David Taylor-Klaus launches Act 1 describing walking one very specific tightrope of his childhood: “Dude, it was odd! I grew up a liberal Jew in the South, 20 miles from where the Klan reconstituted in 1898!” He points to reverberations of the 1958 Atlanta synagogue bombing that impacted his early experience in the ‘70’s and '80's.
David shares how he shocked his mother by saying “bye, y’all!” to his classmates as he stepped off a school bus just days after starting school in Atlanta. He unpacks the influence – and beauty – of navigating life with undiagnosed ADHD, highlighting how he developed his own ability to be present by listening. As he says, “being listened to is so much like being loved that people can scarcely tell the difference.”
DTK, as he is known to those of us who love him, borrows an important teaching story from Alan Alda, upping the ante on our Act 1 theme of listening.
David offers lessons from history, highlighting the phenomenon of “othering” and objectification – and offering a relatively simple antidote to begin creating connection.
As we begin to wrap this first half of our conversation, DTK creates a key distinction between bosses and leaders, shares what he wants for the people closest to him and offers us an important step toward “unf$@king” our world.
David Taylor-Klaus is a speaker, author, and leadership coach on a mission to unearth and unleash the power of the heart for entrepreneurs and senior executives. Since 2008, DTK has empowered his tribe to take an active, intentional, and dynamic role in their development and create the kind of life rhythm that enables them to build profitable businesses, raise thriving families, and live wildly fulfilling lives... not necessarily in that order
His best-selling new book “Mindset Mondays with DTK: 52 Ways to REWIRE Your Thinking and Transform Your Life" is available on Amazon.
You can find DTK on his website, dtkcoaching.com as well as the following Socials: