Ep. 224 - Beyond What We Do w/ David Tollefson

Do you ever notice how easy it is to only focus on one dimension of a person’s life when you first meet them?  A lot of times it's “Nice to meet you, my name’s Jason, what do you do for a living?”  And gradually over time you just start thinking of that person solely based on that.  Each time you talk it’s “How’s that one dimension I know about you going?”   I fall into this pattern more than I care to admit.  Thus, I love that hosting Awkwardly Awesome Podcast repeatedly reminds me how limiting this habit can be.

I met David Tollefson at a conference in Sioux Falls last fall.  He introduced himself as an engineer and we started talking about his work.  But I have to be honest, even after talking with him for a while and again in recent months about his job, I’m still hard pressed to explain it.  I don’t get what he does exactly, but I know what he does is important.  This is my best explanation- David Tollefson engineers various control set ups for the food processing industry that keep things running safely and efficiently, which is deeply important to all of us who like to eat.  So yes, basically David is one of many unsung heroes behind the scenes of our lives.

Fortunately, towards the end of our initial conversation, we broke the one dimensional “what we do” wall.  Somehow we got to talking about our families and discovered that both of our mother’s families are from the St. Cloud, Minnesota area.  Then he’s like, “Oh by the way I participated in this thing called Drum Corp where I traveled around the United States for two years taking part in drumming competitions and I’ve been to all 48 of the contiguous United States.”

And, oh by the way, when I looked it up, I discovered Drum Corp International is No Small Thing.  According to their website, “For nearly a half century, Drum Corps International, Marching Music’s Major League™, has been the leader in producing events for the world’s most elite and exclusive marching ensembles for student musicians and performers.  Drum Corps International delivers the message of “excellence in performance and in life” to more than 7.2 million young people, ages 13-22 involved in the performing arts across the United States.”

Some months later I met with David over Zoom and found out he also teaches yoga and learned about some other fascinating dimensions of his life.  He has inspiring things to say about high performance and the power of constantly growing and I’m just like, “You know what?  Why aren’t we doing this on my podcast?”  So, I’m honored to have him join us so you can experience the many dimensions of David Tollefson.

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**Video broadcast available** on YouTube @imperfectbest

**Learn more about Jason Freeman** at AwkwardlyAwesome.com