Danny: [00:00:00] And, and that to me is the draw. It's the beauty of it, but also I think it's the, it's the thing that scares people because it's, it's, it's, there's no, there's no faking it.
Riley: today we have Danny O'Connor. Uh, Danny I met up at a jiujitsu camp in Park City,. He is a fellow. Sauer affiliate, um, juujitsu brother. And, uh, we're both brown belts, so it's a, it's a great time. Uh, maybe between now and then you've got your black belt. I don't know how that's how that's going, but we're gonna,
Danny: To the brown belt.[00:01:00]
Riley: so Danny, I'm super excited to have you on here. Uh, Danny is the co-host of The Lost Boy Scouts podcast, and we're gonna, we're gonna talk about that on this episode.
Danny: Sure.
Riley: pick his uh, where that came from, what it looks like, what it's morphed into, some of the challenges, some of the, um, oh, gonna hear a lot here.
There's, there's a lot to a lot of, lot of subject matter to talk about. Um,
Danny: First of all, man, great job on, uh, close to my pronunciation. So in my last name it actually, the en, is it Enye? Right? So my last name is actually Ocon, but you got it so close, and I'm super stoked because, um, sometimes people just take my last name and take a, um, poetic license on how they wanna say it, you know, user was close.
It was really awesome.
Riley: I didn't remember seeing any, any
Danny: mm-hmm.
Riley: just, I that's what happened there.
Danny: [00:02:00] My wife, um, sometimes man, people like butcher our names. So when my boys were wrestling, she would make them go down and tell the announcer, Hey, make sure he says your name correctly. And that, so that we would, so they would get it correctly, you know? Um, but no, actually it, most of the time it did because as long as they put the Nye over there, you just have to remind them to say ocon, you know?
Um, I get teased a lot because I don't, like, a lot of times I'm like, whatever, man. You got, you got it close, you know? Um, even professor, professor still sometimes, like, he'll say my name and I'll be like, Hey, you know, this is gonna say something if you, if I don't correct you. He's like, I know I've, I've known you for 10 years and I still can't get it right.
And I was like, no, it's all right. You know, it's okay. But no, you did a great job. I, uh, it was really close and I appreciate that.
Riley: there. Yeah, that was,
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: 'cause is spelled R-I-L-E-Y, every once in a while, most people get it, you know? But every [00:03:00] once in a while somebody will call me. Really?
Danny: Oh
Riley: And it
Danny: really?
Riley: every time it
Danny: Yeah. Really? Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Um, it, it was, uh, yeah, especially like as, as you go on and you, you meet more people and you know, like my boys, they were, you know, they wrestled a lot. They, they compete a lot and, and, um, we always are like, have to remind them, Hey, make sure you, make sure you tell 'em how to say your last name.
My older boy, he puts the ye on everything.
Riley: okay.
Danny: on his military uniform, he has the ye on there and he puts it on everything. Uh, and, and that's, that's always cool 'cause at least then people get it, most of, you know, most of the time,
Riley: Well,
Danny: so.
Riley: me what because that's a little squiggly above the end. Right?
Danny: Yep. Yeah. The, so in the, in the Spanish language, it actually is its own.
Letter. So it goes NNY Yeah, it's, it's its own letter and which is actually kind of cool. [00:04:00] Um, I, I personally don't speak a lot of Spanish. I try my hardest. Um, but, but I was, my parents, my grandparents and my parents, they speak Spanish. But, um, because we grew up in Utah, it was kind of frowned upon in their generation to speak Spanish.
They didn't wanna be like, singled out, you know, they didn't wanna be like, you know, they didn't want that stigmatism that, that happened back then. But now it's not astigmatism. And I wish I knew how to speak more Spanish and, um, me, me and my wife, we practice, we, we have friends that all day they only speak Spanish, and you should see us having our conversations.
It's, it's kind of fun.
Riley: That's awesome, man. Well talk about that. Talk about, uh, some more growing up. Who? Who's Danny?
Danny: Yeah. So, um, man, I, uh, I have a funny story because the first part of my life is. This journey of, you know, my dad was in the military. Um, he, we traveled a lot. We moved around a [00:05:00] lot when I was younger. And then my parents got divorced when I was pretty young, you know, and we spent a lot of time in Arizona.
That's where the majority of my, uh, younger childhood grew up. Um, and, and it was a rough time in Arizona, um, where I grew up. There was a lot of gangs, a lot of, a lot of trouble. I got into a lot of trouble. My first part of my childhood was pretty rough with me not having a father figure. My, my dad is great.
I, I love my dad. He, he blessed me with a, with a very strong last name, very strong work ethic. It's just, we don't have a good relationship. He left pretty early when I was younger, when I was, you know, I, I was wild. I was, I was wild when I was, when I was younger. Grew up with a lot of boys in my family. Um, and in Arizona.
When we, when my mom decided to leave, the gangs had moved from California into Arizona, and it was a really rough time, Riley, so much that, um, I I, [00:06:00] some of those things that I remember, you know, kids bringing guns on the bus, fighting every day, fighting like gladiator style, somebody would fight, you know?
And it, it was like, who, who my childhood was. And then my mom was like, we gotta, we can't have this, I can't have you guys around this anymore. So we moved to Utah, which was where she was from, and we had no idea what Utah was. By chance. One of our, the neighbors across the street were Mormon, you know, so we knew that there was a lot of Mormons in you.
We had no idea. Uh, you know, um, when we moved here, we were like, what in the world? It was culture shock for sure. Culture shock, you know, and I still carried some of those negative behaviors. To Utah for a little while until I realized I didn't need to do that anymore. You know, I, I didn't have to pretend to be this tough kid that fought all the time that like, you know, was always down to, [00:07:00] to, to whatever I needed to do to, to get down.
And when we moved to Utah my entire life, man, the branch blossomed so much. Um, thank God for my mom. You know, we, we tell my mom all the time, thank goodness that she moved us to Utah because it changed the entire trajectory of our lives. You know, not to tell too much, but my, uh, my brother and I are, um, two of the boys on my mom's side of the family that have no prison time and no, no, no scary times like that.
You know, some of those, some of my cousins, they, they, they, they had some pretty rough times. They just couldn't get a, get away from it, you know? They just couldn't get away from that negative impact or that negative. The, the negative that was in their lives, you know, and Utah, I, uh, uh, it was great. It was U Utah is so, has been so good to me.
Um, not that I didn't have struggles or anything, but I was around my dad's side of the family [00:08:00] in Utah, and they were all military men. Very strong. Mor uh, ethics, very strong moral character. So my cousins on that side, on my dad's side, all of the boys, you know, Kanye boys, we've all served in the military.
Um, ev every one of us, we all have super strong military background, which gives us super strong morals, you know, and, and ethics and codes. Right. And I, I, uh, I had a kid, young, my wife and I, we, we had a kid outta high school, you know, and I, I, I knew I needed to change. My dad's, you know, what happened with me?
I needed to be there for my kids, right? I needed to be there for my kids. So I, I left in the military at 18, almost 19 years old. And again, just what a blessing. You don't know at that point, right? Like, you don't know, like 19 years old crow. I was wild still. I was wild. But man, like, um, what the [00:09:00] military did for me, it, it, it, it set me up for this trajectory of success that, that is like, man, I'm so blessed.
I'm so lucky that, that my mom moved us. And then I was around, my dad went to the military, or sorry, my dad's family went to the military. And then, you know, I became an air traffic controller in the military. And to this day, that's what I do. Like, I, I tell people all the time, I don't know any different, you know, I was 18 years old, I'm 40.
I turned 47 on Saturday, and my entire life has been air traffic control, you know, and.
Riley: I have a question for you? You're talking about when you moved to Utah, how you, how you blossomed and you were able to kind of escape that, that gravitational pole of the kind
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: life and do you think it was a geographical thing or do you think it was something about you that was kind of built in there where, the reason I'm asking this is because, you know, growing up the people I was around, it was a lot the same way.
There was a bunch of 'em that started going down these [00:10:00] paths of just being thieves and, you know, just really criminals. And
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: but there was of us who were just like, man, this doesn't make sense to us. I
Danny: Right.
Riley: we should just not be those guys. And I, you know, I watched my older brothers and sisters and I watched some life altering mistakes they would make.
And I'm like. You know, it came from the same background, but I'm like, I'm just gonna avoid a few of these things because that one looks like it hurt. That one's gonna leave
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: dude. And do you think in your life, what did that look like? Was it, was it something inside of you that kind of spoke that way?
Or, or do you think it was just strictly geographic?
Danny: I believe 100% Riley, that, um, it's a genetic code. I believe that your genetic code kind of directs you to do, you know, to do really good at whatever you decide. It may be a criminal, like you may be a really good criminal because your genetic code gives you that drive. Right. You know? But for me, yeah, I believe that, I believe, um, [00:11:00] my genetic code, my grandparents, my, those people like that, that that gave me my, my, my genetic genes.
Right? I think it was instilled in me that, that I didn't want to do that. It was so, you know, when I first came to Utah, of course, like I said, I, I brought some of that negative energy with me and hung out with some guys that I probably shouldn't have. Um, and O one, same thing. Once my group of friends, like we are all very successful men.
But we, you know, we were young teenagers and we did stupid stuff, but I, I believe that it was in my, it was in my, my genetic code that I was going to be successful. Now, again, whatever I decided I was gonna be successful at, right? And just by the grace of God, um, I, I, I had this path and, and it, and it's driven me to be successful.
I, I, I also think that I got very lucky. Um, I, I got into the military and just happened to have this [00:12:00] killer job that, you know, propelled me to where I'm at today. I honestly believe that my personal beliefs are that, like I, you, you, you meet people in your life and they, you, you, you gravitate to them and then they bring you along with their, with their beliefs, with their trajectory.
And, uh, I believe that's happened to me. In my life is that I've just got lucky. I, I have this like, man, I've met this person. We, we gravitated together to, to be successful. Maybe we don't talk anymore, but I can always go back to that person and be like, man, thank God, thank goodness for you because you saved me a lot of time.
You know? And so, uh,
Riley: you're talking
Danny: for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Yeah. I, I, uh, it, it, it's funny because like, I don't know any different than Utah, right? Um, but some of my friends that grow up, like, like you said, you were in Idaho. We used to go to Idaho to Pocatello, and
Riley: grew up.
Danny: that's, we [00:13:00] would, we would spend our weekends in Pocatello.
You know, like we would just drive up there for the weekend and I was always like, why are we going up here? But it was like, I don't know, let's just go to Idaho. We had some friends up there, and we'd spend the weekend in Pocatello, you know, when I was in high school. So
Riley: So PO man. That's where, that's where I grew up.
Danny: love Pocatello. I.
Riley: close to the same age. We're only a year apart.
Danny: Um, these guys are all from Utah. They had friends in Pocatello, um, and I don't remember their names. We just would go up there and hang out and there there was like this little weird, um, you would drive down main, is it Main Street? That, that people would drive up and down. Like it's almost like cruising the State Street, you know, like Yellowstone.
Yeah, Yellowstone. Yeah. We would drive up and down Yellowstone, um, for the weekend and then, you know, go get beers or whatever, whatever teenagers would do, you know?
Riley: we spent a lot of time out on that cruise loop, you know, and
Danny: Yeah, right. Yeah.
Riley: was, we thought it was the [00:14:00] coolest.
Danny: It was cool. I didn't realize you grew up in Pocatello. Pocatello is a great little town.
Riley: Chubb was where I actually grew up, but they're just, they're the same thing. Yeah.
Danny: Uh, we, we, um, when the boys were wrestling, we, um, we spent a lot of time in Pocatello for, they had that big western regionals, um, tournament that happened there. And so we spent a lot of time in Pocatello. 'cause it'd be like seven days straight of, of hanging out in Pocatello and wrestling and, and all that stuff.
Riley: don't
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: was probably going I,
Danny: Probably not.
Riley: but I was elementary years, it was second to sixth grade, and, you know, we, uh, yeah. That's actually what eventually got me into Juujitsu. Was that missing, missing that grappling man. I just, I loved it, but, uh, yeah, I didn't, didn't continue on through junior high and high school, so I wanted it
Danny: You
Riley: an adult.
Danny: did you, so you didn't wrestle in junior high and high school? No, [00:15:00] I didn't wrestle at all. Not one, not one single time. Not one, not one match, not one. Anything. I never wrestled. I, I, I, uh, yeah, again, like what a crazy thing that like, um, I never did it. I never did it, but I got lucky. I got hooked up with my, when my older son came home from at seventh grader, he was like, Hey, I'm gonna wrestle.
And I was like, cool. I think that's awesome. I think that my, my, uh, driver's ed teacher and my teachers, I was a teacher assistant in high school. He, he was the wrestling coach and he, every day, every day, you need to come wrestle. You need to come wrestle. No, I'm, uh, I like to fight. No, this is perfect. This is perfect.
It's perfect for you. You could fight on the mat. And I was like, no. Of course. It was the singlet, you know, I was like a wuss. I was such a wuss. It was the singlet. I tell people all the time, it was the singlet. I didn't wanna wear it. Um, and subsequently, you [00:16:00] know, my older boy wrestled at the same high school that I went to, you know, my.
It's kind of funny, like going back, my wife and i's parents, so my parents or my mom and my wife's parents went to high school together and then my wife and I went to high school together, and then our older son graduated from that high school. So we were like deep in those roots, right? And, uh, the, the, that teacher was still there, um, when my older boy went through and he's like, I told you one day I was gonna get one of you guys on the mat.
And, uh, Malta boy ended up being a, a, a really, you know, phenomenal wrestler at Leighton. But yeah, I never wrestled and I always tell people like, I, I just got lucky. I got lucky, man. I met the right people. Um, they introduced me to wrestling and what wrestling can do for, for you, you know, and man, like, I, I, again, just so blessed, like, like blessed.
I, I, I, my, you know, I've coached all the way up until the world team level and I, I, I've wrestled as an [00:17:00] adult, you know, I, I wrestled in nationals as an adult, but. Then it again, like you said, it drove me to Juujitsu and look at me now. Cauliflower ears jacked up, you know, jacked up face and, and everybody always like, look at your ears.
How did you not wrestle 'em? I was like, I got bad ears, man. They, they're not tough.
Riley: there's other ways to get these airs. Right?
Danny: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: 'cause it, man. I've never gotten a,
Danny: Isn't that crazy?
Riley: little air and I, you know, I've had 'em where they're purple and they got
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: and creas and you know, blood showing through, but it's never swelled up and turned to cauliflower.
Danny: Yeah. Mine are both, both bad. Neither of my boys have cauliflower ear, but mine are like, mine are like blown out. They're, I'm lucky though, because I can still fit AirPods in there, you know? It's still on the top. Yeah.
Riley: well, man, so tell me, how did you go, so I'm curious, so you, you went from [00:18:00] military, you started air traffic control there, and that turned into your career. Is that, is that a, um, pretty well established career path or was that just something you were interested in that kind of took you down that
Danny: My uncle was a controller, so I had gone to a tower, an FA, a tower. So just, just so you know, like most of the people think that the air traffic controllers are the guys that, uh, with the cones, you know, we're not, we're the guys in the big tower. Um, and then there's other avenues to be air traffic control.
I remember going there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Roger. Roger. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, when, so when, when I, when I was coming up, yeah. The, the military was your path into the government, which is, you know, I worked for the government. Um. Now, I, I don't know how they get in now. Um, it's such a changed world for me. It's, it's com it's, it's a changed world.
It's, it's similar in the fact that [00:19:00] like, we do the same job. It's just how people get in. I don't know. My older son is trying to become an air traffic controller. He's in the army right now. He's gotta finish up another year. But he's trying to come into, and, and I'm always like, man, I don't know. How I got in was, so I was, you know, I just happened to email the right person.
You know, I emailed this lady and she helped three of us get in. Um, but once from the military, transitioning to air to, to the government was kind of seamless for me. I never had a break. I went military right to the air traffic control in the government. And, um, I, I, I, I've never had a break in any of those, in any of that.
I, um, I. I have had some, um, what they call certifications. The only certification I don't have is in the tower, and that's the people with the windows. You know, I just, I've never been in the tower. I've [00:20:00] never, I, I've never had any kind of want to go in the tower. I'm in the radar portion of it. So you imagine 60 miles, we, we control to the airport.
Riley: do you, uh, is it because you're close to Salt Lake International? Right? Was it, is
Danny: I work at the international airport. Yeah. So the big tower at the international airport.
Riley: interested in what, what that looks like because I, I just view. I view it like you're just spinning a thousand plates at once, man. And like it's
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: the time and are just good at managing that sort of thing.
I would be terrible at that job. know, I, I can handle a few things going on, but I, I kind of have to be able to button one thing up completely before I move on to the next. And to have 15 things going on when driving me crazy.
Danny: Yeah, sure,
Riley: I'm driving me crazy is the right word, I think. I just don't know if I'd be able to do it.
And
Danny: sure.
Riley: about that. I what, day to day [00:21:00] looks like.
Danny: It is. It is a lot of managing. It is controlled chaos, for sure. The the thing is, is like in everybody's job, like you have these things that happen consistently every day, right? And so you go into work and you know that this is probably what's gonna happen, and then there's gonna be that one-off thing, you know?
And you're gonna be like, oh man, now, now I need to earn my paycheck, right? I really better earn my paycheck and I better have some solid concrete foundational habits that I do to ensure safety of the flying public. Does that make sense? And
Riley: an uh, the one-off you're talking about.
Danny: a one-off would be like if a plane, let's say a plane, we, we we're talking to a plane. I'm talking to a plane, and I. His radio stops working and now I can't commu I can't com I can't communicate to him. Right. If that happens, I better figure out quickly [00:22:00] that do things. I better make sure that he's not around somewhere that he could hurt or get hurt.
Right. And trying to figure that part out. That's like on a small scale, you know, if you lose a passenger airplane, man, like, imagine that, like, I can't talk to you, ID good. You have people on the board, you know? Um, it, for the most part, honestly, ri like, um, it's very mundane sometimes. Like it's super simple.
I go in there, I work, I'm home. I, I never think about work. I, when I leave work, I don't bring work home. I never think about it. I'm lucky that way. You know, I, I've never had that, um, mindset. There's been times when like my wife is like, oh man, he must be stressed. It's probably I'm just dealing with some crap at work that I can't process or compartmentalize, you know?
Um, man, like I've had some, I've had some really awesome experiences in air traffic. I've had some scary experiences. You know, I've had some, um, I've had a plane call me right as soon as he took off and he's like, Hey, my [00:23:00] engine's, I have an engine on fire and I need to turn immediately at that moment, it's like you go into what we consider, um, it's an emergency at that point, right?
And then I need to focus all my energy on that and all do everything correctly, because then what happens is I have people scrutinize what I do, right? So I better do it right? I better have, I better have those concrete foundational things. And you know, when you fir when you're young man, you're kind of gung ho about like being in there all the time, working the busiest traffic, oh man, on this, like, you know, you have this idea of who you are as you get older, you're like.
It's, it's, it's just another job, you know, like, it's cool. Like most people don't. Um, if, if I brought you into where I worked, it would seem like, like what you said, it'd seem like, look at all this controlled chaos, but we have rules, regulations that we stick to. As long as you stick to those rules, um, for the most part you'll be [00:24:00] safe and you'll keep people safe.
That's the other thing is like my, I always tell people like I'm, I'm representing myself and the agency, but also like, there's fly, there's people that are paying for that. You know, there, there those people that are playing for that and that Salt Lake, we were like, we have like, the best on time departures and arrival times.
We have like this great, like reper repertoire, you know, or, um, and again, it's like, it's just my job. You know what I mean? I, I, I don't even. A lot of times people have no idea that I was an air traffic controller because I don't talk about it a lot. You know, I don't like, it's not like how I define myself, you know?
It's just, it's been a great career path for me and honestly, like I only have about a year left and then I'm, I can retire. And you don't even think about that until you're my age and you're like, dude, this is insane. I'm 47 years old and I'll have a pension for the rest of my [00:25:00] life and be living pretty comfortably for the rest of my life, you know, and made good decisions, you know?
And, gosh, lucky, so lucky, God, God, God always has been, and, and, and he always has been like so kind to me. And I, I'm just lucky man, like learn, learn good lessons and surround myself with great people, great men, and just blessed I.
Riley: That's pretty awesome, man. talk to me about you're a pretty fit dude, and I've listened to some of the podcast episode you've ,
Danny: Thank you.
Riley: done and I've grappled with you, and I know you're kind of an energizer bunny
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: and,
Danny: duh.
Riley: Hey, by the way, at one of the funnest rounds I've,
Danny: For sure. I, I was telling people like, how, how fun, like, how, you know, you never know, like with other brown belts, like kind of energy sometimes you're like, oh man, this dude is about to kind of control him. You know? My professor, um, always tells me [00:26:00] my number one job is to stay healthy, stay on the mats, stay healthy, stay on the mat.
And when you and I were training, I was just like, oh man, I, I was like, I could train with this guy all the time. You know, you had, you had, you had you, you were able to use what your, your abilities, which was to smash me a little bit sometimes. And I was like, man, this, I need to figure out a way to get outta the road.
Meet this guy.
Riley: well I was trying to not be too smashy, right. Because that, um, have a, a pretty big size difference
Danny: For sure.
Riley: you're, you're a scrappy dude and I was like, you know, I'm gonna put some pressure here, but I'm not gonna just sit and smash 'cause that's not fun.
Danny: Mm-hmm.
Riley: know, that's
Danny: And same with me. Like, I don't wanna be like running around you and I want to keep it like, uh, which I think is after you learn things like we could have this like fun role once we get the honeymoon stage outta the way, you know, and realize, oh yeah, we're, we're good. We're not gonna try to kill each other.
Riley: I felt like that happened fairly fast in that round. It was, uh, I, we went like 10 minutes, if I remember
Danny: Yep.[00:27:00]
Riley: We, it was kind started grappling. Middle of one ran, kind of went through the next
Danny: For sure.
Riley: it was. It was, I grappled with a couple other guys where it was a little bit more feeling out, but we, when, when you and I grappling, man, it was just a fun time right off the bat.
I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. Danny's not gonna punch me in the face. We're gonna be good. I didn't feel like I was gonna eat a knee, you know?
Danny: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And, and like you and I, um, you know, it's not like we're, I mean, we're, we're, we're like at that middle part of our lives. It's not like, I want to get cracked in the jaw. And you're like, yeah, man, come on. Like, don't grab my feet right away. Like, let's, let's learn each other's name before you grab my feet, you know, and try to rip it off, you know?
Riley: I, uh, there that I was watching 'em grapple with other people, and then they come up and ask me if I wanted to roll. I'm like, Nope, I'm good.
Danny: I'm good. Yeah. Um,
Riley: there was a belts in particular there that I was, I was watching. They were so rough, man.
I was just like, I don't want nothing to do with [00:28:00] that.
Danny: it's funny how Juujitsu is like that, it kind of gives you, you know, your personality comes out and like, you know, you can't hide, can't hide your, what, what, who you are, you know? And I think, like, I think about that a lot. I, I, [00:29:00] I'm, uh, I, I don't personally know very much. Outside of my, our association, um, the Pedro s Association, I, um, I haven't been around too many.
I, I've, I've trained with other people, you know, and I've competed against other association people, you know, so I, I don't have a lot of understanding outside of our association at a Pedro Sour Association. And so it seems like to me, like the people that are in the around and in the Pedro Sour Association all have the same kind of like vibe for the most part.
You know, kinda pretty tough, very technical and, and at the end of the day, like mostly smiling and having a good time, you know what I'm saying?
Riley: back crowd for the most part. Yeah, exceptions.
Danny: to take away from you because you, your, your question are, are you guys, I can't remember you are, you guys are part of the Pedro Ser Association, correct? [00:30:00] Under.
Riley: Team Rhino is a sub-association of Pedro Sour. So Keith, Keith Owen was my instructor, and
Danny: that's right
Riley: Um, we've got, I don't know where it's at right now, you know, six or eight schools in the association. That's Team Rhino. But we still, we still are part of the Pedro Sour Jiujitsu.
You know, we consider ourselves, we wear the gear all the time, you know, and Pedro Sour
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: And
Danny: I,
Riley: still part of that
Danny: yeah. And, and then like, or so having the wrestling background, you know, and then I fought MMA, um, those things like, you know, when I was wrestling has a shelf life, right? It's not like I can be 47 years old. I still, you know, I coach. Um, it's not like I'm grappling with those kids 'cause they're gonna try to kill you every day.
MMA, um, uh, [00:31:00] again, super fortunate for the, just the, just the gym that I joined. I got lucky. Um, my coach Aldo, uh, he, he was awesome and the team was awesome. I just, it didn't fit my, I liked MMA, I liked fighting. Um, I thought I was gonna coach MMA, I thought I was going to do that. I thought that was gonna be part of my life for a long time.
Um, uh, I just didn't personally like, like I didn't relate with MMA guys, do you know what I'm saying? Like, they have a different vibe. Um, you know, they, they just, they have a different vibe. And I just, I liked it a lot. I liked the workouts, I liked training. Um, but it's not something that I thought, this is longevity.
You know, this is, man, I, I don't wanna get punched in the face. This thing's my money maker. It's not that I'm not making that much money, you know? Uh, but, uh. Once I found Professor Mike, [00:32:00] you know, he's taught me so many things, man. I, I, he's taught me so many things about staying healthy, keeping my body healthy.
Uh, you know, for the longest time, honestly, Riley, I didn't, I, I, I had no, no one. I knew what Jiujitsu was because of M-M-A-I-I, I, I long known about it, but, you know, in my mind I was like, I'm a wrestler and I'll just grab you and then take you down, punch you in the face. I'm not trying to do Juujitsu Man.
How, how, how, how wrong I was because Lucky for me, my first Juujitsu, um, professor is really, really good friends with my professor now, Mike Diaz. They were really good friends. And then once we moved, he introduced me to Mike. And Mike has taught me, um, so many things to keep my body healthy. 'cause I'm a small guy.
I don't weigh a lot. I'm not a big guy. I have to, I have to listen to my body and I have to [00:33:00] take care of it in the correct way so that I can stay on the mask. 'cause if I don't, man, I'm, there's no way I'm coming back from a major, you know, if, if I get beat up and I get hurt, it's not like I want to keep going back in there and doing the same thing.
You know? I mean, I train with some, some monsters and learning, trusting my professor, trusting him, trusting him a hundred percent to, to, to give me the information that I need to stay healthy. Then having it being reinforced by Master Sauer being reinforced by, you know, professor Jeff Kern being reinforced by some of these guys that, how lucky am I that Mike Diaz brings these guys into my life, right?
Trust me, my friend Riley, that, that you're not gonna hurt me. Do you know what I'm saying? It gives me the, it gives me the ability to, to, to do the things for my body that I need to do, you know, and I do 'em, I [00:34:00] do 'em every day. I do 'em religiously. I, I, I do my stretching, I do my breathing, I do my, my, my, my saunas.
I do my, you know, take my baths. I, you know, I do 'em, uh, re religiously because if I don't, I'm not gonna be on the mats. And that's the most important me thing to me is, is staying on the mats healthy, you know, mentally and physically. For sure.
Riley: Man, you um, the breathing. Uh, I noticed that your, your email address mentions that. Right.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: talk about the breath work you do and what, what's that routine look like?
Danny: So I was, um, you know, I've, I've, I've done yoga, I've done a lot of those things, you know, and I've always known about breath work. I've done meditation. I've, I've, I've dabbled in all that stuff. And then, you know, professor. Um, professor Mike, he, he, he, he showed me some breathwork stuff that just like changed my life.
Some of the, you know, you see it on Hicks and Gracie, you know, and Andron Gracie, they do that, you know, [00:35:00] that, you know that kind of stuff and you see it on choke. Um, I dived into it really deep with, you know, learning some of this stuff from him. I took some classes for some, um, fire breathing stuff. I've taken those classes and then read some books, studied some literature, studied some, some techniques, you know, and then one day I just was like, you know what, I'm gonna breathe every day for a year.
I'm gonna breathe every morning for a year. And when I set, you know, I have this personality that what if I make that commitment to myself? I do it regardless how I feel, regardless of things that get in the way. I, I do it. I make that commitment. Right? And that was about four years ago. And. It Riley it changed my life, like breathing.
The fact that we don't, we're not taught how to breathe. The fact that we're not, you're not given instruction how to breathe you, you just know that you're supposed to breathe. But the [00:36:00] way we breathe, the, the idea of breathing how you can, you can adjust your fight or flight muscles and reactions with breath.
How in around, if you stop and just take an asset and listen to the other person's breath, right? And if they're breathing hard and you're like, oh man, I got this guy right where I want him. You know, or you are yourself, you're like, oh man, I need to control my breath because I, I'm, I'm not gonna make it this round if I don't, you know?
Um, I was, I was practicing, holding my breath in the water. I was practicing holding my breath. I was, I'm so intrigued by it. I'm so like, it, it changed my life. Like, um. Deciding to breathe and to focus all of my energy on it. And then what happened was is other men started asking me about my breath work and my, you know, how I develop a routine, [00:37:00] how I, um, what, what things I think about.
And I'm like, if you do breath, you don't think about anything. 'cause all you're thinking about is that breath. And it's the most, it's the craziest, coolest meditation that I've ever done. And I don't, I don't, I don't think away from every anybody else's meditation I've had to, I've had the ability to, um, do, you know, instruct men, some really cool men in my life on breath work.
Um, and e every time they do, I tell 'em, like some of my, a lot of my breath works include stretching. It includes, you know, the vacuuming. I don't know if you remember, like, when they suck in their gut really deep and they, they move their stomach around, uh, you know, that, that, that controls it. Um, that's a controlled, that's a part, part of breath that you're controlling.
And just having that in my life with, along with the jiujitsu, along with [00:38:00] surrounding myself with good men, a around, along with, you know, building my relationship with God has formulated me into who I am right now, which is a lot calmer. I tell people all the time, man, like
16 and 16 and younger, Danny, we may not be friends because of the way that I was. You know, we, we may not be because I was a knucklehead, you know, and I did stupid things. 16 to 21-year-old Danny. Still, again, like just not, just not a good person, not somebody that I'm proud of at this moment. It's, it is who I was.
It's, I, I accept me who, for who I am, but you know, it's not who I strive to be to this day, Now this version of Danny man, so happy with myself and so happy with the direction of my life. And again, it goes down, goes back to just trusting the people around me and then also like really putting some effort into [00:39:00] it, which I think is what you need to do.
You just, you need to put effort into it. You know, put effort into these, these skill sets that we're not born with you, you're not born with it. And, and learning how to manage, fight, or flight. A a lot of the time, if you're holding your breath, you know you're getting smashed by a monster probably. You're like, man, if you could clear your head, which starts at your breath, you'd probably figure out a way to get outta that situation.
You hold your breath, you just, you dig down deep and, ah, now I'm gonna get outta here. Put, might end up hurting. That's what I don't want. And so I believe breath work. For me and the men that, you know, that I, that I help and instruct, they always tell me like, man, like breathwork is, it's just, it, it, it's just one of those things where if you don't, if you don't sharpen it, you don't harness it.
You know, you kind kinda get like the hobbyist mentality, know about it.
Riley: it's, man. 'cause you're, just walk around thinking that we just know how to do it. 'cause we do it every day. Right. But it's, it's a little bit like we, [00:40:00] we all think we know how to fight.
Danny: Agreed.
Riley: Oh, we've
Danny: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: Right.
Danny: Right.
Riley: gosh,
Danny: Yeah. And um, um, so now I just, you know, I have, um, I have a, so I have this amazing spot. It's a Mountain Elite massage. Amazing, amazing spot. Right? And, um, they, they give me the ability to help men and to do some men's workshops there. Um, I have men calling me all the time and they, we talk about it, you know, and if, and if you wanted, and for me, with Brett's work is like, you know, you really need to, to, to understand that.
Like, me giving you one class is not gonna change anything. You know, you're gonna be really excited about it, but it's not gonna change anything. It's like my professor, you know, he, he tells me things and I gotta be excited about it, but I've gotta also like go, I've gotta go to class. I've gotta, I've gotta do the things that he's telling me, right?
And that's [00:41:00] same with breath work. It's the same with any of those health and wellness things. You gotta make sure you put the effort into it, you know? And I tell people that up front, you know, it's not gonna, it, it, day one, you're gonna be awesome by day 365, if you look back and you're like, man, I didn't do any of that work.
You're starting over at day one, you know?
Riley: man. So many things are that way. Right?
Danny: Right. And you're not given a book to do it. Yeah. Father being a, you know, you're, you're a father man. Imagine starting over at day one every year of being. No. You make mistakes. It's not like, but the thing is, is like, you, you, you know, you're a great father. And, and I could tell by you the way that your son looked at you, that, you know, he trusted you.
He, he, he 100% trusted you and he trusted that, that you were giving him a good experience. You know, and that's kind of what I think about when I'm working with men is like, you gotta earn trust. You gotta believe them. And then you have to make sure that like, um, [00:42:00] what I'm saying or what I'm doing, I 100% believe, I 100%, um, understand that, that, that it's who I am.
Do you know what I'm saying? And when you have that kind of a thing, then you can. It's not a sale at that point, right? I'm not selling you anything. I'm kind of like giving you a piece of myself, and then my professor tells me that is we're just exchanging energy and and pieces of ourself, and that's what makes it so awesome.
Why? That's why I love Jiujitsu,
Riley: Yeah. You guys seem to have a really great school down there, man. Just hearing, and part of this is from hearing your podcast, but then hearing other guys at the, at the camp talk, um, you know, we all felt that way with Keith Owen when he was still around, and,
Danny: right?
Riley: uh, just Gosh, the love you developed for the guy and that, that I'm, when he calls you out on your bull crap, and man,
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: so Um, and you guys seem to have that similar thing down there
Danny: yeah,
Riley: uh, yeah. again several times in your podcast [00:43:00] kinda loyalty and the love you have for Mike, you know, and, and Mona down there and just the, family kinda atmosphere you guys
Danny: for sure.
Riley: and that the to me very familiar.
It's
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: that's, get it too, man. I love it. Um,
Danny: didn't have the, um, you know, I think I, I, I honestly think I met Keith maybe in passing. I, I don't remember. Um, you know, to hear about his passing and all that kind of stuff, it, it struck me, it struck me like as like, that kind of sucks. You know? And you feel that with people. Like, you can feel like, oh man, that guy, that, that guy was, you could tell just by the way that you guys loved him.
He is like, oh, that dude was a good guy. You know? And
Riley: a that was a tough time. I was,
Danny: yeah, for sure.
Riley: Um, I want to take the, I wanna take this man in as a lead into, uh, you, your podcast, the Lost Lost Boy Scouts [00:44:00] Um, it's based around men's mental health and I, I guess part of this is going into that, right? 'cause, you know, we take this kind of brotherhood of juujitsu and the, you know, the coach to student, uh, relationship and, and you know, we're, we're hurting each other all the time, right?
We're in there trying to choke necks and, and.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: arms the wrong you know, obviously we stop before there's real injury most of the time, but it's,
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: right?
Danny: yeah,
Riley: trust, we and there's relationships and, you know, every once in a while, one of 'em doesn't, doesn't work out.
It gets kind of sour. But there's loyalty gets tested at times and there's all these things that go on that, that, uh, kind of fall in that category of men's mental health. And I, I would want, I want you to talk about kind of your podcast, where it came from, and then some of the just wild stuff that's happened since you guys started that thing.
Danny: yeah. Um, I, I agree with you ri like, um, [00:45:00] it goes back to this idea of. When you're, you're a man, you're expected to be a man, right? You're expected those things. But do you know what that expectation is? You know how to like, you know, like sometimes you're like, oh man, I gotta go to work today. I feel like, crap, I gotta go to work today.
Right? I've gotta go provide, I, man, I'm a hunter, right? I'm a warrior first, right? I, I mean, I'm a fighter, you know? And if you're around men like that, right? You can kind of mimic mirror. You can be like, okay, I'm gonna be kind of like, I'm gonna be like Riley today. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be like Keith, I'm gonna be like Mike, I'm gonna be like Pedro, I'm gonna, you can mimic those things, right?
But then deep down, it's like you've gotta, you've, you've gotta take these, these skill sets and then make something of it, right? And, um, me personally, growing up without a father, I, I didn't have those skill sets, so I had to, I had to mirror myself around people. Now, when I was younger again, had I mirrored around, like, you know, the gangster culture, what, what would my [00:46:00] life look like today?
You know, and then. Tyler and I, so, so Tyler's my co-host, Tyler Clark. He's the inception of, uh, the Lost Boy Scouts podcast. And he, hi, hi. His daughter and my son went to high school together and they were in the same friend group. And I remember when he came in one day, he said, oh yeah, your, your daughter or my daughter and your son Tristan.
Uh, you know, trip is is the nickname that we call him. They, they go to high school together. And I remember talking to him and, and he came in. He, you know, he'd watch from the stairs. He wouldn't come around, you know, he was so nervous because you come in there and man, you see like these, this, this barbaric thing in your mind of like, I've gotta do this.
This is what I need. This is what my calling is. This is in our Jiujitsu school. Sorry. Yeah, I should have said that. He came into the Jiujitsu Academy, um, and just would watch sometimes, you know, and then [00:47:00] him and I started talking a little bit more just by the fact that, um. Our, our kids went to school together and um, one day he said, we should sauna together.
And I was like, yeah, I love sauna, man. We should sauna together. And we ended up finding this like spot in the Hebrew Valley that had a sauna and just got lucky that, again, like we just, like, man, they never asked us if we were members of this thing. We just would go in there and we'd go sauna at this, at this hotel.
And they never, we ended up becoming friends with all of the staff on the thing and it was like, we'd go in there and they were just, Hey, Tyler, and, and this, this sauna sessions, we would get into some really, really deep conversations. Tyler was going through some, some stuff and, um, I was. Working on my mentorship of men, you know, like listening to men and guiding [00:48:00] them and helping them and instructing them and being kind of that mentor role model of men that are struggling.
Um, I, I, without, without any kind of schooling, just felt like men were drawn to me to talk to me and, and share, you know? 'cause I didn't judge. 'cause man, I look at my life, man, I've got a great life now. But man, I struggled. I still struggle, you know? So we would talk and we would get to these deep conversations and we would have these like, man, this, this is so good for men.
This is this, this would be so good for, for somebody to hear. Right? And just one crazy sauna session. Tyler's like, we should do a podcast. This, this, this can't just be between Danny and Tyler. Other men want to hear this. And he tells me this idea of this Lost Boy Scouts.
[00:49:00] [00:50:00]
Danny: And the, the story behind Lost Boy Scouts is the, the name is kind of a play on words.
It's lost boys and boys scouts, but he puts it together. Lost boys, if you don't know. It's the LDS, um, down south that are kicked out of their, um, community because they're not part of the group of men that, um, are in the community. Right. And
Riley: that. Huh?
Danny: it's, it's an l it's a, it's an LDS thing. It's a, you know, a latter day.
Same thing, but it's like a fundamental thing. And these men are lost, like they're just kicked out by their, by their parents, by their, by the community. They know. And, and it was a big story that, that here us here in Utah, we just, man, these lost boys is what they were called. And they're just boys and men that have no life.
The only lifeline is themselves and they're having to learn how to navigate the world. And then Boy Scouts, you [00:51:00] know, is like one of those other things that where you a, I don't know if you were a Boy Scout or if you were a, if you did that. Me either. But in Utah, you know, with that, it's, it's, it's a very fundamental thing.
And, and it, it was a play on the words. But what it, what it is, is that in both of those things, there's these platforms and these levels that you're trying to attain. And if you don't reach them, then what happens? Right? And then there's men we're in that, we're in that, like we're trying to like, attend these levels and we, we, we joggle back and forth, right?
Sometimes, man, you just get your, you get your crap kicked in. And that's what he said is like, and then you have Juujitsu and you have this like thing, that's the hardest thing. It's the hardest thing that I've ever done. Right is be on the jujitsu mat every day and like grind and, and go to class and like still come home and be [00:52:00] this good father, good husband, and then go to Jiujitsu.
And I'm tired. I wanna be there. Uh, man, like I, I'm there for class. I'm there helping. I'm, I'm there so much. And it's this, this crazy world that we live in. But if I don't have juujitsu, then I'm all over the place. But if I have Juujitsu, I'm like, centered again and I'm good. I can attack everything. And that's how that, that's how it came together.
And then we were like, what's it look like? And Tyler just had this like amazing ability to, um, it, it, he had the idea in his head and then he brought it to fruition. And it's, we are on year almost three, I think, of podcasts. You know, we're, we're still mom and pop and we've got man like. So much. You can see our story, you can see our life.
You get to experience our life because we go, our idea is to go in chapters, right? [00:53:00] In a timeline. So we start with episode one, which is lost. And again, it's a play on words of have you ever been lost? But not lost physically, but lost physically. And also man, Riley, I'm sure you've been like, lost. Like sometimes you're just like, I, I don't know what to do here.
I'm lost, I'm, I'm lost. You know? And then we go in a storyline and our story is just so many things. You get to live that li our idea is you get to live our life with us a little bit, a little tiny piece with us, and take a little tidbit of men's mental health and. That you're not alone. You know, you're not alone in this world as a man, even though sometimes, honestly, I bet you feel like you're alone ri I bet you feel like nobody else is going through what I'm going through.
I'm the only person, good or bad,
Riley: You know, it's what's an interesting thing to me through. Through business, right? Is I've, I've been an [00:54:00] entrepreneur my entire adult life and I've gotten to know people at all stages, income levels, level of fame, all these kind of things. And I've started noticing those common threads where I'm like, okay, if I'm going through some crap, definitely not the only one.
'cause I've met all these people. And in every of those categories, they've, they've gone through some crap too, man. And, and, you know, it's so, it's taken the, oh, I don't know what you call it, kind of, that be kind of starstruck by certain people
Danny: Sure,
Riley: it's sort of to where I'm just like, no man. You know, Pedro Sauer in my mind is like this superstar, right?
Danny: sure.
Riley: I've Pedro and I understand he's tired from waiting in airports and he's, you know, he's.
Danny: I don't wanna go there today.
Riley: he gets around people. But he's smoking tired or he's sad. You know, he made an announcement there at the, [00:55:00] at the camp about the, mention it on here, but he was upset and crying, you know?
And so there's this guy, you know, he's in my mind, kind of wears a cape and he's a superhero. But at the same time, a dude just like the rest of us in motion. Just like the rest of us. And I, you know, in the jiujitsu world especially, I've met a lot of, a lot of the real, big name people,
Danny: Sure.
Riley: years.
And I'm like, yeah, man, every time I meet one, get a, a conversation one-on-one. Like they've been through the same thing. They have the same doubts, they have the same insecurities, have the same, you know, and you just, never see that if all you ever see 'em is on tv, but man, have one conversation with them and they're just a dude dealing with
Danny: Well, and how much, how much instruction as a father did you get besides the fact that you had a father, let's say, how much instruction did somebody give you? Like, it's not like you got a book, man. One of the hardest jobs. You know, I'm not [00:56:00] sure I, I, I can't remember if you, if you said you were married. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm guessing that you are.
Right. How much instruction did you get as a husband to be a good, like a good husband? Right. Then what? Oh, you did?
Riley: my case, we were part of a good solid church
Danny: Oh, good.
Riley: we mentors around us that said, look, man, we're, we're, we're on board with you guys getting married, but here's some things we'd recommend you do. And so we went through a lot of premarital counseling and just some
Danny: Beautiful.
Riley: down with been married for 50 years and, you know, asking, asking
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: So, a little bit more prepared than I think most do.
Danny: sure. What about what, what about being a great husband? Man, that's all personal at that point, you know, to, to go from that, like, okay, I'm a good husband to man, I'm a really, I'm a really good husband to, I'm a great husband that takes work every day. And that's what Tyler and [00:57:00] I always go back to is like, everything that you do that has value, that has this like amazing, it's changed you as a person, right?
Takes work. It takes. It takes work, it takes you doing the work. Right. And, and Tyler and I always go back to just keep doing the work, man, just to keep you doing the work. Because what I would hate is for my friend Riley to be like, I got nothing left in my gas tank. I got nothing left. I tried everything, you know?
And I would be like, man, did I miss something? Man, did I, you know, did, did Riley call me? And I didn't hear from him, or I didn't return his phone call because I was too busy, you know, worrying about my own crap.
Riley: Sure.
Danny: And, and, and that's that, that idea of surrounding yourself with, you know, good positive instruction and then taking the instruction, then taking the ability, taking it to the next level of like, I'm gonna be really good at this.
You know? Um, I wanna be really good when it sucks and I'm, man, [00:58:00] my wife is giving me the business. I'm gonna be like, smile and be like, it's all right. You know, we're on the same team. It's okay, you know.
Riley: Weather the storm for her, man. I'd love
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. How long have you been married?
Riley: 28 years this year.
Danny: Dude, congratulations. a beautiful thing, man. Like, you, you know, guys like, you know, that's the, the, that's the other thing is like how, how we support each other. A lot of times is like ribbing, right? Like, you're teasing the guy, but man, how many times have you like just taken the time and been like, man, thank you so much for what you've done for me in my life.
You know? And, and that's one thing that I always encourage people to do is like, thank, tell them, tell another man that you love him. Tell another man that you're appreciative of him. Tell another man that you're thankful for him. 'cause you don't know, you don't know if it changes his changes his day, that day.
To hear that, that [00:59:00] another person who is going through the same thing is grateful for him, right? Grateful for. And your wife, man. Like what a, what an accomplishment. What a what a what an amazing accomplishment. Because it means that you've worked your butt off. It means that you've worked your butt off and that you continue to today work your butt off for that common goal, that common unity, you know?
And, and
Riley: I she's probably worked her butt off harder than me. 'cause it's, it's a. My wife's a, a good one, man. I married way up.
Danny: same, same thing I tell people all the time. too. Um, me too, man. I look, I'm so, my wife is so, she's so kind to me, you know? She's so, she's such a kind person to me, and she's so understanding of who I am, um, and what, you know, what it takes for me to tick, you know? And, and, and she's so good, man. Like, I'm so lucky.
I'm like, man, like, I'm lucky, you know? So.
Riley: They say a mark of a good marriage is [01:00:00] when you both feel like you're married up. You know?
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. There you go.
Riley: I
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: awesome, man. talk to me about this man. You've, you've, uh, you know, and maybe that's a different conversation, but your co-host, Tyler, he's, he's been through, some stuff
Danny: Sure.
Riley: that's of documented on your, on your podcast.
I
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: it's somewhat um.
Danny: Um,
Riley: of as you feel comfortable there,
Danny: yeah,
Riley: 'cause this, of like a man going through some, some life
Danny: yeah,
Riley: But man, it sounds like he's just handling that as about as good you know?
Danny: Tyler and I's Walk, you know, Tyler's, Tyler's ears and I age, um, and the hands that he's been dealt, you know, would break most men. I mean, it would break you, it would break you, you know? Um, we've talked about his divorce, we've talked about his, his struggles with those, with just [01:01:00] that alone. Right. Um, and, and then, uh.
That's the beauty of like Tyler and I living our life the way that we do, you know, we we're out in the public forum because you can see what we're going through, you know? And you know, two years ago when, when we got, when I got the word that Tyler's brother had passed away, that was like one of those, you know, when you, when you, when you draw your timeline and that little tick of this happened, that tick mark is going to be so big because it was so unexpected.
Um, Nick and I, we missed each other twice. I never met his brother the whole time I've known Tyler. I've never, I never met his brother. Um, bolt the two times that he was here in Heber. Um, I was on my way to Tyler's house and Nick had to bail because he had to get home to his wife and family and, you know, he needed to beat a snowstorm or he needed to [01:02:00] just get on the plane or something, you know, so we never met each other.
And that, hi him passing has been one of those things where Tyler just, you know, he is, had to rally as a man. He had to rally. He just like, okay, man, you know, Nick doesn't want you being upset today. You know, even though you wanna be upset, you don't, you don't have the answers. 'cause uh, for all intents and purposes, Nick and Tyler were each other's best friends.
You know, they're, they're, they're each other's siblings. There's no other, there is no other siblings. It's just the two of them and the things that they needed to be there for each other when they were younger. That's all Tyler had, you know, when he was going through his divorce, calling Nick, make sure Nick, Nick would be like, Hey, you know, how you doing?
How's things going? And then to lose that, gosh, we, you know, we. The, the, it's still re it still, I still see the day of, and then we podcasted, [01:03:00] you know, kind of close to that. And I remember like, just thinking, man, this dude is struggling. And then a year ago, um, he got the news. So, so let me go back A year ago.
We're at Jiujitsu. And, and I remember him telling me like he had been struggling, like, ah, I just don't feel good and, and I've got these weird bruises on my body. And, um, I, I just, I don't know. I, I feel like my iron's down. I feel like I'm just tired all the time. And, and we were like, that doesn't sound right.
Maybe go to the doctor and you know how guys are man, like they're not going to the doctor. And we're at Jiujitsu, he takes his shirt off and Riley, when I tell you his bruises were the color of my shirt, yours and my shirt. And they were, you know, he. Melon sized bruises all over his body. And we were like, bro, that's not right.
And there was this girl there that was like, Tyler, that's not iron deficiency. That's something wrong with you. You need to get to the doctor today. [01:04:00] And he's like, ah, you know, I'll go. He's, and we were just like, whoa. I mean, it was like they were purple black. They were, they were black. And I'm at work and he calls me and he's like, I need you.
I'm on the way to the hospital. I've got cancer. I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know the outcome of this. And I'm like, what? You have what? You have cancer? And he had, um, oh man. I forget the name of it, but, uh. He had leukemia, um, and then he was in the hospital for six months straight, you know, in the cancer ward.
Um, and he's been fighting it ever since. And so talk about like this guy just getting knocked down over and over and over and having to be like, I'm good. I'm good. No. So he hasn't been able to train jiujitsu. Uh, our podcast is like, we were consistently every two weeks now, but now we kind of like, it's, [01:05:00] it's, it's all over the place.
We get together and we see each other and we, you know, we, we hug each other and we, he's so close man. He's so close. He's on his last round of, so, so he, he goes four weeks on, four weeks off, four weeks on, four weeks off or four sessions. He's on his last round of four weeks off before he finishes his last round of the medicine they give him.
But right now, um. For all intents and purposes, Tyler's cancer free. They'll finish out this out. But for, for, for all intents and purposes, he's cancer free. And he's, and, and, and, um, it's, it's so great because he's, he's, he's gonna compete. He's gonna come back to Jiu-Jitsu, he's gonna do these things, and he has this like, great outlook on life, but it's beat the crap out of him, Riley, like, for sure.
And to see your friend go through that, you know, you're like, man, I just, how do, how do you help him? How do you surround him? You met him. [01:06:00] Um, he was at the camp. He was, he was right there by you. And you know, he was great. Great guy, you know, and
Riley: he
Danny: yeah.
Riley: to man. know, he, he, you told me later that he was fighting cancer and I, I didn't realize it at all. 'cause he looked strong and healthy and, you know, he just, like I said, it was easy to talk to just, and we didn't chat a lot, but we, our booth was right next to each other, you know, stood there and, and we got some conversation in.
And, that's when I started kind of picking up that you guys were connected through the podcast. And
Danny: Sure.
Riley: I didn't, I obviously didn't know any of that at the time, but were both, both kind of new, you guys are new to me, both of you. And so that
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: looks like he's doing, doing pretty good.
I mean, he looks
Danny: he is, he, he's doing great. Um, mentally, you know, like everybody else, like he, he struggles, you know, he is, he has these battles and we talk about that on, that's the cool thing about the podcast is like, you know, he doesn't, um, he, he, he [01:07:00] doesn't mask anything. I, I, I don't know how long, how far, how many podcast episodes, if you're, if you've listened to some of the things, you know, one of the, one of the most powerful episodes that we've done is death.
It's called, I think it's called Death. And there are some things that we dive deep down and like. Kinda teaches you a little bit about like myself and Tyler, you know, and, and we don't shy away from anything. You know, we don't, it's not like we, um, we mask anything, which I think like you, you, you yourself, you know, you're, you're putting yourself out there, you're putting yourself out there right now to be, you know, talked about, to be judged, to be like, oh, ri you should do this different.
You, you know, so many people have input about what you should be doing, you know, and you, you, you wanna, you wanna take that input, but sometimes you wanna be like, really? That's what we always say at the end of our podcast. We always say, Hey, open mat Sunday, you can come [01:08:00] pay the drop-in fee. You can come hang out with us.
You can come tell me exactly how you feel and we can figure it out if we need to. You know, because it's like, really,
Riley: love that
Danny: know?
Riley: of your kinda like, yeah, if you have a problem with me, we'll come, come, we'll sort it out on the mats.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: and I
Danny: Yeah, we,
Riley: you know,
Danny: we also like, uh, we, we also take, you know, we take living, you know, a simplistic life of, you know, we take that white belt for life, white belt for life. We take that seriously. Like, we take the fact that like, I'm just a white belt in this, in, in my life, right? And if I have that attitude, I'll always be able to learn.
I'll always be able to gain something from you. You, you can teach me something. And I'm not gonna take that personality of like, oh, come on, I've got this. I figured this shit out, man. Like, you know, come on. Really? You know? So, um, Tyler, you know, his, his outlook on life is, is great. Um, [01:09:00] and, and then his pro, you know, what he has coming, coming to an end is going to be one of those bookends of like, man, your life is gonna be your trajectory.
Just took a crazy turn and hopefully. Hopefully you've, you've, you've walked away from it pretty much unscathed, as best as you can, you know.
Riley: Yeah, yeah. Pray for that guy.
Danny: But, uh, and, and his community, his common unity, which we say is like great, you know, his friends are jiujitsu guys. And, um, the jujitsu community never ceases to amaze me by how great we are for each other. You know, we are fast friends, you know, we have the same, we have the same little mindset, and, and we're fast, fast friends, you know?
And.
Riley: Yeah. that you use that term fast friends. 'cause that's, that's real, man. That's probably, honestly, it's probably my favorite part about Juujitsu. You know, I'm, I'm [01:10:00] nearing that 50-year-old stage and, you know, I walked outta some rounds this week. I'm like, oh man, I'm so sore. And, uh, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm like a stu but I'm still going back 'cause I just, I love my brothers and sisters down there, man.
We just, those after hours sitting on the mats we're all smoke tired and just sitting there chit chatting about life and what we
learned
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: and
Danny: My professor calls it, uh, starry eyes. After your rounds, after jiujitsu, you always, you never, if you come into Jiujitsu and you have had a bad day, you never leave jiujitsu with the same mentality. You always have starry eyes. You always have this like, look on your face of like, man, I could take nothing bothers me, nothing bothers me.
Nothing is gonna affect me that bad. Right? And, and, and when you get to share it with another person and you transfer that energy, you, we get to share a little bit of the burden of, of our life with each other. And we get to do it in this like organic [01:11:00] way of, of trying to kill each other. Right. Trying to like, because in any, in any other sport, like man, it's not like you're, um, it's not like you're practicing.
We we're the only, one of the only art forms that I've ever done where we actually are practicing and sometimes a hundred percent we're practicing. Like we are, we are practicing, you know? And, and that to me is the draw. It's the beauty of it, but also I think it's the, it's the thing that scares people because it's, it's, it's, there's no, there's no faking it.
Riley: Oh, that's for real. That's for real, man. The truth is told out there, right?
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. your personality, like we said,
Riley: Um, man, well, you talked about, uh, retirement that you're coming up here on, that as far as from the air traffic controller, but you're the type of guy who's not gonna stop there. What's, what's next?
Danny: um, I've been, I. You know, because I was in air traffic, because I've been in air traffic for so long, you know, I've done odds and ends [01:12:00] stuff. Um, I'm really, really been blessed to be around some, some guys that have that entrepreneurial spirit and, and that business mindset and that like, I'm working for Danny, I'm working for me.
Like, I wanna work for me. I wanna work for my, my, like what I wanna see in life, you know? And, and it's always the fear, right? Like that's the biggest thing is like, I, what I know right now, I'm so comfortable in, right? I get up, I go to work, I'm home, I go to Juujitsu. But if I was every day working for Danny, like, what does that look like?
And my friends, like, like you and, and my other friends that are entrepreneurials, they're, they're my mentors, right? And I'm surrounded by these amazing men who are like, yeah, I know. Push you, push you to do better, push you to do better. And, and that's kind of. My next chapter I think is like, you know, we, we have, again, like I was talking about, I'm, I'm blessed to be around, [01:13:00] um, crystal Joy is the owner of Mountain Elite Massage here in Heber.
Um, my wife works there. She runs, she, you know, she's, she's the manager. She kind of like, takes care of the front desk and, and we're just blessed to be around them because, um, I, I've been to some business meetings. I've been to some, some, I've met some really cool people by, by Crystal Joy and, and her husband Brian, by them putting me in these spaces that I'm, I'm not comfortable with.
Right. But, you know, I, I can, I can fake sometimes, you know, and I think that, you know, we're, our, our goal is to work for ourselves to continue to grow our entrepreneurial spirit, um, and then teach my boys that, teach my boys to not be afraid, you know, to, to, to put themselves out there and to. See what happens because the worst thing that happens is you learn a lesson.
It's, and, and, and if we go back to our juujitsu comments, the worst thing that happens, you tap, but you learn a lesson. You just learn a lesson. Right? [01:14:00] It's not final. You know, nothing's final. You know you
Riley: man. And you. 'cause earlier in the podcast you mentioned how you know you can go home from work and forget about work and, and that's, uh. That's not a thing for an entrepreneur. It's a,
Danny: are right.
Riley: We all wish we got paid for the amount of work we do in our sleep. Right.
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: amount
Danny: yeah,
Riley: in our I, uh, I get 'cause it, it's, uh, it's a great life, but it also, it comes with a lot of it doesn't come with an instruction book. There's a lot of
Danny: For sure.
Riley: there, but 'em really tell you how to do it. You have to, you have to make it yourself. Right.
Danny: Yeah. And you have to like, you have to trust the people. You have to trust the people that are giving you like advice. Because sometimes like man, people will be like, my advice is worth. Worth what, what you think it is, which is probably not that much. Right. But it's advice and it, it's, it's, it means something to them for them to share that space with you.
It means something. They've learned a lesson and, and like you just said, like [01:15:00] that is the biggest thing that I've learned is that the time that I wanna sit down and do nothing, you personally are like, yeah, me, I'm, I'm going. I'm constantly building, growing, trying to take care of something because that's that entrepreneurial spirit.
Right. And that has been the biggest adjustment.
Riley: interesting you say that because there's a, there's like this, you start to become aware that there's times when you actually have to do nothing. 'cause that's where the creativity comes in, the, you know, that. But man, just stealing your mind. And, you know, we talked about medic meditation earlier and prayer, um, those kind of things are important, but man, sometimes it's just like. sit, sound, no
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: you know, an hour into that, two hours into that, you start to have some really good ideas.
Danny: [01:16:00] Yeah,
Riley: And the necessity of that becomes apparent pretty quick when you're
Danny: sure.
Riley: on your own
Danny: Yeah. Were you always like, have you always been that entrepreneurial person? Did you have like a nine to five? Were you always like, nah man, this is, this is who I see myself, I.
Riley: Yeah. I've had nine to fives, man. Um, I was never great at it. I got bit by the entrepreneur bug when I was nine years old, I think. And I was, uh, my um, stepbrother was, was seven years older than me,
Danny: okay.
Riley: his first job making, you know, in the, in the late eighties, making. $3 and 85 cents an hour, I think is what he made. I went across the street and mowed the neighbor's lawn, and the, the lady paid me $10 and, and I was done with that lawn in 40 minutes. And I'm
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: making amount of money this dude's making. It's, it's like, why don't I just do this? You know, I'll just go [01:17:00] work by the piece. And I, and then, you know, in high school we started, my, my stepmom was in the manufactured homes business.
And so we kind of got the, the nod as teenagers to go out and do the, put skirting that vinyl skirting around the base of these manufactured homes. but we got paid by the foot. And I'd get so excited about that because my little brain had already been bit by the entrepreneur bug. And I'm like, we get paid by the foot.
So if I do two of these in one day, I can make $400 in a day in the early nineties. But then this other guy I know was working with me he'd be doing another job. I would do them three to one, what he was doing. And he
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: that he was you know, so it's two of them. And I'm doing triple what they are by myself.
Danny: Yeah. Right.
Riley: that vision, I was like, man, I, there is no ceiling here. I just as fast as I can put these together, I'm gonna do it. And so I learned the trade and I [01:18:00] learned the tricks, and I started doing that when I got my first real nine to five job in construction. It was the same way, man. We had the option to go hourly or piece work and
Danny: Sure.
Riley: I was like, piece work
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: by three in the afternoon, I'm done. I'm going home. You know, it was, I just saw it that way and I've seen life that way since, since a little boy, you know? And so,
Danny: Right.
Riley: I'm not a great nine to fiver because I, I'm always seeing that other side just like, man,
Danny: But yeah,
Riley: I want You know now not all of it's glory. Sometimes you fall on your
Danny: sure. Yeah.
Riley: paycheck but
Danny: Yeah. That's the one thing about entrepreneurialship that like, you know, for me, I've got a steady paycheck, you know, I've had a steady paycheck my whole life. And that's the thing that people are always like, like that's the, that that idea of like, I'm working for myself, so I'm gonna work my butt off.
Right. But man, let's say I don't see, you know, I'm like, okay, well my time's worth money. It's the one commodity [01:19:00] that I don't have a lot of. Right. And I don't see that paycheck. And you're like, that's when you, you know, some people would be like, oh, it's a failure, but it's like, is it, I don't know. I don't know.
I, I'm, I'm not quite there yet. Um, I'm still, you know, I, I'm still like. Barely scraping at the surface of this, what it looks like. And, but I, but I'm also able to have this full-time job, you know, that pays me well and so I can learn these lessons.
Riley: a lot of seasons of the entrepreneur life for me, where a steady paycheck would've been a great thing.
[01:20:00]
Riley: You know,
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: been some seasons of that too. And so I, yeah, I see both sides of it, man. And there's pros and cons to both sides and,
Danny: for sure.
Riley: know, Not, not being up all night thinking about what's going on in the business would be a, a good one.
That would be great. More sleep, but yeah.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: Danny, is, uh, this is called the Go Earn Your Salt Podcast. And when you hear that term, go earn your salt, what comes to mind?
Danny: I like the idea of going and earning, earning your paycheck, right? Earning those things that you want. It's, it's a skillset. Like it's something that you learn or you don't learn. Like let's say you, for [01:21:00] me, if you don't learn how to work hard to do the things that you don't want to do, the day they'll pile up.
Right? And if you think you're gonna get that salt, you think you're gonna get that little flavor, that little taste. By not doing those, what? Those foundational, those little IIes things, those, those things that just suck. You're, you may, you may have this beautiful house, you may have this beautiful house, but it's probably built on stilts.
And it's gonna topple. It's gonna topple, right? But if I do those little tiny things and I earn every day, and I get that maybe a little tiny bit of the taste of salt, but I'm, uh, that's all right. I'm there. I'm gonna earn it every day. My foundation is gonna be huge and my house ain't gonna topple, you know, nothing's gonna fall.
And, and I'm gonna be able to have this fallback techniques and fallback habits that every day I can go out and, and [01:22:00] earn. It may not be a, a full packet, but it might be enough just to get me to tomorrow, you know?
Riley: I love
Danny: You know,
Riley: that you're
Danny: and
Riley: great.
Danny: Yeah, yeah. Um,
Riley: Um, can we,
Danny: yeah,
Riley: gears a little bit, questions
Danny: sure.
Riley: oh, as we kind of land the plane. Did you see how I did that?
Danny: Yeah, I understand. Yeah. As we start to come in. Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. I love it, man. What's your, uh, what's your favorite pastime outside of jujitsu? I.
Danny: So, um, I am dabbling in. Plants and, and propagating and, um, like blending plants together. My wife and I, we, we, we have, for all intents and purposes, because people have told us one of the better yards in our neighborhood, and every year we plant [01:23:00] so many flowers and we make different little settings and little groupings and, um, we, uh, we, we take a lot of pride in that, in, in having people go, man, your yard, if my yard could look like yours, I, I love that.
Right? Um, I, I showed you the picture of my bus, my VW bus. Uh, I got lucky with that. A barn find it. It's, it's amazing and I need a new battery in it right now. It's kind of giving me fits, but that's part of the whole thing. One day when I retire, it's gonna be my daily driver, you know, and people tease me.
. Um, funny story, you know, we live in Heber and Carl Malone. Um, that's kind of where he settled roots, um, when he was playing for the jazz, you know, so I, I mean, I'm from Utah, so I, I know I've, I've met his boys, they work at the dealership down here where my buddies are at.
Um, but I had that bus and I had it in the shop to get new tires. And my buddy calls me and he is like, Hey, um, [01:24:00] I got somebody on the phone that wants to buy your bus from you, and he wants to talk to you. And the guy comes on the phone, he is like, Hey, I wanna buy that bus and I'm offering you X amount of dollars.
And I was like, what? Who, who? And, and you know, the guy there, he says, yeah, this is Carl Malone. And I'm like, yeah, I've never heard of him. And it kind of like started the conversation funny. And he, he got a kick outta that. And, um, yeah, he, I, I, you know, he wanted to buy. And I was like, it's not for sale, man.
Like, I know what I have. You know, this thing is super rare. It's bad, it's awesome. It's a, it's a talking point. And, um, I, I'm lucky, you know, I, I get to hang out in it. My boy and I are the head wrestling coaches of Park City Wrestling at the high school. We're the head coaches, so I get to hang out with him and, um, yeah, it's just man, like trying to surround myself and do some things that just, you know, be cool with people and, and always be [01:25:00] around the community.
Like, always give back to the community because I think that's a big thing for, for, for us is as men, is to be, you know, people that you can look to and you can turn to and also be like, oh, I know Danny. Like, I like that when people go like, oh, I know Danny. I know your dad. I know your friend Danny. Yeah. I like that.
Uh, uh, that's important to me, you know, and, and having a good experience.
Riley: for sure. For sure. What is, uh, something about you that's kind of quirky that people don't know about?
Danny: It's kind of quirky. Um, I'm terrified. Terrified of ghosts, like terrified. When I tell you, like, I've lost lots of hours of sleep, if I hear a noise or if I, if something happens to me that I'm like, gives me the tingles and the shingles, and my body's like, Ugh, I don't like that. Um, terrified when I go. So, so at, [01:26:00] at Mountain Elite Massage that they, they have a sauna and I'll go in there, but if it's at night, I turn on all the lights so I don't, 'cause it's in an old building, like it's in a super old building.
I turn on all the lights, ri and, and if I hear a noise, I'm like, oh my gosh man. And um, there's been some scary things that have happened that they told me about that. Um, I'm terrified of ghosts. Not,
Riley: You
Danny: not even a little bit.
Riley: or in there?
Danny: I, well, I mean, I think so. I, I, I, I, I don't know for sure, but yeah, I've had some experiences, but, but nothing like negative.
I just, I, I don't know why I, I don't watch, I don't watch scary movies. I don't watch like Wizards and I've watched Game of Throne Thrones. That's a different, but I don't watch like Harry Potter. I don't watch any of those things. 'cause I don't, like nightmares.
Riley: no, that was real. I, it is funny because we, uh, growing up. My stepmom was really into horror [01:27:00] movies. so as a, you know, 6-year-old, 7-year-old kid, I'm watching, you know, the Poltergeists and the Exorcists and the stuff, children of the Corn. I remember that one. And I'm like, dude, so that did not carry over into adulthood, man.
I, uh, I, I, uh, I became a Christian when I was 19 and, you know, gave my life to Christ and at that point I was just like, not doing this, man. It's not worth it. Those,
Danny: Did you
Riley: nightmares are
Danny: They tease me, like they'll tease me, be, uh, my, my family, my friends, they all tease me and they'll be like, they'll do something, you know, that they, I, I've had people dress up on Halloween and chase me around and think it's so funny. And I'm like, that's not funny to me, man. I'm, I'm, I'm terrified.
Riley: Oh my
Danny: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: Oh my gosh. Alright, Danny, you go to, uh. sit down at a restaurant and you order a cheeseburger. They bring that cheeseburger out and the, the [01:28:00] veggies are underneath the bun or the, the meat patty. Is that acceptable?
Danny: No,
Riley: Let's
Danny: um, I'm not that kind of person, but I'm super particular, I'm also. They tease me so much because, man, I don't have a big palate. You know, I eat the same thing every day on my cheeseburger. Like, I only literally only put tomatoes and extra pickles and, um, sometimes avocados. But other than that, I don't want anything else on there.
Like, I don't like onions, I don't like lettuce. I don't really like ketchup on my hamburger. Isn't that weird? Like, I love ketchup, but I don't want it on my hamburger. Um, the tomato suffices itself enough, you know? Um, but I don't know if I'd send it back, but I'd probably pick everything off of there and my wife would tease me.
Matt, back in the day, my wife would be like, oh, he's not gonna eat that. And she would like, take my plate and this is how great my wife is. She would like pull the things off because it's like, it's like visual. [01:29:00] I, I like onions, but I don't like to see 'em. And, and if I know that they're there, I, I won't eat it, you know?
And
Riley: funny, I, uh, no. Do you remember the old Jack in the Box commercial? I dunno if you
Danny: Uhhuh.
Riley: when they had like the Ultimate Cheeseburger, they're in a boardroom and they're passing it around and the guy's like, know, I get the meat and cheese part, but why, why a bun? you remember that commercial?
Danny: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Riley: with that man. 'cause if, if I got a burger and it was just meat and cheese, I like the bun. But if it was just meat and cheese, I'd be good with
Danny: Sorry.
Riley: But no.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: and I'm with you. a burger back for that. I may consider rearranging it if I thought it wouldn't screw it up.
Danny: Agreed.
Riley: Have just flipping it over. I don't know, man. It's a source of contention for me.
Danny: Yeah. Yeah. That's funny.
Riley: of your life, man. You ever had a near death experience or just something super
Danny: Um, I've never, um, [01:30:00] scary. I've had some scary, um. Both my boys have had, um, you know, where they, where, where they had to have surgery or they got, you know, they had some, uh, my older boy got hit with a, um, the, the, the back end of a trailer. He was trying to help my father-in-law and, you know, like the, you know, the, like a four-wheeler trailer.
The, the gate, the gate is heavy because you're driving on that. So he wanted to help my father-in-law. So he jumped up there and pulled the pin and my father-in-law wasn't prepared and he pulled the pin. At the same time my kid jumped down and the, the gate fell. And just by chance Riley like it, he jumped outta the way and as he, he didn't know it was even coming down as it fell.
It, it hit him in the, like, just above his ear. But had that, like, fallen on him, oh man, he wouldn't, you know, it would've, it would've really damaged him. Super heavy. Cracked him in the head.
Riley: man.
Danny: wife and I [01:31:00] seen him, um. And, um, coming into the hospital and seeing him and being like, what in the world?
Um, drip his head, have multiple surgeries on his ears, and each time he goes back there, I'm like, man, that's, that's scary. I don't like that. I, I'm not, I'm terrified of the doctor, but I don't go to the doctor a lot. 'cause I'm like, I don't want, I don't wanna leave here any un unhealthier than I already am, you know?
Riley: Yeah. for sure. Yeah. Stuff with kids is scary, man.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: we've been really that our kids have all been healthy and we haven't had any major accidents, but scary stuff, dude.
Danny: Yeah. I'm not a fan of those things. I, I like you, I, uh, I, I say my prayers. I, I put all my faith in God and I put out all my faith in his, his, his, his path and his plan for us. And you know, I tell him every night, man, keep my boys, keep my [01:32:00] boys and my wife. Like keep them safe and, and put your little veil over them and let them, let them be safe, you know?
Riley: Danny, what's a, a Something you you'd love to do before it's all over?
Danny: a bucket list challenge. Um, I, so my wife and I wanna live in Mexico for a little while. We, we go there consistently. I wanna be able to live there and function there
and speak the language and, and, and experience like Mexico. We've been there. We, we experience it, but like really experience it. We, our plan is to drive our bus. Down the Baja Coast to Cabo. Uh, you know, we, we plan to do that one time. We plan to, we plan to sail, um, from San Diego to Cabo and do those two things like, you know, be there for, be there in country for, you know, 30, 40, 50, 60 days is, [01:33:00] is our goal.
Um, you know, we wanna live there. We wanna, we wanna spend some time there and, and experience it. And that's a big bucket list on ours. We've got, you know, we have all other things going on, but, but one day we wanna do that. I think that's a, hopefully that'll happen.
Riley: man. That sounds
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: What is a, what's a, a book that you would recommend everyone read? Um.
Danny: Um, breathe. Breathe by James Nestor. Um, so much insight in there. So much, um, so much. So much about breath in there. It, it's a great book. I love that book. I've read it, I've read it three times. I've listened to it twice. I share it with everybody. Um, it it, it really gives you an insight into breath work, Andre, and breathing.
And why we, why we do the things that we do and why, like, why, even why our, our, our, our nose is shaped the way it is and come, it's moved [01:34:00] where, you know, 'cause sometimes, like if you're in a, if you're in a warm client, why your nostrils may be bigger as opposed to a closed, uh, a cold client, uh, climate. Why and why your nostrils will be a little bit more shallower.
It gives some insight into that and fight or flight, um, fight or flight is real. Um, if most men, you know, struggle with fight or flight, you know, uh, like we talked about, sure. You could say you've been in a fight. Sure. You could say you've been in a fight or fight. Sure, you can say that. You know, you've had some scary things, but are you running away from that?
Or are you running at it and taking it on and fight or flight is real as a man. And I don't, I don't know if we're teaching that to our, to our young men the correct way right now. And I would implore people to, to really understand that like, you know, we're men and women are built different, you know, and, and men are built for war.
And, and when it comes, are you ready? You know, are you prepared for it? And having your breath under control and being able to like, [01:35:00] think and, and, and function is super important. And that book dives into it a lot. And, and I, I love it.
Riley: book because it didn't tell me why my two nostrils are shaped the way they are after Jiujitsu and they get broken and septum.
Danny: DPM Septums. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Uh, every night I sleep with a nasal strip. I, I, you know, I, I take my mouth shut sometimes, you know, when I'm doing stuff. And, um, I, I just started to wear a mouth guard. 'cause my, my wi my, my wife said my teeth. I had to, I had to get my front teeth fixed. 'cause I had 'em broken.
And, uh, my, my smile's great. And my wife said, I better protect those. So even wearing a mouth guard, like, you know, having to wear that. yeah,
Riley: That's awesome, my man. Well, listen, where, uh, where can you be found, uh, your social media, that
Danny: yeah. So, um, you can go to dray dot Ocon No NA, it's just O-C-A-N-A. That's my Instagram. N it's [01:36:00] attached to my Facebook Lost Boy Scouts podcast. Um, you know, uh, park City Jiujitsu. Uh, again, uh, you know, I, I, I tell people all the time what Mike and Mona have done for me. I try to. I try to preach it, I try to give it to people.
I, I try to pass it on of, of how, how important it is to me, the community. Um, and if you see me driving around, if you're in Hebrew, if you're seeing you driving, driving around in my bus, man, stop and talk to me. Um, yeah, anything, you know, anything where my so myself is out there. I, I'm, I'm blessed, I'm lucky, and I hope that people like, come up to me and just, just wanna talk to me and like, you know, share some, share, share certain things, share stories, share burdens, you know, that, that, that's, it's kind of what my, you know, I don't, I'm not prolific at social media, but, um, [01:37:00] I try, you know, I try
Riley: That's awesome, man. Well, dude, thanks for coming on today.
Danny: Appreciate you. I appreciate your friendship, man. I can't thank you enough for the, the blossoming friendship. Just, just always, you know, there's little things that, that happen and our friendship is just so, so new. But I'm, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for what it, what it's developing into, and the fact that you're doing what you're doing.
Um, it inspires me to continue to do what I'm doing because it takes a lot, it takes a lot to go out there and put yourself out there. And, and I'm proud of you. I'm proud to call you my friend. I'm proud of you as a man. Um, like I said, I, when I seen you interact, interact with your boy, I was like, man, this is a good guy.
This is a guy that, his, his pride, his, he's not letting his pride get in the way, but he actually is letting it, letting him guide him, you know, letting him guide him. And that, that's two things, right? You don't wanna be too prideful. You don't wanna have an ego, but you want to be, you wanna be held accountable,
Riley: for [01:38:00] real, man. I appreciate those. That's kind words, dude.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: yeah. Raising boys, raising, you know, I've got a daughter too. I've got a daughter and two boys in. They're, just, I'm so proud of 'em as they've grown, you
Danny: Good.
Riley: we've not not always do stuff. Right, right. Every parent has but, uh, they've, they've grown into some pretty awesome young people, man.
That's great.
Danny: good. And I'm sure like the, a testament to you and your wife, like being, you know, being there with each other and, and, and never giving up on each other is going to set your children up for success, you know, and, and, and give them that genetic code like we were talking about at the beginning. Give them that genetic code of, this is tough right now, but I have this ability and I have this mindset to get through it.
And you have to have that right now. You know, you, you need that right now and you need to, we need to instill it in our children and, and the, and our children's friends and, and have be good, good people and good men. And, and I believe [01:39:00] that, um. For right now. You know, my, my path is, it's a, I'm blessed, you know, it's not me.
It's,
Riley: I don't back to you because I, I did get to see your son trip.
Danny: yeah.
Riley: he and just so involved in that camp and making that thing function. And you know, I didn't actually realize until way late in that thing that you guys were even related.
Danny: Right.
Riley: but I, I always thought, man, this, this kid's cool as crap.
'cause he's up there, you know, running a lot of the administrative kind of logistics of what's
Danny: Sure.
Riley: was involved in everything and that, that
Danny: Yeah,
Riley: really you know, and then he come up to me with the camera and wanna do an interview and it was, so, he's, he's he's all this admin stuff and then he's running an interview and he was just a busy dude, but
Danny: sure.
Riley: me 'cause you know, he's doing all this and you're there too together.
Right. And a lot of times
Danny: Yeah.[01:40:00]
Riley: guy and his kid that age especially doing their own thing, you know, but you guys are there hanging together and enjoying each other's company. I was cool.
Danny: I always, uh, I, I'll, I'll, I'll, uh, I'll, uh, I'll say like, my professor, my professor always says, he says, you know, it's not me. It's Juujitsu. He, he always says that, you know, it's not me. It's Juujitsu. And, and, you know, for the longest time I've thought he, he'd say, sometimes you're gonna like, sound like your professor.
And I thought it was gonna sound like one day I'd sound like Pedro. You know, I'd like, I, I'd have that like, cool, that cool. Hey my friend, Hey, how are you my friend? You know? But what I think is like, eventually you're around them so long, you just start to, uh, re you know, say the things that they're saying and reiterate 'em.
And you believe him so much that people do say, you sound, you sound so much like Mike right there. And I'm like, man, it's not me. It's Juujitsu. You know? But I appreciate that. I, you know, I, I, I also think that I'm lucky my boys. [01:41:00] Um, they love me so much and they're so forgiving to me. They're so forgiving to my, my discretions and my mistakes and they love me so much, you know, and they, they see me for who I am and they see past those things.
And, uh, I always tell them like, I may not get it right. I may not get it right, but I'm never gonna give up. I'm never gonna stop trying to, to be a, to be a good role model for them, you know? And I think that's just, you know, I think that's what our jobs are, right? And then, and then just our friendships is gonna be held, held each other accountable to be like, Hey man, how are you?
And how's things going? And hey man, I'm thinking about you. Hey, I love you man. Like, thank you so much for the opportunities and, you know, super stoked for each other, you know?
Riley: exciting stuff, man.
Danny: Yeah.
Riley: again appreciate you. Dude. Go on
Danny: you.
Riley: Go Earn Your SALT, my friend.
Danny: I'll, okay, I will, thank you buddy.
[01:42:00]