Meet Daniel Carusi

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniel Carusi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Many people spend the majority of their lives trying to find their purpose. Sleepless nights, changing careers, volunteering for something they believe has meaning but yet feel unfulfilled and lacking purpose.

My story is not any different and I shared the same frustrations as others. I can recall asking myself the same questions over and over again. Why am I here? What am I supposed to do with my life? What is my purpose? However, as I began to collect experiences in my life, I came to the realization that searching for your purpose is a fruitless effort and not achievable. One cannot find purpose in life, purpose finds you.

The challenge with purpose finding you is that it is not obvious and clear which is why most people miss it. Purpose is not in a job title, specific type of work, the industry you select, or a place you call home. You have to look through all the noise to find your true north. For me, I adopted a philosophy of living life with eyes wide open and being in the present moment. Paying attention to what brought me energy and joy versus what drained the energy out of me. Reaction and feedback from others that made me begin to pay attention to how I impacted others resulting in a compelling drive to do more of it.

Once I reached the level of self-awareness to recognize the compelling drive within, I harnessed it to seek out the opportunities that provided the energy and joy. Once you start asking yourself how can I do more of something, the true understanding of your purpose will be within your reach of understanding.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m the CEO and Founder of Red Paint Consulting LLC providing performance improvement solutions for leadership and team development. Making people uncomfortable and leveraging Adventure & Equine Experiential Learning is the foundation to our methodology. Our consultants are outdoor enthusiasts to include rock climbers, hikers, surfers, paragliders, mountaineers, horseback riders, and paddlers, all who are also successful business professionals. Combining our passions towards performance improvement and the outdoors, we have helped people & teams grow both personally and professionally around the world.

Our stoke is to watch people and teams perform at a level they did not think was possible after completing one of our programs. When you tap into someone’s passion, push them out of their comfort zone, and rally around one common goal, the trajectory is only upward – we call it “One Team, One Goal, Many Summits”. Having to depend on other team members during a difficult or uncomfortable experience is a critical step to the development of a High Impact Team. At the individual level, moving outside the comfort zone creates self-awareness that leads to personal & professional growth. Our programs definitely provide the opportunity to learn about others and yourself.

Red Paint Consulting LLC has partnered with sales organizations, business executives, high school & college students, tech. startups, law firms, and cross-functional teams for highly successful Experiential Learning programs. Activities range from climbing a rock face, paddling a river, hiking & camping, working with horses to activities that take place in the parking lot of the office building or ballroom pre-function space. We meet our clients where they are and design programs in alignment with their business strategy & desired outcomes. Our signature program is Equine Facilitated Learning. Watching people interact with horses, forming a human/horse connection is life-changing for many and amazing to experience. Participants exit the program not only with the tools they need to be successful in their professional lives but to be better people in life.

I’m really excited about the recent launch of a new two-day program titled “River to Farm for individual, team, and leadership development. It’s a combination of paddling activities on the Shenandoah & Potomac Rivers and Equine activities on the farm. All activities are Experiential based layered with facilitation, reflection, & debriefs. The program concludes with a fireside ceremony with a cleansing of the past & negative thoughts and a reset on positive attributes to take forward with them.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I will start with accepting and embracing failure. This was a challenging one for me. I always viewed failure as a setback which chipped away at self-esteem and confidence, resulting in a fixed versus growth mindset. Over time I realized that out of failures came successes and flipping the perspective that it’s a step back to a step forward towards my path to achieving my goals. Learning & growth is an outcome from failure so embrace & celebrate it. If you are going to climb mountains, there are many summits you will not reach and if you are going to ride horses, you are going to fall off. At the end, we are better climbers and riders.

The next one is closely related to failure which is to never give up and do not quit. I learned this lesson early in my life when I was competing in a 5000-meter track race in college. I was recovering from an extended winter illness and entered my freshman year spring track season not in the best shape for competing. The first race of the season I quickly fell off the pace and the field were out of reach. Running in last place, I stepped off the track with a few laps to go. My coach and team captain pulled me to the side and said “Never quit again. No matter what place you are in or how much you are hurting, you always finish the race”. I took the comments to heart and from that point on, it has been very difficult for me to quit anything. Win or lose, you need to see it through.

Finally, we all need to be courageous in life. To quote the late John Wayne, “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway”. There are times in life when you just need to let the horse run and enjoy the ride. A level of fear is healthy and is what keeps us from doing really stupid things, but we cannot let fear cause paralysis. I see too many people fall short of their goals and potential due to the lack of courage to do the scary things required to be successful. Take a deep breath and go do!

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

For me, a difficult question to answer. It’s not one person but a series of interactions with people throughout my life that influenced me, helped me overcome challenges, learn new skills, encouraged me to try new things, and to give that gentle nudge (sometimes not so gentle) needed when I was stuck. Many people come and go in our lives that had a tremendous impact on who we are today. Even a chance encounter with someone can change the trajectory of our lives. Again, live life with eyes wide open and embrace those encounters.

Specific to me, as I reflect on who was helpful in my life, I think of Father John, Father Tom, and my Father-in-Law who re-energized my faith in God. I think of Coach Doug Pollard & Dennis Smyth who were my running coaches who taught me work ethic & discipline. I think of the numerous business leaders that provided guidance & mentorship. I think of all of the people I was responsible for as a leader and fortunate to work with. I think of the interactions with everyone I have trained & coached and the lessons I learned from them. I think of the climbing guides and the lessons learned in the outdoors. Finally, I think of family who are my foundation and who continue to support me when I need it the most. I cannot name everyone and not purposely leaving anyone out. In fact, most likely there are people I’m not even aware of who helped me over the course of my life.

It truly takes a team. You cannot go alone in life and expect to be successful or have the belief that you reach a point where you have all the wisdom and knowledge you need to be successful. To be a life-long learner, we learn from our own experiences, but we also learn from other people’s experiences, failures, and perspectives. I do not know who I will encounter next and what impact they will have in my life, but I look forward to their role in my growth & journey.

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Image Credits

Nick Carusi Photography

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