Finding Balance: The David Mills Story on the Judo Mindset Podcast

In this deeply inspiring episode of the Judo Mindset Podcast, join Rahelios as he introduces David Mills. Together they delve into the profound journey of finding balance in life. David, a successful businessman who faced a life-altering stroke at 41, shares his riveting story of triumph over adversity. From the struggles of his early life and the rollercoaster of financial ups and downs, to the life-changing realization during his recovery from a major stroke, David's narrative is a testament to the power of hope, faith, and resilience. This episode is not just about the hardships of life, but about the transformation that occurs when one embraces balance in health, relationships, business, and personal growth. Discover how David's experiences led to the philosophy of “maximum efficiency with minimal effort” and how this can be applied to every aspect of life. Tune in for an episode that's not just a conversation, but a journey through the essence of the human spirit in the pursuit of balance and fulfillment.

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Transcript

Let's talk about balance. Why is balance so important in your life? Everywhere. In business, in your relationships, in your health. In everything that you do. You're listening to the Judo Mindset podcast, where David Mills and Rahelios share with you tools to assist you in discovering your life of greatest inspiration and to help you live that life with joy, power, and intention.

And so today, we're sitting here to talk about balance. I am really excited to introduce you to David Mills. We have the great honor and pleasure of interviewing David today. He's a very busy individual, and we have a few minutes of his time here. Now, what you're about to hear is truly a rags-to-riches story, first of all.

But that's not the end. That's really just the beginning of David's story. He's got an incredible story to tell that's led to some really unique insights. I've known David for a short time now, and I've already learned so much, so much. And it's just the beginning. So I'm really excited to introduce David Mills and to have him share a little of his background with you and really to explain where the Judo Mindset podcast originated.

Thank you. Really, that was a great introduction there and a great start to this podcast. So, you know, it's my pleasure to have you here because to me, you're the man, right? Well, thank you. In fact, I was going to tell you a little bit about when I first discovered you as a person. You know, in high school, I thought I saw you play the saxophone in some kind of a talent show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Let's get great. Can. Oh, yeah. I heard you play the saxophone, though. Yeah. I don't get a whole lot of chance to play it anymore. You know, I mostly play the bass guitar nowadays because everybody needs a bass player. The saxophone is kind of a luxury item for that, but I definitely still love the saxophone.

Yeah. We've known each other for quite a few years. Probably since the mid-nineties. Yes. Yes, that's right. You know, and I said in the beginning, I've only known you for a little while. I guess we've known each other since way back in high school. So we've known each other for a long time. But it's only recently that we started working together."

And I really got to know you because I didn't really know your story or who you were or what you were about until just recently. And it's an inspirational story. I mean, you've motivated me significantly. It's like, you know, time to get going. And maybe we could start with a little about your story, as I mentioned, kind of a rags-to-riches story.

David's very successful financially. He's got numerous businesses, and I'm always discovering new things. But it didn't start out that way at all. I wouldn't really call it a rags-to-riches story because I think money comes and goes, and money is kind of a mindset. Some of the best times in my life have been when I was poor, you know, the less stuff you had, the better.

Yeah. So, I started my life out as a schoolteacher's son. Not big money there; schoolteachers make a modest starting salary. This was back in the late seventies when he started teaching. You know, he had a great job. Teachers are, they're important, but they're way underpaid. I kind of grew up like they say in the book 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki. He lives in Scottsdale, by the way, a great guy.

Anyway, my grandpa was wealthy, not with money, but wealthy with time. My dad was always chasing, trying to earn some money as a schoolteacher. He was a professional photographer back when photography was actually a business, before digital cameras came along. So, my family, we started out with a single wide trailer, living off the land, basically. My grandpa gave each of his kids two and a half acres, and they bought a single wide trailer. My first memory is looking at that single wide trailer.

Now, it wasn't a very nice place, but they bought this trailer while they built the home. My dad was a really handy man. In fact, that was probably a downfall to his success as a businessman, or as someone with money. He always wanted to fix it himself, and he would always be working, either teaching at the school or fixing a car in his spare time. He didn't have money to pay anybody to fix things. I remember him rebuilding an engine on a 1972 Ford that my grandpa had, and he's rebuilding the engine. You know, nowadays, it's better just to buy a new car.

But he would fix things himself. Anytime something was broken, he would fix it. He wouldn't hire anybody to fix anything. He'd say, 'I got this. I'm going to do it.' But the nice thing about that is my grandpa, he worked for Motorola as a machinist, and he was comfortable as far as money goes.

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"And he, uh, he was a fixer kind of guy, too. But he was kind of my ideal for business. He owned a bunch of different businesses like a logging company, worked as a machinist for a while, and even dabbled as a beekeeper, a welder, a farmer. You can't even believe all the different things that he did.

He was one of those guys that just loved to do everything. And my dad was there too, obviously, but he was always working. He was trying to provide for his six kids, which was not as many as you have, but still six kids is a lot. Yeah, plenty for anyone by myself.

You know, they had three children. So he was working his $12,000 job, trying to make ends meet. And so, I kind of grew up as a schoolteacher's son, knowing how to budget our money. My mom was amazing at that. On a schoolteacher's budget, you've got to stretch that dollar as far as you can.

And so growing up, I think that's what inspired me to be a businessman. I actually didn't want to be a schoolteacher, and I love schoolteachers, don't get me wrong, but I saw my grandpa thrive in different businesses and different things he did, like being a cattle rancher. You name it.

We learned all kinds of stuff from him. And it was a neat life actually, living the way he did. He had all this time and did all these things. He was really creative, always dreaming something. And my dad would sit around and watch the alfalfa grow on his phone and dream about different businesses and things we were going to do.

And that maybe inspired me to be a businessman, but I don't know. I guess that's kind of where it started out. Sure. Yeah. And, you know, hearing about that background, you've really held on to that. Dave, as I say, he's got I don't know how many businesses again, but you'd never know; he's the most down-to-earth guy, just really mellow.

He's not the guy who's wearing jewelry, driving a fancy car. He could if he wanted to, but I guess he'd rather spend his money on other things. But, you know, I know a little bit about your professional background. You were telling me you started out picking up garbage in parking lots.

So one of the things before I graduated high school, I go back a little bit. I had a couple of titles in my life of business. My uncle Bill Melzer passed away not too long ago. He owned a string of businesses across the Navajo Nation, and I worked for him through high school for a couple of years. And then I also worked for a lot of my other uncles in a logging business, Steve Reedhead, out in look for a company called Tristar Logging. And I realized at that point during the logging experience, I didn't want to be a logger long-term, just completely covered in dirt, you know, from head to toe, huh?

As a high school kid, I thought, wow, this is not for me. I wanted to be a lawyer. It was cool, you know, they had a lot of cool equipment, running around the woods, picking up logs and things like that. But to do so, I worked for my uncle or my other uncle for a couple of summers, and he was a great mentor, taught me a lot about business.

And then after that, I went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You've seen those guys with the white t-shirts and little black name tags. But, you know, it was really cool when I went to the training center for them to train me.

You know, they taught me how to sell. I've told you this before, they go through this program, and these guys know exactly what they're doing. They know how to teach people how to sell goods or sell religion, basically. Well, yeah. I mean, you're going door to door. I did a little bit of door-to-door sales when I was younger, you know, selling candy bars and stuff as a kid."

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"And yeah, I couldn't even sell a candy bar. I mean, I could sell one. I'd work on it, going door to door for maybe a week, and I'd sell one. Learning how to sell was an experience. Becoming a missionary was one of the things we are going to teach you guys about in the future.

They taught me how to sell, and I went and knocked on doors for two years in Atlanta, Georgia, in the sticks and right in the middle of the city. I learned a lot. It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in my life. I’ve got to give everything I have to God. He's blessed me with many things, and I'm very grateful for that. Giving credit for the blessings we have to God is probably one of the key things in being successful as a person.

Anyway, I went home, and when I came home, I found out the uncle that owned the stores got caught embezzling money from his partners. They didn't want to put him in jail because they liked him a lot, and he had a lot of money. They basically kicked him out of the business, and the day they kicked him out was the day the businesses failed. He was the glue that held everything together. So every single one of the stores failed and went out of business.

But as I was on my mission in Atlanta, this happened. And I heard about it from my parents. All they could do was write. We could only call on Mother's Day and Christmas. This was before cell phones and all that. They didn't want us to get distracted.

When I got home, my uncle had kind of rebuilt himself over the two years that I was gone. He had picked up a bunch of landscaping jobs, mowing lawns, and cleaning out parking lots for commercial properties. So I moved to Phoenix and got a job with him, picking up trash in parking lots in the middle of the night. It was a great, fun job, but I needed the money; I didn't have a job.

As I was doing that, I found another job with another cousin who gave me a job in the real estate appraising business. So I'd clean parking lots all night, go to school at a community college part of the morning, and then go to work at the appraisal company. It was a grind.

During that time, I got married, too. My wife was like, 'Hey, I want to go clean parking lots with you.' You don't want to do that; it's nasty with cigarette butts, diapers right over in the road, and burritos that look like they've been run over by a tire. But she thought it was pretty cool that I was a garbage picker-upper guy, and she was like, 'I'm going to marry this guy.'"

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"And I'm going to help him pick up garbage. It's just that you didn't lead with that, right? Anyway, so she came with me one night, and actually, my wife is quite brilliant. She suggested, 'Why don't you do this with roller blades?' So we got roller blades, and we started cruising around on roller blades, picking up trash. It actually made our time go by faster. It was a genius idea. I was able to almost double or cut my time in half on cleaning the parking lots.

But it was, I don't know, I think I made maybe like two or three hundred dollars a month doing that. It wasn't a lot, but yeah, I think I was making eight bucks an hour at the appraisal business. So it wasn't a lot either. Of course, it was a lot to me because I was selling religion for two years.

You pay for that. Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. And I shouldn't say 'selling religion.' I do love my religion. They're great people, and it's a beautiful thing. So, I basically started doing that, and then I started doing real estate more and more. I got more involved in that and the appraisal business, and I eventually got my real estate license during that same time. I got hired by a property management company, a guy named Tom Caldwell, a genius real estate guy, and his business partner, Brett Brewer. They're both from my hometown, and they hired me. They said they'd pay me three thousand a month.

And I thought, I just hit the jackpot. I was like 25 or something. Yeah, yeah, three grand. And it was way more than my dad was making. I was like, 'Yeah, jackpot.' So I quit cleaning up and went into real estate and doing property management. I was still doing appraising too at the same time. Kind of. I was just two jobs or two businesses at the same time in my whole life.

Really? Wow. So yeah, that's kind of how I got started in the real estate business. And what was cool was getting my license, which was really neat, and to have that much money. They sent me to a real estate school, and I got my license, and it was just a great bunch of guys to work with.

And they taught me how to sell real estate because I knew how to sell. The church taught me how to sell, right? Yeah, yeah. So I went and started selling. We sold so many homes that they made me stop because they were managing them. We would sell a home and then put it into the rental pool, and we had like a thousand homes that were vacant.

The company would guarantee that they would pay the mortgage for the buyers if they were vacant. So a thousand homes sitting out there, just empty. Yeah, jeez. Yeah. It was crazy. I could sell, you know, 20 homes a month sometimes. So, at that time, I dropped out of school, and my wife and everybody were like, 'You can't drop out of school.'

And I was like, 'Dude, you're 25 years old. Yeah, heck yeah.' It was amazing money. So I dropped out of school, which was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Honestly. I mean, I like school, and I think college is for certain people, but it gave me the opportunity to start my own businesses and do things that I wouldn't have been able to do if I had gone to school.

I only got a bachelor's degree to get a job. Well, that's what school essentially is for, so you can figure out what you're going to do to make money. And clearly, I already had that covered. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Of course, things change, and the market kind of turned a little bit, and I could see it coming.

So I got out of that business, and it wasn't a very smart financial thing for me to do, but I knew that it couldn't last. It was something that was going to end, like, 'Hey, this isn't going to last for too long.' So I got out of that business and went back into the appraisal business, which turned out to be a really good thing for me.

I learned a lot about commercial real estate. We appraised trailer parks, RV parks, hotels, ranches, car washes, anything that was commercial, industrial buildings. And one of my mentors, Jan Sill, and Doug, those guys taught me everything they knew about real estate and appraising it, which was a huge thing to have.

I mean, these guys were in the business forever. Their old well, Doug wasn't that old, but he had been in the business for quite some time, and Jan had been in the business for 30 or 

40 years. And so he taught me everything they knew. It was the best education I could ever ask for. And they paid me to do it. Yeah, so nice.

So I worked for a couple of different companies, and I got a Kurt Kleinman, of course, appraisal. He was a great mentor. My brother, I got to work with him too, which was great. So those guys really taught me a lot, and which actually was a springboard into things later in life, which was something that the education that I learned from that was invaluable.

In 2008, I was as high as you could get, making a ton of money. And we know what happened in 2008; the real estate market crashed. So I went from making a lot of money, and I wouldn't even tell you how much, from appraising. Yeah, yeah, appraising. And the nice thing about commercial appraising is we were making in order from three to ten thousand dollars an appraisal. We'd do ten or twelve a month. Yeah, yeah. And you don't really have to sell in that situation. You do have to be pretty personable, you know, because you're going in front of a lot of business owners and people who have businesses and a lot of things going on."

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"Oh, my, I thought it was a dog, a touch.

Finally, you. Yeah. So, the market crashed, and I was really dumb with money because I grew up not wealthy. The only money we had as kids was what my grandpa would pay us to catch gophers on his farm. He'd give us a dollar for each gopher. But then I got into this business and started making all this money.

I was doing stupid things like buying airplanes and trucks. I mean, I was buying some real estate assets, but not very much. I was wasting money on things like, you know, unnecessary luxuries. And let's say, I learned how to fly in there somewhere. It actually helped my business quite a bit.

With the appraisal business, I would be able to fly to places like Morehead City, do an appraisal there, fly to Flagstaff, do another there, and then fly home and be home for dinner. That was awesome. I got to learn to fly, and um, I crashed a few airplanes.

How do you crash a few airplanes? Yeah. Yeah. I let somebody borrow my plane, and they crashed it. Then my dad actually crashed my first one. But anyway, they lived through it. So, where was I? Oh, yeah, 2008. I was like, 'Oh, hey, let's buy a new house.' So I bought a house, which was, at the time, I thought crazy expensive, like $350,000.

And I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I just bought a $350,000 house,' right? Yeah, it was a lot. I had financed all this stuff, so my airplane, trucks, you name it. I had all kinds of stuff, Mini Cooper, Michael Gentile, you name it. Yeah, it was stupid. That was the dumbest thing I could've done.

Anyway, so, 2008 was a pretty good year actually for us, because the banks would hire us to appraise all the bad assets. So I thought, 'Oh, yeah, this is great. You know, I'm on top of the world.' 2009, 2010 came along, and I went from having no way high to, like, maybe like $2,000 a month.

I was doing like $15,000 a month in payments. Yeah, right. Oh, my gosh. It was like I was above the peak, you know? Yeah. So I ended up liquidating everything and selling everything. I even had my truck repossessed. It was a bad time. I was really down with money; it wasn't good.

So, I went from rock star to rags, and I'm like, 'What am I going to do here?' Nobody was hiring. Yeah, okay. I mean, this... And, um, I had developed a subdivision during that time, too. I had about 15 lots, and the bank called me up one day. We were still making the payment, and they said, 'Hey, we're going to call your note. You need to pay it off.'

Which, I had borrowed like 600 grand, and I still had about 15 lots left, maybe, or something like that. I mean, let's be honest. But they were like, 'We need you to pay your $30,000 by, like, next week or so.' Oh, jeez. 30 days. Yeah, like super quick. Or like, at all."

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"Like my truck to scare you. I didn't have a dime here, so I called an auctioneer. I said, 'Hey, can you come do an auction for us?' I had about 12 lots actually, when I left, and they were paid for. I needed to pay the bank like 30 grand because they were beating on the door and I wasn't making my payment, which was pretty cheap on that level.

You'd pay, you'd already paid them 500, and yeah, get rid of everything because the FDIC was taking over banks. It was bad. It was like, yeah, they wanted to shut down the bank. So anyways, my friend, who was an auctioneer, we had a big auction. I had advertised this thing everywhere, and nobody wanted real estate at the time.

It was like you couldn't even give it away. So the auction day came and guess how many people showed up, right? Yeah, that's it. Yeah. All my friends and family have known me as Roy my whole life. Yeah, that's right. I'll show that to the auction. 22, 30. That's not it, actually.

No, no. So my friend said, 'Hey, all it takes is two people to have an auction.' And he was right. So we started the bidding out on these lots. And then guess what? These two guys bought every one of them.

They were like, they were like $10,000. That's all we could get. And were they, like, fighting with each other? 'Oh, I'll go. I'll go.' Yeah. We had a reserve. We told them, 'Hey, if we don't get like 30 grand for these things, we're not going to sell them.' But we got it bid up and they paid I think 10 to 12,000 per lot, which is giving them away. They were worth 40,000, you know, when you know.

Okay, so anyways, I sold every single one of those lots. It kind of bailed me out and it hurt me a little bit of boost, you know, I went and bought a 1968 Ford F 100 that barely ran. So I went from a brand new truck, it was a brand new GMC Sierra, uh, 64. And I was like, I sold my airplane to my dad.

I mean, I had to liquidate everything. Yeah, even my house. I sold it and I gave it away, basically. Anyway, so time goes on, trying to figure out what I'm going to do. I decided to start up a property management company. We couldn't sell any homes, but we could rent them. Everybody wanted a rental because they just lost their home.

So I found a little niche. So I got in that group and I went from zero homes. Well, they had like a couple of my own rental homes and I held on to them, having the equity in them, but they were at least bringing in some rental income. So I sold my a couple of other things and kind of just made it by.

But I made enough money to start up a property management company. Went from my own couple of homes to like a hundred overnight, like we had about 100 homes going and guess who was the maintenance guy? I'm up there fixing everything you can imagine. Yeah, plunging toilets and everything. The phone would ring for maintenance.

I think I was the owner or, you know, send money for fixing the toilet or whatever was wrong, like the microwave or these fires. So I had to rebuild a kitchen. Uh, yes. Yeah. I mean, it was, I was like, I came home just exhausted every night. You know, I went from this really nice white-collar job making a ton of money to the maintenance man overnight.

And, uh, I was so broke that, uh, I always wore Buckle jeans when I was making a lot of money, and they were expensive, like 100 something dollars for jeans. And, uh, my Buckle jeans were completely worn out, holes in them. And I would, I got a sewing machine from my mother-in-law that was in her basement."

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"So, patches, patchwork, but I put a patch in the knee, and they, of course, started that trend. Anyway, my jeans were completely falling apart. I mean, it was just bad, but at least we started growing the business. It grew bigger, and then one day the market started changing, and I got back into construction.

So, I knew a friend that had a bunch of money, and I went to his house and said, 'Hey, can I borrow like 100 grand?' He was sure. 'When you want it?' I was like, 'Well, uh, drawers.' So, he set it up in different draws. 'You do the foundation, I give you the money or give you a little upfront and then what you build a home.' The idea was how to build a home.

But I called my dad up. I said, 'Hey, can you teach me how to build?' He said, 'Yeah, I'd love to.' So, my dad and I built this home together. We did everything. You know, I didn't hire some people. I thought, 'Man, I just hit the jackpot. I guess a little bit of money coming in.' And I was building homes like that.

I had some money, so I went and sold my '68 Ford, and I bought an '88 Ford F-150. Hey, moving back up in the world. Anyways, I sold that truck and bought the new truck. That was my new construction rig. And I was like, 'Dude, I'm a homebuilder now.' I'm with my old partner that I had with.

We built that lot with and started building some houses, which was a dumb idea, but I had some money going. I started building houses, and that took a lot of rebuilding after that. It was hard, going from riches to rags. So, you know, to rebuild. And so I started again, and uh, that was actually the only thing profitable. Building looks like it's profitable.

But, you know, all that money going under the knife. And I actually found out we were losing money doing that too. And so I got to the point where I had to stop. Yeah, but anyways, it was a good learning experience for me to be humble. I was kind of arrogant, and maybe I was grateful during that time when I was making a lot of money, and that crash really humbled me for what I had.

And actually, it was kind of a relief to get rid of all that stuff because I had payments, and I had no money. Anyway, I paid like three grand for that truck. But it was a good experience for me to learn and to be, and to just regroup, you know, kind of rebooted my life.

And, um, a bunch of other things happened during that time. Uh, I think maybe one of the things I'd like to say is when I lost everything, I kind of got depressed for a while, went through a depression, and that was hard. It was just kind of a depression of like, I just lost all this stuff.

And it was hard for me because I liked my stuff, you know? Yeah, we all do. Well, did you stay married through that? 'Oh, this is 24 years now.' Yeah. That's a good woman. Yeah. I mean, it was tough. I mean, we went through a hard time, and, you know, we're in the thick of it with little kids at that time. So she was kind of occupied and taking care of kids and yeah, I was out there grinding away, doing maintenance work for the property management company. 

And as the market recovered, I sold my property management company. I didn't make a lot on it, but it gave me a little bit of money to do what I wanted to do with the next step.

And, um, anyways, during that whole time, there were a lot of other things that went on during that time that we have to prioritize, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Plenty of time. Yeah, yeah. It's tough. I remember one time, um, uh. Oh, yeah, that's what happened. I forgot about that. I had a friend, actually, my wife's cousin, but I wanted to say something.

It's not what you know, it's who you know. I think in this life, sometimes it's not just who you know, it's who knows you. And a lot of people that helped me out. I really appreciate those people that I had. My wife's cousin started buying foreclosures, and so he would buy them and pay for them. And then we would go in and fix them up."

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"That was in maintenance mode, fix-up mode, construction dude mode. So yeah, I would go in there and fix these homes up, and then, since I had my real estate license, I'd turn around, sell them, get our money back for the fix-up, and then I'd make a commission on it. That kind of changed things around as I was doing that.

Things got better then, you know, started climbing back up, slowly. The problem was, he was buying so many homes, you could buy these homes for next to nothing. They were practically being given away. But the hard part was I had to come up with the money for the repairs to fix them up. And he was buying like ten or twelve a month sometimes.

Oh, with his money. And I managed to hang in there and keep doing it, borrowing a little bit of money here and there, which I shouldn't have done. But it helped me to kind of get over that edge. So that gravy train lasted for a little while, and then it went away, and then we started building some new homes, and that was a big mistake.

A lot of money in building homes got us into the marshes. Yeah, I waited another couple of years, but so I built a business, you know, a construction business up. It was extremely stressful, having all these guys, a huge payroll, all these people to deal with and stuff. So, um, anyways, about maybe six months after I got out, I stopped doing construction and started selling real estate, which was a hard transition for me.

But it was a good transition. About six months after I sold my business. Well, I didn't really sell it, okay? I just gave it away because we were losing money. Hmm. So, it was kind of the best day of my life. So, um, about six months after that, my son and I went to a horse camp. I mean, I'm a cowboy by trade, you know? Grew up as a cowboy. Our family's always had horses.

And at this horse camp, we spent three days. I spent three days with my son, and we basically learned how to do cutting horses, where you take a cow, separate out the one you want, and move that one cow around while the rest stay still during this training. I learned a lot from that.

And, um, on Sunday, the training was over, and I went home and was sitting on my couch on Sunday morning, and I didn't feel very good. Just kind of sitting there and all of a sudden, my mouth, I just started drooling and I was like, feeling my face and got mad, crap and drooling, and I can't.

And then my arms, and I was like, 'Something's wrong.' So there I was in the bathroom, standing there by the sink, just looking in the mirror at myself. And I, I was, I had toilet paper, and I was like, wiping my mouth off. I couldn't swallow, and my world just went black, completely black. And I blacked out. I fell.

It's just dead weight. My whole body fell and hit the ground dead weight. My head hit the shower. Oh, my head opened the door, and my wife came. 'Guys, what's wrong?' So I, uh, I was completely out of it, and I was kind of trying to get up, and, uh, so my wife and son helped me up and got me on the couch.

And so, like, 'Do you have a stroke?' And I was like, 'No, I don't know what a stroke really was,' but this. So, anyways, before I knew it, I had gone to the hospital, and, uh, kind of came to a little bit more, and everyone says I was cracking jokes with the ambulance driver I grew up with. Okay. Uh, yeah, I ended up in the hospital, and they're fixing my head up because it was split up, and the guy's like, taking a stapler to my head.

Oh, gee, he's, uh. He's like, 'Do you know, like, hold still?' You know, I was trying to, you know, I was trying to stay still and stuff, but my wife's like, 'I think you had a stroke,' and the hospital didn't. Oh, because they didn't know what happened at this point. They thought I just fell and cracked my head. The emergency room's like, 'Oh, no, you're fine.'

You know, Then over the next couple of days, my entire left side of my body went paralyzed. Mm. Almost two days in. But after I was in the hospital for a week and so, so it was still whatever blockage was in there. It was still in

 there. I heard it cleared out. Actually, it cleared out, but the paralysis took a little while to happen."

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"It kind of set in slowly. The only thing I could do was move my shoulder and a shoulder up. That's it. My hand was dead. My leg was near. And, uh, so. And then, if you've ever had a stroke, you have to, I hope. I don't think so. Anyways, I. There's a great piece of advice for you.

All right. There for wisdom from Dave. So I had a stroke, and, uh, I was like, 'Dude, I got to get out of this hospital. I'm going crazy.' So, they let me go home, but, um, so they realized you'd had a stroke by then, right? Yeah, They did all the tests and scans, and they're like, 'Yeah, he had a stroke.'

It was like a little one. It was not a mild stroke, but a major stroke. Yeah, but what had happened is the stroke had damaged my heart. And so, uh, if you know anything about hearts, my ejection fraction was affected. The ejection fraction is basically how much blood your heart pumps. And so, you know, uh, it's about 50 to 60%, and it's not 100%.

100%. 60% is about the normal ejection fraction. But my heart, my ejection fraction was at 5%. That's practically dead. And, you know, they did let me go home, but they made me go home with what they call a life vest. And so it was like this battery pack with this electronic roar.

Yeah. If your heart fails, it will shock you back to life. And so it was like the paddles just built in. You're wearing them permanently. Itchy. And so here I am, paralyzed on my left side, carrying this life vest around. And I couldn't button my pants anymore. I couldn't, you know, because of my hand, and uh, I can't tie my shoes, but my leg kind of started coming back after, like, a really short time.

So I was able to, like, stand up and maybe take a few steps. And so, um, it was quite a humbling experience. And you, I mean, how old were you at that time? I was 41. That's way too young to have a stroke. And you don't smoke, you don't drink, you know, you look like a healthy guy.

Even though they're not even sure what happened. I think what happened is I got dehydrated from this horse camp and got a blood clot. Anyway, so it took me about, um, I'd say about six months of really trying hard. They were going to put me in a rehab facility in Phoenix, so I could get better faster.

But when they sent the paperwork to the rehab place, they said, um, 'We're not going to take you. Your heart, your condition is too bad to let you walk in our walking machines or anything, as you might qualify for re-see.' So they pretty much said to go home and basically die. Oh man. And then the cardiologist and everybody that I was working with at the local hospital, they were like, 'You're going to die basically, you know.'

Yeah. They didn't necessarily come out and say that, but that's kind of what they implied. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I was like, 'I'm going to get better. I feel good, I'm going to get better.'

And, and I felt like crap. Yeah, I felt good. Yeah, yeah. And it changed my mind. The stroke, it really did. Um, one of the things it did do is change my taste. I couldn't taste anymore. Not like I used to. It changed my taste. So everything tasted different. I had to relearn what everything tasted like. That's crazy."

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"Everything tasted like death. The difference in the smell of shampoo was disgusting. It was all flavor. You know, anything like that was just horrible. So it was just crazy. Plus, I had to relearn how to swallow. Like, it was really hard to swallow, or I'd choke on my food, you name it.

So it's this, um, that was tough. And then, uh, just trying to move around and, you know, having my wife put my clothes on, button my pants, you know, like, it was tough. So I spent a lot of time just trying to recover, and, um, about six months later, I was able to walk around pretty well.

Were you set up like it ruined? Like, with core strength in my leg, my stomach, you know, my back muscles. Uh, so, um, but just sitting up and sitting in place, I could do it. So, like, about a month or two after my wife took me to a restaurant, and I couldn't sit there, like, I just couldn't sit up, I guess.

Got to get back in the car. Yeah. Like, it was just it hurt that much. But anyway, six months later, the. And you're definitely not doing any construction or anything during all that time. Oh really. I had a stroke, and my speech was messed up, and I worked really hard at that cause yeah, my job, people would just say, 'Oh, they've been drinking.'

Sounds like I was. But anyways, that was a tough thing to learn, to control my voice. The bad thing is that I did like to sing, and for you, this would be about imagining losing all of your pitch and tone. Oh, yeah, yeah. I can't sing, can't carry a tune. And you played guitar, too, Tara for most of my life, and I can't.

You could play that. I still can't. Yeah, your. I've got most of my motion back in my hand, but the strength is still coming back, and that's it's been a couple of years but um, anyway so, um, one of my friends, uh, uh, Delaware was, uh, um, who I, he was renting an office space from us, and I tried to go to the office as much as I could during this time to show presence, you know, that I'm around.

But yeah, because I was still, I was selling real estate. So he's like, 'Hey, make sure you sell my property.' Which the market was amazing at the time. So I sold a lot of real estate. You didn't tell your clients that? Like, 'I just had a stroke. I need an excuse.' So it was there. They were like, 'Oh, right, Yeah.'

You tell her? Like, 'We we feel really bad for you, but we need to sell our house, and I don't think you're going to cut it.' So I went to a homeless thing. I, my wife was with me, and I could barely stand up in my home. I was like, I got back in the car, and I was just wiped out for the rest of the day.

Like, that was all I could do. I knew something was up with me, but, you know, I just had a stroke. It's like, um, my doctors are telling me I'm going to die any minute, and I figured I'm going to at least sell one more house. So. So. But anyways, uh, Dalan, he called me up. I was like, 'Hey, are you enough to travel?'

I was like, 'Yeah, man, I kind of like, What's up?' He's like, 'I'm going to do the country of Georgia like that.' I was like, 'Yeah, I lived in the state of Georgia anyways,' so I was like, 'Well, would you go in there for?' He's like, 'I don't know. I just want to go. I really just, you know, like, but he closed his eyes and just like, I'm going to go there.'"

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"Oh, where is it? Oh, okay. So he's like, 'You want to come with me?' And I was like, 'Uh, I don't know if I can do that right now,' but he's like, 'Just try, man. Just try.' He's like, 'All right.' So I spent a couple of months working out and just kind of like doing everything I could, and I was going to the gym, like, they took my rehab, wouldn't take me, and the gyms, like, 'Yeah, you can die here.'

We got a disclaimer. It's like, 'Yeah, yeah, I was working out quite a bit, you know, I could lift, like maybe I could squeeze like £5 and curl it.' But at least I could. So you're using the pink weights, weights, people. I'd be like, you know, like that guy was like, you had to tell them, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a small town. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of encouragement there. Um, so I get myself better. Yeah. Mm. I go to Georgia with him, and it was exhausting, you know, It took us, like, 36 hours to get there and was like, the flight is. Oh. And we had to go to Germany, and the next flight out in Paris was like 30 days.

And, oh, it was a big deal. Took us a long time to get there. But anyway, so we finally made it. And, um, I'd never been in Europe like that before. I've been to Mexico and Hawaii, but I've never been anywhere else. I mean, I've been a lot of places in the US, but yeah, it was like, really, like life-changing for me to go see these people and mingle with those people try their food, try their culture, uh, just, just an amazing people, just super loving, kind-hearted people.

People that for years are caught between Russia, Turkey, Algeria, Jordan, and Armenia wars and stuff over there. And people there are very loving and welcoming and their food was amazing. And it actually tasted really good by then. Oh, okay. So it was coming back to normal bread and cheese. It like you didn't have a plan. It sounds like.

Like it's just like, 'Let's just go to Georgia.' And then what? Like, 'Just we just roll with it.' When you don't have an itinerary, you're not checking boxes off, you know, from place to place to place. And so a couple of weeks there. And it was just a cool, cool experience like, and great therapy for me cause, uh, Dylan's like 20 years old, you know? Oh, 22 or something. And he's like, 'Do, let's go ride bird scooters.'

I was riding a bird scooter and George Wright therapy there. And so and it was probably cheaper than his is like, 'If you're going to die, you're going to die having fun?' Yeah. This mentality just like that, I was like, 'Hey, I might die.' And he was. 'Yes.' Yeah. So I was like, 'I'm not going to die. I'm going to keep living life the best I can.'

So I basically just was living life. My best life was like, it was awesome. And so that like one of the coolest things that can ever happen to you is like, you're dying. I mean, I'm the country song, 'Live Like you're dying.' It was awesome. And some people are like, 'Man, I can't believe you had a stroke.' But I'm like, 'Man, it's the best thing that ever happened.'

It entirely changed my outlook on life. I was way, way more thankful, way more grateful. You know, I'd had some experiences in the past that's really, truly made me grateful. Made me thankful for, um, a working body. People that have disabilities made me way more aware that, you know, when you can't do certain things, it's really hard. This world is not designed for people with disabilities and made me really aware of that and made me more compassionate and kind, and you know, definitely looking out for people that have disabilities a lot more and it's just completely new and to like basically rewire my brain and so whatever."

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"So I started traveling. This was like, man, this was a blast. So I started traveling. I've been to all these places. I just kept going and traveling and that was great therapy. And one of the things I was trying to find when I was traveling was like, 'What motivates these people? What motivates me? Why? Why am I doing what I'm doing?'

And the thing that I found that motivates people all over the world is hope and faith. Those two things. That's what motivates everybody is hope. And we, I mean, were you kind of interviewing people or you're just kind of observing? Mm-hmm. Those two things because everybody everywhere, we're all the same. We're all humans.

And I know there's a lot of prejudice out there and a lot of people that don't like other people in different places, in different different countries or, you know, different towns like their neighbor. But the thing that I found is if we actually sat down with each other and break bread together and talked, we have a lot in common.

We really do. Oh, yeah, It's really humans, all of us. No matter what color you are, no matter what religion you are, no matter what background you come from, we really are all human beings and we all bleed. We all we all have feelings, emotions, and we all have desires and things that the drivers and what drives people is hope and faith and those kind of things.

Really. That's really what kind of inspired me to, um, to, to find, to find balance. And the thing that I, that I learned as well as working my tail off for most of my life, I realize that that's not really what's important. Money's not important. Um, the time that we have and the people that we have in our lives are what's important.

And now there's two sides of this. You can be really off balance. You can have overwork with lots of money, or you can be broke with lots of time. But what the most happy time in my life was and has been is one of balance, like having the balance right in the middle of those two things. You don't want to be broke.

Yeah a lot of time yeah maybe it's because you don't have time, but being in the middle is where it's at. The most happy. Yeah. And you know, people generally that are struggling financially tend to think if I had more money, I'd have more time like this. Stress, like always trying to make ends meet, barely making it. And this is like, well, you know, that's why I feel if I could just win the lottery, then I'd have time.

I want to, you know, make you get a better job. Then I'll have more time like, you know, go into business for myself so I could have more time. There's nothing wrong. I think that finding the balance is be it be right in the middle is you want to be comfortable. You want to have enough money to pay your bills and have investments and things like that.

But if you spend too much time, you never see your family. You lose your health, you you have tons of time. You're sitting around and maybe 20. Um, I just really find that finding balance out. Yeah, I guess. I mean, that's where I think we all need to be. Balance, right? Yeah. Yeah. The thing about balance is that at that point of balance, it becomes almost effortless, right?

Because if you're falling over to one side, I mean, even physically, you can, you know, you have to pull yourself back the other way. If you're falling to the left side, you got to pull back either way. But when you're straight up and down, you know, it's it doesn't require a lot of effort. And unless you have a stroke you don't want to do that, trust me."

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"So. But you're right, though. Yeah. A straight up and down balance. Our bodies are meant to be balanced. And when we get too much, if you drink too much, if you do drugs or you work too much, you don't drink enough water or you drink too much water. But there's you can make your life off balance. And it's really difficult.

And I think if we can find that balance, then our life is going to be way better. At least mine has been. Anyway. When I found out, I figured that out. Yeah, give me a bunch of punches in the face and a stroke to figure that out. It's a it's a beautiful thing once you find it. Yeah. Wow.

Well, yeah. What a what a story. And it sounds like you've lived already ten lifetimes. Yeah, I feel I got a long ways to go. Yeah, I think having a good attitude about, um, about what happened to me was probably key. And I think that's probably a really important thing in life, is to have a good attitude. If I would have stayed home.

And I'll tell you what actually happened when I left, I had to go get a heart surgery. But yeah, I got a pacemaker defibrillator installed in my right. Yeah, my heart doctor, actually is really inspiring. He's a Bailey's from India. Mm. Dr. Chia Curry. Amazing. Amazing heart. Doctor. Cardiologist. He he pulled me aside and he says, Dave, you're way too young to die.

If you sit down in your chair and do nothing, you're going to die. And he says, You get up and move around and an exercise. Your heart's a muscle. He's like, I know when you have what you have, your heart is damaged to a certain extent, but your heart, it can get better. So you go after it. You go live your best life and you're going to do amazing.

And I believe this. And yeah, I'm glad I change heart. Yeah, that. Well, it really it really inspired me. Is he, uh. His advice could have been better. Yeah. Wow. Well, that's. That's incredible, you know? And so as I've started now working with Dave and we've been talking, you know, realizing our two different backgrounds and completely different backgrounds, leading to very similar philosophies, the to bring you that balance in life where you feel good in your family life, you feel good and your in your, you know, your physical body, you feel good in your your financial situation.

And you feel inspired every day to do what you're doing. And we were talking about, well, let's let's share this wisdom with people. And that's that's where the judo mindset has come about, where we're Dave has this principle of balance, finding it and applying it to all the different areas of life in a way that's extremely beneficial, makes it easier.

And that's what that's what when I came up with the, uh, the concept of the dual mindset is that we the, in the, the martial arts of judo is all about balance and putting out having balance with minimal effort, right Yes. Yeah. The same better than I do. I can't remember the what is it. Minimal effort. And then what was the other one.

Well yes, there's the principle of balance of maximum efficiency with minimal effort and then and mutual benefit. Right. Yeah. Maximum efficiency with minimal effort. That's, that's the goal anyway. Right. Yeah, absolutely. You know all those things are. Yeah. I couldn't remember that. My brain scans. Well we've put some really good things together for you and we're and we're working on even more.

So definitely keep in touch. Yeah. Go to the judo mindset dot com. You can sign up there for a free newsletter that we're going to begin sending out soon, where you're going to get more information, knowledge and this Judo Mindset podcast will continue with, uh, we're, we're going to share lots of fun things to help you have a good life."

"I'm excited. I think it's important to find that balance and to find that, you know, mindset. It'll change your life. Absolutely. Well, I'm really grateful again for your time here, Dave. I've had a difficult time pinning this guy down for four, 5 minutes and that's no joke. So, um, when we get to hear from Dave, it's always a good thing.

So you really appreciate your man and you inspire me as well. So you're. You're an inspiration in my life. Oh, well, well, thank you. Thank you. Uh, all right, we'll do that. Well, you've been listening to the Judo Mindset podcast with David Mills and Rahelios, and we'll be talking again. All right, that's a wrap."