I spoke with Dustin Leinenbach on June 27, 2023 about intuition, adventure, curiosity, mental health and more. It was an interesting conversation about doing the next thing and how all those experiences make us who we are today.
Bio
Dustin is a curious-minded individual with a background that touches on many interests and experiences. He carries with him a corporate resume, with an education in business and technology. He finds himself geeking out over passions like teaching, music, houseplants, handyman projects, and tabletop games. Despite all of these personally fulfilling interests, Dustin’s primary passion lands him on one title: Horseman.
https://nexushorsemanship.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nexushorsemanship
I spoke with Dustin Leinenbach on June 27, 2023 about intuition, adventure, curiosity, mental health and more. It was an interesting conversation about doing the next thing and how all those experiences make us who we are today.
Bio
Dustin is a curious-minded individual with a background that touches on many interests and experiences. He carries with him a corporate resume, with an education in business and technology. He finds himself geeking out over passions like teaching, music, houseplants, handyman projects, and tabletop games. Despite all of these personally fulfilling interests, Dustin’s primary passion lands him on one title: Horseman.
https://nexushorsemanship.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nexushorsemanship
Welcome to Sears Beers, knowers and Doers, a podcast about intuition. Do you know what that is? Intuition to me is that inner sense of knowing that something is true. And yet I have no proof. But there's so many definitions and there's so many ways it can come. I'm looking to bring together and share with you some amazing guests who have some amazing life stories and also some insights into how intuition can come, and I'm looking to gather those crows in the trees. I hope you're one of them. I hope that this podcast inspires you to be more connected to your intuition, and I hope that by doing that, we make the world a better place. Thanks for coming on this journey with me.
Speaker 2:Before we get started today, I would love to share some tools with you to help with stress and feeling overwhelmed, especially for the energetically sensitive person.
Speaker 3:So I'm super excited today because I have connected with somebody I met through another podcast guest, Patrick Sullivan, and his name is Dustin Lyon Bach . And we chatted for an hour and a half yesterday, <laugh>, and it felt like 10 minutes and mm-hmm. <affirmative> , I'm super excited to share him with you. So, Dustin, would you mind telling the world a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 4:Yeah. First of all, thank you for pulling me onto your podcast. It means a great deal to me and the conversation that we did have. We have a good rapport. It's easy to bounce some ideas back and forth and kind of geek out about some of our interests and feelings and intuitions, which we may dive into a little later on. And just, it's cool what horses can do. You know what they bring. They, they bring people together in a lot of really , really special ways. And so , uh, I'm glad to have been connected with you. So , uh, as you mentioned, I did , uh, I spent a little time with , uh, Patrick Sullivan. I first was , uh, an internship came across my radar while I was traveling around in a, in a camper van. And we might dive into <laugh> some of that later on as well. But Patrick needed a support truck driver for a month of his trip across the country. And you can go find Patrick very easily. Just look him up and , um, I'm sure you'll, you'll run across his excellent, phenomenal journey. Groundbreaking journey riding bridles across the country. And he just needed a support truck driver between his sister and his , uh, girlfriend at the time. Now his fiance step in and, and help out drive truck while he was on his ride and help out at some of his clinics along the way. And I happened to be pretty mobile, so I stepped in and or I , I followed up on his link for the internship , uh, for that, that position. And he liked what I had to say. So I met up with him in Kansas and jumped into his living quarters trailer and traveled with him for a month. And then we seemed to have a pretty good rapport there. So he opened up another internship in , in January of the following year , uh, in 2022 there. And he took in a number of rescue horses , six horses and a and a mule on his property. I think there were 13 submitted from all the rescues that he had visited , uh, along his journey . Uh , a lot of, he reached out to everyone and said, Hey, send me your hardest cases , your most difficult horses , the ones that , um, you maybe you've had other trainers work with, or the ones that have just been, you can't crack the code. The the ones that have just been real tough to, to peel back some of their, their trauma or hesitancy or, or fear. And he needed an internship for that as well. And he took in, I , I reached out, answered his questions. He liked what I had to say, and so he accepted me. Um , I was very humbled to have been brought onto that project. And so it was myself and, and another intern named Kate Brower . You can look her up. She's doing some wonderful things down in Louisiana at , um, some rescues and , uh, doing a lot of training. And, and she's a fantastic craftsman, very creative. She's making all kinds of bridles and neck ropes. And , uh, she has a , an RV that she's doing all the maintenance and mechanic work on herself. She's a , a very handy person. So if you're in the Louisiana area, I'd recommend looking her up. She would be a wonderful contact if you're looking for , uh, someone in the horse that after that internship , um, where my project was , uh, a horse named Declan , who we built a good rapport as well. We, I ended up adopting Declan and moved on and , uh, springboarded me into , uh, doing some of this liberty stuff, this horsemanship , uh, on a professional level. And for the last year or so , I've had some opportunities to , uh, get out in front of some people and do some lessons and get in there and play with some horses and train. And , uh, it's been just man, quite the whirlwind. Um , lots of ups and downs and , uh, a rollercoaster of emotions and , uh, experiences and growth evolution in terms of just my own horsemanship. The things that you don't really experience. You can't read from a book. Someone can try to explain it to you a hundred different ways, but until you're in there and feeling and working with the horses and listening and communicating and, you know, testing things out and playing, you really, really just don't have the connection or the understanding that you would otherwise. And so I , it's been awesome to get in there, have so many people trust me to get in there with their horses and, and play and, and feel it out. I've been very grateful for all of those opportunities, cuz that has continued to help grow my own , my own horsemanship. So that's, I guess from a professional level or from a , a horse related level, that's really the, the springboard or the, the fuel that, that drove me toward , uh, getting out in front of some people and doing this more professionally. But I could dive into, I guess my , my past if you'd like.
Speaker 3:Sure. You read my mind. I'm like, okay, let them know a little bit more about Dustin. Cause it's a great thing to share. Cuz I think right now there's many people kind of on the fence about doing things that aren't necessarily their passion. And we talked about that a little bit, even just before this podcast , um, and how you can navigate that and still honor yourself. So, so if you don't mind going into a little bit about your, your quote unquote previous life to meeting Patrick, that would be great.
Speaker 4:Yeah, of course. I grew up in Indiana. Um , large family, six sisters, one brother. My mom raised us all and most of my family are in Indiana. And I have a sister in Michigan. Um, lots of nieces and nephews. It's the , the Midwest is certainly an origin point for me, and I carry a lot of things from the Midwest. But , uh, I went, went to college at , uh, Indiana State University there in Terre Haute, Indiana. And I started out as elementary and special education, but shifted over to technology for essentially the money. I knew that I could still have some impact on some kids , um, without necessarily having the degree or the certification. So I could still be fulfilled in that way from a mentoring and coaching and tutoring standpoint. Um , and still maybe make a little extra money in the technology and corporate realm. So I got a degree in automation and went off and got a job. When I graduated college, I got a job at a machine shop as a process control engineer. Well , uh, night shift supervisor. And then after that became a day shift , uh, process control engineer and helped put together some of the manuals for the machine repairs. We were really old machines, like world war aged machines, very large equipment to wow , to cut down the, the parts for large earth moving and oil drilling equipment. Originally, some of these machines were made to make parts for tanks and missiles and some of those larger pieces of equipment that can't be moved by hand. It , everything in the shop was moved by , uh, Poist or by forklift. And so it had to be very large, heavy duty machines. And you, those machines were put together in World War I , world War ii, world War ii , and so often the manuals for those machines aren't around anymore, right. Um , they've been, they are ripped up or covered in oil or just, you know, they , they can't be read the , the wording. It just doesn't, doesn't match exactly what the machine needs because the machines have been modified over the years to, to work when you know when certain parts can't be made anymore. So I worked with some of the, the machinists there to, to create new manuals for these machines that were more appropriate to their current condition and how the, these current machinists keep these machines running and oiled. And , um, how they start 'em up, how they shut 'em down, and how they change out some of the, some of the fixtures for the different, the different , uh, metal parts that go on them. Um, the machined parts that go on them. And so , um, that was probably one of my bigger projects there at that machine shop. And then I ended up leaving them for some , uh, some family reasons. I , uh, moved away to another area of Indiana for my , uh, my wife at the time. We moved in with her for her mother and tried to get a job in , uh, the, that industry. But near the Chicago region, you're in a stack of, you know, probably hundreds of other applicants. And so it took a long time. I needed to be able to pay the bills. I couldn't just live on unemployment forever. And so , uh, got a job as a mover for two men in a truck, the moving company, which was still , uh, one of my favorite jobs. I got to , uh, you know, goof off with some buddies and throw some creativity in there and some problem solving just to get some of these pieces of furniture through doors and, and onto the trucks. And I , you know, got paid tips and it was just, it was a way to make a little extra cash and stay busy. And I got a job. I had applied a while back before I actually left the machine shop. I applied for Comcast , um, the cable company and , um, ended up getting a job as a technician with them. And so I started that job in Homewood, Illinois. And, let's see, I worked for them for almost six months and ended up my wife and I through, you know, some mutual agreements slash we'll call it disagreements <laugh> . We split and I , uh, moved from that area to Indiana or to, I was working in Homewood, Illinois, living in Indiana. We split and then I moved to Columbus, Indiana with Comcast, was there for less than a year with them, and found an opportunity out in New Mexico. I had visited some, some family out that way and I loved the area. Uh , everybody was so welcoming and of course the food is fantastic in , in that area. And so , uh, I , I kept my eye out for opportunities and ended up , uh, having a position there , there in New Mexico and transferred there. I worked for them as a technician and then got into their supply chain , uh, in, in leadership. Then moved on. I got an opportunity to go to Columbus, Indiana as a supervisor, and then eventually Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a manager, I get to bounce around with Comcast and that was one of the great parts about the company is they're across the country. They encourage people to transfer from state to state, from department to department, cuz you build so much background, you build your resume. So much experience, you get to know the company across the board and just makes you a little more valuable each time. And I worked there in Minneapolis for a little over a year and lost that job in 2020. It was a very stressful summer there. And when I lost that job, it was just kind of a blank slate of like, what am I gonna do next? And we'll dive more into intuition later, but intuition of my, I I had always been curious about what living in a camper van would be like, traveling around in a camper van for me and my dog, who's , who's a cattle dog. And so he likes to get out and run around and , and roam and meet new people. And so I found one online that was in my price range and took a little bit of my 401k and I bought that camper van. I rented out my house, was a third party , um, Airbnb. So someone else was able to manage it for me while I got to travel around. And I just ventured out into the great wide unknown and visited some family and friends that I had missed out on while I lived in all these different states. And just kind of got to settle, settle in, and explore a new perspective on life. And , uh, that was really, really eyeopening. Taking away all of the support that you have from, from a large company like that. You know, your, I call it like the gerbil , waterer, you know, that has that little ball in it that you just kind of sit from every week. That's your, that's your , your salary until you're taking that away. You have to go and find that stuff yourself there . I kudos to everyone who has lived their lives that way, where you make your own way rather than having all of the export of the company . I was off of that durable dripper and I needed to go find some, some food. It really strips everything down the bare minimum. And you really take a toll of where you're at, what skills you have, what , uh, you know, where your network is, who, who in your life be willing to take you in. You know, whenever you go and visit a place Oh, who's willing to maybe let you use a shower once in a while, <laugh>. Yeah . And so I can say that I was, and have been continuously blessed with so many people in my life that are cool with me, <laugh>. They, they know me and they, they like having me around. And , um, I try to maintain some of those relationships and just when I'm in a place, I try not to overstay my welcome and, and help out where I can. And so I've been very grateful for, for the life that I had while, while bouncing around in , in , um, that camper van. So then, you know, that shifted me over into, I , I was in a position where people knew that I already liked horses. When I traveled around in with Comcast, I volunteered at different horse places. Something in me just, I knew I wanted to be around them. It was fulfilling for me. There was a drive to just be near them, whether it was mucking or pulling horses and grooming and preparing them for the lessons or going out on trail rides with a wrangler or, you know, walking next to someone in a therapeutic lesson and helping, helping them stay on. It wasn't about me. And getting on and riding and, and having that, I mean, that was fulfilling. But just being around the horses and seeing them interact with people, seeing people interact with them, that's what , uh, the fulfilling part about all of that for me. And I think that that drive came from, as a child, as a young, I mean , my, my father passed away when I was four years old, and he was involved in some horses. We had a horse or two on our property. Um, an Appalachian named Shane is the one that I had very faint memories of. I I think that there's a connection there when you talk about soaking in your environment as a young child and having that be part of your, your story later on in life. Your perspective, your drive, your interests, a piece of that. I carried that with me and I, the , I don't know what you wanna call it, the universe maybe pulled me back toward that or pulled that back toward me. Mm . And now I'm shifted over. I think about it, especially, you know, when I'm doing these workshops, clinics lessons, when I'm in there with a horse, when I'm there with like my horse, which I never thought that I'd ever have my own horse or have this as a career, you know, be in the professional horse world. It really, you know, when you talk about a purpose, an iki guy, if there's a something that's meant to be, this is feeling more and more like there was a plan <laugh> mm-hmm . <affirmative> to put me in this space, and I needed to take this journey to get here. Yeah . And, and here I am. So I was able to rely, it's not like I was like, you know what? I'm gonna go and be a Liberty horse trainer . That's what I , from the age of 10, that's what I wanted to be. No . And I just worked hard at it and, you know, I, you know, I set a goal and I achieved it. That is absolutely not how it happened. <laugh> throughout my entire life just fell into things and was curious about things. Certainly. So I'd go and spend time doing those things, but it was me pursuing the things that were interesting to me. Not necessarily having a goal or a purpose or, you know, this, this end game that I'm looking for, but I want to just go and do this thing and, and feel it and experience it. And the more skills and experience and, you know, network that I put together based on those experiences, when opportunities opened up for those further parts of my journey, I was able to seize those opportunities. I was a little more ready for them. And so I took that path accordingly. Maybe you could call it some intuition, kind of a mix between your skillset or your, your knowledge and your gut. And I just fell forward in each one of these new things. The difficult part has been the , this transition from the lifestyle that I was living in terms of , uh, traveling around doing this van thing and then realizing that there's some significant value in me being a , a horse trainer. I, I'm finding that I have impact on people. I have impact on horses. So now shifting from falling forward into these opportunities and now setting up a foundation for myself of liability insurance and putting together an llc and scheduling and networking and talking about money and like all of these formalities, the structure that comes around it , uh, when you talk about transition, going from a walk to a trot and you're asking this horse to go forward at the gate that you want in the direction that you want, if the horse isn't ready for it, there may be some training in that space. Mm . Um , and so my life force wasn't quite ready for it. And so now there it is , been a little bit of a grind and like a clear shift from one part of my life to another. And in those transitions, sometimes they just don't go as smoothly as you want. And you have to stay on track and stay faithful. And you're not gonna become a Warwick killer in a year. You're not gonna become Patrick Sullivan in a year <laugh> . Mm . But it's also opened up my mindset or my understanding of I'm not driving to become those people. What I'm driving to become is that person in that space with that horse or with that person to help them create a space for a horse that can just open up and let go. If I'm that. And always that everything around that will, will come together. Yeah. People will see that I'll , I'm always gonna gravitate towards that position, that moment. I think I mentioned before, my title going forward just in life. Um , in the past I've been a process control engineer. I've been supervisor, manager, technician , uh, I've worked in a Kona ice , uh, shave , uh, shave ice truck for a little while. I've been a mover for two minute a truck. I've, I've done all these little jobs. A subway sandwich artist. My title going forward is Portman , et cetera . <laugh> . That's, that's the number one. That's who I am. And I'm blessed for people in my life that are close to me to understand that about me. That's my purpose, my goal. That's what drives me. That's the one of the biggest lenses, the biggest perspective that I see life through. Um, and there that et cetera is very weighted, very heavy, but it's horseman, et cetera . That's, that's where I'm at right now. And in the foreseeable future, that's where I intend to be.
Speaker 3:Okay. So I see intuition threaded throughout your existence there, but I'm gonna shift gears and ask you, how does intuition come to you? How do you get it? I'm hoping the listeners see it too, but <laugh>.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I'm sure they do . I , and it's a blend of things. Like I mentioned. I think it's some curiosity. It's a , it's a mix of curiosity. Curiosity has to be a part of it, in my opinion. Something that is in your soul, in your gut, that is pulling you towards something or pushing you away from something. Um, there's that feeling when you're fighting your intuition. That's, I think when you have a lot of that anxiety and that stress and that discomfort , um, you either you're fighting to follow that intuition or you're fighting against that intuition and staying away from it for a full eight months, maybe eight to 10 months for my final year at Comcast. Um, I was so stressed and so overwhelmed. And so, I mean, to the point where like, I thought I was having a heart attack one day, just like very, very anxious. And it was not a , a healthy environment for me to be in. And so I'm c certainly blessed to have moved on from that. But I think that my intuition was telling me, this isn't right for you. Mm . Something's going on here. You need to be in a different space. The , your my , all of my intelligence, my ego, my background, my training, my education was telling me this is where you need to be. Like, you know, pressure makes diamonds and you can, you can do this. Get through this challenging situation, and you're gonna be even farther along in your career and your resume's gonna be boosted and you're gonna be, and even better leader in your company. Um , which were , are all great things. I tried to have a healthy mindset around it, but looking back and feeling where I am now versus where I was then, like my intuition was like ringing bells, big red lights telling me go like, you need to fix, you need to change this. This is not for you. And so you have this spark of curiosity of, I wonder if this is not for me, or I wonder if this is for me. I'm gonna feel it out. You have this gut feeling that's pulling you towards something. And then also I think as a kid there's your environment versus your, oh man, what's it called? Um, it's escaping me. Nature
Speaker 3:Versus
Speaker 4:Nurture . Nature versus nurture . Yeah. Right. So there's , uh, nature, which is what the environment you grew up in, the things you were around. So there's a piece of that with the horses. I have memories of that. I have experiences there that maybe not, aren't necessarily cognitive memories . Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , um, that's some of the nature part, the nurture part is it follows that nature. Part of, I knew there was a part of me that wants to be near them. There's a piece of me that, that is fulfilled by that. And then the , the nurture part was volunteering at these places, having these tangible experiences and moving forward and learning and growing and feeling things out, being physically in those spaces. So it's a combination of nature versus nurture. Mm . A combination of curiosity versus your cognitive like intelligence or knowledge around the situation. And I think there needs to be a blend of that. You need to have , let's call it, if you have like a hundred percent scale, you need to add up to a hundred percent . If you have 90% knowledge of the situation, you probably only need to be 10% curious. If you have 10% of knowledge of the situation, you better be nine 90% curious about it. You better be willing a little bit nuts to dive into it. Like this whole van life thing. Um, I've prepared for what I could , but I still knew I needed to have that curiosity of , that, that adventurous risk taking mentality to dive into the unknown. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so I think, and when you talk about an experience that, a tangible experience that we could describe today in this conversation moving forward, leaving a foundation of a , a house that I owned and a car and a neighborhood and an environment that I was very familiar with. And to like, sell my car, go off in this van, rent my house out. Eventually sold my house to go and do that. The intuition drove me to that. You don't necessarily, when it comes to intuition, there's some curiosity there, but you don't know the full why.
Speaker 3:No, yeah .
Speaker 4:Of , of why it's happening. Where you're going, what you're going to, where you're gonna come to throughout that journey, what's gonna come to you. Right. But you know that there's something there based on a mix between what you know about the situation and what you feel about the situation.
Speaker 3:Mm . Well thank you so much Dustin. I , this is kind of loaded. I hope people read between the lines a little bit, how your life is kind of, when you said fall forward, <laugh>, it's like, yes . To me that's like, you not only fell forward, but there were nudges pushing you to go do this and go do that and go do this. And so when you, when you land in this place that it's, to me, a liberty with a rescue horse has to be a place of peace in order to get the outcome that you want. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And so when you also talked about the stress and the anxiety and how your body was screaming at you to leave the other I mm-hmm. <affirmative> , I'm underlining and highlighting a little bit for people here cuz I've listened to people, share their stories and I'm, I'm threading the thread through the needle. Cause this has not been the only story. Like the , and I think right now there's lots of people struggling with mental health and they're not necessarily mm-hmm . <affirmative> seeing it as a possibility that it is their intuition talking to them that way. Because mental health has been say like, put in a silo of X, Y, and Z. And I'm taking this opportunity to underline your journey and how you've arrived in this peaceful place and all you did was change your environment and, and keep following the nudges of what to do next. Now is that every person's anxiety story? No, but I want to make this a possibility for people to investigate because I do think body scream as a way to share intuition. And it's not always comfortable when we get intuition. It isn't like, ah , you know, the angel's singing from the cloud saying Go do this. You know, it's not always comfortable when intuition comes and the body will get louder and louder and louder and louder if your body is part of your intuitive field. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> and I mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And I think it eventually becomes for every single person, whether a person breaks their leg or what have you, there there's reasons for things. It may just be to stop you long enough to start listening or change how you do things. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> ,
Speaker 4:Um, one more piece about the mental health. I certainly am a part of that, not only from just the, the stress of that corporate environment, but from growing up. Not , things weren't always the typical mom and dad. Grandma bakes cookies and like we get to , uh, just ride around on our bikes. I did ride around on one bike a lot and to be clear, my , uh, I had a much better childhood than many, many people on this earth. But it certainly wasn't typical. And so , uh, there's things , things that I've carried forward, a little bit of anxiety and a little bit of maybe some depression or some fear or hesitancy about getting in front of people or you know, just those, those things that kind of hold you back a little bit. It's a little bit of an anchor as you're progressing through life and shifting over into this horse world. It was riding on Declan in one of our sessions that made me realize that I wasn't feeling the situation in a healthy, happy way. Like in a healthy, fulfilled way. I'm literally doing what essentially would be my dream job. And I wasn't feeling it. I wasn't feeling the success and the progression and just the growth. I wasn't feeling fulfilled. And so that shipped me over into looking into some options for any kind of therapy or medication that could, could help me out from that perspective. Mm . And I shipped it over into taking some medication for , uh, depression and anxiety and just getting on that and shifting my chemicals in my body a little bit has helped out immensely. Not only in my life in general , but with the horses I've been able to go in with just a little less anxiety. Mm-hmm . And a little more calmness I get now. I get to practice that, that release and that serenity and that calmness and be a rock for them. Um, I'm happy I don't have too much pride to take some medication on a daily basis mm-hmm . And maybe drink some water and eat a little healthier. Yes. Yeah . So that I can be a better guide and rock for that soul that I'm working with. Yes. Cause I want to show them that it's possible they can, they can come out of that too. They can let go too. Because I have , I've shown them that I've, I've been able to do so . Mm-hmm .
Speaker 3:Well thank you for sharing that cuz like I say , there's many roads and I wasn't wanting anybody to think that intuition's the only road just to make it a part of the possibility. So thank you so much for sharing more about your journey and yourself and, and giving people the realization that, you know , investigate what will work for you. Sure. And listen to your body and , and what your feedback is getting when things appear. Like they should be different based on what's on paper.
Speaker 4:Yep . Like I said, a little bit of curiosity. Yes. If you're feeling something, investigate it .
Speaker 3:Yeah. Cool. All right. Well I'm gonna say until next time, <laugh> . Cause I think there's more to share. <laugh> .
Speaker 4:I think so. I think there might be.
Speaker 3:Yes. Great. Thank you so much Dustin.
Speaker 4:Of course.
Speaker 3:Until next time,
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for giving us your time today. We truly appreciate our guests for sharing their stories and insights about how intuition has impacted their lives. And I'm so grateful for Peter Trainor for his time in giving me this original music . It's now your turn. It's your turn to listen and act on your own intuition and help make the world a better place. Until next time, keep seeing, being, knowing, and doing. If you like this podcast, please share it. If you want to find others like it, go to www dot healing vitality ca or wherever you would find your podcast. We would love to have you join us on this journey. Come be a crow sitting in the tree. Be part of our community.