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https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-munford-b901806a/

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https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

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Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] And it's a great day for the #PirateBroadcast and we are. It's interesting because I have been going through this strange transition, going through the last couple of months and I was stuck. I've been stuck and I had some breakthroughs this weekend and I'm happy to be jumping on board with David today. David we're going to be talking a little bit about everything live streaming making progress and doing some great stuff. So how are you doing?

David Munford: [00:00:44] Russ actually I was talking to someone just the other day, I'm actually doing really well. I'm finally in a place in life where I can say I'm doing good. I may not be doing okay all the time, but I've come to accept that.  I'm doing good. Everything is going really well. I'm really learning  the importance of self care, everything. It's a peaceful place in life to where I'm kinda like, okay, life's good.

Russ Johns: [00:01:15] Yeah. Yeah. I can really appreciate that because we have so much to be grateful for. We have so much to be thankful for and I just really appreciate the things that I have and the family around me and the progress I'm making. And with anything, it's not exactly how I imagined it, however, my life is not terrible at all. So I'm thankful for the #PirateBroadcast. I'm thankful for the people in the community and I'm going to be reaching out to a number of people. I got some things coming up on the wings and I just want to make sure that people understand that you're not alone. We were talking earlier, it's like sometimes we forget to ask for help. And there's a lot of times where we need help, people offer us  assistance and I know that in my life, plenty of people that offered, and I'm not always in a place where I'm willing to take help or know how to ask for help either. But I know that you've developed your podcast is going and you're doing a few things. So talk a little bit about that. And for maybe for people that haven't heard you before on the previous episodes, or if anybody hasn't recognized the red glasses, give us a little snapshot of who David Munford is.

David Munford: [00:02:36] Wow that is a loaded question because David Munford doesn't even know who David Munford is.

Russ Johns: [00:02:40] Give us the short version about podcasting then.

David Munford: [00:02:43] I guess who I am is I'm a real, honest. Vulnerable person, just like anybody else out there that's had struggles in their lives. That's been through struggles in their lives, but knows how to handle it. That knows how to reach out for help when you're not doing okay. But the reader's digest version for people that may not have heard my story before because I haven't been on LinkedIn a whole lot lately. Just an update is I grew up in a very strong Christian home, very loving home. But in 2005... but let me go back a little bit from 2001, I moved back to Cleveland, Tennessee, where I'm located. Went back to church, but life just wasn't the same for me. So I started getting that surface closing down a little bit. 2005, I literally shut everything out of my life, that was healthy, that was good, that I knew was right. I got highly addicted to pornography, was an alcoholic for five years. Went through a lot of mental health issues. Went through some depression in 2010. I moved back in with my parents and from late 2010 up to about mid 2012, I was literally in depression. I was in some very dark places where I was not talking to anybody. I was living with my parents, but I'd come home from work, go straight to my room and not talk to anybody. Or eat dinner with my parents and go straight to my room, not talking to anybody. 2012 my dad told me if you're gonna live in my house, you're going to have to go to recovery, sober recovery. So I went and got involved in that and been involved in that for the last eight years. And in those past eight or nine years now, nine years I've been involved, I have got free from pornography. I've been free from all mental health issues and the way this whole podcast journey has started and is still going is on April 7th. 2020 when the pandemic hitand everything was just going crazy here, I took a voluntary lay off from my job and got home and found LinkedIn and just started connecting with people, starting networking with people. And then got connected with Gabriel Leal. And then that's where the fire, the passion, the oh my gosh. I do have a story I wanted to get it out on LinkedIn. I started with Gabriel, came on your show, been with Russ Hedge, been with Michelle Mars, been on at one point I was on the 24 hour show with Jason Liberman and all those guys sharing my story and just telling people that no matter where you're at in life, no matter where you've been, you can come back from it. And you've got to ask for him. Don't stay stuck in yourself and don't stay shut down because when you stay shut down and when you stay closed off, you're not going to get healthy. You're not gonna be able to help others. And when you start sharing your story, you can help others because people will see your story.  At this point in like the whole year and a half I've been doing this, I literally talk to people on every continent and had people on my podcast from every continent and we all have the same story. Everybody has the same story. And it's so interesting to hear that we're all in this together. Like we may not have met each other personally, but we're all in this together in it's all about connections. It's all about just reaching out and talking to people. And that's what it takes.

Russ Johns: [00:06:42] It's amazing when you think about it, David, because ultimately if you listen to people and you pay attention, you will know that there is a connection. We are connected. We do have a common thread, even if the media and the mindset of some people today are, it's ah, we'll never get along. There's something that we can find common ground on. And I think it's really important for us to understand what the connections are rather than what the differences are.

David Munford: [00:07:15] Oh gosh. Yes.

Russ Johns: [00:07:16] Amplify the we and make sure that it's okay. Cause like right now we got Elize all the way from South Africa. Thank you so much for being here Elize. Happy Monday, everyone. Luis, good morning, Russ and David from groovy Los Angeles. Hope you're well, is it hot there? Marcia pleasant Monday morning #piratenation. Yes, absolutely blessed to be here. Absolutely, gentlemen, I woke up breathing, the rest is gravy. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The rest is gravy. I got up.

David Munford: [00:07:50] I woke up.

Russ Johns: [00:07:51] That's awesome, David. Michael Baker's here. Good morning pirates. And Luis says, yes, it is hot in LA. So I heard the Northwest is really catching some heat. They're not used to the heat up in the Northwest. My friends up in Seattle, I hope you find some comfort and cool weather soon. David, one of the things that I have been doing, and by the way, fun fact for those listening in or listening to the future, this is episode 450. So your 450, David. I don't know what your original episode was. It's not really important, but today is 450. And the only reason I know that is cause I was going through stuff and I want to start producing a lot more impact in the world and as a podcaster, you and I talked earlier you asked me some questions about podcasting. I know Gabe has been really influential in your podcasting journey and going back and forth and just learning and discovering. Jenny Gold is another one. Hey, Russ Johns. I was just on her podcast on Friday. So it's really this world is opening up and people are sharing stories and producing results. Wendy's in the room. Good morning, Russ and David. Amplify the we, #piratenation. Yes. Congratulations Russ. Yes, 450. And the reason I bring it up is because there's two pieces of our story. There's the one we can tell. And the one that we can share and the consistency in our life is change. And as we continue to grow and share and help others, life seems to be getting better all the time. And the podcast that you're doing now, share a little bit about what you're doing with that podcast and what your story and what your focuses on that area.

David Munford: [00:09:47] One was just connecting with people all over the place and just allowing them to share their story and providing a safe place for them to come on and be vulnerable, be real. And let them say that they have a story because most people don't realize they have a story. And then when they start talking, they're like, oh my gosh, I never thought about this. Or I never had to share this with anybody. And I've had a couple people, I haven't released them yet,  soon I will be releasing the episodes, but I've had a couple people share their stories that they're like, I've never shared this with anybody. I've never felt comfortable enough to share this in public or  even  like they have their own podcast and they shared some things in their lives that they went through and it made me  feel real good that I'm making an impact in this world. I'm allowing others to be vulnerable and I'm allowing others to just talk because through the pandemic, that's what people needed. Or that's what I felt like we needed is a safe place to share our struggles, share things in life that's going on because you don't have that. We don't really have a safe place to talk. If we're trying to be vulnerable, people shut us down for being vulnerable so I wanted to give people that opportunity, like I had, like I was given to share their stories. Now, season two, whenever I start that, I don't know, not quite sure. I haven't got a date set. Season 2 I have a cohost that's going to be coming on with me from time to time. She was on one of my last couple episodes. We made a great connection, just a great friendship, reached out to her about being the cohost. She was like, yes, I would love to be co-host. And she is a licensed therapist in the state of Florida. So going to have her own, and we're gonna be talking about that. Bring her knowledge in when we talk to people, but season two, I'm going to be focusing on a little bit more the mental health issues of what people are going through, more deeper level stuff, because people need to realize we're real. That you can come back. That you are a human being. We're not human doings. We're being, we we gotta be who we are. And just how important it is to just to be who you are not to be mask up or just be who you are. If no one likes it, oh and that's what I've learned for myself because I am who I am.

Russ Johns: [00:12:24] Yeah, I don't need to apologize for who I am and it's definitely not necessarily something I want anyone else to do. It's like just connect, be real, be authentic. And that gets tossed around a lot,  so it's getting cliche, however, the thing that I love about podcasting and live streaming and the media is we don't have to put up our guard. We don't have to be processed. We don't have to process anything. We can actually just be who we are and it's okay to be who we are. And it's okay to share our stories. I've always promoted this idea. We all have a gift. We all have a message. We all have a story and we have an experience that somebody else is waiting to hear because they don't want to feel alone. People don't want to feel alone. They want to feel like I can relate to that. I know that  I've had that experience. I felt that way. I know how that feels. I can't understand exactly how you feel. I can understand your circumstance and I can appreciate how you're feeling about your circumstance, especially when it comes to mental health.  There's been many dark days that we all have something in our lives where that moment where you're thinking  what's going on? Why me? And it's not a pity party as much as it is a reflection in life and what's the meaning of life and how do we fit in where we fit in? So it's moments that we have to really think about and consider. So Michael Baker says, great job. Keep it going. And be the #inspiration. Absolutely. Kenyatta Turner is in the house. Good morning. #PirateBroadcast crew. Absolutely.  Let's chat about LinkedIn. Kenyatta is going to be on, I think Friday, are you on Friday, Kenyatta? Junaid is in the house.  He's got some programs coming out. Stay tuned for Junaid, promote something and get you on the show again, Junaid. So thank you for being here. Awesome. So David, we got this idea of storytelling, we got this idea of podcasts, broadcasts, live streams, whatever it happens to be. You recently got on LinkedIn live. So talk a little bit about your journey on getting into LinkedIn live. Is it something that you pursued, you wanted to get on? I noticed there they're opening up the gates a little bit. So talk about a little bit about that for anybody that wants to share that experience with you.

David Munford: [00:15:09] Oh my gosh. That was an experience  because that is literally been a year and a half struggle  to the point of where I almost gave up.

Russ Johns: [00:15:22] How many times did you apply?

David Munford: [00:15:24] I can't even count. I don't even know how many times I applied, but about  weeks ago on a Tuesday night, I think I was either laying in the bed or I just woke up that morning. I was like, okay, I'm just throwing it out there one more time. Just one more shot. Let's give it one more shot. And I got the email and it said, oh, we've accepted your application. We'll reach out to you if you're accepted. I was like, okay, whatever. I've seen these emails thousands of times before. Wednesday night, I was sitting in my recliner and I got an email and I thought, oh, it's from work. Cause it said, congratulations. And that's what our work email says when we get money put  on a card, if we sold stuff. So I'm like, congratulations. And I read a little bit further. And it said, congratulations, you've been approved for LinkedIn lives. And I was like, oh my God. Oh, my gosh, my wife was like, what's wrong? I said, I finally got LinkedIn Live. She's don't do that ever again. You just scared the crap out of me.  I've been talking to people about it, but I can almost relate to it's one thing in life where I'm just going to try it one more time. One more time, one more time, but you don't give up.

Russ Johns: [00:16:40] Yeah. That's that goes back to consistency.

David Munford: [00:16:44] How am I going to use it? I'm still learning how to go live or what platform do you use to go live? But I've had a lot of people that have been on my podcast that said, we'll just be live because they got people that want to see that, want to watch it live. I'm like, I don't have LinkedIn Live. I'm trying to do LinkedIn and I've tried some other platforms to do live. I'm going to be using it for my podcasts, because I love being live because you can be more vulnerable doing zoom, but being live, it just takes it that one step further of being real where if something happens in the background or I've had people say, when we do zoom calls or do podcasts, my kids may be here or the dog might bark. I'm like, okay, that's life.

Russ Johns: [00:17:34] That's life.

David Munford: [00:17:37] And I don't care. I don't care. I want people to realize we're all humans. Life's gonna happen. My wife's gonna, if the feed cuts out in the middle of it, or if it's choppy, that's fine. I want people to realize it's okay to be vulnerable. I want people to realize it's okay to just be who you are, like drop the mask and just be like, I'm having a horrible rotten day. Okay, great. Maybe one conversation can change that maybe coming on live and being real can change that outlook for the rest of the day for you. It has for me.

Russ Johns: [00:18:17] Neena Perez. Good morning. Neena says also I've been waiting for months and months.

David Munford: [00:18:24] Try one more time.

Russ Johns: [00:18:26] Yeah. Just keep trying it out. Kenyatta says,Russ Johns I'll be crashing the #PirateBroadcast™ on Thursday, July 1st. Can't wait to chop it up with you. Love you Kenyatta. Thank you so much. Junaid, hey, my friend. Russ Hedge is in the house. Good morning. A lot of positive influence here today. Yeah. It's great to be out there. Okay. Neena says I will try. Yeah.  Just systematically put it on your calendar for about every other month.  Just put it out there.

David Munford: [00:18:59] That's what I did.  The first couple of times I went to what they said, like every six months or something when I didn't get it every quarter. And then I went from,  I applied, I didn't hear anything. I would try maybe two weeks later. And then I threw up some content, replied on some posts. And then I tried again and then went up maybe like a week and I threw it out there again. So people say there's an algorithm to it. I don't think there is. I think it's just being consistent and just saying, hey, I'm on here. Just deal with it.

Russ Johns: [00:19:38] Russ, you got the power. Can you just get it?

David Munford: [00:19:41] Yeah. Come on

Russ Johns: [00:19:44] Neena. I love you. I would do anything for you that I could. I'll put that vibe out there and I'll share it. Come on LinkedIn. Let's get Neena. Let's start a campaign. We'll start a campaign. Get Neena live. When are you going to come on Neena? By the way, we'll have to get on Tuesday. I have a show on Tuesday as well on the WinJect Studios community Tuesday at 11 Pacific standard time. I go live it's a show that I'm doing over there. And also, I also have Amazon live, David. I don't know if you knew that. Amazon live. I got accepted into their influencer program.  We'll see how that goes. Yeah. I was on an a couple of weeks ago, I was with Jim Fuhs and he's on there with Chris and we were talking about it and I had applied earlier and I've been on the the affiliate program for a long time. And so just going back and forth and getting on that. So I've gone live a couple of times. I've still, I actually have considered adding the #PirateBroadcast to Amazon live as a destination. So I'll play around with that. Cause there's some guidelines there that may be crossing, pushing the boundaries a little bit, but I've never been shy of pushing the boundaries.

David Munford: [00:21:01] You gotta have fun. Some of the conversations I've had, I think back to some episodes that are coming out on the podcast. We go deep into some conversations. I even share some things personally for my own that I've never shared. And when I shared that, I was like, okay, this just got really real and vulnerable for me personally, because I've never shared, I've never wanted to talk about it, but you just get to a point in life...

Russ Johns: [00:21:29] Was that healing for you?

David Munford: [00:21:30] Healing's not even the word for it. It's kinda like you're carrying around for so long that when you finally just get it all out and be open about it, the weight that's taken off of you, it's just...

Russ Johns: [00:21:46] Guilt and shame is a very heavy blanket.

David Munford: [00:21:48] And it is. And last Tuesday night at celebrate recovery I reconnected with somebody I had not seen in, I don't know, maybe 15 years. It's it was a long time. And I didn't realize I was carrying resentment and anger for a situation that happened, not with them, but with a whole nother situation. And when I saw them and I talked to them and I left that night and I was driving home, I got maybe five minutes from my house and I literally felt everything from a past situation, literally disappear. And I was like, oh my gosh, I did not know I was still holding that resentment. It was released from seeing an individual that had nothing to do with a previous experience, had nothing to do with it. But, I guess they were connected to the place I worked, but seeing them and telling them it's going to be okay, you're in a safe place, finally allowed me to just say, okay, I'm done. It's good. Okay,  I can move on.

Russ Johns: [00:23:14] Kenyatta Turner says congrats on getting LinkedIn live, David. Now you have to do something with it. Neena says what? Amazon has live. Yes.  Amazon has live and it's not a huge community. However, the people that were originally there, they've probably been on it for a couple of years and there are people  they do it full time. It's like QVC network. They talking about products all day and I'm not necessarily somebody that's liking to talk about products.

David Munford: [00:23:47] Yeah.

Russ Johns: [00:23:47] I'll have to share the link. I should have it up here. I should know it really quick. However, I'm a little slow. It's morning time. I've only had one cup of...and Wendy, I'm drinking chai tea this morning. So she'll appreciate that. David, so when are you going to commit to the next second season? Commit to us?

David Munford: [00:24:12] Let me see. I'm going to say September.

Russ Johns: [00:24:16] Not till September? You're going to make us wait till September?

David Munford: [00:24:19] Probably. It may be August. I've said August all along. July is just totally nuts for me. It's nuts. But I'm going to say August, I'd say August all along. So I'll probably pipe in August.

Russ Johns: [00:24:34] 1st of August, last of August?

David Munford: [00:24:36] I'll probably say 1st of August.

Russ Johns: [00:24:38] Okay. First week, or 1st of August.

David Munford: [00:24:42] I would say within the first week of August, I'll go within the first week. And I know you can understand this, things with season two are going to be a little bit different when I do my podcast, because I tried so much and life is so crazy that I'm doing one day a week. And that's because life is just nuts and I still want to do it, but I don't want to get burnt out, so I'm gonna do one day a week. Mondays are going to be the best day. Monday evenings are going to be the best time for me to do it just with my schedule

Russ Johns: [00:25:17] I look forward to it and thanks for coming back on the pirate community. And #piratenation is looking forward to more activity from the pirates and reach out, connect everyone. I just want to  let you know that we're here, we're broadcasting five days a week on a number of channels. So like, comment, share. If anybody wants to know about this, let's grow this community. Let's expand it. And I got the #PirateSyndicate, I'm helping others broadcast. If you don't want to hassle with the technology, you don't want to hassle with all the effort and booking, scheduling, all that kind of stuff, talk to me about that. Cause I want to make sure that you have the tools necessary to share your story, your gifts, all of the things you're doing. Building strategy for a lot of companies, a lot of people. Love to have a conversation with you and I'm going to be reaching out to the pirates as well on a more frequent basis. And also I've got some secret projects that I'm going to be starting up, that I'm going to be sharing as well.  A couple of little things that I'm going to be sharing on a smaller group. So look forward to some connections there. I love you. And thank you so much because #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and I want you to #enjoytheday. Thank you, David. Appreciate you. Thank you. Have an awesome week. We'll be in touch.

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