210: Dave Jensen on Baseball, Business, and Battling Mental Health

Dave Jensen is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Sandlot Partners, an independent private investment firm. He also co-founded Beacon Data, an expert data strategy and implementation company serving the private equity community. Dave enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his wife Liz and their 5 children. In addition to being an avid golfer, skier, hiker, and movie watcher, Dave is a former professional baseball player (KC Royals 3rd round pick). Today Dave and I talk all about his life journey starting out with baseball and the pivotal lessons he learned playing the game. We talk about how his career path took him to play professional baseball, but then led to medical device sales and, a few years later, onto Wall Street, and now managing his private investment firm. But then we turn from talking about all his success, fame, and fortune to talking about something that so many of us can relate to, something that humanizes all of us because it's no respecter of persons: mental health. For the first time on a public platform, Dave opens up about his struggle with mental health for over 20 years and talks about why he's decided to start talking to people about it, and we just talk about why it's so important to bring these issues out of the darkness of fear and shame and into the light. Finally we discuss an incredible conference Dave's putting on with his business partner Casey Baugh called MW3 and how they plan to raise as much money as possible for Primary Promise, a foundation for Primary Children's Hospital in Utah and the personal development opportunity it will be for anyone attending. Time Stamps: [01:37] - Dave Jensen describes the different roles he embodies in his life and his early beginnings. [05:00] - Dave shares how his father became a huge advocate for him to play professional baseball. [08:09] - “I need to figure this stuff out.” [12:20] - Dave talks about how grit can open new opportunities. [16:13] - Dave went from doing sales in the medical field to going to business school. How did he make the transition? [21:48] - Dave brings his own perspective to mental health with his own experience. [26:23] - When you stop hiding the darkness of silent struggles, you take away a bit of its power. [32:07] - How can you have more compassion for yourself and others? [40:26] - Dave mentions his upcoming Wealth and Mindset Conference. [45:07] - “I’m trying to have more love for myself and more love for other people.” Supporting Resources: Learn more about the Wealth and Mindset Conference April 17th-18th 2023 in Provo Utah at Mw-3.com