Danny J on Life After the Brand, Mental Health, and Reinventing in Vegas

Vegas isn’t just glitz, glam, and the Strip—it’s people rebuilding, rethinking, and rising.

In this episode of Pursue Vegas, we sit down with speaker, creator, and all-around powerhouse Danny J for a real conversation about reinvention, mental health, and what it means to come home to yourself… especially when everything around you changes.

Danny’s story isn’t linear—and that’s what makes it powerful. She started in fitness, built a thriving online business before it was trendy, then pivoted into real estate, e-commerce, and public speaking. But behind all the wins? A woman who’s learned how to keep showing up, even when life flips the table. “If I find myself slipping into old patterns, I have tools and people and community and ways that I can get back to center.”

We get into what it’s like to rebuild from scratch—whether that’s after a breakup, a business shift, or just waking up to the fact that the version of you that got you here isn’t the one that’s going to take you where you’re going.

Danny also opens up about how the pandemic changed the way we connect—personally, professionally, and digitally. From the eerie stillness of the Strip in 2020 to the loud return of networking events today, Danny reflects on the loneliness epidemic so many are still quietly navigating.

“There’s a pandemic of depression and anxiety for all of our youth and adults.”

Now, she’s focused on giving back locally—whether it’s showing up in schools, speaking on stages, or creating safe spaces for conversations that matter.

This one’s for the women reinventing themselves, the creators finding their voice again, and anyone learning how to start over—with grace, grit, and a little bit of fire.

Key Takeaways:

• Reinvention is never one-and-done—it’s a life skill.
• Mental health isn’t a luxury; it’s a priority. And healing looks different for everyone.
• Vegas is becoming more heart-driven—and women like Danny J are helping lead the way.
• Digital connection saved a lot of us, but real community is where the real magic happens.
• You can begin again, no matter how many times you've had to.

Resources:

• Danny J on Instagram
• Visit her website

This episode is for every woman who's ever had to rebuild.

Because starting over isn’t weakness—it’s the bravest thing you’ll ever do.

Tune in now on YouTube, Buzzsprout, or wherever you listen.

Thanks for tuning in to The Pursue Vegas Podcast!

Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform!

📍 Website: www.pursue.vegas

📱 Follow:

• Instagram: @pursuevegas
• YouTube: Pursue Vegas Podcast
• Or slide into @daveburlin's DM.

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Dave Burlin): Action. All right, welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:00:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Tawi Wyn.

0:00:08 - (Dave Burlin): And every time I say I'm excited for today's guest, but this one has a very special place in my heart because we don't get to hang out as much in person. It's kind of like sometimes you have those friends that you met online and sometimes they stay online friends, but then you have those friends that you meet online and then they become your friends, but you only see each other like twice a year somehow.

0:00:34 - (Dave Burlin): But this one goes way back, right? To a funny time, especially in this city. Vegas was very, very different pre Pandemic from where we are now. A lot of things have changed, but one thing that happened during Pandemic was there was this phenomenal app that saved a lot of people's lives. I feel like it was called Clubhouse. And as weird as it is now, like, it's not really getting like there's still people that do it. I think it's like the same, like 25 people that really did it back in the Clubhouse days.

0:01:11 - (Dave Burlin): But I met the incredible Danny Jay on Clubhouse, and it was just one of those conference call rooms where kind of a lot of speakers and authors and content creators found a home during Pandemic, when all of the real world events were shut down. So welcome. Danny J. Tell us about you. Tell us about what you're excited about.

0:01:34 - (Danny J): Thank you.

0:01:35 - (Dave Burlin): And we'll dive in.

0:01:35 - (Danny J): Well, I'm excited about being here. And Clubhouse, it's like blast from the past. Even though it wasn't that long ago, someone I saw a meme maybe this week about how they can't believe the Pandemic was five years ago. And yet it seemed like a decade ago. And also it seemed like a decade within a year. So it's just kind of trippy to remember back. But Vegas was so shut down. I was actually living in LA at the beginning of loc, and my partner and I drove to Vegas. My parents lived here.

0:02:00 - (Danny J): And we drove just to get a gun. Cause we didn't know what was happening.

0:02:05 - (Dave Burlin): Okay.

0:02:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): Truth be told, after that, things were immediately best friends.

0:02:10 - (Danny J): We watched Contagion and then the Pandemic cabin were like, we need weapons. So we drove to Vegas to my dad's house. We grabbed a gun from his gun safe and then we drove back. But we stopped on the Strip just to. And it was so wild, so eerie, huh? Oh, my gosh.

0:02:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): They.

0:02:27 - (Danny J): And that, like, just made Contagncy more real. It Was like, we need this gun. Right. We stopped in the desert on the way home and we shot in the desert to practice. We were ready for the zombie apocalypse. So I guess what I'm most excited about is like that is gone. Thank God. I mean it's just such a wild time to think back to and go, how do we live through that and think that because it'half a decade of.

0:02:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): Our life is gone.

0:02:48 - (Danny J): I know. I feel like a lot. It's still a lot of my hot years. I'm like, that's'really but you know what'm funny enough. Prior to Pandemic, I was speaking full time. And because of the lockdowns, all those events got shut down. Completely shut down. And a lot of people I knew who ran events, they had to redo the events in 2021. Cause they sold tickets in 2020. So they did them. But then they just stopped doing events.

0:03:16 - (Danny J): And so this year I reallynna try to get back into speaking and doing more events again. I and I've talked with some friends that it's almost like a whole new group of people who are hosting. So I have to almost start from scratch. But that's something I'm kind of excited about.

0:03:31 - (Dave Burlin): Well's you have to or you get to like there's a really good advantage there. It has been unique because I remember when. Because I was a speaker too. And it's interesting because as soon as that happened, I remember the first thing I thought was does what I'm talking about and what I care about hold water and make sense in this new world? And yeah, same thing. Drove down the Strip. I remember the very first Friday, no pun intended, but First Friday is a big deal here in Vegas. I remember the very first Friday after I drove down the Strip and I played last Friday night by Katy Perry and there was zero people. Yeah, like as far as the eye could see.

0:04:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): There's like some cop cars kind of like in the corner somewhere, right? Yeah.

0:04:15 - (Dave Burlin): But I feel like too. So for all of the speakers, not just in person, but virtual, all that stuff, everyone was kind of tested to say, does what I talk about still matter and does it still benefit the people of what we're all going through? So a lot of my stuff I was able to take on a virtual stage. I was talking a lot about networking, building relationships. And I had a kind of a canned presentation that I ended up doing virtually like 100 times.

0:04:44 - (Dave Burlin): And it always brought a different level of value, but it also created this whole generation of people that found their voice.

0:04:51 - (Danny J): Yes.

0:04:52 - (Dave Burlin): I launched a podcast during that time, and even though I only did, like, 28 episodes, some of those people are like, the most impactful people of my life. In my story, I still work with some of those people today. And it's been fascinating to see this new generation one get raised in this new sort of light. And because I also feel like it removed a lot of the gatekeepers, but it also removed a lot of the shady people.

0:05:19 - (Danny J): That s so true.

0:05:20 - (Dave Burlin): And I feel like it just kind of cut through straight to the truth of you. Are these people for real or are they. What is it a fugesiug?

0:05:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): The hell is that?

0:05:32 - (Danny J): Is that a new wor.

0:05:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): Is that a new gen ala languse Might be. Sometimes when they talk, I don't know what the hell they're talking about.

0:05:38 - (Dave Burlin): I Donnie Brasco. No, it's fugazi. All right.

0:05:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's a fugazi.

0:05:42 - (Dave Burlin): Homework for both of you.

0:05:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Go.

0:05:44 - (Danny J): There we go.

0:05:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, but speaking of networking and both of you being speakers, this is one of my favorite questions that Mike Kim, our favorite person, sorryike we ran out of time, he was like, if you only know someone on Zoom or through an online connection, do you actually know them? And are you actually friends? Right. Cause you guys said you met through Clubhouse and a lot of these new world transactional relationships through LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and all of that. Like, you have a lot of followers who have a lot of maks around you. But kind of like my situation right now, I'm like, who are the 10 people? I don't know the numbers. I don't.

0:06:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Right. Who? Connie lost her phone, I lost my contact. So I'm a Neanderthal right now.

0:06:22 - (Danny J): But it's so true. So I'm like, the fact that we met in person, I think that's why I love Dave so much. It's one of those things where I've been online full time since 2012, and I have made dozens of hundreds of friendships online. But the meeting in person tells you the truth. I met so many people where I was like, oh, we're gonna be besties, and we meet in person. And they have been so fake. They have been just very, very different. They have a Persona online, right? So they're like, acting, and then in real life, they're very, very different.

0:06:57 - (Danny J): And so I feel like the meeting in person is really what solidifies the friendship for me. I mean, I've definitely been friends with people online for a long time. And then as soon as we met in person, I'm like, yeah, it's not a match anymore, if you will, you know.

0:07:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): Thank you. Algorithm. Like this is it.

0:07:11 - (Danny J): Yes.

0:07:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Real life intuition or energy or something.

0:07:15 - (Danny J): Totally. And then some of my best friends I've met online and we. They live in other states and we just stay connected online and we just text each other or message each other, DM each other and it's a real relationship. But it's not until that in person meeting that it's solidified.

0:07:29 - (Dave Burlin): Well, and I'm trying to figure it out because I feel like we didn't meet for a while.

0:07:35 - (Danny J): Yeah, I don't think so.

0:07:36 - (Dave Burlin): But what's funny is it's one thing when you say like, oh, we met on Clubhouse, but we were literally within a mile of each other. Cause you were in Inspirata and I was in Inspirata and Inspirata. If you don't. It's amazing how many people do not know what inspirata is in this town because it's like such its own little island.

0:07:53 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, it's amazing.

0:07:54 - (Dave Burlin): But it was perfect during pandemic. Cause we had like our own little grocery store out there. And it's just like, I wish somebody would try to come in.

0:08:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): Our neighborhood's very contagion. I guess you're out in the wilderness by yourself, right? Maybe see the M like over there.

0:08:08 - (Dave Burlin): In the proximity of that, you'd be surprised how many people don't know where the M is. Some people were like, what's the mah? It's a whole nother hotel. But yeah, in the same proximity. Like we were both way out on our own little island. So how you see and view Vegas is very different because you do a lot of stuff online. So that's why I was really excited to have you on the show. To really figure out like, well, we know what brought you to Vegas now. You needed a gun that due wheel.

0:08:42 - (Dave Burlin): But so really, what's been your favorite stuff about doing what you do in Vegas and how does that all parlay and into fit into your story?

0:08:52 - (Danny J): Well, I'll back up a little bit about the bringy gun. My dad was born and raised here and so he grew up in a ranch. And Vegas was very different. 69 years ago when he was born, he grew up on the east side of town, which is such a different side of town now. And I was born in the Bay Area, but I moved here when I was like a month old. So I grew up here. I went to high school here. I went to Cimarn and I graduated from Las Vegas Academy and then Growing up here, I hated it. I was like, I hate. And maybe everybody feels like this way aboutug their hometown.

0:09:21 - (Danny J): I don't want to live here. When I turn 18, I'm moving out. And so I traveled and I went to a few places and I just. I was on my own for college. So I realized very quickly that out of state tuition was gonna be very expensive and UNLV I could afford. So I made this pact with myself that I realized I was at Lake Mead and I was just hanging with my dog and I sitting there and I go, what do I hate about Vegas? And I was like, it's just the summers.

0:09:45 - (Danny J): I hate the heat. And so I made a pact with myself that I went to unlv. I would travel for the summers and then come back in the spring. So I started doing that for my four years of college. And then over time, actually I went to Eng. I was in Europe for a while. It rained a ton. And I started to realize I actually like the heat and the desert. So it was more of a growing up, get me out of here. But as I went to new places and visit other places, I was like, I don't like cold, I don't like snow, I don't like rain.

0:10:13 - (Danny J): I actually think the desert is not so bad. And I feel like maybe a lot of people get to that place where you hear that all the time. People complain about the heat and you're like, it's so bad. But when you go to other places and you deal with snow, you're going, maybe it's not so bad. And for the most part, we're inside. We're not like hanging out in 118 degrees every day. So I left in 2011 because the housing market crashed.

0:10:39 - (Danny J): A bunch of stuff happened, moved out. And so I've basically gone for a decade. I came back in 2020 because my parents were here and my mom got sick. And so that's why I really came back. Came for the gun. But we drove back to la and then a few months later, such a good clickbait.

0:10:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's like a YouTube thumbnail clickbait for.

0:10:57 - (Danny J): The good day for the family. Stay for your mom.

0:11:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): That should be our new model.

0:11:01 - (Danny J): We got statewide Y. We grabbed the gun March 2020 and then we moved here October 2020. So it was just like six months of having the gun and came back. But yeah, so I stayed. And that decade away, it changed a lot. I will say. The early 2010s of Vegas was depressing. The economy hit here really, really Hard. There was the housing bubble that burst. Phoenix was hit really hard in Vegas was hit really hard. Two of the hardest hit in the country.

0:11:28 - (Danny J): I was one of the people who foreclosed on our homes. We lost it. Like we were in that situation and it sucked really bad. And there was a time city center was being built, the Cosmo was being built and then they just stopped working on them for a number of years. So there were these half built buildings. People were losing their jobs, people were losing their homes. I was a personal trainer at the time and 80, 90% of my clients were like, we're not paying our mortgage. And they would live in their house for free for two years because the banks were overloaded.

0:11:55 - (Danny J): And so they were paying for personal training because they're like, we're not paying our mortgage. So it was great for a while and then once their houses started getting taken away, they quit working with me. So suddenly I was not having money. So I'm sharing all that to say that I've seen such a craz, such crazy changes. So I left 2011, came back basically 2021, so a decade away and in the middle, I want to say 2017, 18, I started to come back here for conferences and speaking and that was the time I got to actually do Vegas. Becausee when you grow up here you don't really go the strip, you don't do all that stuff.

0:12:28 - (Danny J): But this time I was coming to conferences, I was going to stay on the strip and I was like, oh, this is kind of a fun city. So it was a different side that I got to see as a visitor versus a resident. And then when I came back back in 2021, I had a new appreciation and I don't know why. I just like love the Raiders stadium, like seeing that go up t mobile, the nightights made such a big difference in the morale of the city.

0:12:53 - (Danny J): So this time back, if you had asked me 10 years ago, I'd been like, I hate Vegas, I don't care, it's trash. And it was super depressing. And I think that a lot of new things have come around and have made it really cool and exciting. And because I work from home, it's tricky ca because I don't go out, I don't see a lot of people. But what's been nice about like circling back to all these online friends, people are always coming here.

0:13:17 - (Danny J): I can't tell you how many times a week, hey, I'm go goingna be in town for this concert or hey, I'm gonna Be in town for a conference. O. I'm gonna be in town for a bachelorette party. So I'm always seeing people and it's so convenient to be able to go drive down. I literally yesterday had friends in town for the biohacking conference. I went to Cosmo for dinner last night right before we went to the breath work and it's so beautiful because some of my best friends live in like Arkansas, Montana.

0:13:42 - (Danny J): Am I gonna go there? Likely not. Like ever. But are they gonna come to Vegas? Almost definitely. Someone's coming to Vegas for something once. Yes. Yeah. A conference, an event, a concert, like something. So the fact that I have so many friends online from all over the world and they come here, I get to meet them in person and like secure that relationship. But I mean I've like hardly been to any hometowns of those people, so it's such a great place. And I always also say it's such a great place to get away from because if you hate the heat, the beach is four hours away. You know, like Utah mountains are two hours away. I spent most of October, November in Utah.

0:14:21 - (Danny J): I would go through the week and then come back home on the weekends. But I love the nature here and it's just, it's a great place to live, to have actually for my job. It's almost perfect because I work online. It can be very isolating and lonely and so it's great to be able to have people come in and visit and have an excuse. Although it gets expensive.

0:14:41 - (Dave Burlin): But I wasnna say so. It's fun. It's fun that you mentioned because yes, there are people that come through here, but sometimes leaving is fun. Yeah, some things are just a drive away. But even I took. I spoke at a retirement ceremony for somebody in the Navy and they were in Memphis. The round trip ticket was like 20$h.

0:15:00 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:15:00 - (Dave Burlin): And you could just get out of here. And it's fun when you leave. Like when you're leaving Las Vegas, everyone's like bummed out and broke and hung over on the plane. But when you're coming home, everyone's like.

0:15:11 - (Danny J): They're drunk, excited. Yeah.

0:15:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): Stopyaks.

0:15:14 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, it's fun just to travel thing. And then I love what you said because yeah, there's lots of people that come in and I even started this in Clubhouse and I think it's still even on my bio on Clubhouse. If you're coming to Vegas, I'll pick you up at the airport if I can. I won't like block my whole day to just leave open to go pick people up. But if I can, I like to pick people up or drop them off or if I can hang out with them while they're here, that's great. But you just never know. Sometimes people have been less than a mile away and like schedules just don't match up and you can't see them. But for the times that you can, it's always great.

0:15:50 - (Danny J): That's such a good point too. We have a great airport. It's very easy to get in and out of. I was living in LA for a couple years and LAX is awful to get in and out.

0:16:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): The worst.

0:16:01 - (Danny J): It's like you don't wantna inconvenience someone to pick you up at the airport. You're like, I'll figure out a ride.

0:16:06 - (Tawni Nguyen): But thats you who your real friends are.

0:16:08 - (Danny J): Even if you offer the money theirue. No.

0:16:10 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know what? You should Uber Ye can you fly out of Long Beach?

0:16:14 - (Danny J): Exactly.

0:16:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'll take you to Long Beach.

0:16:15 - (Danny J): Yeah, I was ###k and I forgot it changed. But yeah, Harry Reid is really easy. And it's so close. Like that's really nice of you too. Cause it's like if you fly in and you're staying at a hotel, you can pick them up and take them to the hotel really quickly. It's not far away.

0:16:30 - (Dave Burlin): And it's always nice to have a familiar face, even if you haven't met in person.

0:16:35 - (Danny J): Totally.

0:16:35 - (Dave Burlin): It's just nice. It feels like you belong here. And I mean that's always been my thing is I'm a transplant. I drove out here in a rental car one way. But Vegas has given me so much to care about and like I just want that like same little feeling for everyone. Even if it's just a ride from the airport.

0:16:54 - (Danny J): Yeah. When I left here the first time, I would have said something so different about it because one of the things on the, the negative side I guess is that because people have such different schedules here. Like they're bartenders, they work nights and whatever is I the house I lived in, I never knew my neighbors because they would drive in, shut their garage behind them. I didn't even know like if there was a cop lineup. They're like, hey, there was a crime. Which one of these is your neighbors? I don't even know what they look like. Oh, I don't even know. And I lived in the house for about five years and so I used to.

0:17:26 - (Dave Burlin): I was actually your neighbor the whole time.

0:17:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Surprise.

0:17:29 - (Danny J): Yeah, so I felt like Vegas was very unfriendly at the time. And that was again, early 2000s. And in a way, and maybe that was partially my fault. Like, I didn't go knock and see. And maybe because I grew up here, it's like you don't feel the need when maybe you're transplant. You're like, hey, I need friends. You need friends. We're both transplants. Let's make friends. But I definitely have seen, at least I'felt that people have become more friendly, more neighborly, more open to finding out who their neighbors are, talking to them where I feel like growing up, it wasn't as friendly.

0:18:03 - (Danny J): And I think that really makes a difference. People will leave a place if they don't feel like it's friendly.

0:18:07 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's what. There's so many apps and so many things out there that take away the human element of everything, like dial in menus, all that stuff where it's just like an AI. I don't even wanna get on that whole thing. But there's so much that removes the human element. But we're all humans and we crave that sort of connection community which we found in stuff like the Wolfpackk shout out to Tori Gordon, friend of the show.

0:18:39 - (Dave Burlin): But everyone's like, all these circles kind of connect and intersect. So it's been a cool thing.

0:18:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, like, the way you describe talking to your neighbors and stuff is the laocc way. Cause I grew up in Orange county and it was the same way. Like, during the pandemic, I wanted to get the hell out of Orange County. I don't know why, but it was just the bubble. Like, you can't grow. When I came here, that's the only misconception I had. I was like, oh, it's hot as boss. But I've only been here to party when I was younger, sure.

0:19:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): But it was funny because the two places that I almost moved to for grad school was C.H. chicago and Seattle, which is the most cold and depressing places, you know? And then I went there. I'm like, I don't know if I could live here forever. And I'm like, what's the next thing? That's the opposite from next thing. I'm like, I'm just gonna go, like, burn. I guess y and I came here and I had the same idea. I'm like, oh, my God. And then now 110 is like, nothing. Like, it doesn't faze me, you know, And I'm just o.

0:19:30 - (Dave Burlin): You could just go inside.

0:19:31 - (Danny J): Yeah. Yeah.

0:19:32 - (Tawni Nguyen): I realized, you know, building business is so different than hospitality. Because back then I was out and about all the time. Now that we all work online in our home, I'm like, I love my home. Like, like, please don't make me leave. And it's kind of like the opposite of the whole personal growth thing and getting out and because it's really intentional when you go out and talk to people here. And it's not just because you're in proximity of people all the time.

0:19:55 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:19:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, so people are kind of like making friends by default. But now here's like if we want to sit down and connect, we're like, hey, let's meet here, check out a local restaurant or coffee shop or one of our friends or some support their business. Cause a little goes a long way here in terms of hospitality and like the connections that you're able to make. And you. It became less transactional here.

0:20:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cause I can't tell you how many times you, you think now that someone wants to like have a cup of coffee with you, like they actually mean it. Versus the. There is like one out of ten times where immediately they'll try to sell you something.

0:20:28 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:20:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): So I'll leave a little note, like, remember I called you the other day. I'm like, guess s what happens. But like, this is what we talk about because our business community is so small here that I'm just like, do you know this guyuse this is what happened? And I just told him my whole lifestyle, I'm like, I went to coffee and like, you know, so it feels really connected here. And I just never felt that sense of community. And I was the opposite when I moved here. I'm like, oh my God, I have no friends. I'm gonna be depressed and I'm gonna be hot.

0:20:53 - (Danny J): It's all. Well, it is interesting cause it's a big city, but it's small still because you can still run into people from another side of town. People know each other. So it's still like a small town feel. There's a couple million people. And with the Strip, of course there's way more people. But. But to be honest, it's still kind of a small town.

0:21:13 - (Dave Burlin): I was at an event last week, right? I was at an event from, I think it was 6 to 8. Yeah, it was 6 to 8pm And I left a little bit early ca becausee I had to be at another event across town at 8:00. And I mean across town, it was like we were in, I want to say Deep Green Valley on one and then Summerlin on The other side. And these people came up to me at that party and they were like, hey, were you just at this event? Like, we were sitting right behind you.

0:21:43 - (Danny J): We followed you here.

0:21:45 - (Dave Burlin): People have said, like, there's like 2 million people here. And I know all 50.

0:21:48 - (Danny J): Yes, y.

0:21:49 - (Dave Burlin): And it really does feel like that.

0:21:52 - (Danny J): Yes. It's so true. It's so true. And I don't know, I think it's changed. I think it's gotten better. So I'm glad I went away for 10 years because it helped me have a little more perspective and appreciation of Vegas. I think we all get in that the place we grow up. You kind of have some disdain for, like, I don'tnna be here with these people. And then you have some more appreciation when you leave.

0:22:13 - (Danny J): But I have a lot more appreciation and just have noticed that there seems to be more community and seems to be more building. And I think. And I give a lot of credit to Tony Shea. I grew up. The high school I went to was downtown. I went to Las Vegas Academy. That was downtown. And it was a nightmare down there. Prostitutes, drugs. It was really bad. You would not be wanting to walk.

0:22:35 - (Dave Burlin): Before you had your gun.

0:22:36 - (Danny J): Yes.

0:22:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): This is probably why you got your gun.

0:22:38 - (Danny J): Yeah. And I left and I came back. And I remember going downtown and I was like, like, why does this look so cool down here? Like, everything has changed. It got nice. And I remember telling my friends, boyfriend, anybody, I'm like, you have no idea. It was so bad. You couldn't go down here. And it just. He put so much money and revitalization into it. And I think community and culture, I think that made such a big difference in Vegas as a whole. And I don't know if people who didn't know what it was like before can really understand the impact of what that did.

0:23:10 - (Danny J): And I know a lot of people don't go downtown. They don't like downtown. But for me growing up there, it was mind blowing to me of what he did to downtown.

0:23:19 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. And gosh, that hits the heartstring so hard. I moved here because of Tony. I read his book. It changed my life. It changed the way I look at business. I've helped a lot of businesses grow because of his book. And we took a tour in 2015. We went to Zappos. We came out for EDC. We took a tour at Zappos. And it's just like that changed everything. We wanted to come work here for two and a half years. That was like my whole focus.

0:23:47 - (Dave Burlin): We made a video. All that Stuff and like to see that sort of that energy still carry overuse. When I first moved here, I moved downtown. I know I can only imagine what it was like before, but like even still, like just coming out here in a rental car one way and like just planting there, like it all worked out. Like I met so many cool people. There's a lot of that same energy that's sort of left over.

0:24:13 - (Dave Burlin): And that's kind of the spirit of this show is like we wanted to make sure that we show people the real parts of Vegas that most people might overlook or just maybe have a different perception of. So I'm really glad that you shared that and that you've seen it as somebody who loved and came back.

0:24:31 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's not just Encore.

0:24:32 - (Danny J): Beach Club, my favorite. When I have guests visit and they're like where should we go? I go, look, I know you'ren toa want to see the Strip, go see the fountains, but go downtown. I think it's fun. I think Fremont street is fun. I think the food down there is great. The drinks are cheaper. There's always something. I love downtown. And I can tell you like it was not the place you ever, ever, ever would go ever.

0:24:56 - (Dave Burlin): And there's still some parts down there.

0:24:58 - (Danny J): Sure you don't want for sure.

0:24:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): Probably bring a gun and not go out after like 10pm no, that's a culture shop. The ceiling is what trips me off. It's like being so familiar with, you know like MGM and the smell of it because they pump like perfumes and so it just stimulates your mind of like oh, this smells like Vegas and my walk of shame. Like 8 years ago when I was hungover barefoot over there orort world or the some cannabis. Yeah. But when you go intoat the downtown, like four queens or whatever, it's like smaller. And what trips me off is one of the gold hotels. I forgoget which one right now probably nugget like when you walk in and the ceiling is like right here.

0:25:35 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm not familiar with. Cause even like the Orleans it has high ceilingse. Like just the depth perception just threw me off. Cause I'm like, I feel like a giant walking here. Like I am so big.

0:25:45 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:25:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): Versus other hotels. You feel like you are nothing because you walk in and it's fast.

0:25:50 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:25:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): And you're like ah. Like someone with a social anxiety. And you're like oh my God, okay. Like I need to get here. And you just wanna like, just go directly to where you need to go. But the other ones you're like, oh, you walk around, you're like, oh, this is it. I can go to the next one.

0:26:02 - (Danny J): Yeah. I really love circa downtown. Like, to me it's like the Cosmo ofb downtown. That's what I kind of call it. It's like the more upscale. Love circa, but I always like the downtown grand. And I don't know, that's really like the place I like to go when we have people in town.

0:26:18 - (Dave Burlin): Well, so this is kind of a fun segue into this too, because I've found this out when I've worked with so many different businesses. I wanna dive into a little bit about what you do. Cause you've said a couple times that you work online and that gives you kind of a different perspective of city. But what would you say you do here?

0:26:36 - (Danny J): I just kidding.

0:26:37 - (Dave Burlin): No, more like, I guess, what are you excited about? How did you get into all the stuff that you're doing and how does that parlay into the city?

0:26:45 - (Danny J): Well, I've worked online for 12 years, so I was a personal trainer here in Vegas. I've worked at a private studio in Summerlin and early social media. Started MySpace and I started posting fitness stuff. And then I hired a personal trainer who actually was for GE county, and he trained me online. And I go, oh, this is fascinating. I could do this too. So I basically just copied his model. What he did with me, I was like, hey, I'm an online trainer now.

0:27:14 - (Danny J): Just kind of took his rates what he did with me and just passed it on. I was like, I could do this. So I started training online. And again, this was right around when the bubble burst. So I moved and I moved to a new state and I didn't want to start training, like from scratch with building a clientele in person. And I was with my husband, my ex husband now, but we shared a car. And so I go, I'm going toa have to make this online training thing work.

0:27:39 - (Danny J): So I started as an online personal trainer and then I started having trainers ask me how to do what I was doing. So then I started teaching that and then it was almost 50, 50, like business coaching and training. And then pretty soon I just quit all my training, started doing more teaching, and then it parlayed into speaking. And with the pandemic, when that shifted and the events canceled, I luckily had so many skills online from teaching, building courses that I started to build courses.

0:28:09 - (Danny J): And right now it's funny because I've done so many different things online. I feel like if something got taken away, I'll Figure out something else, Created an e commerce business online and right now I'm doing wholesaling real estate but it's all nationwide and ironically we've sold a number of properties and not a single one in Vegas. We started there.

0:28:30 - (Tawni Nguyen): We'll talk after this.

0:28:31 - (Danny J): Yeah, we started doing in Vegas, we were driving around and then we just started doing nationwide and I met some real estate people here and I need to do some stuff here because I know the market here. So it's kind of silly that I'm doing all nationwide but so it's. The reason I ended up back was my mom got sick, came back to help her and what was fantastic was like I have the flexibility to work wherever I want to work and live wherever I want to live.

0:28:56 - (Danny J): So that's been really great. And, and because I still after the pandemic was still speaking a little off and on, we were re talking about the airport. It's a great place. If I'm being paid to travel to speak, I don't want to be living in a place that doesn't have good airport. I mean there's direct flights nearly everywhere. So if I'm paid to speak in New York, easy, there's a direct flight there, there's a direct flight to Austin, there's a direct flight to Chicago. I'm not taking a lot of connections living here. So even as a speaker, in person stuff it's great here. But for online it's just nice because I could be anywhere and it's more affordable. I mean it's definitely gotten more expensive.

0:29:31 - (Danny J): Like I left LA and you know, I had like a studio for thousand eight hundred a month and at the time you could get a three bedroom here for thousand hundred. Now that's not possible but it's still relatively, if you compare it to some big cities, it's still relatively affordable. Yeah, so I'm like, you know, I can manage that versus living in some of these big cities where. And you've mentioned staying at your house like'you just because you could get more for your money.

0:29:56 - (Danny J): So maybe you're paying the same in rent but you have a one bedroom versus a four bedroom and you can have a little more space and a little more like you can actually park your car in a garage instead of leaving it on the street. And that makes me feel better too.

0:30:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, like I actually know who my neighbors are. We like make eye contact because that's the opposite from Orange County. It's like you keep to yourself, you look down, you hope they don't Rob you behind you. That's kind of like the fear that you live in that people think Orange County's all nice. I'm like, no, it's getting pretty bad. It's gotten bad since before the pandemic. And even in parts that we were in, like, Fountain Valley and stuff, it's nice, supposedly. But that's. That's targeted Summerlin hereeah. Once they think there's money or the perception of money, like, it becomes like a magnet for certain, like, criminal activities and just things slowly decline in California. Just happens.

0:30:43 - (Dave Burlin): Coyotes are coming in.

0:30:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, but in our neighborhood. And I tell the coyotes, I'm like, I' I'm sorry I'm on your land, but just don't eat my chihahua. Just take whatever you want. But, like, this is my. You know, so it's kind of funny. And I love, like, the energy that the people have here because the muual understanding and respect we have for one another, not in the business community, just as friends, because we know each other, like, intimately and well.

0:31:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): Even just a depth of connection that anytime he's like, oh, you got to meet this person you already know, it passes like 10 vibe checks before or personality just like character, I think, weighs a lot more than, like, I've never been introduced. Well, a couple times that they're like, oh, you should meet this person. They have 100,000 followers. Like, that's never been the case here because that shit, like, don't really carry anything unless you're targeting, you know, the influence or lifestyle. But for us, it's like we connect to one of another on that level to just like, oh, like, this person's fucking dope.

0:31:39 - (Danny J): Yeah. Yeah.

0:31:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know what I mean? And I think that kind of resonates with your energy. And like, the authenticity that we have here is that we don't have to put on such a false, like, digital Persona. So when you say, like, you love speaking, like, what are some things that you love or passionate of speaking about?

0:31:57 - (Danny J): Lately, the irony is the thing I've been speaking about the most is starting over. And that really came about during the pandemic. And I feel like every single one of us has to start over in some capacity, whether it's divorce or death or a job loss or something just massively shifting an injury and illness. And so that's been a big topic I've been talking about. And also just resilience and mental health for leaders.

0:32:21 - (Danny J): There's so many of us that are out there and we're doing. We have so many People leaning on us or counting on us or being like the strong one. And we don't always get to take care of ourselves or let other people see us struggle ca becausee we feel like that'll make us look weak as a leader. And so I'm trying to share more about just being vulnerable with struggles. And it's just because you share doesn't make you weak. In fact, sharing, I think, makes you a lot stronger. It's very, very hard to share.

0:32:52 - (Danny J): And because of the pandemic, I think a lot of people really carried a heavy load. And so it's like reverberated. It happened five years ago, but it's almost now the unpacking of things and so just sharing more about that. So those two things really is like, starting over and then just resilience and mental health for leaders.

0:33:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): I that why we're sitting in this room having the right conversation at the right time. Because me and Dave has been speaking on this topic of, like, people think, yeah, like, we talk about rock bottom and stuff, and we try to reframe it. Like, hey, it's a rebirth. It's an awakening to the life that we were living that we thought was fine, but it's not. So lately we've been talking a lot about that. It's not just business and all the fancy stuff that people see, but true connection happens through these types of conversation.

0:33:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because I think the online thing makes people less prone to being authentic. Like, they use it as a buzzword like, oh, how to create authenticity. And m like, you be yourself. And I don't think people know what that is.

0:33:53 - (Danny J): Y.

0:33:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know what I mean? And I'm like, no, like, your personal brand is not what your social media person create around what they think you should be. It's just who you are in real life. And that creates the ripple effect of how many handshakes or how many text messages you know, like that if you skim through your inbox, like, I think that's a huge shift since 2021 when I went through that rebirth. And like, what the fuck is going on with my life? Ye and I was here. And then, you know, you look at your phone and everything's just empty and transactional. And I'm like, oh, my God, like, I don't have one person I can call and tell him or tell them how I'm feeling.

0:34:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): And because that, like, life stagnation, I was like, spiritually broken. It's just everything was just so bad. And I didn't have one friend. And this Is kind of like a. I don't know if you've seen the Batman movie. I don't know why. Like recently I just watched it and there was one at the end with Riddler. He was like, what's really hard to come by but like, it's worth more once you have it. Like, Riddler's a fucked up character, but it's a friend.

0:34:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because it's really hard. You know what I mean? Because that's true. Friendship is like people, you know, it's easy to say quality over quantity, but like, how do you quantify what quality is nowadays, you know?

0:35:08 - (Danny J): Totally.

0:35:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): And that's. I love that topic too. And o. Anyways, like, we just went off on a fucking.

0:35:17 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I think relationships definitely matter when it comes down. And you mentioned this earlier too. You talked about people online and sometimes it's different when you meet people in person, even people in person. Like I've learned on that layer, there's people that are different on stage than they are behind the curtain. And to me, like, I don't care about followers. I don't care about any of that stuff. I watched one of those little memes or whatever and it was like, I don't care who you voted for and all those things. To me, all that stuff doesn't matter.

0:35:49 - (Dave Burlin): To me it matters like how you treat people that are supposed to be the opposing opinions. Like, how do you actually treat them? Like that says everything. And I've seen that because I've worked for big influencers. I've worked in their companies and I've seen them on stage and I've seen them off stage. And yeah, I think that's the really interesting thing about. But I'm also surprised to you more in this community that a lot more people are very real. And like you mentioned, we were at a breathwork thing last night and it's like the whole intersecting circle. And we talked about this in the conversation with like Tori Gordon.

0:36:23 - (Dave Burlin): In all places, Las Vegas S City, there's like this big network of people that are really big on healing and trauma and just really getting down to truth and communication and things like that for you as leaving and coming back, what are you really excited about in the next few years? Know, what do you see here in Las Vegas that gets you hyped?

0:36:50 - (Danny J): Okay, so this is kind of off the rails, but what is. Oh God, what is his name? The guy coming in from Hollywood? Marky Mark.

0:37:00 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, Mark Walberg. Not him call you Mark. Don't let him hear you say Mark. You.

0:37:06 - (Danny J): I actually so I'm excited about growth and expansion, and I like that he's bringing stuff here that makes people excited to come here. I. Yeah, I'm excited about economic growth. I'm excited about things to do. Becausee all of the things that I hated growing up here were like, it's boring, it's hot, there's nothing to do. You know, there was things, but it was more like it was the Santa Fe Hotel back in northwest side of town. And there was an ice skating rink and a bowling alley. Like, that wasn't really fantastic fun.

0:37:35 - (Danny J): But there are s so many more fun things to do. And because of those things, more people come, more conferences, more events. That means I get to see more of my friends because they're like, hey, I'mn toa be in Vegas for this. So anything that brings more people here, not necessarily to live, because of course I don't want more traffic and all of that, but that brings more people here that I get to see and hang out with.

0:37:54 - (Danny J): I love growth and expansion. I love entrepreneurship. And so those things are exciting and new events and I don't know, like, parties and things that are put on because there's a grand opening, like the Durango grand opening.

0:38:06 - (Dave Burlin): And those things, or even when they blow things up, like there'a party for Tropic Tropicana 2:30 in the morning.

0:38:12 - (Danny J): Yeah, the Tropicana. I mean, I just. Those are cool things to be a part of. So I feel like now it's being a part of something in the making. Like, not necessarily history, but like we're building something. And that feels really good. Where before it was just like a kind of. It was just a different kind of town where'just like, it's Vegas, people know what it is, city. But now I feel as if, because of like the circles, I feel like there's a building of community. There's building of like a spiritual community and building new and big things. So that'l yeah.

0:38:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Lal building internal work, external things.

0:38:49 - (Danny J): Yes, exactly that.

0:38:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): And we're in the infancy of it too. Like, you think everything is so developed now. No, like, we're literally in the first, like 10 years of it just happening.

0:38:58 - (Danny J): I do feel like that. Crazy.

0:39:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): We're a part of history and shit.

0:39:01 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:39:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): In 10 years, we're like back in my day.

0:39:04 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:39:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know.

0:39:05 - (Dave Burlin): Well, when I moved here, I moved here at the end of 2018. And I remember driving in. I drove in a rental car one way. And I remember this feeling like, okay, for some people, it's la they like drive across the country and they go to LA because they wanna make it right. For me, it was the same sort of energy, but I could also feel people that were leaving this town, like throwing stuff out the window. Like, if this place, I'm never coming back.

0:39:29 - (Dave Burlin): What's been interesting about everything that you just said is I felt like I came here 2018, just before the pandemic. I just kind of got my. I'd hosted my first events at that point at the end of 2019, and I was really looking at 2020. I was like, all right, here we go. Of course pandemic happens. But like I said, I feel like it kind of reset this whole community. And now like you said, we're in the empasy of it. Like, it's our.

0:39:58 - (Dave Burlin): It's our turn. Was it the Goonies? Like, it's our time. It's our time down here.

0:40:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): The ones like designed to make it and build something sustainable, not. Cause we talk about lists a lot too, where they think it's just quick money and coming in and burning a bunch of bridges. And I'm like, no, this town will know.

0:40:17 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:40:18 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like there's blacklists in every single circle. And you just want to pray that you know, like you don't do anything outside of your character becausee you will, like people will know about you. Not in the best way possible, but we talk. You know what I mean?

0:40:30 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:40:31 - (Danny J): I think you're right about the infancy. Part two is that before Vegas was really was like gaming and sex. Strippers. Right. Like that's walkers and blow. Yes. And I think now it's like, it's art, it's tech, it's spirituality, it's dance, it's real estate. Yes. There's so much that's just more. Yeah. Food. Yes. Entertainment. Like different shows and conc that are here. I literally was so funny. I just randomly.

0:40:57 - (Danny J): I like Shibuzi. He's like a country artist. And I was like, huh, I want to go to Shabuzi concert. Type it in. He was in Vegas two days later. I was like, oh shoot, he's gonna be here on Wednesday. I can literally think of any artist and then they're going toa be in Vegas at some time. I go, oh, I'll just put it on my calendar. If I want to see someone, they're going to be here. So those are just exciting things for me. It's like, I don't have to travel to do that. I saw Taylor Swift here. That was amazing.

0:41:20 - (Dave Burlin): And yeah, Usher was just quad skating through the Venetian the other day.

0:41:27 - (Danny J): You can be around when there's big things happening. And that's really cool. I mean, the super bowl was here. That was pretty epic, you know? So I'm excited about the building and just things that are coming up and coming and just newness and bringing industries here that weren't here before.

0:41:44 - (Dave Burlin): So this is a fun. This is kind of a rabbit trail, but it goes back to the city, but it also goes back to your brand and things like that. I know you work a lot online and you're speaking about different stuff, and you've done a lot of different things. The fun thing about marketing in this town is I don't remember when I started using this, but I would give it as an example to people that have products or services or whatever.

0:42:06 - (Dave Burlin): When it comes to trying to figure out who you are and, like, what your product or service is, who it serves, there's a fun joke. And it's like, if you could have 2,500 square feet in any one of the hotels to have your own store and your own brand, and I know a lot of your stuff is online, but if that's where you had a residency, in a physical space, where would it be? And what's funny about that? I'll give you time to answer. What's funny about that is, like, if you look at anyone, like, no matter what you say, if you say Cosmo, they've really designed the Cosmo around a certain type of person.

0:42:40 - (Dave Burlin): And it's the same thing. It's like you gotta get the same feeling when you walk through the Winy or Encore. They're the same hotel, basically, because it's the same kind of clientele that they cater to. But, like, I noticed these little things after walking all over the city. There's some hotels that have a Dunkin Donuts, and there's some that have a Starbucks, and there's some that don't even have a name.

0:43:05 - (Dave Burlin): It's just a coffee shop. And the Espresso shots are $11 there, because it's like you're walking into a different category of sort of human. So in that case, for you, whether it be having your business there or in that stuff or if you could live in any hotel, like, where would it be?

0:43:23 - (Danny J): Well, it would be the Cosmo. Although lately, since you. I haven't spent a lot of time at Circa.

0:43:28 - (Dave Burlin): The Cosmo got ghetto.

0:43:30 - (Danny J): I know. No, the Cosmo, I will say the last couple years, it's gone downhill because I went there last night and was mini Chandelier pick. Yes. It used to be Cosmo was the place and then my friends. But I feel like Resorts World is like the new vibe place. Or Fontainebleau is Durango. Have't I haven't been Durango yet't take you. I mean, Red Rock was back in the day, but I know I was going to say Cosmo, but that would have been my 2018 answer. I don't know. Right now I need to start to go to some of these spots. I went to Fontainebleau last week and that was really nice and vibey.

0:44:07 - (Danny J): But I feel like every. I feel like everybody's hanging out at Resorts World lately. It's just. Just a weirdeah.

0:44:13 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like it changes the food court concept or something because it brings people together and it's not too bougie.

0:44:19 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:44:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Because I think the price points is where it separates a lot of the consumerism. Right.

0:44:24 - (Danny J): The reason I loved cosmo at least 2018 when I was going had the dry bar. It had shopping at the chandelier bar. Like their fun little secret drink. Yah, secret drinks. Their secret. They had a little easy. Like that was so fun.

0:44:38 - (Dave Burlin): Secret pizza is dope.

0:44:39 - (Danny J): Yeah. Secret pizza. I love the little. The speakeasy with the donkey that they had fun drinks there. Beauty and Essex was always the place. I love to go. Like the speakeasy vibe and they even have the speakeasy barberhop downstairs. So that was the place. But yeah. I don't know, the last few times I've been there, I've been a little bit turned off.

0:44:57 - (Dave Burlin): I have to give a shout out. Cause I remember it was over a year I had lived here and I didn't realize there's a Hattie be in that food court up there and it's Nashville hot chicken. And I was like, I used to.

0:45:07 - (Danny J): Go there all the time, but it wasn't there for a while. So maybe. Maybe that's why you didn't know. I don't think it got there till 2020. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, I don't think they didn't have that food court for the food court.

0:45:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): New. Yeah, the food hall or whatever they.

0:45:18 - (Danny J): That's newer. The Hadty be is newer.

0:45:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah. Like the Uncommons didn't really make it just because it's all the way on the other side of town. And like I feel like it's kind of like a ghost town because it was hot last year for a while that all the restaurants came in and now I walked it like a couple weeks ago and I went there like Everything' just got close. And I'm like, what's going on?

0:45:34 - (Dave Burlin): I dig food courts because a lot of times if you're meeting with more than a couple of people, it's easy because you're just like, oh, we'll sit in the middle. You can go wherever you want.

0:45:43 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:45:43 - (Dave Burlin): And then that way everyone's just not.

0:45:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like, bound to one free for all. Like, go hunt for your own food.

0:45:47 - (Danny J): Yes. Yeah, go hunt.

0:45:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): I can't stand the resort world credit card system. Like the kiosing sometimes.

0:45:53 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, because you order, like, separate or you order ye. There's no.

0:45:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): It kind of too new for me. And sometimes even. Even at the counter, like the human standing right there, yet I'm still, like, pressing a button. And like, don't get me started. Because someone TR to they asked me a question. They're like, oh, if you haven't been serviced by a person, like, the whole tip thing. Because I was a bartender for a very long time in my 20s, and I lived off of tips for a period of time.

0:46:17 - (Tawni Nguyen): And they're like, oh, now you know, the coffee, the whole thing. They like, it's like upcharged. And then they're like, like, there's a service fee, there's a tip. They're like, how do you feel about that? I'm like, honestly, I didn't know how to feel about it for a while. Especially with the kiosking. I'm like, no one serves me.

0:46:31 - (Danny J): No one's serving me who am iing.

0:46:33 - (Tawni Nguyen): You know, I believe in karma and, like, goodill. And I'm like, I'm still like, I gotta put 20%. Cause I don't want bad karma. But then I thought about it and I'm like, oh, my God. Like, 20% is like $ye u shoot.

0:46:44 - (Danny J): I'm not tipping a kiosk. I'll tell you that right now. I don't care.

0:46:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's like a hot topic here, you know?

0:46:48 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:46:49 - (Dave Burlin): Well, it's funny. And they've gotten, like, all kind of coy about it. They're like, it's gonna ask you some questions. I know.

0:46:54 - (Danny J): I turn it around.

0:46:56 - (Dave Burlin): They do like, oh, it's gonna ask you a couple questions.

0:47:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): And then they just look away. The coffee shop are nicer to you. They're like, oh, like, I love your shirt. I you a couple questions.

0:47:09 - (Danny J): I'm like, I know. I started like, I used to feel bad, and I started just zero every time. Now I'm just like, I'm done with it. I can't. The price of everything has gone up. I'm like, sorry, I'm not paying dollar for eggs now, so. And we're not tipping on something that you didn't even bring to my table. If you're just handing it to me. I'm not tipping. Y.

0:47:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's a huge thing because it is hospitality and people live off of tips and not just to bring back, like, tax and all of that stuff. And it's just so crazy how everything that corporations are building, like, it takes away from the people. And like, other people have to come in and rescue other people because their corporations couldn't afford their wages. Like, what the hell is going on?

0:47:48 - (Danny J): You know?

0:47:49 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. I just look at the human interaction of that, and I've noticed it every single time now. They just spin in.

0:47:55 - (Danny J): They do.

0:47:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): They give you a compliment right before.

0:47:58 - (Danny J): They either do one or the other. They compliment. They're like, oh, your nails are pretty. I'm like, thank you. Zero tip. This is awkward. Or they say it's gonna ask you a question. They turn or they like, turn their head.

0:48:08 - (Tawni Nguyen): Eye contact.

0:48:09 - (Dave Burlin): It's gonna ask you a question. And you just look them eyes.

0:48:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, that's lally. Like. Like, maybe I'll be that person.

0:48:15 - (Danny J): Yeah.

0:48:17 - (Dave Burlin): But no, I think, yeah. I went through the same phase where I love Cosmo. It's changed for me now. I. I have coffee every morning at the Wind, and I. I go and I do double shot of espresso, and I do. I just kind of hang out there in that vibe. Like, I dig stillal most of my playlist from that little grassy area that walks right next to it by the water fountain. And I just. That's where I go for my morning walks. But it's a different kind of, like, energy, a different kind of vibe. So when people are staying there, I'm like, yes, I will come to everything that you're doing.

0:48:47 - (Danny J): And like, Bellagio has its own too. That's its own vibe. And I mean, every single one. You're really right. It's just.

0:48:54 - (Dave Burlin): They dialed in the marketing.

0:48:55 - (Danny J): They have. Yeah.

0:48:56 - (Dave Burlin): And it's like you can see, like. And again, that's why some coffee. There's one that has Pee's. But, like, it's really funny when you see the ones that have Dunkan versus the one that have Starbucks versus the ones that just don't even.

0:49:10 - (Danny J): You know what else? Two with the Cosmo that maybe that shifted for me is I stopped drinking two years ago. And then maybe the last last six months, I've had a couple of drinks, but it's not the same. Like I used to love Cosmo because I'd like to show off their flour drink at the bar.

0:49:26 - (Tawni Nguyen): A numbing drink.

0:49:26 - (Danny J): Yeaheah. So you bring your friends or like let me show you this drinkuse it's kind of fun. And so those kind of things have shifted for me too. So you know when you're not going to drink or then it makes the vibe a little different. So like a coffee shop will be a completely different vibe. Like I'm not going to go to Cosmo for coffeeuse they just have a Starbucks line. So yeah, you know that's. I don't want to stand in a 10 deep line at Cosmo for coffee but for drinks, you know, that was a different vibe.

0:49:53 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. So it's interesting. So when I met Tawni she had a show and that's one of the things that really kind of compelled me about her show which talked a lot about being sober. I'm coming up soon on a year.

0:50:05 - (Tawni Nguyen): Which I're gonna buy you a drink.

0:50:07 - (Dave Burlin): I'm shout out to Low Tail. One of our favorites. Have you ever had these?

0:50:12 - (Danny J): No.

0:50:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): He gets lit on these, I get lit on these.

0:50:14 - (Dave Burlin): It's why am I drinking old fashioned at 10 o'clock in the morning? No, Corinne is. This is a mocktail brand Y and she came on the show and I met her when I met like other people too. This kind of goes back to the Hollywood stuff you were talking about. Like with Mark Wahlberg coming here. There's a lot of people that from Hollywood they'coming over. I met. Met Andre Royl from the Wire, hbo, the Wire.

0:50:40 - (Dave Burlin): And when I learned that he was sober too it was also kind of one of those things that there's just a lot of people that have come out and talked about sobriety. So for you you said two years for that. Has that changed Vegas for you or what do you see as Vegas in that sort of non alcohol culture? Because it is here. It's pretty like loud.

0:51:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): We're sitting at table notise.

0:51:05 - (Danny J): It has changed Vegas for me for sure because it definitely was more fun to go out and meet people for drinks. It's very expensive too though. I do wish and I feel like some like downtown I found this more. There's a lot more mocktails and things like that. I wish that more casinos would have and not just juice like a juice drink for. For dollars. Yeah're like they have non alcohol. They have na beverages like they can take fake gin and make the same exact cocktail. They just don't do that. So that's something I wish would happen, and I'm sure it will eventually, if there's enough mark or demand for it.

0:51:39 - (Danny J): I know like in San Francisco, there's a lot of bars that are NA bars and they have great cocktails. So I would love to see that more. It definitely has shifted because, you know, there's a lot of you go out, you go out for drinks and you stay out. Like the Chandelier Bar was that for me. So it shifted a bit. But I think your friends know who you are, and I've found ways to just work around it. Like I had friends who were in town for Arkansas, met them at the Chandelier Bar. I was like, hey, can you give me that flour drink without alcohol? And they did it for me. That was great. Still cost a lot of money.

0:52:08 - (Dave Burlin): But yeah, this is my question on that because I've heard it both ways. And of course, I work in the restaurant industry as well. We do a lot of consulting around numbers and all that stuff. When you see a drink that's $18 with alcohol and then you see a mocktail that's dollar without the alcohol, I've heard. Oh, well, it still takes just as long to make it. It's like, yeah, but the main ingredient, ingredients is like, you're calling it a $10 shot. Yesuse. I always look at that too. Like if it's $17 cocktail with the same 1 ounce or 2 ounce pour in it, how much is it for a shot? It's like $11. And I'm like, now again, I'm not saying that it should be half that, but I feel like just the same way that they do two for ones or whatever. Like happy hour.

0:52:53 - (Dave Burlin): There should always be that mocktail represented there.

0:52:57 - (Danny J): I think there should be more mocktails and the pricing needs to be better. Like there was one I went to. I can't even remember where it was, but he goes, oh, it's basically 7 up. I'm like, so this is like dollars 7 up. You know, like, why don't I paying for the ambiance. Yeseah. You knowuse you're gonna just throw a mint leaf in it. Come on.

0:53:13 - (Dave Burlin): Or when they say it takes the same amount of prep. I get that, but make it $10 less. I'm still gonna tip the bartender.

0:53:21 - (Danny J): Totally.

0:53:21 - (Dave Burlin): Because like now I have a reason to you and like, oh, I'm have more moneyinks. Yeah, we have more money. I did that on that. This on the I im Sober app or whatever it says, how much do you Spend on average and at the time I put like $25 and it's like here as I get closer to a year it's like 8500 and something dollars is what I've saved and I'm like yeah, I'll still tip the bartender the same as I would and I tip well.

0:53:46 - (Dave Burlin): But it's like still cut me that $11la.

0:53:49 - (Danny J): I know, I know. It does make me mad. Especially if they're not using NA alcohol. If they're just using mixers and juices. I'm like it's one thing if they do use some other fake alcohols. And I've rarely found that. There's been a few places where I see like there's a brand called Seed Lip that they've used something like that. But I've bought some and at my house I have those. But yeah, it bums me out and I think it'll get better downtown. I went to actually it was like a pop up NA bar and so there were like cocktails and that was really fun. A woman here, I forgot her name but she did this little downtown kind of thing and you just went to have drinks and I think that's happening more.

0:54:26 - (Danny J): It does seem more like a downtown versus strip thing. Cause the strip people are there for usually tourists they to get carried out. Yeah. And yeah they're tourists have the wheelchair. Pure downtown as a mixture of tourists and locals. So I feel like that's why you'll see it more downtown.

0:54:42 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, that's true. True.

0:54:44 - (Tawni Nguyen): Maybe we should throw that party.

0:54:46 - (Dave Burlin): I bet we can. We the we have the technology so for that. So there's a lot of things that have changed for a positive. What do you see is some of the challenges that not just for you in running online business but like for people that maybe are looking at Las Vegas and they have a different perception of it. Like what do you still see as some of the challenges that you see in the next like three or four years?

0:55:16 - (Danny J): Yeah, some of the challenges I see are just the same challenges as probably anywhere. If you're moving here is still trying to get out of your bubble and meet people. Cause I think it still lands on you, you know. Cause we can still have those neighbors who drive into their garage atut the door and you never see them and you don't know who lives by you. And I think getting out of your bubble in general. Cause like I live in inspirad and sometimes I don't go anywhere and you. It's really. I mean this happens in la this happens everywhere where you have a friend on the other side of town. They're in Summerlin, you're in Henderson. You're like, I'm not go goingna drive over there. Even though our traffic isn't bad. Everything is like 20, 30min except for Inspir.

0:55:50 - (Danny J): It feels far. Yeah, it feels far. So you don't leave your house. So I think just the challenge is just especially maybe an introvert is like forcing yourself to get out and do things and to be open and be available. So that's not really a vgas challenge per se. I think that's kind of anywhere you go and anytime you're in a new environment, you have to get out of your bubble and do that. But as far as Vegas in particular, I'm not sure I see, you know, the bigger challenges.

0:56:22 - (Danny J): Traffic and construction and that has been my entire life. So I don't know if that's ever gonna shift or change. And again, any city you go to that's growing, that has growth, is gonna have those kind of things too. So you know, if you're gonnann whine and complain about if you come from, you know, Kansas and you've never had traffic, well, I'm sorry, but you live in a city so there's gonna be like this like go LA first for perspectivee.

0:56:44 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, this still really.

0:56:46 - (Danny J): So it's really just like check your own expectations. And also take the measuring stick against something that else is similar. Because if you're measuring Las Vegas traffic to Kansas traffic, you're gonna be disappointed. But if you're measuring it to la, you're gonna be like, this is amazing. So I think's your perspective is gonna shape and shift a lot of how you feel about it here. And that's for any place I see this on threads people like, I'm moveving to Vegas, what do I need to know?

0:57:11 - (Danny J): And you'll see people that love it and that they're test saying all the good things and people that hate it and all the things they're gonna shit on. And usually the things they shit on are the heat. Actually that's just about it. They shit on the heat. And I'm like, if you can get past the heat and realize that it's a short amount of time, we have beautiful weather the rest of the year and that you're not sitting outside anyway, then you really, it's not that bad, like you can handle it.

0:57:33 - (Dave Burlin): And this year more than any other year in the past, like I took full advantage of, I became a straight up Poor pool pool boys.

0:57:39 - (Danny J): There you go.

0:57:40 - (Dave Burlin): It's like, oh, it's hot. Like I'm going to the pool. Like I work from the pool more often than I ever had.

0:57:45 - (Danny J): This year was extremely brutal. Like, it was definitely one of the worst. And I was like, ooh, this was pretty rough. But it's still like now I'm sitting here at November, December. It's like 70 degrees. I'm like, okay, this is amazing.

0:57:56 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah.

0:57:56 - (Danny J): You.

0:57:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): We have a different set complaints as introverts with the dark thing.

0:58:00 - (Danny J): Yeahus.

0:58:00 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's like 4:30. I'm like, I'm showing off my laptop. Please don't try to contact me. Please don't make me leave the house.

0:58:05 - (Danny J): Yeah, yeah, for sure.

0:58:07 - (Dave Burlin): So with that then, if you could wave a magic wand, what's one thing that you really would love to see in Las Vegas? What do you think would really be the most positive thing that could happen?

0:58:22 - (Danny J): If I can make a way a magic wand. I would fix I15 traffic and 215 traffic. And you know what else I would do? I. I would have blown up Excalibur instead of Tropicana.

0:58:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): Whoaang. These are fighting one, right?

0:58:42 - (Danny J): I think it just looks so bad. It looks so terrible and janky. That old castle.

0:58:48 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's not even circus circus.

0:58:49 - (Danny J): I was like 8 years old when. When that was building and I thought it was the coolest. And now I'm going, please tear that blau awful eyesorere down. That whole. Even the pyramid. They could all knock that whole corner down and put something cool there.

0:59:01 - (Dave Burlin): But yeah, that's gonna open up a whole new list of questions. What's the next hotel they should blow?

0:59:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): Regardless of what people say, it's still McCarn and it's still the 5:15. I can't wrap my head around this 11 thinguse. They're like, I'm on the 11. I'm like, wa. What is the 1111 y.

0:59:19 - (Dave Burlin): And Google Maps doesn't even know that yet.

0:59:21 - (Danny J): It's.

0:59:21 - (Dave Burlin): It's super weird.

0:59:22 - (Danny J): So bizarre.

0:59:23 - (Dave Burlin): No, I think there's great truth in that. Thank you for sharing that. So as things move into what's next for you? Right. Are you. What are you really excited about as far as the future goes?

0:59:40 - (Danny J): Yeah. Just getting into speaking. I actually something. I've had a my to do list since the fall and should have started in the fall because I grew up here and I went to high school here. I actually got pregnant in high school and I wanted to. I really wanted to not be a statistic. I remember the High school I went to had the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the entire country at the time. I don't know what it's like now, but I didn't want to be a dropout and be a statistic, so to speak. And I feel like I've made something of myself.

1:00:09 - (Danny J): And really this year, because I didn't realize I was going to stay in Vegas once we came back in 2021, it wasn't a plan to stay. And since I've been staying, I feel like for me, it's time to give back. And I reallynna go speak at a lot of high schools and share my story, especially because kids who may be growing up here going through some of the same struggles that I had. And so I'm looking, I have this whole list of Clark county schools and I want to reach out and start doing a little bit more give back to the schools here.

1:00:36 - (Dave Burlin): That's cool. That's cool. I share that same passion. I've started thinking about that a lot more lately as I kind of change and make some new decisions of where I'm going. I always look back where I came from. I was at Risky, and I don't talk about this a whole lot, but after the Marine Corps, I was a drill instructor for At Risk Youth for seven years. And I was just pouring back into the kids that were, in a way, so much just like me.

1:01:02 - (Dave Burlin): And it's interesting cause you have a daughter, right? It holds your daughter.

1:01:06 - (Danny J): She's 27.

1:01:07 - (Dave Burlin): Okay. Yeah, it goes by fast. My son just turned 20. But it's very interesting to you because I feel like, just like for all of us, Pandemic affected everyone very differently. So at whatever stage they were at, whenever, like I say, kids all the way from kindergarten to college were affected very differently. My son was 16, and that's very much affected his approach at work and like, life and all that stuff. So it's really interesting to see that here and to know that you can speak into that.

1:01:37 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, I'd be really excited to see when you get that started because I know some other people that may be interested to speak in that network as well.

1:01:45 - (Danny J): Yeah, yeah. I have a really good friend who's a school speaker and I just, you know, I guess I just didn't expect to stay here. So I didn't really put any feelers into it. And then I go, why am I not speaking here? Like, this is where I grew up. This is where I went to high school. I went to multiple schools here. I went to at least seven different Schools here. So I just feel like. And because I want to get back into speaking, I just feel like now's the time to reach out and just talk to where I want.

1:02:12 - (Dave Burlin): So, speaking of speaking.

1:02:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Speaking.

1:02:15 - (Dave Burlin): Speaking of speaking, friend of the show, Mike Kim. Sorry, Mike, we ran out of time. The joke is like, so when we started this show, I had found Tawi. She had interviewed one of our mutual friends, Mike Kim. Mike Kim's all about personal brand. My favorite thing about him is the quality of questions that he asked to help people find their truth. So when it comes to speaking for you, I think his questions are, what pisses you off? What breaks your heart? And what problem are you trying to solve?

1:02:45 - (Dave Burlin): So I pose those questions to you, like, what's the injustice in the world? What pisses you off? What problem are you trying to solve? Or, I'm sorry, what breaks your heart? Like, that sort of demographic you're talking about, kind of early teenagers for that speaking specifically. And then what's the problem that you would want to solve there?

1:03:03 - (Danny J): Yeah, what pisses me off, I think comes back to the mental health conversation because I struggled for years with depression. I actually went to charter hospital here. It was like a behavioral health center. And it was on Lone Mountain, or, sorry, Rainbow and Spring Mountain. And they put lots of kids in the system and they drug them up and they give antidepressants. And I feel like we went to breathwork last night.

1:03:28 - (Danny J): I feel like there's so many tools now that we can help our youth with mental health. And I still think there's a place for pharmaceuticals. I think you need to do whatever it takes to stay here to stay alive. But there are a lot of other tools. Like, our food is terrible. I think that adds to our mental health. I think social media, all of those things just kind of add to it. But we also, our children and adults aren't given tools to cope with trauma and anything like that. So I think what pisses me off is like, there's this, for lack of a better word, a pandemic of depression and anxiety for all of our youth and adults.

1:04:09 - (Danny J): And the solution is just a pharmaceutical that doesn't always work. And so I reallynna help people find other ways, whether it's therapy, emdr, breath work. I mean, there's so many modalities that help. And then what was the. Pisses you off?

1:04:25 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, breaks your heart, and then what problem are you trying to.

1:04:27 - (Danny J): Yeah, and I think that. I mean, the thing that pisses me off is also the thing that breaks my heart. It's like, you know, seeing that. I remember this boy in Charter. I went there for depression and suicidal ideation, but there was a boy there, he was very like add just kind of hyper. And I remember when he came in and he was fun. His name was Derek. And he was just kind of, you know, he was just movie.

1:04:46 - (Danny J): I don't know how to describe it, but he was just wiggling. And by the second day, he was just in a corner, like comatoseh, like sedated. And they had given him something. And I was like. It seemed like his soul was gone. Like who he was was just a zombie. And seeing that was like, this is how we're gonna fix this. This is how we're gonna control this. We're just gonna drug people and leave them there.

1:05:08 - (Danny J): So that the same thing that pisses me off is really what also does break my heart. And what was the last one?

1:05:15 - (Dave Burlin): The problem that you're trying to solve?

1:05:16 - (Danny J): Yeah, and I mean, I guess is altogether that is a problem I'm trying to solve is, you know, helping people get more tools in their toolkit. And to know that also that they are the solution to their own healing. And so I really believe that we have it within us to heal, but we also need to know what we don't know. Like the things I didn't know growing up, I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't know there was breathwork. I didn't know there was a psychedelic therapy. I didn't know there was EMDR therapy. I didn't know there. There's so manyes book.

1:05:47 - (Danny J): Right. And also I didn't know that trauma was causing my issues. I thought it was a chemical imbalance, which has been. I mean, that's a whole other podcast about.

1:05:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): That'll be on my podcast. I love this topic.

1:06:02 - (Danny J): Yeah. So like, that's a whole other conversation. So I'm just thinking I'm born defective, which is completely untrue. And so learning about trauma and learning about how that affect the brain, and now I can go back and go, I can know when my depression started and why and why Irected the way I did. And the pills just suppressed stuff. But until I finally was able to deal with it and process that stayed with me for my lifetime until the last couple of years.

1:06:29 - (Danny J): So I really wanna just speak more into that and make people feel like they're one, they're not alone, nothing's wrong with them. And two, that there are tools and. And there's things out there that they can do that. They don't have to look outside themselves. They don't have to be on a prescription for the rest of the life. I was told you're gonna be on med of the rest of your life and I was just supposed to accept that. And it s so not true.

1:06:50 - (Danny J): I'm not on meds anymore and I feel good. And I know that if I find myself slipping into old patterns, I have tools and people and community and ways that I can get back to center. And that's really beautiful and that's empowering. But that's not. You're not learning that in school. You're not even learning that. You're counselors. And a lot of like school counselors, kids are sent to. And there's just a lot of, I don't wanna say mismanagement. There's just a lot of misinformation and just a lot of not knowing. It's just like ignorance, you know?

1:07:21 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, no, and I think that's definitely one of the biggest, best kept secrets about Las Vegas is that there is community for that. There is information around that there are people that are addressing that very issue even right here in Sin City.

1:07:36 - (Tawni Nguyen): And it's more accessible than the whole LA culture of like the mass produced mainstream culture to where it's just monetizing other people's defectiveness. Because you know, I was that kid at 11 that was put on meds. I'm like, because I don't want to sit here for eight hours and what I don't want to do, like I'm just not designed this way. I grew up on a farm. Like, can't sit in this cold, hard, institutionalized structure, you know. So when I tested in what, fifth grade? I'm like, oh my God, am I stupid? Like what's going on?

1:08:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): But that's a whole other can of worms that we're gonna have a follow up conversation to that. So I just want to acknowledge you for just being vulnerable with us and really sharing like what we're about as a pursue Vegas community and who we bring on to the show. It's the people that's actually doing the work ourselves. Because internally it ref. Refles the external, like the business, the lifestyle and also the relationships that you have with other people. It's mainly a reflection in the mirror of who you, how you treat yourself, you know, And I got that wrong for so many years until the last couple years too. So sometimes you, you kind of have to fall apart like a spicy tacos, put it back together and that's kind of where we're all at right now, you know.

1:08:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): So I just want to thank you for your time and you know, know that pursue vac ###ys connect with me and Dave always to share resources and also how do other people find you and how do we stay connected to you?

1:08:56 - (Danny J): Yeah, Mostly on Instagram. Dannyj.com It's D A N N Y like a boy, the letter J. And then I spelled d o t-coash m.comt and I actually signed up to be the chapter head of Microdose Las Vegas. And I'm supposed to host events. I haven't hosted any yet. And that's actually some something I should talk to you all about later. But it actually is to bring about just talking about the mental health epidemic and crisis and just different ways to bring in different psychedelic medicines. So hopefully I'll have some events here that I can actually meet more people in the community and do that.

1:09:29 - (Danny J): But yeah, Instagram is the best. I mean, I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn. Dannyj.comt every place you can find me@dannyjay.com even if you go to my website. Dannyj.com do but Instagram, even MySpace. Yes.

1:09:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): What about like Zenga.

1:09:43 - (Danny J): Venmo for sure you can do Venmo me and cash app. So if you want to buy me a coffee, they're $8 now, plus a tip. Y.

1:09:53 - (Dave Burlin): It's gonna ask you some questions.

1:09:54 - (Danny J): It's gonna ask you some questionions. But I always. My DMs are always open, so I'm happy to chat with people there.

1:10:00 - (Dave Burlin): Yep. Very cool. Awesome.

1:10:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, don't look at me.

1:10:06 - (Dave Burlin): Well, that is definitely a wrap. Thank you so much for coming on the show and. And we cannot wait to see about getting some events on the calendar.

1:10:13 - (Danny J): Yeah, let's do it.

1:10:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Stay tuned for part two.