We recently connected with Denis Sindler and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Denis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

In 2017, in my early 20s, I started my first side business with my girlfriend.

We sold organic t-shirts online while I was a full-time student abroad in Denmark and a part-time chef.

Despite little time, I was determined to make it work.

I won’t lie, this period was hard. I felt pressured to prove to my parents and everyone that I was good enough.

As a child, people often criticized me, saying I “messed up.”

When adults repeatedly tell this to a child, the child starts to believe something is wrong with them. So I put in all my time, effort, and mental focus to make the side hustle work!
After a year of 12-hour work weekends, guilt over having some time off, pressure, and mental breakdowns, I figured out how to make money selling physical products. At that moment, I felt a spark – if I could do it, anyone could!

In 2019, I built my brand as an e-commerce coach, teaching others in two European markets how to start online stores using print-on-demand and paid ads.

On the outside, I had it all at 22 – I made €20,000 from my side hustle while studying and working part-time. I had an e-commerce store and a growing brand projected to earn €100,000 annually by teaching others.

But inside, I was miserable. I felt like a failure, unable to fill the hole inside, and shocker, money didn’t help fill that gap inside.

In 2020, I said, “Screw this, I’m not going to finish university.” I bought a one-way ticket to my dream destination, Bali.

Most people thought leaving home, friends, family, and my degree was risky. They were wrong. Leaving was easy, but I wasn’t ready for what came next in Bali!

A week in, I had a scooter accident.

I couldn’t shower or walk for over two weeks. But what was even worse was the fact that I had to show up for my online business and make it look like nothing had happened.

At 24, most guys would ask their parents for help. Not me.

I chose to own my lessons:
The lesson of building an online business that was not supporting me.
The lesson of running it from a place of proving that I’m good enough to make it work.
The lesson of ignoring the fact that something might change, and it can be as quick as a scooter accident.

But I have always believed that everything is happening for me, not to me, and I remember reading one saying that said: “There are two sides to every story.”

And when I look back, It couldn’t be more true than this!

Because shortly after that accident, I realized that everything I did before the accident was backward.

I built businesses to prove that I could succeed, yet I felt unfulfilled.

And I was no longer willing to keep up with that story.
Thanks to that accident, I was forced to slow down, stop, and reflect.

I looked in the mirror and said, “I’m done!”

That was the moment I decided to risk it all and shut down my only source of income. I had taken the plunge into the unknown, hoping for a fresh new start.

In 2020 I disappeared from the internet.

And as I was living in Bali for the next three years, I had to fully experience what it has to offer. The healing, personal growth, unlearning what I was taught is important or even true, re-directing my mind and finding my purpose once again, something that would wake me up every morning without being forced to do it, but doing it because I want to.

How it turned out, you asked?
After three years of rebuilding the relationship with myself, I came back to what I was always passionate about, something that I had been carrying with me for all these years without even realizing it. It was personal development, psychology, and neuroscience.

And I made a choice that if I would ever come back and build something online, it would be something that I’m deeply passionate about. Something I’ve been through over and over again, and something that can help business owners like myself build businesses from a grounded place.

It was 02.05.2023 when I officially started my new business venture called Impactful Leader, where I chose to focus on the human aspect of the business and gear up more business owners with practical science-based tools and methods that help them surrender control without sacrificing their business goals using our unique “Grounded CEO Method.”

That Is a blend of neuroscience, psychology, and high-performance tools that creates tangible results in a CEO’s life and improves their business performance, all thanks to applying the neurobiological lens to leadership.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Denis, and I am a high-performance specialist and leadership coach for established business owners and CEOs who wish to surrender control without sacrificing their business goals.

I founded Impactful Leader in 2021 after I’ve gone through the building, growing, and ultimately closing down 2 other businesses. This experience has helped me shape Impactful Leader in multiple ways, as I am able to bring more practical methodologies and tools that are suitable for established business owners into my containers and offers.

And I strongly believe that this extensive business knowledge sets Impactful Leader apart from other coaching businesses. Throughout the last couple of years, I have developed a unique methodology, The “Grounded CEO Method”, that combines neuroscience, psychology, and high-performance practices.

Through this method, I am able to help established founders, who operate on a high level, decrease the level of stress and anxiety they’re experiencing on a daily basis, which helps them make better business decisions and improve their critical thinking and leadership skills.

I believe that you CAN have a successful business WITHOUT experiencing burnout every single month, having anxiety, or feeling like an impostor whenever you want to share your message.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Before I share those books with you, I want to point out something: I love reading books, but what I’m really enjoying about these two books I’m about to share with you is the ability to work through them. Don’t just read them for entertainment purposes. Use them, read them again, and practice what’s inside.

Book #1 – Love yourself like your life depends on it (Book by Kamal Ravikant)
Book #2 – Monk who sold his Ferrari (Book by Robin Sharma)

These books helped me the most at the beginning because they weren’t telling me what to do but rather sharing the wisdom of great leadership skills and how to operate as a human being and an impactful business owner.

Don’t just take my word for it. Read it, and you will see a massive ripple effect in your personal life, your communication with people you interact with, as well as your own clients.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a kid, I was criticized A LOT. That put me in a position where I felt isolated and did not trust many people because it seemed like no one really understood me. Which I would say was the time when I developed my resilience muscle. This was the only chance for me to get something. Deep down, I knew that no one else would give me what I wanted unless I did it myself.

This has been reflected in the way I was going through life.

Whether it was the time when I was 20 years old and wanted to study abroad so, in order to save up the cash for my apartment and travel expenses, I had four part-time jobs and one full-time job at the same time for 6 months. It was the only way for me to make it happen because my parents did not have extra cash.

Or the time when I was living in London, working 70-80h per week as a waiter/bartender while learning and building my first e-commerce store in a shared apartment with four other people.

And let’s not forget the time when I was a full-time student, had a part-time job and was building my personal brand, managing 300 students, and making my first €20.000 from my side hustle.

All of these were just a few of the many moments when resilience showed up in my life.

But, all of these moments were ignited by extrinsic motivators (I need to prove them). Even though it worked for me before, it was not sustainable in the long term. It was dreadful, and I found myself that after achieving these monetary goals, I got lost for months without having a “motivation” towards something.

This is where I had to go throught a re-pattering process on my own and teach my body and mind how to use intrinsic motivators instead. ( Intrinsic motivators such as Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://impactfulleader.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/impactfulleader/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denis-sindler-99182a222/
• Other: Podcast – https://anchor.fm/grounded-ceo

Image Credits
Keira Mason