SSP134: Rising Above Darkness: Unleashing the Power of Internal Transformation

Hey, what's going on, my friend? Welcome back to the podcast. Jordan Candlish here. Thanks for choosing to tune into this content. I'm really looking forward to sharing today's interview, dialogue, conversation with you. It was actually recorded a few months back in July 2023, and it was with one of my best friends, one of my soul brothers here on Earth, Danny Gutierrez, off the back of the inaugural Grounded Warrior Retreat, which is a men's retreat that I hosted and brought a team of coaches along with me to help me facilitate out in Ontario. And it was one of the most magical experiences that I've ever created in this. In this life. And it was a confirmation to me that I wanted to create more of these events, opportunities for guys to come together. And Danny and I, in this, in this conversation that you're about to listen to, we really reflected on what came out of that retreat. You know, the transformations, the things that were unlocked inside of these men. And in the space of the last few months, we've decided to run another one. So as of right now, we're in November 2023. We're prepping for another retreat that's going to be hosted out in Sedona, Arizona at the start of December to keep this going, because now I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life. And if you're a man watching this or tuning into this, then I would love to have you there one day. I'd love to see you in the flesh and to experience the power of men's work and bring guys together on a similar wavelength. So enjoy the conversation today. Subscribe if you haven't already, and share this with a brother who, you know, may need something like this in his life. So enjoy the conversation with Danny Gutierrez. We're back back with another episode of the podcast with the main man, Danny Gutierrez himself. Yes, sir, at Danny sounds. How are you, brother?

I'm doing fantastic, brother. Feeling super, super good. Grateful to be here. Yeah, it's been a wild ride last few days, man.

Has, man. We are recording this off the back of the Grounded Warrior Retreat, the inaugural Grounded Warrior Retreat here in Ontario. It was in July 2023. Danny and I got to share and along with the four other support coaches shared an imaginable experience of 15 other men coming together to do really powerful work, come together as a tribe, to unite, to release, to let go, to celebrate, to dance, to express all the things, man. How you feeling on the other side of that? It's quite the experience, dude.

We were talking about it before, like, we thought we would get more out of the retreat than the actual participants. And I feel like I got everything I needed, plus, you know, that much more. I'm feeling grounded, I'm feeling inspired, energized. It was just so cool to have 15 brothers coming together in a remote location in nature. Phones away, everything's away. And just like connecting and pouring into each other's hearts, into each other's souls. And I feel as if I just, like, got rebirthed, like.

Yeah.

You know, it was just so cool to see the transformation of all these guys and witnessing that firsthand was just one of the most beautiful things, things in my life. So I'm feeling like, absolutely cleaned out from the bottom up and ready to just like, pour more into the world.

Yeah, I feel that I know about.

You, but, like, yeah, right.

It's like one of my dreams growing up as a kid. I remember hanging out with my mates growing up and going through school and just thinking, man, I just want to work with my best friends. I feel like that's the dream. Work with my best friends. And, you know, over the weekend, it was. That dream was. Was a reality. Like, had my best friends around me, we were technically doing work. It didn't feel like work. It was just play. And it confirmed to me that this is. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

This is.

This is it. Yeah. This is the. The piece that I resistance. It was. It was the most. The pinnacle of human experience, in my opinion.

Yeah, I. I was trying to think of a way where we could top it up, but it literally was the most perfect experience, like you said it was. It was the most life affirming moment. I think of my life where you and I have both been doing a bunch of different stuff. You know, coaching, you know, events, podcasts, you know, different things along the line. I've been doing events, music, but I have never felt something so passionately aligned with my purpose. And it was almost as if that weekend, everything just got spat out and this new, like, wave of information came in was like, this is what I.

Meant to be doing.

Like, it was like, boom, this is it. Nothing else matters right now. And this is the course of action. I feel like we were at a crossroads. Not a crossroads, but we're at a path. And all of a sudden that path kind of went over here and it was like, this is the one to take.

Yeah. You know, that was a symbolic moment for all of us, especially you, bro. Because it's been three and A half years, maybe more, since we've sat down and have a conversation. For those who don't know who Danny is, Danny's. You know, you. Like my soul brother on this earth, I really feel like our souls have been lived many lives together, like we've discussed. Yeah, we've come together to really learn and support each other in this journey. And of late, especially the last 12 months, you've kind of been through a bit of a dark night of the soul journey, the most challenging 12 months of your life so far. And I really feel like it was symbolic to see you in the retreat, man, in your magic, sharing your. Sharing your magic with all the brothers. And I was like, man, this is. This is it. You're reborn. This is the new you that's back. But, yeah, what's unfolded for you, man, over the last 12 months? What lessons have you got to share with us here? Because it's been quite the roller coaster for you.

Yeah, it really, really has. I mean, for those who don't know, I lost my mother about eight months ago, which was the most, single, most difficult moment of my life. I felt like I had hit rock bottom just in terms of, you know, what life truly meant to me. And at the same time, though, I was very lucky that my mother was spiritual, because I knew that this would be, like, you know, a rite of passage, almost like an initiation, like you and I had talked about. And it was almost as if, like, instead of losing a soul, I actually gained, you know, an angel. And, yeah, it was very difficult because obviously you question, you know, why things happen to you. Why do I go through so much pain? Why did my mom have to go through so much pain? But in those moments, lessons, opportunities come up to you, and different ways of thinking come up to you, and you almost start to understand that everything is happening for a specific reason. And our souls were put on this planet to gain lessons based on the life events that are happening. And so some books fell into my lap after and started reading more about angels and just, like, the cosmic realms. And it was really, really inspiring to feel the presence of my mom alongside my journey. And a lot of people come up to me and were saying, like, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And I was like, you know what? I actually don't want you to say that to me because those words that you're saying have power over me and you. And I don't want you to see it like that. I want you to see it as if I have just gained you Know the most inspirational leader in my life. Now she's in my corner every single day. And I tell people, like, I feel more connected to my mom now than when I did when she was in the physical plane. So that in itself has been the most transformational experience for me, because now I see life as just series of initiations that are happening to us instead of these circumstances or, you know, events that happen to us. Life is happening for us at all moments. And that was the single most powerful shift for me, because every single dark night of the soul carries with it the equivalent of a greater, more beautiful, beautiful light of day. And so I know that this dark period in my life was just a dark blotch in the most beautiful tapestry because I needed contrast to then show, you know, the lighter parts of the world, of my world. And when you zoom out, you realize, like, wow, that had to happen for me because I maybe needed to learn more lessons on compassion, on loss, on, you know, grief. I feel like maybe my soul didn't have the depths to understand maybe what other people were going through to be able to help them. And now with that experience, I can confidently say that I've gone to the very darkest, deepest parts of my soul.

And.

And now moving forward, I have that greater bandwidth to now help the world out. And especially with this retreat, I was able to connect with the brothers a lot more because I felt what they had felt. There was a couple guys who had lost their parents there, and so I could immediately relate to that, and I could be a support system. I could be a lighthouse for them. And that was my soul's contract. Coming in, it knew that it was like, Danny, you're not ready to take on this stuff just yet. You're going to go through this experience. It may be difficult, but at the same time, this is what you're going to need to increase your capacity to understand, to help, to see and relate with these people. And so that has been one of the most beautiful lessons in the kind of coming up from the low period was, this is all happening to me. It's for me. And with that lesson, with that approach that the universe can only just smile and say, wow, if you're taking this with, you know, with the most beautiful attitude, then the rest is yours. Like, instead of crumbling, you actually grow and you became. Become a lighthouse for a lot of people. And that is what I feel like my life has kind of become. And this weekend was a culmination of just, like, you're ready. You're ready to step in and how beautiful was it to just like create that container for men and to. To hold a lot of their emotions? I feel like that was, that was beautiful. And because of that dark night of the soul experience a few months ago, I was able to lead these men into. From their darkest period to lighter days ahead.

Yeah, man. Beautiful. Beautiful. And I really felt that, I really felt that on the retreat. It was like. Yeah. All the capacity that got unlocked in you then enabled you to hold such a really powerful space for these guys, man. Dude, you're like one of the guys in my life, one of the men that I know that can hold a lot like you. You're able to generate a lot of energy and able to give so much. You're probably one of the. You have one of the biggest hearts in terms of what you give to other people, not just to myself, but everyone that I see you cross paths with. And it really came through on the retreat and it was, it's really special to see it. And one of the reasons why I feel like you're able to do that is because you really embody this grounded warrior philosophy that we brought to the guys at the retreat.

Right. It's.

It's not just focusing on one area in your life, it's. It's having all these areas kind of dialed in.

Yes.

And when it's all dialed in, you just have this, this amount of energy that just, you just get to pour into people.

Yeah.

You know? Yeah. And I would love to hear about, you know what, at the retreat, you specialized in love. You chose to do a workshop on love. I would love for you to share a little bit more about why you chose that. Because it was an intuitive guidance that you received during the retreat to shift what you were going to speak about to the. This area.

Yeah.

It was so. It was so transformative. Why? Why love? Why was the theme or topic for these men?

Great question. I. I want to start off by just saying that I've been looking to lean into my intuition more and more the last few months. And for those who are thinking about leaning more into that, please start leaning more into your intuition. Our intuition is basically our higher selves whispering to us, letting us know, reminding us the path that we're maybe meant to be on. But our three dimensional mind is keeping us from these patterns and keeping us in these patterns to do what is safe for us. And so if you're feeling an intuitive call, please start taking action. It is the secret sauce to life, I think. And so lately I've been leaning into my intuition, which sometimes goes against my. My mind, because my mind wants to control. It wants to have things structured. But my heart is telling me something else. And lately I've been really focusing on taking people from their minds into their hearts, and I've been focusing on myself doing that. And so when I was on the retreat, I was thinking, before the retreat, how can I maximize, you know, the grounded warrior energy? And how can I, you know, systematically put that. That essence into the group? Well, I was thinking of doing this, like, really cool warrior breathing. And, you know, going from their sexual organs, breathing all the way up and expanding that energy. And that was my mind wanting everything to be perfect. But when we were sitting down and we did a beautiful rape session that you had guided us, I got this intuitive feeling that because we had already started with a lot of anger, release, shame, release, and these guys had really given out a lot, and they had cleared up so much from within them and, you know, just released all of the heaviness that was coming in that was in their bodies. After a few days, I felt this. This voice inside me saying, these guys have given everything. Now it's time for them to receive. It's time for them to receive. And I intuitively switched over, and I said, well, what is the thing that we're all after in this planet? We're all after love. Deep down, Whatever we want to do in our lives, whether it's career, passions, we all want to be loved at the end of the day. And while I knew it was like the first half was done, we let go. Well, now that they have space in their bodies and their minds to receive, the thing that they should be receiving is love. So I was like, I'm gonna do a workshop on love. Why? Because I love love, and people love love. So it was really, really cool to sit these guys down after they had released a bunch of stuff through breath work, through journaling through men's circles. And I had done a. I had a chat with Augusto, one of the facilitators, the night before, and he was, like, reading my natal chart, and he was saying, dude, you do better work when you listen from the heart instead of when you try to plan things from your mind based on my libra air sign and a few different kind of patterns that we've noticed. Maybe it's time for you to just lead from the heart more. And so I was like, okay. Cause I was trying to plan and journal, like, how can I lead these guys into their hearts? And I was like, no, I'm just gonna go up there and just stand up and just lean these guys into their hearts. So it was really beautiful as I stood up there on the day three of the retreat, and I was like, guys, I want to ask you guys a simple question. What does love mean to you? And the result that happened from that simple question, when I sat everyone down and I just simply told them, breathe in, breathe out. What does love mean to you specifically? And I went around the room, I went close to them, I put my hand on their shoulder. I almost, like, channeled this, like, loving energy just to kind of calm them down. And what happened was the most beautiful response that everybody gave me. Some such a different response of what love meant to them. Yeah, some guys, you know, I thought people were gonna say, well, love means, you know, unconditional love from your parents. It means loving your, you know, your family. It means doing what you love. Those are more, you know, neutral answers. But some of these guys were talking about, like, you know, love means seeing. Seeing my children, you know, coming out of and hugging me after I've been released from prison. It means, you know, seeing my father, you know, after I've been, you know, discarded from a mental hospital. And the warm hug of him, it means the warm kiss of my dog in the morning when I wake up. Like, there were so many beautiful little variations of love. And I think in that room alone, men started feeling each other's version of love. And guys started to just release. There was a few guys that started crying right away. And it was just so beautiful because it really allowed each man to really deep down understand, like, what does love mean to me specifically? Because we've been sold ideas of what love could be, right, by marketing, by brands. But ultimately, it doesn't matter if that doesn't really resonate with what love means to us. So it was really beautiful to just sit these guys down and ask them this question. And once that happened, I felt. We all felt this collective energy just really tap into our bodies, receive the love that they need. And after that, everyone had shared, then I asked every single person to journal. You know, what are. What. What is the thing that I love most about myself? We don't really ask ourselves that question a lot. We say, you know, where can I improve on or what are some of my weaknesses? But what is the thing that I love most about myself? I probably haven't asked that. I haven't asked myself that question a lot. So I wanted them to reflect on that, to really understand what it is to. To receive that And I asked them again another question. What are three things that other people love about me most? Because that often, you know, when we hear people telling us all of their compliments, we almost like, associate ourselves with what they're telling us. Like, you know, I'm sure people have told you, Jordan, like, you're such a great leader, you're such a, you know, inspiration to others. And so when you receive that, you start, you know, feeling that, that vibration coming towards you. But maybe you have a different idea of what love means to you. So I wanted to kind of have these men talk about what they love most about themselves versus what they've heard and, and where, like, how far off that is, you know, in between, like what they're actually feeling versus what they're hearing. Because that would lead up to the next exercise where I asked every single man to come up and be almost like surrounded by a circle. There was one person in the middle. And I asked out loud to the room. I asked each man to say, as I see, you know, X person in front of me, let's just say, as I see Jordan in front of me, the word that reminds me most of Jordan is. Or the word that represents Jordan to me is. And I had them write down on a little cue card piece of paper. And we all each took turns, one by one, talking and telling that person what they mean to us or what they represent to us. And I had no idea it was going to be this powerful. But it was just their turn to receive one on one and be seen in front of other men how impactful they have been to those people, people in the last four days. And after that sharing circle, people were crying, people were releasing, they'd give hugs. And it was just so beautiful because my idea was for each person to keep those 15 cards and use those as like anchors to remind them of how powerful they are, of how, how much love they emit to the world. And so, you know, we had, we had guys telling other guys how, how strong they made the other person feel, how grounded they made them feel, how open and understanding they were, or how, you know, intimate they were able to connect with them. And it was really nice for men to tell other men how they feel about them because we're maybe used to maybe like our partner telling that to us or like a feminine energy, but for a man, for two masculine energies to tell each other how much love.

They have for each other, I feel.

Like a lot of men haven't had.

That in our lives.

And it was just so powerful. To experience at the very end, that same person that finished the round, we all got around them, and. And I had made a point to list off all of the or most of the qualities and attributes that they received. We put our hands on their hearts or on their back, and we just poured that love into them. And it was almost like a scene out of avatar where we're just, like, surrounding that person and just swaying and giving love into that person and receiving them. And you could tell when they were surrounded by the men, they were just, like, breathing in that love, breathing in that. That. That essence that. That really transforms people. It was a transformative experience. And my whole purpose was for allowing them to receive. It was to receive. And, man, at the end of the ceremony, you know, they left, you know, in tears. Really, a lot of them were in tears and felt like their cups had been filled. And it was just so beautiful to pour into them because they needed that. They needed that after all the clearing. And how often do you get to have 15 people, each individually telling them what they love about you, and then everyone doing a collective hug around you, like, how powerful is that? That alone can Change your life.

100.

So that's kind of the intuitive that I got and. Or the intuition that I got, and it was so beautiful to see that happen. And once the guys went back down and sat down, they were like, what just happened? It was like a. It was like a tsunami of love pouring into them, Changing their literal cause, their.

Their.

Their way of being. Every single organism, every cell in their body had just upgraded. Yeah, it had just shifted from nervous to scared, to anxious, just to love, to receivership, to gratitude, to an open heart. You could tell, yeah, these guys had been transformed.

Yeah. Yeah, you could feel it. You really could feel it. You know, it was like their emotional battery just got, like, filled all the way up. And that's the thing that so many people, especially men, just give. Men that come into our space, they givers. And it's hard for them to slow down and receive. And that's why I realize on these retreats that it is. It's just time to receive. Yeah. You know, it's time. It's time to just stop for a moment and pull in all of this beauty and all of this abundance that's all around us. And you gave everyone permission to do that, bro. And it was a really magical thing to witness, actually. One of the most powerful things to witness. Yeah.

Thank you, brother.

Of course, the. The thing that I really loved about this whole experience. But what I really love about, you know, us coming together. And what we've. We've all realized, I guess, on this journey is. Is something that we really cherish growing up was being around a team.

Yes.

Being, you know, as men. You love being with other men.

Yes.

You know, working towards something as a shared mission and having that camaraderie and brotherhood. And we all played sports. We all realize, like all of us coaches that facilitated that retreat and the path. We all played sport at a high level. Yeah. And that kind of sporting. That's time and sport in the change rooms of the locker room. When it ends, it's like you miss it. Yeah. You don't realize how special it is until it's done. You're like, oh, man, I miss kind of the banter. I miss the hanging out with the lads, because you end up hanging out more with your team than your family most of the time. And what we encapsulated, or what I noticed was trans. Transferred to these guys on the retreat was that experience, the team camaraderie, of what it feels like to be in a group where you've got each other's back.

Yes.

You. You fight for each other, you fight with each other, but you uplift each other.

Yeah.

It was. It was. It was almost the upgraded version of being in a sporting environment, because we were here just uplifting each other continuously.

Continuously.

Whereas in a sporting environment, sometimes there's a bit of, like, not everyone's on the same wavelength. Sometimes some lads are putting other people down. This, to me, was one of the most powerful aspects of having a retreat that was themed around, hey, we're here to grow together. And we infused that as former athletes. It was just infused. And I'd love to know why you think that's so important, why you think especially men. Especially men must have these spaces where they can feel a connection with other brothers who've got their back.

Yes. I was very, very surprised to hear that. So some of the men, when we had asked them questions regarding sports or any sort of group activity growing up, a lot of them had said that they had not been part of a group before because they didn't feel worthy. They didn't feel as if they could handle it. A lot of them felt socially awkward because of whatever conditioning they had received before, whether they were maybe bullied at school or one of them said that the way that their body looked, you know, they felt ashamed to be in the presence of other guys, so they would just not participate, which would then enclose them into their own Bubble, which would then impede their growth with other people. And for us men who have had the privilege to be a part of, you know, many teams, that was really, really, you know, eye opening for me because I had assumed that most kids, we play in sports, and so we've all had that connection with each other. So for me, that importance of the day to day, you know, banter, the camaraderie that happens, almost like the way that I can best describe it is there's no better feeling than being together with a group of individuals. And for us men playing in sports to work towards a common goal, we have an objective, we have a challenge in front of us. We have 10 guys, 15 guys. However big your team was, how can we progress, work with each other, use each other's skills in order to achieve the goal and under the guidance of perhaps a coach, right? And that's where a coach really comes in. And it's very important that gets the.

Best out of us.

How can we achieve this goal together? And I find that alone is such a key driver to our growth as individuals, especially as kids, because we learn how to adapt with different strengths and weaknesses, adapt to different situations, and we build resilience, we build teamwork, we build courage to take that, you know, penalty shot or to, you know, take that last buzzer beater shot, whatever, whatever sport or whatever activity it is, we build the courage to fail as well. And for, for those who haven't had many of those, those group activities, it's almost as if you're, you're not tapping into different areas of your life where you're exposing yourself. And that's why I think for this retreat, it was so beautiful to have men come up and really, you know, work towards a common goal, which was, how can I release all the stuff that has been holding me back, that has been sabotaging myself, that has been keeping my life from playing small to having a space with all these other men that were working towards the same goal, which is to release and expand. I know that these individuals, including ourselves as coaches, got so much out of it because we all left that container the four days feeling like the mission was accomplished.

We.

We were able to connect with ourselves. We did it with a band of brothers, so we all did it together. We shared that exact same experience. And we reached the goal as a unit which allowed us to be able to see that things in life are possible through courage, through resilience, through failure. How powerful is that? How powerful is it when we all can see each other and Uplift each other. And the most important thing was the support that we had from one another. We shared some very, very intimate sharings regarding some sort of shame releasing or anger, the reasons why we were here. Some of these motives were very, very touching and very deep. For them to feel supported and held during these releases was of the utmost importance because it allowed for safety. And I feel like the world needs more safety. You know, we feel judged often because of who we are or our story. We feel exposed when we share our truth because it's not in alignment with how things should be. So when we just say, show as you are, come up to us, show as you are, we are holding you, there is no judgment. The transformation that happens from that, especially seen by other men who see you. And I think that's one of the most beautiful things you did at the very beginning was the eye gazing exercise where every man was a stranger at that point. We all came in on the first day. Nobody knew anyone's story, and it was just like, can you look into this man's eyes? You have no idea where he's coming from. Can you look? But can you see yourself in him? Can you see that we are all on the same path? We looked at each other for about two to three minutes. And how powerful was it just to have that relatability, to be seen by another man without judgment, without any idea, any story, any narrative? I think that was the most powerful thing we could have done because it unlocked a feeling of safety, a feeling of sharing, a feeling of, I see you, you see me, we're on the same journey. Let's go. Like, how many times have someone have we have we looked into the eyes of somebody else and just like seen them or who they are?

Yeah. For more than 10, 10 to 15 seconds, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah. Dude, this is amazing. We're like debriefing the retreat live, live. Yeah, you're right. That actually is the perfect way to initiate, to dissolve the barriers. Because when you first, especially when you bring a group of men together, the first thing you suss and you're sussing them out, you're like, fuck, trust this guy. We had a man, a man who had been to prison. We had many guys from different walks of life. And when you bring men together, the first thing is you're scanning for safety.

Yes.

Can I trust this man? Yep. You know, so eye gazing really is that you dissolve the barrier when you start to see yourself in another person?

Yes.

Oh, we're just the same.

We're just the same all these layers.

We're just the same.

Yes.

And recently, over the last couple of days, actually, we both watched Sound of Freedom, the movie about the child sex trafficking that I highly recommend everyone watch if they. If you. You haven't already. And. And when you were talking about the shame and the darkness, you know the reason why most of us don't go into darkness? Because we don't feel safe in the dark 100%. You know, that's why at nighttime a lot of us get scared because where's the light? It's scary. I don't feel safe. And when I watched the Sound of Freedom at the end, I was like, I seen the Tim Ballard, the guy who's doing all this really real life warrior, going out and doing this work.

Yes.

But the work that we're doing is almost. It's still just as significant because to fix or to solve this. This literal sickness that is infested the whole of the consciousness. There's so many. The darkness that's. That's enveloped the consciousness on earth is coming from this lack of safety that people feel. To go into these places and be like, this has been inside of me. I just need to let it out. All the horrible things. And. And when I listened to all these men share their shame releases, man, I.

Was like, get it out.

Just keep. Keep getting it out. Because what happens when you do that to when millions of people all of a sudden feel safe letting go of all this stuff that's weighing them down in the dark? What it gets replaced by is just light.

Yes.

When you see it, when you just bring light to the dark, it transmutes. And I believe that's what the Sound of Freedom is all about is like, we need to go and watch this because. Because this is what's in the dark. And a lot of us don't want to look at it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. If you don't want to look at it, then you don't want to look at your own darkness.

100.

So it. It's all connected. And I realized shame, it's just toxicity, toxic shame that we've internalized that these chart. The slavery that's going on in the world is an externalization of our own internal shame that we don't look at. So the significance of this work, bro, it's. It's all. It's coming to a ton to a real forefront and a precipice right now. I know you feel that as well in like this current state of humanity. And yes, yes, this retreat really confirmed to me that, like, it's time. Like it's time. Let's go. Let's stand up together and come together and do this work and think about why we're doing this. Think about how many people are suffering.

Oh, my God.

How many kids are suffering. And it starts just within, like, win this internal battle, win this internal war against the darkness or unconsciousness.

Yeah, yeah.

And change will start to happen on an external as well.

Of course.

What, what, you know, on the other side of this now, what is different about you and what is going to be the, the big focus or the big, you know, this work? Where are you now going to bring this, this, this clarity and this, this level up that's just unfolded?

Yeah, I will answer that. And I just want to add to your previous point about doing the work ourselves, releasing the darkness to allow more light. I want to talk about the ripple effect that will happen because once we, you know, even for this container, let's say these 15 men that have now released a lot of that darkness, have allowed more light to come in, are feeling softer, feeling more empathetic, more compassionate towards herself. Every single person has lower, has higher their vibration. What happens is each person is now going to go back to their family, to their partner, to their friends. Those friends, those families are going to notice that shift. They're going to say, hey, Jordan, you look different, you feel different. Even when I got home, my girlfriend was like, you feel different. You're just buzzing on a different level. Like, you're here, you're present. She's like, you're so grounded. That shift is happening now on a micro scale to each of these 15 persons, families and is now being now seen into their friends. And can we just imagine these, almost like these, these ripple effects being spread out into each person's friend circles, which now affects all those friends. And those friends affect those friends.

Well, I always say, this is a wave, bro.

This is a wave.

A ripple is like one piece of content or one thing that someone receives. You go, four days or five days, 15 men. It's like we've just waved. Yeah, that's how I'm seeing it. Because these men are coming back with a wave of light and. Yeah, that they're gonna pour. But I know exactly what you're saying. It just like proliferates.

That's all it is.

Yeah.

So I just wanted to add that because to preface into, you know, now coming back from this, I want to be that wave of light that helps other men in that space. And as much as we love you, Know the online work and all that stuff. There's just something about the physical presence where you can touch, hear, feel, smell the other person you can be in nature, which is such a big aspect as well. Coming back, I'm feeling so motivated to continue to do this work, but it almost like unlocked this certainty of like, you need to be doing this. And you and I were both talking about on the ride home, it's like, there is no, like, is this going to work? Like, is this going to be successful? It's like we saw the results. It's like downpack to a science. There's a system, there's a formula, just like anything else we understood the world works in, you know, specific sequence of events. We know the structure. Now can we just plug and play?

Yeah.

Because this works. So this coming back from this retreat almost unlocked this systematic approach where I. We know what works and what doesn't work and we want to. I want to keep on applying this now to. To my friends, to my clients, to the rest of the men and women out there as well, that need to hear, feel, breathe and see this stuff. It's almost like this, like knowing of this is our path we have to take. We have to be, you know, the lighthouses that help each other lighthouse see the light within themselves so that they could start beaming out their light into the world.

Yes.

That's the mission. That is the mission right there. And if we have to go out and go to the people instead of them coming to us, so be it. I will do that as well.

Yeah.

And it's just almost unlocked this. Like, there's no turning back now. Like, for me, I was specifically focusing on music, which I still. During the retreat, we realized the power of sound as well. Just how powerful music and, you know, the lack of sound too, in silence can be so powerful. I really want to start focusing on sound and almost healing as a dual modality to help people find themselves, find themselves through vibration, through the feeling of receiving love. It's almost like vibration and feeling are my two catalysts that I want to work on. And it was really, really powerful to see how we didn't know each other at the beginning, but through these vibrations that we all emitted from one another that you can't get online, that you can't get on a phone call. It has to almost be in the same container because this container then holds a frequency that you are just stuck in for, you know, four days. However long the retreat is, your body, your cells are literally picking up on that frequency. And they're rewiring themselves. They're rewriting the script, the internal programming in each cell, and you have no choice but to just uplift yourself and be seen and be heard and be loved by your men. It's like, it's this transformational wave that once the ball gets rolling, the snowball effect starts coming in, and you have no choice. You just start getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And, you know, that's kind of what Joe Dispenza talks a lot about, is like, you have no choice but to just keep on expanding. An event so powerful, literally changes the script onto you and says, this is the new version. This is the new standard of operation. Yeah, that's what we had discussed.

Yes.

After this event, there's a new standard of operation that we're now operating on. There's no more doubt. There's no more. It's like, this is where we are. We've seen it work. Now. How can we expand? How can we add new elements? How can we refine it? And that's kind of where I want to go now is like, looking to refine, looking to express in maybe different ways as well. But keeping that same structure that I. I found was really helpful. And now just applying this to different parts, different groups, and different, you know, parts of the world. I think, how cool is it to mix travel with healing with nature, with your best friends? What more do you want?

I know, man.

What more does one want in life? Come on.

Living the dream.

Living the dream. That's it. That's it, man. So that's what it unlocked in me. It's like, I want to work my best friends traveling around the world, helping people understand and see the light inside themselves in epic locations, and creating this incredible wave of love all around the world so that when we come home to our families, when we come home to our circles, we have no choice but to impact and elevate their vibration.

And then, yeah, it keeps on going. Oh, man, I love it, bro. To go back to the analogy of the football team or the team, I remember growing up, you know, when I got selected for some of the, you know, the better clubs, right. Got picked for a new team, right? And I was leaving all, like, the former teammates behind, and I was going to be around other players who were playing at a new standard. I'd get really nervous before going to that first training session. Most training sessions, I was, like, fucking really nervous. I really didn't want to go. But when you go and you're around all these players who are A lot better than you. It's intimidating. Yeah. But you fucking raised to that standard.

Yeah.

And that's what I've seen happen to all of these guys. Good point, everyone. There's a lot of people that replied to the retreat. They didn't follow through, they didn't fully commit. And what I suspect is they went through something similar. Yeah, they got picked for the team, but. But it was fucking nerve wracking because they were probably thinking, man, I don't know, it's scary, it's intimidating to go hang out with a bunch of guys I don't know who are playing life at a certain level. And I just wanted to reiterate that there is always going to be that hesitation or nervousness or doubt or self sabotage that arises as you're about to step into a new standard of operation.

Of course.

A new modus operandi. When you're about to level up, you're going to have that like your body or mind is going to pull you back to the familiar. And I feel like that is a lot of the work here, which is creating this bridge. Because now we know.

Yeah.

Hey, you just showing up is the hardest part. Once you show up, you're good, you're good, you're going there. But getting to that point where you just show up is. Is for me where I'm thinking, how can I make it easier for people, for guys to. To walk this path, to just cross the bridge? Just trust me. Come with us. You're going to receive everything you've ever wanted and more.

Yes.

And I'm wondering, like, I'm wondering if that is something that needs to be figured out or it's something that's just. You keep just sharing the light. And when the people are ready, they walk the bridge on their own. I don't know if you're someone who needed a kick across the bridge. For me, personally, I just, I've always wanted to just keep leveling up. It's. Yeah, I don't really need a kick. I know. It's just in me. Yeah. I don't know if it's in everyone. And that's the thing that I try to, I play with in my mind is, you know, how much, how much do I want to kick people across this bridge? Or how much do I just go, hey, when you're ready, I'm here.

Yeah.

Or we're here. Yeah. You know, have you thought about that as well?

That's a really good question. And coming back from the retreat, remember we were talking, we were, we Were, we were giving each other feedback, Jordan and I, and we gave like a strength and a weakness or an area to improve. And the word that I associated with you was expansion. So that, that makes sense because you're always looking to expand. You don't need someone to expand for you. It goes to the old classic saying, which is when the student is ready, the teacher appears. We're all on this mission, this planet for different missions. And we all have these contracts that are solo signed knowing that we would level up, let's say, at different stages. And it's almost as if, like, I always bring it back to even like, Pokemon, you know, when we level up our characters. Some Pokemon evolved at like, level.

Your Pokemon is evolving.

Yeah, yeah. Some evolve at like level 10.

Sure, sure.

Like, like a caterpie goes to like, whatever the index evolved. But some take longer.

Yeah.

Like, you know, to get to Charizard, it's like the level 50. And so I find that when people are looking to evolve, we each have our own pattern. You can have lighthouses or people that are kicking you and, and literally getting you to level up from like level 10 to like 20. There are those people, and that's when a profound shift happens. But others will feel very intimidated by that and almost will need to be, you know, guided into a slow, you know, uplifting evolve of all evolution.

Yes.

And I think it depends on the individual, but ultimately we all want to grow. It's how, how safe do we feel in it? That's the question. Yeah, I will jump from the CN Tower if I know 100% that I will land into, you know, a pillow and I'll be safe. You know, if you're not letting me feel that, then I probably won't do it.

Yeah.

And it's the, it's the analogy of, like, how safe do we feel in this evolution? Others are more risk takers. And I find there's a sweet spot between wanting to give people every reason to believe and also allowing them to find it in themselves and say, man, you know what? I'm going to take this risk. I'm going to go for it. And I think that's the, that's the sweet spot. It's like, can we provide enough information, enough testimonials, enough proof that this will work? But the. At the end of the day, we can't hold your hand through this. You got to step up and do it yourself.

Yeah, that's. That's actually a part of the initiation.

That is.

It is as a warrior. That's your Initiation. Yeah. To.

Exactly.

To go. I'm scared. But I'm going to do it.

Yeah.

I'm scared. I'm going to. I'm going to take the leap anyway.

Exactly.

You know, I actually feel like that's what sport or playing sport at a high level really gifted me. I'm sure you experienced that as well. It gifted me that from a young age. Keep stepping into arenas that scare you.

Yeah.

You know, and it's directly applicable on the sporting field and off the sporting field. Definitely accustomed to just showing up even when you don't want to. You're going to have that ability in business, in relationships, in all these areas to be like cool. Like. I'm scared as fuck right now. I'm out of my depths. But hey, I'm gonna figure this shit out. I'm gonna swim or I'm gonna. I'm gonna play better. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the. I guess the invitation.

That is the invitation. That is the invitation. And there's a reason why, you know, the top or people are at where they are and the rest, let's say I put it in quotation marks, are where they are. Because only select few are willing to do the things that others aren't. Only few will jump. The rest will want to stay.

Yeah.

So the question is, are you currently happy with your life? Are you currently happy with things the way they're going? If you are, that's probably because you've taken risks, because you're. You've allowed your soul to expand. If you're not happy, if you have, if you have issues with yourself, with others, that's probably because you're staying within the confines of your safety. And your soul deep down knows you are meant for more. Subconsciously it knows. You might not think it, but your body is telling you otherwise. 100 the body always keeps score. It always knows. And so the question is, if you're, if you're feeling unfulfilled, if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling a certain heaviness to your day to day activity, your day to day thinking, that means there's. There's something inside you that is telling you it wants to expand, it wants to change, wants, wants to grow. But you're almost keeping it confined. That is it. That's literally the reason why we feel stuck. We feel because we literally, our souls are meant to evolve every single day, every experience we get, that's it. But if we're keeping it stuck to a leash and just, you know, wanting to grow, but we're staying stuck in the same place. There's a. There's a. There's a disparity that happens.

It's entropy. Entropy. You start to. Your soul will start to. I don't even say decompose, but it will start to wither. Wither. Yeah, yeah. Like your subconscious starts to then stop giving you this guidance it speaks about in the book. Remember laws of the spirit world. Yes. Speaks about your. When. When you stop listening to these subtle guidance from your intuition, eventually you won't hear the guidance anymore. You wither away, and then all of a sudden, this. The monotony. Monotony becomes your prison and you lose the light. So if you're getting the guidance, it's like you have to listen to that or start getting in the practice of listening to it, because if you stop listening, your subconscious just goes, okay, he's not listening. Yeah, evolution done.

Exactly, Exactly.

To wait till another lifetime to get these gifts.

Exactly.

So, you know, I think this life, man, I'm like, wow, we are so gifted. The opportunity to learn and grow and get these tests currently in humanity, given the challenges and the darkness that's around it, is really the. The.

The.

The perfect ingredients to. For us to really step up and evolve.

Definitely.

Yeah. Yeah.

I'd like to add a point. When you said about the soul's growth during my exercise, I always. I always bring this back to a really cool, psychedelic experience I had in Peru, where I did San Pedro, which is a type of mescaline, which is. It's a plant medicine that is very in the masculine, and it helps you just understand where your soul is at. And in my visions during. During my session, I envisioned myself having this internal furnace deep down in my gut, in my system, in my stomach. I felt this fire. And we all have this fire, this seed of life that I like to call it. And what happens when we don't blow on the fire or we don't put water on our seed is it's not going to grow. And I looked at myself. This was like about six years ago. And I saw my internal flame was very, very smallly lit. It was dimly lit. It was almost like embers at this point point. And I felt. I felt this wave of sadness, of distress so intensely that I promised myself to never let my flame get so low ever again. And so in that session, I just turned up the dials and I just, you know, gave air to my flame. And I felt this, like, just charge of energy. In the workshop, I asked these guys, how can we feed our Fire every single day. How can we fuel. Add fuel to the flame or add water to the seed so that it may grow and it may literally just come out of our bodies and just come into our expression. And I find when we feel like our seeds hasn't been planted properly, we're not watering it or we're not adding fire to the flame, that's when we start having issues and problems in our lives because we know that our flame can be so much bigger than it is. We all have this amazing flame, and it's. It's really. It's really just a continual to coming back to your flame. It's a practice.

Yeah.

Because we're always looking externally. This world has really bombarded us with external senses, and we rarely come back to the. To the inner world where we say, is my fuel? Is my fuel and my flame, are they. Are they fueled?

Yeah.

Is my flame big? Because we're looking at everyone else's flames, but we're not looking at it. Our own individual flame.

That's it. Well said, you know? Yeah, well said. And knowing what it is that lights your flame, knowing what it is that fans your flame, especially the people that fan your flame, the environments. The thing that's going to be the most challenging for the guys when they return home from their retreat is they plug back into their previous environments. A lot of them that wasn't supporting their flame. Yeah, exactly. So they had five days of the flame just being fucking lit.

Lit.

And the challenge is, okay, now how do you navigate an environment that is not supportive of that? And I have these conversations with many of my clients, man. Because there is a period where you kind of have to pull away. You have to say no to a lot of the things that aren't serving your flame in those environments. And I want to share a win from one of the guys, soul brother Esteban, who was on the retreat. He'd be totally okay with me sharing this, which was. I spoke to him yesterday, and he said he came back from the retreat and automatically he had all these triggers start coming in. Exes hitting him up, a friend hitting him up, wanting to try to pull him in a direction that wasn't of service to him. And he got really triggered and got really angry. He told me that he wanted to react in his previous conditioning. But then he stopped and took a.

Breath, and he let out some of.

That anger and breathe through it and then responded. And I almost started crying, bro, because I was like, brother, that is it. That is it. Everything that we did on that Retreat was so that you could have this gift now and responding and then reacting. And it filled me with so much hope and belief that he's on the path, man. Yes, he's good. As soon as you start operating like that, your environment ain't going to be dousing your flame much anymore. Things are going to start changing, people start treating you differently. Miraculously, things around you start changing and all of a sudden you have the right people around you and you're. You're doing something completely different.

Yeah, it all starts from that.

So I just.

Yeah, great point.

Share that because there is the practical day to day stuff, which is how do you actually take this, this understanding, this, this clarity and when shit goes wrong, like what's, what's going to be different? So yeah, that's. Fuck, man.

That's.

That's really it. That's fills my heart to know that, dude, this has been a really epic conversation.

I really, really.

The eighth the retreat together live on the, on the screen, on the podcast and really hope everyone listening got something from this. And yeah, we're just getting warmed up, bro. This is, yeah, at the beginning of this, this, this magic that we're creating together. But for those that want to dive deeper and learn more about you and can continue this conversation with you, where, where can they, where can they connect with you, bro?

Yeah, they can. I mean Instagram is probably my, my number one platform, so it's just at Dag UTI d A G U T I underscore they can find me there. They can also listen to some music. I have some online guided breathwork sessions on SoundCloud. So it's Danny Sounds. J N I sounds.com Danny Sounds.

Yeah. So are you going to share the set that you play for us in terms of retreat?

I will. I can actually.