SHAWN STEVENSON:  Welcome to The Model Health Show. Today, you're going to discover the power of exposure and how getting outside of your usual environment can transform your life and your results. You're also going to learn how forms of exercise and movement, like cycling, can radically reduce anxiety and mental strain, helping us to better process stress and increase our energy as a result.

Plus, you're going to learn how cycling and other sports aren't only physical, they're deeply creative. This episode is so rich and so impactful, and it resonates so much with me personally because if it wasn't for the power of exposure, I would not be here with you today, and that is a fact. Just having those imprints, those moments of exposure to different environments, to different relationships, to different ways of thinking, completely changed my life.

And coming from these circumstances where I grew up most of my childhood living in poverty, living in the inner city, surrounded by drugs and alcoholism and violence, and not really having a blueprint for how do you, quote, "make it out of this situation?" Is it even possible for me? And I deeply knew that it was.

I didn't just know that it was, I knew that it was imminent. I knew that this was not going to be my future because I had those experiences of exposure. And so whether that is going to a particular friend's house outside of my inner city environment and being able to see what a healthy family structure looked like in this area where there is more safety simply going outside of your doors.

I didn't have to watch out for gun violence. I didn't have to watch out for, if I'm going to the basketball court and seeing needles on the concrete, and just seeing that this was a different life. This was a different possibility for me. And also having those moments of deep experiences of love and significance, being able to live with my grandparents for a couple of years and having that sense of certainty and safety and routine really imprinted on me when I was thrust into environments with so much uncertainty and violence and not knowing what life was going to look like when I woke up in the morning, or if I was going to get woken up due to all of the noise, whether this is gunfire outside of my doors or violence within my household And again, I cannot overstate the power of exposure and having mentors, even if it's from afar, and aspirations and examples, especially from people who I can relate to, really changed so much in my life.

And, and I can't overstate the value of us carrying this forward and being that for the next generations, the generations of kids that are around right now and future generations. It's never been more important than providing that exposure and providing examples of what's possible, of what's real, of what's sustainable more than ever.

And a special shout out to my eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Blackmore. All right? She made me feel like my words matter. She published my poem. We had a poem project. We had all kinds of different poems that we needed to do for this project. We had to do like a tanka and a haiku, a free form poem as well, and she published my poetry in the school newspaper, and it was read aloud over the school intercom.

Can you imagine? And so just having those moments of feeling like I was seen and knowing that I had power to influence what's going on in the world changed everything, and who knew that I would end up writing multiple international bestselling books and national bestselling books, USA Today bestsellers, and just I had no idea that would be in the cards for me.

But those moments of exposure and having this experience along the way of people that I can relate to and seeing what they're doing as well, whether that was even on television and seeing that family structure when it came to The Cosby Show and movies like Boomerang for me with Eddie Murphy and just seeing oh, like this could be really elevated and, this college educated and running this agency and all this stuff I didn't even know that stuff was possible.

And so today's episode is incredibly valuable because it's a testament to the power of exposure and for us to know how simple sometimes that it can be to get out of our normal, usual day-to-day environment and simply get exposure and how simple it can be because of the power of two wheels. All right, so this is an incredible episode filled with incredible stories and insights, and without further ado, let's get to our special guest and topic of the day.

Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Dante Young has been a professional in the cycling world for nearly a decade. He grew up in a very rough environment, but he stumbled upon cycling through connection with friends, and it changed everything. After years of racing and training, Dante started winning and making a name for himself, drawing inspiration from other inner city cyclists and eventually joining prolific teams like the Miami Blazers and Legion Today he has nearly 300 races under his belt.

His brand sponsorships include Canyon, Rapha, CamelBak, and Never Second, just to name a few. And his eyes are on the 2028 Olympics, but more importantly, his heart is on elevating the sport so that more kids from underprivileged circumstances have the opportunity to compete, to learn, and to grow in this sport that can literally lift you out of your perceived boundaries.

Let's dive into this conversation with the one and only Dante Young.

All right, Dante, thank you so much for coming to hang out with us today.

DANTE YOUNG: Of course, man. Thanks for having me.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So coming from the environment that you come from, how on earth did you end up cycling in this whole different universe really? How does that even happen?

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah, man honestly, it just really fell into my lap. I had a bunch of friends in school, and they just started riding bicycles. Fixed-gear riding, which is single-speed riding, was becoming a thing, and especially has one gear on it, you pedal forward, you pedal backwards.

Just a single gear. And everyone was riding by the time, and all of a sudden I want to hang out 

with my friends, so I was like ... I borrowed a bike from one of my friends. Fell in love with it. Found one for 200 bucks, and we literally were riding to Venice Beach every day, eating pizza, staring at girls, riding back home.

That was just the cool thing to do. And then I started-

SHAWN STEVENSON: Was you riding to Venice from where?

DANTE YOUNG: So at the time there was this bike shop in North Hills. And so I'll go to the bike shop in North Hills, and we would take Sepulveda all the way down, ride up and over Sepulveda Pass, ride all the way to Venice Beach.

And we would hang out in Venice Beach eat pizza, hang out at the skate park, whatever, and then we would ride all the way back up North Sepulveda Pass, and then I would just take, before, take the train if we were too tired, and that was, like, our meeting point. And it was, like, almost every day all summer long, we'd go downtown.

We would go everywhere. So it was, like, another... It was, like, 20 to 40 miles a day that I didn't even realize that I was riding-

SHAWN STEVENSON: Wow ...

DANTE YOUNG: with my friends and eating pizza, ice cream, the whole nine. And then that translated into, like- Discovering that there were, there was bike racing because one of my friends who introduced me to this his name is Jericho, and unfortunately in a bike a mass group ride called Critical Mass which was going through by UCLA he had a bicycle accident and ended up passing away at that event.

So I had wanted to honor him 'cause it was a brand that he loved called Leader Bikes, and I was telling my friend that owned the bike shop owner at the bike shop in the North Hills I wanna ride for this brand." 'Cause at the time, riding for brands was like skateboarding.

You can... If you can ride your bike really fast in the streets and go down hills really fast you can get sponsorships and stuff like that. And they were like you gotta start racing," and underground racing was a huge thing in LA. Literally a Fast and the Furious type.

You get a Facebook notification, there's a race on Sixth Street Bridge, five bucks to enter, winner takes all. You get 70 people show up. There's no it's live traffic. There's no barriers. You just, here's the route, and this is how you, that you win. So I didn't wanna race, but he's "If you wanna get their attention, you gotta start racing."

So then in 2012, 2013 I started racing, and I was horrible for a while. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: How old were you at the time?

DANTE YOUNG: 16, just turned 17 which is very late, but again I still wasn't thinking to where I am today. I was just thinking about tomorrow. So I'm just thinking like, all right I'm gonna get...

Tomorrow is get the sponsorship, so I'm gonna train and post on social media and get their attention. And after a year I got their attention, and I had finished second in this race in Long Beach, and they sent me an email offering me a contract, which I didn't even read. I just signed it.

I was like, "I don't even care. I've made it." And then that sparked f- literally everything. That, from that point on, my whole life pretty much changed for over the next 10 years.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Dang. Getting introduced into that part of the life from your friend and then him passing away I would imagine that could dissuade you in a way, but you reframed it and really was like, "I'm gonna do this for him, in honor of him, or carry on the legacy."

Is that kind of your mindset?

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah, I mean, it was just like, it was my first time experiencing a death of someone close that wasn't family, which is similar but different. And it even was worse 'cause you... I just saw him the day before, and then the day after he was gone kinda thing.

And then all the friends that I was riding with at the time, we were all close to him as well, so we were all impacted by his passing. And I just saw an opportunity to pay homage and pay respect and in the same breath do something that I I wanna do and something that I feel like he would be proud of.

And so when I achieved that, I had a moment of being like, "I made it." "This is super dope." "I'm hyped on this." But then thinking "Dang," "He would be so he- hyped on this," I get free bikes. I get to travel a little bit. I didn't even know what was about to come yet, but just the fact that I can say that I am an athlete of this brand was just, and I get to wear the jersey and ride the bike, which is already really big. And then that sparked the "Okay what else can I do?" Because again, it was already, from stepping away from thinking that, okay, I'm gonna play basketball, which is what I thought I was gonna do, or stepping away from being like, all right, I'm gonna go to college to be a nurse or get my regular degree.

It's this is such a different A path, but I can't see what's next, but I'm c- I'm gonna try to go this direction. And so honestly if that didn't happen, I don't even know if I would've really kept going.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Just, I would imagine, again, just the environment, South LA, and not seeing really a lot of people doing anything like that, like cycling- Yeah

Taking it seriously.

And that exposure just having that little bit of exposure, and for you, getting outside of your environment, right? Like, how valuable was that for you to start to be able to go around the city, to have that access, that freedom, whereas so many of us in those conditions, we tend to be defined by those conditions, and we don't really see much outside that?

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah, I mean, the craziest thing is, when you're a kid, you sit in the backseat and you just go wherever your parents take you, and I thought the beach was a four-hour drive away. Six Flags is mad far, Raging Waters, like, all these places are so far. And when I first rode to these places, I'm like, "Oh, it's really not that far."

And the fact that I got myself here kinda thing. The thing that really changed my mindset, which was I rode to Bel Air and Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills on my bike. So being over on Slauson and then riding all the way up to Hollywood and Hollywood to West Hollywood to, Rodeo and Beverly Hills and up into the hills, and riding through Bel Air, and seeing Just like f- being in an area that I feel like I'm not supposed to be here, but also the fact that my that my bicycle brought me here, which made me feel like as long as I have this bicycle, like I can go wherever I want.

I'm like untouchable in a sense, but then opened my eyes to like, oh, this place is real. And it makes me, makes it feel a little more obtainable because like I can, I came here kind of thing. And that sparked so much because I've ridden all over the city, and I've ridden all over the world and through these two wheels.

And so going from a place where I grew up and then going to a place where most of us would think is just like not a real place, or we're not even allowed to be there kind of thing, and then like walking in there like head held high, chest out and be "I'm here and I can be here, and I'm probably gonna be in that house one day," like really just opened my eyes to like what's really possible.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing. Amazing. For real. Like that accessibility, the imprint as well, and exposure is super valuable and like sometimes it can come in the most unexpected ways because I would imagine when you were a kid you were not like, "This bike is gonna take me all over the world," and so it's so cool to see how you, your progression and how you followed the path.

But I'm curious because there's gotta be something as well that keeps us doing the thing, and obviously life happens, a lot of challenges happen, a lot of struggle, stress. Is there something about cycling for you that has helped you to like process things? Is this a place for you where you're like, metabolizing stress and, 'cause for some people it's like going out for a run or, going to the gym.

Is it like that for you on the bike?

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah. It's funny because usually when I'm, if I'm really going through it, I just go for a really long ride, and like my version of a long ride is like anywhere between four to six hours like on the bike. And there's something about being able to leave the chaos.

Like LA's, as it's a fast moving place. There's a lot of stuff going on, a lot of noises, a lot of energy that just could be very, just a lot, so like my place of solitude is just riding in the Santa Monica Mountains. And there's-- I'll ride, I'll suffer, I'll sweat, I'll grind and get to the one of the highest peaks up there where it's just quiet, and in that way, I'm going through emotions of what I'm stressed out about. I'm going through resolutions, I'm going through solutions, I'm going through all the thought processes. Sometimes I like talking to myself out loud and just kinda figuring out what it is and it helps me so much, and brings me a lot of peace that I can do that.

And then when I'm up there, sometimes I-- you just need a minute, so I'll be up there and I'll look down at PCH or I'll look down at Santa Monica. I can see downtown, so I can see the chaos, and I'm looking at it from a place of like peace and also a place of like beauty and I'm just like, all right, you know, have a moment, take a break, take a breath, chill for a second.

And then when I go back into it I'm more focused, I'm more ready to go. And even to this day whether I'm racing or not, whether I'm, I'm always going to ride the bike because a bike, again, brings me peace. It-- I'm also creative. I'm also a person who likes to explore, like riding down a new street or a new neighborhood or a new city and being able to see new cafes or people just living their lives, reading a newspaper, kids playing.

Like, all these little things bring me joy, and it's through these, the same two wheels.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Incredible. So I'm curious and again, some of this stuff, a lot of this stuff we don't have a blueprint for. And you accidentally happened upon being able to zoom out and look at things and truly that's one of the greatest gifts because we think our problems are so solid, and it's just so inflammatory.

But you zoom out and look at the entire city, like, how big are your problems? You zoom out and look at the world. And air- all of these collective problems going on in the world and it just vanishes. It's how big are your problems now, and so just happened upon these things and adding to that fire, but also adding to your ability to process and metabolize so you can keep going- and feel lighter. That's incredible. And I'm wondering what your family was thinking about this. What's up with Dante and his bike? Were they just- Yeah ... on board with that in the beginning?

DANTE YOUNG: No.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But talk about your family dynamics too.

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah. I grew up with my sister and my grandma.

So I have a big family. There's, on my mom's side, there's eight of us, so there's four boys and four girls. But my mom wasn't really around and so my grandma adopted me and my sister when I, we were both very young. And then the household was my grandma, my uncle, and my sister. That was just, that was the family dynamic.

My dad I didn't meet until I was, like, 22. It was a small family dynamic, but I had siblings all over LA, San Diego, whatever, but not a lot of us just didn't really associate. So- My grandmother passed when I was 12. And at that time, cycling, I wasn't even cycling. I was skateboarding.

I thought I was gonna be a professional skateboarder, and then I saw how big these stairs were and I'm like, "I don't feel like going off that." If I break a bone not for me. But then so when I started cycling, or if I rewind from that my sister became head of household. She was 21.

My she just had twins. They're six month old and it's my uncle, so she became big boss. And so me and her have a dynamic where she's my sister, but I respect her like my mom. I know I could curse in front of her, but I hesitate because I'm like, "This is kinda like Mom right now."

But when I started cycling, she thought it was weird, 'cause I'm riding around in tight-ass spandex all day. I just wanna be on my bike all day. And her dynamic was like, you need to be, you need to be in school. You need to get a job. You need to do the stuff that we're instilled to do once you graduate or are about to graduate, the whole nine.

And at the time it's like She had a moment where she took a step back because I wasn't in jail, I wasn't on the street, I wasn't gang banging, I wasn't doing drugs, which all those things were in my family and in my environment, and I had every opportunity to do and to be frank, I was curious about gang life, and drugs and just running the streets, and, but I always loved to be active, between skateboarding, mixed martial arts basketball. I always wanted to be active. So when I was riding the bike, she would come to see me race and I'm just getting my teeth kicked in every single day, I'm not finishing races, or I'm finishing dead last, but I came out of the race hyped "You gonna come again next week?"

And she's just "Bro, you're getting demolished out here." "Why do you still wanna do this?" And she had a moment where she's trying to get me to step away from it and take thing, other things more seriously, but then she stopped and she's you're not doing any of the other things that everyone else in the family has done and everyone else in your environment has done, and you're passionate about it because you are having these horrible experiences, but you keep coming back for more with joy and exhilaration and wanting to continue."

She kinda just took, took a step back and just kinda let me do what I was doing. And when that happened the following year, I went from finishing dead last to finishing mid-pack, from mid-pack to getting top five, to third, to winning one or two races. And then I think what really set me off was that there was a race in New York called Red Hook Crit, and it was, like, the biggest fixed gear race in the world.

And I had always wanted to do it. And when I signed Elita Bikes the following year, I re-signed, and they were like, "We're gonna send you to Red Hook in New York." So I hit my sister up "Hey, I gotta go to New York." She's "Okay, how are you gonna get there?" And I was like, "Oh they're paying for it."

And she's "Okay where are you gonna stay?" I was like they're paying for it." She said what about food? How are you gonna eat food?" And I was like, "They're paying for it." And she's "Okay. W- when do you come back?" And I was like, "Oh, on, on Monday. It's like a four-day trip." And she's "They're paying for everything?"

And I was like, "Yeah." And no one in my family really left California, so now I'm going literally the opposite side of the country. And that, I think she was like, "This is insane." "All right, go. If they're paying for it and you get to travel for free, go." And then for me and for her, changed the whole mental aspect.

'Cause when I got to New York, and I'm in Times Square and I'm like, "Oh, it is just like how it is in the movies," "This is crazy. Oh, you sound just like the dude from the movie. You have the accent. You..." Like, all these little things that I'm fi- I'm like a tourist. And then I'm like, "I can't believe I'm all the way in New York."

And I was like, "If I can get to New York, like, where else can I go? Like, how much further can this take me?" And that curiosity is what drove me for a little bit until things really started to blow up, but just, like, how much further can I go? And for her, it's "You are doing something passionate. I don't know where it's gonna take you, but it's obviously taking you somewhere positive, so I'm just gonna let you do what you're doing."

SHAWN STEVENSON: Wow, man. So many of these success stories would ... And to be 1000, like a lot of stories are not, they don't turn out like this. They're not successful, and it's these little steps along the way, even your family dynamics and your sister letting you go and the relationship dynamic that you had with her, and just being able to qualify yourself each step along the way.

And even having her presence, like her showing up at some of those races, just again thinking you're weird or just whatever. It's like those add a little coin to that, piggy bank- Yeah ... of figuring stuff out, and so that's so special, man. But also I'm saying that because it's the balance of something that can also be very isolating.

This particular sport. And then there's, at the other side, there's a team dynamic if you're on a team. And so we have you here, and this is foreign language to a lot of us, so I wanna ask you about some of these different things. But before we do, I wanna ask you a little bit more about the Vin Diesel aspect of it, like the underground bike scene.

Because again, that's something that seems foreign to so many of us, and I knew it was foreign to me until I found out about you.

I didn't know, 'cause that's really, that's gangster. For real. You get a text like, "Meet up, $5 winner take all." That's incredible. And you get to show up and you could maybe walk away with $500.

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah. The crazy thing about that was again, I have such an untraditional entry into the sport of cycling. And compared to, like we were talking about earlier, how this kid was going, getting into T- Tour de France era, like my entry into the sport of cycling came from underground racing. And again, f- underground racing, which I thought would transition straight into the Red Hook Crit Racing, I thought was like that was my career path, that just those two as a whole.

And it was, it made cycling more approachable and more, and the entry into sport was a lot better because you needed a bicycle. That could be the bicycle that was passed down from your family or your homie sold to you for again, 100 bucks, and the bicycles that were needed had a-- They're very simple.

It was two wheels, a crank, a chain, a cog, and it's handlebars and a seat, and so they were very cheap. You can get 'em brand new for 500 bucks, and then it was all Black and brown people. It's Latinos and Blacks and, whites, it didn't really matter. There was the minority was the majority, which was also really nice.

And they're always at night, and the vibes were always good, positive. No one was trying to fight each other. No one was gang banging on each other. It was just like, "We're here to ride bikes, have some fun." The OGs are maybe smoking some weed, drinking some beers, watching the kids have fun.

And then, yeah, I s- ask my sister for 20 bucks 'cause I can get me a Chipotle burrito. I can get a ride home if I need to or put some money on my tap card, and I got five bucks f- to enter, and if I do well, I'm leaving with maybe a few hundred dollars, or I'm leaving with a bunch of cool, m- product that was donated from the sponsors that I can sell or whatever, or or I'm leaving with just a dope experience that makes me come back for more.

Doing that and doing it all over the city, it was like you look forward to it. And then when I started racing more in a in a, the sense of the road racing side of it where I was doing both. So I'd go do, on S- on Friday night, I'd go do an underground race in K-Town and on, Sunday morning, I'm doing a, road race that costs me $60 to enter that I got from the money that I got from the underground race, and so I could race all weekend long and all over the city, and literally I don't... I talk to people. If I didn't do that, I don't think that I would've really gotten into the sport, 'cause when I transitioned, I was expecting what I experienced in underground racing to be in traditional racing, and it was very different.

And, I think because of that and the people that I was surrounded by being able to try to implement some of that and bring a little bit more of that, culture into it definitely helped a lot.

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SHAWN STEVENSON: This got me thinking, and we're gonna stay in the Fast and Furious comparison, but Dom was really like a mentor for a lot of those guys ... but in particular with Brian.

So again, that succession or that growth, the ability to perform, to figure things out, to deal with obstacles, that mentorship can be inc- no, I think it's priceless really.

Yeah, for sure. And so I would imagine along this path to, where you are now, you had some mentors along the way.

And who, people who were teaching you the ropes, like how do you handle certain situations because listening to you and learning from you from afar and just kinda spending time in your world, listening to your interviews and just watching some of your stuff, it's like I never realized that cycling is a contact sport at some point.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So w- can you talk about the role, like who were mentors for you who, kind of maybe took you under their wing and t- taught you about how to do this stuff?

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah, so like when I started to transition from the fixed gear era to the road cycling era, which a lot of, the most people if you think of cycling, you think about, a 10-speed bicycle, brakes, gears, the whole nine.

When I transferred over I'm looking for people to look like me. And I discovered a handful of people. One was Rahsaan Bahati, who was basically like our Black Lance Armstrong, and he's still around today doing a lot in the community. Sharon Smith and then there was these three brothers, and they were the Williams brothers.

It was Justin Williams, CJ Williams, and Corey Williams, oldest to youngest. And Justin and Corey were like two of the best in the country, and they had these cool YouTube videos of them racing. They had these huge GoPros on their head. This is back when GoPro footage was just like not what it is today, so it's super shaky.

You get sick watching a YouTube video, but like I was hyped to see, one, I'm getting, I'm seeing a perspective in the racing that I like to do, but from a person that I can relate to. I was like, "I gotta, I have to be around these guys." And so the cool thing about cycling is like- You can't go to the basketball course and expect to see LeBron James or, Josh Hart or whatever, like shooting around.

I'm like, "Yo, can I can we play a game?" But I can go riding on a group ride on a Saturday, and I can run into Justin Williams and Corey Williams, and be like, "Hey, man, like I've seen your videos. I love what you guys do. I'd love to learn from you guys." And they were doing things in the community to do that.

They were hosting events and races to help, people that look like them come to the sport because when they were racing at the height of their careers, it's just a bunch of white people, and they're going through things that is making them almost jaded from the sport. And so at the time, there was this team being started called the Concept Team.

It's like a development team per se, and Justin was one of the founders of that program. And I remember my friend Alonzo was like, "Hey, man, you should probably... You should come hop on board with this. It could be good for you. You can learn a lot." And when I did that, Justin and I became really close. And Corey and I became really close, and CJ, and pretty much all three of them as a whole taught me so much, especially when it came to the fundamentals of criterium racing, which is what I do now, and, whether it's keeping your bike clean 24/7, whether it's understanding how to navigate through a group of people, understanding when to, lean into the contact or to avoid the contact, all these little things, and then being able to have these big brothers at the same time in a group, in an area where th- I can't 'cause it's like I can't relate to anyone here, but I can now relate to people here and then also do the thing as well.

I think that really helped me lean into wanting to be a bike racer because I had that support, and still to this day. One of the races I have this weekend, like I will... They'll be in Boise racing with me or racing against me es- essentially. But I s- we still talk about racing, and they're still giving me game, and I still, or ask questions and whatnot, and which is nice 'cause now I take that same initiative to pass down to people with "Hey here's how you can be better," which is also a really cool thing to be able to do for the future.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, for sure. It's like- It's like a higher need that we have is to contribute. Especially if you get your basic needs met, then you just feel compelled to do that, and it's fulfillment.

And this is one of the things, too, that really stood out for me, researching you and, our introduction is just the example that you're setting, but also being proactive at helping other kids to be able to get into this universe.

And it's so powerful because this universe literally can take you, not just ... We're not talking about out of the country, out of the city, all that stuff, but just those 20 miles that you were riding out of your environment and just being in these entire, what would seem like new worlds, and that exposure and h- how all of that really creates this patchwork quilt of experiences and insights and just really

It's one of the things that our ancestors were well-versed with, which is to explore.

And to test our bound- especially for kids. Yeah. But today we are tethered. Everybody's tethered to their device.

They're not outside playing. They're not getting s- extra superficial exposure to these things.

And it's creating even more distance because what the data's indicating is that it can give you a false sense of experience.

Yeah.

It's so much d- I could tell you this from my ... it's so much different to be in- Yeah ... the space. Yeah. To actually be there, and I didn't have that exposure either.

Like, when I was a kid, it was before MTV Cribs, all that. I'm talking, two decades before that. Yeah. It was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

SHAWN STEVENSON: With Robin Leach, right? And it's this British guy, and he's talking about caviar and, the limousines and all this stuff, and it just, ... it was so unreal to me and fake. This is not even real. But being able to get outside my environment to get those exposures, to have people who mentor me and these imprints really helps to elevate everybody as a community, yeah. And so I wanna ask you about where it's taking you, because again, we have gotten some insight into the beginnings of it, but you mentioned is it cretin? What is it?

DANTE YOUNG: Crit racing. Criterium racing.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Criterium racing.

So what, you see, I don't even know the language. Like- no. So what is that and what, where are you at in this whole dynamic? What are you working on right now?

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah. So criterion racing, or crit racing for short like basically first within, within cycling there's a bunch of different disciplines, right?

So the Tour de France, stuff like that which most people know about, that's road racing, which is basically like a point A to point B. Or a really big circuit, which usually consists of anything between 60 to 150 miles. And a crit race is usually a mile and under in length, and it's a circuit.

So let's say this building that we're in right now, if we were to race on the street around this building, there'd be barriers, set up. There'd be 100 people registered, and we would race around this building for between an hour to an hour and 30 minutes. We would average anywhere between 28 and 32 miles per hour for that full duration, and we can reach speeds up to close to 45 miles per hour.

To give it a visual I would imagine Formula 1 or MotoGP if in any way, in Formula 1 in the sense everyone's racing into the corner. Y- you take the corners with precision. Everything's very calculated. It's a set amount of laps. First person to cross the line first wins the race.

And For bike racing, it's a really cool dynamic because we're in your city for a day, and then we go to the next city. These races are all over the country. I'll race in LA, I'll race in New York, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Chicago Georgia, Colorado Texas. They're everywhere. And the big ones are in places that you probably wouldn't even think about.

One of the biggest criterium race in the country is in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is dope for me as well, being Black and going to somewhere that has a lot of history, and then wanting to excel even more because of that history. But we race in front of 20 to 30,000 people, and you get some of the best criterium racers from all over the world: Germany, the UK New Zealand, Australia and then the best in the country.

And winning a race there pretty much just sets you up. It's as solidifies you as one of the best. And so we do that everywhere, and I've even done some, in Italy. I've done some in in Spain. I've done some in London as well. It's a really cool dynamic as well for a spectator because normally they have vendors, they have beer gardens.

It's like it'll be on, a strip right here where the bars and maybe the restaurants are also still open, so you can be inside eating and watching the race, or you can go get some food and come outside. They'll have intermissions where they'll have kids racing. Or you can bring the kids and they can have be able to ride the course and enjoy and so forth.

It's a pretty special kind of race that everyone can grasp. And everyone that I've brought to a race, whether they know what's going on or not, has always loved it. And they've never been like, "Ah, it's boring," or, "Oh, it's this, it's that." Everyone loves it, and then the more you understand it, the more they're actually intrigued by it, and they're like, "Okay, cool."

Be like, "I understand what's happening. I get it. When's the next one?" Which is, why I'm always trying to advocate for it and also try to, bring more notoriety to it because it is a sport or it is a discipline that a lot of people can really rally behind.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing. So I wanna ask you about this because you mentioned that you're creative earlier, and you obviously are in so many different ways.

But even in the domain of cycling itself, it's a very creative endeavor. That we might not think about because we think, again, it's point A to point B or a race. And when I heard you talk about this, it made me realize just, like, how all athletic endeavors really are completely creative. Unless somebody is just very robotic in their head learning how to do dance steps kinda thing, it's literally … It's so much about reaction. It's so much about dealing with the moment, the microsecond and constantly making adaptations and being creative. Talk about that relationship with creativity and athletics.

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah. It's actually very true because there's a common misconception with criterium racing that it is just the stronger you are, the better you are kinda thing.

But in reality, it is a sport of skill and creativity as a sense. The more you can focus on the fundamentals of criterium racing, whether that is being hyper-aware of your surrounding, understanding the flow that, and how momentum works, understanding, how to shift your weight, how to engage in contact, how to read a race, all these different things in a fraction of a second, to the point where I feel like that's what racing sometimes where I can see something happening before it's gonna happen.

I'm like, these two are gonna crash into this corner. I'm gonna go over here because I don't wanna be any part of that, and I go around it, and there's a huge crash, but there's also a sense of calmness into it, and I think because my mind is always normally working very quickly, that when I am racing, everything slows down.

It's like driving on a freeway and everybody's driving 80, so it looks like everyone's going real slow, but in reality we're all going pretty fast. And it allows me to really pay very close attention to detail to things. But then when I make a mistake, I can also go back in my mind to that moment and what did I do wrong, and how can I fix that?

'Cause it's gonna happen again, maybe not tomorrow, but it might happen in a month. And 

then I'll overanalyze what I did and how I can fix it, and then when I do that, I'm able to, when it happens again "Oh, I've been in this situation before this is what I gotta do." And maybe that fix fixes it and I get through it, or it only fixes part of it and I gotta go back and do it again.

But- In the same breath that has also allowed me to be able to apply that same mentality to pretty much anything. 'Cause I'm like, if I can suffer through literally an hour of pain or some of the races I've done have been, again, six, six and a half hours of pain and get through this and figure it out, then I can f- literally figure anything out that comes my way.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. One of the reasons that we marvel at athletes is that expression of creativity.

But I don't think we think about it. We are just watching greatness, but it's such a creative endeavor. And It's like this combination because also with sports too, especially professional sports, we put so much on the strategy, and that's why fans really get mad at coaches a lot too.

Just "I even know what to do," but the strategy piece, but within that, the ability to, to... I think wisdom is a part of it, too, which is like seeing things from multiple perspectives. Yeah. If there's a tactical way to look at it. And like you just said, that's such a great analogy with the Dassault Raven, and just being able to see these patterns, pattern recognition-

And reactivity, and all of this stuff is happening just at this incredible pace.

And this is a reason why I think it's so valuable, no matter what age people are at, to engage in some kind of sport,

DANTE YOUNG: It's funny because I do it, and I do it to a pretty high level, I get it.

So when I watch basketball, football, soccer I understand what they're going through, and I understand that it's more than just putting the ball in the net or it's more than just a touchdown. I know that there's so much more, and I usually like to go down these little rabbit holes of understanding the the really what goes-- the 1% of it, whether it's with football, like understanding, the rotation of the ball or understanding that if we are in a dome or in a open, field, like, how the air can change the length or the dir- or the how far the ball can be thrown or the turf, stuff like that. Or like basketball, like playing in Denver versus playing in LA, like that has a huge impact on your release because the air is thinner and also your air, your, being able to breathe.

Like, all these little things that, you know, or like the impact on how you move. So because I understand all these little things and I'm watching NBA Finals game seven, and I'm seeing everything happening, and obviously I have moments where I'm like, "Oh," "this guy," "he doesn't know what he's doing," whatever.

But I also take a moment to be like, it's game seven. You're 100 games in. There, you have, there's so many pieces that you're focused on like this guy's, closing out here, this guy's doing that, whatever. I gotta shoot. Maybe I'm a little tired. Maybe you make a last-minute sh- decision while mid-shot.

Like, all these little things that you're focused on, I get how hard it is. And I agree. I feel like people should play sports 'cause I-- you don't even need to play at an, at an elite level to understand that it's much more than Put the ball in the hoop, score the goal, get the touchdown. Which you want it to be that simple, but then in reality, you realize that there's so much more to go into it, and then you have okay, I get it.

I respect them. Prime example, Formula 1, they think it's just driving a car. I can dr- I could take 10 minutes off my ETA. I know I can drive a Formula 1 car. But then they put people in these cars with them, and they realize that these guys are actual athletes. They're pulling five, six Gs of force into a turn, which no one even knows what five, six Gs feels like.

You pull a quarter of a G when you take off into a plane. So and then being able to make a decision in a fraction of a second at 200 miles per hour, and then to train that, like I, I get that. I know I can't do it, but I definitely have a respect for it, and I think because, being in sports.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Obviously, there's like an emergence of people playing pickleball and, I also, I think life finds a way, we've been so separate and disconnected and again, people being tethered to their devices, I- and AI is here big time now. So with life finding a way, and of course, there's infinite options in this infinite universe, but my wisdom is saying and pointing to we're going to kinda swing to more connection.

It's gonna be even more valuable and AI can f- e- either automate everything and you don't do shit, you just get more into the matrix, or it's gonna free up time to be more human than you've ever been.

And so connecting, playing, competing, and those kinds of things, like it's embedded in our DNA.

This is even how kids even learn through play. And the crazy thing is we never stop learning, right? And like utilizing play is so valuable and some of the most intelligent their incredible health span, their cognition. These are... I know people in their 70s and 80s who regularly play like ultimate Frisbee or like they're finding something for that because they found out along the way, like it just makes life better.

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah. And I think I know that I'm always gonna wanna do something. I can't ever really like to sit still, so I know that I'm either always gonna ride a bike or I'm gonna do something that is active and also stimulating my mind. Like I been, I literally just started like swinging a golf club 'cause I'm just like, I know how hard it is from an outside perspective and when I first took a swing, I was like, "Okay, this is really hard," but that makes me wanna lean more into it because I know there's so much more that goes into it.

I picked up running. Again, something that's very hard and it's these small little things that if you tweak, it can make you so much more better, which is also like huge into cycling. If I'm running, if I change, if I don't land on my heel but land like this, like my stride's better, I can run a little bit further.

If I rotate the golf club like this versus being like this and keep, stay square, like that makes it, your swing 10 times better. And it's stimulating my mind, but also the fact that I am, I'm outside, I'm in nature, I feel the breeze in my hair I'm sweating, like all these things.

There is a value in being Just active and outside and I'm like, as we were talking about earlier, like I try to tell my nieces and nephews "Just go do something." Like I don't mind if you're on your phone, great, but go be on your phone and walk down the street, and I gu- I guarantee you at some point you're gonna put your phone down 'cause you're gonna be like, "Oh, like I didn't know there's a chicken spot right here.

Let me pop inside this chicken spot real quick." Or like maybe you run into an old friend, now y'all are talking and you guys go get a coffee, so like being outside forces, is gonna force, will force us to like kind of just Be in the moment, which I really hope we don't ever lose 'cause it, it's like a important quality.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. I just, I was actually about to bring up golf, because last night I was having dinner with some people, and then they got, the subject of golf came up, and then they just kinda got a little higher up in their chairs- ... about the subject, and then you see a lot of athletes that, have found success in other sports transitioning.

LeBron is heavy into golf now. I just saw the video, he's making fun of Kevin Hart- ... like he found a little golf club or whatever. Yeah. And all of these guys are, like, finding this competition and physical expression- ... and being outside and being amongst your friends and your colleagues and, there's so many different iterations of what that can look like.

But the most important thing, and what I'm getting from you, too, is just getting outside your door.

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah and I think golf is pretty unique 'cause like I, I see everyone does it, and I think it's, if I can think about it as an athlete, you want to do something that is challenging but different, but isn't gonna be so strenuous on the body.

In the sense swinging a golf club and rotating, extra hard or whatever, like you may c- become a little sore, but you're not gonna. It's not like going skateboarding with your friends or whatever the case may be. And it's also as an elite athlete where every minor little detail is important and you are up here in your craft.

When you start golf, you come all the way down to ground level. So now you're humbled because you're not good at it, and you're trying to find these little half a percent, 1% of things that's gonna make you a little bit better, 'cause that's how you operate in your t- craft. So you're taking the fundamentals of how you've learned into a different sport that you can now learn something new at, and at the same time you can hang out with your boys who also understand, or maybe you have a friend that doesn't play basketball, but he's better than you and you're a competitor, so now you're trying to beat- ... beat this guy. So I get it, you know what I'm saying? And that's why from now now I'm looking at golf clubs, and I'm left-handed, so I gotta find a left-handed golf club, and that's a whole nother thing.

And then just trying to like, learn these little things that I can do where I can go for a long bike ride, on Saturday, and afterwards, maybe I can just go to the range and just hit some balls and then decompress for a little bit and just learn and then do it all over again.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. It's a really interesting time right now, especially just what's swirling around you in your life. Here in LA we have the World Cup going right now. The All-Star Game just happened. We got the Olympics coming up here- as well. Yeah. In your backyard.

So talk about what's going on with you as far as eyeing the Olympics.

DANTE YOUNG: It's... When I first heard about it, it was definitely something that has been on my mind of trying to obtain. It's so much harder as an American to make the Olympics and especially in cycling. We have a lot of guys that compete in the Tour de France, and a lot of those guys, especially on the road, are pretty much solidified for Olympic selections.

But then we also have again, we talk about how many, there's so many disciplines. We have 

indoor track cycling, which is like an indoor wooden track that's banked at 45 degrees. It's about 200 to sometimes 400 meters in length, and it's raced on the same kind of bikes that I started racing on, but these bikes cost $20, $30,000.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Jeez ...

DANTE YOUNG: and because it's indoor and it's a controlled environment, they race at speeds, they can average speeds of 35 miles per hour, and they're hitting speeds of 47 miles per hour sometimes. It's pretty insane. So if I were to , oh, I would love to compete in the Olympics, and I would love to go do- down this journey.

It's only gonna happen once or a handful of times that you can get that opportunity. And there's something that I was, like, ex- exploring, which kinda was starting to come towards a little bit more of a dead end, but it's also I have such a different perspective on what really is bringing me value in my life through sport.

And, I feel like where I'm at people are trying to excel their sport, be the absolute best that they can possibly be, and I think for a while I was like that. I wanna be the best criterion racer. I wanna do the Tour de France. I wanna be an Olympian. I wanna be like this.

But I feel like what really is important to me is the value that I can add to others in the sense of maybe creating a path or an avenue that can allow others to either achieve that or, and then some, or, instilling some knowledge into people that, again, can create, again, a path and then some.

What brings me full fulfillment isn't being the absolute best bike racer in the world, which is weird to say because I am a competitor and I still wanna w- I do wanna win, and I do enjoy winning. But- What brings me, if not equal to or more joy is being able to educate and inspire people to just enjoy what they're doing.

You know what I'm saying? I meet people... I was at a practice race last night in El Dorado Park, and this kid was asking me, "Hey, man I'm a category five," which is a beginner category. 

It's from five to one, which is how we rank it. And he's "How can I be c- be a better sprinter?

Like, how, what would be your tips?" Or how, what should I do today in this race?" And I light up. "All right, so boom try to focus on this, you're a beginner, try new things." I'm just giving him all this free game, and he's hyped on it. And then as he leaves, and I'm sitting in my car getting dressed, I'm like, I'm in such a good mood now because, like, that is either going to help this kid or it's gonna go in one ear and out the other.

But the chances of it helping him and like maybe he does better today, but then he does better the next day, and maybe that game I gave him against somebody else and it creates this like domino effect, like that brings me so much joy. And I know people that are gonna be competing in the Olympics or gunning for the Olympics in the road race and track and field and in, in velodrome stuff.

And at the end of the day, like I'm just hyped that we have it back in our backyard 'cause the track that I started racing on is an outdoor track in, actually here in Encino, and it's not that far from here. And it was in the '84 Olympics, that was the track that they raced on. So to even just be able to be in the city and be alive and be able to be like, "I was at the Olympics in, 2028," when it's 2060, and talk about that experience is like, to me, that- that's, and then be able to wa- watch the competition and see like my friends and stuff competing and stuff like that. Like to me, that has the utmost value to me right now.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Yeah. And also, for me too, even hearing your story and your perspective on this, it's the striving. It's having that thing and just continuing to qualify yourself because  you never know really where it's gonna land you.

DANTE YOUNG: Where I see value and like richness and wealth in life is like very different from, I feel we talk about people like on their phones and they're feeling this false sense of reality and what's, what it means to be wealthy and rich and fulfilled, whether that's the cars and the girls and the money and the whatever and inst- instant gratification.

Like you can be a TikTok star tomorrow morning and all that stuff, and it's like- I find that I get 

to travel, I get to meet new people. I have met some people I never thought I'd meet in my life. I've ... My family's healthy. I'm healthy, and I get to do what I do every day as a job and my bills are paid.

I get to, buy shirts from Zara , to me that's genuinely, like, all that I need, and I also try to let people know that this other stuff is not real, yes, if we all had a billion dollars yeah, of course we're probably gonna go spend some money and whatever, but I've made a decent amount of money, and I've had

Been in the cars, and I've had the designer stuff, and it's just it's really not, it's not that big of a deal. It's all very material. And I think because, again, where I grew up and I, and it's having fun with what you got, and the places I've been to where you just make do with what you have, and understand this is, you don't know any better than what they have in, in Africa and stuff which is a whole nother topic. But, like you really find that you don't need much, and being outside and being in, in the moment, in reality what's real. If you can do what you love to do every single day, like if you love this podcast and it just brings you joy, like to me, you're richer than anyone that has a million dollars and lives in, in the hills and drives a Ferrari.

And that's kinda like how I operate and like how I see everything. I think because of that, I feel like I'm so much happier. I'm much happier than the pe- my peers sometimes because they're stressed that they don't have a billion dollars yet, and I'm like, "I don't have a million dollars either, but I'm great.

Like life is good," and don't lose sight of what's right here in front of you, 'cause you... Life goes on real quick and you're gonna be like, "Oh, I didn't realize that my niece was walking," or, "I didn't realize that, like I missed out on family this time over here," or that "I had this over here," and then you can't get that stuff back.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Two wheels can take you far physically obviously, but also clearly can take you far mentally-

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah ...

SHAWN STEVENSON: and emotionally, spiritually even. So man, I'm sure one wheel could too, so shout out to the unicycle riders.

DANTE YOUNG: Hey, I've seen some of those, some people that are doing the unicycle stuff, and I see them and just be like, "You doing that."

"I'm not gonna do it. Like hats off to you." But yeah, I- it's so mental. Cycling is so mental, and I've gone through some... A prime example, like a buddy of mine, Rye Benjamin, he's a track and field player, last cycle won two Olympic gold medals and fell in love with cycling. And I took him on this bike ride and it happened to start raining.

I rode in the rain, and it was a big group. We're all like, "It's fine. We'll ride in the rain and it was probably a two, maybe three-hour bike ride. He shows up, we go for a ride. We're ri- riding up the Hollywood Hills, and he is going through it. He's kinda bonking, which means he ran out of food.

He's going through it. He- it's a very steep climb. I'm pushing him. I'm giving him food, all these little things. And he told me "Bro I was going through it. Mentally, it's one of the hardest things I've ever done." And he's "You're just sitting there, like you're just chilling." He's "You're not even phased by it.

You're offering me food. You're giving me this, giving me that, and you're just like, 'This is another day.'" And he's changed-- it really he needed that, that humbling, that bring back to ground zero and that mental re- stability of to go that extra mile, to get there, 'cause he's up here in his craft, and when he-- That was before the Olympics. And I think it was earlier that year, and he went on that year to win every 400 meter event, 400 meter hurdle event that he entered, and then won his Olympic gold medals in the 400 meter. And not to say that it was all because of me but just like under- understanding that, yeah, cycling is I've done races and I've cried on the bike.

I've gone through just such, mental just, I'm in so much pain, I wanna stop, but some reason your legs are still kinda just going through it. And I genuinely feel like it's made me so much more mentally stre- sh- stronger in every sense of my life. Like nothing can be m- harder and more painful than what I've endured on the bike at this time.

And I kinda just deal with that. I'm like, "All right, this is it." Like car's broke down, like this sponsorship fell through, or this is going on. It's all right. We'll figure it out. It's not that bad. And I don't think I, don't think I would really again have that without those two wheels.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Amazing, man. You've helped so many people yourself, and the inspiration, the exposure. How can we help you? What can we do to support you, follow you? Let us know.

DANTE YOUNG: I mean, honestly, like that's actually a really, that's a really good question. It's funny 'cause I don't ever really think about that.

I think about how I can help everybody else. And I feel like just, That's a great question. I don't know, man. I-- my goal in life right now is, I'm still traveling and racing. I'm focused on creating really cool content projects through my partners that I have that can be a way of telling stories through my craft.

And then allowing myself to still be creative, whether that's through cool activations that I can do with the community, any community per se. But also just be able to travel all over and be able to sh- to, to show people that like cycling is, it's fun. Like you don't need to be a professional cyclist.

You don't need to ride up these mountains that I do. But just like riding a bicycle. Like we've all ridden bikes as a kid. I remember riding a BMX bike and putting cans and taping it to the back so that it's in the spokes, and it sounds like a motorcycle and making the neighbors real mad. I'm doing this at 8:00 at night.

Just like being outside. And then being able to also tie in more things that makes cycling more appealing, like fashion, something I'm passionate about, like looking nice and tying it into the sport of riding a bicycle, and athleisure, like there's so many things that I try to just incorporate into cycling because I genuinely think cycling is one of the coolest sports that is somehow underrated and yet everybody does it.

But I just wanna spread the love and joy of riding a bicycle with anybody that I can and everybody. So if we can amplify that and be able to get to connect to more people to ride a bicycle that would be really cool and I think in the future I really wanna just be able to have a day.

Back in the day, we had Go S- Go Skateboard Day, which is still around. But just have a day where we can have a huge cookout, a huge party, and everyone can just bring their bikes, and we can have a cool, maybe escorted ride that is around the city with hundreds if not thousands of people just riding bikes and connecting.

There's no hierarchy. There's no I'm better than you. We're not trying to race each other. We're just here to ride bikes, have fun, let the kids be around, bring your grandpa and grandma and put them on two wheels. It's been years, and I just connect. And if I can do that, then I'm, hey I'm a happy camper, man.

I'm good.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Love it. I love it. So where can we follow your journey? You got Instagram?

DANTE YOUNG: I'm on Instagram. It's danteyoung__. I have YouTube that I'm trying to work out as well and bring more content towards. And those are my two main platforms and where people can find me all over.

If I'm... I usually let people know if I'm gonna be in their city 'cause I'm at a race just come up, talk to me. I'm the kind of person that just loves to connect in any way. I'm a big coffee-head, so I'm always looking for the dope coffee spots in every city that I'm in. Heading to Boise this next week or this weekend, and then I race to Manhattan Beach, and then I might be heading to France in two weeks for the last week of the Tour de France as well.

I try to let people know, and that way I can just stay in the loop and hopefully meet people in real time,

SHAWN STEVENSON: That's what it's all about, man.

DANTE YOUNG: Yeah, man, 'cause, it's I love social media, but I'm also just about real connections, interactions. Real social. Real social where you walk into a coffee shop, and you meet, you interact, and you exchange information and, or you just have a moment in time of connection, and then that might just make your day, and y- that way you can go do something else and whatnot. I'm always big if you see me on the road, or you see me riding my bike or posted at a coffee shop or wherever I am at, just, say what's up.

We can have a little chat, talk about life, talk about bikes or how good the coffee is, and then go on about our day.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Awesome. I want some coffee now.

DANTE YOUNG: Hey, brother, you, I got a list. You let me know- ... what city you are, if it's west side, if it's in downtown, if it's in Pasadena, I know all the coffee shops.

SHAWN STEVENSON:For sure. I appreciate you, man. We'll put the socials in the show notes for everybody. Check out the one and only Dante Young, everybody.

Appreciate y'all.

DANTE YOUNG: Peace.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes, sir.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you really enjoyed this. For me, it was very cinematic and I was able to kinda go along with Donte on some of these adventures.

And I cannot, again, overstate the value of exposure, and this is something that we can all be proactive in because no matter where we are in our lives right now, we can still be an inspiration and provide some exposure and insights for others. And just recently, actually this week, a couple of days ago, I was on a call with a friend of mine who's a friend of The Model Health Show as well, the amazing Jamal King, and he's also known as the 9 to 5 Millionaire.

All right? He accumulated his success and his wealth while being a full-time Chicago City police officer. All right? And while his coworkers might have taken their time, quote, "in the hole," where they're just watching YouTube videos on their break or, eating donuts. All right? He said it, not me He was studying real estate, and he was going and looking at properties and just thinking outside of the bounds of what he was accustomed to.

And through that process, he figured some things out and was able to change the trajectory of his entire family. And just this past week, after our call, he was getting ready because he was having 60 high school kids over to his house for a barbecue because he promised them that them getting a certain GPA and them getting everything in alignment for their degrees and college aspirations, he would have them over to his house for that exposure to see what it looks like to be in an environment like the one that he's built.

And so again, there's some way that we can all-- That's an extreme example, but there's some way that we can all provide exposure because it could be a kid like me. That exposure from my eighth grade English teacher, which my best friend actually... he lived in the good neighborhood that we were bused out to from the city, and right out- outside of his backyard, there's a fence, and on the other side of the fence was Ms.

Blackmore's house. Never seen a teacher outside of school. And just the interest that she took in me, that stayed with me, and that was definitely one of the puzzle pieces to me becoming an author. And I've got so many little stories like that, those little micro-exposures that literally just changed the course of my life.

And, I wouldn't be who I am today without Mrs. Blackmore, without my grandmother, without my Auntie Janet. Obviously, without my mom and my stepfather and my siblings, of course. But, these individuals were bright lights in my life, in particular, my Auntie Janet and my grandmother and Mrs.

Blackmore. So you never know who you're impacting, and that led to this receptiveness to when I met my wife and my mother-in-law, who, thank goodness I've been acclimated to these powerful women being in my life. And, she came along at a time when I had aspirations of changing the world, and she saw greatness in me, and she supported that so again, you never know who you're impacting with your exposure and making them feel welcome, making them feel seen. So let's do that for someone today. Let's do that for our children. Let's do this for our community and for these kids who need it more than ever. And definitely check out, follow Dante, follow his journey, support him, support his work, support his creativity, support his competition, and because that's just gonna elevate the sport.

It's gonna elevate the exposure for the sport and the interest in kids that come from similar circumstances just to see what's possible. And let us not negate the value of getting on those two wheels and getting outside of our usual environment. It just takes those two wheels. I appreciate you so much for tuning in today.

We got some epic masterclasses and world-leading experts coming your way very soon, so make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.