The Okay Podcast Powered by The Strength Co. - EP 37: USMC, Jersey Food, & More feat. MSgt Sean Shepherd

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Podcast Hosts: Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach. Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter Sign up for The Turkey Pull: https://gyms.thestrength.co/turkey-pull/ Join the Slack and Use code OKAY: https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks Check out BW Tax: https://www.bwtaxllc.com TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Intro 05:38 - Sean Shepard Joins 09:27 - Sean’s Military Career 11:25 - Giants vs The Patriots 13:18 - First OKP Listener 14:14 - Jersey Girls 15:38 - How The Marine Corps Has Changed 21:38 - Advice For New Marines 26:21 - Marine Stereotypes 27:49 - Marine Movies 30:33 - First vs Master Sergeant 32:39 - Civilian Job 35:49 - Memorable Moments 42:46 - 9/11 44:27 - College Sports 45:47 - Future Plans 46:42 - Soccer 48:31 - Jersey Food 51:42 - Lifting Schedules 58:02 - Parenting Update 01:05:37 - OKAY!

What's up, everyone? It's your favorite producer, PJ, from the OK Podcast. And I'd like to tell you about a veteran fundraiser that is more than just OK. The Strength Co. will be hosting the third annual Turkey Pool Fundraiser for the Semper Fi and Americas Fund on November 16th, 2024. That's November 16th, 2024. That's November 16th, 2024. Don't go run a 5K this Thanksgiving. Come do some deadlifts and raise some money for this important organization

that supports active military, veterans, and their families. You can come to this event in person or you can join us online and all proceeds go to the Semper Fi in America's fund. Click on the link in the description and sign up today. We'll see you there. All right. Welcome back to episode 037 of the OK podcast powered by the Strength Co. I'm your host, Grant Brogy. Price of Bitcoin, $57,784. Today's date is September 3rd in the year of our Lord 2024. We are recording up in the upstate, up in the upstate South Carolina.

Some good upstate talk. Last week, if you haven't listened to last week's episode, 036 with fly fisherman John Connett. Go back and hear some hot takes on conservation and nature. You have to listen. You can't afford not to. You can't afford not to. If you're a fisherman. Yeah, if you're a fisherman, you care about nature.

Yeah, if you like the South. Or just like listening to a nice Southern drawl. Yeah, he's got that low voice. Yeah, he does. It's nice. Low and slow, low and slow. That's the way to do it. But we're recording.

We're still a week ahead. We're just ahead for a while now. In life. Yeah, we're ahead in life. I'm getting ready to do some Marine Corps training. So the show goes on, but we're ahead a life. I'm getting ready to do some Marine Corps training. So the show goes on, but we are just, we're ahead of week. One of these days we'll be recording week of, but not right now. Now we're in the future. Yeah. We got a special guest tonight. We'll get to really soon. So probably a lot of Marine Corps talk. So if you didn't like Steven Garcia

ranting about his ROTC instructor, you probably won't like this episode because it's very, I'm sure we'll get into a lot of military stuff. Also a lot of Jersey stuff. Oh yeah. Big Jersey guy, pork roll, Taylor ham, shout out previous guests, Andy Herbert. I'm a Jersey guy in law now. Like sort of, yeah. You're like, you're a new New Jersey and I am sort of, I've been married into the community. Although I feel more New Jersey than you because I go there once a month. Oh, yeah, for real. Exactly.

But you're married into it, so you're stuck for life. There'll be a time in my life where I don't go once a month. Yeah, it'll end for you. You'll go forever. You'll go forever. This podcast, the lights are on if you're watching us. If you're not watching us, please go over to YouTube, the OK Podcast, and subscribe.

Got closing in 150 subscribers over there when you do that if you like this podcast if you're fans with us it helps us if you watch it a little bit it boosts the algorithm get more views if you haven't got to comment it on spotify uh please go comment on spotify and say hey i love your podcast keep it going and uh you know with a gun to his head, maybe we can get BW tax to keep paying the bills. But, uh, if you haven't done those things, they actually do make a big difference. So if you like small podcasts, if you like small businesses, if you love America, if you like things just starting off, go support. I didn't

believe it at first. Um, but you know, strength of YouTube, when you say like, and subscribe, once people have listened to you say that 347 times, then they finally subscribe, you know, at some point they do just go join all the comments talking about grants, huge arms and comment how much you love them, admire them and wish you had them. Most giant arms. Um, I've ever seen really, yeah, I've never seen bigger arms. Um, speaking of, uh, sorry sorry if you're if you're watching you can't see the cat if you're listening hear me chuckle he's he's staring us in the screen

but uh speaking of keeping the lights on and bw tax sometimes we forget to do the ad read till late uh i got three buttons here first one's tanner i'm gonna press that that's what i love uh what i've always loved about bw taxes uh you know be someone like me. I have a W-2 job still. Got to support the wife, the kids. There you go. Kids, there's child tax credits. The government has really created a wild maze that is income tax and loopholes and all that. That's what the folks at BW Tax, that's their bread and

butter. I mean, that's what they're known for and what they've come to be so excellent at. And that's why, you know, you could talk to them remotely, even if you're from some place in the sticks, like Western Northeast, South Dakota, you can still talk to a warm body at BW tax. It's not a, it's not a box. It's not a chat GPT service. You know, it's real people. They're providing a real service. And that's what I love about them at BW tax dot BW tax LLC.com. Yeah. That's what it was. That's what I like about them. Good ad. Hey, good ad. Thanks Bt started us off yeah we we appreciate you i do know that tonight's guest who i'll introduce here in just a second uh messaged me he said um he

didn't say he was nervous he didn't say he was tossing and turning last night he just said if there's one thing that i've been worried about it's giving bw tax the respect he deserves and so yeah that's out in everyone's mind. Yeah, sometimes a well-rehearsed ad reads worse than an off-the-cuff ad read. You never know. Honestly. But if you care, it matters. All right, let's get these guys on here.

Today's guest, big... I feel weird calling you Sean, even though it's S-E-A-N. But, you know, at some point, everyone has to hang up the tree suit. Am I right? It is. So, yeah, Big Sean Shepard, Master Sergeant type. Where are you coming from? I'm coming from the great state of New Jersey.

Central, northern, southern? Well, right now I'm up in northern Jersey is where I live now. But I was born and raised in central Jersey. Oh, so you do – you believe in a central Jersey. Yeah, that's where I'm from. Oh, okay. You believe it. It's not a mythical place.

He's been there. He was raised there. Yeah. I'm not a Piney from south Jersey or a Benny from north Jersey. I was born right in the heart of the state in central. Okay. I married a Piney, so I've been hearing all about this debate. It's an interesting... I have no dog in the fight, really.

Besides your wife. She's a cat. Besides that dog. South Jersey people don't think Central exists. North don't think Central, but it does. Okay. I got it. You got to drive through it. Everything that has a top and a bottom, there always a middle that's called tbs does that mean you're a taylor ham guy or a

pork roll okay all right understood glad we established that yeah not the first guy from jersey we've had on this podcast wait so real quick you're born raised there what part i know but tell the listeners uh i was born in Monmouth County. The town is a matter of one. So it's a small town. I'm about 25, 30 minutes north of where your buddy who was on here earlier is. Okay. So you're north of him, which therefore makes him South Jersey.

Oh, no, that's still central because it's Ocean Valley. Okay. Okay. Just one county away. This is a deep state, man. Yeah. It county away this is a deep state man yeah this is it is it is the deep state actually yeah it is the deep state uh well we got lots of things talked to you about we got four marines in this call one honorary marine and so uh we want to pick your brain but uh tell us what's on your wall of fame back there you got a lot of stuff going on in the background that Well, that stuff back there,

we just, me and little Sean put that up today because we have nothing. So it would have been a fair wall. Call that position improvement. Yeah. Yeah. It's continuous. We were like, yeah, we got to get something up.

So, you know, obviously we got to get the Messi and the Ronaldo up for him. We have another Daniel Jones thing like that he wanted up. I was like, no, we're not putting that up. But we just went with the LT. And then the pictures are from our trip to Buffalo when we went last October for the Giants-Bills game. Okay, so we got to cover that real quick

because Jersey is a confusing state. So to me, I actually don't believe in a South Jersey. I believe that's called Philadelphia. So I think Philadelphia spills over and ruins the bottom of the state. And then you get Central Jersey, which I really like those people. And then I haven't explored much in Northern Jersey.

But what's your teams? I'm a Giants fan. I hate everything Philadelphia. I hate that just people, it's just a terrible, terrible place. Potential sponsor everything Philadelphia. Okay. I hate that just people to say, like, it's just a terrible, terrible. Potential sponsor for Philadelphia. I hate the state of Philadelphia, too. It sucks.

It's not even real. It's made up is what it is. Those bastards. But no, I'm a Giants fan. Football, baseball. I'm a Mets fan, which is a weird story because everybody in my family is a diehard Yankees fan, including my little guy. Somehow I'm the only Mets fan, which is painful.

I was about to say, you're picking just the worst teams, huh? It's been bad. But we're only a half game out of the wild card now. Last time I checked, we were beating the Sox tonight. Okay. Pretty good. Pretty good.

Pretty good. We'll just round rob a little bit, but let me kind of, I don't know. Can you ride someone else's laurels? Let me talk you up here a little bit. So you're a master sergeant. You used to be an 0811, but now you're what, an 0869? Yes. Which I think is just a bunch of 0811s getting together and like, you know what would be funny?

Let's make our MOS end in 69 and then we can all go, nice. Apparently, the reason they did that was to keep pace with the infantry since they go 03 whatever to 0369. They're like, well, why don't we do that? Okay. So you're an 0869. That happens what when you become a gunnery uh sergeant or when you go to the uh schoolhouse for the advanced cannon near you have to be a gunny and have gone to the schoolhouse okay okay so then you become another 869 you're a master sergeant i know you don't like to to gloat and, but how many 0869 Master Sergeants are

in the Marine Corps Reserve? In the Reserve, I'm the only one. You're the only one. 101, baby. 101! 101! There's maybe one more rank you can get to? Yes. Okay.

I know it's Master Gunnery Sergeant. Is that a general purpose billet that you would go fill? Or is it like, nope, like there's a top? Or how does it work? Well, because right now, as you know, in the regiment, there's no BIC for Master Guns 0869 Reservist. So I would have to probably go find what they call the 80 14 billet.

You know, any Marine can fill. So I would have to go find my own job essentially. Okay. It's great. You know, Marine Corps. Yeah.

You're so good. It's very Marine Corps. Yeah. We're going to want you to match guns and now go find your own job and do something out of your MOS. Yeah. Can't wait. All right,

Jeff, what you got? What do I got? Okay, you brought up being a Giants fan, being a Mets fan, kind of rough. But there's some good years in there. Not too far back for the Giants. Oh, yeah. Where were you when the Giants derailed the Patriots' perfect season?

Oh, I was at my brother's house when we watched that. The first one, the first time was at Oh eight when they were undefeated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I was at my brother's house when we did that. We had a Superbowl party and you know, we felt good going in. What's that? Oh, yeah. Maybe one or two,

you know, nothing too much, you know, no pepperoni shots or two. You know, nothing too much. You know, no pepperoni shots or anything. No. Wait, what's a pepperoni shot? Oh, the worst thing ever. It's something me and, it's going to be, I got to call you Jeff.

I don't want to call you Major Biggie on here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But a shot Jeff and I did at, not Scooters. Christ, what the hell's the name? Jack's. Jack's. Jack's. Yeah, where They fried up the pepperoni and put whiskey in it. You shoot it out of the pepperoni and eat the pepperoni.

Nice. It was bad. You had me at pepperoni. You had me at Jack's. Yeah. A fine establishment. I thought it was scooters. No, it was sidewinders.

Wait, so you're at your brother's house watching that game? Is he a Giants fan? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody in my family are all Giants fans. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Got it. Dang. All right. Well, Jeff, I'm glad you put that on me right away. Yeah, I wanted to. I was like, this is a good one to bring up. I've got to get out of the way.

I mean, too bad the Patriots didn't win any other Super Bowls any time recently. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a rough go for the Pats. Trey, what do you got for Top Top? Man, Tippy Top, I think you were like the first listener that I was aware of. Yeah.

Are you still passing out stickers to anybody? I think you were like the first listener that I was aware of. Yeah. Yeah. Are you still passing out stickers to anybody? I only have, I actually have two stickers I found as I was cleaning off my desk. So I have to go pass those two out tomorrow. But I do have the okay podcast sticker on my backpack. I travel with. Okay.

I'm always, you know, always represent. What was that place in Fort Worth where you, backpack I travel with. Okay. I'm always, you know, always, um, represent. What was that place in Fort Worth where you, like everyone got one? Oh, that,

oh, I don't remember the name of the bar. Billy Bob's. No, I went to a second rodeo. Oh, second rodeo. Yeah. Everybody got a sticker.

Hey, you ever heard of the okay podcast? That was good. That was good. You've been a longtime listener, first time caller. Yeah. First time caller. Yeah. Long time, first time. PJ? All right. Well, I don't know you too well. All I know is that you're in the Marines and you're from Jersey. Yes, sir. And so let me just ask for a little advice then. Maybe I'll spin it that way. So I recently married a girl from Jersey. Good luck. And so I feel like I've gotten a lot of, yeah. So this ties into the question.

What are the best things about people from New Jersey? And what are the things you got to look out for? Like what's like the warning? Call those red flags. Yeah. In your opinion oh christ on the cracker um who's on the spot there yeah i mean the best thing is you know like a they're they have this quintessential attitude you know being a jersey girl like there's no women like them this

side of the mississippi or that side of the Mississippi, either side. They're just very unique in like how they carry themselves. And, you know, I don't want to say like they're, they're all bitches on wheels, but they're pretty much all like they're ready to go, you know? And they're just tracks so far. And a lot of the time, one of the good thing is you don't ever have to worry about what they're thinking about because they're going to tell you. Yeah. You know, so I mean –

They told you before you wondered. That's always an added bonus. That's a feature, not bug maybe. It depends on how you look at it. Yeah. Depends on the day. Mm-hmm. Okay.

All right. So you're at what? You're like 22? Oh, in Marines, I joined 2001. So 23, 24, something like that. 23. Yeah, 23, going on 24, maybe across 24. Okay, so 23 years and all from the reserves, right?

Yes. And you've activated and deployed twice? Only one mobilization. One mobilization. Okay, so one mobilization, 23 years. I don't know. What's the biggest thing? 2001, we're coming off

a 9-11. Patriots win the Super Bowl. Everything's great. No, I'm kidding. High climbing our country, 9-11. Yeah. I mean, the Patriots kind of did But, but, but, but, but, but. High climbing our country, 9-11. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the Patriots kind of did have to win that year.

Like, it would have been un-American from 9-2. Oh, yeah. The fix was in. Yeah, it was in that year. Yeah, I would say you, and don't get me wrong, you're 0-1. We're all like, you know, 10-11 joiners. But, like, what has the biggest change been just in terms of, 10, 11 joiners. But like, what is the biggest change been just in, in terms of like, you know, you've been in the SMCR the whole time. And I think the perspective I want here is like,

there's the Marine Corps which changes, but it's the Marine Corps, but like generationally stuff changes and you came in and everyone was probably like, Oh, when I came in at 85, right. But like, like what are the things that you're like, you know, it used to be like this and it's not anymore. And like, this is better or I miss it. Whether it's like formations passing, like what are just some like 23 years is a long time. What are the big shifts you've seen? The big shifts I've seen is the, especially recently, is like the caliber of Marine that comes out of basic training.

Like you're basically trained Marine that you're getting who's checking into unit for the first time. Like I've seen, I don't want to say a decline in discipline and attitude, but it's been kind of like just going down a little bit. You know, you're always going to have your outliers who are just fantastic and, you know, who take the bull by the horns and lead from the front and do all that and you're going to have your 10 who are going to be shitbags regardless right but i think as an overall standard like like the the just the mentality the physical and mental toughness

of of the marines today doesn't match up to what it was 23 years ago sure and you think that is organizational decline and and i'm not gonna put you too bad on the spot we can clean it up in post if you say anything crazy but i just what i mean is or do you think it's like generational decline i think it's more just generation or what about recruitment like if fewer people are interested in going then you're pulling from a smaller number of people i don't know maybe it's that too yeah i mean that could be a factor is you know not everybody's is eager to join or that wants to join but i think it's more peacetime versus wartime yeah but go ahead you think it's i think it's more like just generational changes and yeah. And how, like, even, even my son's seven, like I raise and talk to him completely different the way my father did,

you know, like, yeah, I have more pictures on my phone of Sean than my father ever looked at me. Like, it's just, it's like, I think it's just all like, just everything's just changing. Yeah. It might not necessarily be for the worst, the best, who knows. All we can do is ride it out and see where it goes. Yeah, it is interesting. I mean, even in what I consider

a short time that I've been in, but it does seem like it's just different, right? The thought process and sometimes it's incredible, which I know you know. You get a guy that's like whoa this guy's like smarter than definitely when i was a second lieutenant but he's also might be

smarter than me right now right like they're like there's definitely like some some brains in there but yeah i'm with you there's some there's some generational changes that you're seeing that it's like uh you know like your dad probably beat you with a belt, you know? And it's like, this kid's never been beat with a belt. We had the board of education. Yeah. The board of, Oh, we, we, we, we had what was called the helping hand and it was like a wooden hand. And, uh, yeah, that was, that was our deal. Uh, all right.

Well, Jeff. Oh, geez. A little inside baseball. Sean Shepard, I'll call him master for a second, and Major Jeff Biggie. Biggie was his CEO. Shepard was his senior enlisted. Let's not forget the first sergeants.

You know, the stars want to get their – or their diamonds want to get their chance to become stars. He had other senior enlisted, but in terms of technical proficiency was, was your right hand man. So there's a relationship there that the listener needs to know about. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't just, well, I know I've told him this before, but like, man made my job infinitely easier than like in every way, just like spit fire of a dude,

just running around, making things happen. Just, you know, all like all just like the funny, like little offhand catchphrases. And I think you've, you've like dropped a couple so far and just like,

you know, just delight in the mood or, you know, there'll be something kind of more serious going on. And he would drop one of these. And everyone's kind of like, wait, what? What did he just say? But it was just like constantly.

And he wouldn't even blink. It wouldn't even be like he was throwing it in there to do something to kind of like change up the mood. It would just be like just his personality. So just, you know, super fun guy to work with. Would do it again any day of the week. Yeah, thank you. Don't know if there's a question in there, but, yeah, just wanted to say that.

Nah, that was a nice accolade, though. A little ride down memory lane. Go ahead, Joe. I got to get one. So three officers, one former officer. What's your biggest pet peeve? I know I have mine of like a brand new second lieutenant who comes to the unit of like, what are like the common mistakes you see? You're like, oh man, like this guy's a, this guy's, he's a firecracker. You know what I mean? Like what's the biggest,

what's your biggest pet peeve that you see from brand new lieutenants? I think we got, I think we got a guy coming in or he was, he's a midshipman. So maybe it might be good advice for him. There was – it's funny because as a reservist, before they did the reset or whatever the heck the program was called, we never saw second lieutenants, first lieutenants or anything. Right. It was always captains and – Oh, okay. So it wasn't until i was a staff sergeant that i actually had a second lieutenant at that point i was like first real exposure to having one

okay and i would tell him for the for the listener i'll say real quick keep keep keep your thoughts but until like i think like jeff i think our class was one of the first where you could go into the reserves as a second lieutenant. Oh, interesting. Prior to that. I think it's either it's definitely not before 09, but I think it was like, because when I graduated Citadel, it wasn't an option. But I think it's like 10, 11, 12, somewhere in there. They said, hey, you can come in and be an officer in the reserves. Prior to that, everyone was active.

So what he's talking about is being on the reserve side. He only dealt with officers that had been active for a minimum of four years. So not until your staff started. Anyway, continue. That doesn't mean that much. Yeah. Staff started. I get my first, second lieutenant.

And, you know, like I tried to tell him, I was like, you're a guns platoon commander. Your job is to be seen and not heard. Like, you don't know anything about cannons or all that, you know, like just come out, see everybody. We'll show you what we can show you. And, you know, he didn't want to listen. And we actually ended up having a fire incident. So like your house burned down? I would probably rather that

than the house. But we ended up getting laid on the wrong as with the fire and we got saved on the wrong. So it was this whole what's to do about it. And it was just the young inexperience of him not catching a mistake yeah and which

it was kind of a pain in the ass but okay so you gotta you got a midshipman we have a midshipman listener i think he's in nor is naval cammy norwich i forget where he's at but he's one of those yeah he loves the he loves the okay podcast but so he's, I think a junior senior, like, what are you telling them? Like you get to your first, you get to your first year, 23 years of experience as a seasoned, you know, senior enlisted. Like, what are you saying? Like, Hey sir, if you just do these couple of things, you'll be successful.

If like, I would, I would tell him like, don't come in and think you run the show. Yes. You're in charge. You're the fall guy. You're going to take the blame, but you don't run the show. Yes, you're in charge. You're the fall guy. You're going to take the blame. But you don't run the show. You have to rely on your platoon sergeant. You have to rely on your NCOs, you know, depending on, yeah, squad leader, you know, whatever the case is.

Yeah. That scenario. But they're the ones who are going to guide you and teach you. You know, like, you get your guidance from your battery commander, you know, your XO. You come down, you talk to your platoon sergeant, and then you two figure it out and how you're going to address the platoon. If you come in guns a-blazing, oh, this is my show, I run this town, you're going to lose everybody.

Because even the youngest Lance Corporal who's been there three months, it's like, what's the difference between a Lance Corporal and a lieutenant? Someone's been promoted two times. Hey, man. Hey, that's a good one right there. That's a good one right there. Before I kick it back to Jordy, I got to ask, is there like a, like when you're in the schoolhouse as an enlisted Marine, is there like a moment where they say you're no longer allowed

to pronounce the G in Sergeant and everyone just just has to say sass-sarn? Sarn. First sarn. Or is it just like agreed upon? Like bros in the gym, we just all agreed one day like you will carry a one-gallon jug of water. And if anyone asks, you'll be like, I lift weights. That's why I carry around this plastic jug. But it's an unspoken rule.

But like why does everyone say first sarn, aren't is that is that is that a thing i think it's one of those it's everybody you've grown up watching does it so you do it okay yeah all right pj all right so i don't know if you know this or not, but we've mentioned it before. I am amongst a bunch of Marines. I am not a Marine, you know, no, uh,

yeah, it's just don't have that experience. So I'm going to, I always have to ask like the really dumb questions in these kinds of conversations. Cause I don't have any context. There's no such thing as a dumb question. Just stupid people who ask them. We'll see which one I am. Okay. From like an old ESPN commercial.

Yeah. That's a good one. That's a good one. Okay. So this might be a fun one. Then as a civilian on the outside, you hear like Marine stereotypes, right? What are some Marine stereotypes that are like, Oh dude, that's totally true. Cause you know, there's gotta be, it's gotta be some. I mean like, you know, like the crayon eater, you know, that's for the most part, that's true. You know, especially when you're talking about your 0811s. Do you guys,

is it usually like the eight pack or you guys go to like 16 or how many are we talking? Depends on if it's payday or not, you know? Okay. Okay. There's a, there's an old, an old saying, especially with the Marine. It's true. Like you could put a Marine in a quad con with a ball bearing and one of three things is going to happen. He's going to lose it.

He's going to break it or he's going to try to have sex with it. That is the greatest stereotype of Marine ever. Yeah. That's pretty funny. I'd agree with that. Yes. That's good. Jeff, why don't you take him through some Marine movies?

See what his thoughts are. Ooh. Okay. All right. Thoughts are overrated, underrated. So what do you think it's... Let's get your spin on it. It's like Heartbreak Ridge,int eastwood um i wouldn't call i think that's just a fantastic movie i wouldn't call it overrated or underrated okay

okay yeah you just call it fantastic yeah it's it's properly rated yeah yeah and the marine corps we call that fantastic fantastic all right so you're a big fan? Mm-hmm. All right. Nice. Nice. Good answer. Good answer. Battle Los Angeles. A little more newer cut. I've never even actually heard of it.

Oh, my God. Underrated. Thank you, Sean. I haven't either. Thank you. Oh, my God. Underrated. He's like a 20-year staff sergeant that's the only thing yeah it's like uh aaron eckhart aliens invade los angeles and then they deploy

second lieutenant dies heroically or so i think so yeah it's oh man it's great it's harry potter shows up so it's like it's like it's like lord of the Rings where Obi-Wan Kenobi's a Marine. Yep. Sure. Yeah. What about the Pacific? Yeah, that's a fantastic series. Just phenomenal.

Yeah, I agree. Okay, Jarhead. I think Jarhead. I didn't really – I thought it was overrated. Yeah. Yeah, I'd agree with that. Generation Kill. Oh, that's another great, fantastic.

I think Generation Kill does a good job of actually showing you how people operate operate and it's not necessarily a knock right like it's like the trim the mustache it's like i have a mustache i'm a battery commander yeah and p.m mustache and people hate it and i'm just like wow like why do you have so many opinions on me about my mustache uh you know so it's funny but i think it like kind of shows and like i always like the scene where the guy's like flip over the tanks are coming by you know he like makes whatever whatever joke and it's like that's exactly what a lance corporal would say yeah um like it's yeah i think it's a pretty good depiction of like what marines act like a wide spectrum of characters. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, a bunch of crazy people. So go ahead, Trevor. I got one, Chad. Maybe you can kind of explain this to PJ. It might be interesting. So on the enlisted side, you go through and then you hit, after gunnery sergeant, you make the choice, I assume between first sergeant and mass sergeant, right?

Mm-hmm. Did I make that up? Yeah. So what is – can you kind of talk about, like, how you chose that route versus going the first sergeant route? Kind of what kind of goes into that? Actually, yeah, because once you're a gunny, like, you get evaluated every year on your fit rep, and, you know, they either tell you you're great, you're suck or you're in the middle and you put either an M or F on it, meaning you want to go mess sergeant or first sergeant route. So if you're going first sergeant

route, you're going more administrative, you know, dealing with all the paperwork, morale, welfare, all stuff like that. Good order and discipline, baby. Yes. And if you go mess sorting out, you're going technical. You know, you're going, you know your job. You're great at your job. You love your job. You think it's great. So you're going to stick to that route. Me personally, I actually always put F on my fit route just for the career progression.

Not because I wanted to be a first sergeant, but knowing like pretty much as a reservist 0811, 0869, you die at staff sergeant and gunny. The chances to get promoted were slim. So I always put F just because I wanted to get to the E9. But I have no complaints being a

master sergeant. I'm actually kind of glad because I don't have to deal with all the nonsense. You know, some idiot wants to go out drinking and driving, pull a Billy Martin. I can drive. Okay. So you like being a master sergeant? I do. I like it a lot better than being a first sergeant, especially with, you know, the 89, 99 culture. Once you get sergeant major it's it's a whole weird

thing yeah so i yeah and then you also got to stay in the artillery community because for a sergeant like you can get pulled and go go anyway pretty much any unit right yeah yeah okay so you kind of run or you kind of work in a similar field yes uh like Like what would you, I don't know, like how would you describe what you do and like the carry over to day to day? So my civilian job, I work, they change our job title like every six months to keep pace with, you know, everybody else. So I think now I'm a software test advisor. We used to be software test analysts. We used to be software test analysts.

We used to be software test engineers. But basically what I do is I work on the digital fire control system for the triple seven and the one 19. Oh, geez. Which for the listeners, those are two different howitzers. The Marine Corps howitzers,

the triple Southern alpha two God's gun. And the one 19 is what the army. Yeah. So the army uses the one 19 and the triple seven toad wise. Yep. So they, they use the same code baseline and I test the software for the DFCS for both platforms. Okay.

And is it like code code and I'm not a coder, but is it like similar to like Python C plus plus? Like, is it like similar to like python c plus plus like is it like you know how nerd are we talking about i don't know one one i don't do anything with the code i'm not a coder i'm not a programmer at all i'm just a guy who's an artilleryman who pushes buttons and breaks things yeah okay and then the developers go back and then they fix whatever we break. Nice. Do you ever laugh being in the field? And I was messaging you my last field op because there was a new software update and we were struggling.

And I was sitting there and I was kind of laughing because one of the nice things about being a reservist is you have exposure to other things, right? You run a business. There's a lot of code on my website, right? There's all kinds of different stuff happening. And I'm sitting here, I'm like, man, we have like 0811. I can grab a hundred pound artillery shell and put it over my head and I'm tough and I'm the man. And we come to a grinding halt over a two inch screen with like two colors of black and green because like someone pressed the eight button before the one button or like the packet rate was off or whatever it is. It's just funny.

Cause like, what do we show like artillery? You want to be artillery pull in your boom. Like it's so cool. But then like when you're really in it, you're like, actually it's a bunch of nerds with computers, like making the guns fire. Do you ever like an either job just bunch of nerds with computers like making the guns fire do you

ever like in either job just kind of like laugh at like well like this is like it comes down to that sort of thing oh all the time and like i get more frustrated than anything because even at work like i'll forget to do like i'll forget to plug the data cable into the radio and i'll be sitting there for a half hour wondering why I can't communicate, getting all pissed off, checking everything going through all my steps. And then I look, I'm like, oh, son of a bitch. I didn't plug the fucking cable in. Like what did they ask me? Like magically everything works, you know? And it's just because it's like little things like that.

Like you just mess up and everything goes haywire and everything was wrong. Then it starts to snowball. Yeah, for sure. So you're coming down 23 years. We're hoping you get E9. We're hoping you come promote at Godfather Battery and all that stuff. You've been in a long time. You've met a lot of people.

I mean, I feel like I've served with you for a long time, but in reality, I've known you, I don't know, two and a half years or whatever it is. Um, as you look back, like what are moments in your career that you were like that unit, you know, that was awesome. Uh, and it doesn't have to be, you don't have to say major biggie cause he's here. Right. No, no, no. I'm kidding. Although we had a great time in Fort Worth, the three of us together, like that was like, that was, that was incredible. But I just mean, what were kind of pivotal things? Maybe it was when you deployed or mobilized and you were like, you know what, I am going to do 20 years. Or maybe it was like something happened. What's the Sean Shepard highlight reel of 23 years where you're like, yep, that was a big moment for my career. That's why I still do this every month. That was a big moment for my career.

That's why I still do this every month. Honestly, the first big moment of my career is when we got this batter gunny that checked in. His name was Gunny Maldonado. I first met him while I was at the schoolhouse. When you're a PFC, you never talk to any gunnies, ever, especially when you're at the schoolhouse. But when he came in and took over and he was a battery gunny there like he kind of turned the whole battery around and he engaged because i was a young corporal at the time and he engaged actually engaged the corporals but the previous battery gunnies like they didn't give a shit about us yeah and he actually like engaged and

like made it fun and made me want to learn made made me want to be a section chief. And that was the first big time when he went out of his way and was like, hey, Shep, why don't you come over here? Let me teach you this. Let me show you that. And I was like, oh, I actually like this stuff. You know, like, this is cool. And that was my first. I was like, OK, I'm going to do this. You know, this is awesome. We call that an OK moment. OK. OK. So that was an okay moment. Okay. Okay. So that was like the first big one. I'd have to say that the next big one was probably when the lizard meeting a lizard King.

I love it. Like Lizaraga is, is crazy and is off the wall. That guy is, he either loves you or hates you And that dude loved me And he did more for me than anybody Probably in my entire career

And he was very influential In me sticking around I tried going OCS for a little while But I ran into some problems and couldn't do it But he was behind me 100% And that dude did more For me than, you know,

anybody in my career. And like, like meeting him when I first met him, I thought he was the biggest asshole I've ever met. Right. But you know, one time he would take that as a compliment, by the way.

Yeah. Yeah. But then once I got to know him and I was like, Oh shit. Okay. This dude. All right. It's not too bad.

Yeah. Okay. Any other big ones along the line? I don't know. Big moments more. It's more, I guess, like meeting like Marines, I guess, like mentors in a sense. Yeah. Like the biggest one I had was this dude shoulders, Sean shoulders. He was a gunny at the time, retired as a mass sergeant. Great initials. Yeah, SS.

And it's something with the name Sean, too, you know? Yeah, Sean. Did he spell it wrong? Yeah, S-H-A-U-N, I think. That's better than the W. The W's the worst. Yeah. But he was another one, and he was another one who

was influential in me getting the job I have now. Because I never would have got my job not knowing people. You know, because I don't have a computer background or anything. So knowing him and I don't know if anybody, I don't know, Herrera retired before y'all even joined. Ah, that's young guns over here. Yeah, young bucks. Yeah, young bucks. M yeah malton auto rings it that rings a bell malton yeah he retired in like oh 607 oh yeah there must have been another yeah i've known like three yeah yeah trey tre thought he was ringing his doorbell, but it wasn't. Wrong bell. Yeah.

I would say the last one that they gave props to was Nick Maganella. Okay. Just another, he came right after shoulders, you know, right when like I got promoted to Gunny. Did you guys say like all the time, like, hey, you got a big shoulders to fill? No, probably not yeah okay he was a good one though he was yeah he was another good and then he went to 511 i don't know if he was over there when you all were um probably third uh i got promoted to gunny 2013

he left shortly after that. What's his last name? Manganiello. Manganiello. Was he a master gunnery sergeant when he finished? No, he was a master sergeant when he retired. Master maganiello. Yeah, no.

That sounds familiar. Yeah, like Sierra, Romeo, or Quebec. No, I think it was Quebec. I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds familiar. I was going to say short guy, but he's probably my height, maybe taller. And he talked really super fast. He never understood a word he said. Nothing like you then. No, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly who he is now. I know exactly who

he is because he was a GCSS nerd because he got tired of his XO messing up the maintenance report. So he just did everything himself. Yes, Maganello. I remember him. Yeah, he was shorter than you and smaller than you. Not a lifter. No. Like a little guy. Yeah, he did. He was a calisthenics guy. Yeah, yeah. I remember him. Was he Quebec? Yeah, he was Quebec. Definitely Quebec.

I can't remember the XO's name, but yeah, I remember him. Yeah. Alright. Maganello. What do you got for him, PJ? I got one more. I was over here doing some thinking. And not too smart, but I can do some math. And you've been in for 23 years.

So does that mean you signed up after 9-11? Before. Before? Okay. I was going to ask about how that went down. Well, then, how was that? So you must have been freshly in the Marine Corps when all that went down. Yeah. What was that like?

I graduated boot camp in August of 2001. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And then I was at, once you go to boot camp, you go to, if you're not an infantryman, you go to what's known as NCT, which is Marine Combat Training. Okay. And they teach you like all the basic infantry skills. And it's essentially like fourth phase boot camp. You get devil dog instead of recruit you know so big upgrade i feel

like that's better yeah and it was actually 9-11 was actually the day we're on our humpback from like our major field exercise at the end towards the end and when it happened i thought they were just messing with us. You know, they're like, Oh yeah, America's under attack. Like during the crucible? What's that? Was it during the crucible? No, no, no, no. I was already at a crucible.

Crucible's during bootcamp. Oh, after. Okay. You're at MCT. Yeah. MCT, you have like just one last major field exercise where it's like squad on squad, all kinds of salts and crap. And you have, I forget if it was like a 12 or 15 mile hump back. And then once we got back in formation, they told us, Oh, America's under attack. And everyone's like, yeah, okay, whatever, dude. You know, like, Oh no, they knocked down 20. Yeah. Okay, cool.

And it wasn't until the CEO and first sergeant came out and they were like, Hey, who's from the tri-state area here? Like, you know, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, raise your hand. So a couple of us raised couple of us yeah they're like you guys get a phone call and like back then getting a phone call was a huge deal because nobody had cell phones you know yeah so they're like no you go you go call your family make sure everyone's okay and we're like oh shit this is real whoa yeah like it's weird because we couldn't like we graduated a couple days days later and we couldn't fly. So we had a bus. So we had a bus from North Carolina to Oklahoma for MOS. Which it was like it took two and a half days to the route they took. And, you know, they always go to the lowest bidder. So it was just two and a half days on a Greyhound.

But the one thing I'll always remember is the amount of American flags that were flying everywhere as we're driving through different parts of the country. It was, I was like, I was amazed by it. You know, just the whole unity of the country at that one time. Man, August 2001. What a time to be alive. August 17th, 2001. Yeah. All right. Well, so

Jeff and I just always want to go down memory lane and talk Marine Corps stuff, but that's why we have Trey here to get us onto fun topics. So now that we've beat the Marine Corps to death, Trey, what do you want to ask a guy from Central Jersey about? Hey, so we covered sports. Do you follow college

ball at all? We're big college football fans. No, not really. sports. So do you follow college ball at all? We're big college football fans. No, not really. Oh, okay. Short talk. All right, next topic. All right, great. It's like, yeah.

If you had to put allegiance to one, yeah. Yeah. Like my best friend went to Penn State, so I kind of follow them halfheartedly. My ex-wife went to West Virginia, so I hate them. Yeah. You have to. As you do. Can I give you a quick Penn State joke?

Yeah. And Herbert will be mad if he goes back and listens, but what do you call an older woman that likes younger men? A cougar. Okay. What do you call an older man that likes younger men? A Nittany Lion. Hey.

Hey. Paterno Joe. Z. Yeah. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. Z. I'm a good man. I'm a good man. I'm a good man. I'm a good man. I too soon for old chef yeah go lions white out um all right so what are you thinking like if we said early on everybody's gonna take the tree suit off you got five years left you got

10 years left like i was honestly i was hoping to be done by now but the um in true fashion they're like hey there's an allocation for you on this promotion board. When I saw it, I was like, you've got to be effing kidding me. I have to stick around because in the long game, it's going to be better down the road with the retirement

and all that crap. It's only three years. Wherever I go, how hard is it going to be being an E9? Isn't that funny that your life almost gets easier? Like you're at the top of the food chain. You'd think there's like everything's harder, but it's like, no, this is way better. Jeff, what do you got for him? Let's see.

Yeah. So little Sean, big soccer fan. So you guys go on, like been on a trip. I know messy. I don't think messy played that game. I think you just got hurt. But just talk through some of that.

So you're learning the sport now. Are you kind of getting into soccer or what do you, what do you think of it? What do you think of it? I'm trying to learn it. I don't understand it at all. It's his favorite sport. I mean, but he still does flag football. He still does baseball.

He still does soccer. But soccer, by far, is his number one favorite. Like, I think I sent you a message the other day asking, like, I didn't know there was a Manchester City and a Manchester United. I'm like, what the hell is this? And he likes some guy, Halal or something, who scored a hat trick yesterday or the other day. And he's all fired up about it. I'm like, what the hell is going on here? He's a big Norwegian guy.

Yeah. Big six foot four Norwegian Viking that runs around and scores goals. Yeah. Is the hat trick the same in soccer as it is hockey? Three goals. Three goals. Okay. Yeah.

Who's your hockey team? Do you like the Devils? I do. I'm not a big hockey guy. I don't really follow or watch it. I'll go to a hockey game. They're fantastic. They're fun to go to. I've never really been big into hockey.

You don't really care? No. That or basketball either. My father always said it's better to wrestle and lose than to play basketball that was that was one of the times that he looked at you yeah yeah yeah what was that what was the quote from the guy jacks oh he had about my daddy said 1000 words to me in his whole life that's pretty good oh. You have more photos of that of little Sean. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. We got to talk a little bit of food. We touched pork roll, Taylor ham, but you're from Central Jersey. I don't know. I mean, I go to Central Jersey once a month. I'll be in Central Jersey on Friday. Are you a pizza guy? Are you a pasta

guy? Pizza. Pizza. Okay. And what's your pizza? Okay. And what's your, what's your style? Uh, I like, like I'm a big bar pie guy. Okay. Uh, so kind of like more, more, more of like a, kind of like a mix between like a New York and what, um, Neapolitan, I guess like a, kind of like a thin crust type deal. Okay, but a lot of cheese, right? Yeah. Okay. And you got to go to spot. So the problem we're having with the OK Podcast is the rate that it's growing and the amount of listeners that we have.

We really struggle turning sponsorships down. And some of these businesses that we rep, they can't handle the after effects of being mentioned. Oh, yeah, swamped. handle the after effects of being mentioned. I'm in Central Jersey. I want a good football pie or what you call a bar pie. Where am I going? If you're going bar pie, I would

either go Leggett's in Mattisquan or another place in Mattisquan, Mattisquan Tower. Two of the best bar pies around. Okay. Or there's another place that's a couple towns up, Neptune, Pete and Elda's. It's a nice thin pie. And if you eat the double X in under a half hour, you get a free t-shirt.

Ooh. Challenge accepted. Can't afford not to eat it. Yeah, it's a free t-shirt. So we got a good number of the boys at Godfather Golf Battery listen to the podcast, so they'll hear this. You were stationed there. What were you, a sergeant there, a staff sergeant?

I left as a gunny. As a gunny. Okay, so you were there, what, three, four? It's the reserves. You were probably there 10 years. Oh, no. 01, I think I left 2013 or 14. Okay okay so 12 years you drilled out a golf battle yeah okay favorite food from golf well like like you finish drill all the boys are hiding from the

officers and going to eat going to get a pint like where are you going golf also got to keep my golf also moved while i was oh right t right. Trenton. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we're in Trenton. It was hands down. Al's Airport Inn was the greatest place. Fantastic. That or I can't remember the name. There was a different bar.

Oh, shoot. I forget the name of the bar. Scooters. Yeah. Scooters. Yeah. Jacks. Yeah. Jacks At the new HTC

That means home training center It's like the place that you get a drill We never really left We got a couple pizza places There was this one I think it was called Country Inn and Lakes It was like a liquor store and a bar in the back. Oh, classic.

It sounds like exactly where you should put Marines. Yeah. Believe it or not, fantastic food. Okay. Country Inn and Lakes. I'll look it up, see if it's still there. I think that might be the name. I follow him on Instagram.

I'll have to look him up and see what the proper name is. Okay. You know, we have a couple of schticks that we do every episode. I think you're kind of prepared and you're kind of ready. But we want to do a new one real quick. Is this the first Marine enlisted on the podcast? I think I am. Yes.

I know we have Nova, First Lieutenant. So you're the first Marine enlisted. So, like, you know, Marine enlisted are just always taking a beating. The officers don't care about them. They're just walking around with their fine china, putting up all the good stuff when the enlisted come through. So you got a chance here to turn around, blast a company grade and two field grades, ask the tough questions.

Anything you want to kind of flip on us, any questions you might have of, hey, gentlemen, or with all due respect, sir. No, nothing of that nature. Keep it somewhat professional. Yeah. I do have an amateur lifting question, though. Oh, yes. We love those. Yeah.

I forgot to even bring up that you're a lifting guy oh shit hold on alexa let there be light no way please look no way that works alexa let there be light oh shit god damn it that's all right. She fell asleep. That's fine. That was good. It's all right. No, I went to the dollar store and bought a little. There you go. There we go.

Alexa. Took her a minute. Just like a woman, you know. You got to. She's from North Jersey. She's getting ready. Yeah. She's on wheels.

You know, like the saying goes, you know, you got an amateur lifting question, you ask Grant, you know, tax question, you go to BW. As they say. Driving, you ask Billy Martin, you know. That's right. So, but my amateur lifting question is how, I guess, imperative or important is it for you to work out like at the same time every time during the day? Does that matter? Because like I know my schedule fluctuates all the time. So like some days I'm working out in the morning or lunchtime or maybe late afternoon, early evening.

Does that matter if there's no consistency in the time you work out or is it just fit it in when you get it in yeah i'd say and i want jeff to tackle this too i'd say it's a little bit of both so i think if you are more of a novice and you're not what's your squats and like what the upper twos yeah that's actually i got 275 for three the other day i was yeah nice yeah and you're deadlifting in the threes, right? Yeah. Okay. So you're beyond.

So what I would say is if you're like a rank novice, get it in where you fit it in. Add five pounds, and it's not going to matter. I trained a guy today. He's from Columbia. He turns 50 next month. Brand new to lifting. We squatted 70 pounds today. He's 6'4", 170 pounds. I'm like, brand new to lifting, you know, we squatted 70 pounds a day. Uh, he's, you know,

six, 470 pounds. I'm like, you need to eat, you need to lift. He's like, my schedule's weird. I do volunteer work. I'm like, doesn't matter. Go to the gym three days a week, add five pounds. It actually really doesn't matter when you get stronger. I think the time of the day matters to the extent that you need to understand that there may be a little bit of a difference. So what I mean by that is if you always train at 6 p.m. after eating two meals before you eat dinner and then out of the blue, you're like, man, I got drill. I got to catch a flight. Once I get there, I know that, you know, the officers are going to ruin my life and I won't have time to lift. I need to train at 05 on a Friday and you go and you're not fed. And you just need to go in saying, hey, I'm supposed to do 275 for a triple. But if I'm doing my last warmup and I feel

like crap, instead of being like, my program's broken, everything sucks, just realize like, no, I had a bunch of circumstances change. And that's probably why this feels bad. So if you can be consistent like anything, your body will adapt and you'll adapt to like, hey, I wake up at five, I drink coffee at 5.15 and I'm at the gym at 5.30 squatting and you'll get used to it. If you throw in a new variable, like you can have an effect. But I don't think, I think what's more important is not, you know, missing days. I'd rather you supposed to squat 250.

You go in, you know, after a night at, what was it called? Hill Country Inn and Suites or whatever. You know, you go in after a long night and you're supposed to squad 250 yes scooters and you squad 225 but you still went like that's better and so i just always tell people like manage expectations of you know hey variables changed i don't have the greatest uh yeah i don't have the best outcome or similar outcome that i had last time but i wouldn't anyway but no i don, I don't think you have to train same day, same time. Um, I do think you might feel better, you know, if you do, but I think more importantly is that you lift three days a week and if it moves around,

you know, it moves around, but it's way better than missing. Jeff, you got any different thoughts on that? No, I don't got anything to add to that i think yeah you kind of yeah hit nail on the head perfect uh i love hitting nails in the head as much as i love beating dead horses so the other ones know that they're dead um that's good anything else before we uh take you through the the run around uh well one question for travis just curious like i don't know what the hell it is you do it's like like your Chandler from Friends, like your job-wise. Yeah, let's keep it like that. I try to figure it out. And I'm just curious, like, what your job is.

So I work for a company that's a manufacturer of hydraulic and industrial hoses. And so I'm a manufacturer rep. So I go around and set up distributors and take care of them so nothing too exciting probably would have been more exciting if i just left them mysterious wait did did do you guys manufacture the donkey dick oh uh potentially yeah you said hoses yeah all right um how are the how the baby's doing? Doing good man They're getting big Just coming up on six months here

Pretty soon So they're starting to get mobile So Yeah You put them on You put them on the bed You gotta keep an eye on them Make sure they don't start rolling off

Yeah Are they rolling over fully yet or Nah They're getting there They're If you If they're on the front They roll over the back But not the other way yet? They're getting there. If they're on the front, they roll over the back, but not the other way yet. So they're getting pretty close. Awesome. Yeah, Trey was just here, and I'll tell you, they're like, I mean, when he first showed up, I'm like, who's who in the zoo?

But even like 36 hours later, I'm like, oh, that's that one. And she does things like this. And that's that one. And she does stuff like that. Oh, for sure. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it was pretty fun. Yeah.

I was messaging Trey the day he left. I'm like, I miss my girls. When my girls come back. He's like, and he sends me a photo. He's like, they were just asking about you. And they're good. Actually, so we should end with that. Well, before we go into the usual runaround,

what do you got for new dad advice, Sean? Oh, yeah, that's a good one. New dad advice? I know the first couple months of little Sean's life, he wanted nothing to do with me. He was breastfed, so he always wanted mom. Can't help there. Yeah.

And it's like, yeah, okay, man. And I'll never forget this one time. I mean, he literally wanted – I'd pick him up. He'd wail, cry, blah, blah, blah. And there was just one time I picked him up, and he was whining. He settled down like he sniffed me. He was like – and then snuggled in and was like – and that was like the happiest moment of my life. He's like three and a half, four months old. And I was like, yeah, I was like, little man, whatever you want for the rest of your life. You got it.

especially when they're six months old or even as they start to progress and get older, that they don't know what the hell they're doing. You know, and like they come to they look at their mom and dad for guidance and help, you know, and not to be yelled at or chastised at because, you know, they're being potty trained any shit on the floor. You know, like it happens. You know, they make mistakes and it's just just just just patience overall and you know and it just goes by so fast you know like it just not to be quintessential or you know be like like my little

boy seven on thursday like and it's like i remember the day he was born like it was yesterday you know it's just like the days are long don't get me wrong the days are long as hell especially when they're six months and and grant when yours is going to be coming in the next few weeks like it's going to be long long days but it's just little moments you know little moments little smiles little looks that are just going to make everything worth it and it just it's just to me it's like the greatest thing in the world yeah being a dad, being a parent. That's good.

No, good advice. I like it. They call it sage advice. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we know you've never listened to a previous episode. Definitely haven't listened to 36 episodes. So, you know, we get a lot of new callers into the show. We just want to make sure you're prepared.

But, you know, speaking of kids, you know, being a Marine and also having a W-2 job, you want to make sure your bases are covered because, yeah, you want to be a master gunnery, leave high three, get that retirement for your kid. But what's more important is that you set him up for success. And one of the things is the government's always coming after you. Oh, yeah. And so we have a friend. He keeps the lights on his BW and we never give the guests like

too much facts about him. Uh, but I can tell him, I can tell you, he would like you, he has three kids of his own and he kind of, you know, helps you navigate taxes. And as we, as I say, as I've always said is, you know, there's no better time to start doing next year's taxes than today. So that's no facts from me, but we do want to ask you to read an ad read from BW, but we got to take it around the room just to make sure you're familiar

with this company you've never heard of. I feel like you could do a cold man. Do you need some facts? We'll give you some facts. I might have something written down ready to go. You might not. But you might not.

We never know. PJ? Well, one thing about BW Tax is that he's based in South Carolina, but he can serve you from anywhere. So whatever state you're in, he's got you covered. Okay. Big Jeff? It's a small operation, right?

It's a small team there, but they're there to help you. They'll provide outstanding customer service. They'll pick up the phone when you call, answer your emails when you send them. They're going to be there. You're going to get a real live person on the other end of the line when you call them. Okay. Trey. Man, I feel like y'all took mine.

I got a good one. I mean, you just spent some time with him. Yeah, just like I said, he's a, I always say this, he's a great person, but he's better at taxes. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if that, I mean, we're just scratching the surface, but you feel like-

Yeah, there's so much to be done. There's so much, yeah. Yeah. Such a deep know if that, I mean, we're just scratching the surface, but there's so much to be so much. Yeah. But, but, but Sean, you don't seem like you need an example played. Just take it away. All right. All right. So if you've ever wondered what it's like to have your taxes done by people who are part accountant, part magician, and part amateur lifter, then look no further than BW Tax. BW won't just tackle your tax bows. They'll make the whole experience so enjoyable,

you might actually consider you're doing taxes twice this year just for the hell of it. The entire crew of BW Tax is real hardworking blue-collar Americans who will pick up the phone when you call. You're not going to get outsourced to some call center in India or some AI or chat GPT program, but you're gonna get your questions answered by some good old-fashioned, God-fearing residents of the upstate South Carolina.

And I already know what you're thinking. Sean, I don't live in South Carolina or anywhere near it. How are they gonna help me? But don't you fear for one second, because BW is gonna take care of you wherever you reside among these 50 great states or any territories of the United States of America. And the best part, they'll find deductions you didn't even know existed. They know how to cut through the red tape and the bureaucracy maze that is our tax laws here in the United States.

And they're going to make sure you don't miss a single write off, which is important to me because I don't know what a write-off is, but BW knows, and he's the one writing it off. So if you're tired of the same old dreary tax appointments with the boring old tax guy who looks like he died two years ago and has a personality of a wet blanket, then go ahead and give the folks at BWTax LLC a call. After all, you're not going to call a clown to fix a leak in a john, so why go anywhere else but to the best in the biz and get your taxes done right the first time? BWTax LLC.com.

Wow. What are you going to say to that? When the ad read becomes its own episode i love it wow that's great i like that you put biz in there just to make sure if i knew you were central jersey that was good that's great that was that's great man uh that was good bw's gonna like that um at this point in the show as we always do you know, Jeff generally tells civilians, you know, why the name of the show is the name of what the show is. A little bit different scenario here, but Jeff, take it away. Yeah.

We want you to harken back to those days, maybe when you're a staff sergeant or a gunny and that Marine on the gun line, he's not doing what he's supposed to. And you want to grab his attention. So you reach down deep and you give him a good firm okay to get his attention and get him over there. So let's get a good okay. Let me. Yeah, if you want to paint a scenario, too, and lead into it. Yeah, I'm sure you've said this a couple times. There could be words after it, too.

Yeah. I don't know. I might just have to do the catchphr it. Yeah, I'm sure you've said this a couple times. There could be words after it, too. Oh, I don't know. I might just have to do the catch phrase. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, because I didn't have a scenario built up, so I'd be all over the place. We can give you some commander's guidance if you need it. All right, action.

Action. Okay! Okay! Oh! Pretty good. Felt a chill in my spine. all right action action okay so uh top shepherd like everyone that we have on here, it's all like big time influencers, people making lots of money on social media, you know, uh, gigantic Instagram accounts.

Uh, where can people find you? Where, where would you like him to go? Um, I have an Instagram, but I, I normally, I just post pictures of Sean for my family.

So if anybody wants to see what my son looks like, whatever, like you can come find me. I don't even know what my Instagram handle is. Everyone knows it. It's okay. I think it's, I think it's Sean Shep six,

nine, six, nine. Nice. But I'm going to look at it. Sean, that ship. Oh,

eight, six, nine, maybe. Uh, let me spell Sean right here. Oh, there he is.

Yeah. So it's Sean Shep. Oh, eight, is. Yeah. So it's Sean Shep. Oh, eight, six, nine. I wasn't far off. It was a Sean and a Shep and a six,

nine. Yeah. Little Sean's looking good. See him there. Hey, there he is. Well, thanks for coming on the podcast.

We owe you some stickers in case you have a second rodeo and you can pass them out. I got two. Just wait. He's ready to go. It's almost Winchester. Yeah. Yeah. Any parting words for anybody?

No, it's been an absolute pleasure. It's an honor. And thank you so much for having me as a guest. I really enjoyed it. This was fun. Yeah. Thank you.

Awesome. And hopefully this won't be the lowest rated episode ever. No, no, no. It was awesome. And hopefully this won't be the lowest rated episode ever. Nah, nah. My mom always goes back and watches them on all her devices until it catches up. Awesome. Yeah. Trey, at this point of the show, the guest has told us where he's famous.

Just got him to say, okay, BW Tax is happy. We love him. BW Tax is fat and happy. But we got bills to pay. We have our own bills to pay. If you were going to tell people where to go for the show, what would you say, Trey? What episode number is this? 037. Episode 037

of the... Sean, you're in on this. One, two, three. Okay! Podcast. I'd like to thank our guest, the tippiest of tops, Sean. Okay. Podcast. I'd like to thank our guest, the tippiest of tops, Sean Shep. Thanks for coming on. I'd like to thank our sponsor, BW Tech, keeping the lights on as always.

I believe last time I checked, we were still sponsored by the Strength Co. Still are. Verified. Okay, good. Go down to the show notes below. You see a link for the Slack. Love to have you on there. Come interact with us.

Throw some questions our way. We'd love to answer them on the podcast. Go ahead and go to www.theokpodcast.com to find our social media accounts. Give us a like and a follow there. Find us on YouTube and give us a subscribe and like there. Find us on YouTube and give us a subscribe and like there. I think we all have our own handles that we all know and that everyone knows at this point. So that's why you can share it at this point. What's the biggest one?

Oh, Jeff's. Jeff's is definitely live. But everyone knows my handle because I think everyone on Instagram currently follows me. He's live right now. I've got all the followers. As we speak. I had to read it. Too I've got all the followers. As we speak. I had to read it. Too many notifications.

I know. But other than that, we will see you next time. Coach, I miss you. No, I did great. See you next time.