Episode 194: Too Many Ideas? Decide First | Daniel Ruke on Focus

Guest: Daniel Ruke, founder of Game Changers Business Club and the agency Blink, who has helped launch 1,775+ brands over 24+ years for clients including Disney, Marvel, Lionsgate, and Epic Games.

Episode Summary

Daniel Ruke was thirteen when he believed he had to choose between art and technology, and one sentence from his mom reframed what a decision could hold. In this conversation, Dawn and Daniel explore why capable people treat wanting more than one thing as a flaw, how comfort can quietly act as fear, and how to hold a vision firm while treating the how as a set of experiments. It matters because the habit of shrinking the goal after each disappointing result can look like realism when it is really a decision that was never fixed in place.

This episode is for the coach or expert who has been told to pick one niche, one offer, one version of herself, and has kept adding, rebuilding, and waiting instead of deciding.

Key takeaways:

• The Box That Does Not Exist: The pressure to choose between parts of who you are often comes from other people's limits, not from anything true about you.
• Decision Before Readiness: "One day when I'm there" is waiting for the effect of a decision you have not made, and it has to start with the choice.
• Comfort as Hidden Fear: Staying where you are is not more comfortable, and "I'm not sure what it is" can protect you from finding out whether it works.
• The 90-Day Data Window: Give a result 30 days for something small and 90 for something new, then review it as data instead of drama.
• Vision Firm, How Light: Results inform the how, so adjust the how and stop shrinking the what.

Guest Bio and Links

Bio: Daniel RUKE builds brands and helps entrepreneurs win. He runs Game Changers Business Club and his agency Blink. He holds 2 awarded and secured patents, one of them in AI, plus eleven tech inventions in total. Across 24+ years his team has launched 1,775+ brands and generated more than $375 million in revenue for clients including Disney, Marvel, Lionsgate, and Epic Games. He's a TEDx speaker, FOX News contributor, 30x bestselling author, and was selected for the MIT Innovation Hub Summit in 2026. His philosophy is direct. AI does the homework. You do the heart work. In a market where entrepreneurs are running the same tools and producing the same output, the actual competitive advantage is the person behind it. RUKE calls it the EYE behind the AI. Entrepreneur, artist, inventor, family man, he doesn't separate one part of his life from another.

Links:

• Website: https://www.ruke.com
• Game Changers Business Club: http://www.gamechangersclub.com
• Ruke Ink: https://www.rukeink.com
• Blink: https://www.blinkstyle.com/
• The Best Star Wars Collection Ever: http://www.thebeststarwarscollectionever.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielruke

Full Transcript

Dawn: Welcome back to the Self Trust Solution Podcast. I'm your host, Dawn Ledet and today I'm joined by Daniel Ruke. Daniel is an entrepreneur, inventor, artist, author, speaker, and founder of Game Changers Business Club and BLINK. Over the last 24 years, his team has launched more than 1,700 brands, wow, and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for clients, including Disney, Marvel, Lionsgate, and Epic Games.

He's a TEDx speaker, holds multiple patents, including one in AI, and has spent his career building businesses with entrepreneurs, helping them build the businesses that stand out. But what we're talking about today didn't begin with patents, business, or AI. It began with a 13-year-old kid who thought he had to choose between art and technology, creativity and practicality, one passion or another.

And what happened next shaped the way he's approached his entire life. Daniel, I'm so glad you're here.

Daniel: I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me.

Dawn: Yes. So take us back to that 13-year-old kid. Take us back to when you had this first recognition of two opportunities showing up and feeling maybe torn.

Daniel: Yeah. It was... A couple years before that, third grade, I'd been privately trained as an artist since the third grade. And so it's all I wanted to do. In kindergarten I'm like, "Mom, I don't wanna be Superman, I wanna be an artist." And they believed me, and so they gave me private lessons, which was cool.

And then I hit middle school, and I knew I was working on my career. So I knew that I wanted to do these things, but I also felt like there was an effect that's gonna affect my future long term. And so I stressed out and I went to my mom and I said, "Hey, I..." Well, she noticed I was stressed, 'cause middle school gave you electives, and I didn't have all these things at my fingertips.

And she said, "Why are you stressed?" I said, "'Cause I wanna do these things," and it was computer and music and... But I said I didn't wanna screw up my career. And she said, "You're worried about the wrong thing." She said, "Do what you love and figure out how to make money with it." And that has been my longest life lesson that I live today.

In fact, that's what this little sign here says. It says, "Do what you love, figure out how to make money with it." Half my joke is I work with half my brain, 'cause I just do what I love, I don't think about it, but I do think about how to make money with what I do.

Dawn: What did being an artist mean to you at that age?

Daniel: So, well, I'm gonna even do it right now 'cause I'm thinking back to that time. I think really fast. I think so fast that I would skip sentences as a child, so I didn't really fit in. And when I was in elementary school, kindergarten, I drew a picture and I got lost in it, and everybody hovered over me and it freaked me out, but I saw that they liked what I was doing and I did something different.

So I felt like I found my place in the world. And then as I started drawing and painting all this, I felt like I was able to truly communicate. 'Cause again, I stuttered a lot because I just went so fast. So that expressiveness to me is really important because I feel whole when I do that.

Dawn: Yeah. And so you trusted yourself as an artist it sounds like, even from a young age. But maybe not with more than one thing. So can you unpack that?

Daniel: At that point, only at that point. Because from there on, I took everything. I did everything. Everything my heart desired, was inspired by, I just leaned into it.

At that point because I was working so hard purposefully. And businesses hit this all the time. While I was 13 and hit that, people hit this much later. I was working very hard on my art career, and I knew I was gonna be an artist. But I had that draw, but I wanna do this and I wanna do this as well. And so that to me I thought was a problem, which was no, it's actually one of my greatest strengths.

Dawn: And it was that comment from your mom that really opened up that self-permission as well as just awareness.

Daniel: Yeah. It did. And my mom is an amazing guidance of that. You know? I have an incredible relationship with my father. He's amazing. In fact, when he built my stepmom's house, his ex-wife, he built himself a room and lives there today. So just like that. But my parents were divorced, 'cause they've both been married twice and divorced twice, but when I was born, basically.

And so I had two voices in my head. I had my dad saying, "You can't do that," and I had my mom saying, "You can do anything you want," you know? And again, my dad's awesome. Just wanted to say, my dad is awesome. It just took a while for us to get there, just him and me. But so yeah, my mom was always... She really catered to my inspirations and my desires, 'cause she saw something inside me that I wasn't just playing. I was always building something. I was always working towards something. And so she fed very much into that curiosity, and she's amazing for it.

Dawn: Yeah. And really understanding the intention behind those things, and being able to choose which one aligns with who you wanna be and move forward. It's pretty remarkable at an age of 13. And you actually mentioned just now how people take so much longer to even recognize that. I think that's so true. How much of that do you still see in entrepreneurs today, that sort of wanting more than one thing but kind of limiting yourself?

Daniel: Yeah. Every day.

Dawn: Every day. Yeah. Every day. In what way does it show up, do you think?

Daniel: Three calls before this. Yeah. Well, you know, we're told a lot of lies. We're told that we fit in a box, obviously I don't recognize there's even a box, and we're told by other people's limited beliefs or their own scars. And so people impress that upon other entrepreneurs, some intentionally, mostly unintentionally. Because if you succeed then they're a failure, and if you're able to do that they have to humble and humanize themselves, I guess. So that shows up a lot.

And in my world, it's people transitioning from this career to this career, from a job to their own business, from just entrepreneur, this offer to this offer, or this piece of the business to this piece of the business. They're always afraid to take those steps because of the lies that people tell them, that you don't know what you don't know so you gotta hire me. The woulda, shoulda, couldas. Well, you gotta have courses and novels and this to be successful. And that's how you have gurus that know how to take money but not make money. And that's bad. And I know that's what you're like. You're like me, a champion of, hey entrepreneurs, give yourself permission to be you and get out there. So yeah.

Dawn: I think a lot of these experts out there are just meeting the people where they're at, is sort of my take with it. Some people I'm sure are a little more malicious or malintent. But I really believe that we create those barriers ourselves out of fear, right? There's a little bit of fear, what if I can't? So here's all my reasons why that's true. I'm supposed to focus on one thing. I'm not supposed to be open to all of it. We end up amputating parts of ourselves, stagnating parts, in a way to preserve, and it does the exact opposite.

Daniel: Oh, it does. And I'll tell you something, one of the lessons I teach is you should have three spinning plates. Because everybody's like you gotta focus on one thing, and a lot of that comes from vulture capitalists, venture capitalists become vulture capitalists going, "I invest my money. Just concentrate that on this one thing. Don't be distracted because I want the most out of it." But that one plate is your main income, and then everybody has a side hustle, even an idea of one. And then they have these crazy, crazy ideas, I bleep myself, that's a plate. And I look at that third plate going, just spin it. Go concentrate every day on this and make sure it's... You know, that can't wobble. That's your income. But every once in a while, that might fall, who cares? But it might stay up. And when it does, spin it again. That childlike imagination brings all the inventive energy to your main core business. So that playfulness is super, super important. That's why I say people should have three plates. One wild-ass idea, who cares? One that's your main thing, and then your next thing.

Dawn: I think it has to be what works for you, and the only way to figure that out is to experiment. When we place these blanket rules on ourselves and these restrictions, that's when we start diluting ourselves. When what's going to be your truest success is the fullest expression of you.

Daniel: And the problem with this is that when people go, "Okay, fine. I wanna have some spinning plates, but I just hired a coach that helps me build a cabinet to store them in, and I just hired another consultant to help do a dishwasher, and now I'm trying to hire a chef to cook on the plates." That little idea just became this entire business and nothing got launched, right?

Dawn: Yeah. Out of that fear. And that's what makes me sad. That's where self-trust is so important so you can discern what actually fuels your vision and what starves it.

Daniel: Yeah. So one of the things I was talking about... I was talking to one of my musician friends, and one of the things I just created is a personal agent that is trained so when I just tell it an idea, it takes it, my voice and all that, and posts it. Because as a creative, and by the way, I think sales is creativity. Business is creativity. You know, obviously I feel it's a game, hence The Game Changer. We all have that spirit, 'cause that's what an entrepreneur is. They have a creative. Not that you have to draw or write or play music. We have creative thinking, and I feel that there's a lot of times that our gut, our true self says, "Say this."

For some reason, the universe, the stars aligning, whatever, multiple conversations said, you need... Put something into your heart and your mind, and then we hold back. "Okay, but when can I post that? And how do I make that look good?" and all that. And that loses a lot of energy, 'cause now we just put our marketing business mind into doing that. So I love my agent that just goes, "Oh, nope, it's out." Right? You're inspired. The universe is telling you to think it, it's on your mind, get it out there. It's a very freeing experience. It's different.

Dawn: Yeah. And my goal is for you to create that without the need of an external, right? Because really that's the difference between the lobby and the inner room, right? The lobby is where the fear and the all or nothing thinking and all the looking for all the pitfalls and the landmines exist. And then the inner room is that wisdom and that intuition, and we just have to learn to traverse both of those and relate in a way that supports instead of hinders. So yeah. I love that there is an external way to do it, but hopefully at some point you start to embrace and create it for yourself, right?

Daniel: Well, and the reason why I say that is, the more that you are you, the more money you'll make. And the world says, "Don't do this." The fear is there. "Don't do this because you might fail." It's other people's fear that feeds that fear. It's not real. It really isn't. And so the more that you embrace who you are and what your heart is telling you to do, and you put that in action... Of course, I created an AI to remove that gap real quickly. That actually allows you to be what you were born to be. It allows you to be the brand that people want. Because they're always like, "Well, one day when I'm there, then I'll do that." Oh, that's horrible, 'cause that never happens.

Dawn: Well, yeah. You're waiting for the causality of a decision you never made. It has to start with the decision.

Daniel: That's a great way. That's awesome. Yeah. You have to choose first. And so of course you're gonna fail. Like, that's part of it. There is nobody anywhere, ever, that's successful that didn't experience failure. Failure is where the greatest thought leadership is born. It's where your intellectual property comes from. It's where your innovation comes from. So just please stop thinking you need to avoid failure. Start seeking it.

Dawn: But that's why people don't take that move, because they're afraid, because they would have to make a choice. And that choice has consequences. Right? To your point. That's why they're perpetual in that creation build mode.

Daniel: Yeah. Just building, building, building, and that feels comfortable to them. And that's great, but I actually say this, and I mean this with all the love and respect, there's a difference between a wantrepreneur and an entrepreneur. There really, really is. And the entrepreneur at some point ships whatever they're working on, and gets it out there.

Dawn: Yes. And I think that, you said that other people's fear plays a part, for sure, but also we are feeding it with confirmation bias. When that's the only space you're focused, I always think of this visual of I'm staring over here at all the what could go wrong, and over here are all the things that could go right, and I just can't see them because I'm staring over here and I'm digging and digging deeper, right? Like, it just becomes this space that feels hard to get out of, instead of it's a choice. And I'm not lying to myself. I totally do not believe in lying to yourself with affirmations you don't believe and mantras that you can't get on board with. But I do want you to tell yourself a broader truth. Like, it's not just this. It's all of it.

Daniel: One of the other amazing people in my life is my wife. I'm blissfully married 30 years. And she agrees, by the way. Fun fact, I met her on our first date and I married her three months later.

Dawn: Talk about firm decisions ahead of time.

Daniel: I'm very decisive. I tell you, right? I'm very decisive. And she taught me the thankfulness. And I don't care where you sit on the faith part of this. I start my morning with a thankful mantra, and looking at this is what I'm thankful for absolutely helps position the outlook for the day, and it feels good.

Dawn: It does feel good. And it's the truth, right? Like, there's always something to be grateful for. There's always a truer version. That's why at the Self Trust Coach we talk about doing an I'm So Impressed List, and it really is an expansion record. It's truly strategic, because you just write at the top, "I'm so impressed," dot, dot, dot. And it's a running record you keep your whole life. I'm so impressed I didn't lose my shit at the grocery store, right? Or I'm so impressed that I coded that entire sales page in one hour. You're keeping a record of all of it because it shows you how much more you are than that one disappointing result.

Daniel: I think that's also why the work that you do is important. And I would also say I'm so impressed with the work I do. Having a community of people around you that also uplifts that and celebrates that. We always start our meetings with the wins. What are the wins of the week? And by the way, I'm in other communities. I'm always having a win. And watching other communities I'm just like, "Why isn't everybody saying that?" And it is an outlook. The world teaches something different than what I think what we're discussing is true human nature, and it's super important.

Dawn: Yeah. You have to do it to be able to model it, right? And so it's so important in the communities you're in, with your team, with your clients, right? You have to go first. If you demonstrate it, people follow that more than you just telling them something. So today you're an artist, an inventor, an entrepreneur, a speaker, a husband, a father, an author. That's more than three plates, my friend. How do you think differently about self-trust and your identity now, would you say?

Daniel: So it's interesting. I'm gonna tell you this. I'm the type of guy that's never had a block. I've never had a creative block. I don't know what burnout is. I don't have that. I do work in my sleep, and I wake up naturally. I was in here at 3:30 this morning, naturally ready to rock and roll. That's why my wife has me have my separate building on our property, 'cause they're all asleep in the house.

I don't know what it's like not to have that. I empathize with it, and I understand that people have that, so I get that. My mom said I can do anything I want. I believe her. I totally believe her. And so I've literally... One of the things I did see is I saw my father build a business around him and stuck in that business. He does very well, but it was him. And I knew when I started my company Blink that I had to get out of that fast. I did not wanna be there, so I started duplicating myself, and then one of the things I started doing was teaching practically my formulas. And then when someone said, "Hey, share from the stage," really cool things.

Teach internally, now externally. Then people are, "Hey, we wanna learn and hang out with you." I'm like, "Cool, that's awesome." And now I use AI for that. I'm constantly looking at how we do that. One of the mandates that I have every Friday is Future Fridays, where we work on something with AI to replace the grind in our positions. 'Cause I don't believe AI should replace us, it should shift us. And so that's one of our mantras in our company, to level up. And so part of that is replacing the grind so you can elevate yourself to a higher level. And so I do that. We do that. I don't run the company at this point, but that was always my goal, is to duplicate that so that others can be the best versions of themselves. Don't know if I answered your question, but that's how I think.

Dawn: Yeah, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. You brought up AI a couple of times, and I've heard you talk about the "I" behind the AI. Tell us what you mean by that.

Daniel: Yeah. So there's a couple things. To keep it surface level, AI can do a lot of different things and... Well, okay, so 90%... By the way, you know 80% of facts are made up, so let me go 80% of people who build AI have never done what that output that AI's supposed to do in real life. So it's ignorance championed by AI going, "Oh, that's a great idea. Let's ship it." You know what I mean? So it's ignorance amplified by ignorance.

And I say that AI can do anything. You can buy any type of AI. And people ask me, "Which AI should I use?" It really doesn't matter. It's the I behind the AI. It's the person behind it understanding what do you want, and what does success look like coming out of that. That's the I that matters. And I say that from our perspective, everything we build has been tested before you touch it, 'cause we use it every single day. But at the same point, as you go into using your AI, think of it from that perspective of what do you know, and what's the outcome you really want, and what does success look like? And I tell you, we need more experts building AI. Because that knowledge is not there.

Dawn: Yeah. In my experience, I would love to hear what you think about that, it takes a lot of training to get an output that's actually aligned. But it also means you have to know who you are and what you stand for and what you want. And when you're not, that's the rabbit hole that burns people.

Daniel: I mean, you've seen this when people say, "Hey, you need to do 50 books and 100 courses before you step out there." And you know, no, you don't. But if you give that confusion and that lack of confidence into AI, that endlessly will champion 100 directions. One, it's powerful on one side, but the other side it will bury you in shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Dawn: Yeah. It's tough. And it will take you down rabbit holes instead of what you need to do, which is create that focus for yourself, right? And it's going in a million directions, and it also will be a very serious yes man, right? So you have to have the forethought to invite contradiction.

Daniel: Oh my gosh, you gotta push back. I have something that's called the S-word pressure test on anything we put out. Will this sell? Why will this sell? Convince me to sell. Who's gonna buy? It's 29 questions. And when people give me their offers, "Hey, this is not working," I put it in and go, "This is exactly what's..." And it gives a report. It's really, really cool. It's so super important because, like, you're like, "I have an idea to build a rocket ship out of toothpicks." "Oh my gosh, that's never been done before. You should go do..." You know, it's gonna champion these weird things, and it's horrible. It's horrible. But you don't have to be an expert in that stuff. You just really need to know where do you wanna be, what do you wanna build? And if you have that clarity, that's super, super important, especially when you go into something that's gonna give you endless things.

I will tell you the number one, when you're not clear, and you talk about thankfulness, we talked about that, the number one way to scale a business is amplify success. That's it. Amplify success. What's working right now? What are you grateful for right now? How do you do more? That's a great question to ask AI no matter where you are. "This, I think, is working." I say think. You heard me, always challenge it. "This is working. This is why I enjoy it." Tell it those things, and now you're building off of something that's, one, success and your energy. Something that you enjoy rather than put you in a place that it's just gonna frustrate you and overwhelm you.

Dawn: Yes. I always recommend that people have AI interview you. I mean detailed. Everything about what you believe. What's your no-go? What would you never say? What are the frameworks? What do you truly believe? What are you passionate about? Have AI interview you. That's a good use of it, to help you.

Daniel: 100%. We do that corporately and we do that individually. So for anybody we work with, there's two different intakes for that so that it understands the business side and it understands the personal side, and those are living documents that you go, "Hey, AI, this is me."

Dawn: Yes.

Daniel: And you just upload, whatever you use. And that's what I'm talking about. It's the I behind the AI. You didn't let AI just do that. You controlled that. You have a living document. That's now your I looking into it. So that's it. Okay. Thank you. Nailed it. I got a lot of buttons.

Dawn: Okay. If you could sit down with, let's say, 13-year-old Daniel today, what would you tell him?

Daniel: That's a great one. I didn't expect that one. Hmm. You know, I will tell you one thing that I fell in love with that I wish I'd done more of, later really. I play with music, but I let go of music 'cause I went to visual arts. I would dive more into music. Just go, because to me it's very freeing. I've written so many songs it's not even funny in the last couple years, and some with the music, just the writing, produced stuff, videos, all that good stuff. That's the most freeing thing I've ever done, and fully articulate, right?

Dawn: Ooh, that's a big word. I like that. That was good.

Daniel: I don't always say big words 'cause I can't spell them. So that I would say do more of.

Dawn: Yeah. Maybe you would thank him too.

Daniel: Huh?

Dawn: Maybe you would thank him too. Just based on what I've learned from you. Definitely be grateful for 13-year-old Daniel who took those words from your mom and really ran with them. So beautiful.

Daniel: 100%. I always talk about how one of the things when I was in corporate that made me so successful was that I knew to learn from everything. Learn from the people, the words, the experiences that I like, but also from the ones that I didn't. And again, an incredible relationship with my father. He's always been an incredible grandfather. And an amazing ex-husband. It's just a guy-guy thing, I guess. But I was like, "Hey, I'm thankful to have a model of what I don't want." And that's how I looked at it, and I'm thankful for a model that I do want.

Dawn: It doesn't make the person wrong or bad. I think you get caught up in this all or nothing, good or bad, right or wrong thing. All of it's useful, and it's all beautiful. It's all part of it. And I think that's the key, just discerning. I'm not making the human wrong just because what they did is teaching me what I don't wanna do. In fact, I'm super grateful for it. I think that's so good. So for someone listening who maybe feels pressure to pick one path or one identity or one version of themselves, what would you want them to know?

Daniel: I would say we all feel that, and it's a constant battle. We all have a comfort zone. No matter how successful you are or whatever you define as success, we all have a comfort zone. Because the more successful you are, and I would say it gets even harder the more you have to lose. And that's why you hear people go, "I had nothing else to lose, so I did it." And they were successful because they let go of all that fear.

Now, I know there's a practical, and that's part of your question, the practicalness of that is what I would look at is I would think of what do you enjoy the most doing and pursue that and figure out, again, go to my mom, how to make money with that. But don't lose the joy of what you're doing. I believe that you can change your stars. I've changed my stars many, many times, and I help people change their stars, so don't be locked in to one way. So if it's not working, change it. Some practical things I do is I give it 30 days to 90 days. Like, if it's something small, let's try it for 30 days. If it doesn't work, we adjust it. 90 days if it's a new company or a new program. Let's give it 90 days, and after 90 days, then we review it. That gives you permission to run. Get it out there, do it, see what works, what doesn't work, and evaluate it later. When I do partnerships, it's the same agreement. That's important so that you feel the freedom of, okay, all these constraints, good at failing, all that, we're putting on the shelf and we'll look at that later so we can just focus on going.

Dawn: Okay.

Daniel: And you'll be surprised how successful you are in those endeavors that way.

Dawn: It's so true. And look, I'm gonna add another piece. Stop wanting things to be comfortable. They just aren't. The truth is when you stay in your comfort bubble, that's uncomfortable too. If you're a go-getter, if you're someone who has big visions and dreams, staying where you are isn't any more comfortable than going out and getting it. So you have to decide what discomfort do I choose? And again, what you said, that comfort is actually fear.

Daniel: Yeah. It's a hidden fear, because if you're not comfortable, that means you have to step out, which means you have to make a choice, which means there's a consequence to that. Now, I'm not saying be silly risky. But I am saying be in tune so you understand, am I where I am because of my comfort, thus my fear? And is that holding me back from who I'm really born to be at that moment? Because that changes and that evolves.

Dawn: Totally.

Daniel: It's actually... Not even a joke. It's actually why I'm the proudest of my transgender child. They're boldly proud to be who they are. And that's my only job. My only job is to create environments that everybody around me can be who they were born to be, as that grows. And I tell them that I'm so proud of them to have the courage to be who they are, because a lot of us are still figuring that out. And actively preventing it in some ways, honestly. Right?

Dawn: Yeah. And I mean, here's the truth. You mentioned consequences, and everything has a consequence. Literally everything. Every decision, every non-decision has a consequence. Some are good, some are wanted.

Daniel: I like that instead of good or bad.

Dawn: Some are wanted, some are unwanted, some are neutral. But you can't learn and decide the next decision to learn the next consequence, which is so important to moving forward.

Daniel: When you're building a business, your decisions really are, and if you think of it this way, I like this way, you're just mitigating risk. Which means you have to agree it's all risk. Now how do we mitigate that risk?

Dawn: Yeah. And it's all moving forward. If you actually use it, even the unwanted results shine a light on the next best decision to create a better result. It's when we are specifically lacking self-trust, when we start second-guessing our decisions, remaking our decisions, relitigating them, when we don't follow through on them because we're trying to avoid the negative consequence, that we keep circling instead of moving forward. Yeah. So tell us now...

Daniel: That's why I like that 90-day theme, because you're evaluating are you circling or not. 'Cause there's so many people circling.

Dawn: Yeah. I think 90 days gives enough time to get data. I talk a lot about data versus drama, and the drama is when we make it mean something about our vision, we make it mean something about ourselves. We decide that nothing's working instead of, like, this is what leads to what's working. But 90 days gives a chance to get actual data. Now, not everything requires 90 days. Some, like you said, it's 30. Some could be a couple weeks, depending on what we're looking at. But you have to give it time to generate data, 'cause otherwise you're literally restarting over all the time before you actually have the information you need.

Daniel: And what I found in my situations is, and we check every month where we are within that 90 days, that's important. And to your point, it is data, but you don't have to harp on it either. It's going, "Okay, this is what we're doing." So what happens is sometimes we go, after 90 days, "Oh, shit, we did it, but we did it differently. We're here." I remember Emily. Emily runs my company. She's amazing. And I said, "You know, my personal goal is to launch this, this, and this." And she goes, "You did that two weeks ago." "Oh, you're right." You know, I was like, "You're right." Just evaluating where I wanna be. It's surprising to see that. And then you also go, "Well, we never made it happen, so does that matter?" Right? Have we moved on to a different solution or a different way, or do we even really care? Well, no, it's important to us. Okay, so we'll give it another 30 days, but if it doesn't happen, it's off. There's just some reason we're not getting it done. Cool. Move on. I mean, it just requires actual data analysis and looking.

Dawn: Yeah. And holding the vision firm and the how lightly, because we're gonna learn it. It's never gonna look exactly the way we decided. Getting onto your stuff. The vision is beautiful, and the vision is correct, and the vision is your light, and that's huge. Adjust the how. And that's the question, how can we make that better? How can we get on the same page? How can we make this happen? The how is the curiosity that actually gets you there.

Daniel: Yes, absolutely.

Dawn: And when you own that the result is inevitable, this is what we do in Claimed, when you own that it's just inevitable, then the how just becomes the experiments along the way there. But what happens often is people, with each result, with every how, result, consequence, however we wanna look at it, they start shrinking the what. Like, okay, instead of 5 million, it doesn't look like it's going well, I'm gonna shrink it to 1 million this year. Instead of 1 million... Like, those are the things that end up happening. That's a little extreme, but it is what I see happening often.

Daniel: And that's where I do get confused in this conversation. Knowing that, again, I've never had a creative block. I don't know what burnout is. That doesn't exist in my world. Work is not my life. I live my work. I have people that I talk to, they're like, "Look, I'm still working on my vision. I'm still trying to work on that side of the plan." And some have been doing it for years. I kid you not, for years. And I'm just like, I don't get that. I respect it. I love you for that. But in learning from this conversation, that means it's because they have so much fear around it. It means...

Dawn: Yeah, it's just a bumper. It prevents you. If you tell yourself, "I'm not sure what it is," then you don't have to get to work proving it right or wrong.

Daniel: Right. That comfort zone again. You have to make a choice.

Dawn: Yeah.

Daniel: That's what it is. And my first instinct, well, let's talk about it, and then let's talk about a plan. 'Cause look, I understand the feeling behind it, 'cause I launch a lot of things. So that's why we do research and we go, "Look, here's this path to success, this is the path to success," but by data, not emotion. So I take the emotions out, and then go, "Which one do you feel is gonna fit best for you?" And that, you know, so now we've had the discussion, now go to action.

Dawn: Yeah. It's gonna be part of it. We're not becoming robots in this work, by any means, and that's not what self-trust does, believe me. But you just are relating to it differently. It doesn't remove the vision, the end result, and it doesn't have to be shrunk, just like you don't have to be shrunk. You get to feel all the emotions along the way. You just stop letting them determine whether it's possible for you. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about what you're building right now and what you're most excited about.

Daniel: What am I building right now? Oh, that will be a list. All right, so my role right now in my life is to... I'm a consultant to my agency, I'm a consultant to my Game Changers members, which I love. And so what I do is I hang out with them a couple times a week and I build what they need next. Honestly, that's all I do. You know, again, my entire career down this path started with my formulas, being able to duplicate myself, teaching my team, "Hey, this is how I think and how I do things. Now duplicate it." Obviously, AI has allowed me to go much bigger and much more powerful. That's all I do. I'm constantly building things to hand them, go, "Here, problem solved."

Dawn: But who are they? Like, who are your ideal clients? Who do you just love working with?

Daniel: Ah, interesting people. I gotta tell you, interesting people. And everybody's definition of that is gonna be different. I've done everything from launch the most profitable bank in the state of Florida, to a video game for Marvel, to... And I do love working with the everyday entrepreneurs. I've helped thousands of everyday entrepreneurs taking those big things to this. That's super, super important. So I love people that are trying to do good things, have a great heart. The number one rule of my club is you have to smile. That's a real rule. That's actually the only rule, is you gotta smile. They're generally coaches, consultants, and professionals. That would be accountants, lawyers, CPAs, those kinda people. But a lot of them are coaches and consultants trying to do something significant, trying to do something different and better.

Dawn: So where can people connect with you and learn more about your work?

Daniel: So there's a couple places. One easily would be ruke.com. I own my name, so go to ruke.com. My email shockingly is [email protected]. That's my test, you know, if you can't get that right, we got a problem. But Game Changers Club is where I have my events and my networking and all that kind of stuff. That's usually where people come play and come see what we're doing.

Dawn: Yeah. Well, we're gonna have all the links in the show notes, so definitely connect with Daniel and learn more about all the amazing things he's doing.

Daniel: If you're an interesting person, which I know if you're here, you are, then go check it out.

Dawn: Yes, true. So Daniel, what I love about this conversation is that it challenges one of the most common lies so many of us carry, that we have to choose between the different parts of who we are. Whether it's creativity or practicality, passion or profit, family or ambition, we often believe that becoming successful requires becoming smaller. And your story reminds us that it is not about narrowing our lives. It's about trusting ourselves enough to expand into all of it. Into being all that we're about to be. Giving yourself permission to fully be who you already are, and I think that's such a powerful message for anyone who's listening who's been trying to fit themselves into a box that we both agree actually doesn't exist, or thinks they have to amputate parts of themselves to have the business and life they want.

So thank you so much for being here and sharing your story.

Daniel: My pleasure. You're awesome.

Dawn: You're awesome. All right. If today's conversation stirred something in you, first go check out Ruke's website and all that he has to offer, and then I want you to take one next step before you close this episode. Go find out Where Are Your Standing. Before strategy, before motivation, before more effort, you need to know where you're operating from, because that is what determines everything that follows. It's free, it takes three minutes, and it will give you a precise read on where you're operating from right now and exactly where to focus next.

That link is in the show notes as well. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss what's coming. These stories are just getting started, and they just are getting better and better. I'll see you next time.

Where Are You Standing?

Where are you standing?

Your Floor is the foundation you're building your business from.

Some of it is firm. Some of it may still be moving with your results.

Three minutes to see which is which.

theselftrustcoach.com/where-are-you-standing