David Henzel: Building Businesses and Lives From Love, Not Fear

A shy, introverted engineer who couldn’t stand public speaking now leads a global “Love, Not Fear” alliance and a portfolio of impact-driven companies. In this episode, you’ll hear how re-framing every decision through love instead of fear transformed his life, leadership, and the way he builds businesses and relationships.

In this episode, Gary and David Henzel discuss:

• Unconventional path from struggling student to serial entrepreneur
• Life-altering impact of his wife’s breast cancer diagnosis
• Applying business principles (roles, values, mission) to family life
• “Love, Not Fear” as a framework for decisions, sales, and culture
• Building conscious, self-managed, stakeholder-focused companies

Key Takeaways:

• Major life shocks can become powerful catalysts to reassess your path, redefine success, and shift from chasing money to pursuing meaningful impact.
• Borrowing tools from business, like roles and responsibilities, vision, mission, and core values, can dramatically reduce friction and increase harmony at home.
• Reframing decisions from fear (“What will they think of me?”) to love (“How can this help them?”) can completely change your relationship with public speaking, sales, and leadership.
• Hiring and developing people for culture, values, and mission alignment—not just skills—creates environments where employees think and act like intrapreneurs.
• Conscious, stakeholder-focused business models and shared ownership structures may be a key part of the future of work, narrowing the wealth gap while increasing performance and engagement.

“Every decision in life, you either make it from a place of love or a place of fear.”  — David Henzel

About David Henzel: David Henzel is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Love Not Fear, an alliance devoted to helping people and organizations make decisions from a place of love instead of fear. Starting his career as a shy, introverted engineer who bounced through 14 schools and struggled with authority, he stumbled into entrepreneurship and went on to build and exit multiple successful companies in e‑commerce, SaaS, and services.

A life‑changing chapter began when his wife was diagnosed—twice—with breast cancer. That wake‑up call pushed him to rethink what success meant, sell his existing business, and focus on work that creates real impact. Along the way, he discovered that applying business tools—clear roles, responsibilities, vision, mission, and core values—to family life dramatically reduced conflict and increased alignment at home.

Today, David runs a portfolio of conscious companies, including a BPO firm (LTVplus), a marketing agency (Shortlist), a recruiting company (LNF People), a coaching and cohort platform (UpCoach), and a retreat center in Bodrum, Turkey—where he now lives. Across all of them, his mission is consistent: build self‑managed, values‑driven organizations where people act like intrapreneurs, grow personally and professionally, and where money is the side effect of truly providing value.

Connect with David Henzel:  

Website: https://lovenotfear.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhenzel/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidhenzel/ 

Register new Love Not Fear account: https://app.lovenotfear.com/register?vi=70435a1d-453a-45cd-b022-4aa800dbc47d 

To get in touch with Gary:

Website: https://betterpathtraining.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gsinderbrand/

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