Join host Steven Pesavento as he dives deep into the intricacies of marriage, relationships, and financial challenges with guest Dino Watt. From bankruptcy to building a strong foundation, Dino shares his journey of turning struggles into opportunities. Discover the key insights on communication, attention, and investment strategies for both personal relationships and financial success.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
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About our Guest:
Dino Watt is a relationship expert, speaker, and entrepreneur who has navigated the complexities of marriage, financial challenges, and personal growth. With a background in entertainment and real estate, Dino's journey includes facing bankruptcy and rebuilding a successful life. As the founder of the Relationship Experts Academy, he helps individuals and businesses thrive by focusing on effective communication, emotional intelligence, and building strong foundations in relationships.
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00;00;00;15 - 00;00;08;28
Steven Pesavento
Welcome back to the Investor Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, Steven Pesavento, and today I have Dino Watt in the studio. How you doing today, Dino?
00;00;09;00 - 00;00;12;00
Dino Watt
I'm asking, is always. Steven Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
00;00;12;03 - 00;00;31;20
Steven Pesavento
Well, I'm excited to talk to you because you've got a really interesting story. You worked in entertainment for many years. You then got into some real estate. You went bankrupt, and then you found a path towards your passion where you're really helping people make a huge change. And one of those things happens to be around marriage and relationships.
00;00;31;26 - 00;00;47;05
Steven Pesavento
I know you're doing that for a lot of business owners. So before we get into all of that, what I'm curious about, Dino, is looking back on your life when you were a child, what influences from your childhood shaped who you are today?
00;00;47;07 - 00;01;09;16
Dino Watt
good question. And probably the most profound was my parents divorce. When I was eight years old, my mom and dad divorced. I had two older brothers, younger sister, and I tell this story from the stage sometimes about being standing on the sidewalk and watching my dad pack up his stuff and thinking in that moment like, I can help you with your life.
00;01;09;17 - 00;01;33;06
Dino Watt
I understand why Mom gets upset when you do acts or whatever. Of course, I'm eight. Right? Yeah. And that was a huge shift in my mind of really wanting to understand why relationships work or don't work. And it's probably started me most of my journey of emotional intelligence and helping me understand how to connect with people. I wasn't a very smart kid.
00;01;33;07 - 00;02;14;26
Dino Watt
At least I felt I wasn't. I was always in that red reading group where all that extra special kids went because I couldn't spell. I was terrible at reading, and I didn't know at the time that I had dyslexia. I didn't find out I was an adult, but it just made me really passionate about understanding people. And so I think that and then I think the other thing that shaped who I am today is I found I found other parental figures in my life that I really leaned on, especially men and a lot of men in my life that me and teachers, female teachers, female family, friends that I just really loved to connect with
00;02;14;26 - 00;02;20;29
Dino Watt
and and wanted to create relationships. So even more than marriage specifically, it was the relationship side of things.
00;02;21;01 - 00;02;37;07
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think it's so interesting. And the reason I always bring this question up for anyone who's new to the show is because I think when you understand where people come from, it ends up the things that happen when we're very young end up leading truly to who we become. And I know I can relate a lot to that.
00;02;37;07 - 00;03;08;20
Steven Pesavento
I grew up, you know, single mom of four kids. My mom left my dad when I was five, and we had a variety of different parental figures coming and going. And, you know, I learned some really amazing things from that. And I learned some really things that I absolutely do not want to bring into my own life. And it put me on this path of curiosity about finding people who are having successful relationships or having failing marriages and being able to ask them questions that most people don't even bother to bring up.
00;03;08;23 - 00;03;38;18
Steven Pesavento
And I've been able to learn so much, and I know you've been married for a very long time. You met your wife when you were five, and divine intervention led you two to come in together. If you look back on before you were married, let's say you're you know, you're a young man. What do you know today about marriage that you would tell a younger version of yourself that would either lead to a great marriage or would lead to you avoiding the pitfalls that often do come up in marriage?
00;03;38;21 - 00;04;12;02
Dino Watt
Yeah, if I look back to me as a teenager, I mean, I got married kind of young, so I have to go back to like high school years. But yeah, I'd probably say patience is not just a virtue, it's a necessity, especially in a relationship and patience and perspective, something that I've learned quite a bit of understanding that my perspective is not necessarily correct, and it's definitely not how they're seeing the situation.
00;04;12;04 - 00;04;32;26
Dino Watt
I do an exercise with all my teams and sometimes in some of my speeches where it's all about perspective and understanding that your perspective is so specifically yours. And I use my wife and I as an example that even though we have been married, we just celebrated that 29 years ago and like a ceremony just whereby we grew up in the same neighborhood, we had same faith.
00;04;32;28 - 00;04;54;25
Dino Watt
We she was there when my parents divorced. I was there when her dad died, like all that stuff. But the biggest challenges come in our relationship when we're seeing it only through our perspective and not willing to say, All right, so how are like obviously, obviously you love me and obviously I love you, so we're not deliberately going to take each other off.
00;04;54;25 - 00;05;15;22
Dino Watt
We're not deliberately going to be rude to each other. So there's got to be something else going on here. You are seeing this from a different position I'm in say like this happened this morning, oddly enough, as I have a new product that I'm creating and I had my graphic designer create this new basically an opening title card for it.
00;05;15;22 - 00;05;31;04
Dino Watt
And I saw it and I was like, Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. I'm so glad you did that. Then I take it to my wife who isn't so involved in my business. But you know, I always go to her to say, What's your opinion? And she was like, this is this is not what I thought at all.
00;05;31;06 - 00;05;49;03
Dino Watt
And I felt myself getting annoyed and frustrated being like, Well, no, you're just supposed to say, yes, this is perfectly fine and you did a great job and instead you're giving me your critique. But of course, she's looking at through her perspective of what she thinks I want this product to be or to say, and I'm doing it for mine.
00;05;49;03 - 00;06;01;29
Dino Watt
And so that causes that discontent. So I would tell myself, remember her? Your perspective is just totally 100% your perspective, and that's it. There's no value in it. It's just your perspective.
00;06;02;01 - 00;06;26;06
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, Yeah. Which is so challenging because it's so valuable to have a partner who's going to be honest with you, who's going to tell you what they think they're going to be open to a conversation where you're going to actually be able to pitch and catch back and forth. But sometimes that's going to feel like conflict. Yet in that moment, that little person inside of you or the big person is thinking, Hey, I just want you to say it's great.
00;06;26;08 - 00;06;52;03
Dino Watt
Yeah. Yep, that's all I want. I just want you to be like, Good job, Pat on the head, especially. Listen, I believe that men have two main motivators in men, and women have two main motivators in anything. And that first motivator for all men is what I call to be the superhero. To feel like the one person that you chose on this earth to spend your life with, that they look at you or that you're able to come to them and they go, Man, you did a green.
00;06;52;05 - 00;07;11;22
Dino Watt
And to have that. And maybe it does go back to like even being a kid and getting your parents approval right, especially your mom's approval or whatever. But it is that idea that can we can you just tell me I'm doing okay? Because if I if you can tell me that I'm doing a good job, I'll keep doing it and I'll do it even better.
00;07;11;22 - 00;07;35;05
Dino Watt
And I used to say that I had a friend whose dad was a coal miner, and I just thought, Man, this could be the worst job in the world. And all the jobs are coal. I mean, yeah, you go to sewer and all that, but coal miner, it's dark, it's dank, it's you never see the light. And I know that I married somebody that if I was a coal miner, that when I went out the door every day, she would say, Honey, you're the greatest coal miner in the world.
00;07;35;05 - 00;07;53;21
Dino Watt
Thank you for doing what you do. I appreciate all that you're doing. And when I came home and even if I had sit all over me and I got it on her clean floor, she would say thank you for doing what you do and providing for our family. You're the best coal miner. And I would act as if I was the best coal miner because she made me feel that way.
00;07;53;23 - 00;08;04;16
Dino Watt
So there's huge power in that, especially for guys. And I'm totally being stereotypical. But it was nice to for guys to feel that I'm the one person that you love the most in the world.
00;08;04;19 - 00;08;27;15
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well, and it's so valuable to select a partner that has that trait or that characteristic. I feel like a lot of times people get into relationships and they like some things about a person, but they're not necessarily looking for searching for those characteristics because the expectation that somebody is going to change who they are throughout the relationship, it's going to happen inevitably.
00;08;27;15 - 00;08;51;03
Steven Pesavento
It just may not happen exactly the way that you want. And so if you're talking to somebody pre-marriage, what do you recommend for them in finding this person? If you're in a marriage, what do you recommend to somebody who is already in that and they're facing up against that clash or those challenges where they're not taking on that perspective and they're not having that patience?
00;08;51;05 - 00;09;22;08
Dino Watt
Now, I'll say that I, I believe that I'm going to take this to conversate our communication, because that's where almost all breakdown is in communication. Right. And so if I talk to somebody who is pre-marriage, I would tell them that all communication success is determine and by the set up of that communication. And so if that marriage is just years and years and years of communication, which it is and communicating between two people, then how are you going to set up for success?
00;09;22;08 - 00;09;42;08
Dino Watt
And the number one thing is I would ask about those things you just talked about, right? Like like if I truly understand that about myself, which I don't think all guys do, I understand that until it's pointed out to them. But I would say, Hey, I want you to know that in order for me to achieve my best, I'm going to need you to be that person who is my true best cheerleader.
00;09;42;14 - 00;10;12;23
Dino Watt
I'm going to need you to be the person who is encouraging me, even when I might have made a mistake that you can tell me, Hey, I know you made a mistake or that wasn't cool, but I know you can do better, that I need that. So the setup for that communication is crucial. So asking questions I am shocked is still I have all these years of working in relationships, shocked and the amount of people who got married and didn't ask basic questions like How many kids do you want to have or do you want to have kids?
00;10;12;25 - 00;10;30;05
Dino Watt
Where do you want to live versus not want to live? For example, I would be perfectly happy living in a congested city like New York or San Francisco or L.A. My wife would never want to do that, but I knew that going into it, right? So that was a sacrifice. I was willing to go, okay, well, that's not that important to me.
00;10;30;05 - 00;10;53;17
Dino Watt
I mean, and be fine, but not important and cool to live out outside of a city. But for my wife, that's a non nonstarter. No way in which you live in a city. She would not be happy there. So those are simple, basic questions. And there's a lot of them that you should be asking more about. Even. What are your political leanings are pretty simple and basic to understand your religious faith and all that stuff, but get down to the nitty gritty of what do you want?
00;10;53;17 - 00;11;13;06
Dino Watt
Which is like when I am struggling, how are you going to support me? And then now if you're in that marriage and having access questions, well, there's no better time to start than now. Like literally sit down with them and ask, So this is what we've done so far. But I don't know if we have clarity on where we're going.
00;11;13;06 - 00;11;36;28
Dino Watt
So let's talk about that. Let's talk about your wants and your needs. I, my wife and I have a question we ask ourselves, which I think is incredibly powerful, which is how am I doing as a spouse? How am I doing as a father? And in her case, it's as a mother. Right. And and the thing about that question is, this is for us, it's a trigger.
00;11;37;00 - 00;11;58;15
Dino Watt
If I'm asking Shannon that question, if she's not in the space to actually be able to have that conversation with me, she has every right to say, you know what, I appreciate you asking me that, but I'm not. Maybe she's upset with me, maybe she's cranky that day, maybe whatever. Maybe the kids have upset her. So she gets to say, I'm not prepared to answer that question right now, but let's set up a time to do so.
00;11;58;17 - 00;12;15;11
Dino Watt
But if she is in that space, it's a trigger for her to know that. I am asking genuinely, this is not an opportunity for to go. Well, let me tell you how you are right and jump on me. It's for her to give me positive and effective feedback. I'll tell you, there is a time where this happened specifically.
00;12;15;11 - 00;12;43;24
Dino Watt
And she said, okay, let me tell you that lately I've been really good about focusing on this thing. However, you've also been really sarcastic with the kids and has picked up with them. They've they've been being more psycho sarcastic, but they're so their sarcasm, it hurts me. It's it's biting. And so I like you to be a little more attentive to how you're teaching them how to be funny versus biting sarcasm and all set.
00;12;43;24 - 00;12;57;24
Dino Watt
And I'm like, wow, I didn't even see that. And of course, now I see it everywhere with them since she said that. And it changed the way, but it gave me an ability to grow in the same way. So it's just asking that question. A lot of people don't want to ask that question because they fear the answer.
00;12;57;26 - 00;13;09;01
Dino Watt
Right? But if you set it up by this is the trigger, I'm asking you because I really want to know and grow, not because I want to be defensive. Say that's not true. I'm asking you because I really want to know. There's a long answer to your short question.
00;13;09;01 - 00;13;31;19
Steven Pesavento
But it's really powerful because I think underlining that what you're teaching is to build communication so that you can build awareness, how that other person's feeling, what their perspective is, what they're experiencing. So you can understand it and be aware of what's happening out in the environment so that you can show up as the best partner and person to support them.
00;13;31;24 - 00;13;51;28
Steven Pesavento
But you're also creating an environment where it's comfortable for you to be able to share that type of feedback with your partner so that you can address those conflicts before they grow into big monsters. You don't want to kill it when it's small, before it grows into some kind of big resentment that's been going on for years and gets brought up over and over again.
00;13;52;00 - 00;14;13;20
Steven Pesavento
You're fighting about something that actually isn't even the thing. And I think I want to remind the listeners is the reason we're talking about this is because the investor mindset is about investing in yourself. Yes, investing in yourself means investing in learning how to have better communication. It means investing in assets that are going to pay you. It means investing in education.
00;14;13;27 - 00;14;36;24
Steven Pesavento
That's going to allow you to get skills. You can grow your income and get more freedom. All of this stuff leads to the end result of having a more enjoyable, successful life because success to me isn't about the money. The money just is the tool that allows you to do it. But people who are happily married end up having a much higher income potential.
00;14;36;29 - 00;14;50;04
Steven Pesavento
It's shown statistically, let alone one of the biggest decisions you make in your life financially is who you marry and whether or not you end up leaving or they leave that marriage because divorce is extremely expensive.
00;14;50;06 - 00;15;14;00
Dino Watt
And you want a minimum 50% downtick in your stock of your life in a divorce. Right. It's like that's that's not if you're looking at it as an investor, I believe you should be looking at it at a completely different level because just like anything, I don't. I have a friend, Gary Gunderson, who talks about passive income and he talks about like what else in your life can you look at as passive?
00;15;14;00 - 00;15;40;20
Dino Watt
Can you really be passive in your income? Or are you going to be a steward over what you're investing in and where you're spending your money? But the same way, can you be passive in your marriage and think it's going to be successful? Can you be passive in your health and think you're going to be successful now? So as an investor, even more so, you should be looking at, okay, I'm cutting this amount of capital and an investment hoping to get this type of ROI.
00;15;40;21 - 00;16;02;04
Dino Watt
And I'm hopefully making a strategic decision, I think in your relationship, where are you taking your capital of your emotional capital, your relational capital, and putting it into your marriage and sometimes your physical capital? Where are you spending the most amount of your time basically on the areas that you want to grow and it just makes sense, right?
00;16;02;04 - 00;16;20;08
Dino Watt
If you're not going to do it, then don't expect it to grow. Don't be surprised on that day where ten years into your relationship, your spouse comes to you and is like, Hey, I'm done. Like you don't care to invest in this and you think it's going fine. It's that immediate downturn of your stock. I wasn't paying attention to it.
00;16;20;08 - 00;16;25;28
Dino Watt
It's been going down and all of a sudden it's bankrupt. So it's so important to do it in your life.
00;16;26;00 - 00;16;48;06
Steven Pesavento
When it's so much harder to fix a problem when you're bankrupt than it is when things are going well. And so as soon as you stop putting attention into your business or your investments, who knows what's going to happen, let alone in your marriage. And you got to think about the attention that you're getting. You're putting in that attention, those little bids for connection, those those opportunities for improved communication.
00;16;48;06 - 00;17;08;10
Steven Pesavento
And you're building up an asset and that asset allows you to then focus attention elsewhere. And when everything starts crumbling down and now you've got to rebuild your marriage the same as rebuilding your balance sheet or your business, you're going to have to focus a lot of attention. It's going to take a lot of energy, which is going to take you away from other things that are important to your life.
00;17;08;10 - 00;17;13;24
Steven Pesavento
So the best ROI is getting ahead of it and learning the things that Deano sharing with us here. To that.
00;17;13;26 - 00;17;34;15
Dino Watt
What do people do mostly, right? They don't really think about that, that people who do a bad job of that, they don't think about it until it's too late. My I have a friend, Sara, who teaches on culture, like I teach a lot about culture in my offices and I have the culture equation and things like that. And she says culture is like the black box of a business.
00;17;34;18 - 00;17;53;10
Dino Watt
Nobody really pays attention until it crashes, like on a plane. It's the first thing we go to look for is like, what happened? The black box will tell us When a business crumbles, we do the same thing. what was the culture like? What was the leadership like? We go to that because it's a black box and I would extend that to your relationship.
00;17;53;12 - 00;18;22;07
Dino Watt
You just said a very important word of attention. I think relationships require attention. It makes sense, right? Where we put our attention, that's going to give us the most growth when it when a relationship, a marriage crashes, What do we all do? Do they spend time together? We look at the we look for the black box of their attention, of how much they cared and spend time with each other and how much like focus they're putting on their actual relationship.
00;18;22;09 - 00;18;49;29
Steven Pesavento
And what's so cool about this, Deano, is that these same ideas apply in your business. They apply to the people that you bring on the way that you treat them. And that is an asset in itself because when you treat people really well and you motivate them and you build that muscle internally where they can self motivate themselves and build their skills, now you have an asset that loyalty that's going to carry forward in your business and in your life.
00;18;50;02 - 00;19;13;23
Dino Watt
And they'll equate their success to your business. It's one of the reasons why I do what I do and I talk to my I work a lot in the medical field and I talk to the doctors. I'm like this in it. If you can help your team members have better relationships, more happiness outside, they're going to equate that to the fact that they found those answers, that they got supported with that here in your business.
00;19;13;23 - 00;19;19;28
Dino Watt
And they're going to want to stay longer and work harder and be more productive. It just makes sense.
00;19;20;00 - 00;19;43;01
Steven Pesavento
It's it's really cool. I'm really loving this and I know that there's so much more we can get into. But before we wrap up today, what I'd really like to talk about is a really challenging time in your life. I know you were working in media. You were working on an acting career, doing various things in entertainment, and then you started investing in some different assets in real estate.
00;19;43;01 - 00;20;15;22
Steven Pesavento
You made some bad investments. The market changed and you were forced to go into bankruptcy. You were married and you had kids and you had responsibilities. And so talk to us about what that felt like to go through that. And then more importantly, let's talk about in relationship to the relationship that you had, your primary marriage that how how did that what was that experience like and what allowed you to be able to persist through that in keeping the most important thing, the most important?
00;20;15;24 - 00;20;32;18
Dino Watt
Well, it wasn't fun. That's a pretty easy way to say I was not. It was it was really stressful. And I and I'll say I got involved in investments that I wasn't a steward over. I wasn't paying too much attention. It was give me a huge return on investment. And that's what I was caring about because I was making the main thing.
00;20;32;19 - 00;20;54;15
Dino Watt
I'm going to make a lot of money for my family and making my family the excuse. And as I said, working and turning a blind eye to red flags. And so what happened with it? And and I'll say that wasn't the most trying time in my life at all. Right. Now, as I look back on it, I'm like, jeez, I would take that challenge over some of the ones that, you know, we deal with as as adults and having adult kids anytime.
00;20;54;18 - 00;21;24;21
Dino Watt
But I, I ended up really losing almost everything. We lost everything except for our house. We had cars repossessed and all that stuff. And I ended up taking a job to where I was literally knocking door to door selling alarms for homes in Yuma, Arizona, in the middle of a 120 degree heat. It was the worst ever, but it taught me and every day I was out there on the doors, I would tell myself, this is going to be a part of my story.
00;21;24;21 - 00;21;44;13
Dino Watt
It's not my story. I'm going to tell the story from the stage one day. I'm going to talk to people about this. And the thing that got me through it was definitely my relationship because we had a strong relationship ahead of time. We were going into it with our foundation that was strong, but there was a moment after I had a very successful.
00;21;44;16 - 00;22;07;13
Dino Watt
The good thing about door to door sales is that you can work for four months really, really, really hard and you can make a good amount of money if you do it. If you are if you do it well. And luckily I was successful with it. But I will never forget I tell this stories in times where I know Shannon loves me no matter what I mean, take away anything illegal or immoral, right?
00;22;07;13 - 00;22;28;21
Dino Watt
But she loves me. And I was sitting on our bed at the edge of our bed. I was getting ready for the day, and Shannon and I were talking about some of the things I want to do in business and some of the challenges I had. And she came out getting ready in there and their bathroom and she said and I said, you know, she goes, I don't know how much longer I can do this.
00;22;28;23 - 00;22;44;15
Dino Watt
And I look what? And she goes, I need you to figure this out because I don't know if I could do another year like this. And that was kind of a wake up moment because the challenge was, was that I was really resting on the fact that she loved me and I was and that she cared about me.
00;22;44;15 - 00;23;03;26
Dino Watt
And we had that foundation. But I was I was kind of like someone who's successful and then rest on that success and doesn't go seek more success afterwards. I had a successful relationship and I took it for granted, and I just assumed no matter what, as long as we have a relationship, as long we have our work together, we're fine.
00;23;03;28 - 00;23;21;15
Dino Watt
But that was a much more shocking to me. And she said, I love you and I don't want this to be the end of anything, but you need to figure this out because I can't ask myself to go through this for another year or the rest of our life. And that was a big switch. And within like six months, my business, it completely changed.
00;23;21;15 - 00;23;46;25
Dino Watt
I had more focus, I had more attention and that was how we got through it. But yeah, it's been it was not a good time and, and I, it was necessary and it was the thing that shifted in my business and different from what it turned into then. It's different than it is now. But yeah, that definitely was a big slap in the head.
00;23;46;28 - 00;24;16;15
Steven Pesavento
I think it's when we go through these really challenging times, they, they are an opportunity for us to grow, to experience going out and door knocking, going in and doing very difficult things and having that ego hit that comes along with a loss. And realistically, in business and in life, there's going to be challenges. There's going to be things that we don't want to happen, that we don't have control over in the moment based on past decisions or things that we didn't even have an influence over.
00;24;16;21 - 00;24;54;19
Steven Pesavento
And yet we have to be able to face them. And what I think is so valuable, the lessons that I take away from this is the importance of everything we just talked about when it comes to dealing with an extremely challenging time, is that the relationship was solid because the foundation that you had built over years or decades prior to that happening so that you didn't end up losing all of your money and also losing your marriage and being in one of the most tough situations that so many people go through because they were focused on on one thing when they they didn't even realize that there was a problem over here, but then let
00;24;54;19 - 00;25;21;18
Steven Pesavento
alone the the second lesson is the ability to have that communication, to feel comfortable having her say, you know what, this is a little bit too much for me. We need to make a change. And then you being able to hear that. And although it must have been difficult to hear and maybe emotional in the moment, the ability to then pivot and change it and look for a new solution, which I think is so critical towards not even having great relationship, but just having a great life.
00;25;21;21 - 00;25;47;04
Dino Watt
Yeah, absolutely. And I'm really grateful that and here we go all the way back to the beginning, right. I think that's what I really started to get as a kid. And growing up was the importance of being willing to, even when it isn't comfortable, even when it's not nice and willing to just be able to come through and say, Well, this is how I'm feeling, and now I need to seek the actual answer to it.
00;25;47;07 - 00;26;06;10
Dino Watt
I think sometimes there are people in life who who don't do that. They have the challenge of they see the problem, but they just sit in the problem and go, okay, well, let me go find an answer or find somebody who has an answer and focus on that. And I'm still learning, like my wife and I are still I'm 51 years old.
00;26;06;16 - 00;26;22;25
Dino Watt
We we are still looking at, okay, how can I pivot and a conversation with her recently that in my current career there are certain things I want to do that I don't know how to do. And I had to have a conversation with her where I had to say to her, I'm like, I know you. You want me to do this stuff over here?
00;26;22;25 - 00;26;34;03
Dino Watt
You see this opportunity over here, But I don't know how to do that. So I got to go find the people who can help me do that. And luckily I am doing that. But yeah, it's it's a continual learning process forever.
00;26;34;06 - 00;26;54;00
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, well, I think that's that's really important because a lot of people and I know I've felt this myself at point and at times where it's like, man, I should have made it by now, but ten years ago that version of myself exists. And he's looking at me saying, How the heck did you even get here? You have made it.
00;26;54;03 - 00;27;24;17
Steven Pesavento
But then the goalpost keeps moving in our life, in everything from business to relationships to investments and everything in between. We're it's like we keep wanting more. Yet having the gratitude to where we are, but then being comfortable knowing that that pursuit is what's fulfilling the pursuit and the growth that comes along with it. We just have to embrace it and want to keep learning and want to keep asking the questions and going and finding the people who can teach us are.
00;27;24;18 - 00;27;43;25
Dino Watt
There are times where I definitely like it. I was in Hawaii recently doing a speech and I went out to the beach and I saw those guys, you know, who are just like surfers. They live in their van and they just surf there and they get odd jobs. And there is definitely a part of me where I went, Did I want it out of how come I missed that boat?
00;27;43;27 - 00;28;02;11
Dino Watt
They see me, they see content they seen and that's that's fine. And I don't know if they are or not, but in my eyes, from my perspective, I was like, That kind of sounds cool for a bit. But then I really like having a home and I really like being able to go do stuff and everyone. So it's all a payoff.
00;28;02;11 - 00;28;05;13
Dino Watt
But yeah, it's, it's just that perspective. Again.
00;28;05;16 - 00;28;22;16
Steven Pesavento
It's funny because I've had that experience a bunch of different times in my life where I look at other people and, you know, my personality trait is, you know, I'm going after the things I want to be successful. I want to use that pain from the past to drive me to the forward. And I want to learn how to live in happiness and love.
00;28;22;16 - 00;28;40;19
Steven Pesavento
And I've been doing a bunch of that. But then you look and I, I don't mean anything negative by this, but I mean just literally people who are simple and content and they're happy in their job and they're not going after anything. I look at them and I'm like, Man, it would be so much easier if I could just live in that place.
00;28;40;19 - 00;28;42;23
Steven Pesavento
But that's just not me. You know.
00;28;42;25 - 00;28;47;10
Dino Watt
If you've heard the story of the Mexican fisherman where that and I heard that story with the.
00;28;47;10 - 00;28;48;15
Steven Pesavento
Mexican that was tell it.
00;28;48;18 - 00;29;06;07
Dino Watt
So basically the stories of the Mexican fishermen and American businessman comes down to see him and he meets him on the beach and he's like, hey, so so tell me a little bit about your business. And well, I, I go out, I fish in the morning and then I come home and I cook some of the fish with my family and we spend time together and have fun.
00;29;06;07 - 00;29;29;09
Dino Watt
And then we go to sleep and, you know, we start the next day and guys. that's all right. Let me tell you, like, your fish is so good. This is what you should do. And he basically gives him a business plan so they can now grow his business and then he can sell it to a corporation. And the end result is that after he does all of those things, then he'll be able to do that so that he can spend time with his family when he wants to spend time with his family.
00;29;29;12 - 00;29;51;06
Dino Watt
Yeah, it's like, well, he's happy and content doing what he's doing. Why are we going to try to mess it up? But that's what we do, right? We're like, this is real success because you got this amount of money or whatever. I had a doctor once who I was talking to, called me up, talk to me about coming to his office and stuff, and he said, You know, I want you to know I'm very happy with where my business is.
00;29;51;09 - 00;30;17;27
Dino Watt
I serve every other day. I leave work at a certain time. I have these many clients and I work this many days per week. I don't want to change that. And he said that because he knows that most consultants when they come in are thinking, How can we make you more money? How can you grow bigger? And I said, Great, as long as you know that's what you want, then let's do that and just make you even more happier in what you're doing and happy are efficient at what you're doing.
00;30;18;01 - 00;30;25;05
Dino Watt
We don't have to make you more money. He goes, Growth and I want. And that's why I think most people don't know is they don't know what they want.
00;30;25;07 - 00;30;44;02
Steven Pesavento
And people haven't sat down and thought about, well, what do I want for my life? What I want, my relationship to look like? How do I want to interact with people? What kind of things do I want to do? And then how do I back into that? Back into what actually that dream life looks like And yet it's so powerful when you do that.
00;30;44;04 - 00;30;45;22
Dino Watt
Absolutely.
00;30;45;24 - 00;30;56;18
Steven Pesavento
Well, as we wrap up, I have one more question for you. But before we get into that last question, share with the audience where they can follow you or tap into some of your content and teachings.
00;30;56;21 - 00;31;15;01
Dino Watt
Yeah. Do you know what dot com is? My speaking side, I've been out consulting with stocks all about my philosophies around business and leadership, and then I'm on all the socials. I do a lot of social media stuff and I've been really taking out my presence on LinkedIn, putting out a lot of content and stuff on there. So yeah.
00;31;15;03 - 00;31;30;22
Steven Pesavento
That's amazing. Well, this has been so much fun. Dino The last question I have for you is for all the people who are listening, who are sitting there, they've been taking this in, they've been nodding their head along. They've been saying to themselves, Man, I know I need to make some of these changes, but I just haven't done it yet.
00;31;30;22 - 00;31;37;05
Steven Pesavento
I know what I need to do, but I can't seem to get myself to move forward. What do you recommend to those people?
00;31;37;07 - 00;31;58;15
Dino Watt
I would say exactly what we just said a moment ago, which is find out what you truly want. I don't think most people know what they want. They know what they wish. I make the joke from stage because I still haven't done it is like I've always said, I wanted six pack abs and I know you can't see my full body, but I don't have six pack abs and I don't truly want them.
00;31;58;17 - 00;32;25;02
Dino Watt
I wish that I'd wake up tomorrow and I'd have them, and I think that's where a lot of us go with in our business. Because if you look at the true factor and the evidence of want in your life, literally everything you have right now is what you at one point wanted and did whatever it takes to get it, whether it be happy marriage, whether it be a big business, whether it be better investments, whatever you wanted it, so you went and got it.
00;32;25;04 - 00;32;41;12
Dino Watt
So I think really getting clear on what you want and what you're willing to sacrifice to get it. I'm not willing to sacrifice 3 hours a day in the gym to get my six pack abs. That's not the story I'm telling myself as necessary, Right? It's probably not all of that, but I'm not willing to sacrifice that yet.
00;32;41;12 - 00;32;55;16
Dino Watt
So therefore I don't have that. But I am willing to sacrifice some other things. So I have a happy marriage, happy in whatever my business. So figure out what you want for sure, and then you can reverse engineer how to get it. Yeah.
00;32;55;19 - 00;33;05;18
Steven Pesavento
I love that. Such a powerful way to wrap up a great episode. Thanks so much for joining us, Dino, and thank you all for listening to the Investor Mindset podcast. We'll see you on the next episode.