Confidence is King

he's like go by yourself he's like confidence is king and i was like dude that's it confidence is king hi loves welcome back to another episode of branded and tailored so taylor i'm anxious to hear how was stagecoach stagecoach was lit oh my it was so so much fun it was everything i wanted and more uh for those of you that don't know what stagecoach is it's basically coachella but country version and it's actually in the same venue as coachella it's just a week after the second week of coachella and so much fun uh three days worth of straight country music uh the last day on sunday they had a couple djs that played a little pop with the country so it's a little bit of mixed vibes but all in all it was great our air bb was awesome it looked amazing yeah it had like a pool um i will say though it was such a drastic change going from pennsylvania rainy cold springtime weather to dry desert heat i mean like a couple of the days they were reaching 100s so yeah hot heat hot heat big difference but yeah all in all it was good it was good and then brandy how about your weekend with the boys can you please share yeah i went to a bachelor trip it was great i loved it all the guys were really great nobody was weird about anything um they're all partnered so obviously that helped um it was awesome we um did a really nice dinner the first night i had lamb chops which okay tasty i ate so much bread i drank lots of wine and then the next day we did the bourbon trail we had a driver named gary so the whole time we're like gary we love gary we love gary gary's great gary gary owns a third of horses or something or like half of three horses i don't know something like that half of three horses yes like racehorses oh uh co-owned horses or something he's like parts i own parts of horses how much parts are they racehorses yeah does he say like i own the part that wins i guess i don't know how i own the head of the horse and that goes over the the finish line i own the middle half of the mane of the horse i have no idea uh but he was great um we're trying to figure out how old he was we have no idea there are guesses that were early 50s all the way to 94 94 yeah well i mean i'm sure you guys were drinking you're just saying that he was not 94 but he was suspicious it was making me nervous the whole time i was like is he like 70 or is he like 50 i can't tell because he's one of those cases where i'm like this could really go either way really take care of themselves and just looks younger than maybe what he is so shout out to gary our driver there you go but yeah that day we yeah the bourbon trail i hate bourbon it's nasty um but it was still fun uh some of the guys are really into bourbon so it was it was fun watching them and it was kind of cool learning about the process but i hated the tasting but i did put all 12 that we had to taste in my mouth and they all sucked and and they have this thing where you can like drink the meat which means nothing in them or you can put some drops of water the water made it worse there is just no helping me but it was the different distilleries were pretty cool we just went to maker's mark oh nice yeah that's my dad's favorite yeah some of the guys did the um dip the bottle okay okay yeah yeah yeah or not yeah so that was fun and then um the next day we went to opening night at the derby we had our own little sweet area so that was super cool i refused to bet until the last race because i was not about to be drunk and too into it and be dumb about it um but that was really cool i've never seen horses that beautiful it was crazy obviously they're having a lot of problems this year with the racing horses i think seven had to be euthanized or end up dying at church hill dance this year so sus i guess they're having some like doping problems or something like that oh got it a lot of them were injuries which unfortunately that's gonna happen but some of them there was two that had like heart attacks after they raced and it was the same owners and the same trainer so i'm like what are you doing to your horses yeah and we were actually there for one of those but we didn't i didn't see that part but i guess the horse just stopped running so that's bad um and i hope they get that address because those animals are beautiful but yeah uh i think uh my shining moment of the bachelor trip was one of the nights um there was a hot tub at the airbnb we didn't really know that so nobody had bathing suits and some of the dudes wanted to get in there and so obviously they're guys so they're just gonna get in there and they're boxers they're like hey bro you can get in with us and i was like i have like half a pair of underwear i'm not gonna get in there with y'all and then i just kept telling them all that i didn't want them to see my butthole and not to look at my butthole like i said that a lot and then eventually they're like great nobody wants to see your butthole you can get in your in your pajamas and i was like nah i'm gonna go to bed i just went to bed yeah i was like i'm a boy you can't look at my butthole i don't know it was weird that sounds like something i would do yeah that does sound like something you would do so you said that was your peak moment that was my peak moment what about your your pit moment or is that both uh my pit moment's gotta be trying bourbon 12 times yeah bourbon is so strong it definitely is a an acquired taste i feel yeah like usually things even if i don't like them i can kind of see why other people do that's just one where i'm like i don't get it but good for y'all yeah yeah i really i don't know i have to have a really bad day in order for me to have bourbon like just really drown my sorrows because this just burns like there's part of the distilling process where it's basically beer and we got to see it at makers mark some of the different stages that was a obviously i'm a greek so i have small everything but i'm smelling the different ones and the ones that's like the beer stage i'm like this smells good i drink that and then it keeps getting more and more bourbon and i'm like yes i'm out i'm out they lost me at this stage a fun date like option for all you listening i did have a guy that like i told him i had bourbon before but like just like small amounts of it i'm not a huge bourbon gal either um but he loves it so he went ahead and bought like tons of bourbon and ways to make it and it was like it was cute so we watched like a cute documentary on netflix or something on like how to make bourbon and what makes it like a good bourbon drink so we would like watch segments of it and then like do it ourselves in the kitchen oh yeah it was actually it was a really good idea and uh i mean the guy just wasn't it for me but i mean that was like a cute date so again three options guys it's not not not hard again an experience but just throwing it out there that that was actually like a cool thing that i learned about bourbon and tried it and i still don't really like it wouldn't choose it but i mean it was cool it was fun yeah that's just never gonna work for me now like a winery now that would be up my alley or winery cidery take us to all of them oh i love a good winery especially reds i am a red gal my go-to wine is always merlot or dry red girls i think i'm a sarong i picture myself as um from scandal terry washington that's who it is yeah that's the actress well her her character yeah olivia pope i was gonna say olivia but i was like i don't watch that show yeah uh yeah i always picture myself being her like yes this is what olivia pope would do she's such a queen but yeah oh how about for my weekend excursion so if you guys tuned into our episode with the psychic okay so kind of back then um my psychic told me that you know i'm going to go on these trips over the summer i'm gonna have fun i may have a romantic connection on all these trips but i'm going to meet somebody and either their first name middle name or last name are going to start with these four letters either a c k j or a and like originally like well i don't know anybody with like k or c my roommate cecilia and like that's about it right well go figure i go on this trip and i meet somebody and his first name starts with a c his last name ends in a k and i don't know we just kind of hit it off and i was completely expecting i'm in vacaytay mode like i'm not i'm not like out there hunting i'm just like going with the flow like i'm i'm ready to meet some cowboys at this thing like all right look let's go let's get out let's get out of my girls right well he stayed with us at the airbnb and i don't know we kind of hit it off he's cool um was very cute very cute lives down in san diego and um he's moving to pennsylvania ironically within a month so to be continued that's all i will share about that but we'll see so today we are going to continue talking about confidence so we are going to have my friend dom who's my favorite short king in the whole world he's fantastic he is one of the funniest people i've ever met um he's my sweet southern sweet pea i don't even know he's just he's fantastic and i'm sure he's gonna have some funny stories to share he says he's already got a document ready he is prepared so who knows what this man is gonna say i am excited to hear it i can't wait to meet him how tall is dom he says he's five four but i'm five four so he's smaller than you well it's appropriate because even though i say like we're talking about summer we're talking about heat we are still in spring summer hasn't officially started until like what late june technically so it is still short king spring every season is a short king season for dom i can't wait yeah you have to have a personality if you're short king oh he's got a big one i think that's the best part that's great that's true can't wait to meet him all right y'all we got dom on zoom uh dom can you tell us a little bit about you where you grew up what you do where you are now yeah absolutely uh first and foremost thank you guys so much for uh allowing me to come on the podcast super excited um to share some things with you guys but yeah a little bit about me i'm originally from new orleans uh born and raised um then moved to dallas quickly after college um where i met brandy um and then uh now i currently live in fort collins colorado so about 45 15 minutes north of denver um as of right now uh my job is a pharmacy business consultant for colorado wyoming nebraska and new mexico so cover a lot of territory i have a lot of whitsfield time um so it's it's pretty exciting not really um but yeah no um you know it pays the bills and uh great company and uh you know i'm once again you know super excited to be here and to kind of share with you guys kind of maybe my point of view from the dating world i'm so excited so fun all right so i mean you kind of give us your background maybe your dating profile so i guess yeah if you were to paint us a picture of like what your dating profile would look like what's on tinder like well how would you describe yourself and maybe what pictures you would use oh yeah that's a great question so um i went to the doctor a week ago and um i got my official height um okay so it is a staggering five e even five eight ease no five zero oh five zero okay okay five zero even even so like i'm also treading water in in the kitty section so it's it was kind of embarrassing but i was like you know what it's all good um so definitely on the tinder profile five four uh are you going to tell the truth are you going to add a few inches uh yeah we're gonna add a few inches because here's the thing um what's the difference between five foot and five four a lot of people will psychologically be like there really is no difference but on a first glance at a profile if you look down even if the dude is good looking or whatnot if you see five but you're gonna be like yeah kind of that little side and you know what that's okay because in my dating career it's happened and i have a couple of stories that i don't mind sharing about that but going back to the profile you know i would be very very honest okay so maybe a red flag about lying about the height i'll go ahead and call myself out for that one but hey maybe it sparks the conversation right um secondly um i would definitely include the fact that i enjoy golfing i enjoy being out in nature hiking um really just kind of hanging with the boys and boozing on sundays every now and then um but also letting them know like i'm pretty career oriented as well um you know i'm 28 years old um it's not every day that you know you hold a 156 million dollar book of business in a four-state territory so there are a lot of responsibilities with that so you know i want to make sure that whoever i'm with is okay with me traveling you know being on the road kind of hustling and you know taking care of us and doing what we need to do so that's super important as well so basically all in all um that's kind of what the bio would look like i would say picture wise um it would definitely be me at like a stars game or a sporting event of any kind um i'm a huge stars fan love the stars i was kind of my first thing i really got into when i moved to dallas um so huge impact in my life that's where i met some of my friends who i'm still friends with today when i got my season ticket package when i moved out there um so probably the first picture would probably be me at a stars game with a beer in my hand maybe some sunglasses on if we're outside you know just having a good time really showing the authentic look of kind of what i'm doing because 99% of the time i'm wearing sunglasses um i have pretty sensitive eyes you know you gotta protect the eyes they're they're important and i already have some pretty bad eyesight so you know kind of keeps the corneas in check uh i would say top three pictures right okay so that's one uh two would probably be me with my family um i'm from italian and spanish background so uh my grandfather's from uh sicily and my grandmother is from madrid spain so i kind of have the the best of both worlds with food and you know skin color and and tan so very fortunate for that um so it definitely be me with my family especially with my my background you know family's so big for me so i want people to know like yeah you're dating me but also eventually like you'll probably leave my you're gonna date my family too because my family is very inclusive in my life not hovering but you know they care i'm the youngest of two so um you know they they love to check in when they can um and then i think my third and last picture um would maybe be like me in a suit or something nice to let people know like hey yeah i like to have a good time but at the same time too i'm clean cut you know i'm someone you could take home to mom and you know i can take it from there you know so um kind of gives a little bit of me in three pictures and kind of what i want to represent for myself as my personal brand hey dom remember years ago when you had a picture of you in your suit yes i do um i also remember the time that you and habibo were helping me with one-liners um during covid um on tinder when i would when i would you know speed swipe for about 20 minutes i want to hear these one-liners do you have some good ones oh gosh well um i don't have any like off the top of my head but the one story that i wanted to tell is probably my greatest it has it has to be the greatest of all time pickup line i've ever used so should i go in with the story now oh yeah go for it i think i know what it's so this is definitely the the biggest story i texted brandy uh about this before to let her know that i'm i'm using uh fake names uh for for the right reasons i i never like to put anyone else's business out there and you know i am in a committed relationship now so i definitely want to you know respect my significant other um so we're going to call her mindy okay so um background of the story uh this is my freshman year of college just pledged my fraternity and we are out for boys midnight and we are absolutely going in so that's just to kind of set the background of what the story is going to entail so we're at the bar i'm with some of my pledge brothers we're taking shots having a good time and you know it's getting to the point of the night where we have been so it's like infatuated with each other and like buying each other drinks like we were not talking to girls and i was like hey let's change this up like let's go talk to some girls so uh my good buddy he's about you know six foot tall great hair you know good charisma awesome guy to wing man with me so we um start you know walking through the bar chit-chatting it up and he looks at me and he goes dude this girl has been staring at you i kid you not from when we walked over to this side of the bar like she immediately stared at you which is what should we do and i was like okay does she does she have a friend with her because like either we both go up or i'll just go up for the both of us you know i don't care i'm freaking 19 18 years old at the time hammered and you know i'm feeling on top of the world so uh she has a friend with her and i was like look i have full confidence in my buddy if i can swing one the other one would would totally go for him like he's a solid looking dude so he's like go by yourself he's like confidence is king and i was like dude that's it confidence is king so i take the shot with them i walk over there and i'm like hey uh this is my buddy over here cody i'm dom just wanted to come over and introduce myself you guys look thirsty uh do you yeah okay hold on hold on back back back then in 2013 i didn't really think that that was as big of a diss as it is now i guess right like this is me just trying to be a genuine southern guy i guess like hey y'all look thirsty let me order your drink like completely looking at it now awful delivery but it gets me it gets me in the door right right right i gate i gate i gate keep the way through and now we're actually talking and we're ordering drinks so i ask them what they want and they're like we're gonna order we're doing four four shots of don julio and i was like holy crap no i don't want to do this but okay sure y'all are paying like i got the next round so my buddy cody walks over we take first round of shots we start to chit chat we're having a great time now we're kind of vibing with one another kind of like doing the flirty like dancing kind of by one another but like so awkward like but not really with one another you know um and then it gets to the point to where it's around like 1 1 15 in the morning like it is peak time lock it down secure it up like you're either going to go home by yourself you're gonna go home with someone that night right right so as hammered as i am i go back up to the bar i order four more shots we take another round and i finally like make the move to approach mindy to start dancing with mindy so minnie and i are now getting down for probably the last 20 minutes at the bar like we are vibing it is flowing we are 100 on pace with with one another like we're really vibing with each other yeah and um it's about to be like i feel like the night is about to wrap up like they're about to hit a slow song so like that's when it's all systems go grab her by the hips kind of you know really let her know like i'm feeling this are you kind of a quick five check because if she if she kind of pushes back and it's like yeah i'm feeling you kind of taking control that's okay so i was like okay so all of a sudden she uh reaches back and whispers into my ear and goes hey i want you to give me six inches and make it fucking hurt and i was just immediately and i was just immediately what holy we just went from like chit chatting right now till like i want you to give me six inches and make it hurt whoa you can't even make that up i'm so hammered at the time i pull her away i whisper in her ear sweetheart i don't fold my dick in half for anyone i tap her on the ass and i walk away and i was like one or two things are gonna happen after i say this oh my god one she's gonna like shrug me off and be like whatever loser like i was down for you like totally blew it or two she's gonna want to see right if i have 12 inches and it's gonna make it hurt right right so to say the least as i'm walking away my buddy cody and his girl are already off heading to grab an uber to head home like they're they're already solidified so i'm just kind of still you know in my element i guess hanging and she grabs me by the wrist and pulls me in and goes in the most i i guess iconic way take me home and i knew right then and there i was like it fucking worked holy crap that was like can kind of take a sigh of relief and now i'm like okay now we're good to go um so with that being said mindy and i actually from then um we never dated but we actually hooked up for that whole entire semester um and yeah mindy was awesome uh definitely a weird experience of meeting someone but um yeah i would have to say probably one of the gutsiest but best kind of pickup line slash confidence is king moment i love that one like did you just come out with that in in air or like was it always in the back of your mind like okay i'm what this is my card i'm gonna pull it out right here i mean i this is gonna sound so corny but like who doesn't remember like as a kid the stupid like five dollar foot long subway thing yeah so like for whatever when she said six i was like six times two is twelve like witty like i'm gonna fold like six inches like i'm not folding my shit in half like oh dad i got a whole footlong right here for you like it happens when you can get the whole thing i don't know for whatever reason that just kind of faster i i can't once again i i can't make this up it just it felt natural and it was like fuck it why not why not yeah um i will say so that was kind of the bad boy time in my life right but i'd like to rewind it if we can and go back to i guess what an innocent time was for me when i was in eighth grade and i have another really great story um about when i was in eighth grade that kind of molded me to uh become this kind of confident you know outspoken social guy so i was in eighth grade um and i met this girl through aim as we all do back to the gap oh yeah the instant messenger shit i didn't come up with a fake name for her so we're just going to call her tori okay so so i met tori through some mutual friends of mine and um we really have like a lot of similarities you know her dad was a part of the italian american society in new orleans along with my dad you know we both went to like pretty nice um catholic um middle schools like basically high school so like in new orleans eighth grade is a part of the high school um so you can do eighth grade through your senior year at one school um so that's what i did and she kind of did the same as well um so that's kind of how we got to know each other was i went to the brother's school she went to the sister school as mutual friends and i played ball with and that's kind of how we got linked up on aim so you know at this time i was like so much into the pickup lines the um um god for whatever reason i felt like when i was younger the word love was really talked around a lot um and it was almost like a loose thing i guess like i don't know if it was just like everyone in new orleans kind of comes from this you know either cajun or italian or real background or everyone's like you know a neighbor and like you know saying hey i love you it's not like a a big thing i guess so you know as kids we we use that term so loosely without really understanding the value behind it right it was like i have a new girlfriend i love her she is my whole entire life she has her whole little bio on my aim page like she is everything you know so i don't know that hey look that i was gonna say that might have just been the subculture of of how i grew up as a kid right it could be very different from everyone else so i just kind of want that to be a little understood i guess for contact contacts for everyone else listening um there was a huge eighth grade dance that was coming up and tori and i have been really invested with one another you know every second we can you know we're aiming each other hitting each other up like for me i thought like i felt like a million bucks was when i'd be in class and she would message me and i'm like oh yeah boys check this out you know tori is hitting me up while i'm in class like she's thinking about me right now and she should be taking her geometry notes but she's not oh she's messaging me she's messaging me right so you know i i felt really confident about this you know i felt great i was like man i'm you know i've been talking to you know one of the top popular girls at the sister school in my grade you know all my buddies are vibing you know with the other girls like i'm thinking like dude this is gonna be high school for me like i'm gonna roll with my boys we have our girls things are cool and by the way context again i went to an all-boy catholic high school and she went to an all-girl catholic high school so i wake up and see dudes every day so you know for me the fact that a girl was talking to me it was awesome instead of me having to talk to another dude right um so you know we followed each other back in the day on myspace so we could also kind of see what each other looked like as well because you're probably wondering well like how does a guy and a girl just get together from you know like messaging each other like this isn't love is blind we're in eighth grade right so you know i had my myspace profile she had hers so we knew what each other looked like and she was you know a very attractive young lady and i had great hair and really good skin as an eighth grader and i was in probably really good shape too uh because i was playing sports at the time so you know confidence felt high because i was kind of working out and the first time ever working out you know my wife and you know things felt good so we now know what each other look like so now we want to be boyfriend and girlfriend because we think that we're attractive and we like each other and you better believe it we're going to the fucking dance together and i'm like oh yes like i lost down a date to the eighth grade dance i have one of the most beautiful girls coming to the dance with me and like i'm rolling with my buddies you know my parents are getting like a nice like party bus limousine for us to go like things are about to get heated right if i'm eighth grade dance i am pumped i mean like it's like i drank six mountain dews at once and i was absolutely hyped so this is also back in the day when limewire was a thing and you burned cds oh yeah i gave my so many viruses on the home computer downloading so much rip to limewire um it was such a great idea at the time for consumers of music to get what we wanted and it was free which was awesome right even though you take the take the risk of absolutely ruining you know your computer at home um but i was like you know what dude fuck it i could be playing rollercoaster tycoon right now and this shit would probably still get my computer virus so i'm risking it you know so i'm like i'm risking it so anyways i burned this awesome cd for the bus like that we're gonna listen to like i'm excited so it's the day of the dance um once again i'm in eighth grade so you know as most eighth graders i wake up around like you know 10 a.m because i don't have anything fucking else to do because i'm in eighth grade um so i i wake up and i'm like all right it's time to like get the fit right i already knew what i was gonna wear and it's so funny but it was like that morning it was like it's today is the day like we now i now need to put everything into action i need to make sure there's no wrinkles in the shirt is my tie properly you know tied um you know are the shoes clean are the socks fresh you know these are all i i wanted everything to be perfect yeah to be perfect because this was the first time gory and i were hanging out i r l in real fucking life so before this we have never met in real life you know i'm i'm super excited like for the first time the girl that has this huge crush on me that we're dating and really likes me like i'm thinking i'm gonna get my first kiss you know like i'm i'm i'm excited i'm jazzed to say the least so let's let's uh let's pause for a second so during this time gory's friend would tell me constantly and her what we're gonna call her uh lay uh so lay would always tell me on aim oh my god gory like wrote a whole entire notebook about you and all the things that she appreciates about you and like just how much she cares about you and all this and she was like and she's gonna give it to you the night of the dance and i was like wow like this girl really likes me that much to where she wrote all this stuff like about me and you know at the time i i i absolutely fell in love with that idea i thought that was awesome i was like wow like good for me like i i found someone who genuinely like really cares about me i just want that to be said because now we're going to get to the climax of the story okay so um it's dinner time um we we are uh we have a back room uh reserved at this beautiful italian restaurant called tony mandina's um in new orleans we went had awesome you know old school italian seven dish course before we go to the eighth grade dance and i'm like holy crap i gotta eat pasta i have to eat all this shit like i'm gonna be stuffed i might need a nap before i get to the dance so i'm like i'm gonna eat like you know i'll i'll eat enough but like i want to conserve enough energy to where i'm still ready to party at the dance so we all met at one of my buddy's houses we'll call him rod we all met at rod's house um we all all are waiting on tori she's one of the last people to get there as always always running late difficult to worry so she finally gets there um and everyone's like you know dom she's here like get ready to go and see her so um i get up off the couch you know she's scrubbing off you know the blazer and everything you know getting ready to see her for the first time she walks through the door and i'm like wow this girl is absolutely stunning like i can't believe this like this is awesome like this girl feels all this way about me and i get to read the notebook and we're totally gonna get the first kiss and like this is gonna like this is my fairy tale like it's cool she looks at me and she smiles she comes up to me and she gives me a hug and you know i put the little corsage or whatever you want to the flower thing on her and you know our parents start taking pictures our parents me you know our parents are having a great time you know getting to meet one another and you know tori's parents are telling my parents about how all day tori just talks about me and you know is super happy to be with me and you know we're looking forward to like growing our relationship you know our families you know all these great things are happening and i'm like wow man it's very cool why yeah eighth grade right but i mean that's kind of how the world is they they breed them to start kind of getting after it young you know because they're big everyone's catholic so they just want babies on babies on babies right i get it but it's like she's on the amount of pressure that we had back then crazy right tori pulls me aside and goes hey i have this notebook i want to give you like just read it whenever and i was like okay kind of like a weird delivery like maybe she's just trying to downplay it you know so i i don't want to open it automatically yeah and see it because like you know you know eighth grade girls maybe um like i don't want them to see my emotions just yet i don't know so i give it to my parents and i'm like yo hold on to this at the end of the dance i'm gonna go home and i'm gonna read it and after this amazing night like everything just once again going great so we get to the restaurant so okay so we get in the party buses we're riding to the restaurant tori's kind of quiet she's not as typically chattery as she is you know when we're on aim or talking on the phone so i'm kind of like did i do something wrong am i not like dressed good enough like i'm starting out now i'm starting to have all these doubts like you know if this person feels this specific way about me you know why in real life are things not clicking so we get to dinner we're talking and chatting still you know now that we're kind of in a bigger group setting she's starting to kind of loosen up a little bit and it's kind of starting to joke with me and like i'm kind of starting to see old tori again right um well as we finish eating uh we're getting ready to head to the dance and you know we're listening to music having a good time and then we get to the dance we go and take pictures and then i don't see her for the next two and a half hours and i'm like i don't know what the heck like what did i like what did i do like i'm asking away i'm asking all of her friends like yo what's what's going on can you fill me in because like at first i felt like maybe she wasn't feeling well you know i'm trying to think of all these other options that the obvious option besides the obvious option and uh sure enough lei comes up to me and she goes tori's been in the bathroom crying for the last hour and a half or so um because she has felt this way about you and has all these feelings for you but she doesn't want to date you because you're shorter than her and hearing those words absolutely you know shot to the heart right you know everything that i thought about and had kind of worked towards was just completely shattered and i was like wow um so she and during that time she actually called her parents um in the in the bathroom to have her come to the school to pick her up um because she didn't want to be there anymore and i was like dang so like not only am i getting broken up with but she's so embarrassed because of my height and whatnot she wants to leave the event and i um you know i was super sad you know really took a shot to my confidence and and really um kind of gave me the perception that like people care about looks they care about height they care about all these things i i've never had to encounter that until then and i was like holy crap i'm going through this in eighth grade oh what the heck is the rest of high school gonna be like for me now you know because now i thought i you know had all these things going but no i'm short and that was you know the be all end you know for her so um after that day um i never talked to tori again uh she never talked to me again um and we kind of just split in and went on our separate ways and you know people at school you know would ask like dude what the heck happened you know and and i told them the truth and it was embarrassing you know for me to have to tell them that because my friends would laugh and it sounds like they were laughing because like they were trying to be dicks about it but they were like that's kind of funny but also like that's really like fucked up like that's really the reason why like she doesn't want to talk to you anymore and everyone's like it's not like she was that much taller than me like maybe like two and a half inches it's that and if you want to call that a lot i i didn't see this huge gap in height for us so anyway yeah that you know wanted to share that story because it took a lot from obviously you know baby eighth grade dom to the you know 28 year old confident you know guy that i am now so there are two sides to both stories right and you know that's why i i appreciate you guys bringing me on so that way you know people can hear that side you know there are two sides to every story because there was a part of time in my life where i was kind of an asshole to everyone after that happened i was not the best to girls or to people i kind of had this mentality that you know if i don't let anyone in or if i don't let anyone close they can't hurt me and at the end of the day that's fine because i never want to you know feel that embarrassment or or whatever that i was feeling at that time again so that was kind of my defense mechanism was well if i'm an asshole to everyone um and people don't like me then good i don't have to talk to people so i kind of became this arrogant guy and as i got into college um i decided to have a change of heart and decided to maybe tone it back and you know going to college it was a whole new experience i could really be whoever i wanted to be and you know i can really figure out like how i want to be portrayed in life like i'm now i'm kind of over the being an asshole like i've realized that that really didn't get me anywhere and at the end of the day i was hurting other people so within me trying to protect myself i didn't realize the impact i was doing to everyone else around me and i think that's kind of when i decided to be nicer and kind of take a different approach to things so um yeah i mean i guess we can stop there um you guys have any other questions or like you know i've kind of given you a couple of stories and rundowns of kind of like my highs and then also the lows and kind of the transition in between them yeah i mean like when you entered college and you had this like change of heart was it like from day one where okay it's a new environment new scenery new people like hey like i'm reflecting back on my high school experience and i don't want to be this person anymore like let's try something new or did you kind of like dip your toes into college a little bit and you're like all right like this old dom like is not working out for me so maybe like i'll try this a different approach yeah um that's such a great question and to be honest with you it took me a minute right so i did get my toes in i i will say at first back then um i was always you know super respectful like really happy to hang out with people you know i i was always well-mannered i will say that it's not like i was like just this like big raging asshole like you know i just would maybe say things that probably shouldn't be said and are probably just more or less like kept to myself right but at that time like i just didn't have a filter but then i was like well maybe i should try to filter some things maybe sometimes i should just keep my comments to myself so i started watching this show called the greek um old school show i think it was like out on abc and one of the main characters like he was president of his fraternity like was a very likable guy like partied a ton so i and the guy's name was kathy if you guys have ever seen the show i wanted to kind of be like him he was kind of you know not the best dressed guy but people enjoyed being around him he was kind of sarcastic but not overly offensive and i was like if i can take who i am and kind of incorporate this other style of like being kind of sarcastic but like not overly aggressive i was like maybe that could work for me like because i always knew i was kind of a funny kid you know i loved making people laugh like i was always the butt of my own jokes i still am today with all of my high school and college friends i am definitely the punchline of every joke so you know i i learned how to laugh at myself before i could start laughing at others and when i didn't start taking myself so seriously and embraced that time that's when the evolution of who i am today kind of came to be because more people kind of wanted to hang out um people wanted to more or less like be around me more and i was like okay this is kind of a cool feeling and not to say like in high school i i didn't have friends or whatnot like no i was still popular but girls thought that i was kind of a douchebag and that was kind of my rep like so it just to kind of tie everything together it wasn't like i was incapable of like making friends or like talking to people i was just kind of an asshole and sometimes people wouldn't invite me to certain parties because they wanted to be an asshole so i was like okay now that we've figured out kind of how i want to be like let's put it to test so i was like let's let's put it to the test so i put it to the test with one of these girls that i had a study group with and um it wasn't like i guess like me trying to like sleep with her but i was like i haven't really dated in a while like let's see if i can kind of feel her so you know it was just kind of like harmless like banter here and there you know wasn't anything like super crazy but like she would kind of flirt back with me and i was like okay like maybe just maybe i can actually move forward with this personality and maybe i can be this little fiery outspoken god maybe i should let go everything that's happened and just embrace who i am and not really care about what one person thinks right and i guess for so long that that statement you know you're too short she doesn't want to be with you know it's stuck on me so long like does everyone you know it's everyone moving forward gonna have this perception right so you know that kind of built me a lot of confidence so shout out um i'll call her mandy shout out mandy um who is in my psychology 101 class um who flirted back with me you you gave me something so confident so i appreciate that she kind of was the reason how i met mindy and um you know from then on it was kind of a wrap i um i was like yeah this is who i want to be uh got accepted into the business school um at my college and was like i'm gonna get into sales um i can speak to a brick wall for 30 minutes and probably learn something new about the brick wall that probably no one's ever known or heard before so um i was you know then life kind of started figuring itself out for me i was like okay i can be this you know flirty guy i can i'm excelling in school because like i'm really invested in it i'm really invested in myself and like what i'm doing to prepare myself for once i graduate college you know how to lock down a job and also the biggest thing uh for me at the time was i want to get out of my own town i don't want to be here anymore you know there's so much world out there i kind of want to start experiencing everything else and that's kind of what led me to getting my first job and moving out to dallas which ended up getting me into my other job before i left to come to cardinal um where i met the one and only habiba where i met brady so you know a lot of people ask me would i change my life or would i change the way that things happen and i look at them and i tell them every single time absolutely the fuck not because everything in life brought me to where i am today and i'm so thankful for it you know i i look at my life now and i'm blessed to say the least you know i have a great and loving girlfriend here at home um i have a pretty awesome job you know i have a great group of friends and to be honest with you for the first time i feel as if i can be myself and live comfortably in my own shoes and and very much be confident in who i am in my own skin and not feel as if i have to lie or put that on five four you know on my tinder profile so you know all that all it takes is um that one little push down and and for me it was really not only how how did i get back up when did i get back up because i think everyone is so kind of conflicted in like the heart you know when you fall down you got to get back up it doesn't happen overnight right like i think the idea of trying to pick up and bounce back quickly is not the way to do it right like it's going to take some time like you have to build yourself back up and that's kind of the the main point that i i stress to everyone is it might not be a day where you get back up immediately it might take you a day or two but it's always getting back up right and building yourself back up to be better than you were before i think that's kind of the most important you know message overall right and i mean yeah don thank you again for sharing your whole backstory and your experiences and yeah when we post this it's gonna instill a lot of value for our listeners and i'm gonna help motivate others that you know feel this way about not even just about being short but just maybe not feeling comfortable in their own skin and and being authentic and for you to just share that i think you know speaks volumes so thank you yeah especially right yeah no once again thank you guys so much for you know giving me once again time and and another platform you know for me to kind of share my story you know like you said maybe you know and i want everyone who is listening in this you know substitute hype for for anything else you know and and and just always know that things get better you know there was really a time in my life where i was pretty down and i look back at that's where i'm at now and i'm like you know what i'm glad that i stuck it out i'm glad that i worked through it um and i hope for everyone listening you know they feel that same way too and once again thank you guys so much for the time and i thoroughly enjoyed this i gotta say too though the craziest part is that you were an asshole because i can't imagine you being an asshole because you've always been so sweet since i've known you and you're like a hopeless romantic and so it's just like you're a big swing there bud i i know and you know i i always laugh because it's kind of one of those things you know as i got older i realized that you know girls wanted to be treated respectfully and nicely and you know they didn't want me to say damn girl you got a nice ass you know maybe if i maybe if i rephrase that and say damn girl you look great girl you look good so that's you know evolution happens right and as we get older and the more experience we get you know we kind of understand you know how to roll with the punches and like kind of how to roll with the curve you know the one piece of advice that i was given like hey man life doesn't stop things keep going so no matter what you're going through or like what's happening like life's gonna move on with or without you so you might as well just keep rolling with it because if you stop you're gonna have to catch up on a lot and no one wants to catch up everyone always kind of likes being at pace or if not ahead of the game well like what brandy and i said from like the very beginning like our very first episode of this podcast is you know when you're out there trying to find your partner like i mean for girls we want we want to feel at peace uh we want to feel comfortable with the person that we're potentially about to date or a partner or whoever and i was actually talking about this with one of the girls that i was on a trip with that stage coach and we're just talking about dating we're talking about guys and um she mentioned to me you know i can't believe like this one guy that's ironically we're talking about like short guys she does you know she's the same height as me five eight she goes i don't know why like this one short guy just you know hits on me like it's just weird why wouldn't you hit on anybody like your own size that's like well one like he finds you attractive like he's shooting your shot you know but yeah you know and then i said and two like you know the whole idea of like the guy always having to be like bigger and stronger and protect you like that we're not cavemen we're not fighting off wolves or anything out anymore like there's different ways that a guy can make a girl feel at peace rather than feel physical right like you mentioned about like being like funny like humor like oh my god making me laugh that would be like an easy way for me to be at peace and like i enjoy your company right and i don't know like and you mentioned about like working at a very um successful job like i don't have to worry about okay if we go out to eat like i'm gonna have to pick up the bill like no my guy's got it he's a king you know it's yes you know it's for sure right but but you know it's funny that you say that too so i read this statistic and don't quote me on the numbers but it was like you know most and i guess it was like an average or like a small selection of girls want guys who are six foot or taller well if you look at like the u.s statistics like i think being six foot and taller it's like one and a half percent or something like that so like as a girl you're also like narrowing your dating pool down by saying you only want to date a guy that's x amount a seat tall right so like whoever like you know the guy who dreams could be out there that could be 5'10 but because he's not six foot or he doesn't meet the specific criteria you rule him out and you know he was more or less probably the safer and better option but you decided to go with the guy who's 6'2 who ended up cheating on you after like two months of your dating because he didn't really care as opposed to 5'10 guy who's willing to give you the whole world right i have to put it in perspective that way too right it's like you never know don't knock it till you try it kind of thing right i mean for me i'm 5'8 like i'm naturally going to gravitate somebody that's my height or taller but i mean if it's with a guy that's maybe two inches shorter than me that has a great personality and i enjoy their company so much when we go out versus this 6'2 blockhead that has no personality that i feel like i'm talking to bergwall like i'm going to pick the guy that's shorter than me like i want to have a good time right yeah it's not always about height for sure yes it's also about the connection too you know and and i i will say like obviously my girlfriend is beautiful she's a stunning girl but you know looks aren't everything and and i i humbly you know urge everyone like if you crack on with someone and if they really make you laugh and like if you really can feel vulnerable with that person like pursue it like you know i i think once you get out of kind of like the shallowness of everything and you really kind of like connect with someone on a deeper level you know i i truly believe that you know that's the best route i think love is blind it's kind of crazy um but i think you know these people when they when they do connect with someone through the pods or whatnot like they do fall in love with with that person's personality right because that's kind of what they're going off of in their similarities or what they like or what they dislike attraction does matter but at the same time you know those select few of people are 100 going after intelligence interaction you know social awareness maybe everything so i can't dom i can't even tell you how many people i thought were so cute and so attractive in college and then now that we're years away from college and they're hitting me up like oh my god you're bald now and you're no way like what happened to you you were this dud athlete and now you just completely let yourself go which is fine like live your truth but like we're on like two different planes here my god like right it's all the it's all the ones that you think about the ones who peaked in college it's like this one kid i'll never forget was like literally our college royalty slept with all the hottest girls but doc this dude's got like five d lies now and i don't even know what he does for work but i'm like wow that was the girl that every like that was the guy that every girl wanted to be with maybe just another question so we asked cecilia last week about um what she does daily or weekly or whatever to maintain her confidence levels um so is there anything that you do on the daily or anything to um just like maintain that confidence and charisma that you hold so well yeah for sure um i think the most important thing so um you know working in the field being on phone with customers whatever it may be smile you know as corny as it sounds people can 100 percent tell when you are smiling or when you're happy over the phone or in person just by smiling so i know another corny thing like i used to have the mirror in my cubicle back in the day and it just said at the bottom smile you know even though i just got off a bad call or someone just ripped me a new one it's sales you have to get through it and it's life right and it's all about trying to have that that tough skin and and just kind of not letting it affect you and just know that someone else might be like having a harder day than you right so i think empathy like having empathy is another thing that i that i practice a ton um just in my personal life you know having the ability to walk in someone else's shoes you know maybe understanding that there is something going on in their life and they're projecting it on you and you know hey maybe the next time you call that person or talk to them you know they apologize for it you know hey man sorry i'm just having a day i can't tell you how many times that happens to me and i just smile and i'm like you know what it's okay like i'll we'll let it blow over and then the next time i'm on the phone with them the first thing they do is you know hey dom i'm sorry you know i didn't mean to get upset with you it's nothing against you but you know it's against this situation and it just kind of makes me upset so just understanding that you know not everyone is going to be on their a game every day um so yeah i would say smile is a huge thing try to smile every day you know uh jimmy v one of the greatest um speeches that he gave he said if you can laugh if you can cry and if you can smile every day you've had one hell of a day you just have all three of those emotions in one day that maybe some people don't have in an entire year you know for people who don't cry and people who don't show emotion you know so i i always urge people to you know be genuine with your feelings you know some people say you know temper your emotions temper your emotions you know why temper your emotion like when you're mad show that you're mad when you're happy show that you're happy you know i feel as if especially guys are really put under a microscope if you know they're expressing their emotions or their feelings so you know me i love being emotional i think that's what makes me me um especially when i'm on the golf course you'll see all 50 shades of me you will see the happy me you'll see the upset me you will see the annoyed me you you'll see it all and you know i think that's why i play the game and i love it so much is because i i do get those times where i feel that emotion and i get upset or i'm riding the high of playing really well you know so i i think you know not tempering your emotions is another thing that i try to do weekly you know i i started to do these nightly walks uh with my girlfriend at the end of the day we go for like a mile walk around the block where we live and we just decompress you know we talk about what's on our mind we talk about you know the struggles that we're facing we talk about anything and everything and it's just you know that 15 or 20 minutes of us just walking getting everything off your chest you know i truly feel better when i get back you know to the apartment and i'm ready to make dinner or whatever we're going to do so that's another thing i encourage people to take care of your mental health whether if it's just going on a walk taking a minute to just breathe checking your blood pressure that's one of the biggest things that people our age don't do is check your blood pressure like i'm 28 years old and i hate blood pressure medication because like my lifestyle is so amped up and i'm already this hyper guy i went into the doctor just chilling and my blood pressure was like 152 over 110 and my doctor was like oh my god you should ignore it like a whole gram of coke before coming in here and i was like no i swear i'm fine you know and gave a big sniff and obviously she was like no don't be serious and i'm like no i'm totally joking i didn't do coke before here but like no i'm just i just gotta i was like i just got a million things going on in my life and she was like okay well like i want you to start moderating your blood pressure like maybe once a week and she was like don't think about it because that's only going to stress you out but she was like just randomly she was like when you're feeling the most calm check it when you're feeling a little stress check it and she was like and just log it and just be mindful of it because i couldn't tell you how many people i know our age or younger or older who are having heart attacks or getting burnt out from work so quickly and it's just like take care of yourself you know know your limit know when to know when to hold them know when to hold them so i would say those those are my four things smile be empathetic take care of your mental health and take care of your physical self you know that's that's my goal right now i kind of gained some weight so my thing is i'm trying to shut it off what do i have to do well i get my ass back in the gym do i want to absolutely not but am i going to maybe cross that bridge we'll cross that bridge and we get there but you know i know it sounds simple but i think if you can master the simplicities of life you're going to have overall a really good quality of life those are kind of my four tips and tricks that i kind of do and you know the empathy thing you can practice empathy while you're like i meditate you know most mornings before i go and play golf to kind of just relax and stretch and you know during that time maybe i'll say three things i'm grateful for you know just to myself you know hey i'm grateful for having this day hey i'm grateful that i have the opportunity to go out and play golf with my friends today or you know whatever it may be it can be something just so simple but i think the more that you can gratify yourself in small ways i really feel like it pays you know back off to you this was absolutely amazing taylor first off a pleasure to meet you finally this was awesome i hope everyone enjoys and gets a little laugh out of this during their day or night or whatever they plan on doing when listening to it but no thanks so much girls the pleasure was you know mine and this was awesome yeah thank you don we appreciate you joining us on the podcast yeah no problem take care y'all love you donnie love y'all bye yes bye and thank you everybody for listening in with our special guest dom catch us next week of course on wednesday for our newest episode bye so you