David Angel: Brutal Truth About Sales From a Recovered Addict | Be Yourself Podcast
Be Yourself Podcast

DavidAngel

Business & Sales Coach with 20+ Years of Experience — on Why No One Cares What You Sell, Sales Through the Lens of Addiction and Collapse, Rebuilding from Zero, and Radical Honesty as the Foundation of Real Sales Success

37 minutes
Sales · Addiction Recovery · Entrepreneurship · Personal Growth · Rebuilding
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About This Episode

From Rock Bottom to Sales Mastery: How Addiction, Collapse, and Rebuilding From Zero Rewired David Angel's Approach to Sales

What does real sales mastery look like after you've lost everything — twice? David Angel is a business and sales coach with over 20 years of experience and a TEDx speaker who rebuilt from absolute zero after addiction took his businesses, home, and possessions. Now six years clean, he runs Tusta, helping clients across 19 industries dramatically improve their conversion rates through better conversations.

In this raw episode of the Be Yourself Podcast, David unpacks the brutal truth about sales that most people miss: no one cares what you sell — they only care about results and certainty. We explore why the worst case scenario matters more than the best case promise, why listening 75% of the time closes more deals than any technique, and why lowering your price doesn't reduce the risk you represent to a buyer.

The conversation goes deeper than tactics. David shares how addiction, collapse, and starting over reshaped how he sees selling, success, and what it actually means to help someone. This episode blends sales psychology, addiction recovery, and personal growth into a conversation that's as honest as it is practical.

01
Why no one cares what you sell — and what they actually care about
The real question buyers ask is not about your product or price. It's about certainty: can you deliver the result, and is the likelihood of it happening worth the cost?
02
The worst case scenario as the most powerful sales tool you have
If a prospect can't see a positive worst case, they won't move forward no matter how good the upside sounds. Help them believe in the floor before you sell the ceiling.
03
Why cheaper price doesn't reduce risk — it can make things worse
Lowering your price doesn't remove the risk of making someone's business worse. The goal is to raise the perceived floor — not drop the number.
04
How to listen 75% of the time and still close — the question-only method
Your discovery process, transitions, and even objection handling should all be questions. If the other person is nodding, you're talking too much.
05
AI in sales: the tractor analogy — why skill still matters
AI lets you plow 20 fields instead of one — but without skill and planning, all you'll do is ruin more fields faster. Use it as a multiplier, not a replacement.
06
How David got clean, lost everything, and found his purpose through sales
Six years clean after three-to-four day benders, losing his businesses, home, cars, and boat — and how helping a stranger close £38,000 in two days lit him back up.

About the Guest

David Angel — Business & Sales Coach, TEDx Speaker & Founder of Tusta

David Angel (known as David the Sales Angel) is a business and sales coach with over 20 years of experience. After a decade of high performance in sales and entrepreneurship fueled by drinking, smoking, and drug use on a near-daily basis, his life collapsed. He lost his businesses, his home, his cars, a boat, and everything else he had built. At rock bottom — a shell of a man, no confidence, no belief, struggling to pay bills — a contact reached out and asked if he was still good at sales.

He showed up to that office and helped close £38,000 in extra revenue in two days. That experience reignited everything. Now six years clean, David runs Tusta, a sales and business coaching practice working across 19 industries. His program, Conversations to Clients, helps entrepreneurs and sales teams convert more conversations into paying clients — making more money while working less.

David is also a TEDx speaker and brings a rare combination to his coaching: deep sales expertise built over two decades, and the hard-won clarity that only comes from having lost everything and rebuilt from zero.

What He Does
Founder of Tusta — sales and business coaching across 19 industries. Program: Conversations to Clients. Helps clients convert more conversations into paying clients, increase conversion rates from 15% to 40–60%, and make more money working less.
The Collapse
Lost businesses, home, watches, cars, and a boat after years of three-to-four day benders on drink and drugs. Moved out of home at 15, no mentors. Environments he worked in — restaurants and sales — were heavily drink and drug fueled from a very young age.
The Turning Point
Hit rock bottom. A contact asked if he was still good at sales. Showed up to an office as a shell of a man. Helped close £38,000 in extra revenue in two days. That lit him up. He stopped in 2018. Now six years clean at 44.
Core Sales Philosophy
No one cares what you sell — they care about results and certainty. Reduce risk, raise the perceived floor, listen 75% of the time, go three levels deeper on every objection. Help people, don't force them to buy.

Key Quotes

"

No one cares about what we sell. Like, no one gives a [ __ ]. What people care about is can you get me the thing you said you can do and is the likelihood of it happening better than the cost.

David Angel
"

I'm blessed now to have lost everything because it gave me the opportunity to be for all intents and purposes reborn and start again and design a life I want.

David Angel
"

If you're an [ __ ] and money will make you a bigger [ __ ]. If you're a good person, it will keep you being a good person and you'll do more nice things.

David Angel

Episode Chapters

0:00 Episode Teaser & Intro 1:24 Main Misconceptions in Sales Today 3:58 Helping Potential Buyers Understand Value 5:22 Sergey's Story on Finding a Business Coach 7:05 Cheaper Price Vs. Higher Trust 9:55 How to Generate More Prospects 11:00 Sales Roleplay & High Price Objection 14:00 Evergreen Sales Advice 17:30 Using AI in Sales 21:38 How David Got Clean 25:50 Starting in Business Afresh 28:35 Realization of a Finite Life 31:42 Incremental Gains and Losses 33:05 How Much Happiness Costs

Full Transcript

BTW: This episode of the Be Yourself Podcast is produced by Beverly Media. Also on the show:
Jordan Seggman — How AI Revealed His Life Patterns at Rock Bottom →
0:00 Episode Teaser & Intro
David And it wasn't until it didn't work and I had a breakdown and I lost my businesses and I lost my home and I lost the watches, the cars, the boat, and everything else that I had to literally start again. And someone contacted me and he's like, "I'm really sorry to hear that things haven't gone well. Are you still good at sales?" And I was like, "I've got no idea."
David No one cares about what we sell. Like, no one gives a [ __ ]. What people care about is can you get me the thing you said you can do and is the likelihood of it happening better than the cost.
Sergey Maybe this is the blessing that all the Ukrainians got understanding that the life is finite and if you don't do what you love and you don't have something that turns you on right [ __ ] find it.
Sergey So we have to help people arrive at the understanding of a more rational expectations. Is that what you're saying?
David I think two parts. One.
Sergey Hey everyone, welcome to the Be Yourself podcast. The podcast on expressing our true selves. Today I'm joined by David the sales angel who is a business and sales coach with over 20 years of experience. He's a TEDex speaker and yeah, just David, welcome to the show.
David Thanks for having me on, buddy. Looking forward to it.
Sergey So, first thing comes first as we're stepped in 2026.
1:24 Main Misconceptions in Sales Today
Sergey What are some things that people still get wrong when it comes to business development and sales today in 2026?
David Old school things that people are still doing or newer things that people are messing up on which they don't realize.
Sergey Oh, it's a good clarification. Can you do both? Stuff which people just always get wrong, things worked 5 years ago which now they're not as accurate.
Sergey Well, okay, let's say let's go with new school today because a lot of Gen Z watching me ask. So, let's go with the new generation.
David I think a lot of people get caught up at the moment on telling people what they do, not telling people what they'll get. No one cares about what we sell. Like, no one gives a [ __ ]. What people care about is can you get me the thing you said you can do and is the likelihood of it happening better than the cost. So think of it like this. If I sell a car and it's £30,000. If you can buy it at £20,000, the worst case scenario is you can own it, drive it, sell it, still make money, good purchase. But what a lot of people do is they talk about this big crazy result which most people don't believe they're going to get. So then they don't have confidence to move forward.
David So how to overcome this instead of working getting other people to talk more and getting people to understand. So I believe for someone to go from being a prospect to being a buyer they have to have a change in either belief misconceptions overcome a fear sometimes just knowledge very rare. So typically what people are doing is they're coming in with a certain belief that they don't even know that they have and so they don't know they need to overcome that belief. So for example, let's say that I have brought five coaching programs before and got screwed over on everyone. Even though I want the result, I've also been screwed over five times before. So my confidence is low. Think of it like dating. Say you've been cheated on by your last five girlfriends, right? Yeah. And then I pop up all beautiful, all lovely, all charming. You might want to treat me in the right way. You might want to have full confidence, but you will have brought the baggage from your previous experiences. So my belief might be not all girls are trustworthy. My belief might be when it's too good to be true. It normally is. So it's very hard for me to go all in on that relationship if you're holding that baggage. Same as sales.
3:58 Helping Potential Buyers Understand Value
Sergey So we have to help people arrive at the understanding of a more rational expectations. Is that what you're saying?
David I think two parts. One, you've got to work out where are they? Think of it like a locationational pin. Where are they right now? What's their location, their mindset, their skill set, their beliefs? And then what would they need to have to happen to get to the next stage? That's one part. But to get them to commit and to spend money, you might have a big all singing all dancing goal that they want. But if they can't see what the worst case scenario is going to be, it makes it harder to move forward.
David Let's say you're going to your goal is to generate 100 new leads a month. And I go, that's great, but deep down I'm like, I don't even believe you're going to get me one. the worst case scenario is so low that this is a gamble. But if you are the same stage where you go you can convince me or get me to convince myself that the worst case scenario is 20 and I believe that in my soul and the high is 100. If 20 is more valuable than the cost you're going to charge me, it's easy for me to move forward. So then if worst case scenario is still I'm better off now I can move forward because the worst case scenario is better than where I am. Most people's worst case scenario is putting them in a worst place. Hence, why do they move forward?
5:22 Sergey's Story on Finding a Business Coach
Sergey Well, it's interesting is that you use this example because actually I was as a part of my growth and my growth strategy as I decided to find a coach, a business coach because we do a video production services and my business is in a bit of a slump. So I and I had Chris do on my show who told me that he business grew substantially when he started working with his coach. He said don't overthink it. If you have someone on your mind just go for it. And I had this guy who I knew and I reached out to him asked about the price and I was just super shocked by the amount that he said. Not because of the amount itself but because David I did not exactly what you just said. I did not believe that he I would make enough money from his...
David Exactly right. So and I don't know how he think let's imagine for a moment that this TUA branded bottle of water is actually a money printing machine. Now, if I give you this to hold and you checked it out, you tested it out and you saw it would print £10,000 every single month, you knew it for a fact, but there was not a single shadow of doubt. How much would we spend on this bottle? We spend anything, £5,000 every month because you knew. But what actually happens is this is in a box. You can't test it. You don't know if it works. I've said it might make you some money, it might not. Then you're like, "Oh, I don't even want to spend £100 on it. because there's no certainty of where we're going to go, right?
7:05 Cheaper Price Vs. Higher Trust
Sergey Maybe we create an a lower threshold like a easier entry point for people to start, you know, feeling uh more trust as they interact with us.
David I think to a degree you can. We don't have any real low ticket products and the reason being is either you trust me or you don't. Just cuz it's cheap doesn't mean I want it. If you're fixing a big problem and it's cheap, the cost isn't the only problem, you can make my business worse. And that's what people forget. It's not a zero sum game. It's not like I turn up and things just awesome. It could get worse. So just because it's cheaper, the risk is still negative.
David So we've got to be at a stage that you see the worst case scenario being a positive to start with and then it's how great is the worst case scenario. And a lot of people, the problem is they go like, "Let me just give them a lower priced offer." No. Have better conversations with people that are going to get them talking. Like if you looked at your sales interactions now and you had to guess, what percentage do you think you're talking in sales conversations?
Sergey I tried to lower this question. What do you think it is? Not what we tried. What do you reckon? 50
Sergey 50% maybe and you know the thing is whatever it is this is why I'm quite precise with stuff it's not there's no I try is what what's the data tell us if the data tells me that my average talk time I'm speaking 50% that means you are only listening for 50% of the time
David Yeah excluding if you want to have a decision we want to be at a stage and we're probably listening 75% of the time. So then that means I'd only probably be talking 25%. So this is why your discovery process, your transitions, the way the conversation goes, it shouldn't be that we're hunting for, oh, that's what I wanted to find out. We want to really go down the rabbit hole and go three levels deeper in our conversations to get people to explain to us what they think, what they feel, what they believe, rather than us telling them.
David And they're like, "You're nodding now." Which is great. We're in a podcast. But if I'm in a sales call and they're nodding, that's cuz I'm telling them something. They should be telling me. I should be nodding. You shouldn't be nodding. So, if you find yourself nodding a lot in a conversation, great. If you find the other person nodding a lot, that's cuz you're doing too much talking.
Sergey We'll we'll do a short from this piece. It's a really cool kind of way of thinking about it. Um, what if we struggle?
9:55 How to Generate More Prospects
Sergey Okay, I'm just going to use this talk for my actual needs, man. What if we struggle with generating leads because Okay. I mean can this question is what you're saying is basically qualifying is that that's a process of qualifying asking questions.
David Well I mean questions is questions setting is questions and you've just got different categories within that you've got your discovery your transition you got your you got all these different sections all of that's going to be questioning. If you give me an objection I'm probably going to ask you a question.
Sergey Really? So, are you saying that we can close by just asking questions and not talking at all?
David Yeah. Wow. Wow. Because if you say to me now, so for example, give me any objection you like.
Sergey Well, it's too expensive. I can't pay you.
David Let's let's imagine for a moment we just pause the conversation to talk. So, the first point is when is the objection coming up should be the first question we're asking. Okay, it's in the close.
11:00 Sales Roleplay & High Price Objection
David So, we've already built interest, built need, done our discovery. If I've done all of that, and then they say, "It's too expensive." I need to gauge what they're saying. So, what could that mean? It could mean, "You're too expensive compared to your competitor. It's you're too expensive compared to what I thought I was going to pay. You're too expensive compared to what I think the value is." Yeah. So, what do I need to do at this point? I need to identify it. So, then I go, "Okay, cool. So, you give me the same objection.
Sergey Okay. So, uh it's too expensive for now.
David Okay. No, it is expensive if it doesn't work. I get that. Could we just park the money for one side? If I said I was going to do this for free, would you want me to do it?
Sergey Yeah.
David You don't sound very sure. Why? Why do you want me to do it?
Sergey Well, we're we're speaking about uh like potentially if I was ordering uh some sales coaching, right? Or something.
David Well, I would role play it out. Role play it like as if that would be a conversation.
Sergey I would want to grow my business uh with your help.
David But why do you want to do it now? Like why not? You could just carry on doing what you're doing. Like you're not broke, right?
Sergey because something needs to change because I've I've hit the road block.
David The one something needs to change or you want to change something. Cuz when you need to change like I do you know I've just lost three stone. I wanted to lose weight for years. I needed to lose weight. I wasn't ready to lose weight. I kept eating chocolate.
Sergey Okay. Yeah. I want So yeah, I understand what you're saying. So you you're kind of actually identifying if the need is the real need is there, right?
David Do you know what it is? It's aggravating the itch and it's going three levels deeper. Anytime someone talks to you about something, just go three levels deeper. Don't assume you know what they mean by what they said. And actually, for a lot of people out there, what they say is a knee-jerk reaction, and they're just used to saying it. Like if I said to my son, "Have you is your room tidy?" What do you reckon his automatic reaction every single time is going to be? Yes, my room is tidy. Compared to what? Compared to what I think's tidy or what he thinks tidy. Okay. Do you call it tidy? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to him, he's right. His room is tidy compared to his expectations of tidy. But is it tidy compared to what I want to be tidy? No. So actually at that point I need to have a better conversation with him about what my expectations are and what his expectations are.
14:00 Evergreen Sales Advice
Sergey David, do I understand correctly that getting to a no is much better than uncertainty. So if you understand that I have no budget or actual desire to buy, yeah, you just you just skip.
David Instead of thinking about trying to sell everyone, think about helping as many people as you can for the small amount of time you're with them. So for example, let's say that you're in a conversation with me. My job is to get rid of people that aren't a fit. It's a waste of your time. It's a waste of my time. Think of it like having a backpack on. You've turned up at my door with all these problems in your backpack. Yeah. Right. And these are heavy bricks of problems and you're like, "Fucking hell, this is hard work." And I'm like, "Come in. Let's have a chat." My job isn't to be like, "How much can I charge him for these bricks?" But I also don't want to put more bricks in your backpack. And what a lot of people are doing is they're trying to force the person in. But if I'm at the stage where I waste your time, my time, my energy, your mindset, I'm adding more problems into your backpack. So if you're broke, if you've got not a penny to your name, I'm not the guy for you. Like I'm a guy to come to later unless there's a way you could get the funding.
David So actually, I don't want to It's not about trying to trick you into buying from me. It's working out is this guy actually a fit for me? And if he is, can I help him? And if I can help him, does he want my help? And if he does want my help and I can help him, let's get a plan. Like, let's get moving. And here's why. For the ones that you get rid of out of your pipeline that aren't a fit, you will overd deliver to the people that are a fit and you'll give them more certainty, more conviction, more clarity. Not every all leads aren't created equal.
David Look, if I talk to someone now, we work in 19 industries, and I love working in the solar space because they're great people. They've got a really good need, they've got a good product, and their conversions normally suck. You're talking about some, you know, wind changing windows, air conditioning, stuff like that. Like, anything solar companies, solar panels, and they might have a conversion of say 15%. If we're helping our clients get to 40, 50, 60%. What a no-brainer that would be and it doesn't take much to get to that stage. But if they turn up and they're like, "Oh, we've just set up the business. We haven't got any leads. We haven't got any clients." Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, "We're not, you don't need us yet. You probably need to go and [ __ ] up a few times to realize you need help." Yeah. In the same way that swimming lessons become really valuable if you've ever fallen off a boat and you couldn't swim and you're like I would have died there. Suddenly the urge to get swimming lessons is far more important. If you don't live anywhere near a beach the idea of going to the swimming baths to jump in and pretend to drown and learn to swim isn't anywhere near as appealing. I live next to the sea. My kids wanted to swim from a very young age. So automatically there's a need. Yeah. So we've got to establish this in better conversations with people. We live in a great time where we can contact anyone in the world, anyone on one of these little devices. Don't spend your time talking to people that don't want to talk to you. Yeah. Yeah.
17:30 Using AI in Sales
Sergey What is your general tip of advice about using AI in in sales?
David Think of it. I think of I think of AI. Think of sales uh like farming. You've got to plant the seeds. You've got to nurture the crops. And when you nurture it, right, then you're going to get a reward at the end of that. Now, there's different crops that grow at different rates, right? So now, if I'm a farmer and I've got one field and I'm plowing it with a horse and plow, that would be very slow. Now, find out that a tractor existed. You can still do the same job, if not more effectively, but you could have 20 fields and grow different crops because you've now got a tractor that works 10 times the speed. That's AI if it's done properly.
David But if you take a tractor and just start driving it across the field with no planning, no skill, no like all you're going to do is completely screw the field up. And what a lot of people are doing is going, I've got a tractor and just plowing it through a field without any efficiency. So yes, use it, but use it as a tool, not as a replacement for work. Like if you can plow more fields because you've got a tractor, good. Don't just get a tractor and do the same amount and hope it's going to work cuz you will also dilute it a bit down because of AI. It's not the same impact as getting on a phone with someone yet. So yeah, I think AI is really good. is really important, but I also think the human element is also really important. And don't substitute getting skills. Just cuz AI can do it doesn't mean it should.
Sergey Some people say that human to human interaction has become even even more important as we're flooded by harder. Yeah.
David It's so everything's harder because of AI and everything's easier. So now if you read a post on LinkedIn, you don't even know if it's been wrote by a person and you don't feel like you want to I I sometimes I don't even have the energy to dissect, you know, to No, no, just switch off.
David So I'll give you a prime example. We had a we had a client. This is the only problem client we've had in the last four years. And we had a problem client and he moaned that we'd used AI. We were three weeks into the program. Now what's happened is over the last four years we have built out a 160 page document that is all of our pictures, all of our all the back history, all the recording of calls. Like that data is a gold mine of what to do and what not to do. We also then have all of our templates, all of our structures, all of our plans, all of our client overviews, all of our calls, like all of this stuff. D. So I can paste that into a file and say this is exactly what we do in the way we do it. This is our road map of success. give me d. So we did that. So we've got rid of all the all the baggage. We can do that quite quick. And then we go now let's work with a client one to one and now we'll tweak that and adjust it based on the frame rates to get them faster. So that works brilliantly. We've done it with our solar company recently. They implemented it. Three deals inside of 48 hours. Boom. Magic. And he was like, I don't like the fact you used AI. All right. But you haven't used it and said it didn't work. You're just presuming because it's AI, it's diluted.
David But what he forgot was if it wasn't for AI, we would have had to charge him probably £50,000 to do the same detail of work cuz I'd have to have six staff to go into that level of detail of research, overview, analysis d all this stuff to get to that stage. So we could work with him faster and help him quicker because of AI. Yeah. And it meant he saved him money. And that's okay. Like that's that's up to him. Like we're not here to convince people uh that Jesus is real. Like you want to believe in AI, believe in AI. If you don't, don't. It's you're here.
Sergey Whatever works, right? Okay. It's it's a it's a it's a point that I needed to hear. I want to ask you about something
21:38 How David Got Clean
Sergey that you have in your um headline here on LinkedIn. It's a more of a personal thing. Uh you you wrote that you lost at some at one point you lost everything as an addict. Now you're clean for six years. Can you tell us a little bit not about how it happened at war led to it but what have you learned to be the most efficient way to stay clean?
Sergey Because um I have this a theory that for us especially men it's very very important to succeed in life especially if you had problems with addiction like there's a not that many things that can replace that level of excitement and and hormone rush. So what what can you tell us has helped you to transform your life and is helping it today?
David This will annoy a lot of people. The way that you give therapy to a man is very different from the way you give therapy to a woman. What a man needs and what a woman needs is completely different.
Sergey 100%.
David Like sometimes for me I need complete silence. I get socialed out. I use my words up on it. So, there's a book called um Why Men Lie and Why Women Can't Read Maps by a couple couple in Australia called Alan and Barbara Peas and it goes back to prehistoric times and along the lines of it's not accurate but along the lines of men need to use 750 words on a day on average. Women need to use 3,000. And it goes back to the historical to prehistoric times of when we were out hunting, we had to shut up all day because if you made one noise at the wrong time, you'd lose the prey and you wouldn't go eat that day. But women on the other side had to make friends in the village cuz if your husband didn't come back from the hunt, no one's going to provide for you. So there's a lot of wiring within us. So this means that we've got to be triggered in a different way. But I also think we've got to hold ourselves to a degree accountable and we've also got to understand what triggers us. So for me, I was drinking, smoking, taking drugs pretty much on a day-to-day basis. Um, and for days on end, but I could in your 20s, right? Something like 20s, 30s. I mean, I'm 44 now and I went I literally stopped 2018.
David to like proper and it my life was fine for a long time until it wasn't and I had by that point isolated a lot of the friends I had a lot of the friends I had were still in the mindset that what they were doing was fine and that's cool good for you um but people around me weren't equipped to advise me on what I was going through and so then the advice that they intentionally wanted to help me with
Sergey I'm sorry David are we talking a a Wolf of Wall Street type of lifestyle here.
David Yeah. Okay. More. Yeah. Just carnage sort of three four day benders. Um high amounts of drink and drugs and just functioning. It's like being your own therapist but using an illegal chemist to do it because you don't realize that you're masking a lot of the problems that you've got. And I think the problem that I had looking back on my life was my dad had a breakdown. He got PTSD when I was 12. It's not my dad's fault by any stretch. I then moved out when I was 15. Like when you move out at 15 and you think you're well equipped, you suddenly have no mentors, no guardians, no one around you. You're just you've got loads of people look up to you cuz you're a 15year-old with a flat and a motorbike, which legally I shouldn't have had. So I didn't have any peers advising me. And that carried on and carried on. Then I was running restaurants. Then I got into sales. And those environments are very drunk drink and drug fueled. I was 16 drinking with 35 year olds thinking I'm the man. So I got a really squiff view of what life is and what to be. So I didn't learn a lot of those skills. And it wasn't until it didn't work and I had a breakdown and I lost my businesses and I lost my home and I lost the watches,
25:50 Starting in Business Afresh
David the cars, the boat and everything else that I had to literally start again. and someone contacted me and he's like, "I'm really sorry to hear that um that things haven't gone well. Are you still good at sales?" And I was like, "I've got no idea." And he's like, "Well, do you want to come and talk to my guys cuz they're crap." And I went, "Okay." And so I went to this office um like a shell of a man, no confidence, no belief, down on myself, hating my life.
Sergey Yeah. Yeah.
David just about managing to get through to the next day. No, struggling to pay bills and you were like 30 35 36 37 something like that at the time. So that's crap. And then so I went into this place and in two days we helped him close £38,000 worth of extra revenue and I fell in love with it. Like I genuinely loved it and so it lit me up. And this is what I think a lot of guys miss in their life is having a purpose in their life. having something that sets them on fire. And being a dad does that, right? And so a lot of the stuff that happens in our life, we've got to have a purpose and a feeling. And what we get that feeling from varies from person to person, from gender to gender. And so you've got to have things in your life that are going to light you up. This is why guys that go off and play online gaming. I'm like, good for you. If you enjoy that and it lights you up, good for you. Like don't let someone else tell you. As long as you're not harm harming other people, don't let other people tell you what should light you up.
David Do you know me and my friend Alli were talking about this recently? You know when you see like the geeky guy at train stations get all excited about trains and we said to each other, well said it to me. He's like, "Do you know there's a part of me that envys that person because they're so lit up by trains. They wake up buzzing about like that real fire about something." And a lot of us, we're craving to stand out and thrive and find something. And most people are just going through the monotonous steps day in day in of the same day getting repeated every single day. And I'm blessed now to have lost everything because it gave me the opportunity to be for all intents and purposes reborn and start again and design a life I want.
David And it's so important that people start getting themselves out of their comfort zone. Start doing new things. Start having that conversation. Start talking to people. Start thinking what if it goes right, what if this or what if that? What is possible? And start moving towards something cuz it only takes that one experience to find that thing that lights you up. And now you've got a purpose in life and move forward.
28:35 Realization of a Finite Life
Sergey Man, I mean this resonates with me so much because I also at my at one point lost almost everything in my life. This is not this is not even talking about the war. The war in my country has I think has helped so many of us leave the things that we don't care behind. You know, in a way it kind of, you know, everyone speaks about the bad things, bad sides of the war, but there are some bright spots. I think that people cut out bull [ __ ] from their life because things like war helps you crystallize what you really want, right? Because life is [ __ ] finite, you know? And the sooner you understand it, maybe this is the blessing that all Ukrainians got understanding that the life is finite. And if you don't do what you love and you don't have something that turns you on, right? [ __ ] find it because I think the Yeah.
David You know, the thing is go and try more stuff. I genuinely your stuff now. So I took up wind surfing four year four years ago. I didn't even want to do wind surfing. Like I had no interest in it. I wanted to do kite surfing. You know when they fly up in the sky and I phon this company up and they were like no blah blah we haven't got that but we've got wind surfing. And I was like gh but I was in the mindset of screw it. Let's go and do it. I went and done it and I fell in love with it. Like I I'm not great by but I love it. I have no phone. I it takes my full concentration. I'm out in the water. I live next to the sea. And so I was very much like that looks boring. Yeah.
David And you know how many things are in this world that you that we look at and we go that looks boring and then you do it and you're like oh my god this was great. And we prejudge far too much on we think we're so smart and so clever but we know everything in life and what's going to make us happy and what makes us sad. And no, we're actually just in a little bubble repeating the same thing over and over and over again. And change should be uncomfortable. And this is the same with sales. So many people, they're like, "Oh, I've tried everything." No, you haven't. You've tried like six things four times and you've relived the misery of it failing repeatedly. Yes. Like if you live outside that comfort zone, if you challenge yourself, if you push yourself, if you go, "Fuck it." What's the worst that happens? And you do that continuously day in day out. It's amazing what you can achieve in such a short amount of time.
Sergey Yeah, I like uh this uh idea of blind spots. Like we all have blind spots and we just you know we just don't understand that things can be done differently and could yield much more results. U but you you can't you can't see it on your own a lot of times. I think that's where coaches come in and can help. Maybe have you we lying to ourselves like we're all good at justifying why things are bad and why things won't work and have you ever read the book Atomic Habits by James Cliff
31:42 Incremental Gains and Losses
David such a good book and it talks about the compounded interest of 1% incremental gains but I also think there's an opposite of that of the 1% incremental losses so think of it like when someone starts a new job And they come in and they're all firing and ba and everyone's, "Oh my god, this person's incredible." And a month later, that person's just this cloudy, foggy version. And all that's happened over a month is 1% every day. They just 1% less this, 1% less that. And a month later, they're 30 less.
David And so many of us are operating at a place not at our potential. One of our big things is getting people to make more money and work less. And so our program is called conversations to clients. And our big thing is if you can convert more of the conversations you have into clients, you can make twice the amount of money and work less and work the same. Or you could work half the amount of time and have the same standard of life. And all it takes is a little bit more, a little bit more skill, a little bit more. A little bit of uncomfort and discomfort, a little bit of moving out of your comfort zone, a little bit more of not trying to be the expert all the time. and the whole world can open up to us just by that little bit of change.
Sergey Oh, this is inspiring. David, um, we're going to wrap this up.
33:05 How Much Happiness Costs
Sergey I want to ask you as we as we end the conversation if you believe that happiness can be acquired without materialistic abundance or it's still easier to achieve materialistic goods than to renounce them.
David I think it all depends on your spectrum and who you are. For some people out there, they can earn 60 grand a year, live in a nice place where overheads are less, and have a great life. Mhm. Other people out there can have every tool, gadget, multiple homes, and they hate it. I think there's people out there now that are billionaires that are miserable as hell. And not in like an I'm envious way of a billionaire, but I like the fact of just walking down the road at night. I don't I'm not worried about someone kidnapping me. I wasn't worried about someone kidnapping my kids, right? So, there's problems that come with all areas. So, I had two cars, two motorbikes, a quad bike, and a boat years and years ago. And, you know, I thought I'd be really happy when I had them all. And they were cool when I used them, but each one would have big bills every single year and cost and insurance and this and suddenly I was like, my god, this is just a headache. So, just because we have more, it doesn't automatically mean that we're happy. But I also think a lot of people give off a [ __ ] excuse that I'll be happy when.
David But actually, if you can't wake up and watch a nice sunrise and value it, if you can't sit with a friend and give them your full attention, if you can't do the simple things right, then buying the best [ __ ] in the world isn't going to make you any happier cuz you're expecting that external thing to validate you. But can a nice car, can a nice house, can a better quality steak, can eating at a better restaurant make you happy? Of course, you can enjoy the experience more. So, I think it depends who you are. I think money is a magnifier. If you're an [ __ ] and money will make you a bigger [ __ ]. If you're a good person, it will keep you being a good person and you'll do more nice things.
Sergey And it also feels to me that it's like you can't understand this until you get it. you I mean you can't just sit at you know without any money saying saying that hap money can't won't buy you happiness um unless you actually got to financial um abundance you know what I've got with this so
David again it comes down to the line with this if you're sat there now and you haven't paid your bills that is going to cause you stress but you could still find a degree of happiness with your family like you could be absolutely broke have some fun with your kids. So you can still find some happiness despite of your problems and having being happy to being happy doesn't mean I have no problems. Yeah. Like you can be happy and have problems.
David So you could have no money and have happiness. You could have happiness and have everything. But you could have problems and have loads of money or no money. They're not the same thing. And I think that's where a lot of people get caught. They think when I've got this I'll be super happy. No, you'll have problems. Everyone will have problems. I crashed my car last week. Like that's a [ __ ] problem. It's not nice. It's irrelevant of money, but problems will still come.
Sergey David, I want to thank you. This has been really enlightening and actually motivating uh for me and I believe my audience as well. Thank you so much, David.
David Yeah.