The Comeback - My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Dave Scatchard: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot.

0:30through heaven and hell, and is regarded as one of the top peak performance life and business coaches in the industry. And today, Foundation, we'll be talking about your mindset, your energy, your state of overwhelm, gaining confidence, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Dave and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented.

1:01The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Fire Nation, you have a book inside you and it's time to share your message with the world. That's why I created Author 100, a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book. If you want daily guidance, and mentorship from me, JLD, then head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details. So Fire Nation, as I mentioned in the introduction, we have Dave here.

1:39He's a former 14-year NHL pro and he's done so much with his life. And I want to just dive right into it, Dave, because we have a lot to talk about. I mean, getting to the top in any profession is a story full of both successes and failures. So let's talk about some of the most difficult things that you personally overcame on your journey, making it to the NHL. Yeah, thanks. It's a crazy, crazy story because I was a small town kid from Canada. I grew up in a town of 6 ,000 people. It was freezing all the time. We had snow everywhere, ice everywhere. There wasn't really a lot to do. So kids kind of grew up playing hockey.

2:19And And my dad worked in the coal mining industry. He was a coal miner. My mom stayed at home and took care of me and my brother and my sister. And whenever my dad got time off, we'd drive our vehicles out to the ponds, the local ponds or the outdoor rinks. And you could literally drive your truck out onto the ice. Like that's how thick the ice was. It was just solid. So the parents would drive these things out, have a tailgating party out there. The dads would shovel up all the snow off of the ponds. Then they just throw the kids out there, like no rules, no lessons, just like start stumbling around out there.

2:57And I was probably two or three when I put on skates for the first time and just kind of shuffled around. And little did I know that that's what I would do for the next 33 years of my life. Fire Nation, this isn't even scratching the surface of what we're going to be getting into today. So let's really dive into some of the challenges, some of the difficulties, like some of those, those like rock bottom moments that we've all had, but I mean, jeez. I'm going to bullet point them because there's so many. So I'm 16 years old. Well, first of all, I had a terrible bully growing up and this guy's name is John Beaverbone.

3:32And he just, he failed like two or three grades. He was this native kid. He just beat the crap out of everybody. He hated me because I was good at sports. I was good at school. Everybody liked me. And he just made me his target my whole life. I got ulcers because of this guy. And it took me standing up to him at one point. Um, and I write about it in my book that I, that like, it was like a turning point in my life. Like bullies like to bully when there's no pushback, when there's no, uh, when, when nobody's pushing back at them and giving them the taste of their own medicine. And even though he was so much bigger than me, uh, I got the best of him one day, him and his eight brothers, He had eight brothers who would skip school, drink, like do drugs.

4:16It was terrible. And they were like crazy. I ran from my life a couple of times with those guys. They shattered windows of homes that I dove into. This is a true story. It's in my book. Like that was one of the things I grew up on with these bullies. And finally, it just take me like fighting him over and over and over again to for him to leave me alone. And then he'd go pick on other people. But I became the defender of like the school. So maybe that's why I ended up becoming a protector in the NHL later on in my life, because that's not in really my nature. There was a time when I left home at 16.

4:48So I left my beautiful home, my mom, my dad, my brother and sister. I was the big fish in the little town. And I went and played with the big boys because I needed better competition and I needed somebody to notice me. Um, there was a time when I was 12 years old and I accidentally got invited to main training camp of this junior hockey team of kids that were 16 to 20 years old. So I slept in my truck cause we didn't have a lot of money. I slept in my truck outside the arena. It was one of the coldest nights on record. I remember just shivering the entire night. My dad and I like in one sleeping bag, like he, he combined two sleeping bags into one.

5:27Cause it was so freezing cold. I didn't sleep the whole night. I wake up at eight o 'clock in the morning. I'm walking into my so-called little kids training and it's all monsters with like hairy chests and beards. And like, I'm like, I'm not playing with these guys. My dad, he's like, something's wrong here. Let me go talk to the manager. I play for three days against these monsters. The general manager was afraid that I was going to get killed. And he's like, I think you should just turn around and go home. And I'm like, I just slept in my truck for the night. Like, let me try at least. and I'll be darned if I didn't have three goals and a couple of assists over those four or five games that I played and I was 12 years old and I'm playing against 20 year old guys.

6:09It was crazy. When I left home at 16, I was so homesick that I remember calling home to my mom and just saying, I don't think I could do this. I miss you guys. I miss my bed. I miss my good food. My billet family doesn't know how to take care of me. I'm by myself. I don't have any money. My paper route money had run out. My parents didn't really have a ton of money. I was buying$2.25 poutine, french fries, and gravy and cheese. That's what a poutine is for those of you who don't know in Canada. That was my lunch every day. I had this crappy little car. I'm telling you, when I look back at those moments though, they were what forged me.

6:52right i remember i was 17 i made the portland winterhawks while i was on the bubble of making the portland winterhawks i share all these stories in the book and um uh we do this skate and we have a game that night i was a healthy scratch the first night i don't know if i'm going to play the second night um and uh the general manager uh the coaches all leave the ice and they keep five guys behind so we've had an hour practice it's been a hard practice the whole team leaves and like five guys stay behind and i just remember like the assistant coach taking over the arena's empty nobody's watching and we start this like bag skate and in hockey we call it a bag skate in in basketball be like line rushes you know where you're going end to end line to line for like like i think it was like 45 more minutes guys are pulling over on the side of the bench they're puking i remember this turning point and i'm sitting in the corner and the guy's like hey hey, Scatch, slow down.

7:52We're going to be out here for a while. We got to make sure we don't kill each other. Of course, I wanted to fit in with my teammates and slow it down because it would be less painful and stuff. This voice in me said, you got to put the hammer down now. You have trained too hard to lose this dream. You got to put the hammer down. I'm like, and something in me snapped and I just took it up like three more levels and I just started out skating these guys out lapping these guys like just killing myself my legs are on fire you know when you breathe so hard like you can taste blood in your mouth like lungs are like bleeding and you know I vomited a couple times I come back to the line right away I just go again and again and again and it seems like it's never gonna end and it was the hardest skate I've ever done in my life at the end the assistant coach goes good job guys you guys you guys had a great skate all the other guys are kind of like upset with me because like i kind of made them look bad because because i i i didn't slow down uh i didn't i didn't become normal i didn't fit in i wasn't average i had some drive in me that i can't explain and um uh i'm laying on the ice sweat is just pouring off of me steam because i'm laying on the ice steam is just coming off of my body and we're just resting on the ice we're just exhausted and the assistant coach comes down and kneels beside me and he goes hey great job big boy he goes we had one spot left and you're playing tonight and i'm like i gotta play i gotta play now i go willie i go i did everything i can't i don't have anything left in me he's like oh you can you can do it you're not gonna get a ton of ice time anyway so so like just go home get some rest grab some lunch and then come back tonight be ready to play and what I didn't know John is the general manager and the coaches and all the scouts they went up into the press box into the rafters and this was a test and we were all on the bubble we weren't even sure if we were going to make that team and I just pushed because it's the right thing to do you know I just pushed because I wanted to get better and that was a test and And they were all watching and they were all grading and they wanted to see who was going to quit and who was going to keep going.

10:11And the next day, three of those out of the five got sent home back to Canada. They didn't get to play that team. They never made that team ever. I made the team and the other guy made the team. I ended up playing every single game the rest of the year. I became one of the coach's favorite players. The next year I was captain of that team that I barely made the year before. and if I would have just took my foot off the gas and taken the easy road, I don't know if any of this would happen my whole crazy life. Well, Dave, you did tell me to cut in because there are some things I really want to get to here today because your story is obviously crazy and it got you to where you are here today.

10:50As I mentioned in the intro with everything you've accomplished, one thing I want to make sure we do focus on because you've, again, had so much throughout your life here is the healing process. I mean, you literally have had five concussions. You've had a near-death experience. You've had so many other struggles, many of which you talk about, of course, in your book, The Comeback. But let's really talk about this. Like, how did, once you've gone through everything that you've gone through, I want to skip ahead till this part now, and then we can backtrack a little bit later. How did you finally begin to heal?

11:24Because that's one thing I hear from a lot of my listeners. They've had traumatic experiences. I mean, I was in the army. I dealt with PTSD after my 13 months in Iraq. I mean, we all have our own traumatic experiences. We can learn so much from others who have done this. How did you begin to heal after those five concussions, after your near-death experience and the other struggles you dealt with? So I was 36 years old. I'm unable to play anymore. Actually, I was 34, 35 years old. The doctors told me I'd never play. I had bleeding my brain. I slurred my speech. I took Alzheimer's medicine because I didn't have any memory.

11:55I was like a mess. and I'm screaming at God saying like, why are you punishing me? I know you're real. I visited you at a near death experience. Um, why are you doing this to me? I need a, I need a miracle. And I've gone to, uh, a leadership Academy. Uh, I hired a life coach cause I had five properties in three countries and all luxury properties. And I was worried I was going to screw something up. Cause like I went from a photographic memory to having no memory at all. And I, I was writing duplicate checks for like$80 ,000 to contractors and crazy stuff. Right. I'm like, I'm going to screw something up.

12:29So I hire a life coach, life coach said, Dave, if you could do anything in this world, if when you get better, what would it be? And I said, I just want to help. I want to help kids and I want to help people out of like pain and suffering. I don't, I hate this feeling. I've never had it before. I've only had like a rocket ship ride up to the NHL. I had struggles and I had injury pain, but not like anxiety and depression and like suicidal thoughts and hopelessness and all this craziness, right? So I go to San Diego. I have these breakthroughs during Leadership Academy. Tony Robbins isn't even there just as trainers are doing it.

13:01And I have this one experience and I wish you could see on camera, all the listeners, but I visualized this purest version of myself. And it was this little boy and he was five years old and little David, and he was wearing a Superman cape. His dad was holding them up. He's running around the campground. He's got two Irish setters that are his best buddies. He's in the creek. He's playing in the woods. He's helping mom. He's helping dad. He's helping the neighbors. He's sleeping in the tent. He's just like the freest little kid, right? And I fast forward to where I am now. And it was like 34, 35 years old.

13:34And I was this broken, crumpled millionaire with my dream wife, my dream house, my dream kids, my dream cars, everything that I could possibly want. And I didn't want to be here because I felt like I was a burden to people. I felt like I was like I was like a waste of skin and it sounds terrible to say because I don't live in that space anymore but that's what it felt like because people had to take care of me doctors had to take care of me my wife had to take care of me like I was a mess so realizing that little David was nowhere present in Dave the gladiator the NHL or the fighter the this that and the other thing it terrified me and I started to uh to tell the story quickly I started to rip off all these layers of armor.

14:16JLD, you know this. When you go to war, when you have to turn yourself into something that you're not, you become a shadow of yourself almost. I had layers stacked over my heart where my dad gave me my first spanking and I couldn't believe my best buddy spanked me. My heart got broken. I got bullied. I was scared to leave home. I had to turn into this tough guy. I had to not show pain, not show fear, not show weakness. I just had to turn everything off and cover up little David because he was such a sensitive soul. I really believed that I was born with special gifts. And it was like so hypersensitive to me.

14:54I'm like, this little guy's not going to survive. I got to like protect him. So I thought I was doing the right thing by protecting him. And I could run through a wall right now and not feel anything, but I couldn't feel anything. And the moment that I had this epiphany that I had to remove this masks and these armors, I started physically using my body like ripping off these layers after layers after layers. The whole seminar is done. And I'm in the back room crying, snot bubbles coming out of my face, just having this crazy breakthrough. And I wasn't going to stop until I got to the bottom and I pulled little David back out of all this rubble and all this armor that I just ripped off.

15:31and he was this beautiful little light, the same light that I saw during my near-death experience. I held him up in front of me. I said, I'm so sorry, little buddy. I didn't mean to cover you up like that. I didn't mean to turn you off, but you couldn't have gone and done all those crazy things that we did. But now nobody's trying to take my job. Nobody's trying to fight me. Nobody's trying to bully me. Nobody's trying to abuse me. None of that stuff is happening anymore. So I held them up and I said, from now on, I promise that you're going to lead the way. You're the light. You're the way. And I honestly felt this rush of grace and healing pour over my entire body like a waterfall.

16:15And it was like stacked up on top of all that armor trying to get to me, trying to heal me, and it couldn't get through. And it just started pouring over me and washing me and cleansing me. And it was weird. Like I didn't grow up in the church or anything, but I felt like I was like being reborn brand new. And God like whispered, like everything's going to be okay. So I go to my bed that night and I'm brushing my teeth in the mirror and God starts talking to me through my own eyes. And it was the craziest thing. And he said, it was like sad. And it was like, I'm so sorry that I had to make you suffer that darkly and that deeply.

16:49But the people that you are going to help are going to be coming from places like that. And you need to know that intimately because you're going to help them out and you're going to help them back into the light. And dude, I swear to you, my life has been transformed ever since. I'm very, as you can tell with the tears in my eyes, I'm very emotional. I'm very sensitive. I'm very vulnerable. But instead of a weakness, it's turned into this like superpower. And there's things that I do with my coaching business and when I'm interacting with people that I don't even, it's not even me. Like I'm just somehow in the middle of it and I'm like relaying information and I'm like able to feel and sense where people are at with the super sensitive sensitivity and empathy and compassion and love that I would never have had if I didn't have all that trauma.

17:37my, if I didn't have all that darkness, like three years of hell I went through. And anyways, I wouldn't trade any of it. I look at it like it was like a training ground for who I become as a man and what I'm doing now. I've got a second life to live and I'm just grateful that I'm like stepping up and I'm serving like big time and having impact and changing lives and like doing it from authenticity and alignment as opposed to this fake Dave or this gladiator Dave. You know, JLD, Tony told me when I was a platinum partner for a couple years, he said, Dave, a wizard can do more in his pinky than a gladiator can do in his lifetime.

18:17And I was like, what? So then I started going and training with wizards. I'm like, well, who's Tony hiring? So guys like Donnie Epstein, Doug Barry Mergulin, and all these shaman and monks and everybody. So I'm like, all right, I'll go learn from all these people. So that's what I did for a few years. And it's led me to here. And the way that I look at my life and the injuries and all the craziness and all the struggles, it was just building this strong, compassionate, loving, educated, powerful leader. And that's who you are now. and you've been doing this for quite some time. And as I mentioned during the introduction, I mean, you're regarded as one of the top peak performance, life and business coaches in the industry because he's learned from the best.

19:05He's surrounded himself with the best fire nation. And we're gonna start getting some strategies and some principles from Dave when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Picture this, you're at a party and someone asks you what you do as a marketer. How do you even begin to describe it? Not only do you brainstorm new campaigns, create compelling copy, dream up landing pages that will actually convert and generate leads, you also have to gather all the data to make sure it's even working. And tomorrow, you'll do it all again. Marketers are spread way too thin, but HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breeze, HubSpot's collection of AI tools and features like Content Remix, you can turn one piece of content into a whole suite of assets.

19:46This helps you reach more potential leads and save time on creating new content. You can also pinpoint the best prospects with predictive lead scoring and level up your campaign's KPIs with a new analytics suite so your day-to-day becomes less busy work and more driving revenue through the roof. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing what you do at parties. Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. Fire Nation, you have a book inside you right now. But it's not always about our desire to write a book. Sometimes it's about knowing which steps to take and when to take them to make it happen.

20:23If you know you have a book inside of you but aren't sure where to start, then I have an exciting opportunity for you. It's called Author 100. Author 100 is a program I personally crafted to help you one-on-one every step of the way, from drafting to writing to publishing and even marketing your book. When you join the Author 100 program, you'll have access to me, JLD, for 100 days. We'll have weekly one-on-one calls, plus you'll get daily guidance from me whenever you have questions or hit a roadblock. Over the past 12 years, I've self-published five books, including one of the top five publishing campaigns of all time on Kickstarter, the Freedom Journal.

21:03I've also traditionally published with HarperCollins, so I know a lot about the book publishing world and where most authors go wrong. I created Author 100 to share my experience and the lessons I've learned along the way, and I can't wait to share it with you. If you're interested in learning more, head over to author100.com and sign up for a free call with me. That's author100.com. So Dave, we're back and I want to move into principles that you have found that create the most transformation in both people's lives and businesses. I mean, you've worked with a lot lot of people. You've created a lot of transformations.

21:41You've seen it in others. Break down those principles. Everyone says you should niche down. And like, I've tried and I've tried and I've tried. And my niche, I think I have a psychographic and not really demographic, meaning that there's something that people are really relating to me with, with my story, that they're trusting me with their life and their business. And I have people from all walks of life. Lots. I wanted to start off helping athletes. I had a bunch of athletes and celebrities and people you see on TV for a while. And then I opened it up with my challenges. And we served over 17 ,000 people in our challenges last year.

22:17And now we've got all these different walks of life people. And what's so beautiful is I've got to see behind so many different businesses, so many different personalities, that there's so many patterns that happen. And when somebody's in a state, a low energy state or a state of overwhelm, they can't see the way out. it's almost like it doesn't exist because their energy is too diffuse, right? It's like spread into too many areas, trying to do too many things by themselves, right? So getting back to principles, like clarity on your vision. If you don't know, if you're playing a golf course and you bring your clubs to the course and you're excited to play and you go, okay, well, I don't even know where the first tee box is.

23:00Like where do I tee off? Am I playing a par five? Am I playing a par three? am i playing a par four am i hitting driver here am i hitting a pitching wedge right like you can't play the game if you don't know what course you're playing or what hole you're playing so clarity on your vision is is probably number one number two is the mindset like if you can't shift the mindset or bring more energy to it um you're just going to kind of default back into that old certainty or those old patterns so we need to do something really big with the energy and shift the whole, I call it the operating system.

23:35You're shifting that old way of thinking and being and doing and focusing. And, you know, it's like the triad and we're building a new one based up off of your champion moments. Like my, my challenge is called the reawake and the champion within. And how we came up with that was I would reboot people. And I don't want to say that in a weird way, but it's like, I would, I would give them an emotional flood where they relive the greatest moments of their life. And I'm documenting it as they're sharing it with me. And I'm looking at where they are now, like when they came into my office a few minutes ago, and it's like, they're a different person.

24:10And I said, what do you think your life and your business and your relationship would look like if you brought that champion moment in to that, that kind of energy, that kind of magic, that kind of insight, optimism, positivity, strength, physiology, focus, because there's magic in that. And I think those special moments where we get into the zone, I actually don't think that they're supposed to be special. I think the way that we were born as children was actually free like that. And then the programming of how to be a good boy, how to be a good girl, what the rules of the game are, have brainwashed most people into thinking that average is okay, or that they just want to kind of blend in and fit in.

24:53And it's like that uncertainty or fear of failure stops like 90 % of people from even trying to start the game. So, you know, clarity, vision, mindset. And then as far as like execution goes, like you want to gain confidence, you got to do stuff. I didn't, I didn't know how to make the NHL, but I shot a hundred pucks in my backyard every single day, rain, snow, shine, doesn't matter what it was going on. I made it a mission because I thought that if I did that every single day, it would dramatically increase my chances of making the NHL. What can you do in your life or your business every single day that you know has to give you an edge?

25:34It has to help you have a better chance to win. So what are those things? What are those actions? What are those habits? What are those routines? What are the things that you got to stop doing? Like, let's get clear. Let's be honest. Let's deal with reality and not this like fake world of Instagram and Facebook where everyone tries to act like everything's perfect all the time. Let's look at what's real. Let's not have any judgment towards it. And let's just work on what we think we need to do and who we can model. That's already kicking butt. What are they doing? How are they making it work? Let's go get around them.

26:08Let's be them. Let's hire a coach. Let's hire a mentor. Let's find somebody that knows is a few steps ahead of you because they can show you the way. And it's so much faster. JLD, you know it. When you're investing in a coach, you're actually buying time. You're speeding the process. When you're investing in a mentor or when you're spending time with a mentor, you're fast-tracking yourself into the slipstream and flow and glide instead of grinding it out. I think too many times people don't give themselves enough vision to even try to start or the first bump in the road, they're just like, oh, I guess this is a sign.

26:45I'm not meant to do this. I'm just going to go back to certainty and average. And, you know, that's just the way it's going to be. So I hope that helps shine a little bit of light on performance and execution. And, and, and the thing is, this is a huge thing that I've been teaching lately. And that's, if you want to be a coach, if you want to write a book, if you want to relaunch your podcast, if you want to do something in life and business, you got to understand that, you know, Your fear of being judged, of having people judge you and say that you're not qualified or that you're not good enough or you're not smart enough or you're not good looking enough or whatever.