Disney Executive Turned Self-Help Guru Overwhelmed by Criticism | Dave Hollis Case Analysis

hello this is Dr Grande today's question is can I analyze the case of Dave Hollis just a reminder I'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon I will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first I'll look at the background of this case move to the timeline of the incident then offer my analysis Dave how was born on February 14 1975 in Orange County California in high school he performed well academically and attended College after graduating he had a few jobs in the entertainment industry including working for a talent agency before getting hired in 2001 by the Walt Disney Company in 2002 he met a 19-year-old woman named Rachel who worked for mirax she was about eight years younger than Dave in 2004 the couple married they went on to have three sons and one daughter in 2011 Dave was promoted to president of worldwide theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios in 2012 Disney purchased Lucas film for about $4 billion Dave promoted many films including those which were part of the Star Wars franchise based on his description of his job it sounds like Dave sold Disney movies to theaters he did not find the job to be particularly challenging because the movies were in high demand Dave did extremely well financially his family lived in a $3.5 million house in Los Angeles California as Dave was enjoying incredible Career Success Rachel started working toward her own career goals she tried writing novels and attending acting school eventually she decided to become a self-help Guru Dave was skeptical that his wife would have luck with this project he believed she had a 3% chance of success in March of 2015 Rachel posted an image on Instagram where she was wearing a bikini stretch marks were visible in the image she suggested that she was proud of her body and every mark on it the post became wildly popular and was somehow sufficient to launch her career as a social media influencer in early 2018 Rachel published a book titled girl wash your face the book was about embracing imperfections it was inexplicably a big hit and generated a lot of revenue for Rachel she was actually making more money than Dave despite his status as an executive in January 2018 Dave told Disney that he was leaving his job in May of that year inspired by his wife's success he had decided it was time for a CH change in June 2018 the family moved just outside Austin Texas they hired employees and ran their own self-help company in March of 2019 Rachel published another book this one was titled girl stop apologizing Dave transformed into a social media influencer but initially he did not like it this would change after an incident in the summer of 2019 Dave encountered one of his fans who asked him for a selfie other people noticed and they wanted selfies as well Dave developed a selfie fueled addiction for the life of a social media influencer he was now hooked on the idea of becoming famous in order to build his influencer brand Dave adopted the same strategy as his wife and started sharing information about his imperfections he made many posts on Instagram some of these posts featured his children Dave portrayed himself as a family man in March of 2020 Dave published a book titled get out of your own way a skeptic's guide for growth and fulfillment essentially he talked about himself a lot and had some tips for success I'll talk more about his book in the analysis in addition to posting on social media and writing books Dave and Rachel offered coaching sessions sold merchandise and recorded podcast some people who observed Dave and Rachel believed they were getting overly competitive with each other for example Rachel made a reference to her husband's initial Grim assessment of her success probability by naming her company 3% chance Productions perhaps Dave should have reserved his most pessimistic assessments for his marriage in June of 2020 the couple announced their intent to divorce considering how their brand was built upon raising a loving family and taking charge as a power couple their popularity quickly faded after the divorce announcement many of their fans felt as though they had been cheated like Dave and Rachel were selling a lifestyle they did not actually possess who were they to teach other people how to be happy and keep a marriage together when they were falling apart themselves it was a valid question for which the couple did not have an acceptable answer they received many criticisms including from a Reddit group dedicated to the couple Dave tried to make adjustments in his brand he repositioned himself as a single dad who was yearning to destroy his own perfectionism unfortunately for Dave he found it difficult to process the many impolite comments on the internet including from the group on Reddit he became obsessed with the comments and frequently read them in February of 2021 Dave announced that he was in a romantic relationship with a woman named Heidi Powell she was a social media influencer who had achieved popularity on Instagram in October of 2021 Dave once again placed himself in a difficult position as far as his relationship with his fans he was on an Instagram live stream from his patio which he called The Patio of peace Dave begged people to buy his second book which was titled built through courage face your fears to live the life you were meant for Dave explained his extreme level of commitment to writing the book when he said I bled into this even though the market for blood soaked books is surprisingly robust Dave's book was not well written and nobody was interested in buying it during the live stream Dave's four-year-old daughter came into the frame and asked him to make her Mickey Mouse pancakes he dismissed her but when she approached him again he told her to get a life he was on the live stream for 2 hours despite his AUD audience encouraging him to spend time with his family on the reic group that frequently criticized Dave the incident was referred to as pancake gate later Dave apologized by saying I don't recognize the person in the video in early 2022 Dave checked into a substance use treatment facility also that year he published a children's book titled Here's To Your Dreams Dave resisted the temptation to include his standard advice for children in the book like get a life now moving to the timeline of the incident in February 2023 one of Dave's Sons asked him what he wanted for his birthday Dave told him to draw a picture his son searched online to find an image of his father to use for the drawing but ended up finding a YouTube video featuring someone criticizing Dave his son asked him how do I tell them what a great dad you are Dave texted his romantic interest Heidi and said I don't know what to do I hate this part of my life within a week Dave was drinking heavily again he called Heidi and implied that he was ready to get help for his drinking however he later failed to arrive at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that he was supposed to attend on February 11 2023 a family member went to Dave's home and found him in his bed with his phone in his hand 47-year-old Dave hows was dead later it was determined that Dave had high levels of fentanyl cocaine and alcohol in his system which combined with an underlying natural disease of the heart and led to his death now moving to my analysis here are my thoughts in a few areas that stood out to me in this case item number one as I mentioned Dave holls wrote a book titled get out of your own way a skeptic's guide for growth and fulfillment here is a summary of This Book Dave had a long history of alcohol use yet was still successful in the corporate world he was surprised and confused by his success because he wasn't particularly talented and was surrounded by people who could have performed his job better than he did he came up with many questions like what was the meaning of life and is this as good as it gets Dave wanted more than simply being a wealthy corporate executive as part of his journey of Discovery he received mental health counseling Dave became interested in the world of self-help but was skeptical about anyone who claimed to have Superior knowledge about life or happiness he decided to write his own self-help book which would cater to other Skeptics Dave's book revealed various aspects of his life story and contained tactics for being happy and successful the book is toned deaf not that well written transparent and contains many failed attempts at humor it's like Dave did not understand what people go through in life he was discon connected from The Human Experience there was a profound lack of empathy in the book Dave was good at recognizing his own pain but not at recognizing the pain of others Dave wrote about how his job title at Disney didn't mean anything and he wanted to discover his own worth without having someone dictate it to him in the form of a title there was also the sense that he felt like an impostor his job wasn't that hard yet he earned a lot of money throughout the book David attempted to connect his life experiences to various lessons and tactics for Success here are a few pieces of advice he offered be inquisitive work hard be honest about weakness seek mental health counseling don't make decisions based on emotions ignore unhelpful criticism maintain boundaries and set goals technically Dave was not offering bad advice the problem is it's the same advice which has been recycled in just about every self-help book ever written furthermore the book is long-winded and repetitive it repeats the same ideas in multiple ways ultimately other than just basic advice and some interesting stories about his career at Disney the book had nothing to offer item number two it appears as though Dave was initially inspired by the success of his wife Rachel he was stunned when her message caught on and decided that he would join her on the road to riches Rachel had a few setbacks on her journey as a social media influencer and self-help Guru a few examples just like it did with Dave the divorce had a negative impact on Rachel's image people felt as though she was a phony she built her brand on the notion of her ideal life but her life was far from ideal Rachel had been accused of using quotes from other people on her Instagram account as if those quotes were hers this supports the idea that she didn't have anything original to offer just like almost every other self-help Guru who has ever lived recycled nonsense was her main export on one occasion Rachel talked about her housekeeper as the woman who cleans the toilets people found this characterization to be insulting and declared Rachel as unrelatable on the social media platform Tick Tock Rachel compared herself to Amelia aart Harriet Tubman and Marie curri later Rachel apologized on Instagram saying I'm so deeply sorry for the things I said in my recent posts unquote it would appear as though Dave and Rachel struggled to manage their images and to generate content that was helpful item number three what do I think happened in this case this is just a theory my opinion Dave hows did very well in his career and made a lot of money but he felt like an impostor who had simply been arbitrarily selected to to have a high-profile job he wanted to forge his own path to achieve success on his own terms when his self-help Guru wife connected with a large audience Dave saw a chance to find meaning in his life but was still unsure any uncertainty was erased when he was recognized in public for the first time Dave became addicted to the idea of being a social media influencer he had worked in a business that featured massive stars and now it was his turn to be a celebrity Dave embraced all the self-help nonsense he had once rejected about unlocking potential embracing growth and manifesting wealth he even tried to come up with his own brand of nonsense but the phoniness and hypocrisy did not sit well with him his own insecurity drove him to strongly react to criticism he knew that some of those critics were exactly right Dave was obsessed with getting them to stop writing criticism believing that it would remove his own phony but at some point he realized how that wasn't logical the critics weren't the problem Dave's Behavior was the problem Dave descended into a nightmare of drugs and alcohol it is a destination he had visited many times before he died in a desperate attempt to eradicate his pain and with a profound acknowledgement that he did not have the answers he was searching for now moving to my final thoughts what less Les can be learned from this case here are three that I came up with lesson one Dave hows wrote a book for people who were skeptical about self-help advice yet ironically confirmed the validity of their skepticism he came full circle when he uncovered the hollow nature of the world of self-help gurus referring to himself and his wife he later said how much more inauthentic could we have been un perhaps Dave's greatest contribution was to remind people why skepticism is critical appropriate and warranted lesson two anecdotes from the lives of others and a series of useless platitudes will not facilitate happiness to the extent that advice can be helpful it must be personalized general information on how to achieve goals is rarely helpful lesson three Dave discovered something meaningful when he realized realized that corporate executives are not special he understood the randomness capriciousness and imprecision that drives one person being selected as a leader out of a thousand middle managers who could perform the job just as well this realization was a turning point for Dave but he wasn't able to build on it he didn't know what to do next but assumed that he should know and recklessly pressed forward writing nonsense he didn't search for the answer answer rather he declared himself to be the answer Dave tried to run from his own lack of knowledge but ultimately found it to be inescapable he could not get out of his own way those are my thoughts on the case of Dave hows please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always I hope you found my analysis of this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 05 2023