Barn Talk - Green Beret to Whiskey Empire: Casey Maxted’s Fight for Veterans

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

In this episode, we’re joined by Casey Maxted—a man whose resume reads like an adventure novel. From his roots growing up on an Iowa farm to serving as a Green Beret in the U.S. Special Forces and later as an FBI agent tackling violent crime and counterterrorism, Casey has seen it all. But his story doesn’t stop there. He’s now channeling his experience and passion into entrepreneurship, running multiple businesses including Cold Zero Whiskey and Pillars of Valor Coffee, and, most notably, serving as Director of Operations at Warrior Rising, a nonprofit helping veterans find purpose through business ownership. Sawyer and Tork dig deep with Casey about his journey—exploring the sacrifices, camaraderie, and lessons learned along the way. Casey opens up about the transitions between his high-intensity careers, his candid reflections on team building and leadership, and why helping others—especially veterans and law enforcement—drives him. They also get into his family life, how growing up on a farm shaped his work ethic, and how he balances multiple projects with being an engaged dad. Of course, there’s plenty of talk about whiskey (including some live tasting!), entrepreneurship, and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people. Whether you’re a veteran, a business owner, or just someone looking for a bit of inspiration and wisdom, Casey’s story is packed with insights and heart. So pull up a chair in the barn—this episode is one you won’t want to miss! Farmer Grade Memorial Day Sale  https://farmergrade.com/  Learn More About Our New Project👇🏻 https://livestockwaterandenergy.com  SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱ https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR   SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c  LISTEN ON: SPOTIFY ➱ https://open.spotify.com/show/3icVr4KWq4eUDl7Oy60YMY  APPLE ➱ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barn-talk/id1574395049 Follow Behind The Scenes👇🏻 ● This’ll Do Farm Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/30KPBNk   ● Barn Talk TikTok ➱ https://bit.ly/3qciekS   ● Sawyer’s Instagram  ➱ https://bit.ly/3BtX0n4   ● Tork’s Instagram ➱ https://bit.ly/3LGZJxS     00:00 Smoked Hot Dogs Dilemma 16:11 Witnessing 9/11 and Air Force One 21:23 Military to Law Enforcement Transition 33:37 Aviator's Most Fulfilling Experience 51:07 "Unexpected Impact of Crime Everywhere" 53:00 Trust: Key To Child Safety 01:12:19 Personal Performance Through Nature and Routine 01:22:55 D-Day 81st Anniversary Jump 01:30:01 Naming Origins: Torque's Story 01:42:46 School Safety and Veteran Support 01:46:25 Business: A New Kind of Mission 02:02:27 "Building Teamwork Through Challenge" 02:15:26 Proving Doubters Wrong 02:16:19 Challenging Traditional Career Paths ------------------------------- ⚠NO FINANCIAL ADVICE / DISCLAIMER⚠  The Information discussed and shared on Barn Talk is provided for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or success for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this podcast is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice, or any other advice. The Information on this podcast and provided from or through our content is general in nature and is not specific to you, the user or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investment, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this podcast without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional, professional broker or financial advisory. Understand that you are ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays in the barn, but not today. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today is going to be a real special guest episode. We met this guy probably a month or two back. He is doing some pretty incredible things. in business. He has a pretty amazing career, pretty amazing career in the military and in the FBI, or he did have an amazing career in military and FBI. There's a lot of great things that we're going to touch on. Before we get into it, you guys know the drill. Share the show with the people

that you know if you get any value. The more that you guys do that, the more the show grows. The more guests we can have on, the more episodes we can make. It's kind of the ticket to admission to watch or listen to the show. Another thing you can do to help us out here at Barn Talk is leave a review on Spotify or Apple. The more you guys do that, the more it makes our show credible so we can recruit more guests to come to the barn and have a great conversation with us. And we just love hearing from you guys. Love hearing your feedback. Love hearing what you have to say about the show. So thank you to all that do that. Last thing you can do to help us out here on our family farm and help support barn talk and support our direct-to-consumer meat business

Farmergrade, farmagrade.com. I have a, I have a little blurb I'll give. This weekend, I'm going to make, this might be the, this might be trailer park torque, but I'm going to make hot dog burn ins. Hot dog burn ins. Yeah, so one of the hardest items to stay tightly vacuum sealed, apparently as hot dogs because we had a fair amount of them

as we're filling orders that for whatever reason the seal breaks so they all go in the tub and I only get the scraps because I get treated like family but there's like all there's like eight packs of hot dogs and I'm like what am I going to do with all these hot dogs I do love a good hot dog but I can't eat that many

and then I saw this recipe where somebody puts them on the smoker and they just like smoke them for an hour and then you cut them up and then you put seasoning on them and a little, I think you put seasoning on them and butter and sauce and then you put them back on the smoker and you let them go for another however long till that sauce tacks up and they say that they're fantastic. Sounds good to me. So I'm going to make them. Invite me over. I'll report back. I'll invite you over if there's any left. I don't think I can eat eight packs. Or do the, there's a recipe out there where this guy did like a jalapeno cheddar

And like, did you remember I sent those to you? Oh, yeah. He like made jalapinos inside the bun or some shit. Oh, man. Looks so good. I'll start with the burn ends. Yeah, we can try. There's so many variations we can try.

But yeah. That's the beautiful thing about meat. It's like, it's like art, you know? It is on art. And just think of Farmer Grade as like your art supply. It's your paint. It's your paint. Yep, there you go.

Just pick and choose whatever you want and just go crazy. You get on the website, whatever, you know what? You're going to smoke a pork butt. You're going to make hot dog burn ends. There's always room for bacon. I mean, you should just always have it. We did get beef bacon in. Beef bacon.

Got that in. That's kind of like cheating on your girlfriend. Yeah. So it's, I'm going to try that. I don't know. I've had it once. So I'm curious to see how it tastes. But people were asking about it, so we got some.

Okay. Well, yeah. Well, today's guest is, like I said, he's a former green. Bray. He was in the FBI, grew up as a farm kid. His grandpa was a farmer. He is involved in a number amount of, a number of companies. He's got a whiskey brand. He's got a coffee brand. He does a really create a really cool nonprofit for veterans supporting their entrepreneurial journey. And he is just a kick-ass dude. Like when we met him at this event, he just was super personable, super down to earth. Um, he's one of those guys I think is humble and likes to say that he doesn't have a lot of shit going on.

And he, what he does doesn't really matter. But he's doing a lot of cool shit. So I am stoked for this, for this episode. And he brought a bottle of whiskey. So let's quit screwing around. And, uh, vodka white labeled. Um, and, um, and, uh, while I was out there talking about the vodka product before I left, I had a vodka deal and a whiskey deal. So it just kind of fell into my lap. Yeah. And I didn't know anything about making whiskey or anything like that. But I had like a little team put together. And we just started getting after it. That's awesome. Yeah.

You're pretty good. I mean, timing-wise, pretty good because I feel like, yeah, I feel like the beer thing has gotten so saturated. And then the other thing is, like his generation, they're not, they're not near as, like the health part of it. Yeah. They aren't ones to just go sit down and drink a 30 pack of Bush Light, you know. I know. They don't want that.

They'd rather have a lighter drink or a fewer drinks. Yeah. So, you know, my generation, whiskey, with the exception of, with the exception of really shitty whiskey when you're young, like to this day, if I smell Southern comfort, I will get nauseous. Because I might or might not have driven around with a bottle of it in the glove box of my car. But I can't do it today. But with the exception of that, like, most people don't get into whiskey until they're a little bit older, it seems like. But for, like, younger generations, I feel like that market is like a lot bigger, starting a lot bigger.

You're exactly right. I notice it, too. I have kids as well. And I'm actually glad about the whole beer thing with them. it seems like a lot of the salsa products now are a hit with the younger crowd. There's so many, though. There's a ton. God, what do you even choose at this point?

But I think you and I were probably in that last generation of just, you know, crushing a 30-packing it. It makes sense. Waking up and running a, you know, a football game the next day or something like that. You know what I mean, but it's just, it's different now. But that's okay. And to the health part of it, it is probably a lot better. So, but yeah, it's, I mean, the whiskey thing, like we, I think we got in at a really good time for that.

Also, with the market the way it is kind of lately, it's not as good for us. But it's just like any business, you have to scratch and claw and just figure it out, you know. You're lucky. Well, I shouldn't say. you'll tell me if you're not lucky, but, you know, so much of that game is the story, like having a story. And I think the big, I think the players in it that are going to suffer the most are the ones that either don't have a history or they don't have a convincing,

like, reason why you should support them. Yeah. And I think you got a good, I think you got a good, a good, a good reason to support it and a good story and that that will help a lot we have a few things going for us we do have a good story like my my partners all have incredible backgrounds and interesting you know interesting stories to talk about um but when we first started this thing we were like we have to have a good product like if it's not good like we won't be able to sustain it right and so that meant a lot to us like we had to really nail it and i think we did i mean we'll sample this thing in a little bit and you

guys can decide for yourself, but like we're with Cedar Ridge Distillery. Cedar Ridge Distillery is legitimate. They are a, um, it's kind of funny. They're like a smaller organization, but they're really running with the big boys. I mean, they have a really good thing going. And so, um, by virtue of being partnered with them, we have a good product. Um, the story is great, but we have, you still have to get out there. You still have to scratch, claw sell. And it's a hard market to be in the spirit industry. It's very difficult. I was listening to a story the other day, and I don't have a problem mentioning like competitors, if you want to call them that, but horse soldier bourbon, they have a similar makeup of guys as we do, come from the same place. They have a really cool brand. And what I didn't

know about them is they had actually started their whiskey business before the movie Horse Soldier came out. And after that movie came out, their company blew up. And now those guys are like building in new facilities and cranking out, you know, a million barrels a year or maybe more, I don't know, but it's, um, it's pretty incredible, but get into, you better get into screenwriting. It's probably not going to ask. You need one more thing to do. Yeah, right.

Right. Well, shit, we're, we're getting into the, the nitty gritty already, but I feel like we got a, we got to introduce you first. So Casey Mack, Macstead, welcome to Barn Talk. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah, man. We, uh, we met you at an event that we all went to and, uh, we just got to talk.

and God, you started listening off all the cool stuff you're doing and what you've done in your past. We're like, dude, we got to get you on the show. So we're super pumped to have you here today. To kick things off, you know, where can people find you? Where can people get in touch with you or support what you're doing? Yeah. So I have a few different things going.

Kind of my passion project and what I'm heavily involved in is Warrior Rising. And that's a nonprofit organization where we help veterans find purpose. again through business ownership. So creating and sustaining businesses and then perpetuating the hiring of other veterans. We're in our 10th year. This is our 10-year anniversary of Warrior Rising. We Are Warrior Rising is our handle for Instagram. We have, we are Warrior Rising.org is our website, so you can find us there and certainly participate in the different events we have going around on around the country. I have an event in Iowa this week, coincidentally. But yeah, that's something that's really important to me, you know, as a veteran and, you know, a grandson of veterans and things like that is helping those folks as they transition from service to back to kind of like civilian life, finding that purpose again because it is a piece that some people struggle with.

I didn't. I got lucky, but I'm certainly aware that some people do struggle with that, and I want to help them with that. Now, that's badass. What else? I know you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're. talking about one thing, but we got another thing here, too. You're just talking about it before. Cold Zero. What is Cold Zero there? So Cold Zero is a brand of whiskey that I started with my partners a few years back. So Cold Zero in law enforcement military speak, the term was actually coined by an FBI hostage rescue team member, Chris Whitcomb. And it's your first shot on a cold barrel, wherever your round hits. That's called your Cold Zero. Well, when I was coming up with the whiskey brand. I was like racking my brain for a cool brand name. And one day it kind of hit me.

I was like, Cold Zero, your first shot, your first shot at a bar, that type of thing. So it all worked out. That's how we came up with that. So my partners on that company are Chad. He's a former Green Beret with an incredible background. And he's become an expert in the whiskey business, spirit business. I mean, he works super hard. I've known him since I was a new guy. I've known him since I was a new guy. Special Forces group. He's one of the first guys that I met and kind of like looked at as a mentor. So he's he's one of my partners, lives down in Georgia. Josh Smith is a local guy here, Air Force veteran. And then I have a few ambassadors, Leroy Petrie, who's in Medal of Honor recipient, former Army Ranger, Earl Plumley, former Green Beret Medal of Honor recipient, Nick Lavery.

Nick is still actually on active duty, but Green Beret, and one of the first special operations above the knee amputees to deploy again. I think he deployed like four or five times as a amputee. And if you ever meet this guy, like if I was like Taliban or Al Qaeda and this dude walked through my door, I'd probably just fall over dead. You'd have to shoot me. The dude's scary. He's like six, six, six.

Just huge, intimidating guy. But just a great dude. And we're thrilled to have those guys as part of our team. So. And cold zero. is the handle anywhere. Yep. So cold zero.com.

You can also find us on Instagram. The product that you have there is our reserve, and that's 115 proof. Every bottle is signed by a metal of honor recipient. We only did a certain number of those for a release. Our regular whiskey that you can find is a rye, a 92 proof. And then we have a vodka product as well. Next year, looking forward,

we're going to do a single barrel release and we're going to do that for the World War II crowd. We have a couple of those guys who are going to sign bottles for us. We're also probably going to do it working through some details right now but with the MACV. Sog's blessing, we're going to do a single barrel for them

and give back to Special Operations Association so you can look for those two to be coming up here shortly. That's badass. Hey, thanks for sticking with us. Calling all Iowa farmers. Are you ready to make your voice heard, join the Iowa Corn Growers Association this June for the annual district roundtable meetings? When you attend roundtables, you'll directly influence the policies that affect you and your farm.

Policies discussed that these roundtables will be taken to the annual grassroots summit on September 3rd, where ICGA delegates will debate and set the direction for ICGA policy for next year. The meetings focus on shaping ICG policy, but they're also a chance to connect over a meal with fellow farmers, share your insights, and discuss the key issue impacting your industry firsthand. Nine roundtable meetings are held across the state and one virtual option, meaning you don't have to travel far to let your voice be heard. Visit IowaCorn.org backslash roundtables to find the date and location of your district roundtable meeting. If you're not a member yet, that's okay. Join today and let's work together for a prosperous future for all Iowa corn growers. Now, let's get back to it.

Well, I feel like we can probably just go down this whole genre for as much time as you want to sit there. But we probably better try to cover some more important stuff. So give us just a little bit of your background for people that don't know, kind of what you did up to this point. So I'm an Iowa native. I grew up in a small town called Makokoda, eastern Iowa, and I went to University of Northern Iowa. Then I finished up at St. Ambrose. And I was in college with 9-11 happened. And on that day, I was working at UPS at the time. Actually, I'd load trucks in the morning. I'd come home and go to school. Well, that day I flipped on the TV, and I actually was watching when the second plane hit, and I was like, holy smokes.

It kind of, you know, I was in shock just like everybody else. So my grandmother had a huge role in raising me when I was younger. And so I decided I was going to go back home and make sure she was okay. So I went and I was filling my car up with gas in the Quad Cities. And I remember they had grounded all the flights that day, so the sky was completely clear. But when I was pumping gas, I looked up and, Air Force One flew right over my head with a fighter jet escort, so I knew that's what it was, right? And it just hit me right there. I was like, I'm signing up. Like, I'm joining the military.

So I did. I did join the military. And the day after, I stayed on and actually graduated first. And I left the day after graduation for Basic. I went into the military with a Ranger contract. And while I was in airborne school, I snagged a Special Forces contract. And then ended up going straight into the green berets. So not into the green berets, but I had the opportunity to become a green beret. So I had to go to selection, the Q course, which is our qualification course at Fort Bragg. I think it took like a year and a half, two years roughly to get through that whole thing and then made it to Special Forces group.

I did that for a few years. my career compared to other green berets in that time frame was maybe not as much activity as some. I was doing a lot of J-sets, which for those that may not know what that is, it's essentially going overseas, training host nation counterparts, partner forces, stuff like that. I loved it. It was great. But while I was doing that, I picked up an opportunity to apply with the FBI, and I did that. And I actually got hired.

I didn't think I would, but I did. And once that door opened, I jumped through it and became an FBI agent for a number of years, over a decade, almost 15 years. And then transitioned from that into owning a few different businesses and the nonprofit stuff and being a dad and all that. So in a nutshell, Cliff Note version, that's my life in a nutshell. but yeah so so just one thing that's jumped out to me was so you were you were in service when you applied for the FBI yeah okay is that a deal where when you got that job is that like your

get out of jail card or did you have to finish your did you have to finish your commitment or did they let you out no I served the whole time there's no jail either like I loved it there. It's like it, um, I was with like the best people like that I could ever imagine being with. But like even when I was younger, like I feel like I had like a, a view of how things were going to go that maybe some people didn't. And I looked at like my career as a marathon, not a sprint. Yeah. Special forces, special operations in my opinion as a sprint. Like there, there's so much going on that it's just like a whirlwind. Um, and I was like, I want to be in this for like the long haul. So that was an opportunity. That was an opportunity to stay in the game for a long time.

And to be completely honest, I ended up deploying more with special operations as an FBI guy, as a government guy than I did when I was in, at least to like the good stuff, like, you know, outside training. So it was interesting the way that it all kind of worked out. So when you, when you applied to the FBI, Did you have in mind, like, what you wanted to do or did you just want to get in? No, I had an idea. I had an idea now, like, with that being said, like, you don't have all the control. Like, if they tell you, you're going to do something, you're going to do it, you know, within,

they give you, like, just for an example, like, when you're in the academy, they have a sheet where you can say, hey, I want to go to this office, but you pick regions. So I can't even remember what they are. which might be east, central, west, southwest, something like that. So you pick a region, then you rank the offices, right? So you're like, I want to go to wherever and you turn it in. You may get it, but you may not. You may get the total opposite.

So mine was pretty easy because I was like, I want to go to Los Angeles. I wanted to go to a big office and experience, you know, everything that it had. Chaos. And it was, it was chaos. There was just a ton of opportunity there. Yeah. And also I came in at the time they had this, the hostage rescue team had this thing where they would hire guys

to come to the hostage rescue team. And I got one of those. I never went because I ended up loving it in L.A. ended up having kids out there, stuff like that, right? So I, in that hostage rescue teams on the East Coast. Sure. So I ended up staying out there. But it helped me to get to a good spot that I wanted to be at.

And I left obviously a tactical world in the military, but I ended up, my whole career was tactical to an extent. I worked violent crime. And the squad that I was on, we had the fugitive squad. So we would go after all the violent criminals, homicide suspects, like the worst of the worst. So my last thing in LA division, if I can remember, right because it's been a while like we had a guy that had murdered his girlfriend and we found them in a um like a little shanty out in the middle of the desert i was like low crawling through the sand up to his house and it was like the same stuff i've always been doing so yeah um you know it was fun i loved it i got great experience out there i worked with a lot of great people um i know that the fbi gets um a lot of

heat these days, but the reality is much different than what the media perception is or whatever. Like the boots on the ground people are fantastic. There might be a few people at headquarters that are like motivated by something else, whatever. That's their business, whatever. They'll be found out and moved on, you know. But like when you talk about people who actually are boots on the ground that you never hear about, like those people have all the right motivations, all their hearts always in the right place. They're doing the right things. um people can feel secure in that and i can tell you that because i was with them and you know um it um it was like the it was like i can't imagine a better professional experienced and being with the

fbi at that time and doing what i was doing it was cool when you left when you left uh when you left special forces how long is a training when you made the jump to fbi uh it was kind of funny because like I graduated college in the day after I went to the Army. I left the military, and I had like a month off and I was in that bureau. And it's, I don't know what it is now. I went from training from like April to September roughly. Okay. So whatever that is.

Yeah. Five months or so. Uh, any longer. It's, but it's, it's a lot, uh, it's at Quantico. Very much, um, I'd call it like a gentleman's course. very, very, uh, college like atmosphere. Okay. A lot of classroom, PT. There's tactics. There's all sorts of fun stuff, but very much so classroom setting where you're learning the ends and outs of, uh, how to write reports, law, legal, um, interview interrogation type stuff, techniques, all that. Um,

uh, so yeah, it was, it was fun. I liked it. And that was a little big change for me too, because I from like the atmosphere I was in before was like a lot of knuckle-draggers. Yeah. Great guys that could do anything they want to do. But very much so, very masculine, like... Emphasis on the tactical. Yeah, emphasis on the tactical. Not so much on the law and interrogation.

Yeah, there's people for that. But like when we got to the bureau, my class, I think, think it was about 50 people and it was like there was somebody from NASA in my class there was accountants there was health care people there were police officers a little bit of military it was like everybody a cross section of society really cool they'll learn like a lot of great things from people a lot of great people um i uh one of the things that i was happy about getting out the military for not i'm not going to say happy but i was like man like i had a lot i had a lot a lot of friends that lost their life in service, you know, and that's a heavy thing. And I was like,

well, I'll go to FBI and this won't be that thing anymore. And I don't know this to be, like, factual, but like there were a few people that passed away or were killed when I was in the bureau. Two of them were personal friends of mine. So out of like the three that I know about, one was my classmate, Daniel Alphen, he was shot in the line of duty. He worked crimes against children. and I just want to mention their names because it's important that people, you know, remember these people and put faces with names. He was a father and a husband. Great, great guy.

He was down in the Miami Division. As I said, he worked crimes against children, and the guy shot through the door and killed him and his partner. And then my buddy, Steve Shaw, who was my mentor in Los Angeles Division, he became a member of the hostage rescue team. He was actually killed during a training incident, a fall from a helicopter. and Steve, when he died, I actually, so backtracking a little bit, when I went to the bureau, I still stayed in the service.

I was in the National Guard, 19th Special Forces Group based out of Utah. I was training with them in the mountains when Steve passed away, and I had no connection to phones or anything like that at the time. Excuse me, I choked. When he passed away, I got out. And by the time I got out, the service was done and everything. I had no idea. So it was kind of a tough thing.

Tough pill to swallow. For sure. But again, doing what he loved to do. And he was just a great example to me as a young FBI agent of how to do things. When I first got there, I was working domestic terrorism. And he was kind of a mentor for me in that space, that violation. So before I switched over to violent crime. So, yeah.

Which is part of it, though. What do you feel like you were best at? Like, if you could be like, man, this was the thing that I just, I knew that I had the strength of this. What was it? I thought, I don't know. I probably sucked at everything. I don't know. I honestly, like, I think what my strength is, if you were to ask my teammates and partners and stuff as relationship building, like, I felt like as an agent, I could go out and talk to anybody.

and that's like the biggest thing to be an effective agent is you have to build rapport with people and you have to get information that they don't want to give up and so you have to find your way and in my opinion you can sit down with anybody and there's something that you guys will have in common you have to find it and you find it by talking and figuring things out and if I'm there investigating let's just say I'm there I'm looking for a missing person and I think that this person is the one that did it. I might sit with that guy for two hours, two days, whatever it takes and never talk about the missing person. Yeah. I might sit there just like talking and probing and just trying to find, oh, hey, we connect on this. You know, let's talk about

that for a while. I'm building rapport. I'm building trust and friendship. And then, hey, by the way, let's talk about this. You know, a lot of people think they have to go in right away and put the hammer down and be like, you know, it doesn't work like that. That's why you hear a a lot of people talking about way back in the day, the enhanced interrogations, do they work or not? I don't know. Maybe sometimes it works, but to be the most effective, you have to sit down, you have to build rapport, you have to build a relationship. Because in a lot of cases, when you go hard at somebody, they'll just tell you something that you want to hear that may not be true. It may be true. It may be not be. And also, yes, the walls go up and it makes things a lot more difficult.

So I think to your question, just me being patient and being willing to have the conversations, being willing to listen and find commonalities and things that we can, that are relatable. And I think you can do it with anybody. I feel like I told my buddy one time I go, I feel like I relate to like the criminal element more so than I do my own friends. I always find stuff to talk about. It's like. Yeah. And a lot of times they're super interesting, you know.

Yeah. You might be, you might be being interrogated right now. I know, right? I know. He's probably just looking at your body language and, yeah. He's, he's seeing what you did. Yeah. Hey, thanks for sticking with us.

You know, right now, the Memorial Day sale at Farmer Grade is still going on. So it's still your chance you can get in, say, between 20 and 25% across the whole site. But we're going to throw a little, we're throwing you a bone. if you would like to get we got some merch if you'd like to get a hat either this will do farm which that's our farm

where the pork that goes to Farmer grade comes from or a barn talk hat use promo code barn talk or promo code this will do at checkout and you'll be entered

and we only got 25 of each and if you are one of the lucky few, you'll get a hat in your order. And remember, this is the biggest sale the whole year. So 20, 25% off across the whole site, got pork, got beef, got Wagyu, got some chicken left, get yourself some steaks. It's Memorial Day. You got to be grilling. So we're trying to make it worth your while. Go to Farmergrade.com. Try to get a hat. promo code this will do or barn talk. let's get back to it. I'll go back a little further for one thing I'm curious about. So if you,

when you started down that path, what's one thing that you wish you would have known going in to armed forces that you didn't that you wish you would have? I don't know if it's what I wish I would have known. I just wish I would have been more mature, more grown up. I was young. I maybe didn't realize the gravity of what you gave yourself into. Not so much the gravity. Like, I wish I would have stayed. Okay. I wish I would have stayed because like I didn't get all everything out of the experience that I wanted to get out of it. I got an opportunity to go do something with the bureau and I jumped on it. And it turned out great. It really did. But I missed out on a lot too by not sticking around longer. Yeah. But, And I don't think I was mature enough to realize that at the time.

That's the biggest thing that I kind of regret. And if I could go back, I would have changed. I'd have been like, hey, I'm going to, I'm going to pause this for a minute. It's not going anywhere. If I don't get it, I don't get it. I'll find something else to do, you know. Well, yeah. It's not too late because who is the guy?

And I. Dakota Meyer. Yeah, he just got back in. Well, you might be surprised here in the next few months. You never know. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So I have, I've been kicking the tires on some things, so we'll see what happens. Okay. All right. My mom's going to be really mad at me. Said four. Yeah.

Well, so a question, and not to get too personal about it, but I know that. I know that. so my dad he got drafted went to the Air Corps World War II which was similar to a lot of those guys signed up just as soon as they could

when World War II broke out kind of the same deal as like 9-11 he was in college and he waited to be drafted until he graduated but that experience like he was a guy that didn't have that many

that many friends I shouldn't say that. Had a lot of friends. We didn't have a lot of close friends, but I always thought it was interesting, and I got to meet very few the guys that he flew with. But I can remember one summer,

there was a couple of guys that he flew with that showed up here, and later in life, he told me that that experience. So for a lot of people, obviously, that was the most dangerous thing you ever did, because then he became a farmer when he got back.

but he told me that that was the most fulfilling. Like he didn't, he got something out of that he just never got out of anything else. So I guess my question, that long winded lead-up is, is that like a, and I don't have that experience, but is that time, is that experience with those guys, is that just something that just kind of, it's kind of like an itch that you never, quite scratch it again.

Yep. Is that? 100%. Yeah. Like, it's weird because like when I think about it, it feels like yesterday because everything's vivid to me. Yeah. When around with that time period of my life.

And the Bureau, while it promotes the same type of atmosphere, is not the same. Yeah. And I've never found it since. Warrior Rising with what we do with veterans, it's close because I'm with the people. So the executive director of Warrior Rising, he was in the selection and Q-course with me. That's where we met. The assistant executive director was in the Q-course with me. That's where we met.

We've all been friends for over, like, decades at this point. So I get to be with those guys still. So that's great. But yeah, it's interesting because I know what all those guys are capable of. and so like if you were to ask me like who do you trust with like everything like if you're if with your family your kids your your spouse whatever those guys I would trust and not even think twice about it in any scenario um my friends um that I grew up with and stuff uh I love them and we're we're just as close yeah but I don't I've never seen what their limits are right so that's the difference

you've seen what these guys limits are and they were able to push past them you know that they're like, you know, anything that I asked them to do or help me with, I know that they would do. And just like everybody, I've had, like, incredible low points in my life. And those are the guys that were always there, like, getting me through it, right? And vice versa. So, yeah, it's, it's hard to find that team atmosphere again, that, that closeness. And it's, it's, like, it's funny. Like, I tell, like, my family, sometimes I share, like, little stories that, are like, they're not like huge war stories or law enforcement stories. They're, like, camaraderie stories, like funny things I remember. So like my, my partner going through the

Q course and in one of the most difficult portions of it, we were outside for, it must have been weeks and like raining and cold. And so we were always wet and freezing. And at night, we'd be like shivering, like uncontrollably. And he wrestled. He was a Stanford wrestler. His name is Harold. I'm not going to say his last name because I don't know what he's still involved in. But he and I would literally be cuddled up hugging each other all night long for body warmth. And like some people are like, oh my God, like, you know, it's a, it's a barrier that you can't get over. But for us, it was just like, dude, like bring it in. Survive. I'm freezing. Yeah. I don't even care at this point. Yeah. 100%. That's awesome. So it's like little things like that.

That builds relationships too. I mean, like when you see somebody at their worst or they're most vulnerable and then you're dragging through together, it builds things that you can't replace and bonds and trust and stuff like that. So what was the hardest transition military to FBI or FBI to civilian life? Or did you feel like you transitioned through all those phases pretty good? I'm struggling with the FBI to civilian life because like when I left the military, I still was transitioning into something with a purpose.

And I know I have a purpose now. I know I do. But it's different. So it's like changing that dynamic and learning how to handle it and be satisfied. Like one of my biggest weaknesses is probably that I'm never satisfied with anything. Like I some people talk to me about like what I've done and like family and stuff and they think it's cool and And they're impressed. I think I'm the most boring person ever And and it's just like one of those things where I think like nothing I ever do will satisfy me and that's kind of what gets at me

So like now I'm trying to find like what's that thing that gives me the satisfaction and purpose every day? The the businesses are all cool. I love them. I've got to a few of them, but the nonprofit one's really the one that I'm really super passionate about because I'm helping other people, which is, I guess, service to others is like the common thread that maybe I need to be happy and kind of content. Yeah. Well, let's go into that a little more. So you kind of explained it a little bit in the intro here, but just explain the process. How did you guys get it started and what I know were you, what spark? the idea was just like the passion to help people or or kind of just talk about it so warrior rising my buddy

jason's really the catalyst of this whole thing so jason's like an incredible guy he's a west pointer played ball at west point green beret ranger uh went to brigham young got his MBA and started this company where he would go out and work with like pro sports teams on leadership team developments things of that nature and he'd always bring his buddies along a lot of them were wounded veterans. And we were at the Oakland Raiders at the time they were in Oakland. And a couple of the guys were talking about how they'd gone on hunting trips and this, that, and the other thing. And we were all like, oh, that's amazing. That's cool. And they were kind of like, yeah, but it's just not doing it for me anymore. It's like, it's fun, but it's like,

then what? And Jason's like, well, what do you want to do? And the one guy piped up, he's like, I want to start a business. And he goes, well, do you have a pro forma? Do you have this? You have that? And the guy's like, what's that? And so Jason, that was his spark. He was like, let's, okay, I'll help you.

And so that kind of was the catalyst of getting where you're rising going. And it was like, okay, let's bring the veterans in. Here's how you do a business plan. Here's a pro forma. Here's this. Here's that. All the way through. And so the first cohort of veterans that came through 10 years ago, there were five of them.

And now, I think last year, we were in the thousands for, veterans that we were supporting in some form or fashion. But like throughout the year we do business showers, we call them, and there's four of them, major ones a year. And you think of it almost like a shark tank. So this week in Iowa, on Friday, we'll have eight veterans at the Hyatt Regency, and they'll be pitching their business in front of a panel of judges that are locals, and then a panel of mentors. And the mentors actually help them develop their plans and their pitches. That'll get whittled down to the two finalists,

and those two finalists will pitch on Friday night at our gala, and the crowd will pick the winner, and they'll get a $20,000 grant. Nice. And the other ones will get grants as well, but the winner gets the $20,000 grant. One of the coolest things I've ever seen is, I think it was like three years ago now in Iowa,

a medical device company won the competition. They got a million dollar investment from people in the crowd. Wow. They came together, and they're like, hey, this company's legit, let's help them. And so you never know what's going to happen at these things, but the companies are incredible. Like, I just, I brought you guys a couple of gifts today. Pillars of Valor Coffee started, was a veteran out of Minnesota.

He actually was born in Iowa, went to Iowa State. And he started this Pillars of Valor coffee company, amazing coffee, premium coffee. It's great stuff. and Sickles was at one of our last events. She, I meant to bring you guys some of her product. I have them on my feet right now. She makes custom socks called, it's a company called SickFit. We have a company out of North Carolina, a war metal forge, and my buddy Justin, he was in our first cohort 10 years ago. He makes custom knives, but he makes them out of war metal. So the blade would be made out of like a sniper barrel that was in Afghanistan. I have a knife that the steel came

from a Jeep that was at the Battle of the Bulge. And right now, he's making me a knife from steel from the World Trade Center. And the handle is made out of a tree that fell down at Mount Vernon, George Washington's homestead. Wow. That is so sick. That thing's going to go in a display, I think.

I don't know if I'm going to use that. The other ones I go out and I gut deer with and stuff. So, but, you know, it's, these companies are amazing. And it's everything in between, too. It's cookie companies, restaurants. There was one that won last year that helps you with your home. Utilities.

That's a pretty incredible company. I mean, he'll be up on stage Friday talking about the last year since he won what's happened. So I love it. It's so cool. And the great thing is, is they come back to every event. Like if you were in a past event, you can come to our, the events that we have now. And you see the growth of the company, but more importantly, you see like the growth of the person that, hey, they're going to be okay. Like they,

they've made the transition from military to being a business owner now and they've found the purpose. You can see it on their face. It's like amazing. That's my favorite thing about it. And that's really what it's all about. So when you were at the bureau and was this, so did you find, did you find Warrior Rising before you got out or after you got out? Yeah, I knew about Warrior Rising, but when I was in the Bureau, I was in the Bureau. But I knew about Warrior Rising because my buddy ran it. And so if I knew a veteran that was getting out or something, be like, hey, go talk to Jason, that type of thing. When I got out, I got fully involved. Yeah. It's almost a full-time job now at this point. And that probably helped, that probably helped you though, too. 100% did. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, because really like going back to like my earlier statement, when I was in the military, my career was not comparable to like a lot of my buddies. My buddies were, they were in it getting blown up, this, that, and the other thing, you know, Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq. Mine was very much a different experience. It just happened to be where I was at. Like you're either on rotation or you're not. And then, but when I got to the bureau is really where I could be related. to those guys with the work and I was actually going on deployments at that point things of that nature and so you know over a decade later

I was feeling what those guys were feeling like back then so I get it and I think that the services that we're doing for the veterans are equally as important for law enforcement because it's very much the same in fact I would venture to guess that some law enforcement

probably have a tougher time dealing with things as they transition out because it's every day for your whole career. There's no break. And they, and they're putting up with crap from people that should be in their corner. And, you know, it's just, I think we're turning the corner on the law enforcement that feel like that. Like, four years ago, miserable. Like, I would, I would never let my kids be a law enforcement officer ever. I've not put them in that position to where they could go out and do their job and still end up going to jail for it. Like, screw that. Um, and, and just a sentiment, you know, but like, I feel like things are kind of turning the corner. I'll always be in law

enforcement. I'll always have their back, um, because I know what they go through and I know how hard it is. Like some of these dudes, man, like we, we would have task forces in the bureau. So we'd have sheriff deputies, cops with us. You should see like the stuff that these guys go through on a daily basis. It's insane. And, you know, and I don't know that there's been a lot of resources dumped in the military, mostly from outside the government, which is probably better. We need to pour those same things into law enforcement is my belief. And I think hopefully we start doing that. They're certainly welcome to join me and us and in what we do. So, yeah, I got two buddies in North Liberty, actually, that became their twins and they grew up just across the field. Cross the field.

across the field from me. Yeah. And they're Twentons and they went and their deputies in North Liberty, Johnson County. Nice. You know, like, they kind of got in where, you know, it was that time of, yeah, it was people didn't want to become deputies. And, I mean, just talking to them, man, like, we don't understand. Just they got real and wrong with me a couple times.

Just like, man, they go through some shit. And I don't think people really realize. it, you know? There are ones that make mistakes, but that's like in any job. Like, you know, so and that stuff gets taken care of. I think with like people wanting instant gratification these days, it doesn't happen the way people want it, but it happens. Like, there's accountability. Um, but some of the stuff is like unwarranted for sure. Um, like, I just saw something on the news the other day about a shooting. I think it was in the Northwest somewhere of an autistic kid. I think those guys are probably going to get in some trouble. I saw that too.

And, and, and, but like some of these other things that I see, it's just like, this dude's like, these guys are doing their job and it's a impossible job to begin with. So, especially now with the phones, everybody's whipping out their phone. Everybody wants to get you. Everybody's a got-a-got-you-moment. Yeah. You know, and it's like, you got to deal with that now. Yep. It's tough. It's tough. Well, I think something that definitely different and to me I think it's almost I mean it probably a little harder is the fact that

you were dealing when you were the FBI you probably dealt with people these weren't enemy combatants these were genuinely really really bad people so you know there's a lot of you know there's a lot of when you're in the military

there's people on the other side of that equation that may or may not have any choice that they're in that they're in that army they're in that you know if if saddam tells you're going to the army you're going to the army you know that kind of thing but when you're at the FBI and there's some really bad people on that side of the thing too but when you're in the FBI I mean some of those people that you went after they're just genuinely evil people yeah and when it's in your like when you're out of country you leave that and you come back home. But when that's going on and it's in your community where you live,

that's got to be a tough burden sometimes. I wish I could tell you all the stories of things that I've dealt with because some of it would blow your mind. But to your point, yeah, absolutely. My career was, I worked violent crime, but when I would go overseas, it would be more of a counterterrorism. liaison type rule. So you're working on some terrorist organizations, stuff like that.

So my whole career is violent crime, mostly like drugs, cartels, counter-narcotic, gang stuff in Southern California. And then when I came to Iowa, I transitioned and worked crimes against children. and everything I've done in my career, I hated that violation. Like it ruined, it definitely put me in a bad spot for a long time. And one part of it's probably that I was a dad, and so you can't help but get caught up in that thing. But it also, it makes you realize that,

there's no corner of the of the earth of this country, whatever you want to say that's protected from it. Like it's everywhere. I arrested a guy in my neighborhood once. And people that you would never expect to be involved in stuff like that in positions of trust. And you're just like, what in the heck? And I got to a point where it just really,

it had a horrible effect on me as a human being. And it kind of like, it derailed my life for a little while. I'm trying, I'm slowly getting kind of back to where I once was with being just not jaded and all that stuff. But it's also, it's also, I feel so bad for my kids because I'm like a helicopter dad, but I'm a helicopter dad with ammo. I'm like, I know what I'm doing. I go, I've seen this before. Give me your phone. I don't even let my kids have phone until they're a certain age, but like gaming devices. People don't think about that. Gaming devices and like the, because everything's connected now.

Yeah. Like this is for parents out there. Your gaming device is an avenue for a predator to social network their way into your kid. Yep. And what, what I saw in the bureau is a kid will make one mistake and they'll, if somebody will convince them to send them a picture, let's just say that for me. an example. And now the person's like, okay, I got this picture. Guess what? I'm going to post this on the internet unless you send me more. And it's like a downward spiral. And at that point, it's like, game over. It's game over. And the only, what I would always, because I'd go to school and

talk to parents. And I'd say, listen, like, your best defense has nothing to do with setting parameters on your, on your TV, your computer, whatever. Your best defense is having the trust in your kid an open communication where if your kid makes a mistake, they're going to come to you right away to fix it. Yep. Because if they don't, it's going to downward spiral and it's going to get more and more and more and to the point where it's not recoverable. And then you got a kid that's suffering from depression and goes off and harms himself

or this, that, and the other thing is suffering their whole life because of a mistake they made when they were 12 or 13. And I'm telling you it happens every single day. I don't know what the answer is as far as. like preventing it all together. It's something that's constantly being worked on. But if you're a parent listening to this, it all starts with literally the best thing you can do is just have your child's trust that if they mess up, they'll come to you and give you a chance to fix it before it's too far gone. That, like I had never thought of that, like gaming, gaming console.

Yeah. Yeah. So we're pretty lucky because the worst thing that you and your friends did, as far as I know, is they like to stay up late playing Halo 3 so that they could really piss off any of the Asian kids that were playing. Like, they'd be playing at 3 o'clock in the morning because it was prime time and wherever in the east. And they like to hear somebody that they didn't know what the hell they were saying. That's awesome. When they'd be coming in low. Trash. Yeah, like, when I got into it, my brother's five years older than me. So, like, that was all new. Like, online gaming was all new. And I was able to, like, kind of go off his, you know, he kind of let me play with him. And it was all, you know, you had your shit talking, but it was all just, like, kind of all new and it was fun. But now gaming is just like, man, it's so, it's such a huge deal now. Everybody's got a console. I bet you there's a lot of parents that don't think about them. Yeah. I think about them. Yeah, I think about their phone.

They think about Facebook. They think about messaging. But they don't, I mean, maybe they do, but that's a really good point because you don't know what's going on in those chats. Most of the time when we would do a search warrant or something like that and we'd take a device like that, like a Xbox or whatever. The parents would be, why are you taking that? You're like, well. And, you know, so it's definitely a thing. And who knows what else there is now?

I mean, every day there's something new. Right. Well, the AI, you've seen that stuff scary. That shit's scary. I just saw a story in a Cascade, I think, where kids were sending around nude photos of their classmates that were AI generated, which opens a whole new box of how do you charge this? Like, if somebody does that. I don't know what the parameters are on that now.

I do recall, like, that there was a thing that our governor, signed in to law. I don't know if it's actually an effect or not, where if you create an AI image of a child that's still considered CP, child pornography. I don't know what the status is of that, so don't like quote me, but that stuff, like, now what?

I mean, you can just create the picture and send it out there. I mean, that's going to be a whole other thing that people are going to have to deal with. It's never going to get easier, I don't think, honestly. So yeah. Yeah. And the, you know, the first iteration of that was the voice part where, yeah, they'd call you and they'd say, I got your daughter. Yeah, yeah. I need money. And they'd play your daughter's voice. And you're like, shit, is this actually my daughter? That's another thing that I worked to in Iowa. And it was really sad, honestly. A lot of older women would get scammed by people over in Turkey and Africa and whatever.

hey, I've got, like, I want to marry you. I'm coming to the States. Send me $10,000 so I can get a ticket. Oh, I've got a bag of diamonds, but customs is holding them. They'll give it back if you send me a million dollars and then we'll have $10 million in diamonds. And they would do it. And like, there were a couple of people that I would like sit there and be like, don't do this. You're getting scammed and they'd still send money. It's just like, oh my God. Like what, it's, it's, it's an emotional thing because they lost their special. and that type of deal. But like I literally have seen like widows lose all of their money to these idiots overseas.

And, and that's hard because like it's damn they're impossible to get your money back once it's gone. And it's sad. But I was just singing about this too. So you were playing on Xbox with people like overseas. Yeah. That might be why we're not at war with China right now. They might have been like, hey, you should have seen these kids in Iowa on Halo. They were beating our ass.

They were pretty good. They were pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. We don't want to mess with them. Yeah. I don't know. That could have been it.

That could have been it. That could have been it. This is funny, man. Yeah, it is funny. Now, that was, that was, I will say it to this day. Like, that was Pete Gaming. And I'm so glad that my brother was able to just, like, let me come in on that time. Because now it's just not the same.

I don't think. Your dad and I are really lucky because, like, we didn't have to deal with any of this stuff when we were younger. Like, I feel bad. bad like being critical of my kids and stuff because like I didn't have to deal with it right I I would have been putting up the same fight they are I want a phone I want to do this I want to play that and I'm like no no no no no I would have been making I would have been trying to yeah we didn't have to yeah but our childhood was awesome though like I loved it you know what I mean you're right

about that and it is a miracle because um I'm the youngest of three boys yeah and I lived in a neighborhood, our group out here, I had five or six guys that I went through school with super tight. We were all, all of us, with the exception of one, he had a sister. We were the youngest of all of them. And our brothers, some others, a lot more so than mine, put our parents through quite a bit. So they were just fucking tired. Like, they were just tired. You know, it was like, hey, I'm going and so-and-so's house. All right, well, call, you know, and if you're going to stay, call. Like, you'd call it 11 o'clock and wake my dad up out of a dead sleep. And I'm pretty sure that he wouldn't even remember the next day that I had called unless my mother came in and it's like, Tork didn't

come home last night. And then it might jog his memories like, oh, yeah, he called. Because you'd call, you know, hello, it's like, hey, I'm going to stay at Chad's house. All right, be here for chores, click. And that was it, you know. And they didn't know where you were. Yeah. And I remember getting, you know, Atari or whatever. But if my parents didn't know how technology worked at all, if it would have been anywhere near what it is today, I would be one of your really bad cases. Yeah. But through the luck of the draw, we just came at a time where we were all able to skate through. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank God. But yeah, even from, you know, raising you to today, day. It's different. It is so much different. Yeah. And it's like you ask the question is like the

world always been evil or is it just we're just more connected ever before that evil people just can get connected to people. Being evil is easier now. Yeah. There's just, you know, it's easier to exploit is what it comes down to when you're talking about that type of thing. Yeah. Um, that's a good question though. Yeah. It's, I don't know. I don't have any reference from back then, but I, I think my personal feeling is that the internet and access to information good and bad has just made people more susceptible to being bad yeah yeah no i would agree and you know i my fiance and i have this conversation all time about phones and it's just like we nobody wants to be bored anymore you know everybody anytime there's a minute of boredom you you pick up this device and you just

go away yeah for you scroll and it's like man as a child that boredom creates that's what makes you go outside and think of the fun shit that you remember as a child that's how forks get built yeah all that stuff that you did because and we seriously you know and we're never going to have phones but like I'm serious like you want your kids to keep their innocence as long as you possibly can and if you I don't know I already I hate as much time as I spend on my phone so why would I want to ingrain that in them and their, you know, developing years. When I was a kid, I really feel like my youth set me up to be successful in everything I've done, especially when it came to the military stuff. I was always

comfortable in the woods because when I was a kid, I was in the woods. Like when I, when I, learned to hunt, it was basically on my own. My dad gave me a little 22. So I'd be out of squirrel hunt. And then I figured out the rest by myself just by being out there and walking around, here's how this works, you know, that type of thing. And so you become, you become comfortable. And we always talk about being comfortable, being uncomfortable. So like, yeah, this is uncomfortable for me, but I can get through it. I've done it before.

Yeah. You know, I froze my ass off when I was a little kid helping my grandpa on the farm. I'll get through it. Well, be fine. You've gone through that too. All those little things when you're a kid getting experienced, just being dirty, not coming home until dark, that type of thing. maybe coming home after dark, you know, sneaking out of the house at night.

All those little things help you down the road. Now, like, and I see it with my kids and I try to, I'm actively pushing them out the door. And they're good. Like my kids, they love the things that I loved when I was a kid. Like if my kids, when they wake up in the morning, they throw their backpack on with their fish and pole, they're gone. They're looking for a pond to fish at. I love that.

That's how I was. But I see a lot of kids who were just like doing this the whole day, you know, or this. and it's like, that's not going to help you. Maybe in some aspects it'll help you, but, dude, like, when stuff hits the fan and if all this stuff went away, you would be in a world of hurt for sure. Yeah. So, what, let's go back to, let's go back to, let's go back to, let's go back to what it was one of the stories, what's one of the success stories from one of the veterans starting a business

that you were like, man, it just really stuck with you. Is there one that you can point out particular or? Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. But I mean, the knife one really sticks out to me because it's such a cool company. So unique. Concept. And it's like art, you know what I mean?

Speaking of art, there's an artist out of Nebraska, Armando Villarreal. If you remember last year, Illinois football team had helmets that look like leather. he painted all those. And now he's got like 10 other ones. He's going to be here. He's coming today, actually. And he always does custom Air Force One shoes for us that look really cool for our speaker. So, I mean, and then the paintings he does are like unreal.

I mean, the guy's like an incredible talent. I always call him the veteran Van Gogh. And he's just like, you'll see Utah this year, I think is going to have his helmet. he was showing me all the ones he's working on for prototypes. And he just did one for Trump too. A football helmet for him for a shoot, the company. He was showing me, I mean, it's incredible. But then you look at like the medical device company I was telling you about

and the impact they'll have on the healthcare community. That's going to be like a shining star, so to speak, as far as worry rising companies go. But they all mean something to me. They're all great. Um, they're, you know, um, to me it's the, the, the success or the win is just seeing that they are like, oh, I can do this. And, and they create a great company and find that purpose again. Mm-hmm. So it means the most to me. Yeah. You, you, you would think, I mean, you would think veterans,

it, they're almost predisposed to team building. Like to build, if you can make the connection of starting that company, they're probably very good in general at that team building because it's right in their wheelhouse of what they're doing. But a question to you is, you are operations manager for director of operations. Director of operations. Okay. So do you have, do you have people working for you that aren't of the veteran community? In Warrior Rising? Yeah. Yeah. Most of ours are veterans. The ones that aren't veterans, though, are spouses of veterans. Okay. Except for one, I believe. One is a former law enforcement officer and she's awesome. Yeah. Our whole team, like our team has been growing over the 10 years, like people coming and going. I feel like

we're at a spot right now where it's as strong as it's ever been with the team that we have. and so yeah it's it's a it's a it's a pretty incredible group mostly mostly veterans so when you are when you're finding people when you're trying to hire when you're trying to manage people find people like what what traits are you looking for okay did you mean for business or for worry right well just business in general yeah yeah there's like a couple things that jump out to me and like for me like integrity is kind of one of those things that's like all encompassing. And so you always look for like people of integrity and just good, solid human beings. And then always look like for me, it's like grit.

And I maybe didn't know this when I was a little kid, but like all the guys around me that I looked up to were guys that had grit. They worked hard through tough conditions, overcoming obstacles. My grandpa was my both my grandfathers were the first prime exam. examples of that to me. I've never met my biological father, so my grandpa had a huge impact on raising me. And then when my mom remarried my stepbed, my dad took over. And so his dad became my grandpa. He was the farmer. And so I had great examples to look at. World War II veterans, farmers. My one grandpa was a janitor. And just to see how hard they worked. And then my grandma, too,

She was a banker, went to work every day for, like, her whole life. And I had just incredible examples to follow. But integrity and grit would be the two things that I would definitely look for in a person first and foremost. How do you, you know, culture within an organization is that's about as important as the people you hire. Yeah. How do you build culture, but more importantly, how do you keep, like, how do you keep it? because it's very, it's, it's an elusive thing. Like, one of the companies that I worked for when I was younger, when it started, when I started there,

it was a very small organization. And it was like, it was almost like an unspoken thing because everybody, everybody knew what was expected. Yeah. And there wasn't an employee handbook because there didn't need to be.

Now, of course, later there was. and as they grew, that culture was really hard to keep. And I've also worked for companies that, or I've worked for a company that the culture is terrible. Yeah. Like how, you got any insight on that, how to build it, how to keep it. I think culture comes down to accountability. And like if you, and it starts at the top, like, if you, when you have companies that, to your point are, have a poor culture.

It's because somebody up here is not holding anybody accountable. There comes a certain point where you'll work with somebody to develop them. And if they don't mesh with the culture, if they don't rise and get better and grow within the company

to fit that culture, then they got to go. When we're on Special Forces ODAs and I'm sure it's the same in the SEAL teams or whatever, there's an expectation. there's a culture there for sure. And if you don't support that culture or do your job to support that culture, you're gone.

Like there's no ifs, or buts. It's like, see you later. And because there's a standard. And if you don't meet the standard, you're gone. Otherwise, things start to deteriorate. And you don't have a company at that point. You don't have an organization. You don't have an effective one for sure.

So I think it just all comes down to accountability and having people know what the standard is. know what the mission is and you hold yourself to that standard and you support that mission or go find somewhere else. I feel like a lot of times too, like sometimes the leaders like want to hold people accountable to this standard, but they're not even living the standard themselves. And that's when you get people that are like, are you talking your dad right now. Am I in the middle of the same? Am I in a middle of a family feud? Yeah, I'm just, I'm just poking at you right now. I'm kidding. No, no, but it's just like sometimes you just see that and I feel like a lot of a lot of you know team members will go well fuck why should I do this

if you're if you're living your life this way if you're not living it out why should I you've got you know you got to be it your leader has to be living by the same uh set of standards as everybody else like no doubt it's a great point um you can't have somebody running a muck at the top and expect everybody else under you to to do the job that you need to do to have a successful business. You just can't. That is a for sure, that's a company that's going to fail if you have that. You talked about grit and integrity. Were there any daily, daily habits, routines that you, you know, took from your army or FBI days, like a morning ritual or stuff that you do in your everyday life that you try to, like, embody those things or help you keep on.

keep on track with those things. So that stuff's different for everybody as far as far as what makes you perform at your highest level. For me, it comes down to like meditation and just grounding myself. I do it through the outdoors. I'm either hiking or hunting or fishing, stuff like that, to just get me back to like my mental and emotional level, I guess, because that's where I perform. form my best. If I wake up and I just go and scatter shot throughout the day, I'll be all over the place. I won't get anything done the things that I need to get done in the way they need to be done.

So in the military, we were very regimented in that we would work out every day at, you know, 5, 530 in the morning. And then you'd shower and get ready for the day, eat with your teammates, that type of thing. So it was very regimented. And I got into a routine where that worked for me. and so I knew, this is my day, A, B, C, all the way to Z, right? So I had, I had that routine down. When I transitioned into the bureau and then subsequently into, you know, my life now, it's a little less regimented. So I have to create those opportunities for centering myself, myself. I have to create the, or set the stage for that. And I find that just, even if it's just walking in the morning with my, my dog or whatever,

If during the fall, I'm out hunting usually. Summer, I like fish with my kids. And we'll do that early in the morning and kind of level myself off. And then, hey, I'm ready to go. I'm mentally focused, ready to go. Yeah. The other thing I do is I'm super organized. And I'm not a guy that's organized like in the digital world.

I have to write things down. So like I organize my stuff by writing everything out. And so I have a planner. And I followed that planner to a T. And that helps keep me focus. I need that. Not other people do. Not a lot of other people do, but if I do that, I'm good to go. In fact, when you guys pulled up, I was sitting in my truck writing out my notes for the day. Here's what I need to do. You've been able to embrace the digital part better than me.

Yeah, I use a digital planner. It's like this app that's always out of the sound. It's just I use my phone every day and it's just like it's there. And like, like, I said, I use, it's not even just like my to-do list. It's like notes. It's everything. I can just, this app, it allows me to just like, hey, Casey's event Friday, boom, put it in. Do-do-do-do-do.

Here are the details. It's just like, it's so easy for me to do that. Maybe it's my fat fingers. Yeah, could be. Screw it up. I have that problem typing. Like, I always send a text and people will be like, what did you just say? Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I'd still have that old slider phone, you know, they had the full keyboard. Oh, that's funny. That's funny. I think this is a generational thing too because you and I are the same. Like, I have to write stuff. Like, I don't like any of the digital stuff. And I think it's because it's, I can't see it. Like, if I have a planner sitting on my desk, I'll open it. Yeah. Whereas the phone I have to, like, go through and, and my, my fiance makes fun of me for that because she's into the digital stuff. And

and definitely the younger crowd that I work with is like, oh, this is how you do this. And I'm like, yeah, I don't like it. Yeah. I'll stick with my notebook. Everybody's got their own way of doing it. I think the only way that I'll probably get to a digital way to do it is when I can get my personal Jarvis to just, you know, be in my head. When I let Elon chip me so that I'll have my Jarvis, my interface. Yeah. Are you going to be the first test subject?

Probably be the first hog building. Well, it depends on whether he gets me the bot. I mean, I'm not going to let him, I'm not going to let him do Neuralink if he doesn't give me a Tesla bot to try to chore pigs. Yeah. I think I'm just going to start throwing that in in every episode in the hopes that sooner or later he gets the soundbite. And the bot shows up. I love it. Because I really want one to chore pigs for me.

I'm going to come down and help you guys sometime because, like, I miss this stuff with my, it was fun. like even see my grandpa passed away five years ago maybe and like even up till then I was like going out to his farm and helping out and stuff taking my kids like when I was growing up as a kid like I would I can remember like some of my fondest memories are like riding in the combine sitting on the floor just like looking at the rose of corn and falling asleep you know as a little guy and then helping him like wean pigs and stuff like that I just that was my childhood I loved it my dad my dad was a dairy farmer on that farm up until I want to say I was in middle school. So I was always helping with that. I miss that stuff. And that's like that's it's great for a kid. You learn hard

work without even knowing you're working hard kind of so to speak. Um, oh there's something very therapeutic about loading pigs. Yeah. Very therapeutic. Get all your words out. It's a good workout. Yeah. You feel, uh, you feel defeated at times. There's a small, victory at the end where the last pig goes on the trailer. Yeah. It's just, it's like, it's like a mini, what do you, it's like a mini, it's like a mini deployment every time, you know, you got a little battle every time. You get all, yep, you get all, you get all, uh, equipped up, ready for battle. And then, it's a battle of wheels to the end. And I remember my dad cussing a lot when we were on the farm as a little kid, but my not my grandpa. My grandpa was always like very, you know, the only time I heard him,

cuss was at my dad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But like, I remember, this is funny. You guys will think this is funny. It's kind of weird. But when I was little, I could remember like all the dairy cows, the tag number just by looking at their udders because I'd seen them so many times putting the milkers on.

I'm sure you're not alone. I had a favorite cow. Her number was 43. You could pet her like a dog. I mean, she was totally chill. She probably made a good hamburger for somebody. I don't know what they do. But like at the time, I was like, this is my favorite cow.

don't hurt her. Yeah. So when I was a kid, I, I was, it was always funny to me because my dad never swore unless we were in the hog building. Yeah. That was the only time they swore. That was his time. And it was just, it was always interesting.

And this never happened to me because I think my mother knew, my mother knew what the score was. But, you know, there's like a great scene in a movie where this kid. says the swear word and his mother washes his mouth out with soap. And she's like interrogating him. And she wants to know who he heard that from. And everybody knows that he heard from his dad a thousand times. But he doesn't dare say that it was his dad. So he blurts out his best friend's name. So then the mother gets that mother on the phone. And then that best friend, you know, he gets his ass whip. The Christmas story, right? It's Christmas story. I love that scene because

I could identify with that, except I think my mom knew where all my swear words came from. Yeah. So it was just an unspoken thing. So my uncle Tom was the hog guy on the farm, and that's why I learned all my cuss words from him. He'll be at the thing Friday. If you're there, I'll introduce you it. But he was always mad at something. Yeah. It just kind of goes with the, it goes to territory. But I think that makes you, I think that's why my dad was so chill otherwise. I would definitely say when I got, when I, you know, was young, I think my level. of patience before I started chorn pigs full time versus like after yeah you just develop a level of patience the rest of the rest of the time you're just like it took you know it did take me a little bit

but like having kids yeah it just it just levels you out yeah i'm not a i'm not a thrower soyer when he gets pissed and you're better now that used to be but i mean you didn't want to be around him because a pig or something happened, that panel would just go flying. And you're like, but I also will say, and I probably said this before, there's a small part of me that enjoys when Sawyer and I are working pigs together and he gets really pissed. I kind of enjoy it because he is the spitting image of my dad. And so I kind of like it because it's like, it reminds me so much of my dad.

So that's kind of fun. Not for him, though. He doesn't enjoy it. But for me, it's kind of fun. Yeah, I like when you get mad too. It's kind of funny too. Is it? Yeah.

I like it. It's hilarious. I like seeing you. I didn't know. Well, you should know. When you're not pissed off of me, it's funny. I was going to say, you're pretty good at. I saw your pictures up here of your dad when I walked in the P-51 pilot.

That was awesome to hear that story. My grandpa, when I was having a conversation with him before he died about the farm and stuff like that. And it had a similar story when he got back. He bought the farm. And I remember telling him, I was like, hey, I had this land, you know, and I sold it for X number of dollars per acre. And I was all proud and stuff. And it's like, I think I'll roll it over and buy something else and yada, yada. And he goes, do you know how much I bought my farm for when I got back from World War II? And he told me, like, 75 bucks an acre. I was like, are you kidding me? I was like, what? And he far and he farmed his whole life. And he farmed his whole life.

and had a beautiful farm. They used to use it like when like the campaigns would come through. They'd use it as a backdrop and stuff. And I mean, he was like really meticulous with everything. Like we had to wash everything with a pressure washer like all of his buildings. Even the ground like the the hog floors, all that stuff. He was like, that's where I got my attention to detail from probably.

So he had, I swear that probably the cleanest farm I've ever seen. but it was an awesome experience growing up. And like there's not a lot of World War II vets left to talk to anymore either, which is the sad thing. And I was telling you earlier, like one of the things Warrior Rising is doing next month, I'm going to Normandy and I'm actually jumping. Oh, yeah. Tell this.

Yeah. Okay. How did that part of it? Just tell us what you're going to do and then we'll go into it. Okay. So like D-Day, 81st anniversary this year, taking a group of guys. over and we're jumping into Normandy out of planes that actually flew in on D-Day. And I'm actually jumping into a town called Ranville, Pegasus Bridge, which nobody's jumped into since D-Day. So there's

four jumps. I've got about 20 to 30 guys going with me that are jumping. And last November, I was at a football game. They were honoring vets on the field before the game at the state playoffs. And I was there. and this guy sat next to me and I looked over and he had his World War II veterans hat on. And I was like, are you really a World War II veteran? I mean, this is amazing. And yeah, he's from Des Moines. His name's Don. And we got to talk in and I was telling him my stories, telling me his stories.

And I said, hey, I'm going to France this summer and I'm jumping in. Do you want to go with me? He's like, yeah, I do actually. So I'm taking him with me. And I got to talking to my buddies that are, yeah, I got to talk into my buddies that were jumping. I said, hey, can we get Don in a harness and do a tandem jump with him? And they're like, absolutely, we'll jump with him. And so he went to his doctor and got cleared.

And he told me that the doctor said, Don, if you want to jump out in Normandy, jump out, I'm not going to stop you. And so the great thing is, is Don's been hanging out with me ever since. And we were at an event three weeks ago in Des Moines, and we're sitting at a table. And I'm introducing everybody to Don because, like, Don's my hero, right? all these World War II guys, they're my heroes, right? And a guy comes over and he goes, what are you doing tomorrow, Don? And nothing.

You want to go fishing in Missouri? He's like, yeah. So Don's a gamer, man. So he goes down, he's fishing in Missouri, and he's sending me pictures of these giant fish he's catching. Two days later, he shoots his first turkey. And he's like, Casey, I love hanging out with you. This is great. So I got this 99-year-old guy.

I think his family might be getting a little. little upset with me with all this stuff, especially throwing him out of an airplane. Yeah, but no, that is awesome. I'm like, hey, I'm, I'm giving you the opportunity. You don't have to take any of them, but it's going to be one of the highlights of my life, seeing him over there. And I told everybody, I'm like, listen, when we get to France, you guys do whatever you want to do, I'm doing whatever he wants to do. I'm taking him everywhere he wants to go. And that's just how it's going to be. That's badass. We're probably going to get a lot of free croissants.

Yeah, absolutely. That's so cool. Yeah, that is awesome. I always tell, you know, people ask about, like, who would you like to have on the podcast? And we started this, we started this after my dad passed. He was 99 when he passed away, but we started this after. And so all of all of his stories, I was the youngest, and there's five years between my brother. So I heard them more than any of the rest of them.

And so I'm kind of like the family historian of all that. But man, I so wish that more of those guys would have gotten their stories like saved somehow. Really, and recorded. Because to have them, it's one thing to write it down. There's a lot of books that have been written and there's a lot of stories that have been written down. to hear those guys tell their stories and what they went through in their own voice. Yeah. That's,

that's some powerful stuff. So I wish that I had that like several years ago when there were more of them around. And I just, I don't know what, I was involved in my own stuff probably, right? But I had like a treasure trove of World War II guys around me that I was friends with. A guy from my hometown was a POW. And one of the,

You asked a question earlier about favorite companies. There's another company. His name's James Ligerie. He's out of Nashville, and he makes custom jewelry. He's coming to France with us, and he's making rings, and every ring is made out of sand from all three beaches on D-Day, Juneau, Omaha, Utah. And on the inside, we inscribed a veteran's name from World War II.

And I put a guy from my hometown Asher Schrader, who was a POW in World War II, and I put Bob Friend, who was a P-51. He was a Redtail Pilot. it. Those are the guys on my ring. The first night that we're in Normandy, the whole group's going to be together, and he's issuing those rings, and we're going to go in a circle, and everybody's going to tell a story about the guy or lady who's on the inside of their ring, because that's how you keep the story alive, and that's what I'm all about. So we're going to tell

those stories and share those things, and I wish I'd had known your dad and been able to do that for him, too. Next time around, we'll do that. But I'm I'm now realizing maybe my, the opportunity that I had in the past. Yeah. Now I'm like my Vietnam veteran buddies. I'm like, dude, tell me everything. Like I have a guy who's like a grandfather figure to me, brother, friend, all that. He was a green beret in Vietnam, one of the most highly decorated.

Came back was a secret service agent for four presidents. He'll be there this week. He lives in Iowa now. And every time I see him, I'm like, tell me more. You've got to tell me more. And we had Mack v. Saw guy, John Stryker Meyer at our event last year, became friends with him. He told, he's telling me stuff.

And I'm just like, you've got to be kidding me. Like that, that happened. Like, the stories are incredible. It's that, and we could go off. Well, I just is going to say, I mean, shit, here we are. Tell a story, tell a story about grandpa. Tell us, tell them how you got your name. Tell them how you're named.

Oh, well, that one's that. So, when my dad went overseas, there was eight of them that got shipped out together, and they went over on an LST, and, you know, half of them were sick for the whole trip, because that's a flat bottom deal. But so they, you put these Army Air Corps guys on a Navy ship, and you ship them over there. Well, somewhere in process, they lost their orders, and they get to Cairo first. They go to Egypt first, because they had a bunch of shit to offload, and they just dropped them off.

And they're like, you're not our problem. Figure it out. And so they were stuck in Cairo for like two weeks before somebody further up the chain. You know, probably at Lassina, the CEO there was probably like, I got eight pilots, so we're supposed to be here, you know, where are they? And I don't know where they are. So eventually they find them and they're hanging out at this naval base in Cairo. And so they had a lot of time together. But then they finally get them and they put them on a boat, get them to Naples. And there was a guy in his group and his name was Torkelson was his last name. And he ended up being my dad's wingman for most of the, for the most of the time. he was over there. And my brother's names are Todd and Trent, and I came along and they wanted

another T-name, and apparently my dad must have wanted, you know, every other normal Tim, Tom, whatever, must have avoided him or else he wanted something normal. And so then he decided they were going to name me Tork and, you know, an honest of Torkelson. But like I told you, I don't think today people realize our armed forces operate at. is such a high, a high level and it's so much technology, you know, so much technology, but then also the level of training is, is just, it's crazy, really. But at that time, and what I was going to say about Vietnam is my father-in-law was in Vietnam. And then we had on Micah Roberts' dad, who he was a door gunner in a Huey over there. Yeah.

but that isn't what he went over there to be. Yeah. He just, it was kind of like the wild, wild west in a lot of ways that he just, they were like short a guy and he's like. Well, he was a mechanic. I think he was a mechanic fixing him. And they were like, they were short a guy. And he was like, hey, I want to do it.

And then he became a doorgunner. I mean, it was, it's crazy. But for that World War II generation, I mean, like I told you, when my dad got to Italy, he had gone through all of his primary, secondary, all that stuff, never flown a P-51 in his life. And they got off the boat, got to Lassina, stowed their stuff. And this is the other thing I'll say that, like, people don't understand. They got there and they're going down the line and they had the base had just moved.

as the front moved north, they moved the base because their goal was the 51s couldn't, that was one of the reasons why the 51s were kind of a game changers, because they had a lot more range, because before they got those, the bombers, the fighters could only stay with them so long, and then they would have to turn back because they'd run out of fuel. The Germans were smart enough to figure that out pretty quick, and so that's part of the reason why you had the losses you had was because

fighters couldn't stay with them. The 51 was a big step up, and they were able to fly all the way until they were on target and then escort them back, and that was kind of a game changer. But they had just switched over when my dad got there, and the P40s, they lost a lot of guys, and they did even when he was there too.

But when they got off the truck and they said, hey, you're here, sell your stuff here. My dad walked in and some guy's stuff is in this bunk and he goes, hey, this must be the wrong bunk. You know, this guy's stuff here and the whoever the guy was, the sergeant, whatever, he's like, yeah, clear his stuff out because he was here this morning, but he's not here now. So that's your bunk.

And I mean, it's just like, welcome, welcome to the war because everything up to that point, you know, was all, that's all theory until you get there and it's like, boom, here you are. And then the second thing was they got them all together and they said, any you boys ever flown a P-51? And obviously none of them had had. They'd all flown P-40s. And they said, well, let's go down and test hop them because you boys are going to Italy tomorrow. And they literally did. They went down. They practiced. They showed how everything worked. I mean, and it's basically the same. If you could fly one, you could fly on the other. but took off, landed, went through, you know, siding all that. And next morning at 4M, they were up and pre-flight, and he flew his first mission to Italy.

You know, the second day was there. The first morning he was there. And it's the equivalent of like, you know, today you trained in a F-14 or an F-15 and you get to the Caribbean or you get to the Mediterranean. They're like, hey, you ever flown an F-35? Yeah. Ah, you'll be fine, you know. You'll figure it out.

We just don't think of it that way. Yeah. But that's those wars, it was like, well, this is the necessity. And that generation, and I remember asking my dad about that, you know, I, people would always ask, you know, were you scared? And he probably had enough time to think about it. And he said, he said, I probably was, but he said, I figured that Uncle's, he said, I figured that Uncle Sam spent a hell of a lot of money for that plane and he wanted it back. So they probably did everything they could to make sure it was survivable. So I was just glad that I was able to fly it.

And I figured as long as I did what I was supposed to do, I was probably going to come back. Yeah. And I thought, that's cool. That's a good bullshit answer. You know, you might have been totally shit in your pants, but boy, that's a lot better answer than I was scared to death. Yeah. That's amazing. That's a great story. Yeah. I love that. And I just, anytime I can hear something like that from a veteran or a family member, I'm all ears. Because like, it's, I don't know. It's just the nostalgia of it maybe a little bit. But, and it maybe connects me to my grandparents a little bit too here and stuff like that.

Like, I was telling you before, my grandpa was stationed in England. And he passed when I was young. So I didn't get all of his stories, but I heard stuff from my grandma. The one she liked to tell was not even related to the military. It was like how she. got there. And that was actually pretty funny because he was dating her friend in England while he was stationed there. And when it came to the end of his tour, he's like, hey, I'm going back. Like, you're going to come back with me? And she's like, no, I'm staying in England. And my

grandma was like, I'll go. And so he put her on a boat. They got married and we're together forever. No kidding. Yeah, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not sure you should tell your grandkids. That's crazy. This is funny. Like, it was. different era. Like, if you did that now, like, I don't know. It wouldn't go over as well, I wouldn't think. But the stories like that about ending up in a plane you've never flown before. Now, like you, I don't know how often stuff like that happens, but to your point,

like the training is like incredible. You go through a lot to be able to fly a certain platform and, or being a certain unit or something like that. So a little bit different. Yeah. It's really cool, though. It is. it's crazy. The guy I was telling you about two from Makocado where I grew up got shut. I had the

opportunity to hear his story right before he died. I actually tried to get him as a speaker, but he passed away unfortunately a month before. And he was shot in the foot in the Herschim Forest and his unit had circled up, but the Germans were advancing on them. And they got to a point where they couldn't stay any longer. And him and his buddy were both shot. And so they told him, hey, stay in this foxhole. We're leaving. We're going to come back and get. you though. So they left and he's like within an hour or something crazy like that. They were overrun and taken a prisoner. And he got he bounced around a little bit and he said the the craziest thing to me about his story was at the end the day he was liberated. His dad died the same day. And so his dad

died never knowing that his son was liberated. And I thought to myself like today in today's day age one, he could have got on a phone or a computer and instantly they would have known. And two, he didn't even know about his dad until weeks later when he got back to the U.S. because everything was so slow. So slow. It's just, it's like a totally different world. Yeah. What those guys went through and how they, how they deployed and how life was for them. And their stories are just incredible. But Asher has always stuck with me. He came back, went to law school at I. Iowa and had an incredible career. And I'm going to get to share that over in France, which I'm excited about.

Yeah, what a great opportunity. That I'm stoked for that for you. I will definitely be hitting you up to hear about that. That's a story I want to hear because that would be great. That will be cool. Yeah. So how do you feel veterans are treated today? Is there any room for improvement, you know, for guys that come back or just veterans

have been here, you know? I know there's a lot of programs out there, but you know, you still hear about homeless veterans or they can't seem to transition to the civilian life very well. They can't find that purpose. Where do you think we have room to improve? That's a complicated question. I mean, when you compare us to like the Vietnam veterans, like it's night and day, like there's a lot of great programs out there. Veterans are celebrated by our society. So in that regard, guard, it's great. I think the failures of veteran, veterans these days comes from our own government, probably. And I think even that is, there's varying degrees of, you know, of what our government

can do and what they do well and what they don't do well. I think the improvements can certainly be made there. And a lot of it, too, comes down to personal responsibility of the veteran. you can make a decision as to what you want to do with your life. You fought for the freedom to make all these decisions, freedom of speech. You can do whatever you want in this country, right? So go do it. Go do what you want. And a lot of times I think substance abuse plays into it and things of that nature.

So there's a place where we can help. But at a certain point, that person has to make the decision that they're going to make healthy choices for themselves and make the decisions that they need to make to succeed. I know, like, this statement might not be popular with, like, a lot of people, but sometimes veterans get out and they have, like, a little bit of a sense of entitlement. Like, you owe me. I was a veteran. No, nobody owes you anything.

They owe you an opportunity. You have to seize it. You still have to work. You still have to put in the effort. Still have to show up. You know, it's just not, I've got it made from here on out. there are people that have that attitude and those are some of the people that fall flat on their face. But as long as you're willing to come out, still work hard and be a member of a team or a

leader or whatever, the opportunities are there. And if you do have needs, look for people to support you, look for people to help you through the difficult times because they're out there. You can find them. If the government doesn't do it through the VA or whatever, if it doesn't do it for you, you know, intrinsically, if that doesn't do it for you, there are nonprofits. There are people out there who will help you through whatever that is. And here's the reality of the situation, too, you have a network. There's a network of people. You call the right person, that person is going to help you. Like, right? If somebody called me up and said, hey, I need help with this. I'll be, I'll help you through it. Let's figure it out. And not having

any affiliation with anything. So, yeah. What, um, with everything you got going, like, what are you excited about? As you look forward, what, what is, what's driving you forward? What are you excited to see? Um, I'm just excited about the opportunities ahead. I'm really focused right now and just being the best dad that I can be, the best partner I can be. Um, those are the most important things to me. When it comes to business and professional stuff, I've got a few great companies that have different purposes for me. The coffee and the whiskey are one thing. Just having great products that represent good things that I believe in.

I have another company called Rescue 3D where we do mapping of schools and corporations and stuff. The focus is on schools making them safer. That's something I'm passionate about. I want people to go to school, kids to go to school and be able to focus on going to school, not focus on what if something crazy happens. My kids go through it. My kids have the same fears as everybody else. So my buddy came up with a remedy,

and he and I go out and scan schools and do mapping and tie it into local law enforcement. And it helps them with training. It helps them with efficiency of response and things of that nature. That one's super important to me, and I want to see that one do well and get into as many schools as possible.

For Warrior Rising, I just wanted to continue to grow and help as many veterans as we can because that's honestly what is in my heart and I'm super passionate about. So continuing to grow, warriorizing, help as many veterans as possible. That really what helps us there is the community, the network. We keep growing our network, keep growing our community because that's what feeds,

feeds us to be able to feed the veteran and what they need as a business owner. So that's what I'm really excited about. Dude, I know you said that you said like you think you're the most boring person ever, but like all that shit is so cool and it's so inspired. aspiring. What I admire the most about you is like it's everything that you're doing, it's all purpose driven. Like it's all stuff that you have your heart attached to. And I think that's so freaking cool. Because you know, there's everybody wants to be an entrepreneur nowadays. But some people's reasons for being an entrepreneur is because they think, oh, I'm going to get

financial freedom and I want the money and it's a quick fix and I want this lifestyle. But yeah. you know, what you find is, well, one, you're not going to, you're not going to stay in the game if you, if you don't have something more than just the money that you love, you know, it seems like everything you're part of, you have a bigger, a bigger mission to it. And I think that's so cool, man. I appreciate that. It's so cool. I appreciate it. For sure. Yeah. So coffee, we didn't talk about the coffee. Is, so are you part of that brand in some capacity? Okay. So what, you got, you got black rifle coffee out there. So, like, what makes you guys, what makes you different? What's the...

Those guys are cool. They got a great company, great brand. This is a premium coffee. A portion of proceeds go back to different veteran causes, which was what was one of the most important things to me. The guy that started a company's named Zach Hustead. He's out of Minneapolis, Air Force veteran born in Iowa. Our partners on that company are Nick Lavery, one of my partners in the whiskey company. And then T.J. Hawkinson's actually another partner of ours on that. one. And we're talking about doing a, we're going to try to do a Viking blend for him this year.

I'm also, we're also doing a Hawkeye Wrestling Club blend this year. And Ethan Hercott, who's a member of the Iowa football team, we're going to do an NIL thing for him too this year. Ethan's a great kid. I think he's going to have a nice NFL career, but this is, will be his last year at Iowa. And we're going to do a coffee with him too. But yeah, it's a premium blend. It's whole bean. So you get a good. grind it, but we are going to do some ground coffee here coming up shortly. But yeah, it's just a good coffee. It's a great brand, and I just love the mission of giving back. In fact, we're going to do a give back for Warrior Rising this year. We've done one for the

Helping Heroes Foundation, which was a couple weeks ago out in Des Moines. They take veterans hunting, fishing, camping, things of that nature, get them out kind of removed from everything for a while to re-center themselves. So there'll be a number of other veteran causes that we support through the sale that coffee as well. Cool. Do you, I was going to ask, you know, you talked about, like, never being satisfied and, you know, being, being in special forces, it just gives you something that you'll never get outside of that. Do you, do you find, do you like the game of business? Do you, like, do you feel like that has given you something, you know? Because, like, that, to me is, like I've never, you know, I've never experienced being in the military

anything of that nature. But like being a business owner, it's not, it's not necessarily the money that's made. It's, it's the mission, but also it's just solving problems and going through the suck of everything that you have to go through and figuring it out. It's just like, it's so rewarding. So I just wanted to ask you, do you get some sense of, you know, fulfillment from being a business owner too? I do. Yeah, I do. Um, the one, one thing that I miss most about the military days is the team room, the guys that you're with. It's no different than what you guys experience with what you do on the farm, with your family,

having the guys around you that help you farm. You develop like a close-knit bond, a camaraderie. I'll never be able to replace that. But what I can do is challenge myself. And one of the things that I love doing is team building. And so each company is, very unique in the way that I team build or try to bring in the right people for those different entities. And that that scratches the itch for me because I'm putting together like a puzzle to try to make it the most successful. The cold zero team is special to me because they're like those were the guys that were like in the team room with me so to speak back in the day. The cool thing about it is like none of us really know what we're doing. Yeah. But like we are all like

gamers and scratch and claw and figure it out. Right. And that's the hardest business by far to be in. Because there's so many hoops you have to jump through. Everybody's taking a piece of your profits. It's just disgusting. And some of them you're like, why are you getting paid again? And it sucks. That part sucks.

But we have a brand that we believe in, a cool product. and we're just going to keep going until it's a success until we figure it out. The cool thing about that one bottle that you guys have is we developed a friends out in Napa, the Tetermans, and they sent us a truckload of wine barrels that held Cabernet Wine. And what we did was we took the rye whiskey that we had and we just put it in those barrels. And so it soaked up some of that cab. And it's an incredibly smooth whiskey for 115 proof. I love it.

Yeah. And so it's like little things like that. It's developing a relationship, doing something a little bit different, learn as much as you can along the way. Like if you guys met my buddy, Chad, who's our de facto CEO of a cold zero, if you met him and sat in a room with him and talked whiskey, you'd think he'd be like a professional guy that's been at his whole life

because he took the time and made the effort to learn as much as he could. And he's one of the big reasons that the company's still going. and scratching and clawing to try to get to the top. Whiskey is, it's a long game. Yeah. I mean, it's a long game. If you really want to get, if you really want to get to the top of it. And you really can't, I mean, there are people, I guess you could say,

there are people that do rush it. There's guys that develop a brand and they buy barrels, you know, and then they blend it. But it's really not, it's kind of not, I guess you can kind of pick how you want to do it. it but it's like it's one of those things and hopefully your company gets better with age as your whiskey gets better with age i mean it's so too you just there's some things you just can't rush oh you're we're gonna sample it i mean we got it you guys keep talking about it i went last a month and sampled some of the seven-year-old stuff that we have right now and it was incredible i'm really excited about that's another great thing about being a whiskey on or you can sample your barrels and see how they're

doing. Have you seen, have you seen, this has been, it may not even still be on there, you'd have to really dig it out. There's, um, there's a, like a documentary. It was on Netflix. And it's about the head distiller of a brulade is the name of it. It's a, it's a, it's either Irish or Scottish. Um, and he since is retired. But it's all about his journey and basically he started out he would skip school to work at the distillery. Yeah. And just done every job there and he ended up being the head distiller. And there's a great clip of him and he's out in the yard because they store their barrels

outside. And he goes over there and he's like, and this barrel right here is about 20 years old. And he said it'll never get bottled because I'm the only. only one that knows that it's here. And he's like, this is my personal. And I just come over here and get a dram once in a while to just know how good, you know, how good it is. And he goes, it's the best, he goes, this is the best whiskey that we'll ever make. And it'll never be bottled. That's awesome. And I just thought, that's just, you know, it's, it's such a personal, those guys that are in like that job, it's such a, his whole life is that distillery. But I just

thought that was a great when you made that comment about being an owner and being able to a sample. Yeah, he was just like, yep, this is the, this is the good stuff. It's funny because, like, if you guys ever get a chance, listeners get a chance to Cedar Ridge, it's an awesome winery and distillery. But they'll do samplings up there and little tours and stuff like that. And the Murphy Quint is the head distiller there, the son of the owner that started Cedar Ridge. But so they're open air out there, right? So the The barrels are constantly expanding and contracting and it's injecting flavor into these. So when we'll go out and sample them, like one month, if I hit a barrel one month, it could be the best thing I ever had.

The next month I go out and try it again, it could be the worst thing ever. It's constantly evolving. And that's like the cool thing about it that I find super interesting. It's like that barrel that I hit last month, that was just fantastic. If I don't hit it at the right time, it's not going to be what we want. So you got to you got to time it right. but I'm excited about things to come for sure with the whiskey product. So it's a lot of fun.

It's definitely a tough business, but it is a lot of fun. Yeah, this is our bottle. This one here is signed by Leroy Petrie. And Leroy was an Army Ranger. He is an Army Ranger. Retired. He was in Afghanistan, and the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, whoever it was, was throwing grenades at him and his team.

He had already been shot. He was picking up their grenades and throwing them back. And one of them blew up in his hands. and blew his arm off. And he kept fighting even with one arm. And he was, was, was, has the Medal of Honor now. He's a Medal of Honor recipient. And he's one of six Medal of Honor recipients who signed our bottles. We did 1776 bottles. And he, I don't know how many are left. We're getting probably pretty close to the end of these. But you can order these online, uh, to you. Um, or, uh, or find them at like a high V type store in Iowa. We'll put a link. God, that's,

so sick. That is so cool, dude. That is so cool. And the glass is pretty sick, too. Yeah, he brought us some custom, Casey brought some custom whiskey glasses with a bullet in it. There's a company out of Wisconsin called Ben Shot that makes these, and they'll put anything into your glass, like golf balls, hockey pugs. Yeah. They did a bullet for us and it looks really cool. It is sick. People really like these whiskey. I'm going to cleanse my palate. All right, cleanse your palate. Oh yeah. That's the good stuff. I love this one. That is really good. Yeah, that's really good. So this one's 100, this is 115 proof, but sometimes I think this drink's smoother than our 92 proof.

So this actually won a platinum award at the Ascot Awards, which is Fred Minnick, who's a world-renowned whiskey critic. He's a veteran himself. And I really learn a lot from just watching his different shows and stuff, but we got a platinum award at his. and then in our first year that we were out, our 92 proof rye, was in the top 50 American-made whiskeys for that year. That's amazing. So we were pretty stoked about that too. Yeah.

That is good. We're on a good role because so last week we sampled a bottle. What was that? Boondocks. Boondocks. And it's like an 18-year-old or 18-year. Yeah. And that's the first whiskey that I've ever,

you hear these guys, you know, that sample all this stuff all the time. And it's a note of this and it's a note of that. I'm not a very sophisticated palette. Yeah. But that bottle was the first one that it actually tasted like root beer a little bit. Yeah. It had root beer notes. Yeah.

But this, you can definitely, you can pick up that, that wine. Yeah. that sweetness that's a little bit like it's kind of a fermented sweet and that it's good. It's like a wine finish and very. I always laugh because in my spouse laughs too because like we'll go it makes us like guys will sample whiskey and they'll be like, oh, this tastes like this tastes like red fruit loops and I'm like what? Yeah.

Like how in the hell do you come up with that? I'm like it tastes like I'd never get into that. But I'm like it's a little spicy. it's a little bit, I can taste cinnamon or whatever, but I'm never like, it tastes like a, you know, a red chiri or a cheerio. I'm like, yeah, you lost me there. I think you've been in it a little too hard.

Yeah. And it's all, that's the other thing that's great about whiskey is it's so, uh, subjective in the fact that, um, there's people that like different tones, different notes,

you know, I'd say for like me, I'm, I definitely like, something like that. I like something that's a little sweeter. Like I like Four Roses is really good. Four Roses is good. But some people don't like that because it's too, it's too sweet. They like something that's, you know, and if you're, if you're, if you're an Irish, you like dirt, you like grass or whatever, which whatever, I'm not hating on you. It's fine. A big fan of Wilderness Trail.

They're a good one. Four Roses is really close to them actually. But yeah, I went back and watched some of old podcast and I noticed you guys were all about that chicken cock and I was like I got to get them off of this. Yeah. Yeah. We got sent a yeah. We started the whiskey minute and you know, we do it every, you know, every once in a while. And man, how many bottles we've been sent after just doing that is crazy. I mean, we started, dad started out with a fair amount, but and then you bought a couple, but we got sent chicken cock. We got brought chicken. We got two bottles of chicken cock now. Yeah. We were like, we need to make our own call it board cock. I don't know.

Something like that. But yeah, no, we, uh. And that's the thing, that's what's great about it is. It, there's, everything's a story, you know, it all has its own identity and, and yeah, that's cool. Product is, I mean, yeah, that's damn good. And then just the mission and story, man, is just so freaking cool, dude. So cool. So cool.

Uh, you worn a lot of hats, obviously. If you could go back and tell your 22 year, 22 year old self. give them some advice, what would you tell them? Or just any 22-year-old out there. Stay in the military. Okay. I wish I would have stayed. Yeah.

I think I mentioned it earlier. I felt like maybe I was a little bit immature when I took the opportunity to go right away to the Bureau. Not that I didn't enjoy it because I did, but I had like a, I had earned my way into an exclusive brotherhood. Yeah. And I wish I would have taken the time to savor it more and to stay longer and not chase something that I just, I didn't know enough at the time. I was like, oh, I'm going to go here.

It's a shiny object. I should have just stuck around with what I had because if I would, and I'm still friends with all my guys. And I should have just never left and, you know, ridden that thing out as long as I could. Yeah, yeah. Because a lot of my buddies are now in the upper echelons of command, retiring, stuff like that. And I wish I would have been on the entire journey with them instead of just the front part. Yeah. But my life would have been a lot different, though.

Yeah. Yeah, isn't it a big challenge to try to have a family in your special forces, I mean? Yeah, it's hard for anybody. Yeah. law enforcement too. And that's where I'm like, you know, God had a plan for me and it worked out. It did because I have my kids and that's like the best thing that ever happened to me. And I've gone through the ups and downs of life with marriage, divorce.

And now I've been with my partner for four years now and we're taking the next steps in life. Instead of have a great thing going. So I wouldn't have any of this if I would have done that. But again, you know, you asked a question about the 22-year-old self, and I would have, like, ride this out longer, stay with your boys. Like, it's not going to get better than this. This is where it's at. Yeah.

But we were all, like, super young, like, early 20s. I missed my entire 20s, like, with all the stuff with weddings and stuff like that that most people do in their 20s, like, going to them. I missed all my buddies except for, I think, one. and then but I also gained a ton and I think when I was there I was like looking at all the stuff I was missing and didn't appreciate what I had when I was 24 or 5, 6th, up to 28, whatever it was, I don't know. That's a good, traditionally that's a good period of time to be locked down to where you can

because that's where things sometimes go off the rails. So you know what? You might have. That's probably good, probably good, good use your time for that time frame. Yeah. I mean, I, man, I'm lucky in so many regards, like with the decisions I made. And like, honestly, my dad was always pushing me to do the military when I was a kid. And I was like, no, because I was kind of like, my dad's telling me to do it.

Yeah. And then when I made the decision to do it myself, it fell into my lap and I was like the best decision I ever made and then the next thing happened and the next thing happened it's all about meeting people and like doors opening and i just ended up where i did and it was pretty sweet but yeah because how do you like get the qualifications to even get the chance to be in special forces like it's you earn it you have to earn it you just earn it you just go to you wake up every day and put one foot in front of the other like i mean i'm sure there's like people who maybe like can't physically do it or whatever, but it's a decision.

Like, at first it started out. I was terrified, like, but then, like, you start going through the training and you develop relationships with the guys around you. And then it becomes kind of like, well, I'm not going to leave because, you know, I'm not going to leave my guy hanging. He's not going to leave me hanging. You kind of, like, rely on each other, which is part of the point of the training is to build a team and find out who's a good teammate and who.

who's not, the guys who are not good teammates are gone. Because you got to live with these dudes. Like even me, like, even in my career, which wasn't as expansive as my buddy, is like when we would go, let's say you go do a J-set in Thailand or Korea. My group was responsible for Southeast Asia. So you got to go live with them for months at a time

in, you know, a barracks or something. Like, if you suck as a teammate, like life's going to be miserable. Yeah. Would you say the mental? part is harder than any of the physical part getting into that. Because I know, I mean, I'm sure it's probably, it's probably a Jocko podcast that I've heard, but him talk about how when he was going through,

there were so many people that physically were way, way more capable. Oh, yeah. But it was the mental part. They couldn't do it. 100%. And the team part, because there were guys, that their ego is what their downfall was. Yeah. Well, that's what the whole point of all that selection and courses for is to get rid of that.

But yes, 100%. There are guys that you'll see and you're like, whoa, like world class athlete. And then they're gone. Like, don't even know where they went. But there's some mental challenges. And I think like where I was in my life is a single guy, young, healthy. I was in a great time to make that. If I had to go through the Q course now with kids and I'm a wreck physically. Like, I'd never make it. It's like, but I can remember like a few times specifically where like I had to get over mental hurdles to succeed, you know. And that was the hardest part. The physical stuff, it's like one foot in front of the other.

I'm going to make it. You always hear guys talk about. I'm going to make it to lunch. I'm going to make it to dinner. I'm going to make it to breakfast. I'm going to do that all over again. It's true. It sounds so stupid and cliche, but it's true.

Don't think about the whole elephant. Think about the next bite. That's all it is. Like, digest it and move on to the next thing. Get your ass kicked again. Move on to the next ass kicking. It's all it is, really. And at the end of the day, I mean, it's just like we talk about here.

That's life. The mental part of life is the hardest part. I mean, the reason that you're not where you want to be, the reason that you're not where you want to be physically isn't your physicality, it's your mental. Yeah. And the reason that, you know, we all make these, the money that gets spent on motivational this and coaching and all that, if we actually, if we were actually mentally tough enough,

none of us would need any of that stuff. Yeah. But we're all in the same boat. Yeah. And that's why we need the coaching, why we need the plan, or why we need the stuff. and then sometimes it still doesn't work because damn it, I just want the cheeseburger. This always needs exercise too. Yeah.

And like when we met at that event, it's funny because like I've heard everything right through all the stuff that I've participated in. But like, we had an opportunity to go hunting that day. And then they're like, well, there's also an opportunity to sit on the back patio and listen to these guys speak. I'm like, I'm going to listen to the guys because I can go shoot a pheasant anytime. And like within two minutes, I was like jaw was on the, floor because I was like, okay, I'm hearing stuff I've never heard before. Or as simple as I'm hearing

stuff from a different perspective that I've never heard before and it impacted me in a different way. And so there's nothing wrong with that. And like I'm not above still trying to learn things. In fact, like I need to hear different things and continue to grow. And that's why that event was like so important to me and kind of like honestly helped me tremendously. Yeah. Well, I think we were the exact same way. Oh yeah. With everything you got going on, what is, what is success look like to you? What, what, where do you want this all to end up? And what, what does success look like to you?

Success for me is helping as many people as I can. But the most important thing to me is family and, and making sure that my kids, are set up for success, are set up for opportunity. and they're ready to seize it and are good people and kids of integrity and things of that nature. I don't, I'll never neglect my responsibility as a dad for anything else. I bring them along on all this stuff because they see the people around me. And those people are forced multipliers for me. They're like, oh, that guy or girl are doing that this way.

I can do that. I want them to see that because I trust the people. around me. That's the network that I've built. And like I honestly, um, I want my kids when I looked at when I met you guys out at that event, one of the thoughts I had in my head is like, I want my kids to talk to me the way that you guys are talking to each other, the way that you guys are interacting with each other. That's what I want. So that's what success looks like to me is the family unit as they continue to grow. My daughter's a freshman in college and my three boys are eight, ten, and one just turned 13.

And that is a handful, man. So I'm like harnessing all sorts of energy right now and trying to keep it going that way. As opposed to off the rails, my little one, he's an off the rails type of guy. So I don't want to like change him, but I got to keep them going that way. Yeah.

They're all very unique in their personalities and require different types of attention from me. but we're definitely going in the right direction. And their mom, too, is great with them. And I think things are trending in the right direction. But that's what I want. That's all I want. I don't care about money.

I don't care about any other BS. I don't want notoriety. I don't want anything. I want my kids to be healthy and have opportunity. And they're ready to seize it when it comes to them. Yeah. That's it. Yeah, I mean, so my.

my fiance's grandpa died a couple days ago and we were in the hospital room you know everybody was there and he had nine kids and it was just like we were in that room and you know it's sad it's really really sad and he was a great man and i knew him and talked to him and he was just a great guy but man i sat in that room and you're like all the kids were there all the kids were in that room and every single time that I would go to a family event. You know, we have a small family compared to them, you know, and that, that was new to me, but you'd go to a family event and there's 50 people there. And it's all family.

It's like that guy, he's the richest guy in the world because everybody there loves him and is there for him and they're there for each other. And it's just amazing what he created. Yeah. And then, you know, at the end of his life, it's just like, wow. How many people that have that many kids, they all end up. Yeah. Making it,

making time to come back and be there and be involved in his life and him being involved in theirs. And it's just like, just puts it in perspective, man. You know, all this shit that we all go after, it really at the end of the day comes down to family. Yeah. It really does.

And it's one thing to have everybody in the room. And it's another thing to have everybody in the room and have them feel it. Feel it and be thankful that you were the one leading them. And that's, that's where I want to be. Yeah. You know what I mean? How do you balance it all?

How do you, how do you, because I mean that, I mean, yeah, we always talk work life balance. Some people say it's not, it's not fucking existent. You know, you can't find it. And then there's other that says, you know, I have found it and this is what works for me. So what works for you? Honestly, it goes back to team building. If you have the right people around you, that makes time management a lot easier. Because like, I don't need to micromanage anybody on anything that I do.

I know they're doing the right thing. So, hey, let's talk Monday as a group and figure out where we're all at. Okay, good to go. Let's fix this. Let's fix that. Everybody move out and do what they need to do the rest of the week. I'm working. Oh, kids need picked up.

I'll pick them up. Need to go a sport event. Let's go to sport event. That's all it is. Like, if I had people around me who were, you know, chaotic and going back to the question earlier about culture, if I had people that. weren't committed to the culture. Then I'd have to be dealing with all that stuff, or my partners would have to be dealing with all that stuff, but we built the right team. So it makes everything

else kind of runs smoothly. So I'm just literally going through my day. I always think about my day as a range, and there's a 25 meter target and a thousand meter target, and I'm just knocking down the 25 meter target, walking. Everything's a 25 meter target. There's no 1,000 meter target. I'm just hitting the next one. Boom, boom, boom. And that's kind of how I approach. my day. That's awesome. And so it works out for the most part. Do you feel do you work? Do you work every day? Do you try to take weekends off or I mean, yeah, you're business owner. So it's really hard. Or just every day, it's just filled with everything that you. I work almost every day. But like I really, when I'm involved in like my kid's stuff, I'm in my kids stuff. I shut it off. And I'm 100% present. And then if they're,

doing something or involved in something and I'm not if they're at a friend's house or okay I'll knock this out type thing I'm always available for where like somebody calls me I don't not answer or return the call right away it's kind of like that yeah but when the important stuff is needs attention that's I'm there yeah what I mean which that's like the great part of being a business owner is uh you don't I don't have to answer to anybody else telling me where I need to be while they're out doing that. It's okay. I'm going to take care of this now because I know I have that later and I just shuffle things around that way. Yeah. It all works out. Yeah. I had one last question here. That was kind of a fun one because if you could sit down with a drink from cold

zero and you have a conversation with any historical figure because you studied history, right? You got a history degree. Yeah. Who would it be? And what would you ask him? man, there's like a lot of people, but like, I was fascinated with Teddy Roosevelt, the Rough Rider era, exploration, the outdoors. I mean, that'd be like a guy that I would sit down with and I just be like, take me with you. Yeah. Yeah. It's badass. For me, probably that. Yeah. Honestly, I've been asked that before and it's always, that's always who I go. Man, I really thought I had you. I really thought I had a good one there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'm just fascinated by that era.

There's a lot of people I'm fascinated by in that era where everything was kind of wild, new, and natural, I guess, so to speak. Probably my favorite, you can't really say it's a quote because it's so long, but his man in arena speech. That sums up the difference. Like, that's the difference between people.

Yeah. You will run into people in your life that won't do anything, but they'll be more than happy to point out your flaws. Yeah. But they'll never set foot into, they won't put the skin in the game. Yeah. Like that's, that's one of the best. It is one of the best.

I just love that. Funny you say that because when I was, so going back to my youth, when I went to college, I had like some people, like friends, dads who were like, oh, you're a glutton for punishment. You don't want to go to college, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, what? okay so I go to college and get through that and then I'm going to special forces when they hear about that dude that ain't gonna happen yeah and honestly it was just fuel of the fire to be honest with you but like I always thought about it I'm like how do they know like what has he ever done in his

life yeah nothing even close to this like how do you know that I can't do that or how do you know that somebody else can't do that that's why like if a kid comes to me like even my kids friends and they say they want to do something wazoo I'm like Sweet, dude. Go do it. You know, it just takes somebody's got to do it. Right. And I guarantee you every single person in a position like that has been told that they can't by somebody.

And if you go this weekend and would meet any of my friends walking around, they tell you the same thing. Like, I've had conversations with them before. We're like, we got some drunk idiot, you know, in the town telling us that we can't do something. And you're like, okay, dude, right on, man. See you later. No, you're 100%. It adds chip on the shoulder, man. And that's what it is.

Yeah, I mean, I went through that. I had the opposite, actually. It's like I was the, I was told that you had to go to college. Like, that was the only direction. And me going and chorn pigs right out the gate, you know, that was, oh, you're going to chore pigs the rest of your life. Is that what you're going to do? You know, you're not going to go to college.

Do you need a backup plan? You're not going to have a backup plan? You're going to end up, you know, whatever. It's like, oh, you'll see. I'm skeptical of backup plans to an extent. to an extent. Like if you're doing an operation in the military, it's good to have a pace plan. But when you're talking about committing to something, hey, if that's what you're passionate about, go battle through all the ups and downs and failures and find a way to win it. And to your point,

too, you don't need college, man. No way. Some of my most successful buddies are trade guys that build houses and roads. And I mean, that's where it's at. Yeah. And I just feel like it's just changed the with online and social media information learning it's just i mean everything that we do here today it's because self self teaching and in the internet yeah so it's like it's awesome anybody can do it so yeah but no man i we really appreciate you coming on like this was an awesome episode i love everything that you're doing i admire what you're doing so much i admire you um and likewise yeah if you know everybody if you got any value go support kisi and everything he's doing, all the brands he's associated with. You heard it. They're doing

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