January 10, 2024 • 50 mins
Embark with us on a profound exploration of the hidden ties that Freemasonry weaves through America's canvas, from the towering Washington Memorial to the cornerstone of our nation's capital. Our special guest, Brother Jonathan Greene, joins us in dissecting the often overlooked impact of Masonic philosophy on the very framework of our society, and why this isn't a staple in our educational curriculum. We'll unravel the enigmatic influence of the Freemasons on the founders, and how their legacy continues to shape the discourse in realms of religion, science, and politics.
Venture further into a candid reveal of personal transformation and the strength found within self-discipline. My own battle and triumph over diabetes and hormonal imbalances showcases the sheer potency of diet and critical thinking. Together with Brother Green, we tackle the compelling allure of Masonic rituals and the esoteric, contemplating the opportune moments one should seek to deepen their Masonic journey, like the pursuit of the Scottish Rite.
As we gaze into Freemasonry's horizon, we discuss the vital strides necessary to ensure its enduring legacy. Learn about the innovative marketing reimbursement program from the Grand Lodge and how it's setting the stage for Freemasonry's leap into the digital age, with smart strategies that resonate with the next generation. We close with a heartfelt reflection on personal legacies, and the poignant reminder of our duty to impart wisdom to future generations, a philosophy deeply rooted in Masonic tradition.
#podcast #freemasonry #bluelodge #freemason
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, chris, yeah, fred, what's a Mason?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
That's a really good question, fred.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You've reached the internet's home for all things
masonry.
Join Chris and I as we plumbthe depths of our ancient craft,
from the common gavel to thetrowel.
Nothing is off the table, sograb your tools and let's get to
work.
This is On the Level.
Well, chris, we are back.
Yeah, this is day three, daytwo, of our trip to DC.
Where are we at?
(00:35):
Where are we?
Who are we?
It's Saturday, saturdayafternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
This is the last day.
This is the last day we'reabout to go to the installation
of Potomac Lodge number five.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, we're going to see the gavel, the gavel
presentation.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Washington's gavel will be there.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We'll be there.
We will be there with the gavel.
That's awesome.
Hey, we just came back from theWashington Memorial.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What'd you think?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I was, wow, impressed .
We'll be posting some picturesof the actual facility, the
grounds and everything.
What an impressive place, man.
I was blown away.
You walk up to it and thebuilding, the mount, the
building and everything is soimpressive.
And then you walk into thatfirst hall and you're just like
you're speechless.
Absolutely, I was speechless,which is very rare for me Very
(01:18):
rare, I was absolutelyspeechless.
And then the more you tour it,the more it becomes just more
and more and more.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It never stops.
It is a memorial to his Masoniclife, so you see all of it.
I brought my wife there a fewyears ago and she was like
shocked that they don't teachany of that part of his life in
school.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
She's like how have I never, ever my whole life,
heard of Washington, washington,washington, my whole life, but
I never once heard any of this.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Right, how, how?
I'm like I don't know, I don'tknow either.
I don't know because it's righthere you can see.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
This man was incredibly, and many of the
founders were just as tied toFreemasonry as he was.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah Well, the whole town was, the whole town was,
the whole colony was, Is still.
Yeah, I mean it was it was veryMasonic, that was a.
It was a huge part of dailylife, you know, and our, our
founders, were very much united,you know, in the fraternity of
Freemasonry.
Man and I, I, I to answer yourquestion blown away speechless,
(02:24):
what a beautiful monument, youknow, to our first president and
to Masonry and his, his careerin Masonry.
So we've got a lot of stuff.
We're trying our best to to toproduce as much as we can while
we're here.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It's hard.
There's like how many 50 Masonsor something up here.
Right, we're all in one hotel,everybody.
There's some playing things,yeah, Other people are running
in different directions, doingthings Right.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Right, but you know, when we went up to the Memorial
Washington Memorial we justhappened to have breakfast with
a brother that we met, like theday before.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Right, right, yeah, no, that was a capital.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yesterday capital.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You talking about capital.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So, at the capital cafeteria.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
We were having lunch and we ended up with Fred, was
very happy to be in the capitalbuilding.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh, he was just a ray of sunshine the whole time.
Sorry, it was not my favoriteplace, loved everything about
the place.
We just don't don't agree withnothing that those guys do
anymore over there so they don'tdo much.
They certainly don't do theirjob anymore, but that's a whole
different story.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But yes.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I'll spare everyone my, my political banter on that
end of it.
But yeah, so I was glad thatfinally we ended up at the
cafeteria.
We were having lunch.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Finally, we did.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And we.
We ended up having a greatconversation, Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
With the new brother that you just met.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And the conversation was just one of those on the
level with Fred and Chris, kindof conversations, where we were
talking about stuff that mostpeople don't want to talk about.
We were we were touching onreligion and science and
politics, more than touching onreligion.
We were just digging deep, man,and we were just just over lunch
.
We do this all the time.
This is what the show is allabout being able to communicate
(04:05):
what we believe, why we believe,with gentleness and respect,
with a view to the otherperson's.
You know thoughts and ideas,man, and because that's what you
know, if Masons are anything.
That's that's what we need tobe.
We need to be able tocommunicate what we believe, why
we believe it, to each otherand to the world, without
fighting, arguing, harminganybody and growing we don't
make progress unless wechallenge the establishment.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's right, yeah, we, that's right.
I remind in society tochallenge the establishment.
That's how progress gets made.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
We are anti left versus right ideology, man.
There is no.
There is no left versus right.
People have different opinions,people have different ideas,
but all of it is based on we arehuman beings here on this
planet and we're all walking inthe same direction and if we are
Masons, we should know better.
We're supposed to know better,we're supposed to hold ourselves
(04:54):
to a higher standard ofconversation and conduct, and
that was very much on display atthat cafeteria at the Capitol
building probably the first timesince George Washington walked
its halls, in my opinion.
But it was an open conversationabout many different things and
the brother we're talking aboutis sitting right.
His name is Jonathan Green.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh yeah, and he is here with us today.
Jonathan, how are you doing,brother?
How are we doing, fellas?
We're good, we're very good.
Thank you for having me.
It's a great honor.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
No hey it's a great honor.
You didn't even know existeduntil yesterday.
It couldn't be that great of anhonor.
Yeah, I know, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Fairness, I've been raised for about 15 minutes,
right, Okay.
What time is it?
You're about a year, right?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Six months, six months yeah, you know there are
brothers.
We come across brothers all thetime where you know you see,
there, you talk about wherethey're at and what they're
doing in Masonry and we'rethinking in our heads this guy's
been at it five years, thisguy's been at it six years, six
years.
And Jonathan's one of thoseguys.
You know he's been at it fiveminutes and he's already down
through the line.
(05:55):
He's already researched andlearned so much.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It ain't the years, it's the miles, that's right,
yeah.
And the passion, and thepassion.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And that's one thing you have.
You have a real passion for thecraft.
Yeah, it struck us for sure.
So tell us a little bit aboutfirst your kind of, your
personal background.
I know you do a lot withstatistics, military man, a
military man.
Give us kind of a quickoverview of who are you man, and
where you come from.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Well, sure, so I mean , my interest in Masonry goes
back a long way.
My grandfather was a SouthCarolina Mason, okay, and a
Scottish Wright Mason.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Do you know where?
In South Carolina?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, James Island.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Wow, so we pronounce that South Carolina.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
He was the fire chief on James Island for 30 years.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Wow, no kidding Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Very, very prominent Mason, and so, as a result, I've
been Loosely interested inesoterica since I was a teenager
, you know okay.
Just the symbols that I see onhis walls and stuff sort of led
me to Read about that.
But just who I am, you know Ihave an MBA, I have a master's
in statistics, so I'm amarketing consultant,
specifically paid trafficconsultant.
(07:01):
So I run Facebook ads forpeople right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, you know, and obviously I have a couple of
graduate degrees, so Iresearched for funsies,
basically right, that's cool andobviously you've done a
considerable amount of researchregarding the craft, and some of
the esoteric Rabbit trails thatyou've gone down have really
paid some dividends as far aslearning and education goes.
I I saw that yesterday duringour conversation, man, it was
(07:26):
really really deep, it wasawesome.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
And it was a it's fun to talk about a lunch
conversation.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
He's done some research.
Yes, I've been a seminary so Ihave a perspective.
Yeah, right, right.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Johnny, johnny, johnny just showed up, johnny,
how are you Johnny Schaefer?
Johnny Schaefer, our showsponsor and now he'll just drop
the mic if we give him a mic.
Don't give Johnny a mic.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
He'll just drop the mic.
This is our three ruffiansrepresentative.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Show sponsor and cigars, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Anyway, you're a cigar Fistionado, I'm a big
cigar.
Yeah, we're curious to try someof these.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, we actually um brother, Christian Keeper.
Yeah and James Vick started.
I don't know if they started it, but certainly they introduced
me to the brothers of the whiteash.
Uh-huh, I've heard of them,thank you, which is, I think
it's something they'reinterested in proliferating.
So wow, it's oh, white ash,it's like it's like a very loose
opinion body where we just gosmoke cigars pretty much.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I love that, right, yeah, we actually made a Shrine,
a unit.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's the unit, shrine unit.
Yeah, it's the three ruffiansthe cigar and whiskey and
whiskey unit at Sarasota Sahibshrine.
There's some white ash in there.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
There's some white ash going on in there and of
course we kind of went darkbecause of the holidays and
stuff.
So we're coming, we're cominghere pretty close to January's
coming up on us.
Soon We'll fire it back up.
The same idea To just bringpeople together, you know,
masons together, for you know,premium cigars, whiskey, to sit
down and talk and theconversations we're hoping will
always go the way ourconversation went, you know down
(08:57):
.
You know down those roads,educational and just getting
people to think, man, we don'tthink in this country anymore.
And you know, I just I have alittle tolerance anymore for
people who espouse all of theseopinions and then you ask them
questions about it and theydon't know, they can't give me
any real answers, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I think most people toe whatever philosophy was
handed down to them.
Right, it's like sports fromtheir parents.
I was born in Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
So I have to be a bills fan, right, right, right,
which you know as long as itwasn't Philadelphia, I think
that's fine.
I totally agree with thatJohnny little shot and yeah,
yeah.
So if any other town, you'refine, but if you're yeah you
should abandon that team.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I mean no, just kidding John.
Johnny would rather die.
He doesn't have a mic.
Johnny doesn't have a mic.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
It's not fair.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
We didn't set up a mic because we're interviewing
Jonathan Green, right.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, so I don't mind sharing.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
No, I do do people call you Johnny.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
No, almost everyone calls me Jonathan.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Jonathan, yeah, oh well, you're a big guy, so they
call you what you want them tocall you, because they don't
want you to Over the head.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
You're a little John.
Yeah, little John right, yeah,it's always.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And we'll call him big John, larger like when I
took my inner-deprentice degree,I was 385 pounds.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Wow, and you're like 645.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, and I'm 295 now , so I've lost.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Okay, wow, 90 pounds.
What's the reason for that?
Well, tell us a little bitabout that.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Well, my health was just terrible, uh-huh.
I was type 2 diabetic and mya1c was like 11.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, that's bad.
I'm crazy, that's very bad.
Wow, how old are you, I'm 43.
Okay, yeah, that's bad.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
So I lost 95 pounds and now my a1c is 5.6 5.6 is
acceptable.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah what'd you do?
Just eat a little better.
Eat a lot better.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, eat a lot better, but also, you know you
have to go get the panels donebecause you have to do my
testosterone was a hundred.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's low.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, real low, and I had Hashimoto's, which is
thyroiditis.
Right, yeah, and I wasn'teating badly and I was like, why
am I not losing any weight, orwhy isn't this happening for me?
Well, you know, I'm insulinresistant right.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Hashimoto's and so right once I go hand-in-hand
there.
They feed off each other,that's right.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And once I got that taken care of it, you know I was
just continuing to do what I'vealways done and I just lost a
whole bunch of weight.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right, exactly when, once insulin is lowered and
stabilized, then you can loseweight.
You cannot lose weight in thepresence of insulin.
It's just it's that's a hormonethat causes you to store fat
when insulin is high, becausethat's one of the safety
mechanisms that it was wasdesigned into our bodies.
You know, I was a type 2diabetic a decade ago and I was
(11:31):
in bad shape I mean, I'd be deadtoday and I made a decision to
change that and I worked reallyhard to overcome it, and I did
now.
This last year Chris and I weretalking about this just
recently.
This last year I've let it go.
My a1c was 4.4.7, 4 yeah, itwas very low and all my numbers
straight across the board.
I had the blood work of a 35year old is what I was told, a
(11:55):
healthy 35 year old and I workedhard at it.
This last year I kind of let itgo.
So this new year I'm one ofthose guys that makes New Year's
resolution and actually keepsthem, so apparently that's
that's not the trend.
So this year I'm going to dothe same.
I'm gonna jump back into myprogram and I get myself back in
health too, because when I'm,when I'm eating right and
(12:16):
exercising right.
I'm unstoppable man.
I am absolutely Unstoppable,and this has been a stoppable
year for this old man, so I'mgonna get back to that.
I don't know how I got downthat rabbit trail, so share a
little bit.
What do you, what are youpassionate about with regard to
our, to our craft man, we'rewhat you're a young Mason.
So tell us kind of where.
(12:37):
What's your vision?
What do you want to do inmasonry?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I'm not really sure what I want to do yet as far as
you know along, to like a 20year plan or something I don't
really know.
I can tell you right now Ireally enjoy the esoteric
aspects of the.
Okay, I love a ritual.
So the degrees, the threedegrees of the blue lodge, have
been Like breadcrumbs for me, toempower me to research and just
go down the rabbit hole right.
(12:59):
Which, which I do with greatzeal, you know I just.
I love that sort of stuff so I'mfun at parties.
You know I have a whole bunchof like masonic fun facts just
from.
The research that I've beenable to do so far.
But I reckon pretty, prettyshort order I'm gonna have to
get into the Scottish ride orsomething.
Okay where I'm gonna get fairlybored.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I would recommend that's where you go first, yeah
after your first year.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I've always heard it say do a year, blue lodge one
year, don't do anything waituntil you're out of the
progressive line or might beanother good decision.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, you'll be very busy.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, because right, or, or or.
Dedicate yourself to gettingyour cards.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
He's got to build up a lodge.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You know members, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I need to do three ea's a month for yeah, a long
time, before you bring thatthing around my my masonic
mentor is Lynn with Thomas, whomsome of your listeners will
know.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yep, he's involved with MLT and his own level and I
think he's probably gonna get apromotion here shortly, and so
you know, he's a he's driven meTo be very conscientious about
that sort of thing and dividingmy time and, yeah, paying
attention and being present, youknow, and right myself to think
, yeah, yeah very easy to dothat in masonry.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
There's just so many interesting things.
You just like Because I justwanted all the degrees.
That was my thing when I joined.
I just want to see all thedegrees because I'm tired of my
wife's family telling me oh, youdidn't get all the degrees, so
that's where their reptilepeople live in the right, right,
yeah, fine, I'll get them alland then you won't you know.
So I got them all and lo andbehold, there's no baby eating
(14:30):
Satanism and any of the degrees.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Keeps coming back to good men trying to be better.
Hmm, yeah, what's the secret?
Well, that's the secret.
We're trying to help each otherbe better men, sorry.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So we you talked a little bit about and you
mentioned it, chris that, um,you are, you're, you're coming
into a lodge that's going toneed some young, some new young
blood, and it's gonna need somepeople to get in line and start
making their way through everylodges in that, every lodges in
that and and everybody who endsup in that situation begins to
meet with resistance along theway.
(15:05):
Oh, absolutely because we talkabout it all the time.
The old guard and the new guard, they it's, it's, it's.
There's this process of youknow of, of of giving way and
and there sometimes there's a,there's a resistance.
You know, along the way I know,chris, you went, you went
through some of that along yourway, just a little bit a little
bit, yeah, and we know otherbrothers.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
We talked to other brothers.
I've never stopped.
There's always resistance therealways is there, always will be
sure but it's like you have toget some Winds under your belt.
Yeah, go swinging for thefences.
You got to get to first base,Okay.
I get the second base.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, I like that analogy.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You'll, you'll, you'll get there, but it's one
step at a time.
So we've been taking thosesteps and I'm really excited to
sit with a new brother who I'mnow coming out of the east and
you're just getting into theline right, I feel like we have
similar backgrounds from amarketing perspective.
Also similar thinking about thecraft in general, both
(16:01):
extremely zealous.
And I'm like thinking in mymind, man, I thought I would
have made it easier for someonelike you.
Yeah, I would, I'm really sad tohear that it's you're still
meeting the same Resistances Imet three years ago, four years
ago, well.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'm suffering from ignorance like I didn't.
I didn't know that you guyswere out there doing this and
had I known, I would Come to youbefore I started trying to push
my agenda Right, because youhave already done, and not for
nothing, bringing you into thelodge and having you show the
brothers that, look, what thisman Is talking about is going to
pay dividends.
Right, we're doing it, it isworking.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You've been talking about it.
They just see that other lodgeshave done it and you're.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
You're telling them things they don't want to hear,
like, for instance, you know,the average age is this, and I
told you this story earlier.
The average age is this andthese are the guys, and if you
don't make changes by this time,next ten years, there won't be
a lodge here anymore and theyjust They'll believe it.
You can show them the numbersand they'll agree with the
numbers and then they'll look atyou and say why?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
so Right, a lot of people have this idea in their
mind, if it's always been hereand it'll always be here right,
yeah, we don't need to do anyactual work.
It'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, right, let's let's get into it.
Shall me, can we just discuss,like the modality of
communication right.
The way that human beingsinteract.
Yeah has vastly evolved overthe last 20 years in particular.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
He certainly has.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Freemasonry was always spread through the
nuclear family and the backyardbarbecue and these sort of
modality.
Bumper sticker in the bumperstick and these things just
don't exist anymore, right, youknow.
And so if we continue to try toleverage the same sorts of
activities to grow the crafts,we're gonna continue to get the
same result, which is what aroughly 10% year over year
(17:41):
decline in membership.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah it's, it's accelerating, but yeah it's,
it's not great.
We are not.
We are not replacing thebrothers who are passing.
Right or committing ordemitting.
We're not, we're not at, we'renot even at zero yet.
We got a fight to get to zeroand none of that is said
disrespectfully, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
No all due respect to the men who have Dedicated a
lifetime to growing andsustaining the crowd.
For sure, absolutely.
But now we're dealing withgenerations that that don't even
communicate in the same way.
They don't even have the samePredispositions towards
community that we're used to noyeah and so if you want to
engage them, you really theimpetus is upon you to Do it on
(18:18):
their terms.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, it's.
Chris and I did a symposium inHillsboro last year Together and
one of the themes that we, thatwe did, that we talked about
was the future now a freemasonry, now what.
That was the whole thing andand it was it was, you know, the
questions we asked of the groupbecause everyone Was each on
some historical right and somecool things some guy did in the
(18:39):
past and we're, and we'rejumping to the future.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Hold on a second we're here, we're alive.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah mason's.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
What are we doing?
Yeah, what are we doing, likethese guys did.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, and the question that we asked was was
do you care if your lodges herein 20 years?
Do you care?
And and we could see now thebrothers at Hillsboro are solid.
Shout out to a worstful Carolman solid lodge, solid people,
and, and they get it.
And I could see it on theirfaces when we said that I I do
want my lodge to be here in 20years.
(19:08):
And then the second part of thequestion is well, what are you
doing today to make that areality?
Right, and then we talked about.
You know that the, the, thebumper sticker and billboard of
the modern age is Facebook.
You know we talk about these,the billboards.
You know spending thousands ofdollars on billboards, which is
old-school, top-of-mindconsciousness advertising.
(19:29):
I used to be a part of that.
I'm an old man, I'm old-schoolmarketer.
I remember those days it worked.
It used to work because wedidn't have the internet, we
didn't have access like we dotoday, and that was our concept
like we grew up watching ABC.
Yeah, two channel, nine, threechannels bro.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
My son and my kids grew up watching YouTube.
People.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Oh right, yeah, and watch television right.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, other people on YouTube doing things right that
was, that was theirentertainment.
Yeah it's totally changed.
Everything has changed, yeah,how we communicate the, how we
receive entertainment, how weeven work.
I'm getting notifications on mywatch now, right right, I could
look at a website on my watchwhile we're having a
conversation.
Like things are different now,yeah to do with locus of
(20:12):
attention.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
If you think about the, the way in which people
engage with their environment,right, you know, some of these
outdated modalities, likeoutdoor or radio or television,
just don't work the way thatthey used to.
And I get the predisposition tobe present in the idea that we
want to be present and availableat top of mind when people are,
you know, doing whatever.
But what we need and modernFreemasonry is Conversion
(20:36):
modality, right, you see, weneed to inspire people to take a
specific action, right, and ifyou're, if you're in your car
and you're driving down thestreet and you see that
billboard, even if you're in agood mood and you're not
preoccupied, you don't have themodality, you the ability, in
that moment no to engage withthe content and take a desired
action where, and nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
It's expensive.
So now we're not your car whileyou're looking for a pen.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So you write it on your hand even if you drive by
it on your way to work every day, it's good.
Yeah, I need to do that.
Yeah, I need to do that.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
after a while it's like, yeah, you don't even see
it anymore right and it'sexpensive for what it is yeah,
so now we're paying two grand amonth to have a billboard up
which which stone cold, nobodycan engage with right and you
know, never measure just to giveyou an idea as a digital
marketer, as a paid trafficconsultant, I can generate, I
you know, meaningful video viewsfor two cent.
(21:25):
Right, so like if you give me athree zip codes that surround
your lodge, I can absolutelysaturate that market with video
impressions of meaningfulconversations, right About what
are men doing in masonry, how ismasonry affecting the community
, how is it affecting theindividual man, right, and I can
do that for about two cent perimpression, which is to say
(21:46):
hundreds of thousands ofimpressions in a modality where
people are predisposed to engage.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Right and take action , and so that's.
I really think we're we'redoing some of the wrong things,
which is a surprise toabsolutely no one at this table,
right.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I'm preaching to you.
No, no, you're.
You are where we were a yearand a half ago, right, and this
is beautiful.
This works out.
Great Timing me I hold toProvidence.
Their timing is providential.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Some progress.
So the Grand Lodge has theirown marketing reimbursement
program.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Which we are members of the committee.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, for this coming year.
I'm dying to hear more aboutthat.
Yeah, you will.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I'll give you the elevator pitch right now.
So you do a lead generation adusing your Facebook's page.
Use a lead form yeah, okay,that's it.
Use the video to capture theattention Right, a quick 30
second video.
You target the demographic, youtarget the radius yeah and you
run that ad and it costs abouttwo to three dollars for the
leads that you generate.
And then you call those guys,pre-qualify them, have them come
(22:47):
to the lodge If they'reinterested in learning more,
which they are, because they sawthe video and they clicked it
and they gave you theirinformation and you sit and talk
with them and the purpose ofthat is to see if you want them
in your lodge.
Imagine that.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Imagine you don't have to take every guy that
comes because the main argumentis going to be these are crappy
people.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
That is an argument you will get.
Yes, we get it all the timewhen we talk about this, but
we're playing the law ofaverages here.
I had a fast grandmaster, tellme, would you co-sign a loan for
this person you're bringing in?
I said well, swarshville.
With respect, I wouldn'tco-sign a loan for my sister.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Right, that's a dumb question.
Plus, I've seen our owngrandmasters removed from the
fraternity.
Right so don't tell me that youcan tell who's a good and a bad
person from a one hourconversation.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
It's just judgment on them.
We're going to do a backgroundinvestigation.
We are.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
We're going to do the best we can with the tools we
have, but to do nothing is notan option If you have a
conversation and talking aboutAlistair Crowley, sex magic and
this is the who that?
Okay, maybe I won't sign yourpetition, right, and you like to
think about little kids toomuch.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I'm not going to sign it.
I'm not going to sign it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, we've gone through that, and then we'll do
a background check and if youhave committed a felony, you
will know and you will notbecome a mason Right.
And if you've committed anyother serious crimes, the
brothers need to hear about it,you need to answer for it and if
it's acceptable, maybe you'regood enough now.
Maybe you're not.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I would argue that the appropriate filtering for
low quality people is not afterthe lead form, it's in the
content, it's in what you chooseto syndicate and why, and if
you crap the right narratives onat the top of funnel for that
right, the kind of person youwant to attract will be
attracted to that.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's right and that's the beauty of this
digital age and the talents thatyou two have.
You know to understand this andalso to articulate it in a way
that makes sense At least, itmakes sense to me, but I've been
in marketing for a long, longtime as well.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
No, it makes sense to even people that don't have it.
I think they get it.
They're just fearful of it.
They're fearful, yeah, and thatfear is getting in the way of
progress.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
sometimes they kind of like.
It's like, sorry, I have myreputation is at stake here and
I'm only here for a year, so ifit doesn't work then it's kind
of my fault.
I don't want to do it, you know.
It's like well, that's thewrong attitude.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Do you think Washington would have had that
attitude?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Heck.
No, I don't think so we'retalking about as an
entrepreneurial mindset.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
It absolutely is as opposed to an institutional and
institutional mindset.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
You're right, that's exactly right.
And that institutional mindset,you get stuck, you know.
You get stuck because yourbread and butter is getting to
this era, this timeframe.
Your bread and butter isn'tproducing A, b, c and D.
It's the span of time.
It's your one year.
I got to get through this oneyear and as long as I can.
(25:30):
I want to be responsible for newcarpets and I want to do a new
big carpet at the front entranceand maybe this, that and the
other and change a few things,and if I can accomplish that
then I can walk away saying thatI was a good worst-of-all
master.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Well, you don't have enough men to you know.
And where do you set the barfor success Right?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, you know, it's like it's just.
It's good that we're revisitingthis entire conversation
Because we're at the point now Itold you this when we were at
the monument we're at the pointnow where the system is working
and we are making new masons allover the all over our district
and all over the state becauseof the program.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Now, We've got people from other jurisdictions and
other countries.
Other countries to do this,because they hear what we're
doing and say we want to do itin England.
Right yeah, we want to try thisin Iowa.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
And we'll do continue to unpack it, because you only
gave me the first piece.
The top of funnel is theFacebook lead ad.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Right.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
What other apparatus do you have built around this?
Because, look, I'm pretty goodat this, but I don't want to
reinvent the wheel if you'redoing it Exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, no, you don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Take what we did and make it better.
That's what you want to do, andyou guys can do that.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know, lead generation is phase one, but
then, like John's on thecommittee, he makes the phone
calls.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
John, who Mr John Schaefer.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Mr John Schaefer and he makes those phone calls and
talks to the guys, meets them atthe open house or the dinner
and then we take it to the nextlevel and that's the other part
of it.
You know we could get them toline up and make phone calls and
do lead generation and we couldhave a hundred guys.
You know you could have ahundred guys who want to talk,
(27:09):
but if you don't have guys whoknow how to make the phone calls
, talk to them, bring them inand get them to sit down and
fill out a petition, you'restill just spinning your wheel.
So there's phase one, phase two, phase three phase four.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You're in phase one, which is you got to do all the
work.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
You got it right.
Fortunately, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I'm an entrepreneur, I run my own company.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, you're no stranger, and
that's the kind of person thatneeds to be in that role.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And then, all of a sudden, the naysayers are so
happy and they want to be.
You know, they want to getcredit for all the work as well.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We're in phase two now, because John and you came
through in through the program.
Right we did, and now you'reperpetually in the program you
guys were actually brought inthrough Both of them.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Both of us were yeah, wow, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, telling you we had seven, five and four groups
that came through bam bam bamall at one time.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
You were group two and then we folded into group
one.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
So what were?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
you doing with budget , like, what are you spending on
this?
We?
Spend about $50 a month $50 amonth and that generates three
to four petitions.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
That generates three petitions a month Out of what
you get about 20 leads.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So you're getting a 5 to 10% conversion rate on leads
.
Yeah, holy crap, but you have.
Why isn't the whole craft doingthis?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Well, it's starting, but I'm going to say it again
Because you will break the lodge.
You will break it, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
If you just run this.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If you turn this thing on and leave it on and you
don't do any of the Phase two,phase three and phase four, you
will break the lodge.
You will not have enoughcatechism instructors.
You will not have enoughmentors.
No, that's the problem.
We had Cadillac problems comingfrom your perspective.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, you'd love to have problems like that.
We get uptown problems.
That's an embarrassing wealthof luxury Of problems we brought
in another generation behindthese guys.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
John is training one of them to do calls with them.
Right so it's going toperpetuate itself and it's going
to snowball the more you do.
But it took three years of medoing the hard work myself.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Right, and that's where you're at.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
You're going to have to do the hard work yourself for
a little while You're talking,4 or 5% of engagement to desired
outcome, which is a world-classmarketing outcome.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, it works like gangbusters.
You know how much it costs thelodge?
Zero dollars, zero dollars.
It costs them nothing.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Because the grand lodge reimburses the monthly
budget.
Right, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
So this year, 2024, and that's what I was saying
earlier about Providence it isnot an accident that we have
come to know you, brotherJonathan, because I think that
this 2024 is the year that OTLon the level podcast takes this
entire thing.
Johnny, I'm looking at you overthere because you're OTL
executive producer.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
again, you need the mic, david.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
No mic for Johnny and we take this to the next level.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You know, and I can see it in your eyes man, you
should just sit next to thelabel share mic.
I know you're in.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
We can take this thing to the next level and
every single lodge in the stateof Florida and beyond is going
to know what this program can doand they're going to have an
opportunity to say yes to it.
They may not Some lodges maynot choose not to, but
everybody's going to get anopportunity to hear from us.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The reality of this is this is what's working for us
right now.
This isn't going to workforever.
It's going to constantly change.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
That's right.
That's right.
You have to be flexible to movewith it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Well, you're an agency owner, so you get this,
and a marketing agency owner.
You probably get this in a waythat most people don't.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Right, I'm just going to unpack it for a second Right
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
In the beginning, when you're trying to establish
the efficacy of a given thing,whether it's a business offer or
a new product, what you have todo is demand generation Right,
and that's usually done throughpaid traffic, and the point is
to validate the concept, right,right, but what we're talking
about now?
You've already validated theconcept of this work, so we can
extrapolate that to every lodgein Florida and we should, yeah,
(30:48):
but beyond that, you know, as abusiness develops and gains
notoriety and, and I dare say,preeminence, mm-hmm as you move
closer to preeminence, youshould be sourcing far more
business or far more outcomesfrom organic activity.
Yeah, then you are from paidactivity, so that's the next
level.
Yeah so let me tell you whatI've just done and I just love
(31:08):
to get an opinion from someeducated guys, right?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
All right.
Well, when we find some, we'lllet you know.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Go ahead came here, but he's the only one here, so I
built a website.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
It's not.
It's not a let, it's not alodge website in the way that
you think okay.
It's not ocean view for a calm,you know it's ocean view
community calm.
Okay okay, and so what I did isI aggravated or I aggregated all
the events from the north sideof Jacksonville onto this
webpage.
Then I created forums that are,you know, reviews of all the
schools in the local area, allthe events in the local area,
(31:43):
all of the, you know, churchesin the local area, reviews and
commentary.
And if you know anything aboutSEO which which I know I do, I
know some of you do In sixmonths time I'll own every
Google query related to thenorth side of Jacksonville.
Right, if I'm prolific aboutcreating content and Continuing
to curate all this information,which, honestly, is a suck.
(32:04):
I'm not gonna lie.
It does take three or fourhours a week, you know, but yeah
, and you're getting nothing outof it.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Not, not yet.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah but if I, if I do that for enough time, I will
eventually own every queryrelated to the north side of
Jacksonville.
Now I skin the bottom of thewebsite and the sidebars and the
navigation menus withpre-missionary.
So this website brought to youby Ocean View Lodge, number 408.
Here's what freemasonry isabout.
Here's how you can get involvedhere, the particular
(32:31):
requirements, etc.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, and then I even went a step further and created
a code or a page how to be aMason, yeah and created a QR
code, put it on the back of abusiness card, printed like a
thousand of them, gave it to allthe Brothers and said go and
spread the word, right so whatyou've done right is the
equivalency for the people thatdon't have a marketing degree
out there, of taking your lodgestable and sign out in front of
(32:55):
every major business in yourcommunity and manned it with a
Mason who's out there yellinghey, come and check out this
school, it's a really goodschool.
Yeah right, people go by andthey're like they see a
freemason as they walk into theschool and sooner or later
Someone's gonna be like, hey,who are you?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
What are you doing?
That's essentially what they'regonna say.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
My dad was a freemason everybody's idea for
how to get more people in thelodge was let's, let's replace
the signs, and I'm thinking, allright, we're missing the point.
Nothing wrong with that.
We should do that.
It should look excellent.
You mean in the front of thelodge?
Yeah, yeah to the extentpossible.
It should look excellent and ofcourse, we're very grateful for
that and it's something that weought to do.
But when you're talking aboutdiscovery, you have to go where
(33:36):
people are nobody knows tosearch for you.
They don't.
They don't know that they'remissing freemasonry from their
life.
They know that they're missingcommunity and brotherhood.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
That was me.
I.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I didn't have any friends, right, I wanted friends
, yeah, yeah they know thatthey're, that they could stand
to level up their morality,become a better person, develop
their character.
Right but they don't know whereto get that and they're not
gonna search for freemasonry.
Nobody's gonna type ocean viewlodge 408 right, and then and
then come and become a member.
That just isn't how it works.
No, so you have to be wherethey are.
And where they are is what'sthe best school in Oceanway?
(34:09):
What's what's the right?
What's the best grocery storein Oceanway?
What events are going on in onthe north side of Jacksonville
today?
And if you can own thatconversation, mm-hmm, then you
win the right to injectfreemasonry into it and say sure
hey, by the way, now this iswho's giving, who's curating
this information for you.
Come and find out about it.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah.
And if you've already have itin your mind.
If you've already have yourhand up?
Yeah, I would.
I would be interested in moreinformation.
Well then, you bam Right soon,as soon as there there are, you
got them.
You got because it's already inthere.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah, we have Sarasota 147.org, which is a
website for our lodge.
We don't get a lot of petitionsfrom the website, but what we
do get are a lot of masons whohave moved to our city.
They're looking for freemasonryand they compare our website to
the other lodges and they'relike yeah, I'll, I liked your
website the most and that's whythey call us.
(35:01):
And it also works where, like,people on Facebook see our ad
and they say they're interestedand then they check us out on
the website and it kind ofreaffirms that we're real.
They see the pictures, they seeour community stuff and it's
like okay, this is safe.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
That's, that's modern .
Yeah, I want to fact checkeverything and double check that
you're legit the idea of asingle encounter Resulting in
conversion in a modern businessenvironment is is patently false
.
It doesn't right in that way,yeah they're gonna find you on
Facebook, then they're gonnaGoogle your website, then
they're gonna look at yourInstagram and then they're gonna
(35:36):
look you up on YouTube, Yep,and if they like what they see
in all those places, thenthey're gonna come back to your
website right.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Actually, they're gonna have FOMO right.
That's what you really want.
Yeah, fear of missing out,right.
They're like wow, I'm missingout on all this fun stuff that's
happening around me.
Right, right, yeah be doingthis stuff.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
So the way to do this is to tell stories.
Not don't, don't even marketfreemasonry, don't even talk
about the benefits of the crap.
Tell stories of the brotherswho are out there engaging in
the community.
Right, having an impact.
Yeah, you know, this changed mylife.
I saved my marriage, I leveledup my character.
I I helped a hundred kids getshoes for school.
Yeah, what is the impact on thecommunity?
(36:12):
That stuff is compelling.
People want to engage withstories.
They want you know.
Yeah, that's how you createFOMO really true?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Yeah, because they want what other people have yeah
, well, and because they don'thave it, you know, and that's,
that's what they're looking forit.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
And again, if there are some common themes because
we, john and I, have talked tothousands of people interested
in masonry.
At this point, fair to say,he's shaking his head.
Yes, he doesn't have a mic, bythe way.
I'm gonna keep telling that butthere are some common themes.
One of them is people want tobe around good people, right,
and they don't find out in theworld.
(36:48):
They don't find it in thetraditional institutions that we
have in our societies.
They don't find it in theirchurch, the way they used to.
They don't have it in likesocial clubs that they used to
have.
So the they know that inthrough our ads that we're
running.
That's one of our common themesis that you want to be a better
person.
You want to be around goodpeople.
The only way it can be betteris to be around people better
(37:08):
than you.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Unfortunately, yeah, so what are you actually using?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
for video creative.
So the northern's jurisdictionof the Scottish right has
produced some really highquality videos.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yes, yeah, I've actually put all of them out on
our Facebook page already.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
You're familiar with those like three or four.
There's long versions and shortversions.
Yeah, it's really good, we usethe short versions and we
customize the beginning of thevideo with like free masonry in
Sarasota.
Okay, so you just you slap thebookends on it and then at the
end it's our lodge contact info.
Yeah, yeah, easy high qualityvery professional and it hits
all the themes of brotherly love, right, being being a better
(37:46):
man and being part of somethingbigger than just targeting.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Is just zip code targeting?
No, it's a radius around thelodge males of we.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
we go a little older because it's hard for guys it's
just out of high school or incollege right to be to engage.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
So we go like 25 to 65 plus 25 mile radius around a
singular zip code, or so thatdepends on the lodge.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, we're in a pretty densely populated city,
sarasota, and there are fourlodges if we go in right five
mile radius, which is okay.
We've sent mason's to every oneof those lodges right.
You just have to behaveconscientiously with whatever I
mean whatever leads you weremason's.
Masons and if you live closerto that lodge and you work
closer to that lodge, let megive you that master's number,
(38:29):
because I think you'll reallylike this.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And that fosters that fosters a lot more Unity
between the lodges as well.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
You make a lot of friends in the district that way
.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
You do Well, and then I'm responsible for him, I want
to be at his degree right and Ihave now a relationship with
him too.
That that means something tothe person, because nowhere else
in society does anyone careabout you.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I think it would be really nice to be successful in
my particular lodge but raisingthe tide for all lodges.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's just you got to get the small win.
They see you win and then theywant to know, and then you can
finally get somebody in theirlodge to do the same thing and
you can help them.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Okay, guys, we got.
We got 12 minutes left.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
What.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
That's right we we got a mower here we got a monkey
suit up and we got to get overto Potomac number five, and we
got to be on time Because we aregoing to be there for an
installation and the gavelpresentation.
So, um, yes, I think there's abig after party too, and there's
a little bit of an after partything.
I'm not sure what that's allabout.
You know me and parties, butanyway, um so brother give us
(39:31):
kind of um, what's, uh, what'sthe future for you?
What do you?
What are you?
What are you looking for here?
I mean, I know we talked aboutmarketing the universe but
that's I mean personally.
What are you other than takingover the universe?
Which?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
is what we're trying to do as well.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yes, take over the world.
All men will kneel before him.
I just keep thinking of pinkyin the brain every time you do
that, man.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Which one?
Speaker 1 (39:54):
am I pinky or am I the brain?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Johnny, what am I?
Am I pinky?
He doesn't have a mic, hecannot tell you, cannot talk.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Good, yeah, he said you're pinky Anyway, um, uh, so,
so kind of give it to you.
Get us out of here, man, as a,as a new mason passionate for
the craft.
Where are you going?
What are you going to do whenyou get back on Monday, or back
to your lodge next time?
What's?
What are you taking away fromall this?
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Well, we got stated communication on Tuesday.
Yeah, the very first thing thatI have to do is go in there and
start making an argument forthem to release these funds.
Yeah so I can do this marketingreimbursement thing.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
It's so, that's your passion right now.
That's, that's what you'refocusing on look.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
My passion is for the craft to be perpetuated and
developed.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
It's been so.
It's such a beautiful windfallof just, you know, guidance and
character development for methat I want to perpetuate it in
any way that I can, and this iswhat.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I'm gifted at this is what absolutely absolutely
right.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
And so, when all you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail right?
All right, so I'm gonna getstarted hammering in some nails
to the extent that I'm able toright so.
But I don't know, man.
I think I have a future here,like I seem to be Able to know
you definitely, definitely do.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
So we didn't attend a dinner last night, bad on us,
but I hear you that you gotrandomly tapped to do a Toast in
front of all the brothers, theGrandmaster, future Grandmasters
.
And you rose to the occasion,from what I heard, unprepared.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Well, thank you for saying that.
That's very kind of you.
I'll tell you what I said,since we have a few that would
be great.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
We do have a few minutes left.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
It's paraphrasing, but what I said was we visited
Arlington National Cemeteryyesterday.
Yeah, that's great and laterreef at the tomb of the unknown
soldier and we did a drawing tosee who got to participate in
that, and I was just very luckyto have been selected.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
We we posted video on our Facebook page of you do
yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And as a Mason, it's really only been raised for half
a year.
It's an incredible honor to youknow even be in the presence.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Grandmaster generally , but to participate in
something like that and it'sespecially moving for me because
I'm I'm on Iraq and Afghanistanveteran right.
I have four or five friendsthat are interred in Arlington
National Cemetery, so you know.
One of the brothers came to meand and apparently this is a
thing when Mason's dying out Ididn't know because this is my
first time, but there's a toastevery ten minutes or every five
(42:10):
minutes.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Depending on where you're at right.
Yeah, who you're?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
with.
He comes to me and says brother, since you're the youngest
Mason in the room, we'd love tohave you make a toast.
And I said, all right, let's doit.
So I got up and what I said wasyou know, I want to reflect for
a moment on what we did earlierat Arlington, because I have
four or five friends who areinterred there, who died in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
You know, when I was there aswell, and in most cases they
(42:36):
were much better men than me.
You know, they're better men.
They run faster, they'restronger, they can do more
push-ups, they can, they canruck more weight, they shoot
better than me, like almost tothe man.
They were better than me inevery conceivable way and I made
it and they didn't.
And you could.
You could very easily go downthe rabbit hole of survivors
guilt and say you know, and beatyourself up for why you lived
(42:59):
and they died.
I think the better way to takeit is as an indictment or or as
a challenge.
Be better yourself, yeah, so sonow.
Now I need to live in such away that I become as good or
better that you know and havethe impact that they could have
had throughout their lives toearn it and take that on as a
mandate and shift my mindset tolegacy.
(43:21):
Okay, and then I turned aroundand to all the the elder
brothers in the room, who waseverybody, because you know, I
said and and as you guys Climbthrough the ranks and attain all
of this wisdom andaccomplishment and a lot of you
know Very accomplished brothersin the room who've done great
things for you and as you teachme and invest time in me, you
(43:43):
are ensuring your legacy.
Yeah and then I in turn get tointernalize that information and
turn around and try to ensuremy legacy by passing and in this
way, we, we all, becomegrandmasters you know, yeah, and
that's what I said, more orless.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I mean paraphrasing right, yeah, well, it went over.
Big man and I'm, so I'm.
I'm not even gonna discuss howupset I am that we missed it and
I'm going to continue to blamemyself.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Nobody's stopping you from blaming yourself.
Apparently it got real quiet,but John the mic, so I don't
know.
Maybe.
Anyways, jonathan, it has beenan absolute pleasure to get to
know you and meet you, brother.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Like I said, this is a providential meeting.
I I know we are gonna do moregreat things in the future, yeah
, and one of the things we havethe privilege to do is to give
people a voice, right?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
And so I personally imagine that I'm going to be a
great person and I'm going to bea great person.
Personally, I'm careful aboutwho we do bring on the show
right.
Fred's much more open than I am.
He's more interested in talkingto more people, but I'm very
picky, yeah, and I know Irealize what we are doing here.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
People are listening now, some people are listening.
Now, a lot of people arelistening.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I don't want to just give anybody access to that
right platform, but you know, wefind someone like yourself who.
You have good intentions andyou have the skills to do the
things you're saying and youhave the passion and enthusiasm.
You've already started.
This is like a huge honor to usto have yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
You're gonna be a big shot here someday, that's right
.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
You're.
We're gonna go back to that onepodcast where we introduced you
to the fraternity.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
That's right.
That's right.
We discovered this guy and theglory will be ours.
You're welcome.
We're all about that.
You're welcome, brother.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Everything you ever do.
Well, before, before we go, Iwant to invite you.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
January 13th to come down to Sarasota.
So he's trying.
Sarasota and come to oursymposium, symposium that we're
putting on.
It's an eight hour day.
Yeah, we have education anddinner and drinks New York will
be a speaker.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Juan Sepulveda will be a speaker.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Daniel Molina out of Miami will be yeah about doicism
and Freemason.
Yeah, that's good stuff.
Our keynote speaker.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Correspondence with the divine is what Juan
Sepulveda is talking about.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, you really enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
and yeah, right, where full Talia tall is gonna
be there talking about thefuture.
Yeah, and he's doing, we'redoing a it's not just them
preaching, we're doing it.
They do their presentation,then they sit down for 45
minutes and we do the podcasttogether with the audience right
.
The audience gets askedquestions really good.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Yeah, I'll be there if you guys.
Yeah, send me an invite orsomething, yeah yeah, you can go
.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
You can go online and you can too listener.
You can go online and On thelevel, friend.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Right there, $50 or $50, you get all day education.
You get a buffet meal which isgonna be beef mashed potatoes a
good meal.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, it's gonna be a free drink ticket.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Because is it the shrine?
Because it's at the shrine.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
And they get they, just they got a big, beautiful,
beautiful tiki hut out therewith a fully stocked box after
party after party with threeruffian cigars will be
Absolutely and so, yeah, soAgain, jonathan, it's been an
absolute pleasure to have you,brother.
Chris, we're on our way outagain and give us something,
(47:10):
send, send us home what's, uh,what's on your mind, man?
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Not that man, I'm just really happy to get to meet
new brothers in the fraternity,that this kind of stuff is
really special.
We like when we were recordingthe first night, which yeah.
I mean, there's brothers whosenames I'd never heard right,
yeah now I know them and they'remy friend and they're my
brother, and this is why youhave to travel in Freemason.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Can't just sit in your lodge and make that the
whole of the fraternity.
You gotta get out there andmeet people, because that's
where the magic happens.
That's right, yeah, and like wecame here, we met you you know
you're gonna be able to do greatthings in the future and
hopefully we can be a part ofthat.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Yeah, that's right, guys are doing it, so I'm just
trying to be like you.
It's a great pleasure, butdon't don't try to be like us.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Try to be like Johnny .
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Yes, don't try to be like us.
Well, he is John, and, and youknow that's, we say Jonathan, we
say it all the time.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
The question that we're asking this year 2024, the
question of the podcast is doesMasonry have something to offer
to this hurting country?
And we believe it does onlyonly many, many answers for the
young man out there who doesn'tknow who he is, doesn't know
where to go, has no men in hisin his life to help him become a
better man.
Well, freemasonry has somethingto offer to you and if you're
(48:21):
listening right now and you'recurious about it, go down to
your local lodge.
Go, I'm gonna say it threetimes Go down to your local
lodge.
Go down to your local lodge.
Go down to your local lodge andtalk.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
I know where my local lodge is just.
Google Freemason Lodge near me.
Yep, that's right, see it,you'll see it go down there and
tell them.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
A couple of knuckleheads on a podcast told
me to come down here and ask youguys about three may
Freemasonry don't mention us,because we want them to let you
in yeah, yeah, don't.
Don't say you know us All, right, yeah, don't do that, but tell
them you want to know somethingmore about, about the fraternity
, and get involved and you won'tregret it.
I don't know of a Mason I don'tknow of one Mason since I've
(48:58):
started this who who regrettedthe day they walk through those
hallowed doors.
Man and became part of thisfraternity.
Man, a global, a worldwideFraternity of men.
Everywhere we go in thiscountry, everyone we talk to in
this country, it's like abrother I've known for 20 years.
Jonathan, I talked to you, Ilook at you, I talked to you.
It's, it's as if we've knowneach other for a long, long time
(49:19):
.
Right, and that's what this isabout and that's what this
Offers so you all helps ifyou've listened, the alcohol
does help.
If you've listened, rubbingalcohol.
If you have listened to thispodcast to this point, you are a
hero of our show and we reallyappreciate it.
So Please.
Johnny doesn't want to sayanything.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
The end the end, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
All right, we we got to go put our monkey suits on
and drive across DC to go toPotomac number five Installation
.
It's gonna be a great timetonight.
Afterwards we're hoping to getback on the mic and and do some
more broadcasting.
I'm gonna be up for that man.
I'm gonna drink me a bunch ofcoffee.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
After drinking a bunch of whiskey and, and then
we are just gonna hit the micand we're gonna go nuts oh and
bring some content, so staytuned, my friends.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Maybe we'll see you soon.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
We're ruffian cigars to we can get some three ruffian
cigars, we will definitely getinto those.
We've got plenty.
So, anyways, we we love youguys.
Man, stay, stay true toyourself and to your lodge and
we will see you guys on the nextone.
Hey, chris, yeah, fred, what's a Mason?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
That's a really good question, fred.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You've reached the internet's home for all things
masonry.
Join Chris and I as we plumbthe depths of our ancient craft,
from the common gavel to thetrowel.
Nothing is off the table, sograb your tools and let's get to
work.
This is On the Level.
Well, chris, we are back.
Yeah, this is day three, daytwo, of our trip to DC.
Where are we at?
(00:35):
Where are we?
Who are we?
It's Saturday, saturdayafternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
This is the last day.
This is the last day we'reabout to go to the installation
of Potomac Lodge number five.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, we're going to see the gavel, the gavel
presentation.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Washington's gavel will be there.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We'll be there.
We will be there with the gavel.
That's awesome.
Hey, we just came back from theWashington Memorial.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What'd you think?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I was, wow, impressed .
We'll be posting some picturesof the actual facility, the
grounds and everything.
What an impressive place, man.
I was blown away.
You walk up to it and thebuilding, the mount, the
building and everything is soimpressive.
And then you walk into thatfirst hall and you're just like
you're speechless.
Absolutely, I was speechless,which is very rare for me Very
(01:18):
rare, I was absolutelyspeechless.
And then the more you tour it,the more it becomes just more
and more and more.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
It never stops.
It is a memorial to his Masoniclife, so you see all of it.
I brought my wife there a fewyears ago and she was like
shocked that they don't teachany of that part of his life in
school.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Right, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
She's like how have I never, ever my whole life,
heard of Washington, washington,washington, my whole life, but
I never once heard any of this.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Right, how, how?
I'm like I don't know, I don'tknow either.
I don't know because it's righthere you can see.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
This man was incredibly, and many of the
founders were just as tied toFreemasonry as he was.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah Well, the whole town was, the whole town was,
the whole colony was, Is still.
Yeah, I mean it was it was veryMasonic, that was a.
It was a huge part of dailylife, you know, and our, our
founders, were very much united,you know, in the fraternity of
Freemasonry.
Man and I, I, I to answer yourquestion blown away speechless,
(02:24):
what a beautiful monument, youknow, to our first president and
to Masonry and his, his careerin Masonry.
So we've got a lot of stuff.
We're trying our best to to toproduce as much as we can while
we're here.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It's hard.
There's like how many 50 Masonsor something up here.
Right, we're all in one hotel,everybody.
There's some playing things,yeah, Other people are running
in different directions, doingthings Right.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Right, but you know, when we went up to the Memorial
Washington Memorial we justhappened to have breakfast with
a brother that we met, like theday before.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Right, right, yeah, no, that was a capital.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yesterday capital.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You talking about capital.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
So, at the capital cafeteria.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
We were having lunch and we ended up with Fred, was
very happy to be in the capitalbuilding.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh, he was just a ray of sunshine the whole time.
Sorry, it was not my favoriteplace, loved everything about
the place.
We just don't don't agree withnothing that those guys do
anymore over there so they don'tdo much.
They certainly don't do theirjob anymore, but that's a whole
different story.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
But yes.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I'll spare everyone my, my political banter on that
end of it.
But yeah, so I was glad thatfinally we ended up at the
cafeteria.
We were having lunch.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Finally, we did.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
And we.
We ended up having a greatconversation, Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
With the new brother that you just met.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
And the conversation was just one of those on the
level with Fred and Chris, kindof conversations, where we were
talking about stuff that mostpeople don't want to talk about.
We were we were touching onreligion and science and
politics, more than touching onreligion.
We were just digging deep, man,and we were just just over lunch
.
We do this all the time.
This is what the show is allabout being able to communicate
(04:05):
what we believe, why we believe,with gentleness and respect,
with a view to the otherperson's.
You know thoughts and ideas,man, and because that's what you
know, if Masons are anything.
That's that's what we need tobe.
We need to be able tocommunicate what we believe, why
we believe it, to each otherand to the world, without
fighting, arguing, harminganybody and growing we don't
make progress unless wechallenge the establishment.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's right, yeah, we, that's right.
I remind in society tochallenge the establishment.
That's how progress gets made.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
We are anti left versus right ideology, man.
There is no.
There is no left versus right.
People have different opinions,people have different ideas,
but all of it is based on we arehuman beings here on this
planet and we're all walking inthe same direction and if we are
Masons, we should know better.
We're supposed to know better,we're supposed to hold ourselves
(04:54):
to a higher standard ofconversation and conduct, and
that was very much on display atthat cafeteria at the Capitol
building probably the first timesince George Washington walked
its halls, in my opinion.
But it was an open conversationabout many different things and
the brother we're talking aboutis sitting right.
His name is Jonathan Green.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Oh yeah, and he is here with us today.
Jonathan, how are you doing,brother?
How are we doing, fellas?
We're good, we're very good.
Thank you for having me.
It's a great honor.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
No hey it's a great honor.
You didn't even know existeduntil yesterday.
It couldn't be that great of anhonor.
Yeah, I know, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Fairness, I've been raised for about 15 minutes,
right, Okay.
What time is it?
You're about a year, right?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Six months, six months yeah, you know there are
brothers.
We come across brothers all thetime where you know you see,
there, you talk about wherethey're at and what they're
doing in Masonry and we'rethinking in our heads this guy's
been at it five years, thisguy's been at it six years, six
years.
And Jonathan's one of thoseguys.
You know he's been at it fiveminutes and he's already down
through the line.
(05:55):
He's already researched andlearned so much.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It ain't the years, it's the miles, that's right,
yeah.
And the passion, and thepassion.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
And that's one thing you have.
You have a real passion for thecraft.
Yeah, it struck us for sure.
So tell us a little bit aboutfirst your kind of, your
personal background.
I know you do a lot withstatistics, military man, a
military man.
Give us kind of a quickoverview of who are you man, and
where you come from.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Well, sure, so I mean , my interest in Masonry goes
back a long way.
My grandfather was a SouthCarolina Mason, okay, and a
Scottish Wright Mason.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Do you know where?
In South Carolina?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, James Island.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Wow, so we pronounce that South Carolina.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
He was the fire chief on James Island for 30 years.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Wow, no kidding Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Very, very prominent Mason, and so, as a result, I've
been Loosely interested inesoterica since I was a teenager
, you know okay.
Just the symbols that I see onhis walls and stuff sort of led
me to Read about that.
But just who I am, you know Ihave an MBA, I have a master's
in statistics, so I'm amarketing consultant,
specifically paid trafficconsultant.
(07:01):
So I run Facebook ads forpeople right.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Yeah, you know, and obviously I have a couple of
graduate degrees, so Iresearched for funsies,
basically right, that's cool andobviously you've done a
considerable amount of researchregarding the craft, and some of
the esoteric Rabbit trails thatyou've gone down have really
paid some dividends as far aslearning and education goes.
I I saw that yesterday duringour conversation, man, it was
(07:26):
really really deep, it wasawesome.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
And it was a it's fun to talk about a lunch
conversation.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
He's done some research.
Yes, I've been a seminary so Ihave a perspective.
Yeah, right, right.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Johnny, johnny, johnny just showed up, johnny,
how are you Johnny Schaefer?
Johnny Schaefer, our showsponsor and now he'll just drop
the mic if we give him a mic.
Don't give Johnny a mic.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
He'll just drop the mic.
This is our three ruffiansrepresentative.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Show sponsor and cigars, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Anyway, you're a cigar Fistionado, I'm a big
cigar.
Yeah, we're curious to try someof these.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, we actually um brother, Christian Keeper.
Yeah and James Vick started.
I don't know if they started it, but certainly they introduced
me to the brothers of the whiteash.
Uh-huh, I've heard of them,thank you, which is, I think
it's something they'reinterested in proliferating.
So wow, it's oh, white ash,it's like it's like a very loose
opinion body where we just gosmoke cigars pretty much.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I love that, right, yeah, we actually made a Shrine,
a unit.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's the unit, shrine unit.
Yeah, it's the three ruffiansthe cigar and whiskey and
whiskey unit at Sarasota Sahibshrine.
There's some white ash in there.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
There's some white ash going on in there and of
course we kind of went darkbecause of the holidays and
stuff.
So we're coming, we're cominghere pretty close to January's
coming up on us.
Soon We'll fire it back up.
The same idea To just bringpeople together, you know,
masons together, for you know,premium cigars, whiskey, to sit
down and talk and theconversations we're hoping will
always go the way ourconversation went, you know down
(08:57):
.
You know down those roads,educational and just getting
people to think, man, we don'tthink in this country anymore.
And you know, I just I have alittle tolerance anymore for
people who espouse all of theseopinions and then you ask them
questions about it and theydon't know, they can't give me
any real answers, you know.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
I think most people toe whatever philosophy was
handed down to them.
Right, it's like sports fromtheir parents.
I was born in Buffalo.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
So I have to be a bills fan, right, right, right,
which you know as long as itwasn't Philadelphia, I think
that's fine.
I totally agree with thatJohnny little shot and yeah,
yeah.
So if any other town, you'refine, but if you're yeah you
should abandon that team.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I mean no, just kidding John.
Johnny would rather die.
He doesn't have a mic.
Johnny doesn't have a mic.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
It's not fair.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
We didn't set up a mic because we're interviewing
Jonathan Green, right.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, so I don't mind sharing.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
No, I do do people call you Johnny.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
No, almost everyone calls me Jonathan.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Jonathan, yeah, oh well, you're a big guy, so they
call you what you want them tocall you, because they don't
want you to Over the head.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
You're a little John.
Yeah, little John right, yeah,it's always.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
And we'll call him big John, larger like when I
took my inner-deprentice degree,I was 385 pounds.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Wow, and you're like 645.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Yeah, and I'm 295 now , so I've lost.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Okay, wow, 90 pounds.
What's the reason for that?
Well, tell us a little bitabout that.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Well, my health was just terrible, uh-huh.
I was type 2 diabetic and mya1c was like 11.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, that's bad.
I'm crazy, that's very bad.
Wow, how old are you, I'm 43.
Okay, yeah, that's bad.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
So I lost 95 pounds and now my a1c is 5.6 5.6 is
acceptable.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah what'd you do?
Just eat a little better.
Eat a lot better.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, eat a lot better, but also, you know you
have to go get the panels donebecause you have to do my
testosterone was a hundred.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
That's low.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, real low, and I had Hashimoto's, which is
thyroiditis.
Right, yeah, and I wasn'teating badly and I was like, why
am I not losing any weight, orwhy isn't this happening for me?
Well, you know, I'm insulinresistant right.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Hashimoto's and so right once I go hand-in-hand
there.
They feed off each other,that's right.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And once I got that taken care of it, you know I was
just continuing to do what I'vealways done and I just lost a
whole bunch of weight.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Right, exactly when, once insulin is lowered and
stabilized, then you can loseweight.
You cannot lose weight in thepresence of insulin.
It's just it's that's a hormonethat causes you to store fat
when insulin is high, becausethat's one of the safety
mechanisms that it was wasdesigned into our bodies.
You know, I was a type 2diabetic a decade ago and I was
(11:31):
in bad shape I mean, I'd be deadtoday and I made a decision to
change that and I worked reallyhard to overcome it, and I did
now.
This last year Chris and I weretalking about this just
recently.
This last year I've let it go.
My a1c was 4.4.7, 4 yeah, itwas very low and all my numbers
straight across the board.
I had the blood work of a 35year old is what I was told, a
(11:55):
healthy 35 year old and I workedhard at it.
This last year I kind of let itgo.
So this new year I'm one ofthose guys that makes New Year's
resolution and actually keepsthem, so apparently that's
that's not the trend.
So this year I'm going to dothe same.
I'm gonna jump back into myprogram and I get myself back in
health too, because when I'm,when I'm eating right and
(12:16):
exercising right.
I'm unstoppable man.
I am absolutely Unstoppable,and this has been a stoppable
year for this old man, so I'mgonna get back to that.
I don't know how I got downthat rabbit trail, so share a
little bit.
What do you, what are youpassionate about with regard to
our, to our craft man, we'rewhat you're a young Mason.
So tell us kind of where.
(12:37):
What's your vision?
What do you want to do inmasonry?
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I'm not really sure what I want to do yet as far as
you know along, to like a 20year plan or something I don't
really know.
I can tell you right now Ireally enjoy the esoteric
aspects of the.
Okay, I love a ritual.
So the degrees, the threedegrees of the blue lodge, have
been Like breadcrumbs for me, toempower me to research and just
go down the rabbit hole right.
(12:59):
Which, which I do with greatzeal, you know I just.
I love that sort of stuff so I'mfun at parties.
You know I have a whole bunchof like masonic fun facts just
from.
The research that I've beenable to do so far.
But I reckon pretty, prettyshort order I'm gonna have to
get into the Scottish ride orsomething.
Okay where I'm gonna get fairlybored.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I would recommend that's where you go first, yeah
after your first year.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I've always heard it say do a year, blue lodge one
year, don't do anything waituntil you're out of the
progressive line or might beanother good decision.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Yeah, you'll be very busy.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Yeah, because right, or, or or.
Dedicate yourself to gettingyour cards.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
He's got to build up a lodge.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
You know members, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
I need to do three ea's a month for yeah, a long
time, before you bring thatthing around my my masonic
mentor is Lynn with Thomas, whomsome of your listeners will
know.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yep, he's involved with MLT and his own level and I
think he's probably gonna get apromotion here shortly, and so
you know, he's a he's driven meTo be very conscientious about
that sort of thing and dividingmy time and, yeah, paying
attention and being present, youknow, and right myself to think
, yeah, yeah very easy to dothat in masonry.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
There's just so many interesting things.
You just like Because I justwanted all the degrees.
That was my thing when I joined.
I just want to see all thedegrees because I'm tired of my
wife's family telling me oh, youdidn't get all the degrees, so
that's where their reptilepeople live in the right, right,
yeah, fine, I'll get them alland then you won't you know.
So I got them all and lo andbehold, there's no baby eating
(14:30):
Satanism and any of the degrees.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Keeps coming back to good men trying to be better.
Hmm, yeah, what's the secret?
Well, that's the secret.
We're trying to help each otherbe better men, sorry.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah right.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So we you talked a little bit about and you
mentioned it, chris that, um,you are, you're, you're coming
into a lodge that's going toneed some young, some new young
blood, and it's gonna need somepeople to get in line and start
making their way through everylodges in that, every lodges in
that and and everybody who endsup in that situation begins to
meet with resistance along theway.
(15:05):
Oh, absolutely because we talkabout it all the time.
The old guard and the new guard, they it's, it's, it's.
There's this process of youknow of, of of giving way and
and there sometimes there's a,there's a resistance.
You know, along the way I know,chris, you went, you went
through some of that along yourway, just a little bit a little
bit, yeah, and we know otherbrothers.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
We talked to other brothers.
I've never stopped.
There's always resistance therealways is there, always will be
sure but it's like you have toget some Winds under your belt.
Yeah, go swinging for thefences.
You got to get to first base,Okay.
I get the second base.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Yeah, I like that analogy.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
You'll, you'll, you'll get there, but it's one
step at a time.
So we've been taking thosesteps and I'm really excited to
sit with a new brother who I'mnow coming out of the east and
you're just getting into theline right, I feel like we have
similar backgrounds from amarketing perspective.
Also similar thinking about thecraft in general, both
(16:01):
extremely zealous.
And I'm like thinking in mymind, man, I thought I would
have made it easier for someonelike you.
Yeah, I would, I'm really sad tohear that it's you're still
meeting the same Resistances Imet three years ago, four years
ago, well.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'm suffering from ignorance like I didn't.
I didn't know that you guyswere out there doing this and
had I known, I would Come to youbefore I started trying to push
my agenda Right, because youhave already done, and not for
nothing, bringing you into thelodge and having you show the
brothers that, look, what thisman Is talking about is going to
pay dividends.
Right, we're doing it, it isworking.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
You've been talking about it.
They just see that other lodgeshave done it and you're.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
You're telling them things they don't want to hear,
like, for instance, you know,the average age is this, and I
told you this story earlier.
The average age is this andthese are the guys, and if you
don't make changes by this time,next ten years, there won't be
a lodge here anymore and theyjust They'll believe it.
You can show them the numbersand they'll agree with the
numbers and then they'll look atyou and say why?
Speaker 2 (16:58):
so Right, a lot of people have this idea in their
mind, if it's always been hereand it'll always be here right,
yeah, we don't need to do anyactual work.
It'll be fine.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yeah, right, let's let's get into it.
Shall me, can we just discuss,like the modality of
communication right.
The way that human beingsinteract.
Yeah has vastly evolved overthe last 20 years in particular.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
He certainly has.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Freemasonry was always spread through the
nuclear family and the backyardbarbecue and these sort of
modality.
Bumper sticker in the bumperstick and these things just
don't exist anymore, right, youknow.
And so if we continue to try toleverage the same sorts of
activities to grow the crafts,we're gonna continue to get the
same result, which is what aroughly 10% year over year
(17:41):
decline in membership.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Yeah it's, it's accelerating, but yeah it's,
it's not great.
We are not.
We are not replacing thebrothers who are passing.
Right or committing ordemitting.
We're not, we're not at, we'renot even at zero yet.
We got a fight to get to zeroand none of that is said
disrespectfully, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
No all due respect to the men who have Dedicated a
lifetime to growing andsustaining the crowd.
For sure, absolutely.
But now we're dealing withgenerations that that don't even
communicate in the same way.
They don't even have the samePredispositions towards
community that we're used to noyeah and so if you want to
engage them, you really theimpetus is upon you to Do it on
(18:18):
their terms.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, it's.
Chris and I did a symposium inHillsboro last year Together and
one of the themes that we, thatwe did, that we talked about
was the future now a freemasonry, now what.
That was the whole thing andand it was it was, you know, the
questions we asked of the groupbecause everyone Was each on
some historical right and somecool things some guy did in the
(18:39):
past and we're, and we'rejumping to the future.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Hold on a second we're here, we're alive.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah mason's.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
What are we doing?
Yeah, what are we doing, likethese guys did.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yeah, and the question that we asked was was
do you care if your lodges herein 20 years?
Do you care?
And and we could see now thebrothers at Hillsboro are solid.
Shout out to a worstful Carolman solid lodge, solid people,
and, and they get it.
And I could see it on theirfaces when we said that I I do
want my lodge to be here in 20years.
(19:08):
And then the second part of thequestion is well, what are you
doing today to make that areality?
Right, and then we talked about.
You know that the, the, thebumper sticker and billboard of
the modern age is Facebook.
You know we talk about these,the billboards.
You know spending thousands ofdollars on billboards, which is
old-school, top-of-mindconsciousness advertising.
(19:29):
I used to be a part of that.
I'm an old man, I'm old-schoolmarketer.
I remember those days it worked.
It used to work because wedidn't have the internet, we
didn't have access like we dotoday, and that was our concept
like we grew up watching ABC.
Yeah, two channel, nine, threechannels bro.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
My son and my kids grew up watching YouTube.
People.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Oh right, yeah, and watch television right.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, other people on YouTube doing things right that
was, that was theirentertainment.
Yeah it's totally changed.
Everything has changed, yeah,how we communicate the, how we
receive entertainment, how weeven work.
I'm getting notifications on mywatch now, right right, I could
look at a website on my watchwhile we're having a
conversation.
Like things are different now,yeah to do with locus of
(20:12):
attention.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
If you think about the, the way in which people
engage with their environment,right, you know, some of these
outdated modalities, likeoutdoor or radio or television,
just don't work the way thatthey used to.
And I get the predisposition tobe present in the idea that we
want to be present and availableat top of mind when people are,
you know, doing whatever.
But what we need and modernFreemasonry is Conversion
(20:36):
modality, right, you see, weneed to inspire people to take a
specific action, right, and ifyou're, if you're in your car
and you're driving down thestreet and you see that
billboard, even if you're in agood mood and you're not
preoccupied, you don't have themodality, you the ability, in
that moment no to engage withthe content and take a desired
action where, and nothing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
It's expensive.
So now we're not your car whileyou're looking for a pen.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
So you write it on your hand even if you drive by
it on your way to work every day, it's good.
Yeah, I need to do that.
Yeah, I need to do that.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
after a while it's like, yeah, you don't even see
it anymore right and it'sexpensive for what it is yeah,
so now we're paying two grand amonth to have a billboard up
which which stone cold, nobodycan engage with right and you
know, never measure just to giveyou an idea as a digital
marketer, as a paid trafficconsultant, I can generate, I
you know, meaningful video viewsfor two cent.
(21:25):
Right, so like if you give me athree zip codes that surround
your lodge, I can absolutelysaturate that market with video
impressions of meaningfulconversations, right About what
are men doing in masonry, how ismasonry affecting the community
, how is it affecting theindividual man, right, and I can
do that for about two cent perimpression, which is to say
(21:46):
hundreds of thousands ofimpressions in a modality where
people are predisposed to engage.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Right and take action , and so that's.
I really think we're we'redoing some of the wrong things,
which is a surprise toabsolutely no one at this table,
right.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I'm preaching to you.
No, no, you're.
You are where we were a yearand a half ago, right, and this
is beautiful.
This works out.
Great Timing me I hold toProvidence.
Their timing is providential.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Some progress.
So the Grand Lodge has theirown marketing reimbursement
program.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Which we are members of the committee.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Yeah, for this coming year.
I'm dying to hear more aboutthat.
Yeah, you will.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I'll give you the elevator pitch right now.
So you do a lead generation adusing your Facebook's page.
Use a lead form yeah, okay,that's it.
Use the video to capture theattention Right, a quick 30
second video.
You target the demographic, youtarget the radius yeah and you
run that ad and it costs abouttwo to three dollars for the
leads that you generate.
And then you call those guys,pre-qualify them, have them come
(22:47):
to the lodge If they'reinterested in learning more,
which they are, because they sawthe video and they clicked it
and they gave you theirinformation and you sit and talk
with them and the purpose ofthat is to see if you want them
in your lodge.
Imagine that.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Imagine you don't have to take every guy that
comes because the main argumentis going to be these are crappy
people.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
That is an argument you will get.
Yes, we get it all the timewhen we talk about this, but
we're playing the law ofaverages here.
I had a fast grandmaster, tellme, would you co-sign a loan for
this person you're bringing in?
I said well, swarshville.
With respect, I wouldn'tco-sign a loan for my sister.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Right, that's a dumb question.
Plus, I've seen our owngrandmasters removed from the
fraternity.
Right so don't tell me that youcan tell who's a good and a bad
person from a one hourconversation.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
It's just judgment on them.
We're going to do a backgroundinvestigation.
We are.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
We're going to do the best we can with the tools we
have, but to do nothing is notan option If you have a
conversation and talking aboutAlistair Crowley, sex magic and
this is the who that?
Okay, maybe I won't sign yourpetition, right, and you like to
think about little kids toomuch.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
I'm not going to sign it.
I'm not going to sign it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, we've gone through that, and then we'll do
a background check and if youhave committed a felony, you
will know and you will notbecome a mason Right.
And if you've committed anyother serious crimes, the
brothers need to hear about it,you need to answer for it and if
it's acceptable, maybe you'regood enough now.
Maybe you're not.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I would argue that the appropriate filtering for
low quality people is not afterthe lead form, it's in the
content, it's in what you chooseto syndicate and why, and if
you crap the right narratives onat the top of funnel for that
right, the kind of person youwant to attract will be
attracted to that.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
That's right and that's the beauty of this
digital age and the talents thatyou two have.
You know to understand this andalso to articulate it in a way
that makes sense At least, itmakes sense to me, but I've been
in marketing for a long, longtime as well.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
No, it makes sense to even people that don't have it.
I think they get it.
They're just fearful of it.
They're fearful, yeah, and thatfear is getting in the way of
progress.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
sometimes they kind of like.
It's like, sorry, I have myreputation is at stake here and
I'm only here for a year, so ifit doesn't work then it's kind
of my fault.
I don't want to do it, you know.
It's like well, that's thewrong attitude.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Do you think Washington would have had that
attitude?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Heck.
No, I don't think so we'retalking about as an
entrepreneurial mindset.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
It absolutely is as opposed to an institutional and
institutional mindset.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
You're right, that's exactly right.
And that institutional mindset,you get stuck, you know.
You get stuck because yourbread and butter is getting to
this era, this timeframe.
Your bread and butter isn'tproducing A, b, c and D.
It's the span of time.
It's your one year.
I got to get through this oneyear and as long as I can.
(25:30):
I want to be responsible for newcarpets and I want to do a new
big carpet at the front entranceand maybe this, that and the
other and change a few things,and if I can accomplish that
then I can walk away saying thatI was a good worst-of-all
master.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Well, you don't have enough men to you know.
And where do you set the barfor success Right?
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, you know, it's like it's just.
It's good that we're revisitingthis entire conversation
Because we're at the point now Itold you this when we were at
the monument we're at the pointnow where the system is working
and we are making new masons allover the all over our district
and all over the state becauseof the program.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Now, We've got people from other jurisdictions and
other countries.
Other countries to do this,because they hear what we're
doing and say we want to do itin England.
Right yeah, we want to try thisin Iowa.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
And we'll do continue to unpack it, because you only
gave me the first piece.
The top of funnel is theFacebook lead ad.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Right.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
What other apparatus do you have built around this?
Because, look, I'm pretty goodat this, but I don't want to
reinvent the wheel if you'redoing it Exactly.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, no, you don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Take what we did and make it better.
That's what you want to do, andyou guys can do that.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know, lead generation is phase one, but
then, like John's on thecommittee, he makes the phone
calls.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
John, who Mr John Schaefer.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Mr John Schaefer and he makes those phone calls and
talks to the guys, meets them atthe open house or the dinner
and then we take it to the nextlevel and that's the other part
of it.
You know we could get them toline up and make phone calls and
do lead generation and we couldhave a hundred guys.
You know you could have ahundred guys who want to talk,
(27:09):
but if you don't have guys whoknow how to make the phone calls
, talk to them, bring them inand get them to sit down and
fill out a petition, you'restill just spinning your wheel.
So there's phase one, phase two, phase three phase four.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
You're in phase one, which is you got to do all the
work.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
You got it right.
Fortunately, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
I'm an entrepreneur, I run my own company.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, yeah, that's right, you're no stranger, and
that's the kind of person thatneeds to be in that role.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And then, all of a sudden, the naysayers are so
happy and they want to be.
You know, they want to getcredit for all the work as well.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
We're in phase two now, because John and you came
through in through the program.
Right we did, and now you'reperpetually in the program you
guys were actually brought inthrough Both of them.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
Both of us were yeah, wow, yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, telling you we had seven, five and four groups
that came through bam bam bamall at one time.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
You were group two and then we folded into group
one.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
So what were?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
you doing with budget , like, what are you spending on
this?
We?
Spend about $50 a month $50 amonth and that generates three
to four petitions.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
That generates three petitions a month Out of what
you get about 20 leads.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
So you're getting a 5 to 10% conversion rate on leads
.
Yeah, holy crap, but you have.
Why isn't the whole craft doingthis?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Well, it's starting, but I'm going to say it again
Because you will break the lodge.
You will break it, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
If you just run this.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
If you turn this thing on and leave it on and you
don't do any of the Phase two,phase three and phase four, you
will break the lodge.
You will not have enoughcatechism instructors.
You will not have enoughmentors.
No, that's the problem.
We had Cadillac problems comingfrom your perspective.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, you'd love to have problems like that.
We get uptown problems.
That's an embarrassing wealthof luxury Of problems we brought
in another generation behindthese guys.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
John is training one of them to do calls with them.
Right so it's going toperpetuate itself and it's going
to snowball the more you do.
But it took three years of medoing the hard work myself.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Right, and that's where you're at.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
You're going to have to do the hard work yourself for
a little while You're talking,4 or 5% of engagement to desired
outcome, which is a world-classmarketing outcome.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Oh yeah, yeah, it works like gangbusters.
You know how much it costs thelodge?
Zero dollars, zero dollars.
It costs them nothing.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Because the grand lodge reimburses the monthly
budget.
Right, yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
So this year, 2024, and that's what I was saying
earlier about Providence it isnot an accident that we have
come to know you, brotherJonathan, because I think that
this 2024 is the year that OTLon the level podcast takes this
entire thing.
Johnny, I'm looking at you overthere because you're OTL
executive producer.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
again, you need the mic, david.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
No mic for Johnny and we take this to the next level.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You know, and I can see it in your eyes man, you
should just sit next to thelabel share mic.
I know you're in.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
We can take this thing to the next level and
every single lodge in the stateof Florida and beyond is going
to know what this program can doand they're going to have an
opportunity to say yes to it.
They may not Some lodges maynot choose not to, but
everybody's going to get anopportunity to hear from us.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
The reality of this is this is what's working for us
right now.
This isn't going to workforever.
It's going to constantly change.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
That's right.
That's right.
You have to be flexible to movewith it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
Well, you're an agency owner, so you get this,
and a marketing agency owner.
You probably get this in a waythat most people don't.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Right, I'm just going to unpack it for a second Right
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
In the beginning, when you're trying to establish
the efficacy of a given thing,whether it's a business offer or
a new product, what you have todo is demand generation Right,
and that's usually done throughpaid traffic, and the point is
to validate the concept, right,right, but what we're talking
about now?
You've already validated theconcept of this work, so we can
extrapolate that to every lodgein Florida and we should, yeah,
(30:48):
but beyond that, you know, as abusiness develops and gains
notoriety and, and I dare say,preeminence, mm-hmm as you move
closer to preeminence, youshould be sourcing far more
business or far more outcomesfrom organic activity.
Yeah, then you are from paidactivity, so that's the next
level.
Yeah so let me tell you whatI've just done and I just love
(31:08):
to get an opinion from someeducated guys, right?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
All right.
Well, when we find some, we'lllet you know.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Go ahead came here, but he's the only one here, so I
built a website.
Speaker 3 (31:20):
It's not.
It's not a let, it's not alodge website in the way that
you think okay.
It's not ocean view for a calm,you know it's ocean view
community calm.
Okay okay, and so what I did isI aggravated or I aggregated all
the events from the north sideof Jacksonville onto this
webpage.
Then I created forums that are,you know, reviews of all the
schools in the local area, allthe events in the local area,
(31:43):
all of the, you know, churchesin the local area, reviews and
commentary.
And if you know anything aboutSEO which which I know I do, I
know some of you do In sixmonths time I'll own every
Google query related to thenorth side of Jacksonville.
Right, if I'm prolific aboutcreating content and Continuing
to curate all this information,which, honestly, is a suck.
(32:04):
I'm not gonna lie.
It does take three or fourhours a week, you know, but yeah
, and you're getting nothing outof it.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Not, not yet.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yeah but if I, if I do that for enough time, I will
eventually own every queryrelated to the north side of
Jacksonville.
Now I skin the bottom of thewebsite and the sidebars and the
navigation menus withpre-missionary.
So this website brought to youby Ocean View Lodge, number 408.
Here's what freemasonry isabout.
Here's how you can get involvedhere, the particular
(32:31):
requirements, etc.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Yeah, and then I even went a step further and created
a code or a page how to be aMason, yeah and created a QR
code, put it on the back of abusiness card, printed like a
thousand of them, gave it to allthe Brothers and said go and
spread the word, right so whatyou've done right is the
equivalency for the people thatdon't have a marketing degree
out there, of taking your lodgestable and sign out in front of
(32:55):
every major business in yourcommunity and manned it with a
Mason who's out there yellinghey, come and check out this
school, it's a really goodschool.
Yeah right, people go by andthey're like they see a
freemason as they walk into theschool and sooner or later
Someone's gonna be like, hey,who are you?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
What are you doing?
That's essentially what they'regonna say.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
My dad was a freemason everybody's idea for
how to get more people in thelodge was let's, let's replace
the signs, and I'm thinking, allright, we're missing the point.
Nothing wrong with that.
We should do that.
It should look excellent.
You mean in the front of thelodge?
Yeah, yeah to the extentpossible.
It should look excellent and ofcourse, we're very grateful for
that and it's something that weought to do.
But when you're talking aboutdiscovery, you have to go where
(33:36):
people are nobody knows tosearch for you.
They don't.
They don't know that they'remissing freemasonry from their
life.
They know that they're missingcommunity and brotherhood.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
That was me.
I.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
I didn't have any friends, right, I wanted friends
, yeah, yeah they know thatthey're, that they could stand
to level up their morality,become a better person, develop
their character.
Right but they don't know whereto get that and they're not
gonna search for freemasonry.
Nobody's gonna type ocean viewlodge 408 right, and then and
then come and become a member.
That just isn't how it works.
No, so you have to be wherethey are.
And where they are is what'sthe best school in Oceanway?
(34:09):
What's what's the right?
What's the best grocery storein Oceanway?
What events are going on in onthe north side of Jacksonville
today?
And if you can own thatconversation, mm-hmm, then you
win the right to injectfreemasonry into it and say sure
hey, by the way, now this iswho's giving, who's curating
this information for you.
Come and find out about it.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yeah.
And if you've already have itin your mind.
If you've already have yourhand up?
Yeah, I would.
I would be interested in moreinformation.
Well then, you bam Right soon,as soon as there there are, you
got them.
You got because it's already inthere.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
Yeah, we have Sarasota 147.org, which is a
website for our lodge.
We don't get a lot of petitionsfrom the website, but what we
do get are a lot of masons whohave moved to our city.
They're looking for freemasonryand they compare our website to
the other lodges and they'relike yeah, I'll, I liked your
website the most and that's whythey call us.
(35:01):
And it also works where, like,people on Facebook see our ad
and they say they're interestedand then they check us out on
the website and it kind ofreaffirms that we're real.
They see the pictures, they seeour community stuff and it's
like okay, this is safe.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
That's, that's modern .
Yeah, I want to fact checkeverything and double check that
you're legit the idea of asingle encounter Resulting in
conversion in a modern businessenvironment is is patently false
.
It doesn't right in that way,yeah they're gonna find you on
Facebook, then they're gonnaGoogle your website, then
they're gonna look at yourInstagram and then they're gonna
(35:36):
look you up on YouTube, Yep,and if they like what they see
in all those places, thenthey're gonna come back to your
website right.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Actually, they're gonna have FOMO right.
That's what you really want.
Yeah, fear of missing out,right.
They're like wow, I'm missingout on all this fun stuff that's
happening around me.
Right, right, yeah be doingthis stuff.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
So the way to do this is to tell stories.
Not don't, don't even marketfreemasonry, don't even talk
about the benefits of the crap.
Tell stories of the brotherswho are out there engaging in
the community.
Right, having an impact.
Yeah, you know, this changed mylife.
I saved my marriage, I leveledup my character.
I I helped a hundred kids getshoes for school.
Yeah, what is the impact on thecommunity?
(36:12):
That stuff is compelling.
People want to engage withstories.
They want you know.
Yeah, that's how you createFOMO really true?
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Yeah, because they want what other people have yeah
, well, and because they don'thave it, you know, and that's,
that's what they're looking forit.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
And again, if there are some common themes because
we, john and I, have talked tothousands of people interested
in masonry.
At this point, fair to say,he's shaking his head.
Yes, he doesn't have a mic, bythe way.
I'm gonna keep telling that butthere are some common themes.
One of them is people want tobe around good people, right,
and they don't find out in theworld.
(36:48):
They don't find it in thetraditional institutions that we
have in our societies.
They don't find it in theirchurch, the way they used to.
They don't have it in likesocial clubs that they used to
have.
So the they know that inthrough our ads that we're
running.
That's one of our common themesis that you want to be a better
person.
You want to be around goodpeople.
The only way it can be betteris to be around people better
(37:08):
than you.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Unfortunately, yeah, so what are you actually using?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
for video creative.
So the northern's jurisdictionof the Scottish right has
produced some really highquality videos.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Yes, yeah, I've actually put all of them out on
our Facebook page already.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
You're familiar with those like three or four.
There's long versions and shortversions.
Yeah, it's really good, we usethe short versions and we
customize the beginning of thevideo with like free masonry in
Sarasota.
Okay, so you just you slap thebookends on it and then at the
end it's our lodge contact info.
Yeah, yeah, easy high qualityvery professional and it hits
all the themes of brotherly love, right, being being a better
(37:46):
man and being part of somethingbigger than just targeting.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Is just zip code targeting?
No, it's a radius around thelodge males of we.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
we go a little older because it's hard for guys it's
just out of high school or incollege right to be to engage.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
So we go like 25 to 65 plus 25 mile radius around a
singular zip code, or so thatdepends on the lodge.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, we're in a pretty densely populated city,
sarasota, and there are fourlodges if we go in right five
mile radius, which is okay.
We've sent mason's to every oneof those lodges right.
You just have to behaveconscientiously with whatever I
mean whatever leads you weremason's.
Masons and if you live closerto that lodge and you work
closer to that lodge, let megive you that master's number,
(38:29):
because I think you'll reallylike this.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
And that fosters that fosters a lot more Unity
between the lodges as well.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
You make a lot of friends in the district that way
.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
You do Well, and then I'm responsible for him, I want
to be at his degree right and Ihave now a relationship with
him too.
That that means something tothe person, because nowhere else
in society does anyone careabout you.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
I think it would be really nice to be successful in
my particular lodge but raisingthe tide for all lodges.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
It's just you got to get the small win.
They see you win and then theywant to know, and then you can
finally get somebody in theirlodge to do the same thing and
you can help them.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Okay, guys, we got.
We got 12 minutes left.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
What.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
That's right we we got a mower here we got a monkey
suit up and we got to get overto Potomac number five, and we
got to be on time Because we aregoing to be there for an
installation and the gavelpresentation.
So, um, yes, I think there's abig after party too, and there's
a little bit of an after partything.
I'm not sure what that's allabout.
You know me and parties, butanyway, um so brother give us
(39:31):
kind of um, what's, uh, what'sthe future for you?
What do you?
What are you?
What are you looking for here?
I mean, I know we talked aboutmarketing the universe but
that's I mean personally.
What are you other than takingover the universe?
Which?
Speaker 2 (39:44):
is what we're trying to do as well.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yes, take over the world.
All men will kneel before him.
I just keep thinking of pinkyin the brain every time you do
that, man.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
Which one?
Speaker 1 (39:54):
am I pinky or am I the brain?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Johnny, what am I?
Am I pinky?
He doesn't have a mic, hecannot tell you, cannot talk.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Good, yeah, he said you're pinky Anyway, um, uh, so,
so kind of give it to you.
Get us out of here, man, as a,as a new mason passionate for
the craft.
Where are you going?
What are you going to do whenyou get back on Monday, or back
to your lodge next time?
What's?
What are you taking away fromall this?
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Well, we got stated communication on Tuesday.
Yeah, the very first thing thatI have to do is go in there and
start making an argument forthem to release these funds.
Yeah so I can do this marketingreimbursement thing.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
It's so, that's your passion right now.
That's, that's what you'refocusing on look.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
My passion is for the craft to be perpetuated and
developed.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
It's been so.
It's such a beautiful windfallof just, you know, guidance and
character development for methat I want to perpetuate it in
any way that I can, and this iswhat.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I'm gifted at this is what absolutely absolutely
right.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
And so, when all you have is a hammer, everything
looks like a nail right?
All right, so I'm gonna getstarted hammering in some nails
to the extent that I'm able toright so.
But I don't know, man.
I think I have a future here,like I seem to be Able to know
you definitely, definitely do.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
So we didn't attend a dinner last night, bad on us,
but I hear you that you gotrandomly tapped to do a Toast in
front of all the brothers, theGrandmaster, future Grandmasters
.
And you rose to the occasion,from what I heard, unprepared.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Well, thank you for saying that.
That's very kind of you.
I'll tell you what I said,since we have a few that would
be great.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
We do have a few minutes left.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
It's paraphrasing, but what I said was we visited
Arlington National Cemeteryyesterday.
Yeah, that's great and laterreef at the tomb of the unknown
soldier and we did a drawing tosee who got to participate in
that, and I was just very luckyto have been selected.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
We we posted video on our Facebook page of you do
yeah, yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And as a Mason, it's really only been raised for half
a year.
It's an incredible honor to youknow even be in the presence.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Grandmaster generally , but to participate in
something like that and it'sespecially moving for me because
I'm I'm on Iraq and Afghanistanveteran right.
I have four or five friendsthat are interred in Arlington
National Cemetery, so you know.
One of the brothers came to meand and apparently this is a
thing when Mason's dying out Ididn't know because this is my
first time, but there's a toastevery ten minutes or every five
(42:10):
minutes.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Depending on where you're at right.
Yeah, who you're?
Speaker 3 (42:13):
with.
He comes to me and says brother, since you're the youngest
Mason in the room, we'd love tohave you make a toast.
And I said, all right, let's doit.
So I got up and what I said wasyou know, I want to reflect for
a moment on what we did earlierat Arlington, because I have
four or five friends who areinterred there, who died in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
You know, when I was there aswell, and in most cases they
(42:36):
were much better men than me.
You know, they're better men.
They run faster, they'restronger, they can do more
push-ups, they can, they canruck more weight, they shoot
better than me, like almost tothe man.
They were better than me inevery conceivable way and I made
it and they didn't.
And you could.
You could very easily go downthe rabbit hole of survivors
guilt and say you know, and beatyourself up for why you lived
(42:59):
and they died.
I think the better way to takeit is as an indictment or or as
a challenge.
Be better yourself, yeah, so sonow.
Now I need to live in such away that I become as good or
better that you know and havethe impact that they could have
had throughout their lives toearn it and take that on as a
mandate and shift my mindset tolegacy.
(43:21):
Okay, and then I turned aroundand to all the the elder
brothers in the room, who waseverybody, because you know, I
said and and as you guys Climbthrough the ranks and attain all
of this wisdom andaccomplishment and a lot of you
know Very accomplished brothersin the room who've done great
things for you and as you teachme and invest time in me, you
(43:43):
are ensuring your legacy.
Yeah and then I in turn get tointernalize that information and
turn around and try to ensuremy legacy by passing and in this
way, we, we all, becomegrandmasters you know, yeah, and
that's what I said, more orless.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I mean paraphrasing right, yeah, well, it went over.
Big man and I'm, so I'm.
I'm not even gonna discuss howupset I am that we missed it and
I'm going to continue to blamemyself.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Nobody's stopping you from blaming yourself.
Apparently it got real quiet,but John the mic, so I don't
know.
Maybe.
Anyways, jonathan, it has beenan absolute pleasure to get to
know you and meet you, brother.
Speaker 1 (44:21):
Like I said, this is a providential meeting.
I I know we are gonna do moregreat things in the future, yeah
, and one of the things we havethe privilege to do is to give
people a voice, right?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
And so I personally imagine that I'm going to be a
great person and I'm going to bea great person.
Personally, I'm careful aboutwho we do bring on the show
right.
Fred's much more open than I am.
He's more interested in talkingto more people, but I'm very
picky, yeah, and I know Irealize what we are doing here.
Speaker 3 (44:52):
People are listening now, some people are listening.
Now, a lot of people arelistening.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
I don't want to just give anybody access to that
right platform, but you know, wefind someone like yourself who.
You have good intentions andyou have the skills to do the
things you're saying and youhave the passion and enthusiasm.
You've already started.
This is like a huge honor to usto have yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
You're gonna be a big shot here someday, that's right
.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
You're.
We're gonna go back to that onepodcast where we introduced you
to the fraternity.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
That's right.
That's right.
We discovered this guy and theglory will be ours.
You're welcome.
We're all about that.
You're welcome, brother.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Everything you ever do.
Well, before, before we go, Iwant to invite you.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
January 13th to come down to Sarasota.
So he's trying.
Sarasota and come to oursymposium, symposium that we're
putting on.
It's an eight hour day.
Yeah, we have education anddinner and drinks New York will
be a speaker.
Speaker 2 (45:54):
Juan Sepulveda will be a speaker.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Daniel Molina out of Miami will be yeah about doicism
and Freemason.
Yeah, that's good stuff.
Our keynote speaker.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Correspondence with the divine is what Juan
Sepulveda is talking about.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Yeah, you really enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
and yeah, right, where full Talia tall is gonna
be there talking about thefuture.
Yeah, and he's doing, we'redoing a it's not just them
preaching, we're doing it.
They do their presentation,then they sit down for 45
minutes and we do the podcasttogether with the audience right
.
The audience gets askedquestions really good.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Yeah, I'll be there if you guys.
Yeah, send me an invite orsomething, yeah yeah, you can go
.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
You can go online and you can too listener.
You can go online and On thelevel, friend.
Speaker 2 (46:36):
Right there, $50 or $50, you get all day education.
You get a buffet meal which isgonna be beef mashed potatoes a
good meal.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Yeah, it's gonna be a free drink ticket.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Because is it the shrine?
Because it's at the shrine.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
And they get they, just they got a big, beautiful,
beautiful tiki hut out therewith a fully stocked box after
party after party with threeruffian cigars will be
Absolutely and so, yeah, soAgain, jonathan, it's been an
absolute pleasure to have you,brother.
Chris, we're on our way outagain and give us something,
(47:10):
send, send us home what's, uh,what's on your mind, man?
Speaker 2 (47:13):
Not that man, I'm just really happy to get to meet
new brothers in the fraternity,that this kind of stuff is
really special.
We like when we were recordingthe first night, which yeah.
I mean, there's brothers whosenames I'd never heard right,
yeah now I know them and they'remy friend and they're my
brother, and this is why youhave to travel in Freemason.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Can't just sit in your lodge and make that the
whole of the fraternity.
You gotta get out there andmeet people, because that's
where the magic happens.
That's right, yeah, and like wecame here, we met you you know
you're gonna be able to do greatthings in the future and
hopefully we can be a part ofthat.
Speaker 3 (47:47):
Yeah, that's right, guys are doing it, so I'm just
trying to be like you.
It's a great pleasure, butdon't don't try to be like us.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Try to be like Johnny .
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Yes, don't try to be like us.
Well, he is John, and, and youknow that's, we say Jonathan, we
say it all the time.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
The question that we're asking this year 2024, the
question of the podcast is doesMasonry have something to offer
to this hurting country?
And we believe it does onlyonly many, many answers for the
young man out there who doesn'tknow who he is, doesn't know
where to go, has no men in hisin his life to help him become a
better man.
Well, freemasonry has somethingto offer to you and if you're
(48:21):
listening right now and you'recurious about it, go down to
your local lodge.
Go, I'm gonna say it threetimes Go down to your local
lodge.
Go down to your local lodge.
Go down to your local lodge andtalk.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
I know where my local lodge is just.
Google Freemason Lodge near me.
Yep, that's right, see it,you'll see it go down there and
tell them.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
A couple of knuckleheads on a podcast told
me to come down here and ask youguys about three may
Freemasonry don't mention us,because we want them to let you
in yeah, yeah, don't.
Don't say you know us All, right, yeah, don't do that, but tell
them you want to know somethingmore about, about the fraternity
, and get involved and you won'tregret it.
I don't know of a Mason I don'tknow of one Mason since I've
(48:58):
started this who who regrettedthe day they walk through those
hallowed doors.
Man and became part of thisfraternity.
Man, a global, a worldwideFraternity of men.
Everywhere we go in thiscountry, everyone we talk to in
this country, it's like abrother I've known for 20 years.
Jonathan, I talked to you, Ilook at you, I talked to you.
It's, it's as if we've knowneach other for a long, long time
(49:19):
.
Right, and that's what this isabout and that's what this
Offers so you all helps ifyou've listened, the alcohol
does help.
If you've listened, rubbingalcohol.
If you have listened to thispodcast to this point, you are a
hero of our show and we reallyappreciate it.
So Please.
Johnny doesn't want to sayanything.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
The end the end, that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
All right, we we got to go put our monkey suits on
and drive across DC to go toPotomac number five Installation
.
It's gonna be a great timetonight.
Afterwards we're hoping to getback on the mic and and do some
more broadcasting.
I'm gonna be up for that man.
I'm gonna drink me a bunch ofcoffee.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
After drinking a bunch of whiskey and, and then
we are just gonna hit the micand we're gonna go nuts oh and
bring some content, so staytuned, my friends.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Maybe we'll see you soon.
Speaker 1 (50:05):
We're ruffian cigars to we can get some three ruffian
cigars, we will definitely getinto those.
We've got plenty.
So, anyways, we we love youguys.
Man, stay, stay true toyourself and to your lodge and
we will see you guys on the nextone.
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