Whiffy Washrooms, Global Gestures, and More with Matt Gilhooly

Matt: 00:00:00

I've been going through this season of like the last couple weeks where things feel not great and kind of like I lost my dog in the summer and I didn't expect the journey of grief to be quite as hard. I lost my mom when I was a kid. I lost my grandmother when I was in my thirties. But losing this dog was like losing a shadow.

And so I'm kind of in this moment of where things feel heavier. And so I know that it's really important for me to sit with that and feel it and kind of go through that.

So that's kind of how I heal a little bit, is taking this alone time.

Danny Brown: 00:00:35

Hi and welcome to Five Random Questions, the show where every question is an adventure. I'm your host Danny Brown and each week I'll be asking my guests five questions created by a random question generator.

The guest has no idea what the questions are and neither do I, which means this could go either way. So sit back, relax, and let's dive into this week's episode. Today's guest is Matt Gilhooly.

Matt is a host, creator and producer of The Life Shift podcast, and a marketing communications writer and in house podcast producer for an industry leading mortgage technology company. So, Matt, welcome to Five Random Questions.

Matt: 00:01:10

Well, thank you for this adventure that we're about to go on.

Danny Brown: 00:01:14

Well, I feel it's more your adventure, but I'm here with you, mate. It's all your questions, but I'm right here with you.

So I've got your back, I've got you, holding your hand. And I've got to ask you, Gilhooly, that's an Irish surname. It is, right. And I looked up Gilhooly because I thought I kind of recognized, obviously with me being Scottish.

The Scots and Irish share similarities and we share a common language in Gaelic, obviously Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic, a little different, but we share similarities. And I learned that the literal translation of your surname is the son of the follower of the shoulder. And did you know that?

Matt: 00:01:48

I did not. That is. That is interesting. I don't know why I haven't known that.

Danny Brown: 00:01:54

Well, and I was just wondering, like the son of the follower of the shoulder, like how do you follow someone's shoulder?

Matt: 00:02:01

I mean, I guess if they're really tall and you're short, your head might come right up to their shoulder and you just kind of follow them.

Danny Brown: 00:02:07

Yeah, yeah. Looking up to the shoulder. So there you go. A little tidbit for you to take back.

Matt: 00:02:11

Thank you. I thought you were going to bring up a incident in the nineties, where someone had a very similar last name but not the same last name.

Danny Brown: 00:02:18

Oh, I don't know that. Do I need to Google that? Do you want to share?

Matt: 00:02:21

Well, that's the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.

Danny Brown: 00:02:24

Oh, right. Yeah.

Matt: 00:02:25

Jeff Gillooly, which was.

Danny Brown: 00:02:27

Oh, have I been pronouncing it wrong? No, apologies.

Matt: 00:02:29

No, you said it correct. That is the incorrect way. That's a different last name. But growing up, that was. Everyone was like, is that your uncle?

I was like, my uncle has the same last name, not a different last name.

Danny Brown: 00:02:40

So that's awesome. And I gotta say, as well, I followed you online for a while now, and I've listened to your podcast and I've never.

And I may have just missed it, but I've never seen you utter a mean word about anybody. Do you have any meanness in you?

Matt: 00:02:57

Not publicly. I think that I have. I actually have said this recently with some friends, thinking I don't think I've ever yelled at anyone in person. I.

I don't see the point. I think there's.

I guess growing up in the eighties, like, parenting was a little different, and I think there was a lot more yelling that was involved and those kind of things. And I think I just never really liked that much, and I never absorbed that. So I don't think I'm publicly mean.

I think I probably think mean thoughts about people and events because I think, you know, we're human, so we have to have a range of emotions, but it's not really worth putting it out there into the world.

Danny Brown: 00:03:37

I hear. I. I grew up a decade just before you, so I was a kid in the seventies, and my parents were very vocal and physical as well. So I'm.

I much prefer the approach that you take where it's, you know, the calm kind of discipline if needed.

Matt: 00:03:55

Yeah, you try. I mean, it's. It's hard. I mean, especially in trying times, I think it's really hard to try to stay centered.

I'm not perfect, but I try not to be mean to other people, at least on purpose. Unless they're the podcast producers. That or.

Danny Brown: 00:04:11

No.

Matt: 00:04:12

What are they? They want a promoter. Oh, yeah.

The podcast experts that want to promote your show and tell you they can get ten thousand downloads in a day, then I kind of get. Stop emailing me.

Danny Brown: 00:04:21

Yeah, then that's. That's where it starts to come up. Well, I will try not to ask any questions that encourage meanness to come to the fore and the public.

Matt: 00:04:28

That's fine. We can try.

Danny Brown: 00:04:31

If we're ready. Matt, are you ready for your five random questions this week?

Matt: 00:04:34

As ready as I'll ever be.

Danny Brown: 00:04:36

Okay, let's have a look and see what we find. Okay, Matt, question number one. If you could paint a picture of any scenery you've seen before, what would you paint?

Matt: 00:04:47

Oh, I feel like that one was easy. So thank you for the easy start. I went to Thailand in twenty eighteen on a whim.

I had quit my job a couple months before and randomly on Facebook, I was like, hey, anyone want to go on a twelve day trip to Thailand and randomly. This girl that I went to college with, we took like one class together, was like, I'll go.

And so we kind of met each other on the trip, but we went to Thailand and we were able to go to the spot where the movie The Beach was filmed. I don't know if you saw that with Leonardo DiCaprio.

So we went to that spot and it was right before they shut it down to all of any kind of travelers for years because it was killing all the coral reef underneath. And so that was just like picture perfect. Beautiful. Like, I feel like it was something that felt like it was in a movie.

So if I could paint that, I would certainly paint that. But luckily I have pictures so I don't have to paint them.

Danny Brown: 00:05:40

And are you an artist? Would you be able to create a reasonable rendition of it or.

Matt: 00:05:46

I feel like I could say, yes, I am an artist, but I. And no to the last question.

During the pandemic, though, I did try my hand at digital art and I drew a lot of like, pets and I created coloring books and they're all on Amazon now. So I guess kind of an artist, but I don't think I could paint.

Danny Brown: 00:06:03

Something like that and digital art then. So what's. What's the difference? I mean, obviously the name digital in front of art, but is that with tools?

Like not Photoshop, but I guess more creative tools, or is that something different? How does that work?

Matt: 00:06:15

I did it with my iPad. So I had my iPad and then I had an app and then I had like the Apple pencil and basically those were my tools.

I always tell people, like, I can do digital art because you can make all sorts of mistakes and you can kind of fix it and it's a lot easier. Like real art where you have a paintbrush or markers or pen. Like, no, that's just not. It's not in my wheelhouse.

But I can use a Apple pen and Apple pencil, I guess on the iPad. I don't know If I still can, I kind of moved on to podcasting from that journey.

It was a little trying to find different things that would fulfill the silence that was during the pandemic. Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:06:52

And we all know how busy podcasting can be, actually.

Matt: 00:06:55

You only know if you're doing it. You think it's like, just show up and record and then you're done.

Danny Brown: 00:07:02

And we know that's not quite the case. So the girl that went on vacation with you, still in touch now you're good friends or.

Matt: 00:07:07

Yeah, we're good friends. Yeah, it was really.

It was fascinating because I think normally growing up, I probably wouldn't have taken a risk like that because, I mean, I really only knew her from a class that we took twenty years ago. And so we went. And that's thirty hours to get to Thailand. So we got to know each other in that.

And then we, you know, shared hotel room throughout the entire. All the different places that we went in Thailand. And it was so easy. Like, it was just a great experience. And so, yeah, we're good friends now.

She was actually on my podcast early. Early on. Like, number four.

Danny Brown: 00:07:37

Oh, I'll check that one out then. But that's. That's cool. So we know that Matt could paint. Whether he wants to paint or not would be maybe another question he would want to.

Matt: 00:07:47

I don't know if I'd be good anymore.

Danny Brown: 00:07:48

Good. You'd be better than me, mate. And that's. Yeah, that's. That's the main thing, I guess. All righty. Okay, then.

So let's have a look and see how we do with question number two. Okay, here's a bit more of an introspective one, I feel. If the first one was easy, Matt, we're going to start catching up with others now. Question two.

When was the last time you took some time to be alone?

Matt: 00:08:12

Yesterday. I think this is so important. This is, like, number one for me in the last maybe, I don't know, five, ten years.

I think this is so important to realize how much alone time is valuable and a recharge and gives you a moment to, like, think through the things that maybe are running through your head without any kind of other distractions. So I try to do this regularly.

I've been going through this season of, like, the last couple weeks where things feel not great and kind of like, I lost my dog in the summer, and I didn't expect the journey of grief to be quite as hard. I lost my mom when I was a kid. I lost my grandmother when I was in my thirties. But losing this dog was like losing a shadow.

And so I'm kind of in this moment of where things feel heavier. And so I know that it's really important for me to sit with that and feel it and kind of go through that.

So that's kind of how I heal a little bit, is taking this alone time. So yesterday was the answer to. The short answer is yesterday.

Danny Brown: 00:09:18

And do you have. So where you live, do you have like a good space you can go to or do you have to jump in a car, go somewhere quiet? Is it a trail or something?

Matt: 00:09:25

I could do that. I don't though. I can just lay in bed and take that time alone. I can sit on the couch.

The other day I took a half day at work because I wasn't feeling so great and put on. I got these. I don't know why. Let's talk about wasting money. But I bought the Sonos headphones and they're really good at noise reduction.

I also have the AirPod Max because I like to waste money apparently. But they blocked out everything. And then I just watched television or watch something that was like kind of comforting in a way.

And that gives me enough isolation in which I can do what I need to do.

Danny Brown: 00:10:02

And I guess with your job as well, you mentioned it's a technology-led company. I was speaking to Elsie Escobar, she's one of the guests coming up after you actually, recorded this week as we record.

And one of the things that she said as part of her answers was how technology is great for connecting us, but also bad for connecting us because it does take away some of that alone time and space and quiet and silence that we need. So how do you manage to switch off being A,

in the industry, B, a creator in a tech led industry and having technology around you, how do you manage to switch off with that? Beside you?

Matt: 00:10:40

I agree with the statement that technology has those impacts. I think it's as easy though as like turning off the distractions if you don't want them, you know, like I can put my phone down if I need to.

Do I choose to all the time. Do I want the human connection? Maybe and.

But if I don't, I just shut it down and just don't look at it, you know, So I can, I can easily do that in the way that I need to. But she's definitely right. It's like, it's good and it's bad because I'm someone. I don't know if you're type A like me, but if I see a notification.

Like, if there's a badge on my phone, I have to clear it. Like, I don't want to. I don't want to see the numbers there. So that can be really harming. But I can also just put it down and just not look at it.

And then you just don't know it's there.

Danny Brown: 00:11:27

Well, I know a lot of people use the Calm app as well to help. Do. Do you use anything like that? Have you got a soundtrack that you listen to? Or is it just whatever takes you at that moment?

Matt: 00:11:36

Yeah. This is going to sound terrible, but it's really like. There are some true crime podcasts where the voice of the person is really what the.

The relaxation part of it is, not necessarily the story, but, like, think of, like, Keith Morrison or something on Dateline. Like, he has a very distinct voice that is strangely calming. And so it's like things like that where I have something that.

Or it's a TV show that maybe you know really well that has good memories of you watching it when you were younger or whatever it may be. That is. I think it just needs to feel comfortable for me, so I don't use the meditation things.

The problem with me is that I'll try to do meditation, and then I get stuck in my head where, like, am I doing this right? Like, what am I supposed. You know? And then I get in that cycle of. So I'd rather just find something comfortable and normal to kind of go to.

Danny Brown: 00:12:27

The recommendation is the tone of the voice, but maybe not quite so much the gruesome murders that are happening in the background there.

Matt: 00:12:35

Yeah. And I do. I don't think I listen to true crime podcasts that are quote unquote, gruesome. I think I listen to them more for the puzzle aspect of it.

I feel like it's more of a. Like a whodunit kind of. Or, you know, putting all the puzzle pieces together is what interests me. Not necessarily the gore or.

I don't think any of the ones I listen to are, like, very. They don't spend a lot of time on the description of said crime.

Danny Brown: 00:13:02

Nope. I will try to keep the next question nice and calm as well.

Matt: 00:13:06

So.

Danny Brown: 00:13:07

So we don't have to worry about any kind of gruesomeness.

Matt: 00:13:10

Oh, no, you're fine.

Danny Brown: 00:13:13

Okay. Here's an interesting one. Question number three, Matt. What makes people perfect for each other?

Matt: 00:13:21

That's a good question. What? I don't. I don't think. I don't agree with perfect. I think that we could reframe it. A little bit.

I think what makes people click in particular moments of their lives are the things that they need to connect with or be taught or things that they're curious about. I think that's what makes a good connection between people. I don't know that two people are ever perfect together or for each other.

I also don't think that everyone needs someone to be perfect for them.

I think that if you are, this is going to sound so kitschy, but I think if you feel good in your own skin and you know what you need and you know what you want, you find the people that fill those particular pieces, but they don't have to be perfect and they don't have to solve all the things. I think I'm getting triggered right now by the word perfect because I'm a former perfectionist.

But I think that truly you do need to just be really good and know yourself well enough to know what you need and what you know so that other people are not bad for you. I think that's a good caution.

Danny Brown: 00:14:36

No, and you make a really good point about perfection because what does that look like? Does it mean that someone.

So have you got a narcissist, for example, is the alpha in the relationship and they find someone that's super dominant and will never ask questions. So that makes them perfect for that person. But that doesn't make for a healthy relationship. So I completely get you on that.

Do you feel that opposites can attract as well? Do you think there can be sometimes too much of a difference that will have issues down the line?

Matt: 00:15:08

I think yes and yes.

I think there are pieces of the opposites attract element that are really valuable, I think as a human, because I think we can learn from those things if we're open to learning. I think opposites attract in that way, but I think long term it could be also damaging. Right. I think it pushes someone.

Maybe it pushes someone to conform or to adjust something that maybe they're not comfortable doing. Maybe they were curious about it, but they didn't necessarily want to become.

I'm thinking like someone that's like a super party-er and then someone that's more of an introvert. I don't think either conforming to the other side would be great for either person, but I think it could be fun at the beginning. Right.

I think it could be a good learning experience, a good connection, but maybe not a long term, like relationship, maybe friends, but relationship might be hard.

Danny Brown: 00:16:04

I know as a super introverted person, which my wife always laughs at because I used to be like super involved in social media and I closed my original Twitter account down years ago. But I'd got to like a high level of followers, numbers and blah, blah there. And I was super engaged all the time.

But in physicality, in real life, if you like. I'm not like that.

If we go to a party, I'm the one that's in the corner and I'll try to look for someone that I might know and hang around them so I could see. You mentioned if I was, if my wife was an. A super extrovert. There's no way that would work. I don't feel.

I feel I would be under too much pressure to try, convert and be more, you know, open and party like, etc for you. I like the way you switched that around and looked for more.

The click, you know, what clicks, what parts, click, what parts don't, etc for your ideal, whether it's a partner, a friend, a peer, a mentor, whatever it may look like. What would be the kind of things that you look for that are super important to click with Matt?

Matt: 00:17:13

I would definitely say someone that has achieved something that maybe I'm in awe of and it doesn't have to be something major. It doesn't.

It could be, you know, like they've managed to do something on their own that not a lot of people can or something that might inspire me because I think that pushes me a little bit to our earlier point of like we feel like we have to convert. It's not necessarily that I want to convert, but I do want to see what other people are doing, see that the path could be possible.

So I think that's really valuable for me.

Definitely need someone that likes some similar things because I like to share this nonsense, whether that's pop culture stuff, whether that's whatever it might be. I like that kind of stuff too. So that's important to me.

And someone that also knows when to be serious or when it's important to be serious and when we don't have to be. I think that a lot of people are afraid of being serious and that's really important to me at certain times.

I think in my own healing journey that's been very valuable. And when people can't or won't go there, that makes it really hard to stay connected in any kind of meaningful way, if that makes any sense.

Danny Brown: 00:18:27

No, definitely. And I feel you on that because I'm one of the worst people for misjudging that moment.

And I'll say something trying to inject about humor not the right thing to do. So I hear you. But it can be a fine balancing line because you do.

You may have good intentions behind what you're trying to say or do, the actions you're trying to take, but it's just whether you've misread the room, misread the emotion or whatever, it's not the thing that that person needed at that moment. And you mentioned, obviously you've had tragedy in your life.

I'm sure you've come across examples like that where the person's been good intention, but they've just said unfortunately, or action. The wrong thing at the wrong time.

Matt: 00:19:06

Yeah, like my first thirty years of my life. I think. Yeah, I think you have to be in the season of your life where you're also ready to do that.

I don't think everyone is like automatically ready to be at whatever level someone else needs you to be. But to your point, like, there's never the right thing to say.

So, like, even if you are trying to inject humor in a moment, as long as you're coming with good intentions, I don't think to our earlier point, have you ever been mean kind of thing? Like, I don't think that would suck if you were just like straight up mean. But if you're just trying to add a joke, I don't think it's too bad.

Danny Brown: 00:19:39

I hear you. I hear you. And I feel that's a good intentional moment. Really poor connection there.

To move to question, now I have to work on my little bumpers there. I feel that's a good, good time to move to question number four. Okay, this, this is a good one. I'm looking forward to this.

Matt, question number four. If you had the world's attention for thirty seconds, what would you say?

Matt: 00:21:22

Should I make a joke? Listen to The Life Shift podcast? No, I think that one's hard. Would everyone be listening?

Danny Brown: 00:21:31

Yeah. You've got the world's complete world's attention. You've got auto translate on and everything.

Kind of like the president's speech in Independence Day.

Matt: 00:21:39

No, they would be listening. Would they actually do what I'm telling them to do?

Danny Brown: 00:21:42

That's up to you.

Matt: 00:21:45

For me, I think mine would just be so selfish sounding.

I wish that people would reflect more on their own what they've done in their lives and how things have changed them and how moments maybe weren't the best or maybe they weren't great in certain moments. So I think if I had the ability to be like, you know, take a moment to have a little bit of self awareness. I have to find a way to say it nicely.

But I think it's so important because it goes to all the other earlier questions that we've talked about is like making these connections with other people.

If we don't know who we are and we don't know the things we did that maybe we could have done differently or would have had a different outcome, I don't think we move forward as much as we could if we all did that.

So I would try to find a way to get people to be more reflective and more self aware so that maybe we could come together with the vast amount of things that we have in common compared to all the things that we tend to focus on that set us apart. So I find a better way to say that. But that's kind of the message I would want people to have because it took me a while to get there for myself.

And now that I'm here, it feels a little bit better and I feel like it can create better relationships, better friendships, better whatever ships it allows me to do my podcast, you know, it's like all these things allow me to have more meaningful experiences. So I wish other people would do that as well.

Danny Brown: 00:23:10

And I guess as a follow up to that, I love that answer as well. I feel like you said the world needs that, you know, for people just to be more reflective and self reflective.

Especially if there was, and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to mate.

He proposes with this, but if there was like a certain section of community or certain person, leader, whatever, that you might feel needs to take more reflection, it might change their outlook. What would be the ideal outcome? You don't have to name a leader or anything you don't want to.

What would be the ideal outcome for that particular person or subsection of society?

Matt: 00:23:50

I feel like you could almost blanket a lot of politicians in this bucket. And I don't know if that's where you were pushing me, but I think.

Danny Brown: 00:23:57

I didn't want to push you. I was trying to really cast that aside and let you...

Matt: 00:24:01

I mean, I think it, it goes to kind of just the way I see or the way I lean politically is that it's not all about me. Like it's not what's best for me. That's nice. It's nice to have things that work for me.

But also I think it's important to realize that not everyone is like me and not everyone has the things that I have and I don't have everything. That other people have. And like, if we can kind of find this collective good, then I think we're all better off.

Like even if it does, even if it means, you know, so and so doesn't get this giant tax break, but it helps this person that can barely survive over here. Aren't we all better off in that way? I mean, it feels, it feels like it.

So I think it would be like these people that are in positions of power that have decision making power that affects more than just themselves, if they're not as self serving, if they had this awareness of like who they are and how what they do impacts other people, then maybe collectively we'd be better off.

Danny Brown: 00:25:07

Yeah, no, I hear you.

It kind of reminds me a little bit of the very early days of the pandemic when the complete world switched down for like a two week period and you saw all the news channels showing empty streets and nobody was on the street. And it felt we had an opportunity then, like the whole world was working as one then basically.

And it felt like we had an opportunity then to really reset. Not like the Great Reset that a lot of conspiracy theorists are talking about, etc, but just reset our mindset and our how we move forward together.

And I feel we blew that, you know, for whatever reason, there's lots of reasons, but I feel we blew that opportunity. So I, like you say I'm one hundred percent about the greater good for the whole, you know, as opposed to the greater good for the few, if that makes sense.

Matt: 00:25:52

Yeah, I would say, I'd say collectively we blew that, but I think a lot of people like nailed it, like in a good way. I think a lot of people realized what was important to them, what mattered to the people around them, how they were living their lives.

They made decisions to change that. Whether that on the surface sounds like it's bad, but like a lot of people got divorced or a lot of people did these things.

On the surface that sounds bad, but maybe it's not. Maybe now they can go live the life that they were intending to live or made them their best selves. And so yes, I think collectively we blew it.

But I think a lot of people I know kind of really rose up in that, you know, in that situation and are quite different and maybe quote unquote, better people now.

Danny Brown: 00:26:40

No, I like that. I like that. Well, we're almost at the end, Matt.

I don't think we've been doing too bad for you here, so let's see if we can keep the streak going with the final question. Question number five. Okay. Yeah, that's a fine one. I feel for.

To end off question number five, Matt, what would be the best thing about not having a sense of smell?

Matt: 00:27:04

I mean, I feel like this is obvious. Like, public restrooms, I think, is like, number one, gross. Like, that's it.

I mean, it would be terrible because you wouldn't like to really eat, really. I think smell is important when you want to eat, especially. We were just talking about the pandemic.

A lot of people that ended up with COVID didn't have a sense of smell for X amount of months. I, fortunately, have never had Covid. So I get to win some kind of award right now. But I think public restrooms. Yeah, it's pretty gross.

People are disgusting. So I think not having a sense of smell would make that experience a little bit better.

Danny Brown: 00:27:41

No, I'm. And try not to get too gross here. But I agree. I am. I used to. We moved to a little village back in twenty nineteen, so just before the pandemic kicked in.

But before that, I lived and worked. Well, I worked in Toronto. I lived in a fairly large city about thirty miles west of Toronto.

So anyhoo, my friend and I would always go to a lot of Toronto FC soccer matches, and at half time, you get all the guys going to the bathrooms and they're basically just big, long troughs. There's no individual stalls or anything. Right. And it was horrible. Like, the smell, the splash backs. It's like, disgusting.

Matt: 00:28:18

Yep.

Danny Brown: 00:28:19

So. But I feel you'd also have to not lose sight. That'd be not a good thing.

But have some kind of, like, almost like blocker of when you go in there, because you can. You might not be able to smell it, but you can still see. And maybe that, you know, that reminds your, you know, your scent senses.

Matt: 00:28:38

If you like, am I losing my sense of smell or I just don't have it from birth? Because if I didn't have it from birth, then.

Danny Brown: 00:28:46

I'm going to say, let's losing it. So you've already. You know what smell.

Matt: 00:28:52

Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:28:52

Means, you know what scent means, etc. So you lose it either through an accident or old age or anything like that. So, yeah. So it's in later life.

Matt: 00:29:01

Okay, well, that would be good. And that would be good in a sense that, like, you remember what food smells like. So maybe, like, that helps. I don't know.

I think the sight would still gross me out of what we were talking about before, but I think if I didn't have to smell public restrooms again, I think I'd like, or I don't know if you've ever been to Bangkok, but it's the smelliest place I've ever been. It's so if I didn't have to smell that, it was just like it was.

Think of New York City, but like hotter, more humidity and like twice the amount, three times the amount of people. And think of like trash day every day. And then that. There you go. You get what I experienced in Bangkok at least.

Danny Brown: 00:29:47

A bit like Toronto in the summer?

Because Toronto's on a lake and I can't remember the history behind it, but the way that Toronto was built on the lake, there was something they didn't do properly when it comes to sewage removal or sewage expulsion etc, so come summer, all the sewage that's been piping out of the city is hanging about in a lake.

And because of the humidity and the heat and everything, if you're in downtown Toronto, all the raw sewage smell is coming up through the vents and it is horrific. So I can imagine it's kind of like that. Maybe I'm not sure on what level. Obviously Bangkok's like.

I do know I have a friend that traveled and I can't remember where he went. He said the first thing that he noticed when he stepped off the airplane was a real overpowering scent and he couldn't quite place it.

So I'm guessing maybe it was something like that. I'm not sure.

Matt: 00:30:36

In Toronto?

Danny Brown: 00:30:37

No, no, no, no. This was like abroad somewhere.

Matt: 00:30:39

Oh yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:30:39

But yeah, Toronto is awful in the summer, especially like a humid day. It's just like the smell coming up out of the vents, not good. What smell would you miss the most, do you think?

Matt: 00:30:49

You know, I can't eat it anymore, but I really like the smell of fresh bread.

Like I feel like that, like walking through, like when I was in Paris and like the bakeries and the fresh bread at like six o'clock in the morning when they're just making everything, it was like, is this real? Like I can't eat gluten anymore. So it's kind of a sad day. But, but I would miss having scents like that, I think.

Danny Brown: 00:31:13

Well, Paris especially I. I went there years ago and this was the first time I realized that. Like I didn't realize but I was shown it.

So bakery, making fresh bread and you've got all the aromas there and then they give you this really thick cup of decadent chocolate, hot chocolate and so you'll dip the bread in and eat that. And I've never had anything like that in my life, you know, before or since. Crazy. So I'm with you on the fresh bread.

I love the scent of a good baked love aroma floating about there.

Matt: 00:31:43

I had a croissant in Paris, and I'll never forget that experience. It was just like eating buttered air. Like, it was so good, but.

Danny Brown: 00:31:53

Buttered air.

Matt: 00:31:53

Yeah, I mean, it was just like, you have croissants here in the States and they're just hard. They're just not. You can't have anything like what I had in Paris here, I feel like. So that was just an experience to remember, and I think I would.

I will remember that one. Maybe not the smell, but the experience of itself.

Danny Brown: 00:32:11

Well, speaking of experience, kind sir, we've reached the end of your five random questions. And I feel they were. They were. They were okay there, mate. I think they were okay.

As is the only fair. It's now time for me to hand over to you.

I've put you on the spot for the last thirty minutes or so, so it's only fair for me to hand over to you so you can ask. You. You can ask your random question of me.

Matt: 00:32:32

Well, mine's not random. Mine is just so. It's what I do on my podcast.

So I'd be curious if you've ever thought about it, if there's a specific pivotal moment in your life where kind of was like a line in the sand for you where one day you were this version of Danny, and then the next day you were someone else. So do you have a life shift?

Danny Brown: 00:32:54

I. I do, yeah. And not a lot of people know this, so you get an exclusive here as well. On my own show. Damn it. Yeah.

So a few years back, I had a bit of a drinking problem. It wasn't good. I'd gone through some heavy stuff in life, so that. And that kind of alluded to that, but it's no excuse. No excuse at all.

And I got to a place in rock bottom where I missed a very important event for my kids because of it. So it took that. I think that's.

I think you have to get to a rock bottom place and realize you're at a rock bottom place to then become a better person or a better version of yourself. So after that, I sought help. I went to an amazing. Not AA. But similar to that, where it's more about.

It wasn't as rigid, so you didn't have to, you know, twelve steps. Follow the steps. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But it was amazing, I think. What was the. The thing called I can't remember what the, the course was called.

Really good. And it made me, you know, look at, well, why, why are you seeking this escape? Etc. So that, and that's not long ago.

That's maybe I'm gonna say eight years ago possibly. Yeah. And it wasn't like I was drinking every day, but when I did I wouldn't stop, you know, so that was the bad thing obviously.

So I go for the week, fine, then at the weekend, not good. So yeah. So after that, like I said, my wife and I had a really good heart to heart.

She was amazing at helping, supporting and since then it's been far different. You know, it completely changed a how I approached things.

Obviously it helped me in my professional life but also my, my personal life and especially being a more you know, on point in place father and husband. So yeah, that would be my, my life shift moment. And like I say, I'm not a lot of people.

Matt: 00:34:52

Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:34:52

It's something that obviously a core group of people know.

Matt: 00:34:55

Yeah.

Danny Brown: 00:34:56

But that's it. So yeah, that was me.

Matt: 00:34:57

It's super important to share that I think. I mean not only for you just to offload that, but at the same time you're not the only person that's ever experienced this.

And I think that's to our earlier point of like just the self awareness like you had in that moment in which you missed your, your kids event. It was like I thought I had this under control probably. Right. And then you're like, no, I don't and this is bad.

So I need to do something, you know, and we've all had, we've all been to these places in which we thought it's fine, I will. Oh, it's fine. We just kind of dismiss it and then something happens like that and then you have the choice though at that moment.

So like you made that shift. Like that's good on you. And thank you for sharing that because I think it's so important.

Danny Brown: 00:35:44

Thank you. And then. Yeah, and that was the thing. My wife said that as well. She said you had the choice. I think that was a key thing. Right.

And you took the, you got. It's like that like you mentioned, line in the sand. You can go path A or path B, where you go is up to you.

So I was grateful for the support that I had there as well because that obviously helped as well, having a good strong network there.

Matt: 00:36:03

But so many of us humans take the easy route and you took the hard route. So good on you.

Danny Brown: 00:36:09

Well, thank you and again thank you for the question. I appreciate it. So, Matt, I really enjoyed chatting to you. I knew I'd enjoy it because I follow your show.

I enjoy your back and forth, your interactions with the guests and how you managed to get stories out as well. For people that want to listen to the Life Shift podcast, know more about Matt the person, and maybe connect with you online.

Where's the best place to.

Matt: 00:36:29

To do all these things to find the show? The easiest place? Because, you know, as a podcaster, like, you can say, oh, you can go to this pod. You can go to this link or this link or this.

Just go to TheLifeShiftPodcast.com. you'll find all the places that you can, Apple, Goodpods, Spotify, whatever you need to do on whatever day.

So I think that's the best place to start if you're interested in the show. That way you can find where you want to listen to it.

Me, if you had asked me like a month ago, I would have said Twitter or whatever we call it these days. So I think I'm probably the most active now on Instagram. So that's the Life Shift podcast. Pretty simple there.

But if you're on Twitter, I'm still there. Kind of the Life Shift pod there.

Danny Brown: 00:37:10

Okay. And as always, I will leave the links to those in the show notes.

So if you listen on your podcast app or you listen to this on the website, be sure to check the show notes out and I'll link straight through to Matt and the podcast, et cetera. I think it's funny that Twitter's called X now. There's a lot of people that have made it an X platform.

A bad pun there, but, like, I've seen a lot of people. I'm on Bluesky now. I kind of. I still have my Twitter account, but I've put up like a. A pinned post and gone fishing. And I'm over here, basically.

I see a lot of people making that shift.

Matt: 00:37:38

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like, it's hard. I think we're all going to create another silo over there. It's. It's.

Social media is an interesting beast I did enjoy before the US Election season really ramped up. I felt like it was a really great place, found a lot of great podcasters, and it was.

It was a nice environment that I was enjoying, and then it just got a little haywire.

Danny Brown: 00:38:04

Well, it's like you say, it's like social media is great at connecting us, but it can also be really bad at connecting us with the wrong people for us. Right?

So it's, it's a ying yang trying to protect ourselves, but also having a voice to maybe try, have conversations with people that might not agree with us and vice versa. To try. Think common ground. So we'll see. I'm enjoying Bluesky. It looks like it feels like old Twitter. Like twenty twelve, twenty thirteen Twitter. We'll see how it goes.

Matt: 00:38:26

But I have it. I haven't played with it yet, though, so I, you know, I gotta find time for all this stuff. I don't know how you do it.

Danny Brown: 00:38:32

But I stay up at night when everyone's going to bed. Well, Matt, I appreciate you coming on the show again today, and thanks for taking part in Five Random Questions.

Matt: 00:38:43

Thank you for having me.

Danny Brown: 00:38:44

Thanks for listening to Five Random Questions.

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But seriously, if you were to leave a review, it would make my day. Until the next time, keep asking those questions.