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I'm extremely excited to announce a brand new sponsor for the Behind the Shield podcast

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that is Transcend.

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Now for many of you listening, you are probably working the same brutal shifts that I did

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for 14 years.

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Suffering from sleep deprivation, body composition challenges, mental health challenges, libido,

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hair loss, etc.

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Now when it comes to the world of hormone replacement and peptide therapy, what I have

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seen is a shift from doctors telling us that we were within normal limits, which was definitely

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incorrect all the way to the other way now where men's clinics are popping up left,

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right and center.

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So I myself wanted to find a reputable company that would do an analysis of my physiology

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and then offer supplementations without ramming, for example, hormone replacement therapy down

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my throat.

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Now I came across Transcend because they have an altruistic arm and they were a big reason

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why the 7X project I was a part of was able to proceed because of their generous donations.

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They also have the Transcend foundations where they are actually putting military and first

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responders through some of their therapies at no cost to the individual.

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So my own personal journey so far filled in the online form, went to Quest, got blood

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drawn and a few days later I'm talking to one of their wellness professionals as they

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guide me through my results and the supplementation that they suggest.

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In my case specifically, because I transitioned out the fire service five years ago and been

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very diligent with my health, my testosterone was actually in a good place.

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So I went down the peptide route and some other supplements to try and maximize my physiology

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knowing full well the damage that 14 years of shift work has done.

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Now I also want to underline because I think this is very important that each of the therapies

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they offer, they will talk about the pros and cons.

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So for example, a lot of first responders in shift work, our testosterone will be low,

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but sometimes nutrition, exercise and sleep can offset that on its own.

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So this company is not going to try and push you down a path, especially if it's one that

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you can't come back from.

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So whether it's libido, brain fog, inflammation, gut health, performance, sleep, this is definitely

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one of the most powerful tools in the toolbox.

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So to learn more, go to transcendcompany.com or listen to episode 808 of the Behind the

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Shield podcast with founder Ernie Colling.

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This episode is sponsored by a company I've used for well over a decade and that is 511.

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I wore their uniforms back in Anaheim, California and I've used their products ever since.

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From their incredibly strong yet light footwear to their cut uniforms for both male and female

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responders, I found them hands down the best workwear in all the departments that I've

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worked for.

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Outside of the fire service, I use their luggage for everything and I travel a lot and they

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are also now sponsoring the 7X team as we embark around the world on the Human Performance

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project.

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We have Murph coming up in May and again I bought their plate carrier.

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I ended up buying real ballistic plates rather than the fake weight plates and that has been

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my ride or die through Murph the last few years as well.

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One area I want to talk about that I haven't in previous sponsorship spots is their brick

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and mortar element.

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They were predominantly an online company up till more recently but now they are approaching

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100 stores all over the US.

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My local store is here in Gainesville Florida and I've been multiple times and the discounts

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you see online are applied also in the stores.

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So as I mentioned 511 is offering you 15% off every purchase that you make but I do want

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to say more often than not they have an even deeper discount especially around holiday

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times.

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But if you use the code SHIELD15 you will get 15% off your order or in the stores every

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time you make a purchase.

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And if you want to hear more about 511, who they stand for and who works with them, listen

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to episode 580 of Behind the Shield podcast with 511 regional director Will Ayers.

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Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast as always my name is James Gearing and this week

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it is my absolute honor to welcome on the show strength and conditioning coach, podcaster

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and the man behind red dot fitness Scott Howell.

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Now in this conversation we discuss a host of topics from his early life, his journey

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into the world of coaching, his transition into running his own business, the impact

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of the pandemic on our gym owners, training the tactical athlete, weapons training and

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so much more.

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Now before we get to this incredible conversation as I say every week please just take a moment,

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go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and

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leave a rating.

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Every single 5 star rating truly does elevate this podcast therefore making it easier for

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others to find and this is a free library of over 900 episodes now.

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So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so

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I can get them to every single person on planet earth who needs to hear them.

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So with that being said I introduce to you Scott Howell.

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Enjoy.

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Well Scott I want to start by saying thank you to Joel Evan for connecting us and I want

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to welcome you to the Behind the Shield podcast today.

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Thanks for having me, honored to be here and yeah I'm thankful for Joel as well as a good

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friend and good dude out there doing good stuff.

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How did you guys meet?

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Actually so Joel is from the area that I'm in, I'm in the Bay Area of California and

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he was a police officer who left the Bay Area and he's doing some things on the health and

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wellness side of trying to take care of people in general which is what I do and I think

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our paths basically crossed in the world of health, fitness, wellness and I had him on

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the show and got his whole background which is very interesting and that's how that started

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and that was a couple of years ago now.

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Yeah it's crazy I just had a LA firefighter on who lost his job in November to the vaccine

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mandates even now we have all the evidence showing and again I'm not anti-vax I had the

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vaccine myself so I could travel and see my grandmother but to then stand behind your

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decision to terminate first responders knowing how ineffective it actually was disgusts me

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so I hope down the road anyone that lost their position gets compensated for it to say the

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least.

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Yeah it's interesting specifically that was in San Francisco, San Francisco PD, Joel's

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been pretty open about that.

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It looks like some of that stuff is starting to come full circle now and they're starting

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to hire some people back so interesting how that works on a side note I literally just

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got a message today from a from a sort of professional colleague who has gone into physical

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therapy school working on their doctor of physical therapy wants to volunteer some time

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in terms of her clinical hours at the VA and without a vaccine they won't accept her even

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still now.

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I mean this is a person wants to give their time right and they're still having a tough

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time doing it it's mind-blowing to me.

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It is especially now the if I'm not mistaken the most recent things are you know basically

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if you got COVID but you're feeling okay you can still come to work I think that's what

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people are talking about but yet you still need a vaccine come on.

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I don't know what to say to that I really don't.

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Anyway I digress.

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So very first question where are we finding you on planet earth today?

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I'm in San Jose California so for those of you that may not be familiar with the region

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California is a big place the Bay Area is in the northern part of the state you got

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San Francisco on the tip of the peninsula out there right at the edge of the Pacific

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Ocean Oakland's on the other side of the bay and then we're right at the bottom of it so

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I'm literally like sitting a mile off the bottom of the South Bay.

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Beautiful well I would love to start the very beginning of your journey so tell me where

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you were born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic what your parents did

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how many siblings?

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Okay so I was originally so I was born in Santa Monica California my mom at the time

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and did this for over 40 years was a nurse spending most of her time in sort of the I

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would say like the higher intensity areas of the hospital either it was emergency or

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med surge intensive care and so and then my father was a an industrial hygienist and safety

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engineer he actually had a couple of master's degrees but he worked for a huge missiles

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and space company which a lot of people know as Lockheed Martin is what it's called now

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and mom's job allowed us to kind of move around a little bit because she could kind of get

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work anywhere and dad was kind of chasing his career and worked for some really big companies

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outside of Lockheed Martin so I spent so we moved around a little bit I've kind of lived

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I lived in Utah for a while as a kid I lived in Delaware for a short time but on the East

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Coast but most of my growing up was right here in in in Northern California right here

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in San Jose my parents still live in the same house we moved into when I was just about

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eight years old so and and they're still local I have a brother who's local as well married

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got a nephew but yeah so kind of came back I lived all over Northern California or sorry

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California but moved back to California or Northern California not well probably it's

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gonna be 15 years ago now 16 years ago now and been been holding it down here to be close

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to the family.

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So firstly with your mom four years in nursing is phenomenal and but I'm imagining if she

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was in the ER setting there were times where she was working shifts when you look back

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now if you ever had a conversation with her in the past did she ever talk about the impact

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of the actual profession on her and her own health?

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Yeah it's interesting so mom was always and I find this with most most nurses that in

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general they're helpgivers and they generally do a very good job at taking care of everybody

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else and not such a great job of taking care of themselves that was not my mom my mom was

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always the matriarch of obviously our family but the larger family as a whole and she shared

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with us the things that she experienced not in a like not in a traumatic way but in sort

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of here's a lesson kind of way here's the realities of the world we live in anything

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from you know just taking care of your general health to I don't want you riding a motorcycle

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you know to you know make sure you wear your seatbelt because here's an example of what

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happened here's the tragedy you know that gets dealt with that kind of thing in terms

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of how it impacted her and her maybe bottling it up and not I guess the word gets or the

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analogy gets used like that rucksack that just kind of gets filled with rocks or stones

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you never really deal with it and then one day there's like a career incident and it

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kind of explodes my mom's rock and you know I think part of probably her her relationship

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with my dad which is still very strong to today probably her faith kept her very sane

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and and and straight you know kind of straight-lined about everything she's very very good about

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you know kind of handling things in my mind it's interesting you're asking me that my

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studio here that we're recording this in is is in the gym she's out there right now working

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on on the floor with with with one of our coaches and that's just my mom she's still

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taking care of herself at you know it's late in her 70s now so she's was I think different

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than maybe a lot of people in the profession yeah yeah I mean there's a lot of self-care

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that's needed in in these kind of professions and I think it's interesting you talked about

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you know making sure that you're healthy and don't want to you riding a motorbike because

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that's the tug-of-war that we have you know in the first responder professions too you

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see such horrible things at work you almost want to just wrap your kid in bubble wrap

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you know not letting do anything and you have to kind of fight against that I've got I've

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got a 16 year old who I gave him my car when he turned 16 in August you know and and there's

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a part of me that if he's not back the exact time he said he was gonna oh he must be wrapped

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around a lamppost somewhere but you have to calm that down and be like look you know you

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trained him a certain way but you've got a you got to cut the apron strings otherwise

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you'll end up being detrimental to their upbringing yeah my parents were very good about letting

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us kids gonna set up like I mentioned I have a brother explore things and do our do our

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own thing we earned trust you know to go out and do things but we also respected where

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mom and dad were coming from in terms of their you know what they were worried about and

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the reasons they were worried and and but you know they let us they let us get out there

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and do stuff there wasn't there wasn't a ton of coddling there was hey we want to make

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sure you're safe but we also understand that you need to get out there and do things and

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experience things and so we were definitely never wrapped in bubble wrap and then that

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certainly didn't play out I mean I I was on a first name basis with the emergency room

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staff not because my mom worked there she was actually in an intensive care room because

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I made many visits there for broken arms legs feet you know sutures all kinds of stuff that

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was just part of growing up but also had a different perspective my mom you know I had

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a different perspective because my mom never freaked out about any of that stuff you know

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if we broke an arm well let's get through it here's here's what we got to do and it

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is interesting like being the matriarch the extended family still to this day calls my

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mom when something's going on if somebody's having a health problem or something like

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that they look to her for advice because she's just she's rock solid on all that she's going

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to give you here's this side here's that side here's the middle here's all the things that

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could happen she's very very practical about it yeah yeah I think you see that a lot with

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children that are you know have first responders you know paramedics etc you're not going to

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get much sympathy and then if they're like oh my god yeah it knows okay I'm really messed

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up because you're right I mean unless you're bleeding out your eyes you're going to school

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right you know like exactly no you don't feel good today well you look fine and you don't

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have a fever so I'll see you at three o'clock you know absolutely it'll take your mind off

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it yeah exactly what about your dad obviously our military is extremely important in the

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defense of our country but there's also that industrial military complex conversation where

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in a lockout Lockheed mining which has a factory here where I live in Ocala of course when

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we're at war they're going to make more money that's just basic economics did he ever feel

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conflicted at all with what he was doing I don't think there was a confliction in terms

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of his job specific to what the company was producing and what that meant sort of in the

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longer term I know there were there were more conflictions if there was confliction was

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confliction about good people you know or bad people if you will just bad bad leadership

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bad management and then you know I know he made some pretty tough decisions along his

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career like I this is not something that somebody I can work for it was always family for me

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first for my dad and there were there was one there were a specific time we left his

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job because his boss saw differently than that he's like well I'm here I'm here before

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you I'm here before anybody else and I leave after most most people but I will be leaving

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here at this time so I can be home with my kids and my wife you know whatever before

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for bedtime it was more of that kind of confliction but I don't think there was any and as a result

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he left his job but he he there I don't think there was anything like that and my my parents

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very you know I shared my mom did share lessons with us but my dad didn't talk a lot about

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work while I knew work was very important to him it wasn't something he brought home

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as you know that I can remember as a kid there was no no real talk about it and part of it

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was a lot of the work that he was doing was stuff that he shouldn't have been or couldn't

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have been talking about but I don't think he thought it is important I think he was

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very he could very easily compartmentalize gotcha beautiful well then when we're you

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know with you as a child still you ended up being a coach what were you playing and doing

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when you were a high school age yeah wow so coming of coming of age I guess I was very

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into sports very in athletics and I thought you know I wanted to maybe go to go away to

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school and kind of get that college experience and and also study and I didn't want to stay

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in school very long I knew that it wasn't really for me I was a very good student I

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had very you know academically I did very well but I originally I wanted to be in law

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enforcement and I went to school for that and it spent about a year doing that and I

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had neighbors around us and we had sort of acquaintances of the family and the more I

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talked to him at the time so for going back this is very early 90s mid 90s I graduated

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high school for for I guess for for chronological sake in 1993 so this is going back a ways

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and in San Jose this was coming off of we were one of the safest cities in the United

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States at the time and there the the job as the way they described it to me was kind of

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one of two ways was either very boring or very dangerous some of these guys were doing

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kind of high-risk jobs and I do remember hearing a story from somebody that you know at one

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point while I was going to school just about how his wife worried about him coming coming

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home from work every night and that he had kids and as I was going through even at 18

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years old coming or 19 years old that really resonated with me given my strong family dynamic

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that I had with my own family and I couldn't imagine thinking of my dad maybe not coming

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home from work because you know something some bad guy you know was having a bad day

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and my dad was the was a recipient of that that resonated with me and so I changed gears

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and went into into business and started studying business and then that started kind of a whole

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line of like what am I doing here sports is over for me I still love the gym and started

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to explore you know what could I maybe do to do the things that I love doing stay doing

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the things I love doing maybe make some money doing it so I you know I started making some

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changes what about the sports themselves what were you playing in high school yeah I was

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a football and wrestling were life for me I did track and field as a means to stay close

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to the football and wrestling coach because he he coached both and he was kind of running

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the weight room during the spring season which was the the track and field season so I was

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a thrower through shot and discus wasn't gonna run I hate running always have but yeah so

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everything that I did it kept me out of trouble it kept me focused it it you know I was in

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sort of leadership roles and things like that was very very good for me and I can't imagine

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where I'd be without the sports to be quite frank what was it that dropped off after school

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because this is such an interesting conversation I have with many many guests now but when

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I first came here from from England I was amazed at how many uncle Rico stories I heard

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and you know I say that affectionately but it was I mean all these dudes in that late

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20s early 30s like I could have should have would have been you know if it hadn't been

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for my knee my shoulder you know insert joint here and then I started like seeing you know

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learning about travel ball and camps and all this stuff that you know colleges and high

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schools squeeze out performance from our young athletes but one would argue you know often

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it's at the detriment of their health and their longevity and if you go to England yes

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we have some high level athletes in our country but most people just play a sport in school

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right then they graduate and they keep playing public so you know whatever it is and so there's

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far more focus in the game and playing rather than winning and and squeezing out performance

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so you know what is your observation in your own journey and also just in that kind of

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that philosophy in general so I had a very I would say I had a very good experience in

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sports as a kid in that when I was playing I guess when I was a kid kids played everything

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and there was always maybe one more one focus over the other but we played soccer we played

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baseball wasn't allowed to play football till I got to high school mom's like now you're

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not going to do that till we get till we get to high school and they're a little older

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a little bigger which is interesting because I showed up on the field as a freshman and

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there's grown men basically out there smashing you you know and getting and getting joy out

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of that but I played a lot of different things that a lot of different experiences I was

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involved in other things too that they kept me active and giving me exposure and and not

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being all in on one sport gave me the opportunities for the things like the Boy Scouts things

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like you know being involved maybe in church clubs or things like that where we went out

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we did different stuff was we were very into the outdoors and so that said like as I got

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in to you know football was kind of the focus I knew if there was going to be a run that

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I could make in college or get some type of a scholarship or whatever it wasn't going

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to be for wrestling I just wasn't that good I could kind of hold my own with football

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and and again there was no you know I'm doing this so that I can go pro or that life wasn't

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football but it was very important to me and it gave me direction and I didn't know what

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I didn't know at that time.

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There's I didn't continue on I played played a couple of years there but I didn't continue

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on and that was more of sort of a I got disenfranchised with how decisions were being made about players

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and you know a coach would leave and then all of a sudden you know you were a you were

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a popular guy and you were the guy and then all of a sudden a coaching staff leaves and

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your coach is gone and then you're you're nobody and you know you're fighting your way

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through it that was frustrating for me but going back to the philosophy on the chasing

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the win and chasing that sport for the rest of your life I think it's really easy for

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for kids and more specifically parents to fall into that trap and that's what I think

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it is.

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I think it's a major trap and I think there are kids obviously that are going to go on

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and they're going to play pro or they're going to play at a higher level and you know as

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they become young adults and even adults such a small percentage of the population and within

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that I think you take things away from kids in their youth when it's all that thing all

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the time for all the good things it provides I think you know psychologically socially

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it pulls things away and I'll give you an example I have a few different perspectives

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on this because I have a daughter an older daughter she's about to turn 22 years old

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who is highly competitive in soccer and I loved it for her because there was structure

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there and it kept her fit but it also the social group was all structured around this

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and the the sense of accomplishment was all structured around this and while there was

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a good sense of the importance of hard work winning losing being part of a team working

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together for a greater cause all of all good things when that gets taken away for whatever

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reason or it stops people I find that there's there's an identity attached to this and this

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is I think where we'll probably go with this maybe later in the conversation but there's

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an identity attached to this and there is a real struggle to find their way around that

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identity in a way that's productive most often times it becomes very unproductive and I see

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that quite frequently you know in my business now and certainly in the genres I I play and

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explore and I don't know if that answers your question but I think people should should

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play more do more things and explore more things for the for the joy of doing it right

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versus the winning or the being the best at this obviously there's a time and a place

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for that but man I think you lose you miss out on so much if you if you get hyper focused

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like that no I agree completely I've watched it with my son he ran track the last two years

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and did really well I mean he was he's a junior now so in his sophomore year he was running

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a five-minute mile which is not bad for that's pretty good yeah and he was still kind of

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going through puberty at that point but I but his just his heart fell out of it you

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know and now he's into volleyball and skimboarding and again I'm like brilliant he's done jiu-jitsu

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he's done all kinds of other things and this is just it you know this the importance of

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play and if you look at Finland their education system like that is a big part of why they

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are number one in the world for education because they look at the whole holistic child

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and play is a big part of it and they have recess and you know movement is huge but then

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you you know you look at these just like you said these kids and all they've ever known

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is baseball or even high school if all they've ever thought about is high school I had a

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young woman on Emma Benoit and she was I mean beautiful young lady now she was a cheerleader

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so on the outside oh she's definitely popular but she didn't you know so there was some

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bullying and but her biggest thing was she was about to graduate and she didn't know

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what to do what she was going to do and that was just enough with all the other compounding

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elements of her life to literally drive and she she went through with the suicide attempt

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and survived so that identity piece I think we don't we did I don't think we give it enough

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thought of we literally gave birth to a child before they can even really understand the

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world we put them into an education system that they were then in until they were 18

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years old and whether they were cheerleader or sports person or just thrust into academia

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you know if they don't understand that they are you know Suzy or Steve that is going to

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school that that's not their identity then yeah of course our teenagers are going to

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struggle whether it's physically mentally or both yeah 100% and so many levels and things

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that you know I see the the teens and the parents being challenged with now when it

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comes to social media and how things are being fed to them and what they're seeing you know

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kind of socially is not making that any easier it's it's there's very much a false narrative

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of this is what success is this is what failures is what you should do versus what you shouldn't

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do and and those identity are the sorry the extent to which the identity is formed or

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perceived with that compounding it I think makes it very very tough so I I think I get

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yes with the the the development also you don't have a fully wired frontal cortex until

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you're you know and I think you know men mature slower than the women do and they and they

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have different you know I guess that they have different paces at which they move and

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different experiences and different challenges and whatever else but if you get to 18 years

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old and you've missed out on all these experiences good bad or indifferent man going into today's

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world being confused not understanding which direction to go I mean I see it a ton and

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then I see them make I don't want to say they're bad decisions but just really uninformed decisions

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that they don't know how to maybe walk back from or or pursue further to maybe even to

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fix correct or continue to excel at whatever they're whatever they're doing it's it's

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rough for me to watch it really is I think one of the things I just had a conversation

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with the firefighter yesterday about this one thing that you know nauseates me is for example

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the whole participation trophy discussion because I think it's been completely skewed

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if I have never seen a group of children that put in zero effort and then were given medals

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but I've seen loads of kids that didn't win whatever little mini league they were on that

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showed up the same time showed up for practice that played in the heat played in the rain

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and you know at the end of the day depending on you know what the factors were they became

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second third fifth sixth that is and it's funny because he came up with uh it wasn't

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participation it was accomplishment and it was like yeah your completion trophy that's

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what it should be called because I always say right you run a tough mudder 13 miles

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through electrical wire and barbed wire and you know and they what do they do at the end

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they give you a participation trophy because you completed it because you showed up you

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know in the middle of a farm somewhere and were cold and wet and you helped other people

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through obstacles and you know you had this shared suffering the sense of accomplishment

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that is what we need to be encouraging kids rather than this sitting from a lazy boy pointing

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fingers saying you know back in my day you know if you're not first you're last like

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yeah if you're in a competitive environment if you're at the olympics by that point yeah

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that conversation is is is appropriate but if you're talking about children in general

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encouraging them to play even if they don't even follow the rules you know if kids are

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out in the park and that's not what you're supposed to do then let them let them develop

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their own rules they come up with their own game so i think that's another important part

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the conversation is play is okay and not everything is about winning and just when you were talking

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before about social media there's that one guy bodybuilder that had almost zero body

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fat was close to it you can and he and he died 20 whatever years old millions of fans

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viewers likes whatever you call it but he's dead because it's not about the pinnacle it's

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about you know the overall universal human experience yeah i so going back to play at

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some point we stopped playing and we turned play into p.e. now i don't think that's altogether

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bad because i think what p.e. there was there to do originally was to give the experience

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right keep people physically active you know challenge their bodies in healthy and productive

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ways and introduce them to all different types of things that they they might pursue as a

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as a kid but at some point p.e. turned into like a chore and then it was graded right

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like and the grading system on p.e. obviously is is very arbitrary and you know it it goes

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back to participation you either showed up or you didn't you either dressed out for p.e.

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or you didn't you were trying to avoid it or whatever else and i think it just got a

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negative connotation and so as as the youth goes through this experience of like what

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are we really doing here and it gets wildly perverted quite frankly with regard to the

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the things that are considered p.e. physical education versus what aren't or what are now

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versus when i when i was a kid and i i don't like to look back like in the good old days

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i think you just mentioned that but we were challenged like there were things like you're

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going to run the mile and not everybody's going to be good at running the mile but everybody's

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going to make an attempt at running the mile we're going to try to get better at this and

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maybe you get embarrassed because you're not very good at you're not as good as the other

384
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kids maybe maybe you don't like the feeling of being physically challenged and so forth

385
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these are life lessons and those were you know that was the experience that you got

386
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for p.e. and maybe you hated that but you loved badminton you know when we got to the

387
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badminton section and you kicked the the crap out of the kid you know you know figuratively

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on the on the badminton court when you got to that the kid they could run the mile super

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fast these were the experiences again it became a chore and so i think you know kids are taught

390
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now to not really love it or have fun doing it and it's it's worse than just a participation

391
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it's like let's find something that everybody is good at and so that nobody feels left out

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and everybody has a good experience when the reality of it is that's not reality and then

393
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in the end you know you get a grade for it and what's the what's the point of grading

394
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the kids so again going back to like the play versus being a chore as you graduate on to

395
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being adults i think what we what we teach kids a lot of time is to hate exercise it's

396
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not fun right it's not fun it doesn't it's not comfortable i'm not coordinated or i'm

397
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not good at this so i suck again there's an identity issue there and so as they get to

398
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be adults they really haven't learned anything or how to enjoy themselves or or what what

399
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you can get what are the benefits of being active right and being uh um going through

400
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that journey or that experience and and the things that you can pull from it it's again

401
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:28,480
it's about winning or losing or about you either got an a or you got a an f you know

402
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and i think that's really challenging in the fitness business because we're we're a lot

403
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of times overcoming that when we're talking to clients about like what what is what how

404
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:43,160
are you defining your success here and they haven't been taught how to figure that out

405
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they don't know that they know through work you know in their profession their bank account

406
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:52,200
says this their title on their business card or on the door or their the the placard on

407
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their desk says that but in in terms of physical fitness and that connection to being healthy

408
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it's there's a huge gap there i couldn't agree more i mean i think it's it's spot on and

409
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:11,760
it was sad sad slash i was proud i guess because my son was supposed to do what they call hope

410
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now we don't know what the first two um letters are but it's basically pe in high school and

411
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about three weeks into school he was like dad i signed up for jrotc i was like oh wow

412
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okay cool nice why because i've been in pe now for three weeks and we haven't done any

413
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exercise yet yeah we've done is watch you know tv and stuff so i mean you know i just

414
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:36,200
have done something right raising up to that point because i mean he chose the harder option

415
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:41,440
but um you know this is the problem and and i had uh doug orchard on the show and if you

416
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:47,280
ever seen the film the motivation factor it's a documentary yeah one of his his was sad

417
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,760
you were one of the only people i've ever asked that question they said yes and i've

418
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:55,400
got a lot of people in the strength and conditioning world and i wish everyone had seen that film

419
00:34:55,400 --> 00:35:00,680
because if you look at las sierra high school in the 60s even if you were the band kid and

420
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:07,480
you didn't want to be an athlete your level of fitness your your potential lifespan has

421
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:13,640
been maximized through a solid comprehensive p program that you do with all your friends

422
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:18,200
and you just want to stay on that bottom tier beautiful you'll be the fittest unfit person

423
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:23,640
in your whole school versus you know i mean now if you look at that some of the least

424
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:28,960
fit people in las sierra would probably be in the top 28 percentile of any american high

425
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:34,280
school today so this is i think yeah the other shift is like you said taking away winning

426
00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:38,960
and losing but you know they reported that the grades improved they reported that bullying

427
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:42,920
went down massively because everyone is going through this they're working in groups as

428
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:48,280
a shared suffering a sense of accomplishment and yes of course you have your elite you

429
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:52,120
know athletes that then can go play basketball or baseball or football you don't have to

430
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,920
worry about conditioning they're already conditioned they're fit as hell we just teach them how

431
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:59,840
to throw the ball and catch it right but then you know you've got the chess club and and

432
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:04,540
the poetry you know the poets and everyone else that really isn't leaning into sport

433
00:36:04,540 --> 00:36:09,560
they are just simply healthier so it's an absolute win-win and what we've done is we've

434
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:17,540
completely deconstructed any love of movement and outdoors and sunshine and you know demonize

435
00:36:17,540 --> 00:36:21,880
it and like you said sucked all the fun out of it and just made it basically seem like

436
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:28,120
a punishment to a lot of kids these days yeah with that in california pe isn't an isn't

437
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:33,200
even compulsory all the time i mean used to go to pe every single day you know now you

438
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:37,920
might go a couple of days a week and going back to like what are you actually doing uh

439
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:41,400
we don't run the mile here in california anymore because it makes kids feel bad about

440
00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:46,160
themselves uh literally i'm not that's as the governor's made that decision several

441
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:51,800
years ago it's it's it's um it's challenging it's interesting the the physiological effects

442
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:56,560
and the less bullying and the more productivity these are things that are completely discounted

443
00:36:56,560 --> 00:37:02,680
like is it less bullying because there's there's shared suffering and uh you know teams or

444
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:06,520
people are having to work together and whatever i don't know maybe that's part that's definitely

445
00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,640
going to be part of it but part of it is just the physiological response so now i'm directing

446
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:14,640
my energy somewhere else i have something to do i have there's hormonal response to

447
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:20,960
this right there's an endocrine response to this and these are almost invariably all positive

448
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:27,200
things so obviously to me it would be obviously that would trickle down to you know less bullying

449
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:34,360
you know more attentive in class uh you know obvious obvious things to me but somehow the

450
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:39,400
school boards and you know the educational system doesn't see it that way yeah well i

451
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:43,000
always say sarcastically if only we'd had a two-year pandemic that would put health

452
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:49,000
on the forefront imagine imagine we have a captive audience for two years and we absolutely

453
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:54,960
fucking blew it by just focusing on masks vaccines and chinese conspiracies you know

454
00:37:54,960 --> 00:38:00,200
i had for a long time for a lot of that time i had hope man i i did and i was like this

455
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:05,880
is going to be awesome right people are going to come out the other side of this as a as

456
00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:12,600
a business owner that is completely invested in your client and your community's you know

457
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:18,080
health and wellness this is going to be awesome because we are in a position to to help people

458
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:23,040
at a at a it's this is that the business is not you know swipe your your card come in

459
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,720
work out go on your own this is all personalized services we have personal relationships with

460
00:38:26,720 --> 00:38:31,320
all of these people and we're able to provide very specific solutions to their specific

461
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:35,840
needs and wants in terms of health and fitness i was like this is going to be awesome we're

462
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,000
going to not only we're going to have a captive audience i mean we're going to have a very

463
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:43,800
motivated audience and and we're going to be able to do all the things that we love

464
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:50,360
doing at the next level man was i wrong about that i mean we're still talking vaxes and

465
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:53,560
masks i mean i can go outside on the street right now and see people with masks on still

466
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:59,760
it's wild it's that human psyche just it really blew my mind i was like way overestimated

467
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:05,440
people yeah well i mean i think also to be fair to people a lot of them put their trust

468
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:11,320
in who they frame as a leader and if there was ever an example of you know pieces of

469
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:17,720
paper and and promotions don't make you a good leader it was the pandemic because you

470
00:39:17,720 --> 00:39:22,180
saw so many people that are paid hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars of

471
00:39:22,180 --> 00:39:26,880
taxpayers money shit the bed for lack of a better word and we're like oh you actually

472
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:32,440
don't know what the fuck you're doing do you and so a lot of people were were left completely

473
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:38,800
just confused without any any north anymore and sadly the real holistic health voices

474
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:43,960
of the world were held as heretics how dare you say that obesity is part of the covet

475
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:48,640
deaths because it fucking is that's why and even to this day like at the end of it there

476
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:52,360
was that well we don't want to talk about it anymore well now if we can't talk about

477
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:57,960
it in 2020 then we need to talk about in 2024 because there was some glaring lessons and

478
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:03,220
it's not just even our resistance to disease because another virus is going to come but

479
00:40:03,220 --> 00:40:09,840
also think about you know a threat from another country how terrified do you think china or

480
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:14,880
russia would be when they walked into you know an average walmart in america and it

481
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:20,440
sounds like a horrible dick thing to say but it is what it is 70 of our country is overweight

482
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,600
or obese you look at a lot of our children there are some phenomenal phenomenal athletes

483
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:30,240
you know unhealthy children in our population but there are some that are overweight there

484
00:40:30,240 --> 00:40:33,840
are some that have never even lifted anything so they're not overweight but they have you

485
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:38,720
know they're already hunched over like it like a pensioner this is such a disservice

486
00:40:38,720 --> 00:40:44,940
to the american people and so a real leader puts health and fitness at the very very forefront

487
00:40:44,940 --> 00:40:53,400
just like jfk did you can't i could not agree with you more and i don't think you can underestimate

488
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:59,600
the failure that has happened over over time but just got amplified and i think what what

489
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:06,720
we witnessed in 2020 through 22 if you will everything got exposed all of the all of the

490
00:41:06,720 --> 00:41:14,080
bad all the the weak and i would say disgusting underbelly of the medical industrial complex

491
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:19,480
as well as the pharmaceutical industrial complex and on our government and how they are all

492
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:23,560
intertwined was was exposed and to your point like oh we just don't want to talk about it

493
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:29,320
anymore that is the bigger travesty of this all is that we can't we don't have leadership

494
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:34,240
we can't find it anywhere i mean just look at what's being presented to the american

495
00:41:34,240 --> 00:41:40,200
people as their choices for um you know for leadership for the future of our country what

496
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:49,560
is that showing us um it's uh it if man it infuriates me i guess my my my point of this

497
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:57,620
is is what it's left is a wake of people being more confused less trusting um it's certainly

498
00:41:57,620 --> 00:42:01,160
not for a lack of information all the information is out there they just don't know what to

499
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:07,000
do with it and that i think is telling about the american people that they still can't

500
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:14,440
figure it out like where did so many of them can't figure it out like where where are you

501
00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:19,440
where did we lose you here like where because if if you can't get it at this point like

502
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:25,520
again like i'm very challenged with in my hope and my faith in humanity at times when

503
00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:31,560
i'm looking at it going what is happening here like how is how are we still doing the

504
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,880
same it's that definition of insanity we're still doing the same thing and expecting a

505
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:42,680
different result um but uh to to your point is with it as it relates to threats just in

506
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:48,680
general whether that's a virus whether that's a foreign um adversary or whether it's just

507
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:55,360
it's an adversary here you know in the united states whether foreign or not foreign or domestic

508
00:42:55,360 --> 00:43:00,960
we have a very weak platform right now and and and i've and it and i see it on a daily

509
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:06,880
basis and and and i live it on a daily basis i work with people that are doing sort of

510
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:11,840
the bare minimum to maybe feel better about the fact that they that they may be doing

511
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:16,120
something about they're paying money to somebody to give them a result they're going out and

512
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:21,080
they're trying to purchase health or they're trying to purchase capability uh they're trying

513
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:26,880
to purchase resiliency um when the reality of it is is it's it's an inability to take

514
00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:32,080
care of yourself and you're dependent on somebody else to do that for you and i think what we're

515
00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:35,200
what we're witnessing and what we're dealing with right now in america is just complete

516
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:41,200
dependence and that's scary that that is a scary place to be one of my guests a while

517
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:47,000
ago and i've quoted him a few times now made a great observation he said america is the

518
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:52,820
poster child for democracy like if we're selling this you know political philosophy to other

519
00:43:52,820 --> 00:43:59,360
nations we're we're the advert we're the commercial and when you're looking from the outside in

520
00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:04,560
and you see you know uh trump and biden i think they're both a fucking joke out 330

521
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,600
million people and this shows our system is so broken with you but you know you look at

522
00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:13,000
the obesity you look at the school shootings you look at the gangs on our streets you look

523
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:17,280
at the fact that we consume 75 percent of the world's opioids you look at i think we

524
00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:22,880
are two we make up two percent of the population i think something something around that two

525
00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:30,800
three um and we have 20 percent of the world's incarcerated population so you know we beat

526
00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:35,800
our chests and say we're the greatest country in the world because it's easier just to wave

527
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:40,440
that flag than to actually look in your own home and then out your front door and go how

528
00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:45,040
can i fix this and this is the problem is that we there's a lot of kind of finger pointing

529
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:50,360
rather than looking in the mirror and going what can i do if 330 million people excluding

530
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:54,680
really small children who wouldn't be able to do this um looked in the mirror and said

531
00:44:54,680 --> 00:45:02,700
what can i do we would absolutely revolutionize this nation and if we actually demanded a

532
00:45:02,700 --> 00:45:08,400
different system that put good good leaders on the ballot card for us to choose from but

533
00:45:08,400 --> 00:45:12,240
also not just focus on that and then have good leaders in our cities and our counties

534
00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:16,800
and our schools and our fire departments and our gyms and everywhere else my god i mean

535
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:22,880
it would be phenomenal but if we just sit down point fingers and tweet and say we're

536
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:26,400
the greatest country in the world one day this country is going to belong to someone

537
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:31,420
else if we don't fucking change things soon yeah it's a scary prospect uh you know going

538
00:45:31,420 --> 00:45:35,640
back to your jfk reference a minute ago i think what what he was saying there in a sense

539
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:40,400
is just you need to take personal responsibility for yourself like that that really is it at

540
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,880
the root at the root of this is take personal responsibility for you for yourself and when

541
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:49,080
you do that you will ask those questions and you will be forced to look at what you've

542
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:53,060
what you're doing well and what you're not doing well again it's this it's this taking

543
00:45:53,060 --> 00:45:59,360
stock and this this general check-in of a lot of different things um and when i when

544
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:03,360
i look at health i look at you know what what is financial health what is your you know

545
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:08,180
your physical health what is your your relationship health and how do those things stack up to

546
00:46:08,180 --> 00:46:13,120
one another it's not hard to know where you're getting a c plus or c minus and something

547
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:19,480
and an a and something else and as a country uh right now and and again i love the country

548
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:27,080
that we live in and uh i am um i am challenged on a daily basis when i look at kind of the

549
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:31,240
state of where it is and when we look at the things that we've gone through we don't have

550
00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:35,600
a very good track record in a lot of ways and to your point i think there's a there's

551
00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:39,840
a mystique about it but underneath all of that there is a reality of kind of what what

552
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:46,040
exists there and the taking or having somebody else occupied or take it over i think people

553
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:50,280
look at these things very black and white and they're looking at like oh well you know

554
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:55,080
china's not just going to show up on our shores and you know if they do then it's you know

555
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:59,120
the america will rise and you know we'll take care of business it's happening right now

556
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:05,320
as we speak uh with regard to you know what we've outsourced and who we're dependent on

557
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:11,280
you know specific to our to our resources or whatnot uh my the point of this is is it's

558
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:19,280
it's already happening um it it to how much longer can it happen before it is we're forced

559
00:47:19,280 --> 00:47:23,640
to look at it in a in a different way or those who refuse to look at it that way don't have

560
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:30,560
a choice again like the pandemic like oh our food supply our you know our freedoms or you

561
00:47:30,560 --> 00:47:36,600
know whatever else those are those toilet paper for god's sakes like you know like we

562
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:41,680
are we're riding a very thin line and you know it's three days without food and things

563
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:47,120
get fucking weird real weird real fast uh and and you know without resiliency or without

564
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:53,840
capability you are you're you're very exposed we are very exposed and that that i'm challenged

565
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:58,400
by that yeah well i think the counter argument is well you know if you don't like it get

566
00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:02,280
out kind of thing especially if you're not from here originally like me but um you know

567
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,840
i came from another country deliberately to this country and i served in uniform for 14

568
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:12,680
years for a reason and now i do this because if you do nothing then it gets worse if you

569
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:17,280
stand up and say hey here's the issues it's a beautiful country that's why i live here

570
00:48:17,280 --> 00:48:21,640
that's why i raised my children here but you know here's all these areas that we can do

571
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:25,080
better and here's these countries that are doing it better we don't even have to reinvent

572
00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:28,800
the wheel you just have to have a humility to say hey finland tell me about your education

573
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:33,920
system again but if you just sit there and go you know if you don't like it get out then

574
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:37,580
you're part of the problem and you're just going to watch you know watch the devolution

575
00:48:37,580 --> 00:48:42,560
but if we have these conversations in these amazing mediums like social media and podcasts

576
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:48,320
and all these things this is how a collective voice pushes back because again if we if we

577
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:52,760
haven't seen behind the curtain after the last three or four years then then we are

578
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:57,840
not doomed yeah i think you're going back to kind of what our choices going back to

579
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:04,600
the pandemic the vaccines things like that it would just it would be how how much further

580
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:10,240
could we get down the road if somebody somewhere just stood up and said you know what we were

581
00:49:10,240 --> 00:49:16,760
wrong and we were we were we made a mistake we made a mistake here was the mistakes here's

582
00:49:16,760 --> 00:49:20,360
the major mistakes we made which led to a lot of other mistakes but let's focus on the

583
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:25,240
biggest ones and here's how we can we can overcome that here's how we can make it right

584
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:30,000
in fact maybe we can't overcome it we just have to start trying to make it right now

585
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:34,240
and here's the steps that will go go about doing that how much mileage would you buy how

586
00:49:34,240 --> 00:49:39,240
much mileage would you get out of somebody just saying yeah we messed this up and we

587
00:49:39,240 --> 00:49:44,480
messed it up pretty good and and here's what we're gonna and you know what we're trying

588
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:48,000
to hold ourselves accountable you know people you got to fire people you got to hold them

589
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:51,520
and i believe that i mean that those are those are tough decisions that need to be made but

590
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:55,760
at the same time like let's just start with admitting we're not as great as we thought

591
00:49:55,760 --> 00:50:00,040
we were we didn't do as good a job as we thought we did which goes all the way back to what

592
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:05,040
you were saying at the beginning of this which is the participation trophy we live in a world

593
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:12,080
where people are used to just being given a trophy for showing up rather than performing

594
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:16,640
and you know again going back to the p.e. and performance based and whatever else there

595
00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:20,600
still is a time and a place for performance and we're not measuring that right now uh

596
00:50:20,600 --> 00:50:29,080
objectively it's being it's it's wildly it's mysterious like what are the goalposts today

597
00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:33,080
and you know what are we actually aiming for and there's a lot of distraction i don't think

598
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:38,560
people really know and that and again we're going to be faced with the lesser of two evils

599
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:43,800
here wherever you might stand with regard to an election cycle and we are right back

600
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:49,720
to where we were neither is a good neither is a solution neither is a solution yeah and

601
00:50:49,720 --> 00:50:54,960
then again i've i've literally posted about this and talked about is on the show 330 million

602
00:50:54,960 --> 00:51:02,720
people you should never have to hear the phrase the lesser of two evils yeah again like this

603
00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:08,240
is the best america can come up with i i don't think that's the case i don't i refuse to

604
00:51:08,240 --> 00:51:16,400
believe that uh it's but our system is so again perverted and and bogged down uh it's

605
00:51:16,400 --> 00:51:20,120
it's got people disenfranchised and i have to you know i have to be i have to admit like

606
00:51:20,120 --> 00:51:25,120
i've been very disenfranchised um at a lot of levels you know does my vote count at a

607
00:51:25,120 --> 00:51:31,160
national level um and what could i influence at a local level really at this point to you

608
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:38,640
know really influence some change given how layered uh everything is and how much liability

609
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:43,840
exists or liability protection exists within all of those layers to make change but at

610
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:46,760
the same time i can't sit there and go well you know i'm just gonna have to protect and

611
00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:52,560
look out for look out for myself to your point i have to do something what can i do um and

612
00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:55,640
those are the the questions that everybody should be asking themselves not like i'll

613
00:51:55,640 --> 00:52:01,360
let my neighbor take care of it absolutely well getting back onto your kind of lifeline

614
00:52:01,360 --> 00:52:06,680
we've gone on an awesome philosophical you know rant for a bit um you talked about law

615
00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:10,280
enforcement then you found yourself in the world of business walk me through that and

616
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:15,400
how you ended up working in in the gym setting so the business piece came up my i have family

617
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:19,920
here in california that's very heavily rooted in agriculture and agricultural business and

618
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:25,280
i can tell you if you want to make money uh there's a lot of money in agriculture and

619
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:32,920
i i i was sort of um i i think there was some fantasy in the lifestyle uh you know living

620
00:52:32,920 --> 00:52:37,560
in wide open spaces and having a little bit more autonomy and i actually did some some

621
00:52:37,560 --> 00:52:44,560
work and some internships uh through my agribusiness career or uh time with some companies in some

622
00:52:44,560 --> 00:52:47,960
places that i thought i might want to be and i recognized very quickly that is not where

623
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:53,120
i wanted to be going back to sports or pe and getting experiences you won't know unless

624
00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:58,240
you experience things so i went out there and i did that but all of this time at that

625
00:52:58,240 --> 00:53:04,000
point like football had stopped for me but fitness working out was very much a part of

626
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:11,280
who i was and what i enjoyed doing and uh that was always there and i had built relationships

627
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:18,000
in the local gyms and with with people uh the gym owners employees uh members there

628
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:23,240
was a community there that i felt very attached to and um i was also sort of exploring my

629
00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:28,760
own fitness journey and uh part of that was i wanted to give like bodybuilding a crack

630
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:33,040
like a competition i was like oh i think i can you know i think i could probably you

631
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:36,560
know from an amateur perspective i want to go through this experience i had the fitness

632
00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:41,480
piece figured out like and i think more than probably a lot of people did at my particular

633
00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:45,960
age at this time i was in my early 20s but the nutrition piece was something that i was

634
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:51,200
i was sorely missing i didn't understand how these guys got to look like that at a lot

635
00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:56,280
of levels um we start talking about peds and things like that but so i hired a coach who

636
00:53:56,280 --> 00:54:02,520
happened to be an owner of the gym who happened to be a professional bodybuilder and it just

637
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:08,800
opened up my world to this whole concept of like i could do what i love and i could maybe

638
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:13,640
make some money doing this because i had to pay this this wasn't free and i was a starving

639
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:19,520
student um who managed to scrape together the funds to to get a coach and part of that

640
00:54:19,520 --> 00:54:25,480
part of that deal was i couldn't pay full price but the coach who knew me from the gym

641
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,440
and knew my you know my work ethic and kind of how i was working i was like okay i'll

642
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:32,000
tell you what you'll pay this much but the other end of this deal is you have to meet

643
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:36,200
me here every morning at 4 30 a.m to train with me because i need a training partner

644
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:41,360
it's like show me where to sign so i went down this path of basically being mentored

645
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:46,480
tutored as well as getting coached as well as learning about the fitness business and

646
00:54:46,480 --> 00:54:53,000
how that worked how personal training worked how membership worked how sales how marketing

647
00:54:53,000 --> 00:55:00,480
back then which was the the the late 90s and i decided like i'm learning more i'm getting

648
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:07,960
like a master's degree in like uh i guess like fitness club management here while i

649
00:55:07,960 --> 00:55:10,920
watched my friends go to school to literally go to school to learn how to do this stuff

650
00:55:10,920 --> 00:55:17,320
and i'm comparing notes i'm like i'm chasing this so i abruptly stopped going to school

651
00:55:17,320 --> 00:55:23,160
and chased a fitness career and the rest is history that's 25 years later now now when

652
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:30,360
i first moved to america um the one of the first places i ever went because i was not

653
00:55:30,360 --> 00:55:35,200
in fire academy yet so i went to a place called bally's and dropped in an application so talk

654
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:40,740
to me about that company so yeah for my first my first few years i worked for some private

655
00:55:40,740 --> 00:55:46,000
i worked privately as a as a personal trainer i worked for a small small company i was had

656
00:55:46,000 --> 00:55:52,200
you know i was then managing a a fitness let's just call it the the fitness department um

657
00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:57,120
at the time uh there were two really large companies out there 24 hour fitness and bali

658
00:55:57,120 --> 00:56:03,720
total fitness uh bali was buying up and acquisitioning a lot of clubs that were existing a lot of

659
00:56:03,720 --> 00:56:08,600
other brands while 24 hour was building brand new beautiful clubs and property and things

660
00:56:08,600 --> 00:56:14,960
like that and uh i was on the central coast of of uh of california a place called san

661
00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:19,160
lisa bispo beautiful little town there's a college there called cal poly that's where

662
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:23,680
i was going to school and that's where i was working not too far from there in the central

663
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:27,480
valley is a is a city called fresno it's kind of smack dab in the middle of the central

664
00:56:27,480 --> 00:56:39,000
valley bali had bought up five clubs in this region uh in in 2000 sorry in 1999 uh 1999

665
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:44,200
i was looking for a bit a little bit of a career change i had a you know my girlfriend

666
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:50,760
who later became my wife uh um who've since divorced was from this area she had some connections

667
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:56,840
there she was graduating college i applied to to manage a club or to basically be in

668
00:56:56,840 --> 00:57:02,320
charge of a fitness um the fitness aspect of this one club they hired me immediately

669
00:57:02,320 --> 00:57:07,600
because the experience i had i got over there and before too long i had five clubs so bali

670
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:14,200
total fitness at the time had about 390 some odd clubs nationwide they had close to four

671
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:19,600
million members at this time they've been in business since like 1964 they were a machine

672
00:57:19,600 --> 00:57:28,240
um and i didn't really know what i was doing i was just you know they'd offered me a position

673
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:33,120
i said how much does that pay they told me i said i'll take it it was way more money

674
00:57:33,120 --> 00:57:38,520
that i was making and i don't know that i saw it as a real career path or what that

675
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:43,040
could have done for me my plan was i'll move there i'll build up my personal training business

676
00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:46,660
i'll quit and open my own business which is what i want to do and i'll take all my clients

677
00:57:46,660 --> 00:57:52,120
with me which is a common dream uh and approach for a lot of personal trainers not as easy

678
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:58,040
as you might think when i got there um i was afforded all kinds of opportunities and i

679
00:57:58,040 --> 00:58:02,760
took advantage of every single one of them um you know all kinds of management development

680
00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:09,440
programs uh certainly being in front of some very very experienced and uh knowledgeable

681
00:58:09,440 --> 00:58:15,920
fitness professionals but also business professionals learned a ton and uh that that getting to

682
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:20,440
sort of the end of that story uh you know i had one club then i had five clubs then

683
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:25,400
i was you know promoted and i moved down to southern california uh there's some restructuring

684
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:31,520
going on there was like 60 clubs down there um i moved back to northern california to

685
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:35,240
take on some business and then ultimately finished my career in my last few years there

686
00:58:35,240 --> 00:58:39,360
as a national director of personal training development for the company and with a couple

687
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:45,600
of other guys we had over 450 clubs all with um personal training departments and group

688
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:51,680
exercise departments and we were we were running that business um and uh it was a good 10 year

689
00:58:51,680 --> 00:58:57,360
run had a lot of opportunity and and looking back i don't regret any of it um i'm really

690
00:58:57,360 --> 00:59:01,600
grateful and thankful for the experience that i had it was uh it was a lot of fun

691
00:59:05,280 --> 00:59:11,760
what impact if any did you see with the advent of crossfit great question uh

692
00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:20,000
i was busy and wasn't really paying attention initially uh one of the guys i worked with

693
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:25,760
at the at the national level uh had been exploring it more we were traveling all the time i was on

694
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:30,400
planes trains and automobiles every week i was traveling all over the country and i knew it was

695
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:34,960
coming up and we were paying attention to it but it wasn't i was paying attention to it but i wasn't

696
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:41,200
you know like enamored by it i just saw it as this is pretty extreme this is my life

697
00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:47,760
this is much different than than what we that the the folks doing this the clientele students much

698
00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:51,680
different than what we were dealing with on a daily basis we had our hands full but we did see

699
00:59:51,680 --> 00:59:57,200
with some trickle over um from the crossfit world into the mainstream with some of our more

700
00:59:57,200 --> 01:00:04,400
let i would just say um more rehab focused coaches or facilities where they were getting a lot of the

701
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:08,800
the bleed over from people that were getting injured or just they were just outdoing themselves

702
01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:12,960
and they couldn't maintain it anymore and that's how i kind of envisioned it was like

703
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:17,600
it's just going to blow people up you know and and then you know you'd see the games and just i was

704
01:00:17,600 --> 01:00:21,920
always very impressed by the athletes and still am to this day i was going that is such a small

705
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:28,240
percentage of the larger population um it didn't it didn't really register with me

706
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:36,480
until my end of my time with uh with ballet which was going to be like 2008 2009 and

707
01:00:36,480 --> 01:00:44,160
crossfit was gangbusters um i never subscribed to the methodology never never um you know committed

708
01:00:44,160 --> 01:00:52,720
to training that way or whatever but uh it what it did was exposed people to fitness in a different

709
01:00:52,720 --> 01:00:59,760
way which i am at all a turn be eternally grateful for it it taught people that they needed to move

710
01:00:59,760 --> 01:01:03,760
they needed to get off machines they needed to move they needed to use the barbell they needed

711
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:11,440
to lift heavy shit it it taught and it encouraged women to lift heavy shit um it encouraged people

712
01:01:11,440 --> 01:01:17,040
to be competitive which has its pros and its cons uh to enjoy fitness it built community the

713
01:01:17,040 --> 01:01:22,400
thing they nailed and nobody will ever do it the same is the community aspect that it brought

714
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:29,680
together which every gym every club every private gym owner says they're doing or dreams of doing it

715
01:01:29,680 --> 01:01:34,640
um or tries to sell like here's your fitness family you know and we're going to take care of

716
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:36,960
you and we're going to be here for we're going to encourage you we're going to motivate you we're

717
01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:43,360
going to be here every day for you nobody's done that like crossfit did uh and that really impressed

718
01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:51,440
me uh to the you know it kind of became cult so uh in a sense but it but it got people very fit

719
01:01:51,440 --> 01:02:00,880
and it exposed people to um a you know methodology and uh of training that could for lack of a better

720
01:02:00,880 --> 01:02:05,120
term cross over into a lot of different worlds and i think that was that was super important for our

721
01:02:05,120 --> 01:02:10,480
for our industry and for our culture to have that so i'm i'm very respectful of crossfit in a lot of

722
01:02:10,480 --> 01:02:17,360
ways it was interesting watching because i my origin story across is in um anaheim one of the

723
01:02:17,360 --> 01:02:22,480
firefighters trained in hunnington beach was one of the very first gym um back in i always forget

724
01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:29,760
that the i think it was like either side of oh six oh yeah i was six or seven um but uh you know i

725
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:33,840
was blown away because i did martial arts and i did you know regular weightlifting i wasn't a

726
01:02:33,840 --> 01:02:38,880
bodybuilder but you know the that you said the machines and the dumbbells and that you know when

727
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:43,760
he first put me through the first one i was like oh my god what what is this and as a firefighter

728
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:48,880
it was so good and there are times where you know i had friends that were on a fire ground that

729
01:02:48,880 --> 01:02:54,000
didn't work out like that and you know they were extremely tired and you come along and you and

730
01:02:54,000 --> 01:02:58,240
you get the job done and so you see okay this is working you see on jiu-jitsu mat okay this is

731
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:04,160
working so it's phenomenal but when i moved back to florida it was to the ymca so you're back in

732
01:03:04,160 --> 01:03:09,840
the kind of you know i know that the tongue-in-cheek kind of globo gym environment but i was doing

733
01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:14,720
crossfit and then i just remember these people looking at me like what the fuck is this guy

734
01:03:14,720 --> 01:03:18,640
doing yeah and then these high school kids were you know like making fun you can see them sniggering

735
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:24,000
in the corner but then as you said the games came in and i have i'd never have done a competition

736
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:28,320
in my life unless it was a fundraiser and crossfit because i you know to quote kenny powers don't

737
01:03:28,320 --> 01:03:33,040
want to be the best at working out but you know the application is phenomenal but then you know

738
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:36,240
two or three years later the same high school kids like hey bro can you show me how to do that

739
01:03:36,240 --> 01:03:42,480
muscle up perception same exact workouts just the you know the image has changed so that was really

740
01:03:42,480 --> 01:03:47,520
interesting but then as i progressed through i haven't done haven't really been consistent for

741
01:03:47,520 --> 01:03:53,440
the last year but i switched into the kind of wolf brigade philosophy now okay um and uh you know just

742
01:03:53,440 --> 01:03:58,320
slowing everything down because i'm about to turn 50 on friday and now i'm at the point where i

743
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:04,400
worked on my motor for all these years i was strong i was as strong as i needed to be i'm never going

744
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:09,440
to be strong just my body type isn't that way but i was strong enough to be a good firefighter but now

745
01:04:10,000 --> 01:04:13,280
i've been a stunt man i've been a martial artist i've been a firefighter now i've got to start

746
01:04:13,280 --> 01:04:19,760
kind of fixing all the things so that i can squeeze out that performance because i'm not going to get

747
01:04:19,760 --> 01:04:24,560
fitter and stronger at 50 if i've if i've been fit and strong up to that point i can focus on

748
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:28,800
one thing but what's the point if i've got dysfunction and imbalance and you know things

749
01:04:28,800 --> 01:04:34,400
that i need to look on so you know it's been interesting being a you know arguably pretty early

750
01:04:34,400 --> 01:04:39,280
in the crossfit journey riding that crest of like you said where it absolutely was a cult for a bit

751
01:04:39,280 --> 01:04:46,000
and every person in the gym had knee wraps and wrist wraps you know the whole the whole you know

752
01:04:46,000 --> 01:04:50,800
halloween outfit to them when there was a kind of awakening where they really started understanding

753
01:04:50,800 --> 01:04:57,520
how to coach and say they me as well um you know to to now kind of slowing it down taking some of

754
01:04:57,520 --> 01:05:01,920
those philosophies but but you know bringing in maces and sleds and sandbags and some of the other

755
01:05:01,920 --> 01:05:08,480
things that me personally i like to to move around space so that i'm getting that 360 kind of uh

756
01:05:09,840 --> 01:05:18,160
benefit yeah i think it was it was interesting the it grew so fast it grew wildly out of control

757
01:05:18,160 --> 01:05:24,240
and i think this is kind of a sensitive end of the topic for those that are very much uh ingrained

758
01:05:24,240 --> 01:05:28,880
or were there at the beginnings of crossfit you mentioned a couple of things there one of which

759
01:05:28,880 --> 01:05:34,160
was you know you could very easily have a crossfit affiliate and anybody could do this right and so

760
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:38,880
you had all it was growing exponentially but what was and they were literally across the street from

761
01:05:38,880 --> 01:05:43,280
one another and cannibalizing one another and that that became a little bit of an issue but the cream

762
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:50,080
as they say kind of rose to the top and what that cream was this is where these this this particular

763
01:05:50,080 --> 01:05:54,480
box is turning out competitors that go to the games or winning regionally or whatever else

764
01:05:54,480 --> 01:05:59,360
to this other one which is this is more for the mainstream person who just wants to fitness

765
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:04,800
and use crossfit to do that um they have a really good set of coaches and they are managing the

766
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:08,640
attrition rate not because people aren't paying their bills but because they're not getting hurt

767
01:06:08,640 --> 01:06:16,880
as often and it kind of it kind of um again there was this this separation um the the challenge that

768
01:06:16,880 --> 01:06:22,160
i had with it was i think for a lot of people the crossfit crossfit was very misunderstood

769
01:06:22,960 --> 01:06:28,000
by both the public that wanted to participate in it but also by a lot of the coaches that were

770
01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:32,400
coaching it um so when we get into the concepts of like strength and conditioning

771
01:06:33,200 --> 01:06:39,040
nobody to this point had really put together like what crossfit had done this multi-disciplinary

772
01:06:39,040 --> 01:06:46,240
multi-modality type of fitness program programming where you were hitting hypertrophy strength

773
01:06:46,240 --> 01:06:52,480
power agility speed there was all these components that were putting in there now the the closest

774
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:56,080
thing to this that you would you would have found at the time would be like walking into a

775
01:06:56,640 --> 01:07:01,360
a a strength conditioning room say at university or in the pro ranks but they were always very

776
01:07:01,360 --> 01:07:05,360
focused on a specific athlete and the specific things that that athlete needed to do and

777
01:07:05,360 --> 01:07:09,280
you could break that even further to like positionally what does this athlete need to

778
01:07:09,280 --> 01:07:13,680
do on this team you're not going to train a wide receiver the same way you're going to

779
01:07:13,680 --> 01:07:18,160
train a offensive tackle they need to do similar things but they're not going to do all the same

780
01:07:18,160 --> 01:07:23,600
things um and in there i will tell you this in strength and conditioning there's way more

781
01:07:23,600 --> 01:07:26,960
strength happening in most strength and conditioning rooms than there's actually

782
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:33,120
conditioning so already a very misunderstood topic at the time when crossfit came out i was actually

783
01:07:33,120 --> 01:07:37,600
heavily into multi-sport i was doing a lot of triathlon and actually adventure racing which

784
01:07:37,600 --> 01:07:43,600
is another thing so i was exploring more of the conditioning um and endurance side of things

785
01:07:43,600 --> 01:07:49,280
and so which was very mysterious and almost very scientific there's still a lot of that going on

786
01:07:49,280 --> 01:07:52,320
on the strength side but nobody brought those two things together yet and so going back to the

787
01:07:52,320 --> 01:07:56,640
misunderstandings we're trying to put all this stuff together and what it just looked like was

788
01:07:56,640 --> 01:08:01,360
whatever the wad for the day is however there were very smart coaches that were putting these

789
01:08:01,360 --> 01:08:06,160
things together and the athletes that were winning the competitions and the games initially maybe

790
01:08:06,160 --> 01:08:10,720
weren't doing this but they were over time when you think of like the rich fronings jason kalipas

791
01:08:10,720 --> 01:08:17,360
uh those type of dudes they they weren't doing crossfit as most people think of crossfit every

792
01:08:17,360 --> 01:08:23,120
single day and they if even if you look at so if you look at those what i'm saying is they were

793
01:08:23,120 --> 01:08:28,560
periodizing their programming to be able to get these aspects of fitness these different domains

794
01:08:28,560 --> 01:08:34,560
of fitness done they were doing in a smart way so that they had longevity and still are able to

795
01:08:34,560 --> 01:08:39,280
perform at high levels today and there was this whole group of people that were getting wildly

796
01:08:39,280 --> 01:08:45,040
kind of off pace or off piste if you will sorry specific to like i just need to go hard all the

797
01:08:45,040 --> 01:08:50,880
time so you just the reason i say all that i say all that to say you recognize now that that is not

798
01:08:50,880 --> 01:08:58,800
something you can do all the time at 50 years old and expect to number one be fit and recover and be

799
01:08:58,800 --> 01:09:04,160
able to do your job and be a dad and all of that stuff and so i see a lot of people out there trying

800
01:09:04,160 --> 01:09:10,320
to take aspects of crossfit and put it together with where they are now to be able to particularly

801
01:09:10,320 --> 01:09:16,080
in the first responder world or mill world um because they remember how fit they were and how

802
01:09:16,080 --> 01:09:21,680
good they felt when they started crossfit when they were 25 you know years old or whatever but

803
01:09:21,680 --> 01:09:26,880
they there's no way they can do that now so they're searching for a smarter way to do it and they're

804
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:31,600
hearing it's still not registering yet they're hearing you need to do a little less you need to

805
01:09:31,600 --> 01:09:36,400
slow things down a little bit more you need a little bit more rest and recover recover because

806
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:44,240
in their head they're hearing no go hard or go home no days off i you know it's intensity or nothing

807
01:09:45,360 --> 01:09:50,560
um you know but their body is telling them otherwise and so i think there's this huge wide

808
01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:56,000
open market now uh for folks to to really take advantage of because there's a lot of i'll just

809
01:09:56,000 --> 01:10:00,400
say like james you're a super fit guy who knows a lot of stuff and you have a lot to offer

810
01:10:00,400 --> 01:10:05,120
and there's a lot of guys like you that want to be fit right and don't want to hurt all the time

811
01:10:05,120 --> 01:10:09,040
and still need to perform on their job and all those things there's like this i think we're a

812
01:10:09,040 --> 01:10:13,760
spot right now where there's a there's almost going to be kind of this resurgence of i don't

813
01:10:13,760 --> 01:10:17,840
want to say crossfit but something similar that caters more to guys like you and me

814
01:10:19,280 --> 01:10:24,480
yeah i agree completely even if you look back to be fair to the original programming i think about

815
01:10:24,480 --> 01:10:30,640
the main site years ago it would be a lift that's it just literally i forget how many sets it might

816
01:10:30,640 --> 01:10:36,080
be three you know five sets that was it and then that was it for the day you're done go home and

817
01:10:36,080 --> 01:10:40,400
then there would be kind of more of a kind of metcon and maybe the the third day would be a longer

818
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:46,400
slower one and then the fourth day was a day off so it was originally written like that even you

819
01:10:46,400 --> 01:10:50,560
know and then people like well let's do a lift before every you know metcon and then we got to

820
01:10:50,560 --> 01:10:55,440
squeeze accessory work and there was a point which i love this but you know our gym had a gymnast

821
01:10:55,440 --> 01:11:01,040
class a barbell class you know endurance class but then you realize okay there's only so many

822
01:11:01,040 --> 01:11:05,920
hours in the day i can't do all these things at the same time but you know i think that less is

823
01:11:05,920 --> 01:11:10,240
more is is a big thing now and even if you look at the combat world you know that they're not

824
01:11:10,240 --> 01:11:14,880
heavy sparring in most gyms and they're realizing now oh maybe i shouldn't you know get concussed

825
01:11:14,880 --> 01:11:19,600
before my fight maybe that wasn't a good idea and i lived that i was at shootbox for a while

826
01:11:19,600 --> 01:11:26,880
i was at shootbox for just under a year in la and absolute the fight club like i've you know perforated

827
01:11:26,880 --> 01:11:31,840
eardrum broken nose i mean all the things you know and uh so yeah i think this is interesting and then

828
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:39,040
as you age you need more rest and recovery and so my philosophy now is all right how close can i get

829
01:11:39,040 --> 01:11:44,640
my body to the way it's supposed to move you know my shoulders getting back to where they are and

830
01:11:44,640 --> 01:11:48,240
you know my knees and my hamstrings and my quads and everything kind of aligned again

831
01:11:48,240 --> 01:11:53,360
because that in itself will make me fitter and stronger i've done the work for decades i have

832
01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:58,880
done the work i don't need to be beating the 20 year old in the gym i need to be swinging the mace

833
01:11:58,880 --> 01:12:04,960
and pushing the sled and doing all the things that are gonna you know kind of as we say cribbing in

834
01:12:04,960 --> 01:12:10,000
the fire service fill those voids so that you know i still move well and you know and the big thing

835
01:12:10,000 --> 01:12:15,360
is the pain so yeah i mean you know that kind of young bull old bull you know i've got i've got the

836
01:12:15,360 --> 01:12:20,480
i've got the efficiency now now i've just got to kind of make sure that the foundation is still

837
01:12:20,480 --> 01:12:24,960
strong yeah essentially what you mentioned about where crossfit started the volume and intensity

838
01:12:24,960 --> 01:12:30,160
was very closely managed then you you mentioned you know then they they they went to or you would

839
01:12:30,160 --> 01:12:35,840
you could go to like more gymnastics based or more barbell based ollie ollie lifting type stuff where

840
01:12:35,840 --> 01:12:41,680
the skills people recognized oh i can work on the skills and then you only have so many hours in the

841
01:12:41,680 --> 01:12:46,560
day so what would you do well let's do a double day because more is better right and i can practice

842
01:12:46,560 --> 01:12:50,800
my skills in one part of the day and i can do my you know metcon in another part of the day

843
01:12:50,800 --> 01:12:55,920
and it just kind of started compound and then of course the nutrition piece came in and you know

844
01:12:56,960 --> 01:13:01,440
you know the paleo diet was the diet you know for a long long time that's where people were

845
01:13:01,440 --> 01:13:04,960
planting their flag a lot of great things about that but we recognize maybe we need a little

846
01:13:04,960 --> 01:13:09,680
more carbohydrate in here it's just you know we're we need we need that energy and not everybody's

847
01:13:09,680 --> 01:13:15,680
going to be fat adapted and so forth but the the the layering on the pieces and then again it kind

848
01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:23,600
of got bastardized and to to i think to fulfill the emotional piece of i'm not working hard enough

849
01:13:23,600 --> 01:13:28,880
or i should be doing more and then to your point like ultimately that catches up with you in in

850
01:13:28,880 --> 01:13:33,840
more ways than you got joints that you got to worry about you've got you know recovery systems

851
01:13:33,840 --> 01:13:40,240
hormones that you may have you know pushed into the toilet as a result of overtraining

852
01:13:40,240 --> 01:13:44,960
under eating being under nourished all of those things and so inevitably you kind of hit this

853
01:13:44,960 --> 01:13:48,720
this point where you have to kind of reverse think the process and reverse engineer it

854
01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:56,320
and the you know because when i look at this in terms of my philosophy on on fitness like if we

855
01:13:56,320 --> 01:14:02,400
can get people to know all this stuff before or at least sort of comprehend it before then they're

856
01:14:02,400 --> 01:14:07,760
not trying to untangle this sticky web later in life and they're not wrestling with it you know

857
01:14:07,760 --> 01:14:12,880
emotionally uh you know or psychologically to where they feel like they're not doing enough but to

858
01:14:12,880 --> 01:14:18,480
your point like if you can get to a level of fitness whatever that is for you and let's not

859
01:14:18,480 --> 01:14:23,840
try to define like you either are you aren't it's just and let's not define it as fitness is the

860
01:14:23,840 --> 01:14:30,480
deadlift fitness is crossfit fitness is running a marathon fitness just what are all the aspects

861
01:14:30,480 --> 01:14:35,360
of fitness and how am i how am i getting through my journey here i'm never going to be perfect at

862
01:14:35,360 --> 01:14:40,960
all of them that's what crossfit was trying to do right impossible right we know that there's not

863
01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:44,400
and there's not a lot of longevity in that so understanding how to cycle through different

864
01:14:44,400 --> 01:14:49,040
things and experience different things so that when you get to 50 years old i just turned 49

865
01:14:49,920 --> 01:14:56,560
um and i have all all all kinds of issues my back is a dumpster fire because i didn't do what i'm

866
01:14:56,560 --> 01:15:02,080
saying right now which is like let's work on moving well let's move on let's work on moving

867
01:15:02,080 --> 01:15:08,320
consistently but not necessarily pushing balls to the wall every single time we go out that's not

868
01:15:08,320 --> 01:15:13,840
you don't need to do that and try different things uh you know get out there and do different stuff

869
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:18,720
you know you mentioned the combatives you mentioned you mentioned the crossfit you mentioned um you

870
01:15:18,720 --> 01:15:24,720
know uh one you know being just active in general and and also having to be a firefighter in there

871
01:15:24,720 --> 01:15:29,920
somewhere uh and not putting yourself in a position where you're trying to perform in all these other

872
01:15:29,920 --> 01:15:36,400
things and then you show up to the job and you can't perform as a result of overdoing it on

873
01:15:36,400 --> 01:15:42,000
you know through this other stuff so um that's a big missing piece i mean i think particularly in

874
01:15:42,000 --> 01:15:49,040
law enforcement and and in the fire services pushing constantly to the point where you're

875
01:15:49,040 --> 01:15:57,280
risking ability uh when you have to perform the job uh at some point and obviously if it's how you

876
01:15:57,280 --> 01:16:03,680
make your living that's compounded uh that risk is compounded and and i there's better ways to do it

877
01:16:03,680 --> 01:16:08,720
the people that are selling this programming um it's not popular when you tell somebody to slow

878
01:16:08,720 --> 01:16:13,200
down it's not that's not a sexy thing to to say it's not it's not popular to say you should be

879
01:16:13,200 --> 01:16:18,560
doing two recovery days a week and you need to you know go to yoga do some do some mobility work

880
01:16:18,560 --> 01:16:26,080
um not a lot right not another 5k you know for time or whatever else so we're in this transition

881
01:16:26,080 --> 01:16:30,240
right now and and so when i get to talk to people like you that kind of get it at this point

882
01:16:30,240 --> 01:16:34,000
i'm always like if you could do if you knew then what you know now what would you do different

883
01:16:34,000 --> 01:16:41,360
um i could i could go on and on and on about that absolutely well you mentioned the tactical

884
01:16:41,360 --> 01:16:47,760
athletes the first responders and the military um walk me through how you transition from

885
01:16:47,760 --> 01:16:52,800
balis and you created your own red dot fitness and then let's talk about the tactical population

886
01:16:52,800 --> 01:16:59,680
that you work with today sure so you know the ballet was ballet career was a good run again it

887
01:16:59,680 --> 01:17:05,200
was 10 years in that time i'd gone through several leadership changes at the at the sort

888
01:17:05,200 --> 01:17:10,240
of the executive level with the company uh there was a lot of things going on um it was a publicly

889
01:17:10,240 --> 01:17:18,400
traded company in 2000 uh i started working for the company in 2000 and 2001 is when the like well

890
01:17:18,400 --> 01:17:24,000
2000 is when like nron and worldcom happened in the stock market so for you might remember that

891
01:17:24,000 --> 01:17:27,920
maybe some of your listeners have no idea what that is but it changed a lot of things in the landscape

892
01:17:27,920 --> 01:17:34,720
of um uh the stock market and how things how financials are being reported and effectively

893
01:17:34,720 --> 01:17:38,640
ballet was kind of caught in the middle of that too like you can't report your earnings this way

894
01:17:38,640 --> 01:17:44,480
anymore because you're not showing kind of what that bad debt is um and so that changed kind of

895
01:17:44,480 --> 01:17:50,800
how the company operated and i got to be a part of that which was important for me but it also meant

896
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:57,520
there was new people coming in new people there were cuts being made restructuring things happening

897
01:17:57,520 --> 01:18:02,800
we got to the third one of those and i just didn't i knew i didn't have the energy for it anymore i

898
01:18:02,800 --> 01:18:06,320
saw the writing on the wall the the the company was going to have to go through a bankruptcy

899
01:18:06,320 --> 01:18:13,120
and um i didn't want to be a part of you know that for any longer than i had to be and i always knew

900
01:18:13,120 --> 01:18:17,680
i wanted to have my help my own business that was the dream i assumed i was going to be doing it

901
01:18:17,680 --> 01:18:23,600
before but i had this great job it's very lucrative good money and afforded me a really great lifestyle

902
01:18:24,240 --> 01:18:29,760
a lot of experience but i knew i was going to have to make the change i did i literally walked away

903
01:18:29,760 --> 01:18:39,920
from it um and rented space as a personal trainer from a uh a coach that had a space in town here in

904
01:18:39,920 --> 01:18:45,440
san jose uh that had worked for me at one point she had said hey if you ever you know if you ever

905
01:18:45,440 --> 01:18:49,200
need it i don't know why that would be scott but if you ever need it you're welcome here so made the

906
01:18:49,200 --> 01:18:55,680
phone call and i started with absolutely zero clients i had no clients and i basically kind of

907
01:18:55,680 --> 01:18:59,200
put my proverbial balls on the table and said well scott if you're going to do this this is the way

908
01:18:59,200 --> 01:19:04,080
to do you're going to start from scratch and that's what i did so i started with one client that

909
01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:10,160
turned into two that turned into four and um over the next couple over the next year i knew i needed

910
01:19:10,160 --> 01:19:15,200
to put my name on a building kind of put my brand on a building and to expand it i had plans for

911
01:19:15,200 --> 01:19:19,920
that it was it's all it was all personal personalized coaching and some group training

912
01:19:20,800 --> 01:19:26,720
and uh you know my approach was um you know not to do anything cookie cutter which is very tough

913
01:19:26,720 --> 01:19:32,560
to scale and but i knew because i'd done this before with ballet i knew there was a way to do it

914
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:41,280
i met uh my now um i met my partner my partner in life and business now uh cc and uh we shared a

915
01:19:41,280 --> 01:19:48,000
space i rented a building shared space grew that space outgrew that space uh and then pushed into

916
01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:53,440
um pushed into the space we are now so i started in a building it was 580 square feet it's just a

917
01:19:53,440 --> 01:20:01,040
room um there's just a little room and now we're in a a building that's 6000 square feet and have

918
01:20:01,040 --> 01:20:10,160
multiple employees and so forth and the business evolved and uh you know it it was it's when i

919
01:20:10,160 --> 01:20:13,120
talked to people that have been in the fitness business like you're kind of the only one that i

920
01:20:13,120 --> 01:20:18,720
know that's been able to do it the way we all wanted to do it but weren't able to do it um

921
01:20:18,720 --> 01:20:23,360
and we were very successful and we were doing fantastic we'd you know we'd bootstrap the whole

922
01:20:23,360 --> 01:20:31,600
thing and then 2020 showed up uh and uh we live here in in santa clara county which was the toughest

923
01:20:32,240 --> 01:20:38,240
harshest county in co with regard to covid restrictions we were the first to shut down

924
01:20:38,240 --> 01:20:43,200
um then it was san francisco and then it was everybody else uh almost uh four years ago to

925
01:20:43,200 --> 01:20:49,920
the day that we're recording this it was like march 17th um when that happened and we got

926
01:20:49,920 --> 01:20:56,240
destroyed uh you know we our business was closed the long story short the business was closed for

927
01:20:56,240 --> 01:21:01,760
a year like the doors were closed and this was not something that you could make a lot of like

928
01:21:01,760 --> 01:21:07,520
yes you could have made choices and we did um but the health department the county health department

929
01:21:07,520 --> 01:21:12,320
is literally two blocks away and to say that they were harassing people would be a massive

930
01:21:12,320 --> 01:21:24,000
understatement um to give you some numbers there was like combined um combined fines written to

931
01:21:24,000 --> 01:21:30,080
businesses in the bay area there are eight counties in the bay area or sorry seven counties us being

932
01:21:30,080 --> 01:21:40,720
one of those it was like there was like 1.8 million dollars written in fines 80 000 of that came from

933
01:21:40,720 --> 01:21:45,840
the other six counties the rest of that came from santa clara county so that's what they were doing

934
01:21:45,840 --> 01:21:51,200
to businesses and this was the people that they were attacking there were three major culprits

935
01:21:51,200 --> 01:21:57,440
if you will we were the we were the problem gyms which we had shut down right from the get-go

936
01:21:57,440 --> 01:22:03,920
right salons and churches these were the three businesses that were apparently spreading the

937
01:22:03,920 --> 01:22:09,440
virus and were the most high risk they were labeling us that and you had people that were

938
01:22:09,440 --> 01:22:14,640
pushing back they felt very strongly about like people need to stay fit they need to stay healthy

939
01:22:14,640 --> 01:22:18,480
right they need to go to church they need to have their places of worship like this is

940
01:22:18,480 --> 01:22:22,720
not something you can take away from them uh and then on the salon side of things like you're

941
01:22:22,720 --> 01:22:27,120
talking about independent contractors and they're everywhere this is how they put food on the table

942
01:22:27,120 --> 01:22:33,200
how are they not supposed to you know how are they not supposed to pay themselves so long story

943
01:22:33,200 --> 01:22:39,200
short we had to pivot very very hard we found a space outside we don't have like a parking lot

944
01:22:39,200 --> 01:22:44,320
so we were able to lease a small space from the city um put we tried to put together sort of a

945
01:22:44,320 --> 01:22:51,120
frankenstein type gym out there um meanwhile the the the city is starting to kind of implode and

946
01:22:51,120 --> 01:22:56,400
deteriorate homelessness going nuts the fentanyl crisis was right in front of our our face we were

947
01:22:56,400 --> 01:23:06,080
in a downtown area um only about a mile from the city center and uh so it was it was a very upcoming

948
01:23:06,080 --> 01:23:13,120
area um because google had promised and had purchased a large piece of property just blocks

949
01:23:13,120 --> 01:23:19,680
from our building and so things were dry there's a lot of economic growth new businesses new homes

950
01:23:19,680 --> 01:23:23,760
new high-rise apartments buildings and that was what was supplying our business with with members

951
01:23:23,760 --> 01:23:28,560
well when that when covid hit they shut things down and we're in tech central we're in the heart

952
01:23:28,560 --> 01:23:35,760
of the silicon valley uh people that were paying four thousand dollars a month for a thousand square

953
01:23:35,760 --> 01:23:39,840
foot apartment you know or whatever in downtown san jose which is an awesome we're like wait i

954
01:23:39,840 --> 01:23:43,120
don't have to live here anymore but i'm going to still make the same amount of money living

955
01:23:43,120 --> 01:23:49,280
somewhere else um they bailed out and everything just kind of started to empty out and again like

956
01:23:49,280 --> 01:23:52,320
i said things started to deteriorate and those were our clients those were our friends that was

957
01:23:52,320 --> 01:23:57,440
our community and it was gone so again outdoor gym we're trying to put together some online

958
01:23:57,440 --> 01:24:02,880
products and services and again all that's happening in 2020 and then the events that

959
01:24:02,880 --> 01:24:10,720
happened with george floyd took hold um and as if we weren't kind of already in a new you know

960
01:24:10,720 --> 01:24:14,800
having our challenges city hall like i mentioned is about a mile down the road

961
01:24:16,480 --> 01:24:22,160
protests were happening the weekend after the incident that happened um in minnesota and

962
01:24:22,160 --> 01:24:27,280
let's just say the gatherings got to be fairly large our our law enforcement here handled it

963
01:24:27,280 --> 01:24:32,640
pretty decisively um i give them a lot of credit for what they did as soon as things started getting

964
01:24:32,640 --> 01:24:36,800
lit on fire and you know windows getting broken and things like that they they broke that up pretty

965
01:24:36,800 --> 01:24:45,120
fast well they pushed it out but it started to come towards us now i lived at the time just two

966
01:24:45,120 --> 01:24:51,680
blocks from the gym the gym big glass front windows it's on the main drag uh and then we

967
01:24:51,680 --> 01:24:58,320
uh i'm watching what's happening in the down in front of city hall happen on tv like everybody

968
01:24:58,320 --> 01:25:03,920
was doing two blocks from the house i'm sitting there with my my daughter my stepdaughter and

969
01:25:03,920 --> 01:25:08,400
and cc and i'm going in a matter of minutes they're going to be in front of our building

970
01:25:08,400 --> 01:25:14,480
these are a bunch of angry entitled whatever people you know we had already been through the

971
01:25:14,480 --> 01:25:18,960
last six or eight months of just or six months of ridiculousness we're watching our business

972
01:25:18,960 --> 01:25:21,760
business be destroyed or financially we're getting crushed.

973
01:25:22,320 --> 01:25:25,520
All the things with the vaccinations and all the things that just the, the,

974
01:25:25,800 --> 01:25:33,280
the disconnect and the divisiveness, you know, I just said, I can't let

975
01:25:33,280 --> 01:25:35,080
the business go like this.

976
01:25:35,080 --> 01:25:37,840
I can't watch everything that we've worked be destroyed.

977
01:25:38,400 --> 01:25:39,800
I have to do something.

978
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:43,560
I'm going down there and I'm at least going to be in my building and try to

979
01:25:43,560 --> 01:25:49,560
deter people from breaking or destroying what we have left.

980
01:25:49,560 --> 01:25:55,960
And so I packed up, packed up a backpack, a couple of firearms, a little bit of

981
01:25:55,960 --> 01:26:00,520
food, and I marched down to the, to the business and I planted myself in the

982
01:26:00,520 --> 01:26:04,200
lobby, which again, faces the street there.

983
01:26:04,200 --> 01:26:08,280
I have a couch and the TV above the, above the windows there trying to kind of, I

984
01:26:08,280 --> 01:26:11,080
was watching the TV to kind of see what was happening and slowly but surely here

985
01:26:11,080 --> 01:26:15,960
comes these, these crowds kind of coming in and I made eye contact with every

986
01:26:15,960 --> 01:26:23,000
single, let's just say, um, less than desirable individual that was out there,

987
01:26:23,560 --> 01:26:26,680
uh, to try and let them know, like you can go somewhere else.

988
01:26:26,680 --> 01:26:29,640
You can, maybe you can try and do something, but I'm going to be here on

989
01:26:29,640 --> 01:26:31,400
the other side of this glass or this window.

990
01:26:31,400 --> 01:26:34,840
If, if you do something, I had no idea what that meant.

991
01:26:35,200 --> 01:26:39,720
I just, I just felt really strongly like somebody needs to do something here and

992
01:26:39,720 --> 01:26:41,000
nobody's going to do that for me.

993
01:26:41,320 --> 01:26:42,840
Uh, police are obviously wrapped up.

994
01:26:43,840 --> 01:26:44,760
Places are burning.

995
01:26:44,880 --> 01:26:45,680
Things are happening.

996
01:26:45,880 --> 01:26:49,520
We did not have, San Jose did not have the same stuff you saw in a lot of other

997
01:26:49,520 --> 01:26:52,640
major metropolitan cities, but I saw what was happening and I knew there

998
01:26:52,640 --> 01:26:53,640
was potential for that.

999
01:26:55,120 --> 01:26:59,960
So long story short, I sat here for three days, um, lived here, you know, went home

1000
01:26:59,960 --> 01:27:03,000
occasionally for some food and stuff came back, but I watched what was happening

1001
01:27:03,000 --> 01:27:08,320
out on the street and I realized how under equipped and ill-prepared I was for

1002
01:27:08,320 --> 01:27:09,960
w all the things that were going on.

1003
01:27:10,000 --> 01:27:13,920
All the things that had happened for the previous months with lockdown, supply

1004
01:27:13,920 --> 01:27:15,640
chains, things like that.

1005
01:27:16,080 --> 01:27:20,960
Um, just with regard to being able to protect my family, protect my business,

1006
01:27:21,000 --> 01:27:26,160
uh, what, who wasn't going to protect my business, uh, who wasn't coming if I had

1007
01:27:26,160 --> 01:27:29,240
called, uh, even if I, if I needed to.

1008
01:27:29,800 --> 01:27:35,560
And, uh, I, I transit, I quickly realized like, I need to, I need to improve my

1009
01:27:35,560 --> 01:27:36,080
skillset.

1010
01:27:36,080 --> 01:27:38,400
I need to understand things better.

1011
01:27:38,400 --> 01:27:41,400
And, uh, so I started to, uh, I started to train.

1012
01:27:41,840 --> 01:27:43,800
I looked for firearms training at a different level.

1013
01:27:43,800 --> 01:27:45,000
I looked for medical training.

1014
01:27:45,440 --> 01:27:49,920
I had had some combat and I had a little bit of this in my, in my past, but I was

1015
01:27:49,960 --> 01:27:53,720
determined and dedicated and I had nothing but time to do it with.

1016
01:27:54,200 --> 01:28:00,480
Uh, and so I started to, to explore all of these different worlds of, you know,

1017
01:28:00,480 --> 01:28:04,320
these genres with regard to the world of preparedness and self-reliance.

1018
01:28:04,320 --> 01:28:08,920
And, uh, started on my journey to understanding that better, uh, which took

1019
01:28:08,920 --> 01:28:12,600
me down quite a few different paths that lead me to where I am now.

1020
01:28:14,400 --> 01:28:16,400
I think I asked you this when we were on the phone.

1021
01:28:16,440 --> 01:28:22,960
Um, what would the, what was the spectrum of training that you discovered?

1022
01:28:22,960 --> 01:28:26,040
Cause I know that you ended up training with, you know, arguably some of the,

1023
01:28:26,640 --> 01:28:28,720
the most skilled warriors on the planet.

1024
01:28:28,760 --> 01:28:33,880
Um, what was the spectrum of training that you were seeing and, uh,

1025
01:28:33,880 --> 01:28:37,920
and what was it about the good training that made it the good training?

1026
01:28:38,680 --> 01:28:41,520
So this was the interesting piece is somebody that was walking into this.

1027
01:28:41,520 --> 01:28:45,680
So I, I, I already told you I'd spent over 20 years in the fitness business.

1028
01:28:46,280 --> 01:28:53,880
And, and, you know, in, in the, the time that we were in, I was, I was

1029
01:28:53,960 --> 01:28:56,000
entering into this kind of blindly.

1030
01:28:56,000 --> 01:28:57,760
Like I'd never explored any of this.

1031
01:28:57,760 --> 01:29:00,640
And I think where a lot of people go with this is I feel unsafe.

1032
01:29:00,640 --> 01:29:01,360
What should I do?

1033
01:29:01,400 --> 01:29:02,160
Go buy a gun.

1034
01:29:02,720 --> 01:29:02,960
Right.

1035
01:29:02,960 --> 01:29:04,120
Go have a firearm.

1036
01:29:04,320 --> 01:29:05,200
Well, I already had that.

1037
01:29:05,200 --> 01:29:08,240
And I knew sort of what the realities were to some extent of that.

1038
01:29:08,240 --> 01:29:12,640
But one of the things I wanted to do was train to be more proficient with that

1039
01:29:12,640 --> 01:29:14,440
far with, with the firearms that I did have.

1040
01:29:14,480 --> 01:29:18,640
And I recognized that maybe I wasn't as well equipped as I thought I might've

1041
01:29:18,640 --> 01:29:22,200
been with training and, or just, um, equipment, if you will.

1042
01:29:23,080 --> 01:29:24,560
So that was the first place I went.

1043
01:29:24,560 --> 01:29:25,280
Where do you go?

1044
01:29:25,320 --> 01:29:26,680
You go to social media, right?

1045
01:29:26,680 --> 01:29:30,160
You start looking around, you kind of seeing what's out there and man, that

1046
01:29:30,160 --> 01:29:35,200
is where things got really wild for me because there's so much to consume as

1047
01:29:35,200 --> 01:29:39,320
you start to get into the world of firearms and firearms training, completely

1048
01:29:39,320 --> 01:29:41,760
overwhelmed, like, where do you even start with this?

1049
01:29:41,760 --> 01:29:43,000
Like, who is this guy?

1050
01:29:43,320 --> 01:29:46,120
Like, who is this guy who says he's got this huge resume?

1051
01:29:46,440 --> 01:29:50,280
You know, there's a, there's a, there's a Trident next to his, in his profile.

1052
01:29:50,280 --> 01:29:51,800
There's a couple of American flags.

1053
01:29:51,800 --> 01:29:55,320
There's this many deployments, this unit, you know, whatever.

1054
01:29:55,320 --> 01:29:58,080
It's got some pictures of him doing some cool stuff with some

1055
01:29:58,080 --> 01:29:59,640
things like that looks good.

1056
01:29:59,640 --> 01:30:03,160
He's wearing full kit, you know, like he's, he's in shape.

1057
01:30:04,040 --> 01:30:04,720
There's that guy.

1058
01:30:04,720 --> 01:30:07,200
And then there's this other guy who looks seemingly the same, but he

1059
01:30:07,200 --> 01:30:08,880
wore a different, uh, insignia.

1060
01:30:08,880 --> 01:30:10,760
Actually he wore a beret, right?

1061
01:30:10,760 --> 01:30:14,120
And he did all these other things and had these deployments work with these guys.

1062
01:30:14,560 --> 01:30:16,680
And he's doing some other cool stuff.

1063
01:30:17,360 --> 01:30:20,400
And somehow these guys are mad at one another, but they don't know one another.

1064
01:30:20,400 --> 01:30:23,000
They just hate one another and they're talking trash on the internet, whatever.

1065
01:30:23,320 --> 01:30:24,280
It was really interesting.

1066
01:30:24,400 --> 01:30:25,200
It was really weird.

1067
01:30:25,680 --> 01:30:29,400
Um, and what I also recognize about that is how similar it was to the fitness

1068
01:30:29,400 --> 01:30:33,320
business and you know, for that I had seen for a long time in this in-fighting

1069
01:30:33,320 --> 01:30:36,400
this, everybody trying to make one another look bad and this guy's got this

1070
01:30:36,400 --> 01:30:39,440
piece of paper on the wall and so he knows more than the other guy.

1071
01:30:40,160 --> 01:30:41,560
It was, it was really interesting.

1072
01:30:41,680 --> 01:30:45,320
So what I was searching for was more of like an intelligent conversation, like,

1073
01:30:45,360 --> 01:30:46,720
and who are these people?

1074
01:30:47,080 --> 01:30:52,640
Like what, why, and who are the people that are going to these people to be trained?

1075
01:30:53,120 --> 01:30:57,840
And so I started sort of locally with a, with a local guy and, and, and learned

1076
01:30:57,840 --> 01:31:00,920
more, he would kind of fill me in like, Oh, this is my impression of this guy or,

1077
01:31:01,240 --> 01:31:03,040
you know, Hey, you should follow this other dude.

1078
01:31:03,480 --> 01:31:04,680
And so I started doing that.

1079
01:31:04,680 --> 01:31:10,840
And, and what I started to recognize was, okay, there there's intention in some of

1080
01:31:10,840 --> 01:31:15,920
this that, you know, I was, I was starting to separate the, what the person was

1081
01:31:15,920 --> 01:31:20,480
training versus what message the person was giving, and I could very easily relate

1082
01:31:20,480 --> 01:31:24,680
that to fitness, like this exercise doesn't get you this result applying this

1083
01:31:24,680 --> 01:31:29,400
exercise this way could based on your individual needs goals currently where

1084
01:31:29,400 --> 01:31:30,760
you're coming into that and so forth.

1085
01:31:30,760 --> 01:31:34,320
So I saw some people doing a better job with communicating this message and I

1086
01:31:34,320 --> 01:31:35,800
wanted to talk to those people.

1087
01:31:36,720 --> 01:31:40,480
And so I did, I reached out to them, you know, like on Instagram and I was

1088
01:31:40,480 --> 01:31:42,640
surprised with the responses that I got.

1089
01:31:42,640 --> 01:31:46,080
Some of them very willing and open to have, have conversations.

1090
01:31:46,080 --> 01:31:50,800
Some were very insulting and demeaning, you know, when you'd ask a very basic

1091
01:31:50,800 --> 01:31:54,040
question and so I didn't take that personally.

1092
01:31:54,040 --> 01:31:58,920
I was just like, what a Dick, you know, like I was just asking a basic question.

1093
01:31:58,920 --> 01:32:01,880
I guess I'm not in that circle, so I don't want to have anything to do with that.

1094
01:32:02,480 --> 01:32:05,640
So I just started having these conversations and slowly, but surely got

1095
01:32:06,280 --> 01:32:10,800
connected with one or two people, um, to where I could have deeper level

1096
01:32:10,800 --> 01:32:14,800
conversations who would give me maybe a little bit more insight to this weirdness

1097
01:32:14,800 --> 01:32:19,640
that I was seeing out there or, you know, this false, I would, I don't want to say

1098
01:32:19,640 --> 01:32:23,160
false information, the bad information versus the quote unquote good information.

1099
01:32:23,160 --> 01:32:27,880
Now, during that time, I still had a business to run and I was trying to drive

1100
01:32:27,880 --> 01:32:30,840
revenue and drive brand awareness.

1101
01:32:30,840 --> 01:32:37,040
So we created some online, uh, we created some online programs and I

1102
01:32:37,040 --> 01:32:38,640
needed to drive traffic to those.

1103
01:32:39,360 --> 01:32:43,360
Podcasting was something that I had kind of wanted to do and had been suggested

1104
01:32:43,360 --> 01:32:45,880
that I do a long time ago or previous to this.

1105
01:32:46,280 --> 01:32:50,640
So I started a podcast and it was, and it was about health and wellness and it

1106
01:32:50,640 --> 01:32:55,120
was strictly to drive awareness, education, get me in front of some smart

1107
01:32:55,120 --> 01:32:56,640
people within the fitness industry.

1108
01:32:56,640 --> 01:32:58,360
Cause I needed to have these conversations.

1109
01:32:58,360 --> 01:33:03,240
I was driving me nuts being stuck here in San Jose and, and, and, and not having

1110
01:33:03,240 --> 01:33:04,960
a business to run every day, if you will.

1111
01:33:05,920 --> 01:33:10,920
And so as I, I was having these conversations and within the podcast and

1112
01:33:10,920 --> 01:33:14,720
I was doing this training saying combatives, firearms, medical, all this other stuff.

1113
01:33:14,720 --> 01:33:20,040
I was running into people that far, they were firefighters.

1114
01:33:20,040 --> 01:33:24,120
They were, uh, there were a lot of law enforcement officers, some ex mill guys,

1115
01:33:24,120 --> 01:33:27,720
current mill guys, things like that, current current, uh, professionals.

1116
01:33:28,200 --> 01:33:32,920
And I saw this gap like in what they were doing to take care of themselves physically.

1117
01:33:33,720 --> 01:33:37,280
And from a nutrition perspective, it was like, Hey, maybe I can contribute

1118
01:33:37,280 --> 01:33:41,800
something to this community, uh, somehow, uh, cause I'm recognizing the con,

1119
01:33:41,800 --> 01:33:45,160
what they're consuming with regard to information on fitness.

1120
01:33:45,240 --> 01:33:48,760
They were buying, let's just for lack of a better, I'll just throw it out there.

1121
01:33:48,760 --> 01:33:52,720
They're buying fitness programming from a former Navy seal who says, this is

1122
01:33:52,720 --> 01:33:54,400
the programming that you need, right?

1123
01:33:54,920 --> 01:33:57,800
With no consideration for who this person is, what their fitness health

1124
01:33:57,800 --> 01:34:01,600
history is or where they're coming into the program, but these guys are buying

1125
01:34:01,600 --> 01:34:04,160
and paying for this stuff based on this guy looks great.

1126
01:34:04,720 --> 01:34:09,600
He's just, he's an ex seal or an ex whatever, you know, um, ex, uh, quote,

1127
01:34:09,600 --> 01:34:12,440
unquote operator and they want to be like that guy.

1128
01:34:12,680 --> 01:34:15,000
And I was like, that's completely inappropriate for you.

1129
01:34:15,000 --> 01:34:18,040
So maybe, maybe I can fill a gap here.

1130
01:34:18,360 --> 01:34:23,600
Um, and then as I realized I was having these conversations, I was having

1131
01:34:23,600 --> 01:34:28,600
these deeper conversations with the guys in the firearms instruction community.

1132
01:34:28,880 --> 01:34:31,920
And they were really interesting conversations that I wasn't seeing happen

1133
01:34:31,920 --> 01:34:35,240
in social media and I wasn't seeing them happen on a platform anywhere.

1134
01:34:35,240 --> 01:34:38,520
I was like, I wonder if people would be interested in this.

1135
01:34:38,520 --> 01:34:41,200
People would be interested in hearing these conversations.

1136
01:34:41,520 --> 01:34:45,880
So then I started to record these conversations and have

1137
01:34:45,880 --> 01:34:47,400
these as part of the podcast.

1138
01:34:47,800 --> 01:34:51,800
Um, one conversation turned into another, you start to get into these

1139
01:34:51,800 --> 01:34:53,600
circles and the rest is history.

1140
01:34:53,600 --> 01:34:55,920
And now here we are 250 episodes later.

1141
01:34:56,080 --> 01:35:00,680
Um, we've talked to all kinds of folks and I consider myself very fortunate for

1142
01:35:00,720 --> 01:35:05,480
essentially just being able to share my journey and share the knowledge that I've

1143
01:35:05,480 --> 01:35:10,280
been able to gain as well as have these people share their knowledge, um, of the

1144
01:35:10,280 --> 01:35:15,000
things that they know, and that has blossomed into all kinds of stuff, way

1145
01:35:15,000 --> 01:35:17,320
beyond the firearms in the training.

1146
01:35:17,600 --> 01:35:18,800
It's been very rewarding.

1147
01:35:20,600 --> 01:35:24,640
When you started interacting with the stay in first responders, so these

1148
01:35:24,640 --> 01:35:28,640
police officers and these firefighters, what was the disconnect that you were

1149
01:35:28,640 --> 01:35:36,040
seeing through a coach's eyes between what we are required to do as our job

1150
01:35:36,040 --> 01:35:40,400
description, which in the fire service is bloody everything, um, versus the

1151
01:35:40,400 --> 01:35:42,480
programming that was being presented to them.

1152
01:35:43,800 --> 01:35:49,600
Well, first off, what I recognized was that the government was in no way ever

1153
01:35:49,600 --> 01:35:55,320
going to give the, the amount of resource and quote unquote training that I believe

1154
01:35:55,320 --> 01:35:57,440
our first responders should have and need.

1155
01:35:57,440 --> 01:36:00,320
So whether you're on the law enforcement side and that, and we want to talk about

1156
01:36:00,320 --> 01:36:04,320
like combatives and firearms training, they're getting, there are some places

1157
01:36:04,320 --> 01:36:06,760
do a better job obviously than others, but you're there.

1158
01:36:08,120 --> 01:36:10,800
They're not getting nearly enough and haven't gotten nearly enough and aren't

1159
01:36:10,800 --> 01:36:15,080
going to, unless some things change and they are on the firefighter side of

1160
01:36:15,080 --> 01:36:16,160
things, it's exactly the same.

1161
01:36:16,160 --> 01:36:16,960
You just mentioned it.

1162
01:36:17,120 --> 01:36:18,560
These dudes are overworked.

1163
01:36:18,920 --> 01:36:20,160
They are underpaid.

1164
01:36:20,200 --> 01:36:21,120
They're underappreciated.

1165
01:36:21,120 --> 01:36:23,760
Remember we're going back to COVID, particularly on the law enforcement side

1166
01:36:23,760 --> 01:36:27,920
of things, um, again, the George Floyd incidents or whatever, such a hard time

1167
01:36:27,920 --> 01:36:31,280
to be a first responder, particularly law enforcement, but the disconnect

1168
01:36:31,320 --> 01:36:35,840
really was, is there's very little emphasis put into somebody's health and wellness.

1169
01:36:35,960 --> 01:36:37,040
They don't get enough sleep.

1170
01:36:37,320 --> 01:36:38,640
They're not eating very well.

1171
01:36:38,960 --> 01:36:39,280
You're right.

1172
01:36:39,280 --> 01:36:40,600
They're overstressed.

1173
01:36:40,880 --> 01:36:47,360
They are, um, they're, uh, overworked and, and you're either not training at

1174
01:36:47,360 --> 01:36:50,040
all, or you're extremely overtrained.

1175
01:36:50,600 --> 01:36:52,000
Uh, people are overreaching.

1176
01:36:52,000 --> 01:36:53,920
It was a combination of all of these things.

1177
01:36:53,920 --> 01:36:57,600
So again, going back to that term I used earlier, sticky web, there was a lot to

1178
01:36:57,600 --> 01:37:02,120
untangle here and I wanted to understand where the disconnect was.

1179
01:37:02,160 --> 01:37:06,840
And what I, what I really, I guess found out at the end of the day was unless

1180
01:37:07,000 --> 01:37:11,520
you were a self starter or somebody that took a lot of personal responsibility

1181
01:37:11,520 --> 01:37:16,640
for understanding all these things as a firefighter or a law enforcement officer.

1182
01:37:16,640 --> 01:37:19,760
And that is like human physiology, right?

1183
01:37:19,760 --> 01:37:22,360
Uh, uh, human performance, all that stuff.

1184
01:37:23,880 --> 01:37:29,240
You were lost kind of, and you were just kind of given or taking what was given

1185
01:37:29,240 --> 01:37:32,480
to you or what you might've been associated with or kind of going through the motions.

1186
01:37:33,160 --> 01:37:36,440
And even as dedicated as people were to their fitness, going to the gym every day,

1187
01:37:36,440 --> 01:37:37,640
they could have been doing so much better.

1188
01:37:37,640 --> 01:37:38,480
They just didn't know.

1189
01:37:38,600 --> 01:37:41,040
They don't, they just didn't and don't know any better.

1190
01:37:41,520 --> 01:37:45,920
And I didn't see anybody really delivering, or at least talking about delivering to

1191
01:37:45,920 --> 01:37:52,600
them any kind of programming or advice that to me made a lot of sense for, let's

1192
01:37:52,600 --> 01:37:57,680
just say your average Joe, not again, your tier one operator, but the dude that shows

1193
01:37:57,680 --> 01:38:02,840
up on the truck every day and, and, you know, works a 72 hour shift that might

1194
01:38:02,840 --> 01:38:07,240
sleep six hours of that, you know, of those three days and somehow is trying to find

1195
01:38:07,240 --> 01:38:10,400
some workouts done in there and get some nutrition in and then go home and be a

1196
01:38:10,400 --> 01:38:13,840
human to his, you know, deal with the traumas and all the stuff that he had to

1197
01:38:13,840 --> 01:38:17,080
deal with for those, those few days and then go home and be a dad, right.

1198
01:38:17,080 --> 01:38:18,760
And be a husband and all that stuff.

1199
01:38:18,760 --> 01:38:22,480
There was, it was wild and it was shocking to me.

1200
01:38:22,960 --> 01:38:26,320
I don't know why, but it was, it was shocking to me that there wasn't better

1201
01:38:26,480 --> 01:38:28,080
for them than for guys like you.

1202
01:38:30,520 --> 01:38:36,000
That's a, I mean, it's, it's so, it's the right way of saying this even.

1203
01:38:36,000 --> 01:38:43,840
Um, it's a perspective that I didn't understand the enormity of until I took a

1204
01:38:43,840 --> 01:38:50,600
step back because I came through exercise physiology and sports science in London

1205
01:38:50,600 --> 01:38:54,280
and then UF, I was an athlete, I was a martial artist, I was a coach.

1206
01:38:55,320 --> 01:39:02,400
And so I'm going in there and seeing the same kind of thing, but to understand

1207
01:39:02,400 --> 01:39:07,440
what an average person is experiencing, you've got to strip all those

1208
01:39:07,440 --> 01:39:11,560
perspectives that I have and you've got to walk in like, I'm trusting you fire

1209
01:39:11,560 --> 01:39:15,240
service with, you know, teaching me how to be fit and we're in a fire academy.

1210
01:39:15,280 --> 01:39:16,440
You know, they do a good job.

1211
01:39:16,440 --> 01:39:17,040
They really do.

1212
01:39:17,040 --> 01:39:19,680
I mean, you, you basically move the things that you're going to be moving as a

1213
01:39:19,680 --> 01:39:22,440
firefighter for hours at a time in a fire academy.

1214
01:39:22,440 --> 01:39:23,400
It's like a bootcamp.

1215
01:39:23,400 --> 01:39:25,000
You are going to get fitter and stronger.

1216
01:39:25,000 --> 01:39:28,240
And there is an element of periodization and I'll credit higher

1217
01:39:28,240 --> 01:39:30,720
Leo fired upon me, but I'm not going to be a firefighter.

1218
01:39:30,720 --> 01:39:35,680
It higher Leo fire department, for example, I was hired with a bunch

1219
01:39:35,680 --> 01:39:37,480
of people that were not certified.

1220
01:39:37,480 --> 01:39:41,240
So they sent all those people to school and the other half of us had all our,

1221
01:39:41,480 --> 01:39:44,480
our certs, they just beat the share of us for three months.

1222
01:39:44,480 --> 01:39:45,680
And it was phenomenal.

1223
01:39:46,080 --> 01:39:51,080
But the PT we started Jim shorts and t-shirt, and then we had to add, I

1224
01:39:51,080 --> 01:39:55,400
forget what the first piece of equipment was, but every, every week you added a

1225
01:39:55,400 --> 01:39:58,960
piece, so by the time you were done, you're doing pull-ups and all kinds of stuff

1226
01:39:58,960 --> 01:40:01,600
and full gear, breathing air, tank on your back.

1227
01:40:01,900 --> 01:40:04,440
And so, you know, periodization, you're, you're adding load.

1228
01:40:05,360 --> 01:40:10,620
But yeah, when you look at the resources for the first responder community, you

1229
01:40:10,620 --> 01:40:12,980
know, again, there are some departments that do it very well.

1230
01:40:12,980 --> 01:40:15,680
There are some departments that actually hire strength and conditioning

1231
01:40:15,680 --> 01:40:20,460
coaches or have, you know, physiotherapists on staff, but those are the anomalies.

1232
01:40:20,560 --> 01:40:23,920
Most of the guys, they are at the mercy of, you know, and I've heard this, you

1233
01:40:23,920 --> 01:40:27,320
know, the local football coach will come in and they're not, you know, they're

1234
01:40:27,320 --> 01:40:30,080
teaching them all the wrong stuff, you know, and there's different ways of doing it.

1235
01:40:30,080 --> 01:40:33,480
Matt Wenning has a powerlifting perspective and he works with a lot of

1236
01:40:33,480 --> 01:40:35,060
firefighters, works really well.

1237
01:40:35,060 --> 01:40:36,720
Matt Chan's programming really good.

1238
01:40:36,720 --> 01:40:41,000
Jeff Nichols, Navy SEAL strength and conditioning guru, another great one.

1239
01:40:41,000 --> 01:40:44,360
So there are great programs out there, but I only know about them because

1240
01:40:44,360 --> 01:40:49,000
of what I do in my journey, but you know, for the average police officer,

1241
01:40:49,000 --> 01:40:53,040
paramedic firefighter, there isn't this great resource.

1242
01:40:53,040 --> 01:40:59,360
And even within our union, there's a peer fitness trainer, you know, I'm not

1243
01:40:59,360 --> 01:41:03,720
saying it's absolutely terrible, but when I watched, you know, some of the stuff

1244
01:41:03,720 --> 01:41:08,320
that they're teaching, they're not talking about push, pull, carry, you know,

1245
01:41:08,320 --> 01:41:11,480
climb, you know, it's stretchy bands and Swiss balls a lot of the times.

1246
01:41:11,480 --> 01:41:13,320
And it's like, that's not what we do.

1247
01:41:13,800 --> 01:41:15,600
You know, you have to be strong, strong.

1248
01:41:15,920 --> 01:41:20,520
And, you know, someone just told me the other day about how that program has,

1249
01:41:20,520 --> 01:41:24,160
I would argue devolve, like now we're just trying to get the firefighters moving.

1250
01:41:24,400 --> 01:41:26,200
It's like, no, that's not what the fucking job is.

1251
01:41:26,200 --> 01:41:29,400
It's not, you know, we're not going around the park and feed the ducks.

1252
01:41:29,720 --> 01:41:32,360
We've got to go up a high rise with a hundred pounds of gear and go get

1253
01:41:32,360 --> 01:41:33,880
someone out of a fucking burning building.

1254
01:41:34,160 --> 01:41:34,560
Exactly.

1255
01:41:34,560 --> 01:41:38,520
So we've, we've just allowed this, this, you know, bar to lower and lower and

1256
01:41:38,520 --> 01:41:40,480
lower and where we need to think.

1257
01:41:40,480 --> 01:41:44,920
And this is what all of the, uh, you know, the SF and special operations

1258
01:41:44,920 --> 01:41:48,440
guys and girls have told me like, no, no, we hold you to the same level as us.

1259
01:41:48,440 --> 01:41:51,680
Like, why would you not be, you know, the fit is strongest version of

1260
01:41:51,680 --> 01:41:53,520
yourself when lives are in your hands.

1261
01:41:54,160 --> 01:41:58,640
So, you know, when going back to the programming, I completely agree

1262
01:41:58,640 --> 01:42:03,920
like with, there should be, you know, uh, a spectrum.

1263
01:42:03,960 --> 01:42:07,160
So if you're a triathlete, you don't need to focus so much on your endurance,

1264
01:42:07,160 --> 01:42:08,480
but it's probably going to be your strength.

1265
01:42:08,480 --> 01:42:10,640
If you're the, the powerlifting firefighter.

1266
01:42:10,640 --> 01:42:10,880
Okay.

1267
01:42:10,880 --> 01:42:15,400
Well then we got to work on your muscular, um, you know, endurance and that kind of

1268
01:42:15,400 --> 01:42:16,760
thing, everyone's got their thing.

1269
01:42:16,760 --> 01:42:22,280
So it's not one size fits all, but the principles of how we're exercising and

1270
01:42:22,280 --> 01:42:24,520
then the importance of the rest and recovery.

1271
01:42:24,520 --> 01:42:28,240
I mean, I talk about giving our firefighters more days off in between

1272
01:42:28,240 --> 01:42:32,360
shifts all the time, because you look at the sporting world, there isn't an

1273
01:42:32,360 --> 01:42:36,640
athlete on any podium anywhere on the planet that doesn't sleep every third day.

1274
01:42:38,160 --> 01:42:38,720
Yeah.

1275
01:42:39,880 --> 01:42:40,240
Yeah.

1276
01:42:40,240 --> 01:42:42,040
I mean, you, you hit a lot of things there.

1277
01:42:42,080 --> 01:42:46,040
I think that was what was shocking to me was trying to, it was understanding this

1278
01:42:46,040 --> 01:42:50,720
not being from that world or that community or those communities for that, for that matter.

1279
01:42:51,040 --> 01:42:56,720
Also being faced with if you're in one of those communities, being faced with your

1280
01:42:56,720 --> 01:43:01,680
reality that you're not very fit and that if you did adopt something, you're going

1281
01:43:01,680 --> 01:43:02,640
to be exposed.

1282
01:43:02,680 --> 01:43:05,800
And this was, I was seeing this like, say in firearms training, standing next to a

1283
01:43:05,800 --> 01:43:09,160
guy in firearms, in a firearms training line or a few, few people that were law

1284
01:43:09,160 --> 01:43:12,680
enforcement officers, and I had had a couple of months worth of training under my belt.

1285
01:43:12,680 --> 01:43:17,960
And I am out by far out shooting, you know, these, these, these people that are to

1286
01:43:17,960 --> 01:43:20,120
my left and right now, not to take anything away from them.

1287
01:43:20,440 --> 01:43:23,360
They were there on their own time and their own dime doing that.

1288
01:43:23,360 --> 01:43:28,080
And they had, they had also whatever stuff, their ego down or, or, or, or whatever

1289
01:43:28,080 --> 01:43:31,280
down enough to be there to actually take that class, right.

1290
01:43:31,320 --> 01:43:32,800
And go, I want to get better.

1291
01:43:32,800 --> 01:43:34,000
And I recognize I'm not good enough.

1292
01:43:34,000 --> 01:43:34,800
I want to be better.

1293
01:43:34,800 --> 01:43:38,040
And there's other people here that don't wear a badge and carry a gun every day.

1294
01:43:38,040 --> 01:43:38,840
And they're way better than me.

1295
01:43:39,800 --> 01:43:40,640
Same on the field.

1296
01:43:40,640 --> 01:43:46,520
They're way better than me, same on the fitness side in recognizing like number one,

1297
01:43:46,560 --> 01:43:50,400
you have a lot of things to fucking do as a firefighter or as a law enforcement.

1298
01:43:50,720 --> 01:43:52,240
There's a lot of stuff to know.

1299
01:43:52,680 --> 01:43:55,600
It gets described a lot of times as like a pie chart, right?

1300
01:43:55,600 --> 01:43:58,240
Like, and you have all the things you need to know.

1301
01:43:58,280 --> 01:43:59,800
You need to understand fire science.

1302
01:43:59,800 --> 01:44:01,200
You need to understand structure.

1303
01:44:01,200 --> 01:44:02,400
You need to structures.

1304
01:44:02,400 --> 01:44:03,160
You need to understand.

1305
01:44:03,480 --> 01:44:04,160
I don't know.

1306
01:44:04,520 --> 01:44:08,720
Uh, a lot of the engineering and math that goes into, you know, how much water,

1307
01:44:08,720 --> 01:44:11,760
what size hose, all this is all of these things that go into this.

1308
01:44:11,760 --> 01:44:14,480
Then there's fitness, then there's health, right.

1309
01:44:14,800 --> 01:44:15,960
Or wellness piece.

1310
01:44:15,960 --> 01:44:18,840
And then I, they're combined, but they're, they're different things.

1311
01:44:19,320 --> 01:44:21,480
Where do I spend my time?

1312
01:44:21,720 --> 01:44:22,080
Right.

1313
01:44:22,080 --> 01:44:27,160
In the, in that pie chart, um, and still be able to do the job and how much

1314
01:44:27,200 --> 01:44:32,920
information or education do I have about all of those things to help me be better

1315
01:44:32,960 --> 01:44:35,000
at those particular pieces of that pie.

1316
01:44:35,000 --> 01:44:39,400
And fitness is one of those things, which is oftentimes very generalized.

1317
01:44:39,480 --> 01:44:44,400
And you, you kind of, you default to the most fit person in the, in the firehouse

1318
01:44:44,400 --> 01:44:47,360
or the most, you know, the person that gets assigned, you know, that thing.

1319
01:44:47,360 --> 01:44:50,080
And it doesn't really matter what their level of knowledge is.

1320
01:44:50,080 --> 01:44:55,040
You happen to be in a much different situation than probably 90% or more of

1321
01:44:55,040 --> 01:44:57,080
the, of the other guys that you work with.

1322
01:44:57,120 --> 01:45:00,800
You have a background, so I'm sure they default to you and they come to you when

1323
01:45:00,800 --> 01:45:03,600
they, when they have questions and you're probably very willing to help them,

1324
01:45:03,600 --> 01:45:06,280
which is great, but there's nothing standardized.

1325
01:45:06,280 --> 01:45:10,160
There's nothing structured and there is no comprehension of all the things that

1326
01:45:10,160 --> 01:45:14,160
you just mentioned with regard to how much are you sleeping, how much you're

1327
01:45:14,160 --> 01:45:17,400
eating or the opposite of that, how much aren't you eating or how much aren't

1328
01:45:17,400 --> 01:45:21,240
you sleeping and how can is what's more important right now, getting you more

1329
01:45:21,240 --> 01:45:27,200
sleep or doing the wad that the CrossFit guy firefighter who's in charge of the,

1330
01:45:27,600 --> 01:45:30,600
the fitness programming at the firehouse put on the wall for today.

1331
01:45:30,600 --> 01:45:33,240
How do you approach all of these things?

1332
01:45:33,240 --> 01:45:37,920
There is going back to the periodization piece and you mentioned some of my most

1333
01:45:37,920 --> 01:45:41,920
favorite people out there, Matt Wenning is a legend and I love, I love Jeff

1334
01:45:41,920 --> 01:45:43,200
Nichols and his wife out there.

1335
01:45:43,200 --> 01:45:45,240
They're, they're some of my favorite people as well.

1336
01:45:47,000 --> 01:45:51,240
And here's the thing, a lot more people probably know about Matt Wenning than

1337
01:45:51,240 --> 01:45:52,720
than they know about Jeff Nichols.

1338
01:45:53,280 --> 01:45:53,720
Right.

1339
01:45:54,040 --> 01:45:57,240
And the difference between those two are not to take anything away from

1340
01:45:57,240 --> 01:46:00,960
Wenning because the guy is a literal genius, he's been around the block a few

1341
01:46:00,960 --> 01:46:04,560
times, but you talk about having a culturally competent, right?

1342
01:46:04,560 --> 01:46:09,280
Culturally and competent person putting this program together for that very

1343
01:46:09,280 --> 01:46:13,040
specific audience, we're talking two different things now, somebody that's

1344
01:46:13,040 --> 01:46:17,040
actually been through it or understands it at a much deeper level and interacts

1345
01:46:17,040 --> 01:46:21,320
with individuals that do this job all day, every day, whatever it is, and

1346
01:46:21,320 --> 01:46:25,280
applying the programming specific to that person, to their needs and what their job

1347
01:46:25,280 --> 01:46:30,440
requirements are based on a whole slew of things, health history, fitness

1348
01:46:30,440 --> 01:46:35,560
history, um, uh, you know, recovery, you can call it recovery scores, you know,

1349
01:46:35,560 --> 01:46:36,200
things like that.

1350
01:46:36,200 --> 01:46:37,640
How are we basing this programming?

1351
01:46:38,200 --> 01:46:40,680
This is all lost and it's not impossible.

1352
01:46:40,880 --> 01:46:43,360
And it doesn't have to, it's very complex, but it doesn't have to be over

1353
01:46:43,360 --> 01:46:49,880
complicated if there was a want to put it into place or put it into, you know,

1354
01:46:49,920 --> 01:46:53,440
put it into these departments or put it into the regular training programs.

1355
01:46:53,440 --> 01:46:57,640
If they put as much effort into doing it on the daily or on the weekly after

1356
01:46:57,640 --> 01:47:00,640
they graduated the Academy, which you just explained was pretty well put

1357
01:47:00,640 --> 01:47:02,800
together if you just put it out there.

1358
01:47:02,840 --> 01:47:05,880
And I believe there needs to be some level of a requirement.

1359
01:47:05,920 --> 01:47:07,640
There has to be the carrot and the stick.

1360
01:47:07,960 --> 01:47:12,120
So, you know, like you can't just say you have to run the mile and do this

1361
01:47:12,120 --> 01:47:13,960
many pull-ups and this many sit-ups.

1362
01:47:14,440 --> 01:47:19,000
And if you, if you don't, you lose your job or you lose pay or whatever else.

1363
01:47:19,520 --> 01:47:20,320
You have to give them away.

1364
01:47:20,320 --> 01:47:21,880
And what about a reward system?

1365
01:47:21,880 --> 01:47:24,920
You know, to keep people wanting to train, you know, to do these things.

1366
01:47:24,920 --> 01:47:29,040
So there's all these missing pieces to, to, to providing a quality product,

1367
01:47:29,600 --> 01:47:35,560
um, and a quality, uh, a way for, for, for folks like you and others to do

1368
01:47:35,560 --> 01:47:40,040
this in a way that makes sense, that doesn't leave them on an Island all by

1369
01:47:40,040 --> 01:47:44,960
themselves or doesn't leave them looking at that piece of pie, just going, I

1370
01:47:44,960 --> 01:47:46,640
just have too many other things to do.

1371
01:47:46,800 --> 01:47:48,040
I can't worry about this.

1372
01:47:48,320 --> 01:47:50,680
Um, I'll just go down and pay my $29.

1373
01:47:50,680 --> 01:47:54,040
999 a month or whatever my $19 a month at the fitness 19.

1374
01:47:54,400 --> 01:47:56,960
And, you know, I'll go a couple of days a week and we'll call it good.

1375
01:47:57,200 --> 01:47:58,800
Cause that's what I saw happening.

1376
01:47:59,280 --> 01:48:01,840
You know, that's what I, that's what I saw when I got involved in.

1377
01:48:01,840 --> 01:48:05,640
I'm like, man, major missing piece that could mean the difference

1378
01:48:05,640 --> 01:48:08,400
between life and death, not just of you, the officer or the firefighter,

1379
01:48:08,880 --> 01:48:13,360
but of my mother or me, if I got a call because I need help.

1380
01:48:13,520 --> 01:48:17,560
And that was, I was very challenged by that and it, and it really resonated with me.

1381
01:48:17,560 --> 01:48:20,800
And I felt a calling to at least try to help and promote the message.

1382
01:48:21,280 --> 01:48:22,680
And now I'm getting up on a soapbox.

1383
01:48:22,680 --> 01:48:23,520
Sorry about that, man.

1384
01:48:23,680 --> 01:48:24,840
No, no, no, no problem.

1385
01:48:24,880 --> 01:48:26,000
I like soap boxes.

1386
01:48:26,240 --> 01:48:30,000
Um, well, just one more kind of perspective then, and we'll go to some closing questions.

1387
01:48:30,640 --> 01:48:33,680
You've worked with people from all walks of life.

1388
01:48:34,720 --> 01:48:40,240
Is there a profession that stands out where they seem to have got that balance,

1389
01:48:40,240 --> 01:48:40,640
right?

1390
01:48:40,640 --> 01:48:45,360
That the wellness of the employee and, and, or physical performance, if that fits

1391
01:48:45,360 --> 01:48:50,480
that particular profession was valued in a way that maybe police and fire have

1392
01:48:50,480 --> 01:48:51,800
kind of dropped the ball on.

1393
01:48:52,760 --> 01:48:53,640
Oh gosh.

1394
01:48:55,440 --> 01:48:58,280
I think, man, that is a really great question.

1395
01:48:59,000 --> 01:49:04,040
Interestingly, and I'll put it this way, but I'll say it was valued, but the

1396
01:49:04,040 --> 01:49:06,720
intention was weird, believe it or not.

1397
01:49:06,720 --> 01:49:10,760
And that is because my deep level experience here in the Silicon Valley

1398
01:49:10,760 --> 01:49:12,760
and the tech world, and let me explain.

1399
01:49:12,760 --> 01:49:15,040
Very competitive here.

1400
01:49:15,040 --> 01:49:19,080
When you think about like, I can walk out the door and within five minutes I can

1401
01:49:19,080 --> 01:49:23,320
hit Apple, I can hit Google, I can hit eBay, I can hit Metta, I can hit all these,

1402
01:49:23,360 --> 01:49:24,320
these made Adobe.

1403
01:49:24,320 --> 01:49:25,600
I can literally throw a rock and hit.

1404
01:49:26,400 --> 01:49:29,680
Um, um, my point of this is, it's very competitive.

1405
01:49:29,680 --> 01:49:30,880
The tech world is very competitive.

1406
01:49:30,880 --> 01:49:35,600
And as a result, uh, they were these major businesses or major companies were

1407
01:49:35,600 --> 01:49:40,880
trying to put together basically campuses and, and, and, and, and, and

1408
01:49:40,880 --> 01:49:43,840
put together basically campuses that.

1409
01:49:44,440 --> 01:49:48,080
At least gave the impression that they really cared about all of this stuff,

1410
01:49:48,400 --> 01:49:48,640
right?

1411
01:49:48,640 --> 01:49:49,560
For their employees.

1412
01:49:50,040 --> 01:49:53,320
And these were people that didn't have a physical requirement to perform their job.

1413
01:49:53,840 --> 01:49:58,080
But on site, they had a gym, they had a wellness center.

1414
01:49:58,440 --> 01:50:02,880
And in that gym, we're talking top notch had all the latest and greatest, right?

1415
01:50:03,160 --> 01:50:05,800
They all had their chiropractor in there or chiropractors.

1416
01:50:05,840 --> 01:50:07,160
They had physical therapists in there.

1417
01:50:07,160 --> 01:50:10,920
They had nutritionists in there or nutrition coaches or registered dietitians.

1418
01:50:11,400 --> 01:50:17,080
They had a recovery center, you know, in some cases, cryotherapy, um, massage,

1419
01:50:17,360 --> 01:50:23,840
um, acupuncture things all on site or all at least excess, uh, having, um,

1420
01:50:24,000 --> 01:50:28,720
being very accessible to them or partnered with places that provided this,

1421
01:50:28,840 --> 01:50:33,160
this, these services for their employees that were either fully paid for or

1422
01:50:33,160 --> 01:50:36,200
subsidized personal trainers on, on site.

1423
01:50:36,200 --> 01:50:36,520
Right.

1424
01:50:36,800 --> 01:50:41,840
Um, and also like these relaxation rooms in some cases, right?

1425
01:50:41,840 --> 01:50:45,160
Where you could go, they were, the goal was to get them on campus or get them to

1426
01:50:45,160 --> 01:50:48,680
the business and keep them there and making them feel like they were valued,

1427
01:50:49,120 --> 01:50:50,200
uh, at a lot of levels.

1428
01:50:50,440 --> 01:50:54,280
Now there wasn't a lot of education, I think that went into like, why you should

1429
01:50:54,280 --> 01:50:58,640
you all use all these things, much like there should be more education for

1430
01:50:58,640 --> 01:51:03,320
firefighters and, and, uh, and law enforcement officers was specific to why,

1431
01:51:03,360 --> 01:51:05,640
how all these things fit in and why you should do them.

1432
01:51:05,640 --> 01:51:10,320
But they didn't, they did an outstanding job of at least from the outside,

1433
01:51:10,320 --> 01:51:14,560
looking in, if you wanted help or you wanted these amenities, you wanted these

1434
01:51:14,560 --> 01:51:16,560
services, they were all right there for you.

1435
01:51:17,040 --> 01:51:21,640
Um, and to me, and you mentioned this earlier, there are departments that,

1436
01:51:21,640 --> 01:51:24,920
and there are anomalies and I know a couple of them actually there in Florida.

1437
01:51:24,920 --> 01:51:27,600
I think if you go up and talk to your buddies up there in Fort Lauderdale from,

1438
01:51:27,600 --> 01:51:29,600
or yeah, from where you are, you still at Hylia.

1439
01:51:29,720 --> 01:51:30,320
Is that where you are?

1440
01:51:30,680 --> 01:51:31,520
Uh, not anymore now.

1441
01:51:31,520 --> 01:51:33,680
I live up in Ocala now, but I will guess.

1442
01:51:33,680 --> 01:51:37,880
So I know, I know Lauderdale is looking to, to really improve their situation there.

1443
01:51:38,120 --> 01:51:43,280
Um, you know, Miami date, I think is the sheriff's officer is really look, really

1444
01:51:43,280 --> 01:51:46,120
improving their situation where they're starting to bring these things in.

1445
01:51:46,440 --> 01:51:52,640
Um, and so I guess my point is, is like very interesting that the opposite, some

1446
01:51:52,640 --> 01:51:58,680
of the most unhealthy, uh, least connected people to their health and fitness in

1447
01:51:58,680 --> 01:52:02,360
the same way that you might be connected to yours, got the most amount of help

1448
01:52:02,360 --> 01:52:06,480
to yours, got the most amount of resources and what it re what it really boils down

1449
01:52:06,480 --> 01:52:14,360
to is money and, uh, the desire to retain people, uh, once they put all the money

1450
01:52:14,360 --> 01:52:18,560
and effort into recruiting and hiring them, uh, which is a whole other story

1451
01:52:18,880 --> 01:52:21,680
in terms of that, how, how that, that whole business works.

1452
01:52:21,680 --> 01:52:26,680
It's very, very competitive, but yeah, that's if I had to, I'd, nobody's ever

1453
01:52:26,680 --> 01:52:28,640
asked, asked me that question before.

1454
01:52:28,640 --> 01:52:32,360
Um, and that's, so that's certainly the first time I've ever articulated that.

1455
01:52:32,360 --> 01:52:35,280
And I'm just in my own mind, kind of blown right now that that's the case.

1456
01:52:37,080 --> 01:52:38,480
Well, I actually got to see it a little bit.

1457
01:52:38,480 --> 01:52:43,040
I went to London last year, um, with my sons last year, it was just over a year

1458
01:52:43,040 --> 01:52:47,640
ago, um, and the, one of the women who was heading up the firefighters

1459
01:52:47,640 --> 01:52:49,960
charity at the time, her son worked for Google.

1460
01:52:49,960 --> 01:52:51,880
So we got to go to Google and it was beautiful.

1461
01:52:51,880 --> 01:52:55,760
We stood on the top of the, the terrace and you got to see the city of London

1462
01:52:55,760 --> 01:53:00,360
from whatever it was, six, seven stories up and, but yeah, we saw the gym, you

1463
01:53:00,360 --> 01:53:05,520
know, the, the whole cafeteria was free, you know, and they were, they had chefs.

1464
01:53:05,520 --> 01:53:08,080
They were making real healthy food.

1465
01:53:08,080 --> 01:53:09,320
It wasn't health food.

1466
01:53:09,360 --> 01:53:10,760
It was healthy food.

1467
01:53:11,280 --> 01:53:13,920
You know, I think you, you could get, you know, french fries and things, but that

1468
01:53:13,920 --> 01:53:16,360
was just a tiny part of this massive menu.

1469
01:53:16,880 --> 01:53:20,440
Um, you know, and there was that culture and, you know, he didn't have to be there

1470
01:53:20,440 --> 01:53:23,920
at a certain time and leave at a certain time, there was flexibility and trust.

1471
01:53:23,920 --> 01:53:25,520
But you just hit on something.

1472
01:53:25,520 --> 01:53:29,920
I don't even know if you realize how valid that point was at the moment, but

1473
01:53:30,160 --> 01:53:38,320
when you show employees that you value them, that increases, um, uh, recruitment,

1474
01:53:38,320 --> 01:53:39,200
recruitment and retention.

1475
01:53:39,200 --> 01:53:39,480
Yeah.

1476
01:53:39,480 --> 01:53:43,560
So we have a massive hiring crisis at or recruitment crisis in the first

1477
01:53:43,560 --> 01:53:44,960
responder professions at the moment.

1478
01:53:45,360 --> 01:53:48,200
And, you know, when I talk about solutions, people are like, well, we

1479
01:53:48,200 --> 01:53:49,200
can't even hire people now.

1480
01:53:49,200 --> 01:53:52,760
I'm like, but this is why you can't hire people now because you're

1481
01:53:52,760 --> 01:53:58,880
asking the same people to work the same amount of hours when the calls and

1482
01:53:58,880 --> 01:54:01,840
the types of calls have grown exponentially.

1483
01:54:02,240 --> 01:54:05,640
And then people have started to leave because you, you know, you fired them

1484
01:54:05,640 --> 01:54:09,200
because of vaccines or you didn't support them when someone said that every

1485
01:54:09,200 --> 01:54:10,560
police officer is racist.

1486
01:54:10,880 --> 01:54:11,120
Yep.

1487
01:54:11,160 --> 01:54:15,640
And now there's even less people and now who are left, having to run even more

1488
01:54:15,640 --> 01:54:19,280
calls and by the way, we're, you know, they're, they're retiring medically.

1489
01:54:19,280 --> 01:54:20,280
They're getting cancer.

1490
01:54:20,280 --> 01:54:22,720
They're overdosing, they're taking their own lives.

1491
01:54:22,960 --> 01:54:26,400
And this isn't an old doom and gloom thing, but this is like, I always said

1492
01:54:26,400 --> 01:54:30,360
this, how many people need to die before you start fucking paying attention?

1493
01:54:30,600 --> 01:54:31,680
Like, give me a body count.

1494
01:54:31,680 --> 01:54:35,000
We'll, we'll finish off the last whatever, and then we can start fixing it.

1495
01:54:35,320 --> 01:54:39,040
You know, but if you look at the corporate world and people say, oh, the

1496
01:54:39,040 --> 01:54:41,640
fire service, like a business, I couldn't disagree more.

1497
01:54:41,840 --> 01:54:43,000
It's not a fucking business.

1498
01:54:43,000 --> 01:54:45,960
It's a service, but okay, let's just play ball for a second.

1499
01:54:46,360 --> 01:54:49,000
Your model is the Indonesian sweatshirt.

1500
01:54:49,000 --> 01:54:53,680
Why are you ignoring the Google, Apple, Adobe Virgin that are

1501
01:54:53,680 --> 01:54:55,040
investing in their people?

1502
01:54:55,440 --> 01:54:59,200
So this is what the fire service and law enforcement and dispatch and, you know,

1503
01:54:59,200 --> 01:55:05,440
the EMS world need to understand is that in 2024, a young potential candidate

1504
01:55:05,440 --> 01:55:10,440
can look on the internet and see everything about the fire service.

1505
01:55:10,440 --> 01:55:15,320
They can see the amazing job that it actually is, but they also can see the

1506
01:55:15,320 --> 01:55:16,320
working environment.

1507
01:55:16,320 --> 01:55:18,680
They can see the impact on marriages.

1508
01:55:18,680 --> 01:55:20,520
They can hear about the toxic leadership.

1509
01:55:20,520 --> 01:55:24,840
They can hear about the, the firefighters that were held, lauded as heroes one

1510
01:55:24,840 --> 01:55:28,200
minute without PPE and then fired a year later because they didn't have a

1511
01:55:28,200 --> 01:55:28,560
vaccine.

1512
01:55:28,560 --> 01:55:29,400
They can read all of that.

1513
01:55:30,200 --> 01:55:32,360
So this is the environment that we're in.

1514
01:55:32,360 --> 01:55:36,480
And that is why people are not applying like they used to, because I, I tested

1515
01:55:36,480 --> 01:55:40,080
against a thousand people to work in California and Anaheim, a thousand, and

1516
01:55:40,080 --> 01:55:41,840
they were all resumes like this thing.

1517
01:55:41,840 --> 01:55:44,360
So that was only, you know, 15 years ago.

1518
01:55:45,080 --> 01:55:46,960
So this is such an important point.

1519
01:55:47,000 --> 01:55:51,440
If you want to talk about the fire service being like a business, then look

1520
01:55:51,440 --> 01:55:55,640
at the business world, the leaders in those business and look at how they are

1521
01:55:55,640 --> 01:55:56,560
treating their people.

1522
01:55:57,360 --> 01:56:01,640
The irony in this for me is, is that in both of these, whether you're talking

1523
01:56:01,640 --> 01:56:04,920
about the fire service or you're talking about law enforcement, primarily

1524
01:56:04,920 --> 01:56:06,600
decisions are made based on data.

1525
01:56:07,320 --> 01:56:09,120
And it's, you know, does this work out?

1526
01:56:09,120 --> 01:56:10,800
Like what are these numbers say?

1527
01:56:10,800 --> 01:56:12,200
And these are how decisions are made.

1528
01:56:12,200 --> 01:56:14,400
These are how check or checks are written.

1529
01:56:14,400 --> 01:56:18,040
And this is how people, you know, things are presented in front of city council.

1530
01:56:18,080 --> 01:56:18,920
And here's what we know.

1531
01:56:18,960 --> 01:56:25,960
Like you touched on one that's again, when I said the, the podcast has, um,

1532
01:56:26,000 --> 01:56:31,720
exposed me to a whole new level of things on, on, on many, many different

1533
01:56:32,120 --> 01:56:34,040
levels, I guess that's redundant.

1534
01:56:34,040 --> 01:56:39,640
But one of the things is mental and emotional health and suicide prevention.

1535
01:56:39,840 --> 01:56:44,480
And so going back to retention and recruitment, recruitment,

1536
01:56:44,600 --> 01:56:48,680
hiring and retention, one of those numbers that's come up recently for me

1537
01:56:48,680 --> 01:56:52,360
on some of the podcasts that I've done is that more law enforcement officers

1538
01:56:52,360 --> 01:56:58,640
died by their own hands last year than in, and then in work related deaths.

1539
01:56:58,800 --> 01:57:02,360
That's shootings, stabbings, vehicle accidents, and so on.

1540
01:57:02,360 --> 01:57:07,400
So, you know, these, these stabbing vehicles accidents, uh, you name it.

1541
01:57:07,840 --> 01:57:12,680
Uh, or anything else that piece of data again, to your point is the same piece

1542
01:57:12,680 --> 01:57:18,080
of data that a young, you know, maybe aspiring firefighter or law enforcement

1543
01:57:18,080 --> 01:57:22,280
officer sees it's the exact same piece of data that a chief or that a city

1544
01:57:22,280 --> 01:57:25,840
council person or a mayor or a governor or whatever sees over here.

1545
01:57:27,120 --> 01:57:28,760
And they're both making the same decision.

1546
01:57:28,760 --> 01:57:31,220
the potential law enforcement officer,

1547
01:57:31,220 --> 01:57:32,760
I'm not doing that job then.

1548
01:57:32,760 --> 01:57:35,440
I'm not even, no way, that's not, I'm not doing that.

1549
01:57:35,440 --> 01:57:37,480
And that the guy on the other end, I don't know,

1550
01:57:37,480 --> 01:57:39,040
the city council person was,

1551
01:57:39,040 --> 01:57:40,720
oh, I'm not gonna pay attention to that.

1552
01:57:40,720 --> 01:57:43,740
Like we're not gonna do anything except for tick a box,

1553
01:57:43,740 --> 01:57:48,000
which is, hey, we have an EAP program, you know?

1554
01:57:48,000 --> 01:57:50,760
And so we can say that we've done something.

1555
01:57:50,760 --> 01:57:53,520
So again, going back to those layers of liability

1556
01:57:53,520 --> 01:57:54,720
I was mentioning earlier,

1557
01:57:54,720 --> 01:57:56,860
as long as we can say we did something, we're good.

1558
01:57:56,860 --> 01:57:58,760
Yet they sit here and they complain

1559
01:57:58,760 --> 01:58:00,720
that they can't hire enough people

1560
01:58:00,720 --> 01:58:02,440
and that that's a money problem.

1561
01:58:02,440 --> 01:58:04,880
I don't think it's a money problem, right?

1562
01:58:04,880 --> 01:58:05,720
It's not a money problem.

1563
01:58:05,720 --> 01:58:07,360
It's not a financial problem at all.

1564
01:58:07,360 --> 01:58:11,200
This is a quality of life problem.

1565
01:58:11,200 --> 01:58:13,840
And you're looking at way different things

1566
01:58:13,840 --> 01:58:15,780
than what's really happening on the inside.

1567
01:58:15,780 --> 01:58:17,520
Again, so going back to like being data driven

1568
01:58:17,520 --> 01:58:18,960
and how we're making decisions,

1569
01:58:18,960 --> 01:58:21,440
you know, looking at why you can't hire people.

1570
01:58:21,440 --> 01:58:22,560
I think the other part is,

1571
01:58:22,560 --> 01:58:23,880
is like on the law enforcement side,

1572
01:58:23,880 --> 01:58:25,080
you have to empower these guys

1573
01:58:25,080 --> 01:58:26,960
to do the job that they signed up for.

1574
01:58:26,960 --> 01:58:29,160
Like going back to, you know,

1575
01:58:29,160 --> 01:58:31,760
the, you know, what they can actually get accomplished

1576
01:58:31,760 --> 01:58:32,600
while they're out there

1577
01:58:32,600 --> 01:58:34,720
and why would they wanna keep coming to work every day

1578
01:58:34,720 --> 01:58:37,720
if they arrest somebody because a small business owner

1579
01:58:37,720 --> 01:58:39,600
had their business broken into or whatever,

1580
01:58:39,600 --> 01:58:40,440
they take them to jail

1581
01:58:40,440 --> 01:58:41,740
and that guy's right back out on the street.

1582
01:58:41,740 --> 01:58:44,400
And then they're called to arrest the same guy again,

1583
01:58:44,400 --> 01:58:45,560
back to the fire department.

1584
01:58:45,560 --> 01:58:48,040
How many times can you go pick up

1585
01:58:48,040 --> 01:58:51,200
the fentanyl overdose person that's done that?

1586
01:58:51,200 --> 01:58:54,000
However many times, take them to the hospital

1587
01:58:54,000 --> 01:58:55,720
or whatever it is that you're gonna do

1588
01:58:55,720 --> 01:58:56,880
or leave them there now.

1589
01:58:56,880 --> 01:58:58,040
Like now we're just giving them,

1590
01:58:58,040 --> 01:58:59,360
we're not even taking them in.

1591
01:58:59,360 --> 01:59:01,600
We're giving them Narcan and we're walking away.

1592
01:59:01,600 --> 01:59:03,680
Like at what point do you feel like you're not getting,

1593
01:59:03,680 --> 01:59:05,200
you're not even being valuable.

1594
01:59:05,200 --> 01:59:06,560
You can't even do your job.

1595
01:59:07,560 --> 01:59:10,120
These are things that are, to your point, are public.

1596
01:59:10,120 --> 01:59:11,360
These are the things that I'm challenged

1597
01:59:11,360 --> 01:59:14,520
when I talk to 15 year veterans on either side of the,

1598
01:59:14,520 --> 01:59:15,680
you know, the first responder community

1599
01:59:15,680 --> 01:59:17,600
and those dispatchers as well.

1600
01:59:17,600 --> 01:59:19,520
And even like people, you know, nurses

1601
01:59:19,520 --> 01:59:21,280
and that are working in the emergency room

1602
01:59:21,280 --> 01:59:24,360
that are just going, I don't know how much longer I can do this for.

1603
01:59:25,280 --> 01:59:27,760
And to your point, treating it like a business

1604
01:59:27,760 --> 01:59:31,680
versus treating it like a service with a business mind,

1605
01:59:33,040 --> 01:59:35,360
like an Apple or a Google or whatever else.

1606
01:59:35,360 --> 01:59:37,760
Something I've been extraordinarily passionate about

1607
01:59:37,760 --> 01:59:41,360
and I try to bring light to with different guests on the show

1608
01:59:41,360 --> 01:59:45,320
and that there are solutions for people that are in this,

1609
01:59:45,320 --> 01:59:47,280
having these challenges and dealing with these

1610
01:59:47,280 --> 01:59:48,520
that are in the professions,

1611
01:59:48,520 --> 01:59:50,920
dealing with these things that are in the professions now,

1612
01:59:50,920 --> 01:59:52,000
to kind of deal with some of the things

1613
01:59:52,000 --> 01:59:53,000
they wrestle with in their head

1614
01:59:53,000 --> 01:59:54,960
so that they're not negative and they're not bitter

1615
01:59:54,960 --> 01:59:56,720
and they're not depressed and, you know,

1616
01:59:56,720 --> 02:00:00,160
they're not seeking, you know, unproductive behaviors

1617
02:00:00,160 --> 02:00:02,160
and risky behaviors and things like that.

1618
02:00:02,160 --> 02:00:05,640
But again, those messages are continuing to come out.

1619
02:00:05,640 --> 02:00:08,040
And to your point, like somebody that's maybe thinking

1620
02:00:08,040 --> 02:00:09,680
about doing this is looking at that guy and,

1621
02:00:09,680 --> 02:00:11,440
no, thanks, man, I'm good.

1622
02:00:11,440 --> 02:00:13,280
Yeah, I'll choose something else.

1623
02:00:13,280 --> 02:00:14,120
Sounds better.

1624
02:00:14,120 --> 02:00:15,680
Maybe I should go into computer engineering

1625
02:00:15,680 --> 02:00:18,040
or, you know, computer information systems

1626
02:00:18,040 --> 02:00:21,120
and go apply at Apple.

1627
02:00:21,120 --> 02:00:21,960
Yeah.

1628
02:00:21,960 --> 02:00:23,600
Well, even with the money side,

1629
02:00:23,600 --> 02:00:27,160
I've had a few guests on now that have shifted

1630
02:00:27,160 --> 02:00:30,760
from what we call a 24-48, which is 24 hours straight

1631
02:00:30,760 --> 02:00:35,040
and then you have a 48-hour period off, to a 24-72.

1632
02:00:35,040 --> 02:00:36,480
So they put an extra 24,

1633
02:00:36,480 --> 02:00:39,240
which brings it down to a 42-hour work week.

1634
02:00:39,240 --> 02:00:41,000
Basically the same as everyone else works.

1635
02:00:41,000 --> 02:00:42,680
It's not below any standard,

1636
02:00:42,680 --> 02:00:45,120
but these are the people that are waking up at 3 a.m.

1637
02:00:45,120 --> 02:00:46,160
to come get your kid.

1638
02:00:46,160 --> 02:00:49,600
But the reason behind it, the people on the show

1639
02:00:49,600 --> 02:00:51,640
obviously care about their men and women,

1640
02:00:51,640 --> 02:00:53,760
but the reason why it was approved

1641
02:00:53,760 --> 02:00:56,800
is because they realized how much money they were wasting

1642
02:00:56,800 --> 02:00:58,840
working their first responders the way they do.

1643
02:00:58,840 --> 02:01:01,800
And this is the false economy element to, again,

1644
02:01:01,800 --> 02:01:04,000
you beat your chest and talk about being a business

1645
02:01:04,000 --> 02:01:06,320
where you've got no economic sense whatsoever,

1646
02:01:06,320 --> 02:01:09,040
because medical retirements, workman's comp claims,

1647
02:01:09,040 --> 02:01:11,440
overtime covering all these vacant spots,

1648
02:01:11,440 --> 02:01:14,320
lawsuits because we make mistakes because we're so tired,

1649
02:01:14,320 --> 02:01:16,400
you're bleeding millions and millions,

1650
02:01:16,400 --> 02:01:17,640
probably hundreds of millions

1651
02:01:17,640 --> 02:01:19,640
in large, large counties and cities.

1652
02:01:19,640 --> 02:01:20,960
You take some of that money,

1653
02:01:20,960 --> 02:01:24,400
you actually stem the leak upstream.

1654
02:01:24,400 --> 02:01:27,480
You give resources, you have enough staffing now

1655
02:01:27,480 --> 02:01:30,400
because people want to work for you because you fixed it.

1656
02:01:30,400 --> 02:01:33,320
You bring in coaches, you have,

1657
02:01:33,320 --> 02:01:37,000
remove barriers to entry for mental health counseling.

1658
02:01:37,000 --> 02:01:38,840
You provide high-level training

1659
02:01:38,840 --> 02:01:42,240
when it comes to combatives and firearms

1660
02:01:42,240 --> 02:01:47,240
so that arguably you are less likely to ever draw a weapon.

1661
02:01:47,240 --> 02:01:50,080
And therefore, now you save your city or county

1662
02:01:50,080 --> 02:01:53,720
millions of dollars, but it takes courage as a leader.

1663
02:01:53,720 --> 02:01:57,200
And that's where back to our 2020 conversation,

1664
02:01:57,200 --> 02:01:59,080
that is the problem because there are people

1665
02:01:59,080 --> 02:02:01,760
wearing bugles on shirts in the fire service

1666
02:02:01,760 --> 02:02:03,760
that have no fucking balls.

1667
02:02:03,760 --> 02:02:07,360
And all these funerals don't even make them raise their head.

1668
02:02:07,360 --> 02:02:10,680
So until we fix that problem and replace the cowards

1669
02:02:10,680 --> 02:02:13,000
with real leaders, then our men and women

1670
02:02:13,000 --> 02:02:14,880
are still gonna be put into the ground.

1671
02:02:14,880 --> 02:02:16,840
I couldn't agree with you more and amen to that.

1672
02:02:16,840 --> 02:02:19,200
It really is about humans, it is about people.

1673
02:02:19,200 --> 02:02:21,520
And that's going back, you were asking about the training

1674
02:02:21,520 --> 02:02:23,880
and the disconnect and who these people were.

1675
02:02:23,880 --> 02:02:25,240
They're just dudes.

1676
02:02:25,240 --> 02:02:27,920
They're just dudes and chicks that are out there

1677
02:02:27,920 --> 02:02:30,200
doing a job right at the end of the day.

1678
02:02:30,200 --> 02:02:32,640
Yet they're being expected to perform

1679
02:02:32,640 --> 02:02:36,200
at like a robotic level.

1680
02:02:36,200 --> 02:02:38,960
And then they're being chastised or being,

1681
02:02:38,960 --> 02:02:42,120
yeah, they're being put down because they are acting

1682
02:02:42,120 --> 02:02:44,680
like robots, they seemingly don't care.

1683
02:02:44,680 --> 02:02:46,400
Or they're seemingly just showing up,

1684
02:02:46,400 --> 02:02:47,800
punching in and punching out.

1685
02:02:47,800 --> 02:02:48,960
It fries me man.

1686
02:02:48,960 --> 02:02:51,000
And it doesn't have to be like that.

1687
02:02:51,000 --> 02:02:54,760
And again, going back, it just takes one or two leaders

1688
02:02:54,760 --> 02:02:56,000
to turn the tide.

1689
02:02:56,000 --> 02:02:59,440
And you mentioned it, it's courage.

1690
02:02:59,440 --> 02:03:01,000
It's saying what nobody wants to hear.

1691
02:03:01,000 --> 02:03:02,840
It's saying, you know what, we fucked up

1692
02:03:02,840 --> 02:03:03,960
and we can do better.

1693
02:03:03,960 --> 02:03:06,160
And here's the things that we need to start doing.

1694
02:03:06,160 --> 02:03:07,960
And here's what I'm gonna do.

1695
02:03:07,960 --> 02:03:10,200
I'm gonna start ending some of these relationships

1696
02:03:10,200 --> 02:03:12,920
with people that have been stifling the process.

1697
02:03:12,920 --> 02:03:13,760
You're fired.

1698
02:03:13,760 --> 02:03:15,760
We're not gonna vote for you.

1699
02:03:15,760 --> 02:03:16,600
We're not gonna elect you.

1700
02:03:16,600 --> 02:03:18,840
We're not gonna appoint people that go against

1701
02:03:18,840 --> 02:03:20,480
what we're trying to get done.

1702
02:03:20,480 --> 02:03:22,400
It's really that simple.

1703
02:03:22,400 --> 02:03:25,480
I understand it takes a long time to go about doing that.

1704
02:03:25,480 --> 02:03:28,640
It really just takes the right person to do that.

1705
02:03:28,640 --> 02:03:33,640
And man, I live in a city where it just seemingly,

1706
02:03:33,960 --> 02:03:36,800
it's the same music being played by the same people

1707
02:03:36,800 --> 02:03:38,120
over and over and over again.

1708
02:03:38,120 --> 02:03:39,960
It's very frustrating for me to watch,

1709
02:03:39,960 --> 02:03:42,720
which is why I'm such an advocate for all the things

1710
02:03:42,720 --> 02:03:44,320
that we can do to support our first responders

1711
02:03:44,320 --> 02:03:46,760
in whatever way that is, whether that's raising funds

1712
02:03:46,760 --> 02:03:51,760
for training, whether that's offering services to folks

1713
02:03:51,760 --> 02:03:54,320
within those communities to help them be healthier,

1714
02:03:54,320 --> 02:03:58,240
be better, to go to events and help promote events,

1715
02:03:58,240 --> 02:04:00,120
to raise awareness for whatever it is

1716
02:04:00,120 --> 02:04:01,840
that they're having to be, whether that's mental health,

1717
02:04:01,840 --> 02:04:04,000
whether that's fundraising for equipment.

1718
02:04:04,000 --> 02:04:07,560
For the families, for whatever it happens to be.

1719
02:04:07,560 --> 02:04:12,560
And I only say this because that's what I can do.

1720
02:04:12,560 --> 02:04:15,400
That's where I don't wear the uniform.

1721
02:04:15,400 --> 02:04:18,040
I'm never gonna have any idea what it's like

1722
02:04:18,040 --> 02:04:20,360
to do that on a daily basis.

1723
02:04:20,360 --> 02:04:25,120
I care, but I don't in the sense that it doesn't matter.

1724
02:04:25,120 --> 02:04:26,920
All I know is that this is where the gap is

1725
02:04:26,920 --> 02:04:29,520
and this is where I feel like I might be able to help.

1726
02:04:29,520 --> 02:04:32,000
So until somebody tells me to stop doing this,

1727
02:04:32,000 --> 02:04:35,000
I'm not gonna be able to help, so until somebody tells me

1728
02:04:35,000 --> 02:04:36,320
to stop or that I'm not helping,

1729
02:04:36,320 --> 02:04:37,960
I'm just gonna keep doing it.

1730
02:04:37,960 --> 02:04:40,000
Absolutely, it goes back to that mental shit

1731
02:04:40,000 --> 02:04:42,160
that we talked about earlier.

1732
02:04:42,160 --> 02:04:44,760
Well, I wanna throw some quick closing questions at you

1733
02:04:44,760 --> 02:04:46,840
so I can be mindful of your time.

1734
02:04:46,840 --> 02:04:49,160
The first one I'd love to ask, is there a book

1735
02:04:49,160 --> 02:04:51,680
or are there books that you love to recommend?

1736
02:04:51,680 --> 02:04:53,760
It can be related to our discussion today

1737
02:04:53,760 --> 02:04:55,680
or completely unrelated.

1738
02:04:55,680 --> 02:04:56,520
Oh, gosh.

1739
02:04:56,520 --> 02:05:01,520
Yeah, I mean, so there's, it's called Tribe

1740
02:05:02,000 --> 02:05:04,040
and the author's name just escaped me.

1741
02:05:04,040 --> 02:05:05,440
Sebastian Junger.

1742
02:05:05,440 --> 02:05:06,280
Yeah, Sebastian Junger.

1743
02:05:06,280 --> 02:05:07,120
Just one.

1744
02:05:07,120 --> 02:05:07,960
Yeah, it's the one.

1745
02:05:07,960 --> 02:05:09,280
Yeah, it's right up here on my shelf.

1746
02:05:09,280 --> 02:05:10,640
Actually, I should've looked.

1747
02:05:12,240 --> 02:05:15,560
I love that book for a lot of reasons,

1748
02:05:15,560 --> 02:05:18,480
but it talks about community.

1749
02:05:18,480 --> 02:05:20,240
It obviously talks about Tribe

1750
02:05:20,240 --> 02:05:23,040
and maybe not in the way that most people think about it.

1751
02:05:23,040 --> 02:05:25,720
And I really love the way he wrote it.

1752
02:05:25,720 --> 02:05:27,160
I really love the way he wrote that book.

1753
02:05:27,160 --> 02:05:29,760
And I encourage people, like if you're not one

1754
02:05:29,760 --> 02:05:31,280
to sit down and read, listen to it,

1755
02:05:31,280 --> 02:05:32,880
because he narrates it.

1756
02:05:32,880 --> 02:05:37,880
Awesome book about the concept of how people feel

1757
02:05:38,720 --> 02:05:42,240
when they're really attached to a community,

1758
02:05:42,240 --> 02:05:43,920
when they're truly part of a community

1759
02:05:43,920 --> 02:05:47,000
versus the false narrative of like we talk about community

1760
02:05:47,000 --> 02:05:49,920
and the lengths that people will go to protect it

1761
02:05:49,920 --> 02:05:52,520
and to serve it.

1762
02:05:52,520 --> 02:05:56,320
And the bigger takeaway for me on that was

1763
02:05:56,320 --> 02:06:00,440
that the biggest thing or the biggest violation

1764
02:06:00,440 --> 02:06:04,840
you could ever make is to, or violate the community

1765
02:06:04,840 --> 02:06:07,720
is to take away from it without giving back.

1766
02:06:07,720 --> 02:06:10,200
And I think it's a short read.

1767
02:06:10,200 --> 02:06:11,040
I think everybody should read it.

1768
02:06:11,040 --> 02:06:13,040
I think it's super relevant.

1769
02:06:13,960 --> 02:06:14,800
100%.

1770
02:06:14,800 --> 02:06:15,920
Yeah, he's been on the show several times.

1771
02:06:15,920 --> 02:06:17,160
And I actually got to get him back on

1772
02:06:17,160 --> 02:06:19,440
because he had a near death experience about a year ago

1773
02:06:19,440 --> 02:06:22,200
and he's written a new book coming out in May about that.

1774
02:06:22,200 --> 02:06:23,480
I had no idea.

1775
02:06:23,480 --> 02:06:25,840
Yeah, yeah, he almost bled out.

1776
02:06:25,840 --> 02:06:28,360
But circling back to what we were talking about

1777
02:06:28,360 --> 02:06:30,800
with the young athletes, what he does beautifully

1778
02:06:30,800 --> 02:06:32,920
is talk about the identity piece too.

1779
02:06:32,920 --> 02:06:37,160
And if all you've visualized yourself as I am a Marine

1780
02:06:37,160 --> 02:06:39,200
and he has these incredible warriors

1781
02:06:39,200 --> 02:06:42,520
that he was embedded with and they were cohesive,

1782
02:06:42,520 --> 02:06:45,600
even though they were being shot at, it was after,

1783
02:06:45,600 --> 02:06:47,960
it was when they felt like they were outside the tribe,

1784
02:06:47,960 --> 02:06:49,240
a lot of them struggled.

1785
02:06:49,240 --> 02:06:50,760
Yep, yep.

1786
02:06:50,760 --> 02:06:53,280
Yeah, I think that's the,

1787
02:06:53,280 --> 02:06:57,400
I talked to a lot of folks that are ex-military

1788
02:06:57,400 --> 02:07:00,880
and if there's a thing that they struggle with, it's that.

1789
02:07:00,880 --> 02:07:03,400
It's that identity and trying to find their way

1790
02:07:03,400 --> 02:07:07,680
after spending 15 years doing a very specific job

1791
02:07:07,680 --> 02:07:10,720
with the same 16, 18, whatever guys,

1792
02:07:10,720 --> 02:07:13,960
and not having that and struggling to find purpose,

1793
02:07:13,960 --> 02:07:16,400
which is really the, they don't have a why.

1794
02:07:16,400 --> 02:07:17,760
They don't know what their why is.

1795
02:07:17,760 --> 02:07:21,280
And they, it's a tough place for people to be.

1796
02:07:21,280 --> 02:07:23,360
That book speaks specifically to that.

1797
02:07:23,360 --> 02:07:25,400
I had no idea he'd been on the show a couple of times.

1798
02:07:25,400 --> 02:07:27,440
I have to go back and find those episodes.

1799
02:07:27,440 --> 02:07:29,360
Yeah, actually I repost, did I?

1800
02:07:29,360 --> 02:07:31,560
I think I reposted my first one with him as a bonus

1801
02:07:31,560 --> 02:07:34,280
not too long ago, so it might be kind of near the top, but.

1802
02:07:34,280 --> 02:07:35,120
Okay, good.

1803
02:07:35,120 --> 02:07:36,400
He's an amazing guy.

1804
02:07:37,440 --> 02:07:38,680
All right, well then the next question,

1805
02:07:38,680 --> 02:07:47,920
is there a movie and or a documentary that you love?

1806
02:07:47,920 --> 02:07:52,400
Geez, I don't, honestly, I don't watch a lot of stuff anymore.

1807
02:07:52,400 --> 02:07:54,160
I don't have, if I go back,

1808
02:07:55,600 --> 02:07:57,360
I don't know, I'm stumped on this one.

1809
02:08:00,920 --> 02:08:05,840
Okay, yeah, so, Last of the Mohicans.

1810
02:08:05,840 --> 02:08:09,160
If you've seen that one, it's a classic.

1811
02:08:10,920 --> 02:08:14,400
Going back to Tribe and what people will fight for.

1812
02:08:15,240 --> 02:08:16,560
There's a bit of a love story in there.

1813
02:08:16,560 --> 02:08:19,560
That's not really the point for me, but kind of the,

1814
02:08:19,560 --> 02:08:23,400
I guess the antagonist and protagonist in that movie,

1815
02:08:23,400 --> 02:08:25,000
I think it's actually a very strong metaphor

1816
02:08:25,000 --> 02:08:28,320
for kind of where we are in our country right now

1817
02:08:28,320 --> 02:08:31,680
and fighting for what we believe in, those that are,

1818
02:08:31,680 --> 02:08:34,400
and those that are just doing the job for somebody else

1819
02:08:34,400 --> 02:08:37,280
and the conflicts that exist when it really basically

1820
02:08:37,280 --> 02:08:38,880
boils down to some really basic things.

1821
02:08:38,880 --> 02:08:40,640
But I love that movie, it's pretty violent.

1822
02:08:40,640 --> 02:08:42,760
So be prepared, strap your,

1823
02:08:42,760 --> 02:08:45,560
maybe it's not suitable for the kids, but a great movie.

1824
02:08:45,560 --> 02:08:46,920
I think it teaches a lot of lessons

1825
02:08:46,920 --> 02:08:49,440
and some outstanding actors in that one too.

1826
02:08:49,440 --> 02:08:50,480
Yeah, phenomenal.

1827
02:08:50,480 --> 02:08:53,360
I actually climbed Chimney Rock, I think they call it,

1828
02:08:53,360 --> 02:08:55,760
in North Carolina.

1829
02:08:55,760 --> 02:08:57,360
I haven't been, it's on the bucket list.

1830
02:08:57,360 --> 02:08:59,360
I gotta get out there and do it, yeah.

1831
02:08:59,360 --> 02:09:01,360
Yeah, absolutely stunning.

1832
02:09:01,360 --> 02:09:02,880
All right, well then the next question,

1833
02:09:02,880 --> 02:09:04,960
is there a person that you'd recommend to come

1834
02:09:04,960 --> 02:09:08,680
on this podcast as a guest to speak to the first responders,

1835
02:09:08,680 --> 02:09:11,240
military and associated professions of the world?

1836
02:09:11,240 --> 02:09:13,040
I, yeah, I got a few.

1837
02:09:14,640 --> 02:09:16,160
I know you've already had,

1838
02:09:16,160 --> 02:09:17,920
you've already had Greg Groganon,

1839
02:09:17,920 --> 02:09:20,320
who's a good friend of mine from the Overwatch Collective.

1840
02:09:20,320 --> 02:09:21,160
Yes.

1841
02:09:21,160 --> 02:09:26,160
Here, he's currently working with Travis Gribble,

1842
02:09:26,480 --> 02:09:28,200
and I don't know if Travis has been on your show.

1843
02:09:28,200 --> 02:09:30,360
Travis is my arena on Instagram,

1844
02:09:30,360 --> 02:09:32,320
if you go to the social media stuff.

1845
02:09:32,320 --> 02:09:35,400
He has a very compelling story.

1846
02:09:35,400 --> 02:09:39,080
He's a former law enforcement officer, SWAT officer,

1847
02:09:39,080 --> 02:09:40,800
went through his own mental health,

1848
02:09:40,800 --> 02:09:42,000
emotional health struggles.

1849
02:09:42,000 --> 02:09:43,960
He has a very compelling story.

1850
02:09:43,960 --> 02:09:46,160
And I think that the story in and of itself

1851
02:09:46,160 --> 02:09:50,120
is more about him finding answers to,

1852
02:09:52,560 --> 02:09:55,440
to get out of the darkness, for lack of a better term.

1853
02:09:55,440 --> 02:09:59,440
I highly recommend Travis on that end of things.

1854
02:09:59,440 --> 02:10:03,240
He's a very good, he's a very good guest.

1855
02:10:03,240 --> 02:10:05,360
He's very good at getting the point across.

1856
02:10:05,360 --> 02:10:08,000
And I think a lot of people could relate to him,

1857
02:10:08,000 --> 02:10:11,640
not just those that are, when you talk about the community,

1858
02:10:11,640 --> 02:10:15,040
the wives, the kids, the husbands, the moms,

1859
02:10:15,040 --> 02:10:17,520
the dads of first responders,

1860
02:10:17,520 --> 02:10:20,800
I think it could take a lot away from Travis's story

1861
02:10:20,800 --> 02:10:23,200
and the things he's bringing to the table.

1862
02:10:23,200 --> 02:10:24,040
Brilliant.

1863
02:10:24,040 --> 02:10:25,160
Yeah, I will definitely get him on.

1864
02:10:25,160 --> 02:10:26,440
I was following him and you know,

1865
02:10:26,440 --> 02:10:28,080
I'll be completely honest,

1866
02:10:28,080 --> 02:10:30,320
because my brain is literally like a colander.

1867
02:10:31,560 --> 02:10:33,200
I was, he was coming up on my feet and I'm like,

1868
02:10:33,200 --> 02:10:34,720
why do I know him?

1869
02:10:34,720 --> 02:10:35,680
Because I'm following him,

1870
02:10:35,680 --> 02:10:36,840
but I couldn't put two and two together.

1871
02:10:36,840 --> 02:10:37,680
And now I know,

1872
02:10:37,680 --> 02:10:39,400
because I think you'd mentioned him before as well,

1873
02:10:39,400 --> 02:10:41,280
but also like you said, the Overwatch Collective.

1874
02:10:41,280 --> 02:10:42,520
So it makes sense now.

1875
02:10:42,520 --> 02:10:44,520
So I will definitely reach out to him.

1876
02:10:44,520 --> 02:10:45,600
So thank you.

1877
02:10:45,600 --> 02:10:46,440
Yep.

1878
02:10:46,440 --> 02:10:47,600
All right, well, in the very last question,

1879
02:10:47,600 --> 02:10:49,960
before we make sure everyone knows where to find you,

1880
02:10:49,960 --> 02:10:51,640
what do you do to decompress?

1881
02:10:53,320 --> 02:10:54,160
Couple of things.

1882
02:10:54,160 --> 02:10:56,360
First off, getting outside is my, you know,

1883
02:10:56,360 --> 02:10:57,840
nature is sort of my therapy.

1884
02:10:57,840 --> 02:10:59,760
Whenever I can, I live in the concrete jungle.

1885
02:10:59,760 --> 02:11:04,440
So, you know, getting outside and away from people

1886
02:11:04,440 --> 02:11:07,040
and the city is important for me.

1887
02:11:07,040 --> 02:11:09,000
And that can mean a lot of things.

1888
02:11:10,200 --> 02:11:12,320
One of the things I'm very fond of

1889
02:11:12,320 --> 02:11:14,040
and passionate about is shooting.

1890
02:11:14,040 --> 02:11:15,280
I just spent a couple of,

1891
02:11:15,280 --> 02:11:17,120
I just spent an entire week sort of doing some work

1892
02:11:17,120 --> 02:11:17,960
with the podcast,

1893
02:11:17,960 --> 02:11:19,680
but traveled to a couple of places

1894
02:11:19,680 --> 02:11:21,320
to do some distance shooting,

1895
02:11:21,320 --> 02:11:24,120
which takes you outside and takes you out

1896
02:11:24,120 --> 02:11:26,400
into the great wide open.

1897
02:11:26,400 --> 02:11:29,440
I was in Georgia for some of this with some good friends

1898
02:11:29,440 --> 02:11:33,640
and I was out in Reno, Nevada for some other stuff.

1899
02:11:33,640 --> 02:11:36,640
You know, on the daily,

1900
02:11:36,640 --> 02:11:38,840
because I do live in the city and I do work,

1901
02:11:38,840 --> 02:11:41,840
it's very metropolitan here and so forth.

1902
02:11:41,840 --> 02:11:44,120
My thing is every night I go for a walk

1903
02:11:45,160 --> 02:11:47,120
and I take the dog,

1904
02:11:47,120 --> 02:11:50,280
take my dog, Rue, who's like my best bud,

1905
02:11:50,280 --> 02:11:51,840
and we go out and we do a few miles

1906
02:11:51,840 --> 02:11:54,400
just through the neighborhoods.

1907
02:11:54,400 --> 02:11:56,400
I'll strap on a podcast sometimes,

1908
02:11:56,400 --> 02:11:58,160
I will just talk to my friends,

1909
02:11:58,160 --> 02:12:00,080
just try to catch up, check in on people.

1910
02:12:00,080 --> 02:12:02,040
Sometimes they'll be checking on me.

1911
02:12:03,480 --> 02:12:05,240
And sometimes just listening to music,

1912
02:12:05,240 --> 02:12:08,880
but it's just getting away and kind of down regulating

1913
02:12:08,880 --> 02:12:10,600
because my mind is always going.

1914
02:12:10,600 --> 02:12:13,080
And so, yeah, it's just getting outside

1915
02:12:13,080 --> 02:12:15,520
and going for a walk, getting some fresh air.

1916
02:12:15,520 --> 02:12:18,960
And sometimes it's like habit stacking,

1917
02:12:18,960 --> 02:12:20,160
trying to listen to a podcast,

1918
02:12:20,160 --> 02:12:21,880
get a little education or whatever.

1919
02:12:21,880 --> 02:12:23,240
But that's it.

1920
02:12:23,240 --> 02:12:25,200
And then on the side, going back to the nature,

1921
02:12:25,200 --> 02:12:28,440
being with the family and just sharing time,

1922
02:12:28,440 --> 02:12:33,440
doing stuff that's traveling.

1923
02:12:34,200 --> 02:12:36,000
We have a travel van.

1924
02:12:36,000 --> 02:12:37,760
The process of getting a new one,

1925
02:12:37,760 --> 02:12:40,840
it's a long story, but the homeless encampment next door

1926
02:12:40,840 --> 02:12:42,080
burned my other one down.

1927
02:12:43,600 --> 02:12:47,480
Yeah, so that took me out of the getting out,

1928
02:12:47,480 --> 02:12:51,880
or that took the getting out easily away from us.

1929
02:12:51,880 --> 02:12:53,720
So we're looking forward to restoring that,

1930
02:12:53,720 --> 02:12:55,720
but getting away with the family and just hanging out

1931
02:12:55,720 --> 02:12:57,320
and enjoying one another's company

1932
02:12:57,320 --> 02:12:59,160
and experiencing new things.

1933
02:13:00,040 --> 02:13:02,520
There's an irony to a homeless person burning down

1934
02:13:02,520 --> 02:13:03,360
a place that could be.

1935
02:13:03,360 --> 02:13:04,920
Isn't it though?

1936
02:13:04,920 --> 02:13:07,680
I gotta tell you, I got lots of feelings about that.

1937
02:13:08,680 --> 02:13:10,960
Yeah, it's ironic, that is for sure.

1938
02:13:10,960 --> 02:13:12,400
Yeah, all right.

1939
02:13:12,400 --> 02:13:15,760
Well, then firstly, your podcast is Iron Sites podcast.

1940
02:13:15,760 --> 02:13:17,280
So where can people find that?

1941
02:13:17,280 --> 02:13:18,120
Yeah, super easy.

1942
02:13:18,120 --> 02:13:20,640
You can find us on all of the major platforms.

1943
02:13:20,640 --> 02:13:24,920
So Apple iTunes, you can find us on Spotify.

1944
02:13:24,920 --> 02:13:28,200
The Instagram is at iron sites podcast, super simple.

1945
02:13:28,200 --> 02:13:31,760
Or the website is iron size podcast.com.

1946
02:13:31,760 --> 02:13:33,320
Super easy to find us.

1947
02:13:33,320 --> 02:13:36,680
We're most active on the Instagram.

1948
02:13:36,680 --> 02:13:39,000
You'll see us post lots of stuff there.

1949
02:13:39,000 --> 02:13:42,080
If you wanna get a feel for kinda what our guests are,

1950
02:13:42,080 --> 02:13:44,080
who they are, who our guests are,

1951
02:13:44,080 --> 02:13:45,400
the kind of subject matter we cover,

1952
02:13:45,400 --> 02:13:48,520
that's a pretty good spot to go.

1953
02:13:48,520 --> 02:13:51,840
The other thing is the gym is red.fitness.

1954
02:13:51,840 --> 02:13:54,280
It's red.fitness.

1955
02:13:54,280 --> 02:13:57,280
So you see a lot of the health and fitness podcast stuff

1956
02:13:57,280 --> 02:14:00,240
that we do on Iron Sites shows up there

1957
02:14:00,240 --> 02:14:03,440
on the red.fitness page on Instagram.

1958
02:14:03,440 --> 02:14:04,640
So that's where we're most active.

1959
02:14:04,640 --> 02:14:05,960
You can find us there.

1960
02:14:05,960 --> 02:14:09,560
Beautiful, and what about red.fitness, the website?

1961
02:14:09,560 --> 02:14:12,040
Yeah, so that's red.fitness.net,

1962
02:14:12,040 --> 02:14:17,040
but I encourage people to just go to RDF train online.com.

1963
02:14:17,040 --> 02:14:21,400
So as in RDF red.fitness, RDF train online.com.

1964
02:14:21,400 --> 02:14:22,840
It'll take you right to the site.

1965
02:14:22,840 --> 02:14:24,640
You can find out more about the stuff that we do,

1966
02:14:24,640 --> 02:14:28,200
both in studio and then our self-guided programs

1967
02:14:28,200 --> 02:14:29,720
as well as our online membership

1968
02:14:29,720 --> 02:14:31,840
and our remote personal training

1969
02:14:31,840 --> 02:14:34,120
or virtual personal training programs.

1970
02:14:34,120 --> 02:14:34,960
Brilliant.

1971
02:14:34,960 --> 02:14:36,520
Well, Scott, I wanna thank you so much.

1972
02:14:36,520 --> 02:14:37,920
It's been an amazing conversation.

1973
02:14:37,920 --> 02:14:39,560
We've gone all over the place today,

1974
02:14:39,560 --> 02:14:42,800
which is my favorite way of having a conversation.

1975
02:14:42,800 --> 02:14:44,120
So I wanna thank you so much

1976
02:14:44,120 --> 02:14:45,800
for being so generous with your time

1977
02:14:45,800 --> 02:14:48,440
and coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.

1978
02:14:48,440 --> 02:14:49,280
I appreciate you.

1979
02:14:49,280 --> 02:14:50,120
I'm honored to be here.

1980
02:14:50,120 --> 02:14:51,560
It was honored when we got connected.

1981
02:14:51,560 --> 02:14:53,120
Thanks, James.

1982
02:14:53,120 --> 02:14:53,960
I had a lot of fun.

1983
02:14:53,960 --> 02:14:56,160
Thanks for keeping me on track and bringing it back.

1984
02:14:56,160 --> 02:15:18,120
I'll see you next time.