Order of Man - CHADD WRIGHT ｜ Seeing it Through to the End

00:00:00.000 My guest today is the one and only Chad, right? This guy pulls no punches and tells it exactly

00:00:05.040 how it is, which frankly is extremely refreshing in a culture that prides itself

00:00:10.160 on coddling everyone and doing its best to ensure that no one is ever offended by anything.

00:00:18.900 Chad's a former Navy seal, an ultra endurance athlete, and one hell of a human being. Today,

00:00:23.700 we talk about integrity and honor, personal therapy through the writing process, sizing

00:00:28.740 others up, and how we see things through to the end in spite of extreme challenges and setbacks.

00:00:35.840 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart

00:00:40.720 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not

00:00:46.580 easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are.

00:00:53.740 This is who you will become at the end of the day. And after all is said and done,

00:00:58.100 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I am the

00:01:04.180 host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast. And more than that, the movement, the global movement,

00:01:10.540 the movement to reclaim and restore masculinity in a society that wants to redefine it. Guys,

00:01:18.420 we don't need to redefine masculinity. Now there's the age of modernity, which changes things a little

00:01:24.580 bit, but I don't think the timeless principles of masculinity, which is strength and honor and

00:01:29.680 courage and mastery to borrow from Jack Donovan and capability and the desire to serve and the

00:01:36.920 ability to protect, provide, and preside. Although life changes, the traditional values of being a man

00:01:44.200 do not change the way we implement them may. But again, we are restoring what it means to be a man.

00:01:51.120 So if you are a man and you want to become more effective, capable as a father, a husband,

00:01:55.640 a business owner, a community leader, et cetera, et cetera, you're in the right place.

00:01:59.440 Now I've got a great conversation with the one and only Chad, right? Who a lot of you are already

00:02:02.780 familiar with because I had a lot of requests that I have a chat on the podcast. So I'll introduce

00:02:07.720 you to him in a minute if you're not familiar with him. But before I do just want to make a very

00:02:12.300 quick mention of our new battle planning app. If you're not familiar with this thing, we've got

00:02:17.220 our 12 week battle planners and up until the last several months or so, this has been something

00:02:23.140 that you could purchase and use in the written form, which is good. That's what I tend to use

00:02:28.160 more often. But we wanted to make this thing a digital product as well. So we turned it into

00:02:32.940 a battle planning app. So it's on your phone. You're going to write a vision. You're going

00:02:37.360 to write checkpoints. You're going to come up with your tactics and your objectives and everything

00:02:40.560 you want to accomplish. You can put daily tasks in there, non-negotiables. It's an entire

00:02:44.620 planning, daily planning tool built into one simple app on your phone. And that's for Google

00:02:52.200 or I should say Android and Apple devices. So if you're interested, go to 12 week battle

00:02:57.060 planner, the number 12, 12 week battle planner.com. And you can get the app for again, either Android

00:03:03.580 or Apple devices. All right, guys, with that said, let me introduce you to Chad. Like I mentioned,

00:03:09.580 he is an incredible human being. My family and I had the opportunity to have him here to

00:03:14.600 our place in Maine several weeks ago, maybe more or closer to a month ago. Time seems to

00:03:19.040 go so quick, but anyways, we got to lay down this podcast conversation for you guys. He's

00:03:23.740 a former Navy seal. He's an ultra endurance athlete. He's soon to be author. He's the host

00:03:29.840 of the three of seven podcast. And guys, you're going to hear in this podcast, he's overcome

00:03:33.580 some extremely, extremely challenging hardships and trials. And all of that has shaped him into

00:03:40.400 the man that he is today. He's got a passion for telling it like it is. You're going to hear that

00:03:45.040 and serving others so they can realize their own potential and does that primarily through their

00:03:49.000 immersive events and experiences that are designed to really push people to their limits. Again,

00:03:54.600 you're going to hear more about that. So I hope you enjoy this podcast. I certainly enjoyed the

00:03:58.220 conversation. Chad, what's up, man? Good to see you. Glad to have you here in Maine. Is this your

00:04:04.080 first time in Maine? Yeah. Lord, yeah, man. I think I remember you saying that. I always thought

00:04:10.000 if I ever go to Maine, it would be on the Appalachian Trail because you know the AT ends

00:04:18.260 at Mount Katahdin. Right. Ends or begins. However you look at it. However you look at it, whichever

00:04:24.060 direction you're going. And never thought that I would make it here until then. Yeah. But I'm glad

00:04:31.220 to be here, man. Yeah. This is a pretty raw, beautiful, brutal environment right now.

00:04:40.340 Yeah. It's a little dark out there. Everything's a little dead. We're just coming out of winter.

00:04:46.000 So if you came out in three months, though, it would be breathtaking. Oh, I'm sure. It's

00:04:51.160 unbelievable. I'm sure. Spring, fall, of course, is amazing. I walked out this morning. Well, first of

00:04:56.280 all, I went turkey hunting yesterday morning and I had two young men come and turkey hunt with me and I

00:05:00.980 said, guys, I'm going to Maine later today. And of course, for them, that's a big deal.

00:05:06.720 Right.

00:05:06.960 You know, because these people, the culture where I live, it's country people, man. They

00:05:13.240 don't travel.

00:05:13.980 Right.

00:05:14.480 So it's a big deal. You just stay there.

00:05:15.820 And they're like, you're going to Maine today? Like what? We're turkey hunting. Like

00:05:20.960 you can do two things in one day.

00:05:23.480 Believe it or not.

00:05:24.180 I'm like, yeah, man, we're going turkey hunt this morning. I'm going to pack my bags and

00:05:27.680 I'm going to go to Maine. I said, what do y'all think about that? And one of them said,

00:05:31.900 well, it's a Yankee state. You know, like why would you go there? You know? And the other

00:05:36.740 one said, yeah, but it has the longest turkey season in the country, right? Because y'all

00:05:42.420 season starts late because it stays cold so long.

00:05:45.580 It's cold. It's too cold.

00:05:46.180 Yeah. And then it goes on into June. So I'm happy to be here, man. The run was awesome

00:05:51.980 this morning. You know, the wind was, the wind was, at first I thought this wind is

00:05:59.820 freaking miserable, dude. I hate the wind. I mean, as a-

00:06:02.520 The wind is rough.

00:06:03.180 As a hunter, you hate the wind.

00:06:05.260 For sure.

00:06:05.740 You know, everything, a game, every species of game hates the wind.

00:06:09.240 Hates the wind.

00:06:09.680 They're going to bed down. And for me, I'm the same way. And I thought, walked out there

00:06:13.660 and I thought, man, this freaking is miserable. And I thought, you know what? This is actually

00:06:18.540 invigorating, you know? And I just switched my mindset on it a little bit. And I went out

00:06:25.780 this morning to hold, to achieve a result. I had set a standard this morning to go and

00:06:35.540 run because I'm going to run every day. If I can.

00:06:39.380 Right.

00:06:39.620 Right?

00:06:39.920 Sure.

00:06:40.100 And so that was the standard. I had set a standard for myself this morning. I'm going to go run.

00:06:45.280 The result was I was going to get a good cup of coffee out of the deal, right? So I ran

00:06:51.020 three miles to the coffee shop. That was the result that I wanted to achieve. And I ran in

00:06:59.720 the cold, invigorating wind.

00:07:03.740 It's a good way to look at it.

00:07:04.920 For three miles on some back roads. People are looking at me like I'm a freaking idiot,

00:07:11.280 dude. All the way to the coffee shop. The coffee shop shut down.

00:07:18.080 The result.

00:07:19.200 I would have told you had we drank coffee, I would have told you that. But I had no idea.

00:07:23.700 I didn't even know it was there.

00:07:24.900 Look, man.

00:07:26.780 Look, the point here is I did not achieve the result that I wanted to achieve this morning.

00:07:36.420 I didn't get that result that I wanted, right? And immediately, here's the thing. Immediately,

00:07:44.880 when I get there to the coffee shop and it shut down. Now, I'm a former SEAL. I mean,

00:07:52.020 I'm a tough dude. I can be tough, right? But I'm still human. Immediately, I get there.

00:07:58.300 Here, my result that I had set out to achieve was no longer attainable. Guess what the weak

00:08:06.800 human mind automatically, this voice comes, just call Ryan. Just call Ryan. Just tell

00:08:13.520 him to ride down here. The freaking coffee shop's closed, man. Just tell him to come up here

00:08:18.680 and pick you up, man. That way you can get back to the house in time to actually go and

00:08:24.800 get a good cup of coffee. If y'all haven't figured it out, I'm a coffee snob, dude.

00:08:30.260 I learned that yesterday because I'm like, I have coffee here. And you're like, well,

00:08:33.800 how do you brew it?

00:08:34.460 Yeah, how do you make it?

00:08:35.360 I was like, okay, he's not interested in my coffee.

00:08:37.620 Oh, man. And so, you know, immediately, that's what popped into my head. I'm just being

00:08:43.020 totally honest with you, man. But then I said, you know what? We live, I live my life to

00:08:52.940 a standard, not a result. You have to live your life to a standard and let the results

00:09:01.600 fall where they may. Everything that I do in life is because of the standards that I have

00:09:09.120 set for myself. And obviously, yes, we all have a desired outcome. In ultra running, man,

00:09:16.360 this happens to me all the time. And this is a valuable lesson for you guys if it's in,

00:09:21.200 and it's just this, I didn't even know I was going to talk about this until this happened

00:09:25.320 this morning, right?

00:09:26.460 Sure.

00:09:26.740 But this is a valuable lesson for you in business and fitness and in your family life, whatever

00:09:32.340 it is. For me, it happens all the time in ultra running. When I go and run a hundred mile race,

00:09:40.760 the result that I always want to achieve is victory. I always want to win. And people expect me to win,

00:09:47.740 right? I was just doing a hundred miler this past fall. And I was expected to win. I had placed

00:09:55.620 second at that race the year before, did very well. And this year, everyone was watching me

00:10:03.780 thinking I was going to win. And I was out front for about 60 plus miles and just really just going

00:10:12.940 hard, man. And at about 60, 65 miles, my stomach blew up.

00:10:19.680 Really?

00:10:20.740 And let me tell you, for any of you guys or you, Ryan, I know you're not, you don't enjoy running.

00:10:29.140 I don't enjoy running. I have never found the joy in running.

00:10:31.820 If you ever run a hundred mile race, that's something that could happen. Your stomach could

00:10:37.860 blow up. All the blood, your body is pumping blood out to your legs and your muscles and you're

00:10:47.360 having to eat. You can't run a hundred miler without eating. So there's no blood in your stomach

00:10:53.680 or your digestive system. Yeah. And so your stomach can really have some issues there. Well,

00:10:59.420 that happened. And I found myself, the pain is so significant that you're not going to buck it.

00:11:04.840 I don't care how freaking tough you are. You're just not going to do nothing with it. So I found

00:11:11.260 myself laying on the side of the trail as a first place, as a front runner in the fetal position,

00:11:17.580 because I had no other choice. I knew I had to lay there until my stomach calmed back down.

00:11:23.620 Right. And what is it? The blood starts then circulating where it needs to, digestive starts

00:11:28.280 happening. Yeah. And so in that moment, I realized this, this result that I had set out to achieve,

00:11:36.340 which was first place at this race, it was no longer achievable. It was, I went from,

00:11:42.780 you know, literally the front of the pack and just having to watch guys run by me while I'm laid out

00:11:48.140 on the side of the trail, man. All right. So again, just like this morning, what do you think the

00:11:54.700 immediate thing my brain says? Yeah, quit. I'm done. What's over? You can't achieve the result

00:11:59.880 anymore. You're not going to win this thing. Why run another 40 freaking miles, man? It's the middle

00:12:06.000 of the night. You've been awake for 20 plus hours. Why run another 40 miles? Yeah. Because I have set

00:12:12.800 standards for my life. Standards like, like I will never quit. Standards like honor. Standards like

00:12:19.360 integrity. So I choose to get up off the trail. Once my stomach calms down, even though I can't

00:12:26.280 achieve victory anymore, I choose to hold that standard. I choose to not quit and I choose to

00:12:32.440 proceed with my mission and uphold the standards. Right. And even along that journey, choosing to

00:12:39.040 proceed is just the first step because once you choose to proceed, dude, I'm out in the woods.

00:12:44.620 Yeah. I'm on a trail. Nobody's around me. Well, we're in the mountains, right? So in the mountains,

00:12:51.880 trails switch back up, up and down these mountains. Well, I know these trails. They're my home trails.

00:12:57.920 And again, you have this voice pop in your head. Well, you're not going to, you're not running this

00:13:04.440 thing. You're not being competitive anymore. Why don't you just cut this switch back, right? Why don't

00:13:09.260 just cut a switch back and just, you know, um, lessen your suffering? Well, my standard is integrity,

00:13:16.520 right? Integrity is what? Doing the right thing when no one is watching. Right. All right. Honor

00:13:24.920 is the adherence to what is right. Honor is doing what is right. See, integrity is a little harder.

00:13:31.240 It's a little harder to have integrity than it is to have honor. In a lot of ways, it's, it's,

00:13:36.760 it's easy to do what's right when your buddies are watching. Of course. I mean, that accountability is

00:13:41.980 good and important. Yeah. But it also gives you an advantage to do the right thing, which is why

00:13:47.020 accountability is so important. But what do you do when no one's watching? That's integrity. And

00:13:50.920 nobody's going to call you out on that. Nobody's going to see you doing that. That's right. And

00:13:53.660 integrity is a standard. So I want to challenge all of you guys that are listening to this right off the

00:14:00.280 bat, that if you don't get anything else out of this conversation, um, identify the standards that

00:14:08.780 you want to live your life by. Identify the standards that you want to run your business by.

00:14:14.800 Identify the standards for your family, right? And do that by developing whatever, develop a creed.

00:14:20.720 I've developed a creed for my life. Um, develop a creed that, that has those standards that you want to

00:14:26.640 live by, right? And I would challenge you to uphold those standards regardless of the result, right?

00:14:35.220 So you should set a goal, but if that goal is no longer achievable and you have to proceed,

00:14:41.900 you have to continue mission, even though the, the, the result has changed, focus on upholding

00:14:47.960 those standards. Well, part of the problem with focusing on, on the result is that it's a lot of it.

00:14:54.520 A lot of it is, is something within your control, but there's a lot outside of your control.

00:14:59.900 You know, like for example, take the, the, the small coffee shop ideal here is okay. You can't

00:15:06.100 control what that coffee shot. You can't control the fact that they're open or closed. No, no. I mean,

00:15:11.580 maybe you can look ahead of time, you know, I mean, there's, there's things that you can do,

00:15:15.520 but still when you focus on the result, it's, it's a lot of ways outside of your control.

00:15:21.060 And I've seen a lot of guys will try to go do things and then they don't achieve the result

00:15:25.560 that they want, or they have weird expectations about how it'll work or how quickly it is, or I

00:15:30.340 can go run a hundred miles without training and I don't, I don't need the food or, you know,

00:15:33.860 they'll do things that they have no idea what they're doing. And then they'll throw in the towel

00:15:37.900 because they had a faulty expectation and they didn't set the standard like you're talking about.

00:15:43.360 It's, it's the, the, the missing of the objective that derails them and they throw in the towel,

00:15:48.580 they're done. That's it, brother. And you see this even, even in elite athletes, you see this elite

00:15:54.280 ultra runners, specifically these guys that are super fast. They're used to winning all the time.

00:15:59.720 They're used to achieving the result they want. When the wheels fall off, they don't default to

00:16:05.540 the standard. When the wheels fall off, you see some of the best athletes out there. Um, those are

00:16:10.480 the guys that don't maintain the standard because they are so wrapped around the axle when it comes to

00:16:16.200 the result. And you're exactly right. That result is a lot of times out of your control.

00:16:20.900 You can prepare and you should prepare. But in some cases, in my case at the Georgia Jewel,

00:16:27.640 the a hundred miler I just told you about in that case, it didn't matter how well I was prepared.

00:16:33.320 You knew what the risks were.

00:16:35.060 This was, this was the 10th or however many of a hundred, I've done so many a hundred milers

00:16:39.780 before I knew what was coming. But when that stomach thing happened, I mean, that was out of my

00:16:44.680 control, man. Yeah, that's true. That's true. So, uh, I guess, so here's the thing I have,

00:16:50.840 you know, you talked about creed and I've created a code of conduct and talked about with my boys and

00:16:55.840 of course, guys on the podcast and stuff like that. But what I see a lot of people will do

00:16:59.720 occasionally or quite often actually is they'll adopt these ideals or these codes that they want

00:17:05.720 to live by or this creed. And then it's just so monotonous, you know, like I hear we'll be

00:17:11.620 honorable. And it's like, there's no meat to that, you know, or, or have integrity. And so people just

00:17:17.140 throw around these buzzwords. How do you keep it meaningful and significant to the point where it

00:17:23.580 continues to drive your action? That's a good point, man. I mean, for me, I think, I think I keep it

00:17:31.360 meaningful and significant, uh, I guess in two ways. Uh, the first way is by applying it to

00:17:38.640 even the small aspects of my life. Right. So I'm a big, I'm a big, like crazy about putting your

00:17:47.740 freaking grocery cart back in the little corral at the grocery store. Right. So applying things like

00:17:53.920 honor and integrity to something as simple as that, or something as simple as dropping a piece

00:18:00.160 of trash on the ground. Yeah, a little gum wrapper or whatever. Just like, right. So the difference

00:18:05.480 between someone who is great and someone who's just, you know, just doing a good job, it's just a

00:18:12.620 little bit. Right. It's just, there's, it's just these little tweaks, right? So I apply it in a real

00:18:19.080 sense to all the little aspects of my life. And then also, I think another way to keep it up front

00:18:25.340 to, um, to keep it in the forefront of your mind and to keep it fresh is you have to train.

00:18:31.320 You have to put yourself in environments where you, you have to, in a real way, utilize these

00:18:39.380 principles of honor, integrity, never, that never quit mentality. Um, uh, you know, all the

00:18:46.180 leadership principles, you have to train, man, you have to train. This was, this was a foundational

00:18:51.920 principle in the SEAL teams. Train like you fight. Right. Train like you fight, man. And I take that

00:18:58.120 seriously now, even as a civilian, um, you know, I train every single day. I train other people and I

00:19:05.100 take the, as an instructor, I take, take, take my training environments and, and my students, I take

00:19:12.140 that very seriously and we push and the things that we do are real. Right. The training environments

00:19:18.540 that we create now are real, man. There's nothing canned about it. Right. We are not, we're not, um,

00:19:26.280 we're not freaking frozen by liability. Like a lot of big companies. I don't have no money, man.

00:19:31.660 I can take, dude, I can take you out in an environment where it's going to crush you.

00:19:36.600 I don't care. You sue, if you sue me, you ain't getting much, son. So we're not frozen by liability.

00:19:43.860 We can do real stuff, dude. Right. Right. You know? And, um, so yeah, keep it in the forefront

00:19:49.120 of your mind. You got to train like you fight. You got to keep that stuff fresh and apply it to

00:19:53.100 the little things in life. Right. Right. No, that's a good point. You know, I remember as a

00:19:57.760 financial advisor, I'd have these people, they were prospects who would come into my office because

00:20:01.380 they wanted me to review their plan or whatever. And they'd come in with these, like these binders,

00:20:05.880 these beautiful binders. And it would have the, the Monte Carlo analysis, which is basically

00:20:11.560 just, you know, stress testing your portfolio. And, and they'd have these, these plans that

00:20:16.240 were laid out perfectly. And I always told these people, and I knew what it looked like. I'd

00:20:19.560 said, look, this plan right here where you're getting 8% a year for the next 40 years is, is

00:20:24.980 a great retirement plan. If everything goes perfectly, but you haven't, you haven't put this

00:20:31.180 through, through a lawsuit, through an injury, through you losing your job or a medical condition,

00:20:39.300 or just the fact that you're going to have to buy a bunch of new shit between now and the next 40

00:20:43.120 years. Like you're not factoring for any of that. So if you think everything's going to go perfect for

00:20:48.960 40 years, just stay with what you have. But let's actually introduce some real world scenarios to this

00:20:56.500 portfolio and see how it pans out. And oftentimes it just doesn't pan out, but that's the same thing

00:21:01.040 in life. You know, everybody thinks, you know, I'm going to be a bad-ass. I'm going to fight. If,

00:21:06.440 if, if I'm in a dangerous situation, I'm going to get myself and my family out of there. It's like,

00:21:10.040 well, tell me what in your life makes you believe that that's actually going to happen.

00:21:15.500 Well, I don't know.

00:21:17.500 Yeah, exactly. Cause we think we're better than we are. All of us do until you get out on the trail.

00:21:23.200 Until you start working through the process. And that's why we train. You're exactly right.

00:21:29.280 I think, uh, I think the seals adopted it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Adopted the, uh,

00:21:33.580 the phrase or that the motto, uh, we don't, we don't rise to the level of our expectations.

00:21:39.520 We fall to the level of our training. Yeah. I've heard that before.

00:21:43.360 And that's so true. So true. Why did you get into the seal teams?

00:21:46.420 You know, gosh, I've been asked that question so many times, brother. And, um, you know, I, I'm,

00:21:53.560 I'm still processing a lot about myself. I've only been out of the team for two years. Yeah.

00:21:59.540 I'm still processing a lot of why I did the things that I did and, and how the things that I did are

00:22:06.240 even affecting me now as a man. Uh, and I, it's, it's being, it's an interesting journey for me.

00:22:12.920 The pot, my podcast is like therapy for me. Um, I'm writing a book now. I'm, I'm learning things

00:22:18.840 about myself. And, you know, as I look back on why from a practical standpoint, I barely graduated

00:22:27.580 high school, bro. Um, I just, I, I didn't like freaking school. It wasn't cause I was dumb.

00:22:34.340 It was just because I thought it was just a silly thing. Um, and so I remember going around on the last

00:22:41.580 day of school and begging my teachers to change my grades so I could graduate. I graduated.

00:22:48.900 Did you convince someone to change your grade? Oh, they all did. Why'd they do that? I think that

00:22:53.520 they saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. See, I didn't know that when I left high

00:23:03.940 school, I didn't know that I was going to really ever achieve anything in life. I didn't have any

00:23:09.220 goals. No one in my family had ever served in the military. Um, I had never seen a service member

00:23:16.320 in uniform. Really? Ever. As a senior in high school. Dang. Didn't even know what it looked

00:23:20.980 like, man. Right. Uh, so I get out of high school, barely. I ain't going to college, bro.

00:23:28.440 Mm-hmm. You know, I'm just not going to do it. So I, what, what I do, what everybody else does

00:23:34.480 in a, in a small town in America, I go start working construction, which is an honorable trade.

00:23:40.920 No doubt. But, uh, but for me, it just wasn't hitting the spot. There was something missing

00:23:47.060 in me. I don't know if it was adventure. I don't know if it was challenge. Um, but, but it just

00:23:53.980 wasn't hitting the spot. I wasn't happy. I wasn't fulfilled. And I only did this for about six months,

00:23:59.360 maybe a little less than that. Um, I had been working construction and farm jobs and stuff

00:24:04.540 during high school, you know, but, uh, but you know, I get out. So I'm sitting, uh, I'm sitting

00:24:12.340 at my little, I was, I was actually at that point working on a concrete factory and I'm sitting at

00:24:18.600 the computer one day on a break and this little ad pops up that says, uh, Navy SEALs, the hardest

00:24:25.120 military training in the world. And this was like 2006. So they were recruiting heavily. The war was

00:24:31.760 freaking rolling hard. They were losing guys. And you know, so that they had this advertising campaign

00:24:38.140 going on and I saw that and something about that, it said like the hardest, you know, the hardest thing.

00:24:45.580 And I didn't even know what SEALs were. I literally, I'm not kidding you, man. I had never read

00:24:51.600 a SEAL book. I had never watched it. No movies? No, dude. It's always a movie that does it. No,

00:24:55.860 dude. I hunted. I coon hunted. I was a coon hunter. That's what I did all through high school. I didn't

00:25:03.020 have a girlfriend until I turned 18. That's all I did was hunt, man. Um, hunt and work. And so

00:25:09.520 something about that just caught my eye, man. And it stuck in the back of my mind. And I kept thinking

00:25:15.340 it over, thinking it over. And I actually went to the recruiters shortly after that because I thought,

00:25:20.600 all right, this, this looks like something that's going to get me out of this. I'm, I'm stuck here.

00:25:26.540 I'm stuck, man. If I stay here, I'm going to make $400 a week for the rest of my life. Forever.

00:25:33.840 And, um, so I go and see this Marine Corps recruiter and, uh, I walk in there, I meet with

00:25:41.700 this guy and he's giving me the whole, you know, the whole thing, right? Because I had seen the SEAL

00:25:47.840 thing, but I didn't know how to swim. I didn't know. I didn't know how to swim. I had never ran.

00:25:53.880 So I thought, man, that looks awesome. But let me just see if I got this Marine stuff. Cause I don't

00:25:59.360 think they do as much swimming and all this, you know, go talk to this guy. And he says, uh,

00:26:05.300 I said, so, Hey bud, what do you do in the, in the, I probably said, what do you do in the military?

00:26:10.360 I didn't even know the different branches, you know, what do you do in the military? And he

00:26:14.520 says, I'm logistics. And I said, what logistics? What is that? He said, I drive a truck. And I

00:26:22.900 said, what, what is, what are you talking about, man? I thought everybody in the military, which

00:26:28.740 all Marines are, I did, this is how ignorant I was. I thought, I thought you're a dang on truck

00:26:34.120 driver, man. I don't want to be part of your organization. Like I don't want to potentially

00:26:38.980 So you thought that's what all of them did. Yeah. Well, yeah. I was confused. Yeah. You

00:26:42.960 didn't know. Right. I was like, I don't want to be part of an organization where I might get stuck

00:26:46.460 being a truck truck. Yeah. Now this is guys, I'm not putting anybody down. No, I don't. This is

00:26:52.180 how ignorant I was. I'm telling you this, right? Um, obviously that's if you're driving a truck

00:26:59.720 through downtown Iraq during wartime, that's a bad deal, son. That's a bad, yeah. You know what I'm

00:27:05.760 saying? You're, you're, you're a tough cat. At that time, I didn't know that. Um, so I

00:27:10.940 thought, well, dang, you know, I might, if I go join this organization, I might not even

00:27:15.120 get to, you know, shoot guns and, you know, kill people and do cool stuff. Right. And,

00:27:20.840 uh, so then I went over and talked to them about the seal contract and they start telling

00:27:27.960 me about the Navy seals and how they're just the, you know, they're just these bad dudes

00:27:32.500 and they go to combat and you're like, I want to be that. Yeah. I want to be that. Right.

00:27:36.880 Well, I said, all right, sign me up for that. Right. Well, you had to take a physical standards

00:27:43.320 test to get a contract. This joker didn't know how to swim. Right. And so I show up to

00:27:52.260 take this physical standards test, 500 meters swim. Did you know that swimming was going to

00:27:55.940 be part of it? I learned right then from the recruiter, but like, I'm going to take this

00:28:01.060 test like in a few days, right? Oh, that quick. Yeah. So it's not like you can learn to swim

00:28:04.800 and be a superstar. No. Got it. You know, I, I'm, I go, I go down to the pond behind the house and

00:28:11.320 start, you know, practicing my dog paddle. I bring my wife down, my, she was then my girlfriend. I

00:28:16.760 bring her down there with me and, you know, she swam in high school. So she's teaching me the basics

00:28:21.860 of a basic stroke. Right. And so then I go take this test a few days later, fail miserably, man,

00:28:28.880 miserably. Uh, my seal, my, they have a seal motivator and, uh, his name was Frank Cutler.

00:28:35.580 Motivate, a seal motivator? Yeah. So basically they're a contracted, they're a retired, he's a

00:28:40.260 retired seal. Right. That was contracted to administer this physical standards test in the

00:28:45.540 Atlanta area to any student who wanted to, uh, get a seal contract. Motivator is probably like

00:28:51.640 not the right word for this individual. Oh no, no. Frank, Frank. That's an interesting choice of

00:28:57.780 words. Motivator. Frank was harder than freaking woodpecker lips, son. I'm telling you. And,

00:29:02.980 uh, so this guy, he's looking at me and at this point I will add also, I was weightlifting. I was,

00:29:11.000 and I was about 220 pounds. Oh wow. Really? Yeah. I mean. So you had put on some weight. Oh yeah.

00:29:16.160 Yeah. So you were dense. I was dense, dude. This guy's looking at me like, would not, I failed to

00:29:21.960 swim miserably. We'd go out there. I might do like four or five pull-ups, 20, 30 push-ups.

00:29:27.480 Right, right. A few sit-ups. Fail the run even worse than I failed to swim. Right? And he's

00:29:34.260 thinking, what in the, but, but for some reason, again, there's been a select few people throughout

00:29:40.800 the course of my life that have believed in me. And Frank was one of them. And Frank, my wife,

00:29:45.960 my mom, um, and Frank believed in me. And that gave me the courage to keep coming back. Right?

00:29:54.100 Just keep coming. Just keep showing up. What do you think he saw in you? Cause he, I mean,

00:29:57.860 let's be honest. He's, he probably sees hundreds if not thousands of people that fail and he's like,

00:30:02.700 nah, you, nah, you're not going to cut it. He does. So why you? You know, as a, as a, as a team guy,

00:30:09.580 you can look at other people. And, um, once you've lived that life really, and, and, and I'm not saying

00:30:17.740 you're always going to be a hundred percent accurate, but you know what it takes to do the

00:30:22.040 job and, and, and, and the physical attributes can be trained. Right. But there's something here.

00:30:28.160 You got to know you, you, and you can look and spend some time with a man and you'll have a really

00:30:34.640 good idea whether he is going to cut the mustard or not. And I think Frank saw that in me. Right.

00:30:41.540 He, and I think from day one, Frank knew that I was going to become a seal. Interesting. Um,

00:30:47.640 and now I can look at other, I, you know, I've seen since I've been out, I've worked with and seen

00:30:53.740 a very select few young men that when I see them and I'll tell them, I'll be like, Hey man,

00:30:59.920 you realize you could go be a seal and do very well. You know? So you see that in guys.

00:31:05.000 And, um, it's just from living a life, man. Right. And so I keep coming back to do this PST.

00:31:11.140 Finally, after probably three months, get to where I can just barely pass it. Yeah.

00:31:17.700 And I get my seal contract. Right. How did you, uh, what about the, uh, like the ASVAP and some of the,

00:31:24.220 the, Oh, I passed that with flying cubs. Oh, so you did fine. Cause you were talking about school.

00:31:27.980 So I didn't know if that was an issue for you at all. No, I mean, I taught really slow guys.

00:31:32.500 And that's, I was, I was like the accent. I'm like, what about the ASVAP?

00:31:35.960 I look like a bum. Yeah. It's like the beard, the hair. But, uh, but yeah, I mean, all of my,

00:31:41.460 um, my writing and my arithmetic and, and my, you know, I'm good with all that. I'm, I'm not saying

00:31:48.620 I'm a genius, but I'm fairly intelligent. I just thought, I was just wondering about with,

00:31:53.120 with your like school. Now I'm not doing that barely passing, you know, high school. So I'm like,

00:31:57.280 well, maybe that's an issue too. No, it was easy day, man. Nice. That was easy. So yeah,

00:32:01.820 man, I finally, uh, I finally passed this thing, get a seal contract, go and I'm speeding this story

00:32:08.700 up. I know guys, I'm giving you the long winded version. I apologize. Um, I get the seal, I get

00:32:14.940 the bootcamp. Yeah. Right. You got to go through bootcamp first. I'll make it all the way to the last

00:32:20.040 day of bootcamp. And we're going to graduation where you get your Navy ball cap. You change it

00:32:28.060 from a recruit to a Navy. And so we're, we're in, we're formation walking. My little drill

00:32:33.920 instructor comes up. Hey man, you got to go to medical. I said, what the world, man? It's last

00:32:38.760 day. Yeah. Last day. And so he pulls me out of formation. I go up to medical, the dive medical

00:32:45.020 officer, which is the, he's like the top dog for all Naval special warfare. He, you got to get past

00:32:51.820 him. You got to pass this dive physical in order to proceed with training. They want to make sure

00:32:57.600 that nothing's wrong with you because they're about to put you through a crucible. That's literally

00:33:01.760 going to take you nearly to the point of death, which is buds. And, um, he says, man, I walk in here.

00:33:08.760 He says, Hey man, you have a very rare, benign, asymptomatic pericardial cyst on your heart. It's

00:33:17.340 a seven centimeter cyst. Wow. He says, uh, he says, look, man, we don't know when you dive

00:33:25.380 underwater or you go up to altitude and jump that pressure change could potentially burst the cyst

00:33:31.040 on your heart. He said, so, um, it's never going to cause you a problem. It's a totally asymptomatic

00:33:37.720 where it's rare. We're not going to perform a surgery to take this thing off. Yeah. There

00:33:43.640 no need to do it. That's right. Right. Here's, here's what I'm going to tell you. You're never

00:33:47.900 going to be able to be a seal. You know, I'm sorry. Uh, you can go to the fleet, the regular

00:33:55.020 Navy and, and, you know, have a great career. And I'm like, wow. And you know, everything that I had

00:34:03.580 worked for, I had literally left home. I had told everybody back home, all my redneck buddies,

00:34:09.560 I'm going to be a seal. Of course they all laughed me. They all laughed me out of town.

00:34:13.160 Because they knew who you were.

00:34:14.240 They knew who I was, man. A prophet has no owner in his hometown, right?

00:34:18.800 Yeah, for sure. So, um, yeah, he's, uh, they, they laughed me out of town and I, I've sold every,

00:34:24.980 I had a truck, man. I had this beautiful F-250 truck I had redone and I gave it to all to my

00:34:31.900 brother, left everything, man, in order to achieve this dream. And it was all taken from me. And, and,

00:34:39.220 and just that in one sentence. Right. So that was an interesting twist in my story.

00:34:47.400 Yeah. Hmm. So I say, Hey man, I don't want to go to the fleet. That's not where I set my goals.

00:34:54.180 Right. That's not where I had set my goal. You know? There it is.

00:34:59.180 There's your power. I think we're all right. Yeah.

00:35:02.300 Looks like the cameras are still recording. Yeah.

00:35:05.080 Yeah. When the wind, when the wind here. Yeah.

00:35:07.800 In my, it hasn't been the snow or anything, but when that wind gets kicking up and down's power line,

00:35:12.580 it gets crazy. Well, it's kicking today. Yeah. So let's hope, uh,

00:35:15.800 let's hope it stays. Easy day, man. We'll rock and roll. Yeah. Keep going. Um, anyways. Yeah. So

00:35:21.720 I, I get out of the Navy with an administrative discharge. Basically it was a breach of contract

00:35:28.240 is the way I was able to get out. I go back home. So you got out all to get, you're like,

00:35:32.680 I'm out, man. I'm out. Yeah. Nothing. Cut all ties with the Navy. And they, and, and so it's interesting.

00:35:39.920 There's no issue with that. Like how, because you were qualified to join the fleet, it seems

00:35:45.580 like they'd say, no, no, no, you're going to stay and finish out your contract with us.

00:35:48.760 Well, it was because they had breached the contract that I had with them.

00:35:53.400 Which was the, the seal contract. Got it. Okay.

00:35:55.980 That's right. Got it.

00:35:56.840 Yep. And they created that seal contract in order to get more people to, you know, at least

00:36:02.200 try. To go through the program.

00:36:03.500 Yeah. To go through the program.

00:36:04.440 Or the track, I guess you'd say. Right. Okay. So yeah, I come back home, back into that small

00:36:10.280 town that I had just left, you know, whatever, three, four minutes earlier with my hat in

00:36:16.560 my hand. Everybody, of course, is like, oh, he didn't make it.

00:36:21.460 I knew, I knew that was going to be the case.

00:36:23.280 I'm like, man, I actually have this cyst on my heart. They're like, yeah, right, dude.

00:36:27.080 Nobody wants to freaking hear that, dude. Nobody quits buds. Nobody, everybody gets an injury.

00:36:32.780 Right. I don't think I've ever met maybe one or two people that actually said, yeah, man,

00:36:37.340 I just quit. They're all medically disqualified.

00:36:39.360 Oh, man. All of them, dude. I know. It's funny.

00:36:41.780 So, of course, that's what everybody's saying about me. And that's tough. I don't have anything.

00:36:46.400 My dad loans me an old 19, early, like early 80s model Ford Ranger that literally-

00:36:53.320 Your brother's still driving your truck around.

00:36:54.800 Yeah, my brother's driving my nice truck. I can't be an Indian giver, man. And so this thing

00:37:00.880 leaks every freaking fluid. I put more oil in this thing than I put gasoline in it. And

00:37:05.940 so that's what I have to work with. I show up and I think I had $800 in my bank account

00:37:13.400 is what, you know, because in boot camp, they pay you and you don't use any of it.

00:37:18.220 Sure, yeah.

00:37:18.560 Had $800 come home. But the interesting thing, and I don't know if this is ignorance or just

00:37:28.120 being young or what it is, but I never gave up on that dream to become a SEAL. Like, even

00:37:39.380 though they told me no, I was like, no, I'm going to find a way to do this.

00:37:44.380 I'm going to find some way to get this freaking thing off my heart and then at least re-engage

00:37:51.520 the Navy and see if then they'll let me back in.

00:37:54.640 Right, sure.

00:37:55.180 So I go around the Atlanta area. I have appointments, a few appointments with some of the leading

00:38:02.540 heart surgeons in that area because it is a rare condition. And these surgeons, dude,

00:38:08.780 I'm a 19-year-old kid wanting to have an elective surgery to remove a cyst that is asymptomatic.

00:38:17.180 They don't want to do that.

00:38:18.840 They don't want to do it, man.

00:38:20.020 Yeah, of course.

00:38:20.620 And I finally find a guy that will do it, Dr. Cooper. Dr. Cooper was in the Army. He was

00:38:28.700 a reservist. He understood I wanted to go serve my country. So he lets me lay on the operating

00:38:36.180 table. He cuts my chest open, removes the cyst from my heart, and yeah.

00:38:45.320 Did you know that if you had that procedure done and everything was successful, did you

00:38:49.620 know at that point whether or not the Navy would take you back into the SEAL track?

00:38:55.760 No. The most likely outcome was that they would not take me back in.

00:39:01.880 That's what I thought. He said open heart surgery. No, we're not doing that.

00:39:05.580 Exactly, man. So yeah, it was a total gamble for me to go and have this surgery. But I did

00:39:12.640 it anyways because, again, I mean, I was all in, brother. There was really no other option

00:39:20.240 for me on the table. And I took quitting off the table, right? I mean, even at that young

00:39:26.180 age. Yeah. And so I re-engaged the Navy and they say, you know, of course, I have official

00:39:35.460 paperwork from my civilian surgeon and re-engaged the Navy. And they say, okay, well, we'll let

00:39:41.000 you back in the Navy, but we're not sure that we're going to let you go to SEAL training.

00:39:46.640 But you can come back in. We're going to put you on hold until we review all of this information.

00:39:53.700 So when you say they put you on hold, so did you go back through boot camp?

00:39:57.320 Nope. So because I made it to the last day, they didn't make me go back to boot camp. So

00:40:01.100 I basically flew back out to Great Lakes. I was active duty again at that point as a Navy

00:40:08.280 veteran. And they put me in open bay barracks and just said, hang out, hang out. We'll hit

00:40:14.320 you up when you can proceed. And I think that took probably, gosh, three months, three, four

00:40:24.780 months. I mean, it felt like three or four years, you know, sitting in there just doing

00:40:29.840 that. And they're finally like, the surgeon, when I came back in, I had gotten out, had the

00:40:37.680 heart surgery and came back in. And when I came back in, the same guy that had disqualified

00:40:42.780 me was still the DMO there. Yeah, the medical officer. So, I mean, I think that he really

00:40:51.520 understood and appreciated what I had done.

00:40:55.240 And how bad you wanted it.

00:40:56.180 The gamble I had to, how bad I wanted it, the investment that I made. I didn't have

00:41:01.480 freaking insurance, man. I had to pay for this surgery.

00:41:05.240 How'd you pay for it?

00:41:06.020 Yeah. We took up donations. My parents helped me. Now, this is really cool. Just a quick

00:41:15.000 side note. The surgeon, Dr. Cooper, actually did his portion of the surgery for free.

00:41:20.800 Oh, really?

00:41:21.500 But he didn't tell us that until the surgery was over.

00:41:24.200 Dang.

00:41:24.680 He just like-

00:41:25.420 Why did he do that?

00:41:26.800 I think because he, I mean, he just, he knew I wanted to go serve my country.

00:41:30.740 It sounds like that same vein of, he just saw something in you and is like, hey, I'm leaving

00:41:36.620 this kid.

00:41:37.460 That's it, brother.

00:41:37.660 That's it, man.

00:41:38.160 That's interesting.

00:41:39.200 So, but the, we still have the hospital bills, you know, which stack up.

00:41:43.340 Yeah, you don't know. You're like, okay, the procedure is this much. And you think, well,

00:41:46.140 that's it. No, no, no. That's that much for that part of the procedure or that individual.

00:41:50.880 But then you have anesthesia and you have the hospital say, and you have this and you have

00:41:53.680 that. And that's completely separate.

00:41:54.880 Yeah. Yeah, man. So we were able to get it paid for. Come back in. This guy, he reviews

00:42:00.280 the case. And I'd like to say, I think he really appreciated the, just the tenacity that

00:42:05.520 I had to achieve my goals.

00:42:07.420 Definitely.

00:42:07.920 And he sent it all the way up the chain of command, all the way to the top of the Navy.

00:42:14.320 Like this went out even outside of Naval Special Warfare community. And everybody got their

00:42:19.560 hands on it. They actually wrote a whole article on it, a four or five page medical journal

00:42:23.800 on my case specifically, because I was the only Naval Special Warfare candidate that had

00:42:27.880 ever been diagnosed with a pericardial cyst, had the operation and then returned and came

00:42:34.260 back. So that's all out there online. If you just Google Navy SEAL pericardial cyst, you can

00:42:39.020 read it if you're interested in medical stuff.

00:42:40.600 Do you know if there's been other, I wonder if there's been other guys that have gone through

00:42:44.520 now because you kind of paved that path a little bit.

00:42:46.620 You know, I don't know. No one's reached out to me.

00:42:49.360 Yeah. I mean, maybe a different circumstance and maybe it wasn't your exact thing, but they

00:42:53.300 thought, well, okay, you know, this guy went through and he had a successful career with us

00:42:57.580 and maybe we ought to revisit this.

00:42:59.200 Yeah. Yeah. Maybe so, man. But yeah, they blessed me off, man.

00:43:04.940 That's what they have to do?

00:43:05.860 Yeah. They blessed me off, signed my paperwork. And so after this entire freaking process,

00:43:13.860 and this is the thing right here, I'm writing about this right now.

00:43:16.920 Yeah.

00:43:17.140 If you can understand, if you're listening to this podcast right now, that tells me that

00:43:24.540 you haven't given up.

00:43:25.700 Sure. Of course.

00:43:26.280 If you're listening to this podcast, it tells me something about you. It tells me that you're

00:43:31.000 setting aside time out of your day in order to hopefully learn something new that's going

00:43:37.080 to improve you or your circumstance. So that tells me that you have not quit yet.

00:43:42.420 If you have not quit, I want you to understand something. If you are not where you want to

00:43:51.220 be, you are in the midst of a process that has been designed in order to make you or form

00:44:03.140 you or forge you into the person that you have been created to be. All right. And that's what

00:44:10.520 this process was for me. What do you mean by designed?

00:44:13.380 This process. Now, I'm a Christian, guys. All right. So I view everything from the lens of

00:44:23.220 my creator. I believe that God has created me for a specific purpose, to serve a specific purpose

00:44:34.320 purpose within the body of Christ. All right. Now, that's the way I view it. Right. So in other

00:44:40.740 words, my creator has designed this process that I'm enduring in life. Right. In order to forge me

00:44:48.860 into the person that he created me to be. Gentlemen, let me hit the pause button real quick on the

00:44:54.980 conversation between me and Chad. Instinctively, we as men know that we need a brotherhood,

00:45:00.180 but for so many reasons, we fail to foster brotherhood in our lives. We're busy.

00:45:04.840 We have our own things that we've got going on. We have ambitions, but we're also arrogant,

00:45:09.400 right? And we think that we can figure it out all on our own. And maybe we can to a degree,

00:45:14.040 but that doesn't mean that we can't be served by having a band of brothers, strong, motivated,

00:45:21.320 committed men in our corners that will help us see things through to the end, like we're talking

00:45:27.080 about in this week's podcast. So if you're ready to supercharge your results in your life, fitness,

00:45:31.920 finances, your family, your business, your community, whatever objectives you have,

00:45:36.760 regardless of the results that you may be experiencing right now, consider getting 800

00:45:41.800 plus men in your personal corner. These guys believe in themselves. They believe in you and so

00:45:47.820 much so that they're willing to hold your feet to the fire and becoming the best man that you can be,

00:45:52.860 which is why you're listening to this podcast. So you can learn more and you can join us

00:45:56.260 at order of man.com slash iron council. Again, that's order of man.com slash iron council.

00:46:02.100 Do that after the conversation for now, I'll get back to it with Chad.

00:46:07.540 So, so let, so let me ask you, cause I'm Christian as well, but let me ask you this. So,

00:46:11.740 because you have a say in the matter too, right? If this is the process, you have a say,

00:46:16.460 whether or not you go this path or that path or whatever else, whatever path you go down,

00:46:20.620 right? That's, that's free will. That's right. That's right. So is exercising your free will,

00:46:25.840 part of your design or not? Is the path that you will go down part of your will or not?

00:46:32.680 Okay. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, I do. Well, for me, for me, when I'm, when I was,

00:46:39.240 when I'm enduring this process, right? This process that I've just kind of walked you guys

00:46:43.920 through, this is just a portion of the process that I've endured up to this point.

00:46:47.340 Um, so for me, when I'm in the midst of that process, yes, I have, I have that free will,

00:46:55.420 right? I can quit at any time or I can, I can intentionally deviate. You can do a thousand

00:47:01.340 different things. But there was never a time for me that I didn't know in my heart what the,

00:47:08.460 the actual process actually was. I always felt it. I always felt like I knew what the right direction

00:47:16.400 was. All right. I, and, and for me, it's, it's not, I wasn't even a Christian at that time. Um,

00:47:24.260 it was just, it was just a overwhelming desire to go in this specific direction, right? Like almost

00:47:35.320 like, woe is me if I don't go in this direction. Man, I, I can complete, I've felt that. And I felt

00:47:43.080 you say, whoa, I, the, the word that I've used, I think the feeling is probably very much the same

00:47:49.820 is shame on me. Shame on me. Like I felt something and I'm like, shame on me. If I don't do that,

00:47:56.400 even if I don't try it, shame on me for not doing that. What a slap in the face. If I don't go

00:48:02.400 forward with that. You're right, brother. And you, you know, just to diverge just for a second on this

00:48:07.480 whole free will conversation that we all have as human beings. Yes, you can diverge from that process

00:48:13.640 and you can cheat yourself out of that process. Most of the time, the reason people cheat themselves

00:48:19.360 out of the process and they never become the person that they were created to be most of the

00:48:23.880 time. That's because they are not patient enough to endure the process, right? So patience is the

00:48:29.260 main key, um, in order to, to become the person that you were created to be. We talk about free

00:48:35.320 will. If you want to ask me, Chad, you believe in God. Why in the world would God give his creation

00:48:43.640 free will? Why? Well, here's the thing, man. I feel like, uh, look, I put things in simple terms.

00:48:51.540 God created us as, and look, man, if you don't believe in God, I don't freaking care. Like I'm

00:48:58.540 not trying to convince you of anything right now. Like don't, don't, you know, leave your,

00:49:03.760 leave your comments to yourself, man. I'm not trying to convince you of anything.

00:49:08.100 I think most of the people, I'll say this. I mean, there's always going to be that,

00:49:10.900 right? But I think most of the people who listen to this podcast are, are intelligent enough to say,

00:49:17.200 or at least think, okay, well, I don't believe in God. Uh, but you know what? I can learn something

00:49:23.520 from the principles of the Bible work. That's what I'm saying. All right. So free will,

00:49:28.920 God created us for the same reason that we own dogs. The same reason you own dogs. Why do you own

00:49:35.200 dogs? Why do I own dogs? Because I enjoy the companionship, right? God wanted companionship.

00:49:40.900 Companionship is essentially the reason he created us. He wanted to be in companionship with us. So if

00:49:46.360 you feel like you're not fulfilling your purpose as a Christian, uh, just get in companionship with

00:49:51.520 God, man. And he's satisfied with you. You know, that's why he created you. Now, how much fun is it to

00:49:58.760 have companionship with some creature that has no choice of whether they love you or not? If you create,

00:50:05.920 if you created something to be your companion and you created it in a way that it's only choice

00:50:11.760 was to love you and do as you said, there's no fun. There's no satisfaction in that to slavery or

00:50:18.880 tyranny or dictatorship. That's exactly right, man. Sure. Of course. So that's, that's my explanation of,

00:50:22.920 of free will. Um, but yeah, back to the process. I had endured this process, right? They finally

00:50:29.800 blessed me off. I get finally to just, just toe the line at a race called buds where 95% of people

00:50:39.920 quit anyways. Right. You know what I mean? And, um, I made it through all of buds in one shot,

00:50:48.500 never failed a single evolution was never rolled was that's gotta be a very small percentage of

00:50:54.740 people who actually do that. Cause, cause the, with the guys that I've talked with, you know,

00:50:58.780 mostly it comes down to injury and they get rolled back and they have to come back through two,

00:51:02.880 three times, whatever it may be. Does it come down to injury or does it come down to lack of

00:51:06.840 preparation or lack of being deliberate? I mean, I'm sure there's a, I'm sure it's, I'm sure it's a

00:51:11.980 combination. Look at the, look at the root of it. The reason that I didn't get rolled because of

00:51:16.860 injury, the reason that I didn't get rolled because of performance is because I was prepared and I was

00:51:21.940 deliberate. See, everything falls back. You, you can, if you get injured, it's likely because

00:51:28.120 you weren't, you didn't prepare your body physically or you weren't deliberate. But how does that

00:51:32.600 contrast with the first story you told me about being on this hunter miler and being prepared and

00:51:37.720 knowing and still having the gut issues? Yeah. Now, now there are, there are certain cases in SEAL

00:51:44.800 training without a doubt where the result changes because of something like the gut issue,

00:51:51.940 something that's completely out of your control. But I can't tell you how many guys that I saw in

00:51:57.160 SEAL training, probably the majority of people that get rolled or dropped from SEAL training.

00:52:04.020 It wasn't because of something that was out of their control. Right. It was an injury or an illness or

00:52:10.520 whatever. But it was, you're saying lack of preparation. It was lack of preparation. It was

00:52:14.700 not being deliberate with their, with their actions, their, their movements. Being, uh, being

00:52:20.480 loose, flippant, casual about it. What do you mean by that? When you're, okay. When you're on the

00:52:24.760 obstacle course in Buds, they have a freaking tower. You have to climb up to the top platform of this

00:52:30.440 tower and they have a rope that comes down. It's called the slide for life. Right. Guys, get up there.

00:52:35.520 Instead of taking a few breaths, let me think about how I'm going to just approach this obstacle.

00:52:42.580 Let me, let me take a pregnant pause here. Right. They just get freaking in a hurry. They just get,

00:52:47.940 yeah, they just get lackadaisical and they end up falling off of this daggone rope and sand darting

00:52:52.920 and shattering their pelvis. Right. Well, sand darting. What's the root cause of this? Right. Yeah.

00:52:58.600 You can say, oh yeah, I fell off the slide for life and I got injured. Or you can say, you know what?

00:53:03.420 I should have, I should have practiced my patience. I should have stayed present. I should have been

00:53:07.700 deliberate when I was up there because I knew that that was a high risk moment within this obstacle

00:53:13.240 course. Right. And I could have prevented that. Okay. So I've always had a, there's a lot of,

00:53:20.120 there's a lot, uh, there's a few specific influencers out there right now that brag on the fact that

00:53:25.040 they've been through hell week four times. Uh, that, what, why, why would you brag on that? They're just

00:53:30.680 telling me you're, you're a turd, man. Like you had to go, you had, you had, it took you four times to

00:53:37.200 make it through this training. Like, so you got a vacation. Yeah. You got to go through it. Then

00:53:43.240 you had a little vacation. Then you got to come back fresh, try to go through it again. Then you

00:53:48.340 had to do another little break. Look, man, this is a whole not, dude, I'm, I'm, I get fired up about

00:53:54.360 this crap, right? I can hear it. Um, but I had endured the process. I was prepared. I knew how

00:54:00.840 to be patient from a young age. Patience was forged in me through hunting. Yeah. True. Good point.

00:54:07.160 Yeah. And so I had these elements that were forged in me at a young age, went through this process,

00:54:12.740 got on the start line, went all the way through with no issues because I had patience and endured

00:54:18.380 the process. If I would have, I'm telling you all this to tell you, if I would have went to SEAL

00:54:24.340 training on the first try without enduring that process of the heart surgery, being told no,

00:54:31.000 all this crap, I don't think I would have made it through SEAL training. I don't think I would

00:54:35.820 have made it through. Because you weren't as, because you hadn't hardened yourself yet? I wanted it,

00:54:42.760 but I didn't want it bad enough. Not yet. Yeah. It was, it was through the process of being

00:54:48.160 told no, that really, that, that made me so freaking hungry to have this, man.

00:54:54.640 So do you think, it just goes back to, as we were talking about God earlier, do you think God said,

00:55:00.580 and, and I'm not saying this like, like an arrogant way, so take it with a grain of salt, but

00:55:03.960 do you think he said, oh yeah, let's see how bad you actually want it and put those things in front

00:55:09.660 of you? No, I think that he knew that I, that I wouldn't become a SEAL unless he walked me through

00:55:16.140 that process. And I think that's why he took me through it. And I think he took me through it

00:55:19.700 because, um, look, man, I'll be totally, I'll be totally honest with you. I wasn't a SEAL to,

00:55:26.620 I, I, the purpose of me becoming a SEAL wasn't to do the things that I did on deployment. It, it was

00:55:33.960 to, uh, it's, I'm, I'm just now figuring out why I became a SEAL. I became a SEAL because now I can go

00:55:42.820 places that other people can't go. I can go places and share my testimony and share the gospel

00:55:50.980 that other people can't go because I have that title, right? It, it, it's given me this credibility

00:55:57.600 as a, as a Christian, as a servant of God. He took me, he, he allowed me to become that because he knew

00:56:05.960 what he wanted me to do later on when I finally did get in companionship with him. Um, I know this

00:56:13.280 is deep stuff, guys. I'm just telling you, you look back on, I can, I can now look back on it.

00:56:19.020 I have some perspective now in the midst of that journey, when I did become a SEAL, I thought,

00:56:25.020 well, only reason I'm a SEAL is to defend my country and to freaking do cool stuff and kill people.

00:56:31.060 I mean, that, that's, I thought that was the only purpose of it. I had no clue I would be sitting

00:56:36.500 here with freaking Ryan Mickler on the Order of Man podcast. I had, didn't he, I didn't know what

00:56:42.900 Instagram was until a year and a half ago. I didn't know any of this stuff was coming, man. I didn't know

00:56:48.500 that this was God's purpose for my life. I mean, I really feel like I'm fulfilling his purpose.

00:56:55.320 I feel like I have now become who I was truly created to be, at least in this season, right?

00:57:04.500 Do you feel, do you have any sort of, uh, conflict in your mind about your role as a SEAL and the work

00:57:11.740 that you did and your faith? You know, I, I've, I, that's never been conflicting for me. And, and,

00:57:19.080 you know, I, I, I, I'll back it up with the gospel. The gospel or the, the Bible tells us that love

00:57:25.840 always protects, love always protects. So, um, it's, it's extremely easy for me to switch into a

00:57:35.200 mindset or a mode where I am capable of extreme violence against evil in order to protect the

00:57:43.340 things that I love. Do you ever have to raise, sorry, I've got so many questions. Do you ever

00:57:48.000 have to, do you ever have to reign that in? Like that, that capability of going to that place,

00:57:54.780 does that ever seep through in an inappropriate way for you? All the time. How do you deal with that?

00:58:02.520 It seems, I have, I have men and women around me that keep me in check, right? So I'm, I'm like,

00:58:09.760 dude, I'm like a pit bull, man. And, uh, if you, if, if you want to get the job done,

00:58:18.280 take me off the leash, right? When, when crap gets rough, I live by a mantra, be hard when it gets

00:58:23.500 hard. When it gets hard, man, cut me off the leash. I'm, I'm going full bore. My little brother

00:58:29.020 the other day on the podcast, he just, he described me when we were kids, we used to tie these, um,

00:58:33.860 these little, uh, bugs that we have in the South. They're called June bugs or Japanese beetles,

00:58:38.900 right? When we were kids, we used to tie little strings to their legs and we would fly them

00:58:43.320 around. Right. And they, boy, they were just getting it, you know, trying to get away. And

00:58:47.760 Blake's like, yeah, Blake, my little brother and a few other men and women are like the ones that

00:58:53.200 hold that string. And I'm the June bug that's out there. I like the dude that's holding the leash

00:58:57.720 on the pit bull, you know? So they reigned me in man. Um, and even on my podcast, you know,

00:59:03.420 there's a lot of times that, that I want to get on and I want to satisfy my own emotions and my own

00:59:10.860 feelings about things that are going on in our country right now. Um, social, political, moral,

00:59:17.380 ethical issues. Right. Um, and I want to get on in my go-to is just a freaking hammer, dude.

00:59:24.000 Sure. It's just a drop the hammer. Sometimes that's not, that that's not appropriate. Right.

00:59:29.680 And I have those people around me. I've released a podcast episode before and my brothers approached

00:59:34.380 me a few hours later and be like, Hey man, you need to freaking take that down, man. Like you need

00:59:38.860 to, you, you need to come at that topic from a more, and I know this sounds, uh, but whatever,

00:59:46.820 take it how you want from a more loving and understanding perspective. Right. Because the

00:59:51.460 way you came at it, it's going to resonate with some people, but some people it's just going to turn

00:59:57.200 them off. Now I'm not saying I'm trying to make everybody happy. Right. But I, everything that I

01:00:02.800 say needs to be, I need to be able to back it up script scripturally. I think that the Bible is the

01:00:09.140 ultimate authority and I can get outside the parameters of that ultimate authority. A lot of

01:00:14.440 times when I lean on my own emotions and my own feelings about whatever's going on. So I do have

01:00:20.980 people around me that will reign me in, man. Yeah, that's good. I can, I can certainly appreciate and

01:00:26.360 understand where you're coming from because, uh, I, I tend to be somebody who sees things pretty,

01:00:32.280 pretty clearly. At least I can see it clearly. Other people might think he's not thinking clearly,

01:00:37.500 but I see it as clear as day. And then I share it and I'm so black and white that I end up in a lot

01:00:45.140 of instances, leaving a wake of collateral damage in my path because I shared it as black as the way I

01:00:51.240 sought in my mind. And again, it's not to appease people. It's not to make them feel comfortable.

01:00:57.220 It's just, there's opportunities for us to share an important message, whether it's a message of

01:01:02.960 Christianity or a message of being a better man or whatever the message is. If you do it in a way

01:01:08.920 that people can receive it. There you go. There you go. I mean, yeah, you're pretty much wasting your

01:01:14.260 breath if you're not. I mean, but this is where that's like zero F's mentality. And like,

01:01:19.200 I don't care what anybody else thinks. I'm like, bro, like I understand, but like,

01:01:23.960 you know, that, that, so that's the, um, that, that's the, that's the biggest message out there

01:01:29.120 right now. Right. Stay hard. Right. That's the biggest message that's out there right now.

01:01:33.920 You know why that message resonates with so many people? Because it appeals to reliance on self.

01:01:42.440 It appeals to your humanistic desire to rely upon yourself. Right. Um, you know, if you think

01:01:54.160 that you can just build this wall between you and the world around you and that you can become

01:02:02.580 untouchable and that you can just be hard all the time and that nothing can hurt you. If you do that,

01:02:09.900 go ahead, do it. Go ahead. You're going to be freaking miserable, man. And you are eventually

01:02:16.560 going to collapse. The collapse is coming, right? If you think you can do that, you know what you're

01:02:21.920 doing when you do that? You're not only appealing to your, your humanistic side dependence on self,

01:02:29.380 but, um, you know, you're, you're, so you're not only appealing to that, but I lost my train of thought

01:02:38.020 anyways. Yeah. It's not sustainable. It's not sustainable. All right. Uh, you, oh, you're thinking

01:02:44.860 like an individual, right? That's what you're doing. You're thinking like an individual that, and the

01:02:49.620 people that are propagating these messages are individuals. They were individuals in their former

01:02:54.000 lives and they're individualistic. Now, um, you go ahead, continue to think like an individual

01:03:00.020 and life will continue to drag your freaking dick through the dirt, son. As long as you keep

01:03:07.720 that mindset, you're going to keep getting drug through the freaking mud and you can act like you

01:03:14.460 like it all you want. Act like you like it all you want. I know the freaking truth. You know how I know

01:03:20.540 the truth. I'm going to, I'm going to look at other aspects of you. I'm going to look at what is your

01:03:26.100 family life like? Yeah. What is your marriage like? By their fruits, you shall know thee. Well, yeah.

01:03:30.580 What is your language like? What, you know, I'm not, you know, it's simple for me. You can tell me

01:03:37.060 how much you like it all day long. And I'm going to say, what are the fruits that are being produced

01:03:42.360 out of this lifestyle? It's unsustainable. It's, it's freaking ridiculous. You know, the other thing too,

01:03:49.220 that, that I've, I've, and I think this has just come with a level of maturity and introspection

01:03:53.660 is I just, it's better with other people. You know, it's better when you're serving other people.

01:04:01.780 It's, I'm saying life is better. It's better when you have something that you can offer that's

01:04:08.260 valuable that will help somebody who's going through a difficult time or has a challenge or

01:04:13.500 wants to overcome or wants to improve their life. And you get to be a valuable resource in that

01:04:20.520 individual's life because you're not driven by ego. You're driven more through humility and learning

01:04:26.840 and being gracious. It's just better. It's better. Life is better. You're exactly right, man. Life is

01:04:34.260 better. And, um, and it's, it's definitely more sustainable and you are actually stronger when you

01:04:40.560 think like an individual and you think that I'm just going to build this wall between me and anybody

01:04:45.720 else and I'm going to rely on self. Um, you know, you're, you're limiting your capacity to what is

01:04:54.520 within you. Well, I, I have the combined strength, knowledge, and input of three or four men within, and

01:05:03.860 women within my inner circle, I have that combined strength and input. These people are surrounding

01:05:10.840 me, pouring into me as I pour back into them. And it's a combined strength, right? The, uh, a cord of

01:05:17.080 three strands is not easily broken, right? This is simple freaking crap, man. You, but people will

01:05:23.920 believe in anything that appeals to self. That's us as humans. Yeah. We want to, we want to feel like

01:05:33.000 we're in control, right? Where is in reality, you are pretty weak and fallible. I don't care what

01:05:42.420 kind of wall you put up. You are pretty weak and fallible, especially when you're trying to stand

01:05:46.620 alone. You're very vulnerable. Um, and, and, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people that put up

01:05:53.680 that wall are also stuck in that victim mindset, right? Here's the thing. If you think everything in

01:06:00.400 the world is against you and you're having to put up this wall, that just tells me that you think

01:06:06.920 you're a freaking victim, man. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, no, dude. Life is life, man.

01:06:13.340 You're not a freaking victim, man. You know, the victim mindset propagates that reliance on self.

01:06:21.420 Yeah. And, and, and it's, well, yeah, also, but also it, the victim mindset

01:06:27.240 is contingent upon reliance on others too, though. And what I mean by that is if you think

01:06:34.100 you're a victim or you're owed something, then it's somebody else's responsibility to fix your life,

01:06:41.720 to do things for you that you should be doing yourself because somebody took advantage of you

01:06:48.200 or exploited you or whatever. And so now you're waiting for somebody else to do things you should

01:06:54.540 be doing for yourself. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you do have victims that, that do that. Right. Um,

01:07:01.060 but then you have the other, the other type, which, which we, which, what we were talking about,

01:07:05.140 you have the other type of victim that thinks everything is, has been unfair. So they just

01:07:10.000 build a wall between themselves and everyone else. Right. They shut, they shut down. Yeah. Yeah.

01:07:14.940 I actually see this a lot, even in the men's movement, you know, guys who, who, who think

01:07:19.440 society is just out to get them and women are the devil and everything else. And, and so they,

01:07:25.620 they shut themselves off and they look at anybody and everybody else as the enemy. And it's like,

01:07:34.360 man, that's not productive. Like in the, in, in, in the space in which I work, that's like the,

01:07:40.420 the, the, the equivalent, the male equivalent of, you know, third wave feminism, which is society

01:07:46.480 hates everybody. We're on our own, everybody else. And anything that threatens this is the enemy of

01:07:52.580 us. And I, I haven't found that to be true. No. And yeah, let me address that real quick, man.

01:07:58.160 This is a overwhelmingly large men's audience. If you are not taking input, uh, from your women,

01:08:07.460 the women that are in your life. And if you're not allowing them to lead in places that they're

01:08:11.680 designed to lead in, you are cheating yourself because these women are so freaking strong.

01:08:18.520 And in a lot of cases, smart, um, on so many levels, you are cheating yourself, your family,

01:08:25.020 or your team out of some, uh, some significant advancement. Right. I train, I, I, I train people,

01:08:32.220 um, out in the wilderness. That's what we do. And, and I would say just about, I would say

01:08:39.660 30 to 40% of the men I train start out as pussies. I've never had a woman that acted that way.

01:08:51.440 They are 100% squared away. A 100% of the women that I have trained have been squared away.

01:08:58.840 Do you think that's, that's the, because of the nature of men and women, or do you think that's

01:09:03.240 because the nature of the women who would actually be interested in what you're doing?

01:09:06.920 I've thought about that. I don't know. I don't know. You know, maybe, maybe it is because the

01:09:12.220 women that do come and filtering process. Yeah. The women that do have the courage to apply

01:09:17.500 because the way that we run our training events is you have to send me an email with your five W's.

01:09:22.460 I get, I get hundreds of these applications. I review each application and I select 18 members

01:09:30.040 to come out on this mission that we call the basic course. We do one a month. Um, so it's a

01:09:35.620 very intimate process. And I don't tell these people anything about the mission. They, there's no website.

01:09:42.280 There is no click here to register. There is no, this is what's day one, day two, day three. No,

01:09:49.020 there's none of that. This is, it's literally send me your application. This is, and if I select

01:09:55.660 you, this is where you need to be. This is what you need to have. This is when we will be finished.

01:10:02.220 And that's all you get, man. Wow. Yeah. How many people, uh, like what's your completion or your

01:10:08.500 success rate with a, with a weekend like that on average? Is it a weekend? Yeah. It's a, so it's a,

01:10:14.900 the basic course, which is, uh, is the product we're talking about or the experience we're

01:10:19.340 talking about. The basic course is, um, three days, two nights in the wilderness. Um, you're

01:10:25.440 out in the wilderness the entire time. The entire time. Yeah. So we're teaching, you know, this,

01:10:30.180 this course of instruction has everything from the hard skills, uh, you know, shelter, filtering

01:10:37.100 water, a little bit of survival stuff, a little bit of bushcraft stuff, but all the way through it

01:10:42.100 has, uh, it has instilled in it, which is for me, the more important principles than

01:10:47.200 the hard skills, which is leadership, teamwork, um, in a real sense. Right. I mean, we, we,

01:10:54.140 when we go out there and I don't want to give too much away about the mission, but when we

01:10:57.220 go out there the first day, I'm your instructor. The second day I'm your lane grader, right?

01:11:04.320 So you get a lot put on you in a short amount of time within a group of strangers. And if you

01:11:12.820 don't get again out of that individualistic mindset, if you don't start functioning as a team,

01:11:19.900 applying these skills and principles that we teach, both hard skills and mindset skills,

01:11:25.500 you will be hurting, son. And you'll hurt other people.

01:11:30.160 Oh yeah. The whole team will suffer. The whole team will suffer. So, you know, we, we've had,

01:11:35.920 uh, I think we've only had one person that we had to extract. Um, we've had a few people that have

01:11:41.920 called for extract and we didn't allow it to happen. You're not doing it. Yeah. So the goal is to get

01:11:46.660 people through. I mean, that's, Oh yeah. Yeah. This is, this is not a go out, a go out and, and beat you

01:11:53.180 down. This is develop, this is developing you not only as a, a woodsman, an outdoorsman or woman,

01:12:02.420 this is also developing you as a human being, as a father, a husband, a wife, a business owner.

01:12:09.560 Those are the more valuable aspects of the trip, in my opinion.

01:12:12.720 Yeah. I mean, the odds of you having to survive out in the wilderness are significantly less than

01:12:17.180 having to communicate effectively with your children.

01:12:19.920 Exactly, man. I mean, I'll show you, I'll show you how to set a freaking, a snare, but I mean,

01:12:25.760 that's just a, that's a, that's a, what do they call it? Like a nostalgic thing. That's all it is.

01:12:30.920 It's just like, I can do a, cool. Like when are you ever going to use that? Yeah, you might,

01:12:34.120 but you know, you're going to have a conversation with your kids tonight. You're going to try to sell

01:12:37.920 a client on why they should work with you. If you're out setting snares, a lot of stuff has went

01:12:42.600 wrong and you ran out of ammo and everything else. You know what I mean? That's right.

01:12:46.920 So it's a, it's a real blessing. And of course we tie the spiritual aspects of, of life into

01:12:52.320 everything. When you get people out in a wilderness environment where essentially no one's coming

01:12:57.200 to get you, you know, we are deep, deep, deep in this, in the back country and you can't

01:13:03.600 quit. You can't quit. Yeah. Period. And, and it also strips everything away. I don't care.

01:13:10.740 Man, we've had people out there that are millionaires. We've had people out there that,

01:13:14.200 that work construction. We've had all types. It doesn't matter who you are. Doesn't matter

01:13:19.580 how many freaking followers you have on Instagram. It doesn't matter how big your business is.

01:13:24.400 You get out there with me and all that crap gets stripped away. Yeah. Everything. It gets stripped

01:13:30.500 away by the mountain. Right. I don't have to strip it from you. The mountain will take it all

01:13:34.580 from you. Yeah. And then, and then you start off from, from the base. There's no cell phone

01:13:40.420 service. There's no outside input. It's you and your team and that's it. You know? And,

01:13:46.280 and again, I think larger companies can't, there, there's nothing. We set the standard for this.

01:13:52.280 One, because it is the best, in my opinion, the best training, this type of training. It is the best

01:13:58.180 that's ever been created because I take it so seriously. I'm a master training specialist. I was

01:14:02.620 a SEAL instructor for about three years, three or four years. So I'm an instructor trained. I take it

01:14:09.240 very seriously. But, but we also set the standard because there's nobody else freaking doing it.

01:14:13.780 Right. I mean, you can go to an outward bound trip or something and go on a backpacking trip and sit

01:14:18.400 around a fire and sing Kumbaya with some freaking 19 year old hippies that are your instructors. That's

01:14:23.720 not what we do. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's a blessing. Yeah. That's the cool thing about

01:14:28.580 an organization like yours is you have the flexibility and the ability to move and, and, and create

01:14:35.120 without having to worry about the, the huge ship that you've got to turn if things aren't

01:14:40.460 right. Oh man. You're right. Like you talked about earlier, the liability issues that come

01:14:44.380 with it, but then the, also the markability, a market ability issues. Like how do we market

01:14:49.420 this? Right. We don't market. That's what I'm saying. That's, that's, that's part of, of advantage.

01:14:54.280 Yeah. Because you don't have to make this video that, that goes viral and everybody will see it.

01:15:00.280 100%. Yeah. It's a, it's a beautiful thing. I think the, I think the only, if you want

01:15:05.940 to say that the disadvantage of it is it's, it's not scalable. I mean, you know, I have

01:15:12.420 visions of training up an instructor cadre at some point that could run a separate course

01:15:18.000 that I wouldn't, I would not have to attend or maybe not have to be there the whole time.

01:15:23.140 And we're trying to work our way out of that. I think that's the biggest struggle that I'm

01:15:27.720 having right now as a business owner is that a lot of the business that we do is based on my

01:15:32.440 personality. And that is, that's, that's, that's not a sustainable business model. We can scale our

01:15:38.940 price, but I don't want to scale the price to the point that a fireman or a police officer or a

01:15:46.240 school teacher can't come to my course. Cause those are the people I want to train. Right.

01:15:50.300 Exactly. They're the ones that are freaking out in the mix, man. You know? So. Well,

01:15:55.600 and the other thing we're just getting started, man. Yeah. And you guys are going to do great,

01:15:59.460 but you know, the other part of, of this scalability issue that you're talking about

01:16:02.780 is if you don't learn how to scale and you immerse yourself and you are the quote unquote

01:16:08.100 personality and that's all there is, it doesn't allow, and I've, and I've done it before and I've

01:16:14.180 been there and I found that it just doesn't allow me to pursue things that I want to pursue

01:16:19.420 outside of this specific lane. You know, like, like the take order man, for example, if,

01:16:24.400 if it's all built around me, nobody else, just me and nobody else is involved, nobody's helping,

01:16:30.060 nobody's supporting. I can't go play with my kids. I can't build a canoe with them. I can't go on

01:16:35.560 vacation. I can't hunt during hunting season. I can't do these other things that are important

01:16:40.000 and meaningful to me because I'm so heavily invested in this thing. And I know it works.

01:16:45.780 I have people in my life, people that you know too, that this is their, this is what they do.

01:16:51.220 And if it works great, but I'm telling you, if you want a broader, wider perspective of life,

01:16:56.620 then yeah, that learning how to step back and scale to a degree or bring others in is such a,

01:17:02.680 that's something I'm learning myself right now. That's something I'm dealing with.

01:17:05.880 Yeah. And, and I think what stops a lot of people from doing that is one pride.

01:17:10.400 I think a lot of people want the attention, right?

01:17:13.800 Yeah. It feels good.

01:17:14.620 They want, see, I don't want it. I mean, I really don't. I mean, it's a, it's like, if I didn't,

01:17:20.680 to be honest with you, Ryan, if I didn't think that I had something to share that would change

01:17:25.680 the lives of at least a few people that listen to this podcast right now, I wouldn't have came and

01:17:31.380 did this. You know what I mean? I believe so much in, in my experiences. Uh, and I believe so much

01:17:39.820 that they will help other people. That's the reason that I come and do this. I don't, uh, that's,

01:17:43.900 that's what I, that's, that's what drives me, right? That in my faith. Um, it sounds like going

01:17:49.020 back to what you said earlier, it sounds like we're getting into that, you know, woe is me if I don't

01:17:54.260 do this. That's it, man. That's it. I mean, I live on a freaking 500 acre ranch in North Georgia,

01:17:58.880 man. I don't want to leave. You don't need to, you don't need to come up to Maine. I don't ever

01:18:03.480 want to leave home. Now that's not to say that it's not an honor to be here with you. It is. It

01:18:07.960 is an honor to be here. I'm just telling you, I'm driven not by pride and attention. I'm driven

01:18:13.820 because I genuinely freaking care. And I know the things that we talk about here today are not

01:18:20.860 theoretical. The things that we talk about here today, like the first thing we talked about,

01:18:25.120 living to a standard and letting the results fall where they may, those things are not

01:18:29.400 theoretical. They, everything that I will talk about, I teach from actual experience, man.

01:18:35.680 And they work, you know what I mean? So pride, I think holds a lot of people up, man. And then

01:18:40.360 I think lack of leadership, man. Um, you know, I think a big part of leadership and there's a couple

01:18:46.220 aspects that I believe in revolving around leadership, but a big part of it is being able to

01:18:51.080 lead and be led. Right. So empowering people around you that you can trust in order to take

01:18:57.080 ownership of whatever you've put them in charge of. Right. And it's, if you don't learn how to lead

01:19:03.440 and be led, then yeah, you are going to be limited to, you know, me, I would be limited to me.

01:19:10.200 That's it. You know, and you can't serve as many people doing that.

01:19:13.060 No, my, my co-instructors, my little brother, my business partner, and my co-instructor, Nathan

01:19:17.820 Hicks. I mean, those guys know they have complete authority and freedom of movement

01:19:21.580 within anything that we do. And, uh, you know, that's just, that's a leadership skill

01:19:26.960 turning that over. And it, and has that been hard for you at points in your life where it's like,

01:19:31.760 I don't, I'm not gonna let this part go. Or have you run across issues where you give,

01:19:36.180 you give them free reign and it doesn't go the way that you want it to?

01:19:39.600 I think that we, I don't, the, the guys that, the guys and girls that I do, that, that do receive

01:19:50.580 that ownership and authority over aspects of, um, a business or, or an experience, they're

01:19:58.100 the right people. I know they're the right people. So they, they have, they haven't failed

01:20:01.920 me. Um, you know, and have I run into aspects where it's hard to give that away? Uh, to be

01:20:11.480 totally honest with you, not that I can think of because I don't, I don't want it. I, I truly,

01:20:17.380 I, I am focused. I'm mission focused. I'm not Chad focused. You know what I mean? So if it

01:20:24.520 furthers the mission, Chad doesn't freaking matter.

01:20:27.380 Yeah.

01:20:27.920 You know what I mean?

01:20:28.660 Yeah.

01:20:29.100 It's so cool to me when we first started running these missions, the basic course, you know,

01:20:34.760 everybody that had come out, they wanted a picture with Chad. They wanted everybody at

01:20:39.040 the end of the mission, Chad, let me get a picture with you this. Now it's, Hey, can

01:20:44.200 we get a picture with our instructors?

01:20:46.480 Which is cool.

01:20:47.520 I see that shift and I'm like, yes, man, this is what I want. This is what we're working

01:20:52.200 toward here.

01:20:52.860 Yeah.

01:20:53.240 You know?

01:20:53.560 I think about that a lot with, with what we're doing is, you know, I never, I never

01:20:58.820 want this to be a position where people feel like they have to be part of this in order

01:21:06.040 to get everything they need for the rest of their life. You know? It's like, you should

01:21:11.460 outgrow me at some point.

01:21:12.820 Yeah.

01:21:13.680 Like at some point, maybe, maybe you've outgrown listening to me, or maybe you don't need to

01:21:19.000 come to every single event because you've been to every one we've done and it's time

01:21:23.460 for you to go do your own events and start your own movement, whatever, whether it's

01:21:28.080 in this space or another space or whatever, like we should be outgrowing each other and

01:21:33.880 then finding new tribes and new places to belong. But I just don't want people to feel

01:21:38.140 like dependent on me to get what they need. I want them to be able to create it for themselves

01:21:42.600 and use this as a footstool or a catalyst for being able to do that.

01:21:45.520 I love that, brother. I mean, that's, that's the way, that is the only way to make a broad

01:21:52.280 impact. And, and look, man, if you would just, if people would just design their business

01:21:57.660 around, um, the way Jesus designed his command structure on earth, right? He had his 12 dudes

01:22:05.620 that he poured into, right? And then he sent them out. He sent them out, man. And they went

01:22:12.380 out and impacted all these communities. And that's just, that's the way it has to work.

01:22:17.160 Right. And we've designed our, even our whole brand three of seven project around, um, around

01:22:24.660 the biblical model. I mean, everybody that comes, everybody that listens to my podcast, I view

01:22:29.540 them as part of the body of three of seven project, just, just as Jesus views all of us

01:22:34.960 his body. Right. So, um, if you listen to our podcast, if you come to one of our, our

01:22:41.220 missions, if you, any, like you have input, like you're almost a, you're almost a, a part

01:22:47.820 owner in it. Like, you, you know, you are going to drive the experiences. You're going to drive

01:22:54.120 the content because it's yours. It's all of ours. Right. You know what I mean? It's a beautiful

01:22:59.020 business model. You know, what, uh, can you explain the three of seven concept? Yeah.

01:23:04.720 Um, it's a, I know it's a funny name. Three, the three is representative of body, soul, and

01:23:10.640 spirit. Seven is the biblical number for completion. So essentially I believe that if you, if you

01:23:16.620 master nourish and maintain both your body, your soul, which is your mind, your will, and

01:23:21.300 your emotions and your spirit, which is your connection to your higher power or God, that

01:23:26.520 that is basically the only way to achieve a complete, wholesome, sustainable life here

01:23:33.480 on earth. Um, if you, if you let one of those aspects of you, uh, if you let one of them

01:23:41.320 just kind of slide to the wayside, right? So I don't care how fit you are and maybe how

01:23:47.740 emotionally strong you are. If you haven't, if you don't have any spiritual connection with

01:23:53.660 your creator, you're not going to be, you're never going to feel complete. Um, likewise,

01:23:59.220 if you are a, if you're a pastor of a church, but you're 300 freaking pounds, I'm not going

01:24:06.900 to listen to you. Yeah. You're not, you, you, I'm sorry. I'm not judging you. I just cannot

01:24:13.600 buy into the fact that you are living a complete and wholesome lifestyle. So, you know, those are

01:24:22.580 things I take into account when I reflect upon myself as I move through my day. What am I doing

01:24:28.720 every day to master, nurse, and maintain my body, physical body, my soul, which is my mind,

01:24:34.180 will, and emotions, and then also my spirit. I got to hit all three of those, right? And I got to

01:24:38.320 keep them in check. And that, I mean, I can tell you just from the, uh, limited personal

01:24:43.000 interaction, you know, you and I have had like this morning, you're like, okay, I'm going to go

01:24:47.680 last night. I'm like, Hey, should we go train jujitsu? You're like, yeah, I mean,

01:24:51.160 I got to do something. So yeah, we're something every single day. So we're going to go train

01:24:54.700 tonight. And then this morning, you're like, Hey, I'm going to go for a quick run and I'm

01:24:58.300 going to read my Bible. Yeah. That's what you said before he left. And so I see like,

01:25:03.820 you're checking these things off, off the box, not just going through the motions, but making

01:25:07.420 sure that you're getting these behaviors in on a daily basis. Yeah. And we're, and we are

01:25:12.180 sharpening the soul aspect of ourselves right now. Sure. That soul, that mindset, that will,

01:25:18.300 what do we want to do? What do we want out of life? The emotional side of us, um, you know,

01:25:25.440 how do we feel about certain things and, and how do, how do we allow our, or how do we train

01:25:32.240 our emotions to serve us, but not lead us? Right. Emotions are beautiful, wonderful servants. They

01:25:38.560 make us who we are. Right. I mean, I have, I have men and women all the time out on, out on my

01:25:44.040 missions that, man, they're just bawling their eyes out, you know, and I'm like, that's great,

01:25:49.100 man. It's time. It's, this is a pro, this is an appropriate time to, uh, to allow those emotions

01:25:55.540 to come to the surface. But when you're in the midst of the, you're in the midst of battle on

01:26:01.020 the battlefield of life, metaphorically, um, those emotions should not be leading you. Your logic,

01:26:07.560 your training, uh, your understanding should be leading you in those moments.

01:26:11.600 So glad you said that. I remember a very small specific example. I, I coached youth sports for,

01:26:17.160 for a long time. I haven't for a little bit. I need to get back into it, but, uh, I was coaching

01:26:21.000 baseball and one of our players got hit in the back with a fastball. I mean, just right in the back

01:26:26.860 and clearly he wasn't injured. Yeah. Stung, but clearly he wasn't injured. And I remember him

01:26:33.380 running to first base and I was the first base coach at the time. And, and I said, how did that feel?

01:26:38.120 And he's like, that hurts. And he was crying. And I said, do you think now's the right time to cry?

01:26:44.580 He's like, I don't know. I'm like, well, what, what, what are we doing? He's like, we're, we're

01:26:48.720 playing baseball. And what is your job to get to second? I said, do you think right now is the

01:26:53.380 appropriate time to cry? And he's like, no, I got to get to second. You're in the game, man.

01:26:57.660 And he stole second base and he looked back at me. He still had a little twinkle, a little

01:27:02.320 in his eye, but he looked back at me and man, he was so proud because he didn't let that part of it

01:27:09.520 get to him to the point where he couldn't function the way that he needed to and contribute and be

01:27:14.460 part of the team in a meaningful way. I'm so glad you did that, Ryan. And you know, this is for me

01:27:20.320 in the SEAL teams, you know, I can't tell you, you know, how, how many, uh, you know, times that,

01:27:26.240 you know, we were in a hairy situation, stressful situation, whatever it may be. And, um, you know,

01:27:32.620 you see, you see guys, even SEALs just, uh, submit to those emotions and not, and I've done it before.

01:27:38.540 Of course. You know, I mean, it's hard. Yeah, it is. And you, you just, you're running around like a

01:27:43.440 chicken with your head cut off and you're not getting anything accomplished. And then you look over in the

01:27:46.960 corner and, um, and there's your chief or your LPO and, uh, they're sitting there on comms talking

01:27:54.840 in a nice, calm, clear, concise voice. Yeah. And, uh, and they're, they're actually making progress

01:28:01.820 because they're not being led by emotion, you know? So it, you know, the dynamic is clear to me.

01:28:08.600 Right. And then there's a time to come back and decompress and do what you have to do and

01:28:12.400 let it out or whatever it is. Exactly, man. Sure. There's a time that's appropriate.

01:28:16.280 That's where they can serve you. Right. Yeah. Right. That's right, man. Well, brother,

01:28:20.480 I think the, uh, I think the power is telling us we better wrap this thing up because it's

01:28:24.260 flickering again. Yeah, man. Yeah. And, uh, also we're going to have some killer lobster today.

01:28:30.280 Dude, I can't wait, brother. I mean, you know, I'm surrounded by all this Jocko discipline. I feel

01:28:36.160 like, dude, I feel like I should go trim my beard or something. Yeah. I don't get a haircut.

01:28:40.760 I wouldn't do that. I, I, I trimmed, I told you I trimmed my beard. It was, it was not as long as

01:28:46.900 yours, but, uh, I did that last year and, uh, I immediately regretted it when I did it and now

01:28:56.480 I actually like it. Yeah. But it took, it took a while. So I'm not telling you to make any rash

01:29:01.180 decisions. In fact, I got a friend, um, his name is Eric Bandholz. He has a rule of thumb. He says

01:29:07.260 for every, how does it go for every month that you've had your beard, you need to wait at least

01:29:13.540 that many days before you contemplate getting rid of it. So you've had it for 24 months, right?

01:29:19.600 Roughly a couple of years. So you need to wait, uh, about 24 days from the time you're thinking

01:29:25.880 about cutting it to actually executing on that. That's, that's, that's his rule of thumb. I don't

01:29:30.840 know if it's true or what, but that is his rule of thumb. All right, brother. Well, I appreciate you.

01:29:35.460 I'm glad you're here. Um, you're staying with me and man, I just love having guys like you over

01:29:40.620 and seeing you interact with my kids and it's good for them, of course, and interacting with my wife.

01:29:44.940 We're going to break bread today. Um, but man, I've, I've been inspired by what you do, which is why I

01:29:50.220 invited you to come. And I'm really, really glad that you did. Well, I'm, I'm pumped brother. No,

01:29:54.120 I appreciate you having me guys or Ryan and everybody listens to this. I mean, um, we just barely

01:30:00.620 got to scratch the surface on some, uh, you know, some, some of the spiritual stuff and,

01:30:05.780 and, uh, and this and that. So, I mean, if you're interested in that, just understand,

01:30:10.980 be confident about your beliefs, be confident about your moral and ethical principles. Be confident,

01:30:18.820 man. Um, believing in creation is actually fricking common sense. We could do a whole podcast on that.

01:30:25.340 But, um, if you want to learn more, go check us out. 307 podcast or 307project.com

01:30:30.940 Right on. Um, is where you guys can go. So thank you so much for trusting me, um, to share with your

01:30:38.300 men and, and your tribe, man. It's a, I really, really take it seriously and it is an extreme

01:30:44.380 honor. Um, so thank you, brother. Awesome. We're going to sync it all up. So you guys know where to

01:30:48.780 go, but follow Chad, connect with me. Thanks again, brother. Appreciate it.

01:30:52.460 Gents. There you go. My conversation with, again, the one and only Chad, right?

01:30:57.980 I, it was, it was incredible to be able to sit down with Chad and have this conversation and hash

01:31:02.640 some of these things out and get some of his ideas. And I'm always just, I'm so fascinated and

01:31:07.580 intrigued by these interesting men who have become so successful in one facet or many facets of life.

01:31:15.740 And I really want to know what makes them tick. And I think you do too. That's why you're listening to

01:31:19.780 this, uh, this podcast. You wouldn't, if you weren't interested in that. So it's my hope that,

01:31:24.480 uh, the conversation served you in some way. Let us know if it did hit chat up on Instagram.

01:31:28.560 I think he's most active there. I'm most active on Instagram and also Twitter, uh, both at Brian

01:31:33.760 Mickler. So hit me up there, take a screenshot, wherever you're listening. If you're doing it on

01:31:37.820 Spotify or Pandora or Apple podcasts or wherever, wherever you're listening to this podcast, take a

01:31:44.580 screenshot, throw it up on a Instagram, on your feed or stories, tag Chad, tag myself, let everybody

01:31:50.580 else know what you're listening to. Cause this is how we grow the movement grassroots movement.

01:31:55.260 You know, I don't have, uh, the, the advertising budget that a lot of these, uh, big players and

01:32:00.540 big podcasts do, which is fine, but we're going to build this as a grassroots movement. So I need

01:32:04.920 you guys to share and leave a rating and review while you're at it, because that goes a long way in

01:32:09.040 promoting what we're doing here. So if you believe in the mission to reclaim and restore

01:32:14.300 masculinity, I ask that you do that, leave that rating review, uh, look at the battle planning app

01:32:19.400 again, 12weekbattleplanner.com, the number 12weekbattleplanner.com. And, uh, outside of that,

01:32:25.520 just make sure you subscribe. So you never miss a podcast. I've got a couple of podcasts that we

01:32:29.840 just confirmed over the past several weeks that are going to, that are really going to inspire and

01:32:35.280 motivate you. I'm not going to tell you who those individuals are, but I promise you,

01:32:38.880 you will not want to miss these things. So make sure you stay banded and connected with us.

01:32:42.940 All right, guys, we'll be back tomorrow for the ask me anything until then go out there,

01:32:46.960 take action and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man

01:32:51.680 podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

01:32:56.460 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - May 11, 2021

CHADD WRIGHT ｜ Seeing it Through to the End

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