The Confessionals - Slingshot Nation LIVE: The Movement to Slay Giants Has Begun

Episode Date: August 16, 2025

In this first-ever Slingshot Nation Live, I share the vision behind launching a movement of giant-slayers while diving into the deeper battles we face — from biblical accounts of an angel striking down 185,000 Assyrians overnight, to fresh stories of disclosure and fallen angels, to demonic encounters stopped in the name of Jesus. Along the way, I open up about my personal journey, the creation of Slingshot Nation as the counter to The Confessionals, and why we’re stepping into a new season of spiritual warfare, truth, and preparation for the days ahead.If you’re able, consider helping the Merkel family with medical expenses by donating to Lindsay’s GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b8f76890🚨 Join Our Exclusive Community🔗 Get early access to exclusive content: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheConfessionalsPodcast/join📚 Tony's Recommended Reads: https://slingshotlibrary.com▶️ Subscribe to My New YouTube ChannelMerkel IRL:  @merkelIRL    My First Sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r6jDWvlyuw&t=1160s🤝 Sponsors:Merkel Media Apparel: https://merkmerch.com/Merkel Films: https://merkelfilms.com/Connect With Us:🛜 Website: www.theconfessionalspodcast.com📧 Email: [e-mail]📢 FOLLOW US:🟣 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theconfessionalspodcast❌ X: https://x.com/TConfessionals🔵 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcast📌 Website: https://www.theconfessionalspodcast.com📚 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theconfessionals/💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7h📬 Mailing Address:Merkel Media257 N. Calderwood St., #301Alcoa, TN 37701

Oh boy, is that a slingshot? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, we're here. Slingshot season. Hey, they see me like, boom, can't miss. God with me, whole squad going to win. Devil try to throw shade, I grin, because the light too bright where I've been.

Walking the spotlight, who's that? Stone in the sling and the true slack. Devil in the way we move that Trying to aim for the head like a du wreck We're stuck in the valley that view back Now I'm up in the hills with it threw that God took all my L's ran through that Now the wind stack high like a new stack

Giant's fall we don't run Whole team moving one aim set Kingdom come hands high what's up son That ain't far we don't run Whole team moving one aim set Kingdom come hands high what's up son Grace hit me like boom can't miss God with me whole squad gonna win

Devil try to throw shade I grand because the light too bright while I'm being a, hey, hey, hey, Slingshot Nation. We don't break down. Just line it up. Shot Nation. Welcome to the very first live of Slingshot Nation, friends. What the heck is a Slingshot Nation? Well, let's talk about it because I have been brainstorming Slingshot Nation for quite some time now.

And I'm really happy to be able to at least talk about it. slow rollout. It's a slow rollout for sure, but nevertheless, it is a rollout. Listen, I had this idea for a while, and I've been sitting on it, and there's a whole lot, there's absolutely a whole lot that's going to come from the Slingshot Nation camp. We're looking at creating an actual clothing line that is biblically based, and the whole idea behind Slingshot Nation is it's the counter to the confessional's branding. The confessionals, we've spent the last eight years, particularly the last two years, establishing the enemy.

We've even, we have our logo, which is the six-fingered handprint. And now that we have, I believe, done a pretty good job of establishing what is wrong with this world, we are now going to be establishing the weapon of choice. What do you slay giants with? What do you go out and slay your giants with? Let me know in the comment section below, but I will tell you, you should carry a slingshot. Slingshot Nation, that's the motive behind it.

We have a lot of things in plan for that. I can't talk about a lot of the, well, I can. Like I said, we're going to do the clothing line. but also we are in slow rollout mode to do our very first live event, hosting a live event, a live show. I don't know what to call it. It's not a conference. I would say it's more like a summit of warriors coming together

to sharpen their swords to prepare for battle. That's essentially the vibe spiritual warfare. and we're planning a slingshot summit. No date in mind, but it is something that's being loosely planned right now to consider if it's something that we could pull off. I believe we can pull it off. I just don't know if people are going to show up.

So, you know, while you're here live with me, let me know in the comments section, would you show up to a live event called Slingshot Summit where the whole focus is how we're operating in this world and acknowledging the battlefield we're on daily and what we've got to do about it. I believe it would be a fun event. I believe it would be a fun event.

I have several people who have confirmed to be featured there, and I don't think it would be very hard to get people there as far as participants on stage, I just, you know, I've never done anything like that before. And my buddies over at Blurry Creatures have done BlurieCon for the last three years, and it's a huge success. And so, and I've been part of it for three years. I've at least attended, if not been on stage. And, you know, I see how great they are at pulling off events. I'm like, I can't do that. That's not me. Like, they're on another level. So what could I do? That's more of the Merkel pace, you know, like Tony. What's more me? I'm not a comical guy so much. Like,

I guess I am, but it's more spontaneous, you know? Like, I can get you guys laughing, but it's not like a planned thing. Like, I'm not very good at that. But I'm pretty, I'm pretty secure in the mindset of warrior mode. So I just feel like that's the direction I'm going with my life, you know, with my wife and the things that are going on with her. And, And the things I've transpired with the show over the last couple of years, it just really seems like I've become very aware of the spiritual battlefield that I fight on a daily basis. And that definitely has translated to the show, if you haven't noticed. So Slingshot Nation, it is here. It's going to be more and more present through my show and the things that I do.

like I said, it's going to be the counterpart, the companion branding of the confessionals. I wouldn't say it's replacing the confessions and it's definitely not to be underneath the confessions. It's all within my house of Merkel Media, I suppose, and it is meant to be the companion. It's meant to be the companion to the confessionals. I guess that's the best way to say it. I'm live here nearly at midnight Eastern time. So, you know, for forgive me for the lack of ability to portray the proper way to do this. You know, I do things out of order, I suppose. So thanks for tuning in.

I wasn't sure if anybody would tune in tonight, but it looks like some of you guys are crazy people just like me. And I appreciate that. So shout out to everybody here. Let me know in the chat where you're from, where you're tuning in from. I would like to be able to see that I had the chat up here on the screen. And be nice, be nice. I don't want to see mean comments because I'm known to block people for such things.

So I am going to be heading out of town next week, actually. I have a unique opportunity. And so I will be heading to Florida and I'll be recording a show with Ninjas are butterflies on YouTube and then I will be on Tuesday next week sitting down and interviewing Jonathan Khan. And so look forward to that and we're going to have a good conversation he and I about some of the deeper aspects of the spiritual realm. And that interview, I'm sure, will air probably the next month or so. But it's going to be a good one.

It's going to be a good trip. I believe it's going to be a good trip. I just had Stacey Brown up here in studio. And, you know, listen, like, there's a lot of people who know who Stacey Brown is. They know of Stacey Brown and things like that. And obviously, I'm one of them. But knowing, I knew of Stacey Brown. I didn't know the depths of Stacey Brown and where the roots come from.

And we were really able to establish that in this conversation. It was about a two and a half hour conversation that quite honestly could have gone four hours and not be boring at all. Like there wouldn't have been dry time. Like the two and a half hours flew by. It's a it's a rarity that you do two and a half hours and you don't even realize it. But I had to stop because I had to pick my kids from school, you know, blame the kids. But he shared two of the most impactful. experiences he had with Bigfoot in his life.

And he grew up being very interested in Bigfoot. And, you know, one of those tongue and cheek things, you go out and you look for Bigfoot, but really what you're just doing is you're camping. Well, basically Bigfoot researchers. And he goes out one night with his friend. He was a musician and an aspiring professional musician. Most people don't know this. but Stacey Brown has several family members in the country music Hall of Fame.

And he was on track to do such things himself. And one night he's in the camp and this thing comes in. There's a whole story behind it. You hear it. You know it's out there. It finally reveals itself. He sees it. And he decides in that moment that it is time to throw away his music career.

The rest of his life is going to be spent hunting these monsters. And that's what he does. And so I love the guy and he tells this story. And then we also talked about the brown footage, the footage that he and his father captured, I believe in 2012. And it's one of the more impressive Bigfoot videos out there. And he lays out the situation and the scenario behind it, the fact that his father didn't even believe in Bigfoot.

And he was just out in the woods spending time with his son. and this happened that night and his dad filmed it by accident and it's just it was it's a wild story and we just talked about a lot of everything some of the stuff that we talked about is really going to catch fire like there's going to be people

who have real problems with what was said but you know he he had opinions and he shared it and you know I think it was a good conversation so we're going to let it rip we're going to let it rip look forward to that probably the next, I don't know,

month, two months from now, that would be released. We got a whole schedule of people who are already recorded and set to be released. So everybody's got to wait their turn. Everybody's got to wait their turn.

But it was an interesting, it was an interesting week with some of the people I've had on the show and, for recording here in studio. And I just, I got to tell you, I remember when I,

I started the podcast and I was trying to visualize how I wanted this show to be. And I'd be driving my track to trailer. This was eight years ago. I'd be driving my track to trailer down the Turnpike, Philadelphia area. And I'd be contemplating such things like, how do I want to portray myself on the show? How do I want to project my voice? You know, do I, all this stuff. Like, I obsessed over it.

And I used to listen to Joe Rogan all the time. You know, it was so much fun listening to that guy's show. I didn't agree with everything he said, but he used to go live. He used to do, like many of you would probably remember, he didn't always do pre-recorded. He did live. He would just go live. And you're like, oh, Rogan is live. Let's check it out, you know?

And it's just like this thing where it's like you had an opportunity to watch this huge show. You know, 50,000 people watching live, him talk, just raw conversation with people. people. And I always had this idea in my head. I was like, man, I would love for this show to one day develop into something where I could sit down with somebody at a table and talk to them. And I wouldn't have to just do it over a screen. I wouldn't have to do it. Before, it wasn't even a screen. It was a phone line. I subscribed to Skype. It was Skype that I first subscribed to, had a phone number on there. And I would call people on the their phones through Skype to record. No video, just audio. And I just had this idea. I was like,

man, I would love to make it to that point where you're actually sitting with people talking. And that was revolutionary back then. I mean, Rogan was Rogan. I mean, Rogan, you know, he already had a successful podcast, a show. And, you know, he was a Hollywood guy before that. He was on TV and stuff. But for Tony, the trucker, who started a podcast called The Confessionals to make it to the point where he could actually sit across the table from people in his own studio. That seemed like such a far-off dream. I would be sitting in the truck thinking about such things. And then as soon as like you're like that, that dream, that thought is coming across your head,

you snap back to reality and you're like driving this truck and roo-roo-roo-mo, bouncing up and down the highway. And you're like, yeah, that's never going. going to happen. No, no, no, sir, that's never going to happen. And you just keep driving down the road and depressed. I was extremely depressed when I started the podcast in the early days of the podcast when I was really grinding on it, dreaming of it becoming something that I could support my family on and do something that I really enjoyed doing, interacting with people and not just driving a truck alone for 12 to 14 hours. I was so depressed. I'd go off in these la la land daydream sessions and then I'd get snapped back to reality with

brake lights and it was just like that's never going to happen you know and um yeah this week was one of those weeks where I I had a lot there's been a lot going on um business side of things starting last weekend it just unfortunate things happened and you know just really emotionally bothered me. And then I go into this week and there's highs and lows with the work week. And, you know, you have a schedule to keep and meetings to have and interviews to do. And in the middle of the storm that I had this week, and obviously it was some kind of a storm, right? I mean, I'm at the studio right now.

It's almost midnight. Why am I at the studio at midnight? Because I've been working, you know? And probably about an hour ago, I was like, you know what? I should just go live and see what happens. So here we are to see what happens. And even though this week has been quite the storm for me, just on an emotional level, I had highs and lows,

very dramatic highs and lows. I had the opportunity to share the gospel with some people, which was a huge high, coming off of some very big lows. And then just being able to encourage, other people that are in in my industry to not give up and to keep the grind going and using my life as an example of proof as to why they should try to continue and not let the dream die to other things. It's just been a week of highs and lows, a lot of highs and lows. And I've had meetings this evening with other people and I've got to share with them,

you know, some of the things that were going on behind the scenes and got encouraged this evening, which was really good. So, yeah. But I say all that to say, when I'm sitting at the table with Stacey Brown, and I'm doing this just absolute fire of a conversation, I mean, like, you know, you know, you know when you can feel it, you know,

you can feel it. Like, just when you're a listener, when you're a listener of a podcast and you're about 10, 15 minutes in, and you're just totally taking in. You're just totally taken in. Like the host of the show knows in that moment when you're taken in, because the host feels it too.

And that's what I was feeling with Stacey Brown. Like I was like, I could feel it. I was like, oh, oh, I didn't know today was maybe one of those days. Oh, this is going to be a fire episode. And because of my ADHD, I kind of, I get polled in different directions in the middle of conversations. So like it's it's actually you guys get to experience the war of my mind fighting for attention of different thoughts. And as he was talking, I was sitting there and I just got taken back to the trucking days and the days of dreaming of sitting at a table.

And here I am sitting at a custom made table that I had made with, you know, mounted microphones in my own studio with several cameras running. And I'm just like, this happened and it was a journey to get here. And now that it's here, it's almost like I don't, like I don't stop enough to, to recognize and realize how it has happened. Like it happened,

it felt like it was going to happen. It was taken forever to happen. And then it happened so fast, you just didn't even recognize it was happening in the moment. You know what I mean? I don't even know if that makes sense, but like it was just like, like I would be literally crying in the truck

because I was so desperate. it. Like, I was just, I have a really bad back because of what I did with driving truck. And the one, and I told, my one guest from Thursday on that came out, I told him, like, I had an accident where I fell off the back of the truck and I landed on a saw horse that I was trying to pull big fabric rolls onto. And I landed on my back on it. And I thought I broke my back. And I got back in the truck. And at this time, I think I had, um, I think I had Patreon. I only think I offered memberships on my website.

And I called Lindsay and I was crying because I was in a lot of pain. I was already depressed. And Patreon, like, I mean, I wasn't making enough to make a car payment, you know. But in that moment, I was crying so much like a little baby. And I was just begging my wife. is like, can I please just quit my job and just try to do this full time. I think I can do this full time. And she just, rightfully so, she said, no, you can't just quit your job.

I mean, we have a baby and all that stuff. And I just kept on grinding. And, but in those moments, it just felt like it was never going to happen. This, this grand idea of having your own table just felt like it was never going to happen. And then it happened. And it happened so fast that you, you. you didn't realize it was happening in the moment. It's what it feels like.

Anyways, going through this week, it was just a lot of highs and lows and personal reflection on a lot of this stuff. And it's just been quite the blessing of a week. So I say all that to say thank you to you guys for tuning in. I mean, we were quickly approaching 250,000 subscribers on YouTube. We just started trying with YouTube about two. years ago. I mean, I had this YouTube channel. This is actually the second YouTube channel.

I had another YouTube channel that had about 10,000 subscribers probably in 2019. And I think I forgot the logging for it or something. I don't know. No, it wasn't that. It was, I couldn't figure out like something to do with monetization. And I thought the best, the best course of action was to just delete the channel and start over. And so that's what I did. I just deleted 10,000 subscribers started over. And I just didn't care about YouTube enough to care whether I was deleting 10,000 subscribers or not. But then I let that thing sit and it grew.

I remember I barely touched it and it was approaching 20,000. So I did like a live 20,000 show and we were live for the 20,000 crossover. I thought that was as big as it was ever going to get. And it kind of just trickled for a few years. And then two years ago I went to a media conference, armed media. conference. And the first thing they said there, the first thing they said there, they said, YouTube is the son that the social media universe revolves around. And I looked at Jack, who I brought with me and I was like, did you ever, did you ever hear that? Like, he's like,

I'm like, I never heard that. Like, I think we're going to learn something today, you know. I never looked at YouTube as social media. I was like, YouTube's YouTube. Like, it's whatever. Like, who cares? You know, like, I'm a podcaster. I do audio. I don't do the video thing. Well, idiot, maybe you should have been doing the video thing. Because I believe, you know, after the last two years of trying with YouTube and growing it from, I think we had like 40, 40,000 subscribers when we actually started trying with YouTube to now we're at almost 200. We've grown 200,000 subscribers, we're almost 250,000.

Like, this dope, if I would have just taken it serious back in 2017 when I first started, Homeboy would be over a million by now. So jokes on me late to the party again. Missed out on Bitcoin. And here we are again, missing out on YouTube subscribers. Speaking of Bitcoin, this is Friday night. We're just chilling, guys. I hope you guys just hang with me.

When I was 21, I got married. And I believe it was around that time. What, maybe 2008? 2009 is when Bitcoin started coming out. And I'll tell you guys, like I remember hearing of rumbling. of this Bitcoin. And I was like, I was like, what is a Bitcoin? And they're like, it's this gold coin.

I'm like, where is it? And I was on the computer. I'm like, what? Like, this is so crazy. Like, why are we talking about this? And then I go home to my wife, my new wife, we're broke. We are so broke. We have just enough money to pay our bills every month, you know?

And I go home. home to her and I said, hey, there's this thing called Bitcoin. And guys, you have to understand. Like, just as bad as I rolled out the idea of Slingshot Nation on this first time ever talking about publicly on this live, as bad as I did that, that's me. That's me. Like, I don't, I don't plan how I'm going to share information with people. I just say stuff.

I just, maybe that's the blessing and curse of me. Like, I just wear my heart on my sleeve. I just say what I think. That's it. And so I go home and I'm like, there's this thing. this Bitcoin thing. What's Bitcoin? I don't know what it is, but they say it, you could get rich if you invest in it now. And I'm also a person of extremes. So, you know, if you if, if you don't know how to package a, an offer or a suggestion, what's the word I'm looking for, like

the sell of a situation, if you don't know how to package that, hey, maybe lower your, your ask, right? like maybe not ask for so much. But I'm over here talking to my wife, my new bride, about how there's this thing called Bitcoin. I don't know what it is, but people say that you can get rich if you invest in it sooner.

And then she says, I don't know, like maybe like how much was it or something like that? And I was like, I don't know how much it is. It's like 25 cents a coin or something like that. I want to invest $100 in it. I didn't have $100 to invest.

Like, I had the money, but it wasn't for Bitcoin. I didn't have extra money. So to say $100, like, the answer is no. That's what she said. No. Like we have bills and we can't even pay those half the time. And I'm like, oh, man, my wife's hold me down. Okay, fine.

I'm not going to do it. And then, like, literally that same week, without talking to my wife, I go down to the Kmart and I buy like a $300 PlayStation 2. Like, yeah, she was ticked. And now I'm ticked too because I took that $300. If I'm going to defy

my wife, might as well have bought Bitcoin. My goodness. But I was so spontaneous and so like immature, still am a little bit, I'd say. And back then, I didn't have forward thinking. I guarantee you, I would have bought it like 25 cents a coin.

hit $5. Like, we're rich and I would have sold, right? So you live and you learn. Hopefully you live and you learn. And you actually become wiser as you become older because you actually were self-reflective and looked at your mistakes and tried to learn from them. You're not even going to learn from them all the time perfectly, but at least you're trying to learn from them.

And so here I am years later. And I am, I am strong on the crypto train. personally. This is not financial advice, but I am. There are some coinages that I invest in that I believe in. And I will not miss that train again. Or will I? I might. Who knows? It's all right. You live once. That's the great thing about life, guys. I mean, you get one shot at this thing and everybody gets all uptight because, you know, it's, you know, you want to hold on to the moment like, well, you're never going to get it back. And this moment, we put so much gravity in the moment.

And if you adopt the mindset that I have these days, and I wasn't always like this. For some of you OG people and stuff, you know how I was when I was younger and when I first started the show and you've seen the evolution. but I think it's safe to say that I'm much more kingdom-minded these days than I have ever been. I don't live my life for me and I don't live my life for you. I live my life for Christ. And so, like, I really don't, I mean, I care about what happens in this life and what happens to me and things like that. But like the inconsequential materialistic type stuff, it's just like it's pretty empty. and not really fulfilling.

And it's definitely not as fulfilling as the pursuit of Christ. Like, like, like, I guess what I was trying to say is like at some point my mindset shifted. And I started building my life my next life up now, you know, like I started actually investing, uh, into my future Bitcoin, you know? So, you know, where I, I decided to, to buy the PS2 or three. for $300, instead of investing into my financial future in 2007 or whenever that was, I now, instead of investing in the moment of the sweetness of the moment of whatever it has to offer, I practiced a sermon and try to invest in my heavenly future.

And that's not like that corny Christian stuff of, you know, oh, I'm trying to have a big old mansion in the heavenlies. I don't care if I could live in a cardboard box, man. I don't care about that crap. Like you put me in front of my maker. Man, you don't want to put me in anything. You don't have to put me in a cardboard box. Homeboy ain't sleeping much.

I'm going like, yo, hey, Jesus, where are you going? Where are you going? I'm going to come with you. So, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm going to be turning 40 in October. And, you know, things change, you know. things change. I started the show when I was, what, 32, I guess. So it's been almost a decade. You guys have been with me. It's just been a very self-reflective week. And I guess I'm just vomiting that out onto the microphone for you guys. But, you know, it is what it is. It is my

microphone and I can do whatever I want. So, you know, hey now, hey now, it is what it is. So let's talk about some stuff, though, right? I mean, now that I talked about that forever, Oh, you know, what was funny is last week. Last week's live. Last week's live, like I tell you guys, I don't really read the comments. You know, like, as far as I'm concerned, comments are for you guys, not me. Like, I'm watching the live comments right now, right? That's actually kind of unique for me.

I usually don't do that. But I typically don't go and look in comments. You know, it's, I already published the show. I'm not going to take it down because somebody didn't like it. I went on last week's live for something. I wanted to grab something off the transcript. And the first comment I saw the guys like something like 15 minutes in and he hasn't started talking about what the title is about.

I'm like, yep, welcome to the lives, my friend. We just kind of go with it and see where it goes. But 15 minutes in and you're still here. So you must be enjoying something, right? So I found this kind of interesting. Oh, shoot, where's that other window? Let me, where's that at? Is that over here?

It is over here. Okay, let me swing this over here. I got multiple screens here. Oh, let me tell you guys something. This is something I could tell you. The lagging issue that I had with the computer is no more. We don't have any more lagging. I have the high-speed internet.

I got a fiber optic junk. It's not junk. It's actually good. And you see this computer right here? off behind me with that thing. That's the computer I was using. And this week, I had a

guy text me that you know, a bunch of different suggestions as to how to fix my lag issues. And he's like, there's a lot of different things that could be, you know, narrow it down, work through it and blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, give me a call if you need

and we can work through it one day. I'm like, I ain't got days this week, let alone ever to work through it. And I was just like, yo, this is a tech issue. Like, okay, no, I was just like, we need to get a new computer. So I went and got a new computer. So we got a Mac. We got a Mac mini sitting over here, a little tiny box on my desk,

and we fix the issue. So here we are. We're not lagging. And it's a better quality video, yet the content may not be improved. That's still loading. So I saw on Instagram. I saw on Instagram.

Let me see if I can share my screen here with y'all. Let's see here. Share screen. And boom, I think. Boom, boom, boom. Everybody say, hey. Maybe I'll get copyright tagged for that, right? I should be careful.

So let's see here. I actually should probably switch to this. to that. There we go. You got you got to make sure that you're looking in the right direction on the screen. So when I look over here, it looks like I'm actually looking at the screen, you know? Professionalism. People listening to this on audio replay are like, I have no idea what he's talking about. Just bear with me.

On Instagram this week, I saw this post and I found it, I found a thought-provoking. I found a thought-provoking. So 185,000 vanished overnight, and now we found their camp. And it's like, whoa, what does that mean? Right? Like, people are like, well, what does that mean? Well, it turns out in 2nd King 19 verse 35, I have it here. And also Isaiah 37, 36 through 38 and Second Chronicles 3221, it references this situation

where an angel of the Lord came and wiped out an entire army in one night of 185,000 Syrian soldiers. Is it Syrian or us Syrian? I think it's Assyrian. Assyrian. Is it the same thing? Syrian, us Syrian. It's probably the same thing, right?

It's probably the same thing. Anyways. So it turns out, let me start reading this article that I found on this because I had to look it up and fact check. So I found one article that agreed with this. Instagram account, and I was like, well, it must be true. Yeah, let me flip through this real quick. Yeah, so Second Kings.

So it says archaeologists have found an Assyrian military camp in Israel, just where the Bible said one would be. The Assyrians invaded the region in the 8th century BCE conquering cities and expanding their empire. In Second Kings, 1935, chapter 19, verse 35, that sounded like I was saying in the year. The Bible says, The angel of the Lord struck 185,000

Syrian soldiers in a single night. Researchers found camp layouts, Assyrian-style weapons and written records confirming their presence. It's a rare find.

So, that last part here, I have not been able to find. And I did look at more than one article. I just say that kind of stuff to trigger you guys. Anyways, So in this one article that I'm looking at, and maybe that's true, I don't know.

I just haven't been able to verify it off of Instagram about the Assyrian-style weapons and written records. But I found this article pretty cool. I'll just start reading it for you. The Assyrian military camp found, it's a title, recent archaeology discoveries may lead credence to a Bible, a biblical story recounted, a divine intervention that saved Jerusalem from an Assyrian invasion approximately 2,700 years ago. Researchers have identified ancient military camps that correspond with the narrative of King Sena-Sanaharibba, Senacharibs. Seneseribs. I can't pronounce that king's name. Siege. Potentially verifying parts of the biblical account found in the Hebris.

Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. According to the Bible, particularly in Second Kings, 1935, Isaiah 37, 36 through 38, and Second Chronicles 32 through 21, an angel of the Lord miraculously, I don't, I mean, it's miraculous, but it's more like viciously under order struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night as a besieged Jerusalem. them. This divine intervention was in response to prayers from King Hezekiah who sought protection from Yahweh, the Israelite deity. So this is definitely an article written by somebody who is not of Christian faith. I don't think they would call Yahweh the Israelite deity if they,

if they shared my viewpoints on everything in life, including the Sixers being the best best players in the world are on the Sixers. Prove me wrong. This event is depicted in various religious texts. Stephen Compton, independent scholar, specializing in Near Eastern archaeology, has utilized modern mapping techniques to locate what he believes to be remnants of the Assyrian military base described in these biblical stories. Compton's research detailed in the June issue of the journal Near Eastern Archaeology reveals

significant findings that align with historical accounts of Senna Sheribs, Senasheribs, Sena Serbs, campaign. I don't know how to pronounce that. I don't know how to pronounce a lot of words, but that definitely is one of them. Compton identified the potential sites by comparing ancient carvings from Shenarab's Palace in Nineveh, now Mozoull in northern Iran. with early 20th century aerial photographs. So what he did was he took these ancient inscriptions from the palace of this king's palace in Nineveh.

He took ancient inscriptions. Let me bring me up here. That's the wrong one. What am I doing here? There we go. So he took these ancient inscriptions on the palace, the depictions of him. and he took early 20th century since the early 1900s aerial photographs. Now, when I first read that, I was like, why so old a photograph?

But more than likely it's because the landscape has changed and things have been built up. But this gives a much more clear picture. So he took what was inscribed in the palace on these carvings and overlaid pictures. Turn the opacity down a little bit so you could see through and viola. These carvings depict the siege of Lashish, a city 42 miles south of Jerusalem, and include detailed illustrations of an Assyrian military camp. By cross-referencing these carvings with photographs, Compton located an oval-shaped structure matching the typical design of the Assyrian camp. The site known as Sherbet El Madhuara translates from Arabic to the ruins of the camp of the invading ruler, which is kind of cool. That actually gives you breadcrumbs right there, indicating historical recognition of its military significance.

So anyways, he was able to overlay and see that there are matching aspects to the locations. and he believes that this is the location where 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were slain. Now, this article does not mention anything about archaeological finds. But I do believe that that's probably the next thing up, right? I mean, this article was written in 2004 or 2023, June 19, 2020, It's archaeology mag.com. And I think the next thing would be archaeological digs and finds, but the problem with that is anywhere you go over there, it's not like, like here. I live in Tennessee, and we have, you know, the Civil War.

We know that happened all in this area. And I mean, maybe, I don't know, actually. Maybe it is a law. And I just don't know. But I'm also in Tennessee where they say, we're not. not going to let the man tell us what to do. So I will say, if I'm on my property, I'm going to dig. I'm going to dig. And if I find archaeological finds, fantastic, you know, but in other areas, I mean, there's people around here all the time that are finding Civil War era coins and, you know,

artifacts, things like that, you know, it's not uncommon. But in these biblical sites overseas, in Iraq, obviously, and even Israel, like, you can't just go digging. And there's a lot of hoops to jump through. It almost has to be like beneficial for them for you to find things. Like they're not just going to be like, yeah, go ahead and see if you can find, you know, proof of the 185,000 men that were killed according to scripture. And there's a lot of reasons to that, I'm sure. But I do think that there, the part of it, there is a part of it where it's like, we believe that happened. Tony Merkel, you believe that happened.

But, and Mr. Compton has overlaid imagery that shows that there could be something here. There could be something here. It seems to match a battlefield that the Assyrians would have had. But beyond that, because we didn't, we're not, we didn't ask you to do that. You found that evidence yourself, and that's great. It's supporting evidence. But we're not the most eager for you to do that. dig to find out that's not the location.

You know, like, it will, we'll take the winds where we got them, but we're not going to shoot ourselves in the foot by letting you dig either. And that's not me saying that biblical archaeology is irrelevant because I love biblical archaeology. I just did the, I just did the shrouded turn episode this week, which, you know, like, praise God, it has like 18,000 views on YouTube, but that's technically underperforming for our channel. So apparently, you all don't like it as much as I do.

I don't care. It's my show. So I want to have fun with it. And I thought that was a fantastic interview. So I was glad I did it. But biblical archaeology is a fascinating thing to me. And I just wonder what the psychology is behind some of the decision making when it comes to simple proving of situations. I understand some of the stuff you don't want to ruin. And there's a lot of things that go into it. But I do think there's a psychology aspect of it where it's just like you you offered up that candy camp but we're not eager to you know meet you halfway on that um but i found that i found that uh post pretty interesting and uh then as i was that as i was um i was on this here getting ready to go live i scrolled down from that and i saw this i haven't

even clicked on you so we're going to click on it together did nassah capture an angel i mean come on now. That kind of looks like an angel, like an angel like an angel with an eyeball in the middle. Discover my or M-Y-C-N-18 the engraved hourglass

nobula nubula captured by the Hubble. This stunning celestial hourglass 8,000 light years away is formed by a dying star. Hmm.

Angels are described as stars in the Bible. Interesting stuff. This person quoted Psalm 191, the heavens declare the glory of God. They do. And honestly, this image is like lower on my list of imagery that declares the glory of God, to be honest with you. I'm not hating.

I'm just saying, like, there's a lot more. That's amazing. Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. I was driving my kids to school. So I Bible quiz my kids. What's this saying? Something about L.A. Marzoui. Find someone in Telescope, L.A. Marzuli. I don't know. I'm actually going to be hanging out with L.A. Marzuli next week in down of Florida. So I'll report back. But I do Bible quiz with my kids on the way to school. And they love that. Or at least I pretended they do. No, I'm just kidding. They do. It comes by request. They request Bible. Bible quiz. And so I ask them a bunch of questions, softball questions, the hard questions.

And today, my son, no, my daughter said something about angels and Ben goes, oh, yeah, yeah, she said, oh, what was it? I quizzed her on, if something to do with an angel, darn it, I forget. But I think the answer was angel, but she couldn't remember the word. She knows what angels are.

She's four, you know, she knows. But she goes, she goes, the thing with the circle on the head. I'm like, an angel? She's like, yeah. I'm like, yeah. And then Ben goes, you know, you know, Gemma, some angels have tons of eyes. And I was like, yeah, they do. I'm teaching my kids the truth.

The truth, I say, the truth. Get to the point. Well, there is no point, actually. There's no points of this live. I'm just going. hopefully you're enjoying. So angels, interesting. You know, whoa, that was loud.

Did you guys hear that, by the way? I was going to test my audio with you earlier, and I just forgot about it. So before I go any further on my half-baked plans for this show, did you happen? Let me know in the chat. Did you happen to hear that audio that came through? Because if you did, that's boating well.

Oh, sounded fine. but tell me, did you hear the audio that was playing outside of me? No, Amy says no, you didn't hear that. Hmm. Mm-hmm, hmm-hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. Okay. Oh, and then Karen says yes. Okay, so we have like the hearing wars.

We have Amy saying no again. Okay. Who's going to win this battle? You know, we got, we have the, oh, and Corey says yes. We have, and then that says, no, are you guys kidding me? Are half of you guys deaf and the rest of you listen in or what? I don't understand what's happening right now. It was a short moment.

It isn't now. Yeah, of course. No, I turned it off. It was loud. But you heard it. Okay. What we're going to do is we're going to proceed. And if you can't hear it, the audio or the video that I play, you let me know in the chats.

Let me pull this up here. So, what, did I pull it up here? Here, no, at the stage, there we go. So there's been quite a few episodes of Joe Rogan that I've found interesting recently. I'm not an avid listener anymore, mainly because I don't have the time to listen anymore. But he had a guy Chad Wright on, I think it was last week. And it was such a profound conversation and heartfelt. You know, and honestly, like, I,

theologically, I don't agree with Chad on everything a lot, actually, to be honest with you. He, he, yeah, but, I mean, he nailed so much. Yeah. So, Chad got a chance to basically spend an hour sharing the gospel with Joe in a very organic way. which is only possible when somebody truly believes what they're talking about and has no agenda outside of the love of the Lord. Like not the love of man, not the love of Brownie points with God,

but literally just oozing with I love the Lord, and I can't help but talk about it. And that goes with the lady at the grocery store to the rarity that I have the chance, to sit in front of Joe Rogan. It didn't, it wasn't forced. It just, it just happened. And I thought it was a beautiful thing.

But he, he kind of, he kind of eases, I don't want to say eases into it, but he tells his own experience of how he became a Christian. And it all stemmed from his experience as a Navy SEAL overseas. And he, he encountered a demonic entity. in his barracks and he wasn't the only one. There was several people who experienced this with him.

And, you know, I see everybody else doing reaction videos to Joe Rogan on the internet. Like, I'm going to do the same thing. And if YouTube gives me guff, I'm going to say tough. No, I'm not going to say that. I'm going to take the video down because I don't want to get demonetized. I'll edit it.

Let me see here. Let me just make sure we're at the right spot here. Find the word demon. There we go. Okay. Let's take a gander here. Tell me if you can hear that. You guys can't hear that.

Okay, let's try something else. We're going to do some live fixing here as we go because I'm tired of this crap. Let's try this. Let's try this. So, pull that down. Could you hear that at all? Let me know. I mean, this is absolutely driving me bonkers.

Absolutely driving me bonkers. I have zero idea why every time I do this with y'all, I try to play something and you can't hear it. It makes no sense to me. Makes none. I've got to take a sweet of this real quick. Give me a second. Man, I'll tell you what.

There's not much better than a ghost energy drink at 12.30 at night. Yes, 12.30 at night. Oh, what a frustrating thing. I mean, I really don't, I really don't know what to do. Let me, uh, let me, maybe that helps. Let's try this. What do you guys think? Yeah, no.

Was that it? Was that plain? Can I get some yes or no? nothing. Hmm. All right. Well, oh, well. Oh, well. I will just let you guys know the gist of the story, which is now I got to do this from memory when I didn't even prepare to

do a live show today. Basically, he was an atheist. I think he had grown up in as a Baptist, I believe. He's from Georgia. and somewhere along the line, he walked away from that. He thought it was pretty much nonsense.

But there was a demonic entity in that barracks. And he and the soldiers that he was stationed with were experiencing it. And he calls his brother, who he knew was a Christian, to get help. Like, what do I do with this? I don't even know what this is. I shouldn't even believe this. I shouldn't believe this is even happening. And he calls his brother,

and his brother tells him, guides him, in the rebuking of this entity in the name of Jesus. And all activities stopped in the barracks. And everybody noticed that how the activity stopped. Well, that was a come-to-Jesus moment for him. And everybody has their own, their own thresholds and their own story of how that happens for them. Some people are raised in a Christian home and they never, they just, from the time they were born, just, it always clicked with them. There are people who do not, that are raised in a Christian home and they walk away.

I just got distracted because I saw somebody say reload browser. Trust me, it's not the browser. We've been doing this for weeks. Every time I go live, audio don't come through. I'll work on it. One thing at a time, at least the stream's not lagging, and I know how to tell a story, kind of, if I remember the details. So his brother guides him through that process, and it all stops.

And that was his come-to-Jesus moment. He was like, okay, if that's real, then the other thing has to be real, too. And so he was like, that's it. I'm going to Jesus. And he had an instant transformation. Actually, to be honest with you, when he was sharing his story, it really did mirror a lot of my experience personally myself. There wasn't really a process for me. It was March 29, 2014.

I walked into a funeral, an angry, hateful human beings. who did not like the company of anybody outside of one person and her name was Lindsay, my wife, pretty much everybody else could rot. I didn't care. I didn't like them. And by the time I walked out of that funeral service, I was 100% completely changed. Now, I will say, since 2014, life you go through ups and downs. And there have been seasons of my life where I was lower and all.

that and maybe I even displayed old characteristics of the dead man being revived within me, which I am shameful of. But I 100%, even on my worst days, am still a better human being than I was the day I walked into that church. And so he had a very similar experience. It was like an instant transformation. Some people, it takes a while. Some people, you know, I got to work out some things. And then some people like me, it was instantaneous, but then, you know, a few years later, it's like, it's like that that battle just starts then, you know, and it's just like, oh, now it's starting. Got it. Okay. This isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. But it's not. It's not easy, but it's deeply fulfilling, joyfully fulfilling to follow Christ. So he shares this whole

experience and on his own YouTube channel, he shared a video, or I guess he calls it truck talk. He sits in his truck and talks. And he had gotten an email from a Navy SEAL who he doesn't know. And the person emailed said, hey, great job on Joe Rogan. the barracks you were in, did it so happen to be whatever barracks it was? And he said, yeah, it was. That was the barracks. And he said, well, I was stationed there in so-so time,

which was after Chad had already left. And he's like, we had some serious demonic activity happening there. And so Chad didn't really offer thoughts as to why that is or how that is. he did acknowledge. He's like, whatever it was, it came back. He might even said it in his video, it doesn't know why or how it came back, but it came back. And then he lets it lay there, right? And I would let it lay there too in general. Like, you know, it is like it's not my job

to determine the why. Also, it's, I'm not the one that got rid of it. You know, that's, that's, that was the power and work of Jesus Christ working through me. It wasn't me. So I look, at that and I feel like that that little piece of the story is is a clue. It's a hint. It's a peace to be gleaned from and to take into heart and understand the imagery and understand what Merkel keeps hounding us about, which is this is war, baby. That's why we're doing Slingshot Nation. We are equipping for war. And when you're in war,

battles are won and battles are lost. But the war rages on. And there are people out there who believe that once the rebuke in the name of Jesus is done and the thing is gone from your house or the Annabelle doll or whatever. I've never been around the Annabelle doll,

but maybe if I ever do, maybe I'll take care of that thing too. But it doesn't mean that the war is over when the battle's won. And I do not believe. And I'm, listen, guys, I say these things humbly. I'm okay being wrong.

If somebody can show me where my error is on things and my thought process, that's fine with me because it's all thought for me. It's all thought for me. At the end of the day, I build my life for the kingdom that's to come for me, not here. So if I'm wrong on something, I'm fine. We'll pull those bricks out of the house.

We'll slide the new ones and we'll keep going. But for me, I don't think that when the rebuking of whatever entity in whatever thing or person is done, that these entities are like, oh, well, we lost that one. We won't come back now. Y'all come back now. You're here. Just kidding. Don't you all come back now?

All right. Well, you told us not to come back. So we're not going to come back with our friends. I don't think that's how this works. And so I think I think Chad, I think he did awesome. I think he expelled these demons or at least one. I think he actually saw it. I think one of the guys saw it.

I think one of the guys saw it. I think one of the guys had it on top of them or something like that. Yeah, I think so. But it doesn't mean that it's over, right? And it's why it's important to not live in these short bursts of energy that are going towards Christ, but give it consistent energy. I'm not saying too fast, too slow. You go too fast.

You burn yourself out. You go too slow. You give up because there's no hope. Find a consistent pace that you're pacing yourself to Christ. pacing yourself, pacing yourself, pacing yourself. Because the closer you draw to him, the more often you're going to find yourself showing up to battle with your daddy, with your dad by your side. That's what you want.

Because the reality is whether your dad's there or not, you're going to show up to battle. That's an everyday process right there. So if you can come to grips and understand that no matter what you do, you're going to be in battle. You're going to show up every day. You open your eyes. You showed up. And the battle's here.

Then it's pretty easy after that, right? If you can understand that, if you can come to accept that, then really the only other thing to do then after that is to put the odds in your favor and draw close and near to the one who will win the next battle for you. For you. You win nothing. Apart from Christ, you are nothing. You can't do this on your own.

Oh, yeah, well, I burned them sages and I did this one thing, that thing. I promise you, I promise you, that's not the key to this. I'm not even going to go down the rabbit hole right now. There's perception. There's perception. And perception is often very close with deception. And there's a lot of deception happening in the spirit realm that overflows and overlays the natural. And because we're in the natural, if we don't have discerning eyes, we very well could be tricked.

And we are seeing that a lot. So because I see such things, I care less and less about public opinion on anything, really. And I say what I want to say because, hey, everybody else gets to say whatever they want to say. Everybody else gets to say their opinions and thoughts. And people can call my God a female deity. And I should be accepting of that. So if you say such things, then I'm going to say what I want to say. and if you don't like it,

maybe stop saying the things you're saying and I won't have to say the things that I'm saying. You dig? Just sick and tired of the nonsense. It's time for us to man up and woman up, soldier up, armor up, act the way you're supposed to act. Act like you are.

Be what you're designed to be. What am I designed to be? You're designed to be a soldier. Start acting like it. So yeah, Chad Wright, big fan, big fan, big fan of Chad Wright. I like that guy and I like his beard. Some of the original followers of the confessionals back when I first started, probably remember me having such a beard.

I don't think it was quite that long when I started the podcast, but it was down to about here. It was probably around a foot long, a foot long beard. and I shaved it off for a few reasons. One, because I got tired of being called a terrorist. That was not fun after a while. It was funny for a few times, but yeah, it wasn't that fun after a while. So I shaved my beard.

Plus, my wife didn't like the long beard. She also didn't like the beard at all when I first started having a beard, but now she doesn't want me shaving the beard off. And so we just have this beard. but I'd like to grow a longer beard soon, I think. I think I'd like to give it another shot. And I've also been kicking around the idea of getting hair plugs and growing some hair. What do you guys think?

Let me know in the chat. Should I grow some hair on my head? Get some hair plugs? No, I'm serious. I have been considering it. I really miss having hair. And it's not even like a middle, midlife crisis. Like, I don't care like that.

I just wish I had some hair. I missed that. I missed that. I didn't appreciate it long enough, you know, when I had it. But more likely, I'll just be a bald guy with a beard. It is what it is. You take the cards you're dealt, right? So, oh, and that these videos are playing when I click on them and I just, I'm not expecting it. It makes me jump. So this coming Tuesday show, We have Congressman Eric Berluson. Breaking news. Breaking news. Sound the alarm. Tony has interviewed a congressman on disclosure, which means one thing and one thing only.

He sold out and he's a sciop now. I can only imagine the comments. I mean, I just, I know the trends. No, but how to come. came together was I went up to Tim Poole to his his studios. I've been there a few times, but I went up to his studio last month or a month before. I think it was like two months ago. And I recorded an episode of The Culture War on UFO Disclosure and Congressman Eric Burleson was there. And we had a good conversation. And I had a sense, I had a feeling that maybe he even

said it during the recording that he was a Christian. Christian, but that was pretty confirmed because after the recording, we spent some time at the studio still talking with people, but then he and I both had a jet to the airport and get out. Because I told them I had to get it and get out. My wife had just gotten diagnosed. I couldn't be there much longer. And thank you for the super chat. Happy, happy. That's the thing's going here. Let me just switch over here. How do I? Okay, Auto Star Super Chat's okay. I don't, oh gosh. This is, see, this is the problem with this stuff. Like, I'm trying to make something, do something nice and thank people, and they just make it so hard. Thank you for the Super Chat, happy girl. She says, if you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet, to those you haven't. those you touch through your stories, your shows, you don't ever give up, or don't ever give up, always call on Jesus, say what you want to say.

Well, thank you. Thank you. You didn't have to do the super chat for that, but thank you. I appreciate it. Fringe, bring Fringe back. I plan on it. I text Fringe a lot. Her and I are good friends.

She'll be back. What I'm trying to do is get Fringe here in studio, but she refuses to fly. So for her to drive here, it's a bit of a drive. So y'all need a DM fringe and tell her to stop refusing the fly and put her on the spot right there. So what was I talking about? What was it talking about? Oh, Burleson.

So we shared a ride back to the airport from the studio. and we had a great conversation. And I just, so like when I'm in these kind of moments, like, all right, so when I'm in a social setting, believe it or not, you know, you guys see me on my platform and I am who I am, but in social settings that I am not, I'm not familiar with, I tend to be kind of reserved and quiet and just kind of, I'm like a fly on the wall, really.

And I wasn't always like that. I wasn't always like that, but I get nervous in social settings now. I don't know why. But we're in the vehicle driving back to the airport and we're talking. And it was such a comfortable conversation. And I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to put my cards out there because that's kind of how I am. I don't really like doing a whole lot.

I do it sometimes. I'll play the game of, you know, reservedness. but it's just it's just kind of hard for me because it just doesn't feel good I don't like it so I just I kind of just put it out there I was like yeah I think

I think angels or I think this UFO stuff I think it has a lot to do with fallen angels I think that there's the interdimensionality aspect of this is very strong and I'm talking to a guy who's part of the disclosure hearings right he knows things that I don't know and all that and I was just sharing my opinion on things and we got to

talking about nephalum and all that stuff. And this was with a congressman on the way that's the airport. And then right before he departed at his gate, we exchanged contact information. I was like, oh, wow, I guess I didn't scare him away. And he's like, well, thank God. I'm not representing that crazy guy. You know, good luck, Bichet. But, yeah, we kept in touch.

And I interviewed with him a few weeks back. and that's going to go this coming Tuesday. And I wasn't planning on it going so soon because I had it. Because everybody waits to turn, right? I said that earlier. But sometimes you readjust things. And just like the shroud of Turin was kind of popping with Tucker Carlson and other platforms last week.

I was like, yeah, we need to put out the shroud now. And so we put it out and all that. But now, you know, UFOs kind of back in it a little bit because Luna went on road. and let's pressure, let's pressure Luna to come on the show, okay? So I need you guys to contact her office and request that Anna Paulina Luna

appears on the confessionals. And I think, I think we can actually do that. I think we can get that done. I'm going to work on it. But you guys should do your part too and request it. call your representatives and just requested. But with her being on the show, and I would have played some of it, the audio was working,

but literally right before I hit play, I was like, whenever, so I don't, I get, I get like this anxiety just, just, getting ready to watch these shows.

But I don't want them to talk about some things because it triggers me, and then I can't, I can't stop, you know, like it just gets, it gets me jumping. gets me jumping out of my skin. I'm like,

ah, you know? Like, it just drives me nuts. And she did it within the first three seconds. She started dropping interdimensional within the first minute. I was like, oh, my gosh, aneurism. Like, I was like driving my truck off the road. I was like, this is nuts, man. This is nuts, man.

But, you know, in reality, it's because, like, I've been, we, you, I, we have been on this, this train for a while. And it's interesting seeing the reps get on the train. They're on this disclosure train. And some people say it's inauthentic and all that. But nevertheless, there is a disclosure train, whether it's real or not. And you see these congressmen and congresswomen diving into these topics that you, the listener, have been diving into your entire life. and to a certain extent there is an ego with it too

because you feel like you have something to offer the conversation knowing that you'll never actually get the opportunity to offer it to the conversation. And so it's just like if it drives you mad and it drives me mad because I feel like that

even though I just interviewed one of the congressmen and I'm telling you guys next Tuesday show we go there, okay? Because I can't help myself. So I find myself in a rare situation where I have the opportunity or had the opportunity to go there. But most people, including myself, I put that because I mean, that might be the only time

I ever get that opportunity. But most people will never have that opportunity to go there. And so you're left sitting there listening to somebody say things that are triggering you because you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you're like, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No. And you're going back and forth, back and forth.

And you're like, oh, my gosh. and you just want to contribute. You want to contribute to the conversation and you can't. And that's what drives you nuts, right? It just drives you nuts, man. But overall, I haven't finished the interview. I got about halfway through, but it was a good conversation. It was a good conversation.

And we're dropping the Berluson, Eric Berluson interview next Tuesday in response to this Rogan episode. So trying to catch the wave, man. to catch that wave, that congressional wave. Yeah, I'm just over here trying to do stuff. There's method to the madness, but not as much as people want to believe that there is. I'm just kind of, I'm doing my thing, and I'm just, I'm doing what I feel called to do, what I find, well, actually, I put this way, I'm doing what I feel called to do and what I feel called to do. is also giving me utmost satisfaction and joy. And so that's a great combo.

I feel like everybody should try that one. You know, I'm sure many of you have experienced that, that feeling of, is hopelessness too much? Maybe it's too much. But just that feeling that you feel when you're like, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. life. And sometimes it's because you just don't know what you're supposed to be doing with your life,

but you just know, this isn't it. You know, I went to Bible college. I felt called to be in the ministry when I was younger. I walked away from that calling for many years, nearly 20 years of my life. And so in that time, you're doing all this other stuff. And I find myself sitting in a tractor trailer, staring out a window, watching the world pass me by, depressed, saying to yourself, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life, but I know this isn't what I'm supposed to do with my life. And the way I know this isn't what I'm supposed to do with my life is because I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys doing the same thing with their life and they're finding complacency and satisfaction even in what they're doing. And I'm like being tortured.

like you know so like you've all been there i'm sure you've been there at times and um it's just it's just really it's really good it's really good to pursue pursue life in a sense of looking for what that calling is you know um and then once you find that calling like i did to just relentlessly go after it my wife lectured me about this morning actually I'll tell you guys this and then I'll probably start bringing it in. I, when I got married, when my wife started dating me when we were 18, I was a different person, obviously. We were all different people 20, 30 years ago, whatever it's been. Not 30 years, my goodness.

Over 20 years, though. And when I was younger, I didn't have the motor, the desire to be anything. extraordinary in life. I'm not saying I'm extraordinary now, but the pursuit to be extraordinary is there. And that motor to have a pursuit to be extraordinary was not existent in me. And I found myself having ideas like I always do.

I'm an idea factory. I found myself having these ideas, but not having the motor to pursue them only to see the idea fall apart, somebody else do it, I forget about it, and then when I remember it, it's too late to execute on.

I found myself, as I went into my 20s, I found a pattern where I was living with a lot of regret because I just wasn't being what I felt like I could be inside of me. I know you guys feel it. I know you guys feel the same thing. Inside of you, you feel like there's somebody that's getting ready, that wants to burst out of you.

It's there. And you're just trying, you don't know how to get it out. I found myself like that when I was in my, my 20s. And I made this decision that I was going to just do the opposite of everything that I am naturally. inclined to do. And so I started executing on all my goals, all the ideas I had and I started

opening up businesses and I had a cleaning company. Every idea that came to my mind, I'm like, I'm going to do it, going to do it, going to do it. I did Amway cleaning company. I, coached college basketball. I know, I had a auto repair company where I was a mobile auto repair company. I called it Mars, mobile auto repair services, Mars. And I would schedule clients to go and do

small auto repairs on their cars after I got done driving truck. And so it was just like, that didn't last because you don't have said hours driving trucks. So how can you actually run a business that way? I bet I could figure it out now, but back then I didn't have the brain

power for it, I guess. But the point is I made a decision to just do the opposite of what I have always done, which is just put things in the back burner and coast. And by repetition, I became something that had never existed on the outside of me, but was always there on the inside. I brought that inner man out, and I didn't know what I was doing at the time. I didn't know I was doing that,

but I just knew that I got tired of living with the regret of seeing, what could be and not having what could be because I just didn't execute. I was tired and I came home and turned on the TV and I was like, I'm not doing that anymore. You guys hear me talk about on the show how like I don't watch TV. This is probably where it started. Like I just was like, I'm cutting everything out. I'm an extreme person and I'm going to be extreme. And I just changed. I just changed everything. And that's cool and all. But there is a problem with that, especially with somebody like me, which is like, I didn't spend time building any kind of structure. I just did stuff and just threw mud against the wall.

And it's like, oh, that one's stuck. Let's go over there and check it out. And without structure, you're going to drown. And, you know, I've been fighting that ever since, to be honest with you. And this morning, I was talking to my wife about some things because, you know, like I said, this week's been a pretty interesting week. It's been rough. It's been blessing. It's just been an up and down week for me. It's just highs and lows. And today, I had so much work to do. Obviously, I mean, we're, it's one o'clock in the morning.

And I just, I had two interviews I had to do today. And that's easily at least four hours of actual time spent with people in the middle of having to do all this other stuff that I had to do before I leave town next week. week. And so I had to cancel my interviews. And I'm sure Lindsay either has done it or is going to be rescheduling them soon. But I just, there wasn't enough time in the day. And I was stressed out of my mind this morning before I came in here talking to her about it. And I looked at her and she, she had the face. And I was like, oh, there's the face. And I said, what? And she's like, nothing. You're going to get irritated if I'd say it. I'm like, no, I just say it. Like, I mean, I said, I'm not going to say I'm not going to get irritated, but like, if anybody needs to irritate me, it's you.

Like, I pay people to say yes to me. Like, they pay people to do what I tell them to do. I need you to tell me what I'm doing wrong and irritate me. And she said, you don't stop. You just constantly go and you constantly get ideas and you just start doing them. And then you overload yourself and you find. find days and weeks like this where you just don't have enough time to do anything. Like you have so much to do, you can't do anything.

And it was kind of a hard pill to swallow, but we had a we had a heart-to-heart conversation this morning. And I think, I know she's right. I know she's right. I don't know how to exactly fix it because I can't. And this is what she said to me too. And she's absolutely right. She said, you have this in your head where, if you're not taking steps forward towards something,

you're automatically in your head saying you're walking backwards and regressing. There is no neutral middle ground for you. You just, you're either going forward or you feel like you're failing. And she's 100% right. And that wasn't always me. I told her that and she agrees because she's been there. She's lived with me on it. I wasn't always like that.

But somewhere along the line of my obsessive nature, to just execute on everything made me start feeling like if I, if I'm not moving forward, you're losing. If you're not trying every second of your life to do something to advance something, you're being a loser and you're sitting still doing nothing. And that's not true. It's just this mental block that I have. And I'm not saying this in any kind of boastful way. I don't want, because I hate that crap where people are like, you know, my, my biggest curse is I just try too hard. I hate that crap. That self, that self-edifying crap of just like, you know, my, my biggest problem in life is that I just care too much.

Come on, man. Stop with that. But in the middle of a crazy week of ups and downs to start my last day of the work week with my wife kind of put me in my place was a sobering thing. And so what did I do? I stayed at the office to 1 o'clock in the morning. You know, she knows. She knows things aren't going to change overnight. But I also, she also knew, I think I told her last night, today was going to be a long one.

But yeah, I mean, I don't know. I guess like what I was saying earlier, you get one shot at this life, right? So you can live it trying to satisfy the materialistic side of things, or you can live it to satisfy your inner man's hunger and desire to be connected to your maker. And I find myself in this position where there are days where the human side of me is overriding the spiritual side of me. And I'm grinding hard, hard, hard into natural because I'm fearful of losing ground, in the natural of whatever. One of my biggest motivations is the fact that, like, I don't, like, I don't need,

I don't expect you guys to believe me on this stuff because, I mean, it is what it is. But I'm not the kind of, I don't care. Like, I've been, I've been at zero. I've been, I grew up in a trailer park. I grew up broken poor. I got married broken poor. My bride stayed with me through all of it. I'm okay going back to zero.

But the, the problem, the problem that I have. now is the fact that I carry a weight of I carry a weight for the guys that I'm around that rely on this place for a place to be employed at, right? And that's like one of my biggest motivating factors right now to not go on this just chill bro mode. I'm like it would it would break my heart if I had to let people go because I didn't do enough on my end to make sure that they can take care of their families. And these are things that I think are just natural to work through as somebody who wasn't raised to be a business owner. I wasn't preparing for any of this, you know? And I suspect 10 years from now it won't be a problem. I won't have these feelings and I'll be more comfortable with where I'm at in life. But right now it's a scary thing, you know. I was terrified bringing my brother down here to work for me.

And I was terrified to bring on my manager. You know, it's a scary thing. It's just a scary thing for me. So anyways, this is like the confessions of Tony, I suppose. This is what you get at 1 o'clock in the morning. But listen, guys, speaking of, I'm going to get out of here. Because my son's got a martial arts tournament tomorrow morning. or this morning.

And I should probably make sure I'm awake for that. You dig what I'm saying? I appreciate you guys. And it's maybe not the best live show that I just gave you. And I apologize if you didn't enjoy it. But hey, you're here still, which means you must have enjoyed something. So I appreciate you guys.

Slingshot Nation is a brand that we're going to start building out. There's going to be different branches of it. Like I said, the clothing line. It's going to be different from Merk-Mersh. Merck-Mirch is going to be more of the t-shirts and an apparel-type merchandise. Slingshot Nation is going to be more of your armor. It's going to be actual clothing. It's a clothing line, like jackets and things like that.

And it's going to be really cool once we have it all done. But it's going to be a whole movement. So the Slingshot Nation is going to be a whole movement. And we're going to let it trickle into other things. We're even going to probably be putting the Stinger on the Confessionals podcast episodes. Maybe soon. Maybe soon. I don't know.

I'll talk about the producer. But in the beginning of the show, and you'll hear it here in a second if you stick around for it, you'll hear, you'll hear, oh, boy, is that a slingshot? That's my son. That's my son. I had him come in here, and we worked on it for about 30 minutes. And it was so cute too because he was so excited to help dad and do this thing. And he sits down and he says it. And I was like, oh, that's good.

Let's do it again. And we did it again. And he was so nervous too because after the first time, he was like, he goes, how was that? That wasn't good, was it? I was like, buddy, that was great, but we're going to do it again. And he would do it again. He said, was that bad? And I'm like, no, but we're going to keep doing it.

We're just going to keep doing it until it gets exactly the way we wanted to sound. and we did it over and over again and I taught him the position of the mic because he kept on trying to stress it and turning his head and then you got to go into the mic and then the sound effect at the end that whip sound, him and I made we went and mixed different sounds

to get that sound specifically and it was a really cool experience where I'm sitting there and we're listening through sounds and he's like, I like that one. I'm like, yeah, I like that one too. So we put it off the side and we're listening more. And oh, I like that one.

He's like, I don't really like that. Okay, we'll put that off the side. And we just kind of made this thing together. And it was really kind of cool. It was really kind of cool. So, yeah, you'll hear her in a second. And that's my little boy, my little Benny. So this is the beginning of Slingshot Nation.

and I hope you guys enjoy whatever we come out with on it. And I hope I see you guys again, heading to Florida to do the interview with Jonathan Khan and the Ninjas or butterflies. I'm not even, I'm definitely going to be hanging out with L.A. Marzuli while I'm down there, but maybe we'll record something too or maybe we'll just go get some dinner. I don't know.

But exciting week next week. I got a lot of traveling to do the next few months. I'm going to be traveling the map really doing different. appearances on different people's shows. And I'm just really excited about what God's done in my life, guys. And I appreciate you all just coming along with the journey and the conversations that we have here. All right, I'm going to stop being tired, sappy, and get out of here. I appreciate you guys, and I'll, I don't know, I'll see you on the next one.

Oh, boy, is that a slingshot? Slingshot season. Let's run it. He missed. No. Got out with me, a whole squad going, walking the spotlight. Who's that? Stone in the slang in a true slap

Devil in the way we move at Trying to aim for the head like a duress I'm stuck in the valley that view bag Now I'm up in the hills with a fruit high like a news stack Every step with the light that's a blueprint Whole pack getting bright cause he doing it King's kids so the crown got a new fit And the cross head harder than a new split

We ain't here just a body this movement Every giant in the way he'll move it If the world want to hate we cool with it Because the love hits strong when the truth spit Grace hit me like Came in God with me whole squad going win Devil try to throw shade I grin

There's the light too bright where I've been. Hey, hey, I've been down in the dirt now I'm cleaned up. Blood Bob brand new, never dreamed up. They were throwing all the stones trying to team up. Got 50 now I'm standing here, feel the beamed up. I remember them nice in the struggle. Feeling way down deep by the trouble. But he showed up, strong, broke the muzzle.

Now the faith built big like a double. We ain't here for the fame of the flash. We just pointed to the king, let him splash. Living a cup, no cap, and the well don't run dry. That's that's facts. Now we're running on a path for the showstep. Every loss is a set up for the best yet. Every giant in my face is a test bet.

Got swing once. It's a headache. Grace hit me like Can't miss God with me Whole squad gonna win Devil try to throw shade I grin

Cause the light too bright Why I've been Grace hit me like Can't miss God with me whole squad Going light too bright Grace hit me like Can't miss

Tho shade I Slang Shot Nation We don't back up We don't break down Just line it up Pull back, let it go Run it up