0:03

Some say life will knock you down. Sometimes it knocks you down twice. What if the annoying symptom you have been ignoring for months suddenly becomes impossible to ignore? Today's guest is Dan McQueen. He shares the mindset shifts that help him rebuild after two brain surgeries and how you can apply them right now.

Caroline: 0:33

This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I'm your host, Dr. Caroline Sangal. I'm a life first career coach and strategist on a mission to normalize questioning your career because I believe each of us is made on purpose for a purpose only we can fulfill. The longer we live out of alignment with who we are, what we do best, and why we're here, the more we miss out. And the more the world misses out on what only we can give. The Your Next Success Podcast is where we explore how to build a career that truly fuels your life. We talk about self-discovery, smart job, search strategies, professional growth, and you'll hear stories from people who've navigated big career transitions themselves so you can see what it's really like to make bold changes and feel inspired to create your own version of authentic success, one that is aligned, meaningful, and truly yours.

1:33

Dan McQueen is a keynote speaker and storyteller who helps teams reframe, setbacks, shift perspective, and become better than yesterday through practical action oriented life hacks. Dan's path took a sharp turn in London when persistent headaches led to a sealed envelope and a direct trip to the hospital. What followed was emergency brain surgery, a brain hemorrhage, weeks in a coma, and months of rehab where he had to relearn how to walk, talk and smile. Dan now speaks from a place of hard won clarity. His message carries grit, heart, and a steady belief that you always have agency. The ability to choose your response and take the next step you can control even when you didn't choose what happened. In this episode, you'll hear Dan share how he rebuilt his life after two emergency brain surgeries, and what helped him become better than yesterday. The mindset shift that help him move from shock to forward motion. A perspective reframe that changed his experience of recovery without changing the environment and practical life hacks he uses to protect energy, stay organized, and keep momentum building. If you have ever wondered how people rebuild after the unthinkable, this episode is for you.

Caroline: 3:07

Welcome Dan to Your Next Success. I am so, so excited about this conversation. I've been looking forward to it for months now.

Dan MacQueen: 3:16

Thank you, Caroline. Love to be on the show.

Caroline: 3:19

Awesome. So, as you know, I talk about a lot about careers, career transitions. I know that right now you are an amazing sought after public speaker. It's for so many venues. So we're gonna get to that, but I'd love to kind of dial it, dial it back, like dial it way, way back. So can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? Like where did you grow up? What were the kinds of things that you absolutely loved doing?

Dan MacQueen: 3:47

Sure. So I grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Cold winters, warm summers. Ottawa was lovely just missed the summer in the winter. Played a lot of ball hockey growing up. Hockey, ice hockey is a big national sport of Canada. I eat and lived this every day of my life. Road hockey in the streets. It was phenomenal. Then at grade six, I moved over to Vancouver, to go to school and high school here, and built myself up in those formidable years. Played a lot of soccer, a lot of football. And then, went to UVIC for a grad, undergrad degree. Had a great time in University of Victoria.

Caroline: 4:22

I wanna get a little bit deeper into some of the earlier stuff before we jump to, to the college things. In those, hockey loving Ottawa days besides hockey. What fascinated you? Like what were the things that you loved doing, or were there any particular school subjects that were more fascinating for you than others?

Dan MacQueen: 4:42

I was in French immersion for a while.

Caroline: 4:45

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 4:45

French accent was quite good apparently, but my English started to slip a little bit, so I had to switch back to English.

Caroline: 4:50

Ah.

Dan MacQueen: 4:51

But I just enjoyed sport. The competitive nature, the losing, the winning and improving myself up. So sport was a big part of my life back then and really grew into a love later in life.

Caroline: 5:04

And what was it that had you move aside from high school? Like what were your parents, what did they do? Sometimes there's things in that there can actually be like generations of similar kind of career choices. I'm just curious if there's anything like that in your family or the perspective that your, your parents had and that kind of how that shaped your view of what work was, what success was.

Dan MacQueen: 5:27

So both my parents were journalists. My mom was a managing editor for the newspaper here in Vancouver. My dad worked in newspapers and also worked for Macleans Magazine, a big national magazine here in Canada.

Caroline: 5:39

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 5:40

Moved back and forth for jobs across the country a few times.

Caroline: 5:44

And then, yeah, my parents moved, well, my dad was, like a teacher, principal, school superintendent, so we frequently would move, and at the time, I didn't appreciate it, but now I'm like, man, that was actually some great stuff because we learned how to meet new people, you know, build rapport, all of those things. How was your experience moving to different places as they did different things in their careers?

Dan MacQueen: 6:09

It was definitely challenging initially, but you grew to adapt. Kids are pretty adaptable, pretty malleable.

Caroline: 6:17

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 6:17

Adapted and we made ourselves, made the best of the situation. It's a bit worrisome because I moved in grade five, so the next year I was gonna move to this junior high. Built up this friend group in Ottawa. So I was a bit reluctant to let go of them, but luckily I moved to Vancouver and built a friend group here pretty quickly. And adapted pretty well to that, but it was not without his trials and tribulations. As a young kid, you're friends or your life, right? And losing your friends at that age was quite, scary to go to a new school and different, but it, builds character. As I say.

Caroline: 6:47

Yeah. Now, what is it that, How did you decide that you even wanted to go to school again beyond high school? And what was it that you just study? You decided to study? How did that come about? How did all of that,

Dan MacQueen: 7:00

Yeah, I think university was always in the cards for me. I was always, that's not true. Grade 11 and 12, I tried hard in school that, I didn't try hard at all, but I knew I wanted to go to university and I had to get good grades for university to be a reality, right? So I really busted my tail to make university a priority for me. And then I decided to go to University of Victoria. I studied politics and business. Really just happened to be that I studied that many courses that kind of aligned for that master or that degree. I kinda shoehorned myself into those subject matters. It was really fascinating because this was around the time when the Obama McCain election was on a course just specifically on this, which is quite fascinating. I studied business, which is quite an interesting undertaking a minor in business, which was, you know, I had to do accounting again, which was my nemesis. I never studied harder in my life than for accounting. You had a B- for it to count towards your undergrad degree or your minor. So I had to bust my tail to get that B- but it was very fun and very lots of late nights parties. I learned how to manage my time in a way. I understood the bare minimum I could do to get past a midterm in a course. It was a lifestyle choice. It was very cool.

Caroline: 8:13

And what did you think you wanted to do? Like, or I guess, you know, earlier, let's say pre-college, etcetera, like what did you think success meant? What did you think it was gonna be to be an adult? To be living your life, what did you think it was gonna be to be successful?

Dan MacQueen: 8:32

I come from a very loving household. My parents are very much the shining example of what marriage can be and what it should be in life and my careers, they're very passionate about. So I wanted a career that I cared about and I figured that everything stemmed from that and I'd find the person after that. But success for me was feeling fulfilled, feeling loved, having a family, being like, building the connective tissue with the community and building that out and making an impact in the world. So that was success for me.

Caroline: 9:00

Oh, that's beautiful. Especially for such a younger age, right? Sometimes people are, maybe they put their sights on, well, it's this car or this house or this thing. And maybe those were parts of your bigger dream, but yet you had the core of the relationships, the love, those sorts of things and everything branching. That's, that's really beautiful. So you did some jobs while you were in college, I think, while you were going to college. Right. Tell me a little bit about those.

Dan MacQueen: 9:29

Yeah, I worked for the Ministry of Finance doing this thing called the Climate Action Dividend Program, which is a great gig. Worked for a summer and then I worked part-time during my senior year at university, so I'd schedule my classes around when I could work. So I worked, I think Mondays and Fridays or just Fridays.

Caroline: 9:47

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 9:47

I'd pick a few classes that would just have a three hour block on one day on a Wednesday, let's say if you miss that class, you're hoop because you've gone through two chapters in the program

Caroline: 9:55

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 9:56

Well behind. Allowed me to work that one day a week, which really helped and make some good money. And it was well. But, um, I did that for my senior year and that was, good way to balance my time and understand, you know, the real world's coming. How can that look once I'm out?

Caroline: 10:11

And then once you got out, what did you decide to do? As far as you know, tell me about the job that you got then and, and then what happened?

Dan MacQueen: 10:19

Yeah, I work for a company called BC Hydro, the local utility, the provincial utility for the province, working on the Power Smart team. So helping people save energy and find ways they can reduce their carbon footprint and was making some inroads with this job. I actually got promoted to a retail rep. So I'd go to store and work on their POP or point of purchase marketing for energy saving TVs. And this is quite a lucrative promotion I got and then decided I wanted to, continue my studies and get a master's degree. So I looked at Master's, and Europe'cause he's got a European passport. There was a hack that, a friend of mine. I don't actually remember his full name, but I know his nickname's Hubang, he lives in Finland now, but he got pre-masters in Finland. And I was like, you can do that. He's like, if you're a European citizen, you get free education in Europe. So I was like, let's do that. So I moved to Sweden for a Master's in Leadership for Sustainability in Malmo, Sweden.

Caroline: 11:15

Interesting. And so what was missing in work that made you even think about getting, you know, going back to school?

Dan MacQueen: 11:25

Well, I traveled, quite a lot when I was younger. Traveled for eight months during my university program and traveled throughout Australia, Southeast Asia. Really enjoyed the traveling element of life, and I wanted to still continue that part of my vibe, right? So I decided to move.

Caroline: 11:40

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 11:41

To study my master's, but also travel a lot. Experience the culture. Like Sweden's a gorgeous city to live in, just to the winters are pretty harsh. That's a fact. But it was more about keeping that excitement level going. And then after my master's in Malmo, I moved to London.

Caroline: 11:59

And, and then, Yeah, tell me a little bit about that. How was, how was life in London at first for you?

Dan MacQueen: 12:05

London was pretty grim to be honest. I lived with my friend Heidi Classon's floor in a mattress for three months. Looking for work getting turned down from job after job. Just decided and I came back for Christmas. My mom goes and I had a flight book back to London. She goes, you're going back to London. I'm like, yeah. I was gonna do this. She's like, but you don't have any, don't have a job there. What are you going back for? You're living on a floor and a friends. I'm like, yeah, I said I was gonna make this work, so I'm gonna make this work. I got a job at a company called Hootsuite Social Media Management Platform.

Caroline: 12:36

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 12:36

Working on the professional. Well, first off with the customer support team. Then I moved into professional services, so training people, post sale on the platform, working in clients in amea, so Middle East and Africa. So think Saudi Arabia in the morning, Milano, Italy in the afternoon, and then the interior of UK in the late afternoon. Wide scope of clients with different use cases and different, reasons for signing up for Hootsuite, which is a social media management platform. So it was very interesting to learn this job and it was a great, great job. I really enjoyed that. I was like the, you were like the rock stars of the office running sessions, controlling your own schedule, run through clients. I worked with some very interesting clients, is a great job. Really enjoyed that.

Caroline: 13:17

So you're, you're pretty much living the dream in London. You now have, you know, advanced education, an amazing job at an up and coming company, really having a lot of responsibility. And then what happened?

Dan MacQueen: 13:36

So this is where the story turns a little bit. I just got this new promotion to work in implementation specialist, and I started having these headaches. They would get worse after a few weeks. Painkillers like candy for them I had was pounding. Headaches got so bad, I was on the tube one day and the tubes had zigzagged around London, lumbering towards Notting Hill Gate tube station on the district line, and that's a slow roll. At the best of times, headaches were so bad. My vision turned spotty and I saw stars. It was a race, who could arrive at the station first, me or the blindness. Arrived at Nottinghill Gate Tube Station stepped under the platform. Mind the gap- and the lights went out. I couldn't see a thing. Station's swirling around me. I can't see a single thing. So I ask you, Caroline what would you think? What would you feel? What would you do?

Caroline: 14:27

I think I would be terrified. I don't know if I would just, like, would I sit down or would I reach out and try to grab somebody to ask for help? I'm not sure, but I would be kind of scared that's, I've been to those types of stations and there's a lot of people going around now. On one hand it's like, maybe you've been to that station before. You know, it's kinda like after a while you can walk around your whole house in the dark. But, there's so many variables you can't control for what, what did you do?

Dan MacQueen: 15:01

That's a very accurate description. What I thought I was. Terrified. What am I gonna do here? I can't see a thing.

Caroline: 15:07

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 15:07

The stations swirling around me. I decide I'm not gonna say a thing. I'm gonna look and think and think. I wish I could say, come up with a solution. I did not. After the longest three minutes of my life, my vision comes back and I carry on on my day. But the next day went storming back into A E. A E is like, uh, emergency in The United States. What hell's going on here? I was blind on a tooth station in London. This is not normal. What's wrong with me? They ran some more tests than again, they thought it was virtigo They sent me home. On the way out, they told me I could always get my eyes checked by an optometrist. It's sounded rather odd, I thought, but okay,

Caroline: 15:45

And were your eyes fine? Did you have glasses before? Like before this had you?

Dan MacQueen: 15:49

Yes.

Caroline: 15:50

Aha. And where were the headaches? Like which part of your head?

Dan MacQueen: 15:55

Front, front of my head.

Caroline: 15:57

Oh wow. Interesting. Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 15:59

The next day, the headaches came back with a vengeance and I found myself, Mr. Patel's chair, an optometrist. He was midway through a routine exam. When he stops the exam, excused himself in the room and he comes back a few minutes later with a sealed envelope, which hands to me, he told me to go directly to Moorfield's Hospital, which I did Caroline and listeners. Tell a lie. I stopped at home first to grab a Jack Reach book by Lee Child, a phone charger and a bit to eat arrived at Moorefield Hospital, handed the envelope. They ran the same test. There again, escalated to Charing Cross Hospital. We're getting somewhere I'm thinking, this is positive. This is a good thing. Now it turns out, Caroline, I had a dangerous build up of pressure in my brain caused from a non-cancerous cyst in my patina gland. Now it turns out I require emergency brain surgery tomorrow. it turns out, was what to change altogether. After frantic back and forth with folks in Canada, last text message my mom received reads, I'll see soon, Mom. Think I'll have a new haircut next time I see you. Love, Dad. The Mom's in the air flying to London on June 21st, 2014. I'm on the operating table. Something goes horribly wrong. And I have a massive bleed in the brain, a brain hemorrhage, the cyst burst when they operated. Mom lands and finds I'm in critical condition. I was in a coma for four weeks, but was in and outta consciousness for months after this.

Caroline: 17:25

When you're in the coma because you know, you hear stories sometimes that like, yes, people are in a coma, but maybe they can understand stuff. And so like nurses and things are kind of trained to like talk as though you hear, even though you're in a coma. Could you hear, do you remember any of that? Were you aware where you were or like what was happening?

Dan MacQueen: 17:52

I was. Pretty out of it.

Caroline: 17:55

But did they have you drugged up also? Probably.

Dan MacQueen: 17:58

Yeah, I was just clinging to life here and I had this one dream that I was in a coma I'll share with you group now. I was on a submarine and the submarine had a massive aquaquarium on the submarine, and I couldn't understand why you bothered to build an aquarium on a submarine. We're already underwater. So I don't know what that means, but, that was the memory that stood out for me.

Caroline: 18:20

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 18:20

My mom would talk to me in the coma and she would tell me, Dan, if you get better, we'll take you on a safari in South Africa.

Caroline: 18:25

Oh.

Dan MacQueen: 18:25

And she kept riding that along. And as I got better and better and closer to coming outta the coma, she would, spoonfeed this to me. And I would, tell her. So I, when I go to the coma, I was like, Hey, when are we going to Safari? But that was four weeks of my life that I, weren't sure if I'd make it outta this alive. There were some days where it looked pretty grim and pretty days. Some days it looked positive and it, even out in the end, but it was a horrific experience.

Caroline: 18:48

Yeah. So, so were you, was your mom working at the time?'cause she just kind of had to drop everything and come and then like. I don't know that any parent could leave with that. Right. You're still her baby.

Dan MacQueen: 18:59

Oh, for sure. She had just retired, so luckily she had just retired. And this happened when this occured. But she was on the flight to London when I had the brain hemorrhage. So she landed and my dad called her and told her, Hey, Dan's in coma right now. You're about to walk into a hornet's nest. But he is in a bad way, just so you know.

Caroline: 19:19

Was your dad there or the doctor had called?

Dan MacQueen: 19:23

They called him to tell him what had happened, but she was in the air when this happened, right? So she didn't know where she landed. So she lands into a hornet's nest of alarms going off. Blood pressure, spiked heart rate too high. Initially, my temperature kept soaring through these ice blankets above and below me to keep my core temperature down. So the violent triggering.

Caroline: 19:43

Oh wow.

Dan MacQueen: 19:44

It was in a bad way. They told my parents, I may not make this right. I was clinging to life. And I was none the wiser.

Caroline: 19:56

Wow. Wow. Okay. So you, so you finally come out of that experience and then you said you're like in and out of consciousness for months. Like how, how long from this surgery hemorrhage, how long was it before you were consciously aware?

Dan MacQueen: 20:17

Probably about a month and a half, two months.

Caroline: 20:19

Wow.

Dan MacQueen: 20:20

Pretty in and out of it. Like the fatigue issue was so big and I would be there and I would just fade out to nothing. It was, a brain hemorrhage is pretty, pretty serious injury, big T, big trauma.

Caroline: 20:32

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 20:33

But it was, waking up in the hospital bed. My mom, dad, and brother on the bed and I'm trying to talk, but I can't talk he'll gimme a pen and paper, which I'm sure they're relieved that I could still think that I could write something down.

Caroline: 20:45

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 20:46

And you go Get. Me. Out. Of. Here. And show it to my brother Cam, and go, you make this happen. Get me outta here. I don't wanna be here right now. He's just, what do you want me to do, man? You can't talk, or smile right now. You look pretty crunk like you're not going anywhere. My reaction was, let's get outta this place. I was living in London as a European citizen. Wasn't sure if this was covered. Pull the joint. Let's get outta this joint when we can.

Caroline: 21:10

Yeah. Was it covered? In hindsight?

Dan MacQueen: 21:14

It was covered.

Caroline: 21:15

And. Then what happened? Like what was, recovery like from that point? So now it's like you're aware, you wanna get the heck out of there, and then how did you try to make that happen?

Dan MacQueen: 21:29

Well, I was told what happened to me,

Caroline: 21:32

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 21:32

Hey, Daniel had a brain hemorrhage. Just been in a coma for four weeks. This is what's happened. This isn't my life. I was healthy and active last, like yesterday, which was four weeks ago and a day yesterday. This isn't my life, this isn't me. And it slowly dawned on me like, you know, you're in a hospital right now. You can't, my leg had atrophy in the coma, so I couldn't walk. And I'm thinking, this is my life right now. This isn't my life, is it the, so the days in the hospital. The families there, the doctors there, they're all supporting you. Dan, you're so miraculous. You survived this. This is amazing. You're doing so well. In the nights, would go home and the parents would go home.

Caroline: 22:11

Oh.

Dan MacQueen: 22:11

And people would go to bed and they would wail and scream and cry because their life has been shattered. We're all in one room together.'Cause it's like how they corralled all the intensive care patients together. I remember I couldn't sleep with the first few nights because it was so deafening and the cries and the sorrows of these people, and I had to wear headphones initially to block out the noise. But like your life just comes to a crashing halt, and I'm thinking, this isn't my life. I was healthy and active yesterday. This isn't me. And then it slowly dawned on me like this is the card you've been dealt like you're in the situation now. Then I realize that's not what happens to you, but how you respond to it that matters. Realize it doesn't matter what happened to me. It's now what I do right now from this moment in time, how I get outta this hole that I found myself down. And I took a lot of mindset and a lot of grit and grind to fortify my mind around that. But once I made that choice, I began trying to get in the wheelchair in 45 minutes, not 50. Next week I try to do 40, not 45 and 35, not 40 ratcheting up my, improve my process, my recovery. I began training like a maniac in the hospital to get myself back to life, to this life behind me.

Caroline: 23:17

What do you think was like, did you just come across this thought on your own or did they have, like, were there in addition to trying to help you with like physical therapy type of things? Like did anybody come and talk about mental health, mind therapy mindset or, or you just happened upon these thoughts from digging into the past? Or like where did that come from to even switch?

Dan MacQueen: 23:45

That's a good question. I think it came from myself, realizing this,'cause this isn't fair, what happened to you? But now it's what you think about it that matters because the brain hemorrhage didn't kill you. It came pretty close. Came very close. They didn't think I'd me walking outta that one for sure. And I realize now it's what I think about it that matters, not what it was because whatever happened is in the past, I'm looking through the front windshield now. It's bigger for a reason. And how can I mitigate this and get back to a life that I loved? So I began rehabbing like a maniac and just controlling what I could control. But I think that was something that I built in myself and my parents helped me get across that mindset. I've always known that hard work works. Growing up I always was, for working hard, not for results I got, but if I put effort in, it was good. So I kind of fortified my mind around this.

Caroline: 24:37

Imagine a lot of the, you know, the sports kind of thing too, right? Like the, the desire to want to win the, what does it need to take? Okay. This thing was hard, didn't come out the outcome that I wanted, and now I'm gonna try harder for next time. Maybe some of those lessons were influencing, you know, get back up, try again, get back up, try again.

Dan MacQueen: 25:00

100%, I think sports was the single best thing that I could do to fortify my armor on this, because I knew that. Through experience, through sports victories and losses that I knew that if, if you put the work in, can get results. That's through winning championships and losing games and winning games, scoring goals, missing goals. But the failure part of that's so key. And I realized that if I just kept at it, I could get myself outta this hole. I found myself down.

Caroline: 25:24

Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 25:25

it's not easy to do that. It's not easy, but it's simple. Simple to decide that I'm making it this way. And then you just go, hell bent for leather on this. That's the choice I'm making, and now I just have to chase this down.

Caroline: 25:38

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 25:38

It's not easy to do that, but it's simple to decide that.

Caroline: 25:43

Imagine what your life would be like if your career aligned with who you are, what you do best, and actually fueled the life you want. At Next Success, we support all ages and stages through career transitions from students exploring majors or careers to job seekers actively searching or re-imagining their next move to professionals committed to self-awareness and leadership growth. Stay connected and explore what's possible at nextsuccesscareers.com and follow@nextsuccessmethod on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Gotcha. Okay. So, you make it kind of like a game to get better, you get quicker at getting in the wheelchair and kind of improve in that way. And, And then what, because your leg had atrophied and all of this, like, so how did you, you know,'cause I've seen, like, you walk now you do stuff, you do public speaking, so like all this came from post coma, but you know, I know there's some hiccups along the way, but how did you regain your ability to walk even or smile?

Dan MacQueen: 26:54

I'll share two stories with you, if you don't mind.

Caroline: 26:56

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 26:57

The first one's around the the splint. So everywhere, a splint in my left leg to help me stretch out the leg after the coma. It atrophied, as you mentioned, as I mentioned earlier too, the splint was horrifically painful, but the first thing, I wore the splint through the night notion. No stress, this will be easy. I thought this will be easy. Hinting it's not gonna be easy, right? Night, after 20 minutes, it was painful. After 30 minutes, it was dreadful. After 40 minutes, it was unbearable. I buzzed the nurse take the splint off my leg, please. I can't handle the pain, but I told them, tomorrow we're doing this for an hour. My walk, I can handle the pain. Big talk. So third night they wrap the leg. Tie it off with the ankle. Gave me the clicker, the nurse call button. They go patrol the Wilson Ward. Now the Wilson Ward is an L Shape. So short on this side, long on this side, on this side, long on this side.

Caroline: 27:46

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 27:47

Being in a hospital room that smells like only a hospital room can smell. Sanitized. Sterilized, it's clean. But you're wondering what sort of atrocities have been committed under the guise. of that lemony zestness After 10 minutes, legs painful. After 20 minutes, legs dreadful. After 30 minutes, legs unbearable, I start passing a clicker back and forth trying to distract myself from the pain. Now, Caroline, I've got double vision from the brain injury, which means I see two of you, which means I can't see this clicker much going back and forth right? As the pain rises up my throat, you got more enthusiastic till eventually, inevitably, I dropped the clicker and it landed on hardly four, three and a half down the ground. Shh. Sugar. I say, now, Caroline, I'll be honest with you, I did not say sugar. Many adjectives of sugar were used, but sugar was not one of them. I can tell you that much. I look over the edge of the bed. There's the clicker. I line on the four looking back of me. If I can get that click, I can stop this pain. I can in this monstrosity. The only problem was a fall from that height might break my arm. In fact, I forget what a 50 50 chance I break my arm.

Caroline: 28:54

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 28:55

Mind flip. Not the best odds. I changed tack. I'm trying to untie this one, but it's tied off the ankle, not at the hip. can't reach that far down. I'm not that flexible. Help. Help. I'm yelling as loud as I can, but the word the Wilson's in L-shape short on this side, long on this side, short on this side, long on this side.

Caroline: 29:12

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 29:12

They're at the far in the ward. They can't hear me beg for help, I decided to flip the coin, drop down and grab the cooker. Even if I break my arm. The splints got come leg that is part number one, two, and three. I lower myself off the edge of the bed and I crashed down. Heat, blankets, wires, cables, all go.

Caroline: 29:31

Ugh.

Dan MacQueen: 29:34

The arm holds and I hammer the clicker, the nurse to come bursting into the room like the bat seems been put up. Stroll in five minutes later. Why you doing the floor love? First of all, I say, that's a fantastic British axiom there. Where'd you say it from again? Caroline did, I did not say that. It's not what happens to you, but how you respond it that matters, right? Not what happens to you, but how you respond to it that matters. The reason why I'm telling you story is to learn through lessons from this experience. First lesson being and probably the most obvious. Let's not pass the clicker back and forth. That's a bad idea. Second lesson was, let's tie the splint up at the hip, not the ankle that way we can untie this should this happen going forward. And the third lesson play the most profound was let's always be solutions oriented from this moment forwards. When things go sideways in life, which sure as you're born they will. How do you resolve your issue? How do you fix your problem? Let's focus on that. With the help of the splints I'll soon start walking the halls of Wilson, eventually it came time to walk in Tooting Broadway. So Caroline, have you been to London, England?

Caroline: 30:38

I have. But it was just for like a couple days and it was a work trip, right? So it was like, ugh. I went to Imperial College in London because there were these guys that were doing fatigue and fracture mechanics, test method development, and I needed to learn that same method. And I'd seen they did papers. That was my London experience.

Dan MacQueen: 30:58

Okay. Did you make it your way to shooting Rob when you were there?

Caroline: 31:00

I don't think so. I don't think so. Well, I don't, I don't think I did. There was like this one place that looked like maybe what Times Square would look like and it had huge like TV screens and stuff up and it was like very lit up and busy.

Dan MacQueen: 31:13

So lemme set the scene for you and your audience. Okay. Tooting Broadway is an area in South London, an area they call up and coming. Think loud sirens, drugs, gangs. It's dirty.

Caroline: 31:23

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 31:24

It's hectic. And boy is it busy.

Caroline: 31:27

And why did you go there?

Dan MacQueen: 31:29

Sorry,

Caroline: 31:30

Who suggested to go there?

Dan MacQueen: 31:32

That's where the hospital was.

Caroline: 31:34

Ah, okay.

Dan MacQueen: 31:36

So it's dirty as hectic and boy is it busy walking with a cane. I walk with an eye patch four months in a wheelchair, I am literally Bambi on ice. I turn the corner to walk onto High Street for the first time, immediately get slammed into by someone. Stagger back a few feet. Someone else scurries past me the right hand side. I thought I was done with the rats. Someone had been stabbed on the sidewalk over here. Think it's a pretty wild place to learn how to walk. After a few days, I was thinking this is the worst place to learn how to walk in the world. Can't they see I'm trying to walk here or can't they see I'm trying here. And then one day my perspective shifted. Maybe it isn't the worst place to walk in the world. Maybe it's the best. If I can walk here, I can walk anywhere. Tooting Broadway didn't change, right?

Caroline: 32:24

Right.

Dan MacQueen: 32:24

It went from the worst to the best in my mind and my mood reflected that. What are you looking at in your life that you're convinced is the worst? Convinced it's the absolute worst. Hey, maybe it is. Maybe you can find a way to turn down the suck a little bit. Shift that perspective a little bit. Iron Mike Tyson famously said, everyone's gotta plan until they get punched in the mouth. Now your punch may not be a brain hemorrhage, right? Facts. Will be a job loss, a breakup, a diagnosis for you or a loved one. You will take that punch of the mouth, how do you respond. I'm offering you a compass, not a map, but a compass. It always points towards True North. Literally is it mindset perspective and hacks. Hacks so that you and your team are better than yesterday, tomorrow? Now my name's Dan McQueen, and the reason why I told you that story, about learning to walk in tune Broadway, when you change the way you look at the world, the world you look at changes, and you don't need a brain hemorrhage to understand that. So I shared that story to showcase the perspective shift that I underwent during this radical transformation and how I fostered a mindset of enjoying the struggle, the stray, and the strife, the suck, and making, letting that make me be better, if that makes sense.

Caroline: 33:36

Yeah. Okay. So, you regain your ability to walk and learn amidst this very challenging place, which you decide is actually working for you because you can now overcome, if you can walk through there, you can walk any other place. And then did you go back to work? Like what happened then?

Dan MacQueen: 33:57

Yeah, so after six months after the initial brain hemorrhage released from the hospital. Then I got back to rehab at home. Vocational therapy, speech and language therapy, physical therapy, and I'm back to work two half days a week, three half days a week. I'm turning and I'm burning. Life is getting back on. We're getting back to life. This is awesome. Then on July 28th, 2015, we had a bit of a setback. And by setback, I mean I was found unconscious in my flat by my mom. The shunt that's my brain, after the first brain hemorrhage had blocked leading itno hydrocephalus or water on the brain. I woke up the next day in the hospital, the beeping noise of the heart monitor go off behind me. Beep beep, beep, beep. What happened? What happened? What happened? Then you had a second setback. What do you mean? I was told it's very rare. Less than 10% of cases they tell me, but I've been working for you to get back to the office. Do you ever put this behind me? This was the depths of the human experience. I described my recovery like a W. So I'm going through life in London pretty good. The first setback occurs, a dropdown, then that was devastating. I don't wanna make it seem like this was a light encounter. This is capital T trauma.

Caroline: 35:10

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 35:11

I'm screwing back up, back to work. I'm putting this behind me. I'm getting my life back together here. And the second setback occurs. It's not where the first one was. Much lower the depths of the human experience. Rock bottom. Now I laid in the suck for a few months, felt it in my bones, and decided never again am I gonna ever feel this way in my life. So rock bottom. Bedrock's a pretty good foundation to build from. So I slowly got to work. The gains from rehab were lost, but I knew I could rehab faster. I'd just done rehab. I could do it again. So I got to work with a vengeance and I clammed back up. And now we're solving the rise upward trajectory. But it took a lot of work, a lot of mindset, a lot of graft to get to I'm at today.

Caroline: 35:57

And now, was your mom still in London? Like did she just move there'cause you were there and wanted to stay there? Or how did she just happen to come and find you?

Dan MacQueen: 36:06

So we used to meet She stayed in London for two years after the brain injury to help me get back to life and support for me there. We used to meet at the Tube before I went to work in the morning. She walked on her walk. I'd go into the office, happy days. One day I didn't show up, calls my cell, no response, walked with my flat. Knocks on the door, no answer. Opens the door there I am unconscious on the floor. She calls 999. I rush to the hospital and I woke up the next day. This is super traumatic for her to find me unconscious and go through this again, the second brain surgery in London. But no, they were super helpful. They stayed in London for two years to help me get back on my feet, two or three years.

Caroline: 36:42

Now, how long did this, did, did that time of being, how long did you have to stay in the hospital then?

Dan MacQueen: 36:50

I had already done rehab in the hospital, so I wasn't entitled to stay in the hospital for much longer than the time for me to recover from the brain hemorrhage or through the brain surgery. Hospital for maybe two weeks,

Caroline: 36:59

Oh, wow.

Dan MacQueen: 37:00

and then released and told, okay, there you go.

Caroline: 37:03

You are good. But since it was only two weeks, could you walk like,

Dan MacQueen: 37:08

I could

Caroline: 37:08

like,

Dan MacQueen: 37:08

still walk, thankfully.

Caroline: 37:10

Yeah. Wow.

Dan MacQueen: 37:12

All the gains from rehab were lost. Like the cognitive stuff I had worked on was erased in an incident like this was devastating for me. Yeah.

Caroline: 37:18

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 37:19

Work was worried that I, they had caused the issue, so they were reluctant to come back to work until I got fully tested and cleared out. It was just a blip in the cards, right? Like this was a 10% chance this could happen, and it happened to me. So lucky me, I thought. But it was the mindset. Of like, well, I've done this before, but I've lost the gains, but I know I can do it again faster this time. So I really fortified my mind with this, it wasn't an overnight thing. I wasn't chipper and upbeat of the hob of this, like this took some real work to go through and really fortify my mind around this.

Caroline: 37:51

Now, when did your interest in like personal growth, personal development, learning from some of those well-known names, when did that materialize? Had it, had you always had an interest or did it happen after the injuries?

Dan MacQueen: 38:12

Happened after injuries. I remember being in New York with my brother, he used to live in New York, for coffee one day, and I just had this epiphany of I started jotting down all these ideas, how to coffee, just jotting down page after page of ideas and thoughts and lessons. I learned. There's a talk outta this. I can build a talk outta this. So I crafted a talking and started giving to the outpatients at my old rehab center, Wilson. We talked to people to help them navigate the world outside of the wards of the hospital, changing their perspective. Navigating change and with some hacks and some fun solutions that they can navigate this properly. I gave a talk to my old employer, Hootsuite, once in person, once online, and the feedback I got from that was so profound. This is so good, Dan. When I lost that job from that company a couple years later, I decided I'm a keynote speaker tomorrow, which means I need a computer today. I've shortened the realm of acceptance, the time it takes to accept something. First setback. The second setback, the job loss. I've shortened down the acceptance piece. That's why I was able to pivot so fast with this and make this work. And that's the juice. That's the juice that's worth the squeeze. That shortening time to acceptance is so key. Acceptance is a dirty word, right?

Caroline: 39:25

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 39:25

You don't know my story Dan. That's not fair. Hey, I don't know your story. I can tell you that a shadow of a doubt, acceptance is the way forward. It's not relinquishing control. It's taking control of your situation and saying, I can do something about this. What can I mitigate the situation with? How can I improve my lot and go from there. Acceptance is the way forwards.

Caroline: 39:45

So you started having this idea and you started being a speaker while you were still at Hootsuite. And so you kind of already had planted that seed, started watering it. So then when you got the layoff news, you already had worked out your plan B. I guess that's now the plan A

Dan MacQueen: 40:05

Yeah, it was, I trained at Hootsuite for work, right? So I'd done over like a thousand sessions online with clients.

Caroline: 40:10

wow.

Dan MacQueen: 40:10

So I was good at training, good at presenting, and then I gave this talk for the outpatients maybe a dozen times. Give this talk for Hootsuite three times or two times, and then I luckily just shot a demo video maybe the month before, two months before this happened my speaking career, which is gonna be a part-time gig on the side of Hootsuite.

Caroline: 40:29

Ah.

Dan MacQueen: 40:30

I lost that job at Hootsuite, I decided, you know what? I'm going all in. I'm not sparing the, I'm not sparing the horses with this. let's go all in with this and make this work. And it was a bold decision to do this. But you know what I realized in life, I don't fear death now. I fear not living the life I'm capable of. This life's a gift, right? I might, I could fail doing anything. Why not fail to what I want to do?

Caroline: 40:51

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 40:52

And to go back to your early question of was there always this person who had thought about like these deeper meanings? No, I was not. But after the injury, the perspective shifts. What are you looking at? And I realized that this life is an opportunity to chase what you want and make a meaning and impactful life in this world. So that's what I'm doing now, is just, feel that in my bones, like when I'm on stage and I share stories, it's like, it's not to get the attaboys, look how good you are Dan Although there's probably some that in there, but it's to be like, look what you can do. I did these brain scans. One last story for you, Caroline, and I'll let you take over brain scans. A couple years ago at this neuroscience clinic in Surrey BC, Canada, Health Tech Conect. Put a gel cap on your head. They ask you questions like picture, frame, laptop, microphone, window blinds, To see if you have synapses fire or not. My results came back as average.

Caroline: 41:44

Hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 41:44

I've had two emergency brain surgeries. Average is pretty good. I read this as I'm shockingly average. Average. There's no way I'm average. Have you seen what I've been through? Stuff that. Average, but the more I thought about it. Really is that average is pretty good. Average means I'm no better or smarter than anyone I speak to. I've just been driven to go forwards toes over the nose of my board riding this wave down. I'm average. I want you to see yourself in my story. I'm an average guy who's been focused with this insurmountable odds, and I've overcome this through this set of things I'm talking about. I'm average, which means you can do this too. So it was actually like a real unlock for me to understand that and to sit with that, even though the ego took a bit of a blow, you know, average is, you know, I'm not average, but whatever. That's fine. But it was like, it fortified my mind is like, there's something here. Like I'm just an average guy who's been faced with this experience through a lot of support, love, family members. Like I, I've been able to climb back outta this pit, but you can do this too. There's something in this talk for everyone.

Caroline: 42:47

Hmm. Now, somewhere along the lines, you moved back from London back to Canada. What was, what precipitated that?

Dan MacQueen: 42:58

COVID in London sucked. It was a lockdown situation. It was outta your house for no longer than 45 minutes a day. And I was, I was alone in London, I used to come back to Vancouver twice a year for Christmas and summer. It wasn't the big, the world wasn't so big, it was quite small. When you're trapped in one spot for a couple years on your own, it's I'm, get the hell outta here. Moved back to London with Hootsuite, the company, they moved back to Vancouver, worked for them for about a year here, and then I lost the job in the corporate restructuring, about a year later, and then moved into the speaking full-time.

Caroline: 43:33

Wow. And how did you go about even trying to navigate that as far as how to find speaking engagements and how to find speaking engagements to replace an income?

Dan MacQueen: 43:48

Yeah, that's a good question, Caroline. I would say I haven't cracked the code on that just yet, but it's diving into it full steam, full bore. I'm not, I'm burning the boats. You know, there's this old adage of, you wanna take the

Caroline: 43:57

Yes.

Dan MacQueen: 43:58

the boats, right?

Caroline: 43:59

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 43:59

I, I've been on podcasts after podcast, telling my story to refine my storytelling abilities, up for speaking, coaching online, and been a part of programs and Impact Eleven groups help fortify my message and solidify what I'm going with and my value prop. It's not easy to do this, but it's simple to decide that's what I want to do.

Caroline: 44:19

Mm-hmm.

Dan MacQueen: 44:20

I realized in life that if I decide something, I can make it happen if I put the work in. So this mindset of I can do this is inside me. I believe I can do this with my whole heart. So that's why I'm chasing this down is'cause I, I believe I can make this work. I know I can.'Cause I've done all these things that were insurmountable. I've done, I wasn't supposed to walk, talk, or smile again. Here I am talking on your podcast, but it's, it's work, it's mindset, it's perspective. It's the graft, it's the, you get to do this, right? They say the odds you being a human being are 400 trillion to one. A staggering number of zeros. You're more likely to, in a lotto, 10 times in your lifetime than you ought to have a life in the first place. You get to do this. I'm only Dan MacQueen'cause it's blip of my DNA. Without, it wouldn't be me and I wouldn't trade myself for the world. So what are you gonna do about it? You don't like the hand you've been dealt. Tough luck. You get to do this, you get an at bat, the odds are staggering. You get an at bat, you get to do this. I'm doing this now all in because this is what I can do and I wanna do this. And I believe in my mind and my heart, this is what I'm meant to do in this world. And that's why I speak with the ferocity I speak with. And the compassion I speak with because I had a lot of help yet in navigating this change. Maybe you don't have that help. I can give you the keys, the blueprint, the compass to help me navigate this change successfully. It's not that complicated. It's very simple as a matter of fact, but it takes work. It takes reps, it takes commitment. But you can do this.

Caroline: 45:56

Have you thought about writing this down?

Dan MacQueen: 46:01

Yeah.

Caroline: 46:02

So people could read it? Is that part of your plans or,

Dan MacQueen: 46:06

Maybe later on in life I'll write a book. But right now, speaking is my main focus. I don't want to delude my speaking stuff with the book right now.

Caroline: 46:13

Yeah.

Dan MacQueen: 46:13

The stuff I speak about on is my story, is my, what my writing would be. So I'm writing it away and I'm still writing up new hacks and slides and stories and what have you. But it's, maybe in the future we'll say.

Caroline: 46:26

Yeah. So what are some of your hacks or things that you found? Make it, because I can, I don't know. You had to learn how to redo so many things. Right? And planning an organization can be hard for anyone. I can imagine. After trying to recover from two huge setbacks, but what are some of your things that help you to make, you know, your systems or habits that you live by now?

Dan MacQueen: 46:54

Show, sir, one with you that I haven't shared in a little while. It's called Icebreakers. Oh, you're walking into busy area. You wanna find an icebreaker, someone walking your direction and you fall behind them, let them break the ice for you. In London this is quite key because you wanna have an icebreaker to reduces the bandwidth and strain you're facing. Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, they're bloody circuses. If you can walk behind someone and save that bandwidth, you're reducing the strain and fatigue you're facing, right? With the brain injury, there's fatigue now. My battery's about 75% of yours. If I'm not intentional with my day, I can burn that battery quote"quickly". Also, use timers on the phone, alarms on the phone, reminders that set, like I've got an alarm at 11 o'clock with Caroline, be on time. So I give 10 50 alarm timer on my phone. So I'm looking, scrolling through Instagram or something before bed. Give myself 15 minutes timer on the phone. But I'm gamifying life, I'm making this work for me. Use the phone for a positive element, right? I was on this podcast a little while ago for about gaming. I'm not a big gamer, and I was like, what am I gonna talk about this? He goes, you ever play video games? I played video games back in the day, like Mario Kart 64, like an OG video game. So, okay, cool. Life's like Mario Kart 64. You're driving around the track, The Mushroom Circuit. There's an obstacle on the second left hand turn. You hit it first time, it the second time. Dude, you know the obstacles there. Hey, the third time you're like, dude, the obstacle's there. Drive around it. There's patterns in life as video games that you'll show up, you know, they're coming up, avoid them going forwards. If you can gamify life, it's less stressful to deal with. I've got a podcast that's on pause right now called Play Loose. Look Tight. Documenting the process of life after. What does it mean? Play loose. Look tight. Is a life mantra in four words. Play is the first word by intention. Life's about play, it's not stressful. You're having, You're having fun here, you're enjoying yourself. That's the whole point of life is to have fun. Enjoy yourself. Play loose. And you're having fun here, but also look tight intentionally with your dress and demeanor and intentional how you show up for yourself and others. So, a life mantra in four words, but the play word is so key because that's how I navigated the stressful stuff, is I made games of this. Those hacks really helped me alleviate this situation. And this is how I look at life now. Is this how I can hack it? How I can improve myself with this? it's understanding the patterns that come up again and again. Because there's patterns that show up again and again. You just have to understand them. I wish I could say it the patterns of the second failure, but it should be third or fourth, failure is first attempt in learning as my friend real says.

Caroline: 49:31

I love that. Yes.

Dan MacQueen: 49:32

So failure is such a key part of this vibe, but like I don't care if I fail though. I don't care if you see me failing because you know, I'm a 39-year-old guy now, a 39-year-old man, which is shocking to say, but like to fail, you're 39. When you're 39 is pretty. It's pretty, pretty ho, pretty humbling to be honest. I should know these lessons. I should know this by now, but that reset of the brain injury kind of alleviated little learns I had built. But I get to do this, right? I get to do this.

Caroline: 50:05

Hmm. How has your idea of success shifted as you've grown? Or did it shift? Like what do you feel success means now or what does authentic success for you in this moment?

Dan MacQueen: 50:25

There's this lovely, adage by, I think it wasn't by Goggins, but I've heard it on him on a podcast or in a YouTube short, and he goes, imagine you're on your deathbed and all these ghosts of who you could have been or around your bed and saying, if you only tried this, you could have become this. You could have done this, you could have done that. I want them to come around my deathbed and be like, you know what, Dan, we tried to get you a few times, but you sure as hell proved us wrong. Sure as hell made this most of your life that you were given? Success for me now is making an impact to show'em what's possible to show you that you know, you may be down not right now, but you're not dead to right. You still got a chance. You still got one move left. And that's a try. You can't lose that effort of trying. That's the most important bit I say in my talks, you gotta try. If you're not trying, I can't help you. But if you continue to try, you can dig yourself outta this hole you're down. Try that's the most important bit.

Caroline: 51:25

Hmm. How do people find you? I mean, I'd highly recommend for anybody who needs a motivational, inspirational speaker to absolutely, try to book you either for in person or online. But what's the, what's the process? How do people find out more about you or get in. Get in touch.

Dan MacQueen: 51:44

Yeah. Thank you, Caroline. So my website's macqueendan.com, to be linked in the show notes. Most MacQueen Dan across socials. I speak remotely and in person as well, but this is a message on my heart and something I really think the world can improve by. I'm not special, I'm not gifted, I'm not special. I'm an average guy telling my story about what I overcome and what I did, and the strategy is to do that. And they're not complicated things. They're very simple things. So that's the best way to reach me and thank you, Caroline.

Caroline: 52:19

Thank you so much, Dan, for sharing more of your story. It's absolutely fascinating. I can't wait to see what you continue to do with this beautiful impact that you're having. And I promise you that should you ever read a book, I might be one of the first one of, should you ever write a book, I might be one of the first ones to, to buy it. And, um. definitely would love to continue, you know, hearing from you and staying in touch as you continue on your awesome journey.

Dan MacQueen: 52:46

Caroline, thank you for having me on the show today. It's been a great opportunity to speak and I really appreciate you.

52:51

Dan, thank you for sharing your story and truths. Many people can use these to transform setbacks into a new level of success. And if you're still listening, remember to like, subscribe and share your next success together. We are on a mission to normalize questioning your career, so more people build lives and careers that are aligned, meaningful, and truly theirs.

Tara: 53:15

Thanks for listening to Your Next Success with Dr. Caroline Sangal. Remember, authentic success is yours to define and includes aligning your career to support the life you want.