Kyle Kingsbury Podcast - #167 Jeff Gonzales

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

Jeff Gonzales is a former Navy Seal and the head of education at The Range in Austin, TX. He is the founder of The 12 Labors https://12labors.com and Trident Concepts https://www.tridentconcepts.com ��     Help support the podcast by visiting our sponsors:   Head to https://sovereignty.co/kyle/ to grab my favorite CGN/ Nootropic. There is nothing like this product for energy and cognitive function!   Check out Dry Farm Wines and get a bottle for a penny | DryFarmWines.com/Kyle Dry Farm is 100% organic and biodynamic grown wines from all over the world with about 1g of carbohydrate per bottle! Keto wine with none of the garbage- it is truly the healthiest wine on Earth and the only wine I drink.    Ancestral Supplements - Grass-Fed intestines  https://ancestralsupplements.com/kyle Use codeword KING10  for 10% off / Only Valid through Shopify Option. For the best supplements helping you eat nose-to-tail and getting the most nutrient dense and bioavailable nutrients in your diet.    OneFarm Formally (Waayb CBD) www.onefarm.com/kyle (Get 15% off everything using code word KYLE at checkout). Check out the BRAND NEW night serums and facial creams and (as always) the best full spectrum CBD products.    Get $100 off the Chek Institute’s Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 1 online course by using KKP100 at checkout |  https://chekinstitute.com/hlc1online/ HLC changed my life and offered a deep dive into Paul Chek's amazing wealth of knowledge.    Connect with Kyle Kingsbury on: Instagram | https://bit.ly/3asW9Vm   Subscribe to the Kyle Kingsbury Podcast Itunes | https://apple.co/2P0GEJu Stitcher | https://bit.ly/2DzUSyp Spotify | https://spoti.fi/2ybfVTY IHeartRadio | https://ihr.fm/2Ib3HCg Google Play Music | https://bit.ly/2HPdhKY        

all right y'all we got my man jeff gonzalez in the house jeff gonzalez is a former navy seal he is the head of education at the range which is perhaps austin's best gun range and educational center and place to purchase firearms so this is a very interesting episode. We talk quite a bit about Jeff's background, what he learned in the SEALs, a lot of key takeaways there. And then we dive into kind of a more nuanced discussion around what it means to take your own, what's the best way to put this,ibility for your own safety. And it's an interesting topic for sure. I'm sure it's going to ruffle some feathers. I'm sure it's going to push up against some of our own inner feelings and ideas around how to navigate the world. And certainly,

as we reimagine what society actually is currently and what society is going to be in the future. Uh, I'm, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. Most definitely. Um, it's a fantastic podcast. I learned a lot in this one. I know you guys will too. There are a number of ways you guys can support this podcast. First and foremost, this episode is brought to you by bovine tracheal cartilage by ancestral supplements. Ancest Supplements makes New Zealand sourced nose to tail organ meats, bone marrow, and bovine tracheal cartilage in simple, convenient gelatin capsules. The life's work of Dr. John F. Pruden showed that bovine tracheal cartilage had unique and powerful effects on wound healing, immune conditions, joint health, and other conditions considered to be treatment

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Thank you guys for listening. I hope you enjoy the show today with my dude, Jeff Gonzalez. Yes, Jeff Gonzalez in the house. Hey, what's up, brother? We got round two. Round two. Yes. The round one that never quite made it.

Thanks to, I'd love to make an excuse here on sleep and all that shit, but we'll just say a a very a very technical difficulty difficulty of not pushing the the your microphone button red light on so that uh you just sounded like you're i was talking to somebody down the hallway oh it's too bad too because we you know we had we had cancer figured out we solved it we solved it in that last podcast many mysteries we solved many mysteries the world is never gonna know. And because we were riffing, there's no way to know. We can't,

we can't retrace that. No, no, that's for sure. I do want to try to retrace some of it. For sure. As much as I can recall. Plenty of good stuff to dive into here.

Absolutely. Plenty. First, let's start as we do with everyone on the show. Want to get your background. Talk about life growing up. Talk about the military. Talk about just how you've come to be the person that you are today.

Love to. So I was born and raised here in Texas, not too far from here, central Texas, the hill country. I had a great life growing up. Now you take so many things for granted in many senses. And so especially right now with my kids, I'm just extremely grateful for the childhood that I had that they are not having to deal with

or what they're having to deal with currently that I didn't have to deal with when I was a kid. I left the Navy. I left for the Navy, kind of like an interesting career path for me. I played water polo and swam in high school. And so my head coach pulled me aside one time and said that he thought I'd make a good pentathlete and I had no idea what a pentathlon was so I was like okay and I went off and started doing this pentathlete stuff and in the process that's when I first met some active duty SEALs who were stationed at Fort Sam Houston participating at the national one the national team that's where the national

pentathlon team is headquartered so it's kind of cool i got the chance to meet them kind of was like hmm those cats look really different kind of thing and i learned a little bit more about them i'd also already started studying up on some of the fields that i wanted to pursue but i hadn't made a final decision i would say after that interaction my decision was pretty much met. And once I graduated, I went training full-time for the nationals for the pentathlon. I went to nationals, did really well for myself. It was junior nationals, so I did really well for myself. And then I left for the Navy literally right after. I got done with nationals, came home. I remember the conversation I had with my parents went something like this, by the way, I'm leaving for the Navy in a week at the dinner table. And it was kind of one of

those things where pretty much my mom's shock was very, very easy to see. My dad, on the other hand, he was a little bit more reserved. And we talked about it at the dinner table, but I had kept that kind of from my parents. I didn't tell them about it and technically i wasn't legally of age to enlist so i had to join through the delayed entry program to do that to keep it from my parents sort of thing and then of course once uh once i turned 18 and once i uh finished the nationals i was of age and i could go ahead and enlist on my own. And then I broke down and told him about literally a week before I left. So that was my departure from the family unit, if you will. And I left for bootcamp, went from bootcamp to A school, went to A school to Bud's, got to my team, had an incredibly satisfying and amazing career. I look back at it and I count myself very lucky. You know,

I literally dodged several bullets, made it out with, you know, very few injuries, but was just in awe of my experience there. I look back at that and, you know, you don't really value it at the time. I mean, you have certain values about what you're doing at the moment, but it's not until you can reflect, you know, years later and actually really appreciate it. And I think what I appreciate the most about the career was it opened my eyes to the world and what the world is really like. Like we have an idea, but if you've never really traveled, and when I say travel, I don't mean travel to like the posh tourist places but I mean travel the world you really do get a sense for how good we have it

here in the states and then probably the most rewarding where it was the the bond that I made with many of my teammates that that kind of experience is what really forged, molded me into the man I am right now. I had great leadership. Some of the guys that were just like legends in our community and I had them as my mentors. I had them as my sea daddies and they definitely, that was still in the day when you could still get an ass beating for not doing the right thing. So I was pretty lucky that, yeah, that worked because I was fairly stubborn and hardheaded,

which is a character trait that I'm quite positive about right now. That has helped the tenacity that I have to try to finish something and get it done has been good, but it can also lead to bad in a sense. So I definitely got my ass beat on more than one occasion but i'm grateful because it definitely shaped me in the way that i wanted to be in the way that i and it shaped me in a manner that i didn't know i wanted

to be at the time looking back at it i'm like oh oh so they did know what they were doing okay um great career did a lot of things i was on the east coast as an operator the west coast as a as a buds instructor so i'm very happy about that i left the navy and i started kind of like um i didn't flounder but my original path didn't work out for me and so i had to kind of like shift gears and i stood up tried in concepts right around the turn of the century if you will and you know we became a nationally recognized training company, I would say almost overnight. By 2003, I spent more time on the road during the first five to seven years of the Tricon history than I was deployed. It was nonstop in a sense.

And I kind of questioned it too. I was like, why did I get out of the Navy if I'm going to be gone? Because the whole point behind me getting out of the Navy was because we wanted to start a family. And my first path didn't work out. So I had to jump to this new path. And now I'm like, shit, I should have probably just stayed in the Navy. But I'm glad I didn't because it turned into a phenomenal path for me. And we're coming up on our 20-year anniversary this March. So this 2021 will be 20 years that we've been doing this. And just cannot, you know, when I say it a lot, I'm very grateful.

I'm very grateful. And I think sometimes people are just like, oh, he's just using that. But the truth is that I'm incredibly genuine when I say that because I have been very lucky in the mentors that I've had, the decisions that I've made and the fortune that I've achieved. It's, it's all, you know, I look back and it could have gone, could have gone any other direction. I could have been,

you know, worst case scenario could have been really bad. And I'm just very grateful that it has gone as well as it has. And that has put me in front of you. Oh yeah. You, you, I mean, water polo, swimming, pentathlon, you've probably had some gifts from an endurance standpoint. And I think that combined with a stubbornness and a tenacity is exactly what's necessary to make it through buds. Not that I've ever done anything like that. And I won't even pretend that my career has anything to do with the degree of difficulty that that is. Well, you know, I'll tell you what we share, what the connection is, is the discipline. The discipline, you know, to get to your level that you were at required discipline. And to get to my level required a similar type of discipline. You know, we might

call it stubbornness and hardheadedness and tenacity, but it boils down to discipline. I can remember in high school getting up before what we used to call a butt crack of dawn and getting to the pool and starting to swim early in the morning, then go to school, then after school, going back to the pool and swimming more you know i mean for a kid in high school especially when you know you start to discover girls and alcohol it's like well this is getting in the way you know but you stay the course you're disciplined because you want to like for me i wanted to do well i loved water polo i freaking loved that thing that that sport was awesome because it was a great equalizer like it could match you and I up in the water and it equalized everything.

I was like, I could play against my strengths, which were that tenacity in the water and not have to worry about somebody else's strength like size. I didn't have to worry about it as much. I still did, but it was interesting. And that taught me a lot too. I think the best thing that I could have done for my naval career was to have that background in water polo because there were some times when you were scrapping underwater, and it's a brutal, savage kind of game under the surface it's like a freaking full-on three minute round you know you're just getting the crap beat out of you under the waterline where the refs can't see anything you know so it's like it was it was challenging to to sustain myself in that sport and to go to

that level that i did and and it did transcend well that that discipline plus there's probably a lack of iq also helped, like not realizing that I should probably not be doing these things. That probably was another thing. I got to be honest. There was some of that probably going around too. And what were the events in the pentathlon? Oh, great question. So, the five events are running and swimming, which are normal. And then you had equestrian riding. So that's where you're clearing obstacles and whatnot. Then marksmanship shooting. So shooting with a high-end pistol. But one that I loved was fencing. I love that sport. I mean, it was fascinating, first of all, and it was just so cool.

I mean, it was really cool. I got into it. And surprisingly, people look at me now as a firearms instructor and they think, oh, your best field must have been the shooting. It was actually my worst. I sucked at shooting at that age. I really was like terrible. I mean, I laugh too because one of the other things that I've become very grateful for is when I start to appreciate and value some of these experiences.

So part of the team, the pentathlon team at the headquarters level was the coaching. We had some amazing coaches and I was fortunate to have an Olympian who was my shooting coach and fencing coach or my shooting coach and my running coach, sorry. And he was phenomenal. So while I didn't shoot as well as some of the other members of the team, where I was compared to where I ended up was all due to him. And what's funny too is like I look back and I tell my kids this, I'm like, you know what, Here's the deal. You're going to hear a lot of information from people. And I'm going to tell you right now that they're probably going to know more than you. And if you were to listen to them and actually take on board what they're telling you, you might actually be surprised by the results. Cause I was like, I had to figure things out on my own. Like I was, I couldn't just listen to

somebody say, this is the easy way to do it I had to go and do it the hard way yeah well we all learn through experience this is it's funny because we didn't we we've we've spoken about some of these topics on the first round but um I reminded of something right now because my son is five and he's you know a bull in a china shop tons of energy and he absolutely refuses to learn from us you know which is funny because the times like here we are going to homeschool the next year. And it's like a weird thing to wrap my head around. But there's this excellent book series by Mary Pope Osborne called The Magical Treehouse.

And then they have the Merlin missions and she narrates the whole thing. It's on Audible. They have regular physical books, but the Audible is awesome because they'll actually sit still and listen. You're kidding. And I'm going to get her on the podcast. But one of them, you know, like Merlin sends the kids out to these different locations and time and space and they have to bring something back for him so they have to find the four keys to greatness and so they visit alexander the great a lot of these missions and alexander the great is a 12 year old prince and he's great at everything

but he's a total asshole right he's the best runner. He's the physically strongest. He's all these things, but he still thinks he's got life figured out, which is so true of young, aggressive men. What they figure out, and Aristotle's his teacher, really cool stuff, but what they figure out is that one of these

cornerstone pieces to greatness is humility. I remember my dad telling me, be humble, be humble for my whole fucking life. And I never got it. And then I'm 19 years old and I'm talking so much shit on the football field that my coach actually benches me for the second half of the year. And I was like, why are you benching me on the fuck? I'm the best player on this defense, not just the defensive line, the whole fucking defense. And he's like, kid, you're uncoachable oh and until you learn to listen you're gonna sit and watch a kid that's not as good as you play in front of you oh my god

maybe next year and i was so pissed i've fucking transferred schools but the lesson was learned and it was a brutal brutal lesson to learn right and i don't want that for my son but getting back to this you know this book one of the ways they explained humility was in a way that i had never heard it before they said humility is the ability to learn from others and it just i was like fuck i wanted to just rewind it over and over again for my son like please please pay attention to this this is critical critical if you get this now and not the hard way you know, first of all, I cannot say enough good things about

humility. And I learned humility the hard way of sorts because, you know, for me humility came in the form of losing teammates. And it was one of these things where, you know, you're downrange and you don't really

take, I mean, now we have a better understanding, but back then you don't realize that it could be over that quickly. And you could be the very best, have the best equipment, best mission, doesn't matter. You can still find your way on the losing side very quickly. And that was, I guess, my really hard reckoning with being humble and the humility that goes about with being humble. And it also forced me to really look at life a lot differently, to not take things for granted, to try not to be the dick because you may never get a chance to make that up. You may never get a chance to say what you meant to say versus being the asshole and

saying what you did say. And I had to take that same approach with my kids. Now that my boys are older, they're in their teens, late teens, it's easier and harder. It's easier to have a conversation because they're somewhat of an adult. And it's harder because they are in that mode where they know everything. They have all the answers. And so I just have to kind of sit back and just like the way I associate is very similar to this author that you're saying where I tell them like my job right now, like you were a prince in my kingdom. And my job in my kingdom was to protect you and to raise you. And now my job is to kick you out of the kingdom and to guide you in how to go and make your own kingdom. And my job in my kingdom was to protect you and to raise you. And now my job is to kick

you out of the kingdom and to guide you in how to go and make your own kingdom. So now my job is no longer as a king, but more as a knight to give you counsel and to guide you through counsel on how to create your own kingdom. And they're like, they can take that. They can like, oh, okay. So you mean it's on me? And I'm like, yeah, it is on you. And one of the first lessons that you need to learn is to seek counsel, to really, to be able to go out and to listen and to take that information on. And I got this rammed down my throat

very early on in my naval career, which was you have two ears and one mouth, which means you should listen twice as much. And it took a while for that to set in. But once it did, it was amazing. And my appetite for learning became insatiable. I would like, Kyle, what can you tell me about this? Tell me more.

Tell me more. Tell me more. I'd want to learn just for the sake of learning about it. Even if I never had any interest in doing it, I just wanted to learn. And because I felt like that information gave me power, gave me substance of sorts. And the more of that information I could take on, the more substance and power I would have. And so, man, I wish I had learned that lesson at your son's age as well. I don't think he's got it yet, but yeah.

Well, he's in a better frame of mind. He's tried to get it at least. Yeah, yeah. It's a unique thing because I have to find ways for others to teach him. And thankfully he listens to his jujitsu coach right across the street at 10th Planet and his teacher at Waldorf when he had him in school there. So it's just a matter.

And then he listens to the stories. He listens to Mary Pope Osborne. So it's a really good thing that he will listen to others but you know the thing about the stories and i i hate to interrupt you but it's just so important how valuable stories are and how we've kind of forgotten you know like history is nothing but stories told from one person to oh my god so sorry i don't know that was me last time yeah it's on it's on airplane mode i don't know that was me last time yeah brother it's on it's on airplane mode i don't know how they got through bastards the watch isn't yeah oh damn it damn it good call technology um but um stories stories are so important in their history and they're passed down from one person to the next and we've kind of lost track of that i love this the the vehicle that she's

using to deliver her message is brilliant it's fantastic and it's so important that we continue to tell stories in our own way so i just wanted that that really resonated i was like i'm gonna check this out i don't care i don't have kids anymore obviously but i still want to check this out this is so cool yeah it's super cool yeah it's it's uh it's funny is it right as we were starting with that that book series i was reading Lame Deer, Secret of Visions by John Fire Lame Deer. It's a brilliant, brilliant book from a Native American. And he talked about when he was a kid, a lot of the differences between white America and Native Americans or Indians, as he calls it. I know that's a trigger word for some progressives, but he calls himself an Indian.

How they would never beat their kids. They would let their kids do anything, but they would use stories and different things to kind of curtail the misbehavior and get them to somehow rally into what the tribe needed. And one thing he said was he was so energetic. The only time he'd sit still was for stories right right and like that it was like oh like oh shit that was me and that's him that's perfect so like let's just roll with that right like let's just lean into that i mean like i can remember because i obviously i'm i have a i have a problem with like hyperactivity um it still plagues me to this day but when i was a kid i can remember sitting down for story time and actually sitting still.

Like, you couldn't get me to sit still at my desk. And that was a problem. I can remember, like, during the parent-teacher conference, I'd always be embarrassed because my teacher would tell, well, you know, he's a good student, but he just can't sit still. You know, but as soon as that book, like, we go into the corner of the classroom and it had all the cushions and stuff. And as soon as we went over there, I would just sit perfectly still and be like, tell me more. Tell me more. No, keep reading. Keep reading.

I didn't want to go back to schoolwork. I want to just sit there and listen and hear these stories because they were so imaginative and you just ran crazy in your brain. So, oh, God. I miss that. I could say, I think that's one of the reasons why podcasts and audio books do so well because they're the next closest thing to telling stories. Yeah, they draw us back. I forget who was on Rogan's,

but they were talking about that. It might've actually been, it was Alex Jones. And it was funny because, you know, I mean, just saying the name will trigger people, but Alex was saying that the long form conversational podcast is really one of the last things that's available to people

that stretches our ability to pay attention, right? Like everything, and, you know, there's been studies on Facebook and Instagram and many other forms of social media that shorter and shorter videos are the most watched videos, right? And that's narrowing down from even, even on YouTube from the hour long to the 30 minute to the 10 minute to the eight minute, and then one minute to 30 second videos on Instagram are even going to do better things like that. You know, it's like, oh, okay. Like when you're actually, uh, trying to master the game of social media for sure for bullshit like that the shorter video does better why is that that's because our attention spans are shit and they're getting

systematically taking that direction but this right here is a way where people can actually lengthen that back out like let me just sit and even if it's while i'm driving or mowing the fucking lawn i'm taking the dog for a walk like i have an ability to open that up to a longer time span where there is more depth than can be accomplished in a 440 characters on twitter or a 30 second video on instagram it's so true you know the one thing like um one of the negatives that we see about technology is something like the shortened attention span right that's just a byproduct of where we're at right now but when i look at technology i also see one of the negatives that we see about technology is something like the shortened attention span. That's just a byproduct of where we're at right now. But when I look at technology, I also see one of the positives, which is my ability to connect to something like a podcast for commuting when I'm sitting in traffic, for when I'm out in the yard doing my yard work. I'm listening.

I'm buying time. time so to take advantage of technology to use it in a manner that supports me when i you know when instead of when i'm just mowing the lawn and running around with my head you know going nowhere or sitting in traffic and yelling and screaming at the car in front of me there's an opportunity for me to actually grow through listening to stories so that's that's the that's i can't you know because i i look at the phone on the table and I kind of like grimace at it because it's become somewhat, we've become somewhat slaves to it. And then there's some, some opportunities where I'm like, okay, I like it now. It's okay.

I can do this. And there's, there's pros and cons to everything, right? So true. The phone is in the gray area. It is a gray area. It's a gray area. It's very gray right now. We're going to, we're going to discuss some gray areas for sure today.

Yeah, I mean, I guess just talk about like how, when did you start to become really proficient with the gun? Was it in the Navy or as you started your business afterwards? So I think, so one of the things that people, I always like to share with people is that, you know, being a SEAL has many, many roles. Like, you know, the name itself is an acronym, Sea, Air, and Land. Those are the main insertion methods that we can use. So that's how we got our start, if you will, is because we were diverse.

So we have a lot of balls in the air that we have to juggle. And there are some traits that are looked at as individual traits. Like you have to manage them on your own. We'll give you the instruction, the materials, and the time, but this is on you of sorts. And fitness, physical fitness, physical readiness is one, and shooting is another. So you go through a pretty decent shooting package in the beginning. Like you go out and you'll spend three weeks at a facility and you'll just get, I mean, sharp, I mean, razor sharp. And then after that, you get involved in all of your pre-deployment workout package, which has you doing everything from jumping out of an airplane to locking out from a submarine to fighting in the desert, fighting in the jungle. And that's all in preparation for your six-month deployment. So when you're on your six-month deployment, you're mission focused. You're going out, you're doing your mission. Now at the business

end of your mission is when you're using your tools like your firearms. And then you get back from that and you start to cycle all over again. So you are responsible in a sense for maintaining that skill. It's an individual skill. So in the beginning, after I got my first kind of like formalized instruction, which was at a facility called Mid-South,

I was like, oh my God, I love this. I love this. I love this. It's so awesome. It's so good. And truthfully, I wasn't that good. I mean, I was better than the average guy, but I was not happy with my performance. I knew I could do better. I knew I could be better. And I struggled. And I remember I could do better. I knew I could be better and I struggled. And I really, I remember I had some of the best instructors at the time, literally on my shoulders, yelling and screaming at me, don't do that, do this, get that hit, shoot it faster. You know, just all these kinds of preps and they resonated with me.

And I was fortunate to see that as an importance because the way I looked at it was this way. Like the Navy's paying me, my country's believing in me to go out there and, and when called to duty, my duty is very simple is to find, fix and finish the bad guy. And my tool that I do that with is, is an M4 carbine.

So I need to be the very best at it because not only is my country relying on me to do that, but so are my teammates. And I never wanted to let a teammate down. I never wanted to be that person that failed because or that cost mission failure because I didn't do my job. So I trained relentlessly. And my first couple platoons, I was so lucky because I had some guys in there that were good shooters. And there's like three or four of us living in a house near the beach, or actually it was on the beach near the team area. And I can tell you, we'd sit down at the end of the day in our living room watching TV and we'd all have our pistols out dry firing. We'd have targets on the wall and we would just be practicing,

just dry fire practicing. And it's funny too, because like that was normal. And that's like not normal for anybody else, but that was normal. Like just, we'd come in there, we'd sit down,

we'd get, we'd eat dinner in the kitchen. We'd go into the living room and watch some TV. It didn't matter what was on. And we'd all like one of us, like it started off kind of cool where nobody would do anything but then somebody would grab their pistol clear it and then start dry fighting and everybody else would do it and for like hours that's all we did and then we finally go to sleep wake up and do

the same thing again the next day um and then you know being you know having a limitless supply of sorts of ammunition to train with and facilities to go to back Back in the day, you know, we used to go to a public indoor range there in Virginia Beach and we had a contract with them and we would just go in there and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and just go into the armory, grab our gear, go to the indoor range and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot. So, it took some time and my skill level continued to grow as I, you know I became more seasoned in the teams. And I can remember, I tell people this all the time about my epiphanies that occurred. And the first epiphany that I had was when I saw very vividly, very clearly my front

sight. Like up until that point, it was always blurry, like fuzzy. And I just thought that was normal. I thought everybody sees their sight like that like they kind of see it they kind of don't like that means that you're kind of looking at it but you're kind of looking at the target and for the longest time that's how i shot and at that point i was shooting well up into the top one or two percent of the community and then one day my my swim buddy and i were sitting down and i just like, like during the day when I was shooting, all of a sudden the front sight became so vivid to me,

like very vivid. And I was like, hey, do you see your sight? He looks at me like, what? Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you see your sight when you're shooting? Is it clear to you? He's like, yes. I'm like, huh? He's like, why are you asking? It's like, because I just saw my front sight for the first time today. And he was like, what? Are you fucking kidding me? Because, you know, I shot better than him without seeing my sight. And when I say that, I mean that I was like looking through it. I didn't just, I wasn't focused on it. So it was like little things like that that I mean that I was like looking through it I didn't just I wasn't focused on it so it was like little things like that that I discovered over time and then when I figured out how to how to

work my trigger I can remember exactly when that happened I was in Alaska we were doing this stress course and we ran the stress course from like 300 all the way down to the five yard line and I shot it clean and nobody believed me it was like like, oh, that's bullshit. Do it again. I'm like, all right. And I can remember because your heart rate is up. And as your heart rate gets up, your tactile skills start to suffer a little bit, right? And so I can remember as I would, like certain positions in the stress course had you shooting from prone and I can remember, I'd get down in prone and I could feel my heart just like just running amok and I would just kind of like calm down and I would just like when my heart rate was at that high level things slowed down it's so weird and I could just feel my trigger so precise

like and it was just like I could feel it like gritty and itching closer to the actual sear and when the sear would finally break and it would fire and it was happening in slow motion and everything was coming back. And then as soon as I'd finished the course of fire, I'd get up and then everything would speed up again as I'd run to the next station. And then I'd get down prone and I would just be like, everything's slow down. And that was like the weirdest thing. Like I tried to explain that to people and they're like, what? I'm like, yeah, that's how I figured out how to work my trigger. Like I had to be at that high stress level to actually see things slowing down for me.

So once I left the Navy and I had to actually teach people how to shoot is where I feel like my shooting reached a new level and where i'm currently at like you know it's it's it's probably better than it was in the navy but i caveat it with it's different you know like there was a difference between the two but if you were to put them on paper yeah now i'm i'm more accurate than I was back then. So it was a work in progress that is a continued work. Like today, I was doing some filming for some tutorials, if you will, and trying to pass that information on to the next generation of folks and whatnot. And like we were saying, here are the lessons that I learned. Here's the mistakes that I made. If you can avoid these, you're that much ahead of the power curve kind of thing. So it's been fun. It's taught me a lot about myself, surprisingly, more than I thought, to be honest. I would have never thought that actually learning to shoot

would be as educational for me personally. It's just one of those things. Oh, yeah. I asked these questions because mean, you've, uh, I, I asked these questions because, you know, I've had the opportunity to shoot with you and Tim Kennedy and Shane Hines a couple of times now. And, you know, uh, one thing I mentioned before was I was introduced to you via email before we met on it, uh, from my first striking coach, Vince Perez Mazzola. Yes. You know, Vince is a JKD guy, trained under Dan Inosanto. Also has, you know, a fair amount of equivalency with all the weapons, right?

Crazy, crazy talented. He's a jack of all trades. And, you know, he had taken me in 2012 out to Kentucky with a couple of green berets and a Marine recon. And it was going to be like our educational program with just the coaches. And I was there for combatives and, you know, they were going to be the, like our educational program with just the coaches. And I was there for combatives and, you know, they were going to run the else and the other things. And Vince was going to help me with, you know, those transitional pieces from, you know,

as you're, as you run out of weapons, you go and then to the hand to hand. Um, and it was awesome. When we were basically just, we shot thousands of rounds. It was incredible. But I really got to see his equivalency firsthand. So when he was saying, hey, you have to meet this guy. He's at the range. He's pretty much, you know, one of the top dogs there in terms of education. I was like, whatever you say, coach. I got to meet Jeff, you know? And we went back and forth on emails, but just never linked up.

And then we saw each other on at Cafe with Tim and Shane. And I was like, oh, wait, are you? And he was like, yeah, yeah, you know? And we went back and forth on emails, but just never linked up. And then we saw each other on at cafe with, with Tim and Shane. And I was like, Oh wait, are you? And you're like, yeah, yeah, you're. And I was like, damn, well, let's, and you guys were going shooting right there. And you're like, you can go. Can I run home and grab my Glock? It was awesome. Yeah. Just fantastic. But it's, it's, it's, there's, there are a few people in, in this world who say, you know, if they tell me this is a book you have to read or this is someone you have to meet where I'm like, okay, done. Yes. Right. And, um, you know, your, your equivalency with this is, is, you know, you're a one percenter. There's no doubt about it. Um, there's a lot of questions that I have right now with regard to, you know, with, with regard to guns in general, in terms of, you know, like terms of the times we're living in.

And I think a message that I wanted to get across in our original podcast was that society is fucking fickle. Boy, that ain't no lie. And I mentioned this. Don Miguel Ruiz, when he first talked about the domestication of man in um before agreements I was like that's a uh really pessimistic outlook on what humans are you know and then over time as I've reread that and come to my own understanding I'm like yeah yeah that's that's actually no fucking question right pretty true we have all these agreements that we all agree upon we all say yes to and we just take it for granted as of course you stop on red of course you go on green

of course this is the way that it is of course you, kids have iPads in their hands. It's just there. But you look at Venezuela, you look at Greece, you look at all these different places and you see it can fall in an instant. And I mentioned before too, as far as the stance on guns, and that's not necessarily what this podcast is about, but acknowledging the fact that most of my listeners are in New York city, LA and Austin, pretty progressive places. You know, people are on both sides of that fence, but Sam Harris wrote a beautiful article years ago after a mass shooting that really, you know, and he's one of the most progressive people there are one of the most brilliant people there are who was stating like, you are in charge of your own safety.

And there is a story you mentioned about your time in Arizona that I think would be awesome to rehash. Oh, man. Help me remember which one we were talking about. I think you were shooting with some guys and the sheriff had to handle some complaints. Oh, right. Right, right, right. Yes. Oh, that's a great story. So, I couldn't agree more with you on that statement that you're personally responsible. And that became very a class with a local sheriff's deputy, I'm sorry, local sheriff's sergeant.

And like second or third day, I can't remember what day it was, he called me to let me know that he was going to be late because he had to go and deal with a complaint on the job. And I was like, yeah, no problem. I can handle this. So he shows up and he's just really kind of upset about the complaint and he's trying to let it go so he can get focused and get back in the class. And he got to us late afternoon.

And I was like, John, I got this, man. You can go ahead if you want. And he's like, no, no, no, I don't want to. I need to get back in here. And so he went on to explain it during one of the breaks. What had happened was Arizona, where I lived, was Yavapai County, which is like the fourth largest county in the country. And the, you know, the living out there is mostly rural and austere. And the calls that you get sometimes are not necessarily the best of calls. So, there was a couple who had relocated recently from Central California, like the Silicon Valley

area, tech area. And the husband would commute like Monday through Thursday back to LA and then back out and so on and so on. So, the wife was out there by herself during that weekend time period and apparently there was a ruckus outside that she called the uh the 911 line and when the dispatcher picks up you know the first thing she asks is this is uh you know state your emergency and she goes well i think there's somebody trying to break in and she goes the 911 dispatcher asked the caller, are you in imminent danger? And the lady stopped and was like, well, I don't think so. But she's like, I don't understand. So the 911 dispatcher had to kind of clarify,

do you see somebody breaking into your home right now? Can you see somebody outside of your home? And she's like, no, I can't see anybody. There's nobody breaking in my door. And she's like, okay, like okay well i'm gonna have a deputy out to your home in about 30 minutes and the caller was like floored like what are you talking about 30 minutes i want somebody here now and the dispatcher had to explain well because there's nobody actively trying to to harm you right now or break into your home, the closest deputy is 30 minutes away. That's the closest. I could muster somebody there faster in an emergency if

you were in immediate danger, but you're stating that you're not. So 30 minutes is the soonest that I can get a deputy out there. So reluctantly, the caller is like, ah, she puts up a fit and fights and complains. And eventually she waits the 30 minutes until the deputy arrives. Now, the deputy arrived, but he started an external clear. So when he finally approached the house, the lady wasn't aware that he had already done that. She's just watching the clock and realized, you know, it's like 45 minutes now. So she's a little bit unhappy and she takes her unhappiness out on the deputy and the deputy is just trying to do his job and asks you know would you like for me i've just done a external

clear i see that your trash can has been um you know like knocked over and your trash rooted through it looks like there were some some critters that got into that and um you know you can you're gonna probably want to take care to not do that. You're going to want to do this a little differently. So then he's like, would you like for me to come in and do an internal clear for your safety to make sure there's nobody in your home? And she declined. And so he's like, well, ma'am, if that's everything, then I wish you a good night and let us know if you need anything else. So she's still upset

and she's like yelling and screaming at this guy. I want your name. I'm going to call and launch a complaint because your arrival time or your response time is horrible. There's no way. There's no way that's reasonable. So he gives her all the information

and John, the sergeant, is the one who has to go out there and take the complaint. So he goes out there early in the morning. And she's out in the middle of nowhere. And he goes out. He sits down with her. And she goes in.

And by now, she's had an opportunity to try to gather her thoughts. So she's very organized in her complaints. And so John sits there and listens and takes all the information in. Acknowledges that she's unhappy, upset about this. And he finally, at a certain point, he's just like, ma'am, I have to be honest with you. This is your life now. If you choose to live out here, you're responsible for your personal safety. Because if you call us to come out and it's a real emergency, I mean, we're coming out to do a report on your murder or on your rape or on your assault. We're not going to get here in time.

There's nothing we can do about it. We have, you know, and he goes on to explain it's physics. If I've got only four deputies on that shift and they're all in four corners to get to you, it's just not going to happen. And she just couldn't fathom that. She couldn't really grasp that because she'd lived in somewhat of a bubble, a sheltered bubble of sorts. And now that she's kind of like out there, it was a whole new ballgame for them. I believe this was something I didn't add in the last podcast but i believe that john had a follow-up meeting with her with a couple the husband this time and both of them

i should say and they were wanting to have a conversation and again john said the exact same thing and from what i recall i believe moved. They didn't want to be out where they were at. They had beautiful land. I mean, it was big, you know, big acreage out in the middle of nowhere, you know, great, great ranch of sorts, but they were so far away from what they felt comfortable that they moved. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I love that story. It really, I think it puts a lot of things in perspective, but it doesn't just apply to people in rural areas. And that's something that, that Sam Harris really irons out. And if I can find it, don't worry guys, I got help on the

show notes. I got a homie coming in and help me with the show notes. Jose from a fit for service is going to be helping me out. But I could find that article in the link to it. One of the things he talked about on his podcast was he lives in LA, you know, and he, he had a friend whose home was broken into in a wealthy area and they took, you know, whatever they could grab some,

whatever stuff, not a ton of stuff, but they grabbed an iPad and the find my iPad was on. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, they knew the exact location of where the iPad was and the find my iPad was on. Yeah, yeah. And they knew the exact location of where the iPad was and the police refused to go out there

because they were so busy that they're not going to go after a fucking iPad. It's true. Right? Now, that's all, who cares? Somebody stole an iPad. And if you're wealthy, you buy another one, big fucking deal. Sure.

Or if you got the $10 a month AppleCare, you get another one for 150 bucks, whatever the cost is. It's easy. It's not that big a deal no harm no foul but what if she's home when that happens it doesn't matter if the response time is eight minutes or five minutes that is plenty long enough for shit to hit the fan in a very real and and and life-changing way without question well i, I mean, I think it's great that you put it in those terms, right?

Because response time is always going to be different no matter where you are. And it's sometimes a luck of a draw if there happened to be a unit nearby, right? Otherwise they're rolling from probably the furthest place. But when you think about the violence and just using, just because people can frame this, right? Look at a five minute round

and look at how much damage and destruction can occur in that five minute round right now imagine that happening where you're not trained you're not capable of matching that level of violence because one of the things that makes the sport so good is that it's it's an equality of mat it's a quality of the lineup there that's what it's it's a chess game in the sorts like see who made the wrong move. But against somebody that's not equipped to handle that level of violence or not willing to recognize that that level of violence exists, because that's the other problem. People just sometimes don't want to acknowledge that that level of violence exists. That's the hard sell. I think people really don't appreciate how vulnerable they are in those five minutes,

even if it was two minutes, even if it's one minute still. Life-changing injuries can happen that quickly, in a sense, and they're terrible. And I really do encourage people to kind of take a step back and look at that. And I'm not saying that you don't call the police, but you need to recognize that between the time that you make the call and the police arrive, you're on your own. How long that is and how well you're prepared to manage that is what we're really talking about. That's the key. Yeah. And it's important. And just getting back to what you were talking about, when you leave your bubble, you leave this country, you go out into the world, you go to other places and it's, you know, I've been very fortunate when, and I mentioned

this before many times in this podcast, but I met my wife on a tour for the troops on a goodwill tour in Kuwait and Iraq. And we were out there, it was the armed forces entertainment that bring us out. And they used to do three fighters and two ring girls. No kidding. That way there was something for everybody. If they didn't give a shit about fighting and they at least had some hot, hot, I like it. I love it. That's pretty smart. That's good.

That's good marketing. That's how we met and, you know, totally hit it off. And, and, you know, those,

those tours gave us so much more than just the experience of supporting the men and women that were over there. You know, number one, we were always welcomed and that's why we kept doing, I did, I think 11 or 12 of them. Holy there. Number one, we were always welcomed. And that's why we kept doing, I did, I think 11 or 12 of them. Holy cow.

Because the response on when we were there was like, it was palpable. I love that. Everyone gave a shit that you were there, right? And that made us give a shit and want to come back. Yeah, right? And not to mention, we got to do a lot of cool stuff too, like shooting and things like that

and flying in Blackhawks. And they were fun trips, but really eye-opening, really eye-op and flying in black hawks and they were fun trips but really eye-opening you know really eye-opening flying in a helicopter over you know the outskirts of afghanistan by the hindu kush mountains and seeing where people literally light lamb dung to warm their hut like this is how they're heating their place in the winter it's a different level and that's not violent that's just a different way of life and at the same time there is violence everywhere everywhere all over the world and it is here in this country as well and you know one thing one point sam makes again and i

don't want to just keep bringing him up but we're not australia we're never going to eliminate guns we're not an island we have fucking humans being trafficked yes this country and out of this country that we can for damn sure get guns and drugs in and out of this country that's never going to end so with all that said uh one thing that i found curious you know you're at the range the range is in austin it's in a very progressive town and through all of this since march when quarantine started you've seen some pretty interesting statistics we have i mean like but i would say that we were starting to see it even before then it just became and before it was somewhat like how do i put it the folks that we were seeing were trying not to be seen like

they didn't want other people to know what they were doing because they were afraid that other people if they knew that they were visiting visiting a gun range would you know cancel them yeah there you go that's it so um but then but then i think nobody gave a shit about that cancel after like march like after that everybody was like no i don't care and and we we saw a lot of interesting stuff i mean just great information to take on and share with people, which is, you know, people started to recognize that, okay, we're living in a pandemic and now things are different. And we saw a lot of people that were centrist. And I call them reasonable centrist, the people that were, I guess other people might call them swing votes, but they're centrist, meaning they were just right in the middle.

And they didn't have a dog in the fight. You know, they didn't really support gun control. They didn't really support pro-gun activity. They just were kind of like in the middle. They didn't have a dog in the fight. They didn't really support gun control. They didn't really support pro-gun activity. They just were kind of like in the middle. They just lived their lives. They just raised their kids. They just went to jobs. Then the pandemic happened, and now food shortages are out there.

Consumables become harder to get. The likelihood of concern about more you know, more violence occurring. Because as we enter this pandemic for, what, four or five months now, we've started to see the decay. We're seeing our society collapse, in a sense, from being just courteous to one another, just being polite to one another. We're starting to see that kind of like, I mean, people are getting stabbed for wearing a mask or stabbed for not wearing a mask.

It's like, really? But what we saw were all these people that were coming in and purchasing these firearms and they basically became one of the fastest growing demographics that we've ever seen. We're right now at about 8.5 million firearms and i'm i'm i don't know if the july numbers have come out but when they do i would be surprised if we're not over 10 million and that's ridiculous in this short time period that's absolutely you gotta it's hard to write it's hard for people to really understand what that means and wrap their head around that you know like just to put it in context there's 330 million people in the united states and in the span of four or five months 8.5 million guns have been purchased. That's like a pretty decent percentage of our population.

And that doesn't include the people who already have owned firearms. So we've seen a lot of people. Now, those people that have come in as first-time gun owners, you got to put it in perspective. They didn't have a firearm before all this happened. They didn't invest in their personal safety with the choice to purchase a firearm until now. And so what does that mean? That means that there's a pretty big shift in their thought process. Like, oh crap. We started to see the pandemic subside a little bit. And then just as the pandemic subsided, a lot of these folks

that purchased firearms started to rethink their purchase. Buyer's remorse started to set in like, oh man, I don't know if this was the right decision. I don't know if I want to keep this in my home. And then the riots kick off. And now they're like, oh man, I am so glad I have this firearm. So glad I have. Because that whole buyer's remorse thing, gone. Gone. And we continue to see firearm purchases. And what we're seeing is even though firearms and ammunition is becoming harder to get because it's a supply and demand issue, we're still seeing people buying them nonstop. So when we look at those demographics, a lot of the people that are buying firearms

are people that are also potentially started off as anti-gun, but now have swung their vote a little bit differently because now they recognize that this is different. When we didn't have to deal with all of this stuff and we could be amiable about our positions and our viewpoints, I could potentially be amiable about that. But now they're recognizing that that's not the case anymore. And I find that very intriguing and interesting because you know like trying to learn people's why why are you all of a sudden purchasing a firearm why what what has led you to do this when you

historically felt like you didn't need to or even before then you were against it and so we're seeing a lot of that and like you said yeah we're in you know we're in austin central texas this is like this is a very different frame of mind compared to the rest of the state. And that's what I also find valuable is like, look at what's happening here. If we're seeing this here in this part of the state that is different in their viewpoint, that's a big thing to take on board, to take a step back. And even before the pandemic, we saw so many people that had realized that they wanted to live without fear. Many of them were either gay or lesbians, or they had different viewpoints that were confrontational in the public to the point where they were afraid for their own safety. And they were tired of living in fear. And some of the best conversations I had were with that category of people that came in. And I was humbled by that because it was very interesting

to see the change, the metamorphosis of some because in some cases if you are in that type of category you have to be anti-gun yeah you know what I'm saying you have to be because that's that's the that's the narrative that's the talking points you have to and many of them are like I don't

want that anymore so it's very different we're it's very it's surreal in some cases because on both sides of the fence, you're not supposed to like those people because they're against guns. And so that means that you can't like them and you can't support them. And I'm like, well, I don't really care what your viewpoint is. I don't care what religion you subscribe to. I don't care what your sexual orientation is. You're entitled to live free in this country.

That is your God-given right. And my job is to ensure that that right exists and that you can leave free from fear, free of any kind of oppression that somebody would impose upon you because you don't have the strength to resist, or you don't have the faculties to resist. You don't have the tools to resist. That to me, that's my purpose now. That's how I view my purpose in this industry beautiful well let's talk about i mean i i guarantee there's some people raising eyebrows right now because you have a large amount of new gun owners right and that's like a lot if there was a if there was

eight and a half million new uh 16 year old drivers point. A lot of people saying, well, wait a minute. These guys got no experience driving and here they are behind the wheel. And of course that happens anyways. I don't know if it happens at that rate, but it does happen every single year. Kids turn 16 and we got new fresh drivers on the road. So every single year we got people coming to this country who did not have cars or access to cars who are getting licenses and are driving. And I know that well, being in the Bay area, you know, like from the Bay area, we have a lot of people come in to work in tech that never drove before and then they get to drive for the first time. So weird. And your job, thanks to your skillset has brought you to a point where

you're informing people, you're educating them on what are the best practices. So let, I mean, let's talk a little bit about what that offering is for people who, you know, for the listeners that are here in Austin, obviously go to the range. It's a phenomenal place, but for those people that are not here and, you know, don't have access to everything, but might be able to access some things like a handgun or a rifle or a shotgun, things like that. What, and by the, by no means, am I saying everybody go out and get a gun because society's fucking over with i'm not saying that what i'm saying is that if you are interested in this i want you to have the best education possible and i'm sitting across from somebody

who's knows a shit yeah and so let's talk a bit about how you're educating people on some of those best practices and what are some of the the things to understand about owning a gun? Well, I think, first of all, I'm grateful that you posed that question because I feel like a lot of people, there's a great opportunity to reach out and to try to help and provide that service and provide that educational value. And that is exactly what I'm trying to do. And there's only one of me. So it's difficult to try and multiply myself. So what I've done to try to address that strategically is I partnered with a company that's an old company in this industry called Brownells and they are very well-respected,

outstanding group of individuals. And we now partner together to do a video series because that seems to be one of the best ways to engage all of these new gun owners. And so the video series because that seems to be one of the best ways to engage all of these new gun owners. And so the video series is called Daily Defense and its purpose was to engage the new gun owner and provide them with opportunities to learn in the comfort of their home. The other thing I have to deal with is that we're in a pandemic and so I can't necessarily get a lot of people out on the range. We're still kind of dealing with stay-at-home orders or six-foot radiuses and stuff like that that makes it kind of hard to do the hands-on

stuff so we tackle it through the video vehicle and it's been hugely valuable and the video series is designed to tackle one small little subject in a bite size it's funny you were talking about this earlier but the videos are designed to be like three to five minutes in length to target that prime attention span that we see right now and what it's what the goal is to hopefully provide all of these folks and even folks outside of that demographic a resource where they feel they can trust and go to and and actually sit down and and and watch these videos and learn okay well here's what i probably should do best practices for securing a firearm

in my home. Or maybe I purchased this firearm, but how do I load it? How do I even load the magazine? What's the proper and safe way to do that? And even going into some of the more advanced subjects that we will in season two and season three. So I'm thrilled by that because the responses that we've been getting from folks are clear in the sense that they are enjoying it. We're seeing a lot of views, a lot of shares, a lot of the metrics that you look for in social media. But I'm still not happy with that because I still want, with 8.5 million new gun owners, potentially more, we want folks to have a reliable resource to go to, to feel like they can, in the comfort of their homes or at their

leisure or at their pace, they can learn. And the whole point behind that is to eventually kind of transition them to the next level. Like, okay, so now you feel a little bit more comfortable about these, what we consider basic topics. Now let's start talking, let's start getting you comfortable with the actual aspect of shooting, which is a whole new world for a lot of them. And so if they feel like they have a pretty decent working knowledge on some of the basics, they're more inclined to then want to go out and actually, when it's permissible, go to a formalized instruction. Like whether that be private instruction or whether that be in a class setting or whatever. I feel like a great barrier to people wanting to do that is that they feel a little intimidated. They feel a little bit overwhelmed by that.

So the videos are helping them to kind of take the edge off of that so that they feel less intimidated and more inclined to want to engage in that type of instruction. Because just like, I mean, you can learn a lot driving with your parents. You can learn a lot in that sense. But ultimately, most kids go to a driving school and they graduate from that driving school and then they get their license. And so at some point, formalized instruction is probably one of the, and by no means is

it the only way, but it definitely has its advantages that what I hope for is that we see more people taking advantage of that. Because there's a lot of other things that are going to come from that. We're going to get people that are going to purchase a firearm. They're going to lock it up in their home and they just bought it because it helped to appease this nagging emotion, the fear based. Then we're going to have some people that bought their gun for the first time, and they're going to want to look at, all right, you know what?

I might want to carry this concealed. And they're going to go out and get their concealed carry license. And then there's going to be some folks that, you know what? This is actually kind of fun. I enjoy this. And they're going to go out and they're going to continue to plink, you know, go out and they're going to continue to to plink you know go out and target practice there's going to be some that are going to find the sport aspect the competition aspect of shooting very enjoyable and they're going to go out and start

participating the the sports shooting groups that are out there so you know that's what I'm hopeful for is that you know we've we've we've turned the light on or open the door or whatever metaphor you want to use for folks to kind of maybe take a step outside of your comfort zone. And that was another thing that I try to impart on people is that I recognize that this is awkward for a lot of people. And one of the best maxims that we live by in my community was get comfortable being uncomfortable because you're really not living. If all you ever are living is in your comfort zone, you're really not living life. You're kind of not really taking advantage of it in a sense. So I'm hopeful that more people become comfortable with their uncomfortableness about being around firearms to the fact that they learn, they watch videos, they seek out guidance, formalized instruction, whatever the case might be. That's my ultimate goal.

And for those that are, there's resources for them, good resources that are going to kind of stretch past the, you know, like, you know, unfortunately the internet is the internet. And so there's both good and bad out there. So we're hoping that we can start people off in the right direction and the good direction. Yeah. Yeah. That's beautiful, brother. Thank you. And you guys have put together a really cool event that's going to take, was going to take

place at the range at the end of the year, but now it's being made available online due to the resurgence and the uncertainty of travel and all that. You're going to love this because, okay, so yeah, we're talking about the 12 Labors. And the 12 Labors conference was a conference that my good friend Craig Douglas and I put together. We started talking about this years ago. And both of us have our own businesses that are very successful in their own right. So trying to put together this monumental conference with both of our schedules being what it was, it's just taken us a while to do it. So it was going to be the first weekend of December. It was going to be hosted here at the range at Austin. We had about 20 different instructors of all different fields coming in

to provide folks with an opportunity. And the opportunity was to further the positive prominence of male masculinity and what that really meant. So it wasn't just about shooting and it wasn't just about that. We had everything from jujitsu to stand-up work to edged weapons to – on the combative side we had a lot and then we had some other stuff that was outside the combative stuff that i thought was extremely valuable like fitness nutrition finances dress your wardrobe how to select your wardrobe cocktails how to enjoy modern day cocktails and then then one of my personal favorites was canines, bringing canines into your life and actually how to train them to be an actual member of your pack, if you will. So we had a very eclectic staff of instructors that was coming out.

Yes, due to the pandemic, we are transitioning to a virtual conference just because of the uncertainty. But what I love is the 12 labors comes from Hercules' 12 labors that he had to accomplish in order to be welcomed into Olympus. But the first labor, if you will, was the Minionan lion, which, for those that don't know, was supposed to be this monstrosity of a lion. This hide was so thick that it was impervious to any of the sharp-edged weapons of the time, the spears and the arrowheads and the swords. So Hercules had to change his approach towards how he defeated the lion. He couldn't use weapons. He had to use his bare hands. And he ended up, which you could also appreciate, he ended up applying a good old chokehold on the lion and won. So we are having to do the same thing here. We have to shift from the in-person conference to the virtual conference. So, this is kind of like our first label, if you will. We're shifting fire here. I'm excited, though, because it's still, obviously, everybody is familiar with video conferencing right now. That's how corporate America is making do right now is through video conferencing. So it's a known entity and we're taking advantage of it to try to keep this conference moving forward.

We have a lot of details that are going to be released probably within the next week and a half, two weeks. So more information is going to be coming about what that'll look like. But I'm excited. I was excited about this conference to begin with. This is great. This is like a conference that we've, some things that have happened. I think since the last time we saw each other where we're, we're seeing so many father and sons register for that. You know, there,

there, there's an opportunity. Like we talked about, like the, the bonding between father and son, brother to brother. We have two brothers that are coming as well. I just think that is so awesome.

I'm so excited to see that. And, you. And one of the things that really impacted me was there are several things that potentially we could put at the altar of fault for where we're at in our country. And I think one of them is fatherless homes, children growing up without fathers, particularly young boys. And what we're hoping for is that we provide an opportunity for young men to learn some of these skills that they didn't get a chance to have from their father. My sons are very lucky. They get shooting skills delivered to them. I take them out on a regular basis and I'm very grateful for that bonding time, but I recognize that a lot of families don't have that. And right, wrong, or indifferent, what we're hoping for is that we can be an outlet for

some of these young men and even young adults and even full-grown adults to come out and participate in that. There is a video YouTube channel out there and I can't remember what it is. But when I watched some of the videos, it was good for my soul, but also heart-wrenching because it was a... I can't remember what his name was now. Damn, it's going to drive me crazy. But he had grown up with the out of father and he grew up without knowing things like how to shave, how to tie a Windsor knot, how to treat a woman from a man's perspective. He grew up without that. He had to learn that on his own, which kudos for him for doing that.

But he created this YouTube channel to pass information along to young men to be able to learn that. So in a sense, that's another kind of avenue that we're trying to do with other skills. We're trying to provide that for people that didn't necessarily have that. Or maybe you did have a father, fantastic, but he wasn't the type of father that taught you jujitsu or that taught you cocktails. My oldest just turned 21, so he got a crash course in bourbon. So that was interesting. His facial expressions were awesome. That's awesome. But I got a chance to kind of teach him about the finer points of bourbon here, which I'm hopeful that down the road he was grateful for.

I don't think at the time. I think at the time he was just like, can I just drink a beer? I'm like, yeah, go get a beer. That's awesome. So that's it in a nutshell. Yeah. And you guys have the who's who. John Wellborn. Yeah. John Wellborn who's out in a nutshell yeah and you guys have you know the who's who yeah wellborn yeah who's out in b cave you got rob wolf yes so well you know both these guys are local and i got rob coming on the show here he just just released another book uh sacred cow i can't wait for that

which is phenomenal um so he's coming on soon i'm gonna get john wellborn on i've been on his podcast and great dude great great guys we got tim Kennedy. You mentioned Tim earlier. Tim's coming on. Mike Ritland from the Canine stuff. And we got so many great instructors on all the other aspects. And the diversity is, I think, what is appealing to people. You've got guys like John Welborn, who is just a genius when it comes to human performance, physical human performance, and general preparedness for the type of activity that we all want, which is longevity. We want to be around for a long time. He's also a good friend. I've known John for over a decade. Great guy. And then Rob. Rob is just one of those guys that has

taken the nutrition market and turned it on its head, not twice, but three times with these three different books that he's come out with. So I can't wait for this new book to come out. And market and turned it on its head not twice but three times you know with these three different books that he's come out with so i can't wait for this new book to come out and he's a good friend that i'm so glad relocated here that's awesome and since the last time we were on we there's somebody else that is relocated in texas don't know where exactly but joe rogan made it official that he's leaving california and coming to texas podcast and just down down walking distance from here at on it you're kidding yeah dr peter attia uh dr michael ruscio has been on the show as well as i've just moved here that's fantastic saladino i mean we're getting we're getting some good folks i'm so excited to hear that yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly we're seeing uh

and you know maybe it wasn't under the best of circumstances that they're they're here they're moving moved here. But I'm grateful. I'm grateful for it because it gives us the opportunity to have that type of connection. Mike Ritland, who is the canine guy, he's a former team guy. And he's started an amazing business that is fantastic as far as family pets and training dogs and getting them to a very comfortable level. I have a Belgian Mau that we put through his training program. And she's just, I mean, don't get me wrong. She's all Mau.

She's all Mau. But she's just so well behaved that it's nice. It's good. Because a dog like that, an energetic dog like a Mau, even a Shepherd, you've got to have those boundaries. You've got to have that purpose they have a purpose they need that purpose and she does thank goodness and so you know she's been kind of reared in that sense and i'm excited for all of the other folks that craig's got i mean we

got some guys that are just fantastic at what they do they're coming out there that i have good friends of mine that i'm happy to see involved i've got a lot of there's a lot of folks that actually you know i I know of, but I don't have intimate knowledge of their tradecraft. And so I'm looking forward from my perspective of getting in and sitting down

and becoming a student and learning. You know, we talked about that. Like that is something that I value. I want to listen. Tell me your story. Tell me your why

so that I can bring that on and appreciate it from my perspective and apply it wherever I can. So I can't wait. I mean, I'm super excited, a little disappointed, but as we just kind of settle with the new direction, I think it's going to turn out to be just as good as the in-conference. We'll miss some of the things like the interpersonal interaction, but that's just because we had to. The future conferences that we'll, the future conferences that we'll do, we'll be in person and we'll get

it then. So yeah, we may have to make amends right now, but we're going to play it forward down the road. I love it, brother. Well, we'll link to that in the show notes as well. Where can people find you online? Where can people get ahold of you? You know, I am on all the social media platforms. And so the best way to find that social media platform is go to my website, tridentconcepts.com. And you can find my Facebook, my Instagram, my YouTube channel, you know,

all that stuff. I try to link on my website cause it's just easier to point people there rather than try to remember all the, all the different call signs or tags or whatever they are. I don't even know what they are for my handles. I don't know what all of them are. I just know where to point people. Go to my website.

It's there. So that's the easiest. Jeff, thanks so much for doing this. Not once, but twice. Absolute pleasure. I'm glad. It's funny because it's hard to repeat everything as we did, but I'm going to be pretty honest in the sense that I feel like we did a damn

good job of covering everything that we did on the first one. Yeah. And even more. And then some. Yeah. And then some. Yeah. So that was awesome.

Well, I look forward to the next time we get to shoot together and hang. No doubt. And very much so. Awesome, brother. Thank you so much, brother.

My pleasure. Thank you guys for tuning into the show today with Jeff Gonzalez. I'd love to get some feedback on this. So hit me up at living with the Kingsbury's. You can hit me in the DMS or you can write on a post. Please remember if you are writing on the post to, to be generous and kind. I don't mind putting out episodes that are a little controversial or fly in the face of our own personal beliefs because I, my goal is to stretch people's minds.

And I think, um, you know, as I've said in the past, and I think even on the show, it's, it's, uh, it's not, this isn't doomsday prep. I'm not buying, you know, every fully automatic weapon I can and thousands of rounds and getting a bunker. I'm not doing that, but I am saying, um, these are different times. This is a different time than we've ever seen before across the world. And I certainly feel a deeper sense of peace knowing that we're covered. We're at least covered at home. And I think that was one of my key takeaways in talking and working with Jeff and the education piece. If it is something that you're going to do, you need to learn how to do it properly.

And I think finding Jeff online is going to be a great resource for you guys. Love you all. See you in a week.