The Okay Podcast Powered by The Strength Co. - EP 57: California BBQ, Vinyl Etiquette & Aftermarket Gear

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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 Join the Slack and Use code OKAY: https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks Check out BW Tax: https://www.bwtaxllc.com BUY A FOOTBALL HELMET:  https://www.greengridiron.com/?ref=thestrengthco TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - TRASH! 08:31 - NFL 18:25 - Notre Dame Reporters 22:35 - California BBQ 27:27 - Vinyl Etiquette  32:21 - Workout Music 38:07 - Best Maps App 43:41 - Safety Squat Bars 51:38 - Strength Co. Shipping Process 01:07:42 - Aftermarket Gear 01:14:25 - White House Press Briefings 01:16:50 - Always Wearing Headphones 01:19:24 - Saved Rounds

All right, and welcome back to episode 057 of the okay. Okay. Guidance. Okay. Okay. Freaking on. Freaking on. Freaking on.

Okay. Podcast powered by strength. I'm your host, Grant Brogi, recording live from 29 Palms. We'll be live when you get this. But yes, we are still in the high desert. I'm joined tonight by the old faithful, my good buddy, resident Mormon from the greater Salt Lake City area, member of the Killer B's and known for underground music, Major Jeff Bouger, pronounced Biggie,

keep those cameras out of the locker room. And of course, by way of Frisco, Texas, maybe Odessa, maybe Oklahoma, somewhere over near where the Red River Shootout is played. Former captain, best lago we've ever had on the show, Trey Gottlich, our our favorite logo. This is episode 057. Today's date is January 29th in the year of our Lord 2025. The price of Bitcoin is 104,552 dollars and 20 cents, meaning we're up 120% since we started this podcast. We've

yet to miss an episode. That's right. Five, seven weeks in a row. We know we got you last week with that old Saturday surprise. That's all those DMS. Got you. We have a lot to talk about, like to catch up on. We want to talk all sorts of things, but first I kick it over. One of the OK podcast flat ass rules is rules of the rock and the rules of the rock. The first rule is a roll call. So kick it over to the three. If you want to take us to the roll call. Yeah. That's one. That's why we got S1 in here. Any every represents from admin. Oh yeah. Gunny for his ones here. Okay. Okay. thanks. Hey, S2, we got anyone from S2? No, weather's good.

Sir, it's Lance Corp. Sonso. The two's in the vault right now. Okay, okay, I know we sent it out in the email that location for the meeting was gonna be via Teams, okay? Not SIPR Teams, okay? This is over Nipper, okay? So someone could give the two. Hey, please, let's get the two in here.

Hang on, real quick. Do we have anyone calling in over Teams? Do we wanna keep them on Teams or switch them over to the landline? If you're on Teams, just, hey, come on, come on. Anyway, I'm sorry. If you're on teams, just, Hey, combo, combo. Anyway, I'm sorry. If you're on teams, switch over to the nipper account or calling via landline three, go ahead with the roll call. Okay. Okay. Hey, thank you. Thanks. Uh, okay. Three. Yep. We're on. Okay. Uh, four four shop got my log type, my log Bubba's present. Oh, okay. Okay. We got a lot of

motor T stuff to talk about is the MTO here as well. Like I know you're here for, but is your is the warrant officer here? No. OK. Very well. Is he on leave? No, he's a warrant officer, so he just does what he wants. I haven't seen him in months, but he's not only OK. OK, track it. Got it. He's in city summer. Yeah.

Over the six combo. Come check radio check the commos currently with the CEO. He's trying to the CEO is taking the call from his office and he's just trying to debug his computer. They can't hear us, but the CEO says to continue to push. OK, OK. The office that's right next door. OK, got it. Yeah, he's in the office next door.

Yes, the CEO says to push. OK, so we've got six shops, special staff. OK, career planner. Are you in here? Career planner. We haven't seen the career planner in over a year. We think we're gapped, although we currently muster him every morning. But yeah, there's no career planner. But we did make mission.

I've never been to a meeting where they ask for the career planner. Is that a thing? I have. Oh, yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, oh, for sure. Oh, he's usually not there.

Real quick, three, I know you went to six, and then career planner. You forgot medical. Medical. Hey, I got chief in here, chief. Yeah, chief's here. Yeah. Nothing for the group. Oh yeah. Thanks chief. Not briefing yet, but yeah, we'll get to yours. This is just roll

call. Oh, okay. Nothing for the group later either. Can I leave now? Sure. Chief. Sure. Appreciate it. Uh, we got chaps chaps you here. Uh, chaps is currently with the, um, uh, what's it called? Uh, the other support person, the, um, it's, I'm running a blank. It's generally a female wizard. I'm running a blank. It's generally a female wizard. The pro. The pro. The pro.

The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro.

The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro. The pro.

The pro. The pro. The pro. The Okay. Tracking. Got it. Um, again, sent out the team's invite to then switch over to the landline. Uh, don't know how that's not confusing folks. Uh, speed here on time. Okay. Okay. This is over. I just want everyone to get off except the three and the four. I have some follow on conversations I want to cover. So if everyone could leave at the end and we'll just cover those things and everyone will leave no one will stay on.

No. Yeah. But with that any housekeeping items before we get into the brief? Yeah, I got one. I see a lot of problems with foreign objects in the urinals. I would put that under the category of trash. And if there's one thing that this battalion focuses on, it is the trash. The trash is our mission and we need to do a better job.

I don't know how many times we got to brief this. It's our number one priority. Right now on my trash tracker Excel doc, we are in the red. And that is unacceptable. The CEO is not pleased with our trash status right now. And real quick, everyone, trash ticks. The G trash report card just came out from division. And on the G trash report card,

we are the worst in trash in the division. And listen, this is trash six. We will not have any trash in our areas. Okay. I don't freaking care if it's your laundry room, if it's your duty hut. I don't freaking care if it's your motor pool. You secure that trash. I know we got Marines that signed up to police call, you know, Marines didn't join to sit on their sea bags in Camp Pendleton. They want to go somewhere and they want to police trash. That's what I've always said. And I don't think I need to belabor the point anymore. We're a good team. Okay. Yeah. That's how I got trash sicks. Okay. Excellent. Excellent. Ford, do you have any details there on trash that

you want to hit? Where should we put the trash? I think that might be the main problem here. We don't know where to put the trash. I am disappointed because I thought we actually did pretty good job picking up trash this week. I saw me. Apparently I got wax. Hey, real quick, real quick trash sticks. Hey, team, whenever you think you're doing good, remember, you can always do better.

OK, when you're in the West, when you're in the edge of the empire. OK, once you get there, edge of the empire, okay. Once you get there, I get it. I get it. We feel like we're making moves. Listen, we can always do another rehearsal of concepts. Sometimes it just helps to get a Marine on the deck, picking up trash and put it in the proper shit can.

You know what I'm saying? You just rock that thing. Yeah. And then they'll be ready. So anyway, that's trash chicks, that's all I got. Oh, I love how we killed eight minutes of this podcast. Dude, thank you. Everyone has stopped listening.

Ha ha ha. Everyone's like, we what? But kinda living every day right now. Life is good then then life is good. All right. And with that, let's get into the agenda or the first slide. That's for sure. Okay. Well, I guess now it's been for a little bit, but college football is completely over, but I've still got NFL going on. We had the championship weekend.

Either of y'all catch any of that? I'm guessing. Great. Well, I actually did catch a little bit. Did we, that was the college football over last week? Yeah. We talked about the national championship. That's right. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. But go ahead, Trey. What'd you watch? I caught the end of the who is it? Eagles commanders, Redskins. I can't remember what they're called. The who? The Washington.

What? The Washington football team. That's what this one. They were my favorite. Man, that was a blowout, wasn't it? I saw the final score. I didn't see any of that game. Yeah, I didn't catch in the game. I just saw the final score. I didn't see any of that game. Yeah, I didn't catch in the game. I just saw the final score.

I just said it was like 52 to what? I can't remember. We have a device that could look it up, but who cares? It was it was a blowout. So I now I'm like, oh, this next one better be better. So I caught the first part of that and I had to miss the latter half. But apparently it was pretty good. Apparently, the NFL has rigged it for the Chiefs to win. Yeah. Hashtag Taylor Swift. Do we still hashtag

by not? I think so. I also think they said the same thing about the Patriots and Patriots are good. I think people are just mad. The Patriots never did a three Pete. I'm not big on the, on the rigging thing, meaning that I don't actually believe that's true. I do think it's funny that the bills have lost like, like not only do you have the Kelly quarterback from whatever years where he lost the super bowl four times, but now you have Josh Allen just like losing huge playoff games every time. And I don't like the Bills traditionally as a big Boston

guy. I do like Josh Allen. I feel like he's a good quarterback, but man, he can't be Patrick Mahomes and man, if there's one guy I'd want him to beat, it would definitely be Patrick Mahomes. Dude, that guy just has had a win. It's kind of crazy. I feel like Patrick Mahomes has never police called anything. Unlikely, it's unlikely. I don't know. This goes kind of get back to where we talked about with the college football. I'm like the least excited about these watching these two teams again.

Would there have been another matchup that you would have gotten excited about? I was. Yeah. I don't know if the opposite teams would have won. I would have been more excited. I was going for the bills. I don't know why I kind of like the bills. And then the commanders, I was kind of pulling for them just because I like Jason.

Was it Jane Daniels? Did you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. OK. It's Daniels, yeah. Yeah. She's been fun to watch, so. No one likes the Eagles or the Chiefs, let's be honest. I don't mind the Chiefs. I don't love them, but I don't know. It'd be kind of cool to see a three-peat.

I think Peshma Holmes is fun to watch. Oh, dude, that's for sure. Don't want Philly to win, that's for sure. I'm definitely going for the Chiefs in this matchup. When Philadelphia loses in championships to win. That's, that's for sure. I'm definitely pulling my cheese. Philadelphia loses in championships. I think it's kind of funny. I really want both to lose. I will say the preponderance of my buddies, well, meteor strike is possible, but the preponderance of my buddy's battery is Eagles fans.

So it's probably good for morale for the Eagles to win. I also would love for my buddy to just crush their souls after a loss. So I could go either way. I'm yeah, I don't, I really dislike both teams. I probably will. Well, one, I won't be watching any of the game because I'll be in the box as they say. But if I were to watch either of them, whatever team was down, I'd probably pull forward to come back. I guess I'm slanting the Eagles who I hate, but like I don't want my home to 3P. Come on, you can't mess with Brady's legacy. Come on, get out of here.

Yeah. I'll say individually, like I really liked watching Saquon Barkley work this year. That was fun. Do you think good? They just went off. And then, yeah, Patrick Mahomes, I was it like two weeks ago. The one this last game was game before that he was playing in and he was like falling down.

Like inside the red zone through a touchdown, like while falling down, I was like, do that that guy's just unreal. Always does unreal. There's little like shovel pass like by he really is like like a shortstop. Like he did behind his back. Sometimes, yeah, like on on like these touchdown throws. And you're just like, wow, this guy, he's got does not suck. No, that's what you've always said.

You've always said, Patrick, my homes does not suck. does not suck. No, that's what you've always said. You've always said Patrick Mahomes does not suck. Does not suck. It's true. It's true. Okay. Super bowl predictions. Grant, okay. Who do you think is going to win?

Man, that's tough. What do you think the score is going to be? I really want to predict the Eagles win, but I do think my homes will pull it off by the power of Taylor Swift and the power of Travis Kelsey invested in me. I do pronounce them three Pete champions with a late drive, 3430 Kansas City. Okay. Okay. Trey, who you got?

I'll just to be contrarian, I'll do Eagles. Blow out. Exactly. Yeah. 52 to nothing is that you're thinking. Yeah. 52 nothing. Call you already here first. Here, have you watched so much of the NFL this year? I am going to predict our senior NFL correspondent, Trey Gowich.

Big NFL guy. Dang, you're always talking about NFL and Roger Goodell and draft. Well, if you're curious where they went to college, I might be able to help you out. Well, are any of them from the Well, both quarterbacks are from Texas that doesn't kill that's also known as Mexico I guess tend to never be the Gulf of America now. Yeah, there it is Yeah, like I would say the majority of them probably are

Yeah, it's generally how that works. I guess I'm guessing Deuce Daly is no longer a running back for the Eagles. Former Carolina Gamecock. I don't think so. I guess he's not playing anymore. The he's there. He's only 50 born in 1975. He's a young buck. Yeah, I heard they asked him to suit up, though.

They were running. They're a good suit up. Yeah, they know the depth chart You know that guy was a low center of gravity 511 242 pounds. He ran behind his pads He's like a bowling ball going downhill Real good real good. Yeah, do steely Good Anna got to just a good dude good You know where you got his taxes done? BW. Where?

BW. Really? Yeah. Even though he maybe not at the time was living in the state of South Carolina, how's that possible? Well, a lot of people don't know this, but BW can do taxes outside of South Carolina. Hey, a little peek behind the curtain. If you follow the OK Podcast on Instagram and you like the stories that are reposted generally about the Veer, the fullback, if you like those, those are all sent from BW

Tax. And if you're wondering why the stories have been a little less relevant or frequent lately, it's not because Grant's buddy's busy. It's because BW is busy. And that's exactly what you want from your CPA. You don't want a CPA worried about his marketing plan during tax season. You want a CPA bobbingbin and Weaving running downhill behind his pads, like a bowling ball, making sure to find all your tax breaks. And so,

uh, yeah, the stories have been less frequent, but BW has been working for you. And if you haven't called them yet, you're late to the game one. I'll tell you, you are late. Tax season is sooner than you think. Um, but if you wonder how the show goes, how we get beautiful banners in the background, the lights are on, it's from BW Tax. So bwtaxllc.com. Grant, quick question about BW Tax. Would you say that this time of year is his Super Bowl? Yeah, I would say this is not only America's Super Bowl. This is also his Super Bowl. But don't

forget, he plays like he also plays the Canadian Football League. He's in there for college football championship. He's there for baseball. You don't even know the extensions that are available to you. Maybe as a small business owner, maybe as a service member deployed. We support the troops by the way, we support the troops. There's a lot of things available to you. So I mean, this is his Superbowl, but his life is a Superbowl. That's what I've always said. Wow. He's going for that three Pete. He's going for that three Pete. Dang. Undefeated is what I heard. Undefeated. Oh, wow.

He's never lost the IRS. 72 dolphins, baby. Right. Them and BW. Amen. Oh, man. We should make a shirt that's like BW tax, but in like the dolphins font or something like that.

It just popped in my head. Yeah, it's going. OK, OK. Just kind of quickly sticking on the sports topic, this was one thing that I don't know if I saw some news articles or like stuff on Instagram, but there was like a kerfuffle, if you will, about like the reporters in the locker room after the national championship for Notre Dame. And like apparently they were the reporters were upset And then, like, reading it and then like the story kind of boils down to the guy that like the cornerback, that kind of sophomore.

So what probably like 20, 21 at the oldest? OK. Or I don't know with Covid year, he could be 45. We don't really actually know. But I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing.

I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. the cornerback, that kind of sophomore. So what? Probably like 20, 21 at the oldest. OK. Or I don't know, with COVID year, he could be 45. We don't really actually know. Is like, you know, like crying and he's got like a towel over his head because he gave up kind of like the third down conversion and he's like very clearly upset. And like the reporter is like asking him about the play. And then some other guys like, hey, dude, maybe, maybe give him a minute. Maybe like, don't ask him about that right now.

It's pretty emotional. And then they're like, I don't know if there was some yelling that that ensued or whatever. But I'm just like, man, I get those reporters and those cameras get those cameras out of the locker room. I've always said that. That's what your dad's always said. Get the reporters out of the locker room.

No, I think he's right. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it. The only person that should be allowed in the locker room is in celebrity guests, call the starting lineup for a hockey team. Which we haven't talked about swamp rabbits since episode one. uh, call the starting lineup for a hockey team, uh, which, uh, we haven't talked about swamp rabbits since episode one. So it's been 56 episodes since we talked about it, but they just had a cow bush. Oh,

cow bush started calling out the, the starting five for the swamp rabbits. And I was like, yeah, I'm okay with that. Also NASCAR night, uh, minor league hockey game, Like name something more America. I'll wait. Oh, go from America. Okay. I'll stop. Dude, that's good. NASCAR night.

The only way or the only reason I'm okay with them being in there is. Okay. Okay. How much do you think that football player made this year? I don't know. Actually, he, I, actually, he I don't remember his name, but he probably made it OK. OK, was he a starter?

I maybe started. I said it's over. I bet it's over six figures around around that could be. Yeah, you can get questions asked to you. That's it's like pros. I'm like, that's that's my philosophy. If it was like a high school kid. It's like 20, 21, maybe like, OK, OK. You're still a kid at that point.

Let me bring you. You can go. Let me go get shot at overseas. OK, that's where I'm headed. Let me bring that. Let me bring the gunny back out there Trey Okay, you're outside the wire with your squad. Okay, you get contact. Okay, the the saw gunner Well, they ain't got souls no more. But anyway, the saw gunner don't do his job, right? Okay, you get back inside the wire you bout do your AR. Okay, so you long you want a camera shoved in your friggin dog? On face. I don't think so.

That the fucking shot at it's like the least of my worries. A compact camera, come on, cameras, come on, camera, camera. Get him out of the locker room. Combat camera. Are you at him? I would be. I overall agree with you, but I'm just saying that would be if I was playing devil's advocate.

That's what I would say. Mike, that is getting paid. He's getting paid pretty good. I don't know. It's just like a poor timing question by the reporter. Yeah, I just like you have a little bit of just like human awareness. Like those guys physically upset, probably not going to get a good answer. Yeah, no, that's what that's what he's going for.

Whatever. Whatever. Freaking jerks. Change my mind again. I'm with you, Jeff. Hey, I appreciate that. Okay. Okay. Okay. Move on to the next slide. Next slide. Good slide. California barbecue. Grant's favorite, I think. I've always loved it. Never stopped loving it. No, it's interesting. Well, I do have a California barbecue I like. It's down in San Juan Capistrano.

It's called Heritage. If you have $500 in your pocket and you want to feed two people, exceptional barbecue. No, it's really good. That's not why I brought it up. But before I just crap all over California barbecue, they do a good job. And I hate to say it, but those boys are from Tejas. They're Tejanos. They do a good job. But no, I am up here in the high desert. There's a place called Pappy and Harriet's. It's kind of like known for barbecue. They get the big everything. And man, I got the ribs. And like, you know, I did like, I feel bad for waitresses when I sit at

their table because they come in and they're like, what would you like to eat? I'm like, well, I don't know. I've never been to pioneer town, California. I've been eating MREs for 14 days. Like, what are you known for? And she's like, the ribs, the ribs are next to none. And like, that's a bold statement. And I feel like I could have done better at Applebee's or Chili's. It was terrible. And I like the vibe was cool, I guess,

if you like hipsters and license plates on the walls. But now it's just- Did you tell the waitress it was bad? Yes. If you like hipsters and license plates on the walls. Um, but now it's just, it's just, do you tell the waitress it was bad? Um, no. Most wouldn't, but I can also see you doing it. So I am known when people ask me how the meal is, like my line generally is first of all, I'm going to tip you really well because you've been really kind. Second of all, I'm gonna tip you really well because you've been really kind.

Second of all, 9.9 out of 10 people that you asked that question to is gonna tell you everything was great. I have a different opinion. I don't know if you're the person to tell it to. Does your manager wanna come out? Because I will tell them what I think. And then the manager comes out,

they're like, are you upset? I'm like, not upset. Everything was fine. Can I tell you about how your barbecue sauce sucks? But no, I did not do it. In this instance, I was just happy to be holding a baby and I was just like, I can't believe I paid this much for ribs that were this bad. So yeah, but I have been known to do that. But I'm always very

nice about it. You are. I'll give you that. You are just honest. Yeah. As a guy that's in customers. I mean, it's like, you know, like every now and then we get emails and they're like, Hey, I got my plates. I love my plates. I have a suggestion about packaging. And they'll like say something. I remember one guy wrote I love my plates. I have a suggestion about packaging and they'll like say something. I remember one guy wrote a really nice email. He's like, every package I got from you had a sticker on the outside,

but there was only one sticker on the inside. And I wish I had eight stickers. Could you just put all the stickers in the inside? Cause the stickers on the outside just get thrown away. And I was like, fair. You know, yeah. I like it. Yeah, that's that.

Okay. But overall, just is that your only type or a California barbecue spot you've been to? I just think it's historically, you get into these weird towns and I've done this in the high desert. I've done this like in NorCal, like above San Francisco and you get on the lost highway and you get

in these random little towns or horse towns. California barbecue is just never... If they're trying to brand it white people, Western style, it's terrible. If it's a random Mexican place that's killing a goat, it's terrible. If it's like a random Mexican place that's like killing a goat, it's good. But like whenever like there's a lot of effort and to be like, this is just barbecue. It's just bad and overpriced like the entire state. But yeah, no, except for heritage. Heritage is expensive. You will pay, you will put, you will pay check to paycheck if you live there or eat there, but it is, it is actually really good. But yeah, no, I just think it's funny because there is a lot of like ranchers, farmland, dare I say cowboys

in South Carolina, we just call them boys, but no, like there, there is a lot of like those types out here. And yeah, I mean, leave Californians to tri tip and avocado toast, don't let them cook pulled pork. There it is. Good tip. Just the tip, just the tri tip. Just the tri tip, good tri tip. All right, moving on on our next slide here.

Trey, run us through vinyl etiquette and then like some of your your pet peeves around that. All of us, all three of us here are turntable owners. I would say we're all records. I would call us vinyl enthusiasts, right? Would you say that? I would say we're a little bit ahead of our time too. Are you talking about because now they're super popular?

Is that what you're saying? Yeah. And I don't say that it's like so that we all get pats in the back, but I remember going to Patis. Yeah. 2012, 13, when we hit Pendleton, we all had a vinyl collection, substantial. And people kind of thought it was weird. And obviously the hipster movements been around longer than that.

But kind of now everyone has vinyl. Not everyone, but it's way more common than it was, shoot, I guess, 12, 15 years ago. I agree with that. But yeah, so anyway. This started with, I think there was someone who was staying at our house for an extended period of time, not like maybe a year, two years ago. I can't remember how long. In Texas, we call that a mother-in-law.

Yeah, but not a mother-in-law. Yeah. But yeah, they were, and they were listening to vinyls and that's what you're supposed to do with them, right? You listen to them, like that's what they're made for. Be enjoyed, right? The thing that bothers me is if you listen to it, here's how I do it. If I go over to Grant's house and I go, hey, Grant, I'll listen to a vinyl.

He goes, okay, I'm going to take out a vinyl. I'm going to open it. I'm going to set the cover. Probably. There's usually a space for it beside like the record player. I'm going to set, set it right there. I'm put that vinyl on, listen to it, like let it spin, listen to it. When I'm done, put that vinyl back, put it back in the packaging, put it back in, pick another one out and then go from there. Right.

Wait real quick, real quick for our listeners that maybe are vinyl put it back in the packaging, put it back in, pick another one out and then go from there. Right. Wait, real quick, real quick for our listeners that maybe are rental enthusiasts. Are you going to just like stuff it in the cardboard or are you going to actually put it back in the paper sleeve while the paper sleeves outside the cardboard and then put the whole thing inside the cardboard? Leave it how I found it. So I put it inside the paper sleeve and then back in the cardboard. But maybe to their defense, people who were listening to it didn't know.

They just left. Like all they would listen to one, set it aside. Listen to one, set it aside. Cardboard everywhere, not co-located with the vinyl. I was like, this really grinds my gears. So I just, I really want everybody to know, like there's a process to it. There's an etiquette to it.

I don't know. That's, I was going on a little rant there. Hey, real quick trash sticks here. It's very similar when you open an MRE and you get like maybe the Tune AMRE and you don't need that MRE heater. And you think you're just gonna take that trash and just leave it right there.

Now we want you to take that trash, once you wet that filter, expire it, then put it back in the MRE container and then put that in the trash, same deal. There it is. Yeah. Exact same. Yeah, yeah.

But don't add water to the vinyl. No, don't add water to the vinyls. No, don't do that. Yeah, don't do that. Please. I will say, I still think I have some adjust finals. I don't you might. I definitely have some at least one or two of yours. That's why I gave you a couple.

Well, you are known to give things away. And I hope when you'll just like show up one day at the house and be like, hey, can you get back and then just leave? Like, well, let's do it first. Come on in. Yeah. One last spin, Trey, please. Please, Trey. Hey, play that song again.

That's from Lord of the Star Trek's episode four. Yeah. Whoo. Yeah. Strength Co should make cast iron vinyls. Yeah, cast iron vinyls. You should make it to the back of a 45 is I don't know what song it would be, but like I could put that on my record player.

Probably one stretch. So it's like dual purpose, you know, so I can get strong with it and listen to underground music. Maybe what if we made it? What if we made a barbell that was a vinyl player and every 45 was a song that would be fire? Dude. And it would play Fleet Foxes. If I get done.

Look at that transition. If I get done. Get this to Ibo's. If I get done with making my next naval ship, I'll get on that. The ship co, that's right. We forgot about the ship co. Spin'll get on that. The ship. That's right. We forgot about the ship. Go spin off.

Spin. I do. Or buddy. I don't know. Finals are pretty expensive, but I feel like there's more money in naval ships. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe 50, 50.

Those vinyls are expensive. What? Shrugs. Limited edition. Oh, yeah, dude. A little bit of cash for you. Watch that. Watch that thing. Appreciate. Put it in a couch cushion. I mean, yeah, like trade salute to, uh, this quick, quick slide, little quick hitter, uh, fleet fox is still, still good lifting music.

So if you're listening to this podcast and you lift and you need some tunes, listen, leave fleet foxes and then you'll probably quickly switch to something else. But I think this opens the door to a bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, tunes, listen to the fleet boxes, and then you'll probably quickly switch to something else. But I think this opens the door to a bigger, like a bigger topic of people listening, like people who listen to workout music, that it's like very like hardcore, like screamo music. Like creed?

I don't do it. No, even harder. Even more so. What is harder than creed? Like Nickelback? Close out, baby. Three doors down. You nailed it, yeah.

Okay, got it. But have you ever had someone who like, try to come to the gym and just play like screamo music? I've had a lot of people, particularly lately for my buddy, that they're like, hey, so what do you do for your day job? And I'm always like, oh, I make gym equipment. And then their immediate thing, instead of asking like what that entails is, oh, I like to work out.

And it's like, cool, you're a Marine. I assumed you worked out. And then I've had multiple people like, let me show you my lifting playlist. And it's like exactly what you're saying. It's like some beat drops and then like someone screaming or it's like motivational speaker. I'm always like, you lift to this? Meanwhile, Jeff said the OP, I was following the eye, I was following the eye. That's what I'm saying. Jeff's at the opposite end of that spectrum. You got the super heavy metal, and you got Jeff listening to Fleet Fox's. Yeah.

I'm somewhere in the middle. It's good lifting music. It is good. As long I'm in the middle. It's good lifting music. It is good. As long as you enjoy the music. I've always been into folk music for lifting because I just get so wrapped up into the story that I forget about the lifting and how bad it sucks. What's the Jack White song about the house in South Carolina

with the milkman? Oh, that's the raconteurs. Yeah, same, same. I mean, let's be honest. Jack White was once a battalion commander. And he said, like every good battalion commander says, when I was platoon commander, that was the best platoon I ever served with.

When I was a company commander, that was the best company I ever served with. When I was a three, the battalion had no better operations. And when I was a company commander, that was the best company I ever served with. When I was a three, the battalion had no better operations. And when I was a battalion commander, that was the best battalion I ever served with. What's the common denominator? Me. And that's what Jack White says about all the bands he's been in. Is it Blue Veins?

No, it's like House of South Carolina. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I remember that one. No, come on. It's been a while. It's no, it's been a while since I listened to the record tours. Raccoon tours, record tours. It's going to bother me now.

I'm going to find it right now. I'm not upset. I'm upset at myself that I don't know. Jack White, South Carolina song. It's about the milkman and the sun shoots. Carolina drama. Oh, OK. It's on the. Let me give you a little opener.

You'll remember. It's a last. It's a last. Another second. Oh, second. I like that album. knows the air. It was a junk house in South Carolina. Junk house in South Carolina had a boy the age of 10. You haven't heard that yet. Go back to it.

That's a good song. If you're lifting this week and you need five minutes and 54 seconds of motivation, that's what you need. Okay. Okay. Jack White, good dude. Good dude.

He'll be on the podcast next week. So to tune in. Sing about South Carolina, that's tough doing install grass. He started playing that song when I saw him in concert and then he stopped. Yeah, right. He said, never play it again. I got to find there's like really crappy videos because this was 2000. Seven. So if you can imagine cell phone videos from 2007,

that's the highest of qualities. You know, back when like YouTube, what you were limited to like a minute or something like that. Remember, like Google or searching on YouTube one time, and I said, Oh, there are some clips from that you find it. I don't I can't remember if I found. Him playing seven nation army and then stopping it, but there definitely were like clips of the, of that concert at the sloss furnace and I think Birmingham,

Alabama. Ooh, Birmingham. Worst game cock bowl game I've ever been to. All right. All right. Okay. Back to back on track. Back on track. Let's get this knocked out. right. OK. Back to back on track. Back on track. Yeah, it's not OK. OK.

Let's see. Let's see. Go to the trade topic here. OK, sounds like you're pulling the group here on what Apple or like what map navigation apps we use. Google Apple Maps or Waze. Yeah, I feel like there's one right answer. I feel like there's definitely one wrong answer. Hey, I'm not a J tech, but I used to kill switch.

Hey, that's good to go. You're not authorized to program a record. I use the permissions. Um. I'm an Apple Maps guy. Yeah, I've always been I've always been an Apple Maps guy. Yeah, I've always been an Apple Maps guy. I used to be. I definitely am not a Waze guy.

So if you need a specific coordinate, though, I'm definitely a Google Maps guy. I just started to use Google Maps exclusively. Yeah. I actually used to say I would get mad when people would send me Google Maps because it would come up as like a lat long. And I'd be like, what am I doing over here? I'm just trying to get to like Chipotle. That's not true. I hate Chipotle. You gotta find the red box. I'm just trying to get to the flame broiler. Not dropping it in try.

Yeah. But like when I started going to places with no service, this isn't just Marine Corps, this could be fly fishing or other things. I think Google Maps is better. I also like that it shows you the speed that you're going. If you drive like a 95 Chevy, the speedometer is probably about as accurate as the fuel gauge. So it is kind of nice knowing how fast you're going. But I will say with all that said, my default is maps because I use the maps app to look up businesses like lunch, right? Like whatever area I'm in or like go to a thing. And I haven't transitioned that to Google.

So I would say I'm 70% of the time time I'm still opening Apple Maps to find a place, but I do probably think that Google Maps is superior. Okay. And I hate Waze. People who use Waze and they put those little cartoon things on there. Oh my goodness. I'm like, is the car crash still here? No, but I'm about to have another one if I keep going to be

like a little smiling car face. No, I got to earn my points. I'm like, all right, Dork, like, what do you do it? Just be on the road. I'm more of a kill switch guy. I love it. Yeah. I'm Apple Maps. My wife is very Google Maps. And so I make it a point to not like to not use Google Maps.

I just want to go on the record. I just want to go on the record. I'm a Pandora man. Okay. I married into a Spotify family, but I am a Pandora one guy. I feel like that was relevant here. It's good. Wait, are you encountering people that don't use

any of the apps? So just like off the cuff directions, like, you're gonna go north to fifth street, hang a right, and then you're gonna go up to Jefferson Ave, and from there you're gonna go four blocks, and then on your left you're gonna see a red mailbox. Before Trey answers that, I do think that's a lost art to know where north,

south, east, and west is, and to name some big terrain features. I get it, if you're telling me to meet you at Applebee's, you don't need to verbally give me directions. But the ability to know where you are is a lost art form. I agree with that. Because Abby has no idea. If you take away maps, she turns on maps to go.

I'm like, we've been here a million times and it's four minutes away. You don't need to turn on your maps. We know where we're going. But on the other hand, it's also frustrating. It tends to be of people of a certain generation. Just like you're kind of in a time crunch and you're like, all right, where are we going? OK, we're going to this this place. OK, I got it. And they're like, well, let me give you directions. So you're going to go left out here. And you're like,

I know, just give me an address. I believe, I believe you're talking about boomers. Yeah. Yeah. I would say maybe an older, but oh my goodness. Are the people still alive that are older than boomers? My goodness. Are the people still alive that are older than boomers? Robert Philip Goulish the first is turning 100 next month. Hey, happy birthday. Dang. What do they call him?

Uno? Yeah, call him Uno. You should give him a t-shirt that says Robert Goulish the first is numero uno. Yeah. That would be a great t-shirt. He was a weapons platoon commander at the battle in China. Dude, that's. Palm number 14 for those interested when you're leaving Twine and Palms

and there's a palm for every battle. Palm number 14 in China. Oh, good. That's good. PC. It's good. Gouge. Just get Gouge. Put that one in your toolbox. Now, him know. It's what palm tree you are. And 29 bombs, we just call those stumps.

29 stumps. 29 stumps. I like it. I like it. Good maps discussion. Let's see. Safety squat bars. Great great I saw a post of you using one on Instagram, you got more you wanna talk about with the safety squat bar? Yeah, not much and like we don't need to make

a YouTube video, we're good. I just was thinking about it. So I had never really used a safety squat bar until I saw the Mars bar, I like the Mars bar because it's low bar oriented and I like that so I can lift more weights. And I've always kind of used that. And then my buddy was out in the field and he didn't get to lift for 12 days. And generally that happens, things start to hurt.

So the old right shoulder was flared up, not exactly sure what it was, went to get back in the gym and tried to get it under like a low bar, even a high bar with a straight bar and like this shoulder just was not having it. And so I'm in the Wilburton gym and trying to have palms. You can join Lake Bandini Barbell Club, Lake Bandini is where all the sewage pumps to and then they quote purify it.

Didn't think that was a funny t-shirt. If it wasn't made in China, I'd probably buy it. But anyway, so I went to grab a safety bar and they got a couple by companies that won't be named. And yeah, they were just like, most lifters would probably laugh at me for this because people nerd out on equipment and like I make equipment and so I should nerd out. But I'm so used to the Mars bar. I'm like, Whoa, wait, does the camera go up down? Had to like figure it out for a second. And yeah, I don't like most of them

because it just, it like artificially puts the bar even higher on your back. It was comfortable. It fixed my shoulder issue. I was able to squat. I think it did like, I don't know. I'm assuming the bar weighs 65 pounds. I don't know because it's not labeled,

Assuming the bar weighs 65 pounds, I don't know because it's not labeled, but I think I did 335, 345, whatever it was, but it felt heavy. Yeah, no, it's just interesting. The safety squat bars, because they're like, some of them are just like a horse harness like on your neck. Some of them sit more low. So I've done the Kabuki one a good bit and the Mars bar a good bit and the Kabuki one, Or just like a horse harness on your neck. Some of them sit more low. So I've done the Kabuki one a good bit and the Mars bar a good bit. And the Kabuki one, I guess they're defunct out of business.

Or maybe I think they're owned now by someone in South Carolina, but you can make adjustments for where the load is. But yeah, anyway, I didn't have much to say about it except that I needed to use an off-the-shelf one in a quote commercial gym. And it took me a minute to figure it out. But I did. And then I was watching and so I kind of like held it. I just still kind of put it low on my back, but like held the handles low. And then I was on Instagram and like a lot of people like hold them up here. So it's just, yeah, probably wasn't a good slide. That's

like the slide that too brief where he tells you what the illumination is going to be 27 days from now. And you're like, yeah, you don't know what you're talking about. But anyway. No, it's a good slide. It is amazing. Safety squat bars. My shoulder has been irritated.

I can't bench heavy right now. I can close grip maybe in the 200s. And it's not pain free, but it's not worse. That's what I've been doing. But it is pretty cool with a safety squat bar. If your shoulder, elbow, wrist, any of those things like from the arm down that can bother you still allows you to train. So back up old school grant would have been like, screw you 60 year old man, get in the low bar position. And now I'm like, this is great. I can like kind of load my lower body pretty heavily

and be pain free. So yeah, I'm a big fan. Good to go. Trey, have you ever used a safety squat bar? I have not. I probably don't think I have either. I don't think I have either. I don't think I have either. Yeah, if you got a shoulder or elbow pain,

it's like kind of life-changing. Okay, okay, good to go. That's a good tool for your toolbox. Okay. Okay. I feel, I wonder if that's good for, like if Abby started, like was, you know, she just started lifting,

novice lifter, if that's good for, I don't know, someone who's not used to a, like a normal straight bar. Yeah, I think so. I think it's useful. I mean, that's again, I do sell Mars bars. So this is biased, but I mean, I think the greatest invention that the Mars bar did

more than the 65 pounds, they made the 35 pound bar one, 35 pound Mars bar. And than the 65 pounds, they made the 35 pound bar one, 35 pound Mars bar. And so it just takes out, because even if someone doesn't have shoulder, elbow problems, which generally come from like squatting really heavy and getting out of position, but if someone's new to lifting and they're above 40, they're probably really uncomfortable in the upper body, like thoracic spine, shoulders, elbows, like all that hurts. And I mean, I've said a hundred times in our intro to Barbells that custom may sound like this hurts right now. If you're not watching YouTube, you should like your tricep, like

from your, you know, your humerus hurts way more than your legs do. Because they're like, I feel like I can do more, but this is so tight. And I don't know what the right answer is. I think the right answer is get under the straight bar and start opening those things up. But I definitely think there's some people that are, I don't want to say too far gone, but that are so uncomfortable day one from trying to stuff under a straight bar that getting them under a safety bar and them understanding mid-foot, understanding like hip drive, understanding how to brace their belly so that their low back is rigid and being able to load it and get their strength

up. I do think there's a lot of value in that. I'm not saying everyone needs to go do it. And like most people aren't like if you're a home gym person just getting started, I'm probably not going to tell you to buy a safety squat bar because you're going to spend four, five, six hundred bucks and you're just getting started, right? Like just deal with it and get under a normal one. But no, I think if you're joining a gym, I don't mean this as a plug, but it's going to sound a little like the strength code. You come in, you're like, I've never looked at it before.

I'm much more prone now to say, hey, if you have a bunch of upper body pain and you can't squat your body weight or you can't squat a hundred pounds. Probably going to put you on a safety bar so that you're not focused on all these extracurriculars when you're trying to learn the movement pattern. And the movement pattern is different. That's what I opened this with. Like, hey, this type of safety squat bar, I'm now in a high bar position. It's different than in a Mars bar, which is different than a low bar squat. But you're still learning Mars bar, which is different than low bar squat. But you're still learning the balance, the bracing, and the drive out of the hole.

Now, I think it's super beneficial for people getting started to, if everything's aggravated, like, hey, just get on a safety bar. And particularly, most men, like 40, 50 plus have some type of shoulder issue. I don't think I have an issue. I think I just like irritated it. It's definitely been like every time I take my flack off and like go to put it down, I'm like, Oh my goodness, my shoulder. At the same time, like it'll be fine. It'll buff.

It'll buff. It'll buff. Cranes getting old. Cranes getting old. I'm just getting started. Just getting started. Young buck over here. So fun getting old. It's getting old. It'll buff. It's getting old. I'm just getting started. Just getting started. Young buck over here.

So fun getting old. It's so fun. There's one thing I love and that's getting, being sick. And the other one was getting older. Ah, it's the best. It's much too young. See, see, that's the thing. Garth never accepted.

He's a big jumping guy and he said, I'm much too young to be feeling this damn old. And that's how I feel. I'm like, why does my shoulder hurt? I'm much too young for this. Much too young. Yeah. Not jumping enough. I'm not jumping enough. I agree. I did get back in my routine of hopping out of the bed and knocking out 50 push ups. Last time my shoulder hurt. I just started to push ups all the

time. And I feel like that was Motion is lotion. Motion is the lotion. Put the lotion on the skin. Movement is the soothement. That's what I always said. Soothement. I love it. I love it.

Oh, kind of sticking on the barbells and equipment topic here, Trey, you wanted to hear more about shipping plates and barbells and hot hole process and what's that like going in there, how the sausage is made is some might say. So to speak, I guess like a lot of people just when they order something from the strength cow or whoever they see they'll check it out and they're like, okay, cost this much. And then you just see like the freight bill, right? Afterwards.

And people are like, why is this, like what's going on with this? Like, how does that work? Like from the back end, I don't know. Like, why is this freight bill the way it is? Yeah, it's kind of a complex question. I'll try to keep it short. So the majority of the customer service inquiries

we get, I wouldn't call them complaints that we get, is from when people buy sets. So every time you go on, especially in this day and age, you get your Apple pay locked in, you get your shop pay locked in, maybe you're a PayPal person. So you put the thing in their cart and you click checkout and it doesn't make you punch anything in, right? It just like, populate your address, populate where your credit card is going to be and it calculates shipping. So what's happening on the back end is that it's saying, okay, trade just put four pairs of 45s in this card because it's super strong. So it's saying, okay, that's eight 18 by 18 by two packages that are 45 pounds each. And they're going from this

zip code to this zip code. And it's looking up inventory, seeing where we have stuff and it's like calculating your shipping cost. Now when we do sets, basically we do sets so that you can save on shipping. So if you buy a 10, a five and a two and a half, like all a cart, well now it's actually gonna put that together, but it could, let's just say, you know, say, okay, a 10s,

10s that's 20 pound package gonna be shipped from here to there. Fives, it's just say, okay, 10s, that's a 20 pound package, it's going to be shipped from here to there. Fives, that's a 10 pound package here to there. It's going to put it all together. So the reason we incentivize sets is because we know if we have an inventory all in one location that we can take your pair of 25s from your 465 pound sets and we can put your two and a halfs in with them. And that's actually saving you money.

And so we're building in that saving via flat rate shipping, because we know, hey, if all this stuff is in stock at this one location and shipping from, we can package it in a way so that it goes. So a lot of companies will just like box everything. And we box like all our 45s are essentially pre-boxed. Most of our 25s are, but we do try... The reason if you go all a cart or

you go on a set, that the set is cheaper is because we're saying, hey, we know we can stuff a five in with a 25. We can stuff the pair of two and a halfs in with the 10s and get it to you cheaper. And so most of the stuff, some things we some things we always prepackage, two pairs of 10s, because that comes in a set, that's 40 pounds, 50 pounds like your cutoff. Like once you go over 50 pounds, you do a lot of surcharges. So we're making sure those are packaged together sets under 50, 45 generally ship on their own. And then like any variation change plate, or if someone buys an adjustable dumbbell

with change plates or whatever it is, we're usually packing as we go and it's to save you shipping. Now the funny thing is, and we use Shopify, we're a Shopify store, that's no secret. If you don't know what Shopify is, start paying attention when you check out like majority of e-commerce is Shopify. The problem is they don't have the software yet to show. So let's say Trey buys a 465 pound set and Trey lives in Texas and I am out of 45s in California. So his 45 ship from Texas, I don't know, he places his order at 9 a.m. Central time and Wisconsin ships all his 45s that day.

And then in California, they ship it the next day. And they ship the fives, tens, two and a halfs, 25s, whatever. Well, the 45 show up in like a day or two days. And it's the first package from within the set via FedEx or UPS or whatever we're using. It triggers Trey to say your order has been delivered. And he gets an email and it shows the 465 pound set and it says it's been delivered.

So most of the time what happens is like Trey's 845 show up on the first day and then we get an email that says, hey, I ordered this yesterday at 9 a.m. Central and I'm still mad that it's now the next day at 2 p.m. and I've only received my 45s. And if they scroll down, it says beneath it like, hello to save you on shipping costs and shipping times, we ship our items from multiple locations. You may receive products over a few days. Says something along those lines. No one reads, no one reads anything. Everyone's used to Amazon. Like I buy it the next day it's there. So there is a lot of stuff that goes into the backend to try and streamline and get

you the product as quickly as possible, get to you in a safe manner and get to you as cheap as possible. And we eat sometimes. And I mean, not like let the big dogs eat 240 gunners getting after it. In a bad way, we may be out of fives and two and a half set of warehouse. And, but we still want to get you the product as quickly as possible. And we had planned to put those fives and two and a halfs in with your 25s or with your 35s or whatever the case is, but we didn't have it there. So we're still going to pump that stuff out to you. And

then we're going to have to ship those individually from South Carolina or California. And so like, sometimes we're like, if you buy a set, that's like your best savings because we're still going to pump that stuff out to you and then we're going to have to ship those individually from South Carolina or California. And so sometimes we're like, if you buy a set, that's like your best savings because we're going to get you all the products as fast as we can, even if we can't ship it the way we want to. But your freight costs or your shipping costs got calculated as if we got to ship it exactly how we want it. And that's, and we see that as like on us, like if we run out of something in one particular location, that's our fault, not your fault.

If everything was perfect, you get it all at the same spot. But yeah, I know there's a lot that goes in the back end. There's a lot that goes into, you know, sometimes we'll wait, like you'll order and we have, I don't know, let's say it's a Massachusetts order and we got it in Wisconsin and California, but you ordered whatever time of day or whatever thing and Wisconsin is not going to ship to the following day and California could ship. We'll wait because we know even with our 300 pound test boxes, our four millimeter plastic bags, our 600 pound test strapping tape, everything we do to make sure it arrives safely. If it's

going from California to Massachusetts, that means like six jerks on the way that are out of shape got to pick it up and toss it. And so the probability of it getting damaged is higher. And so we might wait a day so that we can ship it from Wisconsin or South Carolina, so that the transit length is shorter, so that your product arrives better. And I mean, it's not like, I get it. Customers buy stuff, they want to show up perfectly. And we want to show up to you perfectly. It's not always our fault though.

Like we will ship January to October and have no issues. No packages will break. I say none. I would say we have some, but for the most part, everything's great. And then November comes, Black Friday, Christmas, all that stuff. And we start getting complaints. It's like, well, the shipping, all the carriers are completely overwhelmed. Yeah. And so, or it's like, hey, I bought this FedEx two day express. It took four days.

It's like, brother, you ordered, we shipped within 24 hours. Like it's kind of not my fault. But no one wants to hear that. No one ever thinks it's FedEx or UPS's fault. They always think it's our fault. StrengthCo does all their own logistics, all their own delivery. You got your trucks. I know it.

Yeah. But we have to understand that, right? Because whether it's our fault or not, they think it's our fault. So we have to do the best job to get it there, the quickest and account for those things. So we build in some buffer, but yeah, there is a lot that goes into shipping that most people don't understand. And nothing's ever left on the truck. That's the most common email we get. And we laugh about it internally sometimes. It's like, hey, I ordered a four hundred six, five pound set. I'm missing my fives.

I called FedEx and I got a hold of the driver and he said there's no more packages on the truck. And it's like, nothing's ever left on the truck. What happened was you lived in Minnesota. So we shipped everything out of Wisconsin, but Wisconsin was out of fives. So those came from South Carolina. So they're a day behind. So it's usually stuff like that.

But yeah, I mean, the majority of the phone calls we get are like, yep, just give it 48 hours and everything will land. If not, email us. Love the phone calls. We'll always answer the phone. But the best is email because like, whoever answered the phone, we have five different people that answer the phone, but they're probably not sitting in front of the computer to look up your order. If they're in the warehouse, they're probably in the back shipping stuff, trying to save you on shipping. So the best is always just to email and be like, hey, this is my order. This is what I'm missing.

And then like, boom, like your name pops up. We click your name, it goes to your order and we look and we're like, oh, you got a five pair of five set sitting in Tennessee. They'll be in Texas tomorrow or whatever the case is. But yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. But like at the same time, there's sometimes we laugh and joke, like, why do people not understand this?

Why would they? Why would they understand it? Like, and they don't want to understand it. They're paying us to understand it, not for them to understand it. But yeah, we're always learning and trying to get better, but there are definitely, there's definitely a lot of considerations

that go into like packaging, packing, ship timing, carriers. Yeah, all that kind of stuff. So that's just what it is. I do a lot with freight companies. I sell some stuff. And I always have customers that complain to me. They're like, hey, this arrived damaged.

I go, what did you put in the claim? And they're like, well, that's not my job. I'm like, brother, if I owned FedEx, do you think I would be talking to you right now? I'm like, no, I'd be FedEx, do you think I would be talking to you right now? Yeah. No, I'd be counting my money somewhere, dude. Come on. Once I leave the doctor's, there's not a whole lot I can do, man.

Yeah, you have to do everything. And that's where now, you know, we're like, when you ship the volume that we ship, if we put in a claim with FedEx, like 90% of the time gets approved. If the person's complaint is valid, we do get some, what I would call like erroneous complaints. But if the complaint's valid, we get it because, hey, when I ship it, I ship 18 by 18 by two, 45 pound packages, you know, every day by the hundreds. So it's like that thing I know it's fail rate,

it's the same box, it's the same tape, it's the same people packaging it. So if one like burst open and the product gets damaged, FedEx like boom, replaced, done, no worries. Because there's a track record of like, hey, we're doing things right. And it does happen sometimes. Like it just, it does, you know, you can do everything right. And sometimes the carrier carry the weather.

Hey, it's a, it's a power of 10. Do you mean I have my will to ship the product and land you perfectly. And the enemy has their will and the enemy has a say. So we're just always trying to keep speed and tempo over the enemy. And, uh, everything goes back to MCDP one. We want to be doctor doctrinally sound not doctrinally bound. That's what I've always said. And yeah that's how we operate. Wow. Sounds like if you want it the quick is just do a little will call pickup. Hey I hate will calls. We do have will calls on. I love all

of you and all my customers but but please don't put a pair of two and a halfs on vocal. Whenever someone does that, we just ship it. I can ship it to you for $8. I don't want to coordinate with you for you to drive from LA to pick up a pair of fives. That makes zero sense to me. Have you seen the price of gas lately? I'm electric. Have you seen the price of energy lately? I'm electric. Have you seen the price of energy? LA is on fire. Why are you trying to come pick up a pair of fives? But I digress. It's good stuff. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah.

Call that little inside baseball. The Marine Corps, we just call that logistics. Mm-hmm. Hey, hey, hey. Amateurs talk tactics. Experts talk logistics. Yeah. Let's TT those 45s over there, huh? Mm-hmm. Here we go, the T. We got the T-O-P, the T-O-T, okay, okay.

Okay, all in the T3, I see. So basically, you put in an order, Trey, and the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to take that order. I'm going to sit on it for a week because I'm out of the office. All right. I'm out of the office and the people that you try to call, those are DSN landlines that don't work. And then when I come back from the office, I'm going to be behind on a lot of stuff. And so about three days after I'm gone, I'm going to forward it to my op chief. Now my op chief set a school

right now and Quantico. So he's not going to get that email. So three weeks has elapsed and you need that gear or you need yourself to move to Quantico for your school. But I haven't put in the T3 request. So now I'm going to go in my op chief when he gets back, he's going to come to me and say, what about this guy? And I'm gonna say, is his med cert done? And they're like, oh, we didn't think about doing his med cert. So we're going to start the med cert process. And we're going to do that before we put in the T3 request. So we put in the T3 request, I'm going to

click approve, but then it has to go through 19 levels of government efficiency. That's what I've always called it until it gets approved. By the time it gets approved, the school was a month ago. And so if our transportation of things or personnel is slow, that's just the process. Okay, yeah. And don't forget, Devil Dog, on that back end, even though you did not end up getting that school seat, you gotta put in that DTS claim, that voucher is due five working days

after your order's complete. You need to get that DTS voucher in, okay? You need to upload the MROs in there. You need to attach that under substantiating documents so that we can then have 55 levels of approval that it has to go to. And it's probably gonna get back because there's not enough money in that pot

in that pot of money right there, okay? Hey, real quick, sir, if I can, Sar Major here. If you didn't make your school date, but you were supposed to, you need a CH fit rep. And you were gonna go to that school date, and therefore you need a high weight and run a PFT. So if you didn't run a freaking ongoing PFT, don't go blaming operations

for not getting that T3 request in. I'm gonna need a CH fit rep, and I'm gonna need on PFT. Don't go blaming operations for not getting that T3 request in. I'm gonna need a CH fit rep and I'm gonna need a PFT. By the way, make sure your Marines do lead Marines. Okay, that's it. That's all I got to say. I love how people think like the military is just like shooting guns, killing bad guys. And this is like 95% made.

I also know it's a lie that you're not behind mainly because I ordered a leather So what I'm looking for holder keep going The pan handle holder and a holder the leather type And I believe it just arrived in the mail this evening. Oh When did you order it? Not too long ago. I got a pretty, it was pretty quick. You know, that's pretty good.

Pretty good. That's pretty good. Oh man. What else we got? A couple slides of cleanup here. It's a real quick one just to update for you fellas. Jeff, Jeff, the Jeep has reached 99,000 miles, big milestone in Jeff the Jeep's life. Somehow survived for the deployments with-

What's his high score? I don't know. I forget how to look it up. I think I still own that record. Only I know how to look it up. Yeah. He just plugs into the... Okay, okay, OK.

I think we maybe only got two more slides left. Grant, you wrote in aftermarket gear. I don't know what gear this is referring to. Are we talking about a good, good tactical gear? We don't know. I hope they were talking about that. I'm not freaking out on tactical gear that coyote brown. Oh, I was here. Yes, if. Oh, no, I will just hear.

Yes. If you're just not, I would just say. And when we come in, we started together, Jeff, right? We're going to end it together. 2012 and 2012. So outside of like maybe an admin pouch. And when I think Jeff gave maybe an admin pouch, and which I think Jeff gave me in my admin pouch, I have always exclusively only used SIF issued gear. But now that I'm getting a little long in the tooth, comfort is a necessity. And so I have invested in some aftermarket gear and man, it's a racket I bought. So I got the gin three flack and you got the cummerbund with your side sappies.

And if you don't know what that is for you non-military types, you just wear like a giant piece of lead on your side in case you got-military types, you just wear like a giant piece of lead on your side in case you got shot in the gut while you're training in 29 Palms with no real enemy. And you just wear that. So it just rides in your hip all the time and like makes a rash on your shoulder. And yeah, so I went and bought the skeleton version, you know, where it's got like the, the three ropes coming in to hold the side sappies. And I got a, I got a war belt where the Velcro goes in through your pockets or through your

pants pockets. So like when you're cold and you take your flack off, you can still have like your water on you and your stuff. And I just, I'm not a gear queer by any means. If you looked at me, I would still look like I was standard issue. Like I'm not like one of the guys where like everything's painted and everything's weird. But I will say, I'm like, I went to the field that first three days and I was like, I'm about to go to the field for 12 days. I need some comfort in my life. And, and man, what a racket that business is. I don't know what it called, running any business is difficult. Respect. And also, what a great market. You come out of the field with a rash on your stomach, both side bodies, a heat rash on your shoulders, and you know right where your flak's rubbing, and you walk into the store and they're like, I got this skeleton side sappy holder for $169. And I'm like, that's all cheap. That seems that that seems

a bargain. Any price. I can't afford not to buy that. So yeah, no. I'm like, Jeff, you've kind of been an aftermarket gear guy for a while, right? I'm a big. Yeah. I'm a big. The good field. There's good stuff out there. Yeah. Like I remember, I feel like for a lot of the initial like Lieutenant days, mostly rocked the SIF gear. I feel like there are a couple of pouches here and there. That just kind of helped with organization and stuff, but I was definitely a big aftermarket

guy at Anglico just because it was like, okay, we're walking a lot of places. I feel like I'm in Anglico. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you're just like, okay, if I can shave any ounces or make something more streamlined, I'm going to spend the money on this. Well, it's like you're on the standard issue and you're going to get your water bottle. And you're like, man, every time I do this, I impinge my shoulder. Why am I doing this? And I've never been a camelback guy. It's like, it's I mean, I will, I guess, I mean, I'm hiking Friday, my buddy is but I guess maybe on a hike I would but like day to day use in the field. I'm not

a camelback guy because it's too much work to refill. Like I either need a second marine or take everything off. So I off. I just want a big giant hydro flask or something easily accessible. And then you're also like, well, I got to at least pretend like I'm going to pull my mags out and shoot the enemy. Where in reality you're like, man, I'm an artillery battery commander. If I'm pulling my mags out and engage with an M4, I hope I got my Wilson Power Fraternity in order because we are screwed.

There was a, actually I think he deployed it to Grant. It was a Comtech short guy. Comtech, I forgot about that MOS. That's Com Electronics Maintenance, CEM. Yeah, and he was a Comtech. He would always attach to us when we'd go to the field, but I know he deployed with Dango, but he made his own aftermarket gear. Oh, interesting. And he had this, he had made like this hand warmer that was Velcroed around your belt.

You just sit there and I go, hey, and it was like cold. I go, hey, how much, how much is that? Like how much you want that? He goes, he goes 40 bucks. I go sold done. I'll take it right now. I still use it. I go hunting with it. It's the best.

It's awesome. I'm just gonna say it's very similar to fly fishing, right? It's like when you're fly fishing and like you're in the water and you're thinking about like tying a fly or it's cold and you're like, I need this over here. And I think that's probably what pushed me over the edge to be a gear queer, which I'm not. What's fly fishing? I'm identity. No, it was fly fishing because you're like, well, this doesn't make sense. Like this needs to be over here. And like, what if I catch a fish and want to take a

photo of it? Like, well, that won't work. I need this over here. So yeah, what if I catch a fish and want to take a photo of it? Like, well, that won't work. I need this over here. See, I've definitely purchased a couple of hundo dollars of aftermarket gear to get myself out. I really want the high cut. They haven't given it to us yet. But they have the whole system now. We don't rate because we're dirty reservists, but But they have the whole system now. We don't rate, you know, because we're dirty reservists, but the Kevlar is above the ear and the Pelotors just come down and they connect to your radio and you can talk to everyone and have hearing protection. It's the best.

So I'm pushing my four hard over here. Yeah, I'm just, I wish I, you know, if there's a guy in the IRR or maybe on the inactive list wants to come out, be a four. Hey, I'd love them right now. Okay. Okay. Freaking dag on Trey Gowlidge. Freaking dag gum.

Okay. Okay. Okay. I think our last slide, I think Trey, you may know more details than I do, but you posted that link about like signing up for White House press briefings. Like, Oh yeah. I saw that. Yeah. I did. So podcast go do it. Yeah, no, they opened up the press the press briefings to anybody who's a influencer or podcast Independent journalist. I'm like, okay, that's us They've done a lot of stuff recently very quickly. Yeah. Yeah

Yeah It's I saw a meme that was my favorite, um, ex-settling to me, send to my buddy. But, uh, we were talking about, so MREs. Oh, I think I posted the photo. Maybe that, did we talk about the powdered hot sauce? Yeah. Yeah. So we were like, Oh, they should just have a Zen in every MRE. And then there was like a meme. It was like Pete Hegspeth, whatever his name is. Hey, heck, heck, heck. Yeah. You got it right. Yeah. Um, like become sec death and put sin in every, in every MRE.

And I was like, that's funny. Um, yeah, no, a lot of stuff happened. I've been studying Greenland and Panama just in case, you know, just in case. Case we invade. Case I get rerouted from the Wes in the edge of the empire. Yeah. The Wes. I forgot. Trey and I got a fun text from a former three alpha of five 11. And he was just like, man,

listen to the recent podcast grant reminiscing about the field like epic. And Trey was like, cool, you're one of four people that got any of those jokes. It is funny to that listener who shall not be named because it'll probably be a future guest. Nothing changes. It's the same. It's just, it's amazing and hilarious at all the time. If anyone's wondering, the FASP is still a nightmare. If you go to the FASP, prepare to be there for 12 hours. Yeah. Everything, the more things change and more, the more they stay the same. I do want to go on something real quick, real quick, save around alibis, we're wearing headphones right now.

But, you know, you're talking about making corrections on base and you know, hands and pockets walking and talking on the cell phone, you know, vaping like people don't see you vaping all that kind of stuff. But this is I think generational and I'm okay. Like I love generations. I hope I never sit around and be like, well, now I was a kid. But it is amazing to me the preponderance

of the need to constantly wear headphones. And this isn't just me as a Marine. Like, yeah, if I see you in the PX, wearing the headphones like I'm wearing right now, podcasting, I'm gonna stop you and say like, hey, there's a picture on the door that says you can't do this. But I just mean in general, like everyone wears headphones all the time. Like all the time. And they just, they just talk to you.

And maybe, maybe it's because I was born in the 80s, but I cannot hold a conversation with you in person if you have an AirPod in your ear. I'm just going to stare at you until you remove it because I assume you're listening to Alex Jones and not listening to me. But the preponderance of headphones is insane. It's nuts. Do you guys experience this at all? Or you're not around young people? No, I talk to adults. So, yeah.

I'm going to notice it now. I feel like, but yeah, or like it now that you say it, I'm like, oh yeah, I do. That is kind of like a thing. Jeff also walks around with headphones. With the younger generation. And I just, yeah, I'm always That is kind of like a thing. Jeff also walks around with headphones. The younger generation. And I just, yeah, I'm always wearing at least like four to five pairs of headphones. Yeah. At a time. Uh, he's always live streaming. Like the over the head and then this one's here like this. Yeah. And that's supposed to make it better. And it's like, what?

That's all I have on that real quick segue for another save round. I guess this would be the alibi. Speaking of head gear, go check out Mr. Helmet. If you go to www.greengridiron or gridirongreen.com, one or the other, you can go visit Mr. Helmet. We've named him Mr. Helmet. Actually, just click the show notes. Your team didn't make it. There's two teams left. You hate both of them. No one likes Chiefs. No one likes the Eagles. Root for your team next year. Go buy next year's helmet. Click the link in the show notes. Go buy a helmet. If you like this podcast, mrhelmet.com is not it, but the link in the show notes is it. We got any more save rounds?

That is all I have. Can't say anything. Nothing for the group. Update from Grant's buddy. Hope you liked the Saturday surprise last week. He's about to head back into the bush. We don't know what it looks like, but we have 57 weeks in a row. We've never failed you.

We expect nothing less. The high desert is the high desert. The higher you get, the more it's the desert. Cold at night, hot during the day, windy all the time. Everyone's sick. That's what we love about it. That's what we've always said. I think that's about it for the update. Trey, at this point in the show, we've mentioned B2B tax, mentioned Mr. Helmet. You know, take us in for a landing. I would love to episode 057 057 this episode 057 of the podcast as always like to thank our sponsors,

BW attacks, Mr. Helmet, Mr. Gridiron Green. He goes by so many names, but he makes small helmets for small heads, big helmets for big heads, normal heads, any kind. He's got a helmet for you. I believe we were still powered by the Strength Co. Last I checked. I didn't see you by the Vayner.

Yeah, last we checked because you can see by the Vay Co. Last I checked. Yeah, last we check as you can see by the banner behind us. If you go to the link below, you will notice the Slack channel use code OK. Love to talk to you there, interact with you. Got any questions about lifting, life, just want to be silly. It's something's there for everybody. So love to see you there go to YouTube Give us a like and subscribe there so you can see our beautiful faces leave us comment interacts there Most importantly if you go to www.theokpodcast.com You will see all the social media links that we are very active on so active Give us a like and a follow on all those videos

on so active. Give us a like and a follow on all those videos. Actually, the most important of all the important things that we have is we each have our each individual social media accounts that we are all we are actually super active on. Jeff, I currently well, my fingers are sore from all the posting and but X and tweets and. Oh, yeah. So, you know, I'm just taking a break. You know, the old fingers, I think I'm getting carpets. So Jeff's not live right now, but he usually is.

Yeah, he's usually alive. But other than that, coach, I miss anything. No, I think that's it. This has been episode zero five seven of the OK podcast powered by the strength co-sponsored by BWs and with our great affiliate, Mr. Helmet. If you want to support this podcast, please go do it. We hope to come to you every week. If we miss a week, be forgiving. And I think that's it. Thanks for tuning in. Go watch us on YouTube. Subscribe, leave a comment on Spotify

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