For leaders who feel the drift
You can feel it. The perks aren't working. Good people keep leaving. Standards are slipping. And the more you try to make everyone comfortable, the less anyone seems to care.
The uncomfortable truth
You built something real. You hired smart people. You offered great benefits.
And somewhere along the way, comfort became the culture.
Now your best people are coasting. Your standards are suggestions. Your values are wall art. And every motivational speaker, offsite retreat, and engagement survey has failed to fix it.
You don't have a people problem.
You have a design problem.
Case Study
Common Thread Collective had grown to 180 people. On paper, it looked like success. In reality, the culture had drifted. The company was organized around employee comfort — generous perks, flexible policies, a "we take care of our people" ethos. But the people the company was built to serve — the customers — were getting lost in the shuffle. Turnover was high. Tenure averaged under six months.
We moved to a customer-centric model. That meant a fresh relationship with the work itself — clear standards, visible performance, and a culture where the best people could do their best work.
We built new tools to measure what mattered: who's thriving, who needs support, and where trust is breaking down. We used AI to make performance conversations more honest and less political.
And we created real development pathways — not just for people in trouble, but for top performers who wanted to grow.
A leaner, more aligned team. Record profit. Record revenue. The best client retention in company history. And in July 2025, a private equity investment that validated everything we'd built.
What changed
The team got leaner. Fewer people, more alignment. Every role tied to customer value.
The results broke records. Profit, revenue, and client retention — all at historic highs.
The tools got smarter. AI-powered performance reviews built for trust, not surveillance.
The market noticed. Private equity investment secured in 2025.
Upgrade Your Culture — Video Series
Watch how we did it. No theory — just what worked.
The unfiltered story of how CTC rebuilt its culture from the inside out. Start anywhere, or watch in order for the full arc.
Ep 1 · Why everything we tried before failed
Ep 2 · The insight that changed everything
Ep 3 · The system behind the transformation
Ep 4 · The hardest decision — and what came after
Ep 5 · Proof it works beyond CTC
Ep 6 · Taylor Holiday on where it all leads
Partner & VP of Employee Development and Performance, Common Thread Collective (CTC) · Co-founder, Men & Women of Discomfort® (MWOD) · Author of multiple publications (Random House)
Meet Dane
For 25 years I've been asking the same question: what makes people and organizations thrive? The answer keeps surprising everyone — including me.
It's not more resources. It's not better strategy. It's the willingness to choose difficulty on purpose, not all at once, but in predictable stages that I guarantee will change who you are and how you show up when life gets difficult. The trick is to choose the hard thing before the hard thing chooses you.
That pattern became what I call CREDO — a framework for how real transformation works. The best part is it works the same way, everywhere, all-the-time...
Commit
Choose the hard thing before you feel ready.
Release
Keep going when everything says quit.
Embrace
All in. Wholehearted. Hug the cactus.
Define
Declare fresh commitments to others every 90 days.
Own
Own those commitments through your behavior.
When one person changes, teams change. When teams change, organizations transform. Here's how CREDO shows up at every level.
Start here
90 days of voluntary discomfort inside a community that won't let you quit. This is where CREDO gets real — in your body, your habits, your relationships.
Apply at mwod.io → Then scale it
Same framework, organizational scale. Customer-centric standards. AI-powered tools. A culture where the best people do their best work — and the results prove it.
Read the case study ↑For your organization
Keynotes, workshops, and private coaching for founders and executive teams. Over 20 years working with leaders of 6, 7, and 8-figure brands who are ready to stop drifting and start designing.
Book Dane → Before you can transform your team, you have to transform yourself. MWOD is where leaders become the kind of person who can drive the change they're asking of others.
The commitment
For 90 days, you hand over your choices. What you eat. How you train. When you sleep. Cold exposure. Breathwork. All of it — inside a community that won't let you quit.
The method
Whole-food nutrition + 16/8 fasting
Daily rigorous, programmed workouts
Cold exposure + breathwork
Weekly habit stacking
Daily check-ins + DEXA tracking
The result
You learn what you're capable of when comfort is no longer the goal. What emerges is someone who doesn't just know about discipline — they are disciplined.
What graduates say
The health benefits are lagging indicators of what happens in your character. The weight loss was nice, but the life change was gold.
Daniel D.
Man of Discomfort
I lost 40 lbs and gave my daughters another decade with their dad. I am eternally grateful for this community.
Chris D.
Exec, Norman S. Wright
Becoming an MWOD before cancer gave me what I needed before I needed it.
Tim K.
Co-Founder, MWOD
I needed greater capacity, discipline, and accountability. MWOD delivered.
Taylor H.
CEO, Common Thread Collective
I knew I wanted to invest in myself to better coach our athletes. MWOD was it.
Cati L.
Beach Volleyball Coach, LSU
My wife says I'm a way better husband since I became an MWOD.
Marc V.
Real Estate Agent & New Dad
As MWODs, my husband and I both make way better decisions.
Amanda H.
Homeschool Teacher & Mom of 3
My friends freak out at how much my body has changed. I've never been more alive.
Chris D.
Norman S. Wright
Not only did I lose the weight I wanted to lose — I'm onto life-changing habits for the rest of my life.
OV
Man of Discomfort
I don't just teach this
I don't ask anyone to do what I haven't done myself. Every morning I make the same choice — a daily practice of voluntary discomfort. I don't practice doing hard things because it's easy. I practice doing hard things because it works.
CrossFit featured this story in their Magic of CrossFit film series. Not because of me — because the principle holds for everyone.
"What we practice is hard choices, and the result is we get a better life."
What people say
Seth describes Dane's writing as "a priceless gift with invaluable advice for anyone building something that matters."
Seth Godin — Author & Entrepreneur
Ann describes Dane's speaking as "More like a favorite teacher than a business speaker — rare introspection, depth, and clarity of mind."
Ann Handley — Author & Speaker
Taylor describes Dane's transformational work as, "Dane built the cultural operating system that transformed CTC — the tools, the measurement, the coaching."
Taylor Holiday — CEO, Common Thread Collective
If what you've seen here resonates, these are the best ways to keep the conversation going.
Podcast
Why do people who chase comfort end up miserable — while the ones who choose difficulty seem the most alive? Each episode explores what it takes to stop drifting and start living on purpose.
28+ episodes · 4 seasons · With Mitch Dong
Start with Episode 1 →Newsletter
Short essays on discipline, resistance, and aligning what you do with who you say you are. Written for leaders, founders, and anyone who suspects the hard way might be the only way.
Delivered · Free · On Substack
Subscribe free →Podcast
Conversations with Seth Godin, Ryan Holiday, Gretchen Rubin, Donald Miller, and more — people who live in the tension between building something great and doing work that matters.
Best-selling authors, founders, and culture shapers
Start listening →Recent essays
Start a conversation
Whether it's your organization's culture, your team's performance, or your own life — the path is the same. And it starts with a conversation.
