Welcome to this episode of the justice team podcast on the justice team network. I'm your host, Bob Simon. And today we're getting into a deep dive with a very famous trial lawyer named Dan Schar who comes to us from Santa Cruz. And we're talking about health and wellness and some of the things that lawyers don't like to talk about and that we should be talking about.
And I, you know, I'm very, I've been very much looking forward to this conversation because I don't get to see Dan that often unless we go to trial seminars or sometimes See each other with the kids at conferences and things. Um, so Dan, thanks for coming on. Yeah, I mean, it's great seeing you. Um, came in from Santa Cruz today? I did, early this morning, 6am flight. Woof. Back home tonight, so. Well. You know, this is life, right? It is life, a lot of these in and out things.
But, um, first time I met Dan in person was I was trying a case in Santa Cruz and he knew the judge and there was this person that looked like Thor in the back of the room that just had a long hair, you know, big beard and just coming in in a suit. And I was like, trying to talk, I was like, who is this? It was Dan Scharr, the trial lawyer, the local guy.
And just, I mean, I'm getting a very good verdict in that courtroom and Dan helped us every day because you knew the judge, Judge Burdick, who's now private, who's awesome. Yes. Yeah. I just actually, I, I had mediated a case just a couple of weeks ago with Paul. Now that I'm first name basis with him, you know, unless I need something from him, then it's judge. Um, so Dan, one of the things we want to talk to you about is how, you know, your commitment to preventative health, right.
What that means for you and how, you know, we do high stakes litigation and trials flying around a lot. You know, you're all over the country doing stuff. You have a family at home. How are you able to take care of yourself? I mean, it's hard. It's, yeah, it's really hard. I mean, it's, you know, it's one of those things where, you know, it's, it's high stakes work. But the fact is, it's like, there's a reason why we engage in this high stakes work. It's because we want to enjoy the life.
And, and so really the way that you have to do it, you just got to find the time. Um, you know, just like we find the time to prepare for trial, just like we find the time to talk to our clients, you have to, you have to carve out that time and you know, nobody's going to do it for you. And yeah, unfortunately we were in this profession where health and wellness usually takes a backseat. Um, if it's, if it's even in the car.
Um, and so, you know, for me, there's, there's those, I had to engage in a lot of efforts. Now, of course, for me, I had, you know, The fortune to have an unfortunate health scare a few years ago, you know, and, you know, when you're sitting there and thinking that your life truly is flashing before your eyes on the kitchen floor, it's sort of, it throws you for a loop. And so, you know, I had that event that sort of triggered my, my, my journey, but now that I'm in it.
It allows me to sit here and talk to other lawyers and say, Hey, listen, you got to just look at this. You got to do these things and realize that the amount of time that you put into your work, you should be meeting or exceeding that amount in putting it into your personal life and your health and wellness. So it's just, but you know, it's, it's hard though. You know, what's our schedule? You know, people always ask me like, well, what's your schedule like?
And it's like, well, it's, it's different every day. Yes. Right. As a lawyer, what we do, you and I, it's different every day. And then, so it's hard. To be intentional and plan, when am I going to get my meditations in? When am I going to get my workout in? When am I going to get my outdoor activity, which I'm big on these days, is being outdoors. So what are some things that, that you're doing because you're a very healthy dude, even though you have the health scare.
If you look at this guy's like Adonis, if we had to pick a Greek God, I don't know about that. I'm trying, man. I'm trying, I'm trying to get this guy to blush. Doesn't work. But like, what are some things that you do where you can help folks with just some advice? So I try on the weekends and first and foremost, you know, my wife is phenomenal. Like she gets it. And so I guess that's, you know, that's the first thing is, you know, Find a good partner.
But that being said, she knows that on Saturdays or Sundays. I just need 10 minutes to carve out my week. And so I can kind of look at it. Um, and, and know it's like, okay, like this week, this week has been a difficult week for me to get workouts in just because I had big depots and I had stuff going on. So that'll mean that the workouts will get shifted to the weekend. But if I got that week where I can look at it, um, I try to take advantage of my lunch hour.
Um, and that, uh, almost everybody, Is willing to take a lunch hour, so I've made the decision of pre eating. So like 1145 I eat while I'm working so that when noon hits, I get my hour. Oh, I like that. Yeah, my team knows it. So, you know, I've had that with the team. It's like, hey, unless it's an emergency situation, noon to one is no go. Nothing gets scheduled, nothing gets done there. And so my team knows that and I can pre plan for it. So sometimes I don't eat at 1145.
Let's say, for example, it hits me and I can't do it. Well, then I maybe shift that workout to a rucking workout where I'll throw my weighted backpack on and I'll walk and eat. So that changes the workout plan. If I've got my food, I'll swim, I'll run, I'll ride the bike. Maybe I'll get a workout in at home, those types of things. So that was something I did is carve out lunch hour for that because it's hard for me to get up in the morning. To work out because my kids get up early. My son.
My son is up. How was your youngest? He said he's four and he's an alarm clock if he sleeps in past six o'clock. That's a sleep That's it's almost that's like the magic number exactly exactly like today. I was able to get up. I was up for 45 days I got a workout in at 5 a. m. You got like 30 45 minute workout in and It's rare because if I can get up that early and be motivated I can do it But if I if I don't start by 515, I know the kids are up by six, like clockwork. Exactly.
Yeah. So for me, I've shifted away from relying on my morning workout. Um, and you know, I don't try to push things off until the evening because, you know, one of two things happens in the evening. One, I'm either tired and I don't have the motivation or, you know, the energy to do it. And I'm also, I work out hard and if my body is not in a position to work out hard, I'm gonna get hurt if I push it. Um, but the other big thing is I like having dinner with my kids.
I like sitting down and, you know, sometimes it's just chaos, but it's that, that, that time with them. And by the time they're down for bed, it's eight o'clock and maybe I'll, I'll get something in that evening. But the best time for me is that lunch hour. Yeah. There's, for me, there's no way after. Like 5 p. m. I just can't do it. Like it's just kid time and I'm tired. Well, let's talk about, let's take a switch and talk about preventative stuff.
Yeah. Because I know both you and I go to the same clinic in Denver. Yep. Um, and I think it's one of the best things I've ever done. If somebody forced me, like you got to go do this and we did it. My wife and I, and I love it. Good. Um, so why don't you tell people about that preventative medicine and how you're using it. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's a, it's a gift that I had an opportunity to meet Chad, Dr. Prosimak.
He runs Resilience Code and he works directly with Jeffrey Boone, who's a cardiologist, um, Boone Heart Clinic. Yeah. And, and these are guys that, you know, this is cutting edge, cutting, cutting edge stuff. And I, I didn't realize how much testing was available for us until I got the testing and it's it's shocking how Reactive medicine is for us.
You know, we live in the greatest country in the world and we have a reactive medicine that basically says we're not going to deal with anything until Something bad illness has set in. Chronic illness has set in and we are now not preventing anything. We are just baking. We're figuring out how you can live longer with chronic illness and that's just not a way to live. So what I've done with this is I've been seeing Chad and Dr. Boone now for, it'll be three years. Yeah. Three years in December.
You know, um, got the blood work done, figured out, you know, what was going on with a lot of different stuff and just kind of got on the path. And I've got, I'm healthier now. I mean, I was a college soccer player and I'm in better shape now than I was when I was, it's funny. I feel that way too. It's 19 years old. Yeah. You know, could I, am I physically able to do the things that I could put on 19?
No. But if you were to put me on, you know, 19-year-old me, now 19-year-old, me next to 47-year-old me. Um, 47 year old me is going to be in better physical condition. I might not be as fast as 19 year old me, but I'm in better shape. And like we do the same thing. And you know, one thing is a preventative, it like makes sure the plaque in your arteries and things like jelly and it just dissipates. Um, I'm on something called Repatha. Then my doctor put me on as preventative and Dr. Poon.
And like we went on the, you know, checking your hormone panels, all these other things. So I actually tried the weight loss ozempic for one week and it made me so sick. Okay. That I cannot do it right. I was like, yeah, that's not for me. But we, I, for the first time in the past few weeks, I started testosterone injections, right? Mm-Hmm . And I feel amazing, right? Like, 'cause it was a low score and I was like, you know, 'cause I'm taking a lot of stress. Well, you're what, 44? 44? 44?
Yeah. I mean, yeah, right around that age. Because they say that's a critical age where you start to age is like 45 and then 60. And I felt it, you know, it's like I'm working on a lot, but not a lot of energy, not a lot of results. And I eat pretty good, just, you got kids though, you're eating chicken nuggets and scraping food, right? And it's hard. So I felt a big change with that kind of stuff.
And you know, they, they reevaluate, you do blood panels, more physicals and be able to figure out what's working for you. Cause everybody's different. Exactly. I mean, I've got, I've had more blood drawn in the last three years than I think in the first 44 years of my life. And I mean, I think this is one of the things that, you know, The way that medicine is set up in our country right now, it's sort of, it's almost like a four letter word to talk about medications.
And it's, it's, these are the things that I think we have to realize that as, as human beings, there are a select few of us that are genetically gifted that we don't develop chronic illness until we're in our 70s, And those are the people that live, you know, you talk about these blue zones, you know, like Loma Linda and Sardinia. And these are people that just, you know, they, something's going on with them. It's, well, it's, it's genetics.
Well, unfortunately, 98 percent of us don't have those genetics. And the fact is that chronic illness starts setting in, in our twenties, we don't know about it because it's a slow process. So we get into our forties guys like you and I, And we're still maintaining. And then we get a bunch of blood drawn and it's like, Oh my God, like, Hey, you've got a B levels that are through the roof. And I'll be, I'm a, your cholesterol is under control.
But there's this little thing called LP little lay that nobody talks about. That's like the culprit. Like you hear about people that have had heart attacks in their thirties, forties and fifties and they've died. And you're like, what happens? It's like, well, there's this little thing called LP little lay that nobody tests for that. It's the silent killer.
You know, and you find these things out and it, There has to be a proactive approach to it and, you know, testing and medications and, you know, for a long time, I was like, I don't need this. I just, you know, diet, diet can help. But the fact is, is that you're not gonna be able to fight off chronic illness if you're predisposed to it. So you've got to know, and this is where we can get the blood draws. You go on the medications and you feel better.
And yes, I'm 47 and I do testosterone supplementation as well. Because. I'm 47 and guess what? I don't need the testosterone of a 20 year old, but the body still wants it and still needs it. And so I don't think we need to be as afraid of going down that path, but we have to be educated. And if you don't want to do it, that's okay. But you know, the ignorance is bliss stuff is. is not me anymore. And yeah, and I've learned to a dog. I was so hesitant just for some, no, I don't know.
It was a macho thing or like, I don't need that. I'm not going to talk about it. I'm not going to do it. It's like, well, why not? And then, you know, cause my wife's very preventative. She's been doing this stuff for a long time. That's, you know, when she speaks on it and does those things. And then I finally listened to her and I feel a lot better. So thanks Chrissy. Cause I finally listened to you.
And you know, a lot more like she provides me like different supplements, different stuff to take and um, you know, and it's a game changer. It is, especially for. Sometimes when we're in trial, for instance, you can only do so much. You're at the mercy of the court schedule and you still have life before and after court. And it's hard. What are some things that you Dan shard do during trial that helps you still be health and wellness? It's sort of, it takes that, that, that weekend plan.
And I just expanded out to the, to the course of trial. Like, like if I, and, and, and, uh, I'm human. Trust me. There's, there's, there are trials. And, you know, when, when Jacob and Eva and Ansley listened to this podcast, the trial we had in Oakland, yeah, there were a couple of nights where we ordered pizza. Like, I'm still a human, but it's, it's sort of like, my wife always says, you know, everything in moderation.
And so, um, you know, if you can stick to it during trial, like trial, the rules get, you know, Relax a little bit because it's like, okay, I, I can't get the lunchtime workouts in because I'm prepping witnesses for the afternoon and when I get home for the evening, you know, I probably need to prep for tomorrow. Um, the one thing that I do stick to in trial is sleep. And it's funny, I agree with that because people are always like, oh, I sacrifice sleep.
Um, sleep is probably, so sleep is my workout during trial and, and so it's, I mean, I, I will try to work out like, you know, Once Friday afternoon is the session is done. Yeah, I will crank out and I'll get a good hard run in or a good hard workout Friday after session. And I will work out on Saturday and Sunday, but during the week, Sunday night to Thursday night. Sleep is the workout and, and I'm talking and you may fall out of your chair. I'm talking eight hours of sleep.
No, I look, I agree. A hundred percent. Like I'm, you know, as soon as I get done with most people, travelers, I don't know why they do that. Like they want to burn the midnight oil to those things. Like, no, I'm more productive in the morning. So what I do is I, after court, I do my witness prep schedule, do, you know, prepare my PowerPoint to where I know I'm going with closing. Talk to my team and I'm off the grid by 730. Yeah, I'm usually nine. I'm a 9pm to 5am.
I know I'm going to get up at five. I know that what's going to happen is I will snap awake and so that's why I know I got to go to bed a little earlier. Um, and so yeah, that's sort of my, and unless I'm in Santa Cruz, I usually will stay like even if I'm going to try a case in San Jose, I'll stay in San Jose. Um, and my wife and family, like that's their sacrifice and. Um, you know, and I appreciate the support that I get from them.
I mean, I FaceTime with them every night, but they know that that's what's going to happen so that I can do, get the work in, get the sleep in. Um, because yeah, I mean, it's, if you're doing what we're doing, and even if you're, you know, a new trial lawyer, if you are trying a case, you're prepared enough. Like, I know you may not feel that you're prepared enough, but you're prepared enough that you do not need to be burning. Yeah. Cause then you start overthinking. You're overthinking it.
Yeah. And then you just can't do that. But you know, you do need to have technical prep stuff for the next day. I do agree on, but yeah. And that's why the preparation I think is, is key to that. But I'm big thing. I have to get sleep and I overly hydrate. Yes. I drank a lot of water and I tried to like make a big, big point of that. Yeah. Throughout the, uh, when I get up throughout the day, nothing I've been doing is. I just get up and chug like three glasses of water before I do anything.
Just pre hydrate, yeah. It's not so stupid or easy, but it works. Yeah, I mean there's nothing, I shouldn't say there's nothing wrong with drinking a ton of water, obviously, you know, there's aspects, but when I say, you know, you get up and you drink a couple glasses of water, that's going to cause you no harm. I mean, and that's, it's, it's, yeah, it's, you gotta do it. And I mean, cause this is the thing we don't think about.
And I know for me, if I don't drink enough, I'm going to get headaches and then my performance goes down and it just, it's that. That cycle. And so, you know, the other thing too, I mean, I, and I don't drink anymore anyway, but even when I was still a drinker, I didn't drink during trial. Um, I used to have that, but it was more of a superstition for me. But now what I do is I have at least one drink every day sandwiches for you. She still does.
When she was, when she was at, we were in orange County office, we'd make one every time. But I had to say, I have a tuna fish sandwich and care the same thing. Same thing. That's my trial diet. Yeah. No, but the thing is everything in moderation and I've never built, I would say the SIF is the only one that operates in absolutes. So you can't absolutely say this is the best thing and to cut this out or do that, do what works for you, man. Well, that's exactly it.
It's sort of the same thing we were talking about before. You know, you and I, you and I, I mean the, the testing and the steps that we've undertaken for our own health and wellness, you know, is towards the apex. I mean, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're on Everest with this and not everybody can get there. And I'm not saying that everybody has to be there.
But for me, and what I tell almost everybody that I come across, it's like you will find out so much through your blood and the tests are not that expensive. Yeah, it's a little bit of an inconvenience, but they're not that expensive and get that knowledge and then you can decide and make sure you go to somebody that can actually know the right panels and what to look for and to be preventative. Like, you know, prostate cancer runs in my family.
I get it checked all the time to make sure, you know, and like I even had my seven year old daughter. My seven year old daughter who's adopted, so we don't have the privilege of having like the genealogy and stuff like that. And so we have to, we have to know. So I had her tested recently and it was, you know, she hates needles, it was traumatic.
But like, I had someone detailed read all those panels to see because we don't know some genetic markers and thank God everything's fantastic, you know, and there's some little things that she can do that shouldn't be a game changer for her. But why not do that with children? You know, um, there's nothing, I mean, it's, yeah, it's ignorance is, it's not bliss anymore. I mean, it's dangerous and it's like, I know the genetic markers that I have.
And I know the, you know, the congenital defect that I had in my heart that created all these issues that. I didn't think I had. So now I've got this insight. Especially a collegiate soccer player. Yeah. I never think I would have known, right. Not only that, but a technical, I mean, dude, I, in my twenties, I probably logged between. five and 10, 000 scuba dives. And many of those were long decompression dives.
Like there was a lot of things that should have happened to me because of the condition that I had that didn't happen. And it didn't catch up with me until I was 44 and I'm still in great shape when I was 44, but it's like finding that now I know. So like when my kids get to an age where they can be tested for not only the genetic issues, but possibly congenital issues, thankfully the congenital issue is not hereditary, just, just bad luck.
You know, it has nothing to do with anything my parents did wrong or anything my parents had. But it's a condition that I now know exists. So yeah, my kids will get tested for that. They'll get tested for the genetic abnormalities. Hopefully, everything that's that's there can either be treated, you can be proactive with it. And if it's if it's not, I should say maybe cured, but if it can't be cured, it can be managed through medication.
And, you know, this is, this is sort of the way medicine, I think, should be proceeding forward. Because if you're waiting for the chronic disease to catch up with you and then you're treating it, all you're really doing is living with chronic disease. Maybe we should try to prevent it. Yeah. And that's, you know, a lot of our friends now, we have gotten on the plane to take them to the Boone Heart Clinic and Dr. Pressmac.
So if you guys are listening, we give a shout out to like, who's, you know, transformed our lives and thank you. So some of the things, you know, advice for our, you know, viewers, listeners, etc. Just some practical things you could be doing tomorrow, right? So I'll say, I'm a big into hydration. Everybody knows I drink. I have a bourbon talk show. I still do in moderation, like I know what my limit is, even though we sometimes do four episodes a day and it's a lot.
I prepare myself and make sure that we can do that. I'm a big believer in being outside. I think it's, there's a happiness thing to it. I live by the beach. I try to get into the water as much as I can. It's very therapeutic and calming for me. Every time I go, I'm like, this is the best thing I could be doing. And it's 15 degrees warmer down here than it is. Oh dude, it's been warm. For the Pacific, it's been warm here. But it's been nice.
Um, but I think that, and also preventative medicine, I'm actually, you know, on a regimen of medication. It's not a crazy ton, but it's, I've noticed a substantial change. Yeah. In mood, appearance, happiness. That's it. Yeah. I mean, I would agree with all those things. And then putting in the one thing that we haven't really talked, touched on directly, but it's sort of, is overlaying everything, is, is the mental health component of things.
Two things that I started to implement and again, I'm human I don't I wish I could tell you I do this 100 percent of the time, but I try my best is Two additional things that I've implemented is gratitude journals, which I take five minutes a day and it just basically write down What are the three great things that happened today?
What are three things that I learned and what would make tomorrow great and it takes you five minutes You can just go on Amazon and type in gratitude journal you write it down and the other thing too And you'll love this and Christina love this. I know Monique loves it When I'm done with work, whether I work at home or work in the office The first time I see my wife or my kids.
It doesn't matter what kind of day I had It's always a positive comment Yeah, I find whatever pot I could have had terrible day. It could have lost a summary joke. Something could have happened during work that made the day terrible. The first thing that comes out of my mouth to my wife and kids is something positive and it frames up the rest of the day. And we do the same thing when you wake up in the morning. Yes. Every big hugs, big hugs, big love is what we do. And then positivity, right?
If, cause like today, this morning, my four year old came out, she was, She came down really upset and crying because my two year old got up and put on the new Descendants movie And she's like, how could you start this without me? There's this whole big thing That's we're gonna go back up to your room have a little reset that little you time and she came down ten minutes later It's a daddy.
I'm sorry I gave a hug and was just changed change it But if you let that that come out the way like I like that man, that's it's those little things and that's as Pammy honestly, it's like Kids like they take their cues from us and it's just like if we make a big deal about it and I work on it cause I've got a four and seven year old as well. And in the seven, the seven year old is takes things personally. And if the four year old and the four year old, he's a boy, he doesn't care.
He's just, everything is chaos. We're all four year olds inside. Yes, exactly. And so, you know, they take our cues and if we make a big deal about something, then they make a big deal. Whereas if we take that, it's like, Hey, let's just do a reset. And yeah, it's usually better. We're the ones, the adults that let it linger. And yeah, we overreact. And I would, I would actually, I tell my children, I apologize for overreacting or being this way.
And I always tell them, don't, I've, there was this one book. I never read it, but it's called don't sweat the small stuff. I tell them all the time, guys, this doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Look what's happened. We, I show them our cases all the times. They'll call, this is the horror and things that can happen. We have a blessed life. This is not. It's not having this toy that I may be able to share. Not a big deal. Is it right?
It doesn't work all the time, but you're probably batting 10 percent on that one. Maybe lower, but I'll take the 10%. But I want to thank Dan. Dan is a spearheading at Lottie Graw this year. The health and wellness track has a lot of good speakers and talent coming to help with that. Education like this and actually workshop ideas with people on how they can get better Um, and I know dan's at santa cruz. He's a fantastic trial lawyer He's on attorney share. You can drop them cases on there.
You can find them. Um at char silva. com What are what other ways can they reach out to you? So I also do work with nick nick rallies from tl4j trialers for justice. I do that Um, and so yeah, this this is this fall is going to be kind of a busy fall Um, i'm not only going to be doing the health and wellness track at laudigrass I'm also going to be teaching at TLU, Travelers University in Vegas.
Um, we're going to be doing, um, case framing and sort of getting people to sort of the plug and play. You know, it's, I think one of the things that lawyers lose sight of is, you know, they get these cases and they just don't know what to do with them. So we're going to take the approach of how we case frame, but also there's always going to be that overarching overlay of, you know, Humanity, health and wellness, and, and, and utilize.
So if anybody's been, I've been to the trial by human workshops. They just had one in Montana recently. I've been in the one in Santa Barbara. Barbara, you've been in Atlanta. You've been in Boston. You've been in Iowa. I think we did Des Moines, yeah. And then, yeah, we did Montana. And next year, fingers crossed, we're going to do Santa Cruz. Love it. Um, yeah. I was just talking to Jacob this weekend. He was at my house to see if we can do in Ireland. Oh, okay.
Yeah. Which would be pretty cool. I used to live there, you know. No way. I did. We'll talk about that off camera. Dan's an interesting dude. I didn't know he was. Deep scuba diving, whatever the crap you're doing, but trial by humans. Fantastic. As they teach you how to be a better human and a trial lawyer. And I've been through the workshops before. Phenomenal. And Dan's an instructor there. So you can find them a trial by human, reach out to Dan shard directly.
Yep. And then what's your, uh, contact info for folks want to find you in the best way? I don't, I'm, I'm old school. I don't do social media at all. Um, you can text me. Sorry if I put my number on it. Go for it. Go for it. It's a 408. 540 8343. Do not call me. I will not answer. I'm the same way. Never call me. Text me and let me know who you are, what you need. I'm really good at getting back to people on text. And I will definitely say that is true.
Well, Dan Sharpe, thanks for coming on this episode of Justice Team Network. I think it's very informative and I really enjoyed it. I picked up some tips myself. Thanks, man. And now he's going to host Tips and Sips here at Justice HQ. Yeah, we got to do that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you guys.