Welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And I'm joined in studio today with Dominic Forth. How are you doing? I'm doing good, George. How's it going? It's so great. And I'm glad we were able to coordinate. Our schedules are tough. We're both jet setters trying to make things happen. So let me give our audience a quick intro on you. And there's so many things that we want to talk about today. So if you're listening to this, and you know, most of you listening are founders and business owners and CEOs, you're trying to get that clarity and focus and discipline, but you also want the strategies. Today is exactly going to be that. Dominic is the CEO of Thought Leaders America. He helps founders and CEOs move from invisible to unforgettable. And he's the creator of the Zambezi survival mindset. He's got a leadership framework that we'll probably touch on, which helps you to really create that calm, clarity, and courage under pressure. But he also has some amazing strategies. He's connected with tech and AI. He's a trusted advisor to leaders operating in high growth, high visibility, high stake environments, and Ironman finisher, enthusiastic athlete, all kinds of different things. So, Dominic, I'm so glad to have you here at the show, man. And thanks for taking time, by the way. Yeah, no, it's great. And I was worried I was going to miss it today. My flight got delayed from New York yesterday, and I ended up in Miami and then driving across Alligator Alley. So it's great to be here. And like you say, have our schedule sync up. Yeah, this is good. So we're going to touch base. If you're listening to this, we're going to I want to always give you a little bit of framework as to why these individuals like Dominic are so successful and they understand what they're doing. And so I want to give a bit of a backdrop because you have this survivalist background and then you but it's bridged over into business. And I think you've merged those together in frameworks for mindset. So help us to get a backdrop, just where you come from and why you got into this space that you're in right now. Yeah, you know, it's funny because I used to be a major thrill seeker where I really pushed myself to the limit. And you mentioned the Ironman and I used to love downhill skiing and anything that was adventurous and dangerous. And so my story into this evolution really started on the Zambezi River. You know, I was on my honeymoon and there's a point of the Zambezi where you have South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. They all kind of merge. And we get onto this rafting trip and I just knew something was off. No, we're actually on the raft. My wife says, can you hear hissing? And these are these big inflatable rafts. I know. And we're trying to get the guy's attention and he's just not paying attention to us. It was a massive group of different rafts. And anyway, off we go. and we literally go straight into this first rapid and this whole raft just sort of, it just, it folds in on itself basically and collapses. I know. And I was on the side where it collapsed. So a lot of people just got thrown off and you kind of, you think it's kind of fun at first, but the problem was I got stuck under the raft. But at the time I was, at first I was calm because I'd swam Alcatraz in the past. And in my mindset, I thought, if I can swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco, I can handle anything. But I was stuck. So I went to resurface and I thought, don't panic, don't panic. And then I went to resurface a second time. And that's where I was like, oh boy, I'm under the raft and I'm moving with the raft. And that's where clarity really kicked in. And suddenly I was like, okay, it wasn't fear. It was just like, you've got to fight like hell. And so for the third attempt, I just fought like, swam like hell, the complete opposite direction of where I was going. and I still almost didn't break free. I got kind of to the edge of the raft and managed to force myself out. And I knew at that point, I don't have a thing in me. I do not have a fourth attempt. And I broke to the surface. And what was so crazy was the water is roaring so loud when you're underwater that when you surface, suddenly it's just silence all around me. And I was like, oh my goodness. And I was like, did that even really happen? Because how can something as simple as water take you out so quickly. You know, I always thought a near-death experience would be like surviving an avalanche or like endurance for two weeks in the woods and stuff like that. I never thought something could happen that quickly. But the challenge that I don't often talk about is I still had to get to the edge of the river. You know, I still had to get to the edge and then from there eventually get back down the river. But that day changed everything for me because I realized, oh my goodness, what would have happened if I'd have perished? every all my life sentiments knowledge would be gone and what i'd prefaced that was you know i lost my mother at a young age i mean i say young about i was 26 when she passed and she fell down the stairs and all that very suddenly and then my brother died three years later so i'd lost all that history and sentiment from there and i almost went and i was like oh my god there's more fight in me yet there's more life in me and so that's what set me on this journey because we all have stories inside of us that are so important to share, not just for knowledge, but just for legacy and for future generations. And so it set me on this journey that we all have stories inside of us and those stories need to be told. Wow. It's interesting you say that because I feel like that's so true. And most successful entrepreneurs or business owners get to a point where legacy does become a much bigger thing for them. But you said something I thought real resonated as well, which is, at least from my perspective, entrepreneurship in general, like entrepreneurship in general is a form of survival. And a lot of times you're dealing with stuff you weren't expecting. You didn't realize how fast it came on. You didn't know what to do about it. So you've got this experience which pushed you down this path of thought leadership and helping leaders bring that out of them. But you have this parallel that like survivalist and entrepreneurship is survival, right? It really is. And being trapped under the raft with the water flowing, I feel like the water is almost like the market. You're constantly being thrown around, like which direction is it moving? Is it changing direction? Are you swimming in the right direction? Are you swimming against the market and with it? and sometimes you know having that courage to fight like hell as many entrepreneurs will relate to and saying I'm going to go in this direction it's the complete opposite of what I was going in but I'm going to go in this different direction to break free and so yeah there's definitely a relationship there well and people I don know if you you have uh something you could share with us around like what happens with leaders and their brain and their in their thoughts when they under pressure and they make back because what the differentiator between people that can stay calm and collect or people that because of fear go the wrong way, they overreact, they go the wrong direction, because I think there's a real science in that, right? You teach this and you help leaders to realize how to do it. And, you know, practice can help you with that. But what's going on here and why do a lot of leaders just when something happens out of the blue and they they sense this fear they make the wrong decisions yeah you know we're all we like to think of ourselves sometimes as these really really high functioning human beings but at the core root of it we are physiologically just still animals and so there are physiological reactions that we can't control and you you've probably experienced it where somebody says something to you and suddenly the hairs stand up on the back of your neck yeah or something just really grinds with you and you're like don't react don't react and And so I studied this and I was really thinking about breathing techniques in particular, because oxygen was so short, I was running out of oxygen. And I researched this with, I met a CEO of a company that's based in India, and he shared with me these ancient breathing techniques. And it's really simple when you think about just oxygenating your body, because what often happens is somebody says something, you know, you sort of stiffen up and then you suddenly You stop, it's fight or flight response kicks in. Correct. And so what he taught me was you've got to slow down your breathing and you have to oxygenate your body. And I said, well, how do you do that? He said, it's super simple. You hold one nostril, say your left one and then keep the left one open. You breathe in for about six seconds. You hold it for another six seconds. And then you breathe out of the other nostril for eight seconds. And the timing varies depending on who you ask, but that I do the six, six, eight. And you do that four or five times in a row. It oxygenates your whole body. It brings oxygen to your brain. And it causes a physiological slowdown when now you can think clearly. Yeah. And that's so- It's physiological, not just mental or psychological. And I think that's such a huge way to ground and reconnect. Yeah. And there's techniques as well. So I was on set yesterday. I was at the New York Stock Exchange doing an interview there. Actually, a bad day to be on the floor because there was a lot of red I was seeing. but um you know there are other shortcuts like I really like taking menthol mints right before a tv interview because it has a similar effect where it just clears all the sinuses and gets tons of oxygen in and just helps you just settle down yeah and peppermint especially is really good for it wow yeah it's because it is interesting how now your your business one of your business right now is helping thought leaders build authority and get in the marketplace and really become, you know, share their stories and things, but become really that best known version. And I think that sometimes the pressure is what breaks down authority when people are on the spot. And yet that's when you do need to perform the best. So you mentioned a couple of techniques and things, but why do you think authority breaks down under pressure? Like why? Because you would think high performing leaders would perform like athletes better under pressure. But a lot of times that's it kind of breaks down. Why do you think that is? Yeah. So a great example I've seen, which often seems counterintuitive is we, I see high performers over prepare for an interview. And so in their mind, they have a topic they want to talk about. And I've done this myself as well. You know, you're so detailed, you almost know word for word what you want to, and then you get into the situation and a couple of things could happen. The host could be late, the time gets moved, the markets are all red, you know, whatever it is that you're seeing. And so suddenly you get thrown off and the first question comes in and it's not what you've prepared for. And then suddenly again, that physiological reaction's in, they tense up and they start trying to force in what they'd prepared and what they wanted to talk about. And I see this quite a lot, all the questions get flipped in order. And so the host may say something simple as, well, tell us about your background, but they were wanting to talk about something else. And they're trying to force through the topic that they want to talk about. When in reality, if they just take a deep breath, listen to the question, almost as if you go to someone's house and a friend asks you, well, how's your dog? You don't start saying, well, I don't want to talk about my dog. I'm going to talk about my cat today. And here's what I'm going to talk about. Like you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't disrespect a friend that way. So people often, they try and force the narrative in the wrong direction or force it too soon. Yeah, I think you're right when you say that they over-prepare. That's a great point. Yeah, well, quite often some of the best interviews I've seen is where the guest is unprepared because they have to listen to the question then and they have to think about how to respond. And the other way can happen too. I found that with some of my interviews, you know, sometimes when I prepare and I've got, so I used to have these questions that I would ask because we like to ask questions that are SEO optimized and that are the right deal and that our audience wants. And it gets rigid because if someone's talking and they go down and they ask one of the questions you're not ready to ask or some of these things. And so I've learned that preparation is a good foundation, but then you have to set that aside and you just have to address and be present in the moment and know that you are prepared with that. Is that what you would recommend for clients? Is that what you've done? Yeah. So here's a good framework for everyone listening and watching. So first thing is the breathing techniques. That's great for grounding. the second is have three key anchors that you want to focus on during the interview yeah so for example mine might be that I want to talk about my experience in media and why I'm a credible person then it might be about media platforms that I'm launching and the third might be leadership that scaling responsibility as you scale a company as well so knowing you have those three themes as anchors is good because then you can take the question and then what you can do is answer the question, but then adapt your answers. So then you get into what you want to talk about as well. And so the final piece of this framework is I teach three phrases that you can use. A great example is let's zoom out for a second. So let's say I'll go through each one if you want. So yeah, let's do it. I love this. This is great. Yeah. So the first one is let's just zoom out for a second or zooming out. Here's what I'm seeing. So let's say that the topic is you're at CES, you know, the consumer electronics show, and you're meant to talk about the three hottest trends you're seeing, but the host starts talking about something slightly different or gets off track You can say yeah no that a great question but let zoom out for a second because the three hottest trends that I seeing are Love that So then you remind the host okay this is what we supposed to be talking about Yeah So most importantly there you not just changing the question. You've got a transition out of that question. And so I like that first one. Let's zoom out for just a second. And here's what I'm seeing where you can redirect it. That's great. Exactly. Redirect. Exactly. And the other ways, rather than saying zoom out, you can say, here's what we're seeing on the ground. So from on the ground, that just emphasizes like, hey, we got our finger on the pulse. This is what we're seeing. So very similar. So, you know, so Dominic, you know, how's X, Y, Z going? Yeah, well, here's what I'm seeing on the ground is boom, boom, boom. Yeah, I love that. That is great. So these are just, these are masterful ways to control the narrative. And when you're a thought leader, you have to be able to control the narrative because I think too many people think, all right, you've got to just be specific to the audience. Well, this is true, but you have to be specific. You have to be able to adapt. This is why I think AI is a great tool. And it's one of the problems a lot of thought leaders are faced with right now is because everyone sounds like an expert and everyone sounds like a rock star because they're using AI to do their social posts and they're doing all these things. Right. But if you're a true thought leader, you're someone that can use that technology as well. but you're someone who knows how to narrate it and you know how to navigate it. And you know, it's like having a conversation like you and I have, we've had a thousand of these conversations, right? We know our content, but we also know how to have a conversation. And you can't do that if you're just in the background using AI alone. You have to be able to have thought leadership to be able to do that. And so I think that will be the separator for a lot of people, is their ability to be a thought leader. Is that what you're finding with your clients? Yeah. And I love to ask people follow-up questions. So that's a great point, George. So can I just ask you, so why do you think that way? And when you ask that question, you watch the pause because if they can't articulate why they think that way. Love it. So you're actually asking them to go deeper. yeah because often people are just regurgitating other people's thoughts and ideas and they haven't spent much time and that that's really for anyone listening to this i feel like you have to spend time with these ideas and think deeply about them that's how you can really elevate the conversation and so that's one of the questions that we ask in our coaching is well why do you think that way what's the reason behind this viewpoint because it's so important because a really good journalist can pick you apart quite quickly. Yeah. And quite often- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I think that's brilliant for two reasons. Number one, you find the depth of knowledge of someone, but also to be an authority, you need to be the one asking questions that make people think. So for example, if you had asked me that question, I would say, well, let me give you a bunch of examples why I think that that's the thing. But also, even though I could answer that, in my mind, I thought, I don't know if I've really thought about why I think that before. So that's actually a great question. And when you ask great questions that make people think, whether they're an interviewer or a client, I think they think, wow, this person knows what they're doing. So I love that idea. Yeah. And it's one of the best interviewing skills I've learned is be curious and ask those deeper questions because quite often I know with my conversation with thought leaders, I have to do due diligence before bringing them on as a client. And sometimes I have a checklist, and I'm just trying to check a box. And I see it a lot with, especially I don't want to pick on journalists in newsrooms, because newsrooms have been really since COVID, we've seen like, just a lot of people let go, they're trying to make more out of less. But quite often, they'll have questions that don't go deeper. And so it can be quite comfortable where you're in an interview and you just kind of you're dominating with the responses and then suddenly someone asks you why and you're not you know what I mean and so you're like whoa yeah but you should want that as well it's interesting because if a lot of people right now to get press and PR and things are getting booked on podcasts or getting in media but all those those outlets are asking the same question and so really your content's the exact same too so you you you want to go a little deeper at least you should you should to build your authority so I think that's brilliant what are your thoughts on AI and technology and what that's doing for leaders and thought leaders in the marketplace. And I'd love to see whatever direction you want to go with this, whether it's how it's influencing them or how you're utilizing it. What are your thoughts on AI and technology? Yeah. So at the most simplistic level, I feel like it's got so much potential to be an accelerator. And I'll tell you how I used it yesterday. It's about three hour drive from Miami back to Sarasota. I went on my iPhone, I used voice notes. I just got a load of stuff out of my head from the trip. Now, it was a challenging shoot yesterday at the Stock Exchange just because it's security clearances, we're on multiple floors, some other challenges we faced, and then air travel. So I just went straight into Apple voice notes, full recording, huge data dump, and then shared the transcription into ChatGPT. And it turns out I didn't have 20 problems. It just simplified it like you just have three issues. Boom, boom, boom. So in that way, it's that could take hours to figure out on my own. And so it's a great accelerant on the mental health piece, I feel like, where you can just get stuff out of your head, get clarity very, very quickly. But the other piece, it is replacing a lot of strategy, and especially like, sorry, strategic employees. So in the past, You'd have to seek out an expert. And I know for us as a company, we're publishing now magazines. We're publishing our new podcasts are coming out soon. And AI has been brilliant for that. We're just helping us really get ahead, aggregating all this competitive data, all this knowledge that's out there on the internet, bringing it in-house. So that's my take in the short term. Just it's a huge accelerant. There are some largest questions that I think should be asked on a grander scale, but that's the sort of immediate short term. I love that. I love that you do that. In fact, I'll just share something that I have been doing recently and there's two or three other levels of benefits that I think you may know this and maybe you just didn't mention it, but I use, so I use the Wave app, not that I promote it for any reason. I don't have any ownership in it, but it's basically just, you know, you can talk to it. It's an AI transcription summary. The reason I do that is because sometimes I be thinking about sales presentations or strategy or I get out of a meeting like you said and I can hit go which that app is kind of nice because I can actually use that in a meeting too And I just hit that on my phone It off to the side like a plod note taker or something like that But I do that myself sometimes And then at the end of it I can drop it into Evernote drop it to my GPT or I could drop it immediately to my assistant And I just accomplished so many things I gotten it off my head which is huge because I have way too much in there right And also I've just assigned any kind of potential possible follow-up because while I was in a meeting or while I was in there, I was like, I want to make sure I do this. And it's picking that out and giving the assignments out. But also what I found is with all those notes, imagine myself, 1,200 episodes, hundreds of Zoom meetings, thousands of YouTube videos. I've pulled that all into my Delphi agent. and now I can go to it and basically say, I'm thinking about this kind of an idea and it has context because it has context from a million different meetings. So now when I go to my GPT or I go to my agents, it has so much content that I've captured that I can use that it's almost like Sam Altman, you know, from GPT, he basically said the other day, he asked his agent and it had better answer than he did because it can think clearly and it pulls from all kinds of different stuff. So I do think in the short run, the accelerant point, that's massive. If you use it properly, if not, you're using it as just like a search tool, like, give me some answers on this and that. The way you're using it is much more strategic. Yeah, well, and for our clients as well, what we've done is we've put in hundreds, maybe even thousands of interviews that have been effective over the years. What we're able to do, so let's say, you know, you want to be on TV. One of the biggest challenges is I don't know what to talk about. What we could do is we put in your whole profile, or let's just say you've planned something that you want to talk about. And we've created what we call SoundBite Studio. It will create the Zynga soundbites that come across really well on TV. I'll give you an example. So I had an interview coming up just talking about the importance of trust and credibility in media. And it came out with this quote. It says, in the world of everybody's chasing clicks, attention is cheap, but trust is priceless. Wow. Yeah, that's amazing. dropping zinger after zinger after zinger and then the problem is sometimes you'll have a really good you know sound bite but you're like oh i really want to expand that thought so now we have an option in this platform where you uh can reverse engineer that sound bite and kind of internalize it yourself or what do you mean oh no no so then it's like so you have the sound bite that lands and then the host says well tell me tell me more and then it has well the whole the whole like backdrop of it and the additional oh wow that's great yeah see these are this is why individuals like yourself would do so well. And by the way, I wanted you to comment on, and for the listener, at least, you have a massive experience in TV and media. What was that background? Just so we have a little bit of that foundation as well. Yeah. You know, I started in the BBC work experience in the UK. I learned a lot about editorial guidelines, ethical reporting, but my passion was to move to the US. And so I studied abroad in the US, started out in Missouri and very quickly, I was in Kansas City applying to work for the NBC duopoly there. That's hilarious, by the way, from the UK to Missouri, like totally different. Yeah. And it was great. It opened up opportunities because I started working at an NPR radio station and they played the Beatles. I'm from near Liverpool originally. A lot of British artists are like, oh, Dominic, this is great for you. and started with them. I did a little bit for PBS, but then moved to Kansas City where I was hoping to start a whole career in reporting. And they said, well, listen, like it's going to be hard for a British guy to be reporting on local news in Kansas City. And I was like, well, what did you mean? It's like, well, we really want you on our sales team because we feel when you meet prospects and help put their advertising campaigns together, it'll be a home run. And they were right. And that set my whole career working with TV stations. So yeah, I ended up moving to Tampa Bay, worked for Hearst, which they own a lot of magazines and TV stations. And then San Francisco was probably the biggest market I worked in. I worked with Fox, KTVU, which was a legacy station out there. And moved into management in Oklahoma. And then I was with the NBC station in Denver for a couple of years. And then started consulting on research, really high level, you know, best in class research for TV stations across 40 markets. So everywhere from New York to LA with stations like Medford, Oregon, smaller markets in between. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah. And you know, what's interesting is that that breadth of background plays really well into what you do now with thought leaders, because you've got thought leaders that are needing to build their mindset to do PR and media, to do development. And so at a whole different level. Well, listen, you've got a fascinating company background. You've launched a magazine. You've got booking agents. You've got major networks of relationships. So I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us today. And I wish we had some more time, but I do want people to be able to connect with you. So what's the best way for them to connect with you if they want to learn more, get more perspective from you or more about your company? Yeah, yeah. So if you have a cause that you're looking to promote or share your story, you can connect with me, Dominic Forth, on LinkedIn directly, always happy to help. And our website is thoughtleadersamerica.com. And that's all one word. So thoughtleadersamerica.com. I love it. Okay, and I'll put some links in the show notes if you're listening to this. But Dominic, I appreciate you being here with us today. You've shared some great ideas. You've also been able to intersect what I like to do on this show, which is mindset and business and strategy and personal story, because it is about legacy for all of us. So thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me, George. I've really enjoyed our conversation. Yeah, this is great. So listen, if you're listening to this, for the first time, make sure you like and subscribe. Don't miss any episodes. But no matter where you're at, whether you're crushing it, whether you're stuck, whether you're trying to level up, you know, just remember, I always say it's never too late to start living the life you are meant to live. But you've got to take action. You've got to do the things you need to do, whether that's mental clarity, whether it's business strategies. And you're listening to The Daily Mastermind. So that's what we're here for. True mastermind to help you in your business and in your life. So share the show. Hit me up on The Daily Mastermind. Let me know what you're working on, what you're struggling with or what you're winning at. Let's celebrate some wins. And I'll look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. Have an amazing day. .
