Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Cleared Hot Episode 2 - Josh Bridges

Episode Date: June 19, 2017

Episode #2 with Josh Bridges. Former Navy SEAL, CrossFit Games competitor, coffee aficionado, and all around bad ass. We talked terrorism, telemarketing, and training.

Episode two, here we go. Today I got to sit down with a good friend Josh Bridges, and I think the only description of this guy is that he's a total badass. Most people would recognize his name from the CrossFit world. I'd say for the last five years, highly recognizable and very dominant name in that environment. And a lot of people don't realize that while he was competing or is competing in the CrossFit games for probably three of those five years, he was. also active duty in the military, squeezing his training in when he could outside of the responsibilities

of his job, which is actually how I met him. I was a second phase Bud's instructor and was doing a workout with the students and looked over and yeah, there he was, basically crushing me. And in 10 years, nothing has changed as far as that goes. He's a beast. If you're not familiar with CrossFit or the CrossFit competitive season. Definitely check it out and check him out. It's pretty impressive. So we talked about that a little bit, but more about his previous career,

you know, coaching his kids, coaching his kids sporting teams, which is an endeavor that I would not like to personally take on. You know, what he did before the military, why he joined the military, and a little bit about the current events and the attacks over in Manchester. So here we go.

Episode number two of Josh. I have smoke. My stuff of smoke. Okay, Capi. West of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. Come on weather, man. They give it to me.

I need it. You're cleared hot. Copy, cleared hot. I have to start off with the first question, man. What's going on with your mustache? What's wrong with it? Wow. Check my watch here to see how much time we have.

I guess the question would be is, what are you shooting for with that particular facial hair? Is it pirate? Is it Don Poncho? It's nothing. I have no particular thing I'm going for. I'm just letting it be. You know, it was kind of like at first when I got out, it was like, I'm just going to grow my facial hair out just to stick it to the man. I think every single human being who leaves military service goes that route. Yeah, right, right. And then Rogue made a T-shirt, and it's done really well. So now I can't, now I can't shave it off. I mean, it's unique.

Probably the most iconic picture from last year's games is you in the vest, right? After Murph, your classic, like, you seem to get a little bit excited when you win. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. You do, you do. But that picture, and it's like the same facial hair, and it's like, I had the same thing I got out. I wanted to grow, like, long hair. I grew long hair, but my facial hair looks like I'm Amish. Okay.

Yeah, so, you know, I'd never worked for me overseas, even though I would do it. but if I wanted to invade somewhere where they, like, make wood furniture and butter, I could totally slide in. Like, call me if that's what you want. Other than that, I'm better off just shaving. Like, I can't even do, like, a, it's, like, all low, like, a A. Blankin beard. It's unsat. Like, I want to, like, trim it and, like, tape it up a little bit higher on my cheeks to make it.

Just go with the fake beard. Oh, God, I hate it. So instead I just went with ridiculously long hair, like, past the shoulder blades at some points. Even while I was in and then it's like, okay, I need to cut this at some. point. Yeah, I got really frustrated with the hair. It was disgusting. I had to cut my hair one time overseas because I was on the skids of a little bird and the hair was so long that it was whipping in front of my face and I couldn't see what was going on. And I remember having this discussion with myself, I'm just like, you know, I like the style, but this is getting in the way of

work. Right. So I'm going to trim this back a little bit. And then I went the other route and just completely buzzed it and then none of my stuff fit. My helmet was loose right around. My headset didn't fit on my head. Yeah. Last year, that was actually why I went with, I cut it into that horrible, horrible haircut into the games because of swimming. It was like, I'd get in the pool and I'd start swimming and I didn't wear a swim cap in the pool, obviously, because I'm a man.

So it was just like, it was getting in my goggles and it was driving me crazy. So I went and got a haircut and it was the worst haircut I've ever gotten in my life. I actually remember, you were self-conscious about it. I should have shaved my head. I remember you saying, briefly ran into you. I tried to stay out of everybody's hair metaphorically. Whoa, there it is.

Yeah, didn't mean to, yeah, pun intended, I suppose. But yeah, I remember you actually saying something about it. You actually came up and you like, hey, what do you think of my haircut? And I was like, whoa, Josh is a little self-conscious about this hair. I don't ever wear headbands, and that's why I wore headbands. Well, again, because you're a man. Exactly. Yeah.

Thanks for noticing. Yeah. Wow. There's so much stuff I want to talk to you about, just given your background. So I'm going to dive right into it. Let's do it. Headlines yesterday. Surprisingly repetitive of what they were two weeks ago,

which is surprisingly repetitive of what they were two months ago. I was just reading it and said the Secretary of Defense has called his counterpart in Europe four times since the beginning of the year for situations like this. And I want to grab people by. their ears and just scream at them that like it's avoidable but I also realize that when I do that it turns people off like people are super trenched in like I encounter two camps one of them is we somehow deserve this because look at all the terrible things that we've done or we need to eradicate a certain percentage of the population and I don't think either are necessarily correct I'm just I mean I know how I feel when I read news reports like that or I see some stuff come across

some mainstream media. What's your initial thought when you see those tickers start coming across the screen? Obviously, for me, it's always anger, you know. Anger. Slightly familiar with that? Right. Yeah. Right. You know, you just get, you get frustrated. You just, you know, especially with coming from where we come from, it's just, it's, you know, we see the other, we've seen a little bit of the other side of it. And so it's, yeah, it's just so frustrating. You think it'll happen in the U.S.? Actually, that's actually a poorly phrased question because I think it has already happened in the U.S. to agree,

like San Bernardino. Right, right. You think it'll happen again? You know, I hope not. I really do. I hope not, but, I mean, you never know. You know, that's the thing is this group of people, you know, they're very dedicated to what they do.

And so... That's one thing I get all the time. People think that they're... Right. And they are, I guess based off their belief structure and what I consider to be sane and to be crazy, they are crazy, but I always correct people that it's not a matter of a depth of belief. Because these people are more committed than I would say most Americans are committed to the things that they believe. And commit to anything. I mean, just briefly looking at the headlines. So three guys get out of a van. They, of course, use the van as a weapon as a weapon, which proves that you can weaponize anything regardless of the restrictions you put on it. We should ban bans. Yeah, well, yeah. And how far do you want to go?

You ban pencils and pens, because you can jab that in somebody's eye, too. But then they hop out, they're wearing fake suicide vests. So all the canisters, there was a picture of a guy laying in the street. And you looked, you and I might recognize it because it looks a little bit janky. It looked like you, like taped up smoke canisters. And I was like, all right, that's not necessarily anything that I've ever seen before. But they jump out, rigged up to scare people. Maybe it probably was styrofoam, who knows what it is, with mig knives.

And then they just go on a slashing spree. they use knives. They use knives after they got out of the vehicle. And they went around and basically stabbed at everybody indiscriminately, which goes to my point that, again, I try to reinforce people. It doesn't matter what your personal beliefs are. If you ever encounter evil like that, you don't have time to say, hey, no, no, I, it's not me.

No, no, yeah. I don't, you know, I believe that, you're right. You're correct to feel the way that you do. Like, you're done. You're dead. Yeah. and most people ran away. Some people tried to stop them.

I was stoked to hear that like some patrons in a bar started throwing bar stools and bottles at them. Like they decided to get it on, which is the course of action that I respect the most. If you can run and get away safely, can you get your family, go for it. And in their country, you know, I mean, that's what they have to use to protect themselves.

They don't have, you know, guns. They don't have guns. They don't have anything. Man, that's a topic for another day. I think a lot of people in the U.S. should not have guns either. Agreed. I agree with the Second Amendment, but I think it needs an asterisk,

but we would need to log four hours for that conversation. At least four hours. Yeah, at least four hours. I watched the news. I don't know if it's the same for you. I watched the news, and I watch the media personalities talking about this stuff, and I have to turn it off because of their lack of understanding. I think it's coming in the U.S.

I think San Bernardino, I mean, why would it not? come in the U.S., right? Everybody looks at Europe and they say, oh, it's the open border issue, and, you know, that they don't pay attention to what's going on and they allow these communities of people to, you know, exist and they shun the values of the country that they're living in. I'm like, are you talking about San Diego or are you talking about Europe? You know, you're talking about Michigan? We have the same problem here in the United States. Right. I think one thing that we have going for, so, is we do have the Second Amendment, and we do have guns.

So we're not completely a soft target. I mean, I can speak for myself. Not that I would be one to break the law. Like, I actually avoid violence at all costs. It's like I'm so not interested in looking for a fight or looking for violence, but I also won't avoid it if that's the only course of action necessary. Right. But yeah, if you know that the populace that you're trying to intimidate has a gun

and you bring a knife to a gun fight, the classic metaphor. Like, I'm going to bring this here a machete to a pistol fight. Yeah. It's going to change stuff. Oh, for sure. I mean, the way I kind of look at it is there is, you know, in the states where there's, like, the death penalty. The laws that you can get convicted and get put to death for are not committed as much in those states as they are in states with don't have the death penalty. So where I'm kind of going with that was like, yeah, like, I don't think that we're not, obviously, obviously we probably have.

there's there's a chance that it could happen again but there's definitely radicalized people that are against the values and virtues and morals of our country living in this country like you can't you can't deny that for sure no no they're they're definitely here as there's no doubt about it um but i hope you know that uh like you said they're not they're not dumb they're not dumb people you know and they're not going to come after us with knives when we have guns so that's a yeah i'm glad you said that because that's another good point too like i hear it all the time. Oh, these, you know, they're savages or they're, you know, they think people want to demean them or put them at a lower educational level or a lower cognitive level. Right. And that's

not my experience in dealing with some of these people, especially, I mean, especially overseas where they're kind of like in their own territory. Even then they're not dumb. No. They don't do the smartest stuff sometimes because they may not understand the levels of the technology and the equipment that we have that can trump their behavior. Right. But they're not, dumb. Like, I think it's, I mean, I have misjudged my enemy before and took that perception. I'm like, oh, you know, this is, you know, I'm better than this person in every respect. And it almost bit me in the ass. It has almost bit me in the ass. I think underestimating your opponent is a complete recipe for failure and destruction later on. Right. So that may, every time people talk about it and I hear people

make those comments, I try to correct them. It's like, they're not dumb. No. And they're very committed, just as committed and it's not a depth of belief issue. They believe what they believe as deeply as you believe what you believe. Probably more so, and they're willing to go to extremes. And they're in the agogi ready to get after it. And the problem I think most people have is they don't realize they're in the agogi as well too. Because they're like, no, no, I'm good. I'm a pacifist.

I'm like, all right, that's a good academic concept that's going to fail in practical application. Yes. Yeah, no, I completely agree. Well, now I was over there, too. That's what you see. Like, when you had to go over and train some of these, you know, locals, basically, to, like, help build their own protection. Like, you see that they, we were dealing with farmers, and these guys knew how to move. And, like, and they have a basic understanding of fire and maneuver. Right. Which, yeah. And for people who don't know, I guess we have to describe what that is, it's like the basic armed infantry tactic. I guess I said, wouldn't really work with, maybe it would work with swords. But if you can project your firepower at all, and you have two elements, one of the elements provides a covering fire of some kind, while another element can maneuver, and then they switch swap their roles. And if you're on the inside of that, receiving the fire, the angles are changing on you. And at some point you get to a position where not only can you not move, but you have fire coming in from both directions, and you're in a complex ambush, and your odds of survival are super low. Almost none, yes. And we teach

in the military, like your basic Army, Marine Corps, maybe even the Air Force guys, I don't necessarily know what kind of ground combat skills those guys have, but that's like number one. Right. Hey, I'm going to shoot, and will you hear me shooting? You move. Like the basic seal tactic, right? You start with a shooting pair. Yeah.

The individual movement stuff. And you hear me shooting, okay, you move. And I've actually, that last appointment in 2010 stood back a minute, and I was watching some guys down in a valley shooting back at us doing that. like, just that realization of like, okay, like, wow, you guys are, they were in actually three elements. Yeah. And they were like spearheading the middle one forward and then the other two sides would maneuver. Now granted, they were shooting at another element. So, I mean, we were kind of out of the firefight a little bit, but just sitting back and watching them, like, okay, these people

actually, they understand what's going on. Right. And they, and they, there's a certain amount of respect that they're that they're due for their desire. I mean to me when I look at it I have a certain level of respect for them to be willing to strap it on and get into the sandbox and play a little bit. And the thing that we're forgetting to mention is that they're doing it in dresses and sandals. Yeah. I mean I'm probably wearing $10,000 worth of equipment and they're wearing a bed sheet. A bed sheet and sandals. It was so impressive. I was I was not going to lie. I was I was a little blown away when I was watching the way that these guys maneuvered in mud on pretty steep terrain sometimes and being able to just like scamper up the sides of these hills with sandals on.

I was like, wow. One of the most embarrassing moments of my operational career was being outrun by a man who I would assume at the time was 20 years older than me in a set of sandals. He's probably three years younger than you. He might have been. But he had probably a 15-foot head start. And I was body weight plus probably close to 80 to 100 pounds. And I pursued for, I'm going to call it 30 seconds.

It might have been 20. It's hard to say. But I couldn't catch him. This dude had the best E&E plan in his head. He was over a wall down a ravine, and he was cutting left and right and running on top of the dikes and all the irrigation systems that they have. and I'm doubled over like whole like just

like just come back here it was it's again come back here right now I just want to talk it was so I've got to this day it drives me nuts that that guy got I couldn't catch him and it's yeah I mean it's

you have all the technological advantage in the world and you go to a place that I would say arguably is five centuries behind when it comes to technology and you watch them using those tactics and yeah I mean, I have a certain amount of respect for their ability to do that. I mean, they're not necessarily professional soldiers, but they were out there fighting.

Yeah. I mean, they've been at war for thousands of years. Yeah. I mean, every generation of their, you know, has been in war. So it makes sense a little bit. In 2010, because we ended up serving together at Team 3, but you were over in Iraq, right? Right. Okay, right.

And then before, were you at Team 3? How long were you... I was at Team 3 from 2008 to 2012. Yeah, walk me back. When did you go through Buds? So Buds was in 2007. You were class like in 260s? 266.

Okay. Some might say 26 shit, but... What makes you say that? No, no, that was just something we used to say in the class together. No. At the end of our Bud's career, we kind of had a little bit of a couple mishaps and got her, you know, got her butt spanked a little bit. You can use big boy words.

Yeah, that's right. This is an adult conversation. I think this is the... I doubt any children who can't even listen. Yeah, I doubt this is the internet, I think. I don't think this counts under FCC guidance just yet. You know, it's... Yeah, we had, you know, the third-faced party.

Out of the island? Yeah. Yeah. And a couple guys, one guy had a, you know, got a little drunk, I guess you could say, and punched a dude. student as another student and then uh they tried to like hide it with like saying like hey i fell on an ammo can you know i could already tell you that i think of a better excuse that's i'm like i'm looking at these guys who are who are having this conversation i'm like

are you guys idiots like you're you're not talking to like a middle school principal or something you know and it's okay like as you know from your time and the team's like it's all right if you want to fight a guy that you work with as long as you can still work with them at the end of the day And you guys get, it's no problem with it. Like, hey, I don't like you. We should go outside and beat the crap out of each other. And then we'll go finish the rest of the workday. Exactly.

And it's going to be okay. It was really weird. And then because of all the people were trying to, like, hide it and stuff. And it just got. Yeah, it got worse. Right. You came into the Navy post college, though, right? Yeah.

Well, I only went to college for a year. I wrestled in college for a year. I thought you were old. How old do you know? I'm 33. 30. Okay. For some reason, I thought you went to college and then, because where are you from originally?

I'm from St. Louis, Missouri. St. Charles, St. Chuck. I went to high school college, both in St. Charles. Lindenwood University is small, N-A-I school. They're D-2 now, I think, actually. They're just basically a sports program school. So I went there, wrestled for a year, got out, did some horrible, horrible jobs for three years.

Like what? You can just say that. Give you some descriptions. What we're talking about? So right out of college, I started working at, at the time it was SBC, which is now 18 and T. So the phone company, I was a telemarketer. That's right. I would call you up and see if you wanted to buy.

You're with that guy? Call waiting. Did you want call waiting or could I offer you that, call forwarding for your home phone? I don't know if I would tell people that used to be my job. I hate those people. It was awful. They have my cell phone number now. It was awful.

I know. I get like three telemarketing calls a day on my cell phone. You block them, right? And then right when I got off the phone, yeah, I block the number. If they don't, if I say hello and then. there's like a six second delay. I immediately hang up and block the number. Yeah. I do the exact same. All right. So you started off strong. Wow. Unbelievable. Hey man. Someone's got to pay the bills. Okay. I'm not going to argue that. Yeah, right. I'm sure you had some jobs.

Unless you, did you grow up with a silver spoon in your mouth? Yes. It was a silver spoon that looked a little like a brick in my hand because my dad was a masonry contractor. And my summer job was I mean, I was a hod carry. I carried bricks and I mixed concrete and I remember. I remember, I remember that I was like, I was like 13 years old. First day, because I mean like, everybody else was looking forward to summer. Like, oh, yeah, I'm going to go wherever. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to go to work. Which at the time I didn't appreciate, except for at the end of summer, I had a bunch of cash, right?

My dad paid me, you know, cash under the table. I think it was a buck 75 an hour. Solid. I give him shit to this day. I'm like, you only paid me $1.75. And he just comes right back to me. He's like, yeah, but you're only worth a buck in a quarter. So, yeah, my dad's kind of a pretty witty shit talker.

But yeah, I didn't appreciate it at the time, but I look back and I, I'm super grateful I had those jobs. Oh, yeah. They make you appreciate, you know, the things you have now. I remember when I was 13, the first day of summer, my dad's like, all right, this summer you're going to learn how to use the jackhammer. And we did a lot of chimney repair because the earthquake hit back in, I think it was. It was 90, no, it was 89. You're from Santa Cruz. I'm from Santa Cruz, yeah.

I was born in Santa Cruz and largely raised there, except for a couple years that we traveled around. But my dad's father had owned one of the first masonry companies, and his father before him, actually, the first masonry companies in Santa Cruz. Like, they built half the high schools. And there was a huge earthquake in 89. So there was a magnetizing force to get all those skilled laborers to come back. So we moved back in 90, and yeah, shortly they're out.

after I started learning the family trade, which actually has paid off. I mean, I can tile floors and do all sorts of stuff. Oh, man. I run from plumbing and electricity because they terrify me. Right. But you get me around bricks, I can do it. But every year, I'd be like, all right, this year you're going to learn how to make concrete. And I would do that.

Or my first year was like, you're moving things. Like move that bucket of stuff over to the air. Right. Move those bricks onto the roof. Yeah. And then somebody's like, all right, it's the jackhammer. He's like, one, don't tell your mother. Yeah.

Exactly. I was like 13, man, that's early. And I was 150 pounds when I graduated high school. So I was 150? Yeah, when I was 18, I was 150 pounds. How tall are you? Six foot. My goodness.

That was 160 pounds when I graduated buds. I gained weight in buds. Wow. Yeah, I was a spindly little kid. I had my driver's license from around 16 for a long time. I looked like it was just an emaciated, you know, Ethiopian kid, his shaved head because I had buzzed haircut for like six years. But he's like, all right, don't tell your mom.

You're going to learn how to use it today. We were taking, it was always fireplaces and chimneys because of all the movement from the earthquake. He's like, all right, go, go stand up on top of that chimney. He was like, like, on top of it? He's like, yeah, I'm a handy of the jackhammer and basically just start shearing it off the side of the house. And he's like, again, rule number three, don't tell your mom.

Yeah, so that, I mean, that was really the only job I had. I did that job consistently from when I was old enough to work and then the Navy. I mean, the teams was really my first, like, adult. job that had a steady paycheck where I opened up a bank account. When did you go in? August 1st of 1996. I was 17 and a half when I signed the paperwork when my parents signed the waiver for me, and then I was, what was it, eight months or 18?

Yeah, I was 18. Do you go straight to butts? Yeah. Did you go through the new pipeline where... Yeah. So you'll have to explain that because I actually don't understand it. But when I went in, and then I want to hear what you did after being a telemarketer, because that started off awesome.

Oh, man, yes. But when I went in, so there was no contracts, there was no guarantees, unless you wanted to be a corpsman. And as soon as I heard, you had to go to brag for a year and basically detach yourself, I'm like, no, I'm not. I have no interest in doing that whatsoever. So I picked the A school that had the shortest available time to get me to Buds, which was OSA school, the radar scope operator.

Okay. Still have never actually seen one to this day, but took the OSC chief test like three times and passed it. Really? Based off the basic military knowledge. That's all I studied. Wow. Yeah, and then it's just like, see, see, see, see, see.

Statistically, you'll get a few right. Yeah. But yeah, I went to Buds, did that video in like the fourth week where they're like, hey, who wants to do the physical screening test, which you know is a total joke. Oh, man. That's, like, it was like 10 pull-ups, 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups of 500-meter swim, and I think it was a mile and a half run. Yeah, a mile and a half run, and the times are not fast.

They're not fast. And nor the, I mean, if you were to go to Buds and if you were struggled at that test if you were to go to Buds, your life is over. There's, yeah, no. And that was it. And then so, yeah, I got, they changed the designator in the system somehow, and then I went to OSA school, and then got classed up and showed up in January of 97. Wow, so you were 18?

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I was. You were the, you were the, the baby of the class, for sure. I can't remember the term we'd call them. You had to always go clean the bell, right? I avoided the bell. I think I had to clean it a few times.

I didn't want to get anywhere near that thing. I don't know, right? Yeah. You know the deal. First you're kind of scared of the thing, and then it becomes a symphony when people start ringing you. Just wait for it. You used to love it. They used to yell at our class, but like, okay, listen, we were in third phase.

You know, that classroom right off the grinder. They're like, you can't cheer that loud when somebody quits because it's like the worst day of their life. But it makes you feel so good. It's funny how it shifts, right? It becomes something that you're dreading, or not dreading, but just avoiding and you don't want to think about to every time that I would hear, and speaking for myself, every time you'd hear somebody ring it, inside, you're like, yeah, that's right. You're damn right.

Yeah, I'm still here. Yeah, it is an interesting thing for sure. I mean, thriving off of someone else's failure. But it is what it is. I was actually really glad I went back as an instructor. You want to talk about an eye-opening experience to not only all the stuff that happens behind the scenes, because it's a student. It's chaotic.

You're like, why is the guy who was like kind of nice yesterday? Why is he a psychopath today? I just did this exact behavior yesterday, and today I'm getting crushed for what's going on. And it was interesting to go back, and I actually spent a lot of time with the students who quit because I was curious as to why they would break. Because, I mean, you know the deal.

Everybody in your class day won, right? First evolution most of the time, first phase, like, all right, who is going to be here on the last day? Every hand goes up. Oh, of course. And then the last day, 15% of the people are still there. And I'm like, 30 minutes later, those people who had their hands raised are already ringing the bell. That one always got me, too.

Why would you quit one hour into the first day? Oh, man. And the first three days is, you know, obviously the biggest drop. Yeah, you can't stop it. The bell is just ringing all day long. And it's like, what did you think that you were getting into? In the day and age of the internet where you can look up every, I mean... There's a documentary that shows you two, three, three,

whatever it is, 234 or 236. Well, it shows you what the instructors wanted you to see. Right, exactly, yeah. Being able to speak from having worn the instructor hat, there was what happened when the cameras were on, I was sure, and then it's like, hey, we're wrapped for the day, right? Yeah. All right, you sons of bitches, meet me out by the surf zone.

Let's party. We need to make up for some missed training. Those cameras made me look really nice, but... But, I mean, so people hit me up, and I'm sure they hit you up all the time for advice on training. Oh, yeah. And I honestly, now I'm like, you know, go on, just go on the internet and research.

You can find the physical criteria for all the benchmarks that you need to meet for each of the phases. Like there's nothing I can tell you that you can't find on the internet. Right. Which is the exact opposite of when, like, in the early 90s, I mean, I knew I wanted to be a team guy since I was 11. So in like the late 80s, actually. I always find it impressive, sorry to interrupt, but I was finding it impressive the guys that had that mentality that grew up, like knowing what Navy Seals were and like wanting to be them. that made it. Because typically what I found to be the case was guys that had that mentality,

put it up too high, like put it on a pedestal too high to where they couldn't obtain it. And then they end up quitting early. But I only, you know. That's interesting. I've never heard anybody describe it like that. But I also think, again, I didn't have access to a huge volume of information. I had an idea of what I thought it would be to be become a seal.

And it was everything I thought I would be. but it was a lot of stuff that I had no idea. No, I was the same. And when I had the only advantage, I wouldn't call it advantage, but I had different insight too because I came in pre-9-11. Right. My first two deployments were peacetime. Well, we would talk about the big Mish and the golden connex box,

which people probably don't understand, but it was like this mystical container that if anything real ever happened, they would open it up and every piece of gear that you would ever want or every weapon would have bequeathed to you. and you could go, which didn't exist. Yeah. Well, not for the regular side. Not for the regular.

Yes, there was Golden Connx Boxes in other places that I was very fortunate to explore throughout my career. But, I mean, so it was everything that I thought the career would be, and then it was a lot of stuff that I never expected. I never thought I was going to get married. You know, I never thought I was going to have kids. And then towards the tail end of my career, you know, I had all three of those things. My math is terrible. I had both of those things. Yeah.

Yeah. Great math. We'll edit that part out. No, no. Keep that in there. We will. But, yeah, I mean, so what did you find it to be? Because you came in, you came in post, 9-11.

So, hold on. Yeah, we went. Because we skip telemarketer. Let's backtrack. So you're the asshole that is going through numbers like bothering me at dinner time, asking if I want call waiting, which is rhetorical. Of course I want call waiting. Of course you do.

And call forwarding. All of it. Bundle it up. You know, the thing about that job is those people who are doing that job, I feel like, I know what they're going through as well. So they have headphones on just like we do right now. And they have a microphone right in front of them. And then they have a computer screen. All right?

And so you don't like sit there and actually like dial a number. You just hit probably the enter button, right? No. So basically once you, yeah, you hit a, I'm on, I'm like alive now kind of thing like we just did. I'm live. And then you get a beep in your ear. And that means someone's on the line. And then.

That's why there's that delay. Yeah. And so then there's a script in front of you that basically you're supposed to read from. Stop it. No, dead serious. And then obviously you have rebuttals if they obviously start to refuse. So it's totally canned. And you have to rebuttal at least twice. And then at that point, like obviously you can say, okay, like, we'll have a good day. I would fail at that job based off of the criteria you've already given me. The moment that they hang up the phone, the next beat comes into your ear. It is like, it is nonstop.

I'm not even kidding. And then you have to like go and you only got two 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch. That was going to be my question. How long does this go on? So you do it all for eight hours straight. You sit there with your headphones. Eight hours with two 15 minutes. So you get 90 minutes off out of eight hours.

Yes. How long did you last at this job? It was a year and a half and it was awful. You're actually tougher than I think. thought you were. Right. I thought you were very tough before, but my Lord. You thought Buzz was hard? You thought Buzz was hard? Are you kidding me? Are they paying you in like de blooms? I mean, what's the, what's the reason they kept you there for? I mean, you got Coogarands on Friday? Like, what's going on here? Oh man, I don't, you know, I don't know what. I mean, I get it. You got to pay the

bills, right? Yeah, I just pay the bills. And like at that point in my life, I, you know, I left college wrestling. I wasn't even working out. I was probably, drinking more than I shouldn't, eating terribly. I actually kind of got a little fat. Everything you just said in the last 20 seconds, like knowing you now and how long I've known you, it's like the exact opposite of the human being that I see sitting across from me.

It was incredible that I don't know what, like I was like, and finally one day, you know, I was like, I gotta get out of this, I gotta stop. And so I started looking for another job, found a job being a loan officer. So for home. Interesting. for purchasing and refinancing homes.

So you were like on the transaction side of the house? Yeah, I was the guy who basically got you your loan for your house. I'm going through that process right now. I don't super enjoy it actually. No, so you're dealing with, you're probably dealing with. You have a loan officer who's probably helping you up, but then you have to deal with the underwriter. Well, it's actually a woman in this case.

In all fairness, she's been awesome. But I hate that where you like provide all of this information, right? And then the guy's like, that's not good enough. I need a letter that states why you did this. Well, it's that, but then it's like you provide, like, all these documents, and then you wait, and you don't get any information, you don't know. And the people judging you, for lack of a better term, they don't know anything about you. You're just pieces of, your numbers on a piece of paper. It's just, I find that the waiting, like right now, we're selling our house and we're buying another one at exactly the same time.

Like, I couldn't have more juggling balls in the air. Right. And I, like, the phone will ring from the lay of the loan officer or the woman. And it's just like, oh, yeah, I don't, I want it to be. good news, but I'm afraid to answer. What do you need? And especially with your job now because you're not all my income is 1099, which scares the piss out of lenders. Oh yeah, of course, because it could just go away. Well, it could go away. And I can also get creative, because I'm a consultant, I can get creative with my deduction. So I could write down my income. Yeah. I could basically take advantage of

the tax strategies that very wealthy people do to lower their income. It's not that I'm not making money, but on my tax returns, which is all they care about. I can make it look low, so it makes them super uncomfortable. But yeah, it's not. It's not an easy process. All right. So you went from a job of a person that I despise to good. I like this pattern here. So now I'm a loan officer. Right. And I did that job for three years. And I bounced around. So this was in the subprime market. I don't know if you remember this or if you were purchasing homes at this time. But I bought my first home in Virginia Beach at the optimal time, the low and then sold it at the high and then just sunk those profits right into a house in Santee, right at the peak of the market. And I think I might

have heard the hinges on the trap door opening as we walked out of that house. I experienced both sides. I hit both sides of the bell curve on that one. Yeah, so I started in the subprime side. I mean, I was dealing with people who had, you know, in bankruptcy, and I'm giving these people, I'm refinancing all of their money into their house. And it was mind-blowing what we were able to do. I'm not going to lie to you. So what you're saying is it's not a surprise that the financial markets melted down because of the mortgage prices or the crisis? There was a movie actually that was made about this, the subprime market. Get short.

Yes, yes. And you remember those two guys at the bar who were like, you know, making tons of strippers? You were that guy? I wasn't that guy. You were that guy. That's right. I can read between the lines. But I was like, I mean, these guys, I watched that movie and I was like, oh my gosh, that was, that was.

that was exactly what it was. It was insane. I mean, I remember refinancing a lady who had a 500 credit score. That's strong. Yeah, yeah, it was unbelievable and a bankruptcy. She's in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, I think. It was ongoing? Oh, yeah. She was in it. And I got to refinance her house and basically put all of her debt into her house. But I was saving her like $700 a month in payment-wise. Yeah, see, you're singing the same tune, my father-in-law. He used to be in the mortgage business as a while, and he specifically worked with subprime. Subprime, yeah.

And he was honest. I mean, he would get crazy commissions, and the thing was he could take all these different debts and roll it into one monthly payment that was lower. Way lower. Like, like $1,000 a month lower. But they didn't understand. But, yeah, you were adding,

you could add points into a loan to that, because that was how you made money. He was points on the front end, points on the back, and the brokers were getting points. And these people, I mean, basically he has said in no uncertain terms, it's like if you could get them to focus on their monthly payment and can show a difference in their life that they would basically saddle up to, they're like, points are invisible to me. Look at this monthly payment. And that was the thing.

And like you were, and to get the sale, you basically had to like find that fine line because they could shop around because there was lots of subprime loan officers out there. Or mortgage companies out there. And so it wasn't like you could like completely just. hammer these people. You had to find that line to where like, I deserve money because, you know, I'm giving you this great, great deal. And so, um, oh boy. I actually wasn't like a loan officer. I was like an assistant to a guy who was a loan officer, but I helped him work a lot with it. So, um, it was awful. It was just as bad as the, uh, telemarketing. How long did you hang in there? I did that for three years. Yeah. Oh my God, man. But I watched it shift. I went from, because

I went from subprime to the A side, which, and then to where I worked for like, countrywide, I think. Yeah. Countrywide. So that was basically, then you were just dealing with, hey, you basically try to find your friends and families and, like, people to do loans for. So you went from the Wild West to a pretty regulated. I mean, everything got regulated more or less.

Right. Exactly. After. And from what I've heard from people I still keep in contact with in the financial industry, it's teetering back towards the world. wild west really I mean it to a certain degree yeah like they're doing stated income loans again oh wow yeah they used to do you used to do first and second you could do first and second mortgages and then they went they completely banished seconds yeah because

that's how people were sliding in for their down payments that well that they were doing the 80-20 yeah because then you didn't have to pay PMI correct right so so so you did a year and a half as a telemarketer three years as a mortgage broker what was next and so at the second year of being a loan officer I met a guy named Mike, Mike Singer. And so Mike was like, this is a good story, actually. I like this story. So Mike was, you know, a big dude.

And he came in and I actually started working out again when I became a loan officer, started going back to the gym, Gold's Gym, crushing it. I was going to say, what were you doing? Doing bodybuilding. Bison, you know, buys and back, chest and tries. Exactly. I only did that for eight years. I don't know what you're talking about.

What else would you do? And I would do legs. I would do legs on Wednesday and that would be like running. That was my leg day. I never, I never did leg day either. I know exactly. My buddy used to be like, who was it? Barry Sanders never squatted or some great football players like, he never squatted.

You don't need to squat either. I'm like, yeah, you're right. Yeah. It's focused on the chest and tries. Right, exactly. You know, fill that T-shirt out. Just crush it. All right, so you get back in the Iron Paradise.

So I'm back in Gold's Gym, crushing it. And I met this guy and he's like, he's like, yeah, man, I'm going to go be a Navy SEAL one day. He's like, it's something I've grown up wanting to be. And I'm like, oh, that's really cool. Growing up in Landlock, Missouri, I knew about Marines and I knew about Army Rangers. Yeah, that makes sense. And that was it. I didn't even really know what a Navy SEAL was.

And nobody in my family was in the military. You know, we were actually all, they were all pipe fitters. My whole family is like pipe fitters. So, you know. Strong, I mean, yeah. Yeah, and they do great. Yeah, they still do. And without people doing that job, guess what?

This country sucks. Right, exactly. And so I never really wanted to do that job. I never wanted to be a pipe fitter. I wanted to be a pipe hitter. Damn, right. I wanted to be in the pipe hitters club. So I, so he's like, I'm like, I start looking into this.

And the guy's like, he's like, hey, and they do this stuff called CrossFit. Some of them do this stuff called CrossFit. What year was this? This is in 2000 and probably, Okay. Wow, he was a little early. Yeah. On that train. Okay. Yeah. And so I was like, and I started looking into it. And then one day he's like, hey, man, you want to go do CrossFit with me? And so this is January of 2005. And I was like, sure. So that was when I started doing CrossFit. It was January 2005. I literally did it once and I never stopped doing it. Yeah, you can kind of tell. It was just like, boom. All right. I love this. This is amazing. And then so I started really researching the Navy SEAL stuff, reading the books, watching the documentary. that we talked about earlier. The Dick Couch Books. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Hey, I thought Rogue Warrior was a nonfiction book. When I was, when I first was trying to figure out, like, you know, because I, for whatever reason, for me, it was super magnetizing, right? And I just knew it's what I wanted. All my friends were taking their SATs and college applications. I didn't do any of that, which in hindsight was a terrible plan, but it worked out well.

Because, I mean, I didn't know the staggering injury rate or the role rate. Right. But I could find the men with green faces, the traditional book that all team guys have read. and then I stumbled across Rogue Warrior and literally thought it was a nonfiction. Should have probably realized that, but I was a very malleable young man at the time, realized that the things that happened in that book just don't happen. And so, yeah, you had some advantages, but you also, it seems like, found some things that were on the fringe.

Yeah. So start researching it, and then obviously, you know, getting really sick and tired of being a loan officer and being in the business world, to be honest, and decided. Yeah, I was like, hey man, this is my time now or never. So in 2000, I want to say I like, you know, signed my paperwork in 2006. What got you to finally go to the recruiter and draw up the enlistment paperwork? I think it was just my age, you know, I was just, I was past that age. You know what was weird?

Was growing up, I always, because you know so little, I used to be like, oh, man, I want to see if I can make it through like boot camp. You know, like a military boot camp. camp. Yeah. Probably watch full metal jacket. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. And so I'm like, yeah, I got to see if I can make it through something like that. Growing up thinking that, but never really like thinking I wanted to be in the military or having that drive to want to do that. And so, you know, college wrestling, whatever, that helped with that kind of like. But then once that was over, it was like, okay, what am I doing? Like, is this, is this it? Really?

I remember sitting in a cubicle. being a loan officer, like, being like, is this where I'm going to be in like 30 years? And if it is. I can't even imagine you in that environment. Like I'm sitting here like thinking of like the white t-shirt. I'm thinking you would be clip-on tie type guy. I never wore tie. God.

I wore, you know, like just I wore like a polo. Do you have a pocket protector? No, man. I'd imagine in my mind I'm picturing you is with a clip-on tie and a pocket protector. I was strong. Fake glasses were just glassing them, not actually lenses. I had the swing line stapler, you know, just crushing it. And I'm just sitting there being like, man, is this really where I'm going to be in 30 years?

And so it was the influence through your buddy who kind of, he put the seed of the seal tree in? And I was like, I was really cool. Then, you know, starting to read more about it, like you said, with the books and all that kind of stuff being like, oh, wow, this is the hardest military training there is. And then that got me really interested. and doing CrossFit and drinking that Kool-Aid and becoming a crackhead with the CrossFit stuff. Like just, back in 2005, I was doing more than just the workout of the day. But I was always going to CrossFit.com doing just the workout of the day.

But then I would do like three or four more workouts that day, you know, cross-fit workouts. I would just look at them. I would just look at me like, yeah, I'm going to do that. And I just remember, you know, how I just like, man, I loved it. And it was awesome. And I would like. I mean, it served you well. buds. No, it did, yeah. I don't remember, I mean, like, you see hundreds of students as an

instructor, and I vaguely remember teaching your class, but I definitely remember, like, you've always had an engine. Like, we would, I would force the students to do stuff they didn't want to and punish them with wall balls and probably a variety of other things that would have got me fired. Oh, man, that was, you were, you were, you were, you were in a great instructor, because you always did it with a smile, and you did it, like, you talk, like you're talking right now. You're always calm. I tried never to yell. I would, I would reinforce, like, as I was driving to work. Because I remember myself as a student, I'm like, the guy who yelled, it's just like, I don't care. White noise. White noise. Yeah. I wanted to scare students by talking quietly.

Exactly. Like, you were just like, man, this. And you were, you punished us. I'm not going to lie. You punish us. You put us through. I've probably told a story in front of you a million times, but some of the most heinous things I've ever had to do. I didn't find them to be that hard. Yeah, it's because you weren't doing them. That's right. I was drinking coffee. That's right. Oh, man. The one where, you were. you were like, what did you say? You're like, this will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this. Hopefully I lived up to my word. This beat down is going to be epic. That was the line. This beat down is

going to be epic. I did get creative towards the end where I got sat down a few times. They were like, listen, you can't do that? I'm like, well, can I do it when you're not here? Like the commanding officer's upset, but he's not going to be here next week. Can I do it then? He won't see it. And they, you know, no one's going to know. I looked at being a buzz instructor as being a privilege. I mean, I got to go back and largely pick the people that I wanted to work with. I mean, look at that team three. When we both ended up in team three, like 40 guys from that era ended up there. And that OEF deployment I did, I'm like, I'm sitting there next to guys up in a sniper overwatch and it's like, didn't I just put you three years ago? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And that's

a thing that a lot of people forget is that you will leave that instructor role and go back to a team. Those guys do. And then you're going to have memories. And yeah, and those people, Don't forget. You remember the people you hate. Yeah, I saw hundreds of students. They saw probably two dozen instructors their entire time. I remember ones that I didn't like who just seemed to be there for themselves or they were having a competition to see, oh, let's go and beat this.

You'd hear him like, oh, this beating's going to be, it's going to be way worse than yours. And it's like, what, that's pointless. Right. You realize that some of these people are going to make it through it. Yeah. Well, hopefully you do. Yeah. Right.

Otherwise, you're going to be in a bar and you wake up on the floor. I don't understand why I got cold cocked. It's like, because you're an asshole. Because you were a prick. Yeah, Buds was, but I mean, I remember you in Buds, because I used to always do the workouts with the students do, which is another thing. You didn't do actually cross-it workouts.

I did, yeah, because that's, I mean, that's fully what I was doing at the time. And I mean, I still work out with that. I'm less tied to the name, but the methodology to me is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life. Right. But I remember when I first got there, one of the things that I think a lot of the other instructors did not like. I was like, hey, you're going to do it with them. Yeah. You had that, there was that one Corman guy. Chad.

I don't remember his last name. But yeah, like, that dude, he would just always give you so much trouble, but he was kind of fat and overweight. And if anybody saw him and met him, he'd be like, there's no way this guy is a deep guy. Hence the point. Like, you can't hold people to. Like, that's my theory. Like, you cannot hold people to a standard. You can't do yourself.

Like, and the students would beat me all the time, and I could care less. Right. It wasn't. Yeah, one of my favorites was like sprinting over the berm and doing the pull-ups and the dips. Like, I'd love those workouts. Yeah, they're great. Yeah. And the students would crush me as they should.

And it's like, yeah, right on. I don't care. I'm going to do this properly, and if you beat me, that's totally fine. Like, that's actually the goal. I'm trying to build you. I think I remember that was actually the only times you did yell was when you were, like, getting mad because people were trying to cheat to beat you. Well, that's the only way to beat me.

Right. It's cheating. I've never been beaten by somebody who didn't cheat. Fact. I think. Fact. So. Yeah, man.

So, yeah, you start, even it treated you well for sure. I mean, God, it was impressive. No, it was good. I remember feeling like the physical part of Buds wasn't the hardest thing I'd ever done. I actually thought that, college wrestling physically was probably the hardest thing I'd get been through. It was... It's not physically that hard.

And I try to tell people that. They're like, oh, man, it was like, how did you make it through that? And it's like, well, one day at a time. I wouldn't say it's physically easy. It's not easy. But it's not as challenging, like... People who tell me but their training programs to train for, like, Iron Man's. Right.

I'm like, hey, that's what you're doing is harder than any day at Buds. When you're putting in that volume and that mileage and, yeah, you get hammered from time to time and I think the thing that makes it physically harder is the no sleep the stress for sure you know like that the temperature exposure you're inducing stress and then also make giving the physical demand where a professional triathlete you know those types of people they're getting the best food the best nutrition is controlled the best recovery you're right very controlled and so did you guys ever eat box lunches on the beach oh mre's on the beach of course too i remember where in hell week Second phase is all MREs.

I feel like a... Your class didn't deserve real food, I remember. Not that I remember your class at all, but I feel like you didn't deserve real food. I can see that. And for people who don't know what MREs are, just throw that in the Google machine. You should order one.

Don't order the five fingers of death, which is the hot dog one, but get yourself a nice beef stew one and just order it at your house and eat it and try to live off that for six months straight. When the most nutritious thing that comes out of that is Reese's pieces, that's how you know it's good.

You got leverage, though. You can bar, with some Reese's pieces. Oh, bro. You got Reese's pieces? It was a good day. And a peanut butter and jelly? Yeah.

Wrong. Like strawberry? That bread? Oh, man. People will end up listening to this, be like, what are you guys talking about? Right. Yeah, we're deep into the weeds on that one. Just look.

Just look it up. I remember in Hellweek, like, you can talk about no control. They would give us box lunches for like Mids Rats. Right. And I remember eating fried chicken one time, and it was the crunchiest fried chicken I've ever eaten because I dropped it in the sand. Yeah. and just picked it up and kept eating it and probably ate an entire handful of sand.

It's just like, like, didn't even care. Yeah. Just great, like, yeah, I love that sand in my teeth. The things you do in buds are pretty hilarious. I mean, I peed my pants seven times a day. It got to the point where... Anytime I went near the water, I would just pee it. Yeah, it wasn't a big deal.

You know, you just peed your pants. And I remember actually... That's not going to make a lot of sense to a lot of people. I apologize to those listening to this at some point who I've never. understanding what we're saying. It's not like we're peeing our pants and jeans. We're near the ocean all the time and you're always in it. So you just pee.

You're always wet. So it doesn't matter. You rinse it off pretty quick. But I only, I didn't get chafed as bad as some guys got chafed, but I had a little bit of chafing behind my knees. And so it got to a point where I had to actually stop peeing my pants because it would burn. Yeah.

God, if you had to mention that, I would have forgotten that. But yeah. People would pee and you'd know because they're like, ah. Right. Hey, man. Stop peeing in your pants. Don't be your pants, man. It's not cool.

So you made it through. Team 3 was your first team, right? Yeah. What did you think of the SEAL teams? Was it what you thought it would be? It was a name. Because, again, you had, we were at war, right? And so.

I graduated SKT, got my trident, and deployed nine days later. Yeah, that's aggressive. Yeah, I went to. Where to? We went out west in Iraq, western Iraq. Okay, by the wharf? We were in, I was in Rawa. Okay.

Yeah, that would, damn. that is pretty far out west. Yeah, yeah. And so I was actually with, I was Team 3 Delta Platoon. Okay. So, meeting Chris Kyle. Oh, you were out there during that time period. Yeah, so Chris was my, yeah, my LPO.

And, you know, I was only there for two months, a very short stent. Yeah. Great exposure, though. Yeah, no, it was. It was, in a sense it was. I got to go on, you know, a few missions, a few ops, and so that was really cool. know, getting to see that. But as you know, you know, at the tail end of a six-month employment, where the tides had turned in Iraq. Yeah. The basically, everything had slowed down at that point.

You know, the Iraq was pro, you know, most of the Iraqis were pro-government, that, pro-US at that time. The surge was at its peak. It was very, you know, that we had restricted mobility for the insurgency. It was very tough. Yeah. And so, you know, you have a bunch of team guys at the end of a six-month deployment. who were going on a bunch of ops, now not going on ops. And so things got really interesting for, oh, you're straight out of SQT. Yeah, come on over here, buddy. Let me show you how big and bad you are. Yeah.

And so, you know, learned some lessons over there, and that was awesome. You know, Chris was a great guy. He, you know, we were treated accordingly, basically. Yeah. Yeah, we've all been there. I spent a lot of time taped up when I was a new guy. It happens. Choked out every day.

Taped up to Spineboard, taped up in a wall locker, taped up with my hands to my own head like I get it. My first night in Iraq, I was wet and sandy. It was just like BuzzKit. It was great. Wow. Yeah, that's probably not the intro that you were looking for, but, I mean, people don't understand the SEAL community.

We were extremely rough on each other, but there's a lot of love there too. No, it was. It was great. So you came back from that, and then... Came back from that and then started my first real workup. First, you know, went through the workup and then deployed again to Iraq. That's time we went to Fallujah. Again, really slow time.

Yeah, different. It's not the Fallujah of the movies that people watch. No, not for me. It was very, very slow. You know, we did get to go on, you know, some missions, got to do some really fun stuff. It was a really cool experience because it was, we got to do the DAs, the direct action missions,

you know, going into houses and stuff like that in cities. Which is a huge misconception. people think that's all of what our job is. Right. And again, when I talk to people, I try to be super honest about the career path. And it's like, you maybe spend 1% of your career doing that. Right. If you're lucky.

And that's the, and that, for me, I thought it was the funnest thing that we did. You know. I agreed. And everything we did was training to get to that point. Right. But the actual chance to go, it's probably like people who play pro football. Like they spend all their time trying to get to the actual Super Bowl. Right.

And a lot of teams don't make it. Yeah. And a lot of players don't make it. And that's, it's pretty analogous to the SEAL teams too. I mean, there's a lot of guys who don't make it to that point. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's so crazy how you can talk to five different team guys,

and you would get five completely different stories. You know, like, you wouldn't, like, not so, maybe not so much anymore. Like, now most guys have probably gone to, you know, over there and seen either Iraq or Afghanistan. But when I first got in, like, oh, that guy, yeah, Paycom. Paycom, seven tours to Paycom or Guam. You know, and then... Paycom is the Philippines, people, where you are exercising your 12-ounce curl, much more than your front-site focus.

So it was really cool that, I mean, like I said, it wasn't a ton of experience, but we got some experience. And so that was really cool. And then my last deployment in 12 was to Afghanistan. And obviously, so it's a completely different theater. And again, too, in 2012, it changed environment. Right. Very slow again, not nearly. And we were up in Faria province.

So up north. And yeah, not a ton going on. And that was the appointment I got injured on. So then I came home and at four months end up to a nine-month appointment. And so, yeah. And that was really it. Then I went over to trade it for a few years to rehab the knee. Yeah.

You blew out what, just about everything? Just about everything in my left. All the CLs? Yeah, all of them. CL, ACL, ACL, ACL, and meniscus. And you got, what do you have in there now? You have some cadaver. Yeah, I have Cadavers going through the ACL and the PCL.

I don't have the MCL that still, they didn't, the doc was like. Isn't that the one that'll kind of heal itself? Kind of, but it's a lot of times it will. But there's not really a good place to put a screw in is what the guy said, is what the doc said. And so he's like, yeah, we really can't do much for that. And you don't, it actually doesn't engage. except for at like a very high flexion and very low flexion degrees. So it's not super and as important as like your ACL or your PCL.

I can definitely tell it in your gate. Like I can mean you can same thing. Like I have a ridiculous lope in my gate as well too because of my ankle. But you can tell. I mean like the stuff you do now is still ridiculously amazing. But I remember asking a couple years ago like how long does it take you to actually warm that sucker up? Oh man. It takes a while.

It still does. You know, And it's been, gosh, five years, you know, and it's still, like, I don't have full flexion in the left knee. Does it feel normal, though? Like, it constantly feels swollen. Like, I feel like there's always swelling in it. Do you have to do a lot of icing on it to keep that stuff down? I do a lot of compression.

Not so much icing, a lot of more compression. But it's crazy when I start to take a few days off from, like, either squatting or running, like, how much better it starts to feel. So, let me make a hypothesis here based on what you just said. I'm going to make a huge stab into the dark. Right. Maybe you do an insane workload. Nah. So, I mean, people don't know.

Like, we've known each other for quite some time now, come on on shit, 10 years. Yeah. And so while you were in the Navy, you were competitively competing at the CrossFit games. Yeah. And for people who don't understand what that is, the volume of work required just in that weekend alone is mind-boggling. but the work you have to do leading up to that is insane. Like, talk me through an average training day for you. Right now, I mean, it's...

Well, you just came off. So you just, you won the regional, right? Yeah, I won the regional in California. So you just had last weekend, was a competitive weekend. Similar, probably, it's not the same amount of work as the games, right? No, not nearly. It's only six to seven workouts typically at regionals in three days, where the games you're looking at,

it's typically four days of four days of actually competing it's over a five day period though yeah and so uh and you typically do 15 workouts yeah you guys get smashed into it's like turning sand into glass it's pretty it's i mean i exercise as a hobby you are exercising professionally and i'm just sitting back like i know pass not doing it but so i mean how do you prep for like what's a like what's a strong training day for you a strong you know you're doing five five to six workouts in a day. And that's like, so you,

I typically start off with, like, something to get the body moving. So like some sort of like a little bit of conditioning, lighter weight, maybe more gymnastics style stuff like. So I'm going to stop you right there because the terms you're using lighter weight, light conditioning,

what's a lightweight for you? I mean, it just depends on the movement. You know, you can go down. Front squat. I mean, 135, 185, 205, those are lighter low. You disgust me. But, you know, like, so, you know, I'll start off with something like that, like, maybe like a bike and a bike muscle up deadlift or something like that, you know, lighter, lighter deadlift, maybe like 225, 275.

And then, and then I'll move into more of like a strength bias, either only lifting or squatting or deadlifting. I'll do, you know, like a six-by-three routine with that. Do a little bit of accessory work for that, whatever movement I'm doing. And then I'll do another, like, conditioning piece, more like traditional CrossFit, I guess you could say. A Metcon, if you will? A Metcon, if you will, yes. And so do that. I'll typically take a break at around that point, have lunch and another coffee.

Oh, we're going to get into the coffee. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I'll come back out. Maybe hit another strength movement. Maybe not. At least do one more conditioning piece.

And then a monostructural workout where it's like either just biking, just running, just rowing, or swimming. One of those. How do you feel at the end of the day? Are you just smoked? Are you used to this workload now? You know, it was actually funny. I was having this conversation with Dave the other day where when you start to taper into a competition.

Like, it's hard to taper into CrossFit because your body gets so used to being hammered with the volume that you do that when you take like two days off, you get, like, when I go back to when I start competing on Monday, I'm like, man, the volume is so low here at the regional as compared to what I'm doing. But I'm sore. And it's because I took like two days off prior to and your body just like, what is happening? Why are you doing this? Oh, my God.

And so I told you my new routine, right? It's awesome. I optimize recovery. It's 28 days off. Yes. Two days on. But if it gets hard any time during those two days, I just stop. If your heart rate's over 85, is it too high?

Yeah. I mean, it's, I need to back it off. I'm really, I'm going for optimizing longevity. And you can go, surprisingly enough, really hard for five minutes if you've taken 28 days off. But you need, you know, you need some time off. Now, you get this workload you guys do is absolutely. it's mind-boggling. It has progressed over the years.

Like in 2011, my volume wasn't near this. I mean, obviously, I was also in a work-up. And so... Which is, and then for people who don't understand, like, you had a full-time job. And then you were doing the... You weren't combative as you were assaults, right? I was assaults at Trade Ed.

And actually, what was crazy is, like, you did not have the respect for instructors as you went, at least I didn't have the respect for instructors. Like, you didn't realize how much work they were putting into their, like into it as you as a team guy like y'all i'm in the teams i you know like i'm i'm an operator right now like i you know everything's on us where these instructors man they are putting in hours it was crazy when i got to cc we would do 16 hour days and you would be literally run after run after run just like following these guys and like your mind just starts to melt yeah and so what he

means by run after run is these guys are teaching assault is basically to give a broad definition. It's the actions that you take once you get to a structure. Like how do you maneuver through a structure safely and, you know, take down a target. So, and to do that, we have structures that have ballistic walls and then the cadre gets up into the rafters and watches you from above so they can give you feedback on angles or distance and all that stuff. But just, and try to remember details, a hundred runs into it. Oh, man. And like, yeah, and then you have to walk back through the house and debrief room by room. And remember, like, the littlest, like, oh, hey, you overswept over here a little bit. Yeah.

Or you checked up on fire. Yeah, or this room was a complete cluster fuck. We're not even going to talk about what happened in here. Right. So those days actually were, I almost feel like a little bit harder than when I was actually in a workup and operating as a team. Because at least when you're operating, you're moving. When you show up and you train, you clean your stuff up and you take off. Yeah, exactly.

You know, and the stuff that you're doing is physical, where as an instructor you're standing around a lot. And like, man, I just remember how bad my feet and legs. would get like like I'm just like just like just felt so stagnant you know and during that time you were I mean you still had to get it in right yeah you still had to pay the man to take a phrase out of your playbook the man was paid yeah and which at the end of a day I'm I want to write him in IOU most of the time I mean it's good I pay you tomorrow you know and he doesn't I don't think he likes that very much um one of my favorite phrases man I love the fact that you hashtag that on everything just pay the man or pay him like it's you got to put the work in rents due every single day

You know, people always ask me what it means and what it stands for. And, like, how I try to explain is, like, you know, like, you don't own your, you know, your fitness. You don't own your physical, whatever word I'm looking for here. Station, wherever you are. Whatever, like, you don't own how, like, how physically fit you are today. Like, it will go away just as fast as you got it if you don't do it anymore. It seems like faster, actually. Right, actually, way faster.

Yeah. And so, you know, that's kind of like you have to pay the man every day, like rents due, you know, kind of thing. So that's what it means for every person who ask me on social media. Yeah, and take that a step farther in the SEAL community. Like, you only rent your try and, in my opinion, as well, too. Like, you have to put the work in every single day because you rent your station in life and you rent your station and the occupation. And, yeah, it's due every day.

You don't get to write IOUs. No, no, you don't. No, you earn your train every day. Yeah, that's a... Some people do. Yeah. Not everybody. Not everybody.

We'll save that list of names for later off the Internet. So, okay, so you're doing the combative stuff, and you're still competitive. What's the highest place you've ever finished at the games? In 2011, I took second. Do you think you can win? Of course I do. I know that's slightly rhetorical, but I'm slight. I would not still be competing if I didn't.

All right. I don't think I'll be the guy who hangs on just to hang on just like for the glory days. Yeah. Like when I don't think that, I think my time will be up when I'm like, hey, man, you just don't got it anymore. You know, you don't have it anymore. So I used to be the person who looked at athletes and was like, man, why is that dude still playing? You know, like, what is he doing? And then now that I'm in it and I'm in my later years as, like, for Crossfitters, I'm 33 years old.

Oh, you're a dinosaur. You're being a Masters in two years. No, I could be a Masters next year. I'll be 34 in July. I'll be 34 at this year's games. What's crazy is that's a Masters category. Right, exactly, 35, I know, right? And so I looked, I used to look at those athletes and be like, what, like, what are you doing?

You know, like, just step away. You're making it, you're making yourself look bad. And then now being in it, I have so much more respect for those guys because. Well, it makes sense. You're living it yourself. Yeah, exactly. You start to live it and you start to understand how much work and how, like, how much you love, you start to love what you do. And it's like, why would I stop doing it if I am still competitive?

And I can still do this for a living and still make this, make money to, you know, pay my bills right now doing this, or what am I going to do after this? Go back to, you know. I'll kill you. If you go back to telemarketing or being a loan officer, I will put it out there that I will murder you. Yes. I would murder myself. I'll assist. It'll be slightly Kavorkian-ish. I'll be present, but maybe or maybe not involved. You know, it's, no, I totally get it, man. And I think one of the things I like the most about the way you do it to is you're exposing your kids to it, your boys. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's, uh, you want to talk about like setting an example for, and I wish there was more example for young men. You know what I mean? Like, hey, guess what?

Learning about paying the rent. Yeah. Like, I sit, I go to parent teacher conferences and I, you're probably not there yet, right? Like my oldest son now is 13. That's crazy. And 11 for my other one. So I go to parent teacher conferences and I, and I, and young men. Those are young men. They are young men. And like, so I'm going to go to Montana on Tuesday. Uh, we got to go to some maintenance on our rental property up there and I'm taking my 13 year old with me and I told him like hey all we're doing is we're working with our hands leave your phone at home yeah we're gonna detach and like I've just got to pass on those lessons of hard work because I go to these school events and I cannot talk to anybody I can't like and I and I want to argue with some of the things that

are put out there I just there's a lack of great examples for not even just young men but I think young kids in general right like I think my daughter is more of a sponge than my boy boy's are to some degree. Oh. I don't have a daughter, so I don't have that experience. But I've heard that, you know, like daughters obviously, you know, look up to their daddies more and so. It's she, well, anytime I want to go work out, like, you know, can I climb on the pull bar? Can I play on the ring? Like, they're always, they're watching. You know the deal. Kids are watching. And so you coach your kids. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. That is a challenge. I would, I might murder mine if I, if I, if I, you have to, it is. I definitely would murder other

people's kids. That's way easier. That's actually way. Well, you don't have to go home with them. Right, exactly. Yeah, I coached my eldest. He's done two years of wrestling and two years of baseball now. And I asked them, you know, for wrestling for me, I was like, yes. I grew up playing baseball. Baseball was actually my first love, my first sport.

I loved it. What position? I played, growing up, I played catcher. And then once I switched to high school, I went to second base and outfield. Nice. I played catcher all through high school ball. It was awesome. Yeah.

And baseball is a great sport, too. It's very different than wrestling. two very different mindsets of people. Well, one, you can kick daisies in the outfield because you never get the ball. Yeah, right, exactly. I wouldn't recommend kicking daisies in the middle of a wrestling match.

No, never. You don't play with the dirt. You don't play with a mat on a wrestling mat. The little kids are just playing with the dirt and mind-blowing. Yeah. But it's, I love coaching the wrestling. And I'm coaching, you know,

so you coach, wrestling in our program starts from five to junior high, basically, anything before high school. Yeah. So it's a very different range of people in the room. And I love it because the parents, like, obviously these parents are putting them in the wrestling so they understand what they're getting themselves into. It's not a, it is a manly sport where, you know, you're going to put hands on another person.

You're putting hands on another man. It's the gateway or termination point for a lot of fights. Right, like you're involved in fighting somebody else. Yes. Which I think is essential for people to experience. You have to. If you don't know how to handle yourself, like, exactly. Exactly. It's just not good. It's trouble.

And so, but I love it because, you know, you get these kids in there and, man, they just start to feel sorry for themselves. And I do, I do do a little bit of yelling. I'm not going to lie. I'm not the quiet professional as you. Like elevated voice. Describe it as an elevated voice. Well, you better knock that shit off. And these boys, man, I mean, they, these boys pay the man. I'll tell you what. They, at the end of practice, they are, they go home and they are tired. They do not, their parents are very happy that, you know, they got their energy that they needed to out. Hey, speaking of a, from the perspective of being a father with young men, like, that's what they need.

Exactly. You have to deplete their energy bar. Like, right now I'm dealing with my oldest son. It's like video games. They want to play video games and it's like I'm throwing it away. That's my line. That's going in the trash. Yeah.

But this one is literally going to go, we're going to go take it back to the game stop or whatever it is and get the money. from me because it's, for one, it's totally addictive. I mean, I like to play video games when I was younger too, but I just not to the level that I see some of these other people playing, but there's no lessons to be learned from that game. No. It's not preparing them for anything in life other than instant gratification, which I have yet to find anywhere in life that has anything that has meaning. Right. But, yeah, I mean, so you're teaching younger kids. Yeah, very, yeah. And, like, it's really, it's fun because you actually get to watch them go from, like, literally not even know how to stand in a wrestling stance.

Then they're going out there doing double eggs and putting in half Nelson's and cradling kids up at like five and six years old. And it's really impressive. And it's a skill that'll serve them well for life. Right, exactly. And so it's really fun. I love it. And exactly, like, if they smart off and they learn discipline.

And, you know, where like, hey, when a wrestling coach is talking to you, you look at them, you look at them in the eyes. I think that's another thing that a lot of little kids, don't get is learning that too the avoidance of eye contact he won't make eye contact yeah and so uh i remember talking to this this little guy and he was like and he kept looking over at his mom and so i got right in his face and i was like hey i'm talking to you i'm like your mother is not out here helping you right now if you want to go sit by your mom go sit by your mom and she can teach you wrestling no one can help you right now but when i'm talking to you you're going to look me in the eyes

how was what was the response it looked me in the eyes and he did and then actually most of the time that he did too as well. Every once in a while you have to remind them because they are. They're little and, you know, like the repetitiveness of it is how they start to learn. And so that's one of the main things for my kids. Like when they have to go and introduce themselves to people and it's like shake their hand hard. Yeah. Look them in the eye and say hi, my name is fill in the blank.

Right. And that's, and I make them do that. And they should. Yeah. And it's a good life lesson to learn because there is nothing worse than a dead fish handshake. a guy who doesn't make eye contact. Sometimes I do that to people intentionally, though, just to mess with them.

I'll just hold my hand out and, like, I won't even squeeze back and I'll kind of look down. I get the crate, I mean, obviously, granted, I have problems too many to list in the time we have available. But what you should do, Josh, is do that to somebody, just to see the response. The old deadfish, look down. Do it today when we go to the event.

Just deadfish somebody's hand and like, yeah. Hey, how's it going? They'll be like, oh, my God. No, you crush their hand with the vines, like grip, so that you want to see a little bit of a flinch and you look at their eyes and you let them know that, yes. You want to establish dominance. Yeah, if this were to go bad, this is the side of the equation that you're going to be on. Welcome to the show.

Welcome to the show. That's awesome. So what do you do for, who is tell me about your creative remediation? I heard something about sprints and burpees and all of my favorite tools. Oh, we do a lot of sprints and a lot of burpees. Which are perfect for kids of that age because you can't really mess up either of those. And burpees are actually semi, like, a sprawl for wrestling so you know it's like hey get your legs back it's like a sprawl and so it really

actually works out and I mean I'm talking these kids are running and and they'll start to feel real sorry for themselves and I'm like hey as long as you guys are feeling sorry for yourself we're just going yeah and so let's work that sorry right out yeah you and it's like me as a buds instructor when I just be like is that is that blood in the water right all right start to circle yeah but the wrestling kids I like it because they respond really well where the base ball team, man, that is a, that has been a struggle because it is a very, very different mindset. Well, it's a totally different sport. Right, completely different. You don't have to be as physically fit. You don't have to be as in shape.

You can sit in left field all game. Right. Kick daisies. I mean, basically, like, when we warm up, we do like a little bit of, like, moving just to get the blood flow and, you know, wake up their CNAS and everything like that, wake them up a little bit. And, man, they come off this little warm up and they're like, I'm so tired. And I'm like, What is happening right now? You just jogged her on the basis twice. You can't be exhausted. You ran out to the foul pole twice, bro.

Yeah. And the parents are very different, too. I still, you know, there's actually one kid, man. He loses his mind. He, like, every time he strikes out, he takes his helmet and he throws it in his bat. And I can't take it. How old is this child? This kid is six.

Six or seven. I mean, let's put that on an extended timeline and see what that's going to look like. Exactly. I mean, I can't imagine. what that would look like in 10 years or yeah in 10 years when he's 16 like in a high school baseball game and so what do his parents do when he does that nothing and so it's have you considered just going over and kicking the shit out of the father oh and the father's in the military and so uh i would reconsider that as a solid option right yeah and so and i'm like and i and i

so i pull him aside and uh and i don't i don't allow it i don't let i'm like i'm going to try to fix this because I know it's basically he's only doing it because he's allowed to do it. Yeah. Right? And so you have to stop it. He's been taught that he gets what he wants by having that outburst. Exactly. So I pull him off the side and in our sport, we don't, in baseball, you don't, you don't

really like run and do burpees. Well, this little guy is going to do burpees and it's going to run. And so I make him take, I'm like, Ryan, put your helmet on and lift up your bat. And I'm, oh, I just says it. That's fine. It's all right. There's a lot of people out there that name that. Yeah, right.

And so I'm like, hey, yeah. man take your helmet off and you're going to place it on the ground nicely and then you're going to place your bat down and every time you put your helmet down and you put your belt bat down that's how it's going to look and he looked at me he's like okay and I'm like and now we're going to run and do burpees to learn from our mistakes you need to turn that dude into like musashi like where he treats those tools like you know what I mean like it's like a presentation and like the implements of battle go down and there'll be no dust mood like you will you have to show respect.

Exactly. That's what it is at the end of the day. These are your tools. These are your tools for your sport. And so we start running and I'm like, and you're going to, so we're going to run and do burpees. And if I see you doing it again, you're going to do it until your legs fall off. Because any, any, and I make him again, because he has really poor, like making eye contact. Yeah.

Like, hey, look at me. Do you understand what I'm saying? You know, and I make him acknowledge me and understand. And so we start running. And after a little bit of time, you know, I had gone by. I'm like, all right, buddy, grab your hat, grab your bat, get back up there. And I'm like, we can't have these outbursts, man.

Like everybody, even Major League Baseball players strike out. Yeah. All right, you got to walk off the field and understand it's just a game. You're going to strike out sometimes. You're not going to strike out sometimes. It is what it is. He's like, all right, next that bat strikes out, throws the helmet, throws the bat. Hey, Ryan, come on over here, buddy.

Let's get back over here. Let's re-address what we previously addressed. But you know, like what you're doing, though, is, Right. I mean, I hope people understand the importance of stopping that when you see it at a young age. Because, I mean, I've dealt with adults who basically are adults and they want to throw their helmet and they want to throw their bat. Yeah. And they get nowhere in life. Like life literally kicks their ass and they don't understand what's happening. You know, exactly. That's the thing is like if you just allow it, it's just going to keep happening and keep happening.

It's like a dog who goes to the bathroom in your house, you know? Yeah, unless you give them a treat afterwards. It's not going to reinforce. horse. He's probably going to do it more. Oh, buddy. Here's some macaroni. Not necessarily that I wouldn't give macaroni to a dog. That was a weird analogy. Maybe a bone. I think you're talking about a kid there.

I got where you were going. So we go do it again, you know, and about like halfway through it. He's like, he looks at me and he goes, coach, my legs are falling off. And I'm like, no, they're not, buddy. Yeah. Not even close. And so we do it again. And we go over the same thing, literally the next time. Next one, throws the hat, throws the ball.

the bat and I'm like Ryan let's go buddy and I just you know calmly take him over there and you know he's like he's getting better though and and that's and that's you know that's all I can hope for is that he's he's starting to get it and maybe next year his coach won't have to deal with it nearly as much but there's only one way his coach won't have to deal with it and that's if his parents actually get involved right exactly you know because you can only do so much if you're that outside influence like I mean I don't care if people think I'm an asshole but I look at that behavior is 100% the parents fault. Oh, 100%. You know what I mean? And again, the only solution to that, you can be like an introduction of antibiotics to that particular problem, but they have

to follow through on the treatment. Like if they go home and reward behavior like that or say nothing to him, like if my kid did that, oh, man, he wouldn't even finish the game. Like, he might, but he's just going to come over and we're going to have a chat away where nobody can hear, and he's going to get a full explanation of understanding of how that is unacceptable at every level. And then if he does it again, I don't even know what's going to happen next. Right. But it's not going to happen again. We're going to keep talking and we're going to keep having remediation, as we would say.

Yeah, that's, you know, it doesn't happen. It's just unacceptable. And, you know, I try to treat, and I, and I don't talk to, like, any other person on the team, any other way than I would talk to my own kid. For sure. And, like, that's the thing is, so if my son were to be disrespectful to a coach or. Oh, I'd lose my mind. I would lose my mind.

And so, you know, the rules I have for my son. sons like and because I tell them I'm like listen it you know because bullying comes up a lot you know and I'm like listen like if if I ever hear of you bullying somebody oh man it's going to be your ass and but then I say let me be very clear if I ever hear of you not standing up for somebody right who's being bullied I might have your ass worse that's yeah that's I think even more important you know like like especially because like for a while all three of the kids went to the same school, and I'm like, listen, when I drop you guys off at school, you are the stump family. Nothing comes in between that, and you had damn well better

stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves. Right. And of course, it's my daughter who does it. She's like, somebody will say something. You can't talk to that. Wham! I'm like, okay, Julia, honey, let's back that. Just a little bit, right? Like, enthusiasm, your heart's in the right place, but you're going to make a name for yourself. But yeah, it's amazing. And, you know, like, and all you have to do is tell them. And most kids, you know, kids are good at heart, you know, for the most part. I think they come out good, man.

I think we screw them up. Yeah, exactly. And so, like, it's interesting to see how well they, you know, respond to teaching them something like that and how fast it takes effect. You know, it's not like a thing that, like, oh, over a five-year period. Oh, yeah, my kid, you know, is helping out kids who can't help help out themselves. It happens almost instantaneously. Yeah, and then I found that when they have done that, it's super rewarding for them. So it reinforces the messes that you want to.

And then it also reinforces to the kid, whatever the situation. Maybe it's just there just helping a kid out for whatever reason, like offering to pick up their backpack or helping somebody that struggle. It's like, it changes everybody on both side of that equation for the better, as opposed to the opposite. It drives me nuts, man. What I see, I don't know. The world doesn't make sense to me anymore.

Yeah, it's interesting. It's, yeah. The thing I've kind of noticed with bullying is it seems like it comes from, like kids with older siblings who get picked on. Oh, they're looking for an outlet to pass that on to somebody else. Yeah, exactly. Like, oh, they have an older brother who, you know, maybe whales on them a little bit. And so, hey, now I found someone who's maybe smaller than me in size or whatever.

So I'm going to, you know, push that on to them. Yeah, and, you know, honestly, to a degree, like, I get it, kids are horrible to each other. Like, my kids at home, I mean, there's not a day that goes by without catastrophic screaming and injury. and they talk to each other in ways that I wish they didn't, and I address it. So there's some degree of kids. You're not my brother. I hate you.

You're not my friend anymore. You're not my friend anymore. I'm not playing. I hope you die. Whoa. Wait a minute. So it's like kids are rough, right? I mean,

I remember being a kid too, and you say some dumb shit from time to time. But it's like, and I'm okay with that. So like, you know, sometimes my kids will come home and like, oh, I didn't have a good experience with this person. I'm like, of course the buzzword now. They'll say, oh, he was bullying me. I'm like, well, let's, let's.

sit down and talk about it was he actually bullying you or was the kid being an 11 year old yeah because especially 11 to 16 year old dudes they're not the nicest people like you're going to have verbal altercations you might have some shoving matches like you know bullying would be is outside of that and so and i want them to have a little bit of you know i want my sons to have a little dirt under the fingernails like yeah yeah get okay you got shoved okay cool like no big deal good nobody you can tolerate it you know life's going to shove you around a little bit too It's not going to, I'm not going to create a safe space, which again is a topic, don't even get me started on, and try to insulate you in this bubble of things that are not going to be, manifest themselves in real life.

I want you to be prepared for what happens in real life. Yeah, it's a mess, man. It's like the whole, you know, every kid gets a trophy, you know, it's just, it's not a good thing. People think it was, it was created. They thought it was like, oh, yeah, this will help everyone, you know, build confidence. No. And instead, it devalues. the hard work.

It devalues the lessons you can actually learn by putting in the hard work. Right. It basically says, hey, no matter what you do, you win, which is not the case in the real world. That's my litmus test for almost everything, especially when my kids ask me questions, I'll be like, you know, something that they learn in school. It's like, okay, well, you know, they know how to use Google better than I do. I'm like, you know, find for me an example of that in real life. Like, I have great appreciation for knowledge that comes from books, but like, let's just keep everything

grounded in, are you likely to encounter this in your life or not? That should be the litmus test to me. Is like, does this actually happen? Not in an academic environment, but in a, I left my front door for work or for my occupation or whatever it is. And to me, that's where like a lot of this stuff just falls flat, like the tolerance, you know what I mean? Or like, you know, we can't say anything to anybody. We can't offend anybody. The safe spaces, all that stuff. It's like, I don't, I don't see that working. And I see large portions of the rest of the world using that. And, you know, as leverage against us. They're like, oh, that's awesome.

That's totally a weakness. So we're just going to crush you now. It's not the way that I think we should be going. It's not. It's not a good, I agree with you completely. So what's next for you, man? Five years from now. Like you're saying you're like, you're the athlete.

You're getting a little bit older. Five years, man? I'm still winning the crosser game, bud. God damn. Masters category, 40 to 41. I mean, no, I won't be in the Masters. I don't think. You don't want to do it?

I don't think the Masters is in my books, in my, in my, in my, playbook right now. So what do you have going on? So you do compete, but then again, you're diversifying, which I love to see people doing right. So you linked up with Rich and Dan. You guys are doing the good dudes thing. Yeah, good dudes thing, man. That's awesome. You know, right now we're... Two out of those three are good dudes. I mean, I'm not going to, I'm not going to tell you which one I think isn't will leave that up in the air. Actually, I love all three of those guys. So, two are friends, ones and acquaintance. No. They're awesome. And you got, so the more I was

going with that is I want to get to the coffee stuff. Oh, yeah. Because you guys are, yeah, I kind figured that's where you were going with it. You guys are doing coffee, right? Yeah, I'm kind of heading it up, but yeah, it's going to be obviously under the good dudes brand. Yeah, well, and let's start with the fact that you're a complete psychopath when it comes to coffee. I'm a lunatic. You have a roaster at your house, right? I have a roaster. I don't really do much roasting anymore. I used to. That's a whole other story I can get into. But yeah, so I travel with coffee. Like, I don't. So you brought coffee here from San Diego? Oh, for sure. So do you have a specific, like carry-on case just for your morning brew? I just throw it in the, I just throw it in my bag,

my carry-on bag. So I typically carry an arrow press, a hand grinder. And then obviously like, you know, getting hot water is really not that big of a deal. You can always just run the water through the coffee machine in your room. So that's what I did. And then, but yeah, so we are, you know, we're starting the good dude's coffee. It isn't up and running just yet. We hit a couple, we had a couple snags. We are. It's always harder in practice. than it is in the concept. And I'm still, you know, like, in training. So I'm kind of trying to stay focused right now.

It's obviously like the heart of our season. Yeah. So I was trying to stay focused there. So I kind of put it on the back burner a little bit. After games, I probably will really like push back into it. Well, how did you get so into coffee in the first place? Oh, man. I mean, obviously it's amazing.

Right. Yeah. I love time. We get, actually, we got seven minutes. I love coffee. I got into, I actually didn't drink coffee, though, until I was on my second deployment in Iraq. And so actually, no, it was my first appointment.

I didn't have a cup of coffee until 2003. Oh, wow. And somebody has slid me a gateway drug of iced mocha. Yep. I was like, this is chocolate deliciousness. This is amazing. And then for like six hours, I was like, this is awesome. I mean, I can't sleep.

I'm very productive. Like, first cup of coffee, I'm just like, woo. You're focused. Yeah, at the green bean coffee shop in Uzbekistan. I had my first cup of coffee. Oh, man. Green bean. Yeah.

Solid. Since then, I can now drink espresso straight and go to bed. there's no tolerance built up there. My adrenal gland is totally healthy. Don't worry about it. Right. Yeah. Yeah, so I started drinking out my first appointment.

And then, you know, so like, whatever I do, I tend to overdo a little bit. You get into it. You nerd out on a little bit. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like learn the process and all that kind of stuff. And so I started, like, going to, like, little websites and, like, trying to find, like, different single origin coffees that I liked and stuff like that and have them sent out. So fast forward to you, I wrote.

Rack 2010. I'm having coffee shipped out. I'm looking at this website. I can't remember because I was living rough in Iraq. Let me tell you in my full trailer with Wi-Fi in my room. So you're barely dragging by. I get it. Yeah. I mean, geez, it was rough. And so I am ordering beans. And I'm like looking on this website. And I didn't know it. At the time, I didn't know what green beans were. And it said, but it was the cheapest on there. And I was like, I'm going to order a bunch of this. It's just non-roasted, right? Exactly. But I didn't know that at the time, I was just like, I'm an idiot. So you got raw coffee sent to you in Iraq? Yeah, so I got a bunch of raw coffee sent to me in Iraq. And so obviously I was like, well, I'm not just going to waste this. So I ordered a roaster. Basically just an air, it's almost like a popcorn popper air roaster. So not big, like you're not, nothing industrial scale.

No, it literally looks like, I don't even know how to describe it. It's, you know, maybe like 10 inches tall and like eight inches wide. And it basically just sends hot air into this canister up like a popcorn. Popper. And so, and that just roast the beans. And so I learned to, I learned a little bit about roasting at that point. And you're working on a full barista station in Iraq. Exactly. In Iraq in my trailer. And, you know, I just got into it so much. I was like, oh, this is really cool. Obviously, moved up to like a drum roaster, which is a little bit more, I guess, a little easier to manipulate, where the popcorn popper is very, like, it's hard to get an even roast. It's hard to.

Yeah, just because it's just hot air blowing. air blowing up over over the beans so the drum roaster started doing that a little bit got into it um and then i was just like you know we started this good dudes thing with rich and dan and i was like i was like man let's let's move into the coffee industry you know and let's not saturated at all right exactly so um but i love it and it's you know something i have passion for so i was like why not that's the key right you'd be doing it anyway so you might as well right did it does dan and rich they even drink coffee they do a little bit not as much as I do obviously we need to change that immediately and so obviously yeah I'm actually right today tonight after I leave here in Atlanta I'm actually flying to to Nashville and I'm

gonna be in Cookville for three weeks that's what I figured when I saw your ticket out of here I was like you gotta be going to hang out yeah so I'm with Rich and do some training for games and stuff like that and um but so since I'm gonna be there for three weeks I had an entire like set-ups sent to his house like I texted out of your mind I text I'm like rich man I'm like I'm coming for three weeks so So you have quite a few things coming to your house from Amazon. And so he just started laughing. And so he'll be on the coffee train here very soon. He needs to be.

And plus he just had a second child. You know, he just adopted another, they adopted another little boy, which is unbelievable, so cool. And I'm so happy for them. And they're going to need it.

One is, one child, like when you go from zero children to no children, or to one child, your math is as good as mine. Right. Yeah, exactly. When you go,

When you go from zero to one, it's impressive how much you didn't realize how little time you have and how hard it is. And how little control you have now. And then so then when you go from one to two, I was, I was blown away. Hey brother, come over to my house. Go from two to three. Right, exactly. Like I haven't taken that step yet. Man defense shifts to zone.

Right. And they're just like, they push out the wide receivers and they send a full back dive all the time. Like they just, I swear to God, my kids have a Bluetooth connection, and they know how to separate and just dominate two parents. Right. Oh, easily. Easily domination. So I have to deny it to rain.

Get in your room and close the door. It's all I can do is, it's, all I can do is fall back on that. Yeah, it's crazy, man. But at least yours are older now. You know, you said 13.11. 1311 and my daughter just turned nine yesterday. Okay. So, but you had them at a pretty close range.

We were close to, I mean, we had six. six years straight of diapers. I was just going to say, yeah, you had two in diapers at one time. That is impressive right there because... I would have chosen a different word, but... I was the same way where I had two in diapers at the same time, and I had... Do you have dogs? We have a petting zoo at our house.

We have one, two, three dogs and a cat. Okay, wow. It's a petting zoo. Holy Toledo. It's never a problem at all. They never destroy the house ever. Did you have those dogs when you had your babies? We had one dog.

Okay. Yes. Which was a phenomenal dog, that that dog was violated so many different times. Like from this just was bad. I just kept, I remember, so when I had, when the boys were both in diapers

and I had the dog and I had, you know, myself, I was just, I, all I remembered thinking was like, man, I'm dealing with shit all day long.

100%. Their shit. Six to eight diapers did. Yeah, yeah. It's just like, it's all I kept thinking. It was like,

man, all day long, there's just shit. It is just, and it's, and it's, so that's what I say, when I,

when you see two, when you have two kids in diapers, it's really impressive to me because that is, that is, that is hard right there. And good on for them to go that route. Right, yeah, yeah.

It's awesome. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, like, and they got, you know, it's really cool. Yeah, the frontings are great people. Yeah, you're linked up with good people, for sure. At the end of the day, like the good dudes thing, three awesome people doing good stuff. Like, it'll go places. Yeah, it's cool.

We're excited. And we're going to pick it back up after the games, going back doing the good dudes training camps. And then the coffee. and, you know, there's some other stuff we're looking at doing, too. I cannot wait to try some of the coffee and tell you it's terrible, regardless of what it tastes like. Obviously. Like, this is shit, Josh. Might be the best in the world, but it's like, I'm going to give you zero stars on Amazon.

I'm going to write like a Steinbeck novel review. Like, this is the worst tasting coffee. Everyone's going to know that you're lying. Well, obviously, I'll do it under a different name. Right, right, right. Well, Ron, have mine. I got her running down to the event, but thanks for taking the time, man. Appreciate catching up.

Yeah, thanks for having me on, brother. Cool. We're done. Two episodes in the bag. That's all I got for you today. So here's the deal. I need some help. Kind of, I suppose, if you want to. If you guys like the podcast, do me a favor. Tell somebody about it. And people keep telling me that reviews help. So go on iTunes and write a review. If you don't like the podcast, just don't do any of that. Don't tell anybody about it or write a bad review. It's totally up to you. One thing. I want to do is say a huge thanks to 511 Tactical. Josh is actually a 511 ambassador as am I. For those of you who think that, you know, tactical gear is cargo pants designed back in the nom era. Check out the website, you know, check them out. My favorite pair of jeans actually is currently made by these guys. Actually wear their stuff all day long. So check them out and, you know, shave the handlebar mustache, upgrade your gear. That's all I'm saying. episode three coming out next week see you

see you