Order of Man - CLINT EMERSON ｜ Self-Reliance and the Value of the Rugged Life

00:00:00.000 The rugged life isn't something most of us are accustomed to. In fact, most men around the world

00:00:05.760 would shatter at the slightest sign of inconvenience, let alone going without power for a week or not

00:00:12.020 having access to food for 24 hours or even fuel prices rising to historic and unprecedented

00:00:17.840 prices. So how do we as men ensure that we'll be able to care for ourselves and others? Well,

00:00:24.380 by embracing the rugged life as my guest, former Navy SEAL and New York Times bestselling author

00:00:29.120 Clint Emerson and I discuss today. We talk about the threat of a Russian or more likely Chinese 1.00

00:00:35.400 invasion, how our entire lives hinge on the factor of personal responsibility, the power of incremental

00:00:43.420 improvement, and ultimately how to harness and embrace the rugged lifestyle. You're a man of

00:00:48.720 action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly charge your own path. When life

00:00:54.160 knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated,

00:01:00.520 rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become

00:01:07.160 at the end of the day. And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:01:12.940 Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm your host. I'm also the founder

00:01:17.120 of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Welcome here and welcome back. If you are new to the show,

00:01:22.480 it is my job to give you the tools, conversations, resources, and everything else that you might

00:01:27.660 need to thrive as a husband, a father, a business owner, a community leader, however you are showing

00:01:33.900 up as a man. So we do this podcast. I interview guys like Clint and Dave Ramsey and Ben Shapiro and

00:01:42.280 Dave Rubin, who else? David Goggins, like the lineup of guys. Jason Wilson is somebody we had on

00:01:51.560 recently. Tim Tebow, Terry Cruz, the guys that we have on are phenomenal. So we do that podcast.

00:01:59.340 We do an ask him anything with my co-host Kip Sorensen every Wednesday. And then we do my Friday

00:02:03.880 field notes, which is just some of my ramblings from throughout the week. So make sure you're

00:02:07.580 subscribed. And if you want to find a way, a very easy way to support what we're doing with the show,

00:02:11.540 subscribe, leave a rating and review. Do not overlook the importance of ratings and reviews.

00:02:15.880 So just go in, leave a five-star rating and review, and then also check out our store. We got some new

00:02:21.040 merchandise coming into the store at store.orderofman.com over the past couple of weeks and

00:02:25.880 moving into the next couple of weeks. So check it out at store.orderofman.com. All right, guys,

00:02:30.740 let me introduce you to my guest today. He is, as I said earlier, a former Navy SEAL and New York

00:02:36.120 Times bestselling author with his 100 Deadly Skills series, Mr. Clint Emerson. He's also got a new book

00:02:44.840 out right now called The Rugged Life, which is what we talk about today. Him and I have become

00:02:49.260 friends over the past several years. And I can tell you with 100% certainty that this is a man

00:02:53.760 eminently qualified to talk about the skill sets and the tools and provisions required to thrive

00:02:59.160 and survive in just about every scenario. He's also the host of the extremely popular survival

00:03:05.120 podcast. Can you survive this podcast? And the founder of the corporate readiness training

00:03:09.960 organization, Escape the Wolf. Enjoy.

00:03:14.380 Clint, what's up, brother? Good to see you again, man. I think this is either,

00:03:17.320 this might be a four-peat. It's either a three or a four-peat. I think Jack Carr

00:03:20.860 might have you beat by like one episode. Well, of course. I mean, it's Jack Carr. I mean.

00:03:26.480 Exactly. Exactly. But you know, you're doing pretty good. You know, if we just compare ourselves to

00:03:31.100 Jack and that's like, you know, how we live our lives, then I think we'll all be, you know, 99% okay.

00:03:35.900 Yeah, that's true. I mean, he's crushing it. I love, proud of him. We got the same publisher,

00:03:40.540 same publicist, but it's funny as neither my publisher or publicist pay attention to me.

00:03:44.860 They just all pay attention to him. So. Well, it's interesting because both of you guys have

00:03:49.440 gone a little bit of a different route than what you would think of like the traditional Navy seal

00:03:55.000 writing a book, right? Like traditionally what I would think of is teach me about your 10 battlefield

00:04:01.120 leadership strategies, right? That like that, I think that's what most people would think about.

00:04:05.780 And both of you have gone a completely different route. Yeah, you're right. I mean, his fiction

00:04:10.660 is obviously been, he's been studying that for a very long time. And then he's read every book and

00:04:17.360 they say, you know, a good reader makes a good writer. And he, uh, he certainly proves that where

00:04:21.940 I am the opposite. I like to put a lot of illustrations and pictures because I don't read and I'm a horrible

00:04:26.920 writer. I, if that was a spectrum, I'm more on your side of the spectrum, a hundred percent,

00:04:33.320 but you know, I did want to ask you and I don't mean to be, I don't mean to come at you. I don't

00:04:37.980 mean this to be contentious at all, but there's a lot of books out there about obviously your,

00:04:42.440 your genre of writing is about survival. It's about these, these practical skillsets. And what

00:04:49.160 I've seen is there's a lot of books and information out there that almost turn into just like novelty

00:04:54.080 gift ideas where I don't really feel that way about what you write, but it almost seems like

00:05:00.740 sometimes it gets lumped into that of like, Hey, this is going to be on the coffee table or it's

00:05:04.220 kind of a fun little thing. And then just people throw it away and don't really think much more

00:05:07.280 about it. Yeah, that's true. And I used to joke that it's the most popular book next to a man's

00:05:13.200 toilet, you know? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's people, if you just, if anyone's

00:05:21.080 picking it up and, and reading it and looking at it and observing and, you know, even just slightly

00:05:28.460 enjoying the creativity that I'm happy, you know, I don't, if it's, if it's for a split second or it

00:05:33.160 sits on a coffee table that's okay. But I think once you dig in, you realize like, Whoa, this is

00:05:38.800 actually pretty good usable information. And at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

00:05:45.280 Well, I like that you said creativity, because if you take, I don't know, let's just take a hundred

00:05:50.900 deadly skills, for example, which are our previous style books that you've written, you know, you may

00:05:56.220 never come across any one of those 100, but I think what it does more than anything, it gets you

00:06:03.260 thinking creatively. And if you find yourself in a situation where, you know, maybe you're

00:06:08.780 spare tire is, isn't working correctly, or you don't have the wrench to be able to, to, to get

00:06:14.680 your other tire off. It's like, okay, well, like, here's the problem. And I got to figure out a way

00:06:20.360 to get from point A to point B. So let's figure out a way to be creative and utilizing some of these

00:06:25.040 strategies, although maybe not specifically applicable, will help you think more creative

00:06:30.800 about, about the environments you find yourself in. Yeah, you nailed it. It's a, I'm not any,

00:06:36.500 any one skill in any of the hundred deadly skill books is not the, this is how you do it. This is

00:06:41.760 how you have to do it. It's really just to get people thinking outside the box so that they can

00:06:46.400 solve their own problems. And problem solving doesn't come natural to most. So I look at, you

00:06:52.060 know, a hundred deadly skills and even the rugged life is it's a guide to get people thinking again

00:06:58.020 and doing again, rather than relying on technology or someone else to do it for them.

00:07:03.080 Yeah. Well, I also think there's this thing in society where we have been so prosperous for so

00:07:09.800 long. Like when's the last time anybody really had to think about where their food was going to come

00:07:15.200 from? Like when is the last time you really had to think about, uh, am I going to have gas to put

00:07:22.280 into my vehicles? Now I know it's more expensive than arguably it's ever been, but still I can get it.

00:07:28.580 Like I can run down to the gas station and pay, you know, 1.8 times what I paid a year and a half

00:07:33.700 ago, but I can still get it. And, and, but we, we don't have any hardship. We really don't.

00:07:39.860 No, I guess, you know, we, what have we been saying lately? First world problems. So America,

00:07:45.360 America has first world problems and, and, and, you know, the pandemic showed just how ill-equipped

00:07:50.680 people were, you know, as soon as a store started closing and transportation was shut down and hotels

00:07:57.140 closed. And I mean, it was thing, it was event after event, after event. Uh, that's when people

00:08:03.240 started realizing, Whoa, I really don't know how to do anything for myself because I've always had it,

00:08:08.400 or I could always get it like what you're saying. And so, you know, it's time to kind of, I think,

00:08:14.400 put yourself in check. And, uh, you know, I've been referring to my books is now just books of

00:08:21.560 options. You know, we, we, we tend to have our one route, a primary, whatever that primary is,

00:08:28.860 but it usually is connected to our phones, right? If I want groceries, I get it delivered to my front

00:08:34.080 door. If I want coffee, it's already ready when I walk in. But most of our primary means of getting

00:08:40.500 anything these days starts with our phone. And then if you ask, well, what is your backup?

00:08:46.100 Yeah. What's the other option? There is, there's hesitation. It's like, well, wait a minute. What

00:08:51.720 do you mean? What the hell? I don't know. What, what is my option? Tell me. Yeah. What are the other

00:08:58.600 options? You mean I can actually do shit with my hands again? I mean, and that's, you know, so

00:09:03.400 progressively that has been kind of like this big overarching theme is do it yourself, right? That

00:09:10.500 is your backup plan. That is the other option. You know, it's an analog, right? If you're going to,

00:09:17.440 if you're going to rely solely on digital, which is great and which is a tool and I'm using it all

00:09:22.780 the time myself, just make sure you have an analog backup. That way you're good to go no matter what

00:09:27.700 it is. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a good point. Do you, in, in this ease of modernity in which we

00:09:33.520 live, do you personally put yourself in physically or mentally, emotionally challenging situations?

00:09:43.440 And, you know, I think the low hanging fruit is, yeah, I go to the gym and I work out. Okay. Check.

00:09:47.780 Got it. But like, what, like what mentally do you do on a daily basis to put yourself in these

00:09:54.720 stressful simulated situations? So if shit does hit the fan, you're going to be more prepared than the

00:10:00.160 guy who, you know, is used to getting his mocha frappuccino online and showing up and it's right

00:10:04.600 there ready for them. Yeah. Uh, that's a good question. I mean, for me, I'm, I've always been,

00:10:09.940 you know, a scenario person. I think we've talked about it before when we talk about a hundred daily

00:10:15.120 skill books and running scenarios, continuous, continuously through your mind. Um, and, and then

00:10:23.320 answering, you know, answering yourself to how would you deal with that particular scenario? I do it all the

00:10:28.980 time. It's become a habit now. And what you find in doing that process is you're one, you're making

00:10:36.220 decisions already. Now, if something like that really does happen, then you're able to act it out.

00:10:42.520 And so you're saving time, right? So if you can save time, then that's going to increase options,

00:10:48.500 right? And then if you can increase your options and that, that increases actionable, you know, actual

00:10:54.460 real things you can do in response in a timely manner, you know, and that's when we're talking

00:10:59.880 about when seconds and minutes matter. Um, but you know, if you go more like what's going on now

00:11:06.580 with supply chain issues, the economy and a downfall gas prices, as you mentioned, you know, today,

00:11:11.620 $14 or $4 and 19 cents per gallon right now across the country. Um, I think the bigger picture is,

00:11:21.180 okay, what do I do? You know, if the fuel issue gets worse, what do I do? If, you know, I do go to

00:11:29.680 the store and the baby formula isn't on the shelf, like is, which is also a current problem. You know,

00:11:35.840 these are bigger, these are bigger issues that may be seconds or minutes for some moms out there, 1.00

00:11:41.020 but, um, it's worth, you know, you know, asking yourself, what would I do in a red dawn moment?

00:11:47.160 If the sky is filled up with red parachutes, because Russia is being a bunch of jackasses 1.00

00:11:51.820 right now. I mean, people think you're crazy. I remember sitting, you know, with my company,

00:11:56.980 escape the wolf, you know, I go and I do my own sales pitches and, uh, and these are fortune 500

00:12:02.000 guys, right? I remember sitting in front of this one global security dude of a company we all know.

00:12:06.900 And, uh, I told him, Hey, you know, and this is pretty pandemic, right? And so I'm saying, Hey,

00:12:11.540 we do active shooter. We do pandemic planning. We do this. And he's like, he goes, hold on a second.

00:12:15.680 Wait a minute. Pandemic. I'm like, yeah. He's like, uh, that's like equivalent to planning for

00:12:23.240 an alien invasion. Who the hell buys that? Is that right? Interesting. So it's worth it now.

00:12:31.520 Oh yeah. I wanted to send the big metal finger emoji to him, you know, via email or text, but I

00:12:36.140 didn't. I mean, let's be fair though. It's not so much the pandemic as much as it is a reaction to

00:12:42.160 a quote unquote pandemic. So let's just, let's just be real about that for a second. That's,

00:12:47.300 that's true too. It's, uh, but you know, the ones that did buy some of the pandemic, you know,

00:12:53.300 like I can, you know, motel six, for example, at the height of the pandemic, um, you know, they,

00:13:00.800 they stayed open. Marriott's closed down. Hilton's closed down. Motel six was open through the entire

00:13:08.180 thing because they actually had a plan that escaped the world with them. Yeah. It was pretty

00:13:12.480 cool. It was a real, that was like a good old pat on the back. You know, my version of a pat on

00:13:16.440 the back is when the company actually successfully implement something you build for them. It's kind

00:13:20.660 of cool. Um, yeah, it's good. Anyway, yeah. Anyway, you gotta, you gotta think big, you know,

00:13:25.680 big crisis, big issues, big problems. And you know, that may not, it may not be specific to you.

00:13:31.360 It may not be that bad guy standing in front of your face. It's something specific maybe to your

00:13:35.040 town, to your city, uh, to your state. And of course our country. So I think obviously

00:13:41.520 more people thinking about that, you're kind of like in a awesome way, uh, increasing national

00:13:47.580 security, but you know, we've just got to get more people thinking that way.

00:13:52.100 So I like the idea of national security. We, we think about it on a, on a, on a federal level.

00:13:58.140 It's like, well, what if we had 300 million individuals who are prepared?

00:14:02.360 Oh yeah. Forget about the federal, you know, protection thing about 300 million Americans

00:14:09.260 or even half of that, let's say half of them are kids. So you take half of that and, and

00:14:14.180 a hundred or 150 million men and women adequately prepared with food, fuel, fighting capabilities,

00:14:23.640 firearms. I mean, talk about national security.

00:14:26.560 It is. I mean, you remember there's like a Japanese soldier during world war two or a general

00:14:31.680 Japanese general, there's a quote. It's just basically like we would never invade America.

00:14:36.560 They have too many guns, but yeah, the more you can insulate yourself with skills, right. And, and,

00:14:46.560 and know how and experience the less this crazy world affects you. Right. I mean, if you just take on

00:14:53.960 just a couple of skills out of the rugged life and actually make them part of your lifestyle,

00:14:58.820 you're creating this barrier, this air gap between you and supply chain, you and, you know,

00:15:06.500 gas prices, you and, you know, the down downturn of the economy, or if you were already doing this,

00:15:12.760 then you would be like pandemic. What, what are you talking about? Right. It wouldn't even have

00:15:17.540 messed with you, but we're all just way too reliant on other things, you know, technology and

00:15:23.440 we're relying on each other, which is good. There's good aspects to that. I'm not knocking it,

00:15:28.540 but I think, you know what I mean? It's you, you've got to learn to do things yourself.

00:15:33.240 Well, I also think there's a difference between being reliant on each other and having some sort of

00:15:39.300 interdependency. Right. So for example, I don't, I'm not reliant upon my neighbor. So one of my

00:15:46.480 neighbors is a cattle rancher. He cuts, he cuts the hay off our property. We got 50 acres.

00:15:52.060 He haze about 30% of our property. And so he comes in, cuts the hay, pulls it off, feeds his cows. And

00:15:59.500 then in exchange, he gives us a cow each year. So that's interdependence. Like I'm not relying upon,

00:16:05.100 like if he didn't give us a cow for the year, because he couldn't come cut hay or his machines

00:16:08.760 broke down. I mean, there's, I have other avenues of securing food, but there's some interdependency

00:16:14.740 there where we're both winning out of the scenario. So that's different than, you know,

00:16:19.580 being completely reliant on your government or your parents or whatever.

00:16:25.020 Yeah, no, that's, that's exactly what you should do. And that's a great example at a micro level

00:16:30.740 that you could actually take to the macro. Right. So like you are doing one thing and basically a

00:16:36.920 barter system with a neighbor and you're not, you know, you may not be using the store as your

00:16:44.240 primary because you've got meat that you can get another way. Right. So your primary and secondary

00:16:50.340 are kind of flip-flopped. Most people would say, Hey, I'm going to buy meat from the store. And then

00:16:55.220 anything I grow or do is going in the deep freezer, you know, for a rainy day, you can do either or.

00:17:01.340 Um, and then you like the best example these days is gas fuel. Right. I mean, depending on who the

00:17:09.360 president is, it's let's use everyone else's fuel and save hours for a rainy day. And then another

00:17:17.420 president comes along from a different party says, let's use our fuel and tell everybody else to fuck

00:17:22.320 off. Right. Right. Now would be a good time. We start using our own fuel and tell everybody else to

00:17:28.780 fuck off because the prices are through the roof. So primary, secondary, you got to have those,

00:17:34.060 you know, you're, you got to have primary, secondary, other options, right? National level,

00:17:39.200 or at even at your individual level. Well, my, so I had a stepfather, uh,

00:17:45.820 kind of my life when I was, I want to, I was about 13 or 14 years old. And, um, there was a lot of

00:17:52.300 qualities that are not, uh, are less than favorable. I put it like that less than favorable,

00:17:58.280 just wasn't a, just wasn't a D actually just wasn't a decent human being. Uh, but one of the 1.00

00:18:04.680 things that I, he, but he taught me some lessons that I still remember that are very applicable

00:18:08.480 and good lessons to learn. He was very successful in business. And one of the things he said, he's

00:18:13.480 like, Hey Ryan, you know what? Knowledge isn't power. You know what power is options. Options,

00:18:19.920 options is powerful. Like if you can choose in the moment, because you have a plethora of options to

00:18:24.360 choose from, you're more powerful than the guy who has to choose whatever he chooses,

00:18:29.320 because he's required. It's not even a choice. He's required. He's obligated. Cause that's the

00:18:33.320 only option that he has. And that's a lesson that always stuck with me is like, what options do you

00:18:38.180 have? And then for example, with your fuel scenario, it's like, cool. If, if prices are high,

00:18:43.800 I can come here. If prices are low, I can go there. And that's an option that makes us sovereign,

00:18:47.720 independent and powerful. That's right. You're right. And time plays an important role with this,

00:18:53.040 you know, time. If you have time that allows you options. If you have options, that also provides

00:18:59.680 you more time. And that is key, especially when you're talking about face-to-face type stuff right

00:19:06.120 now, you know, but it also applies to growing your own sources of food or, you know, um, doing more of

00:19:16.340 being your own first responder, being your own protector, you know, basically all those chapters,

00:19:22.420 I highlight in rugged life, those give you the options, options give you time and vice versa.

00:19:27.640 If you've got time and then by having options gives you time back, you know, so they play off

00:19:32.860 one another and that's the key to survivability. But more than that, if you embrace it and put these,

00:19:38.920 what we're talking about into your lifestyle, you're not surviving, you're thriving, right? That's

00:19:43.480 really, there's some, there's, that's a huge difference, you know, or if you're,

00:19:48.120 if you're winning in seconds, minutes, or hours, or even days, yeah, that's surviving.

00:19:54.140 But when you can carry that on for the long haul, that's thriving. And that's where everybody should

00:19:58.460 start to kind of look towards or aim, aim to thrive with the options. And if you don't have options,

00:20:06.660 start working on those now, you know, just in case.

00:20:10.340 Well, and I think one of the things a lot of people overlook is you talk about thriving. And so when

00:20:15.920 people hear that, I automatically assume that they're thinking thriving with their finances

00:20:20.360 or their, their provisions, but there's something to be said for up here as well. You know, if we

00:20:24.600 go through a reaction to, to a quote unquote pandemic, like we have over the past couple of

00:20:29.780 years and everybody's all hopped up and hyped up and emotional and like running around like chickens

00:20:34.260 with their heads cut off, cut off, cut off, like mentally that's going to screw with you. But if on the

00:20:39.200 other hand, all your food's taken care of, you got medication set aside. You guys are healthy

00:20:44.800 because you've been living for the past 10 years, a healthy lifestyle. Mentally you're good. Like

00:20:51.900 you're, you're clear and you're, you're, you're fine here, which is going to naturally translate

00:20:55.900 into success and other facets of your life. Yeah. That's a great point. And if you're just doing

00:21:01.120 those simple things, you just said, you're already healthy. Then you're, you're, you're better than 90,

00:21:07.540 90% of the people on this planet, you know, like just be healthy. That's yeah. That's a great way of

00:21:14.140 thriving when things go bad, you know, and of course, you know, have some medical training,

00:21:18.720 have some medical supplies. Now you're doing even better. You know, you just keep adding to it

00:21:23.480 little by little. And it's important to note, this is about skills and capability. This isn't about

00:21:29.660 buying stuff off Amazon and shoving it in a closet. Okay. That's, that's a, that's what a prepper

00:21:35.060 does. And I'm, I'm not a prepper and there's nothing wrong with it. It's good to have, you know,

00:21:40.360 a hundred flashlights and a bunch of batteries and, you know, in some shortwave radios and this

00:21:45.180 and that, that's stuff, right? You buy stuff, you put it and you store it for, for when a good day

00:21:50.640 goes bad, but that only lasts so long, anything in your closet will eventually run out. So that's

00:21:57.700 where the skills and capability come in. And that is the key to thriving surviving. Yeah. You're using

00:22:04.880 stuff that you saved. It could be MREs. It could be, you know, you know, bottled water,

00:22:10.780 you know, all of the, all of that stuff out there. That's cool to have. That's good. Like as a stop

00:22:15.440 gap, but you just got to have the skills and capability, knowledge, and experience that every

00:22:20.960 American man, woman, and child had less than 200 years ago, coming to this country, you know, 0.94

00:22:26.600 they were living it and breathing it every single day. And that was just normal. Right. I mean,

00:22:34.200 can you imagine? No, like play that out in your mind. I've thought about that. Like if I came to

00:22:40.600 this, this land, not a country, this land, you know, for 400, about 400 years ago,

00:22:48.860 I would die immediately. Like I would get scalped. I would die of, you know, dysentery or like whatever,

00:22:57.320 like I'd be dead. Yeah. And it, like, if you really think about what our ancestors did,

00:23:03.040 even a hundred years ago, it's almost, it's like, it's like how the wolf has evolved into

00:23:09.520 the chihuahua. I was on a plane the other day and this, this elderly woman, you know, with,

00:23:14.100 with her curly hair, sweet old woman. And she had this little like pathetic chihuahua. And I'm like, 0.99

00:23:18.860 that thing was a wolf. It was, yes, it was. It isn't anymore. It was, but that's us as men,

00:23:27.700 as women, just as people in general, like how pathetic have we become?

00:23:32.280 Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. No doubt. It's, uh, it's important. And it's not, I think the key here too,

00:23:38.860 is not saying that you got to go back to that time, right? We're not going to go backwards.

00:23:43.980 Um, you know, the subtitle on the book is the modern guide to self-reliance where it's okay to

00:23:51.060 take technology and leverage it, uh, to create all those other options out there. And there's a ton

00:23:57.320 of options and, you know, you've got an encyclopedia in the palm of your hand, you know,

00:24:03.240 volumes and volumes and volumes of endless information for free in the palm of your hand.

00:24:07.980 So of course you should use that. And, uh, I'm by no means saying, let's go back to little house on

00:24:13.840 the prairie. Or, you know, if you're, if you like the, you know, 1883, uh, you know, that was some

00:24:22.060 rough living. That was a rough way to start your life of independence and freedom, you know,

00:24:27.540 going from, well, we liked the Hollywood version of 1883, but I guarantee each of us, if we really

00:24:33.440 went back, we would be miserable. And like I said, dead within 24 hours, but the Hollywood version

00:24:39.180 looks awesome with Tim McGraw and all this kind of Sam Elliott. Those guys aren't real.

00:24:42.960 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, they, uh, they definitely all died. That's for sure. By the time they

00:24:47.580 actually, what was it? Like six of them made it to Montana and Wyoming. So they did, they got the

00:24:52.220 death part, right? For sure. But the point being is it's not, you know, living more rugged is not

00:24:58.960 easy. It's hard, but it's far more rewarding than using an app on your phone.

00:25:04.560 Well, I went to an event, this was years ago and it was, you know, like a four day event. It was kind

00:25:09.620 of a survival type scenario. And they said, break part of the packing list was a fire starting kit.

00:25:14.680 So, you know, I put all my stuff in there. Like, you know, I got Flint and steel and like batteries

00:25:18.880 with steel wool and all this like bullshit. And, and then the last thing I did is I'm like, let me

00:25:23.440 just throw a lighter in there. So I throw a lighter in there and I get to the thing and they do a

00:25:27.240 shakedown and they make sure, you know, you have everything that's on the list. Cause if not,

00:25:30.540 then like you're out, like, that's the first test. Like, did you actually follow instructions?

00:25:34.440 So the guy's going through my fire starting kit and he's looks at my lighter. He's like,

00:25:38.340 what's this? I'm like, it's a lighter. And he's like, this is part of your fire starting kit.

00:25:42.500 I'm like, yeah. He's like, good job. He's like, you're one of like two out of a hundred that

00:25:46.880 actually brought a lighter in your fire starting kit. It's like, like, like we make shit harder than

00:25:52.600 it needs to be in training. I think that's okay. But in real life scenarios, like this isn't about

00:25:57.020 making it hard, like make it as easy as you possibly can using the ease of modernity to be able to

00:26:01.500 improve your, your odds of survival. Exactly. That is exactly it, man. It's people. I get it.

00:26:08.280 I get kind of going back in time and, and leveraging some of the more primitive skills

00:26:12.640 cause they're good to have and good to know. But yeah, if there's, if there's some modern stuff

00:26:18.300 out there that you can leverage and you should no doubt about it. It's, but it's also very romantic.

00:26:23.780 And I think we've been led to believe that, you know, living you know, 500 years ago with the

00:26:31.060 Aztecs would have been like a glorious time to be alive. I'm like, no, they probably would have 1.00

00:26:34.920 sacrificed you in the volcano to the sun gods. So like, I don't, I don't think it's as glamorous

00:26:41.020 as, as Hollywood and Netflix makes it out to be. So let's not place a false sense of what it really

00:26:47.800 was about struggle and strife and hardship and think that, you know, filter our experience through

00:26:53.560 the Hollywood version of, of pain and suffering that most of humanity has gone through.

00:26:58.880 Yeah, you're right. I mean, the last two years we've had this exodus out of the urban metropolitan

00:27:04.240 areas running to the mountains and people buying their cabins and, and thinking, you know, just

00:27:11.960 how sexy is it that we chop our own wood and use a wood burning stove until they do it right until

00:27:18.660 they do it. And so now there's this, there's a, there's a huge number of people who basically

00:27:24.580 went in head first, had no idea what they're doing. And now they're trying to sell their property and

00:27:29.700 get the hell out of there and maybe just go somewhere in the middle, like a suburban, you know,

00:27:34.520 a suburban environment, rather than going from hardcore urban to hardcore rural. It just didn't

00:27:39.940 work out for a lot of folks. Yeah. So, you know, point being is it's hard, it's not easy. And, you know,

00:27:48.340 being more rugged is on the opposite end of the spectrum of convenience, right? And it's, if

00:27:54.340 something is convenient, then it's probably not all that rugged. And if something is rugged, then it's

00:27:58.740 probably not going to be convenient. But it's options and it's the options that are key. And, and

00:28:07.180 through it, you gain skill and knowledge, experience, trial and error. And ultimately, the more things you

00:28:14.020 take on yourself, the more independence and freedom you gain. Yeah. Good point. So I do want to get

00:28:20.420 pretty tactical for the last half of this conversation on some of the things that you

00:28:24.200 shared, but I actually wanted to mention something you brought up earlier before we get into that.

00:28:28.400 You talked about Red Dawn, right? We've all seen the movie, whether it's the original of Patrick

00:28:32.120 Swayze or the new one with Hemsworth or whatever. Is that something that you even like, is that even on

00:28:40.360 your radar? Is that something that's on your radar? Like some sort of domestic invasion? I'm just very

00:28:45.100 curious about that. Well, I mean, if you want to focus on someone like China, you know, let me back

00:28:54.420 up for a second. You know, me being at the NSA, I was privy to a lot of really cool operations and

00:29:01.540 capabilities that we have. So for the most part, I'm comfortable with knowing what we're capable of

00:29:09.020 versus what our, what our adversaries are capable of, right? It's, we are still ahead, but not much

00:29:18.380 when it comes to China. We're, we're light years ahead of Russia. That's why when people are always 1.00

00:29:22.260 worried, worried about Russia, Russia, Russia, I'm like, man, they didn't have the economy before

00:29:26.260 the last two years. They certainly, they had enough money to run very successful covert campaigns

00:29:35.120 against us, i.e. this on the cyber front. But when you talk about conventional war, Russia, just as,

00:29:43.400 as they've proven are really, really behind. They always have been. Definitely. I mean, if you didn't

00:29:48.120 even, if you don't plan for MSRs before you start a war, then I mean, you're, what kind of, what kind

00:29:53.060 of idiots are running that military and MS, you know, main supply route, right? I'm going to line up all

00:29:57.980 these tanks and all these soldiers, but I'm not going to figure out how to get gas fuel and food to them.

00:30:02.500 And, uh, there's a level of arrogance to that, right? Like we're going to just demolish these

00:30:07.840 people. And what do we need to worry about supply chains for supply routes? It's not even going to

00:30:12.420 be relevant. We're just going to decimate everybody in front of us. Right. Yeah. And they, they, for the

00:30:18.000 most part, Russia has always been, you know, a paper mache tiger. And I've been called out for that, 1.00

00:30:23.560 but it's, it's held true. Held true. And Siri put tanks on the ground. They ran out of gas. He left

00:30:27.900 them in place. Right. And then the same thing. He's got all kinds of issues right now with

00:30:32.220 everything that he's thrown at the, at the Ukrainian people. Um, but you know, switching

00:30:37.680 gears and moving back to the, to the real issue, someone like, you know, China, I remember we sit

00:30:45.700 in our big strategic meetings and we're planning 50 years out, right? 50 years, sometimes a hundred,

00:30:54.440 depending on the programs, that's how far ahead our intelligence and military. Sometimes we'll

00:31:01.220 look at stuff. Mostly intelligence. Military is usually just concerned about the six month

00:31:04.980 deployment, dropping the hammer and leaving, right? Our intelligence agencies are going 50

00:31:09.920 to a hundred years out. China, hundreds of years. What they're doing has already been in their 0.99

00:31:17.100 planning cycle for a very long time. And it's, it's a thousand cuts, right? Million cuts. They're

00:31:26.560 willing to just do a million cuts to America in a variety of ways until eventually we bleed out.

00:31:33.840 So, and it'd take a long time, right? With just those little cuts, little cut, little cut one after

00:31:38.660 the other. And that's, that's worrisome. Now, are there, are the, are the sky going to fill up with

00:31:42.780 parachutes? I hope not, but could they pull it off? Yeah. When you've got billions of people,

00:31:48.580 imagine if they just said, okay, we're going to draft a hundred million, 18 year olds. Cause they

00:31:55.360 could do that, right? We're going to put them through eight weeks of jump school, eight weeks

00:32:00.700 of basic soldiering skills. And then we're going to throw your ass out over, over, you know, over America, 0.66

00:32:07.040 a hundred million. That's just, that is such a small fraction of their population.

00:32:12.780 Could they pull it off? Yes. But will they probably not because they stole all of our

00:32:19.360 EMP technology, you know, right? So electromagnetic pulse technology, they stole it and it's very,

00:32:26.800 very good technology. And then they stuck it on their submarines, right? So their, their first

00:32:33.740 act of war isn't nukes. Their first act of war will be to put a sub in the Pacific, put one on the 0.88

00:32:42.000 Atlantic, and then they will fire off those EMPs at the same exact time. And the EMP waves are strong

00:32:49.020 enough where they will overlap in the middle of the United States, right? Imagine. That's strong?

00:32:55.520 That's strong. Holy cow. So I hear stuff like that. And so obviously you're, it's obvious that

00:33:03.600 you're more privy to this information. You have more, I mean, this is what you do. It's not what I do.

00:33:07.740 But when I think about China, I think about obviously a larger fighting force, but also I

00:33:14.360 think of economic instability. You know, I think the common perception is that China is this like

00:33:21.240 dominant, like financial global powerhouse. And I'm like, I'm not sure that's the case. I think

00:33:28.140 short term it can be, but I'm wondering if it's as fragile as you know, the USSR was decades ago

00:33:35.020 with the way that they have embraced communism. They've, they've embraced elements of capitalism,

00:33:39.640 but is, is, is, as, is it as fragile as, as you know, the USSR was decades ago? It kind of,

00:33:46.980 kind of seems like to me that it is. And my biggest concern is that we're actually following suit

00:33:52.020 instead of being at least moving towards or becoming even more and more of a free market

00:33:57.560 capitalistic society that we should be. Yeah, no, you, you know, it's good. It's a good point.

00:34:03.700 Economically inside China, I think they are still a mess, right? Infrastructure, especially. Yes. You 1.00

00:34:09.260 know, that's a lot of people to take care of, right? A government is supposed to take care of its 0.99

00:34:14.840 people and they're, they've always done a poor job. But if you take, let's say satellite imagery of

00:34:21.340 China at night, 10 years ago, compared to today, 10 years ago, China was pretty dark, right? Electrical

00:34:28.960 grids define an economy fairly accurately. And so you look at a country, you see how well they're doing

00:34:36.320 economically, right? Just take that picture of the whole country at night and how many lights are on

00:34:42.740 is a good indicator of how good of an economy they have, right? So you look at America, hey,

00:34:49.100 we're pretty lit up. Yeah. You look at Europe, pretty lit up. You look at China 10 years ago,

00:34:54.040 not so much. You look at it today, it's starting to light up, right? So I feel like we're still

00:34:59.960 ahead of them. I feel like they still got a lot of issues, but they are exponentially gaining,

00:35:06.840 like super fast. Like it's almost like they're figuring it out. Like, oh, why haven't we been just

00:35:12.460 taking some of the lessons learned from the West and implementing it? It's like they all of a sudden

00:35:17.340 kind of figured it out, right? The way that they're, they're built, you know, the way they're

00:35:21.540 building Navy ships, right? We built what two in the past 15 years, they built like 35 in 15 years. 0.96

00:35:28.260 I mean, they're, you're just, you know, moving fast, spending lots of money because they're in

00:35:33.920 the black, we're in the red, you know, it's, uh, it's an interesting, uh, interesting times,

00:35:39.920 you know, but will they ever do any of that kind of stuff? I don't think so because they're just

00:35:44.780 so dependent on us. Their cashflow is, is us. It's the West. Right. And what's the purpose in

00:35:51.520 taking out your, your bank? Why would you go and light your own bank on fire? Right. You know what

00:35:56.180 I mean? Like it's just, yeah, it's what we are. We're their bank. We are the cash cow for sure.

00:36:02.020 Absolutely. And not to mention the technology that's been stolen, the intellectual property

00:36:06.900 that's been seized. Yeah. Yeah. It's like why it's, it's like the old adage of, of, you know,

00:36:12.460 killing the golden goose. It's like, would you rather kill the goose, you know, or leave the

00:36:17.020 goose alive and just take its eggs? You know? And I feel like that's what they're doing at this point.

00:36:21.400 Yeah. I'm with you. They're, they're, uh, they're, they're, uh, they're an unknown. And I think that's

00:36:27.380 the part that's just, that's why you should worry. You know, it's like, okay, well, what are they going

00:36:32.060 to be like in the next 10 years? How are they watching and observing our reactions as Russia does what

00:36:38.840 they're doing? You know, and there's the big Taiwan fear and, you know, but it's all an unknown, man.

00:36:44.060 They, they keep everything pretty close hold. They're good at keeping their secrets. And, uh,

00:36:48.340 you know, we'll be the last ones to know whatever it is they're up to.

00:36:53.000 My, my, one of my biggest concerns, cause that's well, that's, that's outside of our realm of

00:36:57.340 control, especially as an individual, right? Like there's nothing I can do about China. Uh, my, 0.98

00:37:02.280 my biggest concern is that by American. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Sure. Yes. There are things that 1.00

00:37:09.080 you can do, right. Support your local economies, get yourself in a political office out, you know,

00:37:14.060 vote out some of these dumb asses who are instituting laws and regulation and some of

00:37:18.980 this stuff that's not serving as well. Yes. That is within your control a hundred percent. Uh,

00:37:23.380 but my concern is that the United States government and, and I, whatever side of the aisle,

00:37:28.780 it really doesn't matter to me is like, is, is just like completely ridiculous. So like we live in

00:37:33.600 to your point earlier about these 50 year timeframes. I mean, I don't, we don't even live

00:37:37.460 in 50 year timeframes. We live in two to four year terms at a time. So if I get elected into office,

00:37:43.080 I'm like, I'm going to kick ass for four years and I got to do stuff now. It's like, well,

00:37:46.660 okay, but that's going to jeopardize 40 years of growth because I'm worried about how we look over

00:37:51.360 four years, a four-year timeframe. Right. No. Yeah. And I think you're, I think you're,

00:37:56.940 you're good. We agree on politics in this country. I mean, I've been saying it for a long time is

00:38:01.800 no matter how good someone's will is when they run, what usually happens in the end is it's the

00:38:09.760 perks over the promises, right? They get in there and they get into the cycle. It doesn't matter

00:38:14.320 whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, but those perks start to outweigh the promises you made

00:38:21.760 that got you in that seat to begin with. And I think if you can somehow disengage

00:38:28.280 what this country is all about capitalism, if we can somehow disengage capitalism from politics

00:38:35.740 or even bigger, how do you disengage capitalism from democracy? Then we might be able to fix it,

00:38:43.680 but the odds are money drives a train. So it's just going to be the way it is.

00:38:50.900 All right, guys, let me take a step away from the conversation very quickly. Obviously we've

00:38:56.660 been talking a lot about how to be prepared for whatever life has to throw your way. And while

00:39:02.740 we're addressing the tactical requirements of readiness, I want to share with you a resource

00:39:06.560 that is going to help you be prepared for what may come and also how to get out ahead of it.

00:39:11.740 It's a program called 30 days to battle ready. And when you sign up for this free course,

00:39:16.360 you will immediately, immediately gain access to a series of emails that are going to help you

00:39:21.420 develop the mindsets and the skillsets required to achieve more in the next 30 days than maybe you

00:39:27.900 have in the previous 300. So if you're feeling stagnant, you can't seem to figure out why that's

00:39:32.640 the case. I personally invite you to join us in this free course and get yourself pointed in the

00:39:38.960 right direction. And more importantly, moving, not just pointed, but moving in the right direction.

00:39:43.360 You can sign up for this free course at order of man.com slash battle ready. Again, that's

00:39:49.660 order of man.com slash battle ready. You can do that right after the show for now, I'll get back to

00:39:53.740 it with Clint. And I think even more than politics and capitalism, I think the root of the issue,

00:40:00.660 and this actually ties in nicely to your book, uh, is personal responsibility. Yeah. Yeah. If we could

00:40:09.100 infuse that back, like there's talks, for example, of paying off student loans, or I think they call it

00:40:15.340 the euphemism is student loan forgiveness. Like that sounds pretty nice actually like, Oh, they're

00:40:21.240 going to forgive it. They're going to erase it. That's another euphemism. No, that's not what's

00:40:26.580 happening. That gets transferred to somebody else. It doesn't just miraculously. You don't just wave a

00:40:32.560 wand. It's, it's a lack of personal responsibility. And I think that's the root of your book, the rugged

00:40:38.760 life. I think that's the root of the issues that we see in America is like, nobody's willing to take

00:40:43.300 personal responsibility. It's like, Hey, you got it. You got to go through a divorce. Then, you know,

00:40:48.520 we'll help you. You get, you get laid off because you're an asshole at work. Like, well, yeah, you were

00:40:52.820 an asshole, but you know, we'll still provide you some unemployment benefits. Uh, like everything,

00:40:57.600 the root of all of our problems is personal responsibility. Yeah. And I think a consequence

00:41:03.880 like the lack of, um, which, which then is connected to accountability, which is what you're

00:41:10.000 talking about. Right. So if we don't hold anyone or ourselves accountable and there is no consequence,

00:41:15.380 well then yeah, every, you know, everyone's going to be running amok. No doubt about it. It's just

00:41:20.540 leading to more and more problems, you know, and if you've got a whole bunch of individuals having an

00:41:25.620 issue, well then you have a country having an issue, you know, that's kind of seems like the

00:41:30.000 way it's been flowing. I think the best thing we can do is take a bunch of sane, rational people

00:41:34.940 like you, like me, other people who obviously listen to this podcast and just breed like fricking 0.61

00:41:40.340 rabbits. And then, and then, you know, we have five, seven, 10 kids who all know what it means to

00:41:45.880 have personal responsibility. And then we just raised this army up of, uh, you know, kids and a

00:41:52.200 generation of people who believe in personal responsibility, but that might be another

00:41:55.440 conversation. That's some of my weird thoughts coming out in my mind. So that's the Mormons 1.00

00:42:02.140 versus the Muslims you just talked about. That's right. I'm all about it. Bring it on. Let's do it. 1.00

00:42:07.380 You want to play this game? Let's do it. I'm all in. Yeah. Who's going to win? The Mormons or the 1.00

00:42:11.300 Muslims? Here we go. Who's racking up? We can find out. We just need to put it to, to put it to the 1.00

00:42:15.480 test. Anyways. All right. Let's get back to the book. And so these weird, like fringe and people are

00:42:19.140 like, what the hell's Ryan talking about right now? Um, the, the cool thing I like about the book is

00:42:25.080 you broke it down into what nine or 10 chapters and you talk about like, become your own, right?

00:42:30.420 That's the premise, become your own builder, become your own farmer, become your own power grid. Uh,

00:42:34.980 is there any one of these topics that either a really stood out to you is like, we need to focus

00:42:41.920 here or B that seems to be a deficiency across the board where people really ought to think about

00:42:50.740 shoring up. Hmm. It's a more of an a based on your geographical location, right? So everyone,

00:43:01.020 every aspect of this book creates a more holistic lifestyle. And that was probably one of the hardest

00:43:07.240 parts was breaking it down into these 10 aspects of, of the rugged life for the rugged philosophy.

00:43:13.720 Um, and be your own fill in the blank, just lays it out there and allows people to kind of choose

00:43:21.160 where they want to start. So if you live like here in Texas and we had our grid go down just to,

00:43:29.280 you know, a winter ago, um, then obviously then, yeah, people are going to be like, be your own power

00:43:35.620 grid. Let's, let's get that done. Cause I don't want to have to rely on that again or fall victim to

00:43:41.260 that again. Right. Um, and if you live maybe, you know, in an urban environment where crime is high,

00:43:49.120 well then be your own protector comes in handy. Uh, so really where you sit geographically kind of

00:43:56.480 determines probably what chapters or aspect of the rugged life applies to you more than others. And that

00:44:02.460 any individual would feel is more important. But as I traveled the U S and went to, uh, people that

00:44:09.980 lived a hundred percent off grid and some that lived on grid. And when we talk about the grid,

00:44:15.460 we're talking about power, we're talking about water, talking about gas, right? So if you're paying

00:44:21.540 bills on any of those three, then you're on grid. Um, and if you're not paying any bills for that type

00:44:28.420 of stuff, well then you're off grid. That's the easiest way to put it. So there were some that were,

00:44:34.260 there was one family that lived a hundred percent off grid and they have been for the past 12 plus

00:44:39.160 years with a special needs son. And they were the happiest people I'd ever met. They had literally,

00:44:47.160 they built their first cabin while they slept in a tent for a year. Right. And this is 1100 square

00:44:52.960 foot cabin that they chopped down the trees and milled to their own boards to build the home. Right.

00:45:01.460 Um, and then they realized, Whoa, 1100 square feet is way too much space for too much. I was like,

00:45:08.760 that's not enough. Yeah. See, that's where we've gotten used to. We need space and we need all

00:45:14.280 these things. But when you, when you start living off, obviously that way, then all of a sudden you

00:45:19.780 go, wait a minute, I don't need all this space. Cause that's more than I have to heat or to keep cool.

00:45:24.460 Or, you know, there's a lot of other problems that start to pop up. So they, they left the,

00:45:29.760 they lived in the 1100 square foot while they built the 300 square foot. Right. And then they

00:45:36.600 moved into that. And the beauty of it is, is with 300 square feet, they've got 300 watt solar panels

00:45:45.060 right out in front. Right. So that's 300 Watts that then feeds into some Marine batteries that they were

00:45:52.760 using, which then powers their entire cabin and it's a hundred percent free. Right. Now that's the

00:46:00.100 only, that's probably the only scenario these days where the solar to whatever your required draw

00:46:08.100 electrically, right. Uh, is beneficial. Now, if you were to have Tesla come out to your house,

00:46:14.720 they're going to tell you, yeah, you're, you're going to actually pump power back into the grid.

00:46:20.000 And depending on the co-op, you may get a check every month from your electric company because

00:46:24.840 you're pumping power back in, or you just get, you just get zero bill. Right. And they keep your

00:46:30.200 power just depends from city to city. Uh, but they will quote you, right. Oh, you're only going to pay

00:46:36.240 like maybe 200 bucks a month. Well, it's like you, then you do the math. Okay. Do I pay 200 bucks a

00:46:40.880 month to the electrical company? Or do I pay 200 bucks to pay on these solar panels at the install on my

00:46:46.360 roof? That roughly is, you know, if you live in like, let's say, uh, uh, you know, you're in a,

00:46:52.300 um, mid income suburban development, uh, and it's a, let's say 2000, 3000 square foot home,

00:47:01.520 the panels, you know, you're probably going to cost you roughly $80,000 spread out over how many

00:47:09.600 every 30 years or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. 20 bucks at 200 bucks a month. So there is solar is catching

00:47:18.080 up. The technology is getting better. Um, but it's very much environment, one environment you're

00:47:25.060 going to, it's going to be free and it's going to be great, but you're going to sacrifice 300 square

00:47:29.820 foot place to 100 watt or three, 100 waters. And then, you know, your batteries, um, that's where

00:47:37.000 it's most economical, but for most folks that are considering solar in the suburbian or urban

00:47:42.660 environments, the payoff's probably not there yet. Um, but being your own power grid really is,

00:47:48.480 I mean, it's something that I enjoyed. Um, and the biggest one was geothermal. Like, you know,

00:47:53.400 you take this earth and no matter where you dig on this earth, you go six to eight feet down, 0.96

00:47:59.100 it's always 55 degrees. It's a regulated temperature, right? It's a regulated temperature.

00:48:03.920 So in the, in, in, in the winter, 55 degrees is heat, right? And then, uh, and in the summer,

00:48:11.080 55 degrees is air conditioning. And so if you, if you build this PVC pipe grid and you make it big

00:48:18.320 enough, and then you, you know, you'd have to dig out a very, very surface area, very large six foot

00:48:25.940 deep hole, and then place your PVC grid down in there. And you have an intake fan hooked onto the

00:48:33.320 one end of your PVC grid, and that's going to be at surface level. And you can hook a fan onto it,

00:48:40.140 you know, like 30 bucks, solar powered fans, right? And it's going to, let's say you live in

00:48:44.860 Arizona, it's going to suck in that 120 degree air, right? And it's going to pull it through

00:48:51.320 your grid. That's down at 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Then you're going to have an exhaust that's hooked

00:48:58.200 up to the side of your, your lodging, your home, whatever it is. And it also is going to have a

00:49:04.140 solar fan on it. That's pulling the air through. And now you're going to have roughly 120 degree

00:49:10.760 air. You'll be able to cool it to probably like 65, 70 degrees.

00:49:15.280 Right. You're cutting it in half almost.

00:49:16.660 Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And, you know, and, and to see people actually go and, you know,

00:49:22.160 the best place that most people know this that live up north is a basement, the basement is always

00:49:26.660 cold, right, right, in the summer, and then in the winter, you know, it actually can be warmer down

00:49:32.700 there. If you're not running much heat upstairs, you're relying on a wood burning stove. So a bedroom

00:49:37.800 will definitely be colder than the kitchen or the living spaces. So people who have basements

00:49:42.660 understand this. And, but when you kind of put it together with PVC, once again, modern,

00:49:48.540 you've got solar powered fans, modern, and now you're applying it to your home or wherever,

00:49:54.280 you know, you're, you're, it's, it's a more rugged way of doing things. It's economic,

00:49:58.240 it's fiscally sound. It's, you know, it's, it's a great way to, to do, to heat or cool your home

00:50:06.960 for really not a whole lot of money. You just need the surface space, or you need to,

00:50:12.060 the forethought before you build to put this in first, and then you can build on top of it,

00:50:17.420 you know, but, um, are these, are these things that you've seen people retrofit their place?

00:50:22.240 Like for example, our home was built in 1912. So clearly it doesn't have any sort of geothermal

00:50:27.820 air conditioning or heating in the house. Right. Right. Right. Are these things that you've seen

00:50:33.440 people implement in houses that didn't initially have them when they were built?

00:50:38.180 Yes. Yes. So if you've got that, if you have the space outside, right, where you could dig it all

00:50:44.920 out and then build out your, your PVC grid, usually, you know, one and a half, two inch diameter,

00:50:51.080 um, PVC pipe. And you're talking a whole bunch of T joints, elbow joints to create,

00:50:56.320 I like best way to describe as a net, right? It's a big net made out of PVC and you're laying it down

00:51:02.760 in there horizontally with the, with the, with the earth. And then you're burying it and you'll have

00:51:08.860 your intake sticking out at one end. You'll have your exhaust hooked up to the lowest point in your

00:51:14.040 home. So if you have a crawl space, you're going to, you're going to feed it up underneath there and

00:51:19.100 then you're going to hook it up into the floor and you can have multiple, um, draw points, right? So

00:51:26.200 you could, you could actually have two or three points at where the fans are pulling it into your

00:51:31.180 home. Sucking that out. Yeah. Or sucking it in. Okay. Sucking it in. Got it. Yeah. Right. So you're

00:51:37.100 taking that outside ambient temperature and you're changing it using the earth and then you're pushing

00:51:42.820 it into your home. It's really, and you don't hear much about it because, you know, think about it,

00:51:48.260 big, big, big companies. They make a lot of money off solar. They don't want you to know about that

00:51:52.620 stuff. They don't want you to know about the free stuff. No way. Yeah. They want you to buy solar,

00:51:59.940 buy a big windmill. Well, for me, it's buy oil. They want me to pay for oil. Cause we have an oil

00:52:06.020 boiler that heats our water that goes on radios. They want $5. And I think last time was $5 and 19 cents.

00:52:14.060 We paid per gallon to be able to fill up our 500, uh, gallon tanks, you know, so it adds up pretty

00:52:22.320 quick and they're not allowed to let that money go. No way. Yeah. It's kids, put your puffy jackets

00:52:28.040 on, puffy jackets and sleeping bags underneath the covers every night. Well, I kind of feel like

00:52:34.660 his fathers and I know your father is like, that's our, that's our fatherly duty to our children is to

00:52:39.280 say, toughen up. Don't mess with the thermostat. Don't mess with the remote. That is my domain as

00:52:44.280 a father. That's right. Yeah. Don't touch my shit. That's right. Yeah. Better way. More, more, uh, a

00:52:51.040 very more poignant way to say that don't touch my shit. You know, the other thing I wanted to address

00:52:55.740 too, and I know we're not getting into a lot of these cause I figured, you know what guys can just

00:52:59.120 go up and, and pick up a copy of the book. We don't need to go through the book for a item. They can do

00:53:03.160 that. It's like reading a PowerPoint. It's like, I don't need you to read it for me. I can just go buy the

00:53:06.580 book and read it myself. That's right. Yeah. Um, but I'm, I'm very interested in, in this idea of

00:53:12.800 just incremental improvement. Cause I think a lot of the times when people think of, uh, you know,

00:53:17.860 becoming your own butcher, which is one of the things you talk about or becoming your own hunter

00:53:21.120 or your own power grid or farmer or builder or protector, all these things, handyman is like,

00:53:25.640 they think let's take handyman that I got to go out and I got to buy, you know, $5,000 worth of tools

00:53:31.000 or in order to be able to be self-sustaining, I got to go out and, and buy $2,000 worth of food

00:53:38.140 storage. It's like, no, let's do this incrementally. So I'd love to hear your concepts on this incremental

00:53:43.200 improvement idea. That's right. You, the book is designed so that you can just do one step at a

00:53:50.120 time. Right. And you treat it like a marathon if you want, or you can do what some people did and

00:53:55.720 move out to the boonies and fail, fail, fail, which is good if you're, if you're built that way.

00:54:01.400 Right. And if you have the means to do it, some people have the means to be able to do that.

00:54:04.760 Right. That's right. It's not cheap being rugged. Uh, I, I, I even have a budget broken down at the

00:54:10.500 back of the book. It costs money to be self-reliant and in the long run, you will probably break even,

00:54:18.260 but at the beginning, no, you got to have money to pull it off. So that's, that's really important.

00:54:23.560 I joke with my wife. I'm like, those eggs that you get from your chickens are the most expensive

00:54:29.520 eggs I have ever bought in my life. And she's like, I know, I know. But at first she said,

00:54:34.540 it's going to be cheaper. I'm like, no, it's, it's not hunting is not cheaper. Like, let's be

00:54:39.060 really clear about that right now. Anyways, I interrupt when there is no other option. Yes.

00:54:45.360 Those eggs are very cheap, but, uh, but yeah, but so yeah, you, I, I, this book, once again,

00:54:54.160 it's a book of options and you get to pick and choose, um, what you want to have options for.

00:55:01.000 And yes, handyman is a good place to start because you can use whatever tools you have

00:55:08.360 to start tinkering, start learning how things work again, and then how to troubleshoot them.

00:55:14.600 And then from there, let it grow. And before you know it, you'll, you'll be far more advanced than

00:55:21.520 your neighbor, no doubt about it. Right. And you can start by, okay, you know, the garage door opener

00:55:28.500 or your air conditioning. I mean, these are things that are overwhelming. Maybe if you look at it,

00:55:33.560 break it down at first, but a majority of the problems that any of these units have are very

00:55:42.780 repairable by the average person, you know, but we tend to call someone and, you know, we want the

00:55:49.440 expert to do it because we lack the confidence. But if you're, if you're of the mindset where you're

00:55:54.120 willing to fail a couple of times, um, in the failure, you're going to learn a lot and then you're

00:55:59.820 going to, you know, become really good at it. You know, I put in there, the reason I started

00:56:04.360 handyman and with, with a little bit of science is basic electronics and electricity, right?

00:56:10.340 This is something that, you know, we've kind of forgotten because technology, I mean, let's face

00:56:16.300 it, it's pretty damn reliable for the most part, you know, you don't sound like, Oh, I got a trouble.

00:56:20.920 I'm going to break my iPhone apart and fix it. Not that you could. Right. I mean, that's,

00:56:25.800 that's taking it. That's the next level shit right there. Yeah. But, um, you know,

00:56:31.060 The breaking part is easy. I can do that all day long. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Me too.

00:56:35.380 It's the fixing you got to worry about. Right. That's when you buy the insurance.

00:56:39.860 That's right. But, you know, getting, using your hands again and troubleshooting anything around your

00:56:47.260 house, you know, but the big thing is basic electronic, the reason I covered basic electronics

00:56:54.280 electricity because it can kill you. Um, and it is the basis for most of the things we use. So

00:56:59.620 having an understanding of it, knowing the do's and don'ts, um, will prepare you so that when it's

00:57:06.220 time to switch out the ceiling fan or switch out a light fixture, uh, anything that has a current

00:57:12.060 flow into it, then at least you'll be a little more prepared and ready than, than watching a YouTube

00:57:17.540 video, you know, and, and figuring it out as you go, you can read that chapter and it will set you up

00:57:24.360 for the best possible chance of success, you know, leveraging whatever else you've got around you as

00:57:30.840 well. But it's really just getting guys back to being guys again, you know, and, and gals it's the

00:57:36.300 book is for everyone, but I mean, there, there are certain aspects of the book that allow us to be

00:57:43.100 what we used to be. And, uh, and, and some of that is a little more analog, like I said, at the

00:57:48.340 beginning, but analog is, is always going to work when the digital goes down and I'm using that very,

00:57:54.940 you know, that's a big analogy there. Sure. Right. Yeah. How do you keep yourself from being

00:58:01.300 overwhelmed? Because there's an endless list of things that need to be done around the house.

00:58:05.440 There's an endless list of supplies that you feel like you might need given any scenario,

00:58:09.620 you know, and then the other thing that I often think about is, is it worth it for me to figure

00:58:15.780 this out? And nine times out of 10, if I'm comparing it to my ability to earn an income per hour, for

00:58:22.900 example, then yeah, I'm not going to change the oil in my truck. Like it's not financially practical

00:58:30.140 for me to do. You're right. Time. We're back to time again, right? If I have time, then yeah,

00:58:36.780 I'll do it myself. But if my time is better used making money and then spending a fraction of it

00:58:42.780 to have some of these things done, then by all means do so, but make sure you at least know

00:58:48.920 what's going on with whatever it is you're spending money on. Right. And good point.

00:58:53.580 Because then if, if, if you do end up having to do it yourself, because you know, there's no,

00:58:58.640 there's no one available or whatever the reason is, well, at least you know how, you know how to change

00:59:02.900 oil on your car. Right. I grew up doing it too. Like my dad, I was his, I was his gopher,

00:59:07.320 right. Everything, you know, it was like, you know, grabbing certain wrenches, grabbing this,

00:59:12.360 grabbing that. I was the gopher my entire childhood while my dad, you know, he's an engineer and he's

00:59:18.760 one of these guys that could tear an engine block apart and put it back together and never once look

00:59:22.800 at anything. Right. He just knew how things worked. And I was always fascinated by that. I would ask him

00:59:28.120 all the time. Like, yeah, you know, why aren't you using that? I forgot those mechanic manuals

00:59:32.800 that used to be really popular source of the T Tom's or, uh, I don't even know. That's not my

00:59:38.800 realm of my, of specialty. I have no idea. Like I am not mechanically inclined at all. So like,

00:59:44.040 forget about, maybe I should be based on what you're talking about. Maybe I should learn more

00:59:47.440 of this stuff. Well, that's the key. I think just take in a little bit, not a lot. And when you're

00:59:51.300 talking about, you know, getting overwhelmed, you know, priorities, right. What's okay. What are some

00:59:56.000 life support items? Okay. Those are probably the things I should do first. Right. If it's,

01:00:01.380 you know, climate control in the home. Yeah. Put your time into those. If it's food, then yeah.

01:00:06.540 Water, you know, water is a neat man. A water was really cool with some of these families. I mean,

01:00:12.880 imagine give a, I put a math, I put some math in here too. There's science, there's math,

01:00:17.760 but the math equation in the, in there for a water catchment. Right. So if you have a thousand

01:00:24.920 square foot roof, you've already got gutters around it that then take the rain and push it

01:00:29.220 into a downpipe downpipe, then usually, you know, goes either into a French drain or, or just,

01:00:35.120 just gushes right there all over the, all over your yard, wherever you have it inside of your house.

01:00:39.680 But if you were to redirect that into food, save containers, these big water containers that you

01:00:44.900 can get now for really cheap, um, you can start storing your own water, right. And one inch of rain

01:00:52.600 on a thousand square foot roof. Okay. Is 600 plus gallons of free water. Right. One inch of rain,

01:01:02.140 one inch of rain. Yeah. I mean, and so if you live in even the most air climates like Arizona,

01:01:07.760 it only gets 12 inches of rain a year, only 12 inches. But if you've got 2,500 roughly gallons of

01:01:15.640 water on a small rooftop on a small rooftop, yeah. You just have to get the containment for it figured

01:01:22.900 out. And you might want to take pantyhose and put it over your gutter. So you keep the bird poop and

01:01:26.940 the leaves and the dirt out, and you'd still want to have flavor. That's just flavor. Nutrients,

01:01:32.720 you know, nitrogen, high in nitrogen. Um, but you know, you, you put some filtration systems in,

01:01:39.020 which are cheap now too. You know, the other thing I learned, once again, modern guide to self

01:01:43.360 reliance, the RV world, you know, like the RV world has great bad-ass technology that uses almost

01:01:55.380 zero electricity. It's super small and you can put it anywhere. Right. Right. Right. Most of it,

01:02:02.240 most of it is 12 volts or less. And if you want hot water in an RV, it's using a tankless water heater.

01:02:11.100 That's about the size of a damn book. Right. You know, it's, it's amazing. And it's inexpensive ways

01:02:17.820 to bring some of that modern stuff into a more rural setting, a cabin. If you choose to go off grid,

01:02:24.700 where what something draws is everything. You know, when I say draw, how much electricity does one

01:02:31.920 item pull and you use, you know, you got to do some math and go, okay, I know that, you know,

01:02:37.780 what my deep freezer it's draw is. I know my refrigerator draw. I know what my washer draw is.

01:02:44.720 I'm going to skip the dryer. Cause that's too big of a draw. The wife, isn't going to use a hairdryer 1.00

01:02:49.200 cause that's way big. You know, it still amazes me why hairdryers still have such a huge draw,

01:02:54.340 right? That's the woman's domain. Just don't ask about it. Just deal with it. And then when you 1.00

01:03:01.840 ever asked, she's going to say, well, don't you like me to look good? And you just say,

01:03:04.760 yes, hon, I do. You're right. I'm wrong. And you just leave it at that.

01:03:09.980 But I think you're getting my point. There's a lot of great ways, a lot of great ways to kind

01:03:14.560 of implement some ruggedness into your current lifestyle, whether you live in New York city,

01:03:19.580 some, you know, suburb here in North Dallas or out in the boonies. I mean, there is something to

01:03:25.140 be gained from this book by just taking one step at a time. You don't have to dive into it.

01:03:29.620 Yeah. I'm actually very interested in the water. You know, we, with our property, we have seven

01:03:37.160 wells on our property. And that's because the people that we bought this from, they would buy

01:03:43.620 up parcels that came available within the area. And so the property just grew and grew and grew and

01:03:48.520 expanded. And each one of these parcels had their own well. And so we've just over time acquired all

01:03:54.020 these wells, which has been really cool. So all of our water is well water, but I've never really

01:03:59.480 thought about the containment idea. And obviously we have tons of rainfall. We have a ton of snowfall

01:04:04.120 like, man, that's just, we've got a stream out there. Like this is just water that we're not

01:04:09.320 capturing to be able to utilize. If, if, you know, we need it for some reason, that's, I'm gonna have

01:04:15.420 to look into that a little bit more. Yeah. I would say you're in an environment where water isn't

01:04:20.320 a struggle. So no, it's not a big deal. Yeah. For you versus someone in Arizona or New Mexico,

01:04:26.460 you know, you, you're not worried about containing it as much as someone down there. Right. Or even

01:04:32.320 I'm worried about filtration here. It's like, okay, I want to be able to filter that water out.

01:04:36.400 If I got to get water out of the stream, which we could do it all year round. It's like, how do I

01:04:41.180 filter that water to make sure we're not picking up Giardia or any of these other bacteria or anything

01:04:46.100 like that? Yeah. And infiltration systems are, I mean, also very cheap these days, really inexpensive

01:04:53.440 and they do a great job. And, um, you know, if you have a stream on the, on the, be your own power

01:04:59.480 grid side, you might want to look into is, uh, if you said, if it's a, if it's a big enough stream,

01:05:04.660 you can build your own spring box. I show you how in the book, build your own spring box.

01:05:09.060 Right. So it's almost like a dam, but it fills with water and then you're going to give it an

01:05:15.860 outlet and it's going to be a small, let's say PVC cut in your concrete spring box that you build

01:05:21.360 and that PVC pipe say it's one and a half, another one and a half, two inch pipe. Right. And you're

01:05:28.200 going to, you're going to connect that to a hydroelectric generator. Okay. And so now the pressure

01:05:36.620 that you've just built in your spring box is now forced down that PVC pipe hooked up to their,

01:05:43.320 your, your hydroelectric generator, which you can get for 1500, you know, obviously you can get

01:05:49.500 really great ones for a lot more, of course, that, and then that hydroelectric generator is

01:05:54.200 electronic hydroelectric generator is then connected to your panel, your fuse panel. Right. So that

01:06:00.540 power for your home and that thing, you know, obviously inside there's a turbine

01:06:06.260 that will start spinning and creating electricity and will provide enough free electricity for most

01:06:14.000 homes. And all you do is do your initial spend, you do your little build out, and then now you've

01:06:19.800 got free electricity for as long as that hydroelectric generator runs. It's pretty cool. It's a cool

01:06:26.580 option. Yeah. I'm gonna have to look into that. I think, I think our little stream here would

01:06:30.700 generate enough power to like power that light for 20 minutes. Okay. All right. Yeah. Yeah. For,

01:06:37.620 for, for like eight months out of the year. And then the other four, it's not running at all. So

01:06:41.740 it's just like a runoff little crick that runs through her, but it's an interesting idea. There's

01:06:46.240 so many different interesting ideas that get you thinking about like how this might work and how you

01:06:51.380 may be able to generate additional electricity off the grid or even just like do without, you know,

01:06:57.560 I think that's actually one of the greatest things that we can do is do without that. Like what,

01:07:03.100 how would your life change if you did without that? Or how would your finances change if you didn't

01:07:07.080 spend an extra two, three, $500 a month and just cutting things out? Right. Right. Kind of like

01:07:13.920 what, you know, what's the first step that you brought as a financial advisor, like stop buying

01:07:18.100 Starbucks every day. Yeah. Yeah. That's the first step to say there's a skit like years ago. I think

01:07:24.700 it was Steve Martin and it's hilarious. You should look it up. The skit is called like, don't buy

01:07:30.720 things you can't afford. It's hilarious. I'll, I'll leave it to you guys to look it up, but go look it

01:07:35.460 up. It's cause it's funny. Anyways. Hey, Clint, I appreciate you, man. I always enjoy our conversations

01:07:40.660 guys. If you can go pick up a copy of the book, the rugged life, you're not going to be disappointed. A lot of

01:07:45.420 good information in here. And then obviously wherever books are sold, but Clint, you also have

01:07:50.000 a podcast that I like. Um, I listened to your podcast every couple of weeks or so. And one of

01:07:55.700 my favorite is with our mutual friend, Mike Ritland. And I was listening to you too. And it's just like,

01:08:00.620 I was laughing the whole time. Cause it was so like irreverent and like politically incorrect.

01:08:06.880 And you're talking about like running people over and it's just hilarious, but also practical.

01:08:13.020 So if you want to plug that or anything else, let us know, man.

01:08:16.960 Yeah, I appreciate it. Uh, it's one, it's good coming back and hanging out with you as well. I

01:08:21.240 do. I do enjoy it. Um, and you know, and again, you know, awesome on all your success and, you know,

01:08:27.300 the big names you're drawing in. That's super cool. Um, and as for me as a novice, you know,

01:08:33.380 and very junior podcast host to you, um, can you survive this podcast is much different than,

01:08:40.140 uh, most of the others out there, you know, the first part of it is just a rapid fire to get warmed

01:08:44.900 up. And it's a lot of fun because it forces people to choose. And then, uh, their why is

01:08:50.040 sometimes pretty funny or you learn a lot. Um, and then of course we get into a survival scenario.

01:08:56.080 And as you mentioned, sometimes it's, uh, you know, you got to run people over in order to get

01:08:59.940 yourself out of danger. And that's the kind of, that's the kind of scenarios people face. And so,

01:09:04.680 uh, it's, it's a lot of fun. It's, can you survive this podcast? But if, if people are

01:09:09.460 interested in all the things I have going on, just go to clintemerson.com and the whole ecosystem

01:09:14.420 is over there. We'll sync it all up. Believe it or not, I was actually on your podcast before it was

01:09:19.680 your podcast. So I was on the, can you survive this podcast years and years ago? Right. We should

01:09:25.040 have you, we actually should have you come back. I don't know if we should, because the guys that you

01:09:28.880 have on are infinitely more qualified than I am. And I would probably just screw everything up and get

01:09:34.640 myself and my family and everybody around me killed. So, uh, that's, that's, that's what

01:09:39.660 we're looking at. Anyways, man, I appreciate you. It's always good to be able to have these

01:09:43.500 conversations. I really appreciate our friendship and I'm a big supporter of you guys. Um, man,

01:09:49.080 guys, if you can support Clint in any way, and you want to learn something from this guy,

01:09:52.280 like this is the man to do it. So appreciate you, brother. I appreciate you. Thanks for having me

01:09:56.520 and be safe out there. All right, guys, there you go. My conversation with the one and only

01:10:02.060 former Navy SEAL, New York times, bestselling author, host of, can you survive this podcast?

01:10:06.780 Mr. Clint Emerson. I hope you enjoyed the conversation. I know I always do. This was a

01:10:11.260 three or maybe even a four Pete with Clint, uh, because I do always value his insight and perspective

01:10:16.140 and the things that he shares. So if you would please go pick up a copy of the rugged life,

01:10:20.260 that's his new book just came out last week. So pick up a copy of that, connect with him on the

01:10:25.340 gram, uh, take a screenshot, tag him, tag me, let him know where you're coming from,

01:10:30.520 that you heard his conversation here on the order of man podcast that goes a long way in letting him

01:10:35.400 know that he's appreciated. And also that, uh, you guys found him through us. It's a win, win,

01:10:41.260 win. So please do that again. Tag me. If you take a screenshot of this, tag me and let me know,

01:10:45.980 and I'll do my best to, to share and repost as well. Leave that rating and review, check out the

01:10:50.280 store, buy a copy of the rugged life. And those are your marching orders. All right, guys,

01:10:56.140 we'll be back tomorrow with my cohost, Kip Sorensen until then go out there, take action

01:11:00.340 and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.

01:11:05.360 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

01:11:09.120 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - May 31, 2022

CLINT EMERSON ｜ Self-Reliance and the Value of the Rugged Life

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