Welcome to our experiment, the one hundred person Project. Simple questions for one
hundred people. I'm Bill Correll, and this is my investigation, the research
project to gather data from one hundred beautiful human beings for the sole purpose to
see what actually happens across the interviews. The questions are fixed and all the
interviews remain consistent, with the variable being the actual participants themselves and their answers.
So, Dan, it says, if I'm asking you to come over
and sit on my porch with me and share your thoughts about life and the
world, so I can learn about people. We're looking forward to what we're
going to learn when we are complete. However, we are very interested in
the people, the process in your particular story. So we'll get to know
you through the interview, and so let's dive in. It's my distinct pleasure
to introduce my guest. Well, why don't you do it for me?
What is your full name? Thank you, Bill. My full name is
Daniel Blanchard. Many people just call me Dan, Yes they do, and
I'm one of those people. So anything in particular about that, or were
you named for somebody or is it something that just was an inspiration around the
time you were born. Yeah, I gotta tell you it's pretty funny.
I'm not quite sure where the name Dan came from, it was an inspiration
for anything. But when I was really little, the kids around that neighborhood
used to call me Danny Fanny, and I used to chase them all around
the place. Hated to be called at as a little kid. And then
later, you know, later, teenage, early adulthood, I was called
Damn the Man, which I thought that was much better to be called Damn
the man instead of Danny. I'd agree with that too. They have a
completely different tone of voice, don't they. Yes, they do, Yes
they do. Uh. And like I said, and Dan's fine. But
I gotta tell you, Bill, funny story is every now and then I
hear somebody, you know, just kind of coming in and says, hey,
Danny, and I turn and I'm like, it's an old neighborhood kid.
Yeah, oh that's what it is. Same here. I'll be Billy
till the day I die. To some people, you know, my classmates
from from grammar school. I can always tell because I was everyone knew my
dad as Bill, and they all knew me as Billy until the two of
us weren't around doing the same things anymore, when he stopped coaching me and
started coaching my brothers, for example. But no, Billy, and I
understand from a good friend of mine, Johnny McCullough, that it's the Irish
sign of respect to refer to a handsome Danny Blanchard or handsome Bill Billy Corrall.
You know, cool, I'll take that any day. So we've kind
of dived into some nicknames that you had. But what would you say,
is your favorite nickname that most people don't know? Uh? Jeez, that's
a good one. A nick name that most people don't know that cause I
think my as I just said, I kind of think that my favorite believe
it or not, you know, is Dan the Man, and believe it
or not, as every now and then when I hear Danny, I go,
there's like a little warm spot in my heart because I'm like somebody that's
known me for like fifty forty fifty years, So there is a little warm
spot in my heart. And I don't know if a lot of people know
that. I'm thinking they probably don't know that. It definitely puts a little
warm spot in my heart because I'm like, these are like my people,
you know, from way way way back, you know. And I didn't
come from the best neighborhood in the world. You know. We all had
our issues that we were dealing with, all of our families. None of
them are perfect, you know, we were all dealing with issues. So
thirty five forty ish years later, forty five years later, Yeah, there's
just something really really nice about every now and then here and Danny and turning
and seeing a guy. Yep, you know all that forty years ago,
forty five years ago. That's a cool thing. But I still like them.
The Man too, Yeah, absolutely so Dan the Man. When did
you notice first what color your hair? It was? Oh, yeah,
that's interesting. I mean when I was a little kid, I had blonde
hair. Yeah, yeah, it was a towhead when I had blonde hair,
and I remember being happy about that. But then at some point,
it was elementary school, my hair started turning brown, and I remember getting
sad then my hair was turning brown. I wanted it to stay blonde because
people, you know, they always made comments about it and this and that,
and then you know, then many many many years go by, and
I started having kids on my own, and you know, and the first
two come on his total toe heads, you know, Platinum blod and I
was like wow. And as I had my little boy over my aunt's house,
which I don't get to see often, but when I was over there
with my little boy, she goes, wow, there's no there's no guests
in who that kid belongs to. That's little Danny. And I'm looking at
little toe head, platinum, almost white flown, you know, I'm looking
at him, and I'm going wow. I'm like, I look like that,
and I'm going, dang. I wish people had told me that I
look like that and that I was really that good looking. I would have
been much more life. I was that good looking. Yeah, we all
can take that compliment, can't we? Because I remember daughter and son just
going they are beautiful, and I can if I look like that, man,
I wasted it. Who knew? Yeah? Who knew? There you
go, who knew? How old do you think you were when you noticed
it was changing? Ah? Gosh, probably uh probably about six five,
maybe five six, something like that. Yeah, it was changed. And
then and there were times there were times when I was older, I was
just like I mean, maybe this is like a dumb thing, but there
was a in the eighties. Uh that one was at sun in came out
light in your ears. Some of my buddies were using it every now and
then. Somebody of a blonde streak of blonde highlights in their hair and you
kind of look like a California surfer dude. You know, it looked kind
of cool and like you must be fun because you look that way, and
sun tan and whatnot. So there was a couple of times I sprayed a
little bit that sun into my hair and it didn't It didn't really help that
much. It just kind of threw my hair like a little orange color.
And then some of my buddies were busted on me and call me oop oop
I'm telling the factory, yeah, exactly right, And I was like,
I'm not, I'm not using that anymore. Well, the other thing that
you could do to lighten your hair up a little bit was to put lemon
juice in it. And you know, I learned that from one of the
girls that rode the bus. And she got on the bus one day and
I asked her, I said, what did you do and she said,
well, my mom put lemon juice in it. She said. All the
girls are doing it and the guys too, so yeah. And then then
the other thing was was the copper tone bronzer made you look orange? I
remember that. I remember that, all trying to look tan and fun and
like beach dudes, beach girls, surfers, all of us is trying to
look like we were just out and about having a great time fun of the
sun. Yeah. All the marketing was working, wasn't it. Yeah,
I know all life is so different. You know, I don't think about
blonde here for one second. It doesn't matter, you know, as long
as I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, being a good good husband,
a good father, being a good man, you know, get getting
it done at work. You know, not that looks unimportant, but you
know, looks are secondary, and blonde here is absolutely way way back on
my list of important. Yeah, and I really I really get that.
And knowing how busy that you are and all the things that you've done,
we'll get into some of that, you know, during this half hour.
But I'm really looking forward to having you back for my other Lighting the Candle
podcast too, because I think you'd be a rock star on that, and
I don't mean a rock star, you know, in terms of anything other
than people starting to understand your commitment to life into other human beings, which
is very moving for me. So as you go here, people will get
a chance to look behind the curtains where I don't think most people that you
know know the answers to any of these questions that I'm asking you. So
now here's a good one for you, as busy as you are. What
is your favorite thing to do to intentionally waste time? Oh? Wow,
mes see, I would say I would say Netflix Netflix TV. If I
have some time to kill, I'll pop on Netflix TV and watch a show.
I mean, I don't watch a lot of shows, and I don't
have much time, and I almost never kill time. But if i'm home,
you know, if i'm home, I pop on Netflix TV. I
do that. If I'm out somewhere, I do two, probably two things.
If I'm out somewhere, many times I pop in and I follow a
little Kendle book and start reading. But I don't know if that's really a
waste of time. Reading's good, So that kind of doesn't exactly follow that
category. But I almost always do that, and then once in a blue
moon, I really will waste time and I'll pop up like my Instagram or
something like that, one of my social media channels, and I'll scroll for
a couple of minutes while I'm waiting to, you know, do whatever it
is I gotta do next. Sometimes, Bill, what I also do people
watching every now and then. People watching, you know, like no music,
no nothing, just people watch it. I do that of you once
in a while to kill a little time. And it's something that we so
rarely do, but it almost seems like a little treat or something like that
when you do that. And now that I'm on this string, let me
just kind of bring this up real quick. Every now and then, when
I'm driving home, like I'm always listening to like audio books or podcasts like
education. I call it the automobile university. Why not, I'm always I'm
in the car a lot. I'm always doing that, you know, I'm
knocking books off like crazy. But every now and then, same thing with
that kind of people watching. Every now and then I turn off the audiobooks.
You know, there's no music, there's nothing, and it's just silence.
Sometimes I'll do like silence for like the last twenty minutes drive home or
something, and that too. You know, it's up there with people watching.
It's a little bit of a tree. It's not something that we do
often, but I find it just comforting every once in a while to do
that. And I don't know if you want to say that's wasting time because
I'm not educating myself, but there's something about that, you know, and
I don't think it's a waste of time. I think it's a wonderful thing
to take a pause, you know, And when you do that intentionally,
it might seem like a waste of time to some people, or you might
catch yourself somewhere along the way, you know, thinking well, okay,
that's enough of that. Now, I got to get back to whatever my
next thing is here. But in the meantime, I think people who are
used to performing at a peak level realize you've got to have some downtime.
You gotta have a little bit of time to recharge the battery and let your
mind rest a little bit too. So the what's your favorite part about the
people watching? Where do you find the greatest reward? H Wow, I
probably can't even articulate like this Here's the funny thing is that my wife is
really good at people watching Observation's got the power of observation, right. I
got a buddy, same thing. I always joke around with them when they
bust on me, and I'm like, listen, you know the power of
observation that goes to like the can criminals and police officers are. I'm neither,
not my thing, but every now and then I do it, you
know, at least try to do it. I don't quite out the power
of observation my wife has and one of my buddies has to bust on before,
but every now and then I just do it. And in my mind
my mind starts turning as I'm watching people and trying to think, who is
this person, what if they've overcome, where are they from? What do
they know? And the majority of the times my mind is not articulating this,
and like words, maybe sometimes pictures or maybe sometimes very far off faded
pictures that I'm not even sure what the heck it means, not even try
how to articulate it. But every time I do that, I told you
before it there's like a little bit of a comforting there. But there's also
something like a little bit of a magic motion there. There's something magical about
it that it can articulate, and it's just I don't know, if it's
just you know, who knows who's the next person you're gonna meet that's gonna
open your eyes to something you haven't really thought about before and completely change the
direction that you're going to, like a better place for you to do better
things, for you to contribute bigger and better things, And that can happen
at any moment. So I think that it's it's almost like watching these little
treasures walk by, and even though I'm not like stopping them and talking to
them and communicating with them, maybe it's a reminder that there's the world is
builled with like little treasures that they're just walking by us all the time,
and we didn't even We don't even know it because we don't know the stories
because we have to ask them to stop and talk to them. Like when
my mom died, I was doing the eulogy, and I said, you
do the eulogy, and I did a great job. By the way,
it was making great I did such a good eulogy. People talked about it
for six months. But one of the things I was doing was you know,
researching my mom, gonna her sister asking her and her sister goes,
did you know your mom was a Trapezes artist? What mom? What?
My mom? I didn't know that. You know, how many cool stories
my mom could have shared with me, How many cool stories your mom can
share with you. How many cool stories your neighbor can share with you.
You know, how many eye opening, cool, just fascinating, interesting things
the mailman can share with you. It's mind bow, you know. It
strikes me that's brilliant, you know. For I don't know. I know
other people that do people watching or girl watching or something of that nature,
but they're typically not Their mind's not full of questions. It's full of judgments,
you know. And the way they compress themselves like they think they know
something about that person. And having the curious mind that you do is it's
really a skill that you It sounds like you've honed it to a craft.
And I'll tell you what, if you get rejuvenated and you get your life
out of it, just being around people and appreciating who they are without knowing
any of their story, but just being able to, you know, like
get their body language and what they've done to prepare themselves, what they're wearing,
what they seem to be doing in life. That's not a bad way
to refresh. I think that's brilliant, absolutely, And I love did you
use the word like curious? You know what I'm saying. I think every
one of us should be curious. You know, that's like despite life,
variety and curiosity is definitely a life, no doubt about it. So let's
all be curious because when you're curious, it's also a sign of intelligence,
you know, and then have you once in a while you meet someone that
says, hey, keep your nose out of this or whatever, right,
But it's like, no, I'm curious. I'm just I'm wondering, you
know, it's of intelligence. Yeah, when you stop asking questions, you
stop growing. When you stop growing, you stop developing. And when you
stop developing, you don't you think you know everything? And then how do
you ever get satisfaction out of that? How do you ever? How can
you ever be wowed by life? When you think you know everything? And
it's not even that people who know everything know they know everything. They don't
know that, they don't know that they think they know everything if that makes
any Well, Bill about that, and I think you're right on it with
that. Here it is, I completed fourteen years of college, have seven
degrees, I've written forty books, you know, I've spoken some big stages,
ted X all that stuff. And every single day I run into so
many things I don't know. And I have no illusions that I know that
I know what all that I even know most of it, or that I
even know half of it. I know that I don't know, and I
know that every day I'm gonna learn and that my best years is still ahead
of me because I'm going to keep learning stuff. And like, I mean,
I think back, that's just like two years ago, five years ago,
whatever it is, and I think that what was I worried about during
those days? And I'm like, oh wait a minute, Now I do
that stuff, no problem. I totally know how to do that, you
know. So, I mean same thing with the future. You know,
I'm saying there's stuff that we don't know. When it gets sad when you
get these people who don't know that they don't know and they think they know
everything. Oh my gosh, what a boring world that must be. You
know, an opinionated, boring world for that person, because they're posing the
door to what could happen in the future. It's that And then there's also
only one way conversations with them can go. It's always going to be a
narrow focus, bouncing off of the boundaries of what they're pretty sure is true,
and in many cases it's just on the other side of what they know
to be true, where satisfaction in life really comes from. Yes, yes,
So that speaking of that, I'm gonna what else did you want to
say? I just want to say real quick. I remember reading Carroll Dwack's
book Mindset, and one of the things she talks about with your youth,
with your children, with your students, with your athletes, whatever it is
like, don't come out and say like you're brilliant, or you're good,
or you want because you're so talented, you know, always praise the effort,
because if you praise the effort, then they're willing to get more.
But if you praise, oh, you're just a natural, you're so talented,
you're so smart. The minute they make a mistake, they just took
a hit to that persona of that they're so smart, are so talented.
So what's happening. I'm not so smart anymore, not so talented anymore.
Now I'm I'm kind of like, I kind of want to hide and not
try so much anymore, just in case somebody else sees that I'm not so
smart anymore, I'm losing it, or I'm not so talented anymore. I'm
losing it. So like, you don't praise cancel or youth that way.
You pray the Carrocter brilliant on this. You praise them for the effort,
so they keep making the effort and you keep growing, which fits right in
you know, the doorway what you're saying, you know early about you know,
these people that think they know at all, they have this very limited
conversation where it's gonna bounce back and forth, and they're not really gonna grow.
They don't really have a growth mindset, you know, they get that
fixed mindset sadly sadly, and the future is gonna be one. And what
you finally are you know, uh pointing at is those people who don't know
that they're only responding positively about the things that they're getting stroked for, will
stop doing all the things that they either failed at or they were told that
they weren't doing it right, or that all of that sort of things.
So when you have somebody who is an abject failure, who like a wrestler
that goes out and gets pinned his first five matches. When it comes back,
the first thing you got to say is what did you learn from that?
Where? What do you now see that's gonna, you know, inform
your next time you go out onto the mat and see what you can execute.
That would make a difference with that, just some kind of a question
about what did you learn every single time as opposed to that was brilliant what
you did. You magically pinned that guy in thirty seconds. But it may
never happen for you again. And I know people that have quit sports because
they weren't as good as they you know, at fifteen, they weren't as
good as they were when they were twelve, So true, true, you
know, And that's when they get set that fixed mindset one hundred percent.
And that's a hard one to shake until you are around some bull goose loonies
like you and me, who basically say, hang around me long enough,
I'm gonna convince you of your greatness and and then and watch you do sort
of heights that you never thought possible, not because I did it, because
because you now know you can. Okay, yeah, I love it.
And if in the same vein Uh, you know, it's funny. There
have been times when I've been around authors and I've told authors, you know,
I think I've got an advantage here. Here's the thing. Like,
I know I'm not a great writer, so I'm gonna keep trying and keep
trying, and I'm gonna keep improving and keep improving because I know I'm not
a great writer. So and now I have forty books and these people may
have one or none. You know, I'm saying because they're they're great writers,
but they're not going to keep trying and keep trying, you know,
because they don't want to look stupid. And that's inspirational to me. I
think I first met you when you were first doing your your your very first
book, which I believe is The Storm, and uh, you know it
to have time go by in between then and now, Uh, it's kind
of remarkable. So my next question is going to tell a lot what is
your favorite movie to watch alone? All Right, I'd have to say,
Humphrey Bogart's Casablanca in black and White. Nobody in my family, you know
it, loves history that much. I've got one daughter, my oldest daughter,
who likes it, likes history enough to watch stuff with me, The
History General or whatever. But I can't get can't even her. I can't
get even her to watch like the Black and White, you know, something
that's from like fifty sixty years ago or whatever it is. But yeah,
I like to watch every couple of years, every couple of years if I'm
home, maybe if I'm home sick or for some reason, I'm just home.
Maybe I shouldn't be home because I'm like I'm sick or whatever, I'm
home alone, or I just flip on every now and then Casa Blanca,
watch a little Hume for your ball guard. And there's nobody in my family
that's gonna watch that. I love. I mean, everything about it is
fantastic, and it's one of the top five classics of all times. I
think every kid should have to watch it in the second grade and then watch
it again in the tenth grade. Oh yeah, I think you should.
It's such a classic and it twists my mind up when I'm like, how
calm? I mean, what do you mean you don't want to watch it?
But I'm like, whatever, then I'll watch it. I'll watch it,
so whatever. Every few years I watch it. Good for you.
So here this one, I'm listening very carefully because I'm kind of interested in
terms of your thinking. And so if you were to have an action figure
made of you, what superpower would it have? Dan and what colors would
the uniform be. I've never thought about this, but if I see my
super action figure, Damn the Man, the first thing that comes to my
mind was just Superman. You know, I've always said I think Superman has
always been my favorite. So I would probably model myself as some degree of
Superman. Like flying would be really cool to be able to fly, being
so strong, I don't think I need those little like fire things or laser
beams that come out of his eyes to burn thing. I don't think I
need that, why not? But definitely being like super strong, being super
fast, that might be the rest or athlete in me, you know,
being super strong or super fast and the whole thing of being able to fly,
I think it would be like really cool. So I think my superhero
damn. The man hero superhero thing would kind of be somehow, in some
way kind of modeled in that direction toward like the Superman. I always thought
he could beat all the others up anyways, you know, and no one
could tell me different Superman could beat them all up. I know some people
try to say something else, but I don't believe it. Well, the
neat part of it is is they realize early on that he had to have
some kind of an achilles heel. Otherwise people would, you know, if
he's never at risk in a fight, and that's where they had to invent
kryptonite. Yes, you know. And the neat neat thing about that is,
uh, so you're gonna be Superhero modeled after after Superman? And what
colors would you make the uniform? Well, definitely the blue blue would be
in there, and blue is my favorite color. Ocean's water, this blue
skyline. Definitely blue would be in there. And you're just gonna need something
to go with blue? Why not? So again, I mean, I
think I think Red Goes were blue. Well, so I would probably do
that, But Bill, I gotta tell you, I have my own kryptonite.
Yeah, Well, you know, if I'm going to be a superman
or Dan the man of my own kryptonite, and it gets me not often
whenever he wants in a blue mood, the kryptonite couch gets me. Why
not? And this is what it means. I'm on the run all the
time. I'm like really busy from like early only morning so pretty much late
at night when I sit down and usually watch like one TV show up my
wife at the end of the night, and then we just gotta go to
bed. But every once in a blue moon like this, maybe I'll have
some time to kill, right, So every wants a blue moon, I
might sit down on the couch and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna watch
TV for like twenty minutes and then I'll get back on it. That twenty
minutes, that couch just sucks everything out of me. It's my kryptonite couch,
and it's like, oh man, it's almost impossible to get back up
off of it then on it or kind of lounge on it. So I
kind of make it a habit, not the lounge on the Kryptonite couch unless
I really get some time to kill, because I'm not gonna get back up.
Do you fall asleep once in a while. Yeah. Yeah, once
in a while, I fall asleep and uh and sometimes believing or not like
I even get I even do like these little micro naps were I'll fall asleep
for like, I don't know, like thirty seconds or something like that.
Up every now and then, but usually, you know, usually it's not
that big of initial. Usually I'm up, off and on my way because
I've always got things I have to go to, which is more powerful than
the couch. But every now and then I'll get something that's you know,
kind of important but not really really important me to do, and then I'll
get sucked into the Kryptonite couch pig time. And then later on I'll be
like, ah, man, I should have just done that thing instead,
but I let the Kryptonite couch get the best of me. Well, you're
gonna lose a battle. That's not a bad one, that's for sure.
So along similar lines, what did you want to grow up to be when
you were five years old? Oh? Yeah, definitely a movie star,
you know, definitely have some kind of movie star, you know, in
the eighties, you know, I was growing up. I was at the
very very very end of sixty nine. So basically seventy. But I like
to tell people that, uh, you know, I'm like a sixties baby
just miss Wood sock. Whynot. But you know, as I'm going through
the seventies in the eighties, uh you know, like like the Wrestlings there,
the w w F Wrestlings there, but even more so you get the
action movies. You have Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson in the
seventies, eighties, Arnold Schwarzerenegger Semesti stallone. So I was like, I'm
gonna be like that. I'm gonna be like a tough guy, like in
freaking Hollywood and uh, you know, big muscles and beating everybody up,
and it's gonna be freaking so much fun. That's what I'm gonna And uh,
you know that never happened. Yeah, you got to be a pretty
good, pretty good uh not necessarily fighter, but a pretty good contender.
Uh. And then you know, got busy doing other things and working and
writing books and stuff and coaching. Yep, absolutely so, Dan, I've
known you to accomplish an awful lot. But what is your greatest accomplshment?
Gosh, I many times I go back to my first accomplishment, and I
was saying what I felt like was my biggest accomplishment to change things. And
this biggest accomplishment I think that totally changed the trajectory of my life. Was
that time when I was a sophomore in high school, nobody on the wrestling
team, and I went to this uh Junior Olympic qualifiers wrestling tournament. Uh,
you know, I didn't know anybody there, nobody knew me. I
wasn't even sposed to like be there, but I was. I showed up.
I showed up. I entered two weight classes up, you know,
because I didn't want to like try to get I lose weight or nothing like
that. And and I just went when iver, I'll just go this way
class and and I want it. I want it. And it was really
weird because like there was nobody there to watch me, nobody there to judge
me, nobody there knew me. I didn't know anybody. So I went
out there. My attitude was just I don't even know where it came from,
but my attitude was, let's go out there and get my book kicked
and just like have some fun and like learn something. And then for the
first time I wrestled without Fayre, and I tore everybody up. It took
first place, and then after that my whole life changed because now I'm like,
wow, like I really am a great wrestler instead of just a good
wrestler. And that transferred over to a whole bunch of other things, you
know, state championship and football Army stuff, excel in the army, you
know, college, fourteen years of college, seven degrees, you know,
the whole thing, like maybe having enough confidence, you know, to ask
that girl out for a date and asked that go to marry me right,
you know, becoming a father, getting a job as a teacher, coach,
writing the books, giving the speeches, the teTeX talks to forty books,
you know, all that stuff stemmed I think from that. So,
I mean, I mean it gets tough to say, what's my great Is
it the forty books? Is the taen X talk? Is it winning the
Junior Olympic qualifier? Is my first child? You know? Is that my
greatest accomplishment? Maybe maybe that's it, But at first my mind always says
the others, you know, is it breaking the Canadian bench press record?
You know, but my mind goes back is it winning the football State champs
championship and winning the Defensive Game Bout Trophy for Thanksgiving? I mean, all
that stuff are great, you know, a great we're running a marathon.
All that stuff developed because of what I did myselfomo the year in high school
when I wanted everything from that is to me. It feels that way that
everything from that so my mind always goes back. So that's what made all
the other things possible, was that because that got my headset straight and gave
me the confidence to say, you know what, if you just really really
work hard and believe in yourself, you know, saying you're gonna do great
things. And it's kind of funny because I've got the student who is a
wrestler now and he asked me and he says, that's to me yesterday.
He goes, miss, he knows I was a two time state champ,
two times Junior Olympian. He goes, mis her, does your brain ever
did it ever sabotage you? And I go, yeah, I lost matches
because my babotize me every once in a while. And I go, it
happens to all of us. But the problem is, uh, you know,
is when you just let it keep happening and keep happening. You gotta
bounce back from it. You know, you're gonna train your brain. You're
gonna remember thoughts become things, right, So you're gonna train your brain and
control your thoughts, and don't let your brain sabotage you. You know more
than every once in a while. You know you're human. It's gonna happen.
It's gonna sabotize you every once in a while. But don't let that
be the norm. Don't let your brain get the best of you. You
know that resistance, you know that negative self talk. Don't let that win
you win. Yeah, I love that. And the neatest part of that
is is that you know you have a chance to beat the other wrestler.
If you're wrestling that guy and the guy you're imagining him to be in your
head, you know you really have to just like let that all go and
be present in the moment and be ready for whatever comes. You know,
isn't that a good way to live? Life? Like? This is it?
This is all we get no doubt. I can remember Bill, when
my recruiter for the army picks me up. I was eighteen years old.
He picked me up at my parents' house like six in the morning. The
whole neighborhood's kind of so sleep and I think it was summertime and I'm hopping
in the cheap and my army recruiter looks at me and says, hey,
you ready, And I turned and looked at him, and I go,
I guess I'm as ready as I'm ever gonna be. And that was it,
and I went off to like my army career, and I gotta tell
you, Bill, you don't know how many times in my life I've used
that phrase. I guess I'm as ready as I'm ever gonna be. Yep,
let's just do it. Let's just do it. I mean this happened
to me. I think like two days ago. Two days ago, somebody
asked me something and I said that I think I'm as right as I'm ever
gonna be, So let's just let's just do it. You know, say,
when you go to it with that attitude that going forward in your life,
I'm probably gonna use that saying probably another fifty times before I die,
because I'm always going to be doing new things, facing new challenges, you
know, trying to contribute in new, bigger, better different ways. And
am I gonna be ready? Am I gonna be fully ready? Now you're
never gonna be fully ready? So hey, yes, I'm as as ready
as right as if I'm ever gonna be. So let's just do it.
And then when you get in there, it's like the headlights of your car
can now see another fifty feet, and you can proceed another fifty feet,
and as you move up, your headlights can see another fifty feet. That's
kind of like how your life is fantastic. I really love the depth that
we're able to get into here in terms of all of those kind of like
mental mind and sets and self talk and all that sort of thing. I
really want to like investigate a little bit. Who's your favorite person to listen
to? Dan Well, I would say in the old days, in the
old days, my favorite person to listen to was when I came across Tony
Robbins book Awakened the Giant Within, and then I read everything, I listened
to everything, I watched everything on Tony Robbins for years and he really shaped
me, you know what I'm saying. I mean, thoughts become things.
I'm pretty sure I came from Tony Robins, the transformational vocabulary. Right,
someone says, how are you? Okay, No, don't do that,
say unbelievable, great, you know good, good, you know, don't
say that, you know, transform your life with transformation vocabulary, right,
how are you? I'm great. It's unbelievable. Things are unbelievable, right,
and that puts you in a certain state of mind. Right, So
I would say in the beginning, it was definitely Tony Robbins. For many
many years I did him. Now moving forward, over the years, I've
kind of taken on many, many, many more mentors like Tony Robbins.
And I can't say today that I have a particular person, but I can't
tell you I have a particular section. And it's section one point fifty eight
in the library, okay, failed with that's like the psychology section, And
it's spilled like the psychology of success, psychology of setting goals, the psychology
are winning, you know what I'm saying. Plus it has like you know
it as people like Tony Robins, like his book will be in there,
and a whole bunch of great people that are trying, that are trend setting
are in that section of learning. How to win learning how to control your
thoughts because thoughts become things, all that stuff. So I've learned, you
know, much from that section in the library's free They're saying, I've learned
much from that section. And I've had many, many, many mentors over
the years, and they're constantly growing now to meet today's modern times. A
lot of the stuff is digital, which is beautiful that a lot of the
things are digital because now you can get it right there on your phone and
you can listen to the audiobook or you can get a podcast, and there's
some really good audiobooks, some really good podcasts out there. So I'm listening
to a variety of people, and I think that that's kind of how it
works out. As you get older, you know, you kind of move
from that that paradigm of having that mentor to having multiple mentors. Yes,
because there's a lot of different things you do in your multifaceted life, and
it's brilliant to replace your, shall we say, unconsidered eighty thousand thoughts a
day with a bunch of other thoughts that are going to be at your disposal
when you need them, and they'll just show up like a Swiss Swiss army
knife for you to fit the occasion. That's great, So uh complete this
sentence if you will, my friend, When I grow up, I'd like
to join the circus. Key's hit up to Rocky in one of the Rocky
movies, Goods Worn. That was in one of the Rocky movies when Mickey
said something to Rocky about you know, I think when this is over,
we should join the circus. And I gotta tell you, I used to
work with a guy at the gas station, an old guy, old timer,
back when I was in high school. He was He told me how
he used to drive the motorcycle inside that still ball that's still ball cage.
He was the guy that drove the motorcycle inside of that and I was just
thinking, man, how fun that would be. Now. To be honest,
I'm probably not going to join the circus. It's a metaphor for doing
something that's a little wild, little off traditional, untraditional, maybe a little
crazy. So I'll like when I grow up, yeah, I want to
be that guy. I want to grow into that role of going out and
just doing big, scary fun things. Uh. And maybe that's what the
circus is. A metaphor, you know, a voyage of some sort of
adventure of some sort. Mm hmm. Yeah. Knowing you, you'll probably
be a trapeze flyer. Yeah, maybe time. That's time I hit a
triple backflip when I was bungee jumping. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta say,
though, I've been watching this show that's really catching my interest and I'm
almost thinking, you know what, that might be a decent second career.
His name is Josh Gates. Expedition are known. He's an archaeologist travelers the
world looks for like, uh, you know, new mummies or different things
like digging up He takes up bones a lot, uses his metal detector for
a lot. But he does a lot of cool things, Okay, And
I'm thinking maybe that's it. Maybe that's the circus, you know, traveling
the world and putting on a TV show of you exploring the world. Who
knows, Maybe that's it. Yeah, what would Indiana Jones do today?
Right? Exactly? That would be cool? Just bring it, you know,
Bill, it's kind of funny. Uh. One of my daughter's professors
at Yukon is an archaeologist and she teaches up with the I go what made
you become an archaeologist? Right now. This is a woman. I go,
We'll make you. She goes Indiana Jones of course, So it's the
woman too, not just the men that I don't want to be any Indiana
Jones exactly. And uh probably they're all afraid of snakes, you know,
it just seems to go with the territory, I think. So, So
what would you say is the most important thing in life to you right now?
Dan? Family? My wife and my children. I don't know,
Bill, how what you know of my backstory about how I came of a
very rough and tough, very dysfunctional home. You know, I grew up
in a way that no kid should have to grow up in. But kids
every day are growing up in it. And so I didn't get to pick
my family. Kids today don't get to pick the family. You know,
some people win the birth lottery. Many people lose the birth lottery. That's
how it goes. But at some point, at some point, you know,
you grow up, You get bigger, you get stronger, you get
more capable, and if you don't let the anger get the best of you,
then you can create the family that you deserve. And that's what I
did with my wife and my five children. I created the family I deserve,
and I think there's no better place to be than to be in the
family you deserve. When you're there, you're grounded, you're loved, you're
protected. You know, you have all these things. And I don't think
there's anything more important than that. Those guys that go to the office for
you know, another hour instead of coming home for dinner, you know,
I think they're making a mistake. You know, you gotta you gotta put
time into your family. That the most important thing in the world. Nobody
ever dies and says, oh, I wish I'd spent more hours at the
office. You know, sometimes we're forced because we have to, because we're
gonna make bills pay, make ends meet and all that stuff, and or
we got deadlines. Sometimes we have to. But when you can choose,
choose your family, there is that there's nothing better. And choosing your family
absolutely wonderful and it's a great message, especially these days. So what would
you like to leave in the world after your life is done? Dan,
I would like to leave something that reminds people by me besides just my tombstone,
which I think I've already accomplished some of that. Between books, and
speeches and videos and podcasts and blogs and something like this. I've already done
some of that, but this is what I want, not just the momentals
that I once existed, but what I really want from that is when somebody
comes across the name Dan Blanchard, or someone sees the picture of Dan Blanchard
somewhere. This is what I want most. Wow that now that, now,
that was a good man. That's I just got goosebumps down my back.
You know what I'm saying. That's what I want most in this world.
I want people to say, now, that was a good man,
he was a good man or not. I've known, I've known a few,
a few of those were past and to this day I still say,
yeah, Jim, he was a good man. Yeah. And I want
people saying that about me because of the contributions and the good that I do
in this world, very clear, very clear. Thank you for that.
And now you know, when you go to your your baker, or you
go to somebody who's really good at selling you a dozen at a time,
they're gonna throw a thirteenth point in. And I'm doing that with the question.
So your maker's question is what is the thing that most people misunderstand about
you. Well, okay, let's see. I gotta tell you this,
Bill, this is a very unique interview. So good for you, kudos
for you. You're asking me questions like I've never been asked before, which
makes this podcast very unique. So I think that every now and then,
I think, and I don't know how this happens, but every now and
then I'll get somebody who just gets annoyed with me. They think I'm like
too happier, I'm talking too much, I'm too confident or cock here,
whatever it is that they that they think. And sometimes they get ordering me
and then and I'm just like, I don't get it because I don't think
I'm any of those things, you know what I'm saying. Or it's kind
of like a Patch Adams said, Wall, You're gonna accuse me of excessive
happiness, you know what I'm saying. That's kind of weird to be excus
accusing me and trying to punish me for excessive happiness. But I've actually had
somebody who's actually said that to me before, Like, I get tired of
you, like always acting like you're happy, and its like but but but
I am happy because I'm always trying to do good in this world, you
know, so people sometimes misunderstand that, and then every now and then,
you know, it jumps to the next level. Well I'm like, oh,
he's just uh, he's cocky or whatever, and I'm just like,
no, not at all, not cocky at all. You know how hard
I fight just to be confident. Yes, I can get up on that
stage so I can write that next book, so I can stand in front
of that classroom. Every day I get a fight for that confidence that stuffs
hard. It's a battle for me every single day. It's not like cockiness.
No, that's not me. That's not me. I'm fighting for confidence
every day. I love that, I really do, because that is a
personal insight from the standpoint of what would most people never even think of asking
you. You know, and I've appreciated your complete generosity, your authenticity,
your honesty, your need and ability to always deliver leadership and everything that you
say. It's very powerful and I feel the energy and the power in this
interview, and I'm really glad to have spent this time with you. Do
you have any questions of me before we wrap up here? No, I
don't think so. Like I said, I really enjoy this interview. You
challenged me a lot of this interview by asking me questions that nobody's ever asked
me before. And I know, I mean, I listen to podcast a
lot of podcasts, so I know that every now and then you do have
some people out there that will ask a question or two, maybe not like
thirteen, like newer questions or new questions, So you do get That's all
I mean. I recognize the value immediately because I appreciate what you did because
there's gonna be a lot of people out there that have hurt me many times
in other places, but they've never heard me like they just heard me on
the Bill grow Show. You know what I'm saying. So this is good
stuff. Thank you. It's my pleasure, and I just want to again
say to you folks at home, the main reason that we're doing this is
to not only provide a platform for people to speak themselves in their truths,
but also an opportunity for you to look in on some people who are up
to some things, you know. And with that said, I want to
leave you with this final message. First of all, Dane, before I
close out, thank you again for your generosity and willingness to do this.
You're a You're a great community member, You're a terrific person to be around,
and I'm very selfishly going to want to have a lot more of you
in my life as time goes on. Okay, sound good, and now
back to you folks that are listening. I want you to realize that around
you that you're You've got tons of people that are so wonderful, and I
really want to entreat you to call them, write them an email, send
them a text, let them know that your life works because they're in the
world, and that you look forward to seeing them again soon. Let's do
what we can to help lift up our brothers and sisters and make this make
this life easier to walk walk together. Okay, but that said, we're
actually done asking questions today and I have learned so much. Again, Thank
you, Dan, and you be well. Thank you Bill. You've been
listening to Simple Questions for one hundred people, part of the x Audio podcast
Network. You can find every episode at xvadio dot com, Slash podcasts,
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