“Never undervalue who you are because you bring more value than you realize. If God can take penicillin from mold, what can he not do with your life when you invite Him?” -Daniel Gomez

 

To dream is a right bestowed to every human. To live that dream is his responsibility. Challenge yourself to reach those goals with our very first guest, Daniel Gomez. Daniel is an International Keynote Speaker, Best-Selling Author, Business and Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, and Podcaster of the Year Awardee, to name a few of his titles. What does it take to have an impressive profile like that? One crazy idea! Daniel shares how to build the confidence and courage to walk a path that seems bizarre and live a life that’s worthy of your value. As Daniel says, You Were Born To Fly! What better way to start our inaugural episode than to get you motivated and all ready to take on that next step! Tune in!

 

Takeaways: 

03:05 One Crazy Idea!

10:13 Cheer Yourself 

20:00 Quit Suppressing Your Emotions 

26:41 How to Deal with Unresolved Issues

32:55 Follow Your Dreams 

37:31 Be Somebody’s Miracle 

44:14 Nothing Feels Better Like Giving 

47:33 You Were Born to Fly 

52:07 Never Undervalue Your Worth

Resources: 

Book

 

Podcast 

 

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7 Steps to Fly Daily Free Training with Daniel Gomez

Just Text: CONFIDENT to 26786

 

Have you ever had that one crazy idea that you know will inspire many? Bruce sits with best-selling author, keynote speaker, and business coach @danielinspires to talk about how to breathe life to your dreams. #podcast #RecipesForAGreatLife… Share on X

 

Quotes: 

01:45 “It’s a beautiful thing when you wake up and you realize you’re just human.” -Daniel Gomez

05:10 “We live our lives in such a way that we force ourselves to think that we’re happy when we’re not.” -Daniel Gomez

05:51 “No matter how bad something is, something good will come from it. You don’t see it at the time but the most important part is that you look.” -Bruce Jeppesen

10:23 “There’s a point in your life where you got to stop living on the sideline. It’s a lot easier to cheer other people on but sometimes you got to cheer yourself on.”  -Daniel Gomez

12:19 “So many times we hit that plateau, and then we never do anything from there. Next thing you know, we’re actually dying, but we don’t see it because we’re not seeing it from the outside perspective.” -Daniel Gomez

17:45 “When judgment sits in, it’s just a reflection of the deeper issues within yourself that you haven’t dealt with.” -Daniel Gomez

20:37 “You can only go so long before suppressing your emotions is going to catch up to you.” -Daniel Gomez

23:19 “If you start with anything, start with positive self-talk, and end anything negative. That alone will start changing your life in ways you can’t emit.” -Bruce Jeppesen

25:27 “Maturity is when you can sit in silence and let the other person assume they won. You don’t always have to have the last word.” -Daniel Gomez

28:23 “Nothing kills our dreams, nothing kills our healing like commonality because we go back to what’s common.”  -Daniel Gomez

31:08 “Beauty comes from your ashes.” -Daniel Gomez

39:03 “We might be the only book that somebody ever reads. And if we put out the wrong story, they’re going to miss out on whom they could have been.” -Daniel Gomez

39:22 “Nothing is going to kill us as a person than untapped potential. If we don’t live up to our potential, it ends up poisoning our body because it becomes that unfulfillment that causes unhappiness in us.” -Daniel Gomez

42:24 “Family is not just blood. It’s anybody who wants to join.” -Bruce Jeppesen

43:03 “Nobody makes people feel better than a good home-cooked meal. Food has a way of saying I love you to the tummy.”  -Daniel Gomez

52:26 “Never undervalue who you are because you bring more value than you realize. If God can take penicillin from mold, what can he not do with your life when you invite Him?” -Daniel Gomez

 

Meet Our Guest!

 

Daniel Gomez is an Award-Winning Motivational Keynote Speaker, Business Coach, Corporate Trainer, Executive Coach, and Podcaster of the Year who strengthens the health of organizations by developing its people.

Daniel is the founder and president of Daniel Gomez Enterprises, with over two decades of experience in the arena of Leadership Development & Team Building, Sales Training, Customer Service, and Confidence Coaching. He is the International Best-Selling Author of “You Were Born to Fly”, a book written to inspire and give people the high-performance habits and confidence needed to be the leaders of their own destiny. Daniel’s high energy and ability to unlock the untapped potential in people have made him a highly sought-out trainer for top organizations including the U.S. Air Force to develop their officers. He gives organizations the success principles, leadership skills, and champion’s mindset to develop and build a winning team. Daniel is a true professional and easy to work with!

 

 

Transcriptions:

Bruce Jeppesen: Welcome everybody, this is Bruce Jeppesen. Welcome to my episode on Recipes For A Great Life. Today, we have an amazing guest. Someone who has helped me personally get the one with so many things. Just a great guy. He’s got so much energy. He’s full of life. It’s such a exciting and motivated when you speak to him. Because if you’re in a bad mood, you won’t be after just a couple minutes talking to him. He’s got so much going on. So Daniel Gomez is his name. He’s got a program, Daniel Gomez Inspires. Daniel, welcome to the podcast. And would you mind introducing yourself please?

 

“It’s a beautiful thing when you wake up and you realize you’re just human.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: Man, hey, Bruce. It’s an epic, epic honor to be here with you on your amazing podcast. And I’m honored to be a guest. My name is Daniel Gomez Inspires, and I love people. Bruce, when you were introducing me, I was like, who is he talking about? I needed to motivate myself this morning. And I’ll tell you why. It’s a beautiful thing when you wake up and you realize, sometimes, we’re just human. Because so many times, I think I put too much pressure on myself. And today, I just wanted to be Daniel Gomez Inspires. But I remembered, I was gonna be on your podcast. So I put on my cake just for you, Bruce. Oh, thank you for having me, my friend.

Bruce Jeppesen: Cool. Was a cool shirt, I like the colors. They have a really good contrast that really stands out. It Looks nice.

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. As a matter of fact, it’s funny you say that because I was really hesitant to buy it. And then my wife goes, if anybody can pull that shirt off, Daniel, it’s you. I’m excited to add value to your audience, so thank you for having me.

Bruce Jeppesen: Well, good. Well, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate you being here. This is such an honor for me. And I’d like to start out just to get to know people a little bit more, then they can share with the audience. And then that will help them connect better. And so the first question, I have a list of things that I write down that I kind of like to use, to make sure I get all those questions that I’m personally interested in. And I believe the audience will be also. So the first question I would really like to ask you is, how did you get started doing all this?

Daniel Gomez: Well, life has a way of just putting those little curved roads in front of you. And now, I was on my road to buy a dealership. That was my goal. I was saving up money. Then lo and behold, about four years ago, that idea of mine just went out the window because my wife called me and I could barely understand what she was saying. Something I heard was the word breast cancer come to the phone. And our life changed for the better. You’re saying, how can that change for the better with breast cancer? Well, I’ll tell you, no one wants to see their wife go through breast cancer journey, Bruce. But at that moment, I realized my prominence at work, my job title, the money I had saved in the bank, no matter what success we had, it wasn’t going to save my wife. So it really had me caught on to my higher faith, which is God, and just really believing that God was going to forgive me again because I had served God before, and just turning having one foot in one foot out. It just really opened my eyes that he, I needed God even more now than ever. And by his grace, my wife is cancer free now. 

I had this crazy idea during this first year of my wife’s surgeries and rehabilitation because my wife had major surgeries that first year. I resigned to take care of her Bruce. And at that moment, I was getting ready, putting on the tie. And my little tie rack, I had this email that I had saved for some reason from the automotive industry when I had gone and spoken at a school of high school students. I read that email and I just started crying because I felt the Holy Spirit just say, I want you to be a motivational speaker. And that’s where my journey started. And let me tell you, many people thought I was crazy Bruce, including myself sometimes.

Bruce Jeppesen: I understand that.

 

“We live our lives in such a way that we force ourselves to think that we’re happy when we’re not.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: Yeah, I thought I was crazy. But I think I listened to your Episode 1, and they’re really just, without even realizing it, your introductory episode was amazing. I really spoke to myself, and I think I was kind of that guy in a way too. We live our life in such a way that we force ourselves to think that we’re happy and we’re not. But I can tell you that the best thing I ever did was leave, just running multimillion dollar corporations and opening up my own business for the second time. And lo and behold, here I am four years later adding value to people and doing the best that I can do.

 

“No matter how bad something is, something good will come from it. You don’t see it at the time but the most important part is that you look.” -Bruce Jeppesen

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah. My family, we’ve had, I think, two for sure. My mom, my cousin, both have had to deal with that. And the stress, everything, it takes it out to everybody. But I learned a long time ago that no matter how bad something is, something good will come from it. You don’t see it at the time, you’ll never believe it. You think, how can some of this tragedy and this horrible thing. But if you look long enough, well, the most important part is that you look. And if you don’t just have a lot of time, we crawl into that hole, and we never want to come out again. And that’s what I did. And when I went through my struggles of attempted suicide three times, and deep depression, I was like, how can anything ever get better than this? So after the last time, which was in that summer 2004, I had to get past that. But once I did, I started to look and believe that something good was coming. So I actually moved back to my hometown, back to our family place. And the only thing I wanted to do, because it’s out in nice rural, North Central Montana, I mean, I’m 25 miles from town. And I was like, I just want to go out there by myself, and I don’t want anybody to bother me.

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. It’s funny you say that, because I did a lot of looking. At the moment, I couldn’t see it. But I remember looking in the mirror, Bruce, and I didn’t like who I saw. I saw an arrogant, egotistic gentleman, and it was me. That reflection is a lie. No matter how much cologne we put on, or how many times we change, or the car that we buy, that reflection is a lie. I knew that there were some things I had to change me, Bruce. But if I was to tell you right now that the journey that I’ve been on this path for years of how much I had to change, I would have never, never, never imagined. I needed that much work inside of me. But I say that because you ask, look. And my wife said she never played the victim mentality. She never said, why me? She said, why not me? And because she took that lead in her own journey with her breast cancer, it allowed me, my children to really not see it as a bad thing. But really just support her and embrace it. But the beautiful thing that a lot of healing came out of it for all of us. And what I mean by that is you don’t realize what’s very deep down inside our souls, inside our hearts because we suppress everything. But the moment you open yourself up and you allow God to come in and heal it, I can tell you that the relationships that we’re enjoying now, if you would have told me that four years ago, I wouldn’t, I didn’t even think that was a problem. But I love it. And I saw these problems, and I’ll tell you that you’re 100% correct. When you look, I promise you you’re gonna find it.

Bruce Jeppesen: Sad part is that so many people don’t ever want to look, and I was kind of that way. And after I got home and decided I’m just gonna sit here and be a hermit, and God, that’s not why you’re here. I didn’t create you to be a lump sitting out in the middle of nowhere by yourself. And so that started a journey. I mean, that was in 2006. So it got me here to where I am today through all of those trials or struggles. But the most favorite term I’ve ever heard, and I believe the first time I ever heard it was Ed Mylett. And if anybody doesn’t know who he is, I just recommend you Google him and you’ll find out real quick. He’s an awesome guy. The thing that stuck with me was that things happen for you, not to you. And the first time I heard that, I’m like, whatever Dude, you’re so full of it. Because I just thought he was just trying to say something. But there again, the Holy Spirit’s like, you need to listen to that. And so I did. I learned to quit arguing with God, and it was a smart move.

 

“There’s a point in your life where you got to stop living on the sideline. It’s a lot easier to cheer other people on but sometimes you got to cheer yourself on.”  -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. Well, I love what you said. Because so many times, we want to be that hermit, we want to be just that lump. Because it’s easier sometimes. I can tell you, there’s a point in your life where you got to stop living on the sideline. You gotta stop living on the sideline, and it’s a lot easier, Bruce, to cheer other people on. But sometimes, you have to cheer yourself on because you were born for a purpose. You’re not here by accident. No one is here by accident. And the very fact that you were, the word that comes to mind is curious. That curiosity gets you going, maybe I was born for more. And you ask yourself that. And I can tell you that, if you would have told me that I was going to be doing the things that I’m doing today, I would have never believed it. But it all arrived from the see that my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and a transformation that’s, come on, I came out being a motivational keynote speaker. And from that, grew my business coaching, my executive coaching and corporate training. Now, we have an award winning podcast at Daniel Gomez Inspires show and Sticker Shock Speaking Academy. 

But I say that all these things, because so many times, we put so much focus on, how am I going to do this perfectly? And how is this gonna look? Who cares? Just start where you’re at. And I did what I did, and I can tell you that seeing my wife go through the growing pains of really finding her inner beauty because she had a double mastectomy, Bruce. You and I both know, as men, if we were to use our genitals, we would lose our manhood. Well, when a woman loses her breast, she loses her identity. She lost her womanhood. And just going through those months where she didn’t have her breast, and then going through the reconstruction of everything. I’ll tell you what it made me, really, that get life from a different perspective to really be just more grateful, more appreciative of her, of my kids, of people, like you, everybody. And it’s not to say that I didn’t appreciate people. But I think so many times, we hit that platform. Like you say, you used hermit and lump. We plateau, and then we just never do anything from there because we hit that status quo in our own thinking comfort zone. And then next thing you know, we’re actually dying, but we don’t see it because we’re not seeing it from the outside perspective.

 

“So many times we hit that plateau, and then we never do anything from there. Next thing you know, we’re actually dying, but we don’t see it because we’re not seeing it from the outside perspective.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah, very well said. All that stuff resonated very clearly. And personally to me, things that I’ve witnessed other people struggle with, and I pay attention to that because I didn’t know what it was for years. But in the last few years, I’ve learned that it’s empathy. And in society, empathy is a bad thing. If you’re a guy, it’s not macho. It’s not all this fake, phony BS that this somebody put out. And another person who I started learning from, and watching videos, and reading his book is Brene Brown. She’s got some amazing stuff on there, and she’s got a couple of videos. One’s a TED talk, and the other one is YouTube. She talks about that, and it’s just amazing. When somebody who’s put, she puts thousands of hours into studying that. And she’s a no BS lady. I mean, she’ll tell you the way it is, she’s such a gifted speaker. So once I learned what it was, and that empathy, because I can look at people a lot of times and tell that they’re hurt where a lot of people don’t care. What I see, or I hear it in someone’s voice, or like, let’s just say like some of these YouTube videos where, this compilation of humans fails, or whatever it’s called, and somebody will be riding a bike and they’ll just crash really hard on the pavement or whatever. When I see that, I feel it. I mean, you can just feel that pain because that did happen. I mean, I love that you shared the way that you did. Because the more men I hear say that, the more it encourages me because not enough do, and somebody’s got to sleep from the front.

Daniel Gomez: Yes, I agree. One thing that comes to mind when you said that is I want your audience right now just to picture that we’re sitting at the park having this conversation, me and you, and we look across the walkway, and we see a gentleman there. You can tell by his body language that he said a little down, like discouraged. But when you look into a person’s eyes, you can feel that he can feel that defeat, he can feel whatever they’re going through. And that’s where that empathy comes in. But you can also feel when somebody is in a great mood. If you ever want to know how a person is really, really feeling or what they’re going to look into their eyes, the eyes are the gateway to your soul. So many times we’re so busy that we’re not self aware, that we don’t really take the time when we’re talking to somebody to really look into them deeper, we just glanced at it. 

And I can tell you that when you said about empathy right now, it just reminded me of when I flew to Asia last year to go speak in October. I’ll tell you, I thought I was pretty empathetic. I thought I was pretty compassionate. I said, when I’m an okay dude. I said that to myself. But I can tell you, flying over there to Qatar, to the richest city in the world, and then flying to Pakistan and seeing some of the way that they just, the accommodations that they have, the way they live. I’m thinking, wow, I was blessed by the hotel that we stayed at. It was in the city. We were in several cities over there. But in one of the cities we had, we were upstairs on the rooftop, and you could see literally over the living quarters of these houses. I was just like, wow, like my compassion just grew. And when you have that gift, the compassion just expands within you. You really become even more selfless because I was pretty selfish. I was real, real selfish. I’ll tell you, when I was younger, it was all about Daniel Gomez. 

And now, as I’m getting older, I’m glad that that opportunity opened up for me to go speak in Asia because when I came back, I’ll tell you, I boarded the plane, Bruce. I boarded the plane and I said: “God, what do you want me to learn from this?” Like, what’s the takeaway? Suddenly, Bruce, I just started crying like a baby. And I’m not ashamed to say that I was just crying and just like, second noose level gratitude came upon me. I’m flying back to this amazing country. And even though there’s a lot of things that we have to fix in America, it’s still great. But I say that because as I came back, I cried at the tea party for like about 30 minutes just being grateful. And I had a different heart. I came back with a new heart. But it’s exactly what you’re saying. Sometimes, you gotta get out of yourself. And when you get out of yourself and you start seeing people without judging, because there’s one thing that I learned. Actually, not too long ago, when you judge somebody, when judgment sits in, it’s just a reflection of the deeper issues within yourself that you haven’t dealt with.

 

“When judgment sits in, it’s just a reflection of the deeper issues within yourself that you haven’t dealt with.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Well, you nailed it right there. Most of my life, I was like that. I didn’t understand it. But once I did, I had to ask for a lot of forgiveness. I went to people to apologize. Because when I’m growing up, I was very selfish. But I was selfish out of fear because I had no self worth. I didn’t deserve anything. I didn’t deserve to be noticed. I didn’t deserve compliments, and all that kind of stuff. So out of that comes survival, I mean, I had a great childhood. We weren’t beat, we always had food, we didn’t have any stuff that so many people have to deal with. But I was the youngest of the kids, and I had to go through mom and dad’s divorce in person. And because I hated all the stuff that was going on around me, I was in between. So I’m trying to fix everything, and you’re 12 and 13. You’re trying to fix things. It’s not your job. So that’s where it started. And then when it really hit me was, again, you’re talking about going to a foreign country. 

When I was in the military, we went to Panama. We were down there for three weeks, and we took the train from our base into Panama City. We went through part of it, and the one place was called Colon. And at that time, it was one of the poorest, and maybe the poorest areas in Central America or something like that. But it was just row after row of cardboard shacks. And I’m like, I didn’t know what it was. There’s tin here, and all this kind of stuff. We talked to some of the guys that were based there and they’re like, no, that’s where they live. That’s their home, and I’m like, I saw it, but it didn’t register. And I’m like, I’m going to go to sleep in a bed. I get three meals a day. And other people were laughing and making fun, I never did.

 

“You can only go so long before suppressing your emotions is going to catch up to you.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. It’s just one of those things that I gotta say is, when you really see how blessed you are, and when you really start dealing with those issues, sometimes, we can’t see it because we have pain in our hearts and our souls that we suppress. And the more you suppress it, just imagine a trash compactor, the more you push down bruises is more and more just of anger, jealousy, bitterness, resentment you built in, but you don’t see it. And then all of a sudden, they were triggered. And then that’s when you judge those people. But I’ll tell you, I want to tell your audience right now, he can only go so long before suppressing your emotions. It’s going to catch up to you, and it’s going to show up to you someway, somehow. Whether it’s through a sickness. When you think about people that have arthritis, or they have high blood pressure, diabetes, and these, it’s because they don’t deal with it. There’s unforgiveness, there’s this resentment, this bitterness inside them. 

And then you have other people that have a void in their life that don’t deal with these issues. And maybe it’s trust issues so they’re trying to find just that fulfillment and other things like alcohol, or shopping, or whatever it may be. But they don’t see it because they’re too busy judging other people instead of dealing with the things within their very core. So I want to challenge your audience right now. Take a moment and ask yourself this, do I judge people? Am I jealous of people because of the fact that I have unresolved issues inside of me? And I can promise you this, Bruce, if you ask yourself that question, I don’t care how far along you are in life. We all have resolved issues. And even me, I started off by telling you, I’ve been four years in the making. Well, let me tell you, I’m not even done yet. 

But the thing is, you have to allow yourself to heal, and you have to forgive along the way. And many of us, exactly what you said, we’ve been taught from infancy, from childhood that men don’t cry, men don’t do this. Get up, wipe your knees off. What are you doing you sissy, be tough. We’re taught to just really, how can I say it, don’t deal with it, we avoid it. In the conversation we’re having, because I think this inner bring healing to a lot of your audience because they need to understand that that very thing that you see in somebody else that you don’t like, the likelihood of that being in you is very, very high, and that they don’t want to hear that. But I’m telling you that the likelihood of it being in you is just a reflection of your scene, and you’re seeing the reflection of you, not in the bathroom mirror, but in that person in front of you that you despise.

 

“If you start with anything, start with positive self-talk, and end anything negative. That alone will start changing your life in ways you can’t emit.” -Bruce Jeppesen

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah. Speaking to me way more the, because I was that person. And once I realized that I still catch myself doing it, and now it’s like, what is this person? Why is this person making me mad? And part of it is because they have a gift or the ability to do something that I have not yet developed because I don’t have experience. And there’s no more saying, I can’t, whatever. No more negative self-talk, which that used to be me, that’s about all that ever came out of me. And just that alone, if you start with anything, start positive self talk, anything negative, and that alone will start changing your life in ways you can’t emit.

Daniel Gomez: Yeah, I love what you said today. So this should be, I got a little phrase for your audience here today. I can’t, but how can I? Today I can’t, but how can I? Today I can’t be a podcast host, but how can I be a podcast host? Today I can’t be that motivational international speaker, but how can I become that motivational speaker? There’s always a way of how I can, because you can do anything you put your mind to. The thing is, how bad do you want it? How bad do you want to be that podcast? Or how bad do you want to be that speaker? How bad do you want to really help people? Because helping people is not easy. I’ll tell you, there’ve been many conversations that I had, or just situations that I’ve been in that they’re not easy. Because let’s be honest, sometimes, whether it’s a coaching session, I showed the fake coaching, or I’m speaking on stage, or doing the things that I do. Sometimes, it’s not going to sit well with everybody, and they’re going to be triggered. So you have to learn how to deal with those emotions. And so many times, we don’t learn how to deal with the other person’s emotions. 

What I’ve learned over the years has been amazing. Sometimes, I don’t say anything, I just nod my head. And I think a part of maturity for me has been, I don’t have to react. I don’t have to respond to every comment, every accusation, every question. Funny, even on LinkedIn, I remember some posts I used to put four years ago and somebody will make a comment and I’d be quick to react to it. And now, it’s like, it’s your perspective. I respect it. If I don’t agree with it at all, right? I’m not a political guy. I’ll just delete it. But it’s a comment about God, depending on what it is, but I’ve learned that I have control if I’m going to respond to it or not. And 99% of the time, I think maturity is just when you can sit in silence and just let the other person assume they won. You don’t always have to have the last word. And I’ll tell you, that’s hard for me to say because Daniel Gomez has always wanted to have the last word, Bruce.

 

“Maturity is when you can sit in silence and let the other person assume they won. You don’t always have to have the last word.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah. I know a lot of people that are still like that, I’ve never been that way. Because a number of years ago, I saw one of the best sayings I’ve ever come across. And it says, never argue with an idiot, because they will just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. And after I let that sink in, I’m like, there’s an awful lot of wisdom in that. And then the other thing is people that want to fight if you don’t fight back, they got nowhere to go with. Somebody calls you an idiot, you go, no, thanks. Appreciate it. Or thanks for noticing or something like that. But you just lower your tone, whatever. And you don’t get into that verbal combat. Usually about 30 seconds they walk away like, Oh, that’s a little fun. They’re not good.

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. Well, they know what I find, it pisses them off even more. Because they poke at you, and they poke at you, and they poke at you, and you’re like, it is what it is. Sometimes, this is for somebody, you just got a, if you’re serious about really dealing with these issues, if you’re judging people and you have unresolved issues in your heart and your soul, for me, I really had to find a different park to go hang out. I always call it the playground. You need to find a different playground. And if we look at my social media feeds today than where they were four years ago, totally different. Totally different content. But the thing that’s more important is the friends are different. They’re different. And because nothing’s gonna hold you back, sometimes from forgiving others, or letting go of the things that don’t serve you anymore. Because if you’re hanging out, let’s say that one old friend that says, who gives a shit, or they just have that mentality within that, that rubs off on you sooner or later. And then you don’t care either. 

But when you start hanging around people that says, you know what? I really want to grow. Like, you want to what? You want to grow. And that’s the crowd that I went to. I went looking for those people. But I will tell you that most people, they never experienced the transformation that I went through, that you went through. That Bruce has an advantage because there’s a moment in your journey, Bruce, that you’re going to get lonely. I was lonely, I would say for three or four months, and to where you want to remember, I call it a rubber band effect. You want a rubber band back to who you were, because you’re familiar with that. Nothing kills our dreams, nothing kills our healing, like commonality because we go back to what’s common. 

Even the Bible says, a dog will return to its vomit because it’s what it knows. So it’s time right now for us to not return to that vomit, to that junk that doesn’t serve us anymore. And to realize that once you go through that process of becoming who God created you to be, that on the other side of that mountain, on the other side of that valley that you’re in, in that middle, in that struggle, that once you continue through, you’re going to taste victory. But so many people in life, we start the journey, we’re excited, we start that journey, whatever that journey may be for you and we never taste victory on the far side because we get stuck going up the mountain, or we get stuck in the valley because we don’t want to deal with the issue that we need to, Bruce.

 

“Nothing kills our dreams, nothing kills our healing like commonality because we go back to what’s common.”  -Daniel Gomez

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah. That specific thing right there is going back through the pain. Most people do it. But once I did it, the pain of change was less than the pain of staying where I was because I could not take it any longer. That’s where the suicide stuff came into the depression. But once I waded through it, got to the other side, it’s like dropping off that super heavy backpack after you’ve been climbing that mountain you’re talking about, and you get to the top and it’s like, hold me down. The thing is most people don’t want to do that.

 

 “Beauty comes from your ashes.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: You did it, you did it so that you dealt with the pain. I want your audience to hear this. Bruce said dealt with the pain. The things you didn’t want to deal with. And when you fluff the soil, I say when suddenly get that soil and fluff it. Because now, you gotta put some seeds in. When Bruce decided to do that, now, he has a book, he’s an author. Now, he has an amazing podcast. It’s being syndicated all over Spotify, iheart and iTunes. Look at that? But if you would have wallowed in your sorrow, he would have stayed in that self pity, you would have never experienced the joy of being an author. How many people are authors? It’s less than 2% of the world. Is it a published author and you accomplish that, Bruce. But I say that to your audience because when you stop wallowing in your sorrows, and you stop playing that victim mentality, when you start to forgive yourself, if you need to forgive yourself, or listen to this podcast and you need to forgive yourself, or forgive somebody, beauty comes for your ashes. You get that beauty for your pain, and that’s what Bruce is experiencing. Man, I just want to say congratulations again on all your successes, Bruce. It’s really been an honor just being here with you. I’m loving the conversation, man. So thank you so much for allowing me here. I said that, but I am really grateful. Because when men have conversations like this, it heals our hearts.

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah, exactly.

Daniel Gomez: Because it’s a release valve. So many times, people can have heart centered conversations. Even women, women and men can have heart centered conversations, and they wouldn’t really just have conversations like me and you are, having a day on your amazing podcast, so many hearts and souls will be healed, Bruce.

Bruce Jeppesen: Well, thank you, appreciate it. It means a lot. Receiving compliments and all that stuff, you never used to be able to do it. And now, I’m getting much better at it. And with the conversation we’re having here, there’s so much to it. I want to keep that momentum, but I want to kind of change into some, we’ve talked about that heart to heart stuff, and the things that get to us. But now, I’d like to kind of lead into another direction of that happiness, that motivation, those things that make us come to life. So with that thought, what makes you come alive? I mean, what excites you so you can’t go to sleep at night, and then you can’t wait to get up, that you just got to go do?

Daniel Gomez: What excites me? My family excites me. My wife excites me, my son excites me, my daughter excites me. The fact that I was crazy enough, and 44 years old to leave my job, take care of my wife and start my business, Daniel Gomez Enterprises LLC. And then from that, comes Daniel Gomez Inspires. Really, just showing my kids that doesn’t matter how old or how young you are, you can follow your dreams. That’s what excites me. If you would have told me that I’m going to have the house that we have right now, that I’m going to be just an international best selling author and have the Daniel Gomez Inspire show podcast, I wouldn’t have believed it. But I do that because I come from just beginnings where you’re not supposed to do that stuff. You’re not supposed to do this. So what keeps me going in the morning is when I get to really serve others, add value to others and just really see the transformation in their lives. 

So I would say this, really motivates me is transforming people’s hearts. And I’m not talking about a shallow transformation. I’m talking about a core, core, core transformation where they truly start to believe and say, you know what? Maybe I can. Maybe I can be crazy enough to start that podcast. Maybe I can be crazy enough to start loving myself. Maybe I can be crazy enough to forgive myself because my failures don’t make me a failure. Maybe I can be crazy enough to where I inspire my son to start his own little detail company. It’s just part of inspiring others that brings me joy. As a matter of fact, whenever I’m having a challenging day, like yesterday was just one of those days. It was one of those days when God had me in first gear and I was in second gear. So I just felt like, man, I’m turning left, she’s going right. So I’m like, well, it is what it is. But just praying for people, going out there and serving, it really gives me peace. I’ve learned that when I’m stuck in one of those days, that’s kind of like a little funk because we all have those days. It doesn’t matter who you are, even Tony [inaudible]. You wake up, and when you give without expectation, and you just go out there, and whether it’s buying somebody’s lunch or just saying a prayer with them, or giving them a text message of encouragement, I found that that helps me to really stay inspired and motivated. So that’s kind of what gets me going to, just really adding a hope to the hopeless. Inspiration to the ones that are depressed, and letting people know that, guess what? It’s not where you start in life, it’s where you finish. That’s what keeps me going. I hope that answered your question.

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah. One of the things that I learned a long time ago after I broke through all of these, that once I got to the other side, I learned how much I love to give. And the people don’t know where it comes from. Like, I’ve gone through the drive thru, and fast food, or coffee shop, or whatever, and you pay for the next, say five cars or whatever, it’s like, just put the total on my credit card, I don’t care. Just put it on and do what I need. Drive off, and you’ll never see them. Or if you do something for somebody, maybe you’ve donated something, or paid for something like I’ve ever, well, the original pastor I had at the church when I first moved home, they didn’t have a lot of money. They were young, had a family, and this and that. They had a vehicle and the tires were shot. I kept down, and dude, you need to get tires on that thing. And he’s like, yeah, yeah. Well, he’s one of them, hard headed guys. He was just gonna keep going. 

So they went out of town for a few days. I took his vehicle down to the gas service stations, throw set of tires on this thing, and when they come and asked who paid for this, they don’t tell. And they’re like, okay, so we kept that, or I kept it a secret about six months. And he kind of thought it was me just because the way I am now. So one day, I find like, yeah, okay, it was me. Yeah, you figured it out. And I’ve done that for other people. So if you do something simple as give, and that could be starting with seeing somebody when you walk by, just smile and nod. Say, hey, or hello, good morning, whatever. And just leave it at that, keep going, that can change somebody’s day. And those, yeah, the things that just make me come alive.

Daniel Gomez: I love what you said because we can’t outgive God. And if God’s prompting your heart to do something like that, just do it. And I’ll tell you, the flesh is always wheat, the flesh is not gonna want to do it. But when you’re being led by the Spirit, and there’s times when God will say something. And I’ll be like, are you sure that’s your God? And then he reminds you, yes, it’s me. And you do it. You just feel so good. Well, let me say that again, you cannot outgive God, you’ve got such in your heart to be that blessing. Follow that lead. It’s just rewarding. Another thing that I would say is when you come to this place of really being selfless, I think you and I both said we’re real selfish. Now, we’re selfless. That’s the highest of the day. Who can I inspire today? Who can I motivate today? Who can I just really add value to them. And that’s what it’s about. It’s just really knowing that somebody out there is drowning, and you’re their life jacket. You are the miracle for that person. So many times we underestimate what one word that we say can do for a person’s day for their life. One word, one message can change their entire trajectory of the day of their life.

Bruce Jeppesen: Yep.

 

“We might be the only book that somebody ever reads. And if we put out the wrong story, they’re going to miss out on whom they could have been.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: But when you sit back and you say, wow, today, I’m going to be somebody miracle. Because you are. Think about that you never know maybe the person behind you, they needed a sign from God, or maybe they didn’t have the money and they were just counting pennies to say, but when you learn to be that miracle, because we might be the only book, Bruce, that somebody ever reads. And if we put out the wrong story, they’re gonna miss out on who they could have been. So there is accountability on our behalf to truly live to the potential that we have. Because nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing is going to kill us, yourself as a person. Then that untapped potential because we don’t live up to our potential, it ends up poisoning our body because it becomes that unfulfillment within us that causes that unhappiness in us.

 

“Nothing is going to kill us as a person than untapped potential. If we don’t live up to our potential, it ends up poisoning our body because it becomes that unfulfillment that causes unhappiness in us.” -Daniel Gomez

 

Bruce Jeppesen: And there, that starts that poison in our body, those diseases, all those things. So one of the first things I started doing was, okay, if I was low on money or whatever, I was like, what can I do? I can at least text somebody or I can messenger them. Hey, what’s going on, just thinking about ya. Hope you have a good day. Whatever, and then just leave it. And I’ve had so many people respond, you don’t know how bad I needed that nobody contacts me and stuff like that. So if you’re one of those people out there who maybe don’t have money to give, and you don’t have much time or whatever, do that. Maybe you don’t even have lunch, there’s still a lot of people that don’t have cell phones and actually applaud. But you can always pick up a phone and call. You could write them a letter card, whatever. And the thing that I personally, is huge for me is food. I love cooking, I love giving and I love watching people eat. Especially if I did something that came up and they like it. So I wanted to ask you, what is your all time most favorite meal you could ever sit down and have?

Daniel Gomez: Well, the one that I cook, I’ll tell you, it’s pretty easy. My son, everybody loves my baby back ribs. And it’s been an amazing journey just to really enjoy that because I would hate to barbecue before. But as my son got older and he participated, he became that young boy, right? I remember my grandpa putting the limb and putting the seasoning on $100 Briscoe, whatever it was he was making. I just remembered that he never taught me to say, but I remember watching him. And I remember how you would do it. You know what? One day, I said I’m going to make some ribs. So me and my wife went to H-E-B over here, it’s a supermarket in San Antonio. Bought some baby back ribs, and should have never done that. Because now, everybody wants my ribs. But I’ll tell you what, just you see the joy of people enjoying the messy barbecue sauce. And man, this is good. And then the meat falling off the bone. I’m getting hungry, just say. And it’s just amazing. I would say that I love to barbecue some baby back ribs. And then alongside with that, some potato salad. My daughter makes them amazing rice, and my wife makes them amazing beans. I think that’s nothing better when you have that type of meal with a barbecue with the family. As a matter of fact, coming up here is going to be Memorial Day so we’re going to have a barbecue here this weekend. But it just nothing brings a family together sometimes, like food. And for me, it’s my baby back ribs.

 

“Family is not just blood. It’s anybody who wants to join.” -Bruce Jeppesen

 

Bruce Jeppesen: And family is not just blood. To me, it’s anybody who wants to join. And food has this amazing way to draw people together. Because if even if you’re a quiet person and you’re uncomfortable in a setting, but if it’s really good food and you’re hungry, you’re gonna sit down, and just the fact that they’re there and you can see, and maybe say hello to them, whatever, they don’t get any better than that for me.

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. You’re exactly right. My wife was just telling me this yesterday that my daughter invited one of their friends over. And I was like, okay, that’s cool for Memorial Day. And my wife was telling me, Alicia is just like you. Like, why? She’s like, well, because Angel and his girlfriend, his wife didn’t have anywhere to go, and she invited them over because she thought that they might enjoy being here with us. I know who they are, but it’s amazing sometimes, right? Because they’re from a different state, and they don’t have any family here in Texas and San Antonio. Just welcoming people like that, you don’t know what it could do for their self esteem for their life. So we always, I always try to invite somebody that may be just, who God puts in my heart. God, what do you want to come to the barbecue? It’s good when you say, you really say words of encouragement to them. And then while you’re having a meal and just to let people know you care, I always think of the great Maya Angelou that says, people always forget what you say, but they never forget how you made them feel. And nobody makes people feel better than a good home cooked meal. Whether it’s food, barbecue, or whatever you may be making. Food has a way of saying I love you, to the tummy.

 

“Nobody makes people feel better than a good home-cooked meal. Food has a way of saying I love you to the tummy.”  -Daniel Gomez

 

Bruce Jeppesen: Yeah, that’s exactly right. As for me, I used to be that person. I remember when I first moved home in 2006 right across the street from my dad’s house in town, was a city park. And they had Sunday potlucks or whatever kind of community, church, whatever. And people kept inviting me and I wouldn’t go because I was so rich, still so shy and insecure, all that crap. And now, I’m the person who’s helping put on the food and going inviting people. And if they don’t show up, maybe some people are working and like, especially a barbecue. We cook up a big pile of different kinds of meat. It’s like, hey, there’s people at the hospital, take a bunch of this, put it on a tray, take it up to the hospital for the staff. Just be a part of it. Does it work, and all that. So that’s where that giving, nothing feels better than giving, to me. Period.

Daniel Gomez: I agree with you on that. I’ll tell you, when you give, it just brings a sweet, sweet sense of joy to your heart, to yourself. I just agree with you on that one. So let me ask you this, since I said great barbecue, maybe back ribs, do you like to barbecue?

Bruce Jeppesen: That would be the understatement of the year. That is my biggest passion is food. Bringing people together and sitting back, I’m always the last to eat if I’m cooking, because I want to sit back and just want people to enjoy it. I want to observe what they’re doing, and they’re eating. When you’re talking about ribs, I’m just like, yeah, okay, competitions on buddy because the more barbecue sauce, the more whatever drips down their arms and all that, the happier I am. And yes, it is such an amazing thing. And I love different ethnicities. But the foods from so many different places, oh, my, absolute go-to meal is a giant ribeye steak on a grill with mushroom salad, coleslaw, big old glass iced tea.

Daniel Gomez: Oh, you and my wife will get along great. She’s a big ribeye person. I definitely agree with that.

Bruce Jeppesen: Rib eyes and ribs [inaudible].

Daniel Gomez: You can’t lose though. Man. I’ll tell you what I said. It reminds me back of memories. When I think of barbecue, it reminds me back when we’d go to the park on Easter or just different days. There was a big park here in San Antonio called Conception Park. And that was our park growing up as a kid. I missed those days. Sometimes, I was here talking to you about it, those days are gone. And of course, we move on and stuff, but you’re bringing back some good memories having this conversation. You’re triggering me over here.

Bruce Jeppesen: Well, I know we’re kind of getting close to our time here. But I wanted to let you know that, got this. Finally showed up last night. I got it at like 4:30 or 5:00 o’clock so I haven’t even had a time to read it. But I know this is one of your books. You have more than one right?

Daniel Gomez: Yeah. You Were Born To Fly was my first international bestseller. And it’s really an amazing book you can get on Amazon. It’s a book on just really building your confidence and self leadership. Because if you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead others. And it really just helps you to find that place where you realize you were born for more, you were born for greatness, you were born for success, Bruce,. Your audience was born to fly. And when you read, You Were Born To Fly, it’s really going to just make a difference in their life. And I promise you, they’re going to take back some amazing things, you’re going to get some amazing wisdom from that. And then our other book is Sticker Shock: The Day You Realize You Were Worth Millions. If you need help in sales and building your confidence in sales, you can’t win in sales without confidence. So Sticker Shock sent to help you no matter what type of industry you’re in, account executive, Sticker Shock, and that definitely helped me out with that. 

So thank you, man. I appreciate your support of the books. But I would say this, the biggest thing that I would say that you’re going to take away from You Were Born To Fly is that you’re going to realize that you matter. There’s an underlying message that I write, you matter. And most people don’t realize that they really matter. So as we’re coming to the end of your show, and thank you for having me again. I want your audience to understand that, you, listening into this podcast episode right now, you matter. You matter more than you realize. And it doesn’t matter, the failures you’ve had in the past, the mistakes you’ve had, the very fact that you’re listening to this podcast, God is saying to you that you matter. 

And if you need more inspiring messages or if you want to follow me, my brand is Daniel Gomez Inspires. You can find me on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on YouTube. Our YouTube channel is Daniel Gomez Inspire Show. And we definitely want to add value to you. What I want to do for your audience Bruce is text the word confident, that’s C-O-N-F-I-D-E-N-T-2-6-7-8-6. I want to give your audience a free training of our seven steps to fly daily. It really helps you to get your mornings going, gives you a PDF and some emails of a morning routine, and to really just tell yourself that you matter because most grown men never tell themselves they love themselves, Bruce. Most human beings don’t do that. So I’m honored to be able to give that to your audience.

Bruce Jeppesen: Wow. Thank you. That’s awesome. I know for myself from experience with you, the work that we’ve done and things like that how important that is. So that’s an incredible offer and gift. So I hope everyone takes advantage of that. And because you mentioned that, I had a book, I want to do this, this is my book, and got the little tag down there on Amazon, and it became a Amazon bestseller on January 28 of this year. I thought it might be coming through backwards. So I want to do this, just for a historical thing. Put these together.

Daniel Gomez: Awesome, man, I love that. I love that. Congratulations. And man, it’s been an amazing time. I want to say thank you for having me. I really enjoyed this podcast with you. So thank you my friend for inviting me.

Bruce Jeppesen: Well, thank you so much for being a part of it. Means the world to me, and to get this podcast going, picking up momentum and stuff that I want the very best on here that will help, inspire and lead. And the people who aren’t afraid to go to those hard places to talk about, I think that’s the biggest problem we have in this country. They talk about the the suicide rate amongst veterans, right now they say it’s 22 a day. I have some friends that are firefighters, and they say that the average is about 400 firefighters a year commit suicide in the US. So dealing with these things, I mean, I want us to come on the show, have fun and laugh, everything we can do. But I also want to emphasize how important it is that we reach those who are struggling, having a hard time and are contemplating ending their life. So I pray that this is going to be a launching point for this to happen. And so Daniel, thank you so much. I mean, how can an hour go by that quickly? I don’t know, but it does. So thank you again. And do you have any last comments or things you want to share?

 

“Never undervalue who you are because you bring more value than you realize. If God can take penicillin from mold, what can he not do with your life when you invite Him?” -Daniel Gomez

 

Daniel Gomez: I’ll just say this, I think my heart was touched. I know my heart was touched today, and it was transformed. I’ll tell you that in life, you meet some great people, and you’re one of them my friend. So I just want to say thank you. And ladies and gentlemen listening to this, never undervalue who you are, because you bring more value than you realize. And if God can take penicillin from mold, think about that. Penicillin was made from mold, stinky, old, smelly mold. What can he not do with your life when you invite him? So this is Daniel Gomez Inspire saying thank you for tuning in. And thank you for having me again. I appreciate you.

Bruce Jeppesen: Yes, thank you again, Daniel, I really appreciate it. This has been a great thing, this whole podcast thing. And what it means to me to get going with it and to actually make it a reality from just that dream, it’s just one of those things you can’t even put into words. But what happens, it takes a few days for it to kind of settle in. It’s kind of like something you want, or somebody you know, however. Anyway, thank you Daniel. I really appreciate it, and we’ll catch up with you again. That wraps this week’s episode of Recipes For A Great Life. Thank you for tuning in, being part of the show. Really appreciate it. I hope that brought you some value. And if it did, please share that information. Look at you on the next podcast. Thank you.