00:12:48.640And just like you said, I follow the UFC sometimes.
00:12:50.980I'm a martial artist. I enjoy watching other men be able to implement martial arts at the highest
00:12:57.340level. But there's a balance, right? If you're passionate about fighting, how often are you on
00:13:02.040the mats? How often are you in the gym? If you're passionate about football or golf,
00:13:06.100how often are you out pursuing that sport or that activity? And I always want to be cognizant of
00:13:12.900that because it's easy to get stuck in that trap where now we're watching other men go out there
00:13:17.720and chase their dreams and we're vicariously living through them and so it's a funny story
00:13:22.740there was a team of men a team of four men that rode from new york city to london last summer
00:13:29.320and it took them 55 days and i have it pulled up on my phone here i don't know if you can see that
00:13:35.200slightly yeah it's a little it's a little kind of blown out but this guy's name was uh or this
00:13:42.700guy's name is there we go yeah his name is jack jarvis and he's an english guy and i saw them
00:13:50.660rowing across the atlantic and they had a star link so they could upload content and show the
00:13:55.440like share the voyage through social media yeah i was fascinated by it i've always wanted to sail
00:14:01.980the world i'm called to the ocean i grew up on a commercial fishing boat in alaska and so that's
00:14:07.740been part of, of who I've been since I was a little boy. And I've always wanted to move back
00:14:12.300to that, but you know how it goes. Life happens. And I was in the military deploying police work.
00:14:17.620And like that passion just got put on the back burner as my kids were little and, and, and life
00:14:22.980was transpiring. And then I watched these guys and I couldn't get it out of my head. I was like,
00:14:28.000that's one of the wildest adventures I've ever watched. And the more I watched them, the more I
00:14:34.420realize, well, I don't want to start vicariously living through them. I want, if this is something
00:14:41.880that feels exciting and I, and I feel passionate around it. And most importantly, I feel a calling
00:14:46.860like there's something inside of me that's like, you should do that. And I think that's another
00:14:51.840thing that a lot of men don't listen to when that little voice inside or that giant voice inside of
00:14:57.420you says, Hey, you should do that. Don't, don't discredit that. Like when that voice, when you're
00:15:04.260calling, it inspires you to be part of something or pursue something, go do that. And so I started
00:15:10.020feeling that as like, man, I could do something like this. And I started looking into the logistics
00:15:16.220of it, started looking into the boats. And, uh, I actually reached out to those guys on via
00:15:22.520Instagram and was like, Hey, I watched you guys row the Atlantic and it motivated me so much.
00:15:27.840I'm a West coast guy. I'm going to do, I'm going to do the Pacific next summer. And, uh, they're,
00:15:32.660they're cool as shit, man. They're like, dude, let's hop on a zoom. We'll tell you about the
00:15:36.160journey. We'll tell you about our lessons learned and however we can help you out. And we ended up
00:15:40.980doing that. And then I bought the boat and started training. Oh, so that's the same boat they used.
00:15:46.520It's the, it's not the same manufacturer, but it's the exact same model of boat.
00:15:51.160Got it. And they're an ocean rowing boat that again, no sails, no engine. It's just a deck
00:15:58.080with oar locks and oars and then a cabin in the aft and the stern for sleeping two solar panels
00:16:05.240to power the mission and uh and that's it it's very bare bones solar power for internet for
00:16:12.720uploading content for being able to contact loved ones like that that's what it's lighting that's
00:16:17.220what it's for yeah and then there's also some safety considerations the boat has a ais system
00:16:22.280on it and a bhf radio on it as well and how this system works is if any other vessel comes within
00:16:28.900three miles of us we both get an alert and then it puts us in communication with each other because
00:16:34.800that's the biggest concern out there you don't want some cargo ship coming from china or something
00:16:39.920that yeah that's that's going at 30 knots and so it's and here's the thing it's very primal in one
00:16:47.360hand we're going out into the unknown and we're rowing across the ocean and men have been doing
00:16:51.620that since the beginning of time, right? Yeah. But with that in mind, we do have modern technology
00:16:57.420available and I have a family at home. I have a bunch of kids. We're going to take the necessary
00:17:02.280measures to make the journey as safe as possible as well. So when you say no support, what do you
00:17:08.200mean by that? Because obviously you've got your radios, you've got emergency backup systems. I
00:17:12.540don't know if there's going to be other boats rolling with you or along the journey. Yeah,
00:17:15.620No, no other vessels supporting the mission. Right. A lot of times you will see guys cross oceans as part of a, uh, as part of like a, an event where they're racing each other and whatnot. And I'm not diminishing that at all. It's that's also fascinating. They're on the ocean for two months. They're doing the thing. Right. But a lot of times the races do have support out there. So if something comes up, they're able to, I mean, there's been times when people have had to been rescued and whatnot. And so, but this is an unsupportable
00:17:45.620mission. And so because it's unsupported, we're taking every single precaution that we can.
00:17:50.500We bought the right vessel that can support an unsupported mission. And yeah, we're going for
00:17:56.880it. We leave in like, I think 43 days. So is there, so, you know, when I hear this,
00:18:02.660number one, I'm a man and the guys listening to this are men. So they're like, that's bad-ass.
00:18:07.980And then my logical brain kicks in and I'm like, wait, he's got, you're married, right? You've
00:18:15.400got kids, you're married, right? So it's like married, married with three kids. Yeah. So it's
00:18:19.720like, is this reckless? And how do you, how do you reconcile that? Um, that's, that's certainly
00:18:26.460something that, you know, me and my family had to talk about, you know, like you can see behind me,
00:18:31.820I have the William Wallace poster. We're in my podcast studio and I can tell you, I watched
00:18:38.600Braveheart when I was 14 years old, when it came out in the theater. And I remember just being
00:18:43.920called to wanting to be a warrior and uh ever since that i did i ended up pursuing that life
00:18:51.800i became an army ranger i was a second ranger battalion did a tremendous amount of time
00:18:56.640overseas in iraq and afghanistan during the g-watt and then i got married and then i had kids
00:19:03.060and and i'm not diminishing that but my own spirit of adventure was put on the back burner for a
00:19:10.160while. And I think we have to prioritize different things at different phases of our life. But
00:19:15.500something that I preach on my podcast and to my jiu-jitsu academy is a lot of men put the needs
00:19:20.500of their family and their children above themselves to the point where it's actually detrimental.
00:19:27.320Now, I fully understand we have to prioritize our kids and our families. We have to keep them fed.
00:19:33.240We have to house them. Like all of those things are really important. But I also think it's
00:19:37.940important for men to prioritize their own goals, their own dreams. And because at the end of the
00:19:43.880day, our kids will get to have their life. This is your life. And I also think by pursuing the
00:19:49.140things that call to us and the things that excite us, we're actually showing them that that's how
00:19:54.720you do live as a human being. This is our one chance on earth in the, uh, in the meat covered
00:20:00.160skeleton, as I call it. So I'm going to do some meat covered skeleton shit. And that involves
00:20:05.780adventure you know and people are called a lot of weird things mountaineering wingsuit flying
00:20:11.540jujitsu like a lot of our hobbies and our aspirations come with a certain amount of danger
00:20:15.920but the the spirit of adventure is inherent to being a human being like you're never going to
00:20:23.600see a bear at the top of mount everest if a bear is walking up the mountain the air gets thin
00:20:29.560they get tired there's no food up here they're like what am i doing i'm going back down the
00:20:35.280human being is the only one that says, I'm going to keep going up just to see what I can find.
00:20:40.040And that's always fascinated me. I don't know if you watched the documentary 14 Peaks with Nims
00:20:44.900Persia. I know I'm familiar with him. I, and I've seen some of his stuff on YouTube, but I have not
00:20:50.660watched that documentary. Oh bro. Do yourself a favor and watch that 14. And again, it's 14 peaks.
00:20:57.160It's a man that's doing something that most people in his life say that's preposterous.
00:21:02.420why would you do that? And he listened to his calling. And I think it's an important thing to
00:21:07.840do for men. And, and here's the thing too, my daughters are now 11, 14 and 16. Okay. And so
00:21:14.120I understand when they're small and when they're babies, like the, you have to be a lot more
00:21:18.300present, but now that they're older and they're, I mean, my 16 year old is pretty much self
00:21:23.100sufficient. She's like another parent in the household. She helps us out, take driving the
00:21:27.120kids around and cooking dinner and stuff. Having your first daughter is always the best. I'm,
00:21:31.840I, my, my oldest is not my daughter. She's my third. Okay. But when I, when I talk with guys
00:21:37.180are like, Oh, my oldest is a daughter. I'm like, that's actually a pretty good deal. Cause you
00:21:40.100have another mom in the house. You do. And it's crazy. And it's funny too, because my oldest is
00:21:46.280also like a saint. I know everybody thinks their kids are perfect. Right. But I'm telling you,
00:21:51.180my oldest is responsible. She's motivated. She goes to school full time. She works full time
00:21:56.320and she really helps the household out she takes after my wife my other two my 14 year old and my
00:22:04.20011 year old are wild animals they take after me right right yeah mom gets the first one you get
00:22:10.180the follow-ups yeah but the thing is like i talked to them and my two older daughters are in full
00:22:15.640support they're like yeah dad go go pursue your adventure i think that's cool my youngest is a
00:22:20.600little nervous about it rightfully so sure but i told her too i said i wouldn't be doing this
00:22:25.420because some people ask me like, is this a suicide mission? And the answer to that is
00:22:30.400absolutely not. I've prayed on this. I've visualized. I already know that it's a mission
00:22:35.780success. I know that I will be stepping foot on the island of Maui. What I don't know is what the
00:22:41.740journey is going to entail from point A to point B. And stepping into the unknown is something that
00:22:48.360is good for us. Everybody wants to have all their I's dotted and their T's crossed and understand
00:22:54.700how everything is going to transpire in their life. And sometimes you just say, fuck it,
00:22:59.880let's go do something and see what happens. And that's, I'm still healthy enough. I'm 45 years
00:23:05.760old. So I'm getting up there. Like we talked about, you know, our hair's receding a little
00:23:10.040bit. I got more wrinkles, but my body is still fit and strong. And I want to be able to capitalize
00:23:15.420on some of these adventures before I'm 65 years old and tell myself could have, should have,
00:23:20.220would've. I look, I don't, please take this with the respect I'm asking it. I don't want to be a
00:23:26.860pessimist, but I also want to ask you really thoughtful questions that maybe nobody has
00:23:30.680asked you before. Of course. What, what would, what could possibly happen that would cause you
00:23:36.920to quit? I guess we'll find out like, as I sit here now and think about the journey, my answer
00:23:47.500is nothing. Right. What if something was, was rough at home? Like you wouldn't, you wouldn't
00:23:52.660say, Hey, I'm done. I'm coming home. No, no. I've already told my family, like I'm committed to
00:23:58.380this. I mean, my, my team of four men, we even said if someone were to die on the boat, you get
00:24:03.780a burial at sea and, and we continue to mission success. And I know that all of them agreed to
00:24:10.320that. And I know that that's dark on one hand, but I actually think that mission success would
00:24:17.080be even more important to be able to honor our fallen comrade, you know? And so, and I'm also
00:24:24.780not delusional now though, there are things that could transpire out there that would require us
00:24:30.960to, to throw the towel in, but here's the other side of it. Rescue out there is days or weeks
00:24:37.680away as well. And so it's not like, Oh, this sucks. I quit. Right. That's, that's not going
00:24:43.520cool. You got two more weeks to struggle through it. So you might as well keep rowing, you know,
00:24:48.840and obviously there's a couple of things that if they were to go wrong, mission, mission success
00:24:56.300is now an impossibility. Like we're bringing two water makers, you bring desalinators and you
00:25:02.860literally just draw water out of the ocean, run it through the desalinator. And then that's how
00:25:07.200you drink because there's no way you could bring that much weight in water for a 70 day journey.
00:25:12.700so like and i bought two brand new desalinators i shouldn't have an issue i'm not foreseeing it
00:25:19.180being an issue but at the same time if something were to happen you can't make water obviously
00:25:23.700that's a deal breaker yeah what about food are you guys bringing dehydrated meals and yep you're
00:25:29.880not getting any food drops or food food supplies or anything throughout the trip no no so what
00:25:34.900we're doing is we're bringing 70 days worth of food that's going to be freeze dried and you
00:25:40.440literally just pack the whole of the boat with it. And it's all dehydrated. So it's like, exactly
00:25:46.060right. Yep. And so you reconstitute it as you eat it. Um, we're also bringing a spear gun and a
00:25:53.620fishing pole. And one of the guys on the team is from Maui. And so he's an avid spear fisherman.
00:25:59.940He's one of those freaks with like a five minute breath hold goes down a hundred feet. And, uh,
00:26:04.780and so we foresee eating a lot of fish on the journey as well there's like a clam shell
00:26:11.640solar oven that you can buy you just open it up and it works like a magnifying glass it reflects
00:26:17.180the sun ray right into the the spot where the meat sits and you can just cook oh so you don't
00:26:22.880have any fuel like propane gas anything like that it we're probably going to bring a jet boil
00:26:30.740with some canisters just to be able to heat up water, make coffee and whatnot.
00:26:35.520But no, we don't foresee that being a method of actually cooking food out there.
00:26:42.900Some teams bring like a big cauldron and a propane stove and whatnot.
00:26:47.620So it just depends on how you want to utilize your space and what equipment you want to bring.
00:26:52.880Would you call yourself more of a purist in that way?
00:26:59.320Like I'm not saying that you would like necessarily compare yourself to somebody who might have propane or might have electricity or a generator, for example.
00:27:09.020But would you would you call yourself more of a purist in that way or how would you compare to that?
00:27:13.400I don't know if I want it. I would call it a purist. I'm thinking about just longevity and convenience. Right.
00:27:19.560I think if we're to invest in a solar oven, that's going to work for the duration of the trip no matter what, as opposed to bringing a bunch of canisters of fuel.
00:27:30.620And then it's another thing to have to measure and keep track of because that's the whole journey.
00:27:38.800You're making sure your batteries are getting filled each day through the solar panel.
00:27:44.620And most teams will tell you that is the biggest consideration.
00:27:47.460power coming in versus power going out sure you have to manage that it's interesting because i
00:27:53.780often talk about it in the context of what it means to be a man and i've got a lot of definitions
00:28:00.160but one of the definitions that i have is a boy becomes a man when he learns to produce more than
00:28:05.420he consumes we're all consumers but if you can if you can outproduce your consumption then you're a
00:28:11.260man. Yeah, no, I like that. And that's like a physical, that's a physical representation of
00:28:17.840those ethos, you know? Absolutely. How do you guys, how are you guys going to keep from killing
00:28:22.340each other? It's funny you say that we have made a team pact. And again, it's easy to say this when
00:28:29.280you're rowing around Lake Stevens here doing training rows, but we've made a team pact that
00:28:34.340the goal of the journey is to remain respectful to one another throughout the entire duration
00:28:42.640because conflict, I mean, we're not going to fight each other out there. We're all jujitsu guys too,
00:28:47.820right? Like everybody could kill each other. Everybody's tough dudes out there. Right. But
00:28:52.920here's the thing. Disrespect is only going to lead to further conflict. Right. And so what we said is,
00:28:59.960Hey, if we have to have a hard conversation because someone's not pulling their weight or just whatever, whatever may transpire out there where we need to have a difficult conversation, we've already set the guidelines is that like, if you're doing something that the team thinks is not up to par with our ethos and what we're trying to do, we're going to have a conversation about it.
00:29:21.980but it's indicative on each individual rower to make sure that you're trying your hardest to live
00:29:29.880to those ethos of zero conflict. That doesn't mean you can't feel anger or fear. That doesn't
00:29:35.960mean you can't fucking scream at the night sky and curse God. I foresee feeling the full gamut
00:29:44.340of emotions out there, fear, anger, frustration, but also joy, elation, brotherhood. We're going
00:29:50.980experience them all. But when we're in the when we're in the vibration of the what you would call
00:29:57.060the negative or the negative emotions or bad emotions, we want to be very intentional, feel
00:30:03.040those sit with them, communicate them and make sure that we just maintain respect. Because the
00:30:09.580second I've been I've been a part of a lot of high functioning teams over the years. Yeah. And very
00:30:15.120high stress environments exactly and having the foundation of your team being respect you can get
00:30:21.940through almost anything and so that's one of the goals and we're we're gonna try and outline and
00:30:27.960have like a system to where it's like hey these days johnny gets to pick the music on these days
00:30:35.000i get to pick the music and have everything be kind of planned out ahead of time so we don't get
00:30:39.740in any tiffs over petty bullshit like that because when the stress is high the petty bullshit has a
00:30:46.620bigger seat at your table right so we're trying to we're trying to get ahead of that kind of stuff
00:30:50.960and a perfect example johnny goes well i think on my days that i get to pick the music i'm going to
00:30:55.980choose silence he goes i'm trying to get out there he goes i want my music to be the ocean
00:31:01.600and so we're like all right on johnny's days we row in silence and on my days maybe we listen to
00:31:08.220a book on tape or a podcast uh joshua another man podcast yeah that's right this episode just
00:31:15.940on repeat that's right everybody's like shut the hell up i'm so sick of this episode
00:31:20.440but like joshua uh his children made him a playlist to remind him of them and he goes on
00:31:28.560my days that's something that i'm excited to listen to to help me feel connected to my children
00:31:33.100and so all these little things we're trying to get ahead of and i'm not delusional either
00:31:37.420there's going to be we'll probably be at each other's throats by day three yeah i get that
00:31:42.660right but another thing is is i've been through the cycle of deployment a lot i did 14 deployments
00:31:50.040to iraq afghanistan and and so and there's always a caveat to that the units i was with we did 90
00:31:56.780day rotations got it still though i mean even though the number is times is tough oh bro yeah
00:32:02.540it adds up, right? I left twice, one stateside, one overseas, and that was tough. They were
00:32:07.700longer deployments, but it was tough, man. So let me ask you, from what I saw over and over and
00:32:13.500over, you're excited to deploy. This is what I do. I'm in the army. You deploy, and then you hit the
00:32:20.520ground, and then you're in Afghanistan or Iraq. And I would say the first three to seven, three
00:32:29.000to 10 days you're like i miss my girlfriend am i gonna get killed what's what's my future and like
00:32:36.940you have all those conversations with yourself and then by days seven to ten you kind of fall
00:32:42.660into your op tempo you accept what you've committed to and then a lot of times the rest of the
00:32:48.100deployments are fun and so i've told the team that and then we've talked to other rowers and they said
00:32:55.360it's almost identical. The first week is going to be the, what are we doing? Why did we commit
00:33:00.960to this? This is stupid. Why are we doing this? I miss my kids. I miss my girlfriend. I miss my
00:33:06.000wife. And then after a week to 10 days, you're like, okay, we're in the groove. The op tempo
00:33:11.480is happening. And that's when the journey becomes enjoyable. And it's also, if you watch any of
00:33:16.500those survival shows, you watch like alone is my favorite show. And it's not because I want to
00:33:21.760learn how to make a bow drill fire. It's because I love seeing the psychology of human beings
00:33:26.920when they're being pushed. And you see very often in alone, there's a wave of people that have a
00:33:34.920very hard time within that first week. And so we are anticipating that we're expecting that.
00:33:41.040And I'm telling the guys, the first week is going to be the hardest. And then after that,
00:33:45.900I think we fall into our groove and then we just strive towards mission accomplishment.
00:33:50.260it. And Ryan, I'll tell you this too. One of the most exciting things about this whole thing
00:52:06.660And so I did a few more deployments to Baghdad while we were together and then a few more deployments up north in Kurdistan, which don't even count as deployments because there you actually can go out.
00:52:20.820Yeah. But regardless, it's interesting you ask this because the team lineup of men that committed to the row, it changed twice. And both times that it changed was because spouses were carrying a lot of fear around it. Right. And one of them called my wife and she's like, what are our husbands doing? What is this? I don't understand. Right.
00:52:47.840and my wife's response was she goes hey well we pride ourselves on our men being these leaders
00:52:54.620and these these fighters and we joke that like oh we our husbands are like modern day vikings and
00:53:01.440like we we like to say these things as wives but then when our men want to go out and do viking
00:53:07.100shit we don't we can't tame them like we if this is this type of man that you want to be the leader
00:53:13.840of your family and that you want to bear children with, just know that when a sense of adventure
00:53:20.060calls to them, you don't want to tame them because that stands against the man that we
00:53:25.800actually are calling into our lives. That's not what we wanted as women. And for my wife to,
00:53:30.760to understand that, see that and be able to articulate that, it was like, it was awesome
00:53:34.920to see, but still a couple of the other wives were like, uh, I can't get behind this. And I
00:53:41.020told my buddies too i told him i said i have no i'm not upset with you at all for pulling the plug
00:53:47.200on it because the last thing i want is you out in the middle of the ocean feeling an internal
00:53:53.180conflict with your wife and your family back home absolutely we can't yeah we can't have that
00:53:57.800so unless the family's good probably not the best person suited to be on the team right
00:54:04.380and so the next and again it's like call it god call it the universe everything worked out the
00:54:10.180way that it worked out. And the two guys that filled those positions, both of them told me
00:54:16.380when we offered them to be on the team, they said, let me sit with it. Let me talk to God.
00:54:22.400Let me talk to my family. Let me talk to my wife and then give me a week or two to really pray on
00:54:29.340it. And then we'll talk. And they did that. And they were very intentional. They had the support
00:54:34.860of their family. Actually, both the other two guys, their wife told them almost the same story.
00:54:39.960they're like, I think it sounds fucking crazy, but I support you. I support you. If you feel
00:54:46.540like this is something you want to do. In fact, one of them, my buddy from Maui, his wife said,
00:54:51.480she goes, not only do I think, not only do I support you, I think that you should do it.
00:54:56.520I think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And so the team came together in the manner that
00:55:02.440I believe that it should have. So, okay. So let me ask you a couple more questions
00:55:07.740with regards to your wife so number one if randomly i don't think this will happen i can't
00:55:14.580imagine this happening happening but let's let's just play it out for the sake of argument your
00:55:18.000wife came to you and said hey greg i actually don't want you to do this at this point it's a
00:55:25.100foregone conclusion you're doing it you know you're in yeah we have invested i mean i've invested
00:55:31.080probably $130,000 out of pocket already. And then we have some big sponsors that are helping us
00:55:38.520out. Vortex Optics is helping us out. Um, and then we've got a bunch of, oh bro, I love that
00:55:45.320company. If you're not connected with them, I'd love to connect you. I am. I'm actually going out
00:55:49.200there in June to go shoot, do some long range rifle shooting with them. Okay. Are you going
00:55:54.340to connect with Seamus? Seamus. Yeah. Seamus and I are friends. So yeah. Okay. Seamus is the man
00:55:59.900dude. And so I have these companies that have already backed us and it's not just the money
00:56:05.880thing. It's that their name and their ethos are part of this. And we're going full steam ahead
00:56:11.460for sure. My wife would never ask me that even. I know. I know. I threw that out there. I knew
00:56:17.160she wouldn't, but I have to throw out the hypothetical. Of course. Yeah. All right.
00:56:22.620So next question. This one's a little heavier with regards to her. Why does she believe in you
00:56:28.740As tactical as you can get, or as granular, maybe I should say, why does she believe in you?
00:56:34.960You know, and disclaimer, because sometimes I give relationship advice, but I always say like,
00:56:41.960you might want to look at the history of my marriage before you take heed to my advice,
00:56:47.260right? Because my marriage has been a roller coaster, you know, like she was with me through
00:56:51.920the war. And then I came home and like a lot of veterans, I had a phase that was pretty dark.
00:56:56.900And then we had children, which is like a whole new beginning where you're like, what is going on?
00:57:03.580And so like we had a pretty rough patch where we really disconnected as husband and wife and weren't there supporting each other emotionally.
00:57:14.720And I can tell you, like after working through those really dark phases, we're the closest that we've ever been.
00:57:21.420And one thing that my wife has always said to me, she's like, out of the different guys I dated, even my own father, she goes, you're the only guy in the world that I've ever felt safe with.
00:57:34.380And she goes, and that's why right when we started dating, I was drawn to you.
00:57:38.620I was hooked in and like – she goes, the night we met, I knew that you were going to be the one for the rest of my life.