Episode 142 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:01.764)
Hello, Anthony, welcome to the Hustle Rebellion. How are you?
Anthony Dahya (00:06.264)
Thank you, Heather. I'm very well, thank you.
Heather Porter (00:08.886)
Excellent. Love it. Welcome. We're to have such a good chat. I always like to start with really great tangible tips that our listeners and our viewers on YouTube can take away. And then we'll get into what, what you're off to these days and why you're doing the amazing things you're doing. starting with tips, what are a few tips or tactics that you personally use when you're feeling a bit stressed or overwhelmed in your business journey?
Anthony Dahya (00:23.342)
So.
Anthony Dahya (00:34.722)
Yeah, one of the main things is breathing. Breathing is so important, Breathing is such a natural thing that we do, but we forget to breathe in times when we're stressed and when pressure's on at business. And really it's time to really take that time out and take that deep breath. Because when you're breathing shallow or when you're breathing fast, you're breathing shallow. When you're breathing slow, you're breathing deep. And that's one way of regulating your emotions and your
and your feelings and everything that's going on for you at the time. So yeah, obviously working in corporate world, there's a lot of pressure and especially in this day and age at the moment, there's a lot of restructuring going on. And believe it or not, for me, I've been in 24th, I'm in my 24th restructure right now in my career. And so you can imagine what the vibe is like within an organization when change happens, right?
Heather Porter (01:23.598)
Wow.
Anthony Dahya (01:32.024)
So yeah, the first thing is breathing. The other thing I reckon is important is also meditation is important. One of the things I do is every morning is meditate and also what am I grateful for? Often when you're grateful for things, your whole perspective changes. part of mindset is really building that habit of, or regular habit of being grateful for something.
morning and night. And lastly, I'd say another thing that's really important as humans, and because we are all made of energy, is to really ground yourself. And I think you could go out somewhere outside the building and just really take that breath of air and take the sun and just ground yourself. I do this visualization technique every morning where I see myself
my legs going into the center of the earth to create this channel. And then I hop into an elevator, I go down to the center of the earth. And then what I do is I run across this bridge and I come to this opening where the sun and the ocean and the hills are there. And what I do is I stand there and my old self gets burnt or, and then I regenerate and then I go back up onto my body and I effectively grounding myself. So those are some of the techniques that you can use.
Heather Porter (02:52.409)
Nice.
Anthony Dahya (02:59.142)
And also, I think if you're feeling stress, then it's good to go and talk to someone as well, someone that you trust.
Heather Porter (03:07.97)
Yeah, I really like that. Do you know that your what you've said are common themes over and over and over again by the people I've spoken to over the last couple of years. The meditation is really important, the breathing, the different breathing exercises, do you have a specific sort of breathing exercise or formula that you like to use?
Anthony Dahya (03:09.411)
Yeah.
Anthony Dahya (03:16.558)
Hmm.
Anthony Dahya (03:26.728)
Yeah, can, I do like four, four, count for four in, so take a deep breath for four counts and then hold for six counts and then breathe, well actually hold for four counts and then breathe out for six counts. So your breath in should be shorter than your breath out and the breath out should be slower. And you just, so for example, into your belly and then
You've got to really let that breath out. And what that does is it completely regulates you. They say that it takes about 90 seconds to move, shift your thoughts away from whatever's going on in yourself. 90 seconds to shift it. I've heard Mel Robbins talk about the 5 -4 -3 -2 -1 method. That also works as well. Yeah.
Heather Porter (04:15.418)
Yeah. Yeah. And I've heard the box breathing method, the 4444. Yeah. Similar sort of thing. And I want to talk about meditation because I look, I'm a, I love everything that you're doing. I do all of it and it's in the grounding as well. but for those that are kind of stressed and want to get started in one of these practices, let's say they do want to embark on the meditation journey. Do you have any tips for them, any tools or, or apps or anything where they could start?
Anthony Dahya (04:19.16)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Anthony Dahya (04:43.33)
Yeah, there's plenty of apps around. I've used the Calm app before, which Jay Shetty talks about a lot as well. I think he's like the people, chief people officer for that one. So that's a good one. But there's plenty of apps out there. But also you could just use something like YouTube. There's plenty of meditation videos on YouTube. Also, what I do is I've got Apple Music subscription. So I just go and download to Apple Music.
Heather Porter (04:48.367)
Me too.
Anthony Dahya (05:13.154)
And then I've got that with me all the time. Sometimes I do walking meditation where if I go for a walk, I actually play that. And it might just be, sometimes it may just be frequencies that I'm listening to really to get my energy frequency up as well. And it's important because whatever energy we're putting out to the universe is what we're drawing back to ourselves. So we're going to make sure that our energy is at the right place so that what we desire, we attract.
Heather Porter (05:25.732)
Yeah.
Anthony Dahya (05:42.272)
that's how the law of attraction works is that where our energy goes, where our attention goes, energy flows.
Heather Porter (05:48.954)
Yeah, so true. I've had moments in just my personal development, my career development where I've gotten so stressed that I just keep attracting clients or projects that just stack onto that because that's all I'm doing. yeah, and I love that you said it's 90 seconds. It's not a long time for you to sit and change your physiology and what you're feeling just by doing simple breathing exercises as well. Smart.
Anthony Dahya (06:04.632)
Mm.
Anthony Dahya (06:15.598)
And it's important to also know that, you know, your thoughts shape your reality. Your thoughts shape your personality, and then your personality shapes your reality. So I listened to Dr. Joe Dispenso. He's like one of my go -to people. And the things he says really make so much sense. also listen to people who are really, you know, into that meditation and breathing space and get some tips and...
Heather Porter (06:24.303)
Yeah.
Anthony Dahya (06:45.676)
and so on
Heather Porter (06:47.096)
Amazing. So now I want to move on and share a little bit about your journey because you do, you have like a LinkedIn group and you have a podcast on the champion mindset. And I want to talk through how this movement, I'm going to call it has come to be. So where, what's your background, Anthony? And then how have you started this whole movement?
Anthony Dahya (07:06.414)
Absolutely. So I'll go back to my childhood. was five years old when my parents separated through family interference. And at that point, at the age of seven, I got sent to an ashram in India, which is a boarding school. Now, it was literally crossed between army and prison. We had barbed wire fences. We weren't allowed out. I saw my dad maybe once a year. that, he was traveling the world for my uncle's company. So he was working abroad. I never knew my mom until I was 21.
Heather Porter (07:19.525)
wow.
Anthony Dahya (07:35.992)
So I made up the story that I was abandoned, I was rejected. I was literally dropped there by the driver and he took off. I'm like seven years old going, okay, what do I do now? So I spent six years in that ashram. Now, that journey, of course as that journey continued, not having a mother's love or affection impacted the way I was showing up in the world.
Heather Porter (07:43.801)
Wow.
Anthony Dahya (08:05.038)
at times of my life. And that pattern just continued. I didn't have a romantic bone in my body. I wasn't very affectionate back when I had my first girlfriend at 25. And, you know, I think that was the start of like, how do I go on this personal development journey? And I didn't go to coaches or anyone, because I've always been the kind of person, I've always been a self -help type of person. And I started to develop this
In fact, I started to learn how to manifest things into my life. And I just started putting intentions out there. And I've just started reading this book, The Power of Intentions, by Wayne Dwyer. And what an amazing book. And so I started putting intentions out there and things started to happen in my life. And so as my life went on, in my work and in my personal life, when triggers popped up,
Heather Porter (08:49.496)
Yes.
Anthony Dahya (09:03.374)
I would feel abandoned. would react in a certain way rather than being able to respond in a certain way. And it's only in maybe the last 10 years or so that I've actually learned how to do that. Now, as I mentioned before, I've been through 24, this is my 24th restructure currently that I'm going through in my career. And I've been made redundant three times. And every time that I've been made redundant, it's been...
It's been like, it's felt like I've been abandoned again, all over again. So, because you go back to your past, right? And so what I've learned and the last redundancy, was last year, June last year, excuse me, June last year, I decided to go on a journey of coaching and consulting. Now,
Heather Porter (09:36.644)
Kenya.
Anthony Dahya (10:04.446)
I, coaching wasn't my end goal. was something that I was doing for myself. Excuse me, I'm just going to pause here. that all right? You're in there, right? Frog in the throat.
Heather Porter (10:13.196)
Yeah, no, you're fine. All good. I'll make an editor's note. Yeah, yeah, we're good. We'll edit. I know.
Anthony Dahya (10:23.33)
So as I was saying, last year when I got my redundant, I started my coaching and consulting journey, but it wasn't my end goal.
I did that so that I could actually work through some of the challenges I was going through, but also learn how to show up and coach, help others as well. Now through that was when the Champion Mindset Collective podcast was birthed. So November last year, I decided to face my fears and start the podcast. But before that, I was struggling to get on camera. Now I've been a singer. I've sang in front of 40 ,000 people. I've sang in Las Vegas.
Heather Porter (11:02.36)
my God.
Anthony Dahya (11:04.366)
And I've done little bits of acting, but to get in front of a camera and speak was really, really hard. So while I started the podcast, because I thought if I don't start, I'm never going to finish. So that's the thing. If you want to do something, just start now. Even if you just do a trailer, right? Or if you don't want to write a book, just write the title. The rest will just come. And then in December,
New Year's Eve, I decided I was going to challenge myself to really scare myself silly. And I did. I set a goal to do 31 Facebook Lives in the month of January and just do it right. And I'd started off, five minutes. The very last live I did was an hour long without any preparation at all. And so sometimes I was on the beach.
Heather Porter (11:50.81)
amazing.
Anthony Dahya (12:02.358)
recording it while I was walking and doing my meditation and things like that or other times I was just at home. But the thing is what I learned was that if you want to be a different person you must go through change and you must start, you must change otherwise you cannot be your future self. The other thing is I saw a vision seven years ago and I remember New Year's Eve seven years ago sitting in my lounge the sun was going down the lights were off and
went dark and I was crying out to Universal God saying, why am I here? What's my purpose? And I remember I'd been listening to Jay Shetty's On Purpose podcast and all of a sudden in the dark, it was almost like my TV lit up. And I saw this vision of me standing on a stage speaking to thousands of people and on one side of the stage I had coaches and mentors and on the other side I had consultants and on the stage with me
were all the greats. Jay Shetty, Lewis Howes, Rob Dole, Tony Robbins, all these people were on stage with me. And I believe it was one of my events. So that gave me the inspiration and the vision to start this podcast, The Champion Mindset Collective. And the reason why I call it Champion Mindset is because I believe that each and every one of us has a champion within us.
You know, we can shift our mindset from fixed mindset to growth mindset. And if we can do that, then we can absolutely have a mindset of a champion. We all have greatness within us. And I believe that if we just go internal rather than looking external and really internalize and discover and be curious about what are the things that I can work on to be a better human being, then I guarantee you, you will do.
great things in your life.
Heather Porter (13:55.362)
Incredible. I love the growth versus fixed mindset as well. Can you touch on that a little bit further? So what's the difference of the two?
Anthony Dahya (14:03.628)
Sure, I'm actually looking across this laptop at the moment and I'm looking at The Mindset by Carol Dweck. And she wrote this book and she talks about this. the fixed mindset is where people think I was born this way. If I don't have any skills and that's the way I was born. So they have this very fixed perspective of their mindset that they can't learn anything, they can't be who they want to be and so on. Whereas with a growth mindset,
you're at of the perspective of, hey, I can learn anything and I can become whoever I want to be. If you take the analogy of a little child, when a child is born, it doesn't know everything. It doesn't, it literally cannot do anything for itself because it's in reliance of its parents, right? But the thing is, as the baby grows into a little toddler and starts to learn how to crawl and then walk,
If you take that analogy of this little child growing up and being able to walk and then run and do whatever it can do in its life. And I've seen my daughter, you know, like taking her to a playground and she's not good on the monkey bars and she just practices, practices, practices. And then she goes, Dad, I did it. And I'm like, absolutely you did. And I said to her, said, you can do anything you want. So the difference is that a lot of people think that the way we are is the way we were born, but you're not.
Heather Porter (15:21.519)
Yeah.
Anthony Dahya (15:34.604)
You can learn everything. And I remember going when we as I was going through this restructure, this current one, there were three people at work that I was talking to and they were like, I don't think we can do that role because it's too technical. I said, guys, the fundamental part of this role is relationship building. And we already do that. That's part of our job. I said, if you've got that, everything else is learnable if you.
apply yourself and they were like yeah you're right.
Heather Porter (16:05.112)
Yeah. So good. Now you said something else. I mean, you've had quite, quite the journey as a child that I, yeah, I can feel through that story, the sense of abandonment that you would have had. And I'm really curious how you got through those triggers. Like what you said, you know, when, when you're, you were made redundant a few times, how, when you're feeling triggered about things, how do you move through those moments?
Anthony Dahya (16:34.946)
Yeah, well, I remember my first redundance. See, I cried. I cried like a little kid. Honestly, I was like, no, I don't want to lose this job. I love this. And the second one, was a little bit, I was better. So I was in the same company, but different stages. And I think I was a sucker for punishment. I went back for more and got my redundance again.
And the second time around, was like, you know what, I've got skills and there are people out there that need my skills. It did take me nine months to find another role. then, but I went from a technical role to a relationship management role where I was working across a local government transport agency, right across 10 divisions of this agency and working from executives all the way down. Now I'd never done this before. And I remember my
the general manager that interviewed me, he says, what do you know about data warehousing? What do you know about this? I said, look, I don't know anything about any of that. But I said, if you want change in your team, I'm your man. And he took me on after a two -hour interview. I was there for three and a half years. Unfortunately, the working in local government, in some, it can be challenging because there's not a lot of empathy. There's not a lot of...
emotional intelligence. so sometimes in leadership, there is that toxic environment. And that did play out in the second and the third redundancy. But this time around, when I've gone through that restructure, I was like, and I've only been in this role for four months. And I was like, Ines, God, what's going on here? Like, okay, what are we doing next? And I just became curious. And I said,
Okay, you put me here for a reason because I've just stopped doing my coaching and I've come into this organization to make a difference. So if that's the case, what are we doing next? So I took that approach of like, hey, just go with the flow. know, when you say go with the flow, like you don't swim upstream, you know, go with the flow of the river because it's going to be way easier. Right. And I believe that
Anthony Dahya (19:02.774)
Everything happens for a reason. Maybe the four months of being in this role was a foot in the door to then jump up to something even better that's going to allow me to then influence leadership across the organization. Now I'm working in a local council, which is one of the largest councils in Australasia. already in four months, I've made like, look, within three months, I started making progress and
I won all of the general managers over. because I just came with a servant heart, you see? And when you come with a servant heart, it's not about your ego. It's all about everyone, everyone else. And so, you know, I, and they've said to me, what can we do to support you? We know you're going through this challenging time. How can we help you? You know? So that is, that is so nice to be able to hear people.
Heather Porter (19:39.71)
Anthony Dahya (20:01.024)
really caring about you. yeah, so each redundancy has shaped me to be a different person because the first one, you know, was definitely hard and I cried. But as the time I've learnt, learnt more, learnt more, learnt more and then adapted as well. So I think, you know, if we trust the universe, trust God or that higher source and go
everything is going to work out. If you shift your mindset to positive thinking, to positive intentions, then remember whatever you think about is whatever you become. And where your attention goes, your energy flows. So if you put your attention into positivity and good intentions, then you're going to draw that back to you. And so the other thing is live a life with ease and flow.
Heather Porter (20:52.875)
Mmm.
Anthony Dahya (21:00.706)
That would be my two things that I would say. And keep yourself calm. Triggers are always going to pop up. But when you work through these triggers and the things that are impacting you, when you work through them, the intensity will drop. And so if I look back to my first redundancy and I look back to now, the intensity is very low. I'm hardly getting triggered now because I'm just like, it's OK.
Heather Porter (21:25.913)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (21:29.974)
You've changed a lot in that process. There's so many people that have these triggers of these moments and they just keep doing the same thing over and over again, right?
Anthony Dahya (21:36.622)
Yeah, and just so you know, the timeline was between 2001 to 2024. this is, know, first one was 2001, second one was 2019, and third one was 2023. And now I'm going through, so those were the redundancies, but like the restructures happened every six months.
Heather Porter (21:43.65)
yet. Okay.
Heather Porter (21:50.82)
Right.
Heather Porter (22:02.554)
You've certainly learned a lot about change and how to get through it and how to actually, resilience and change. Talk to me a little bit about you personally and maybe your podcast and how what you've done has specifically helped other people that you've noticed.
Anthony Dahya (22:08.172)
Resilience.
Anthony Dahya (22:21.558)
Absolutely. So initially when I set out to do this podcast, I wanted to help people. As I mentioned, I wanted to influence. I wanted to help people change their lives. know, sometimes it's really hard, know, like you could read books and so on, but when you listen to something or audible, you can take that in. So specifically over time I have...
some of the episodes I've done, I've published 45 episodes so far since November. And there's one particular episode, 28, which is embracing uncertainty through job losses, restructuring, and life transitions. And that episode, recently, when we found out that we were going through this restructure, I shared that episode with four different people, and they all came back to me after listening to it and said,
Look, I was meant to talk to you. This was meant to happen. And they said that the way you reframe change has given me a new perspective of what change is. And it's given them the tools to be able to maneuver themselves through this difficult time. And because I've been through so many restructures and so on, that has been my...
mission is to help people who are feeling abandoned and rejected, whether it's family or whether it's work. You know, there are going to be things that are going to make you that are going to you are going to feel like you being abandoned. And I want to reassure you that you're not the only one there. There is a lot of people going through this and I want to help people. I want to help people really find ways and strategies to to overcome those those
those difficult moments and those anxieties, because I lived through anxiety and fear for years. And now with that champion mindset, I am limitless, I am fearless. And I'm like, I'm just going to go for whatever I want to do. And I've also helped one lady who came from a broken relationship with three kids and
Heather Porter (24:34.906)
Excellent.
Anthony Dahya (24:42.99)
She was having to go through therapy and go to court. And I remember one day I was walking down the beach and she called me or she messaged me and she she said to me, I can't go to court today. I said, why? And so she, said, give me a call. So she rang me and we were having a chat and she says, because the judge, judge was not listening to me and this and that and it was all the negative stuff, right? I said, what is the intention that you want? I said, you've just told me all the things that have not gone right, but what is it that you want?
And she said, I want to be able to get a judge that listens to me. I want to go back to therapy with my ex. I want this and that. And I said, OK. So I took her through the deep breathing as I was walking. And I said, when you get to court, I want you to sit outside. And I want you to breathe deeply and prepare yourself before you go in. And then let me know what happens. So she messaged me after court. And she says, I did what you asked me to do.
And I felt really calm. And she said, we went in and we had a new judge. So we got the result that I wanted. And we've got to, we're going through therapy with a new therapist. I'm like, there you go. You put out positive intentions and you've manifested that. yeah. And since that day, she's just gone from strength to strength to strength. Yeah. Every time we talk now, she's like, I'm doing great.
Heather Porter (26:05.369)
Yeah.
Anthony Dahya (26:09.816)
I do this, I do that.
Heather Porter (26:12.024)
Wow. Just that little moment in time, right? That little piece of advice can change everything. So if you're open to it, right. Yeah. So with your podcast, cause you mentioned that episode on change, I'd be curious as we start to slowly wrap up here around your thoughts on change. Do you have any advice to people that are going through change? mean, cause we are going through a lot right now as a society, have AI, we have cost of living and we have all sorts of things happening. There's change. So.
Anthony Dahya (26:19.918)
That's another.
Anthony Dahya (26:40.152)
Yes.
Heather Porter (26:40.474)
What do you say to people that are going through these moments of change to get through them easier?
Anthony Dahya (26:46.018)
I would say change is constant. Change is part of our lives, right? If you look back at your life and you from when you were a child to now, how many changes have you gone through? Right? And I believe in this quantum, in the quantum, in the universe, we are shifting identities all the time, every day, every minute, every hour, we are changing identities because we're shifting them. Because when you learn something new, it shifts your
It shifts your mindset. It shifts your perspective. You become a different person. So embrace change, laugh with it, laugh at it, you know, and just embrace it and use the right tools to help you maneuver through that. As I've said before, meditation, deep breathing, even music. Make sure that you're listening to music with positive affirmations. You know, I...
Recently, I interviewed Lady Nadine Royale on my podcast on episode 45. And she's got a power brand where she's actually got positive affirmations on it. All her songs have positive affirmations on it. How many songs do we listen to on the radio or on CDs or streaming where the words that are spoken in the song are not necessarily positive?
Heather Porter (28:13.282)
Mm, a lot.
Anthony Dahya (28:13.496)
And we're speaking those things over ourselves. The Bible talks about it that your words have power. And when you speak something into being, you're actually sowing a seed, and that seed's going to grow. So also I would say, value yourself. Make sure that you believe that you are worthy, because you are. You're absolutely worthy. You're absolutely worthy of greatness. And I encourage you.
that speak your truth. Don't hold back. Speak your truth. And don't be fearful. Be fearless. And speak kind, positive words over your life. And I guarantee you that when you start to do that, those seeds that you sow will grow into something amazing. And it will change your life. And so that's what I do. Yeah.
Heather Porter (29:07.468)
Anthony, really, yeah. A beautiful, I love how you simplify this conversation into tangible, simple steps that you're really good at that. And I wanted to ask next, how do people learn more about you? First of all, do you work with people or is the best way to get access to you through the podcast? Tell me, tell me more.
Anthony Dahya (29:29.014)
Yeah, so I don't do coaching, one -on -one coaching much anymore because I'm working a full -time job as well. Although, look, I'm open to helping anyone and if you, you know, I will make time for you. So if you've resonated with what I've said and you're struggling through the things that I've gone through, you know, rejection, abandonment, fear, anxiety, I encourage you to...
Even if you just comment on my podcast, the podcast is called Champion Mindset Collective. It's on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, and wherever you get your podcasts. I'm also on Facebook and LinkedIn. There's a group called Champion Mindset Collective on both platforms. Join it. And, you know, I encourage you, if you do join that group, to engage with me and ask questions.
Also on the podcast, if you listen to an episode, share that with your friends, family, and your workmates, because we can get this out to the wider world. And also put a comment in the podcast so that I can understand what you're going through and connect with you. Or share it on your social media and tag me in. You can find me as Anthony Dyer. So my name is my brand.
Heather Porter (30:43.609)
Nice.
Anthony Dahya (30:54.286)
I am looking at also in the future doing some webinars with the guests. So any of the guests that have been on my podcast, at some point I'll be inviting them back to do webinars with them. So we can go deeper into the topics we've talked about. And long -term, I have a vision to create a New Zealand version of Mine Valley and have summits where people who are in Australia and New Zealand can get together.
Heather Porter (31:18.05)
Nice.
Anthony Dahya (31:22.708)
and we can have these. Because remember my vision was to speak to thousands of people and influence change. So I encourage you to connect with me. And if you want to have a chat, you're more than welcome to message me and I'll see how I can help you.
Heather Porter (31:43.3)
Well, I have no doubt that you're going to be running these events. Definitely the webinar is coming up as the next step for everything that you've envisioned as well. As we start to wrap up, do you have any last words of wisdom or advice for our listeners?
Anthony Dahya (31:58.252)
Yeah, look, where I've got to in my life is purely through backing myself and believing in myself and that I am worthy and that I am destined for something great. So I encourage you all to champion your life and champion your greatness. Back yourself and believe in yourself. Don't listen to what others say. Listen to your heart. Don't listen to your head.
Listen to your heart, right? The heart -brain connection is so, so powerful. Biggest amount of energy is in your heart center. So believe with your heart and follow your heart and everything else will just come and fall into place. Remember, ease and flow.
Heather Porter (32:47.642)
He's in flow. Thank you, Anthony, so much for being here. What a lovely chat and really appreciate your time as well.
Anthony Dahya (32:54.594)
Thank you so much, Heather. I've had an amazing time chatting with you and the audience. Thank you.
Heather Porter (32:59.236)
Thank you.
