Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Daniel Puder on the Kurt Angle incident, winning Tough Enough, MMA career, starting his business

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

Daniel Puder talks with Chris Van Vliet from his home in South Florida. He talks about his business "My Life My Power", winning WWE's $1,000,000 Tough Enough but not actually getting a million dollars, his incident with Kurt Angle, Dana White's plan to have Puder and Angle fight in UFC, his undefeated MMA career, the TEDx Talk he gave on the idea of "Significance Breeds Success" and much more!   Please subscribe and support the show by supporting our sponsors!INDEED- Get a $75 credit to boost your job post by going to http://indeed.com/BlueWire BETONLINE- Get a new sign up bonus by using the promo code BLUEWIRE at https://www.betonline.ag/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Woo! This is the Chris Van Vleet Show. Chris Van Vleet Show. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Vee! Okay, this is the Chris Van Fleet Show. Thanks for being with us on this one wherever you're listening

and on whatever platform you're listening on. This episode is brought to you by Indeed and Bet Online. And Daniel Puter is such a fascinating guy. Wrestling fans will of course know him as the million dollar tough enough champion and yes for that incident during

that season of Tough Enough with Kurt Angle. But that was all the way back in 2004. A lot has happened in the last 16 years. I mean just in general, lots happened for you in the last 16 years but a lot has certainly happened

for Daniel Puter in those last 16 years. I don't want to speak too much for him because that's why I invited him on the show, but he's an entrepreneur, he's an author, a podcaster, a deputy sheriff. He's given a TEDx talk, and he's all about motivating and empowering people to live a life of significance. This is a really interesting conversation, and there's so much insight in here that you'll want to apply to your own life. So thank you for taking the time to check out this episode. Thank you for leaving a review.

there's been so many people leaving a review. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate them. They really, really help. And the show is now one of the top wrestling podcasts in the world, which is crazy to think about, but it's mostly because of these reviews and mostly because you show up for every single episode. So thank you for listening to this. And if you're new here, by the way, first of all, welcome. But I read a review on every single episode is my way to shout you out. And I'm also secretly hoping that you'll hear this and go, I haven't left a review yet. I could leave a review for CVV.

I've got a few extra seconds in my day, and I'm listening on Apple Podcasts. So if you haven't yet, please take a second to leave a review like this one from John Fasel. He says, CVV is the best in the world. Chris is the best in the world at what he does.

Oh, wow. So we had CM Punk in the title, and now Jericho reference here in the description or in the actual review. It's not an easy task to interview diverse guests on a regular basis and to bring out the best in your guests and from the interview. Chris does that every time. He delivers in every single interview. He brings his personality to the interview as well. Keep up the good work, Chris. Hopefully I'll be interviewing you one day.

Well, thank you very much for the kind words, John. And sure, yeah, let's do an interview. Send me an email. CVV at chrisfanbleet.com. There you go. So we cover a lot with Daniel pewter. We talk about him winning the million dollar tough enough and how he actually didn't get a million dollars. And that season was stacked. It also had the Miz and Ryback on it. And it's funny because when he went into that season, he was touted as an MMA fighter. But when you look at his record, he only had one professional MMA fight up to that point. It was actually after he left WWE that he really went on to have, you know, the MMA career that we know him for. Seven more fights.

He has a perfect record of eight and no. Kurt Engel actually told me in the interview that we did earlier this year that there was talk with Dana White about Angle and Puter having a match in UFC. So we get Daniel's side on that. We get Daniel's side on the hazing. You remember it? Chris Benoit, Hardcore Holly, Eddie Guerrero in the Royal Rumble. we get to that and so much more.

So please give it up for Daniel Puter. Thank you so much for joining me. This is something I've wanted to talk to you for so long because I think your story is so fascinating. So thank you for making this happen. Of course. Thanks for having me on, bro. I think that so many people just know your run in WWE. They know you on Tough Enough.

Maybe they know a little bit about your mixed martial arts career. But everything you've done over the last decade, decade and a half, I think it's really defined the person that you are. Yeah, it's defined me, like, inside me and define me to communities around the world. It's been a huge blessing to start a nonprofit, stand up for kids who are being bullied and having challenges in communities, and now being a partner in a school district, having a nonprofit, making an impact around the world, but we're really concentrating on. on the U.S. as number one.

And in the U.S. at South Florida is one of my keys. But we have trainings next week in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina on emotional and belief intelligence and supporting just different communities for growth, whether law enforcement to help them love themselves a little more in a way that they didn't know was possible in a vulnerable, authentic way, because it's military training.

Or with educators on how to maybe, some tips and tricks and tools to communicate and connect with parents and kids a little better. So you're wearing the shirt right now, my life, my power. For people that don't know, what exactly is that? So in 2010, I got on TMZ and I said, I'll come to your school if you're being bullied. And within the first eight weeks, being on different TV stations after that, we got over 10,000 emails from 12 different countries. Wow. And I was like, okay, there's a problem here. Like, I didn't think it was that big of an issue. I was picked on and bullied when I was a kid to a certain extent because I was labeled learning disabled. I was in the special ed classes. I was really the lowest

one percentile in the country for reading. So like the one percentile, like when they do a test when you're in elementary school, I was at one percent where a lot of kids were at, you know, 100 percent of 99. Wow. Yeah. So I'm I'm looking at this when I was a kid, like, this is horrible. So I just didn't learn. I didn't understand how to learn how to learn. I don't think school is, school is good for, I think, two things. One, I always ask kids, like, why do you come here and they're like to graduate, to get a degree?

And I'm like, awesome to get a job. I'm like, so this piece of paper and I hold up piece of paper, I'm like, that you're here just for a piece of paper. And so it's interesting. I look at school for two reasons. One is learn how to learn. learning your learning styles, your emotional intelligence, your beliefs, what you stand for, your purpose, your vision, really define you are. And when you go into a situation, how do you figure out how to make that make sense? And the second part is, is network. It's priceless to have

relationships. Today, you can get on social media and hit people up, LinkedIn, Instagram, that sort of thing, and build a relationship. So we started this interview came together. Right? Yeah. I mean, it's super simple, right? And so I look at like redefining and and it's been happening a lot. It's called school choice in America. And we started a private school district accredited through advanced ed and sacks. And so we have a global corporate accreditation. I can open up schools anywhere in the world now.

Wow. And we get five hours a day. We run school for five hours from eight to one or one 30 at six 30. And we literally get, I mean, all says, you video of what we're putting out on Sunday for a digital graduation. We filmed about 45 out of the 72 kids two weeks ago, and we're putting it on YouTube on Saturday, pushing it out so everybody can watch their graduations. Wow. And the tears, parents crying, they were so proud of their kids. Like, we're taking kids. We're working with local schools

to transform kids' lives. So if a parent needs a small, classroom. We have a one to 15 ratio. Like, you tell me what school for free paid for by the state of Florida. Wow. In a school that will actually do that, California doesn't do that. New York doesn't do that. So in Florida, they do. I mean, we're super blessed here to have school choice. So what is a student need to do or what a parents need to do if they want to go to, you have three schools, right? So this year we'll have six schools. Oh my gosh. Wow. Yeah. So we started with one, two, years ago and we had six kids day one and we ended up with 54 kids uh last year we started with about 150 or something like that with three schools and we ended the year with um over 330 and graduated

72 wow um and this year we'll have by the end of the year we'll probably have about six to six eight hundred uh in six schools um but we're taking kids that are failing out that have been in Foscared that are coming out of DJJ. We call it alternative education. Like at the end of day, if you don't fit, and principals send us their kids too. If they don't fit, let us solve the problem for you because we can do things. We can tweak our budgets. We can figure things out a little more to make sure the kid is on the right track.

So is this something you were even interested in when you were coming out of your MMA career? Or was that just like an off-the-cuff comment on TMZ? that made you kind of start to have those wheels turning? So I've always supported, like when I was 19 years old, I had a thing called pewter strength training. It was just for fun. It was like my way to give back. And I trained younger kids.

I was just watching, looking at pictures last week with my fiancé. And so I've always been interested in serving, whether it was part of Habitat for Humanity, boys and girls club, big brother, big sister. different not the shriner's hospitals different nonprofits like how can I you utilize my whether before I was a pro athlete how could I utilize my talents or skills or after how do I how do I utilize my celebrity to add value in different places um so it's yeah and and on TMZ I didn't think about owning a school district yeah bro bro I was like one of the lowest kids I

They kept me, they were going to keep me back in eighth grade and they kept me back in kindergarten. So I was going to be kept back twice as a kid, going to owning schools. But this is the thing. What people don't get is educators today or let's say the last 50 years, like I am not a educator as in like what the system talks about as an educator. I am a networker and I know how to put a game plan together and go raise funds. and build a brand and build the right people.

People that work in our organization, they have, two of them have our JDs. So they're lawyers. Probably three of them have PhDs. I'd say about eight to ten of them have master's degrees. And then, you know, the other ones have, like one of them's getting a PhD from FIU right now. So we have super high educated.

But we all have a core. a culture in the organization that loves to love themselves so they can impact other people's lives. So was this what stopped your MMA career from moving forward? You saw this incredible other opportunity? So I got jacked on a contract at a certain point where for about 18 months, it's hurt. I was an exclusive contract. They wouldn't pay me, fight me, or release me. So that hurt. I got out of that finally. I had two more fights.

And to some extent, it was, I love the fighting. My coaches, Bob Cook, Frank Cheramock, Javier Mendez. They always said that I was a business guy. And I love the business side. I love the branding. I started my branding agency a couple years ago because one of my business partners that Brittany Elzano that was helping me run. The nonprofit, she goes, hey, I want to go into branding full-time.

You know, let's put this together. Yeah. So, you know, building websites, all that stuff, video production. It's amazing because so many people, we've helped even with that get jobs or show off their talent, like what you were saying about TEDx. Like, you know, you get a TEDx or TEDx or a good highlight reel. People are going to flock to you. Oh, yeah.

So it's a little bit different. But I was going through a. rough time and people don't understand what it is to like when I was 26 years old I was 26 and zero so six and zero pro I had 20 amateur fights the WWE champ on tough enough yeah world weight lifting champ like I had everything going for me at 26 uh and then one contract like hurt bad and so I see so many people that get you know screwed over in the wrong situation without the right protection. And I'm looking at that. And, you know, I really, I mean, like, for instance, we have, we have cameras in every single one of our classrooms in our school.

Why? And our staff loves it. Because it doesn't only protect them. It protects the kids. Yeah. So, you know, if somebody doesn't want, you know, if somebody doesn't want a camera in the classroom, what's a real reason, you know, at the end of the day? Do they not want to get judged or do they not want to be protected? Like, you know, what is it? There's not many MMA fighters that end their career undefeated. You know, most people end up having other fights. They'll lose a fight and they'll try to avenge that loss. Are you okay with the fact that that, you know, it's a great record to, you know, to retire on, but are you okay with that being your record? I mean, are you challenging me or something? Do you want to fight? I might need to put a couple LBs on. So I love it. I think that a lot,

I had a great career. What my career meant to me at this point was it gave me the grit, the perseverance, the focus of winning. And if I can take wins, if you can take wins, I file, when I can take wins when I'm younger, learn from them and grow, it makes me a better human.

A lot of people do lose fights. They take contracts. They get into fights. They, you know, some people said, oh, you haven't fought the best in the world.

Well, guess what? I've trained with King Velasquez. I've trained with, you know, Frank Shamock. I've trained with the best in the world. And a lot of fighters are broke.

they're beat up, they're hurt, they're on drugs. My drug is my coffee, right? Like, you know, it's interesting on how I live my life. A lot of them are still angry from whether childhood, you know, a lot of people get into fighting because they're angry. I got into fighting because I was angry. I was, you know, that picked on a kid when I was younger and then I get bigger and I'm like, huh, my mom always told me not to fight, not to hurt people.

And then at 16, I went to juvenile hall because I was, you know, I was so angry at some point that I beat a kid up and went to jail. And so there's an experience that I have had to be able to feel the pain, but also to be able to let it go so that I could actually love myself and love my life. I had an interview with Kurt Engel earlier this year, and he told me that you guys had a UFC match lined up. It was going to be you versus him, and this thing was going to happen. and then Kurt had just signed with Impact Wrestling, and obviously his contract wouldn't make that happen.

That's cool. I never got a contract on that one. Were you part of any discussion like this? There were minor discussions, but I never talked to, did I talk to Dana about that? I think I might have, I think somebody might talk to me. I don't think I had a conversation with Dana.

I think that he had a conversation with Dana about it. I would have taken the fight, but at the end of day, if he's taking that much Vicod and that he says he takes in another interview, I don't think he would pass a drug test. Yeah. Well, yeah, I guess what if what if that fight meant that much to him? He said there were two instances where UFC was going to sign him. So what if that fight meant that much to him? He could clean himself up. You guys fight at what, light heavyweight?

Yeah, right. Like, bro, I want to see him at light, heavyweight. Like, here's the thing. He broke his, he's broken his neck. Yeah. You try to get the athletic commission to approve, how old is he now, 75? No, no, I'm joking. I'm joking.

You know, he's like, what about 55, 60 now? Oh, I think he's, I don't think he's 50 yet. Oh, wow. Okay. But this would, you know, this would have been 14 years ago. Yeah, well, no, no, it wouldn't have been 14. It would have been about, yeah, about. 12 14 years ago yeah exactly right because you weren't tough enough in 04 yeah it would have been

so and then he went to impact in 06 so yeah it would have been right around then yeah i don't know about that timeline for him but hey you know what you know i got hidden the head for a living so i don't remember everything he i think you'd said in another interview that like curt won't even talk to you now is that like here's the thing people have grudges it's it's It's a reflection of inside, right? Like at the end of day, I don't hate anybody. Did I make an opportunity of what was given? Sure.

Did I follow the rules? Yes. Did they say no striking? Yes. You can listen to the refs interview. You can listen to Al Snow's interview. You can listen to you can, if anybody's real and authentic, they're going to tell you what really happened.

And at the end of day, I've never had a problem with. him per se besides that he came up and congratulated me after I won he knows I put in the work he knows that like everybody saw it even after I won tough enough I was going out and building the ring uh like I was doing things to be a part of the organization and some people maybe didn't like me in the position but then a day the people in my life know that they can depend on and the people that doubt maybe things like that maybe they don't can depend on themselves and so it's you know I would love to have him involved. I'd love to do some stuff with him on a final match. You know, I would love to, you know, I'd love to be coached by him at the end of the end of day. I would, I would,

I would definitely love to have something like that. Fighting, I don't know. I don't know if he could get approved in any States at, you know, with just what's going on. I'm drug-free, so that's, that's positive. But I, but I think that I would love to do some wrestling stuff at some point, I don't think he would do it anymore. If he would, I would do it for sure. I don't think he can right now after speaking with him in that interview. Was it bad? Well, he just said that he wanted to have his final match at WrestleMania next year, or sorry, this year. And Vince was basically like, I don't think you can. So let's have your match this year. You'll have it with Baron Corbyn. And that'll be that. So Kurt didn't think he'd be able to

hang on for that long. well i don't know i mean he does think think about this think about what we could draw with an old crowd oh yeah doing it right spending three to six months impacting kids along the way in schools and spires because of covid and everything else doing some stuff for law enforcement educators and community like the whole thing could be built up really nice yeah um at the end of the day, people didn't know how to, for me, I mean, he could come out and be a manager. You know what I'm saying? Like, I mean, we could do so much cool stuff where he's my coach. Like, we did, we could, we could spin it where it's so amazing where people like, oh my gosh, this makes total sense.

Yeah. But in the end day, I don't necessarily believe what he believes or we don't have the same real purpose. And if it doesn't line up with that anymore, I don't know if I would commit to spending the time doing that. Like, WWE does an anti-bullying program. Show me data. Show me real impact. Like, you want to go to talk about bullying, but you're not solving the problem because talking about it doesn't solve the problem. Getting to the root of why people do what they do and the core belief system and their belief intelligence and creating a higher amount of belief in emotional intelligence is the key to solving hate, bullying, and looking inside ourselves. So it doesn't align at this point. I would be definitely a lot. I would be definitely a

open to it if it did and if the purpose was there. What do you think the BSTR program could do in addition to what they're doing to make it a better program? I don't know. I haven't seen the program. I've seen some stuff. I've read overview stuff. I've never actually seen it in works. But if you call it an anti-bullying program and you're talking about bullying, then like to talk about a problem isn't to solve a problem. And I've seen this in communities around the country. They come in, Like, okay, we have, like for instance, this whole thing on police brutality, right, or police problems over the last few months with the BLM and everything that's going on, most people talking about there's a problem with the police, it's very simple.

It's not easy to solve, but it's very simple. One is policy and two's culture. A lot of organization, a lot of people saying we want to defund the police, that's a concept up that if you want more murders and more drug dealers and more issues, get rid of the police. But if you want to solve the problem, they would say let's implement a policy where law enforcement for the Department of Florida law enforcement for this FDLE has to do an emotional belief intelligence training courts. They have to hire or they recruit differently. They recruit people and maybe the counseling departments that want to go into our psychology, psychiatry to go

into law enforcement. But at the end of the day, if you don't have somebody with the right mindset and the militaristic mindset, so it's really getting to the root of why people do things and perform. And then if you train them to shut up and wipe the smell off their face and do what I tell you, and then go now go to the community and do a job that you've never actually been trained what to do, like connect and communicate and, you know, go and inspire people, but you've never been trained to do it, then how are you supposed to do it? Do you find it interesting?

So I think it's a thing for, yeah, good. Well, I don't, I don't mean to cut you off. I was just going to say, do you find it interesting that your wrestling career has been so linked to Kurt Engel from this off-the-cuff moment that lasted what? Less than a minute or something like that? Hey, you know what? everybody everybody's got their their you know my their the first their second their third you know i mean i've had a couple really great moments on media that's added a ton of value um like what other pro wrestler

has their name or or it has their own school system what other pro wrestler has ever impacted um with with accreditation you know of a school district like they might have an ask school program you have a little nonprofit, but what's a sustainability on that long term? How many millions do they have to go raise? How much time do they actually spend with the kids? I look at all this stuff and I'm like, the impact that Kurt Angle and WW gave me

in that two, three, four, five minutes was I was ready for the experience and I took advantage of it. When you went into tough enough, were you going in there with the plan? I'm going to win this thing. I'm going to win the million dollar contract and that I'm going to be a WWE superstar

the rest of my career? I went in with it is I'm going to be a WW superstar and I'm going to win. I mean, that was stacked. The amount of talent that was in there stacked, you had Ryback, you had Miz, and you had a whole bunch of other, you know, incredibly athletic guys in there. Yeah. They were not only super athletic, but they had a ton of charismatic talent. And it was, I mean, they took 10,000, over 10,000.

videos down like 50 to Venice and there was the top eight so and it was probably more than 50 I think they said it was top 50 but it might have been 100 but whatever the number was at the end of day um the couple things that I did differently is number one I was the only guy to stay on Connecticut for the whole eight weeks uh I didn't go back home every week like everybody else did so that's one thing two is is I did it for two reasons one I want to concentrate on winning and train properly without as many flights. The second thing is, is Dave Meltzer and I were on the phone probably an hour to two hours a day, and I was cutting promos every day.

I was coming up with new content. I was training my mind and how to speak, how to perform, and I had really good people in my life that were helping me with that. And so Dave was a huge opponent. I had a few others. But it was interesting to be able to see that what I was creating and the other guys, they were out, you know, I was the third part. I was the only one not to drink or do drugs. I'm not saying anybody did drugs, but I'm saying drinking.

I didn't go on party. If I went out somewhere, I drink water. I don't drink alcohol. Like I don't touch anything. So I think those three things were something that gave me a leg up per se on really achieving. something and committing and following through. I mean, if you had to put your finger on what it was that didn't have you last your whole four years of that contract, what exactly was it? The biggest part was after about nine months into the contract, they offered me a contract that

was crap. And I called my coaches. I called a couple of my mentors. I said, this is what just happened. What do you think? And they go, well, if they don't respect you in the beginning, they're not going respect you long term. And I heard different stories of that with other wrestlers. And I made a decision at that point that if a company doesn't take care of me now, they're not going to take care of me in the future. And I was young and I took advice. I could have I stayed for 50,000 bucks a year. Sure. But I believe and this is what I do with our corporations now. Like I hire people and I take care of them to the best of my ability because I know how how my experiences were to not be protected or not taken care. Wasn't it supposed to be a million dollars

broken up over four years, quarter of a mill every single year? What happened to that? So it was guaranteed one year and they let me go after the first year because they offered me another deal. What was interesting is they offered me another deal and because I didn't take it, then they let me go. So it was a little shady on that. What they should have done is release me out of my current contract and then offer me a contract. But it is what it is. I'm just confused if the contract when you win the reality show is a million dollar deal,

you're supposed to get $2.50 a year. How could they offer you something else? Did they're multi-billion dollar company? I guess so. I mean, at the end of the day, I talked to a few lawyers, you know, and try finding a law firm that is connected in Connecticut that will take them on a you know that'll sue them um you know on contingency it's super like there's nobody there's no big firms in uh I mean I called around and nobody would do anything like I just I was like I just want to be protected in this deal I want

the deal and I called probably three or four different firms and at the end of day it was like you know what it's not even worth my time if somebody wants to screw me or not take care of me I don't want to be associated. At the end of the day, you know, would you do it again? If you had the opportunity to be on a million dollars tough enough again, would you do it? No. Really? Yeah. This is the thing. Entertain people is great. In my 20s, it was awesome to push myself. I was in the best shape of my life. I was an elite athlete. I was number 26 in the world for heavyweights at one point. I did a lot of great stuff, but entertaining, we have a lot of entertainment today, and we have more mental health, more challenges, more issues in our community, and nothing's

getting solved. So what I get to do every day is I get to put things in place and people in different positions to be able to solve problems and adds a ton of value to this world. The wrestlers aren't adding a ton of value to humankind. They're entertaining them for a time period, which is an amazing thing. I'm not knocking it, but at the end of the day, I want to see more athletes donate, not donate, but really get into something to serve versus just being an elite athlete. So a big thank you to you for making this show possible by listening right now. And a big thank you to our sponsors. Even though sports had a break, your business didn't. You had to keep moving. And that makes hiring more important than ever. Indeed is here to help. Indeed.com is the number one job

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advantage of all of their great sign-up bonuses. Don't forget to use the promo code bluewire at betonline.ag. That's blue wire, all one word. Bluewire. Bet, online, your online sports book experts. You know, it's ironic that you're now doing anti-bullying when the number two thing that a lot of people will find about you is your moment in the Royal Rumble when you got hazed. I think you could call this bullying, you know, it's hardcore Holly and Eddie Ben, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. What, like, what's a better, what could have been a better way to react to that? So, uh, that was interesting. Um, I didn't know that was coming like that.

Um, you know, again, you know, companies not taking care of people. You know, I mean, it's, it's simple. Like, you know, what's crazy is this is, is certain athletes will do whatever it takes to get on TV and do what their puppet master says. Sure. It doesn't matter how harmful it is. It doesn't matter if they're against it morally or whatever. they will do what they're told. And that's how people are in this world.

That's why we have the problems we have. That's why we have the violence and, you know, the situations that are going on. That's why we have 3% of the population of the world in America. And America holds 25% of the prison population of the world. So that's why we have it. At the end of the day, I mean, there was somebody that, you know, did some stuff to me and his daughter daughter died in a drunk driving, you know, accident. You know, I mean, it's look at like, it's interesting to look at how people are and then what takes

them to actually become good humans in life and shift things when they have to lose something to learn something. So do you think this moment in the Royal Rumble was spur of the moment and, you know, it just, they just started piling on? Or do you think this was something that was pre-meting it's hit it in the back and they went let's get that rookie i have no clue um i don't even give them a second to think about it and at the end of the day uh they did what they did and you know it it's i'm blessed that i'm not with wdbd like at the end of the day it's not it's not the culture i want to build you know i mean it's it you know it is what it is and you know i mean it's it's the brand in the world everybody wants to wrestle for them and people talk to me and i'm like

I have new desire because it's a cult. It's the context of how they live doesn't serve a bigger purpose in this world. Was there ever a chance? Like, did they ever call you and say, come back for this appearance or come back for? No. No. And I'm glad. Yeah.

It's crazy, right? Like, everybody begs for it. Like, everybody begs for it. But I find when you get real fulfillment in life, you don't need to be on TV. You don't need to try to prove yourself. Like people that try to prove them that try to prove themselves are just seeking internal improvement. Well, you've done so, so much since. I mean, we talked a little bit about it off camera, but you know, you also delivered a TEDx.

And I love when you drive out in this TEDx. It's success happens to you. Significance is what happens through you. And thinking about that, and if people could put that into practice, that would would be such a catalyst for change? Yeah, I find that, so Daniel Goldman really pushed emotional intelligence over the last 20 years. And what I find is, is it's so far integrated into understanding who we are as humans and what drives us. Emotions drive humans to do certain things. And a lot of the time we've been taught from like zero to 20 year, 22, 24 years old when we're

getting out of college, we're taught to go be successful. Some parents say, hey, go, go, go live a context of significance, go impact people's lives, but the very few amount of parents that actually build that context into a human. And when I say context, it's not, you can't go be successful. You can be successful in anything in the world. You can be at McDonald's being a server. You could be a chef at a top kitchen. You could own your own company. But if you're an asshole, then you're an asshole.

The context of you is you're an asshole. And so it's either how do you either love people and support them or how do you be in fear and take your anger, hurt, pain, everything else out on other humans? And so I find that living a context of taking care of humans and then also being significant is a huge accomplishment in my life. I don't compare my life and what I've done and who I am to other people because at the end of the day, I choose who I am. And if I want something else in this world, the stuff comes and goes. That's why so many celebrities or so many athletes, I mean, look at the end of it.

It's like 99% of NFL players are broke or divorced within three years of them playing. Same thing with WWE, you know, WWE wrestlers. I mean, so many athletes are not fulfilled. They're doing drugs and they're trying to fulfill themselves with exterior stuff to be able to make their mind at ease, at peace. So many people want that, but they can never find it. So they go looking for it with what they can utilize and see, versus maybe stepping back, like when I was with the Dalai Lama a year ago,

he's talking first world problems, third world problems. And he's like in America and first world, you know, areas, there's more suicide, there's more mental health problems, there's more drug addiction. We have more resources here. And I find our kids are less resourceful. So you can go today and everybody goes, well, how do I get a job or how do I do this? And I'm like, you see this thing?

It's called a cell phone. You can literally go on and make a LinkedIn account, make a resume. Do it all from your cell phone today. Yeah. And I mean, people even say, oh, in inner cities or, you know, poor neighborhoods, you know, they're, I'm like, this thing, you have this. So you have the resource. But do you have the resourcefulness to be able to actually go on there? And people are like, well, we don't know how to do it.

I'm like, it's a thing called g-o-o-o-g-l-com. And if you can't have the resourcefulness, like the kids in India, they were resourceful. They're selling everything you can figure out how to sell. They want more school. They're doing school in the dirt on the ground because they want to learn. They want to grow. They want to get out of this environment. So I think that our parents, like my parents, from their parents being in the Great Depression time,

gave them more stuff and less love. And then my parents' generation gave us more stuff and less love. And so now when you have two parents working, you have, I saw a study at one point, I didn't see a study, but there was an article referring to a study. And it was three minutes of undivided attention per day, per kid, of undivided attention. Three minutes. So what kind of love, connection, support can drive. people to learn how to be significant in their life.

So what's something that someone can do right now today to start to get on that path? So I think there's five major keys. Right. But instead of one, I think there's five because I think it can connect it a little more. First one is understanding what you want, what you want to achieve, like what your legacy is going to be. Like if you want a car, cool. Car can help you do what?

Like, why do you want a car? And a lot of people that I talk to, then you get down to the purpose of why you want something. They're like, I want a car so that I can go get the job that I want, that I can go, whatever that why is. And I'm like, so why do you want the job? Like, come to the why? And they're like, oh, I want a job so I can make money. I'm like, why do you want the money? So you don't really want the car.

You don't want the job. You want the money. And they're like, so that I can take care of my family or I can get an apartment and live. you know, with my fiance or my wife, whatever that is. And I'm like, okay, so you don't really even want the money. You want to be able to take care of your family. Right. But getting down to that purpose.

So the first is creating a vision or understanding your vision for life. Second is really understanding the why behind your vision. The third one is your mission. It's like the goals to get you there. And those three things are like just thinking about it. Those are created within your head. The next two are really difficult or at least more difficult. uh the the fourth one is team like what kind of team is going to help you there and a lot of people

are like oh i'm going to make it myself i'm like there's no billionaire that ever makes it themselves yeah number one you got your core team and you got your your your you're like national or your city team your county team your state team u.s you go try i tell all my kids you go try right now how many or i ask them how many people do you think it really takes to get you here to a day of school and they're like oh my mom, my aunt, this, that. Like, there's a couple people. I'm like, you take shower in the last day?

They're like, yeah. I'm like, who made your clothes? I don't know. They're looking at the labels. I'm like, who created the lights in your house or the roads on the streets? Like, how many people did it actually take to make sure you could get here today? Yeah. And they're like thousands.

I'm like, exactly. Like, at the end of the day, thousands of people added value of your life. Now, disown everything you own. And go in the middle of nowhere with no knife, no hatchet, no weapon to go hunting and try to do it all yourself from scratch. Yeah, Joe Rogan has a comedy bit about this. He's like if all the smart people just died one day, what would we like go and eventually live like cavemen? Yeah. Because I don't know.

I'm talking to a mic for 15 years. I'm staring at a computer right now. I don't know how any of this stuff works. Yeah, try to build your own computer, right? And then build your own network for internet. and then built you know how electricity works i have no clue how like how does an electrical plant work you know yeah i don't exactly i have no clue so you know i mean i can figure out the plumbing faster i can figure out the electrical right like and then i think the fifth part which is the most challenging

and it really comes down to yourself is commitment um i ask a lot of kids around the country i go what percent of time do you commit to your family to do chores on time it's a very simple question yeah And I would say 99% of kids say less than, I'd say 50% of time. And so my follow-up question is, would you hire somebody, if somebody came into how work for you when you have business to me one day, would you hire somebody that they cared about their family 50% of time? And most people say, no, I would not hire them. And it gives them the ability to look inside themselves on like, wow, what do I stand for?

some people once in a while say yes i would hire them because he would work for me because i'd pay them and i said how long do you think that they would work for you if somebody came and paid them a couple dollars more or they found a job that paid them more would they really care about you if they don't care about their family and so it's interesting to get that perspective into kids because kids like no they wouldn't care about me they would only care about the money yeah so again do you want the purpose or do you want the profit do you want the only success or do you want the significant in changing people's lives and helping people. Because I can go to a Chick-fil-A and people are like so significant, so impactful.

Hey, how you doing? You got something wrong. Here's a French fries. Here's this. Let us take care of you. Or you go to other fast food restaurants that they're like snappy and short and they don't care. That's the culture there for sure. It's culture.

So I mean, what a lot of this is driving at is what are the non-negotiables in your life? And I think that there's a lot of people that look at things and go, that's okay if I'm a few minutes later. It's okay if, you know, whatever it happens to be. Like, don't do my chores on time. What are the non-negotiables in your life? Non-negotiables. Well, I think that the things that stand for me are being authentic.

Like with this back and forth, like getting us on this podcast right here. Yeah. I got something. I'm like, hey, can I, you know, can I, you know, for this couple hours, you know, or whatever, you know, like I work, if I don't put it on my schedule, which 98% of the time I put it on my schedule, if it doesn't go on my schedule, I don't do it. And so I work for myself, at least, I work really hard with, you know, with with, with, with running six schools, with overseeing the nonprofit, with overseeing the brand agency, with speaking for two weeks on the road the next two weeks. all of that stuff with having a fiancé that's pregnant, we're having a kid, moving into a next. Yes, by the way. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. All this stuff, it's amazing. And, you know, I mean, today I got up at 6 o'clock or 630. I'm like, no, 545 and, you know, I'm going to go to bed at probably, you know, 10 or 11. And, you know, I'm in meetings or phone calls from the whole entire day. And so I find, I find.

that I work really, really diligently on following through. And it's like the systems are getting better by putting people in different places in my life to then be able to hone in and do that. So I think really the commitment side for me is huge. Being authentic is huge. And I would say at certain points being very vulnerable with humans to show them that I can be super tough. and I have been and I'm a badass. But for instance, I'm a deputy sheriff reserve. And I do law enforcement based stuff now. And so to have empathy for people and to be able to show up in excellence is an amazing

thing to be able to bring not only into my life but share with others. These non-negotiables, I feel like, are going to change in a few months when you become a dad. Are you ready for this? No, the dad thing is fun. Like, I've been training for this thing. Like I see there's two phases. There's the phase that I got my anger and frustration out on a bag or, you know, beat people up. And then I figured out how to love myself.

And now I can self-assess. I can understand emotions and beliefs. I can see where there's triggers. I mean, even if stuff comes up now, I can look at it. I go, huh, where'd that come from? And I can clear it and be blessed that it happened in my past to be able to create the human I am today. And then my fiancé owns her own education company. So she does tutoring, coaching, and she runs her company.

So to be able to see both of us are in the same world, and we've done a lot of the same work, and we're really supportive, adds a ton of value to where our kid is. Like, I've been reading almost every night. I've been creating, like I read two books. Actually, I didn't read two books. I read one book and about three pages of a second book. And my girl ordered them on Amazon, and they were complete crap. And they were telling lies.

and so I told her we're not doing that anymore. I get to make up a different story every night about a different topic and be authentic with our kid. And we're five months into it. So, or six months into it now on Sunday. So we've got three more months and at the end of day, almost every night. I think I've skipped maybe one or two nights in the last three or four weeks. I've been creating stories like sunrises and sunset. It's not true.

It's perspective. but it's really an earth rotate. So at the end of day, like, how do we teach the truth to our kids and be authentic about it? Because at the end of day, if you want your kid to stuff you in an old folks home, you know, go ahead and lie to them from the ground up. But if you want to be amazing humans, like, teach them the truth so they can depend on them. So, I mean, are we not supposed to come sunrises and sunsets?

I understand what you're saying, though. Yeah, I think it's a, I think it's a word that makes. and created, right? So if it makes sense for you, then call it a sunrise sunset. Yeah. So I like options or opportunity. If it doesn't serve what you want to get across, then don't do it. But people think that it's a sunrise and a sunset, which is really an earth rotate. And they don't know the real truth. And so it's just interesting. Like, we teach our kids about Santa Claus, Easter Bunny Tooth Fairy. Like, how does an Easter Bunny lay eight, right? So how does a mammal lay eggs?

Yeah. Kids are raised with this. Like I've had kids in a classroom that I've heard stories of that looks at a chicken and then looks at a chicken, you know, patty chicken, you know, piece of chicken. And they're like, hold on, that comes from that. Like if we're not teaching our kids like the truth, like whether it's about a cultural, like, here's thing, we either lie to our kids or we tell them the truth. There's one or the other. And some people have thought that I'm a little crazy on this stuff on saying, hold on, but it's just like it's just making sure they're happy and everything else.

I'm like, here's thing. As a parent, you can have that concept. That's your choice. That's the best part about America. You have a choice to be able to decide what you're going to teach your kid. Now, again, either you're going to lie to them or you're going to tell them the truth. And if your only purpose is to make sure they're happy when they're younger, they might be resentful when they're older. because the end of day, they can't depend on you.

And not consciously, but subconsciously, they don't know where you're going to lie to them or where you're going to tell them the truth. So I'd rather have a context in life and fall through with telling the truth. And so people can rely on me and depend on me for being authentic in my life. You know, for someone who couldn't read in school,

it sounds like you're able to, you know, you do a ton of reading now. I read like 120 pages of contracts last two weeks. And it's like, now I'm in the execural, bro. Like, that's what I get to do every day. And I have great lawyers and, you know, it's just amazing people around me that, you know, support on a lot of that. And, yeah, reading, there's not as much reading.

I'm making up the stories. And, you know, at the end of the day, at least I'm, you know, I'm still slow reading, bro. It hurts sometimes to, like, concentrate to read. Like, people are like, oh, you're doing, you know, you do that much reading. And I'm like, yeah, but it's super challenging for me, even to today to read. and to spell. Like I've learned how to spell over the last 10 years because I didn't learn in school. If you had, this might be tough to answer, but if you had to gift one book to somebody that you

hope would impact their life, what book would you give them? The four agreements. Oh, what a book. I just recommended that to someone an hour ago. It's good. It's great. I mean, I think it depends on what I have a list of books I've read over the last few years. The Fifth Agreement is good. We have my book's called GPS for Life. We have that. It frames out. It frames everything to help you love yourself and understand your life.

I find, and we do this with sixth graders. Like, I'm doing budgeting and vision purpose statements. with sixth graders now, where they actually love to show up before they were ditching school every week in a bigger school, and now they're begging to come to school. So it's just interesting to be able to see what's possible when you find this switch and you can help somebody turn on their own light switch in their life. Well, I want to be super respectful of your time, but this has been fascinating. And I just want to acknowledge you for everything that you're currently doing with the schools that you run and helping to shift the mindset of the youth that you work with.

I mean, this is no small task. And thank you for being the person who's taking this on. Yeah, I really appreciate you. I love, dude, you're so charismatic, bro. I would love to have you on my podcast, Significance for Eat Success. I'd love to. Let's set up a time, like, in two weeks to be able to, you know, spend 45 minutes, and I'd love to have you on.

Let's do it. Thank you. And thank you for your time. It's funny. We had been at the same wrestling shows when I was living in South Florida. I saw you at Ronan. I was going to come say hi to you.

And then you were busy, you know, talking to everybody because when Daniel Puter goes to an indie show, everyone wants to say hi to him. I love it too. Please. I would love to get together, take out to lunch sometime, and we'll connect on my podcast.

I appreciate you having me on. If anybody in South Florida ever wants to come, like wrestlers, if you ever want to come and speak or any career. You ever want to come to one of our schools, get some video. This year we got a pro video producer. He's interviewing

people at each one of our schools and making a highlight video of their life, spending a couple hours at their job, doing that sort of thing. Like, Gangrel, I'm going to ask him to come out this year. We're actually talking to him. I've talked to him. I'm not talking to him right now. I've got to call him follow up. But

I'd love to do a school at his academy. Yeah. And have a Green Grill's Academy. So we'll see. what we can do. But I appreciate you, bro. And anybody that wants to get involved with our nonprofit, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, we're all over this year. So I'd love to have people reach out. Just want Daniel Petter.com. Awesome. Thank you so much, man. You got it, bro. Have an amazing day. All right. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and Daniel

pewter for this chat. Take a screenshot. Tag us. Let us know you're listening. Let us know what stood out for you the most. I'm at Chris Van Vleet. He is at Daniel Puter. And yeah, it's crazy to think. It's been 16 years since he won tough enough. But, I mean, that's like a lifetime ago. Look at everything he's done since. And I just feel so like jacked up and inspired after talking to him.

Check out his TED Talk. If you have a few minutes today and you're not like busy leaving a review for the show in those two minutes. If you have a few minutes today, check out his TED Talk. It's on YouTube. And I promise you, you will be totally. inspired and you'll look at Daniel Puter in just a different way. I'm sure you already look at him in a different way after hearing this interview. But yeah. And I usually end every episode with a quote, but I think Daniel absolutely nails it when he says significance breeds success. Significance

breeds success. So good. So be great. Be grateful. Go crush it this week. Oh, we'll see you next week. 80s flashback mockumentary. Back in the 80s, there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock, but there was one band that had it all. Hammer Alley. Whatever happened to Hammer Alley? How did they go from top of the rock? I'm looking for a music video.

They're a band from 1987. Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in 1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.