November 6, 2022 • 56 mins
Dan Clouser gave up everything from the previous 30 years of his life - other than his wife and his dog! - to take up a life on the road, meeting new people, having adventures, speaking and writing and being of service to the communities he travels through.
Find out how and why he did this and how he has found that letting go of stuff makes a whole lot of room for a more meaningful life to come in.
For all the show notes and contact details head on over here.
If you love this show, please leave me a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/5starwellbeing and follow the simple instructions.
Thanks so much for listening!
For everything else 5 Star Wellbeing please head to the Evenstar Wellbeing website.
Please join me on socials as well:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIN
Music by Ian Hildebrand
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Arwen Bardsley (00:00):
Okay, welcome, everyone. Welcome back to
another episode and really happyto be here today with another
super interesting guest, DanClouser. Dan for 30 years ran a
not for profit youth sportsorganization called The Big
Vision foundation. It was run itfrom a 130 acre Sports Complex
(00:24):
for baseball and softball. Heloved what he did. But in 2019,
something changed. And Dan andhis wife, Sandy hit the road in
an RV with their dog. beforethey left, they sold all the
possessions that they didn'tneed. This sounds like a massive
(00:44):
and strange change to make. Butin fact, Dan was returning to a
lifestyle long ingrained in himby his hippie mother, Loretta,
whilst traveling around the USA,Dan writes, speaks and also
hosts a podcast of his own. So Ireally was interested to have
(01:04):
Dan on To find out everythingabout making that massive
change, which I'm sure a lot ofpeople will be interested in.
But also, obviously what you'refinding and discovering on your
journey, Dan. So to start with,I just love people to tell us a
bit about themselves about yourbackground, your origins, why
(01:28):
this is where you are now. Andespecially if you don't mind
delving a bit more into yourchildhood, I guess the the
growing up with Loretta and howyou think that that got
ingrained in you that kind ofhippie ish lifestyle?
Dan Clouser (01:48):
Yeah, no, I'd love to. Like I said, my wife and I
live full time in an RV. Nowwe've been doing it for just
over two years. We absolutelylove the lifestyle. And, yeah,
it was ingrained in me at a veryyoung age. My mom was very much
a free spirit. You know, andshe, when she started to she,
(02:13):
she traveled the country and anold 1967 Plymouth Valiant, which
she had converted into a kind ofa makeshift RV, so to speak, she
took the back seat out of it,put a mattress in there, and a
sheet of plywood and, and justtraveled around the country. You
know, volunteering at differentplaces, meeting up with, you
know, friends and family andmeeting all kinds of new people.
(02:37):
And my mom and dad were divorcedat that time, I was actually
living in Pennsylvania with myfather when she decided to do
that, which, you know, kind ofallowed her the freedom to do
and I was about 16 years old.
And, you know, I remember whenshe called me to tell me she was
doing it, she you know, she justsaid she had a bunch of friends
who had just come back from, youknow, trips overseas to Europe,
(03:00):
trips to the Caribbean. And theywere talking about how beautiful
those places were. And it justgot her thinking that, you know,
we live in a very beautifulcountry right here in the US.
And many times we take it forgranted and don't take the time
to enjoy it. So she was workinga really good job at the time,
(03:22):
selling life insurance, and thendecided to give it all up and
and travel the country. And Iwas fortunate to do a little leg
of that journey with her betweenmy junior and senior year of
high school. And, you know, wetraveled down the east coast.
And now again, I just rememberhow, you know, there was really
(03:43):
no agenda. She traveled a lot ofsecondary roads, not a lot of
interstate highways. We stoppedand surprised my one cousin in
Virginia in Quantico, he was inthe Marines based in Quantico,
and no, just stuff like thatjust stuck with me. And in early
(04:05):
2019, I took a couple of roadtrips by myself, one from
Pennsylvania to Texas andLouisiana. And another one to
Orlando, Florida and back toPennsylvania. And it was kind of
like, on those two trips is whenit really hit me that I was kind
of like this aha moment that,wow, you know what I really,
(04:29):
really now understand why momdid what she did. We did a lot
of traveling in the organizationI ran, but it was always a very
regimented schedule. We're offto you know, youth baseball or
softball tournament. So it wasalways we had to be at a
restaurant to get the kids fedand then back on the bus by a
(04:50):
certain time and get to thecomplex by a certain time so
there's never really any timefor me to actually enjoy the
journey. And that was one of thethings that my mom was a master
at was actually enjoying thejourney and was on those two
trips in 2019, where I probablyfor the first time in the life
since I had done that littlestint with her, between my
(05:11):
junior and senior year of highschool, was able to enjoy the
journey. And when I got home, Istarted writing, I'd already
published a book at that point,I was working on adding chapters
to my original book. And that'sreally kind of what sold me
(05:32):
because I initially again, itfelt like there is a, you know,
this voice telling me that itwas time for a new chapter. And
I wasn't necessarily acceptingthat because the work that we
were doing in our organizationwas very important work. I mean,
we were changing the lives ofyoung people. And, you know, I
loved my mom's story, but Ialways thought that was her
(05:54):
story, not necessarily my story.
So I wasn't grasping. You know,the willingness to, to turn this
page, so to speak, and startthis new chapter. But what
really kind of got me over thehump was my new newly found
inspiration to write.
(06:15):
I'd written like I hadn'twritten in years at that point.
So that's really kind of whatput me over the edge. I ran it
by my wife, she wasn't sold onthe idea. Initially, she thought
I'd completely lost my mind. Andagain, she kind of had the same
theory like no, that was yourmom's story. It was awesome
story. We love telling thatstory. But it's not our story.
(06:38):
And then there are some thingshappening in her professional
life. Where doors that wethought were gonna be opening
weren't opening. And we justcontinue to take it as a sign.
It's, you know what? Maybe it'stime to start a new chapter and,
and to do this, and we're bothwe're both all in at this point,
and have no regrets andabsolutely love every second of
(06:59):
what we're doing.
Arwen Bardsley (07:01):
Wonderful. And so few questions have come out
of that for me. So firstly, withyour mom's work with the life
insurance stuff, was shetraveling in her work?
Dan Clouser (07:16):
Not Not a lot. Not a lot. It was all just local
house to house stuff. But allwithin, you know, the county or
surrounding counties where wehad lived.
Arwen Bardsley (07:26):
Oh, okay. And with your, I think probably
people would like to be to havea little bit more understanding
about your the organization thatyou ran, and what that did as
well, because that sounds superinteresting in itself.
Dan Clouser (07:44):
Yeah, so I had, I had run a nonprofit youth sports
organization for 30 years, I'dactually founded the
organization when I was 20 yearsold. So it was my baby. And we,
we did some amazing work we had,we always took the philosophy
of, you know, teachingleadership skills and life
(08:04):
lessons through sports. So itwasn't a win at all cost type of
organization, we were alwaysvery competitive on the field.
You know, won a lot of games wona lot of tournament
championships, a lot of leaguechampionships, but that was
never the ultimate goal. Theultimate goal was always to
prepare these kids for life.
And, you know, so to kind of putit into perspective, when I
(08:25):
started getting this, thisurging to turn the chapter. I
mean, at that point, I had spent60% of my years on earth, giving
to this organization, and again,it was something I founded, I'd
run it. And, you know, it was avery tough decision. And one of
(08:46):
the things that's come throughus traveling around the country
is being able to connect withsome of my old players that came
through the organization thatare scattered throughout the
country, and being able to see,you know, a lot of the seeds
that we had planted years andyears ago now blooming and
turning into these incredibleyoung men and women that are
(09:09):
doing amazing work and havingthem tell you that they wouldn't
be where they are today, if itwasn't for the time they spent
in our organization and thelessons they learned in our
organization a lot of times, youknow, you sports administrator,
you use sports coach, you don'tnecessarily get to see the those
(09:30):
seeds bloom, you know, and youknow, you planted them but a lot
of times you you often wonder,you know, because again, they go
on they live their life and youmay not have a chance to connect
with them. So that's been anincredible blessing for us to be
able to, you know, to see thefruits of that labor for all
(09:51):
those years and what they'redoing out there in the world
today.
Arwen Bardsley (09:56):
Yeah, how amazing so with the organization
was How did kids find you?
Dan Clouser (10:04):
There was there's all sorts of ways. I mean, we
did a lot of, you know, internetadvertising, it was mostly word
of mouth is probably the biggestthing. You know, one, one set of
parents would talk to anotherset of parents, and they'd
recommend him to come and tryout for one of our teams that
that was in. Again, I thinkthat's one of the things that we
(10:25):
pride ourselves on is that, youknow, word of mouth was, again,
that reassurance that we weredoing something the right way
that people were recommending,you know, other parents to send
their kids to our organization.
And we had a lot of kids thatplayed, you know, from the time
they were 10, or 12 years old,up and through their college
(10:46):
years in our organization. And Ithink that, you know, again, was
a testament of us doing thingsthe right way to kind of have
that longevity. Because, youknow, nowadays, new sports, you
see kids jumping from oneorganization to another to
another to another. So, youknow, that was always something
that we were always very proudof
Arwen Bardsley (11:06):
amazing, but your wife didn't work in the
business?
Dan Clouser (11:10):
No, she helped out a lot. She helped out a lot. But
she, she had a regular job. Shewas in the oil and gas industry
for a while and got gotdownsized when another company
bought her company after she wasthere for 23 years. And then she
was working as a temp employee,and was told that she would be
(11:33):
temp to full time. And that wasthe door that kept not opening
for her. When she she was thereas a temp employee for two
years. And they kept tellingher, we're not hiring, we're not
hiring. And after a while, I waslike, You know what, this is a
sign to move on. Let's go aheadand do this.
Arwen Bardsley (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely. And so what did you
end up doing with yourorganization? Did you sell it to
someone else?
Dan Clouser (11:59):
So we we ran baseball and softball
tournaments, that was our mainsource of revenue. So that was
kind of the main asset that wehad that we did actually sell to
another organization to anactual for profit organization.
And now the organization stillexists as a scholarship
organization today, so so it isstill, you know, still doing
(12:24):
some work. Today?
Arwen Bardsley (12:25):
Yep. Yeah. Okay.
All right. And what was thefirst book that you wrote, What
was that about?
Dan Clouser (12:33):
It was titled The beauty of a diamond for the eyes
of a coach. And it reallychronicled my years as a coach
and as a youth administrator.
And, you know, again, talkingabout my coaching philosophy,
which was, you know, leadershipskills and life lessons through
games. So, you know, it's agreat book for young coaches to
(12:53):
get a hold of, and, you know,establish a philosophy and it's
not just about wins and losses,and it's actually a book that
would probably be good for, youknow, just business leaders as
well to take into, you know,that same philosophy and that
same approach that I took on thefield that can definitely carry
over into the business world aswell.
Arwen Bardsley (13:14):
And what about for athletes? Or, you know,
young people who want to getinto sport in a big way?
Dan Clouser (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, it would, it would definitely fit
them as well. Because again, ittalks a lot about there's
lessons, you know, the teamworkthat you can learn for sports,
you know, the learning fromfailure, you know, resilience,
all that sort of stuff thatsports will teach you, if you
allow it to, you know, you'regonna get knocked down in the
(13:44):
world of sports. And, you know,your coaches shouldn't be
teaching you that you can getback up and still be successful
after get knocked down on thefield.
Arwen Bardsley (13:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, good. And then, so, hadyou was the getting into
writing? Was that something thatcame more in your middle age or
had you always been a writer
Dan Clouser (14:10):
I have written for as long as I can remember. It's
just the way I've been able toeasily express myself. I
remember even as a young boy,probably 10 11 12 years old. My
brother played on the adultsoccer team. And I would
actually write a weeklynewsletter for their soccer
(14:32):
team, just out on out onnotebook paper, handwritten with
a pen. And, you know, I justremember the reaction. It was
the players and their wives andgirlfriends would kind of pass
the newsletter around on thesidelines before and after a
game. And the comments, youknow, that that they'd make
about it just really made mefeel good. So I always enjoyed
(14:54):
writing. So when I got older,there's always aspirations to
write a book. You know, and itwas, it was a work in progress.
I mean, when I first publishedit in 2012, it was about a nine
year project that it took me towrite it. And that was just a
lot of the time I was puttinginto the organization was tough
(15:15):
to sit down and, and really beable to write. And then
understanding a few years laterthat it probably wasn't done yet
at that point, and, you know,going adding 10 more chapters
and and republishing it in 2021.
And then, you know, right on theheels of that publishing my
second book, The journey, of mymother's son volume one that
just came out this past May of2022. So I think that kind of
(15:37):
proves by my point of howinspirational being on the road
and traveling was by have beenable to actually publish two
books in less time than what ittook me to do this the first one
years ago.
Arwen Bardsley (15:57):
Yeah, absolutely. And do you, are you
a journaller, as well? Do youjust, you know, write for
yourself?
Dan Clouser (16:06):
Yeah, yeah. So I blog, I don't necessarily,
there's very few things that Iwrite that I don't then publish.
So, you know, I do a blog, whichis available on my website. And
that, you know, that just talksabout our, you know, our travels
and places that we've been to,and people that we've met, and
(16:29):
just some of the experiencesthat we've, we've gone through
on the road.
Arwen Bardsley (16:34):
And so do you have a publisher for your books?
Or are you publishing themyourself?
Dan Clouser (16:40):
Published independently, I did, actually,
I did have a publisher. And itreally wasn't a great
experience. So I haverepublished independently and at
this point, anything in thefuture, I think I'll just, I'll
just independently publish it,there's just a lot of, there's a
lot of freedom and independence.
I mean, it's, you know, there'swork to it as well. But, you
(17:02):
know, nowadays publishers aren'tdoing a whole lot of marketing
for you anyway. And, you know,so there's not, at least in my
own experience, there hasn'tbeen a huge, huge asset to
having a publisher, kind oflimiting your freedom a little
bit. So I think it kinda equatesto like independent music
(17:24):
artists as well. You're talkingto a lot of music artists today.
And they're like, you know,what, we're, we're okay with
being independent. Because it'sour it's our own creativity, our
own artistic, you know, thatwe're that we're putting out
there.
Arwen Bardsley (17:39):
Yeah, absolutely. any art form, I
guess, I had another guest acouple of weeks ago, who had
she'd self published as well.
But she said she went to a selfpublishing school, or I think,
you know, it was an onlinecourse, did you do that as well,
or you already knew enough aboutit to not need to go through
that?
Dan Clouser (18:01):
I did not. And basically, I may still actually
do a self publishing onlinecourse for future books, just
because I had my manuscriptsthere already print ready when I
kind of pulled them from thepublisher and was able to, you
know, to convert them back over.
But I may because I don't thinkthat you can ever gather enough
(18:22):
knowledge with stuff like that.
So I have definitely seen a lotof advertisements for different
online publishing schools and,and stuff like that. So it's
definitely something I'llprobably look into, just to be
able to gain that knowledge.
Arwen Bardsley (18:38):
Yeah, you're right, you can always learn
something from any course thatyou do, can't you? So you left
behind a job? And you know, abit like, as you said, your baby
or business was your baby. Howdid you manage that? On an
(19:00):
emotional level? How did you getyourself through that big
change?
Dan Clouser (19:06):
Surprisingly, like when we started selling all of
our belongings and stuff, it wasalmost liberating. The toughest
part was just getting my headaround walking away from the
organization and you know,walking away from that baby and
you know, once I once I did thatand really kind of had a, an
(19:26):
understanding that there that Icould do even more meaningful
work on the road and what I wasdoing in the organization, I
think is what really, you know,sold me on that but the actual
physical process of downsizingand getting rid of stuff. I
(19:46):
thought it would have been a lotharder than it was for me, but
it really was liberating. Youunderstand at that point, how
much just, you know, materialthings how much you know, crap.
We, we accumulate over ourlifetime that you use for a
short period. And then it justsits and collects dust. And, you
(20:08):
know, as we got rid of, youknow, a lot of that stuff it
was, you know, I keep saying itis liberating it was incredibly
liberating and, and freeing tonot have to, you know, be bogged
down by all this stuff thatsociety says you know, you
should you should keep youshould consume, you should buy
you should buy you should buy.
And you know, now our lifestyleis really more about experiences
(20:29):
and living in the moment andvaluing time that we have with
other people and connecting withthem.
Arwen Bardsley (20:38):
So did you don't have things in storage, you're
back in your hometown now. Soyou didn't, it wasn't tempting
to put a bunch of stuff instorage, did you just get rid of
everything?
Dan Clouser (20:51):
we, we have about five little storage bins that
are at one daughter's house,which each time we come back
actually becomes less and lessbecause there's stuff and most
of that, honestly, is familyphotos and some stuff like that.
But we hung on to some clothingthat we thought maybe it was
(21:12):
changing the seasons, as we'retraveling we may need may not
need. But each time we go backto her house, you know, we kind
of go through a process of No, Ithink it started out as seven
bins and it's down to five now.
And each time it kind of kind ofshrinks down a little bit
because you go back and like youknow what, we won't need this
anymore. Let's get rid of it.
(21:33):
So, but yeah, we don't have astorage ban or anything like
that. It's just, you know,literally about five little
Rubbermaid Rubbermaid bins thatstuff's in right now.
Arwen Bardsley (21:45):
Wow, that's amazing. So what you so you
mentioned, you know, that youthought you could do more
meaningful work on the road. Andthat was what helped you get get
through giving up your, your,your baby, your organization?
(22:06):
What is the work that you'redoing on the road? Can you tell
us about that?
Dan Clouser (22:11):
Yeah, it's, you know, obviously, the writing
blogging and publishing books,podcast, you know, been able to
interview some amazing guests,and they're both guests that
we've met personally, you know,whether it's through a volunteer
project that we're that we'redoing, you know, someone else
(22:32):
who's living full time in an RVand telling their story, you
know, or whether it's a guestthat I get through, you know,
the way you and I met throughthrough pod match. You know, I
just love telling those stories,I think everybody has, has a
story to tell. And I think allthose stories can be very
inspirational. So I really lovedoing the, you know, the
(22:55):
podcast, and, you know, gettingfeedback from people that they
listened to an episode and itmade them make a change in their
life and that sort of thing. Andobviously, you know, speaking as
well, you know to speak to agroup and have somebody come up
to you afterwards and tell youthat what you talked about
really resonated. And then theother thing that, that we do, in
(23:17):
our travels, we do a lot ofvolunteer work. We volunteer
with an organization called ayear to volunteer, which is RV
centric, volunteer organizationthat will go to different
nonprofit organizations or stateparks or county parks, and we'll
go in for a two week period anddo a project of, you know,
(23:39):
whether it's painting things orrebuilding things or, you know,
anything that they don't havethe, you know, the manpower, the
resources to do with their,their normal staff, you know,
we'll go in there and generally,it's a group of anywhere from
about 16 volunteers to 32volunteers, depending on the
size of the project. And, youknow, again, when you're out
(24:00):
there working, you know, six,seven hours a day with, with
like minded people, you know,it's really rewarding and then
seeing, you know, the work thatyou're doing there, you know,
the staff come up to you, andthank you, and you know, how
really impactful that work isfor for them and then understand
that you're going to, you'regoing to leave and all that
(24:22):
work, you know, that you didremains there and the people
that community are going to beable to, you know, reap the
fruits of your labor that youwere just there, you know,
working to make improvements totheir community.
Arwen Bardsley (24:37):
And so, in that kind of scenario, they provide
you somewhere to park the theRV, and is there anything else
that you get as a volunteer
Dan Clouser (24:51):
that's pretty much it. You know, there have been
some projects where somecommunity groups have come in
and, and, you know, brought usmeals and some stuff like that.
But, you know, there's noguarantee of that, you know, so
we're, we're in there playingalone being self sufficient for
the two weeks. And if you know,we got a meal or two as a bonus,
that's that's just all thebetter. But yeah, it's it's
(25:16):
just, again, it's justincredibly fulfilling work to
see the impact that you'remaking on these communities
before, you know, hit the roadagain.
Arwen Bardsley (25:25):
And if you wanted to, could you effectively
drive from one volunteer projectto the next and pretty much keep
yourself occupied for the wholeyear?
Dan Clouser (25:37):
We could they they do a project. Generally, though,
it's a two week project, andthen there's a week or maybe two
off in between projects, andthen they go to their their next
project. So in theory, we couldcertainly just, you know, tag
along for for an entire yearand, and, you know, go from
(26:00):
project to project as matter offact, early in 2023, we have
three projects lined up that arekind of back to back to back and
in February, March and thebeginning of April that will
just, you know, travel to and wedid that, this past spring, as
well as two projects were inLake Charles, Louisiana for two
(26:21):
weeks, had a week off and thendid another project and Roan
mountain, Tennessee. So, sothere's definitely that
opportunity to just know,caravan around was, was that
group from project to project?
Arwen Bardsley (26:36):
And are there other organizations that run the
same kind of volunteer projectsapart from a year to volunteer?
Dan Clouser (26:44):
Yeah, there are some similar ones. I know,
Habitat for Humanity actuallyhas an RV component, we've never
done anything through them. So Iknow, that's definitely out
there. But those are really theonly two that I know of that
are, you know, kind of set upstrictly for RVers.
Arwen Bardsley (27:07):
Yeah. Okay. And your speaking engagements, you
mentioned that what kind oforganizations ask you to speak?
And what are they asking you tospeak about what's the what are
they wanting to get out of itfor their audiences.
Dan Clouser (27:24):
So obviously, you know, with having a background
in youth sports and youth sportsorganizations, and talking to
coaches and doing like coachingworkshops, or, you know, always
something that I enjoy doing,you know, outside of that, you
know, speaking to businessgroups or even, you know,
(27:46):
talking to people about just thewhole less is more concept, are
kind of the three, three maintopics that they'll talk on to
coaching workshops, leadershiptalks, and then just the, you
know, the concept of less ismore and being willing to live
outside of the societal normsof, of consuming everything that
(28:09):
society says we should beconsuming.
Arwen Bardsley (28:12):
Can you talk a bit more about that, and I
guess, especially, you know,kind of tips for people who
aren't necessarily living in anRV or wanting to live in an RV,
but just how do we, you know,start being in, in that kind of
mindset, more that, that if wedid want to, or need to, then
(28:33):
we, you know, we're not soattached to our material
possessions. And number two,that we don't have, as many of
them
Dan Clouser (28:41):
Yeah, I think, you know, it really is, is just, you
know, a mindset of understandingthat, you know, experiences are
more important than things, and,you know, really kind of living
in the moment. And being presentwith those around. You know, as
(29:02):
far as my wife and I now live inan RV, we kind of have a rule,
when it comes to clothing orsomething, there's a one in one
out rule. So if, if we buy a tshirt or something than a t
shirt has to leave the RV, if webuy a sweatshirt, sweatshirt has
to leave the RV, so if youalmost take that mentality, even
(29:23):
if you're not in an RV, where ifyou're gonna get something new,
you get rid of something old. Ithink it will help you know,
just minimize that, you know,consumerism and, you know,
really make you realize that,you know, if you stop and think
about it, like do I really, Ireally need this and if I do
(29:46):
really need it, what what shouldI get rid of to, you know, to
bring this in as well. So itreally is a mind shift to you
know, just get out of thatconstant. You know, consumer
mentality that we're no, we'realways told from the time we're,
we're little on up that weshould be out there buying,
(30:06):
buying buying.
Arwen Bardsley (30:08):
Yeah, we are it's um, And it's so bad for the
planet in the end, isn't it?
That's the other big thing aboutit, you know, really, we need to
be consuming less. And you know,it's a tiny percentage of the
world's population that consumesthe most stuff. And that's
(30:29):
people in countries like yoursand mine where that's going on.
Yeah, yeah, it's a big, it's abig deal. And even just you
mentioning, you know,experiences are more important
than things. I always like totake that approach now, with
when you wanting to givesomebody a gift, that you're
(30:54):
giving them a gift of anexperience. You know, whatever
that is, if that's a voucher togo to the movies or whatever
with you then. But it's justsomething where you're doing
something together. It doesn'teven have to be something that
costs any money. But it's aboutYeah, like you said, doing
(31:15):
something having an experiencerather than giving them another
thing that they probably don'tneed. Yeah.
Dan Clouser (31:24):
Yeah, just just the other week, my niece and I, we
she lives in Staten Island, NewYork, and we met her in New
Jersey, and we did a 20 milehike. That was part of a larger
event, an event called mammothMarch. So they go and put on
these long distance hikes. Soagain, even that, it was just so
(31:48):
incredible to be a part of thatand to kind of push your, you
know, your body to the limit,you know, to do this, and it was
a very, you know, very rockyterrain and, and, you know, a
lot of, you know, elevationchanges and stuff like that. But
at the end of it, you know, itwas like, No, we did it. No, we
(32:10):
did it. We we hiked 20 miles.
And, again, just taking in thebeauty of everything that was
around us as we were, we weredoing that. You know, it's it's
an experience I'll never forget,you know, for as long as I live
for sure.
Arwen Bardsley (32:29):
So it was 20 miles in a day.
Dan Clouser (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, it took us about 11 hours to do it.
Arwen Bardsley (32:39):
And what's mammoth March,
Dan Clouser (32:42):
it's just, it's an organization, they put on these
events. They do a 20 mile and a30 mile hike, they travel around
the country, it's almost like,you know, like a 5k event or a
marathon type event, but butfor, you know, for hiking, and,
you know, outdoor enthusiasts.
I'm not a runner. So I wouldnever ever do a 5k or, or a half
(33:03):
marathon or marathon. I tellpeople all the time, if you see
me running, you better runbecause there's something bad
chasing me. But hiking, I lovehiking and walking. And no, so I
can do that. So I just kind ofstumbled across it on Facebook
that they were running theseevents, and I saw that they were
(33:25):
doing one in Jersey, and I knewwe'd be we'd be coming back
across to that area at that timeof the year. And it worked out
perfect for us. So yeah, it wasit was amazing event there were
1300 people that did the eventand that was a combination, I
think out of 1300 I think 200 ofthem did the 30 mile hike and
1100 did the 20 mile hike it wasit was really cool again to just
(33:50):
you know be in this big group ofpeople and they let you out and
groups like five or six to kindof space it out a little bit and
and you know just again talkingto people who were doing the
same things that they you knowthat you were doing and trying
to figure out why they did itwhy you were doing it what what
drove you and and that sort ofstuff. So it was it was pretty
(34:13):
cool. They had they had reststations named stations about
every five or six miles knowwhere they you'd refill your
water bottles and get a proteinbar one the one station was
making peanut butter and jellysandwiches for us. So it was a
really well organised event andI definitely think I'll probably
do one again in the future forsure.
Arwen Bardsley (34:35):
Yeah, that sounds cool. I love hiking too.
So that's really good to hearabout that for next time I'm in
the US. So with your youmentioned with your podcast and
your blogging your you'retelling the stories of the
people that you meet. So I guessI'm interested in what inspired
(34:58):
you to share those stories, butalso, if you've got a couple
that you'd like to share withus.
Dan Clouser (35:06):
The inspiration definitely, again came from my
mother, when she had passedaway, I remember reading about,
you know, people she'd met inher journals and stuff like
that. And when Sandy and I firststarted talking about doing
this, that was one of the thingsI'd said to her, I was like,
Wouldn't it be cool if mom wouldhave been able to do this, and,
(35:30):
you know, the time that we livein now, social media and, and
that sort of thing. And be ableto share their stories in real
time, as opposed to us goingthrough her old journals and
stuff after she passed away. AndI had done a podcast for our
organization, since 2012. Andjust really enjoyed, again,
(35:52):
telling the stories, it was justsomething that really resonated
with me. And no, so as westarted, you know, kind of
putting our plan together thatwe're going to start this new
chapter, I started talking tothe producer of our, our
podcasts for the organization.
And, you know, told her that itwas something I wanted to
(36:13):
continue, you know, and started,you know, start a new podcast
tell the stories of the peoplethat we met. And, you know, at
that time, the only involvementI had in our podcast is actually
conducting the interview. So Iknew nothing about the editing
process, or how it even got tothe internet, I just knew that I
went into the studio, sat down,did an interview, walked out and
(36:35):
got a link three days later. Soshe, and another friend of mine,
who's, who's a podcaster kind ofwalked me through the back end
and, and all that sort of stuff.
And, you know, so so off wewent. And, you know, as far as
(36:57):
just any, you know, inparticular story. I mean,
there's, there's so many. But,you know, one of the gentlemen
that I was fortunate tointerview was another one of our
fellow volunteers, Oren Fadler.
And he's a, he's a retiredgeneral contractor from
(37:18):
California. He's 80 years old,now, his wife passed away, I
want to say two years ago fromcancer, and he'll, he'll go out
and do like a three month stintof volunteer projects with a
year to volunteer where he's nota full time RVer like us, but
he'll, he'll go out and do threemonths or two months, four
(37:42):
months, whatever the case is,and work and working with him is
such a joy, because I am farfrom like, a handy guy. And, you
know, he'll get me doing thingsthat I never, ever would have
envisioned myself doing, on myown. And, you know, like, this
last project that we did inWisconsin was a raptor
(38:03):
sanctuary. And we were building,you know, these flight mews,
which is basically a glorifiedbird cage, for know, for an
eagle or a falcon or somethinglike that. And, you know,
there's stuff that he would, hewould show me how to do it, and
then, you know, walk away and,you know, there I was, you know,
screwing these pieces together.
(38:25):
And, you know, he just loves notonly doing the work, but
teaching others, you know, howto do that work and know, so
when I did my podcast with himwhen he talked about that, that
his, his father in law kind oftook him under the wing when he
was first getting started inconstruction, and that sort of
(38:46):
stuff. And that always stuckwith him. And no, was something
that he felt, you know, it'stime for him to give back and,
and, you know, pass on some ofthat knowledge as well. So, I
absolutely love working with himevery chance that that we get,
whenever they're breaking thegroup's apart. I'm like,
wherever Oren's going, I'mgoing. So that's probably just
(39:08):
one of my one of my favoritestories of many. I mean, there's
so many myths out there, thatevery guest I've had on my show,
they've just, they're allinspiring, and they're in their
own way. But Oren is one thatalways is very special to talk
about.
Arwen Bardsley (39:23):
So if you've done all that work with him, you
must be a little bit handy bynow.
Dan Clouser (39:28):
I am I'm definitely handier than I than I was when
we started. There's no doubtabout it.
Arwen Bardsley (39:34):
And you better tell us what the name of your
podcast is, in case people areinterested to tune in.
Dan Clouser (39:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's the journey of my mother'sson, same name as my last book
and, and, you know, the websiteand all that sort of stuff. And
yeah, and again, that that titleis just derived from the fact
that this is truly you know, ajourney of My mother's son, one
that I never thought that Iwould, I would be on. But to be
(40:01):
able to kind of honor her legacywith what we're, what we're
doing as well as pretty special.
Arwen Bardsley (40:11):
Yeah. And I love the name, it's beautiful to
phrase it like that. So can youso when you're not, you know,
doing, you know, you're headingto a specific project or working
on a specific project? I guessI'm interested in that, what you
mentioned at the start aboutenjoying the journey and kind of
(40:33):
how do you, you know, work outwhere you're gonna go next? Or
how long to stay somewhere? Canyou kind of tell us about a
typical, I don't know, maybeweek or whatever, where you're
not, you know, heading tosomething specific.
Dan Clouser (40:50):
Yeah, so we, we don't plan out very far in
advance. Now, we will be backhere in Pennsylvania for about a
month. But even that we're not100% Sure what our departure
time heading, to warmer weatherwill be. Or even where we're
going for sure, at this point,when we leave here. It'll either
(41:11):
be either Texas or Florida,somewhere where, like I said, it
will be warmer. But we don't doa whole lot of planning in
advance, when when we do know ofa spot we're going to be even
then, like, the the trip itself.
You know, there may be sometimes where we might not exactly
(41:32):
know where we're staying at acertain night, you know, we may
just find ourselves in a, youknow, a Cracker Barrel parking
lot, which is a restaurant chainhere in Pennsylvania, it allows
RV's to park and stay overnightor, you know, just a rest area
or something. Again, we do wetravel more interstates and what
my mom did for sure. But anytimewe can get off an interstate, we
(41:56):
will take advantage of that.
And, you know, one of the thingsthat's that's best there is kind
of those impromptu stops, wherewe'll be going along and we'll
see a an entrance to a statepark or when we were up in New
York, after that hike, we wentfrom Jersey to New York, and
(42:18):
then back down here toPennsylvania, but we had, you
know, we found a state parkthere then pulled in there and,
you know, walk the trails withthe dog for, you know, probably
two, two and a half hours andcame back and ate dinner in the
camper. And then, you know,headed down the road. And those
(42:39):
have always been our justcoolest experiences, just ones
that were completely off theradar. You know, you see a sign
such and such state park, youknow, two miles to the right.
And it's like, hey, let's let'stake a shot and go in there. We
(42:59):
did the same thing last year,driving up into Michigan, we're
going along the Ohio border ofLake Erie. And it was getting
around sunset and there was thislittle park off to the right
hand side along the shores ofLake Erie and we pulled in there
and just got got to see one ofthe most amazing sunsets we'd
you know, we'd seen in a longtime. And so we try to keep it
(43:24):
as impromptu as we can. Youknow, but there's definitely
times where we, we havereservation somewhere and we
know, you know, when we've gotto be there and stuff like that.
But you know, the times when wecan just kind of drive and, you
know, figure out where we'regoing to stay. As you know, as
(43:45):
we start getting tired, thereseem to be the best moments for
sure. So I'd say it's probablya, you know, a 50 50 split of
kind of having a route plannedout knowing where we're going if
we're on our way to a projector, you know, a friend's house
or event or something like that.
To just kind of, you know,heading in a direction and
knowing in a couple of weekswe're going to be at a certain
(44:08):
spot but not exactly sure wherewe'll know where we'll stop on
the way
Arwen Bardsley (44:16):
sounds lovely.
And is there anything that youdon't enjoy about the RV Life
Dan Clouser (44:28):
I don't enjoy when when people tailgate me for some
reason, a lot of automobiledrivers in the US think that
they've got to be like literallyfive feet behind the bumper of
an RV or they feel like theyabsolutely have to pull out in
front of us so that they don'tget stuck behind us. But that's
(44:51):
probably it. It really is anincredible freeing lifestyle.
And obviously the way Gas priceshave jumped up that hasn't been.
That hasn't been wonderfullyaccepted. But you just work
through it, you know?
Arwen Bardsley (45:09):
Are there any hybrid RVs on the market yet?
Dan Clouser (45:14):
Not yet. Not that I know of anyway.
Arwen Bardsley (45:17):
Okay. And you mentioned your dog, and he, or
she, I'm not even sure has aninteresting name. Can you tell
us about that?
Dan Clouser (45:27):
Yeah. So he is a he, and his name is Youkilis.
And for anyone who's not afollower of baseball out there,
he's named after the Boston RedSox old third baseman Kevin
Youkilis. So, you know, being abig baseball fan, and the Big
Red Sox fan, when we got him asa puppy. That's how he got his
(45:50):
name. We call him Youk forshort, so there's always always
an explanation to people underwalking them in a campground or
on a trail or something. They'relike, Oh, what's his name? And
you're like, oh, okay, it'sYoukillis. And then he got to go
through the whole thing. So we Ilove when we when we meet
somebody who actually is abaseball fan, or like, Oh, Kevin
(46:11):
Youkilis, you know, that thoseare enjoyable moments for me.
But most of the time, I know,I'm just gonna have to go
through this little three minuteexplanation of how he got his
name.
Arwen Bardsley (46:22):
Yeah, okay. Oh, that's cool. I'm glad I'm not
just being a, you know, baseballignorant. I'm glad there's
plenty of the others that you'vecome across. Because I just
wondered with the spelling y o uk, I double l i s and mouse
thinking, is it something to dowith, you know, if you want him
(46:43):
to kill whatever, you know, youknow, I mean, I'm sure you
wouldn't but. Anyway. Glad wecovered that off. So is there
anything that you want to tellpeople about you know, all the
the offerings that you have?
Just covering off maybe whereyou we can find your books? I'm
(47:04):
assuming your podcast is on allthe podcasting platforms? Is it?
Dan Clouser (47:11):
Yeah, yep. Yep.
Yeah, podcast, Spotify, Apple,podcast, Google, wherever you
find podcasts, you can find it.
But easiest way to find anythingthat I'm doing is just on my
website, and I've got two URLsto my website, journey of my
mothers son.com, or just, I'lluse my name, just Dan
(47:32):
clouser.com. They both go to theexact same site. But sometimes
people get caught up in journeyof my mother's son typing it all
out. So you know, easier way toget there is just
DanClouser.com. But all thelinks are there to the podcast,
to, you know, if anybody'slooking to engage me for a
(47:54):
speaking engagement, or know myblogs are there links to the
books, are there really anythingthat you know, you need to know
about what we're doing is rightthere on the website?
Arwen Bardsley (48:05):
And are you on social media? So if people want
to follow your journey aroundthe country, they're able to do
that?
Dan Clouser (48:13):
Absolutely.
Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedIn are kind of the three
social media spots I hang outthe most.
Arwen Bardsley (48:20):
And is that under your name?
Dan Clouser (48:24):
Instagram is DanClouser5. Facebook is just my
name, Dan Clouser, or my page,Dan Clouser Author, and then
link, LinkedIn is just DanClouser as well.
Arwen Bardsley (48:40):
Okay, and maybe Dan, can you just leave us with
a few words of I guess, youknow, what, what you've, you've
learned, what are your biggestlearnings that you've had from
from taking on this new life?
And that, that people who aren'tnecessarily living that same
lifestyle can try and bring intotheir own lives?
Dan Clouser (49:07):
Yeah, I think again number one, like I said earlier,
is just enjoy the moment live inthe moment. You know, be present
with with those around, youknow, understand that, you know,
we we truly aren't guaranteedanything except this very moment
that we're in. So, you know,cherish that and, you know,
(49:29):
understand that life is reallymore about the experiences than
it is about the things So, know,if you're thinking of, you know,
going out and buying a new caror a new, whatever, think again,
and think about how you might beable to, you know, put that
money towards something else andgo out and truly experience
(49:51):
something. And I love what yousaid earlier about, you know,
when you're getting a gift, youknow, get an experience instead
and to be able to know, ifyou're getting your grandkids,
you know, a ticket to the moviesor something where they can also
spend that time with you, Ithink that's a great way to
really, you know, minimize thatconsumerism and really value.
(50:15):
You know, the ability to connectwith others, I think, you know,
throughout the pandemic, ifthere's one thing we've learned
is that, you know, whether we'reintroverted or extroverted or
whatever our personality typeis, we actually do need other
people. And that humanconnection is very important to
us.
Arwen Bardsley (50:32):
Yeah, absolutely. That's so true. And
thank you so much for sayingthat and for sharing your story
with us. Really interesting tohear that journey that you've
been on and that you'recontinuing to be on. And I
really thank you for your timetoday, Dan.
Dan Clouser (50:51):
I appreciate you having me on the show. It was a
lot of fun.
Okay, welcome, everyone. Welcome back to
another episode and really happyto be here today with another
super interesting guest, DanClouser. Dan for 30 years ran a
not for profit youth sportsorganization called The Big
Vision foundation. It was run itfrom a 130 acre Sports Complex
(00:24):
for baseball and softball. Heloved what he did. But in 2019,
something changed. And Dan andhis wife, Sandy hit the road in
an RV with their dog. beforethey left, they sold all the
possessions that they didn'tneed. This sounds like a massive
(00:44):
and strange change to make. Butin fact, Dan was returning to a
lifestyle long ingrained in himby his hippie mother, Loretta,
whilst traveling around the USA,Dan writes, speaks and also
hosts a podcast of his own. So Ireally was interested to have
(01:04):
Dan on To find out everythingabout making that massive
change, which I'm sure a lot ofpeople will be interested in.
But also, obviously what you'refinding and discovering on your
journey, Dan. So to start with,I just love people to tell us a
bit about themselves about yourbackground, your origins, why
(01:28):
this is where you are now. Andespecially if you don't mind
delving a bit more into yourchildhood, I guess the the
growing up with Loretta and howyou think that that got
ingrained in you that kind ofhippie ish lifestyle?
Dan Clouser (01:48):
Yeah, no, I'd love to. Like I said, my wife and I
live full time in an RV. Nowwe've been doing it for just
over two years. We absolutelylove the lifestyle. And, yeah,
it was ingrained in me at a veryyoung age. My mom was very much
a free spirit. You know, andshe, when she started to she,
(02:13):
she traveled the country and anold 1967 Plymouth Valiant, which
she had converted into a kind ofa makeshift RV, so to speak, she
took the back seat out of it,put a mattress in there, and a
sheet of plywood and, and justtraveled around the country. You
know, volunteering at differentplaces, meeting up with, you
know, friends and family andmeeting all kinds of new people.
(02:37):
And my mom and dad were divorcedat that time, I was actually
living in Pennsylvania with myfather when she decided to do
that, which, you know, kind ofallowed her the freedom to do
and I was about 16 years old.
And, you know, I remember whenshe called me to tell me she was
doing it, she you know, she justsaid she had a bunch of friends
who had just come back from, youknow, trips overseas to Europe,
(03:00):
trips to the Caribbean. And theywere talking about how beautiful
those places were. And it justgot her thinking that, you know,
we live in a very beautifulcountry right here in the US.
And many times we take it forgranted and don't take the time
to enjoy it. So she was workinga really good job at the time,
(03:22):
selling life insurance, and thendecided to give it all up and
and travel the country. And Iwas fortunate to do a little leg
of that journey with her betweenmy junior and senior year of
high school. And, you know, wetraveled down the east coast.
And now again, I just rememberhow, you know, there was really
(03:43):
no agenda. She traveled a lot ofsecondary roads, not a lot of
interstate highways. We stoppedand surprised my one cousin in
Virginia in Quantico, he was inthe Marines based in Quantico,
and no, just stuff like thatjust stuck with me. And in early
(04:05):
2019, I took a couple of roadtrips by myself, one from
Pennsylvania to Texas andLouisiana. And another one to
Orlando, Florida and back toPennsylvania. And it was kind of
like, on those two trips is whenit really hit me that I was kind
of like this aha moment that,wow, you know what I really,
(04:29):
really now understand why momdid what she did. We did a lot
of traveling in the organizationI ran, but it was always a very
regimented schedule. We're offto you know, youth baseball or
softball tournament. So it wasalways we had to be at a
restaurant to get the kids fedand then back on the bus by a
(04:50):
certain time and get to thecomplex by a certain time so
there's never really any timefor me to actually enjoy the
journey. And that was one of thethings that my mom was a master
at was actually enjoying thejourney and was on those two
trips in 2019, where I probablyfor the first time in the life
since I had done that littlestint with her, between my
(05:11):
junior and senior year of highschool, was able to enjoy the
journey. And when I got home, Istarted writing, I'd already
published a book at that point,I was working on adding chapters
to my original book. And that'sreally kind of what sold me
(05:32):
because I initially again, itfelt like there is a, you know,
this voice telling me that itwas time for a new chapter. And
I wasn't necessarily acceptingthat because the work that we
were doing in our organizationwas very important work. I mean,
we were changing the lives ofyoung people. And, you know, I
loved my mom's story, but Ialways thought that was her
(05:54):
story, not necessarily my story.
So I wasn't grasping. You know,the willingness to, to turn this
page, so to speak, and startthis new chapter. But what
really kind of got me over thehump was my new newly found
inspiration to write.
(06:15):
I'd written like I hadn'twritten in years at that point.
So that's really kind of whatput me over the edge. I ran it
by my wife, she wasn't sold onthe idea. Initially, she thought
I'd completely lost my mind. Andagain, she kind of had the same
theory like no, that was yourmom's story. It was awesome
story. We love telling thatstory. But it's not our story.
(06:38):
And then there are some thingshappening in her professional
life. Where doors that wethought were gonna be opening
weren't opening. And we justcontinue to take it as a sign.
It's, you know what? Maybe it'stime to start a new chapter and,
and to do this, and we're bothwe're both all in at this point,
and have no regrets andabsolutely love every second of
(06:59):
what we're doing.
Arwen Bardsley (07:01):
Wonderful. And so few questions have come out
of that for me. So firstly, withyour mom's work with the life
insurance stuff, was shetraveling in her work?
Dan Clouser (07:16):
Not Not a lot. Not a lot. It was all just local
house to house stuff. But allwithin, you know, the county or
surrounding counties where wehad lived.
Arwen Bardsley (07:26):
Oh, okay. And with your, I think probably
people would like to be to havea little bit more understanding
about your the organization thatyou ran, and what that did as
well, because that sounds superinteresting in itself.
Dan Clouser (07:44):
Yeah, so I had, I had run a nonprofit youth sports
organization for 30 years, I'dactually founded the
organization when I was 20 yearsold. So it was my baby. And we,
we did some amazing work we had,we always took the philosophy
of, you know, teachingleadership skills and life
(08:04):
lessons through sports. So itwasn't a win at all cost type of
organization, we were alwaysvery competitive on the field.
You know, won a lot of games wona lot of tournament
championships, a lot of leaguechampionships, but that was
never the ultimate goal. Theultimate goal was always to
prepare these kids for life.
And, you know, so to kind of putit into perspective, when I
(08:25):
started getting this, thisurging to turn the chapter. I
mean, at that point, I had spent60% of my years on earth, giving
to this organization, and again,it was something I founded, I'd
run it. And, you know, it was avery tough decision. And one of
(08:46):
the things that's come throughus traveling around the country
is being able to connect withsome of my old players that came
through the organization thatare scattered throughout the
country, and being able to see,you know, a lot of the seeds
that we had planted years andyears ago now blooming and
turning into these incredibleyoung men and women that are
(09:09):
doing amazing work and havingthem tell you that they wouldn't
be where they are today, if itwasn't for the time they spent
in our organization and thelessons they learned in our
organization a lot of times, youknow, you sports administrator,
you use sports coach, you don'tnecessarily get to see the those
(09:30):
seeds bloom, you know, and youknow, you planted them but a lot
of times you you often wonder,you know, because again, they go
on they live their life and youmay not have a chance to connect
with them. So that's been anincredible blessing for us to be
able to, you know, to see thefruits of that labor for all
(09:51):
those years and what they'redoing out there in the world
today.
Arwen Bardsley (09:56):
Yeah, how amazing so with the organization
was How did kids find you?
Dan Clouser (10:04):
There was there's all sorts of ways. I mean, we
did a lot of, you know, internetadvertising, it was mostly word
of mouth is probably the biggestthing. You know, one, one set of
parents would talk to anotherset of parents, and they'd
recommend him to come and tryout for one of our teams that
that was in. Again, I thinkthat's one of the things that we
(10:25):
pride ourselves on is that, youknow, word of mouth was, again,
that reassurance that we weredoing something the right way
that people were recommending,you know, other parents to send
their kids to our organization.
And we had a lot of kids thatplayed, you know, from the time
they were 10, or 12 years old,up and through their college
(10:46):
years in our organization. And Ithink that, you know, again, was
a testament of us doing thingsthe right way to kind of have
that longevity. Because, youknow, nowadays, new sports, you
see kids jumping from oneorganization to another to
another to another. So, youknow, that was always something
that we were always very proudof
Arwen Bardsley (11:06):
amazing, but your wife didn't work in the
business?
Dan Clouser (11:10):
No, she helped out a lot. She helped out a lot. But
she, she had a regular job. Shewas in the oil and gas industry
for a while and got gotdownsized when another company
bought her company after she wasthere for 23 years. And then she
was working as a temp employee,and was told that she would be
(11:33):
temp to full time. And that wasthe door that kept not opening
for her. When she she was thereas a temp employee for two
years. And they kept tellingher, we're not hiring, we're not
hiring. And after a while, I waslike, You know what, this is a
sign to move on. Let's go aheadand do this.
Arwen Bardsley (11:52):
Yeah, absolutely. And so what did you
end up doing with yourorganization? Did you sell it to
someone else?
Dan Clouser (11:59):
So we we ran baseball and softball
tournaments, that was our mainsource of revenue. So that was
kind of the main asset that wehad that we did actually sell to
another organization to anactual for profit organization.
And now the organization stillexists as a scholarship
organization today, so so it isstill, you know, still doing
(12:24):
some work. Today?
Arwen Bardsley (12:25):
Yep. Yeah. Okay.
All right. And what was thefirst book that you wrote, What
was that about?
Dan Clouser (12:33):
It was titled The beauty of a diamond for the eyes
of a coach. And it reallychronicled my years as a coach
and as a youth administrator.
And, you know, again, talkingabout my coaching philosophy,
which was, you know, leadershipskills and life lessons through
games. So, you know, it's agreat book for young coaches to
(12:53):
get a hold of, and, you know,establish a philosophy and it's
not just about wins and losses,and it's actually a book that
would probably be good for, youknow, just business leaders as
well to take into, you know,that same philosophy and that
same approach that I took on thefield that can definitely carry
over into the business world aswell.
Arwen Bardsley (13:14):
And what about for athletes? Or, you know,
young people who want to getinto sport in a big way?
Dan Clouser (13:22):
Yeah, yeah, it would, it would definitely fit
them as well. Because again, ittalks a lot about there's
lessons, you know, the teamworkthat you can learn for sports,
you know, the learning fromfailure, you know, resilience,
all that sort of stuff thatsports will teach you, if you
allow it to, you know, you'regonna get knocked down in the
(13:44):
world of sports. And, you know,your coaches shouldn't be
teaching you that you can getback up and still be successful
after get knocked down on thefield.
Arwen Bardsley (13:53):
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, good. And then, so, hadyou was the getting into
writing? Was that something thatcame more in your middle age or
had you always been a writer
Dan Clouser (14:10):
I have written for as long as I can remember. It's
just the way I've been able toeasily express myself. I
remember even as a young boy,probably 10 11 12 years old. My
brother played on the adultsoccer team. And I would
actually write a weeklynewsletter for their soccer
(14:32):
team, just out on out onnotebook paper, handwritten with
a pen. And, you know, I justremember the reaction. It was
the players and their wives andgirlfriends would kind of pass
the newsletter around on thesidelines before and after a
game. And the comments, youknow, that that they'd make
about it just really made mefeel good. So I always enjoyed
(14:54):
writing. So when I got older,there's always aspirations to
write a book. You know, and itwas, it was a work in progress.
I mean, when I first publishedit in 2012, it was about a nine
year project that it took me towrite it. And that was just a
lot of the time I was puttinginto the organization was tough
(15:15):
to sit down and, and really beable to write. And then
understanding a few years laterthat it probably wasn't done yet
at that point, and, you know,going adding 10 more chapters
and and republishing it in 2021.
And then, you know, right on theheels of that publishing my
second book, The journey, of mymother's son volume one that
just came out this past May of2022. So I think that kind of
(15:37):
proves by my point of howinspirational being on the road
and traveling was by have beenable to actually publish two
books in less time than what ittook me to do this the first one
years ago.
Arwen Bardsley (15:57):
Yeah, absolutely. And do you, are you
a journaller, as well? Do youjust, you know, write for
yourself?
Dan Clouser (16:06):
Yeah, yeah. So I blog, I don't necessarily,
there's very few things that Iwrite that I don't then publish.
So, you know, I do a blog, whichis available on my website. And
that, you know, that just talksabout our, you know, our travels
and places that we've been to,and people that we've met, and
(16:29):
just some of the experiencesthat we've, we've gone through
on the road.
Arwen Bardsley (16:34):
And so do you have a publisher for your books?
Or are you publishing themyourself?
Dan Clouser (16:40):
Published independently, I did, actually,
I did have a publisher. And itreally wasn't a great
experience. So I haverepublished independently and at
this point, anything in thefuture, I think I'll just, I'll
just independently publish it,there's just a lot of, there's a
lot of freedom and independence.
I mean, it's, you know, there'swork to it as well. But, you
(17:02):
know, nowadays publishers aren'tdoing a whole lot of marketing
for you anyway. And, you know,so there's not, at least in my
own experience, there hasn'tbeen a huge, huge asset to
having a publisher, kind oflimiting your freedom a little
bit. So I think it kinda equatesto like independent music
(17:24):
artists as well. You're talkingto a lot of music artists today.
And they're like, you know,what, we're, we're okay with
being independent. Because it'sour it's our own creativity, our
own artistic, you know, thatwe're that we're putting out
there.
Arwen Bardsley (17:39):
Yeah, absolutely. any art form, I
guess, I had another guest acouple of weeks ago, who had
she'd self published as well.
But she said she went to a selfpublishing school, or I think,
you know, it was an onlinecourse, did you do that as well,
or you already knew enough aboutit to not need to go through
that?
Dan Clouser (18:01):
I did not. And basically, I may still actually
do a self publishing onlinecourse for future books, just
because I had my manuscriptsthere already print ready when I
kind of pulled them from thepublisher and was able to, you
know, to convert them back over.
But I may because I don't thinkthat you can ever gather enough
(18:22):
knowledge with stuff like that.
So I have definitely seen a lotof advertisements for different
online publishing schools and,and stuff like that. So it's
definitely something I'llprobably look into, just to be
able to gain that knowledge.
Arwen Bardsley (18:38):
Yeah, you're right, you can always learn
something from any course thatyou do, can't you? So you left
behind a job? And you know, abit like, as you said, your baby
or business was your baby. Howdid you manage that? On an
(19:00):
emotional level? How did you getyourself through that big
change?
Dan Clouser (19:06):
Surprisingly, like when we started selling all of
our belongings and stuff, it wasalmost liberating. The toughest
part was just getting my headaround walking away from the
organization and you know,walking away from that baby and
you know, once I once I did thatand really kind of had a, an
(19:26):
understanding that there that Icould do even more meaningful
work on the road and what I wasdoing in the organization, I
think is what really, you know,sold me on that but the actual
physical process of downsizingand getting rid of stuff. I
(19:46):
thought it would have been a lotharder than it was for me, but
it really was liberating. Youunderstand at that point, how
much just, you know, materialthings how much you know, crap.
We, we accumulate over ourlifetime that you use for a
short period. And then it justsits and collects dust. And, you
(20:08):
know, as we got rid of, youknow, a lot of that stuff it
was, you know, I keep saying itis liberating it was incredibly
liberating and, and freeing tonot have to, you know, be bogged
down by all this stuff thatsociety says you know, you
should you should keep youshould consume, you should buy
you should buy you should buy.
And you know, now our lifestyleis really more about experiences
(20:29):
and living in the moment andvaluing time that we have with
other people and connecting withthem.
Arwen Bardsley (20:38):
So did you don't have things in storage, you're
back in your hometown now. Soyou didn't, it wasn't tempting
to put a bunch of stuff instorage, did you just get rid of
everything?
Dan Clouser (20:51):
we, we have about five little storage bins that
are at one daughter's house,which each time we come back
actually becomes less and lessbecause there's stuff and most
of that, honestly, is familyphotos and some stuff like that.
But we hung on to some clothingthat we thought maybe it was
(21:12):
changing the seasons, as we'retraveling we may need may not
need. But each time we go backto her house, you know, we kind
of go through a process of No, Ithink it started out as seven
bins and it's down to five now.
And each time it kind of kind ofshrinks down a little bit
because you go back and like youknow what, we won't need this
anymore. Let's get rid of it.
(21:33):
So, but yeah, we don't have astorage ban or anything like
that. It's just, you know,literally about five little
Rubbermaid Rubbermaid bins thatstuff's in right now.
Arwen Bardsley (21:45):
Wow, that's amazing. So what you so you
mentioned, you know, that youthought you could do more
meaningful work on the road. Andthat was what helped you get get
through giving up your, your,your baby, your organization?
(22:06):
What is the work that you'redoing on the road? Can you tell
us about that?
Dan Clouser (22:11):
Yeah, it's, you know, obviously, the writing
blogging and publishing books,podcast, you know, been able to
interview some amazing guests,and they're both guests that
we've met personally, you know,whether it's through a volunteer
project that we're that we'redoing, you know, someone else
(22:32):
who's living full time in an RVand telling their story, you
know, or whether it's a guestthat I get through, you know,
the way you and I met throughthrough pod match. You know, I
just love telling those stories,I think everybody has, has a
story to tell. And I think allthose stories can be very
inspirational. So I really lovedoing the, you know, the
(22:55):
podcast, and, you know, gettingfeedback from people that they
listened to an episode and itmade them make a change in their
life and that sort of thing. Andobviously, you know, speaking as
well, you know to speak to agroup and have somebody come up
to you afterwards and tell youthat what you talked about
really resonated. And then theother thing that, that we do, in
(23:17):
our travels, we do a lot ofvolunteer work. We volunteer
with an organization called ayear to volunteer, which is RV
centric, volunteer organizationthat will go to different
nonprofit organizations or stateparks or county parks, and we'll
go in for a two week period anddo a project of, you know,
(23:39):
whether it's painting things orrebuilding things or, you know,
anything that they don't havethe, you know, the manpower, the
resources to do with their,their normal staff, you know,
we'll go in there and generally,it's a group of anywhere from
about 16 volunteers to 32volunteers, depending on the
size of the project. And, youknow, again, when you're out
(24:00):
there working, you know, six,seven hours a day with, with
like minded people, you know,it's really rewarding and then
seeing, you know, the work thatyou're doing there, you know,
the staff come up to you, andthank you, and you know, how
really impactful that work isfor for them and then understand
that you're going to, you'regoing to leave and all that
(24:22):
work, you know, that you didremains there and the people
that community are going to beable to, you know, reap the
fruits of your labor that youwere just there, you know,
working to make improvements totheir community.
Arwen Bardsley (24:37):
And so, in that kind of scenario, they provide
you somewhere to park the theRV, and is there anything else
that you get as a volunteer
Dan Clouser (24:51):
that's pretty much it. You know, there have been
some projects where somecommunity groups have come in
and, and, you know, brought usmeals and some stuff like that.
But, you know, there's noguarantee of that, you know, so
we're, we're in there playingalone being self sufficient for
the two weeks. And if you know,we got a meal or two as a bonus,
that's that's just all thebetter. But yeah, it's it's
(25:16):
just, again, it's justincredibly fulfilling work to
see the impact that you'remaking on these communities
before, you know, hit the roadagain.
Arwen Bardsley (25:25):
And if you wanted to, could you effectively
drive from one volunteer projectto the next and pretty much keep
yourself occupied for the wholeyear?
Dan Clouser (25:37):
We could they they do a project. Generally, though,
it's a two week project, andthen there's a week or maybe two
off in between projects, andthen they go to their their next
project. So in theory, we couldcertainly just, you know, tag
along for for an entire yearand, and, you know, go from
(26:00):
project to project as matter offact, early in 2023, we have
three projects lined up that arekind of back to back to back and
in February, March and thebeginning of April that will
just, you know, travel to and wedid that, this past spring, as
well as two projects were inLake Charles, Louisiana for two
(26:21):
weeks, had a week off and thendid another project and Roan
mountain, Tennessee. So, sothere's definitely that
opportunity to just know,caravan around was, was that
group from project to project?
Arwen Bardsley (26:36):
And are there other organizations that run the
same kind of volunteer projectsapart from a year to volunteer?
Dan Clouser (26:44):
Yeah, there are some similar ones. I know,
Habitat for Humanity actuallyhas an RV component, we've never
done anything through them. So Iknow, that's definitely out
there. But those are really theonly two that I know of that
are, you know, kind of set upstrictly for RVers.
Arwen Bardsley (27:07):
Yeah. Okay. And your speaking engagements, you
mentioned that what kind oforganizations ask you to speak?
And what are they asking you tospeak about what's the what are
they wanting to get out of itfor their audiences.
Dan Clouser (27:24):
So obviously, you know, with having a background
in youth sports and youth sportsorganizations, and talking to
coaches and doing like coachingworkshops, or, you know, always
something that I enjoy doing,you know, outside of that, you
know, speaking to businessgroups or even, you know,
(27:46):
talking to people about just thewhole less is more concept, are
kind of the three, three maintopics that they'll talk on to
coaching workshops, leadershiptalks, and then just the, you
know, the concept of less ismore and being willing to live
outside of the societal normsof, of consuming everything that
(28:09):
society says we should beconsuming.
Arwen Bardsley (28:12):
Can you talk a bit more about that, and I
guess, especially, you know,kind of tips for people who
aren't necessarily living in anRV or wanting to live in an RV,
but just how do we, you know,start being in, in that kind of
mindset, more that, that if wedid want to, or need to, then
(28:33):
we, you know, we're not soattached to our material
possessions. And number two,that we don't have, as many of
them
Dan Clouser (28:41):
Yeah, I think, you know, it really is, is just, you
know, a mindset of understandingthat, you know, experiences are
more important than things, and,you know, really kind of living
in the moment. And being presentwith those around. You know, as
(29:02):
far as my wife and I now live inan RV, we kind of have a rule,
when it comes to clothing orsomething, there's a one in one
out rule. So if, if we buy a tshirt or something than a t
shirt has to leave the RV, if webuy a sweatshirt, sweatshirt has
to leave the RV, so if youalmost take that mentality, even
(29:23):
if you're not in an RV, where ifyou're gonna get something new,
you get rid of something old. Ithink it will help you know,
just minimize that, you know,consumerism and, you know,
really make you realize that,you know, if you stop and think
about it, like do I really, Ireally need this and if I do
(29:46):
really need it, what what shouldI get rid of to, you know, to
bring this in as well. So itreally is a mind shift to you
know, just get out of thatconstant. You know, consumer
mentality that we're no, we'realways told from the time we're,
we're little on up that weshould be out there buying,
(30:06):
buying buying.
Arwen Bardsley (30:08):
Yeah, we are it's um, And it's so bad for the
planet in the end, isn't it?
That's the other big thing aboutit, you know, really, we need to
be consuming less. And you know,it's a tiny percentage of the
world's population that consumesthe most stuff. And that's
(30:29):
people in countries like yoursand mine where that's going on.
Yeah, yeah, it's a big, it's abig deal. And even just you
mentioning, you know,experiences are more important
than things. I always like totake that approach now, with
when you wanting to givesomebody a gift, that you're
(30:54):
giving them a gift of anexperience. You know, whatever
that is, if that's a voucher togo to the movies or whatever
with you then. But it's justsomething where you're doing
something together. It doesn'teven have to be something that
costs any money. But it's aboutYeah, like you said, doing
(31:15):
something having an experiencerather than giving them another
thing that they probably don'tneed. Yeah.
Dan Clouser (31:24):
Yeah, just just the other week, my niece and I, we
she lives in Staten Island, NewYork, and we met her in New
Jersey, and we did a 20 milehike. That was part of a larger
event, an event called mammothMarch. So they go and put on
these long distance hikes. Soagain, even that, it was just so
(31:48):
incredible to be a part of thatand to kind of push your, you
know, your body to the limit,you know, to do this, and it was
a very, you know, very rockyterrain and, and, you know, a
lot of, you know, elevationchanges and stuff like that. But
at the end of it, you know, itwas like, No, we did it. No, we
(32:10):
did it. We we hiked 20 miles.
And, again, just taking in thebeauty of everything that was
around us as we were, we weredoing that. You know, it's it's
an experience I'll never forget,you know, for as long as I live
for sure.
Arwen Bardsley (32:29):
So it was 20 miles in a day.
Dan Clouser (32:33):
Yeah, yeah, it took us about 11 hours to do it.
Arwen Bardsley (32:39):
And what's mammoth March,
Dan Clouser (32:42):
it's just, it's an organization, they put on these
events. They do a 20 mile and a30 mile hike, they travel around
the country, it's almost like,you know, like a 5k event or a
marathon type event, but butfor, you know, for hiking, and,
you know, outdoor enthusiasts.
I'm not a runner. So I wouldnever ever do a 5k or, or a half
(33:03):
marathon or marathon. I tellpeople all the time, if you see
me running, you better runbecause there's something bad
chasing me. But hiking, I lovehiking and walking. And no, so I
can do that. So I just kind ofstumbled across it on Facebook
that they were running theseevents, and I saw that they were
(33:25):
doing one in Jersey, and I knewwe'd be we'd be coming back
across to that area at that timeof the year. And it worked out
perfect for us. So yeah, it wasit was amazing event there were
1300 people that did the eventand that was a combination, I
think out of 1300 I think 200 ofthem did the 30 mile hike and
1100 did the 20 mile hike it wasit was really cool again to just
(33:50):
you know be in this big group ofpeople and they let you out and
groups like five or six to kindof space it out a little bit and
and you know just again talkingto people who were doing the
same things that they you knowthat you were doing and trying
to figure out why they did itwhy you were doing it what what
drove you and and that sort ofstuff. So it was it was pretty
(34:13):
cool. They had they had reststations named stations about
every five or six miles knowwhere they you'd refill your
water bottles and get a proteinbar one the one station was
making peanut butter and jellysandwiches for us. So it was a
really well organised event andI definitely think I'll probably
do one again in the future forsure.
Arwen Bardsley (34:35):
Yeah, that sounds cool. I love hiking too.
So that's really good to hearabout that for next time I'm in
the US. So with your youmentioned with your podcast and
your blogging your you'retelling the stories of the
people that you meet. So I guessI'm interested in what inspired
(34:58):
you to share those stories, butalso, if you've got a couple
that you'd like to share withus.
Dan Clouser (35:06):
The inspiration definitely, again came from my
mother, when she had passedaway, I remember reading about,
you know, people she'd met inher journals and stuff like
that. And when Sandy and I firststarted talking about doing
this, that was one of the thingsI'd said to her, I was like,
Wouldn't it be cool if mom wouldhave been able to do this, and,
(35:30):
you know, the time that we livein now, social media and, and
that sort of thing. And be ableto share their stories in real
time, as opposed to us goingthrough her old journals and
stuff after she passed away. AndI had done a podcast for our
organization, since 2012. Andjust really enjoyed, again,
(35:52):
telling the stories, it was justsomething that really resonated
with me. And no, so as westarted, you know, kind of
putting our plan together thatwe're going to start this new
chapter, I started talking tothe producer of our, our
podcasts for the organization.
And, you know, told her that itwas something I wanted to
(36:13):
continue, you know, and started,you know, start a new podcast
tell the stories of the peoplethat we met. And, you know, at
that time, the only involvementI had in our podcast is actually
conducting the interview. So Iknew nothing about the editing
process, or how it even got tothe internet, I just knew that I
went into the studio, sat down,did an interview, walked out and
(36:35):
got a link three days later. Soshe, and another friend of mine,
who's, who's a podcaster kind ofwalked me through the back end
and, and all that sort of stuff.
And, you know, so so off wewent. And, you know, as far as
(36:57):
just any, you know, inparticular story. I mean,
there's, there's so many. But,you know, one of the gentlemen
that I was fortunate tointerview was another one of our
fellow volunteers, Oren Fadler.
And he's a, he's a retiredgeneral contractor from
(37:18):
California. He's 80 years old,now, his wife passed away, I
want to say two years ago fromcancer, and he'll, he'll go out
and do like a three month stintof volunteer projects with a
year to volunteer where he's nota full time RVer like us, but
he'll, he'll go out and do threemonths or two months, four
(37:42):
months, whatever the case is,and work and working with him is
such a joy, because I am farfrom like, a handy guy. And, you
know, he'll get me doing thingsthat I never, ever would have
envisioned myself doing, on myown. And, you know, like, this
last project that we did inWisconsin was a raptor
(38:03):
sanctuary. And we were building,you know, these flight mews,
which is basically a glorifiedbird cage, for know, for an
eagle or a falcon or somethinglike that. And, you know,
there's stuff that he would, hewould show me how to do it, and
then, you know, walk away and,you know, there I was, you know,
screwing these pieces together.
(38:25):
And, you know, he just loves notonly doing the work, but
teaching others, you know, howto do that work and know, so
when I did my podcast with himwhen he talked about that, that
his, his father in law kind oftook him under the wing when he
was first getting started inconstruction, and that sort of
(38:46):
stuff. And that always stuckwith him. And no, was something
that he felt, you know, it'stime for him to give back and,
and, you know, pass on some ofthat knowledge as well. So, I
absolutely love working with himevery chance that that we get,
whenever they're breaking thegroup's apart. I'm like,
wherever Oren's going, I'mgoing. So that's probably just
(39:08):
one of my one of my favoritestories of many. I mean, there's
so many myths out there, thatevery guest I've had on my show,
they've just, they're allinspiring, and they're in their
own way. But Oren is one thatalways is very special to talk
about.
Arwen Bardsley (39:23):
So if you've done all that work with him, you
must be a little bit handy bynow.
Dan Clouser (39:28):
I am I'm definitely handier than I than I was when
we started. There's no doubtabout it.
Arwen Bardsley (39:34):
And you better tell us what the name of your
podcast is, in case people areinterested to tune in.
Dan Clouser (39:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's the journey of my mother'sson, same name as my last book
and, and, you know, the websiteand all that sort of stuff. And
yeah, and again, that that titleis just derived from the fact
that this is truly you know, ajourney of My mother's son, one
that I never thought that Iwould, I would be on. But to be
(40:01):
able to kind of honor her legacywith what we're, what we're
doing as well as pretty special.
Arwen Bardsley (40:11):
Yeah. And I love the name, it's beautiful to
phrase it like that. So can youso when you're not, you know,
doing, you know, you're headingto a specific project or working
on a specific project? I guessI'm interested in that, what you
mentioned at the start aboutenjoying the journey and kind of
(40:33):
how do you, you know, work outwhere you're gonna go next? Or
how long to stay somewhere? Canyou kind of tell us about a
typical, I don't know, maybeweek or whatever, where you're
not, you know, heading tosomething specific.
Dan Clouser (40:50):
Yeah, so we, we don't plan out very far in
advance. Now, we will be backhere in Pennsylvania for about a
month. But even that we're not100% Sure what our departure
time heading, to warmer weatherwill be. Or even where we're
going for sure, at this point,when we leave here. It'll either
(41:11):
be either Texas or Florida,somewhere where, like I said, it
will be warmer. But we don't doa whole lot of planning in
advance, when when we do know ofa spot we're going to be even
then, like, the the trip itself.
You know, there may be sometimes where we might not exactly
(41:32):
know where we're staying at acertain night, you know, we may
just find ourselves in a, youknow, a Cracker Barrel parking
lot, which is a restaurant chainhere in Pennsylvania, it allows
RV's to park and stay overnightor, you know, just a rest area
or something. Again, we do wetravel more interstates and what
my mom did for sure. But anytimewe can get off an interstate, we
(41:56):
will take advantage of that.
And, you know, one of the thingsthat's that's best there is kind
of those impromptu stops, wherewe'll be going along and we'll
see a an entrance to a statepark or when we were up in New
York, after that hike, we wentfrom Jersey to New York, and
(42:18):
then back down here toPennsylvania, but we had, you
know, we found a state parkthere then pulled in there and,
you know, walk the trails withthe dog for, you know, probably
two, two and a half hours andcame back and ate dinner in the
camper. And then, you know,headed down the road. And those
(42:39):
have always been our justcoolest experiences, just ones
that were completely off theradar. You know, you see a sign
such and such state park, youknow, two miles to the right.
And it's like, hey, let's let'stake a shot and go in there. We
(42:59):
did the same thing last year,driving up into Michigan, we're
going along the Ohio border ofLake Erie. And it was getting
around sunset and there was thislittle park off to the right
hand side along the shores ofLake Erie and we pulled in there
and just got got to see one ofthe most amazing sunsets we'd
you know, we'd seen in a longtime. And so we try to keep it
(43:24):
as impromptu as we can. Youknow, but there's definitely
times where we, we havereservation somewhere and we
know, you know, when we've gotto be there and stuff like that.
But you know, the times when wecan just kind of drive and, you
know, figure out where we'regoing to stay. As you know, as
(43:45):
we start getting tired, thereseem to be the best moments for
sure. So I'd say it's probablya, you know, a 50 50 split of
kind of having a route plannedout knowing where we're going if
we're on our way to a projector, you know, a friend's house
or event or something like that.
To just kind of, you know,heading in a direction and
knowing in a couple of weekswe're going to be at a certain
(44:08):
spot but not exactly sure wherewe'll know where we'll stop on
the way
Arwen Bardsley (44:16):
sounds lovely.
And is there anything that youdon't enjoy about the RV Life
Dan Clouser (44:28):
I don't enjoy when when people tailgate me for some
reason, a lot of automobiledrivers in the US think that
they've got to be like literallyfive feet behind the bumper of
an RV or they feel like theyabsolutely have to pull out in
front of us so that they don'tget stuck behind us. But that's
(44:51):
probably it. It really is anincredible freeing lifestyle.
And obviously the way Gas priceshave jumped up that hasn't been.
That hasn't been wonderfullyaccepted. But you just work
through it, you know?
Arwen Bardsley (45:09):
Are there any hybrid RVs on the market yet?
Dan Clouser (45:14):
Not yet. Not that I know of anyway.
Arwen Bardsley (45:17):
Okay. And you mentioned your dog, and he, or
she, I'm not even sure has aninteresting name. Can you tell
us about that?
Dan Clouser (45:27):
Yeah. So he is a he, and his name is Youkilis.
And for anyone who's not afollower of baseball out there,
he's named after the Boston RedSox old third baseman Kevin
Youkilis. So, you know, being abig baseball fan, and the Big
Red Sox fan, when we got him asa puppy. That's how he got his
(45:50):
name. We call him Youk forshort, so there's always always
an explanation to people underwalking them in a campground or
on a trail or something. They'relike, Oh, what's his name? And
you're like, oh, okay, it'sYoukillis. And then he got to go
through the whole thing. So we Ilove when we when we meet
somebody who actually is abaseball fan, or like, Oh, Kevin
(46:11):
Youkilis, you know, that thoseare enjoyable moments for me.
But most of the time, I know,I'm just gonna have to go
through this little three minuteexplanation of how he got his
name.
Arwen Bardsley (46:22):
Yeah, okay. Oh, that's cool. I'm glad I'm not
just being a, you know, baseballignorant. I'm glad there's
plenty of the others that you'vecome across. Because I just
wondered with the spelling y o uk, I double l i s and mouse
thinking, is it something to dowith, you know, if you want him
(46:43):
to kill whatever, you know, youknow, I mean, I'm sure you
wouldn't but. Anyway. Glad wecovered that off. So is there
anything that you want to tellpeople about you know, all the
the offerings that you have?
Just covering off maybe whereyou we can find your books? I'm
(47:04):
assuming your podcast is on allthe podcasting platforms? Is it?
Dan Clouser (47:11):
Yeah, yep. Yep.
Yeah, podcast, Spotify, Apple,podcast, Google, wherever you
find podcasts, you can find it.
But easiest way to find anythingthat I'm doing is just on my
website, and I've got two URLsto my website, journey of my
mothers son.com, or just, I'lluse my name, just Dan
(47:32):
clouser.com. They both go to theexact same site. But sometimes
people get caught up in journeyof my mother's son typing it all
out. So you know, easier way toget there is just
DanClouser.com. But all thelinks are there to the podcast,
to, you know, if anybody'slooking to engage me for a
(47:54):
speaking engagement, or know myblogs are there links to the
books, are there really anythingthat you know, you need to know
about what we're doing is rightthere on the website?
Arwen Bardsley (48:05):
And are you on social media? So if people want
to follow your journey aroundthe country, they're able to do
that?
Dan Clouser (48:13):
Absolutely.
Facebook, Instagram, andLinkedIn are kind of the three
social media spots I hang outthe most.
Arwen Bardsley (48:20):
And is that under your name?
Dan Clouser (48:24):
Instagram is DanClouser5. Facebook is just my
name, Dan Clouser, or my page,Dan Clouser Author, and then
link, LinkedIn is just DanClouser as well.
Arwen Bardsley (48:40):
Okay, and maybe Dan, can you just leave us with
a few words of I guess, youknow, what, what you've, you've
learned, what are your biggestlearnings that you've had from
from taking on this new life?
And that, that people who aren'tnecessarily living that same
lifestyle can try and bring intotheir own lives?
Dan Clouser (49:07):
Yeah, I think again number one, like I said earlier,
is just enjoy the moment live inthe moment. You know, be present
with with those around, youknow, understand that, you know,
we we truly aren't guaranteedanything except this very moment
that we're in. So, you know,cherish that and, you know,
(49:29):
understand that life is reallymore about the experiences than
it is about the things So, know,if you're thinking of, you know,
going out and buying a new caror a new, whatever, think again,
and think about how you might beable to, you know, put that
money towards something else andgo out and truly experience
(49:51):
something. And I love what yousaid earlier about, you know,
when you're getting a gift, youknow, get an experience instead
and to be able to know, ifyou're getting your grandkids,
you know, a ticket to the moviesor something where they can also
spend that time with you, Ithink that's a great way to
really, you know, minimize thatconsumerism and really value.
(50:15):
You know, the ability to connectwith others, I think, you know,
throughout the pandemic, ifthere's one thing we've learned
is that, you know, whether we'reintroverted or extroverted or
whatever our personality typeis, we actually do need other
people. And that humanconnection is very important to
us.
Arwen Bardsley (50:32):
Yeah, absolutely. That's so true. And
thank you so much for sayingthat and for sharing your story
with us. Really interesting tohear that journey that you've
been on and that you'recontinuing to be on. And I
really thank you for your timetoday, Dan.
Dan Clouser (50:51):
I appreciate you having me on the show. It was a
lot of fun.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.