Navy SEAL to Legionnaire: Creating a Disciplined & Excellent Life Learned the Hard Way | S3, Ep 20. - The Big Dawgs: with Manning Sumner

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
You go in, you got your fake name and you operate on that
fake name, and then you'll get your passport back.
Years later, I lost my identity,quite literally, and that was
what I needed, man. It was like a baptism in
humility bro. Nobody gave a fuck.
I was a seal. No one even knew I had a fake
name. I was completely somebody else.
You knew at age 7 you wanted to be Navy SEAL though when you
were in high school you got kicked out for weed and

(00:21):
fighting. About 15-16 years old, you were
shooting steroids in Mexico while in jail.
You weren't doing laundry 8 hours a day, reading and writing
and staying focused. Initially rejected for tattoos,
you worked at Home Depot. Training relentlessly.
Eventually earned your spot on SEAL Team 7.
And that's the fucking hard part.
But look what happens when you get real clear on what you want
man to make it happen. Obviously troubled past, but you

(00:45):
do mention God factory in there,yeah.
Was it something that you were aware of, or was it something
you found later? Since I was really young, I
always remember there being likea guiding force.
I always had like a like pretty clear calms with God.
If you want an excellent life, it requires superior moral
conduct. There's absolutely no way around
it. Why am I just not happy here?
It was that simple simplicity, and it was right there at my

(01:08):
feet, people looking at the horizon for some great life.
But it's right here. I'm Manning Sumner.
I've lived my life by 1 motto Nodays off.
No days off has never taken a day off on you.
It's a commitment to becoming your best self.
Get ready to be inspired to do the same.
This is the big dogs with Manning Sumner.

(01:31):
All right. Taylor, let's do this.
Yeah, man. Thanks.
For coming on the big. Dogs Manning, dude.
I'm glad we're here, bro. My boy Jimmy Watson, shout out
to Jimmy linked us. He said this is one of the most
enjoyable podcasts and that he'sever done.
Oh. Man, that means a.
Lot yeah, for real dude and Jimmy don't throw away round
shit. He goes, dude, you got to get
down there man and meet Manning it.
And you know, people say that, but you never know.
And then I roll up in here, I'm like, what the fuck did I just?

(01:53):
Roll in here. Yet he.
Didn't even tell me. Oh, he didn't come here.
No, Jimmy did it in this damn apartment, so he didn't even get
to. Now I did see my other facility
in Wynwood which super nice, butthis is the. 2.0 I had no idea
what I was walking into so it was a pleasant surprise and I
was like wow this is one of the maybe the best gym I've ever
seen. Thank you.
Executed bro for real. Means a lot.

(02:13):
That means a lot. Yeah.
I just had this couple. So we've had 25 countries come
here since we opened. Like, you know, people from 25
different countries and they all, like, are saying similar
things. And this couple from Italy, was
it yesterday or two days ago waslike, this is the coolest thing
we've ever been to, like energy.They took a class, they hung

(02:33):
out, they did the spa. And they were like, this is the
best gym we've ever had ever. And I was like, man, that's
awesome. So, well, this shit don't happen
by accident. You know, I've never executed
something like this, but you know that that designed life is
is kind of what we're all about and got people are in that that
awareness of that raised consciousness of like, what's
success look like to you? What do you want?

(02:55):
How does this look? And then backing it up with
discipline and execution. And that's the fucking hard
part. But look what happens when you
get real clear on on what you want man, and then make it
happen and. I'll show you the first
warehouse that I sat on the train tracks and there was a guy
shaving, a homeless man shaving in the back.
It was like it was Wynwood before Wynwood.

(03:17):
I'm not sure if you're familiar with Wynwood, but I'm talking
crack houses, hookers, homeless people.
Like it was a rough neighborhood.
Yeah, I think Amber was talking about it a little earlier.
And I was like, this is it? And I literally saw a huge
Sports Complex and like, I just saw something bigger than what
it was. And it was funny because of the

(03:38):
business partner at the time. I was like, this is it.
And he was like, no, it's not. He was like, this ain't it, bro.
Like this is not it. And I was like, I was like,
sorry, it's my decision. Yeah.
And. And sure enough, I mean, the
first two years was miserable. Yeah.
And it was really, it was hell getting it started.
But just to your point, like never giving up, keeping the
vision there and just showing up, showing up, showing up.

(04:01):
And the next thing you know now we have 8 locations and and the
new headquarters so. Dude, that's crazy, man.
Because there's a lot of pressure, man.
I can't imagine the amount of pressure that you'd be powered
through, you know, payrolls and dealing with the city and this
and that and fucking just every day putting out fires, man.
I can only imagine. It it doesn't stop like this
morning I was putting out a flyer at at 5:00 in the.

(04:22):
Yeah, I was figuring, bro, I'll go, dude.
It gets worse as you grow up. People see this and So what?
You've had to get better like weall have.
Like as that pressure and responsibility as it rises, we
either get better or the problems just fucking crush.
Us No, you have to. You have to grow as a human
being. You have to get smarter.
You have to learn from those that came before you.
You have to apply the knowledge to.

(04:44):
That's another thing, too, that I feel like I know a lot of guys
that they learn, they read, theywatch this shit load of
podcasts, and they have all thisknowledge inside of them.
And if you talk to them, they spit out like, these big words
and they sound like, amazing, but they're doing nothing with
their lives. Yeah.
Like it's like weird. Knowledge ain't power bro.
It's knowledge applied is power.Yes right.

(05:06):
It's a completely different animal.
I mean knowledge sitting on the shelf.
It's like talent sitting on the shelf.
If you don't back it up with application and execution and
discipline, it's fucking 0. 0. It's nothing.
Zero. Well, let me tell the people a
little about a little about yourself and and then we'll keep
going. All right.
Yeah, man. Born in Boston and raised in
South Southern California, you grew up with a Marine father who

(05:28):
was also a bodybuilder and battled addiction and a mother
who was a teacher and robots instructor.
Your grandfather was a Naval Academy graduate and Navy and
Navy captain. Surrounded by military fitness
and sports influence, the seed was planted early.
You knew at age 7 you wanted to be in Navy SEAL, though.
That's my son's name. Yeah.

(05:48):
Really. Yeah.
Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, though when you were in
high school, you got kicked out for weed and fighting, lost your
lacrosse scholarship. While you had good grades, you
were always out at night. Not the team captain you should
have been. By 1516 years old, you were
shooting steroids in Mexico. Your Plan B.
And by the way, if any of this is inaccurate, interrupt me.

(06:09):
I'm like, not you ever compiled that.
It's fucking amazing. I'm like, damn, I'm taking it
back. It's too accurate.
You're like, oh shit. Address this your Plan B was to
go to a small school for football, but on the side you
were parting you got into a massive car accident, flew out
of your car and disclosed dislocated your hip, which you
didn't which didn't set you up for success in football.

(06:32):
From being into sports to being on the sideline, you started
drinking. You carried that into college
and got kicked out again for possession of weed, causing
chaos on campus. Back home you worked masonry and
went to school at night. But we're really using and
selling drugs. Eventually you had a moment of
clarity where God spoke to you and you called your dad for help
and spent five days in lockdown.Psych ward.

(06:54):
You moved back to Boston, lived in your aunt and uncle's
basement, earned your associate's degree, and got back
on track for 18 months. You returned to the University
of California, but your discipline unravelled again ADUI
in the summer, and a pending court case followed.
You still wanted to be a SEAL. A judge told you you have to do
6 months in jail or you can't gointo the military.

(07:15):
Your lawyer got it down to four months.
While in jail, you weren't doinglaundry 8 hours a day, reading
and writing and staying focused.You walked out that day after
Christmas 230 lbs saying you were going to be a SEAL.
Initially rejected for tattoos, you worked at Home Depot,
trained relentlessly, eventuallyearned your spot on SEAL Team 7.
It's amazing. Yeah.

(07:35):
Wow. The irony is that synergy.
Strange man. I love that the danger, the
dangerously became your identityuntil a bar fight led to a
felony aggravated assault chargeand and lawsuit.
You deployed to Iraq on bail, facing six years in prisons,
prison when you return. Then you got arrested again
during probation after drinking a concert and stealing a city

(07:56):
golf cart. This time you were kicked out of
the military. Yeah, you pivoted to real estate
development, walking into supervision position for the
largest private residential developer in the United States,
then started abusing Adderall, Xanax and weed.
When we became legal you got offered and took a job as CSO of
a cannabis company. Excuse me?

(08:17):
Cannabis company then became theCEO living in a high rise and
snorting fentanyl. After one overdose where you
cracked your face, AVC told you you went from asset to
liability. You moved to Hawaii, stopped
doing opiates, couldn't sleep for a week, checked into a
hospital and tried to get clean.Days later you contemplated

(08:38):
suicide for three days straight.One thought was to jump into a
volcano but you decided if you were going out it wasn't going
to be by your own hand. 8 days later you flew to France and
joined the French Foreign Legion.
There you cut all vices, connected with God and found
peace through extreme discipline.
You posted your story to YouTubethat blew up and started to post
more videos. The French Foreign Legion

(09:00):
ordered you to take all of your videos down.
Not wanting to comply you hired a lawyer who told you it was
either it was either jail or or breaking the contract.
So you broke the contract and left finding redemption, inner
peace and the fortification of the mind and body through
discipline and subtraction. Learn to self actualize your
divine design through a correct system of life disciplines.

(09:20):
Now you are on a mission to showothers how to realign their
lives to experience peace and clarity by training mind
deliberately as well as the body.
Showing others how to get their their fire for life back with a
lot of lessons. Learn the hard way man.
That's a damn good recap. Who the?
Who did that man? Damn.
It is it weird it was on fire? Someone like read all that?

(09:43):
Dude, it sounds like a lot of shit.
Yeah, right. A lot of bad, a lot of learning
the hard way, man. So take us back man, 'cause
like, like what you just said, it's a lot.
It's a lot. What was the, what was the point
where you knew you were going the wrong way?
But but but but you hadn't because I feel like people

(10:07):
always talk about this rock bottom, right or or a moment.
Yeah. And it sounds like you went
through a lot. Yeah.
Why do you think it never felt like rock bottom?
Sunk. Yeah, I never, I never like.
Why where you just kept repeating that mistake?
Dude, I just, I loved immediate gratification too much and that
paired with a, a lack of purposeand vision much further right.

(10:34):
I I would have like vision in very short distances.
Like I wasn't thinking in years or decades.
I wasn't thinking in those terms.
And fuck, I would think in weeksfor the I would have big goals
set them. I knew how to achieve them, but
a lot of it was ego driven. I think maybe that's from
childhood or maybe I had some insecurities or something.

(10:55):
I'm, I think a lot of people whodo achieve a lot are ambitious.
We have these things, whatever it is not necessarily bad, but
it was just something I didn't really address of like external
valid external validation being the thing that fulfilled me
rather than God and my own personal disciplines fulfilling
me. That was something I had to
learn later. And that's probably why then I

(11:17):
lacked self-awareness on a massive scale, right?
I just fucking lacked. Here's how much self-awareness I
lacked. I when I went to the recruiter
after I got out of college, I was like, all right, man, I'm
here. I want to be in, you know, I
want to be in the military. It's going to be gun.
The guy who was dude, you, you have fucking you're on probation

(11:38):
and you have print pending courtcases.
I was like and like, what the you guys can just So what dude
like And they were like, dude, it's just not how it works.
That's how fucking disconnected I was from understanding even
how the world worked. I'm like, I knew I would handle
the shit I needed to and I wouldshow up and I was disciplined
ish, which is actually more dangerous because I kind of lie

(11:59):
to myself. Shit would happen, but I would
just kind of look at it as normal.
Oh yeah, you get in trouble and then you fix it and then you get
in trouble and you fix it. I had no idea what like normal
looked like. And that was a lot of my
problems. So there was like a ball all of
fucking issues that were all allcompeting against each other or
or making it or or trying to seewhich one was greater to really

(12:19):
fuck up my life. It was a lot of low moments like
and I'm sure people that are watching.
I had a lot of fucking days of shame and regret, a lot of fun.
I was caught in that guilt shameloop, right on this, on the map
of consciousness, those two bottom rungs.
I was just caught in this guilt shame loop.
I would build it back up, self sabotage.

(12:40):
I would build it back up, get some momentum feeling good.
And then the fucking let the speed wobble.
So I would get ahead of my skis a little bit and fucking yard
sale, you know, And it was just ego driven and OK, I'll lock it
on and then I'll go. And then the distractions, the
girls and this and that. And I'd go, OK, fucking and and
then something, nothing's going to happen this time.

(13:00):
I would like forget. What was it at age 7, though,
that that you wanted to be a SEAL?
Because that's an early, I mean,my son is five, Yeah.
And I can't imagine him in two years coming to me and be like,
I want to be a Navy. SEAL, I think you'd be
surprised. Yeah.
Yeah. Because it was.
And a lot of guys, actually, they've done a lot of research,
a lot of special operators and stuff.
It's about that age. They kind of know, Yeah.

(13:22):
I don't know why. It is some psychological study
they did. They interviewed a lot of guys
and they're like, Oh, yeah, 7-8.It was all kind of around that
time. And for me, it was a very
specific instance. Dude, it was October 1992.
I remember exactly when it was. And I was sitting on a hill
standing next to my dad and there was glow lights glowing in
the Bay. And I'm like, hey, dad, what's
that? He goes, those are Navy Seals

(13:43):
training in the Bay. And I'm like, what, dude?
Man, I even get the chills now thinking about it because it was
so such an impactful moment from.
And then from that point on, I was trying to get my hands on
documentaries, men with green faces.
I was just fascinated with Vietnam Seals and like, dude,
that's a fucking job you can just do and get paid for.
It was shocking to me. So I kind of, that was, you

(14:05):
know, got shelved, but I knew I was going to go in the military,
but I was like, OK, I have to goto college.
I have to hit all these wickets before I can do that type of
thing. That's just how I viewed it.
And so, but in that process of shelfing it, I stacked a bunch
of fucking misdemeanors and justproblems because I was like, oh,
after, later, later, I'm going to go.

(14:26):
And so I might as well live it up now because I'm going to
handle all that shit later. And when I should have, I don't
even think I could have listenedto anybody really about, you
know, people tried if they people did try to guide me, I
wasn't listening. So but at some point I needed to
kind of see like, Oh yeah, if you want that, you got to start
now, right? Why you don't make this road

(14:47):
more difficult than it needs to be.
And it was. That door was almost shut to me.
Do you think that because it feels like I've I've met a few
seals now and it feels like, andagain, respectfully, like
because this without context, obviously I'm not a seal and I
don't know, but are you adrenaline junkies kind of like,
you know what I mean? Like is there a?
Is that part of it like? Some guys are, I'm not.

(15:10):
Me and Jimmy are very similar. Like I don't do extreme sports
ever. I'm fucking lazy man.
I am. I'm like I'm like the most I'm
like the most motivated lazy person ever see like I don't my
risk management has always been low.
Like when I was I would I never was taking big risks doing
random stuff because I don't I if.
What about snorting fentanyl? That's a big risk.

(15:32):
Yeah, that is a big risk. You're right.
Yeah, maybe you're right. But it's like, I would say I'd.
Yeah. And that was, and I think that
there was a lot of rooted deeperthings than that just because it
was like almost like an antidepressant.
I just, I probably should have like rooted it in something more
healthy, like something that actually, you know, actually

(15:52):
pushed the meter in the right way.
But some are absolutely base jump and all that stuff.
That's not the road. If if it was very dangerous and
it was part of the job, fine. But I wasn't like stacking on
he. Didn't want it.
I don't seek out danger for fun really like but I wasn't drugs
and stuff, but I wasn't making the association that it was

(16:14):
that. But you know, if I'm going to
take some, like I don't sky skydive, I've.
Never skydive either. I've no desire to.
Either I've had a lot of friendsdie, man.
And so for me, it's not, it's not really, you know, I'm like,
I think it's good for people to do everyone.
But I'm like, I'm not going to take that massive of a risk for
just fun, Right. Right.
That's just not what I'm into. Yeah.
But if, if that adrenaline comes, I got no problem with it.

(16:36):
You know we can manage it. Obviously troubled, troubled
past, but you do mention God factory in there.
Yeah. Were you always was it early?
Like did your parents introduce you to God?
Did you find God early and did it like come in and out of your
life? Was it something that you were
aware of or was it something youfound later when you when you
kind of came out of? Since I was really early, it's a

(16:58):
really good question. Since I was really young, I
always remember there being likea dieting force.
I always had like a like pretty clear calms with God.
I would always just kind of converse and I always felt like
this presence since I was very, very young.
Never. We weren't raised in the church
at all. I was actually introduced to a
lot of different religions. My mom, my mom was into
Buddhism, but they were raised Catholic.

(17:18):
So I would say I'm Christian. So I was, we went to church
sometimes and whatever when, youknow, the family was together,
but there was a lot of turmoil in the house and I just, it was
just something that I always wasaware of and present of.
I never have doubted. A.
A guiding force in this world, and I call it God, people call

(17:38):
it what they want, but this is this understanding that there's
these universal laws and principles that govern us and
it's like gravity. And, you know, when I would be
in my very low states, I was never like, oh, why me?
It was more like, oh man, I really fucked it up this time.
I'm going to work my way out of it.
Just, you know, help me out a little bit, Bob.
You know, I'm going to, I promise I'm going to do this

(17:59):
better. It was always, I understood
that, but I didn't click it all together in that if you want an
excellent life, it requires superior moral conduct.
There's absolutely no way aroundit.
It's the, it's the equation. And if you want to try to get
around that, that fucking equation, you're going to get
fucking burned. And there's only a matter of

(18:19):
time. Karmic debt, all these things
are very, very real. And I and I always say you don't
got to be pushing grandmas in the street, just that karmic
debt. You can just not be living your
best life, little, small, small little things or where the
justification starts. Devil's in the justification.
You don't need to justify beautiful choices If you know
you don't need to justify going for a walk with the kids with

(18:41):
drinking a water on the beach. You don't go, Oh, maybe I should
know. You justify the, the cheating,
the this, the porn, the that. That's what people justify.
They go, Oh, well, it's not a big deal, man.
It is a fucking big deal. You what you think?
What's the opportunity cost of that?
What's the opportunity cost of, of your, your energy?
Now your frequency is a little lower.
What, what idea are you not going to get?
How are you going to approach somebody and your energy's not

(19:04):
right? You might miss something massive
just because of what you think is a small thing.
And I, that was something which when I was in the Foreign Legion
in my mid 30s that I really started to connect.
But it took me all through my 20s and and losing everything
multiple times and being suicidal and almost dying and
this and that and war and deployments and all this stuff

(19:24):
to really kind of pull all that stuff together.
That's fascinating because it's it's exactly dead on when it
comes to, to me. It's the small things that
compound. Yeah.
So it's like, yeah, they're little.
It may be 1 episode, yeah. But when you're doing it
continuously, those little things start stacking up and it

(19:45):
becomes the person you are. Damn, that's heavy.
You're absolutely right. You're, you're wiring your brain
to do certain things and it's those aggregate drops in the
bucket. It's like a bucket when you, you
know, you the, the roofs leakingor something and you put up and
then you, you get up in the morning and it's full.
So just small drops man, Or or or.

(20:06):
What's what takes people down? It's not or builds them up or
builds them up. Like recently I've been, I've
been, and again, I say recently,I mean it's been something I've
been talking about for 20 something years, but recently it
just, it is, it's like literallylife is consistency.
Yeah, like absolutely everything, yeah, is about

(20:27):
consistency. Yep.
And in both directions like you're talking about.
So if you're consistent in making the wrong choices,
immediate gratification and or the consistent and delayed
gratification, doing the right things, then these things are
compounding over time and it's literally the person you're
becoming. Yeah, and you pull so far ahead
of people, if you're consistently accurate with the

(20:49):
with all your daily actions are aligned with the outcomes you
want, right. That's true alignment.
If your if your actions are not aligned with the outcomes you
want, by definition, you're out of alignment and in that out of
alignment. It's like when you hit the the
warning fucking thing on the road, it's like.
Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what it is and
you're getting all these friction and that.
How do you know if you're experiencing friction?

(21:11):
Well, you don't feel right. You really you're there's like a
depressed state starting and also you start to experience
turmoil, chaos. Your relationship starts to get
shaky, right? You communicate job might be
kind of shaky or things are starting to stack up.
That's friction. That's that's when things are
smooth and you're in flow state.Shit's clicking in.

(21:32):
You communicate with your spouse, your kids, your present,
things are feeling good. Your energy's high.
A lot of people talk about energy, right?
Like they're like, man, I just have no energy.
People always go diet and this and that.
That could be some of it, but it's also misalignment in your
soul. That's what a lot of it is.
And that's in my experience withwith in my own life is it wasn't

(21:55):
the diet, man. Like my diet could have been
locked on when I'm doing the wrong shit.
My fucking energy's just shit. It's 'cause you're hemorrhaging
energy from your soul, man. Of you might be in a job that
you're really not supposed to bein.
You might be in a relationship you're not supposed to be in,
dealing with people you're not supposed to be dealing with.
And that is how God universe speaks to us and goes, hey,

(22:16):
there's an issue here. That's why you things don't feel
right, and it requires self-awareness.
I think it strips your confidence too.
Oh, it has to. Like if you're waking up every
single morning looking yourself in the mirror and you're letting
yourself down because of the choices you made yesterday and
you're about to make today, thenyou're not walking around very
confident like. And people get used to that

(22:37):
comfortable agony. That's, that's really what needs
to happen is there's, there's people agony, comfortable agony
people get they're, they're morecomfortable in this agony that
they know than the fear of whatever the change might be.
Those things have to. Or or the they're comfortable
and they they don't want to. Do the effort that requires the

(22:59):
change they're scared of the effort that they know they're
going to have to commit to in order to change. 100 percent,
100%, it's going to require something different.
We, we as humans, it requires A deliberate action because we
don't want change from our caveman days, dude.
We want to stay in this cave where we know at least it might
not be, but over the horizon there might be monsters and
fucking the water, right? It's like, well, you don't know.

(23:20):
And so it's good. It requires some balls, some
deliberate action, and things generally have to get bad enough
to where you have to change. Now I always say the wise man
learns from others so you don't have to burn in.
The problem is most people don'thave the balls to burn in.
It sounds bad, but they just don't have the balls to fucking
burn all the way in. Which would actually be better

(23:41):
because then they're forced at arock bottom to change versus
some people just kind of ride. They have enough salary, but
they're paycheck to paycheck, but they're kind of not working
out, but they're kind of just and it's not low enough to where
they're like under a bridge and go, man, I need to change my
life. So you don't need to get there
though, if you're self aware enough to realize that you're

(24:04):
the the life you're experiencing.
If it's not fucking exactly whatyou want, identify certain
things to start changing. You don't need to change
everything at once. Matter of fact, I don't suggest
it. Man.
If you're like, man, I really should start getting you're the
authentic voice of God speaks tous.
It's that conscience congruency,right?
When you're congruent with your conscience, it's, it's, it

(24:25):
requires some some inner dialogue and some self talk that
you're aware of. But you go, man, if it's
something, Hey, man, I should probably start getting up early
and do it. Fucking do it like that.
We always know what we're supposed to do, but we find a
way to like quiet that voice with distraction and noise and
you it requires some some quiet time.
That's why I suggest people do it in the morning just to get

(24:46):
clear and like kind of what's going on and to become a little
bit more self aware because it'sit that authentic voice is
guiding us to our 10 point O self.
First thing that you knew you had to change.
It started with making better moral choices, so womanizing and
just kind of fucking not. I didn't have any

(25:07):
responsibilities. So it wasn't like I was
cheating. I was single, you know, in the I
just in the legion or whatever. It just kind of was like, but it
I remember walking down the stairs from this chick's house
in France and dude, it was like 2-3 in the morning and it was
kind of earlier on in my contract and I just remember
walking out like 2-3 in the. Morning shame.
Yeah, but I was like walk, yeah,kind of.

(25:28):
But I was like, it was like different than shame I was
because it was fine. It was like a actually a good
experience. It wasn't like, but I just went,
this is not who I want to be anymore, man.
It's just this is what's the fucking point of this, right?
And yeah, it's not a bad, nobody's getting, nobody's hurt,
nobody's cheating on. It's not a bad situation, but
it's not who I want to be. And that was enough to start
changing that. Then I was like, man, stop going

(25:50):
to the bar. Stop kind of this because it was
it just wasn't conducive where Iwas going.
You're spending money you shouldn't be spending.
You're around people that aren't.
What's the point? You're playing grab ass fuck
fuck games. Like what the hell are you
celebrating? That was when I started to
become more aware of that. And then it was waking up early
as fuck, way earlier than I wanted to, every fucking day.

(26:11):
I never even had the concept of doing it every day.
And then I just really. Even even being in the military.
Well, I was getting up early forwork.
Yeah, but just for that, not foryourself.
Yeah. And so, but every day, right?
And that was something which I, which I, when I went, you know
what, I'm getting up at 5 for the Foreign Legion, we would get
up at 5:00 and run and do all this shit.

(26:32):
I'm like, I'm getting up at 3:30every day and I would go work
out in the bathroom because I was in a barracks room, dude,
and I would go in the bathroom. Nothing crazy, but I would just
get up and kind of be ahead of the game.
But it was also shit shower, shave, be ready.
And I was like ready chilling, like writing in my journal and
stuff when everyone's doing the Chinese fire drill trying to get
ready. It was more out of I just wanted

(26:52):
to be more prepared and not rush.
It was actually kind of out of that first.
And once I did that, my, my world changed.
Dead serious that one simple thing I have not changed from in
that foreign legion barracks room.
I I live in a gay community on afucking golf course and I do it
in my master bed, bedroom, in the bathroom every fucking day.
Still to this day, haven't missed a day and that.

(27:16):
Was so you wake up, so tell us what it is exactly.
So my morning process, I'll wakeup about 3:30 to 4:00, right?
That that time, not a robot. So I try to keep it around that
time, but I get up, I immediately get coffee and but
no phone, no e-mail, no news. That's key.
I do not check my phone, no e-mail, no news, nothing to mess

(27:37):
up my cheek. Then I go into the, the master
bathroom or wherever, men, hotelroom, Airbnb, doesn't matter.
And then I'll sit, fucking sit. The lost art of just sitting and
doing absolutely nothing. I don't try to, I don't try to
meditate, I don't try to think, I don't try to do anything.
I'll sit for, you know, 5 to 10 minutes and maybe just let my

(27:58):
thoughts kind of go where they are.
I might read some Stoic philosophy like Mark serious
meditations or something. I love Stoics and or, or just
something that, but just a few quotes just to kind of and I'll
take some notes, maybe somethinglike that.
Then I'll go into some movement.I love Mike Tyson push ups.
That's like one of my favorite just exercise because it's
quiet. Yeah, burpees and shit are just
doing too much at 4:00 in the morning.

(28:19):
Also for me, dude, I'm not, I'm not a psychopath, right?
I don't, I don't think demons, but I just one deliberate
movement, right? One deliberate movement to shed
that caveman anxiety. That's, that's good to get us
moving. And then I visualize a little
bit, I put music on, I'll pace around a little bit and I'll,
I'll think of who I'm building right where I've been.
And it's, it's trippy now because I, we used to remember

(28:40):
in that barracks room visualizing, which I highly
suggest people do. And that's a huge part of kind
of what I think is massively important is visualizing, man,
not what you want, but who you're building and fucking
being excited about the person you're building and what you get
to do that day. And, and fucking you're up early
and attacking life, man. And actually showing gratitude

(29:03):
because gratitude's a fucking action word, not a feeling.
I'm like, all right, man, let's,let's, all right, let's fucking
do this. It's a, it's a positive
evolution. It's a feel good evolution.
And then I start my day and thenI'll go into my phone, my
e-mail, all that stuff. But 20-30 minutes, thirty
minutes, man, it's it's the bestyou that changed my life when I
started doing that every day andI just went Oh, days off,

(29:26):
weekends, vacations, I do that every day.
Sure, it might be compressed, you might be tight, you might
have a flight or something. You know, it's like, but I
always hit it. It's like absolutely something.
I just is non negotiable. It's amazing because it's,
again, it goes back to consistency.
Yeah. It's like to me, you're it's not
it, it, it's not the 20 minutes that you're doing.

(29:49):
That's not what it is. No.
It's the 20 minutes every damn day.
Yeah. You know, for years.
How many years now? Years, man.
Fucking maybe close. Half decade now.
I mean, think about that drip. Yeah.
Think of how how big your bucketis now.
Yeah, and I saw something, you have a quote downstairs, which
is like something along the lines of, you know, the universe

(30:10):
doesn't take days off. It's something that's a massive
piece. The universe doesn't take days
off, bro. We we, we seem to think that
we're sometimes some way up apart from any of this.
Dude, we are the universe's evolution of consciousness of
itself. It's crazy what we are not.
We are more connected to this earth and everything.

(30:31):
Why do we think like that we're any different every day?
You should get up and just like Marks really says about the
bees, the bees get up and do their thing, bro.
The, the birds, they get up and fly.
Why do you think you don't get up and do your human shit?
Get up and do your human shit every day and be deliberate and
conscious about what you're doing.
People get up, oh man, and grab their coffee and the kids

(30:51):
yelling, another rushing out thedoor and their fucking toilet
papers hanging from the back of their shoe, fucking pants on
buttons. Like bro.
I feel like 80% of the world's always just in panic mode.
Like panicked panicked give it all because they won't wake up
early. Serious.
That's it. It's that simple.
And then? Here's my favorite I'm not a
morning person. That not a morning person.

(31:12):
I go dude, I got news for you. Your circadian rhythm is what it
is. We're not nocturnal.
That's why people who work nightshifts are they they, they
suffer. It's hard bro.
Anybody who works swing and night shifts are like shit,
dude. Like we are designed to be
nocturnal. So we're designed to get up when
the sun goes up and go to bed when the sun goes down.

(31:34):
And that's your it's a much morehealthy rhythm.
There might be some outliers. There always are that people,
but that's very rare. And it's I go, yeah, you are a
morning person. You're just disciplined at
night. Sucks.
It's a huge difference. I go, you stay up and scroll and
watch fucking Netflix and all this shit.
And I'm not opposed to that someof that stuff at night, but but

(31:55):
doing it until the wee hours of the morning just because you
don't have a real reason to get up early, man, that you have to
put so much importance on being great in the morning and for
your day that the night starts to get correct, right.
You're like, man, I'm looking forward to being, to really
being my best self tomorrow morning.
And I want to get up early and do it, man.
I want to, I want to go to bed, man, I want to lay down and, and

(32:18):
get rest. And in that good state, it
requires discipline on both ends.
Yeah, you got to set yourself upfor success.
Yeah, if you're trying to stay up and get up at 4:00 and you're
going to bed at midnight or one in the morning, fucking it's not
gonna happen. Yeah, I just, I just saw a video
on like, if you want perfect sleep and it's not rocket
science, you know, it's like turn off your damn television.
Yeah, turn off your phone or at least have it away from you.

(32:41):
Yep. Have the the room pitch black.
Dark. And cold as fuck.
Yeah, and go to sleep. Yep, it's.
It's really that. Simple.
It is that simple. But it's it.
Most things are simple, right? True sophistication is
simplicity, right? And so if you want a really
sophisticated bad ass life, you should look to simplify it.

(33:02):
And that goes down to your wardrobe, the everything, man.
Like clean out your fucking house and your drawers and watch
what starts to happen. Organize everything, get your
daily habits systemized and so you don't get decision fatigue.
I'm sure you found out in your life and run a business is that
you figured out what you're going to eat every morning and
every day in the middle of the day and all the time is fucking

(33:24):
wasted time, dude. You probably have some things
you like and how to rotate them,but you have an idea because
you've done it for so long, right?
You have a kind of an idea. That's what it requires.
You need to start systemizing these processes so you don't
have to figure it out all the fucking time.
That's why keep your wardrobe simple.
Keep your life simple, keep things manageable and, and your

(33:44):
schedule, you know, as as as simple and manageable as you can
because there's too many other complexities and variables
everywhere. It's it's so why make it more
complicated on yourself? Control the things you can to
the maximum, to your maximum of ability so you can actually have
the bandwidth, the emotional bandwidth to deal with all the
other shit, right? So what?

(34:06):
Would you say the biggest deception was what was the
biggest lie you were told? It's not that simple.
The biggest lie he was ever told?
No. That's the biggest lie I was
ever told. It's not that simple.
Yeah, and it's a lie they tell you over and over again.

(34:30):
What's not simple? Any bit, any of it.
All of it. Yeah.
Give up, get the child. It's how they give.
Gives you to give up. Damn what movies this from you?
Remember this? I don't think I do.
About the boxer that so he was like a world champion boxer and

(34:56):
he got in a severe car. Scene Savage.
He got in a severe car wreck andbroke his neck, and they did the
screws in his Halo. The Halo?
Yeah. And they told him, you know,
you're toast. You're toast.
Yeah. And he fucking went down in his
basement and started lifting weights and with the Halo like a
mate, you got to see this woman.It's it's so bad ass.

(35:18):
And then they're interviewing and they're like, you know,
what's the greatest? I mean, what's the biggest lie?
Very. I've been told, you know what
I'm saying? And and he was like, it's not
that simple. And then and she's like, why?
And then at the very end of that, he goes because it is
simple. Yeah.
And it's it just, it was crazy because I talk about exactly
what you just said. There's so much sophistication

(35:41):
and simplicity. Yeah.
And I think it's like a Coco Chanel quote, I swear to God.
So every time I see, every time I see like guys like us, you
know, say her quote basically because it's so damn true.
It's like everyone wants to complicate this thing.
And. We complicate it with our own
desires. Yeah, that's usually what
complicates and the. Desires are distractions.

(36:02):
The desires are distractions. Think about a lot of great men
that we've thought about. What takes a lot of them down?
Lust, lust, right? And what is that, right?
It's adding complication into your life that's unnecessary and
very, very and fleeting, right? And it destroys people's lives.
And this, this idea of simplicity, right?
It is that simple, real think clear, right?

(36:25):
Think about your relationships and how you communicate and
what, where your frequency is and being accountable in, in a
very straightforward and, and clear way with yourself.
Like, oh man, if if I'm in a badkind of a mindset, some shit's
going on real excuse yourself. Fix it, right move.
Think about ways to maintain your frequency.

(36:46):
Think about exact We're energy, man.
And so that simplicity it goes into man.
Keep yourself even keel as possible throughout the day.
I and I just have never never thought about any of this shit.
And why would I right? We're just at what some point I
just woke up to the fact that everything is my fault, all of

(37:06):
it. And the only thing I remember
this in the Foreign Legion. So people that don't know it's
a, it's kind of a rough institution and a lot of Eastern
Bloc guys, it's it's like prisonwith a gun.
It's pretty rough. And so I was cleaning a lot of
toilets at the beginning becausethey're like a Navy SEAL come
clean this fucking toilet, right?
And so I was getting a lot of extra love.
And I just remember it kind of being like, man, fuck this.

(37:28):
Like I'm just like in this spot.And I had this Zen moment and I
started looking up Zen quotes and shit just out of like, need,
like, what am I? And it was like, exactly where
you are is where you need to be.And I had this like, feeling of
peace come over me when I went, Oh yeah, this is exactly where I
need to be. So I just cleaned the fuck out
of those toilets, bro. They couldn't break me, man.

(37:48):
And I was just making sure it was the cleanest fucking toilet
in the world. You could you could eat off the
pipes in the back. Dude, it goes back, it goes back
to clean. You know, how you do anything is
how you do everything. Absolutely.
Like that's something that I, I get so irritated with people.
It's like they're great at certain things, but then they're
terrible at other things. It's like.

(38:09):
Weird. Yeah, be thorough.
You know. Be thorough man.
And and it was, it was peaceful to know that my reality it was.
It didn't need to be something else.
And so I was like, OK, well, letme just make myself great in
this current reality that I'm at.
And that was all I cared about for years.
And that was then we deployed the French, yeah, deep jungle

(38:30):
operations, did stuff on the Russian border and fucking anti
terrorism domestic missions in, in interior France.
And it was a wild time, man. And through that entire process,
I was like in the jungle, like intermittent fasting, like
training like in like. And I was just like, I'm just
going to do this shit all the time, man.
Read, write, think about my own thoughts.

(38:52):
I'd be patrolling for days, man,and just processing what I was
building, the story I was writing.
What, you know, being here, nobody even knew I was fucking
there, bro. I was off the grid for years,
you know, half a decade over there.
And so I was like, this going tobe a great story, man.
And I'm like, I'm going to fucking write a great story with
this. And but to write a great story,
you have to be at the other end of the redemption arc, right?

(39:14):
You have to fucking come out of it, dude.
You can't just go into it and then and don't come out of it.
There's no story into the Abyss.So I had to get right.
And so that was a lot of. Have you written a book yet?
No, it's almost done. Yeah, it's coming out.
Yeah. We're gonna have a book to
series ad app ideally, and so they have a good agency kind of
looking at it. I'm just hammering it out, dude.
You know it's almost done though.

(39:35):
Yeah, it's gonna be a cool storyand just I'm going to dive into
because there's SEAL books and alot of stuff.
And so what's interesting is I'mnot there's nothing in there
about SEAL shit. I'm just a Navy SEAL who
happened to be a foreign Legionnaire.
So it's like paragraph if that and it's a lot of I want to dive
into the characters, bro, the fucking guys that are in the
Foreign Legion are fucking. It is the most interesting

(39:59):
spread of human beings. 150 nations represented just in 7000
dudes. So it's.
A lot of Ukrainians, a lot of Romanians, a lot of Hungarians,
a lot of guys from Brazil, a lotof Colombians, a lot of guys
from Nepal. Now you're required to speak
English, French, man. So you're required to speak

(40:19):
French, not. When I showed up, dude, but they
they'll teach you, you know, they have like that sounds like
a lot of languages coming together.
And so we all, we all speak withcatch all dog shit French,
which, which is challenging because language is powerful.
It it connects people and so little jokes, little this little

(40:42):
that that's hard to get across when you're learning a language,
a fucking challenging language for English speakers.
But because it's just hard pronunciation to actually they
don't pronounce their letters. And so we don't it's it's in our
my California accent is they hated hearing me speak Frances
because I'm like RR, you know, shocking the NAR they're like.
What the fuck, dude? My accent's terrible, but it was

(41:06):
useful because it made me shut the fuck up because I can talk,
man, you know, but it made me shut the fuck up, listen.
And that's why I was just in a along process, years of just
listening to my own thoughts to other people because I couldn't
communicate for the first coupleyears, right?
Little bit, but you're really just shut up and go up on that

(41:28):
hill or run this and do that and.
How long were you there? About five years.
Wow. Yeah, so and four and some
change. And how old were you?
I was 34 going in there, so I wasn't a spring chicken bro.
So I was so 35I was 39. Yeah, seven years in the SEAL
teams. OK, right.
And then I did 2 years of the civilian work and then 4 1/2

(41:49):
some, you know, in the And so I wasn't a spring chicken going
into boot camp, bro. Infantry boot camp, dude.
But I was, I had run like that in the Foreign Legion.
I think it was like a a kind of God playing with me a little
bit, you know, is I hate running.
It's for the enemy. I'll do it.
I can. I'm good enough to be a Navy
SEAL and run like I, I'm, but I'm the line, right?

(42:11):
I'm the line, bro. And the Foreign Legion is one of
the biggest running unit in the world.
They run, dude, every every morning they get up five miles
minimum rain or rain, snow or anything, dude, just terrible
weather. They're running and it would be
567, dude. You run a half marathon, dude,

(42:32):
They don't even eat. They don't eat breakfast, dude.
It was they don't. I was dropping weight like crazy
and just getting hammered, bro, in the back of the just miles
and miles running in the snow and the rain going all right,
man, I guess we're here doing this, but I won't quit, man.
That's just one thing about me. It's it's an interesting process
because there's no application. There's no anything.

(42:55):
There's nothing. So there's you only.
The only way to join is to go show up at the door and knock
like the fucking Wizard of Oz. Really.
Yeah. You got to show up with a black
duffel bag in your passport. And I knocked on that door, man,
in October of 2019. And it was the Hunter's full
moon, man. And I walked in.
I said a little prayer, bro. And I was like, just look out

(43:15):
for me, man, let's do this. And I knocked on the door and
the guy brought me in, said giveme your passport.
I didn't see that passport againfor three years.
I didn't see that they gave me afake name, fake when I passed
everything. It's about 1 out of 15 guys
actually passed the initial selection.
What's like a pre selection and a selection?
It's an IQ test, a lot of Interpol, background checks,
interrogations and cycle, psychological evaluations,

(43:38):
medical, all that shit for abouta month.
Then one out of 15 guys will pass that.
Then you go in, you got your fake name and all this, and you
operate on that fake name until you get additional paperwork
passed through and then you'll get your passport back years
later. And so it was, I lost my
identity, quite literally. And that was what I needed, man.
It was like a baptism in humility, bro.

(43:59):
Nobody gave a fuck. I was a seal.
No one even knew I had a fake name.
I was completely somebody else. And so I got to create somebody
else, which was powerful, man. It was, it was I needed that
time, that isolation to really get clear on the fact that there
was no more external validation that was going to make me happy.
And for anybody, I'm sure you, you realize you've achieved a

(44:21):
lot of stuff and are still doingit.
It's not that that makes you you.
It's the it's the your fan, be your family being proud of you.
It's you being proud of yourselfevery day.
That was the only thing. And that one was like, it was
like this aha moment. I went, oh, because I started
looking at Ukraine kicked off and looking at mercenary groups
and then down in Africa and I'm like, all right, what's the next

(44:43):
thing to make me feel tough and like proud of myself or like
some Band-Aid, some what next institution can I put a label on
that I can call myself, you know, And I realized, dude,
that's it's never ending. I'm just going to keep doing
that until I catch a bullet, youknow, and then first first
chasing something that doesn't exist when I'm like, Oh, the

(45:04):
fucking answer is right here. And I like looked around my
barracks room, dude. And I'm like, why am I just not
happy here? It was that simple simplicity.
And dude, I'm look, I'm getting the chills because it was this
moment and was like, God, just like opening up, like pulling
back the curtains and going, bro, Oh, that's right here.
And I went, Oh shit. And when I can just that's when

(45:24):
I decided I'm just going to start getting up earlier, just
going to be more intentional about what I do and how I can.
It was cut away the shit that just wasn't serving me anymore.
And that fucking was that simple.
And it was right there at my feet, people looking at the
horizon for some great life. And it's right here.
It's right here and the the achievements and the success
will come when you're that rightperson.
Just start working on yourself now and the rest falls into

(45:46):
place. So how?
I ended up in Miami. Is, is kind of cool.
I so I I play football at AuburnUniversity.
OK. And then what position do you
play? Inside linebacker.
I was a lot bigger than lay the hat. 22 inch neck.
Good ass dude. Yeah.
Two fours playing in Auburn as awhite dude played my dad, my dad
played. That's sick.
Yeah. I was one of 12 white guys out

(46:07):
of like 100 something dudes. Yeah.
Yeah, it was it was definitely. I was the minority for sure, But
I I broke my back in high schooland then they told me I'd never
play football again and I rehabbed myself back.
Was defensive player of the yearin Alabama, then walked on at
Auburn as a preferred walk out on earned a scholarship my first

(46:29):
year and then my red shirt sophomore year, red shirt
sophomore year. I broke my back again.
Damn. So it was I had a decision to
make. It was like, and I've laid
paralyzed on the field twice. Holy fuck.
So damn, dude. Yeah.
And like, not long. I mean, it felt like eternity
when I did it, but literally going, you know, paralyzed from

(46:51):
the neck down for like 3040 seconds and all and not telling
anybody. Yeah, I didn't tell a soul like,
you know, Yeah. Who you gonna tell?
Yeah. What if Yeah gives a shit, you
know? So I didn't even tell anybody.
So when I broke my back the second time, they offered me a
medical hardship or like, hey, you can finish out your degree,
exercise science. And then before to graduate, I

(47:14):
got to pick a internship. So I was a strength coach at
Stanford University. OK, in Birmingham, AL, where I'm
from. Nice.
And then simultaneously I was started training some athletes
at the AC Fitness that actually my dad opened up OK with this
guy. So I'm training the athletes,
doing the strength and conditioning thing.
And a buddy in mom is a model here in Miami.
He's like 6 foot 4, you know, gorgeous black man.

(47:37):
Yeah, modeling down here, livingthe life, living on South Beach.
And he calls me up and he's like, hey, if you shave your
head. And this one, I had lovely
locks. Yeah, yeah, those days are over
with. But he's like, if you shave your
head, I can get you a body double stunt double job for bad
boys too. Very cool.
I literally shaved my head 20 minutes later.

(47:57):
I love it, man. Yeah.
He said you got the job. I drive down to Miami in a beat
up Nissan Maxima stick shift with cloth interior with $2000
in my name and everything I own in the in the car.
I'm never get coming over the bridge seeing the Miami Beach
sign and I literally was like, I'm never leaving.
I'm never leaving. It just, I was like, I'm never
leaving and got on set, had my own trailer, you know, makeup,

(48:20):
the whole, you know, the whole thing.
Did that experience. And yeah, so that's what brought
me here. I was a stunt double on Bad
Boys. No shit man, that's badass.
Yeah, it's a fun story. That is a cool story.
Yeah. Who's down there at Auburn?
It was Takayo Spikes down there.How was his backup?
No way, bro. I was thinking that it might
have been about the same time. Shout out to Keo.
Yeah. What a freak.

(48:40):
Like I mean. Because he was.
He was at the charts talking about no neck.
He had no neck. That just got the most
impressive neck in all football.He so I was strong, like really
strong and my Max on bench was like 440 and so and I was like
top five on the team. He was #1 just take a wild guess

(49:03):
of what his Max. Was 550.
Yeah, like and he would do it like, yeah, probably 2-4.
Yeah, probably 24250. Like, not 300.
No, he was 228. Jesus bro, that's crazy.
I mean he. Was a specimen.
Yeah, and he could run like a deer, like and then he and then

(49:24):
he was very smart too. He was a, you know, the
quarterback on the defense. Yeah, just a real smart.
Wow, that's cool man. That's we had.
Time studs. We actually had 29 guys on my
football team from Broward and Dade County, so that was
interesting because I had no idea I'd end up in Miami.
Yeah, but I had a bunch of Broward and Dade County guys on
our team. Dade County reps in the NFL just

(49:45):
in general. To Mark Keith Cooper, Martavius
Houston. Who else was down there?
Man, I forget everybody's name but like, I mean.
Those practices must have got wild bro in the summers dude
trying to get slots. Well, of course, you know, my
dad tells me if you want to makea name for yourself, pick a

(50:05):
fight with the biggest guy on the team the first day of
practice. That's what he told me.
And so I literally punch Victor Riley.
Victor Riley was 68300 and 35 lbs.
Oh damn tackle. And I punch him right in the
throat, like like on a play. But I like purposely just

(50:27):
fucking like that. Next thing I know, this joker's
on top of me just. Pounding.
And then I get up and I'm just smiling from there and he's
like, what is wrong with this guy?
And I was like, that's what my dad told me.
And then all the coaches loved me from then on out.
And it worked. It worked like a charm.
If you like, that's amazing advice.

(50:48):
And I got my ass kicked, but it was it was awesome.
But, you know, it was just great.
That's a cool experience being down there, bro.
That's no, I mean Auburn football, bro.
If you played football at Auburn, you were like, yeah.
Like you could park anywhere. You could show up to class
anytime you wanted to. You had like 14 tutors.
Yeah. Like, it was it was fun.
It was it was a blast. That's good place, man.

(51:10):
That's definitely like one of myhigh lights of life.
It was playing football. Yeah, I bet.
Yeah. And then also, too, my dad
played there. So there was a little bit of
legacy. Yeah, you know, with that.
And it was cool because. He played linebacker, too.
He did, yeah. Yeah, he actually was offensive
guard his first year and like 200 lbs.
Yeah, that's how it was back in the day, dude.
They drank. They wouldn't even give him
water at practice. They had to drink the sweat out

(51:31):
of their towels like it was valve.
Was was it Vincent body who's like, water makes you weak?
Yeah, yeah. I mean.
It was so funny that the way they treated him.
Yeah, yeah. So they had this.
Thing called mat drills and likewhen we did mat drills it was
like, you know, exercises and stuff.
Their mat drills were in a basement with wrestling mats and
they would go you versus you go no.

(51:53):
And like full on fight, yeah. Like that was their mat.
Talk about being illegal now. Yeah, Yeah.
That's a cool experience bro. Yeah, man, it was great.
Fun of shit. And then what it did for me is
it it really opened my eyes to why I got injured.
Yeah. So I started thinking about,

(52:13):
like, how I was lifting and the things I was doing, and it was
just all wrong. It was just all wrong.
What? Do you think what was wrong
about it? Everything was about strength,
like how how much weight can youlift?
Yeah, that was everything. And then how big?
So basically, how big and strongcan you be?
Yeah. And there was no mobility, warm

(52:35):
up, speed, power like use of andjust was wrong.
And so as I dove into kinesiology, exercise science
and I started training other athletes, I just started doing
it in a different way. And that's kind of how I so then
now, I mean, I've trained thousands of athletes and and it

(52:55):
with this different philosophy that kind of who do.
You think of the best athlete you ever trained is.
So Julius Peppers by far. You mentioned him earlier.
Is is a freak of nature. Sessimen gentle giant, amazing
guy, but watching him run right,So when he so it was interesting
because you said you forgot he went to Green Bay.

(53:16):
That's when like we had our bestoffseason.
So he came to me and he was like315.
Damn, he was 350. Yeah.
When he came to me, OK, and offseason, obviously, yeah.
And he was like, yo, bro, you know, I've got traded.
I'm going to the Green Bay. I need to, I need it.
So I we worked our asses off that year.
I got him down to 278. Damn.

(53:37):
Just like huge shredded. Yeah.
And he was running like a deer. And I'll never forget, I would
have him and Joe Hayden running like one 50s together.
So like down back, 25 yards downback three times and you had to
do it as a as a lineman, you hadto get it under 28 seconds, but
as ADB, you had to get it under 24 seconds.
Yeah, you had to do it with the DB he.

(53:59):
Was doing. No, he was just doing it.
Yeah, yeah, at 23 seconds, like,I mean, at 297 lbs.
It was crazy. Or 278 lbs.
Seeing him in in like pads, it doesn't even look fair.
Like even in the NFL, certain people just set themselves
apart. It's like, I mean, that's why he
had such longevity, man. He had longevity in one of the

(54:22):
most challenging sports and he wasn't an offensive lineman,
dude. Playing defensive line like
outside linebacker dude. It's those guys don't play visor
teen years, but. Visor he looked like freaking
Darth Vader. Cool looking as fuck he was.
Such a gangster just just G withit man, just just dripping in
swag, bro, just no everything clamp with swag was a a quiet

(54:44):
yeah, you know, he let his he let his play talk for him.
Yeah, very. Just a a led by example, you
know. Yeah, man.
Yeah, he was. That's that's cool.
I saw that man. He's like I've always been.
I've always really admired the way he played, man.
Yeah. And then I would say Joe Johnson
is is another one that was just like just a freak.
I mean, he could still be be in the NBA today.
That's crazy. He's that athletic that yeah.

(55:06):
Built like a like a Greek God. Yeah.
Now he's into yoga. Yeah.
He actually has ISO yoga. No one said ISO Joe.
And he's opening up yoga clinics.
Oh, very cool. And seeing someone like, you
know, 6 what is Joe? Joe's like 6-8 and 2:40, but
he's like, you know, putting hisleg behind his head.
Now it's. Pretty wild.

(55:26):
I like, I like seeing guys. It's like this push of Wellness.
Now it's like there's this Wellness push of of there's like
a raising of consciousness happening in the in the movement
and athletic spaces. It's not like it was kind of
when we were younger where it was like, bro, just get your
chalk protein and fucking muscleit down.

(55:47):
And it's not like that anymore. It's not about how huge you can
get. It's like man, how there's
functionality, yes, but it's also man, how can you be big and
strong and look good and fuckinghealthy?
It's not like longevity. Yeah.
Can you move keep this going? Yeah, What's because it doesn't
matter man, if you do it, if you're like looking solid for a
year and then trash the rest, it's like what's the point man?

(56:10):
Trying to we're. Just getting smarter.
I mean really, yeah, it's, I would say this though, there is
a, there is a level of I still miss the, the, the guys that
really work hard though. Yeah.
Because there's still, I think there's a little bit of like,
like you got these guys that like won a foam roll for an hour
and it's like, all right. Like, yeah, there's, there's
still like a little bit too much.

(56:31):
Yeah, to a certain degree. You don't see a lot of the
Dorian Yates's walking around, right?
Like the guys that are pushing like themselves to right.
Absolute Max. I mean, I admire.
That's hard to do. Yeah, it's hard to the Ronnie
Coleman documentary. No.
Oh, man, So sad. Dude.
He is. He basically, like destroyed his
body. Like he went, he went so hard in

(56:53):
the paint, dude on his lips, bro.
Like, I mean some of those old documentaries to him dude where
he's just rapping 700 on the just like what the.
Well, he screwed his back up like bad.
Yeah, he barely walked now. Yeah, he sees me.
He's so you got. But you know what's interesting
is you have guys like God, who'sthe other?

(57:14):
Who's the the white dude? That was Jay Cutler.
Jay Cutler? Yeah.
He looked great. Yeah.
Very functional, right. He trained different.
He did he. Trained a lot different, right?
He was so good at like the efficiency of movements.
Like I remember seeing a guy, seeing him curl with 40s, right?
And he's like, and I'm like, it really just watching him do

(57:35):
that, change the way I think about stuff.
I'm like just efficiency of movement and the squeeze and the
contraction and the time under tension is the.
Time under tension. I mean he just the time under
tension bro and like watching how good is clean his movement
was. I'm like, Oh yeah, I.
Actually had early on, I got introduced to kind of one of my
mentors. His name was Tim Singleton.
He was just yoked and I was 240,just had my dreams crushed that

(58:02):
the ball was taken away from me.And he was a bodybuilder and a
natural bodybuilder. And he was like, yo, just, you
know, let's start training. And I went from 2:40 to 198, but
I was stronger. Wow, at 198 and I look like
crazy. Crazy.
Yeah. And it was all by being
intentional. Yeah.
It was that mind to muscle connection, just training

(58:23):
different. That was all it was.
Yeah, with intensity of focus and and and time and attention,
not not intensity of weight. Of weight and of, you know,
volume, volume, high, high volume weight.
So it was, it's really interesting what you can do with
your body. And then also for, for like, I'm
47 and I'm still doing it. Like, you know, I'm still

(58:44):
showing up still. Yeah.
I still feel like I, I, I can change my body, you know, like,
you know, like, yeah. You can, yeah, you can change
and adapt. You can make it bigger, get
tighter. But you also have you also talk
about those drops in the bucket.You have decades of doing it
wrong, doing it right, figuring it out of diet, of frequency, of

(59:09):
intensity. Of course, you just have done so
much work that. And also it takes years to build
muscle. Like years.
Yeah. People don't understand how long
it takes. Like that's why bodybuilders
don't. They don't win shows until
they're in their like mid 30s. Dude Ronnie Coleman, I think he
took 7th place for like 5 years or something.
Like a lot of people don't know dude.

(59:30):
Until he got drunk, that one. Yeah, yeah, dude, consistency,
man. And it's, there's something to
be said for you just keep showing up.
Like so when I got out of jail, I was like probably 2:30.
Not all good weight, like foot, like football weight, you know,
like not fat, but just too much fat layer on me, right?
And I'm like, OK, well, I got totrim down and went down to like

(59:54):
185 in like 6 weeks puking and running and just all that stuff.
But that process, that process of of kind of.
Trimming it off was so transformative because I had
never really thought about training in that way, right.
I had never really thought aboutlike getting leaner, like for

(01:00:14):
better purpose. Like I always thought you just
were supposed to be bigger and heavier.
And that was like a hard psychological shift for me was
to, to actually shift into the, into that motive.
Oh man, I'm going to trim it down and then we can kind of
like build this back up. But going into SEAL training is
like, I only reason I what was good is cuz I just fucking kept

(01:00:35):
showing up. Yeah, I just kept showing up
like I was failing when I first started, like the selection
process or not in the military, but training for.
And dude, it took me 9 months toget my contract, bro, because.
And I just, I asked the guy, I said, well, who makes the
decisions on SEAL contracts? They're like this old retired

(01:00:56):
Lieutenant Commander and he would run Vegas, LA and San
Diego. I said, well, I'm going to go
fucking see him. I found his cell phone number.
I called him and he had this program that was attached to
Naval Special Warfare. And dude, I was stacking boxes
at Home Depot fucking at night, living on living at my mom's
house, riding a bike. I go buy this like $500 shitty
fucking car then. And dude, I just started showing

(01:01:18):
up. Some days I'd be the only mother
fucker show up, dude, dead serious.
And if it had me running the up in the hills of Camp Pendleton
puking, dude, I had never run 5 miles in my fucking life.
And they're like, we're running 5 miles and I'm going what?
Like damn that I just I had never done that and I hated it.
Kept showing up, kept showing up, but I had.
So that part of me just showing up changed my body.

(01:01:41):
It also got me a lot of FaceTimewith him and so he signed my
letter of recommendation to go into SEAL to get my SEAL
contract. That just because I showed up,
man. And I'm like that, that
consistency of not even know what the fuck I'm doing.
Bro, just show up dude. It's like people that go down to
jiu jitsu or whatever. If you keep showing up there,
you're going to get good. I don't give a fuck who you are.
You keep showing up to the gym, you're going to get in better

(01:02:03):
shape. It's it's inevitable.
You keep you keep showing up, dude, You don't got to know
what's right. What's the right plan?
Nothing, nothing you're going tobecause the contacts you'll make
the confidence you build and just knowing that you're going
to go and there's a lot of that's part of the fun process
is learning as you're doing it, man, and showing up.

(01:02:24):
I'm sure in business nobody gaveyou a blueprint to do all this
shit. There is no blueprint.
Right, there's not. There's no blueprint, man.
You're still figuring it out, I'm sure, But what did you you
just kept showing up and meetingpeople and asking the right
questions and probably failing and this and that and then just
not stopping. And that's a major piece of guys
that pass through SEAL training is they just never quit.

(01:02:46):
What? Yeah, speak on that because I
mean, I've heard it's the hardest shit in the world.
So like you actually had to showup for is it?
Did you show is hell week like the first thing you did six
weeks in? OK, so six weeks in and it's
buds. Yeah.
And tell like, how was that? And mind you, by the time you
get there, all these guys are all American football players,

(01:03:09):
fucking pros, some of them and, and a lot of sports Olympians.
So I show up, I'm like, damn, dude, these guys are putting up
numbers, bro. I was like fucking, you know, I
was good, but I'm, I'm not greatat anything, but I'm good at
kind of everything. I'm just like, damn, dude.
But I was getting fucking toasted by these guys.
I'm like, I'm not a fucking do Ieven measure up here and I show
up and we flew out with like 400guys.

(01:03:30):
We ended up finishing 13. That's what I that's exactly
what I was just about that guys,how many guys show up and then
how many more? Some of those guys, so we
probably graduated 50. Some of those guys are the
Probably about fifty of those guys got rolled back.
Injuries, failures, they get oneroll, but 13 finished all the
way through. And you were one of the. 13 and
I was one of the 13. Some of it's luck, some of it's
just grit and some other shit, but dude, it was.

(01:03:53):
What's the majority of the reason why?
I mean, that's a lot of people quitting.
Most people don't fail, Some fail.
You got to be able to run fast and swim in good enough and be
good on the old course. You got to be an athlete.
But dude, there was guys who specimens, right, just physical
specimens that would have a bad day, bro.
They'd get up cold and and they'd look at the water bro.

(01:04:13):
And they'd be like, and the instructors know because it's
also not, it's not the training a lot of people think about the
it's not the events that are hard.
Most people quit before or afterevolutions, not during, which is
interesting. It's not during the hard stuff.
It's the anticipation. Of it's like getting in your own
it's. Anticipation of or the memory of
and it's also the instructors doa lot of shit with sleep

(01:04:35):
deprivation that you don't thinkabout.
They'll be like they'll take your K bar knife, take an
example and they're like, oh man, this K bar knife looks
fucking and you'll take it and just smash it on the cement,
fucking make it all dull and fucking be like, hey, that
better be perfect tomorrow morning.
So you're not sleeping, you're not sleeping so you're no sleep
going into a full day of just getting your Dick pushed in

(01:04:59):
hypothermia multiple of 2 mile ocean swim, then a seven mile
time run. You know, it's like you're going
into all these things. That's one day, man.
And you're doing that for six months every day.
And so there's no days, just seven, six straight months of
that. And it's so dudes just get
crushed. They just go fucking no way, I'm

(01:05:20):
not doing it anymore. And they play games like, OK,
we're going hypothermic surf torture, they call it.
So it's like hypothermia and you, they put you into your
shivering and they pull you backout and back in.
You don't know how long they're going to do it.
So they just keep doing it untilcertain amount of people quit.
They get guys enticed with like,Hey, we got we got coffee and
Donuts in the ambulance. If anybody quits first got to

(01:05:41):
quit, get some and then just give you guys heads, man.
It's night time. They make you wave goodbye to
the sun. They go put your arms up because
you're like extra cold and the breeze is hitting your armpits
and they're like wave goodbye tothe sun.
They're like, I got good news and bad news.
Fellas, what do you want first? It doesn't matter what what you
say, right? He goes, all right.
The bad news is, is this next evolutions going to be terrible.

(01:06:05):
It's going to it's going to suckreally bad.
It's a bunch of you're probably going to quit because the good
news is this is a volunteer program.
You don't have to be here. You know, it's listen, I'm going
these motherfuckers, all these guys just got back from Iraq to
solid athletes. Some of these guys are crazy,
but we would have kids doing 75 pull ups middle of hell week,

(01:06:27):
like just studs, bro. And so it was cool being around
guys like that because some of those guys who you thought are
studs really are right. Some of my good homies are still
operating at the top, top tip ofthe spear, man.
And that's where Jimmy and I met.
So Jimmy and I met in that training.
When we met, it was I still do. Jimmy's fucking love Jimmy, one
of my favorite humans. He comes walking over and I

(01:06:49):
didn't know Jimmy's story or none of the back story.
And so he's coming up the and I'm sitting there sharpening my
knife, sitting outside. I just finished all week and
Jimmy's walking up in his red helmet.
He's in third phase about to finish.
He goes hey man, hey, hey, and I'm going.
He's got such a distinct. And I'm going, this motherfucker
is going to say some shit like he's like he's in a class ahead
and he's going to talk some shit.
And he goes, dude, you guys had a fucking shitty hell week, man.

(01:07:12):
Good job, man. He goes dude.
It was cold, man. He goes good shit, brother.
And he's just talking. Then that was our first
interaction. Just positive in him, dude.
And I'm like that, that dude wascool as fuck.
Come find out, you know, he'd beone of my best friends.
But you mean amazing humans there, bro.
Like it was very magical becauseof that shared hardship.
Like a football team, dude, it'slike you bond over those hard

(01:07:33):
summer 2A days and fucking all those, all those drills and
dude, they get, you get tight and no, people on the exterior,
they'll never going to touch that bond.
It's just different because of that shared hardship.
And so, and that's what it's designed to do, bro.
Even in SEAL training, it's unique.
And because officers go through the same training, it's very

(01:07:54):
unique. Green Berets do it, Seals do it,
no other units do that. And so there's a very tight bond
because you know, all the officers went through the same
exact thing the Spartans did in the Ogogi, same stuff, right?
You have officers, it's there. Nobody gets a pass on that part.
And so it's powerful knowing that when you're operating and I

(01:08:14):
in the Middle East or other places, you, you know, this
mother fucker, you might not like the guys with you, you
don't got to like everybody, butyou know, he's tough and you
know, he's got a level of grit that is just that is just
unique. Yeah.
And what do you think? I mean, why do you think you
made it? I had I had told myself this,
it's good genetic bone density, a little luck, but also in terms

(01:08:37):
of the psychological piece is I,I had really painted myself into
a corner of like I had. There was no other option for
me. This was it.
I had couldn't even get into anyother military branch because
I've been turned down by everybody and I had no other
options in my head and I had student loans and debt.
I had to make it just to pay offmy student loans and shit right.

(01:08:59):
Like and that my mom had Co signed on.
You know, I can my mom is singlemom and so I just I had some
pressure on real life shit that I'm like dude, I got to make it
because I don't have another option and what the fuck else am
I going to do? I just it was my entire dream
and world were wrapped up in it and it's unique talking to a guy
like you because you've lost a dream before something that was

(01:09:21):
you and like your identity, likewhen I lost my seal Trident, I
was very much similar. It's like you go through this
like grieving. It's that's just, it's different
if you if you never really been tied into something that tight,
it's like your identity, like you playing like, dude, you're a
fucking football player at a fucking D1 massive school.
Like what The Who are you now? You've been told that you were

(01:09:43):
going to do that since you were like.
Five years old forever. So you're that's what you did
and then you pull that away. I can't imagine what it's like
for NFL players and stuff. It's like I'm sure they go
through, you know, they've been doing it since little kids and
it's like now what an opera special operators or guys in any
guy in the military. It's like if it was something
that you really was deep in you,that was your identity, bro.

(01:10:05):
It's dangerous to, and this is something I started to learn is
that don't make your entire identity and pride wrapped up in
something external of you. It's that is anything that can
get taken away from you like that bro is fucking dangerous.
It's not the badge, it's not theuniform, it's not any of that
stuff, man. Those external things aren't

(01:10:26):
aren't really. What is your identity?
Who are you right? Are you that good father?
Are you that good, you know, or that that good moral guy that
people can rely on? Or is your daily?
How are you proud of your daily habits?
Like that needs to be the core. The other stuff, man, that's
nice. Bolt on those achievements.
They're important too, but they need to be bolt on.

(01:10:47):
Not the, not the foundation. Right, right.
What's what's going on in your life right now?
Dude, after the legion, when when I put that video in and
started, I started getting influx with dude, I was going to
kill myself and I didn't man, and I really appreciate you
selling that out there, you know, and I'm like, hey, man,
you know, that's that's what it was, you know, and and so I

(01:11:08):
started going, maybe there's something here and like people
like, well, what are you doing in the day?
So I just started to build a blueprint like, hey, man, here's
kind of what I do in the day andI got some good feedback.
Guys are like relationships are better.
Like I'm like, OK, I can make this.
I can make this into something Iwould used to was suicidal in my
fucking truck with a sawed off, you know, for days in the
jungle. And now I'm, you know, living

(01:11:29):
great, great life every day and fucking happy and fulfilled.
I said I can show people out what I do.
So I just built the blueprint coaching mentorship.
I do some keynote speeches. I speak, speak in prisons and
other places, man, and it's justkind of loving what I'm doing,
bro. It's trying to help people get
better, really help people feel better about what they're doing.

(01:11:49):
And, and really, not everybody needs the same shit.
You know, some, I work with business owners and guys fucking
under a bridge, man who can makeit work.
Like I don't give a fuck if somebody really wants to get
better and they're here, they're, they want to answer
that calling, I'm fucking game, dude.
I'll work with them to kind of get up because most people just
need momentum. They don't need a perfect plan.
They just need a fucking plan, aclean, simple plan.

(01:12:13):
Wake up like this, move like this, eat like this, read some
of this shit. Yeah, that's really, that's
really, no, it's, it's really what it is.
And the people go up because then they're going to start
taking their pieces. But once you get that ball
rolling, man, it's beautiful to see people like, dude, my
business is better. And and that's why I say I go,
man, if you want to make more money, start self developing.

(01:12:34):
They they go well, how's tracking my macros going to
help? They're well, we'll just do it,
motherfucker. And you're going to see because
the way you do anything is the way you do everything.
Are you thorough? Well, you don't measure doesn't
get managed. It's going to all bleed into all
these other things. Start doing it so you can be
deliberate about all this shit. And then you start to remove
variables and your bandwidth opens.
Now you're more patient. Now you're better fucking
father. Now you've been up earlier, so

(01:12:55):
when your kids get up, you're present, not rushing around.
What are the secondary and tertiary effects of you getting
better? It's fucking amazing, dude.
It's so amazing. And you can't experience it
until you start doing it becauseyou, you, you can't predict or
project what might, what might get better and the benefits
you'll have. And that's what at least I
experienced in my life because Istarted to get better and then

(01:13:17):
met my fiance. We had a baby, got engaged.
Like he just, you know, things just started to come together.
And it was all because I just started getting holding myself
to a higher standard in a barracks room.
That's it. And that was the and I could
have never foreseen being in a happy relationship.
And so I just didn't see that for me and for many years and
now I experienced it. I'm just so fucking grateful,

(01:13:38):
man, just every day. And so that gratitude, I just,
so I'm not, I'm not changing anything.
So I just, that's what I like todo is just show people that the
consistency matters. And I record it every day on my
Instagram and I record me getting up and my, me doing my
process every fucking day. So every, it's like my roll
call. I do not miss a day.
And everyone can call me out on it if I, if I do, but I've never
have some like people like I've been watching it for two years,

(01:14:00):
man, three years just waiting and you just fucking never miss
it. That's the fucking key, bro.
You know, that's the that's, that's the fun part.
Wow, that's cool. What?
Tell me a little about your tattoo, like when?
When did you get your first tattoo?
Dude, I got my first tattoo like16 probably.
You know, I was like the kid on the football field, like tattoos
and shit. Yeah, just below the football,

(01:14:21):
just below the pads, you know, And then and then it just
started kind of growing. I did my whole back.
It's like the battle of good andevil.
And then the my legs are like old world, new World wars, you
know, the jungle and the South America.
And then, you know, I got a lot of Crusader stuff and Viking
stuff, a lot of heritage stuff. Yeah, Yeah.
I got a Runic 7 on my chest. No way.

(01:14:43):
Yeah. Runic 7.
Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.
Did you have you did you get like?
Addicted to it or tattooed. I fucking hate it.
I just I knew the vision of how I wanted to look deliberate,
right? Have a vision of like, and so
part of that was man, I I need to finish my tattoos.
I really kind of wanted that year round tan, you know, I

(01:15:05):
needed it. You know, that's the part of the
reason I would look down on my legs and like, God, my legs are
fucking white dude. I need to get them tattooed.
But you know, I got tatted. I mean all thorough bro, like
all the way up to the Gooch, allthe way up, dude, the end of the
ass crack, bro, like pretty, yeah.
Like, so I just was like, look, let me do this thorough and it
was just part of my vision, you know, part of the vision of how

(01:15:26):
I wanted to present myself, how I felt.
Like people fucking hate them orlove them.
It's like it I go, I don't care what you do, but make sure you
look like how you want to look because it matters, man.
The presentation matters of, of how you move through the day.
I mean training and this. And that's like, dude, you if
you want to, if you feel like you want to be strong, get
strong. If you feel like you want to get

(01:15:47):
leaner, get leaner. There's just just do it because
if you're not doing it, you're out of alignment.
You're gonna experience some friction with that so
constantly. Like man, I wish I was a little
bit lighter. So you think the tattoos are
kind of like the authentic expression of what you wanted to
look? Like since I was a kid, since my
dad had tattoos and stuff and, and instead I just, that's what

(01:16:10):
I always kind of was drawn to, was fascinated when I saw the
first time I was a little kid and I saw somebody like fully
tattooed, I was like, God damn. Like I never, no desire to touch
my face or anything like that. It just wasn't part of my
vision, you know. And so I'm pretty much done.
Maybe I'll touch some stuff up. I got no room left, man.
But it was, yeah, absolutely part of it.
And I felt like I booted up, man, when I, when they all

(01:16:30):
connected, yeah, it was like down here, I finally needed to
like, connect. And I'm like, damn, man, I did
it. And it took me, you know, 20
years, but yeah, it got done. I find it cool because it's
like, there's so many stereotypes around it.
Yeah. And I've found almost every
single time I've met a guy that's just tatted up from head
to toe are the nicest people, you know what I mean?

(01:16:53):
But they're such a stereotype that, you know, they're killers
or something like this. Cracks me up.
Yeah, man, I mean, it's because it's nothing hot, you know, it's
like, I mean, and really it was a commitment to not playing by
anybody else's rules. Like it wasn't, it wasn't, it
wasn't that wasn't the reason, but it was a commitment to
myself, man of bro, my days of putting in a resume and trying

(01:17:14):
to, you know, put a it just was.I knew that wasn't it, right?
And, and I had to at some point own who I was and who I always
felt like I was. And the minute I started playing
in an authentic way, bro, I feltso much better.
My energy was better. I just fucking felt better than
trying to, you know, do the I'llcover up my tattoos because of
what this guy, that this guy buying a house might think.

(01:17:36):
It's just, it wasn't me, man. And I, I experienced some
friction with that. And when I really cut loose and
just decided to, you know, roll the dice, the truth was I made a
fuck ton more money too, bro. Because, you know, part of it
was because it's the authenticity I'm trying.
When you're trying to play somebody else's game, you're
never going to win that way whenyou fucking go, you know?
There's only one of you. Yeah, there's only one.

(01:17:58):
And like doing something like this, like this isn't in the
plan, man. Like you, this isn't like in
some business book like how to fucking execute, bro.
You got multiple businesses operating in this space and you
got to it was just, you know, mentioning the getting to create
a unique ambiance and environment is trickles down

(01:18:19):
from the top. We call it command climate.
We call it command climate. What's the command climate?
Because it always is down from the top, the CEO.
It's like if the command climate's bad, it means
leadership's bad. That's just how it is.
And so it's like you get to create something and that's not
in any kind of nobody's can teach you how to do that, and
you got to do it in an authenticway.
And yeah, yeah, it's just been great, man.

(01:18:40):
Yeah, I remember when I like, first kind of sketched this out,
you know, my architect was like,I don't understand it.
And then I had to put together this Pinterest board.
And then the first iteration they sent me, I was like, that's
not what I said. Yeah.
And so I had to go back and be like, I want it like this.
I want that. Then once we kind of got the
foundation done, then the, the like the quotes and the painting

(01:19:03):
and stuff like that. I, I made the painter, they
paint that middle container ship7 times.
Like literally I was like, Nope,that's not it.
Nope, that's not it. Remember that Oscar?
Like so yeah, I totally get it. I mean, I think I think that
authenticity is what allows people to own what they do and

(01:19:26):
how they do it. Because if you if you're not, if
you're not truly authentic, yourauthentic self, then you're
basically like lying to people. Yeah, you know, and that's like,
and also too, it's I find that when you it's interesting, when
you meet people that are authentic, it's like you're
drawn to them because it's like,you can, you can, you can we can

(01:19:50):
smell bullshit. Yeah.
So it's like as soon as you meetsomebody that's like, like, I
don't know if you noticed, but like I walked in and like we
damned or hugged. And we did hugged.
You know what I mean? Yeah.
And it felt like I knew you. From we did ever you know, and
then I went in for myself prettyquick dude after.
And I don't know if I weirded you out, but like, after we did

(01:20:10):
it, I was like, it felt kind of normal.
Yeah, you know what I mean? Like it was like, I was like, I
didn't even know that guy that just went in for the.
Yeah, they both did. Yeah, dude.
Yeah, it was pretty cool. And why?
Because dude, it just little bittransparent, being good, man,
being fucking good with yourself, being good with what
you're doing, how you're thinking, man, it's like
nobody's perfect, but man, it's,it's, it's amazing when you can

(01:20:33):
kind of be comfortable in your own skin, comfortable with what
you're doing and your day and, and your life.
That's how that's what I fuckingwant for everybody, man.
That's exactly what I was sayingin my head as you were saying
that. I just, it's sad that there's so
many people that just can't be themselves because they're
worried about what the world tells them they're supposed to

(01:20:54):
be. They're worried about the world
and also the work, right? And so it's, it requires A
deliberate life, requires A deliberate effort.
And when you start actually doing that, there's this
amazing, this positive effect that starts to be self
perpetuating. Now you do good things, good
things happen, you feel good, dogood things.

(01:21:16):
And then there's that opposite wheel, which is that negative
self talk. I feel bad.
I want immediate gratification. I fucking feel guilty and I need
to do more. It's like you can get into one
of two silos. There's no fucking middle
ground, man. There's no middle ground.
This is very, this is very red and black and that it's very,
it's very obvious when you meet people that are in that good

(01:21:39):
deliberate positive circle, you're like, hey, what's up,
dude? We're all.
About it too, when you're in that good positive way, it's
your reactions, yeah. It's like you react differently
yeah. Like I tell people all the time
when you're living your best life, like living your best
self, like when you're trying todo better every single day, I

(01:22:01):
say the quote that I have is no,days off is never taking a day
off on you. It's a commitment to becoming
your best self. I love that.
So it's basically like never take a day off on you.
Yeah. So every single day life is
granted to us. It's a gift.
Yeah. Why?
Why would we take that off? Like, so every encounter
matters, every How you leave people, leave people better than
you found them, all this stuff. Right.

(01:22:21):
So to me it's like when you are doing that, your interactions
are so much better because when do we react wrong?
It's when we feel like shit. When we're in a bad state.
We're in a bad state, but if youcan keep that you, you mentioned
earlier that high frequency, yeah, then all of a sudden
you're treating people better and therefore they're going to

(01:22:42):
treat you better. It's most of the time it's
amazing. It's amazing feedback.
People hold the door open for people leaving the gym, right?
Yeah. Other places brought the DMV,
not so much, right? You know what I mean?
That's such a choose, dude. It's just people are walking out
with a much different energy. You know?
It's like, hey, dude, what's going on, man?
Yeah, All right. Fucking cool.
That's one. Of the reasons why I designed

(01:23:04):
the gyms, the way there are too,is I wanted an environment that
people could connect. Yeah, So you don't see a bunch
of TVA. Yeah, a bunch of people.
Walking around in headphones, I like that it's an environment
that we're supposed to do this. Yeah, you're supposed to be
like, yo, what's up, man? Yeah, you've created that
because it's unique. Also the space draws itself like
there's offices upstairs, there's damn dude.

(01:23:25):
And I'm like quotes it just, it felt really comfortable walking
in here. Yeah, that's good.
I was shocked. I was shocked.
Yeah. Dead serious, bro.
I walked in and I was like, whatthe fuck did I just walk into?
I was like, hell yeah. Amber, Amber, Amber Swuthdorum.
Like, I'm, I'm like, I got to doa panoramic here.
I'm just running my suck, dude, you know, busted around.
The story is sick. We got to get we got to get your

(01:23:46):
boy over here. So he he works out all by
himself all the time I see him who the guy Help me out.
Thank you. Yeah, Jimmy.
No, we get yard dude. Dude, I gotta get Jimmy.
He's moving back here, too. OK, he moved.
Yeah, I think he's coming back here soon.
Yeah, I see him in Orlando afterthis.
We're dropping our podcast out there and dude, I'm just stoked

(01:24:08):
to get back connected with him, bro.
Yeah. Yeah.
How's he doing? Great.
OK. Yeah, yeah, he was filmed.
He was doing that, that that training facility out in
Alabama. OK, faith-based training, but I
was like, I'm like, dude, you'rereading some scripture and then
doing CQC or what's going on, bro?
He's like, yeah, dude, I'm like,damn, that's what's up.
That's cool. That's cool.
Yeah. Yeah.
His story was incredible. Dude, he's got maybe one of the

(01:24:28):
most legendary stories of all time.
Legend. He's a legend bro.
And and so, so just chill about it man.
You'd never know. No, you'd never know.
Dude, that guy's built from different type of cement.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Warrior to the core, no.
Definitely. Dude, they would say Jimmy'z.
Jimmy'z one of those cats. This is break glass.
In case of war you. Know and do you know?

(01:24:51):
Do you know Garrett, Gareth? I don't think so.
All right, I gotta connect you with him.
I connected him and Jimmy. And yeah, I'd love that.
He's just. You would love him.
Yeah. Same type like things do in
private security right now, but he's a.
Yeah, man, he's got. That same like energy vibe.
Bro, and that also goes into the, you know when it won't hit
on it too much. But your connections, man,

(01:25:11):
you're connected, who you connected with, right?
Be deliberate about that. Be intentional about how you
show up for people. Be intentional about who you are
So you show up so you're a contributing member and then who
you're connecting with, man. Reach out to people, talk to
people, man. If people are where you want to
be, ask them what's up. Then you'd be shocked.
People will teach you man. If you're willing to learn and

(01:25:32):
and are willing to provide valuefor people.
I agree. I agree.
Last thing I always ask people, is there is there anything that
you would love people to know about you that you don't think
they do? Dude I love chess man.
I've been playing chess since I was.
I don't think I've ever told anybody that, but I've been
playing chess since I was like 5.
No way. Really young dude and so I play
so a couple international blitz games every day, like little 10

(01:25:55):
minute games. So I'll play quite a bit.
Interesting. Yeah, I've always wanted to
learn how to you. Dude, you'd love it, bro.
It's so legendary to me. In your house, in your office,
you can get a big six set and yeah, because you can sit there
for an hour or two with somebodyand like, it's, it's a, it's a
beautiful game, dude. Because it's the only game that
requires no luck. It's all, there's no luck.
It's just if the other person makes a mistake, but there's

(01:26:15):
absolutely no luck involved, right?
It's just, it's just complete strategy.
That's interesting. Yeah, Well, man, I appreciate
this. Yeah, dude, I, I appreciate
everybody being here. It's been a, it's been, it's
been a really cool experience, so I appreciate it.
And I'll let you get get down there and left.
I know you're chomping at the bit.
Yeah, dude, I'm definitely goingto go hit it up, dude.
And so yeah, man, it's, you know, if anybody wants to reach

(01:26:35):
out to me, Taylor kavanaugh.com,that's the best place to do it.
All that contact form goes rightto me.
I don't AI anything. It goes right to my personal
e-mail, my Instagram TCAP official that DM me also I don't
have anybody answering my DMS and then my YouTube Taylor
Kavanaugh TCAP TV where we dive into our deeper principles and I
do everything stream of consciousness, no edits, no

(01:26:57):
anything so one take I always record post the first take man
since day one in the legion. Now we're at 100 hundreds of
stories. And so it's, it's been a path,
man. It's we do gym sessions and two
bro, I'll be filming out here too.
So I'd love to film in your spottoo.
And I'd like to film with different cats.
And it's like I'm fascinated with people's stories, man.
Like I'd love to have you want to just talk about the path

(01:27:18):
because everybody's got an amazing story and it there's
always some people that have pushed past thresholds.
Just just something to be learned, man, about everybody's
story. No, I agree.
I mean, it's, it's amazing to methat like there's so many people
that have found purpose in theirpain.
Yeah, I like that. I appreciate it man.
Your test is your testimony, man.

(01:27:39):
Oh, there you go. You know what I mean?
Thank you so much man.

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Navy SEAL to Legionnaire: Creating a Disciplined & Excellent Life Learned the Hard Way | S3, Ep 20.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Navy SEAL to Legionnaire: Creating a Disciplined & Excellent Life Learned the Hard Way | S3, Ep 20.