The Last Passenger Off Flight 1549: The Full Miracle on the Hudson Story w/ Dave Sanderson

[00:00:06] Dave Sanderson, ReLaunch, and U.S. Airways Flight 1549 Dave Sanderson is a leadership expert and the last passenger off of U.S. Airways Flight 1549. Dave Sanderson chose to turn survival into service and crisis into a calling. Dave now helps leaders and teams navigate crisis, uncertainty and high stakes change. Dave Sanderson, ReLaunch, The Wing was filled up, the boat was filled up, there was no room for me. That's why I was inside the plane waist deep in 36 degree water for seven minutes.

[00:00:36] What did you do to not freeze to death? Dave Sanderson, ReLaunch, I went into a different mode called focus. My focus was, what's my best next step? In business, they try to get you to plan three or four or five steps down the line and all of a sudden life changes very quickly. All I got to do is figure out my best next step. You and I talked about my I'm done moment and there was one of those for you too. Dave Sanderson, ReLaunch, Next day I went by the office and the first thing my manager said is, you're going to Michigan next week, right? Now is the moment. We all want what I call the four freedoms. We're going to be time, money, mission and relationships.

[00:01:04] So how do you coach people to buy back time, money, mission, relationships? This is one of the things I teach. What you need to do is find a... Dave, I have been looking forward to this for over a year. Thank you for being on the ReLaunch to a Rich Life podcast. Hillary, thank you for having me. Same here. When we met, I knew there was a connection and I'm just excited to be able to have this discussion with you

[00:01:33] and hopefully open up some avenues for people to relaunch what they're trying to accomplish in their lives. Hmm. So I got to go to the point where when I first heard your story and I heard you on stage and I thought... First off, you said you worked at Oracle for a gazillion years and I'm like, wait, I worked at Oracle. And then you shared the moment that literally changed everything.

[00:01:57] The relaunch of relaunches. The thing that scares people the most about flying. Can you take us through what happened and how that really impacted the man that you have become? Well, thank you very much. And I'm honored to be able to share and humble this. Yeah, as you know, many people know that I was not supposed to be on that plane that day on January 15th, 2009.

[00:02:26] I wasn't scheduled in that flight. We like you and we were working in our businesses at Oracle. We were doing a discovery session in Brooklyn, New York. Got done early because we started our day about five o'clock in the morning because we were working in a distribution center. And they're a 24 hour operation. So we want to get in so we can sort of see the different shifts coming in and out and how it works. So we got done about 10 o'clock, which gave me the opportunity to go home early, which is very rare in the as you travel and especially in technology sales.

[00:02:53] You I always get it's very rare. Nobody ever let you leave early. Just one more thing, Dave. Can we talk about? Yeah. But by the way, by the way. Yeah. And it's like, you know, I always schedule the last flight out. So, you know, I was scheduled on the five o'clock flight. So I got I got to get home early. This is great. And I was going to surprise my family and hope to be there for dinner. And then, you know, so I get to the airport. Nothing unusual. You know, I get aboard the plane. I was one of the first set of passengers because of my status.

[00:03:21] I flew a lot. No big deal. Satin seat 15 a did pay attention like I never did. And, you know, first minute in the flight. Hey, this is another fight until it wasn't. And when you hear that big explosion on a plane, you don't know what it is. And, Canley, you're you're looking straight into Manhattan why this is going on. So thoughts are going through your head. But, Canley, when I looked out the window and I saw, you know, fire coming out underneath the left wing, I'm like, OK, he lost an engine.

[00:03:50] We're not getting we're not I'm not getting home early today. That was the first time we're not getting home early. Go back to the airport, get out of the plane and we'll figure it out at that point. But as we know now, you know, it was a double bird strike at this exact same second. So I tell people, I think one of the saving graces of that day was that everybody heard just one explosion. And I think that saved the day up front because I think if people heard boom, boom, they're thinking, wow, multiple explosions on a plane. What's going on?

[00:04:19] And instead, it's like I think most people say, OK, you know, we lost an engine. We at least can fly on one engine. So I think that was a saving grace that no one panicked because people could start losing their heads. When people start to lose their heads, they start making irrational decisions. And that's that did not happen on this plane. But as we started banking, I thought we were banking going back to back to the airport. The sky, you know, the skyscrapers in Manhattan were actually above where we were. And that's the first time I sort of realized I've never flown below the skyline of Manhattan.

[00:04:49] Right. It's like, OK, something doesn't look right. And then as they start banking around and I heard his work, famous words, this is your captain brace for impact. That's the moment I think not only me, but I think everybody else do at that point. This is serious. Hey, Dave, how long how long was this entire like from the moment you heard the first bang to all right brace for impact? 208 seconds. 208 seconds. Longest longest 208 seconds of your life. Yep.

[00:05:19] It's you know, I feel it feels that well, it's not that long. It's like, but it goes so slow when you're in the middle of that, you get slow. It's time really does slow down. So I want to I want to ask you because I think you and I have flown millions and millions of miles and you don't really ever think about, you know, we hear about planes going down and crashes.

[00:05:43] But for us, when you're traveling all the time, it's like it's like taking a taxi in New York. You just it's just automatic. Had you ever had anything happen to you? Like just any type of plane malfunction or anything before? Because I as I heard your story, I was like, I've never had it. I've never had any of that. Sure. We've had turbulence and things like that. Yeah.

[00:06:08] I think the only time I ever had anything before is we were actually coming into Charleston, South Carolina, and all of a sudden he went down and went straight back up because there was another plane on the runway, which made your stomach go up and down. Right. Right. But other than that, I've had never had anything. That was the only thing. And I think that much of that because, you know, he was maybe maybe 2000 feet at that point. He went straight back up. Yeah, no, this is the only time I've ever had anything like this ever happened on a plane. So you're 15 a and then he's telling you to brace.

[00:06:39] What goes through your head at that moment? Well, first thing I didn't know how to brace because I didn't pay attention. Nobody ever has. Right. Wait, what are they telling us every single time we get on a plane? Yep. Read the brochure, read the brochure, right? Read the card, right? I read cards every time now, but back then I didn't read the car. So I was like, how do you brace? But then, but so I, second thing I did, I really prayed. It's like, you know what? I better get straight really quick because if we're going down, I'll always be in alignment with the other people.

[00:07:08] I'm going down with the big guy upstairs. Right. So I, I prayed and I think that, that calmed me, you know, at least because I knew at that point, at least, you know what? If I don't come back, I've got connection with my creator, you know, and hopefully my family will be taken care of because I financially have taken care of them at that point. You know, I knew that financially they'd be okay. But you know, that's, that's when I prayed. That's what I did. And I put my head down and it got so quiet. And that's what I think people don't really realize, you know, that plane, it was so quiet.

[00:07:37] And I got to hear a pin drop. And the only thing. See, so people weren't freaking out. No one freaked out. No one freaked out. Not like you see in the movies where they're screaming and yelling. Right. So quiet. Because one of the things that I learned after this plane incident, I was in Orlando and talked to a captain. He was talking to me about this and all this. He said, he gave me a reference Hillary that opened my mind to something that I had never thought about, but it's a great lesson.

[00:08:04] He said, even if I could do what Sullenberger did here, down here, the same thing happens. We go up out of Orlando. We hit birds. I've got to put this thing in that lake. People die. Now I'm like going, I don't understand. What's the difference? He goes, listen, look around you. What's the passenger makeup of the plane you're getting on right now? And you're in Orlando. So what's the passenger makeup of planes of Orlando? They're all going to Disney, Disney world. Like me, right? I'm in first class. I'm a business guy. Right.

[00:08:34] He said the difference, the whole difference came down to this. The passenger makeup of your plane was probably about 90% business people. So the variables were about 10%. So most of the business people on this, I said, most of the business people probably putting together the game plans like I was. Like, what the heck am I going to do? Right. So that, that was, that was, I think, the saving grace is the passenger makeup of that plane. So you look at business, right? You can, it goes back to business. You can tell how a team's going to respond and how that, how your team's makeup is.

[00:09:03] The culture is of that makeup, right? That plane had business people on it, which basically took control of their own destinies, which I think had a lot to do with the outcome. Okay. So keep, keep taking us through this. You now are descending. Was it a fast descent? Was it slow? Like, take us and put us into the plane. Yeah, it was, he, he was at 2,980 feet to be exact. We say 3000 feet to round it out.

[00:09:32] And so it was, you know, roughly about a minute to two minutes until we were in the water. So those, that was a very fast two minutes, right? So the 208 seconds is from time birds hit downtime. We're in the water. That's how fast it was. So when you hit, when you hit the water, what was that like? So it was a hard hit. He estimates he hit between 110, 120 miles an hour. And the plane did not break apart or what happened? Well, the back end did come off.

[00:10:01] And if you, I have the plane here in Charlotte, you know, I get to the museum where I do events. And I can show people how this whole thing broke out. Wait, you have, okay, hold on. You have the actual plane. You went and were able to move that to South Carolina as a museum. Yeah, they, the, the Sullenberger Aviation Museum got the plane is now featuring the plane in the museum. So I here locally, I have access to be able to show people exactly what happened, where it happened, where I was. So people can visualize this thing.

[00:10:31] And this is, so when you go walk, when I walk people around, I said, they said, well, it didn't break up. I said, well, look at the back. It did break up in the back. That's how the water. Dave, that must've been an excruciating noise. I mean, are you present while this is, I mean, like what's going on in your head? Well, fortunately for me, as you may know, and some people want to, I know I was head of security for Tony Robbins for over 10 years.

[00:10:56] So being around a master of how to manage your mind, you know, I learned a lot of the, that's just strategies and techniques. So I was, I tell people there's three ways to manage, right. As you don't know your physiology, the questions you ask yourself and what you focus on. And the way I was managing my mind was the questions I was asking myself. It's like, you know, how am I going to get out of here? What's my game plan? So I was basically putting myself in a situation. If I survive, I got to have a game plan.

[00:11:24] If I survive, that was, wait, wait, wait. That was going through your mind. If I survive, if I survive, if I survive, because at first you don't think you're gonna survive. I mean, you're going, you head straight into the water, right. And with a big, and you're going a hundred plus miles an hour. Like you said, I don't know how fast it was. And you don't know who's up front. You don't know if they've got any skill sets. You pray they do. Right. But you don't know.

[00:11:47] So, because one thing I try to impress on people is the skill set that he had, the gliding skill set, one degree, just one degree off. He's toppling into Newark, toppling into Manhattan during rush hour, or one degree nosedive down to the bottom of the Hudson. So he had to hit it perfectly. And he did for all of our sakes. Can I ask you something? Is Sully still flying? No, he retired. He retired.

[00:12:15] Did he retire right after this incident or did he get back in the air? Technically he had one more flight after this. Oh my God. Okay. And it was already to Charlotte. Oh, okay. So I have to, you're, you're, you literally brace for impact. You hit and then everything just. It's part two. So the captain gets all the credit for getting it down. Right. He gets a hundred percent of the credit.

[00:12:42] Now you have to play, work as a team with people you don't know or even care about. And this is why I talk about teamwork. It's amazing how 155 people could come together who don't know each other, care about each other in a matter of minutes and do something. This is, this is, this is a model for teamwork. Because, you know, at that point in time, when we hit, it was so quiet, right? It was like, okay, are we alive? And then all of a sudden you feel water coming in, right? Water was about knee deep from where I was at.

[00:13:10] I'm like, I'm going to get out of here. I'm going to get out of here. And so my game plan, Hillary was, you know, aisle up out. I kept telling my head all the way down, aisle up out, aisle up out, because I wanted in my body to know. I didn't want to have to think about it. I want to just react. And that's what I did. But then I looked up and what caught my eye, which is amazing. It taught me a great lesson. Can't Lee. I saw people climbing over seats to get out. And I saw people climbing over seats to get out.

[00:13:37] Now, my thought process was I got to get to the aisle. But all of a sudden, when you get resourceful and open your eyes up, there are a lot of different ways you can get things done. And getting climbing over seats, I never would have thought about until I saw it. But I got to the aisle, Hillary. It's like, okay, time for me to get up, get to the exit and get out. But that's the moment it changed. That's the moment it changed me. Because when I got to the aisle, all of a sudden, I started hearing my mom in the back of my head.

[00:14:05] My mom passed away in 1997, but there was something she would tell me when I was a child. I just heard her tell me in my head at that moment. And it was, if you do the right thing, God will take care of you. And I tell people, my mother, one of the greatest gifts my mother gave me is she always made her kids, myself, my sister, my brother, make decisions early in life. She didn't say do the right thing. She said if you do the right thing. Right. You got to make a choice, right? And what, Dave, was the decision that you made in that instant?

[00:14:34] Instead of going up and out, I climbed over the seats towards the back of the plane. Which was flooding. Which was flooding at that point. Chest level deep. The back of the plane was already submerged underwater. But I did that because I knew that I was alive, but I didn't know what was going on in the back. And I'm like, you know what? I can handle myself. Right? So I climbed over the seats. I didn't get, I didn't know that until I watched the guys climb over the seats going towards the front. And I got to the back and behind the last person. When they were getting out, they were going fast because you're underwater, man. You got to go. Right?

[00:15:03] There's no time to waste. And plus, if you saw the plane landed, it landed backside first. So the impact was really felt in the back of the plane where they were. So the bins had broken open. Luggage is flying out. It's floating in the water. And you got to remember what time of day this is. This is 337 approximately in the middle of winter in New York. So it's getting dark. Right? So you have all these things coming into play. So I could only feel my way out.

[00:15:32] Until I saw a light on the right side of the plane. And I got to, I saw a light and it was a 10 F. I'm like, I'm out of here. It's time to go. Goodbye. But I looked out and I saw something. It was an amazing sight. People were already being rescued. The wing was filled up. The boat was filled up. There was no room for me. But people were already being rescued. That's why I was inside the plane waist deep in 36 degree water for seven minutes. I was going to say 36 degrees freezing. I mean, you're like.

[00:16:03] And at this point. No one knows how I survived it. They didn't explain how I survived it. I was going to say at this point, you've been in the water how long? Seven minutes plus. Seven minutes plus. Holding on to the lifeboat because it was floating out into the river. So you finally, wait a second. You finally got everybody out. You were what? What? When did you finally? Was there anyone else left in this plane? Captain was the captain was. So you were the right. Last passenger. Last passenger.

[00:16:32] Yes, I was the last passenger. He was the last person. So, yeah, he was walking up and down. I never saw him, but I'm sure he was walking up and down the plane because that's what captains do. Right. I but, you know, I was holding on the lifeboat because, you know, I don't know if anybody here knows anything about the Hudson River. It's got a very fast current. That plane actually floated down the river about a half a mile in 24 minutes. So that plane was floating down the river.

[00:16:59] That little lifeboat was floating out into the river and they like I and probably you, Hillary, we don't read the we don't read the card. Right. Who reads the card? It's actually tethered to the plane, but no one knew that. So they kept yelling to me. Hold on. Hold on. So that's why there's a picture of me on Good Morning America. This is how I found out I was the last passenger out. I was in Good Morning America. They flashed this picture up on the screen of me holding on the lifeboat, waist deep in 36 degree water looking out. And that's when I found out I was the last passenger out of the plane.

[00:17:28] And Dave, how long were you in the water for? Seven minutes inside the plane. And then I had to swim because I felt the plane was going down. So another 30, 40, 50 seconds after that to get to the get to the boat. And then I had to bob in the water for a minute or so until I could figure out how to climb up the ladder. So, yeah. But fortunately, some couple of guys grabbed my arms and helped me get up. So they they get all the credit getting me up because I was like, I know way I go climb this ladder. Right. But it's amazing where people are.

[00:17:56] What what was going through your your mind? You said you were 10 years with Tony Robbins. Right. You got that like you you you learn through osmosis. You've been hearing what he talks about. What did you do to not literally freeze to death? Well, great thing is I went into a different mode called focus. Right. I focused on the mission and the mind's a powerful thing.

[00:18:25] And if you've seen the movie Sully, which some some people have, the mission of the day was actually stated in the movie. It was never stated that day because we were moving too fast. But the mission that day was no one dies today. So I think at that point in time I was going on adrenaline and my focus was was my best next step. And that's what you realize.

[00:18:47] And this is a great lesson for me, which I used after this is a lot of times when I was at Oracle and other companies, they try to get you to plan three or four or five steps down the line. Right. And all of a sudden life changes very quickly with your client. You're like, OK, that plan doesn't work. Well, I learned this incident is like all I got to do is figure out my best next step for the next one. And then the next one. Right. So one of the things I always fought at with my management was let me get to the next step. Right.

[00:19:13] And then I'll figure out because everything changes, especially right now, as you know, Hillary. Hey, every 15 minutes, the world changes. Sure. It's relaunches are happening globally, personally, professionally. Every moment of day. But Dave, you ended up being I think you said one out of two people that ended up going to the hospital. Correct. Is that correct? Very Leonard was the other one. He fractured his sternum on impact.

[00:19:38] Oh, and were you when you did you remain completely alert as you're going there? Did you ever pass out from the hypothermia? Like what happened? Because I want to know when you woke up, you had something profound happen to you about life in general, about work, about everything. Right. I was sort of in and out of it a little bit. Right. Until the paramedic or the EMT, whatever you want to call them.

[00:20:08] When she looked at me and says, I got she said, I got to take your blood pressure because, you know, right now you could die of a heart attack or stroke. Your blood pressure is so high. And that's when I was like, what? I'm going to die of a heart attack or stroke. I just survived a plane crash. I just got out of the water and now I'm going to die of a heart attack. That's all of a sudden I woke up. I was so awake at that point. I was so acute of everything that was going on.

[00:20:35] And that's when I started feeling it for the first time, how cold my body was. That's when I really felt how cold my body was, because at that point I was just in and out. Right. But all of a sudden she said that, man, it woke me up. It's like, man, I can't die of a heart attack or stroke. I mean, I'm 48 years old. You know, how's this going? I can't do this. And that's that's what really woke me up, Hillary. I was in and out at that point in time. So you're you're in the hospital and, you know, it's interesting.

[00:21:03] You and I talked about my I'm done moment when I knew I had to leave Oracle. And there was one of those for you, too. Can you share when you knew? It just can't be can't be the same. Well, thank you. It's a really started about midnight that night. I had not spoken to my wife because I lost my phone. I lost everything. My Blackberry was the bottom of the Hudson. Right. I love my Blackberry, but I don't have one. And so finally, my liaison from the US Airways got there.

[00:21:32] Let me she let me use her phone. And I got to speak to my wife to find out what's going on in that world. Right. That's a whole different world going on. And I asked her, I said, anybody from Oracle give you a call? She was not. She goes, anybody call you? I said, no. And that was sort of the first thing is like they didn't even call my wife. And then the next day after I got back and I did all the things I had to do with the media, I went by the office, the Oracle office in these old sweats that they gave me. Right. And I lost everything. And I said, I just wanted to let you know that I'm okay.

[00:22:01] And the first thing my manager said is you're going to Michigan next week. Right. And that was the moment I knew I was like, I got to get out of here. I said, this is the moment Hillary. I talk about this now in my talks. He said, everybody, this is why you're doing what you're doing and I'm doing what I'm doing. We all want what I call the four freedoms from the time, money, mission and relationships. And at that, when he said that, what I realized probably another 24 hours later is that I didn't have freedom of time.

[00:22:29] They're asking me to go to Michigan after I went through a plane crash. They didn't care about me. I didn't have freedom of money. Because you know, an Oracle and the way Oracle does business. This is all. This one's on me. Every, every summer they have you sign the sales agreement. Right. And quota agreement. And if there's a little phrase at the bottom, it says, once you get a certain number, the corporate corporation has a right to withhold money. Right. And that year I was the number one guy in our industry. And I, you know, so they, they were controlling my money.

[00:22:59] I freedom of mission. I was working for Larry Ellis's mission. Not my mission. Right. And freedom of relationships. Hell, my boss didn't even respect me. So I had to get out, but here's the challenge. And this is why I appreciate what you're doing and why you're doing this. And what I'm trying to do now is that you call it, you call it relaunch. And because so many people in the world have worked for companies have the gold handcuffs. They got the benefits. They got the money. They got the prestige. They got all this going. How do I get out?

[00:23:29] How do I get out? My wife's like, you're stupid. You're making so much money. Right. So like, but then she had to realize I didn't have any freedom and I was miserable. So how do you get out? This is what your show is about. This is what I tried to teach when I work in my organization. It's when you, and it's when you realize you have that I'm done moment. That's right. What is the next step? And I'm really curious. How do you teach that now? Cause you've like lived through it. You've done it.

[00:23:59] And I think that there's validation for people when they can see through a coach, a mentor, advisor, somebody who's actually lived it. Right. So what do you, how do you coach people to buy back their time, money, mission relationships? Well, the first thing that I do, and this is what I, I did. And I didn't really realize what I did until I went back and said, well, how did I do this?

[00:24:29] Is I call it, everybody's got what I call a distinct advantage, what you're most gifted at and most passionate about. Now, and I always, that's where I always start, Hillary. I'll give you a live example. Last, last fall, I spoke in Roanoke, Virginia to a group of healthcare organizations in Virginia. And I started talking about this concept of, I was like, about having your distinct advantage. There's one lady raised her hand and said, listen, I am, I don't have any distinct advantage. You know, I'm not passionate about anything.

[00:24:58] I'm good at some things, but I'm not passionate. I said, okay. I said, I understand that. I agree with you. So let me ask you a question. What do you love most about time outside your business? I love to garden. I just want to see you light up, right? Are you good at, I'm really good at gardening. I know how to, I know how to do it. I said, are you, I love to do this. I said, I said, this is your distinct advantage. You may love to have to have the work at their healthcare organization, but just distinct advantages, bringing things to life. You love bringing things to life. This is why you work at the healthcare.

[00:25:27] And all of a sudden the whole room is like, this is brilliant. I'm like, it's not brilliant. It's just is what you're most gifted at and most passionate about. If I could find that one thing right about somebody. And then I asked the two more most important questions. What's most important to you and what has to happen for you to be able to realize that. Okay. I want to push you on this for a second, because I'm really curious how you perceive this.

[00:25:49] Um, you and I have a very similar philosophy on kind of make sure you do what you love because life is so fricking short, right? I haven't been in a plane crash, but been through a lot of relaunches. And there's always that moment where somebody pushes back on me when I'm like, you gotta, you gotta love what you do. And they say, but can I make money? But should I really be following my passion?

[00:26:17] How do I turn gardening into something that can sustain my monthly bills versus the good old corporate gotta be there. What do you say to somebody like that? Cause I know it's happening a ton right now in the world. I appreciate that. And a lot of, a lot of people, you know, have that challenge. But one of the things that I talked about, we actually talked about this before we got on and why we do what we do, the things we do, we do is I found out as proximity is power.

[00:26:46] You have to put yourself around the people in that world that you want to be with. So if I was talking to this lady right now, I said, you know what? If I was you, I would find out who is the, the king or queen of gardening or whatever that passion is. And I would study them. Cause one of the great things now, unlike back in the eighties, when I was coming out is, you know, you had to go back to the encyclopedia Britannica back then. We didn't have it. You and me both. It's like, now you go to the internet and find out anything you want.

[00:27:13] I said, I'll be doing so much research and find what I, this is one of the things that I teach. And one of the frameworks that I built called A to I. It's a takeoff on AI is it's called access. You're having, getting access to infinity or influence. And what I do is I tell people what you need to do is find a wormhole. You're going to wormhole. What's a wormhole? I said, a wormhole basically can open up avenues. You can't get to, well, how do you do that? Dave, right? How do you do that? I said, well, let me give you a couple of examples. I said, you ever heard of a guy by name.

[00:27:42] It's sure it most people have, right? He's a rock star, right? I said, but you know, it's your story. No. Well, it's Sheeran was a down and out guy bumming, bumming things in LA going door to door. He had nothing but his guitar. And so one night he played some bar. He was a dive and Jamie Foxx have to be there and liked one of the songs and asked Ed Sheeran to come over to his place the next day to play the song for him personally. And he did. And he said, I think you got something.

[00:28:11] Let me introduce you to a music producer. And that's okay. Well, I'm not Ed Sheeran. No, you're not. Right. How about a lady by the name of Oprah? You ever heard of Oprah? Yeah. I've heard of Oprah. I said, you remember this guy, remember when Oprah was overweight, right? And she was going up and down, right? One day she's lost a thousand pounds on Optifast. Next day she weighs another hundred pounds, right? It was going up and down. Right. Oprah was fit to be tied, right? She couldn't figure this thing out. So who does she call?

[00:28:40] She called this guy, I call it Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil read her the right act on her show. Right. And it's like, you know, Oprah, you know, get your act together here. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And all of a sudden she backed Dr. Phil. Who's Dr. Phil? He's some attorney, trial attorney down in Texas. Right. He basically judged, basically helped jury judge, you know, judge how you make juries. Right. That's what he was doing. And she opened that. So she became the wormhole for him. Well, Dave, that's all right. How about you? How'd you do it? I said, I had a wormhole too. Be very candid.

[00:29:11] My wormhole was the American Red Cross because I helped them raise money. But I said, you got to remember who's on the boards of American Red Cross executives of companies in the vicinity who books people like me executives who work for those kind of companies. So I said that became my wormhole. I asked why I've spoken 174 times for the Red Cross on my own dime because they open up wormholes. And once you find that wormhole and you know what you're most passionate about, they can open up doors.

[00:29:41] But you got to do the work. You got to do the work. You just can't sit around and say, okay, give me a wormhole. So good. Dave, I knew this was going to be a great conversation. I just can't thank you enough. And just as a little, you know, as we wrap this up, when life has thrown whatever season, right? It doesn't have to be a plane going down.

[00:30:06] It's whatever is happening for you individually out there listening. I want you to think that there's always, I love what you said, just the next step. We don't have to, you know, boil the ocean, just have a cup of tea, just like make it, make it small, make it right now. And I would say the invitation from this episode is really simple. Do not wait to be chosen.

[00:30:34] Do not wait to feel fully, as you said, ready or freedom has, you know, like just realize you have this moment where it could be your I'm done time. And so you don't have to feel fully ready, right? You can lead from where you are right now, knowing as we all know, life is short. We all know how it's going to end. You just don't know when, and that is where a relaunch begins. So Dave, wow.

[00:31:03] Thank you so much for sharing your story. I, every time I hear you, every time I listen to you, you're the way that you just pragmatically lay it out from a leadership perspective, your wisdom, and for anyone who wants to, at this point, connect with you, get more involved in the resilience partners group, where can people find you? Well, thank you very much. And I'm excited to announce for the first time my next book is done. It's called when it hits the water.

[00:31:32] It's about everything we just talked about, about how to do this step by step. So I'll be looking for that. But my, my website's resilience partners group.com. You can go, I would suggest go take the diagnostic and just do a self assessment of yourself of where you're at at this point. And for more information, please go to LinkedIn. Dave Sanderson speaks on LinkedIn. And you'll get more content that you probably ever want to have. So thank you very much, Lori. And can't wait to expose you to my new book. And by the way, I'm excited to have you in my magazine moments matter.

[00:32:01] It's going to be amazing, amazing addition. Moments matter. Moments matter. And that's the thing, everyone. They really do. And you always have a decision. We talked about those decisions in life. So how are you making decisions? And so if today's episode encourage you, please share it. Because I mean, this story is one that anybody right now in today's world would benefit from.

[00:32:29] Please subscribe so that we can continue to bring great content that's relevant for you. And wherever you're walking through your journey right now, uncertainty, you need the reminder, this is it. Because we already have leaders in the making right now. But let's make sure that we're molding them for the type of person that you ultimately want to become.

[00:32:59] Again, it's about relaunching now into that next best version of you. And I look forward to coming back with another episode next week. Take care, everyone. All right. Your next level is waiting. Thanks for tuning in. This is amazing what we're doing right now. Relaunch into a rich life.

[00:33:23] If today's episode sparks something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Please share it. I'll tell you more later about how that actually helps you have more success yourself. Subscribe so you don't miss one episode. Let's create unstoppable momentum together. So until next time, keep relaunching, keep rising. And remember, it's go time. Bye.