JACK CARR | In the Blood
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 15 minutes
Words per Minute
220.97084
Summary
Jack Carr is a New York Times bestselling author, former Navy SEAL, and author of the James Reese thriller, In the Blood. In this episode, we discuss how to overcome obstacles in your path to success, how to keep your focus on your goals, and how to find the perfect flow for projects and life.
Transcript
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Gentlemen, my guest today is friend, former Navy SEAL, and of course, New York Times
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best-selling author, Jack Carr. We talk about so many different things and take so many
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different routes in this conversation, but all of them are worthy of discussion. Of course,
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we cover his latest book in the James Reese saga. It's called In the Blood, but we also
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get into how to eliminate distractions and maintain focus, how to keep yourself from
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getting tripped up with obstacles on your path to success, also leading properly through
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effective communication, how writing can serve as a therapeutic practice, and also how to
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find the perfect flow for projects and life. You're a man of action. You live life to the
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fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you
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get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient,
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strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end
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of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler. I'm your host, and I'm the
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founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. Guys, we've got some very, very exciting things
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in the works, and I'm excited, as I said, to introduce those things to you. I can't give
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you all of the details on all of the things that we're working on, but what I will say
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is I'm extremely, extremely grateful for your support. You guys are tuning in, you're sharing,
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you're encouraging, you're leaving messages, you're living these principles out, and that's
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exactly what we wanted. So, if you are new to the podcast or the movement in general, this
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is a podcast designed to give you information that you need to thrive as a husband, a father,
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a business owner, a community leader. We have guys like Jack Carr on. Tim Kennedy's coming
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up. Cameron Haynes is coming up. We had Terry Cruz on recently. Tim Tebow, Ben Shapiro. If
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these guys are doing something great, we're having them on the podcast. We're taking their
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practical life information and breaking it down so that we can implement it in our own
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lives. So, I'll get to it with Jack here in a minute. Before I do, just want to mention
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another supporter, another way that we do this is through my friends over at Origin.
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These guys do geese and rash guards and they make boots and they make jeans and they also
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have a supplemental lineup component of the company called Jocko Fuels. So, the Jocko Fuels
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is their milk, which is their protein. They have their go, which is a cognitive enhancing
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drink. I like after burner orange, which is Dave Burke's flavor, his signature flavor, and
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then sour apple sniper, which is JP Donnell's signature flavor. So, I would check those out.
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They just reformulated the formula, the flavor, and they are delicious. You can check that out.
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In addition to their joint warfare, which is the one I use most, it's good on the joints,
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helps lubricate the joints, helps rebuild and strengthen and fortify the cartilage in your
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joints, and it will be good for those aching bones. All right, guys, check it out at
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originusa, originusa, or just origin.com and use the code order, O-R-D-E-R at checkout,
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origin.com, order at checkout. All right, guys, let me get to Jack. He's a good friend. As I said
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earlier, he's a former Navy SEAL. He's a New York Times bestselling author. When he retired from the
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Navy, he started writing and has been on just a meteoric rise with his James Reese thrillers,
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starting with Terminalist. In fact, Terminalist was picked up for TV and none other than Chris Pratt
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is going to be playing the protagonist, James Reese, in an eight-part series that launches July 1st.
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So, make sure you check that out. I've always been so impressed with this man. I enjoy our
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conversation every time we have them. And it goes so much further than his incredible vision and
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creativity and research and writing style that he pours into each book. This is really a guy who knows
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exactly what he wants out of life and has an extremely powerful ability to make it so. Enjoy.
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Jack, it's so good to see you, man. I'm excited to have you back on and have these conversations.
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Man, thank you so much for having me. I'm bummed that I missed you here
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in Utah a couple of weeks ago. We had some plane mechanical issues and I thought it was wind because
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it was so windy that day you were flying in. So, I thought for sure everything's locked down for wind,
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but maybe I'm glad. Maybe it was the best thing that could have happened is that my plane had
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mechanical issues and I didn't get into the windstorms. You know, sometimes that plays out
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pretty well too. You know how windy it is here. You can get down there in Salt Lake sometimes.
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That can be the weather that you see on the planes. But what's that background, man? Are you in a new
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spot or is this the new studio? What do you have back there? It's the new studio. I'm still in my same
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place, but we've tried to ramp up production and I'm trying to get the cameras in place and trying to
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make sure my background keeps up with yours and, you know, all this kind of stuff. So,
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you're building a new studio, aren't you? That's right. That's right. So, it's right outside. It's
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supposed to be done on January 10th of 2022. So, we're a couple months late, but that's just how
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it goes with things like that, you know? So, yeah, it's going to be nice. This will end up being the
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library in here. Podcast studio will be out there and then have a writing space in here that's a little
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separate from all the chaos of kids and wife and dog and in-laws and all the rest of it. So,
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that'll be good. I know how that goes. And I can't even imagine as... So, I am a writer as well.
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I'm a published author, not nearly to the degree of success that you have. But that being said,
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the writing process is very difficult for me. I don't enjoy it, actually. I think like you do. So,
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we'll talk about that. But even still, you know, I can hear my kids playing and my wife's, you know,
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asking questions or whatever. And I'm like, I don't know how Jack does it because I can't do it
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and I hate it. You know what I mean? So, yeah. You cannot have that going on. I mean, for me,
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anyway. I mean, maybe some people can. I heard Malcolm Gladwell talking one time and he said
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that he came up in an era where there were still like sounds when you would type like in the newsroom
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and it was just all this chaos in the background, all this energy in the background. I think now it's a
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lot quieter. Like I've been in a couple news studios and like one in particular, one in Canada
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and everything was robotic. It was like one person up in that. You couldn't even see them
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behind this like last thing up on another level looking down, but everything else, there was no
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like person behind the camera here in the States. They'll get like the people behind the camera,
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at least three or four, but it's still pretty, pretty quiet. And in some of these newsrooms I've
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been in, there's like seas of desks, but there's not that many people working. And then Malcolm Gladwell
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said he came up on a day where it was just chaos all around him. And so he likes that when he writes.
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So he goes to New York coffee shops and he'll write there because of that chaos in the background.
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I cannot have that. I need a uninterrupted time. And even in the house, when I'm getting that
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uninterrupted time, you know, if you still hear those things, like you were talking about playing
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kids, playing outside or whatever else, it's still a distraction. I still feel guilty about not being
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out there with them. But even when I, let's say go downstairs and want to grab a snack. Well, I do that.
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And because I'm not physically typing on something, then everyone else around thinks,
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Oh, he's not working. He's done. Yeah. Right. That's not the case. Uh, so I, this last book,
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I had to rent some Airbnbs here around park city and I found this one. Oh my gosh. It was just this
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log cabin. Everything was set up so efficiently because it was so tiny. It was just a wood burning
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stove. There's a pile of wood outside. I could chop and just tops in that thing, a small couch in front
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of the wood burning stove, a little table to the other side of it, a little kitchen bathroom,
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a bedroom, a little deck around it. And it was so awesome to have everything right there.
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Cause I'd stand up from that kitchen table where I did most of the writing and then turn,
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walk like three steps and I'm in the kitchen. I'm making a sandwich, but I'm still thinking
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about what I was writing. I'm still trying to solve that problem on the written page
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and I'm still thinking and I'm making the sandwich. So I'm still writing just not because I'm not sitting
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there typing or sitting there staring at a screen, trying to figure it out. Certainly doesn't mean
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that I'm not working and not writing. So, uh, I would make that sandwich or whatever it was.
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I'm thinking. And I sit back down, boom, right back at it. But I'm never out of that flow. I'm
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never out of it, never out of the problem. Um, but here at the house, you go downstairs all of a
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sudden, Oh, he's not typing. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You know? And that's just how it
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goes. There's no, there's no way around that. That's just how it is in life. So, you know,
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you can't get mad about it. You just got to rent Airbnbs.
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Well, I, I kind of, I imagine you as like, you know, Ralph Waldo Emerson, you know,
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you're sitting in the log cabin by the lake, or I think Ernest Hemingway spent a lot of time in,
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was it Costa Rica? Well, Cuba, Cuba, that's right. Cuba. And so I see, you know, you sitting,
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sitting by the ocean and having this breeze come in and like free of distractions. And
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that's, that's a good way to do it for sure. It's, it's hard because life is so much more fast
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pace than it's ever been. And, and, and, and challenging. And we have all sorts of technology,
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which is wonderful, but it can be a distraction. It's so hard to cut out the noise and the nonsense.
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And I can't imagine the level at which that comes at you, especially with the level of success that
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you've had over the past, what, five, six years now. Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, I'm as busy as I was
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back then, because I'm still, there's no more hours in the day to pack things into. So I was just as
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busy back then, but I'm still, nothing stopped, you know, there's more of it, but I'm still like,
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those days are still packed. They were packed back then. They're packed now. I guess there's
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more to, there's more to juggle, but there's still the same amount of time to, to do all that in.
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There is a place I go on the East coast that, that does have that view of the, of the water,
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very quiet. And so I love going there to write, but usually I go there with the family. So there's,
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I can only write for very short amounts of time before that chaos comes back, which is wonderful,
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but, uh, those who had to work at home during, uh, you know, lockdowns and things like that
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will probably understand that. Hey, when you close that door to an office in your house,
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it becomes like a magnet for, uh, for kids and dog. It's like, but that door's open
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and they could care less. But as soon as that door closes for whatever reason,
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like that's, it's a magnet for, we want what we can't have, right? Like we're always, if,
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if we can't have it, that's exactly what I want. I want that thing.
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Yeah. That's how it goes. But yeah, things have gotten pretty busy. That's for sure. And, uh,
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yeah, this morning I even run it up here. It was, it was up for like six 15 or something,
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uh, AM radio deal. And then you can't obviously be late for that. Cause it's live
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and then getting the kids up out of bed, zipping to school, heading back. Oh, there was snow on the
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car this morning. So I'm, you know, out there, you know, brushing everything off and then get the
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kids to school a little late and then boom home, a little coffee, and then right upstairs to,
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to jump on this on time. So it's, uh, but I feel so fortunate, you know, uh,
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so fortunate that there are all these things to juggle and, uh, that people are interested in,
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in the books and the show and everything else that's happening. So, uh, I feel extremely fortunate
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every day and just try to take as, as much as many opportunities as I can to, to thank everybody
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to, who, uh, like took a risk on me all those years ago, like you, like you did. And, um, and,
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uh, and then told a friend because that's why I can do what I love doing, which is the writing.
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Yeah. Did, well, I have so many questions, uh, like so many questions. I don't know if I'll have
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enough time in the day to be able to get through all this, but, um, number one, when you're writing
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a new book, is this is in the blood, is it number five? This is five. Crazy. So yeah, that's wild.
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And that's five in what? Five years. Would you say roughly?
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So to 2018, the first one came out terminal list. And then, uh, and then you came up to the house that
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year and, uh, first podcast, hung out for a bit. Um, and we're in a different place. Now we had,
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we rented for a little bit, uh, which was chaos as well, because the, the office where I did the
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podcast, did the writing, did the business, did everything was like a, was a closet. And, uh,
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and it was, I mean, all that merch was spilling out into the bedroom and the kitchen, the living room.
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Uh, now that's outsourced, but, um, but yeah, it's, uh, yeah, 2018. And this is the fifth one and I'm
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working on the sixth one right now. I knew you were a different breed. When we sat down, we did
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our podcast. And then before I left, you're like, Hey, let me get you some, I think you had, you
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had just shot an elk or did your daughter shoot an elk or no, no, that trip. Uh, cause I remember
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exactly when it was in, in, uh, in 2018. And, uh, that was my daughter's elk. Yeah. My daughter just
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got a couple months earlier. So two separate trips. I got one. Then she got one. Yeah.
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I knew you were a different breed. I knew we were kindred spirits. You're like, Hey, before you go,
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let me get you some meat. And you gave me some elk meat. I'm like, okay, that right there,
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that says everything I need to know about this guy. That was awesome. How long does it take you to
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write a book on average from like start to finish? Is that so for me, for a little bit of context, I've,
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I, I published a book in 2017. I've got another one coming out this year for me, like cranking it
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out. I, both of those books I wrote in about a 60 day window and there's 60,000 words each. And I
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just said, I'm gonna write a thousand words per day. That's it. But what, what's your process like
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when it comes to writing a book? Well, I wish it was more like that. Uh, but it is not. Uh, that's,
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and that's fast. That's pretty good. That's dedication right there. You got it done in, uh, in 60 days.
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That's amazing. And let's do a podcast. When your next one comes out, you can tell me when that is,
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uh, for sure later. So release it right around the launch of your next book. That'd be amazing.
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Um, but so it has to take a year now because now I'm on a deadline. So now I have a year
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and really what happens within that year is up, is up to me. Um, I would like to get more efficient
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so that I am done months in advance, uh, and get ahead of the game, but, uh, with, yeah, three kids
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and everything, it's just chaos. Um, so, uh, but I'm not there yet. That was my goal this year to get
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closer. I'm still, my goal is to get closer, uh, to, to having them done, uh, earlier on time,
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but, uh, uh, takes a year. And I come up with the, uh, one page executive summary, kind of like a,
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um, something that tells me, Hey, do I want to spend the next year of my life working on this
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thing? Is this a dedicated year to this? Is this enough? This one page executive summary,
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two paragraphs, whatever it might be, um, enough for me to say, yes, I want to devote a year of my life
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to this. Okay. If the answer to that is yes, then also I need to say, Oh, okay. If someone was to
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read this one page executive summary, or this two page, this two paragraph copy on a book jacket,
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would they want to spend their time that they'll never get back in these pages? And if the answer
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both of those is yes, then bam, I'm all in. I come up with a title, come up with a theme, uh, maybe
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build out that one page executive summary a little bit more, and then start turning that into an
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outline. And I get that outline about as robust as I can without it tripping me up. And that's the,
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that's the art part of it. That's the subjective part of it. Because if I come to say something in,
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uh, and typically I do a prologue, a three parts in an epilogue, like that's kind of my,
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not, not, not every book, but in, in, that's your formula. Most of them. Yes. Not all, but most,
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uh, this one, this one has, um, has more than that. But, um, if I've made it on part two of that
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outline, I'm like, Oh man, this isn't making sense. Or how is this going to make sense? I
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just don't see, I can't connect this dot. I don't spend a day. I don't spend a week. I don't spend
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a, certainly a month worried about that. I just say, you know what? I have a year to do this.
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I'm going to figure it out. And I go around over through that issue and I keep going and get that
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thing as good as I can get it. And then I start turning that into the book, knowing that as I get to
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certain sections, I'm going to go deep dive into doing some research. I'm going to interview people about
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that topic. And as I do that research, and as I think through this plot, and as I get to know the
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characters a little better, most of the time through dialogue with one another, uh, then I
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will figure out this problem. It's not like I'm on the battlefield. I have to make a split second
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decision and people's lives are at stake. No, I can sleep on it. And you know what, if I write
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something and it's not that great, uh, or it doesn't really make sense, I can come back the next day
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and I can fix it. Or I can come back a week later and I can fix it. So, um, I used to take
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a breath and not getting tripped up because I just can't figure out this one thing. Oh,
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I can't figure out this one thing in the prologue. And all of a sudden I've added a month to this
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process because I want to get this one thing right before I move on negative. I will pull up,
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keep going. And I know that as I do this, I have a full year. I will figure that out. I'm confident
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in that. I actually want to scan back as you're saying that because a lot of guys might listen to
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this and they're thinking to themselves, well, you know, I'm never going to write a book. I'm never
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going to be an author. And if that's not something you want to do, who cares? Like no big deal.
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But there's a lesson in here that I think is applicable to whatever a man wants to do.
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And I've seen so many guys who they, they want everything just perfect. And then they go through
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and they're so rigid, like so rigid, everything they do that if at the slightest sign of inconvenience
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or a little fracture in the, in the system, then they just crumble. It's like, no, adjust, adapt.
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Like here's what you wanted to do life through, through you a curve ball. Maybe you had a new
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experience. Maybe you got hit with an injury or an illness or a bankruptcy or a lawsuit.
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And so, but sure, but just adjust, like mix it up, switch it up. And a lot of stuff will be unveiled
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to you. I think it's through our creator, but if you don't, that's fine. But a lot of stuff will be
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unveiled to you as you move forward, but you don't get to see it before at least you're putting some
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words on paper. Yeah, that's life. I mean, what you described there is life. And sometimes people
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get down, especially in the age of social media, when you can see that one second snapshot of
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everyone else's day, that seems perfect. And then you're getting, taking these hits you're just
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covering, you know, you're like a boxer, you're just taking these hits and you're in that corner
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and you're covering up and maybe you get knocked down and you're like, Oh, that was brutal. And in the
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meantime, you're not seeing anybody else get knocked down because you're seeing all their successes.
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You're not seeing everything else. And even if someone's sharing a failure, it's in a format
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like this, or it's, it's not, it's the, it's the outlier and it's, and it's fine because you know
00:18:08.160
that people are failing and getting hit and stumbling and still getting up and moving forward.
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You know that, but you're not seeing it with all the inputs that are out there. So especially for kids,
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it's tough because they've, they've now grown up with that. They didn't grow up with anything before
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and then get introduced to social media later and say, ah, okay, I can put this in perspective
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because I know that this isn't real life. You know, it's an advertisement, whether it's for
00:18:32.200
an actual business or as someone's personal feed, that's still an advertisement for something.
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And it shouldn't be looked at as anything other than that. So yeah, life's going to hit you. It's
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going to hit you hard and you get to decide also how you're going to get back up because you can get
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up kicking and screaming and you can get up whining and complaining and telling everyone how life isn't
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there and how this happened to you. And that happened to you, or you can get up and inspire
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regardless of getting it up, but you can get up and inspire those around you with the way
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that you get back up because getting up, Hey, that's, you have to, eventually you'll figure that
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out. Uh, it doesn't matter if you spend a second on the ground, 10 minutes on the ground, a month on
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the ground, 10 years on the ground, 20 years on the ground. Eventually you'll figure out that you're
00:19:14.080
going to have to get up and move forward, but then you get to decide, Oh, I get to decide how I do this.
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I can whine and complain and make life miserable for those around me and make no one want to be
00:19:23.620
around me. Or I can be an example to my circle, whether that's one person, five people, or in
00:19:29.400
today's world, 35 million people, um, and get up and move forward in a way that adds value to their
00:19:34.400
lives. Cause I can pass on these lessons, just like we did in the military, uh, passing on those
00:19:39.160
lessons to other units. So they don't have to learn those same lessons in blood. And then we get stronger
00:19:43.500
as a unit, as a team, as a country and, uh, and move forward that way. But yeah, that's called life.
00:19:49.840
Well, and it's, I mean, it is definitely for other people, but even to break it down to the
00:19:55.300
lowest common denominator, it's just for yourself. You know, I think about it. If, if you wake up and
00:20:00.540
your alarm goes off in the morning and you think to yourself, today's going to suck. And you start
00:20:06.780
to like dwell on, of course it's going to suck. Like you're, even if it wouldn't have, you're going
00:20:15.040
to make sure it sucks. Right. Or you could say, you know, I've got some challenges I got to deal
00:20:20.800
with today and I'm going to address them and deal with them head on. And I'm excited to be able to
00:20:24.380
work through these things, same scenario, but the way in which you approach it, your attitude is
00:20:30.380
really going to spell the difference between whether it is a good day or it's a bad day.
00:20:34.980
This is hilarious. I've not thought of this in a, let's see, 95, let's see, 2005, 2015.
00:20:41.100
Uh, yeah, at least 25 years. And, uh, I can't believe I never thought of this before, but,
00:20:49.020
um, remember Jerry Maguire, remember like somebody gets up, visit Jerry Maguire that gets up and he
00:20:53.060
goes, today's going to be a great day or something like that. Like his mentor was talking to him.
00:20:56.960
I haven't seen that movie in the same amount of time. I haven't revisited that movie, but I remember
00:21:00.780
in buds, like when we had to get up obviously so early and, you know, anybody in the military has to
00:21:04.660
get up early and go run around and do pushups and pull ups and all that to get yelled at. Um, but I
00:21:09.460
remember that movie had come out not long before I was in buds and seal training. And I remember when
00:21:15.460
that alarm would go off in the morning, throwing my legs over the side of that metal cot bunk thing.
00:21:21.060
And, uh, and thinking in my head, that line from Jerry Maguire today is going to be a great day.
00:21:25.940
And I knew I was just going to go outside, totally dark Pacific ocean, just crashing. And I was going
00:21:31.700
to be wet, cold, hungry, uh, and, uh, the Berger hypothermia almost immediately. Um, and, uh, but
00:21:38.580
still in my head, I remember thinking about that Jerry Maguire thing and thinking, Hey, today's going
00:21:42.720
to be a great day. And, uh, and it was, it's just, it's your mindset. Like you're, we're all going
00:21:49.440
through similar experiences. People tend to think that we live on islands and that, you know, nobody's
00:21:54.580
ever experienced what I'm going through. No millions, hundreds of millions of people have gone
00:21:59.980
through the exact thing that you're dealing with right now. And what might actually be the
00:22:04.920
differentiator is the way in which you approach it to your point. Yeah. When you approach it and
00:22:10.340
then, uh, then when you stumble or when you get hit, uh, then you have another choice to make there
00:22:14.860
and you can make that same type of a choice and figure out, okay, yeah, I'm going to take this hit,
00:22:19.640
but then now I get to decide how I deal with it. Um, and, uh, and how quickly I get back in the game
00:22:24.640
and the way in which I get back into this game. So, uh, and then as parents, of course, we have to think
00:22:28.880
about what example we're setting for, for our kids. Um, they're looking to us for sure. Uh,
00:22:34.420
even when we don't think they're listening, they're listening. Uh, that's why it was so
00:22:38.080
important during COVID, especially in those early days of COVID. We didn't really know what was going
00:22:41.600
on. Like, or let's say February, uh, March of, uh, of 2020. And the way that we talked about what
00:22:47.340
was happening just in the kitchen, even if the kids were over on the couch or in the next room,
00:22:50.820
I was very cognizant of, of how we framed what was going on. And I wanted them to hear,
00:22:56.640
Hey, you know, we're prepared for this sort of thing. Hey, if there's no food in the grocery
00:23:00.800
store, guess what? Um, we have, we're, we're prepared for that. We have some food, we have
00:23:04.860
water, we have, we have fire extinguishers here. If no one's on the other end of the phone,
00:23:08.640
when we call 911, if something like that happens, of course, of course we have firearms, uh, bloody
00:23:13.580
ammunition, um, those sorts of things. And, uh, hatchets or two. Um, so, you know, I wanted
00:23:20.360
them to see her framed like that because he's exact same situation. Now just flip it a little
00:23:24.380
bit and have a husband and wife in the kitchen with the kids listening. You know,
00:23:27.940
they're a little unsure of what's going on. They're pulled out of school. Um, and they're
00:23:31.540
hearing, Oh, I'm so worried if I'm going to have a job tomorrow. I don't know. We didn't
00:23:35.500
save up enough money. I don't know what we're going to do. Can we pay for groceries? I don't
00:23:39.280
even know if they're going to be groceries on there. What do we have on the shelves? So
00:23:42.180
we have some cereal and a few other things. Oh, geez. Uh, man. And then now these, uh, these
00:23:47.520
riots start up and, uh, geez, what if, you know, what if they come to our house? Uh, what if we're
00:23:52.380
going to, what are we going to do? Are police even going to, uh, are you going to do the,
00:23:55.780
do anything or I don't even know what's going on. So the kids are hearing that. So same
00:24:00.160
situation, but just flip, flip it, being prepared for something or as prepared as, as you can be
00:24:05.080
as prepared as it makes sense for, uh, where you live and your lifestyle and what you do
00:24:08.840
and your level of training and all, and all the rest of it or that other one. So to those
00:24:12.940
kids, that's a completely, uh, different experience. And I think it was, it's important for
00:24:17.880
kids to get the one rather than the other. They'll take lessons from both, but, uh, but
00:24:23.360
I think for, for kids, especially the young ones, uh, to hear that, Hey, my family's prepared
00:24:27.820
for this. I see. I see now what I'm supposed to do rather than, Oh man, I'm scared. My
00:24:32.460
parents are scared. Jeez. And more unknowns. So, uh, yeah, preparedness. It's just part of
00:24:39.020
our business. And when you're talking about that, I don't, I don't think for a minute, but
00:24:44.540
I do want to be clear that you're, you're talking about, you know, uh, that life is just
00:24:49.740
rainbows and, you know, sunshine and fairy tales. And that's, that's what you need to
00:24:53.120
communicate to, to other people, whether it's your employees or your children, it's like,
00:24:57.400
you have to be realistic. And, and certainly with you and your wife, you know, you might
00:25:01.500
have real conversations about like, Hey hon, I'm worried about this. So here's what we need
00:25:05.120
to do. But the way in which you frame it with your children might be different than the
00:25:08.520
way you communicate it with a peer or, or a higher up. So I think there's some, there's
00:25:13.040
some discernment there and like, Hey, we're not just going to pretend like nothing's
00:25:17.440
happening and be like blissfully ignorant about the reality, but you got to think about
00:25:22.360
who's hearing and who's picking up what based on your messaging.
00:25:26.500
Yeah. Or so I guess I was talking about what, uh, what you did beforehand. So, okay, now let's
00:25:30.800
take that same situation. You're not prepared and the kids are still, you know, on the couch
00:25:34.360
and maybe watching a little TV and you're with your wife in the other room. Uh, so now, now
00:25:37.980
you're not prepared, but here's the same unprepared person. Uh, another way to just think through
00:25:43.740
this, Hey, you know, we weren't as prepared as we could have been for this, but guess
00:25:47.280
what we're going to do. We're going to make sure going forward that we're putting 20%,
00:25:51.500
10%, 5%, whatever of what we make each month away so that we have that. So we have this buffer
00:25:56.840
for our situation. I think it's a month would be good or two months or three months or six
00:26:00.960
months. Uh, you know what else we're going to do? We are going to make sure that our fire
00:26:04.380
extinguishers work. Hey kids, let's go check this out. Uh, look at these, all the dates
00:26:07.720
on this. Ooh, not quite right. Guess where I'm going. I'm going to Home Depot or I'm getting
00:26:10.860
online and I'm ordering a new one. And then we're going to go outside and we're going to
00:26:13.440
do this together. I'm going to show you how to use this. Uh, so the first time you're
00:26:16.500
using this kids isn't the first time isn't when there's a fire. Uh, and you know what,
00:26:20.900
uh, in the kitchen, uh, we should probably, uh, invest in maybe some water and some food
00:26:27.360
just so that in case something happens, we're good. And we have that. And we have a two week
00:26:31.160
buffer, a three week buffer, whatever it is for your situation. So,
00:26:34.380
exactly same unprepared parent, but turning that into a positive, essentially like let's
00:26:40.240
learn from this. And it's not just that the kids are like, Oh, I should have a fire extinguisher.
00:26:43.860
It is, ah, you know what? I can, I can maybe make some mistakes and I can learn from them.
00:26:49.440
And then I can take those lessons and apply them going forward. So I'm more prepared for
00:26:54.080
the future. So I'm a more responsible citizen. That's what I can do as a, so same exact situation
00:26:59.940
of two unprepared people looking at it through a different lens and not sugarcoating it for the
00:27:05.140
kids. So, um, so that's a different from prepared person versus the not prepared person. Those are
00:27:10.460
two unprepared families and different ways to frame it and move forward and have the kids learn and
00:27:17.560
become better citizens because of it. I'm glad you said that. Cause we actually have fire extinguishers,
00:27:23.640
but I don't, I don't know that my child, I don't even know that I or my children have ever operated
00:27:30.680
a fire. We have them, but I don't know that any of us have even operated one. So I'm glad you said
00:27:35.640
that. Cause I'm actually going to do that this afternoon. Like we're going to go out and use up
00:27:39.080
one of those fire extinguishers. Yeah. Sure. The fire outside. So then you get to practice building
00:27:42.920
the fire, which is awesome. And then you get to show, Hey, this is how you put it out, you know?
00:27:47.040
So, Hey, next time, uh, if you need to, these are on, you know, this room, that room,
00:27:51.440
that room and in the car, what, you know, garage, wherever. Um, but now you know how to do it and
00:27:55.660
it's kind of, it's fun as well. Yeah. I like that. I'm glad you said that. So to go back to
00:28:00.500
the book writing process, cause that's what we were talking about earlier. Are you still going
00:28:03.800
through, uh, DOD approval? I know on the first one you were, do you even, do you even, cause you're
00:28:09.280
not required to, I don't think, or are you, or what does that look like? It's a, let's just say
00:28:17.800
that I wanted to be safe on the first three. Um, and I submitted that first one. They took
00:28:22.040
out nine sentences. Um, you know, no easy day had come out not too long before. I mean,
00:28:26.360
you know, years before, but still it was still at the forefront of a lot of people in the,
00:28:30.640
in the military's mind, particularly in special operations. Um, so I wanted to just make sure
00:28:34.080
I was still close to, uh, to being in the military. It was only a couple of years out. So I just wanted
00:28:38.380
to make sure, um, that I was doing the right thing. They took out nine sentences. They were all very,
00:28:42.500
they were all ridiculous. Uh, then I submitted the second one. Uh, and they, they say that they'll get
00:28:47.680
back to you in 30 days and what you, what you signed. And, um, uh, yeah, the first one they
00:28:52.020
got back in 45 days, which I thought was pretty dang good for a gigantic girl. Yeah. That's,
00:28:56.060
that's, I was like, I was overjoyed. Uh, second one, one month passes, then two, then three,
00:29:00.780
then four, then five, then six, then seven. Um, really creeping up on seven. They finally got back
00:29:06.260
with 54 redactions. It was like, okay, whether, and that redaction could be a word, it could be a
00:29:11.560
sentence, could be a passage, um, but 54 of them. And so now I have, uh, I have the attorneys
00:29:17.400
tie each and every one of those redactions to a publicly available government document
00:29:21.200
from the government. So not just a Wikipedia page or someone else's book or something that's
00:29:25.580
in the public domain. No, it's publicly available government documents from our government that
00:29:29.940
anyone in the world can download or look at. And, uh, so we tied each and every one of those things
00:29:35.840
to that appealed. You have six months to appeal three months, something like that. Give it back
00:29:39.800
to them. I won on 37. So even though all 54 were tied to something that somebody in China,
00:29:45.560
somebody in Russia, somebody in Iran can go and look at and download, uh, they still, uh, only
00:29:51.360
let me win on 37. So then I unredacted them in the paperback. So this is the government at work for
00:29:57.220
you. So I made up a completely, uh, fictional, uh, CIA black site in Morocco. And I'd been to
00:30:04.000
Morocco before I went in the military. I had such a great experience there. Uh, I can remember the
00:30:07.620
sites and the sounds and the smells, and it made sense for the book for my protagonist, James
00:30:11.340
Reese to go there for Mozambique. So it just made sense geographically. And so I made up a CIA black
00:30:16.120
site. They took out every mention of Morocco, uh, CIA black site, um, Moorish architecture,
00:30:22.840
Atlas mountains. They took all, they redacted all that. And that won't appeal. Um, so what does that
00:30:28.600
tell us? Well, it tells us there's a CIA black site in Morocco. There's something going on in
00:30:33.340
Morocco. Had they done nothing, no one would ever know. Uh, had they just let me do a fictional thing.
00:30:39.440
Uh, so ridiculous. Uh, third one, I submitted that one again, they forget how many, uh, lines
00:30:44.660
they took out, but they took out a few, uh, did that same thing, tied them all to publicly
00:30:48.360
available government documents from the actual government. And, uh, and then they wouldn't
00:30:52.920
let me appeal. So I took that as, Hey, quit bothering us with this fiction stuff, kid. We
00:30:57.200
have actual nonfiction stuff to, uh, to work on here. So that's how I took it. Uh, and so I didn't,
00:31:02.960
uh, submit the last two and I had no touch points with the devil's hand. The last one on, um,
00:31:08.920
bioweapons and bioweapons research, I had nothing in the military, uh, no touch points
00:31:12.980
at all with that. So it was all research. Like, just like a journalist would do now reading
00:31:16.640
as much as I possibly could reading medical journals, publicly available information
00:31:19.880
interviewing people just like a journalist would. Um, and, uh, and put that all, all in
00:31:24.600
that last novel. And then this one, I went deep into the quantum computing, artificial intelligence,
00:31:29.200
uh, mass data storage, surveillance, us citizens. So I went deep down that rabbit hole. And, uh,
00:31:35.040
I guess I'm curious if I had submitted it, what they would have taken out. But once again,
00:31:38.180
no touch point with that in the military at all. So it's all stuff that I learned outside
00:31:43.360
the military. And when you read books on that sort of a thing, essentially by the time you
00:31:46.460
read that book, it's already dated, even like a newspaper article or magazine article or journal
00:31:50.600
article, it's already dated. So like, but you have to still do that research because it gives
00:31:55.020
you the foundation from which to ask questions of people that are more current, that have touch
00:31:59.400
points with that side of things. And then we'll, as you, if you talk to enough people,
00:32:03.340
you can piece together what's going on. So, uh, for people that read this, that read in
00:32:07.900
the blood, uh, the part on the quantum computing and artificial intelligence, um, that's accurate
00:32:13.600
as far as legitimate information. Uh, yeah. My research suggests that that is highly accurate.
00:32:19.360
And the people that I talked to who have, uh, current touch points with that world, they
00:32:24.420
all told me, Hey, we could tell you more, but it'll put your book in the science fiction
00:32:27.160
category, which is, uh, so it was much more frightening to research quantum computing and artificial
00:32:31.860
intelligence than it was to research bioweapons and bioweapons research in the last novel.
00:32:38.060
Well, I think generally the, the, the public and the consumer would, would consider artificial
00:32:42.920
intelligence, computer information to be more benign than bioweaponry. Right. But it really is,
00:32:50.360
that that's the lull that we've been getting comfortable with. And it's, it's just as, if not
00:32:56.000
more dangerous and deadly than anything else. Oh, it's a, it's incredible. What, uh, how much
00:33:01.220
information is out there, where it is, how it can be accessed and the artificial intelligence
00:33:05.260
part, really what that means is that, uh, that these, this, and if anyone hasn't looked
00:33:10.340
up quantum computer, look it up and hit the images. Uh, it's amazing. I just thought it
00:33:15.880
was a computer that maybe might, might be a little bigger than my laptop, you know, bigger
00:33:20.340
It's a lot faster. Um, but it is, uh, it is a completely different animal. So check it
00:33:26.200
out. It's crazy. The way I describe it in the book, I had a great time figuring out how to
00:33:29.580
describe that for someone who, uh, who hadn't seen one before. So, uh, yeah, it's crazy.
00:33:34.960
And here in Utah, uh, those, those, uh, you know, we have this, these droughts and all
00:33:39.080
that sort of a thing. Well, there's a ton of water diverted to cool some, uh, essentially
00:33:43.840
gigantic hard drives out there in the middle of the desert out here. They're collecting
00:33:47.800
something Utah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. They're talking about reservoir. We needed water for
00:33:53.020
yeah. Yeah. I forget the exact percentage, but people can look it up. How much water is
00:33:58.160
diverted to cool those things. And what does that, what does that with us collecting? Well,
00:34:01.920
they're collecting this. It's collecting every, everything that we're doing electronically,
00:34:06.360
the internet of things. It's a, uh, it's very interesting. I guess that that's the best way
00:34:14.220
Man, just going to step away from the conversation very quickly. Um, many of you know, uh, that
00:34:19.940
we are running our merchandise store and we have hats and we have t-shirts and we have battle
00:34:26.540
planners and we have patches and we have all sorts of things over there, but one quick
00:34:31.180
and easy way to support this movement and also look good in the meantime is to visit the
00:34:35.620
store and pick up one of our over 10 or 12 styles of shirts or one of our over 12 hats
00:34:41.640
or our best-selling product, which is our 12 week battle planner. Uh, we have so much over
00:34:47.280
there. You're going to look good. Uh, you're going to support the movement. You're going to
00:34:50.500
support the mission and you're going to buy clothes anyway. So they might as well say order
00:34:55.120
of man on them, if you believe in what we do. So it's a great way to show your support
00:35:00.200
inside your home. And of course, outside of your home as well, we have decals. You can
00:35:03.760
throw on the back of your truck, whatever. If you are interested in repping order of man
00:35:08.240
and want a new shirt, want a new hat, want the battle planner, that's going to improve
00:35:11.980
your life. Then head to store.orderofman.com that's store.orderofman.com right after the show
00:35:19.420
is over, go to store.orderofman.com, pick up a hat, pick up a shirt, pick up a planner,
00:35:23.240
pick up a decal or a patch or whatever and support what we're doing. Appreciate it guys.
00:35:27.820
Let's get back to it with Jack. It's such a double-edged sword because I see it and I can
00:35:35.440
see both sides, you know, and you have this, uh, quote unquote ministry of truth that we hear about
00:35:41.140
now, right. With department of Homeland security. And, and, um, uh, what's the, what's the guy's
00:35:46.920
name? The head of the department of Homeland security, Merrick, or I can't remember his name
00:35:50.540
right off hand, but he, he, he is on record as saying, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not,
00:35:55.220
we're not collecting information on Americans. Like we're, we're looking at Russian disinformation.
00:36:00.320
And I actually, I would actually, without knowing too much about it, say that's probably halfway
00:36:06.120
true. Like you're collecting Russian and foreign disinformation, but come on now, we all know that
00:36:12.080
you're also collecting American, what you would consider disinformation.
00:36:14.960
Oh yes. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. And I mean, that's gonna, I mean, going forward when
00:36:21.840
we're talking about things like the first amendment, we're talking about this, uh, you know, surveillance
00:36:26.480
of us citizens and how much data is appropriate for the government to have and what collaboration
00:36:31.620
there is between private companies and the government, what kind of influence, uh, lobbyists
00:36:35.500
have on politicians and what influence politicians can have on tech industry giants, essentially.
00:36:40.960
Um, I mean, it's, it's, it's uncharted territory and this next decade is going to be very telling
00:36:47.280
for the future of our nation when it comes to privacy. Uh, when it comes to, uh, what something
00:36:52.840
that used to bond us all together as Americans, which was that first amendment, regardless of
00:36:56.380
what you thought of the second amendment, regardless of what you thought of other issues out there,
00:36:59.420
we used to all stand together and stand up for your right to say something, especially if
00:37:05.760
you disagreed with me and we were at odds, like that was the thing that made us Americans. Uh,
00:37:12.000
and now we lost that. Now that's been, even that's been weaponized. Everything has been
00:37:16.220
weaponized to divide us. And, uh, what does that division do? Well, it benefits certain people in
00:37:21.080
society. Um, not so much others. Uh, it's not certainly is not for the good of the country as a
00:37:26.940
whole. It's good for politicians, galvanized bases, but it is, uh, not so good for the rest of us,
00:37:33.240
uh, and not so good for future generations. So, uh, this next 10 years is going to be very
00:37:37.700
telling. Is there any sort of, so for the first three books you went through the department of
00:37:43.800
defense and, and, and went through that, uh, the last two, it doesn't sound like you did.
00:37:47.920
Is there any sort of recourse options or, or risks on your end because you didn't go through that with
00:37:56.480
the last couple of books? And what does that look like if it exists? Well, I'm just taking it,
00:38:00.360
them not letting me appeal as, Hey, stop bothering us. Um, so, uh, if something does come, it's right
00:38:06.660
now, Hey, that's, that's why I have lawyers, you know, but what, what is it that they could like,
00:38:12.520
what, what is it that they could actually do? Like, is there anything like, could the department
00:38:16.540
of defense come in and say, Hey, like you have to stop publishing this book? Like you, you,
00:38:21.200
your financial profits, like you, you can't, you have to relinquish those profits. Like,
00:38:25.680
what is it that they could actually do or, or can they, well, they took, uh, uh, all the profits
00:38:31.600
from no easy day. Um, you know, he was gonna, he was gonna give those away anyway. Uh, but they
00:38:37.060
could, they, there are certain points and there are certain lawsuits out there. Some are actually
00:38:40.540
pending about, uh, the office of pre-publication security review and the constitutionality of that.
00:38:47.740
Um, so there's some of those out there right now, but there are past cases of them stopping
00:38:52.560
publication of certain books. Um, there are, are past cases of them going after profits from a book
00:38:59.000
and then stopping publication. So, you know, it's the federal government. They can do whatever they
00:39:03.180
can, they can come after you for whatever they want. And there's a great book called three felonies
00:39:07.180
a day by Harvey L. Uh, Silberg late. Um, and it's absolutely fantastic. I think it was written in 2009,
00:39:13.100
but it's even more, uh, appropriate for today. And what he talks about is that, Hey, the average person
00:39:21.140
gets up in the morning, uh, maybe has breakfast with the kids, maybe drops them at school, goes to
00:39:24.960
work, comes home, has dinner, tucks the kids in, goes to bed, wakes up and does it again the next
00:39:30.180
day. And unbeknownst to him over the course of that day, he has committed three felonies because
00:39:35.800
there are so many laws on the books. The American Bar Association came and tell you how many laws are on
00:39:41.400
the books. Uh, since let's say, I forget the exact date, but let's say since the forties, I might be,
00:39:46.160
it might be off by a decade or so, but, uh, there's been a shift in how law is written.
00:39:51.200
It used to be written for the quote unquote common man to understand. Uh, now it is written so broadly
00:39:58.040
that you have to have a law degree and you have to have arguments and there can be differences of
00:40:03.720
opinion about something that's written down. And that is by design because that allows the federal
00:40:08.400
government to go after you if they so choose. So there's a reason these laws are written so broadly
00:40:14.040
today. Um, and that this book is fantastic at pointing out exact cases and building and building
00:40:20.340
that, uh, building that case up. Um, cause that's, yeah, it's certainly a real thing. So three felonies
00:40:25.000
a day is something I think every American should read. Yeah, that's interesting. I thought about that.
00:40:30.160
I haven't looked at that in the same context of law, like you're discussing here, but I've definitely
00:40:34.620
thought that about tax code, which I guess could in some ways is law as well. It's like, okay. It's like the,
00:40:40.800
the fact that I have to, like, I personally have to hire a professional to navigate the tax code that
00:40:49.580
changes every single year. Look, I, I don't think paying taxes is inherently wrong. Like some people
00:40:55.940
think, I don't think that we should not pay any taxes whatsoever. Like I get it. We've got a, we've
00:41:01.280
got a society. We we've got to, we've got to pay for the things that we have, including defense and some of
00:41:06.080
these other things, infrastructure, infrastructure and defense, primarily the rest can be questioned,
00:41:12.260
but infrastructure and defense. Uh, but then I have to, at my own cost, be able to hire a professional
00:41:18.680
to help me navigate and keep you people off of me and make sure I keep myself out of trouble.
00:41:24.220
That's a ridiculous thing to me. Oh yeah. I mean, it's a, it, yeah, I mean, I, we, I couldn't do it.
00:41:29.540
I mean, I, I, there's no possible, of course you couldn't, uh, the tax code. There's no possible
00:41:34.220
way. So yeah, we have a army of people doing that, uh, now, which is, which is crazy. That's,
00:41:38.780
that's totally outsourced. Uh, you know, it's, it's a whole, you know, industry obviously. Um,
00:41:43.380
but that stuff is there by design as well. Um, because well, they can go through all of that
00:41:47.780
and then they can interview you. And what happens when you sit down with a federal, uh, employee
00:41:51.960
and, uh, and you, and you open your mouth. Well, you have given them, uh, something called
00:41:57.480
the power of opinion over you. So that's when, when I see all these people that are charged with
00:42:03.120
lying to a federal FBI agent, or, uh, you know, they always throw that on there. When you see
00:42:08.620
anybody that's, uh, you know, kind of dragged in front of the court, let's take Michael Flynn
00:42:11.520
as an example, general Flynn. Um, if you open your mouth to an FBI agent, to a police officer,
00:42:19.120
you've given them the power of opinion to say, I think that person is lying. And, uh, and so that
00:42:24.580
is always, you, you'd be hard pressed to find a case where they don't put that on there
00:42:29.540
because all it has to be is I just have to think that, that you are lying based off how
00:42:33.800
I'm really person instead of you. What does that say? Now you're lying. Now I can drop
00:42:37.360
that charge on you. Um, so yeah, that's to keep your mouth shut.
00:42:42.280
I didn't even, I'm not even aware of the path. What'd you call it? The power of opinion.
00:42:45.920
Is that what you call it? Yeah. Yep. So interesting down there, there and talk. Yeah. That's what
00:42:51.320
you, that's what you've now done. So it's tough. That's why you always see it on there. It's always
00:42:55.640
charged on those, on those sheets. They lied, lied to a, you know, lied to the FBI. So whenever I see
00:43:00.880
that, I'm like, if you open your mouth, that charge is going on there. Essentially, if they're
00:43:05.820
coming after you, there's no doubt. Well, I know there's like, like, like you could perjure yourself.
00:43:10.880
Right. But, but to me, that would be your, your factually, I can, I can prove factually that you,
00:43:18.500
you know, for example, light under oath, but that's different than what you're talking about.
00:43:22.680
That's different. Yep. Yep. Wow. Yeah. Since we're talking about the money issue,
00:43:27.680
one thing I've always been curious with, with, with you and please correct me if I'm wrong.
00:43:32.520
And these authors in general is that you're talking about putting a book out per year. So
00:43:37.700
when I hear that, I think, okay, well, he's got one payday a year. Now I know it comes in
00:43:42.800
bonuses and advances and you have, you know, residuals and royalties from other books,
00:43:47.660
but really at the end of the day, it's like, okay, no, this is my big paycheck. So for me,
00:43:53.120
I get paid every week on products that we sell or events that we run or advertisements that we have.
00:44:00.580
What is, what is that like? Where it's, Hey, I'm going to work for a year and maybe I'll make a lot
00:44:06.040
of money. Maybe I won't, maybe this thing will flop. Like I'm going to spend money. I don't know if
00:44:10.940
I'll make as much as I have to spend. Like, what is that like?
00:44:15.400
Yeah. I spend about zero seconds, um, of a year thinking about that. Um, okay. Uh, yeah. So my,
00:44:21.820
my wife channels, all that, that frees me up just to write, uh, to create, to do these things,
00:44:27.020
to do the business side of it too. And when I say that side, I mean like the, uh, the marketing and
00:44:31.880
the advertising and social media and engagement and thinking through creative ways to continue to build
00:44:36.100
the audience, um, uh, thank that audience for taking a risk on me, that sort of a thing. So
00:44:41.380
like, that's, that's where I want to focus all my energy. So as a team, she's got the other side
00:44:46.040
and I can't imagine trying to do that. Cause that's a full-time job just figuring out because what we
00:44:50.960
just talked about with the taxes, that's a part of it. Um, and so at that part, I don't even, I I'm
00:44:56.740
blissfully ignorant of that. And, uh, maybe that's not the brightest way to go about it, but there's just
00:45:01.600
not enough bandwidth in my head to create a book a year and, uh, and be operating at this level and
00:45:07.680
working on scripts and working on other projects. Uh, and at the same time, providing value to people,
00:45:12.400
I hope through my podcast, through any social media post, that's the goal is to add value to
00:45:17.460
someone's life. Cause once again, they're not getting that time back that they have trusted me
00:45:21.060
with. Um, so that's all my energy and effort. Um, but mechanically it's, uh, it's broken up into,
00:45:28.100
uh, like signing a deal, uh, turning into manuscripts, uh, or exception that manuscript
00:45:35.040
being accepted, uh, hardcover coming out, paperback coming out. So it's, it's, it's split up like that
00:45:40.780
throughout the, um, but, uh, so, so it's not just one big, one big payday. And then there are other,
00:45:46.360
you know, you start juggling all this other stuff, just like you, uh, with, uh, you have the other
00:45:51.480
projects that are, that are going on that support in this case, support the books, uh, like the podcast
00:45:56.060
supports supports the books. I love talking to people. It's called danger close beyond the books
00:45:59.760
with Jack Carr. So that, uh, so I can really talk to anybody, but in talking to those people
00:46:04.240
and in reading their books, uh, I also get some ideas because maybe I wouldn't have read that
00:46:09.160
person's book. If I wasn't having them on the podcast, maybe I would have, I probably would
00:46:12.600
have bought it, put it on the shelf, maybe used it for, for reference, but I would have said,
00:46:17.200
Oh, you know what? I got to do this instead. I got to prioritize this over this person's book
00:46:21.280
right now. But if they're coming on as a guest, it's like, Oh, I have to read this book.
00:46:24.820
Like I had attorney general Bill Barr on the other day and I was coming right off of SIG
00:46:28.580
freedom days in Phoenix. And I thought, Oh, I'll, I'll be able to read at night and take
00:46:32.480
some notes when I'm down there. That's sort of a thing. And Oh my God. And it was all
00:46:36.000
day, every day. And I was, it was crazy. I was signing books all day. People were standing
00:46:39.140
in this hot, over a hundred degree sun in Phoenix. And, and, uh, and that was crazy. So
00:46:43.540
I didn't want to take a break because these people are waiting, you know, hold on. I'm just
00:46:47.080
going to go over here in the shade and like eat this salad for an hour or anything. Yeah.
00:46:51.760
So it was like, even though the schedule, like had a break in it and I just went like
00:46:55.420
I did for all three days. Um, but that meant I had to read this entire book when I got
00:46:59.620
at like late at night back in the hotel room and I'm highlighting and I'm putting my yellow
00:47:03.180
stickies in there and I'm, you know, I want to be prepared because it's Bill Barr and he's
00:47:07.080
sharp. So, so I wasn't, he's not a dumb, he's not a dumb man. Whatever you think about
00:47:14.340
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But you know, in doing that, so, so I wouldn't have read that book
00:47:18.880
had he not been coming on the pod, I would have read it eventually, but, uh, I wouldn't
00:47:22.180
have read it right then. And in reading it, I'm like, Hmm, I got a couple of little nuggets
00:47:26.280
out of there. And whether that's a sentence, uh, that helps develop a character in this
00:47:30.320
next novel, or it's, Hmm, I think I need to develop this storyline a little more because,
00:47:35.080
uh, this book, uh, it was always in the back of my mind, but this thing really brought
00:47:38.740
it to the forefront and it's something Bill Barr was involved with in the eighties.
00:47:42.160
And I'm like, Hmm, that is really interesting. So, so that stuff, so all of that stuff helps.
00:47:47.120
So my point being it point is that it supports the books, like everything else that is going
00:47:52.200
on supports making these books the best that they can possibly be. And my goal is always
00:47:56.140
to move the genre forward, even if it's just by a degree each and every time, and then also
00:48:00.240
to improve and get better as an author, better as a writer, each and every book. So that's
00:48:04.600
what I own myself and the readers who are trusting me. And, uh, that's always, that's
00:48:08.800
always the goal. And good news is that this one for in the blood, like
00:48:12.100
Kyle lamb, I saw him this weekend out there, former Delta guy. Who's a, who's
00:48:15.800
fantastic. And, uh, and it's his favorite one yet. Uh, and he would tell me, he would
00:48:20.600
be straight on him with me. Yeah. He would let me know if he hated it, but he said it's
00:48:25.080
his favorite one. Yes. So I'm like, ah, like that's a, that's one that really, really
00:48:30.780
So I'm not asking you to disclose anything that's coming down the pike necessarily,
00:48:35.260
but like at what point, and I'm asking this more generally and broadly, but at what point
00:48:40.020
does James Reese die and the series dies? And then, you know, we evolve into the next
00:48:46.820
line. Cause I'm sure something like that is happening. And when do you decide that's the
00:48:51.400
time to pivot? Cause I mean, at some point you're probably not going to write 20 books
00:48:54.780
about the guy. Right. So like, how does that, maybe you are, I don't know.
00:48:58.480
20 is a good number. Um, but, uh, yeah, as long as people want to keep learning about
00:49:05.320
James Reese, as long as I am, uh, fully invested in the, in the story, I've heard stories of
00:49:10.560
authors who come to despise their protagonist, if they have a recurring character, because
00:49:15.720
they feel like they, they can't branch out and be creative. And I do not feel that way
00:49:20.400
at all. Interesting. Writing about James Reese. Um, cause I'm writing about a journey. I'm
00:49:24.740
not just tied to this one person who was a carbon copy of what he was in the
00:49:28.440
first book in each and every other book going forward. He's on a journey like all of us are,
00:49:33.120
and he's learning and he's adapting and he's asking questions. Uh, hopefully he's, he's
00:49:37.020
applying the lessons learned of past books and previous experiences to what he's going
00:49:41.380
to do in the future. Um, so I love exploring, uh, the world really through his eyes. And it's
00:49:47.140
very therapeutic for me, for those who have read the novels, they'll know, they'll know
00:49:49.880
what I mean. Very therapeutic. Uh, cause in real life, you can't do some of these things
00:49:53.180
that James Reese does in the books, but I can do it here in a fictional place.
00:49:56.340
And that makes it, it keeps me out of prison, uh, which is fantastic. Um, but I'm going to
00:50:02.720
keep writing them as long as people want to keep reading them. Um, and, uh, and yeah,
00:50:07.960
I just feel so fortunate that he has resonated with readers because that's a rare, rare thing.
00:50:12.800
And, uh, and yeah, I certainly don't, don't take it lightly. Uh, but, but I want to do other
00:50:18.560
things as well. So there's some other, I have a whole strategic plan. I just shared it with
00:50:22.760
my agent, uh, uh, a little while ago. And, but what that means is that some of these other
00:50:27.280
things that take up bandwidth and maybe don't need to take up my bandwidth. Maybe I can, I can,
00:50:32.220
um, I can delegate those like the merch it's finally out. We have a fulfillment center now
00:50:36.800
taking care of the merch side of it, taking care of the, uh, uh, the customer service side
00:50:40.860
and all of that. So that's, that's off. Um, a lot of the things with, uh, that Ironclad does
00:50:45.540
with the podcast. Like they're taking on more of something like the, the creative stuff that I've
00:50:49.360
been, that I've been, but they'll, I can't really do very well, like the graphics and then that sort
00:50:54.000
of a thing, or just keeping track of things that I need to do throughout the year and the dates that
00:50:58.560
are attached to those and just, just getting organized, uh, in a, in a way that allows me
00:51:02.860
then to free up my bandwidth and not be worried about, okay, I have this schedule with the podcast.
00:51:07.520
I have this schedule with my agent. Um, I have, uh, I have this schedule for, for media with the
00:51:11.940
publicist. I have my personal schedule with the family right here. I have this one. So five
00:51:17.020
different schedules, uh, that sort of a thing. So just getting more efficient on that side of the
00:51:22.360
house so that I can explore some of these other things that I want to explore in addition to
00:51:26.640
the James Reese novels. Right. What, what is your take on, uh, ghost writing? So what we see a lot of
00:51:33.780
is we see a lot of authors who, you know, they're the author of the book, but they didn't actually write
00:51:39.120
the book or they have a quote unquote coauthor. And you don't really know who wrote what, if it,
00:51:44.780
does that mean you shared a story and then the, and then the ghost writer like actually converted
00:51:50.340
the words to paper. And does that really mean you're an author? Um, and I, and I don't know
00:51:54.340
that I have a perception one way or the other, but I've heard of a lot of, uh, prolific writers,
00:51:59.420
uh, fictional writers who, uh, they're no longer writing their own novels. And like, what's your take
00:52:05.440
on that? Like, there's a lot of weirdness that I think we'll see more and more of with these ghost
00:52:10.040
writing opportunities and possibilities. Yeah. And I heard before I stepped into the space,
00:52:15.080
you know, people say, Oh, you get to a certain level and then someone else does it. You're
00:52:17.560
sitting on the beach. And, uh, that's not what I've experienced in person. You know, John Grisham
00:52:22.640
writes all his stuff. Stephen King writes all his stuff. Um, that sort of a, that sort of a thing,
00:52:27.420
um, uh, from the outside looking in, I think it's convenient to just assume that, uh, Oh,
00:52:32.260
when you get to that level, you just hire someone. Uh, and that is not what my experience has been.
00:52:37.560
You see it more on the nonfiction side of the house, you know, where you have somebody like,
00:52:41.220
you know, when does a congressman have time to write a book, that sort of a thing,
00:52:44.140
right? There's a mayor or a governor have time to write a book. You know, they don't,
00:52:47.880
that's, that's the answer. When did Barack Obama have time to write that book and Michelle Obama
00:52:52.020
have time to write that book? Well, I don't know. So, so I think you see it more in the non,
00:52:57.480
nonfiction space. Um, that makes sense. Yeah. If, if it happens in the fiction space,
00:53:02.320
you see it more with somebody that might've started with a nonfiction, um, you know, like,
00:53:06.740
uh, like Richard Marcinko. And then he had the, the, uh, series of books and then it's always like
00:53:10.400
with John Weisman, uh, on all books who says something like that. So that's much, that's much
00:53:14.880
more common. Um, uh, so, so yeah, I think there are ways to do that. A lot of times you see people
00:53:21.220
that are, um, in the news that will partner up with somebody like Bill O'Reilly, the killing series is a
00:53:26.200
perfect example. Um, you know, it's Bill O'Reilly with, uh, Martin Dugard. And, um, and so they work
00:53:32.320
together. Bill O'Reilly's name is their bigger, uh, Martin Dugard is in there, uh, as well, but
00:53:37.440
they're working together on it. And then, you know, who knows how that all works, but there's
00:53:41.360
plenty of, uh, Brett Baer does that. Uh, so, so nonfiction space that is much more typical. And I
00:53:47.740
haven't seen that in the, uh, in the fiction space. No, that makes sense. I've always heard about that.
00:53:52.120
So I wanted to ask, I, even with this next book I have coming out, I was approached and
00:53:56.320
you know, you, you, I can do interviews with a writer and they'll write it all for you. And I'm
00:54:00.340
like, well, I mean, I, I get the, I get the appeal of that because I actually don't particularly
00:54:05.580
enjoy the writing process the way that I think you do. Um, so it's, it would be more appealing
00:54:10.640
for me than it would for you. But at the same time, I'm like, well, then that's not to me. That's
00:54:14.700
not, that's out of integrity unless I'm giving that person credit and explaining exactly how this
00:54:19.380
worked out. I can't tell somebody I authored a book that I didn't author. Now they might be my ideas,
00:54:25.200
but that doesn't make me the author of the words that are written on the pages. It's a, it's a,
00:54:30.580
it's an integrity thing. And I, and I'm not trying to judge other people. I'm just saying for me,
00:54:34.300
that just wasn't something I was willing to do. Yeah, no, it's much more common. Like,
00:54:38.660
like if you're coming out of a background, maybe you're not comfortable writing, maybe you're much
00:54:42.020
more comfortable, uh, speaking or listening to audio books or, you know, whatever else, but you have an
00:54:46.060
incredible story. Um, or you have, you have this lesson that you want to impart. Well, then probably
00:54:51.380
it might be, it is wise to sit down with someone that can organize that and help you through that
00:54:55.780
to get that story out there. Uh, because kids, especially let's let, let's talk about like maybe
00:55:00.300
a military, um, experience that you had down range or something like that. Well, sitting down to write
00:55:05.540
a hundred thousand page book about that might be a little intimidating, uh, but it might be an
00:55:09.960
incredible story and, uh, you need to get it out. It's therapeutic for you. That's a part of that
00:55:14.580
first person history that'll then be looked at by historians going forward as a, as your perspective,
00:55:19.640
as like the perspective of an E2 and E3, uh, and E6 and O1 and O3, whatever it is, um, out there on
00:55:26.480
the battlefield. And maybe that person, it's, you know, you're not a writer. I mean, you despise,
00:55:30.900
you don't, don't like it. You're not good at it, whatever it might be. Well, then it's, it's fairly
00:55:34.900
common to then sit down with somebody, do phone interviews, have that professional writer, uh, put that
00:55:39.740
into a, into a, uh, a format manuscript that makes sense. Um, and then have an editor go through it
00:55:44.700
and then, then get it out there. Um, so typically that'll say, you know, the person's name, whoever
00:55:48.440
went through it, uh, experience, and then with so-and-so that's typically how that goes.
00:55:52.860
Yeah. And so that, that to me, what you're describing, that to me is not disingenuous
00:55:57.040
because you're explaining that you're explaining the process. You're being truthful, but to say that
00:56:02.600
you're an author, but you didn't author the words that to me is where we start to get into this
00:56:07.460
muddy area of like, okay, is that entirely accurate? And no, I don't know. That's kind
00:56:12.800
of where I come from. Yeah. Yeah. Not for like somebody like you that has needed deliverable
00:56:17.540
or how you're doing a leadership presentation and you have a great, uh, a great series of
00:56:22.140
tenants around leadership and you put it together and you write, uh, tenant one, two, three, four,
00:56:26.880
five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. And it's what you do in your speeches, but you need said
00:56:29.680
deliverable. That's more than like a printout of the exact thing you have up there. Uh, maybe you
00:56:33.840
want to go a little, little deeper, but you just don't know how to get that, get that out
00:56:37.000
there. Uh, well, giving those tenants to, to someone talking to somebody that can help you
00:56:41.020
then develop that deliverable, um, for your tenants of leadership that you then get to share
00:56:46.260
with a broader audience. You know, that's, that stuff's fairly common. Sure. Yeah. What,
00:56:50.680
so what is it like to see James Reese quite literally come to life? Cause we know we've got
00:56:57.060
the terminal list coming up. I think that releases first part of July on, is it on Amazon? It's on
00:57:02.860
Amazon, right? Yep. Fourth of July weekend, July 1st, it drops eight part series and, and Chris
00:57:07.840
crushes it. It's, uh, Oh, I'm sure he's an incredible person. Such a great guy. Antoine,
00:57:13.100
the director. Um, oh my gosh. I mean, he can't say enough good things about him. Uh, obviously
00:57:17.620
professionally as a creator and a visionary, but also as a person, like just, just top notch. Um,
00:57:22.880
sis did, uh, did Remy work with you guys as well? Uh, yes, yes. He was out there. I didn't see him
00:57:28.700
on his, uh, on his scene. I wasn't out there for that one, but, uh, we had a, we had, it was a
00:57:33.260
so many seals, so many military veterans. We had Max Adams, who's a former ranger, who's a writer on
00:57:38.520
it. Um, we had Jared Shaw who gave the book to Chris and Jared's the only reason that this thing
00:57:42.980
is getting made is, uh, is because we served together and, uh, he gave the book to Chris and
00:57:47.540
Chris read it and wanted to option it. Um, so Jared was there every day. Max was there every day.
00:57:52.080
Ray Mendoza was there every day. Ray Mendoza, another seal buddy of mine who was, uh, he was in,
00:57:56.200
um, uh, what active valor, the movie and, uh, and then technical advising on loan survivor.
00:58:01.740
And as a company called war office productions, uh, where they help on military themed movies,
00:58:05.720
but those three guys were on set every single day. And it would be a completely different show
00:58:10.600
if they had not been involved and they hadn't been on set every day and they hadn't been so
00:58:14.660
invested in making this the best possible show it could be. Uh, so I I'm indebted to those guys,
00:58:20.420
uh, for sure. And then everybody in Hollywood was great. I mean, it was great to work with was great to
00:58:25.640
me. Um, it's a different show. I think I had so many people come up to me on set and say, Hey,
00:58:32.360
I've been involved in hundreds of these films and shows. And I got to tell you, there's something
00:58:37.020
that feels different about this one. And then we talk about motorcycles. We talk about hunting.
00:58:41.160
We talk about knives. We talk about land cruisers, um, just normal people. So I guess my, one of my
00:58:45.300
takeaways was that how it, how good everyone is at their jobs and then how normal they all are.
00:58:52.640
Because what we see from the outside looking in is you see the actor, the producer or director get up
00:58:56.340
at the golden globes or at the Academy Awards and, you know, give some speech that is maybe a
00:59:00.900
little disconnected for most of the country. Uh, uh, but what I saw on set was just people working
00:59:07.180
together at the top of their game. Uh, and this thing is like, it's a Lamborghini and it is flying
00:59:12.760
down the road at over 200 miles an hour. And if one person isn't doing their job or isn't doing it at
00:59:18.720
the, at the highest level possible, then you have the tink, tink, tink, tink, you know, that's why
00:59:25.020
now I understand when people talk about the unions in Hollywood and why someone can't plug in a plug,
00:59:30.400
uh, if that's not their job. Now I see why, because if they're doing that, they're not doing the thing
00:59:36.060
that they're the best in the world at, that they've been hired to do. Um, and everybody that's hired to do
00:59:40.640
anything on this set was the very best in Hollywood. Um, and that was pretty cool to see a
00:59:46.500
machine running like that. And to see Antoine Fuqua at the top is like the commanding officer
00:59:50.140
setting that tone strategically, seeing Chris as the, uh, the A-list main actor, uh, at the tactical
00:59:56.100
level doing the same thing and watching this machine run. And it was, uh, it was like a military
01:00:01.940
operation. I mean, I walked on for the first time for the first episode and craft food services is
01:00:07.120
there and they're feeding the troops. You know, it's like the army logistics training, feeding the
01:00:10.460
troops. Uh, we have the explosives guy on set and he's like the breacher in a platoon. Uh, you have
01:00:15.140
the mobility guy moving all the vehicles, getting all the vehicles, the right ones. Uh, just like in
01:00:19.180
a steel platoon, you have like mobility guy in charge of the vehicles and making sure they're gassed up
01:00:23.180
and ready to go. You have the armor, just like in a platoon, it's, it's checking out the weapons,
01:00:27.240
giving you, checking them back in with the serial numbers, making sure they're all accounted for
01:00:30.380
like that person's on set as well. And, uh, and this just so happened to be a military centric scene.
01:00:35.880
Uh, and it was like a seal reunion and I walked on set and Ryan Sankster is there. We were in Iraq
01:00:41.760
together. Um, so many great guys were on set and we're playing seals. I think there were only two,
01:00:46.980
there was not just seals. There were other military people there as well, um, playing seals, but, uh,
01:00:52.920
any Chris and Patrick Schwarzenegger were the only two, um, that weren't, that weren't a military that
01:00:58.600
were playing military people. So that was, that was pretty cool to see all of that come together and
01:01:03.300
see what it looks like today. It's just, it's just awesome. I couldn't be more thrilled.
01:01:07.680
You know, I, I don't know. I don't know, Patrick, I don't know, Chris either. Um, but obviously I'm
01:01:12.260
more familiar with Chris's work and, and it seems like he's somebody, uh, who, although maybe he
01:01:18.600
didn't serve in the military respects you respects the military respects the experts enough to fully
01:01:25.160
embrace that role and to just become part of it because he wants to honor it in the right way.
01:01:32.000
Yeah, that was so important to him from the outset. Uh, so important to Antoine from the
01:01:36.740
outset. Um, and it was at the beginning, it was me and Chris Antoine and the showrunner. So a showrunner
01:01:41.980
is like to a series, what a director is to a feature film, because you have multiple directors
01:01:46.680
and the showrunners managing everything. Um, so that was David Agilio, amazing guy. Our first
01:01:52.280
conversation was in December of 2019. And, uh, we've talked every day since to include early this
01:01:57.480
morning and, uh, and he's just been fantastic. Uh, so we got together and wrote that first pilot
01:02:03.020
episode. And by right, I mean, he wrote it and I was learning. I was just a sponge and I learned so
01:02:08.560
much. He mentored me through the entire process. I was advising on it. Um, so we got this pilot script
01:02:12.980
together and then he took it with Chris and Antoine, uh, and they took it and they took it to
01:02:17.280
Netflix. They took it to Amazon. They took it to HBO, to Showtime, to Hulu, to, uh, to Apple.
01:02:22.020
And then it got in a bidding war and Amazon ended up with it. Uh, so then you put the writer's room
01:02:27.180
together. And so I advised on all those scripts and then you start filming and we started filming
01:02:31.880
in March of last year, but kind of like in the military, you have a plan that sounds good from
01:02:36.860
an air conditioned tactical operation center or planning space. And then you get out there and
01:02:41.240
you're like, Oh, geez. Uh, you know, that, uh, hill isn't as big as we thought it was or bigger than
01:02:45.620
we thought it was. Uh, Oh, wait a second over here. This village is, uh, it, we thought it looked
01:02:50.380
like by the satellite photographs, it looked like it was farther away, but man, that is right here.
01:02:54.320
Uh, they're certainly going to hear us in our approach or whatever, whatever it is. Uh,
01:02:58.060
things change and the enemy gets a vote. And, uh, same thing with this, you have a great script
01:03:03.500
and then you get out there and you're standing on the ground. We're going to film it. And you're like,
01:03:06.920
Oh, wait a second. This doesn't really work. So you adapt and you change it. And then the actors
01:03:13.400
bring something to the role. They bring something different than maybe you thought they would
01:03:17.460
when you're sitting in that air conditioned space. So now that has to be accounted for in
01:03:20.940
future episodes as you're going. So these scripts are constantly adapting, uh, situation terrain
01:03:25.320
dictate. What is this? What is this, uh, actor brought to this role? How does that change? Episode
01:03:30.380
six, seven, eight. And so you're constantly working on these things throughout the entire process.
01:03:35.500
And then it goes into post-production. So we filmed from March of 2021 to August of 2021.
01:03:40.500
And it went into post-production until really a couple of weeks ago. And now we have the, uh,
01:03:44.380
the trick teasers coming and the trailers coming and those things look awesome. And the whole show
01:03:48.940
has, I think it's secrets. I don't tell anybody. Um, it is, uh, tested off the charts with test
01:03:53.820
audiences. So, um, yeah, just feel, uh, no, nobody listens to this podcast anyways, Jack. So you
01:03:59.760
don't, you don't have to worry about, sorry. What is it, what is it like when, so obviously you've got
01:04:07.800
what you've written with terminal list in the series, and then you've got writers who are going to take
01:04:13.080
that information and translate it and make it available for TV. Cause it's, it's a different
01:04:17.000
skillset. What is it like when they take, uh, maybe more liberties with your interpretation of
01:04:24.560
James Reese or the characters of the storyline, then you would like, like, how does that work
01:04:29.640
when there's some sort of conflict there? And I imagine there was, maybe there wasn't, I don't know.
01:04:33.780
Yeah. I mean, you can't knowing that you have, once again, that you have time, um, and knowing
01:04:37.720
that that is probably going to be the case that, uh, somebody else with a different background,
01:04:41.860
different history. Um, maybe they want to put their stamp on it. Uh, and you're telling
01:04:46.760
a story visually, you're telling a story through a different medium. So there are going to be
01:04:50.520
changes. So I knew that going in. And then I also knew when I saw some of the scripts coming
01:04:54.460
out of the writer's room, like wonderful. Uh, we have, we have months and months and months
01:04:59.120
to, uh, morph this and change it if it needs to be changed. So I kind of took that, that approach
01:05:04.540
to it, made my notes. I always gave my notes. Some I held back. Cause you need, you have
01:05:08.160
to be, you have to look at things holistically and you have to work as a team and you have to
01:05:13.060
recognize that in order to work as a team, um, you can kind of derail things if you bring the wrong
01:05:20.680
sort of an attitude to it. I guess that makes sense. Um, but, uh, with the scripts, Hey, you
01:05:26.060
have some time, they do get approved and all that sort of thing, but guess what? Uh, they're going
01:05:29.840
to get, you're going to make changes regardless. And those scripts are going to have to go up the
01:05:33.680
chain again and come back down with notes and, and you're just going to work together
01:05:36.960
to get this thing where it needs to be. So I did also see how easy it is for something
01:05:42.160
to go off the rails. And it's, uh, it's shocking to me that one, that anything gets made in
01:05:46.140
Hollywood and two, that in Hollywood, cause there are so many opportunities. There's so
01:05:50.320
many people working on this thing. The team is so large, um, that, uh, that is very easy.
01:05:55.580
And I was always very forgiving when I saw something on TV that didn't quite look right,
01:05:59.640
you know, fingers on triggers, uh, scopes on backwards, uh, you know, that sort of thing.
01:06:04.760
Uh, very forgiving. Now I'm even more forgiving because I can see how easy it is for those things
01:06:10.180
to happen. And, you know, it's easy to snipe today. Uh, you know, you couldn't say you watch
01:06:14.100
a movie in 1985 and you really wanted to say something about somebody's finger on the trigger
01:06:17.400
where it shouldn't have been. What are you going to do about it? You're going to tell your wife next
01:06:20.460
to you and make her just roll. Right. I'm going to tell your buddy, shut up, dude. I'm trying to watch,
01:06:24.440
you know, like now what can you do? You can get on social media. You can be out.
01:06:28.360
Take it apart. Take a screenshot. You can say, you can tell your audience of five or whatever
01:06:33.700
you have, you know, you can make comment on, on, uh, someone's a post that's, uh, maybe has more
01:06:38.880
followers and say how horrible this thing was. And you can bring all that negativity to bear.
01:06:43.700
Uh, and that can, you know, that says a lot about more about much more about the person than about
01:06:47.660
the project, uh, because the project, Oh my gosh, it's so easy. I can see that actor standing there.
01:06:52.640
And for Chris, like there's say hair and makeups there, whatever. And they're putting the blood on his
01:06:56.720
face and doing all this. And, you know, there's all helicopters are flying in the air and you have
01:07:00.500
like a explosive person over in the corner. That's making sure that that stuff is ready to go.
01:07:04.600
And that standoff distances are appropriate for what you're doing. And, uh, then there's a guy
01:07:08.800
standing next to Chris with that pistol or with that rifle and he's waiting and he's just waiting
01:07:13.300
and he's just waiting. And Chris finishes with all the makeup here. And the director is talking to him
01:07:17.820
over here, maybe technical advisors saying, Hey, you know, this, this, this, be sure you go,
01:07:21.620
you know, be sure you don't step out into that hallway. Be sure you pie the corner a little more
01:07:25.620
slowly and come up like, like all that stuff's going on. And then when it stops right before
01:07:30.320
that armor will show Chris, Hey, clear and safe, or Hey, here it is. Here's the magazine. This is
01:07:35.500
the type of round that is in there. Um, so you need to be this far away. Uh, Chris confirms it.
01:07:40.520
He looks clear and safe. Okay. Or whatever that scene called for. And then boom, ready. So the last
01:07:45.860
thing that he does is understand us the, what the condition of the weapon is. And maybe it's just a shape
01:07:51.360
it could be just a shape, but that armorer will still say, Hey, you know, inoperable, uh, M4,
01:07:56.940
you know, it just doesn't, doesn't even work. Um, so Chris will know exactly what he has.
01:08:01.440
Uh, so that part was, I mean, a super professional, uh, with all of that, but let's say all of that is
01:08:06.540
going on action and people make mistakes. And what if they hand Chris something and what's that
01:08:12.360
scopes on backwards and he's not actually using it for that cut. He's just like coming around like this,
01:08:16.900
but somehow it's on backwards. Cause it fell off in another scene or, and, or maybe
01:08:21.220
the scope covers are on, or maybe, uh, you know, so many things like that can go wrong.
01:08:27.520
And then you're like, Oh, reshoot it or, Oh, Hey, we'll fix it in post. And then what happens?
01:08:31.940
Maybe you forget to fix it in post or forget. Again, that's why now everybody's onto other
01:08:36.040
projects. And now someone is in that editing room that doesn't have a background in the military,
01:08:40.300
has no idea that scope was on backwards or that it did, that it should have been on there,
01:08:43.700
but it fell off during the scene, but they're like, Oh, this looks really cool. Let's put that in
01:08:47.120
the, so many ways to mess this up, uh, is what I'm trying to trying to get at. So, um, I'm even
01:08:52.120
more forgiving now than, uh, than I ever was before. Well, and I, and I think there's something to be
01:08:57.320
said to, for the consumer, like, look, if you're going to put together a shitty project, that's one
01:09:01.220
thing, right? Like if everything about the project is broken, okay, that's an issue. But if there's a
01:09:07.320
couple of things that you're like, nah, that's not right. You know, that it would be a good exercise
01:09:13.100
and discernment for the consumer to say, you know, that didn't really take away from the movie.
01:09:17.280
That didn't really take away from the plot line. You know, yeah, we can nitpick it and all that
01:09:21.600
kind of stuff. And maybe they should have caught that, but like, you're going to be okay. Like,
01:09:26.140
we're so sensitive. It's like, you're going to be okay. It's still entertaining. It's still
01:09:30.540
enjoyable. And so just deal with it. And yeah, there's some things like you just need some light
01:09:35.500
in some cases in order to see what Chris is doing. Uh, you know, like you'd never step out like that.
01:09:40.540
Well, you need to, you know, like, okay, got it. Yeah. But you need to show, it can't just show a
01:09:44.260
black screen. You just have a little, little light here, headlights there, whatever it might be.
01:09:49.360
So there are things like that, that happened that you just have to do to, to, to move the story
01:09:53.120
forward. But, uh, but to Chris and Antoine showrunner to me, uh, that authentic piece was so important
01:09:59.420
and, uh, keeping it dark and gritty and violent and primal, um, knowing that there were going to be
01:10:05.940
changes. Uh, but those changes had to be rooted in that foundation of the novel in the things that
01:10:11.100
made the novel resonate with Simon and Schuster and resonate with readers. Um, and so that had
01:10:16.160
to be in place. And, uh, we, I think we, I know we accomplished that. So there are definitely
01:10:21.240
differences from, from the book. Um, of course, uh, but those, those changes, I think the, I think the
01:10:28.100
surprises are good ones. And that someone who's a fan of the book, I mean, if you can go through it
01:10:32.300
and be like, Oh, no, that's different. That's different. That's different. Horrible. You know,
01:10:35.900
that's one way to go about it or cause there will be changes. I mean, that's just how it goes.
01:10:40.060
Of course. But, uh, but, or you can say, Oh man, that is an awesome surprise. Uh, that was really
01:10:45.880
cool how they figured that out to show that creatively in this visual medium. Um, so, so you
01:10:50.560
can do that. And if you find it for the first time on Amazon, on the video, and then go back to the
01:10:55.940
book, there'll be surprises going the other way as well. So I think I couldn't be more thrilled with,
01:10:59.600
uh, with how all of that, uh, that, that came about, but, um, yeah, it's, it was, but I also
01:11:04.640
got to see how much work went into this. So once again, I'm so appreciative of anything that I see
01:11:09.020
now, cause I know how much work goes into these things and how much people devote to it. Uh, even
01:11:13.880
the ones that, uh, don't end up being quite so great. Yeah. Well, Jack, I always appreciate our
01:11:19.600
conversations. We didn't talk much about the book. I have an advanced copy here. We didn't talk much
01:11:23.880
about the book, but I figured guys can go read it. Like we could talk about it or you could just go
01:11:29.520
buy it and read it yourself, which is what you should be doing. But I would start a book number
01:11:33.200
one and then work your way into book number five because it is chronological. Uh, but yeah, Jack,
01:11:39.140
just always appreciate our conversations. So insightful. Always good to have these, these
01:11:43.820
discussions. I appreciate you, brother. You, so you've got the book that, that releases, uh, May,
01:11:49.940
what is it? Six 16th? What was it? 17th, 17th, 17th, 17th. Yeah. May 17th, Tuesday. And, uh,
01:11:56.400
yeah, I actually put, I just dropped yesterday or two days ago, the, uh, uh, the preface prologue
01:12:01.540
and first three chapters on, uh, on my website. So people can go there, hit the blog and the
01:12:06.700
third chapter. So I did an audio sneak peek also, or sneak listen, um, that just went to
01:12:11.900
the second chapter and then, uh, PDF people can go read that has that third chapter. And
01:12:17.320
that third chapter is probably my favorite chapter that I've ever written. And it's just a conversation
01:12:22.080
between, um, Caroline Hastings and James Reese. So Caroline Hastings is the matriarch of the
01:12:27.980
Hastings family. And it's just a conversation between them, but it was probably, it was the
01:12:33.660
most powerful chapter and the most meaningful to me. And I think the best chapter that I've ever
01:12:37.860
written. So, uh, and it's not, there's no explosions. There's no one's getting, you know,
01:12:41.240
stabbed in the eye socket. Uh, it's, uh, it's just a conversation, but, uh, so I wanted to make
01:12:46.620
sure I put that, that up there. So if anybody wants to go check it out, they can go and, uh, and
01:12:50.280
check out that, uh, those first three chapters. Awesome. And then you've got terminal list coming
01:12:55.420
out on Amazon July 1st. So also guys be on the lookout for that, uh, follow along with what this
01:13:01.620
guy's doing. Incredible stuff. I've appreciated our discussions and more importantly, just our
01:13:05.540
friendship that we've developed over the past four or five years now, whatever I can do to support you.
01:13:09.680
I hope you know, you have it. Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that. I always love talking to
01:13:13.680
you and hopefully we'll do it next time. We'll do it in person. Um, but, uh, yeah, I want to talk to you
01:13:17.300
about your next book that's coming out. I'm, uh, I'm fascinated with, uh, with all that. I know
01:13:21.480
it's a ton of work and just love what you're doing, man. You're making a, making an impact.
01:13:25.300
And I, I certainly appreciate it. Um, if more people did that, I'd be, I'd be a little more
01:13:29.360
hopeful for the future of the nation. Uh, cause, uh, yeah, right now when I sit down at the end,
01:13:33.680
I try to remain hopeful publicly when I sit down on the couch with my wife at the end of the night
01:13:37.100
and have a glass of wine or whatever it is. Um, it's, oh my goodness. I, I do have some concerns for,
01:13:42.440
for, for future generations, but, uh, uh, but with you out there, man,
01:13:46.320
it makes me feel all the better. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. Take care.
01:13:52.360
All right, man. There you go. My conversation with the one and only Jack Carr. Make sure you
01:13:56.520
pick up a copy of his newest, latest thriller in the blood in the James Reese series. His first book
01:14:03.600
was, uh, terminalist, uh, devil's hand. I can't remember. There's five of them. I can't remember
01:14:08.780
them all right offhand. I should have those ready. I've got a in the blood here sitting on my desk
01:14:12.520
cause I'm going through that right now. Uh, but you guys are going to be blown away with this.
01:14:17.300
So pick up a copy of the book that comes out today as of the release of this podcast.
01:14:21.060
And then also July 1st, make sure you watch the eight part series with Mr. Chris Pratt playing James
01:14:28.280
Reese on Amazon, uh, outside of that guys, check out the store, check out origin. Uh, and then if you
01:14:35.080
would just take a screenshot right now, real quick, a screenshot tag Jack and myself on Instagram
01:14:40.800
and share it up and let people know what you're listening to goes a long way in supporting
01:14:44.340
what we're doing here. And it's a good way for you to give valuable information to your
01:14:47.720
friends. All right, guys, you have your marching orders. We'll be back tomorrow until then go
01:14:52.100
out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the
01:14:56.860
order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were
01:15:01.680
meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.