Taking Action, No Excuses with David Pasqualone

Today's guest is David Pasqualone, host of the Remarkable People Podcast, marketing guru and professional coach. David's childhood was quite difficult as he dealt with abandonment, poverty, and ill health. David's doctors dismissed his symptoms for years, assuming it was psychosomatic, but David didn't give in. He insisted on testing until they found the root cause of his problems: a brain tumor that came back 3 times.

David has learned how to have faith that God will provide, as long as he follows his calling. David's advice is to take action on the things you know you need to do, even if they seem impossible, advocate for yourself, find your passion, and live within your means.

You can learn more about David and his programs at his website: davidpasqualone.com

For lifetime access to Podcasting Made Easy for just $12, use this link and enter promo code: Magic$12 (case sensitive). This code is active until December 31, 2023!

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 1:00

Welcome back to a Magical Life. I'm your host, Magic Barclay, and today I'm joined by David Paone. Now, I had to ask him how to say his last name. Because it's not one I've heard before, so hopefully I didn't massacre it there for you, David.

David Pasqualone: 1:20

No, not at all. That was perfect. David. Pass school. Thank

Magic Barclay: 1:23

you. Now you've got a very long bio here. I'm going to read it out because there's so many take homes that the listeners can get from it. So here we go. David was born to a poor, unwed mother in the late 1970s, abandoned by his wealthy father at birth, raised in a dilapidated house with six foot high ceilings that leaked when it rained. Scarred from watching his grandmother suffer and slowly and painfully die from cancer in fear for his life. From insane family members convicted of murdering his great aunt that threatened him to, and the victim of other constant childhood abusers. A. David started life confused, scared, and feeling alone as an only child growing up in New England, David was raised by a mother who struggled with depression and other undiagnosed and untreated emotional and mental issues. He was regularly told by those around him that he was lazy, undisciplined, and useless, constantly ill Doctors labeled him as a hypochondriac as he got sicker and sicker over the years, sent to psychologists and told he was a waste of life constantly. David stayed respectful to his elders, but never accepted the lies he was being told about himself. Once he turned 18, he demanded medical tests two weeks before his high school graduation to find out he had a tumor in his head the size of an orange that was slowly killing him. After two major surgeries and radiation therapy, David was dying at 19 years old. Even though doctors gave him little hope of survival. David chose to try a holistic approach to healing over more surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy. He not only survived, but thrived physically. The story continues with this young man who thought he was a step above Forest Gump and a functional idiot finishing college, getting married, thriving in business, and raising a beautiful family, only to get critically ill again and suffer for five years in intense pain after a simple dental visit gone horribly wrong. Told by multiple physicians to get his affairs in order and prepare for death. David. Refused to accept this path, becoming his own medical advisor. David did basically everything opposite of what doctors told him. He did his best in life each day to heal, but learn to trust God for the results this phase of his journey. Brought him into wellness and strength. He got off all of his antidepressants and painkillers. The doctors tried to medicate his symptoms with and once again began to thrive physically in 2014, his personal life took a drastic turn when his wife of 14 years derailed, and their marriage turned into a long, terrible episode of the Jerry Springer. Fighting to save his marriage, protect his children, and not die from the stress. David spent six hard years trying to fix things before he learned to accept the reality of what he was facing, make the tough decisions, and move on with his life. So he and his children could not only heal from the trauma and the PTSD of the hand they were dealt, but fully heal, thrive, and live with joy once again. David's life has been full of intense challenges in every area. Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, familial, relational. Social and financial. He's learned that despite our circumstances and personal perspective, God is there for us, loves us, has a bigger plan than we can imagine. And if we don't quit and stay steadfast on our course, we'll always win and benefit from even the most hideous experiences. And hardships. So while David May have started life out, confused, scared, and feeling alone, he now lives with a passionate purpose, complete confidence, and is surrounded by those he loves each day. David's mission is to help people find their purpose, live it passionately and fulfill it steadfastly until the race is over. And with God, none of us can fail. Oh my goodness, David, what an amazing bio.

David Pasqualone: 6:09

Yeah, thanks. I, You are the first person that's ever read the whole thing, so I appreciate that. Thank you.

Magic Barclay: 6:16

I felt it was really important to read the whole thing because. There's some big life lessons there. I mean, goodness, how many times can one man turn things around?

David Pasqualone: 6:28

Yeah, that's just it though. I did my best, but God turns it around and I don't say that flippantly or try to sound super spiritual. Um, every time I was at rock bottom, God. Fix things. So that's kind of what I want the listeners to know, you know, we'll, we'll get into whatever aspects of the story you'd like, but, um, if we just stay steadfast and consistent, even when it seems dark, God always brings the light.

Magic Barclay: 6:56

I think the first aspect of the story we need to investigate is that you were abandoned by your father who was wealthy and your mother who had what seems like nothing except for love for you, raised you. And you know, many people put their lives off and say, I'll do this when I've got the money, or I'll do that when I can afford it. Your father could afford you. And yet he wasn't emotionally invest.

David Pasqualone: 7:26

Yes, he, It's actually funny because there's a story in that in itself that's just starting to complete and move on to a new chapter. So my dad is, you know, everybody loves my father, but as for a dad, He just pretended I didn't exist. You know, him and my mother were never married and he went, got remarried, had three daughters and a son, and they never knew about me. So he had this like past life that he moved on. And then he had a new family that he's still with to this day. and this obviously that's his story and my mother's story, so I don't wanna get into too much, but as the child growing up, you know, it's like, well, I have a dad. He lives less than 45 minutes away. He's super wealthy, but he wants nothing to do with me. So that's tough for a child to process and accept. so. Our fathers are a large part of our beginning understanding and relationship with God. So our relationship with our earthly father kind of reflects our perception of our Heavenly Father. So I had a hard time understanding God's love and knowing God for who he was for years, because I had a father that had money and power and authority and could help. But chose not to. So that was kind of how my relation with ship with God was growing up. I knew he was great. I knew he was good. I knew he was perfect and holy, but he didn't care about me. Now that wasn't true, but that was my perspective as a child and into a teenage years cuz that was the relationship I knew with my physical dad. So that was pretty, pretty forming. Like any child. Sadly, there's more broken homes today than there are traditional. Biblical homes, but that's not how God intended it wants it. Then that's why we're here to help each other get through these times.

9:29

Now,

Magic Barclay: 9:30

there's another big life lesson that's a repeat theme in your bio there, and that is that you know, you got sick, you got unwell, the doctors told you one thing and you went, No, I'm listening to my body. I'm listening to. My inner being is telling me something's not right here. Take another look. And then when they did take another look, you kind of marched on and treated yourself. So can you explain to the listeners what made you go? No, that doesn't sound right.

David Pasqualone: 10:08

so that actually ties into my childhood. I grew up without my dad, just my mom and the stability in the house was my grandmother, and she passed away when I was about four. So I didn't have a traditional or normal childhood. Had a lot of burdens, responsibilities, worries, fears that sadly today too many kids have. But it's something that children shouldn't bear. So growing. When I was 12, I started getting these horrible stomach aches and I was always sick, getting cold, and we had cats and I'm allergic to cats, so, Some people are like, Oh, it's just the cats. He's allergic to cats. And then my mom, you know, she had her own issues and her own set of demons, so to speak. So she'd go to the doctor all the time, Well then I'd be like, I'm not feeling good. So the doctor thought, Oh, he's going to the doctor, cuz his mom goes to the doctor. It's like learn behavior. Then they start thinking, Oh, it's Muha and syndrome, where the mom's taking the kid to the doctor for her attention. And it, it quite possibly could have been that too, but I was legitimately sick, so I stopped going to the doctor when I was probably 14 or 15, and then I was sick all the time. I couldn't breathe. I was constantly blowing my nose. I'd get sore throats like strep throat like almost every week. And just my whole body was off. I had dark circles under my eyes. I couldn't sleep right. But yet I was falling asleep all day in class. I started getting, like, I was trying to be athletic and workout and you know, I was, I was actually a chubby kid with acne, like bad acne, not like a little bit. I had really bad acne and um, The doctors just thought he's just depressed. he's doing what his mom taught him. She's using him for attention. So basically they just kept giving me antibiotics, giving me antibiotics. They did nothing. So then when I was 15 to 18, I just stopped going to the doctor. I mean, unless I was gushing blood, I would not go to the doctor. I even got food poising one time. Would not go, would not get my stomach pumped. I just took care of it. Went on with my life. Well then when I turned 18, I went deaf in my right ear and I had this lump in the roof of my mouth. And the doctors while I was 17 kept saying, Oh, it's just an abscess. Take antibiotics. It's an abscess. Take antibiotics. So when I turned 18, I went and I. I want you to take out my tonsils cuz I'm tired against sore throats. I'm tired of being sick. Take'em out. So then a week before the surgery they said, Oh, you have a lump in the roof of your mouth. That must be an abscess. We need to get a CAT scan to make sure it's not too close to where we're cutting. And I'm like, I've had this for like a year and you told me it was nothing. So like, Oh, we're just being safe. So then I go ahead and I go home sick as a dog, you know, had the CAT scan laying on the couch as usual cuz I was so exhausted. And then I get this phone call from the hospital, Hey, you have an operable tumor, but you need to come in right now. We need to get an MRI with contrast. So I hang up the phone and at that moment, it was relief. Like I just felt fantastic. It was like, I'm not crazy. I'm not making this up. There's a reason I'm probably gonna die based on what they just told me over the phone. But who cares because I'm gonna go see Jesus and my mom will get rich for medical malpractice. So I was good with it. So that was actually a, one of the greatest calls in my life. and then once they found out, What the tumor was and how to deal with it. And this is important because, so now I'm like a kid that always had confidence issues cuz how he grew up between the father abandonment, between the abuse within the home, ex out of the home. People telling you worthless, you're trash. You know, they don't listen to you when you're sick. And now everything's kind of like validated. So I go in and I have a surgery. And they're like, You're gonna, you know, more than 50% chance you're gonna die, you're definitely gonna be disfigured, probably handicaps and mental retardation. They just go on and on and on and I'm like, I'm fine. I, I actually was like, That's good, so let's do this. So I go into the surgery and it was so complex that nobody locally would touch it. They sent me to Mass General Mass Iron Ear in Boston. I saw Dr. William Montgomery and at that point he was the head of Harvard Medical School. He was the, the chief oncologist he was ear, nose and throat, but he was like accredited in his seventies. He was doing surgery for me and he was doing surgery in like Saudi Arabia for princes. I mean, the guy was amazing. So he did my surgery. And they took out this tumor and I was in surgery. The first day was embolization. It was, and it was like, I don't know, 12 hours. It was miserable. Then you have to lay there for 24 hours without moving. That by far is the most painful thing that I, I've had some seriously painful things in life, but that was just agony. And then the third day you go into actually the cutting surgery. And that cutting surgery was like 14 hours. But when they went in, he said, Instead of disfiguring this kid who's 18, let's cut out his pal. As soon as they cut out my palate, the tumor just dropped out. So I come back to my room, they're like the luckiest boy in Boston. And when I got there, I, it was just an, the whole thing's a miracle. Like I barely lost blood and major surgery. I was supposed to be in there and, you know, just figured disformed, I had no, no problems. I was supposed to be in there like a month. I was discharged in a week. So everything went beyond expectations. And when I was talking to the doctor, He's like, Hey, this is a super rare tumor. Only men get it. You know, we're gonna keep an eye on, but you should have no problems. So I leave and I'm feeling great for about two months. And then after two months I start feeling the same symptoms. So I go back to the doctor in Boston and he's away, literally, like I said, another country doing surgery on famous people and elitist. And the guy who was there, the other doctor, he wasn't a resident, he wasn't in medical school, but he wasn't to the caliber of Dr. Montgomery. He belittled. He made fun of me. He insulted me. He would not order the mri. So at that point, I'm still not confident in myself and I'm an 18 year old kid talking to a successful physician, but something inside of me said, No, you've gone your whole life complying. Stop. The only person you need to submit yourself to is God and the authorities. He puts you under. So I said, No. I said, You get a kickback from running these tests. I said, Shut your mouth, write it. And then if it comes back negative, you can laugh at me. But for right now, order the mri. I don't want to hear another word about it. And so he basically told me to to screw off, but he's gonna do it just to prove me wrong. Go ahead. I get the test a week later. Dr. Montgomery calls me personally and he is like, Dave, I need to see you. So I knew what that meant. I come in, I talk to him, and that guy is standing behind him with his head down white as a ghost, and Dr. Montgomery ripped him top to bottom, and he looked at me, he said, Dave, I'm sorry, the tumor's back. He's like, It's almost the same size. He's like, We've never seen this before. I don't know how it happened. He's like, maybe it was like a dumbbell and there's two sides and we missed it in surgery. He's like, You're gonna have to go back in. And now the, the seriousness of the surgery is 10 times more complex. And then he puts his hand on my shoulder and says, Dave, we can have all the PhDs in the world. But you know your body better than anybody else. He's like, You standing up to this guy saved your life? And he is like, Don't ever let anybody, myself included, tell you otherwise. So that was a huge moment in my life and I learned that doctors are people like we are. Obviously they don do their job and they have experience, which we don't have. But if inside of you, you know, something's wrong, don't quit, Don. Take the drugs unless there's a legitimate. Make sure you're not treating symptoms. Make sure you're treating a real problem. And that is something that there's people who go wholly holistic, which I think is imbalanced. There's people who go total medicine, which is completely imbalanced. We need to have balanced. That's what God gives us. He gives us each other. He gives us medicine, but we need to have balance. So for the rest of my life, that moment helped me. Because there was two other times I was critically ill for separate reasons, and the doctors were like, We don't know. You're probably making it up. Or if you're, But then I started, you know, I went from like 200 pounds to 135 pounds and they're like, Make out your will. We don't know what's wrong. But I didn't quit on myself because I believe in God and he's not vin. He never does anything bad. He might allow what we perceive as quote unquote bad to happen, but it's always for our benefit. It may not seem it, I've gone through years of pain and suffering, but I know I've seen him this life benefit from it, and I know an attorney that's gonna be benefits from it. So even though we don't understand what we're going through, we may not understand why we gotta just trust God. And then do our best. And that's the balance. And when we know something's wrong, don't let anybody convince you otherwise, cuz they're not you. They probably really don't care about you. And when you pass away, your inner circle is harmed and theirs just keeps going.

Magic Barclay: 20:25

That's some, uh, very helpful advice there. Now we talk about wealth here on this podcast, and we're not just talking financial, but also personal and emotional wealth. So what are your top three tips to creating wealth?

David Pasqualone: 20:41

so just like my health, I've been in super good health and I've been in very poor. Really, a lot of it had nothing to do with me or my behavior. I've had great financial success and I've lost everything three times now. Nothing to do with me, just life circumstances. So I think we need to focus on, you know, God's calling in our life and our purpose, and do it. Find what brings us joy. And focus on that mission and the money comes the money. Whenever I worry about money, it's stressful and hard whenever I just relax and do what God's calling me to do each day. You know, like I have a goal I'm working towards, but I'm really just focusing on what do I need to do today to achieve that goal? Wealth just occurs and even just, back in January. I'm living what I'm saying. So I don't want people to think I'm a hypocrite. I had three large clients that I lost. Nothing to do with me. Like, and I mean, legitimately, death partners broke, you know, stuff like that. Things that I have no control over. And I learned that. Don't stress, just keep doing what you're doing. I did what I'm doing. And I got two phone calls out of the blue former customers like, Hey, I'm starting a new company. Can you help me? Or, Hey, I have an existing project. We want you to take over the whole thing and run with it. So the income that I had was immediately replaced and I didn't stress about it this time at all. So when you create wealth, if you're doing the things you love and you know, there's certain things I'll monetize. But there's certain things I won't. So if it comes to helping people, you know, the Bible says buy the truth and sell it. Not, you know, neither wisdom nor riches. So if there's anything to do with spiritual, I give it away. I will not charge for that. If there's something to do with like, Okay, you want to grow your business, let's do it. But tips for growing wealth is work, work. A lot of people don't wanna work. You know, you read books like The Secret, and The Secret has the Law of Attraction. There's definite truth. But you can't just sit there and visualize. You have to act. You know, a body and motion stays in motion, so you need to act, you need to work, you need to do your best, and then God brings the increase and then cutting your spending and living below your means. If you went out, I live in a beautiful condo on the beach and I'm thankful to God. I'm not bragging. I'm just telling you I have a great life. But if you looked at my. I got an old 1987 truck that I love and I got an old beater car that I used to drive around town that gets 35 miles a gallon of gas. I could buy a nicer car, but why? To me, it's just an expense I don't need. So you really have to look at your life, what your needs are, not your wants, and then live at that level. So, you know, again, don't obsess about money, but be responsible with it. So basically, find your passion. Do what you love. Live below your means and then monetize what you can. So again, I said I won't take money for the ministry, but I saw an opportunity a few months ago. There was a business that I'm like, Hmm, they need this. So I didn't even ask them. I just went ahead and did it. Had a couple hours one night. I went ahead and did the project and showed him a prototype. This is what I think we should do for you. Sold on the spot. So taking action is the other big key. So those are the three that I'd recommend people start with.

Magic Barclay: 24:42

That's some valuable, uh, advice there. Thank you. Now we talk about weight here. So whether people have. Gained weight or lost severely weight. It's often a battle that we needlessly go through, and I know many people won't listen to, you know, speakers or experts or. Physicians or practitioners because they say, Well, you haven't been where I am. You don't know what it feels like. So my question is, have you ever battled your weight? And if so, what was the trigger to losing it or what was the trigger to reducing stress? Because we know that's a key issue in weight problems.

David Pasqualone: 25:27

Yeah, that's a great question and. No matter what kind of podcast people are listening to, business, spiritual, you know, self development, your physical body affects everything you do. So again, there has to be balance. Everything in life has to be a balance. There's been times where I've been, I'm only five. So I was over 230 pounds at one point, and it was all fat. It wasn't muscle. There was times where I was skinny from the radiation down to one 30, and then again in 2000, um, nine, I got down to like 135 pounds from the, the poisoning from the trigeminal neuralgia. The two issue that we didn't talk about, So I've been very skinny. I've been well overweight where it was just, you know, hard to move and I felt like trash. I couldn't even tie my shoes without holding my breath. But for me, every time I've had weight issues, it was mental. It wasn't physical. I know. Then I need to drink water cuz water flushes all the trash we eat out. I know that I need to have portion control, moderation. You know, you can eat whatever you want, just do it moderately. I know that sugar is poison and that's something I want to get to, to go back when I had that tumor, it grew back once. It grew back twice, it grew back a third. How I got rid of that was I cut all dairy, all sugar, outta my diet for two years, and the tumor just shrunk, shrunk, shrunk. Trunk, trunk. And to this day it just continues to shrink. So now I eat sugar again. But sugar is a total, I mean, people are addicted to sugar in the world more than any other drug. And our governments do nothing about it. It's just like, Oh, this has sugar and that has sugar. Everything has sugar in it, but it really is terrible for our body. And if people. Easily think about this. When you get an MRI with contrast dye or any kind of diagnostic test at a hospital, they inject a dye in you. A lot of times the dye is just sugar water because tumors, they soak up sugar so they can see the dye mixed with the sugar water exactly where it is. Okay, well let's just use common sense. If you know that tumor is gonna suck up all that sugar, Cut sugar outta your diet. Now there's a difference between snicker bar sugar and an apple sugar, natural sugar versus processed. At that point in my life, I cut out everything to be safe, but now if I was losing, trying to lose weight or be healthier, I can eat an apple, a banana. That's all made by God. But if I'm gonna have bowl of coco pebbles or if I'm gonna have, you know, some kind of like syrupy drink, no way that stuff's just poison. So for people trying to lose weight, you know, all the things, you know, you need to move, you know, you need to go to the gym or go for a walk or go for a run. The problem is getting yourself to do it. So you have to do the hard work and the hard work. Yeah. It sucks to go to the gym. It stinks the first month when you go to work out and sometimes you come out feeling worse than when you went in. But then it starts to feel good and it's addictive and you feel fantastic. And when you don't work out, you feel tired and lethargic and your head's not clear. But then when you do work out, you feel energized and focused. You sleep better. Your balance is just so much stronger. So working out is. But why do we have moments in our lives where all of us don't work out? We don't eat right? It's up in the brain. It's, it's psychological. It's, we want to hurt ourselves. We don't feel like we're worthy. We have, we hear, not hear voices like physical, but you hear the memories of the past. A kid's telling you like, Hey, fatty, you're worth nothing. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we need to do the hard work, dig to the root of the problem, address that, and then move forward. But with working out on your health, there's nothing better to beat stress. There's nothing better to beat depression. So you have to kind of force yourself, just force yourself. That I'm going to do something cuz something's better than nothing. And then whether it's start off with a five minute walk, if that's all you can do, do five minutes. If it can be 30, do 30 or work up to 30. But at the end of the day, don't sandbag. Meaning don't. Don't just do the motions, push it to where your body is feeling it and then rest. And then the next day, push it to your body's feeling. And then rest, and then you just continue on in that cycle. Now, I'm not a medical doctor, nor do I play one on tv. This is my opinion. Seek medical advice, talk to your doctor, But for me and all my friends and people, I know this works. You just do it in a great tool. I'm not getting paid to say this. There's an app called Noom, N O O M, and that focuses on weight loss. And health from a psychological stand and it really helps a lot of people. I know I used it myself a couple years ago, worked. Great.

Magic Barclay: 30:58

Thanks for that, David. Now people can find you at your website, which is, well you tell us your website so I don't get the spelling wrong.

David Pasqualone: 31:09

it's my name.com. So David, d a v i d. Paone, P A S Q U A L O N e.com. So david paone.com, or you can type in the Remarkable People Podcast and it'll bring you there. And then you can reach me through the contact us page and if you need anything or just want to continue the conversation, let me know.

Magic Barclay: 31:34

Fantastic. And look, we love freebies here. So what can you offer the listeners as a freebie, and where can they find.

David Pasqualone: 31:42

I have a podcast that I started as a ministry over two years ago. And it's been nothing but a blessing. We're in over 90 countries. I've made friends all around the world. Our community keeps growing and podcasting isn't just a fun hobby, but you get to help people if you're bringing valuable content. When I started though, I knew nothing about podcasts. To be quite blunt and even listen to podcasts, that's a whole other story how I got into it. But once I learned to podcast, I. Became kind of an expert at it quickly, so I put together a podcasting made easy class. So if any of your listeners want to pass for the Podcasting Made Easy Class with lifetime access, instead of paying the$395, they can pay$12. We'll put a promo code in. You can share it with your listeners, and they can get the$395 class for 12 bucks. and that's it. And the reason why I charge$12 is because I love seeing people finish what they start. I love seeing people complete what they start. So, It's not about the$12, but what it is about is putting skin in the game. Even that$12, there's a mental switch that goes in people's heads where I've seen firsthand, and you can read study after study, that the people who put in a couple bucks are way more prone to complete the. This class takes you from zero to Hero. In eight weeks you'll have a live podcast all over the world, and it's really that easy cuz we walk you through it. Then on top of all that, I started the podcast as a ministry, but it was, like I said, a great hobby. I made friends, but I can't tell. How much income I've made from my business because of the podcast, because the podcast reaches people. They like what they hear, they get to know me, and then I truly didn't even think about this aspect. But because people know, like, and trust me from the podcast business just flows where I'm a marketing guy and I barely market my own. So you can have that result too, is what I'm saying. If you start a podcast that people enjoy, it'll bring you all sorts of blessings and it goes back to your question three tips for doing and growing your wealth. Do what you love. So start a podcast. If it's about growing caterpillars, people out there will love caterpillar growing too. If it's about building a business, people will love that. If it's about horses, people love that. So podcasting's getting to be massive and it's so much fun. Try it and for 12 bucks you get your promo code. Let's do this.

Magic Barclay: 34:37

Amazing. Thank you listeners. This was your episode 1 45 with David Pasco alone. In 1 46, David will return to talk more about living life remarkably. Listeners, thank you for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.