Welcome to Fix Your Gym, a podcast about keeping your gear in shape. On this show, we have conversations with gym equipment gurus as we share stories on how they serve the fitness industry and community. And now, here's your host, Adam Kniffin. 

Welcome to the show. Today we got my man Dane Patton on. He owns a company called Bats to Rats. He's got a really cool story, man. I'm super excited to hear it and get into it a little bit. With him, you know, we just kind of connected with each other just a while back, you know, so I know you, you've got a really interesting story in terms of your, your transformation and utilizing kind of health and fitness to. to change your life and to better your life and better your business and I'm sure all of your relationships and things like that you know a lot of a lot of times on this show we we have a lot of different people in the the fitness industry on you know in terms of entrepreneurs or you know we we focus a lot on on the tech part as well because that's just kind of the area that I'm in you know you know experts in the technology you know in terms of equipment things like that or where the fitness industry is going But I also like to have people on who have utilized these tools and have utilized this industry to transform their lives, transform their minds, their families, their businesses, and everything like that. Although you may not be in the fitness industry, you have a lot of experience in that area. I'm excited to have you on, man. Thank you so much for coming on the show. 

Hey, uh, I am grateful to be here. Thank you so much for having me here and, and, uh, let me kind of just share my story a little bit. Cause you know, what started as, um, a weight loss journey has turned into the most incredible personal development journey that I didn't see coming. And, uh, you know, I. I started my own business back in 2015, kind of the same entrepreneur's journey. I was really good at what I did, didn't like who I did it for, and so decided I might as well start a business and go work for myself. Everybody thinks that's going to be the greatest thing, you start working for yourself, But, you know, I was a career employee before then, and I didn't know what I didn't know. I knew how to do my job. So I started a business, but I actually just owned my own job. And, uh, there's, there's lots of stress that comes with owning your own business. Um, you know, the buck starts and stops with you. So, uh, you know, I, I had a certain level of stress when I was working for somebody else. And then when I started my own business, that was a whole different, uh, level of stress. You know, I, I'm, uh, I'm a father and a husband first and foremost. Um, uh, I, I got married in, in 2011 to my wife, Lena. Uh, we have three amazing boys, Charlie, who's 19 now Harvey's 10 and, uh, Franklin seven. I mean, they're, they're my everything. And, uh, You know, I started my business because I wasn't happy with where I was. And once I got into, you know, this kind of ownership of business, then it's like, oh, you're in the real world. Yeah. And I wasn't making probably the best, most healthiest choices back then. And, uh, in 2015, I started a bit at the beginning of the year. And by the end of the year, I stepped on a scale and I was like 300 pounds. And that was the heaviest I'd ever been at that time and thought that I needed to do something. So I, I, um, I met with like a holistic health coach back then. And, uh, she kind of turned me on to like a multi-level marketing. Um, you know, like fitness or health product. 

Yeah. Which one was it? Just curious. I mean, I, I, I, I love the level of marketing. I mean, I, that's how I started off my health, health and fitness journey as well. Yeah. Yeah. 

So it was juice plus, um, fruits and vegetables in a capsule. I actually still take the product to this day. Cause I believe in the product. I love it. It's great. I don't eat enough fruits and vegetables. I don't think anybody possibly can eat enough fruits and vegetables. Yeah. But, um, That's how I was brought into that whole world and really got into a group of people there and really enjoyed that. 

That's the cool thing about multi-level marketing, man. I want to touch on that for a minute. Something I haven't talked about yet a whole lot on this podcast. But when you get involved with multi-level marketing, you get involved in a group of people who usually aren't making a ton of money. and they're promoting somebody else's products. I mean, you are starting to build your own business in a way. But these people are some of the most dedicated, passionate people I've ever been around in my life, and I've been in different companies. I'm involved with a company called Nikon, and they were like the originators of the magnetic insoles and shoes. Um, and they, they create mag magnetic products is kind of their, you know, their main thing, but they also have like water filtration systems and organic supplements and whole food supplements, stuff like that. But anyways, regardless of that, but like, it's, it's incredible how dedicated these people are. And, uh, I I'm kind of the same way. I still take the products from that company. It just transformed my life. I don't sell a whole lot for them, you know what I mean? But that's cool, man, that we kind of share that, a similar thing. I've heard of Juice Plus before as well, and yeah, that's a cool way to start. 

Yeah, so I really got involved in that. I went to a lot of the events and You know, I started eating more fruits and vegetables because I was taking these pills and it was kind of reset my palate. I never was a guy. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska. So beef and corn potatoes, that's, that's what we, that's what we eat. And that, so, uh, so I started eating more fruits and vegetables. I was taking these capsules. I started to feel better and, uh, you know, I started losing some weight cause I was eating a little bit better. And it kind of got me thinking like it challenged me to go vegan. Vegan in Lincoln, Nebraska is not the easiest thing to do. So I did it for like three months and I was like, well, I can do it for three months. Let me do it for a whole year. So, so I did it for a whole year and it was difficult to say the least, but I dropped like 75 pounds that year. I got down to like 225. But, um, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I still wasn't like overly thrilled, like all this work I've been putting in and I was still like skinny fat. And I didn't have any like definition. I was still pretty flabby on that. Um, and you know, I was always, I was always eating something different than my family. And it was, it just wasn't very sustainable for, for our lifestyle. And I almost kind of got to a point where I feel like I was having like a mental breakdown and me and my wife were fighting a lot. And it just, I was, I was just done with it. So I just quit. And, uh, I said, I'm just going to go back to the way I was before. And, and then I got into the craft beer. Um, for, for whatever reason, it was like the craze then and started drinking a lot of beer and just living my life, eating a standard American diet. Um, so not very healthy at all. I, I didn't really worry about calories or anything like that. Just, just as living my life. And, you know, my, my third son, he was born at the time when I was vegan and, um, then kind of growing up, you know, fast forward to. 2021 and, uh, I had gained that, that, that 75 pounds. I was at 300 and I stepped on the scale and I was three 30. So now I'm at the heaviest I've ever been a worse spot. Yeah. Yeah. We're a worse spot and I'm older. And, uh, I just, you know, I, I, I was struck, like, I knew that I needed to change something. But I was struggling and I was, I was drinking a lot and I was, was fueling my body with the worst gas station food, you know, pizza, fast food, just, just nothing of real substance at all. Uh, nothing that was, was serving me by any means. And, um, that 330 kind of like opened my eyes cause I really never stepped on the scale for a long period of time. And I wasn't happy with the way I look, but I always made an excuse or, or I made fun of myself kind of self deprecating humor. And, uh, and plus I was drinking all the time too. Uh, so I just kind of was drowned in my, you know, the, the negative thoughts that you have. I was just, you know, medicating myself with, with alcohol. And, uh, so I was, I was in a dark place. I, I would, I would, uh, I wouldn't let people see that part of me. Like there's always Danes having a fun Danes here. He's always drinking the life of the party, but inside I was just, I was not happy with who I am. And I wasn't happy with the example I was setting for my sons. Um, dad would get home from work. stressful day at work, running the business, he would eat dinner, and then I would have no energy to play with him. I couldn't go outside and play basketball in the driveway because I physically couldn't do it. I had a hard time going up the stairs with my laundry. I had to take a break because I'd be breathing too heavily. I would fall asleep before there was time for me to tuck them into bed. Like it was, I just wasn't being the person that I should have, the father that I should have. And not to mention, I definitely wasn't showing up for my wife in the ways that I should have. Um, so it was in a pretty dark place. And, um, one day I got out of the shower, I was, I was by myself and, uh, you know, drive myself off and I'm standing in front of the mirror completely naked and just. Just told myself that I'm tired of this shit. Oh, I don't know if I can, but I just told myself I'm tired of it. Um, you're not doing it anymore. You're not making any excuses. And for 45 minutes, I stood there in front of that and broke myself down and got so brutally honest and quit telling myself the lies and, and this, making fun of myself and just, just broke myself down to a point. Like I was so raw with emotion that I, it was hard for me to stand and look at myself. But at that point in time, I, I made a choice in my mind that I was going to do whatever I had to, to, to, to become, you know, you're going to lose the weight. It was, I wanted to lose the weight. I wanted to look better in the mirror. Um, so I, I said, okay, I'm going to start going to the gym. You know, that's what most people think of when they're going to get in shape, you know, especially this time of the year, you know, new year's resolutions. We're going to start going to the gym. Um, so that's, that's what I did. I went to the gym and started doing whatever workouts I could. I mean, I was, uh, uh, I played high school sports. I worked out in high school. So I kind of went and did some weight training in that and got on the ellipticals and the bikes that I could. You know, at the beginning it was, I, I didn't have very much stamina or endurance whatsoever, but I did what I could. And, uh, for about three months, I, I was, I lost about 10 pounds each month for three months. I got down to 300 pounds and then I kind of hit this plateau. You know, I, I was okay. I'm down 30 pounds. I felt great that I was down 30 pounds, but then I was stuck and I couldn't figure out what, what I could do to change that. And, uh, I felt like I was going to go the opposite direction. And then for whatever reason, I, I saw a health coach that was on my Facebook feed and he posts something and it like caught me at the right time. And, uh, I sent him a message and reached out to him and, and, uh, then we had some just kind of conversations through Facebook messenger back and forth a little bit. And then we got on a phone call. And he asked me all kinds of questions and it put me back in that place where I was in front of the mirror and I was just bawling on the phone talking to him about how I felt and my family and all that. He said, OK, well, it seems like that you really want to do something and you need help. So he gave me a couple of choices to work with some of his coaches for a certain price. Or if I work with him directly, it was probably three times as much to work with him directly. And I'm like, well, if I'm going to do this, I don't want to work with the guys underneath you. I want to work with you directly. Um, and it was a high enough price that I knew if I was going to pay this, I had enough skin in the game that I was going to follow through with it. Um, cause we just, you know, we don't value free and in our society, we try to give away things. People don't, don't value that. So I had to put my money where my mouth was and. And I signed up with him with a credit card and he gave me nutrition coaching and fitness coaching and that and I started with this program. I, he said, when I first met him, he didn't think that I was going to last because, you know, when he asked me if I was excited, I wasn't really excited or anything like that. I just knew I had a lot of damn work to do. And, you know, it took me how many years to get to the worst shape of my life. How long is it going to take me to get out of it? And he taught me everything that I know about calories and about macros and micronutrients and, and, you know, tracking weighing food. And then, you know, what my, you know, how many steps I should be getting in every single day and then workouts and what I should be doing at the gym and all of that stuff. And he gave me like a sustainable plan. And, uh, But the the greatest thing was is, you know, nothing was complex. Nothing was super hard. It's just really simple changes that, you know, once once you implement that change and make those little steps and then you consistently take that little thing and you compound it over time and you stack these little wins on top of each other. That's when you really start to see the results. You know, so many times before, you know, crash diets or like the New Year's people where they go in and they go kill themselves in the gym and they're so sore and they don't want to go back. That's not serving you at all. Like, yeah, I could go to the gym and kill myself for 45 minutes, two hours, whatever it is. And then I don't want to go back. My motivation dies. And it wasn't about being motivated. It was about understanding I needed to be disciplined in the approach that I was taking. And that was the single greatest thing that I learned. And then the weight started coming off. I learned how to be in a calorie deficit, learned how much I should be feeding my body, what types of food I should be eating, mostly clean, whole foods. 85, 80 to 90% clean diet. And then I've got, you know, that 10 to 15% I can have our fun treat foods or whatever. But, uh, so I was in a consistent calorie deficit every day for 18 months. And I lost 116 pounds, got down, went from three 30 down to 214 pounds. The leanest I'd ever been. it took 18 months but it took me you know three or no probably four or five years to go from 225 to 330 and and uh you know i what started like i said what started as a weight loss journey kind of heat once i started to heal my body like i started to heal my mind my brain like i started seeing things in a different light uh I started to realize how much time I wasted with my family because, I mean, we're not guaranteed anything. And how much time I spent fueling my body with just the worst food and drinking myself to Actually, I never really got hungover because I never really stopped drinking. Every day I drank, so I didn't realize how bad I felt until I started to feel as good as I do now. And, you know, the fitness was the catalyst to the amazing changes that I have been able to progress in my life. And without that, you know, I started in 2021 and my, my business has gotten better every single year since I've been losing the weight. My relationship with my wife has gotten better every single year. My relationships with my kids are better, just like. I am now able to show up in all areas of my life that actually mean something to me, that I, that I realized that I wasn't showing up for before. Cause I was just, I was just consuming constantly consuming, consuming, consuming. I wasn't being creative. I wasn't producing anything of, of any, you know, uh, substantial or significance to anyone besides, uh, you know, what I could, what kind of a bar tab I could bring up, really. 

Yeah. Making some people rich, maybe. That's interesting, man. I think that, that we live in a society you know that that normalizes or even encourages definitely encourages but it yeah poor health you know uh being overweight like hey it's okay you know and you see all this propaganda and bullshit out and it's they're pushing really hard right now and i think they're pushing so hard It's because people are waking up, man. People are getting tired of living that life and buying into the bullshit, you know what I mean? Because we get the result. I went through the same thing, you know? I started my first business in 2010, went through the same process, went through a divorce, realized it all centered around my health, man. You run a service company, I do too, and it's hard. You're out eating fast food every day and on the road and grabbing a sandwich or whatever the case is, and you almost get addicted to these foods and this poor lifestyle, you know what I mean? And the transformation process that you talked about is interesting, and I've seen it in myself and others, and it comes with that breakdown, that spiritual breakdown, man, Who the hell am I? What has happened? That's a really cool place to be and it sucks being there, but that's an awesome place to find yourself. If you find yourself there right now, damn, I do not like the person I am. I do not like what I'm doing, where I'm working, this and that. I'm a POS when it comes to my family and stuff like that. Your recognition of that is awesome. That's a great place because that is where transformation starts, potentially. 

Yeah, for sure. I realized it, but I had to take action. I had to go do the work. Nobody's coming to save us. Nobody was coming to save me. It was up to me. And I tell you what, man, how proud I am of what I was able to accomplish and what I've been able to, the example I've been able to set for my boys. Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah, that's awesome. I just had a, baby daughter, she's eight months. And congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. And I was kind of already on a transformation process throughout before, but once she came along, man, like it just, just kicked into a whole nother level. You know, I joined martial arts cause I figured I'm going to have to, I'm gonna have to learn how to kill somebody. That's a must. Uh, and, but yeah, it, And that's awesome, man, because they deserve that, and they deserve us being our full selves. And being a business owner is already hard enough, you know what I mean? You're already sacrificing enough of your time and energy and effort and focus. And the family itself, you know, it has to sacrifice some when you're an entrepreneur. But to add on top of that, you know, poor health and, you know, for me, it was alcoholism and drug addiction, you know what I mean? And, and, um, you know, I hurt my back at work and I got on, you know, went to the doctor and all this whole, you know, that's a common story too, I think a lot, but, but to, to add all that on top of it, you know, gosh, it's just a recipe for disaster. You know what I mean? And everybody's suffering at that point. We affect everybody around us. And, and, uh, so I'm sure your family is super proud of you too. And they go through a transformation process too, when the, you know, the head of the household goes through it, everybody's going through it, you know? Um, 

Oh yeah, I was just looking at, you know, uh, on father's day when kids write, you know, your dad and how tall he is and what he weighs and his favorite color and all that kind of stuff. And they got, got to one point, my dad's favorite thing was to drink beer. That's what my like, you know, four year old thought of me that my favorite thing was to drink beer. And it's like, that's yeah yeah and and now he's not now he's seven now and he's like he's like how much protein do you think is in that dad like i mean they're they're watching every everything and he uh you know unfortunately my my oldest son he had to you know he was older and so he had to see see that part of me and but He also got to see the change and what's possible if you stop giving yourself excuses and you start doing the work for yourself. 

Yeah, there's no greater man or attribute to a man than somebody who can realize what they've been doing is not correct. You know what I mean? And humble themselves and make a change. That is, if I have a son, and been able to see that process take place is, that's a good thing. You know what I mean? I feel like, you know, um, so that's, that's awesome, man. Um, really cool stuff. We're, we're, uh, coming up on time. I'm sure we could, we could, we could, we could talk and talk about that. And, uh, are you, uh, well, we'll, we'll talk a little bit more, but I'm sure, um, at the apex meetup coming up, maybe we can kind of dig into a little bit more, get to know each other a little bit better. Um, but, uh, A couple things real quick before we wrap up. What are you up to now, man? What are you building? How's your business? You know, where can where can people connect with you and things like that? 

Yeah, so sure. So, yeah, so my company is Bats, Chirats, Wildlife Control here in Lincoln, Nebraska. We take care of nuisance wildlife and bats, rodents, you know, everything that with a backbone, we don't take care of any bugs. Um, this, this is my eighth year in business and it was the biggest year that we've ever had. Um, highest grossing year we've ever had. I had the most employees this year than I've ever had. So absolutely amazing from, thank you from, from, uh, everything that I learned being part of the apex community and the entrepreneurs there. And then, uh, you know, just me being, being a better person a better version of myself and being worthy to to be able to lead and and and be able to run a business that you know it's actually a business it's not just a job anymore so that that's been great my my fitness has definitely and and really you know when i look at at business there's a lot of the same kinds of things that i went through in my health journey that that i can relate to business like It's not that complicated. It's actually, there's simple things. They're not easy. They're simple. And if you're consistent with it, just like with my fitness, it was simple and I consistently do it. I saw those changes. So same thing with, with business. So, so that's been great. Um, the, the next thing is, you know, I got down to the, you know, 214 pounds. And I was, I was pretty lean. I got down to about 6% body fat and I went, I was at 39% when I started and I got all the way down to 6%. And. You know, I actually lost some muscle during that because you're in a calorie deficit. You're not building muscle, really. Um, so now I'm, I've been in a building phase, so, uh, I'm about probably two 27, um, right now. And the, the next fitness goal is October of 2024. I want to get on stage and do a classic or a physique show, do a bodybuilding show. So nothing that I, nothing I ever thought that I would do. Um, so I had to hire a whole new coach for that. Uh, I have a new body bodybuilding coach. And, uh, so I'm, that's a whole new challenge and, you know, it kinda, you have to change that mindset from, from losing weight to now I want to gain weight, but, uh, it's exciting and, uh, I'm excited to see how, how this next year goes. So that's kind of what I'm looking forward to 2024 for fitness. As far as connecting with me, Facebook, Dane Patton, D-A-I-N-E-P-A-T-T-O-N. You can find me on there. I try to share my journey every single day with anybody that wants to follow along, whether it's business related, whether it's health and fitness, family, friends. decided to share what i'm doing and that way i can help be a example of what's possible if you do the work for yourself and so that and instagram same thing i'm at dane patton those be the best places to find me 

Well, man, I really appreciate you coming on. I'm excited to see kind of where your, your journey goes, especially on the bodybuilding thing, man. That's a whole, whole new lifestyle change. I haven't done that myself, but, uh, I've seen it, uh, very closely and had some friends and family that went through that, um, and competed and stuff. And man, that's intense stuff. That's, that's cool. So, um, but all good stuff, man. Um, yeah, thanks for coming on dude. And we'll, we'll, we'll talk to you more, I'm sure. and look forward to seeing what you got in the future and wish you the best and happy holidays, Merry Christmas, everything like that as well. 

Yeah, same to you. Thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, for sure, man. 

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