. Oh, she's so shy. Right. It's a little two year old, three year old, four year old. There's two kids. And my wife and I always turned to each other like, because we have like almost a two year

old. He's like 21 months, our little Luca. And I'm like, keep telling the kid that they're shy. They're going to start to believe that they're shy. And I think shyness. or being outgoing or charismatic or brave to talk to people and to socialize, people that are shy, I think it's just emotions that are unexplored and emotions that are unexplored for extended periods of time. And so the whole shyness thing when we're young or maybe even into adulthood, I think it's just adults that haven't embraced the discomfort of this newness of socializing and talking. and, you know, whatever, like saying hi to the dog when you're walking by.

And it's those repetitions that I think may turn somebody that who's maybe told that they're shy their entire life. If we flip it and say, well, you're not shy at all. You're brave. You're outgoing. And so it's like those rules that are surroundings impose upon us that bring us to where we are today. And I think what is really useful for people that are trying to figure out, all right,

All right, well, how does one, like, level up from here? Well, who would you have to be in order to become a Kobe Bryant, for example? You and I spoke a little bit off air about Kobe or Beyonce or, like, there's a couple of these identity examples that we can give people. One thing that unlocked Kobe to these new levels is of his embracing of Black Mamba. It wasn't just a nickname. Kobe created rules with high-performance coaches around him of, okay, great talented Kobe, who from college who made it to the NBA, had all of this identity. He's really good. But what is the creme de la creme highest performing?

And a snake is a black mamba. The meaning behind the snake, Kobe's like, oh, my gosh. I love that. And I forget all the bullet points around how that snake acts, how that inquisitiveness of that snake shows up. And so Kobe wasn't Kobe Bryant, who he learned to be in high school and college. He started to act and behave as his new rules of who the Black Mamba was. And that created the legend. Similar story with Beyonce. She's like, oh, my gosh, going on stages and all these things.

this was many years ago, she created Sasha Fierce as a new identity. She was nervous. She was a church girl singing R&B and soul. And now she's doing these gigantic arenas and provocative moves and these new levels. Sasha Fierce became her new identity. What were the new rules? And then eventually it becomes part of the self. You always had it in you.

You just needed to change the frame. I think if I may, there's so much here because there's the idea that I'm, we're saying that Kobe and and Beyonce had was we talked about their identity, right, in order for them to get to where they had to go, they had to level up their identity. When leveling up that identity, they had to stick to some rules and or behaviors of what that identity was, which brings me back to the whole concept. I'm not sure if you ever heard of that, that the B do have concept. For those of the listeners, if you have not heard this concept, I'm just going to say, because I think it's very important is a lot of people walk around saying,

once I have this thing, then I'm going to do this thing. And then now I become this thing. And it's actually the opposite. And unfortunately, I would say 90% of the population lives like that. the 10% and then the one percenters, I mean, very different is they understand in order to have, you have to become. So if you want, this is the whole leveling up. This is what you've talked about earlier is getting uncomfortable at the identity level because the identity that you're at today is your comfort zone. You want to level up.

You got to start operating, thinking, doing, becoming saying the things you're scared to say, doing the things you never thought you had to do, leveling up your identity so you can become that person, i.e. become the Sasha Fierce, become the Black Mama. And as a result of living life when those rules, you wake up one day and now you're those people. Is that what I'm hearing? I just want to make sure if that's what we're... Dude, I, a friend of mine, he coaches professional athletes, Olympians.

His name's shout out to Devin Bandison. He's sort of low-key, but like he's got some very, very well-known clients that very few people even know that he's their coach. Let's just say that. And he's a mindset coach. And he literally, when I, when I asked them, like, do you have a book you could recommend? Like, I obviously just want to like download his brain and upload it into my brain. And I've done my work on, on thinking about my thinking. And I know you've done your work about it. The inner game is the primary game, ladies and gentlemen, the inner game. It's not what is the marketing strategy that's going to set me to the new new level. What is the this or what is that. It's like literally Tony Robbins is an mentor mine. You could see wearing a live lucky hat

that Tony wears. 80%. What Tony says, I completely agree and it's true. I'm living proof of it. 80% of your success is mindset and 20% is the strategy and mechanics, period. Mindset, a lot of what we're talking about right now, identity. What do we believe we're even capable of? And if it's scary, are we going to step in to the unknown? You know, a really cool. exercise I've done is like thinking back to all the past scary moments that were first day of high school, first day of college, first time doing an event, first time doing a big event at this five-star hotel. There was the fear. There was always the uncertainty and there was always the discomfort. Always. But it was never as scary after the fact, looking, you know, reacting. Let's say the event

example at the end of the event. Oh my gosh. This was great. And I started I started to learn that the overwhelm that I might put on some of my thinking when I was younger was like 90% self-induced. 90% self-induced. And so the emotions that I now feel as I'm continuing to grow and continue to do new things that are unknown, that are into the abyss or into the unknown, I realize there's going to be the fear, there's going to be the uncertainty, and there's going to be the discomfort. It's those butterflies that is what growth feels like. And so the more that you can realize that, the more you can give yourself a bit of a gut check and say, oh yeah, this is just new territory. And it's my body trying to protect myself and keep me in my comfort zone. But I want

to grow. I want to achieve this. And I know out of the comfort zone is where the growth truly exists. Well, we know that, right? Like, growth is, is definitely on the outside of the comfort zone. So then the question is this, right? And your identity is on the outside of the comfort zone. I would say, and I totally believe what you just, and I know Tony talks about it to like 80% his mindset. It's funny because I always get these, these things that come to me when I, when I hear this. And I feel like people are driving right now listening this or they're walking in their list and this and like I someone just rolled their eyes. I always get that feeling like someone.

I've heard this before. And I want to speak to that person right now because I used to be like that. And I think it's important for us to deep dive a little bit. What does that actually mean, you know, all the greatness? Here, these are all just like, you know, Hallmark quote cards, right? Like all your greatness is on the outside, your comfort zone. Like even me sometimes, I'm like, oh, my God. Like I'm so tired of hearing the surface level, the surface.

level shit about this, right? Like, what does it actually mean when people say, you know, you're, you know, all your greatness or, you know, all the things you want on the outside of your comfort zone? And I'm just going to because today, right, you know, you're, what we're talking about is identity. I would say your new identity, the thing that you want, which requires a new identity also sits outside that comfort zone. Yeah.

What does that really mean? People have these subconscious or self-imposed limitations that they don't even realize that exist. For example, oh, well, I'm just not going to hire somebody at a higher price point because the last person I hired is what was X, Y, Z narrative. So wait, one situation of hiring is why you're never going to do it again. That's your thinking. That's a lot of your mindset.

That's your belief systems. I got news for you. If you could say, man, I messed up of that first person. Maybe it was me as the owner. maybe I am terrible at being a boss. Maybe I'm terrible of letting go. Maybe I don't know how to set up people who are to come work for us. That's one example.

Another example, oh, well, I'm somebody that's just not good at marketing. So we're just going to like coast where we're at. Is that thinking going to help you get to the next level? There's a mentor of somebody. that I met through through my my journey. Timothy Paulson told the story about his dad, who was so fascinated and interested about art. And curiosity, I think, is a huge part of success as well, huge. And so his dad's like, I love this painting thing. What way, when he was much younger. I love painting. This is great. And like, yeah, you know, keep trying, keep trying. He learned from his

dad, I'll fast forward the story to seek out the masters, which is another word of saying being resourceful in areas. And so his dad seeked out a really great artist in the area that he just knew it was in his part of the country. And his name is Buck Paulson, actually is his dad's name. And fast forward, he was around this master. He was learning through this master. And he didn't have this limitation of like, I can't be an artist. Like I've always said this to myself, Kvon, like, you probably as well, like, oh, I don't know how to draw. Like, I'm not a good artist. Like, I don't know how to draw.

I've never really given a good effort. And as a matter of fact, if I was around a master, I could probably become really good at drawing, by the way, now that I've learned. Fast forward, Buck Paulson had a TV show in his region around painting, literally. He went from just an average painter to world class. And so to the people who are walking around that have rules around, well, I'm not good at this or I'll never get to this point or our family has never been an entrepreneur. You know, I'm the only entrepreneur in my family. No, well, it's just not in our DNA. So I'm just going to take the comfort zone way out.

Or it's all of these narratives inside of your brain that you don't, you probably don't realize it. It's all fiction that you're telling yourself of what's possible. And you literally could just switch it around. What is the abundance frame of changing that? I'm going to be the first person because I have belief that even going into the complete unknown, that I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to seek out the masters. And I'm going to be resourceful.

And so for all the people listening, like, challenge your current way of thinking because there's so many rules that you've self-imposed that are limited. that you don't even realize. I'm writing this stuff down as you can see. Marief. Yeah. I was going to say Marie Forleo wrote a book called Everything is Figure Outable.

Dude, I live my life like that. My now wife turned me down three times when I approached her. Politely. I approached her politely. I walked up a fourth time. And finally she's like, okay, like we could chat. We could have a drink. and fast forward, boom, she became my wife.

There's a book called The Third Door by Alex, forget his last name, starts with the B. Most people, when the analogy of think more third door. Stop thinking like the masses. The masses are waiting in line at the nightclub in Vegas, hoping to get in, maybe it'll be three hours. Door number two, and by the way, that's door number one. Door number two is VIP. If you know somebody, congratulations. Door number two is for you.

Not everybody does. As a matter of fact, most people don't. Most people think there's only two doors inside. The third door way of thinking is how I'm always approaching things is what's a way that nobody's thinking about? How can I figure this out? And so the third door analogy with the nightclub is, you know what? I'm going to like run around back of the building.

I'm going to like run around the side. Is there any other way in? Maybe there's like a chef or somebody that's. like cooking around back that I maybe could become buddies with and maybe we have something in common and maybe his tattoo looks just like my tattoo. Maybe I could light his cigarette because he doesn't have a

light. Maybe, maybe, maybe it's possible. And the third door will get you in even faster than the VIP sometimes. But you just have to believe that you could figure it out and think outside of the box. And so this is what I mean. Too many people are like, well, the only way

in the club is the line that's three and a half hours. All right. That's it. We can't do nothing. Third door thinking is what I recommend for people that are trying to level up and and go into places that very few people have gone. It's interesting you say that because the third door thinking, it reminded me this one time with my wife. We were out on a date somewhere in L.A.

And I got him from Canada, right? I got no, there's zero connections in L.A. at that time of my life, right? We heard about this club. And sure enough, right, VIP line all the way, one way, the regular line all the way one way. And if you've gone to enough clubs or bars, you already know it's over because what are you going to wait in the VIP? And then so I said, Kels, watch this. We got out of the, like at that time, we got out of like the regular Uber, right?

I went around the corner and I ordered the black, the Uber black, like the SUV. And I said, Kels, I said, when this door, when I opened this door, I said, you. you follow my command and you look straight, right? And I told the guy, I told the guy, I said, listen, I'll pay you a little extra dollar. Just come around and open the door for me, right? So we pull up to this club. He gets out. He opens the door.

I don't even, I walk out. I keep the door open for my wife, right? She gets out, walk straight in. Like I own the place. And the guy, the bouncers just gave me a look. And I always wondered if that bouncer knew owes up. and he just appreciated like the effort because you just kind of gave me that wink like it was one of those like i know exactly what you're doing but good on you they gave us the bands we were in and it was just you know

we had an amazing night but that's you know door number three um i want to i think is great to recap because as you were speaking here uh i'm writing down we're talking you know you're talking about ip and talking about you know models and everything i you know the question was asked like how do we go deeper from the hey all your comfort zone, you know, all your dreams are outside your comfort zone. And you just said some crazy things here. So I'm going to repeat them back to you just so we're all on the same page. What it means to be outside your comfort zone is first taking radical responsibility of yourself. Number two is becoming resourceful. Three, I wrote down is be a little curious.

four was you got to challenge your current thinking and the fifth one which we talked about is the third door is being creative. So if we know those to be true, this is where I get, I'm always like, I'm not good enough. The entire podcast is the vault unlock. The ID is like, what's the one thing? So this is the second thing. Like this is layer two. But what's the layer underneath this?

Okay, great. You've convinced me. right that my dreams are outside my comfort zone so let's say I believe in that okay and then we've just heard that in order to get outside comfort zone we got to be radical responsibility of ourselves we got to be creative we got to be resourceful we got to be curious and we got to challenge our current thinking okay I buy that okay but then what what happens when the identity pops in in my current thinking in my ability to challenge myself in my ability to be resourceful and the identity pops in and goes but oh oh you're you're not good enough oh remember you're not worthy enough oh remember

they said you're not going to ever make it what happens when that starts piling in you learn to shut down the voice when you've done it enough times is the is the direct response for people who are new to it you know take bold action before you even feel ready. Like, oh, okay, I know how to do it, but yeah, I'm going to still wait for another year in order to start my book because then I'll be ready. No. Ship it when you're 60% ready, when you're 80% ready because the growth is in the micro failures

and missteps. And I thought I was going to approach my book this way, but I'm going to approach it differently because because I decided I'm writing a book, I was talking about. talking to somebody about it. And they actually said, oh, actually, I have some advice on how you can write a book and it be even better. Right. So it's like the faster you could take action, the faster you could put it out in the world, get feedback, you're going to be so surprised through the iterations that you're going to go through that it's better to iterate and write your book now in this analogy than delay and be in your head for 12 months. And then in this imaginary 12 month future where whatever reason you told yourself as to why that's the best. time. It's best to ship it now when you don't feel ready so that you can just lean into it and iterate and learn and iterate and learn because there's only two results with anything

that you're going to be moving forward. I've distilled down like my entire journey. Why have I been successful? It's either I've learned from this and it was a failure or it was a success. So I'm accelerating my wisdom through failing as fast as I possibly can through missteps, through I don't know what I'm doing, through imperfect action, or it's success. There's never a failure from the lens that I see the world now. And it's always, I just lost all this money because somebody screw me over in a freelancer capacity. I learn my lesson. Next time we've got to do it differently.

Next time we've got to do it this way. And so I'm accelerating my wisdom. And for everybody listening, do the thing. You're likely one decision away. My buddy Ed Milet, I saw him speak and it was the most wonderful talk. Just one decision sometimes. And you just keep delaying it. It's been six months, 12 months, 12 years.

You keep telling yourself you're not ready. One decision. Do it before you feel ready. and iterate and iterate and iterate, and you'll be far further along than you could ever imagine. That's the secret. What to do now, all the people in their head thinking, do it now.

Do it before you feel ready. You don't need to do it alone. Be resourceful. Go find the person around the club. I don't know how to do marketing. Go to a marketing event. Learn something. Be around people.

Who has done or who helps people do what I'm trying to do? You don't need to travel into the abyss all alone. Sorry, I got passionate there. But I, I know, I love it. I'm letting you go. I, I'm hearing everything you're saying. As you were saying and you're speaking, I was thinking, yes, yes, yes, and yes. What about the greats, greats?

Like what, because we talked about it, let's say, you know, for, for the respect of Kobe Bryant and who he is and what he's done. now we're talking about the 1% the 0.0.1%. We're talking about the Tom Brady's. I love this question. I love this question. What are they doing different than the rest of us who decided to take

the decision radical responsibility and step outside their comfort zone, but still have yet or haven't ascended to that next level. What's that next deeper layer that's happening for these guys, their identities that take them to the places they've gone and impacted. I mean, millions and thousands and, you know, possibly billions of people in the world.

They're not allowing any negative memories of the past that may cause anxiety in the present. They're not allowing any potential failures of the future, create any anxieties or pressure in the present. They're only being present and believing they are fully capable and they have the identity. There's a really great book called Greatness by David Cook. He was a mindset coach for the San Antonio Spurs. He helped Tim Duncan, who was in the slump, become the legendary Tim Duncan that we all know. The Hall of Famer, I think he's made it to the Hall of Fame.

If not, he will be in the Hall of Fame, I guarantee it. He also coached over 50 or 100 professional golfers and other business owners, professional athletes. and his entire magic is around three words or an acronym, which is SFT. Like S is C the target of what you're trying to achieve. With clarity, right? If you're a golfer, it's the drive. If you're basketball player and there's six seconds left

and they're going to be getting you the ball, you're going to see what's going to happen in advance. You're going to see the path. You're going to see it. The F is feel. You're going to feel that you have everything capable inside of you to make it happen without a shadow of the doubt. Self-belief, feeling you're fully capable. And you're ready for the next one? T.

Trust. and having grace in the uncertainty, in the, oh, well, there's no doubt of, oh, what if it doesn't happen? It's trusting that it will. And SFT is not worrying about the shot that you missed three minutes ago, because you could beat yourself up and put yourself in the hole thinking about that shot for, no, reset, SFT. So the Jordans, the Colby's, the Tim Duncan's, the Tiger Woods, they are back at the baseline. I actually heard Ed Milet and Phil Mickelson, probably one of the top five golfers of all time, talking. And he literally was talking about how reset every single time, back to positive, back to abundance, back to seeing, back to feeling, back to trusting. And I think this acronym is so powerful.

and I think that's the one percenter is people that could get back to baseline, back to belief and self without any external noise about the past or future influencing the right now. As the legendary, I think it was it, the legendary Telasso says be a minnow, is it? I don't know if I heard this one. Yeah, so it's just a show what the idea is like the minnows have like, they don't remember anything, right? and it's like goldfish or whatever it might be. Yeah. Goldfish, I think it is.

And this is what the idea is, is like you forget. And you're not doing, you're not saying you forget on purpose. It's like you're, you are not dwelling in anything of what just happened. You're only in the moment of what is. And whatever just happened is a thing. You can't fix it.

You can't change it. The only thing can do is grow it, learn from it. But it does not affect you right now and your thoughts or beliefs into the future. The one thing that you said, out of SFT that really stands out for me, which I go, okay, I can, you can, you can see it. You can feel it. And then you said trust.

And for, for me, I was like, ooh, how does one trust if they can't even trust themselves? Ooh, I like how, I like, because I wanted to dive into a level deeper for people. I guess that this is going to be a spoiler alert for the book. It's a great book. I still recommend reading it. This is the last chapter. it's taped closed the last chapter. He's like, if you want to read it, I recommend it.

I thought about not including it because one, you know, one thing or the other. His last chapter was about faith in he's a Christian man. And his last chapter was for him, and I think many of the people he's coached, they believe that they're guided by a God that is providing them the life. life is happening for them, not to them. So the trust is maybe trust in self. How ever you want to frame this? If you're not religious, it's fine.

But David Cook is a Christian man, and this is the last chapter of his book. Trust pretty much means having grace that you are guided. Having grace that even with absolute uncertainty, everything's going to be okay. That's where the trust comes in. I wasn't really religious my whole life, really within the last five, six years. I had like 35 things happen and then I had the moment of what are all the dominoes that led me back to that point. And for me, I used to believe in coincidences. And I'm like, I'm sitting on a private island with 15 people, not Epstein Island.

This was another island. With just like entrepreneurs. I was just there and I was invited. But like, wait, how did I get there? I didn't grow up with money. It's called Buck Island. Buck Island. Shout out to Brittany Turner.

She runs a company called Ariel. They have a for-profit, but their nonprofit is like taking down sex traffickers and like all that stuff. So shout out to them. They're absolutely amazing people. But what did I do to get there? How did I deserve to get invited to this thing? And now fast forward, was it an accident that I walked up to my wife the fourth time say, hey, like, you told me a little bit later, you'd be available to chat. And then finally,

she said, yes. Was it an accident that I was scared out of my mind and spent a lot of money to attend a business event that I've never spent anything in that variety? Like, this was in my 20s, scared out of my mind. That led me to this person who then connect me to this person, who then, that's how I ended up on the island. Is this all coincidence? And so I digress. For me, I'm okay with the uncertainty because I trusted myself that I could figure out. I could be resourceful. But I have grace that even in the biggest areas of uncertainty and perceived darkness or unknown, it's going to be good, baby.

It's going to be good. I think that's a, it's a moment of reflection there. And I think it's a moment to connect. for someone, and I'll tell you, someone who, and I'm speaking about myself, who actually, I always say I'm in a fight with God, who's recently accepted God in my own way. As you were speaking, I was thinking maybe sometimes it's not about trusting yourself. maybe the trust in something else that's bigger and more powerful than you is enough for you to be able to really implement SFT. Is it a coincidence that my son is here right now and he's the most perfect blessing?

My wife and I could have ever imagined little Luca. Is it a coincidence? I don't think so. And for those of you that are like maybe not religious, I'm not a very, very religious person. my wife and I are lucky to go to church once twice a week, sorry, once twice a month. And just the grounding of even self-reflection is really what church does for me. It's like a reminder of the abundance around me. Other people have had challenge in their life and just kind of the reset from an abundance

frame is what church has been for me. Other people go much deeper and they're maybe going multiple times a week and they're reading here and they're diving deep here. and that's great. Like people are going to experience it in different ways. That's just been my journey. And it's pretty cool that David Cook is a man of Christian faith because I'm like, wow, like I just have become more and more open to that in the last six years,

give or take. And a lot of my entrepreneur friends that I like that are just great people, there's usually some sort of faith attached to those people that seem to. to have a lot of things figured out. Sure, there's the shadow self, but truly there's people that are just amazing humans that, you know, faith in belief in that they are guided. It just brings this confidence as a person of like, I'm here on this earth and I have no idea what tomorrow's going to bring, but I'm just going to show up with so much abundance and be so blessed and things are going to be okay. Back to the trust, things are going to be okay because I'm just going to be resourceful

and I'm just going to keep, keep iterating. I'm going to keep getting better. I love what you said a little earlier. You said, hey, life's not happening to me. It's happening for me. That's the trust. That's the trust. That's the trust.

So as we wrap up here, let me ask you, what's someone sitting here? What's one last thing that you can instill into them if they're listening. They're with us still that they can literally implement today that can possibly change the trajectory of where they go on, their business. This is the thing behind the vault here, right? What is the one thing that they can just even reflect on that could change their next action steps tomorrow? So a lot of times the big scary thing is because you just haven't brought clarity to it.

It's a concept. It's a would be nice. When it's more foggy and more vague, it's scarier because there's no steps even possible of what could be the next step to make progress on this. And so my advice to somebody, we've been talking about the book analogy. I'm actually writing a book. And later this year, I will be launching that to people in my world.

Outline with as much specificity as you possibly can, the thing that you know you should be doing, but haven't started yet. what does outline mean we've all seen different versions of tools of outlining projects or what have you you know my i created something called the focus catalyst where it's like what's the focus and then what are all the things that make this win so it's like write a book that's a big thing that's like saying build a house okay uh where do i start i'm not a house builder so that's big and scary i've never done that before so it's like let's just use the write a book as an example here what would be the next five things that might need to be true for you to take the next step?

What is even the first domino into that scary area that may lead to the next one? But I like outlining things with as much specificity as I might know with my current level of thinking. Right. I like shipping when it's 70, 80 percent ready. I don't even know the last 20, 30 percent. I'm building a car. I don't even know how to get the tires. No idea where the tires are.

But I'll find the tire person on the way of building the car. Sometimes the thing that you're trying to start is just because it's so conceptual that it's so scary and you'd have no idea what the first step is. Dump down all the possible things of how writing a book can start getting real. Let me have three to five conversations. Do I know anybody that has written a book? Let me chat with a couple buddies that could give me some insights. Let me maybe watch some YouTube videos. It gets some inspiration.

Is anything that's super viral that may have a formula that could be helpful? Oh, that sounds like a cool formula based on the book I want to write. Is it a marketing book? Is it a business book? Is it a fictional book? Oh, let me brainstorm a couple of things. Can I hire a freelancer on Upwork and talk to them for an hour because I have no idea how to do this? And could they potentially give me some ideas?

because they've they've helped people write a thousand books. Put down five, seven, ten next potential steps to just start taking random steps into getting more confident in the thing you want to do. And guess what? Do it before you feel ready. But have some clarity as far as what the steps need to look like. I'm just going to end it with this because I, to wrap all that up with a nice hallmark quote the ones I said I hate.

You don't have to get it right. You just have to get it started.