Kyle Kingsbury Podcast - #391 Beyond the Flames: The Inspiring Story of Dustin Bunch

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

Welcoming Dustin Bunch, introduced by a mutual friend, Ryan Mitchell. Dustin, a former firefighter lineman from Southern California, shares his gripping life story. The podcast, recorded before the LA fires, delves into Dustin's journey in the field, and after a traumatic injury—breaking his neck while diving from a boat—his resilience, and recovery through unconventional treatments like stem cells. Dustin elaborates on his experiences growing up, working in high-risk environments, and his passion for helping others. Kyle and Dustin discuss the importance of a strong mindset, community support, and overcoming life's challenges. They also touch upon Dustin's future ambitions to create a retreat for injured individuals and their families, promoting wellness and independence.   Connect with Dustin here: Instagram Merica Strong   Our Sponsors: With Happy Hippo, you're getting a product that's been sterilized of pathogens, tested for impurities and heavy metals, and sold with a guarantee. Go to happyhippo.com/kkp and use Code KKP for 15% off the entire store Organifi.com/kkp and grab a Sunrise to Sunset kit to be covered with Red, Green and Gold, with 20% off using code KKP Looking for Shilajit? Head over to blacklotusshilajit.com and enter code KKP to receive 15% off your orderD EARN in gold and silver. Click link below for a great discount! monetary-metals.com/kkp If there’s ONE MINERAL you should be worried about not getting enough of... it’s MAGNESIUM. Head to http://www.bioptimizers.com/kingsbu now and use code KINGSBU10 to claim your 10% discount. Connect with Kyle: I'm back on Instagram, come say hey @kylekingsbu Twitter: @kingsbu Fit For Service Academy App: Fit For Service App Our Farm Initiative: @gardenersofeden.earth Odysee: odysee.com/@KyleKingsburypod Youtube: Kyle Kingbury Podcast Kyle's Website: www.kingsbu.com - Gardeners of Eden site If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe & leave a 5-star review with your thoughts!

Welcome to today's podcast. We have an awesome guest, Dustin Bunch, who my boy, Ryan Mitchell, from way back at Monta Vista High School, way back in the day, introduced me to. Dustin comes out of the firefighting community in Southern California. He's a lineman, he's done a lot of cool high-risk jobs,

and has just an incredible fucking story that I wanted to share with you guys. This podcast was recorded before the LA fires, so if you're wondering why we don't discuss that on the podcast, that is the reason why. And for whatever reason, didn't see it for a while. So we actually have been sitting on this one for a couple of months here, but realize that thank you, Dustin, for letting me know, this is a phenomenal episode, Dustin. And I mentioned this on the podcast as well. The type of injury Dustin got is something that uniquely and oddly I have, for whatever reason, have at least five friends that

have gone through the exact same thing in all with very wide ranging recoveries or lack of, for that matter, you know, one of my buddies is dead. So it's a, it's a fucking serious deal. And Dustin's uniquely got a wonderful fucking head on his shoulders he is an amazing person a family man and uh anybody who gets a chance to know him will tell you the same thing he's he's a great guy i know you guys gonna love this podcast support this support our podcast by sharing it with friends leave us a five-star rating with one or two ways the show's helped you out in life. And listen to our podcast sponsors. You know, we're doing these mid-roll now, and they are important.

They keep this show alive and well. So support our sponsors. Support the show by purchasing from our sponsors. All right, without further ado, my brother, Dustin Bunch. Brother, it's so good to have you on the podcast. Definitely stoked, man. Yeah, we got introduced from our dear friend, Ryan Mitchell. Ryan was a guy that I grew up with.

I'd love to have on the podcast one day. I'm just going to put that out there right now. It's just so right to let that simmer for a minute. I knew Ryan in high school and junior high and really became closer to him in high school. He was the captain of the football team as a senior and a junior. And I was, I think, as a senior at least, if not a junior, but loved playing ball with him, stayed in contact. I loved the route that he went, you know, going down south, getting into firefighting. I wanted to play football at Arizona State.

When I finished that, I had a lot of few buddies get into Phoenix Fire Department. So I kept my eye on that. And then, um, as, uh, circumstances unfolded, I got, you know, the opportunity to fight and that's really something that took off. So even though I was going through fire school and things like that and got my EMT done, um, you know, my buddies that were on Phoenix fire were like, let's see how far you can go with this. This department will always be here if you're up for it later. And, and, um, you know, and then when fighting ended, it was like, let's, let's get into podcasting and other cool shit and human optimization. And that, that became more of my flavor, but I've always had, excuse me,

I've always had a love for first responders. Uh, I've done a lot, I've done a lot of tours for the troops. Um, even though I don't think I ever could have been in the military with my current makeup of my constitution. Mad credit. Love the men and women that say yes to that and and love the people in your line of work. It takes a certain type of person to do the shit that you guys do. And you're also a big boy. You're bigger than I am. So I got mad respect for that too because it's not you don't see that often right you see people of all shapes and sizes i remember going through the fire training and they're like the people we bring in aren't d1 athletes the people that fit you know they fit into the mold they're people you're going to live with the rest of your life

and how important that was and that was really, that's something I think about often now having the farm, uh, cause people we bring here to work with, like we're around all day, all night, you know, these got, you know, they, they're, they're a family. They're, they're not, they're not a, an employee, you know, and that makes a big difference too. But talk about your life growing up, talk about what, uh, you know, why you chose the direction you chose and everything that you're into when you were young. Yeah. I mean yeah i mean my uh i come from a blue collar family um mom and dad both worked and we i lived on both spectrums when i was super young um lived out here in escondido and then um my dad was in the military and then it was like oh we're gonna we're to move back to Ohio. And I was born in Ohio. So moved back to Ohio, you know, like second grade, lived in a small town, got to have that experience.

You know, the one or two stoplights, it was called Jackson Center, Ohio, like town shut down for basketball type of thing like you know like they do in texas for football and um lived uh in a place called circleville ohio where my neighbors were amish you know got to see that that side of the life and you know we grew up on three-wheelers and all that typical country lifestyle type of thing and then in high school actually moved back to southern california um up in Lancaster, Palmdale, the military area. And my grandfather, he was a full bird colonel in the Air Force, had a lot to do with the B-2 project and the stealth project when it first came out in the 80s and stuff. And that's where he was living. So we moved back over there and got to see both spectrums, really broad spectrum of, you know, you're living next to Amish people one day and then you're in the seventh

grade playing football again. And now you're back out here in North LA and you got, you got low riders and the NASA project in your backyard. So it was like, Hey, you don't think of nothing like that when you're a kid, right? You're just like, Oh, is what it is. As long as we've got a three wheeler and a 22, we're good to go. So I was, I mean, what it is as long as we got a three-wheeler and a 22 we're good to go so i i was i mean i always

tell people i'm super blessed and diverse on that side to be able to live in both spectrums you know i mean i'm a country boy at heart forever will be and you know but then also to be able to be street racing in the streets of la growing up to see that side made me who I am today. So then, um, when I got out of high school, I actually went to Fresno and went to the fire Academy up there. Um, and then just got the opportunity to come to San Diego. They called and said, yeah, we're, we're hiring people. And it was the first year, 2003, uh, was when like the Cedar fire burnt through all of San Diego. It started in Julian and basically went all the way to the ocean and back. And it was like, just opened your eyes right there. You're like, well,

are you going to do this or not? Because everything's on fire. And we had to, we were done quick that year. Like Ryan was down there on the truck and it was more or less an eye opening experience for me like thing this is what i was made to do like i love helping people but like you said i mean i'm six six 270 pounds i don't i don't i don't fit in small holes very well so when they were like oh you you know you want to do confined space and i'm like no i want to be uh the person in charge of confined space so I don't have to go in the hole anymore. I took the classes and, you know, you're shoved in these little holes in these pipes and you're like, yeah, just get me through the class.

I'm good. You know, send the little guy in the hole. But being in the fire service was was amazing. Best job in the world you know what are you doing you're hanging out with your boys you're working out you're living with them full-time kicking in doors breaking things everybody loves to see you in the red truck and back then we did it for the chicks we didn't make very good money like you're you're literally like i think when we started like a seasonal firefighter we would work four days on and that's four 24-hour shifts and then you'd have three days off and we did the math you know a few years into it we're like we're not even making minimum wage like if you did if you did hour for hour like you weren't making that money.

And they had a thing. It was called you get your nickel. And it was like, what the heck? Because you didn't get paid from midnight to 5 o'clock in the morning unless you got a medical aid or a car accident or something. You weren't going to leave this thing. You weren't allowed to leave either. So it was like, well, can we go to the bar at 12? And they're like, no.

You're still on duty. I'm like, who wrote this contract? It it is fucked like yeah not a great deal yeah but i mean now it's looking back i think it's like what you know it molded me at such a young age to be able to do those things and you're stuck on duty you know you're living and breathing with all these boys you guys get to you know watch you know the guys come in and they're like oh my chick's pregnant and they're like how the hell are you gonna afford that on this salary like what are you gonna do but that's what uh molded me so much you know and uh a buddy of mine strubel and i uh when the sunrise power link was coming through san diego they were asking for fire watch people guys to do um like uh basically whether building the power lines and you're going through the forest service like they need people out there

to make sure it's not just not burning down And we went out there and a bunch of other buddies, Greg Gorton and Guy. And they were like, just watch everything to make sure the guys aren't going to burn anything down while we're building this thing, while we're building this new power line. And the power line guys started to meet them and see everything that was going on. And they're like, you guys want to do this? And I'm like, well, how much money do you guys make? know they're like you guys want to do this and i'm like well how much money you guys make and they're like 300 grand a year and i'm like fucking a wait wait a second like the the bolts are color-coded you get the uniform you get these pickup trucks pay for fuel and you make that much money they're like yeah are you afraid of heights i'm like no i'm afraid of falling don't let go right so at that time like uh that was like 2010 2011 um so we were working at the fire service

i was working down in uh in el cajon and they were like well, you're, you're working, you know, three days on now and you had four days off. So we had a time to make this money at the power line stuff. And OSHA didn't even have a rule for you to be tied off. So these guys would be climbing up in the, in these structures. And they just had a leather belt that would go around the piece of metal. And then the only thing that you got to to that kept you from falling was your hands like as you're putting in bolts and building these things and helicopters are over your head and and that uh the safety people are like well you know

it's something you guys are interested in and it's like yeah i want to do that so then got into the apprenticeship and they were they're like well don't go to the apprenticeship. Why don't you come over here? And you know, with your medical background, you could be like the safety guy and manager and stuff like that. And got bamboozled basically. Like, you don't want to be the safety guy, like the guy telling somebody what to do. Right. And then, uh, basically took it on and they were like osha came out and said you guys have

to wear harnesses now and you have to tie you have to tie off you know this is how it's going to work and we want you to go around telling everybody how to do this when we had to teach you to teach these guys i'm like that's great because these guys hate us now they're putting stickers on the back of our truck that say even even firemen need heroes, and it was a guy on a power pole. I'm like, you fuckers. Yeah, I was like, you guys are pricks. But you're going to call me when you sprain your ankle. Like, hey, how do I fix this bunch?

I've had guys come to me, to my house, 8 o'clock at night, because they didn't want to tell the safety guy, hey, I took off the tip of my finger today at work what do i do and it's like five hours later you're gonna show up to my house like where's the tip and they have it like in a ziploc bag can we sew it back on and i'm like i'm not a surgeon. I'm a fireman. But even like, I mean, years later after I got hurt, these are the same guys that slept on the hospital floor, making sure I was always there. They gave me the shit and they talk shit all the time. But at the same time, when shit hit the fan,

like they were always calling and wanted to be fixed up. So it was like always a good thing but we started teaching everybody how to do like the rope rescue side because you would get hurt back in those days and they would just lower you to the ground they would literally wrap a rope around you and just lower you to the ground so you're like incapacitated like well this is a body recovery guys because you're 200 feet in the air on some of these towers. Like we got to we got to we got to do it better. You know, you guys are out here.

You're doing this job. But there's technology has come so much farther with ropes and pulleys and systems. And now some of the stuff that they have that comes out that we train with, you know, because I'm still helping these people out and doing these jobs, but they'll self repel themselves. You know, the guys are able to tie off and 300 feet in the air. And it's just basically a system when springs and it lowers them come a lot. And the basically 15 years that I've been in this line service and working with the IBEW and different contractors.

And now I still work for a company called Barnard and they're out of Bozeman, Montana, and everything from power lines to dams and reservoirs. Just an amazing company that goes anywhere basically in the nation, Canada, and takes on all the biggest projects that nobody wants. It's gnarly, but that's what I basically do today. Handle a lot of their safety stuff, their third party online. I still, I own a company called America Consulting, and we actually still do fire prevention and protection when they're building power lines, construction projects. The border wall was another big project we've done.

I'm still actively able to do that on a daily basis. And the guys that basically work for me and with me are a lot of the fire captains and chiefs that I worked with back in the day that are just retired. And their wives are like, get the hell out of the house. We don't want you here. Call bunch, go sit out there and do something productive with yourself. It's cut like full circle, you know,

with the fire service and the IBEW and work with the power line guys, because it's not just like in California, like we're everywhere. There's, you know, from Wyoming to Vegas, there's a big job coming up and the logistical side of that side. It's like nobody thought would ever be there, but with all the wildland fires, I mean, what happened with PG&E and the Paradise Fire up north, burning down whole cities. It's just where it's at on the West Coast. Like buyer season never quits.

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Choose Black Lotus Shilajit. It's time to experience the true power of nature. Head over to blacklotusshilajit.com and enter code KKP to receive 15% off your order. All right, quick note on this. My favorite product is their Shilajit honey. It is outrageous. It's really yummy. I throw it in tea. I throw it in coffee. I throw it in everything, but usually the hot liquids I like to mix with. Again, Black Lotus Shilajit, ultra high quality, very tasty stuff, and the creme de la creme as far as I'm concerned. Always interesting to me growing up in California and having the, like when I got here to Austin, it was raining every season it was green and in the summer I was like it's hotter than Mexico but it feels like Mexico it looks like Mexico you know it's green all four seasons we get a little bit of snow uh every other winter or so and then we

went into a drought here and I was like this ain't a drought you guys will have it just doesn't rain this year like I remember not raining for 20 years until El Nino and La Nina hit. That was a fucking 20-year drought. Like that was a real-ass drought. And then second year, third year, we're in now. We see our ponds shrink down. And I'm like, all right, we clearly need water. And it's also been 90 degrees for six months.

So I guess Texas can call a drought a little faster than California because of the, you know, the, the, the heat is so much more prominent. It just evaporates everything. And as a rancher, I can see that now as a huge fucking problem for the animals. You know, we got rid of our cows a year ago just because we couldn't keep them. We couldn't keep them big on hay and alfalfa. So we moved them out, but a real drought, when you go that far without water, you know, like you can see how it affects things. And I've always loved eucalyptus. I think they're one of the most beautiful trees. They're littered throughout Southern California. And when I'm in California, I think of them. And I just remember seeing those get sawed down,

you know, and thinned out. And I was like like what are they doing that for and they're like those things are like matches and i was like oh shit like all right that actually makes sense it's probably the only reason the only good reason to take out a tree that old is because of the fact that they you know they're so prominent and so easy to catch fire you know and they're everywhere here in ramona like where we up, you know, I'm on four acres up here on top of the hill they're just such a dirty tree that's full of oil and they're self-proven so like the branches will sit there

and grow out and they get just full of oil and they're just like, oh we're just going to drop on the house and people are always like, oh I love this tree and it's like, why is it, no it's horrible, we don't have fucking koalas yeah there's nothing to eat them back that is true, it's like why is it no it's horrible we don't we don't have fucking koalas yeah there's nothing to eat them back that is true it's an australian tree those people don't know that yeah oh man but we'll talk about you know what when so you've given us a good

view of the career and that's awesome that you still get to work you know in many of those and many of the things have come full circle. The thing that drew me to the fire department was the thing that I was missing from ASU football. It was the team. It was the camaraderie. It was the, you know, the brotherhood and the fact that you'd have people that you really gave a shit about, you know, not coworkers, but, but family teammates, you know? And, and I love that that's still, you know,

that through your hardest part of your life and even through today, that's still something that holds. That's really cool and speaks to that line of work, including linemen. I had a couple of buddies get a job as linemen right after high school. And I was like, what am I doing in college? These guys made more as an apprentice than I was doing, you know, my first 10 years outside of college. And they made a lot more than I made than I was doing, you know, my first 10 years outside of college. And they made a lot more than I made when I was in the UFC.

I mean, a fuck ton more. Like, it was not even comparable. It's a good deal. It's a good deal for sure. My little brother, he just topped out as a – he's a journeyman lineman now in Colorado. And he left California becauseman lineman now in colorado and um he left he left california um because he couldn't get in because the list is long i mean you know anybody that's on the

blue collar trade like goes after the good union jobs and it's not saying it's not a dangerous job but it's kind of the same way like you have that brotherhood um and when i transferred over like the fire service like those guys are always going to be you know my first brothers in the in the mix and stuff like that and with the ibw these guys are coming from everywhere um once you're a journeyman lineman and you get your your ticket and you're in the united states you can literally drag up from California and then all everybody's obviously heading to North Carolina for all the storms and they go to storm work. And some guys only work for three, four months and then they don't work the rest of the year. It's just that that that way, I mean, it's not uncommon to work a 16 hour day for a month straight. Yeah, yeah, they definitely, definitely bust their ass in,

in, in all the lines of work that you've mentioned thus far. Talk about, you know, your, your, when, when did the shit hit the fan for you and what did that actually look like? And this is part, part of, you know, it's a big reason I wanted to have you on the podcast because due to the fact that I've had more friends than I would ever have imagined have had this injury and they've all been on the on the spectrum from dead now to working with me and everything works and obviously there's everything works as an asterisk because there's a lot of shit that has to happen you know from an injury like that but um at what point was that for you? Were you already a father?

So my daughter was 10 months old. I was 36 years old working for Barnard. I just started our company with my wife. My wife works full-time in the power line industry also. She's a project manager and a scheduler been with kuana services and par for 17 years it's one of the biggest ones in the nation and so we were asses and elbows doing you know well we had you know house in montana house the river house you know where we were at in southern california i was building the line for southern

california at that time and we were always going out to parker arizona I was building the line for Southern California at that time. And we were always going out to park Arizona. It was a big thing for me to go out and get on the water and relax. And it was like, okay, like this is, you know, we're close enough. It's like four hours away. And so once a month we'd always head out there to our place and had a trailer and it was 4th of July. And I had some friends on the boat and we

were just going to go watch fireworks on the water park arizona is a small stretch um right after lake abasu like 14 miles of river from dam to dam and had the boat and a tri-tune had the family and everything on it and the they had some older kids that wanted to go up river and play at the sandbar and i had the underglow lights so they could play you know and see the fish and stuff at nighttime so i'm like yeah we'll go up hang out for a little bit let all the boats clear after the fireworks were done and pull it into the sandbar just like i always do for going the past 15 years of my life jump off the boat as it's coming in just to cool off. Cause it's 105 degrees at nighttime still and just dove off.

Well, they turned the dam off that night. And the water wasn't flowing as much as it usually is. And I dove in, Oh, just over the side of the boat and buckled my arms, snapped my neck right on the sandbar. It was only like two and a half, three feet deep. And when it happened just underwater, the boat kept going.

And they were like, yeah, Bunch is in the water, but he's not coming up. My wife was holding my baby at that time, my daughter. And then my buddy Scott jumps in and they got me up. And I'm like, well, I can't feel anything. Like hold me in C-spine. And Scott, uh, he was actually working with me at Barnard as another safety person. His wife was on the boat and I'm like, yeah, we got to call 911. Like things are going to go bad real quick and didn't have any movement at all. Um, didn't have any pain at that time. And so when the sheriff got there, the sheriff's boat wasn't big enough to put me on with the backboard and

everything. So they were like, well, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, I'm like, all right, I'm just going to have to take over this scene on myself. So explain to them how to get me on the backboard and strap me down and put me on my boat. And we'll run it down, you know, told them basically where we're going to land the helicopter. And they were like, well, there was three other people that were injured and the helicopters were all heading to Phoenix. So I had to wait until the birds got back. But then they transported me uh out to phoenix and then my wife she was like i'm just gonna take him board shorts and stuff we'll get him fixed and

he'll come back so she showed up with my sandals and a new pair of board shorts and the doctor was like oh no he's not leaving like we're not even thinking we're gonna do do the surgery. Like my break as a C5, C6, it was all the way in half. So like some of the pictures, like I posted online and shown everybody been transparent about it. They have to grind down my C5 to be able to put the C6 back on top. And they didn't want to do the surgery. They just told my wife, they're like, as soon as we cut them open, everything's going to fall apart and you'll die.

And she's like, well, you got to try like something's going to happen. So she signed all the paperwork for all the surgery to get done and stuff. And my thing, I was still awake. Like I was telling the doctor, like,

come on, just push it back. It'll be fine. So they, they go out to my wife and they're like, so we need you to be completely honest and tell us how many you know how much drugs he does she's like what are you talking about and she's like well he won't shut up like we have the most anesthesia we can put in and he's still trying to

tell the doctor how to push his neck back and she's like he only drinks jack daniels that's the only thing he does and he's sober today he didn't drink because he was driving the boat and i'm like damn it if i should have been drunk then i probably would have been fine so they uh they like pumped me full of all the anesthesia and like all right put me out and put everything back. And like the surgeon, basically, like when I woke up, still had the tube and everything down my throat. And I'm like, pull this fucking thing out. Like, I'm fine.

I can breathe. I'm good. And the surgeon comes in and he was like, yeah, man, like you did a doozy. Like, we don't ever see these and we usually just don't do surgery we just pull the plug and call it good but your wife's adamant to keep you alive and i'm like well that's that's good for her thanks and i'm like i'm like all right so like how bad is it like you're never gonna move anything you're you're basically gonna be bed bound and we don't see anything coming back. Like, okay, well, I'll never talk to you again.

We're good on that part. And lying in bed and I had, you know, the whole world out there in the emergency room, people flying in because they thought I was just going to die. And I'm like, okay, like, what can we do? What's the best thing right now and then um i'd been following matt hughes um from since he got hit by the train and learning about stem cells because making a fuck ton of money all these guys that are out there doing construction i'm like stem cells are the future like prolonging life you know your little nicks and your bumps and

all your bruises and you guys are making stupid fucking money like let's put a little bit back into your body let's think about where how far you guys are going to go and so i already knew a little bit about it and then so i just told my wife i'm like find matt hughes like get a hold of him let's get him on the phone let's see what see what what's going on so within a matter of like 24 hours matt ended up calling me and he's never known me from adam but everybody in the waiting room got on social media and was like here here's bunch's story like this is what's going on and he had one treatment at that time of stem cells and then um bio accelerators right there in in in Scottsdale and Phoenix. And they ended up,

ended up coming over to the hospital, looking at everything. We sent them all the records and they were basically like, we'll come down here right now. It was like, well, that's not going to work. We all know that like insurance and everything like that. Like, it's just not going to not going to work. We all know that like insurance and everything like that. Like, it's just not going to, not going to happen that quick. So, um, what we did was we found, I found out and did a little more research and found exosomes, um, the proteins that transport your stem cells throughout your body. And there was a company in Vegas that, um, heard about my story through the firefighters and stuff. And they called

and they're like, we'd really like to help and figure out what we can do. Let's get some exosomes in your body. And then all the surgeons are like, no, we don't do any of that stuff here in America. Like it's not FDA approved and all that shit. So what I did was I went ahead and said, screw it. Send me the exosomes and then I'll put a man in my body. That's what we did. Didn't ask for really permission or anything like that. Then on Friday, we were at the Barrows Institute

for Recovery. Basically, you're there for eight weeks after you break your neck and stuff. They basically teach you how life's going to work. This is what you have to live with. And just a Rolodex of medical bullshit. And so I was there 10 o'clock at night, put the exosomes in.

I couldn't move my neck. Like I was in so much pain, 13 pills twice a day. Put the exosomes in and I could move my neck on Tuesday. Like some pain and, you know, but it just, it drastically like was going away. And I knew how bad it hurt because I was dumb enough. The second day after surgery, I said, well, take me off all the pain meds. Like, I got to see how bad this is going to be. And on the fourth day, we plugged the pain meds back in because my wife's like, no, you're just sitting here crying all day long.

Like, you're not going to tough it out after two days of them cutting your head in half and putting metal bars in. Like, there's no reason for you to put yourself through this and but i knew i didn't want to chew on pills forever like the baclofen and the oxycodone and all that bullshit i'm like no this isn't gonna work like we can change some things around and they already told me they're like the only reason that your neck stayed where it's at is because you're so large like if you were you know smaller like and you didn't work out as much as you did and stuff like that, like it just went half and half and you, you know, cause I never even needed to be traped.

Like I was breathing on my own and everything like that. So once we did the exosomes, that's when I knew I was like, okay, sign me up. Like what's the stem cells cost and all that kind of stuff. And we were going to get down there and they were like, well, how do you get down there? That was another part. Cause it's in Medellin,

Columbia. It's like, okay, like this is going to be a thing. Cause I, I didn't, I couldn't hold myself up at all at that time. Like there was no control at all.

My hands, I couldn't hold up. Like it would just flop around. Everything was like Gumby. And when're 6'6 270 you had a small team that moves you around because you're just not moving so I mean my wife hats off to her like she orchestrated everything at that time she moved out to Phoenix with my daughter and then friends would come and help with the baby. Every day I was in the hospital, I never was alone. Like there was a firefighter there.

There was a lineman there. There was a buddy there. Everybody moved in. They gave me my own room. Everything went in. Big screen TVs went in, flags. All the exercise equipment came. I mean, even in the the ICU like everybody was there like we already knew like you have to move the muscles let's get

them moving don't let them sit so every three hours all the boys they would move my legs move my arms move my fingers everything to start getting it moved and i mean even today like i'm still 270 which is good and bad like the atrophy i don't have that sucks up away like most people with quadriplegics you just see them they're skin and bones and they have no muscle now i'm 270 pounds and it's even harder for me to move around myself, but even harder for everybody else to move me around. I mean, that's what I tell, like, Brendan, he's my caretaker, and he's a professional bodybuilder. I was going to say, Brendan looks like a fucking bodybuilder

or a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's one of those yoke dudes I've ever seen. He came in a movie, I was like, well, that makes sense. That just makes sense. Like, who else could be your caretaker? He's fucking jacked to the gills. Yeah. Yeah, when he first started, he was like, so how does this work?

And I'm like, we'll get through it. We'll figure it out. You know? He actually came from Zimbabwe. And he moved to the country when he was 11. So he's got an interesting story too. But I mean, my wife, she's five, six. And she gets it done all by herself every weekend.

Like we've, I mean, it's a lifestyle you take on. Like you don't have a choice. You can either lay in bed or figure out how to get it done. So how did you make it down to, how did you make it to Medellin? I've been there, I've been there before, not for stem cells,

but I've heard a lot of people like Chuck Liddell, Jason Ellis, like a lot of big name people have gone to that place in Medellin and say, it's one of the best places in the world. All right, y'all another quick break to tell you about happyhippo.com slash KKP. Go to happyhippo.com slash KKP. Go to happyhippo.com. Use code KKP for 15% off everything in the entire store. With Happy

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the very best benefits. I love it. I love it pre-sleep. I love it pre-workout. It's a wonderful tool and a wonderful supplement that I've added to my arsenal. All right. Check it out over at happyhippo.com slash KKP and use the code KKP for 15% off everything in the entire store. It's amazing. It changed my life uh basically we we kind of duct tape myself to the plane

um going down there the first time and i didn't fit in anything the first time like even the medical van that came to pick me up my buddy andre like he had to take a leatherman tool that he had and he took out the seats to be able to fit me in and i was still i'm like this in the back of the van like like nothing fit i mean they were like we don't even know if we can get you in the hyperbaric chamber i'm like come on we could do this but i mean they bent over backwards with all the accommodations and um my first treatment i I went down there and Dr. Helper told me, she was like, we'd really like you to stop taking all the pills. And I'm like, oh, that's a good thought. Yeah, me too.

But I don't know. And she was like, we're going to give you the first treatment. And basically, like Matt and I were there at the same time. And he went first and he went and he come back out and he was like all right it's gonna hurt like a motherfucker and i'm like well i don't feel anything i don't feel anything back there he's like oh fuck you lucky bastard i feel it brother like so like he was sitting like i'm laying in bed and he's like right here he's squeezing my hand. And I'm like, I can feel you squeezing me. He's like, well, fuck, that thing hurts.

And the doctor's like, puts the first needle in because they do a spinal cord tap. And they drain your fluid out. And he puts the needle in. And he says, oh. And I said, what does oh mean? He's like, you mui grande bunch. You need a bigger needle. I'm like, fuck.

So they're going to put a bigger one in your back. And I'm like, can you stop commentating? Because you're not helping. So, yeah, they stopped taking the pills that first night. I'm like, this is going to be fun. And went through a little bit of a withdrawal. But I haven't taken Western medicine since that first shot like that's incredible um my nerve pain is diminished again and i still have pain like when people ask like like i said i do like two

to three families a week um mentoring and stuff and i have pain but not enough where i want to chew on pills like it lets me know it lets me know i'm still alive um and i know the more uh nerve sensation i get back the better off i am right but going down there um and i've been this will be six times this last year. I did four treatments. So they want you to go every three months when you start out. And I did two treatments and then COVID hit. And I actually had the family, we all packed up and moved. And I moved down to back at Mecca out of Dallas-Fort Worth for training and therapy and stuff to work with Kendall and Ryan. And then COVID hit when we were down there and they were like, everything's got to be closed.

Like, I'm like, well, I moved here for therapy. Like, I can't just sit here and wait to see when the world's going to start again. So ended up moving back to Menifee and just built a gym in the garage. And just five days a week, basically what we did is I would wake up and then leave the house at like seven, drive to Pasadena, do therapy. It was like three, four hours,

leave there, drive to San Diego, do neuroacupuncture and then drive back. It was like three, four hours, leave there, drive to San Diego, do neuro acupuncture, and then drive back. It was like a 10 hour day for five, five, five days a week. Um, just in the van with, at that time, my caretaker, Jason, like, and he was a project manager for our company. And he was like, I'll do whatever I need to do. He had no medical experience at all. And like, he doesn't do well with fecal matter in blood. And I'm like, well, we shouldn't have a lot of that. Like he did his fair share.

I'll tell you that. Because when you first break your neck, like you're going through so much stuff and you don't even know, like you're driving down the road and you hit a bump and like, you just, I'm like, oh, I think I just pissed myself. Like I had no control. And, you know, you're in those, those moments and, you know, I'm a guy that did everything myself. You know, I'm over here lifting my own railroad ties and setting everything to taking care of the family, cooking dinner. And then now I got to ask somebody for a drink and you know you're on the side of the road changing out your pants and stuff because you just pissed yourself and i definitely learned early on like you're gonna have to just let people

in and or you're not gonna get anywhere like so then i just told myself i'm just like well it doesn't matter how shitty the day is it's not going to ruin the whole day and i'd go to therapy and the therapist would be like bunch i'll train with you and you piss your pants as long as you're comfortable with it i'll just keep going i'm like all right let's let's get it it's gonna suck and but i didn't want to miss the workouts because that's what kept me sane like Like if I start moving something some way, and that's like when I knew like once I started twitching something like, okay, I'm going to get it all day long, all day long, all day long, all day long. And then it was like, okay, now I can hold my arm up.

I can move, I can do certain, certain little things. But it's a lot of time just you and your mind and when i the stem cells took away the pain where i could do more and more and more and then it was just a diet thing like learning that low inflammation diet um obviously when you go to get stem cells you want to be as clean as possible that way they're actually going to work and do what they need to do um you don't want to have any open wounds where it's going to go and you know it's a lot of money when you're putting it towards your health and your body and you want it to work and for me that once the pain was gone it was good to go it's like i don't have to focus on that part so much. And then it just kept getting better and

better. And like now my sensations to my lower back, like I can feel in the lower back. Um, I can actually feel bowel movements. Uh, no one, I need to go to the bathroom. Those are always pluses. Um, but going down there and bio accelerator itself, um eric runs a top-notch facility now they have even a bigger facility uh but my biggest thing was them being the transparent side here's your stem cells this is where they're coming from the lab is right there you don't you know you're not getting something mailed and shipped to you and hoping it's there. They're not frozen. So, like, wondering how many are going in you that aren't, you know, how are they going to come back alive?

Because we did our research, the place in Panama, the place in Tijuana. But they've been amazing for, for me. And that's what I tell a lot of the people that do go down there. Everybody wants to know how fast do they work? And it's, it's what you put into it. I know that like you train harder, you treat your body better, eat well, you get a better result just like anything else. Right.

Yeah. That's awesome. And, and they're doing things that you can't do stateside also they're going in places right like you need medical staff to go into the spine or doing the spinal tap like you can't that was something i had broken my neck in 2012 uh before a fight and didn't realize it and then you know i was planning on getting my neck looked at after the fight but i had another fractured orbital bone. So that's the only thing I was paying attention to. I forgot about my neck, had to take time off for that, tore my labrum, which made me forget about my neck altogether.

And then about 10 years later, I was doing a DEXA scan. And one of my buddies, Dr. Dan Stickler, zoomed in. He goes, well, when did you break your neck? And I was like, never. He's like, he goes, really? And he zooms in. And my C7 was so far out. It looked like, it looked like my hand like that. It was just comical. I was like, shit,

that definitely is broken. Let me think about that. And that night I, I had a dream where I relived flying off the handlebars headfirst into the, into the ground at 45 miles an hour. I was at a little scooter accident in that fight camp and um and you know just 40 thankfully i was california so i had a helmet on but i went face or head first into the end of the asphalt at 45 and that snapped my neck um never got it fixed ended up doing uh umbilical you know whatever was allowed here and just that on both sides of the spine because that's about as far as they could go stateside, that seemed to improve pain and mobility almost overnight. I was blown the fuck away. And that's still on the, on the order of, of efficacy, far, far less than the stuff that

you're doing when you're able to go to another place like Panama or Medellin, you know, like that's, that's the cutting edge shit, the very best in the world. But I was impressed, you know, I was impressed with that. I had pain in my neck for 10 years that I don't have today because of that. And that was still kind of the low, you know, the low end really, you know, what's available here, unfortunately is the low end. But that's really cool that you were able to make it to arguably the best place in the world for it.

It is gnarly. And what I've seen it do for like people that obviously I'm the most extreme injury there is right on that side. But the people that have like the fighters that go down there. But then it's like the everyday people that are just dealing with pain. They got in a car accident somewhere. They've been on opioids for 10 years and they just, they're like, I'm ready to kill myself. Like I cannot take the pain anymore. And then they go down there for one treatment, something that's like 20, $25,000 or whatever it

is. And it's gone. There was a, I think it was my third trip down there, a guy from Australia and he seen us in Bogota. we were in the airport and he says oh you're the bombero i said yeah i'm a firefighter he was like oh i follow you all over youtube i see the stories and i'm like oh he's like the reason i'm coming for stem cells is because of you and i'm like well you're fine like you're you're not in a wheelchair or anything like that he was like it's like no like i i have so so much pain in my right side so then we got to ended up meeting him and talking with him had dinner with him a few times and he went in for his treatment and like the next morning like he came down and I was like running across the lobby like look I can move I can move I stepped

on my side and he's like giving me and sherry a hug and i'm like that's awesome man and it was just like i did this because of you and now i can walk normal and i have no pain and i'm like just crazy like the amount of things that you think about it it's a baby's umbilical cord and how many get thrown away stateside like all the time and they're just taking the best of the best of the stem cells in the lab there at bio and saying yep let's put these in the time and they're just taking the best of the best of the stem cells in the lab there at bio and saying yep let's put these in the body and watch what it does it's like we're just so fucked here on the stateside because the big pharma bullshit yeah there's there's too many hoops here stateside um i just did a super cool treatment down in in cabo san lucas that i'll

talk about in the future here um i got the guy coming on he works for a a really cool uh gene therapy company that's austin based so that'll be an upcoming podcast a little little i'll drop a little teaser here for it jay spall is his name uh Really cool. But yeah, you know, they talked about why we had to go to Cabo for that. Just the utter nonsense of the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry and, you know, big business in and of itself, you know, the stuff that stands in the way of us being able to get some of these better treatments. Let's talk about, I mean, so it took you a while. I see you're moving your arms and stuff. You still call yourself a quadriplegic because you, you have some use of the upper body. That's not,

you know, like I wouldn't expect to see that from somebody who can't, who doesn't have anything below the chin. Right. Yeah. I argue it all the time. I tell everybody that I just got injured. I'm still recovering.

Let's go. Let's go. I like that. Yeah. Cause when I started getting movement, they were like, like oh you you're asian scale and and i'm like uh whatever you guys want to fucking call it call it like i have mobility um on my arms i have sensation i can feel like the top to the bottom and it's weird the way

your spinal and your actual spinal cord works and how many nerves are broken. So like I have sensation and I can feel like the top, but the bottom isn't as much just in the arm of where it's at. Same thing. Like my hands are, I mean, I wear wrist wraps just so my ligaments aren't always, I call it the limb dick syndrome. Like they just drop, but I can move now and I get what's called tenodesis so that's how i do my grip and i grab things and um like my phone's attached to me with the black mamba dick i call it just sits there and holds holds it for me so but my wife after like three months she's like i'm not

picking up your phone every fucking 20 minutes you drop it like we have to figure out some things and on on that side like i went down that rabbit hole of buying all the coolest shit and oh you need this you need this and that's after about a year and a half it was like no wait a second like me being a meathead and it was like it's getting the gym let's blast let's blast let's blast this blast we'll get you know more strength back we'll get better and better and better and um actually training down there with ryan and texas and stuff uh using the iron neck a lot yeah yeah and he was like he was like nobody likes using this because it hurts and i'm like no i'm all about it like i seen it you know with with rogan first and they're like you're a quadriplegic

like you broke your fucking neck you don't need that on your head and i'm like no like we got to get we got to get the neck back you know bulging and my triceps again or my traps and then there i started at like 2.2 pounds on an air machine and then when i was leaving texas ryan's like why don't you just take the iron neck with you because none of these patients want to do it like it hurts they're fucking i'm like they're fucking pussies get their shit together and get more iron necks so even today like now i'm up to 50 pounds but i learned that it's not about that when you do these like in these types of injuries it's all about getting back and using what you have that's going to make you more independent. And it took me a while to get it through my head. Like it wasn't about lifting weights anymore.

Like now it's about functionality. How are you going to learn to type and use the computer again? How are you going to put your shirt on? And everybody that has a spinal cord injury, it's always different of how much movement you have. So my right arm doesn't go up as much as my left arm does because when I was in the ICUu they're trying to flip and roll me around well they dislocated my shoulder and i didn't know it for weeks they had no sensation but like when i tell like other patients and stuff that like what works for you like how do you put your shirt on? And they're just like, oh, I can't. It's like, okay, we got to figure out a way. Like, I mean, I use, I am quadriplegic.

That's what they say. I have to use my mouth to do a lot of things. Like, I'm constantly biting on things. I feel like my newborn son, like everything's in my mouth. But it's how it's going to get done on that on that side of it but um when it comes to like mobility wise i don't know if they reclassify me as not a quadriplegic because where the break's at but i don't give a shit i just keep kicking it right in the dick you look great brother and i love you know i was talking about before um having the opportunity to do tours for the troops where I met my wife and so many great men and women.

We got to stay in Baghdad in Saddam's palace and they had flown in a lot of people. This was, you know, at the end of the second war in Iraq. And obviously there's lingering tidbits and all sorts of can of worms to talk about with that but they brought back a group of people who had all um you know their one comp they had two common traits one they were missing at least a limb you know so these are people that have been blown up or or had something shot off and the other unifying trait was that they had a good head on their shoulders. They weren't, they might've been down, but they're not out. And they all contain that.

And it was such a fun fucking group of people to be around because they were some of the most positive, energetic, awesome people I had seen. And they had a wide range of feelings getting to go back, you know, like as anyone would. Right. Did we do the right thing? Is this going to sustain itself? Fucking all the questions that any of us would ask. But I really appreciated the fact that they got to come back and see see it come to an end. Organifi, our longest running show sponsor, use code KKP for 20% off everything in the store. Head over to Organifi.com slash KKP and grab a sunrise to sunset kit to be covered with red,

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And that's something you really help quite a few people with, you know, because of the fact that you've had your mission in life change and you've been able to do what you've been able to do. You work with quite a few people now that have gone through this, correct? Yeah. On a daily basis. I try to do at least three families a week. And it's, it's crazy.

Cause they, a lot of them find me on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. They think that I'd be in it. They think that they see the videos that, you know, gone through and they're just like, oh, look like you're up walking. And it's something I've been very blessed with for the simple fact that I've never gone down that black hole, poor me. Now don't, don't get me wrong. Like there's been days, like there's been tears, you know, and there's been, you know, thoughts and stuff with my wife and it's like, okay, like this is going to be hard every day. And I always like tell my wife, you know, like she is, she's the rock of the family

she is the badass um she's the one that gets it all done day in day out uh like we just had a son he's he's five months old and there's still um trials and tribulations i mean he just went through a surgery where they had to take a one inch piece of scalp basically they cut his head in half um because the they didn't catch basically uh they didn't catch that his head wasn't forming right and his platelets together too early and it's like you know you don't ever want that to be done to your kids um and it all comes down to the same thing, that mindset. Like, it could be a bad thing that's happening right now, but you'll get past it. And it's not only you. You know, you're not, you know, you're never singled out on that side of it.

But on the everyday basis, there's a lot of people that go down the black hole and think their life is over. And it's never going to be the way it was you know and that might be true but it doesn't mean that it's it's dead and in you have you you basically in your head every day it's like you're battling those demons and we all have them doesn't matter if you're able-bodied or you know in a wheelchair or you know on crutches it's everybody's going to go through it at one point in time in their life. No doubt. Yeah. I mean, it is, it's, it's relative, unfortunately. I mean, it is, it is something that affects everyone. I think it's, I think it's important. It's, it's a unique gift for you as well,

for all of us to be exposed to it because of the fact that it, it, there is a certain level of gratitude that we can miss if we don't see for all of us to be exposed to it because of the fact that it, it, there is a certain level of gratitude that we can miss if we don't see other people that don't have that. We had two brothers in fit for service, you know, this, this first event of our year who were in, were in wheelchairs and aren't going to walk again, most likely, you know, and I helped assist them out onto the grass to do some mobility. And it was the first time they'd grabbed grass in like seven years. And I was like, Holy shit. You know,

I didn't think it would affect me that way. You know, and I could see their effect on them. Um, but the, it provides a different lens of which we view ourselves in our world, you know, when we are able to connect on that level. And it's really powerful, the work that you're doing, brother. I definitely, I mean, I appreciate it. I mean, I feel I'm blessed to make the difference and that people are actually calling me to get that insight and understand that I wake up every morning ready to go. I love it. I embrace the suck.

Shit's going to go wrong every day. You have a ranch. You understand. I got four acres. And the hardest part for me is not being able to do it anymore. Not being able to me physically go out there and fix a sprinkler, but have to explain to Brendan, like, this is where we have to cut it. This is what we have to do. You know, whether it's a sprinkler, whether it's operating the tractor, whatever it is. That's the hardest thing for me is not now it's not me being able to do it and just get it done

it's explaining this you know it's no different than with my daughter like my wife was just telling me last night she's like you're gonna have to like pull back on the reins a little bit and not have her do so many chores like because i'll we'll go outside and i'm like oh there's a weed let's pull the weed instead of just instead of just letting her ride her bike and just hang out with dad i'm like always on that progress progress let's get things done and oh we got to water the plants we got to do this and my wife was like all right let's uh she's six she's six and she doesn't work for you yeah i constantly i mean i have to like remember like even like when people come over and visit and hang out it's like man i got so much to do when this person shows up maybe they can pull

the truck out and check the oil and and i gotta i gotta remind myself like okay bunch like slow your roll and you know my wife even told me like right after i got out of surgery she said you know this is god telling you to slow down like well he kind of broke a fucking leg and she said she said can you imagine it was maybe like a couple years ago she said imagine if he just made you a paraplegic. If you still had your upper body, like how fast you would have been back hanging off the helicopter. You just would have been back in the truck like no big deal.

You just got no legs. You still have your upper body. And I'm like, yeah, he made it a little more difficult. But, you know, I am definitely blessed on the simple side that it's like the harder it gets, the more I want it, the more I want to win. You know, the more people, the more people that are going to tell me that, you know, that that's not going to happen. It's like, no, it can happen. And not just for me. Like, I want it to happen for other people. Like, it's easy for me to do it because I have the people around me where I can call. And, you know, I can sell snow to an Eskimo when it comes to doing stupid shit with the boys. I mean, I go elk hunting when it's negative 10 and I get hypothermia really quickly.

So everybody's like, why do you do that to yourself? Like, fuck, it's really good meat. Let's talk, let's talk, we're getting close to an hour here tell me tell me about you know your vision you're you're working on uh raising money for some really cool shit and i'd love to tell people about that and then you know obviously we'll we'll link to everything in the show notes for people to one click where they can find you on youtube instagram facebook all that good stuff yeah talk about uh what you're cooking up right now. So the goal for me was always to move back to Montana, raise bison. And it was like, I love that animal so much and respect it and everything where it's at. And once I got hurt, obviously that wasn't going to happen because I wasn't going to put all that burden on my wife to go out there and shovel snow and ranch in the middle of winter in Montana.

So I've always held on to that dream. And then when I started helping and mentoring people, I was like, why don't we put together a retreat and I'll just get like a small herd of bison because it's that mindset that the bison have always had of being able to push through the storm. They'll literally walk into a blizzard and just keep walking till the storm's gone. Um, so that's what I've been really pushing to people. When I talk to them, like try to take on that mindset that the harder it is go towards the hard stuff, it will get easier over time.

And then, um, telling them like like this is what i wanted to do here uh obviously we only have four acres it's not uh not not feasible where we're at but i started talking to people and um talking to eric the the owner of bio accelerator and he's super involved with it um and it's called it's called amer America Strong. And the goal and the purpose is, is to get a ranch. We've actually been talking to a place here in Ramona, right outside of Ramona. There's the oldest bison ranch in Southern California. It's been operated since the 70s. There it's up for sale. Literally once I my 501c3 um and got the tax exempt side of it the ranch came up for sale and it's like 590 acres they want eight million bucks for

it um obviously it's a big number and i'm not concerned about the dollar amount or anything like that it was more or less where can we build something where we can bring people out that's not super far away from an airport where we can fly people out and get them and their families out around a bonfire, around animals. I can take a kid that doesn't want to do anything and he's just had it with life. He's in a wheelchair. But if you put a carrot, duct tape it in its mouth let it feed a wild mustang it's gonna spark that interest of that person that's in the wheelchair where maybe they'll go home and they'll hold the toothbrush and they'll learn to brush your teeth again and get that little bit of independence and get that spark where they're like hey i did that let's I did that. Let's do the next thing. Let's do the next thing. And maybe they have a dream of,

you know, racing a car or something, whatever they want to do. But if you get them out of a hospital setting around bonfire, around other people that aren't in the medical setting and talk to people that are in the wheelchair, myself, other people that, you know, have lived in this life where they're able to see it, you know, you drop the boundaries, but it's not just about the person in the wheelchair, or the person that happened to, you know, the traumatic injury, it's their families, the caretakers, a lot of people don't ever think about what it does the day in day out, you're helping somebody 24 seven. And if they're a miserable fuck and just not you know in it mentally it wears on everybody like the nurses and everybody that helped the people and um it just really drains it drains

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code KINGSBOO10. That's K-I-N-G-S-B-U, all caps, 10 during checkout to save 10%. And if you subscribe, not only will you get amazing discounts and free gifts, you will make sure your monthly supply is guaranteed. So for me to be able to offer something where it's like, okay, let's put some animals around everything, rescue some horses and some dogs and bring people out. The idea is that, you know, get a tiny home manufacturer where they can build, you know, adaptable places, nothing crazy. Bring them out for a week. Let's talk

about it. Let's talk about independence. Let's talk about mobility and not be in like where it's a hospital setting. We're here. This is the way you're supposed to stretch. This is how you're supposed to move this. You know, and that's a big thing that in the recovery centers, you're just a Rolodex. You get 40 minutes a day of PT and then you're back in the bed. It's like that's not going to work when you're in your wheelchair teaching somebody how to stretch. But like you said, we were talking about it being out in the sun like i can't build a place in montana i expect everybody to come out in january and it's negative 20 i'm happy because it's god's country for me but most people are like i don't want to be in montana when it's negative 20.

so eric we know early on when we started building the nonprofit, he was like, we got to really think about where to do it. And I mean, California is hard to have any type of business with the taxes and everything like that. But it just kind of made sense me living here now with my family. And it's's like let's put something where somebody can fly in we're 40 minutes from an airport build something that's going to be sustainable where people are able to come it is crazy like you said you have a handful of guys that you personally know that these injuries happen to once they get hurt people are lost like well I gotta go buy this special wheelchair I gotta buy this adaptive equipment.

Instead of just slowing down and say, okay, what do I need to eat? How do I stretch? How do I move? And then, you know, what worked for you? How does your bowel care regimen work? How do you do these things? It's so much easier to have that conversation when you're not in a hospital. And then the wheelchair people stay over here with the wheelchair people.

The families go over here with the families and everybody gets to vent. What are you dealing with? How do you deal with it? What works for you? Me, it's easy to, you know, talk to people. I don't have that filter. I don't have that embarrassment of, I mean, I'll shit myself. Yep. It's all shits and giggles. I get it. And it's going to be a bad day and it sucks,

but let's change the pants, wipe your ass. Let's get back. Let's get back at it. And being able to explain that to people, it comes better. I think from somebody that's in a chair that realizes that I'm only five years into this injury. It's not like I've been living a life, but there's some people that have been in a lot longer and they're still willing to talk. And those are the people that I want to have out to the ranch to help these families understand that they're not in it alone. Like I give, you know, an hour, hour and a half to these families that want to talk and they're in the hospital and my biggest thing is I want to FaceTime I don't want to be on the phone I want

to be able to see you I want to be able to interact and actually make sure you're there I've worked out with guys and girls on the phone the people that are in the hospital saying oh they're willing to work out all day long and And I had a guy, an Army Ranger. He was like, Bunch, I can do shrugs all day long. And he got to 200 and he wanted to quit. And he just started crying. And I said, is it a mental thing? Or is it you just don't have the actual strength?

And he was just like, well, I just don't do it as much as I think I do it. Okay, well, let's work on it. And I gave him the whiteboard syndrome. I'm like, look, put it on the whiteboard. What'd you do? You did 200 a day. So tomorrow we're going to do 220. Like people think that they're just there in a chair and they're by themselves because they think they're all alone and they don't realize that they have these people around them that they're affecting. Yeah. And community is such a big, a huge piece of that. That's something I've learned for the last six years in fit for service is how important community is in a community of

like-minded people with similar backgrounds. And what you're talking about creating is, is in many ways like fit for service, but of the like-minded community of people who come from the same background, the same issues and the whole thing. I remember when I interviewed some guys back in the day, work with Dr. Martine just south of the border for Iboga and the Snorren Desert Toad, four people in the military. And then they realized very quickly we should offer this to the spouses. And then very quickly they said we should offer this to their entire families.

And they've done that. I've had a number of friends go through that. Sean Ryan went to that place and had a beautiful experience. And I really like that. I see, you know, plant medicine journeys like that can be super transformative and they're always better when they're held with the right care. And I think they're doing it very well there. But then there's this other piece of the daily fucking grind that we all have to go through. And it's, and it changes so dramatically, uh, for people with the injuries that you sustained, you know,

and for everyone around them, that that's, that's really powerful. I love the idea of what you're creating and, uh, I want to support it fully. No, I appreciate it, brother. And that's like the biggest thing is just getting the word out there. I have a, like a big thing that I try to tell people every day. It's, it's the little, the little stuff that you're going to do on a day-to-day basis that is going to affect your growth. And when you're trying to get movement back, it's just a little twitches. What, what what what can you twitch to make it work but then

showing people that it's okay to be vulnerable like you can ask for help you'll get help and if you can't get help just keep calling till you do like i i mean i keep my phone you know on me where it's people will reach out and we'll set up meetings. But the biggest thing is like they're not being honest with themselves and their families. And unfortunately, I see it, especially in the military world. There's so many, you know, the suicides, people always talk about it. And it's like, why? Why does it have to go that far? Why cannot we why can't we communicate and just be open?

But a lot of the thing is pride. Yes, people also haven't seen the way. So I really appreciate you showing the way and being a leader for that, brother. Where can people find you online? Where can people support you? We'll link to all this stuff in the show notes. Yeah, America Strong is is online ready to go instagram uh dustin bunch is it's the only instagram right now we're creating the other

one from america strong um i have a facebook i appreciate it i definitely want to get the word out there and make it grow. Hell yeah, brother. Well, it's been excellent having you on and I wish the best for you, your family and everybody that you come into contact with. Brother, you're a great person and I'm happy to know you, brother. I appreciate it, man. I really do.

Thank you, Dustin. Thanks. All right, y'all. One last quick break to tell you about Full Temple Reset. We had to move the damn thing because of the fires and boy, oh boy, the fires are legit as fuck this year. Growing up in California and spending most of my life there, it really is something. So big, big, big prayers to everybody that's out in SoCal.

We had to move our fit for service dates to Malibu. And that means we had to move our full temple reset dates here in Lockhart. It's going to be March 12th through the 16th now, 2025. It's a five-day in-person summit at our farm right here in Lockhart. It's going to be March 12th through the 16th now, 2025. It's a five-day in-person summit at our farm right here in Lockhart. This is our fifth or sixth year running it. Eric Godsey and I are going to take you through a crash course on all things, resetting the body, the mind, and the spirit, hot and cold therapy, fasting mimicking diets, journaling practices, Jungian psychology, you fucking name it. It will change you in every way, shape and form on every level. And that's what it's designed to do. If you want to learn

more, go to fit for service.com and check out full temple reset. There's also a link in the show notes, full temple reset, March 12th through the 16th. I want to see you there and meet you face to face.