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Power of change and how to live a more fulfilling life
Episode 35 • 19th December 2020 • Success Inspired • Vit Müller
00:00:00 01:02:49

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My guest today is Dai Manuel an award-winning digital thought leader and author, Distinguished Toastmaster & keynote speaker, former partner and Chief Operating Officer of a multi-million dollar retail company, and a sought after lifestyle mentor and executive performance coach.

I had a great time interviewing him and we talk about his journey as a coach, entrepreneur and super dad.

Dai is on a mission to positively impact one million role models around the globe to lead a FUN-ctionally fit life through education, encouragement, and community. 

He is an, Accountability coach, good friend to a lot of people and is here to help others get healthy. 

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Other links & mentions:

RECOMMENDED BOOK - Essentialism by Greg McCowan

Highlights:

  • (00:00:23) - Introduction of my guest today
  • (00:07:45) - Loss of revenue and pivoting to get through 2020 Covid crisis and impact it's had on Dai's coaching business.
  • (00:11:09) - Prioritising what projects to dedicate resources towards
  • (00:15:00) - Book recommendation - Essentialism by Greg McCowan
  • (00:17:07) - Capacity to do stuff, re-allocation of energy and having a plan B
  • (00:20:44) - Dai story how they decided to leave their careers, go super minimalistic and got traveling the world with kids
  • (00:25:12) - Where did the revenue come from while Dai and the family were on the read traveling
  • (00:32:59) - Is minimalistic freedom lifestyle for you ?
  • (00:37:41) - My story of self actualisation when I decided to move to Australia
  • (00:40:59) - Getting outside your comfort zone, Dai shares how overcome obesity and suicidal thoughts as a teen
  • (00:48:48) - What really needed to happen for Dai to realise that he needed a drastic change otherwise he'll never be happy
  • (00:54:56) - How is Dai keeping relationship with his wife fresh and still dating like
  • (00:57:41) - One simple strategy to help you get started with your weightloss
  • (01:00:22) - Dai's details if you want to get in touch

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Transcript:

Vit Muller: [00:00:23] all right, everybody. Uh, thank you for tuning into this show. Uh, my guest today is an award-winning digital thought leader and author distinguished Toastmaster, which is a business networking organization. He's also a keynote speaker, former partner.

[00:00:38] And chief operating officer at a multimillion dollar retail company. Pardon me and assault after lifestyle mentor and executive performance coach.  

[00:00:49] That aside, he's also super dad. I like the way he's pitching it, he's dating his wife. It's a really cool with a lead by example, way of living and contagious personality.

[00:00:59] He's on the mission to positively impact 1 million role models around the globe to lead a fun fit life through education, encouragement, and community. 

[00:01:12] My guest. He is an accountability. Coach is a good friend to a lot of people and he's here to help others get healthy. Please. Welcome to the show. Dai Manuel

Dai Manuel: [00:01:26] what's up 

Vit Muller: [00:01:30] man.

Dai Manuel: [00:01:31] Awesometo be here. Man, I don't even remember. I think we talked initially, maybe six months ago. Yeah. It's been a long time ago, so it's so good that we're here. We're here. We're actually, it's doing it. It's happening? 

Vit Muller: [00:01:43] Yeah, man. It's been awhile. It's been in one. We had, uh, we, we, we, we, we tried to do it. What is it like a month ago?

[00:01:49] And then when we couldn't make it work and now we're here that's that's awesome, man. So what's been happening in your world since last time we spoke. 

Dai Manuel: [00:01:55] Well, you know, We're now done summer in our part of the world. You know, I'm in North America now, but previously. 

Vit Muller: [00:02:01] Whoop whoop.. Bring on Summer in Australia!

Dai Manuel: [00:02:04] I know you're going into summer. I'm getting ready to go into winter. And, uh, I miss my perpetual summer, you know, the last two and a half years, my, my family, and I've been living in Bali, Indonesia. So we were almost neighbors for a bit. And, uh, so, but we rotate, relocated back to camp for our kids to finish high school here. So yeah, this year has been one of those interesting years.

[00:02:25] Cause obviously like everybody we've been dealing with the pandemic, right? Like this COVID-19 thing. And so navigating that this year has been interesting because at the end of the year, my business got kicked in the nuts, you know, like it was like 80% of my revenue was like literally gone. I was on pace to have a record year.

[00:02:41] I was like, man, this is gonna be awesome. And then within the matter of eight weeks, it was like 80% revenue gone and a lot of my forecasted revenue gone. And so it sort of put me in a position where I had a little bit of a pity party for a couple of days. And, uh, but then I got my head out of my butt and I was like, okay, well, what can I do.

[00:02:59] What can we do? How can I change things? You know, what can I do right now to, to keep moving forward? And, uh, so I pivoted a bit and, um, yeah, you know, like everybody, we just, we, you, you adapt, right. Um, we can get through this. And, uh, so that's what I did. I doubled down on some of the things that I could do and I had access to, and, uh, Pivoted and changed some of my programs and the way I was serving people shifted as well, all for the better, because I actually, you know, then we came, edited it into to July, August, and, uh, man, just things just picked up like huge.

[00:03:32] And now I'm projecting to do more than what I was predicting before. So you know what? It's all good. Things are good again. Um, but you know, you never know what's going to happen. That's this world that we live in that's life. The only thing I know is that nothing stays as is. Things change all the time.

[00:03:48] And so I just try to be really aware of that and not try to fight that so much because I find every time I tried to fight change and nothing good ever happens. So, so yeah, that's, that's the bit on me, man. 

Vit Muller: [00:04:00] You either, you either try to fight change or your, or sticking your hand in the sand. Neither works, right.

[00:04:07] That's right. 

Dai talks about his business and his fitness background [00:04:08] That's true. So true. You're just beating yourself against the head for those Alyssa. I know what you do, but for the guys listening, can you, you just unravel a little bit, what you do, you know, we talk about, you know, your revenues or what are your, like, in terms of like your revenue stream of what services do you provide and how does it all work?

[00:04:24] How does that Dai Manuel empire work? 

Dai Manuel: [00:04:27] Well, you know, I come from a retail background, so I I've been in the fitness and wellness industry, working either as a trainer coach, all sorts of different jobs, even as spin instructor for a period of time. Uh, and I that's sort of what I got started with. And then I got into equipment sales, uh, and that would have been 22 years ago now.

[00:04:46] Uh, so I was in my early twenties at the time and I had a knack for it. It was my first time being in a commissioned environment. So a performance based pay structure. So those that are listening to this, if you're in a position where you, you, you put w well, basically you're put into a position where the more people you impact positively more organizations, you positively impact, you know, You make more money?

[00:05:08] I mean, that's the way I looked at it. It was like every morning I wake up, it's like, how many lives am I going to change today? You know? And the more lives I changed and impacted positively, the more money you made, it was like, wow, this is a win-win man. I like this. And, uh, I had an act for it. I really enjoyed it.

[00:05:21] So I was selling people, finished equipment, accessories, supplements, apparel. Um, and I was very fortunate. I, the, the guy that was the owner and CEO, uh, Took a liking to me, he recognized that there was something in me that reminded him of himself. He was 20 years my senior. So he took me under his wing. He was my first true business mentor.

[00:05:38] And just really, I was a sponge just started sucking it up. And, uh, during that period, you know, we branched off from the corporate company and then formed our own and, uh, did that for 17 years. Yeah, it was amazing. I loved it. And we grew it to eight retail locations, a couple of B2B enterprises. Uh, we, we did a lot of manufacturers overseas and import and export, um, you know, just, and, and also a fairly successful e-commerce business that sold all across Canada.

[00:06:03] So, uh, I learned a lot. You can imagine 17 years of doing that. And, uh, I was, when I left, I was really the chief operating officer, as well as chief marketing officer. Uh, and, but I read this book called crush it by Gary Vaynerchuk and I'm just totally dating myself, but it was 14 years ago. I read the very first printing and, uh, uh, itch my perspective on marketing and the way that we do business.

[00:06:27] And I'm glad that I embraced that learning and starting to building my own personal plot. So we had a corporate platform, but I had my own opinions. My own belief systems. And I knew that I couldn't share my own beliefs on the corporate channel. Cause it just, it wouldn't, it, it would compliment it, but it was also kind of clashing because I'm a big calisthenics guy.

[00:06:46] I like a lot of body weight movements and you can imagine it. Right. I'm a bodyweight movement kind of guy calisthenics, but where do I make my income selling fitness equipment? Well, it creates a little bit of a, well, it's a, it's a challenging dichotomy, right? And so it kind of ruffled a bit of feathers within our organization, but eventually we moved past it and, uh, Uh, I was fortunate cause I'd built this personal brand and my personal brand involves, you know, keynote speaking, facilitating workshops, retreats, uh, but also a lot of stuff in the digital space, a lot of programs, courses, um, it's a lot of thought leadership type stuff.

[00:07:21] Um, but I also do a lot of executive coaching and entrepreneurial coaching. So, uh, I just help people get out of their own way and create better results. With less effort and, uh, that's the power of having a great coach, you know, a great mentor that you can work with. So, so that's sort of my picture snapshot now, you know, I've been doing that.

[00:07:37] Full-time as my main thing for the last five years after I transitioned away from my previous business. So, uh, yeah, that's it, man. Now. 

Loss of revenue and pivoting to get through 2020 Covid crisis and impact it's had on Dai's coaching business. 

Vit Muller: [00:07:45] Back to this year. So you mentioned you pivot so before. COVID obviously a lot of speaking gigs as well. Um, as well as coaching or lineup, I would, I would expect. But what was the main thing that you had to pivot now that, like you said, you've lost a bit of revenue?

[00:07:59] Um, I assume that was probably the speaking stuff. 

Dai Manuel: [00:08:03] A lot of speaking gigs were like last year I did a dozen keynotes and they pay really, really well for the amount of time that goes into it. I mean, I always tell people, you know, I've been working on my speaking ability for 10 years, so yes, I might get paid a very.

[00:08:17] Fair amount for, for what I speak, but you have to recognize it's also 10 years of a lot of working to get to that point. I always like to let people know that it's not like all of a sudden it was like, Oh, this massive revenue stream. It took a lot of effort and just consistency and patience. And, uh, but it got to a point where I finally, I felt like, all right, This is a significant part of my revenue.

[00:08:37] Um, and then all of a sudden you know move back to North America was going to be great because a lot of the things that I used to say no to, or it wasn't really no, I said yes, but, uh, some of the speaking and speaking opportunities I had, they didn't have the budget for travel travel outside of North America.

[00:08:53] Sorry, let me qualify that because I was living in Bali, right? So, uh, the only time I was come back to North America for speaking gigs is when you know, it was a real. Significant event where they had the budget to, to pay the extra, to fly me in and out from balls. 

[00:09:05] Otherwise you're going to break even almost, or 

[00:09:09] I could still do it on my own.

[00:09:10] Um, but it just, I have to ask myself, you know, cause the travel, but it's also the, you know, how it is traveling overseas? It can be really challenging. And especially with myself with my health, I, it takes me a few days. That minimally like, well, actually the Bali, like going from Southeast Asia to North America and I live in Vancouver, which is like the further side West coast of North America, man, I get hammered.

[00:09:32] Like I just, it just takes me a long time to recover. So I have to ask myself, you know, I got a lot of days where I have to recover and you know, not productive and it's all the travel time. So I really have to value my time. And so there were some events that are, if I could do a bunch of them all at once, it made it a lot more worth my while.

[00:09:50] Um, But that, that part of my business just disappeared. Like it did. Like I had a lot of forecasted events that I was booked in for. I was like, excited. It's going to be great. I'm back in North America now. So I've got a lot more opportunity. Uh, and then it was gone. It was like literally gone. And, uh, also a lot of my business coaching clients were people that I was supporting in developing their own platforms, taking what they do offline, bringing it online.

[00:10:13] Right. A lot of people do amazing things offline. It's like, man, you know what you do, you can monetize that online. And so I would often help them with that bridging and, uh, A lot of them were event based people. Uh, so you can imagine it was like, I can't really do coaching right now because literally my a hundred percent of my business that was forecasted for this year just yeah.

[00:10:32] Went away, you know? And I'm like, and that's a tough thing to pivot through, you know? And so, uh, I saw that...

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