Make America Strong: How This Marine Is Bringing Strength, Jobs & Grit Back To America | Grant Broggi | Ep. 65 - The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I don't care if you're in the style of
drink training I'm doing. But like, here's what my company is.
We make USA products no better what here in America,
and they're better than anything that you can import, and
you're going to pay more, and like we create jobs
for other American citizens.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
David ruthiverb once I I'm Jamie.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
He's like, yep, I want to like walk out of
the gym when I don't want to do something hard.
Look at my plates, Like there's a marine that made
these plates in America, and.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Like I support that.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, I mean, I'm all fired up right now.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
What you're talking about is is the essence of what
America represents.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Just your story alone.

Speaker 4 (00:36):
Like guy grows up, got a pastor's son, going to
the citadel, going to a Marine Corps, going to combat
running young men, teaching them how to strengthen, get hit
with a pandemic, that comes up with a business idea,
blows it up. Now you're making American iron Man, and
that's the story that I think is coming back in America.

(01:06):
One of the things that I've learned in my life
is that if you want to go to war, you
gotta have Marines. Now, there's a reason for this, and
that reason dates all the way back to the late
seventeen hundreds and throughout every stage of the United States

(01:28):
our development are prowess from a military stance. The one
unit that has always been at the tip of the
spear for that entire time is the Marine Corps. And
you know, there's a lot of people out there that'll
say rangers lead the way or seals are the tip
of the spear.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
All that, it's all bull.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
The reality is is that the core is the heartbeat
of the military. They do the best training, they have
the best committed human beings, and they're willing to go anywhere,
anytime to get the job done and always the dirtiest deeds.
So today I am absolutely fired up to bring on
one of Jordie's close friends, Major Grant Brogie, who is

(02:14):
also the owner of the Strength Company as well as
the starting Strength coach. And we've got him over in
Okinawa right now, which is so cool. That's why it's
an early morning for us right now. But we're so
fired up to welcome Grant to the show. Grant, thanks

(02:37):
for coming on, buddy, And that was a pretty.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Good intro we might have to play that for the
two hundred and fiftieth Marine Corps Birthday ball.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
You know, that's funny that you're saying that, because I've
got an open invitation.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
I'm not sure about the DC.

Speaker 4 (02:52):
So one of my closest friends is a major in
the reserves for MARSOK. He's a Mars SOK Intel officer
and he's.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, yeah, amazing, phenomenal guy.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
I met him when we were at the agency together,
and former recon guy. And and now like when he
was at the agency, he ended up getting his degree
and then masters, and then he was like, I think
I'll go back in and he went in as a
Naval intel officer, which was for the very short period

(03:27):
of time. He did it like the greatest thing that
ever happened, because I just was like, Aha, you wanted to.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Be Navy, you know, the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
And then he couldn't handle it, and so he flipped
and he became a Marine Corps officer, as he should be.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
But nothing but respect for your.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Granted, tell me tell me a little bit about why
the Marine Corps for you?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
What was it? When did it start?

Speaker 4 (03:53):
And because that's that's like, that's those every time I
get a chance to engage with a marine particular officer,
it's like, man, there's some deep correlation to the inspiration
of why they chose the core.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, I think it's an interesting good question. I'm from Beauford,
South Carolina, where I grew up. So I grew up
about ten miles from Paris Island. My dad's a preacher
still this day, community Bible church down there, you know,
over thirty years he's been down there. So I grew
up around a lot of marines, a lot of my friends,
you know, in church and playing sports and stuff like

(04:29):
the sons of drill instructors, like, you know, a lot
of marine culture there in Beauford. So it's very familiar
to me. At the same time, it was kind of like,
you know, hey, you're gonna go to college.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
And you know, go do something different.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
You're not gonna go to the military like other people
go into the military. And you know, I say that
tongue in cheek in case my mom listens. But you know, now,
out of the five kids they've had, you know, two
of us are Marine officers. And so there's definitely something
about being from that area that it was never a
question of branch.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Like for me, if I ever was going to.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Serve, it was very clear, like I am going to
be a marine, like that was the only deal. I
went to the Citadel. While I was at the Citadel,
I didn't commission out of there. I had a bunch
of buddies go to the army, go to the Marine Corps.
I graduated, I took a job, and I remember I
was a concrete plant manager and I supervised, you know,

(05:25):
thirty concrete truck drivers.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I'm like twenty three years old or something.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know, I got a company truck, you know, and
it's like, oh, man, like I made it. I'm really cool.
And a guy that was a year ahead of me
was in Afghanistan. They hit an ID they blew up
one of those marines like lost the leg. And I
remember him calling me and talking to him, and I
remember sitting up like I'm in this tower, like a
concrete plant's like literally a tower. You like look down,

(05:50):
you're like sands coming in, you know, cemen fly ash,
you're managing all that. And I just thought, like I
can do this at any point my life. I cot
any point in my life, I can come back and
like be the King of concrete, and I wasn't the
King Concrete, right, But my point is like I could
do the same time, I can't serve forever and uh

(06:11):
so yeah, I walked in the recruiting office on actually
September eleventh, twenty eleven.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
Oh wow, it was like I want to join, and
I think that's part of.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
So like new if I was going to Georgia be a marine,
and then I see it now as I lead one
hundred and forty people, and you know, see the difference
in generations.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
You know, it's a lot different.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
You start to be like, oh, man, like you know,
a thirty seven year old is a lot different than
an eighteen year old. But for me it was it
was nine to eleven.

Speaker 4 (06:39):
Right.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It's like, hey, I'm an algebra class and this thing
happens and like you should serve your country. And so
I didn't know that at the time, Like I am
joining because of nine to eleven, right, But now is
like look back and like a little bit of age
order my belt and you reflect, You're like, oh, I
was a byproduct of being a teenager when this thing happened,

(07:02):
and you know, wanted to be a part of some
bigger myself and uh yeah, being where from from it
had to be the Marine Corps. So here I am.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
Yeah, I tell you what, I love Youford, South Carolina,
A good buddy in the teams that got married there,
you know. And it's just you're right, there isn't there
is an era of of that dedication to to you know,
Camp La June and the whole, the whole idea of

(07:31):
Paras Island, the whole. It's like it's it's the storied
fable that kind of bleeds into every aspect of the culture,
you know, like a lot more than it does out
in Pendleton. And and you know all the different little
towns that surround Pendleton, you know, because those are like
sleepy surfer beach towns and stuff. But when you go

(07:54):
through that area of of that part of South Carolina,
and even it bleeds up into North Carolina, I think too.
For sure, you just feel that that sense of pride
that is built into the communities. And it's really fascinating

(08:16):
to me. You know how easily you know, kids allow
that to penetrate into their consciousness of what they they
can become in the future. Right, Oh man, I've got
this incredible option. Being a part of the core is
something that's it's noble, there's a there's a legacy in it,

(08:37):
and it just kind of infects you. Did you did
your father as a preacher? Did he I mean obviously
you you probably got a very intense, deep faith based
on his influence, But did he also lay out the
groundwork for you and the importance of what serving your

(08:58):
country or the military and support of the military was
about as well?

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, I think so, you know, Dad, My dad is
like a one and evangelist, Like he is there to
like tell people Christ died for your sins. You need
to know him. And I think he has enjoyed like
a transient crowd. What I mean by that is like

(09:24):
his church is a relatively large church, but because it's
near Marine Corps in a Navy base. There two Marine
Corps based in the Navy base, it's like, hey, everyone's
like on three or orders, so you get a lot
of people coming through. And I think my dad never served.
His dad was in the Navy, My grandfather was in
the Navy. But he really developed an appreciation for people

(09:46):
that just constantly will answer the call. And I think sometimes,
you know, we watch the movies and you do seal
stuff or whatever, and you think like, ah, you know,
like there's like this super cool high speed stuff that happened.
But the service and the sacrifice of like Americans that say, hey,
in my life, I'm going to do twenty years whatever

(10:07):
it is I'm in the reserves is a little bit different.
But like for your average guy that attacked to duty
and it's like every three years, I'm going to stuff
my wife and kids like into a car, move them
across the country. They're not going to know anybody. I'm
going to bring them to a new place, and you know,
at a complete new environment, new high schools for kids,
like new all these things, and you realize, like man,

(10:28):
you know, whether they're getting shot at or not, Like
that level of hey, I'm doing this for my care
for country is huge. And so what I would say
is to answer your question, is my dad like really
appreciated that because he would see people over the years,
you know, in the church for over thirty years and
people come back, they get stationed again, and he's just like, well,

(10:50):
I've been here the whole time. Like I'm still driving
my Chevrolet Cavalier and like doing the same things like
you've gone to all these different places and had new
problems and so yeah, he definitely put a level of
respect in UH in service and you know it was
it was very uh Yeah, he appreciated a lot.

Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, well, I would imagine you know, I mean, one,
when you're somebody's minister, pastor, you know, the whole idea
of that's it roots you in the community right through
that faith.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
It creates the the.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
Familial UH support network that you know, if if if
if you are but when you're in that like you said,
that transitory experience of the military and you show up,
where do you you know, if if you're if you're
dialed in what you go find your your church and
to have that person there like your father who understood

(11:47):
that that complexity, that challenge in particular for the the
you know, the kids in the UH and the wives.
I think for us it's it's you know, I had
somebody articulate this to me, you know yesterday. You know,
our ability to compartmentized is so so I don't want

(12:12):
to pick the right word, it's it's so functional, right.
We just once you learn how to do that by
going through the training regiment, then it just seems to
seep into your personal lives and and and you know,
for us it's like one base, another unit. It's the same.
We just figure out how to integrate. But your your family,

(12:33):
your kids in particular, going from those high schools to
high schools or grade schools, it's such a challenging. So
to have a church community is really powerful. And then
also somebody that understands that those challenges be so welcoming.
You know, I bet did you guys have Was it

(12:55):
a type of church where you put on the potluck
dinners and you'd have the fundraisers and all that.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Was it like that growing up?

Speaker 1 (13:02):
I mean a typical Southern Baptist, a non denominational church.
But yeah, it's like Thursday night, meet the pastor come in,
you know, my dad's going to talk to the new folks.
You know, every other Sunday it's you know, potato salad
and pulled pork barbecue and coleslaw and everyone coming out.
And you, as a child, you take a lot that
stuff for granted, and you don't realize And no, I

(13:24):
mean I take the port for granted too, but I
just mean the community, Like you don't realize how important
it is because like now I went to church this morning.
You know, I'm going to a Baptist church out here
in Okinawa and it's called Coza Baptist Church. Retired lieutenant colonel.
He's a preacher and it's good and I like agree
with like eighty percent of everything that like it's being said.

(13:45):
But what I tell people is, you know, every week,
I say I got five seats in this little super
ustella and I take up three of them. So you know,
I can bring like two people with me in this
tiny oakinawan car. But like I go every Sunday at
ten if you want to come, like you can come
with me. And so I always have two or three
guys that'll come and they're just like me and like

(14:06):
the community aspect, like like happy parents, happy kids, like
people filled with the Holy Spirit. And it's no matter
where you go, and like you can have like differences
in theology and stuff and like all that's important, but
it's like you go every Sunday and like I'll have
there's there's a captain and a lieutenant that have been
coming with me, Like they'll just sit me on Wednesday.
They're like sorry, I can't wait for church on Sunday

(14:27):
and I'm like, yeah, like I can't wait either, right,
And so it's it's neat. And so I say that
reflecting on my dad's church, like not realizing, hey, I
show up to Paris time, I'm a staff's are about
to be a drill instructor and like go through a cycle.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
And my wife's mad, and you know, I got.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
A two year old that's crazy, and it's like I
don't really know what to do, Like the house was
you know what I should do. I'd just like take
them one to church and like we're gonna eat barbecue
and someone's gonna like read a Bible verse and I'm
gonna feel better and like that is like the thing
that I have control of. So yeah, no, I've missed
deployment in particular, and obviously over my life as I've

(15:04):
gotten older and gotten married and had a kid, I've
really I've been like, Wow, my Dad's ministry there's been
been powerful and to the core and to the court.
I mean I went up to the preacher of the
first Sunday I was here before went on the float.
I was like, I'm about to leave like four months,
but I'll be back. I was like my dad's this guy.
He's like marines to have come to this church from
your dad's church for fifteen years. Wow.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
And I was like, Oh, that's right.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
It's a it's like a culture inside of a culture,
so kind of exciting.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
That's that's really cool.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
And you know, so you know, one of the interesting
things is I think as you go in and you
and especially you go in as an officer. And I
had a good friend Hugh Middleton that went to the
Citadel and he was a lieutenant when I was a
new guy at Team one, and then he did a
stint over at Damn Nick and and we actually worked

(15:53):
together when I was at Blackwater. We did we did
we ran a kind of like a FID mission through
Azerbaijan and we retrofitted their base. But we I got
to know Hugh pretty good during then, and he talked
about the Citadel and you know, you know where the
Citadel is, the history of the Citadel. You know that

(16:16):
there's more of that legacy that's built in if you
graduate from that institution. Can you tell all the listeners
a little bit about what the Citadel is, what kind
of you know education you get there, and then how
also it's part of that community as well too.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, so it's kind of similar.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
So you know, you have the Naal Academy, Air Force Academy,
Coast Guard, and West Point and those are your senior
lever senior military academy academies. And then you have six
senior military academies just like you're Virginia Tech, tex A,
and m Citadel VMI. And basically what it means is
they have rotcs on the campus with active duty service

(16:59):
members and you can go in and join the service
from there. So the Citadel is one of the six
senior military academies in the US. And there's like two
factions of the Citadel. There's the Citadel that is, Hey,
I'm from South Carolina. I'm really proud to be a Southerner.
My daddy went here on he became a lawyer on
Charleston and he wayhows the ring and Pat Conroy ways

(17:22):
the ring, and I want to wear the ring and
I'm going to get high out over here because I
went to the Citadel and I love that side right
like like I do. And that's the whole side that
a lot of my buddies went into. And there's another
side which is like really interesting to me where it's
people that are looking for a senior military academy, Like
maybe they didn't get into West Point, maybe they'd get
in Naval academy, or maybe they didn't want to. Because
the Citadel's history itself is like really cool, like Star

(17:44):
of the West nineteen sixty one, you know, January sixth,
Citadel cadets started the Civil War. Like forget whether it's
like wrong right, that whole thing. It's just like, hey,
the history here is profound of people in service for
their country and maybe more local, right, but it's like
for their country, and so the service history there is cool.
And what was interesting with my buddies is I played

(18:06):
rugby there and met a bunch of guys. Is I
ended up being a bunch of friends with guys from
New England and they came down to this like school
that was a part of secession, but it was a
respected senior military college, and so you have like one
side of the cityel it's like, hey, southern heritage. I
went here.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
Some of those guys serve like a good amount of them,
but maybe they don't.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
They just want to like walk around the state with
the ring and then you have like the other side
that's like, hey, this like long military tradition. I can
go in commission out of here, and the culture there
is really cool. I mean it's really fun and like
any organization, I'm sure it was like the same in
your teams. Right It's like there's people I've met they're like, oh,
Seals they're the worst, and it's like Citadel guys, they're

(18:51):
the worst, you know whatever, they're the worst. And I'm
always like it's always a mixed bag. We're still dealing
with like the population, but for the most part, like yeah,
I'm like.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Really proud to be a civil alumnus.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Like I think, I think the history and the culture
there is cool and it's been great, you know, and
now fourteen years of service, it's you know, even if
it's a marine officer or a guy that like I
don't think is like it's good or think you should
do things different, it's like you got like common ground,
like hey, brother, like we both did that and it's
really cool. Right now I am I'm the battery commander

(19:23):
and a Batalian landing team and the operations officer. As
a civil grad, he was a year a year or
two behind me, and it's like common ground, like already right,
the same thing like talking to you, never talked to
you before. But I'm like, service guy. You make a
joke about E five's in the pre show and I'm like, yeah,
guy gets it. And so it's like you just get down.

(19:45):
But yeah, good spot. Go dogs. Not a good football team,
but go dogs.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
I just love the fact, you know, because there is
so much focus obviously on on you know, the four
major academies, whether it's you know, in a particular naval
academy and in the in West Point. But like I've
I've had the incredible opportunity to influence a couple of
young men that ended up going to vm I and

(20:12):
was able to learn about vm I when as the
as a result of them going. And you know, I
think what a lot of young people, in particular young
men right now is you know, you can go to
these institutions and get a dose of of you know,
the the ro OTC or and r OTC programs, get

(20:33):
that discipline and then you know, choose whether or not
you want to go serve or not. Do you think
that these type of institutions are what is the challenge
in terms of you know, because a lot of kids
are like, oh, I want to go to college and
party and have all that.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
What why do you think that these.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
These institutions like the Citadel and VMI and the others
are such a benefit for young men right now who
are aren't quite sure do I want to go and
you know, do five years or do fourteen like yourself?
Or do I just need the discipline the structure. Well,
how would you talk to young men making a decision

(21:13):
about joining those trying to go to those places?

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
No, it's an interesting way to put in.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
And I think the like the current generation of guys
turning eighteen, it's just there's a lot shifting And I
thought one at one point it was maybe shifting in
a weird way, and then now I see guys and
seems like maybe like shifting back. I think the interesting
thing about military colleges is it's generally, you know, like

(21:40):
young men that believe in higher education, which is good,
but they're like, hey, I don't just want to go
and like party at a frat house, like and there's
something inside of people and I don't know what it is,
and I love it, and like I think that I
possess some of it where it's like, what is the
hardest thing, Like, what's the hardest thing that the average

(22:02):
guy won't do? And just because like the average guy
doesn't want to do it, I want to do it.
I don't even know what it is, but like most
people will do it, so I want to do it.
And I think the military academies draw a lot of that.
I mean, I look at myself and I, you know, Citadel.
My brothers are like all geniuses, really smart, smarter than me.

(22:22):
But I went like four years deanless and I look
at my college and I think if I was not
in the Citadel where it was like you will go
back to your room at nineteen hundred, and you will
study until twenty one hundred, and someone will come in
every hour to make sure that you're studying. And you
will be on campus from Monday to Thursday, except if
you have this GPA. Then on Wednesdays you're allowed to
leave after fourteen hundred, but you have to be back

(22:43):
by twenty hundred. And on the weekends, if the football
team wins, you can spend the night out on Saturday
or if you you know, have a four point zero,
you know there's all these rules. Yeah, for me, it
was perfect. It was like, this is exactly what I need.
But in general, I think for young guys, hey, yeah,
you can go. And I'm like my brothers went to

(23:04):
the University of South Carolina. I'm a game Cock fan.
I got a nephew at the University of Georgia and
I'm super proud of him. He's in like a good
Christian fraternity and like, so there's a lot of stuff
you can do.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
But I think there's something of.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Hey, yeah, anyone can go and get drunk at some
local town and skip a bunch of classes and get
these and like end up with a degree and be like, yeah,
I went to wherever and at the military colleges. Is
it the hardest thing in the world. No, are you
gonna face many more hard things. Absolutely, But there's something

(23:39):
of like at that age that I respect in folks
that says, you know what, I.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
Don't want to do the common path.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
I don't want to do the normal, easy route, and
it's the citadel like as hard as like doing something else,
Like of course not right, Like it's not crazy, but
it's it's it's you're setting yourself part a little bit
and they're like, Hey, I'm not going to do just
what every kid wants to do.

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(25:51):
God Bless America. And I think that's it. I think,
you know, that's kind of that the thing, you know
that if you're if you even have a modicum of ambition, right,
you know, and you or that little bit of entrepreneurial
spirit or the adventure or wonder loss and you like,

(26:14):
I think a lot of people kids think that those
types of places stifle that, and I think the inverse
is true. I think it gives you a framework to
then you can actually really go out in the world
and have a structure that you can apply in if
it's the military and you get that adventure or it's

(26:36):
you know, starting your own business or or whatever it is.
You know, it's it gives you the structure and the
confidence that for me is what I really seen about
guys coming out Like my my first platoon uh AOI
se a guy named Landry was down at Texas A

(26:59):
and M and and you know, all I would ever
hear about are them building that damn structure and you know,
and and enlighten it on fire and you know whatever
it was, and you know, but it was more so
like the spreed core that that existed within his group.
And can you talk a little bit about that culture,

(27:22):
that connection to guys in terms of pushing yourself, how
that works.

Speaker 3 (27:29):
And then how you know how that kind of peer
it's not what is it.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
It's like a peer a pere influence, a positive peer
influence to stay within those boundaries because they lead to
a good place.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Yeah, and I think I'll transition from the from the citadel,
take it kind into business a little bit.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
But get the citadel.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
For example, you go through your knob, they call them
your freshmen, and it's like, you know, you're trying and shoes,
you're shining brass, you're you know, running around funny and
fast and all this stuff. But you don't want to
be the guy that like keeps the group back. And
like in a lot of times, you want to be
the guy that like propels the group forward. But the
main thing is like I don't want to be the
guy that is the problem that makes first Squad look

(28:17):
bad or Delta Company look better, you know, whatever the
case is. And so there's like this, Hey, I'm gonna
like do my stuff, and then I'm gonna make sure
that my roommate did his stuff, and then I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Go next door and do it.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
And it builds like this this cohesion of hey, you know,
we're this and we're better than Charlie Company, even though
like we're all first Battalion, which we're like we love,
which is better than second Battalion. And then like you
zoom out like on a grand skit scale, and you're like, oh,
I'm doing something that's like completely you know, different than
what the piers across the United States are doing. But

(28:51):
I think you thinking about confidence and like building something
in the young man I think is huge and I've
seen that a lot in the gym, and it's kind
of what led me to open my business. Is when
I got my first platoon, and it's so different. Now
I'm deployed down like I'm talking to you, deployed on
a podcast when I first got my platoon. When I
first got my unit, it was like, hey, Lieutenant Brogie,

(29:13):
you'll be in Afghanistan ninety days. Like here's the training schedule,
like get ready, and like that was the mindset and
there was no talk of like liberty. Am I gonna
have time off when I'm in Ocnala, I'm I gonna
be able to Tokyo. It was like you're going to
a combat zone and you're going to shoot a bunch
of rockets and Canada artillery and like make sure that
your guys are ready, and you're like oh, And I remember.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Going to my platoon and looking at me like, man,
these guys are like so tiny.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
And at the time I'm two twenty now, I was
probably two hundred pounds, and I was like these guys
like need to lift weights. And you see like these
corporals and it's just a different thing, and I don't
want to We could talk all day, probably David, but
it's it's like when I was a lieutenant, all the
court all like your E fours, e fives, e six
is were stacked and like you're the guy with like

(29:58):
a national defense rivet right yeah, and you're like, oh,
they've like all done stuff and it's interesting and when
now we've gone through this period with like no war
where it's like it's like now you look and it's like, well,
you've come to Canal four times, which is good, right,
Like all that I'm not taking away. It's like so
much of the service's chance and timing and you know
what's going on in the world. But I say all

(30:19):
that to say you'd have a guy he'd already been
to combat here, I am like, haven't, but like he's
timid or he's shy, And so for me, it was
like everyone's gonna lift weights.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
We're gonna lift weights.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
And I always say it, it's it's I'm bringing it
back to like the citadel, like doing hard things, doing
something different. It's like if you can get a twenty
year old kid to deadlift three hundred and fifty pounds,
like he's a veteran CEO, like one guaranteed he's a
betteran CEO because when he walks into a room now
or he goes into a PT session, he's like, I'm
stronger than you. What you means, I'm better than you,

(30:51):
Like you might be smarter than you me you might
like have other things about me. Your family may have
like a higher income whatever, but like I'm stronger than
you and and like the amount of confidence. I've always
loved that, and so everywhere I've gone in the military,
not just because it's what my business is, but I'm like,
get strong. Like if you get strong, you have like
a level of confidence. And it's the same kind of

(31:11):
thing with the military schools or people are joining the military.
It's like a guy that's like at the citadel, Like,
is there anything like super special that happens there? Yeah,
there is, like because everyone that graduates, like I did
something that you wouldn't do. You make fun of me
because you went party for four years and I held standards.
I got up, I ran the stairs, you know, I

(31:32):
did whatever it was. And uh yeah, I think that's
like the culture and the difference, and like I encourage
young men. I mean, I have a daughter. Now, I
don't know if i'd want her to go there, But
if I have a son, I'd be like, yeah, you
got like I go Siddle, like you gotta go sill.
It's it's like harder, it's different. Yeah, hopefully that answers that.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
No, it's that was brilliant, Thank you.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
And I also love the idea about cultivating strength, right,
There's a lot of different ways to do that, you know.
I remember when I showed up, I thought I was,
you know, billy badass, you know, graduating buds and I
go to eighteen delta and then I show up at
Team one and like, dudes are monsters.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
You know.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
There's there's guys that are just huge.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
And they're and they're when they're going into the you
know we're doing you know, seven thirty mustards start pet
and these guys are going into gym and they're just
throwing lead around for an hour and a half straight
and not you know, not not thirty five pound downball dumbells.
These dudes are like god, the seventy fives and they're

(32:37):
just repping out and I'm just.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Like, oh shit, like this is.

Speaker 4 (32:41):
Gonna be this is really hard, Like I have to
get strong, you know. And and I think that mentality
in particular for young men is such a positive thing, right.
And Jordan and I talk about it all the time,
and he talks about you know, him meeting you you
know him, him wanting to improve and and and you know,

(33:03):
you needing some video editing, which what I thought was phenomenal,
you know, but it's like it's like that that that
relationship that comes out of getting strong, right, and I
and I and and and I think that's just a
phenomenal uh way to.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
What is it? Position?

Speaker 4 (33:25):
How to how to increase uh opportunity for yourself? Right?
The stronger you can be, the more confidence you have,
then you can flip that confidence into ambition, and then
you can begin to aspire to whatever it is, whether
it's you know, doing multiple combat deployments in the core
or starting a business or whatever it is. So can

(33:46):
you tell us where that fascination or the the it's
not fascination, the recognition that there's a correlation between strength
and success and then what what really launched you down
and that road to want to build an organization that
not only produces or teaches strength and conditioning, but also

(34:09):
produces the equipment for it. I think that's really the
fascinating aspect of it for me.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Yeah, I mean my first battery, Tango battery. Definitely, that
was where I like cut my teeth as a coach,
Like I wanted people to get strong. I saw the
benefits add my own life you know, I grew up
Southern Baptists, like very strict household, you know, weren't allowed
to do a lot of things. And like you go
to the citel and you're seeing a bunch of friends

(34:37):
and they're like, oh, I was all state. This that
was all state that I was like, I ran around
a red ring and a wana like I like, don't
like continue, you know, like I'm like nothing. But then
I went to the gym and it's like the grounds
level at the foot of the cross, like if I'm
stronger than your rates, Like I like that at the
citadel and I lift at a bunch and then I

(34:57):
did that with my platoon, And what I saw was
the change in you know, mindset of human beings. And
I like, I do enjoy like helping folks. But it's like, man,
if you get someone strong, you help them get through
like a lot of like hard stuff in life. Like
if they like there's nothing I like better, Like you
bring someone in, teach them how deadlift. They're outing five

(35:20):
pounds each workout, They're doing fine. It's like a you know,
one hundred and eighty pound guy, he goes deathlift two forty.
He gets the first set of five. He comes in
two days later, it's two forty five. It's not heavy,
like you're still like working form technique. He's been training
three weeks. He goes to pull up, but it's the
first time there's like some real resistance to where he
thinks like, oh, I don't know, and he like, let's go.

(35:41):
It's like I can't and I hate to do this,
but it's reality. You just yell at the guy. You
just freaking scream at him, and you're like, don't be
a pussy, grab the ball, up your shins into the ball,
push the floor away, and all of a sudden he's
got one out and you're like, don't stop, do the
second one. Don't be a whatever. Like you just like

(36:02):
braid him. And then he gets through set of five
and they finished and let go and they look at
you and it's just look of like I never thought
I could do that. Yeah, And I'm like back and
then like you have no idea you're gonna do a
three fifteen for five, like you're just getting started, and
there's like a breakthrough. So I sailed out to say
I really liked the way that it affected people, and

(36:22):
then I kind of started my gym on accident. I
had the coaching starting string credential. I was still in
the Marine Corps. I didn't know if I wasn't get
in or out, and I was coaching another guy. Were
actually opened the business with a partner, and I didn't
mean to, but I was coaching him. But I didn't
realize I was coaching him for him to get his credential.
And he's like, I'm going to open a gym, well

(36:43):
you open it with me, And I was like, I'm marine.
I'm about to go to the Republican Georgia for three months,
like I can't open a business. And he's like, okay, cool,
I'm gonna open it any of them. I was like, well,
I'm not going to be left out, and so I
was like, oh yeah, we'll be partners. So I opened
the business. That was a huge learning experience. After like
six months, I bought him. I was like, I want
the whole thing and anyway that like I wanted to

(37:05):
develop like what I see in Marines that have like
already gotten through this barrier of hey, I want to
set up for the Marine Corps. And then like you know,
we get a coachman strength like human beings want must
want this, and so that's why I started the gym.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
And then the gym was tough. It was really tough
at first because you like can't.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Just put a sign up and charge money and expect
he's successful. And like I thought, like I have this
product that I know is really effective, Like I'll just
be rich, and it's like, no, grant, you won't be rich.
Like you have to like market to people, and like
you can't yell at seven year old woman actually, like
most people like to be yelled at in the gym setting.
But but I like, look, it was like a crash

(37:46):
course and I'm like still active duty. I'm like, man,
this is like hard. And then there's the whole thing
is where I'm like everyone should double at five hundred
pounds and then like maybe David Rutherford like if we
just like keep them that looked a four hundred, it's okay, right,
and like keep happy, like getting Ninja and needles have
to eat a bunch of cottage cheese and drink a

(38:07):
bunch of milk, and so it was it was a
crash course for me, but the intent was teach people,
you know that doing hard things like one if you
increase your physical strength, you will live longer hands down
physical strength adaptation if you get stronger. All aspects of
physical fitness includes improve and you know, everyone should get

(38:32):
strong And like it was like, Hey, I'm not trying
to make people always ask me like, yoh, you own
a powerlifting gym. I'm like nothing from the sort Like no,
Like I own a gym where guys that work behind
computers realize they're getting older, like want to impact their kids,
need to get stronger. And they've never like they weren't
on team one, like they'd all know how to lift.
They've never seen guys throw seventy fives around. They have

(38:53):
no idea what to do in the gym, and I
want to bring them in, make them feel comfortable, like
teach them how to get strong and then then you
the reason they stay customers is because they see, you know,
the change in their life. And I get into the
MAK camp business stuff. But I feel like you probably
have some thoughts after all that.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
Yeah, I think, I mean it's interesting, you know, you're
you're in the midst of this other career, and you know,
being an officer in any branch of the services is
is intense because you know, anytime you are responsible for
other human beings, in particular other young, younger human beings

(39:32):
trying to figure things out, in particular other younger Marines.
I would imagine that's always a stressful The younger Marines
that I used to hang out with, we're always taxing
their officers.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
That's been changed there. Nothing is sure.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
I'm sure, I'm sure so, uh, you know.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
But to use the vehicle of something that's innate, I
think in the in the organization itself, like you know,
I think for me, it's always you know, being a
part of core. There's a necessity built in for strength,
and so to be able to teach them to do
it the right way, and then and then all of
a sudden to discover that, oh, this is something that
I would want to do with civilians as your active duty.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
I'll tell you what.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
When I was active duty, I freaking hated civilians. I
didn't want to talk to them. I couldn't take them.
They drove me nuts much less even wanting to, you know,
work with them to develop any strength. I mean, I
didn't even consider working with you know, human you know, civilians, adults,
until you know, much much later in what I do for,

(40:40):
you know, in.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Terms of coach and motivational coaching.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
But you know, I think starting that business, what did
it teach you about yourself in terms of how how
much could you stretch yourself?

Speaker 3 (40:53):
How much?

Speaker 4 (40:56):
Because it's about time commitment and time allocation and the frustration.
I mean, any business you start requires literally, I mean
you have to think about it around the clock. And
that's what I think a lot of people don't get
whether they when they go in notchrepiuse they think they've
got a cool idea, you know, and like you said,
you're just going to throw up a sign and the

(41:18):
gates are gonna flood.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
But that's not how it does. How'd you manage all that?

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (41:23):
At the same time.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, that was so I got my Starting Strength coaching credential,
and I had a one car garage there in California,
and I had been coaching a bunch of Marines, and
so Starting Strength had like a coach's directory and there's
like a pin on a map to show where you were.
And so I, you know, said, hey, I'm one hundred
dollars for sixty minutes. And Starting Strength is like a
very if someone wants it like they want it right,

(41:49):
Like it's like it's most people don't know what it is,
but if they know what it is, they know it
works and they want it. And so I think it
was one hundred dollars an hour. And I remember I
was every Saturday, I had like a calum laid link
or some crap, and like every Saturday I'd coach for
like eight hours. It'd be like seven am, like some
stranger from Las Vegas would like drive to California. Because
I was starting to coach next day, next I next,

(42:12):
And I remember talking to another coach and names Andy
Baker's Drenth coach. She's on like pretty popular necks and stuff.
And I remember complaining to him and he was like, oh, well,
what if you doubled your price? And I was like, well,
what do you mean. He's like, well, you're complaining that
you never have a Saturday off, Like what if your

(42:32):
price was doubled, Like if you made sixteen hundred dollars
instead of eight hundred dollars on that Saturday, Like, would
you be happy?

Speaker 2 (42:38):
I was like, oh, yeah, it'd be great.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
He's like, well, then just double your price and if
you like lose some clients like it'll be fine because
like you'll make up for it. I was like, okay,
so I doubled the so I'd double the price, and
like I was still booked out.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
I was like this is incredible, Like I'm gonna be
the man.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
And then I was like, well what I had eight
racks at once, and I just like ran around the
room and like coach David squad and they coached Doerty squad.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
And then I went over here to this guy.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
I'm like then I'd be like the richest guy ever,
Like what a great idea, and so you know not.
So that was the like open the gym and then
you open the gym and you just you just realize,
like okay, one, like most of the human populations just
want to do hard things, even in Orange County, California,
you know later South Carolina, but like where where like

(43:22):
people like Carolina about fitness, it's like it gets hard
every time they come in, it gets harder. It takes
a long time. Like strength training isn't free. There's no
like hey, six weeks to six apps. It's like no,
you come in here and like commit your life for
ninety minutes three times a week and oh, by the way,
everything you do outside the gym is gonna affect your performance,

(43:43):
and you have to do those things. And so I
was like struggling with this identity of Hey, I could
make this easier and I might have more clients, but
the thing that I believe in is that it needs
to be hard and difficult, and like those are the
people that I actually want to teach. And it was
really it was really difficult. I at a larger thing.

(44:04):
It is like I'm still a marine. You know, I
got eighteen months left at that point of active duty time,
and so like every moment that I'm not working marining,
I'm like in this gym and I just immediately like
every business I had ever walked into, and I think
I'll never walk into a business ever again my entire
life until I die, and like think about it the same. Right,

(44:26):
It's like when you walk in and like the bathrooms clean,
the trash cans empty, like the person up front is friendly,
and like it's not the owner, and you just like
start to realize like wow, like it's really difficult to
like build this organization or this thing that like values
everything that I want even when I'm not you know,

(44:46):
in there. And so it was good though in the
sense that being a marine made me hire people immediately,
made me like delegate immediately, and I tell marines all
the time because a lot of guys, it's really interesting
with young guys because they're all YouTubers.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
Like, sure, you have like a lot of YouTube subscribers.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
I'm like, I don't have a lot of subscribers, Like
let me show you accounts that they're like, but you like,
you know, they were like really fascinated with that. They're like,
I want to open a business, and it's like, man,
there's like so much more to it than you know,
what meets the eye.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
And so it was.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
It was it was a steep learning curve for me.
Of most people, I think, like particularly vets or like
they go in the gym or fitness industry, they go
in and they do everything themselves, which is great and
like you can make an honest living if you do
everything yourself. But if you do everything yourself, like you
get capped out. And then the other thing that happens

(45:42):
is you start like hating to do the thing that
you built your business about because like you know, you're
making the cake instead of like whatever, and so that
was that was a big curve for me, and the
Marine Corps being in active duty at the time really
helped me like nope, I need like a gym manager,

(46:04):
I need coaches, I need to not be in there.
And I think that's really helped me a lot as
it expanded into equipment and done other things and like now,
like I have been away from my business going on
ten months now, and obviously, as you know, you're never
away from your business. I'm like, I'm like on a
boat in the middle of floating off the coast Papa

(46:24):
New Guinea, like trying to get a.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Drone Wi Fi to like find out, you know, what's
sales metrics are, Like, You're never away from it.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
But it did teach me a lot in terms of
like you got to delegate and use people and then
how do you not lose the identity of the business itself.
But yeah, well.

Speaker 4 (46:39):
I you know, I think the other thing is too
is in you know, the gym industry is probably one
of the most difficult industries to be successful in, in
particular with all the big box gyms and all that
stuff that are competitive. But it you know, if you
get a great gym culture, you know, I think that
really becomes what attracts people then results, Right, you come

(47:01):
in and the training's dialed in, the the culture's good,
and and you if you've got this whole energy and
it becomes this little like going back to what your
dad did as a church, it's it's it's a church
for strength, right, It's a church for you know, because
the one thing that I've always had and the gym,

(47:21):
is every time I'm dealing with, you know, a ton
of crap in my life, if if I go in
and start pushing steel, it goes it subsides right there
because I'm focused on my own improvement. I'm spoke focused
on you know, getting you know, actual physiologically stronger, but

(47:42):
that always translates into greater mental emotional strength as well too.
And when you can provide that whole thing to people,
it's infectious. And I think you know that's what great
gems are about, uh, because you know it's you know,
Jeordia and I've talked about, you know, what is what
is the essence of of of really the sophistication of

(48:05):
building strength. What is the program, the pro the program,
the programmatic approach, and which programs work well, which programs
don't work well, you know. And I also think, you know,
after the kind of the CrossFit you know, era of
whatever that was, and you know, I think people would
go in and they felt that family stuff. But you know,

(48:28):
next thing, you know, they're hurting their shoulder, they're hurting
their back because there it's all for speed and time
and the competitive aspect, and so it kind of faded,
and you know, and then this other other stuff emerges.
But like a great solid gym culture pulls people in
in a very like I had.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
I had a real good buddy mine. His name was
Derek Christiansen.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
He's a former marine, you know, very into like programmatic approach.
This is how it works, this is the system. And
he had the opportunity to build a really big gym
and ball called Revolution Fitness, and and then you know,
the economy collapsed and he lost the gym, and you know,

(49:08):
you know you and what he ended up hearing for
years afterwards is whatever came in to replace the facility,
there was never the culture there, and so it becomes
such an integral part of those dynamics is to be
able to go to a place where you're welcome, where
people are paying attention, you know, and you feel like
the culture is like you can.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
Blend into it with this hard work and.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
That that's one of the cool things that I think,
you know, as Jordie was describing you to me, that
really made an impact and and and so it's interesting,
But I'd like to just pivot real quick and talk about,
you know, getting into manufacturing. Can you tell us the
story about what prompted you, because running a facility in

(49:53):
and of itself, as you said, is difficult, but now
getting into the manufacturing industry, which is people have no
idea how hard it is to actually produce, to make
things and then sell them. And so I think it's
just a really cool story about how you started your
own kind of barbell and weights company. So would you

(50:14):
share that with us really?

Speaker 1 (50:16):
So like the short version would be had the gym
actually had two gems there in California, you know, had
maybe one hundred and forty members between the two. And
the weight training program is built around a barbell, plates,
squats presses, bench presses, and deadlists, and it's like, hey,
you don't need a bunch of stuff like this is
what you want to do. Twenty twenty happened, gyms were

(50:39):
required to shut down. I shut down for about fifty days,
and during that time the second camp that they said
did shut down. I unbolted every power rax. I had
two gyms, each had eight racks. I had, you know,
twenty two barbels, however many pounds of plates. And I
felt like I was in the Marine Corps. I got
fell I had just gotten out. I've been out for

(51:00):
three months. But I like plotted where everyone lived, all
my members, and I like picked locations on the map, like, Okay,
this guy lives near David Rutherford. I know he has
two car garage and can build a gym in there.
Dave can go to his gym, Bob can go to
his gym. Gym can go to that gym. And like this,
this little garage gym will service nine members and I

(51:21):
can keep them paying their membership if they go to that. Okay, boom,
got it, you go put this out. My employees are like,
what is happening? Like you want me to like bolt
things to the ground. I don't know anything about anything,
and so I remember feeling like I was like advance party.
I'd like go, I'd drop all the equipment off I'd
bed pre drill holes a bit. Now put this in,
put this ball. It's like, we'll start setting this stuff up.

(51:44):
And it was great, Like it was working really well
twenty twenty, you know, as weird as it was, there
was like a common sense of like people wanted to
help out. And it's like all my members like really
fired up. They knew I just like the active duty.
So they're all paying and like we got all these
micro gym set up. We set it up like forty
five gyms or something. Wow.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
And then out of my stuff, I'm like, I got
nothing left.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
So I started like calling warehouses and I found this
warehouse somewhere and they're like, we have nine thousand pounds
of iron. We'll give it all to you for sixty
cents a pound. I was like, what is it. They're
like kettlebells, plates, you know, they rap off a bunch off.
I'll take all of it. They're like what. I'm like, gay,
I want all of it. They're like, well, you don't
even look at you. I don't care what all it.
So I get it and then I'm like dropping that

(52:26):
stuff all over and then I'm out of weights again.
And then so I started making rental packages. I'm gonna
get to the manufacturer started making rental packages. It was
a wooden bench that we made. It was a home
depost squad rack. So it's two homer buckets with concrete
and a four by four in it. And it's a
barbell that I bought Chinese made, like from some wholesaler

(52:47):
and it's like two hundred pounds of weights. And I'm
like getting some new software where like you sign a
liability waiver and then you're gonna like rent this gym
equipment for two hundred dollars a month and at Teck
you can pay another two hundred bucks for us to
drop it off of your house. I'm like, I'm starting
like this like rental stuff. And it's like for southern California.
Some news channel does like a thing on me La Times,

(53:11):
like does an article like marine business shutdown like whatever.
I'm like, man, like I'm.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Really making it.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
And I remember being there one night and someone like
in the chat box and the website be like do
you ship to New York? And I just remember looking
at it and be like no, like I'm in coast
to me, he say California, Like I like I do
you understand how much of Barbelle ways and they're like,
we'll pay anything. Will you ship to New York? And

(53:37):
I remember it's like it's like midnight. I'm like in
my house, I have it like slept days. I'm like,
what item are you looking at? Like forty fives? Any
number of forty fives? Will you ship to New York?
And I was like, what's your address? So I like
sends me his address. I'm like on ups dot com,
like no corporate account at the time, know nothing about shipping,

(53:59):
and I'm like, yet, seven hundred dollars send you four
forty fives. He's like, how can I pay you? Like
all right, cool? So I got like make a PayPal link,
like send it to some guy in New York and
he like checks out. I remember being in my gym
like four rusted forty fives that bought from some warehouse.
I'm like shrink wrapping them together because my dumb self

(54:21):
thinks that it's if one one hundred and eighty pound
package will be cheaper than four forty five pound packages, right,
Not true? Shrink wrapping it together, cutting like asses and
elbows everywhere, duct tape, and like this package like I'm
super not proud of I'm getting dropped off at ups.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
I just thought, oh, what if I just made my
own plates?

Speaker 1 (54:44):
And I say that now, and I say it flippantly,
and I say it funny, but that is like how
it And so I just like Google search like United
States foundriies, like a list pops up, it's like this foundry.
It's like form filled. Hi, I'm a marine captain. I
just let back to duty. My gym was closed down.

(55:04):
I have a great plate design. No one makes plates
in the USA. Will you help me nothing? You know
new foundry? Hi, my name is Grandpa. Like I have
like eight years old client stuff and what pack of
foundry where we've been with since twenty twenty largest foundery
in America Kevinn Rowe great friend of mine now, like
would have never thought, like I'd be like, yep, that guy,

(55:25):
like change the trajectory in my life, Like hey, Grant,
can you send over? You're like auto cat design and
I'm like auto cad, Like I know exactly how a
plate should be made because I'm a lifter and no
one makes his in America.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Like I don't know auto cats like what I do
call a marine?

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
You're like an engineer, right, Yeah, do you have auto CAD?

Speaker 1 (55:44):
Yeah? I have like the student one. It's gonna have
a watermarker on it. Here, let me tell you everything
about the plate. We make, the design, stend the design off.
They come back and it's like I remember, I just
I'll fast forward. I'm like there was a moment where
I like, I have a six cell document and I'm
sitting in my backyard on this like crummy table. I'm

(56:04):
on my laptop and I've done like how much all
the tooling for all the different sizes will cost. I
have all the designs up. My laptop's like plugged into
a TV, and I have like how much money I
need to go in And I'm like okay, like in
three months I'll break even. And I'm like and the
like the next three months I make money. And I

(56:25):
remember like sending it to like a couple people I
trust be like am I crazy and They're like, yeah,
you're crazy. I was like, yo, I don only need
like one hundred and twenty grand, Like I just refinanced
my house and like it's COVID, like my gyms are
gonna be ruined, Like I should do this right, They're like,
you should definitely not do that. You should see if
the marine cold take you back af duty. And I
kept like punching the numbers, like do it again. I'm like, well,

(56:46):
let's say there's like ten percent of undown costs I
don't know, and I'm like, yeah, I still feel like
I should it, like I should it and I don't know.
I just like pulled the trigger and uh got into it.
And that has been like a wild five years. It's
been great, dude.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
That those are the COVID stories I love more than anything.
I mean those and there was so many of them
that emerged out of the fitness industry that people were like,
now you're not gonna tell me. I'm shutting down because
health is actually what's going to get people through this thing.
This is bullshit, this is ridiculous. But for you to

(57:30):
actually go start cold calling foundries, that is my favorite
part of the whole thing, man, Like that's like nineteen
seventies shit right there, Like I'm going to figure it
out and it.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
Would have never worked had that not been going on.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
So like what I now know about with packa foundry
being madim number one, like auto agriculture foundry for us.
We're talking John Deere, Dodge Chevy, you know, GM like
that that is their stuff, Like what do we know
about that timeframe? All that stuff because everyone stopped doing everything.
And it's like they're also scrambling, right, I don't think
they're probably on a podcast saying like and then Grant

(58:07):
Brogie cult in our lives have changed forever, but they're
also scrambling and they're looking for people that use conversion
iron and like it was like it was a great
fit and uh yeah, but it was. It was. It
was really shocking and that took I think when that
took my business, like we still have like online coaching services,
still have the gyms.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
We still do that.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
But what that taught me is a business owner was
about real scale and there's like culture and I think
this is like I thought about if they could reflect
on so many things this year, being deployed, being away
from my wife, my daughter. But it's like like the
Marine Corps, Like the Marine Corps culture, like it does
not change. And part of it is because the smallest organization,

(58:52):
like a lot of crazy stuff happens. But it's like
the Marine Corps culture, you know, it is what it
is and like you talk about like my gym, it's
like when you're in the gym and you're you know,
you're yelling and you're screaming and you're with people, like
you create this culture. But like that's really hard to
like make big. It's really hard to say now I'm
gonna have fifty of these gyms across the country because

(59:14):
like everyone has to think like you do, operate like
you do. And what I've really enjoyed about the plate
business and the barbells and the equipment that we make
is it's, hey, I don't care if you're in the
style of strength training I'm doing. Maybe you're into power lifting,
maybe you're in a CrossFit maybee, you're into whatever. But
like here's what I like, here's what my company is.

(59:37):
We make USA products no matter what. Here you're in
America and they're better than anything that you can import,
and you're going to pay more. And like we create
jobs for other American citizens and like if you don't
want that, Like can you find cheaper plates from China? Sure, yes,
one hundred percent. Go get up. Like if you want
to like support people that wake up and we'll pack

(59:58):
of Wisconsin walk into a foundry with fire, you know,
burning and iron melting, and our truck driver that then
takes it to a machine shot and Ampleton, Wisconsin and
machines it down with a guy that's taken a file
on every single plate, and then it goes to like
a guy and you know Slinger, Wisconsin. It's going to
ecote it black and then come to my warehouse where

(01:00:19):
my brother in law's going to receive the truck like
like if you like that suld of business, like that's
what we provide and it's better and we care about it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
That has been like what my focus been on.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Still have the gyms, love every customer that I have,
but it's been like, hey, I think there's a part
in this market where it's like David Routhiver wants a home.
Jammie's like, yep, I want to like walk out of
the gym when I don't want to do something hard,
look at my plates and be like there's a marine
that made these plates in America, and like I support that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
And so that's kind of what we've been after.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Well, I mean I'm all fired up right now, like
I'm going to like hang up on this and I'm
gonna start buying some dumbbells and plates, dude, for sure,
or I just you know, I think what you're talking
about is is.

Speaker 3 (01:01:05):
Is the essence of what America represents?

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
And you know, uh, I mean just your story alone,
Like guy grows up, got a pastor's son, you know,
five four other brothers or brothers and sisters.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Brothers, one sister, yep.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
Five kids growing up on pastor's life, going to the citadel,
going to Marine Corps, going to combat running young men,
teaching them how to strength and get hit with a
pandemic that comes up with a business idea blows it up.
Now you're making American steel, right, American iron man and
and and you're selling it in the with that tone like,

(01:01:46):
I mean, that's the story that I think is coming
back in America. And what I what I'm curious and
and this is something that you know because you're still
in it, right, You're still in where I believe the
heartbeat of America lies. And that's within military service, right,

(01:02:07):
And you know that's what what all the other stories
kind of bleed out from. Right, They come from this
focused commitment of problem solving and and unity and and
mindset and culture and and that's what you represent. Are
you seeing because of Pete?

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
And and what's going on in the new focus? I mean,
I swear to God I almost like pissed myself multiple
occasions in his speech to all the admirals and generals
last weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
No more fatties, right?

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:02:43):
You know what a what a great.

Speaker 4 (01:02:44):
Message to young men who want to do something hard
and improve themselves.

Speaker 3 (01:02:48):
Are you seeing that?

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:02:51):
That shift or change uh with new guys coming in
and and and then also are you seeing a shift
in a change with in your business and people wanting
to get strong people kind of gravitating towards both those ideals?

Speaker 3 (01:03:07):
Are you Are you seeing that up close and personal?

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Yeah? I think what I'd say, you know, in this
like brine Corpserve now activate currently. I think there was
a time there it's probably like twenty teen to twenty
twenty two or three, where like all the folks that

(01:03:32):
I came in under that were retired were like, what's
going on with this woke bs? Is it terrible? Like
it must be awful? And you know, I'm very proud
of Bearing Marine. I do think it's the best, but
I'm not actually blowing smoke, but I would tell people's
I was like, I don't see like what you're concerned with,

(01:03:52):
Like you are concerned that, you know, men are putting
on dresses and formations or like wearing furry costumes, and
like I don't see that. I see the same marines
that make the same dumb jokes that like still watch
terminal lance, like drink white monsters, have way too much nicotine.
Like here's the changes I've seen. When I came in,
you dip Copenhagen and you drink coffee, and then at

(01:04:17):
some point it was like, oh, you do monsters and
you dip Copenhagen, and like you don't really care about coffee.
And then now it's like, hey, you still drink monsters,
but you only do zen and like no one dips,
and like if anyone smokes, everyone thinks it's crazy. Right,
It's like like those are the shifts that I see,

(01:04:37):
Like I'm not like the people are the same.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
I say that all to say.

Speaker 1 (01:04:43):
There is something happening that I think the preponderance of
the force likes. And I watched the internet melt out
over the past week after Secretary of Defense slash war
Secretary of War speech, and.

Speaker 2 (01:05:00):
The Marine Corps changed nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
Guess what. We already have two physical fitness tests a
year and one of them is combat related. Guess what,
we already have to get body weight tested two times
a year, and the body feight doesn't change, like even
is in the document about reservist, which I am like,
nothing changed, like not zero things change for us, And
so the Marine Corps it's just like, oh yeah, cool,

(01:05:24):
Like the guy at the top like thinks the thing
that I have to do, that's awesome. Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
And also on that I was.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
Making the joke this week, I'm like, only in the
Marine Corps does the government shut down and all of
us dumbasses wake up at five in the morning and
show up to a formation in Green on Green with
a great globe out at five point thirty in the morning,
knowing we're not gonna get paid. And she'd be like,
oh yeah, and then someone's like the government shut down.
It's like, well, I still have to be here, right,
and some staffs are I was like, yep, stiff, be here.
It's like oh okay, good to go, and like you
just bet it's in new work. So but I do

(01:05:54):
think there is somewhat of a change, and the type
like the younger formation like appreciates the change and they
appreciate that the standard that they have to do is
being upheld.

Speaker 2 (01:06:12):
And yeah, I think it's going to be really interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Like and you know, I gotta be a little careful
as I'm still I think, but I think that he
I think he did a good job and like you know,
telling the force like, hey, like you need to be lethal,
you need be all these sayings. I've said the jokes
a couple of times this week. I'm like, hey, what
I've seen in fourteen years, I can only imagine what
General for thirty eight years is seen. Like I'm actually

(01:06:39):
okay if he's an eighteen percent body fat, because like
I need his brain on his body. Right. So, but
but like that's not the point he was making. Was
was was well said, But uh but yeah, I think
I think it's exciting times ahead for the forces. And
you know, it's like it's like the it's like the
commercial that I still as a kid.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
Maybe it impacts you, David.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
It's like you know the waves on the beach and
the seals, right, and it's like those things like matter
and like that's beach like there's been so much talk
about it, and there's been a lot of talk in
the formation in general. You know, you get up as
like a major, you know I'm and you get in
front of the formation. It's like when I Ran was

(01:07:20):
popping off and there was a minute there we're like
at sea and I'm like, oh, man, like we're going
to the fifth fleet. Like we're like we're going in
like this is it? Like we're doing the thing, and
like you get the marine somewhere and like you got
to talk to him like all right, guys, like who's track?
And I ran just like look at you blank stairs
and you're like all right, like answer, You're like you
try to tell them right, And that's part of being

(01:07:41):
an officer. But I will say, Charlie Kirk got killed.
I got in front of the formation and I'm like, hey,
today's nine to eleven. I am in front of you
today because nine to eleven occurred. Like that's why I'm
standing here as a Marine major and I didn't know
it at the time. That's why I'm here. Like something
happened yesterday. I was super strange and out of the ordinary.

(01:08:03):
Are you guys, like go where the formation wouldn't shut up,
like they had all opinions, Like they were like I
can't believe. And it was like, so there's there's something
happening in like young men. They're like thinking in a
way that I've seen a change from the last like
five to ten years. They're thinking about like the world.
They're thinking about what they should do. They're thinking like, hey,

(01:08:25):
I should have a family, Like I should have a wife,
I should.

Speaker 2 (01:08:28):
Have a kid.

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
And I think, like where the Secretary of War like
what he's I think he's like going really hard to
like make a point of like this is what we're
here to do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
And yeah, it's it's I think it's exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
It's exciting.

Speaker 3 (01:08:45):
Well I can't.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
I mean, I you know, I was in that transition
before transition period. I went into ninety five. You know,
we were the least funded we had ever been and
I don't even know how long. I mean we were
big barn and steering, stealing just just to conduct you know,
basic IYAD drills out at Nyland, California.

Speaker 3 (01:09:08):
And then you know, nine to eleven happened.

Speaker 4 (01:09:11):
Everything changed, and you know, my last deployment with the
agency was in you know, the fall twenty eleven in Pakistan,
and and then I got out, and you know, and
then you know, had my friends keep going. And the
transition kind of began at that right when you came
in and you were at the end of the GWATT

(01:09:31):
and now you're in this next phase and you know,
hopefully we can continue in a peaceful state. But there's
a lot of kinetic things going on around the world.
And you know, I've got some friends in some pretty
high places right now, and you know, everybody's focused on,
you know, what's happening. But I think the main focus

(01:09:52):
that I'm hearing is is right where you're at, right
in the heartbeat of what the future fighting force is
going to be prepared to do. These young kids who
are coming in who have no idea what the g
WATT was, who have no idea what any of it was.
I mean, a lot of these kids weren't even born

(01:10:13):
when nine to eleven happened, you know, and so you know,
that's it's a different thing. So it's it's on you,
specifically your shoulders, to tell them everything that you kind
of explained today about your journey is to infuse that
motivation into these young war fighters. And I got to

(01:10:37):
just tell you, man, you know, I'm I've really been
looking forward to the conversation with you. I have profound
respect for you. One just because of what you're doing,
but the other is because of how much Jordi admires
you and how much he just how highly he speaks
of you. And I'll tell you what, grant after listening

(01:10:58):
to you, I'm so thankful. I feel so blessed that
you are out there leading young marines, teaching them how
to be strong. And then also what you're doing for
the civilian community of this country and for the local
workers of Wisconsin, and and and what you and what
you represent. So I cannot thank you enough for taking

(01:11:20):
the time while you're on deployment over in Okinawa to
spend with our audience and to share your beliefs and
and and what you're what you're faithful in. And I
really think it's a huge impact. Can you Can you
just share where people can find everything that you're doing,
your strength, your gyms, your where they can purchase your equipment,

(01:11:44):
the whole thing, and then what you got next coming up.

Speaker 3 (01:11:46):
That would be wonderful. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
Absolutely, I appreciate you having me on it's been it's
been great. It's been fun to watch, uh, you know,
JORDI help help you launch this thing and I've I've
been following from the start and care about his success.
That's been fun to see see yours as well. But yeah,
my website Www. Dow Strength dot co is our store.
You can get to our coaching pages or blogs from there,

(01:12:10):
you know, anything you're interested on if you want to
see what I'm up to. I'm not super active these days,
getting more active as I get closer back to being
in America. But I'm on X Grant SSC, Grant Story,
Shrink Coach. I do like free form checks and breakdowns
and post photos of coffee and church and barbecue, so

(01:12:30):
you can.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
Check that out.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
But yeah, go over the Strength dot co to check
everything out. But yeah, thanks for having me on.

Speaker 4 (01:12:37):
David, Thank you, Grant, God bless you, and get back safe,
buddy man.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
A couple more months and then Thanksgiving. It's gonna have
a whole new meeting this year. Looking looking forward to
my daughter.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
Oh Amen to that, Amen to that.

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Make America Strong: How This Marine Is Bringing Strength, Jobs & Grit Back To America | Grant Broggi | Ep. 65

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Make America Strong: How This Marine Is Bringing Strength, Jobs & Grit Back To America | Grant Broggi | Ep. 65