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Welcome guys to Behind the Shield, my name is James Gearing and this is episode 38 and

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I am extremely excited to bring you a fellow firefighter, a UFC fighter, a politician,

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Chris Lydal.

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Back in the early 2000s when I was going through fire school, I was a big big MMA fan, followed

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the top names, watched the Ultimate Fighter show religiously and Chris Lydal was absolutely

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one of my heroes.

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These men at the time were incredible, the levels of talent that they got to, the amount

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of training they did.

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But Chris did all this whilst working every third day as a full time firefighter, losing

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sleep.

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So to me that was even more incredible that he reached the pinnacle that he did in his

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profession.

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So if you talk about a man walking the walk, Chris is it.

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Ever since then he's also got into politics, he ran for state senate because he was sick

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and tired of what the politicians were doing in his particular state.

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He also has the Chris Lydal Foundation where he's an advocate for anti-bullying and other

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elements of kindness basically.

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And this was another incredible interview.

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This man has so many different facets and such humility.

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He comes out of a sport where he had a pretty large spotlight on him and then goes and continues

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to serve his community, tries to serve his state and then creates a foundation with his

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fame as well.

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I have so many favorite interviews, there's not one that I don't love in one particular

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way, but being a full time fireman, knowing what it's like, how exhausting it is to work,

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the hours that we do, to imagine what it would be like to do the other things that he's done

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in his career so far, it really does lend a huge amount of admiration and respect towards

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Chris.

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So you guys are going to enjoy this very much.

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I apologize for the slight reduction in quality in audio, but Chris being so busy, he was

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actually on shift, we had our fingers crossed the whole time that he wasn't going to get

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banged out on a call.

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So there's a slight lack of audio quality that we have on some of ours, but apart from

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that, it's a fantastic interview and it doesn't detract from it at all.

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So before we get to the interview again, please rate us on iTunes, just go to there, click

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on the little five star icon, say what you loved about this interview and then if you

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love this one, share this one, if you loved another one before, share it and just again

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help me be part of this process of making this amazing information we have from these

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incredible minds span the globe multiple times over.

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So without further ado, I bring to you Chris Lydal.

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Enjoy.

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So welcome Chris to the Behind the Shield podcast.

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Where are we finding you today?

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I'm at the Fire Station 41 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Fantastic.

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Now, I am very, very familiar with you and I was very proud of having a fellow firefighter

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in the UFC and that's where I know you from, but I'd love to delve into your backstory

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a little bit and paint the picture for the people that aren't as familiar and then kind

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of walk down the path of the life that you've led.

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So where were you born initially?

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I was born in Indianapolis, 1974, been living here most of my life.

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I lived in Bloomington, Indiana for four years, been traveled many places throughout the world,

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have been fortunate enough.

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I stayed in Japan for three months once.

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I went back for another month later on for training purposes.

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Stayed in Las Vegas for a few months for training, but most of my life I've spent right here.

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Okay.

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And where in Japan did you live?

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I was in a place called Yokohama once and I was in a place called Sasebo once.

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Oh, okay.

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Yeah.

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Yokohama actually has a theme park there that does a Viking stunt show.

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I used to live in Japan in Osaka and some of my friends had worked in Yokohama for a

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while.

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So I'm familiar with that area.

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Oh, you lived in Osaka?

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Yes, sir.

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That's one of the big cities, big airport.

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I think I flew into Osaka once.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's a very interesting place.

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It's certainly a fun 15 months.

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When I was in college, I was an athlete so I kind of recreated my college drunken years

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in Osaka instead.

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What would you do in college?

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In sports, excuse me, in college I was a taekwondo athlete.

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Oh, nice.

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Yeah.

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So I was constantly getting kicked in the face instead of drinking.

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So when I became a stuntman and moved to Osaka for a year or so, that was why I let loose

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a little bit.

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Nice.

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So, all right.

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So you're born in India and that's where you work now.

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Did you have firefighters in your family?

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None.

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Zero.

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Matter of fact, I had police officers.

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Oh, really?

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My stepdad was a police officer and my two stepbrothers are currently police officers.

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Okay.

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So you're a huge...

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I was a smart one.

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So you're a disappointment to the family then?

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No, I'm the guy they look up to now.

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Okay.

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And so when you were younger, were you an athlete then as well?

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Oh, yeah.

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That was my favorite thing.

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I like pretty much all sports.

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I played football, baseball, basketball, wrestling, kind of all the main sports I had there.

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Okay.

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And now I know that wrestling is one I want to focus on a little bit.

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I have noticed a huge trend between some of the most amazing people I've had on the show

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and them wrestling in school and or college.

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So how long did you wrestle for?

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I wrestled for, I guess, probably I remember I started early in middle school, like sixth

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grade all the way through high school.

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Then when I went to college, I was talking about being on the D1, Big Ten team, and I'd

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opted out of that.

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This was on the club team, which was nice.

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We'd get to wrestle D2 varsity schools and this and that, but we didn't have to train

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much.

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Like you talked about earlier, a lot of that partying, drinking beer, that type of stuff

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kind of took over.

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I decided that was a lot funner than working out for a Big Ten wrestling career.

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So I opted just to have fun and kind of play around with it instead.

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Yeah.

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I think that's a good balance to have too.

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You got to live your life and if you want to go both feet forward, then that's one thing,

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but life's too short to sacrifice everything.

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So how did you feel the wrestling training that you went through shaped you for the career

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that you chose and the MMA career that you chose as well?

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Well more for the MMA career, I'd say it was the blueprint.

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It laid it out for me.

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It let me know that's why wrestlers are so successful in MMA is it's the exact same mindset

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you have to have.

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Not only what you think about and how you approach training, but it has to kind of dominate

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your life in many ways and you have to work harder than anybody else.

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When you're in wrestling when you're younger, you have to worry about the weight cut.

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It's constantly on your mind 24-7.

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That's different from most sports.

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Usually you leave football or basketball practice and that's it.

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That's not it with wrestling.

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You're always worrying about the weight.

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You're dealing with that.

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It's a constant struggle, but you will learn how to work really, really hard to make yourself

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the best you can put out there on the mat or the cage or whatever.

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So that translates over with fighting.

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When you go into fighting, you're going to have to use the exact same skill set, the

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weight cut, the discipline, the really focus on the training, working harder than anybody

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else there, the time commitment.

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All that stuff I think is it mirrors fighting with wrestling are very similar as compared

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to any other sport I've done.

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I've been a professional boxer as well.

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I think MMA is more like wrestling than it is boxing.

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Right.

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Would you say that also that mindset helped you a lot in the fire service as well?

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I think it definitely helped me get on because once you get that mindset of I have to do

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everything in my power to be successful, things become a lot easier.

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I think a lot of people, it's hilarious to me, I'll talk to people and they're saying,

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man, I've been trying to go to the fire department and I haven't been able to do it.

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I'm like, well, what did you do?

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I put in this application.

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I'm like, well, yeah, you didn't do anything.

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Did you try and get your fire science certification at Ivy Tech?

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No.

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Did you become an EMT?

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No.

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Did you try out for a paramedic?

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Did you get a degree in the department?

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No.

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I mean, you did nothing besides put an application.

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That's not trying to get on.

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If you want to try something, you got about 10 different avenues you can try and actually

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make it happen.

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But putting in an application is nothing.

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I just know when you do wrestling and you realize real quick, I have to do a lot of

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different things to be good at this sport.

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MMA is the same way and getting what you want, whether that be a fireman, a doctor or an

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attorney, it's all the same.

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You have to put a lot into it to get that.

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Yeah.

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And I think that's the ownership in that.

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I think when we're applying for the fire service specifically, I always tell guys that

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ask me the same things that ask you.

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There's two things you can control in that process and that's the physical test and the

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written test.

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You can study for the written test till you've got that down pat and then the physical, you

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can be the strongest fitness athlete you can possibly be.

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And then obviously it's up to the people behind the desk in the interview panels and that

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kind of area.

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But up to that point, you should control your own destiny.

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Yeah.

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I mean, like you said, there's so much of this world we can't control.

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There is a few things we can and if you're not willing to put forth everything you have

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to get to that, I don't know what to tell you.

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I mean, to me that all becomes about desire.

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I love when I'll talk to people about losing weight or whatever and they're like, I just,

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I can't lose weight.

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I'm trying.

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I'm like, well, you know, it's a straight, usually putting in, you know, expending more

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calories than you're taking in.

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Now if you're, if that piece of chocolate cake right there, you just, you can't deal

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without it, then to me that, you know, that desire to eat that cake is more important

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than your desire to lose 10 pounds.

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So it's like whatever you desire the most you're going to do.

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And people just don't seem to want to understand that or accept that.

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It's just, well, I just have a trouble knowing if you're not using your willpower.

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And that willpower is all about desire to lose.

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So if you have a huge desire to lose weight, you will lose weight.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I've mentioned this in many episodes in the past, but it's understanding your why.

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And obviously you have several whys, the incredible things you've achieved in your

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career so far, but it's not about the cake.

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It's about, you know, what do you want out of life?

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And that cake is merely a by-product of your journey.

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Exactly.

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You know what I mean?

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And the good thing about wrestling, that helped get me kind of addicted to, you know, being

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a goal oriented person.

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So when I'm involved with MMA or whatever, anything I do where you have this desire to

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accomplish a goal, you know, you put everything you can into that.

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And then when you're successful, you know, that's a very, very good feeling, you know,

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in like, I don't mind certain levels of pain now because I know it's going towards a greater

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good, a greater cause of me accomplishing something that I want to accomplish.

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So I don't mind that, you know, some people think it's crazy when you go in and you're

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afterwards in the gym and you're hurting and your back hurts and your, you know, your arm

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hurts and people are like, man, why do you, your face is bruised.

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Why do you do that?

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Because I know what the payoff is going to be great.

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You know, I mean, I'm addicted to that feeling of accomplishment and just even when you lose

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sometimes you just knowing you did everything you could to put yourself in that position,

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you know, there, there, that's an addictive feeling as well.

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So I think, you know, goal oriented people have that type of mentality and it translates

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over to all parts of their life.

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Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

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I think like you said, even if you, you've lost and I think you learn a lot more from

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a loss anyway, a lot of times, but the feeling of when you're done with a training session,

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knowing that you are a little bit tougher, a little bit stronger, a little bit more intelligent

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if you've been studying than you were the day before and then therefore tougher than

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X amount of people on the planet and you know, increasing your survivability and your ability

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to protect your family too.

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Absolutely, absolutely.

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All right.

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Well, let's, let's delve into your, your martial arts side a little bit more.

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So you wrestled in, in school.

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When did you get into the other combat arts, the boxing and the striking arts?

240
00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:46,920
I started doing that in, uh, right about January, February of 1998.

241
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:54,040
So, um, I, what really happened was I, you know, being a wrestler, I, my stepdad, I told

242
00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:57,720
you was a police officer and where he was a police officer, they had some guys who were

243
00:12:57,720 --> 00:12:58,720
doing jujitsu.

244
00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:00,080
He told me, and I was like, what is that?

245
00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:01,680
I mean, I've heard of that.

246
00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:05,240
And he introduced me to him and I went and trained jujitsu.

247
00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:09,080
I remember doing it like once a week for about a month and really quick.

248
00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:10,080
I got pretty good.

249
00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:14,480
You know, I was a good wrestler and they kind of said, look, man, you're, you're a little

250
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:15,480
bit past us.

251
00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:18,600
I'm going to send you to this other gym where people train every day.

252
00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:21,480
And so I started training with those other people every day.

253
00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:25,320
I started doing really well there and they're like, you need to start competing.

254
00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:29,040
And I went and watched a fight they put on and right then I was like, oh, I'm going to

255
00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:30,040
do this.

256
00:13:30,040 --> 00:13:34,360
And then, uh, I started fighting in the Midwest and started having a lot of success and I

257
00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:40,040
was able to meet up with the guy from Indianapolis named Jason Gotsy who, um, ended up, he was

258
00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:44,600
fighting in Japan and he had a manager who got him over there and they, I kept winning.

259
00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:50,200
They finally got me to go over to Japan and fight in and pan craze and was able to start

260
00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:51,200
doing well over there.

261
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:53,080
And then my kind of creatives took off.

262
00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:54,080
Now what was the draw?

263
00:13:54,080 --> 00:13:57,840
Cause I know that happens a lot with the, especially back in day of pride.

264
00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:01,680
What was it that took so many American fighters all the way out to Japan?

265
00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:06,720
Well, to be honest with you, I mean, you know, I fought in the UFC in the year 2000 and I

266
00:14:06,720 --> 00:14:10,520
fought in Japan 1999 to about 2002.

267
00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:14,880
Maybe I can't remember 2003, but, um, they, to be honest with you, I think the sport was

268
00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:15,880
bigger there.

269
00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:17,280
Um, they treated you better there.

270
00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:19,240
They treated it like a real sport.

271
00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:21,680
Uh, they had fans that fans appreciated the sport.

272
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:22,680
They understood the sport.

273
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:27,160
I mean, here back in 2000, you know, it was not the case.

274
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,840
Very little respect was given to any of the fighters.

275
00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:32,120
And you told most people you fought in a cage.

276
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:35,480
They looked at like, like you just said, I eat babies for breakfast.

277
00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:36,960
They're like, what's wrong with you?

278
00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,080
They'd look at what can I change?

279
00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:40,080
Is there barbed wire?

280
00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:41,080
No, no.

281
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,600
I mean, they just didn't understand, you know, and they, they thought you would, you know,

282
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:44,600
the Neanderthal.

283
00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:46,960
So that was not the case in Japan.

284
00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:51,120
They understood the art and the sport, um, and they respected the fighters.

285
00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:53,080
I remember I had like a little baseball trading card.

286
00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:54,880
People would come up and get autographs.

287
00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:57,200
That was not happening in the United States very much.

288
00:14:57,200 --> 00:15:01,880
Uh, and actually paid a little bit better than when I went over to, uh, the UFC initially.

289
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:03,920
So there was a lot of positives to it.

290
00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:08,040
Um, and I love going to other cultures and seeing, you know, how people do things in

291
00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:09,040
other parts of the world.

292
00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:11,040
And to be honest with you, Japan's a good one.

293
00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,440
I mean, you know, they, they, I think they're very respectful there.

294
00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:16,840
They have a different work ethic there.

295
00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:20,340
They have, they have a thing that they call shame if you don't do something right.

296
00:15:20,340 --> 00:15:25,040
Like here, you know, if you're not successful, certain things like, that's all right.

297
00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,840
You know, I'll just, you know, take this or take that from somebody else who is working

298
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:29,840
hard.

299
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:30,840
That, I mean, that, that's so shameful there.

300
00:15:30,840 --> 00:15:34,760
I mean, that suicide rates very high because of someone's disrespectful dishonors or pain,

301
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:36,520
but they, they can't deal with the shame.

302
00:15:36,520 --> 00:15:37,520
We don't have that here.

303
00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:38,520
I mean, people will be like, I don't care.

304
00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:39,520
I love stealing from my family.

305
00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:40,520
They don't have that there as much.

306
00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:41,520
I don't think so.

307
00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:46,880
I really enjoyed their thought process and how they look at the world compared to many

308
00:15:46,880 --> 00:15:47,880
other places.

309
00:15:47,880 --> 00:15:48,880
Yeah.

310
00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:49,880
That, that losing face philosophy.

311
00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:50,880
Yeah.

312
00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:51,880
Yeah.

313
00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:56,920
I mean, I guess maybe they take it to an extreme, but I mean, we're just so the opposite here

314
00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:59,280
in the many ways.

315
00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:03,000
You know, maybe it's just a fact that maybe on the fire department in Indianapolis and

316
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,240
all I see is that people who, you know, could care less about what anybody thinks and are

317
00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,280
just out there to try and take money from the system.

318
00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:14,200
And you know, they just have a totally different mentality.

319
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:16,440
They could use a little bit of that Eastern philosophy.

320
00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:17,440
Yeah.

321
00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:18,440
Yeah.

322
00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:19,440
And again, it's that ownership, isn't it?

323
00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:21,880
It's about, you know, being the best version of yourself that you can be.

324
00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:23,720
And I think that they do have that.

325
00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:27,800
And I think, you know, even use cars, for example, there's that thing about foreign

326
00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:28,800
cars.

327
00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:34,760
And I think the bottom line is that you that that ownership shows in the quality of, for

328
00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:37,240
example, the Japanese cars.

329
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:38,600
You know, it's a better product.

330
00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:40,880
Let's be honest in a lot of examples.

331
00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:41,880
Oh, yeah.

332
00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:48,960
I mean, you know, we, we, we, we buy, my wife had a Honda pilot for about 10 years and we

333
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:49,960
just get another Honda.

334
00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:53,440
I mean, yeah, you got over 200 or something miles on it.

335
00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:54,440
We're done.

336
00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:55,440
We're giving to my daughter now.

337
00:16:55,440 --> 00:16:56,440
So we got another car.

338
00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,040
And you know, I'm going to buy the best product.

339
00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,200
And here's the weird thing, you know, it used to be like buy American.

340
00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:03,640
All these things are made in America.

341
00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:04,640
You know what I mean?

342
00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:08,360
So I got friends who work for Honda, I got friends who work for Subaru.

343
00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:11,440
So it's like, hey, you are supporting America by buying that.

344
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:12,440
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

345
00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:13,440
Exactly.

346
00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:15,840
Well, let's talk about the the Fire Service then.

347
00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:17,040
So how did you get into that?

348
00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:19,000
Because I know it parallels your UFC career.

349
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:24,000
So I don't want to delve too far in before we attack your other career.

350
00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:25,560
Well, you know, it's funny.

351
00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:32,000
I remember when I was in Indiana University, I remember one of my friends, one summary

352
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,520
like, hey, let's be volunteer forest firefighters.

353
00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:35,760
There's a class you can take.

354
00:17:35,760 --> 00:17:37,320
And I was like, all right, I signed up for that.

355
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,000
And I remember, you know, I was intrigued by it.

356
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,000
It was fascinating to me.

357
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,960
I had to go to like a three day class and just sit there through it.

358
00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:44,960
I really enjoyed it.

359
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:46,640
I was like, man, this is pretty awesome.

360
00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:48,440
So I never really thought about doing it again.

361
00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:52,520
I graduated from school and I started, you know, working in my field.

362
00:17:52,520 --> 00:17:55,320
But right right about that time is when I start training in the main.

363
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,200
So once I started training in the main, like my real profession, kind of I didn't have

364
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:00,400
as much interest in that.

365
00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:01,800
I was like, I don't really want to be doing this.

366
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:03,120
I was a personal trainer.

367
00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:04,720
I was doing a couple of other things.

368
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:08,480
And at the gym I was working at, there's a couple of firemen there and they were like,

369
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,120
man, you need to try and get on the fire department.

370
00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:11,640
This will be perfect for you.

371
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:13,360
So I thought, you know what it would.

372
00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:14,840
And I started trying out for the fire department.

373
00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:17,160
I was continuing to fight in the main.

374
00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:19,360
Then I got hired on the fire department.

375
00:18:19,360 --> 00:18:20,760
And then like I said, that was early.

376
00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:26,080
I got hired in 2001 and really I would say most of my career didn't really take off an

377
00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:30,680
MMA till 2003, 2005, you know, a little bit afterwards.

378
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,400
So most of my MMA career I was on the fire department.

379
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:35,400
Okay.

380
00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,360
Now, obviously you were a trainer, you were a fighter.

381
00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:45,800
So what was it like coming from a very intense athletic background into your department

382
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:46,800
specifically?

383
00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:49,360
Did they hold the bar high physically for their recruits?

384
00:18:49,360 --> 00:18:50,720
Oh, absolutely.

385
00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:54,960
That's one of the reasons I know they liked me because I knew that, you know, I was a

386
00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:59,440
hardworking, you know, physical guy who was going to come in there and all the people

387
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:04,920
they tried to hire at this time were really physical fitness was an important thing.

388
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,960
That was one good thing about the department I was on.

389
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:11,480
They knew the importance of physical fitness and they didn't want to hire people who were

390
00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:16,400
going to come in and immediately, you know, gain 40 pounds and not work out.

391
00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:18,160
I mean, they wanted people who were going to work out.

392
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,120
I was very fit when I got hired, which was a good thing.

393
00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:22,120
Excellent.

394
00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:23,680
Have they maintained that standard?

395
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:24,680
Yeah.

396
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,400
Well, I mean, you know, they've tried to.

397
00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:29,400
It's hard.

398
00:19:29,400 --> 00:19:30,400
I mean, most of the newer guys, yes, absolutely.

399
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:34,760
Some of the older guys who were on before, you know, these administrations were in there.

400
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:36,320
I mean, you're not changing their opinion.

401
00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,920
You know, they're older, they don't sound, they're just like, I'm not working out.

402
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:40,920
It's like, well, all right.

403
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:45,880
I mean, they even give bonuses now for if you do workout so many days and you do so

404
00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:47,560
well on physical fitness tests.

405
00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:48,560
It's not much, but it's something.

406
00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:52,040
I mean, it's something just for working out every day, which is awesome.

407
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,080
And some people still refuse to take it.

408
00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:55,080
Yeah, yeah.

409
00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:56,080
It is.

410
00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:57,080
It's a good incentive.

411
00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:59,600
And again, it goes back to that Japanese philosophy of ownership.

412
00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:03,400
You know, if you're going to wear the badge on your chest, you need to be the best version

413
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:04,400
of yourself because.

414
00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:07,760
Well, yeah, here's the biggest problem to me.

415
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:12,300
I think especially in America, we're in this society right now where, you know, everybody

416
00:20:12,300 --> 00:20:16,120
has a built in excuse for why something doesn't go their way.

417
00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:20,040
And I think that was one of the biggest things in my career when I actually took ownership.

418
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:21,840
You know, now I look at everything.

419
00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:25,000
You know, people always say, well, this is your fault.

420
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:26,000
Everything's your fault.

421
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,640
I promise at some level, almost everything.

422
00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:31,000
There's a few exceptions, but things are your fault.

423
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,360
And I mean, if you don't do certain, I mean, here's an example.

424
00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:38,600
I've had people who I've talked to about getting on the fire from.

425
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:43,520
We talked about this and I'm like, well, you know, did you make it past that round?

426
00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:46,480
I'm like, oh, man, no, this isn't happening.

427
00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,480
You know, everybody in the fire department knows each other.

428
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:49,480
He's a brother or cousin.

429
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:52,960
He's like, man, I can't, you know, one guy told me, like, is a black man.

430
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:54,760
I, you know, I just don't know anybody on there.

431
00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:55,760
I can't get hired.

432
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:56,760
I was like, OK, right.

433
00:20:56,760 --> 00:20:59,360
And I talked to a white guy and said, well, did you get passed?

434
00:20:59,360 --> 00:21:02,400
No, man, they're just giving all these jobs to women and minorities.

435
00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:04,560
I'm like, OK, different guys, you guys.

436
00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,560
Both didn't get hired because of the race.

437
00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:08,560
That's impossible.

438
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,880
But my point is everybody has a built in excuse for why they didn't succeed.

439
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:13,000
Now, it's not me.

440
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:14,000
It's my gender.

441
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:15,000
It's not me.

442
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:16,000
It's my race.

443
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:17,000
It's not me.

444
00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:18,000
It's like that's an excuse.

445
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:19,000
Like I said, did you try it?

446
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:20,000
Did you go to fire science?

447
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:21,000
What?

448
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:22,680
No, that's an excuse people have.

449
00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:24,000
And it's like that with everything.

450
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,680
There's no ownership for what people did wrong.

451
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:28,040
I look back at the different fights.

452
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:29,040
I did things wrong.

453
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:30,040
I did those wrong.

454
00:21:30,040 --> 00:21:31,040
Don't blame the referees.

455
00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:32,040
Don't blame the judges.

456
00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:34,160
Don't blame anybody but yourself.

457
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:35,520
But we don't do that here.

458
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:37,040
Everybody has an excuse.

459
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:41,000
And here's the problem with that, though, when I figured out what things I did wrong,

460
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:42,120
I can correct them.

461
00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:46,440
If you blame it on race, if you blame it on gender, if you blame it on somebody else,

462
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:47,440
you can't do it.

463
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:48,440
Then it's out of your hands.

464
00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:49,720
And why change what you're doing?

465
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:52,160
You can't fix it if it's not your fault.

466
00:21:52,160 --> 00:21:55,280
And we have a society that believes nothing is their fault, so they don't worry about

467
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:56,280
fixing anything.

468
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:57,960
And that's where our biggest problem is right there.

469
00:21:57,960 --> 00:21:58,960
Absolutely.

470
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:02,800
Yeah, I remember having a few fights in Taekwondo and it being left to the judges.

471
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,880
And at the end of it, the guys would be like, oh, man, you were robbed.

472
00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:10,400
And it's like, no, because if I was that good, I would have knocked the guy out and it would

473
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:12,400
have been no question.

474
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,280
But if you leave it in the referee's hands, then technically you've already lost, in my

475
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:16,480
opinion.

476
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:17,480
I agree.

477
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:18,480
I mean, here's the problem.

478
00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:23,960
And that's the problem with the sport in a way is some guys are just tough and some guys

479
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:27,880
are so good, you're not going to be able to take everybody out.

480
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,560
And that's why I like the sport as far as like to me, there's nothing wrong with some

481
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:33,560
losses.

482
00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:37,420
That's one thing where I think Japan had it right when you had like the Pride days when

483
00:22:37,420 --> 00:22:40,800
it wasn't about necessarily winning every fight.

484
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,120
It's about going out there and showing the warrior spirit and putting on entertaining

485
00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:45,120
fights.

486
00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:46,720
And that's why I love the like the yellow card system.

487
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:50,720
So if you go out there and you were putting on a boring fight to try and eke out a decision,

488
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,480
they were going to give a yellow card and you're going to get fined money and people

489
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:54,480
are like, I don't want to lose my money.

490
00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:55,480
So I'm going to come out there and fight.

491
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,120
And if I lose and I put on a great fight, they're going to want me back.

492
00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:00,120
It doesn't really matter.

493
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:01,120
Yeah.

494
00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:02,280
And that's really what people are paying for.

495
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:08,280
I mean, it's not the lay and pray that the people paying the money to watch are tuning

496
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:09,280
in to see.

497
00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:13,840
It's obviously the slug fest and yeah, I think the guys that leave it all in the cage

498
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:19,400
and lose get a lot more respect than the guys that win sitting on a guy for five rounds.

499
00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:20,400
I couldn't agree more.

500
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:23,760
I always tell people I'd rather lose a great fight than win a bad one.

501
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:25,240
You know, it's just better.

502
00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:26,240
You feel better about yourself.

503
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,240
Only then it sucks like would you have seen the pace of what it was.

504
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:30,480
It wasn't like that in Japan.

505
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:35,160
You got like, at least when I was there, you got a flat rate, you know, but I don't know.

506
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:36,160
Yeah.

507
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:37,160
So you get the incentive to win.

508
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:38,160
Well, yeah.

509
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:39,160
Okay.

510
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,680
So, well, speaking of that, so that kind of ties in nicely.

511
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:48,120
How was your department with regards to your MMA career?

512
00:23:48,120 --> 00:23:49,120
Did they support it?

513
00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:51,640
Did they allow you time off?

514
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,120
Man, I was really lucky.

515
00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:56,760
My department was fantastic about that.

516
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:01,800
I remember, you know, and I normally if you went off for a fight or whatever, I would

517
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:03,160
just have to do great time.

518
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:07,200
So I have somebody work for me, you know, one day and then when I got back, I'd have

519
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:09,240
to work for them to make up that day.

520
00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:10,360
That's usually how that works.

521
00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:14,480
But I remember one time when I went on the Ultimate Fighter Four on the reality show,

522
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,360
I was going to have to be off for six weeks straight.

523
00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:20,760
And I talked to the chief and he was like, well, Chris, you know, this is a great opportunity.

524
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:21,760
You have to take it.

525
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,560
And he's like, well, I'll talk to the board and make sure we can get you off of this.

526
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:29,760
And he's like, if they decide they, you know, you can't have like a lead, then we will get

527
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:31,960
a bunch of guys to work for you if we have to.

528
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,360
And he's like, hell, I'll even work a day for you if I need to.

529
00:24:34,360 --> 00:24:37,760
And I was like, wow, what kind of department does that with a chief since you can't work

530
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:38,760
for me?

531
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:42,120
You know, so yeah, I was I was hoping he would trade with me because I wanted to I wanted

532
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:47,360
to trade with him back and be the chief one day.

533
00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:48,360
But he didn't have it.

534
00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:49,360
Yeah, well, that's phenomenal.

535
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:52,160
So that was the Ultimate Fighter Four, is that correct?

536
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:53,160
Yeah.

537
00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,520
Because I have to say, I'm not just saying this because you're a fireman and we're having

538
00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:02,080
this conversation now, but I think that that cast of that that particular series was probably

539
00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:04,320
the best cast that they've had on the Ultimate Fighter.

540
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,480
I mean, Din Tonimus and Pete Sell and all the other guys, Matt Serra that you were with.

541
00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:14,480
A, any good UFC fan have been watching you guys for several years prior to that.

542
00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:15,480
Yeah.

543
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:17,360
But, you know, the fights were phenomenal.

544
00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:20,880
So what was it like during that whole episode?

545
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:26,920
Man, you know, to me, the thing that was different, you know, some of the guys were like, man,

546
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:29,440
I don't have my cell phone, man, I can't watch TV.

547
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:30,920
But there was a couple of us.

548
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:32,520
I don't know me and Matt Serra particularly.

549
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:33,840
I don't know what you people are talking about.

550
00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:35,440
I could care less about my cell phone.

551
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:36,600
I care less about TV.

552
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:41,720
I was like, this is I mean, this is a chance to get to live the dream, you know, I mean,

553
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,400
my dream was to be the best fighter I could then.

554
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,080
And I didn't get that option ever.

555
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,320
I mean, I was always working at the firehouse my whole career.

556
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:53,160
That was the only time throughout my in May career where I took off and treated like I

557
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:54,680
was a real fighter for six weeks.

558
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:58,240
I trained twice a day with some of the best guys in the world, had some great coaches,

559
00:25:58,240 --> 00:25:59,240
you know, got to go in there.

560
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,960
I got to eat properly, whatever I needed to for training and fighting.

561
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:03,960
It was awesome to me.

562
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:09,720
I mean, I loved that aspect of being there as opposed to I can't have my phone.

563
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,320
You know, I mean, you know, my family and everybody knew I went there for a purpose

564
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,080
to try and help, you know, our lives.

565
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,160
And that was just something you once again, you have to sacrifice.

566
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:22,680
You don't just keep things given to you and nothing's easy.

567
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:27,280
That's worthwhile, you know, so I was more than happy to be there, more than happy to

568
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,960
try and treat myself like I was a true professional and work as hard as I could while I was there.

569
00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:32,960
I loved it.

570
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:33,960
Right.

571
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:34,960
Yeah.

572
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,720
Now, you're known for and this might be completely different now, but I know you were known for

573
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:42,640
training boxing in a boxing gym, training jujitsu in a jujitsu gym.

574
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:48,760
Was it a different experience having specific MMA coaches when you were on the show?

575
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:55,320
I mean, it was just I mean, it was weird having everything at one place.

576
00:26:55,320 --> 00:27:00,160
You know, I mean, it was a little different, but I mean, to me, training is training.

577
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,480
You know, I can listen to anybody.

578
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,320
I feel like I'm very coachable.

579
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:08,480
So to have everybody at the same place was just another bonus.

580
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:10,000
You know, hey, I can do this all right here.

581
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,800
I said, I happen to go here, go there.

582
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:15,360
But you know, I didn't think that was really difficult at all.

583
00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:19,840
I just thought it was great to have, you know, quality people around at all times you could

584
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:20,840
train with.

585
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:21,840
That was pretty awesome.

586
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:23,720
And quality coaches around.

587
00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:27,720
You know, I have always had good coaches, but just going with different people, you

588
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,520
get a different thought process, a different way of doing things.

589
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:34,680
And that was, I mean, I'll pick anybody's brain who has had some success at coaching

590
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:38,360
because they obviously know something that I don't probably.

591
00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:40,840
Just tweaking what I do a little bit might be a big difference.

592
00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:41,840
Yeah.

593
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:43,400
Now that can relate back to the fire department, too.

594
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:47,040
I mean, the moment you think you know everything about the fire department is the day you need

595
00:27:47,040 --> 00:27:48,040
to retire.

596
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:50,160
So you need to be open minded enough.

597
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:51,160
Yeah.

598
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,680
And you always see that some people don't want to do anything different, don't want

599
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:55,680
to train different.

600
00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:00,480
But I mean, you know, like you said, you're always about one run away from something terrible

601
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,080
happen and that kind of changes things.

602
00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:06,560
I remember when I first got hired, there was a big fire here that happened, you know, a

603
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:08,080
few years before that.

604
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:13,000
And some of the people were killed and they totally changed the way they've done things

605
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,520
here and other places throughout the country because of things like that.

606
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,520
So once you're getting, being too comfortable is a problem.

607
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:25,560
You know, you don't want to be too comfortable here because not only is your situation changing,

608
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:30,080
but I mean, the environment's changing, you know, the plastics are burning faster, melting

609
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:34,840
more, you know, different things are changing and it changes what happens with our job,

610
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:35,840
too.

611
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,520
So if you're not willing to change, you're going to, you might get hurt or might get

612
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:39,520
somebody killed.

613
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:40,520
Yeah.

614
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:41,520
Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

615
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:47,360
The cars, the hybrids and the electrical cars and everything's changing.

616
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:51,240
And that's the thing is if you stop learning, you're going to be so far behind the curve

617
00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:56,320
that either your life or someone else's life is going to be in danger if you haven't taken

618
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:57,320
it seriously.

619
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:58,320
Yeah.

620
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,520
I just want to touch back on the show.

621
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:02,520
Correct me if I'm wrong.

622
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:07,200
Wasn't it that show where Scott Smith and was it Pete Sell had that incredible fight

623
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:08,200
where...

624
00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:11,440
Man, that was about really one of the best endings to a fight.

625
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:12,440
I've ever seen still.

626
00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:14,480
I mean, I don't know if you can really top that one.

627
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:15,480
It was pretty awesome.

628
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:16,480
Yeah, I would say the same.

629
00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:21,680
That shot from lying on the floor was, yeah, straight out of Hollywood.

630
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,360
Yeah, it's a straight up Rocky movie.

631
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:29,600
Pete hits him with a good body punch and Scott kind of crumbles over like, oh, you can see

632
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:31,440
the look in his face, pain.

633
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:35,280
And he like musters up enough energy to throw one right hand.

634
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,960
At the same time, Pete's running forward to take him out, you know, to finish him off

635
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:46,080
in that right hand that Scott Smith throws, lands right on Pete's chin, knocks him unconscious,

636
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:51,680
you know, wins the fight, falls over and holds his side for about 30 seconds after he wins.

637
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:52,680
It was...

638
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:54,080
You couldn't ask for anything better.

639
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:55,080
Yeah.

640
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:56,080
No, that was...

641
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:57,080
I agree 100%.

642
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,480
I don't think I've seen a finish as good as that.

643
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:03,120
I mean, there's been some phenomenal ones, but yeah, as far as true grit and finding

644
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:08,480
that energy when you think you have none left, there's no better example than that fight

645
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:09,480
in my opinion.

646
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:10,480
Yeah.

647
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,160
I mean, it was the easiest call to give that to knock out the night in the fight of the

648
00:30:14,160 --> 00:30:15,160
night.

649
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:17,880
I mean, they probably should have gave him the sub of the night too, even though he didn't

650
00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:18,880
submit himself.

651
00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:19,880
Just throw everything at him.

652
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:20,880
Just say, hey, here you go.

653
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:21,880
This is awesome.

654
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:23,880
You know, that was pretty awesome.

655
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:24,880
Yeah.

656
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:25,880
All right.

657
00:30:25,880 --> 00:30:26,880
So, you have fought...

658
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:30,680
You know, it's funny, when I was looking at going back over your history, I mean, Matt

659
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:36,360
Serra and Matt Hughes and it seemed like everyone you fought was either a champion or absolute

660
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:40,840
top of the pile there.

661
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:45,440
But I think my most impressive fight for you and I feel bad admitting that I was totally

662
00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,240
rooting for you the whole time, but was your final fight against my fellow countryman,

663
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:50,240
Dan Hardy.

664
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:51,240
Oh, thank you.

665
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:56,000
So, what did that feel like retiring on a win?

666
00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:04,080
Well, you know, I couldn't ask for a better fight to go out on, but you know, it was nerve

667
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,240
racking going in there, you know, because I knew I was retiring before that and I wrote

668
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:09,960
a letter and I kind of gave it to him.

669
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,440
I announced I was retiring before that fight.

670
00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,360
So you always want to go out on the win, but you don't know.

671
00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,240
I mean, and he was, you know, extremely tough fighter.

672
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,560
I really liked watching him fight and I really liked the way he fought, which is, you know,

673
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:26,000
one of the reasons I was excited about the fight.

674
00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:27,680
I knew he wasn't coming to win a decision.

675
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:29,440
He was going to try and take me out.

676
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:34,320
And then we got to stay in a bank for almost three, four rounds and he shot in with about

677
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:35,320
a minute to go.

678
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:37,920
And, you know, I was like, I didn't really expect this, but I love it.

679
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:39,760
And I was able to get a submission too.

680
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:40,760
So it was very nice.

681
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:42,440
Yeah, that was a great ending.

682
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:47,800
And yeah, I was very, very proud to be a fellow firefighter, I got to say.

683
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,920
So just scaling kind of parallel for a moment.

684
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:52,440
So what about your boxing career?

685
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:55,280
Obviously, that was over a few years as well.

686
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:58,360
What started that and then what ultimately finished that one?

687
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:03,560
Well, you know, I was funny because a lot of people think I was a boxer first and an

688
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:04,560
MMA guy.

689
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:05,560
That's not true.

690
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:06,560
I was MMA.

691
00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:11,440
And I remember I wanted to get better on my standup, you know, so I started going to a

692
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,720
boxing gym and I was there for a little over a month.

693
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:19,680
And the guy, my boxing coach, he's like, hey, this is a tough guy.

694
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,840
He knew what I did, MMA and everything.

695
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,000
And somebody called him a guy from a top ranked boxing.

696
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,560
He's like, hey, I got to fight in Wisconsin.

697
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:30,960
I need a tough guy who doesn't have much experience.

698
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:34,000
And he's like, I got a tough guy who doesn't have much experience.

699
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:35,000
That was me.

700
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:42,960
So we drove up to Wisconsin and it was on like a ESPN2 card and I fought a guy.

701
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:48,680
He had like 50 amateur fights and he was two and O as a pro and he was an Indian and I

702
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:50,880
was fighting on his reservation.

703
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:51,880
So I was like, well, this kind of sucks.

704
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:53,680
I'm being brought in to lose, I can tell.

705
00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:59,120
So I went over there and they, you know, the guy said he saw me warming up and he was like,

706
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:01,320
Jesus, Keith, I thought you brought me a good fighter.

707
00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:02,320
This guy looks terrible.

708
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,760
But they said that I said I beat him up the entire fight.

709
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:10,040
They said I won every round, but they ended up calling it a draw because I figured he

710
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:12,480
was, you know, I was on his reservation, whatever.

711
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:14,640
So I was, I didn't think much of it.

712
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,360
I was like, well, whatever, I'm just doing this for my MMA practice.

713
00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:20,440
And you know, the guy for top rank got ahold of my guys.

714
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:22,480
I can't, I need to get those guys some more fights.

715
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:23,800
He can, he can, he can hit.

716
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,200
And they actually, he gave me my nickname lights out right there.

717
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,000
So yeah, that's where I got it.

718
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,480
So then I started doing a lot of boxing and you know, I really enjoyed it.

719
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:34,480
Like it was really weird.

720
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:39,880
I remember at one point I had, I was just doing whatever popped up.

721
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:47,480
I remember I had two boxing things and an MMA fight all within about a five week period,

722
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:48,480
which was stupid.

723
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,640
I mean, I know the only boxing match I lost was the third one, like the third fight in

724
00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:54,640
three weeks.

725
00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:57,920
You know, I, and cause I was kind of of the opinion that I could just knock whoever out

726
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:02,520
no matter what, you know, and then, um, you know, I watched my fight, the one that I lost

727
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:06,600
is like every round, my hands were dropping lower, my hands were dropping lower.

728
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:10,280
And I just really wasn't prepared for the fight because I had been doing too much.

729
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,400
You know, then I, that was after that, I kind of realized, you know, there's a thing you

730
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:15,400
have to do.

731
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,000
We have to, you have to peak at the end of each training camp.

732
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,920
You know, you have to, you can't just keep going and re recharge and a recharge.

733
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,440
You know, you have to, you're supposed to, you know, have, so now like, and then you

734
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,800
have like a six week camp and you're supposed to take right into that six week.

735
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,680
And then you take a little bit of time off and then you redo that.

736
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:33,560
You can't just keep fighting and fighting.

737
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,800
You know, your body can't get up that much for every time.

738
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:37,800
That's what happened.

739
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:38,800
That fight is couldn't get up enough.

740
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,040
And you know, I didn't have any juice left at the end of the night.

741
00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,040
So lost that fight, but that was a learning experience.

742
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:48,040
But like I said, it was great being able to, you know, I'll do an MMA fight this week.

743
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:49,400
I'll do a boxing max next week.

744
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:50,400
I liked it.

745
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:51,400
I was being busy.

746
00:34:51,400 --> 00:34:52,400
I was learning all the time.

747
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:53,400
It was, it was a great time.

748
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:57,680
But what really ended it for me was when I signed to be on the ultimate fighter four,

749
00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:02,800
you know, I signed that UFC contract and you know, they said, well, when you do this, there's,

750
00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:03,800
there's no boxing.

751
00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:05,920
And I remember I, I was like, well, I really like box.

752
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:07,280
I'm doing pretty well in it right now.

753
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:11,560
And then I looked at my boxing contract and then I looked at my UFC contract and I kind

754
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:12,560
of said, what's, what's boxing?

755
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,120
I do that contract.

756
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,000
I'm getting paid more to do the UFC.

757
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,000
So that's what ended my boxing career.

758
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:20,000
Right.

759
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:22,520
And then did you find this, this almost sounds like a silly question, but did you find that

760
00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:27,280
your pure boxing training helped your overall MMA?

761
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,080
Oh, a hundred percent.

762
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:33,320
I mean, you know, I mean, just, just being that comfort level of being on your feet,

763
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:36,520
knowing you could knock people out.

764
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,600
But the difference is, I mean, you know, Pete, you got to understand there, there is definitely

765
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:44,120
a difference in boxing and MMA standup.

766
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,560
I think you'll find that out when Connor fights here.

767
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,440
But I mean, there's just a couple of different things.

768
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:53,920
And I know for my style of boxing, to be honest with you, I think it is by far the worst style

769
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:54,920
for MMA.

770
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:56,400
I mean, there's a couple of different styles.

771
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,800
You've got the guys who are good, you know, boxers who are going to stand and jab and

772
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,100
move around those that that translates over to MMA pretty well.

773
00:36:04,100 --> 00:36:07,520
You got the guys who are looking for the one punch knockout, just a knockout artist that

774
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,720
translates to MMA pretty well, too.

775
00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:10,920
I was like the worst kind.

776
00:36:10,920 --> 00:36:11,920
I was a different kind.

777
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:13,080
I was more of a pressure fighter.

778
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:15,320
You get inside, you punch, you do dirty boxing.

779
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:19,800
You know, you punch a guy to the arms, the shoulder, you just overwhelm him with Julio

780
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,160
Sejard Chavez style of boxing.

781
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,600
That doesn't translate over to MMA very well, because as soon as you get in tight, people

782
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:27,360
clench you up and try to take you down.

783
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:32,320
So it's hard to hard to really implement that style of boxing into MMA.

784
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:33,840
But that was my style of boxing.

785
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:35,100
I'm a firm believer.

786
00:36:35,100 --> 00:36:36,560
You don't pick your style of boxing.

787
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:37,560
You don't choose a jiu.

788
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:42,320
So, I mean, I wasn't tall enough, long enough or fast enough to go out there and just out

789
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:43,320
jab people.

790
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:48,280
And it just, you know, I became the kind of fighter that, you know, my body and everything

791
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:49,840
naturally wanted it to be.

792
00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:50,840
Right.

793
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:54,760
Now, you touched on, I literally have this word written on my paper in front of me, but

794
00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:55,760
you already said it.

795
00:36:55,760 --> 00:37:00,840
So, who do you pick for the corner fight and why?

796
00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:04,240
Man, I'm going with Floyd.

797
00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:07,280
Floyd is my least favorite fighter probably in the world.

798
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:12,680
I don't like him in any way, but every time I've ever seen him fight, I've rooted against

799
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:16,680
him and he's never came near getting beat up.

800
00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:21,160
He just, he's, here's the thing, you know, the, the, the styling is different.

801
00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:22,160
The gloves are bigger.

802
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:25,200
I don't think people realize how different, I mean, people think these gloves are bigger

803
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:26,200
and heavier.

804
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,200
That's going to help counter.

805
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:28,200
No, it's not.

806
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:29,200
He's not going to be able to hit Floyd.

807
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:30,200
Nobody, nobody can hit the guy.

808
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:31,600
I mean, Canelo couldn't hit him.

809
00:37:31,600 --> 00:37:32,960
Canelo's damn good, you know.

810
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:35,240
Berto doesn't hit him, Pacquiao doesn't hit him.

811
00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:39,280
I really don't think Floyd, if Conor hits him five times the entire fight, I'll be impressed.

812
00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:42,640
Not talking little jabs or body shots, but if he actually hits him with five times, I

813
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:43,800
don't think that's going to happen.

814
00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:47,400
So if you can't hit a guy five times, you're probably not going to knock him out.

815
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:53,320
You know, so I just don't see any way of Floyd really getting beat by Conor because I can't

816
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:55,240
see Conor really do much.

817
00:37:55,240 --> 00:38:00,600
I mean, Conor, I've seen him kind of gas out on some fights.

818
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:01,600
I've never really seen Floyd.

819
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:02,600
I don't know.

820
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,040
I don't see how he's going to get hit personally.

821
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:06,040
Yeah.

822
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:09,280
I mean, he's definitely restricting himself within the boxing rules.

823
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:14,080
That's a pretty huge challenge he's given himself.

824
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:19,080
Well, I mean, to be honest, it's the smartest, the best thing I've ever seen for any fighter.

825
00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:20,680
I'm so happy for this guy.

826
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:25,440
He's going to make himself, you know, nine figures possibly, and he'll never have to

827
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:26,440
do anything ever.

828
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:30,880
I mean, how many fighters can ever say that in UFC?

829
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:34,880
I mean, he's just, you know, he's put himself on a different level and it hasn't taken him

830
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:35,880
that long.

831
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:39,400
He's going to just have a, you know, hopefully a good life afterward.

832
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:41,600
But I mean, you just don't want to.

833
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:46,400
My big problem with fighters is they continue to fight way past the time they should.

834
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,240
Maybe part of it's financial.

835
00:38:48,240 --> 00:38:52,440
Maybe part of it's just they, you know, they need that, you know, recognition that the

836
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:53,440
greatest in the world.

837
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:54,440
I don't know.

838
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:55,440
But I don't think that's going to be Conor.

839
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,960
I hope that he will be smart enough to be like, hey, I'm going to stick around as long

840
00:38:58,960 --> 00:38:59,960
as I want to.

841
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:01,880
I don't need to be doing this.

842
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:06,360
And I just don't like it when fighters continue to tarnish their legacy by continuing to fight

843
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:07,720
and get knocked out and look bad.

844
00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:08,720
It's like, man, how was that guy?

845
00:39:08,720 --> 00:39:09,720
He used to be great.

846
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:10,720
Not anymore.

847
00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:11,720
Yeah.

848
00:39:11,720 --> 00:39:12,720
Yeah.

849
00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:15,120
I think Conor, if anything, is going to be known as one of the greatest businessmen in

850
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:16,120
MMA.

851
00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:17,120
Oh, absolutely.

852
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:18,120
Yeah.

853
00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:19,120
OK.

854
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:24,400
So I want to kind of touch, bring it back into the first responder side as well.

855
00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:30,200
So you were doing MMA, you were doing boxing and you're on shift.

856
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:37,040
How did how did you perceive the sleep deprivation of being up every third day affecting your

857
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,680
your overall fitness and obviously your career as well?

858
00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:45,040
Well that was the thing for I mean, for many, many years, it was this funny.

859
00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:47,360
I was I felt like I was always tired.

860
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:51,760
You know, people if I'm sitting there for more than five minutes and it counts or something,

861
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:52,760
I'd fall asleep.

862
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,080
And people was like, man, you can you can just sleep, go to sleep just like that.

863
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,080
Like, I'm always tired.

864
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:01,000
You know, I just I'm constantly tired because I'm constantly, you know, not getting enough

865
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:04,720
sleep sometimes or just, you know, working real hard.

866
00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:07,880
I mean, I never understood how people have like insomnia.

867
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:08,880
How do you know?

868
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:12,120
You know, I can just sleep anytime if I wanted to.

869
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:13,840
I can take a nap and fall asleep.

870
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,240
You know, it's just I didn't understand in any different way.

871
00:40:17,240 --> 00:40:21,760
But I mean, you know, the part of that, too, was I mean, I know a lot of people used to

872
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:26,320
really, you know, I don't want to say this or just in my lifestyle.

873
00:40:26,320 --> 00:40:27,320
They're like, man, it looks like you.

874
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:29,040
I mean, you have a great lifestyle.

875
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:30,040
You do a lot of fun stuff.

876
00:40:30,040 --> 00:40:35,640
I'm like, no, I mean, all I do is train at the, you know, at the gym, work at the firehouse

877
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:36,960
or spend time with my kids.

878
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,240
Like there is no other part of my life that's actually quite boring.

879
00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:43,880
You know, it's like, you know, they're like, well, do you like to go golf?

880
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:44,880
I don't ever golf.

881
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:46,800
Like you go fishing or hunting.

882
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:48,200
I've never been hunting in my life.

883
00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:49,200
Like what else do you do?

884
00:40:49,200 --> 00:40:50,200
This is it.

885
00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:54,560
That's my life is at the gym, you know, at the firehouse or I play my kids.

886
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:57,120
That was all I did for about 10 years.

887
00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:59,800
You know, so it's funny when you get down with fighting, like you don't really have

888
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:01,880
all these other interests or other things you're good at.

889
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:02,880
It's weird.

890
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:03,880
Well, now what?

891
00:41:03,880 --> 00:41:06,600
You know, it kind of throws you off.

892
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:07,600
Yeah.

893
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:08,600
Yeah.

894
00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:10,440
But did you have any any period of time where you weren't on shift?

895
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,280
Did you scale back from the fire department at all at any time?

896
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,680
No, the only time I ever did was when I went on that reality show.

897
00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:23,600
I mean, before that, you know, I would train up till I remember, before my boxing matches,

898
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:27,280
you know, when they were in, you know, around the Midwest, I would be training, you know,

899
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,560
I'd be on the ship the day before the fight.

900
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:30,560
You know?

901
00:41:30,560 --> 00:41:32,280
See, that's crazy.

902
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,880
The sleep deprivation is so detrimental.

903
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:40,160
And this is one of the big things I'm trying to get the point across, the sleep deprivation

904
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,640
and then the amount of hours that an average firefighter works as well.

905
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:50,040
But for you to have the other careers that you have, the achievements that you have on

906
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:51,480
their own are incredible.

907
00:41:51,480 --> 00:41:57,400
But to do that with every third day being on a 24-hour shift and not sleeping, I mean,

908
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:03,040
I think you'd add another 40% to your achievements in all honesty.

909
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:04,080
I appreciate that.

910
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:09,280
And that's one thing, you know, I remember I was talking with my wife and she was just

911
00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:17,560
always said she felt bad that I never really got a chance to fully, you know, do what I

912
00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:21,560
felt like I could have done in the sport of MMA.

913
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:25,440
And I, you know, here's the thing that you got to understand back when I was fighting

914
00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:31,880
like in 2001 and 2002, you know, even up like 2005, I mean, you weren't making a lot of

915
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:33,640
money doing MMA, you know?

916
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:38,480
So you know, the thought of ever like quitting my job at the fire department was never a

917
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:39,480
realistic thing.

918
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,000
I mean, there's another thing too.

919
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:42,200
I like coming to work.

920
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:45,600
I've never woke up once and said, I don't want to go to the firehouse.

921
00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:46,600
That's weird, isn't it?

922
00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:50,000
But it's never really happened to me where I was like, I don't want to go there today.

923
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:51,000
That doesn't happen.

924
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:53,400
So how are you going to quit a job that you like going to?

925
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:58,440
You know, I just, I've never even thought ever about quitting this job and not coming

926
00:42:58,440 --> 00:42:59,440
to it right now.

927
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:04,840
So that's always been a difficult aspect to, I mean, if I worked in a factory or something

928
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:09,000
back then, I'm sure I quit and I just fight all the time, but I mean, I was lucky enough

929
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:13,600
to have two things I love to do and I said, I'm going to give it everything I can at both

930
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:16,480
of these right now, as long as I can.

931
00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,080
Then when I'm done, I'll be done and enjoy my life.

932
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:20,080
Yeah.

933
00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:22,840
Well, it was like I said, it was a hell of an achievement balancing those two together

934
00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:24,320
and I couldn't agree more.

935
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:29,560
I mean, even promotions, I'm a fireman still and 13 years deep and I've moved a few departments,

936
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:30,760
but I'm still a fireman to me.

937
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,560
That's still the best seat in the whole fire department.

938
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,000
It's so hard even to leave that to promote.

939
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:37,000
Oh yeah.

940
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:40,560
I mean, to be honest with you, that's another problem.

941
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:46,240
You know, I haven't really had the desire to promote really because I mean, I got a

942
00:43:46,240 --> 00:43:52,560
lot going on on my outside schedule, other things I do during the day, but when I'm not

943
00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,440
here, but man, I just enjoy doing this aspect of it.

944
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:56,880
I haven't got over that part yet.

945
00:43:56,880 --> 00:44:02,640
So maybe, you know, and I think a lot of people like to be, you know, do other promotions

946
00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:06,920
or whatnot because they have a sense of fulfillment and achievement in other areas, but I'm like,

947
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:08,680
I'm getting at it and other things.

948
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:10,600
I like what I'm doing here and I'm happy doing it.

949
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:15,280
So I'm not really interested right now in trying to promote to different levels.

950
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,720
So I'm just happy coming to work every day.

951
00:44:17,720 --> 00:44:18,720
Yeah.

952
00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:22,920
And your department obviously is, is it your department specifically that was the inspiration

953
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:26,840
for the FDIC or?

954
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:27,840
I don't know.

955
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:28,840
It's here every year though.

956
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:29,840
I know we have it every year.

957
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:30,840
So yeah, that's pretty awesome too.

958
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:36,880
I love we have people come over from all over the place and that's pretty awesome just to

959
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:40,560
hear other people and find out how things are in other areas.

960
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:41,560
Yeah.

961
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:45,440
Well, if I make it out there next year, we will try and connect and do a face-to-face

962
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:46,440
follow up.

963
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:47,440
Absolutely.

964
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:48,440
That'll be great, man.

965
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:50,080
I'll take you out to all the places around here.

966
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:51,080
We'll have a good time.

967
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:52,080
Fantastic.

968
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:53,080
All right.

969
00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:54,080
It's done then.

970
00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:55,080
All right.

971
00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:56,080
So you're talking about the outside.

972
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:58,960
The next thing I want to touch on is you ran for state Senate.

973
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:03,280
So what was the reason for that and what were the things that you were trying to change?

974
00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:07,640
Well, the main reason was, you know, I cannot stand to be honest with you.

975
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:09,440
I can't stand politicians.

976
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:12,400
I think they're all complete liars.

977
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:13,400
They're not good people.

978
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:14,400
I don't think most of them.

979
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:16,600
I think they're just very egotistical.

980
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:20,600
They pull themselves and they just say one thing and do another.

981
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:24,680
And I really, the more I got to know them, the more I felt that they really didn't have

982
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:26,640
the public's best interest at heart.

983
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:31,840
Me being a firefighter like yourself, you see a lot more of things that I think the

984
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:33,840
general public doesn't really understand.

985
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:40,320
And I see problems with how, you know, the rules that let people do certain things and

986
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:43,000
when they're there, they might do things that they think are helping people.

987
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:47,520
But I think they're really unintended consequences that are making things worse for everybody.

988
00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:51,680
So when I see these things, I'm like, hey, I can, I understand this and I'd like to

989
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:56,760
change it, that try and do whatever I can to make, you know, my environment a better

990
00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:57,760
place.

991
00:45:57,760 --> 00:45:59,880
But you can't do that just by talking to a politician.

992
00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:02,320
So I tried to become one of those guys.

993
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:06,480
I felt like maybe I could explain a little bit better on the boards or at different places.

994
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:10,200
Hey, these are the problems that I see and these are the laws we could do to change it

995
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,520
to make that a better situation.

996
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:16,760
So I decided that I would like to, I'm not the kind of person who just wants to, if I

997
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:18,080
have a problem, just talk about it.

998
00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:21,280
I was like, if I don't try and do something about it, then I don't really deserve the

999
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:22,840
right to complain about it.

1000
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:27,440
So I decided I was going to go and run for state senator to try and change the laws around

1001
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:28,440
my area.

1002
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:32,000
And then what were some of the issues that you wanted to change?

1003
00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:35,040
I mean, there's a ton of different things.

1004
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:40,240
I mean, you know, I still feel that, you know, there's a lot of different things with the

1005
00:46:40,240 --> 00:46:45,040
businesses that you need to try and work on to try and, you know, be honest with you,

1006
00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:47,580
the economy is always going to be a big issue.

1007
00:46:47,580 --> 00:46:51,960
So when you're having businesses that are leaving, going to other states, going to other

1008
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:56,160
countries, you know, I want this to be a more friendly business environment because as the

1009
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:57,760
economy goes, everything goes.

1010
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:01,960
I don't care if you're a number one thing, it's morals and ethics.

1011
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:05,760
When poverty comes in, that all goes out the window anyway.

1012
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:11,480
So you really have to worry about making the place good economic situation for everybody.

1013
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:15,080
So I try to do a lot of different things that we're going to be a very pro business.

1014
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:19,240
I want to be more of a loser pay system when like there's a lawsuit.

1015
00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:25,480
I know people who own businesses where they will get sued all the time for let's say $3,500

1016
00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:30,560
because they know that the business has a retainer fee for $5,000.

1017
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:34,920
So if they, you know, just if they take the case, they're going to pay more money than

1018
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:36,200
the lawsuits even work to them.

1019
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:37,840
So they just settle all the time.

1020
00:47:37,840 --> 00:47:38,840
That costs people.

1021
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,080
I know a lot of money, a lot of business, a lot of money.

1022
00:47:41,080 --> 00:47:42,080
So I think that's not fair.

1023
00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:45,520
I want if you're going to file a frivolous lawsuit, I want you to have to pay that's

1024
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:50,240
going to keep the business from having to shell all this money out of all these attorneys.

1025
00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:54,360
Problem is all the people in the state government are about 90% of them are attorneys.

1026
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:56,920
They don't like these kind of laws.

1027
00:47:56,920 --> 00:47:59,720
They don't want things like that where it's common sense.

1028
00:47:59,720 --> 00:48:04,080
I mean, I want, you know, if you have a legitimate problem, you know, people are going to take

1029
00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:06,280
the case and you're going to win.

1030
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:07,720
I want to protect the customers.

1031
00:48:07,720 --> 00:48:12,920
At the same time, I don't want people taking advantage of business and over regulation

1032
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:17,720
in certain aspects, I believe, or just a problem that kind of hurt business.

1033
00:48:17,720 --> 00:48:21,960
And I know other business people say they have, you know, four guys who were just there

1034
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:27,080
for compliance of, you know, FDA, different, different, you know, things that are just

1035
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:28,080
a complete waste of them.

1036
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:32,480
And they can't hire more people to help grow their business because they're spending all

1037
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:35,400
their money on different regulatory restrictions.

1038
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:37,480
And I just don't enjoy that.

1039
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:39,960
I think that's a foolish way to waste our money.

1040
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:41,960
It does create another job for a politician.

1041
00:48:41,960 --> 00:48:44,000
It creates another job for a government employee.

1042
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:46,320
But I mean, you know, I'm paying, you know, that's another thing.

1043
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:51,560
But I mean, I look at these taxes I was paying, I'd get a big check from USC and I noticed,

1044
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:54,560
you know, 30 something percent would go to the IRS.

1045
00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:56,760
And then I'm seeing how they're wasting money blatantly.

1046
00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:04,680
I remember the IRS had a big party and they, they brought this guy in and paid him $500,000

1047
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:12,040
to do some mural and these guys were staying in hotels that cost $3,000 a night.

1048
00:49:12,040 --> 00:49:16,640
I said, you have an IRS agent staying in a room costs $3,000 a night?

1049
00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:17,640
That was my tag.

1050
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:18,640
This is unbelievable.

1051
00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:20,280
I don't want people spending money like this.

1052
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,440
I mean, you can stay in a Best Western for $100 a night.

1053
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:26,200
They're staying at $3,000 one night.

1054
00:49:26,200 --> 00:49:27,680
That's unacceptable to me.

1055
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:31,000
But nobody's holding these people accountable because they're like, well, you know, I just

1056
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:33,240
can't deal with the way government does stuff.

1057
00:49:33,240 --> 00:49:36,720
They want everybody else to pay for all their, they're like Kings and Queens really.

1058
00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:40,400
Like if you took it, the American government, I think they live like Kings.

1059
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:41,400
Yeah.

1060
00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:44,720
I would say, I concur completely.

1061
00:49:44,720 --> 00:49:49,360
One of the things I think coming from outside the country and coming in and obviously having

1062
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:54,080
a fresh pair of eyes, we talk about making this country great again.

1063
00:49:54,080 --> 00:49:59,680
Frivolous lawsuits are by far a cancer to this nation and the legitimate lawsuits I'm

1064
00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:00,680
all for.

1065
00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:07,040
So if you get the surgery and they sew half their operating equipment inside your abdomen,

1066
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:09,560
clearly that needs to be mitigated.

1067
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:14,320
But you spill coffee on yourself and now you're crying that you got burned, then that's ridiculous.

1068
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:15,320
Yeah.

1069
00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:17,240
Well, you know, that's even one that won.

1070
00:50:17,240 --> 00:50:18,240
That actually won.

1071
00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:22,760
So I mean, my point would never be, I think how it would work is you would find a law

1072
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:27,400
firm, if you have a legitimate case, I think they're going to say, hey, we will do this

1073
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:30,720
for you, but we're going to get 40% if you win or whatever.

1074
00:50:30,720 --> 00:50:34,080
I mean, they're not going to not take cases they think are actually going to win.

1075
00:50:34,080 --> 00:50:37,360
They're not going to take stupid ones now, you know, because before they would just take

1076
00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:44,400
them and if people would sue and they know that whoever's trying to defend themselves,

1077
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:48,600
if they have to pay more than the lawsuit's worth, they're not going to do it.

1078
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:49,960
They'll just say, well, screw it, settle.

1079
00:50:49,960 --> 00:50:55,040
If I have to pay $5,000 instead of 10,000 is going to cost a fight, I'll just pay the

1080
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:56,040
5,000.

1081
00:50:56,040 --> 00:51:00,080
And a lot of people, I know people realize how many, I'd like to say scammers or how

1082
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:05,440
many people out there who are, you know, just taking advantage of loopholes and things that

1083
00:51:05,440 --> 00:51:08,800
they know they can get money off of that.

1084
00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:09,800
That bothers me.

1085
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:10,800
Yeah, yeah.

1086
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:12,040
And we see it obviously in our profession.

1087
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:16,880
I know every time you have like a two mile an hour vehicle collision, the average person

1088
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:17,880
will be fine.

1089
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:20,240
I had one that just this shift, I guess got off shift this morning.

1090
00:51:20,240 --> 00:51:24,400
A lady got hit really hard and she was like, I'm fine, I'm good.

1091
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:28,160
But then you get these ones at my neck, my back and then it's on the radio too here.

1092
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:33,920
You know, there's a certain commercial where after you call 911, you call 411 and you know,

1093
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:37,000
yeah, call them if someone has really affected your life.

1094
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:42,040
But if you got hit two miles an hour and just slightly moved the dust on the back of your

1095
00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:45,760
car, you're probably not having a career engine injury.

1096
00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:50,720
When you look and there's absolutely no damage to the vehicle, none and they're throwing

1097
00:51:50,720 --> 00:51:56,720
this, you know, big fit of I need, you know, I need this, I need that and just see colors

1098
00:51:56,720 --> 00:51:58,560
like man, you are not hurt.

1099
00:51:58,560 --> 00:51:59,560
Are you kidding me?

1100
00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:00,560
This is for real.

1101
00:52:00,560 --> 00:52:04,080
But yeah, I mean, they're just, I guarantee they're just looking for that lawsuit.

1102
00:52:04,080 --> 00:52:06,520
I'm like, look, you don't have to go by ambulance.

1103
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:07,520
You can still sue.

1104
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:11,360
I told you, even if you don't go by ambulance, let's say it hurt tomorrow.

1105
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:12,360
Okay.

1106
00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:14,520
I mean, yeah, that stuff bothers me.

1107
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:16,480
But the man is just a lot of things to me.

1108
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:22,640
You know, as the economy goes, I think society goes look at all the places I know here in

1109
00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:26,360
Indianapolis, there's areas that used to be very nice.

1110
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:33,680
And as you know, jobs go away, you know, plants close down.

1111
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:37,920
That area gets really bad economically and then everything goes bad.

1112
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:41,240
You know, you got a lot more crime there, drug problems.

1113
00:52:41,240 --> 00:52:46,360
So my point is, as the economy goes, I think, you know, morality, everything that that area

1114
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:48,280
is going to go downhill.

1115
00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:49,960
And I always want to avoid that.

1116
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:52,120
I think there could be better living situations.

1117
00:52:52,120 --> 00:52:56,160
I sympathize, I empathize with the people who I see here.

1118
00:52:56,160 --> 00:53:00,240
Because there's nothing worse to me than seeing a person, a little kid.

1119
00:53:00,240 --> 00:53:03,960
And I think you're such a cute, nice little kid and you have very little chance to be

1120
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:04,960
successful.

1121
00:53:04,960 --> 00:53:06,520
That's where you're going to have a very tough life.

1122
00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:07,560
I guarantee it.

1123
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:09,440
Just looking at your environment that you live in.

1124
00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:10,440
Yeah, absolutely.

1125
00:53:10,440 --> 00:53:14,680
I mean, I've had exactly the same, you know, situation where there's an escalate in the

1126
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:20,400
front and, you know, the poor kids are running around with no shoes and filthy clothes.

1127
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:26,000
And when people are judgmental towards certain members of society, it's like until you've

1128
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:31,400
seen a two year old in that situation where the parents are slinging dough or whatever

1129
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:35,280
it is that they're doing, you imagine what it would be like growing up as that child

1130
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:40,500
and then trying to function as a positive member of society when all your role models

1131
00:53:40,500 --> 00:53:42,080
have been teaching you the wrong way.

1132
00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:46,280
Well, that's the thing, you know, I've looked at, you know, I've done certain things right

1133
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:47,280
now.

1134
00:53:47,280 --> 00:53:51,080
We try and help out with the gym, indie boxing, graphing where I'm at now.

1135
00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:52,080
And it's free to all kids.

1136
00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:53,280
And it's not a nice area.

1137
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:57,760
And we put it there for a reason because we want those kids who have, you know, no chance,

1138
00:53:57,760 --> 00:53:59,040
you know, who have nobody look up to.

1139
00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:03,280
If you're like in those areas and you're looking up to somebody, I guarantee the person

1140
00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:07,160
in that neighborhood who's looked up to is probably a gang member or a drug dealer.

1141
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:08,160
One of the two.

1142
00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:09,440
Those are the people who get the respect.

1143
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:13,320
Those, because if you're a successful individual, you start a business, you don't stay in those

1144
00:54:13,320 --> 00:54:14,320
neighborhoods, you move out.

1145
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:17,600
So if you're in this bad neighborhood and you are a success, somebody who's looked up

1146
00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:20,000
to, you're doing something illegal.

1147
00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:24,880
So as a kid, you don't really know why you, I mean, you don't consciously think you want

1148
00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:27,880
to be like this, but you know, that rubs off on you.

1149
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:33,120
I mean, you as you idolize somebody, you kind of want to be more like them in subconscious.

1150
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:34,720
You do become more like them.

1151
00:54:34,720 --> 00:54:36,840
So that's who we're creating.

1152
00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:40,160
We're creating people who are wanting to be criminals in a way.

1153
00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:41,920
And that's looked up to in our society.

1154
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:46,600
So we wanted to put a gym where who's going to be looked up to a UFC fighter, you know,

1155
00:54:46,600 --> 00:54:49,440
so people are going to go to the gym and be like, I want to be this guy.

1156
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:50,800
So they're going to try and become more like that.

1157
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:51,800
How do you do that?

1158
00:54:51,800 --> 00:54:52,800
You work hard.

1159
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:57,000
So if they see they can work hard, maybe that'll rub off on them and maybe they will want to

1160
00:54:57,000 --> 00:54:58,000
work hard in life.

1161
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:02,040
That's kind of the thought behind the gym and learning to work hard, not learning how

1162
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:06,280
to, you know, steal things or sell drugs or whatever.

1163
00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:09,080
So but yeah, you see that day in and day out.

1164
00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:11,800
You think, I mean, how can you change this?

1165
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:12,800
What can you do for it?

1166
00:55:12,800 --> 00:55:17,160
Only thing I've noticed what we're trying to do is trying to put other if you're not

1167
00:55:17,160 --> 00:55:21,600
willing to put in the time and actually, you know, mentor people without them even knowing

1168
00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:22,600
they're being mentored.

1169
00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:24,120
That's kind of the goal right there.

1170
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:28,400
Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed working in those neighborhoods for pretty much the first 10

1171
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:29,400
years of my career.

1172
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:34,200
And obviously, they're the neighbors, a lot of people that want to getting away from in

1173
00:55:34,200 --> 00:55:39,240
certain departments, but to me, I used to tell people, you might be the only person

1174
00:55:39,240 --> 00:55:43,520
that shows kindness to some of these people, whether they're, you know, sling and dope

1175
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:47,760
or you know, whatever it is that they're doing that may not be contributing positively to

1176
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:53,760
society if they're addicts, your kindness may just may be the one thing that turns them

1177
00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:54,760
around.

1178
00:55:54,760 --> 00:55:59,520
And certainly, like you said, the influential kids, if they see a firefighter or a policeman

1179
00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:04,680
that's compassionate, it may be something that pushes them towards realizing that the

1180
00:56:04,680 --> 00:56:09,200
negative role models that they've been looking up to maybe aren't the best way of moving

1181
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:10,200
forward in life.

1182
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:16,120
Yeah, I mean, that's the worst part and the toughest part is just seeing this and knowing

1183
00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:18,320
how little you can do to change it.

1184
00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:23,160
And then, like I said earlier, knowing that I feel like in certain ways, some of our laws

1185
00:56:23,160 --> 00:56:29,080
and rules are being not only to me, the politicians are just going to say whatever they have to

1186
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:30,080
do to buy votes.

1187
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:32,280
They don't care how it affects the people really.

1188
00:56:32,280 --> 00:56:33,280
They're trying to buy their vote.

1189
00:56:33,280 --> 00:56:36,440
So when they give them this and they give them that, I'm like, you're doing the work,

1190
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:38,120
you're doing a disservice to these people.

1191
00:56:38,120 --> 00:56:39,120
You're not helping them.

1192
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:40,120
You're hurting them.

1193
00:56:40,120 --> 00:56:41,440
Why do we keep doing this?

1194
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:45,280
Come down here for a week and work with me and tell me what you're doing.

1195
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:46,840
Your programs are helping them.

1196
00:56:46,840 --> 00:56:48,340
You know they're not.

1197
00:56:48,340 --> 00:56:50,000
Maybe you don't know that because you're not here.

1198
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:54,560
I'm here and I'm seeing it and I want this to stop and you're continuing because it sounds

1199
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:55,560
good.

1200
00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:58,040
It gives a good sound bite and everybody's going to vote for you because they think you're

1201
00:56:58,040 --> 00:56:59,040
trying to help people.

1202
00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:00,040
You're not.

1203
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:02,320
You know what you're trying to do is best for them.

1204
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:03,320
Yeah.

1205
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:05,000
Well, expanding on that.

1206
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:10,640
So one thing I was impressed is the wrong word, but I admire you for, I guess is a better

1207
00:57:10,640 --> 00:57:13,620
way of saying it is you're a fireman.

1208
00:57:13,620 --> 00:57:19,080
You had this very, very successful MMA career, your household name.

1209
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:24,380
And then I discovered that after retiring from there, you created your foundation, which

1210
00:57:24,380 --> 00:57:30,640
is obviously giving back to the community rather than going some other way.

1211
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:34,320
So can you tell me about what your foundation is and how you started it?

1212
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:35,320
Sure.

1213
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:37,480
I have something called the Chris Lott of Foundation.

1214
00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:43,960
And what that is, is we go out and we speak to majority, most of the time, kids about,

1215
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:47,240
I call it an anti-bullying thing, but to be honest with you, it's more about standing

1216
00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:51,760
up for other kids who are having trouble standing up for themselves.

1217
00:57:51,760 --> 00:57:56,040
How it really came to be was I was going and I was giving speeches to many people about

1218
00:57:56,040 --> 00:58:00,640
different things, work ethic and time management, different things.

1219
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:06,720
I came to realize I have four kids, my youngest son, Jake, he has autism.

1220
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,560
I think it's always kind of made me hyper sensitive or hyper aware of people who are

1221
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:14,720
being picked on, mistreated, made fun of, because I've always worried about him.

1222
00:58:14,720 --> 00:58:15,720
He's been very lucky.

1223
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:20,000
I think most people around where we live know him, know the family and they've treated him

1224
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:21,000
very well.

1225
00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:22,000
That doesn't happen all the time.

1226
00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:26,160
They don't always have that support system.

1227
00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:28,560
I've looked into kids who are depressed.

1228
00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:30,840
They commit suicide, they attempt suicide.

1229
00:58:30,840 --> 00:58:35,560
As a father, I can't think of anything more devastating in the world than if your kid

1230
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:39,320
hurt themselves or killed themselves because of how people were treating them.

1231
00:58:39,320 --> 00:58:42,000
You'd never be the same average.

1232
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:44,320
Anything like that, you want to try and help and do things.

1233
00:58:44,320 --> 00:58:48,200
Like I said, I can't just sit by if I feel like I have the ability to help at all.

1234
00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:50,080
I'm going to try and do it.

1235
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:52,400
I sat down, I wrote this book out.

1236
00:58:52,400 --> 00:58:57,520
Me and one of my friends helped me run for state senate, got it published, started this

1237
00:58:57,520 --> 00:58:58,520
foundation.

1238
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:03,480
We go out, we try and read the book, we try and get the book out to as many schools as

1239
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:04,480
we can.

1240
00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:12,240
We try and just tell people the impact of, or really the benefits of being a hero to

1241
00:59:12,240 --> 00:59:15,680
somebody, how good it feels when people look up to you.

1242
00:59:15,680 --> 00:59:19,920
I always talk about when I was a little kid, I was very little, smaller than most of the

1243
00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:20,920
kids.

1244
00:59:20,920 --> 00:59:21,920
I hung out with older people.

1245
00:59:21,920 --> 00:59:26,440
All the people who stood up for me back when I was a kid, I still look up to them this

1246
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:27,440
day.

1247
00:59:27,440 --> 00:59:30,800
It's probably been 30 something years and I still look up to these guys who stood up

1248
00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:33,640
for me.

1249
00:59:33,640 --> 00:59:36,240
When I was a kid, I idolized these guys.

1250
00:59:36,240 --> 00:59:40,520
Just trying to tell people how good it feels to have people look up to you and you can't

1251
00:59:40,520 --> 00:59:43,120
have that feeling if you will stand up for some people.

1252
00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:46,560
I always talk about different examples, different examples.

1253
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:52,040
It's a great feeling to be looked up to and you can be that person.

1254
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:57,440
The bullies that have their own issues, nobody is happy when other people are not happy.

1255
00:59:57,440 --> 01:00:01,520
They don't feel comfortable in their own skin so they try and make somebody else feel bad.

1256
01:00:01,520 --> 01:00:02,520
Don't be that guy.

1257
01:00:02,520 --> 01:00:05,400
Be the person who people look up to.

1258
01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:07,720
That's what the Chris Lytle Foundation started out as.

1259
01:00:07,720 --> 01:00:09,280
That's what we do a lot of.

1260
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:16,520
We've also done some where we do self defense classes for female victims.

1261
01:00:16,520 --> 01:00:18,240
We kind of go in a lot of different directions.

1262
01:00:18,240 --> 01:00:22,920
Anything that's about helping somebody out where people are being picked on or mistreated

1263
01:00:22,920 --> 01:00:24,920
is kind of what we're trying to do.

1264
01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:27,280
What was the book called?

1265
01:00:27,280 --> 01:00:29,400
The book is called Lights Out on Bulleen.

1266
01:00:29,400 --> 01:00:30,400
Brilliant.

1267
01:00:30,400 --> 01:00:34,640
Now, have you heard of Mark Mero?

1268
01:00:34,640 --> 01:00:35,640
Mark Mero.

1269
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:36,640
Yes.

1270
01:00:36,640 --> 01:00:38,920
I don't think so.

1271
01:00:38,920 --> 01:00:42,160
I actually interviewed him quite a while ago now.

1272
01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:43,760
He's a local guy.

1273
01:00:43,760 --> 01:00:50,360
He was a WWE wrestler and he actually tours schools doing talks about the same things.

1274
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:53,120
That's something that you guys should probably connect with.

1275
01:00:53,120 --> 01:00:55,520
He's a phenomenal guy.

1276
01:00:55,520 --> 01:01:03,320
He has a very inspiring story of how he spiraled down into addiction and alcoholism and just

1277
01:01:03,320 --> 01:01:04,960
egotism really.

1278
01:01:04,960 --> 01:01:09,840
Then he tells this heartbreaking story about how he never really got to tell his mother

1279
01:01:09,840 --> 01:01:12,480
how much he loved her and she passed away.

1280
01:01:12,480 --> 01:01:18,240
There's actually a video on YouTube, but now he uses that as a kind of anchor point for

1281
01:01:18,240 --> 01:01:20,440
his whole talk.

1282
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:21,680
He's the same thing.

1283
01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:23,280
He's anti-bullying.

1284
01:01:23,280 --> 01:01:27,560
He points out how a lot of bullies are fighting their own battles and that's how they're

1285
01:01:27,560 --> 01:01:29,880
dealing with it.

1286
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:31,800
Totally aligned with what you just said.

1287
01:01:31,800 --> 01:01:32,800
Wow.

1288
01:01:32,800 --> 01:01:33,800
Yeah.

1289
01:01:33,800 --> 01:01:37,240
Was that his wrestling name as well or do you know?

1290
01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:38,240
Oh, God.

1291
01:01:38,240 --> 01:01:39,240
I forget his wrestling name.

1292
01:01:39,240 --> 01:01:41,560
I'll look it up in a second.

1293
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:47,960
I'm not a wrestling guy like a pro wrestling guy, so I probably wouldn't know it anyway.

1294
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:51,400
His organization is called Choice of Champions.

1295
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:56,480
When we publish this, if you look at the podcast, if you go back, I'll give you the episode

1296
01:01:56,480 --> 01:02:00,720
number in a moment, but he's on there and I'll give you his story.

1297
01:02:00,720 --> 01:02:02,560
All right.

1298
01:02:02,560 --> 01:02:03,560
Yeah.

1299
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:06,800
Touching on what you're saying about the bullying, that's something that I think that is a real

1300
01:02:06,800 --> 01:02:08,760
epidemic at the moment.

1301
01:02:08,760 --> 01:02:13,280
I'm sure there are a lot of people that do step in, but it's so sad how now in the social

1302
01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:18,560
media world, we see so many videos of people being bullied instead of that person having

1303
01:02:18,560 --> 01:02:22,840
the courage to put the cell phone down and actually stop it instead of being a, I'll

1304
01:02:22,840 --> 01:02:25,720
use the word, little bitch and filming it instead.

1305
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:26,720
Yeah.

1306
01:02:26,720 --> 01:02:35,840
I mean, people, and I give examples of stuff where a situation where I didn't do the right

1307
01:02:35,840 --> 01:02:40,920
thing, because people think bullying ends when they're kids, not necessarily.

1308
01:02:40,920 --> 01:02:46,800
I think of an example where I didn't do the right thing and how ever since then that's

1309
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:47,800
ate away at me.

1310
01:02:47,800 --> 01:02:52,080
I was like, man, that's probably 11 years ago and I'm embarrassed for myself for not

1311
01:02:52,080 --> 01:02:55,680
doing anything about that because I'm supposed to be this big tough fighter, not afraid of

1312
01:02:55,680 --> 01:03:00,160
anything, but I was the one having the problem, so it's just easy sometimes not to.

1313
01:03:00,160 --> 01:03:06,160
I just tell people, well, 11 years later I'm still beating myself up for being in that

1314
01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:09,600
situation and not doing anything.

1315
01:03:09,600 --> 01:03:13,640
Ever since then when I have been in that situation, I make sure because I look, I'd rather be

1316
01:03:13,640 --> 01:03:16,520
made son of for the next week.

1317
01:03:16,520 --> 01:03:17,520
I'll deal with that.

1318
01:03:17,520 --> 01:03:18,520
That doesn't bother me.

1319
01:03:18,520 --> 01:03:23,840
What bothers me is for the 11 years later where I'm embarrassed for myself.

1320
01:03:23,840 --> 01:03:26,960
I tell people, I hope if you see something, you don't do anything.

1321
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:27,960
I hope you feel like I did.

1322
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:28,960
I hope you're embarrassed.

1323
01:03:28,960 --> 01:03:31,760
I hope you're ashamed of yourself and I hope that you say, I don't care.

1324
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:33,360
I'm never letting that happen again.

1325
01:03:33,360 --> 01:03:36,480
I'm not going to sit back and not let it be because that's easy at the time.

1326
01:03:36,480 --> 01:03:41,200
I keep trying to tell people, having courage isn't about not being afraid.

1327
01:03:41,200 --> 01:03:44,040
It's about being afraid and still doing the right thing no matter what.

1328
01:03:44,040 --> 01:03:45,040
That's what courage is.

1329
01:03:45,040 --> 01:03:47,440
If you're not afraid, you're either not smart or something.

1330
01:03:47,440 --> 01:03:48,440
You're going to be afraid.

1331
01:03:48,440 --> 01:03:51,600
There's nothing wrong with that, but not doing anything about it, that should make you feel

1332
01:03:51,600 --> 01:03:52,600
bad.

1333
01:03:52,600 --> 01:03:55,600
I want you to feel bad and I want to make you feel so bad that you say, I don't care.

1334
01:03:55,600 --> 01:03:58,120
I'm not having this feeling ever again.

1335
01:03:58,120 --> 01:03:59,120
Amen to that.

1336
01:03:59,120 --> 01:04:00,880
I don't want to reiterate as well.

1337
01:04:00,880 --> 01:04:05,880
It doesn't mean that you're jumping in because we're not all MMA fighters that were in the

1338
01:04:05,880 --> 01:04:06,880
UFC.

1339
01:04:06,880 --> 01:04:09,640
Then that means just going to tell someone, whether it's a teacher or calling the police

1340
01:04:09,640 --> 01:04:12,360
or doing something positive.

1341
01:04:12,360 --> 01:04:15,600
I've even talked to people and said, look, man, I don't even care if afterwards, let's

1342
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:19,080
say somebody's getting their chair pulled out from them, everybody's laughing at them.

1343
01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:22,800
I don't care if afterwards you come and say, hey man, sorry that happened.

1344
01:04:22,800 --> 01:04:26,520
The worst thing about people being like, the thing that makes people suicidal and sad is

1345
01:04:26,520 --> 01:04:28,760
they feel like everybody's against them.

1346
01:04:28,760 --> 01:04:31,160
They don't have any friend, nothing can help them out.

1347
01:04:31,160 --> 01:04:34,880
The loneliness, the isolation and just going up and talking to people make them feel better

1348
01:04:34,880 --> 01:04:35,880
sometimes.

1349
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:37,880
Hey man, there's nothing I can do to help.

1350
01:04:37,880 --> 01:04:42,080
I'm afraid of that guy too, but I don't know.

1351
01:04:42,080 --> 01:04:47,960
Just kind of going and trying to be empathetic to the person can make the world of difference

1352
01:04:47,960 --> 01:04:49,240
in their eyes sometimes.

1353
01:04:49,240 --> 01:04:50,240
Yeah.

1354
01:04:50,240 --> 01:04:54,800
Also, I guess the more people that align with that person and it strengthens numbers and

1355
01:04:54,800 --> 01:04:57,480
you're going to discourage the bullying from doing something else.

1356
01:04:57,480 --> 01:05:01,520
I've told people that too, man, if you're having problems, say, hey man, can you walk

1357
01:05:01,520 --> 01:05:02,520
with me here?

1358
01:05:02,520 --> 01:05:06,040
We're going to go to this class and you always give me a prop.

1359
01:05:06,040 --> 01:05:07,040
That's another solution.

1360
01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:09,040
People ask me what things they can do.

1361
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:10,640
There's a ton of different things.

1362
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:17,080
I obviously talk to somebody but don't just sit there and dwell on that and internalize

1363
01:05:17,080 --> 01:05:22,000
it the whole time and not do it or say anything about it because over time, that's when a

1364
01:05:22,000 --> 01:05:23,000
problem arises.

1365
01:05:23,000 --> 01:05:24,000
Yeah.

1366
01:05:24,000 --> 01:05:25,000
All right.

1367
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:26,840
I looked at Mark's name.

1368
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:28,280
His wrestling name was Johnny Bebad.

1369
01:05:28,280 --> 01:05:31,640
He was episode 13 of this podcast.

1370
01:05:31,640 --> 01:05:36,320
I will actually, after we're done, I will send you his information too and see if we

1371
01:05:36,320 --> 01:05:41,520
can get you guys connected because I think you'd probably have a very, very great conversation.

1372
01:05:41,520 --> 01:05:44,760
All right, Chris, will you give us an hour of your time?

1373
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:49,720
I don't know if people listening are aware, but you're actually on shift at the moment.

1374
01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:53,840
We're praying to the call gods that we're able to get this interview done.

1375
01:05:53,840 --> 01:05:54,840
We got lucky, man.

1376
01:05:54,840 --> 01:05:56,400
We've already had about four runs a day.

1377
01:05:56,400 --> 01:05:59,640
I thought we'd probably catch one but we didn't.

1378
01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:00,640
That's a good thing.

1379
01:06:00,640 --> 01:06:01,640
Yeah, it is.

1380
01:06:01,640 --> 01:06:02,640
I just came up with a 48 this morning.

1381
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:03,640
Oh, a 48.

1382
01:06:03,640 --> 01:06:06,040
Do you normally do 48s or are you doing a double?

1383
01:06:06,040 --> 01:06:07,240
No, I did a double.

1384
01:06:07,240 --> 01:06:11,640
I had a couple of shifts that I owe people from them helping me out in a pinch.

1385
01:06:11,640 --> 01:06:13,560
I've done four of them in three weeks.

1386
01:06:13,560 --> 01:06:14,560
I'm not going to get it.

1387
01:06:14,560 --> 01:06:15,560
That's a long time.

1388
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:16,560
That's a lot.

1389
01:06:16,560 --> 01:06:17,560
Yeah, it sucks.

1390
01:06:17,560 --> 01:06:24,000
Now, one of my good buddies, he lives out in Colorado and where he works, I think in

1391
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:28,840
Farmington, New Mexico now, everybody kind of travels the distance.

1392
01:06:28,840 --> 01:06:31,080
They work 48 on, 96 off.

1393
01:06:31,080 --> 01:06:32,080
That's crazy.

1394
01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:33,360
You work two days straight and then you're off for four days.

1395
01:06:33,360 --> 01:06:35,240
That's a little different than what we do here.

1396
01:06:35,240 --> 01:06:36,240
We're 24 on, 48 off.

1397
01:06:36,240 --> 01:06:39,480
I'm only thinking two days on is a long time.

1398
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:40,480
Yeah.

1399
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:42,400
Now, do you have Kelly days at your department?

1400
01:06:42,400 --> 01:06:43,400
We actually do.

1401
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:44,400
Okay.

1402
01:06:44,400 --> 01:06:45,400
Good, good.

1403
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:49,640
I think so as well because one of my pushes for this, not this project specifically but

1404
01:06:49,640 --> 01:06:54,440
one of my personal pushes within the fire service is addressing the seat deprivation

1405
01:06:54,440 --> 01:06:56,800
and the illness that comes from that.

1406
01:06:56,800 --> 01:07:03,080
I kind of took a step back and realized that when you ask a firefighter about the shift

1407
01:07:03,080 --> 01:07:08,080
patterns that the return is always, oh, maybe we should do 212, maybe we should do a 14

1408
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:13,200
and a 10 instead of addressing the fact that our work week is way higher than the average

1409
01:07:13,200 --> 01:07:17,720
person, grocery clerk, whatever it is.

1410
01:07:17,720 --> 01:07:23,080
I think that ultimately if you're talking about changing the world, changing our profession,

1411
01:07:23,080 --> 01:07:28,720
that going towards 24 72s and getting our average work week down to about 42 hours a

1412
01:07:28,720 --> 01:07:32,000
week is the future of health and first responders.

1413
01:07:32,000 --> 01:07:37,600
Well, I do know one of my friends, he's a chiropractor, he has like a hormone replacement

1414
01:07:37,600 --> 01:07:39,960
therapy in his place as well.

1415
01:07:39,960 --> 01:07:43,600
He says one thing when firemen come alive, they're very low on testosterone due to the

1416
01:07:43,600 --> 01:07:45,120
fact they're not getting enough sleep.

1417
01:07:45,120 --> 01:07:52,440
So yeah, I know what you're saying is it's not just a lack of sleep problem, it has other

1418
01:07:52,440 --> 01:07:55,320
effects on the body as well.

1419
01:07:55,320 --> 01:07:58,760
There's a lot of problems and people don't understand how important sleep is and when

1420
01:07:58,760 --> 01:08:02,080
you're not getting that properly, your whole body could be thrown out of whack.

1421
01:08:02,080 --> 01:08:03,080
Yeah, exactly.

1422
01:08:03,080 --> 01:08:06,600
I think sadly it even translates to a lot of the heart disease and cancer that we see

1423
01:08:06,600 --> 01:08:10,240
taking a lot of lives in our profession too.

1424
01:08:10,240 --> 01:08:11,240
Absolutely.

1425
01:08:11,240 --> 01:08:14,680
So anything we can do to know that that's the beauty of it.

1426
01:08:14,680 --> 01:08:17,200
Like you say, that we're constantly learning and coming up with things.

1427
01:08:17,200 --> 01:08:22,080
I remember when I first got hired on, there's still a lot of people who were on before they

1428
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:24,400
used to wear masks a lot.

1429
01:08:24,400 --> 01:08:27,320
That's unheard of nowadays because all the cancers that people get.

1430
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:31,200
But I mean, that used to be the thing back in the day, like if you wore a mask, you were

1431
01:08:31,200 --> 01:08:32,200
looked down upon.

1432
01:08:32,200 --> 01:08:33,600
And that's just unbelievable to me.

1433
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:37,760
I'm glad to see things are slowly but surely getting in the right direction.

1434
01:08:37,760 --> 01:08:39,800
It'll be there eventually, but it just takes time.

1435
01:08:39,800 --> 01:08:40,800
Yeah.

1436
01:08:40,800 --> 01:08:43,360
I think we've come a long, long way in the protective gear.

1437
01:08:43,360 --> 01:08:50,520
I think now the area that we really need to be more aggressive on is the sleep and the

1438
01:08:50,520 --> 01:08:57,000
shift patterns to allow us to recover from what's pretty brutal 24-hour shifts, especially

1439
01:08:57,000 --> 01:09:00,920
if you're up all night and give them the time to actually recoup and get that sleep so that

1440
01:09:00,920 --> 01:09:04,800
when they go back to work, they're focused and not sleep deprived when they're working

1441
01:09:04,800 --> 01:09:05,800
on your child.

1442
01:09:05,800 --> 01:09:06,800
Yeah.

1443
01:09:06,800 --> 01:09:07,800
Yeah.

1444
01:09:07,800 --> 01:09:08,800
Yeah.

1445
01:09:08,800 --> 01:09:12,040
But I mean, I know that is one good thing, at least I know in my department where you

1446
01:09:12,040 --> 01:09:15,160
can 48 hours, the most you can work in a row.

1447
01:09:15,160 --> 01:09:18,240
After that, you have to have at least a 12-hour break because it used to be that way.

1448
01:09:18,240 --> 01:09:21,560
I remember a guy worked like five shifts in a row once, but you're not allowed to do that

1449
01:09:21,560 --> 01:09:22,560
anymore.

1450
01:09:22,560 --> 01:09:24,160
48, then you have to have 12 hours off.

1451
01:09:24,160 --> 01:09:25,160
Yeah.

1452
01:09:25,160 --> 01:09:26,160
Yeah.

1453
01:09:26,160 --> 01:09:27,440
I think that's a very sensible practice.

1454
01:09:27,440 --> 01:09:28,440
Okay.

1455
01:09:28,440 --> 01:09:31,840
Well, I'm going to wrap up with a few short questions so I can let you get on with your

1456
01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:32,840
shift.

1457
01:09:32,840 --> 01:09:38,240
So, I always ask people first, is there a book that you recommend, doesn't have to be

1458
01:09:38,240 --> 01:09:42,720
about what we've been talking about, but any book that you like to tell people about apart

1459
01:09:42,720 --> 01:09:44,720
from your own, what we've discussed already?

1460
01:09:44,720 --> 01:09:46,720
Oh, geez, man.

1461
01:09:46,720 --> 01:09:47,720
Okay.

1462
01:09:47,720 --> 01:09:51,560
I got a book that I just read not long ago and I absolutely loved it.

1463
01:09:51,560 --> 01:09:56,360
It's, once again, I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to everything, but this is an economics

1464
01:09:56,360 --> 01:10:01,560
book again, but it's not like a boring, dry economics book because I've never read one.

1465
01:10:01,560 --> 01:10:07,240
This is called How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes by a guy named Peter Schiff.

1466
01:10:07,240 --> 01:10:08,440
I thought that was a great read.

1467
01:10:08,440 --> 01:10:09,880
It makes it very easy.

1468
01:10:09,880 --> 01:10:13,160
It's like a parable about fish and everything.

1469
01:10:13,160 --> 01:10:19,360
It's a pretty funny story, but I think it's a very good book that kind of explains economics

1470
01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:20,680
and how we're doing things wrong.

1471
01:10:20,680 --> 01:10:25,280
Especially, you've got the Fed Reserve creating a lot of different money, why they want inflation,

1472
01:10:25,280 --> 01:10:29,560
how inflation, how devastating it is, and how stupid it is.

1473
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:33,360
Yeah, I really like that book, How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes.

1474
01:10:33,360 --> 01:10:34,360
Check that one out.

1475
01:10:34,360 --> 01:10:35,360
Okay, brilliant.

1476
01:10:35,360 --> 01:10:39,120
And then a movie and or a documentary.

1477
01:10:39,120 --> 01:10:41,080
Oh, man.

1478
01:10:41,080 --> 01:10:43,080
Let me think, man.

1479
01:10:43,080 --> 01:10:44,080
I like it.

1480
01:10:44,080 --> 01:10:46,280
I mean, we watch movies here all the time.

1481
01:10:46,280 --> 01:10:49,280
That's one of our things.

1482
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:53,440
Let me think here.

1483
01:10:53,440 --> 01:10:58,520
What movie did I watch recently?

1484
01:10:58,520 --> 01:11:00,600
Any kind of theme type of this?

1485
01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:02,840
Or is it like a newer movie, older movie?

1486
01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:03,840
Anything.

1487
01:11:03,840 --> 01:11:04,840
Anything at all.

1488
01:11:04,840 --> 01:11:08,840
Let me think about that.

1489
01:11:08,840 --> 01:11:13,880
As far as documentary, I know we watched something here not too long ago.

1490
01:11:13,880 --> 01:11:17,720
They ended up making a movie about it, but this was called Man on a Wire.

1491
01:11:17,720 --> 01:11:18,720
Oh, yeah.

1492
01:11:18,720 --> 01:11:19,720
Great film.

1493
01:11:19,720 --> 01:11:20,720
Did you see that documentary?

1494
01:11:20,720 --> 01:11:23,640
The guy that did the tightrope walking?

1495
01:11:23,640 --> 01:11:24,640
Yeah, I had no idea.

1496
01:11:24,640 --> 01:11:29,720
I mean, that was a crazy story, but I really like that as a documentary because we were

1497
01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:33,400
at the firehouse once we watched it just kind of flipped through like, man, how did he even

1498
01:11:33,400 --> 01:11:34,400
get that accomplished?

1499
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:35,400
It was pretty amazing.

1500
01:11:35,400 --> 01:11:39,640
Yeah, that's a great mental toughness documentary, in my opinion.

1501
01:11:39,640 --> 01:11:41,200
Oh, absolutely.

1502
01:11:41,200 --> 01:11:42,360
I really enjoyed that.

1503
01:11:42,360 --> 01:11:47,520
So I can say as far as documentaries, that was the one I've watched in the last few months

1504
01:11:47,520 --> 01:11:48,520
that I really enjoyed.

1505
01:11:48,520 --> 01:11:49,520
Okay.

1506
01:11:49,520 --> 01:11:53,360
And obviously, you train and that's definitely one of my outlets.

1507
01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:57,760
But do you have anything else you do to decompress after a shift?

1508
01:11:57,760 --> 01:11:59,520
Oh, man, no.

1509
01:11:59,520 --> 01:12:03,560
To be honest with you, training is definitely the thing I do.

1510
01:12:03,560 --> 01:12:04,560
It's funny.

1511
01:12:04,560 --> 01:12:11,280
You can always like, you know, my wife has told me before, if I don't train for very

1512
01:12:11,280 --> 01:12:15,920
long, I become kind of very short with people and kind of in a bad mood and she'll be like,

1513
01:12:15,920 --> 01:12:17,920
you need to go to the gym, you know?

1514
01:12:17,920 --> 01:12:21,200
Because she can tell I'm in a bad mood.

1515
01:12:21,200 --> 01:12:24,920
It's funny, like, if I do that, you know, I'm kind of in a bad mood, I'm short with

1516
01:12:24,920 --> 01:12:25,920
people or whatever.

1517
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:29,680
And then, you know, when I leave the gym, I could come home and if I saw my house on

1518
01:12:29,680 --> 01:12:35,040
fire, I'd be like, that's all right, you know, it's just a house, we'll get new stuff.

1519
01:12:35,040 --> 01:12:36,400
My mindset totally changed.

1520
01:12:36,400 --> 01:12:39,080
I'm totally relaxed with everything.

1521
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:44,040
I've actually gotten into recently more actually trying to do a little bit of meditation where

1522
01:12:44,040 --> 01:12:50,480
I will just go each morning and try and, you know, actually go in the closet, turn off

1523
01:12:50,480 --> 01:12:56,280
all lights and try and just, you know, meditate kind of for 15 minutes and try and just clear

1524
01:12:56,280 --> 01:12:57,600
my head, clear my thoughts.

1525
01:12:57,600 --> 01:13:00,440
And I think that kind of has another good effect on me.

1526
01:13:00,440 --> 01:13:02,120
Yeah, yeah, I'm the same.

1527
01:13:02,120 --> 01:13:06,400
I notice my road rage and I say that it's not like I'm getting out my car and dragging

1528
01:13:06,400 --> 01:13:11,800
people out, but my intolerance for selfish driving is a lot better after a couple hours

1529
01:13:11,800 --> 01:13:12,800
of training.

1530
01:13:12,800 --> 01:13:15,480
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

1531
01:13:15,480 --> 01:13:21,480
Now, just while I'm looking at my list of episodes here, episode six of the show was

1532
01:13:21,480 --> 01:13:26,760
a Navy SEAL who became a doctor and is now the Navy SEAL's doctor.

1533
01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:29,280
And his name is Doc Parsley, Kirk Parsley.

1534
01:13:29,280 --> 01:13:31,040
His episode is all about sleep deprivation.

1535
01:13:31,040 --> 01:13:36,800
So if you want to delve into that, and that's totally related to the short temperedness

1536
01:13:36,800 --> 01:13:42,160
as well, that's what I find, you know, if I haven't slept after a few shifts, then my

1537
01:13:42,160 --> 01:13:43,160
nerves are pretty sharp.

1538
01:13:43,160 --> 01:13:46,560
I'll have to check that one out in episode six.

1539
01:13:46,560 --> 01:13:47,560
Okay.

1540
01:13:47,560 --> 01:13:48,560
Okay.

1541
01:13:48,560 --> 01:13:49,560
All right.

1542
01:13:49,560 --> 01:13:50,560
And then the last question.

1543
01:13:50,560 --> 01:13:55,480
So where can people find you and the foundation online?

1544
01:13:55,480 --> 01:14:02,000
You can go to chrisleidlefoundation.org or you could go to just chrisleidle on Facebook.

1545
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:03,000
Hit me up.

1546
01:14:03,000 --> 01:14:05,240
I always answer people when they ask me questions.

1547
01:14:05,240 --> 01:14:08,760
So anything you could do there are on Twitter.

1548
01:14:08,760 --> 01:14:12,400
Chris Lidle, L-O. I'm sorry.

1549
01:14:12,400 --> 01:14:13,400
Brilliant.

1550
01:14:13,400 --> 01:14:14,400
All right.

1551
01:14:14,400 --> 01:14:15,400
Well, Chris, thank you so much.

1552
01:14:15,400 --> 01:14:16,400
I really appreciate it.

1553
01:14:16,400 --> 01:14:21,880
And thank you to the Core Gods for not toning you guys out for the last hour and 15 minutes.

1554
01:14:21,880 --> 01:14:24,280
And it's been a real pleasure to talk to you.

1555
01:14:24,280 --> 01:14:29,360
And I really, really appreciate you taking time out to reach out to the community.

1556
01:14:29,360 --> 01:14:30,360
Hey, no problem.

1557
01:14:30,360 --> 01:14:31,360
Thanks for having me on.

1558
01:14:31,360 --> 01:14:32,360
Let me know if you're going to make it here next year.

1559
01:14:32,360 --> 01:14:42,680
Thank you.