The Journey of My Mother's Son by Dan Clouser

The Journey of My Mother's Son

with Dan Clouser

Introduce yourself.

My name is Dan Clouser, I am an author, blogger, podcast host, speaker, and consultant.

I founded and ran a nonprofit youth sports organization for over 30 years called the Berkshire Baseball & Softball Club, which later became the BIG Vision Foundation. We ran teams, tournaments and a 130 acre sports complex. I loved every second of what I did. I loved working with kids and teaching them leadership skills and life lessons through sports and community service. I thought that I would have died doing what I loved.

Then in 2019, I felt a calling from God for my wife, Sandy, and I.

We decided to leave our comfort zone and start a new journey.

A literal journey, selling most of our material things and setting out across this beautiful country in an RV with our golden retriever, Youkilis. Sounds crazy, but it was also destined to happen. You see I was raised by a hippy named Loretta Magary, she was a free spirit who quit her job and embarked on her own journey in the mid-1980’s. Her journey started in a 1967 Plymouth Valiant with the back seat removed to make a bed and a .38 Special for protection. She later evolved into a 1978 Toyota camper. After she passed away in 2005, we were able to experience a small part of her journey by going through her old photos and letters. The people that she met along the way were amazing.

I’ll be conducting speaking engagements and writing more books on our travels. More importantly, this is our chance to continue my mother’s legacy of giving back through volunteering.

We will tell the stories of the people that we meet along the way.

This is truly “The Journey of My Mother’s Son” and as Michael Franti says in the opening verse of his song, “Gloria,” “When many little people in many little places, Do many little things, then the whole world changes.” It will be our job to share and tell the stories of those “Many Little People” through this podcast and my writing. Some of the people that we interview may be famous, most will not be, but they’ll all have a story to tell about the difference they’re making. Some stories will still have a sports theme, others spiritual, some will be about music, others about food, some will talk about travel, but all will be about the many little people, in the many little places who are doing the many little things to make the whole world change. We pray that you enjoy these stories and are inspired to do your own little things to make this world a better place for all of us.

"Collect experiences, not things."

- Dan Clouser

Share an experience that has shaped who you are today.

After over 30 years of successfully running a nonprofit youth sports organization, my wife and I decided to sell all of our stuff in August of 2020 and live full-time in an RV traveling the country with our golden retriever.

A large part of the inspiration for my wife and I to live full-time in an RV came from my mom, thus the title of the podcast and my most recent book.

When she was in her mid-40's she decided to leave a good paying job and travel the country. She took an old 1967 Plymouth Valiant and removed the back seat, put in a sheet of plywood and a mattress that reached into the trunk to make a bed and took off with no real agenda.

She would stop to work if she felt that she was running low on cash. Once she stopped traveling full-time, she went back to school to become a drug and alcohol addictions counselor. She still traveled to volunteer. By that time, she had graduated to a little Toyota camper.

She did a lot of volunteer work with the Salvation Army, mostly during hurricane relief efforts in Florida, but her biggest impact was probably when she volunteered for almost a year at ground zero following 9/11.

After she passed, I loved reading about the people that she had met throughout her travels in her journals. When Sandy and I decided to follow in her footsteps, I thought that telling those stories about the people we've met and places we've been in real time through podcasting, blogging and social media would be pretty cool, however, my guests are not limited to those we meet through our travels.

For my first blog entry, I just took the dedication that I wrote for her in my first book and published it again. If you'd like to read it, below is a link:

Dedication, Loretta Magary, The Wind Beneath My Wings

As far as the show, it's a pretty casual conversation.

I do ask the same "final question" to all of my guests. The sub-title of the podcast is, "Many Little People in Many Little Places." Which is derived from the opening lyrics of the song, "Gloria" by Michael Franti, which go, "When many little people in many little places do many little things, then the whole world changes."

So, the final question that I would ask will be, “What are some of the little things that you do to help make the world a better place?”

Tell us about your podcast audience.

Primarily female with an age range of 35-50. I think they keep coming back because of the inspiring guests and stories that I have on the show.

What makes your podcast unique?

I have a pretty broad range of topics and guests on the show. I believe everyone has a story that can be told and inspire others through it.

In this episode of the Journey of My Mother’s Son podcast, I talk with Larry Schechter.

Larry is the author of the 2014 Amazon bestseller “Winning Fantasy Baseball.” He has been called one of the best fantasy baseball players in the world. Larry was a two-time winner of the CDM Sports national salary cap contest, defeating 7,500 teams in 2002 and 6,000 teams in 2005. He has competed in the two most prestigious expert’s leagues, winning the USA Today-sponsored LABR league three times and the Tout Wars experts league six times. One of his keys to success in fantasy baseball is attention to detail. He used that ability in researching, conducting interviews, and writing his most recent book, “The History of Fantasy Sports.”

It’s not written as a boring research paper, but rather tells the stories of the entrepreneurs who created an industry that has gone worldwide. More than 50 million men and women in the USA play fantasy sports. 200 million play fantasy Cricket in India. There’s never been a book like this and it’s getting rave reviews.

Fantasy sports have become a cultural phenomenon, where five nuns in a convent co-manage a football team, where a plumber and the CEO of a major company sit next to each other at a draft table talking like they’re best buddies. It brings together co-workers, parents and their children, and keeps college friends in touch for years after graduation.

Fantasy sports have become as ingrained in American culture as baseball and apple pie. And they have spread worldwide. There are versions of these games for football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, cricket, bull riding, bass fishing, Iditarod and many more. It is one of the most popular forms of entertainment today.

But the millions who play mostly have no idea about the people and events that created this phenomenon. The History of Fantasy Sports provides the first complete telling of how we got from the spontaneous ideas for games years ago, to the multi-billion-dollar industry of today.

Larry spent 18 months researching and interviewing dozens of key players, pioneers, and entrepreneurs to uncover their stories. This reader-friendly book is ready to take its place alongside some of the best in sports history. You will be entertained and inspired by these stories of humble beginnings turned into multi-million-dollar enterprises. Schechter does a great job of capturing the passion, obsession, and love of the game behind these businesses.

Larry is now retired and lives in Florida. You can follow him on X @LarrySchechter.