The Man Outliving a 90% Mortality Rate | Dan Lier

"But you're not gonna die tonight." And so I was

like, "Oh, cool." So I left.

I came back in a couple weeks, got diagnosed with this disease

called cardiac amyloidosis.

And it was wild though, Scott, because, when you get diagnosed, especially from

something you don't know, you start

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah, Googling.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You start doing the Google Doc And it said those with cardiac

amyloidosis can expect 40% of them will die within the first 12 months.

And so that was a really first good test for my mindset.

But I read it.

I was like, "Ah, that's not gonna apply to me because I can do 60%. No problem."

And then I was reading more and I was like, only 10% make it past 10 years.

You know, I'm in year #9 right now.

Intro Band: Lean in closer. This is your time.

Hit record on your crooked

life. What's your story?

(Hey!) Say the words out loud!

Mike & Scott gonna crack that crowd.

What's your story? (Hey!) Turn it up, let's go!

Every voice. Every scar.

Every road. What's your story?

Mike and Scott.

Let's talk.

Oh my goodness, my man.

Mike Lindstrom, Scott Leese, what's your story?

This one's pretty personal, man.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna lie.

Taking it back.

Yeah.

Taking it way back.

I'm just hoping that this gentleman, this guest, this VIP good friend was

in my wedding, by the way, doesn't throw me under the bus too bad.

'Cause he's known me dating back to 1997 when I graduated from law school.

And of course, I'm talking about one of my best friends, and that's Dan Lier.

I can give him so many monikers.

Father, influencer, author, co-author.

we've done other projects together.

We've done live events together back in Vegas.

We did so many things.

So I'm excited.

Hopefully you're gonna be jumping in on me.

I can't.

I have to sit back a little bit, man.

Well, I'll take control a little bit.

I want you to ask some honest, genuine questions, but we always

start off, Dan, first of all, thanks for coming in all the way from Vegas We

start off every podcast with "What's your story?" So give us some bullet points.

You got you got a lot there, man, in the CV.

Yeah, thank you.

So give us some things to work with.

Thank you.

Before we start with the story, Scott, you might not know this,

but I am totally responsible for blowing up Mike's legal career.

[laughing]

I love that.

That's, that is actually true.

I love that.

If not for me, he be an attorney right now.

That's right.

That true.

you walked up to you and said, "You're not a lawyer. Come on."

No, he knew.

He knew.

He knew.

[laughing]

[laughing]

Oh, man, my story.

I was trying to think what's my story.

I'm probably the oldest guest you have.

So I put together a list of achievements or just, things that done.

You know, I'm a kid from a small town in Michigan.

Six foot eight, hard worker, basketball scholarship, two

national championship in basketball.

Played overseas a little bit.

Master's degree.

Went to work for Tony Robbins.

I was doing some things in Atlanta before I went to work with Tony,

and when the Braves won the World Series, I was in this parade.

That's a great story, I gotta tell ya.

I was in LA for three years, running my own seminars.

And then, I'm in Vegas, man.

I'm a keynote speaker, consultant, sales trainer.

That's gotta be the capital of speaking events, right?

'Cause everyone does conferences in Vegas.

Yeah.

Most keynoters are dying to get anything to get on the

road to get 20, 30 grand or whatever.

You just leave your house.

Dude.

Drive down to the Wynn

- Dan Lier: It's awesome.

And do keynotes.

And how many keynotes do you think you've done in your lifetime?

Thousands.

Thousands.

Oh my gosh.

Thousands.

Well, there was a period in Vegas where I was on fire.

Like, I was the most requested speaker in Las Vegas.

I did over 55 keynotes for three straight years.

55, 55, 55.

It's more than one a week for anybody counting

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah.

…at home, it's more than one week.

You can do two in a day.

Yeah.

I mean, the guy could literally leave his crib and

knock out two in a day on the Strip.

But that's the great thing about it is, like, it's just,

leaving my house, going to Bellagio, speaking for an hour and coming home,

it's just, there's nothing like it.

I was just telling Scott, I moved to Austin for a year and I came back.

Yeah.

Because for my business, and I just love it there.

Yeah.

I love it there.

So tell me the jump a little bit from Michigan, college

- two-time national at Fort Hays State, boom, boom, right… to get into sales,

because you had insurance background before you went to work at Robbins.

So tell us a little bit about that transition.

Did you always know I'm gonna go into sales?

No, no.

It's like, oh, you kind of fell into it.

Not at all, Mike.

It's just the opposite.

I think one of the things I'm proudest of is just kinda be able to shift

that mindset and over the years because I grew up in a small town, but

prior to that, I was with my mother.

My parents were divorced when I was six.

Grew up with my mother in Phoenix, Arizona, and we were on public

assistance, welfare, food stamps.

We pushed the car more than we drove in it.

I remember that.

And so that was how I grew up, and I didn't know why we were poor.

But then I moved with my father in sixth grade, and he was a school teacher.

And my father and my stepmother were both school teachers,

and I though they were rich.

They had a house with a garage and two cars.

Wow.

And so my mind was just like, wow, this is really cool!

No, I didn't… I had no confidence like that.

My dad hated salespeople.

They hated salespeople.

They wouldn't even pick up the phone back in those days, the

landlines, the telemarketers, they wouldn't pick up the phone.

I, matter of fact, when I was going to college and I got my

master's degree, after that, I got my teacher's certificate.

Whatever you get, you go out and you get certified and you

go do your student teaching.

And just because I didn't know what I was gonna do yet.

And I knew that that's what they said, "Oh, that's what you should do.

You get the summers off." They were trying to pitch me and all that stuff.

So I got my teaching degree, but I wanted more.

I wanted more.

I just knew that I needed more than that.

So, when I was playing college basketball, we won two straight

national titles, as you can imagine, we were centers of attention.

We had all the boosters that wanted to be around us and take us places.

And so there were boosters that would said, "Hey, have you thought

about doing this? Have you though about doing that?" And I was looking.

The guy goes, "You know, I got a friend of mine they're in the

commercial insurance business.

It's called Federated Insurance.

They're out of Owatonna, Minnesota.

They write insurance property and liability on, what they called oil

jobbers, which is like convenience stores that pump gas and auto

dealers and all this kind of stuff.

And so I, I didn't know anything about insurance, nor did I want to.

Yeah.

but I went out there and I got interviewed.

I took the job.

And I went out to Atlanta, Georgia.

I went through a whole year's training program.

And, started my career out there making $18,800 a year.

And, I thought I was rich.

Wow.

And then I went into sales.

I mean, that was like my training year.

And then I went into sales and dude, it was just crazy because

that's when I really got inundated with personal development.

I started reading Tony Robbins' book, [and] tripled my income.

I was the number one performer as a 23-year-old kid.

Made more money than my parents together just because of this.

And no, man, sales was never my thing.

Wow.

And then I just, boom.

That's where the money was.

Yeah.

What was so special about those national championship teams?

Man, that's a great

- Scott Leese: And it's not just about talent at all.

No, it's-

It's about so many other things.

Scott, that's such an insightful question because I talk about that.

Even in my keynote talks, I put a picture up with me and I got two of my

teammates, Tyree Allen and, Fred Campbell.

And we got our arms around each other.

We just won our second national title.

We're in Kemper Arena, right?

And it's a beautiful picture.

I joke with people that back in those days, the Kansas City Kings

used to play in the Kemper Arena before they went to Sacramento.

Yep.

And we used to say, "Man, we won more games at Kemper than the Kings did."

[laughing]

Still have, you still have more champs.

[laughing] Still more championships than the Kings do too, by the way.

Still have.

Yeah.

So the question you said is what made it so special was because

here's the story, the short story, is there's 14 scholarship athletes

on a college basketball team.

If you line this up one to 14 as far as athleticism

- Scott Leese: Uh-huh.

I was probably number 10 or number nine.

But I started for two straight years on a team that won 70 wins and five losses

and won two straight national titles.

And what I share with people is that hustle and a winning attitude

make up for a lot of deficiencies.

Yeah.

And so that's what was special.

That proved to me that hard work and mindset, you can achieve anything.

So that really started, my sales career… started everything.

Sure.

That changed my whole mindset about what was possible.

Did you have teammates that had that mindset

already that put that in you?

Or was it the coaching staff?

Yeah, because you weren't at Robbins at that point.

You weren't listening

- Dan Lier: No.

…to CDs and tapes at that point.

No, no.

Like where did you get this from?

I think part of it was I was blessed because I was playing

high school basketball in a small town and I was a very good player.

And so I was almost idolized.

So I had this high self-esteem.

Mm-hmm.

But it was misplaced because I was playing in a small environment.

But because of that, I got a lot of accolades.

I used that as fuel and I was always positive and that kind of thing.

So when I went to college, I mean, that's how I went there.

I was positive, but our coach there really took it to the next

level because this guy was wacky.

He was a psychology nut.

What did he do?

What's one wacky story you can give us?

Well, he was coaching at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan.

He recruited me out of my high school and I turned him down and I went division one.

And then when I transferred, and I went to a JUCO, and then when I was leaving

JUCO, he saw that I went back to him.

And so I knew him, but I knew he was wacky.

I go to Hayes, Kansas as a junior.

this is a town in the middle of nowhere.

It's on I-70, right in the middle of the state, old fort from the Civil War.

It's called Fort Hays.

It really should be Western Kansas University, but it's

Fort Hays State University.

So anyway, I'm there.

I drive up to his house and, I knock at the door.

His wife is there.

Her name is Patty at the time.

Never met her before.

And I'm like, where's Coach?"

He goes, "Oh, he's down in the basement." I walk down there.

This dude's hanging upside down like a bat.

[lauging]

That's amazing.

I'm not kidding you.

[laughing]

Remember, I'm from a small town, dude, and this dude's hanging upside-down

like a bat and one of those things.

You probably seen him

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah.

And they kinda go like this.

Yeah.

And he's laying up and he looks at me like, "Hey, hey, what's up, Lier?"

[laughing]

I'm like, and he's upside down.

I'm like,

[laughing]

"Man, what's going on here?" But he would do these things, man.

He would just pump you full of positivity.

At the same time, he was wickedly almost like… he could tear

you apart in a heartbeat.

But he was so, always in the moment.

We'd be in a game two minutes to go and he'd call a timeout,

but he would talk like this.

He goes, "Okay, guys, here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna go down, we're gonna

score, right? In order to come back and we're gonna hold him on defense and we're

gonna get out and score again, we're gonna win." I mean, that's just how we talked.

One of our guys went bit the free throw line, shooting big free throws,

and we'd be at a timeout, and he goes, "Okay, after Fred makes his first

free throw, we're gonna set up…"

You know, he would just talk like that.

Mm-hmm.

Act as if

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

…man.

He just talks like that.

And so, that summer I played there prior to my junior year, we had this

little summer program, and, he'll say, "Lier, you're playing good.

Lier, you're looking good." You know, he'd always do that kinda stuff.

But then when the season started, it was really interesting because, sent

me to a psychologist for my rebounding.

Interesting.

So, I mean

- Scott Leese: To get into the mindset of

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

"That ball's mine!"

Well, just like

Never give up.

He's like a 6'8".

Go get it.

You're not, you're not doing enough underneath for us.

Yeah.

Interesting.

And so, because I had a lot of outside skills.

I was more of an outside player, and I really refined my

inside game while I was there.

So, that was wild.

There's a big difference between motivating somebody

- Dan Lier: Right.

And actually impacting them and changing their life.

And you just got done telling the story about your coach.

Some of that mindset stuff got in there and seeped in.

Sure.

And now you're on stage.

You've done thousands of keynotes.

Yeah.

When you go to deliver a keynote, what's the key to actually

impacting somebody's life rather than just motivating them for a moment?

Yeah, you know, I don't even see myself as that.

When people say, "What do you do? I'm a keynote speaker, but I call

myself a mindset architect." That's on my marketing stuff, right?

Because what do people want?

They want productivity.

They wanna increase their sales or increase their leadership skills.

But that's behavior change.

Mm-hmm.

That's not motivation.

So I teach people how to change behavior.

Yeah.

So that's the difference.

It's like, and how do you change behavior?

It's right here.

So that's my message to my audience, is 90% of your success in life

is your psychology, and you are in control of your psychology.

So if you knew that was true, would you wanna work on some of those skills?

And of course, everybody's like, "Yeah."

And yet so many people, myself included, all of

us at certain times, don't follow through on that and don't do it.

Don't do what we need to do.

We don't work on our mind as much as we should.

Yeah.

It's common though.

Yeah.

It's common.

People typically do what they have to do.

Is it avoidance?

Is it fear?

I don't know.

I think it's different for everybody.

Some people are just going through life.

Other people are goal setters.

Other people set goals, but don't do them because they get afraid.

I mean, there's so many categories of people.

Yeah.

I just know that the most successful people that I've seen.

And I've been blessed because, I was out there working with Tony Robbins, and

Mike was one of the guys that I hired.

Here I was coming from Fort Hays State, winning two national titles.

And I went out and worked for Federated Insurance.

Used that mindset to be the top producer at Federated Insurance.

And then I went to go get this job with Tony Robbins.

Then I was in this cult.

and cult, not a bad word.

Yeah.

But cult as a

- Mike Lindstrom: Culture.

Everybody's like, dude, it's a culture.

There is no negativity.

There is no "I can't." There is no any of those things.

And so then I was living in this bubble for six years where it was

just all about [woosh] mindset.

The other thing that always blew my mind, even at

the time, because I was single, no kids at 25 when you hired me

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

Was you're building your family.

Like

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

…I remember Zoë is his daughter, being born in LA when we

were in the LA cycle would be a city.

We'd be there for, like, six weeks at a time.

Selling cycle.

Selling cycle.

So we'd have what, five a year, or whatever it was.

So I remember, man, he would be packing up the pack and play, the kids' stuff.

And then we were going to New York, and then we're going to LA, and then it's

Philly and it's Houston and whatever.

And I'm like, "Man, how the hell is this guy doing?"

[laughing]

I'm a single guy.

All I had to.

I remember it was Faith Gorsky, our HR or legal counsel, COO, whatever.

She's like, "Mike, when we pick you up to do this job, you got five boxes.

That's what you got.

Five boxes we're gonna have shipped from city to city.

So you need to get your life figured out down to five boxes."

And you had probably, double that.

But I, how you did that blows my mind.

But I always wondered, because I've really asked you this question, when you were

getting into this position of leadership

- at Robbins, what was the turning point?

Did Tony come to you and say, "Hey, man, you're my guy." Like,

what was the thing that Tony got?

'Cause Tony saw something in you at some point that said, "Hey,

this guy's gonna be the guy that's gonna be representing our brand

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

In the Northern American territory."

What was that for you?

Oh, dude, this is a crazy story.

No, I don't think you do know that.

So, it was probably my fourth or fifth cycle.

And, you weren't out there yet.

Yeah.

And I was with a bunch of talented people.

And it was like the Wild, Wild West.

This is back in the days before, everything was digitized.

We were taking cash.

We were doing credit card machines, like you were doing a stripper.

Like you were just taking a pen and taking,

[laughing]

like, it was crazy, man.

Yeah.

And so we'd walk into a room and so I guess, for the

audience, we were selling seminar tickets to Tony Robbins events.

That's how we filled them back in the days because there was no internet.

People weren't buying off.

There was at the end, but people weren't buying off it.

So I was out there working and, there was a situation where we would go out and

we would sell tickets, and the tickets were, like, 200 bucks each or whatever.

and some sales reps were pocketing the cash, right?

Oh,

Wow.

One, I knew one guy specifically was.

Okay.

Could've been others.

anyway, I did that.

Mm-hmm.

I only did it once, but I did it.

It was like, it was only, like, 300 bucks or 400 bucks I don't know what it was,

but I did it, and I felt like sh - I just felt guilty about it, but I still did it.

And so, we're in this meeting, and it was a post-seminar meeting.

We're all sitting around a room.

They knew something that we didn't.

And so Deb Heinz goes in there and she was the one that ran the organization.

Tony was about to walk in and she goes, "We've uncovered some

things that aren't matching up.

And so there's been some money that's missing.

And, we wanna know if anybody wants to talk about it."

Wow.

And so, I didn't know.

Well, I knew that one guy was doing it, and I didn't know

what really was going on.

All I knew is that I did it, and I felt like shit.

Yeah.

So I was like,

[raises hand quietly]

Wow.

[slaps hand on thigh]

I was like, "Yeah, I did it."

Do you think you were gonna get fired at that moment?

I didn't know, dude, but I just couldn't lie, dude.

I just couldn't, you know?

I didn't know what was gonna happen.

And so here's what was crazy about it.

I stepped up, and I was like, "Yeah, I did." But that's

not what they were expecting.

They didn't know that I did it.

They knew that other people did it, but I was the only guy that stepped up.

Wow.

So after I did it, then other people started doing it.

But such a high level.

I was just like

- Scott Leese: Mm.

Like guy taking a tip out of the tip jar

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

Compared to what was going on.

[laughing]

Wow.

So anyway, after that, Deb Heinz walks up to me and says,

"Tony wants you to be our leader."

Wow.

Crazy.

Yeah.

I never knew that.

No.

Never knew that story.

And so then I moved into this leadership position, dude, and

it was very, very difficult because there was a lot of envy and jealousy.

And it was very difficult.

Yeah.

You don't know this story either, Mike, but Daniel was just born.

I was living in Baltimore.

And he was literally just born.

And so we had a baby monitor.

one of the other guys, we all lived in the same high rise in the middle of Baltimore.

And one of the guys was, a couple doors down from me or next door or whatever.

And I'm not gonna say his name, and he still doesn't know this to his day.

And I don't know how it happened, but this is back in the old

days where guys had Nextels.

Yeah.

I don't know, but it was old school technology, you know.

But.

Or it was just a regular landline with one of those cheesy wireless things.

All I know is I could hear his phone conversations coming

through the baby monitor.

Oh my gosh.

Oh, my God.

So here he is talking to.

I'm not sure who he was talking to, because I could just hear him.

But he was talking disparagingly about me.

Oh, man.

Because I was anointed as that guy.

Yeah.

He didn't know that I could hear his conversations.

He was a friend of mine.

He was one of the guys I trusted.

Yeah.

And so it was a tough deal.

It was tough for about six or seven months until

- Mike Lindstrom: So he never knew that you knew?

No.

So you had to game face him every time?

I game faced it all the time.

Man, dude, that's hard.

Dude, it was tough.

I would think you would be fired in that situation,

but you know that, I mean, that's

- Scott Leese: A fork in the road moment for him.

Yeah.

Could have been fired.

100%.

And

- Dan Lier: Could have been fired.

…instead it went the other direction.

Which was a great life lesson, right?

Yeah,

100%.

Which was a great li I was embarrassed that I did it.

Yeah.

But

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah.

I was, proud that I did the right thing, and I got

rewarded, which was really awkward.

Yeah.

On that note, before we go to some other topics on that

juncture of your life, that time period.

Yeah.

You were my guy, you were my boss.

I mean

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

So you reported directly to Tony.

That's the way it was.

So

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

Tony was one shot away, and he would always

do downloads after each cycle.

And I remember the first time I met him, which was in Atlanta, and I got

to learn the rules of engagement.

There's no such thing as an excuse.

Own your shit.

We had certain rules that Dan had taught me before you go into these

meetings so you don't look like an idiot, especially as a rookie.

But there was this buffer that I had until when I got promoted

to the coaching leader, I had

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

…Tony direct for the first time.

But you had already coached me on this.

Yeah.

So I was prepared for that coaching role.

Yeah.

When it was in San Diego.

What was the hardest part for you, reporting to this guy who

has this belief of, "You can do anything you put your mind to?

There's no excuses, Dan.

It's all head trash.

You talk yourself 1,500 words a minute." All the shit that,

that we do and talk about.

Yeah.

What was the toughest part about that?

It really wasn't tough at all, Mike, because I was the leader,

but I was his, liaison to the other team, to the rest of the people, right?

So, it was my job, as you know, he would come in and I would download,

"Hey, Mike Lindstrom, he needs to work on this issue, or this person,

they need to work on their close.

And so, Tony would then come in and say, he'd hit him with it.

but I, I think the hardest, the most difficult part for me was the

executive team around Tony Robbins, who you got to know pretty well

- Mike Lindstrom: Yep.

Who protected him.

like he's Jesus.

Yeah.

So, like, people were working for him that had some

issues because he respected me.

Yeah.

I think the interesting part about any… I mean, we still look up to Tony.

We represent his brand while he's great.

Dude, he's the best.

But there's anybody, it could be now.

It could be Grant Cardone.

Yeah.

It could be Gary Vaynerchuk.

Anybody that has, a persona that's so high.

Yeah.

And you know they're big on loyalty.

Yeah.

As Tony is.

His number one value is surrounding himself with people

that he knows he can trust.

Robert Alderman, who was our coach, who's passed away.

God bless him.

Said that there's a certain element of Tony that he has to have his loyal people.

But there's people like you and Dan, the guys that are, like, the

high dominant guys or the high "I"s.

The entrepreneur types.

He also likes those guys, too, because he built his business doing what you guys do.

Yeah, because they're like that.

So there was a respect there, I think.

That's what it was, yeah.

I felt like we were never in that inner circle because

we weren't drinking the Kool-Aid.

But when you branch out to that and you say, "Okay, I know maybe

I'm not in that inner circle, but I'm gonna go build this."

Yeah.

That was a tough thing when you had, when

you left the organization.

It was tough.

It was tough.

But you immediately just started your own practice, and that's when you started

doing all the stuff that you're doing.

Yeah.

So tell us about that transition.

Yeah, I tell you what, I'm proud of that though, because I was offered

an executive position at Tony's company.

But I knew that with what I had to work with there, I was not gonna be

successful, and I did not know about working in an office at that time

after being on the road for six years.

And so I turned it down.

I was the first field sales rep in history that he gave a severance to.

He cut me a check for 30 grand, which, like, the HR director was pissed.

Everybody was pissed because he never did that before.

Hmm.

I probably did three thousand, workshops, seminars, events for him.

Yeah.

I had reps, dude.

I was tight.

My game was tight.

And so I just went out and I moved down to Southern California to

Hermosa Beach, rented a beautiful place near the water, and opened up

a coaching and training business.

And this was really wild.

So all I knew how to do was what I was doing, really.

So I took the same model, put up a seminar.

I remember, I think my first one was in Long Beach.

I had a name for it.

Put it in Long Beach.

I started booking meetings.

I'd go out and I was selling tickets just like I did for Tony.

I was selling them for myself.

[laughing]

That was wild.

Yeah.

So I'd do a whole workshop and sell myself at the front of the thing.

And they'd come up and that's how I made my living for two years

in LA, doing my own seminars.

Yeah.

So I just started doing it.

And then I developed coaching skills and all those kind of things.

And

I wanna give you a chance to talk a little bit

about the work that you do

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

Around health.

Yeah.

And I know you had pretty serious, scare and situation

- Dan Lier: Yeah, rare disease.

Still, still doing.

Going through, so

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

If you're comfortable with it, tell everybody about that and some

of the work you're doing in particular to bring awareness to the situation.

Yeah.

This is really important because I feel like we can save some lives today.

Yeah.

I have a rare disease.

I got diagnosed in 2017 with a disease called amyloidosis, which

you've probably never heard of.

I got diagnosed in 2017, two years of chemo, and I'm still

on a maintenance drug right now.

there's two types of amyloidosis, and the type that I call is called AL amyloidosis,

and specifically it's called AL cardiac amyloidosis, because one of the things

that happens is you get congestive heart failure, so it's cardiac AL amyloidosis.

it's actually a blood disorder.

It's not cancer, but it's a blood disease.

the blood makes plasma and, inside this plasma are proteins that go out

in your body, and they build things, and they do things, and they're shaped.

And for the sake of the illustration, they're shaped in circles and squares,

and they go out, mm, they fit places.

Well, some of the proteins that were made in my blood, they're called rogue.

The medical term for it is they call it misfolded, so

they're not circles or squares.

Maybe it's a squiggly line.

Mm-hmm.

So it's rogue.

It doesn't fit anywhere.

So it just goes around in my system and they're non-perishable, non-biodegradable.

But the problem is they're sticky.

So they stick onto your organs and they accumulate and they

pretty much shut them down.

So all of a sudden, here I am,

I just was always in great shape, working out all the time, eating

well, those kind of things.

And all of a sudden I walk into a doctor, but I was having issues

because I was still playing basketball and I was just not recovering.

And it was a difficult time.

And I went to spin class, couldn't do that.

Did yoga, and then I was passing out, doing downward dogs.

I went to three cardiologists in Las Vegas, and they all told me

I had congestive heart failure.

"What are you talking about, right?" They're like, "Well, you must not

eat very well." "No, that's not right." "Well, you must not exercise."

"No, that's not right." "It must run in your family." "No, that's

it." And it was just like this, like

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

Bye.

That was it.

But I knew something was going on.

And I knew that because every day I would wake up and say, "Okay, tomorrow's

gonna be a better day. I'm gonna start getting better." And I wasn't.

And I knew there was something going on.

And I kept my mindset strong.

And, there's only a couple times for a couple milliseconds that I thought like,

"Okay, I'm not gonna make it." You know?

I remember I was in bed one time and it was just like, "All right, man.

You got a great life, had some good things, and just do your best you can."

And, you think, start thinking about never gonna walk your daughter down

the aisle and which one of your friends is gonna date your wife.

It's crazy thoughts you have, right?

[laughing] It's crazy.

[laughing] So, that's one way to heal yourself right there.

That's great.

Yeah.

So, that's legit, man.

I get it when you get to that place, I've had not had the same

situation as you, but sometimes the only thing that saves you for a minute is a

morbid twisted sense of humor like that.

one night I had AFib, atrial fibrillation, and I got

an ablation prior to getting, not, I wasn't even diagnosed yet.

but my heart would just go crazy and I was afraid.

And Nobody could tell me why.

And there was times that I didn't go to sleep at night because I

was afraid I was gonna wake up.

Mm-hmm.

And so it was one of those times.

And I had an appointment at the Mayo Clinic that I had made for

myself throughout my cardiologist for like two weeks out.

but I was like, "Dude, I don't know. I don't know if I'm gonna make it."

And so I was having that heart issue and I jumped on a red eye from Vegas,

flew to Rochester, Minnesota, drove to the Mayo Clinic, had a backpack.

It was cold.

It was February.

And I walk in there and they're like, "What the hell?

what are you doing?" Right?

I said, "Dude, I think I'm gonna die.

Can you just look at me?" And, I was hoping they would say no, but

anyway, they ran the tests and they're going, "Hey, you said you have an

appointment here in a couple weeks?"

I was like, "Yeah." They go, "Well, don't, you need to come back." He goes, "There's

something wrong with you, brother."

Mm.

"But you're not gonna die tonight." And so I was

like, "Oh, cool." So I left.

I came back in a couple weeks, got diagnosed with this disease

called cardiac amyloidosis.

And it was wild though, Scott, because, you know, when you

get diagnosed, especially from something you don't know, you start

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah, Googling.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You start doing the Google Doc and it, and, and I'll

tell you specifically what I read.

And it said amyloidosis, blah, blah, blah.

But it said, those with cardiac amyloidosis can expect 40% of them

will die within the first 12 months.

And so that was a really first good test for my mindset.

But I read it.

I was like, "Ah, that's not gonna apply to me because I can do 60%. No problem."

And then I was reading more and I was like, only 10% make it past 10 years.

You know, I'm in year #9 right now.

Anyway, the great news was two weeks later, I went back to the Mayo Clinic.

I got diagnosed.

The guy that I saw was actually one of the top five amyloidosis

doctors, specialists in the world.

great dude.

And anyway, I went through the treatment, two years of chemo, did a

drug trial, and crazy stories about that.

Yeah.

And during that time, I videotaped the whole process because

when I went to my first appointment for the chemo, started calling my family

like, "Hey," and it was a mess just because all these calls I had to make.

So I started videotaping them and I put them up on YouTube for my family.

And what happened organically was all these amyloidosis patients

from around the world started-

Started following.

Watching my videos.

Yeah.

Mm.

And because of my mindset, I was positive and I was talking

about healing, I had people DMing me on, on my YouTube every week.

Like, "Hey, Dan, will you talk to my uncle?

You're the only person that he believes in.

Hey, Dan, can you talk to my mom?

She just got diagnosed."

Yeah.

So I'd be having these calls every week.

And so I became this influencer in the amyloidosis space.

And, I got a call from Pfizer, and they put me on their propaganda, and

they did a commercial with me, and they had me on their hard copy stuff.

and so, you know, that's part of what I do right now.

I still

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

…I, I'm probably one of the top amyloidosis influencers

in the country right now.

Yeah.

If not the world.

I appreciate you talking about that and

- Dan Lier: Oh.

And sharing about it because

- Dan Lier: No, dude, there's.

To your point.

Yeah,

- Scott Leese: …maybe somebody's

- Dan Lier: …look

- Scott Leese: …listening and watching.

If you're watching this right now and you've got somebody that looks

like I'm 6'8", I'm 210 pounds, and that's how I walked in the cardiologist, and they

said, "You've got cardiac heart failure.

So if you know somebody, maybe it's your uncle or your brother, your

sister, your aunt, or whatever."

And then they look like they're fit, the doc says you've got congestive heart

failure, there's something else going on.

Yeah.

And they gotta look further.

Yeah.

And so thank God that I did and in a weird way, Scott,

those are those life things that really hit you, and it was - Sure.

And I say that, it's one of the best things that ever happened to me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

How often were you going up to Mayo?

So just so you know, I went up there with them.

we - Oh,

that's right.

We always would have somebody whether it's a friend

or someone go up there with them.

Got your caretaker.

I told the family.

I said, "I want to go up on the next trip." So we did.

It was, we had something we can't talk about on the record,

but we had a fun time together.

but I do remember the next day when we went to the actual

appointment and watching him, they made him walk in an aisle.

You remember going up and down?

I filmed the whole thing.

Yeah.

I remember I recorded everything.

and I went back to my hotel room later that night, and I was just

so sad because, Dan was my hero.

He's the guy that hired me.

I looked at.

He's 10 years older than me, but he's always guided me along the way.

But the one thing I wanted to point out, he's done it right

here in this chair, by the way.

He'll tell a negative story or something, and he'll go, "Well, here's

what's great about that." You hear how he just automatically does that?

The best thing they could have.

It's an honest thing that you do.

I don't know how the hell you do it.

You've taught me it, and I should do it more often, but no matter

what, it's almost like this thing kicks off in your brain.

You hear yourself talk about something that's maybe not positive or negative,

and your brain kicks over to a different groove and says, "Well,

here's what's great about that, Mike."

How do you do that?

You did it right here, like, three times.

How do you do that?"

Dude, I just know life is the journey, man.

The thing about it is, things happen to you because they're

supposed to happen to you.

If you go in, you went out and applied for that job and you didn't get

it, you weren't supposed to get it because there's something else better.

That's my belief.

So, when things happen to you and quote unquote, maybe knock you

down, it's not knocking you down.

It's preparing you for the "What's next?" bit that's bigger.

That's what I believe.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I got hit with this amyloidosis thing, but not

once did I think I was gonna die just because of my mindset.

But what it caused me was to be a better person.

more patient, more loving, more kind, more understanding.

Because I was a high, hard-charging

- Scott Leese: Yep.

Tightly wound, high strung individual.

And so the story that I tell people is, I'm 6'8", I'm walking through

airports, and I get impatient by people who are walking slow,

you know, like, almost pissed

Until I became that guy that was walking slow.

Yeah.

And so then I saw the world in a different way.

Yeah.

It changes you.

you become more present as well.

And then I would imagine it changes how you go about your business.

I - do I wanna do this thing over here?

Maybe it pays really well, but it's too much effort or it's not in my zone.

Yeah, I think I'll pass on that.

How has coming out the other side of this changed the way you think about your

work and your business and your career?

Well, I don't know if I can answer that directly.

But I do know that because of what I went through, I don't get

down or depressed or things like.

I mean, I never have, but I feel so grateful, Scott.

Yeah.

I'm still waking up every day, bro.

Yeah.

I really do.

I'm grateful for that.

And so I wanna do things that make a difference.

I wanna do things that have meaning.

That's why I still do the advocacy for the amyloidosis.

Right.

You know, I ran a group last year called Somebody to Talk To.

it was a advocacy group that was on Zoom.

And every Wednesday night, I would do a one-hour live session and

bring on experts, cardiologists, oncologists, and then I'd do my stuff

too about thriving with amyloidosis.

Yeah.

Teaching them three steps for positivity.

Yeah.

And I grew that thing.

I mean, we had hundreds of amyloidosis patients on every Wednesday night

from 3 00:30:02

00 PM to 4:00 PM Pacific Time.

Wow.

It makes you realize you don't wanna spend time on

things that really don't matter.

There you go.

Yep.

So that's what I'm getting at.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know?

What about parenting?

How did it influence you there?

I was diagnosed in 2017.

They were older.

Yeah.

They weren't young.

but of course they were, concerned.

Yeah.

And they were never scared though, because I wasn't scared.

I never ever, ever led them to believe that something was gonna happen to me.

Yeah.

Matter of fact, when I came back, and even with my wife and my

kids, my extended family, I would say, look, this is the reality of what

right now, here's what's happening, and here's what I need from you.

I don't need any sympathy.

I don't need any, "How are you feeling today?" You need to

treat me like you normally treat me because that's what I need.

you had that conversation with me.

Yeah.

You told me, and I remember it every time I would call him.

Sure, the selfish part of you wants to call a friend and say, "Hey,

man, how are you?" immediately, I decided I gotta get rid of that.

I mean, "How are you?" Is cool, but you know

Yeah.

I wasn't depressed, so you don't need to be depressed.

Right, right.

That's my point.

I wasn't crying, so I don't need you crying.

Right.

Yeah.

And so that's kinda how I took it.

Like, I didn't believe that I was gonna die, so there was no reason to be sad.

There was something greater over the top of the hill.

And so all I knew I had to do is just do what I always do.

Keep taking steps forward, believing, you know?

We talk about that mindset thing.

So when I got diagnosed, those stats were real at the time.

People were dying like nobody's business.

I remember I created an audio taped to listen to at night in my head,

in my earbuds of me telling myself that I was healing every day.

So I would go to, I would go to bed at night listening to baroque music.

that's what lawyers and doctors listen to when they're studying.

It's baroque music

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

Because it helps the brain synapsis.

So you learn better.

Anyway.

So I created this audio where each and every day you're getting better.

You're overcoming amyloidosis.

You'll be running on the beach at 75 and you are the leader in

amyloidosis and blah, blah, blah.

And you're getting better every day.

And I would listen to that every night.

It's great.

So

- Mike Lindstrom: And by the way, he's been doing this his whole life, man.

So when I stayed at that LA house that he's talking about when he was building

the business, and I was in Daniel's room at the time, and Daniel was four or five.

Him and his wife had made an audio tape for the kids.

So when they fell asleep that night, there was mommy and daddy

talking to them in a positive way.

"You're strong, you're confident," and all these things.

I remember that particular trip, I stayed in that room and he played it.

And I was, I was sleeping in the room.

[laughing]

And I woke up the next morning, man.

I'm like, "Dude, I feel amazing today."

[laughing]

He's been talking to me all night in my sleep,

because I love that stuff.

I always like some kind of background noise or something done.

But you've been doing this

- Dan Lier: I've been doing it for a long time.

Your whole life.

You were doing this even before, ever since I've known you.

Yeah.

Did you bring that stuff overseas?

I know you played basketball in Panama and Brazil, I think it was.

NO, that was during my college career that I was able to do that.

Like, we won the national title, so we went and played in the World Games

in 1985, and, you know, prior to that

- Scott Leese: You weren't bringing any of those

- Dan Lier: no, I didn't even

- Scott Leese: …tricks

- Dan Lier: …know that

- Scott Leese: …yet.

…stuff back then.

Okay.

I was just a college ballplayer trying to

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

Trying to score some hoops and get some chicks.

[laughing]

[laughing] was Mike a good student?

Yeah, Mike was a great student.

I mean, Mike

We'll boost Mike maybe a little bit, or tear him down.

We'll see how - We'll see how this goes.

What made him a good student?

Well, Mike's

- Scott Leese: A good pupil?

…an intelligent guy, first of all.

So, that's step one.

Step two, he's not afraid.

He's a risk taker.

And he's coachable.

I mean, that's the thing, is he's coachable.

What we did was very difficult, and most people didn't make it.

Mm. And, I would have a lot of talented people come out.

And, there was a formula for success.

And one of those formulas was a script that they had to learn.

And I remember giving this one gentleman a script, and after a couple weeks,

he goes, "You know, I was talking to my mom about this, and this doesn't

sound like something I would say." Anyway, he was gone in two weeks.

Sure.

Not because of me, but because he couldn't make it.

Yeah.

Where on the other hand, I remember I hired this

one guy out of Home Depot.

I didn't wanna hire him, but Deb Heinz told me to hire him.

But because he didn't have a lot of talent, he mastered that script down

to the pause, and he was successful.

Mm-hmm.

And so Mike had talent, he had skill, and he was coachable.

he was a great student.

One of the things I learned about coaching without

even knowing it at the time, being a coach now, I, now I totally get it.

The first time he ever went out in a live meeting with me, he always

had a camera, he had that old Sony.

Yeah, yeah.

He put it up there.

He was doing selfies back then.

He's 6' 8".

I invented the selfie.

He did invent the selfie.

That before it even existed, right?

100% agree with you.

You need to invent the selfie because your arms are long enough to do it.

I did a meeting.

It was a real estate group, and we get in the car, and after the meeting, I

thought, "I sold a couple tickets." You know, it wasn't a big deal, but

it was one of my first meetings.

I was nervous.

And he goes, "Let me ask you a question. Zero to 10." He gives one of those zero

to 10 things, called a quantity qualifier.

"So how do you think you did?" I'm like, "Probably about an

eight." And he goes," "Wow.

- Dan Lier: [laughing]

Wow." He said "Wow" TWICE.

Oh, wow.

[laughing]

And I never forgot that.

I'm like, "Shit, maybe I should have gave myself, like, a four or a

five." And the coaching just came.

He's like, "Dude, first of all, no one gives a shit about your law degree.

Using all these big words.

Stay on the script.

Follow the script.

The script is written psychologically.

It's gonna bring you from syntax, from the opening to the close.

Just follow it." And I said, "Okay, that's it." And I remember that weekend, you told

me you need to learn this thing better.

Yep.

And we all lived in the same community.

Yep.

So we all knew who was going out on certain nights

and where the cars were parked.

I drove a Chevy Lumina at the time.

[laughing]

And he knew my parking spot.

I didn't leave, not one time that whole weekend.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

I walked around.

We had those post-its of the script in my suite.

And I went around that room, burned holes in that carpet to learn that script.

Yeah.

That was something that it was the psychology of

coaching, but I didn't even know it.

If you're a good student, you're coachable, but

- Dan Lier: Yeah.

You're a good coach.

I appreciate that.

But one thing I was, blessed to learn that, if you tell somebody's

joke and you tell it enough times, it becomes your joke, right?

You play the piano enough times, they become your own notes.

And so scripts are sterile and they're boring.

But when you master it

- Scott Leese: Yeah.

…then you come out of that script.

And so that's the key that most people miss, that foundation.

People that were willing to do that were successful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I hope every sales rep out there has just heard that.

Just heard that.

Listening to that.

We gotta make sure we put that clip out and

send it to all of our clients.

[laughing]

Yeah.

[laughing]

Moving forward.

Absolutely.

So true.

That's so true.

So true.

So Dapperman, tell us a little bit about,

that's what I call him, Dapperman.

I'm the DOGE.

That's a nickname that we gave each other a long time ago.

I'd love to hear what you're working on now.

Tell us where we could find you, website.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you've talked about some very important

projects you're working on.

so I'm danlier.com.

Yep.

It's D-A-N-L-I-E-R.com.

I do keynote speaking and coaching, and you might see me in front of your room if

you're in the sales or leadership game.

But I'm also, in the, advocacy space for amyloidosis.

I have a podcast that I do now on my own called Elevate Amyloidosis.

It's not live anymore.

It's taped, but I like it better just because of the schedule.

So I'm doing that.

I'm still with the Collaborate Group, that Pfizer put together.

There's 75 of us that go internationally once a year, and then domestically once

a year, and we talk about how to move the ball forward for rare diseases.

So that's really awesome, and I feel very blessed to be a part of that group.

That's awesome.

And other than that, dude, I'm just working on being a better person

and trying to help more people, you know?

I gotta tell one more thing I'm doing

- Mike Lindstrom: Okay.

Yeah.

Just recently, and then we'll wrap it up.

Yeah.

I'm doing some training for this training company called

Janek, J-A-N-E-K, one of the top five sales training companies

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah.

In the country.

And so I was looking for a place that I could take my keynote-speaking

clients and really engage them into a really high level sales organization.

So they have what's called a channel partner.

So they took me on as a channel partner because I have a big book

of business, and I got certified in their training, in their sales

programs, and now I can facilitate.

So now I've been doing training for them, which has been just

a blessing, because I love it.

My skillset's there.

Yeah.

And it's their training, which is awesome.

And then I can add my mindset vibe to it, which is great.

So I'm just having a great time with them.

Yep.

Love it.

So in closing, I want you to give us a piece of coaching.

you know me.

You met Scott last year.

We were together.

This podcast was a result of that trip in Austin.

You guys are successful, man.

There's two successful dudes.

Well, here's what I say, is whatever's going on in your life, that I

believe that if you keep your mindset positive and open, that all the

things that are happening to you are happening to you for a good reason.

So whether it sounds crazy, you have some tough times in your life, you go through

a divorce, you don't get that big deal that you're working on, it's a good thing.

Yeah.

Because there's something better for you.

And sometimes we don't see that something better because

we're holding onto the past.

And so what I've learned with amyloidosis and having a few life challenges along

the way is that all that stuff that we've achieved doesn't mean anything.

Because what's happening right now is the only thing that's happening.

Yeah.

Right now.

Yep.

You know?

Staying in the present and really, because that's something that

- Scott Leese: Great reminder.

I lack about.

even today, like, nobody gives the crap that I worked for Tony Robbins.

What they care about is what's happening right now.

Yeah.

How am I interacting with you?

What am I gonna do for your organization?

It's great that you have some accolades, but it doesn't matter because I

just I feel like life is so fragile.

You know, the other thing I learned is just that the most important thing in

your life is all your relationships.

Yeah.

So I wish I would've learned that earlier.

But,

- Mike Lindstrom: Yeah.

Here's what I will tell you guys, bro.

How old are you, Mike?

53.

Got it.

48.

Jesus.

So I can put myself in that chair and it seems like it was yesterday.

So I'm 63 years old today, dude.

And it's wild.

Like, I don't even believe it.

Wow.

And just like people always tell you, "Oh, it

happened so fast," and it does.

So the great thing is, if you take care of yourself, I don't even see myself as 63.

I still feel like I'm about 35.

When you look in the mirror, it gets kinda freaky sometimes, right?

But the fact of the matter is, I feel like I'm just opening up

the biggest chapter of my life.

Yeah.

I feel like other people, when they get to 60, they're

getting ready to close that.

They're winding down.

Mm-hmm.

I feel like I'm just about to open this book, this final

chapter, and it's just gonna blow up.

That's awesome, man.

So that's what I feel like.

Great.

And so for you guys, big things ahead.

Thanks, man.

You know, big things ahead.

I appreciate that.

You see, he just did that reframe again?

Yeah, I heard it.

Got that, right?

I heard it.

[laughing]

I can't wait to go roll this tape.

You probably did it six times.

that's why I think being around you, it's always inspiring and motivating.

I mean

- Dan Lier: I appreciate that.

One of my best friends.

You know that.

But just the way I walk away from interactions, and I always feel like,

[getting choked up] I just appreciate you, bro.

I appreciate that, man.

Thank you.

You've gone through a lot of shit in the last nine years, and

you've inspired me a lot, so I just wanna say thanks for coming on the show and

inspiring me and Scott to be better men.

Ah, dude, that means a lot to me.

It's a blessing to be here in more ways than one.

I love you and your family.

And Scott, you're a successful dude just getting to know you, and

I'm very blessed to be here, so.

Thank you, bro.

Appreciate it.

Thank you both.

I'll give you one little, a quick one.

Yeah.

I gotta give a shout-out to one of my boys back in Atlanta.

His name was Dave Newsonow.

Okay.

When I first went to Atlanta, worked in Federated Insurance, he's one

of those high roller stockbroker dudes driving the Porsche, dating a stripper.

[laughing]

And, he was always really positive.

And I'm like, "Noose, dude, you're always so positive." And

he goes, "What's the alternative?"

[laughing]

What's the alternative?

Great answer.

And so

- Mike Lindstrom: It's a good comeback.

… Dan Lier: that stuck with me.

Sometimes it's that simple.

It's that simple.

What's the alternative?

All right,

guys.

Hey, so Mike Lindstrom signing off.

Scott, what an awesome, time with our guy, Dan.

Yeah.

We, we gotta bring him back out.

We could talk to him for five hours.

There you go.

All right guys, signing off.

Another episode.

What's your story?