David Paige of Go Bigger Coaching on Five Things That Prevent Leaders From Fulfilling Their Potential
…I believe with every fiber of my being that people can indeed change. I had a client who said people can’t change. I disagree. Sometimes people change because they hit rock bottom and are forced to. But I believe people can change because they make an intellectual decision to do so. Usually, people don’t change because of two things: the belief that they can change, and the inability to visualize their potential, what they and the world would look like if they did. Most people don’t see their own potential. I want to spread the message that people can change, and the impact you can make on the world when you do is beyond your wildest imagination…
I had the pleasure of talking with David Paige, a man whose career trajectory is a testament to the power of reinvention and the importance of perspective. Paige is a study in thoughtful contrasts: an observant Jew who navigated the fast-paced world of e-commerce, and a former independent-minded kid who grew up to help others find structure and purpose. To understand the coach he has become, you have to look at the unique foundation he was built on.
Born in Los Angeles in 1982, Paige’s identity was forged by parents who made a deliberate choice about who they wanted to be. They weren’t born into their level of observance; they adopted it. “My parents actually grew up completely secular,” Paige explains. This decision gave them a “stronger connection to their identity because it was something they chose; it wasn’t just given to them.”
That theme of intentionality, of choosing your path rather than drifting into it, became the bedrock of Paige’s life. When the family moved to Baltimore in 1991, young David found himself in a new environment where he didn’t quite fit the standard mold. He describes his younger self as independent and perhaps a bit restless in the classroom setting. “I learned to live life intentionally, not necessarily going with the flow or doing things because everyone else is doing them,” he says. It was an early lesson in self-reliance that would serve him well later.
His high school years at Ner Israel Rabbinical College brought stability, but his real education in resilience happened at home. His mother, a woman of formidable strength and character, battled cancer throughout his adolescence. Paige describes her as a “force,” someone who “let nothing get in her way regarding what she wanted to achieve.”
Watching his mother fight for life during his formative years stripped away the trivialities of teenage life. “Life is fragile, finite, and we have to make the most of our time here,” David reflects. Though she passed away in 2005, her fierce determination left a permanent mark on his psyche, teaching him that obstacles are meant to be overcome.
Paige initially sought a life of community service. He moved to Israel, then South Florida, working in outreach to help others connect with their heritage. But when funding for his non-profit work became scarce during the economic downturn, Paige had to pivot. He turned to the emerging world of e-commerce, finding deals at retail stores and selling them online.
What started on a dining room table quickly evolved into a serious enterprise. By the time he moved back to Baltimore in 2012, the business was moving significant volume. However, the rapid growth brought its own set of distinct challenges. Like many entrepreneurs who scale quickly, Paige found that the operational side, specifically the complex inventory management and fee structures of platforms like Amazon, was catching up to him. “We grew very quickly, and I didn’t have much business experience,” he admits.
The situation came to a head when an account suspension during the critical holiday season froze his inventory. It was a perfect storm of cash flow issues and bad timing. The pressure was immense. Paige is candid about the toll it took, admitting, “There were days I would wake up and think, ‘Maybe it would be better if I didn’t wake up today.’” It wasn’t a lack of effort, but a lack of visibility into the financial blind spots that trapped him.
He spent years working through the challenge, displaying the grit his mother had modeled for him. The turning point came during the pandemic, where the demand for PPE allowed him to balance the books. He eventually made the difficult but necessary decision to hand the operation over to his investors and walk away. It wasn’t an end, but a new beginning.
Paige transitioned into the corporate world, managing e-commerce for a major cosmetics distributor and later working in business development. It was here, with the benefit of hindsight, that he had his breakthrough. He realized that his struggles came from a lack of perspective. “If I had someone from the outside to shine a light on my mistakes and blind spots, I might have avoided many of them,” he says.
This realization birthed his current career as a business coach. He isn’t interested in just looking at spreadsheets; he looks at the person running the company. He identifies the “blockages” that hold leaders back, things like a lack of intentionality, or the refusal to delegate. He notes that many entrepreneurs “don’t see themselves as leaders yet,” clinging to the technical skills that got them started rather than evolving into the role the business needs.
Today, David Paige is applying the lessons of his own journey to help others. He operates with a core philosophy that is as optimistic as it is practical. “I believe with every fiber of my being that people can indeed change,” he says. He’s been through the fire of rapid growth and the stress of the unknown, and he’s come out the other side with a clear map. For Paige, the goal is to help others see the potential they might be missing in themselves, and to help them act “very intentionally and boldly in this world.”
Yitzi: David, it is a delight and honor to see you again. Before we dive deep into your work, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood, how you grew up, and the seeds for all the amazing things that have come since then?
David: I was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1982. I grew up with a very strong Jewish identity as a strictly observant Jew. My parents actually grew up completely secular, which gave them an even stronger connection to their identity because it was something they chose; it wasn’t just given to them. I feel that shows up in me as well, that very strong connection. They really instilled in me the deep belief that people can indeed change, and that people can act and behave very intentionally and boldly in this world. That is the kind of upbringing I had.
In 1991, my parents were introduced to the community of Baltimore. They saw a contrast between Los Angeles and Baltimore, perceiving the latter as a place more conducive to raising children in the way they envisioned. They quickly decided to pick up our family from the place where they were both raised and move to Baltimore. That aligns with the theme of the ability to change and acting boldly in our lives.
I spent the first nine years of my life in Los Angeles, and then I grew up in Baltimore. When we moved, I had a lot of challenges in school. I didn’t really fit in well; school was not my thing. I found it uninteresting and boring, and I was very restless. To add insult to injury, there was a lot of bullying. It conditioned me to grow a thick skin and be very comfortable being independent.
Between my upbringing and my school experience, I learned to live life intentionally, not necessarily going with the flow or doing things because everyone else is doing them. It helped condition me to be a more independent person, to overcome challenges and frustrations, and to see the silver lining. I learned to take naturally negative situations, see the positive in them, and maintain an upbeat, forward-looking perspective on life.
Things got much better in high school. I studied in a Yeshiva called Ner Israel Rabbinical College. It was a selective institution with a group of more serious boys. This allowed me to grow in my Judaism, broaden my horizons, and change my perspective on the world. That was a very positive experience that helped shape who I am today.
I married in 2004. To take a step back to my high school years: in the ninth grade, my mother was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. My mother was a force, a really strong personality. She let nothing get in her way regarding what she wanted to achieve. She had struggles growing up, but she raised seven children with very definite ideas of how she wanted us to turn out. She was like a bull in a china shop regarding removing obstacles so we could achieve greatness, whatever that meant for each individual.
It was very difficult to see my mother in that situation. That was breast cancer. In 10th grade, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and the prognosis was very dire. We were told her chance of living more than three years was maybe 20%. That shaped my psyche and how I see life. Life is fragile, finite, and we have to make the most of our time here. There is definitely more to life than the physical reality we perceive.
Miraculously, my mother went into remission from her ovarian cancer. Fast forward to 2004: I met my wife, we were married, and shortly after, my mother was diagnosed with myelodysplasia, caused by a mutation from all the chemotherapy she underwent. She went through a long sickness and received a bone marrow transplant from her brother, but her new immune system attacked her body, developing graft-versus-host disease.
She passed away in 2005. Shortly before that, my wife and I were able to tell her the news that we were expecting our oldest daughter. She had the sonogram picture in her hospital room, and it gave her so much joy, but unfortunately, she did not live to see the birth.
Shortly after, in 2005, my wife and I decided we wanted to move to a smaller community where we could have a greater impact and be more engaged in community outreach. We decided to spend a year or two in Israel to train at an outreach training course called Ner Le’Elef. That program had a massive impact on us. It gave us a broad understanding of how people work and how the world functions within a framework of Jewish thought. It gave us tools to make an impact on individuals and communities.
In 2007, we were invited to join a community outreach program in South Florida, where we spent five years. We engaged the community, helping people develop a deeper relationship with their Jewish heritage through lunch-and-learns and one-on-one studying. We developed relationships that we hold to this very day.
During our time in Miami, funding for the organization became difficult to come by, so I had to quickly figure out how to sustain us financially. I started dabbling in e-commerce. I started slow, finding deals with coupons at stores like Staples and Best Buy and selling them on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. It grew very quickly from our dining room table. I started going to trade shows and developing relationships with bigger vendors. Very quickly, I had a strong, thriving business.
At that point, the outreach funding had completely dried up, so we decided to move back to Baltimore in 2012 to be around family. The business continued to grow. We added overhead and started taking on loans to buy more products. The challenge was that we grew very quickly, and I didn’t have much business experience. I didn’t have a good handle on the numbers. With e-commerce, there are many hidden fees, and back then, they didn’t have the robust inventory management and cash flow systems that exist today. There was a period when we were doing millions in sales, but we were actually losing money due to hidden costs and overhead.
Then we hit a wall. There was a claim against something we sold, and Amazon suspended our account at the worst possible time, the holiday season. We had a ton of inventory and had borrowed a lot of money to buy it. It took six weeks to resolve. By that time, we were bleeding cash, underwater, and paying interest on money we didn’t have.
It was a very difficult time because a lot of the money was borrowed from friends and family who couldn’t necessarily afford to lose it. It took me a long time to come to terms with the conversations I would have to have. Financially, our backs were against the wall. I didn’t have the cash flow to buy inventory. Getting out of that hole felt daunting. There were days I would wake up and think, Maybe it would be better if I didn’t wake up today. That was the kind of pressure I was under.
With the help of God and the strength from my life experiences, I got up in the morning and pushed forward. We brought on an investor, though in retrospect, it might have been better to stop and start fresh. I was desperate, and the agreement was unfavorable, which continued the cycle. For four or five years, in addition to running the business, I had to figure out how to borrow money to pay off money just to get to the next week. It was extremely stressful.
What really helped me was COVID. While it was a difficult struggle for many, for others in the right place at the right time, it helped. Because I was importing and exporting, I was in a good position to supply PPE, masks, gloves, etc. That windfall allowed me to pay down some debts, create space, and land on my feet. There was nothing left in the bank account, but it relieved the stress so I could move forward.
I tried to renegotiate with my investors, explaining that the arrangement wasn’t working. When they refused, I handed the business over to them and walked away. Even though it was scary after 12 years, I was able to move on.
I got a job at one of the biggest distributors of color cosmetics in the country to manage and develop their e-commerce business. I did that until I was no longer needed, and currently, I work at a smaller e-commerce company doing business development. Thank God, I was able to pick up the pieces, use my experience, and provide value to the company I work for.
Looking back, I saw clearly that if I had someone from the outside to shine a light on my mistakes and blind spots, I might have avoided many of them. We all have emotional attachments to our businesses; they are part of our identity. If I had someone to help me see things differently, I could have turned things around quicker.
I had been informally advising people on their businesses, and one person told me, “This is unbelievable advice; you should do this professionally.” It never occurred to me that I could charge for it. But it felt like everything came together: my life experience, overcoming challenges, my experience with community outreach, and my business experience. I took a coaching training course to put it all together.
Now, providing this value to clients is a beautiful thing. I get the greatest inspiration from seeing them grow, whether they are struggling and getting back on their feet, or doing well and going from good to great. Seeing that satisfaction on their faces gives me ultimate satisfaction. That brings us to today. I would love to grow that aspect of my career. At this stage in my life, this is my passion.
Yitzi: You are an amazing storyteller, David. Speaking of stories, can you tell us a story that stands out in your mind from your coaching career so far?
David: The greatest satisfaction comes when there is a breakthrough. Often something is holding a business owner back emotionally from being fully engaged, and they do not even realize it. When I can help shine a light on that and see the effect immediately, it is incredibly rewarding.
Yitzi: You mentioned blockages. This is our signature question: Based on your experience, can you share five main blockages you’ve seen that prevent leaders from fulfilling their potential or leading a great business?
David:
- The first blockage is not embracing their role as a leader. Many people get to their position because they are great technicians, like a fantastic engineer who gets clients and suddenly has to manage employees and priorities. The tools that got them from A to B are not the same tools needed to get from B to C. They don’t see themselves as leaders yet. The first step is acknowledging that their main occupation is now “Leader.” They need to learn what that means, showing appreciation, building morale, etc. It is a different set of skills.
- The second blockage is how people see their limitations. I often discuss with clients whether a person can change. People define themselves by their limitations: “I’m not good at this.” I tell them it’s not about natural proclivity; it’s about learning the steps. If you learn the steps, you can often become better than the person to whom it comes naturally but never works on it. Limiting beliefs hold people back.
- The third blockage is a lack of intentionality. When a person is only responsible for themselves, they can do things on a whim. But a leader must be very intentional about priorities and vision. If a leader doesn’t share a clear vision, it creates chaos, confusion, and low morale. It leads to inefficiency. Coaching is all about helping a person be intentional about how they show up.
- The fourth blockage is ignoring the human element. Many entrepreneurs, especially men, view acknowledging emotional challenges as a weakness. But we must understand that we are all human. An obstacle can be how little value we place on our emotional makeup. We need to see how a person’s emotions and life situations impact how they engage in their work and leadership role.
- The fifth blockage is not understanding one’s role in the business. This relates to the others, but specifically, a person must understand what provides the most value and what they should not be doing. This involves delegation. Some people refuse to delegate, while others delegate too much. It also involves making decisions from a dispassionate place rather than an emotional one. For example, refusing to pay a high salary for a key role because of the number, rather than analyzing the value that role brings to the overall success of the business.
Yitzi: Because of your work and the platforms you have built, you are a person of great influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
David: I believe with every fiber of my being that people can indeed change.
I had a client who said people can’t change. I disagree. Sometimes people change because they hit rock bottom and are forced to. But I believe people can change because they make an intellectual decision to do so.
Usually, people don’t change because of two things: the belief that they can change, and the inability to visualize their potential, what they and the world would look like if they did. Most people don’t see their own potential. I want to spread the message that people can change, and the impact you can make on the world when you do is beyond your wildest imagination.
Yitzi: David, how can our readers continue to follow your work? How can they get in touch with you to engage your services?
David: The best way to reach me right now is by email at david@gobiggercoaching.com. “Go Bigger” is what I am all about, helping clients think bigger and beyond themselves. Email is the best way to get in touch.
Yitzi: David, it has been amazing talking to you again. I wish you continued success, good health, and blessings, and I hope we can do this again soon.
David: Fantastic. Thank you very much.
David Paige of Go Bigger Coaching on Five Things That Prevent Leaders From Fulfilling Their… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.