Overcome - A Mental Health Podcast

Building an Unstoppable Mindset | Daniel MacQueen

• Travis White • Episode 9

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In this episode, Dan McQueen shares his harrowing journey through a life-threatening brain condition that led to emergency surgery and a long road to recovery. He discusses the challenges he faced, including temporary blindness, a brain hemorrhage, and the struggle to regain his ability to walk and talk. Throughout his story, Dan emphasizes the importance of mindset, resilience, and the support of loved ones in overcoming adversity. He reflects on the lessons learned from his experiences and how they shaped his outlook on life, encouraging listeners to focus on solutions rather than problems. In this conversation, Dan MacQueen shares his journey of resilience following a brain injury, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, keeping promises to oneself, and the mindset of continuous improvement. He discusses how he transitioned from personal struggles to teaching others about resilience and the lessons he learned along the way. Dan highlights the significance of small, consistent actions in fostering resilience and the rewarding nature of sharing his experiences through keynote speaking.

Learn more about Daniel and his journey:

https://www.macqueendan.com/

Follow Daniel:

Instagram: @macqueendan

X: @macqueendan

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Travis White (00:01.132)
Hello and welcome to Overcome a Mental Health Podcast. I am very excited for today's guest. I want to welcome onto the show, Dan McQueen. Dan, how are you doing?

Dan MacQueen (00:14.2)
Very well, Travis, how are you doing today?

Travis White (00:16.586)
I'm doing great. I'm excited to have you on here. Let's just get right into your story if that's okay with you.

You just want to give us a little introduction and go ahead and get us started.

Dan MacQueen (00:25.762)
That sounds good.

So, yeah, my story takes place back in jolly old London, England. Think cup of tea, fish and chips, bad teeth. We're in the situation here. I've been having headaches for a few weeks, working in tech, massive headaches that were like really, really painful headaches. I was in the tube one day. The tube tied you zigzag around London, Lumbering towards Nidenhall Gate tube station on the District Line.

headaches are really encompassing, really, really defying the odds of what I can tolerate. And the vision starts to go spotty, I see stars. The slowly starts to fade to black, it's a race. So you could arrive at the station first, near the blindness. Step onto the platform, mind the gap, and the lights go out. I can't see a thing. So I wanna ask you, Travis.

In my shoes, Abel said he got your whole life all of a sudden your trucks into the depths of blindness, the station swirling around you. What's your first thoughts?

Travis White (01:31.185)
I'd be freaking out. I'd be pretty much going in panic mode. The way... Huh?

Dan MacQueen (01:36.96)
Yeah, that's an appropriate response. That's an appropriate response for sure.

Travis White (01:41.909)
Yeah, and yeah, I think it'd be basically just panicky, like really bad.

Dan MacQueen (01:50.562)
Yeah, it was pretty much spot on with me. Like I just stood there and I thought and I thought, how am I getting out of this pickle? This seems pretty bad. Blindness is not good. was concede two minutes ago and I thought and I thought and I thought after the longest three minutes of my life, my vision came back and I carried on my day. The next day I went storming back into A &E. Now A &E is accident emergency in the UK, like ER and the States of America I imagine.

Travis White (02:14.783)
Okay.

Dan MacQueen (02:16.494)
I told them, what the hell is going on here? I was blinded on a tube station in London. This is not normal. What's going on? What's wrong with me? They ran some more tests and again, they thought it was vertigo. They sent me home. On the way out, they told me I could always get my eyes checked by an optometrist. An optometrist, I thought, okay, that's kind of odd, but sure, why not? try that out. Next day, the heads were back with a vengeance. Painkillers like candy for them was doing nothing. Found myself in Mitch Patel's chair.

He was midway through a routine exam when he stopped the exam. He excused himself from the room and he comes back a few minutes later with a sealed envelope which he hands to me. He told me to go directly to Morefield's Hospital, Travis, which I did. Well, tell a lie. I stopped at home first to grab a Jack, reach out a child, phone charger, and a bite to eat. Then I arrived at Morefield's Hospital, handed him the envelope. They ran the same test there again, then escalated me up to Cherincross Hospital. We're getting somewhere, I'm thinking, this is good.

Travis White (03:13.312)
Mm.

Dan MacQueen (03:15.118)
Finally forget what's going on here, this is positive right now. turns out Travis that I had a dangerous build-up of pressure in my brain causing my non-cancerous cysts my pedicab. This prevented the flu from my brain injury as it normally would. It turns out require emergency brain surgery tomorrow. Now turns out my world is to change altogether. After a frantic back and forth with folks in Canada, the last text message my mom received reads, I'll see you soon mom. Think I'll have a new haircut next time I see you. Love, Dan.

Mom's in there flying to London on June 21st, 2014, on the operating table. Something goes horribly wrong. I have a massive bleed in the brain, a brain hemorrhage. The cysts burst when they operated. So mom lands and finds I'm in critical condition. I was in a coma for four weeks. But was in a unconsciousness for months after this. Interrupted dice, touch and go. When all was said and I going to walk, had to talk, and gosh, even had to smile again.

Travis White (04:15.873)
So at this point, what was going through your head? How were you mentally handling this?

Dan MacQueen (04:24.046)
I woke up, my mom and dad and brother were around the bed. I'm trying to talk them and I can't talk. The tray got in me, I fried my vocal cords. I'm trying to talk them but I can't talk. I go, give me a pen and paper. So right down in the pen and paper, they go, get me out of here. And I point at my brother, I you make this happen, you make this happen. My first thought was like, I'm in a foreign country, this looks expensive, let's get the hell out of Dodge, let's get out of this spot, this is horrible.

Needless to say, did not break me out of the hospital. I was there for months afterwards, but my initial reaction was to see the hell out of Dodge. And I was slowly beginning to process what had been told. know, Daniel had a brain hemorrhage. You just woke up from a coma. You can't walk. You can't talk. They didn't tell me I couldn't smile, but I saw some photos of me in those early days and it was a pretty bad grimace. But reality came pretty quick and my life changed in an instant, but I didn't realize that until four weeks later, right?

Travis White (05:20.353)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (05:21.454)
I wake up being told this is my new reality. mean, like, well, what do you mean? had a brain hemorrhage. was in a coma like hell. My leg had activated so I couldn't walk. I was in a wheelchair, right? And stuff got real pretty quick, Like, it's like, you know, that wheelchair took 45 minutes to get into the first week, then 40 the week after that, then 35. Like it was every ounce of my body trying to get in that wheelchair in five minutes faster than the week before. But it was dire straits, man.

Travis White (05:50.786)
Well, it's a huge life change. Like I can only imagine. And from what you explained, so I, I've suffered from migraines for years, but you just explained stuff that's, I can't even comprehend what you were going through. Like, cause migraines like they'll knock me out, but I've never, you know, gone completely black or anything. And just it's crazy. Like the...

Dan MacQueen (06:18.2)
Yeah, this was a pretty bad, I mean, it's just your routine surgery, right? Have the pinocular knot, cyst knot burst, would have been a brain hemorrhage, would have been like, wouldn't say day surgery, would have been pretty basic surgery, right? But the brain hemorrhage kind of complicated things. Then I was put into a medically induced coma, which I didn't want to wake up from. They put a feeding tube up my nose and down into my stomach to feed me, and I'd rip it out. Because I hated it, it was so uncomfortable, I'd rip it out, right? And they put mitts on my hands so couldn't rip it out.

Travis White (06:22.762)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (06:29.93)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (06:47.822)
I'd work on these mitts for days in the coma to finally get it out and I'd rip it out. They'd mip me up and they'd have to x-ray me every time they put it back down to make sure it my stomach and my lungs. I lost a ton of weight. They told my parents, he may not make this. He's in a pretty bad way. They'd use ice blankets above and me to keep my core temperature down when I was in a coma. It's a violent chivalry. Family says it's horrible to watch. Hooked up to 13 tubes of nose to monitor various things in the medicine.

Alarms, constant went off, blood pressure spiked, or heart rate too high. It was bleak. It was dire. Prognosis did not look good.

Travis White (07:30.259)
So when you came out and started realizing this new, I almost want to say new life, new way of living, what was your mindset? Were you automatically like, I can get through this? Or was it more negative?

Dan MacQueen (07:49.71)
I never was vocally negative, but I wasn't stoked about the situation. I was like, this is kind of close. This is not good. But I realized that I had friends visiting me and family visiting me from Vancouver. They were very supportive. Lots of support system, huge support system. And I want to be negative around them because who wants to be around a dour, sour guy? So I'm just like, you know what? It's okay. I'm still alive. I made that decision in my mind. I'm still alive. I could have been dead. all honesty, I'm on my...

Travis White (07:53.876)
Yeah.

Dan MacQueen (08:18.638)
probably sixth or seventh life by now, but like I could have died and I didn't die. It's not fair that this happened to me, but guess what? It's like, no, life isn't fair. So like you got to navigate the situation now. So I realized it's not what happens to you, but how you think about it. What you think about it mentally. So I fostered my mindset and started to pick small winnable goals to try and incrementally improve and like ratchet my life back up. And that wheelchair took 45 the first week, then 40 and 35 then 30, then 25 to 20. was like, and that was like full send me.

Busted my tailgate in that wheelchair five minutes faster than before and like it was Marginal gains, but over time they compounded and like I realized like Hey Dan, like you're not you're not dead to write to you. Like you still get a chance this and and I Started rehabbing with a with a vengeance like I wanted to get back to you know salvage some self some part of my life that I could grasp and maintain and Wasn't sure how far I'd be able to rehab because you know, they told my parents and be able to you know walk or talk They don't want friends. I'm able to talk again

Because the cords fried my vocal cords, the way the nurse got me talking again. Just kind of interesting, bold move on her part. But apparently it builds a little dossier in me when I was in a coma, like two damn days besides the injury. He's a sportsman, he's a master student from Sweden, he's a world traveler, played these sports, here's a picture of his girlfriend. He's real person, right? She queued up on the sportsman aspect of things and she goes, I'll get him talking again. She took me down to the park.

Travis White (09:30.443)
Yeah.

Dan MacQueen (09:49.934)
Some kids playing football or soccer across the park and she goes, those kids across the park, they don't think you're good enough to talk. They don't think you're good enough to talk. And I found out pretty quickly, like that's a trigger for me, being told not good enough to do something. And I yelled some profanities across the park, I'll spare you your listeners now, but like, needless to say, I found out what motivates me pretty quick and I hammered that. So like I yelled across the park some profanities and I got back to talking again. And then like,

Walking was, you know, slow process. did split with my left leg to just gently stretch out the leg muscle because the leg had actually been in a coma. This is after they injected me with like a sword-sized syringe full of Botox to like loosen the leg muscles. Experimental thing, was like, yeah, let's do it. want to back to walking. So we're going to split the first night through the night, no issue, no stress. This will be easy, I thought. will be easy. Hinting that it's not going to be easy. The second night after 20 minutes was painful.

After three minutes it was dreadful. After 40 minutes it was unbearable. I buzzed the nurse. Ticks pushed on my leg, pan out of the pain, tell them. Before they left, I told them, tomorrow. We're doing this for an hour. I'm a walker. I can handle the pain, I told them. Big talk, big talk, them. So third night they wrapped my leg, they tied it off of the ankle. Gave me the click of the nurse call button. They go patrol the Wilson board. Now the Wilson board was in O shape, so short on this side, long on this side. Short on this side, long on this side.

Travis White (11:14.625)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (11:18.094)
Even that hospital that smells, like only a hospital can smell sanitized, sterilized, it's clean. But you wonder what sort of atrocities have been committed to the guise of that lemony zestness. know, after 10 minutes the leg's painful. After 20 minutes the leg is dreadful. After 30 minutes the leg's unbearable. I start past the clicker back and forth trying to disrupt myself from the pain. The pain is excruciating, I can't even describe it to you. I've got double vision still from the brain injury, Travis, so I see two of you now, which is, you fantastic.

When you're passing the clicker back and forth, I'm just groping for this thing. I'm just trying to catch it and feel it. And as the pain rages up, my throws get more enthusiastic. Until eventually, inevitably, it lands on hardly a floor three and a half feet down the ground.

Travis White (11:50.368)
Yeah.

Dan MacQueen (12:04.95)
Look over there to the bed. I can see the clicker that I'm on before it's looking back at me. If I can get that clicker can stop this panic and this monstrosity. Only problem was if I fall from that height, it might break my arm. In fact I figured about a 50-50 chance it break my arm, a coin flip not the best does. I change tack. I'm trying to untie the slim but it's tied up at the ankle not at the hip. I can't reach out far down, I'm not that flexible. I'm lunging for it but I can't reach it.

Travis White (12:09.249)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (12:32.046)
Even if could, can't untie a knot. I'm like at my wit's end of flexibility. Help! Help! I'm yelling as loud as I can. The word the wolfsman was in all shape right? Short on this side, long on this side. Short on this side, long on this side. They're at the far end of the ward. They can't even know if they're out. I suddenly flip the coin. Drop down and grab the cookery. Even if I break my arm. The splints gotta come where I like this part of number one, two, and three. I lower myself off the edge of the bed.

and I crashed down in a heap, blankets, wires, cables, the yard sale.

The arm holds and I hammer the clicker expecting the nurse to come burst into its room like the bat's has been thrown up. I kind of stroll in five minutes later. What you doing the floor love? First of all I say, that's a fantastic pretty sexy up there. Where'd say you're from again? I did not say that Travis. I said let's get this split off my leg please and I'll tell you all about this. It's not what happens to you but how you respond to the matters right?

Travis White (13:33.76)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (13:33.912)
The reason why I told you this story, Travis, is I learned three lessons from this experience. The first lesson being, probably most evidently, let's not pass the clicker button forward. That's a bad idea, obviously. Second lesson was, let's try to splint off the hip and off the ankle. I'll getting an entire mission that's happening going forwards. And the third lesson was, let's always be solutions oriented when things come up in life. That clicker was the most important thing in my world. The solution was there. In life, you're gonna have solutions. Focus on solutions.

Problems are gonna come up, but how do you resolve your issue? How do you fix your problem? With the help of a splint, I got back to walking on the Wolfson Rehab Center on the Zimbrim frame, which is like a four-post walky, kind of lurch forward on.

Then I moved up to the Ferrari. Now Ferrari was a forward walker that I could kind of waddle around in quickly and pick up some speed. It's a walker for old people, right? So I'm not going that fast. For me this was a grease lightening. I was ripping. Then I moved up to naked walks. Now what's a naked walk you may ask? I'm walking without squirt raids. I'm walking naked. But when I told people I went for a naked walk this afternoon, the look they gave me was so perplexed that I kind of loved it. So I just kept going with that. Then came time to walk in Tune Broadway. So Travis, you been to London, England?

Travis White (14:38.857)
you

Travis White (14:44.319)
No, I have not.

Dan MacQueen (14:46.894)
Okay well Tootingborough is an area in South London, an area they call up and coming. Think loud sirens, drugs, gangs, it's dirty, it's hectic and boys it's... I'm walking with a cane, I'm walking with an eye patch, after four months in a wheelchair I'm literally Bambi on ice. I turn the corner to walk on the high street for the first time, immediately get slammed into by someone, stagger back a few feet, someone screws past me on the right hand side. I thought I was dumb with the rats.

someone had been stabbed on the sidewalk over here. I'm thinking that's pretty wild place to her walk. After a few days, I was thinking this is the worst place to her walk in the world. Can't they see I'm trying to walk here? Can't they see I'm trying it? And then one day my perspective shifted. Maybe this is the worst place to her walk in the world. Maybe this is the best. If I can walk here, I can walk anywhere. The tune probably didn't change, right Travis?

Travis White (15:42.699)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (15:44.238)
It went from the worst to the best in my mind and I'm reflecting that. What are you looking at in your life that convinces the worst? Convinces the absolute worst. Hey, maybe it is. Maybe you can find a way to turn down the suck a little bit. Shit that perspective a little bit. I and Mike Tyson Fimse said, everyone's got a plan to get punched in mouth. Now Travis, your punch may not be a brain hemorrhage, right? Facts. It will be a job loss, a breakup, a diagnosis for you, a loved one. You will take that punch in the mouth, how do you respond?

Travis White (16:09.91)
Yep.

Travis White (16:14.132)
Yeah.

Dan MacQueen (16:14.19)
I'm offering a compass, not a map, but a compass that always points towards true north. Excuse me, we'll look at things like mindset, perspective, and hacks. Hacks that allow you to do better than yesterday, tomorrow. My name is Dan McQueen, and the reason why I told you to struggle and to walk into a doorway is when you change the way you look at the world, it's supposed to be good changes. And you don't need a brain hemorrhage to understand that. That's kind of a rundown of like my...

progression to walking and reframing stuff as obstacles as opportunities and kind of solidifying my mindset is like, no, no, no, you want this toughness, this challenge because it's making you better. If you design a place to learn how to walk again, you would want to make it challenging and difficult, not easy and simple, So when that mindset shift happened, like I began to look forward to my walks, bump into me, crash past me, good, it on. If I can walk here, I can walk anywhere. Like that solidified my mindset.

Travis White (16:58.274)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (17:07.768)
to woes me, to why me to try me. I look forward to the strife, the struggle, the strain. And I just racked it up and kept going. But you've got to shift your mindset with this stuff, right? It could be the worst or it could be the best. You've got to choose. Anything in life, you get to choose how you face stuff. And I've just chosen to face it as the best. that's a mindset I've adopted after many failures and tough knees and...

bruised elbows, but like I've learned that like that's how you progress in life is by going through the tough times.

Travis White (17:40.308)
yeah, yeah, for sure. I actually really admire your mindset, your positive outlook on stuff. Cause me personally, like through some of my most difficult times, my, one of my most challenging times was like when I started having seizures years ago. But for years and years, I've just been very negative and I honestly don't think it was until the last like two years where I've actually started to try to.

Like get out of that mind frame because the more negative I am, the worse things are going to be.

Dan MacQueen (18:17.09)
Well, it doesn't serve you to be negative because it's not fair that it happened, right? But like, guess what? It's happened. It's not fair, it's not your fault. It's your responsibility to navigate the situation now.

Travis White (18:19.073)
Mmm.

yeah, it's.

Yeah.

Yes, and it's such a victim mentality that like, nobody wants to have.

Dan MacQueen (18:36.92)
Well you can choose how you go through life as like a victim or not and like I'm not a victim like you'll never hear that word come out of my mouth like it's happened guess what you gotta handle this situation handle your shit right like and you face this every day there's this good YouTube clip that I love from Jaco Willink I'm not sure if you're familiar with Jaco

Travis White (18:49.366)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (18:54.239)
I've heard the name before and seen a couple of his clips.

Dan MacQueen (18:58.196)
He's got this great video called Good. And it's a phenomenal video about like just, you know, this guy talking about all this bad stuff that's happening. He always says, Good, good. I get a chance to this. Good. I get a chance to do that. And it just fires me up because it's like, you know what? There's always some good that's going to happen with something like you get a chance to rectify the situation. If the brain hemorrhage happened, I wouldn't say it's good, but you're not dead. You're still alive. Woke up in a coma that that wasn't something they thought would happen.

Go back to talking again. was something that would happen. I got back to walking again. That would happen. And you just stack these goods. And before you know it, you're back to making ways, making progress. it's not easy, but it's simple, right? Just the mindset of like, is it good or bad? Good. Foster that and you can be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Travis White (19:42.561)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (19:54.377)
Yeah, and.

Travis White (19:58.754)
See, and then I remember if I, can correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm thinking wrong, Keir, but you not only had, went through the brain surgery once, but you went through it twice, correct? Am I thinking of a...

Dan MacQueen (20:12.494)
No, that's right, that's right. So what had happened was I got back to, I got discharged from Wilson after about six months and so about a year after the brain hemorrhage I was out of the hospital. Well, maybe eight months. In the end, you know, doing therapy at home, like occupational therapy, vocational therapy, preparing for return back to Hootsuite. My company, my tech company that I worked for in London, my job that has gotten into an implementation specialist and I was like, you know, I'm going back to work, this will be awesome.

Travis White (20:12.801)
Yeah.

Dan MacQueen (20:41.486)
two half days a week, three half days a week. And the game plan was to meet my mom at the tube station before I went to work and she'd go out for a walk. And I'd go into the office to make sure I got off on time because, you know, early days from the injury there was not always a given. And one day didn't show up, right? She calls my flat, no answer. She walks through my flat about five minutes away from the Sallgrave Road tube station on London on the Hammersmith and City Line. And she goes, knocks on the door, no response, and then she opens the door. And she finds me unconscious on the floor.

I 999, like 911 in the States. And I'm rushed to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. And I wake up the next morning, beeping noise in the heart, my mom would be up behind me, I'll beep, beep, beep. What happened, what happened, what happened? Well, then you a second brain surgery. What do mean? The shunt that's in my head after the first surgery had blocked the hydrocephalus or water on the brain, which is very rare apparently, less than 10 % of cases. So I'm thinking, lucky me, this is fantastic. And...

Travis White (21:12.641)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (21:40.078)
All my progress is washed away. In an instant, I'm back to square one and I'm thinking, this is insane. I've just been working for a year to get back to the office to put this behind me, making strides, making gains. And this is all stripped for me in a second. And I describe my recovery like a W, right Travis? So the first setback's down here. I kind of scamper back up, maybe like a third of the way back up to where was before. The second setback's not where the first one was, but much lower. Like the depths of the human experience I call this.

Travis White (21:57.504)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (22:10.54)
The hopes and dreams that snickered out, the injuries they were just claiming, you thought you got out of this, but you ain't going nowhere. You got nothing going on, but you're going nowhere. And I was low, I was dire. It was so mentally taxing to do this. I had already done rehab in the hospital, so I wasn't able to go back to the hospital to do this. I did this all remotely. My mom had to fight tooth and nail, had it done that way.

And inch by inch, by row, we slowly started to make strides and then we get back to walking. Because I knew that I could, the gains were lost, right? Like I hadn't, the gains that I had made cognitively were all lost, but I knew that I could do them because I had just done them before, like six months earlier. So that mindset was like, I knew I could do this. And I slowly started to ratchet up. I mean, it wasn't as bad as the first time because I could still walk, which was helpful. But everything else was back down to zero and I had to fight to get back up and it was just.

Travis White (22:43.297)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (23:06.24)
incrementally ratcheting back up and fostering that mindset of like, can do this, you know, and it was the darkest time for my family for sure.

Travis White (23:17.161)
Yeah, I can I can only imagine. Just the thought of that happening twice to somebody. Just like I think about it I'm just like, like it would. It would take me. Down to the depths of hell for sure, like.

So.

At this point, like, how long does it take you to get kind of everything back? how, what's it like to like get back on track and like you said, you're still walking. but you have to obviously learn to talk and do everything else again.

Dan MacQueen (24:02.03)
Well, no talking was still there, but the cognitive forming was so... Yeah, the cognitive like just getting myself back up and ramped back up to like thinking properly and then had to appease Hoots because they were like, we might have caused this because we put you back to work. like, no, no, wasn't you. was just carbs in my hand, right? And that just, you know, luck of the draw, right? And that was very difficult to get my mind around that and to come to terms with that. it was no one's fault, right? It just happened. Just like the first setback, but like it was...

Travis White (24:03.585)
It's talking, is it cognitive? Okay.

Travis White (24:16.331)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (24:28.417)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (24:31.502)
It was grew and it took so much mental fortitude to kind of keep my mindset pure and not go down the pretty spiral of woes. I this isn't fair because it's not fair, it's not your fault, but it's your responsibility, right? I think I kind of realized you get to do, you're still with us, right? You're still here. And now I've still got like a medical air brace, which I wear today, and it shows like a VT shunt in case I'm found unconscious. You know, that's the first thing they should check and...

Travis White (24:43.136)
Yep.

Dan MacQueen (24:58.39)
and eventually back to the suck, back to work and eventually ended up with four half days a week in Hootsie, full client load and chip away with it. But this was like months of work and grind and just taking long time to do everything. And it was just very difficult to clamor back up, but you got to keep going, right?

Travis White (25:18.305)
Mm-hmm.

So what, like, with everything that they did to your brain and the surgeries, and I'm only asking this because you showed the bracelet that you have, what, like, do you have, what are the chances that, like, something else could happen like this? Like, pretty slammer.

Dan MacQueen (25:31.693)
Yeah.

Dan MacQueen (25:38.808)
I mean that was 10 years ago that setback happened or 9 years ago that setback happened so I think we're touch wood. The VP shunts kind of they found the fluids found another way to drain my brain so I think it's okay but it's always there I guess. The shunt's still in my head they don't take it out. That's for life I get that which is you know wonderful little bump on my head. It's lovely.

Travis White (25:54.09)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (26:05.006)
With a brain injury, you're never out of the woods, right? Every day I wake up with intention. I got to wake up early, meditate, shower in the shower cold. I got to armor up for the day to face my day the best I can because if I don't do that, I'm not as good as I could be. I realize that I'm working with less bandwidth than maybe I had in the past. I would say my battery is about 75 % now compared to how it was. My battery drains much faster than anyone else's. I drain fast.

Travis White (26:07.093)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (26:30.688)
And need naps or meditation breaks to recharge and refresh myself to carry on and carry on with my workload. Right. that's something I've learned through trial and error. And I've got to accommodate that and navigate that in a way that best suits me and what I'm trying to accomplish. it's, it's just being self-aware and kind of understanding what makes you tick and what makes you work. And, know, I wear a whoop strap now as well, which is something you might have seen in that previous flash of my wrist. Whoop strap tracks your rest, recovery, strain, all this fun stuff.

And I really swear by this because I based my day off how I recovered. last night I slept moderately well. Didn't recover that well, but I was okay. So I went to the pool today, crushed some lengths and got rid this interview today. So it's all about kind of managing your battery and managing your expectations.

Travis White (27:18.209)
Yeah, learning to know your boundaries like for the for sure. Uh, and one thing that I want to get into as well is you started teaching is it like courses are just going around speaking about resilience and that type of stuff to teach people these tools like what? At what point were you like? Oh, that's this is what I want to do. I want to go and teach this to people.

Dan MacQueen (27:45.966)
Well, this is my brother in New York when he's living there and had a copy one day, went out to go for a copy when he was in work and I just had this epiphany of like all these lessons I learned, I just wrote them down on notepads. I got all these deals about like value props and hacks and ways that I kind of navigated this. Cause the dots didn't line up looking forward, but looking back, they kind of make sense of how this all worked right. I was like, well, I got some lessons I could share and pass along here, right?

I this keynote of this presentation I used to give to my outpatients at Wilson Rehab Center, which I give for them once a quarter. I talk to the outpatients and describe how you navigate the world outside of the nerfed-up world to the hospital. Because the hospital is great, but it's not the real world. And the real world can be quite abrasive and sharp corners and hard edges. And if not used to it, you may fall on your face. So I shared that once a quarter for them for a couple years. And then I gave a talk at LootSuite.

reading off a script, I didn't memorize the whole thing. I pretty basic in that capacity, but I gave the talk in person. That was really well received. And I moved back to Vancouver a couple of years ago. I gave a talk for the mental health day. And the feedback from that presentation was so profound, so positive, and so this changed my perspective on stuff. There might be something in this, I could make a career of this. So when I lost my job from Hootsuite a couple years later,

part of a corporate restructuring, wrong side of a spreadsheet, nothing to fault of my own. I decided I'm a keynote speaker tomorrow, which means I need a computer today. So I went down for a boozy lunch, crushed a few margaritas and went down to the Mac store, picked up a new computer, which I'm calling down today, Travis. And I've been keynote speaking ever since. And that's been a life passion of mine to kind of share my lessons learned and my experience and help you foster resilience because it's something you can build, right? You can foster resiliency, meaning you can like, can...

flex that muscle and become more resilient. And how do you do that? Well, you keep promises to yourself. They can be small, but you know, every day I wake up and I meditate and I shower in the shower cold. And I do that day in, day out, in, week out. So I don't think that I can do it. I know I can do it because I a stack of evidence that shows I do what I say I'm gonna do. And by keeping promises to yourself, you can foster resiliency, but like pick a small win-win target and then expand.

Dan MacQueen (30:07.51)
So, you know, pick something small like I go, we used to go for a walk every morning before work when I lived in Herring Gate Ladder in North London and in London now. Walked for one block. Nice block, nice, we could do two blocks, then three blocks, then four blocks, then five blocks, then six blocks, then seven blocks. And I'd ration it up before I knew it, I'd been doing this for, you know, six, seven months and I had a stack of evidence that says I do what I say I'm gonna do. But everything can be done this way. Like I swim in the pool three times a week in our travels.

and I set an intention for laps in the pool. Today I did 60 and 51 minutes. But every day I set an intention for laps and I'd owe those laps, save one exception. And I'm very strict with this exception. If there's a backstroker in my lane, I can punt the laps, owed, no questions asked, and I can go in the sauna and the seam room and wind down that way. I got a special thing with backstrokers, Travis, it's a personal thing maybe, I don't know. They drive me nuts.

So I can punt that entirely. it's just keeping promise to yourself, but you can do that over days, weeks, months, and years, and it compounds over time, right? You can rewire your brain and retrain your brain, but you have to keep those promises to yourself because every day you look in the mirror and you see yourself. And you know, like, was I true to this person or not? And if you're to that person day in, day out, don't question if you can do it. You've done it. You did it yesterday. Why can't you do it today? So just start small and start ratcheting it up, but keep those promises and like...

One more example I'll share with you Travis, then I'll pause for questions. I've got this new one that I've started last week. I was in the sauna after my swim. I'm on the top shelf. I'm sweating buckets. I'm in there for 10 minutes. Maybe I'm getting to the peak of my sauna capabilities. It's not that hot of a sauna to be fair. It's a public facility, so it's not like a crazy hot sauna, but I'm sweating buckets in there. I'm sweating, I'm panting heavy. And I decided then there, I'm not the next one out of the sauna.

I'm not the next one out the sauna. And I'm panting heavy, I'm breathing heavy, I move down a row. Head between my legs, I'm sweating buckets, I'm on the brink of like, can't handle this. And after about five minutes, the longest five minutes of my bloody life, someone finally got up and left and I went right out behind them. But I wasn't the next one out of the sauna. And little things like that just proving that you can do that. You can foster resiliency and improve that muscle.

Dan MacQueen (32:32.462)
It's a muscle like anything else. It's a muscle you have to flex day in, day out and know that you do what you're saying you need to do. Little things like keeping promise to yourself can really improve your resiliency.

Travis White (32:44.353)
So what, where did it go? it in my mind.

Travis White (32:55.424)
So do you think that like resilience is like best described as something that people are born with or is it something that you have to learn?

Dan MacQueen (33:07.374)
Look, I would say I was a pretty resilient guy in some capacity. Like I had lots of stuff in my life that I had to push through and navigate. Like for instance, I'll share one story with you now. When I moved to Malmo, Sweden for a masters in 2011, I had booked a hostel for a week and I figured I'd find housing after that week and make it work. Cause that's what I've done for my whole life is found accommodation in last minute's capacity.

There was a Namo festival and a big party in Namo, so I'm kind of partying it up and enjoying the festival, exploring the city. This is my new home for the year. This is awesome. And I went to grab something from the front desk at the YHA hostel in Namo and they told me, oh, I see you're staying for another two nights, Dan. Well, yeah, well, I haven't got a place to live in, so I'll probably just extend my stay if that's possible. And she goes, oh, no, it's not possible. What do you mean? We restrict one week policy here, so you can't stay any longer. I oh, okay.

So I'm starting to look for their hostels, but they're all booked up because there's a Mammal Festival and a big busy season for this hostel year round. I'm like, okay, that's not good. I went for some coffee with some German girls that I met for my program. And I explained my predicament and she goes, one of the ladies was living in her van that year in this parking lot. I'm like, that's kind of aggressive, but okay, sure. She goes, yeah, you can live in common grounds in Sweden. It's a rule.

Okay, I got a tent you want to stay up sleep on the lake on the beach and like can that work shows? Yeah, sure. Why not? So I'm like, okay sure. Let's do that. So I set up the tent Schooled started by this time So I'm bringing my bag into the train station locking in a locker and going to class and then come back to my beach tent grabbing the bag and like it's pretty rough and loving I'm not gonna lie to you and Travis but Did that for two nights and then put some of my class heard that I was sleeping on a beach He goes hey, Daniel, I see my floor. I go. Yes

Please, I will take the floor over this tent any day of the week. But like I always kind of had that dog attitude of like, I'm gonna make it work, right? But let me be very clear with your audience. You can for sure flex that muscle. You can build it up over time by keeping promise to yourself. And aim small, hit that target and then expand it. Like ratchet it up. Don't start with the moon, like aim with, you You know, I meditate every day for 20 minutes, right Travis? I start with two minutes in the morning.

Travis White (35:02.529)
Yeah

Travis White (35:26.272)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (35:28.238)
Who can't do two minutes in the morning? Next week you did four. Week after six, then eight, then 10, then 12. You ratchet up to 20s to 20s on a big jump. It's a two minute progression from the week before. But you've fostered this for sure. You can build that muscle and flex that muscle. So you can foster resiliency 100%.

Travis White (35:48.396)
So in your mind, how does resilience differ from simply just toughing it out or suppressing emotions?

Dan MacQueen (36:03.502)
I think it's an ingrained knowledge that can overcome adversity and resilience is the ability to know that you can endure hard stuff and endure hard things. And I don't question if I can do that anymore. I know I can do it because I've proven that I've done it over weeks, months, and years of like this stack of evidence, right? Build that evidence locker that shows you do what you say you're to do. And then you don't question if you can do it. It's just a matter of time before it works. So you got to show yourself that you can do it. And that takes work and takes dedication and takes

Travis White (36:21.345)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (36:34.274)
attitude that you're not going to stop until it's over, right? It's not over until I say I win, right? Like I'm very bullhead with this.

Travis White (36:44.289)
This is fantastic stuff. telling you like I'm picking up on stuff like I want to try to do. And I'm gonna honestly after this I'm gonna write down like just like little things that I want to do that I can start working on.

Dan MacQueen (36:59.438)
The key is to aim small, Like, pick a target that you know you can win tomorrow. Two minutes meditation, this isn't that onerous, right? Everyone can do, set time already for over two minutes, breathe. Like, that's not that crazy to do. The next could do four. We could actually do six. And you're slowly racking this up to the point where you want to get to. Don't start with 20, you're gonna fail, I'll tell you that off the hop. 20 minutes without meditation is a long time to just like zone out and try to meditate. You're gonna fail 100%. Two minutes, I can do two minutes, can you do two minutes?

Travis White (37:01.174)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (37:05.995)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (37:29.932)
It's not that difficult, but four minutes, not that long. It's like two minutes more from before. Six minutes, two minutes more than four minutes. So like position yourself to win. Make the game so you can win. don't reach for something that's outside of your scope. That's not to say don't reach, but reach where you know that you can land. I'll share one example about like shifting this mindset. So I used to have to shower in London with this bath mat, right?

The told my parents, needs a bath mat, he can't stand in the shower, he's too unstable on his feet. Every day I'd hang it up in the bath to dry and it would be the symbol that I'm not good enough to shower and it would drive me nuts. It drive me nuts. So one day I said, told my parents, I'm not using the body bath mat anymore, I can shower on my own and use the bath mat. Oh no, Dan, you gotta use the bath mat. The doctor told us you have to use the bath mat. I said, stop this bath mat, I'm not using the bath mat. The next day didn't use the bath mat and guess what, I was just flying to a retired bath mat.

I used to walk around in London with a cane. Came back to Vancouver one time for a trip to visit friends and family. Forgot the cane in London and guess what? I was just fine, so I retired the cane. Only by risking failure can you stretch yourself to see where your limitations are. Now that's not to say do something stupid to hurt yourself, but that's a saying. Only by risking failing can you really improve and step forward. progression is what I'm after here, right? I had...

Eye surgery a little while ago here, Travis will tell the story quickly and then we can jump onto something else. Notice I had a lot to the left to look at the right eye to the screen. It's impulsive, it's ingrained, it's because the eye surgery kind of buggered stuff up. I had eye surgery on the left eye. My third surgery, I two on the right eye, really improved the eyesight. Left eye, tried to dissuade the delusion, it did not work, it backfired. Tremendously it backfired. My dad goes, Dan, you're right having the eye surgery. I go, yeah, it's changed everything.

It's changed everything. My body, I used to the eyesight for eight years, so I had fostered those connections and I could see properly not till my left. This is actually blew up everything, right? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't regret having the eye surgery. I was taking the next step. This is something booked by Charlie Munger called The and the Horse, the Fox and the Mole. The boy's walking through a thick wood. He yells back at the horse, he goes, I can't see a way through.

Dan MacQueen (39:56.482)
And the horse says, you see your next step? And the boy says, yeah. So the horse says, well then just take that. That's what I was doing the other day, just taking the next step. And sometime that step's gonna be on a landmine. And you've gotta deal with the consequences of your decisions. Like, I can't lose the muscle of taking the next step because that's how progress is done, by taking the next step. I can't just settle for life, like I'm chasing the life I want. And sometime that's gonna backfire, but you gotta be okay with that.

You can't lose the muscle, I'm taking the next step and that's really what I want to get across to your audience is take that next step and try it out.

Travis White (40:35.527)
That's good stuff.

Travis White (40:42.827)
So how do mindset shifts contribute to resilience and how can someone develop a stronger mindset?

Dan MacQueen (40:54.318)
Look, they say the odds of you being a human being are 400 trillion to one, 400 trillion to one. It's a staggering number of zeros. I had to look up how many zeros that is. You're more likely to win the lotto a million times in order to have a life in the first place. This blip was in my DNA. I couldn't have avoided this no matter what I did. It was coming out. only damning Queen because this was in my DNA. I'm not damning Queen unless this didn't happen to me. So you get to do this. I could have been dead to rights. I wasn't.

I'm not going to muck the whole hand because I don't like this blip in the DNA. don't like this one card. I'm going to play the hand of God. Mind you, the hand is not as strong as it used to be, but guess what? It's still a hand I can play. It's still a hand that you get to play. understand that first and foremost. But you do this by keeping promise to yourself day in, day out. Pick that small target and ratchet that up. And just keep chasing that, man. Chase life. Don't settle for life. Go after it and chase it. Where can you stop? Where can you fail and improve next time?

I was on this podcast a while ago. This gaming podcast. not a gamer, right? My gaming days were back in Nintendo 64. So Mario Kart, James Bond, think that kind of old school vibe, And the host goes, good stuff, Host goes, well damn, just talking about those sort of games. okay, cool, I got this. Life's like Mario Kart 64. You're playing that mushroom circuit or whatever and you go around the first lap.

Travis White (42:10.569)
Also that fun stuff.

Dan MacQueen (42:26.542)
The second left hand turn is an obstacle left hand side. Hit it first time. Okay. Second time you go around and hit it second time. Dude, you know there's an obstacle there, drive around that. Start understanding patterns and start understanding how you can avoid and make this map work for you. Like, gamify life and start thinking about things and like, well, you know the obstacles there, drive around them. And if you keep driving, I can't help you. But if you understand there's something there, see these patterns start emerging, then you can start.

Manipulate in the game to make it work or avoid the obstacle very least and power slide around that turn right like that's how you navigate this but like and Then if you're smart you can use this you fail once in you and you learn you pivot like I'm not the smartest guy in the world to like sometimes I have the obstacle two or three times like I'll learn after the third time that's for damn sure you keep driving to that obstacle like I can't help you You know, what's there man drive around it? Like that's this life is just like you see these patterns you drive around this stuff like that's with everything

It's a very simplified example, like you extrapolate that over life and you start to sound like there's patterns here. I did this last time and it failed. Okay, try differently next time. That worked. Okay. And then you failed the next step. Okay. So I made this avoid this obstacle and I failed this obstacle. So then you avoid these two and then you make it a step further. Gamify life like Alan Watts talks about play. And it's just so important to have that mindset and involvement. I actually had a podcast, Travis called Play Loose Look Tight.

documenting the process of life after. Kind of an odd name, I'll explain it to your group. It's a life mantra in four words. Play loose is the first section of that, right? Play is the first word by intentionality. Play loose, suave de vivre, have fun. You want to play loose. Conversely, you want to look tight. With demeanor and dress and cleanliness. Be intentional and on time with your meetings. Play loose, look tight is a life mantra in four words. I live by that. But play is the first word.

And if you make life about play, it's a little less serious, less strenuous, a little less onerous, it's a bit more lighter and less heavy. Make play the first word.

Travis White (44:35.073)
Since you have been like going around and being a keynote speaker, what to use like one of the most rewarding things about that?

Dan MacQueen (44:47.074)
I share a story and I share a lesson learned and someone just goes, this gave me this like, I never thought about it like that. That's the most rewarding thing I've got. As I mentioned, this talk, I give Steve the outpatience.

And I gave a talk to this outpatient group and there was one guy in there and I really hammered home on swimming because that's a big part of my exercise routine.

and you saw how passionate I was about swimming and how much I loved it. The comment I got after the talk was, damn, the injury, the brain injury, I to swim all the time, but after the brain injury, it took me so long, you had dressed and changed, I stopped swimming. Because of your talk, I'm sure it's true.

When I first started going swimming, man, would take 45 minutes to get changed, swim for five lengths, and then I'd get changed for 45 minutes. It took me forever. What's the point of even doing this, man? Five lengths is nothing. But now I did 60 lengths today in 51 minutes. I've done that week after week, month after year. It's like ratcheted up to a point where I value it and it gets in and out of this. That comment there about I'm going to try again was so rewarding for me to see that because even if he gives up next time, at least he tried one more time for me.

Because you saw that it's possible. I did these brain scans two years ago at HealthTechConnect, this brain injury clinic, neuroscience clinic in Surrey, BC, Canada. Put this gel cap on your head and they ask you these questions like computer, monitor, microphone, coffee mug, microphone, window. And they see your synapses fire, right? My results came back as average. Two brain injuries, average is pretty good, right?

Dan MacQueen (46:28.182)
I read this as I'm shockingly average. Have you seen what I've been through? There's no way I'm average, man. Stuff that. Average. You don't know what you're talking to. The more I thought about it, more I realized that's a good thing. That's a positive thing because that means I'm no smarter or better than anyone I speak to. I'm just driven to go forward. I'm toes over the nose in my board and I'm riding this wave down. I've decided to make this work. Come hell or high water, I'm making this work and that means that you can do this too.

I'm no smarter or better than anyone I speak to. I'm average man. And that means that you can do that too. And that was very empowering to know that because that means all this stuff is not like black magic. It's just grit, determination, a will that's sometimes a bit stubborn. Well, very stubborn at times. But find out what works for you and just hammer that button man. But you can do this too because I'm no smarter than you. I'm average, baby.

Travis White (47:24.817)
awesome I love it. What advice like would you give to anybody that is like struggling whether it be mentally or physically?

Dan MacQueen (47:42.648)
Better than yesterday. Let me explain. Whatever you're doing, however you are, just try to be bit better than you were yesterday. And the same the day after that, better than yesterday. That could be walking for one walk one week, two blocks to get up to that, three blocks to get up to that, but ratchet it up to a point where you can get to that easily, threshold, right? Better than yesterday is a mindset you got to adapt and take on board. And that could be anything. It be walking, that could be, you know,

getting ready at five minutes faster than week before, three minutes faster than week before, but just pick something you can aim at and track it. I can now track my swims on my phone app, and I've tracked it for years. I don't know why I started doing this, but it's kind of a habit. And it goes back years of me swimming, and I track the amount of lengths I did and the time it took me. And this thing's probably tracked, I wanna see how far I've actually swam over the past few years because it's probably pretty bloody far. So I'm swimming three times a week at like,

Minimum 40 upper echelons would be 80 or 90 lengths. And that's just better than yesterday, right? Like I'm just like making that a target I am in for. like better than yesterday is how you can get improved a lot and take steps to rectify your situation.

Travis White (49:01.077)
Yeah, that reminds me of something I've heard before. It's pretty much goes along the lines with the better than yesterday is just do 1 % better. It's something close to that, I think, but it's.

Dan MacQueen (49:15.788)
Yeah, for sure. Have you read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, I believe?

Travis White (49:23.487)
I don't believe I have.

Dan MacQueen (49:26.018)
That's a great book. It outlines simplified ways to improve and start something else. So want to go to the gym, put your shoes on go out the door. Next week, just put your shoes on go to the gym. Leave the gym. Just get to the gym. Just know you can get to the gym. We kept that like lift the weight, lift two weights. But the measure of success is that you went to the gym. That's it. It doesn't matter what you do there. As long as you go to the gym, that I can return home when I want. I went to the gym today. That's fine.

Travis White (49:48.661)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (49:55.47)
But if you build that habit of just going and doing it, eventually, well, I'm here now. I as well lift a few more weights. It could take me so long to get down here. But the measure of success is just going to the gym. It doesn't matter what you do in there. I went in the gym three times this week. Could have lifted three weights. That's successful. You realize, well, I'm here now. I may as well do more, right? And then you get a hungry with that.

I'm insatiable with this kind of growing and learning development. I always want to push it better than yesterday, but better than yesterday is the mindset I invoke your group to take on board.

Travis White (50:30.465)
That's so cool. I'm just having all these thoughts of what I want to do, like I said before. But honestly, that's all the questions that I marked down. there anything that you want to touch base on that we didn't?

Dan MacQueen (50:50.126)
I'd love to ask you, what are those things you want to try?

Travis White (50:53.673)
Honestly, one thing that I want to really push for, but and you've given me the mindset that I believe I can do it is and I've been speaking to my wife about this is I actually want to start public speaking. I have an idea in my, in my head of like what my message would be, but I really want to own in on that and give like, give it a shot.

Dan MacQueen (51:19.758)
I mean, you've got the muscle here, right? The podcast is halfway there, you're telling stories, right? Like I've been on probably 60, 70 podcasts, but I've told these stories 60, 70 times. So when I'm on stage, I've done maybe 20 stages, right? But I've told the story 90 times. like, I'm not telling the story for the 21st time, I'm telling the story for the 92nd time. The pause is the intonation. It's all muscle that you've got. The reps you're putting in with the podcast are just like, they're helping you develop your filter speaking style.

Travis White (51:22.689)
Mm.

Travis White (51:32.937)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (51:40.267)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (51:45.134)
And with the public speaking, I recommend, know, podcasts are key, also just single free of community events and just jumping like all speak to referrals and testimonials and slowly ratchet that up. Like I'm, you know, I'm a relatively new speaker, but I've spoken on probably 20, 25 stages, but I've been on 70 podcasts. So when I tell the stories, the 72nd time I told the story. it's like a muscle you've got and just better than yesterday. Like you're going to, you're going to fuck up and forget stuff.

Travis White (52:08.48)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (52:14.144)
Slides not gonna work or have fun with it man. Like just be loose and don't be so stressed about it. Like it's just speaking. And everyone's gotta speak and everyone knows how nervous they get speaking in front of groups, right? like, you get nervous, of course you get nervous, but like, so? Doesn't mean no, don't do it. You like, see the fear and you go into it anyways. So I really encourage you to try that out. Let me know how it goes.

Travis White (52:37.843)
I will for sure. And then the other thing that I want to do, I just need to get better. you know, this, this last year I changed my diet, like, and cut back on sugars. Like I really started working on me, but I need to expand that and continue to work on me. And that now includes like exercise and like getting better, like kind of be more fit.

Dan MacQueen (53:01.294)
It's a great target to have because I work out probably four times a week, three swims, one gym, maybe two gyms if I'm lucky. It's moved from vanity to sanity, my friend John says. So I do it now more from the mental boost I get from clearing the cobwebs out. Like I go in the pool and I blast out those cobwebs and I know that I've worked my body. I can feel it stretched and strained, but that's a win for the day, right? I've done that and it's a win. I'd recommend working out first thing in the morning if you can.

Travis White (53:27.529)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (53:31.694)
Because at end of the day, can punt working out pretty easily. you do it first thing in the morning, there's no excuses, no barriers. No matter what happens that day, it's a success. So I'd encourage you to start with early morning workouts if you can. If you have a tough time fitting into your schedule, well, that should be new. But first thing in the morning, it's best to get it done because then you've done it for the day. You've been successful no matter what happens.

Travis White (53:59.362)
Awesome. So on top of this, where can people find you and learn more about you?

Dan MacQueen (54:06.798)
Yeah, for sure. So my website's McQueenDan, M-A-C-Q-U-E-E-N, Dan.com. McQueenDan across the socials. You can see some videos on YouTube as well. That story I told about learning to walk in tune, I've always actually filmed on the Impact 11 stage, so you can find that on YouTube. I will go for speaking engagements online or in person. Yeah, that's about it.

Travis White (54:32.769)
Well, thank you so much for being on the show today. I I said you've you've inspired me to become more resilient and be the better version of myself. It looks like were you gonna say something? It looked like you were.

Dan MacQueen (54:50.19)
Yeah, was just saying thank you for having me on the show and better than yesterday, man. Don't try to conquer the moon here. Just better than yesterday and over time, that better than yesterday is a pretty big step, right? But if you do that day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out, you'll be flattered, asked about the gains you can make. I'm walking, I'm talking, I'm a speaker now. They told me I wouldn't be able to speak. told me I wouldn't be able to walk again. I just swam 60 lengths today. You get to do this,

Travis White (55:03.627)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (55:20.782)
And every day you wake up with that mindset, like you get to do this and you know, it's, you're going to tell me I can't, like, no, stuff it. make it happen, bud, make it happen.

Travis White (55:33.216)
Yeah, I told myself for, well, just to finish up, I told myself for the longest time that like, I can't do this podcast. I can't do it. I've had this idea for probably over a year now. I want to say too, I tried to start a podcast before the idea wasn't like very, like it wasn't there. Like it just ran out of ideas to like speak about. Didn't even know if I want to guess, but then this one came along. I was like, I need to do this. But then I wasn't in the

Right frame of mind. so I wasn't in the place to do it. Like just so many things in my life were not balanced out. And then when I finally did it, like, and just keep pushing from one interview to the next and hearing these different stories, it just makes me want to keep going. but

Dan MacQueen (56:20.024)
Momentum is such a big thing on this, right? Momentum and forward progress is so key. Once you get going, it's easy to keep things rolling, but to start something from a dead stop is so difficult. So I encourage you to keep rolling with this. Once it's in motion, it's easier to keep it going than it is to start from a dead stop. And that's with everything in life. Come home from work, throw a load of laundry on, get dinner on the boil, and then sit down and take a load off. keep things moving and remove the barriers to entry.

Travis White (56:22.303)
Mm-hmm.

Travis White (56:35.786)
Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen (56:48.898)
And I've learned this over years of not doing this and failing and not being motivated to do stuff. And now I just know what makes me tick and makes me go and like it's momentum, baby. So keep it rolling.

Travis White (56:59.937)
Awesome. Well, I think that's a good place to end. Thank you all for listening. I hope you can take something from this and go try yourself and become more resilient and have the same inspiration from Dan or get the same amount of inspiration from Dan that I was able to get and pick up on. You can find us on at over comp pod on Instagram and on YouTube.

And please like, share, and subscribe. Do all that fun stuff and help us get our name out there. Until next time, thanks everyone.