Intro
📍 Welcome to The Corvus Effect, where we take you behind the scenes to explore integrated self leadership and help ambitious family men build lasting legacies for themselves, their tribe, and their community. I'm Scott Raven, and together we'll discover how successful leaders master a delicate balance of career advancement, personal health, financial growth, and meaningful relationships. Get ready to soar.
📍
Meet Dan Vasquenza: Redefining Authentic Business Development
And hello everybody. Welcome back to this episode of The Corpus Effect. I'm Scott. Today I am thrilled to be joined by Dan Vasquenza, a relationship focused sales professional who has redefined what authentic business development looks like. his corporate work with the Atlanta Hawks to his role with ID eight, a branding agency to his own business that men, Dan has built a career on genuine connection. than high pressure tactics, he's also a passionate advocate for inclusion as an activist with Culture City, working to create more accessible environments for people with sensory, needs and invisible disabilities. And side note, this was recorded. Just a few days after I had the privilege of attending their gala, which was a phenomenal experience.
So I highly encourage you guys to check this out. But beyond all of that, Dan considers fatherhood. I. His most important role, which as you know here in what we believe in Corvus, that is something that we put near and dear to our hearts, and we'll talk about that through the exploration of his book of fatherless Curiosity and much more to come.
Dan, welcome to the podcast, man.
Scott, so great to be on with you and. Spent some time with you a couple nights ago. Appreciate your support of our, our mighty, mighty nonprofit culture city and having you there and some of the outliers as well. And obviously before we get on, you're a great dad too. So it was nice to hear all things about your kids and little bit playing a little Uber, right?
Yep. Yep, yep. I am, definitely playing, dad
That's right. Right.
they call it December when just everything hits in the month of May. Mine came a little bit early between my son's baseball and my daughter's performances, but hey, I will take that kind of Ubering around, I'll put it that way. But anyway, let us talk about you, right?
The Importance of Genuine Connections in Sales
Because one of the things that I truly enjoy about you, and I learned this by being in the sales cohort that you put together, I. On your own wasn't a paid thing, you just did it as a give back, and myself and the other members of the cohort were so appreciative I loved how you taught us. You don't have to act like a used car salesman to get sales done. And trust me, after a few years in the martial arts industry where I sometimes had the feeling for my sales director, and yeah, I definitely had that used car salesman feeling from time to time. That was so refreshing to hear. And I'm curious, 'cause I know that this goes all the way back to your radio days, how you. Develop this point of view that have to have high pressure sales in order to be effective.
Yeah. Well thank you for that. I enjoyed having you part of the cohort, Scott, you really contributed in a lot of ways and it was fun to do it and have those sessions together and learn about you and. it was a really nice experience for me, and you're right, it was, I'd never done it before and wanted to give it a shot.
Mm-hmm.
a lot from you guys for sure. Um,
as well,
yeah, it, when I started in sales, like anybody, you don't know what you're doing and, you know, it starts somewhere with scripts and I don't know if you have any used car salespeople watching or listening to this right now, so let's not give them a bad name.
No, no, no, no. mean, this is, this is not to alienate.
Yeah, that's right.
so.
about inclusion here. That's what I love about you as well. it, that's how it started. It was scripted. It was old school, eighties, nineties, you know, framing it, leading them. And identifying, you know, what are the key objections, It went from objections to objectives.
Objections were, you know, the eight that you're gonna get and you got a frame of how you're gonna, you know, work around those. And now you're selling when you get those and. It's really about objectives and the objectives, and I just kind of stumbled into this, I guess as I'm stumbling over my words, but objections to objectives, more modern sales now is objectives.
What is it the buyer wants?
And just make it a conversation. And what you're doing is you're looking for. Clues now, certainly clues of what it is they want, what they need, and how you can address that. It's also important to, just as you're having that conversation, be a human, get to know them. Look for different clues like where their gaps or their stress might be that might not have anything to do with the gig or you partnering with them, but finding something and finding something that you can help them with.
So.
Right, right. You know, one specific technique that you talked about in the, uh, cohort, uh, was a derivative of five whys, which, you know, in my corporate career, I had used, you know, pretty consistently when, whenever we had one of these big roadblocks that we had to understand what was really
Hmm.
us, how were we gonna solve it?
Right, and you brought this as a specific technique for us in terms of thinking about that drive to objectives. Uh, as an example for what I do with Corvus, I have to get to a final two questions of why Corvus and why me.
There you go.
And
Well done.
I think that that's part of what you learned, if I understand it correctly, in terms of framing those questions from a reference of positivity as opposed to trying to combat negativity.
Yeah, and it's really identifying. So if you could, I know, uh, this is an audio session here and those that listening, we appreciate being a part of this. if you could picture a bullseye,
Mm-hmm.
a bullseye on the wall that you throw darts at. This is where this visual came to me one day when I was in radio sales and started to think about, you know, maybe why I wasn't doing business with certain prospects
Mm-hmm.
the sales lifecycle was a lot more longer than it needed to be or should be.
Mm-hmm.
how can I change that? And it. This image came to me was these rings the outer ring, and the goal is to get into the bullseye. The bullseye is why me? And they're gonna do business with me. Now, to get that bullseye, you've gotta work your way in for whatever it is that you might be selling. And let's be a little more specific.
One of the wider rings, if you will, on this bullseye again, is think about the industry that you're in. For me, it was radio. Okay. So if I'm sitting across from someone. And, you know, ultimately I'm trying to sell them on my radio station and why they should use us. If they're not doing any advertising, do you think I'm gonna talk to 'em about radio advertising?
No. So your first ring, if you will, is why should you advertise? And the goal is not to have as many rings or as many depths or as many thickness to ultimately getting to the sale. You wanna minimize those. You're gonna have some prospects that are gonna need an education before they even get an idea of.
Why they need to buy X, Y, Z product or service that you sell in your industry. And for me at that time is selling radio. If they're not even advertising, do you think they're gonna consider me? No. They need an education on advertising. And then if they understand why advertising works for their business, whether the different options out there that you can talk about, ultimately getting them to understand why radio is a good industry for their business.
And once you start moving into those rings. We can understand what's going on there. So just a little visual for your listeners is advertising, you know, why radio, and then why my format of the radio station, which is ultimately the listener and how they might, uh, roll up to that product or service that should hear about your service or product.
And then ultimately doing it with me, which is the radio station.
do, at least on the webpage that we have for this episode is we'll
Oh.
a representation of that visual. You guys won't, you know, if you guys are listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, et cetera, unfortunately, But if you go to the website for the Corvus Effect, you will see that visual
good. Yeah, I was gonna say, we, we probably lost everybody, Scott, off, that topic. It's, it's real, it's real simple. Whatever industry you are in, and you might be selling in, if they're not doing anything in your industry, you've gotta sell 'em on why your industry before you start selling them.
Otherwise, they're not gonna consider anything that you offer.
Yep. Absolutely. You gotta get them in through that, uh, first gate
That's right.
of why should I care to begin with? And, you know, I think that's a great transition, if you will, to your journey.
Transitioning from Corporate to Entrepreneurship
I. From the corporate environment, and I know that you still have affiliations, I know you still have your affiliation with the, uh, Atlanta Hawks as example, but moving to agency and entrepreneur work. And I'm curious, what was a seminal moment for you that said, I'm gonna go do something different?
It was scary,
Mm-hmm.
somewhat, you know, unexpected. And it really started with Covid for all of us. And at that time I was working with the Atlanta Hawks, was really rolling. Things were very good. had a great culture there. It was high profile. I mean it was just constant activity and.
Mm-hmm.
It was ultimately, I guess you could say a dream job for me. I mean, I
Okay.
you Scott, we grew up playing sports
Yep.
wanted to be around it. Knew I wasn't gonna play professionally, certainly not a division one. So it was really kind of, for me, it started in the mid nineties, like, how can I get myself in that position to ultimately work in the NBAI loved basketball.
So that happened and then covid hit and what I realized with Covid. We all had our journey and to me there's really two things that happened to people with covid.
Right.
you self-identified what works for you or doesn't work for you, and you wanna improve on that. Right? So you got into this growth mindset where you realized, holy cow, this is what was going on in my life.
How do I make it better? Or, you went the other way and we know some of those people that went that way. For me, I just started to really get in my head and I spent a lot of time alone. Um, as a single dad, I.
I recognized we've all, maybe we've all seen it. If we haven't seen it, Google, it's, I'm in cynics.
Why?
Yep.
I, I couldn't really define mine other than you're a great salesman. you're a fun guy. You're a good dad. Okay, great. So what is that leaving? This is what I love about what you're doing so much, Scott, is the word legacy.
Thank you.
And it really rang hard in my head is like, what are you leaving behind to make, fill in the blank better.
It really wasn't anything and right staring and smack in front of me was the nonprofit that I had met, culture City. And candidly, that was the move was I spent 10 months Scott transitioning outta the Hawks to pour into them and do a nonprofit, not pay myself, and was a little scared to start my own business and figure out what it was gonna be and how do I continue to do what I've been doing and do it on my own.
And it took me a while to really kind of define what that looked like and what it was. So there was some fear involved, some insecurity. and so I hit it by pouring in a culture city when I look back on it. And it was a good thing. It really kind of gave me some time to figure out what I wanted to build with VAs man.
Mm-hmm.
And, being an entrepreneur is a really fun adventure. It's not for everybody. And.
no. It's not for the faint of heart.
Yeah, there you.
drive you bat chick crazy. Some days there are no, there's no doubt about it, right? But I was just having this conversation with one of my, uh, friends who was in a meeting and the vast majority of the people in the meeting just let the meeting saying, I'm unhappy.
I'm unhappy. And those are the people who remind me. For all of the ups and downs that I go through on my journey to bring corvus and things like corvus effect to life, right? a far better ride than being in a place where you feel stuck and unhappy.
it. Yeah. So well said. And you know, as you, you have your own journey scout, as I have my own journey and some folks that likely are listening in have their own journey is, there's no scorecard. And that was one of the things we talked about in the sales cohort. Is when you put your head down on the pillow, a lot of times you're like, I don't know if I moved the needle.
And so I created that thing years ago on radio, like I created the bullseye and the whole Y and what we just talked about with the different,
I, I, I'm not gonna lose the audience on this one. I'll keep it short, right? Which is do an activity, get points,
aim for a certain number of points at the end of the day.
And the concept around that is as we're on our own doing our own journey, we don't know if we're moving the needle and what's the activity that's gonna get you closer to those ultimate goals that you have for your business and the things you're doing Because there's no accountability. The only accountability is the person you look in the mirror.
And it's not like in corporate where you've got someone to report to who's gonna really give you that scorecard daily, if not hourly. And when you're on your own, you go not only days, but weeks, you go months and quarters of not knowing what that scorecard looks like. And it's important as you're on your own journey that you really identify where it is you want to go, and you're tracking that as you go.
You know, one of the things which I think is very, uh, applicable to what you just said, and a strength that you bring to the table is. Finding your creativity and incorporating it into the business or professional objectives that you are seeking. And everybody has different levers and different combinations where they have more creativity than others, in your own journey, how did you find that right combination of. These are the areas where I have creativity and this is how I link them to what I want to get done.
when you ask that question, Scott, such a good one. It really, what jumped in my head immediately was luck. And we, you know, we all create our own luck. So I don't wanna say it just appeared magically.
uh, it was a grind of many years of doing what I did in corporate to realize later that as I look back on it now, yeah, that prepared me.
The relationships prepared me, um, the uncertainty, and asking myself some difficult questions. Really prepared me and I think what maybe worked for me and possibly for you, and hopefully someone that's listening that's do starting their own business or running their own business, maybe they're at their point to try to scale it is you hear this often, like find something you're passionate about and you're good at and go figure out a way to make money with that.
That's fine. That's a pretty good formula. You also gotta understand what the market is asking and what do the trends look like. Are you gonna be out of business in three years? Um, we know what we're staring at right now is AI and it's real, and it's gonna be impacting us in a lot of ways. So
I'm not saying you're gonna lose your job because ai, it's gonna change what your job is because of ai.
And what does that mean to what you're doing now, and how do we amplify that?
You know, it's, it's funny 'cause somebody who I consider very good expert in terms of what she taught me,
Hmm.
had these two fundamental questions to what you just said, which is, can you turn your passion into a platform?
Hmm.
In that case you have at least a hobby. Can you turn that platform into something profitable?
you go.
In that case, you have a business,
Yeah.
It's important for people to understand that we have lots and lots of passions. That's a big part of our legacy, but not every passion has to be a hobby or something we do professionally, and we have to be able to understand what are the ones that need to be pursued to what degree?
It's really good. I like how you frame that and simplified it and to add to it some other things. I, I've been learning along the way, and it's really kind of part of my journey at this stage. It's something that's really heavy on my mind is, to me what I'm doing is not a business.
Mm-hmm.
that because I'm only paying myself and if the work doesn't happen from me.
It doesn't get done. There's no money made. To me that's not a business. So the next space for me is how do I create something where I don't need to keep pouring into it all the time? In essence, if I go to bed at night, there's money still coming in.
Yes.
that's the part that I'm trying to figure out next as I start to scale.
And you know, I'm going into year five of it and you know, that's the next big challenge is how do I get it to that point.
are there. There's no such thing as an overnight success,
Oh yeah.
You know, all of
No,
Wow. Where did that come from? Right. There's two years, three years, five years, 10 years of
no doubt.
into this in order to get that dream of a passive income stream that's coming in.
Right. But you know, you don't get there if you don't try. I think that there's a lot of people who, you know, to, uh, quote Teddy Roosevelt. They're afraid to be the man in the arena. They're afraid to get themselves, uh, you know, uh, potentially get, you know, hurt or killed out there, and thus they lead quiet lives of desperation, for lack of a better term.
Right.
So, so good.
don't. Certainly that is the case as we segue to your work with Culture City.
The Role of Culture City and Personal Growth
Before I get to you specifically, please help my listening audience understand what is Culture City all about.
Well, thanks for Scott. I love what you said there. A lot of it's vulnerability to kind of close that out and you don't just wake up one day and run a marathon, you've gotta.
As somebody who ran, who's ran
You have.
I can attest to that. I'll put it that way,
There you go. Look, I hated running until I started doing it and then realizing, oh, this could be pretty cool. I appreciate your highlight here of something that, you know, we talked about Simon Sinek and the why a few minutes ago and what I experienced over Covid that really had me on the path of this is what I need to pour into.
it's really when my feet hit the floor in the morning, gets me excited. Our mission at Culture City and I had the fortunate opportunity to meet them while I worked for the Atlanta Hawks and we partnered with them, is we work closely, culture City, sped with a K because we recognize differences and that's who we serve and that's what we're all about.
Individuals with sensory needs and invisible disabilities is our community. Probably not the most. Recognizable frame of a community that your listeners may have heard before. However, the groups that we serve, they've most likely heard of before, and we learned quickly that most recognizable because it's the kind of core of what our nonprofit was built on is autism.
And like I said, it's 20 groups. So autism, traumatic stress disorder with veterans, dyslexia, dementia, brain injury. I can go on and on strokes, the.
All, all the things that, to everybody who looks at a person they don't
There you go. Yeah. You can't recognize with the naked eyes or disability.
Mm-hmm.
And the CDC will tell you that is, 84% of the disability community, 16% we can see with a naked eye. The unseen unheard and unrecognized is that 84%.
I could say, you know, firsthand as somebody who's, you know, in recent years had to, battle high blood pressure and had had physiological conditions related to high blood pressure, I can completely appreciate that from
Oh wow.
you look at me and you wouldn't know it, but I might be having pins and easel all through my body,
Oh wow.
You wouldn't know that,
Yeah,
I completely understand the, you don't see everything with the naked
it, it's a great example, and as you were talking, there's. There's a another one that's most recognized diabetes that
Mm-hmm.
that. So
Right,
ultimately what we do, the core of our service is we provide inclusion and accessibility in big venues. We partner with them. That's how I met them with State Farm Arena and the Atlanta Hawks.
We came in Culture City, train the staff on a welcome. This community, different things you have to say, body language, all the cues to look for. If they look as though they're gonna get overwhelmed, and that's what. The common thread is being in a public venue through any one of their five eight senses can put them on overload.
They choose not to go. That's not inclusion. However, when we go through this partnership with a venue, it, it signifies a certification to invite them and say, Hey, not only can you come and have an enjoyable time and have access to the things everybody else does, our staff is trained. We deploy resources like sensory bags that can be checked out that have noise reduction.
Earphones, fidget toys, things of that nature. And in some cases the venue have a sensory room, so it gets really overwhelming. They go in there. So you're starting to see us, you know, pop up in a lot of venues now and are starting to make a little more mainstream.
Yeah,
Partnerships with Major Sports Teams
I happen to be a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan. I'm very happy with my Super Bowl victory, but I'm also very proud of the work that Mr. Lori has done, regarding autism and, one of the first steady the art sensory rooms that was accessible in Link Financial Field, which I know that, y'all had, uh, you know, some connection with.
Yeah, that's right. Well, well said. And you know, I'm proud to say every NBA team has partnered with us. Look, the Eagles Foundation are the, poster. partner, if you will, a post if we were to make a poster of a partner for Culture City. It's them and they do so much they concierge, innovative, and thinking of us and some of the things that they want to do and expose and help.
right down to we've been partnered with the NFL and the NBA and MLB doing all their big events. All Star games. we did Super Bowl and the Eagles helped support us being at the Super Bowl, and they didn't need to do that. Um, but they did and we did some collaboration with them, with the disabilities community and did some clinics and they really elevated it.
And that's, you know, essentially why we're so proud to be partnered with a group like that.
Right. So now as I said, we are gonna bring this back to you at some point.
Personal Journey and Legacy
And how does a gentleman whose expertise I. Mainly associate with sales, his personal passions associate with helping those who may not be the most obvious that need help. How do these two come together?
it's very simple for me. And it was what we talked about earlier, Scott, where the realization of spending time in my own mind,
Mm-hmm.
this thing slowed down and got quiet in my house, that I had to recognize who are you, what are you doing not only for yourself, but for others? And there again, the beauty of what you do and what you stand for is that one word legacy.
Every time I look at you, It's where you're helping others identify that. I had to self figure out during a time that we were all shut down and I didn't have one. I didn't know what it was and it was staring right in front of me. It was, look, you got this opportunity with Culture City. How do you pour more into that?
You've got, you're living it as a dad. I have a son who's neurodiverse, and for a long time I found myself saying this phrase to myself was. See the world through Jack's eyes. My son is Jack, and slow down and try to empathize with seeing the world through his eyes and what might be going on. I can't completely tell you what it is.
I can tell you it's helped me identify better with getting outside of my own self to
Mm-hmm.
others and recognizing what I built in a professional career through sales for now four decades. While you marry a strength in something you've been trained on for so long and made money with and did very well in that you can now pour back into as a gift to cement a legacy, which isn't really what I think too much about.
As much as I think about what am I leaving behind, which ultimately defines, I guess, a legacy for others 'cause that's what matters. And more importantly, it starts with my son. So it's easy for me to say, how can I go out and create a better life? For others that have a very similar life to my own. And that is parents to kids with neurodiversity, parents to kids with, you know, just challenges and identifying as myself, trying to be a dad to Jack where I made mistakes and where I did well.
And at this point there's other parents going through what I had already gone through. And
Mm-hmm.
when this all kind of tidal wave came to me. From a higher level, it really kind of was clear what I needed to do next, and that's where the Culture City piece came in and I've poured into it.
Writing and Fatherhood
So how much, backtracking a little bit to something else that you did, which was the publication of a fatherless curiosity and how much from the experiences that led to. You putting pen and paper to that book, do you now employ not only to Culture city, but also to the way you are raising Jack towards the legacy that you desire?
Oh, it's. It's very kind of you and some of these things that we were talking about leading into Culture City and all these other things is, and I mentioned luck. It really is, you know, just being in the right place at the right time, being open to it and recognizing when I say being open to it is recognizing what's around you.
I'm so fortunate to be associated with Culture City. It's an beautiful, amazing organization of individuals that do all the hard work and don't get recognized. You know, everyone says to me, oh, you put on a great event Sunday. No, they did. They put the event on. I was just lucky enough to get people to come to it, and
Well, I mean, you did look good.
was great.
you looked good on Sunday, so, and, and I don't, and I don't think that they dressed you, so give you stuff a little credit.
Thanks, Scott.
Mm-hmm.
You know, as you start to get into your fifties, you want, you crave a little more of that, you look good. So thank you.
not that far away. Don't remind me.
Thanks for that.
Mm-hmm.
a similar pathway to the book and that was, you know, Jack really struggled in, public schools, in elementary school, and it was all about environment and that's essentially what Culture City does. We create an environment. So everyone can feel accepted, included and have resources in place if needed.
And
Right.
you know, Jack really excelled when he got to middle school. And I was first wondering, am I gonna have to have him go to a public school? Because some of the teachers and faculty, which by the way I believe is the most underpaid profession next to fire, police, EMT and first responders
my sister
teachers.
Yeah.
and she recently had to fight for her wages up in Massachusetts,
Ugh.
absolutely.
No, no doubt. And so that's what it was. It was Jack's eighth grade science teacher.
Mm-hmm.
now 20
Mm-hmm.
a little over two years ago, I got a phone call from Jack Science teacher's wife.
Okay.
It, Tara James, and she says to me, Hey, Dan, I know you know a little about me. You might not know all about me, and what you might not know about me is I grew up without a dad.
Okay.
like, let me, let me back up a minute. I grew up without a father figure. I grew up knowing who my dad was. He was across the street and never recognized me, and I.
Ooh, my goodness. Wow.
started to go into this conversation and it was a project about a book, and I was like, could not wait for her to stop speaking so I could dive in and be like, Tara, a friend of mine at the Elena Hawks,
Right.
wife, just wrote a similar book. I didn't get a chance to finish it. She's like, no, you don't understand, Dan.
I'm calling you because I'd like you to be a part of the project. And the project is, I'm handpicking dads that I believe could really tell a story about fatherhood and growing up without a dad like you did.
Right,
and write a chapter in this book. And I was like, oh, this is great. Yeah, thank you, Tara. I hung up the phone, Scott.
I'm like, what? I'm not a, you start doing all those things instead of saying, I am, I'm saying I'm not,
right.
I'm not a writer. I'm not one that could do this. This is gonna be in a book forever and published and you know, you just start to minimize yourself. I. I caught myself doing that and this is hopefully something that can help someone, at least one person tuning in today.
We all have that imposter syndrome at any moment in our life of an experience that we don't think we can do or achieve or want to tackle.
right,
we are capable of doing more than we even think we're capable of. And what I had to do was really was, recognize what was really happening for me and that was this is a privilege.
Mm-hmm.
is a major opportunity she could ask anybody in the world. She chose me of 19 dads. And the beauty of this is I start to think about what this chapter could be was I get to tell Jack's story. This is great. And I get to tell the story about Jack. I just lost my dad. I contribute the chapter to my dad.
Oh, and by the way, the greatest thing that's happened to me in my life is my stepdad. He's still alive. So I'm like, this is, this is something I've gotta make happen for that. Telling the story about Jack, I've got a stepdad that is selflessly poured into our family, and I lost my biological dad. What he meant to me, what he did for me to fuel me, and dedicate the chapter.
Door blind went on and we got into the.
Fantastic. You know, it's so important that we had, Johnny Levy, on the podcast a while back, and he talked about the superhero's journey and being able to identify your villains and turn them into your allies. Turning the imposter into the trusted guide, or in my case, one of the biggest villains in my life is the forecaster in terms of always thinking that you are gonna, you know how things are gonna go and it's not gonna go well.
Hmm.
And turning that into the prudent planner in terms of saying, I'm going to. Make a plan and I'm going to adjust along the way in order to have those risk and mitigations right, and being able to not get so tied up. And the villains that surround your life that are there to keep you down and put you down, but be able to leverage your strengths and your superpowers to turn them into your allies.
And like you said, have that as an element of the legacy that you are delivering.
So, so well organized, Scott, and how you articulated that. And it really is, you know, the brain wants us to be comfortable.
Right.
it ultimately wants what we all want. And that is peace. I think it's a beautiful thing and we all strive to get that and there's ways we can accomplish that if we're gonna grow.
There needs to be discomfort and if there isn't discomfort in anything in your life, you're not growing. And if you don't have those villains, which I really like that term,
Mm-hmm.
trying to hold you down, um, it's really that opportunity to work around those. 'cause on the other side of that is the beauty, the things that have come out of this book.
Just doing the project and it was therapy for me.
I realized the things growing up that I was doing and why I was doing what I was doing and where I am now in my life and the things that have happened to me and how I can now say tomorrow hasn't happened yet, and I can make it anything I want to make it a crappy day.
I can make it an awesome day. It. It hasn't happened yet, and I think a lot of us get into that projection of storytelling, creating anxiety, and pushing ourselves into the future of something that's never happened. When the gift that we have is literally in the word present. The present moment.
agree. I agree. And I think that's one of the biggest, differences in my mind between the title of Father and the title of dad. The title of Father. Amongst other things provides, but doesn't give a presence to the situation, whereas a dad does. And certainly you've given our presence, not just to jack the culture city, but across this uh, podcast.
Final Thoughts and Takeaways
And as we begin to, wind down this podcast episode, I always do a tip of the cap to, Randy Posh is the last lecture in terms of how he described his book. As a message for his kids as he was, you know, he had terminal disease and was passing away, right? So, you know, you are here and you know somebody is listening to this podcast you want them to have the one key takeaway terms of if you truly care about your legacy. If you truly care about uplifting others channeling your wealth to where you want it to be and being an inspiration to others, this is what you have to understand. What are you telling them?
Hm, that was a powerful question.
Mm-hmm.
There's always something better, greater, bigger than ourselves,
Mm-hmm.
and the gift we were given was to be here. The next gift we're given is to leave something behind.
Mm-hmm. Yes. And when you think about, you know, I, uh, call it the, uh, eulogy or obituary test, right? you, you know, get to speak your own eulogy or write your own obituary. Most cases, somebody else is gonna do that
Hmm.
If you had the ability. To listen or read it. Right. What would you hope that you would see or hear?
Oh wow. Geez. I had to swallow for that one.
You know, some of the things, I guess integrity comes to mind and I don't know that it would be so much about me as I would want it to be about others. And I know that sounds a little out there and that, how did you leave a situation? you know, it could be anything when you started a new job.
You left that job for something else. Did you leave it better than when you got there? As I, as we enter this world and we leave it, did I leave it better before I got here in 1969
Mm-hmm.
all along that trail or journey, we are meeting people along the way.
It would be more about them telling the story of what I hopefully did for them that impacted their life, because that's the greatest gift you can give is someone else's life and someone else encouragement and fill in the blank.
I it would be the story.
old Maya quote, they'll remember how you made them feel.
Yeah. It's, that's it. There it is. It's not so much the stories about me as is. I'd like to hear the stories about them. That maybe included me, that was part of something we did together, or simply, you know, holding the door for someone. So I would say to our listeners, look, an hour from now hasn't happened.
What can you do to fulfill someone else's life?
you know,
let's give our listeners something that they can do in the next hour by, I. How do they get in contact with you to get to know you more? How do they get to know Culture City more? Right? How do they get involved in the cause,
Well, thank you, uh, culture City. You can go to the websites spelled with a k culture city.org. Can learn a little bit more about what we do there. would love, would love to hear from anyone here listening or if there's something that came up that intrigued you or maybe not, or you're uncertain about.
You can find me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn's a great way to find me. you can email me at dan DAN at ID eight agency. So letter I, letter D, number eight, idea eight agency.com. That's an easy one. so thank you for that, Scott.
No worries. No worries. And we will have all of this information in the episode links for this show. any final words before we close this podcast episode down?
Well, I appreciate the time and I really liked your question at the end. I don't think I've ever really been asked that, and I think it's as we go out and have the next minute, hour, day, week, whatever it is of our lives. What are you doing to make the room better? What are you doing to make someone else feel better?
And that gets back to your eulogy question. It would be more about them telling the stories about us and our experiences together than what I did. And that would be ultimately the achievement I would want, is that there was impact for others and not what legacy or what things I did, which might be a part of that or not.
we have such an opportunity in this world. And just look around you and we take it for granted. Everything from the sun on our face to the beautiful trees. We experience this when we go to new environments or markets. When we go on vacations, we become more alive 'cause we see all these new things around us.
So start treating the things around you that you have in your disposal that same way, and you'll create some gratitude, which ultimately is the biggest joy in the world.
Beautifully said, and I love to close on that thought from you. So Dan, thank you so much for spending some time and dropping a lot of incredible wisdom and authenticity and vulnerability in terms of your journey, your experience, how it shaped you, how you're clearly producing a legacy that you could be very proud of.
Thank you so much, uh, for being
Well, Scott, I'm, I'm grateful for you asking, certainly asking me on the podcast, right? I'm grateful for getting to know you, meeting you through the all hour project and, and knowing who Scott Raven is and how you and I haven't had another minute together, hour together, week together, and getting a chance to do that with you.
So thank you so much.
No worries, no worries. To my uh, listening audience. Again, thank you guys so much. I know that you could be spending your time doing 200 different things, but the fact that you are listening to this, incredible blessing, please subscribe and share with those people in your world who you feel would gain value from. Listening to this episode and I will see you next time on The Corpus Effect. Take care, everybody.
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Outro
Thank you for joining me on The Corvus Effect. To access today's show notes, resources, and links mentioned in this episode, visit www.thecorvuseffect.com While you're there, you'll find links to our free tools and resources to evaluate where you currently stand versus your aspirations with personalized recommendations for action. If you found value in today's episode, Please take a moment to subscribe wherever you get your podcast and share with those who may benefit from it. You won't want to miss future conversations that could transform your approach to leadership and life. Join me next episode as we continue our journey towards building lasting legacies that matter. Remember, it's time to soar towards your legacy.