August 20, 2025 • 49 mins
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In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, Jeff Gum opens up about his transformation from overcoming a high school injury to conquering Navy SEAL Hell Week and becoming a successful entrepreneur. He dives into the brutal realities of SEAL training, how he battled rhabdomyolysis, and what it takes to build true mental toughness.
Jeff shares his transition from military service to civilian life—launching a high-performance swimwear brand and founding the Operator Challenge, a movement designed to empower others through adversity. He also reflects on valuable lessons from his time in Korea, and how cultural awareness, grit, and purpose have shaped his post-military mission.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration, resilience, and tactical insight on turning obstacles into opportunities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's
Arms.
Head over to the episodedescription and check out
Titan's Arms today.
Jeff Gumm, welcome toSecurepodcast.
How's it going, brother?
Hey, doing great.
Thank you for having me, dude.
Absolutely.
I think it's important to sharestories that show that we can
have an amazing career, and thenour second chapter can be just
(00:20):
as impactful, if not more.
Dude, what better way than tobring guys like yourself and
highlight their journeys on thisshow?
Because, dude, you've led quitea life.
So today, my man, I want tobreak it down, not only what
you're doing now and all yourdifferent missions, but let's
start off from the verybeginning.
How did you become a Navy SEALman?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, so it all pretty much started.
I was a sophomore in highschool and tore my ACL, got
stuck in a brace, was absolutelymiserable and went from like
working out every day and doingwhatever, whatever sports season
it was, to just being stuck inan immobilizer brace not able to
do anything, and I was justtotally going crazy.
(01:03):
I realized I needed the biggestchallenge in order to be
fulfilled.
I was like, oh, what's thehardest thing I can do?
And it's like, oh, be a NavySEAL, do Hell Week.
I just kind of became obsessedwith it.
And then, two years later, 9-11happened and it just reaffirmed
it a hundredfold.
Okay, I don't want to become,become a seal to do hell week
(01:25):
and challenge myself.
I want to go hunt the most evilpeople in the world.
And so it gave me a lot more ofa like, real meaning, to go do
it hell yeah, dude, yeah that's.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Uh, I think that's something that I've realized a
lot of people share from our agegroup.
It's like that polarizing eventof nine, 11 and a young man
like having that tenacity.
Like you know, there's, there'sa lot to be said for our youth,
but I think it's still.
It's still alive.
Today.
You give a kid an idea and then, once it gets rooted in that
(01:56):
brain, it's like that's going tobe a tenacious thing to take on
.
And, dude, I have to imaginewe've seen the tv shows, we've
seen and heard the stories.
But, bro, what was, what was itlike for you going through that
training?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
so, um, I got you know.
I I said I wanted you know thechallenge and to like do hell
week and the hardest thing andthe funny thing is like, be
careful what you wish forbecause you might get it.
Not only did I get to go dobuds, do hell week, all this
stuff, but I had everything.
(02:31):
I was so prepared but I hadeverything go wrong.
So friday before hell week,from the tijuana river and all
the sewage just getting put outinto into the ocean and
different rainstorms wash allthat out, all the sewage comes
up to Coronado when guys aregetting surf, tortured, doing
(02:51):
boats, doing boats, going outTons of people, viral
gastroenteritis just runsrampant through SEAL training.
So not only are you doing someof the hardest military training
in the world, but you're doingit while throwing up nonstop,
not being able to eat food ordrink water, and so from getting
(03:12):
this VGE, I was just throwingup, throwing up, I couldn't even
drink water.
Friday before Hell Week, Ifinally go to medical because
I'm like all right, this couldbe a serious issue if I can't
drink water and do Hell Week andeverything.
So I go to medical and you tryto stay away from it, but I'm
like I really need to go in andthey try to put IVs in me and
(03:34):
they all just keep missing.
Because I was so dehydrated,finally got one in and next day
I'm like keeping down Pedialyteand some different things.
Finally Saturday night I caneat a little bit of food.
Sunday I start Hell Week andit's all going fine the first
day.
(03:59):
But from all that dehydrationand extreme like hypothermia,
like we had people quitting, 30people at like Steel Pier, 30
people at the first buoy swim,and so dehydrationration,
extreme exertion from justrunning everywhere you go with
boats on heads and doing log pt,I ended up developing
rhabdomyolysis and my musclesbroke down so much my blood
became toxic with muscle waste.
It never even been diagnosed inseal training before.
(04:21):
So because everyone pretty muchjust quit, I'm sure tons of
people got it.
They just all quit when theygot it and all of Tuesday I'm
just falling out from under theboat.
Super weak on the log, wentfrom being pretty strong guy in
my class to just being like theweakest and then everyone that
(04:42):
had either quit or been droppedor whatever and I'm like that
was not going to make it.
An hour from Wednesday in HellWeek and a performance dropped
me.
They tell me you know you'regoing over to Extive all this
stuff.
And I'm like can you just takeme out and surf, torture me the
rest of the week?
I'll do anything to stay here.
And they're like what you can't?
I'm like, all right, I need togo medical.
(05:09):
Then because like something iswrong with me.
I've been getting differentshits for not performing and I'm
like I need to find out what'swrong and I go to medical and
I'm like I think I have swimmerinduced pulmonary edemia, which
people get PE from climbing thehighest mountains in the world
it's HAPE, high altitude.
Or people get it in SEALtraining, swimmer induced.
And I'm like it's got to bethis, because I felt like I
couldn't breathe either and myblood ox was high enough.
(05:31):
So it wasn't that I was.
But yeah, so I I'm like, allright, start calling all the
SEALs I know and have them startcalling in vouching for me.
I refused to put on like the Xdiv uniform that people.
I just wore my dress blueseverywhere Cause I'm like that's
a quitter uniform, I'm notwearing that.
I went to the senior chief whowas in charge of first phase and
(05:51):
I'm like, hey, I'm 23.
I have a college degree.
I never failed anything thisentire time, just got super sick
Friday before hell week.
I don't know what happened, butmy body stopped working.
You can go to medical and seethem.
You can take away all my pay,not.
But my body stopped working.
You can go to medical and seethem.
You can take away all my pay,not pay me the rest of SEAL
training.
You can take away the 40 grandbonus I'm going to get.
This is all I want to do.
And he's like.
He looked at me like I wascrazy too and he's like wow,
(06:14):
you're the first person everwalk in here and want to do this
again.
We're not going to take awayyour pay, but I like the way
you're like.
I mean, it was hard to arguewith that argument.
So many people had never passeda swim, never passed a run, and
they got another shot.
I literally never failedanything, I just got sick.
But then he started talking toother instructors and they just
(06:38):
remembered me from dying duringHell Week on Monday and Tuesday,
being super weak, and they'relike he doesn't deserve another
shot.
But these really respectedSEALs called in and vouched for
me.
Guys who had trained them putthem through first phase.
Guy named Mike Gecko was mymentor and he's, like Jeff's,
one of the toughest guys I'vetrained.
(06:58):
And so I got another shot.
I went to the next class.
I went from never failinganything to failing everything.
Now I had Rhabdo and I justwent straight from Hell Week
into Indoc into first phase,never got it out of me and now I
went from.
(07:19):
I'm like what's happening?
People always quit from Rhabdobecause it affects them so much
physically, it affects themmentally and they go and ring
the bell.
But I knew I would think oflike my grandpa who had been a
20-year-old fighting in Koreawith two purple hearts, shrapnel
(07:40):
through the neck, shot in thechest, got patched up, went back
out, kept fighting, never eventold his parents he was hurt
because he didn't want them toworry.
I'm like that's way harder thanhaving his friends die around
him.
That's way harder than whateverI'm going through.
I would think of.
You know, I'm like the sealcreed.
(08:02):
I'm never out of the fight, Iwill never quit.
I'm like if I give up here, Ifeel like I'm never going to be
able to come back and say theseal creed.
And so I'm like fail.
I'm like failing everything.
I come in last place.
It's the second second week offirst phase Now I come in last
place by like six minutes on afour mile time to run.
(08:22):
I got first phase on one side,driving next to me, and then the
second phase instructors,because the class I had been in
originally they started like 10minutes after us and all the
guys came flying by meeventually and so second phase
is on my right.
First phase is telling.
Second phase you're never goingto meet this guy.
He's going to be out there onthe Navy ship.
And I'm just like, wow, I havethe worst life in the world
(08:43):
right now.
Finish the run, most miserable,slowest run of my life.
It felt like I had like knivesin my shins and and like
concrete blocks on for boots.
I'd gone, I'd been going tomedical, all kinds of stuff,
trying to find out what's wrongwith me.
I'm like maybe I have stressfractures.
My legs hurt so bad, maybe Ihave like.
(09:03):
I kept going trying to find outwhat's wrong with me and I'm
like I cannot be this weak.
Everything was just goingreally well before and so I go.
Finally I go after that run I'mlike hey, I need to go medical
again.
I tell the doctors.
I'm like, hey, I don't knowwhat's going on, but I never
failed anything before.
Now I literally can't passanything.
(09:25):
I just had the worst run of mylife.
Everything was going great tillI got VGE before hell week and
then got like, just gotperformance dropped and all this
stuff.
I went right, he goes.
Wow, it sounds he goes.
You've never gotten, you didn'tget a break after hell week.
It sounds like you might havethis thing.
Rabdomyolysis sent me to thehospital.
I, I got blood work done andthen my blood came back toxic
(09:47):
with muscle waste.
I've been doing everything withrhabdomyolysis for like two
months at this point and sodoing that made me really,
really hard.
So I I go and I getconvalescent leave for like two
weeks and the instructors youknow now all the instructors are
(10:08):
like on me, trying to get melike, and now I get convalescent
leave again and they're likewhat or not?
Again they ask get it.
They're like what are yougetting this for?
Blah, blah, I go, I get healthy, I come back and then Ty Woods
is like my instructor, the herofrom Benghazi.
Yeah, I don't.
They actually don't make me doin doc this time.
(10:30):
I just do all these workoutswith the brown shirt rollbacks
and I had actually still been inshape.
It was just having rhabdo waskeeping my body from really
working and I got the rest.
First I think maybe I was likelight duty for another week.
Then I was like some upper bodybecause my legs were still
really hurting and all of asudden it was all out of my legs
(10:53):
and everything felt great andall of a sudden I could run like
the wind.
I was super strong and I hadalready done first phase like
multiple times once with my bodynot even working.
So I go into this next classand I take 12 minutes off my
four mile times run from the runbefore coming the top 10 out of
(11:15):
200 people and I'm just likecome across the finish line,
like look who's back, and I just, I just crush, I just crush
everything in that class Me andthe, me and the other rollbacks
who were strong would alwayslike you know, you get in the
height line.
Everybody under the boat is likeit's all based on height line.
We'd all kind of configureourselves to pick our boat crew.
(11:37):
We'd win.
We kept winning everything andwhen you win you get a break.
It pays to be a winner.
So you just keep winning overand over.
And I went through, graduatedSQT with that class, went to
SEAL, team 5.
And it was really years laterdoing the Honor Foundation,
(11:59):
which helps special operatorstransition in the private sector
, and going through all thisstuff and it was like what was
like your biggest kind of likeaccomplishment.
And you look back I was like,wow, doing going through hell
week and having all these thingsgo wrong and still accomplish
it and like having that be my,my like big.
That's why I want to be when Igrew up.
(12:20):
That was my dream, you know,and to still like push through
and make it.
And then it looked at like whatwas your strengths to what was?
Because we did strength finderas well what were your five top
strengths?
And it was strategiccommunicator, woo, which is
winning others over, like somemaximizer, and I was like how
(12:41):
did they make like that happen?
It was like winning others over.
I had to win over the like.
The original mentor went overthe.
The senior chief that put meback in went over like the seals
that all vouch for me.
(13:04):
That can also be the strategy oflike winning certain things,
knowing when to you know, gosuper hard and achiever, just
like never given up on my dreamsand I was like, and so looking
back and seeing like what ittook to get through it was a lot
more just than being tough.
It was having having thesestrengths and knowing how to
like, kind of use them.
And then also like knowing thatif I just made it through is
(13:27):
like a pretty, you know, pretty,pretty mentally tough athlete.
I never would have beenchallenged to my core the same
way that having everything gowrong and having to dig down and
like, push through and likehave you know they talk about
breaks you down and builds youback up.
That was the ultimate break youdown and build, build you back
(13:48):
up.
Because anytime something's beenhard in my life, I think back
to those moments and what Ithought was like the worst thing
happening to me in my life atthe time being dropped from my
dream, having my like dreamsripped away and like almost my
first heartbreak of my life, andto still make it.
(14:09):
Every time something happens tome, I'm like this is nothing,
I've been through so much worseand don't worry about the
problem, focus on the solution.
And so every time something badhappens now, I just like push
through it's going to make itworth so much more.
Dude absolutely the, the.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The ability to have that as part of your journey is
such a gift and you know mostpeople would say what are you
fucking kidding me?
That's a gift?
Fucking nearly died and peoplehave been seriously injured and
died from rhabdo.
That's not something to takelightly, but what, what people
need to understand is like yourworst moment, your rock bottom,
(14:54):
can be the greatest gift youhave in life.
It truly can, because it givesyou a reference, it gives you
something to be like.
Dude, I'm struggling, I'm havinga hard time right now, but it
is nothing compared to what Iendured in the past.
I can get over this, like a lotof people.
They have great, wonderfullives, but they've never been
tested and that's why I tellpeople like you gotta go out
(15:16):
there and live.
You gotta go into the placeswhere it's uncomfortable,
challenge yourself to dosomething hard like that.
The, the people who have itreally made out and are super
well off, and they've never beenchallenged like, feel sorry for
them.
Like if you take everythingaway from them, they will
absolutely fold and they won'tknow how to get back up.
(15:36):
And you are very fortunate manmyself, including everybody else
out there that's gone throughsomething difficult, and it's
not just military.
There's tons of different waysyou can get that resilience and
that's it.
That's the key word for the dayresilience.
You can't have it unless you'vegone through something
difficult, and you mentioned theHonor Foundation, which is
something great.
I was a member of that club aswell.
(15:58):
Shout out to them.
Great program, like it's animportant step of like finishing
that military career, finding aprogram that will help you
figure it out in your journey.
Did you always know that yourtime was going to be up?
Or how did you approach thatthat moment in your career?
Cause, I mean, you, you becomea seal and I have to imagine,
(16:20):
just like every other operator,a vast majority of us, you you
think you're going to do itforever.
At some point it's like I'm in,I'm done, nothing else yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So this was another great life lesson for me here.
So there's a time to persevere,and that first story you heard
was a time to persevere, andthen there's a time to pivot as
well to persevere, and thenthere's a time to pivot as well.
So I had I had done.
I was on my second deploymentand it was in the Middle East.
(16:51):
I was doing a hostage rescuetraining mission and we're going
around training all over.
I was with the crisis responseelements, so if, like, something
popped off, we'd be the guys togo in and do it.
So we were just training allthe time in case something would
happen.
And so it was a trainingmission and I fast roped down on
the roof and something I haddone hundreds of times and I
herniated my L5 S1, didn't even,didn't even know it, went
(17:14):
through the house, clearedeverything, went back, went home
, ate food and then overnight mydisc swelled and woke up with
crazy sciatica pain and my footdidn't work and I'm like, what's
going on?
And it was going over my ITband.
So I'm like, oh, I must havesome IT band issue.
And if my IT bands were tight,I'd always like roll them.
(17:34):
I tried rolling it and itwasn't getting anything.
So I literally started rollingit on a barbell, trying to get
deep in there and like took allthe hair off my legs.
I'm like this is not gettingbetter.
And I went to the.
I went to the doctor there andwas telling him I'm like hey,
can an IT band make your likefoot not work?
I don't know what's going on.
(17:55):
I can't lift it up and I justkept doing everything for a week
.
We were doing a bunch of boatstuff.
I was like carrying big engines, putting them on the zodiac
boats, driving around out.
Then, uh, eventually theyfigured out what it was and
they're like, oh, you have tofly to germany and have spine
surgery.
And I'm like what, whoa?
I was like, wait, so you knowhow, like, every part of your
(18:15):
spine works a different part ofyour body.
It's your l5s1 that works thedorsal flexion on your foot, and
so all the different injuriesI've.
I've like learned so much howthe body works, flew, flew over
to Germany, had that, had thatsurgery, uh.
And then I went back, was doingphysical therapy and my back
(18:37):
seemed better and I gotrecruited.
I'd been a fighter before.
The teams did Muay Thai andJiu-Jitsu, dean Lister and all
these guys at a victory MMA, andthen got recruited over to be a
(19:02):
combats instructor and then Iwas at the arena MMA with all
these guys they were like allour coaches and then my back
started getting kind of you know.
They told me it'd be all good,but then it just started getting
worse and worse.
Every like three months itwould go out on me and then it
was like every good, but then itjust started getting worse and
worse.
Every like three months itwould go out on me, and then it
was like every two months and itwas every month and it was like
I had to be really careful.
(19:23):
So I was like having to go tothe doctor all the time and he's
like man, you're back Like I'dhad a bunch of surgeries at that
point.
I had had an ACL, I had ashoulder, I had an ankle
reconstructed and everything Ihad surgery on mostly got like a
lot better, except like theback I noticed was just never
(19:44):
quite the same as, like you know, an operator, your back goes
out on you in a mission andyou're a liability for your
platoon.
So I kept trying to perseverethrough it and then eventually I
realized it's time to pivot.
During this time I had beengoing up to Los Angeles a lot.
(20:05):
I had a lot of friends who haddone their MBA at Wharton and
had founded different companiesand were founding companies with
different celebrities andathletes and things like that
and they were doing a lot oftheir business deals with guys
they had done business schoolwith.
So I was like, maybe with thislike door kind of closing here,
maybe I'll do my MBA.
(20:26):
It's kind of like a good way totransition and with that, with
that transition, I do do, dobusiness school, learn, learn
about business and I can grow acompany through that.
And I've been going to Brazilmany times with the family that
created Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu andUFC and I loved swimwear down
there.
The swimwear they had and I'dbeen wearing them all over the
(20:47):
world and everyone's like askedme where they can get them and I
was like, oh, maybe I'll takethis swimwear, make it patriotic
and all about freedom and bringit to the US.
And then it ended up bringingit through the entrepreneurship
pipeline at UCLA Anderson and itended up being my master's
thesis there, won UCLA StartupDay, did another Anderson, the
(21:10):
Anderson Venture Accelerator,and so I was able to kind of
scale.
My company like one door closedwith the SEAL teams, but I was
able to transition intosomething else that was really
meaningful and then use thatwith a because I think it's so
important to stay we have, likeyou know, one of the best
(21:31):
communities and brotherhoods inthe world and to be able to.
You know if, if you just leave,that that's when a lot of
people can really struggle andif you lose, like, your mission,
and you never really want yourmemories to be bigger than your
dreams.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So this episode is brought to you by Titan Sarms.
Head on over to titansarmscomand buy a stack today.
Use my code CDENNY10 to getyour first stack.
My code cdenny10 to get yourfirst stack.
I recommend the lean stack tostart living your best life.
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Speaker 2 (22:01):
No junk, no bullshit, just results like, have a way
to stay involved in thecommunity, have a way to have
another mission that's reallyimportant and be able to use and
grow and scale my brand to dothat.
You, you know, just reallyputting myself out there doing
all kinds of stuff.
I had walked across Greece witha bunch of people who are a few
(22:25):
SEALs and patriots, who wereraising money for the Glendory
Foundation Navy SEAL Foundationwent from Sparta to Thermopylae
I think we were the first peoplesince King Leonidas and the 300
Spartans to do that and finishin the hot gates.
Asked to be a part of theHudson seal swim, which we're
doing again for like the sixthtime in New York City three and
(22:45):
a half miles.
My friend Bill Brown reachedout, asked me to do it.
I had a ton of my friends join.
It was just like 30 seals tostart and Pete Hegseth was me
and Kaj's swim buddy for that,and then it's grown into this
year.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Is Pete a strong swimmer or is he a weak swimmer?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
He was not a good swimmer but I give him a lot of
credit because he had never Idon't think he had ever swam
with fins before, or at leastnot far at all.
And he's like on a day's notice.
He's like, all right, I'll puton this little bathing suit that
you have and go swim three anda half miles with Navy SEALs.
And he had like he was likemic'd up and had a, had like a
(23:26):
swim cap on and mic'd up andhe's like so we're literally
swimming together and this crazycurrent comes and we're just on
the first leg.
So the first leg is like, youknow, maybe a mile.
Next legs like a mile.
First, what is getting aroundthe statue of Liberty?
You go into a bar.
Do you do 22 pull-ups and ahundred pushups, but it's like
(23:47):
being on a treadmill and I'm I'mthere with Pete, kind of just
like swimming nice and slow, andhe's on his back at one point,
kind of frog kicking, and I'mlike, pete, you got to keep your
legs straight or you're notgonna like get it, or first he's
like hey, how far are we?
And I'm like we're like fiveminutes away, but then we don't
move at all because we're notswimming faster than the current
(24:08):
and he's like 10 minutes go by,he's like, how far are we?
I thought we're only fiveminutes.
I'm like you got to kick alittle harder.
And then he's like on his backdoing like a frog kick with fins
.
And I'm like, no, that's not,that's not gonna work.
You gotta keep your legsstraight.
And he's like, but my legs areso tired.
(24:28):
And I'm like, oh boy, we hadhim grab onto a jet ski then and
took him in.
And so I like finished the swim.
I like come up on the barge andhe's like halfway through an
interview and he's like that wasthe craziest current blood.
I like literally come out andlike step into a fox and friends
interview and it was justawesome.
(24:50):
We're going.
I'm like talking about swimmingwith them and everything.
And then and they're like thegirl that's doing the interview
is like were you nervous outthere?
I'm like this is my nervousspace, like careful.
And then then he's like I don'tknow should I do, should I keep
doing it?
And I'm like, pete, you justkeep doing it.
That was a tough part of thecurrent.
The next, the next ones, we'regonna be swimming with the
(25:10):
current a bit.
We jumped in again and he andhe totally and he totally
crushed it.
He did, he did awesome, youknow.
And then the next year he'slike hey, what fins should I get
?
I like sent him the exact finsI had.
I'm like just order these onAmazon and just like get your
legs conditioned, because if youdon't swim with fins, your legs
are gonna your legs will getget tired swimming three and a
(25:32):
half miles.
But I give him a lot of creditjumping in and do it, doing that
half miles.
But I give him a lot of creditjumping in and doing that.
He toughed it out and hechampioned us.
And then, you know, we allbecame close with him.
And then when he was nominatedfor secretary of defense, there
was many people who were notsupporting him originally and we
let we really let the Senateknow like, hey, the war fighters
(25:55):
are here to back Pete, he ishere to make the military lethal
again.
And we had like 100 specialoperators plus show up to do a
whole thing and I was sitting inthe hearing supporting him and
he made it.
He came in 50-50.
Got a few last minute switchesat the end.
(26:15):
I like to think we had somehelp with that and now he's
doing an amazing job rebuildingour military.
It was, you know.
You can look at the shamefulAfghanistan withdrawal and
everything that happened withthat and people think, oh, we
should just have retiredgenerals and admirals be the
secretary of defense or some.
It's like no, we need a realwar fighter.
(26:38):
Pete's got more combatexperience than all the
secretary defenses of the last30 years combined.
None of them did any warthemselves.
They might have been like, hey,you troops go over here, you go
and do that, but they were notthere.
He was.
He was the second lieutenant iniraq, like leading and leading
a infantry platoon, like he gotto see it all firsthand.
(27:00):
He was in afghanistan actuallyleading troops in battle.
He was not just directingtroops.
It's a big difference so, andso he's really fixing what we
need, what we needed over there.
So it's kind of awesome thatthat Hudson seal swim you know,
you know was able to, you know alot of people that that were
(27:22):
involved with that ended upbeing involved with helping him
out.
Now he's got a lot of top guysI know about helping him out in
the office of secretary andeverything.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
It's awesome, it's a.
There's a lot of seventh groupguys.
I got to meet him briefly inNormandy for the 81st
anniversary and what blew meaway is his, his, his little
entourage, his little cabinetand all his staff is thick with
7th Group guys.
(27:53):
I was like holy shit, I knowpeople that work with you.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, and a lot of SEALs too, too, so he's got all
the right guys, you know, givenadvising him the right way.
I had a lot of friends whoworked in the pentagon during
the last administration um yeah,advising the joint chiefs and
everything special ops relatedand they said it was just a shit
show with this lastadministration and they never
wanted to work in DC again untilPete, like there, and I'm like
(28:27):
this is like your chance to.
You took everything you learnedfrom working with the bad
people and now you know whatneeds to be fixed.
And that's exactly what'shappening now.
They got the right people inthere, not worried about dei and
woke and putting trans peopleinto positions, people that
can't even deploy because theytake all these medications and
(28:50):
everything.
They're putting people in thatyou know have have merit and
actually know what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's focusing on the things that really matter.
Lethality, exactly, and I'll beall Lethality.
Can it and will it make us morelethal If the answer is no,
make America lethal again.
New t-shirt idea 100%.
But, dude, I want to dive intothis because a lot of us get out
(29:19):
and we immediately try to go towhat's comfortable, what we
know, and there's nothing wrongwith that.
There are some amazing guys outthere with tactical companies
doing amazing work, and that'sgreat.
But to get out of the militaryand dive into swimwear, dude,
that is about as unconventionalas fuck.
(29:40):
Right there, you should havebeen a Green Beret.
How did that start and where isit at now, and where do you see
it growing into the future?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah.
So it started kind of becauseof my trips to Brazil and
everything and being there withthe Gracie family and I'm like
hanging out on a beach in Rio deJaneiro with a bunch of the
Gracies and girls these like hotBrazilian girls and I'm like
the only guy in board shorts andI'm like, shoot, I'm like I I
(30:09):
think I need to get some ofthese Tsungas.
They look like they dry fast.
You get better suntans, youknow.
I'm telling the girl like allthese kind of you know reasons
that make sense to me and shegoes, yeah, and they look so
sexy on men and I'm like that'sit.
I bought like 10 of them,started wearing them all over
the world and I'd go to likeCroatia yacht week or Vegas or
(30:31):
Australia or wherever, andthat's what I would wear.
I wouldn't even have to go tryto talk to girls.
They just come up to me andcompliment me on my swimwear and
guys would be like, oh yeah, Icould never wear that.
And then they'd come up like anhour later and be, hey, where,
where can I get one of them?
Do you have any extra?
I'm like, well, I'm not givingyou my swim and so it's
(30:52):
literally ranger panties.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
It's literally ranger panties.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Well, there's a there's.
There's like, yeah, rangerpanties and silkies.
So originally I had theBrazilian style Speedo.
That's just a little like.
It's kind of like a hybridbetween silkies and a Speedo,
and then I was like, all right,I need to.
You know, silkies and Rangerpanties were a big thing.
(31:24):
I'm like all right, I'm need tomake, I need to extend my
product line.
Started making silkies, butmore like almost like a
lululemon navy seal version.
And then I was like in businessschool and I'm like, well, I
can't wear, like you know, these, this like speedo type thing or
silkies to class, but I canmake some board shorts that have
like functional pockets.
I started making that and otherpeople would be doing their
business and venture likepitches wearing a suit and
(31:45):
everything and I'd be like I'dgo in and a peacock pair of
board shorts and be likepitching all this stuff, talking
about the things I'm doing.
Talking about like being onMike Tyson's podcast or doing
the Hudson swim on Fox andfriends, or doing a walking
across, walking from Sparta toThermopylae and having friends
(32:06):
fight MMA in it and having, yeah, all different kinds of people
and celebrities and things whereand fight it.
It was a yeah, it was reallyfun doing that and I learned a
ton.
The market has got it, got itgone up a lot, especially like
2020, 2021.
(32:27):
Overall, I've done a fewmillion in sales, but it has
been a tough, a tough businessas well, especially the last few
years, the market more kind ofveterans have gone into.
It made similar shorts andswimwear and things like that.
So it's gotten more of acongested market and so actually
(32:49):
started going into some otherventures.
I've been building a shootingrange up in palm beach county as
well and it's like a privatemember private member shooting
range.
Several soft guys are involvedwith that Drew Platus, kaj
Larson, rob O'Neill and somebusiness guys as well.
It's on like 16 acres outdoors.
(33:09):
We've got like a helicopter pad.
Jake Paul flew in on ahelicopter, took him shooting
all kinds, all kinds of people.
We had guys from NELC up thereNELC boys a few weeks ago put
them through like a day of SEALtraining and yeah, and then
we're actually just made a um.
It's like a YouTube channelwhere it's going to be.
(33:31):
It's called the operatorchallenge.
So take guys, put them throughall this like beach training,
just kicking their butt on thebeach.
Have them do all these workoutsand challenges.
Then we bring them across tothe Fort Lauderdale Hall of Fame
pool.
This big, crazy high dive isthere.
It's like a 90 foot high dive,amazing pool.
We put them through all thisunderwater training, drown
(33:53):
proofing, 50 meter underwaterswim, the 500 meter swim as part
of the physical screening testthey do all this stuff.
We beat them, have them runwith weights underwater, have
them try to run the 50 meterunderwater with the weights, and
then we leave there.
We go up to the shooting rangeand then teach them pistol,
teach them rifle, make surethey're safe, walking pistol,
(34:15):
rifle transitions, and then wehave them do a whole stress
course where they have to runwith a sandbag like 200 meters
out around us, hammer, run back,do five pull-ups they're
wearing body armor shoot allthese shots, run back, do the
same thing, shoot all theseshots, run back, do the same
thing, shoot with rifle and thenfinish with pistol on steel.
(34:36):
So it's like a whole stresscourse and so we just launched
that.
That's been pretty fun.
We're going to have some putsome more people through it the
first week of august.
And then there's been a bunchof other crazy stuff too.
Um, a bunch of yeah, differentyoutubers will have me and kaj
and mitch and ian all put guysthrough like a day of seal
(34:59):
training and stuff.
And then we were on like beastgames, like the amazon prime
video.
We had to jump out of thehelicopter, swim in and hunt the
contestants who are trying towin $10 million.
So we got to ruin some dreamsout there in Panama.
People think they're likehiding in the mud, predator
style, and we had to, we had to,we had to, we had to find them
(35:21):
and snatch them.
It was like a mile by milejungle.
It was like not easy to findpeople.
We're like out there.
They're like out there.
They're like you're all navyseals, you're gonna find them in
like 15 minutes.
It's like well, if someone'sout there in a mile by mile
jungle and they're under mud,it's like kind of hard to find
them.
But it was, uh, it was a greattime ended up being like a
brocation as well.
We're just like at the jwmarriott, at the pool and taking
(35:44):
jet skis all around and awesometime.
And then last year I did a crazyTV show in Korea as well.
So we went out and we competedagainst it was like a month long
challenge competing againstfive different Korean special
ops teams.
They had the Korean seals,called UDT.
They had the 707s, which islike their Delta force, their
(36:08):
keg, and then they had, uh, thehid and they had special forces.
So we literally had all thiscrazy stuff sniper, stress
courses, mud wrestling.
Well, we were like all, eithernearly 40 or some guys were even
two, guys were 46 and the guyswho were competing against were
(36:29):
all like 28.
But we we definitely showedthem what what the americans
were all about.
We we had a rough couple daysbecause we got there and we were
like jet lagged had just gottenin.
The first thing we did was mudwrestling and then after that we
started kind of winningeverything for a while and and
uh, yeah, it was pretty, it waspretty, it was pretty great.
(36:49):
But we became super close withum.
All the koreans were like superclose friends with them.
One of my friends from thatjust broke the pull-up world
record.
Yeah, I saw that guy yeah, 707pull-ups and he could have done
more.
He's such a beast, but hewanted to finish with 707
pull-ups and he could have donemore.
He's such a beast but he wantedto finish with 707 because he's
(37:10):
in the 707.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that.
One of the weirdest but coolestexperiences I got to do as a
Green Beret was way back duringthe first Trump administration,
where we thought there might besomething going on.
I got to go down toorea do asoft liaison gig for like six
bucks, yeah.
So I got to partner up with thekorean uh special forces guys
(37:32):
and they're great, fucking dudes, man they are they are amazing
dudes, dude, yeah how much doyou?
Love korean barbecue.
Oh my god dude I I do it.
I learned how to do it.
Like I yeah, I love kimchi somuch.
It's such a healthy fermentedfood for you.
Like my entire, like the theamount of traveling I got to do
the Olympics there.
(37:53):
Like there are so many friggingthings I got to do and it's
like one of the greatest keptsecrets.
Like I don't always give a lotof credit to first special
forces group, but I will tellyou, if you want to travel and
go see some great places, firstgroup not bad, not bad, they
have it it.
They kept it under wraps.
I'm going to tell you, southamerica was pretty cool, peru's
amazing.
(38:13):
But uh, korea, uh, it waspretty fucking awesome that's,
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, it was funny.
They they were like for a bitsome of the other korea, the
korean teams were complaining abit because we started saying
sometimes they'd give them likerandom food or whatever and I'd
be like, oh, I have dietaryrestrictions, I can't eat that.
And they'd be like, oh yeah,jeff can't eat that kind of
stuff.
And then we'd all go to Koreanbarbecue and the producers would
(38:41):
take us there and they'd belike, why are the Americans
getting special treatment?
But the other thing that wascrazy they they're like, hey, do
you mind sleeping on the?
This was one thing I didn'trealize.
We get there Like, hey, do youmind sleeping on the floor?
That's what everybody in Korea.
I'm like, well, is there a goodground pad or anything?
(39:02):
They're like, yeah, there'sgood ground.
I'm like, all right, well,that's what they're doing.
We yeah, there's good ground.
I'm like, all right, well,that's what they're doing, we
can do it.
A ground pad to them was like ablanket.
I'm like I literally get therefirst day.
I like break my rib gettingtackled in a mud pit and land on
a rock hard sandbag.
I feel my ribs pop out.
So then we go back and they welost and they basically
(39:27):
interview us for an hour aboutwhy we suck so bad.
And they told us to kind oftalk shit as well.
And we did.
And then they're like why'd yousay?
And then we literally lost themud wrestling thing.
I'm like a grappler too.
And I'm getting ready tograpple and all of a sudden,
(39:47):
like my feet are.
I'm like my feet are reallystuck in that and God just goes
for my leg right away.
Damn, break my rib.
My partner, it's two on two.
My partner gets pushed out.
So now I'm like have my ribpopped out and I have two guys
(40:11):
on.
Now I'm like laying on theground to sleep.
I like try to get up, go to thebathroom.
I can barely even get up andthen, uh, one of the people from
the crew from the korean seals,ended up winning like best
individual soldier for like thefirst.
It had a few events and thenthey got to choose a team they
would compete against andbecause we had like kind of
talked shit to them, they choseus.
So now it's a whole boats on.
(40:32):
I'm like boats on heads.
My one buddy hadn't done boatson heads since before 9-11.
Here we are getting ready to doboats on heads at the beach and
against a team that just won,and we end up just totally
smashing them.
And so they literally wentthrough this whole best soldier
competition, won it, just to getbeat by us.
(40:55):
And then they go off and haveto do the death match and we got
to go back to our hotel andbasically do a korean spa for a
couple days while they weredoing the death match and didn't
sleep and we like have to go infor some like photos and all
this stuff.
They're like taking photos forthe like billboards that go up
in our time score about our TVshow and we see the guys.
(41:18):
I'm like, oh, what's up guys?
How's it going to go?
We come from hell.
I'm like shouldn't have choseus.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
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Oh my god, yeah, I, I lovekorea.
I cannot wait to go back andjust a vacation and tour,
because there's, like it'sreally honestly one of the best
(41:52):
places that I've been able tolike, experience culturally,
like everything about it.
My wife and I talk about allthe time like we need to go back
and just visit.
This is really the food, thepeople.
Yeah, if you don't know, gottago, you gotta go.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
It was really special and we got a little bit of time
off and stuff in the middle too.
I got to go to their.
So their civil war was a koreanwar, you know.
Yeah, so I got to go to museumand there was like the first
floor which was all theirancient.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, it's amazing.
That place is amazing they.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
They've been invaded.
It was like 1,100 times in thelast 800 years or something.
They've been invaded.
It was like Mongol invasion,one Mongol invasion, two Mongol
invasions, song Dynastyinvasions, the Japanese
invasions, all this crazy stuff.
They've had it rough and thensee all that.
(42:49):
Then there's like the secondfloor or third which was all
their you know civil war stuffand I got to learn all the.
My grandpa was in a unit, thebaker bandits, and that's where
he had his purple hearts andeverything and I got to learn
about all his places he wentwhen he landed in Chin and had
to go all the way up and then hehad to retreat from the Chinese
(43:10):
and just all the crazy stuffthat was there.
And we were up at the DMZ andthere was the American Memorial
up there.
While I was there they had meFaceTime my grandma, who was 91.
She was telling stories aboutgrandpa and everything from when
(43:30):
, when he was there and he wasjust a 20 year old.
She didn't, she didn't evenreally know him yet, but uh, his
, but she heard the stories fromhis parents and everything.
So she got to tell the storiesabout him on facetime, literally
at the memorial, on the TV showand stuff.
So that was really cool.
It was raining, it was verysomber, but like a beautiful
(43:55):
kind of experience and all theKoreans there really were.
So I mean, I had so manyKoreans reach out and they go.
We just can't believe that.
You know, some people thinkAmericans shouldn't go and be
the policeman of the world andall these things.
It's like when has it ever beena positive thing?
Well, I'll tell you, it was apositive thing in Korea.
(44:16):
All of Korea would be likeNorth Korea if the US didn't go
with the Marines and the Armyand support with the Navy and
everything else and, like youknow, in the army and support
with the navy and everythingelse.
And and like you know when, whenback south korea it had all
been taken over, my, my cousin,ended up marrying a korean girl,
min, and she told me about hergrandfather.
(44:38):
He had to go and fight.
I think he you know he was, Idon't know if he was a farmer or
what, but but he had to go andfight, like in the first wave,
and they just never found himagain and literally her grandpa
left and just never to be seenagain.
It was finally in some DNA, Ithink in 2004 in a mass grave.
(45:01):
They found him and she alwaysshe said she always looked up to
my grandpa so much because ofhim going there and fighting and
helping create that freedom fortheir whole country.
They have such a beautiful,thriving, amazing country and
you can look at the starkcontrast in north korea, where
(45:22):
people will literally just getput in a prison for three
generations, their whole family.
They'll think the whole worldis a prison camp and they're
starving.
They're like a foot shorterthan the Koreans and South Korea
because they have somalnutrition and you can see
what the positives with the U Shad been and the Korean see that
and they're just like in shockthat America would go and do
(45:45):
that and protect them and savethem and help them create this
thriving economy and countrythat they have now.
So that was really awesome tosee all that as well and see it
personally.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, it's amazing to see it and that museum man,
it's like one of the best,especially the outside,
everything that they have, it'swell designed, everything about
it just leaves you walking awaywith like true understanding.
Our education system doesn't doenough to really teach
americans and young, youngadults like the gravity of that
(46:17):
conflict and what our young menand women like really sacrifice
going there.
And uh, I will tell you onething, having been there in
winter holy shit, yeah, korea,south korean, winter is fucking
brutal.
So just imagining our youngservice members going in there
and and having to suffer andpersevere through that is uh
(46:39):
insane a million chinese show upout of nowhere and you don't
even know.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
It's like where'd a million chinese come from.
They're competing in themountain and now you gotta fight
a million Chinese like whatJeff dude, it's been a pleasure
dude.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
I can't thank you enough for coming on here if
people want to connect with youand check out what you got going
on, where can they go?
Speaker 2 (46:59):
so at Jeff gum on Instagram, jeffgum.
If you want to check out soongood life and get some of the
best swimwear and athleisure, itis at soon Good Dot life.
S U N G a dot L, I, f, e.
Those are two of the two of thebest ones right there and then
on YouTube, once we launch it'llprobably be cause we're filming
(47:20):
a few episodes you can do theoperator, the operator challenge
and the operator challenge andyeah, that's uh, yeah, check,
check all that out.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
You'll enjoy it.
I can't wait and I'm gonna haveto bring you back so we can
talk about the operatorchallenge.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Uh, dude, this can be fucking awesome, uh, especially
if you get to put some moreinfluencers through the rung
yeah, yeah, it's always a goodtime and it's funny because we
just like smash them on thebeach and then they're like this
is the hardest thing I've everdone in my life.
And I'm like, yeah, it's only9am and you got 10 more hours.
(47:53):
And they're like but at the endof it, like doing even better
than they were in the beginningand it's like, yeah, it's
because your whole mentality hasshifted and changed.
And they're like and thenthey're able to take that the
same way I took you know, it'sjust a small little taste, it's
not, you know, going throughbuds with rhabdo and everything
but the same way I took that andapplied it to the rest of my
(48:14):
life.
They can take that day andapply it to everything they're
doing as well.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Absolutely.
It'll inspire people to go outthere and suck, cause that's
honestly like.
That's a big lesson in lifethat not enough people are
hearing.
We hear about all the great funthings you can do, but it's not
about comfort and seekingpleasure.
It's about getting dirty andgoing after something that's
difficult, hard, arduous,failing, falling down and
picking yourself back up Sorry.
That's how you build resilience.
(48:40):
So if we want people to be moreresilient, if we want people to
develop that grit, get outthere, fucking, get after it and
be willing to fail, fail fast.
Jeff, thank you so much forbeing here.
Everybody tuning in, thank youso much for being here with us.
Do me a favor, hit up that like.
Subscribe.
Go to the comments section.
Leave us a few words.
(49:01):
Say hey, jeff's swimwear isfucking awesome.
I'm wearing a pair today, Idon't care.
Leave something.
It helps us, helps us grow andI appreciate you all for tuning
in.
We'll see you all next time.
Until then, take care.
Securepodcast is proudlysponsored by Titan's Arms.
Head over to the episodedescription and check out
Titan's Arms today.
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's
Arms.
Head over to the episodedescription and check out
Titan's Arms today.
Jeff Gumm, welcome toSecurepodcast.
How's it going, brother?
Hey, doing great.
Thank you for having me, dude.
Absolutely.
I think it's important to sharestories that show that we can
have an amazing career, and thenour second chapter can be just
(00:20):
as impactful, if not more.
Dude, what better way than tobring guys like yourself and
highlight their journeys on thisshow?
Because, dude, you've led quitea life.
So today, my man, I want tobreak it down, not only what
you're doing now and all yourdifferent missions, but let's
start off from the verybeginning.
How did you become a Navy SEALman?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, so it all pretty much started.
I was a sophomore in highschool and tore my ACL, got
stuck in a brace, was absolutelymiserable and went from like
working out every day and doingwhatever, whatever sports season
it was, to just being stuck inan immobilizer brace not able to
do anything, and I was justtotally going crazy.
(01:03):
I realized I needed the biggestchallenge in order to be
fulfilled.
I was like, oh, what's thehardest thing I can do?
And it's like, oh, be a NavySEAL, do Hell Week.
I just kind of became obsessedwith it.
And then, two years later, 9-11happened and it just reaffirmed
it a hundredfold.
Okay, I don't want to become,become a seal to do hell week
(01:25):
and challenge myself.
I want to go hunt the most evilpeople in the world.
And so it gave me a lot more ofa like, real meaning, to go do
it hell yeah, dude, yeah that's.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Uh, I think that's something that I've realized a
lot of people share from our agegroup.
It's like that polarizing eventof nine, 11 and a young man
like having that tenacity.
Like you know, there's, there'sa lot to be said for our youth,
but I think it's still.
It's still alive.
Today.
You give a kid an idea and then, once it gets rooted in that
(01:56):
brain, it's like that's going tobe a tenacious thing to take on
.
And, dude, I have to imaginewe've seen the tv shows, we've
seen and heard the stories.
But, bro, what was, what was itlike for you going through that
training?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
so, um, I got you know.
I I said I wanted you know thechallenge and to like do hell
week and the hardest thing andthe funny thing is like, be
careful what you wish forbecause you might get it.
Not only did I get to go dobuds, do hell week, all this
stuff, but I had everything.
(02:31):
I was so prepared but I hadeverything go wrong.
So friday before hell week,from the tijuana river and all
the sewage just getting put outinto into the ocean and
different rainstorms wash allthat out, all the sewage comes
up to Coronado when guys aregetting surf, tortured, doing
(02:51):
boats, doing boats, going outTons of people, viral
gastroenteritis just runsrampant through SEAL training.
So not only are you doing someof the hardest military training
in the world, but you're doingit while throwing up nonstop,
not being able to eat food ordrink water, and so from getting
(03:12):
this VGE, I was just throwingup, throwing up, I couldn't even
drink water.
Friday before Hell Week, Ifinally go to medical because
I'm like all right, this couldbe a serious issue if I can't
drink water and do Hell Week andeverything.
So I go to medical and you tryto stay away from it, but I'm
like I really need to go in andthey try to put IVs in me and
(03:34):
they all just keep missing.
Because I was so dehydrated,finally got one in and next day
I'm like keeping down Pedialyteand some different things.
Finally Saturday night I caneat a little bit of food.
Sunday I start Hell Week andit's all going fine the first
day.
(03:59):
But from all that dehydrationand extreme like hypothermia,
like we had people quitting, 30people at like Steel Pier, 30
people at the first buoy swim,and so dehydrationration,
extreme exertion from justrunning everywhere you go with
boats on heads and doing log pt,I ended up developing
rhabdomyolysis and my musclesbroke down so much my blood
became toxic with muscle waste.
It never even been diagnosed inseal training before.
(04:21):
So because everyone pretty muchjust quit, I'm sure tons of
people got it.
They just all quit when theygot it and all of Tuesday I'm
just falling out from under theboat.
Super weak on the log, wentfrom being pretty strong guy in
my class to just being like theweakest and then everyone that
(04:42):
had either quit or been droppedor whatever and I'm like that
was not going to make it.
An hour from Wednesday in HellWeek and a performance dropped
me.
They tell me you know you'regoing over to Extive all this
stuff.
And I'm like can you just takeme out and surf, torture me the
rest of the week?
I'll do anything to stay here.
And they're like what you can't?
I'm like, all right, I need togo medical.
(05:09):
Then because like something iswrong with me.
I've been getting differentshits for not performing and I'm
like I need to find out what'swrong and I go to medical and
I'm like I think I have swimmerinduced pulmonary edemia, which
people get PE from climbing thehighest mountains in the world
it's HAPE, high altitude.
Or people get it in SEALtraining, swimmer induced.
And I'm like it's got to bethis, because I felt like I
couldn't breathe either and myblood ox was high enough.
(05:31):
So it wasn't that I was.
But yeah, so I I'm like, allright, start calling all the
SEALs I know and have them startcalling in vouching for me.
I refused to put on like the Xdiv uniform that people.
I just wore my dress blueseverywhere Cause I'm like that's
a quitter uniform, I'm notwearing that.
I went to the senior chief whowas in charge of first phase and
(05:51):
I'm like, hey, I'm 23.
I have a college degree.
I never failed anything thisentire time, just got super sick
Friday before hell week.
I don't know what happened, butmy body stopped working.
You can go to medical and seethem.
You can take away all my pay,not.
But my body stopped working.
You can go to medical and seethem.
You can take away all my pay,not pay me the rest of SEAL
training.
You can take away the 40 grandbonus I'm going to get.
This is all I want to do.
And he's like.
He looked at me like I wascrazy too and he's like wow,
(06:14):
you're the first person everwalk in here and want to do this
again.
We're not going to take awayyour pay, but I like the way
you're like.
I mean, it was hard to arguewith that argument.
So many people had never passeda swim, never passed a run, and
they got another shot.
I literally never failedanything, I just got sick.
But then he started talking toother instructors and they just
(06:38):
remembered me from dying duringHell Week on Monday and Tuesday,
being super weak, and they'relike he doesn't deserve another
shot.
But these really respectedSEALs called in and vouched for
me.
Guys who had trained them putthem through first phase.
Guy named Mike Gecko was mymentor and he's, like Jeff's,
one of the toughest guys I'vetrained.
(06:58):
And so I got another shot.
I went to the next class.
I went from never failinganything to failing everything.
Now I had Rhabdo and I justwent straight from Hell Week
into Indoc into first phase,never got it out of me and now I
went from.
(07:19):
I'm like what's happening?
People always quit from Rhabdobecause it affects them so much
physically, it affects themmentally and they go and ring
the bell.
But I knew I would think oflike my grandpa who had been a
20-year-old fighting in Koreawith two purple hearts, shrapnel
(07:40):
through the neck, shot in thechest, got patched up, went back
out, kept fighting, never eventold his parents he was hurt
because he didn't want them toworry.
I'm like that's way harder thanhaving his friends die around
him.
That's way harder than whateverI'm going through.
I would think of.
You know, I'm like the sealcreed.
(08:02):
I'm never out of the fight, Iwill never quit.
I'm like if I give up here, Ifeel like I'm never going to be
able to come back and say theseal creed.
And so I'm like fail.
I'm like failing everything.
I come in last place.
It's the second second week offirst phase Now I come in last
place by like six minutes on afour mile time to run.
(08:22):
I got first phase on one side,driving next to me, and then the
second phase instructors,because the class I had been in
originally they started like 10minutes after us and all the
guys came flying by meeventually and so second phase
is on my right.
First phase is telling.
Second phase you're never goingto meet this guy.
He's going to be out there onthe Navy ship.
And I'm just like, wow, I havethe worst life in the world
(08:43):
right now.
Finish the run, most miserable,slowest run of my life.
It felt like I had like knivesin my shins and and like
concrete blocks on for boots.
I'd gone, I'd been going tomedical, all kinds of stuff,
trying to find out what's wrongwith me.
I'm like maybe I have stressfractures.
My legs hurt so bad, maybe Ihave like.
(09:03):
I kept going trying to find outwhat's wrong with me and I'm
like I cannot be this weak.
Everything was just goingreally well before and so I go.
Finally I go after that run I'mlike hey, I need to go medical
again.
I tell the doctors.
I'm like, hey, I don't knowwhat's going on, but I never
failed anything before.
Now I literally can't passanything.
(09:25):
I just had the worst run of mylife.
Everything was going great tillI got VGE before hell week and
then got like, just gotperformance dropped and all this
stuff.
I went right, he goes.
Wow, it sounds he goes.
You've never gotten, you didn'tget a break after hell week.
It sounds like you might havethis thing.
Rabdomyolysis sent me to thehospital.
I, I got blood work done andthen my blood came back toxic
(09:47):
with muscle waste.
I've been doing everything withrhabdomyolysis for like two
months at this point and sodoing that made me really,
really hard.
So I I go and I getconvalescent leave for like two
weeks and the instructors youknow now all the instructors are
(10:08):
like on me, trying to get melike, and now I get convalescent
leave again and they're likewhat or not?
Again they ask get it.
They're like what are yougetting this for?
Blah, blah, I go, I get healthy, I come back and then Ty Woods
is like my instructor, the herofrom Benghazi.
Yeah, I don't.
They actually don't make me doin doc this time.
(10:30):
I just do all these workoutswith the brown shirt rollbacks
and I had actually still been inshape.
It was just having rhabdo waskeeping my body from really
working and I got the rest.
First I think maybe I was likelight duty for another week.
Then I was like some upper bodybecause my legs were still
really hurting and all of asudden it was all out of my legs
(10:53):
and everything felt great andall of a sudden I could run like
the wind.
I was super strong and I hadalready done first phase like
multiple times once with my bodynot even working.
So I go into this next classand I take 12 minutes off my
four mile times run from the runbefore coming the top 10 out of
(11:15):
200 people and I'm just likecome across the finish line,
like look who's back, and I just, I just crush, I just crush
everything in that class Me andthe, me and the other rollbacks
who were strong would alwayslike you know, you get in the
height line.
Everybody under the boat is likeit's all based on height line.
We'd all kind of configureourselves to pick our boat crew.
(11:37):
We'd win.
We kept winning everything andwhen you win you get a break.
It pays to be a winner.
So you just keep winning overand over.
And I went through, graduatedSQT with that class, went to
SEAL, team 5.
And it was really years laterdoing the Honor Foundation,
(11:59):
which helps special operatorstransition in the private sector
, and going through all thisstuff and it was like what was
like your biggest kind of likeaccomplishment.
And you look back I was like,wow, doing going through hell
week and having all these thingsgo wrong and still accomplish
it and like having that be my,my like big.
That's why I want to be when Igrew up.
(12:20):
That was my dream, you know,and to still like push through
and make it.
And then it looked at like whatwas your strengths to what was?
Because we did strength finderas well what were your five top
strengths?
And it was strategiccommunicator, woo, which is
winning others over, like somemaximizer, and I was like how
(12:41):
did they make like that happen?
It was like winning others over.
I had to win over the like.
The original mentor went overthe.
The senior chief that put meback in went over like the seals
that all vouch for me.
(13:04):
That can also be the strategy oflike winning certain things,
knowing when to you know, gosuper hard and achiever, just
like never given up on my dreamsand I was like, and so looking
back and seeing like what ittook to get through it was a lot
more just than being tough.
It was having having thesestrengths and knowing how to
like, kind of use them.
And then also like knowing thatif I just made it through is
(13:27):
like a pretty, you know, pretty,pretty mentally tough athlete.
I never would have beenchallenged to my core the same
way that having everything gowrong and having to dig down and
like, push through and likehave you know they talk about
breaks you down and builds youback up.
That was the ultimate break youdown and build, build you back
(13:48):
up.
Because anytime something's beenhard in my life, I think back
to those moments and what Ithought was like the worst thing
happening to me in my life atthe time being dropped from my
dream, having my like dreamsripped away and like almost my
first heartbreak of my life, andto still make it.
(14:09):
Every time something happens tome, I'm like this is nothing,
I've been through so much worseand don't worry about the
problem, focus on the solution.
And so every time something badhappens now, I just like push
through it's going to make itworth so much more.
Dude absolutely the, the.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The ability to have that as part of your journey is
such a gift and you know mostpeople would say what are you
fucking kidding me?
That's a gift?
Fucking nearly died and peoplehave been seriously injured and
died from rhabdo.
That's not something to takelightly, but what, what people
need to understand is like yourworst moment, your rock bottom,
(14:54):
can be the greatest gift youhave in life.
It truly can, because it givesyou a reference, it gives you
something to be like.
Dude, I'm struggling, I'm havinga hard time right now, but it
is nothing compared to what Iendured in the past.
I can get over this, like a lotof people.
They have great, wonderfullives, but they've never been
tested and that's why I tellpeople like you gotta go out
(15:16):
there and live.
You gotta go into the placeswhere it's uncomfortable,
challenge yourself to dosomething hard like that.
The, the people who have itreally made out and are super
well off, and they've never beenchallenged like, feel sorry for
them.
Like if you take everythingaway from them, they will
absolutely fold and they won'tknow how to get back up.
(15:36):
And you are very fortunate manmyself, including everybody else
out there that's gone throughsomething difficult, and it's
not just military.
There's tons of different waysyou can get that resilience and
that's it.
That's the key word for the dayresilience.
You can't have it unless you'vegone through something
difficult, and you mentioned theHonor Foundation, which is
something great.
I was a member of that club aswell.
(15:58):
Shout out to them.
Great program, like it's animportant step of like finishing
that military career, finding aprogram that will help you
figure it out in your journey.
Did you always know that yourtime was going to be up?
Or how did you approach thatthat moment in your career?
Cause, I mean, you, you becomea seal and I have to imagine,
(16:20):
just like every other operator,a vast majority of us, you you
think you're going to do itforever.
At some point it's like I'm in,I'm done, nothing else yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So this was another great life lesson for me here.
So there's a time to persevere,and that first story you heard
was a time to persevere, andthen there's a time to pivot as
well to persevere, and thenthere's a time to pivot as well.
So I had I had done.
I was on my second deploymentand it was in the Middle East.
(16:51):
I was doing a hostage rescuetraining mission and we're going
around training all over.
I was with the crisis responseelements, so if, like, something
popped off, we'd be the guys togo in and do it.
So we were just training allthe time in case something would
happen.
And so it was a trainingmission and I fast roped down on
the roof and something I haddone hundreds of times and I
herniated my L5 S1, didn't even,didn't even know it, went
(17:14):
through the house, clearedeverything, went back, went home
, ate food and then overnight mydisc swelled and woke up with
crazy sciatica pain and my footdidn't work and I'm like, what's
going on?
And it was going over my ITband.
So I'm like, oh, I must havesome IT band issue.
And if my IT bands were tight,I'd always like roll them.
(17:34):
I tried rolling it and itwasn't getting anything.
So I literally started rollingit on a barbell, trying to get
deep in there and like took allthe hair off my legs.
I'm like this is not gettingbetter.
And I went to the.
I went to the doctor there andwas telling him I'm like hey,
can an IT band make your likefoot not work?
I don't know what's going on.
(17:55):
I can't lift it up and I justkept doing everything for a week
.
We were doing a bunch of boatstuff.
I was like carrying big engines, putting them on the zodiac
boats, driving around out.
Then, uh, eventually theyfigured out what it was and
they're like, oh, you have tofly to germany and have spine
surgery.
And I'm like what, whoa?
I was like, wait, so you knowhow, like, every part of your
(18:15):
spine works a different part ofyour body.
It's your l5s1 that works thedorsal flexion on your foot, and
so all the different injuriesI've.
I've like learned so much howthe body works, flew, flew over
to Germany, had that, had thatsurgery, uh.
And then I went back, was doingphysical therapy and my back
(18:37):
seemed better and I gotrecruited.
I'd been a fighter before.
The teams did Muay Thai andJiu-Jitsu, dean Lister and all
these guys at a victory MMA, andthen got recruited over to be a
(19:02):
combats instructor and then Iwas at the arena MMA with all
these guys they were like allour coaches and then my back
started getting kind of you know.
They told me it'd be all good,but then it just started getting
worse and worse.
Every like three months itwould go out on me and then it
was like every good, but then itjust started getting worse and
worse.
Every like three months itwould go out on me, and then it
was like every two months and itwas every month and it was like
I had to be really careful.
(19:23):
So I was like having to go tothe doctor all the time and he's
like man, you're back Like I'dhad a bunch of surgeries at that
point.
I had had an ACL, I had ashoulder, I had an ankle
reconstructed and everything Ihad surgery on mostly got like a
lot better, except like theback I noticed was just never
(19:44):
quite the same as, like you know, an operator, your back goes
out on you in a mission andyou're a liability for your
platoon.
So I kept trying to perseverethrough it and then eventually I
realized it's time to pivot.
During this time I had beengoing up to Los Angeles a lot.
(20:05):
I had a lot of friends who haddone their MBA at Wharton and
had founded different companiesand were founding companies with
different celebrities andathletes and things like that
and they were doing a lot oftheir business deals with guys
they had done business schoolwith.
So I was like, maybe with thislike door kind of closing here,
maybe I'll do my MBA.
(20:26):
It's kind of like a good way totransition and with that, with
that transition, I do do, dobusiness school, learn, learn
about business and I can grow acompany through that.
And I've been going to Brazilmany times with the family that
created Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu andUFC and I loved swimwear down
there.
The swimwear they had and I'dbeen wearing them all over the
(20:47):
world and everyone's like askedme where they can get them and I
was like, oh, maybe I'll takethis swimwear, make it patriotic
and all about freedom and bringit to the US.
And then it ended up bringingit through the entrepreneurship
pipeline at UCLA Anderson and itended up being my master's
thesis there, won UCLA StartupDay, did another Anderson, the
(21:10):
Anderson Venture Accelerator,and so I was able to kind of
scale.
My company like one door closedwith the SEAL teams, but I was
able to transition intosomething else that was really
meaningful and then use thatwith a because I think it's so
important to stay we have, likeyou know, one of the best
(21:31):
communities and brotherhoods inthe world and to be able to.
You know if, if you just leave,that that's when a lot of
people can really struggle andif you lose, like, your mission,
and you never really want yourmemories to be bigger than your
dreams.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
So this episode is brought to you by Titan Sarms.
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Speaker 2 (22:01):
No junk, no bullshit, just results like, have a way
to stay involved in thecommunity, have a way to have
another mission that's reallyimportant and be able to use and
grow and scale my brand to dothat.
You, you know, just reallyputting myself out there doing
all kinds of stuff.
I had walked across Greece witha bunch of people who are a few
(22:25):
SEALs and patriots, who wereraising money for the Glendory
Foundation Navy SEAL Foundationwent from Sparta to Thermopylae
I think we were the first peoplesince King Leonidas and the 300
Spartans to do that and finishin the hot gates.
Asked to be a part of theHudson seal swim, which we're
doing again for like the sixthtime in New York City three and
(22:45):
a half miles.
My friend Bill Brown reachedout, asked me to do it.
I had a ton of my friends join.
It was just like 30 seals tostart and Pete Hegseth was me
and Kaj's swim buddy for that,and then it's grown into this
year.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Is Pete a strong swimmer or is he a weak swimmer?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
He was not a good swimmer but I give him a lot of
credit because he had never Idon't think he had ever swam
with fins before, or at leastnot far at all.
And he's like on a day's notice.
He's like, all right, I'll puton this little bathing suit that
you have and go swim three anda half miles with Navy SEALs.
And he had like he was likemic'd up and had a, had like a
(23:26):
swim cap on and mic'd up andhe's like so we're literally
swimming together and this crazycurrent comes and we're just on
the first leg.
So the first leg is like, youknow, maybe a mile.
Next legs like a mile.
First, what is getting aroundthe statue of Liberty?
You go into a bar.
Do you do 22 pull-ups and ahundred pushups, but it's like
(23:47):
being on a treadmill and I'm I'mthere with Pete, kind of just
like swimming nice and slow, andhe's on his back at one point,
kind of frog kicking, and I'mlike, pete, you got to keep your
legs straight or you're notgonna like get it, or first he's
like hey, how far are we?
And I'm like we're like fiveminutes away, but then we don't
move at all because we're notswimming faster than the current
(24:08):
and he's like 10 minutes go by,he's like, how far are we?
I thought we're only fiveminutes.
I'm like you got to kick alittle harder.
And then he's like on his backdoing like a frog kick with fins
.
And I'm like, no, that's not,that's not gonna work.
You gotta keep your legsstraight.
And he's like, but my legs areso tired.
(24:28):
And I'm like, oh boy, we hadhim grab onto a jet ski then and
took him in.
And so I like finished the swim.
I like come up on the barge andhe's like halfway through an
interview and he's like that wasthe craziest current blood.
I like literally come out andlike step into a fox and friends
interview and it was justawesome.
(24:50):
We're going.
I'm like talking about swimmingwith them and everything.
And then and they're like thegirl that's doing the interview
is like were you nervous outthere?
I'm like this is my nervousspace, like careful.
And then then he's like I don'tknow should I do, should I keep
doing it?
And I'm like, pete, you justkeep doing it.
That was a tough part of thecurrent.
The next, the next ones, we'regonna be swimming with the
(25:10):
current a bit.
We jumped in again and he andhe totally and he totally
crushed it.
He did, he did awesome, youknow.
And then the next year he'slike hey, what fins should I get
?
I like sent him the exact finsI had.
I'm like just order these onAmazon and just like get your
legs conditioned, because if youdon't swim with fins, your legs
are gonna your legs will getget tired swimming three and a
(25:32):
half miles.
But I give him a lot of creditjumping in and do it, doing that
half miles.
But I give him a lot of creditjumping in and doing that.
He toughed it out and hechampioned us.
And then, you know, we allbecame close with him.
And then when he was nominatedfor secretary of defense, there
was many people who were notsupporting him originally and we
let we really let the Senateknow like, hey, the war fighters
(25:55):
are here to back Pete, he ishere to make the military lethal
again.
And we had like 100 specialoperators plus show up to do a
whole thing and I was sitting inthe hearing supporting him and
he made it.
He came in 50-50.
Got a few last minute switchesat the end.
(26:15):
I like to think we had somehelp with that and now he's
doing an amazing job rebuildingour military.
It was, you know.
You can look at the shamefulAfghanistan withdrawal and
everything that happened withthat and people think, oh, we
should just have retiredgenerals and admirals be the
secretary of defense or some.
It's like no, we need a realwar fighter.
(26:38):
Pete's got more combatexperience than all the
secretary defenses of the last30 years combined.
None of them did any warthemselves.
They might have been like, hey,you troops go over here, you go
and do that, but they were notthere.
He was.
He was the second lieutenant iniraq, like leading and leading
a infantry platoon, like he gotto see it all firsthand.
(27:00):
He was in afghanistan actuallyleading troops in battle.
He was not just directingtroops.
It's a big difference so, andso he's really fixing what we
need, what we needed over there.
So it's kind of awesome thatthat Hudson seal swim you know,
you know was able to, you know alot of people that that were
(27:22):
involved with that ended upbeing involved with helping him
out.
Now he's got a lot of top guysI know about helping him out in
the office of secretary andeverything.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
It's awesome, it's a.
There's a lot of seventh groupguys.
I got to meet him briefly inNormandy for the 81st
anniversary and what blew meaway is his, his, his little
entourage, his little cabinetand all his staff is thick with
7th Group guys.
(27:53):
I was like holy shit, I knowpeople that work with you.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, and a lot of SEALs too, too, so he's got all
the right guys, you know, givenadvising him the right way.
I had a lot of friends whoworked in the pentagon during
the last administration um yeah,advising the joint chiefs and
everything special ops relatedand they said it was just a shit
show with this lastadministration and they never
wanted to work in DC again untilPete, like there, and I'm like
(28:27):
this is like your chance to.
You took everything you learnedfrom working with the bad
people and now you know whatneeds to be fixed.
And that's exactly what'shappening now.
They got the right people inthere, not worried about dei and
woke and putting trans peopleinto positions, people that
can't even deploy because theytake all these medications and
(28:50):
everything.
They're putting people in thatyou know have have merit and
actually know what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's focusing on the things that really matter.
Lethality, exactly, and I'll beall Lethality.
Can it and will it make us morelethal If the answer is no,
make America lethal again.
New t-shirt idea 100%.
But, dude, I want to dive intothis because a lot of us get out
(29:19):
and we immediately try to go towhat's comfortable, what we
know, and there's nothing wrongwith that.
There are some amazing guys outthere with tactical companies
doing amazing work, and that'sgreat.
But to get out of the militaryand dive into swimwear, dude,
that is about as unconventionalas fuck.
(29:40):
Right there, you should havebeen a Green Beret.
How did that start and where isit at now, and where do you see
it growing into the future?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Yeah.
So it started kind of becauseof my trips to Brazil and
everything and being there withthe Gracie family and I'm like
hanging out on a beach in Rio deJaneiro with a bunch of the
Gracies and girls these like hotBrazilian girls and I'm like
the only guy in board shorts andI'm like, shoot, I'm like I I
(30:09):
think I need to get some ofthese Tsungas.
They look like they dry fast.
You get better suntans, youknow.
I'm telling the girl like allthese kind of you know reasons
that make sense to me and shegoes, yeah, and they look so
sexy on men and I'm like that'sit.
I bought like 10 of them,started wearing them all over
the world and I'd go to likeCroatia yacht week or Vegas or
(30:31):
Australia or wherever, andthat's what I would wear.
I wouldn't even have to go tryto talk to girls.
They just come up to me andcompliment me on my swimwear and
guys would be like, oh yeah, Icould never wear that.
And then they'd come up like anhour later and be, hey, where,
where can I get one of them?
Do you have any extra?
I'm like, well, I'm not givingyou my swim and so it's
(30:52):
literally ranger panties.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
It's literally ranger panties.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Well, there's a there's.
There's like, yeah, rangerpanties and silkies.
So originally I had theBrazilian style Speedo.
That's just a little like.
It's kind of like a hybridbetween silkies and a Speedo,
and then I was like, all right,I need to.
You know, silkies and Rangerpanties were a big thing.
(31:24):
I'm like all right, I'm need tomake, I need to extend my
product line.
Started making silkies, butmore like almost like a
lululemon navy seal version.
And then I was like in businessschool and I'm like, well, I
can't wear, like you know, these, this like speedo type thing or
silkies to class, but I canmake some board shorts that have
like functional pockets.
I started making that and otherpeople would be doing their
business and venture likepitches wearing a suit and
(31:45):
everything and I'd be like I'dgo in and a peacock pair of
board shorts and be likepitching all this stuff, talking
about the things I'm doing.
Talking about like being onMike Tyson's podcast or doing
the Hudson swim on Fox andfriends, or doing a walking
across, walking from Sparta toThermopylae and having friends
(32:06):
fight MMA in it and having, yeah, all different kinds of people
and celebrities and things whereand fight it.
It was a yeah, it was reallyfun doing that and I learned a
ton.
The market has got it, got itgone up a lot, especially like
2020, 2021.
(32:27):
Overall, I've done a fewmillion in sales, but it has
been a tough, a tough businessas well, especially the last few
years, the market more kind ofveterans have gone into.
It made similar shorts andswimwear and things like that.
So it's gotten more of acongested market and so actually
(32:49):
started going into some otherventures.
I've been building a shootingrange up in palm beach county as
well and it's like a privatemember private member shooting
range.
Several soft guys are involvedwith that Drew Platus, kaj
Larson, rob O'Neill and somebusiness guys as well.
It's on like 16 acres outdoors.
(33:09):
We've got like a helicopter pad.
Jake Paul flew in on ahelicopter, took him shooting
all kinds, all kinds of people.
We had guys from NELC up thereNELC boys a few weeks ago put
them through like a day of SEALtraining and yeah, and then
we're actually just made a um.
It's like a YouTube channelwhere it's going to be.
(33:31):
It's called the operatorchallenge.
So take guys, put them throughall this like beach training,
just kicking their butt on thebeach.
Have them do all these workoutsand challenges.
Then we bring them across tothe Fort Lauderdale Hall of Fame
pool.
This big, crazy high dive isthere.
It's like a 90 foot high dive,amazing pool.
We put them through all thisunderwater training, drown
(33:53):
proofing, 50 meter underwaterswim, the 500 meter swim as part
of the physical screening testthey do all this stuff.
We beat them, have them runwith weights underwater, have
them try to run the 50 meterunderwater with the weights, and
then we leave there.
We go up to the shooting rangeand then teach them pistol,
teach them rifle, make surethey're safe, walking pistol,
(34:15):
rifle transitions, and then wehave them do a whole stress
course where they have to runwith a sandbag like 200 meters
out around us, hammer, run back,do five pull-ups they're
wearing body armor shoot allthese shots, run back, do the
same thing, shoot all theseshots, run back, do the same
thing, shoot with rifle and thenfinish with pistol on steel.
(34:36):
So it's like a whole stresscourse and so we just launched
that.
That's been pretty fun.
We're going to have some putsome more people through it the
first week of august.
And then there's been a bunchof other crazy stuff too.
Um, a bunch of yeah, differentyoutubers will have me and kaj
and mitch and ian all put guysthrough like a day of seal
(34:59):
training and stuff.
And then we were on like beastgames, like the amazon prime
video.
We had to jump out of thehelicopter, swim in and hunt the
contestants who are trying towin $10 million.
So we got to ruin some dreamsout there in Panama.
People think they're likehiding in the mud, predator
style, and we had to, we had to,we had to, we had to find them
(35:21):
and snatch them.
It was like a mile by milejungle.
It was like not easy to findpeople.
We're like out there.
They're like out there.
They're like you're all navyseals, you're gonna find them in
like 15 minutes.
It's like well, if someone'sout there in a mile by mile
jungle and they're under mud,it's like kind of hard to find
them.
But it was, uh, it was a greattime ended up being like a
brocation as well.
We're just like at the jwmarriott, at the pool and taking
(35:44):
jet skis all around and awesometime.
And then last year I did a crazyTV show in Korea as well.
So we went out and we competedagainst it was like a month long
challenge competing againstfive different Korean special
ops teams.
They had the Korean seals,called UDT.
They had the 707s, which islike their Delta force, their
(36:08):
keg, and then they had, uh, thehid and they had special forces.
So we literally had all thiscrazy stuff sniper, stress
courses, mud wrestling.
Well, we were like all, eithernearly 40 or some guys were even
two, guys were 46 and the guyswho were competing against were
(36:29):
all like 28.
But we we definitely showedthem what what the americans
were all about.
We we had a rough couple daysbecause we got there and we were
like jet lagged had just gottenin.
The first thing we did was mudwrestling and then after that we
started kind of winningeverything for a while and and
uh, yeah, it was pretty, it waspretty, it was pretty great.
(36:49):
But we became super close withum.
All the koreans were like superclose friends with them.
One of my friends from thatjust broke the pull-up world
record.
Yeah, I saw that guy yeah, 707pull-ups and he could have done
more.
He's such a beast, but hewanted to finish with 707
pull-ups and he could have donemore.
He's such a beast but he wantedto finish with 707 because he's
(37:10):
in the 707.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that.
One of the weirdest but coolestexperiences I got to do as a
Green Beret was way back duringthe first Trump administration,
where we thought there might besomething going on.
I got to go down toorea do asoft liaison gig for like six
bucks, yeah.
So I got to partner up with thekorean uh special forces guys
(37:32):
and they're great, fucking dudes, man they are they are amazing
dudes, dude, yeah how much doyou?
Love korean barbecue.
Oh my god dude I I do it.
I learned how to do it.
Like I yeah, I love kimchi somuch.
It's such a healthy fermentedfood for you.
Like my entire, like the theamount of traveling I got to do
the Olympics there.
(37:53):
Like there are so many friggingthings I got to do and it's
like one of the greatest keptsecrets.
Like I don't always give a lotof credit to first special
forces group, but I will tellyou, if you want to travel and
go see some great places, firstgroup not bad, not bad, they
have it it.
They kept it under wraps.
I'm going to tell you, southamerica was pretty cool, peru's
amazing.
(38:13):
But uh, korea, uh, it waspretty fucking awesome that's,
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, it was funny.
They they were like for a bitsome of the other korea, the
korean teams were complaining abit because we started saying
sometimes they'd give them likerandom food or whatever and I'd
be like, oh, I have dietaryrestrictions, I can't eat that.
And they'd be like, oh yeah,jeff can't eat that kind of
stuff.
And then we'd all go to Koreanbarbecue and the producers would
(38:41):
take us there and they'd belike, why are the Americans
getting special treatment?
But the other thing that wascrazy they they're like, hey, do
you mind sleeping on the?
This was one thing I didn'trealize.
We get there Like, hey, do youmind sleeping on the floor?
That's what everybody in Korea.
I'm like, well, is there a goodground pad or anything?
(39:02):
They're like, yeah, there'sgood ground.
I'm like, all right, well,that's what they're doing.
We yeah, there's good ground.
I'm like, all right, well,that's what they're doing, we
can do it.
A ground pad to them was like ablanket.
I'm like I literally get therefirst day.
I like break my rib gettingtackled in a mud pit and land on
a rock hard sandbag.
I feel my ribs pop out.
So then we go back and they welost and they basically
(39:27):
interview us for an hour aboutwhy we suck so bad.
And they told us to kind oftalk shit as well.
And we did.
And then they're like why'd yousay?
And then we literally lost themud wrestling thing.
I'm like a grappler too.
And I'm getting ready tograpple and all of a sudden,
(39:47):
like my feet are.
I'm like my feet are reallystuck in that and God just goes
for my leg right away.
Damn, break my rib.
My partner, it's two on two.
My partner gets pushed out.
So now I'm like have my ribpopped out and I have two guys
(40:11):
on.
Now I'm like laying on theground to sleep.
I like try to get up, go to thebathroom.
I can barely even get up andthen, uh, one of the people from
the crew from the korean seals,ended up winning like best
individual soldier for like thefirst.
It had a few events and thenthey got to choose a team they
would compete against andbecause we had like kind of
talked shit to them, they choseus.
So now it's a whole boats on.
(40:32):
I'm like boats on heads.
My one buddy hadn't done boatson heads since before 9-11.
Here we are getting ready to doboats on heads at the beach and
against a team that just won,and we end up just totally
smashing them.
And so they literally wentthrough this whole best soldier
competition, won it, just to getbeat by us.
(40:55):
And then they go off and haveto do the death match and we got
to go back to our hotel andbasically do a korean spa for a
couple days while they weredoing the death match and didn't
sleep and we like have to go infor some like photos and all
this stuff.
They're like taking photos forthe like billboards that go up
in our time score about our TVshow and we see the guys.
(41:18):
I'm like, oh, what's up guys?
How's it going to go?
We come from hell.
I'm like shouldn't have choseus.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
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Oh my god, yeah, I, I lovekorea.
I cannot wait to go back andjust a vacation and tour,
because there's, like it'sreally honestly one of the best
(41:52):
places that I've been able tolike, experience culturally,
like everything about it.
My wife and I talk about allthe time like we need to go back
and just visit.
This is really the food, thepeople.
Yeah, if you don't know, gottago, you gotta go.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
It was really special and we got a little bit of time
off and stuff in the middle too.
I got to go to their.
So their civil war was a koreanwar, you know.
Yeah, so I got to go to museumand there was like the first
floor which was all theirancient.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
Yeah, it's amazing.
That place is amazing they.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
They've been invaded.
It was like 1,100 times in thelast 800 years or something.
They've been invaded.
It was like Mongol invasion,one Mongol invasion, two Mongol
invasions, song Dynastyinvasions, the Japanese
invasions, all this crazy stuff.
They've had it rough and thensee all that.
(42:49):
Then there's like the secondfloor or third which was all
their you know civil war stuffand I got to learn all the.
My grandpa was in a unit, thebaker bandits, and that's where
he had his purple hearts andeverything and I got to learn
about all his places he wentwhen he landed in Chin and had
to go all the way up and then hehad to retreat from the Chinese
(43:10):
and just all the crazy stuffthat was there.
And we were up at the DMZ andthere was the American Memorial
up there.
While I was there they had meFaceTime my grandma, who was 91.
She was telling stories aboutgrandpa and everything from when
(43:30):
, when he was there and he wasjust a 20 year old.
She didn't, she didn't evenreally know him yet, but uh, his
, but she heard the stories fromhis parents and everything.
So she got to tell the storiesabout him on facetime, literally
at the memorial, on the TV showand stuff.
So that was really cool.
It was raining, it was verysomber, but like a beautiful
(43:55):
kind of experience and all theKoreans there really were.
So I mean, I had so manyKoreans reach out and they go.
We just can't believe that.
You know, some people thinkAmericans shouldn't go and be
the policeman of the world andall these things.
It's like when has it ever beena positive thing?
Well, I'll tell you, it was apositive thing in Korea.
(44:16):
All of Korea would be likeNorth Korea if the US didn't go
with the Marines and the Armyand support with the Navy and
everything else and, like youknow, in the army and support
with the navy and everythingelse.
And and like you know when, whenback south korea it had all
been taken over, my, my cousin,ended up marrying a korean girl,
min, and she told me about hergrandfather.
(44:38):
He had to go and fight.
I think he you know he was, Idon't know if he was a farmer or
what, but but he had to go andfight, like in the first wave,
and they just never found himagain and literally her grandpa
left and just never to be seenagain.
It was finally in some DNA, Ithink in 2004 in a mass grave.
(45:01):
They found him and she alwaysshe said she always looked up to
my grandpa so much because ofhim going there and fighting and
helping create that freedom fortheir whole country.
They have such a beautiful,thriving, amazing country and
you can look at the starkcontrast in north korea, where
(45:22):
people will literally just getput in a prison for three
generations, their whole family.
They'll think the whole worldis a prison camp and they're
starving.
They're like a foot shorterthan the Koreans and South Korea
because they have somalnutrition and you can see
what the positives with the U Shad been and the Korean see that
and they're just like in shockthat America would go and do
(45:45):
that and protect them and savethem and help them create this
thriving economy and countrythat they have now.
So that was really awesome tosee all that as well and see it
personally.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, it's amazing to see it and that museum man,
it's like one of the best,especially the outside,
everything that they have, it'swell designed, everything about
it just leaves you walking awaywith like true understanding.
Our education system doesn't doenough to really teach
americans and young, youngadults like the gravity of that
(46:17):
conflict and what our young menand women like really sacrifice
going there.
And uh, I will tell you onething, having been there in
winter holy shit, yeah, korea,south korean, winter is fucking
brutal.
So just imagining our youngservice members going in there
and and having to suffer andpersevere through that is uh
(46:39):
insane a million chinese show upout of nowhere and you don't
even know.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
It's like where'd a million chinese come from.
They're competing in themountain and now you gotta fight
a million Chinese like whatJeff dude, it's been a pleasure
dude.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
I can't thank you enough for coming on here if
people want to connect with youand check out what you got going
on, where can they go?
Speaker 2 (46:59):
so at Jeff gum on Instagram, jeffgum.
If you want to check out soongood life and get some of the
best swimwear and athleisure, itis at soon Good Dot life.
S U N G a dot L, I, f, e.
Those are two of the two of thebest ones right there and then
on YouTube, once we launch it'llprobably be cause we're filming
(47:20):
a few episodes you can do theoperator, the operator challenge
and the operator challenge andyeah, that's uh, yeah, check,
check all that out.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
You'll enjoy it.
I can't wait and I'm gonna haveto bring you back so we can
talk about the operatorchallenge.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
Uh, dude, this can be fucking awesome, uh, especially
if you get to put some moreinfluencers through the rung
yeah, yeah, it's always a goodtime and it's funny because we
just like smash them on thebeach and then they're like this
is the hardest thing I've everdone in my life.
And I'm like, yeah, it's only9am and you got 10 more hours.
(47:53):
And they're like but at the endof it, like doing even better
than they were in the beginningand it's like, yeah, it's
because your whole mentality hasshifted and changed.
And they're like and thenthey're able to take that the
same way I took you know, it'sjust a small little taste, it's
not, you know, going throughbuds with rhabdo and everything
but the same way I took that andapplied it to the rest of my
(48:14):
life.
They can take that day andapply it to everything they're
doing as well.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Absolutely.
It'll inspire people to go outthere and suck, cause that's
honestly like.
That's a big lesson in lifethat not enough people are
hearing.
We hear about all the great funthings you can do, but it's not
about comfort and seekingpleasure.
It's about getting dirty andgoing after something that's
difficult, hard, arduous,failing, falling down and
picking yourself back up Sorry.
That's how you build resilience.
(48:40):
So if we want people to be moreresilient, if we want people to
develop that grit, get outthere, fucking, get after it and
be willing to fail, fail fast.
Jeff, thank you so much forbeing here.
Everybody tuning in, thank youso much for being here with us.
Do me a favor, hit up that like.
Subscribe.
Go to the comments section.
Leave us a few words.
(49:01):
Say hey, jeff's swimwear isfucking awesome.
I'm wearing a pair today, Idon't care.
Leave something.
It helps us, helps us grow andI appreciate you all for tuning
in.
We'll see you all next time.
Until then, take care.
Securepodcast is proudlysponsored by Titan's Arms.
Head over to the episodedescription and check out
Titan's Arms today.
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