David Lindsay – Snap, Nap, Tap, Clap, Recap! (378)

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Episode transcript below:

 SPEAKERS

David Lindsay, Mike Malatesta

Mike Malatesta  00:00

Hey everyone, Mike Malatesta here and welcome back to the how that happened podcast on this podcast. I dig in deep with every guest to explore the roots of their success to discover not just how it happened, but why it matters. My mission is to find and share stories that inspire, activate and maximize the greatness in you. On today’s episode, I’ve got David Lindsey, coming to you from Australia, David is one hell of an inspiration. We talked about doing things the hard way, why you need to reverse engineer big goals, why he’s always working on building the tallest building and the importance of vitality in all parts of your life. So increasing your vitality is increasing energy, Zed, UVM, vigor and passion for what you do. And it’s not just in the work environment, it’s in life in general, this guy was so much fun to talk to. He’s got a great accent a great message. And this was really great conversation as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Hey, David, thank you so much. Welcome to the podcast.

David Lindsay  01:08

Thank you very much for having me, Mike. I’m super excited to be sharing my story messages with you and with the listeners and hoping we can give them some value that they can utilize right from the get go.

Mike Malatesta  01:18

Yeah, well, I’m sure that we will. And while it’s the elephant in the room right now, with the right to the gecko. Why don’t you tell everybody where you are calling in from where we’re doing this? Where are you from?

David Lindsay  01:29

Yeah, I’m from Sydney, Australia. So at the moment, it’s 530 in the morning, best time of day to get stuff done in Sydney, Australia. Great place to be I was born and raised here. And live here with my family.

Mike Malatesta  01:42

Well, thank you for joining me at 5:30am all the time. That’s really cool. I appreciate you getting out. Well, this is this early for you or do you usually get up by now?

David Lindsay  01:51

No. Normally early riser. Normally, I get up at about three o’clock. And I’m at the gym by four. Today I missed out on the gym because I didn’t want to be huffing and puffing and not being able to think but I’ll do it after this anyway. Yeah, I’ve always been an early riser right from when I was a little kid. Because personally, I feel I get so much more done, while other people are still asleep.

Mike Malatesta  02:11

Well, I’m impressed because three o’clock in the morning is early. I get up around six and I’ve considered myself an early riser. But I’ve just been blown out of the water by David and his 3am Get up but yes, you’re right, you definitely get a head start on everybody else, that’s for sure. And before I tell more people about you, I have to address the boxing gloves that are hanging from your door and in back of you tell me I’m a I’m an I’m a amateur ish box for fun person. And so I’m always interested in people who’ve got boxing gloves hanging around. Tell me Tell me about that. I know we’re gonna get into your martial arts and stuff later. But are you a boxer as well?

David Lindsay  02:50

Yeah, I’ve had a pro boxing fight as well. After I did my cage fighting. So got into mass, like you said, we’ll get into a lighter. We used to do cage fighting. I’ve had a couple of pro boxing matches as well realize I’m really at heart I’m a wrestler, but boxing, I just love competing in everything I do. And there’s stuff behind me the boxing gloves, because it was a pro boxer, the painting there for my daughter. She did that when she was about four. So I just like to bring the personal touches in.

Mike Malatesta  03:21

Oh, perfect, perfect. How old is your daughter now?

David Lindsay  03:24

So now she’s 11. And she’s told she, but I love it. It’s funny, every single step of the way. We, we the children are go, that’s my favorite step. That’s my favorite part. Like you know, when they first start walking when they first started talking, and yeah, I’ve loved every step of it along the way. Well, for those of you who aren’t seeing this on YouTube or whatever that painting a four year old, it’s not like on a piece of paper or something stuck to the wall that’s like canvas. It’s like a two by two foot. We just like to give it all like opportunities that when we maybe didn’t have and when she she used to paint a lot just on paper, and we go there we go. There’s something big go for gold. And it also kept her occupied, get to her mind going as well. And as she was talking it through, he was explaining all the different things to us and what they meant to us. Yeah, that’s why I have that out there as well.

Mike Malatesta  04:25

Very nice. Very nice. So let me tell you a little bit about a little bit more about David. So David Lindsay Li NDSAY is a speaker and author a podcast host his his podcast is called the dynamic company culture snapshot, a former professional armor, wrestler and cage martial arts cage fighter a black belt in Wing Chun is that how you say that? When children what is that? I don’t I’m not familiar with that. This.

David Lindsay  04:51

Yeah, it’s a form of comfort. Okay. Like there’s a lot of little deviations on just kind of feels like an umbrella term. And when you choose one former Kung Fu

Mike Malatesta  05:03

and jujitsu purple belt, he has been obsessed about changing the way we view health and vitality through the disruption of how we see the links between fitness and workplace productivity today, he has dedicated his life to living the healthy lifestyle, including getting up at three o’clock in the morning. And so he must go to bed early sleep must be important to him and truly believes that anyone can transform themselves through learning his or her, or his unique system towards improving their vitality and vitality feels like it’s going to be a word we use. And talk about a lot today. You can reach David by email David at David Lindsay Li ndsa. Why as I said.com.au Is there any place else that you’d like people to connect with you, David?

David Lindsay  05:49

Yeah, on LinkedIn, I’m most active on LinkedIn. And I do probably three videos a week on they’re just little tips to really help people overcome obstacles to help them move forward in life. So I do also do Facebook, on Instagram, and I’ve started Tik Tok as well, just for to get views out there, but mostly on LinkedIn,

Mike Malatesta  06:10

LinkedIn, okay, that’s where I’m most active as well. And I find that a lot of people that are doing the kind of work that you’re doing the kind of work that I’m doing, LinkedIn is sort of a safe place to like, have neat, legitimate people, I guess. Like

David Lindsay  06:23

real people. That’s what the legitimacy of it having people that really have substance and want to grow as well.

Mike Malatesta  06:30

Yeah. And want to help other people to want to contribute. It’s not it’s, it’s, it’s less of an ego place, I think, some of the other places, so I’m very upset. So with that, David, I start every one of my podcasts with the same simple question. And that is, how did happen for you.

David Lindsay  06:47

But that’s really an easy question. Looking back, because I think Steve Jobs said it the best when he said, you can’t connect the dots looking forward to looking backwards. It’s it’s abundantly clear. So mine really started back when I was 13. And I used to play rugby league. I’m not the biggest guy game around, but it was very good, very strong, and on the chronology, which is in Sydney, and Canelo, is knocking on my door to sign a contract to play for them at the ripe old age of 14. But then I had souter’s role they wanted to come, they wanted me to go across to them. And I was sitting down with my stepdad and he goes, David, you have two choices, he can either sign with coronella, where you’re guaranteed to get into the team, so much pressure is going to be put on you because I’m going to be the captain, I’m going to be there. So I’m going to be there. So I’m going to be the star player in that team. Or you can choose the RSS anywhere, you have to earn your spot. There are bigger team, they’re faster team, they’re generally more successful team as well, especially in the junior levels. And he goes, you’re really going to have to earn your spots there. So I sat down for me was probably only really five minutes, but it felt like half an hour or an hour. And then I decided that instead of taking the easy route, I took the high route. And when we sat Sydney and that’s really where everything has gone off the back of that. I prefer to choose the harder route because we that helps with the mindset. And it also weeds out so many people that they do maybe just for fun. So I went and played with South Sydney I played with some guys that ended up playing for Australia in rugby league, but I suffered two knee reconstructions with that one when I was 17. And one when I was 20. And after the second one, I went, Okay, no more. We had enough. I was still super competitive. But unfortunately it stopped my rugby league career. Because it was like 30 kilos, heavier, muscle wise, there was a bloke who came up and asked me if I’d ever done armwrestling before juicing the shopping center. And I thought that’s a weird question. But my competitive juices were still going. And as he asked me how I go, you go, I do it for fun. But when I have to pay for drinks with arm wrestle, I don’t pay for a win and they buy drinks for me. So he gave me his card and I ended up doing arm wrestling with him. I didn’t actually make it to the professional wrestling circuit. I was on my way there to the state but in Corfu in Greece. I was armwrestling a bloke turn, and I snapped my Oh, thanks. Yeah, so I always echo food for mates wedding and was with my girlfriend at the time, which I’m very, very lucky now is now my wife, which after that incident, instead of the rest of our round the world trip had to come back to Australia and get it operated on. When they operated on they hit a nerve dropped and actually got a nerve conduction study. They said the nerves are screwed up and dying. And all of a sudden my world was pulled out from underneath me. I was an athlete, personal trainer worked at a gym, all of this physical stuff, and yet I couldn’t use my arm. And so I thought who He’s gonna want to train to the con user on who wants an athlete to con us Iran, my whole world got flipped upside down, shaking around. And luckily, I’ve got a good support network around me. And I was down in the dumps. I was crying for probably two or three days, and then I went, overcome so many obstacles along the way. How can I let a broken arm beat me. So when I tried all these different things, and eventually I got movement back, still being super competitive, because at that time, I was what 2222 23 and went to a place to a kung fu school. And where I started when choosing, like, everyone started off as a white belt. So I did Wing Chun Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to keep boxing and wrestling, and worked my way up through the ranks with that, and wanted more. I didn’t want to just do the classes, I wanted to really be able to test it. And that got me into MMA cage fighting, which really led me to meeting my wrestling coach. And he really was another change of direction as well, where we used to spend hours and hours wrestling training, but also spending time talking about philosophies in sports philosophies in life, and how the two really melt motocross. And we spoke a lot about mindset. And you go, there was one throwaway conversation he had where he goes, David, I want you to take a note of the boys. He goes after coach on on the leader there, and I was like 6570 kilos at this point. These were monsters. They’re 100 110 115 kilo, the big men, but yet he was he was 100%. Correct. And he goes, Dave, you’ve got so much more youth than just fighting, or so much more youth than just working in a gym. And that sort of steered me one direction. And then I went to see Eric Thomas, where he’s my favorite speaker. I was listening to him before we were speaking this morning. And I actually one or got up and I did something that I wouldn’t normally do. Because they said, Sometimes all you have to do is take the first step. So I stood up, and I started walking towards the stage. And the ladies that were on there before Thomas smiled and shook their head. And they went, kind of went in a one event to a three day speaking bootcamp. And then from there, I’ve just gained momentum. And I haven’t looked back, my sport, I still am very active, physically, mentally, all that sort of stuff with gym, I still manage the gym. But I also do speak now as well, which is taken my life my philosophies from sport, and we saw a big gap in the corporate world, like we said about vitality, especially the last two or three years, people are looking over their shoulder, they’re concerned, what’s going on. They’re concerned with all this other stuff in there might be a little bit slumpy. So went, hang on, there’s a gap there. Let’s fill that gap. Let’s raise vitality. Because if you raise vitality, you raise morale, productivity, and therefore profitability within the business. And people are happier, they work more, they’re willing to do more the people that they care about as well. So that that’s the short version where I am now.

Mike Malatesta  13:03

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you laid a lot down there. I appreciate it. I so I have I have some questions on on, on what parts of your answer the first one was the wrestling? That started much later than is what you’re saying that was like something? Were you doing that as a teenager, as well as playing rugby? Or did it start I got the impression, and maybe it was something you got into later? Yeah.

David Lindsay  13:26

100%. And, and I was lucky with that with my grandpa, he was actually a really good wrestler, back when he was a kid. So we used to do stuff like that, you know, every time we my cousins will get together. So just about every week, my grandpa would put us through some wrestling stuff. But it truly became my sport when I was Yeah. After football. So you used to do a little bit of wrestling in football because of the tackle. Same as in Umbreon, you have the tackle. But wrestling was probably when I was around 23. I really started that just as an individual sport, and the mindset that comes from that the grit determination, the knowing that the thing with wrestling for me, which I’ve taken into speaking, which I’ve taken into all these other things as well, is it’s the art of getting comfortable, being uncomfortable, but being able to calm yourself down. Because if you’re in a position and someone’s that they’re bigger, they’re stronger, and you tense up, you panic, you waste so much energy, you’re going to put yourself in vulnerable positions. And it’s the same as in a board meeting. Or it’s the same as when when you’re up speaking, if I’m there and I’m nervous, and I can’t control myself, I can’t get comfortable being uncomfortable. People can feel that. And especially when I’m talking you know, to 100 200 500 people, they feed off my energy. I want it to be positive energy. If it’s nose energy, it’s going to change the entire room and you

Mike Malatesta  14:53

definitely dig into speaking more because I’m really curious about how that evolution has come has come about out, you sort of you sort of teased it a little bit on, you know, talking about that fella, and I can’t remember his name that you were listed on this. Yeah. So I want to get into that later. But I want to go back to this conversation that you and your stepdad had about when you were 14. This so if I’m just going to Americanize this a little bit you were basically at 14 years old, you were being recruited to be a professional rugby player. Yeah. And you had these two different options that that were recruiting you. There. Is that normal to be recruiting athletes at the age of 14? First of all, is my first question. That’s and then my second question to that is, Where was your head at? I know you were you were maybe confused about which choice to make. But How heavy was that? Will you like, I’m the man like, or were you like, oh, my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening.

David Lindsay  15:53

isn’t really that common? And it wasn’t like a massive contract, who was a little one to sort of sign you up to get you in their system. So it was it was massive for me at that time because no one else I knew was getting contracts to play football. No, no, certainly was getting contracts to play sport. And I was lucky as well, because I’d only been playing rugby league for what two seasons before that as well. And again, it comes back to mindset with that. Because really, and taking it a couple of steps back, I’ve got an older brother, where he’s 18 months older than me, so and we started off playing soccer, but so that we wouldn’t go one here, one there. Mum, my mum and dad put me in the same soccer team. So I was always competing against people that were two or three years older than me. So you know, when when you’re six coming up against nine year olds or eight year olds, they’re monsters. Yeah. But I didn’t let them beat me. So it’s always been ingrained in me that it doesn’t matter how they are, I’m going to find a way. And it’s the same. And that sort of has progressed through life as well. So they’re playing rugby league. Again, I’ve never been the biggest guy, but I’ve been the most competitive. And we they did sort of I was very chuffed, obviously that you had the canola sharks coming, coming, literally knocking on my door to sign a contract. But it was a conversation, it was just sitting on my bed, and my stepdad goes, there’s no guarantees in life goes, you don’t want things to be given to on a platter earn because then it’ll have so much more value. And so was the choice of going to Canelo, whereas guaranteed to get paid, or not even guaranteed to be in the team at South Sydney and he is set migos. So do you want to walk around just would have been given to it goes, there’s no not much benefit to that. Because then you know, you tend to rest on your laurels. It’s like kids that are incredibly talented. Don’t put the work in. That’s a waste of talent. Always never talented. I used to train. Well, I still do. I train crazily hard in order to put myself in that position. So it’s always been about hard work. And that’s where I sort of went, Okay, I can take the easy route or the hard work, the one that’s not guaranteed, but if I do win, it’ll pay so much more dividends. And so I went that way. And like I said that, that sort of kept going with all parts of my life as well. Yeah.

Mike Malatesta  18:25

And when you were 17 and you were experiencing the knee injuries and stuff. Can you take me back to that time and no, how were you? Were you like, Oh, my stepdad was wrong. I should have gone the other way.

David Lindsay  18:39

No, I never thought that because of the people that we met through through football, like 17 It was in the semifinals and I was playing against Parramatta where they were one of the favourites to win the competition. And I ran out from dummy half and I was always walking along with a bot like I hit and we’re still edging forward. And a bloke took a dive at my back knee and it just bent back in. straightaway. I heard the pop that people in the in the crowd heard the pop. And they knew that it was done. But I don’t regret a thing about that. Because like, like I said, I’ve played with people that have played for Australia. I’ve learned so many lessons from my rugby league days that go across, like about the importance of teamwork, because we that under 17 team, even though I didn’t get to play in the grand final, that was a team. We won the grand final. We didn’t have the best team going around. But we had the strongest team ethic. We had the strongest, tightest knit group and that’s why he brought us over the line. So you know that there’s no regrets at all that maybe I should take an easy path. I don’t believe in taking the easy path in any any way. Because easy come easy go.

Mike Malatesta  19:50

Yeah, the wrestling, arm wrestling. Let’s go to arm wrestling first. So I look you have never had someone come up to me in a parking lot and say hey, Everything about armwrestling. So I’m so and you’re the first person that I’ve had on the podcast who is, as far as I know, been a high level arm wrestler. So I’m just going to ask a follow up question to it. What’s the key to being good? Because I don’t think it’s necessarily strength by itself. So there’s got to be a combination of things that make great at that. I’d love to hear what that what what those are. Yeah, for

David Lindsay  20:23

sure. It’s there’s so much technique, and people think it’s just you grip and go. But because I’ve got quite a short levers, I see going for a hook. And it was funny, the first competition or winning or not, I was a big guy. Back then I was 9095 kilos of muscle. Which is why why he got me in there. But I was coming up against a bodybuilder who was like, he was even bigger than me again. And we got into this position where we both went for the hook, and I went for the role as well. And our heads hit, but then it all comes back to mindset. Because he was strong, I was strong, he looked bigger, or he was bigger. But as soon as we got in that in that position, we hit a got him to the pin him. So once I got in his head, who’s so easy to pin him time after time. And yeah, so it’s for me, it’s I just used to do a hook and a roll. So you want to get like that and that your body behind it. And what actually happened when I was in Corfu, we were doing it on a bar. So I was stretched out because the bar was tall. And then there was a place where you put your drink on. So my ribs were resting on the woods, okay, and I actually got the bloke down to normally we’d win. And he just had his wrist cocked. And he goes, you haven’t beat me yet. And because you guys were pretty confident I was gonna win. That did account down? Fine. Four, three. So I went like, again, it’s my competitiveness, which some people will say, David, I feel sorry for you too competitive. Never feel sorry for me. I’ve got a great life. And I love doing what I do. And it’s because of my competitiveness. But I turned my body which that’s the first lesson you learn in arm wrestling. That’s why there’s handles on there to stop you turning your body too much. And it just build up pressure and and basically comport myself. And at first, I thought I’d broken the bar because it was like a dry piece of wood getting snapped. And then I looked at my arm and my arm was bent like in directions I went off to the hospital we went.

Mike Malatesta  22:29

And so the you don’t want to separate your arm, your shoulder from the rest of your body. In other words, it needs to move as one. Yes. Okay, at all.

David Lindsay  22:38

Yeah, all the power. And also what I used to do, like I said, is get behind it and use your bodyweight is up your arm can’t touch your shoulder, but you can use it there. And then you want to create a short one for you. And the more you can get the hand away from the elbow is just leverage, then it’s easier to push down there than it is to push down from the I’ve watched a few. It’s a lot of technique.

Mike Malatesta  23:02

Yeah, I’ve watched a few armwrestling videos on YouTube. I forget the guy that I was watching, but it came across my feed. So I watched a couple of them. And you talked about getting in the other person’s head. He’s He’s like a talker. Like he talked down

David Lindsay  23:15

today. Deliberate. Yeah. Yeah. I love which guy,

Mike Malatesta  23:18

right? But yeah, he’s talking to the other guy the whole time, you know, to try to get into his head. The strategy that you employed as well or was yours just like your eyes, your look, or what did you do to to? Because it’s a very powerful non verbal, well can be a very powerful nonverbal or verbal. Yeah, advantage, right.

David Lindsay  23:38

100 was saying like the best. And the best example of sort of that in armwrestling was it was I can’t remember his name off the top of my head because it was many, many years ago, but a German arm wrestler where he’d have this really skinny arm, and then he was born with a deformity, and he’d have a jacket on it have this slave rolled up on this skinny arm. And then he takes his jacket off, and he had just an enormous right arm. Like they said, if he was proportionate, because he’s armwrestling, the lightweight division. If it was proportionate to the size of that arm, he would have been, what six foot I think was something like six foot three 240 pounds, just because it was so enormous. But yeah, it wasn’t so much. I just would let my actions speak. Were getting there. And yes, you have that level of gamesmanship going on, but I’m not such a talker, but I like Dan lever it. I love watching his videos. And also there’s a guy called the armwrestling whisperer, where he’s just a little bloke, but he he has, like he he’s technique is just so good. And he’s talking to people as they go along. And he has complete control and he tells him how to make it better for them. He goes home Crusher, he hooked it up. Yeah, I can feel that. I can feel that. Don’t turn your body. Keep looking at your hand. We that sort of stuff. And it’s all just getting in their head

Mike Malatesta  25:03

and the the this injury that you had you said you lost nerves, nerve condition or something. How did it tell me how it came back? What what did you What did you end up finding that that work to get it back?

David Lindsay  25:15

Yeah grows initially, like I said I go to nerve conduction study where they put needles in your arm and they shouldn’t send electrical currents through to make sure the nerves is still firing. And what what personally, I think it was, I think was a misdiagnosis because all they did was a hit the nerve, which shut it off, but it didn’t kill it. They didn’t sever it. But during that time, I didn’t know that at the time. So I was doing everything I could I change my diet. I went and went and see homeopath naturopath, I was doing anything I could physios getting these ointment to rub on stuff to eat, it can help improve your nerves. All that sort of stuff goes on aren’t like leaving things to chance, I line up everything I can. And this is Amy’s really speaking, I line up everything I can, as with sport with business, you don’t just close your eyes and shoot, you line it all up in then you knock it down. And it’s like a domino effect. So always because that was my life. That was your UI was as a like 20 to 22 year old for it to be taken out from underneath me. And then there was a switch or when and go, I’m going to beat this. I don’t care what they say. We’re going to overcome this. And that’s what’s happened many times, like my wife had a terrible accident. She shattered her femur, and we went in with that same mindset you like, of course you can go sit in the corner and feel sorry for yourself. That doesn’t help anyone. What can we do to move forward? What can we do to make the most out of this situation? Because he can’t undo stuff that’s happened. I couldn’t undo my broken arm. She couldn’t undo her accident which caused her leg to be shattered. So what can we do to come out better than we went in?

Mike Malatesta  27:02

What happened to her for that to happen? She was

David Lindsay  27:06

on her way to work. And she used to ride a motorbike. And she got hit by a car and went and flipped. And I was actually in the All Things Considered. We were extremely lucky, or got a phone call from her not long after she left. And I thought it was too quick for her to be at work. And she goes David, I’ve been I’ve been hit by a car. And I think I’ve broken my leg. And she brings this up all the time that I was hoping that she was going to use been hit. Obviously that was a lie. But I thought that she might have been exaggerating, and with a broken leg. But like like I said I was very lucky that that she called me up and I got there I managed to pack up our daughter because she was seven months old at the time and get get to that place just before or just after the ambulance. And she was still in the gutter with with her leg pain in a very, very bad way. And yes, she she shattered her leg for more than just that.

Mike Malatesta  28:07

X ray. Yeah. It’s broken in multiple places. Yeah,

David Lindsay  28:12

yeah. Rod. Yeah. Like you say you’re shattered. So yeah, it was a very long recovery, I had to have six months off work to look after both my wife and daughter. But again, we didn’t sit in the corner for us. Now it was time that we were never gonna get get back again. So we really built a stronger relationship as a result of that.

Mike Malatesta  28:33

Okay. Well, not good for you for both having gone through this such serious things, but good for you for both overcoming and for having one another. 100 Restoring right. Yeah, yeah. So vitality. You. You mentioned it, we’re going to talk about it. I want to start first with how you define it, because I want to make sure people understand what vitality means to you.

David Lindsay  28:54

Yeah, cause won’t for me, it’s easy. It’s increasing Vim, vigor and passion having energy, not not energy, just to get by the energy to go above and beyond. Because in my talk, as well, I talk about vitality, and actually comes from the Latin word Vitalis meaning of or belonging to life. So it means having life having energy, because you have a look at your vital signs to vital vitality. And it’s a pulse rate, your respiratory and breathing and your blood pressure. If you don’t have these vital signs, you’re dead. So increasing your vitality is increasing energy zest, like I said, Your Vim, vigor and passion for what you do. And it’s not just in the work, work environment. It’s in life in general, because it’d be a world of difference. If I was up here we go. Thanks for having me, Mike. I really appreciate as opposed to Mike, thank you very much for having me on. On loving these so far. And just energy comes through this screen. It comes through the audio as well. What’s that? That’s what it is.

Mike Malatesta  29:55

Okay. Thank you for that. What is Vim? I’m not familiar with them. Is that the first thing you said then yeah,

David Lindsay  30:01

then big. Really just yeah, like having a zest for life. You know, being being upbeat,

Mike Malatesta  30:08

I’m gonna, I’m gonna start using that, then that’s not something that I don’t think. So thank you for that, David. My pleasure. So, as far as coaching mentality, right, so I’m assuming you’re a speaker, you’re, you know, you have your gym. So you’re, you’re basically coaching people all the time. But what was there? When When was there? When was the time that you thought to yourself, you know, I’m a, I am a coach that’s like, who, who I am if you define yourself that way,

David Lindsay  30:38

you know, definitely. And it came from that conversation that that I had with my wrestling coach, like it was it was many, many years ago. But I like before that I never ever thought of myself, as you know, anyone’s special. I never thought that I had the authority that I had the power to change people’s lives, and then that throwaway conversation, and then everything else has really built that momentum along the way. Like, even when I first started speaking, I went who’s gonna want to listen to me? I’m not Eric Thomas, I’m not a Les Brown. I’m not a Tony Robbins, who lie. And then again, it’s building that momentum. And I go, No, I know that I have a story, I know that I have a method to share with millions of people out there. So what what’s the best platform for this in the gym, I can reach one to one coaching, I can reach one to one in a classroom, I can reach one to 30. In speaking I can reach one to 1000s with a podcast, I can reach one to 1000s. So just to be impacted can have as well.

Mike Malatesta  31:43

So I’m this really fascinates me because I have similar thoughts. And I think maybe a lot of people listening have similar thoughts where they want to do something, but they are comparing themselves to other people who are doing that something like that successfully. You mentioned Eric Thomas or, or Tony Robbins or something. And it’s, it’s rather than it being an inspiration to do not to become them, but to become what you can become your own sort of way. They say, Well, I can’t I just it’s too hard to be the guy. What do I have that they don’t have? Like what you were saying? How long? Did it take you to work your way? Through that David? Like? I mean, you got all that you’ve got a lot of confidence. Obviously, you’ve you know, you always take the hard way, you have all these things maybe naturally built into you, but I’m not doing that. But still, it’s okay. So good. It’s not natural. So tell helped me understand how you worked your way through it.

David Lindsay  32:43

Yeah. And it doesn’t happen overnight. And that’s what many people go they, they have this expectation that, you know, within two months of speaking, that I’ve got this, I’ve got this keynote, I’m going to be doing this, this and this, two months later, they don’t have anything, and then they go on, tried. But I got nowhere, you don’t get anywhere in two months. Because think about when you go to a gym, you don’t go and start with 140 kilos on the benchpress or more, say 250 pounds on the benchpress. You don’t start off with that you start off with just the bar. And then gradually, it’s a slow, incremental process. You go millimeter by millimeter. The same with wrestling, you work your way up millimeter by millimeter to get to the end goal. And you have what a lot of people and I do this as well, because I think that those guys are so far away, though, how can I get there? But then what you do is you break it down, you reverse engineer stuff. So it’s it’s not about being intimidated. It’s about being inspired by them. Like, how did they get there? They weren’t always those people. They put a lot of hard work into it. And like I said before that like I was born with this, and now I wasn’t born with anything. Like I said right at the start. I wasn’t born talented. I used to just train hard using my body, using bodyweight with football with fighting with armwrestling. I put myself into those uncomfortable situations, because that’s where growth happens. And especially and it comes back time and time again to wrestling. Because that’s how I could overcome bigger guys is I know that if I can beat their driver, which is their mind, I can control them. I just get him in a position and I like to put them in uncomfortable positions. They can’t handle it. They’re the driver their mind disappears and you feel that energy and you feel their power suck from them, but it’s about constantly doing it. Like I’ve been speaking now for what seven or eight years. And back in 2020 I was in the process of going full time with speaking and then you know COVID hit, the whole world got shaken up. sight down. But a student stopped us during COVID Israel and open up so many possibilities on able to speak to you in this stage from Australia was spoken in the States, in India, in Canada, in Singapore, in England, in all around the world, from the comfort of my own home, because process creates opportunities. And we’ve just been through a massive crisis. What opportunities can you take from that? And how can you grow as a result?

Mike Malatesta  35:32

And I’ve heard, I’ve heard people say, no one’s born at the top of the mountain. And I don’t know if you’ve heard that or not, but as your as you were talking through, you know, going from a spot of, you know, how can I ever do what you know, these people do? You forget about, or it’s easy for you to forget that that person who is now you’re looking at, and you’re saying, well, that person is at the top of the mountain? How can I ever get to the top of the mountain? Well, that person started just like you at the bottom of the mountains? And probably thought the exact same thing like how can I be a Zig Ziglar? How could I be a nightingale? How could I be, you know, some of these wonderful, older, you know, previous generation generators? And yeah, and and, you know, they started right where you are. So your advice about reverse engineering is like, okay, so nobody starts at the top of the mountain, but people get there. So how do I look at all the steps that they took in order to get there and then take myself back to the step where I am right now? Yeah. Okay. The next step is, you know, this, and then the next one after that, and then the next one after that, and, and then you’re on your way, right? It’s like, yeah, 1000 miles starts with the first step.

David Lindsay  36:45

100%. Yeah, yeah. And a lot of that comes back to and again, using sporting terminologies, or you, it’s, you know, it’s coming across into the corporate world is to get coaching, to get coaching or mentoring from people that have been there and done that, like I, like I said, I won the three day boot camp, to speaking, coaching course. And I had no idea of speaking as a profession, besides, you know, the top dogs, but I did really, really well. And then I found a course online, wasn’t an online course was face to face. But it was a speaking course. And I ended up doing a 12 month spin caught with that company. And that’s where it started to build momentum to build momentum. And that was, like I said, seven or eight years ago, but it’s just that I’m so tenacious, I’m like a dog with a bone. I’m not gonna let it go. I’ll put in too much hard work, too much time, effort, dedication, to just throw my hands up through you know, there’s a cartoon of someone with a with a shovel, or a pickaxe, where they’ve got so far, and then they turn around walking away, and they’re just millimeters away from diamonds. And I don’t want to live my life with regrets. I don’t want to go if only I had have done this, because that’s with injuries. Like I said, you can’t undo the broken arm, you can’t undo the broken leg, you can’t undo the knee reconstructions. But what can I do to use that to move forward? What can I how can I use that discomfort that time to come out better than I went in?

Mike Malatesta  38:20

And what would you say, David is the most unique thing about you that resonates with people that you’re speaking to, or coaching, for example,

David Lindsay  38:28

I think because, like, I’ve my background, I’ve, I didn’t come from a rich family. My parents split up when I was younger. I, like, you know, there’s nothing special about me. And I think that’s, that’s really what tends to resonate with people because I am relatable. And that’s why like, I did a video yesterday on LinkedIn, where I talked about, there’s two ways to create the tallest building in the city, wanting to knock everything down, and then build a one storey building, the rest is to build the tallest building. And the great thing about building the tallest building as well is yes, you need to create foundations out. That’s what you have to work on first and foremost, but it’s showing other people around you what’s possible, because if the people that are close to me, they they know on David on a knock about sort of blow, be it, I can create these building, they can use a blueprint of what I’ve done, and you model their behavior. That’s that’s what you can do you really like really these great people with a Tony Robbins with Eric Thomas, Les Brown, or those sort of guys, you reverse engineer and then you use systems that they do. And like Bruce Lee, you take what works and discard what doesn’t. And that’s a great way to go about things. But also with building the tallest building what my goal is as well is to invite people up to the top floor to enjoy the scenery as well along the way. So, you know, people say it’s a lonely place at the top. It’s not It’s low. If you want it to be lonely, you can bring people along with you as well. And you know, you have your own team, which is out there. And that’s nice, where again, it comes back to sports, you can only go so far and so fast by yourself with a team, you can really do it a lot faster, but a lot further. And it’s a lot more fun as well doing it when you’re surrounded with people.

Mike Malatesta  40:22

And I, I agree with that with your sentiment there that it’s only lonely at the top if you want it to be. But I think the reason a lot of people are lonely at the top, and I was one of those people for a long time, and maybe still am a little bit. I think one of the main reasons is you don’t want to show that you are a real bloke, like you said, you don’t want to show that you’re just a real vulnerable person like everybody else. You don’t want to you don’t want to appear weak. And so rather than vulnerability. Yeah, so rather than risk that you close, you build a wall around yourself. And then you say, Wow, it’s really lonely here. Yeah, sometimes you get what you asked for. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Do you have a relationship with your with your dad? Yeah, yeah,

David Lindsay  41:07

I still do. He still lives not too far. Down the road. I spoke to him, what, two days ago and it was his birthday. So it’s I as I’ve got older, my relationship with him has got a lot better as well. So like, you know, like I said, my parents split up when I was 1011 12. Around about that age. And then yes, I’ll still have a relationship with my dad. My stepdad. He’s the one that got me into rugby league. He’s a passed away, like 11 years ago now.

Mike Malatesta  41:39

Okay. Well, thanks for sharing that. I just, I’m always curious about that kind of thing. And whether so it sounds like it took a while for you to get back into wanting or having a relationship with with your dad. Yeah, well,

David Lindsay  41:51

it was more just circumstance. That’s all I look at it. Like, you know, looking back at stuff ago, I still don’t know what happened. I don’t want to know because you know, I just live how I live. And yeah, I get along really well with my mum and dad. And they’re both extremely supportive. And my wife, especially she’s super supportive. She didn’t want me to fight. He was super supportive of fighting. She was there, she was my biggest cheerleader. She doesn’t understand speaking, or she doesn’t understand that sort of stuff. But she’s incredibly supportive. And, you know, that’s like I said before about having that network around when I broke my arm when she broke her leg. And it’s not just us as a family is me and my wife, my daughter, but our close friends, my wrestling coach, my buddies from work, you know, these people we really help each other through through both good and bad times.

Mike Malatesta  42:51

Did you I think you might have had a screw loose or something when you said you want that okay.

David Lindsay  43:02

Well, maybe a bit, right. Yeah.

Mike Malatesta  43:04

When you’re when you’re speaking to people, when you’re talking to them? Do you consider yourself motivational? Do you consider yourself inspirational? Or do you consider yourself something else? And and when you’re done talking to somebody, David, or a group or whatever, what do you want them to do? What do you want to do as a result of experiencing you?

David Lindsay  43:24

I believe really, it’s a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of say, so yes, motivational Yes, inspiration, because when I’m talking about raising vitality, on this stage, as well, I have to have, well, you don’t have to have I choose to have that energy as well, you know, so that it really comes across, I get them participating. So they can be part of it. But what I’m doing on this giving them tools. So like I said, I’ve got my five steps towards improved vitality. So I’m giving them the tools. And then it’s about them, putting it into action, it seems that they can put into action, as soon as we finish from the like gurus are talking about the power of music, the power of posture, so that I’ll run through the five steps quickly. So it’s not creating routines and rituals, this snap into action, napping for peak performance, we’re not designed to work 24 7365 But with people burning out, we need to nap, the peak performance and then tapping. So with fighting, I can get coin and Amber. I can find it to a certain point and I can tap once a tap, they let go I go back to my coaches and we learn what what to go about it. Why did I get caught in that number. And then we learn, grow and evolve. So especially now is a perfect time to try new things to be an innovator or an early adapter. And also don’t worry if it fails. If it fails, you tap you learn, grow and evolve. Then the fourth one is clap is celebrating we said all the time in sports very rarely in business because when you celebrate it’s about bringing the team together. Like I mentioned before When I was playing for myself, we didn’t have the best team, we had a good team, but not the best team. But we had the tightest knit group that you can possibly have. And we wanted to do it for each other, the same in work to celebrate. And then the fifth one is recap, or back continuous, never ending improvement. And that’s in everything we do. And as a coach, I want problems. As a coach, I need problems. But we also need solutions. And this doesn’t come from top down. But more importantly, from bottom up from the people that are on the ground floor, from the players, from the floor staff of employees, the people that are in amongst it. And then because if say for me, for example, if I’m the same speaker in six months, as I am today, that’s a waste of six months, if my my football team or my fighting is the same team in six months as they are today, it’s a waste of six months, it’s the same in the corporate world. If your team does same in six months, as you are today, again, that’s a waste of six months. So it’s all about that continuous, never ending improvement.

Mike Malatesta  46:04

I like that the tapping, you know, because you’re basically if I if I got it correctly, you’re basically saying, okay, so not winning, isn’t losing, not winning is learning, right? So I don’t ever say I’m not going to win because the guy’s got me and it’s played in a spot where I can’t get out of that spot. So I tap and then you said you go back to your coaches, and you basically look at it as Okay, well, I don’t want that to happen again. So what would I have to do differently in order for that to happen as opposed to oh, man, you know, I got beat and yeah, give up. Yeah, right. Throw

David Lindsay  46:38

your hands up. Yeah. And I was like, like, Yeah, talk about companies, you know that the the word tapping involved in but stopped, like, because you look at Nokia phones, they were enormous. They had over 40% of the entire mobile phone, even after the introduction of smartphones. But they stopped tapping involving because they were too invested in a Symbian system. You have Kodak, where their money was in film actually had the first patent digital camera, but they left that on the shelf, you have blockbuster Toys R Us are a few examples. Then ones that are constantly tapping and evolving moving forward. You have meta, you know, former Facebook or that, that you have Tesla. And then you have McDonald’s. And I love using McDonald’s as an example because everyone knows McDonald’s better doesn’t mean that those companies have never failed. But they failed. They fail fast, they fail forward, they tap and evolve. Because I talked about with McDonald’s MC pizza, Mikado mix, spaghetti MC, fettuccine, and MC Africa who’s a lot of people aren’t even aware of this entire list, they’ve got a huge amount of products that fail, they try they fail fast they learn from but they failed forward for your time and evolve.

Mike Malatesta  47:51

Yeah, and the tapping thing is like, a lot of business owners too, they don’t they don’t tap when something’s not working, they don’t tap out and just want to they want to grit through it, right, I know this is going to work, I know this is going to work and you keep hearing time. And

David Lindsay  48:03

I use that’s why use armbar is an example. Because like I can fight it to a certain point, I can try and get it back. But you have to know that there’s a point of no return. There’s a point, if he has me locked out, he’s got his legs across here that’s holding me down. All he has to do is pop his hips. And either my elbow is going to pop or my arms gonna break to get to a certain point and you have to know when to tap. Yes, find it. Don’t just give up. But know when that point is. So you have the innovators, early adopters, then everything has that apex, knowing when is it time to jump off to the next thing.

Mike Malatesta  48:41

Speaking of next thing, what is your next thing as an athlete as an athlete,

David Lindsay  48:45

so what I do I coach people with that, like I’ve got got a mate and a lot of it I’ve been lucky enough to coach first grade football is guys that have won championships guys that have played for Australia have, I’ve helped a couple of Olympians as well, we their training, one of them was should have got the gold in the 2000 Olympics, but got disqualified, and like their gold medalists in the Commonwealth Games gold medalist and silver medalist in walking. But then what I do is, I’m concentrating mostly on the speaking I keep myself fit, I still manage a gym and do a little bit of training have really stepped out of that and more so into the speaking. And we do have a 12 month online course for call corporate, for the middle management, search the three pillars to high performance where because in middle management, they get pressure from top to bottom and bottom to top. So we’re trying to strengthen that middle part. Because as I say you’re only as strong as the weakest link in the chain in the middle management have impact with so many people that have impact with all of the four staff. So if we can improve them with a company will go so much better as well.

Mike Malatesta  49:59

And if also heard and tell me if this is your experience. I’ve also heard that the middle managers are the ones who had the biggest impact on employee retention and how people feel about the company. So the middle management either forces out or they Yeah, make or break? Yeah,

David Lindsay  50:15

yeah, 100%, because they’re the linchpin. And that’s why we decided to go specifically for the middle management, because there’s sea levels, the top guys, they have their own individual coaches. So they, they might have that. But then the middle management like that, like you said, they’ve got the impact with pay with all these people on the ground floor. If you have, say, 10 or 20,000 people, these middle management have impact with every single one of those people. So if we can positively affect in that group, they’re going to positively affect the people below them, but also the people above them. And it’s just a great way in and they’re often the neglected people.

Mike Malatesta  50:56

Well, they’re often they maybe neglected and they’re in the toughest spot, because, like you said, they there’s pressure or expectation from up there’s pressure and expectation from below. You know, it could come from either direction at any time. And you have to be able to navigate your bullets. Yeah, yeah. Good point. Good point. David. Thank you so much for joining me today. This has been, it’s been really a lot of fun getting to know you, I’ve learned some new words, too. And attitudes. Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would like to leave with me? Or with the audience? Before we before we call this around?

David Lindsay  51:34

No, not not that I can think of just if any of your listeners if they would be more interested in finding out more about my five steps towards improved vitality, as we mentioned before, how they can get in contact through email or through LinkedIn. Yeah. And I’m looking at actually doing a tour over there. I think I’m going over there in October. And then again, early next year, I’m to do a couple of speaking events. But yeah, I really want to get over to this stage to make a bigger impact. Because Australia, I’ve been up and down the East Coast, we just don’t have the population. So you guys have over there.

Mike Malatesta  52:08

Well, I think you’ll be a big hit. Because, one, you’ve got the vitality, you definitely have that. You’ve got the stories. You’ve got a genuineness about you, you’re funny, you laugh, and, and you’re serious. You know, I want you know, the hard way is my way and not gonna let something get in my way. And people I think can’t get enough of that. Plus the you got the accent Americans love. They love it. They love it. They love everybody with an accent believe me. So yeah, I think it’d be, it’d be a big hit. And for those of you listening, you don’t have to wait. Because you can get David just like I’ve got him here. You can get him does zoom presentations, it does whatever platform you have, and and he can make a huge impact just like this, you don’t even have to doesn’t even have to be live and in person. It can just be live.

David Lindsay  53:00

It came in, like I’ve done it before. Because I know with Australia as well, you know, we we have crazy time difference of got up and I’ve done the talk at midnight said that it could go to Paris or got up and I did it at three o’clock in the morning to the right place. I’m unwilling to do that. Because I’ll wake up at three o’clock anyway. So getting up a little bit earlier doesn’t make any difference just to make an impact. Well, I

Mike Malatesta  53:25

do. I will say that I’ve I’ve that’s the only part of our discussion where I’ve been like kind of like, man, three o’clock in the morning. I don’t know if I want everything else I’ve been totally on board with. So yeah. Yeah, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your great story. I really do appreciate it.

David Lindsay  53:46

Yeah, my pleasure, Mike. And yeah, I hope the listeners got something from this. And like I said, there’s things that you can take away straightaway utilize the power of music, you know, to really increase your energy levels, posture, pose, all that sort of good stuff. Thank you very much for having me on.

Mike Malatesta  54:03

I’m gonna be working on my Vim. So everybody, thanks for listening to this show. And before you go, I just have three requests for one if you like what I’m doing please consider subscribing or following the podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer. If you’re really into it, leave me a review write something nice about me Give me five stars or whatever you feel is most appropriate. Number two, I’ve got a book called owner shift how getting selfish got me unstuck. It’s an Amazon bestseller and I’d love for you to read it or listen to it on Audible or wherever else Barnes and Noble Amazon you can get it everywhere if you’re looking for inspiration that will help you unlock your greatness and potential order or download it today so that you can have your very own copy and if you get it please let me know what you think. Number three, my newsletter. I do a newsletter every Thursday and I talk about things that are interesting to me and or I give more information About the podcast and the podcast guests that I’ve had and the experiences that I’ve had with them. If you sign up for the podcast today at my website, which is my name, Mike malatesta.com. You do that right now put in your email address and you’ll get the very next issue. The newsletter is short, thoughtful and designed to inspire, activate and maximize the greatness in you