Interview at Dalton State University

And he's gonna get started here. So, Dr. Dan, um, I asked him to, and I gave you both que sets of questions because there were some on here that he was going to address. He doesn't have, he's not specific to behavior change, but he's definitely specific to the success question. So I'm not prepared. Yeah. He's not prepared, but he's always so good, even when he is not prepared. So

we're gonna try to go in order, but we may jump around. Um, so the first question is about, um, childhood looking back,

key positive and or negative people or situations that had an influence kind of thing. And like, like I said, my childhood had a, I think I had a, a pretty good childhood. I grew up in Panama, like not Panama City, Florida, but Panama, the country. Right. Um,

and, uh, we had a, we lived a middle class life. My dad was an architect and architect, engineer and, and a contractor sometimes. And, um, so we had a,

a good middle class life. Uh, we would go, we would come to the US on vacation, like for summer vacation. And I actually, um,

we would,

we would go to the, um, back then Panama had, uh, a canal zone,

which was an American

zoned five miles on each side of the canal was American territory. And they had their own schools, and they had their

own cities and whatever. And we would pay, and we lived in, in Colon in the, on the, in Panama. And we would pay tuition to go

so that I could go to, uh, to American schools, which is, I never took a Spanish class in my life,

but I, I learned Spanish at, at home.

And, uh, I started,

back then they called it nursery, nursery school, but it was,

uh, pre-K.

So

from pre-K on, it was English, pretty much English education. So you felt Americanized. I am, I'm, I am very American. Right. So then people's like you grew up in, grew up in Panama. So I, I never felt,

and oh, this is a, this is a, never felt like I belonged to either group really. Right, yeah. Because I wasn't, I was too gringo for my Panamanian friends, and I was too Panamanian for my gr girlfriend. So it was never a good, you know,

so anyway,

um,

and my mom, like I said, my mom was a little bit of a,

um,

she would criticize a lot so that I, I think that affected my self-esteem. Um, and to this day, I'm not like the most,

you know, uh, confident person. I mean, I'm, I'm comfortable here.

Uh, there are situations I don't, you'll,

you know, I, I've gotten over that. Let's just say that. I've, I've,

it's taken 50 something years for me to,

uh, get over. Okay. Well that's the kinda stuff we want to hear about though. Okay. Okay. Well, so how did you

get over that? Um, it's taken literally a lifetime to get over. Right? Um,

um,

you know,

it's, I,

I have done thing, I have done, um, a lot of

self-help.

Uh, I have found that there's, and I've done a lot of things that people would consider little out, uh,

uh, dabbled in Scientology for a little bit. Um, and people are like, Ooh. Um, but yeah, and that, and, and to be honest, I think that changed my life. Um, it kind of

let me know what was possible.

I don't know anything about psychology. Well, and it, honestly, it was, it is just, uh, uh, that's,

there is,

I didn't want to go get into this mm-hmm. But there, in Scientology, there's Dianetics and there's Scientology. When you talk about the mind, it's all, it's called dianetics. And when you talk about spirit and that kind of stuff, all of a sudden it's the religion of sto because you can't talk about

spirit without having it a religious connotation. Right. Okay.

So when you talk about that, then you talk, then it's Scientology. But the Dianetics part, they teach you how to study, they teach you how, um, things, uh,

uh, past traumas affect

how you think programming, that kind of stuff. Oh. So I'm very much into that stuff to this day.

But obviously I'm not into the,

you know, the, that framework anymore.

So, um, so through,

through stuff that I've done and I've done, like I said, I've done quite a lot of stuff. I've kind of broken free, if you will,

from, you know,

you never mentioned this before as it related to the transformational Ladder story.

So was that before or after that? Uh, that was bef, that was right around that time.

Oh, which is okay. Which is kind of building up to that. Yeah. Um, and, and going back to that, to transformational ladder, is, is that when you talk about the fall? Yes. Okay. Mm-hmm.

So my story,

um, I was a restaurant manager at an, at a, at a Wendy's.

I've worked for, I worked for all kind of fast food,

but this was,

I was 10 years into my

restaurant management career.

And I was, I did not realize it at the time, but I wasn't happy.

And,

you know, it's, it's kind of hard to to say you when you're not happy.

You don't really know it,

you know? 'cause you could be miserable and not really know. 'cause you don't know the difference. It, it's, you know.

Yeah.

You were only 28? I was only 28. Okay. But 28 sounds okay. Imagine, have you ever heard the analogy of like boiling a frog? Mm-hmm.

You don't really know

un until it, 'cause that's, that's your reality. You don't know. And then you realize, oh man, that was, that was horrible. Yeah.

So anyway,

um, so I was

not really happy. I am, I am married already. I'm four years into a marriage. That's kind of, things aren't going well. But I thought, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give it a shot. I'm gonna do this thing.

So, um,

anyway, long story short, I am,

and I'm, and I am, uh,

as a manager, I didn't really know how to manage people. I didn't know how to confront. I would, was very aggressive

and, and doing things that, like today, if you, you couldn't

even imagine me doing certain things. Like I would throw food at some of the, you know, like,

what are you guys, you know, and I would throw, throw food at

the guys in working in the kitchen. Oh, wow. Just because and, and yell and belittle and, you know, that was pretty,

but I, 'cause I didn't know it. And, and, and my previous managers had all done that. Wow. So I'm like, okay, if I'm gonna be a manager, if I'm going to run things, I gotta do it that way.

Okay. This definitely goes under number four negative influences. Okay. Well that's, that's a very negative influence.

And I remember one time I made a, I made one, I made a grown man cry

because I was so abusive.

And I, you know, I I'm not proud of that. I was so abusive. I came in, uh, I was working the closing shift, and I came in and I guess they were shorthanded. I, and I just, I'm like, this is the worst restaurant I've ever seen in my life. And look at this and look at that. This is a mess. And, right. Anyway,

this guy calls the, our boss crying,

which ended up getting me raise. Strangely enough, they

encourage us because, well, they did encourage this. There's some stereotype, like those food shows where the chefs yell at people. Yes. And they did of the culture is like, because we know who it's high stress and that's good. I got called into a meeting, I thinking I was gonna be in trouble. But they're like,

we know who's really running the store over there. Yeah. Oh. So, so they're like, you have, uh,

we'll take care of you if you want to. You have your choice of, of if you want to get transferred to your own store. And,

um, so

anyway, so I am in this,

uh, I'm, I'm telling the guys to change the sign on the special, you know, back in the day they all, Wendy's had a little

special. Yeah. Those things put up. Yeah. Two for one or whatever it was. They had a little special. And then you had to

go up there and, and put the sign or, or either with a, with a little stick.

So, and these guys are just playing around and they're, you know,

joking around throwing.

I'm like, you know what,

ex expletive, expletive, get down from there.

I'm gonna do it myself. So I went up there and I'm, you're on the ladder. I'm on the ladder, and I'm, ah, putting up the thing

angrily.

And I fell.

I tried to catch myself, and I twisted myself and I fell. And when I, when I landed, I couldn't breathe. I mean, the Wendy sign is how hot it was. It was, it's taller than, it's way taller than this. It's 12 feet high or something. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah.

Wow. But when I landed, I couldn't, I couldn't breathe. And it, it knocked my ribs out

and I couldn't get to catch a breath. And I didn't know what was going on. So I said, call, call 9 1 1,

you know, and they're, they're all looking at me

like,

you know, he's not bleeding. So, but, but I couldn't, you know, I was like, call 9 1 1. And then one of the girls that worked for me, she, she ran out and she's like, well, I know chiropractor right around the, the corner.

And I will call. 'cause apparently he was her chiropractor. Yeah. I will call

and I'll see if he'll wait for you. And it was already like nine, 6:30 PM I'm like, eh, what kind of doctor does that?

Yeah. You know?

And it, so you didn't even know what chiropractic was? I had no idea. Never, never been, never, never seen. This was a while back. Chiropractic has just gotten big just in the last No, it's just,

it's been around 125 years actually. I know. But you know what I mean, as a culture, we, well, we're, we're more accepting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We're more, we're more open about it.

But anyway, this, this girl calls, calls her chiropractor, and it's an old guy. And he's like, yeah, I'll wait for him.

So I get there,

there's no staff because he was there by himself.

So he's

come on back and he started working on me.

And, um,

and

miracle

I could breathe.

I'm like, this, there's something to this thing.

So I, um, I remember,

you know, he told me to come back a couple times and I, and I did. And every time that he worked on me, I was just fascinated, just just fascinated by the stuff that he would say. And he would do, he would do muscle testing on me. And I don't know if you guys know what muscle testing is, but he would tell me, uh, you know, there's a problem with your adrenal glands.

And I was like, okay,

what the hell are my adrenal glands? And how do you, how can you possibly know this stuff? Mm-hmm. And he would test and be like, okay, certain points. And, and they would go, my muscles would go weak.

It's like, wow, that, that's crazy.

And one day, I'm, I'm, and he's,

he's off to the side writing something down while, and I, and I was just sitting there, I was watching him

and see here, here's where it gets silly. And, and, uh,

I was watching him and I was thinking to myself,

that seems

I'm gonna get choked up again.

Aw. That seems like the coolest job in the world.

And,

and I wish I could do that. Yeah.

Aw.

And then that's when outside of my,

I heard a voice

outside of my head.

This was not in my head. It was just like,

like,

you know, and I heard a voice. I said, well, why don't you,

and I almost fell off

my chair. I literally, 'cause it scared me. I had never experienced anything like that before, ever.

So, um, I, I, you know, I'm like, okay, I gotta keep it together.

Let's get through this visit.

So I got the hell out of there

and one, and it's like, okay, what do I do? What do I do? I didn't. And back in those days,

you didn't go on Google. There was no such thing as Google. You had to go to the library. Right? Yeah. So I'm like, do a decimal. And you looked it up and you looked at, right. You wrote down the number and you, and you went in the card catalog. And I, I don't think any of the middle. No, I don't. They don't know what I'm talking about. That's terrible. Um,

and I found, um,

schools, right. So I, I actually, you wrote to them.

I actually wrote letters to like four or five schools. And, and I, and I saw a map and it's like, okay, there's these schools all over the country. And, uh, I'm like, Ooh, there's one in Iowa. I don't want to go there. It's too cold. And, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm in Miami, by the way. Yeah. And all I know is, is hot weather, Panama and Miami. So, um,

I wrote to this school in Atlanta,

and um,

and I got, actually got accepted.

And, uh, and three months, it, it's about what was about three months later. And I just,

everything happened

the way it had to happen.

Marriage crumbled,

uh, ev just, everything ended right when it

perfectly, I had to, I have to say, just,

and, and, uh, and then the next thing I know, I'm, I'm starting chiropractic school.

Um, and that's, yeah. Didn't the career stuff fall apart? Kind of too, like you said, you Well, I, and what happened was I had decided, okay, I'm, I'm gonna do this. And, and by the way, all my friend, whenever

I think this is significant, whenever I told my friends what my new plans were, they always shot it down.

Mm.

Everybody told me I was a,

you're not gonna do it. You can't, you can't, you're not good enough. Nah, you're, you're full of crap. You've done, you've done so many things before

and you've never finished anything.

And

every, you know, and even my close, my closest friends were probably the worst ones. 'cause they knew me better and they knew all, all my mistakes. So,

uh, so I realized, okay, well I, if I'm gonna do this, I, I, I gotta do, I gotta do it myself. So,

um, I packed up, my crap

moved. I asked for time off at my job. 'cause my, my plan is how am I gonna support myself? I didn't know anything.

How am I gonna support? Support? So I,

um, asked my job

for time off and I said, well,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna transfer

to freaking Atlanta. Wendy's in Atlanta, and I'll, I'll, I'll do that.

So, um,

I, I went, I rented an apartment. I moved in and I came back ready to work.

Turns out

that I got fired

because of,

um, there, there was a guy that was taking, taking money.

Oh. But the problem was, I had not signed off on my

register account or something.

I mean, they, they knew this guy was doing something,

but they got him. And, but I didn't sign my

safe count or whatever it was. So you got, so I got fired.

So, oh my God. Now I don't have a place. I, I can't earn money. Well, how, how's it gonna hap? How's it gonna work?

Anyway, so I said, okay. Well,

and I tried to stick around 'cause I was gonna work. I was gonna, I had moved already my stuff, but I was gonna stick around and work a little bit until it was time for school Yeah.

To start.

Um, so anyway, I, uh, can I interject for one second? Sure. One of the reasons I love this, you know, several of you were here for

the, the Wonder Boys thing, which I still need to post if you missed it. But I don't know if you've seen that movie. It's old Michael Douglas and I don't think so. Who's the Spider-Man? Boy, I forget his name. There's several good people in

Francis McMan. Anyway,

his whole life falls apart before it gets Zack together kind of thing. And it almost, it has to fall on the case.

It almost has to fall apart

for it to, for a significant change to happen. Right. Things have to

not work anymore. Right. This was still at 28. Yeah,

this was at, at 28. So everything kind of fell apart. Marriage fell apart, got fired.

Like everything I had planned did not work out. Everything I had like, 'cause

like, I'm like, I've got this, and I planned it and everything

went to crap.

So, and I'm like sitting around, looking around, like, and, and my friends are no motivational help either.

Because another thing that we were, uh, just, I, I

gotten over, uh, divorce.

So I was going out drinking, like, yeah. So, and I'd go out with one set of, of friends, and then the next night I go out with a different, so nobody knew that I was overdoing it either. Mm-hmm. I don't think I was ever

had a problem. But I was this close to a problem.

Okay. This. Yeah. So, um,

anyway, so I said, you know what, I'm just gonna go. 'cause I was so excited

to go to New Life, right. So I'm like, all, all right. I just went. So I, so I, I moved in

and it was,

you know, it was probably the toughest, toughest thing. And I, you know what, the third quarter I, I was flunking.

I, I, it was the hardest thing of my life. And I remember I did all my classes and third quarter,

I, I couldn't,

couldn't do it.

Plus I was,

again, I had never done the whole college life. And maybe I was doing a little more, too much socializing.

And, uh, so, and I got derailed.

One of the things I did is like, okay, this is serious. I really wanna do this. I do not wanna fail in this.

I can't because

I cannot fail in this.

'cause I had no other options. This I, my whole, I blew up my whole life and I'm going this way and I'm failing.

So I'm like, I can't fail in this. So I, I called a,

a hypnotist. I didn't know what else to do.

And I, and I got a hypnotherapy session. I got a couple sessions

to not flunk out. And I don't know if it worked or not,

but I passed.

Okay. I passed my, my classes, it was harder. And I, I was on, on prob on academic, academic probation for a little bit. I couldn't get student loans, but it, but I managed to do it. But you had a positive hypnotherapy experience. Yes. Very positive. At, at 28, which was

a while back. Mm-hmm. That's an unusual choice to make. Well, but it, but, but my, I've always been attracted to different stuff, different stuff. Alternative stuff. I always tell the story. My, my dad,

um, and my, and listen, I didn't,

my dad would go, um,

my dad had a chiropractor. I didn't know this until, until way later. Yeah. You didn't even know. Yeah. It's like, oh, he used to go to, he used to drive to Panama City, to this guy that was around for, for years and years to get adjusted. I never knew that.

But, um, he was always into, into natural stuff. So I remember he got an ulcer

because of my mother. Yeah.

Uh,

critical mom. Yes. Yeah. So he had an ulcer, and, um, he had to change his diet. He had to do things, he had to eat certain things, and I'm okay. And then, you know what, when my marriage was going to crap,

ugh.

I drink a glass of orange juice and I like bend over. I went to the doctor and I said, Hey, doc, okay, what's my diet?

Here's Zantac.

I'm like, but wait,

how long do I have to take this for?

And he is like, chuckled, like, you're an idiot forever. Of course. Yeah. I was like, and that didn't make sense to me because my dad did a diet for a certain period of time. He got better,

and that was it. But really, you need to change whatever's causing the stress. Right.

And, and he got better. So that didn't resonate with me. So I'm like, okay, I, I, you know, so stuff like that always attracted me.

I was, uh, into vitamins and, and that kind of stuff, even before I knew anything about chiropractic.

So this was kind of a good fit.

So, um, oh, so I'm, I'm, I, I almost flunked out and, and, uh, came back from that.

And, um, so what, what's, uh, what's, where were we? Okay. Yeah. Well, I want us to link this into number six because you've already, he's already kind of addressed the obstacles, which was number three, and the positive and negative influences somewhat. Mm-hmm. But I'm jumping to number six, because that's the difference between successful people and those who don't achieve the goals. So what do you, at that point,

you weren't successful. You would describe yourself as not so successful up until that point. Right. Your relationships, your career, your everything. Because, so I gave up. Yeah. That's the thing I would always give up.

Okay.

So persistence is, it's too hard. But you know what I, and number one, I couldn't give it up because I already moved to a new city.

Uh,

and it, it's almost harder to give up

than, than, you know, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's just, so I'm like, all right, well this has gotta work. And, and

I mean, I tried to,

you know,

I had a period that I was gonna get out of the, the restaurant business. And I rented cars. I sold real estate. Uh, you know, and then, and then I felt like I failed everything. And I had to, I went back to a restaurant because I was,

I was decent at that.

'cause I, I wasn't decent at,

at as selling, you know, selling real estate and, and that. So I was like,

I guess I'm good at being a restaurant manager. 'cause

they're trying, trying to throw money at me, be for throwing food at people.

That's unfortunate. Right.

So I must be good at that. Mm-hmm. But then, then, but there was no,

I didn't love it. Yeah.

Ooh. And I love this. This was this that's made the difference. Uhhuh, when you say who we're looking at successful people or your idea of success, you gotta love it. You have to love it. Yeah. Yeah. But

you have to love it with everything.

It,

you're so cute today. Oh my god.

Yeah. You thought

this is the first time you've really gotten emotional. I like it. Um,

to love it.

That's good. I, I would do this for free. Yeah.

And you're really good at it. And I don't know if that's, but

I'm really good at it. Practice, or, but I'm really good at it because I love it so much. Yeah.

Right. That's, and that's the thing, I, I have friends of mine that are,

they're, they're decent chiropractor. And, and I'm not, listen, I'm not saying I'm the best guy. I'm the best one. I know.

You know, I really, and it's, I, I really don't want to come off as like

Yeah.

Uh, conceited or, or overcome, you know. But I,

listen, I've been doing this a long time and I'm good at it. And I'm, and I'm better today than I was yesterday. 'cause I learned something new. Yeah.

So open to learning. You have, but,

okay.

So it's hard, it's hard to, it's hard to explain this stuff, but I consider myself an artist.

So if you're doing your art, you have to always put everything and more into it.

Like,

um,

and, and almost take away the stuff that,

my favorite quote of, of Leonard DaVinci is, is, um,

was it sophistication? Is the ultimate simplicity. Oh, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

So, and Picasso also said, see, I, I always compare myself to art. Like these, these quotes really resonate with me. And Picasso,

at first, he could, he could do classical. He started off doing classical style paintings, and he was good at it. But as he got

to be amazing, he started doing little line drawings.

He got doing his own thing. Yeah. Because, and the thing is, and he said, um,

you, you,

you take away

everything that's unnecessary.

So one more line would've been too much. One less line would wouldn't have completed it. So, so that you had to, you had to have like a level of perfection, you know, it's like, ah, that's it.

And you know, there's that story about

he's sitting in a cafe, and some lady recognized him, goes up to him, could you, could you sign this for me? So he did a little doodle, and he's like, here you go, madam. That'll be $25,000.

She's like, what? You're crazy. It's like, it only took you five seconds to do that. And he's like, no, madam, it has taken all my life. Right.

You know, so, and that's kind of thing, it, it's taken me,

uh,

all my life to, to get to this point,

to, you know,

but at, but tomorrow I'll be better.

Yeah.

Well, and if I could add to this, sure. Number six,

uh, we've just watched something about eight tips for success or whatever. One of the things he said is that

you're doing it not just for your own self, something like you're, the difference between your chiropractic and, because I've been to, I went to a bunch of chiropractors before I had back surgery,

and

you were different because you're very individualized. You're looking at the person, you're, and there were chiropractors who did like a standard

adjustment, like a textbook adjustment or something.

And this,

I couldn't, I couldn't do that because experience with you is totally different. That's

well, because

almost like I'm a perf I don't know, like I'm Right. You want it to fit for people. Yeah. You're

doing it for, to help people,

I guess. I guess. I mean, um, yeah, I guess.

And again, when I was, when I didn't know what I was doing, I would do what they told me to do. And it's a certain way.

Yeah. It's a certain thing.

Then it was like, well, that I can do better than what they're doing. Right. But the motivation was different. The motivation's always been different. It was never about money.

And I remember going to school and like, I was all excited about, like, I, let me tell you my story and, you know, whatever. And I was, you know, I would tell that story, uh, and then people like, uh, yeah. I couldn't get into medical school. Like, ah, yeah, yeah. It's like, and you know, oh, I hear how much the chiropractors make. And I was like, oh, I, I didn't even know how much a chiropractor made that. That's, that's how you know.

Right. Well, naive, I guess I was.

Um, but I'm glad I, I'm glad I do what I do. I mean, I, I, I think I'm good at it. I mean, I think,

um, the way my mind is right now is like,

I want to help.

There's only, there's only a certain amount of people I can physically put my hands on. So I, I need to, I need to,

that's how I feel like I need to do more. Right.

Okay. I want you to have a chance to look at your notes. I'm gonna do this. Okay. To start.