Life is Short, The Cost of Following Dreams, and Why Homeschool is Better ｜ ASK ME ANYTHING
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 10 minutes
Words per Minute
190.9585
Summary
In this episode, the brother and sister duo of the sit down with their good friend Kip Sorensen. Kip talks about his recent back injury and how he's dealing with it, and we talk about the upcoming Origins immersion camp.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong.
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This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.
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At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Mr. Kip Sorensen, what's up, man? It's good to see you, brother.
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So have you trained and then no injury during training?
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You go home, sleep, you wake up, and all of a sudden you're like paralyzed?
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Every day. Every day after training. What happened, though?
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My back. Oh, man, I'm walking. I'm shuffling my feet. I'm bending halfway over.
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No pain, no nothing during training. Like, no event occurred.
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But pinched a nerve or something. You know what that's called, right?
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It's actually called LBS. There's a clinically diagnosed condition for that.
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I always have a low level of pain in my right joint, just this whole joint.
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And I've just come to the realization that, like, this is always going to hurt.
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You know, I've been a little laxydaisical on my training over the past couple of weeks.
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I don't know if I just give up my right arm or what.
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My LBS is, it kind of magically just went away right now once you inform me.
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Typically, you're drinking a bang, which is like the enemy.
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I really drink this just so I can feel like me and JP are close, you know, like we're
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Well, you know, he doesn't know me, but I know him and you know, he knows you, Kip.
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I think he'll probably be at origins immersion camp, which by the way, we're going to come
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out with some details for you guys, uh, here in the next week because we want, we want
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I would just like, or order of man to just take over origins immersion camp.
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The, you know, the big group photo that they take, what we could do is, is just have a
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You're like, is this an order of man event or is this an immersion jujitsu camp?
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And excited at the same time, you know, what would actually be really cool is just, is
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have Pete make us some like order of man, orange geese or blackies with orange trim black
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Do you guys have restrictions on colors you can wear at your, uh, at your gym?
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That's a, that's a, yes, that's a, those are fancy gyms do that, but no fancy gyms.
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There's, they're like the five star of jujitsu gyms.
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You, you show up and I'm like, oh, should I be all wearing all white in here?
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It's, I don't, I hope I don't be insulting here or anything, or I'm not going to be insulting
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here or anything, but we go to like the redneck of jujitsu gyms.
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Like we just show up and it's all these mainers and I love it, man.
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We just show up and kick each other's asses for an hour and a half.
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I mean, I don't want to create any riff between you two, but he's been putting it out there
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Like, ah, I think that's the first time I've ever caught you.
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He, he journals like a little journal entry at the end of the night.
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No, he's been, he's been telling everybody he caught.
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I told him, I said, you know, what's interesting is, is, is, is he, is he a blue belt or a white
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Clint's, Clint's different though, because I remember I went and trained with him maybe six to eight
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And I think either I was on the tail end of my white belt or maybe just got my blue belt.
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Like he's a different kind of white belt for sure.
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Those guys, um, kind of the Jack Donovan of what I'm calling the Jack Donovan crew, you
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know, cause I told you they started doing a little bit of training on Sundays and they're
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And one of the guys is like, Hey, you go and shooting with us.
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And he goes, hopefully you're not as good as shooting as you are at jujitsu.
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And I'm like, I don't know why that's a concern unless we're shooting at each other, you might
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be with that crew, but I don't know what you guys are down.
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You know, I, I don't know what's, what's planned.
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Oh, what's the movie it's on Mel Gibson's in it.
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Where the, the Indian guy was like, Hey, uh, we've got this Russian who wants to hunt
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So you're going to pretend like you're an Indian.
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So if they start putting you in Indian, you know, a headdress or gear, like I'd be a little
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On the outside, they're like, yeah, you want to come shooting?
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We play cowboys and Indians and you're the Indian.
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If I'm just telling you, if that's what the case is, like, just, just don't, don't play
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Maybe we, you know, let's think about people, cowboys and brainstorm anyone that we might
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So then that way we can make sure that we talk about nothing.
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We don't need, we just sit in silence for an hour.
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We don't need to, we don't need to brainstorm that regardless of what you say.
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People are going to be offended, which is crazy.
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You know, it's, I mean, we talked about Indians.
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And, and great eps on Friday field notes and, uh, the Jack Donovan was, was great as well.
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I always get some, some interesting feedback on that.
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Cause he's such a, I mean, he's so solid, you know, I've, have you met Jack in person?
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Well, remember I was training with his weird book book release thing or whatever.
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He does some weird shit that you're like, Whoa, I don't know about this.
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I want to, somebody asked me on the, about the, uh, the podcast the other day and they're
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I'm like, you know, I just want to talk to weird people anymore.
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Like I'm so sick of talking to people who are just like normal and bland and politically
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Like that's who I want to talk to because at least they make it interesting.
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And Jack's like that, you know, he's very fascinating, very interesting.
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You know, a lot, a lot of what he talks about with regards to masculinity is things that
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I actually believe in has actually shaped a lot of what I believe about masculinity, but
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he's got some edges, you know, that make him, make him different, make him weird and strange.
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Like he admitted on the episode with you, it's like, yeah, if it's off boundaries and
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I probably shouldn't, and it's been categorized as like bad.
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In fact, those are the people that we need because everybody is just so robotic and monotonous
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And I'm, I'll tell you like, even the amount of people that reach out to me and they're
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like, Hey, I want to come talk to you about leadership.
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I'm like, I don't want to talk about leadership on my podcast.
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I mean, leadership is important, but what else, you know, like what else you got?
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So hopefully we can bring some answers that are a little different, at least refreshing
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So our, our questions today, uh, we're actually fielding from Facebook, uh, to join us there.
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What is your biggest takeaway from your time in service?
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Any leaders or peers that had a lasting impact on you?
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You know, I think about a lot of guys in the military, uh, and, and I don't know that
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there's one individual who I thought, you know, this is the guy, like this is the guy
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I want to, I want to model or I want to be like, I wasn't serving under Jocko.
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If that were the case, obviously he'd be the guy, you know?
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I was serving under a bunch of guys, pretty much like me.
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Um, some had obviously more experience than I did and taught me some good things, but there
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wasn't like one person that I thought, this is the guy.
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I learned to play for keeps, you know, I spent some time in Iraq.
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Speaking of Jocko, that's 2006 was just about the time early 2006, I believe it was April
00:11:23.000
or may somewhere in there, uh, is when he got to Ramadi, he and his, his, uh, task task
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We knew who Chris Kyle was, but I didn't know who Jocko was at the time.
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Uh, and, and what I learned is to play for keeps, you know, life is short.
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I remember when I got to Iraq, we, the unit that we were replacing all piled us into the
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Humvees and they said, Hey, let me just give you a tour of the base.
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And so we toured the base and there was mortar holes and rocket blasts and every, everything
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The guys that we replaced, they literally would not walk to the chow hall, which was
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probably a 10th, maybe a quarter of a mile, maybe away.
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And they wouldn't walk from their, their position to the chow hall.
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What they had to do is they had to, they had, they did it on a rotation.
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So if it was your turn to go, you had to go and there was, you had to get the food for
00:12:25.900
If it was your day, your day, like sucks to be you.
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Cause my lunch is more important than your life.
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And when I walked into the base or excuse me, the office building, I say office building,
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But when I walked into the office building, I saw pictures of 14 soldiers on the wall.
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And I asked one of the captains there, I said, Hey, you know, who are these guys right
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And he says, so those are the 14 guys that we've lost in a year.
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These guys are afraid to walk a 10th of a mile to the chow hall.
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There's rocket holes, mortar blast, mortar holes everywhere on the base.
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It was the worst strategic place to ever have a base.
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I'm not sure why we did other than it was an Iraqi detention facility at one point.
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And it was convenient because there was enough buildings.
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And I don't even want to know what took place in the buildings that we lived in.
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And we got hit with rockets and mortars every single day.
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There wasn't a day that went by that we didn't get hit with rockets or mortars or have to
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rally the QRF quick reactionary force, or our guys were outside the wire, which meant outside
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of the base, dealing with enemy encounters, IEDs, improvised explosive devices, et cetera,
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And what my job was, was to coordinate the base defense.
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So as we had threats at the, at the gates or our observation posts acknowledged a threat or
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saw a threat, or we had a very limited, uh, counter fire, uh, artillery mission, it was
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my job to determine how we were going to react to that threat.
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And what I learned is that the decisions I was going to be making were for real.
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If I had a bad day, it wasn't like somebody was upset.
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It wasn't like, you know, you, you were down for a couple of days or you declared bankruptcy
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or you had gotten a lawsuit or you were dealing with a minor medical condition.
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And I was thinking about this just the other day because I was walking out in the field
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You have kids that are out of, or close to out of the house.
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I could run down to the gas station or run an errand or, you know, and somebody can T-bone.
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He said, you know, what's going to kill you is already out there.
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Or there's your neighbor who's working away on his computer, doing his job, just like
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And he's going to run a red light tomorrow and he's going to T-bone you and kill you.
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Like whatever's going to kill you is already present.
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Like whether it's five years or 50 years, you don't have a lot of time.
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And some of you are so worried about, oh, you know, what, what would this person think
00:16:06.760
Do you realize that you have no time on this planet?
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And you're worried about what somebody else is thinking about you.
00:16:18.900
It was painful, but it was a beautiful blessing to me because I realized, yeah, when I go to
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the chow hall to get my lunch today, I could be dead.
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I remember, I think it was the last two or three days we were getting ready to, to, to ship
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And I was walking to the chow hall and our sirens came on and those sirens let you know
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We have enough time to pick them up and there's an incoming round.
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And I looked around and I'm like, holy shit, like there's nothing, nothing for me to hide
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And so I saw a palm tree and I ran over to the palm tree and I just got as low as I
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If this mortar or rocket lands on this palm tree, I'm dead.
00:17:00.400
So I get behind the palm tree and probably 70, 80 yards, somewhere in there.
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So, uh, we had not weed an engineering unit that had come in to replace us or, or work
00:17:12.220
with us had built, um, these makeshift buildings.
00:17:16.440
There was probably, I would say four to five guys in each building that they slept there.
00:17:21.060
And there was, it was basically a four by four, a four by five grid.
00:17:27.760
And that mortar hit those buildings, which was, like I said, 70, 80 yards away.
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I'm actually with two buddies, two buddies I went to high school with, uh, Tony and Jen.
00:17:43.180
And the first person we come to is this young woman and she's holding her wrist.
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And we look at her hand and her, like half of her hand is blown off, like just completely
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So she's just like, and I'll never forget the, just the vibrant color of red that was
00:18:03.400
And I was like, Oh my goodness, this is insane.
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And my buddy, Jed, who was trained in medical stuff, he did some additional medical training.
00:18:18.540
You know, if you think about those big four foot concrete pipes, you know what I'm talking
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He threw her in one of those and he's like, just stay here.
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I was very impressed with his speed of reacting to the situation.
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We ran over to the buildings and by this time they were demolished.
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Kip, they were gone, gone, burned to the ground.
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And we're, we're, we're, we're running around trying to see who needs help and everything
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And we come around this one building and the medics had come over from Charlie med and
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they, they threw a couple of guys into the back of a gator.
00:19:00.460
You know how, like if a football player gets injured, they throw them on a gator and they
00:19:04.960
And they were throwing a couple of dead bodies onto this gator and, and taking them wherever
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You know, when you see a dead body, he was dead and he looked like a kid.
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And I'm just remember thinking, God, what a waste of life.
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Life is short and we're worried about dumb shit.
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Like, what do people, what would people think of me?
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I don't give a damn what people think of me because life is short.
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Anyways, I I'm dragging on at this point, but a lot of you guys listening have been in these
00:20:14.820
It's painful to remember those things, to see a young man who just got to Iraq, who probably
00:20:19.540
wanted to serve his country, who probably wanted to make his family proud, who believed in the
00:20:27.680
And, and, and many of you listening have know what that's like to some degree.
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It's painful, but that pain can actually serve you to go on and do something great.
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He doesn't get to do all the things that he wanted to do, but you do for whatever reason,
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luck, fortune, fate, the gods are smiling upon you.
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I don't know what it is, but for whatever reason, you're still here.
00:21:06.360
Like I, you know, you think about that, that kid, you know, did, did mom and dad send that
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letter that, that they thought they should have sent and didn't, right?
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Did they, did they say goodbye in a way that they were complete in their relationship with
00:21:23.740
You know, like, you know, our lives may be cut short, but those that we care about, those
00:21:28.660
within our care, their lives might be cut short, right?
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We may send our kids off to school today, you know, and one of my daughters could die
00:21:38.000
Like, how did I say goodbye to him this morning?
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You know, I, I, you know, like you said, I mean, being, being present to that, I think
00:21:49.280
And I, and I think that's one of the, you know, one of the stoic kind of strategies around,
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Negative visualization is like, Hey, get present to this.
00:22:01.080
So then that way we can show up in a way that's, that's empowering to those that we love
00:22:05.000
and make sure we take advantage of the time that we have with them.
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And you know what I think most people do is we do a wonderful job sedating ourselves.
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And so we sedate ourselves with weird kind of mindsets that society has adopted for us
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or, uh, drugs, alcohol, other things that completely shut our brains off.
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If you're in pain, whether it's because you have a loss.
00:22:38.000
A loss of a loved one or a family member, or because, uh, your wife left you, or you just
00:22:46.760
lost your job or you're dealing with a medical condition, feel it.
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I did with him and he, he said, and Tim Kennedy is a different beast, but there's a lot of lessons
00:23:04.780
He was talking about getting done with his fight for, I think he was talking about Bisping
00:23:10.940
And, you know, he, he said, I hit that guy like 300 times or something like insane.
00:23:17.880
And his wife was like, can I get you an Advil or a Tylenol or a, you know, a fifth of vodka
00:23:26.100
And he's like, no, I just want to feel all of it.
00:23:33.820
And he said, I remember him saying, he said, if I could bottle that, I would drink that
00:23:37.420
every day because of that pain is what drives me to do bigger and better things.
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I don't want to feel bad at all in any little context.
00:23:50.020
And so I'm going to do whatever I can not to feel it, not feel it, embrace it, live in
00:23:58.780
Well, and like you said, like we've live in even a society that will downplay it.
00:24:07.780
You shouldn't think about the single thing that we all have in common, that we will die.
00:24:18.140
It's very part of the human condition, but we don't talk about it because it's morbid.
00:24:25.400
Our culture, when I say our, I'm talking about Western culture is very interesting around
00:24:29.660
You know, we mourn and we, I remember when my grandmother died, I didn't know quite how to
00:24:40.080
And so we went to the funeral and afterwards, everybody came, I believe it was my aunt's house
00:24:47.000
and everybody came to my aunt's house and I was young at the time.
00:24:49.260
And everybody was laughing and smiling and playing.
00:25:07.740
And I came to the realization that it's because they were honoring her.
00:25:14.720
You know, they're telling funny stories about grandma and laughing about how she made us
00:25:22.140
And, you know, some of the things maybe she didn't do so well, but they were honoring her.
00:25:26.520
And, and that was a really cathartic moment for me where I realized, oh, okay.
00:25:33.280
So yeah, it's sorrowful because we have a loss, but also what about all this amazing good over
00:25:39.440
a period of, you know, 75, 80 years that this woman did.
00:25:49.600
So the Western world has this very morbid, well, it is morbid, but it's very dark.
00:25:57.020
I mean, we wear dark colors, but it's this very dark view of death.
00:26:02.640
And I'm not saying that we shouldn't mourn death, but should we be more focused on celebrating
00:26:08.440
And if we did, then how would we live our own lives as opposed to just focusing on our
00:26:19.600
Connor Gregory on that lovely note of talking about death for the past 30 minutes.
00:26:27.600
I'm like, I don't even know if any of these are a segue out of that.
00:26:32.380
Like we'll see what we can do off, but we'll see what we can do.
00:26:35.520
So Connor McGregory, I don't, you know, maybe this is, you know, maybe this is Connor McGregor
00:26:44.500
I mean, he followed probably is probabilities pretty high.
00:26:47.160
Uh, Connor Gregory, if it's not too private, what are your kids homeschooled?
00:26:59.820
My lady and I do not have children yet, but we are often discussing homeschool.
00:27:07.640
My kids for, uh, up until two years ago were in public schooling and I actually felt really
00:27:14.500
good about it because the schools that they went to, I was, I, we were living in a small
00:27:19.320
Uh, uh, the elementary school that my two oldest were going to the principal of that school
00:27:33.960
Uh, I knew a lot of the school teachers personally.
00:27:36.900
I actually felt really good about the public school system.
00:27:39.640
And I do, as long as you know who they are, I still feel that way about teachers individually
00:27:45.640
for the most part, I don't like the system, but I do have a lot of respect for the individual
00:27:52.080
And that's one thing I need to be very clear on because anytime I criticize the public
00:27:56.280
school system, people interpret that as criticizing teachers.
00:27:59.500
I'm not criticizing individual to some yes, but the ones that I know, no, I'm not criticizing
00:28:06.400
those teachers because I think they're doing what they can do.
00:28:09.580
They're doing the best they can in a system that would be almost impossible to do right
00:28:17.340
So I use a program called the good and the beautiful is the homeschooling system that
00:28:22.440
I don't like the name, but I do like the curriculum.
00:28:25.240
I, I, cause life is not about being good and beautiful.
00:28:31.740
Life to me is more about being capable and being valuable.
00:28:36.820
If it were called the capable and the valuable, I'd be all about it, but it's called the good
00:28:42.540
I didn't come up with that name, but the curriculum is really good.
00:28:45.780
It's, it's a Christian centered curriculum when they give examples in their story problems
00:28:50.880
and things like that, or, uh, their literature is about stories from the Bible.
00:28:56.080
So it's, it's really good because it's a values based system.
00:29:00.520
Uh, we made this decision two years ago when we moved here to Maine that we were going to
00:29:03.800
homeschool our children because it represented a great opportunity to try something new.
00:29:10.540
I'm not just going to thrust my kids into an environment that I'm not familiar with.
00:29:22.080
And yet many of us do, you know, like, oh, don't, don't question.
00:29:25.860
Don't, but school system, public education, I guess is just what, no, I need to find out
00:29:31.060
first because those are my children and I have a responsibility to my children more so than
00:29:37.100
probably any other person on this planet because I've voluntarily brought them into this world.
00:29:41.160
It's no surprise how we bring children into this world.
00:29:44.020
People seem to be surprised about how that works, which is a weird thing.
00:29:50.300
Like that's a, that's an issue, abortion and premarital sex.
00:29:54.220
And that's actually an issue that we probably should address very soon.
00:29:58.420
Anyways, so we decided to homeschool our children.
00:30:10.400
So were you guys homeschooling before Maine or it's like, Hey, we're going to move to Maine.
00:30:13.660
And this is what we're going to switch things up on the school inside at the same time.
00:30:17.280
Well, we hit, we heard a lot of good things about the school system that we're just outside of.
00:30:25.400
We're just outside of the city limits for this particular school system.
00:30:30.300
And we wrote into the school board and we said, Hey, you know, here's the exception.
00:30:34.860
Here's why they approved one of our children to come to that school, but they didn't approve another.
00:30:42.840
If our kids are going to come, they're going to go, but are both going to go to the same school.
00:30:45.800
We're not playing this different school type thing.
00:30:48.840
So because one child was not approved for the school system, it had to do with school teachers
00:30:59.440
It wasn't something that we were very convicted about, but we thought, okay, let's, you know,
00:31:10.960
It was probably a week or two into our schooling and I walked into our classroom, which is one of
00:31:18.400
It's just off the side of our house, but it is in our home.
00:31:21.400
And there was two clear big bulls and one of them, well, they both had what I would just say
00:31:28.140
were frogs that are, there was frogs in each of the bulls.
00:31:34.480
And like, oh, we went on a walk today and we found them.
00:31:38.960
And one of my children, I can't remember who it was said, actually, dad, only one is a frog.
00:31:46.380
And I was like, okay, well, what's yeah, got it.
00:31:53.300
And then those were those mascots for, you know, the week or whatever.
00:31:56.600
And then they let them go two or three days later.
00:32:00.660
It was a very weird thing to think that that was the moment.
00:32:02.880
But I'm like, oh, God, they're, they're connecting things.
00:32:09.760
And then a couple of months later, my wife had set up a trip down to Boston, which is
00:32:15.220
about three and a half hour drive from where we are with a homeschooling co-op.
00:32:21.580
And we went down there and we went to the museum and there was probably, I don't know, 30 kids,
00:32:31.300
We rode the train down to Boston, spent a day there.
00:32:35.320
Um, and I, I started seeing more of these kinds of activities where we go to the museum
00:32:44.060
as a family, they hang out with the right people.
00:32:46.040
They're, they're connecting, like you said, between learning and real world experience.
00:32:50.520
And then I started having my oldest son manage the store and that was part of his curriculum.
00:32:54.900
And then the other kids wanted to get involved.
00:32:57.380
And, uh, my wife and kids and my wife's mother went down to, or excuse me, her aunt went down
00:33:03.900
to Boston just a couple of weeks ago and they did the freedom trail.
00:33:07.140
But it was the kid's responsibility to put together the field trip on what things they should visit
00:33:13.620
And my two oldest boys were able to explain different parts of this trail and different
00:33:20.600
If you can make it work, you need to make it work.
00:33:26.080
I'm not going to outsource my children's education out to people who will do an inferior job.
00:33:34.840
And look, I have school teachers who are friends, bless their hearts.
00:33:39.840
They do as best they can, but they're, they're undermanned.
00:33:57.460
They just can't because of the system in which they work.
00:34:00.840
And I will have people who will say things like, well, you know, they're trained, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:34:10.720
Like they're, they aren't, they don't have any more classes than I had out of high school.
00:34:15.800
They're trained in how to manage 30 kids or 40 kids or whatever it is.
00:34:20.020
And then how to work through the red tape that they have to work through.
00:34:23.000
That doesn't make them more qualified to teach children.
00:34:26.000
It means they know how to work in the system they're presented with.
00:34:33.540
And T and, and attempt to teach children, 30 children, the same exact way, regardless of the
00:34:50.520
This is like objectively, she's a smart, she's a smart girl.
00:34:55.020
In the school system with 25, 30, 35 other kids, she would be able to fake her way through
00:35:07.000
This is probably not the book I'd be reading with her.
00:35:15.300
But this is the book that's on my desk right now.
00:35:19.020
And you know, at, at, uh, seven years old, almost seven, uh, the book she's reading have
00:35:25.680
pictures and she will memorize the book, the entire book.
00:35:31.100
And so I'll sit down and I'll read without reading it really, you know, read this sentence.
00:35:35.280
And here's the sentence that I'm reading right now.
00:35:38.580
Once the attackers are incapacitated, fall back to a safe position and be the first to
00:35:45.920
So she'll read this sentence and I'm like, oh, cool.
00:35:52.980
She's looking at the picture and she remembered what the sentence is based on the picture.
00:35:58.560
So in the public school system, she could, she could fake her way through it because there's
00:36:06.020
30 other kids that the teacher needs to deal with.
00:36:07.880
She's like, oh yeah, she memorized or she remembers.
00:36:14.080
And so we bought a little extra curriculum that's outside of the good and the beautiful
00:36:18.520
that works specifically with dyslexic children.
00:36:21.280
My wife bought a couple of books off of Amazon that, that teach about dyslexia.
00:36:31.060
We have the ability to teach our children, which is exactly where it should be.
00:36:35.240
So I can't really remember exactly what the question was, but that's the curriculum we
00:36:44.720
If you don't have the means to do it, please work towards having the means to do it.
00:36:54.760
And I know, as I say this, people are going to be, well, not everybody's situation is
00:36:57.920
I'm telling you, man, the more that I see we as a society going down this degenerate
00:37:03.640
hole, men get, make yourself valuable to the point where your time is worth more.
00:37:12.100
You're making more money that you can get your wife at home.
00:37:23.500
She can work on her projects and be valuable the way that she wants to be valuable and finds
00:37:29.020
And if that's in the workforce, okay, I get it.
00:37:32.200
But I think that there's so many women out there who would love to be at home, but can't
00:37:38.140
And I'm telling you, man, if you can get yourself into a position where your wife can stay at
00:37:42.060
home and be the homemaker, there's value in that.
00:37:47.000
There's a sense of pride and satisfaction in her.
00:37:50.020
There's a sense of pride and satisfaction in you because you're able to make that possible.
00:37:56.020
I feel good that my wife doesn't have to go to work every day.
00:37:58.920
I feel good about that because we made that possible.
00:38:03.560
Now, as she said to me, and here's one of the things she said to me, I want to be a massage
00:38:15.620
I love that answer because that means your priority is straight.
00:38:18.820
You know, you want to raise the kids or at least when, you know, they're older and schooling
00:38:27.900
And so maybe you have time to go to some night classes or whatever it is.
00:38:34.280
But I'm very proud of the ability that we have to make it an option that she doesn't
00:38:48.440
Oh, well, Ryan, oh, it's hard in society, this in society, that.
00:39:00.300
So you could complain about it, not being fair, it being hard or this or that, or if
00:39:05.980
it's a goal of yours, and I think it's a worthy goal, stop bitching and moaning about how hard
00:39:13.300
You know, sell some things, live within your means, get a raise, start a new business.
00:39:19.880
Hell, even have, maybe she wants to start a side business at home where she can be at
00:39:23.680
home, but she's, you know, maybe doing a couple of photography sessions each, each week.
00:39:28.200
And, you know, that four or five, six, $800 a month is, is helping, you know, pay the bills,
00:39:36.500
But some of you are so wrapped up in why you can't do it and why society is wrong and out
00:39:42.040
to get you and the inflation, everything else that, that you just won't go do it, but you
00:39:50.960
You can't perpetually complain about it and how hard it is.
00:39:54.240
And then also be actively working towards the solution.
00:39:59.020
Are you going to work towards the solution or are you just going to bitch and moan and
00:40:02.120
tell everybody how the cards are stacked against you?
00:40:08.120
How do I decide on a side income or what type of business to get into?
00:40:12.060
I really like my job as a coal mine electrician.
00:40:15.040
However, it's in the government crosshairs and I need to be prepared.
00:40:18.320
Also, I want the ability to be rewarded for my hard work, ambition, and genuine.
00:40:47.700
Any man listening to this, not starting a side business, I'm just saying that, but every
00:40:51.920
man listening should be contemplating what contingency plans he has in place.
00:41:00.500
Oh, I have this job and I've been working here for 20 years.
00:41:14.700
If you, if you got laid off today, how much, how long could you live for?
00:41:23.940
And this is, this is a guy that loves his job, right?
00:41:32.800
So a couple of things I would say when it comes to a side business, number one, what
00:41:40.360
Dude, people make money doing the dumbest shit out there.
00:41:46.300
So I had a, I had a guy, uh, he was a friend of ours and a neighbor of ours when we were
00:41:50.080
in Utah and he would buy toys out of China and he would bring them back and he would
00:42:04.100
And I bought a couple of drones and RC cars and things like that from him for our kids.
00:42:27.660
So what I would say is what's interesting to you.
00:42:38.060
For me, when I'm building the canoe, time's going really fast.
00:42:43.240
I guarantee you, I guarantee you that I could say, hey, guys, I'm going to build another canoe.
00:42:51.860
I guarantee you that somebody would buy that canoe from me.
00:42:59.800
I was going to say, after we see that, it doesn't sink.
00:43:18.540
I could make one for two, three grand, something like that.
00:43:26.080
I'm not interested in doing that, but I know I could.
00:43:28.980
So what are you doing when time goes the fastest?
00:43:31.640
What types of things are people turning to you for advice on?
00:43:39.200
Kip, if they're coming to you and saying, hey, you know, Kip, I know you're into jujitsu
00:43:42.880
and I've really been interested in starting jujitsu.
00:43:57.960
People are asking me about painting or firearms training or how to get into hunting.
00:44:05.620
That's a good indicator that you might be onto something.
00:44:08.880
Not the only, but a pretty good indicator that people would be willing to invest in that.
00:44:14.460
And number three, what would you do if money were not an issue?
00:44:19.020
You had no mortgage, you had no bills, you had enough money, you had enough income.
00:44:27.000
You go on the vacations and the trips and do the things that you want, buy the vehicles
00:44:37.600
You'd probably sit there for a week and then you're like, okay, well, this is stupid.
00:44:40.300
If you're, if you're worth your weight and, and, you know, in, in being a man, you, you
00:44:54.180
Is it exploring the world and going on cool hikes?
00:45:02.320
And if you know what it is, then maybe that's what you ought to consider doing.
00:45:07.900
Just to clarify, sleeping and watching Netflix is not one of those options.
00:45:20.080
People get paid millions of dollars to critique TV shows and movies.
00:45:36.660
There are a bunch of people I have out on his podcast.
00:45:42.320
And he talks about sleep because he's studied sleep.
00:45:46.400
There's nothing that you could say to me, Kip, where you'd be like, well, you know, like,
00:45:55.080
So let's not chase the dollar and let's figure out what you're excited about.
00:46:06.000
What are some things that you can do on the side?
00:46:17.140
Maybe you can create little in-home kits where homeschooled kids can buy from you and it teaches
00:46:24.960
them about electricity and how to wire an electrical light or how to build a radio or
00:46:34.780
That's not a thing that I'm interested in, but you are.
00:46:44.260
You just have to ask those prompts and then be willing to get your ass in the game.
00:46:49.020
What I like, what you said, Ryan, is a little bit of like passion and curiosity, things that
00:46:54.240
interest you and, and a really great book on defining this stuff.
00:46:58.820
We, we covered it in iron council last month was the art of the impossible by Steven Kotler.
00:47:03.760
And he talks about, he calls it kind of like a motivation stack, you know, and, and if you
00:47:10.100
stack these things together, the probability of you seeing it through.
00:47:14.260
And actually like succeeding in that area is really high and curiosity and purpose is
00:47:20.720
one of them is if, if it's something that you're curious about, the interest you and
00:47:25.920
gives you fulfillment, the probability of you seeing that through and learning and becoming
00:47:36.020
I mean, I'm going to go back to what you said earlier about watching Netflix.
00:47:40.940
Cause it's really, it's cause you're like, Hey, I got to figure this out.
00:47:50.360
I did finish the last season available of a Cobra Kai, by the way, finally, you know,
00:48:00.400
I want to be Johnny when I grow up or not Johnny.
00:48:18.680
When I first saw Karate Kid, that guy was a badass.
00:48:21.800
He was way cooler than Daniel's son from day one.
00:48:32.540
I'm not just harping on it for the sake of harping.
00:48:36.780
If you're like a, like a, let's say you're a sci-fi guy and you just love sci-fi movies.
00:48:44.000
There's a market for watching movies and then explaining all the intricacies and nuances
00:48:55.960
That's crazy to me that there there's people who have blogs and podcasts and YouTube channels.
00:49:03.300
And all they do is talk about star Wars, star Wars universe.
00:49:09.060
Is that even their story where they're just explaining someone else's story.
00:49:13.680
Or they're, they're pontificating on alternate theories or little gaps.
00:49:32.420
Well, the geek next door is doing exactly what you say is stupid.
00:49:41.340
What, what, what are you doing when time moves the fastest?
00:49:48.580
And what would you do if money were not an issue?
00:49:51.000
If you can find some commonalities between the three, you're in, it's going to take time.
00:50:07.560
You guys have been actively training Brazilian jujitsu for some time.
00:50:11.620
How do you guys avoid getting cauliflower ear that I think that, so you have a little bit
00:50:19.480
I don't, I don't actually have it and that might just be time, but it also might be genetic.
00:50:33.220
I know guys that get cauliflower ear, even if they try to wear wrestling, um, uh, headgear.
00:50:40.540
So I think if, if guys are concerned, like sometimes if you have an ear blowing up, you
00:50:45.660
might put headgear on so you don't like agitate it more.
00:50:49.520
But other than that, no, I, I, what about draining it?
00:50:58.740
Otherwise you'd just have this giant circle thing on the side of your head.
00:51:11.780
And you've got to do it early because cauliflower ear, if I understand correctly, is the skin
00:51:16.680
separates from the cartilage and fluid fills that gap and you have to drain the fluid.
00:51:27.860
This part of my ear, I can, I can push as hard as it doesn't hurt.
00:51:41.180
Like I'm going to play with your ears next time we get together.
00:51:45.280
And you know, and the other thing I've learned is it's not, I used to think, oh, I get cauliflower
00:51:50.740
because guys are attacking me and it's them agitating my ears.
00:52:02.200
So most of the time it's me using the side of my head to like, you know, to move their
00:52:09.740
So it's, it's me using my head against my opponent is what's generating most of my cauliflower
00:52:18.360
So I just, you know, drain when you can and suck it up.
00:52:22.720
It's, I, I think it should just kind of a badge of honor to be honest.
00:52:26.180
So, but I also think there's gotta be, yeah, well, of course.
00:52:30.880
I mean, but there's gotta be some sort of genetic thing to it too.
00:52:36.740
Cause I mean, I take Pete Roberts, like he's been training for 20 plus years.
00:52:44.360
I think I, and I do know guys that, that train, you know, and use their heads a lot and they
00:52:51.800
I do think that jujitsu style probably lends itself to a lot, like how, how do I pass, right?
00:53:04.380
That's going to vary how much I'm using the side of my head than someone else that, that
00:53:10.700
If they play off their back a lot, for instance, they may not use the side of their heads a lot.
00:53:15.040
I love the passing game, you know, and I'm constantly using my head to like against legs
00:53:25.520
I've also heard Pete say, I mean, I just haven't been in the game long enough to probably deal
00:53:29.860
And maybe it's a bit of genetics or maybe it's like my game, you know, it's like you
00:53:34.280
I didn't get cauliflower ear until, um, I was a blue and purple.
00:53:41.100
Um, I also think, well, so one of the things that Pete Roberts also, he's, he's obviously
00:53:47.480
my instructor friend too, but he, uh, he, he, and he's flat out come out and said, he's
00:53:53.180
like, yeah, it's guys that don't protect their heads.
00:54:00.760
So yeah, I'm using my, like, I realized cause it's not, I don't get, I, I, I protect my neck
00:54:06.960
quite a bit and I actually don't think it's guys giving it to me.
00:54:10.060
I'm giving myself cauliflower by using my head.
00:54:13.900
So I, so I trained with, so my buddy Brody Cousineau, I've talked about him on the podcast
00:54:18.720
And, and so I trained with him and he actually is, has a propensity to get it.
00:54:24.560
And he was using headgear for a while, which is really difficult in jujitsu to use headgear.
00:54:30.220
Uh, and so he drains his ears and I remember, I, I think I need him in the ear one, one time
00:54:39.800
And he could like immediately feel it just like swelled up.
00:54:50.200
And, and I know if I get banged or I'd rub it too much, it's going to, it's going to start
00:55:01.020
I was, I was competing in, I flew to Japan actually to complete in a jujitsu tournament
00:55:08.200
And, um, and while we're training, my ear blew up pretty bad.
00:55:15.840
And it was a couple of days before the tournament.
00:55:18.240
And we were in, uh, Bangkok the week before, uh, being in Tokyo.
00:55:24.420
And I'm trying to figure out, like, I need to drain my ear.
00:55:27.900
Imagine a tourist running around Bangkok to pharmacists trying to ask for a syringe.
00:55:46.500
And, and eventually I had to like, no, no, no, please, please.
00:55:49.760
And I, I was like showing, you know, eventually someone's like, oh, oh, okay.
00:55:54.020
And then they got me a, then they got me a dirty syringe from the, from the alley
00:56:02.040
So you have hepatitis, but you don't have as big a cauliflower ear.
00:56:07.820
Oh, I think it's, you know, you've said this in the past too, Kip.
00:56:11.520
And, and this isn't just a jujitsu lesson, but this is a life lesson.
00:56:23.200
Are you, I'm saying you should protect, I'm not saying be flipping about it, but so protect
00:56:29.200
Of course, just like you would your joints and elbows and everything else, protect yourself.
00:56:32.280
But also there's a price and are you willing to pay it?
00:56:36.800
And if no, then, okay, well, at least you're being truthful with yourself, but there is
00:56:42.880
My cost at this moment in time is that I've got lagging pain every day.
00:57:00.040
And I think being realistic about the price, right?
00:57:03.460
So you're not like, you know, just be realistic that, Hey, you know what, is it still worth
00:57:15.740
Like my shoulders just right at the point, you know, where the shoulder connects to the,
00:57:25.220
So pull-ups have become increasingly more difficult.
00:57:45.500
Like people think, and, and, and this goes back to the, I think it was, well, what's the
00:57:57.320
And, and the price is that you're going to have to work nights and weekends and sometimes
00:58:02.780
mornings, and you're going to be struggling and you're going to be trying to build this
00:58:06.580
thing over here while you've got a full-time career over here.
00:58:09.060
So either you're going to do it or you're not, and there's a price.
00:58:13.460
So you're going to pay it or no, but don't lie to yourself.
00:58:20.520
If it's the right thing to do, or even worse, I think this is even worse is to say, if it's
00:58:31.140
Look, from, from a biblical perspective, Jesus Christ came down here and suffered more than
00:58:42.780
And he suffered more than any human being could ever imagine.
00:58:52.600
So if you think it's always going to be roses and fairy tales and sunshine, you're going to
00:58:57.940
throw in the towel pretty quick when you get kicked in the proverbial nuts and think,
00:59:03.560
No, it just means you got kicked in the nuts and you need to get a little tougher or put
00:59:10.360
And to add to that, like, even, you know, if you think about repentance, that requires
00:59:14.520
action and making it right, which is like a contrite heart and a broken spirit.
00:59:21.340
Like that requires you to do something that just doesn't take care of itself.
00:59:27.940
He requires take one more and then I think we should wrap this thing up for today.
00:59:34.560
What is your opinion on starting a side business in a market that is flooded?
00:59:38.640
And I think this is a good, good add on to to Ned's question earlier.
00:59:42.720
I'm starting to give a license to carry classes out there, but a lot of these places give this
00:59:47.840
My reason for doing this is because it's a passion of mine and I also really enjoy teaching
00:59:54.400
How would you market yourself to stand out among the others?
00:59:58.880
So you answered the question about dealing with a flooded market, be better than everybody
01:00:07.420
There's always a number one and the number one isn't concerned about the flooding of the
01:00:22.500
I'll tell you one thing about the firearms community from the outsider.
01:00:31.480
And, and here's, here's the problem firearms instructors have.
01:00:34.360
If you're a firearm instructor, please listen to me.
01:00:36.640
I don't know your industry as well as you do, but please listen to me when I say this,
01:00:40.980
you aren't as good or special as you think you are.
01:00:43.860
So I'll talk to a firearms instructor and they'll say, you know, like, Oh, I can't teach
01:00:53.220
You better find a way to do it in three hours because nobody has three days and your shit
01:00:59.620
isn't as important or special as you think it is.
01:01:06.720
Oh, well, like, and you hear these guys with these inflated egos, like, Oh, well, I'm trying
01:01:12.100
to shorten 40 hours of training into 40 minutes.
01:01:19.600
Teach us like the most important things in 40 minutes.
01:01:25.680
Nobody has 40 hours, but they do have 40 minutes.
01:01:29.280
And if you complain about, well, I can't, I can't teach this in the, then that's your
01:01:35.440
I mean, we've had, look, we've had firearms instructors, Navy SEALs, world-class firearms
01:01:40.120
instructors come to our course and they're like, I don't know if I can do it.
01:01:42.700
I'm like, well, you're either going to find a way or we're going to find somebody else.
01:02:00.180
I went to, um, I went to, uh, Sorenex is winter strong and Pat McNamara was there.
01:02:08.740
And he, I, I was doing some other things, but I knew he was, he was on the pistols range
01:02:13.160
and he was kind of teaching some pistol marksmanship.
01:02:16.060
And I was like, oh, I gotta go see, I gotta go train with Pat.
01:02:18.980
Like if I get an opportunity to train with Pat, I'm going to go do that.
01:02:20.940
So I go down to the pistol range and, uh, we're shooting, uh, 22 pistol, 22 pistols, just
01:02:30.700
And, uh, I get up there and he's, and I'm like, okay, like, you know, here's my stance.
01:02:39.440
He's like, yeah, yeah, like, you're not going to kill me.
01:02:41.500
Like, I mean, it's not awesome for him, but you're not going to kill me.
01:02:45.700
So, so I shoot and he's like, okay, you know, that looked pretty good.
01:02:58.260
And then somebody else went and did the same thing.
01:03:13.780
Like, I'm not going to kill anybody right now, which is good.
01:03:19.660
Let's give you one to two primary points to work on.
01:03:23.200
That's a good, that's enough for you to work on.
01:03:25.740
So what does somebody who wants to go shoot want to do?
01:03:32.800
And yet firearms instructors spend half the time running their mouths about how wonderful they
01:03:37.260
are, all the cool experience or when they were in special ops or whatever else and how
01:03:44.780
I just want to shoot that gun at that target and hear the metal go, pling, pling, pling,
01:03:54.060
And so many people are so full of themselves that they can't get over themselves enough
01:03:58.880
to be able to put together a course where all you do is go shoot.
01:04:02.620
Hey, look, here's the four firearm safety rules.
01:04:09.660
Other than that, let's go shoot some, some firearms.
01:04:14.820
I guess the point I'm making here is that there is a huge window for you in this arena
01:04:27.480
Everybody else comes from a military background, comes from a special forces background.
01:04:31.540
And guess who they learned from the same dude who was doing 40 hours of safety briefings
01:04:37.100
before they could even put their hands on a gun.
01:04:45.940
Let them experience critique and work real world scenarios.
01:04:55.720
There's a big, big opportunity here for you to do it right.
01:05:08.620
If I take a concealed carry class, am I really taking the class for just concealed carry?
01:05:17.040
I'm taking the class because I'm interested in what?
01:05:20.800
I'm interested in having a weapon on me for a reason.
01:05:25.580
There's another why behind this concealed carry.
01:05:31.200
You, there are all these guys teach hypotheticals.
01:05:34.160
Some of them don't even let you touch a gun, right?
01:05:37.160
Then how does this look like in my house, right?
01:05:43.480
You offer a class where you come into my house and you help me set up a strategy.
01:06:00.280
Like, to be honest with you, the concealed carry class, that's worthless as shit.
01:06:04.040
You come to my house and help me set up the proper plan to protect me and my family.
01:06:11.320
I would offer one variant to that because in a concealed course, sometimes there's requirements.
01:06:17.520
It's, that's the only, yeah, yeah, fair enough.
01:06:20.120
And so what I would say is operate within the requirements that are, because there is
01:06:24.420
so much classroom time that's needed, but, but maybe there's some things where you can
01:06:28.540
do two to three hours of instruction and you can act then to go shoot.
01:06:32.780
And then another couple hours instruction and then go shoot.
01:06:35.120
Or maybe there's an hour of instruction and then you bring a bunch of different pistols and
01:06:40.280
components and you actually let them get their hands on the gun and, and you let them feel
01:06:45.380
it and you critique them, you know, so you get your required stuff in, but you also make
01:06:52.060
it fun because people are looking to be entertained guys.
01:06:58.500
But those people who think, well, my job is just to inform you're delusional, man.
01:07:02.980
Like if somebody comes to a class and you spend eight hours or two or three days yapping at
01:07:10.460
them and never let them experience it, they're never coming back.
01:07:30.220
Don't be like the rest of them was my, my solution.
01:07:34.160
And, and we call it a minimal via or, or, or unique, what do they call it?
01:07:38.520
Selling proposition, unique selling proposition.
01:07:45.860
Well, we got through like four questions today.
01:07:51.160
It was, it was, I felt like I got on my soapbox a little bit, but some of this stuff
01:07:58.160
You know, like that goes back to, I think it was Ned's question about finding things that you're
01:08:04.060
And so this is, this is actually what I would do.
01:08:07.220
If money was not an issue, this is what I would do.
01:08:12.800
These are the questions I would ask, or excuse me, answer and ask.
01:08:20.900
To follow that passion and excitement, you can follow Mr.
01:08:30.280
And as always, our call to action is join us in the iron council.
01:08:34.700
That's our exclusive brotherhood to learn more about the iron council.
01:08:48.780
We're, we're at the basketball game and we're sitting in the stands watching life.
01:08:53.340
Iron council is you getting out of the stands and actually playing the game.
01:09:04.420
This month, we're talking all about preparedness and being prepared for disasters, emergency
01:09:11.900
Uh, obviously the last 12 months have been very interesting to say the least.
01:09:18.420
So there's been some real threats to individuals and their safety.
01:09:22.620
And we're talking about that, how to deal with that, whether it's writing and looting
01:09:27.120
or, uh, the power of being out in Texas or a pandemic and having to live off of food
01:09:33.100
storage, like losing your job at all, losing your job.
01:09:38.760
So we're talking about that in the iron council again, order of man.com slash iron council.
01:09:44.820
Got a wonderful, wonderful lineup of men who are going to be joining us over the next several
01:09:49.180
So make sure you subscribe, leave that rating and review.
01:09:51.580
But until then, go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.
01:09:55.860
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01:09:58.840
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01:10:02.840
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