The Glenn Beck Program - Ep 67 | I’m Not Sober, I’ve Just Learned to Deal with It | Mat Best | The Glenn Beck Podcast

Episode Date: February 15, 2020

American war hero, CIA contractor, serial entrepreneur, and the face of the most freedom-filled coffee America has ever brewed. Black Rifle Coffee Company executive vice president Mat Best wasn’t always the bearded, gun-toting, whiskey-drinking war veteran YouTube has grown to love. In high school, he was a scrawny kid in the botany club! Glenn and Mat dive into his untold history, his years as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his mission to serve our veterans and help them overcome PTSD through comedy and community — not to mention plenty of caffeinated insight into coffee, filmmaking, and, of course, America, the Constitution, and being a patriot. This Week’s Sponsor:  Ashford University gives you the convenience and flexibility to earn your master’s degree at your own pace! Study wherever and whenever you’re the most comfortable learning, on a schedule that works for you. Enroll now at http://Ashford.edu/BECK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's podcast, one of the most popular content creators on YouTube. He would later translate that success into several multi-million dollar companies, including a clothing line, a whiskey company, and a coffee company. How am I going to sit with a guy who has a whiskey company and a coffee company, both two things I gave up and I desperately want? He wasn't always a YouTube personality and a businessman. In fact, when he first began to make his videos, he was a military, contractor for the CIA. Before that, he served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the elite

Special Operations Force, second Ranger Battalion, and then he comes home. And oh, by the way, before that, uh, he was in the botany club. This guy is an American war hero, a CIA contractor, a serial entrepreneur. I love this. Today, Matt, with one T best. So let me ask you this, because you're in your videos. You're a tough guy. I mean, right? but you I mean you were in the botany club in high school okay that does not scream tough guy that's that's like the guy I could have beat up in high school you absolutely could have beat me up in high school so what happened you know it's weird I grew up the youngest brother out of six and so I was not bullied but you know definitely held my hands behind my back and beat up of my

brother. So I'm very thankful for that. And in high school, wait, wait, explain that to people from today's American culture, how you could possibly be happy. It was it was tough love. You know, they weren't, they weren't, you know, punched me in the face and breaking my nose. They were just, you know, trolling me like older brothers should. And I think that that's a healthy competitiveness between siblings. So I mean, yeah, in high school, I was just a really low key, quiet. I'm a very, you wouldn't believe it, but quiet person. I'm not an extrovert by. and he means an introvert. And so I kind of put on that persona now.

You know, I think that I'm a teddy bear with kind of a tough outer shell, when I have to be. You know, I don't have. Where did that come from? I think just my raising and then who was around, you know, I always had older brothers to kind of run the show. So I just kind of set back and tried not to create any drama. I'm just, but I'm trying to get hands around botany, elite fighting force.

When did that? When did you go, you know what? I'm an elite fighter. When did that happen? Really, you know, my two brothers, when they graduated in Marine Corps boot camp, and I saw them sitting in formation in their uniforms, I was just enamored by the professionalism and how stoic they looked. And that really transpired into my want to join the military.

They graduated on 9-11, did they not? Yes, they were supposed to. And obviously, 2001 changed that. changed that. But knowing that they were essentially going to war right after that, I looked at them. And I'm like, these guys are my heroes. And they really inspired me to serve my country. And I come from such a long history of service. My dad was a Marine. My grandfathers and great uncles were in World War II. My dad's dad was in Vietnam. So a bunch of service. And then finally I watched Black Hawk down and Army Rangers. These guys are so cool. I want to be like that. And it's funny. My brothers to this day say,

we thought you were going to fail. You were a little dweeb. I guess that was too stupid to quit. So it's been the case of most of my life. So, because if I had this pivot point to where, now I don't have, I have older sisters who also just beat this knot out of me. I'm the youngest. And, but there at no point would I be watching Black Hawk down going, yeah.

I mean, I watch Black Hawk down now and I'm like, no. Definitely not, not me. the the pivot point for you when was it was it that moment and how long did it take you to how did you let me ask you this what's the dumbest thing what's the most glenbeck thing you would have ever done when you were a private when you first got in what's the worst dumbest thing you ever did uh you know i'm a jokester so i always played by the rules but you know i was the guy sometimes and basic training, they'd call the formation to attention. And I'd make like a fart sound and make the formation laugh.

And we'd all get smoked for it. But which is interesting because a lot of people said, you can't make jokes. So you have to take this so serious. And it tended to be the guys with a sense of humor that worked through the hardest situations. And I've always kind of carried that with me through everything that I've done. You know, when it's time to be professional, you're a professional.

But man, life's short. There's no dress rehearsal. We're born terminal. Like you got to freaking enjoy this one chance of life we get. So you went to work for the CIA after Rangers. What did you do? Do you have to kill me? If you tell me or?

No, I'm not. I tend not to like get too much into it just because the organization, but not that I did anything super cool. But it was a very good experience for me because when I got out of the military, my transition out was insanely difficult. You know, I was just on my fifth deployment as a Ranger team leader and master breacher, you know, kicking indoors every single night and getting into gunfights. Two months after that deployment,

I was in Los Angeles, California, dealing with, you know, progressives on a college campus that had no clue about what real life is, what real sacrifice is, you know, and I had just been bearing friends and, you know, putting bandages on other brothers. And then, I didn't go through what you, you went through,

but I've traveled. Right. If you think this is bad. You know, I was just talking to my, my daughter last night, and she said, dad,

a friend of ours. They grew up in Iran, and in 1979, they escaped. And they just got off the phone. Their dad is still there. They just got off the phone. One family member was just shot in a protest, but he wasn't really protesting. And she was talking about how they can't even say that on the phone. They had to have a private burial.

It was, they can't go back into Iran. They can, but they don't trust it because people are being thrown in jail. And she said, that's what life is like. And I said, that's what life is like a lot of places. A lot of places. And that's what life is going to be like if we just, let's have a revolution. Are you insane? Insane.

Yeah, I call it the American Life Lottery. You know, we used to kind of a dark joke, but we'd be driving when I work for the agency and, you know, low pro vehicles. And you look around and see some poor, poor, 50-year-old guy pushing a cart, just trying to to find some rice to eat for the day. And it's kind of very unfortunate and tragic circumstances that are associated with humanity as a whole. But we've developed this epic tribe in America and we have to stay together and united or

we're going to lose it and we're going to regress back into. So let me play devil's advocate. Please. Believe it or not, I used to do like stand up. I believe that. Yeah. I used to do a lot of comedy. My whole show was comedy for a long time.

you can't do comedy and survive in this if you want a real political voice. And one thing that came to me is because it is always turned around. If you're making a real impact, they will turn it into whatever they want to turn it into. And you can say, well, it doesn't matter. But eventually it does because they create this thing where everything is out of context where you're dividing people. Even if you're saying, I want people to come together, you're the problem. You're dividing people. Have you ever thought of that with any of your stuff?

Because you're joking. It's clearly a joke. But you are also like, yeah, we're going to come over and kick your ass, you know, because you're whining. Yeah. I guess if you have a dense perspective, that would be. Dense meaning. Meaning an uneducated where you're not seeing the value. You're just looking at it at face value.

You're not understanding. the cultural impact it has on a specific community. I mean, America is so great because it's so diverse. And so we have all these different pockets of belief systems, political spectrums, sexual preferences, hey, all good. But comedy is comedy. And what we do is satirical incents. And the good work that we do is very unifying.

And I think it's why for me comedy has got so stale is because comedians are so terrified to make a joke. I mean, Dave Chappelle, even Joe Rogan goes on about that. And, you know, if. Louis C.K., all of them. All of the good, smart. ones right the smart ones are are willing to say it now but there's very few well George Carlin would hate this society you because they don't want to take the risk

right as then you know maybe a venue won't book them because they made a joke that offended you know that the guy serving popcorn again it's it's it's satirical nature and it's a comedy show and that's what my platform is I just saw a new pull out with those under 30 I was it 56, 58, somewhere in that percentage, believe that if you say things that are hurtful, it should be against the law, no protection for that if you're hurting people's feelings and jail time. Are we just going to light the First Amendment on fire then? Haven't we already?

Bill of Rights barely exists anymore. Yeah, that's so crazy to me. I mean, it's, there's something different than, you know, turning someone into a victim and being not hurtful, but aggressive in nature, but statements that are satirical in nature, that's just, those are words. Isn't that what, isn't that what your brothers were doing? And didn't that make you stronger? You just said. Absolutely. I mean, I've never... If we keep giving out participation trophies, no one's going to know what it feels like to lose. Guess what? If I haven't lost so much in life and in business, I wouldn't know how to be as happy as I am. You know, it's just like sometimes the rain makes the sunshine feel good.

50 cent lyric, by the way. But it's true. And I think that enduring, you know, complex problems in life sets you up for such a better mental happiness. And that... You know what has meaning. It has meaning. Absolutely. And if you just live in this like fake bubble of, you know, everything's perfect when it's not. It's not reality.

That's something else. All right. Back to the podcast at a second. Let me tell you about our sponsor. It is Ashford University. Flipping the calendar creates endless possibilities. It's a new year. New and exciting opportunities can come your way.

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Ashford. Dot edu slash back. Let me go back to your, you're in college. You come back. How did you, how did you deal with that? I walked off the campus and quit. And I went to online college. Best thing you've ever done about it.

Yeah. You know, I just didn't really, I didn't have the emotional intelligence at 23 years old to kind of chill out. Stuff that back in? Yeah, yeah. I had a lot of growing and maturing to do. So I realized that, that it was a bad environment for me. And fortunately, I went through a really dark time during that period, you know, like terrible

alcoholism, just didn't care about anything. And I finally had it. How long have you been sober? Oh, I'm not sober. I just learned how to deal with it. I learned that you can have a glass of scotch at night and not drink the whole bottle. Really? You know, I have not mastered that.

I'm not, I'm, I am not willing to give that. a shot. But yeah, there was actually a gentleman one of my best friends in all my life, Trey Bullock, who kind of saved my life. He called me when I was sitting in the gym parking line. I think he just had that spidey sense and said, hey man, let's get you back doing stuff that you love. And he actually kind of opened the door for me to work with the agency and getting back into that tribal, like-minded, you know, filled with purpose that I felt. It was, It's crazy that millennials are dividing us so much, and they just think everybody has to be put in this box or in jail or whatever. When what they're really saying is, I want purpose in my life.

And finding purpose is serving other people, not shutting them up, serving them, serving them, going and doing something bigger than you. Agreed. And they're being sold this package of goods that just leads to. total emptiness. And that's the challenging thing for me because I think, you know, I'm technically just made the millennial list in 33. But they're coming from a lot of them from an empathetic perspective where they truly want to have purpose and make a good change in the world. Yes.

They're just going the wrong way about it, you know, especially I've seen in when I went to college and it's only got worse with the professors. They're just like feeding them this crap and convincing them that, you know, you have to attack people if they don't agree. with you. I mean, I have super liberal friends that think completely different than me, but we still get along because we see the things we have in common, not the things that we, you know, and then we can talk about it. Yeah, and we have

better conversation. I just, a guy who was my mortal enemy, apparently, I had to look him back up when he was like, can we have dinner? Because I want to talk to you about. And I was like, I was supposed to be pissed at you because I don't remember. I had to look it back up and Google our names. And apparently we were mortal enemies.

Well, we had dinner and we started to talk because both of us were in a place to where, I don't hate you. You know, I don't hate you. And we don't agree on anything. Right. But those are the best conversations you can have. The best. Because you learn.

You're all of a sudden going, wait, well, I didn't know that about you. I didn't know that. Oh, I see why this, when I did this or said this, I see why you reacted that way. And you learn something. And that's how you make a lasting difference. Well, there's also this, I think, like a culture of it's not okay to be wrong. I mean, we've all been severely wrong in our lives, whether it was an argument or a perspective. And I feel at this point in day and age, it's like when you get someone, you kind of put a cat in a bathtub where they find out, wow, I'm kind of wrong.

They just start attacking you. Well, you're this and you're that instead of being like, it's okay to be wrong, dude. I'm wrong all the time. Now let's develop a better thought process and thinking forward and, you know, creatively problem solved. It's just like entrepreneurship. If you look at a shipping issue and go, everything's screwed. Well, that's not how you resolve something and put the mission forward. You have to define the issue and then solve it.

Just like in politics, I'm sure that I know nothing about. But culturally speaking, you know, I think that's what we have to do. And people have to be more receptive to being wrong and listening. Are we getting better? Worse? You've seen any change in that in one direction or another? I don't know if I pay more attention these days, but it seems like it's getting a little worse. And especially with the election coming up and all that, you know, just everything gets so heated and people just start shaming and blaming.

Where does that? Where does that put us? I mean, any you've traveled the world, you've seen troubled areas before. Any idea what we're headed for? How long we have to wake up? You know, I honestly don't know that answer. I think it's super complex. But it's not a good road forward.

I know that for sure because the more divisiveness you create, the more polarizing the two sides become, which the contrasts becomes wider. And then, you know, it's escalation of force. Arguments turned into riots, riots turn into whatever. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and we were talking about the idea of, you don't talk about religion and politics and public. Right. And it's it's not because we wanted to avoid arguments. It was because the American way is, I don't care. Yeah.

You vote for who you vote for. You worship the way you want to worship. No skin off my nose. Exactly. Now we don't have that in common anymore. Right. You must comply. You must do these things.

Right. So what do we have in common now? I would say a hyper quality of life that we have to be a little more appreciative of because that's what gives us the perspective to understand how fortunate we are as a society. Especially now. I mean, yes, we've had a war going on for two decades pretty much. It's crazy. Crazy. You know, but we don't have that kind of global threat that we did back in World War II. And I think that that's why that generation was so united because they understood how it was possible that our way of life completely.

We had that growing up. If the Japanese wiped us out in midway, what does that leave us at? Like there were so many different battles that people were terrified. And now it's just, you know, some college student doesn't think about the war in Afghanistan. Half of them probably don't even know there's a war still going on. We had that growing up with the Cold War. I mean, I remember as a kid being terrified, we're all going to be dead from nukes, you know? And there is something uniting.

It's kind of like the 9-11, 9-12. 9-11, 9-12 thing though. Right. Do you have to have that mortal enemy? I pray we don't, but I don't know how to resolve that. I don't know the answer to it because you can only tell people something so much before they, you know, they just don't believe in it. So you left college.

Then you started clothing line? Well, yeah, I left college, started my online bachelor's. I got a bachelor's in liberal arts, which is pretty funny. And while I was working for the agency. I started making satirical little videos and as a way to kind of monetize the platform back then. I just being my business partner started making two, three shirts. So if we get 500 extra bucks, we could buy a new camera at Best Buy or wherever and, you know, increase their production value.

And that kind of snowballed because I think it was a very interesting thing that we did or at least we're part of is the military culture back then. There wasn't a lot of fun, humorous entertainment associated with the veteran community. It was all very tactical and, you know, kind of chest beating, which there's nothing wrong with that. But a lot of guys in the military, we have a macabre sense of humor. That's how we deal with going out night after night and seeing death. And so we kind of took that perspective like, hey, we'll be professionals with firearms. But let's make people laugh. Let's make the jokes we did in the team room.

And that really was the foundation of all the entrepreneurial-germers to have. Do you? Let me talk to the botanist in you. Oh, please. The nerdy kid. Ever watched out Nabbie? I haven't. Mr. Selfridge?

I know that one, yes. Okay. They both are from the time of World War I. And you see what World War I did to society. I mean, those guys came back. Nobody had ever seen a war like that. Almost every horse in Europe was slaughtered. It just was beyond understanding and recognition.

So we didn't see it. We had never seen anything like that. Then World War II happens and it's the strong, virile guy who comes back and he can't talk about it. Right. You know, because that's just not what a strong man does. Then we go to Vietnam where you can't talk about it

because it was shameful. Right. Our veterans are in trouble with suicides and it's horrible. But in some ways, it's kind of the golden era for veterans compared to the past. Do you know what I mean? I'm in hyper-agreance with that, to be honest with you. I think that there's some issues that we have to deal with on the individual level

as far as people that probably shouldn't have gone to war or were subjected to such traumatic situations that they need to seek health. So we always have to be proactive in supporting them. But my main thing that I try to focus on now is the kind of civilian narrative that I've heard lot, which is a guy like me that comes back from special operations five deployments like, oh, he's got the PTSD, you know? And I'm like, no, we're not pill-popping depressive guys. I just came back and now I want to live the American dream, being an entrepreneur and have a family and just live my life and see what the next chapter has to offer. But we've absolutely

created a better environment for veterans. I mean, especially looking back at Vietnam and how poorly we treated. Everyone is terrible. Terrible. And there is, there are a lot of, of very successful veterans that have come back. And I think in the same way you do, they're just like, this is all bull crap. Yeah. I'm just going to do it. Yep.

People have asked me that before. It's like, does your military experience translate into your business acumen, per se? And 100% because, again, I didn't grow up in title life. Grew up pretty poor, worked for everything, started working around. I was 14. And so now it's just get the mission done, figure it out. and be gritty. What has changed?

Because military guys, generally, if you look at it from a conservative point of view, if you're a member of the military, you go to Washington, you become the biggest kind of statist, you know,

because you're used to a cog in the wheel of this giant government machine. Right. But how is it that we're spitting guys out that are such entrepreneurs? Because I think,

with the advancements in technology and social media, you know, it's pretty easy to have your voice heard. And a lot of it's why we have like a 40% veteran high rate at Black Rifle Coffee is because their skill sets are so brilliant and they have so much diverse skill sets. And mainly it's usually their perspective on work. They work.

You know, they don't come in and complain about stuff. I mean, the small stuff, they come in and they get to work and they're really good at it. So I usually like to hire a veteran that doesn't have a skill set for that specific job and then we'll train them on job training because I know they're going to work their butts off and they're going to have a good attitude every day and just be thankful for where they're at. So if I was, let's say I'm of the bank and you're coming to me for a loan

and I'm looking at your paperwork and I'm like, okay, black rifle coffee. I'm a second amendment guy. I'm not offended by that. Black rifle come and you're making it in Salt Lake City. Yeah, one of our main roasting hubs in Salt Lake City. It's probably the least consumed beverage out of all of the states. Because you're morbid, right? Yeah, I'm Mormon. We don't drink coffee. I know.

What are you thinking? Yeah, it was very interesting how that all transpired. Essentially, Evan and I, when the company was getting going, we kept looking around the state where we should be geolocated, where we should put the company. And then one day, I'm like, we can talk about this all day. I'll just drive up to Salt Lake and we'll plant the flag. And to be honest with you, Salt Lake City has been very, receptive. They've been amazing to us.

Even people that don't drink the coffee come in and buy merch. Yeah. They're an entrepreneurial spirit there. I actually lived there for two years. Did you? North Salt Lake, yeah. Did you like it? I didn't mind it, honestly. Didn't mind it. I love Texas. You know, you're going to Texas and get a driver's license and they hand you a Glock.

It's awesome. It's a joke. Kind of. By the way, I just have to say, as a former coffee drinker and now not, you piss me off every day because I walk by the coffee pot and it smells so good. It smells so good. So thank you for that.

I appreciate it. No, no problem. What changed, if anything, in your cultural or political mindset from the time you joined the military the time you left what did you learn that's fair i would say i didn't learn a lot while i was in because i was so absorbed into what we were doing and being a professional at my job and keeping my team alive retrospect it was looking back is looking back i think um and i've definitely become more and more conservative year by year because it didn't a lot of it didn't matter to me but then now when i look how

we're treating people coming out and you know love them or hate him i got to give it to president trump for the amount of support he's pouring towards a military and it's actually it's it's a godsend i think for a lot of the dudes to look out for him and i just wish whatever political spectrum left or right more people cared about the men and women they're certain they're sending to war and so that's really where it's so immoral it's hyper immoral it is you got these people that's sitting in an ivory tower and they're like ah send the boys and they're sent off 19 year old men and women just get slayed and right as if it's nothing It's disgusting. It's also immoral to live in this society and have 20 years of war where our soldiers are places we don't even know.

What are we doing as, you know, we were up until World War II, a country that didn't believe in standing armies. Right. And it was Eisenhower that said, by the way, you go down this road, everything's going to change. He talked about the military industrial complex. He talked about the State Department and how that was going to, and it's all happened. It's all happened. And we just kind of like, oh, I don't know. What are we doing?

Well, yeah, because I don't think not enough people care. And so it's just kind of unbeknownst to them. It is what it is. This is very unfortunate. You, I don't want to stick you out because I think a lot of things can be. I think fame and fortune is a drug. I think fame and fortune is. one of the most dangerous things you can give to a human being.

Agreed. Horrible. You can all of a sudden just buy into it and you are, then you start to hold on to, it's just ugly. I've heard you say war can be a drug. Yes. How? There's a very interesting gentleman,

and it gave me so much perspective. He's a former Special Operations guy. and his name's Tyler. And he had this whole statement about lack of PTSD, the lack of post-traumatic stress. That was very interesting because, you know, when I wrote my book, I personally, just me, individually speaking,

never had issues of what I went through and what I saw. Mine was always the sense of purpose. And that's what I had such a difficult transition coming out because I missed it. And when I was in, I'd literally convinced myself I was going to die. And my mentality was,

Well, time to kill as many bad guys before I die. I was convinced that was, and it was why I was kind of, you know, I wouldn't say fearless, but more aggressive in nature for getting my job done and keeping people safe. So when you lived past that, I didn't know what to do. It was like got in the car and someone said drive and I had no GP, I had no clue where to go. And so that's something that I've found my new purpose in life is ensuring that I don't have,

hopefully you can help other, you know, 23 year old dudes like me that get out of military and have some form of inspiration and an understanding that there is more life to live there's even more quality of life to live outside of the military so be thankful for it but don't find yourself in the rest of your life through that you know four six eight years that's as a chapter move on and write an epic book don't don't like one one cool chapter can't that be said however for millennials most millennials that they they're getting into a car and they they they want want to serve. They have good intentions. They want to do the right thing. But it's a purpose, it's a purposeless life, you know, social media and all of this stuff. It's just, it has no purpose.

Well, that's, that's the very difficult time. And you're saying how, how fame can be a drug. You know, I think the social media complex is very scary and terrifying. You know, you can go on there and see 12-year-olds dancing for a like, it like on their Instagrams and doing all. It's just, it's weird and bizarre to me. And it's like, I'm kind of terrified to have kids because I'm like, oh, man, it's a weird world to bring them into. And it's a very surface level environment we've created with some of social media because they're willing to act them morally or do anything for that comment and like for that

self-validation. And it's fake affirmation. It's, there's no substance to it. You know, they'd rather get 60 likes on a comment than have that one great interpersonal, you know, relationship with someone that. loves them, their character, not their blonde hair or their muscles. It's hard you know this because you have 70 million likes and 70 million views on one of your YouTube videos.

When you have one that doesn't perform well, it automatically, you automatically go, well, what did I do different? And if you're not really self-aware, which I haven't met a teenager that is, if you're not really self-aware, you start mutating for the algorithm. Yep. It's very, very funny to say that.

I've heard comedians and other people say that, never read the comments. And I try not to do that because, thankfully, I love the art of production and film and movies. And so I selfishly do it for myself because I love the process from script to screen. And then when I put it out,

I don't really base it off of the performance, like on numbers, but am I happy with the project? Could I have done it better? And I don't think like you were saying, you have the emotional intelligence at 15 years old when you put out a video to understand that. It's okay that you didn't get as much views as your last one. Right.

And I don't know if you can grow the emotional intelligence. If you're in that bubble. Yeah, if you're in the bubble, it's kind of a sounding board and you're just bouncing back and forth. You're talking about I love film and everything else. So where, like, what's a goal? You're 50 years old.

What's a goal? What do you see as this is, that's what I really want to do? Very interesting question. Yes, I love film. I think two things that are really my pass forward are becoming a better executive for my company and, you know,

being a better business owner and business partner. Okay, so let me ask you on this. I see you here. Okay. And then I see your videos. Uh-huh. and I know the difference between I know that you can be honestly be two different people you can be that performer where you're just like doing it and it's fun and you can be this yeah but most people don't they look at you and like wait what happened to my guy what happened yeah is this is any of is any of that tonal down because your business is going way up I don't think we've toned down really at

all I mean we put out I mean you oh me I think depending on the media in certain times I have to speak to a different audience but all of it is me I'm not a politician I don't fake stuff but you know when you have those kind of aggressive more fun natured videos that's just an extension of my satirical jokes that I write like man I want to troll these guys who get spill a glass of milk and cry for 10 days you know that's just ridiculous but you know I like for other people to see the more professional side of me that it's not all, you know, whiskey and guns and jokes and all of that stuff. There's a lot of work that goes into creating an

enterprise and employing over 200 people. Can you just tell me again how you drink whiskey? How did you get past that? I've never gotten past it. And we, I watch, I still, I get the three ounces. Shees. I watch, I watch people now all the time I see. And it hadn't happened to me in a decade at least. But I see people. and they have a glass of whiskey and that's my poison and I'm like oh my gosh that looks so good that looks so good I got I got out of it before I mean Jack was you know makers mark was something that that was fancy those two and then I got out of coffee and it's like I got out before there was good coffee before before you know it was still you know what good whiskey was

I will indulge in those bad behavioral patterns for you. So I drink great coffee and great whiskey quite often. How did you break that? Did you use the word alcoholic? Yeah, I was for sure. But I think a lot of that stemmed from the position I was in life. You know, innately, I am a very driven and motivated guy. I love to work.

I love to just create things. And when I had nothing to create sitting stagnant in the water, essentially, the only thing I could do to escape myself was get drunk. You're Sherlock Holmes. Are you familiar with Sherlock Holmes? Of course. Yeah. You know,

the real Sherlock is a heroin act. Oh, really? Yeah. And he doesn't, it's called the 2% solutions, cocaine and heroin. And he,

uh, when he's on a case, he's completely clean. Interesting. But until he finds a purpose, he's taken heroin. Life has absolutely no meaning to him. Well,

fortunately, I've never touched that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that was kind of the position I was in. And so that's why I kind of needed a good support system to pull me out of it. I want to go to chicken and the egg with your ads because you're not really running ads. You're not running ads. Right.

You know, you do something. And then at the end, black rifle coffee. Right. Completely counterintuitive unless you, you, you, you do something. you are Yeti or Patagonia, when you are those companies, you realize, no, I'm a lifestyle. They're coming to me because they want to go hiking. You want to go do these things. They will spend that on a cooler because it means something.

Right. Was this, did this play a role at all in your head or did it just come naturally? I'd say a lot of it came naturally, but again, I think something I've been very fortunate with is I'm a selfish comedian. I do things just to make myself laugh. And when I started getting into production, I wanted to do a style of content that I had not seen out there. And fortunately, that started catching wind. And what I really want to add value to our customer base is not only like the greatest coffee, but how do we give them more of a value add to participate in the brand to feel they're a part of a sense of community and a sense of give back? And I use the term a lot, vote with your dollar.

And I think at this day and age, it's really unlikely for brands to be as transparent as we are. But when you engage and participate in our brand, you know exactly what we stand for and what we're about. There's American flags all over our business. Most people are concealed carrying legally. You know, so that's just who we are. And if you don't like it, go buy coffee somewhere else. You know, I don't need to, the whole world doesn't need to be our consumer. And, you know, it's.

Being in the CIA, you probably knew this maybe to some degree. But we are, we're all categorized now. We're all just through algorithms. We're just all categorized. And you go into a grocery store and an algorithm can tell you, you voted for Trump, you voted for Hillary, just by the groceries. Really? Oh, yeah. You didn't know that?

Just by the groceries. Consumer data is getting scary, scary individualized. It's like with 90%, like 96% accuracy just on what you buy at the grocery store. Wow. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's crazy.

And have you ever been to like Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard? I've been by Martha's Vineyard. Don't go. You go to Martha Valley, right? No, no, no. That's up in Massachusetts. Okay. So Martha's Vineyard is.

is the elite, elite, Democrat, liberal. Martha's Vineyard started out as a godplace with real conservative values, but now I walk the streets of Martha's Vineyard. It's not comfortable, okay? Nantucket, which is just down the road of spell, or down to water a spell, is conservative. Interesting. From Massachusetts.

Okay? it's crazy when did we start dividing ourselves like that and is that a good thing or a bad thing it's a bad thing I think they should build a cool little bridge with a nice little bar table just like this

and share wine once a week and you know hey this is what we're doing this is what we're doing and have some good conversation so when did that but when did that and isn't the brand I mean because I agree with you I mean I want to serve the people

I'm never going to be able to get the people who hate me who don't even really know me. They just, they see this and they're like, oh, well, I know what that's all about. Yeah, I'm the same way. Right. Right. But doesn't that play into that shopping cart that is completely different where we don't share anything? It could be. I think we kind of segment our brand positions like me.

I just do a lot more satirical stuff. And then black rifle coffee, we stand for America, the Constitution and being a patriot. Very divisive. I don't think so. I don't think so. People when they hear those words in 2019 might think it's divisive. But I mean, we've had every sexual preference, religious preference, political preference, work in our house.

As long as you're not offended by the American flag and you put in hard work and you believe in the American dream. I've said that 20 times this podcast already. Super simple to me. I mean, we've had one of the huge progressive work for us and just believed in the mission was a sweetheart, great person. I've had super progressive people. No problem. But they didn't hate America.

Exactly. And they believed in the Bill of Rights. That's all it really takes. It's pretty simple when you think about it. I don't know why we've made it so complex. Yeah. So you said that you want to be a better CEO. Yeah, I'm executive vice president.

Evan gets CEO title. He's the man. He's smarter than me. Well, you want to be a better. Executive, okay, so you want to be a better executive. But I keep hearing you talk about, I'm a comedian, or I do comedy, and I do film, and I like the process. Where is that in being an executive of a coffee company 20 years down the road? Well, that's a good question, because that's where I have about two personalities in that sense.

I want one to be the 40-hour-a-week executive and the other one to be a 40-hour-a-week, you know, film director and all that. you know, I've done film before. I've acted a decent amount. But the older and older I get, I'd love to participate more in the production side of it and have the newer guys, maybe in veterans come up, coach them and direct movies. I'm probably going to direct another movie in 2020, which I'm really excited about. About what? What's the story like? It is kind of like very interesting film. It's going to be kind of like Deadpool meets I Am Legend. You know, so like zombie apocalypse with some satirical humor in there, but then also driven solely by music because I'm obsessed with music.

So everything will be scored very theatrically and musically, which I don't think has been done. I think each one of those has been done on their own, but the combination of them all. Maybe some Baz Luhrmann in a way. Yeah. The same way, but.

And then I'll probably be in the botany club in the movie, you know, selling trees and hamburgers like I used to do. Is that what you thought you were going to do? What did you think you were going to do when you were in the botany club and you're a skinny, you know, beat-upable kid. Yeah. What did you think you were going to do?

I don't think I knew, to be honest with you. But it's a very interesting entrepreneurial journey I've had because for the botany club, I used to grill hamburgers once every two weeks in the quad. And, you know, I'd go to Costco, and I'd work all the cost of goods out and build a spreadsheet and see how we could increase profit mart. And I didn't even know at the time

that this was like setting the stone for me in business years and years later. but I don't think I knew what I was doing. So. Is there a, a marriage in your future? Is there? I'm currently married to a.

It's on there. And I forgot my ring today. She's going to kill me for it. That's what you went. It's on there. It's on there. It's on there. Okay. No, I live with my beautiful wife,

and I have two dogs. So Noel is her name, and she's a sweetheart, and it's her birthday Friday. So I've got to do something nice for her. Oh, good. I've been married just over like three years. How'd you guys mean?

The Instagrams, you know? Really? As the millennials say, I slid into her DMs, but she wasn't having it for a long time. Had to be very convincing in my audience. Did she know? Not really. She worked for a gun store,

so she's kind of a gun nut in a good way. And is an avid coffee drinker. So I make fun of her all the time that she married a gun drinking coffee guy, or gun-toed coffee guy. I think it's, my wife, I was kind of doing this with my career when I met my wife.

And everybody thought it was over. And I thought I was going to have, I was going to give this talk radio thing a chance. I'd done 20 years in Top 40 radio and I was so sick of it. And so I thought I'd give this a chance and nobody thought it would be successful, including me. I mean, I was like,

you know, maybe. Right. And we met and got married. And she didn't think. of success like that she thought I was gonna be I don't know you know a chef or something and so she's not really into it you know she's just she's a mom and and a wife and does her own thing and she's not into the celebrity part of it

it was the best blessing of my life I was actually just gonna ask you that question I went to when I first date second date ever with my wife who went to to a birthday party with my friends. There's this big famous band playing there and a whole group of people. She didn't care about any of it. And that's kind of how it is. It's been a great counterbalance to my life.

It's really good. Because I had previous relationships, maybe like you that were very into it. Look at me. The Trofe likes one to be on the arm everywhere. And it's very, very challenging as a public figure. It will, and it will pull you,

it will pull you apart. I mean, success is hard. It's super challenging. It is. You're under the microscope every single day. What's the hardest part about success for you? Privacy. At least as far as public figure-wise, privacy, for sure.

I'm a very introverted. I live in acreage and hide from everybody. So I go out and do what I do. And then I don't like to be overstimulated. And it's so weird when, you know, if you like Google your name, people know dates and births of everything. When you got married, your wife's hobbies. And it's just, it's creepy.

And you walk into places or, into an airport and all of a sudden you see everybody look at you and then they look to another. Yeah, Google and you had to see if that's it. That's him. I'm sure you get that way more than me, but it's, it's a blessing and a curse. Fortunately for us, we have such an amazing supporter base. Like a lot of people that support us are veterans or patriots.

And so they usually come up and thank us for the mission that we're doing. It's nice. Yeah, it's wonderful. Because it does give you the sense of community. And it revalidates that purpose because sometimes, you know, you can sit at two in the morning working like, why am I doing this? I could just get out of here and go live on an island. And then, you know, you see that message come in that says, hey, I watched this video and you saved my life and I, you know, rekindled my relationship with my wife and got

in the gym over a stupid two-minute video. You would never have thought it would have had that profound impact on somebody, but for some reason, right place, right time it did. It's amazing, in it? It gives me chills. It's the most humbling, awesome thing I've ever experienced. It's really hard not to say. I, well, that's why I planned it. I mean, I was not at all. I didn't. Yeah, I'm not going to lie about it.

You really want to say that. Well, yes, I am that genius. No, I bluffing. I set out at the age of 15 in the body cub and I'm going to change people's lives. No, definitely didn't. Let me just ask you some political questions here. And that aren't, I don't think they're real political. All to do with the military.

We are in a position now. And I don't know if you know much about this thing that's happening. It's really what I think the impeachment thing is all about. We have a policy in the State Department of that's called Civil Society 2.0. And it is training revolutionaries with our government money, training them, then telling them just wait, tell the right opportunity. And when we see the right opportunity, go. and the government is overturned. We've done this with bad governments.

We've also done this with really good governments. Should we as people be fomenting revolution around the world? It's a very loaded question. I would say I usually stem more towards like isolationalism. You know, like not we can interject where we can help, but, you know, proxy wars and all that are so complains. And the problem is, is we, it's so hard to define with the third and fourth order effects of that will be. I mean, look at Iraq with Saddam Hussein.

I mean, we created an insurgency out of there, lost a lot of American lives because of it. And, and then it's like, all you always come back to was it worth it? And maybe it's easily defined retrospectively, but to just go start having proxy wars and overthrowing governments, that's, that's a way above my pay grade. And I think most people that are making those decisions too. I used to be much more, go get the bad guys. We have a responsibility. You know, go get the bad guys. And it kills me what's happening in China.

I mean, with the Uyghurs and the concentration camps that they have there and what's even happening in Hong Kong, we lose Hong Kong. Taiwan has gone. That whole thing just spirals out of control. and it becomes even darker than it is right now. But I don't want to be involved. Yeah. I mean, I find myself in this place to where we can't do that.

You know, you can't give people freedom. You can't. They have to earn it. They have to find it themselves. We can help, but we can't lead on that. And I just,

I just feel like, every time we, every time we reach out and we do something because it's the right thing to do. With the exception of the big ones like World War, to, we make it worse. In the end, we make it worse. Historically we have, yeah, in certain circumstances. So it's a hard one because, you know, you can define a moral argument on either side. Well, are we going to let these, you know, human transgressions and, you know, things happen here. Or are we going to go risk lives to intervene, which consequentially,

could turn it way worse. So do you believe in, because you were in a private army? You believe in private armies? As far as being like a contractor. Yeah. Or let me say this. I do not want the United States government going in and freeing slaves in China. But if there was a Ross Barrow,

and he is a private citizen, wanted to go in and help rescue slaves out of China, not necessarily have that problem with that. You know what I mean? It's not the government's responsibility, but maybe it's me and my local church or whatever that went, you know, we got to help to save these people.

Right. Is there a place for that? Yeah, that's a very good question that I've really never thought about. I mean, I think in certain circumstances, it could work. I look at, you know, Kurdistan and some of the former veterans that were going over to support the Kurds and then the travesties that were having over there. And it's hard not to absolutely agree with them, you know, as they're getting shot at from ISIS pulling, you know, children out of rumble. Of course, I agree with that.

You know, so, yeah, I guess it could work. I just don't know the functionality of it and how it would. what's the world look like in 10 years hopefully a great place I'm gonna leave it at that thank you thank you so much just a reminder

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