Blaze Your Own Trail - Turning Adversity into Purpose Overcoming Chronic Illness and Finding Success with Dane Johnson

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Takeaways Adversity can be a catalyst for personal growth and transformation. Sports teach valuable lessons about pushing through pain, self-awareness, and finding one's value. Early work experiences can provide valuable lessons in communication, money management, and understanding the market. Taking control of one's own life and making decisions based on personal values and goals is essential for success and fulfillment. Self-awareness and perseverance are key qualities in overcoming challenges and achieving goals. Blazing your own trail requires hard work, communication skills, and building relationships. Success in the modeling and acting industry is not just about looks, but also about relatability and connection. Dane Johnson's experience with chronic illness led him to start Crohn's Colitis Lifestyle, a company that helps people with inflammatory bowel disease through functional medicine. Trust, integrity, and customization are crucial in the healthcare industry. Having a strong business mind and being humble and hungry are essential for success in any field. Chapters00:00 Introduction and Purpose03:23 Adversity and Early Work Experiences06:04 Diagnosis and Decision to Move to Los Angeles08:33 Lessons from Sports and Athletics13:44 Value and Communication in Work Experiences16:16 Money Management and Discipline21:33 Turning Point: One Way Ticket to L.A.24:19 Blazing Your Own Trail in the Modeling and Acting Industry26:40 Overcoming Chronic Illness and Finding Success39:01 Helping People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease through Functional Medicine46:29 The Importance of Trust, Integrity, and Customization in Healthcare48:27 The Role of a Strong Business Mind in Achieving SuccessThanks for listening! Connect with DaneConnect with Jordan:LinkedInInstagramTikTokJoin Jordan's weekly Group Coaching Community Risk Free    Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Own Trail Podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza. I'm your host, and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Dane Johnson, and I'm going to have him tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does today. Jordan, thanks so much for having me, and I'm so excited to be here and share my story of how I blazed my own trail and how I took the worst thing that ever happened to me and turned it into the best thing that ever happened to me, and I took pain and turned it

into purpose. And if you're here and you've been through hard times and you're stuck and you feel like you're in a hold and not sure how to get out, this is dedicated to you. And I hope that today we go over a lot of things that are going to be a catalyst for your ultimate success. Thank you for having me, Jordan. Yeah, my pleasure. And, you know, my favorite part of the show is we were just kind of chatting, you know, off air is really just taking a rewind and getting deep context into people's story, into their journey. And so I'd love for you to share, you know, where were you born and raised? What kind of kid where you, what stuff did you get into?

If you can share some adolescent years, we're thinking like elementary, middle, and high school years. Yeah, so I was born in Kansas, and my parents were kind of moving around for my dad's job. So it was Kansas, Georgia. Then we landed in Virginia in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, Haymarket, Virginia, and I was raised there. And, you know, our neighbor had horses, and we were on gravel roads. and the neighbors liked the hunt. And it was just a good, clean kind of upbringing. I mean, I've always kind of wanted to give my own, my own kids,

a very similar upbringing to mine because when you walked out of my house, there were no cars. Like, there was land. We could run around. I spent all day playing with friends all day. Like, it was just, I remember being six, seven, eight years old and just feeling really clear and clean in life. And I felt so grateful to, to my, you know, my parents and to God.

anything about this reality. I just, I wasn't raised wealthy. I wasn't raised with a silver spoon of any sort, but I was raised in a place where my parents were happy people and I was a happy person. And, and I loved sports. I play. I was just vivacious about basketball, football, loved golf, did a little bit of skateboarding, you know, I just plan every day. I would sleep at a friend's house sometimes like a week at a time. I was that kid, just always out, a little rug rat. But then adversity started to strike. My parents had divorced when I was 13 years old. It was an ugly divorce.

It was two good people who should not be together and completely opposite in energy. And that hurt me. And it changed. I mean, my mom and dad were just completely different people. And then they didn't treat each other very great at a certain part. That affected me as because you are your parents in a way. Like I see my dad and myself. But I also see my mom and myself.

And they're like black and white. Honestly, it's like, how did you guys even get married? You're so different. And so that did start to shape me. And then all of a sudden, in my teenage years, I was going from one house to another. So every week or two weeks, I'd change houses. And there were two different environments to live in. The moment I got a car, I was out, dude.

I was like, get burn a CD on the road, let's roll. I started working when I was 14. Got something inside of my parents. I was always a hard worker. I didn't like the idea of things just happening to me. I liked more to happen to life. So something about me is I'm not energetic. so big on fate. I believe in a certain temperature or temper of fate, but I like to be in control.

I like to have a say in what happens. And that really sparked an entrepreneurial part of me. And I think it helped save me with what I was diagnosed with. And during those years, which I'll get into. So, yeah, I was a good kid. I never really heard anyone. I just like being around friends. I was very social. I love sports. I just, I didn't even when I went to college, I didn't really, I was just a smart kid, but I didn't like books. I didn't like the issues there. I was more street smart. I was more of a communicator.

I was more of a sales guy. I was a guy, you know, I worked at Papa John's Pizza at 14 years old, and then I was working at a golf course, and then I was caddying, and then I was working as a waiter. I mean, I was just always working. I mean, when I thought back to high school, one thing I think that helped me really blaze my trail is when I think back in ninth, 10th grade, I was working 60 hours a week. I was doing 30 at the pizza place and 30 at school. I was much harder than college, right?

Think about it. College is 15 credit hours. That's 15 hours a week. It's not that hard, right? I mean, yeah, you might have a lot of homework and all that. So that's kind of who I was. And we just ate whatever. Back in Virginia, it's like where it's pizza night, spaghetti, any of those issues.

We just ate. We didn't know organic food. We didn't know functional medicine. When I was 19, I started getting blood in my stool. and I didn't know where it was from and I was just in I was going to college of Charleston in South Carolina and there was all the guys there we're just we would drink some beers

play some beer pong go to drive over to the USC game the game Cox watch them play we would and just just hang and all of a sudden I'm getting blood in the stool by the time I'm 22 when I graduated I got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and I didn't know what it was and I wasn't trying to talk about bowel movements with anybody

and so that was an interesting concept. And I apologize, my camera went out. I'm not sure why, so we're on my computer camera here. And then when I got a diagnosis of collides doctors say, hey, you're going to have this for the rest of your life. It's a movement you can do about it. And then I'm like, okay. So I'm like, well, give me what you're going to give me.

I mean, I was a guy that like, you just worry about your life. You just do your thing. And if you have a health problem, you just go to the doctor. So went to the doctor, he gave him some steroids, It's giving me what's called a 5 ASA, stomach coder, a saline, or you could, they call it layout to other things. And that kind of took over my life. So when you were asking Jordan for everyone out there, you know, listening, I was very much like,

got to be an entrepreneur. I'm willing to work hard. I'm willing to go make my own money. I had $40,000 in debt from college. I never wanted to go to college. I always thought school was a sham personally for me. Like I was a businessman. I thought my favorite class in college.

college was a class called Entrepreneurship, but this guy named Tommy Baker, and he owned like three or four Mercedes dealerships, and you would bring in another entrepreneur every week just to talk to us about how they built the company. I was like, forget business law. This is great. Like, this is what I want to learn. So for me personally, I was really into just like network. What are you about?

I'm willing to work hard. I don't need this stuff. I was also an avid weightlifter. I love to exercise. You know, for Christmas, I asked for weightlifting equipment at 14 years old. I just love to push myself and compete and be the best I can. And that was to my detriment in certain ways and it was to my benefits in certain ways. And so it was a long and tough road when I got sick because I was such a kid.

And I had to actually just manifested this really big thing in my life. And I think a lot of people have ever wondered this. But when I was a kid, I'd watch movies and I'd say, man, I think I can do that. You ever had that thought, Jordan? You're like, I think I could do that. And so I had a little bit of like, I think I could. So I took a one-way trip at 23 years old to, like, to Los Angeles, California from Tyson's Corner.

We were talking about earlier. And I want to get into that in just two seconds. So let's unpack a couple of these things, because I think you drop definitely some nuggets. There are some things that I have some questions about. And then we want to hear about this one-way ticket to L.A. Because I think it sounds like a pivotal moment. I'm very interested in that.

So let's go back to sports. You mentioned you love basketball, you love football. What are some lessons that you love? learn being an athlete that still stick with you today, whether it's something that you see in your business, something in the way that you show up, the way that you maybe work with your team. You know, are there some things that you learned along the way? Sports taught me how to be aggressive and how to push through pain. Like, you know, when you're just sprinting down the court, someone's on a breakaway, your

heart, your hearts are on, your lungs are on fire. you can hardly breathe your heart rate's sitting at 190 and that game you've got to move it's fourth quarter you will never push yourself sports taught me that you will never push yourself as hard as you think you can until you're on a team when there's other people and you see them pushing and you're trying to push you'll just push yourself way harder than you will independently so if you're in the if you're a guy in the gym or you're just going for a run or whatever you're never going to push as hard is it's fourth quarter, there's two minutes left, and we got to win this game. So it taught me how to push through and how to feel pain and not just talk. I think before sports, especially a lot of us,

we're always imagining what it would be like to compete. We're imagining. We're imagining what we would do, how clever we would be. But when you, when you're in the game or you're competing against other strong, powerful, capable people, there's no more talk. And so it's also humbling because you're going to get beat. And so you start learning about yourself about like, wow, where are you really good at things and where are you, where do you have limits? I learned, I had limits in basketball.

I had a great shot. I was a good basketball player. But once I started playing in private school against kids who were going D1 and I'm playing against kids in the McDonald's game, forget it. It was like, wow, I'm humbled. I know I can now see that athleticism is out of this world. Like, I can't do that. So it taught me where quickly, where I could focus on how I could be a value, how I could win in this world in my realm and where I might need to say, let's bow out.

Because I thought I was going to play college basketball. I really loved basketball growing up. I played all day long. I practiced all day. And it just, I didn't have it. I wasn't big enough, fast enough, strong enough. I'm 6-2. It's just not that big in basketball.

I was the second shortest kid on my high school team. Okay. I played at a private school called Notre Dame Academy. and our center was 6-11. I mean, they recruited kids from around the world to play that, kids who really had a shot. So I was bench, you know, I was in the Haymarket. I was great. Nope, here, bench.

So, you know, my best bet was golf and I was a good golf player, but I didn't have the patience for golf long term. Like when you start looking at six, seven, eight handicap, you're like, nah, this is, this is, it wasn't for me. But I still love and appreciate people it is for. So that's what sports really taught me. Sports taught me that if you're going to be successful in life, you've got to be willing to fail in order to succeed. And that's what it is to step on the court. That's what it is to put on those pads.

I got a concussion, two broken fingers and a broken arm playing football because I'm just not that big dude. I'm six, too, but I walk around in high school, I was 165. I mean, some of those big guys, I mean, they're 510 walking around at 2.15. I didn't think like that. I couldn't take a hit. I was more like a grasshopper. And so, and then I also wasn't that fast. I couldn't run a 4-4, a 4-3, right?

So I think that it's one of the best decisions I made my life to compete and to try and to push and really learn about myself on where I was good, where I wasn't. And that really helped as I became a man. It really helped as I became an entrepreneur to know thyself and be okay with losing the game and not giving up. Yeah, that's great. And so that's great lessons. And I think the biggest thing that, yeah, I think the biggest thing that stuff. out for me there is self-awareness, right? You're able to really kind of understand where your strengths were, where your weaknesses were. And then, like you said, try to figure out, okay, where can I

leverage my talents and ability in other places. So that's great. And the other thing I wanted to chat about was starting to work at 14 years old. I did the same thing. I worked for the Oregonian newspaper. I would go door to door and try to get people to sign up for the newspaper. And there might be some listeners. A newspaper is this big square thing that people used to get. No, I'm just kidding. Everybody knows what a newspaper is. But, you know, I was doing that and knocking on 100 doors a day and getting yelled at, cussed at, waking up people's babies, upsetting people's dogs.

And even when there's a no-slisting sign, risking it all, risking my life. And that really taught me a lot about myself, right? I mean, it helps you develop tough skin when you can learn how to speak to people, face, to face. And so I'd love to have you share what were some foundational things you learned at Papa John's. You're working at a pizza shop. And I don't know if you were making the pizzas or if you're sweeping the floors or putting the boxes together or maybe all of that could be everything. But what were some foundational things you learned at an early age that really helped you get to that million dollar business level? So when I was 14 years old, I had to get my dad to sign

something to get me to work at Papa Johns. And he said, why do you want to do this? I'll pay you 20 bucks to scrub the toilets. I would work way harder for someone else than my own father. I don't know why. It wasn't work with my dad. I didn't want to clean the house. I wanted to go get a grit. I wanted to go into the world. I think some of the big things I learned is it was like it is very similar to a basketball game. I wanted to play the real game. When I got a job, it wasn't about how much I was making. It was about this is what value is in the market. This is the market. People are calling. They're giving you money for something and you're delivering. So I was in the game of business, and I wanted to see what, what is, what are things worth?

What, what makes someone say yes? What makes someone say no? And so at 14, I was learning about if you buy two medium pizzas, you get 50% off the second one here at Domino's. And we also will do a shipping discount. Like I was learning about incentives. I was learning about leverage. I was learning about putting together like my first boss would give me a hard time if I put too much cheese because I made the pizzas.

Like, I could flip a pizza. I would make 220 pizzas a night myself. Like dough up in the air, flip it down the aisle. Like oven, all of it. I was oven, driver. I worked at pizza places for four and a half years on and off. I made good money as a driver. I was making like 22 cash.

One thing I learned early on is like if I had to wait to get paid for two weeks, they would take a lot out in taxes. But when I did a tip job, I got all my cash that night. And so it was another thing I learned real quick is how cash works. taught me the first things about taxes and leverage on finances. And so at 14, my thought was, I want to work to save for a car. And I wanted a Mustang. And my dad, I saved $1,000. I made $5.15 a hour, Jordan. Do you know how long it took me to save $1,000 of taxes? Yeah, I'm flipping pizzas. My dad took that money, bought a car without even me knowing what the car

was. I had no say. He was like, yep, I'll take the G. I'll let you know when I find something. So he got me good there. But he got me something cool. What was the car? That's what we need. He got me a Chevy. He got, I know everyone's going to behave. My dad for this.

He got me a Chevy Cavalier, 2004, I think 2004, 2003, something like that, 2004. But it was stick shift. It had a sunroof. It had a CD player, which are the things I wanted. But it was a, dude, that thing, because we had winners and stuff, that thing slid all over ice. I did a 360 once or twice in that thing that I was not trying to. to do. So, you know, you give a young boy a car. You give him a tank. That's what I'm doing with my son. So,

but I learned. I worked hard. It was like, I got a thousand bucks. This is what I did with it. And I learned about tips and cash. And I learned about like what environment I wanted to work in. Like, did I want to stay inside and how my boss have his eyes? I mean, the whole time. That's why I moved into driver. That's why I moved into caddy and golf courses. And I had a value. We were talking about value on the field. I realized I had a value in golf because I was good. I was the number one seed. high school in senior year on my golf team. So all these guys in there who were shooting like 93, 96, I could give them a little bit of tips. I could talk to them about their swing for free or clean their clubs and they'd throw me money. So all of a sudden I went from 5, 15 an hour

at 14. By the time I was 16, I was making 18 an hour. So I learned how to how money works and how value works and how to make more per hour. So you learned how to talk. I learned how to communicate with people, make friends to network. I learned where my value was and why. looking professional is big. A lot of kids go in there with their pants sagging and just stinky and their hair all messed up. It's like, you're not going to grow. So I really wanted to grow. And I know a lot of you guys out there are listening because you want to do big things. And so you've just got to, you just got to be street smart. I'm really, if I'm going to be honest with you, I really am still to this day not all that excited about what they're teaching in schools.

And I think if you're going to be successful in life, it's what you do at that job. It's what you do listening to this and take massive action. You're going to mess up. There's going to be things that go wrong. I got fired from a great job over a girl when I was 16. You know, it was a live and learn. Right. So you just act and just go for it and just keep putting that next goal right in front of you.

And so I loved working. And for me, I was like seize get degrees. I didn't put all that extra effort to work. I put that extra effort into working. Like I put, I'm sorry, I put that extra, didn't put that extra effort into school. I put that extra effort into working into work. and making money. It wasn't because I needed that money,

is because that was really what was going to prepare me to be a good interviewer, go to that job and really do it. And so, Jordan, when I graduated college, I didn't really have a great GPA. I got into College of Charleston as I transferred from a community college. And I hacked that.

You want to hear any college kids listening right now? I did 30 credits in a community college that cost me 40%. And I had to pay for a lot of my college, 40% of what the university charged, They were way easier. I got straight A's in the class, B's, A's, B's, and I was able to transfer into a college that I never would have got into at high school. They didn't even even my SATs or transcript after 30 credits.

And I didn't have to pay, I didn't have to pay $2,000, $3,000 a class out of state for those credits. I was able to pay half the, it was easy. They're pre-electives. I'm in there for a business degree and we're talking about social studies. What are we talking about? These pre-electives are a joke. So it saved money. It saved time.

It got me into a college. I never would have to think strategically about how to how to move forward like take more action and stop doubting yourself and stop letting all these tricks the world's play on you affect what you can do because you can do it's it's it's smoke and mirrors you can do a lot more than the world says you can do and it's there's there's a lot of fear there and you just have to understand the market what is the market what is what are things worth and then treat people with respect. Treat them with respect. Take care of people. Be an honest person. Okay. And when in doubt, it's uncertain, give. Just give. Just watch that carmatic value. Take care of the market. Just give.

And go the extra mile. And you're going to, and people are going to be repeat business. They're going to grow with you. And you're going to build your confidence that, yeah, I can do this because I understand who I am and how I can lead. And I'm Sir Jordan. You were the same. Like, once you build that confidence on how you lead and how your character is, your mind will think bigger. Like, you know what? I can do a million. Because I know I'm the right guy. I know I have the right temperament. I know how I trust myself with money. You know, that's another thing I think, Jordan, when I was in that age, like I had three, four hundred dollars. I could go buy some new Jordans. I could go buy those new clothes. I could go spend. Nah, nah, I saved. And just the act of

saving proved to me that I had the discipline to manage money to not getting credit card debt. Like so many of us just need to go back and condition ourselves about what money is worth. because with me, if I've got millions of dollars moving around and I've got 15, 20 mouths to feed and everyone's riding everyone's job, their ability to pay their mortgage and take care of their kids is riding the success of my business, our business. I've got, there's a lot of trust there. It all has to be done correctly. And that started at Papa John's.

That's started at 16. That's great. That's great. Yeah. And again, I always tell my clients I'm working with is we have to look at the foundations. And I think that's going to resonate with a lot of people. And they're going to have to wait until part two to get there. And when we get part two started, the one thing that we're going to jump into is this one-way ticket to L.A.

Yeah. L.A., so I have been diagnosed with Crohn's, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. Hustoidis than another doctor said Crohn's and ulcerative clitis. These are forms of inflammatory bowel disease that are considered incurable. By the time I was 27, they nearly killed me. At 23, I moved to L.A. And it was just this massive irony. And that was one of the most painful thing I ever went through was the Crohn's and

Claudeus nearly killed me. But it also shaped the man I am and completely changed my idea of what's normal and how to live and how to empower myself. Today I take no medications. I've taken medication in 10 years. I never got any surgeries. And I have no symptoms. And I gained 65 pounds of weight.

So right around 26, I was already in L.A. I was in a wheelchair, 120 pounds, couldn't walk. And so that was very difficult. We'll get to that story a little bit. But L.A., it was that vivacious confidence. So I think what gave me that confidence to do it? I think it was all the jobs. I think it was the discipline around money.

It was the fact that I went through college and did college, even though I never was a huge fan of it. It was the fact that I ran a business in college while I was going to school. So I got, I started my first company. Well, I bought the company actually at 18 years old and was incomplete debt from, from, from it, but I paid it off with the company's earnings. And it also gave me in-state tuition in South Carolina because I made myself an employee and paid that taxes in that state. So the last two years, I saved 50% of tuition because I only, I was in-state tuition. So that was a

great hack. So going to L.A. was about, I've done it. I got a job. I got a job in Tyson's corner. I worked. I built a resume. I did everything society said I had to be scared about. You've got to go to college. You're never going to get a job. You've got to get a resume. You got to get work experience you're not employable okay i'm 23 i've had i've had a big boy job did it for a year resume looks great run my own company done all these things i worked really really hard and then i was just diagnosed with incurable disease it's like what am i doing i'm sitting in this office i'm wearing this suit i got a i got a i got a i got a drive an hour in tyson's to get to my job i don't even like being there i feel like i'm wasting away what am i doing i think getting getting sick was that wake-up

call that, you know what, I'm going to start living life on my terms because it's short. And even when I did everything society told me to do, I got sick. And it was kind of like my life was being robbed from me. So going to L.A. was about, I didn't go to L.A. I went to Orange County first. And going to Orange County was about where do I actually want to live. I want to live where the mountain meets the sea and there's great sunshine. And people, I just love that outdoor vibey, fit, healthy, clean. I just like it vibe with me. My grandparents were from California. So we used to come all the time. And every time I get up the plane as a kid, I was like, man, this place is dope. I didn't know anything about taxes and politics. So that's another thing. I went to L.A. because my

spirit wanted to be there had nothing to do with Gavin Newsom or or anything to do with the tax codes. I didn't know anything about that when I moved here. And that's always been something really spiritual grounding for me as I came here for the right reasons. I wasn't coming here just because of politics. So came here at 23. I didn't know a person who lived here. At that time, my grandparents had passed. I didn't have a person in my cell phone who lived near me. Met a dude on Craigslist. I mean, this is, I wouldn't advise this, but that a dude moved him with him. That was it. lived there for three months until I moved in with a buddy who eventually from my call has moved to L.A. too, and we teamed up. But that's why I moved. And something amazing

happened were all those dreams I had manifested in a way. So I went forward. And this is really, big and I want people to hear this about blazing your own trail. I was a kid from Virginia. No one knew me. I never done anything that was special. When I went to LA within about four months, I manifested getting signed with one of the biggest agencies in the world. I got signed with four models. I got signed with Osbring Talent Agency for commercial and acting. And I was all of a sudden, I went from Papa John's pizza to going out for jobs that pay $8,000 a day, $5,000 a day. I'm like, what? and I'm in a room with all these athletes and these amazing looking guys who are strong as an ox and had everything given to them.

And I was just diagnosed from incurable disease. Like I was diagnosed six months before I got picked up. And I didn't get picked up because someone found me in a mall or I went to a Zoolander contest. I was just living my life working out twice a day. I was a personal trainer in college. I was just using my mind and my sales ability. And I'm going to tell you right now in that world of going out for movies and going out for commercials and going out for print jobs. I worked all around the world the next few years. I was

hired in New York and Sweden, Germany, Miami, you name it. I had agencies all around the world, but at the same time, I was fighting for my life. How did I do that? And I was hiding my disease from that world. And I'm supposed to be perfect. I mean, think about what you, in that world. Like, you're supposed to be, it's like idolization. It's, it's, you know, being cool and hip and a perfect body and beautiful and all this. And that's kind of one of the reasons I got out. out of it later on. But I was, how did I succeed? I blazed that trail. I made that happen where I was able to work three days a month and make 100K a year and travel the world, be paid to put in five-star hotels. How did I do that? I did that because I knew how to talk to people. When I was working

all those years in regular jobs, I knew how to talk to people. This dude who had everything handed to who was a perfect good-looking 6-3 quarterback who didn't make it in the NFL who was also in that room he didn't know how to talk he didn't have any real sales experience he didn't have communication when you're talking when you're on a set these are regular people the art director's a regular person probably with a master's these are smart people so when i walked in i learned how to strong eye contact strong handshake remember people's names repeat their names back to them ask them qualifying questions of what they're looking for in this project they're spending $100,000 on.

And I would walk in a room and a hundred guys and I'd book. They'd pick me. And it wasn't because I was the best looking or the coolest or I had the most Instagram followers. It was relatability and connection. I believe the world really works way more than you think. I'm being able to relate, connect, show integrity, show that you're a trusting

person, show that you're not someone doped up on drugs and alcohol and that you can take care of yourself and you're a hard worker. People love, they want that around them. They want to hire that. They want you to find you to finally be done with this and they want to put their trust in you and say, I'm done. That's the person I want to work with. It's the same in business or it's the same book in a acting job or modeling job

or any of that. So I did that full time for eight years and that's what really saved me while I was chronically sick. But obviously when I got real sick, I couldn't do anything. I was housebound for a year wheelchair. But that's why I went to L.A. and that's what I was able to do. And I was able to remember, as I told you, Jordan, I used to think I could do that. And no one found me. I had to like, when I first started even looking at that, L.A. laughed at me. I walked into rooms and like, who are you? We see a thousand of you. You're not special.

No one, I was not special. I had to be strategic. You have to stop. I know everyone listening is looking for that it factor. You're just got to make up your mind that you're going to do something and keep poking at it and keep looking at it. And so my wiggle room was I just started finding photographers and getting in commercial classes and then putting that positive energy. If this is who I am, this is how I work, this is what I do. and eventually led to me meeting a manager who said, look, you're not going to go into that agency looking like that.

We're going to change your story. We're going to change your look. You're going to go get sand in your hair. You're going to let your beard grow a little bit. You're going to get a tan. You're going to dress like a surfer bum. You're going to walk in layer like you don't give two cents. And then they love me before that.

Every time I tried so hard, they're like, nah. But I walk in there like, some guy told me to come here, bro. Like, I walk in that disheveled guy. The acting world loves that. But anyways, it was like just the ask and the ask. and the ask where I was able to manifest something that not many people in the world can do. And, you know, obviously there's some genetic gratitude in there. Now it's all about, you know, Instagram followers and all that, I think.

But I just wanted to share that story of blazing my own trail because if I hadn't to have that job where I could work two days a week or two days a month, three days a month, there's no way I would have survived my 20s because I was chronically sick. So I could work one or two days, put on a good face. You know, I did, it was doing good day L.A. with Tommy Hilfinger and I was on love. And I literally had to go to the year right after that segment. I was in Jamaica doing sandals for 10 days. And they paid me all this money to be there for 10 days and be married and be the guy on the resort. And I was living on prednisone steroids.

I was living on cortisone steroids to keep my body calm. So I had to go back to an ER room. But I was I was pooping blood like eight times a day onset. We were shooting this commercial in the middle of the, like middle of the night, like a party scene. And I was losing control of my bowel movements. I'm wearing $800 Tommy Bahama crap running. into the woods in Jamaica, the director's like, where the fuck is? Where are you going? Be right back. I told him I had to throw up. I didn't have to throw up. Like a bear in the woods. Like I can,

as much as I can tell you, I did all these great things. I can tell you great shame in that. Like, if you're going to, if you're going to ask the universe for great things, guys, be careful what you wish for. There's probably going to be some experiences. You're going to probably go through some shame or some failure or some doubt. And there's going to be other people along the way that have that same grit as you. And so know thyself, be willing to fail. You can't, things can't go right unless you risk them going wrong.

It's like, should I not go to Jamaica and do this job? Well, then I might lose my career. Screw it. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Give me the steroids. Up the steroids. Let's go. I didn't know what else to do. Or move back in with mom and go on disability. So, yeah, a lot of everything. The one guarantee on the trail

is there's going to be adversity. You know, whenever you're blazing, a trail. You're going to run into things that you didn't expect. There's going to be detours. There's going to be all of that's going to occur. And the one thing that I've just kind of noticed in your journey is you have, you put in the reps, right? And consistency, all of those things have to come into play. But you've continued to use all of the things that you've learned from 14 and really have added to them and strengthened those areas. right, the areas of communication, the areas of really, when you think about it, it's all social strategy. It's how can I leverage the people in this room and this situation for the most positive outcome and being able to work a room and being able to relate to people. And by being

yourself, all of those things are the makings to getting to success. But trailblazers take the unconventional route. I never went to college. I did. go to college to sell college kids credit cards for and to give them free t-shirts if they signed up for a credit card. So I did go to a bunch of college campuses and do that, but I never went to college because, A, I didn't want to ruin my family's credit or money because they didn't have it. And B, I knew I would just probably go party, you know, so I did sales, did door-to-door sales for five years and took in a couple hundred thousand knows before I turned 22 years old. And that has served me well. You can get a ton of rejection and yeah, yeah, and you can really learn how to, like you said

earlier, Dane, it's about how do you effectively communicate with people because that experience and having it done in the real world on the fly, like live in real time, there's no better training. There's no better training ground to show you who you are, right? Because, yeah, there were days when I sat on the curb with my head between my legs and getting rained on. Because everybody told me no and I let it affect me. But there were also days when I didn't let it affect me. And I went out and sold every single product that I had for the day and came in and rang the bell. So you're going to have ups and you're going to have downs.

But the biggest thing when it comes to trailblazing is you just can't ever give up. And Dane has proven that model over and over again. And I want you to share, Dane, like, what are you up to now? How are you helping other people blaze their own trail? Yeah. Yeah, man. And I love this conversation because it just sets me on fire. And I think I could sit here doing with you for three hours and just try to.

I'm thinking right now, guys, how can I give you that fire, those nuggets? And I'm going to tell you what I'm up to now and how I've really grown in all this. Because each, it does add up. Everything you do beforehand pays into your success into the next thing. The next thing is going to be bigger. And I would just, there's just one thing I want to give you. It's like, get in the room, ask questions, be humble, take massive action, work harder, be the hardest work in the room, as Dwayne Johnson says.

Like, when I looked at the modeling, I thought these guys, you know, or the acting, it's like these people have been training as actors for 10 years. I'm just this kid off the street. These people are, you know, found in malls at 14 years old. They already have agents. They already have clients. They had so much on me, but they didn't have my work level. They couldn't work as hard as me.

They couldn't stop drinking alcohol like I could. They couldn't go to bed like I could. They couldn't get in the kind of shape I was. So I'd go to my age and say, I can get in better shape. I can talk better with the client. I can make them happy. I can make them right. You say that they love the experience with me and they want to have me back.

And that's what agents want to hear. And that's what your community wanted to hear. Or the same thing when I was Papa Johns, the same thing about the golf course. The same thing when I was running my own company in college is you've got to understand. You got to understand the market. You got to communicate to people properly. You need to act in integrity is everything. You need to take care of people.

and you need to because that's going to help your spirit know confidently who you are. So when you do those big numbers, as we said, that's going to matter. And just take action. Get in that room, read that book. If you're not, you want to know where to start, pick up Tony Robbins right now. Start reading. Start learning about finance right now. Start learning about leveraging cash right now.

Put aside your need for buying things right now. If you're 22, save, my rent wasn't over 800 until I was 30. Okay, one of the reasons I could save myself when I was sick, I had low cost of living. When I was chronically sick, my entire bill was for $1,500. month and I lived in Santa Monica a mile from the beach. Why? Because I knew I was so good at leveraging cash. I had $40,000 to my name, but I spent almost, my rent was $400. Most people, I know, I was talking to a 45-year-old about this the other day. He makes 250 and he spends 300. He's 45 years old. You learn money, learn communication, understand what the market is,

get away from the Fugazi of things that are just talking about it versus just actually directly doing it. Just get in there and do it. And it's, Write down your goals. Excel spreadsheet. I know every dollar I've made since 2007, 2010. I can tell you the percentage I've saved. I can tell you where my money went. And I can tell you what categories I've invested my money.

And I can show you where I've made the most money. Another thing that was really big for me, I realized that if I worked, it was much easier for me to work three jobs that made $50,000 each than have one job that made $150,000. So I always liked multiple jobs. I worked three jobs until I was 31, and then I went full. in on Crohn's Clice Lifest Life, which is what I'm doing now. So all that experience, my company in college, it paid off the $80,000 I bought it for. Right when it paid it off, it went under. We thought it was smart. I'm going to raise my average cost per sale and I'm going to,

I lost traffic, I lost sponsors and my revenue just completed. And I bought this company, paid it off and it went broke. Lesson learned. But that, man, that running a digital company was called Guy Bys. I resold men's sporting goods products online. I had like 40,000 skews at 19 years old. And it was way better for me than college. And that taught me customer service, accounting, inventory control, website, CEO, click per pay, like all of it. That played big when I started Crohn's Glythe's lifestyle. So what I did at in 2015, I gone back to school for natural medicine. I was housebound for a year. I was chronically sick for four years prior. I nearly died. I'm at 26 years old from Crohn's colitis. I had, was in a wheelchair. I had to relearn how to walk. I had all the

doctors at UCLA Cedar Sinai all around the world told me I had this incurable disease. There's nothing I can do about it. Food didn't matter. And then I started realizing that was completely false. And I've dedicated the last 12 years of my life to being a functional medicine advocate specialist, Crohn's colitis specialist, and really it's still that CEO. So I took what happened to me, the worst thing ever happened to me. And then I brought in all that experience as a CEO, as a businessman. And I created it. And right now, in my opinion, we're really the face of IBD for natural medicine. I've got doctors. and team members around the world. I saw about 40 clients a week for six years. I've personally worked

with a few thousand people with Crohn's colitis. My team sees about 120 clients per week who have Crohn's and colitis. We've built this into a, and this is when we talk about money and health, it can be oil and water. So I will not increase my revenue and dilute my impact. Won't happen. I don't need money that much. I'm good enough with money. I'm a good enough investor. I don't need it that bad. Okay. That's another thing I differ from someone like Grant Cardone or someone like that, who I respect and love all those guys. I don't think the mission is just to make more money. I think the mission is to make enough, make so much money and you understand your lifestyle that you no longer have to think about it anymore. Like to make decisions not out of money.

Like I want to build a restaurant chain because I don't need money anymore. And you don't need money when you decide. Grant Cardone still thinks he needs money and he's a billionaire. Okay. I don't want to be that. I'm not trying to say nothing, but I'm just saying when you learn money, the goal is to get free of it, to take its power away from you. That's the goal. If you just continuously need more, it still has power over you. So figure out your life, figure out where money doesn't have power over you, and then decide how you're going to create it. Because the best thing money is going to give you is to be a creator. It's a creation of something. So with your energy and your time and use money to help you manifest and create

that thing. So I created a consulting firm for healing people of Crohn's Dic and Ulcerth Clydes. We have, we put out a testimony a week. We have the best results in the world as far as I'm concerned. We see hundreds of people around the world. Dedicated my life to this. We're highly good. We're really, I think, the best at it. We customize plans. We teach people, customized nutrition strategies. We do lab works. So I'll do viral load panels, microtoxin panels, quantitative PCR, stool analysis. I'll do heavy metal tests, environmental toxin test, urine, blood, stool analysis. I can do them in Dubai. I can do them in Europe. I can do them all over North America. So I took my CEO business mine, and I looked at this market. I saw it trending towards telemedic

and I just built it. My job in New York City when I lived in Manhattan, when I retired from the modeling is I took a job working with natural vet doctors and some of the biggest doctors in the world figuring out their protocols and their lab work. And then I was taught. It was my job to learn it and help them optimize that. So I got a crash course in business.

And I'll tell you right now, Jordan, working with the best doctors in New York City in Los Angeles was 10 times more impactful for my own understanding and my ability to out of the market than going to school for natural medicine. because it's the same thing. It's theory. It's textbooks.

It's remembering and regurgitating versus like being in the market and seeing what works and seeing how people respond to certain things. What about this supplement at 60 bucks? How's the market respond? What about this supplement at 40 bucks? What about this lab test? What about this consulting package? And so I built that. And it's just been a long road.

And we built it to a multi-seven figure company. And we're hoping we'll hit eight figures in the next 18 months to 24 months. but again, I will not scale this thing unless it is absolutely impactful for my brothers and sisters with inflammatory bowel disease because it nearly killed me and I know what it's like to be broke, deal with that. And my parents spent like 30 grand trying to help me and they were not rich. That was when I was like 23, 24, 25, and nearly died at 26, 27. I lost a lot of my 20s to it. And so I'm here to make a massive impact. Our results are stupid good. The reason we're good is because we customize, we customize plan to each person. We can do lab interpretation. We all

All of our coaches and practitioners have the disease ourselves. So we're not talking. Like when I looked at the market and again, business, guys, so much of what you want to do, you need a business understanding. When I was sick and I looked at the market, all the natchpat doctors never had the disease. They didn't specialize in it and they couldn't show me testimonies of helping people with the disease. That was the pain point. Yeah.

There was no one, they had never, no one had built a community and brought people together under a civil roof, which we need to do in our politics too, right? like a civil roof of let's talk let's talk solutions so i we have over a thousand members all diagnosed with ibd all ages six years old 18 years old 70 years old all non-governing being able to talk to each other on a daily basis and it's a it's an app on your desktop and your phone private encrypted all about ibd so that's great you know i'm saying i took that business and i took a pain point and i created a solution in the market that will not only serve people with ibd and help them have a home and help them truly heal, like really get real results, but it also, I believe it'll be a $100 million plus

company because it's just so needed. It's like breath for the market with these diseases. Well, the one thing that's cleared is you've blazed a trail and you're nowhere near finishing. I feel like you're just getting started and the fact that you went through everything that you went through and all the adversity and almost losing your life to the disease. And now, the fact that you're putting your heart and soul into being a true practitioner. And I love the fact that everybody on the team are people that have this diagnosis too, because they're not just talking to talk. They're walking the walk, and they're going through it.

And I'm sure with this community you've built, everyone's leveraging new information and knowledge, and it's contributing to everybody, right? And everyone's able to learn and grow from each other, which is what community is all about. And so I know that there's going to be folks that listen to this, that they could actually have been diagnosed with this recently. And so I'd love for you to share, you know,

where's the best place for our listeners to reach out if they want more info, if they want to, you know, work with your team directly? Yeah, first thing, just check us out at Crohn's Collitislifestell.com or Crohn's colitis underscore lifestyle on Instagram. We're also on YouTube. You can just type in Dane Johnson, Shield. Shield program is the name of our program, Crohn's Gleys Lifestyle on YouTube.

So all social media platforms. The thing that I want to do is I want to build trust and integrity with you if you need help out there. So that's first. If you don't have trust and integrity, you have nothing. So we're going to have you fill out an intake form. And through that application, if you're a good candidate, we're going to go ahead and schedule a free 60-minute session to deep dive in your case. What's going on?

What do we think are root causes? What's your experience with natural medicine? What do you tried? What do you want to achieve? And then we're going to see how, you know, talk. Is this a good fit? Can we help? Do we have trust? Do we have an integrity? Do we think we're a good partner? So we're going to do that for you and put our best foot forward. If you want to learn more, I mean, we have our free stuff, our healing journal, our six tips to healing Crohn's and Collitis EBook.

We also have IBD University. And I love Jordan. Now we're talking about college. We're actually building a digital college for IBD, where we have IBD professors go live each week. So like live on nutrition, live on supplements and herbs, live on mental health trauma, EFT tapping hypnosis, like just some really amazing stuff. But you can do it. And I know a lot of today we talked about business and entrepreneurship. I do want to leave you with this. Whatever you want to do in this world, it's very hard to be successful if you don't have a strong business mind.

If you are not humble and hungry at the same time, if you are not full of integrity, if you are not a good communicator and you can't enroll people in a bigger mission. I would not be where I am if it wasn't for Ali or Thomas or Coach Lori or all my people. I wouldn't be there. Your ability to be in integrity and work for them as much as they work for you is going to keep them there long term. One of the things that's helped me succeed and not fall under because a lot of the other companies who have tried to do what I've done, they've co-platted. My assistant's been with me since she was 18. She's 26.

eight years. No, we, my turnover and my company is very low. Why? Mission, they feel heard. They know they have a future

with me. They know I'll always keep an open ear to, to make sure that they're happy. I have a phrase when you work with me that I like to put a ring on it. Okay?

I don't like turnover. I don't want to, I don't like this whole fear. Like no one of my team worries about losing their job. As long as we, we have a clear understanding, right?

So get, great at business. No matter what you want to do for this world, business is needed. Okay. And that's an edge I've had over other practitioners. They're amazing practitioners, but they stink at business. They can't do marketing. They can't run social. They can't do email drips. They can't communicate a value that makes sense. Okay. They still sell hours versus value. They don't sell value packages. They sell hours. Big mistake. Okay. Learn it. Read every day. Get sober. Go to bed. Wake up early. and get great at business. And whatever you want to do in impact this world,

you will have the money, you will have the team, you will have the resources and the power behind you to do good in this world. Capitalism can be great and really good for the world. Love it, love it, great advice. And I want to say thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule coming on the show. You're definitely a trailblazer, my friend,

and I cannot wait to continue to follow your journey. Thank you, Jordan. God bless, guys.