Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #189 - Dr. Nekky Jamal

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

Nekky is one of the most recognizable faces in Lloydminster. He is a co-owner of Wayside Dental, a member of the Bike for Breakfast Crew & is one of the most active members in our community.  Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Glenn Healing. Hi, this is Braden Holby. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hi, this is Brian Burke. This is Jordan Tutu. This is Keith Morrison. This is Kelly Rudy. Hi, this is Scott Hartnell.

Hey, everybody. My name is Steele-Fer. This is Tim McAuliffe of Sportsnet, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Hopefully everybody had a great weekend. I'm excited about today. You know, I haven't known Mr. Jamal very long, in the short time I've got to know him.

He is just one incredible human being, and you're going to get to hear all about it here shortly. So let's get on to today's episode sponsors. Carly Clause and Windsor Plywood, builders of the podcast Studio Table. For everything, Wood, these are the guys. Dex season is absolutely all around us. Hopefully the weather cooperates for a few more months, because that would be awesome.

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She's always making me look sharp. And Gartner Management, their Lloyd Minster-based company specializing in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs. Whether you're looking for a small office or a 6,000 square foot commercial space, give Wade Gartner a call at 880808. 5025 and if you're heading into any of these businesses and make sure you let them know you heard about them on the podcast right now let's get on that t bar one tale of the tape originally from calgary he's a co-in-order of wayside dental teammate of the bike for breakfast crew builds water wells in nicaragua a dental leader for change for children where he goes around the world to remote places with no access to dentists i'm talking about necky jamal so buckle up here

we go. This is Necky Jamal and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Mr. Necky Jamal. So first off, thanks for hopping in the studio with me, big fella. Sean always a pleasure, buddy. You've been the highlight of my year so far. I have to say meeting Sean Newman. Getting to know Sean Newman was the highlight of 2021 because it, I guess it's really shaped my ear, hey? You think so? I think it's shaped my ear, Sean. Well, I got to, well, here, I'll put the, I'll put the camera on you. I'm, I got to grab something out of the fridge for you. Yeah.

Oh, let me guess. No, I went to, I went to, so here's the backstory for the listeners. They're going on. What on earth is happening here? I, uh, me and Neky, we sat down with, um, a group in town. And I got telling the story of how I first met Neky and he walks into the podcast, studio when we're having the first meeting of bike for breakfast. At that point, we didn't know his bike for breakfast.

At that point, we didn't even know what was going on. Just, I had this idea. So I invite Nekke. I send Neky a message. At this point in time, we do not know each other. I've sat in the dentist chair like once or twice. And we're sitting there and he walks in and he's got his glasses on and his stylish glasses. And, you know, he's looking all, I don't know, dapper.

And so I'm explaining this to these guys. and I say, and he looks like he drinks cider. And I was like, geez, I was just, you know, I was like, I was treating you like you're a hockey player in the locker room and I'd known you for like 10 years. And then I'm like, I really hope he didn't take that the wrong way because I was like, hmm, the cider comment might have only known each other for like three weeks at this point.

If that's what it takes to offend me, then so be it. But no, man, it was, it's been awesome, Sean. We've gone on quite a ride so far this year. We certainly have. So what I did was I went down to our buddy Brad, Mr. Hoffman, at Fourth Meridian, and I was trying to find a cider, which wasn't there. So I got a sour instead. Is that work?

Perfect. That work? Sean loves it sour. I remember that from the trip. You may take the first there, big shooter. Right out of the growler. Well, I'm excited about this. for the listener, I always go back.

It was like right around April 1st when I send Necky this message on Instagram just because he, I can't remember, something about helping less fortunate or I can't remember now, but I was like, I should just message this guy. And I'm like, you want to meet tonight? Yeah, I want to meet tonight. And from there, and I know people have probably heard this before, from there, bike for breakfast is truly born. So first off, cheers, man.

It's cool to have you in the studio. Now, the reason I got you in here, that is some fine draft from forth. Shut up again to Brad. Yes, he does. He makes a funny biker, but one hell of a beer. When he took his shirt off and it was what, I felt like minus 20 with all the wind and riding down the highway in the rain. That was something else. You got to see the inner Brad then.

Because he's a reserved dude. He's a reserved dude, yeah. Yeah, and then his inner colors came out and it was pretty awesome to see that, I think. Yeah, well, for the, once again, for the people who didn't see it, he put on these little blue spandex shorts and rode without a shirt on and it was raining and it was just miserable and it isn't like it is right now. Right now it's like plus 30 outside. Everybody's cooking.

Back then, it was a little bit chillier. To say the least, yeah, I was dreading the last 50K of that. It was pretty cool. What did you think of that, you know, we're through Bike for Breakfast. It's behind us now. I mean, we're still getting donations. I was literally just talking to Brad about this. This is wild.

Yeah. But what did you think of the, you know, from where we started in this room here to calling it, race to end hunger, to, you know, like for bike for breakfast, to getting the logo built, to adding all the team members in, you know. Yeah. What are your thoughts on? on the experience. You know, Sean, I'm sure you agree with me. I don't think either of us could have predicted its success to become this big. I think our original goal was, was, you know what,

we're going to raise 100 grand for schools in and around Lloyd, because Lloyd Minster isn't Lloyd Minster. It's the surrounding communities that make Lloyd what it is, as you said. And I don't think either of us would have predicted its success and its, you know, ability to drive the community to think big and to think of something beyond themselves. And let's take on this crazy goal of feeding every single kid in Lloyd for breakfast every day. Why can't we do that right now? We live in, I would say, you know, from my past experience, one of the most charitable towns I've ever been a part of, like where everyone wants to help.

I think that's a unique, unique ability of the Lloyd Minister people. We just have it in our hearts to help. And so it's cool just how the whole community took it upon themselves to take on this goal that we had. So I don't know. I can talk about this stuff forever. It just, it warms my heart, man. Well, it was, I call it the bullet train. Because, I mean, once it got rolling the entire group that we assembled, which is even more hilarious, right?

Like, it's just like, I call this the bad news bears because, you know, if you've ever watched movie Bad News Bears, like there are a bunch of kids that don't play ball and they're trying to play a baseball team, essentially, right? Well, we were a group of people, sure, I'd ridden across Canada, but that's a lifetime ago at this point. Between the group of us, nobody had ridden longer than 20K on a highway in the past five years, let alone the past decade. Some had never even ridden that far in their lifetime on a highway. So it was like, to pull off what would happen was incredible. What I'm curious about is what did you think of the actual bike

trip? There was a lot that went on, obviously losing the bus, was stressful on everybody. But getting there, getting back, seeing everybody get out of their comfort zones, dealing with the elements, tired, dark, you know, everything. We had a lot thrown out of, thrown atos,

whether it was, you know, you bike in the first night in the lightning storm, or on the way back to tornado warnings that were all going like, what on earth are we doing here? You know, the extreme heat of one day at 30, 30 above, to by that night it was plus five. And you're like, what is this, right? To have that big of a drop. What did you think of it? I meant the most I biked before this trip was I used to work at the zoo in Calgary, in university. And I would ride my bike to the zoo. But one day I was riding and it was raining out and I slipped like when I grabbed on my

break and I smashed my, like I fell off my bike and smashed my head on the road, crack my helmet and half. And ever since then, whenever I see a kid riding around the street without a helmet, I let them know of this, you know, tragic event that could have happened. But anyways, that was my last experience on a bike, man. And then to jump into riding on the highway, I remember, I had to, like, I felt like I needed someone to hold my hand to go down Highway 17 for the first time while we were training and be like, you know, this really wide shoulder, the cars, they're not going hit you and in the in the back of my head I'm always thinking like you know someone's texting or or something crazy like that and I'm going to get hit so that's always you know in the back of my mind

but getting on the trip and just giving it all you have and knowing that you know when your turns up you have to leave it all on the road that's kind of what motivated me and and uh I love that you know I got to ride that north Balford Hill because that was a hill I was nervous about right thinking like man what if i can't get up that hill fast enough and you know i have to get off my bike and walk because that would just be embarrassing right and uh no it's it was that part was amazing it was you know happy to to give it my all and and when everyone got out of their comfort zone when everyone was tired because no one slept in like you know 30 hours you got to you know meet everyone's inner self and i i know i just went quiet and was thinking like how is jim so

funny right now like you just sit there and you just say the dumbest stuff and you just laugh Because Jim slept the entire time. He's the one who didn't have 30 hours of sleep. Oh, man. And I remember like, yeah, like poor Nat, she got a little dehydrated. Because you guys were giving her when we were all stuck on the bus. You guys were, you know, going flat out and it was hot. And so it was just cool to see everyone push themselves and push themselves for a greater cause.

Don't you think that more people should push themselves? You just don't understand what you're capable of if you get out of your, if you get out of your shell. Absolutely. But, you know, I had this conversation. You know, we were talking about Mikey Dubs before. And I love Mikey. But the thing I like about Mikey is his mentality because I asked him, I'm like, what makes you not quit? We all have that voice in our head.

We'll be running. And for some people, it's two kilometers. And some people, it's, you know, when you're running 30 kilometers, you have this voice in your head and saying, like, you know, it's time to stop. you know, it's really easy to pretend an injury, you got an injury right now. It's really easy to do this. But to tell that voice to shut up and keep on going. To me, that's, I think that's what separates us and that's what builds character. And it doesn't only have to be physical. It's mental too. Like what makes you keep on going when you feel like your backs up against the wall? What makes you, you know, turn right into the wind and keep on going for some more? So, you know, I don't have all the answers for that right now, but I, I don't even know, man.

What did, what did Mikey say when you asked him? He's just like, man, there's no voice. After a while, there is no voice. You create that voice. You just tell that voice to shut up and keep on going. And I feel like, you know, throughout my life, I was never one, like, yeah, I'll run like a half marathon, but I'm not running 60K, like, or 150K, like what he did on the treadmill, 130K. but we all have those points in our life where you just you say okay this sucks I'm going to push through

and I'm going to you know make a a better life for myself well I could sit and talk bike for breakfast all day long because it was it was well yeah like I say it was a bullet train I don't know if we caught lightning in a bottle whatever it was it was um it was something that you just won't soon forget right but what I really wanted to bring you on for is, you know, I get to, the trip was really cool because, you know, I went from not knowing who you were to within three months, you know, it's only been four months, like, it's pretty crazy to feel like we've got, we've seen some things. And that's brought us pretty close. And that doesn't happen unless you facilitate that, right? And, and so now I'm just like,

you know, I really want to sit down. Everybody talks, you know, you have a buzz around town. you're the dentist who is always seems to be putting his right foot forward and never backs away from a challenge, things like that. And so I'm like, you know, I kind of want to know the Neky origin story. I kind of want to hear what it is. Now, first, before we get there, I do have to point out that possibly one of my favorite listeners out there is your office manager. And she was already talking to me today about you coming on and she's all excited about it. How is working with Miss P? I think it's awesome.

I think she challenges me. Yeah, she challenges me to, you know, we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things. I think that's what makes us an amazing team because we'll, I'll come up with an idea and she'll be like, Nike, that's a horrible idea. She'll come with an idea and like, P, that's the shittiest idea I've ever heard in my life. But when we're, you know, when we have that common goal, it's nice. to have someone that you know always has your back. And I can say anything to her and she can say anything to me. And we always have each other. And so I call her my workwife. We, we fight and we

love each other at the same time. And I think that's the common key to any, you know, great work relationship. And I value everything that Patricia does for Wayside, but also does for me. Like she's, she's, I'd say, you know, one of my strongest supporters out there. And I get some really crazy ideas, Sean, and we can talk about those too. And she's always the first one to, you know, have my back. And so I can't think Patricia enough. Like, I love her to pieces. Well, Pete didn't think I was going to ask about her, but I thought, you know what,

P's been blowing my phone up about all these different episodes she's listening to. I better ask when her co-worker is, she's my boss. That's right. That's right. I was like, how do I phrase this? Yeah, no, she's my boss. It's good right now. I'm sure someday she just wants to strangle me,

but I know she's got my back and I got hers. So give me the, give me the Niki origin story. You know, everybody knows you in town as the Lloyd Minster dentist, always smiling, always talking with his hands, etc. Now does everyone make fun of me for that?

I don't make fun of you. I think there's nothing wrong with it. I talk with my hands too. Okay, okay. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's tough. We all have those defining moments in our lives. And, and, um, I think everyone goes through a certain amount of trauma in their life. And, and it's how you bounce back from that and how you, you know, create the best of a bad situation. And if we want to, you know what, let's just go right into it. I'm not going to hold back. I know a lot of people don't know my story and, and, and, uh, know much about about my life. And, and, and so I got to throw it out there. So when I was, when I was young, my defining moment for me was my mom telling me you're going to be dealing drugs in the back alley, basically, when you're a teenager. And hearing that, like, it gives you pause at 13 years old.

And I was never a good student. I didn't like, I like playing basketball. I like watching basketball on TV. I thought I was going to be Shaquille O'Neal when I was older. And hearing that set. set my life on fire. And it's like, okay, now I'm going to prove to you what I can do. And that moment, I still remember it as if it was yesterday. I'm still have goosebumps right now because, man, I got shivers right now. Because that, that changed my life. And whenever I think about

how I'm going to set this world on fire, it's, it's that moment right there. That's, I don't know. We all, I'm a parent. I just can't. I can't, I don't want to rag on anyone. I just, I look at that and I hear that and I'm like, who, that's, that's heavy, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Like, no, I don't know. I would hopefully never say that to my children, right?

Because I want the best for them all the time. I'm trying to put the best for them. Totally. So. It's tough, but I haven't spoken to my mom since that day either. You haven't spoken to her? I haven't seen my mom since I was 13 years old. Yeah, I think she lives in Calgary.

agree. You know, yeah, my parents, my parents split up and that's the last day I saw my mom. I hate to pry. I got to, but have you ever thought about like, just like, I don't know, man. Like, I, I, I don't want to say a struggle with it because I don't. I don't think about it. And I know, like, man, like, we all see counselors and we all, you know, think about it. Like, oh, you have unsolved, like parent issues. But I don't, man. Like, I feel. I feel great. I feel like I've been in a great place in my life for, you know, a long period of time. We all get thrown off here or there, but like my dad and I have the most solid relationship. And I'm so blessed to have him in my life.

And he lives in Calgary and he comes to visit me. And if you hung out in him, and Tim Hortons for long enough, he's probably the one buying your kids cookies. Because he always sits in Tim Hortons and buys everyone cookies for some reason. But that's my dad. I know where you get it from Yeah, no, I'm just super lucky to have my dad in my life And I haven't seen my mom and and I don't know man I don't need to

That's fair Hey listen, I come from a completely different story So I just curious right Totally right You know to hear that and then never look back It's I don't know it's pretty cool how you took something extremely negative right like there's two ways that road goes there's a fork there right one is down the old dirt path

and who knows where it leads the other one is you hit the express land and let's let's supercharge this and that's what you've been doing you know i've got to see it for the last three months it's like it's you know getting to be around guys who are busier than me which is like impressive and successful at it which is even more impressive and you're a guy that is taking a very i don't know i don't know the word, a very troubling moment and have turned it into something that just has bared a ton of fruit. Yeah, it was, uh, thanks man, but it's, it's, it's been cool that, the hard part for me was, and I guess the most interesting part for me, like looking back, was seeing my dad, like, we didn't, we didn't have a place to live, we didn't have food,

and he would always ensure I had lunch, which is crazy. Like, looking back as an adult, like, I very rarely bring lunch to work. and knowing like when I was 13 years old, I'd go to school. And he'd, he'd always buy the expensive fruit, like plums. You know what I mean? Like the fruit in the grocery store, like usually you just get a banana if you're lucky, right? But like he would always make sure I had strawberries or plums or something. I was bringing a tear to my eye right now because it just shows how much he cared for me when I was a kid when we didn't have anything.

You know what I mean? So seeing and remembering those parts about my dad makes me want to be a better person. and also makes me remember of how big of a rock he was when I was growing up then. So it's cool. I think I caught in there that you didn't have a place to live. And I've heard you kind of talk about this before. So you were living out of a vehicle then? Yeah, my dad and I, we, that day, we're getting right into it here, Sean.

You're killing you here. The day when my dad, or when my mom said that to me, I, I went to go live with my dad and we didn't have a place to live. And so we were staying at friends' houses. And so I would, you know, go for sleepovers. We all go for sleepovers at our buddy's houses and I'd just stay it a little bit longer. And my dad would like, you know, do the same thing. And we didn't have anything.

And so we got back on our feet and then, you know, we were slowly able to rent an apartment. And I always remember the generosity of others. and when I grew up, I knew I wanted to be that person for someone else. And it's really cool that I've been able to be. Like, I've been able to, you know, give back in ways I never thought I would have ever imagined, right? And so it's really cool, and I feel like I'm just getting started. I hate to pick. You know, you say, oh, we're getting right into it.

But I think it's really powerful for people to understand you can go from, from where you were at and get and I mean look at what you've become neck you're an extremely successful guy in lloyd minster you do amazing things all the time right like you're a huge supporter of the community and giving back and everything else but for people to hear like listen it wasn't on a silver spoon and you know i think i think that's really uh it's a good motivator and it's a good uh story for people to hear like it's it doesn't have to be a hand me out like you're like that's pretty crazy right and I think that's really powerful for people to hear that's the only reason I ask I don't do it no no to bring up uh to bring up any you know obviously it's going to bring up some some

some memories for you but I think for people listening um emotion is a strong um motivator right oh totally and it resonates with people when they hear that they're like wow You know, I had dad on here about three, four episodes ago for Father's Day. Yeah. So maybe that's a little more than three, four episodes ago. People still reach out to me pretty much every second day because they finally have listened to him. And he's emotional the entire thing because what we do is we talk about his two, three years, well, probably two to five years span, which were the toughest years of his life and the generosity of people. around this area and specifically that help them get through it. And that's really good for people to hear.

Yeah. That, you know, like, it's good for dad to get it off his chest, but it's really good for people to hear that, wow, that really meant something to him when I did, you know, X, Y, whatever it is. Yeah. No, totally, man. And I think emotions, the biggest motivator out there because it lights a fire on your ass to do something about your situation. And I just remember, Like my dad telling me, he's like, do you see all this here? Outside. Yeah.

Yeah, he's just like, you see all this here? Like, this can change. This can change your life right here. Like you, you have the ability to create something amazing. And I found that ability through school. And I studied my ass off. And I was never a smart kid. I'm still not the smartest dude, man.

But I'm willing to work harder and everyone else in the room. Nanky's getting the full experience. I like it. You know, I'm getting the, the window wiped down right now the tunes blaring outside we're both kind of staring like where is that sound coming from but that's that's what it is um do you always want to be a dentist like i i'm trying to figure out you know did you always like you got a you got a beautiful smile neck you like thank you thank you he's he's uh for all the listeners who don't want me to get my teeth fixed we're in the

process of it i was there today and uh and i'm sure it just pains him to look over at me and see the the old hockey grin. Yeah. But I mean, did you always want to be a dentist? Was that, you know? Let me,

like, let me tell my, going back to my dad, he, uh, I remember going to the dentist when I was like, living with him and, and you could literally drive a truck between my two front teeth.

I was 100 pounds overweight. I, I was a fat kid. And I had just, I had like a Michael Strayhan gap between my front teeth and the 13 years old. That's not helping anyone, right? A little bit puddy.

and yeah and these teeth forever we're always too big for my face right but going through braces gave me confidence and that's something that you can never buy and that's something that you can never gain from anything how did going through braces give you con you mean your teeth getting fixed my teeth gave me confidence man man my teeth allowed me to smile I'd be sitting here right now with my hand over my face if if I had the teeth I had when I was 13 and so isn't that interesting it is And that's the power of dentistry, man. And once I found that out, I'm like, dang, I'm going to be a dentist. But then I'm, you know, in second year university and I go to my dentists and, you know, get your, you know, checkup and cleaning.

I look up and he's like, so what are you going to be? And I'm like, I want to be a dentist. But my hands are too big. So I can't do that. And he's just like, what do you mean your hands are too big? And I'm like, man, I'm six foot five. I got big hands. And he's like, and he puts up his hands to mine.

And mine were like like little shrimp. pants compared to his. And so once I found out that my hands weren't too big, I jumped right into him. That was cool. And then, yeah, I went to U of S for dental school. I did my undergrad at U of C in Calgary and then I went to U of S for dental school because there isn't a dental school in Calgary. So I find it very interesting that a smile gave you confidence. Dude, how does it not? Like I'm, I love how you have so much confidence. You're just proven me wrong right here, right? Like, no, no, no, but, but everybody, everybody, everybody has. everybody has the thing that gives them confidence, right?

Totally. So, I don't know. For me, it's always been, it's always been body weight, always. As a young kid, I was always pudgy. I was this short, stocky kid. And the stupid comments, and it's just always bothering me. It still lingers now, right? Like, I hate the comments.

I hate the weight comments. I think there's nothing more to kids. I could see how the teeth thing got you. And for me, in hockey and everything, I just learned to kind of become a little bit numb to it. Kind of like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, yeah. F them. I don't really care, right?

Like, I don't care what everybody else thinks. But tons of kids, you know, don't develop into their body until later on. Totally, right? Right? Or don't start going to the gym until later on. And then, I mean, like, Nackie, you're one of the fittest guys I know, right? Like, it's funny to hear that you were a pudgy guy. Oh, man.

And that your teeth were the thing that gave you. because my teeth, I've always rocked it. I've never had any issue with my teeth whatsoever. I understand that I look better with a full set, even if all the people who love the teeth say that that's not true. It is totally true. I totally admit that I will look, I don't know, whatever it is, better with a full set, but it's never bothered me. Not once. I enjoy it. I think it's a conversation starter. Let's have some fun. This is who I am. And if you don't like it, that's cool. Yeah, yeah.

But like, to me, if you're going to judge me off my teeth and that's a, that's a deal breaker right off the hop. Chances are, we're not going to be friends. Yeah. Chances are not, right? Yeah. No, man, it's, it's, it's confidence, man. Like to be able to, for me anyway, I can walk into a room with a big goofy grin and I can get everyone on my side right away, right? Like, I, I just feel like if I can smile at someone, I can, we can communicate.

and we know we're already on the same page. To me, that's what it is. How happy are you that masks are gone away now outside? I know in work. Yeah, it's a little different. We're still at work. Part of me is like, you know what, man? I haven't been sick in a year and a half.

I kind of love it. But I'm happy to get on with the real world. And I'm happy that when I walk in a store, you know, I don't have to wear a mask. Because it is hard to, you know, when people wave at you, especially, and they're like, hey, I think I know you, but all I can see is your eyes. It's crazy how hard.

it was to identify people when you can't see their bottom half. Isn't that wild? Yeah, right? I think, do I know you? Do I not know you? Right? And it's, all it is like, you know, on the bottom half covered up. Why would it make it that tough?

Totally, right? And all the misinformation out there, like, or I guess differing opinions about it. And for me, it's hard because I get all different opinions come to see me as, like, you know, their dentist, right? And so I, I never want to say the wrong thing. Like, you know, there's harsh people that. like don't come near me if you're not wearing a mask and there's some people that says take your mask off if you're going to talk to me and you're just sitting here being like I'm just going to play the

safe card and not even talk about it all right so um yeah I I just I'm happy to play along the rules I'm not going to stir up uh controversy about about masks and I don't really care man I got bigger fish to fry out there I guess I was just I'm just happy to see people smiling again I got you know I got to the parade was today so I got to bike around yeah and like wave and and smile and say hello to everyone. And if anyone knows me, that's exactly what I want to do. Right. I want to talk to all the little kids.

I want to talk to the old women who are sitting there. You know, there's this great group of ladies, probably, I don't know. I'm terrible with numbers. But let's say there were 75 sitting out there with candy that had been handed to them and coffee. It pulled out, like made a pop-up table and they had their chairs out. And I'm like, oh, man, that's like when I'm that age, that's what I'm doing. I'm going to have a little bailey's in my copy. But that's exactly what I'm going to do.

were having a grand old time, but everybody's smiling, right? And I just love that you can, just by biking, I could feel that again. Totally. And it's been something that's been a little bit lost for the last little bit. So I agree. We don't need to go down the rabbit hole of it, but it's so fresh. It was only Sunday that it all came back and to see everybody smiling and enjoying everybody's presence and pulling, you know, how do you get community?

You have people out, start to, uh, spread the, you know, I see you wearing a piece of love shirt, right? Yeah. Like, start to bring the love back together, right? Totally, right? You got to get that feeling going because when we're all isolated, not talking, man, it's a different world to go even to the grocery store. Totally, man.

And I think we need to, like, heal as a society, too. Like, we've been through a lot this last year and a half. And it's important to know that we are still in one community, right? And so I think we're making a step forward in the right direction, hopefully. and all this, you know, all the relaxation of rules proves to be, you know, the right decision because I think we're all ready for that to get back to normal too. I wish I was in the parade today though. Yeah, I was a little disappointed, you know?

Got to work. That was a drop of the ball by the neckie. What was it like when you graduated? That must have been a pretty special day to graduate from dental school. Yeah. I assume, right? Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I had this passion to do something, but I didn't know what. And I never had the ability to travel when I was a kid. And like, like, you know, all your friends, when you're in university, they go to Mexico and in Christmas break and stuff or whatever. And I'm like, I was broke, so I didn't have any cool opportunities like that. But I was really dying for an adventure. And so I remember hearing a story that one of my professors told me is like, you know, I was, going down the Amazon River and I was fixing teeth and I was like what we can do that like we can do that right now like sign me up so within three months no four months I signed up for a

trip to the volcanic region of Guatemala and I wanted to fix teeth like on the basis of all volcanoes and in you know see that part of the world because they never had the ability to travel right and that was my first taste of what dentistry really is man like dentistry in you know in Canada it's it's one thing like you know we're we're fixing smiles we we you know get rid of toothaches here and there but like it's not the like the real essence of of like you know getting people out of pain of course we get people out of pain on a daily basis but like you go to some of these regions around the world that people have never even seen a dentist and they've been living with abscess teeth for decades and to see that that part of the world and to know that you can help

such a massive way to these people. That's what, you know, got me about my profession is we have the ability to change lives and it doesn't have to be through, you know, giving people a smile. It can be getting people out of pain so they can move on with their life. And I never understood that until I went to Guatemala for the first time. You know, you've done a lot of overseas now. Is there a story you have like, of, you know, that just, you know, you're talking, I don't know. I can't imagine not ever seeing a dentist. I don't want to see a dentist,

but at least I have the option. Yeah. What was one of the countries then that you'll never forget because of what you got to do there? Yeah, man, I have so many stories. I've traveled through like, you know, Guatemala and Nicaragua, Peru, Ecuador. We were just in India right before COVID. But like one story always stands out and like, man, once you know me, I'm a pretty emotional dude. Like it doesn't take much for me to, you know, get kind of sad and teary. I bring out the tears. Bring out the tears. But I still remember it. We're working in an orphanage in Guatemala again. I've been to Guatemala and Nicaragua the most out of all the places. And so I was in Guatemala. We were working on an orphanage in the kitchen. And we had like people,

the, you know, the kids, they would sit on the kitchen table. It was like this metal table. And she lied down and they have their bibs on them. Like, you know, the dental bib with their name and their age. And so her name is Maria. And she had an infected front tooth. And in Canada, what we would do is we would do a root canal and get rid of the nerve and you can save your tooth. But down there, we don't have the ability to do that. Like we're working and there's no power. Like there's no x-rays. There's nothing, right? So I was told by the senior dentist. Remember, I was in my first year at this point. And so I don't know what necessarily is going on and how these trips work, right?

And so the dentist says 1-1-X. And what 1-1 is is that's your very front tooth, and X means you got to take it out. And so I'm like, okay, let's do this. Like I'm going to get this girl out of pain. This is my job. This is what I'm here for. This is what I signed up for.

And so I freeze her up and I'm like, you know, talking in my broken Spanish, which is kind of weird, by the way, like having someone do such a, like such a traumatic thing to you. And they can't even speak your language, first of all. So it's hard to communicate. but I think I'm doing her favor, right? And so I'm like, you know, I freeze her up and I pull her front tooth.

And she looks up at me and she says in Spanish like, are we done? And I was like, yeah, like you're good to go. Like go grab a prize at the table. Like she'll take you out of here. And she feels around her face. And she's like, we're all done. I was like, yeah. And then she looks up and a tear falls down her face.

And she's just like, when's the next tooth growing in? And I said, well, we have an interpreter, right? And I'm like, there is no next tooth. That is your front tooth. And she says, with this hole in her smile now, how am I going to get married? And that's when it clicked for me. How is this girl going to get married?

How is her ability to get out of the life she currently is in? Because they get married at a young age there, right? I've just screwed this poor girl over. Like I've done something horrible to this girl. And it kills me to this day that I can't go back and reverse my decision. But I felt like I was doing what I was told to do and like, you know, what was best? And this poor girl may not be able to get married now. Do you know what I mean?

Like she may not be able. She may not. How is she going to get out of that orphanage? And so that's the power that we have as health care providers is we have to, you know, always think of what's best for the patient. And I got a, you know, a bad lesson of that right off when I started. Right. So that's the story that kept me going back for more thinking I can't make those mistakes again. And how am I going to, you know, make that mistake right?

And I often think about that before every brigade we go on. I share the story with all the new, like, you know, dentists coming on board saying, like, everything you do has an impact. And what are you going to do to create a positive? impact. And if that's, you know, not taking out that tooth, but instead, let's get her to the next major city and we can all pull some money and we can pay for her to fix her front tooth so she doesn't have to lose her front tooth. Because at 13 years old, that's quite a traumatic event for, especially a young lady, right? And that's, that was really hard on me at, you know, as a new

dentist. So it's, it's interesting to see, you know, how you can help people without, you know, doing the traditional mode of, you know, the therapy. So yeah, I find that one hard. You have moments in your life that stick out to you then. Yeah, totally. I think we all do, right? This is what, it's what shapes us. And it's you make a mistake.

And I fully admit I made a mistake. And I want to make right by her. So I'm never, I'm like, unfortunately, I'm never going to see her again. but I can help out all the other young ladies in a similar situation. And so now we have a rule on our brigades. And whenever we bring dental students with us, like I share the story and I say, we are never taking out front teeth on young kids.

And we will do everything we can to get them, you know, the right care that's needed. Even though we're an emergency dental brigade in the middle of a remote region in Guatemala, we can pool our resources and make things happen. Yeah, that's that's pretty Pretty admirable right For a lot of people Well I don't know Maybe not for a lot of people

I would assume there's a group of people That wouldn't even bother They'd just be like well that's what had to happen And whatever but that's kind of what I love about you neck Is your You're a compassionate human being With a boatload of energy Yeah thanks man

But I make a lot of mistakes too We all make a lot of mistakes Listen we all make a lot of mistakes Yeah But it's it looks Let me down a pretty dark road, Sean. I'm not going to lie. Like, it's, uh, um, it made me come home every time after every trip in like absolute despair

thinking, what am I doing with my life? Like if I can create such an impact, you know, in a, you know, halfway across the world, why am I not living there? Why am I not spending all my energy there? And I'd come home in these like, like, crazy depressions and be like, man, I need to help more. I need to help more. Like I'll sell everything I have.

I need to help more. And, uh, and then I, I met like my girlfriend Nicole and she, you know, taught me that we can make such a huge difference and basically we can make that through water. And so we started drilling water wells in Nicaragua and trying to, you know, give water to those that go without. And we brought it back here to Lloyd Minster and we had these huge fundraisers and we called it one well at a time. And we would literally drill one well at a time through these fundraisers. And it was just amazing because people in Lloyd minster we're helping out people a world away and to me that was incredibly powerful and makes me

love this community more and more just even saying it because whether you're biking for breakfast and helping kids in lloyd or you're you know fundraising for a water well in chinendega in northwestern nicaragua we all want to help we just need the opportunity to and we just need the right avenue to right that's uh i don't know that's powerful powerful powerful stuff neck it's it's been it's been a um an interesting trip in a friendship i would say us two getting to know each other because uh i have my way of doing it you have your way of doing it at times are very synergistic on how we attack things and push things along and like i say um you're one of the busiest guys i know who continues to do a high level of the job at all times, right?

So, like, there's one thing to be busy. There's another thing to be busy and do it well. And to work alongside you, that's something I've noticed. It's just how efficient and calm and cool and collected you can be. As you've got to know me, you know that I can get, well, I'm emotional guy. I'm guided by my emotions at times. It drives me nuts because I want to become cool and collected. Sometimes I just got to yell and tell somebody to fuck off and be done with it, right?

Like, this is ridiculous. Yeah. And there is a time in place for that, too. I'm not saying that. But to help a world away is something that I find very intriguing because that's a hard idea to sell. Honestly, it's not that I don't want to help somebody on the other side of the world because I think what you're doing is very admirable. I just look around our area and I know there's things that nobody knows about and that are happening. and we have the ability to fix tomorrow if we really want to.

And if we know the problems, we can go do it. It only takes long. I mean, look at what 11 of us accomplished. I mean, you add in Mr. Arby's and all of a sudden you got 12 of us, right? You take 12 of us and all of a sudden you see what happens. It just takes a couple people to push it over the ledge and you can make major things happen. But to do it on the other side of the world is a huge endeavor. Well, Sean, we all have the ability to change someone's today, change someone's tomorrow and change someone's forever.

We just need to get off our ass and do it. Because we all, like, you don't have to drill a water well in Nicaragua. You can, you can hold a door open for someone. You can share a smile. You can be that ear for someone to listen to, Matt. Dude, like, there's so many ways that we can all help out and we can make a different. in in everyone's life and um i used to get caught up on like man i got to save the world i got to like i got to bring water to all these people these guys don't have water and yet i'm running a half an hour

shower before i can get into it right and so have ever heard the the parable or the story of the starfish no fire away man this is this is what changed my my mindset right here okay okay so i always used to think like man how am i going to take on everyone's problems and and you know not to come up with a solution. So this is a story. So a kid is throwing starfish back in the water, right? There's a big rainstorm. All the starfish gets swept up. And a kid is throwing starfish back in the water. And an old man walks, walking along the beach, comes up to this kid. And it's just like, hey, why are you throwing all these starfish back into the water? And as he's sitting there, you know, throwing one by one, he's like, there's so many starfish out here.

you're never going to make a difference. And the kid looks up to the old man. He's just like, well, I made a difference to this one. And another one goes back in the water. And that's how I started to think about it. I'm not going to be able to take on everyone's problems. I'm not going to be able to solve the problems of the world. But I can make a difference in one person's life.

And if that's all that I can do, well, hell, I did a damn good job of it then. And so whenever we go on a brigade, whenever we, you know, try to, try to help out whether it's bite for breakfast or whether it's drilling a water well in Nicaragua or whether it's a dental brigade or whether we're trying to fix, you know, fix eyes with our optometry partners in India. We're not going to be able to help everyone, but we've made a difference to that one person. And that's the mindset. And the thing is that I love about that is you don't know where the one person you fixed,

where their life goes and where they go and help and how it can just spread. Totally. And Nicole, my girlfriend, she, uh, she taught, she helped me like riddle all this out in my head. And because, you know, she's been through there through all that too. And she calls it the ripple, right? Like, we've all heard the ripple. You throw a stone in the water and creates a ripple. And that's exactly what it is. From us helping that one person, what if we've been able to open up their life. Like, like, now that they have water, they don't have to go travel three hours to go to the closest clean water source. Oh, what? Now they can go to school. Because women and children, were the primary, you know, sources of getting water from the closest clean water source. Well, now we put those girls back in the school. Now we've given them an education just from providing a water well in that community. What are, do they have the ability to do now? It's the ripple.

Right. And so I'm, I'm so excited to see it. And it's cool when you get to go back to these communities and you get to see these kids that like, like, you know, hey, I pulled a couple of your abscess teeth when you were six and then you go back and they're nine and, you know, they're in school. and you can see the book bags in there and you're like, huh, pretty cool. I wonder what's going to happen.

You think more people should have the ability to do something like that? Trisha Hunter was telling me today, another one of the Bike for Breakfast. Absolutely. Phenomenal member of the Bike for Breakfast. Yes. Yeah.

She was telling me that what, and I'm going to butcher this, Trisha, so I apologize. But what her and BPC did for, I believe, Christmas, was instead of, you know, like in the oil industry, it's been commonplace, you know, you take your best customer as a bottle or whatever or you take them for supper or you send them to an oiler game

or you send them blah, blah, blah, blah. And what they did was Trisha got these backpacks together and inside it, she jammed as many blankets, you know, I'm spacing on everything. Blankets, granola bars, warm hoodie. anything you could possibly need in the worst place a person could be and so what they did was they went out and gave them

to customers and said the next time you're wherever and you see a person in need give them this and then tell us about it and I was like damn that's awesome that's unbelievable because now everybody gets to feel

and see what doing something like that to somebody can you imagine being on the you know you're sitting on the curb and you got nothing, literally nothing. And I know, I know there's people there that have put themselves there and everything else, but so everybody's got a story on how their lives got to a certain place. And to do something like that and have that initiative, I thought, I was like, wow, that is a cool idea. But then on top of it, now their customers get to give it to people and see the reactions and get to feel that, because there is an emotional interaction that happens when

you do something kind like that for somebody, especially when you're not asking for anything back. He's like, here, you look like you could use this and have a Merry Christmas, right? Like, that's pretty cool. There's no question. And I think you nailed it right there. Doing something for someone that doesn't have the ability or the need to pay you back. I think that's the real part of the power behind that message there. And I think that's what gives us all purpose is, is, is,

doing doing things for others that don't have the ability to pay you back if you want to change your mindset and you know you're on the rat race of of living in life or living in lloyd mince or wherever you are if you start you know trying to do something for someone that doesn't have the ability to pay you back just that one day like in this one example here like man that that that will that that will set your soul on fire and you're going to be addicted to that feeling so i think That's a phenomenal idea on BPC and I'm going to be stealing that because that's awesome. Well, I assume that's Ms. Trisha Hunter or Mrs. Trisha Hunter. She's awesome.

And we both know, she's brilliant. Yeah, she is. Fantastic. Yeah, yeah. I love it. You said a line at the start before we started recording. You said, if you sit still, you lose your purpose. Yeah.

You believe that? Absolutely. We're meant to sit still when we're dead. if you can't do something to change the surroundings you're in, you're, uh, you're, you're,

you're, you're, you're, you're, never going to get ahead and nothing is ever going to be enough. And so if you, if you constantly, you know,

strive for that, that purposeful life and, and, and, you know, do that by, by sharing that with others. I,

I really think for me anyway, that's, that's, that's what's changed my mindset and that's what's allowed me to, you know keep that positive energy i guess do you ever sit still no hell no i can't sit still man what do you do for vacation like what what are your hobbies away from like trying to save the world and dentistry um so uh my girlfriend now we like to backpack and and if we weren't if we're in for covid right now we would be backpacking in indonesia somewhere and uh the cool thing i like about her is

she'll be like, okay, today we're going to spend $5. We're going to make this $5 stretch. And we will go on buses and we will share meals together and we'll sleep in the dodgiest place out there. And I love that stuff, man. It's so cool to, you know, at the moment, you're like, what the hell are we doing? This is so stupid. But then you get off of it and you're like, that led to so many cool experiences. Because like, man, you can all, anyone can go, you know, go to Mexico for a week and sit by the pool and drink beer.

but man you never get you never get a fulfilled life out of that um i don't know man but like even on our last dental brigade to india we this is kind of a weird story we were sleeping like we were sleeping in this like you know hotel i'd call it the sheets haven't been washed and who knows how long you just you just have to not think about it and and go upon your day right but then we woke up one day and and and uh one of the people were like there's a there's a condom wrapper like at the foot of the bed. And I'm like, that must have not been there before. They didn't clean the room, right?

And they were like, okay. Then the next day I wasn't there, of course, it was clean. But then the following day, we come home from the dental clinic, and there's another one there. And then we like, you know, look into it. And when we go to open one of the room doors, someone closes it from the inside, like one of our doors. And they're renting out the rooms and we're staying in a brothel.

And we don't even know that stuff, right? And yeah, it was a pretty dodgy place. Maybe we should have known that stuff. But those are the experiences that keep you going back, right? Like, where else in the world would anyone get themselves into those scenarios, right? So I don't know. I love that shit. You're looking for adventure.

I'm looking for adventure. And that's why when I sat here and said, I want to bike to Tufno, Saskatchewan. And you're like, yeah, man. 100%. I still, you know what? I'm embarrassed. I still don't know where Tufno is on a map. You and the rest of Lloyd.

I didn't even look at a map. I'm like, you know what, that sounds crazy and that sounds fun. And that sounds something that we can, you know, push our limits. And you always got to say yes to every experience that's given to you, right? Yeah, I think so. I don't know. You biked across Canada. That's crazy.

That is crazy, man. I think it's less crazy than you'd believe. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Biking Canada seems like your brain can't comprehensive. It's like the starfish on the beach. It's like, how are you going to get them all? I don't know.

But then one day you bike 40K. And then the next day you bike 100K. And then you next day, bike another 40K and all of a sudden you're across province and a half. And you're like, oh, we got a problem. And you get to do the old check mark, right? Yeah. And then you bike.

And then you bike. And then you bike. And pretty soon you're across the maritimes. Yeah. And you get to just kind of X off things and like, and you slowly check it off. It takes time. And it definitely takes being willing to, be a little uncomfortable.

But I don't know. I think what I've learned, and it's still learning for that matter, is some of the best experiences in life come from where you're the most uncomfortable. You're just like, oh, this is going to be tough. But tough equals a story,

and stories usually equate to good times, lessons learned. You learn more about yourself than you could ever imagine, and that beats easy any day of the way. Yeah, right? No, I couldn't agree more, man. You got to let me in on this. You're going to school again? Yeah, man. What the heck are you on? You can't sit still. Like, so let me, let me tell you. Let's go down this road. So before, before COVID, on the weekends, I thought it would be, you know, pretty cool to share my skills with other dentists. Okay, so I, I never had that mentor. I wish I had. about these you know I talked to my friends and they have people mentoring them you know

you're a young grad in the profession and it's nice to have mentors and I never had that mentor I never had someone to you know share share everything with me that that they've learned in their in their long careers I just didn't have that and so I wanted to be that person for other people so I started teaching and I would teach other younger dentists how did you know the best thing that I think I'm good at is is you know, taking out teeth and taking out wisdom teeth and putting people to sleep and taking out wisdom teeth. And, and I love that part about my job and, and that's a whole other story. But I thought it would be cool to, you know, teach people that. So I was on, I would work five

days a week and then like Saturday and Sunday, I'd fly across the country in Vancouver or Toronto or wherever and I would be teaching dentists and then I'd be back our work on Monday. So I really never sat still, right? And then I started during COVID, of course, couldn't travel. So I made all my online and I started like, you know, all these, like my own website and one thing led to a next. And, uh, and then I got stuck and I'm like, I don't know how to market anything because I've never marketed anything in my life. I don't know advertising. I refuse to advertise. I don't you know what that's about. Why would I spend money on advertising when I can help out a charity? You know what I mean? Like to me, I get a lot more satisfaction of doing that than it would be

advertising but it's led me back to school because now I'm like you know what I can help charity and I can learn learn to you know spread the word so I've always been interested in it so I've gone back to school to get a degree in marketing that's what you're doing getting digital marketing yeah I don't know what I don't even know the first thing about it but I'm like you know what if I'm going to challenge myself and I want to you know learn something outside of dentistry because I don't want to just be like you know one dimensional I'm still I'm going back to school I'm still going to be a dentist. I love my job. I'd never give it up. But I'm having fun doing this. It's been interesting. Have you ever gotten close to burnout? So many times. So many times. Non-stop, actually. Yeah.

And I've been forced to take, you know, the odd Monday off because it's, it's burnout, right? But I think what we're referring to is like, you know, when we're ready to hand in the towel, I used to get that way on the way home from dental brigades because I would say, you know what? you're so tired you've given everything you're all and you're like what am i doing here i need to be down there i'm i'm burnt out i can't i can't stand running an office it's hard to you know have 30 employees look at you every day and be like okay now what like that that that's hard man and especially during covid that was hard to navigate and i think we've all had burnout over over this this time trying to you know deal with the rules and it's just be easier to to call in sick but um

What's helped me a lot was I see a counselor and and that helps me like, you know, talk things out and put things in perspective. But going back to my original mindset whenever I am feeling burnt out is doing things that get me out of that. And that's trying to help others. Because that's like, I know I'm a full self-fulfilling prophecy here, but it's, if I can do something for someone else today, I create. that purpose, right? And then I have no reason to be burned out. I wish more, there's a ton of great volunteers. I shouldn't say that.

But I wish more people volunteered their time. Because I don't think they understand the feeling that comes from doing it and the cool people you meet along the way. Ken and I were talking about this, you know, today because, you know, we're biking. And you were sitting there talking to Trish and Natalie and we bumped into Nigel because he's got the bobcats, you know, and you just, you do things, and it doesn't have to be anything like that, heck, it could be a lot of different things, but you meet all these volunteers that are donating their time to make our community better, and they're special people, and they're interesting

people, and they all come with their own stories, and they all come, and there's this emotional high that comes off of that, not to mention the good times and laughter and everything else that comes from doing something like that. Somehow, in our society, I feel like volunteering is equated to work. And I don't know how to erase that because that isn't true whatsoever. Sure, there is some work in there, but that is not, that is not exactly correct, right? Yeah, there's some hard work at times yeah but most of the time with the hard work is good times and meeting good people and then doing good things for others absolutely and it just keeps you going hey and and i feel like i feel like we all saw a bit of that well a lot of that with this bike for breakfast because we weren't none of us

were able to do that in a year and a half man like we were never able to connect with one another in that way and we all we were saying we were going to have to cancel it because of COVID but it was it was cool because it was a lot of work but man it connected us and and I feel like you know I've made 10 new brothers and sisters through it and it's a camaraderie that you get right just from volunteering yeah absolutely well I want to flip to finally the crewed master final five I know it's been a quick hour yeah but I don't want to keep you in here all night I know you are a busy guy and I know you get lots of things I'm sure on the go. So five quick questions and then we'll have you out of here, okay?

Yeah, yeah. And saying that, you go as long as you want. I'm always curious with guests, if they could have one person to sit down with, who would they take? Who would they want to pick their brain on? Oh, man. Man, you guys are, I don't even know, man. You know, I got to go back to my basketball roots. I can't think of anyone like, you know,

Offside. I love hanging out with my dad. I don't think I'd need to ask him anything, no. But for me, I've always been addicted to that Mamba mentality. Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant. It's, I can't say I share, you know, his full ability to just focus. I wish I could.

But I would love to pick his brain and see how he becomes so determined. Because I think, I don't know. I love that stuff. And I love reading about him and in his books and in his life. And of course, it was a huge tragedy when that happened. But the Mamba mentality, Kobe Bryant, man. You mentioned at the start before we fired this up that you're a TV show guy. You like your TV shows.

Yeah. What TV show are you currently watching? And then what TV show is your favorite? I'm a huge TV show guy and the main reason I'm in TV show guys I can't turn my brain off like I never take I don't usually take the time to watch TV or anything like that and so I have cable I don't watch cable but I have to watch something to put my mind to sleep and I know it's weird but that's the only that's the only way I've ever been able to get to sleep since I was like 12 years old I needed to have like something in the background and so for me now it's the office and I've brought

probably been through I've probably been through that series probably eight or nine times and it's it's it's not that I'm even watching it now it's just that it puts my mind it puts my mind at ease man like hearing Michael Scott just be an idiot like there's something comforting about that to me and I think I would hazard a guess to think that a lot of people my age would would agree with that too because there is something comforting we all grew up with like you know family matters and step by step and and it was just like you know whole wholesome family entertainment. Fresh prints.

Yeah, fresh prints. That's what you get with the office. There's no, there's no extra. It's just, it's just wholesome, wholesome comedy that you can turn your mind off to. Here's a funny story about the office, okay? So I didn't watch it when it came out. Huge mistake.

Didn't care. Didn't have the time for it. I watched like one episode, Michael Scott drove me nuts. Yeah. Like I just couldn't take it. Yeah. And then it was probably like,

five years after the office was done, everything was, but I still didn't follow along with any of it, so I had no idea what was going on, I didn't care. And then, you know, one day, like, this is literally, I don't know, three, four years ago, whatever, I decided, you know what, everybody talks so highly about the office. I'm going to start watching. I watch it from the first episode all the way through.

And, uh, A, it was fantastic. That first season, Michael Scott is horrible. Yeah, yeah. That was too much. That was too much. It's, I don't even know how to put it into words. Like you just, he's so stupid. It drives you nuts.

Yeah. And saying that, it's superb. Yeah. But I will give the office a huge props for when Michael Scott leaves and then bring in Will Ferrell. See, even five years after, I didn't know what happens. Yeah. So when the first episode, Will Ferrell's in, I'm like, this is awful. And if this is how it continues, I'm done.

Right? Like, I'm invested now. I'm done. And then they cart them off. And he never comes back. I'm like, that was brilliant. And actually, I'm actually quite happy about what they just did, right? And it makes you forget about Michael Scott,

which you should never do at that point. Totally. But what they did was excellent in writing. Yeah. No, I love it, man. And I'll continue to watch that show every night before bed, you know, between 1130 and 12. And I just, I don't know.

I love it. What I'm watching right now, dare I say, too hot to handle. If you ever watch that show on Netflix? it's just pure garbage, but it's so addicting, and you get the people at work talking about it, and then you're like, what's going on? Well, Bachelor's not going on, so now you've got to watch this stuff.

I am embarrassed. I even said that, but... I wish people... Well, people can see my face. Best show of all time? Seinfeld. No question. Ooh.

Yeah, no question. I have... I didn't even know I had PVR, but I have PVR, and I remember I probably recorded one episode of Seinfeld. and then recorded the whole series. So now on my PBR, I'll watch Seinfeld. Like every, like at least once a week.

I love that stuff, man. And it's so, it's kind of like weird because if he came out with that show now, there's a couple like really offside episodes. Yeah, but that's it. You never get away with it. Yeah, but listen, that's history. You go anywhere back in history. We can erase half the stuff because it was offside.

But at the time it wasn't. At the time it wasn't. And now it's the rules of change. But that's life. Totally, right? You go. Go anywhere you want in history. You can find offside things.

Absolutely. It's a pretty darn funny show, though. I love it. You, what's your favorite show? Okay. So I think the best show to ever hit television ever. Only the first season was true detective, Matthew McConaughey, and Willie Harrelson, murder mystery, really messed up, dark, superb acting.

It is the best thing that's ever hit ever hit the TV. Did you read Matthew McConaughey's book? Yeah, Greenlights? Fantastic. Interesting. I want to interview him so bad. Like, he is my type of guy. And he, you know, traveled the United States in a trailer and just pull into random places.

And, you know, and he's Matthew freaking McConaughey. I don't right. Like, it's wild. Yeah, he's not just the guy in the Lincoln commercial. That's right. That's right. He's got a whole background to him, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Did you start journaling after that? I journaled before. Oh, did you? Yeah. Not nearly as much as him. Yeah. But, yeah, I still, sometimes the easiest way to get out of your head is putting it on paper. Absolutely. Especially in the middle of the night, hey? You want to get something out of your head so you can go to bed? You're right it down. I can't sit here and say, I have a problem with sleeping.

No? Listen, I've been... So I just ended a 72-hour fast today. What's wrong with you? Nothing. Why? Why? I'm heavy and I'm tired of being heavy and so I've done a ton of reading on fasting

and how healthy it is for your body and so I don't know I did a 72 hour fast but this is where I'm talking about this is willpower this is that voice in your head telling you no I can do this yeah that's what I'm talking about that's badass man yeah so I don't know

I don't know 72 hours allows you, it's the first time I'd ever done it, and it forces you to talk to yourself. I don't, I, that sounds odd. I was just talking to Vance Crow about this on a previous episode, but you got that near mall, and when you start doing things like not eating, it starts talking loud, and you've got to have a conversation with it, like, listen, this is what we're doing. You don't like it. That's fine. We're going to carry on, because I'm not going this way, for another three years, right? Like, COVID, COVID sucked.

Like, the year sucked. I have no, I'm just, like, it wasn't good. And there was a lot of good things that came out of it. I'm not sitting here saying the year was bad. But, like, for me, I just, I wasn't active. I'm an active guy. I like being playing hockey or getting out of the kids and doing whatever. And, you know, the bike for breakfast was part of that brainchild.

I was like, I got to get moving here. Because it, like, I'm, I'm just bulking up and I'm not doing anything about it, right? And I just, then when you start putting on weight and you just kind of like, ah, whatever, right? I'll have another burrito or whatever else. Right? Well, Mel and the kids are down in the States, and when they're gone, I get to do extreme things.

Fasting is in our world extreme. And so I was like, screw it. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Because then it forced me to be like, you know what? I don't really care what you're, we're not going that way. We're going to go this way. And it's been a really enjoyable experience. Honestly, the best sleeps have come during while I'm fasting.

What? Really? I'm not kidding you. Do 72 hours just drinking water? Yeah. Wow. And you're not drunk just drinking one beer right now? No.

No, I feel, I don't know. I feel really good. People have this idea in their head. If you don't eat for a day, you're going to get weak and, you know, and for some people, I'm not sitting here and saying it doesn't. for everybody there's everybody's a little different but if you can power through those and whatever you got to do drink water i mean you got to drink water and stuff like that you you'll hit this point where you're like geez i'm not even hungry this is kind of hot and then you kind of get like this

energy perk right like i was dancing around the parade today and i was at like 71 hours of not eating and i was like oh this feels pretty good like i feel pretty good right now like here we go and uh i I've read that if you do a seven day fast, which I've not gotten there and don't worry, folks, I'm not on my way there. But I've heard that day five, six, seven are wild, like how much energy you have and everything else. No, I never have experienced it. And I really want to get a guy on one of the doctors who's written on it because it's fascinating to me. That's incredible, man.

So how do you translate that mindset or translate that focus into other areas of your life? well so me and me and vans were having this this conversation like almost verbatim and not transferring the mindset but just i got to a point and you know this and bite for breakfast where i burned out like i was just it overwhelmed me like how fast it went along and i loved it but i still had other commitments i had to be doing i couldn't just do seven days a week it was impossible and uh i hit this point where i was autopilot with the podcast. I was almost on autopilot with bike for breakfast. I was almost on autopilot with my life just to kind of like survive. And survives it may be a little extreme, but you get the idea. And then when when it all ended and everything started to go back to normal,

you just need good habits to start building that foundation again to get like thinking, okay, I'm good. And for me, fasting is one of those good habits that puts everything back in focus. It's been a very good experience for me because it's forced me to take back control of my routine and everything else. And before COVID, I had a really solid routine. Like I was a guy who was up most days at 5 a.m. You know, I journaled a lot. I read a lot. I worked out. I was walking dogs. Like I was going and I've struggled to get out of bed at 5 o'clock. It's fucking crazy. And I just can't get back there. And, fact, Fasting forces you to look inwards because your body's like screaming at you. Why don't you just put a potato chip in your face or anything, right? And it's like, no, we're going to do this. Man, Sean, this is, it's kind of like symbolic how it's, you know, end of restrictions. Get your life back. I lost my camera on you.

Oh, that's all right. You don't need to see me anyway. Yeah, I was strange. I, uh, yeah, I don't know. Sorry, you were saying, you were saying symbol. It's just, it's super symbolic that you can get your life back. Like COVID, I think COVID robbed us of a lot of our lives and now you're, you're getting control back in your life.

I really admire that, man. That's huge. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's awesome, man. I, um, I don't know. Yeah, I just wasn't happy with where I was at. Yeah. And one day you wake up and you go, enough's enough enough enough, honestly.

And you know it isn't like one day and you're back to where you're, you work. It's going to take time and consistency and everything else. But one day at a time and I'll send your 10 days in and you're like, yeah, I like this. This feels good. And let's go. Fuck yeah. That's awesome, man. Yeah. Good for you, Sean. If you could go back to your younger days. Yeah. You know, we got we got sidetracked on that. Yeah, yeah. If you could go back to your younger days and become a professional athlete, I know you become a basketball player. No question. Okay. Yeah. So what basketball team would you sign up for tomorrow and who would you? you want on your, I don't know, on your team? Like back then or now? Because right now basketball

sucks. Oh, really? I think we all admit that. I don't know. I'm going to be honest. You don't even watch it. I'm not watching. I think basketball now is a shade of what it, of what it was back. Is that because of the super teams? Oh yeah. It's ridiculous, right? Like, you can't just buy your team, but it's also, there's no drama. Like, if you want to talk about drama. It's the NBA on NBC triple headers on a Saturday morning when you have, you know, the preambles and, and, you know, the, I don't even know what they call it. I guess the mini commercials before the game starts where you have Carl Malone and John Stockton going up against Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippin. And those were the days, man. Like that's, that's what basketball was. And now it's just, you know,

shooting threes and hit as many threes as you can and whoever hits more threes wins the game. And that's all it is. There's no drama. There's nothing to it. A basketball guy who thinks basketball stinks. All right, fair. Yeah, I mean, phenomenal basketball is college basketball, right? Like, we all have, like March Madness.

Yeah. People stay home and watch March Madness, right? Actually, I don't know if there's a, in all the sports, if there is a better tournament to watch than March Madness. And I love the first round in the NHL playoffs. but March Madness is pretty wild and they give her at all times and anyone can win

and don't get me wrong there's obviously favorites but how many times are you seen the upsets and it's just wild oh totally right yeah no I love it I still remember watching Steph Curry when he was playing for Davidson

like an unknown school and here he is like see if you ever go back and watch like highlights Steph Curry literally looks like he's 12 years old and just shooting out the lights man like that was awesome to see but um back to my if i was on any team Orlando magic Orlando orlando magic shekeel o'neill yeah penny hardaway yeah Nick Anderson

Horace Grant you know horse Grant and goggles and and Nicky Jamal Dominate we would have won that title the Orlando Magic I remember when they were the thing they were and they had that little like was it little penny little penny he was on those 7-11 commercials? I say don't want to watch a lot of TV. NBA on NBC. You mentioned back when you were age seven, you watched a lot of wrestling. Who was your favorite wrestler when you were seven? Undertaker. Do you remember Undertaker versus Yokezuna? You know, I can't believe we're bringing this up right now. And you'd beg your, you'd beg your dad to be like, hey, dad, can I have WrestleMania?

And can you, can you order the payper-view? And he'd be like, what are you joking me? And, yeah, I think we all loved wrestling back then. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, who's your favorite? Back in the day? Yeah.

Like, so my favorite wrestler of all time was The Rock. But that's, you know, where you're getting. into the late 90s kind of thing right later later WWF I liked um who was the uh the tag team who had the spikes on their shoulders oh the was it the nasty boys no not the nasty boys who was that hmm oh man tip of the song I know I know what you're talking about I can see them in my head there was like like football pads with spikes on them right yes yeah yeah I remember. But that was like, that was good drama back then.

It was funny because as a kid, I was like, is this real? Is this fake? Is this real? It looks pretty real. The road warriors. The road warriors. Yeah, I wouldn't guess that one. Hawk and, uh, animal and hawk.

Animal and Hawk. And they wore the big shoulder pads with, with the spikes everywhere. Yeah. I don't know why. I remember liking them. I like the Hulk, right? Yeah, yeah. Who didn't have, who didn't like him?

Right? But my heyday of wrestling was the rock, and he was, wow, there's a reason why. What they call him Rocky Maya Via? Was it? Rocky? Yeah, something like that at the start. He had the people's elbow. Like his ability. I forgot about that. Yeah. His ability to win a crowd over because he started as a heel, right? Everybody hated him. And he was so charismatic. He had a way of just. electrifying the building. And I would just watch just to wait for him to come on, right? And they'd always stacked the odds against him. Jeez, I sound like a total, like, I haven't watched wrestling in forever, right?

Like when the Rock left, I was kind of like, ah, it's over for me, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, they'd stack the Triple H and all those guys against him, and he just. Just always won. What about Stone Cold? Yeah, Stone Cold was the second, number two. Yeah. Yeah.

Smash the beers, drink them, give the Stone Colds. Stunner. Stunner, yeah. Him and always Vince McMahon, kick him and then drop him. Do you remember, I can't believe we're the biggest dorks right now, do you remember when Vince McMahon started actually fighting? Yes. And I always be like, what?

He's fighting, and then he takes his shirt off. And I remember jumping up and being like, he's got muscles. Well, he's the owner, right? You didn't expect it from. No, he's always wearing a suit, right? Yeah. And you're like, oh, my God, he's an actual character now. He's going to kick everyone's ass.

we will never repeat this well it's going to get repeated on repeat now for the i don't know yeah everybody loved wrestling back in the day yeah that's right it was theater it was theater it was theater for us for that's right yeah i loved it man the paul bearer undertaker was one thing paul bearer scared the living jesus out of me as a kid you know yeah no i hear that were you scared of ghost as a kid was i scared of ghosts as a kid Was I scared of ghosts? Yeah. I don't know if I ever really believed in ghosts.

Really? Oh man, terrified. How did that happen? I don't know, man. You know what? You know what it was? In grade five, someone brought a book to school and it was like Bloody Mary. You remember Bloody Mary?

You look in the mirror three times and say Bloody Mary and she appears? Yeah, sure. Ever since then, to this day, you will never catch me in a dark bathroom. Really? It just freaks me out, man. There's something about it. I can't get it. Don't you dare tell me.

ghost story right now. I'll walk right out of here. You don't want to hear a ghost story? Nope, no, I don't know what it is. I got a good ghost story for you. I got a good ghost story for you. Here we go. So our house that we live in, every time at roughly 8 o'clock, okay, on the front door, there's like this, not like that, but like a heavy, so when it first started happening, I would get up because I thought a bird hit the window. If you can hear a bird hit in the window, folks, that's what it sounds like. Like funk.

Yeah, like funk. What the heck is that? So then I go open the door and look for the bird and, oh, I scut up and left or, you know, right? Like, whatever. And then after like, I don't know, the 20th day of it happening, Mel and I were like, okay, something, you know, something isn't exactly right. Every day at 8 o'clock. Yep.

Yeah, it happened last night. Did you try standing outside and looking? No, why. Oh, man. Okay. I guess where I get to, Nacky is, I go, isn't bothering me. Like, he just, whoever it is, isn't bothering me. And I'm cool with that.

Heck, half the time I'll talk to him. I'll be like, hey, man, everything's going good. I'm just watching a show, having a beer. Right? Like, what are you going to do? Oh, man. Freaks me out, man. I don't know.

It's just having something that can't be explained really freaks me out. Yeah, but there's so much. can't be explained. I think, but when you go deep down into it, everything can be explained. Like, everything has an explanation. But the supernatural doesn't, man. I don't know. I can't figure it out.

I don't know. To me, there's a lot that can't be explained. And that's what science and people doing all different types of things are trying to explain everything. And it'll never, it'll never end, ever. Yeah. There will always be unexplainable things that happen. And it's not going to occupy my.

mind. I got enough things to worry about. That's why I watched the office at night. I don't have to think about it. It's just smooth sailing. Do you listen podcasts? Yeah. All right. Here's your final one then. Yeah. Other than the Sean Newman podcast, what's the podcast of choice? I do like your podcast, Sean. Revisionist history. Oh yeah. Malcolm Gladwell. There's something about his voice, man. It's just, I don't know. It's, it's. I'd love it. I'd love it. I'd love it. I'd love it's, Love to get him on the podcast. Yeah. He's Canadian, man.

Yeah, I know. Yeah. Smart man. Smart is heck. I love his ability to flip the conversation around and have you believe him. You know what I mean? Like every, like you just view things out of it, like out of a different light. I really like his books and, and no, man.

Malcolm Gladball just has that ability, that, that captivating voice to keep you going, man. Absolutely. Yeah. What's your favorite podcast? What are you listening to? Well, I say it on here all the time. You'll see the quote on the wall. Whatever time you have attacked like you're trying to save the world, Joe Rogan.

He has a speech in like episode 9 something. And it's not a speech, but it's just a snippet out of one of his podcasts where he says that along with, he just really resonated with me and where I'm at in life. And so Joe Rogan to me is his ability to get something. some of the smartest, coolest people on the planet on his podcast to open up to talk about things to, you know, drink and smoke weed and just be open about things is wild. And I love it. And then, you know, if I drill down into something like closer to home, I really like 222 minutes. He's a guy from Saskatchewan originally that has like a 17-minute monologue about, you know, basically Canadian politics. And it makes me laugh out loud and very few podcasts allow me to do that. And it's just, you know, it's vulgar. So I don't suggest kids listening to that.

I suggest if you're into politics and kind of want a humorous take on what's going on, he does it like 15 minutes and it's awesome. And then, you know, I listen to revisionist history. I listen to another one too that is, um, oh, history. The future is the history or history. the future or something like that.

And it goes back and tells old stories about how it applies to now, like how we're almost repeating. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's pretty cool. So I listen, I don't know, I listen to a lot. Vance Crowe was a guy I just had on this past week. And he's super cool individual. I enjoy listening to him.

So I drive a ton. So I listen to a ton of podcasts. Yeah. Where do you see the future of podcasts going? Well, I think it's going to, I see it continuing to trend up. I don't see a lot of people listening to radio anymore. Absolutely.

I don't think there's, I don't see that happening either. Everybody, you know, and I don't know what the age is. I don't know if it's 50 and younger, 40 and younger, but there is a break. Because there is, you know, there's lots of people who still enjoy the radio and hearing the local news and whatever. But I would say for sure my age, demographic and younger, if they're listening to things, It's Spotify, it's YouTube, and it's podcasts. Or it's like Audible and books, right? You can listen to books that have become really good.

And so to me, you want to get what's going on in Lloyd Minster or you want to get what's going on anywhere. There's probably a podcast for it. You want to be entertained. You can literally search any subject on podcasting and find one with five stars, and it's excellent. And to me, podcasts for the next however many years are going to be in its golden age. And that's, I think they're going up.

Absolutely. I totally hear you. Because that's what I do in the car too. I'll be like, what do I want to learn about today? And I remember listening to the coffee one with some fellow on the Joe Rogan podcast. It was phenomenal, man. Yeah. Like you can literally pick up anything.

And, yeah. Well, listen, before I started fasting, I searched fasting on the podcast. I found about six different podcasts. Start listening to one and like refresh my brain. I'm like, oh, yeah, right. Okay, yeah, cool. And that took me one afternoon and boom, now you remember. And you can do that on any subject.

Any subject, there's something out there on it. Like, it's wild. Yeah, man. I totally hear that. I love it. Well, thank you, sir, for coming in and doing this. You know, Sean, I've always been impressed by your guest and I'm just honored to be one of them.

Well, you've been suggested to me a lot. Oh, yeah. Is that they want to know who the neck master is, the neck meister. Okay. And so I appreciate you coming in and indulging me and indulging the listener and a little bit of your backstory and how you got into dentistry and everything else. Yeah. No, for real, Sean, like over this last year, I'm telling you, highlighted 2021,

sitting down here having a cider, but it was a big. Pilsner. Talking about, you know, getting to know you and bite for breakfast and I have a good feeling. We're going to set the city on fire and do some really cool things in the upcoming years, man. Yeah, I agree. Well, thanks again. Thanks, John. Hey, folks, thanks for joining us today.

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