#85 Turn Fear into Opportunity: Self-Awareness and the Courage Muscle with Dan Greenwald
“Fear equals opportunity. Each time we intentionally lean into that fear, we build another strand of our courage muscle.”
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or your favorite podcast platform.
Not everyone stutters on their words, but everyone stutters on something: fear, shame, doubt.
Today, we explore what it means to face those inner barriers and move forward anyway.
In this episode, Uri sits down with longtime friend and collaborator Dan Greenwald, a strategist, educator, and founder of ThirtyTenZero, a clarity-first framework for navigating growth and reinvention. Dan’s journey began with a childhood stutter, but evolved into a lifelong exploration of what it means to grow through discomfort and live with intention.
This conversation is about far more than speech. It’s about overcoming fear through self-awareness, building a life from the inside out, and developing the inner tools to keep growing when life gets hard.
Dan shares the story behind his transformative personal operating system and how each one helps people transcend personal limitations and take action from a place of purpose.
Whether you’re navigating self-doubt, burnout, or a new season of change, this episode offers practical and empowering tools for personal growth and a reminder that you’re stronger than you think.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
The life-shaping moment that sparked Dan’s path to self-awareness
How to grow your courage muscle and take action through fear
Tools to help you identify limiting beliefs
Why overcoming fear through self-awareness leads to lasting change
How Dan developed the ThirtyTenZero system for aligned living
The role of active resting in mental and emotional resilience
New tools for personal growth that work in real life, not just in theory
A fresh lens on transcending personal limitations, whether it’s stuttering, self-doubt, or another X
No matter what “X” is holding you back, you have the power to transform it into your superpower.
BIO
Dan Greenwald is a strategist, educator, and founder of ThirtyTenZero — a clarity-first framework for navigating growth and reinvention. His path has moved through classrooms, startups, real estate deals, and leadership rooms. The common thread: helping people and systems move with purpose. Dan is known for his calm presence, sharp thinking, and ability to guide others through complex moments with structure and trust. He lives in New York City with his wife and three kids.
ABOUT OUR HOST
Uri Schneider, M.A. CCC -SLP is co-founder and leader at Schneider Speech; creator and host of TranscendingX podcast community; and former faculty at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS / TIME STAMPS
02:53 Dan's Early Struggles with Stuttering
04:54 The Concept of 'Everyone Has a Stutter'
05:48 Navigating Fear and Shame
06:41 Memorable Childhood Experiences
11:19 College and Self-Discovery
16:02 Entering the World of Education
28:34 Creating the ThirtyTenZero System
34:45 Harnessing Fear as Opportunity
35:02 The Courage Muscle: Building Resilience
36:35 Parenting and Problem-Solving Skills
41:23 Transcending Personal Challenges
53:39 Active Resting and Energy Farming
01:01:22 Final Thoughts and Reflections
MORE QUOTES
“Shame is the ultimate pain.” - Dan Greenwald
“ It's natural for all of us to want to stay safe. It's just who we are as creatures.” - Dan Greenwald
"Everybody's got a stutter. What's your stutter? What's the thing that stops you from being your most true, authentic, strongest self?" - Dan Greenwald
"Fear equals opportunity. Each time we intentionally lean into that fear, we build another strand of our courage muscle." - Dan Greenwald
"You're stronger than you think. That's something that we all need to know." - Dan Greenwald
"The very things I struggled with became the credentials that empowered me to do so much of what I do today." - Dan Greenwald
"Transcending X is about staying in a place of growth. If we commit to living a life of consistent growth, transcending X is naturally a key part of it." - Dan Greenwald
RESOURCES
Follow Dan Greenwald - LinkedIn Instagram X (Twitter)
Transcending Stuttering Documentary Films:
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Dan Greenwald: I can't build a company. I can't be on a podcast. I stutter. I can't any, I can't story, any language of scarcity story is story . You capture a story and you ask, how is it serving me? Because it's, it's doing something. It's doing something, it's doing something. Why is it there? It's aiming to keep us safe. If we could uncover how this story is keeping us safe, then we could decide what we want to do with it.
And then we're able to show ourself I can be on a podcast. I can build a company.
[00:00:38] Uri Schneider: Welcome to TranscendingX. Whether it's stuttering, public speaking, or crucial conversations, all of us have something that holds us back. What if there was a way through it? I'm Uri Schneider from Schneider Speech, where we help people talk more and fear less, and I'm the host of the TranscendingX community.
Join me as we talk to high performers, researchers, and everyday heroes to discover how they transform their challenges into breakthroughs, and most of all, find ways for each of us to transcend X in our own lives.
In this episode, you'll learn what happens when you stop letting fear call the shots. My good friend Dan Greenwald shares his journey as a 6-year-old kid. He knew something was holding him back. What he didn't realize was that his stutter would ultimately be the key that would unlock everything that he would become.
It would also help him discover a system to help other people. Tap into their potential and break through the barriers, holding them back. Dan takes us on a walk through his journey, going back to retrace the steps of his family Holocaust survivors. He takes us through the idea that everyone's gotta stutter.
He shows us how he went from a kid with minimal talking, trying to say as little as possible to becoming a master educator, and how the very things he struggled with, I. It became the credentials that empowered him to do so much of what he does today. We'll go through the background of how he built a system called 30 10 0, and you'll get some behind the scene insights of how Dan helped me build transcending x.
Um, excited to share this candid conversation with my good friend Dan Greenwald.
[00:02:42] Uri Schneider: All right, we're here. We're live.
[00:02:45] Dan Greenwald: Hey, hey.
[00:02:46] Uri Schneider: We are transcending X,
[00:02:48] Dan Greenwald: transcending X.
[00:02:49] Uri Schneider: So very few people know me as well as you, Dan, uh, been with me on this project from the very beginning. A lot of credit to you. A lot of this wouldn't exist if not for you. So I'm excited. I think this is our third episode together and we'll be going a little bit behind the scenes.
People will get to hear about like where we come from, how we came together, what we're doing now. Great. And, uh, super excited and honored to have you. Excellent. As you know, I love the time we get to spend. Love it. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. For the audience sake, yeah, we'll keep it to an hour for today. Okay.
But we'll, we'll try. It's hard for us, but we'll do our best. What would you want people to know about you? What's the intro to Dan Greenwald? Everyone knows on the outside, but, uh, what would you say, what would you want people to know?
[00:03:33] Dan Greenwald: You know, um,
I'm someone who grew up with a stutter. Someone who, from a very young age was really trying to figure out how to navigate forward. And the thing that I was thinking about before I came in here was, um, I always knew that there was more to the life that I was living, even at age six.
Hmm.
I realized that at age six I had a stutter and kind of set me on a journey of, it's not gonna define me.
How do I change me? How do, how do folks change? Why do people change? That kinda set me, I think, a. That put me on some sort of path that I didn't even know I was on until probably, you know, later in life. And looking back on that, um, I've really been figuring out in this search for being in flow and eventually as we've talked about, it went beyond my speech and stuttering and I realized that being in flow is not just for people who have a difficult time speaking, but for all of us.
And that the path of a, like stutterer into how do people change, why do, why do people change, turned into this hunt for. How can I, how can we, how do all of us consistently live in quote unquote flow? As cliche as that sounds, but that's what I think. I want folks to know
about me.
[00:05:38] Uri Schneider: You often say something.
Yeah. And you've said, and I always say it's harder for me to say it, but you've said everybody's got a stutter.
What? What does that mean?
[00:05:48] Dan Greenwald: Everybody's got, everyone has a stutter. What's your stutter? That's what it is. What's your, the stutter. What's the thing that stops you from being your most true, authentic, strongest self that's there to tell you why you're not, why you can't, why you're living in a world of like scarcity.
Everybody's got their thing and so. What's your stutter? Everybody's got their stutter. And, um, that kind of dawned on me when I stopped thinking that all of the negativity in my life came from my speech stuttering. And I was like, wait a second. I'm so full of fear. I'm fear. Uh, I'm so full of fear of, you know, speaking in like public.
I'm, I'm, I'm so full of fear of shame. You know, I say like, stutter. You live, and I think most of us could, uh, know what it's like to be at that fork in the road of being true to yourself. Or, I wanna avoid shame. What do you do? So it all, it all comes back to there for me.
[00:07:05] Uri Schneider: What does Dan look like younger Dan?
Driven by fear, you know, acting out of whatever's gonna keep him safe. Playing smaller. And then what does it look like as you kind of grow outta that?
[00:07:18] Dan Greenwald: Sure, sure, sure, sure. I'm happy to,
[00:07:19] Uri Schneider: I've heard you say
you could, you could pick any age and you have a memory. So take us through a couple memorable touch points of the childhood of Dan Greenwald.
[00:07:27] Dan Greenwald: Yeah, so when I give these talks, I ask folks to, you know, pick an age, pick a grade, pick a whatever, especially for other folks or kids that are, you know, like stuttering and in a place of not sure, not sure how to navigate forward, you know, um, in all of my schooling, it was always a fear of, am I gonna get called on?
Right? It was always a fear of, uh, can I read this out loud? And so there was always that, um, element in school of how do I stay safe? Um, I also, when, when I was, when I would actually get stuck in a stutter in a block. Those, that, those that do actually stutter, they know that sometimes that block feels like an hour when it's like microsecond, but it feels like an hour.
And so, um, I was trying to avoid that at all costs. And so I got very good at thinking 12 steps ahead, circumlocution it's called in which you're thinking 12 steps ahead. Knowing what words you could say and what words you don't want to say. What words are like something. So that was me for big chunk of my youth and, um.
And I just have to say like, you know, you know when you grow up. And I think it's not just like stutterers, I think all of us go through the, you know, the teenage awkward, who am I? What am I, I'm not like them. I wanna be more like them. I wanna fit in, or whatever, whatever. That's, I think humans, right? All of us are like that.
And so I was a lot just, can I just be normal? Can I just be normal? Can I just fit in? And, and, and so I made the, like stutter, play a bigger role in who I was, good and bad, right? Good and bad. Looking back. And eventually, eventually
I realized that it was more about fear than it was my like stutter. And I started to explore what am I fearful of?
[00:09:51] Uri Schneider: Give us like an example, like grade school, high school. Give us one or two anecdotes.
[00:09:55] Dan Greenwald: So, grade
school. Okay. Grade school. There was this one, like teacher, I had a rabbi, I, I don't wanna mention his name.
And so I think it was fourth grade. I know it was fourth grade. I don't think, I know it was fourth grade. And it was my time to read in, uh, Reed. Reed, like sentence, whatever. And I felt myself, and I still, I could feel it. Now I feel my, you know, like I would tense up, sweating and I would just try to make my way through it.
And this like teacher, I was like, come on Dan, come on, come on. And
when it got done, when I was done with that one like sentence, the look on his face was one of like, I'm disappointed. There was a level of disgust. And then I, and I remember looking around the room and thinking, okay, how do I just be cool? There's a lot of those throughout my, um, and then you gotta go back the next day and then I have to go back the next day.
And then there was also, uh, somebody in ninth grade who's actually my, my, uh, science teacher. Bio teacher. We got our test back. We're going around the room and I'm like, okay, I'm going to go out, you know, like to the bathroom seeking safety. He's like, Dan Uhuh, I got you. You got this. And he, I didn't like it at the time, but he made me sit down knowing I was fear.
I had a fear of speaking in class. And he is like, and I. Didn't like it then, but I really appreciated the fact that there was someone recognizing where I was, even though he really didn't know where I was, but he was just there to help me. I felt, looking back, that was an okay move. But I, I, I mean, I think a lot of teachers don't really know what to do, but that's a side note.
Then, um, then I think like college, college, I, I had a lot of, uh, throughout my entire life, I was doing a lot of self work really outta survival wasn't, I didn't know it was self work. It was more out of survival. It was more of like, Hey, sometimes I'm in flow, sometimes I'm not in flow. Why is that? I gotta figure this out.
Because it, like that fork in the road is o it's to the point of survival, right? Shame is the ultimate pain, like physical pain's, one thing, emotional shame, and I think that's the case with everyone, right? Um. But I had something stutters. It's very hard for us to hide it from the first quarter third of my life.
That was painful. Also, built up a lot of muscles, right? I mean, also builds up superpowers for us. Stutters and everybody has a stutter, right? So that thing that you have, it's also building up your superpowers for all of us. We all have it. And so when I, when I went into like college and I was really committed to self-growth and really from a place of survival was when I was into, right?
It was a place of surviving and um, yeah, it, it was, it was, uh, along the road you find these different teachers that would get, I felt like got me, but also they would be like teaching things that were really important about the self, about about. I learned about Young in my freshman year. That was so incredibly, uh, it was so like there were these, the people you learn about Emerson Young, the Besht, the Baal, the Baal, the Baal Shem Tov, Rav Kook, the Rolling Stones.
Keith Richards, who my like second son, his middle name is Keith over. He's got the All, he lives a certain way that is free, strong. It's just Keith Richards, his Bar Mitzvah guitar rendition. That was, that was, that was pretty good. He was channeling, um. I, I really got into this place of exploring and learning, and then I found that there were other like teachers and other people on somewhat of a similar, you know, journey and, um, yeah.
And then I, I started the like process to transcend stuttering.
[00:14:47] Uri Schneider: So as you pull on through to the other side mm-hmm. Thanks to some of these influences, what do things start to look like? What's opening up as compared to some of those previous experiences of being driven by fear? Like the self-work, it's one thing to read about it as another thing to live it.
Yeah. Yeah. And Kant and these like moral, you know, these like, you know, like moral imperatives and like Emerson, um, that led me into the world of education of
[00:15:25] Dan Greenwald: I was kind of upset. That education or the people, you know, guiding me, so to speak. And that includes like speech therapists. Yeah. Teachers, they weren't able to really connect with me. It was outside and not inside out.
[00:15:46] Uri Schneider: And,
and maybe even worse contributed to like the concealing and the hiding, not just not helping you.
[00:15:53] Dan Greenwald: I believe people try to do the best job that they can. At fault about it
[00:15:56] Uri Schneider: can mean, well this is really interesting. Yeah. Because like someone can mean well and still do harm. Absolutely. So you can have the best intentions with the person on the receiving end. Like if it's not landing for them, it can lead them into more hiding, concealing, shutting down.
Sure. Not believing in themselves, even if it came from the best place. Best intentions. Sure. So the intention and the outcome has to be matched up. This is something that Hope Gerlach is looking at in her work. And she says that for a lot of adults who grow up with stuttering. Mm-hmm. But it's true for so many things.
They report that, where did they start hiding? Where did they start feeling crummy about just showing up as who they were authentically? Mm-hmm. Ironically, it started with speech therapy experiences, as ironic as that is.
[00:16:35] Dan Greenwald: Well, listen, there's also, um, our world view, all of us are, is formed between ages four and 12,
[00:16:41] Uri Schneider: very impressionable.
So, so you were going into education to kind of see if you could do better for others?
[00:16:47] Dan Greenwald: Yeah. I mean, I went into the world of like education really from a moral, from a, from a, like Kant and moral imperative of like, I was upset that the world that I came from didn't help me, didn't guide me, didn't get me.
So I could either bitch about it or if I'm all about now being true to myself because I've spent most of my first part of my life like grappling with it. And now I could, I know the importance. I know the power of what it means to live my truth. One's truth. Okay. Well, I guess. I have to go and try to rectify some of the stuff that I went through and that led me into the world of education and into like curriculum design.
I'm a backwards design thinker, end game goal. How do we try to get there involving humans and the intrinsic motivation of us? And that's really put me into the trajectory as to who I am, what I am, what I do. As you know,
[00:17:50] Uri Schneider: I consider myself one of your students.
[00:17:51] Dan Greenwald: Oh, please.
[00:17:52] Uri Schneider: But if you, if you think about it, you go back to work in education, you don't go back to the schools you went to, you go into New York City public schools, right?
Mm-hmm.
I, I So, so what was it like
to be a student in your class?
[00:18:02] Dan Greenwald: So lemme just even back up for one quick second. Sure. Which, which is a good story for here. Um, so at the end of like college, I went on a trip. We went on a family trip to like Czechoslovakia to trace my mother's roots, right? My mother was, my, uh, mother was a like, child survivor of the, uh, of the, the, the Holocaust.
And my, my, uh, father, mother, brother, sister, and aunt, we took a trip back to where she like grew up. And, um, eventually we were in Prague after. And then I met a friend there, a very close friend who really knew me, and I met up with her and we were in this town square in June. It was, it was sunny and hot.
And I told her, I'm like, I gotta deal with this stutter. I went to a point, I've grown to a point of being true to myself, and it's stopping me. I gotta deal with it. I was ready, all of what it means. I, I hit the wall of enough. Somehow she took out a paper with four names on it. Right there in Prague. In Prague.
And one of them was someone who was running a month long intensive for teens. I was 22 and I had to convince her to let me in. And I went through this month long intensive, and I was so determined and I learned how to, that was when I learned how to deconstruct and reconstruct a huge part of myself, like, you know, physiologically breathing, speaking, and also psychologically, and came out of that month.
And, um, I was, I was determined to not have stuttering stop me ever again. And a week after that, I got my first job. Teaching fourth grade in the public school, Washington Heights. Right. Uh, for fourth grade district six. Why was there, I got the job the day before, the first day of school. Why was there a job available?
Well, this was not the best part of town, and, uh, it was made up of kids that had just passed or failed summer school. That was my class. And, um, it was awesome. It was so hard. It was so hard. Probably the hardest job I've ever had, but it was awesome. I was determined to not fail. That, that, that, that, and, and, and so one of my like mentors who really helped me, really helped me.
She goes to me at the end of the year, she's like, Dan, you know, I know you're really good at this because when your fourth graders were really upset with you, they would come into my office. They would, they would like complain about this and that and this and that. And they never mention, they never mention your speech, your stutter once.
And it was so easy to do. I mean, I started my face off. I wasn't, I wasn't fully fluent. Now I'm, now I'm like rather fluent and I wasn't then, but I was determined. And that still rings, um, that regarding this quest of figuring out how does one be in flow? Such a huge part of it is finding your groove, finding what you could do, finding when you're in your zone.
And for me, teaching guiding, being a part of other people's growth is where I'm in my zone. And so that was a big part of, you know, my story and, uh, education. And now I think the work I do now is still part of the education world. Right. We're gonna get to
that.
I'm just saying
that, that seeing the backstory is so helpful.
I think you talked about it being in enough moment, like you hit rock bottom or like, I'm not going on like this. When you were in the square in Prague. Yeah. What do you think led up to like, that being that moment? Like what was the, the straw or that thing that tipped that moment? Because it sounds like it was a nice family trip.
Yeah. I think in Europe.
[00:22:36] Uri Schneider: Like what led up to that? And also like, I don't know, revisiting your mom's story of resilience and survival or what do you think brought you to that moment?
[00:22:46] Dan Greenwald: I was really determined. I, I, I spent a big chunk of my life, big chunk of my life, avoiding being true to myself because I wanted to avoid shame.
I wanted to stay safe. The role of staying safe is inherent in us as like creatures. But I didn't know that at the time. I was more focused on me and throughout my like college experience, I really uncovered what it means to be true to myself. As like cliche as that might sound for me, it's not. And because of, because I was, because I did grow up with that constant fork.
True to yourself, avoiding shame. I was determined that that became my, that became my, like, that became my flag. That like revolutionary war flag of true to myself, almost like kotzker, right? And I realized that in order to live like that and to like continue living like that. I needed to deal with my stutter and I was willing to do everything in my, in my power to do it.
And it wasn't just about me, it was about letting go
of being safe, of needing to be safe. I wanted something more than that and I really believe that when we come to a point of when we could let go of realizing, of letting go, of needing to feel safe and we want something else more that's kind of connected to being true to who we really are. The world kind of brings the people the opportunities to help, like support, and even like catapult you.
[00:24:55] Uri Schneider: You mentioned the Rebbe of Kutzk. Yeah.
He has a famous teaching, famous line. He says, uh, where is God? Not here, not there. He's where you let him in. Absolutely. And like all the good stuff that we really want is not gonna come if we're putting so much energy into holding onto the old stuff to stay safe.
And we're so busy with so many things. We're filling our time, we're consuming our energy. So it sounds like, you know, on the one hand, everyone should be safe. You can't, you know, put yourself at the precipice, at the edge of a cliff. On the other hand, you gotta be ready to get a little bit uncomfortable, because if you really want something, it's gonna be uncomfortable.
Right. The good stuff comes on the other side. What were the things that you wanted or started to pursue that you weren't pursuing before and then bring you to what you're doing today?
[00:25:41] Dan Greenwald: Sure. Well, um,
two things regarding what, you know, like the, like revy of tsk. And the idea about like staying safe,
it's kind of natural for all of us to wanna stay safe. It's just who we are as like creatures not good, bad. It is what it is. And then what often helps keep us safe is the idea of like ego, right? And ego plays an important role, but sometimes when it plays a role of keeping us safe. Along the lines of what you were saying, I've heard someone, I forget where I heard this from, but ego edging God out.
[00:26:31] Uri Schneider: Ooh, wow.
[00:26:35] Dan Greenwald: So just, you know, like connect with the ker. Right. Truth just saying. Um, and as far as, um, what was your question?
[00:26:49] Uri Schneider: What were the things you started to pursue? You said like, got it. Got it. You got it. You decided I'm not gonna continue to hold back. Yeah. Like, I was so, like what were things that you started to do?
Yeah. So after that trip, after that experience.
[00:27:01] Dan Greenwald: Sure. Uh, teaching, yeah, teaching education, being able to be in front of people, but also knowing that, um, you know, playing a role in not just like, not just like, uh, speaking, but also figuring out that, you know, guiding people forward. That, that, that, that became a real, uh, love, uh, passion of mine.
I, I, I really, and now looking back, I've, I have no qualms about it. It's, I really am really incredibly, like, grateful that I could be a part of other people's growth. It's what I, it's what I love doing. I, you know, um, growing up. A teenager, I thought I was gonna have to drive a truck. Not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but that's, I was very good driver.
[00:27:51] Uri Schneider: Not a lot of talking.
[00:27:52] Dan Greenwald: Not a lot of talking. So there was a big shift for me.
[00:27:57] Uri Schneider: Um, truck driver. Classroom teacher.
[00:28:00] Dan Greenwald: Yeah. Like classroom teacher. Then it turned into, then, then, then like, you know, like education was great. Loved it. Also didn't, you know, I like the formal aspect of education. Then I got a job, then I got a job at a, uh, I got a job at a, like private school overseeing, uh, overseeing this like Jewish studies department of a reformed Jewish day school, which was fascinating and amazing and a real gigantic challenge from a very young age.
Um, how much God is too much God. Um. That really, that was also great experience. And while I was doing that, I was also doing some like real estate work and, you know, navigating the world of money and, and you know, eventually, um, I stepped outta the classroom and I started doing, you know, like work around the, uh, helping to build things.
I like building things. Same thing like curriculum, kind of the like blueprint for end game, goal building things, same thing. And I started doing, started doing consulting work around ed tech projects, you know, education, technology stuff and um, like human related human dynamics. And so did that for a bunch of years.
Uh, loved it, uh, projects, worked with like, uh, worked with larger companies. Um, and then as I was also doing that, I kind of created a system for me and my personal growth. 'cause that's really what the key is. I mean, at the end of the day. At the end of the day, the real key for people to feel fulfilled, happy power, being in flow is when we know our growth, seeing, experiencing our growth.
We have goals, we have targets that we aim to hit. Those are awesome when we hit them, but as many of us know, you hit 'em and now what you're not, you feel happy, but it's kind of fleeting. It's, you know, knowing that we could be a part of like continued growth, that's where being in flow comes from. That's what I've learned over the years.
And so I created a system for me before it was, you know, before it was termed anything. And while I was doing this work consulting, um. These two, these two guys, really smart guys, you know, I was helping them build out their, their revamp, their vision. They saw that I had this system in which you get a weekly score guiding you for what it is that you want and you know, you know, like the 30 10 0 system before it was called it, they're like, I want that.
Forget about this business. I want, can you do that for us? I'm like, really? Like
[00:30:48] Uri Schneider: So you built it for you?
[00:30:49] Dan Greenwald: Yeah, it was my own, it was my own system, operat system. It was my own operating, it was my own like guidance system in which it's all about having what's most important in my front and center no matter what's going on around me and kind of organizing different core key tasks on a weekly basis that lead to a weekly score that I could see.
How well did I do showing my growth.
[00:31:22] Uri Schneider: You know how transformative that can be. It was for me. Yeah. Um, one of the really powerful things is story watch. Sure. Another is the courage muscle. Sure. Can you just give us a
short overview?
[00:31:34] Dan Greenwald: Sure,
sure. So, so, so, you know, you're talking about this concept 30 10 0, and the idea is, you know, it's the idea of like, uh, identifying your like 30,000 foot view of what it is you really want.
Not just the generic air is good stuff, but what do you really want? That's the like driver for us. The reason why it's so hard for most of us to figure out what it is that we really want is because we're, we're these like humans with this human mind, heart. How do you navigate all that? And so over time, I.
The tools in order to figure out what it is that we really want, is how do we harness our self-awareness? So there are three different ways of harnessing our self-awareness that, um, I share, I guide, I, I, you know, and one of which is like other three tools. Energy farming. We are in control of, we are in control of the, the energy we engage waking life with dictates everything.
What do I need to do that supports my mental, spiritual and physical health? When one is weak, our overall energy state's gonna be weak. And when that's weak, everything feels like we're going uphill no matter what it is that we try to do. That's number one. Energy farming. Number two, story. Watch. The mind creates stories that drive us, right?
Like beliefs. So what if there's a way to use the self-awareness to capture the stories before they turn into action? Story watch. Um, when I work with folks, they, a lot of people say this is the most powerful tool because it helps identify what's standing in our way. It's only a story that was formed between ages, usually four and 12, showing up in different experience, clothed in different experiences now, but it's designed to drive us to stay safe.
[00:33:42] Uri Schneider: What are like popular stories people are running around with?
[00:33:45] Dan Greenwald: Um, I can't build a company. I can't be on a podcast. I stutter. I can't any, I can't story, any language of scarcity. Story is story and stories are not good or bad. They are what they are. So it's the idea "story watch" is you, you capture a story and you ask, how is it serving me?
Right. You know, I know, you know, how is it serving me? And the answer of it's not is never an answer, right? Because it's, it's doing something. It's doing something, it's doing something. Why is it there? It's aiming to keep us safe. If we could uncover how this story our mind creates is keeping us safe, then we could decide what we want to do with it.
Then we could even see, oh, it's here again. Oh, it's here again. And then we're able to show ourself of like, wait, I can be on a podcast. I can build a company. I can reach out or speak to, or do whatever we think we can't do. That's, I believe, is someone's weapon. I think it's our greatest weapon . Story Watch becomes a weapon for anything standing in our way.
And then the third tool, energy farming story watch. And then the third tool of self-awareness. And they all work in three, is this idea of a like courage muscle, which is everyone's default mode, is what should we be fearful of? What should I be on alert for? Especially in a world of media? And today it feeds that, right?
It feeds the news. What should be scarcity? What should I be fearful of? And so I thought instead of trying to change that, how do we actually use that? How can we actually harness that? It's a big part of stop trying to change. Let's try to use re, you know, take who we are and really use it, utilize it, harness it.
So the idea of a like courage muscle. When we identify a fear, we say immediately the mantra fear.
[00:35:55] Uri Schneider: Fear equals opportunity.
[00:35:57] Dan Greenwald: Fear equals opportunity. We say it. The reason why we say it, we could redo our mind. Program our mind that when we're in that fear, oh, opportunity, what do I want to do with it? Each time we intentionally lean in to that fear.
We should also write it down. We gotta get it out of our head. We intentionally lean in, we build another strand of our courage muscle. Literally, not literally, but literally. Literally. And the idea there is that the more we do that, the bigger it gets. And like any other physical muscle runner, any other physical muscle, the more we work it out, the more our being craves it.
So the more you work out your like courage muscle, the it ensures your momentum of whatever it is that you're trying to do. So energy farming, story, watch and like courage muscle, you use all three of those together, then you're able to define what it is that you really want.
[00:37:01] Uri Schneider: You know, when you look at kids,
we look at our own kids.
Yeah. We're both dads. I often like say I'm imperfect dad, number one. Yeah. You know, imperfect parent number one. I don't have all the answers, but I certainly have learned a lot of lessons and it's good to have friends to talk to about parenting. Sure. Not to do it alone. Obviously we have partners, but also to talk to one another.
And one of the things that I think about a lot is I tell my kids like the number one subject or the number one skill is problem solving. We're all gonna face problems. And this subject, this class doesn't really matter what the subject is. What's most important is the skill of problem solving for life.
Sure. And so the courage muscle is like being able to, number one, depend on yourself, that you're stronger than you think. Sure. And secondly, being able to be human and not just be like a trigger response, like being able to hit pause, make a choice, what do I wanna do with this? I'm getting a feeling, I'm getting a vibe.
What do I wanna do? What do I really want? On the other side? And I remember once you gave a presentation, we were think, we traveled to Austin together and you spoke about this fourth grade kid that needed to read in class, and he was kind of a little shaky about it. Had a stutter. Could be anything by the way.
It could be dyslexia. It could just be a kid who's a little bit shy, he doesn't like to be heard, he doesn't like his voice to be so loud going around the room and you said, you know what? When it comes to your term, why don't you just like introduce it and be like, this is a fear and this is me flexing my courage muscle.
And that would set the stage and this kid would be elevated among his peers instead of kind of put down. So just yesterday I told you before we recorded, I gave a talk for like, uh, 80 speech therapists from New York City in the public schools. And afterwards one, one woman, Rachel, she comes up to me, she says, you know, I have a stutter and I wanna thank you.
Got some things from the talk. But most of all I wanted to tell you, you know, I became a speech therapist because I had a stutter and I didn't get the kind of support that I would've wanted. And this year I got my first student who stutters. I've been working with kids with all kinds of different things.
This kid has a stutter and he came to me as, you know what he told me? Just like I had a hard time in my experience at school. She said, when it came my turn to read, now he's coming to me and asking me what do I do when it gets to be my turn to read is so hard, and like to go from that place, that place of trauma, that place of fear, that painful memory, and being able to turn it around for someone else or being at least able to understand, you know, the greatest, the greatest compliment that I get from people who stutter is like, you stutter, right?
Hmm. I don't, yeah, so how do you get it? Or when I work with people in finance, it's like, well wait a second, you don't have a background in finance. How do you understand? But if you listen, uh, or you take your own life experiences and you extrapolate and say like, there's something here that's common.
Maybe some of the language is different, but there's a common experience. It's a powerful thing. Absolutely. And reprogramming those. Absolutely. The courage Muscle Story Watch. A recent spin on story watch that I was thinking about was I was on a podcast, uh, and the guy was saying, you know, storytelling is the most important tool.
It's the most valuable thing. It's the greatest thing.
Yeah.
I said, yeah, and as you like, say it is what it is. Not good, not bad. It's powerful. The story that we're able to tell about ourselves and how we bring ourselves to the world and tell our story. Very, very important, very powerful. There's also the story we tell ourselves in our own heads.
Yeah. Which can actually be very detrimental and very limiting. It serves a purpose, but the story we grew up with when we were a teenager and school in the early school years might not serve us well anymore. It helped us then, but it's time to revisit it. It's time to see how we stay safe today. For the life we're living today and not be living the same as we were when we were in high school or grade school.
[00:40:45] Dan Greenwald: Exactly. I mean, I, I would even go into say, you know, a quick bit about like story watch and how it actually works is that when you identify a story you have, right? We all have them. Then you also assign a, a, a, a theme to it, A thread. We call it a story thread. And so self-doubt is one, right? We all have it and it shows up again and again and again clothed in different experiences.
Whether I'm 16, I'm 48, I'm 32, whatever it is, it shows up again and again and to recognize that, oh, it's this story showing up again. That's really where the power is, right? So the more you engage in story watch, the better you get in, you better get at it, and it becomes a superpower to your point, not just when you realize it for yourself.
You start seeing and hearing other people's stories, driving them. It could be used in all sorts of different ways, but you just understand it better. You understand why and how and where, where folks come from, why people do what they do. When you start recognizing other people's driving stories, beliefs, all the same thing.
It's story watch.
[00:42:00] Uri Schneider: We talked about naming the podcast and naming the whole framework that we've developed. Yeah. And And we jammed on that a lot. Yeah. Went around on it a lot and at some point it was transcending stuttering. Now we're morphing into transcending X. What does it mean to you to transcend X?
And, and in your case, maybe stuttering, but whatever you wanna go with that. We've talked about the double entendres, but it's been a couple months. Yeah. How would you, how do you relate to transcending X?
[00:42:29] Dan Greenwald: So there's gonna always be things in life as a human, there's gonna be things that are gonna come up.
And they are gonna be there to try to keep us safe. IE stopping us from being in a place of growth happens. Doesn't matter how much we have or don't have, how old or young we are, it's for, that's the way of everyone. And so the idea of like transcending, it's a key piece of staying in a place of growing.
There's gonna be different things that we're gonna try to transcend. Sometimes we don't even know what we need to transcend, but when we do the work, eventually we're gonna see, wow, I'm not there anymore. It doesn't stop me anymore. Wow. I'm over, I'm over here. I didn't, I never thought I could be over here.
And that's what it's about. To me, that's what it's about. It's about transcending X is about
staying in a place of growth. And while that might feel hard and we want to take a break from it, if we are, if we commit to living a life of growth, of consistent growth, transcending X is gonna naturally be a key part of it.
[00:44:06] Uri Schneider: And I think about, as you say that, about not not being stuck moving growth. My brother has a line, you know, motion is lotion.
Mm,
motion is lotion. And when we're standing still. Things stagnate, and when we're moving, things are flowing. Good things can happen. You get to certain things, whatever that X is, if it's a stutter, if it's self-doubt, if it's your body image, if it's your feeling of imposter syndrome, whatever, it stops you.
It feels like an impenetrable barrier. And the transcending part is a, you get through it, you look back, you're like, wait a second, I, I'm not supposed to be here. My story tells me I'm not supposed to be here, but I'm here. How'd I get here? Oh wow. Not only did I pass through that wall, but that wall might have elevated or been a catapult and grappling with it and getting over it and getting through it got me to this higher ground or, or this spot on the other side.
What are your
thoughts?
[00:45:01] Dan Greenwald: I would even say that you don't even know that you go beyond it until you're way beyond it. And you could look back. Example stuttering for me. I stopped making stuttering. The end all be all in my life.
[00:45:19] Uri Schneider: What does that look like?
[00:45:21] Dan Greenwald: Meaning, I think I was in my like twenties, my late, my late twenties into my thirties in which I was committed to explore fear over stuttering and like courage muscle came directly outta stuttering, right?
I decided and intentional, I'm gonna stop ex thinking about stutter as my end, as the core source of all my scarcity and negativity in my life. And I started exploring what I'm fearful of. And just by doing that again and again, and also, you know, having meditation and a lot of other things, it's a lot of other things, right?
Following passion, following, you know, edu a lot of things that we live, uh, living I I I, I eventually went on with my life as we do, right? And then there was a moment. I was like 30. I was, I was, uh, I was 30. Yeah, I was 32, 33 maybe. I was already married and I had, I remember thinking like, wow, stuttering. It really doesn't play a role in how I think about what I do or how I live on a daily basis.
And for the first 20 years, 25 years, maybe it was baked into my life. That's an example of when I transcended stuttering.
Hmm.
When it's not, it's not playing the role, it's not gonna dictate who I become. I could still stutter. It's not all about being in fluency, but what ends up happening is that all that work . When you almost, we talked about it before. When you let go, when you let go of the peace that forms your identity. Stuttering is a big part of my identity and I was able to let, and it took years to eventually do, but a lot of the work that I've been doing and I do, is about deconstructing and allowing people to choose what is your identity.
It's a story that was formed when you were seven. When people see that, they're like, they could shift pretty quickly, as you know. Yeah. And so that's about the transcending. And then just one more thing that becomes interesting. 'cause it's not just like, okay story. People are more fearful of what life now looks like.
They don't have their brown couch, right? This concept of the brown couches, everybody's got their brown couch. They're like raggedy, nasty springs coming up brown couch. Everyone loves their brown couch 'cause it brings them their like comfort, right? But when that brown couch, the idea is that when we can let go, it's letting go of the stories keeping us who we are.
Identity formation. Now what people inherently wanna feel certain like certainty, uncertainty. Oh my god. Even though it's like, you don't stutter, dude, what do you like? It? It's, it's so the fear comes back in, which is why you need courage muscle, which is why you need all of these other tools working. That allows for us to define our 30 for what it is that we really want when our being, our way of the world is telling us you can't do that.
So it all works hand in hand. But that's,
that's always fun.
[00:49:13] Uri Schneider: The brown couch reminds me of, I think about shoes. You know, like brown shoes. You got a pair of shoes. Very comfortable. I think you got me into the fly knit Nikes. Yeah, they're great. They're great. But for some reason, my toes, yes. Start popping out.
Do you ever have that? Like at some point they wear down? No, it's my foot structure, whatever.
[00:49:30] Dan Greenwald: Not a good fit.
[00:49:32] Uri Schneider: Not a good fit. But I still, I love them. Yeah. Even though it's not a good fit, I love them. Yeah. But at some point it's starting to get a little awkward because like the toe is popping out or like some water's leaking in, not the Flyness, they're not waterproof, but Yeah.
You know, you got an old pair of shoes, 900 new pair of shoes. So you go to the store, you try on a new pair, everyone says they're great. The salesman says it's great. You try it on, you even buy it, you take it home and you're getting blisters. I just want my old shoes, even though my tos coming out. They're familiar.
They're familiar. These are unfamiliar, but everyone knows that once you wear the new shoes for a little bit, they stop being so unfamiliar. They stop being so new. They become the new familiar. That's right. And so the initial fear is like a good indicator. Yeah. You're doing something new and as long as you're not getting hurt, it might be a good signal.
And the other thing that you taught me was, or you say a lot, you say now stuttering is just one light on your dashboard. Yeah. And that, I think the, as you were talking about, what transcending meant to you, it's like, at some points in our lives, our life is run by this one thing, this one signal, this one thing we have with one indicator on our dashboard.
And as we go forward and as we grow and as we transcend whatever it is, it's there. But it's one of many. And you decide like which indicators you pay more attention to, you give more weight, and which you give less weight, right? Like you don't think about checking your air pressure as you're driving on the highway, but if it comes up, like that's something you'll pay attention to.
Absolutely. But otherwise it's in the, in the recess of your mind. Absolutely. You're more interested in, am I going in the right direction? Am I still going where I wanted to go? And like some people get off a highway to avoid traffic and before you know it, you've gone way off course. That's right. Gotta
stay on course.
[00:51:09] Dan Greenwald: That's right. And I, I mean, I would even add, I would even add to, to that, that in this year, like 2025 this time right now, it's a very chaotic time in the world. Right. And a lot of people are feeling, you know, you know, uncertain about what's, you know, where to go, what to do, how to do it, who am I, right?
It's, it's how do I fit in the world that's evolving? Ai it's, it's, a lot of people are like suffering right now and, um. Something that I find myself saying right now is that the least safe thing is to try to say stay safe right now. It's okay to, it's important to be able to explore new. And there's the idea, um, you know, they say it a lot in like companies, but it's the same thing with like humans.
We're either, we're either, we're either growing or dying. That choice is ours. It starts with our mindset. We're in control of our mindset and we could do the things that support our mental, spiritual, and physical health. All the things that I laid out.
[00:52:14] Uri Schneider: Another thing that I learned from you Yeah. Is being mindful of our state.
[00:52:19] Dan Greenwald: Absolutely. Energy state.
[00:52:20] Uri Schneider: Energy state. So. There are things that I do to keep my energy strong. Sure. And also to be aware when my energy is tanked or low. I'm careful not to think too much, not to make any decisions because anything I do, it's gonna be stinking thinking. It's not gonna be strong and it's not gonna be the way I want to think.
Sleep on it. Wait till tomorrow, just like you would with an email. When you're emotional, don't hit send. Just write it, save it, let it out, and then see tomorrow if it still feels like you wanna send it nine times outta 10, you're not even gonna send any message. Yep. You do. Birdwatching.
[00:52:52] Dan Greenwald: Love, bird watching.
[00:52:53] Uri Schneider: Tell me how birdwatching plays into you being in your prime state. Sure, sure. So lemme break it down or anything, you know, what are the different quirky things I'm, I'm happy to, bird thing that Dan Greenwald does that people wouldn't think of. I lay Here we are
soho and you're birdwatching. I do have my, I do have my, like monocle in my, in my bag.
I don't want,
okay, just pause for station identification. Yeah. Monocle versus binoculars. When would you use one or three? Um, the, like,
bin knocks are in my car. They're bigger. Oh, bin knocks. That's, yeah. Binns, they're in my car. Um, you get a, you get a bigger, more in depth, um, you know, you could see the birds better with like, there's this brand called NOx, NOCS.
They're awesome. There's like, they make monarchs and, and also like binoculars. Yeah. Um, they're great. Um, and so there's one, it it, it's just, you know, I'm all about efficiency and easy and, and, and so you have one and then you also have an app, the like Merlin birding app, which you told me to download.
It's massive, but it's incredibly effective. You can listen to the chirp and it gives you a number of ideas of what it might be, what's your location based on that, and the chirps or a couple other features. And then it also keeps your lifeless,
but. Back to what you're asking. What's a life list? All the birds you've seen come on.
I'm not a Yeah, got it. When you see a new one, it's called, uh, it's called a like lifer. Yeah. The day, like any day I have a like lifer. It's new on my birding list. No matter what's happening, it's a great day. Amazing. Active resting is a big part of like energy farming and I'm all about systems as you know, like as you know, 30 10 0.
A lot of terms, a lot of terms active, resting. I'm gonna back up for a second. I'm a systems guy. We rise and fall by how good our systems are, right. James Clears line. And so all of what I'm saying, 30 10 0 is the overall. Is the overall. Um, it's an overall guidance system that we, that we create based on who we are right now.
We don't have to be anything that we're just who we are and we are and we create a system that helps support our energy. Farming, like energy state. All these different things to help move us along. Energy farming. A big part of energy farming, um, that I lean into is this idea of this idea of, um, active resting.
It's called the specific actions that when I do them gives me a inside out recharge. I try to do that, do them three times a week, and I know what happens when I do them three times a week versus the weeks I don't do them because I measure all this and it, I, it's part of my scoring system and my weekly guide.
And so one of my four actions, active resting actions is birding. And the reason why birding, what it does for me is that when I go out birding and I'm very careful, I have a timer 'cause I could go all day, but. It hones my senses site here, right? Different times of year. The migration is starting now. It's pretty exciting, right?
You have the migration from the south to north and you coolest thing is seeing those massive Canadian geese walking on the west side highway. The, the, those are cool. The, yeah, fine. Those are on my checklists. Got it. Okay. Um, they're everywhere. Um, uh, almost, almost an invasive like species, but those guys are huge powerful that fly in those.
They're cool. But for me, when I go, when I, when I get to connect with another creature, birds, I'm honing my senses. I'm getting outta my own head. I'm fulfilling that intrinsic. You know, hunting desire that we have without killing anything. And it, it, it's, it's, it helps me be more in tune with who I am as a creature, which allows me to get out of my own way.
And so that's what like birding does for me. And it's also something you could, um, anywhere. Yeah, anywhere. So that's what does the other actions is for me. Uh, active resting is, uh, live tunes. Love seeing, live like music gives me, you know, any like Grateful Dead related stuff, but blues, you know, that that does it for me.
Uh, cooking, love to cook, um, and being outside, hiking, uh, biking, mountain, biking, I, those, if I do, I try to do two or three of, I try to do three of those a week. Some form for like birding. I just, you know, I could schedule a walk for like 20 minutes. Drop my kids off at the bus, go walk, check. That box fulfills me.
It energizes me.
And it's also small wins, you know, especially when life feels like an avalanche. When life feels like an impossible mountain. There are a few small things you could do if you wake up a few minutes earlier, or if you just squeeze in a little micro walk during your lunch break or whatever.
It's very doable things. Um, there's nothing more life-giving than being out on a trail run and like running across some wildlife. That's right. It's like reminds you of nature and like the world goes on and like, when it feels like if I don't do this and there's 10 things on my checklist, uh oh. Like the sky's gonna fall.
And you see these animals and it's like they're still here. Like they're surviving. There's some animal power, there's some creature power. And you often say every creature has its creature power. Absolutely. And I think, uh, like the Torah says, you know, like we are, I. In the, in the Torah and throughout the Bible it says, we're similar to many different creatures.
That's right. So which one is it? So I think the answer is we have all the creature powers inside of us. We don't just have one. We're not like one, just one trick or one superpower. We have all these powers and we just gotta tap in and bring 'em to bear in the right situation.
Uh, I mean, yes, I would say that our creature power, I think every animal has its unique creature power.
Think about any animal you could think about. Its unique creature powers, ours is self-awareness.
Mm.
And in schooling and what we've never been taught how to, Hey, how do we harness our self-awareness? Mm, we should. It's very important, especially in like today's reality in which we live in this attention economy that's designed to suck our focus, tell us what we should or shouldn't feel, especially in the face of what we're not.
We need to hone our self-awareness. That's what those three things, you know, are designed to do. And then when we could do that right, I the world's really, it's really complicated right now. It's not de it's not designed to help us, right? We live in this attention economy that the best of the best minds are like creating ways to, you know, you know, like, you know, hook us, make, make a lot of money off of our like dopamine addictions.
There's this, you know, epidemic of people feeling alone.
Yeah.
[01:00:16] Dan Greenwald: It's that how do we, to your point, life feels huge, overwhelming. How do we navigate forward? Well simplify. We're, we're all the same, all humans are the same. Start there deconstruct and we slowly reconstruct, right? The stories in our mind, energy, courage, that alone shifts.
Anyone for it? Anyone. And then from there when you could define what it is you really want, your 30,000 foot view. We've talked, spent a lot of time at this and it's part of like transcending X, which I'm, as you know, I'm so incredibly excited about because it's not just about you, it's about you doing you the way that you do you.
And it impacts other people.
[01:01:06] Uri Schneider: And that's, you know, when you talk about the attention economy and you talk about self-awareness being our creature power. Yeah. It's the ability to get into our minds to have more mindfulness, but also helps us get out of our head, you know? Absolutely. And those stories that hold us back and one of the most powerful things to do in a time where tech and companies and everything that we're dealing with are grabbing our attention.
We shouldn't lose the. Incredibly valuable opportunity to connect with each other. Have to, everyone feels alone. But the greatest energy giving thing in addition to birding and active resting and all the other things that people need to do is like connecting with people and having conversations about the hard stuff and talking about the fears, and whether it's with a friend or a spouse or a coach, whatever it is.
And we both know what that's like on both sides, um, is so powerful. And I think stuttering, what's really, what's really interesting and striking is that for so many people, it's a conversation stopper. And on the other hand, when you start talking about it, it's a conversation starter and it brings people together and gets people talking more.
So as we're coming to the end, what would be some, some final thoughts? And I always like to ask like, what would you wish you could tell your 12-year-old self?
So,
[01:02:21] Dan Greenwald: okay. You could take as much as you want on that.
So. I would say to everyone, especially Dan, who's 12, you're stronger than you think, which is what my mom would say when she would give a talk about her, you know, like story. She would start off and look at everyone and say, you're all stronger than you think. That's something that we all need to know.
That's, that's number one. Number two, we're not as, we're not as complex as we think we are. We're not, we're we all are in the same boat. We're all kind of navigating similar things, cloth in different, but it's the same. We're all the same. We forget that. That's what I would say and, and I just would. You know, figuring out a system that allows you to live your truth, not having to be someone you're not, that's where the real, that's where the real like power comes from.
That's what we need in our world. We need more people living from a place of inside out drive versus thinking that the world outside of them is gonna dictate who they become. That's not good.
[01:03:59] Uri Schneider: That's what I would say. Well, thanks for being that for me, bringing that outta me and being a mirror, as you often say.
Yep. Mirror black mirror mirrors. I like to say, you know, we gotta figure out who we are and self-awareness and sometimes just sitting with yourself is really powerful. Like the ability to just sit with yourself and sometimes it's really hard to see yourself. You need a mirror or you need a friend, you need a sounding board.
And you've been that for me and I'm so grateful and better for it. So thanks for coming back for another conversation. Yeah. And this is three out of, I don't know how many, but we'll have lots more offline. And I appreciate you coming.
[01:04:34] Dan Greenwald: Well, thank you for having me. I love this. I love, I love being a part of your growth and you are definitely a part of my growth.
[01:04:41] Uri Schneider: Thanks for listening to Transcending X. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who could benefit from it. If you want free tips to help you talk more, fear less, sign up at transcendingx.com/email Until next time, remember, tomorrow's breakthroughs start with what we do today. Let's keep talking.