Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - 172 - The Warrior Entrepreneur

Episode Date: December 21, 2020

The Warrior Entrepreneur Episode is jammed pack with insights, mindset, and growth based knowledge guaranteed to help you level up and identify how to build a Warrior Poet ethos in your own life. "I had this anthem where I wanted to communicate for life change. I was on a personally journey where I wanted to grow as an individual. And I was ambitiously pursuing that way I wanted to invite other men and women along my journey as well and be like, ‘hey come on, let’s grow together’" - John Lovell

And I had this anthem where I wanted to communicate for life change. I was on a personal journey where I wanted to grow as an individual. And as I was just kind of ambitiously pursuing that way, I wanted to invite other men and women along my journey as well and be like, hey, come on. Let's grow together. Hey, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show. I'm Pedro Sculian. And today we have a very awesome guest with us. He is the warrior poet.

He is John Lovell and he is a... former Army Ranger. John, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me on. Where am I looking here? Because you kind of went back and forth. Where is everybody hanging out? Yeah, everyone's hanging out right here. It's two dudes sitting at a bar having coffee, but I like to address the camera here and there. And if you want to address the camera here and there, that will be your camera right there. Hey, guys. Yes, indeed. And you are at the Fit Body HQ. Thanks for coming out, man. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. Exciting stuff. You got a pretty cool place. How do you like California so far? I love the look of California and I love the

people of California, I think your laws suck. And I enjoy a freer state. Y'all should join us. But California is awesome in many other respects. So if John Lovell was governor of California, what's the first thing he would do? I'd protect the First and Second Amendment. And everywhere that it's been shipped away, and then I'll probably let businesses be able to keep more of their money and freedom. I'd like that as well. But I think more free. The best person to take care of you isn't the government, it's you. How about that? So I'd like you to free you up to do that. But I wasn't a famous actor. I wasn't in predator. I wasn't. So I don't think I'm qualified. Yeah. Well, neither is your belief systems. Your belief systems alone aren't qualified to make you governor in California. But to that

point, you were obviously a protector of our freedom. You went to war for us. And thank you for your service. Appreciate you for that. As someone who's an immigrant to this country, I have the utmost respect for our men and women who go to battle because my father had probably many choices to escape to when we escaped communism, but he chose of the United States for that single reason. And he told me so that we have men and women that are willing to die for our constitutional rights. Right. And that's not available anywhere else. So what, let's kind of just dive into a little synapsis of who you are and what you do. You went into the army and became an arranger.

Right. But today you have a very different thing you do. You have a YouTube channel. You've got a platform and you teach you teach folks how to protect themselves with weapons. But you also have this ethos that you live by, which I love because it's very congruent with the project, modern day and night project, which is the warrior poet ethos. What's that about? Sure. So I didn't want to go off to Afghanistan and Iraq, succeed at war just to come back and fail at life.

And so I'm a man of balance. I believe that the measure of a man and the measure of a human really is balance, right? And I find within myself two kind of different pulls. One is to be bold and courageous, to be fierce, to be a good protector. I mean, that's written in my bones. I know it is in yours as well. But then there's also the other pieces of life where I need to be able to be gentle and emotionally available to my kids, romantic with the wife and sensitive. her. And so I realized if I'm just kind of the tough guy and I'm not this, everything is going to

fall apart. I'll impress some, you know, chest beating buddies and stuff like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then you suck at life, man. Marriage falls apart. Your business is crash and you have no real idea what's going on. And you realize you're kind of a failure of a man. We've got to be able to balance ourselves. And so our ethos is one of balance where we aspire to be. lions and lambs not 50-50 not 60-40 but 100% lion 100% lamb and so the false dilemma of lover or fighter is just that it's a false dilemma don't answer I've like no no no be a lover and a fighter and if you fall short on either one that's a failure point you got to grow in and grow into that and become better so lover and fighter lion lamb warrior and poet

And so that's the idea. You are so majestic, just like that beard. Oh, come on. You want to just give it. I'm just going to stay aware. A lot of people ask to touch it. I just... Yeah.

No, I'm going to run my fingers through it afterwards once we stop recording. I'm real uncomfortable. I know I started the joke, but... John, so as you articulate that so well. And one of the reasons I reached out to you is that I believe people who can draw a clear word picture, great communicators, I believe. are far more powerful than an army of people with weapons, rifles, whatever. And I think we should all be armed.

I love our Second Amendment. That's why we're here in the United States. Where did you learn to speak so well? Because the Empire Podcasts, one, I want to get to know you, and I want our folks to know you, but I want our hundreds of thousands who listen and watch this show to also understand what it takes to succeed in business. You succeeded in battle, and you are massively succeeding in business right now. and in your family.

And I believe communication is a big piece. Were you always a great communicator? No, I wasn't. And people just always shocked to hear this, but I learned how to teach on the mission field as a Christian missionary. And so for years, my job daily was communication. And so I made an art of it, a study of it, looked at other communicators that I wanted to emulate,

and I really grew in that respect. And I went into just years of exhaustive study. I just read books all day. 10 hours a day for years. And so that's where I really learned how to communicate and reach people where they were at. And I had this anthem where I wanted to communicate for life change. I was on a personal journey where I wanted to grow as an individual. And as I was just kind of ambitiously pursuing that way, I wanted to invite other men and women along my journey as well and be like, hey, come on, let's grow together.

And so that's how I roll, bro. You're such a storyteller. And I love if we tied your hands, about 40% of your communication. I wouldn't be able to speak. I couldn't speak. It would be like gagging you. Words, words are good. Words are good.

I good at words. I got good at the knuckle. You got to drag immediately. All right. So you have a very interesting channel, Warrior Poet Channel on YouTube. And currently you're fighting big media. not directly in court, per se, but they are stripping away your and others right to free speech of pistols, of rifles, of Second Amendment, of how to protect yourself? And how do you feel about that?

How's that working for you? I wouldn't call it much of a fight. We're just getting busted up and we're kind of like we're like surrounded by enemy and we're just trying to keep a low profile. But the more we grow, the harder that is. In our free speech, it's not that I'm not allowed to say what I want. that some of the big tech platforms are acting like publishers, but have the legal protections of a platform. So it's not kind of like your business where you're subject to anti-discrimination laws.

They get to operate however they want, suppress the views that they don't want with no accountability and legal protections by the government. So if the government did something and infringed upon my rights, I could sue the government. But I'm not able to sue big tech. I have no recourse. If they want a shadow ban, this is something that happens every single day.

It's happening right now. Big Tech is going through and unsubscribing people from our channel. And so people resubscribe and they say, hey, truly, I did not unsubscribe. I'm like, yeah, I'm used to it. It's been happening for a long time now. Or they just don't notify you when I post videos. You'll go to subscribe. You'll toggle notifications bell to all.

And then you just won't get them. Especially if it's something that's really an authentic. to the narrative that big tech wants to push. And so what is that narrative and why are they trying to silence a message from you? I think it doesn't fit their worldview and ideology. I'm one of, man, I really like traditional values. I think to look back on all human history for thousands of years and say, you got everything wrong, progressivism, let's throw, let's burn everything down and

recreate a new utopia. I'm like, man, this has been tried so many times and always ends in terrible blood and freedom being stripped away. And so I think traditional values, I want to protect the right to life, the right to free speech. I would like the right to protect myself and bear arms. And so, yeah, I want small government. I think it's Dennis Prager who says when government's big, the person is small. When government's small, then the person is big. You have freedoms. And so I think that's all antithetical to the leftism that's pervading. Hollywood, the media, big tech, academia, they kind of own it all.

Do they have an agenda? Yeah, of course, everyone's got an agenda. I got an agenda. I got an agenda. I don't know. You answer the climate. Well, I'd like to hear your opinion. You're on our show, and I'd like to hear your opinion.

I think we need to beware the psychologist fallacy, and that's why I have no bias. I have no agenda, but everyone else. Everyone's got an agenda. Sure. And that's okay. Just be forthright. So, for instance, journalism. since that's one of the areas that I brought up, journalists are supposed to take their own

individual bias, muscle it down every single time they go to work, and just report the news. Here's the facts, and let me not twist to lead you to my bygone conclusions, but when you watch different news networks, say you have something like the Daily Wire, which is conservative, or you have CNN, and they're reporting the same events, it looks so wildly different. And if you tell me where you get your news, I'll tell you how you see the world. Because it's just that obvious. If you watch nothing but CNN, these are your new values. This is how you see the world.

And these are your thoughts. And we've become so monolithic just based on our news sources when it's supposed to be, shelve your activism, just report the news, let the people decide. But everything's ideologically driven now. You just hit on a point that we constantly drive home on the Empire show. Guys and gals, you know this to be true. We talk about the thoughts that occupy your mind and the people that you surround yourself determine your outcome and your belief system.

That's great. And you just said, you tell me your outlet of news, and I'll effectively tell you what your belief system is. Right. Because those news platforms, whether they're social media, whether they're print media, television media, radio media are ultimately molding, fanagling your belief systems. Right. And when we have two different platforms reporting on the same,

news in a very polarizing way, I believe all journalism is dead. I think so. Yeah. And I share that with you because you're like, wait a minute, Pedro, so you're just supposed to help us grow our business and make more money. I also want you to keep more of that money so that you can donate to the causes you believe in. And by the way, if you don't have a cause that you believe in, Shriner's Children's Hospital. So I'm a big believer in Shriners Children's Hospital.

For the last 11 years, we've been donating multiple millions of dollars to Shriners. and it's something that I believe in. And when I think about how I use my money for good, in the definition that I see good, a hospital that helps families whose kids have medical conditions that the families can't afford, and now I'm going to get taxed more

if the administration who thinks they won, if the Biden administration goes into power, well, I'm not a complainer. My job as an entrepreneur, free market capitalist, is to make more money. I do realize that I can do less good if I allow these fools to take more of my money. And so let's shift gears for a moment and talk about that. You know, as a Army Ranger, you go into the military to serve because you, I imagine, I can't put words in your mouth, maybe you'll tell me, but you have a higher calling.

Why did you go into the Army? And I had a hundred reasons looking back. Now it just looks like Providence shifted me there. And it's great. But, I mean, every boy dreams of special operations, whatever. I just was kind of a man-child. That never really matured out. I'm like, no, a kid, go get a real job.

I'm like, nope. I want to do cool stuff and jump out of helicopters and stuff. And so that's what I did. There's a part of me that never grew up and was bold and stupid enough to try it and then not quit and make it. Amen to that. Amen to that point, you weren't necessarily getting paid hands. handsomely to go do that job. It was an experience and it was a calling. Sure. That's what I'm hearing you say.

But you made this pivot into entrepreneurship and I want our audience to know that if you think like, hey man, my industry is weird. If you're in the CBD world right now, you're in some industry word, well, I can't run ads. I can't run Facebook ads for my industry. Like this dude's in an industry that big tech is trying to silence. And you're finding creative ways to grow your platform. So I want to kind of shift gears, how you went from working in our military for our citizens to being self-employed and being an entrepreneur in a space that is being silenced because our Second Amendment is being eroded right now. What makes you decide that I'm going to create a business and grow this thing online? Why online? Is that how it started? Yeah, sure. So really, it was kind of cooped up. I was

doing the training thing. So I was tactical trained, do a lot of night vision and low light stuff, mainly for tactical teams. But I was kind of holed up in a building without windows, more depressed than I knew. And I was a guy with a message and no one to even really interact with. And that sucked. And so I ended up getting into social media because, I don't know, it's just a way where I could hit a lot of different folks. And so that's the avenue I went. Effectively, you chose to become an entrepreneur and grow on social media. Right. How do you do it with a market of guns and pistols and training and all the things big tech doesn't want you to talk about?

So I think there's principles. Like if I was doing room clearing, there's a principle of gaining advantage over an adversary in timing, positioning, and psychology. In effect, tactics. But the techniques of how I can accomplish tactical advantages can shift and change. A lot of veterans may get out and they know their spree day core. their culture and the techniques of leadership style that work very well in the military with a captive audience that can't quit and you exercise full control. Then you shift into a civilian populace and it's so easy to look at the civilians with some

contempt because you readily recognize certain weaknesses that you didn't have to experience in the military. Sure. And people can get bottlenecked in and they isolate themselves after service from friends and from coworkers. and it can be almost this wall that if you don't tear it down, no one else can. And each year in your bitterness that the world is not as you knew it. In the desert, you add another brick to that wall.

And really, you're building a barrier to your own success. And you've got to recognize, no, the mission has changed. The battlefield has changed. And the dudes to my left and right have also changed. And you can't lead with the same techniques in the business world. you can lead with the same principles in the business world. Like, I want to be inspired, man. And by the way, what I just said, I could push back on that a little bit.

But generally speaking, I think that's true. Anyway, principally, I want to be inspired. I want to know that I'm being taken care of. I want to know that there's direction. I want to know that I'm belonging to something bigger than myself. And those are just a few little ideals. But how I communicate that vision has got to be a little bit. softer and diplomatic to employ.

And if I can't make that change, I'm going to not be my own worst enemy. And so I had to really have a bit of a come to Jesus in that you couldn't treat people the same way as you did in the military. And I also have to be real quick to forgive the certain weaknesses of civilians in terms of how they're put together. What weaknesses do you see? Let's talk about that for a moment. Let's just be fully transparent. Sure.

And I don't mean that in a condescending way. I mean also in the civilians. world, they've got absolute strengths as well. Just to understand when I say weaknesses and strengths, it's purely just a cultural thing and not like an identity kind of thing. I guess what I mean like, for instance, in the military, if we say, hey, be here at eight o'clock, then you show up at 7.45. No chance I'm going to show up at 8.10 and be like, hey, guys, what's up? With no apology or explanation? And that was unheard of for me. You know? And then people would sit around kind of in college, I remember this after I got out of the military, I went back to college, got a degree.

Folks had just waste huge amounts of time. And they wouldn't live a disciplined life. And they weren't really playing. It was almost like we had extended adolescence and everyone was just kind of sitting on the field. I'm kind of like on the sidelines. I'm like, come on guys, let's get out and do something. Grow up. And, you know, a lot of them were friends. I'm not throwing stones or anything, but there seemed to be a lack of urgency or a lack of discipline in some areas. By the way, veterans are extremely disciplined in some areas and not disciplined at all in others. And so I want to be careful to, I know, re-qualify the fact that I'm not talking identity here. I'm just talking about the culture of the military is different than the culture of the civilian world. And the civilian

war, there's no hope in bending the culture of your civilian sphere into one of the military. And to try to do that swimming upstream against the current is just going to leave every really upset. And so you've got to improvise, adapt, overcome, and meet everyone where they're at. And if you don't, you're going to fail. And so to that point, as you now are building a team for your business, I can't imagine everybody comes from the military world who works on your team. In fact, most are probably civilian. Correct. Yeah. So how do you lead them with the weaknesses that civilians have? And again, when we say the weaknesses, we talk about the cultural weaknesses, that simply were installed through college, through mom and dad, who just raised them average or mediocre or whatever.

That's great. How do you lead these young men and women that are very different from the culture that you come from? I think first off, I start with a vision. What do I want to accomplish? What's the need? And you start with a vision. And then the next thing, after I look out, I look in and say, what are my strengths? And then, oh, this sucks.

What are my weaknesses? And so my goal was to find folks to partner with and immediately build. a team that was strong where I was weak. And so I've got some dudes around me extremely competent dudes who are strong where I'm weak, lest my business in our society, the illustrious goal we have in building the warrior poet society inherits my weaknesses. And I don't want that. I've heard it said, somebody said, weird teams make good teams. And it's a little bit upsetting because in some ways I'm kind of like, I got a plan, everyone follow behind, we're charging this bunker, so to speak. and I know exactly how to do that, but then I'll fight with my own team.

And they kind of can be a little bit of an anchor or a brake pedal in some ways and a gas pedal and others. And we end up making far better decisions than if I just had my way. And so, man, somebody to be able to pump the brakes on this driver is so critical. And I just glory in the fact that my team rocks and they really help balance. me out. And if I didn't recognize that, man, I'm going to, I'll make some progress and then immediately torpedo myself and have myself to blame. And I probably won't even realize it. So it's, it's the team that's really pushing everything along and helping and growing. And together we can do a lot and alone, I'm so hamstrung. And with a team like that who's competent, as you said, a weird team

makes a great team. And the first thing you shared as you did this, you said, I have a very clear vision. Right. How does one define their vision? We were talking about that in the truck last night as we were driving back from dinner from the, so guys and guys yesterday was the graduation of class zero zero six of the project. Actually, get this. Let's just divert for a moment. We'll come back to, we'll come back to vision. Because I think you can really speak on this topic. 22 dudes signed up for the project. 19 showed up, 12 graduated after the 75-hour experience. And I always look at it as 22 dudes were sitting in the bleachers. 19 of them came onto the field.

Of the 19, 12 really put out the effort. And I often wonder why this happens, and you're a thinker, a poet, and perhaps you can shed some light on this. Because every class, in every single class, we have X number of sign up, And then there's the excuses that happened the week before. That 22 that dwindled down to 19, it's always the week before. Hey, something happened, someone's sick, possibly afraid of COVID all of a sudden. And I can't figure out why.

What's the mindset there? Is that self-sabotage? Yeah, we're all self-destructing, you know? We're all our own worst enemies. We all know what we should do and what we want to do. And then I think you'd said it yesterday where you're talking yourself out of it. What's the words you used? Negotiating your way out of things.

Negotiating your way out of it. It's like, I know how to eat healthy. Everyone out there knows what you should and shouldn't eat, but you ate the donut anyway because you wanted it. And so it turns out, despite how robotic we'd like to think we are, we're not rational creatures. We're carnal creatures that are capable of rationality. And so kind of recognizing that fatal flaw,

we're all Dr. Frankenstein creating our own monster. That monster's us, too. Ain't that the truth? So how do we manage the monster? Yeah, fantastic question. This is at first, but I just mentioned a team can actually really help, recognizing, man, I can be better with a team. Me and you, we're stronger together than either one of us could be a part.

And I think we're built for those relationships, and that's a big piece. I think character is another really important one, whether you can. quit, whether that's even in your DNA, man, there's so many times just going through a real tough training that I planned on quitting. I was quitting. I just said, as soon I get up to that, I'm done. I'm done

with this crap. And then I get up there and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. And then I'm like, next hill, for sure. I'm going to quit. I quit a bunch. I never actually could do the thing. And I think it was part of a weird mix of courage that I had and also a little bit of cowardice

that I had as well where I didn't want to I couldn't do it. And so some of it is just kind of that innate drive. I think character as well, so that it's not just internal character. I think character is something that can be grown by God as Jesus is the author and the perfector of our faith. And I'm like that, regardless of who, you know, believes what, this is me, I get to do me. And if you disagree, I don't really care because I'm doing me. But I believe that seeing Jesus' example and trying to grow into him, he's the ultimate warrior poet to me, who's who I want to be with, the guy who split time and two.

That's who I want to be like. And so it's really him that drives me to be better and makes me better. But without that character, your business is going to suck. Your marriage is going to suck. And so all of it grows from that route. And, man, I'm fatally flawed, but I'm trying to get a little bit better. here, but I think it does boil down to character. Your courage as well. It's your character. It said it was unfortunate a little while ago where I said, tell me the news that you listen to,

and I'll tell you how you see the world. It's kind of that. It shouldn't be that way. What should define how you see the world is your theology and your philosophy, whatever that is. That's how, that's, that's kind of defines you. And then your character as well. So when someone is missing a developed character, they don't have Jesus to model after, they don't have whoever, Buddha to model after, whatever your source of the higher power is, you become a rudderless ship or a plank going down a river, do you not? And therefore, whatever direction the current takes you is truly becoming your belief system. Yeah, I think so. And so you said core values. I think a great piece of character is core values, to know that what are negotiables and what are not.

negotiables for you. There are certain things that are non-negotiables in my life. And I live by those. You asked me yesterday in the truck as we're heading back from that graduation dinner, hey, what time do you wake up? It's 537 days a week because the moment I found for me, for me, the moment I wake up, allow myself to sleep, let's say on Sunday till 7 a.m., my body's circadian rhythm and my mental state has accepted a little bit of weakness and therefore Monday I'm gonna wake one, to wake up a little bit later. And so the consistency for me, I'm like, that German Shepherd dog. I need consistency. I need something to, a bone to chase every single day.

The moment I don't, the slippery slope begins for me. So I've got core values that I live by. And we were talking about core values. He was telling me, hey, I've got a very clear vision of the values that I have, the vision that I have for my business. The vision and values are very congruent, by the way, because if you're very clear on your vision, then I have a set of rules, values that I can live by, and no one can sway me. So what is the vision? So what is the vision? that you developed for warrior poet, how did you develop that? And how do you share that with a team who might have a very different vision? For sure. And there is a difference. For me, I went the Jesus route. Some of you hated for it. We're almost done with that. But that's me kind of personally,

Christian. They're there. The society is not a Christian movement. Instead, it's very simple. You live for higher purpose. You get to define that, but you live for higher purpose, something bigger than you, and you're ready to sacrifice in the defense of others. And that's it. That's the whole deal. That's warrior poet, and that stretches back thousands of years where other people were kind of using similar terms. I'm just the one that trademarked it in the 21st century, right? But that's kind of the ethos. Live for higher purpose, ready to sacrifice in the defense of others. And I wanted it really broad, recognizing there are different theological expressions or atheistic expressions, whatever. But if you can meet those

basic criteria. And so what it is, is it's basically declaring, I'll live a life of courage and sacrifice and significance. And that's the non-negotiables. And if you, if you can't agree to that creed, that's okay. You're just not one of us. But that's, that's what we are as a society. So it's real broad and room for a lot of different expressions of faith or even faithlessness. Okay. So let's talk about that for a moment. Is that then the filter that you use during your interviews when you're hiring employees to work for the Warrior Poet Society? In other words, if I'm going to be a web developer or a video guy, I need those skills plus have these values. So we have our own code of conduct and our values. And so it's a little bit more on,

we sense that you're close enough. But you know what kind of culture you're entering. Sure. Right. And so it's more of like that. So when it ends up being an information systems guy who's going to be quiet at a computer, doing cool things with code, looking at the matrix and a bunch of stuff I don't understand, I don't need him to tow the exact line, but I do want some baseline of character,

of work ethic, and that's kind of the stuff. And so there's who we're communicating to the warrior poets out there, who are really after in my business is more about having all. the systems in place to serve the warrior poets. Sure. Now when I have a trainer or something, it's more important to me that they really model that ethos as well. But so.

So let's talk about it for a moment. When we were talking about in the truck, you said, hey, I'm looking for trainers. There's five specific things I'm looking for. When he says trainers, guys, I know many of you are from the fitness industry since you follow me, not trainers in a gym, lifting weights, but trainers on a, I guess in a course, at a range, at a shooting range. I teach gunfighting. So not just firearms.

That's not a good... I don't teach guns. I teach how to survive ambushes and a civilian... Let me just say, you know that sounds cool as when you go, I teach gunfighting when you do that. I do that. I do that. I do that. I teach gunfighting.

I don't. I teach making money. It's not as cool. That does sound kind of cool. Everyone's out like, nope, nope, money sounds cool. Everyone is right there. Your beard did a thing when you said that. It's like your beard winked to the camera when you...

That's awesome. That's awesome. How do I do that? Some people will be like, I'm a firearms instructor. I'm definitely not that because we're teaching how to actually fight with the gun. The gun is just kind of the prop. It's the tool that you use. But if you're in the wrong place, wrong time, wrong situation, then you're on the X being ambushed.

You could be an amazing shooter and still get crushed. And so we're integrating civilian tactics and law enforcement tactics with your weapon system to be able to make a fighter. And so martial arts going to come into that as well. So I'll travel the country and I'm teaching gun fighting. And my other instructors are doing something very similar, moving into more specified areas of that big idea. Sure. But having John Lovell travel the country and I know we're going from like just talking about personal life and ethos to business. But that's what we do here at the Empire Show.

when we see on the Warrior Poet Network, which I'm a member of, I'm a paying member of the Warrior Poet Network, y'all should definitely sign up to it. That's not a paid plug. That's just there because. And I'm a subscriber to your YouTube channel. I tend to fall in love with John Lovell. And I'm like, this cat's funny. He's got goofy dad jokes. And he is a master at his craft. Thanks, man. And then if I'm looking to go to a training, I'm probably going to look for John to show up and train me. And you're looking for trainers out there. And then I share this because many of the people that I coach and consult and their businesses

and many of our viewers and listeners here are in that place where how do I duplicate myself? How do I scale myself without having to be everywhere and neglect my family or my health? Right. Because I have to fly somewhere in train or coach or mentor. So what do you look for? How do you transition to saying, hey, guys, I'm not going to be running this course, someone else's, but you're in good hands. Sure.

I've gotten a ton of resumes, and I've been real slow to hire because I'm extremely picky. When folks see Warrior Poet class, they expect a real high quality, and I can't betray that trust. So one thing is we'll delineate it on the website. You'll know when someone else is teaching a class

versus when I'm teaching it. So that's important as well, meaning you're not going to think you're hanging in with me, and then you show up and I'm not there. You know where you see that a lot of, right? When you, hey, I'm going to teach you how to buy real estate, My name is Bob Smith. You see the infomercials, and then you show up to the Sheraton with your friend for $99.

And it's... Larry with a comb over? Yeah, exactly. Asking for credit cards, yeah. So you're not doing that. No. No. No, no, no.

I find it disingenuous. No. So they would know. And they get a price break when it's not me as well. It would be great. But it's still going to be stuff that I've vetted and I've approved and this is the stuff. And you're going to have a really good instructor. So returning to the five things.

The first thing that I require in one of our instructors is they have to have just a master ability to communicate. I'm more interested in how good of a communicator you are. People should want to listen to you. And when you speak, they want you to keep going. And if you don't have that piece, that charisma, that ability to hold a group of people's attention and to quickly relay points in ways that makes sense to your audience. If you don't have that, I can't do anything with you for most of our classes. So master communicator. Second is I want a real world resume.

If you're teaching competitive shooting, you've got a competitive shooting title. If you're teaching gunfighting, you've been in gunfights. You know, like, so you need to be it. Nobody wants to learn how to get in shape from a morbidly obese slob. And so if you don't have the real world experience, I'm not interested. So you're looking for dudes who can be master. of communications so far and have been in gunfights. If you're teaching a gunfighting course.

Yeah. Got it. So, I mean, if like it's a martial arts class, I don't need you to be in a gunfight class anymore. So anyway, yeah, whatever you're teaching, you actually have a real-world resume that supports what you're teaching. So it's not just theory. It's, I remember doing that as well. Theory plus experience. So there's those two pieces. A third thing is they have to be able to be highly proficient in the skill, meaning like when you get up and you do your thing,

whether I'm doing a three-count drawstroke or transitions or rapid fire, I can perform consistently on demand in a way that looks pretty magical to the students. They're like, all right, he can do it. And so I need that third thing. The fourth thing is they have that coach's eye where they can look at you and just a glimpse know exactly what you're doing wrong. This is going to really resonate with a lot of the fitness crowd out there, coaching heavy lifts or something like that. But you can immediately see what's going on.

And you can use the correct measure of carrot and stick to be able to motivate that person, not to belittle, not to shame, but also not to pamper, a correct measure of carrot and stick to be able to pull that off. And I'm missing a fifth. I rattled them off in the truck. Why was I driving? I should have been recording. Now I can't, I've got to put it in the Let's walk through this together. We're two grown men. We could do this. So the first thing was you've got to be a master communicator.

Second thing was that you've got to be great at the craft that you say you are. The third thing was you've got to present magically. Fourth thing was you have to have a coach's eye. And the fifth thing is, John, this is where you go, John. I got it. I got it. And last night in the truck, it was the second one I listed off. And that's you have our ethos.

That's the one. That's the one. and I never missed that one, but we've been talking about the ethos thing for a lot of this part. I don't want somebody who likes what we're doing. I want somebody that's totally invested of like, man, I feel it come out of you. That's in your bones. You feel the warrior poet message, right? And so you embody that.

Guys, make no mistake about it. We've talked about this episode after episode after episode, whether it was Tim Grover who was here or Tom Villew and Milet. your people are your product. And at the end of the day, if you're the face of the business and then your people are going to serve your customers, they better have the core values, ethos, training, experience. Otherwise, you look like a fake phony imposter, right? That's good. I like that. And it might take 20 years to build your reputation. It'll take 20 minutes to ruin that reputation when you bring the wrong trainer, coach, employee, counselor, whatever it is that you do, when you put them up front in your business.

So we talked about obviously your transition there from military into an entrepreneur. I want to touch on something because I'm not a believer of having business partners. You have a business partner. And our audience should hear all sides of it. I've had business partners before. I learned that I play well by myself

where business is concerned. I've got an amazing team and I could not do any of the seven companies without the team. but I can be the only chef in the kitchen. You've got a business partner, Evan. Tell me more. Yeah, so Evan and I go way back, met him back in 2005,

so coming up on 15 years or so. Anyway, yeah, and he's literally, I was talking about the Enneagram stuff with you last night. Enigram, it's like a personality thing that ranks you of like, you may be a number three and I'm a number six or eight or nine or whatever. But it was funny, we both did these personalities. tests in the three I ranked highest for was literally his lowest and his highest were my lowest. And then it even said in the kind of the subtext regarding these personality traits that this

guy drives this guy nuts and vice versa. And so there is tension. He literally, he's just my opposite. He sees his perspective as completely different. Now, we still have the same values. We have the same ethos, but our backgrounds and how we kind of like. Like how we're put together is completely different. And I think us just being great friends, he was best man in my wedding 14 years ago.

Sure. And so I mean like, you know, it's our mutual affection that can kind of pull that together, but also recognizing man, the way I see the world is not the absolute truth. And that's going to especially, I know you're probably a lot like me of like I see it so clearly. I don't know why anyone else doesn't. There it is. Quit slacking off. Quit making excuses.

Execute. And that's kind of how I'd want to do it. But there's so many little potholes along the way that I, glory in heaven, to help me slow down enough to be able to hit that. I can make a decision on a diamond. Usually it's a pretty good one. I feel it in my gut, but I can also analyze and see the field. But he really helps balance me out in a very healthy way. It means I move a little slower on some stuff.

but our decisions are always better. It's a healthier way for me to grow. The big problem is if your personality or if your relationship fails, now your business is torpedoed. So you're kind of betting it all on your relationship. Sure. And so what do you do to keep that relationship healthy with Evan? So all relationships need lots of communication,

lots of work, and lots of forgiveness and grace. And if you're not capable of lots of forgiveness, giving people the benefit of the doubt, cutting them some slack and also kind of trying to out give them rather than the barter thing. This is why a lot of marriages fail too is because people think of it like a contract. It's like, listen, if you make me happy and you love me, I'll make you happy and love you back. If you take out the trash, I'll do the dish. And so it's kind of this barter exchange where secretly you're keeping, listen to this guys,

this is so, so good. If you're keeping tabs on, are they putting in what I'm putting in? you're always, after a certain amount of time, going to become bitter when you feel any bit of disparity. And it starts breeding that bitterness in that contempt. Instead, what you want to do is overgive each other and keep no record. And you're like, can't you be wronged by that? I'm like, absolutely. And just let, you know, into some ways, that's, I'm not talking about laying down in traffic and let somebody beat you up or take advantage of.

I'm just saying, be generous in spirit. and when they're generous and spirit back and you're both just kind of hooking each other up, that can work really well. And that's the only thing that works in a marriage too that's vibrant and growing, I think, is it's not a contract. It's a covenant. And that means, I'll love you for better or for worse, whether you get super sick and paralyzed, whether you were crazy, broke and can't pay any bills, whether you get ugly, I'm going to love you no matter what. And that's the vows in sickness and in health for better or for worse, for richer for poor. It's a covenant. That means there's no contract. I love you no matter what forever. It's the most romantic thing

that's ever come out. It truly is. It's even if I will love you, even if. And that same vows in our marriage will transfer into a business partnership. Now, having said, I don't have any business partners. I do have one business partner in the Empire Show and the Empire Mastermind that we have, Craig Ballantyne. However, like you and Evan, he's the only business partner that I had known for many years grew to love ever way before we became business partners and that I believe is the missing link where two people will meet up and go hey man I've got this vision and you go well hey dude I'll fund it I've got the money yeah and we don't know each other's work ethic core values character and soon the friction begins yeah yeah the friction begins and so just a message

there guys success leaves clues and you heard the man say it you've you're picking a business partner, if you're just picking them for the money that they bring to the, go get a bank loan. Yeah. Go get a bank loan. If you're picking them because they have a unique skill and their personality, I guess, really builds your inherent weaknesses and your strengths build theirs. There you might have a match. Right.

Right. Yeah. So what do you do if I'm sure there's plenty of times you've disagreed on something or the poop hit the fan? How do you guys handle a business disagreement? Well, one thing is we're not 50-50 partners, in which case I can always trump card and be like, I hear it, I appreciate it or respect it, we're going to do what I want. Gotcha. And so-

That's a great lesson right there. Let's not, just wave on that. Take majority ownership. If you can, take majority ownership because at the end of the day, someone must have the buck stops with me. Right. And that comes out of my business philosophy, and it's actually more of a life philosophy. I don't believe in 50-50 partnerships, period. There's one president.

and there's one CEO, there's one head coach, and there's one steering wheel on a car. And I think ultimately that's what it comes down to. We don't like that. People freak out because we're the age of feminism. My wife is flourishing 14 years. I mean, we're growing. We're pumped. We're happy. She's joyful. She's where she wants to be. And man, we're, we're killing it. But she's not the leader in the marriage. And we're not 50-50 in leadership either. I'm the leader of our marriage. period. Yeah.

Send all comments to John Lovell. People are like, no, harassing. That's how I'm the leader in my marriage, right? And so, you know, you're just going to have to forgive me. So I'm going to mention the Jesus thing again. I realize how pissed people get over that. But Jesus, recognizing all authority in heaven and earth,

had been given to him, took out his older garment, wrapped around his waist and washed his disciples feet. And so similarly, that's how I approach the leadership in my marriage, meaning like I want to spend more on her than I do on me. I want to take care of her needs first. And I'm going to lead us in a way that I think is most beneficial to our relationship. And she's going to lovingly follow that leadership, which is an incredible feeling of respect. I'm like, wait, you're with me? You want it different, but you'll follow me. And it's kind of like empowers me of like, try to get at this woman. Try to get through me. Like it inspires me to romance, you know.

When she trusts my competency and respects my leadership like that, when she could bow up, get her own way and eventually wear me down emotionally and get her own way. I'd be like, all right, whatever you want. Whatever you want, I just don't want to fight. Sure. And she could do that. And she doesn't. Or she tried. That tense that you wrote a relationship.

That'll destroy it. That'll destroy it. And what it is is jockeying for control and seeking after my. own way and it just doesn't work. And that's part of the traditional values that we've been talking about as well. And I understand why the pendulum swing has come over because progressives will look at like down with the patriarchy. Look at the terrible stuff that's happening. I'm like, yeah, don't be harsh or mean or or anything like that. Leadership doesn't mean being a jerk. You know, leadership means taking care of the people. It is servitude. Leadership is servitude. When you

approach servant leadership. all the sudden this idea of leading a wife is amazing thing. And she loves that security. And she loves, you know, seeing a strong leader in front of her, someone that she can follow. She wants that. My wife does. Maybe, you know, whoever is watching. It's all right.

You're not married to me. So you don't have to do anything you want. You get to do whatever you want. But in my marriage, this is how it works. And it's working awesome. Now, what about you and Evan in your business partnership? Yeah, it's working great. I almost never play that Trump car.

almost all, virtually every decision, we reach with just that kind of collaboration. It's kind of what made the best idea when. And you said it earlier where you both try and show up as though you each own 100%. And that's the relationship that Craig and I have in this, right? Right. Even though we might be 50, 50 business partners in the Empire Mastermind Empire show, we both do the work of 100%. Like when I'm super busy with Fit Body Bootcamp and I'm like, hey, Craigie, I just can't create

content right now. Right. He's like, dude, don't sweat it. He might knock out 20 shows on his own. Yeah. And there's never a scorecard being kept, and I know that, and I don't feel the pressure of that. That's great.

Yeah. And so to that point, I think it's important for folks to know where leadership is concerned in business partnership, in marriage, or leadership of self, you have to exercise, going back to what you said, grace and forgiveness. That's good. Yeah, I'm in. And show up as a servant. And here's another idea.

It's kind of like we have an idea and what we do. do with all of our ideas is we exalted on a pedestal and everyone tries to attack it and see if it's still standing at the end. And so we'll have a few of us, whoever's kind of in that team and maybe me and Evan or Evan and, you know, part of his team that is following under him or whoever the team is, the idea is, nope, there's no more rank. There's the idea and let's attack it and see if it can stand. And if the idea is left standing at the end, maybe we got something. Maybe it's a good idea. It's more of let's creatively solve a problem. together. And that kind of, that's, that's really the special operations community too.

It's less predicated on who's got the most rank on their caller. It's more of, here's the difficulty, let's improvise and adapt, overcome, quickly, let's come up with an asymmetric creative solution to solve that problem. May the best idea win. And so, uh, look at you, freedom and capitalism. Hey, you know what? How about it? Hey, should every American carry a gun? I don't think so. I mean, if you got like a 100-year-old dude with dementia and he doesn't have any hands, that's probably a bad example. Sorry.

I went to the hyperbole. I went to the hyperbole. I'm like, well, you have the should. That's such a loaded question. Loaded. But it's, you know. Nailed it. I can't even turn it off.

I am a protector. I'm wired that way. And so I want to be able to. because I want to be able to protect folks out there. And so that's a good thing. I think it's a good idea to be ready to make the world a safer place and be able to stand in the gap and defend others. No one ever thinks violence is coming to you until it does.

And every victim that all of a sudden gets hit up and you see the riots happening and social unrest. Here we're in California and there's been riots and up in Oregon as well, just riots. Sometimes it can all of a sudden, here's your friendly business, and then right outside, they're smashing in windows and maybe assaulting some of your, you never know when violence is going to strike. So the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. That's it. And that shouldn't be shocking. And what you find is the cities with the strictest gun laws always have the worst gun violence.

You know, there's a city down in Georgia that it is required that every household has a gun. It's a law. What's the name of that city? I'm curious. Kenesaw. Kenesaw, Georgia. And it's a law on the books. And it's not really enforced, but it's funny that it's a law in the books.

And the crime rates in the toilet. You know, it turns out bad guys don't want to attack people when they think that they're armed. They just go find a gun-free zone. And that's why 94% of all the... of the active killer events have happened in gun-free zones. 94% let's just say that again. 94% of all

active killer events have happened in gun-free zones. That's right. Where there was laws established, do not bring your guns. That's right. Because the bad guy doesn't follow the law. He doesn't care. He doesn't follow the law. He doesn't follow the law. And so it turns out that stripping

people of their gun rights really just disarms the good guys. And then it's open season for bad guys. What do you know? And so, yeah, the gun doesn't kill the person any more than the, you know, the person. Yeah, it's the person that does the thing. Guns are stupid. They just sit on the desk.

If I took my gun off and put it right here, just sit there. It wouldn't do anything. It doesn't just explode. It doesn't go off. People have to do something. And I think of like, right now I'm thinking about the active killer event in Nice France, where a dude with a van just ran over 86 people. I think it's 86 people.

The towers, 9-11 towers. That was 3,000 plus people that were murdered that day. Yeah. And so it's not the gun. It's psychological unwellness. It's rage. It's that kind of stuff. And there are sickos out there.

A lot of us want to live naively thinking the world is this fluffy cloud carebear place. But there are some people out there that truly want you dead. ISIS would murder you in your sleep. And it doesn't matter how good of a person you are. If like that, that's what some. crazy people out there would just want to do because that's how they're wired and that's what they want to do so it's simply because of our ideological views why they would want to kill you in your sleep right they just don't believe in what we believe in and therefore there's men like you sure

who stand in the gap yeah and then even aside from ideological views there's some people that just want to watch the world burn right yeah now Batman well hell when the winds kick up here and she know in Southern California, he starts catching fire. Yeah. And it catches fire. And it's like, I know it wasn't like a tree fell over

and got sparked on its own. Like someone with really bad intentions and wants to see death and destruction starts lighting hills on fire every time the winds kick up. So we do have people that are out of whack, out of balance. John, what have we not talked about?

What should we talk about? Hmm. What am I missing here with John Lovell? Do you have any dad jokes? I live on a steady diet of dad jokes. You do. Your dad jokes are actually very... They are.

I'm not very good at guns or business, but my dad jokes. Do you have one you can hit us with? I always have dad jokes. Come on, I keep them. I keep them in a dadob base. Dato. So I always have... No, it's good.

That's a winner. It's good. Don't edit that one out, guys. A lot of people think that the dad joke is really about the joke. But it's halfway about the delivery. The delivery. So what you do is you lean in, you got to do the cheesy thing. There's the delivery.

I keep it in a dad-o-bett. And you see, I just leaned in like it was something real profound, and I smiled, and then no one else is going to think it's funny. Your wife will roll her eyes and be like, oh, that's so bad. And your kids are like, Daddy, that's stupid. But then you wait, and you revel in the moment, and you're like inviting them, and then you ask for it. You're like, huh?

Huh? Pretty good. Pretty good. And so that's part of the delivery. Do you find yourself embarrassing Mrs. Poet with your dad jokes around others? It's one of my great missions in life. Warrior poet ethos and business. Embarrassed my family with my dad jokes. You've got priorities, man. Yeah, I will go completely awkward in restaurants around the wife and kids,

and they'll just pucker. I call it the puckered. And it's all from my entertainment, but when the waitress or waiter walks away, they all start laughing. Yeah, you're a sociopath. That's awesome. Cheers.

Because we have problems, right? Exactly. Exactly. So how do people find you? do they learn about you? Sure. John Lovell in Google or Warrior Poet. Anywhere, you'll find us quick. Warier Poet. Warrior Poet. John, thank you so much for spending time with us.

And guys and gals, when you watch this episode, do me a favor. Take a screenshot, share it on social media. Tag myself, Warrior Poet, and, of course, John Lovell. And don't forget to tell your mama. We'll see you guys later.