THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Justin Wren - The Big Pygmy

Episode Date: November 8, 2018

The Big Pygmy - with @thebigmygmy   "160,000 kids in the United States alone skip school every day because of bullying." These words were spoken by the legend himself, Justin Wren aka The Big Pigmy.    Only 20 - 30% of students who are bullied notify adults about the problem. That is why it is so important for those of you who are experiencing this nightmare to tell someone. And if that person doesn't listen then tell someone else. There is someone out there who loves and cares for you.   In this interview, Justin shares his first-hand experience of being bullied and how he overcame addiction and disappointment to become dubbed, "The Big Pygmy."   The real fight of his life began with his journey to The Congo where he helped negotiate the freedom of hundreds of enslaved people and launch sustainable farming initiatives including clean water.    He was called "Efeosa," which means "the man who loves us," and founded the "Fight For the Forgotten" a non profit fighting to empower those who don't have a voice - from the forgotten people around the world affected by the water crisis, to the bullied in our own neighborhoods and schools.   Join me in experiencing this powerful and inspiring interview about the fight The Big Pygmy fought every day outside of the ring and how he found his life's calling through God and servitude.    WATCH/LISTEN NOW!   Please SUBSCRIBE to all platforms, by CLICKING THE LINK IN MY BIO. Please SHARE, REVIEW, COMMENT, REPOST, and TAG SOMEONE to spread the word about the fastest growing show on earth!       

Welcome to the Ed Mylet show, The Place for Winning. Here he is. Welcome back to Max Out. I'm Ed Mylet. This gentleman straight across from me here was one of the first people when I started my show that I reached out to that I wanted on here because I think he's an incredible human being. And so he's an MMA fighter, he's a humanitarian,

but I would call him a world changer. He's a guy that's maxing out his life and changing so many other people's lives across the globe. So we're gonna get into a formal introduction as I ask you questions, but Justin Ren, thank you for being here. Thank you Ed. Man, so stoked to be here.

Yeah, really? You know how fired up I am and grateful too. So thank you for being here. Everybody, I just want you to know, this is gonna be a ride for the next hour that you're gonna enjoy so much. And I'm excited because I already know in advance it's gonna change your life.

I already know you're gonna wanna share this with other people and that you're gonna be touched and moved and compelled, hopefully, to take some action yourself. So this big, strong guy right here is a teddy bear and he's a giver and you're gonna know this in about two minutes. So I want to step back to the beginning. Justin's involved in a whole bunch of things. Not only is he,

in fact when I say MMA fire, this guy was with the UFC, he was on the ultimate fighter, he's fighting for Bellator right now, 13 and 2 career record. I mean this is a legitimate big-time athlete and it's ironic when someone's that successful in a sport and it's not even remotely close to the things I'm the most impressed with about you. It's the caliber of man you are and what you've done with your life and how frankly vulnerable and open you are about your battles and tribulations too. So I want to kind of go back a little bit if we can too. I want to about the young, young Justin just a little bit, okay, because one of the causes that I'm passionate about that you were involved in fully now is bullying.

And I wanna talk about you as a child. So, were you this confident and successful as a young guy that say 10, 12, 13 years old, were you like this? No, absolutely not. I first, I'm just so humbled to be here. So grateful to be with you, your audience. This is a highlight for me. For sure.

This is amazing. But no, growing up was really, really tough. Like for a lot of people. But for me, depression set in a 13 years old as clinically diagnosed with depression because I grew up getting very heavily bullied. And so from the age of eight until 15, you know, I sat at the lunch table by myself, I got pelted in the back of the head with chocolate milk spit wads or food or or fist.

I grew up with tubes in my ears a lot, so it was hard for me to hear. And then I had to speech therapist from kindergarten to sixth grade really intensive from kindergarten to second grade but then all the way through sixth grade and so couldn't pronounce words right got teased because of that. Are you this big? Were you always a big guy? I was always heavy set and so I was pretty chunky and I might have been the

last kid in the United States had a chilly bowl haircut. Where my parents would put the bowl over my head and just cut around. But were you also one of the bigger kids I mean? No, actually I had a gross birth sophomore year. Got it. So I was shorter and wider. Got it.

Is what I was. And I just remember going to school and kids treated me different. And there was some notorious bullies in elementary school and then really ramped up in middle school. And they would pull my shirt up in front of the girls and slap my belly or twist my nipples or call me fat or act like they're throwing a harpoon because I'm the size of a well and all sorts of different stuff.

But I got to the point where it was very, very premeditated and very hurtful in a way where in high school, there's our middle school, there's Texas tradition and it's homecoming. And so homecoming is everywhere, but we have something where we have chrysanthemums, where we call them homecoming mums that we would get for our date. It would be like a big fake flower. Now they look like your crowds got to go Google this. Okay.

Texas homecoming mums. Okay, because there is ridiculous. Okay. It is, it's a terribly gotty. I mean, the girls now look like parade floats. Literally, they're this big, the fake flower. They don't have their school mascots in it. They don't have bells and whistles.

They'll have LED lights with speakers that are going to the thing. I mean, it's wild. The girls will have to wear something around their neck in a back brace just to keep them standing. Oh my gosh. It's wild. But I remember saving up to buy my date, a homecoming mum, and I remember spending my entire allowance on it and thought I'd really impress her. Her name was Jessica. Just- Just take a lot for you and ask somebody. Yeah, absolutely. Because I was going through bullying, I had no confidence. And I spoke funny. And just so just to muster up the courage to ask her,

it took everything in me. I remember I also bought her a locket around her neck. And she appreciated that. She said, and then we went to the homecoming game. And I get there and she's got the streamers on it that say Justin and Jessica in the year. And I'd spent my allowance on it. We're there, our team's winning.

We're up in the back of the bleachers. And then I remember my notorious middle school bully, named Justin, his same name as me, walking up, putting his arm out, Jessica immediately putting her arm around his, and then I'm looking at me and saying, you didn't think she'd really come here with you, did you? He grabbed Justin and Jessica and said,

thanks for getting this work. And then they start walking away, and I remember just the laughter of the entire stadium, laughing me out of there, and me crying all the way out. Then the next year it started to magnify and get you to be worse. And you got a lot worse than that. I mean, physically getting beaten up in the locker room,

getting hit with a helmet, football helmet, that made me quit the football team. So, okay, so let me just say something, so you start out, I just want to get a picture of this. So there's so many, by the way, parents listening to this right now that need to hear this. Because some of your children aren't telling you that this is happening.

And there's a lot of children that are going to listen to this, too. And I think one of the lessons we'll talk about is you need to tell somebody. Yeah, for sure. But this year, this little boy, roughly from about eight years old, by the way, had tubes in my ears, I relate to that. Yeah.

I know how awkward that is. We're both, by the way, born on April 27th, too. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, me 17 years after you, but the same thing. But starting at eight years old, it's funny for me how visuals happen, just because I'm aware of that way. I picture worst on the bullying.

The actual kids hitting you, this strange is what I tell you, it's me picturing this poor little boy sitting alone at lunch. And everyone else is talking and having their conversations. And I was that boy a few times. I know the shame of sitting there alone, feeling so alone, so lonely. And the worst thing in the world is to feel that alone and a crowd of people. And everyone else seems normal. And so I just picture that happening to you. And so this happens basically every day

for years to you for the most part, right? Sitting at the lunch table by myself was often, very often. I did find a group to get with, but there were more of like the gothic kids. And it started to scare me because I remember actually, I mean, I clicked with them, but then it started to scare me because I remember actually, I mean I clicked with them, but then it started getting darker and darker to the point to where they would grab frogs and take black cats or those fireworks and put them down their mouth and blow them up and just angry,

angry kids. And so I kind of withdrew from that because it started getting kind of scared. These, they were guys that would start cutting themselves and everything else and I just, it was a dark place. But then the next year in eighth grade, I got invited to Jennifer's birthday party. And Jennifer was my biggest crush whether it was elementary, middle school, high school, it was Jennifer. And I remember just being so excited to go to a birthday party, invitations were being passed out at school.

And on it, it said costume contest winner gets a prize. And so her dad worked at Dr. Pepper. The prize was gonna be a Dr. Pepper gumball machine. And all the rumors at school were true. They had decorated their living room with Dr. Pepper vintage stuff. And there's a town in Texas called Dublin, Texas. And it's the only place you can get Dublin, Dr. Pepper vintage stuff and there's a town in Texas called Dublin Texas.

It's the only place you can get Dublin Dr. Pepper and it's made with like real king sugar and people go all from all over Texas to go get it. And they had one of those machines in their house. You didn't have to pay, just push the button, it pops out. And I remember talking to my mom and kids at school, they were talking about Superman, Batman, all these different, Spider-Man, what they were going to come to her party as. And I just remember she loved Transformers. Jennifer loved Transformers.

Her favorite one was Optimus Prime. And so I wasn't even big into Transformers, but I remember Dr. Pepper, Transformers, I'm going to make myself a Dr. Pepper. I'm a Transform, into a Dr. Pepper Transformer. I like that. And so my mom helped me. I got a 24 pack on my head, a 12 pack on my arm, the cardboard we used duct tape, I was a country kid. So duct tape just to make me a chest plate and I had a shield and a sword.

I remember going to her house and Mimi opened the door, her grandmother. And Mimi said, oh my gosh, Jennifer's gonna love this. Okay, she's gonna love this. And so I went into the living room, got to push the button, it popped right out. I got to double it, Dr. Pepper. Go to the backyard, I'm stoked. And when the back door opened, I remember you being met by my peers.

And I look out and I get blasted with a couple flashes of light. And as my eyes adjusted, I hear the sound of laughter, and I look out, and there's not one person that's dressed up, not one. And that wasn't necessarily the worst thing. It was that Jennifer said, I can't believe you thought you're good enough to come to my party. Right next to her, Tyler said, you're worthless.

And then Justin, the one that organized the whole thing that was kind of mind-a-torious, bullied through elementary middle school, said, you should just kill yourself. And when he said, when she said, you're not good enough, I didn't feel good enough. When Tyler said, you're worthless, I felt worthless, absolute worthless. And then whenever Justin said, you should kill yourself, I remember suicidal ideation, sunken right away. Depression, suicidal ideation, I wanted to kill myself.

I ran away from the party, this first time I ran away. I went to Dairy Queen, hit behind the Dairy Queen and just really ripping off the cardboard, throwing it in the dumpster, and just sitting there in a ball, just crying, until one of the Dr. Pepper, or sorry, dairy queen employees came outside, heard me crying, they're throwing away stuff in the dumpster.

So I don't honey, what are you doing come inside? My mom, this is before cell phones. So my mom was just gonna come pick me up at like nine o'clock. Well, she goes there, I'm not there, I ran away. So she has to go home, hear a voice mail from me, just bawling, you know, telling her I'm at Dairy Queen. She gets there after Dairy Queen's already closed. And she was livid. That's, that's whenever they decided they were taking me out of that school. So it was, it was a blessing to skies, but I was crushed. My middle school crush,

absolutely crushed me. And that's probably where, not probably, that is where my heart for bullying comes in. Because a lot of people don't know this. To give you a few of the statistics, 160,000 kids in the United States alone skip school every day because of bullying. Relentless bullying.

That's three million school days lost every month. Every month, three million school days were lost because of bullying. That's 3 million school days lost every month. Every month, 3 million school days are lost because of bullying. I'm from Oklahoma, or at least I live there now, and looking into the at-risk youth behavior survey, 28.9% deal with depression that affects them for two weeks or more. Of all students? Thirty percent? Yeah. 28.9, it's almost 29% and 15.1% struggle with seriously contemplating suicide. So suicidal ideation, 7.4% have actually attempted suicide. 7% of the students and of our babies, because 700 out of 100, it's way too many. And since the rise of social media and everything else bullying has become an epidemic.

Probably when it ever came back around, I was already working in the Congo, I was already doing some humanitarian work there, but I come back home and have my arm wrapped around my mom because she's crying. They own a photography studio, it's sports photography, but they were asked specifically to make a memorial for a funeral. I'm having my arm around her. I'm wiping tears while she's really, really crying. In the Moorah plaque leaves and I was just blown away speechless because I didn't know a kid this young could know how to tie a belt and hang

themselves, but the child was only nine years old. Nine years old and was told at school, you should kill yourself. So that's what he did. I had my, was speaking with US, yeah. US representative will heard in Texas, Antonio, he had an anti-bullying summit, and Maureen Moleck was there.

And her son David took his life. Started a law called David's Law in Texas. We're trying to get that into Oklahoma now. But bullying is just an epidemic that is just... What did it do to you? I'm curious when you were, by the way, thank you for sharing this. Because I know it's not easy to do

and you're helping people right now. It shakes me just a picture. Because I picture you and that child you're talking about in these statistics. That's happening to you. What could have alleviated it? What could have made it better? Did you not talk to your parents about it? Should you, if you're a child listening to this, let's just say, okay? And you're having, you know, and I also think I think yours was severe, right?

And I think sometimes people are like, well, I'm not being bullied because all of those things didn't happen. I mean, now, if you're going somewhere and you're scared or uncomfortable to be there, people are making you feel less than you should feel. You're being bullied. There's extensive everything in life, right? But years was not uncommon, but also very severe. What should

a kid do that's going through something like this? Well, I think to define it is a good thing, too. So I think bullying and this may or may not be the correct definition, but it's the misuse or imbalance of power and abuse because of that. And I think, so I know I got named Steve Hahn, who's like a leading guy, expert for bullying. He says it's peer-to-peer abuse. That's his definition. It's peer-to-peer abuse.

It can be verbal, physical, emotional. It can be exclusion. So being just like cast out to the side, and not included in things. And I would say the thing that saved my life was being able to open up to a good mom and open up and share. And so if there's a kid listening to this right now, you've got to talk about it. You have to open up, you have to share. Because if you don't, you keep it bottled up. I mean, let's think of Dr. Pepper again. You keep

that bottled up and you're getting shaken up and you're being bullied and shaken and hit and it's just building up inside internally. That's whenever kids turn to do very terrible things with depression, with cutting themselves, with suicide. And that's not the answer. I want people to know that there's some incredible people that have come on the other side of it. Well, I did people, thank you, but my friend Rose Nomeunis, she's the current UFC champion.

And she's a female, she's just bad to the bone and she's awesome, she's feisty and fierce and she had a brutal upbringing. And so there's a fighter spirit in every person. Yeah, I hope that people, I have the young people here in this, because they can see you. And so I want you to understand something, if you're going through that,

this is what your life can turn out. We're gonna talk about what his life's turned out to be so far here in a minute too, so you need to stay tuned. But there's a few things you should know, and I know you gotta tell somebody. And if your mom's not listening, tell your dad, if your dad's not listening, tell the teacher, if your teacher's not listening to the coach and if all of those people aren't listening, I promise you there are people that love

you, that believe in you. There are. You may not see them right now. They're in your life. They care about you. They believe in you and your life is still going to turn out magnificence. And in many ways, in many ways, better because you've gone through this. You don't deserve to go through it, but it's gonna give you coping skills, resiliency, toughness, all kinds of things that you aren't gonna get if you don't go through, but we want it to stop. And whatever you do, don't ever do harm to yourself.

Ever do harm to yourself. Call, talk to somebody, right? Absolutely. Did you, when you grew, is this what stopped it? I mean, what stopped it with you or did it not stop? No, it did stop. I found mixed martial arts. And whenever I found the UFC VHS tapes,

I remember picking those up and just thinking initially, well, these guys don't get bullied. And so then whenever I turned it over, I remember seeing boxing versus wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu versus Judo and Sumo versus Karate. And that was back in the day whenever they weren't cross-training and weren't mixed martial artists. So I just fell in love with the human chess match of it. And so I found wrestling and I started researching it, looking at it and saying like if I could transform into one of these guys

Then I won't have to deal with that stuff. Yeah, my parents It makes me almost emotionally thinking about it. They made a huge sacrifice for me They got me out of that school. I had to be transferred out of the second school because of bullying and then they sent me to a school in Dallas and I lived in Southwest Fort Worth my school was in Northeast Dallas. It was 67 miles to drive every day to that school but there were two Olympic gold medalists that were at that high school. They saw my passion, they saw it as an outlet for me and when I started I, really. I was terrible. I won one match by one point by accident in my first year of wrestling.

So first year of wrestling, I was terrible. Guys would hold me down and laugh. I'm here, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. So it would hold me down and they would literally laugh. That's crazy. That's amazing. Yeah, it was brutal.

But at the same time, I loved it. I loved it because I was like physically just working out of you know, like you're getting rid of that toxic stuff that's inside of those toxins. And so whether that's physically or emotionally. And so I just threw myself at the sport of wrestling. I had two coaches that that min toured me. One was Kenny Monday and Kendall Cross.

And they told me write down your goals put them somewhere you can see them and work towards that and they said we promise you start wrestling it sophomore year and they said we promise you if you commit to this one make you a state champion by the time you're a senior so they told me write down my big goals and if it's bigger than state champion write that down I wrote down national champion and I remember putting that on my mirror where I'd brush my teeth in the morning and I put it above my bed and I put it above my bed so that way whenever I'd wake up I'd see it

and it would be the first thing I dream or thought about was going to sleep I'd be dreaming about it like that's my goal national champion. They got me magazines they saw my passion and they said look put some of the pictures of your favorite wrestling moves around and visualize that. And so I remember putting my favorite wrestling move on the left and my second favorite wrestling move on the right. That would help me just think, I need to do this move,

I need to do that move. Well, they made me a 10-time stake champion, five time all-American. And then my first national championship I won was with the move on the left, and my second national championship I won was with the move on the left and my second national championship I won was with the move on the right. So it's still me visualized the life that you want and Jesse been through tough stuff

and they knew the bullying side of this. My mom cried with them telling him about it and this is what we think is going to give them hope and a purpose and a passion and an outlet, a healthy outlet because they knew our suicidal. They knew... Did you attempt... I know you did at some point in your life, did you attempt young or was that later in your life? That was later life.

I know what you did. We're going to get through to that. So, I want to... That's unreal, by the way, that you go from the football game with Jessica to... There's Justin Clown doing this to you again at the party. And he's involved again to just a few years later, listen kids, parents. A few years later, two years later, you know,

become a state and national competitor and champion is just bananas. And when you start out in the sport, you pick, that's your left, and that's your holding you down. And I just think kids, you need to know this. This too will pass. Usually what happens, I wanna give you a compliment if you're being bullied. And I just think kids, you need to know this. This too will pass. Usually what happens, I want to give you a compliment

if you're being bullied. This is but my observation, because it was true with me. It was true with you. And it's true with a few of the boys that I'm interacting with right now. And actually one young lady on social media, people mistake your kindness for weakness. And eventually your kindness in life

is going to be one of your great gifts and strengths. You've turned your kindness into your mission, into your cause. And so they see your kindness is what it really is. They see your goodness and they mistake it as a child just so you know, for weakness. Don't lose your kindness through this because it's one of your great gifts and that's what they see in you and they don't understand it. So all kids that are bullied are the most kind, sweet, gentle kids. By the way, we also, a lot of times have the capacity to really put a hurt in on somebody

if we could, but we just don't think that way. And so please reach out, please know that you should be following Justin on social media, myself and others that are here to support you, believe in you, feed you positive messages and just know your life can be just like ours. You're going to get through this time and there are people that love you and care about you. So really, really appreciate you sharing that. So you trip me out, man.

Like because we are just now getting into part of the story. But I think the your past for what you've turned into should give everybody listens. And even those of you that aren't being bullied, you're just going through a dark, depressed time. One of the things that would surprise most people, brother, that people ask me, what surprises you about people that do your show? And what's the commonality? Is it their strengths, is their work ethic?

And I'll say, well, I can tell you what one of them are, which is going to surprise you. Almost all of them have struggled with some form of depression or anxiety. Is that crazy? Is this? All of these max out achievers, whether they're in sports, fitness, finances, personal

development, most of them at some point have struggled with down thoughts, insecurity, or worse depression. It's an interesting commonality between people that end up building magnificent lives. I don't think that those of you that are struggling with that at 45 or at 15 should think that that's some detriment for you. Right. It's actually maybe a positive indicator and some bizarre way on the list of traits of successful people. So let's keep going into the story because it's about to get crazy. Is there anything else on bullying you'd want kids to

know in terms of their thoughts, their hopes, interacting with you or anybody else? When it comes to bullying, so I would say that, man, you've got to find something you're passionate about to focus on, whether you're artistic, whether you are an athlete, whatever it is, whether it's debate or chess, I mean, it can be anything. Art, whatever. Art, yeah. So I think that for me, it was martial arts. Yeah. Martial arts instilled wrestling, and the martial arts instilled humility, discipline,

respect, honor. I mean, it instilled so many great things in me. And so, and there's like 3.9 million kids in the country that do martial arts and probably half of them find it because of they're being bullied. Wow. There's so many kids that are being bullied. And so I'd say find a martial arts academy. What Fight for the Forgotten's doing is we're getting in 100 martial arts academies this year with bullying prevention and character development. So we're really stoked about that. We have a program called Heroes in Waiting.

And what heroes in waiting is doing is we're showing the kids, it's bullying prevention, but more it's character development. So what is a hero? A hero is someone who sees a need and takes action immediately. So that can be an action that's big or small, it can be an action that's known or unknown, but man, we're all heroes in waiting. We're all ordinary people able to do extra ordinary things. So even if you feel right now that you're just ordinary or you're nothing special, you're capable of so many special, extra ordinary things

and so on'm pumped. This is gone better than I ever thought, because I just totally believe that. And I also, you know, the staff that you gave really about how many children are being bullied, if anything that does, that tells us how big the problem is, it also lets the kids know that are being bullied, you really aren't alone.

There's literally millions of kids going through what you're going through. What I love about you, I just did a podcast on this. I say everybody in social media, personal social media, you want to have all these emotions like love, gratitude, passion, all these other things and we do want to have all those things. But there's like a gateway emotion that if you possess it, you can get all these other things in multitudes and that emotion is vulnerability.

If you're going to be vulnerable in your life, it's a gateway to magnifying love, magnifying gratitude, magnifying connection with people, magnifying contribution. You're kind of the ultimate example of vulnerability because you come in this massively strong package, you could whip about anyone's dudes' ass in the world, right? Yet you're completely vulnerable and transparent about your entire life, all of the bad, all of the good, all of the challenges. So that's why this next part of the journey is kind of interesting to me because it didn't just turn into roses after that, right? There's still this battle that we all go through in our life. So go ahead.

Well, my childhood dream, whenever I was 13 years old, I wanted to be one of those UFC mixed martial arts fighters. At 18, I won a national championship wrestling, 19 I did it again in Greco-Roman wrestling, and then I went straight to the Olympic training center. Out of high school to the Olympic training center, and then I'm wrestling in Moscow, and then I get into kickbox and kickbox in Amsterdam, and also I'm invited on to the Ultimate Fighter TV show. I'm the main event at the Hard Rock in casino in Las Vegas. So my childhood dream became a reality. I'm the youngest guy at the highest level of the sport.

When I was on the Ultimate Fighter, I was 21, 22. Next youngest guy was like 29, I think. Heavy weights are normally in their 30s or 40s. And so I was the youngest guy there at the highest level, all the lights on me, all the reporters around me saying, hey, you're the next big thing or you've got this great big future and you know, you got a bright future, but the thing that sucked was that I was hiding in a

dictionary. I had my arm snapped, I broke it, dislocated it, tore the ordinary collateral ligament and just that sent me into a spiral. I was told so my identity became who I was as a fighter. Like that was my identity. That was the only sense of purpose of meaning of value that I had. That was my only value I brought to this world. You went from having a horribly trashed identity as a kid to the fighter identity. Absolutely. And so, you know, whether I won or lost, it would make or break me. And then, if I lost, I would just, I mean, down the spiral in a craze, it was a free fall

down into a very dark pit. I got hooked on opiates, and oxy was just at my fingertips being a fighter, being a pain, having a surgery, and I had three different doctors. One was in Iowa, one was in Colorado, one was in Texas, and I get 30, 60, and 90 of those. And then one of those ran out that month, I was able to go get it on the streets and through different connections. And I started to wipe away my memory and my life and my pain, probably the pain from being that child, the inner child in me. And so it was a really tough place because it went through probably six years of addiction. Wow. And it was, but it was off and on,

but two years were really, really bad. To what extent, give me an example, what do you mean by bad? Bad where I was chemically dependent. To where if I was eating food, food would fly off my fork, or not fly off, but would drop off my fork while I was eating, because I would be trying to get clean,

because I got a fight to get ready for. I mean, I'm getting ready for a professional bout against this guy that we circled a date on a calendar, that's whenever we're going at it. And so I have that pressure, but thinking I'm injured, and then I needed it for the pain for a short time, but I wanted it because of how it erased that pain, that emotional pain, that depression.

But it got so bad to wear. I went on this eight-week binge and I was literally hitchhiking to like two or three different drug houses in Colorado, in Summit County, Breckenridge area, and outside of that. And woke up in some disgusting places. I was basically a missing person for about eight weeks. My mom broke into my house, found the Coke, the pill bottles, the buns, the liquor bottles, everything, was living like a pig.

And my best friend called, I had probably 60 Miss Voice Mills, my best friend called and said, I can't believe this is how Fargono is, because I was just a hurt dude that couldn't help, hurt people. And I think that's a hurt dude that couldn't help hurt people. And I think that's a true statement, hurt people, hurt people. And so I was so hurt and so caught up in this addiction

that I couldn't help but hurt the people that love me the most. My best friend said on the other line, I can't believe you missed my wedding. I can't believe my best man didn't show up. And so I was just in this very deep dark pit that I couldn't get myself out of. And that was a real turning point. I went back to my team and I was training

with some of the best fighters in the world. I mean, guys that would come through our gym where the Graschot Heaven, George St. Pierre, I was main training partners with Shane Carwin and Brennan Shop. There were just so many studs. I mean, these are guys that whenever I was a kid, some of my I had posters on my wall. I mean, I idolize these guys and now I'm training partners with them. I'm the youngest guy there and I got invited in on the team and I come back to train one time and I get

there a little late but everyone's looking at me different. Coach pulls me out, coach Trevor Whitman, he just voted the MMA coach of the year this year. Has a couple champs on his belt and he's just an amazing man. Pull me into his office and said, Justin, like you got a real problem and you're gonna have to face it. We just voted and it was 34 to 1. You're off the the team and so that childhood dream became reality But it turned into a nightmare real quick and even that nightmare was being ripped away from me And so that was my identity. It was who I was

Is that a bottom or they've caused you to spiral further from there? That was rock bottom for me. That was right bottom for me. How did you so you? I mean, this is a pronounced deep addiction than that you had because you're allowing it to cost you your dream. It's such a great lesson though that our identities can't just be about what we do. They've got to be about who we are, which is what you changed. So you went from this, you know, really this childhood where it wasn't fair for you to even begin to think about who you were

to catch you an identity about what you did. And this is the pattern I see a lot. Someone with a low identity that attaches their identity to what they do. And when that what they do doesn't work out very well, then they're back to who am I. And I see this with athletes more than probably any other career. But I see it in business too. Someone who's constantly just building a business trying to make money to kind of escape who they are, but they never work on that internal identity. They find a way to get their life back to kind of the crappy identity hold for themselves. How did you get sober? So we'll just on that real quick we'll

say with athletes. I remember getting my hand raised and it'd be after a great knockout or a great submission and people would be roaring and I get my hand raised and I would think this thought is this it? Yeah is this all? And I would have that thought of like well well, what's next? Before I even get out of the cage, can I feel like that fueled the addictions even more? Because when or lose, when I had a reason to celebrate,

lose, I wanted to know myself and forget about the six months it took to train for this fight and I threw my life at it and what happened, you know? Is this all the right? Is this all the right? Is this it? For me, man, there are some guys that came threw my life at it and what happened. This all the way. This all is. This it. For me, man, there were some guys that came into my life and really rallied around me. And they fought for me.

There was a bunch of good guys. They ended up taking me on a retreat. This week long retreat. I didn't really want to go on it. It was a religious thing. And for me, I didn't really want to go on it. It was a religious thing and for me I didn't like religion. And so they told me, look, come here and just experience God's love. And I was like, that's not for me, the kind of thing and whatever you do.

Yeah, he's a couple of my arms, link. But I ended up going, they paid for my flight, they paid for the retreat. They wouldn't take no for an answer. They were blowing me up on my phone. I ended up going and my life changed. I just say this is me personally. It's my faith, but I encountered God. His love, His grace, His mercy. And I say, God loved the hell out of me. Bless the mess out of me. And it was my relationship with Him that changed my life. Yeah, bro, it changed the addiction. I was using the first three days, and this is what changed me or softened my heart, changed things. They didn't judge me away. They loved me.

And so it said, judging me away and judging me because my addictions are my depression or things like that, they just loved me. So it's God's love that changed my life. And I don't really share that too much as much as I should. Yeah, you should. And I know exactly what you mean. There's this balance between us not wanting to push upon but I don't know some people.

But the same time you and I both know for us, we're saved by the grace of God because we're not perfect men to this day you and I. Today, somewhere along the day, you and I today have already screwed some stuff up today. I'm a total working progress. Right, so am I. And so I love knowing that God's got my back

because I'm not perfect. I'm better with him in my life. And it's just our beliefs, which is wonderful. I'm not pushing that upon anybody, but I think it's good for people to know what our foundations are. And that's a good thing. And that's the foundation that changed my life.

And for me, I feel like I got a couple of words there that my wife even speaks over me now, but it was my identity. And maybe it's not my identity, but it's three words that I feel like describe me. And it's, and they kind of helped him on that retreat, but I'm compassionate, I'm ambitious, and I'm resilient. And so my wife will even say that before I go, so public speaking is still without a doubt

my number one fear. That's right, how's that possible? Look at you. With a speech therapist growing up and being bullied and all that stuff, it still is there. I have this habit where it comes from bullying and the kids twisting on me and stuff, but I pull my shirt all the time.

I'm like this. And I just get nervous. My hands start shaking before I speak and share my story. But she'll text me or she'll call me or she'll say a little prayer over me and just say, hey, you're compassionate, you're ambitious, and you're resilient. Just reminding me that, hey, compassion is what fuels me

and drives me. And if there's a, and I'm ambitious, big dreamer, and I wanna do big things in the world, I wanna help a lot of people. And then I'm resilient. Tough times are gonna come, but I gotta dig deep and overcome these things. That's beautiful.

It blows my mind, not, I know your background, but like you just have reached so many people with both your deeds and your words though, you know what I mean? Like, that's how I found you. I mean, like I read the book, I watch your stuff, I'm like, I have to meet this person, right?

Because I love that not only have you done great work, but you also give clues as to how you've done it. Like that's wonderful that your faith's part of it. The three words are part of it. And that's caused you to kind of step into how I found you. Right? And so how did you end up? I don't even know this part of the story. Right? So how in the world did you end up with the pigmeas? Like how does this end up getting to this place? Like how does a guy from you're in Oklahoma then or Texas? I was actually in Colorado. Okay, you're in Colorado.

So you're in Colorado. You've had the fighting career, you're already, you really well known guy by that time fighting wise, but you've had these issues. And then you end up guys, just so you know, from where he was in his life, imagine this, some guy has disappeared for eight weeks. Just hear this, because you need to know

your past does not define you. Your current situation does not predict your future, right? So some of you are in your disappearing act right now. Like maybe you're not disappeared from your family, but you're off the radar. You're not contributing. You're giving or maybe some of you are in some sort of an addiction you shouldn't be in right now. Maybe just listening to this or watching. You're not on your A game. You're not maxing out your potential, right? Where you are. He goes from this place he's been describing you to you. To now, you think God's not good, you think life's not incredible. Imagine if at any point where he's chasing down some more oxy, that he thinks he's going to be worried about the

describe, it'll blow your mind where your life can go. So tell him where you end up and what happened. Okay, here we go. This is... You're not going to believe this, everybody. I think that this is probably my first time to share this on a podcast. Okay. But I'll give you the real deal story.

Okay. Wow, thank you. Yeah. So I started volunteering, I stopped fighting. Whenever I had that life change. And I just felt like if I went straight back to fighting, I was gonna go straight back to the addictions. And that I wasn't stable, winning or losing.

And it would just be too much temptation for me to go right back to that same old lifestyle. And I would just spiral again. So I heard this quote and it said, no act of kindness no matter how small ever goes wasted. No act of kindness no matter how small ever goes wasted. And it's

nothing that that great but it is profound. It was profound to me in a way that it was like that's what I got to do. That's what I need to do. And so I started volunteering at the the local children's hospital went through night training and started doing that. That's what you do. Man, that's so awesome. So I mean, it changed my life. It changed my life going and visiting the kids and just pushing the wheelchairs around and just serving them. Just whatever they need, the kid with a stage 4 cancer, you know. Man, just seeing that, that'll change your perspective. Sure. They'll change your heart. You'll leave there. There's many times that left there just cry. Just heartbroken. change your heart, you'll leave there. There's many times that left there just cry. I'm just heartbroken. In other times I left just inspired like wow that that

fighter is so much more of a fighter and warrior than I that's what I aspire to be like. That six-year-old kid right there. And so that that's sort of to change my life working at the rescue mission and working at local at-risk youth associations and just just just starting to try to help out in whatever way I can. But I didn't have a job. And so I was broke as a joke for 11 months. And I remember just barely being able to pay bills, almost getting evicted, all sorts

of different stuff. Where it was really, really tough time. It was most rewarding and fulfilling time also. But it was also really tough financially. And I just felt like I was more of a shotgun, where I was like, I'll go do this and I'll go do that and I'll go do this and I'll help here and help there. And this is fulfilling so I'll just keep doing it. And I'll find my niche of where to help eventually.

But I felt like I had this inner desire of I wanted to be more of like a sniper, than I wanted to have a focus. And I wanted to be like, this is the difference that I'm gonna make. But I didn't have a real way to find the pigmies where I was gonna go and live with them. But I found myself in a place really broken and confused. I actually got offered my favorite fight

or as a goal's list as a kid. I had number one or number three was fight or be a national champion wrestler number two was fighting UFC number one was fight that the Satama Superena in Tokyo Japan okay so after a year of fight taking off I get offered your fight at the Satama Superena in Tokyo Japan but something in me felt like it wasn't the right time so I ended up saying a prayer and I said, God, what do you want me to do with my life? If this isn't it, like, what am I going to do with my life? And I know that this will sound like really out there and really wild, but it's just what happened.

So I'll share it and it's, I'm really reserved sharing it normally. But say a prayer, God will you do with my life. And I swear to God that I had a vision where it was like a movie in my mind. And I saw myself in the rainforest. And I was walking down this footpath and I heard drumming. And I'm walking and walking and I hear singing, this very distinct singing that was almost like yodeling. And I'm clearing tickets out of the way and then I open up into a clearing. First guy of me, he's got ribs poking out and he's coughing and he's coughing. I know they sick and I see these other people. I know that they're poor, they're sick, they're hungry, they're thirsty,

and that they're enslaved. I know that I know that they're enslaved. And so I come out of that vision and two things happened. And so I did a lot of visualization at the Olympic training center before my fights, before wrestling tournaments, but this was unlike anything I'd ever experienced because it was so vivid, so real. It was like I was there almost. And I come out of that and I cry and I cry. I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry So I wrote down for gotten. Oh, come on. So right down for gotten. Come on. Right underneath that poor hungry sick thirsty oppressed and enslaved. And and three days later I meet this guy named Caleb and I tell Caleb this vision because I found out he's

kind of wild guy. He's gone all over the world doing humanitarian work, commissions work, and in Caleb, it was best for him, or not best friends, but he knew Bear Grills really well. He was gone through his training. I think Bear Grills wrote the four of his book, and I'm like, well, this guy's kind of wild and out there. He's a world traveler. I'm gonna tell him this vision, but I'll be honest.

For three days before that, I felt crazy. I mean, I had experimented with LSD and psychedelics and psilocybin and all sorts of stuff. But this was unlike any of those visions. This was so real and so different. But I struggled with it. Who would I ever tell this to and they're going to think I'm nuts? And I felt a little nuts. What was that?

Was that a mental break? It lapsed. What happened to me? But I tell Caleb and he kind of cracks a grin and Vinnie leans in and then he stopped me as I got through. I didn't get to the forgotten part. I told him all the other stuff and he goes, Justin, those are the pigmies. And I said, who? And he goes there in the Congo. And I'm like, where? And then I start telling the rest of my vision. I tell him for God and he goes, just if there's anyone that's forgotten, it's them, the Bouti

pigmies and Democratic Republic of Congo. He had been there a year before, he was supposed to go in three and a half weeks, but he was taking a team of three other guys and all they were going to do was a vision trip, a scouting trip, a trip to just assess needs and see if they could meet any needs, see if they'd help them in anyway. And the rebels that take over the airport that was there. And so they couldn't fly in there. The U.S. State Department said, no one go there, so no fly zone, don't go to Columnbo for any reason. His wife had talked to him and said, Caleb, I don't think you should go on this trip. The rest of the guys are husband's fathers, they all backed out on you, you can't go alone. You should go on this trip, the rest of the guys are husbands, fathers, they all backed out on you. You can't go alone.

The very next day, I tell him the story. And he goes, if this isn't a sign, I don't know what is. And he goes, let's go. And he goes, if you go, I'll go. So we jump on a plane together. We jump on a plane together with a buddy named Colin as well. And we go into the Congo. We land on a runway that's grass.

And we're actually circling it, and they were clearing it with machetes, we land on a runway that's grass. And we're actually circling it, and they were clearing it with machetes before we land. And monkeys are jumping off the runway and other stuff. And so it's wild, it's crazy. I'd never planned on going to the Congo. I didn't really even know where it was. I didn't know about the plight of the pigmies. And as we get there, we get out of the plane.

We drive for like three hours, then we start hiking for maybe an hour or less, maybe less than a matter. But as we're hiking, I both these guys know the story, I have the piece of paper with me that says, I've forgotten on it. We're walking and hiking into this village, it's unknown place to us,

and also we're drumming, keep walking, then we're singing. Then as we come into the clearing, the first man that we meet has his ribs poking out, he's got tuberculosis. Our heart breaks for him. We meet the people and my heart just shattered for a minute. So Caleb and Colin, they like grab me and they go,

bro, this is your vision, this is your vision. I remember just squatting down and like full squat, having my hands on my face, elbows on my knees, and just being like, why did this happen? Like, what am I doing here? In the chief, pulls aside maybe like three days later, and I'm still trying to digest this.

Why am I here? What are we doing? And he says, everyone else calls us the force people. And this was like kind of the confirmation that this vision actually happened. He said, everyone else calls us the force people. And this was like kind of the confirmation that this vision actually happened. He said, everyone else calls us the force people, we call ourselves the forgotten. And when he said forgotten, I just started to cry.

Oh my gosh. I just started to cry. And oh my gosh. So it was there for a month. And I ended up going back again. In the second time I'm there, my plan was just live with them, listen to them, learn from them, and then figure out the best way to love them.

So listen, learn, and love them. You know, I live with them, listen to them, love them. And so... Come on, man. That's unbelievable. I mean, it's amazing. Like, you should tell that whole story all the time. Yeah, it's long, though.

You know what I mean? And it's amazing. Like, you should tell that whole story all the time. Yeah, it's long, though. No, it's a little wild. Well, even when we're going, it's going to be wild. And I mean, I didn't know that. Like, you base it. Well, that's hard for me to process all of that. That's an unbelievable confirmation of a vision.

And for me, man, to let you know like I don't share that often but but you just seem like we've connected make you really seem like a safe place and it feels like just a conversation between us there might be some people big faces. That's okay. That's okay. It was crazy. That's what it is. It's such a great confirmation of no matter what your beliefs are that there's something bigger than us and that when you dedicate your life to something bigger than you, like he and I have strong core beliefs about something very specific, bigger than us, but for you, whatever it is, there's, when you dedicate your life to something bigger than you, oh my

gosh, is your life become magic? And when you can get outside of yourself and start to serve other people, I love that you just started out kind of shotgunning, just serving people. And then this prayerful state and to have it become so real, but with all due respect on top of that, you took the actions, man, like you went, you did the work, you made pay, oh, I was there for a month and I left, you were there for a month in the Congo. But I just want to be clear, are you telling me the prior to this trip,

you really weren't familiar with the Congo and who the pigmeas were or any of this? Honestly, Caleb was one that told me this is, it's, it's, it's come on. It's, and I had no idea they were. I had no idea they were. And so there's, there's people listening to this that have had prayers in their life or dreams. And the only thing I'll tell you whether it's a prayer or a dream, just so you know this, you belong in your dream. I talk about this all the time. Your dreams, your prayers are not hallucinations. They're not jokes. They're not some gacha, wouldn't that be neat?

They're a glimpse of what your destiny could be. Could be. It's a picture of what your life could be. Frankly, should be. Doesn't mean it will be, because there's some things you would need to do to have some faith, some conviction, some action to go. Like you went on the dagum flight there

when everyone else backs out, that was an action you took. But these dreams that you have, these visions, these prayers, I'm telling you, listen to me. They're eight glimpse, they're a picture, they're a snapshot for me, they're God's way of sort of just whispering real quick. Stay, stay, look, I can't show you all of it, right? That's what it is in our lives. If you don't believe that, it's at least a vision.

If you don't believe that, it's your dream, okay? I promise you, you belong in those pictures and feelings you get. So then you come back, what happens after you come back this next time? You decide to do that, to serve, to love them, to listen. Yeah, so that was my second trip. And what happened really was the third delastio's there.

It was a little boy named Andy Bo. And I remember cupping the back of his head or actually was underneath his mom's hand. And I was holding his little hand, and she was holding his other hand. And that's when blood started coming out of his ears. And for sure, that's when he passed away. And it was just because he didn't have access to clean water.

And that, that forever changed me. It gri uh, with, man, my problems, my first world problems aren't really all that bad. You know, and, and I think so many times here, we'll put our problems under, um, under a magnifying glass. And that's all we see is our problem, our problem, our problem, and then I think whenever we can step back from it and look at the bigger picture of the world, our problems can actually shrink in size so much to where you might need a microscope to go find. And how do you do that, everybody? You're so brilliant, bro. The way you just need to jump on this, like you're so brilliant about this.

How do you do that? Because you're exactly right. The way you do that to jump on this, like you're so brilliant about this. How do you do that? Because you're exactly right. The way you do that is you go serve people. You do something because like you said earlier, when you're at the children's hospital, you can't possibly be with a seven year old boy who's got stage four cancer and not have some perspective about how small your problems are. You can't possibly comfort a mother who's got a daughter who's three years old with cystic fibrosis who can't breathe and worry about whether you got enough likes on your Instagram or whether you have enough

money in the bank, right? Or you didn't get a promotion. There's this perspective. And so you did these things, but the bro, like it's just it's incredible. So this boy dies literally in your arms and you're like, I'm going to do something about this, right? Well, it changed me in a way that I couldn't sleep. I would be thinking about him. I'd be thinking about his dad that passed away because of dirty water, his other brother that died because of dirty water, his mother that was sitting there and in their culture sometimes they're topless and and I could see every bone in their sternum and ribs and she was

starving she was sick with what the water crisis and they literally were had been enslaved and people there were literally killing them for no reason witch doctors telling them if you can have sex with the pygmies you'll cure yourself of HIV. So people come to the witch doctor with HIV, saying like, hey, I have HIV, how do I heal myself? Go rape a pygmy. Congo is the rape cap of the world.

In fact, one woman, every one minute, is raped in the Congo, which is absolutely ashranical in comparison to any other country. It's a weapon of war there, and the pygmies are the least of the least and they get treated less than human. The belief is that because their average height is only four foot seven, they're half man, half animal,

that they're part monkey. And all sorts of wild and crazy stuff. And they're treated like animals. So I came back and started saying, well, and started brainstorming with some people and saying, how could I go back and make a real difference? Like, something practical. And started working with the locals there on it, developing a team,

saying, like, what can we do? Community development wise. And it's kind of went back to being, you know, compassionate, ambitious, resilient, like, how could we put compassion and love and action? How can we be ambitious and dream huge? And how can we live to love and fight for people? Like if I could do two things in my life, that's what it is, live to love and fight for people.

And it's like, how can we come up with a real game plan that would work? And so on that other trip, we sat down, we cast a division saying, we want to do land, water, and food initiatives. But how can we do that away? And what was I going to take? And it was like, it was going to be at least a year-long trip.

We got to go live there for a year and really implement work with the locals. We wanted to equip them with the tools that they needed to do the community development. We wanted to educate them with the knowledge to be able to put it into action. And we wanted to empower them to be able to do it for themselves. And so we helped build a team of locals. So that way be able to do it for themselves. And so we helped build a team of locals, so that way they can do it for themselves. What I kind of have said is that opportunity is greater than charity. Charity can be great, but opportunity is just always better.

It just always is. And so how do you empower people with opportunity? How do you open their eyes to an opportunity that's sitting right in front of them? And so, how do you use what you have to get what you need and what you want? And so, it was awesome. We got to partner with some great organizations. I got to go back with well drilling tools and train a team of guys. And I got to live there for a year and help them drill 13 water wells.

And what they taught me was, and that team has now gone help them drill 13 water wells. And what they taught me was, and that team has now gone on to drill 77 or more. And so what they say there is a Swahili proverb. And it's so powerful. It's so powerful. And this might be for the kid that's being bullied that fills all alone. Or it might be for, it just can be for so many people. It translates in so many ways but

it says if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together and so that's a Swahili proverb that just started to change me and say like I'm a fighter right and so I'm used to doing things on my own to be an independent I'm used to at the launch table by myself but it's like if we really want to make a difference we have to come together and that's going to take us farther. So if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Oh my goodness.

And so the team and I were able to lobby and petition and go on behalf of the pigmies and say they need land. They have no land ownership of their own. And so we're able to lobby and get back, purchase back, in their name, their tribes name, strongest thing in Congo courts. On the local, state and national level, we're able to get back 3,000 acres of land. 3,000 acres of land that's theirs.

And so we bought 2,470 acres, and then another 500 acres was given to us. Amazing. And that's their land. We were able to establish 10 new villages of Mbuthi Pignis living there. We're able to use water. It's literally, there's a short film on this on our website, Fight for the Forgotten.org. So Fight for the Forgotten.org. But the short film is powerful because the Piggins are there sharing their own plight and

their story, their struggles, and then the transformation that happened. So just getting land and then water, water literally was a tool that we used with even some of the slave masters to say, look, your kids are dying of dirty water. The slave masters kids were dying and the slave masters were living on it. They weren't wealthy in a way that we think of it and colonial times and sitting back drinking sweet tea and having a hundred slaves for a one family. It was, they're making a dollar to a dollar 25 a day. So they're literally suffering in such drastic poverty.

And so it was like, well, what if we could come in and drill water wells for you guys? Would that change your lives? And like that would save our lives. Our kids wouldn't have to go collect water. They could go to school. Our wives wouldn't have to sit at home. They could go to work. And wives wouldn't have to sit at home, they could

go to work. And so water changed everything for them. So we did land water and now they started up their own farms. And so they were able to start farming for themselves for the very first time. It's the first time the pig needs have ever gone to the market and started selling corn and beans and bananas and all sorts of stuff to where they're able to now buy their kids clothes for the first time and then they're able to send their kids and pay school fees, send their kids to school for the first time. And so, and this is what I want people to hear is like,

okay, well two things, we're all heroes in waiting and we can all make a big difference, but also I'm not the hero of this story. I really am not. The people that inspire me, they're my heroes, the people in the field that did the work, that are there day in and day out. Some of my best friends, some incredible people,

that inspire me every single day of my brothers. And they even told me this, so I think they probably, this could be for anyone out there. But it's, if you think you problem, this could be for anyone out there. But it's, if you think you're too small to make a difference, try to sleep in a closed room with a mosquito. So, it's tongue in cheek, but it's, if you think you're too small to make a difference,

sleep in a closed room with a mosquito. And so, for me, that means so much more because I've had malaria in no three times. The first time I almost killed me. And so but but a little mosquito less than a gram right. And I'm a 265 pound six with three professional athletes. A mosquito kicked my butt worse than anything ever could. And I mean that is powerful. By the way you've had had malaria three times. You just set out loud. You heard that, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty incredible.

That's pretty incredible. You want to go fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together. And so, Evan, guys, come on. I mean, have you ever heard anything like this in your life? You're, thank you, as we keep going here, and we're not done, but I know that people are, it's hard to drive right now because there's water

and everybody's eyes, right? Everybody's crying, but speaking of water, we would like to help you go far together. And so I know people, I know the max out universe, I know the people that listen to this, I know that they're compassionate, giving good group of people, if they wanted to go together with you in any way possible,

how would they, should they go to fight for the forgotten dot org, is that where they find out more if they wanted to donate or contribute, they could do that there as well? Yeah, absolutely. So we have, we have some big dreams and goals, you know. I've been doing this since 2011. And I drilled 13 wells that team has drilled 77 now.

But now we have a goal to fund and drill 100 water wells this year. And so it's going to take a lot of work. We're trying to raise a ton of money, but we want to drill 100 wells, and we want to get into 100 martial arts academies of bowling prevention curriculum. So we want to do both. We want to make a difference here and there. Awesome. Right? And so why do we have to choose one or the other? You know, we can do both. Right. And so I just love that we We want to make a difference here and there. Awesome. Right? And so why do we have to choose one or the other? You know, we can do both. Right. And so I just love that we're going to make a difference in our own community here in the United States because kids need it and then kids need clean

water. A lot of people don't know that there's 1800 kids every day. 1,800 kids under the age of five years old that die because they don't have access to clean water. And so we want to combat that. There's a lot of great organizations out there. I believe we're one of them. And so fight for the Forgotten.org. People can donate, they can contribute there. If you can't donate physically, you can also rally a team. You can start a crowdfunding page on our website. You just say create a team or start as individual. And we've seen little guys do some incredible things where they were able to raise $5,000 for their fifth birthday.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Because they wanted to sacrifice getting the gift of birthday gifts to give the gift of clean water and different things like that. Well, you downplay it, but you've done incredible things. And so, you're not going to say it, but I will. I think it's emotional for me. It's why I wanted you, when I first started the show. For me to picture this little boy who's sitting alone

at lunch, getting pizza and chicken nuggets thrown at his head and nobody will talk to him to the guy at the homecoming game, to the Dr. Pepper party, right? To the drug addiction issues, to do all this. I mean, what can you do? Folks, let's see this. What could you do when you start to hear what this man's done in his life and he's writing? There's all kinds of people that have helped him. But he also had the courage when he had that prayer, when he had that dream to start to take some action and then take more action and more action. I think giving to people and contributing and by the way, I don't give and contribute like you do. You're a different level man than I am

and I admire you so much. But I do know what it's like to contribute and to give and I know that that's the only place in life where you feel fulfilled is to give to other people. You can be happy temporarily doing other things but to be fulfilled is to find something you love that you're passionate about to change other people's lives. And you're doing that and I just have this sense that we're going

to come back in about 10 years. And we're going to even look at this time in your life. And we're going to talk about even how small this was compared to what you've done in the world 10 years. And I just have this sense that this is the beginning of your story. But it's not the end of your fighting story though. So you end up deciding to come back and now you're fighting for Bellator You sign a five fight deal with them. You've had three. Is that correct? You've won all three of those fights So don't forget you forget don't you everybody? Now there's this amazing athlete, but I think that I think that something's Changed in you maybe like your reason for doing it even. So you now know there's several million people,

let's say you're like, okay, I'm rooting for that dude in the cage. So like, why did you come back to fight and like, what's that all about? Like, did you do it just to help with this cause or why'd you do it? That was the main driving factor. I was not gonna come back to the sport

unless we were gonna make a difference. And unless I was not going to come back to the sport unless we were going to make a difference unless I was going to be able to actually physically fight for people. So my wife and I, we actually decided when I came back to the sport that any time I get a win bonus, that we give that. And so there's a show amount, there's a win amount. So you get, and this isn't to pat myself on the back,

but it's literally how I get to fight for people And so if you get a hundred dollars to show up and fight normally you get a hundred dollars to win or something like that You know just raise your face. Yeah And so in this next phase of the contract When I win I win for them and I get to give that away And so there is no deeper motivation for me to go out there and put a weapon on somebody, then man, we're gonna knock out the water crisis. And we're gonna stand up,

we're gonna speak out against bullying. And I gotta win this fight. I think a lot of, and you could probably say this, I'm speak to this, but there's probably a lot of peak performers out there and high achievers that you've got to raise the bar, you've got to raise necessity. I mean, I know the Olympic gold medalist out there, you know, wanted to do it for their

mom that passed away or the memory of this person or because they're going to make this difference. It's not just a sport. You've got to add more to it. And so for me, it was like, I'm not going to come back and play games in a fight. I'm going to come back and I'm going to be driven by purpose and passion. And I'm going to have a fire in my eyes. You were literally fighting for these people, fighting for these...

See, to me, your lesson is right on the money because I have this theory that the person with the biggest reasons wins. And so... Wow. You know, I don't think all the type of people think, well, there's the internally unbelievably motivated people. No, you have huge reasons. If you're willing to have the courage to attach how much you love your family and your children to you winning in your business, you have a much more greater chance of winning.

But most people don't let themselves get that vulnerable again, where they'll attach big reasons because you might lose. You know, for you to say, I'm fighting for these guys, that's a vulnerable thing to say. It jacks up the reasons so when you win It's greater and for bigger purpose, but you're taking a bigger risk by saying that right? And so it's the lack of vulnerability that cheats us out of all the riches in our life And the person with the biggest reasons wins always in life. You have a huge huge reasons I just respect you so much man

Like and you love if he doesn't expect you so much brother Thank you. I'm so blessed to be here. It really am. I can assure you, but today is my blessing. I can assure you. And your willingness to share the prayer that you had and the vision, I just want you to know,

moves me greatly, because I think even at this stage in my life, I think we all have this. You can call whatever you want. You can call it an epiphany. You and I know it's a prayer, right? A blessing, a vision. You can call whatever you want. You can call it an epiphany. You and I know it's a prayer, right? A blessing, a vision. You can call whatever you want, okay? You can, I'm driving you a bit of epiphany.

But often, we all catch ourselves every once in a while with the lips of what our life could be. It might not even be a picture what it is. It could just be a feeling about ourselves we wish we felt more of. More confidence, more peace, more faith, more gratitude, more love, or as an actual physical picture. it's more peace, more faith, more gratitude, more love, or as an actual physical picture, very few people acknowledge this is a vision that I could be or that I could have or that I could possess and then have the guts to take the action, right?

That's what I admire about you. But you do this in other areas too, so I just want to talk because I think it's a metaphor. Oh, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. By the way, so just to y' all know, like on top of everything else, like to me, that's a huge metaphor, because you're not a little dude. You know what I mean? Like I have this theory and I may remember all,

but I think the bigger you are, the harder it is to climb a big ass mountain like that. I'm just curious, on top of everything you've done, it's not the most important thing you've done, but it does symbolize many things in someone's life that you've climbed this. So talk about that experience there, who you did it with and what it was like for you.

Yeah, so I did it that with Water Boys, which is a great charitable organization that Chris Long is the founder of. Chris Long won the Super Bowl with the Patriots two years ago, the Eagles last year. He's an amazing man who donated his entire salary last year to education here in the United States and to the water crisis. And he rallied around some great influencers, NFL players, military veterans, and

man, to be honest, like it was really tough, it was really hard, but we were all driven by purpose. With every single step, we were raising money for clean water. And with every single step, someone in a village at need a clean water was gonna get it. And before the day before we left, we went to a school in Arusha. And there was 2,200 kids that had no running water. I mean it was we

helped them fill their water canisters for the day. I remember filling up a kid's water jug for the day and it was a paint can. Someone else and it was motor oil and that they were using these leftover thrown away jugs for their own drinking water. But we were doing it with literally filthy, disgusting, diseased brown water, dark, dark brown. And mud was floating in it and there's insects in it. There's like these little worms that were inside their water.

And I know because I've had some of the sicknesses they've had, but there's amoebas, both in your stomach and in your brain. Literally, there's a river blindness that can literally have these bugs that go and attack your retina and you can go blind from the river water. There is all sorts of parasites and worms and things that these kids have and have these big bloated stomachs from the dirty water. And so, going and seeing

those kids and knowing that, hey, because of this climb, these kids right here that we get to know, that we get to meet, they are going to have clean water and they're going to have clean, healthy bellies and bodies. And we're going to help build better lives for them. Man, that was a driving force propelling us up the mountain. I mean, propelling us up the mountain. Nothing was going to stop us from getting up there. Again, if you want to supercharge your life, you just do this stuff so well. But if you want to supercharge your life, you just load yourself up with the biggest reasons. It makes you superhuman. Either you're faith backing you or compelling reasons. And if you combine the two, oh my gosh, can you accomplish anything? What's it like when you get to the top?

I'm just curious. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. I mean, it was my favorite though, it was on Summit Day. So Summit Day, you started midnight. We didn't finish until 8 p.m. So it was a 20, that's a 20 hour day, right?

Yeah, 20 hours. It was brutal, and we had this stomach bug that we were passing around to each other. So we were vomiting, diarrhea, it was brutal. All of us got something. Four of us of the 14, I think four, maybe three, didn't make it to the top because we were just so sick and passed around this stuff. But I remember waking up and getting out and we got to get up at like 11.30.

The stomach bug hit me at 11.45 before midnight before we start climbing. But I remember looking out and there was this part of the mountain that it was almost in a 360 degree like angle or view that all you saw was stars above your head and you're like you I can't really explain it to injustice. But it's just so magnificent just thousands and thousands of stars there's no light pollution out there and so every angle except for your feet right except for where the mountain was under your feet and in one part where the peak was I mean you could

just see stars all around you and so it was it was magical it was a magnificent and so and then when we got to top, some of the guys dug so deep. Elliott Ruiz, he's a guy that has shrapneled all in him. There's been three Broadway plays made about his life. One of them was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The other one won the Pulitzer Prize. And him and I ended up getting to the front and then coming back to be with him because

we were both sick. But he dug so deep, they wanted him to turn around, they wanted him to quit. And by the time he got to the summit, he had tears streamed down his face that were freezing to his face. And he made it to the top, he gutted it out. And he was just driven by purpose, driven. He had more reasons to win. And it was an incredible moment.

One of the best groups I've ever been around in my life. So many inspirational people. Chris Long, Steven Jackson running back in the NFL, Connor Barlin. It was a big man too, by the way. Yeah, big news. I just think, first, I think you are compassionate. I think you're incredibly ambitious. You're resiliency's off the charts. I just think you're think you are compassionate. I think you're incredibly ambitious. Your resilience sees off the charts. I just think you're just amazing man. I just I think your life is amazing. I

think you chase contribution. You chase moments. You're not a perfect person which I think makes you real and that's true inspiration. If you were just this deity, this perfect guy who does everything in his life, pristine. I think I don't think people think they could do it. I think the fact that you are real about who you are gives people hope. What would you say to somebody who's listening to this? Who, I mean, I think I might have the best person on earth, one of the best people on earth to answer this question.

What would you say to somebody who's watching this? He says, man, I wanna change my life. You know, if I could get two minutes with Justin Ren, I could ask him, I want to change my life. I want to make a difference in the world. I want to become happier. What counsel would you just give somebody who has that burning desire in their heart but doesn't know how?

Well, first I would say, man, I am so far from perfect. I still have so many struggles. I have battles. I have demons I have to keep at bay. I am a man that has to fight for his marriage at times, you know, marriage isn't easy, but I love my wife with all my heart. And so there is, there's a lot of tough stuff

I still go through, but I would say, so I think I had it backwards. I wanted to, I wanted to love my life and that's okay. It's a good thing, but I think, so I sign my book and I say, live to love, love to live. And so, I think that one has to come before the other. I think if we live to love, we will love to live. But I don't think it happens without living to love first. So living to love others, living to serve others. And whenever we do that, whenever we

get outside of ourselves, it's hard to keep looking inward at our problems and our struggles because we're driven and motivated to help others in love. So I don't know that that's the answer. I think that's a beautiful answer brother. If you live to love, you'll love to live. I think that it's what you do. So that's why I think it's the best answer. It's like my observations of you. That's what you do. I love people that are complicated. And I consider you beautifully complicated. You have these, I appreciate it. You have these tremendous contradictions about you that I think are fascinating. And what I mean by that

is the Lord gave you this incredible strength and size and some athletic ability. Yet you're this super gentle kind giving man. You can be somebody who's been sort of self-destructive to themselves but build up other people so well. And through building up these other people, you've sort of turned yourself around into this, I think, magnificent man that I admire

that inspires me. And I also want to tell you, I want our friendship to grow and to continue. I want to be able to help you and contribute. And you're going to help me. I can just tell this is you're someone I want in my life and I want you also and I don't mean this Motivationally and I don't mean this is like a lead-in. I want you in the lives of the people in my audience I trust my audience with you. I really want them following you on this journey I want them holding you accountable. I want them rooting for you and praying for you because you're out in front now and I think you have an obligation now to even live greater and and I think you have the capacity to do it. I think we're

scratching the surface here so I want them rooting for you praying for you following you and contributing with you too and holding you accountable too. So how do they do that? What's the best place to fight you? Is it your social media probably? Yeah, it's not it's the big pig me. It is the big I forgot to see even chat out. Yeah, they gave So it's not it's the big pig me. It is the big pig me. I forgot to see even share that. But yeah, they gave me they gave me two names. It was a f aosa and Mabutimang book. And so you got to say it like that. But okay, f aosa means the man who loves us. And I that one means so much as a treasure to me. But then Mabutimang Bo means the big pig me. So I used to be

the Viking and yeah, but on social media on Instagram It's at the big pick me. Okay. Why? GNY and they should follow you there. That's the best place. Yeah, that's the best way or just go to our website FightforTheForgot.org and you can find the links to on the video version We're gonna put these on the screen but many of you are listening to this in the audio version Are you gonna fight against him? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. So I don't have it on the calendar yet,

but I'm looking for Mayor Jim. I had a shoulder surgery that I'm coming back from. I feel strong, feel good. I just need to get the muscle memory back and get the condition there. I need to get my weight down a little bit. And then I'm ready to go. So in the running to be in the eight man tournament

for the Heavyweight World Championship in Bellator, I missed that because of the injury and then I was going to be an alternate. And now it's like, you know what, let's keep fighting. I'm technically on a six-fight win streak. And I'm just going to want to keep that rolling and fight for a World title. That's really good. I'm rooting for you and you're fighting for all these people too. And so, we all want to fight with you, man.

I'm just moved today. I had huge expectations for you because I knew who you were, fight with you, man. I'm just moved today. I had huge expectations for that because I knew who you were, but meeting you exceeds them. And that was difficult because I held you in such a high regard even before we began. So thank you so much for today. Thank you, son. I just, I love you, brother.

I really do. Thanks for being so open today, too. And for all the audience here, please follow him. You already follow me. If you're listening to this, subscribe to the audio version, the podcast, subscribe to the video version, share this with people. This one you got to share, everybody. You know that.

And also remind you every day on social media, on Instagram, when I make a post in my main feed. As you know, we do the max out two minute drill. And in that two minute drill, everybody who posts with a hashtag max out the first two minutes daily, I pick a winter books, gear, coaching call with me. Would you do one, like a 10-minute one? They could meet you.

Yeah, absolutely. 10-minute call with Justin. Sure. Just close to him. You can meet Justin. So all you gotta do is make a comment on my post every day. Within the first two minutes, if you missed the first two minutes, just make a post every day. We pick somebody at the end of the week who posts all the time.

So make comments on my Instagram feed and please spread the word about max out. Today was selfish was for me. And so I hope everybody else enjoyed the program but this was for me today. And I hope all of you listening in got the same inspiration and conviction in your heart that I have to go be a better version of me to be a better man because this man in front of me

is leading the way. So thank you again man so much. God bless you everybody, max out. need to be a better man because this man in front of me is leading the way. So thank you again man so much. God bless you everybody. Max out.