Plastic Surgeon with Dr. Dan Ward

This week on Redefine Business, Brittni sits down with her good friend Dr. Daniel Ward — facial plastic surgeon, author, and entrepreneur (affectionately known as “Dan the Man”). Dan spent years as a professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine before leaving to build his own practice over a decade ago. But this episode isn’t really about surgery. It’s about what surgery — and confidence, and mindset, and small daily choices — can teach us about running a business and living a fuller life.

The Five Freedoms

Dan opens up about a turning point in his own entrepreneurial journey: hiring a life coach who introduced him to the concept of the “five freedoms,” including geographic freedom, time freedom, and the freedom to love and influence who you want. Dan realized he’d been chasing financial freedom almost exclusively — and that realization pushed him to slowly restructure his life and work around what actually mattered to him.

Why “I Don’t Care How You Look, But I Care How You Feel”

The heart of this conversation is a story about a patient Dan saw four months after her rhinoplasty. She wasn’t just happy with her nose — she was glowing, going to the gym more, eating better, and closer with her husband than ever. That pattern repeated across dozens of patients, and it shaped how Dan thinks about his work: investing in yourself, in whatever form that takes, can be the entry point to realizing you’re worth the gym, the healthy relationship, the trip you’ve always wanted to take.

Brittni connects this to her own life, recalling how her mom always made sure she and her siblings looked put-together, even during hard financial years — “if you look good, you feel good, you act good.” Dan backs this up with the Dartmouth “scar study,” where participants told they had a visible scar (which was secretly removed before they left the room) rated their interviewers as treating them worse — even though there was no scar at all. How we believe we present ourselves changes how we experience the world around us, regardless of what’s actually true.

Motivation Doesn’t Come First — Momentum Does

One of the most practical takeaways: stop waiting for motivation. Dan explains that motivation almost always follows momentum, not the other way around. His advice — break any dreaded task (taxes, a workout, a hard conversation) into a step so small it feels almost silly, and let that tiny action snowball into the follow-through you were waiting to feel motivated for.

Dan’s Two Books

Dan shares the ideas behind two upcoming books:

• His first book is on body transformation — a look at how much of mainstream diet and exercise advice misses the mark, why building muscle (not just cardio) is the real lever for both men and women, and how mindset drives sustainable change.
• His second book is a more personal book on the intersection of his faith (he’s a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) and cognitive behavioral therapy — exploring how religion can offer the “what” while therapy offers the “how.”