Tag: why.os

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When Everything Falls Apart: How to Make Sense of Your Life and Start Again

Guest: Dr. Dave Jones
WHY.os: Make Sense – Better Way – Mastery

Dr. Dave Jones didn’t follow a straight path to success. He went from chasing a professional hockey career overseas to standing in a locker room at 26, realizing it was over. No plan. No direction. No idea what came next.

That moment could have broken him. Instead, it forced him to do what he naturally does best: make sense of the chaos. His WHY is Make Sense, which means he’s driven to take complex, overwhelming situations and turn them into something clear and usable. This episode shows what happens when that ability is used on your own life.

You’ll learn:

  • How to move forward when your original plan falls apart
  • Why clarity, not motivation, is what actually gets you unstuck
  • How a WHY of Make Sense helps you turn confusion into direction

Want to learn your WHY? It is now 50% off for all Beyond Your WHY listeners! [Click here!]

Get in touch with Dave:

Watch the Full Episode Here!

00:00 – Introduction to WHY: Make Sense
03:50 – Growing up and chasing hockey
08:20 – Getting humbled in juniors
11:25 – The moment everything changed
13:30 – Feeling lost and starting over
15:20 – Building a business from nothing
17:10 – Why purpose isn’t handed to you
20:30 – Why most people feel stuck at work
23:00 – Looking forward vs looking back
31:30 – The R7 process explained

Listen to the Episode Here!

When Everything Falls Apart: How to Make Sense of Your Life and Start Again

Most people think success comes from having a plan. Dr. Dave Jones learned the opposite. His biggest turning point came when his plan completely fell apart.

In this episode of Beyond Your WHY, Dr. Dave shares what it feels like to lose direction and how he rebuilt from nothing. His story is a clear example of the WHY of Make Sense. That means he is driven to take complex situations and turn them into something clear and actionable. WHY.os adds another layer by showing how someone does that and what they naturally bring to others, making it practical in real life.

When the Plan Stops Working

Dave’s early life was focused on hockey. He built his identity around it and pushed everything else aside. School didn’t matter. The goal was simple: go pro.

But reality hit fast. After getting humbled in juniors and bouncing around teams, he realized something wasn’t adding up. By the time he was playing in Germany, the gap between where he was and where he thought he should be became impossible to ignore.

He described the moment clearly:
“I can see myself in the locker room… I had the epiphany. Like, what are you doing, dude? It’s time to move on.”

That moment forced a decision most people avoid. Let go of the identity you built.

The Space Between Who You Were and Who You’ll Become

What came next wasn’t clarity. It was confusion.

Dave found himself in a new country, without hockey, without direction, and without a strong sense of who he was. He didn’t just feel lost. He questioned whether he even liked himself.

“I had the view of the world that if I can put enough people down, I will get ahead… I didn’t like myself.”

This is where his WHY of Make Sense shows up in a different way. Instead of solving external problems, he had to solve himself.

People with this WHY often step into chaos and create clarity for others. But when life turns inward, they have to apply that same skill to their own identity.

Turning Chaos Into a Direction

Dave didn’t suddenly find a perfect answer. He started with a question.

“What do I do now?”

That question led him to start a marketing agency. Not because it was a perfect plan, but because it was the next step that made sense at the time.

The early years were rough. He expected quick success, but reality looked different.

“I think we invoiced that year $15,000… it was a rough year. It was bad.”

But this is where his WHY.os comes into play.

  • His WHY (Make Sense): turn confusion into clarity
  • His HOW (Better Way): look for improved approaches
  • His WHAT (Mastery): go deep and build expertise

That combination meant he didn’t quit. He kept refining, learning, and improving until things started working.

Why Most People Stay Stuck

One of the most honest parts of the episode is Dave’s perspective on work and fulfillment.

He shared a stat that hit hard:
“88% of the US economy is disengaged at work.”

His takeaway is simple. Most people build their life around skills instead of purpose.

“You have to be fulfilled to your passion and your purpose and your why.”

This ties directly back to the WHY of Make Sense. Without clarity, people default to what they’re told to do. With clarity, they can choose a direction that actually fits them.

Moving Forward Instead of Looking Back

Dave also challenges a common idea in personal growth. Yes, your past matters. But staying stuck in it doesn’t help.

“At some point… you have to look forward.”

That perspective reflects how someone with Make Sense operates. They don’t ignore problems. They solve them and move forward.

Clarity isn’t about understanding everything perfectly. It’s about understanding enough to take the next step.

Final Thoughts

Dr. Dave’s story isn’t about having everything figured out. It’s about learning how to think when nothing is clear.

He didn’t avoid confusion. He worked through it.

And that’s the real takeaway. You don’t need a perfect plan. You need the ability to make sense of what’s in front of you.

If you’re feeling stuck or unsure what’s next, this episode will give you a new way to look at it.

Listen to the full episode to hear how Dave turned confusion into clarity and built a life that actually fits him.

Meet the Guest

Dave Jones brings a rare combination of professional athlete experience, military service, and psychological expertise to his work as founder of one of the world’s largest Christian marketing agencies. After competing professionally in hockey across Europe, Dave founded M is Good in 2001, developing the innovative R7 process that helps leaders effectively communicate vision.

With a doctorate in Sport and Performance Psychology, he coaches elite athletes from the NHL, NFL, and other sports through his Mental Toughness Training system. As a four-year U.S. Air Force veteran, Dave now lives in Raleigh, NC with his family while running three successful companies that blend his Christian brand development expertise with performance coaching.

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Podcast

Why Adam Bensman Walked Away at the Top

Guest: Adam Bensman
WHY.os: Challenge – Make Sense – Better Way

Adam Bensman is known as The Roof Strategist, but his story has very little to do with roofing and everything to do with refusing to accept systems that don’t make sense. From a non-traditional education path to door-to-door sales, to becoming COO of a multi-state company, Adam has repeatedly questioned the “normal” way things are done and chosen a harder but more honest path.

In this episode of Beyond Your WHY, Adam’s WHY of Challenge shows up in how he builds businesses, sets boundaries, and walks away from success when it no longer fits. His story is a clear example of what happens when someone is driven to challenge the status quo, make sense of broken systems, and create a better way forward for others.

  • Why high performers with the WHY of Challenge often struggle in school but thrive in real-world environments
  • How Adam’s WHY.os shaped his decision to leave burnout behind and rebuild his business from scratch
  • What it looks like to challenge an industry without becoming cynical or reckless

If you’ve ever felt boxed in by a system that “works” but doesn’t feel right, this episode will hit home. Listen to hear how Adam turned discomfort into clarity.

Get in touch with Adam:

Watch the Full Episode Here!

00:00 – Why the WHY of Challenge rejects the normal path
04:30 – Feeling out of place in traditional systems
09:40 – Choosing an unconventional education
16:30 – The first roofing sale and betting on himself
22:45 – Rising to COO and seeing broken systems clearly
28:05 – Burnout, health scares, and walking away
33:20 – Building The Roof Strategist by solving real problems
36:45 – Creating ethical boundaries in business
42:20 – Fear, risk, and self-trust
49:15 – The difference between struggling and successful leaders

Listen to the Episode Here!

Why Adam Bensman Challenges an Entire Industry to Do Business Differently

Adam Bensman’s story doesn’t follow a clean, predictable arc. It zigzags through unconventional schools, financial stress, intense burnout, and bold decisions most people only think about making. What ties it all together is his WHY of Challenge, a core drive to question systems that don’t make sense and refuse paths that feel misaligned.

The Beyond Your WHY podcast exists to show how people live their WHY in the real world. A WHY explains what drives someone at their core. A WHY.os goes further by adding HOW they naturally operate and WHAT they bring into the world. Adam’s WHY.os of Challenge – Make Sense – Better Way explains not just what he’s built, but why he’s repeatedly torn things down and rebuilt them differently.

When the System Doesn’t Fit

From an early age, Adam felt friction with traditional education. He didn’t struggle because he lacked ability. He struggled because the structure itself felt limiting. As he put it, “You can’t put me in a box.” That resistance wasn’t rebellion for attention. It was an early signal of his WHY pushing back against rigid systems.

Rather than forcing himself to comply, Adam found environments that allowed him to think differently. That pattern would repeat throughout his life. Each time a system stopped making sense, he questioned it. Each time it felt wrong, he looked for another way.

Betting on Himself Without a Safety Net

Adam’s entry into roofing wasn’t planned. It came from financial pressure and a willingness to try something uncomfortable. Door-to-door sales were brutal, but they rewarded effort and problem-solving more than credentials. That mattered to someone wired to challenge norms.

“I went from making $20,000 a year to six figures in eight months,” Adam shared. That jump wasn’t luck. It was the result of applying logic, questioning inefficiencies, and refusing to accept “that’s just how it works” as an answer.

Success, Burnout, and Walking Away

Rising to COO of a multi-state company looked like success from the outside. Inside, Adam was exhausted. Long drives, constant travel, and mounting pressure took a toll on his health. He eventually landed in the ICU before age 30. That moment forced a reckoning.

Sitting on his honeymoon, Adam realized the life he built didn’t match the life he wanted. He left without a perfect plan, trusting his ability to figure things out. “I had zero tolerance, and I left,” he said. That decision reflected the truest expression of his WHY.

Creating a Better Way Forward

What Adam built next wasn’t just a business. It was a response to what he saw going wrong in his industry. Training systems were being misused. People were being taken advantage of. Instead of turning away, Adam drew a line.

He rebuilt his company around ethics, accountability, and community. Membership became selective. Bad actors were removed. Growth was tied to values. This wasn’t about scaling faster. It was about doing it right.

The Power of Diagnosing the Right Problem

One of Adam’s clearest insights is that most people work hard on the wrong problems. “The difference between successful leaders and struggling ones is the ability to diagnose problems accurately,” he explained. Fixing low-impact issues feels productive but leads nowhere.

Leaders driven by Challenge don’t just work harder. They question whether the work matters at all. That mindset changes everything.

Adam Bensman’s story is proof that challenging the status quo isn’t reckless when it’s guided by clarity. His WHY.os shows how questioning broken systems, making sense of chaos, and building better solutions can create impact without burning everything down.

If you’ve ever felt like success came at the cost of yourself, this episode offers a different lens. Listen to hear how Adam redefined what “winning” looks like.

Meet Adam!

Adam Bensman, known as The Roof Strategist, is a roofing sales expert, best-selling author, and industry advocate. He hosts the #1 YouTube Channel and Podcast for sales and business development in the roofing industry. Adam is the author of The Roofing Sales Survival Guide: Beat the Odds, Overcome Yourself, and Win Big and the founder of the Roofing & Solar Reform Alliance (RSRA). His work focuses on helping leaders build profitable, future-proof companies the right way.

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Podcast

The True Summit: Sean Swarner on Finding a Better Way When Life Says “No”

Guest: Sean Swarner
WHY.os: Better Way – Make Sense – Contribute

Sean Swarner is the kind of person who hears “this is impossible” and immediately starts building a plan. In this episode, he talks with Dr. Gary Sanchez about surviving two cancers as a teen, living through a year of brutal treatments, and still choosing goals that would scare most healthy people. The tension is real: how do you keep going when you have every reason to quit, and when even “success” can leave you feeling empty?

Through the lens of Better Way, Sean’s story is not just about endurance. Better Way is the drive to improve what exists, ask “what if there’s a smarter path,” and keep pushing until the approach matches the outcome. Sean uses that mindset to rethink limitations, build systems for progress, and turn personal pain into something that helps other people.

You’ll learn

  • How Sean used a simple mantra to stay steady when Everest felt bigger than his body could handle.
  • What “false summits” are, and why hitting a big goal can still feel empty if your values are not in it.
  • How Better Way thinking helps you find options when everyone else says “there aren’t any.”

If you’ve been chasing goals but still feel stuck, this one will hit. Listen for practical ways to build momentum when life is heavy.

Get in touch with Sean

Watch the Full Episode Here!

Timestamp chapters (top 10)

03:17 – Why “Better Way” and what it looks like in real life
06:20 – High school: cancer, fear, and a different kind of “normal”
09:18 – Two diagnoses: Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Askin’s sarcoma
15:55 – “One lung” and what radiation changed
16:59 – A year of treatments and the hospital memories that still hit
21:19 – The mirror moment: helping himself before helping others
23:25 – Why Everest: “the highest platform in the world to scream hope”
25:15 – Nine months to Everest and the Better Way sponsorship move
27:39 – Everest strategy, chemo parallels, and “The higher I go…”
42:25 – False summits vs true summits, and what he’s building now

Listen to the Episode Here!

The True Summit: Sean Swarner on Finding a Better Way When Life Says “No”

Sean Swarner is not a motivational quote on a poster. He is a real person who lived through the kind of pain most people can’t picture. In this episode of Beyond Your WHY, he sits down with Dr. Gary Sanchez to explain what it was like to face two cancers as a teenager, lose his sense of the future, and still choose a life that requires daily courage. The conversation lands in a surprising place: sometimes the hardest part is not surviving. It is figuring out what to do after you survive.

This episode is framed through Sean’s WHY.os: Better Way – Make Sense – Contribute. A “WHY” is the main reason someone does what they do. A WHY.os adds the HOW (their natural process) and the WHAT (what they bring to others), so you can predict how they decide, lead, and respond under pressure.

When high school is about survival

Most people remember high school for social drama and awkward moments. Sean remembers it as a fight to make it to tomorrow. He describes being on the shower floor while his hair fell out, and realizing he was not only fighting for himself, but for the future his family would have to live with if he died. That kind of pain changes what “problems” even mean. It also builds a different kind of focus, the kind that stops you from wasting your life on stuff that does not matter.

He talks about the raw details without trying to make them sound pretty. He had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, then Askin’s sarcoma, a rare diagnosis with almost no odds of survival. Treatments were extreme, and he explains that certain hospital smells can still pull him back into those memories. It is not a neat story. It is a real one, and that honesty matters because it shows what Better Way thinking is actually for: it is for the moments when you do not have the luxury of pretending.

Better Way in action: building a system for hope

After cancer, Sean hit a common problem that people do not talk about enough. When you spend years just trying to live, it is hard to imagine a future that is bigger than the next day. He describes pulling over during a drive to Florida and basically asking himself what he was doing with his life. That moment matters because it shows the Make Sense part of his WHY.os. He needed a logical framework for his life, not just momentum.

Then he chose a goal that made no sense on paper: Mount Everest. He says it plainly: “I wanted to use the top of Everest as the highest platform in the world to scream hope.” That line is Better Way in one sentence. It is not just “do something hard.” It is “use the hardest thing as a platform that helps other people.”

Sean also explains Everest in a way that sounds like project management, not hype. You shuttle gear up and down to acclimate. You build capacity, recover, then build again. He compares it to chemo, where your body takes a hit, then has to rebuild. And when he needed something simple to keep his mind steady, he repeated one line with every step: “The higher I go, the stronger I get.”

False summits and the true summit

Here’s where the conversation gets even more interesting. Sean admits that even after major wins, he felt hollow. He calls these moments “false summits,” the kind of goal that looks like it should satisfy you, but doesn’t. In real life, false summits sound like: “Once I get this title, then I’ll feel successful,” or “Once I buy that thing, then I’ll feel okay.” He’s not anti-goals. He’s anti-goals without values.

Sean defines a true summit as having “goals, values, and heart all pulling in the same direction.” That’s the Better Way lens again: not just bigger goals, but better alignment. It is also his Contribute showing up, because he keeps bringing it back to impact beyond himself. He wants people to stop chasing the thing that impresses others and start building a life that actually feels right when nobody is watching.

By the end of the episode, Sean is not trying to convince anyone to climb a mountain. He’s trying to help people stop letting fear, old stories, and other people’s limits pick their future. If you’ve been working hard but still feel like something’s off, this conversation gives you a cleaner way to think about progress: build capacity, align your values, and make your wins mean something. Listen to the full episode and pay attention to the places where you’ve been chasing a “false summit” without realizing it.

Meet Sean!

Sean Swarner’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary, and it’s not just about the mountains he’s climbed or the races he’s finished. He’s the only person in history to summit Everest, complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam, finish the Hawaii Ironman World Championship, and run 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days, all after surviving two terminal cancers, being given just 14 days to live, and living through a year-long coma with only one lung.

He’s been named one of the top 10 most inspirational people in history, alongside Winston Churchill, Bruce Lee, and Muhammad Ali, and has shared stages with Presidents, Nobel Peace Prize winners like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN leaders, and entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson.

What makes Sean’s story truly powerful isn’t the feats themselves. It’s the lessons he can share about turning impossible odds into action, overcoming obstacles, and building breakthroughs in life.

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WHY.os

What is a WHY.os?

What is a WHY.os?

By: Bella Sanchez

 

Whether you’ve discovered your WHY or not – there is a secret we’ve kept. Discovering your WHY isn’t all the WHY Institute provides. There are next steps in your WHY journey and that is discovering your WHY.os (HOW & WHAT).

 

What is a HOW?

 

A HOW is the way in which you bring your WHY to life! It is the way you express your WHY, the way it lives through you. You could very well have the same WHY as someone, but HOW you live your WHY is entirely different so it is important to understand this about yourself and others.

 

What is a WHAT?

 

A WHAT is what you ultimately bring. It is what people can depend on you for and may even be what you’re known for! Your WHAT is the way your WHY and HOW come to life. 

What is the “.os” in WHY.os?

 

The .os in WHY.os refers to combining your WHY, HOW, and WHAT together. It is your operating system, hence, os. When you put your WHY, HOW, and WHAT together in the right sequence, that is when it becomes a game changer. That is when you know yourself to the deepest level and can express who you truly are, how you operate, and how you view the world.

 

What does knowing your WHY.os do?

 

Knowing your WHY.os is what puts the whole picture together. Knowing your WHY without the others is simply a piece or two to the puzzle that makes up the total you.

Your WHY is what drives you, your HOW is how you express it, and your WHAT is what you deliver. All of these together are your WHY.os, the essence of who you are.

 

Figuring this out may seem like a daunting task – and that’s WHY we exist!

Discover Your WHY
Learn More About WHY.os