Kyle Kingsbury Podcast - #349 Discerning Between Implementing Violence and Being Able To Walk Away w/ Tim Larkin

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Tim Larkin has been a buddy for a bit now through a group of preppers that I run with. He’s incredibly insightful on not only the idea of preparing for a long winter, but also the implementation of violence in the right situations. He also points out times in his life when he has chosen not to implement violence and that being even more important to the safety of you and your family.   Connect with Tim: Website: TimLarkin.com  Instagram: @timlarkintft    Show Notes: Tim's Book "When Violence is the Answer"   Sponsors: Caldera Lab is the best in men’s skincare. Head over to calderalab.com/KKP to get any/all of their regimen. Use code “KKP” at checkout for 20% off Lucy Go to lucy.co and use codeword “KKP” at Checkout to get 20% off the best nicotine gum in the game, or check out their lozenge. Organifi Go to organifi.com/kkp to get my favorite way to easily get the most potent blend of high vibration fruits, veggies and other goodies into your diet! Click that link and use code “KKP” at checkout for 20% off your order! Paleovalley Some of the best and highest quality goodies I personally get into are available at paleovalley.com, punch in code “KYLE” at checkout and get 15% off everything! To Work With Kyle Kingsbury Podcast   Connect with Kyle: Twitter: @KINGSBU  Fit For Service Academy App: Fit For Service App  Instagram: @livingwiththekingsburys - @gardenersofeden.earth  Odysee: odysee.com/@KyleKingsburypod  Youtube: Kyle Kingbury Podcast  Kyles website: www.kingsbu.com - Gardeners of Eden site    Like and subscribe to the podcast anywhere you can find podcasts. Leave a 5-star review and let me know what resonates or doesn’t.

Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. Today's guest is somebody who I've been wanting to have a conversation with for a very long time, Tim Larkin. We dive into the meat and potatoes of his life's work, which is fucking fascinating. I don't want to give too much away right now. But just an excellent speaker, somebody who's been at his profession for a very long time, a true master. And he does, you know, he's doing something that there's some similarities to what I used to do, but some pretty key differences.

And he wrote a couple of books, but the one that I'm really speaking to is When Violence is the Answer. I think it's a must read. He also reads his Audible, which is fantastic. You know, I love Audible and no affiliation there, but it's always best when the author actually reads their own work and he does an excellent job. So if you like listening to books, check that out. We'll link to those in the show notes.

There's a lot we can say from a preparation standpoint for the world that we live in, a lot we could say about the world we live in altogether, you know, and I think for people who have left the country and as far as the United States and been to some of the, you know, more challenged areas of the earth, it's pretty obvious to see not everyone lives to the same standards that we do in the U.S. And even if you just haven't been out of your city, you know, like if you're in a small town and you haven't been out of the, out of that small town. Um, it's kind of hard to understand that different parts of the United States are, are, you know, long, long gaps between what, uh, the quality of life is in certain areas and, um, what that actually translates to in your everyday life experience. And a lot of people, this is what I love in his book, he really dives into the fact that a lot of people live in really safe areas

and there's low crime and they make good money and they've never had an altercation and all these things and they think that somehow they're immune to violence and that couldn't be further from the truth. And at the same time, in pointing this out, and Tim does a great job of pointing this out,

it doesn't mean you walk around in fear. It doesn't mean that you're constantly looking over your shoulder, who's going to attack me? It doesn't mean that you've got to train six hours a day to defend yourself. It doesn't mean any of those things. live in a fucking Disney movie and that shit can hit the fan in a very real way to any one of us, any one of us. And so I, again, I love this podcast. Share it with friends. I've had a couple of friends here that moved out from LA that say, you know, there's, there's just no almost pacifist, like, you know, there's just no, there's no reason to ever have that level of violence. And the first thing I think is have kids. If someone was going to do anything to hurt my family, and there are people in the world that are like that, I would have no problem fucking ripping someone from head to toe.

And I mean, actually ending their life. And I think a lot of parents say the same. My wife would fucking say the same thing. 115 pounds. If she has the option to kill someone who would potentially hurt our kids it's not even a fucking question i don't have to ask i don't have to look over my shoulder it's a done deal it's a wrap and so uh violence is still some one of these things where it's kind of a tricky topic you know we we talk about this and then is it glorified is it not i think tim does such a

beautiful job of balancing the two what does this look like in the real world and he has some great stories in this podcast that i drew out of? And he has some great stories in this podcast that I drew out of him from the book that are, that are in case you don't, don't check out the book, but I think are very important on when you don't use violence, but when it is the answer, it is the only answer. And, uh, it's something he states in there and through the stories he tells, it becomes very fucking clear that that's the case. And there are some things you can learn. And I really do want to learn from him hand-to-hand wise. He does seminars all over the world and has been doing these for decades. Love his work. I've been following it

from afar and really fucking cool to get to have him on this podcast online. Next year, I'd love to get him out here to the farm and do some hand-to-hand work with him and get him in the dojo and all that cool shit. So we will run it back when I have him face-to-face. But this one was great online and love what Tim's doing. Check out his book. As I said, share this far and wide. Leave us a five-star rating with one or two ways the show has helped you out in life.

And then check out our sponsors. But first, I want to tell you a bit about Fit for Service Academy. This year is the first year after five years straight of running Fit for Service with Aubrey Marcus, Caitlin Howe, and Eric Godsey, that we've made big, big changes, necessary changes to what we're doing. And with that, we're still doing the meat and potatoes of what we did before. We're still giving people one of the greatest, most life-changing experiences you could ever have when we meet up. We bring in 150 to 200 people, like-minded individuals.

We go through really challenging and transformative experiences like holotropic breathwork, shamanic breathwork, ecstatic dance, and a whole host of other great things. And we've been doing that for five years. It's worked very well. But one of the things that we've been asked to do is to actually make the group smaller leading into the big group and to really deep dive the particular things that help move the needle the best in life. So we've decided upon the six being physical, which I teach, mental, which Ghazi teaches,

emotional, which Caitlin teaches, financial with Aubrey and Clay, relationship with Aubrey and Vi, and spiritual, which is all five of us doing a little round robin here because no one person can hold down the spiritual. And I got to tell you, you know, being halfway through this first trimester, it is phenomenal on all sides. You know, just hearing back from people that are in the classes, the classes are much smaller, they're very intimate,

and everyone still has nerves and is still looking forward to this big meetup we have in Montana. So if you missed the boat on Montana in this first trimester, we have availability left. You go to fitforservice.com and you can scroll through and see what is the thing your heart's drawing you to. It may be the physical.

Maybe you like that because you listen to this podcast or maybe you've been listening to this podcast long enough and you're like, I'm fucking dialed on physical. Kyle got me right through the podcast, but I want to learn about relationships or how do I get better at the finance game? How do I get better at controlling and working with my mind? And all of these things are available to us. And then still on top of that, we're going to meet in Sedona in September and have one of the best experiences of our life. So that's not going anywhere. We've got the old meat and potatoes,

but now we're doing something in addition to that, that is very transformative as well. And it feels great getting to teach everything that I've learned and acquired, you know, in 20 plus years in the space of being a professional athlete from football to fighting to optimization, you know, and on it and everything in between that and longevity and brain health and all that too. All that's included in the class that I'm teaching. So I'd love to see you guys there. Go to fitforservice.com and apply now, and you can get in for Sedona or for Malibu in January 25. All right, y'all, we've got some amazing sponsors for today's podcast. This one is brought to you by Caldera and The Lab, The Regimen and Icon. First impressions matter. There are no two ways around it. What's

the first thing that someone notices about you? In most cases, it's your face and more importantly, your skin. If you aren't already, it's time to put your best face forward. How do you do that? By adding a skincare routine. And you know what? It's not hard. You just don't have the right tools until now. Clinically proven to reduce wrinkles, fine lines, and signs of aging, Caldera Lab is the leader in men's skincare and is here to save the day. Use our exclusive code KKP at calderalab.com slash KKP to enjoy 20% off their very best products. The skincare world is heavily female-driven

and has long been the wild, wild west for men. Whether men can't find the right brand or simply lack knowledge and understanding of it, skincare is something that requires attention. Caldera Lab creates high-performance men's skincare products, and The Regimen leads off their product lineup. A twice-a-day routine to transform your skin, clinically proven to reduce wrinkles, fine lines, and signs of aging, men's skincare has never been easier with Caldera Lab and The Regimen. Luckily, inside this bundle, you'll find your skincare dream team, the clean slate, the base layer, and the good.

The clean slate starts and ends your day. This face wash leaves all skin types refreshed. The base layer is your daily moisturizer to hydrate your skin and jumpstart your day full of confidence. The good is your go-to multifunctional serum at night that helps your skin look tighter and smoother, as well as helps reduce the visibility

of wrinkles and fine lines. Every drop of this serum is packed with 3.4 million antioxidant units protecting your skin. It also feels great. I throw the good all over my bald head after I shave. My skin feels tight. It smells incredible. It's invigorating. It's something I look forward to, even though I only shave a few days a week. They even have an eye serum called the Icon. It addresses the three most common skin concerns around the eye, fine lines, dark circles, and puffiness. Now, I've talked about this before. Since moving from California to Texas about seven years ago, one of the things I noticed was cedar allergies were the real deal. And one of the ways that that would hit me hard is by giving me puffy eyes, something that if I get any allergic reaction to what's going around in the air, I'll start to notice my eyes me puffy eyes, something that if I get any allergic reaction to what's going

around in the air, I'll start to notice my eyes get puffy. And the icon is one of the best ways for me to reduce that. And of course, cleaning out diet, fasting, and doing other shit will help me get accustomed to that. Burning cedar is actually another great trick for getting used to the cedar allergy when you're here in Texas. That's one from Dr. Will Tegel. Just smell it, inhale it, and talk to it, and there you go. Caldera Lab is made with top-tier ingredients and is a great addition to your daily routine. It takes less than a minute, morning and night, and it's here to reduce your wrinkles, fine lines, and signs of aging. All right, get 20% off with our code KKP at calderalab.com slash KKP.p that's 20 off at c-a-l-d-e-r-a-l-a-b dot com slash kkp by using code kkp jump in his skin and first impression royalty with caldera lab next we're brought to you today

by paleovalley.com one of our longest show sponsors amazing company there use code kyle that's k-y-l-e for 15 off everything in the store i want to talk to you about their bone broth protein it is truly one of a kind they They have a natural flavor, which is incredible for mixing it as smoothies and different things like that. We make popsicles with it for the kids. And then of course their chocolate bone broth protein is the best. We mix that with some raw milk. We slightly warm it and use a little hand whisker. And then bam, we've got chocolate milk for the whole family. Extreme temperatures can also destroy more heat-sensitive amino acids and other nutrients or make the protein resistant to digestive enzymes, which also decreases absorption. Not extracted with harmful chemicals,

proteins are processed using ethanol and hexane, a petroleum-derived neurotoxin that could damage your central nervous system. 100% grass-fed and finished. Their cows are guaranteed to have never been fed grains. Since the term grass-fed is unregulated, large collagen manufacturers are using this claim as well as pasture-raised when in actuality the animals are finished in a feedlot where they're fed grains. These cows are never given antibiotics, steroids, or hormones, so these dangerous compounds do not end up in the final product. And perhaps equal to everything I've just mentioned, madead from bones, not hides, might be one of the most important pieces here. Most companies use the hides because

it is cheaper. When collagen is sourced from the animal's skin, we miss out on all the extra nutrients and restorative benefits of the bones. There are no pesticides. Their cows graze on pastures free of pesticides. They verify with third-party lab tests for over 40 different pesticides and herbicides. It's 100% pure, no fillers or flow agents, gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, and non-GMO, and smell and flavor-free if you're going with the natural one. If you're going with the chocolate, it is one of the best-tasting chocolate things I can ever wrap my head around. I mean, it's like, it's chocolate milk gold.

It's the best thing on earth. Check it out, paleovalley.com. That's P-A-L-E-O-V-A-L-L-E-Y.com. Use code Kyle for 15% off. And thank you to Paleo Valley for being one of our longest show sponsors. Also, one of our other longest show sponsors, lucy.co, L-U-C-Y.C-O.

Be sure to check these guys out. Remember to enter code KKP and get 20% off along with free shipping. These guys are awesome. Lucy is made for your nicotine routine and delivered straight to your door. It's 100% pure nicotine and always tobacco-free. Choose your form from pouchers, breakers, or gum. Choose your strength, 2 milligram to 12 milligram. Now, I'm a big boy. I like the 12 milligram stuff, but 2 milligram is suitable for someone who uses nicotine infrequently and not often. If you're first starting out, that's what I started out with. Four to eight mg is more likely to satisfy if you have an everyday nicotine

routine. And 12 milligrams might be for you if you've been underwhelmed by the effects of other nicotine pouches. It's not a pissing contest to see who can have the most. But at the same time, you know, long enough timeline, you will graduate to deeper levels of that. Choose your flavor, mint, apple ice, espresso, mango, and more. Save yourself for the weekly gas station stop and sign up for a monthly subscription. Save 15% off, no commitment, cancel at any time. I absolutely love this stuff. They've got nicotine pouches, but with a tiny capsule inside. It's called Lucy Breakers. The capsule contains liquid flavor that saturates the pouch before it's even in use. Break it with your teeth, get it situated, and boom, instant nicotine release when you need it. That's an awesome way for a jumpstart.

And I've spoken for a long time on the benefits of nicotine on this podcast. It is the world's greatest nootropic. It fits in the same receptors in the brain as acetylcholine. Most nootropics are trying to create more acetylcholine in the brain by taking something like alpha-GPC, a form of choline that's highly bioavailable, and adding in other plants like cupersia serrata to upregulate that. Bacopa monieri. A lot of these plants are phenomenal, and I still take these, and they stack very well with pure nicotine in and of itself, just as caffeine does. So find a way to include this in your routine. If you really want to optimize your brain, nicotine is the way to do that. Let's level up your nicotine routine with

Lucy. Go to lucy.co slash KKP and use promo code KKP to get 20% off your first order. Lucy offers free shipping and has a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. That's lucy.co and use code KKP to get 20% off and always free shipping. All right. And here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. This is true. Last but not least, we're brought to you by our longest sponsor, Organifi.com slash KKP. Remember to use code KKP at checkout for 20% off everything in their amazing store. Normally, I talk about the Sunrise to Sunset Kit and how awesome the red,

the green, and the gold juices are. And truthfully, this is what put Organifi on the map. They were looking at juicing and all the ways that that worked from omegas and all the different machines and slow process and all that whatnot. How do I get all these good nutrients into the body? One of the main issues that they found, Drew Canole has been on this podcast a couple of times, the same issue that I had with juicing was that you got way too many sugars there that are unlocked and you really want some of the better foods, but the better foods and the superfoods you put in there don't taste great. These guys manage, in all three of these,

to make them taste phenomenal and to still include ashwagandha and some absolute superfoods and adaptogens that work very well as a supplement in and of their own right, stacked together with many other things, mushrooms, you name it, that are all included in these wonderful products.

But today, I want to talk to you and focus about their new product, Shilajit gummies. These are sourced directly from the Himalayas, homes of the world's finest Shilajit, heavily tested for metals, rich in antioxidants that can help fight free radicals, support gut health, and nourish the digestive tract by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria. This improves the permeability of cell membranes and helps to better absorb and enhance nutrient absorption, can support detoxification, can enhance energy levels and overall vitality. And you will feel that. I absolutely feel that. That's one of the things that turned me on to Sheila G. Was it not like a testosterone booster,

even though it does optimize for testosterone levels in men and women, but because of the fact that it gave me energy. I was like, damn, this is a very sustainable, beautiful piece of energy that I'm getting right now by taking this supplement. And it has anti-inflammatory properties. Again, it supports healthy testosterone levels in men and women, supports bone and muscle health, aids in cellular energy and mitochondrial health,

cellular ATP. We know that's a big one. We've been talking quite a bit about mitochondria lately and decreases fatigue. Just take two gummies once or twice per day. I take three twice a day. Like I said, I'm a big boy and I think it's worth it to do that. Go to www.organifi.com slash KKP. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash KKP and use code KKP for 20% off everything in the store. Without further ado, my brother, Tim Larkin. Tim Larkin, welcome to the podcast, brother. Hey, Kyle. Thanks for having me, man. This is awesome. We've gone back and forth. We're in a really fun group where I've been fortunate enough to have a few people on from that group that are like-minded, but each have some really cool specialties and things

they're known for. I think I'd heard about you when I was fighting in the UFC, but it wasn't until we moved to Vegas for like four months in 2017 before moving out to Austin and I don't know who who knew you or uh who had worked with you but one mutual friend was like dude you got to train with Tim while you're here and then it was just such a quick stop in Vegas uh moving twice that year you know it's a lot a lot of uh leaps of faith to make it to where I'm at right now but it ended up panning out and then seeing the group and i'm like is that the same guy you know and then you know i think tucker gave you the intro and i was like that's the same guy fuck yeah so super super cool where

are we training when you're out here in vegas uh i was training with tom lawler was an old buddy of mine from the ufc we're on ultimate fighter season eight together so we'd go into syndicate and um do some training there that kind of stuff yeah it was before uh you know i really didn't get into much arms training i had done it periodically like you know i'd get brought in to do um some combative stuff hand-to-hand stuff and then you know they'd teach me all the weapon stuff and i did got to had the fortune of doing that a couple different times with some really uh high-level military folks and then anytime we had done tours for troops, the SF guys would always take us out, you know, and let us shoot, you know, sniper rifles and other fun shit. And so it was fun, but it wasn't, you know,

it wasn't a practice until I made it here, bumped into Tim Kennedy, who's been a longtime friend, and then started training with Jeff Gonzalez, who now is a part of the group and, and taking some sheepdog course and things like that. And it's great here because, I mean, there's so much I want to talk to you about. And I'm telling you, when I was reading one of your books, I haven't read them both, but I read When Violence Is the Answer. Phenomenal title, by the way. Phenomenal title. I really love so much of it. We'll spend the bulk of our conversation there. But I loved your stories. You're a fantastic storyteller.

Some guy, you know, I've always been curious because I'd never, I mean, I think it's because I didn't really want to follow orders. So I knew that I'd probably get my ass kicked if I went in the military. So I've never really had that drive. But I love the camaraderie. I love the team's aspect of things and I love the purpose behind it, you know? And so I've always been fascinated by the SF guys that people, especially those who could go through buds and not ring the bell. And, you know, Jeff's been a longtime friend and I've interviewed quite a few guys

that come from that arena. And I'm always fascinated because it's not like the D1 athlete generally that makes it through. You know, most of the time, it's just the guy that has no quit in them. Tell, you know, I want to know about you. What was life like growing up? What made you determine you wanted to go in the military? And then tell us the story of what happened in Bud's because it's pretty mind blowing. Yeah. So my background is I'm a Navy brat. My dad was an officer in the Navy, surface warfare, meaning he drove ships. So I lived all over. And I'm originally from Boston. My grandfather was a former Southie. His dad had pool halls. His great grandfather, his grandfather ran

liquor with Joe Kennedy back in the day. So we were kind of a roguish background to where my grandfather was one that took everybody legit, got into real estate and insurance. But what was interesting was as a kid, I grew up, I think the first, you know, gifts I remember from my grandfather were Everlast boxing gloves. You know, he was a huge boxer, loved it. You know, Boston had a lot of smokers back then. So he would tell my mom he's going to take me to the circus. And then, you know, I'd be all dressed up to go to the circus like four years old and I'd be at a smoker with him.

You know, just watching, you know, local fighters. And he would just tell me the stories about when he was growing up. During the depression, he played, he played in a jazz band and he played for all the mobsters. And then all the fighters would show up and, you know, he got to hang out with Dempsey. He got to hang out with all these great fighters and he knew all the stories. And so I kind of grew up immersed in this, in this culture and learning how to do the sport. But my grandfather would say to him, he'd train us in his basement.

He had a big house in Dedham, Massachusetts, and he had a huge basement. And he'd be down there, and my cousins and I would all be boxing. He'd be teaching us. And he loved the sport. He loved the rules. And he'd always tell us, he'd go,

boys, when you're in the ring, this is what you do, boom, boom. And then he would pause every so often. He probably did it about three times. And he would point to the window in the basement, the window that went outside. And he'd say, this is what we do in the ring, and this is how you operate in the ring. You're always a gentleman. You're a sportsman.

Boom, you know. He goes, but out there. He'd always point to out there. He goes, if anybody, if anybody comes at you, he goes, that's a different world. And he would start showing us other things. And really it was, you know, I'm a little kid, but what he was introducing me to was injury to the human body. So we'd be boxing and he'd show me all that. But he'd say, hey, listen, if you're in like a group, he'd just, you know, show stuff like being in a group.

He would say, hey, you know, one of the best things you can do is, you know, and I just remember this vividly as a little kid. He goes, drop down to one knee. He goes in a close-in situation, drop down to one knee. He goes, don't hit him in the groin. Hit him in the bladder. He goes, the reason he's going to hit him in the bladder is because he's going to cover his groin. He thinks you're going for his groin. You hit him in the bladder. And then he'd tell me the difference between the reaction.

He goes, and then you just come up with an uppercut, and you come right up under the chin and take the guy out. You know, this is one of his favorite close-in moves to do. It's funny. When I talk to, you know, later on, when I talk to, like, my instructors and when I talk to everybody else, we always talk about that one point in your life where you're training in combat sports, but then there's that one introduction to real violence, you know, on the street, something. And it's usually radically different from what you're training, the experience, and the suddenness of it. And it all usually evolves around injury to the human body. So I'm just giving a preview of, you know, that's how I first got introduced to injury to the human body.

So then I go on, and of course I'm a Navy kid, so I'm moving every two to three years. And, you know, back then, you know, early 70s, you fought everywhere you went. The new kid, you fought. I was the oldest in my family. I had a younger brother and younger sister. And so I was the one that always, you know, had to have had to fight. It was just one of those situations. But there were two things that I learned from

moving around back then. One was observation. When you go into a new situation that you're completely unaware of and you don't know the dynamics, the social dynamics or anything. My mom inadvertently gave me great information. If you're moving every two to three years, it means you're just really making some solid friends and then you got to leave them again. And so you're going to this new area. And my mom would always say, give it six months. In six months, she goes, that'll give you enough time to see what this place is really like before you make your decision. And I've kind of used that in every new situation I've ever been. And really, it's six months of observation, of being quiet, observing, watching the social dynamics, you know, and just kind of seeing how things operate.

And it's the human nature aspect. You started to see from these moves that I'd see similar personalities, I'd see similar, you know, behaviors. And I could spot them early on. And then I knew, you know, I knew which group I wanted to, you know, get into, make some friends in, and which ones to avoid, which ones not to trust because of prior experience of seeing personality types like that. And that was really, really fascinating to me was, was kind of learning the human dynamics of, of social interaction and how violence plays into it. Um, I mean, I knew I would have to fight, but I almost, it got to the point to where after moving

a couple of times, I would choose, I would, I'd know who to fight to get the status that I needed so I didn't have to keep fighting. So I was in there. And it's so funny growing up now. You know, I hear my sons growing up and everything. They just don't have the dynamics that I had. You know, I mean, you know, physical fighting is highly discouraged. It's really handled in the completely wrong way right now because it can be a positive learning experience. And now they make it to the point to where it's just you're penalized on both sides.

The bully's penalized and the victim's penalized. I think it was probably the last generation. I was born in 82 and same thing. We moved a few times. Anytime we moved, I had to fight. And I remember in high school when they implemented zero tolerance, meaning if you're caught in a fight, both people are expelled from the school. And from then on, it was like, the only way you were going to fight is if you were way off campus, you knew both parties weren't going to talk. And it was very few and far between. You go from

fighting like three or four times a semester to fighting maybe once a year you know because of the the such stiff penalties you know you get expelled from school and then you wind up in the you know the the not so good kids school so that really changed things i think yeah to the detriment meaning i went to uh in high school in san diego which is where my dad uh there's his last command was in San Diego, and that's how I got introduced to the SEAL teams. I'll talk about that. But we had something called Irish Fight Night. And, yeah, it was an all-boys Catholic school.

But they understood that boys are going to have issues. So if there was a beef that you had, the coaches were on it right away. And what they would do is they'd pull you in. They wouldn't let it get to a street fight. They'd pull you in, they'd throw you in the ring and they'd give you boxing gloves. And then we had an event every year where it was, was there. So there was a positive outlet for that. And what was really interesting was oftentimes, I remember a kid that I got in a fight with that I had to, they threw me in the ring with him in freshman year. He, to this day is still one of my best friends, you know, and, and males can overcome a lot if they're allowed an outlet. And, um, you know, and again, yes, does it have to be regulated?

Absolutely. Do it, you know, and I think combat sports is probably one of the last vestiges where, uh, young boys can really learn that and understand that there's, you know, uh, there's so many positives to, you know, developing that way and feeling confident in yourself. But anyways, I had the benefit of that. I had uncles that encouraged that. I had dad, you know, never encouraged bullying, never encouraged being, you know, violent, but you never, you never back down to a situation like that. You, you know, there was a proper time for you to, to fight back. So I get, you know, we move all over and I could say my dad's last command was in San Diego. And, uh, he had a ship over in 32nd street, which is across from Coronado, but the Navy housing we were in, the officer Navy housing we were in was in Coronado, California. And I'm about 13, 12, 13. And my backyard has a chain link fence.

There's a little highway called Silver Strand Highway. And right across there, there's this, there's Constantine wire in a fence, but we didn't, my brother and I didn't care about that. What we saw was this amazing obstacle course that we just had to get to. And we had no idea what it was. So we took our bikes, we rode them across the street, you know, across the highway. We brought a rug with us. We threw the rug up over the Constantine wire and we jumped over and we started running around on the, what we didn't know was the SEAL obstacle course, you know, the UDT SEAL obstacle course. We got kicked off like four or five times, but we kept coming back. And what was great was

the instructors, you know, then SEAL, you know, the SEAL instructor, the BUDS instructors, they kind of adopted us. They realized we were too annoying officers, kids that weren't going to go away. And they let us sit up in the dunes, watch training, and then they started talking to us. And so here I am, a young kid, I'm getting introduced to this world of Naval commandos that I didn't even know existed. Cause you got to understand early eighties, it still wasn't talked about. I mean, Magnum PI came out and they talked about SEAL teams, but nobody understood really what it was. It was still very, you know, a closed society, basically. So I couldn't believe you got a, there's a job out there that you get, you know, get paid for jumping out of airplanes, you know, diving, shooting stuff, blowing stuff up, wearing cool

gear. I mean, all these guys looked awesome. They all looked like Magnum PI back then, you know, they had the hats, they had the, the Varney sunglasses and the, um, and the Magnum mustache. Um, and you know, so it just, it just, you know, imprinted on my mind. Um, and I, I announced to my parents, that's what I was going to do. And so my dad, you know, kept it, kept himself together because back then it was not a career that you would think out they were they were kind of the red-headed stepchildren of the navy and it was like a career killer for an officer because there was no place to go you know it was a very small command you know that that all the SEAL teams so if you got up to maybe like you know 0405 which would be like lieutenant commander or commander, which would

be like a major or a light colonel in the, uh, air force in the army. That was about as high as you went, you know? Um, and so I promised my dad I'd go to college first. That was his only thing that he made me do. And he figured it was probably going to get out of my system. I got an ROTC scholarship, went to USC, played sports there. But just my whole time there, I used it as prepping for butts. That was it. That's all I wanted to do. When it was my time to apply as a midshipman, I was up against 2,500 guys that actually qualified, officer candidates that actually qualified for only two slots for my year. And I was just beside myself. I was like, shit, you know, I was worried because I had learned that, you know, everybody on paper looks the same.

Well, I did a year in London, my junior year of college, and I got to work out at the embassy in the Gravenor Square in London. And I would just go to the gym. That's why I got it. As a Navy kid, I had my ID and that got me into the embassy and that got me in to use the embassy facilities. And so I got to go in the gym. Who am I working out with? I'm working out with all ground branch guys. Um, anybody that was coming through there, a ton of team guys were coming through a ton of, uh, SF guys. Um, I got to meet FBI guys. They're all there. So they're all, a lot of them became my friends. Um, and, you know, they, they hooked me up with training. I got to go see the guys at, you know, the SAS at Hereford. I got to go see the SBS in Poole, England.

You know, that's their equivalent of the SEAL teams and stuff. It was just, it was great. Well, one of the guys that was there was a commander in SEAL teams, Tim Holden. I'll remember him the rest of my life because he changed my life. He said, hey, listen. He said, you need to talk to Margaret. And I'm like, Margaret, who's Margaret? You know, I'm thinking SEAL teams, you know, there are no women in the SEAL teams. He's like, Margaret is the gatekeeper. And I go, what do you mean? He goes in Washington, DC, she is the, um, the admin assistant to the detailer. the detailer is the guy that makes the decision

on who goes you know to those slots and you said you got to get in good with margaret so he made an intro and i worked her for about a year and a half i would send her i'd call her all the time i'd send her stuff for a birthday i'd'd come in. And then I conveniently, six months before I was graduating, made a trip, a necessary trip to Washington, D.C. That's what I told her. Basically, I had a kid, a buddy of mine that was going to D.C., college in D.C. I went and crashed at his place. And I went and planted myself at Margaret's office. And she said, Mr. Chipman-Larkin, what are you doing here? And I said, well, ma'am, I'm here. I'm here in an exchange. And I just wanted to come by and say hello. And, you know, I'm getting ready to put my packet together, blah, blah, blah.

And I said, you know, I was wondering if maybe I could talk to the detailer for five minutes. And she said, oh, I don't know. I don't know if he can get on your schedule at all. And I said, well, you know, I'm willing to wait. So this was on a Wednesday. And no, I'm sorry, on Tuesday. And she told me, she said, listen, be here tomorrow. Be here at 8 a.m. sharp. You sit down there, no promises. And I said, yes, ma'am, I'll do that.

So I came in, sat there, 8 a.m. I sat there, 8 a.m. I sat there. I took one quick break because they made me go get something to eat. And she promised me, she goes, he's at lunch. Go to go, you go grab something to eat and come right back. I stayed there till 5.30 when he left. Ignored. Nobody even talked to me other than Margaret said a couple words to me.

Next day, Thursday, same thing. Show up at eight, go through the whole routine. Nobody talks to me other than Margaret said a couple words to me. Next day, Thursday, same thing. Show up at eight, go through the whole routine. Nobody talks to me. Nobody acknowledges me. Nothing. I'm sitting there. I'm like, shit, shit, shit. Friday, I get there. Now I got to go home Saturday. Friday, I get there. 8 a.m. I sit down. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Nothing. 4.55 Friday afternoon, this guy pops his head out of the office. His name is Commander Golay, Mark Golay. Great guy.

Became a great friend later on. He goes, Mr. Shipman, you still here in my office? I said, yes, sir. He goes, you're not going to leave, are you? I said, well, sir, I just want to find me. He goes, just promise me. If I give you five minutes, will you leave and not come back? I said, yes, sir.

Go in, sit down. He goes, Mr. Shippen, what do you want? And I said, well, sir, I said, I know you have a lot of people to choose from. I said, I know everybody looks the same on paper. I just want you to know that I will not quit. And, you know, just I hope you take that into consideration. I said, I'd really like to be, you know, one of the candidates. And he looked at me and goes, that's what you sat here for.

That's what you waited. That's the important thing you wanted to tell me when I have all these other qualified individuals. And I said, yes, sir. That's what I wanted to do. He goes, okay, well, you told me. Thanks a lot. And he dismisses me. I walk out.

Margaret looks at me. I learned later she had listened in. And she goes, oh, she goes, I'm midshipman. She goes, well, listen, I hope you have a really nice trip back, and good luck on your graduation. And I was like, ah, shit. And I'm walking down, and it's this huge hallway, bureaucratic hallway in the Navy building in D.C. And I'm just dejected and I'm,

I'm going, ah, I screwed up. I absolutely screwed up. And I'm walking down the hall, this JG, Lieutenant JG, who's temporarily assigned there. He was waiting to go to Bud's actually. He comes running down the hallway and he goes, Larkin, and I turn around and he just looks at me and he goes, yeah, we couldn't let you go. He goes, we just want you to know, you had it on Tuesday. We just wanted to see how long you'd stick around. They totally, they fucked with me for three days, you know? And, um, but that was it, you know, that was, that was the idea. So what did that teach me that taught me like, you know,

cause later on we're going to learn what happened, you know, you know, when we went to buds, I was totally. You know, that was the idea. So what did that teach me? That taught me like, you know, because later on we're going to learn what happened. You know, when we went to Bud's, I was totally prepared to go. But what was great about that, Kyle, is I knew that I had done literally everything within my power to go up against, you know, incredible odds. You know, I mean, 2,500 guys who all look great, who all have great grades, who are all athletes, all that other thing. I just know I left everything on the table. You know, there's nothing, nothing more I could have done. So as disappointing as it would have been, if I didn't get one of the slots, um, you know, I, uh, um, you know, I would have known that, Hey, listen, there, there's nothing else I could do. So, so that was, that was really cool. And I did i got one of the slots i got in went to the seal teams it was kind of unfair because you know since i was 13 years old i

knew everything about training i knew how to train for it i knew how to get i was taking cold showers since i was 13 so so funny now that everybody's into uh cold plunges yeah i love i have one but you know that was just par for the course for me. And I still to this day take cold showers. I don't take hot showers. Um, but yeah, I was prepping and prepping and prepping for that. And so we flew, my, my team did great. My, my boat crew did really great. We won hell week. Um, and by winning hell week, you get secured, uh, you know, basically a half a day ahead of everybody else. And, um, you know, I knew where to hide food. I knew where to do all these things, went through all the hard evolutions, um, went through the five and a half miles swim out of

San Clemente Island, which is a bitch, um, went through pool comp where they test you in every way, shape or form. But I had compromised ears. I had been lucky all the way through. And about two weeks before I'm supposed to graduate, I'm totally arrogant. I had already chosen which team I was going to because we could select. I was going to be the anchorman of the class. And that way, I got the selection of where to go. I was going to go to SEAL Team 4.

That was it because they were the only ones doing anything back then. Those in that days, if you guys have watched anything on Netflix on Narcos, that was that period. It was called Operation Snowcap, and we were working the drug problem and counter-narcotics back then with the DEA. So everyone wanted to go to SEAL Team 4. So I got my slot to SEAL Team 4. I knew, okay, a couple years of SEAL Team 4,

and then I'm fast-tracking right to the unit. I'm going to go right to, you know, then it was called SEAL Team 6. I had my whole life planned ahead of me. I go to do this dive. It's just a no-big-deal dive. It was breath-holding pressurization dive. And we have the equipment on, and it's just all you're doing is you're doing traditional frogman tying explosives onto what they call a jap scully, which is the old amphibious blockade things they'd use to keep ships from coming in and landing on the beach. And so we blow these things up.

So I'm sitting there, got a haversack of fake explosives and I'm kind of cranking on under there. Well, there's waves that come above the water, but there's also waves that come underneath the water. And it was pretty choppy that day. I have, I was congested. I had really like my ears were just really full. I knew it was stupid for me to force the dive, but they just started giving us weekends off and I didn't want to come back and do the dive on a weekend. I had things to do. Sure enough, I'm sitting there. I remember I was cranking really hard, you know, and I was just really bearing down on my breath. I was cranking hard on, so imagine there's a rope and then you have this, this wooden dowel and I'm tying, I'm pushing the wooden dowel to tighten the haversack around the obstacle I'm trying to simulate blowing up.

And as I'm cranking on that, a wave, underwater wave, just hits my ear perfectly and just put it in. Normally, it wouldn't have any effect. This was just enough to burst my eardrum. And I felt a cold, sharp spike of water go literally right to the middle of my head. And then I felt warm fluid coming out. And as the warm fluids coming out of my ear, I start to lose all sensation of, um, direction. I went into vertigo, um, because my inner ear, basically the semicircular canals

had emptied out from the injury. And, um, you know, you just go into vertigo. And so I didn't know which way was up. I felt the toe rope, the anchor line of the inflatable boat, the IBS above me. And I just started pulling myself. I knew I had to put one hand on top of the other, but I felt like I was pulling myself 45 degrees to the bottom. It was because you have no sense of direction. They said that when my head hit the top, I was flapping uncontrollably and I had blood coming out of my ear. They pulled me on. Here I am, two weeks to graduate. They pulled me on.

I knew as soon as the corpsman that was there on the boat whipped out his kit, looked into my ear, from his reaction alone, I knew I was done. He just, this guy was a, he was a really super positive guy. And he actually was a you know one of the instructors we really liked and i could just tell from his reaction you know oh shit this is bad and sure enough um i couldn't you know i i couldn't i couldn't continue on at that point um they were nice enough to graduate me like you know my d DD 214 says I'm a graduate of BUDS. But I couldn't, I couldn't go on. I couldn't operate because I didn't have ears that were capable of doing pressurization and diving. And so my whole world got turned upside down, but it got turned upside

down by what? Something I couldn't control, which was an injury to the human body. It was like when I, you know, I'd been through this physical evolution of testing myself in any way, shape or form that I'd been literally preparing, you know, over 10 years to get ready for. And I confidently knew everything and I took myself through it at the best levels. And yet I was brought, brought low by my ear of all things, you know, uh, you put me down. It was again, injury to the human body, you know, as, as I describe it and was again, injury to the human body, you know, as, as I

describe it and as we, as we use it. Uh, so what I thought literally was the worst point of my life was really the turning point of where I started to, you know, really evolve and learn all this. And, um, you know, the, the, the, the quest were injury to the human body kind of became a Rosetta Stone for the training that we did on there. And I was put in a position at a command in the Navy because they kept me around. I was the junior guy. I had no business being there. But at the time, it was Naval Special Warfare Command. It was just being built out.

We literally were in trailers. But I was surrounded literally by the legends of the SEAL teams. And the reason the Admiral brought these guys together was because the Berlin Wall came down. The Soviet threat was dissipating. We knew that warfare was going to change. These guys were all Vietnam-era guys, and they were tasked with saying, okay, how are we going to fight the future? You know, what do we future? What do we need? What do we need to put together? One of the areas that they were really concerned about was they knew they were going to be doing a lot more.

They predicted a lot of what's going on today. They predicted they knew Bosnia-Herzegovina was going to go. They realized they had to do more urban warfare, and they had to learn to put hands on people again, which really was something that we hadn't trained since Vietnam. So this group put together a pilot program headed up by a master chief, Roger Hayden, great guy. And they threw me in. I had a martial arts background, you know, growing up, I learned, you know, not only what my grandfather taught me, but also judo and then tung sudo because we took whatever the Marines were teaching on the base. And that's basically back then, that's all they were teaching.

Pre-MMA, pre all of that. So I enjoyed it. I enjoyed fighting. And they had me around because I was basically a good meat puppet for them. But then what they did was they were inviting literally martial arts artists at that time from all over the world. And they were coming in and we were, we do these pilot programs with them and we met a lot of the top guys and they were great and they were amazing athletes, but a lot

of it didn't translate to carrying kit and gear and everything. Um, that's where there's, there's no synergy using the tools that you'd have, you know, your gun, possibly a knife, and the fact that you're going to be loaded out, you know, with load-bearing equipment and stuff like that. I had been doing a lot of work with the DEA back then, Intel. We were Intel sharing with the DEA because we were working together on the South American problem. So I knew all the local guys in San Diego and everybody thought it was

freaking hilarious that the SEALs were looking at hand-to-hand combat because back then it was just denigrated. It was like, well, if he gets down to hand-to-hand combat, you know, you're screwed. What are you guys doing? Underwater knife fighting and you know, all that. So the DEA buddy of mine calls me up one time, literally Kyle, we're bringing people in from all over the world and he calls me up and he says, Hey, listen, we just got done doing a training. And he goes, it's this guy. He goes, he has a, he has a little studio in Gresham, on Gresham street in PB. Now I lived in Pacific beach in San Diego. I literally lived there. He was talking about something that was literally two blocks away from my apartment, you know,

a street where it's a one of the bigger streets in PB that has a lot of different businesses. And he goes, listen, this guy's a real asshole. He goes, but I know you get along with assholes. And he goes, you might want to check this out. And by the way, he started the whole conversation. His first thing to me was, hey, dude, what's up? And I said, yeah, what's up, asshole? And he goes, are you guys still doing that punchy, kicky shit?

And I go, yeah, we're doing our punchy, kicky shit. And then he came in and told me about the guy. He goes, listen. He goes, I think this might be something that you guys would be interested in. So I go down there. The place is closed. It's this little, Kyle, when I tell you, it's like 900 square feet, and it's carpet. There's no mats or anything.

It looked really dingy. And I looked at it. It wasn't open. I go, I bet he's screwing with me. I think he's screwing with me. But as I'm leaving, I notice that this guy had taken a trifold with some info in it about the studio, and I read it. What caught me, and the only reason I came back, was because this guy mentioned his military background briefly. He wasn't bragging or anything, but he mentioned the unit that he was in, and it was the 173rd Charlie Company. Now, these guys were deployed.

I knew everything about these guys. They were deployed. They were, they were the jungle fighters. Uh, the general at the time, Westmoreland kept these guys out in the jungle. And a lot of these guys, Charlie Company in particular saw some incredible combat. And there was a lot of guys in that unit that were doing the tunnel fighting, the tunnel rats. So I said, okay, well, worst case scenario, I said, I gotta see, I gotta see what this is all about, you know? So I come back next day when I saw what time they were training. I walk in and I got modified grooming standards back then with the command I was at, meaning back then we were, we were doing a lot of stuff where we had to look like civilians.

So I had longer hair. I looked like a San Diego surfer, typical San Diego surfer. So I blended in, no problem. I didn't look necessarily military when I come in and hang out. So I'm watching the training. These guys are in geese at the time, but they're doing shit stuff I've never seen before. This one kid, I saw him come up. He slams his forearm into the side of the guy's neck, comb grabs his hair, knees him to the solar plexus. And then as the guy's bending over, a rubber knife comes out of nowhere and this guy starts stabbing him in the neck and then drops his body. And I'm looking and I'm going, the only time I've seen movement like that is when I saw my uncles fight in Boston on the street, which I saw a lot of that. And also the few times that I've seen actual acts of violence, meaning the suddenness,

the specific way of attacking somebody, and then the intent that was there. And these were just college kids that were, you know, just young guys that were being trained. They weren't anything special. So then I look and guy comes around the corner and he's dressed in, he's got like flojo sandals. He's got, you know, Levi five old ones. He's got a big Aloha shirt. He probably would weigh about 140, uh, soaking wet about five, seven. And so I'm like, Oh, janitor's here, you know? And because he looked nothing like an instructor. And then I saw him and he starts talking to people and he's like whispering in this guy's ear, janitor's here, you know, because he looked nothing like an instructor. And then I saw him and he starts talking to people and he's like whispering, this guy's here, this guy's here, just making little adjustments with these guys. So I'm intrigued.

I go, you know, I go, yeah, this is kind of what we're looking for. We're looking for something where, you know, we can be very specific and they're already utilizing weapons in a very direct manner. You know, like, like that was the correct, I knew that was the correct way to use a knife. And I was like, damn, okay. I haven't seen this with anybody else we've been working with. So I'm sitting there and I talked to the guy and he's kind of being cagey with me. I don't tell him who I am, what I'm doing. I just, I'm just a knucklehead from PB that wants to train. And I started training with this guy. And I noticed right off the bat, the difference of what he's doing is his whole goal is to shut down the human body quickly.

And that comes back from his combat days. He was a tunnel rat. He went in, he had a lot of experience killing. But then any of the martial arts training that he did was after the war. And he bonded with a guy who was basically a criminal, a Chinese criminal, and he learned from him, but it was, you know, always very specific and it was always based off of, you know, injury to the human body, meaning targeting,

you know, where you put your efforts. And they were very specific on why they did what they did. You know, it wasn't competition-based. And what they meant by that was we're assuming that if you have to use this training, it's because you have to, you know, save your own life. And so we want to make sure that, you know, everything, you know, rises to that threshold. You understand what that means. And you understand where in the human body to put your efforts. I was fascinated by that. So I trained with him for about six months. I don't tell the guys. I'm the most junior guy. I'm a guy that blew his ears, has zero experience of anything relevant. Couldn't even go to the first training, you know, still, still advanced training. I'm just this worthless little intel guy. But they noticed that I'm training differently because we would train on our own about three times a week in addition to the training that we were doing with

whatever the group was coming in. And I remember the master chief looked at me one day. He goes, what are you doing? I go, what do you mean, sir? I go, I mean, what do you mean, chief? And he's like, what are you doing? And I said, I'm just training mean what do you mean chief and he's like what are you doing and i said i'm just trying he goes no no no he goes you're moving differently you're doing things differently what are you doing and so then i tell him i tell him about this guy they all got pissed at me they're like why didn't you say anything well you know the whole thing well the one thing i didn't tell you is the guy I'm training with this guy, that's a former army guy. Um, he hates seals. He hates anybody that's a life in the military. He thinks they're losers basically. Anybody would want to do that. Um,

and in particular, he thought the seals were, you know, got way too much press even back then because he knew him from Vietnam. Um, so I'm dying. I'm like, Oh, please don't tell me to bring this guy in. And sure enough, they did. And I had a session with a guy, told him, hey, people at my work would love to talk to you. And he was actually pretty open to it. And what was cool was they vetted him.

They took him in the SCIF, which is a secret compartmented information place that we have, which is sealed. They showed him his DD-214. They talked to him and they all bonded because there was a lot of, they were, there was a lot of, you know, knowing of who was who type of thing and where you were and what you did.

So that kind of gave me relief. But the interesting part was when they're vetting everything, they threw a question at this guy about a shipboarding incident that had happened with then, you know, then it was SEAL Team 6, where they went on to, a ship had been seized and they went on to take the ship back. This is a commercial ship, a merchant ship. There was a scenario where they had stacked up.

Number one man goes in, they blow the hatch. The number one man goes through the hatch, no problem. Number two man gets held up in the hatchway by a bad guy. And at the time they were using it, this guy had an MP5, and he jammed his mp5 up and it just held everybody else from getting in so number one man's in there fighting for his life and the rest of the guys can't get in eventually they get in but you know nobody could answer that question of what could we have done differently type thing you know all the

answers that the other martial artists and groups came up with were, you know, inadequate for that. It just wasn't, wasn't going to be something that would be useful to us. This guy literally lines everybody up. And these, like I said, all these legends from the SEAL team, we're in the skiff area. We simulate the whole thing. The second guy, you know, the second guy gets jammed up. they simulate the jam up with one of the guys and jerry the guy that was was my instructor he points at him he points at the guy he goes pull back and sit down and the guy pulls back sits down the hatch opens up you know i mean the guy pulls you know he's holding on to the weapon and he pulls forward, everybody can get in, but not only can everybody get in by him sitting down and pulling the barrel of his weapon, go center line on the guy.

And it would have been very easy to shoot and kill him at the same time. So one simple movement, you know, handled the CQD problem that, you know, people had not been able to answer. And so that's how the original training that I did got into the system. And we started doing it because it was designed for a guy, you know, the parameters back then was you had to assume an operator was in 60 days in country. You had to assume that his sleep schedule was thrown off. Any athleticism he came with there is all off. He's mildly dehydrated, sleep deprived, all of that. So the only thing he can

rely on is his body weight and anything that he's carrying with him. And that was the idea. And so we started a pilot program and I became, you know, I was lucky enough to be part of it. I did some incredible training. They paid me to train in these really cool events. Ended up creating an instructor course. It was the first one ever that was officially done by Chief of Naval Education and Training and then the Joint Special Operations Education System. They were given official course numbers and all that. And over 250 trainers were trained. 25 were level two trainers that could train level one trainers. And then literally almost 10,000 operators were trained throughout NATO, special operations personnel in this system.

And it was great. It was really, really interesting. It was all pre-UFC. The Gracies were just coming on board, and then the Gracies started working with the teams. But it was there, you know, and it was a really, really interesting time in the early 90s when guys were training. But what was interesting was, this guy really understood violence

and he understood what the goal of violence is and how violence is a very different tool than a competition approach to training. Competition is basically gamified violence. It doesn't make it bad. It's the only way you can do competition is if you gamify the violence and the way you gamify violence is outlawing direct injury to the human body. And, uh, that's really when your life's on the line, you want to do that kind of damage to somebody. You want to do direct injury to the human body because you don't want to find out how big, fast, and strong this individual is and how

capable they are. And so that's how I got there. I got there basically through an injury. That was my nexus of where I started. And I got introduced to this. And then I got out. I was in the reserves and I still kept in contact with the original instructor and he, I was going to go to wall street. I was going to take six months off and go to wall street. I had a job waiting for me. I had an international business degree. So I figured, oh, okay, I'll actually use this thing for something. Um, and he asked me, he goes, Hey, listen, I'm starting to get, because he was training the teams, you know, as long as he was, guys were getting out and they were getting like really corporate security jobs for, you know, some of the big Fortune 100s and stuff. And all of a sudden we're getting calls.

Well, he's getting calls saying, hey, we'd love to have you come train our teams, you know, our security teams and stuff. And he didn't know how to negotiate contracts. He didn't know how to, you know, really do the business side of things that way. You know, he was not formally educated for that. And he asked me, hey, can you help me out, you know, between now and you leaving and maybe do a couple of these? Maybe it can be like, you know, you can come and instruct with me on the ones you can make.

And I said, yeah, sure. You know, I thought, no problem. My first contract was with like Exxon. You know, we trained the Exxon security group, and they were doing a bunch of pipeline work all around the world, and that was super interesting. And then my first civilian client was the Exxon CEO and his family, you know, Lou Noto.

And we're flying in, and we're going, wow, this is kind of interesting. And so, you know, six months turned into 12 years, basically, that he and I were together, you know, doing the training, the initial training that we did. And then right before 9-11, we parted ways. And then that's how target-focused training, which is what I do, kind of evolved from there. And, you know, 9-11 I do kind of evolved from there. And, um, you know, there's nine 11 was really the, the changing point for everything. It was up until then, I was used to basically doing mostly private military contracting and, um, um, you know, a special security work, uh, personnel, military, and law enforcement. That's really what our world

was. And I didn't think there was any application for it in the civilian world, the way we trained. And 9-11 kind of changed all that. And that's when I started getting into groups like YPO, YEO, doing presentations. And my focus changed from the operator side of things and straightforward use of the tool of violence for an operational job to now you're in the civilian world and how does any of this make sense how can i talk to normal people and allow them to understand the tool of violence in a rational way where it makes sense. Because unfortunately, we've stigmatized violence so much that that tool really is only available to the predators. And we've given ourselves this lie that violence is bad. And I'm the one that really tries to

sit there and say, no, no, no. Violence is a tool. How you use the tool will be determined whether or not it was justified or criminal. But it's a tool that we all need because it's just an inherent right is self-protection. And we all should have that self-reliance. And there's just, how can I help people understand that? My goal with new people, my goal with people when I train them in the methods and principles that I train in is a little bit different than somebody from a combat athlete standpoint. I get people that most likely would not have the commitment to train, certainly not train to the level that you train to or train to level that I trained to over the years,

if they had that predilection, they would already be doing it. The people I reach are people that get to a certain age and usually late 20s, early 30s, and they realize, oh, okay, I'm not a kid anymore. I may have a family. I may have more concerns. How do I navigate this world and how do I navigate the potentialities of violence? And my goal is to educate people to the point to where they make better decisions in their life. So my goal is to make sure that my, my clients minimize the chance of violence coming in their life. But the way you have to do that is

you have to, you have to be very realistic about what violence is and what, what it takes to survive a potentially violent, you know, situation. So I hope that kind of gives you the background of what I do. I didn't mean to go on that long, but. That was fucking incredible, dude. That was, that was awesome. I don't want to stop you. And, and, and yes, you teed this up perfectly for, for, you know, the meat and potatoes of your book. And I think that so much of what you've spoken to is awesome with the legacy of how you learn. One of the things that I want to get into is a similarity that I noticed. When you guys were talking about whatever athleticism a guy

had is likely gone because he's got jet lag and he's dehydrated and all these other factors. It still has to work for that person. It reminds me of the difference between Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You know, the story, you know, because of Helio, who was weak, he had to alter, you know, his technique in a way where it would work for a smaller person against a bigger person. And they wanted to prove that in the early UFC days by sending Hoist Gracie in instead of Henzo or Hickson rather, and some of the more talented athletes, right, from the Gracie family, like let's put our worst in and watch him beat

everybody. And that will prove the efficacy of what we're trying to teach. So I really like that. It is absolutely brilliant. And one of the things that really stuck out to me, you know, I've got, I'm a father, I'm a husband, I'm a brother to a sister. My mom's here in Texas, you know, I'm surrounded by women and love every single one of them. And lots of friends, lots of Ohana chosen family. We've done some sheepdog training and different things, especially with the folks out at the farm and I love it. But talk a bit about who are the clientele that are coming to see you. And I'd love to draw a couple of stories, you know, just to really put it into perspective because so many people had their fucking head in the sand. And I doubt any of my listeners have

their head in the sand. They would have stopped listening to this podcast a long time ago. But, you know, if you're willing to look at it and really understand that, I think you talked about like 70% women or of the women, 70% have already been victimized. Is that correct? That actually is across the board for all my clients. If somebody's listening to this and they don't know my name or they don't know who I am, it's probably a good thing because the majority of my client base comes to me after the fact. Something's happened to them or a family member or somebody close to them. And you can't undo a violent act once it's been done. You survived it. So it's my goal. You know, you survived it. So it's my goal.

The reason I love doing podcasts and groups like this is I hope to get to as many people as possible prior to anything actually happening in their life. And the sad part is everybody tells me the same story. You know, they all say, hey, listen, I live a great life. I have the right friends. I've never gotten a fight in my life. I live in the right the right neighborhood, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, but, and then the butt comes in, the butt comes when the black swan event happened. And all of a sudden they're, they're faced for the first time in their life with, uh, you know,

violence, violence basically. And a lot of times they realize, oh shit, I have nothing in the toolbox for this. And that's what I want to take away from people, meaning, but it's a very different goal set, meaning very few people are going to want to take my training up to the instructor level. You know, and you see this all the time, you it's just like bjj you know guys come in or mma mma is the best my buddy i i got a couple of ways to own places and a lot of them switched over to contracts because you know they were just having situations where the first time a guy would get hit in the face that was it you know he didn't want to keep coming i've seen it happen with division one champion wrestlers yeah yeah you know champion wrestler and and i understand that i know i'm not making fun of anybody for listen i got seven I've seen it happen with division one champion wrestlers. Yeah. Yeah. You know, champion wrestler.

And I understand that. I know I'm not making fun of anybody for this. And I got seven concussions that I'm constantly, you know, that I had, you know, that I know of that I had, and I am all about right now doing everything I can to optimize my brain.

I'm doing, you know, every therapy I can to make sure, because I take that stuff seriously. But it's actually, you know, every therapy I can to make sure, because I take that stuff seriously. But it's actually, you know, I know that about people. See, one of the coolest things I ever heard was a friend of mine who does what I do. He was on a plane, and he was just tired. He was tired, you know, he was just, he was going from seminar to seminar and this woman engaged him and she asked him what he did. And he goes, yeah, I screwed

up. He goes, I told her I'd taught self-defense. And, um, she just went, ah, you know, boom, boom, boom. She goes, I really, you know, I've always wanted to learn self-defense and this is one of my priorities and dah, dah, dah, dah. And she just went on and on and on, which a lot of people do when, you know, you engage them. And he just looked at her and he goes, no, you don't. And she goes, what? He goes, it's not important to you. He goes, if it was important to you, he goes, you'd be like me. You would have done it and you would have, you know, put the effort in. He goes, but you're concerned about the potentiality for something to happen to you. He said, he goes, no, I can't help you with the fact that you have not trained up to this point. He goes, but I can help you and give

you information that will help you lead a life that minimizes the chance that you'll need self-defense training. He goes, I'm pretty sure that's what you want. And that's what I really found out. The vast majority of people that are out there want to learn how can I live a life that minimizes the chance of me having to use violence. And that to me is probably one of the biggest challenges ever. Training a group of operators, training a group of hard-charging alphas, that's easy.

That's fun, man. You just feed them. They make you look good, and it's great. You can go super hardcore, and I still love doing that, and I will do that. But the bigger challenge for me is to be anywhere in the world and have 40 to 60 people dumped in my lap of all different diverses, you know, backgrounds, diversities, cultures, and take them through an experience where I can absolutely change their outlook on how they look at violence and how they look at the application of the tool and how I break through a lot of the myths,

you know, that they have. And they walk away with better decision-making capabilities. That's really what it's all about. Like I was doing training. I remember one time I was doing training in Dallas and I had this big dude. He was from an oil family. Big kid, man. He was probably a former kid. He wasn't a kid. He was in his thirties, but he was probably, I forgot who he played for UT or somebody, but he was like a guard, just a huge dude. Um, but athletic, you know,

he wasn't, he wasn't, you know, just all fat. You can tell the guy was a powerful dude and he was a honky. He loved to go to honky tonks and he liked to fight. He just, you know, he wasn't he wasn't you know just all fat you could tell the guy was a powerful dude and he was a honky he liked to go to honky tonks and he liked to fight he just you know he said that he came here to he told me he came here because he saw my stuff and he goes yeah i want to learn how to fight better and um so i was i always laugh when people say that um usually all you have to do is show how easy it is to shut down the human body kill somebody somebody, you know, and then right away, they're going to be like, oh, I know, that's not what I want to do, I don't want to do that, you know, I just want to teach them a lesson or some other stuff, and you just, you can't operate that way, but anyways, I showed him, you know, the first day, got introduced to everything,

next morning, he's waiting for me as I'm going to the office, you know, getting ready for the seminar second day, and he said, hey, Tim, he said, can I get a minute? I go, yeah. He goes, he goes, I just want to thank you. And I go, what? He goes, you've completely changed the way I look at the subject and what I did. I, he goes, I have to apologize for how I came here. He said, I was really brash and arrogant. He goes, what I realized after yesterday. And he goes, he goes, well, I'll just tell you, I called my wife and I told her, honey, you don't have to worry about me anymore. And he goes, I told her about what I learned just yesterday. And he said, I came away understanding, thank God and all the things that I willingly participated in that A, I didn't inadvertently

kill somebody or B, that I didn't run into somebody that really understood violence and could have done that to me. I didn't, I had no idea the risks I was taking. And, you know, when I get those type of feedback from people that, that to me is the game changer for me. Um, because now I know they understand it you know um most people don't you know when they train like i there's a guy going around right now on the internet he's a jacked kid he's totally jacked and he goes to mma fighters and he seems like a nice guy don't get me wrong and he's definitely put the training in you know as far as you know his body and he seems like a nice guy. Don't get me wrong. And he's definitely put the training in, you know, as far as, you know, his body. And he seems like he's trained in some sort of fighting, but he likes to go to MMA fighters and say, Hey, you think you'd win against me in a street fight

or something. And, you know, and I understand what he's doing. Um, you know, he's a big dude and like, he's usually talking to somebody who's like a middleweight or something like that, you know, that really outweighs the guy with 70 pounds or so and but to me it's like you know that's the problem that's what most people think of with it they'll say street fight and like when i think street fight i go you're not thinking about what i'm thinking about you know there's no way you know you're thinking about basically you know one-on-one situation where everybody's watching you guys and you know i don I don't know, it's like some movie or something. Street fights I'm talking about is you get jumped. You think you're dealing with one threat. Three threats come out of nowhere.

And they're usually bigger, faster, and stronger. They have tools. And there's more than one of them. And that's what you see. You know, That's the world that most of us operate in, and there were cues prior to that that you didn't even see. And you see it all the time. You see highly trained combat athletes along with civilians. I'm not saying combat athletes are not capable. They're very capable. But you see even highly trained combat athletes that if they're up against somebody who just wants to do violence, just wants to take you out, has no problem.

They'll go from zero to kill right away. Even unskilled, quote unquote, if you're not dealing with that kind of threat, it's foreign to you. And, you know, you're there. And this guy that's saying this stuff, I'm like, yeah, he's not, he's not being realistic. He's not, he's, you know, I get it. He's probably doing it for likes and looks and all this other stuff and cause controversy. I understand all of that, but the, you know, I see some of the comments about it and I just realized, and that's kind of my big thing, like the violence is the answers. Let's really talk about, you want to talk about it. let's talk about it.

You know, let's talk about real killers. You know, people talk to me all the time. They go, oh, hey, what do you think about this combat sport athlete? Or who would you, could you ever, you know, go up against this guy or something? No, I go, listen, those guys are great guys. And I said, a lot of them, I'm out here in Vegas. Every combat athlete I've ever met, exception of one guy was the greatest guy, humble, hardworking, low key, just a professional, kind of the same thing in the, you know, all my buddies in special social operations world, either law enforcement or military, the more competent the operator is,

the calmer they are and the cooler they are. And, you know, they don't, they don't live like that. No, the guys that I know that I would not want to have to ever deal with are the hitters in the penitentiary system that work with the, all the big gangs, you know, and I've interviewed a couple of them. I know how they operate and I know how they look at violence and they don't hesitate and they will, they can use any improvised tool and just go for it. I mean, I always say that I'll put the best quote unquote knife fighter, you know, in the civilian world up against, you know, a Mexican, there's in particular this Mexican mafia hitter that I know of. And there's just, I mean, it's just cold,

cold hard killer in a situation like that. What you're really training for when you're training for these unthinkable acts are you want to train against the worst case scenario and what would be your methods and your principles and methods to deal with the worst case scenario. Ideally, how would you create it so you're not in that end point you know you don't want to get to

the point to where your only choice is to use violence at that point you know and then that's the that's the interesting subject but the only way you get people there is by really shaking them up and saying okay this is what you got to do and and here on the human body this is where you get your results and then people start going holy shit i don't want to have to do this to somebody. And then you show video, you know, you show real video, because I don't want anybody to believe a damn thing I'm saying. I have objective video of people doing these things to these parts of the body that I'm talking about. And they can see time and time again, what the, what the result is when it's properly applied. And these aren't magic touch points or anything. They require body weight. They require determination. They require, you know,

real effort to get them in. But you can see what the result is if you go to these areas of the human body and what happens to the human body when they're there. And it's the reason they're in a competition, they're outlawed. Last time I looked at the UFC, there were 31 rules, and 27 of them were outlawing direct injury to the human body, and rightfully so. You're not there to maim, cripple, and kill. You're there to better your opponent and show your skill sets

and take them out. And we've all seen it. You know, people tell, well, what's the difference, you know, in the UFC? Like they'll tell me all the time. They'll go, well, if you're still so great, how come you're not in the UFC? How come your fighters aren't in the UFC? And I said, oh, no. I said, our principles and methods work each and every time in the UFC.

As it's been proven for 30 years they've been going. And I go, yeah, completely undefeated. And, you know, they sit there. They'll take the bait. And then I'll just show them injury after injury after injury that happens in the UFC by fighters. And I go, recognize, these guys are highly conditioned. They trained for months for this. They have the will. If it was just something that they had to work through, they would have. I said, this resulted in something they could not will their

way through. It is something that shut down the CNS. It's something that shut down the functioning of their body. Either a sensory system or a structure of the human body was broken. And I said, and you see what the results are. And that's how you educate people. Because again, I think MMA and UFC has done nothing but great things to get people to practice good martial arts and martial arts that are very good. Like my girls, my girls are 10 years old. They're in jujitsu. My son, 14, he's in jujitsu. I started, I started them all out with, uh, with gymnastics first, because when they're little kids, by the time you're seven, your, your, your integral balance, I wish my parents had done that with me. My kids all have a really good sense of balance in their body and they're comfortable in any

position basically. And then you add jujitsu on top of that early on and they're just in great shape. I want my girls to get used to being grabbed. You know, I want them, I don't want them to freak out, you know, doing that. And same thing with my boy, you know, he, I, he's going to be great. I, but, but my girls are the ones that I really want to make sure that they get comfortable, comfortable with the subject of violence is as unfortunate as that is. And early on you want to do that. But, but my point is, sorry, I know I'm kind of on my soapbox here. Um, what I'm trying to outline is whatever martial art you're doing out there, I'm not here to replace it.

If you came and trained with me or my system, all I'm going to do is say, listen, if you're going to use this martial art of yours for a life or death situation when you truly have to use violence, I said, here's a template I can give you that shows you injury to the human body, where to put that effort. And I could care less. Did you get it in judo? Did you get it in BJJ? Did you learn that in Aikido? Who cares? As long as it results in an injury to the human body as we define it, meaning breaking a structure or sensory system of the human body, so the person's brain is taken out of the equation during that time, and then you can stack injuries until the threat is non-functional, then I'm fine with it. I don't care where it comes from. But what I try

to show people is not to replace whatever they have. Whatever they have is great. It's just making little tweaks. Something that would be, say, a submission move, you drive your body weight all the way through it to make it a joint break. It's just these little adjustments with combat athletes that I make, and then the guys are just fucking beasts, and it's easy to get them to go there.

It's just understanding that the right tool for the right situation is really what it's all about you know it has no place has no place in competition at all it's it's useless so it's not like you know i i know there's a lot out there in the reality self-defense world oh my stuff's way too dangerous you know for competition whatever get out there and compete you know show me you can compete i did years of traditional martial arts training and stuff. I wish I was – I missed the UFC. I hate to admit how old I am, but I missed the UFC by about six, seven years in my training.

Where was that when it started coming out? So I would have loved to have tried to see if I could have got far in that. And the training now is so spectacular compared to what we had back in the day. I had a friend that fought in, or I don't want to say he's a friend, but a guy that fought in, I think it was UFC 3 that he fought in. And it was great. But back then, those were the wild days where anybody could come in. You just had some beasts in there. And then you had some people who had no business being in there.

But the way it is now, what's nice about injury to the human body is it's a universal thing. It's objective. And when you're looking at injury to the human body, you want to look at sports injury data. And the reason you want to look at sports injury data is because it's injuries that are caused by humans colliding with humans and humans colliding with the planet. And those are forces that you and I can replicate. And, you know, your goal is not to, you know, in a life or death confrontation, you want to end it as quickly as possible. And you have to assume multiple attackers. So you want to make sure that whatever threat you're dealing with right here, you can take it out competently as quickly as possible by shutting something down on them.

And get into the next person or get the hell out of there, you know, at that time. And there are numerous examples of that that I could tell you about. But it's not – I guess, Kyle, what I'm trying to say is I love combat sports. You know, it sucks as you get a little bit older now. I have to do the old guy stuff, you know, because I've got to preserve my body. You know, I'm all in functional fitness now. I talk about this with Jeff Gonzalez all the time. We laugh about it. Um, but, uh, you know, it's, there's nothing greater and there's

nothing that's served me more than what I've learned through my various instructors in martial arts. It's just been incredible. There's, I'm no, no bigger proponent than me. Um, it's just, you know, you might as well add this template of injury when it comes to that. So you don't make a mistake trying to compete with a predator, you know? And that's kind of the, that's the interesting challenge I have when I'm presenting this material. I love it. We'll get here, take a sip of water. I would love to tease out a couple of my favorite stories from the book. And I'll let you choose the first one, either the Reese Witherspoon story or the survivor who survived one attack and got attacked in her parking lot. I think either one of those would

really frame for the listeners because I've got, you know, friends that came here from Hollywood in 2020 with the mass exodus from California who still don't necessarily know what time it is in the world that I see. Who would say, you know, violence is there's never an answer for violence. And I'm like, have a fucking kid. There is an answer for violence, like plain and simple. You have a wife, you have somebody that cannot defend themselves that you love. There is an answer for violence, like plain and simple. You have a wife, you have somebody that cannot defend themselves that you love. There is an answer for violence. We'll break these down because I think these are just fantastic stories. And the stories in your book, let me just say, and you preface this too, so it's not like they come at a surprise, but they're gut-wrenching at times. And there's other times where, you know, fucking fist pumping in the air,

you know, yelling like, fuck yeah, get him, you know fucking fist pumping the air you know yelling like fuck yeah get him you know like that kind of full rush of the body like real life situations that are really hard to swallow and at the same time incredibly inspiring so i'd love to pull a couple out for the for the listeners now that made it an hour yeah um it's funny i'll do the i'll do the reese witherspoon one only because I've been training. You know, you talk about children. Probably one of the bigger groups that come to see me are dads and daughters going off to college. You know, that's something that is just, it's a constant with what I do.

And I get it, man. Having twin daughters now, I totally, I understood I have an older son and I have my, my younger son and you know how it is with boys. You're like, all right, you know, I'm going to get them. I'll get them. I'll navigate his knuckleheadness through all of this. And I'm fine. You know, there's nothing like what you feel as a dad for your daughter. And my daughters are just great. You just, you just just you just you really want them to have as much of an edge as possible and also an education on how to you know deal with predators and recognize them um really understand the human nature aspect of things this girl

was on a cruise i did i told you that I started teaching groups like YEO and YPO. Well, YPO did this cruise. Was it the Alaskan cruise? It was one of the cruise. I forgot. It was either the Baltic or the Alaska. I think it was the Baltic cruise that I did. And so we're going to all these amazing places. And one of the things they had me do was a, it was a family, a family cruise.

And one of the things they had me do was a day, a lot of these guys had college age daughters or girls that were going off or a couple of years away from going to college. And so we had been talking about this and I was like, hey, it'd be kind of really cool to have all the dads bring the daughters I said but the dads won't work with their daughters everybody will work because I need I need people male or female I need you to work with as many different body types as possible the worst thing you can do is work with the same person over and over again um you know the human body these areas that I show are all constants in the human body, but human body types are all different. So you want to work with as many different body types as possible. So you get really good at your targeting. But the hesitancy a lot of times with young girls or younger girls is, you know, trust, you know, situations.

And so what I knew was I said, hey, listen, have all the dads come. And then we switch off, there's, there's a feeling of, uh, I think I'll, I'll get a really good response that way. Meaning the girls will be a lot more comfortable. The dads will be comfortable. It'll, it'll work out pretty well. And sure enough, it did. It worked out great. But a lot of the girls, you know, they did it because dad wanted them to do it. They put up with the training, but you could tell they'd much rather been up sunning on the deck or, you know, doing any of the myriad things that you could have done on that incredible ship that we were on. But they put their time in and they did it.

They did, you know, a couple hours with me both days. And like I said, she was respectful. She was great. But this girl was literally like Reese Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde she was that kid you know just oh my god you know total LA girl smart smart kid um but you know just that that bubbly thing I didn't think anything of it I went there two years later I'm doing uh I'm doing one of my seminars in New York in the city. And sometimes I'm usually pretty good about looking at my class roster ahead of time,

but my staff had taken care of this particular one because I was just on one of those seminar tours that I was doing. I was exhausted from the admin stuff, so I just let them do it. So I didn't really know who was showing up to the New York one. And my other instructors are signing people in. And I see her. I see her traipse in, and she's got three girls behind her. Two of them were her sisters, and one was a cousin. And I see her, and she makes eye contact with me.

And she sees at the beginning, she runs up to me real quick. She goes, hi, I don't know if you remember me, but I was on the cruise. I said, yeah, absolutely. I knew her dad kind of tangentially. I said, how's your dad doing? She goes, oh, great. I said, oh, wow. I said, who's with you? And she says, well, I said, those are my sisters. And I go, that's my cousin. And I said, oh, great. You're going to redo the course? And she kind of looked at me with expectation. And she goes, you didn't hear. And I said, hear what? And she said, oh, I was attacked.

I was attacked in my dorm room. And I said, no. I said, she goes, oh, I thought dad had told you. And I said, no. Oh, she goes, oh, that makes sense. I was wondering because I sent you an email just saying hi. She didn't tell me that was it, but she did send me an email. And I, you know, she goes, I wondered why you just said hi in the email back.

And I said, oh, you know, I said it was about a year ago she sent it to me. And I said, yeah, I had no idea. So she showed me a police report, showed me everything that happened. Basically she lived on the first floor of a dorm and it's a nice college. It's a really nice college. And again, I don't, the reason I don't give the details of where she was and everything is because she doesn't want it, you know, circulate. She'll let me tell the story but she doesn't want you know people to pin her down who it was um nice place she had uh one of those rooms she and her roommate both had the the beds where the beds are above and below you have your desk you know your little student desk

and everything real space efficient and she and her girlfriend, well, she and her roommate were typical college kids. She goes, yeah, but you know, we'd leave, we didn't really care about locking the window, you know, and she said her girlfriend or got a boyfriend and started spending about three times a week over at the boyfriend's apartment. And she would be sleeping alone in this apartment. And one night, it's about 2.30 in the morning, and she wakes up, and here's this guy on top of her, pinning her in the bed. And she said to me, she said, it was like you were in my ear. My first thought when I looked at him is he's not close enough. You know, because we talk about where you have to be when you go for a strike, what the necessity is. And she realized

his head, which was the first thing that she saw and any of the opportunities that she had in the head area were not available to her the way the guy was orientated. But as I always, you know, as I tell my females, I said, hey, listen, you know, there are going to be opportunities. Right now, what's happening? That's what she remembers. She goes, okay, he just has me pinned. You know, that was her thing.

She goes, he just has me pinned. So he has to move to adjust to do anything, to pull the sheet down. She knew all of that because we had already talked about that in the training. So sure enough, the guy goes to adjust. And when he goes to adjust, that's when she does it. She wraps her arm around the back of his neck as hard as she can. She just literally, you know, I tell him to attach like a spider monkey. You're just latched on. And then she took her thumb and she went into the inside tear duct of his eye and just jammed it as hard as she could into there, you know, really trying to get in

there and gripping. The guy had the violent reaction. I told everybody, you know, he just, because he did not expect it. And he goes, pulls her back, but she's holding onto him for that very reason, you know, trying, and she kept trying to get her thumb back in the eye, but they're falling off the bed. And as they're falling off the bed, she didn't necessarily mean to do this, but her hand went in front of him. And then her ulna, her, her forearm ends up impacting on his throat as they hit the ground with all of her body weight. She weighed about 120 pounds, but you know, accelerated and he slams against the planet. He slams against the hardwood and floor. And then on top of that, he's got her ulna just crushing through his, you know, his windpipe. Crushed it. She could feel him. She felt this exhale and she felt his

body release. And she got up. She realized, okay, he's not moving. She got up right away, opened her door, screaming down the hallway. When the security got there, the guy ended up, you know, asphyxiating and dying. And they took him away. Realized when they checked his house and everything, he had been stalking her for about two months, knew everything about her. You know, he was one of the girls they picked. I guess he had been, he'd done this on other campuses and stuff. They'd been looking for this guy for a while. And this was a premeditated thing. A couple of takeaways from that story. The reason she wanted her sisters there and her cousin, she was so mad at herself and she was not forgiving herself for the fact that she was lax, that they didn't lock windows, that they took things as just,

oh, everything's fine. All these little things, these preventable things she could have done that I talked about, you know, in there, I tell them how important it is, you know, everything from making sure that if they're having a drink at a party or anything like that, that they control the drink at the whole time. They watch the pour. They do everything. If they walk away and go to the bathroom to drink, you don't drink that drink. You come back. I'd given them all the pre-college talk that I could give them,

especially with my knowledge of Vegas and all the tricks that people pull in Vegas. So she had all that in her, and she knew that, but she ignored it because there was an assumption that I don't need this information. I live in a really safe campus and stuff like that doesn't happen to me. And luckily she survived. She didn't get raped. She didn't get sexually assaulted at all. She was fine with it. And the other thing that was great was she really didn't need a lot of counseling because she had a very clear idea of the use of violence. She was literally devoid of choice. At that point when things happened, the only tool that was available to her was violence. You know, she couldn't escape. There was no out for her or anything like that. It was going to

happen. And then she stopped focusing on what was being done to her and started focusing on what was available to her. And luckily, you know, it worked out that she was able to, you know, get out of there. Stories like that, I feel great that my client was able to use the information, unfortunately, to protect their own life. But I also like the fact that they come back and they then bring other people who haven't had anything happen to them yet. And they are the biggest evangelists for the idea of situational awareness and creating these rings and making yourself, you know, a really hard target for violence, basically. And it's not living a paranoid life. It's, you know, being smart because you don't ever want it to come to that point and use the tool of violence. I tell people all the time, like to get people to understand it, I usually will, will be in a seminar and I'll say, okay,

how many people here know how to swim? And usually the vast majority of people raise their hands. And I say, okay, keep your hand up. If you ever had to swim for your life, I always do. Cause I've had to, one of my instructors had to, um, and usually there's one person in the class, if not more that say, yeah, you yeah, I had some version where I had to swim for my life. And I say, great. Of all you people that had to swim for your life, who would want to ever experience that again? Everybody's hand comes down. Now, we all know how to swim.

We love the beach. We love swimming in a pool. We have no fear of it. But we had to swim for our lives. We understand what that meant. And the fact that we survived it is great, but our desire to experience it again is just not there. And that's why I try to tell people, that's what an act of real violence will do to you. I talked to people that have done, you know, civilians, people that should

never have had violence happen and they survived it. And they were able to injure somebody or they were able to get out of it. They don't talk about it in heroic measures. They don't brag about it. They just survive it, and they're happy that they survived it, but it's not something that they want to be part of their life. They don't want to revel in it and stuff. And it's just really interesting. In 30 years of doing this, hearing those types of stories from people, life. They don't want to revel in it and stuff. And it's just really interesting, you know, in 30

years of doing this, hearing those types of stories from people and how they'll come up to you. And, you know, I'll do, I'll do speaking engagements and people will line up and just pull me aside. And then they tell me their story, you know, how this happened. That really resonated with me. And some of the most unlikely people come up to you, people that you think would never have had to deal with anything. And you just hear some incredible stories of people surviving just horrific acts that no human, you know, should have to deal with. Absolutely. Well, I think there, you know, that it makes a lot of sense that they wouldn't be bragging about situations

like that because they understood the realness of the situation. You know, it's a different ballgame than beating somebody on the high school playground and throwing your arms up and, you know, gaining the clout of now having defeated the schoolyard bully and those kind of things. One thing that I really think is worth bragging about is the situation that you had,

and we'll finish with this story, the situation that you had with your son in the car right when you were on the cover of Black Belt magazine. And I think this is a perfect way because a lot of people, they'll hear the story we just told and they'll think, all right, it might take this in a different direction, but I think it's a really beautiful story to show both sides of the coin here.

Do you know the story of the last time i used violence do have you heard that because i'd like to preface it with that and then i can tell my son's story even the story with my son absolutely the reason that happened with my son is because of what happened here so i'm 27 years old i um i'm private I'm in a private military contracting role. I'm in South America. I'm working out of Venezuela. We're doing some really fun, crazy stuff. Down in Venezuela, I am switched on the whole time with my group and everything and what we're doing.

And it was dangerous. And, you know, it's there. So I get back to San Diego and I turn all that off. I'm in San Diego, you know, and I'm with my buddies and we're driving. There's a, there's a part of anybody knows San Diego. Uh, there's a, there's a Midway and Rosecrans is a place where, Point Loma kind of area and, you know, San Diego where you go through. And I'm a Navy guy, so I'm picking up some guys from the base and everything. And we're heading out in my Jeep. I had a CJ-7 and we're going to drive out to my buddy's place. And we're going down Midway and Rosecrans.

Well, it's during peak traffic and we're just inching along. And for like 10 minutes, we're kind of going and I pull forward at one point and I get in front of a car. And I'm talking like inching. This is not anything going.

It was my turn. It was my turn, you know, merging. It was my turn to merge in. Well, I can tell looking in my mirror real quick, the guy behind me is freaking furious. He somehow thinks that I cut him off in this inching traffic. And like you just see he was totally pissed off. My friends pick up on it that are in the back seat. And they're laughing. they're laughing at it and so i decide to do the thing that every irresponsible 27 year old testosterone filled

idiot does and i start egging this guy on i start catching his eye in my rearview mirror i start you know smiling at him laughing at him then what thing that just drew him over is i start blowing kisses at him it's like and my buddies were just dying you know we're laughing i'm going you know i'm thinking i'm invulnerable so this guy spends the next 10 minutes going around other cars making sure that he can get in front of me and he's successful he does that you know. He gets in front of the car, and we're laughing, and he's going in there. And all of a sudden, he stops. And I'm like, yes. You know, I was psyched.

I was going, oh, this idiot's going to get out of his car. So he goes, I see he opens the door to get up. I stop. I get out of my car, the Jeep, and I start walking towards, you know, I'm like right at the front of my car. And it's all cars all around us, you know. This guy gets out. My buddy yells, gun.

And all of a sudden, he hit me right then and there. I go, holy shit. I said, I'm in the fatal funnel. I'm going to have to throw myself over one of these cars. I'm screwed, you know. There's no way I can cover the these cars i i'm screwed you know there's no way i can cover the distance before this guy can you know deploy the weapon you know it's all going through my head right away and i look it's not a gun it's it's one of those clubs that people used to put on their steering wheels you know the guy the guy has it, he has it, you know, he's, he's holding it up like this,

but I'm like, I yell back at my buddy and I just, you know, tell him exactly what I thought about him at that point. And I'm, I got this wave of relief over me, you know, with this guy coming at me, you know, wants to brain me with this, but I'm like, Oh, this is easy. So the guy, you know, he goes to go in, I come in, it's perfect. Man, it was like textbook. I just slammed the wrist, slammed on, he goes to go in. I come in. It's perfect. You know, it was like textbook. I just slam the wrist, slam him on the side of the neck. I throw him on the back windshield of his car.

I'm just about to pound him. My first fist is just about to hit him. I knew exactly where I was going to go. I was going to hit him right in the side of the neck. And that's when it happens. This little girl presses up against the rear windshield, crying. Like, they just cry. please don't hurt daddy and dude i just froze at that point i could not believe this idiot did this with a kid in the car you know and i sat there i caught myself i grabbed the i grabbed the

uh the the um club i told him, get the fuck back in your car. Get out of here. Boom. Guy just sheepishly gets in his car, goes away. I throw the club in the back of my car. And I was just silent, you know, for the rest of the time. I was so pissed at myself because here was a situation that I egged it on. You know, I literally egged it on.

And I put myself in unnecessary danger. Had that been a weapon that that guy came out with, I would have been in the fatal funnel and I would have been damn lucky not to have been shot if not killed, um, because of my arrogance. And then going in there, you know, having to unnecessarily use violence, you know, because I provoked it. Um, I then sit there and I have to, for to unnecessarily use violence, you know, because I provoked it. I then sit there and I have to, for the rest of my life, look at that little girl's face and think of, I mean, the sheer terror in this kid's face, seeing her dad hit and thrown up against the back of a windshield. It was just, I was just like, that's it.

I'm done. I'm done with this shit. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be that guy anymore like, that's it. I'm done. I'm done with this shit. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be that guy anymore. And that was it. So fast forward, what, 20 years? Fast forward 20 years, about maybe, maybe not fully 20. I have my son. My son at the time, he's now 29. He was, I think, eight years old at the time. So yeah, so that's 20 something years ago. I pick him up. He lives up in the Del Mar area. He lives with my ex-wife and I was going to take him. My brother was going to take him out. My brother was working on this

new speedboat that the teams were using and he was going to take my little guy out. And then after the seminar, I had a seminar that day and I was going to go meet. And he was going to take my little guy out. And then after the seminar, I had a seminar that day and I was going to go meet them and we're going to all go to dinner and hang out for the weekend and everything. It was great. Looking forward to it. And I was excited. So my son gets in the car and I throw something in his lap and, um, he's all psyched and, you know, thinking about the day and we pull out and there's no traffic. There's nobody. And it's a hill.

And as I'm pulling in to turn the lane, this dude comes out of nowhere flying like a hundred miles an hour right down. And I swerve to get out of the way. And he's pissed. He thinks I, you know, I'm the problem. And he swerves. He swerves at me, flips me off, does the whole thing. And I'm like, oh man, somebody's having a bad day. And I'm driving and sure enough, red light. And this guy has to stop.

I pull up aside. Now I just got some tattoo work done on this arm and, you know, you can kind of see it. And I had the windows down. My kid's sitting right here. This guy's, you know, right next to him. This guy just starts laying into me, just every expletive he can think, just challenging me. He goes, oh, you think you're so effing tough with your tattoo? I'll beat your ass right now.

And he was, you know, it was hard. I had to listen to all this, but I said, hey, sir, sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. I said, really, Paul, F you. But he was just looking for a reason. I could tell this guy just wanted something. Something was in his life where he was looking for somebody. And I just decided I'm not going to be that guy. And he ends up frustrated and drives off. My son looks at me and goes, Dad, why did you let him talk to you that way? I'm like, well, you know, I said he was upset.

I said, you know, he said, but Dad, he goes, you could have taken him. You could have beat him up. And I said, well, I said, yeah, kind of looking from where he's at, I probably would have had a pretty good chance, you're right. If I stopped and got out of the car and I go, but Connor, what if he had a gun? Oh yeah. I go, or what if I did, what if I did hit him? And what if he fell, he hit his head and now, you know, he's really hurt or gosh, what if I killed him? I go, what would be happening now? I'd be going to jail. I'd be dealing with all that. What would you be doing? I said, it would ruin everything

we want to do this weekend. All because this guy, you know, was having a bad day and decided to take it out on me. I said, or what if he killed me? And I said, you know, why do I have to find all those things out if I just don't participate and he looked at me he goes but dad he goes you're this guy and he holds a magazine I'd thrown in and that was the month the first month I had been on the cover of Black Belt magazine and uh it was just really funny you know because you know it was there and what was great was I went that's how I started my seminar off. I shared that story with everybody. And I go, hey, listen, I understand.

I said, if you don't think I had to hold back every inkling to hold, you know, to hold in my rage that this guy's doing this in front of my eight-year-old son. And this is going down. I said, but, you know, I had you guys to train. I had other people. I realized as uncomfortable as this is for me ego-wise, I have a choice. I still have a choice. And if I have a choice, the choice is always safety, you know? And the old me, even with my kid in the car, probably would have done what I did at 27.

But I was able to learn it without having to learn it the hard way. And I had seen other people. That was the other thing too. I'd also seen other people that willingly chose to use violence and it turned out horribly for them. And so I was able to use that as a learning tool. And luckily I learned it, you know, in time. And so, yeah, it was hard. It's hard to choke that down. But when you really look at the whole thing, what I talk about to everybody is the three-day rule. You know, I say, hey, whatever incident you think requires you to respond with violence, just ask yourself this question. Three days from now, if you find yourself in a jail cell or six feet under, dead, and you're able to answer this question, was that the only thing you could have done?

Are you still okay with your decision? Was this the only response? And violence being the response to something is that rare black swan event in your world. Rarely does anything meet the three-day rule threshold. You won't even think about it. You won't even care. You won't even remember it. And yet so many people will get emotionally triggered. And especially with the world we're in right now, that's my big concern for 2024. I mean, 2020 was bad enough. But I think 2024, no matter what happens as far as a political situation, I just think

the triggering is going to be off the charts. And people are going to do emotional, make emotional decisions and drive themselves into a potentially violent situation that in normal times, it never would have happened. And that's why this year, I'm really trying to get that message out

and telling people, hey, listen, I can teach you all the physical stuff about injury to the human body and training and all that other stuff. But if you don't have a right understanding of violence, if you don't really have the right mental capacity to understand what violence is, you know, all the things that don't require it versus that rare occasion where you're devoid of choice and you have to use the tool, you're going to have the susceptibility to get drawn into something that could end horribly for you. Yeah, it's a massive, massive point, brother.

What else do you think? I mean, we're doing great here, i i'm not worried about cutting it at any point in time uh but generally speaking you know it's around 90 90 minutes two hours max uh for my listenership um you know we're all brought to the group that we're in for various reasons but all there are some similarities and commonalities there and it's concerned for the future what concerns you? I mean, you brought up one of these concerns is the divisiveness of society and people living emotionally. We've seen this from 2020, 2016, and it seems that every turn it just gets a little

bit more divided and a little bit more panic button. No one can predict what's going to happen in the future, but what are some of the things that you see on the horizon that would be worthwhile paying attention to or preparing for? Well, you know, the, the group that we keep referencing that we're part of what's great about it is it's, it's just these like-minded individuals that get together and it's really the idea of, you know, and we're all different. Like some of you guys are in really cool situations where you're in more rural situations where literally

you can take care of everything. You take care of all aspects of life. You know, you grow your own food, provide your own energy, all that other great stuff. And then there's groups like us that are, you know, hey, we're right now because of, you know, reality is we're in the suburbs or we're, you know, some guys are urban. Um, but there's this whole idea of control, you can control and sell and being self-reliant as much as possible. That's what I truly appreciate about. I think what's happened since, um, since, since 2020, really. I don't think we have, I think one of the greatest things that came out of this is I think it destroyed celebrity culture. I think they've lost, I think celebrities have lost all credibility where they used to drive a lot of things before. I think institutions have really screwed themselves and just they've lost their credibility. But I think it's really provoked a lot of us to, you know, research areas, you know, our health, our self-protection, our, you know, our food sourcing, all of those things are happening amongst groups and people are getting together and talking like our group is,

you know, and it's just something that, you know, I don't know, Kyle, when I was growing up, I mean, I would have known the political background or the political party that a majority of my friends and associates would be part of. It's just politics did not dominate things the way it does these days in these terms and the cancel culture and all this other stuff. We're in a very, I think we're adjusting, you know, we as humans are adjusting to this new reality of social media and this instantaneous communication and this lack of privacy. You're seeing things exposed all over And you're also seeing things, you know, the legacy part of people trying to keep the old ways and trying to squelch things. And it's causing a lot of anger. I try not to get caught up in that. And I have my opinions.

And it's there, but I want to control what I can control, you know, and I want to take care of my family. I want to make sure that I'm prepared for things. You know, I just did a webinar yesterday for my, my people on, you know, 2024, just basic preparations, you know, just basic things that you should have, you know, you know, it's stuff that we all talk about very basic compared to what we talk about on, on our group where you guys just, I mean, I get so much good information with such a good diverse group. Um, but my, my concern is that no matter the outcome of the election, you're going to have a large portion of the population unhappy. And I just don't know how much more the country can take that way.

Friends of mine that are sane and sober people rightfully are concerned about this. And rightfully, I mean, you know, you're really in a hotbed of it in Texas. People are really understanding that, hey, we got to take care of ourselves. You know, I mean, you know, like Tim and I know Tucker was doing the same thing. They're all creating their own schools, you know, for kids and stuff. And I think you guys are doing that. And people just, you just don't trust the institutions anymore.

And I don't think they deserve our trust. I think that's been proven on a lot of things. But my concern is people are going to unwittingly, well, they're going to voluntarily put themselves in situations that are going to unwittingly, well, they're going to voluntarily put themselves in situations that are going to invite violence into their life or their family's lives with no good outcome. Meaning, even if you win whatever argument you're trying to do, it's not going it's not gonna change the situation not gonna change that individual's thinking at all because what we're seeing that the people that are out and about and the loudest voices are on the extremes it's either the extreme left or the extreme right and the people in the not just the middle but the people that are making the more libertarian type decisions and the,

you know, just, I just want to live a great life. And I want, you know, I just don't want people telling me what I have to put in my body and do all those things. You can achieve a great portion of that. And I don't think we're going to see, it won't work again if they try to implement anything as far as mandatory vaccinations or a lot of these lockdowns are shutting down businesses and the destruction that they did to the middle class was just intolerable. I mean, the fact that I'm still in business is amazing. But yeah, my concern is not so much that it's going to be as one-sided as it was in 2020, because I think because of X and, you know, Rumble and other places that there are now outlets where both sides can get their

points across on social media. So that I think will actually be more positive. But I still think that we are so polarized as a country right now that, you know, people are going to buy into it again. And, you know, it's just, I was talking to, I was talking to one of the guys in our group. He's out here in Vegas and we're talking about that and just the greatness of getting out in the country and just turning off all your electronics and spending time with your family and doing stuff. And then you come back into the world and you turn it back on and you realize, holy shit, nothing's changed.

I didn't miss out on anything. And I just had a great week. I just had a great week not worrying about this. But now, does that mean that we don't prepare? No, dude, I've got, one of my businesses out here is, uh, um, machine guns Vegas, and we have a manufacturer's license. I have all the weapons I need. I've loaded up on ammo. I've taken all the precautions, you know, my family's prepared. If something happens, uh, as best as we can in the living situation that

we have. And I think about all that stuff, but I don't let it drive me. It's not my, I'm not going to let it drive me from not living a full life. And, you know, that's what I've really seen. I've seen people lose friends. I've seen people change their whole mode of operating, you know, around, you know, incidences that they have very little control over. And I just think it's, it's just a recipe for disaster, you know, amongst people and the way they communicate.

Yeah. I love that. And a recipe for, for a life not well-lived, you know, at the very minimum. Right. And there's no doubt about that. Well, dude, I've appreciated every minute of your time, Tim. I look forward to jumping on your podcast in the future, whenever time permits. I have so many questions for you. It's going to be great. I'll be the one shutting up on that one. Well, I could soapbox too, brother.

I got that gift to gab as well. But it's been excellent having you on. Where can people find you? And then we'll link to all this stuff in the show notes for people for when violence is the answer. You read your own book, which I got to gotta applaud as well because you read it phenomenally well uh love listening to audible and especially when the author reads their own book and you did great with it i appreciate that thank you um yeah you can you find me probably the best place is uh just tim larkin.com um it's easy just you know my name and uh if you go there, if anything, if you like this, there's a PDF, a free PDF we send out.

We don't slam you. We don't do it. But if you like the principles of what I was talking about, you know, it's some free information that you can get along the side, along with what you and I just talked about. So that'd be the best place probably to find me. i'm on instagram um and facebook and all that good stuff too and just tim larkin you'll find me awesome thanks again brother it's been excellent having you you got my friend Thank you.