Meet David Gandelman

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Gandelman.

David, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started meditating when I was 16. My brother came home from college one day, and he had been experimenting with some, let’s say, “mind alternating” substances. He thought I needed to open my mind. He dragged me to a bookstore and made me buy a book. I picked up The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle.

That book radically changed my life, and meditation became my new passion. It woke me up to the awareness that our minds are constantly lost to the past and future, and we rarely allow ourselves to rest at this moment. Fast forward, because of this, let’s call it an awakening, I decided to get a degree in philosophy from Rutgers University, and I then went on to live in some ashrams in the Himalayas, studying various eastern traditions. I then spent 7 years living in Hawaii studying the mystic healing arts and directing a meditation school.

During my 3rd year as the director of a school in Hawaii, which is a non-profit, I decided I was tired of being poor in the non–profit world. So I started reading books on entrepreneurship like Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Work Week. That led me to expand my field of what was possible, and I started teaching on the app Insight Timer. I then created my online platform and app called Meditation School. I began podcasting, seeing clients, teaching retreats, and writing a book.

I’d say I’m half a teacher and half an entrepreneur. I heard this saying once, ‘you want to take two good ideas and have them have idea sex, and birth an idea baby.’ For me, that idea baby was the integration of my spiritual teaching path and my entrepreneurship path. I love having a team, paying people, being creative, and growing businesses. And the greatest joy in my life is teaching people how to grow from the inside out.

In terms of where I am today, I feel like I’ve kind of come full circle. Not too long ago I got a shout-out on the Tim Ferriss podcast from the CEO of Shopify, and it brought back memories of living in my one-bedroom apartment in Hawaii, reading Tim’s first book, trying to figure out how I was going to design my life.

I’ve had the incredible blessing of being able to reach millions of students on the Insight Timer app, and travel the world teaching. And I want to be super clear about something: my talent is in my ability to focus and work hard. I’m not crazy smart or creative. I just love people and personal growth, and I have an almost bottomless well of passion for life. And most of all, I’m willing to make mistakes and not punish myself too hard over them.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest struggles I experienced along my path always had to do with feeling invalidated or what some people might call imposter syndrome. I remember when I created my first online course I used a crappy mic and spent endless hours trying to edit it myself because I didn’t feel and see the value in my work enough to hire professional help.

Now when I create a piece of content or help a client create one, I always ask the question, what if a million people listen to this? How would I create it from the space of knowing this work is going to impact so many people? Because our work is a reflection of how much we value ourselves. There’s a saying, “We don’t rise to our goals, we fall to our systems.” I love having lofty goals and precision of purpose, but to create the magic you need structure. And as a creative/spiritual type, I was always resistant to systems and structure.

But after struggling with technology and investing in myself for so long I realized I had to master building a real foundation. So I had to start asking myself, what kind of team do I need to be successful? What kind of systems do I need in place? Am I worth building all of this for? Asking those questions, and being willing to get in the weeds of the details and follow through have made all the difference. And hiring the right business coaches at the right time to help me with my blind spots was also incredibly valuable.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
If I was to boil it down I would say the core of my work is to teach people how to become aware of energy. When you close your eyes to meditate, reflect or heal, what is the energetic weather like inside you? Is there a tornado of anger, clouds of confusion, or blue skies of joy?

From there I teach people to shift their energy and learn to find their answers. There are some questions in life, like the big ones, who am I? Why am I here? Is this the right partner for me? What’s my next step in life? These questions can’t be answered by the intellect or by experts outside of us. And the answers may not exist yet.

The answers are born out of our energy and growth. So as we shift the answers almost are an emergent property that evolves out of our consciousness. I also incorporate a lot of humor into my meditations. One day I had to come to terms with the fact that I’m a funny person. Mostly funny to look at, but once in a while, I tell a joke in meditation that disarms people and allows them to not take everything so seriously.

What makes you happy?
What lights me up is helping people develop whatever creative/business projects they are working on, networking, and being able to pay my team. Something about building something with a community gets me excited.

And of course, watching people develop spiritually and find purpose and meaning in their lives. In my time I take piano, guitar, and singing lessons every week. I also do stand-up comedy classes, hike, work with animals, and love to play ice hockey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.meditationschool.us
• Instagram: @David_gandelman
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-gandelman-74ab79130/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=david+gandelman