David Nurse  0:00  
really powerful. So if you're listening to this, go through this, you look at your hands, the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, and you're looking at your hands, and you see that everything that those hands have been through the ruggedness, everything they've made it through. And then you think of the most confident person in your life, whether it's a parent, whether it's a mentor or a coach, the most confident person in your life and you see their hands as your hands. So first thing when you wake up in the morning, you know, you can get through anything because everything that you have got through, you have already gotten through and you could do it again.

kevin edwards  0:30  
You are listening to the Real Leaders podcast where leaders keep it real. I'm your host, Kevin Edwards. And that inspiration comes from NBA Life optimization coach, David nurse who On today's episode helps us pivot and go from the 40,000 negative thoughts that we self create every day. And also in today's episode, Nurse shares his journey from sleeping in a Walmart parking lot to working with the NBAs best how to live each day, like the Ultimate day, and why we shouldn't sleep on sleep itself. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for the real David nurse. Enjoy. Let's get going here, David and 5432 and one and welcome everyone, to this episode of the real leaders podcast. I'm your host Kevin Edwards. Joining us today is MBA life optimization coach and the recent author of the NGO. Mr. David, nurse David, thanks for being with us today.

David Nurse  1:35  
Kevin, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me on. 

kevin edwards  1:37  
Absolutely. So they they unite share a common passion. That's basketball. I want to know what your love for basketball is and where the game really took you.

David Nurse  1:48  
Yeah, so it started basically from when the earliest I can remember I grew up in the middle of nowhere cornfields of Iowa and all there was it was to play basketball and I like I had this dream of Playing in the NBA like I was going to do it no matter what. And I poured everything into playing in the NBA now I'm, I'm 6'2" not very athletic, never dunk a basketball once in my life. So probably my parents should have told me to maybe play golf or tennis or something like that, but hey, they were supportive. And I just I really had this dream of playing in the NBA. So I poured everything I had into this like high school college, I got to play college basketball, but I didn't have any backup plan. It was NBA or nothing. And then I'm playing overseas and it's sounds kind of cool to say yeah, you're playing professionally overseas, but really it was a second division in the northern Spain Basque region that was more like Will Ferrell Semi Pro. They were more concerned about where the party was after the game and the actual game where you're I am putting in all this effort all this work all this these extra films, studying everything and, and I get cut from this team.

So not only is all my dreams apply In the NBA taken away, but it's taken away and it's turned upside down and rubbed in the dirt. So I come back and I'm living by my parents on their recliner chair in Kansas City. I'm feeling bad for myself for about five months. And my mom always would say these inspirational motivational quotes and usually as in one year out the other year, and she said, You know, when one door closes four open in a whole beach front patio overlooking the ocean, she said this while she was doing dishes, and I was sitting there on the couch, I was like, wow, that that's different. I've never heard that and it triggered it in me is like, that is my life pivot. Everything that I put into playing in the NBA was not for myself. It was all this extra work, detailed study so I could coach others and help others reach the NBA. And that's when I made that life pivot. And I started working with players one of my first players, great friend of mine, Aron Baynes and then more players came and that was coaching for the Brooklyn Nets and now I've been able to train over 150 NBA players on and off court and literally all because I was able to make that pivot in my life.

kevin edwards  4:02  
It's an incredible story. Now they really quick. We call that here really, as we call that the Euro step, you go to Europe, you get stepped on, and then you bring it back. Right? So that's the, you know, an interesting, interesting pivot right there. And your mom's message is one that is maybe different from others. Because when you have habits or a passion of yours that you've been practicing for so long, and you get stepped on like that. But what's your initial reaction? Are you trying to get back into the league? Do you consider that a failure? Where did you try to go next?

David Nurse  4:37  
Yeah, so I kind of realized that the Hey, the writing was on the wall and I hadn't been even close to the NBA. So it took me a few times of failing to realize that you know what, this isn't what I was meant to do. I wasn't meant to play in the NBA but I was meant to coach others and help others to play in the NBA and, and that's what like I literally, I started my own basketball camp thing and I had balls made from China sent to the Oakland c port and I drove 29 hours in my car to go pick them up. In the next five years I spent traveling around the country just doing any kind of basketball camp for middle school teams high school teams, then traveling throughout the world doing these camps living out of my car sleeping in Walmart well lit parking lots and it was just a it was a journey because I had this passion and this love for basketball. But really the realization that a all this this failure that people would say or everything that I put into playing in the NBA taken away from me know that that's that's how I learned and that's how I grew to be able to do what I do today.

kevin edwards  5:42  
So when did you when that realization come though, I mean, say you drive from you know, middle America to pick up these basketballs in California you're on the road you're on the ground you sleeping in Walmart when did this realization hit that you know, you're purpose, your meaning and work is changing. And you're going to continue to pursue this and not do a normal job or something like that.

David Nurse  6:07  
Yeah, well, it actually I mean, it hit when my mom said that that's when it kind of clicked in my in my mind that, hey, a door closed is just a big opportunity for something else to come. And obviously, I had a passion for basketball and I loved, I loved seeing other players improve in on court and seeing them get better as well. So it's like, hey, if I can't play in the NBA, I'm going to be the best shooting coach there is in the NBA. And I really took that on as like that. Like I'm always wanting to believe that we have, we have a gift inside of us we have something we are meant to do. And it's our job to figure out what that is and to not hold ourselves back. So whenever I go into something I'm going all in and it's like hey, I'm going to be the best shooting coach in the NBA so I looked up who's the best shooting coach in the NBA cuz obviously someone that already got there, I could follow their footsteps. It was chipping them for the San Antonio Spurs. So I emailed him back called him. I wrote them handwritten letters. I went out to Las Vegas NBA Summer League just so I get the opportunity to meet him. He saw that I put in and he kind of helped me along the path. And it's just, it's just putting your passion. It's putting your passion together with the actual make it happened ability and a lot of that make it happen. ability is just just going forward. Just taking that step making that leap and actually just going and not worrying about falling flat on your face. 

kevin edwards  7:29  
David where do you think that comes from? How do you define confidence and other other people in your life that have helped you find this?

David Nurse  7:41  
Yeah, a lot comes from from confidence, for sure. But I like to say confidence isn't about the results that you get or isn't about anything the world might say it is but it's, it's about true self awareness. And, like, I'll just tell you a quick story that I've seen. It's a really, really powerful story on understanding self awareness and confidence. And for me for myself, it's came through these learning experiences of failure to realize that, hey, this is this is my calling. This was what I was made to do, and I'm okay with it. I am aware of that. So the story is Jeremy Lin's a very good friend of mine, one of my closest friends and he was going through that linsanity time and I didn't know him at this time, but he was I mean, you'll linsanity was on top of the world he was literally a number one trending thing in the world. Like all the success the world success was right there for him. He's at the top of the mountain. And if he was being honest with you, he would tell you he would never want to go through that situation again, because instead of living in the the appreciation for the moment and enjoying the moment he was living in the in the what if I can't keep this up? What if I don't keep this pace? What will people think of me? And honestly, that's that's a really, very real feeling that we all have, to some extent, maybe not the extent that Jeremy did, but the biggest one of the biggest accomplishments in my career, one of the best things that I've seen is to be able to help Jeremy and see him come into his own, to have him find his self awareness, confidence, not confidence through results in what he adds stats on the court, but true self awareness and the fact that he stands for so much more than just basketball, like for his people of Taiwan, for his faith, and just for so much more is where the real power of confidence comes in. If we if we, if we put it on our results, like it's gonna waver, it's gonna be up and down. We're gonna be riding these roller coasters. But if we put our confidence in, yes, I was given this gift. This is who I am. I'm self aware. This is what I can live in this this state, then you're going to have this what I call unshakable confidence that I that I teach to NBA players. 

kevin edwards  9:45  
So David maybe explain to our audience who maybe aren't in the NBA or like watch the NBA explain like the 82 games season and the mental preparation that you help players with along the way so that they're encore performance is not affected by their off court experiences.

David Nurse  10:05  
Yeah, 82 games is a lot of games. It's very wearing, especially when you're traveling for half of those games. And the biggest thing is to get what I do I called the optimization coaches. How do you help players step on the floor at 100% of their capacity and it's going to be tough, like there's nights, just me they're playing at the highest level, but when you do it at two games, it's tough to bring it every single night so I have different mindset steps that I go through with players and one of the main ones that I do is what I call their highlight reel. They like to call it their swag zone. So it's the best game they've ever had. We put it into film clips like two to three minutes and the watch it every morning when they wake up the watch it before they step on the floor for practice to watch it before the game. So when you continue to watch this and live in this highlight reel moment, and we've all had some types Have a highlight reel in our life. Like that's who you become. Because there's always we have, we have 50,000 self talk thoughts per day 50,000 times we're talking to ourselves 80% of the time, it's something negative. So this this highlight reel helps them pivot that into Hey, this is who I truly am not this, this person who I think is imposter or people that are telling me that I can't succeed. So that's one of the main tools that I use, but I also am very, very big in visualization like actually seen it happen before it happens. And I've been blessed to spend time with Kobe and Michael Jordan's mental trainer and what what they did every single game before the game they watched that game actually unfold like they went through every single play and maybe it doesn't happen exactly the way they say it is but you have a lot of confidence in a lot of power in actually already going through something visually in your mind and Just one more point that we're talking about is redefining vocabulary. So what I mean by that is there's a lot of confidence in figuring out that what everybody else says like a slump is doesn't have to be a slump like I play I'll ask players the first time when I work on my Hey When was the last time you were in your shooting slump like shooting slump and like I see their body language droop and then I you know a couple games ago I couldn't make a shot just one go in and then I'll ask them when was the last time you're shooting hippopotamus and they'll look at me like what do you what are you You're crazy. What are you talking about? In the point is that you think you hear the word slump and you already think of this negative term you already feel negative by yourself same thing like if you miss a shot Oh, that's a bad thing. No, no it's not we don't with my players we don't track makes her missus I never tell them their percentage, their stats, but we do track the process. Are you getting to the rim Are you getting to your best shots like if you get 10 threes up and you're a three point shooter. They're all Open looks and you miss them all. That's an awesome game, because you trust in that they will go in. But if you're getting there, you're doing the process and you're focused on the process. That's when the results happen.

kevin edwards  13:12  
Interesting. It's really interesting. And actually, our guest on the show shared a similar message yesterday. So these mind games, these these, these pivots that you're talking about. Now, in your experience, what are some of the things that increases those 50,000 mind thoughts a day and increases the 80%? That goes to negative? What are some of those factors? And how can one recognize when that's happening?

David Nurse  13:37  
Yeah, so it's all about setting up your environment and it's how you set up it's the affirmations like literally scattered throughout my apartment is just tons of different affirmations of telling me positive encouragement of who I am and, and I see these in subconsciously that continues to trigger in my brain these affirmations because we are We are generally as people with thinking, like we said, these negative thoughts and we have the self doubt. So having these affirmations scattered around your environment, and I go through it in the book where I tell you exactly where to put these. So you're constantly seeing these and reminding yourself throughout the day subconsciously, like this is the state of joy and confidence and you can live in. And then it's a powerful tool, and then then I'm really big on actionable steps and actionable tools, and something that we all have is our hands. Okay, so our hands are always with us. And this is, is really powerful. So if you're listening to this, go through this. You look at your hands, the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, and you're looking at your hands, and you see that everything that those hands have been through the ruggedness, everything they've made it through, and then you think of the most confident person in your life, whether it's a parent, whether it's a mentor or a coach, the most confident person in your life and you see their hands as you Your hands. So first thing when you wake up in the morning, you know, you can get through anything because everything that you've gotten through, you have already gotten through and you can do it again. And then. So we wake up with with self doubt a lot of us will wake up with self doubt most of us do. I call it the foggy mirror. So you can either let your mirror continue to get it foggy and filled with a self doubt, or you can wipe it clean. So after you look at those hands, when you're up, you go over to the mirror and you make this action, simple action of wiping away the fog on the mirror. And that triggers in your brain. Okay, I can live in this self confidence awareness of who I am. I don't, I don't have to let the self doubt creep in. Now, there's a lot of other tools as well that you can use and they're all outlined in the book these tools but but the key is doing it consistently what I call relentless consistency. Because if you do it once, okay, that's great, but no, it's not building any habits or routines and I set up the book on 29 days and the reason I chose 29 is because 28 The generally accepted term for how long it takes to build a habit. But like those are great, but we want to make it a lifestyle. So day 29 is your choice. We all have the superhero power of choice to live this lifestyle through the habits that we built. And it really comes down to just continuing to do it. 1% step after 1% step day after day after day

kevin edwards  16:24  
one isn't that the name of your podcast 1%

David Nurse  16:26  
it is yes, the name of my podcast and the name of the my next book that's gonna be coming out next year.

kevin edwards  16:30  
Yeah, I thought that was a really unique way you frame that I couldn't think the book could be at a better relevant time. I mean, people have been practicing routines for their entire lives go into the same nine to five jobs every single day. Well, a pandemic hits and now we have to stay in stay indoors, change our habits, not go to the grocery store, not go to this restaurant, not go to the bar. Things like that. Come into the way so when that's when that's something happens, David What did you do specifically? To change your ways and reframe your habits over those 28 days?

David Nurse  17:07  
Yeah, so I just looked at it from a different a different state. Most people were looking at it as a what was me, this is what I could have been doing or should have been doing like for myself, personally, I had a, I had a great momentum going for speaking with companies, I had a ton of big talks lined up, and they all got wiped away, taken away, and I could have felt bad for myself and lived in that in that self pity. But instead, it's an opportunity to pivot this crisis, literally for a bigger opportunity to come. And I just decided, Hey, I'm going to make the best habits live each day, like the ultimate day that I want to live, because we can't travel anywhere. So I'm going to be here at my place. I'm going to do this day after day to build these habits both in my nutrition both in my fitness in my mindset, and, and I'm also, you know what we're in this isolation chamber I'm going to improve in some type of area. Really pour into that area. So I know that when I come out of this and when life gets back to going normal again, and it will get back to normal at some point that human interaction people need that, that I'm going to be even better than when I went into this. 

kevin edwards  18:16  
Interesting. Yeah, we're not gonna call it COVID-19 we call it hippopotamus. 19. We're gonna flip. So and that's an interesting point, because, you know, I follow the league right now I try to and now we're in the bubble. What are your interactions with players right now? Because I mean, think about David a little bit before the show was a manager. So on the weekends are traveling, our practice schedules are planned out for us our itinerary is literally down to the minute to the second. When that happens. And now we're in a bubble. I know we're not doing what Lou will is doing, hopefully, but what are your players saying about how they are feeling in this bubble? And what is your advice to them?

David Nurse  18:57  
Man, to be honest, they really like the Most of them really like this, opportunity. Yeah, the ones with families. I mean, obviously they missed their families. But the younger ones are looking at it like, Hey, this is back to college, we're getting this camaraderie with our teammates, they're playing a ping pong games, pool tournaments, card tournaments. But you never get this in the NBA. It's like the college feel when you really build this bond in this chemistry with your team. And you saw that the Brooklyn Nets who don't really have any players beat the Milwaukee Bucks because they played with so much more passion and that that togetherness that they're that they're building by being able to be have to be stuck in a bubble and, and I'll just tell guys to like when they say, Man, this is a weird time. But hey, this is a time you're never gonna have back in your life. This will never happen again. just embrace it. Have fun with it. It's the same thing with us in life right now. Like, if we want to get out of this thing so soon, like, How many times are you going to just be able to be home with your family, be home with your spouse, your kids like, embrace this time and really enjoy it.

kevin edwards  19:59  
Right? Definitely not Now you mentioned the morning fog the fog the mirror when you wake up and you want to have a morning routine Now if we go back just one step let's think about sleep How important is sleep for you? What was your perspective on how many hours you should be getting in? What are you what are you telling your NBA players?

David Nurse  20:22  
Such a great question because I am a sleep optimization nut and let me tell you if you can do the top five important things for total optimization and performance one sleep to sleep three sleep, then nutrition then train like it's that important. So without having sleep, you can't you don't recharge you don't build the muscle memory myelin like think about it when you wake up and somehow your phone came on plugged in the sound like 27% you're frustrated you're mad like is not gonna last throughout the day. And that's the same way if you don't get a great night's sleep and and I know we don't all have the luxury of just being able to Sleep eight hours straight through. But that's a myth. You don't need eight hours. You don't need eight hours just straight through. I've blessed with great relationships with one of the top sleep coaches in the world to work with Rinaldo and some other sleep coaches and it's, it's really based on the sleep cycles that you get and how efficient you make your sleep, the deep sleep the REM and a couple tricks for that is sleep in the cold like that there is no bigger game changer than sleeping in the cold and I have, I have a chilli pad and Uhler which cools my body temperature underneath my mattress and just gives me the right the right temperature there but which is about 65 degrees 60 degrees to 65 degrees. So sleeping in the cold, sleeping in the complete dark and also unplugging yourself. Like don't go to bed after you're just mentally stimulated like just a big key for great sleep is to go to bed in a positive state of mind. In a joyful state of mind. It raises it actually raises what's called your HR Be your heart rate variability. So those are three main keys that I give to people for optimizing their sleep. And then there's a lot more that we could we could dive a whole episode into that. 

kevin edwards  22:09  
I'm a big proponent of sleep as well. And I've actually been struggling with that sleep. But one thing that's helped me out David has been LeBron James's calm app, this mindfulness, this meditation, what do you do for meditation? Are you faith based? Do you pray? How do you meditate? What's your process like? 

David Nurse  22:27  
Great question. Yeah. So I, I'm faith based Jesus is the reason that I do everything. And every morning, I spend my first 30 minutes I am reading Well, first, I'll take my ice cold shower and I'll get my great coffee. But then I'll read some scripture in the Bible or some some kind of reading that I'm doing and I'm journaling and I'm sitting just in the quiet in the calm, praying, giving thanks very gratitude based but I make sure no matter what I protect that time My day starts off With that, and my day ends with that I have an unbelievable wife who is very faith based as well and we pray together and there's and there's nothing more powerful than just knowing that you're going through the journey together with somebody who also has the the faith and the gratitude and the thankfulness that you do and, and knowing that we're doing this for a bigger purpose than ourselves is the just just the most freeing feeling there is. 

kevin edwards  23:26  
So David, some people that might be listening to this are like, man, I'll just never be there. I don't understand this. Like I go to my work. I work I get my calls right after I'm on Xbox. I'm watching TV. I just don't understand this but but kudos to you. What would you say to somebody like that, who may not have a problem with anybody anything and just wants to live their lives, without any reflection or meditation at all.

David Nurse  23:54  
I mean, it is completely up to them if that's if they're comfortable in that but to be honest, Every one of us at some point in some and we have something that we feel there's more we have, like, why are we here? What is our meaning like a lot of people will they will just go through life, like you're saying, but at the core, everybody feels it to some extent. Now it's your choice if you act on it. And when you do if you realize that, hey, there is something more like it's, it's not only going to make your life better here, like if you're just in it for yourself, it's not only just going to make your life better here, but it's gonna make everyone else around you life better. And once you live in that understanding it just like it literally opens so many more doors for you. And it's the most like I'm saying the most freeing feeling to know is that we aren't in control. We can act like we're in control, but a as you've seen right now, how many thought this time this COVID time was coming? Nobody we're not in control. Who knows what's coming tomorrow, two months from now, but rest in that peace that we have somebody that They're with us. In my belief Jesus walking with us every step of the way is a it's the best the best knowledge and feeling to have.

kevin edwards  25:08  
That's facts. And I'm also just talking about just like getting started. A lot of people fear that first step, even purchasing the book, right? Oh, this is a great book. It sounds good. But then you get you get to I don't know if I want to break. So what Why do you think so many people struggle with taking that first step? Is it because we project our past into the future? Why do you think that people are afraid to take the first step?

David Nurse  25:33  
Because it's difficult, it's difficult to take a step. It's difficult, it's uncomfortable, to make change. It's uncomfortable, throw yourself out there and fail. Like that's why a lot of people won't go won't try to go on dates or something because they're afraid of rejection. But honestly, rejection, just like we've been pivoting terms is a great thing. Failure is a great thing. Because failure is not only an option of a way you can learn and grow is the only way you learn and grow and the funny thing is like every time you go through a difficult situation, something you feared something you like, I didn't want to take that step. I didn't want to do it. But when you do you always look back on you like, Man, I'm so glad I did that. But it's so tough to actually make that first step because I think people are, they're just so concerned what others think. And that's where we come back to finding your true self awareness, confidence and what your purpose is, but but once you like, we all have dreams, we all have goals. And it's it's literally like, hey, they can happen, and they will happen if you don't give up. We are our biggest defenders, we are our biggest full court press is ourselves because we give up when things get tough. Now, if everybody could look at it from this mindset pivot of thriving over just surviving, that would open huge doors for everyone because it's like think about a difficult situation that you go through. You can embrace that and you can actually want those to happen. Because you know that somebody else coming along the way will go through that same exact thing and now you can help them through it. So it's for a much bigger purpose than just yourself and you're pivoting those difficult situations from just surviving to thriving.

kevin edwards  27:14  
Now, David, the some of the things that don't get talked about enough now I told you before the show interview, mostly social entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners, people in the same category as you I'll throw you in, they all say what doesn't get talked about enough are the struggles are the downsides are the pain suffering and sacrifices that they went through. And they they always like to share those. Do you have any things that you would like to share with our audience today?

David Nurse  27:42  
Absolutely. And I'm always going through those constantly. Like right now. I'm trying to get a book out there. My first book I'm trying to get on New York Times bestselling list and it's, it's not it's not easy at all. It's very, very difficult and like just the struggle where you see other people, friends Yours put out a book it's number one on the list like Why can't I be that? What do I have to keep doing so it's the struggle of that is super real. And like even for myself, I struggled every time playing basketball growing up, like I thought I was better than it was but nobody else saw that around me and I ended up getting cut from that team and, and even when I was coaching with the nets, like we had a great year when I was there, and one of the top three point shooting teams went from 28 to second then a new coaching staff came in and brought in all their all the coaches. So there was another dream of mine that I thought that's what I was going to do for the rest of my life coach in the NBA taken away from me. So the yeah and this struggles of just literally starting my own basketball business and actually making it happen. It's not It's not easy, but if you look at the small picture far too often we put our emphasis on the on just just the macro, like the big the big thing that we want to get to but we don't focus on the micro and the steps that it takes to get there. And when you really when you realize that like It's gonna take time, but it will happen. And one of my favorite quotes is it takes 10 years to become an overnight success. And just a real quick story is my uncle is the head coach for the Toronto Raptors, Nick nurse and they won the championship last year and everybody say all lightning struck in a bottle. You know, first year head coach. So lucky. No, he's been coaching for 27 years, literally at small colleges and countries you don't even know play basketball. I've seen him in England tape and players ankles popping popcorn at halftime, but but he lived in that I'm going to be an NBA champion head coach. It's going to take some time to get there. But I'm perfectly okay with taking those steps to get there. 

kevin edwards  29:37  
So you said something important in there. You said Oh, my friends are in the top the known bestsellers. Do you think comparison and comparing yourself to others is the killer of all dreams? What is your thought process on comparison? And do you mention in the book? 

David Nurse  29:54  
That's a great question. That's like a setup question right there. So I do comparison can Be the killer of all dreams. But if you pivot it and look at it from a different perspective, it can lead you to your dream. So comparison of seeing like, a my friends or bestsellers, or this guy gets more Instagram likes to me, like that's gonna drive you nuts. But if you look at this term comparison and say, hey, what can I learn from people who have already got there? That's when comparing yourself is great. And that's like, for example, that's what Kobe did to MJ and he imitated him basically almost to the tee, even in his interviews. That's what I did with the chip England the shooting coach for the Spurs I compared Myself to him, because I knew I could learn from him. And you detach the actual like, this is gonna make me feel like this because he's got more of something that I don't have. And when you pivot that comparison term, that that opens up a whole nother ballgame as well.

kevin edwards  30:48  
David everyone has those guys that they can either look up to or try to, you know, follow or embody or just go to for advice. Do you have any of those guys in the league or maybe it's a family member that you just Go to when you need to figure something out.

David Nurse  31:03  
Yeah, definitely and I have I have people in different areas so if it's something I have to figure out for, like business or MBA or speaking like I've built up and I love talking about this because I've built up genuine friendships with these people through giving to them without expecting anything in return it's it you build up these relationships that you can go to for me like I think it's really powerful making someone your mentor and for speaking and being an author john Gordon has become one of my very close friends and he's always there for me anything I need in that in that round my uncle's coach for the Raptors so I look to him for basketball, Erik Spoelstra that I've become great friends with and I'll look to Him Ron Adams has been there for me but but all these relationships are not just like hey, you get all these big time people that will be your friends, no you like it takes time it takes genuine, genuine relationship building, not the networking, dirty LinkedIn term. What can you do for me, but instead what you can do for others. 

kevin edwards  32:04  
One of the people I like to look up to and I don't even know them, but maybe you do Phil Jackson and he wrote this book and the audiobook Sacred Hoops. I and a lot of the things you've been saying had been very similar to what he emphasizes in the book, being a visionary opens up creativity, things like that. Now, visionary, David, where do you see yourself going? In a few years? Do you always want to be MBA life optimization, coach, do you want to join link? Where do you see yourself in a few years?

David Nurse  32:31  
Yeah, and it constantly changes and I'm open to that change. But I see myself as john Maxwell mixed with Tony Robbins mixed with with the NBA. So putting that sports element in there too. And that's, that's literally what I'm going to do and what I'm going to pursue writing a book every year speaking all over the world, encouraging helping people find their joy and where that leads, if there's a pivot that hey, this is an amazing opportunity with an MBA team where it's a really close Friend of mine I've been I've been offered multiple jobs in the NBA, but it wasn't the right. Right fit the one I wanted. So we'll see. I mean, I know my trajectory, my plan, my goal, but I'm always reassessing myself. And if something else comes along the way, I'm open to pivoting.

kevin edwards  33:16  
how do you recognize when it's time to pivot?

David Nurse  33:21  
When you continually are banging your head against the wall, and it's not opening up when that door isn't opening up that you thought it was going to, and it's going to take time, like you're gonna have to just really like be put time into it. I don't give up right away, but also see the bigger picture of like, when you aren't succeeding in something that you thought was your gift. It's look at it be self aware to actually like, I think a big thing that most of us don't do is we don't assess ourselves. We don't we just kind of go we just do life and just go go go go go and then when we 10 years down the road, we don't know where that time when take time, at the end of each day. Take time once a day, per month, and just assess yourself Where are you at? And you'll be able to learn a lot about yourself and think like, hey, I've been banging my head against this wall and it's not going. But what are the skill sets that I learned from doing this? Could I use it in a different direction. And then if it coincides with what you're passionate about, then that's when you know how to pivot.

kevin edwards  34:17  
Interested in harnessing that, and also just getting out of your own way. Very interesting day. We appreciate you coming on this show today. And you mentioned you know, you want to be a john Maxwell. You want to be leadership for the NBA. Lot of good leaders in there. We talked a lot about encouraging others today, changing your mindset, a lot of important things, our followers, our listeners are going to be able to take away today. Now, the last question that bring this full circle to you David is What is your definition of a real leader?

David Nurse  34:48  
Great question. And a real leader to me is somebody who pours into themselves 1% daily improving themselves so that they can pour into others and approve others because at the core leaders, real leaders don't want to lead their whole life. They want to build leaders to lead other leaders to lead other leaders. So it's all about pouring into yourself to pour into others 

kevin edwards  35:12  
Well said, well, David, appreciate your time coming on the podcast. Stick around. We've got time for a few questions here opening up on crowdcast for y'all. But for David, nurse, I'm Kevin Edwards asking you to go out there, pour 1% yourself so you can pour into others and always folks, keep it real, David, appreciate your time.

David Nurse  35:29  
Thank you so much.

kevin edwards  35:31  
All right, good people. And thank you for tuning in to this episode of the real leaders podcast with David nurse. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. And let's see, drop your phone drop what you're doing. Look at your hands right now. Look at them hands. And then take one of those hands, put it back on your phone and leave a review folks we need 50 by the end of August. That's right fit your reviews if you enjoy this episode as much as I do, and If that's even possible, leave a review. At the end of the show. Let people know what you think and what to expect when they come to this podcast channel. So they know what's all about. Also, if you're one of the lucky listeners listen to this episode and you're at that 36 minute point. Go online to really calm you get 25% off a year subscription when entry and coupon code podcast 25 at checkout, that's coupon code podcast 25 at checkout, and thanks for tuning in this episode, and stay tuned for the next one.

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