Daniel Winter- Director, Father, Husband (#45)

[00:00:18] Andrew: Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcomeback to another episode. We are thrilled to have you. I know the last episodewe were missing a Daniel and so in some weird retribution, this episode isgoing to be me interviewing Daniel about who Daniel is and everything abouthim. A lot of you listening already know Daniel, probably all of you.

and not even just kinda know him. You probably know him prettywell that said, hopefully this gives you a better sense of who Daniel is,despite that maybe intimate knowledge of who Daniel Winters as a person. Sowe're hoping that this enlightens you on what he's been up to, what he does ona day-to-day basis, who he's become as a person and where he's hoping. hopingto go and become as a person. So without further ado, Daniel, welcome back. Wemissed you last time. It was interesting not having you on and you were sorelymissed. So how's your day going?

[00:01:11] Daniel: it's going well, and I'm sorry to havemissed, I guess we'll just have to look at the. Viewership and see if it'sworth me sticking around on this or not see if I, you know, really bring allthat much to the table. so yeah, what I've been up to today went on a bike ridewith Hillary and Riley. That's kind of been, something that we're hoping tomake into a normal routines.

Riley had her. First birthday this month and her birthdaypresent from us was a little writing attachment that we can put on my bike sothat we can all go ride places together. So we rode to Elvis Xeno. It's aMexican food restaurant, pretty close by. They had a Wednesday inch, a lot ofdeal got some enchilada has got some churros rode back home.

It was pretty nice.

[00:01:55] Andrew: Bro. That sounds wonderful. Churros.On a Wednesday night, you are living large.

[00:02:00] Daniel: Yeah, fuel and large. Now, after that,

[00:02:03] Andrew: Oh, I will not throw stones on thatfront. Uh, COVID has not been kind. I can't even use that as an excuse anymore.Amarillo is completely open. It has been for months,

[00:02:11] Daniel: did it ever close?

[00:02:13] Andrew: no, not really. There was like a,probably a month and a half, two months that we were truly shut down in anymeaningful sense. And honestly, that was the best gains I had.

So. Whatever, but Hey, you're not interviewing me. This is aDaniel interview. Don't don't table. Turn me here, sir.

[00:02:32] Daniel: I'm turning those tables.

[00:02:33] Andrew: we'll see what happens. There was ameme, you know what? We're not going to get into that. There was a clever ticktalk that had a guy turning a table and it took me way too long to figure outwhat the joke was.

[00:02:49] Andrew: Okay. So we're going to try this alittle differently and I say differently, it's not like we've done this before,so we're going to start with the day-to-day stuff and who you are as a person.

What you're doing right now, we'll scoot back a little bit tohow you got here and then hopefully we'll have some time at the end to seewhere you're going. So with that said, how about you? Tell me. Who you are as aperson. Now, you, what you label yourself as, and the loosest sense, what yourjob title is, you know, what your claim to fame, that kind of stuff.

Where are you at right now in life?

[00:03:19] Daniel: Yeah, I think. Or several titles thatI could use. it's kind of weird at this point. There, there are a lot ofdefining factors, but if we start with job title, we can go that route to startout. So I'm a director. At a company called the light solutions, which, I'm inour, our delivery department.

So for somebody who is a director and kind of the deliveryaspect or an operation aspect to really understand what they do, you sort ofhave to understand. They deliver what the operation is. And so our company doesa lot of things, but my sphere is all focused in healthcare consulting,healthcare navigation.

So helping people find doctors, figure out how much somethingcosts, all that sort of stuff. And so. What I do is help our health pros, whoare the people that provide that service kind of helped to set them up forsuccess um, work directly with their managers on just kind of the logistics ofthat delivery.

Capacity staffing, volume, like future projects that are comingthrough. Do we say yes to it? Do we say no? How can we say yes to things, allof that sort of deal and. That's sort of what my job actually entails. Myfavorite part about the job though, is just working with really awesome peopleand trying to make their days a little bit better.

Because I mean, when it comes to people management, I feel likethe secret is if people enjoy being around the other people that they workwith, then everything about work is. That much better because at the end of theday, like work is it's a grind, even if it's a really, really interesting jobat some point, there still is that grind aspect to it.

And so you can come in and have those strong connections andrelationships with other people that kind of helps you get through some of thegrind. So it's work,

take it out of here. Cool.

Just sitting at the door, waiting to bark. So outside of work,I am a dad, a husband. So that is a huge. Of my life. It's just trying tofigure out how to be a good dad, figure out how to be a good husband you know,figure out how to be a good friend, which a lot of where I pull that from evenfiguring out how to be a good director.

A lot of where I pull that from is just my Christian backgroundupbringing, upbringing, and just trying to look and see what does it reallylook like to love other people? What does it really look like to, Hold hold peopleaccountable to challenge people. I think that's a really important aspect ofrelationships.

It can be very easy to focus on the yeah, just love people andjust be nice and all that, which is super important. And that's probably thepart that I need a little bit more of that accountability on and thatencouragement to remember that piece of it. But there is another side of thecoin, which is people are not.

Perfect. I don't think that a single person on the planet isI'll think any person that exists has zero opportunities to, you know, makethose improvements. And you know, where that improvement comes from, whatdrives that, you know, what ultimately can create the stickiness and all ofthat. Like that's where we can maybe differ in it and, May not agree withanything as far as like a Christian theology to drive those things.

But even if you don't, I'm sure most people would agree thatthere is opportunity for others to improve and, yeah. Self help books existbecause of that. Lots of. Development classes, coaching, like all of thesethings exist to kind of drive people to improve. And so that's, I would sayanother just defining aspect of who I am as this kind of pairing of reallycaring about others, really seeking to approach all the situations that I gothrough day to day, whether it's work or personal life from a loving aspect,but also an aspect of let's look to let's look to.

make those improvements and drive things forward, which is whythis podcast exists. While we wrote a book together, it's all very much tiedback to kind of that core identity. I would say

[00:07:21] Andrew: That's that in a nutshell is how thisall came about. And it's funny, you mentioned that because I think a lot ofpeople. I say this I'm estimating other people's opinion was there's always adangerous thing, but a lot of people probably wouldn't think of you or me aslike a barely caring person.

Like they don't recognize necessarily that you and I care sodeeply about other people because of. We're highly critical of thatimprovement. Like, Hey, you can optimize, you can get better, you can do thiskind of thing. And that usually comes across to most people because nobodylikes that kind of criticism as negativity.

And I'm not sure about you, but where I think it comes from iswe're optimists. We have this optimistic sense of. The world could be so muchbetter than we expect. It's going to be so much better, then it doesn't happen.And we're disappointed. We're like, Hey, well, you could just do this thing.You can, you can just improve a little bit here and it's going to be better.

And people don't recognize us as these caring optimists. Theyjust see the side of like, why does this guy think so poorly of me? Um, And itcomes off different and a lot of people, at least in time, like this pessimistand um, you know, really negative, but I'm not, it's just, I'm constantlydisappointed as an optimistic.

[00:08:33] Daniel: Yeah. And, and one thing I'll say is Ifeel like over the years, I've gotten a little bit better at learning how tocommunicate the, the expectation that I have, that somebody would grow andsomebody would improve. And. Look, I'm saying this for your good, because I careabout you and like, and. To people up front, maybe like, sort of explaining,Hey, like when you hear this from me, this is what it means.

And one thing I will say also being a director. So, you know,several steps up within a company is the people that I'm working with are also.Fairly progressed in their careers and they also have a good understanding of,Hey, I don't get to advance without somebody telling me the ways that I cangrow and they're super open to it and so easy to work with.

And so I don't have to set the stage quite as much on, Hey,when I give you feedback. It's because I love you. And I care about you. I didhave to learn to set some of that stage a lot more in like friendships or, oreven in marriage. And I still have to find that balance of, you know, it's notalways about proving.

It's not always about, you know, chasing that growth like that.I got to back that off a little bit sometimes, and that's okay too.

[00:09:44] Andrew: I like it.

[00:09:52] Andrew: we're going to keep with the presidenta little bit, I guess this could dip down into the past some, but you havefather, husband, and director as these three interconnected, but separate kindof titles. What surprised you about each.

[00:10:07] Daniel: So the, the one that I've been thelongest is husbands. So that's about five and a half years now. And I think thething that surprised me the most was just how things that seemed apparent tome, things that seemed obvious to me, weren't always that way to Hillary andvice versa, just that. You kind of assume in a close relationship that you'regoing to be on the same page a lot more often than you are, and just needing tocommunicate things that to you seem so obvious that it, it almost feelsinsulting to have to say it.

You just have to swallow your pride and say it. I'm not proudof earlier on moments within marriage where I would just be so frustrated that.maybe Hillary didn't recognize something that seems so obvious to me and wasjust so oblivious to it. And I would take an approach of like, well, I'm justgoing to wait until she recognizes it and I'm not going to speak it because ifshe doesn't recognize it, then that's, insulting and like that's ridiculous.

And instead of just swallowing my pride and saying, well, youknow, I, this is important to me and maybe it's not important to her, or maybeit's just totally off her radar. If it's important to me, I need to communicateit. I think that was a surprising aspect and just how much the communication isimportant.

But then on the other side of it now being sort of five yearsdown the road, just seeing how much. Things can change for the positive, bothin myself and in the relationship. Just being able to look back and say, okay,like you mentioned that this trait that I have, or this way that I purchasedcertain situation kind of bothers you and it frustrates you.

And I heard that and have tried to. You make it make a changearound that and actually did change for the better it's something that Iactually now, you know, to give an example specifically Hillary mentioned akind of early on that when she'd have friends come around that I didn't reallyknow.

Well, and they were just kind of there for a short time that itseemed like I was always preoccupied and um, was a little bit aloof and wasn't,you know, super conversational or engaging or whatever it is. That is somethingthat I do recognize I can tend to do because I get very focused on, well, ifI'm going to see this person for only 10 minutes, like how meaningful can thisconversation really be?

And I just get too, too caught up with my own agenda, my ownschedule, but she said that.

[00:12:34] Andrew: the boys slack is on fire and it'sgotta be responded to ASAP.

[00:12:37] Daniel: Oh, it's so I mean, she, she saidthat, and it was kind of hard to hear it, but I recognize that it was true. Andso then started making an effort any time, you know, some of her friends camearound that maybe didn't know that. Well, I would try to be more friendly, moreengaging, more in the moment and it made me enjoy then coming around a lotmore.

It actually build some relationships. It also made Hillary.Brighten up a lot more and feel like her feedback was heard and appreciated.And like, she didn't feel weird. Her with her friends being around me. Andit's, it's a dynamic that now we can look back and say, Hey, remember that timeyou asked me to do this.

Well, like that's changed and that's better. And that can buildon something that we've talked about before, which is identity, capital, whereI can say, okay, well we did this. We made this change. And so it's reasonableto expect that if there's another aspect where we're having some conflict,we're having a rub, we kind of wish something was different.

We can make that happen. And so that, that's something that Idon't know. I feel like going into marriage, maybe I didn't appreciate as muchas just the willingness and ability to make changes to your personality.

[00:13:46] Andrew: That's cool. I know a lot of people, Ithink we talked about this pretty recently. Might've been the last episode withJonah. A lot of people think that they, something will change. Like, Hey, whenI married this person, everything's going to be better. Whenever I have ahundred thousand dollars, everything's going to suddenly be better.

As soon as I am in better shape and everything is going to be.And it's not how it works. You don't ever hit these milestones and then yourlife takes a 90 degree turn. I mean, maybe hitting the water, you win thelottery. Fine. That's maybe a 90 degree turn, but short of that, a lot of stuffyou get to that point.

And you're not a different person because you have more moneyor because you're not married or anything like that, it takes that consciouseffort. So that's cool. about the other two? What about the father and thedirector? So, let me, let me point you at the director first. you're now incharge of. Your senior level management, more or less depending on thestructure of your company, but I'm pretty sure you would count as senior levelmanagement. So not even like the manager at pizza hut, who's like telling youmake the pizzas faster. You're you're two or three tiers above entry, levelfour tiers above entry level, possibly.

A lot of people don't get to that point at any point in theircareer, but you've done it semi young, semi quickly. So what's surprisingabout. Precariously high on the corporate ladder. Okay.

[00:15:01] Daniel: Yeah, I would say one thing that isgood about the role is there are some surprises, but there haven't been bigmajor ones. And I feel like that's, a, an, a Testament to my director, my boss,who kind of helped get me into the role. So the fact that she. Helps there tonot be a ton of surprises is, is definitely helpful.

I feel like that's not a great thing. If you come into the roleand all of a sudden your eyes are just blown wide open and there's this wholeentire new world. Like, that's probably not a good thing, but, I guess.

[00:15:38] Andrew: Okay, go ahead. I was going to saythat. So let me jump in on that. I sure you remember this at 21 too. I wasthinking, man, I am so good. I don't understand why nobody lets me run thiscompany, you know, where I was working and, you know, I could work hard, whichwas in a fair point, a skill that I did have that a lot of other people did,but I would do things like send the.

Passive aggressive corporate-y lingo, you know, F-you emailsthinking I was all smart, real full-time worker crap. I did all these reallyimmature things because I was pretending. Working in a office, adultenvironment. I did things because I thought that's what you were supposed todo, because I literally didn't know what I was doing.

And so when I look back on that kind of stuff, I'm like, thankGod. No one actually thought about me the way I thought about me, because itwould have been a train wreck. If somebody actually was like, you know what,Andrew, you're right. You're in charge of people. Now you make this run. We'recounting on you.

Like, oh my goodness.

[00:16:36] Daniel: Yeah, no, that's true. And I guessthat does make me think of the thing that is probably the most surprising, andthis is gonna sound kinda bad, but, one of the surprising things was that I wasreally. Truly needed in that role. So coming into it in a lot of ways, I sortof felt like, well, w w how much am I bringing to the table when it comes tomeeting with some of my managers or, or being a part of things.

And there are still days where sometimes I question that, butthat's a whole separate thing. But then. After being in the role for a fewweeks, few months, I started to recognize ways that I really could help mymanagers. And I really could be a resource to them and help give themperspective, help to kind of improve their day.

And that was an exciting moment to feel like, okay, you knowwhat? I really do bring some value. And I think that part of why I sort ofquestioned it was, I just assumed that I'd be managing people that were roughlyaround this. You know, level is what I was at, but I just kind of forgot anddiscounted the years of experience and different situations that I had sortagone through to help make me ready for the role and kind of forget that othershaven't had all that perspective yet.

And that's something that's just so important to have is thatperspective and that experience in different situations where, you know, kindof the right call to make and. A lot of, as you go further up and managementand those types of roles, it's being able to make the right call and being ableto do it pretty consistently.

So I think that was a surprising moment to feel like, Hey, thisactually is something I'm, I'm really helping people with.

[00:18:14] Andrew: Absolutely. That's cool. All right. Whatabout the fatherhood? You have been a father for. A year and a little bit ofchange. What's been surprising about that. Cause I know you'd been planning onbecoming a father. You guys, weren't the kind to, you know, stumbled uponparenthood. You plan for this. What surprised you about it?

[00:18:33] Daniel: I think just how fun it is. Everybodywill say that we'll say, you know, having a kid it's such a rewardingexperience and all those sorts of things. But it is just so much fun. And Ithink it. Unlocked a little bit of an emotional side of me that was notnecessarily there before. Like I've actually cried this decade.

Probably couldn't have said that previously. So I, I think justthose, all those little, little moments, like the, the first step, the firstsemi little words, like all those types of things, it's stuff that when you'renot a parent and even when. It's not your kid. You can sort of appreciate it.You can sort of be like, oh wow.

That's, that's cool that it's a human that couldn't walk beforeand now they can. But when it's, when it's yours, it's just a whole notherlevel of, just joy and pride and emotion and all that sort of stuff that Ihonestly didn't know that I could feel.

[00:19:32] Andrew: Oh, that's beautiful. I'm stillconvinced that you guys are slightly somehow being brainwashed by havingchildren as from an outside perspective, but you're all on the same page. So Ihave to believe everybody.

[00:19:44] Daniel: Well, one, one secret is I'm prettysure you can still be selfish with one kid, which is why I think there's a lotof only children out there. You have one, you can still kind of live your life,but as somebody that has siblings. Man, I would have been so upset to be anonly child, so I'm not going to do that to my kid.

[00:20:03] Andrew: Yeah. That's, I've never thought aboutit. I wonder what it's like being an only child. I want it to be one whenever Iwas, I was kid, but that's because I had siblings.

[00:20:16] Andrew: All right. Let's jump to, we're stillstaying present more or less, but we're going to go maybe some softballs justto get a good feel for things.

Favorite movie, favorite book and favorite food.

[00:20:30] Daniel: so I favorite favorite movie isdefinitely the Lord of the rings trilogy. And I would say it's just whicheverone of the three that I've watched the most recently, I would say. My favoriteI returned as a king is what I've watched most recently. So I'll say that,

[00:20:46] Andrew: Excellent.

[00:20:46] Daniel: Favorite book. So I do love a load ofthe rings books, but I won't do a repeat answer on that.

Yeah, that's kinda hard there, there are a whole lot of booksthat I really like. Let me think for

[00:20:58] Andrew: Well stealing from Tim Ferris, youknow, because he is the podcast king, I guess you could say, or at least in mymind, that's untrue. Joe Rogan is now the podcast king, but there's this who Ilistened to for awhile. He always asked him, what was the book you gift themost? And I've always thought that was kind of a cool turn on it.

Cause it makes your brain think differently. So is there a bookthat you've given out the most to people.

[00:21:19] Daniel: The Bible.

[00:21:20] Andrew: I can count.

[00:21:24] Daniel: I mean, that's the honest answer. Idon't really give a ton of books. I'm not great at a gift giving, but, I wouldsay like my, my favorite author is probably Brandon Sanders and, and of hisseries. It's kind of a toss up. I really love the Stormlight archives because.The world building is really cool.

The magic system is really cool. But I also really like hismiss born, not the original trilogy, but the follow-up with oh, I'm blanking ontheir names. Now you remember him? Yes. Yes. The misfortune, wax and wane, Iguess it's a trilogy. I think he's working on the third book. Those ones arereally fun just cause they have.

Bromance. It's also a really creative type of world that haslike a Sherlock Holmes type of feel. So

[00:22:13] Andrew: They really are well-done I, don'tknow why they're so good and why there's so much fun, but wax and wane seriesis great

[00:22:19] Daniel: it'sbecause, okay. Wax is the main character. Wayne is the, the

[00:22:23] Andrew: that Watson's tied kick. Yeah.

[00:22:25] Daniel: Okay. Yeah. It's because Wayne isridiculous in the best way.

[00:22:31] Andrew: He's hilarious. I might reread thosesoon, honestly, because they're just so good. They also, for all of our friendsout there, Brandon Sanderson is probably my single primary guests that I wanton this podcast. Like he's the top tier that I give a kidney to get on him, totalk with Daniel now. Put it out there, you know, Brandon, he knows someone whoknows Brandon. There are favors to be traded if necessary. All right. What isthe favorite food?

[00:23:00] Daniel: That's also, I realized that I'm kindof bad at favorites because there's just so many things that I appreciate.

[00:23:06] Andrew: We are gray men living in a black andwhite world. I'm sorry to give you all these line in the sand answers

[00:23:12] Daniel: I know it's it's bad. Cause I, Ihonestly used to be pretty good at favorites, but I, I would

[00:23:19] Andrew: Who's your favorite wife?

[00:23:22] Daniel: Hillary

[00:23:23] Andrew: too slow.

[00:23:24] Daniel: Um, So I w I would say it's probablyactually. There's a seafood pasta that Hillary has made in the past. And Idon't even know that she, so Hillary very rarely remakes things. So I don'tknow if I'll ever have that exact version again, because I don't think she'skept the recipe.

But

[00:23:43] Andrew: Oh, no.

[00:23:44] Daniel: when she, when she makes seafood pastais that's, that's pretty close to being.

[00:23:49] Andrew: Nice.

[00:23:55] Andrew: Okay, you did good. I know that wastough. you deserve a break and a pat on the back, but you're going to getneither because this is a remote podcast and time is money. So let's jump tothe past a little bit. You are 30 ish. No, I don't know how to count. I mean, Iknow you are 30 technically, but it's weird.

We only go by the years, like you're like right in the middle,like, are you as you're as much 31 as you're 30 now, because. That's the way Ido math is I round everything that

[00:24:22] Daniel: in there somewhere.

[00:24:23] Andrew: or getting their weekend. So youyou're at 30. Does this where you thought you'd be you roll the clock back 10years, five years, 20 years. You had a whole childhood. Did you expect this tobe what 30 looked like? Did you expect the street at 30 look like five yearsago? Is this what, you know, college Daniel thought he was going to do with hislife?

[00:24:45] Daniel: uh, I think this was better than whatI expected 30 to look like, to be honest.

[00:24:49] Andrew: Oh, did you actually have like a hardset? Like, Hey, this is what it's going to look like in my mind. Or were you upin the air and you've just been pleasantly surprised.

[00:24:58] Daniel: I definitely didn't have a, a hardset. Like I want to have X amount of money and be in this place and blah, blah,blah. But I think some of the loose things was by 30. I hoped that I would bemarried. I hoped that I would be a dad. So I, I wanted to. I've always wantedto have my first kid before I turned 30, which I had Riley when I was 29.

Hilary had Riley. I did very little

uh,

[00:25:25] Andrew: Participation trophy.

[00:25:28] Daniel: as far as career, when, when yougraduate with a business undergrad in marketing, you don't. You don'tnecessarily know where things will go. Career-wise so career is one of thosethings that I I've never really had the greatest pulse on what I thought that Iwould do. At, in high school, I went back and forth between thinking I'd be anengineer, sort of like my dad to thinking I could, I don't know, be some sortof.

I probably thought I could be some sort of writer or somesomething a little bit more on the creative side or thinking I could start acompany or I don't know, something like that. I didn't really have a greatsense of it though. What I would say is the job that I have, the people that Iget to work with, it's a lot better than I expected.

I'm making more than I thought I would be at 30. And so, yeah,to have. I have a really great relationship with Hillary to have a healthydaughter, to be in a good career. That's paying more than I thought it would tohave just really great friends and like a really good social network withinDallas.

Like these are all things that, yeah, certainly even five yearsago would not have expected things to be as good as they are.

[00:26:46] Andrew: There's a lot to be grateful for. Thatis for sure. It's kind of funny. I don't know that our expert.

[00:26:51] Daniel: ticket holder. I definitely didn'texpect that that's.

[00:26:54] Andrew: Oh yeah. That's a pretty cool. Theywant to make sure that was said again, maps season to season ticket holder.That means Daniel has tickets to see the maps also. wild. That is some adultlevel stuff. I'm still jealous.

[00:27:09] Daniel: you could buy some season tickets tothe old deal

uh,

[00:27:13] Andrew: Yeah. You keep looking at whoever thatteam is nowadays.

We've

[00:27:17] Daniel: the da the da the side poodles, thepoodles, just like something dog. Doug's going to kill me if he hears this.

[00:27:24] Andrew: Oh, yeah, they love them. It's okay.The Saudis might not be my thing, but I am trying very hard to get some seasontickets to the symphony. That's basically the same thing.

[00:27:32] Daniel: Oh, I went to the symphony last nightwas thinking how it would be kind of cool season tickets to the symphony.

[00:27:39] Andrew: That's something I fully support. Yougot to support the arts guys. I mean, we, we focus on the money and we focus onall these other things, but the arts are what we live for. So don't neglect toget. Daniel don't neglect it. So is there anything from your past that youwould be disappointed in that, and you don't have to have been right in yourpast, you know, ten-year-old, Daniel does not need to be right, but would he bedisappointed? Was there any points that you were like, if I do this or if Ibecome this high. I just can't, that's not an option.

I'll hate myself. Cause I hate those people. I'm saying thatbecause there's lots on me and we can get to that whenever I do an episode likethis and you get your cans of it for you. Is there anything like that? Oh, andalso hold on. Was that a Ted lasso reference earlier?

[00:28:21] Daniel: Oh, the question. Is there a questionin there somewhere? Yes. 100%.

[00:28:25] Andrew: Just making sure I chuckled inside andI was like, wait, was that intentional?

[00:28:29] Daniel: Yeah, it

[00:28:30] Andrew: Uh, Hey guys, go watch Ted lasso. Itis a beautiful show and I don't know anyone who has started watching it, thathasn't just been blown away because the premise does not sound like it's anamazing show. Daniel convinced me to watch it and I'm in love. And it's so goodwith the show. Only a little bit with Daniel.

[00:28:47] Daniel: it's amazing.

[00:28:48] Andrew: Yep.

[00:28:54] Andrew: Sorry. Back to your

disappointment. Um,

[00:28:57] Daniel: Disappointment. So I think 10 year oldme would probably be disappointed that I'm not some sort of professionalathlete. We've talked about this. We talked about it in the guys chat often. Ifeel like

[00:29:10] Andrew: was just a couple of days ago that wewere like, all like legitimately thought I would be a professional athlete. Andyou know, it sounds silly to say, but like, 17 year old, Jonathan, Daniel,Andrew, you could ask this. And it was like, yeah, seventy-five percent chancethat's going to happen. That'd be 15, 17.

I was starting to, you know, as we're starting to get open,

[00:29:28] Daniel: Yeah. Or at the very least like aathlete who made it onto a college team and got a scholarship,

[00:29:35] Andrew: very low bar, we thought

[00:29:38] Daniel: Yeah, it turns out that's even, that'spretty, pretty

[00:29:41] Andrew: Yeah, that's a high bar guys foranyone out there that doesn't know that's a high freaking bar.

[00:29:47] Daniel: 10 year old me would maybe bedisappointed with how much pleasure I take in just a well-maintained yard andhow bad I am at doing it.

[00:29:59] Andrew: I'm disappointed.

[00:30:01] Daniel: man, whenever I like get all the yardmowed and the hedges trend and get all the weeds down and I'd just like kindago stand in the street and look at the house. And I just have this sense ofaccomplishment. That's, that's a thing that happens. And 10 year old me wouldprobably be like, you used to get paid to mow the yard.

Like what's wrong with you?

[00:30:19] Andrew: Oh, I'm not their brother.

[00:30:22] Daniel: I mean, it's, it's basically likeplaying Minecraft in real life. Right.

[00:30:25] Andrew: There is that so it's, it's funny yousay that because we were playing Minecraft, I guess it's been a year and a halfand we were playing it. I got really, really into real life. Do it yourselfstuff. Right. My dad was like, Hey, we're going to build a shit. And I waslike, yes, I've been playing Minecraft. I can build anything. I was wrong andit was miserable and it took forever and we stopped playing Minecraft. Aboutthe same time I stopped at one, he did two a DIY things. So there was acorrelation.

[00:30:56] Daniel: That's funny.

[00:30:57] Andrew: So any other disappointments? Oh,sorry.

[00:31:00] Daniel: I was just, I was just thinking, like,if there's anything that I would have been majorly disappointed in, and I don'tknow, I, I don't think that there is, I think part of that, that was.Ten-year-old me probably didn't really dream super big. And so, I mean, I guessmaybe disappointed that I am not a millionaire in space.

I don't know. I honestly don't know what 10 year old me was allthat into aside from sports and video games and I still play sports and video gameson a regular basis.

[00:31:34] Andrew: That's called consistency guys. It iskey to success. Yeah,

[00:31:39] Daniel: I, I actually recently was talking tomy manager team about, we do these things called life lately is where we sharedifferent things that are going on. And for mine, I share things that weregoing on. But then also like with sneaking in pictures from like five years agoto basically show that things have not really changed that much.

I went on a vacation with Michael five years ago and then didthe same thing this year. But the point that I made was that it actually hastaken a whole lot of work and intentional effort for things to look relativelythe same this year as what they did five years ago. And that was on purposebecause there are some things that it takes no effort to maintain.

Just bingeing, whatever the latest TV show is. And having thatbe your Monday through Friday night, like it doesn't take any effort to do thatfor five years. And I'm not saying that watching TV is bad. We just talkedabout how fun Ted lasso is, but maintaining a close friendship with a reallyvalued friend who throughout the course of that five years, moved to a state,thousands of miles away.

Move to a different company. When we were coworkers had a kidthen did eventually move back. That takes a lot of intentional effort. So yeah,you can see the two pictures and it's like, oh yeah, Daniel, Michael, like,they're still just doing the same old thing. I guess. Life's not thatdifferent. It's like, actually life is super different, but we fought reallyhard to keep that piece of it.

[00:33:07] Andrew: That is such a good point to make. Ilike that. And what did y'all call them? W what are the things you're doingwith the management team

[00:33:14] Daniel: Yeah, we call them life lately.

[00:33:16] Andrew: life lately is how often do you dothat?

[00:33:18] Daniel: So one person shares each week andwe're rotating through. We have a team of like 20 managers. It's it's honestly

[00:33:27] Andrew: Wow. So the pressure is on to be, youknow, like, Hey, don't, don't tell us about breakfast this morning. This isyour once every six months, a moment to be vulnerable.

[00:33:39] Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. Basically.

[00:33:40] Andrew: Is it a long meeting or is it just youdrop an email or how does that work?

[00:33:43] Daniel: So we do it for the first, like fiveto 10 minutes of our, our weekly circle up meeting or whatever.

[00:33:49] Andrew: Okay. Circling the wagons. I thinkthere's an idiom in there.

All right. future Daniel. We'll call a future. Daniel. Danielseems accurate. Daniel. What do you, think's going to happen the next fiveyears, 10 years, 20 years. Where are you at? Career change, obviously it sounds like there's more kids on theway.

You hoping for a boy or girl you're going to adopt know what'swhat's next what's what's the director, father, husband looked like.

[00:34:14] Daniel: Yeah, the next five to 10 years, whoknows, because the past two years it's just been wild. So I just, hope thatthere, the wildness subsides a little bit, but for me in my life personally, inthe next five to 10 years, I really career-wise. I don't necessarily know. I'vejoked that every time I've sort of looked to make some sort of transition andmove away from compass slash alight, I've been promoted and have really enjoyedkind of where I've been promoted into.

So maybe that trend continues and I'm still there, or maybenot. I still think it would be. Really fun to be in a startup type environmentwith really close friends, as long as they don't have to leave Dallas. Cause Iknow you could be like, Hey, you can come do that right now. So I mean that,that would be, that would be really interesting. Does it have to happen though?Yes. Would love to have more kids. I'd be okay with whatever. I won't be upsetif I just have girls, wouldn't be upset with the boy. Pretty, pretty flexible.There. I'm open to adopting 100%. That's something Hillary and I've definitelytalked about.

So that could happen, but I don't know. I mean, I just, so Ihave. A tattoo on my rib cage that the top half of it is a sunrise. The bottomhalf of it is a snowflake to the sibling tattoo. We all have a snowflake on thebottom for our winter. Um, We all have something different on the top. And soI've got a sunrise because my favorite scripture is Matthew 6 34.

Just don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Worry about selfsufficient for today's its own troubles. And I definitely take that mindset.Like I do plan. Ahead and have, you know, things that I'm working towards goalsthat I'm working towards, but I don't really get caught up on thinking a tonabout, okay, well, you know, when this happens or I'm just working towards thissort of next thing.

Like the extent that I, that I really focus and think about ismaybe six months out if I have a trip plan, but beyond that, I'm just reallylooking to maximize each day. And enjoy each day and know that if I'm doingthat, that I think only, only good things a wait out in the future.

[00:36:30] Andrew: So something like, you never know whenyou uh, you never know when you might be dead by tomorrow. That's.

[00:36:37] Daniel: I don't know if that's quite it. I've,I've never heard something like that before.

[00:36:40] Andrew: well, I'm sure it'll come to us. Sowhat would you be disappointed in, in future? Is there, is there anything todaythat you're like, I hope I don't, I hope this doesn't happen and not likedepressing, sad things. Like I hope my family doesn't get marked cause like,don't be ridiculous. No one wants that, but like, are there things that youthink are potential for disappointment that could make sense?

[00:37:00] Daniel: Well, sure. I mean, it'd be, I'd bedisappointed if you know, I haven't grown much as a person. If my relationshipwith Hillary isn't in. A lot different, a lot stronger and a lot better than italready is today. I'd be disappointed if I have lost touch with, a bunch of myreally close friends, really any of my close friends, I, I have lost touch withclose friends throughout the years, and it's always a little bit sad to thinkback on and to reflect on.

So, I mean, that'd be, be super disappointing and be superdisappointed if I was. Present in Riley's life. I mean, there, there are tonsof things that if my life slid in that direction, I would be pretty upset tosee it. If that was the.

[00:37:47] Andrew: I want to point something out therebecause I think that was a really good answer. Daniel didn't say anythingabout, he'd be disappointed if he lost his job or didn't make a bunch of money.It was, it was the things that people regret on their deathbed. It was thepeople you love and the relationships you have.

That's, that's where your disappointments coming from. And Ithink that's really smart because those are the things that a lot of peoplethat do, you know, Hey, I'll, I'll work on my friendships. You know, I'll, I'llreconnect with them. I'll reach out. I will worry about my relationship with mywife when. You know, I get this promotion.

It's the same thing I talked about earlier. People worry aboutthe wrong stuff. We don't take care of the things that are meaningful. And thenext thing you know, they're, they're gone or you were gret having where you'redisappointed, whatever it is like that's, to me that's a really strong and awell screwed on head answer.

[00:38:33] Daniel: But I'm glad that my, my hardware isholding up.

[00:38:37] Andrew: Mostly at least in this regard.

[00:38:46] Andrew: All right. We do story time witheverybody else. And since this is your interview, I'm going to leave it to you.Give us a story, give us a challenge and we'll wrap this up.

[00:38:56] Daniel: what's hard is that we used my go-tofavorite story on our first ever interview episode we did with Sam. So

[00:39:07] Andrew: I'm sorry, did I make this hard onyou, Daniel? Hi. Hi. I apologize.

[00:39:12] Daniel: So, so that means, that does mean thatmy, my favorite story is in a previous episode and you just have to go listento it. If you didn't get enough and you want some more, I will instead talkabout. Some biking, biking stories. And I don't think we've shared this on a,on a podcast episode before, but we, as a group of guy, friends like to dosomething, we call Jim trips every now and then.

And one of the earlier ones that we did, we made our way out tobig Ben, Texas, which if you've never been the big thing. It is so cool.Somebody the other day actually asked me where my favorite place in Texas was.And I said big bend, because it's just so pretty. It's so unique and I'd gomore, but it's way the heck out there.

So we, we did a trip out to big Ben. We stayed in Marfa, Texas,which is this quirky, cool little town. They've got this bar where you couldcan do. Uh, I think it's like five pull-ups. They give you a free drink. Soobviously Andrew and I were super pumped about that

[00:40:16] Andrew: Yes.

[00:40:17] Daniel: But the story comes in with a mountainbiking experience that we, we booked.

And so a lot of times when we make our way out to nationalparks, we try to. Rent bikes at some point in time, because that's actually areally cool way to see a lot of a park to cover a lot of ground. And so we didthat at big bend and we went in may, which is not the best decision because bigbend is basically a desert.

And if you go to the state park, like it is legit, a desert,like I, I'm pretty sure they feel. Westerns like the standoffs in the middle ofa dusty town. Like they filmed that sort of stuff out in the state park of bigbend, but it is a really cool place to bike. They have a lot of bike trails.There's some good elevation changes.

It's really pretty, it's just really hot because it's may, andit was like a hundred degrees. And so we're out there biking. I was, had beendoing a lot of Spartan races and have been playing Frisbee forever. And so I'mof course like, yeah, let's get out there. He no big deal. Like we're, we'regoing to hit the trails and it's gonna be awesome.

And so that was true for me. That was true for one of our otherfriends that had been doing his fart races. It was not true for the entiregroup. So at one point in. We ride up to this big hill, it's me and, me andEvan at the top of the hill, and then Kelton decides to come up as well. Sothese are a few of our friends and, Evan and I ride down the hill.

It was really fun, really fast. And we get to the bottom, catchup with Michael and they're all like, Hey, where's Kelton. And we're like, Idon't know he was up the hill with us. I'm sure he's going to be coming downsoon. So we wait a while. Wait a while, wait a while. And finally Kelton comesdown the hill.

Dude, where are you? And he's like, oh, hi, I barf y'all. And Ithink I'm having heat exhaustion. I'm like, oh, that's, that's not good. So wesend Kelton back with Michael and Kurt to the cars so they can get some watercool off then Evan and I decided we're going to just kind of keep riding thetrail. So we ride for a while.

We have a really good time. It was really hot, but reallypretty. And we get back to the car where. Andrew was at, cause he had a blownout me story of his life. Um,

[00:42:21] Andrew: One was, this was the growing thistime.

[00:42:23] Daniel: uh, was it the groin? So it

[00:42:27] Andrew: We can just leave it at injured as.

[00:42:28] Daniel: injured. So yeah, interestingly nowthat the car with, with sevens and so we get back and none of the other guysare there, Michael and, and Kurt and Kelton are gone.

So we're like, oh, uh, how long have they been gone? And wheredid they go? they'd been gone for a little while. So. Evan's size, he's goingto hang out and I decided, you know what, I'm going to go look for them andjust make sure that they're not dead. And so riding the trail and after awhile,I find them walking on their bikes because Kurt's tire had.

Basically exploded. It hasn't quite exploded, but it's veryflat. You can pump it up and it holds air for like 15 seconds and then losesits air. And so they've all been trying to walk and get back to the car anddon't have water really exhausted. So I was like, all right guys Kelton,Michael, you all just write on a head and then I'll walk back with Kurt andmake sure that we get back to the car.

And so we. Make our way, like pump up the bike ride a littlebit. You have to stop and walk and just repeat this for awhile. And if any ofyou have ever met Kurt, he's one of the most hilarious people that I know, likesuper happy jovial, like always energetic. Right? That was not Kurt on this,this ride back.

I would try to have conversation with them just to make sure hewas kinda doing a right. And I asked him a question and it would just kind ofget a, kind of a one word grant type response. Like I was, I was worried thatKurt was gonna pass out and I was going to have to try to carry him in thebike, back to the car.

And so we're making our way and get to the point where wefinally see the road and we decided just to. And go to the road instead and wemake it, Kurt gets in the car and get some water. He's all good. The otherguys, they eventually made it to, it was a close call though Kelton and Michaelboth said that they were starting to kind of, their vision was going down thepinpricks and they were kind of on the verge of losing it.

And so. Sorry, as we, we all survived big bins, but it wasmaybe a near death experience for half of the party. And so don't go to bigbend and bike and may, unless you've been paid training for awhile.

[00:44:40] Andrew: Man last episode, Jonah told a storyabout his climbing adventures and it's, it was like almost dead on our storyfrom big bend when we climbed. And almost died to the ecocide yet again, abrush with that story will be saved for another day. Hopefully we're buildingsuspense. Big. Ben is awesome though.

Daniel was 100%, right. And I'm still very sad. I missed out onthat biking trip cause it looked like fun, but we still had a good time andit's beautiful there.

[00:45:07] Daniel: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:45:09] Andrew: I think we also almost, I think partof the reason the other guys didn't make it was. I took the car and we ditchedthe other guys and told him to stay put, cause we went to go find you and Kurta mile or two down the road because you guys were cutting across because hedidn't think her was going to make it or something.

I can't remember, but y'all radioed in. We're like, Hey, we'recoming down this way, come pick us up and picked you guys up and went back andthe guys had disappeared cause they tried to follow the car and somethinghappened or whatever.

[00:45:34] Daniel: It was, it was a mess. It's

[00:45:36] Andrew: it was,

[00:45:37] Daniel: it's one of those you mix heat withwhat I learned on the cruise is apparently everyone in the group has a terriblesense of direction. You

[00:45:46] Andrew: You know

[00:45:46] Daniel: two things.

[00:45:51] Andrew: my father would agree with you, and Idon't want to hear it from you as well. Do we have a Daniel challenge?

[00:45:57] Daniel: I would say I do like the line ofquestioning that you, you asked on would previous versions of myself bepotentially disappointed. What my life looks like right now. And maybe even arethere things that if this were to be you 10 years down the road, you'd bedisappointed. I feel like that's a really good self-reflection exercise.

And so the challenge would be to, to ask that of yourself andpotentially even do a little bit of writing and journaling about it, because Ithink it will make the experience all that much better and you know, really,really challenge yourself. And honestly, I'm going to do it too. I just heardthat question now and haven't had the chance to completely digest it, but justthinking through, maybe 18 year old you or a 20 year old you what things wouldthey potentially be disappointed with?

And just trying to think through is that, is that somethingthat. Weighs on you at all. You know, if 20 year old you would be disappointedthat you didn't have a Ferrari, well, that's not that big of a deal, but if 20year old you would be disappointed that you weren't still friends with aspecific person, and that was a really meaningful relationship or a 20 yearold, you would be disappointed that, you know, you, you don't ever.

Talk to your parents anymore, or your siblings or somethinglike that. I think that's something that you can make some changes on beforeyou hit so much further down the road, that it's kind of a point of no return.

[00:47:19] Andrew: That's good, good challenge. And I wasa little proud of those questions. I think they a good exercise for everybody.I'm going to do it myself because I need to as well. Well guys, thank you forjoining us. And we hope that this was a good episode for you. We hope you learnedsomething about Daniel. And unfortunately, probably something about me and mychild, his sense of humor, but we're glad you came on and we look forward toconnecting with you soon.

‍