July 29, 2025 • 41 mins
What happens when your life changes in an instant—and you have to relearn how to walk, talk, and smile?
This episode is with Daniel MacQueen, and we’ll explore how a brain hemorrhage rewired his life and mindset, leading him to become an inspiring voice on resilience and growth. Learn how to face change with a “better than yesterday” vibe and why Dan says, you get to do this.
At 28, Dan MacQueen was living a healthy, active life. After a routine optometrist visit for persistent headaches, he was rushed into emergency brain surgery. On June 21, 2014, Dan suffered a life-altering brain hemorrhage. What followed were two emergency brain surgeries, a coma, and a challenging rehabilitation journey—learning once again how to walk, talk, and smile.
Through grit, positivity, and relentless drive, Dan returned to the life he loved and now inspires others with his actionable tools for overcoming adversity. His story is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and how resilience can be taught and practiced.
Find out more about Daniel MacQueen by visiting https://www.macqueendan.com
🔑Rob Z Wentz is a Leadership Communication Expert. Rob teaches, trains, and develops people and organizations to become exceptional communicators and leaders. With Rob, leaders find clarity, take action, and succeed with integrity, making them “the expert” in their industry.
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🔑Rob is also a Christian entrepreneur, founder of The Unstuck Movement (on all social & podcast platforms), best-selling author, social media marketer and strategist, award-winning radio personality, speaker, and influencer. For over 20 years Rob has been leading people to communicate at a higher level.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:25):
Music welcome back to the unstuck movement.
As always, I'm your host Rob Z true testimonies a breakthrough
on the platform today we're talking to the incredible Dan
McQueen and today we're going totalk about shifting your mindset
being better than yesterday. How do we bounce back resiliency
getting into some real talk and and healing in our lives and and
(00:46):
gamifying the growth in our life, which I I can't wait to
talk about that. But Dan, I'd like to jump in
right off the bat with a question.
And I know you had a major eventhappened to you back in London
in 2014 that that shaped and changed the rest of your life.
Can you dive into what happened and how the events transpired
(01:07):
that started to really change who you are?
Yeah, thanks, Rob. First of all, it's great to be
on the show, so thank you for having me.
My story takes black in 2014 andjolly old London England working
in tech. Big nights out, Had to cake the
office on a Friday night that would Polish off when we explode
to the pubs night bus home at 4:00 AM.
Life was fast, life was loose brother it was the best life.
(01:30):
In my 20s in London started having these headaches.
Headaches got worse after a few weeks.
Painkillers like candy for them,£100 on the tube.
One day the tube takes a zigzag around London lumbering towards
non hill gate tube station on the district line.
Slow rolled the best of times. Headaches were so bad my vision
(01:50):
turned starry and I saw spots and solicitor to fade to black.
It was a race as you could arrive at the station first
mirror the blindness stepped down to none of no gate tube
station mind the gap and the lights went out.
I couldn't see a thing. I was blind on a tube station in
London. So Rob want to ask you, Abel
said. A guy your whole life, all of a
sudden you're thrusting the depths of blindness on a tube
(02:12):
station in London. What do you think?
What do you feel? What do you do?
What do you do, man? Well, I'd like to think that I
would. If I didn't know anybody on the
tube, I would. The person closest to me.
Hey, I can't see something's going on with me right now.
Could you please just help me navigate off this when it stops?
(02:36):
That's as far as my mind would go.
And then get myself to a hospital or somewhere where
somebody could help me. That's a good response.
I might not do that though. I might totally panic and have a
total mental breakdown. I'll tell you what I did Rob,
and that's absolutely nothing. I stood there and I froze like a
statue. The station's swirling around
me, the noises, the smells, it'sall there, but the eyesight's
(03:00):
gone. I can't see a thing.
After the longest 3 minutes of my life, my vision comes back
and I carry on with my day. But the next day I go strolling
back into A and EA and E is actually an emergency in the UK
like we are in Canada in the United States.
What the hell is going on here? I was blind on a tube station in
London. This is not normal.
What's going on with me? They ran some more tests and
(03:20):
again they thought it was Vertigo.
They sent me home. On the way out they told me I
could always get my eyes checkedby an optometrist.
Can Vertigo cause blindness? Not that I'm aware of.
OK. So they misdiagnosed it, right?
So next day I found myself in Miss Patel's chair.
(03:41):
He was midway through a routine exam when he stops the exam,
excuses himself from the room, and he comes back a few minutes
later with a sealed envelope which he hands to me.
He tells me to go directly to Moorefield's hospital, which I
did. Well, Rob, tell a lie.
I stopped at home first to grab a Jack Reacher book by the
child. The phone charger about
eighteens. Then I arrived at Moorefield's
(04:01):
hospital, handed the envelope. They ran the same test there
again, then escalating up the chair and cross hospital.
We're getting somewhere. I'm thinking this is positive
this is a good thing. Now it turns out Rob I had a
dangerous buildable pressure on my brain caused my non cancerous
cyst in my pineal gland. This caused the pressure to
mount up causing the vision issues causing the headaches.
(04:22):
Now it turns out to require an emergency brain to do tomorrow.
Now it turns out my rules look to change altogether.
After a frantic back and forth with folks in Canada, the last
text message my mom received reads.
I'll see you soon Mom. Think I'll have a new haircut
next time. I'll see you love.
Down been a cheek, been a charm.I'm going down and going out
(04:43):
with a bit of class, you know what I'm saying?
Comes in the airplane to London on June 21st, 2014.
I'm on the operating table. Something goes horribly wrong
and I have a massive bleeding ofbrain, a brain hemorrhage and
the cysts burst when they operated.
Mum lands in, finds I'm in critical condition.
I was in a coma for four weeks but was in out of consciousness
for months after this when all of a sudden then I was going to
(05:06):
walk, talk and smile again. That's where life kicked off in
a big way for me, Rob. So from the the time on the the
tube and this happening to that moment, how much time is in
between those two things? From surgery, 12 hours.
(05:28):
Wow, so in 12 hours everything I'll.
Be active, guy. One day some headaches causing
issues to being like you need anemergency for injury to like on
the operating table to having somebody go sideways.
I had the hemorrhage on the table, so I'm almost in the air
still. My dad had to call her when she
landed to let her know, hey, Dan's in a coma.
He's in the hospital, just so you know what you're walking
(05:49):
into. And I was in critical condition
in the coma and the alarms constantly went up.
So blood pressure spiked, heart rate too high.
They used ice blankets above andbelow When you keep my core
temperature down so that the violent shiver family says it's
horrible to watch. Hooked up to 13 tubes and hosed
amount of various Thanksgiving medicine.
I was in critical condition, my parents were told.
(06:11):
I mean, I make this. So life was throwing a wrench
off the hot man. It got pretty real pretty quick.
Yeah, man. OK.
So I want to go into it. We're going to go deeper into
it. Before we do that, though, I
just want to welcome everybody here.
The unstuck movement, the whole point is everybody gets stuck
somewhere in life. We all go through personal and
(06:33):
professional things that we viewas setbacks.
How do we use those things to asa setup for us to move forward?
All right, so these are true testimonies of breakthrough.
We're sponsored by the ConnectedLeaders Academy.
Check out connected leadersacademy.com.
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(06:54):
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I'd love to help you launch yourpodcast.
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monetize it. You can do all those things.
Sign up at robzwentz.com today with us.
(07:17):
We have such an empower a powerful, impactful conversation
ahead of us with Daniel McQueen sudden brain hemorrhage at 28
years old, had to relearn how towalk, talk and smile.
Now a speaker and resilience coach, he shares the mindset
tools that helped him rebuild his life, one small win at a
time. You, you get that surgery done.
(07:40):
What are you, what are you thinking at that point in time?
Like where, where is your, your head at over the next, you know,
say month to six months? Because I wouldn't even know
where to start. You've got to kind of shift
everything and rethink everything.
What was that period like? Yeah, it was pretty abrupt.
(08:03):
Woke up from the coma, can't talk.
My mum, dad and brother around the bed.
I'm trying to talk to them but Ican't talk.
My vocal cord was described fromthe tracheotomy.
It would get me a pen and paper,write down the penalty.
It would get me the hell out of here.
Children of the Cam, like you make this happen when I was
wonky as hell. My leg had asked me in the coma.
(08:24):
I couldn't walk. I was in a wheelchair at the
stage. He's like, what do you want me
to do dude? And slowly reality set in like,
hey, this is what happened to you.
Thankfully medical was covered by my European passport in the
UK, so that was all good and gravy.
But reality came shattering downright, like able, sighted guy,
(08:44):
able, like an athletic dude working in tech, social guy.
And then I can't walk, talk, or smile.
So to show you an indication of how bad things were, I wanted to
talk about the splint that I'd wear to learn how to walk again.
Rock, if I may. So the splint was like a cast.
Rub your leg to gently chest up leg muscle to stretch it back
(09:05):
into form. My leg had frozen an angle in
the coma. It was not viable.
Now, the first night I wore the splint through the night, no
issue, no stress. This will be easy, I thought.
This will be easy. Hinting is not going to be easy,
right Rob? The second night, after 20
minutes was painful. After 30 minutes, it was
dreadful. After 40 minutes, it was
unbearable. I buzzed the nurse, take the
(09:26):
splint off my leg because they can't handle the pain.
But I told them tomorrow, tomorrow we're doing this for an
hour on a Walker. I can handle the pain.
Big talk. It's the third night throughout
the leg. Tie it up with the ankle, give
me the clicker. The nurse call Bud.
They go patrol the Wolfson ward.Now the Wolfson wolf is in all
shapes. So shorten this up long on this
side, right? Shorten this side, long on this
(09:47):
side. They leave in the hospital that
smells like only the hospital can smell.
Sanitized, sterilized. It's clean.
But you're wondering what sort of atrocities have been
committed on the guys that love his Estnas.
After 10 minutes, legs painful. After 20 minutes, legs,
dreadful. After 30 minutes, legs
unbearable. Start past the clicker back
(10:09):
before I'm trying to distract myself from the pain when the
eye patch made a counter with the double vision I've got.
I see 2 otherwise, which is, youknow, Rob, no disrespect, but
two of you has a lot to handle on that.
Wasn't wearing this eye patch atthe time, so I'm just groping
this quick going back and forth.Right as the pain wraps it up,
my throat's got more enthusiastic.
(10:30):
So eventually, inevitably, I dropped the clicker and the lens
of holding on the floor with P and Happy down the ground.
Sugar, I say. I did not say sugar rub.
Many additives of sugar were used, but sugar was not one of
them. I look over the edge of the bed.
(10:50):
There's the click of their line before they come back.
Me. If I get that clicker, I can
stop this pain. I can end this monstrosity.
The only problem was off from that height might break my arm.
In fact, I forget about a 5050 champion break my arm.
A coin flip. Not the best odds.
I change tack. I'm trying to untie the slope,
but it's tied up with the ankle,not at the hip.
I can't reach that far down. I'm not that flexible.
(11:12):
Help, help. I'm yelling at the top of my
lungs, but the word the wolf wasa no shape, right?
Short on this side, long on thisside, short on this side, long
on the side. They're at the far end of the
ward. They can't hear me out for help.
I decided to flip down and grab the coin.
Drop down and grab the paper. Even if I break my arm, the
splint's got to come by like this.
Card number 12 and three throw myself up the edge of the bed
(11:35):
and I crashed down in absolute heat.
Blankets, wires, cables, solid go.
The arm holds and I hammer the finger expecting the nurse to
come bursting through him like the bats have been put up.
They kind of stroll in 5 minuteslater.
Why are you doing the floor loud?
First of all I say that's a fantastic predict.
(11:57):
Saxony in there. Did you see it from again?
No, I didn't say that, Rob, let's get the split up while I
put and tell you all about this.It's not what happens to you,
but how you respond to the matters, right?
It's not what happens to you, but how you respond to the
matters. The reason why I'm telling these
stories, I learned three lessonsfrom this experience.
The first lesson being probably most evidently, so let's not
pass the clicker back and forth.That's a bad idea.
(12:18):
Second lesson was let's tell youa splint up in the hip, not the
ankle, that we can untie the issue that's happened going
forwards. And the third most profound
lesson, let's always be solutions oriented in this
moment forwards when things go sideways in life, which sure as
you're born their will. Let's focus on the solution.
How do you resolve your issue? How do you fix your problem with
the help of the splints? Let's up and start walking home
(12:38):
with the Wolfson on the Zimmer frame first of all.
Then I moved up to the Ferrari, which was a four wheeled Walker
and Ferrari race in red. I was watering around fast on
this and I called my Ferrari. Then I moved up to naked walks.
Now with the naked walk, you mayask Rob, I'm walking without
support raids. I'm walking naked.
When I told friends and family went for a naked walk, they were
(13:00):
so aghast by this. The term kind of stuck.
Then came sounds very. Freeing a naked.
Walk. Very freeing, man, Very freeing.
Yeah, nice breeze. Nice breeze for sure, brother.
Then the last three I'll share with you and then I'll open it
back up for questions. Is constructive optimism to walk
in and turn the Broadway? So, Rob, have you been to
London, England? No, I have not.
(13:22):
OK, let me set the scene for your listeners right now.
Turn the Broadway is an area in South London, an area they call
up and coming. Think loud sirens, drugs, gangs.
It's dirty, it's hectic and boy is it busy.
I'm walking with a cane, I'm walking with an eye patch.
After four months in a wheelchair, Lily Bambi on ice.
(13:43):
I turned the corner to walk on the High Street for the first
time. I immediately get slammed into
by someone. I stagger back a few feet.
Someone screezed past me, the right hand side.
I thought I was done with the rats.
Someone had been stabbed on the sidewalk over here.
I'm thinking this pretty wild place in her walk after a few
days this I was thinking, this is the worst place during her
(14:05):
walk in the world. Can't they see him trying to
walk here? Can't they see him trying here?
And then one day my perspective shifted.
Maybe this is the worst place during her walk in the world.
Maybe this is the best. If I can walk here, I can walk
anywhere and tune, bow in and change, right?
But it went from the worst to the best in my mind, and my mood
(14:28):
reflected that. What are you looking at in your
life? Your commences the worst,
commences the ABS the worst. Hey, maybe it is.
Maybe you can find a way to turndown the suck a little bit,
shift that perspective a little bit.
Iron Mike Tyson famously said everyone's got a plan if they
could punch them all. Now, your punch may not be a
brain hammer, right? Facts will be a job loss, a
(14:49):
breakup, a diagnosis for you, a loved 1.
You will take that punch to knowif I respond, I'm offering a
compass, not a map, but a compass.
It always points towards true north.
Look at it with their mindset, perspective and hacks.
Hacks allowed you and your team.It's been yesterday, tomorrow.
My name is Dan McQueen, and the reason why I told the story of a
(15:10):
learning to walk into the Broadway is when you change the
way you look at the world and we'll look at changes.
And you don't need a brain hemorrhage to understand that.
Amen to that man, I couldn't agree more and I and I love that
I want to. This is not a brain hammer
situation but I I can. I had a very similar realization
(15:34):
one day. I've always had issues with my
stepmom and we never saw eye to eye.
And I was really working on myself in my relationship with
God and I was, was praying aboutthis thing.
I'm gonna see my stepmom and I'mgonna, I'm gonna do it
differently this time. And so I went up there that day
(15:58):
and immediately gave her a hug, you know, consoled her and I,
and I was kind of like, I paid attention differently.
I showed up differently. I showed up with the mindset of
like not avoidance or fighting. I showed up with the mindset of
how can I serve here? How could this be different?
And while she was doing dishes, which was always the situation,
we'd do, we'd eat and then she would do the dishes.
(16:19):
My dad and I would sit and talk and she would get mad.
And so instead of that, I got upand I helped her do the dishes
and gave her a hug and said, youknow, is everything OK, man?
She showed up different, right? She, she was different.
She acted differently because I decided to show up differently
and I changed my perspective on the situation.
(16:40):
And that was one of those moments I was like, and, and
things have been different ever since, right?
But that was one of those moments where it was like, OK, I
keep doing the same thing the same way all the time.
If I do it differently, how's that going to change things?
I want to ask you, I love the idea of there is a blessing in
everything if you look for it. And I would imagine somebody in
(17:04):
your situation, brain hemorrhage, life changes
completely drastically within 12hours.
It'd be hard in that moment, I imagine, to look for a blessing.
But if if you had to give perspective on that, what would
be the blessing from all of that?
Would you say that there's there's one or how would you
answer that question? Yeah, it's a great perspective,
(17:25):
Robin, Thank you for sharing that story.
That's a very cool interpretation of the
perspective and showing up differently and how you want to
be received. Yeah, I'd say the blessing.
This is like, look, I should be dead, full stop.
What I went through in life, I should be dead, but I'm not.
The odds, you being a human being are 400 trillion to one,
(17:48):
400 trillion to 1. It's a staggering number of
zeros. I'd look that up.
I'm only damn McQueen puts bloopers in my DNA.
Without it, it wouldn't be me and I wouldn't trade myself for
the world. I get to do this.
So by shifting my perspective like look, I should be dead.
I'm not. I get a chance to rehab and
rebuild myself. It's not fair.
This happened to me. It's not fair.
But guess what? No one cares.
(18:10):
It's now my responsibility to navigate this change and
navigate this hand. I'm lucky enough to have a hand
in the 1st place. I'm not going to muck pull a
hand because I don't want this one card.
I'm going to play the hand of God, man.
And damn it, I'm playing the hand of God.
So reframing that stuff, the perspective, the worst know the
best. Like that made walking into
Broadway exciting. Like I'm looking forward to the
(18:30):
strength, the struggle, the strain.
Like you're making me better than this.
Thank you for the opportunity. And that made everything light
and easy and and not strenuous and difficult.
It made it an opportunity for meto succeed.
And I call like avoiding the pity spiral at all costs.
And that the woes means isn't fair because you're right, it's
not fair. But you know what?
No one cares if it's fair. Everyone's going through stuff
(18:53):
and life is not fair. Mine just maybe is a bit more
acute, a bit more profound than that, like a big T big trauma.
But everyone's got shit, man. And probably just for the
language, everyone's got everyone's got stuff.
And like when you can reframe it, it's like, well, what's what
are you facing here? Is the worst of the best?
(19:13):
Like you get to do this, man. So to answer your question,
yeah, I saw the blessing on thatand I made a decision to move
forwards in life and and take step forwards.
What do you say to somebody who had something horrible happen to
them and they are still stuck init?
(19:34):
So I think this is, I can name afew people in my life who've had
really difficult things happen to them and they never really
faced it. So they never really recovered
from it. So they could never really turn
to use a cliche, the mess into amessage.
Have you helped people in that? Maybe they've been dealing, they
(19:55):
something happened and they haven't recovered from it and
they've been dealing with it for, you know, 1020 years.
Have you, have you worked with anybody who's had that?
Sort of scenario in their life or what would you, what would
you say to them to help them to finally face and get past that
thing? This is going to slap, but I'll
tell you anyways because I thinkit's important to hear
acceptance. Acceptance is the most important
(20:19):
thing you can do. If you hit a punch now that word
slaps because it's like you don't know what I've been
through. Then you're right, I don't know
what you've been through 100%. I can tell you about a shot of a
doubt. Acceptance for me has been the
the way forward. Acceptance is not relinquishing
control. It's actually saying I'm going
to take control of this new parameters, a new board game
here and play this within my realm of expertise.
(20:40):
I've got a new keynote coming out called acknowledge, Accept
adapt AAA framework. You have to walk through each
step individually in that order to navigate change.
Let me walk through it for you group quickly.
Acknowledge is the head. I had a brain hemorrhage.
You got to think it. You got to like understand, this
is what happened to me. Acceptance is a pretty hard one.
(21:01):
That's the heart that's like yougot to own it and really
encompass that vibe in your in reality and then runs adapt.
And this is where the fun part is where you can adapt to your
limitations and adapt to your new surroundings, playing the
game that is put in front of you, adapting to the new
limitations. And life for me is about, you
know, just being self aware and adapting to what I've got
(21:22):
limitations for now. And like, that's difficult to
hear because acceptance is a hard word for people to
understand. Without a shadow of a doubt, the
faster you get to acceptance, faster you can improve your lot.
Like when did you about it for six months, Then in the six
months, you're still at square one.
Unless I accept it now and take steps forward to this, from
this, this day forward, I can take steps to improve my lot.
(21:42):
Acceptance is the way forward. And that's what I'd tell someone
going through a hard time right now.
And that word slaps. I know that, Robin, I apologize
if it is a disruptive word for you of a group.
But like, that's my experience, mom.
It's really good advice, you know, and it's easier said than
done. Of course there's a process that
(22:02):
has to be involved there. Then, like you said, I don't
know what anybody else is going through.
But I do know there's a process that has to be processed and
you've got to give yourself the space and the awareness to
process it, right, 'cause you can unknowingly be holding
yourself back from progressing through something and you might
not even realize that you're doing it because you're trying
(22:25):
to protect yourself. Which I mean, I, I totally
understand. So I, I just, I think that's
just really, it's understanding.I need to accept this and let
the process happen as it happens.
So with that being said, we got to pause real fast to shout out
the sponsor of the show. When I come back, I want to, I
really want to talk about that process and what play loose look
(22:47):
tight means to you. So I know play loose, look
tight, something you live by just diving deeper into that
because there's this happened in2014.
You've had over a decade of growth from this whole thing and
challenges and setbacks and and moves forward, man.
And I and I want to know, you know, day-to-day how you keep
(23:10):
moving forward. Play loose and look tight.
We'll talk about it in one minute.
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(23:30):
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(23:53):
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Get started right now. Join the wait list at
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We're a growing tribe, a community of entrepreneurs all
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(24:14):
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(24:35):
Take care. Dan loving this conversation,
man and just and your perspective on things.
I love your sense of humor and the way you're telling this
story. It's it's refreshing.
What does play loose look tight mean?
Can you talk about that, A. 100%Rob thanks for the call out.
Especially in my podcast. Play loose, like tight.
(24:56):
It's a live mantra and forwards.Let me spell it out for your
group. 1st 2 words play loose. Play is the first word by
intention. Life's well funded, we're having
light engagements. Play is the first word by
intention. Play loose.
Conversely, you want to look tight if you have time to
address and demeanor. Be professional in how you show
up for yourself and others. So in 4 words, I've got a life
(25:18):
mantra and play loose, look tight.
Let's how I live my life day by day.
You know, some days I, I love, Ilove having fun.
I love playing. Honestly, that's the thing I I
love to do do the most. Some days you feel like you, you
(25:39):
can't or you're not allowed to or you just don't feel like it.
How do you get yourself to to feel like it?
Look, going back to that sad assured dealer, the odds of
being human being are 421. You get to do this.
(26:01):
You can choose to go through life, your woes me, woes me, or
you can live life dua deviv, fun, intentional play loose.
You choose how you show up day in day out.
It's a choice you make every day, and the key is to make that
choice in the right direction every day.
I've got that in me in spades. I'm a fun guy.
(26:23):
I like joking, having fun, living life to the fullest.
Maybe that's not you, that's fine.
This is my life mantra and what I'm trying to bring forward into
the world to showcase how you can navigate this change
successfully. I think this way of looking at
life is so key for navigating change and navigating the set
(26:44):
back that I've faced by being light, by being fun, by being
playful and gamification. So key for this, right?
So that's my perspective on this, Rob, and I hope it lies in
the audience. Yeah, well, it's, it's a great
perspective to have as I sit andlisten to you.
So for me, it's always like, oh,easier said than done, right,
(27:07):
'cause I, I want to be able to have that light heartedness
throughout the day, but I'll find myself taking myself too
seriously, getting bogged down and things that, you know, I
don't need, honestly need to getbogged down in.
So I really, it's a, it's a constant reminder and
perspective shift. And I love and I, I know this
like the, the chances of being ahuman being, right?
(27:28):
So it's such a, it's such a mindblowing number when you like
look at it. It's like, I can't believe
that's even real. It's amazing that any of us even
exist by the odds. If we could like, if we could
understand that, like at a core level, it would change
everything. How did you and I say how?
(27:50):
I'm just curious for you, was that perspective?
Was this something that you, is this somebody that you were
before the brain hemorrhage and you became more of what, what
showed up that wasn't there before, as you've been since
2014? Like I've always been a pretty
happy, good, lucky guy, fun, joking light, enjoying life.
(28:14):
But after the injury I kind of realized that look, it's not
what happens to you, but how yourespond to the matters.
I can be woes me about this, or I can choose to look at it
through a stoic perspective. Stoic lens.
Control the controllables is theword I use a lot that means I
control. Can I control?
Yes No If yes, do something about it if no, I punt it
immediately. I look at life through this lens
(28:34):
now because it just makes life easy.
Yes no if if yes, do something about it if no, I punt it
immediately. Politics, medical stuff, vision
issues, walking, head tilts and and head movements.
I can't control that stuff, so Ipunt it immediately, man.
I couldn't worry about what I can control and influence.
And I punt the rest. And I know that's the right way
(28:58):
to approach life, but that's howI've navigated it so far and
it's worked out for me thus far.Look, it's not, it's not easy to
get through day-to-day, right? Like every day I wake up with an
intention, wake up early, make my bed, meditate, push ups,
shower in the shower, cold. I remember trying to boot up my
sequence for the day and the intention for the day.
If I'm not doing that, I can't be the best that I can be.
(29:21):
And I've got a limited bandwidthnow, so I've got less battery to
spend on that I can't control. So I'm really intentional how I
approach life and view through this mindset and this lens.
Yeah, the control is everything.I there's, there's barely
anything we can control. We can barely control how we
react and we can barely control our own thoughts, right.
(29:43):
You can't even control what thoughts come into your head.
So being able to, to engineer that properly is super important
and manage that properly is super important.
And like you said, like your morning routine, things like
that, that you decide to do, youhave control over that.
You've choice there. And you can control those things
to a certain extent. Things might come up, things
might change throughout the day,but you can, you can decide what
(30:04):
to do with that. And I and I love that
perspective. You would.
So did we dive into the second set in 2015?
No, not yet. You want me to touch on that?
Let's let's go there. Yeah.
What was the second set? So July 28th 2015, I had a
second set back. And by set back I mean I woke up
(30:29):
the next time in the hospital. Beep.
He knows how I'm going to find me and he'll beep, beep, beep.
What happened? What happened?
Well, Daniel had a second set back.
So I've met my mum with the two before work in the morning one
day I didn't show up. Mum calls my cell, no response.
Walks up my flat, knocks on the door, no answer.
Opens the door. There I am unconscious on the
floor. Calls 999 emerged the hospital
(30:54):
wake up the next day in the hospital being told they then
you had a second brain surgery. What do you mean The shunt is my
brain had blocked in the hydrocephalus or water in the
brain. But I've been working for you to
put this behind me to get a headless injury.
I was back to work 2 out days a week, 3 out days a week.
I was turning and burning baby, and the carpet was pulled from
my legs. I felt like the injury was just
(31:15):
laughing at me, like you thoughtyou had a chance.
Dude, you ain't going nowhere. We got you right back.
We belong. But our company's like, AW, row.
First setbacks down here. I kind of scamper back up
halfway up second setbacks, not where the first one was, but
much lower. The depths of the human
experience where your hopes and dreams are stickered out.
Now finally something the ascentand I'm climbing back up past
(31:38):
where it was before. The mindset of the second set
back was so key because I'd already done rehab.
I wasn't entitled to go back to rehab.
I'd done that. It was on my file.
I already done rehab. I couldn't go back to that.
If we had a second brain surgery, we've already done
rehab. We can't do that in person.
So the mindset of like control, the controllables, we have
(31:58):
progressed, washed away in an instant.
But I knew in my mindset that the rehab might have been washed
away, but I knew I could rehab faster and better this time.
This wasn't an overnight shift in my mindset.
Let me be very clear, Rob, I laid in the suck for a little
while here, probably about a month.
I was like, this is not fair. This sucks.
This is horrible. Then I realized at rock bottom,
(32:18):
yeah, maybe, but also bedrock. I can now build faster,
stronger, faster, more, more solid foundation.
How I can build this faster? So I'm on the ascent now.
Climb back up. Now that second set back, Rob
was the hardest thing I've been through my life.
It took everything into my mindset.
Purely not go down the walls, made the pretty spiral.
(32:41):
But it's not what happens to you.
But what do you think about the matters right?
Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to pretend like I
would even know what that is like, but I could imagine that
the second set back after spending almost a year in
recovery and being like, well, that was hard, but I'm coming
back. And then you get hit again is
(33:01):
like, what the Hell's going on here?
Well, dude, I was turning and burning.
Like I was back to work 2 up days a week, 3 up days a week,
like back to being social at thepub, like with friends,
everyone, like, you're doing some well done, you're doing
some well done. And then boom, levelled like
carpet pulling him in my feet. Wake up the next day to the
hospital. What happened?
(33:21):
What happened? Like all my progress is washed
away. Like, well, we got the blockage
down, but yeah, the progress is washed away like despair.
This isn't fair. This sucks.
Yeah. And it's like, it's not fair.
But guess what? It's my, it's not my fault.
It's my responsibility now to navigate this change and get
back to this. And it's not easy, but it's
simple. It's simple to decide that I'm
(33:42):
going, right. It just has to be sort of a pill
right now. It's a mindset game, man.
That's what I'm turning it across the audience.
It's like, it's not what happened.
When you think about it, that matters, right?
It's a mindset game entirely. I absolutely love your
perspective and yeah, you're you're 100% right.
So when you in 2014 before the second set back, were you still
(34:04):
fully functional when you came back from the brain hemorrhage
like you were able? Are you, and forgive me, I'm
just asking like, are you able to work now?
Are you are you still working now in the industry or what
changed, I guess. Yeah.
What changed after the second act that was like you weren't
able to do, you weren't able to do things that you were able to
do before? Look, cognitive stuff slowed
(34:27):
down a little bit for sure. My battery's about 75% where it
was before. I fatigued much faster.
I worked four days a week at Hootsuite, had Wednesdays off to
recalibrate and reboot myself, and that was a helpful schedule
to kind of keep myself fatigued and to check and make myself
available for when I could work.There were some accommodations
(34:48):
made by work for sure, but I wasback to work at a pretty regular
clip, four days a week, 80% of my job capacity and workload.
And that second set back hits man.
And like work's like, well, we don't know if we caused this
issue. It's like, no, you didn't cause
the issue. It was a card that came with my
hand. And Vutu was super supportive.
I got lots of love for them. They let me get back to work and
(35:08):
contribute in the company I love.
And you know, I'm, I've definitely got some quirks about
me for sure, But like I'm tryingto make the most of this life I
got now. And it takes some self-awareness
to navigate this change and to be aware of myself, my fatigue
levels. I got to take a nap every day.
Like we'll take a nap after thispodcast and recharge the
batteries. But I get to do this.
(35:31):
I get to be on podcasts and to start a speaking business
because I'm alive now. I just have to take a nap in the
afternoon to like mitigate the fatigue issues I've got.
Like, how are you looking at life, man?
It's the perspective that I wantto share with your audiences.
Like this is what you can control this.
What's in front of your face right here.
You get to do this. And if you can ship that mindset
(35:56):
dude, you can unlock the whole world.
Yeah, yeah, The way that I was, I like to think of it and I
forget who I heard this from, but your 5 foot world, right,
your 5 foot world is what you have control over.
What's physically in front of you and what's going on inside
of your head. That's your area of like, OK, I
(36:16):
can have some domain over this. I can control this.
Not saying you still got to dealwith people and their how they
act. You got to deal with the world
and how the world is. It's just that, but we have a
limited amount of control and weshould maximize that.
And so this is a great reminder.I need to hear this everyday.
I have a, you know, I have an almost one month old or one year
old baby. And, and when you have a baby
(36:38):
like an 11 year old and almost 1year old and babies remind you
that you're out of control, likeyou just kind of like all the
stuff that was going is like, no, forget all that stuff.
You got to wipe a clean slate and just figure it out from
there. And I had a lot of, I had a hard
time with that. I had a really hard being like
set in this like rigidity of like, this is how things have to
(37:01):
be. And embracing flexibility for
somebody like myself can be really hard.
And I like to think that I'm flexible until I'm met with an
opportunity that causes me to have to be flexible and then I
realize how unflexible I am. And so I can only imagine in
your situation, the constant readjustment to being flexible
(37:22):
because the of the unproductability of of what what
happened number one, that secondset back.
I can't imagine the level of like despair in that and that
this you want to control things.I would imagine you'd, I would
want to control everything because I don't want this to
happen again. And so to give that up and to
(37:43):
have acceptance and surrender that over is, is incredible.
I just, I want to just, I'm, I'mkind of rambling on this, but I,
I just want to like commend you on that because that's amazing.
Like to have that perspective because that's a rare
perspective to be able to to getreceive and actually live out
of. Well, thank you, Rob.
I want to share one story with the group quickly if I may.
(38:05):
Yeah, I did these brain scans oflike 2 years ago at Health Tech
Connect, a neuroscience clinic in CBC Canada.
Put a gel cap on your head, ask you questions like window
computer, microphone, speaker, coffee mug, laptop.
See if your snaps is fire or not.
My results came back as average.Average.
(38:25):
I thought I've had two emergencybrain surgeries.
Average is pretty good. I read this as I'm shockingly
average. There's no way I'm average.
Have you seen what I've been through?
I'm not average, but the more I thought about it really is that
average is pretty good. I'm better or smarter than
anyone of you here today. I've just been driven to go
forwards, toes over the nose of my board, riding this wave down.
(38:49):
I'm average man. You can do this.
It's a mindset. Shipped 100%.
I'm an average guy with the mindset that's fostered and
granted diamonds. Like you can take this on board
and use this for yourself. I'm an average guy with with
with with mindset and drive out my wazoo.
But like, you can do this too man.
(39:11):
Thank you for the encouragement.Everybody needs that
encouragement. So I really, I really value
that. I want to encourage people to go
to your website also. So if you're watching, listening
right now, McQueen dan.com, the link is in the description.
What would you like them to do on the site?
What? What can they expect?
I share a story from the stage there.
I'll give you a watch that story.
If you like that story, let me know.
(39:33):
There's a form you can fill out as well.
If you want to hear me speaking,there's a cool videos there.
You can check my speaking on stage and see if those stories
land with you. The story of walking into
Broadway, that story of my some other stories for my demo as
well are in there. Check it out.
Let me know if you want to talk to your group.
I do a lot of online sessions aswell.
So online something I did at Hutu for 10 years.
So I've trained over 1000 clients in EMEA.
(39:55):
You're of Emilia, South Africa, so online sessions work pretty
well as well. Very cool, Brother McQueen,
dan.com and, and, and as we're wrapping this thing up, I just
want final question. Just pretend like you're never
going to talk to me or anybody who's watching or listening to
this ever again. I imagine I can imagine what the
(40:17):
message is going to because you've you've really hammered it
home. But what message would you leave
us with knowing that we'd never speak again?
I'm going to go off the board here and pick something you're
not going to expect to hear fromme.
Oh good. Aim small, miss small.
Let me expand on what that means.
(40:39):
Aim small, miss small. Progress over perfection.
Pick a target you can hit, land it, and then expand the target.
Momentum is so key for this. Build forward progress and
momentum. Progress over perfection is the
way forward in life. And just keep stacking momentum
and building yourself up. I've achieved some massive
goals, but I've achieved them bysetting smaller goals and
(41:00):
ratcheting up to that new baseline so that that goal to
the moon shot goal is not a hugechasm.
It's the next step because it's a logical next step.
Aim small, miss small is what I want to give your audience to
take away. Rob, thank you.
I love it. Thank you.
Thank you for that take away. Thank you for your message
today. Powerful, powerful stuff.
Another true testimony of breakthrough.
(41:22):
Until next time. This has been the unstuck
movement. None.
Music welcome back to the unstuck movement.
As always, I'm your host Rob Z true testimonies a breakthrough
on the platform today we're talking to the incredible Dan
McQueen and today we're going totalk about shifting your mindset
being better than yesterday. How do we bounce back resiliency
getting into some real talk and and healing in our lives and and
(00:46):
gamifying the growth in our life, which I I can't wait to
talk about that. But Dan, I'd like to jump in
right off the bat with a question.
And I know you had a major eventhappened to you back in London
in 2014 that that shaped and changed the rest of your life.
Can you dive into what happened and how the events transpired
(01:07):
that started to really change who you are?
Yeah, thanks, Rob. First of all, it's great to be
on the show, so thank you for having me.
My story takes black in 2014 andjolly old London England working
in tech. Big nights out, Had to cake the
office on a Friday night that would Polish off when we explode
to the pubs night bus home at 4:00 AM.
Life was fast, life was loose brother it was the best life.
(01:30):
In my 20s in London started having these headaches.
Headaches got worse after a few weeks.
Painkillers like candy for them,£100 on the tube.
One day the tube takes a zigzag around London lumbering towards
non hill gate tube station on the district line.
Slow rolled the best of times. Headaches were so bad my vision
(01:50):
turned starry and I saw spots and solicitor to fade to black.
It was a race as you could arrive at the station first
mirror the blindness stepped down to none of no gate tube
station mind the gap and the lights went out.
I couldn't see a thing. I was blind on a tube station in
London. So Rob want to ask you, Abel
said. A guy your whole life, all of a
sudden you're thrusting the depths of blindness on a tube
(02:12):
station in London. What do you think?
What do you feel? What do you do?
What do you do, man? Well, I'd like to think that I
would. If I didn't know anybody on the
tube, I would. The person closest to me.
Hey, I can't see something's going on with me right now.
Could you please just help me navigate off this when it stops?
(02:36):
That's as far as my mind would go.
And then get myself to a hospital or somewhere where
somebody could help me. That's a good response.
I might not do that though. I might totally panic and have a
total mental breakdown. I'll tell you what I did Rob,
and that's absolutely nothing. I stood there and I froze like a
statue. The station's swirling around
me, the noises, the smells, it'sall there, but the eyesight's
(03:00):
gone. I can't see a thing.
After the longest 3 minutes of my life, my vision comes back
and I carry on with my day. But the next day I go strolling
back into A and EA and E is actually an emergency in the UK
like we are in Canada in the United States.
What the hell is going on here? I was blind on a tube station in
London. This is not normal.
What's going on with me? They ran some more tests and
(03:20):
again they thought it was Vertigo.
They sent me home. On the way out they told me I
could always get my eyes checkedby an optometrist.
Can Vertigo cause blindness? Not that I'm aware of.
OK. So they misdiagnosed it, right?
So next day I found myself in Miss Patel's chair.
(03:41):
He was midway through a routine exam when he stops the exam,
excuses himself from the room, and he comes back a few minutes
later with a sealed envelope which he hands to me.
He tells me to go directly to Moorefield's hospital, which I
did. Well, Rob, tell a lie.
I stopped at home first to grab a Jack Reacher book by the
child. The phone charger about
eighteens. Then I arrived at Moorefield's
(04:01):
hospital, handed the envelope. They ran the same test there
again, then escalating up the chair and cross hospital.
We're getting somewhere. I'm thinking this is positive
this is a good thing. Now it turns out Rob I had a
dangerous buildable pressure on my brain caused my non cancerous
cyst in my pineal gland. This caused the pressure to
mount up causing the vision issues causing the headaches.
(04:22):
Now it turns out to require an emergency brain to do tomorrow.
Now it turns out my rules look to change altogether.
After a frantic back and forth with folks in Canada, the last
text message my mom received reads.
I'll see you soon Mom. Think I'll have a new haircut
next time. I'll see you love.
Down been a cheek, been a charm.I'm going down and going out
(04:43):
with a bit of class, you know what I'm saying?
Comes in the airplane to London on June 21st, 2014.
I'm on the operating table. Something goes horribly wrong
and I have a massive bleeding ofbrain, a brain hemorrhage and
the cysts burst when they operated.
Mum lands in, finds I'm in critical condition.
I was in a coma for four weeks but was in out of consciousness
for months after this when all of a sudden then I was going to
(05:06):
walk, talk and smile again. That's where life kicked off in
a big way for me, Rob. So from the the time on the the
tube and this happening to that moment, how much time is in
between those two things? From surgery, 12 hours.
(05:28):
Wow, so in 12 hours everything I'll.
Be active, guy. One day some headaches causing
issues to being like you need anemergency for injury to like on
the operating table to having somebody go sideways.
I had the hemorrhage on the table, so I'm almost in the air
still. My dad had to call her when she
landed to let her know, hey, Dan's in a coma.
He's in the hospital, just so you know what you're walking
(05:49):
into. And I was in critical condition
in the coma and the alarms constantly went up.
So blood pressure spiked, heart rate too high.
They used ice blankets above andbelow When you keep my core
temperature down so that the violent shiver family says it's
horrible to watch. Hooked up to 13 tubes and hosed
amount of various Thanksgiving medicine.
I was in critical condition, my parents were told.
(06:11):
I mean, I make this. So life was throwing a wrench
off the hot man. It got pretty real pretty quick.
Yeah, man. OK.
So I want to go into it. We're going to go deeper into
it. Before we do that, though, I
just want to welcome everybody here.
The unstuck movement, the whole point is everybody gets stuck
somewhere in life. We all go through personal and
(06:33):
professional things that we viewas setbacks.
How do we use those things to asa setup for us to move forward?
All right, so these are true testimonies of breakthrough.
We're sponsored by the ConnectedLeaders Academy.
Check out connected leadersacademy.com.
Over 500 heart centered entrepreneurs all over the world
serving and helping each other grow and also the Pro Podcaster
Academy. So if you're somebody who wants
(06:54):
to launch a podcast, you've beenthinking about it for a while to
help you become the authority inyour space.
Maybe you're the expert at what you do.
You want to be that go to authority.
You want to make a lasting impact on people's lives and
also make incredible personal and professional connections.
I'd love to help you launch yourpodcast.
And if you have one, I encourageyou to streamline it, to
monetize it. You can do all those things.
Sign up at robzwentz.com today with us.
(07:17):
We have such an empower a powerful, impactful conversation
ahead of us with Daniel McQueen sudden brain hemorrhage at 28
years old, had to relearn how towalk, talk and smile.
Now a speaker and resilience coach, he shares the mindset
tools that helped him rebuild his life, one small win at a
time. You, you get that surgery done.
(07:40):
What are you, what are you thinking at that point in time?
Like where, where is your, your head at over the next, you know,
say month to six months? Because I wouldn't even know
where to start. You've got to kind of shift
everything and rethink everything.
What was that period like? Yeah, it was pretty abrupt.
(08:03):
Woke up from the coma, can't talk.
My mum, dad and brother around the bed.
I'm trying to talk to them but Ican't talk.
My vocal cord was described fromthe tracheotomy.
It would get me a pen and paper,write down the penalty.
It would get me the hell out of here.
Children of the Cam, like you make this happen when I was
wonky as hell. My leg had asked me in the coma.
(08:24):
I couldn't walk. I was in a wheelchair at the
stage. He's like, what do you want me
to do dude? And slowly reality set in like,
hey, this is what happened to you.
Thankfully medical was covered by my European passport in the
UK, so that was all good and gravy.
But reality came shattering downright, like able, sighted guy,
(08:44):
able, like an athletic dude working in tech, social guy.
And then I can't walk, talk, or smile.
So to show you an indication of how bad things were, I wanted to
talk about the splint that I'd wear to learn how to walk again.
Rock, if I may. So the splint was like a cast.
Rub your leg to gently chest up leg muscle to stretch it back
(09:05):
into form. My leg had frozen an angle in
the coma. It was not viable.
Now, the first night I wore the splint through the night, no
issue, no stress. This will be easy, I thought.
This will be easy. Hinting is not going to be easy,
right Rob? The second night, after 20
minutes was painful. After 30 minutes, it was
dreadful. After 40 minutes, it was
unbearable. I buzzed the nurse, take the
(09:26):
splint off my leg because they can't handle the pain.
But I told them tomorrow, tomorrow we're doing this for an
hour on a Walker. I can handle the pain.
Big talk. It's the third night throughout
the leg. Tie it up with the ankle, give
me the clicker. The nurse call Bud.
They go patrol the Wolfson ward.Now the Wolfson wolf is in all
shapes. So shorten this up long on this
side, right? Shorten this side, long on this
(09:47):
side. They leave in the hospital that
smells like only the hospital can smell.
Sanitized, sterilized. It's clean.
But you're wondering what sort of atrocities have been
committed on the guys that love his Estnas.
After 10 minutes, legs painful. After 20 minutes, legs,
dreadful. After 30 minutes, legs
unbearable. Start past the clicker back
(10:09):
before I'm trying to distract myself from the pain when the
eye patch made a counter with the double vision I've got.
I see 2 otherwise, which is, youknow, Rob, no disrespect, but
two of you has a lot to handle on that.
Wasn't wearing this eye patch atthe time, so I'm just groping
this quick going back and forth.Right as the pain wraps it up,
my throat's got more enthusiastic.
(10:30):
So eventually, inevitably, I dropped the clicker and the lens
of holding on the floor with P and Happy down the ground.
Sugar, I say. I did not say sugar rub.
Many additives of sugar were used, but sugar was not one of
them. I look over the edge of the bed.
(10:50):
There's the click of their line before they come back.
Me. If I get that clicker, I can
stop this pain. I can end this monstrosity.
The only problem was off from that height might break my arm.
In fact, I forget about a 5050 champion break my arm.
A coin flip. Not the best odds.
I change tack. I'm trying to untie the slope,
but it's tied up with the ankle,not at the hip.
I can't reach that far down. I'm not that flexible.
(11:12):
Help, help. I'm yelling at the top of my
lungs, but the word the wolf wasa no shape, right?
Short on this side, long on thisside, short on this side, long
on the side. They're at the far end of the
ward. They can't hear me out for help.
I decided to flip down and grab the coin.
Drop down and grab the paper. Even if I break my arm, the
splint's got to come by like this.
Card number 12 and three throw myself up the edge of the bed
(11:35):
and I crashed down in absolute heat.
Blankets, wires, cables, solid go.
The arm holds and I hammer the finger expecting the nurse to
come bursting through him like the bats have been put up.
They kind of stroll in 5 minuteslater.
Why are you doing the floor loud?
First of all I say that's a fantastic predict.
(11:57):
Saxony in there. Did you see it from again?
No, I didn't say that, Rob, let's get the split up while I
put and tell you all about this.It's not what happens to you,
but how you respond to the matters, right?
It's not what happens to you, but how you respond to the
matters. The reason why I'm telling these
stories, I learned three lessonsfrom this experience.
The first lesson being probably most evidently, so let's not
pass the clicker back and forth.That's a bad idea.
(12:18):
Second lesson was let's tell youa splint up in the hip, not the
ankle, that we can untie the issue that's happened going
forwards. And the third most profound
lesson, let's always be solutions oriented in this
moment forwards when things go sideways in life, which sure as
you're born their will. Let's focus on the solution.
How do you resolve your issue? How do you fix your problem with
the help of the splints? Let's up and start walking home
(12:38):
with the Wolfson on the Zimmer frame first of all.
Then I moved up to the Ferrari, which was a four wheeled Walker
and Ferrari race in red. I was watering around fast on
this and I called my Ferrari. Then I moved up to naked walks.
Now with the naked walk, you mayask Rob, I'm walking without
support raids. I'm walking naked.
When I told friends and family went for a naked walk, they were
(13:00):
so aghast by this. The term kind of stuck.
Then came sounds very. Freeing a naked.
Walk. Very freeing, man, Very freeing.
Yeah, nice breeze. Nice breeze for sure, brother.
Then the last three I'll share with you and then I'll open it
back up for questions. Is constructive optimism to walk
in and turn the Broadway? So, Rob, have you been to
London, England? No, I have not.
(13:22):
OK, let me set the scene for your listeners right now.
Turn the Broadway is an area in South London, an area they call
up and coming. Think loud sirens, drugs, gangs.
It's dirty, it's hectic and boy is it busy.
I'm walking with a cane, I'm walking with an eye patch.
After four months in a wheelchair, Lily Bambi on ice.
(13:43):
I turned the corner to walk on the High Street for the first
time. I immediately get slammed into
by someone. I stagger back a few feet.
Someone screezed past me, the right hand side.
I thought I was done with the rats.
Someone had been stabbed on the sidewalk over here.
I'm thinking this pretty wild place in her walk after a few
days this I was thinking, this is the worst place during her
(14:05):
walk in the world. Can't they see him trying to
walk here? Can't they see him trying here?
And then one day my perspective shifted.
Maybe this is the worst place during her walk in the world.
Maybe this is the best. If I can walk here, I can walk
anywhere and tune, bow in and change, right?
But it went from the worst to the best in my mind, and my mood
(14:28):
reflected that. What are you looking at in your
life? Your commences the worst,
commences the ABS the worst. Hey, maybe it is.
Maybe you can find a way to turndown the suck a little bit,
shift that perspective a little bit.
Iron Mike Tyson famously said everyone's got a plan if they
could punch them all. Now, your punch may not be a
brain hammer, right? Facts will be a job loss, a
(14:49):
breakup, a diagnosis for you, a loved 1.
You will take that punch to knowif I respond, I'm offering a
compass, not a map, but a compass.
It always points towards true north.
Look at it with their mindset, perspective and hacks.
Hacks allowed you and your team.It's been yesterday, tomorrow.
My name is Dan McQueen, and the reason why I told the story of a
(15:10):
learning to walk into the Broadway is when you change the
way you look at the world and we'll look at changes.
And you don't need a brain hemorrhage to understand that.
Amen to that man, I couldn't agree more and I and I love that
I want to. This is not a brain hammer
situation but I I can. I had a very similar realization
(15:34):
one day. I've always had issues with my
stepmom and we never saw eye to eye.
And I was really working on myself in my relationship with
God and I was, was praying aboutthis thing.
I'm gonna see my stepmom and I'mgonna, I'm gonna do it
differently this time. And so I went up there that day
(15:58):
and immediately gave her a hug, you know, consoled her and I,
and I was kind of like, I paid attention differently.
I showed up differently. I showed up with the mindset of
like not avoidance or fighting. I showed up with the mindset of
how can I serve here? How could this be different?
And while she was doing dishes, which was always the situation,
we'd do, we'd eat and then she would do the dishes.
(16:19):
My dad and I would sit and talk and she would get mad.
And so instead of that, I got upand I helped her do the dishes
and gave her a hug and said, youknow, is everything OK, man?
She showed up different, right? She, she was different.
She acted differently because I decided to show up differently
and I changed my perspective on the situation.
(16:40):
And that was one of those moments I was like, and, and
things have been different ever since, right?
But that was one of those moments where it was like, OK, I
keep doing the same thing the same way all the time.
If I do it differently, how's that going to change things?
I want to ask you, I love the idea of there is a blessing in
everything if you look for it. And I would imagine somebody in
(17:04):
your situation, brain hemorrhage, life changes
completely drastically within 12hours.
It'd be hard in that moment, I imagine, to look for a blessing.
But if if you had to give perspective on that, what would
be the blessing from all of that?
Would you say that there's there's one or how would you
answer that question? Yeah, it's a great perspective,
(17:25):
Robin, Thank you for sharing that story.
That's a very cool interpretation of the
perspective and showing up differently and how you want to
be received. Yeah, I'd say the blessing.
This is like, look, I should be dead, full stop.
What I went through in life, I should be dead, but I'm not.
The odds, you being a human being are 400 trillion to one,
(17:48):
400 trillion to 1. It's a staggering number of
zeros. I'd look that up.
I'm only damn McQueen puts bloopers in my DNA.
Without it, it wouldn't be me and I wouldn't trade myself for
the world. I get to do this.
So by shifting my perspective like look, I should be dead.
I'm not. I get a chance to rehab and
rebuild myself. It's not fair.
This happened to me. It's not fair.
But guess what? No one cares.
(18:10):
It's now my responsibility to navigate this change and
navigate this hand. I'm lucky enough to have a hand
in the 1st place. I'm not going to muck pull a
hand because I don't want this one card.
I'm going to play the hand of God, man.
And damn it, I'm playing the hand of God.
So reframing that stuff, the perspective, the worst know the
best. Like that made walking into
Broadway exciting. Like I'm looking forward to the
(18:30):
strength, the struggle, the strain.
Like you're making me better than this.
Thank you for the opportunity. And that made everything light
and easy and and not strenuous and difficult.
It made it an opportunity for meto succeed.
And I call like avoiding the pity spiral at all costs.
And that the woes means isn't fair because you're right, it's
not fair. But you know what?
No one cares if it's fair. Everyone's going through stuff
(18:53):
and life is not fair. Mine just maybe is a bit more
acute, a bit more profound than that, like a big T big trauma.
But everyone's got shit, man. And probably just for the
language, everyone's got everyone's got stuff.
And like when you can reframe it, it's like, well, what's what
are you facing here? Is the worst of the best?
(19:13):
Like you get to do this, man. So to answer your question,
yeah, I saw the blessing on thatand I made a decision to move
forwards in life and and take step forwards.
What do you say to somebody who had something horrible happen to
them and they are still stuck init?
(19:34):
So I think this is, I can name afew people in my life who've had
really difficult things happen to them and they never really
faced it. So they never really recovered
from it. So they could never really turn
to use a cliche, the mess into amessage.
Have you helped people in that? Maybe they've been dealing, they
(19:55):
something happened and they haven't recovered from it and
they've been dealing with it for, you know, 1020 years.
Have you, have you worked with anybody who's had that?
Sort of scenario in their life or what would you, what would
you say to them to help them to finally face and get past that
thing? This is going to slap, but I'll
tell you anyways because I thinkit's important to hear
acceptance. Acceptance is the most important
(20:19):
thing you can do. If you hit a punch now that word
slaps because it's like you don't know what I've been
through. Then you're right, I don't know
what you've been through 100%. I can tell you about a shot of a
doubt. Acceptance for me has been the
the way forward. Acceptance is not relinquishing
control. It's actually saying I'm going
to take control of this new parameters, a new board game
here and play this within my realm of expertise.
(20:40):
I've got a new keynote coming out called acknowledge, Accept
adapt AAA framework. You have to walk through each
step individually in that order to navigate change.
Let me walk through it for you group quickly.
Acknowledge is the head. I had a brain hemorrhage.
You got to think it. You got to like understand, this
is what happened to me. Acceptance is a pretty hard one.
(21:01):
That's the heart that's like yougot to own it and really
encompass that vibe in your in reality and then runs adapt.
And this is where the fun part is where you can adapt to your
limitations and adapt to your new surroundings, playing the
game that is put in front of you, adapting to the new
limitations. And life for me is about, you
know, just being self aware and adapting to what I've got
(21:22):
limitations for now. And like, that's difficult to
hear because acceptance is a hard word for people to
understand. Without a shadow of a doubt, the
faster you get to acceptance, faster you can improve your lot.
Like when did you about it for six months, Then in the six
months, you're still at square one.
Unless I accept it now and take steps forward to this, from
this, this day forward, I can take steps to improve my lot.
(21:42):
Acceptance is the way forward. And that's what I'd tell someone
going through a hard time right now.
And that word slaps. I know that, Robin, I apologize
if it is a disruptive word for you of a group.
But like, that's my experience, mom.
It's really good advice, you know, and it's easier said than
done. Of course there's a process that
(22:02):
has to be involved there. Then, like you said, I don't
know what anybody else is going through.
But I do know there's a process that has to be processed and
you've got to give yourself the space and the awareness to
process it, right, 'cause you can unknowingly be holding
yourself back from progressing through something and you might
not even realize that you're doing it because you're trying
(22:25):
to protect yourself. Which I mean, I, I totally
understand. So I, I just, I think that's
just really, it's understanding.I need to accept this and let
the process happen as it happens.
So with that being said, we got to pause real fast to shout out
the sponsor of the show. When I come back, I want to, I
really want to talk about that process and what play loose look
(22:47):
tight means to you. So I know play loose, look
tight, something you live by just diving deeper into that
because there's this happened in2014.
You've had over a decade of growth from this whole thing and
challenges and setbacks and and moves forward, man.
And I and I want to know, you know, day-to-day how you keep
(23:10):
moving forward. Play loose and look tight.
We'll talk about it in one minute.
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and effective way to create content that attracts the people
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(24:14):
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(24:35):
Take care. Dan loving this conversation,
man and just and your perspective on things.
I love your sense of humor and the way you're telling this
story. It's it's refreshing.
What does play loose look tight mean?
Can you talk about that, A. 100%Rob thanks for the call out.
Especially in my podcast. Play loose, like tight.
(24:56):
It's a live mantra and forwards.Let me spell it out for your
group. 1st 2 words play loose. Play is the first word by
intention. Life's well funded, we're having
light engagements. Play is the first word by
intention. Play loose.
Conversely, you want to look tight if you have time to
address and demeanor. Be professional in how you show
up for yourself and others. So in 4 words, I've got a life
(25:18):
mantra and play loose, look tight.
Let's how I live my life day by day.
You know, some days I, I love, Ilove having fun.
I love playing. Honestly, that's the thing I I
love to do do the most. Some days you feel like you, you
(25:39):
can't or you're not allowed to or you just don't feel like it.
How do you get yourself to to feel like it?
Look, going back to that sad assured dealer, the odds of
being human being are 421. You get to do this.
(26:01):
You can choose to go through life, your woes me, woes me, or
you can live life dua deviv, fun, intentional play loose.
You choose how you show up day in day out.
It's a choice you make every day, and the key is to make that
choice in the right direction every day.
I've got that in me in spades. I'm a fun guy.
(26:23):
I like joking, having fun, living life to the fullest.
Maybe that's not you, that's fine.
This is my life mantra and what I'm trying to bring forward into
the world to showcase how you can navigate this change
successfully. I think this way of looking at
life is so key for navigating change and navigating the set
(26:44):
back that I've faced by being light, by being fun, by being
playful and gamification. So key for this, right?
So that's my perspective on this, Rob, and I hope it lies in
the audience. Yeah, well, it's, it's a great
perspective to have as I sit andlisten to you.
So for me, it's always like, oh,easier said than done, right,
(27:07):
'cause I, I want to be able to have that light heartedness
throughout the day, but I'll find myself taking myself too
seriously, getting bogged down and things that, you know, I
don't need, honestly need to getbogged down in.
So I really, it's a, it's a constant reminder and
perspective shift. And I love and I, I know this
like the, the chances of being ahuman being, right?
(27:28):
So it's such a, it's such a mindblowing number when you like
look at it. It's like, I can't believe
that's even real. It's amazing that any of us even
exist by the odds. If we could like, if we could
understand that, like at a core level, it would change
everything. How did you and I say how?
(27:50):
I'm just curious for you, was that perspective?
Was this something that you, is this somebody that you were
before the brain hemorrhage and you became more of what, what
showed up that wasn't there before, as you've been since
2014? Like I've always been a pretty
happy, good, lucky guy, fun, joking light, enjoying life.
(28:14):
But after the injury I kind of realized that look, it's not
what happens to you, but how yourespond to the matters.
I can be woes me about this, or I can choose to look at it
through a stoic perspective. Stoic lens.
Control the controllables is theword I use a lot that means I
control. Can I control?
Yes No If yes, do something about it if no, I punt it
immediately. I look at life through this lens
(28:34):
now because it just makes life easy.
Yes no if if yes, do something about it if no, I punt it
immediately. Politics, medical stuff, vision
issues, walking, head tilts and and head movements.
I can't control that stuff, so Ipunt it immediately, man.
I couldn't worry about what I can control and influence.
And I punt the rest. And I know that's the right way
(28:58):
to approach life, but that's howI've navigated it so far and
it's worked out for me thus far.Look, it's not, it's not easy to
get through day-to-day, right? Like every day I wake up with an
intention, wake up early, make my bed, meditate, push ups,
shower in the shower, cold. I remember trying to boot up my
sequence for the day and the intention for the day.
If I'm not doing that, I can't be the best that I can be.
(29:21):
And I've got a limited bandwidthnow, so I've got less battery to
spend on that I can't control. So I'm really intentional how I
approach life and view through this mindset and this lens.
Yeah, the control is everything.I there's, there's barely
anything we can control. We can barely control how we
react and we can barely control our own thoughts, right.
(29:43):
You can't even control what thoughts come into your head.
So being able to, to engineer that properly is super important
and manage that properly is super important.
And like you said, like your morning routine, things like
that, that you decide to do, youhave control over that.
You've choice there. And you can control those things
to a certain extent. Things might come up, things
might change throughout the day,but you can, you can decide what
(30:04):
to do with that. And I and I love that
perspective. You would.
So did we dive into the second set in 2015?
No, not yet. You want me to touch on that?
Let's let's go there. Yeah.
What was the second set? So July 28th 2015, I had a
second set back. And by set back I mean I woke up
(30:29):
the next time in the hospital. Beep.
He knows how I'm going to find me and he'll beep, beep, beep.
What happened? What happened?
Well, Daniel had a second set back.
So I've met my mum with the two before work in the morning one
day I didn't show up. Mum calls my cell, no response.
Walks up my flat, knocks on the door, no answer.
Opens the door. There I am unconscious on the
floor. Calls 999 emerged the hospital
(30:54):
wake up the next day in the hospital being told they then
you had a second brain surgery. What do you mean The shunt is my
brain had blocked in the hydrocephalus or water in the
brain. But I've been working for you to
put this behind me to get a headless injury.
I was back to work 2 out days a week, 3 out days a week.
I was turning and burning baby, and the carpet was pulled from
my legs. I felt like the injury was just
(31:15):
laughing at me, like you thoughtyou had a chance.
Dude, you ain't going nowhere. We got you right back.
We belong. But our company's like, AW, row.
First setbacks down here. I kind of scamper back up
halfway up second setbacks, not where the first one was, but
much lower. The depths of the human
experience where your hopes and dreams are stickered out.
Now finally something the ascentand I'm climbing back up past
(31:38):
where it was before. The mindset of the second set
back was so key because I'd already done rehab.
I wasn't entitled to go back to rehab.
I'd done that. It was on my file.
I already done rehab. I couldn't go back to that.
If we had a second brain surgery, we've already done
rehab. We can't do that in person.
So the mindset of like control, the controllables, we have
(31:58):
progressed, washed away in an instant.
But I knew in my mindset that the rehab might have been washed
away, but I knew I could rehab faster and better this time.
This wasn't an overnight shift in my mindset.
Let me be very clear, Rob, I laid in the suck for a little
while here, probably about a month.
I was like, this is not fair. This sucks.
This is horrible. Then I realized at rock bottom,
(32:18):
yeah, maybe, but also bedrock. I can now build faster,
stronger, faster, more, more solid foundation.
How I can build this faster? So I'm on the ascent now.
Climb back up. Now that second set back, Rob
was the hardest thing I've been through my life.
It took everything into my mindset.
Purely not go down the walls, made the pretty spiral.
(32:41):
But it's not what happens to you.
But what do you think about the matters right?
Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to pretend like I
would even know what that is like, but I could imagine that
the second set back after spending almost a year in
recovery and being like, well, that was hard, but I'm coming
back. And then you get hit again is
(33:01):
like, what the Hell's going on here?
Well, dude, I was turning and burning.
Like I was back to work 2 up days a week, 3 up days a week,
like back to being social at thepub, like with friends,
everyone, like, you're doing some well done, you're doing
some well done. And then boom, levelled like
carpet pulling him in my feet. Wake up the next day to the
hospital. What happened?
(33:21):
What happened? Like all my progress is washed
away. Like, well, we got the blockage
down, but yeah, the progress is washed away like despair.
This isn't fair. This sucks.
Yeah. And it's like, it's not fair.
But guess what? It's my, it's not my fault.
It's my responsibility now to navigate this change and get
back to this. And it's not easy, but it's
simple. It's simple to decide that I'm
(33:42):
going, right. It just has to be sort of a pill
right now. It's a mindset game, man.
That's what I'm turning it across the audience.
It's like, it's not what happened.
When you think about it, that matters, right?
It's a mindset game entirely. I absolutely love your
perspective and yeah, you're you're 100% right.
So when you in 2014 before the second set back, were you still
(34:04):
fully functional when you came back from the brain hemorrhage
like you were able? Are you, and forgive me, I'm
just asking like, are you able to work now?
Are you are you still working now in the industry or what
changed, I guess. Yeah.
What changed after the second act that was like you weren't
able to do, you weren't able to do things that you were able to
do before? Look, cognitive stuff slowed
(34:27):
down a little bit for sure. My battery's about 75% where it
was before. I fatigued much faster.
I worked four days a week at Hootsuite, had Wednesdays off to
recalibrate and reboot myself, and that was a helpful schedule
to kind of keep myself fatigued and to check and make myself
available for when I could work.There were some accommodations
(34:48):
made by work for sure, but I wasback to work at a pretty regular
clip, four days a week, 80% of my job capacity and workload.
And that second set back hits man.
And like work's like, well, we don't know if we caused this
issue. It's like, no, you didn't cause
the issue. It was a card that came with my
hand. And Vutu was super supportive.
I got lots of love for them. They let me get back to work and
(35:08):
contribute in the company I love.
And you know, I'm, I've definitely got some quirks about
me for sure, But like I'm tryingto make the most of this life I
got now. And it takes some self-awareness
to navigate this change and to be aware of myself, my fatigue
levels. I got to take a nap every day.
Like we'll take a nap after thispodcast and recharge the
batteries. But I get to do this.
(35:31):
I get to be on podcasts and to start a speaking business
because I'm alive now. I just have to take a nap in the
afternoon to like mitigate the fatigue issues I've got.
Like, how are you looking at life, man?
It's the perspective that I wantto share with your audiences.
Like this is what you can control this.
What's in front of your face right here.
You get to do this. And if you can ship that mindset
(35:56):
dude, you can unlock the whole world.
Yeah, yeah, The way that I was, I like to think of it and I
forget who I heard this from, but your 5 foot world, right,
your 5 foot world is what you have control over.
What's physically in front of you and what's going on inside
of your head. That's your area of like, OK, I
(36:16):
can have some domain over this. I can control this.
Not saying you still got to dealwith people and their how they
act. You got to deal with the world
and how the world is. It's just that, but we have a
limited amount of control and weshould maximize that.
And so this is a great reminder.I need to hear this everyday.
I have a, you know, I have an almost one month old or one year
old baby. And, and when you have a baby
(36:38):
like an 11 year old and almost 1year old and babies remind you
that you're out of control, likeyou just kind of like all the
stuff that was going is like, no, forget all that stuff.
You got to wipe a clean slate and just figure it out from
there. And I had a lot of, I had a hard
time with that. I had a really hard being like
set in this like rigidity of like, this is how things have to
(37:01):
be. And embracing flexibility for
somebody like myself can be really hard.
And I like to think that I'm flexible until I'm met with an
opportunity that causes me to have to be flexible and then I
realize how unflexible I am. And so I can only imagine in
your situation, the constant readjustment to being flexible
(37:22):
because the of the unproductability of of what what
happened number one, that secondset back.
I can't imagine the level of like despair in that and that
this you want to control things.I would imagine you'd, I would
want to control everything because I don't want this to
happen again. And so to give that up and to
(37:43):
have acceptance and surrender that over is, is incredible.
I just, I want to just, I'm, I'mkind of rambling on this, but I,
I just want to like commend you on that because that's amazing.
Like to have that perspective because that's a rare
perspective to be able to to getreceive and actually live out
of. Well, thank you, Rob.
I want to share one story with the group quickly if I may.
(38:05):
Yeah, I did these brain scans oflike 2 years ago at Health Tech
Connect, a neuroscience clinic in CBC Canada.
Put a gel cap on your head, ask you questions like window
computer, microphone, speaker, coffee mug, laptop.
See if your snaps is fire or not.
My results came back as average.Average.
(38:25):
I thought I've had two emergencybrain surgeries.
Average is pretty good. I read this as I'm shockingly
average. There's no way I'm average.
Have you seen what I've been through?
I'm not average, but the more I thought about it really is that
average is pretty good. I'm better or smarter than
anyone of you here today. I've just been driven to go
forwards, toes over the nose of my board, riding this wave down.
(38:49):
I'm average man. You can do this.
It's a mindset. Shipped 100%.
I'm an average guy with the mindset that's fostered and
granted diamonds. Like you can take this on board
and use this for yourself. I'm an average guy with with
with with mindset and drive out my wazoo.
But like, you can do this too man.
(39:11):
Thank you for the encouragement.Everybody needs that
encouragement. So I really, I really value
that. I want to encourage people to go
to your website also. So if you're watching, listening
right now, McQueen dan.com, the link is in the description.
What would you like them to do on the site?
What? What can they expect?
I share a story from the stage there.
I'll give you a watch that story.
If you like that story, let me know.
(39:33):
There's a form you can fill out as well.
If you want to hear me speaking,there's a cool videos there.
You can check my speaking on stage and see if those stories
land with you. The story of walking into
Broadway, that story of my some other stories for my demo as
well are in there. Check it out.
Let me know if you want to talk to your group.
I do a lot of online sessions aswell.
So online something I did at Hutu for 10 years.
So I've trained over 1000 clients in EMEA.
(39:55):
You're of Emilia, South Africa, so online sessions work pretty
well as well. Very cool, Brother McQueen,
dan.com and, and, and as we're wrapping this thing up, I just
want final question. Just pretend like you're never
going to talk to me or anybody who's watching or listening to
this ever again. I imagine I can imagine what the
(40:17):
message is going to because you've you've really hammered it
home. But what message would you leave
us with knowing that we'd never speak again?
I'm going to go off the board here and pick something you're
not going to expect to hear fromme.
Oh good. Aim small, miss small.
Let me expand on what that means.
(40:39):
Aim small, miss small. Progress over perfection.
Pick a target you can hit, land it, and then expand the target.
Momentum is so key for this. Build forward progress and
momentum. Progress over perfection is the
way forward in life. And just keep stacking momentum
and building yourself up. I've achieved some massive
goals, but I've achieved them bysetting smaller goals and
(41:00):
ratcheting up to that new baseline so that that goal to
the moon shot goal is not a hugechasm.
It's the next step because it's a logical next step.
Aim small, miss small is what I want to give your audience to
take away. Rob, thank you.
I love it. Thank you.
Thank you for that take away. Thank you for your message
today. Powerful, powerful stuff.
Another true testimony of breakthrough.
(41:22):
Until next time. This has been the unstuck
movement. None.
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