Episode 40 transcript: How contrasts in life allow us to grow with Daniel Levin

Podcast Introduction:

[00:00:00] Daniel: I think what I've done in my life is, I've held on to the things and the things. And I think what's happening now in my life, and Mosaic introduced it to me is what would happen if I let go of the things and I lived in the space between the things. What would that allow me to connect to? And the space between the things allows me to connect to ultimate possibilities, to ultimate things, to ultimate people, to ultimate places to be. And I didn't realize, that's why I've been a little confused lately because I've gone from the firm grasp of holding onto things, to jumping into that space between. And it's gorgeous, but it's scary as hell sometimes

[00:00:47] Aneta: we often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life. But what if the link isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath, depth, and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live The Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives. To live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.

[00:01:21] Aneta: Thanks so much for joining me again today. Today's guest is Daniel Levin. Daniel is a master storyteller, mystic and business guy, an intuitive connector, author, speaker, listener, lover, feeler, healer, and visionary who listens, a listener who sees holding space for others to change their perspective, and he holds space for you to align to the frequency of your purpose. He invites people to rethink everything, enter their imagination, challenge the status quo, and also envision and invite into a new creation that you created through your vision. He walked away from an opportunity to run a billion-dollar company to find happiness and inner peace. He lived as a monk in a monastery for 10 years.

[00:02:07] Aneta: He helped lead Hayhouse from a three to $100 million a year company. He's the author of the book Mosaic and just a really interesting person. He is a rare blend of businessman and mystic, and he sees what others do not see, and he listens to those that no one listens to.

[00:02:25] Aneta: We had such an interesting conversation. We covered so many different topics, starting with his journey when he was 13 when he lost his parents, and how that shaped him into who he is today. And also just the road that he's taken living this very unconventional life. And he talks a lot about his mission and his dream of starting a love fest next year in 2024. I think you're really going to enjoy the conversation. Take a listen.

Podcast Interview:

[00:02:51] Aneta: Danny, I am so excited to have you here on the show. Thank you for joining me.

[00:02:57] Daniel: Me too. I look forward to this and I don't even know you, but something in the whole correspondence or the energy that's in the space between the words that we wrote. I was very excited by this and look forward to it.

[00:03:11] Aneta: Me too. It's so amazing nowadays. The way we meet people or the way people sort of come into our lives. And I remember seeing you on Diane Forster's podcast. Yes. And Diane is one of my coaches and I loved the interview I think I started following you on LinkedIn and you noticed and sent me a note and we met. Because we both just wanted to connect and talk. And then I invited you on the show and I'm so grateful that we are able to make the calendars work. And here we are.

[00:03:48] Daniel: First of all, thank you for your very kind words, and thank you for enjoying what I said enough to reach out. Of course. It really touches me to understand this power that's behind who we think we are, and who I think I am. That there's just this love that is so palpable and so real. And yet it seems so unreal because it's hard to touch and feel and put into place. It's not that I wish it was a moving piece that we could, now I have love and I can take it. But I felt that for me. I felt that love that permeated through a lot of what you are doing. And now it's an honor to be here. Thank you for having me.

[00:04:37] Aneta: Well, thank you. I feel the same. And for those that may be not as familiar with you and your great work in this world, what can you share about you and your journey?

[00:04:49] Daniel: I love when I'm asked that question because I've done so many different things in my life it's as if I like, where do I come, where do I start and it isn't because I'm greater. I did things. I used to think that I had an inability to commit to things because I would move and I went to a psychologist and I sat and I said, is this commitment issue? And they said, no. It just seems you have this remarkable quality that when something's done, you don't stay with it. You continue onto something, you find something new. So, I guess who I am is a little bit, and I've never defined myself like this before, but I guess I'm an explorer.

[00:05:30] Aneta: I love that.

[00:05:32] Daniel: Yeah, it's totally new to me, so I have to try it on and see how it fits. But as I'm sitting here now, those are the words that I would say to describe me, because I find a lot of peace in where I am, but I don't find the growth that I'm looking for sometimes in just this space, and being able to explore into the world. Which we'll talk about soon in the love tour that I'm preparing for. And to be able to love and accept people, see them and acknowledge them and listen to them and hear them. That's been my biggest teacher and that came from my developmentally delayed daughter. I'll pause otherwise I can talk forever. So I'll pause there.

[00:06:15] Aneta: No. Amazing. So I love this idea of taking on new identities or exploring what it feels like to say, maybe I'm an explorer. So if we go back to your younger years and kind of now to where you are today, tell us about some of the ways that you did explore, because you've lived by all standards, maybe an unconventional life, you've pushed through some comfort zones. Yeah. Share a little bit about some of those experiences and journeys.

[00:06:43] Daniel: So when I was 13, I lived a very isolated, protected life. My mom and dad were very caring about me. But very like, I don't know if they're helicopter parents now, that wasn't around, but they were always around and it gave me such great comfort to know that I was that protected and I love that. But when I was 13 years old, my dad passed away from a heart attack, making love to my mom. So you can feel the current of love, even in his passing. And then two years later, because my mom couldn't bear to live life without the man that she adored, she left this world also on the exact same day at the exact same time, two years later.

[00:07:27] Daniel: So I think even a rock would be influenced and moved by that. And I wasn't a rock, but I wasn't who I am. I was a scared young kid. But as I sit with the vulnerability of what those moments presented to me, I realized they gave me such a beautiful gift, not only in the love that they gave me when they were here but in the space that they created for me in not being here. And I realized just now, a lot of new things are coming when I'm talking to you, which is really exciting to me. But I realize just now that what I just said, is what I also talk about in language that I'm interested not only in the words that you say, but the space between the words. And I only now put that back to my mom and dad giving me that. That love that they gave me and this space for me.

[00:08:23] Aneta: Wow. That's really beautiful. And It's about being able, we can only have the highs in life when we experience some of the lows and we can experience such jubilation, maybe when we also understand pain. So it's sort of this life in contrast, right? It's the space in between that sometimes provides that contrast between all of our experiences. But it does take a higher state of consciousness or some wisdom to be able to experience that and to allow that in, because usually, no, that's not true. I mean,

[00:09:04] Daniel: That wasn't really for a backhanded compliment.

[00:09:06] Aneta: Yeah.

[00:09:06] Daniel: But what I was really saying is I believe that it's very available to everybody. And what I think is the difference, like this is so insightful. I'm so happy we're having this conversation, cause I'm learning so much from what's coming through me right now in this conversation with you, and I'm so thankful for it.

[00:09:24] Daniel: I think what I've done in my life is, I've held on to the things and the things. And I think what's happening now in my life, and Mosaic introduced it to me is what would happen if I let go of the things and I lived in the space between the things. What would that allow me to connect to? And the space between the things allows me to connect to ultimate possibilities, to ultimate things, to ultimate people, to ultimate places to be. And I didn't realize, that's why I've been a little confused lately because I've gone from the firm grasp of holding onto things, to jumping into that space between. And it's gorgeous, but it's scary as hell sometimes.

[00:10:12] Aneta: Of course. And how do you define things? Is it experiences, or identity stories that we tell ourselves?

[00:10:21] Daniel: Yes. I mean, so. I have weird beliefs, I don't believe this is the first time I've been here, or reincarnated. So I believe, it's taken probably for most people, they could have done it a lot quicker than me. I don't catch on that quickly. So I've been here a lot of times. I believe, and I feel that. And so when I think about the experiences and how I perceive things and how I make decisions. I find sometimes and I don't know what's happening.

[00:10:48] Daniel: But sometimes I'm able to reach down to experiences that have, I've experienced not even in this time and space, and to pull that experience out. And suddenly I'm speaking from an experience that I say, well, I don't have any experience on this. And then I get yanked, like yanked down to another level where I get to experience that experience and it goes, oh, here you are.

[00:11:10] Daniel: And if anybody's still following and hasn't turned it off, thinking what a weirdo, these guys, I salute you. Let's get in contact because this is a strange conversation. And it's my fault. I mean, you're just asking beautiful questions, but something about being in your presence is showing me something that I haven't looked ever seen before, and I'm so thankful for that.

[00:11:33] Aneta: Well, I'm thankful too, and I always say the best conversations are unscripted, and all of ours. All my conversations are in this podcast, but I want to explore wherever this takes us because that's where I think the juiciness comes in, right? So maybe for those that aren't that familiar, so when you talk about reincarnation or you talk about maybe your soul has been here multiple times on its mission or on its journey, whatever we call it. When did you first have that inkling that maybe that was true, or did you notice it and you didn't have the words, or did you read it somewhere or hear it, and then you started to figure out how that applied to you?

[00:12:11] Daniel: The number that comes to my mind is four.

[00:12:15] Aneta: Four years old?

[00:12:16] Daniel: It's almost as if I knew it at four. But just certain things made sense to me, but certain things didn't make sense to me. I used to tell my mom that I had this best friend. And she said, well, Danny bring him by, we want him. And I said, but mommy's right here with me. You can't see him. So I had an invisible little friend that only I could see. But that little friend has grown up and has become lots of different guidance for me, and he's introduced me to lots of his friends. And so there's a symphony of people around us. That as long as we're singing solo, we'll never hear.

[00:13:01] Aneta: Are these Danny guides, do you have like a term for them? Like do you see them as guides, as angels, as spiritual beings? Or no labels?

[00:13:13] Daniel: No. Well, yes. But this language to me is so strange because I'm normally feet on the ground, sort of like a solid guy right here on Earth. But there's something that's coming through and I always follow what comes through. And I definitely believe that I've had helpers like I have conversations now and again with my dad and my mom, they'll come to me and they've been going 55 and 53 years. But sometimes I can feel them as if they're like as if they're right here.

[00:13:51] Aneta: Well, it is beautiful to believe and to experience that those who have transitioned, from their physical body who is no longer maybe visibly available to us, that they're still here. And I think many fates believe that. Did you always have that connection with your parents after they passed, or did it take a while for them to come to you?

[00:14:14] Daniel: I was scared to death when my dad passed. I was 13 years old. And so I just was taken by the loss and I was devastated by it. He was my best friend. I was like a mini-me of him. Before Mini Mes were even known. We lived in Philadelphia and so we would take a couple of weeks every summer to go to Atlantic City. And Atlantic City in those days was more prestigious even though we were a lower-middle-class family, my dad would save up. So we could go.

[00:14:43] Daniel: And we would walk on the boardwalk and I would hold his ring finger with my hand. And he was a six-foot version and I was a three-foot version. And people would literally stop and take pictures of us or look at us, or laugh with or laugh. And I finally, I've got so much that I said to my dad. Dad, are you like really well known? Like, why are all these people taking pictures of you? And he said, no, no, no. Danny, I don't think anybody's ever seen a three-foot version of a six-foot version. So exactly the way we wobbled the same, the way we smiled the same the way we made hand gestures was the same. And so we were walking and it was literally like I was a midget of him.

[00:15:30] Daniel: So that's how he was my hero. Yeah. He was my everything. And when he passed, I was devastated. And my mom was too because my mom was just, they were absolutely in love. I'm so lucky to have been born into a family that was so loving and caring, at least to me. But it's devastating to lose that. I think my whole life has been a search for that love that I felt in those days.

[00:16:04] Aneta: Yeah. Have you found it?

[00:16:06] Daniel: Yes. multiple times, thank God. Cause it doesn't exist out here. It exists here.

[00:16:18] Aneta: In your heart.

[00:16:19] Daniel: And this and the love of this being and feeling the love of this being for me. I've spent so many years I was trained to be able to walk into what people would call a perfect room.

[00:16:33] Aneta: What does that mean?

[00:16:34] Daniel: Everything was perfect. Everything was in place. Everything looked like it was just created in perfection. And I was trained to find 10 things wrong with it in 30 seconds.

[00:16:46] Aneta: Who trained you? Where did this come from?

[00:16:49] Daniel: I had a teacher years ago that was in the seminary. And so he trained me and I said, why are you training me in this? He said that you can't make something better until you know what needs to be made better. And for a lot of years, I did that. I was a great fixer. I was able to see immediately what was wrong with something. I was able to fine-tune it. I was able to work together with the teams of people that I worked together with, and we were able to adjust and fix it. Until one day I realized, who wants to be a fixer? I don't want to go around fixing things and fixing people.

[00:17:24] Daniel: That's not my job. There's a guy with a big G on his sweatshirt that does that. If it needs to be done. All I really want to do is I just want to love people. I don't want to fix them. I want to love them just as they are. And my whole life changed in that moment.

[00:17:40] Aneta: It's really strange that someone in seminary would want you to identify things that are wrong. It's almost like a judgment, right? Do you believe that things are perfect, that anything is actually made perfect?

[00:17:53] Daniel: I believe things are just as they are. I believe all those definitions come from my own mind, which is probably better turned off than on.

[00:18:00] Aneta: Yeah. Well said Danny. So Yuri, this young man, did you have any siblings? Were you when your parents passed?

[00:18:09] Daniel: Had a brother four years older.

[00:18:11] Aneta: Okay. So what was your journey like after your parents passed?

[00:18:17] Daniel: It is unbelievable because my mom had a sister. We lived on the east coast of the United States. My mom had a sister who married a man and they lived in the Midwest. So when my dad passed away and then my mom passed away, my mother's sister said, you'll come and live with us. Well, she married a man who became a household name, so we went from a lower middle-class family to this elite upper-class family. And my brother couldn't last there. He was going to college.

[00:18:57] Daniel: And my uncle said, you're not doing well in school if that college has taken you, I can get you into a local college here by us, so you'll be around us. Well, you'll be here. And my brother said, there's no way I'm going to do that. And so he left. And so now at like before 15 something. I was living with my mother's sister and her husband, but we didn't know them very well because they lived now the world's smaller.

[00:19:28] Daniel: But this close to Midwest was like, you know, going to Germany. And so we never spent time with them. We didn't know them. They didn't know me. And to their credit, they did as well as they could possibly do. And they gave me love. Maybe I should say they definitely loved me, but it wasn't the love that I was looking for.

[00:19:50] Daniel: There wasn't the love that obviously I received from my parents. I have stepkids now, and I have a daughter and so I know the love of my daughter is different than the stepkids, and as much as I want to say no, I love them all the same. My daughter's in my inherent in me and I love her. I just love her. Like there's nothing she could do that would make me not love her. I love her. And so they have seen what they were presented with, and they did everything they possibly could, but my uncle loved people by making them successful. That was what was important to him.

[00:20:25] Daniel: And at any other time in my life, I would've run to that like a magnet pulling me, like crazy. But when my mom and dad passed away and I was grieving and I was in that pain of wondering why a 15-year-old kid would lose her dad and his mom two years apart on the same day on Independence Day. And I was wondering what the answer to that question would be. And someone was trying to teach me business success. It was just the right message at the wrong time for me. And I'm still thankful to him for trying and putting it out there. But there was like zero receptivity in me at that point. I can tell less about that.

[00:21:10] Aneta: Yeah. Isn't it interesting when big things like that happen to us? Very significant moments in our life. It does give us a completely different perspective. I mean, cause it just allows us to shift to the more spiritual or to what is more important to us at that moment. And so I know that you went on to work at one point for Hay House, which is a place where I'm sure you probably encountered many amazing writers because so much good work has come out of Hayhouse. How did you find yourself there and what were some of the biggest lessons from working there?

[00:21:55] Daniel: I met Reid Tracy, who ran Hayhouse, it's Louise's company, and she was involved in some of the decisions probably, but Reid was the brains of the company. He knew what to do. And I met him at a book show. I was there with a small publisher that was part of a yoga community that I was a part of. And somehow we just liked each other. I went to him and I said, we're doing about half a million dollars in sales right now. And you're doing 3 million. I believe in going to the next step and asking people how they got from this step that I'm on to the step that they are, would be alright with you if I came down and I treated you to lunch and we just spent some time talking?

[00:22:37] Daniel: And he said, of course. Come on down. I would love that. And so I came from Northern California to Southern California and we went out to lunch together and we just had a beautiful conversation. He was like the piece of me that I didn't have, and I was the piece of him that he didn't have. And I don't know, I'll still admit that. I don't know if he would admit that to this day, but that, but that was what made us great. And towards the end of that conversation, or another conversation we had, he just said, I know you're with this community. I know you're a part of that.

[00:23:14] Daniel: Would you ever, ever think about coming here and working with us? And I said, let me sit with it. And I sat with it and I said, yeah, I would love that. What would I do? He said you're going to do just what you've done. Just what you always do. And I'm going to be there with you and support some of the things that come through you, because you've always, you've had mil. What I've seen in the time that we've talked to each other is you've had many multi-million dollar ideas, but no one's had the funding to actually support you, nor did you. So I would like to present the funding for your ideas to happen, and we'll decide which ones we do together.

[00:23:51] Daniel: What a beautiful offer that is, right? Amazing. And so I said, duh, that would be fabulous and I hope I can give you what you seek. And we spent 10 years together. Titles were never important to me and it never mattered. Then suddenly, I was going out for Hayhouse and I didn't know what capacity I was in. So Reid was the president or the vice president. I don't even remember. Louise was maybe the president. So he said, well, let's make you a director of business development. Let's just make you something.

[00:24:24] Daniel: And I said, Okay. Then that term means nothing to me. So I mean, just as good as having me be nothing. So that's fine. If that's going to help too, and that really helped because what I did is I started to bring more authors in. I started to talk to people. As Hay House started to grow, it grew from 3 million to a hundred million in those 10 years that I was there. And it wasn't because of me, obviously, it was because of us, the whole team came together, but it was just the right time at the right thing, at the right time, and the right mix of people. And we all were not super important. We were all just a bunch of people having fun together, creating something that was magnificent and it was magnificent. It really was.

[00:25:10] Aneta: So many amazing authors have come through there. I mean, we've got Dr. Joe Dispenza, I think from Hayhouse, and of course Dr. Wayne Dyer and Gabby Bernstein. And Maryanne Williamson. So many, I mean, the list comes on, but as you said, it was interesting. Like what do you think has changed globally? As you think about the sort of human consciousness from when you first started working there, and over the 10 years to go from 3 million to a hundred million, do you feel like suddenly spiritual topics and mysticism, people were more open to reading these types of books?

[00:25:46] Daniel: Yeah, I think they were, but I think it's a lot simpler than that. I believe there was a dearth of human behavior. We stopped acting the way we knew we wanted to act. We suddenly became smaller than we used to be. We suddenly had more stress in our life. We suddenly had all these things coming that were pinning us into a smaller place than we occupied. And I think there was just something about being treated with kindness and love.

[00:26:17] Daniel: It was just to love people. And to hold them up into the light. And so what we put out comes back. And we started to draw the people that were just loving people and wanting to help people, and it became just absolutely magnificent. And there was also, people were getting more frustrated, people were stressed out, more people, all those things are true. I don't think anything had changed outside. I just think when people feel loved and respected and listened to and heard and seemed acknowledged, they changed. And they want to be around that energy. I do.

[00:26:55] Aneta: Of course. Yeah. So it sounds like you're saying you feel like the authors and those creators gravitated towards, Hay House. Because of what you guys were creating, but then the energy somehow still had to make its way out into the community and into the masses.

[00:27:11] Daniel: Hay house was really good at that. I mean, that was Reid's brilliance. He was really good at knowing how to get a message out to people. And I don't mean to say that we were the big light on the hill and people found us because there were most of those guys we went after. And we had to deal with book agents and people like that. And we were nothing at that point. I mean, we were just getting to the place of being somebody.

[00:27:35] Daniel: But I remember going into this really well-known book agent in New York, and before that, I was sitting in a cab and we were stopped at a traffic light there were probably a thousand people on every street corner. And I just happened to look out and I thought, isn't this ironic? I bet if I were to stop the cab right here and go up to any person on any one of those corners and start to talk to them and ask them about their life, I bet we could have a New York Times bestseller to that.

[00:28:08] Daniel: And so when I walked into this, I had just come from that experience and thought process that it was, and I walked into this snooty, so important book agent, wanting to fight me about why this little-known company Hayhouse have the right to publish their Messiah. And I just looked at her and I said because we're different. Because we're not like you, because we actually live what your author teaches. We make a business from it too. Don't get me wrong. We do good business. But business comes as a result of the way we are, the way we treat people, the way we live, and the way we take care of our authors.

[00:28:50] Daniel: Take a list. Here's a list of every author we have. Call every one of them. Don't believe me. Ask them what they think. And I was confident enough to know that because we knew our authors, they were our friends, they were our family. We did everything we could to take care of them, and they still do. I haven't been involved for a long time. So I do think some of the heart has left a little bit. But in the publishing world, they're a messianic light of love.

[00:29:21] Aneta: Messianic light of love. So, Danny, I want to shift gears just a little bit. I want to talk about the book that you wrote actually, which I just finished. I loved it so much, called The Mosaic. And it's a beautiful story. And would you say it's, well, actually I don't want to label it? Tell me about when you wrote it, and how you got the idea to write. I do see some parallels to your own story, but what could you share with folks maybe who have-

[00:29:51] Daniel: You did a good job of slipping in? Would you say that character is really you? And the answer is yes, of course. I've lived a very peculiar life. And I'm in love with the life that I've lived. I've had tremendous highs, and I've had really, really, really deep lows. I've been able to sit at the dining room table of some of the richest people in the world and on street corners next to some of the poorest that have ever existed.

[00:30:24] Daniel: And there's something about the experience of that diversity. Something about the contrast and those things made me wonder, why does one person get to be that person and the other one gets to be that person? And then as I was thinking about it, I realized that really doesn't matter to me. That's not really, who cares. What I want to know is, is that person that is the richest person in the world happy? And is the poorest person in the world happy? And have I met people that no matter what their economic status, no matter what their religion, no matter what skin color, no matter what faith, no matter what border they live behind?

[00:31:09] Daniel: Till the end of time, have they found a way to be happy and have they found a way to have inner peace? And so some people said, you should write a book. And I thought, what am I going to write? I worked at a self-help publishing house and I don't believe in self-help. I don't believe, no, because I don't believe anybody's broken and we need to fix them.

[00:31:32] Daniel: That's that fixer mentality that we were talking about. I just wanted to be a lover. I wanted to just love and adore people and honor them. And I ended up saying, I'm not going to write. I wrote a self-help book and I gave it to somebody and they said, Danny, this is brilliant.

[00:31:46] Daniel: Your ideas are brilliant, but it's just not you. You are not this person. You don't believe in self-help. That's not that I don't believe in it, but it wouldn't be what I would want to write about. So I said, what are you talking about? What should I do? And they said I think you should write a fable. I said, hold it. I'm like a big gruff guy. Like, I'm a bad guy. I'm not going to write a fable. And as I was fighting it, I sat and I said, hold it. Why not? What I am is a storyteller and a fable is a story, a collection of stories. And why not just listen to what you're being told to do rather than always? And I did, and I sat with it. It took me three years to write that book. I thought it would take six weeks.

[00:32:41] Aneta: Why? What was your process like for writing and why do you think it took longer?

[00:32:47] Daniel: My process was, that I think I'm very good with words. People have always said to me, you're very talented with words. The way you write moves people, and the way you speak is very understandable. It's clear that I've spent a lot of time making difficult things, simple. That's been a big mission of mine from myself because again, I'm not the smartest man in the world. So I try and make it as simple as I can so that I can understand it.

[00:33:12] Daniel: And so when people said you should write, I thought, okay, how can I make a simple story that was so innocuous, not innocuous and boring, but innocuous in the message, that it didn't just beat people over the head with the message. It just sort of walks by not even looking at the person and dropping something in front of them.

[00:33:35] Daniel: And I don't know if I was successful in that or not because I think I have a little bit of teacher in me and I think so somehow I integrated teaching into it. But people have been touched by it and I often say it isn't the words. It's the space between the words that if you're sensitive enough to just quiet down and still some of the noise that goes on in this beautiful mind of mine or yours or whoever's listening and just what would quiet sound like and what sounds would quietly tell me if I could only pause and just listen.

[00:34:18] Aneta: So did you have practices that you did before you wrote, like, did you get yourself into that space of quiet in order to be able to get these downloads of what you were going to write next?

[00:34:33] Daniel: Yes, I did and I thought I was doing such a good job. But the reason it took three years is that every time I would write something and I would go to save it, and I would save it. I know how to save a file, and the next morning I would wake up. It wasn't on the computer, it wasn't saved, it didn't have anything. And so finally I would go to my wife and I'd say, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm like, jinxed. I mean, I know how to save a file. And I said, will you save this? And then I said, will you save the book? When it's done. And she did, and everything was saved. And the next morning my computer crashed and I was able to regain everything except the mosaic story.

[00:35:14] Aneta: That's so weird.

[00:35:15] Daniel: And I thought, what in the expletive deleted is going on here? Because this just doesn't seem right. This is such a beautiful tale. And when I asked the characters, one by one came to me as if they were sitting in the Zoom quote and sitting there like you, and they said to me, we don't like how you're presenting us.

[00:35:39] Aneta: So for those who haven't read it, there are different chapters and different characters that serve as guides for the main character. So each of those presented themselves to you.

[00:35:49] Daniel: Each one of those, and I had more of them and all of them in a cacophony, in a symphony of voices with the same message. We don't like what you're telling us to say.

[00:36:01] Aneta: And what was it about? Did you come to a conclusion as to like, or I guess should say, what did you do with that information? Did you change anything?

[00:36:08] Daniel: Beautiful question because I asked them, what do you want? Like, I've spent three years trying to write this. I'm not going to sit down and write it again because obviously, I don't know what you want. And they said, just be quiet and listen. And we will talk to you about the words that we want you to say. And you can make them sound better. But don't change them. And the messages were so simple. They were so innocuous. In the beginning, it sounded like a scriptural book. That wasn't what the mosaic was asking me to do. And so, when I listened and got out of the way They told me everything they wanted to say and it took about three weeks to write it.

[00:36:54] Aneta: Amazing. And I love the story. I actually read it in one day because it was the perfect day. I had time to sit outside. I didn't know that I'd finish it in one day, but it just felt like, I could have stopped, but it was just a nice way to read it from start to finish, and the continuation in my own mind, it was so beautiful and it was so lovely and I loved all the lessons.

[00:37:14] Aneta: Like you said, very not simple, because simple. I don't necessarily like that word all the time, but it was so pure maybe, I guess the messages and the lessons were pure. There was a purity of it that just resonated with me. And so I just wanted to keep writing, which of course that's a wonderful thing when you're reading a book is you know, the desire to keep reading.

[00:37:37] Aneta: And so I also wanted to go back to something you mentioned a couple of times, and this is the love for your daughter. And I know when you talk about her, your whole face lights up. And so tell me about your special relationship with your daughter and what she's taught you.

[00:37:55] Daniel: So I have the absolute blessing of having a 33-year-old developmentally delayed daughter. Had you told me I would ever say those words? I would tell you you're lying. I'm not good with that population of people. I like living on a level up here and I'm very mind and heart and so, but she taught me that everything that I thought a relationship was, was just like the shootings of what actually exists on the inside, on the outside. And I was looking at those shavings.

[00:38:32] Daniel: I'm a man of words. As I write, and speak, I coach, and help people. She doesn't understand those words. She doesn't have the words to give me back. So I remember speaking with her and she was trying so hard to tell me something and she spoke and I couldn't understand her. And I looked at her and I said, try it again, Elise. Try again. And so she said it louder, thinking that I just was old. I wasn't hearing it. But it wasn't the volume, it was the pronunciation. And then, she tried again and she got frustrated and she started to create a scene, a tantrum. And then when I still didn't get it, she came running at me as if to just bite me or just rip my shirt or do something or bite herself.

[00:39:21] Daniel: She just, and so she taught me to speak, yell, tantrum, attack, and that process it's something that's guided me my entire life because that's what I see in the world and how the world operates. Says something to you and if you don't understand it, they'll say it louder. If you don't understand it, they'll create chaos. If you don't understand the chaos, they'll attack. And so I started to look and the joy that I got in my soul is, It's not hard to just listen to somebody. It's not hard to hear somebody, it's not hard to try to understand what somebody's saying. It's the easiest thing in the world. What's hardest is to negate all that and not do that and try to make pretend they're not li or that you're too important to listen. So she's changed my life.

[00:40:07] Daniel: And the love that I have for her, not because of what she's done for me, just cause of the love that she just emanates. She has so many things wrong with her, quote unquote. She has so many reasons to be bitter and upset, but she just shows up with love all the time. She's going through like all of us. She has moments where, but 95% of the time you are with her and you just want to smile and hug her and love her, and that's what you feel. That's what I feel. I feel like just loved by her. And a lot of the conversations we have because we can't talk that much because she doesn't talk that much. Is me saying to her how much I love her and she just smiles and responds back in the way she does. And she'll say, I love you, Daddy. We're not talking about philosophy or politics or any of that stuff. What really matters?

[00:41:03] Aneta: Thank you for sharing that.

[00:41:06] Daniel: Yeah. No, it's my honor. She's a beautiful soul. And what has made me realize is that every single person, no matter what I think of them on the outside, is a mosaic,

[00:41:17] Aneta: Danny, how do you think your relationship with your daughter and maybe this universal feeling of love that you just shared with us? How did that tie into your idea to do this love tour? And can you share a little bit more about your love tour? I think you said you were starting next year, is that correct?

[00:41:34] Daniel: Yes. What a beautiful question and what a beautiful linkage. So again, another place where you have opened up some things for me that I might not have looked at. But love has become so central to me because of her. What used to be so central was all the words that I was able to say. I took great sort of honor in being able to communicate in a way that people could understand.

[00:42:01] Daniel: But what I even would like to ask people that are listening to this now, listen to the words. They're fine. But as you're listening here, please try and sense if there is an energy of the feeling of vibration that you just get from this time that we're spending together. And that's not because of me. I'm not doing anything.

[00:42:23] Daniel: There's no hocus pocus that's happening. It's just because love is so powerful. When it's recognized, it comes forward. And I'd love you to ask yourself. Do I feel calmer, more loving, and more peaceful now than when I started this podcast? But just start to take notice of what's behind the things that we think, what's behind what we actually say. And so when I looked at the world and I saw all the people that seem to have no voice that they feel like they don't have a voice.

[00:43:05] Daniel: They just live doing what they did the day before, the day after, the day after, and they don't feel like they have the courage or the strength or even anybody else's interested, much like my daughter would fulfill. But then I see what happened when I actually gave honor to whatever voice she had. And I remember saying to her, Elise, I don't understand you. Can you somehow communicate with me without using your words? And she went like this.

[00:43:39] Aneta: She pointed to her head.

[00:43:40] Daniel: She pointed to her head and she said, I am daddy. And I said, what the heck does that mean? Are you putting thoughts into my head? And she started to laugh uncontrollably. Like finally 15 years, 16 years of trying to communicate this message had finally gotten through to me. And she went, yes, daddy, yes. And she was so happy that she had actually made a conversation with me that was not with words. That's what I want to do when I go out. We don't need to tell people to love one another.

[00:44:22] Daniel: That message has been overwashed. I mean, I don't think you can ever say it enough, but it seems to have lost its effectiveness. You know how long you find something to say and it has an immediate impact, and people go, whoa. Well, it just happened. Like I've had a couple of those moments with you right here.

[00:44:39] Daniel: Those are so sacred and so special, but when you say, God is love, or Isn't it beautiful that we can love each other? It sort of becomes so much like white bread on a sandwich that you just forget what you're really saying and the meaning of it, it all sounds right. They're the right words at the right time with the right inflections.

[00:45:00] Daniel: But what I'm really looking for is how do I impact people? How do I sit on street corners with homeless people and in boardrooms with executives? And how do I ask them what would happen if love became the first priority, not the last, or the third, or the fourth or the eighth, whatever place you put it at and how do you want to see, like what do you see in the world? What would you like to see changed and how would you go about doing that? And I just want to collect that data. And then I want to be able to present that data, not for science papers or awards or things like that.

[00:45:43] Daniel: I want to present it back to the people, and I want to create this thing that I'm calling the Mosaic Swarm, and I'm going to ask people to sign up for the program and there's a financial obligation to that. But I think that financial obligation is affordable. I'm going to ask for $1 a month. Because what I want is for people to be able to be a part of something, and I want to be able to take that $1 a month from millions of people and then be able to have those millions of people decide what it is we want to work on, and have those millions of people invest their millions of dollars. $1 at a time from them to go about solving the problem they want to solve. Will it work? I have no idea, but I don't see what we're doing now, working exceptionally well. How is it possible we can be the most advanced species in the world and be so primitive? Even primitive humanity was more loving and caring than we are sometimes.

[00:46:53] Daniel: Yeah. How's it possible to walk past a homeless person and not give anything? How is it possible to spend time yelling and fighting and screaming and defending and protecting rather than loving, I mean, how is that possible? That isn't the world that I thought I wanted to be a part of. So I have two options. I can either leave this world or I can try and affect this world. And the more that I speak to people about it, the more I find people have just lost the belief that that's even possible. But they want it. I love Steve Jobs. He said it's those ones that are crazy and, all the misfits, whatever that saying is, which I love.

[00:47:35] Daniel: They believe that they can change the world and cause of their belief they do. I'm looking for the lovers. I'm looking for people who relate to what I'm saying. That will invite me to where they live, not their homes necessarily, but maybe even couch surfing in their homes. But I'll be in a van, I'll be in a place where I can live. And I just want to create circles with them and their friends. And that's not, we're not going to have orgies and things like that, but just the sense of how would our life look like if we would love and accept each other, listen to each other, and hear each other and see, and acknowledge each other. It just is not that hard. If it could work for a developmentally delayed girl who can't speak. I believe it can work for you and me.

[00:48:28] Aneta: That's beautiful and I can't wait to hear more about it. So Danny, thank you so much for this conversation and I have a final question that I ask all guests, although you and I could talk for hours and I'm sure we will. How do you live the width of your life?

[00:48:46] Daniel: The width of life is so absolutely exhilarating that once I experienced it was impossible to just live the singular point. Everything I do is from the width of life. The fact of this tour of trying to create this mosaic community where people just love each other is just connecting one piece to another piece, to another piece. Until we as a world live in peace, not in pieces, but in peace. And to me, that's the width. Like, what did I say to you when we first met? I don't even know if it was on the air or not. I hope this will be the beginning, not the end. The width of life is to say how do we make this? Is there space to make this wider than it is right now?

[00:49:39] Aneta: Thank you for sharing that with us and how can we best support you?

[00:49:45] Daniel: If anything that I say touched you. If anything I said resonated with you. I'm sure you'll have my contact information. Please reach out. I'm looking now to see if are there places where people would like me to come and to sit with them. Not to teach, not to lecture, but just to hold the space for circles of love.

[00:50:10] Aneta: I will include all of your details in the show notes for folks to absolutely reach out. And I also want to include a link to Mosaic because I do think it's such a beautiful book.

[00:50:20] Daniel: Thank you. I'm more interested in just how we create a virus of love that is unstoppable.

[00:50:30] Aneta: And with that, thank you. Thank you for the love that you share so freely, Danny, for your presence during this conversation. I cannot wait to see and hear more about the Love tour. And yeah, I will include all the details and show us so folks can find ways to reach out to you and work with you. And thank you for the great work you do in this world.

[00:50:54] Daniel: Thank you, and thank you so much for having me on your show. It's been an honor to get to know you a little bit.

[00:50:59] Aneta: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you, who took imperfect action towards their goals, creating more joy, and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.

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