Podcast
Why Not Us
Hosted by Dillon Phaneuf / Jamie Paton · EN
"Why Not Us?" is a podcast hosted by Dillon Phaneuf that dives into honest conversations about overcoming fear, self-doubt, and life's challenges. Through personal stories and spiritual insights, we explore how to embrace growth, faith, and the belief that we all have the potential to do great things. If you've ever asked yourself, "Why not me?", this podcast is for you. Tune in for honest, uplifting episodes that inspire you to take charge of your journey and reach your highest potential.
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
From Obesity, Addiction, and Survival to Purpose, Coaching, and Faith
Jun 901:12:11Tap to summarizeIn this special episode of Why Not Us, the tables are turned as Sean steps into the host seat and interviews Dillon about the journey that shaped his life, leadership, coaching philosophy, and faith.This conversation goes far beyond fitness.Dillon shares the story of leaving home at fifteen, navigating years of instability, building businesses from the ground up, struggling with obesity, addiction, injury, identity, and the relentless pursuit of achievement. He opens up about the victories, the failures, the lessons, and the moments that completely changed the trajectory of his life.The episode explores how pain became a teacher, how fitness became a vehicle for transformation, and why the deeper work was never about building a better body. It was about becoming a different man.Sean guides the conversation through the defining moments that shaped Dillon's worldview, his approach to coaching, the role faith has played in his rebuild, and what he now believes truly creates lasting change.What We Cover• Growing up and leaving home at a young age • The years spent struggling with obesity and self image • Addiction, loss, hardship, and learning through pain • Building businesses and chasing success • Why achievement alone never brought fulfillment • The lessons learned from coaching thousands of people • The role faith played in rebuilding identity and purpose • What Dillon believes creates real transformation todayKey Takeaways• Pain can become a teacher if you're willing to learn from it • Fitness is often the doorway, not the destination • Success without identity creates emptiness • Real transformation requires honesty, responsibility, and alignment • The rebuild starts when you stop blaming your circumstances and start building your capacityWhether you've followed Dillon's journey for years or are hearing parts of it for the first time, this episode provides the full context behind the voice, philosophy, and mission that continue to shape Why Not Us today.
Transcribe →Episode 44: What Growth Actually Looks Like Over Time
Apr 1501:01:25Tap to summarizeSome conversations aren’t planned. They happen because two men sit down long enough to talk honestly.In this episode, Jamie and I unpack what it actually means to mature as a man. Not the cultural version built around success, money, or image, but the quieter transformation that happens through responsibility, humility, faith, and time.We talk about how maturity changes the way you handle pressure, conflict, relationships, leadership, and purpose. The conversation moves through lessons that only come through experience, learning to slow down, choosing responsibility over reaction, and realizing that real growth often happens long before anyone else notices it.This is a raw, reflective conversation about becoming the kind of man who can carry weight without letting it harden his heart.In this episode, we discuss:The difference between ambition and responsibilityWhy maturity often begins with humilityHow faith reshapes the definition of strengthLearning to respond instead of reactLeadership that serves instead of controlsThe tension between speed, patience, and growthWhy maturity often requires slowing downBecoming the kind of man others can trust and rely onCore takeaway:Maturity isn’t about becoming more impressive.It’s about becoming more grounded.If you’re in a season where life is asking more of you…If responsibility is increasing and the stakes feel higher…If you’re learning that strength looks different than it used to…This conversation is a reminder that real growth is quieter than most people expect, but far more powerful than the version the world celebrates.
Transcribe →Episode 43: A Late Reflection That Still Speaks
Feb 2501:18:39Tap to summarizeThis episode was originally recorded as a year-in-review conversation, and then life moved fast. Dillon lost the SD card, lol. Oops.Two months later, we found it again.What makes this conversation powerful isn’t the timing. It’s the honesty. Jamie and I went deep into what the past year actually cost, what it revealed, what had to die, and what quietly began forming underneath it all.This isn’t a highlight reel. It’s a pruning conversation.We talk about identity shifts, obedience over optics, the tension between ambition and surrender, and the hard lessons that only make sense once you’re already walking in them. What’s interesting is that many of the things discussed in this episode, direction, clarity, alignment, spiritual maturity, are already unfolding now.In that sense, this isn’t a recap. It’s a receipt.In this episode, we unpack:What the last year stripped away and why that matteredThe difference between public success and private obedienceIdentity collapse and rebuilding from a cleaner foundationLessons learned through pressure, pruning, and lossHow faith deepened when comfort disappearedLetting go of legacy-building in exchange for lordshipWhy some seasons are for visibility, and others for formationWhat we sensed coming before we could see it clearlyCore theme: Growth rarely feels impressive while it’s happening. It feels like loss, discomfort, and surrender.This episode is for anyone who walked through a refining year, where things shifted, relationships changed, ambitions were restructured, and faith became less emotional and more anchored.Sometimes reflection lands late. That doesn’t make it irrelevant.If anything, it proves the work was real.
Transcribe →Episode 42: Mixing Friendship & Business - Tyler Toth
Feb 1300:51:21Tap to summarizeWhen Change Doesn’t Mean ConflictThis episode isn’t about business details. It’s about maturity.For the first time publicly, Tyler and I sit down and talk about my exit from the gym and Trademark, not to explain timelines or unpack private conversations, but to model something rare in today’s culture: unity after transition.The internet loves collapse stories. It wants fallout, betrayal arcs, sides to choose, and villains to blame. Real life is quieter than that. More nuanced. Often healthier than social media can tolerate.This conversation is about friendship that outlives structure. About hard conversations that happen privately. About growth that doesn’t require spectacle. And about what it looks like for two men to move in different directions without fracturing respect.We also talk about fatherhood, the recent renovation at the gym, Tyler’s renewed focus on bodybuilding, and how seasons of life reorder priorities without erasing identity.This is not a drama episode. It’s a leadership episode.In this episode, we discuss:Why not every transition needs a public explanationFriendship that isn’t dependent on proximity or business alignmentThe difference between transparency and oversharingHow fatherhood reshapes ambition and riskProtecting peace in a culture that thrives on reactionRenovation as recommitment to culture and communityTraining seasons and recalibrating identityWhy restraint is sometimes the strongest statementCore takeaway: Not everything that ends is broken. Sometimes change is simply growth in different directions.If you’ve ever navigated a business shift, partnership transition, or friendship evolution…If you’ve felt pressure to perform conflict for the internet…If you value maturity over narrative…This episode shows what unity actually looks like when no one is trying to win.Peace doesn’t need applause.
Transcribe →Episode 41: My Personal Blind Spots
Feb 1001:04:54Tap to summarizeThis episode is one of the most personal and confrontational conversations on Why Not Us to date, not aimed outward, but inward.Rather than offering motivation or encouragement, this episode is about refinement. About allowing blind spots to be named without turning them into shame. About understanding how past wounds, gifting, ambition, and success can quietly distort calling if they aren’t continually surrendered.This conversation explores the tension between obedience and control, anointing and intensity, leadership and ego. It addresses the subtle ways shame disguises itself as motivation, how discernment can harden into suspicion, and why legacy can become an idol if it isn’t anchored in lordship.This is not an episode about self-improvement. It’s about self-examination.In this episode, we unpack:Why obedience can still hide a need for controlHow intensity is often mistaken for anointingThe danger of using ministry, success, or productivity to self-soothe shameWhen compassion turns into a savior complexDiscernment versus fear-based suspicionThe difference between legacy and lordshipMoney as emotional security rather than stewardshipHow spiritual growth can quietly produce prideWhy slowness is required for real shepherdingThe responsibility to only teach what you’re actively obeyingCore theme: Growth isn’t about becoming louder, faster, or more impressive. It’s about becoming cleaner, humbler, and more obedient.This episode is for anyone who feels called, gifted, or driven, but knows that calling without refinement eventually becomes dangerous. It’s an invitation to let God sharpen what He’s already entrusted to you, not to shame you, but to prepare you.Sometimes the most loving thing God does isn’t encouragement.It’s exposure, followed by grace.
Transcribe →Episode 40: Responsibility, Fatherhood, and Leadership - Cody Gonek
Jan 3000:46:11Tap to summarizeIn this episode of Why Not Us, I sit down with Cody Gonek for a grounded, honest conversation about what it actually means to build something real. Not just a business, but a life that carries weight, responsibility, and long-term vision.Cody is in the middle of opening a new gym, raising a family, and stepping deeper into leadership. This conversation explores the internal shift that happens when people begin depending on you, when decisions affect more than just yourself, and when discipline alone isn’t enough to answer the deeper questions.We talk about fatherhood as a mirror that reshapes identity and redefines success. We explore the role of fitness as integrity rather than aesthetics, and why physical discipline often becomes an anchor during seasons of pressure. We also touch on faith and meaning gently and honestly, without forcing conclusions, but naming the questions that surface when responsibility increases.This is a conversation about stewardship, not hype. About leadership without bravado. And about building spaces, families, and communities that last longer than motivation.In this episode, we discuss:The internal weight that comes with ownership and leadershipHow fatherhood changes the way men define successFitness as discipline, grounding, and personal integrityAsking deeper questions when momentum fadesModern masculinity and the confusion many men are carryingWhy gyms and community spaces matter beyond moneyLeadership as stewardship, not statusCore theme: Building something real always costs more than you expect, but it shapes you into someone worth becoming.If you’re carrying responsibility quietly…If you’re building while still figuring yourself out…If you’re trying to lead without hardening or burning out…This episode is for you.Why Not Us is about asking better questions while you build, not waiting until life forces them on you.
Transcribe →Episode 39: Raebolic Part 2, An update on her Journey
Jan 1201:08:03Tap to summarizeRae returns to Why Not Us for a very different conversation.In her first episode, we discussed the moment her life split into a before and an after, encountering God in the midst of trauma, surrendering in the dark, and finding peace that didn’t make sense. This episode picks up where most stories end: the long middle.This conversation examines what happens after the miracle fades and real life resumes. The emotional highs don’t stay high. The guilt of not always “feeling” God. The quiet work of learning how to walk with Him through recovery, pain, and uncertainty.This isn’t a sequel. It’s maturation.In this episode, we discuss:The emotional rollercoaster that follows powerful spiritual encountersFaith, when the intensity wears off, and life becomes demandingReturning to church after trauma and the vulnerability of being seenLong-term hospital life and what it reveals about purpose and callingPain management, medication, and advocating for your own bodyMoving from adrenaline-driven faith to daily obediencePreparing mentally and spiritually for life after the hospitalWhy healing was never meant to be done aloneKey theme:Faith is not constant intensity; it’s a covenant. The miracle isn’t just surviving. The miracle is learning how to live afterward.Scripture referenced:Psalm 34:18Isaiah 43:2Philippians 1:62 Corinthians 12:9If you’ve ever felt confused after a spiritual high. If you’ve wondered why faith feels quieter after the miracle. If you’re walking through the long middle and trying to stay grounded.This episode is for you.Sometimes God meets us in the darkSometimes, He teaches us in the quiet that follows
Transcribe →Epsiode 38 - The Man Behind the Camera: Sean Chai
Dec 2701:10:36Tap to summarizeThis episode is a different kind of conversation.Dillon sits down with Sean Chai, the producer who’s been behind the camera since the early days of Why Not Us. Not to spotlight him as a creator, but to acknowledge the role of those who quietly watch, build, and discern before stepping forward.Together, they talk honestly about vision, craft, fitness, discipline, fear, timing, and what it actually means to build something meaningful in a culture obsessed with speed and short-term validation. The conversation explores the tension many people feel in their late 20s and 30s: knowing there’s more inside of them, but hesitating to choose a direction too early or attach themselves to the wrong thing.This episode isn’t about announcements or hype. It’s about alignment. About the difference between content and craft. About waiting for gravity instead of rushing for attention. And about what happens when two visions begin to overlap, not in competition, but in complement.In this episode, we discuss:What you learn about people by spending years behind the lensFitness as discipline, stewardship, and mental clarityThe question “What would you do if you couldn’t fail?” and why it mattersVision without structure vs. vision with weightFear, timing, and the cost of staying safe for too longChoosing long-term craft over fast, disposable contentBuilding something that lasts instead of staying busyKey reflection:Sometimes the people behind the camera are the ones carrying the future of the vision.If you’ve ever felt stuck between preparation and action, or unsure when it’s time to step forward, this episode will resonate deeply.
Transcribe →Episode 37 - A Son of Canada: Why I’m Done Settling (A Year in Review + 10 Lessons)
Dec 2100:40:37Tap to summarizeThis episode marks a turning point.In a rare solo conversation, Dillon walks listeners through a full year of refinement, obedience, and spiritual realignment. Two prophetic words spoken over his life, one years ago and one a year prior, are revisited and weighed against the evidence of the last twelve months: the cost, the pruning, the clarity, and the fruit.This is not a testimony episode meant to inspire emotion. It’s a public act of stewardship.Dillon reflects on identity, sonship, discouragement, fatherhood, and the danger of settling just as momentum begins to build. He speaks candidly about the temptation to leave Canada in search of bigger platforms, and why the calling to stay rooted became unmistakable. The episode also outlines a clear pivot for the podcast, expanding into culture, health, leadership, masculinity, and real life without losing spiritual authority or conviction.In this episode, you’ll hear about:The difference between calling as fantasy and calling as responsibilityWhy sonship must come before stewardshipHow discouragement often disguises itself as wisdom or realismThe cost of the last year, and the fruit it producedWhy rootedness matters more than reachThe internal and external shifts shaping the future of the podcastTen hard-earned lessons from 2025 that now function as doctrine, not theoryKey truth from the episode:Calling isn’t proven by ambition. It’s proven by obedience under pressure. This is a year-in-review episode, a public pivot, and a line drawn in the sand.Not about performance. About alignment.
Transcribe →Episode 36 - The Lord’s Prayer: How Jesus Taught Us to Pray
Dec 501:07:44Tap to summarizeThis episode is different from our usual format.Today, Pastor Jamie leads a comprehensive teaching on The Lord’s Prayer, breaking down the prayer Jesus gave to His disciples and showing us how it serves as a model for every believer to build a genuine prayer life.Off-the-cuff and straight from Jamie’s heart, this message walks through each line of the Lord’s Prayer and reveals what it means for your daily walk: how to approach God as Father, how to align your will with His, how to ask for provision, how to fight temptation, and how to stay anchored in forgiveness.More than a sermon, this is a practical framework, a way to pray when you don’t know what to say, a structure for strengthening your spiritual life, and a reminder that prayer is not performance… It’s a relationship.In this episode:Why Jesus gave us a model, not just words to repeatHow to begin prayer with identity and honourWhat it means to pray “Your will be done”Understanding spiritual dependency and daily provisionThe link between forgiveness, freedom, and answered prayerHow prayer strengthens your spirit in moments of temptationBuilding a consistent, healthy prayer lifeQuote to remember:“Prayer is not about trying to get God’s attention; it’s about returning your heart to where it belongs.”If you’ve been struggling to pray or are unsure where to start, this episode will provide you with the clarity and confidence to develop a prayer life that truly sustains you.
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