Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Passions, Pivots, and Perseverance

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

In this episode, there are two listener-submitted questions that delve deep into the challenges of life. First, from an 18-year-old in northern Alberta grappling with finding his passion and purpose in a small town. His desire to evolve as a person and to embrace challenges will resonate with many. How does one truly discover what sets their soul on fire? And how can personal growth be accelerated through adversity? Switching gears, a message from a former Air Force member who's been on a roller-coaster journey—from the military to college, battling alcoholism, and recently, facing unexpected legal challenges. When life knocks you down in the most unforeseen ways, how do you pick up the pieces and consider starting anew? Especially when starting over doesn't come with a pre-set path or connections. Cleared Hot Skateboard deck: ⁠https://snakefarmco.com/pages/andy-stumpf⁠ Sign up for the new G14 newsletter here: ⁠https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/exclusive⁠ Check out the newest Cleared Hot Gear here: ⁠https://shop.clearedhotpodcast.com/⁠

What's up, everybody. It's Friday. We're back. Oh, man, I got an interesting episode for you today. Got an awesome collaboration that I'm going to open with and tell you about once we get going here. And I've paired that collaboration with what I can only describe as a musical treat. So let's just get into that. And, of course, we have some Q&A.

So here we go. Welcome back to the Friday episode. Like I mentioned right before I started, I have an awesome collaboration. Not too long ago. I put the episode out about a month ago. JT. from Black Rifle was on. He teased having a collaboration with his skateboard company, which is Snake Farm Co. Well, guess what? By the time this episode comes out, it should be live. I think that he made 50 decks. And they made an awesome video of one of their pro riders actually riding that deck. It's not me because I would

end up on my own Instagram stories if I were to do so. So the video is cool and it had some audio that came on it, but I replaced that audio because I have been being, I have, that's terrible English, I have been being, I have been tagged hundreds of times because the internet is an amazing thing. And everybody knows how much I love Steven Seagall. And by that, I mean I hate that cock sucker. He is a piece of shit. just Google his treatment of women and just put into Google Stephen Segal lying.

And hopefully you have a few days to work your way through that. But I have been tagged hundreds of times in a reggae song that he did in a fake Jamaican accent, which I believe is called I Want the Punani. So of course, I am going to overlay that on top of this video. So for the next, what is it, like a minute and 20 seconds. Enjoy the visuals of a pro skateboarder ripping on the limited edition cleared hot skateboard deck. But what you really should do is sit back and let the words and wisdom of Stephen Seagall really soak over you. Enjoy it.

I mean, no way nice. The girl's time to struck. You could look at that, but you shouldn't do that eye. The God, Grace is just a pity, not just hit to cover her. When me are fling it up, you better no to back it up. When me are dash it out, make sure you black it up. If you ever flop it up, then me are going to lock it up, park it up like Benji who are drunk.

So, me want the body if you make me feel nice, why? Tell me where you're really good all night. You want to put on the siper make me nice. Me love the way you have sometimes and where you talk is so hot. Not to know, let me shout with rum. Let me can make you. All right.

All right. All right. All right. All right. Bring you to your knees. Good, German. All right. All right.

All right. We're back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'm sure that that was likely the highlight of everyone's morning. Perhaps it's going to be the highlight of everyone's day. Maybe week? I could see if it was the highlight of your year. As an aside, if you actually did like the, did like the skateboard and you want to risk your own life by skateboarding. I have a link to the

board itself in the podcast description. Get them what you can. I'm trying to talk JT into doing another one that has the explosion, the cleared hot explosion logo on the bottom of the board as well. Can't make any promises. Like I said, get them all you can and I get it. If you want me to, I can end this episode with a little bit more Steven Seagal singing of that song. And I think I will. because I think that's not only what people want, I think it's what they deserve. Between now and then, two questions. Let's get back to our regularly scheduled program. Here we go.

Good day, Andy. A little background about me. I'm 18. I'm 18, sorry, turning 19 in August, graduated last year, got a job, moved out shortly after that, about 10 minutes away from my parents because we live or where we live, there aren't many opportunities other than agriculture and oil fields. There aren't many things I'm proud of. myself for. The things that I am proud of is that I've been consistently going to the gym and I

volunteered for a fire department and I've been doing that for about nine months. But aside from that, I don't have any ambitions to find something that I want to do for the rest of my life. And I worry that if I don't, then I'll turn out just like the other people that don't move away from the area that we live in. And it seems everybody here is just content with not improving themselves, which is fine because freedom and whatnot. The question I have is, how do I find something that I am passionate about or that I feel a purpose from? Also, this is just a little add-on. The men that I look up to seem to have gone through some, let's say, difficult challenges in their life. I just think to myself sometimes that maybe that's

what I need to do is find something challenging. And whether I fail or not, I feel as if it would build me into a man. Have a fantastic day, month of your life. You know, you're a great internet mentor to many young people. I appreciate the humor. And it seems like you are all around a pretty solid person. Well, thank you for the compliments at the end. I do the best that I can. And I don't have a lot of answers. I'm surprised that people ask me for my opinion on things. And what I'll tell you is I do my best to absolutely be honest and talk about the limitations, my own experiences, where those experiences and what I've learned from them. Where to begin on this? This question and the second question, they tie into each other a little bit. One of my least favorite things is the

pressure that we put on young men and women. I hate the question, and I got it when I was young, and maybe this has changed over time. I suspect that it hasn't. But the question is something along the lines of this. You see a young man or a young woman. And I think sometimes adults ask kids these questions because they just don't know how to talk to kids. And they say, what do you want to be when you grow up? What are you going to do with your life? Where are you going to go to college? What are you going to study? There's nothing wrong with those questions for clarity. But I do think that we put too much pressure on young people to know what it is that they want to do at that time in their life. The desire that I had to go down the path that I did was not

normal inside of my peer group. There were some people who had a really good idea of what it is that they wanted to do, but I don't know of many that were as concrete in their dreams and aspirations for what they wanted to do at the age of 11. Now, when I got to that community, I was surrounded by people who said exactly the same thing and nobody really could articulate why. But it's a very small niche niche, however you're supposed to say it, community. And I don't think it's reflective of a greater society. I think personally that it is totally fine

for somebody earlier in their life, early or earlier, or however you'd want to define it, that doesn't have something yet that they are passionate about or hasn't found something yet that gives them a sense of purpose. I don't think we should be pressuring young men and women into providing us an answer

because one, I think it changes so much as you continue to grow. And if you know that it's going to change, what the hell is the point of asking them the question in the first place? And again, I'll fall back to, I think some adults just ask kids that because they don't really know what else to talk to them about. Because it can be tough sometimes to connect with kids, especially when they're not yours. It's a very like just off the tip of the tongue question that you should ask or can ask, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say should, is something that you can ask, but why? With my three

kids, I have a 15-year-old now, an 18-year-old, and an almost 20-year-old, the question that I will ask them is, what are you interested in? Not what do you want to do for the rest of your life, but what are you currently interested in right now? And I ask that because as a parent, I want to be able to support them in the best way that I can without having my hand on the wheel for them or with them. When they're younger, yeah, you need to have one hand on the wheel. And when they're really young, you need to have both hands on the wheel. That's the role of the parent is to drive them down the road of life until they get to a place where they can load share that. And then eventually they have both hands on the wheel.

Spoiler alert to parents out there, you're going to hit the guardrails a little bit. There's going to be some scratches and some dangs and some paint loss. And that's okay. They need to go through those experiences so they can grow into the man and woman that they are going to become. and at some point you have to take your hands off the wheel. So to me, a better question for young men and women is what are you interested in? And as a parent, I think the more things that they answer with, the better. You know, if I look at the hourglass of life, I would bet I turned 46 in October.

I would bet I have more sand in the bottom of the hourglass than I do at the top. So if I could go back and talk to my younger self, I would tell my younger self, knowing where I am now to take every goddamn opportunity that was presented in front of me. To take risks, that doesn't mean gamble, right? There's a difference between risking and gambling. I will, and for clarity, or for maybe in my own definition, I should say, the difference is leaving things. to chance is gambling. Risking is looking at an opportunity, assessing the potential that could come from that opportunity, identifying dangers that might be involved in that opportunity, looking what the residual is and then determining the risk versus reward. That's an appropriate assessment of an

opportunity while you're looking at risk. Gambling is going, ah, fuck it. And I'll just take the chance. And where I net myself out is where I'm going to net myself out. I'm not advocating for that. but at a younger age, don't worry about not being passionate about something or not finding your purpose. Take the opportunities where you can find them. And the two things that you listed, going back to this email, things that you're proud of yourself for, you're consistently going to the gym and you volunteer to a fire department. You're already doing two things that are difficult. You know, the consistency in going to the gym, going every day, staying on a program, doing things that you're

you may not want to do in the moment because you understand the long-term benefit. That's awesome. Service above yourself, volunteer fire department. That's awesome. And what I would say to you is if you're worried about being that person who is never going to leave where you grow right now or where you're growing up right now, I don't know how to phrase this because I don't want to say what I think you should do. What I'll say is my advice is if your biggest fear is growing old in the same square footage that you grew up in, change that as soon as humanly possible.

If you've already volunteered for a fire department and you have some experience there and you're already doing things for personal growth, independent growth, again, that can challenge you, your headspace is already one that I personally believe will suit you well in life. And if you take that mentality, the ability and willingness to work, to challenge yourself to have a long-term growth mindset instead of instant gratification, there's really nowhere that you're going to land that you're not going to be able to survive. Now, are you going to be able to thrive everywhere? Maybe not. But I think thriving comes after surviving. But if, again, if it's your main concern is being put back into the dirt that you grew up in, get out of there now. don't gamble right and throw a dart at a wall and just move to that place do a little bit of research have a primary a secondary maybe even a tertiary plan or a place that you would want to go to research some opportunities that are available there and launch you have so much in front of you you're in the opposite situation that i am in you have more sand in the top of the hourglass than at the bottom and because of that you have almost nothing to lose You're not going to starve to death.

You might go through some situations that are challenging and difficult, but you've already shown a willingness to work yourself through those things. So the only thing standing in your way is yourself. And as you explore job opportunities, relationship opportunities, any opportunity that might present itself to you, you are going to be exposed to a variety of things with which you can find your passion and with which you may find your purpose. And if that doesn't happen by the time you're 20, that's okay.

If it doesn't happen by the time you're 50, I would say, damn, maybe you should be a little bit more targeted. But you have so much runway, so much opportunity. Take the pressure off of yourself. Realize and recognize where you are in the grand scheme of life itself and the opportunities that you are going to be presented with. Take a big breath and tackle the biggest. fear you have right now, which is, again, dying where you grew up. You could change that.

I mean, by the time you hear this, hopefully that you do, you could change where you live in the course of a day. I'm not recommending that you do that. But what I'm saying is the biggest hurdle you're going to face is yourself. So sit down, think about it, and then take action. You're probably going to have some level of hesitation, trepidation, fear, all of those things combined. And and that's good because that's where growth comes from. So honestly, what I would say is take the option at this phase in your life that scares the shit out of you the most and dive headlong into it. And if it works out, amazing. And if it doesn't work out and you're not passionate about the course that you go down, change it.

The one that's going to stop you is going to be you. Question two. The first sentence here in this email caught me because, well, it's kind of amazing. I fucking hate your Friday episodes. Too often, they feel like a personal attack due to my struggle with alcoholism. Well, nothing that I say is a personal attack because I don't really know any of the people who are writing in. But I will say this. If the things that I say irritate you and the things that I say, it seems like I'm talking directly to you,

maybe you should listen. And maybe you should work through that anger and frustration because I have no intent or desire to do anything other than try to help. people through the mistakes that I have made in my personal life. That being said, this is back to the email. I followed you for a couple years now and would appreciate your input. I joined the Air Force at 18 with a six-year contract as security forces, the Air Force version of an MP. I did security, law enforcement, dispatch, worked at a small jail on base, and was a member

of the EST, which apparently is the base SWAT team. I didn't even know they had that, so I'm learning something new every day. After separating from the Air Force, I moved back to my parents' home and enrolled in college. I quickly remembered why I went to the military path to begin with. School is just not for me. Living with my parents and quickly running out of money, I applied for the local county jail as a quick and easy job to attain. I viewed it as a stepping stone, but it did allow me to buy my own place and become once more independent of my parents. Through this time period, I was struggling with alcoholism, and eventually I voluntarily checked myself into rehab.

stop here for a second. That's an amazing first step. The self-awareness to realize that you have a problem is one thing. Taking action on that step is where I have found, in my own personal experience, where many people stumble. It's not hard to look in the mirror and know where your deficiencies are. It's really goddamn hard sometimes to look in the mirror, identify those deficiencies, and then tackle them absent, some outside motivation or control. So good job for you on that. I return from rehab with a new attitude and shortly thereafter was promoted to a supervisory position at the jail.

After four years of employment, a year of which being a supervisor, things were starting to look up and I was genuinely considered staying at the jail for a full career. Last week, I was called in to speak with the sheriff's deputy. I had no idea what it was about or what was going on. I was informed that I was possibly facing a felony-level charge of fraud. Apparently months ago, I made a clerical error while paying a bill. The Sheriff's Department could not accept that it was an accident, in parentheses, and this person's word not my own, because they are cock-suckers, end parentheses. I was subsequently placed on leave.

I am being assured that I won't lose this case. there's ample evidence to prove it was an accident. However, I don't know if I can return to a job where no one believed me or would have my back. I'm about to turn 30 and thinking about my career options when I have previously never considered anything outside of law enforcement. I feel like often you and others in the podcast realm make it sound easy to start over when in reality you have a bunch of connections and other avenues of revenue to keep you going in the meantime. I'm not saying any of you, how you're had an easy path, but given your backgrounds, there were more options when it came to a pivotal moment. I'm not even sure what I'm asking, just your thoughts and maybe how you would move forward in such a situation. So I'll end with my recommendation in your situation. I'm going to address that last paragraph here real fast. I'm not saying any of you had an easy path, but given your backgrounds, there were more options when it came to a pivotal moment. I have heard so many different versions of that sentence. And oftentimes it comes from other people who served in the military.

Well, you have things that are an option for you or people will let you do this or offer you that because of your background. And I just don't have those options. And here's what I'm here. Here's what I'm going to tell you. Too fucking bad. It is exhausting listening to people complain about the choices that they have made in their life. Do I have likely, more options than most given my military background in the in the career that I had. Yes, but I chose that career. I sweat for that career. I bled for that career. And the choices that you make have consequences in your life. If you choose to go down a particular path and somebody else chooses to go down another one and one of those at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for

each of those paths is different. The only person that is responsible for the size of their pot of gold is the person that chose the path that they wanted to go down. You know, although many people don't graduate from the pipeline that I went through, it's open and available to anybody that wants to go through it. But instead of actually trying to go through it, what they do is they complain and they bitch and they talk about well why does this person have this opportunity and i don't because we made different choices motherfucker and the path and choice that i made netted me the opportunities

that came from that and i'm not going to apologize for that nor should you apologize for the path that you took the opportunities that it presented and if it presented limited opportunities that's on you because you to go back to the previous email had your hands on the wheel You're steering the car. What you're doing is looking in the rearview mirror and bitching about something that you didn't likely have the stones to do. So shut the fuck up and let's work on what you have and what you can do with it. I'm so tired of this compare and contrast and it's not fair. It's like, you know what?

It's not fair. The fair is in Iowa. If you want to go there, get some cotton candy and some popcorn and go ride the goddamn merry-go-round. Life isn't fair. The choices that you make in life are going to determine where you end up. So if you don't like where you are and you don't like where you're going, make different choices. Oh, okay, rant over. Sorry.

Now, one sentence before that. I feel like often you and others in the podcast, and I'll make it sound easy to start over. When in reality, you have a bunch of connections and other avenues of revenue to keep going in the meantime. So the bunch of connections, the connections I have are directly reflective of the choices that I have made. made in life. Do I have more than some people? Yes, because I made different choices than most people do. And I'm not going to apologize for that. Different avenues of revenue to keep me going in the meantime. How the fuck do you know that? How do you know about the resets that I have done in my life and the monetary situations that I have come through? Because the route is I don't spend a lot of

time talking about them. I've talked about them broadly. But again, this goes back to the compare and contrast. You have a self-limiting mindset. You are focusing on what other people have as opposed to what you have and what you can do. And it's pathetic. And it will be the one thing that stands in front of you. So, yeah, other avenues of revenue to keep me going in the meantime, do I really? Let's talk about when I stopped working for CrossFit. All right. I had transitioned out of the military. I had been working on the weekends and working into my role in CrossFit before I got out of the military. I got out of the military. Was working specifically for CrossFit. It was making over six figures. and one day I decided that I had had enough.

And it's pretty easy to determine why I came to that conclusion. I've done episodes about it. I've talked about it broadly. You can go back and find those. But I quit. And I went from making over six figures a year to zero. Now, of course, I had my military retirement. But at that time, my rating wasn't what it is now.

And it was probably a third of the amount of money that my rating eventually with actually other the CRSC and all those other things I didn't even know about at the time. I am making more money in retirement. Military, it's actually not even retirement. I guess it would be disability. What I make now is not what I was making then. And just so people understand, I really do think that they should re, they should rephrase what you call military retirement.

That should be rephrased into the money you get paid until you find your second career. Unless you say in the military for like 30, 40 years, you're not going to retire on the amount of money. that you get for your retirement. It's not bad money, but you're going to need more if you're going to have, you know, kids, activities, all of those things. And again, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to tain anybody's opinion of what you're going to get post-military service, but just be aware of what you're getting into.

It's your transitional step into the next. That's all I had. I didn't have any additional sources of revenue. I wasn't sponsored. I wasn't an ambassador. I didn't work with any other brands. I didn't have shit. What I did have was an unwillingness to continue in the situation that I was in because of how it was making me feel and I didn't want to be that person.

So I shit canned at all. And literally, the next morning, what I did is I went into my garage and I started Craigslisting everything that I could rip off the fucking walls that wasn't immediately impacting my life in that moment. I sold almost everything excess that we had. I reduced my burn rate as much as possible, and I started looking at the opportunities that were in front of me. And I started taking them all, whether it be aviation jobs, teaching skydiving, pursuing being a sponsored athlete, all of those things. And for a long period of time, I was saying yes to everything because the only thing that I was trying to do was make ends meet for my family. There was no additional level of revenue that was keeping me going. The only thing that was keeping me going was my unwillingness to stop and my unwillingness to give up.

At no point in time during that time period, did I even consider anybody else's path, what they had or what they were doing? Because it's fucking irrelevant and it's a waste of time. And like I've already said, it's self-limiting. Get out of your own way. It's not easy to restart. And what I have said, and like I said to the previous email, and how I have said, and how I I said these things are tied in together. Dude, you're 30.

You're still at a place where you have more sand in the top of the hourglass than at the bottom. Unless you sit there and are unwilling to reinvent yourself. And I'm trying to think back of when I have talked about reinventing myself. I don't think I've ever made it sound like it's easy. Actually, what I've always said is if you have the ability to do so, you should focus on your next thing. Like if you're in a job that you hate and you don't want to go and there's no purpose before going to the place that I got to actually just quitting and guillotine all the money that came in, spend your off time finding what the next step is going to be. I actually advocate for people to make seamless transitions

when they have the opportunity to do so. Only burn the boats if you have to burn the boats or it gets to that place and you can't tolerate it anymore. So I don't know where you're getting that. I've never said it's easy. And I'm not going to apologize for the connections that I had. do I have more revenue streams now? I do. Is it easier to explore new things because of that? It is. Do you know why I have more revenue streams now?

Because I explored as many options as humanly possible in those times where I didn't have shit. The choices that you make in life, again, have consequences. If you choose to bury your head in the sand and not evolve and reinvent yourself, where you end up at the end of the day will be directly reflective of those choices that you make. If you want to absorb a greater level of risk, be more entrepreneurial, if you will, not that I consider myself to be an entrepreneur, you might find yourself in a place where you do have additional revenue streams, but don't in any, for a second, confuse, and I'm so tired of this stuff. It's the overnight 10-year success. People look at what you've done for years. Oh, it must be nice.

Must be easy. You can kind of do whatever you want now and explore what you want because of where you are now. I'm like, yeah, if you want to take a snapshot in a moment in time, maybe you can say that, but you're ignoring everything that allows people to get to that place. And every ounce of energy that you spend looking at other people is an ounce of energy that you have robbed from yourself, that you could dedicate and devote to your own life and forge your own path. Now, rant over. specifically your situation.

I don't understand, you know, misdemeanor felony, that type of stuff. A felony level charge for a bookkeeping error or a clerical error. I don't necessarily understand the mechanics of that. But here's the advice that I would give anybody who's ever approached and said, hey, you know, somebody sits you down with law enforcement. My recommendation to you is don't say shit in your situation. I don't know if you have a union, but I'd have your union rep there. And I'd get a goddamn lawyer there the second that they want to sit you down.

And they bring up any level of charge of any kind. I would end the conversation and I would bring a lawyer in at that point in time. It sounds like it might be going the legal route as it is and that sucks for you. And I hope it doesn't go that way. And if this is a, you know, I'll operate from the perspective of innocent until proven guilty that it is a clerical error. I hope it nets out that way. But why not stack the odds in your favor and get a legal person involved immediately? You know, working in a jail is not going to make you an expert in the law.

If you start bumping up against legal issues, is my suggestion at all times that you bring in people who are, in fact, specializing in that world. So bring a lawyer in. As far as staying in a career where the people that you work with don't trust you, it's going to be a hard choice for you. It sounds like you're on leave right now. You were subsequently placed on leave. You didn't say whether that was paid leave or unpaid leave. What you have, though, while you're on leave, is your opportunity to explore what is your next. What do you want to do with your life?

You have to make the decision as to whether or not you want to go back and work in an environment where people are questioning your integrity, or you want a lateral and find something else to do. There are pros and cons to both. The biggest con or maybe the biggest pro to doing something else is that it's unknown, and you have no idea the opportunities that you may be presented with, Personally, I view that as a pro, but I could also see how it's viewed as a con. Pros and cons of staying in your current job. Well, you might have to deal with the mark of somebody who was accused of whatever it is you were accused of.

Again, I don't understand how a felony level charge for a clerical error. I don't get it, especially when it comes to paying a bill. Unless they thought maybe you were like laundering money or siphoning money somewhere else. But again, I don't know. regardless, you're going to have to decide whether or not you want to go back into that pool. Do you want to continue swimming in that pool? Sounds like you're climbing the ladder. I'm not sure the impact that something like this would have on the rungs in front of you.

Are they going to space them out more or make them unattainable? That's for you to decide. And I don't necessarily have any advice for you as to which direction you should go. My advice is take the time that you have while you're on leave. to think deeply about who you are and what you want to do. And if you want to do more than work in the prison system, then go find something else to do. If you want to continue working in that system,

you need to put together a plan that is going to solidify your behavior and strategy and approach once you go back into that pool. Because if you're going to commit to it, that's what you need to do. You don't want to be one foot in, one foot out. You're either going to cannonball back in that, fucker or you're going to run away from it. That's the advice that I have. And that is on you. So hopefully you can use this leave for something that's actually beneficial, which is thinking about you, not thinking about other people. And on that, I will let you guys drift into your weekend.

With the sweet, sweet sound of Stephen Skull. See you Monday. girl the her hair kitty when me i fling it's up your betan will be back you go when me a dashy know make sure you black if you ever floppy go let me i'm a locketop pack it up like hengy who'll go so