All right. Hey guys, I'm Matt major from growth
mode content. Welcome to another edition of good
news York I am very excited because next to my
good buddy Mike. Hi. Good morning. Good morning,
buddy evening Evening afternoon with a podcast
people could be listening to this at like 4 a
.m Just guess what time it is. But if you're
listening us at 4 a .m. My way better things
Joining us in the studio is one of my most favorite
humans on the planet His name's Dakota He's from
the Oswego area, but doesn't live there anymore.
But he comes and he graces us with his presence,
and we're able to learn so much and have a great
time. So Dakota Malone, welcome to Good News
York. Dakota Malone, welcome to Good News York,
buddy. Thank you. So pumped to be here. Dude,
listen, I don't want to put the pressure on,
but these guys, Danny, our great producer Danny
Tripodi, and Matt have really spoke very highly
of you, and obviously... In the research process,
I saw a lot of the things you were doing. So
we're very excited to have you on the phone.
The bar's been set high. They've talked you up,
man. OK. Well, listen, here's what's interesting
about this, guys. He's got so many different
things going on. We only have so much time, so
I need to be respectful and try to pick the best
elements of everything. But before, we should
kind of give some people some context. So if
you wouldn't mind, buddy, just give us the general
pitch of what you do, how you spend most of your
time, and we can get into it from there. Awesome.
Yeah. Cool. Well, my name is Dakota. Again, thank
you guys so much for having me. Our pleasure.
I've been a fan of the show since day one. I
was talking to Matt before we kind of started.
I was like, hey, good luck with everything. I
don't know if you remember our first live broadcast
at the fairgrounds. I told you one of my buddies
texted me out of the blue and said good luck
and congrats and like how awesome that was. That
was him. That was him. Oh, dude, thank you. That
was me. We were nervous as hell. So that we needed
that. And even before this, I was thinking about
this because I just got off my flight here. I
was thinking about why I love you so much, Matt.
And when I first met you, you were talking about
this show before it was a thing. And one of the
things I admire about entrepreneurship in general
is the ability to solve problems and actually
create solutions. And I remember when we first
met, Matt was like, man, I'm so sick of these
bullshit media channels and bad news. And it's
like, I just want to create something that just
talks about good news. And I remember you saying
that. And fast forward, what, maybe three, four
years ago at this point, it's like, here it is.
The studio's built. You've literally renovated
your home base for what you're doing in IT and
created the solution. And so first and foremost,
thank you for doing what you do. Thank you for
bringing things to life. I very much appreciate
that. I think it's so cool and inspiring. I spend
most of my time I'm getting married this year.
So yeah, yeah I try to be the best fiance I can
be and really leaning into such a good guy. No
You know, I might I'm hello Heidi if you're watching
this hi, I love you Yeah, sorry No, so, you know,
I spent a lot of time with my fiance. I moved
to st. Louis. I'm originally from Central New
York I always tell people I grew up in between
two cornfields in the middle of nowhere. I went
to Hannibal High School. I graduated with you
know, 99 kids in my class. And it was an interesting
upbringing. You know, I went to community college
15 minutes down the road. And it's so funny because
I share with people that was really the first
time my mind had expanded beyond the cornfields
where I grew up. But I was like, whoa, diversity.
like different opinions and it really opened
me up and you know then I started my career in
you know what I now do in the renewable energy
space but as a door -to -door salesperson and
that brought me all over the country all over
the world and really expanded my vision for what
was possible for me what I wanted to do with
my life and you know that plus uh an epic journey
of five -heart surgeries, which Danny knows and
Matt, you know. I do not know. Many deaths in
between and lots of ceremonies. He's like a cat.
Sky. Yeah. And that's ultimately how I ended
up doing what I do now, which I run a company
called Community Solar Authority. We help large
energy users with their sustainability strategies.
And so in between, I'm hanging out with my fiance,
exploring and traveling when I can, entrepreneurship.
Yeah, I'd say that's a little two -minute bio.
Beautiful. I met this guy on a boat in Miami.
And I got on the boat. He was already there.
He was already there. And I got on the boat.
And on the bow of the boat is this guy in a leopard
print, shirt and shorts, sitting cross -legged,
meditating, looking out of the water. And I said,
you know what? This guy's going to be all right.
And it was absolutely true. It was a great time.
Dakota, what I love about you, and again, there's
so many different things that we can talk about,
but I wanna dig into just a little bit of your
strategy, because for some context, some months
ago, I don't know, a year ago, time doesn't work
for me anymore, but a while back, you came here,
you put on a presentation for a bunch of us on
social media and content and things of that nature,
and... A couple of the things that you said in
that particular training has stuck with me, has
become actually part of our business model here
at Growth Mode Content. And I wonder if you could
talk a little bit about that. Specifically, you
mentioned to us how, as you create and curate
your content, it's not to go viral, it's not
to get... 10 million views, but it's more to
build a detailed profile for the folks who are
already kind of looking into you. And I don't
know if, and forgive me if I'm not saying that
right, but could you talk about that concept
a little bit of just kind of your strategy for
growth and what you've done on social for your
business? I love this question because it's so
relevant. I just had a guy reach out to me a
couple weeks ago and he's like, hey, He did a
whole, and I really appreciated the work that
he did. He went through and watched every single
podcast I've done, all of my content, all of
my YouTube shorts, put it into this pretty package,
and basically said, hey, I want a revenue share.
I can become your content strategist and SEO
partner. We can do all of this stuff, et cetera.
And I was like, this is a great presentation,
but I'm not trying to go viral. And we actually
really flipped the content model on its head,
because as you just mentioned, Matt, when I think
about building content, Think about showing You
know the four to five people it's going to matter
to so our YouTube shorts They get nine to thirteen
views, but those nine to thirteen people are
some of the you know decision makers at the largest
clients that we can even dream of and Unfortunately,
I'm under NDA at this point so I could just leave
it at one of the largest companies in the world
But this just happened to us you know three weeks
ago. I made a maybe maybe a month ago at this
point I post on LinkedIn. I was like I just posted
episode 65 of my podcast and three people listened
to it. Like nobody listens to it. And then a
week later I get a DM in the Bahamas and it was
like, Hey Dakota, I just heard your, you know,
episode. I want to connect. And it's, you know,
with one of the largest energy users in the United
States. And they're like, we appreciate your
expertise. We appreciate your value first approach
and we want to understand how we can work with
you. And that's always been the method to what
I do is not trying to go viral or come up with
the greatest hooks, but really to put the education
first and build a community around that. And
I think about if 20 people watch your video for
people that are just starting or people who have
a backwards strategy like me, if you have 20
people watch a YouTube short or a piece of content,
If you imagine this room filled with 20 people,
that's an audience. That is an audience. It just
comes down to getting it in front of the right
people. And so for me, I make hyper specific
niche content. Our clients right now are essentially
large energy users in the states of New York
and Illinois. And so that total addressable market
is only so many people. It's not hundreds of
millions. It's not millions. It's probably not
even tens of thousands. Yeah It is like less
than a thousand people that we actually want
to connect with and so for us I make the content
first and then I just send it directly to them
and a lot of the other stuff I taught in that
LinkedIn class or social class was you know,
like I'll send voice notes to again some of the
biggest decision makers at companies, and to
this day they don't receive voice notes. They
receive a massive block of text the immediate
second you connect with them on LinkedIn, and
it's like, hey man, let me sell you something.
And it's like, I know you're a huge fan of them.
Big old pitch slap, you know? So it's a combination
of doing things differently, but then also like
addressing them with actual value. And again,
they go to the podcast and even though only three
people listen to it, they see, wow, this guy's
put out 70 plus episodes, 10 minutes each of
hyper -specific niche content of problems I'm
trying to solve for. So that's kind of how I
think about strategy. It's so brilliant from
my perspective because when I got hired here,
I had a... I kind of had the point of view about
social media that most people do. And what I
learned from Matt, which now I'm learning, I
in turn learned from you, is that I compare everything
to what I've known, which is I've always been
in front of a microphone on stage my whole life.
And I remember there were times when my band
would play for, I don't know, hundreds of people.
Maybe 5 % were interested. Then there were times
where we played for 20 people who were fucking
losing their mind. And we were like... That's
way better. It's almost like what I've learned
from you and you is that it would be like opening
a restaurant, but we're marketing to people across
the country. Why aren't we marketing for around
us? People don't think about it. We think about
viral, we think about views, and it's like, how
about meaningful views? I love that. I see it
as like a resume. You know what I mean? Everybody's
got their resume online somewhere, but nobody's
Googling around and randomly discovering resumes.
When someone reaches out to me and says hey,
I want to apply now you're looking in and you're
digging deep and that that kind of bank You know
in one of the things that we talk about what's
interesting is I want to say I got into an argument.
I didn't get an argument. I didn't say anything
back I I I kind of went off on this guy on LinkedIn
last week traditional marketing guy traditional
video marketing guy He puts out this post, video
podcasts are dead. And then he goes into details
how the reason they're dead is because they're,
you know, not getting as many millions of views
as they were, you know, whatever. And you can
pick stats in different times than any of those
and make those say any either way you want to
go. But, you know, the whole point of my kind
of reply there that I posted was exactly what
we're talking about. The reason we do this, it's
not like really any other medium. And it doesn't
replace those. I think that's the thing that
a lot of people, they think it's in competition.
This is not taking the place of your billboard
or your TV ad or your search engine ads and things
like that. This is a different piece. And what
it does is develop that long -term content of,
who are you? We can all pitch our product, and
here's a great sale, and here are the features.
But at the end of the day, especially with something
like your business, very in -depth, high -ticket,
serious stuff, you want to know who you're working
with. Is this some schmuck fly -by -night who
got this job yesterday and he'll be moving on
to the next one tomorrow? No, this guy's a genuine
industry expert. He's respected by others. And
you can see that just from the conversations
that they have. And that's the piece that I've
tried to get across. And I think, luckily, all
of our growth mode content client creators Get
that and they understand and have already seen
the value of of letting people know who they
are Yeah, even sometimes without even mentioning
the product. Yes. Yeah. Yeah beyond the billboard
beyond the you know, however else you market
Those pieces of content is an integrated approach,
especially if you're a local business back at
the restaurant point Yeah, there's a lady in
St. Louis. She's about an hour north. It's called
Judy's pancakes and her stuff goes viral because
She takes the hook and has and you know, like
whatever those jump cut hooks where like they're
like get water thrown on them. And then she's
like, come get my pancake. Sure. But she sends
all of that traffic through Facebook ads locally
and then uses that to drive as an integrated
approach. And then you add things like podcasting
and content and you do get to see the human behind
it. So now it's not like. Oh, there's a billboard
for XYZ. It's like, oh, no, I just saw a clip
of them talking about their family or whatever
it is. And all of a sudden, I'm way more likely
to do business with them because I know I know
them now, even if it's not like a known first
person connection. It's I know that's right.
And that makes a huge difference. Absolutely.
It absolutely does. What are the other things
I want to ask you about? You have and I don't
know if you've. still maintain this strategy,
but I think either last year or the year before,
you had a goal of being a guest on X number of
podcasts and you had a strategy of creating this
content. I think it's kind of a hack and I really
don't want to give it away because it's kind
of the opposite of what we're doing here. But
he's figured out how to leverage other folks
and be a guest exclusively. to grow this. Can
you talk about that a little bit? It's brilliant.
Yeah, so I learned this from a guy I met in a
coffee shop about a half hour from St. Louis.
His name's Dustin Reikman. And he is a buddy
of mine who ran an accelerator group for podcasting,
guest podcasting particularly. So he's like,
hey, it's $10 ,000. And I was like, wow, it's
a lot of money for an accelerator class. And
I was like, whatever, I'll do it. Because I was
really interested in this idea of leveraging
other people's audience to be able to build,
again, for the sake of becoming known, having
content created for me. and really being able
to put the message out there, not so much on
getting the client side, but really partnering
with people. And so the idea would be, for me,
I went on a bunch of podcasts for land. There's
a whole niche of real estate, of land flipping,
where people buy dirt and flip it, and they'll
make a lot of money from it. No tenants, no toilets,
no problems. Really interesting space. And there
are some really large podcasts and communities
around that. And so my target was, hey, You're
starting podcasts talking to landowners about
for people how to get into land flipping or land
investing. Why don't I come in and talk to them
about being able to generate passive income with
solar? So instead of selling the property, you
buy it dirt cheap, pennies on the dollar for
a number of different reasons why people sell
properties, especially raw land for dirt cheap.
And now you can come in and add a solar component
to it. And that was just a approach that really
had not been talked about in that specific niche.
So it was about finding that right market. And
then I went on a podcast circuit and talked on
every single major community podcast on that
niche. And it works in every industry. And so
Dustin really taught me the idea that you can
leverage other people's audiences to be able
to come get your message out there. And again,
I think it's an integrated approach to what you
were doing. If I were a client at Growth Mode,
which if I lived in New York, I... I would crush
I know I would and what I told what I told you
guys before we started the show is like dude.
It's so possible for you guys You could even
go on other people's podcasts and talk about
growing content and use that to fly people in.
It's like the reverse inception of the strategy.
In fact, I think that that would be brilliant
for you guys. It's like you could do the virtual
podcast from your studio talking about what you
do on other people's audience. And now they're
flying in to see you. And it's this whole unique
offer. I just think that that would crush because
people would fly in from all over. I know that,
Matt, you in particular, you love talking about
Upstate, all of the good stuff. 100%. The whole
point of this podcast, Good News York, is to
talk about the good things going on in central
New York. More people would be exposed to the
central New York region. They would get up here,
and they'd say, wow, I didn't think that there
was anything beyond New York City. Every time
I say, oh, I'm going home to New York, they're
like, oh, what borough do you live in? Exactly.
No. No. Exactly. So. Yeah, you know, it's it's
it's one of those things where it's a super integrated
approach I think it's complementary not necessarily
in competition with what you guys are doing and
Anyone thinking about again wanting to leverage
their brand or grow their audience or just get
more exposure This whole idea of reaching out
to other people and saying hey Mike Matt I know
you guys run growth mode content. I talk about
XYZ I think it would be valuable for XYZ reasons
Are you opposed to me coming on or at least sending
you another clip of some stuff I've done? Yeah,
right. Just a very simple, you know, that's that's
kind of the windup image to it Yeah, and you
know again as long as it's not a giant and there's
even creative ways to do it, right? So like if
you want to get on top podcasts or you want to
meet with top people I send voice notes. I saw
another ridiculous thing today. It was called
Suno S -U -N -O and it creates AI jingles. And
this dude copied and pasted people's LinkedIn
information. So name their photo, buy else, created
a custom AI song and then DMs it to them. And
it's like a jingle singing about them. Wow. It's
how you break in. Yeah. And we do a lot of creative
direct mail stuff too. I mean, I've sent cartoons
to people and empty donut boxes saying, hey,
like I wanted to, you know, circle. back with
you, but I got tired of waiting and ate all these
donuts. So you just send them a donut box of
sprinkles. Like there is creativity to getting
in touch with the right people. And so again,
it's not only about like identifying which podcast
you want to go on, but how do you actually reach
out to them in a way that it's not lost amongst
all the messages? Because everybody wants to
be on those shirts. But if you do break the mold
and you do crack it, I mean, there's amazing
things that happen. To this day, I have people
book on my calendar every single week. I haven't
done a land podcast in I don't know, this year
at all. I have people book on my calendar every
single week. I have XYZ parcel. I saw you on
the show. I want to talk about solar. And that's
been a consistent lead machine for us. And so
that's the power of it. And that's what we did.
Haven't done it nearly as much this year. It's
still a huge focus of ours. But as our business
has kind of evolved, it's changed the direction.
Tell me, just remind me, you had a particular
number goal like last year or something, right?
Didn't you? Yeah, I did. I wish I could remember.
Definitely a vanity metric. I don't I don't think
I hit it either. Yeah Yeah, I feel like you had
to have come close because I was pushing hard.
I mean it was every single week I was on at least
two podcasts for you for I was going really hard
That's almost more than us and we do it for a
living. Yeah No, but you know that and you're
still you're still applying the method we talked
about earlier, which is You could have went on
a hundred podcasts Like throw a dart at the wall.
You went for ones that made sense for what you
do and what you're trying to really dug into
those particulars. Yeah. And those are the little
details that people overlook. Yeah, 100 percent.
Yeah, back to the SEO guy. He's like, hey, I
can get you a million views. And I'm like, great,
like, how much money does that generate? Like,
where's the revenue in that? And it's like, I
don't want 13 -year -olds watching my YouTube
channel on solar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, but
like, not. And you know, here's the thing. Maybe
that, for different types of businesses, maybe
that's a better fit, right? Maybe you're selling
a tchotchke to everybody in the country. Right.
That might. But in my experience, that's actually
a very small number of businesses. And it seems
like the majority of even bigger sized businesses
are at least regional. They're not even necessarily
national. So I think that mass market number
is definitely there. But as we look at these
strategies for most businesses, at least the
primarily B2B folks that we're doing business
with. It's no different than the old school model
of, you know, when I was homesick as a kid watching
Price is Right, I'd see all the hand soap commercials
and all the for the stay -at -home parents, right?
You know, so it's no different than knowing your
demographic and trying to reach them. Well, it's
also all about networking. And I think that's
one of the reasons that I've always been drawn
to it. You know, my whole business from the technology
side and now into content side have been completely
bootstrapped. I never had any... piles of money
to throw at this and try it. So it's 100 % networking
though. You know what I mean? And I've tried
other advertising and things like that. Content
creation is the only one that has even any sort
of drive. But still, I'll be honest, the majority
of my business has always been that personal
networking. Profound has developed I don't know
how many business relationships. Before that,
I'm a member of a local business club that meets
every Friday. That's brought in well over a million
dollars a year in revenue. And it's just that
human piece that There's a hundred guys in town
that can work on your computers. Yep. People
have signed up with me because they like me,
which is weird. But you know what I mean? That's
that's how it works. Podcasting. It's the whole
model. I talk about this all the time, you know,
with all this emphasis on AI. And it's amazing
all this technology and digital and and podcasting.
And but for me, I really have a hard time believing
that guerrilla marketing. Face -to -face interaction
will ever die and I think it's still the most
important, you know years ago I was bartending
on a slow night and like five or six people came
in and I was making them laugh and pouring them
shots and just just making building a relationship
with these people. And I happen to mention they
saw a flyer on the bar, my band. I was in a band
at the time. What kind of music did you play?
Rock and roll, man. Rock and roll. I was in a
metalcore band. Nice! Growing up in Central New
York. That's awesome. Yeah. I was rock. But yeah,
so they saw the flyer, they're like, oh, you're
playing here? I said, oh, yeah, yeah. And like
next week. And they went, dude, we're going to
come. We're going to bring a bunch of people.
I'm like, OK, you know. Well, wouldn't you know,
fast forward to that show. They all showed up,
dude. I mean, and they brought all their friends,
and they were up front, and they were going,
you know, just going nuts. And I truly believe
if they had walked in and just saw that flyer,
there's no way they would have come. But because
we made that connection, it's just so important.
100%. 100%. That's a great segue, actually, to
one other thing I want to ask Dakota before we
get out of here. You've been talking a lot, and
I think maybe you have a group or something,
but you've been talking a lot about kind of men.
mental health and masculinity and things of that
nature. Can you tell us about that a little bit?
Yeah, so my experience with that was I was in
Costa Rica last year when I got engaged to my
fiance. We were down there to explore the country.
We went to a music festival. And at the music
festival, there was this group under a tent called
Sacred Sons. And it is really this idea of rebirthing
masculinity. And I went to a couple of their
workshops, was really interested in it. And ultimately,
you know, came back to St. Louis after the festival
and found a guy who was a part of their leadership
team, actually in St. Louis, Jeffrey Carver.
And so, you know, Jeffrey and I have been working
to craft what we call Midwest Men, which is really
very similar idea. It's a masculine embodiment
network. And we have weekly meetups every Tuesdays.
We are, you know, doing live events. I'm going
on a 12 mile. kayak trip and overnight camping
where we get men together we put them in the
same room and you know traditionally when you
think about Maybe men in a single space together.
There's maybe drinking or you know other socialing
But we like to get deep we like to get vulnerable
and so, you know We essentially put together
these containers that allow men to really unwind
get vulnerable and talk about the things that
light them up and the things that also, you know,
they're dealing with that they are unable to
talk about. And so every single week, you know,
keeping keeping everything confidential every
single week, I'll have guys come in and they're
like, man. I feel like I can't talk about this
with anybody else. I feel like nobody understands
me in my daily life. And just this last Tuesday,
I cried three separate times, and I'm just trying
to facilitate the conversation. And we never
really know where we're going to go. We love
the big three themes of just sex, money, and
death. Those three core topics seem to really...
resonate with everybody, but especially with
men as far as shadows or parts of ourselves that
we don't normally like to see. We're all about
bringing the lantern, bringing the light to those
conversations. And I always say, inside your
darkest caves are your deepest treasures. And
that's just been my personal experience. So through
my journey having five heart surgeries, When
I was a kid, of course I don't know if this was
a past life. I was ripped out of my mother's
arms as soon as I was born. I struggled with
abandonment. That was the real big wound for
me that I was unconsciously programmed and had
no idea that I was dealing with abandonment until
I came face to face with it. And it wasn't until
I was able to move through that in a sacred way,
which is also a big piece to what we do. So we
don't have any religious ties, but we say, keep
it sacred. And that's whatever it means to that
individual man. For me, it's been through many
ceremonies, many rebirth and death ceremonies,
that I was able to transform from that. along
with things like internal family systems therapy,
which has also been such a highlight and positive
uplift to my life. So I'm really big into this
idea, one, just as a personal exploration. Maybe
there was a time in my life where I was a seeker
and I was looking for something. Now I just look
at the unconscious mind as the final frontier,
and I'm like, I want to explore this. I think
it's endlessly fascinating. You know, I got really
big into NLP, neurolinguistic programming, and
hypnosis as a way to work with my own physical
pain and mental pain from five heart surgeries.
You know, I was wide awake for my third heart
surgery at the operating table, and I remember
disassociating out of my body. And, you know,
there's a really good book called The Body Keeps
the Score, and it's all about this idea that...
We need to revisit the trauma that we experienced
in our life one last time in order for it to
heal. So there is this really hard moment that
you have to go through where you do have to face
the thing that broke you. You do have to face
the thing that you may have not known was even
there. And so the point of the men's group is
to put men in a container where there is brotherhood,
there is camaraderie. You know, I believe that
this healing is very personal. It's done in the
privacy of our own hearts. But there is something
really magical about getting a bunch of men together,
having the right set to do that work, and then
just watching it unfold. I love this so much.
This is something that we've been talking about.
And we've actually got some content ideas in
the hopper to sort of address this. But what
we find is everything you're talking about is
so incredibly necessary and needed. And guys
are, in many cases, neglected in these ways.
Because we think, and oftentimes, it's put on
us. You can't cry. What are you, a bitch? Yeah.
Then the other side of that is as much as that's
needed There isn't a whole lot like you're discussing
that fills that void and instead we get some
of the worst stuff and we get a lot of young
men following some of the most scumbag misogynist
pieces of shit on the planet and and a hundred
percent, you know guys guys like that that You
know, we're pro men because we hate women sort
of thing And unfortunately, you get some even
when you get to single parents and men's rights.
Men do have rights. And there's a lot of places
where men are in a very disadvantaged place in
family court and things like that. The problem
is the people that talk about that the most are
the same ones that go, women shouldn't be allowed
to have a child period. And the men, you know
what I mean? So it's it's such a challenge. And
so to hear some folks that just have some, I
think, genuine values and aren't about. You know
where our life is rough because of this other
group. Yeah, I love hearing that I'm incredibly
moved by what you just said because I You know
for the sake of of being true to you our guest.
I'll be vulnerable for a second. I Abandonment
has been my number one issue. I've been in and
out of there. I've been in therapy for over 15
years. I lost my brother to leukemia. I was six
years old. He was three. I gave him a bone marrow
transplant. I learned later on in life through
therapy that I kind of took the blame like it
didn't work. And so one day he was there and
one day he was gone, literally gone. Like I never
said goodbye. And so. I think I just stuffed
it down. And for so many years, I had all these
issues. And anytime someone said, well, you know,
I think it's obviously because you lost your...
I don't want to talk about that. I'm over that.
I was never over that. That was the crux of all
of it. And I've had this fear of abandonment.
and people don't understand that fear of abandonment
doesn't mean like, you know, oh God, I'm afraid
everyone's gonna leave me. Yes, it is, but it
trickles into every part of your life, into relationships,
into work, into everything. And therapy... is
one of the most amazing things that I've ever
experienced, and I'm still working every day
to get better. And so when I meet people like
you, I just have to say thank you, because I
mean, it's so important for not only... people
in general to take their mental health seriously.
But that's how we're gonna progress as a society.
There's no mystery as to why my dad's dad was
a fucking angry asshole. And why sometimes my
dad was an angry asshole at times. Because they
were dealing with stuff, they didn't have the
resources we have. They didn't have guys like
you that were out there saying, hey man, come
to this thing. And then what happens, it's generational
trauma. But if you get ahead of it, You know
we we and we get that whole stigma You know that
the hot -headed guys because he doesn't know
how to deal with that and then it finally comes
to a head and explodes And that's unfortunately
what we see far too often and far too many good
dudes You know if you think of an asshole because
he snapped that day, and that's all you'll ever
remember But the reality is you know he chooses
and he got that compassion from others previously
maybe It's like wouldn't be there. It's like
I mean, there's so much I could talk about but
it's like if you if you're a barrel right and
you wake up and your barrels already Three -quarters
full that's gonna choke. It's no it's that It's
gonna take just a little bit of rain for that
to spill over and and so the idea is through
therapy and through self -healing Is that you
get all that that stuff in your barrel down so
that you can take more and more and you don't
explode You know this guy with the metaphors
no, but that's just that's one thing, but no,
it's great But that's but that's what therapy
does it gives you those those those things so
I think what you do with that group that I'm
to talk to you about that and and So yeah, and
and we'll we'll leave it on that. I just out
of curiosity is that group is it? outside of
your areas or other places where folks can look
into that sort of thing? We have men from Costa
Rica, Singapore. We call ourselves Midwest Men
because we have this idea of reviving, you know,
St. Louis especially. Um, there's a revival going
on and you know, it is this awakening process.
Um, we call ourselves midwest men It's totally,
you know free to jump into our zooms tuesday
night at 6 30 central 7 30 eastern Uh, so you
can also people are able to participate from
other areas. That's cool Yeah, they just jump
in and we do have our you know, um live events
or in -person events where you know People can
fly in or come through and we're going to be
building this a lot more We're doing a couple
festivals this summer just to have representation
out in the world So you can find that at Midwest
men. I don't have Instagram, but you can hit
up my buddy Jeffrey Jeffrey Carver 23 Jeffrey's
an amazing dude former world champion motor motocross
racer, and he's really just led the way for brotherhood
and Mike I just also want to acknowledge that
you know hearing you say all of that and willing
to be vulnerable Hearing you talk about your
brother You know, I could feel my heart just
lift and you know, it's that exact container
just talking about the idea of the container
Opens the container, right? So it's kind of like
this self -serving thing which is so beautiful
about it And that may be you know, that could
have been a moment that we totally could have
missed if you didn't ask the question So one
thank you for asking it is something that's extremely
close to my heart Growing up, I always wished
that I could have been a better brother, and
I really didn't even know what that meant. I
think a part of it was self -blaming for different
things going on at different points in my life
with my family. But I've really taken that to
a more human level, humanity for everybody. And
so I look at every man in my life and the strangers
I haven't met yet as my brother. And so taking
on that context and being willing to have those
conversations is so important. So I just want
to say thank you for. Buddy, thank you, man.
I appreciate that very, very much. Yeah, it's.
Yeah, it's. And it's like, it's one of the like,
I don't talk about it. And it's not because I
don't want it. When do you talk? Yeah. What am
I going to do? That's exactly what he's talking
about. What they facilitate. So here I am on
this podcast and I feel, you know, I feel like
I owe it to us to bring it up anyway. But I but
I you gave me. You made me feel comfortable enough
to bring it up, and it's good. It's good, man
And hopefully this conversation reaches people
and it helps them. I told you this guy was awesome.
This is unbelievable. Unfortunately, though,
we're running out of time. No! We just started.
It's been almost an hour. I want to know about
his heart, and I want to know about his solar
energy. I think that's probably a good reason
to bring him back on a very regular basis. Last
question, we do have time for that. Out of all
those, let's hit them with a good one, Mike.
Oh, you're making me do it? Yeah, well you had
a bunch of top of mind. I got a thousand things
I could, but I figured I'd give you the chance.
Well, I would like to hear about your experience
with your heart surgeries, if you're comfortable
talking about that, and then obviously some plugs
of what you got going on. Yeah, we'll definitely
get those in. What's going on in your world.
Yeah, no. So I was born with a narrow aortic
valve, which is the main valve in your heart
that pumps all the blood to the rest of the body.
And as soon as I was born, I had two emergency
surgeries that would ultimately save my life.
So the first one was a balloon surgery where
they went in and they popped my aortic valve,
which created a leakage in my heart. And the
second surgery, they went in through my back.
I have no idea what they were trying to do to
this day. I think it caused my scoliosis, which
I'll show you photos of my x -ray. I don't know
if you've seen my x -ray before. It's pretty
crazy. I've got a spine as well. And so essentially,
I had two emergency surgeries as soon as I was
born. I grew up going to the cardiologist actually
right here at Kraus in Syracuse. And every single
year, I remember going as a kid, they would basically
say, OK, you got to come get these tests done
once a year. And when you stop growing, which
was unfortunately five foot seven, you could
have this replacement surgery and you're gonna
be okay. And so that was kind of the mindset.
Growing up, I couldn't play sports. I could barely
run more than 20 yards without my whole chest
heating up. And definitely had a atypical childhood
compared to the average experience. Junior year
or senior year of high school, I couldn't play
sports, so I was actually managing a baseball
team. Yeah, just managing a base or the kids
wanted me to be included. I was friends with
everybody and I wanted to do it But I couldn't
and so they were like, hey, you know, why don't
you just come that's awesome manage the team?
And so a couple of weeks before that I actually
woke up in the middle of the night It was like
3 30 a .m And I had a very rapid heartbeat and
something felt intensely wrong and my mom is
a home nurse or she wasn't home nursing at the
time I wake her up and she's like, oh it was
probably just a bad dream and I was like no I
feel terrible and I was 16 years old And my dad
rushes me to Oswego ER. As soon as we get there,
my heart rate goes back to normal. And he's like,
what the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you
do this? And that would happen leading up to
that baseball game, five minutes at a time once
a week. Oh, wow. Three minutes at a time once
a week. Very come and go. And then I was at the
baseball game managing it, whatever, bottom of
the third, two outs. And all of a sudden, I get
the rapid heartbeat. Five minutes turns into
10, 10 turns into 20, 20 turns into an hour,
and by that time I'm being rushed to the ER.
By the time I get hooked up, my heart rate was
214. Holy shit. For two and a half hours. Wow.
I was 16 years old. The ER was packed. I had
to share a room with a guy who was much older
than me. I watched him have a heart attack and
die because... Holy shit. Doctors chose to work
on my life instead just because I was younger.
Yeah. They pulled the curtain on him. I remember
them smashing my face into buckets of ice trying
to slow my heart rate down. And ultimately, you
know, that was a thing. Yeah. Interesting, right?
Yeah. This is like before cold plunges. Yeah.
Yeah. And doctor comes in and he's like, I remember
my dad and my grandfather are behind him. And
they're like, Dakota, we have to shut off your
heart. And 16 years old, I just remembered. And
by that time, you feel like you're dying because
your heart rate is just using all of the energy
in your body. And I just remember looking at
my dad and my grandfather and I was like, wow,
like this... I'm not gonna know anything past
this story. The men who raised me are going to
outlive me. And the doctors put what's called
adenosine in through an IV drip. And it is essentially
just a way to reset the heart. And so it starts
in your fingers and toes. They go in through
the IV. It happens instantaneously. Your whole
body heats up and it just sucks into your heart.
And it went from 214 to my resting heart rate
of 76, like that. What and I had to happen four
or five times after that event? Oh shit before
they figured out that I had tachycardia and what
which is just rapid heartbeat and what happened
was my bicuspid valve made an extra pathway on
my on my bicuspid and so the blood that was leaking
from my broken aorta was being recycled and then
it was just beating super super super fast Jesus
and so my third heart surgery was the one I was
wide awake for they went in through my arteries
into my legs and I you know, they burned off
that extra pathway and then I haven't had tachycardia
since. But it left me with a lot of physical
trauma. Yeah. Yeah, I'm traumatized just listening
to those. Left me with a lot of physical trauma
from that just from being awake. Just it's such
a weird feeling to remember that you disassociated
and you watched yourself being mutilated in that
way. And so that took a lot of work for me to
get through. But, you know, shortly after my
fourth and fifth heart surgery came my senior
year. and ultimately I had open heart a week
after I graduated high school. You hear that
cliche of like, you know, I went through such
and such, but it's made me who I am today. But
it is 100 % why you are the person you are, and
it contributes to all the things that you've
done. I'm not taking away from your drive and
your talent and anything like that. But when
you're faced with something like that, when someone
says... we have to turn your heart off. You're
facing death. You're coming to the realization
that I'm not gonna be here in a little while.
And that will change any man, any human being.
And it makes you approach things in life differently.
And that's why I've been able to make relationships
that I've, you know, easier than maybe others
and why I've just seen things differently and
cared about things and noticed things in people
more because I know... what it's like to lose
it, you know? And I'm not saying I hope that
everyone should go through some sort of trauma,
but... I think the really great kind of upside
to that story is now here you are today, you're
out here doing these physical activities. You're
doing hikes, and it seems like it's in good order.
Are you clear to do all the typical kind of athletic?
Type of stuff. Yeah, I'm healthier than ever.
Awesome. And yeah, I'm a big believer in just
inspiring other people just through the way that
I live my life. You know, I grew up where my
doctors are like, don't leave your house. Don't
move too hard. And I'm just like, dude, I'm going
to send it. And it's just really been my philosophy
sense. But you're so right, Mike, like it totally
reshape my life. You know, even getting into
my career of door to door sales, I was like,
I have already experienced what it's like to
be so close to death. I was like, I want to experience
more. I remember it was my third day knocking
doors. I was in Albany, New York. I hadn't ever
done sales before. I had zero sales. It was the
middle of winter. I was in a Stewart's gas station
like this because it was so cold. And my dad
calls me and he's like, hey, I got you an interview
at Novellas where he's like been a plant manager
and he's worked there for 38 years now. And he's
like, you can come home. You don't have to knock
doors anymore. And I was like, dad, I think I
want to knock doors instead and see where this
goes. And he's like, what the fuck is wrong with
you? But I wouldn't have made that decision if
I was programmed for comfort and ease. I could
have easily turned that into a steady whatever,
six figure job, raised a family in my hometown,
never have left. But as a result of approaching
death, that's the same reason why I welcome these
like death rebirth ceremonies. I just recently
did my first. Temescal, which is a sweat lodge
with, you know, one of my friends from Peru who's
a shaman and some Lakota, you know, Native Americans.
They invited us back for the Lakota Sundance
this summer, which is just such a beautiful initiatic
principle to be invited to and to sit in, you
know, the dark with these hot... Fucking rocks
water on singing songs immediately with as soon
as that flap of that tent clothes I was like
I am going to die again Immediately knew it and
without understanding and getting close to what
that feels like those big topics sex money and
death The death one has been a real Honor for
me to talk to other people about because it's
been an experience of mine And so it's almost
like being able to walk people into that so that
they can find their own experience. Do you Do
you fear death? I mean I would love to say like
no I don't uh but every time I touch it I'm like,
oh my god. I forgot what this was actually like
to feel You know for me like it started with
heart surgeries. Then it was I did a 10 -day
ayahuasca initiation and the Jones of Columbia
Then it was you know Like sweat lodge rituals
and so again like these death rebirth out and
even in men's work Like there are certain things
that Jeffrey will lead on where I'm just like,
oh my god That is such an edge for me and it
could be such a simple prompt we could be in
a completely safe room and it's like My god,
like I feel like I'm touching that again. And
so yeah, I mean, it's just it's not something
I necessarily welcome with open arms But again,
if the treasure that you're seeking is in those
darkest caves You have to be willing to go into
that cave, even if it's scary and that's really
how I try to live my life Jesus I gotta talk
to my therapist and make them go in a tent with
hot rocks Listen, we we have to go in a tent
with hot rocks. Do you do that? You don't do
that. All right, you need to find somebody else
Dude, you are an amazing guy. These guys told
me that, you know, look, yes, you've accomplished
a lot, and it is amazing, but you're an amazing
human being, and you can see that, which... If
Danny wants to throw this up, I had this prepared
just in case, because if you really were the
most interesting man in the world... I told Danny,
I said, you need to grab the Dos Equis guy and
put his face over it. But I said, I'm only going
to show it if he really is the most interesting
man in the world. And so for whatever that means
to you, I have donned you the most interesting
man. You know what? It's kind of the way that
I've described you a few times. You know, imagine
this guy, the most interesting man in the world.
But in the ad campaign, you know, he's in his
60s. He's had all these experiences. Imagine
if you could meet that guy while he was still
young as hell. That's Dakota. And he can be along
for the wild stories that he will tell to his
grandkids and the onlookers in the crowd. I could
talk to you for hours. Tell us. We got to go.
I know. I'm sorry. What do you got coming up?
Come on. Yeah, what can we plug? What can we
plug? What can we talk man? God? I have no idea
guys Connect with me on LinkedIn. Yep, linkedin
.com slash in slash Dakota Malone That's about
it. Wish me a congratulations when I get married
in October. Yeah, and 1025. Oh, it's good And
that's all I got That's awesome. That's all you
got. I mean, you've given us plenty, my friend.
Dakota is the man. We will have him back. There's
so many different things that we can dig into.
We're also going to invite you. So I started
this new show. The episode hasn't dropped yet,
but it's called Where's the Money in That? Oh,
I saw that. Recorded the first one with our buddy
Joe Doherty. And the idea is to have more and
more folks. And it's just a super fun, relaxed
business. Here's a goofy idea. Is it really a
goofy idea? How would it play out? Turns into
a fun conversation. We're going to have, obviously,
you and a bunch of our kind of profound friends
in a way that's kind of a neat, just dreaming
out loud, as many of us do all the time already.
So. Absolutely. I love it. With that, thank you
to our man. Danny. Danny Tripod back there running
the board. Which, by the way, he has sex, money
and death tattooed on his lower back. That is
actually. Yeah. Yeah. When you said sex, money
and death, I was like, that's Danny's tattoo.
It is ironic. Yeah. With that, folks, join us.
Next week, we're off tomorrow for Friday, but
join us next week for an all new week. Yeah,
Brian Ng's coming on Monday. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
we've got many other guests. That's awesome.
Dakota Malone, we love you. Thank you for having
me, guys. All right. Peace out.