E122 - Lessons from Walter Dusseldorp: Navigating Leadership's Hidden Traps

Ever feel like you're drowning in tasks while your leadership potential remains untapped? That's exactly what Walter Dusseldorp, the Dutch Mentor, addresses in this powerful conversation about the crucial shift from doing to leading.

Walter's story is nothing short of remarkable. Arriving in America with just $500 in his pocket, he transformed from a waiter with one shirt and tie into a successful entrepreneur, helicopter medic, and eventually a respected corporate leader. Now, as a mentor to emerging leaders and entrepreneurs, he shares the wisdom gained from his diverse career journey.

The conversation centers on three game-changing insights. First, Walter reveals the most common mistake that derails promising leaders: the inability to transition from execution to empowerment. When high performers get promoted, they often continue pushing rather than learning to pull others along with them. This distinction between doing and leading becomes the differentiator between those who plateau and those who create lasting impact. Second, Walter challenges conventional definitions of success, arguing that it must be personally defined and allowed to evolve throughout your life. His own measure—waking up inspired and making an impact—offers a refreshing alternative to rigid external metrics. Finally, he distinguishes between coaching and mentorship, emphasizing that while coaches provide accountability, true mentors share wisdom from lived experience.

What makes this episode particularly valuable is the practical application. You'll walk away with specific questions to audit your leadership approach, reassess your definition of success, and identify potential mentors in your circle. Walter's parting advice—"Less is more. Focus, measure, and hold yourself accountable"—provides a simple but powerful formula for generating unstoppable momentum in your leadership journey. Ready to stop doing it all and start truly leading? Listen now and take your first step toward transformation.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Question of the Week
• 4:50 Walter's Journey from Holland
• 5:32 Takeaway 1: Doing vs Leading
• 7:38 Takeaway 2: Evolving Definition of Success
• 9:56 Takeaway 3: Mentorship Over Motivation
• 12:25 Challenge and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:55

What's going on and welcome back to a Friday recap episode. So to kick it off, you know I got the question of the week for you. What if the biggest mistake leaders make isn't about lack of skill but about holding on too tightly to doing instead of learning how to lead? One of the biggest insights from the conversation I had with Walter Dusseldorp, also known as the Dutch mentor. Walter's story is one of resilience, reinvention and relentless pursuit of growth, which has got me dialed in because I connect with Walter on so many different levels. See a lot of what he teaches and what I teach, and it was just an awesome conversation to share with another like-minded individual. So I hope you guys really enjoyed that. And if you haven't yet listened to it, please make sure you go back and check it out. And in case if you don't have time just yet here, let me fill you in on the scene.

Speaker 1: 2:56

So Walter came to the US from Holland with only $500 in his pocket and a dream of traveling. See, he worked his way up from waiting tables with one shirt and a tie all the way up to eventually owning his own bakery and becoming a paramedic and then eventually a helicopter medic and then totally, eventually to corporate leadership and now even mentorship. Today he coaches emerging leaders and entrepreneurs, helping them avoid the traps that he's seen derail too many careers over the years, especially the trap of trying to keep doing everything yourself instead of empowering others. Three main takeaways from the conversation was number one was really the difference between doing and leading. Walter said the most common mistake new leaders make is staying stuck in doing mode. They were high performers in their craft, but when they're promoted they keep pushing instead of learning to pull. Delegation is an art and failing to master it keeps businesses and teams stuck. So reflection for you is where in your life are you still clinging to doing when you should be stepping into the leading mode?

Speaker 1: 4:20

So if you've been following along with me, you've known that I quickly burned myself out when I was in strength and conditioning and I was trying to juggle a lot of different things. And now that I'm in a similar situation where I'm helping other solopreneurs and side hustlers really level themselves up to kind of generate the momentum and get their business or side hustle to that next stage, whatever it is that they're really shooting for, part of that lesson for me was learning how to delegate myself, especially here with the podcast. It takes a lot to come up with all the content that I've been creating on social media the editing the episodes, prepping the episodes, uploading, contacting new leads, following up, making sure that people, making sure that the guests I do have on here are interesting and credible so that they provide a great episode and value to all of you listeners. And one of the things that I've had to do previously and then also again recently, is learning how to delegate some of the content creation stuff. So a lot of like the graphics and things that you see I've been not exporting but like delegating out to a team of virtual assistants that I've been working with so that I can continue to delegate and provide my service and the value that I provide by checking in and vetting future guests and connecting with more people. So that's one for me specifically. So ask yourself, where in your life are you clinging onto that, doing it when you should be stepping into a leading position?

Speaker 1: 5:44

Second thing that I took away from my conversation with Walter is that success is individual and it evolves. Walter's definition of success isn't fixed. For him, it's waking up, inspired and making an impact. But he also stressed that each person must define success for themselves, and that definition can and should evolve over time. So has your definition of success grown with you or are you still chasing an outdated version of it?

Speaker 1: 6:16

Again, going back to my own personal story, when I was younger and strength and conditioning, my definition of success was a financial stampler or a milestone, and it was crazy because as soon as I'd hit it, it would just bump up All right. More, more, more, more sessions, more money, more income. What was I doing? I was just running myself in circles. As I've kind of grown and evolved as a human, so too has my coaching, and now it's more on checking in to see, like how many people am I impacting, how many lives am I helping, how many side hustles am I helping succeed and build to the next level, and that kind of grows and evolves with you. When I first got into speaking, I just wanted to get my first paid speaking gig. Then my mentor challenged me to get on to 50 podcasts and 10 speaking stages in a year, and now I'm crushing that and moving forward and ahead and trying to see how do I evolve as myself, as a coach, and how does true success really evolve for me as well as I, continue to grow. So again, ask yourself how has your definition of success grown with you, or are you still chasing an older version of success, that you're just kind of circling and circling?

Speaker 1: 7:29

And finally, number three my third takeaway from conversation with Walter is that mentorship is greater than motivation, and Walter drew a powerful distinction between coaching and mentorship. Coaches keep you accountable and motivated, but mentors share wisdom from lived experience and the fastest way to grow is to find someone who's walked the path before you and learn from their scars and successes. So, doing a little audit, who in your circle could be a true mentor and what's one step you could take this week to intentionally seek their guidance? Great mentor of mine, brett Bartholomew. I started going to a lot of his workshops and connecting with him and, to be honest, it's somebody that I need to connect back with again to see what's going on and more questions, because he was a plethora of information and knowledge and experience and just love learning from him. So, even if it's an old mentor, make sure that you're circling back to kind of finding these people, but look in your circle of influence or your team triangle if you're following along with a lot of my coaching and who's currently at the top of your team triangle, or who should be at the top of that triangle, and what can you do to intentionally seek their guidance?

Speaker 1: 8:51

Bringing back to the conversation this conversation with Walter was important and I wanted to make sure that I shared this with you guys because it connects deeply with me, because I've seen a lot of the same struggles with, like some of my clients and like I shared already myself, I used to hesitate to let go of old identities. It was hard for me to kind of evolve and grow into the performance coach and leave behind the strength and conditioning and I used to worry that I'd lose who I was and all the accolades and almost as if I spent all that money and time learning everything in strength and conditioning almost be like a waste. But you know, like Walter, I learned that growth requires stepping into the identity of who you're becoming and not just holding on to who you've been so understanding that all that information, things that I learned in strength and conditioning translates over, because it made me a great strength and conditioning coach and now it's making me an even better performance coach, being able to still identify gaps and strengths and weaknesses and strategies, and implementing exercises and tactics to help improve performance overall. And to kind of close things for you guys, I want to remind you that Walter's advice at the end was simple and powerful Less is more.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Focus, measure and hold yourself accountable and, to be honest, if you can do that consistently, you become unstoppable. You generate that momentum that just can't be slowed down. So if you enjoyed this little recap or if you enjoyed the conversation with Walter, make sure that you go and you follow him on LinkedIn and YouTube. You can find him at the Dutch Mentor or you can even book a free consultation through his site. He shares daily nuggets on leadership and I can tell you this is someone who embodies the mentorship that he talks about. So here's my challenge for you for this week Stop trying to do it all. Find one thing to delegate, one person to lean on and one action step that pulls you closer to your bigger vision, because momentum starts when you stop doing it alone.