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Daniel Ranken, man can cook Cook. Welcome to my podcast. Thanks for having me, mate. It's um an honor to have you
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here. Um I only discovered you a couple of weeks ago. Uh JJ sent me a message saying, "Oh my god, this guy's content
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is hilarious. You should get him on the podcast." Thanks. Yeah, great. Um surprised you only found me. I don't
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have a big following in New Zealand. So yeah. Yeah. Where where is your following? So, you've got um uh 400,000
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Tik Tok followers, 641,000 Instagram followers, which is a massive community you built. Where are they from? Uh
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they're mostly dispersed between the US, Australia, and then the UK, and then New
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Zealand would probably be bit down the list, maybe fourth or fifth. Yeah. So, for anyone else that is just um
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discovering um Daniel Rankin, aka Manin Cook right here, right now, how would you describe your content and what you
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do? Um, can I get you to move your mic closer? Yeah, sure. Thank you, Mie. All right.
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Um, how would I describe my content? I'd say fun, creative, um, maybe a little bit sexy. I don't know.
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Yeah. But I guess we don't we don't phrase her. When I say we, Fraser and I,
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um, yeah, we just try and have fun and bake and have a good time and not really care about what other people kind of
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think about our content. So, yeah. Why? Why were you reluctant to say um say it's sexy? Come on. You You're
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definitely leaning into the sex. I'm so sorry. So sorry. We just started. Oh,
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yeah. We need to start again. Oh, it's all right. Oh, it's Well, better it happens one minute in then.
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Nice. Nice little warm up. Yeah. Also, how would you describe your content? My last button
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[Laughter] start is um is Dan all right or do you need him to be leaning in a bit? Just a
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little bit. Yeah, sure. I'll move up. Thank you. Okay, cool. That's better.
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Uh one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Much better. Thank you guys. All right, I'm sorry
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about that. Dan Ranken aka Man can cook Cook. Welcome to my podcast. Thanks for having
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me, mate. It's so good to have you here. Um, you are What would you describe
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yourself as? A social media. Um, probably a baker. No, content creator is what I content creator. Yeah. Well, you
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have many hats, right? You're like you're a you're a gym trainer. Um, a
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baker. Uh, a dog dad. A content creator. Yeah, I guess I I wear all those hats. Um I guess at the moment it's mainly a
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content creator and a dog dad. Yeah, I I just stumbled across you a couple of weeks ago with the Man Can Cook account.
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Um and I was thinking where where has this been my entire life? So you've got
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400,000 Tik Tok followers, 641,000 Instagram followers, and the content is fire. Thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah, it's
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so so good. Um so how would you describe what you do? Um, I'd say what we do. Fraser and I, we
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we bake. We We have fun. And, you know, I'd say maybe a little bit sexy, but um,
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yeah. I mean, mostly we just try and bake and have fun. Yeah. Yeah. I I love how you say we, like Fraser and I. Um,
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Fraser is your dog who is sitting next to you at the moment. He can't be seen
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on camera for those of you watching it. He's sitting on a stool just below table
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level. What is he, a pug? A pug. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you're doing all the heavy lifting. He's just sort of sitting
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on a stool behind you just sort of um being a good boy watching you really. Yeah, I think he's probably the main
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attraction. Um yeah, he's really chill out. He he just likes to watch what I do
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and he gets a little little treats throughout. So, yeah, he he has a good time. I'm I'm a dog guy as well, so
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yeah, you've got Freys sitting next to you just staring at you uncomfortably,
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by the way. Is that Does it freak you out the uh the insane level of eye contact? No, no. I think I guess we're
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in a new space. He's probably just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I've got um my
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little Sydney Silky Kanye um just sleeping on the floor next to me. Um have you always been a a dog guy? What's
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your relationship with dogs? No, I haven't to be honest. I grew up in Samura and in Samo we have a lot of
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dogs, you know, five to six dogs. And you don't really form that relationship
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that you do, I guess, in New Zealand or in Western culture if you're dogs. They
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kind of just there to kind of protect the household. Um so I grew up having dogs, but not this way. And then um I
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had a black pug. His name was Marvin. And then with my exartner and uh when we split she took Marvin and I was
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devastated. And that's how Fraser came about. So yeah, got Fraser after that.
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And yeah, we've been hanging out ever since. Cuz I've got um I've got a
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terrible confession to make. I I was never a dog person. I was even anti dog, I'd say. Yeah. And then um JJ and I we
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were still together and she wanted a dog and it was her 40th birthday. So I got Kanye for her. Um you know how dogs sort
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of decide who who their master is? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. He's just sort of he decided I was the one. Oh, really?
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Um so now I'm obsessed with him. And um not long after having him like he must
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have just been a couple of weeks or a couple of months old, I um realized there was such an attachment there. I
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started googling like how long does Sydney Silkies live for? Yeah. Cuz I I immediately knew back then just how
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painful it was going to be when he died. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I think about that. But I Yeah. Try and just
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regulate those those thoughts. Yeah. I'm I'm going to be a [ __ ] mess. I'm
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going to be I'm going to be like bedridden for a week when he goes. It's
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going to leave such a gap in my life. Yeah. Oh, same for me. He's he's about
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seven at the moment, so he's got a few more years. A lot a lot more years, I'd
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say. Yeah. Yeah. Um so, we've only been talking like five minutes now, but the
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um the impression I already gather about uh you, Daniel Rankin, is you're quite
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shy, quite reserved. Um, I probably wouldn't say shy, but maybe, yeah, maybe a little reserved. Yeah. Do
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you think that's like a a Samoan cultural thing or Yeah, absolutely. I think um humility and and respect and
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the which is quite big in Samour. What's that? It's kind of just respect
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basically. Okay. Yeah. And um yeah, humility is a big big part of Son culture as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, some
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friends I've got, they're always talking like, "Humble yourself. Humble
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yourself." Yeah. Well, I suppose it just um surp I'm really, you know, I suppose I'm just
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surprised because the um the content you do on Man Can Cook, it's generally like
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one minute long videos um just with some snappy music behind, snappy edits, and it's um no speaking um and you just look
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supremely confident. Yeah. Um so then it's like, "Oh, this guy's actually
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quite quite lowkey." Yeah. I think um people mistaken or mistake being introverted with confidence. I think you
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can still be or being bit shy um or being a bit quiet like you can still be quiet and be confident on the inside. Um
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I think you know it's it's important not to puff yourself up but it's also
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equally important you know not to shrink yourself and you got to just Yeah. be yourself and don't care what other
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people think of you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really really looking to um Yeah. Yeah.
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to explore the Daniel Ranken story. So, uh, the Instagram evolution, I I went back all the way through your feed.
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Really? So, your first post is, um, 2017 and it's, uh, you lifting weights while
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Fraser watches. Yeah. And, um, your second post is a dog poo in the shape of a love heart. And then as you scroll up,
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um, it gets like more and more curated. In the last couple of years, it's been
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like you've definitely got an aesthetic now, which is very different to 2017.
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So, the whole man can cook Cook thing. Yeah. How did it sort of begin? How did it start? Uh, cooking's always been, you
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know, a big part of my life, but I guess it it's never been the thing. Um, which
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I'm grateful now. It is, you know, kind of the thing, but I started off filming
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cooking videos in 2014. They were on YouTube, landscape, a lot more dialogue, a lot more talking. Um, but really hard
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to be consistent with that. I I didn't know how to use a camera. My mate was
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filming it. So, that kind of stopped. And then when I owned my own gym, I learned how to use a camera. I learned
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how to film. I learned how to edit. All that type of stuff. And then lockdown came around and I wanted to teach my
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members how to make healthy meals. So we started off with healthier meals. Um and
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it was a tough time co and I thought oh I'll chuck Fraser in there give give
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people a good laugh and seem to worked really well. Got into baking in lockdown and decided just just to keep it kind of
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baking related. Yeah. And then when did when did like the uh the costumes get introduced because it's um yeah we'll
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drill down on this later on but I suppose like was was there a moment that you can remember where you sort of blew
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up like a tipping point? Um the costumes came in and when I got Fraser I was like
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man I'm not going to be that crazy costume dog person. And it was really cold one winter so I got him a jacket
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and I put the jacket on and I just it looked so funny and cute and I was like oh this is it. I just went down the
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rabbit hole of getting costumes. Um, but the we started off with about two three
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videos that man can cook style that you now see. And after the third one, it kind of went off and I was like, "Oh,
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okay, cool. This is um Fraser and I really enjoy doing this and other people seem to enjoy it. So, let's um let's
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keep doing it." I love how you say Fraser and I enjoy doing it. How do you know he enjoys it? He does. So when when
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I'm sitting, he knows when we're about to film cuz I'll grab his chair and I'll
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grab the camera and he'll just do zooies around and he'll just wait by his seat
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until I lift him up. So I know he enjoys it. Yeah. If he didn't, I'd probably I'd
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probably take a step back from it or something. Yeah. Yeah. What about um your most popular video? Is there like
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one that's um Yeah. completely spiked and eclipses all the others in terms of
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viewership? Yeah. So uh there's two actually and they're quite similar in
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views. They're about 10 million views. Uh, one we made a cookie dough cheesecake to ABA's um, give me giveimme
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gimme and then the other one was bad touch um by blood gang. Blood hound gang. Yeah. So those were we made a
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chocolate caramel t. Yeah. Yeah. Why do you think they were so successful? I suppose every content creator wants to
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know this and think, okay, why did this one what was it? Was it the song? Was it
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the editing? I think it was it was the editing. I got a little bit more creative with angles. Um whereas in the
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past it was kind of just front on. It was the same angle but I do different actions. Um and also I um I was kind of
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topless. I got you'd see in my past videos I'd wear a white singlet. So I
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think once I got rid of the white singlet doing that. Okay. But I'd like to not
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put it to that. I'd like to put it to the creativity aspect. Yeah. Yeah. What
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do you what do your family make of it? Um yeah they love it. They approve. Yeah, absolutely. Um I do a lot of
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videos with my nephews. There's three of them and they they love it as well. Um
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but yeah, they they all love it. Yeah, all supportive. And in terms of um like celebrity followers or you know
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followers with blue text, who have you got? Drop some names here. Um off top of my head, Neil Patrick Harris. Yeah. No
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way. Yeah. Yeah. Um he's thirsty ass, isn't he? Oh, he's a great guy. He's
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He's not there for Fraser. Just saying. Anyone else that springs to mind? Um
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there's a few other actors, but not doesn't spring to mind. Sorry. Um that's
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all right. And um sort of like blowing up and and going viral. Has it changed your life at all? And if so, how so? I
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guess it's changed my life in a way where I get to do what brings me joy, cooking. Um, and other than that, I
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mean, I'm able to do it full-time now, so I'm really grateful for that. You
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know, I've sold my business and just creating content full-time. Um, other than that, I like to think it I'm kind
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of just still myself, you know, Dan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How is it a full-time thing? Is it just is it brand deals?
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Yeah, mostly mostly brand deals. So, how how does that work? Explain that for someone that has no idea about that.
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Yeah, sure. So when you're a content creator on Instagram and Tik Tok in New
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Zealand, so Tik Tok, you don't get paid, but I think in the US and the UK, you
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get paid per view. So I guess how content creators make money is through brand deals. So brands will approach you
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and you know, you negotiate a deal to use the product in the video and then you'd create the video and then um yeah,
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that's that's how it works. So So if we see you see you wearing like an apron
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with New World on or something like you might might paid for that or Yeah. you would have um we would have got paid for
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that or um maybe some product for it, but yeah, mostly it would be uh in payment terms, right? And the money's
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all right. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah. I mean, you you you deserve it. Like
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some some people would say it's like easy money. You just like doing social media and you're getting paid, but um
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yeah, we'll drill down later on into the work that goes into creating each clip
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because you can tell a lot of work goes into it. So, is it a full-time job or does it feel feel like a a side hustle?
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It does feel like a full-time job. Um, you know, we kind of get ready for filming on Monday. We usually film on a
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Tuesday, Wednesday. Uh, we'll edit on a Thursday and then we'll post on Friday.
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So, you know, five days a week and then that's for one piece of content. Um,
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I've tried to push to a week out, but it's just bit overwhelming. And um, I
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think if you see two videos of me a week, it'll be a bit cringier. I don't
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know. I know the girls in the control room, I think they're like, "Not enough.
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Not enough daily. Um, do you get recognized in public much? A little bit in New Zealand. I was
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in New York recently for Christmas and New Year's and I got recognized a lot
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over there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I've got that on my notes. I want to talk about that later. Um, some guy stopped you on
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the street from a very popular Instagram account called the confidence confidence
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heist. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll get to that later. So, that I always wondered about those things like
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um if it was arranged in advance or he just actually stopped you and it looked genuine like he just stopped you. Yeah.
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He just actually Yeah. Yeah. That was um But I can see how people think it's it's
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staged. Yeah. Yeah. Um have you ever had a moment where you felt sort of overwhelmed by the
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attention? Um nah. No. I think um like I don't get much attention in New Zealand. Like I
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said, I don't have a big New Zealand following and I live in New Zealand, so
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you know, I don't, you know, I'm not around a lot of attention anyway. M um
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but uh yeah, I just try and and be kind to people that come up to me and and spend a bit of time chatting to them.
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Yeah. And how much thought do you put into um the back end of it? Like social media algorithms, you know, how the
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algorithms are changing all the time. Like how do you do you put much thought into that? Like I've seen documentaries
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with Mr. Beast, who's the biggest YouTuber in the world. Yeah. And just how much thought he puts into
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everything, like the caption, the thumbnail. Yeah. Everything. Like do you spend much time losing sleep over that?
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Not really. I think YouTube's a different beast. I think, you know, with Tik Tok and and Instagram, like I do
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spend a bit of time on insights and see, you know, if my following is growing, uh
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what posts are doing well. But I try not to spend too much time on it and kind of
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just focus on creating like any time I spend on on putting attention into that kind of
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takes attention away coming up with ideas and and being creative. So, I just try and focus on that rather than that.
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Yeah. Yeah. If if you spent your whole life obsessing over that and chasing the numbers, you'd just you'd never wear an
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apron again. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You'd be nude, I reckon. Uh, okay. Let's talk let's um we'll take
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a break from the man can cook stuff and we'll go back to your early years and um
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paint a picture about who Daniel Rankin is and then we'll get back to some of
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the content stuff. Sure. So um you're Saman, but you're born in New Zealand.
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Yeah. So I was born in New Zealand. My parents um were half Kiwi, half Saman. So I was born here and then went back to
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Sour and and spent most of my life there. So I spent about 16 17 years there before moving back um to
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Oakuckland. Yeah. Yeah. I think I read this I read an article about you um and I I never knew this was a thing but
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apparently yeah a lot of sins they'll come to New Zealand to give birth just
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so so that you can like claim the New Zealand passport. I think so. In that case, mo most of those situations, they
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have Kiwi parents or their parents already have New Zealand passports, but they'll come over to New Zealand just
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because it'd be easier, I imagine, to I guess apply for the New Zealand passport. Yeah. But a lot of the the
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parents would already have New Zealand passports. Yeah. You know, I suppose there's medical advantages as well.
00:16:36
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, um yeah, what are you what are your memories of like growing up as a kid in Samo? I love
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that. Um I love growing up in Samoa. very outdoorsy, beautiful beaches. My dad has uh six brothers and sisters, so
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you know, I've got heaps of cousins in Samour and we all lived on this plot of
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land. So there'd be, you know, three different houses and it would be my uncle's houses and we would all me and
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my cousins would catch up, you know, in the evenings and, you know, go for bike rides or just hang out outdoors, climb
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trees and and stuff like that. So it was a it was a really cool upbringing. I really enjoyed it. Can Can you swim?
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Yeah, I can swim. Not not great, though. Like I can I can tread water but you know ask me to do you know 50 m sprint
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in a pool. Shocking. It always amazes me like how many how few Samans can can swim cuz you're a relatively small
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island nation. You're surrounded by water. Um not many swimmers. Eh no n. That's a common misconception I guess
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like that people think islanders can swim because we're surrounded by water but no it's the opposite. Yeah. Oh god I
00:17:36
love Samar. I've been there a couple of times. It always every time I go it always surprises me that some doesn't
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win like gold at the Olympics for the volleyball because there's so you you go
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past these um your family villages and every afternoon everyone's playing like
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touch or volleyball. Yeah, absolutely. You know, usually around 5 5:30 you can walk down to the local field and
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there'll be a volleyball net up and you know whole bunch of people playing and
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then on the other side you'll have a whole bunch of people playing touch rugby and just hanging out and stuff.
00:18:03
Yeah, we had I grew up like that as well. So 5:00 I'd walk down from my house. There'd be this big field.
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There'd literally be a mango tree in the middle of the field, rocks. It would be
00:18:13
steep. And we'll just be playing touch rugby. And you know, you kind of use the
00:18:17
tree to kind of dodge and sneak around. Some people climb up the tree and go over and score a try. Yeah. And And um
00:18:24
what did you want to be when you were a kid? Um aspirations? Yeah. I wanted to be a
00:18:29
fireman when I Yeah. When I was a kid, I got into sports a lot and then kind of just, you know, you think that you enjoy
00:18:36
sports, you want to do that as a career. So that's kind of where I went towards I
00:18:40
I studied marketing and then like sport marketing. Um, and yeah, but I guess as a kid I wanted to be a fireman, but I
00:18:48
think like most kids probably want to be something like that. A fireman or a cop.
00:18:52
Yeah. I mean, you don't know what you want to be. You're a kid, you know.
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Yeah. And and um religious family? Uh my grandma. I was raised mostly by my grandma. Yeah. She was very religious.
00:19:03
So we would say a prayer every 6 p.m. in Sour and would go to church on Sundays.
00:19:09
Yeah. What would she make of all this? She loves it. She Oh, does she? Yeah. Yeah. She she really enjoys it and she
00:19:15
will send send me messages or, you know, reply to videos and Yeah, she she loves
00:19:20
it. Oh, that's cute. Yeah. And um Yeah. What about discipline growing up? Was it
00:19:24
like a strict household? Um yeah, it was strict like you know smon grammarss they aren't very emotionally available
00:19:35
but they're there to make sure that you stay in line. There's a roof over your
00:19:38
head. There's food on your table. So um but my grandma was was lovely. She she
00:19:43
probably let me get away with with a lot growing up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting you
00:19:49
say like um emotionally available. I don't I I thought Yeah. Simone would have been quite sort of expressive
00:19:55
expressive like that. I'm just I suppose I'm just thinking from the people I
00:19:58
know. Um yeah. Yeah. What are Simone men like? Uh they sort of emotionally available and quite expressive. They're
00:20:04
quite romantic. A generally like they wear their heart on their sleeve. Yeah. I think they're they're romantic. Um
00:20:11
but I do think that there's a lot of suppress sorry suppression of emotions um growing up. Yeah. Like in terms of
00:20:20
Yeah. the vulnerability piece and Yeah. I think I think it probably like culturally in s more if you speak up to
00:20:27
an elderly or your parents it can come across as being disrespectful even if you're just trying to express your
00:20:33
express your emotions it could come across as being disrespectful so I mean for myself as a child I already didn't
00:20:40
have emotionally available parents around but with that cultural aspect of you know speaking up
00:20:47
crossing that line of disrespect you kind of double suppress so Yeah, it was a I mean there was I'd say it was tough
00:20:56
in some ways growing up like that. Yeah. And it definitely led to a lot of you know I guess trauma growing up that I
00:21:03
needed to to address. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How did how did that look? When did you realize you needed to like address the
00:21:09
trauma? Um probably 20 maybe 2021. Yeah. 2021 years old. Oh, sorry. Or the year.
00:21:19
The year 21. Yeah. Right. I would probably would have been maybe 27 or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I
00:21:28
um Yes. So you move moved back to New Zealand at 15 and finish your high school at um Mount Helbert Grammar. I I
00:21:34
can't imagine that would have been easy as well. That was tough. It was a a massive culture shock, you know. Yeah.
00:21:39
Why why why move so late in your secondary school education? Um, I moved over a little bit earlier, but um, I
00:21:49
didn't want to stay, so I, you know, I really pushed towards my my dad and my
00:21:54
grandmother to take me back to Smore. So, I went back to Sur for a little bit. Oh, you were homesick or Yeah, I was
00:21:59
homesick for sure. So, I went back probably for another year, year and a half and then I I had to come over, I
00:22:06
guess. You know, my older brothers came over first and, you know, it was time. Um but it was it was tough like my my
00:22:13
first day of school in at Manobic Grammar um one of the students made the teacher cry the first class you know in
00:22:21
the morning and I was just waiting there like a this kid's going to get a hiding
00:22:26
um but nothing happened and I was like what is going on this is you know I'm in
00:22:31
a I'm in a different world that's when I knew I was in a different world you know
00:22:34
like schools and s were a little bit different oh in terms of the strictness yeah Right. Right. In New Zealand, you
00:22:40
can get away with murder. Yeah. Yeah. So, did you did you lean into that or are you just like a good kid and No, I
00:22:46
was always a good kid. You know, I just sat at the back of the class and Yeah. Let other people get away with murder.
00:22:51
Well, you watched the murder again. Yeah. Um Yeah. I've heard you say that um that move to New Zealand, that's when
00:22:57
you first sort of experienced like anxiety. Yeah, probably. I mean, it was a different environment. Um must have
00:23:03
been terrifying. Like you're wondering what the hell's going on. Yeah, it was.
00:23:06
I mean in sour I had you know my family like my cousins my grandma was there I moved over to New Zealand and my dad was
00:23:15
away he was a pilot my mom wasn't around so I had two brothers here and they were
00:23:21
they had kind of their lives as well so I was you know 16 going to school at Manaba grandma but I was like you know
00:23:28
living on my own as a as a 16 year old were you pretty much I stayed with my brothers for a bit but um you know they
00:23:35
moved out with their partners and then eventually it was um yeah I just just on my own. Yeah. At 16 Yeah. about 16 17
00:23:44
some people would would um see that as like a dream scenario. Yeah. You throw parties and whatever. Yeah. I probably
00:23:52
had one party at my house but even that even then I was you know just bit cautious of the house and being
00:23:58
respectful of the house and stuff. Um but I guess I had to become independent at a really young age. Yeah. So, you
00:24:06
know, 16, 17, I that's I guess how my love for cooking came. Like I didn't
00:24:11
have parents around to make me breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I had to figure that out myself. So, first
00:24:15
cookbook I bought was a Gordon Ramsay cookbook and just watched a lot of YouTube cooking videos and yeah. Was
00:24:23
that incredibly lonely like being 16 and, you know, going home from school and there being no one there?
00:24:29
I guess so. I think I mean, yeah, probably. I mean, back then, you know, you're young, you don't
00:24:36
really think about that stuff, but when I think about it now, like, I wouldn't
00:24:39
want my kids or any kids. I don't have kids, but any kids to kind of go through
00:24:43
that. Yeah. So, um yeah. So, you said like 2021 um that that's when you know,
00:24:52
your mental health sort of reached like um like a trough or you know, however you want to phrase it. Um and I suppose
00:24:58
that's when that's a time when everyone was going through a lot like that was
00:25:01
sort of like peak co very confusing time. So um how did how did that look for you? Um it was tough like I was I
00:25:08
owned a business then with uh at next partner and you know I felt like a lot of responsibility to kind of keep the
00:25:15
business going through co and you know provide income for both me and my business partner back then. And then we
00:25:23
I went through a relationship breakup then and you know I kind of knew like okay this not feeling myself. I know I
00:25:31
need to get some help. My brother actually encouraged me to you know go to therapy. I think I probably wouldn't
00:25:37
have if he didn't and you know I'm very grateful he did. Yeah. So kind of got
00:25:42
worked on myself, you know, went to therapy for a couple reasons to one to, you know, process the the
00:25:49
breakup, but two to we me and my partner back then, we weren't in a position to
00:25:54
sell the business or neither of us wanted to leave the business. So we were separated, but we knew that we had to
00:26:02
work together. So, you know, I I sought help on processing that and then getting
00:26:06
some tools and some guidance on how I'm going to manage, you know, working in
00:26:10
this business while separated, you know, with a partner and Yeah. Yeah. How did you find therapy? Were you nervous the
00:26:17
first time you went? Um, yeah, I was nervous. Yeah. Yeah. It was first time I went, you know, what probably a two-hour
00:26:24
session and afterwards I'm like, yes, I'm fixed. But then it doesn't happen. And you
00:26:31
know, you think you're fixed after one session and then, you know, other thoughts and emotions creep up and
00:26:36
you're like, damn. Okay, I got to I got to keep keep working at this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a qu It's an
00:26:43
ongoing thing, isn't it? When was the last time you went? Are you still going?
00:26:47
Uh at the moment. Yeah. No, I I probably went maybe 3 weeks ago. Yeah. At the moment, I kind of go when there's when
00:26:53
there's, you know, chaos in life, but I'm trying to be more I'm trying to go
00:26:57
more just to prevent that stuff from happening. Yeah. Yeah, I should be. Yeah, I probably went
00:27:03
about the same time as you during during co and then um yeah, then one of the lockdowns happened and it was going to
00:27:09
be remote and I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting at home on a Zoom call with the door shut. Yeah. It
00:27:14
just felt too inpersonal or transactional so I stopped going but but I felt it really good and you being a
00:27:19
personal trainer, you'd relate to this. I feel like it's um it's like a personal
00:27:22
trainer for the neck up. Absolutely. Um, so you shouldn't just go when you're
00:27:26
when you're about to have a heart attack, you know, you should be going all the time as a preventative sort of
00:27:31
thing if you can afford to. Yeah, exactly. It is it is quite pricey, but I I definitely agree. You know, it's it's
00:27:36
like work working on your physical health, you know, you got to work on your mental health. Um, but there are
00:27:40
other cheaper ways to work on your mental health, you know, if you can't afford therapy. I mean, there's
00:27:44
counseling out there and I think that New Zealand provides, you know, free counseling as well. So, yeah. Yeah, for
00:27:51
sure. Um, yeah. Is therapy much of a thing in some are? Uh, no, not that I not that I know of. Yeah.
00:27:59
Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting how like different countries and their relationship to it. Like if you're in um
00:28:04
America or even um Yeah. I went to um Argentina and South America a few years ago and everyone over there's got a
00:28:11
therapist. Yeah, that's the thing. They go all the time. Yeah. I've got um quite
00:28:14
a few Brazilian Argentinian mates and they're like Yeah. They they love therapy. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like um your
00:28:20
therapists in South America are probably like personal trainers here. A lot of people have them and you know go a
00:28:25
couple of times a week, cancel it at the last minute if you got a hangover or whatever. Exactly. Yeah. How's your
00:28:31
mental health now? I feel it's it's pretty steady. Um you know, obviously
00:28:34
I'm always working on it, you know, trying to trying to improve, but yeah, I'm I'm in a good place right now. Yeah.
00:28:40
Yeah. Fantastic. So um Oh, yeah. We alluded earlier to the um Confidence Heist Instagram page, which is a very
00:28:46
popular Instagram page, New York-based. So, how did you end up on that page? Your answer was great, by the way. Oh,
00:28:52
thank you. Yeah. How did how did that happen? So, you just wandering down the street? Yeah, I was just wandering back
00:28:57
to um to the hotel and and David, I'm pretty sure that's his name, uh stopped
00:29:01
me and yeah, we had a chat. That's it. Yeah. Just as organic as that? It was
00:29:06
organic. Yeah. There was no planning. I had never seen his content before. Um and then bumped into him. Yeah. So you
00:29:14
pulled your earpods out and he asked you the question, "What makes you confident?" Yeah. And your answer was
00:29:19
amazing. What did you say? Um for me it's it's vulnerability, you know, just
00:29:24
being able to express myself and and be myself. I think that that makes me confident. Yeah. Whether that's, you
00:29:31
know, lip syncing to Whitney Houston in my videos or just have be on a podcast chill out with you. Yeah. Yeah. When
00:29:38
when did you um Yeah. When did you realize like vulnerability was um like something to lean into and almost like a
00:29:44
superpower? I think I mean growing up I I suppressed a lot of emotions. You know
00:29:49
I had a emotionally unstable childhood. So I wasn't being I didn't really have
00:29:52
my parents around to kind of talk about feelings and emotions. So you know throughout my whole life I ended up
00:29:59
holding a lot in and then when you hold stuff in I think they resurface in more um unhealthy ways. And for me, they
00:30:07
probably resurfaced in, you know, uh, anxiety, um, insecuress, lack of confidence, um,
00:30:15
stress, all of that. And I guess, you know, when I started working on myself, I, um,
00:30:23
bought a few books and, you know, got into Bnee Brown and, you know, started reading all that type of stuff. Bnee
00:30:28
Brown. You and me, I reckon we maybe we're the only two guys in Oakuckland that read Bnee Brown. Oh, really? I
00:30:34
don't know. Yeah. I just feel like it's not a not a huge male readership, but
00:30:37
yeah, I love Bnee Brown. Mel Robins. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, how good. Um Yeah, cuz I'm um I'm I'm considerably
00:30:46
older than you, but um yeah, it just wasn't really a thing when I was growing
00:30:50
up and then not necessarily how I was raised in my family home, but just wasn't sort of a thing to express or
00:30:55
show any emotion. Then I went to an all boy school and the last thing you'd want
00:30:58
to do is show any sort of vulnerability because if you did that, it would just be weaponized against you. Yeah. Um, so
00:31:03
you end up just like putting on this this hard exterior shell and not letting anyone in. And then it's um, yeah, it's
00:31:10
hard to unpack and unpack all that stuff, isn't it? It is. I think that's
00:31:13
quite common, you know, among um, men in general, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. You you you've mentioned a couple
00:31:22
of times your your relationship failing, and that was sort of like part of the catalyst for you to um, you go on this
00:31:27
um, sort of self-discovery journey. um you was part of the reason the relationship failed because you you had
00:31:33
walls up and were unable to open up at the time or not. Yeah, I think so. I think that would be a big part. Um and I
00:31:39
think the stress of the business kind of just amplified a lot of that as well. Um
00:31:45
yeah. Are you seeing anyone now? A lot of people want to know. Uh no, I'm not. Do
00:31:51
you do you have a a preference? Do you like do you do you prefer to date men or women? Uh women. Women. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,
00:31:58
there's gonna be a lot of dudes that are Yeah. What do you get in your DMs? Like,
00:32:02
um, a lot. Yeah. Uh, I get a lot of of stuff in my DMs. Um, like guys, guys and girls. Yeah, both. Guys, uh, I get a lot
00:32:11
of, uh, I don't know if I'm allowed to say it, but like dpicks or Oh, you can
00:32:16
say it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Dickpicks. Yeah, I get a lot of dickpicks. And um, and I
00:32:20
know when when you say a lot, what do you mean? Usually maybe twice a week. Yeah. Oh my god.
00:32:28
But you know when it when it's a dickpick because like you see the profile photo and you're like, "Oh." And
00:32:33
then you just there's no there's no um message. It's just photo. And I'm like,
00:32:38
"Okay, yep. I know what this is." Yeah. That must be quite alarming. The Yeah.
00:32:43
The first couple of times you you you know, you get that without without asking for them. It is. Yeah. Um, but
00:32:50
then I get a lot of really lovely messages as well on, you know, how phrasera nice content, you know, makes
00:32:54
them happy and and brings joy to their lives and and stuff like that. So, try to focus more on those. Yeah. What about
00:33:02
thirsty thirsty ladies? Yeah, I got a you know, I get a lot of date requests and and stuff like that on um on
00:33:09
Instagram. Um Yeah. M so are you just happy being on your own at the moment and just working on
00:33:18
yourself or are you sort of you know looking for someone or you just open if the right person comes along? Yeah, I
00:33:23
guess I'm I'm open if the right person comes along. I think at the moment I I'm
00:33:26
I'm quite happy you know working on myself and hanging out with Fraser and and you know working out and coaching at
00:33:33
the gym and hanging out with friends. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Oh, something else just like a just a random
00:33:39
sidebar thing. Um, I think I read this about you somewhere. You you were learning to ride a bike as an adult.
00:33:45
Yeah, it was a Where did you read? I don't know. Maybe it's on Instagram or
00:33:50
an article somewhere. So, yeah. Did you Are there not many bikes in Samoa? There
00:33:55
are a lot of bikes. I was um extremely overweight as a kid and um I'll send you
00:33:59
I'll send you a photo. But I I just couldn't I couldn't balance on a two
00:34:04
wheel bike as a kid because, you know, I was I was heavy. So me and, you know, my three main cousins
00:34:11
would hang out. We go for bike rides that have their bikes, but my one would have training training wheels on it. Oh,
00:34:17
what age? Oh, I know, maybe 8 to 10 around. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, Dan, that's really sad. Oh, it's okay. Thanks.
00:34:28
Oh, like how how overweight are you talking? Uh, pretty big. I mean, probably heavier than I am now as a kid.
00:34:36
Yeah. Wow. How did you get overweight? There's not a lot of like processed food
00:34:40
over there. Like everything's pretty clean in summer, isn't it? I mean, there's a lot of bread, sugar, um, stuff
00:34:46
like that. And I think I just I have a big appetite. I I eat a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I ate a lot as a kid. And
00:34:55
I mean, in time, I mean, we weren't allowed to kind of leave the table unless we finished our plate. And the
00:34:59
plates were massive. So, Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I had a similar sort of upbringing, I guess, in the respect
00:35:06
that it was almost like a famine. I don't know, maybe it's just discipline
00:35:09
at the time, but it feels like like I look back now and it's sort of like a famine mentality where you're not sure
00:35:13
where the next meal is coming from and it's like, yeah, we'd have to sit at the
00:35:16
table until everything was gone. Yeah, exactly. It was like like a disrespectful to the cook if you didn't
00:35:22
eat everything on your plate. Um, but that's how I started losing weight around 12 to 13. You know, you're saying
00:35:28
that you you saw a lot of people play volleyball in Smore and when I was 12 and 13, I just started walking down, you
00:35:34
know, and started playing volleyball, playing touch every evening and slowly slowly started losing weight from then
00:35:39
on. Mhm. Yeah. And and now you're you're like a a picture of health. Oh, thanks. Yeah.
00:35:46
Aren't you? Yeah. I mean, you you exercise obviously plays a big part in your life. Like it's well, it's part of
00:35:51
your career for starters, but you Yeah. How many times a day? How many times a week do you work out? Um, I try and work
00:35:56
out every day. Um, not, you know, aggressively or or high intensity. So, Thursday I'll go to the track or just go
00:36:04
for a run. Um, and then Sunday I'll just bike for 45 minutes or run for 45 minutes. But, you know, the days in
00:36:12
between that would be uh combination of strength and conditioning. Yeah. [Music]
00:36:19
Yeah. Yeah. You can tell it's a big part of your life now. Like, it's a cornerstone really of who you are. Yeah.
00:36:24
I mean it it makes me feel good. I always feel good after exercise and um Yeah, I love it. I think um more people
00:36:31
should should get into it. Yeah. How does that work with the sort of It seems like you do a lot of baking. Yeah.
00:36:39
Um baking baking doesn't seem to be, you know, aligned with um you know, I don't
00:36:46
know, like exercise and fitness and health. How how does that work? You just bake and then pass the goods on or No, I
00:36:52
eat it balance. Yeah, I get asked a lot if I eat my baking. Um I do eat it and not obviously not the whole thing. Like
00:36:58
usually I I'll give it to the neighbors or I'll take it to the gym um or give it
00:37:02
to a mate that lives down the road. But um I think you know being exercising, um working on
00:37:10
yourself, you know, having treats, I think that's all important to kind of incorporate all of that into a a well
00:37:16
balanced lifestyle. Yeah. Yeah. All in moderation. Yeah. And and actually in saying that, you brought some baking in
00:37:21
this morning. What did you what did you bring to the team in the office? Um I baked some chocolate chip and macadamia
00:37:26
nut cookies. Yeah. Oh my god. Yum. Okay. Let's go back to Man Can Cook. And the
00:37:31
first of all, why did you why did you call it Man Can? Um I think cuz I started filming in 2014
00:37:39
and I named it Man Cook back then. And I think back then there was probably a stigma that, you know, men can't cook. I
00:37:45
I don't think it's prevalent now. I think you know back then there was that
00:37:49
stigma so that's why I named it man can cook because you know man can cook. Yeah. You you because your name is
00:37:56
Daniel Rank and you could have called it Dan Ran Canc. Yeah. I should have named
00:37:59
it something like that. Yeah. So what's the um Yeah. Like I mean you've hit a
00:38:03
real sweet spot now, haven't you? Um I saw your YouTube page and you you it's
00:38:08
almost like you've neglected that. Like you and Facebook as well like you've
00:38:11
sort of neglected that but it's um you've hit a real sweet spot on like Tik
00:38:15
Tok and Instagram. Yeah. I mean, I think if I had somewhat like an admin person,
00:38:21
I'd probably try and grow Facebook and and YouTube just because I've got I
00:38:24
still got all my videos, but it can get quite overwhelming, you know, posting on
00:38:29
every single social media platform and trying to grow every single one at the same time. But yeah, I I focus mostly on
00:38:34
Instagram and Tik Tok. Yeah. And what's the what's the creative process like? Do
00:38:39
you have like a a week schedule? like a day where you storyboard and a day where
00:38:43
you source the props and the costumes, the day when you film, a day when you edit. How does how does it all work? So,
00:38:49
a Monday is when I generally have an idea on Monday. I don't really storyboard because as long as I have a
00:38:55
rough idea of music and what I'm baking, um that's that's enough for me. The
00:39:00
great thing about cooking is it's storyboarded for you. Like, you have a recipe and each step is pretty much a
00:39:05
story board from my perspective. Um, but yeah, Mondays we get the ingredients we
00:39:11
need. Um, and then we'll probably bake it once on Monday and then we'll film on
00:39:15
Tuesday, Wednesday, edit on a Thursday, and then post and then kind of engage with um the audience on a Friday when we
00:39:22
post. Yeah. How do you select the songs? You you choose some real random songs. Essentially
00:39:30
work, but somehow they do. Yeah. Um, mostly when I'm walking Fraser, so I'll
00:39:37
have my earphones in and then kind of just, you know, play a playlist and then generally a song will come to me then.
00:39:43
Um, or when I'm driving, but I guess I'm not actively like searching for music,
00:39:48
you know. It's just as I'm going about my day, I'm playing music and then if a
00:39:51
song comes to mind, I'll use it. Yeah. Now, who do you do you live alone or you
00:39:55
live with others? Uh, just Fraser and I, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that that's a good thing cuz it must be um
00:40:01
messy like you're you're tossing, you know, you you're stirring things and
00:40:04
you're tossing utensils. Where are you throwing the utensils? There's just a
00:40:08
side like on on the left side there's like sometimes I put a towel down but most of the time I'll just keep the door
00:40:13
open and it will just fly under deck and then I'll um just go and grab it, tidy
00:40:17
it up quickly and then get back to filming. Yeah. And then you like jump jumping over the kitchen bar and there's
00:40:23
there's there's there's there's a lot going on. Is it a is it a bomb site at
00:40:26
the end? Yeah, it is. I've gotten better at cleaning as we go. Mhm. Uh so, you
00:40:31
know, usually I'll throw something or make a mess and then I'll clean it up
00:40:34
and then get back to the next shot. Yeah. But, um I mean it's it's it's a
00:40:39
mess, but we only takes 15 20 minutes to clean it up. Yeah. Yeah. And what about
00:40:44
the ideas for the props? Like whether it's like a a gas welder's mask or a
00:40:48
cowboy cowboy hat or where where Yeah. Where does the idea for them come and where do you source them? Um, that just
00:40:55
comes with the theme, I guess. Like the gas mask would have been, you know, genuine pony magic mic in the scene
00:41:02
where he kind of had a gas like gas mask on and was welding. So, that's where I
00:41:06
got that. I borrowed it from a mate. Um, you know, if it's a country song, you
00:41:09
know, we'll wear our cowboy hats or get our stick pony. Um, what else? Uh, Bad
00:41:15
Touch. So, the music video, they're wearing monkey outfits in it. And I had a monkey outfit for Fraser, so I chucked
00:41:21
that on. And then usually uh my favorite ones are like the slow kind of ' 80s
00:41:27
love songs, you know, Phil Collins um and Fraser will have a theme outfit for that. Usually it's a suit or his um his
00:41:34
afro kind of toupe beanie. Sorry, his his wig. Yeah. Yeah. You do love a 1980s power ballad, don't you? Yeah, I do.
00:41:41
Yeah. Massively. And what about all Fraser's outfits? He must have a hell of
00:41:46
a wardrobe. He does. He's got a a lot of outfits. Where are they from? You get
00:41:50
them from like like Teeu or uh Kmart to be honest. Kmart Kmart's got a lot of
00:41:54
dog outfits. So unreal. Over the years I've just gotten them from Kmart. Um and
00:41:59
then some from Amazon. Yeah. And those are probably the only two places. Yeah. Actually, I've got
00:42:06
Yeah, I need to go back to Kmart and have a good look. I got Kanye like a denim jacket there once. Oh, yeah. Um
00:42:11
which is which is great. Um I didn't realize there was that they had a huge range of dog stuff there though. Like
00:42:16
not a massive range. I think every couple months they'll get new stock in and I'll just, you know, remember to
00:42:22
kind of check in and see what they've got and, you know, just keep buying stuff. Yeah. So, so, so you film what?
00:42:27
How much do you film? Like, are you filming non-stop for like an hour or a couple of hours or you just filming
00:42:32
little bits and pieces? Oh, okay. So, usually we we film non-stop for about 3 to four hours. Oh, yeah. And then the
00:42:41
next day it'll be about the same, maybe two to three hours because it's quite
00:42:45
the process. Like if you're baking, you know, you got to mix all the ingredients
00:42:49
and then chuck it in the oven and then let it cool down and then, you know, ice it or whatever. If you're making a cake
00:42:54
or, you know, cheesecake, you got to let it sit overnight. So, it does take a while. That's so much effort for a one
00:42:59
minute video. Yeah, it is. I mean, it's hard work for sure. Um, but we we enjoy it. We We have Yeah, we have
00:43:06
a good time. Yeah. I think the hardest thing for me is just starting. Once once we're in the process of baking, it's
00:43:14
actually a lot easier. And you know, we find joy along the way and yeah. So you said you said we again like you're
00:43:21
speaking on behalf of family even though right now like he's got his head turned.
00:43:24
He's like I don't enjoy it as much as what you think dad. Um so yeah. So for
00:43:30
anyone that hasn't seen the videos to paint a picture. So yeah you you're
00:43:34
standing there dancing looking sexy in the kitchen and Fras is just on a stool just sort of watching you. How does like
00:43:41
Kanye is a very obedient dog but he'd be trying to jump down. And he he wouldn't
00:43:44
sit still. Are you telling me Fraser sits there on the stoall for like 4 hours? No, I mean we have breaks so I
00:43:49
bring him down maybe every half an hour see if he wants some water or if he needs to go toilet and then back up. But
00:43:55
he does just sit still there. How How did you train him to do that? Unintentionally. When I got Fraser, I um
00:44:02
I owned a gym and was coaching a lot of classes. So I got him and I'd be coaching a class, he'd be out back and
00:44:07
he'd just be, you know, barking looking for me. So, I got one of those big 75 cm
00:44:15
like boxes at the gym that you do. Oh, box jump things. Box jump things. Yeah. One of those big sort of foam thick foam
00:44:21
boxes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I just put him on that and then he just watched me coach the class and just chill out. And
00:44:27
I think the box is pretty much the same height as his as his seat. So, I think he's like, "Oh, cool. Like, I get to
00:44:32
hang out." And Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. Um, yeah. You must get a lot of DMs
00:44:37
about him. Like, people must love the dog. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone loves Razer. Yeah. Um, and what about criticism or
00:44:44
trolling or negative feedback? Yeah. I mean, you know, like to be fair, sorry to interrupt you there, but it's like
00:44:50
there's there's absolutely nothing to criticize about about what you do, but
00:44:54
it's just the nature of I suppose like a the more popular you get and especially
00:44:59
when you get to like 600,000 followers. Yeah. You not everyone's going to be on
00:45:02
your side. Some of it may be rooted in jealousy or whatever, but yeah. What sort of negativity do you get? I think
00:45:07
when we started, we got a lot. Like what? Uh probably the worst one, you know, messages like what are you going
00:45:13
to do when Fraser dies? Are you you know that kind of really stung a little bit,
00:45:18
but mostly like not not too much negative stuff like they'll say comments like that
00:45:24
about Fraser or you know you have the same your content is very repetitive or you know it's you're doing the same
00:45:30
thing over and over. Um but I it probably gets to me for a little bit and then you know I do my best to kind of
00:45:37
diffuse those thoughts and and move on. Yeah. You do you um are you quite liberal with the block button? If
00:45:44
someone's being an [ __ ] or if they're really be an [ __ ] I'll block them. Um
00:45:49
but most of the time I'll just reply with kindness and just send them a love
00:45:51
heart and then kind of get on with my day. I'm not going to spend too much time letting them occupy my mental
00:45:57
space. Yeah. Oh that's a good way to um handle it. You don't want to dwell on it
00:46:00
too much. Yeah. And what are your um what are your goals for Men Can Cook in the coming years? Like do you want to do
00:46:05
like a a cookbook or anything or uh this year? I think we just, you know, we want
00:46:09
to crack a million followers on on Instagram. I think that would be cool. Um how do you do that? How do you go
00:46:15
from like 600,000 to a million? That's a massive amount of growth. Yeah. You just
00:46:18
you keep working hard and being consistent. Um posting videos every week. Yeah. Without burning up. Yeah. So
00:46:25
that's the plan. I mean, we have got a cookbook in the works at the moment and
00:46:30
we've got um a few like food festivals that we're kind of we're attending.
00:46:34
Well, I'm attending this year. Yeah. But I think, you know, people always ask
00:46:38
like what's what's your goals? I think we're just going to keep creating and
00:46:41
keep working hard. Yeah. Yeah. Well, people are enjoying it. You've hit a real sweet spot. Thanks. Yeah. Um I've
00:46:47
got some general food questions. So, the passion for cooking, how did that begin?
00:46:52
Um, I think it's I mean, you know, when I was a kid, I kind of needed to learn
00:46:55
how to cook to be independent and I Oh, just when you moved to New Zealand on Well, in sour as well. Okay. Yeah. So,
00:47:01
you know, I'd cook uh feeds for my mates and then when I came to New Zealand,
00:47:05
obviously living on my own as a kid, I had to learn how to cook as well. Um, but I I found joy in it. You know, I
00:47:10
found that it kind of helps me be present. I think, you know, it's quite hard to be present in life
00:47:15
these days. And it cooking just helps you narrow down your focus and Yeah. M do do you still like um some own foods
00:47:24
like taro and corned beef and stuff? Oh, absolutely. Do you like corn beef? Yeah,
00:47:27
I love corn beef. Taro, I'm not a big fan. I mean, it doesn't really have much
00:47:31
taste unless you cook it in like coconut cream. If it's an umu, it's got so much
00:47:35
flavor from the smoky the smokiness, but I love corn beef. Um what else is chopped? Yeah.
00:47:44
What about the um Yeah. One of my enduring memories of Samar is um just outside the villages like strands of
00:47:51
fish. You people selling fish on the street and there's like flies on them. Road
00:47:56
dust and everything on it. Yeah. The people selling fish, do they make all right money? Like I think they do. I
00:48:02
mean they they live off the land. I think they they wouldn't have many expenses as well. So yeah, they just
00:48:07
sell their fish. Yeah. Yeah. Oh no. I love that. What's your go-to meal when
00:48:11
you're short on time? Um, when I'm short on time, I probably will just whip up like some scrambled
00:48:16
eggs on toast. Um, otherwise, like I'd buy one of those pre-made salad mixes
00:48:22
and then a can of tuna and then a bit of mayo and then that's it. Yeah. Yeah. We
00:48:26
we got together early in the morning, earlyish in the morning to do this, like 8:30. What did What have you eaten so
00:48:32
far today? Um, in the morning I I have probably a quarter of a cabbage and some fried eggs for breakfast. Cabbage for
00:48:41
breakfast. Why? Well, I don't exercise in the mornings and I don't need a
00:48:44
massive amount of carbs, but like I'm a big eater. I like to feel full, so cabbage, it's large in volume, but low
00:48:52
in calories. So, um yeah, I'll just smash back a whole bunch of cabbage and three eggs and a few egg whites and some
00:48:59
ketchup. That's that's my breakfast. Does Does cabbage make your fart stink?
00:49:03
Um I don't think so. No, I don't think my farts stink. I don't know. I mean,
00:49:07
they stink, but like you've been you've been living with a dog for a very long
00:49:11
time. Yeah. I never know if it's mine or Fraser's. Oh, now you know if it's a dog
00:49:16
one, right? When Kanye does one, it's just like this thick. Yeah. Surprisingly, Fraser doesn't fart much.
00:49:22
I mean, he doesn't snore much like a pug. Um Yeah. There was maybe about 20 minutes ago, the microphones probably
00:49:29
didn't pick it up, but um one of the dogs was snoring. Oh, yeah. I don't know
00:49:32
if it was Fraser or Kanye. Yeah. Um but they're being very respectful, leaving
00:49:36
each other alone. Yeah. I think they got their backs turned towards each other. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what is one underrated
00:49:44
cooking tip that everybody should know? Um, good question. I'd say like sharpen your
00:49:54
knives. I think that's that's very underrated. Get a good knife. I think
00:49:57
that's going to make chopping a lot easier and it's almost safer in a way as
00:50:00
well. Like, you know, blunt knives can cause a few accidents. Yeah. M Have you ever had like an accident in the kitchen
00:50:07
with a knife or anything? Um not not a big accident. I mean, I've cut my fingers and stuff like that, but nothing
00:50:12
nothing serious, fortunately. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz Yeah. Cooking cooking is one of those things where you have to be
00:50:18
very present or accidents can happen. I'm thinking if you're if you're
00:50:22
sidetracked because you're thinking about content and the next shot and whatever. Exactly. Yeah. It could be
00:50:27
nasty. Um are there any foods that you absolutely refuse to cook or eat? Um, I don't like mint. I find, you know, I
00:50:35
find anything with mint in it feels like I'm just eating toothpaste. Um, but that
00:50:39
that's about it really. Yeah. And if you could only cook with five ingredients
00:50:43
for the rest of your life, what would they be? Uh, cabbage. Cabbage. I mean, probably flour, butter, sugar, and then
00:50:53
um meat. Some type of meat and and rice. Yeah. Why? for the health benefits or I think
00:51:01
like flour, butter, sugar could probably the basis of a lot of baking and if I wanted to bake stuff. Yeah. Um and then
00:51:07
yeah, I guess rice and meat. I I enjoy eating rice and meat. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Hey, thanks for sharing
00:51:13
that. I've just got a couple of um like random sort of mental health based related questions to wrap it up. Um
00:51:20
yeah, what's your Yeah, we talked about um Bnee Brown before. Yeah. And the importance of vulnerability and stuff
00:51:26
like do you have a good like um network, a good inner circle of close friends that you can talk to about stuff? Oh
00:51:32
Frzer, he just jumped down. Did he just jump down? Yeah. Fraser. Who's a good boy? Come on. You're a good
00:51:42
boy, too. Come here, Kanye. Come here. I'll just hold him. Yeah. Here we go.
00:51:46
Uh, do I have a Yeah, a good network of like close friends that you can talk to.
00:51:52
Yeah, I do. Um, my brothers and yeah, I got a good group of friends at the gym that I can talk to. Um, but you know, I
00:52:00
try I mean, I'll chat to them about stuff I'm going through, but I try not
00:52:03
to emotionally dump on them, you know, kind of leave that leave that to my therapist. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's
00:52:09
hard because it's important to um to be open, but then Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. your
00:52:14
friends your friends aren't you're therapist aren't trained so they can't
00:52:18
they any advice they give you it's just it's coming from a good place but it's
00:52:21
not coming from a professional place exactly yeah um what about um adversity what's the biggest sort of adversity
00:52:26
you've been through in your life so far um I I'd imagine that move to New
00:52:30
Zealand was quite unsettling that was unsettling I I thought I found um relationship breakups quite quite
00:52:36
challenging how long how long were you together with your your partner um we were together for about five five years
00:52:42
Right. Yeah. Any chance of mending that or is that ship sailed? I think that ship sailed.
00:52:48
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's that saying, hey, this may may even be a
00:52:51
Brne Brown thing, but um people come into your life for a reason. I mean, despite how difficult it was,
00:52:58
I'm super grateful for it. Like, even though it was the most challenging experience, it's the one I've
00:53:03
experienced the most growth from in life as well. So, yeah, probably wouldn't
00:53:07
have it another way. Yeah. You're a sensitive fellow, eh? And a deep thinker. What's your what's your um
00:53:13
inner voice like? Are are you you quite kind to yourself? I try to be. I mean I think
00:53:21
yeah I'm kind to myself. I probably more confident in my my mind like the voices
00:53:26
you know like you know I I tell myself I can do things and you know when I'm
00:53:30
tired and don't want to go to the gym I encourage myself just to go anyway or
00:53:34
you know when we don't feel like filming you know just positive positive thoughts
00:53:39
I guess. Yeah. or just more regulating or diffusing the negative thoughts is probably a lot of Yeah, a
00:53:47
lot of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um what about um are you are you quite an emotional guy? I think so. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:52
I'm quite emotional. Yeah. You you cry much? Um not really. Like when things
00:53:56
are tough like I'll cry. Yeah. But not weekly. Yeah. Yeah. But even like happy
00:54:03
tears. Uh yeah. Yeah. Happy tears. Yep. Um the other week I just kind of envisioned Fraser and I, you know,
00:54:12
hitting a million followers and just randomly while we were cooking and, you know, Yeah, they brought tears of joy.
00:54:17
Yeah. Oh my god, that's some powerful manifest manifestation, isn't it? Yeah,
00:54:22
I guess so. Yeah. Oh my god. Um, what about your best and worst habits? What would they be? Um,
00:54:28
my best habit would probably be exercise. I think that's a h a habit I've made for sure. I mean a lot of the
00:54:36
time I don't feel like exercising but you know I make it a habit to go worst
00:54:40
habit. What would my worst habit be? Oh man. I guess my my desk is my room is kind of
00:54:50
messy. Like I don't mind a messy room but I mean the house is pretty clean but
00:54:55
yeah my desk is messy. Yeah. Yeah. Well that um the uh the the overweight little
00:55:01
boy in Samoa that that had to ride a bike with training wheels. Um, what would he make of the man sitting in
00:55:07
front of me now? I think he'd be he'd be super proud. Um, yeah. Yeah. Getting a
00:55:13
little emotional now thinking of it actually. But yeah, I think he'd be stoked. I think he'd be be proud of me
00:55:19
and and he'd be happy to kind of see where he's going to be if he could see.
00:55:24
Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you don't know what the future brings, eh? Yeah. To to see that
00:55:28
like everything's worked out good and and you've done well. Yeah. I think
00:55:32
that's really cool. Um, is there a what if that keeps you up at night? I guess doesn't really keep me up, but I
00:55:41
mean, you know, what if, you know, selling the gym or, you know, I was working social media for an agency
00:55:47
for a bit, quitting that job, you know, what if what if there was a mistake and going full-time as a content creator was
00:55:54
a mistake. So, I sometimes that that scenario plays in mind. Yeah. Those thoughts play in mind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,
00:56:00
I suppose everyone wonders that, eh? And the timing is never right, like to go all in on your Oh, absolutely. Like when
00:56:06
I went all in, I was I was working I still owned a gym and I was working in a social media agency. Um, and they didn't
00:56:13
approve. I went to Hawaii, but they didn't approve my leave. So, when I, you
00:56:19
know, came back, I ended up kind of resigning and had to go all in. So, it wasn't a decision like, oh, okay, I'm
00:56:26
going to go all in. And it was like, "Okay, they're not going to approve my
00:56:29
leave. Okay, that's all good. I have no other choice." Yeah. Yeah. So, it's
00:56:33
almost like you're pushed into the situation. Exactly. Which is probably quite good because I think everyone's
00:56:37
probably guilty of like taking the safe road or procrastinating. Yeah. Exactly. Um, is there a a mistake that you wish
00:56:43
you could go back and correct? Oh, I try not to think about about that. I mean, there's a lot of mistakes I've made. For
00:56:50
sure. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Well, I don't know. Yeah. I find it hard to believe. Yeah. What was your religion?
00:56:56
Are you Catholic? Um, no. What was So, we grew up going to a Methodist church in Samour.
00:57:03
Um, yeah. Cuz I can't imagine that you you're the man sitting in front of me
00:57:07
doing anything that's too bad, but I I just wonder if you have a lot of um like
00:57:10
guilt like, you know, I I grew up as a Catholic and so you have this thing called Catholic guilt and Oh, okay. you
00:57:16
know, I mean, yeah, I've got I mean, I've made made mistakes and I've got
00:57:20
guilt and you know, I think a lot of that I try not to think about it too much, but when I do think about it, I
00:57:27
think no one's perfect and a lot of the mistakes I've made doesn't make me, you
00:57:32
know, a bad person and just makes me human. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You have to go easy on yourself and give yourself a bit
00:57:38
of a pass. Yeah. Um, what are you most afraid of? Um, losing this guy. Yeah, that's
00:57:45
probably what I'm most afraid of at the moment. Yeah, you still got a few years
00:57:49
to go, eh, Fraser? Yeah. Yeah, he's got a long time to go, but that's probably
00:57:53
what I'm most afraid of. Oh, mate, it's like we talked about in the beginning of
00:57:56
the podcast, e like Yeah. I think about it all the time. Yeah. It's amazing how
00:58:02
much of my uh like like brain space it takes up. Yeah. Just just just the grief that I'm going to be overwhelmed with
00:58:09
when he dies. It's amazing. It's like like a child that never does anything to
00:58:12
piss you off. And I think you can have all the tools and, you know, get all the training to kind of regulate your
00:58:19
thoughts and feelings, but it's still going to be tough regardless. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I suppose that's the thing,
00:58:23
the flip side of like great love is great loss, isn't it? Exactly. Yeah. Um,
00:58:27
what about regrets? Any regrets? Um, yeah, I guess regrets and guilt play in the same place. So, yeah, definitely
00:58:35
I've got regrets. Sure. And what about future goals? Where do you see yourself
00:58:39
at? Like 50 or 60? Um, I really want to move to Queenstown. I, you know, I grew up in the island, so was surrounded by
00:58:45
beaches, but something about just like the mountains and, you know, the snow I really love. So, yeah, when I'm 50, I'd
00:58:52
like to see myself living living in Queenstown. Still creating content. Uh, probably not the type of content that
00:58:59
I'm creating now, but I'd definitely love to be, you know, in the cooking
00:59:03
space. Um, you know, cooking TV or TV shows and stuff like that, for sure. Yeah. Right. Oh, so you see yourself
00:59:10
like um sort of like pivoting or just evolving and getting more clothes on as you get older. Yeah, exactly. Probably I
00:59:17
love I mean I'd love to be in shape when I'm 50 for sure. I think um but my
00:59:22
content will probably be less theatrical and more more chilled out. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a funny journey because you
00:59:28
never know exactly where it's going to take you or you know where social media
00:59:31
is going to head or Yeah. Exactly. I mean you know Tik Tok you know got banned for what you know I don't know a
00:59:36
few minutes or a few hours recently. So, you know, if you'd make your income off
00:59:40
of that, that's that's turbulent for sure. Yeah. I just noticed your um your
00:59:45
traditional Son tattoo on your right arm. Is that um was that done by like a like a tattoo artist with a with a like
00:59:51
a tattoo gun or is that like a traditional uh it's a traditional one? Yeah, it's a lima, right? How painful is
00:59:58
that? Um it's not too bad. I think when you get under the arm around like the
01:00:02
tricep area, that's when it gets real painful. So, that's the the tap tap tap
01:00:06
one. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that looks Oh, I mean the end result's amazing, but Oh, sorry. Oh,
01:00:13
that's all right. Um, yeah. No, that looks excruciating. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
01:00:18
it's painful for sure. Like anyone that says tattoos don't hurt probably lying,
01:00:22
but they hurt. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and what three words would family and friends use
01:00:26
to describe you? Um, oh, I don't know. I mean, probably they'd probably describe me as
01:00:37
quiet for sure, but then confident and probably probably fit in regards to fitness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.
01:00:50
And you proud of yourself? Yeah, absolutely. I am proud of myself for sure. Awesome. Yeah. It's been really
01:00:55
cool to connect today. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I I get the feeling um Yeah. Yeah. So even though
01:01:01
you're sort of you've got this sort of public profile, I get the feeling like
01:01:04
you you you know it it doesn't necessarily come easy to talk about yourself. It doesn't. No, for sure. And
01:01:11
that comes from I think Simon culture. Like even before I started creating content, I went to job interviews and um
01:01:17
you know, stuff like that. It'd be really hard for me, you know, they ask you what your strengths are and I'm like
01:01:22
I mean I don't want to not going to tell you my strengths. That's that comes off
01:01:26
as being, you know, bigheaded in a way. But I guess like I said earlier, you don't want to shrink yourself, but you
01:01:32
don't want to puff yourself up. You know, you just got to got to stand on on
01:01:35
your ground. Yeah. I feel like that's an that's a um a Kiwi thing as well, like
01:01:39
just you you not not not being allowed to sort of talk yourself up. And I feel like um LinkedIn's probably changing
01:01:45
that a little bit and people are realizing you have to sort of, you know, lean into it and sell yourself a little
01:01:49
bit. Yeah. Um, but it's always been seen as like an anti thing in in New Zealand
01:01:54
where you should wait for other people to talk you up, but you can't do it yourself. Yeah, absolutely. I think
01:01:59
there's a difference between, you know, being cocky and being confident. And I
01:02:03
think you can, you know, talk about yourself in a positive light and come across confident. For sure. Well, Daniel
01:02:09
Rankin, you're you're a good man. You're doing great content. And, um, it seems
01:02:13
like you're a good role model as well. like um I really appreciate you being so
01:02:17
open to talking about the um you the mental health stuff and the journey you've been through and um it's an honor
01:02:22
to meet you and Fraser. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to continuing to consume
01:02:27
your content. Thanks, Dom. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. You know, big fan of of you growing up.
01:02:31
Yeah. Oh, that's Yeah. I don't know. That's alarming. Is it a big fan of you in
01:02:38
general? Yeah. Yeah. Whenever someone says that it's like Yeah. We did a lot
01:02:41
of distasteful things on the radio. You're a good man. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks, Don. Appreciate it.