Order of Man - TAYLOR CAVANAUGH ｜ Crack the Whip or Pull the Reigns？

00:00:00.000 Every man is different. Now look, some men are intense and need to learn how to pull back on the reins. Others are passive and need to learn how to crack the whip. My guest today, former Navy SEAL and French foreign legionnaire, is a man who more closely resonates with the former but understands the implications of both.

00:00:19.800 Today, Taylor and I talk about how and why men self-sabotage themselves, the importance of internal versus external validation, how a quote-unquote battle rhythm helps a man maximize his performance, why success doesn't flash, it glows, and why every man is searching for inner peace and clarity.

00:00:40.800 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:01:05.780 Men, welcome to the Order of Man podcast. My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm your host, I'm the founder, and we have been going strong for 10 years now in large part, almost exclusive part to you, the men who listen to this podcast.

00:01:22.700 I've had some really good conversations with men, young and old, who have listened to this podcast for 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 years.

00:01:30.100 And I just want to thank you for tuning in, for believing in what we're doing here, for supporting the mission, and most importantly, for stepping up in the lives of your wife, your kids, your families, your colleagues, your coworkers, your business, your community, and every other aspect that we as men, I think, ought to be striving to serve.

00:01:48.260 We've had great conversations with Matthew McConaughey, Terry Crews, Tim Tebow, Ben Shapiro, Andy Frisilla, Jocko Willing, Cam Haynes, you name it.

00:01:59.480 The who of whose has been on this podcast, and that's a testament to you.

00:02:03.940 It's also a testament to them for believing in what we do and wanting to step up as men.

00:02:09.540 I've got a great one lined up with Taylor Cavanaugh.

00:02:12.080 This is an incredible man.

00:02:13.720 He's done some wonderful things within the SEAL community and also with the French foreign legionnaires.

00:02:22.100 So you're going to like this one.

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00:03:45.360 Now, guys, let me introduce you to my guest.

00:03:47.300 His name is Taylor Cavanaugh.

00:03:48.660 He is the only person in history, as far as we know, to have served both as a U.S. Navy SEAL

00:03:55.460 and a French foreign legionnaire.

00:03:58.700 After growing up in very challenging circumstances, landing himself in jail multiple times,

00:04:05.160 Taylor found purpose through the grueling rigors of BUDS training

00:04:08.780 and then earning his place among the elite SEALs teams.

00:04:12.800 However, following a military discharge and, again, another stint in prison,

00:04:19.000 he hit rock bottom, homeless, and suicidal.

00:04:21.920 We address that today.

00:04:23.260 But he reinvented himself.

00:04:24.580 He immigrated to France to join the foreign legion.

00:04:28.000 And there, through relentless training and a lot of mental toughness, he rebuilt his life.

00:04:33.060 He's on a mission now.

00:04:34.280 He's a coach.

00:04:34.820 He's a speaker and a podcast guest, of course.

00:04:36.920 And he empowers others to align body, mind, and life through what he calls deliberate living.

00:04:43.040 His mantra is training the body and mind for the divine design.

00:04:48.060 But he guides individuals from chaos to clarity and from survival to thriving purpose.

00:04:56.860 Taylor, what's up, brother?

00:04:57.720 Great to see you.

00:04:58.260 Thanks for joining me on the podcast today.

00:04:59.840 Yeah, Ryan.

00:05:00.480 Thanks for the invite.

00:05:01.920 And I appreciate everybody watching.

00:05:03.220 I love the title of the show, too.

00:05:04.760 Yeah, it's well.

00:05:05.560 We've been doing it for a long time.

00:05:06.720 We've helped a lot of people.

00:05:07.880 And so I think I hit a momentary stroke of genius when we came up with Order of Man.

00:05:12.340 It wasn't that I was real smarter and intelligent about it.

00:05:15.100 But it seems to have landed.

00:05:16.360 So we'll take it.

00:05:17.440 Yeah, I like it, man.

00:05:18.440 I thought I was like, all right, that's fire.

00:05:20.580 I can get down with it.

00:05:21.720 Yeah.

00:05:22.240 Well, I've been looking into your story a little bit.

00:05:23.880 It's pretty wild, you know, going from Navy SEAL, or jail, then Navy SEAL, then jail,

00:05:29.580 foreign legion.

00:05:30.180 Like, this is a crazy story, man.

00:05:31.900 And I don't even know really where to start.

00:05:33.840 But I guess we can start at the beginning, because I think there's a lot of guys who are

00:05:37.440 struggling in their own personal life with, you know, just their standard of living, how

00:05:42.180 they're feeling.

00:05:42.880 But you were really hitting the bottom, it seemed like, at a pretty early age.

00:05:47.240 Can you tell us what happened there?

00:05:48.580 Yeah, man.

00:05:48.980 I just always had a little bit of a storm in me, or I was pretty disciplined with sports

00:05:54.100 and school, but I always just had this extracurricular, off-the-field shit that I just, it was all

00:06:00.500 good until it wasn't, type thing.

00:06:01.920 And I would crash and burn, you know, getting kicked out of school, losing scholarships,

00:06:05.760 jails, arrests, drug dealing, this and that, but all kind of still kind of maintaining.

00:06:10.920 But I always wanted to be a Navy SEAL.

00:06:12.880 I always knew I was going in the military, but I had to go to college.

00:06:15.900 I looked at it just like an extension of high school.

00:06:18.480 But no real path, and I was just formless.

00:06:22.300 I thought I was locked on, or I thought I was doing the right stuff, but I really had

00:06:26.500 no plan and no real, I had disciplined-ish tendencies, which was actually very dangerous

00:06:32.240 because I was like always going to the gym a little bit.

00:06:34.840 But really, it was sporadic and off and on.

00:06:37.420 And I caught a lot of cases, man.

00:06:39.160 A lot of misdemeanor cases, a lot of arrests, stack of misdemeanors.

00:06:42.580 I had to go to jail after college to clean up my probation so I could actually even talk

00:06:47.660 to the military.

00:06:49.680 And that was it, man.

00:06:50.800 So I walked in, and I was turned down by a lot of branches for tattoos and this and that.

00:06:55.360 And the only people that would take me was the place that was actually my dream, was

00:06:58.540 the Navy.

00:06:58.940 So I started on that process, and it took a long time, a lot of waivers and stuff.

00:07:03.880 But I ended up getting my SEAL contract, but I hadn't really corrected anything, right?

00:07:08.960 I was like pretty long.

00:07:09.900 I would go through these phases of being locked on, but I hadn't really addressed really the

00:07:14.100 root of it because I just lacked self-awareness on a massive scale.

00:07:16.900 I was pretty immature.

00:07:17.780 I was immature for a lot of years, probably still learning.

00:07:20.380 And that self-sabotage, really, is what we're talking about here, which I think a lot of

00:07:24.700 people, to kind of bring it back to a more potent messages, self-sabotage is what a lot

00:07:30.140 of men and women can identify with, particularly men.

00:07:34.020 We have this.

00:07:34.780 We get a little momentum, and then we break it down.

00:07:36.720 We get a little build of ego, and then the ego bites us in the ass, right?

00:07:40.360 And that's a constant thing that I still have to be aware of because the minute you think

00:07:44.240 you got it, understood, you lost it, which I think.

00:07:47.640 And that self-sabotage is what I think a lot of people resonate with my message because

00:07:51.960 it's, you know, I just, I did it in some powerful ways for sure.

00:07:55.140 Yeah.

00:07:55.460 What do you think it was that was sabotaging you?

00:07:57.960 Was it issues that you had growing up?

00:08:00.600 You know, you talk a lot about rewriting habits and programs that you adopted early on and

00:08:07.580 changing that programming.

00:08:09.380 But what was it specifically about your life that was causing you to sabotage yourself?

00:08:14.240 There's a lot of men dealing with that.

00:08:15.700 Yeah.

00:08:16.360 If I could analyze it, and I've spent some time ad nauseum, you know, look, trying to dissect

00:08:21.620 this stuff, I'm not sure that there is really one answer.

00:08:24.840 You know, anything that I would come up with was just an excuse.

00:08:27.380 You know, people, oh, childhood trauma or sexual abuse or this or that.

00:08:31.300 Really, I just liked having fun too much, and I fucking would have fun so much until

00:08:35.760 I fucking burned it down.

00:08:37.860 Spices and things like that.

00:08:39.360 I just, I like to experience things, powerful moments, right?

00:08:44.200 And so that, and I would seek that in different ways, drugs, women, alcohol, right?

00:08:49.200 That would, it would kind of level up the intensity a little bit.

00:08:53.520 And I was very, and I really had, you know, was risk management.

00:08:56.820 I would, you know, down in Mexico and Tijuana at a very early age and pushing the pace.

00:09:01.940 And what I saw was normal really wasn't.

00:09:04.520 And that come to be proven true because a lot of my friends at that time, all of them

00:09:09.140 were dead or in prison for the most part.

00:09:10.960 And so, and I, I still have that tendencies in, in my professional endeavors and military

00:09:17.600 endeavors of pushing the pace a little bit, you know, I, maybe it's nature, maybe it's

00:09:23.120 nurture, but I think probably a mix of both.

00:09:25.660 I don't think that there's any one thing that I could say, oh, well, I was sad or I was trying

00:09:30.080 to block out.

00:09:31.480 I don't think it was really any of that.

00:09:32.960 I've come to terms and I'm all right with how the things that I went through as a child,

00:09:36.780 I really had no deep seated things from that.

00:09:39.320 Not really, I just think I was immature and I pleasure sought in, in the wrong ways and

00:09:44.360 that it would end up biting me in the ass.

00:09:45.880 Yeah.

00:09:46.260 Well, I imagine too, the thing you talked about having a storm inside of you, I imagine the

00:09:50.760 things that probably caused you to self-sabotage in a lot of ways are probably the things that

00:09:54.940 make you a pretty good warrior too.

00:09:57.080 It seems like our, our greatest strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses.

00:10:00.860 Do you feel like that attitude, whether it's nature or nurture, like you said, has helped

00:10:04.900 you become the, the, the warrior that you are in, not only the seals, but the, uh, um,

00:10:10.600 the French foreign legion as well.

00:10:12.500 Yeah.

00:10:12.660 Ryan, that's actually a really interesting point.

00:10:14.120 I never really heard it put quite like that before, but there is really a double-edged sword

00:10:18.360 of it.

00:10:18.640 There's this double-edged sword and definitely the personality types in any soft unit or,

00:10:22.860 you know, military unit and just guys that, you know, they have this need to lean into it

00:10:28.160 a little bit.

00:10:28.640 Right.

00:10:28.860 And sometimes when we lean into it, we get a little out of our skis.

00:10:31.740 I mean, you can't be lazy and unmotivated and, you know, it's that the, the active mind

00:10:38.220 call it ADHD or whatever.

00:10:40.420 I think that that's an over-diagnosed thing, but just an intensity, an intense human.

00:10:45.180 And I think that, um, you know, with that intensity, it's hard to be calm.

00:10:49.680 I mean, I can be calm now, but even, you know, there's this like need to feed the beast in

00:10:54.060 whatever way that that is.

00:10:55.520 Right.

00:10:56.780 Boredom, right.

00:10:57.460 Idle hands, the devil's playground.

00:10:59.040 Right.

00:10:59.500 And, and I, uh, as you examine it, you know, if a man doesn't have true purpose, he distracts

00:11:03.920 himself with pleasure, those idle hands, like staying active in pure purpose.

00:11:08.540 And even when I was in the path of achieving, you know, in the seal pipeline, pretty focused,

00:11:13.600 damn focused.

00:11:14.220 And it's because I had this stake.

00:11:15.960 And when, when I got there, there for, you know, seven years, you know, even through that

00:11:20.260 period, even being there and working hard, not setting that next sector state for whatever

00:11:24.560 that is on the next, always be working towards something very challenging.

00:11:28.400 If you, if that is your nature and that is my nature, I have to consistently put that stake

00:11:33.960 out on the horizon because the minute I'm just complacent, I backslide.

00:11:37.900 The minute I get comfortable, I'll start progressing.

00:11:40.360 And that constant progression in the right ways.

00:11:44.000 And that constant progression in purpose really is what I mean.

00:11:47.960 That is so important because it keeps the parameters in the right area.

00:11:53.740 It keeps the, the bumper plates on, you know, the bumper things on both sides.

00:11:58.200 So, you know, you're like, okay, I got to stay in lane here because to achieve what, to

00:12:02.660 achieve what I want to achieve, my actions have to be aligned with my daily habits and what

00:12:07.100 I'm doing and anything that's kind of outside of that is, is detrimental or it's definitely

00:12:11.820 holding you back.

00:12:12.700 And, and so that was something that I had to learn.

00:12:15.080 It took me into my, I'm still learning it.

00:12:17.340 I'll tell you, and it took, but it definitely took me into my mid, late thirties to kind of

00:12:20.880 clearly identify that as a thing.

00:12:23.340 Yeah.

00:12:23.780 Do you feel like, well, I mean, you had that direction, right?

00:12:26.860 And it seems like you had that purpose.

00:12:28.420 You know, I, I've talked with quite a few seals on the, on the program and, and other, uh,

00:12:32.900 military members who feel like that was a big part of their maturity and their

00:12:36.960 growth process and even having that direction and clarity of where they were going.

00:12:40.380 But it seems like even in spite of that, you know, you had that backslide and I'm not

00:12:44.240 exactly sure what happened in the military.

00:12:45.880 It sounds like you were discharged from the military.

00:12:48.500 So I'm wondering what happened when that took place.

00:12:51.740 Was that an isolated experience?

00:12:53.280 Was that more of the same?

00:12:55.020 And even with your purpose, you had some of that backsliding.

00:12:57.840 So how does that change now?

00:12:59.460 And, and, and how is having a purpose now made it so you're not having some of that self

00:13:04.200 sabotage you talked about earlier?

00:13:05.640 Yeah, my, my purpose getting in was very clear, right?

00:13:09.600 It was, I had nothing to celebrate.

00:13:11.000 It was getting into the SEAL team.

00:13:12.480 Then when guy got in there, I was working hard and I was there, a new guy.

00:13:15.920 And then you hit a deployment or two, she went to Yemen, Iraq, and, you know, went to

00:13:20.140 sniper school and was hitting all these wickets.

00:13:21.800 And then now you're there working.

00:13:24.020 I'm still at the gym, three 30 in the morning at the team, still doing all these things,

00:13:27.960 but it's all right.

00:13:29.180 Now what's next?

00:13:30.300 And if you don't set a what's next, you know, that, what do you, what, where's the next

00:13:34.880 mountain you're already there?

00:13:36.360 And so that was kind of like, Oh, and then you kind of start slacking and then the weekends

00:13:40.300 get a little longer and still working hard, but definitely just a different frame and things

00:13:45.240 get a little looser.

00:13:46.200 And that was the problem is, you know, even if you're in the SEAL teams, you still have

00:13:49.520 to be working for something greater than that.

00:13:51.600 You know, should have screened on development group.

00:13:53.360 There's other, there's other places to go.

00:13:55.260 And that was what I started in the process of when I got clipped up and really it was

00:14:00.500 just out.

00:14:01.220 I actually got kicked out for performance enhancing drugs, which was steroids.

00:14:04.960 That's why I got kicked discharged.

00:14:07.100 And so, um, you know, but I brought heat on myself by getting in trouble, you know, a bar

00:14:11.200 fight here on a training trip and things like that, uh, is what brought heat from Navy JAG.

00:14:16.020 But that's why I got pushed out.

00:14:17.220 It was a zero tolerance policy.

00:14:18.600 And, uh, and so, yeah, and so you could say it was just getting a little loose, being a

00:14:24.620 little aggressive, all those things kind of mixed in there was what was what really put

00:14:28.840 the nail on the coffin.

00:14:30.020 How do you, how do you feel like in civilian life?

00:14:33.000 I know this is hard for a lot of guys who come out of the military.

00:14:35.840 You know, you have so much direction and clarity about what you're supposed to be doing, when

00:14:40.880 you're supposed to be doing it, what's your next mission, what's your next training cycle.

00:14:44.420 And then you get out into the civilian world and nobody's giving you any of that.

00:14:47.860 There's no accountability.

00:14:49.240 Nobody's telling you what time you need to get up, what training mission you're going

00:14:52.260 on, what your next assignment is.

00:14:54.180 So what was that transition like for you?

00:14:56.160 I mean, it sounds like when you got out of the SEALs, that was a pretty tough transition.

00:14:59.560 And then even now, as you're running your own business, there's a lot more, I think,

00:15:03.120 accountability, personal accountability in that than being part of the teams.

00:15:07.000 Yeah, you're absolutely right.

00:15:08.580 Well, I had the, the, the, the blessing of being able to transition out of the military

00:15:13.320 twice, right?

00:15:15.060 Right.

00:15:15.480 Yeah.

00:15:15.700 I had a little bit of a, I got, I got to fumble it the first time.

00:15:19.820 And then I got a chance to do it again, a half decade later, right.

00:15:23.220 Or a little bit low more, which is unique.

00:15:25.360 And being a little older and wiser.

00:15:27.260 And the first time I absolutely failed because of that accountability, still at work, achieving

00:15:31.380 measures of success, but no accountability.

00:15:33.780 So why not start drinking it 5.

00:15:36.560 PM, you know, that the, in the gym, you know, why not?

00:15:39.560 You know, I was taking Adderall and Xanax.

00:15:41.120 Why not?

00:15:41.540 You know, I don't have to take a drug test.

00:15:43.320 And so, but, and then the disciplined ish part and the, the external things seeming

00:15:49.060 okay, you know, making money.

00:15:50.760 I'm in a big private residential to real estate developer on a massive project.

00:15:54.220 And so from the outside, I could lie to myself really, which is the most dangerous lies we

00:15:59.020 tell.

00:15:59.420 I'm like, dude, I'm doing well.

00:16:01.440 Obviously what I'm doing is not working, but my personal life was getting speed wobbles.

00:16:05.560 Can't bend reality this long.

00:16:06.980 And it all came crashing down as it does, if you're not living right, came crumbling

00:16:10.500 down.

00:16:11.000 Next thing I know, I'm homeless in my truck.

00:16:13.060 Pretty much.

00:16:13.820 Well, exactly.

00:16:14.860 Not even, you know, no money, no nothing.

00:16:16.520 Thinking about killing myself.

00:16:18.080 You know, I have a sawdash shotgun on my lap.

00:16:20.160 Just tired.

00:16:20.920 Really.

00:16:21.540 A couple of years.

00:16:22.120 This was about two years after my, my discharge.

00:16:25.620 And so really crashed and burned fell on my face.

00:16:27.980 Then going into the foreign legion.

00:16:29.560 And I'm going to tie into the other question you said about like, how do you keep locked on

00:16:33.280 with purpose now on the civilian side?

00:16:34.920 And it's what you asked before.

00:16:36.240 Also, it took me about a half decade in the legion to kind of pick, understand all these

00:16:42.160 pieces and lock them together.

00:16:43.760 Cause like I would, okay, I would have the training part good and I would have the food

00:16:48.800 part good.

00:16:49.520 And maybe this part good, but I never did them all at once and all the time.

00:16:53.820 It was just, I don't know why I just never really thought to do that all the time.

00:16:57.100 And so it took me a few years, maybe call it maturity.

00:16:59.520 But when I realized that it was absolutely not the external disciplines, it was the internal

00:17:05.220 discipline that was required.

00:17:06.800 And so I had to turn the heat up on my own internal discipline and own internal accountability

00:17:11.300 and make them non-negotiable, make non-negotiable things that I did for my day, from my wake

00:17:15.920 up time to my mindfulness of my food, to my battle rhythm of my own day, external of everybody

00:17:21.360 else and just root them so deep that I just, I still do the same thing that I did in the

00:17:26.340 foreign legion bathroom in a barracks room as I do on my house on the golf course in

00:17:31.300 the master bath.

00:17:32.120 Now four in the morning, three 30 in the morning, every day, no days off.

00:17:35.720 Right.

00:17:36.000 And so I do that every day.

00:17:37.680 And so I need like another level of, of personal accountability.

00:17:41.420 And so that's why I find it helpful.

00:17:43.140 And, and it's also helpful in that it's part of my business and I record it every morning.

00:17:47.980 Right.

00:17:48.380 So there's a level of accountability where I, you know, I record every morning, if I miss

00:17:52.540 the day, people know, you know, and so it's, uh, there's that was that I actually put the

00:17:56.520 camera up and record this stuff every day.

00:17:58.840 Do you think you're like, just in the little bit that we've had this conversation and just

00:18:02.740 emailing back and forth, you even said yourself, you know, you're an intense person.

00:18:06.100 And I think the level of your intensity is probably different than the majority of, of men

00:18:11.080 out there.

00:18:11.540 I know there are other men who are obviously intense.

00:18:13.940 Um, do you, do you think like, I think there's, there's a couple of different challenges

00:18:18.340 from the way I see it.

00:18:19.380 So you take somebody like yourself who has that level of intensity and what we need to

00:18:23.060 do is like harness the intensity, right?

00:18:25.740 Like harness that towards things that are going to work well for you and other people.

00:18:29.000 And then I think you have this other group of guys who don't have the intensity.

00:18:32.500 And sometimes you just want to slap people like that because they don't have the intensity.

00:18:37.060 And that's a different conversation than funneling the intensity.

00:18:40.820 It's how do we develop it?

00:18:42.440 So who do you work with and how do you, first, do you agree with that?

00:18:45.400 And then second, how do you address each of those?

00:18:47.280 If that's the case, yeah, dude, you have some really good points and stuff that people

00:18:50.840 never asked me, but that's exactly so, so potent and true.

00:18:55.220 You have to have the different conversations with different types of people.

00:18:58.100 Not everybody's cut from the same cloth and there's different things going on.

00:19:01.820 Some people, you got to crack the whip.

00:19:03.740 Some people, you got to pull back the reins, right?

00:19:06.020 It's far as like a bringing them into focus.

00:19:08.520 And so for the guy, specifically to answer your questions, for the guy who needs the

00:19:12.780 whip crack, you need to make his why very important and clear so that the how becomes

00:19:18.260 a little bit more simple.

00:19:19.380 It's like, hey man, let's shake the fucking tree, get some fresh energy into the system.

00:19:23.680 Your fucking family needs you to wake the fuck up, right?

00:19:26.760 Understand that how do you want to be seen and respected?

00:19:29.620 Do you want to be seen by your wife as this lazy, fat piece of shit that just can't do it

00:19:34.040 and can't get his ass in gear?

00:19:35.260 That's not how I want to be known, right?

00:19:37.620 Quite the opposite, right?

00:19:38.900 I'd rather, you know, the wife be like, hey, why don't you sit down and chill out a little

00:19:41.780 bit versus, you know, hey, can't get going?

00:19:44.360 Dude, because all that is, is a decision, really.

00:19:47.720 You don't, and also could be some hormone imbalances, could be some micronutrient deficiencies.

00:19:52.360 There's some things physiologically that also we can address.

00:19:55.500 Could be something as simple as sodium deficiency or so, you know, electrolyte imbalance.

00:19:59.480 There's very, there's interesting things that when you kind of pull back the layers on

00:20:03.520 this that, you know, get people feeling better.

00:20:05.680 First off, people get, just need momentum, generally.

00:20:08.180 Generally, people just need a little bit of momentum and they'll get rolling like that

00:20:11.160 object in motion will stay in motion.

00:20:13.060 If you're stagnant, I always say start with the wake up, get up a little earlier so you

00:20:17.420 just feel like you have a little bit of empowered control.

00:20:20.260 Fix your diet a little bit, start getting, start training a little bit.

00:20:23.160 Doesn't have to be some barn burner workout at all.

00:20:26.360 I actually don't suggest it, right?

00:20:27.780 I'd say we build the momentum over time.

00:20:29.580 And then that, once we start getting those things, that mojo starts to get relit.

00:20:33.960 And when we get that mojo back and that, you know, people starting to get like feeling good

00:20:38.120 again, their frequency starts to raise and it's easier to get them and bring them up to

00:20:42.920 a little bit of that motivation.

00:20:44.120 They might not be intense trying to run through a door, you know, or something, but, and I'm

00:20:48.960 not saying that that's advisable, right?

00:20:50.740 I always say that success doesn't flash, it glows.

00:20:53.400 We want somebody that's sustainably moving in the right direction at a good solid pace.

00:20:58.780 Don't need to be sprinting.

00:21:00.260 And, uh, and a matter of fact, the guys that do sprint, they're like, oh, they're all fired

00:21:03.380 up in the meeting.

00:21:03.980 I tell them to chill the fuck out.

00:21:05.300 I say, you're going to burn out, dude.

00:21:06.720 Don't be so hoo-yah on this to start off with and try to do, oh, I'm going to go do all this

00:21:11.120 extra stuff.

00:21:11.660 I go, dude, you're not going to do this for 20 years.

00:21:14.240 What are you going to be able to do for 20 year or till you're pushing flowers?

00:21:17.500 Let's do that.

00:21:18.300 And let's build that in.

00:21:19.140 And so you get you feeling good.

00:21:20.020 And so yeah, some people just need a little momentum and they need a clear why to get them motivated

00:21:24.600 and get their mojo relit.

00:21:26.040 And then some physiological things, some structural things in their day and their diet that really

00:21:30.640 helped.

00:21:31.040 Yeah, that I liked when you were talking about crappy, cracking the whip or pulling back

00:21:35.180 the reins that that analogy makes a lot of sense.

00:21:37.940 And I think if a guy can realize which one he is, because there's a lot of men out there

00:21:42.760 that I talk with that are hard chargers, high achievers.

00:21:45.100 And like you said, it's like, okay, this is great.

00:21:48.100 And you have the business acumen or you have the success, you know, in the teams, for example,

00:21:53.200 but everything else around you is crumbling because you're so focused and pouring so much

00:21:59.300 into that one thing at high intensity.

00:22:01.120 It's like hot fuel.

00:22:02.260 It burns, it burns bright, but it burns fast.

00:22:04.700 And to your point, you're just going to burn out quick and usually crash when you do.

00:22:08.960 Yeah.

00:22:09.120 And, and it's, what's the point of doing it if it's not sustainable, that's why, whether

00:22:13.680 it be the nutrition or the training or like, I'm all for people working hard and being intense

00:22:18.840 if they can maintain that level of intensity.

00:22:21.080 The problem is, and like, we'll see it with fighters and guys that are operated at a really

00:22:25.560 high level.

00:22:26.100 Some of them get super fat, don't do anything after because they're exhausted.

00:22:30.020 They're smoke check.

00:22:31.260 And they just have no more, they're just like, so, right.

00:22:35.080 And a lot of them bring it back and they, they find that good balance.

00:22:38.260 And I think that I like the term battle rhythm.

00:22:40.780 It's like all daily sequences and actions are aligned with the overall mission.

00:22:44.540 That's what battle rhythm is.

00:22:45.800 And I like that.

00:22:46.920 It's like your wake up, your mindfulness, your intentionality in the day, right?

00:22:51.160 Because if your family energy's messed up, we've all had, you know, the arguments with

00:22:55.920 our spouses or whatever's going on.

00:22:58.180 And it's like, all your energy's drained.

00:23:00.560 It's very difficult to focus and build.

00:23:02.560 Likewise, if you're completely out of shape and you're not happy and not, not content

00:23:08.580 in your body, that's going to pull energy.

00:23:11.160 You can't be present unless you're proud of your presence.

00:23:14.460 So they're like pillars in the ground.

00:23:17.060 If their financial piece, if your faith piece, if your physical piece, if your family piece,

00:23:21.320 if anything is like a major gap or hole, it's like gravitational pull.

00:23:25.140 It pulls everything into it.

00:23:26.860 Like if your finances are way out of whack, it's very difficult to be present with your family.

00:23:30.640 But I think everybody could pretty much agree with that.

00:23:33.140 So it's it or it's so I always say you need to fill up these pillars, man.

00:23:37.480 They all have to be in this in this balance.

00:23:40.120 I don't really like the term balance because I think it's kind of overused, but it's absolutely

00:23:44.360 true.

00:23:44.660 They have to be pretty much balanced in some capacity or or or at least in this reasonable

00:23:49.720 level for people to operate in a clear way.

00:23:51.980 And we're and really what we're talking about here, what everybody's after inner peace and

00:23:55.600 clarity, inner peace and clarity.

00:23:56.760 It's the two most coveted states on the face of the earth.

00:23:59.240 And I think every man wants to wake up, feel good and clear about what he's doing.

00:24:03.760 Man, I know you're enjoying this one.

00:24:05.320 I'm going to step away from Taylor real quick.

00:24:07.900 We've talked a lot about the concept of a battle rhythm in this podcast.

00:24:11.920 But do you understand the concept of a battle plan?

00:24:15.900 And if not, you guys need to get familiar because life isn't easy and life isn't something

00:24:21.360 you can handle if you're not prepared for battle.

00:24:24.060 That battle could be a divorce, a layoff, loss of a job, loss of a loved one, bankruptcy,

00:24:29.760 alienation from your kids, et cetera, et cetera.

00:24:32.880 Raise your hand if you've dealt with one of those or multiple of those or all of the above.

00:24:40.440 And if it's not the case, let me help you get equipped to deal with whatever life has

00:24:45.640 to throw at you.

00:24:46.780 It's called the battle ready program.

00:24:48.400 It's free and it's a standalone course.

00:24:50.940 You don't need to buy anything.

00:24:52.240 You don't need to be ready to purchase something.

00:24:55.940 You just need to be ready to do the work.

00:24:57.700 And if you don't good news, neither of us have invested in any reasonable amount of time

00:25:02.020 in each other, but I don't think that's going to happen.

00:25:04.420 I think you're going to go through the free program and ask yourself what's next.

00:25:08.800 And I'll answer that question later, but for now enroll in our free program at order of

00:25:14.900 man.com slash battle ready.

00:25:17.000 That's order of man.com slash battle ready.

00:25:19.840 Do that right after my conversation with Taylor.

00:25:24.540 Yeah, that makes sense.

00:25:26.240 When, well, I want to get to something about when you joined the foreign legion, but you

00:25:31.220 were talking about battle rhythm and specifically your morning schedule.

00:25:34.500 What, what does your morning routine look like?

00:25:36.440 It sounds like you wake up pretty early and then is it vision exercises as a goal planning?

00:25:42.080 You know, obviously you're probably hitting the gym, maybe feeling up correctly, but what

00:25:46.020 else is it?

00:25:46.700 Yeah.

00:25:47.040 You know, my morning process, I keep very simple and it doesn't include gym and it doesn't

00:25:51.960 include food, uh, but it does include coffee.

00:25:56.200 I'll tell you that right now.

00:25:57.820 It includes black coffee.

00:25:59.000 Yeah.

00:25:59.560 I, uh, I like, I keep it very simple, 30 to 45 minutes repeatable.

00:26:04.480 I just wake up, center myself.

00:26:06.520 So first thing is no phone, no email, no news.

00:26:08.800 That's like the most important thing that I always preach to everybody.

00:26:11.900 Don't look at your phone massively important and don't turn on the news.

00:26:15.440 Don't get blasted and sucked into the matrix immediately.

00:26:18.140 You, it's like a very rare time we have.

00:26:20.420 We're all centered and waking up, center yourself.

00:26:23.380 Maybe read a little Stoic philosophy, maybe a little gratitude or prayer, right?

00:26:27.220 Just some bump up the frequency, uh, but really some reflection, some center it, be

00:26:32.020 present, be aware of where you're at.

00:26:34.040 And it's based in time, five to 10 minutes, nothing crazy.

00:26:36.300 Then a little movement.

00:26:37.260 I do Mike Tyson pushups personally, but can be some stretching.

00:26:40.260 And I'm talking literally like not some workout, but like one max set, something just to kind

00:26:44.660 of shed some of that caveman anxiety.

00:26:46.960 And then some visualization, a little bit of why are you up early doing all this shit?

00:26:50.800 Who are you building?

00:26:51.420 That's it.

00:26:51.900 Centering movement visualization.

00:26:53.580 Now all that's only 30 minutes really.

00:26:56.020 And then start your day, right?

00:26:57.900 Then you're in your day.

00:26:59.100 But what I like about it is the simplicity.

00:27:01.300 Y'all you need is black coffee and a floor and maybe some privacy, right?

00:27:04.900 That's about it.

00:27:05.660 But Airbnbs, hotels, your house, I do it every day.

00:27:09.340 It might be short.

00:27:10.120 You might have a flight, right?

00:27:11.240 It might be, you know, five, 10 minutes, but it's, I call it emotional and psychological

00:27:14.700 grooming.

00:27:15.300 Take the time to brush your brain, man.

00:27:17.480 Get it clear.

00:27:18.720 Get it.

00:27:19.240 It can be simple.

00:27:20.160 Should be simple.

00:27:20.940 You don't need some two hour biohacking stand on your head, you know, in the cold.

00:27:25.360 I'm all for cold plunges and saunas and all that stuff.

00:27:27.900 But the thing is, it's just a lot of, you need a lot of stuff.

00:27:30.560 And so it's not always repeatable.

00:27:32.360 And so I'd like to keep a good, simple morning, more about the deliberate nature of it and

00:27:36.560 the intentionality to start the momentum in the day, right?

00:27:39.040 I like the question that you pose.

00:27:41.520 Who are the, who are you building?

00:27:43.280 That's such a simple statement.

00:27:44.980 It's such a simple question, but I think there's a great connotation in there because

00:27:49.380 it puts the power on you, right?

00:27:51.320 It gives you the power to build something.

00:27:52.760 And to your point earlier about intentionality, being intentional about who you're building.

00:27:57.320 So my question is, when you were at the lowest point in your life, which I imagine you would

00:28:01.700 say when you had that shotgun sitting on your dashboard, ready to end your life.

00:28:05.800 Yeah.

00:28:06.160 First of all, what, what happened in that moment where you decided not to?

00:28:10.120 So that's question number one.

00:28:11.420 And then question number two, was that question of who are you building?

00:28:14.700 Did that come to mind then as you started to think about how do I rebuild this man I want

00:28:18.800 to be, or was it something entirely different?

00:28:20.740 Man, dude, Brian, you asked great questions, dude.

00:28:23.200 You really, really tapped in, bro.

00:28:24.820 I can see why you're successful.

00:28:26.640 The, that moment was powerful.

00:28:29.360 I had a moment of clarity from God, man.

00:28:31.000 I don't know how else to say it.

00:28:32.460 I had a moment of clarity where I heard God speak to me or, or the universe or how anybody,

00:28:37.240 I don't care how everybody wants to say it, but it was a very clear voice that said,

00:28:40.300 bro, you're sack up pretty much like all these decisions are yours.

00:28:44.280 You're in this reality because you're you.

00:28:45.900 You and think about your mom, your sister, all the damage and legacy you'd leave.

00:28:50.980 It's not about you.

00:28:51.800 Pick up your pen and write your story again.

00:28:54.000 And so that's when I said, all right, well, if I'm going to die, I'm not going to do it

00:28:56.920 by my own hand.

00:28:57.580 At least I'll do it with my boots on again and have some decency.

00:29:00.760 Maybe foreign legion will make me deploy.

00:29:02.400 It wasn't like I was on a death sentence, but I was like, look, if my life's gone now, well,

00:29:06.700 then what am I holding on to?

00:29:08.060 So I might as well lean into, to another crucible and something that's going to be very uncomfortable.

00:29:13.860 And, um, and I knew I needed, and so that's, you know, about a week later, I was in the,

00:29:18.420 I was at the foreign legion gate in France.

00:29:20.740 Really?

00:29:21.260 So that was really, yeah.

00:29:23.560 About seven days later, I took two fast cash loans out, dude.

00:29:27.660 That cost me like, we're like a thousand dollars total.

00:29:30.500 Cause my credit was fucked at the time, man.

00:29:32.300 It was just everything had fallen apart.

00:29:33.780 Probably cost me like 4 million percent interest by the time I got out of the bootcamp.

00:29:39.460 But, uh, but it was out like, I took a one way flight, one way flight to France.

00:29:43.660 And, and that's when I, you know, with just one bag in my passport, because, uh, that's

00:29:48.060 really what I needed.

00:29:49.200 And, um, there was a second part to your question there, Ryan, which, uh, which was kind of

00:29:53.360 eluding me, but, but really it was the, the, the powerful nature of where I was.

00:29:58.500 Oh yeah.

00:29:59.080 I remember the, who am I building?

00:30:00.620 I get that far yet about who I was building.

00:30:04.320 I was too in survival mode to think about like that larger vision of like who I was building.

00:30:10.040 But I knew I wanted to write an interesting story about my life and my pen, my story wasn't

00:30:16.320 over yet.

00:30:16.940 And I needed to pick the fucking pen up and start writing again.

00:30:19.640 And that was like, well, if I'm going to live an interesting story, I've never heard

00:30:22.500 of the Navy SEAL being a foreign legionnaire.

00:30:24.400 That's where I'm going to go and, you know, call it overreaching or whatever it was, you

00:30:29.860 know, maybe some, some insecurity I needed still, which was something I learned is I was

00:30:34.540 still seeking external validation for an internal problem.

00:30:37.540 And, uh, and that was something that I had to kind of come to terms with while I was in

00:30:41.320 the legion.

00:30:41.740 And that was part of my growth was that that wasn't, that's not the end.

00:30:45.260 That's not the, that's not the mission in this life.

00:30:48.160 External validation will always make you fall short because it's not real.

00:30:51.840 Right.

00:30:52.160 Right.

00:30:52.520 And, uh, it's, it's, it's achievement, but really it's not you and that, but it was where

00:30:57.340 I was at the time and that who I'm building when I'm telling people to visualize, they

00:31:01.740 go visualize what you want.

00:31:02.740 I go, and you don't need to know immediately, right?

00:31:04.560 Let it kind of show itself over time because it will paint the picture.

00:31:08.200 But people go, I want the big house or the Lamborghini or whatever it is, or financial

00:31:12.120 security.

00:31:12.580 I go, yeah, but who is the man in that vision in that house?

00:31:15.780 Who is the guy in the house?

00:31:17.180 That's what matters.

00:31:18.340 You can be in the house, beautiful house.

00:31:20.220 But if you're not like, who is that man that you want?

00:31:23.600 That cool, calm, collected, fulfilled, stable, disciplined man in that car, right?

00:31:28.980 The scene will paint around it as far as lifestyle, but you have to, once you develop the correct

00:31:33.820 who, the how and what comes easy.

00:31:36.780 The who has to be correct.

00:31:38.120 Did, did your time as a SEAL, so the French foreign legion, like, I'm really curious about

00:31:43.020 that process, it process of it.

00:31:45.240 Well, why'd you decide to go that route?

00:31:46.820 Was it that other routes within the U.S. were not available to you because of what had

00:31:50.820 happened or what, why that?

00:31:53.200 Yeah, I was, there was no getting back in the United States military for me with an RE4

00:31:58.320 military code.

00:31:59.820 So that door was shut.

00:32:01.020 There was potentiality for contracting jobs, but really I needed shelter quick, man.

00:32:07.340 Right.

00:32:07.780 I mean, to get into a PMC job and stuff, you still need your own finances and things to

00:32:12.820 be, I was tapped.

00:32:14.280 Right.

00:32:14.800 And so there was actually painted myself into such a corner that it was, I knew at least

00:32:19.700 I could, if I could get to the door and make it through, I'd be fed and housed, right?

00:32:24.260 Not sleeping on the streets.

00:32:25.580 So there was that, you know, it was like a, you know, I, I had, I had strung it out so

00:32:30.520 thin that it was almost out of need.

00:32:32.700 I stayed in some shitty hostels in Paris, flussed my system out because I still had some

00:32:36.980 weed.

00:32:37.320 I knew they were going to drug test me.

00:32:38.600 And so I was running in the Parisian streets for about a week, then went to the foreign

00:32:43.660 legion gate with, um, with like six dollars, had one last little meal, like a little kebab

00:32:48.420 and $6 in my account went in, bro.

00:32:51.380 That's wild.

00:32:52.520 Did you, do you feel like your time in the seals helped you become a legionnaire or, or

00:32:57.820 was there hindrance there in that maybe there was some arrogance going into it?

00:33:01.600 Like what was that transition?

00:33:02.760 Like knowing that you already had just this high, high level training, elite training going

00:33:08.040 into something else that's pretty elite.

00:33:09.580 I knew it was going to be hard because it wasn't special operations.

00:33:14.280 So I knew the training would be, I knew it was, it was infantry, right?

00:33:17.420 Highly trained infantry, but definitely was going to be bootcamp again.

00:33:21.500 So I knew I was going to have to eat some serious humble pie and it come to find out in

00:33:27.080 the legion, the foreign legion took that humble pie and shoved it down my throat.

00:33:31.600 Man.

00:33:32.300 I mean, I ate my, I call it a baptism in humility.

00:33:36.240 I mean, I was cleaning toilets and, you know, working in the kitchens and, you know, we,

00:33:42.360 we did some deployments with the South America.

00:33:44.700 When the Ukraine war kicked off, we were on the Russian border in Estonia with, with NATO

00:33:50.440 and I did internal divestment.

00:33:52.500 So a lot of stuff happened, but all through that, you're shark shit on the bottom of the

00:33:56.300 ocean.

00:33:56.840 You're a foreigner.

00:33:57.820 I didn't even have my real name.

00:33:59.140 They took my name, gave me a fake name and a fake passport, French official passport.

00:34:05.660 I didn't see my passport again for three years.

00:34:07.520 I didn't see my passport again for three years and nobody called me by my real name.

00:34:11.420 And after I passed the selection, it's about one out of 15 guys who come to the gate actually

00:34:16.340 get a contract.

00:34:17.280 So, but 20, it's a very unique situation in that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365

00:34:23.740 days a year.

00:34:24.600 You can go knock on the door.

00:34:26.140 There's no other way to do it.

00:34:26.940 You go knock on the door and they'll open the door.

00:34:29.780 You can go Christmas morning, knock on the door.

00:34:32.080 They'll open.

00:34:32.380 Really?

00:34:33.140 And anybody can go.

00:34:34.300 It's pretty wild, dude.

00:34:34.780 Yeah.

00:34:35.020 And then anybody can show up.

00:34:36.740 The, uh, you just have to be a man and you have to be 17 and a half to 39 and a half.

00:34:41.020 And is there a lot of, uh, a lot of former, uh, U S military members that end up going

00:34:46.200 that route?

00:34:46.640 No, the U S very, very small amount.

00:34:49.900 It's all because it's across the park.

00:34:52.080 The biggest, so there's 150 nations represented in the, in the French foreign nation, very

00:34:56.960 unique.

00:34:57.340 And there's about 7,000 guys just to kind of give you some numbers and they're deployed

00:35:01.140 all over the world, Africa, South America, some South Pacific and all throughout France,

00:35:06.860 obviously.

00:35:07.740 But, uh, the biggest percentages, Ukraine, Ukrainian, uh, now it's a lot less obviously because

00:35:14.020 a lot of the guys are fighting in the war, Nepal, Belarus, a lot of Eastern Bloc countries,

00:35:18.800 Romania, Hungary, a lot of Brazilians.

00:35:21.060 Those are like probably the biggest, uh, uh, nationalities.

00:35:25.260 Yeah.

00:35:25.480 That's wild.

00:35:26.540 What do you think you learned there that you didn't, um, already know or hadn't already

00:35:30.900 been introduced about your life?

00:35:32.480 Like how did that make you a better person?

00:35:33.980 Do you think?

00:35:34.480 Cause it sounds like you did a lot of your growing up and maturing in that you were there

00:35:38.280 for, was it 10?

00:35:39.440 Did you say 10 years?

00:35:40.460 Five, about four and a half.

00:35:41.720 Five years.

00:35:42.180 Okay.

00:35:42.520 Got it.

00:35:42.920 Okay.

00:35:43.140 So, so what, what type of learning and growing, not, uh, not necessarily the military training

00:35:48.180 necessarily, but just about yourself and how you needed to develop and then translating

00:35:51.980 now into civilian life.

00:35:53.360 Again, I learned about simplicity, simplification, importance of that.

00:35:58.020 I learned about stripping away ego.

00:35:59.780 I learned patience.

00:36:01.100 I learned, um, you know, that's, that's one thing I think I learned about anything is patience

00:36:05.780 and letting the process work, you know, and, uh, and shutting the fuck up and thinking

00:36:10.400 and being more mindful.

00:36:11.680 That was the other piece was being more mindful about my present situation and being great,

00:36:16.040 having gratitude for simple things.

00:36:18.020 Really?

00:36:18.500 The simplification really helped was helpful.

00:36:20.400 I mean, we were washing your socks in the sink and washing clothes in the sink and hanging

00:36:24.200 them up and it's pretty rustic, man.

00:36:26.840 And, uh, not all the time, but you know, there's a lot of those moments where you're just doing

00:36:30.740 that in the foreign legion.

00:36:31.740 And, uh, it's, it was, it was this process of evolution where I knew I needed to self-develop.

00:36:40.100 And so I was starting to research about Zen, a lot, reading a lot of Zen quotes and a lot

00:36:46.100 of philosophers and about the present moment and the power of accountability.

00:36:50.760 That's a lot of thing.

00:36:51.660 What I learned there, cause it gave me a lot of time to think and just being stripped down

00:36:57.140 to quite literally having my, nobody gave a shit.

00:37:00.260 I was a seal, right?

00:37:01.220 Nobody really cared.

00:37:02.000 Some people, you know, care, you know, we're interested a little bit, but really it's just

00:37:05.840 about what, what can you do for me now?

00:37:07.760 You know, who are you now?

00:37:09.060 That's really the only thing that mattered.

00:37:10.380 And so it was interesting being able to put a dot at the end of a chapter and turn the

00:37:14.660 page.

00:37:15.060 And then I was just whole new guy quite literally.

00:37:17.920 And, and that was, they didn't care.

00:37:20.040 I was American.

00:37:20.820 They didn't care.

00:37:21.320 I was just who I was there, you know, in a simple legionnaire, that was it, you know, Hey,

00:37:26.640 you know, Navy seal come clean this fucking toilet.

00:37:28.960 You know, I heard that a lot.

00:37:30.600 And so I had some moments where I'm cleaning up, you know, toilets and stuff.

00:37:34.840 I was just doing halo jumps, you know, you know, with, uh, you know, at an elite unit

00:37:39.360 in the military and now I'm scrubbing a toilet.

00:37:41.160 And there was a moment where I was like, you know what?

00:37:43.360 I need to be here.

00:37:44.320 This is where I need to be.

00:37:45.220 I've earned this.

00:37:46.140 This is where I'm supposed to be because this is where I'm at.

00:37:48.380 And once I relinquished that, that resistance and I just accepted the reality of it, my life

00:37:54.240 started to get a lot better.

00:37:55.240 And then I was just, I was, I was just accepting of where I was and learning even the people

00:38:00.600 that were very hard to work with, because there's a lot of them in the foreign legion

00:38:04.220 and, uh, you know, hardcore Romanians, there's guys that grew up tough, man.

00:38:08.220 And they take that out on everybody around them, not very self-aware individuals, but,

00:38:13.620 but they, even they have something to teach you, right?

00:38:16.100 They taught me a lot of patience and being able to kind of understand people and navigate

00:38:20.400 through difficult personalities.

00:38:21.980 And so, yeah, that, that's, it was really just this exercise in self-development really.

00:38:26.980 What was the significance of getting, getting a new name?

00:38:30.240 Is that something everybody did, whether they were from France or anywhere else?

00:38:34.780 Is that something all legionnaires do?

00:38:36.700 Yeah.

00:38:37.320 Historically, that's just how it's always been because I think the foreign legion, it's like

00:38:41.280 this 200 year old institution.

00:38:42.680 It was, had this reputation of like murderers and thieves would go in there to kind of run

00:38:47.280 from the law or, but France would be like, okay, fight.

00:38:50.380 If you're going to run fight for fight, fight some wars for us.

00:38:52.640 And they don't have political pressure of French coming back and body bag.

00:38:55.680 So there is like this historical thing and they've just always done it because if you

00:39:00.360 want French citizenship, you got to serve a contract to contracts about, but you have

00:39:05.740 this option.

00:39:06.540 It's called RSM regularization situation, military, which in French means to regularize your military

00:39:12.780 situation where you can put up extra paperwork.

00:39:15.520 You can get your real name back.

00:39:17.100 They give you your passport back and all that stuff.

00:39:19.300 Then you have a little bit more international movement again.

00:39:21.300 That takes about two, three years, which is what I did.

00:39:23.520 Or you can just say, I don't want my real name back ever.

00:39:27.820 Who knows what people are dealing with?

00:39:29.240 And they, and you can get a French passport, French citizenship on that fake name.

00:39:34.480 And you're pretty much a whole new person.

00:39:36.100 Whoa.

00:39:36.380 Yeah.

00:39:36.540 I was curious.

00:39:37.300 I mean, that makes sense.

00:39:38.020 I was, I was curious if they do that as, as some sort of symbolism for, you know, losing

00:39:43.940 your previous identity and, and making a new identity as a legionnaire, but it doesn't

00:39:48.720 sound like it's that deep, quite honestly.

00:39:50.940 I mean, you could extract that lesson, but it doesn't sound like that was the reason.

00:39:54.580 Yeah.

00:39:54.840 I think it's, yeah.

00:39:55.580 I think it was actually quite literally.

00:39:57.460 It was so the law wasn't running after the legion back in the day and today.

00:40:02.540 They're still like that getting in.

00:40:04.460 And they're pretty strict though, as far as they do really gnarly Interpol background

00:40:07.940 checks, they're doing the interrogation part in the legion, really getting selected is

00:40:13.520 navigating the interrogations and they call them Gestapo interviews.

00:40:17.160 It's quite intense, you know?

00:40:18.960 And, um, and so your story has to be good.

00:40:22.100 They want to know you are who you say you are.

00:40:23.900 They're going to do background checks, open source checks on your, in your home country

00:40:28.080 and Interpol background checks.

00:40:29.700 You can't have any sexual crimes.

00:40:31.320 They don't want any issues with international arms trafficking or drug dealing.

00:40:35.200 Generally, they can, they'll look past it, but that's about it.

00:40:39.080 Those are pretty much the, the real hangups.

00:40:41.600 And, but if your story is clear and other than that, they'll, they'll, they'll, they'll,

00:40:45.880 they'll look past it.

00:40:46.920 Yeah.

00:40:47.220 That's interesting.

00:40:48.220 That's pretty wild.

00:40:49.160 I'm kind of fascinated by that.

00:40:50.580 So, so then you, you, uh, you get out of the, uh, uh, the French foreign legion and you

00:40:57.420 decide at that point to start coaching and developing, um, and, and mentoring and teaching

00:41:02.420 people these principles or what happened in that gap.

00:41:05.200 Cause that wasn't that long ago.

00:41:06.520 That was what, four, four years ago, four or five years ago, 18 months.

00:41:09.940 So, oh, that's it.

00:41:10.600 I got back.

00:41:11.120 So it hasn't been long at all.

00:41:12.660 I got back.

00:41:13.620 I got back to the United States in December, 2023.

00:41:16.840 Whoa.

00:41:17.180 Okay.

00:41:17.480 So yeah, it's only been a year and a half then.

00:41:19.560 Yeah.

00:41:19.920 Yeah.

00:41:20.280 So, and a lot's happened, man.

00:41:21.940 Right.

00:41:22.220 A lot's happened.

00:41:22.980 A lot's developed.

00:41:23.800 I started this, my coaching stuff in a French foreign legion barracks room.

00:41:27.540 And that's ended up really, I, I knew I wanted to tell my story, but also I knew, man, I

00:41:32.740 was suicidal in my truck and now I'm living good days every day in a foreign legion barracks

00:41:37.020 room, which is extremely challenging.

00:41:38.940 A lot of friction.

00:41:39.940 And I, but I was happy, man, in a very simple way.

00:41:43.580 I was just happy.

00:41:44.800 And I, and I was like, you know what?

00:41:46.140 I could teach people.

00:41:47.160 So I can just show people what I do if it, maybe it'll help them.

00:41:49.340 And I was getting flooded with emails from guys who were like, Hey, I was suicidal.

00:41:53.500 And I saw your video, man.

00:41:55.140 And I decided not to kill myself.

00:41:56.720 A lot of veterans, even, but not just regular guys who are feeding, feeling the speed wobbles,

00:42:01.020 a lot of business owners, CEOs, man, who are just like, Hey man, I'm feeling my life a

00:42:04.560 little bit out of control.

00:42:05.380 And I don't really know what to do to kind of pull back, to pull back the reins.

00:42:09.120 Like we had talked about.

00:42:10.520 And so I say, all right, man, let's get on zoom and let's talk about it.

00:42:13.200 Everybody kind of needs, but here's some general principles.

00:42:15.460 Here's, you know, some training, some food, some here, macronutrient information and battle

00:42:20.280 rhythm of the day.

00:42:20.860 Let's restructure your disciplines.

00:42:22.160 And so that's really, I just started doing that, man.

00:42:24.160 And it just kind of built just, just naturally.

00:42:26.200 And I just kept with it and I've just been disciplined with it.

00:42:28.820 And I just approached it very, very systematically every day showing up for my clients one-on-one,

00:42:34.900 like every day, just doing my posts and just looking at it like just extreme and extremely

00:42:39.700 disciplined way.

00:42:41.320 And it's just really worked because you can't teach consistency if you're not consistent.

00:42:46.860 Make any sense, right?

00:42:49.220 There's so much hypocrisy within the coaching space and people who just aren't what they

00:42:53.980 portray to be.

00:42:54.780 And my thing is I don't portray to be a finished product.

00:42:57.160 I don't portray to be perfect.

00:42:59.020 Matter of fact, I open with all my mistakes, right?

00:43:01.520 And I think that that's what people resonate with.

00:43:03.340 I've fucked a lot of shit up.

00:43:04.480 And it's like, how do we stop ourselves from self-sabotage, right?

00:43:07.700 Let's stop that cycle and get out of it.

00:43:10.440 And now I live a really good life, engaged, new baby, beautiful house.

00:43:15.100 And it's all happened really quickly.

00:43:16.480 And I think it just comes down to being mindful about what you're doing and strategic about

00:43:22.220 what you're doing and removing a lot of the things that hang us up.

00:43:25.060 Yeah.

00:43:25.280 Well, dude, I love the story of redemption.

00:43:27.200 I mean, that's something that speaks to all of us because we all know our inadequacies and

00:43:30.660 our shortcomings and where we failed.

00:43:32.440 And unfortunately, I see so many guys wallow in it for too long when they don't have to.

00:43:36.720 And I think a story like yours is pretty inspirational and shows people that you can

00:43:40.000 come from the depths of despair and put yourself in a much better place, which is something

00:43:44.700 that you're not only have done, but currently in the process of.

00:43:48.180 I think I heard your new baby in the background there earlier, which I love.

00:43:51.440 It's pretty cool to have the kids running around and hear them playing in the background

00:43:55.420 and all that.

00:43:56.260 Yeah.

00:43:56.660 Yeah, it's real life.

00:43:57.700 She's finding her own voice.

00:43:58.940 That's for sure.

00:43:59.540 Well, Taylor, tell me how to connect with you.

00:44:02.820 Let the guys know where to go to learn more about the programs and the courses and offerings

00:44:06.280 that you have, because I know a lot of people are going to resonate with your story and I'd

00:44:09.060 love for them to be able to get in touch with you.

00:44:10.740 Yeah, man.

00:44:11.440 Everything I do is one-on-one.

00:44:12.880 I don't AI anything and I don't outsource anything.

00:44:15.220 I don't work with a team.

00:44:16.560 I don't.

00:44:16.880 So anybody that's communicating is going to communicate with me only.

00:44:20.320 TaylorCavanaugh.com.

00:44:21.540 That contact form goes right to my personal email.

00:44:23.680 My Instagram, TCavOfficial, which my DMs, I post my daily footage and my workouts and

00:44:29.480 stuff on there, which is good, and lifestyle stuff.

00:44:32.080 And my YouTube, Taylor Cavanaugh, TCavTV, where we dive into larger principles.

00:44:36.920 I do everything one take, no edits.

00:44:39.100 And we also do gym sessions and stuff with other characters around Southern California

00:44:43.520 and just try to show that good life, man, and living in a good way.

00:44:48.080 And it's not perfect, right?

00:44:49.840 And that's what I don't try to portray perfection on not perfection.

00:44:53.200 That's for sure.

00:44:54.280 You know, I still stumble and it's like, how do we get back up?

00:44:57.040 You know, kind of like you said, Ryan, it's like, don't wallow in your mistakes, you know,

00:45:00.820 and maybe you'll make it again too.

00:45:02.520 But can you get back on that horse, man, and keep riding?

00:45:06.460 And that's really the only thing that matters.

00:45:08.340 Awesome, man.

00:45:08.600 We'll sync everything up so the guys know where to go.

00:45:10.580 Thanks again for joining me, brother.

00:45:11.680 I appreciate it.

00:45:12.260 Yeah, Ryan, I appreciate you and I appreciate everybody watching The Order of Man.

00:45:16.420 Y'all have a good one.

00:45:19.840 Men, there you go.

00:45:20.800 Mr. Taylor Cavanaugh, obviously a man of the people.

00:45:25.020 He's done some incredible things, no doubt.

00:45:26.780 And some of us cannot, most of us cannot relate with the incredible things that he's done.

00:45:31.820 But most of us probably can relate to some degree with the lows of his life,

00:45:36.900 whether it's suicide, depression, anxiety, loss of a job, loss of purpose, confusion, frustration,

00:45:42.680 et cetera, et cetera.

00:45:43.460 So if my conversation with Taylor landed for you, do me a favor.

00:45:48.000 Just take a screenshot real quick right now.

00:45:50.740 Post it up on Facebook.

00:45:52.120 Post it up on Instagram.

00:45:53.460 Tag Taylor.

00:45:54.140 Tag myself.

00:45:55.620 Tag your friends, families, colleagues, coworkers, et cetera.

00:45:58.600 It's a very easy way to share what we're doing.

00:46:00.820 And it goes a long way to help the people that you love and care about.

00:46:04.400 Sometimes, unfortunately, I get it.

00:46:07.260 They're going to listen to me or my guest more than they're going to listen to you.

00:46:10.760 You can be offended by that or you can embrace it.

00:46:14.020 I say embrace it because ultimately, we want to serve other people.

00:46:17.860 Again, tag me at Ryan Mickler on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

00:46:22.140 Tag Taylor.

00:46:23.760 And then in the meantime, check out our free Battle Ready program at orderofman.com slash battle ready.

00:46:31.780 Guys, Kip and I will be back tomorrow.

00:46:35.020 So make sure you subscribe if you haven't done so already.

00:46:37.660 We've got some great questions that came in this week.

00:46:40.360 And we're going to do our best to handle those questions.

00:46:43.680 Make sure you subscribe to the Order of Man podcast on YouTube or Apple Podcasts or Pandora, Spotify, wherever you're doing your podcast listening.

00:46:56.260 All right, guys.

00:46:56.900 That's all I've got for you today.

00:46:58.080 Make sure to connect with Taylor in the meantime.

00:47:00.000 And until then, go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.

00:47:04.240 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.

00:47:11.740 If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be, we invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

00:47:18.900 We'll see you next time.

00:47:26.400 We'll see you next time.

00:47:30.200 Bye.

00:47:39.740 Bye.

Order of Man - July 08, 2025

TAYLOR CAVANAUGH ｜ Crack the Whip or Pull the Reigns？

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