10-Time NFR Qualifier Team Roper Charly Crawford

10-time NFR qualifier, Charly Crawford, joins the podcast to discuss his team roping career, supporting his wife, Jackie in her roping career, and how he's helping veterans and first responders with his American Military Appreciation organization.

www.americanmilitarycelebration.com

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Episode Transcript

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Rose blend. That's Lonesomeriterer Coffee dotcom. This is the Gauge with host
Chance conradus, Are you freaking serious? It's can Rise. This is the

(03:05):
Gauge and I am Chance going onthis episode of the podcast. We've got
my man Charlie Crawford. Charlie isa ten time NFR qualifying team roper and
he's just a just an awesome guy, a sharp guy. Him and his
wife are some of the best peopleon on this planet, truly, And
they've got this this military roping AmericanMilitary celebration that's happening on November fourth,

(03:27):
and it's a Cowtown Coliseum and it'sit's a truly amazing event. And yeah,
this is a great episode. Checkit out. What is that an
iPhone like three? I'm not sureit's got some age on it. It
looks like it's got a little ageon it. It doesn't have a case
on it. I've been working onget enough time to go get a new
one, and they make it apain in the ass. That's the problem.
Yeah, Yeah, it's like theydon't want you to buy a new

(03:49):
phone. I enjoy the marketing.That's good marketing. You're eligible for an
upgrade, that is genius. Evenmy kids. Look, I'm miligible for
an upgrade. Don't get a newone though. This is another way of
saying you paid it off. Yep, exactly. But great marketing, by
the way, Yeah it is.But but yeah, I mean, you're
right, there's there's so much tolearn from a guy like that, and

(04:09):
you know, it's it's like whatthey say, don't make a mistake that
somebody else has made. You know, if you can learn from somebody else's
mistakes or their victories and actually useit, it's a big deal. But
most people can't. It's a bigproblem with this country right now. There's
not a whole lot of history gettingtaught, and so we're repeating a lot
of mistakes. It shouldn't have neverbeen being made right now in my opinion.

(04:30):
Yeah, well, there's there's anincentive to burying real history. But
I mean, look, those whowant to find stuff out, you can.
You can do it on this phoneif you want to. You can
go download books like you can learnit or teach yourself pretty much anything you
want. And you can also learnanything from the past if you know where
to look. That's why I thinkyou've gouts have done such a good job

(04:51):
with your show is presenting people alot of different information. And there's a
lot of all the interviews that youguys do to with a successful people boldre
and you know all these different eventsso called Yeah you're getting You're getting so
much knowledge on this show just howguys was it either how to be,

(05:12):
how they was successful to where itmatches up with your personality where a man,
if that guy that kind of relatesto me, man, if he
he got successful doing this, itis kind of cool where he has a
blueprint and this is Yeah, Idon't know a lot of the times when
I listen to this show, itkind of sparks yet creativity right there of
it does if anybody just wanting tobe successful, yeah, sometimes, but
you're needings is a little bit ofthat creativity to get going. You do

(05:34):
because sometimes like and I don't knowif you were like this, maybe you
are. I mean I think youare, because you to choose the path
that you chose and the work thatgoes into being that level, especially in
especially in roping, I mean,and to make it to the finals multiple
multiple times. I mean, youhave to crave success to want to go
down that hard path. And Iwish, I mean, we should talk

(05:58):
about that kind of some of yourmotivators and and a little bit about your
past. But you're right, likeyou really have to crave something. And
I don't think a lot of peopletake advantage of all the free information out
there. I agree, So Iwish they did probably a better world.
Like I said this, it's beena it's been great to follow what you
guys are doing the show. AndI uh, you know, when I
was a kid growing up Team Ropingor it was back then, it was

(06:19):
spend to win, yep, youknow when I was there, I think
I won the Murkie of the Yearwhen I was eighteen or something like that.
In ninety six or ninety eight,excuse me? And uh, you
know, and then I'm like,all right, and after that NFR,
Baby, it's not how it worked. There was a lot of beating your
head against the wall and struggles andlearning curves and this and that, and

(06:41):
you know, I would every teamrope or a spend to win. Back
then, every every article that cameout that this guy had, you know,
when they always asked a question,learn how Frank Graves made his first
NFR, And I'm like, oh, what is it? You know,
what what? What? What amI not doing that this guy did?
Right? And so you know,back then it's harder to find that information
because you're waiting for an article tocome out and write. But you know,

(07:02):
it's like you say, now there'sso many success stories out there with
you know, the gauge or YouTubeor things like that, then it's a
lot easier to find it, forsure. It is. Yeah, And
you know, and well that's that'sthe cool thing about the rodeo world.
That's why I love the rodeo world. Will never be out of the Western
world ever, no matter what isbecause you want to be a football player.

(07:25):
And I'm sure I've said this onehundred times, or a baseball player,
like, good luck finding someone who'sdone it that you could even sit
down with. If you want tobe a top tier header or healer.
Man, some dude who's done it'sgonna let you on his place right and
let your rope or do stuff withyou, or at least give you his
time. That was the one goodthing about rodeo and it. It definitely

(07:47):
taught me how to be self employed. You know, I had to learn
how to market myself. I hadto learn how to sell myself. I
had learned how to get sponsors.I had to learn how to be self
driven. You know, you're outthere in the practice pen eight hours to
day. You ain't getting paid forit. You know, you're investing in
yourself that when you do not yourhead at the rodeo, that this is
going to pay off. And soa lot of a lot of similarities between

(08:07):
being self employed and learning how towrote for a living. Yeah, I
mean, yeah, it's true.And I think the biggest lesson that you
can learn, whether that you beingan entrepreneur or wanting to start a venture,
or wanting to pro rodeo or anythingelse, is you don't pay your
current self, like you're paying yourfuture self by spending that time. You
know, all those hours in thearena that you didn't make a dime and

(08:30):
you're sweating your ass off and youknow, even just riding ten or twelve
different horses a day or whatever whatever. The hard thing you have to do
right now is it's like you're notpaying yourself now. Like I know,
you're not making money right now,but you in the future that guy,
that's the dude who's gonna benefit fromthis, and people I don't think people
think about it that way. Well, it's like it's self employed. What

(08:52):
most businesses don't don't take off untilfive years. Yeah, you know,
it's a lot of a lot ofbreaking even for what about the third year,
it's just psycho and even then there'sno there's no guarantees. I mean,
how many guys do you know whocan rope like the fricking devil and
they've never made it to the NFR. I know. Yeah, there's a

(09:13):
lot of a lot of mind mindcontrol or self discipline, and the mental
game of it's huge. Yeah.Yeah, what when was it that that
like you were able to kind ofput the whole the whole puzzle together.
You know. It was from Iguess I won Rookie of the Year in

(09:33):
ninety eight, and then after thatI was just I was trying to find
my own path. I was justI was trying to find um. I
rope good and I could ride good, but I had no idea that I
didn't know how to win. Still, I won, but I won just
enough to kind of not quit.But in the same sense, I was
kind of spinning my wheels at thesame time. It's kind of like that

(09:54):
saying when you trying to paddle upstream, you'd be rolling your ass off
and you look over and he ain'tgone nowhere. That basically what I was
doing. You know, I wasworking my rear off, just trying to
get gained something that wasn't And I'dtell you who helped me turn the boat
around was Tyler Magnus, probably intwo thousand and two. He offered me
a job. I was rolling BuckyCampbell at the time and got cut that

(10:18):
winter and we were staying at TylerMagnus's place. Well, the same day
I got cut. Tyler's out therepractice and he goes, what what are
you gonna do now, I don'tknow, always figure out how to get
home. I guess, um anduh reevaluating restructure. He goes, well,
the guy that I got working forme that rides all my head horses
and turns me steers all day,that shoes all my horses. He quit,

(10:39):
Well, that was my wellhouse.This is why I shot horses and
road horses. That's when I waswhen I was rodeo and i'd actually haul
sometimes, I'd take a lot ofmy outside horses with me, so that
paid my my gas at the endof the month, because I got paid
for riding hood colts at the endof the month. And then when I
would shoe, i'd pay for mytruck payments and in my ease, and

(11:00):
then when I would win, that'swhen I kind of got ahead. And
so that was always kind of mystructure of surviving a survival mode. Yeah.
Well, then when he offered mea job, I was like,
well, let's ride down my wellhouseright there. I can ride horses and
and shoe and kind of get backmy feet back on the ground. And
he said, you know, I'lltake it all the places that tea woman
doesn't go to. Because Tyler Magusrode with t woman at that time,

(11:22):
and this Tyler Magnus would go,now, hope he smokes. There's there's
rodeo on for a living and thenthere's Tyler Mangus. Like we hit every
punkin roller jackpot. I mean therewas, well I didn't. I remember
being in one jackpot one time wherethere was there was chickens coming across the
arena. I'm like, boy,you talk about backyard. We were at
a backyard jackpot. I think wewere like seven jackpots within three days or

(11:45):
four days of something, seven jackpotsand rodeos all together. And he threw
me in the rig. I rodehis horses. He paid my fees for
half and showed me how to win, showed me how to kind of structure
and put it together. And Ithink about that. Everything was always focused
on the NFR. And when Igot done with that, after that,
I left and I'm like, youknow what, maybe I need to back
back down a little bit. I'venever won the amateur associations at home.

(12:09):
I've never won the circuit at home. Well, if I can't do that,
there's no way I'm gonna be ableto compete with these guys. So
I kind of backed my goals backdown a little bit, and when I
left his place, went back home, won the won both amateur associations for
the first time, Dania won thecircuit. I think it was the next
year, end up winning the circuitand kind of started getting a little bit

(12:30):
of confidence a little bit, youknow, just trying to emulate that.
Well, then as soon as Ican get done one of the amateur associations,
I'm right back to his house.I'm just like a sponge at that
point. Finally found the guy thatcould kind of help mold me and mentor
me, and that was already successfulat the time. He was one of
the best clinicians and horsemen and ropersboth ends at the time, and so

(12:52):
learning very early that the people yousurround yourself with is going to really dictate
where you go. And that's whenI truly heard that. Yeah, that
was the first time I've seen itreally so and then I think a few
years later I finally made my firstNFR. Yeah, so that was that
was a lot of percentage to himfor that real me. So you think
that's the difference between being good andbeing able to do your job and actually

(13:18):
being a winner. You think it'smentorship for me, it was for me,
it was you know, there's somefreaks out there like Speed Williams and
Kalo Driggers that kind of blaze theirown path, you know. And there's
some guys right there that study itand they're just sharp witted and but but
a lot of the things too isthey had a strong worth work ethic and
they're sharp. And you know,Michael Jordan, he had talent and he

(13:41):
worked hard. Guys Trevor ZiLs,you know, those are the guys that
are hard to beat when he hadthe talent and you work at it.
Yeah, you know, my talentlevel probably not real high. My work
ethic was pretty strong. Um,my ability to prepare got really well.
Um. You know, I Ijust set my boxes up where I could
sit in my boxes the same widthand length at home, so when I'd

(14:03):
enter San Antonio, I could callall the judges and find out what the
score would be, what the measurementsof the box were, and so I
could practice roping in San Antonio twoweeks before I even got there, just
the timing and the field of everything. So the only thing that changed when
I got to the Rodeo was justthe environment. Yeah, yeah, things
like that. Yeah, that's that. Takes a really unique person to be

(14:24):
able to be disciplined enough to structuretheir lives that way or their preparation that
way. What I tell everybody isin my clinics is that, you know,
I grew up roping in the eighties. I started professionally competing in the
nineties. We'll google in nineteen ninetysix, NFR and see what it looks
like today. You know, nothing, no disrespect to the guys back then.

(14:46):
That's just how much the game hasevolved since then. You know.
I studied those guys to Matt Tyler'sto Kevin Stewart's, you know, and
then when Speedy showed up, andthen he just completely changed the game.
But those were the guys that Iemulated and tried to practice like cool,
it didn't take too long before Speedycompletely changed the game. Well then,
now all of a sudden, I'mtearing my roping back down and building it
back up so I can still staycompeting with the guys. Talk about that

(15:09):
for people who don't kind of realizethat that renaissance had happened in the team
roping in the nineties, Speedy Williamshowed up. Yeah, you know,
before that, it was Jake Barnes. Jake Barnes was just a workhorse.
I always thought of him. Waslike Rocky Balboa. That guy was.
He was a warrior man still is. And he just he they made so
many runs. They just never missed, you know, and they were they

(15:31):
were fast in the days too,but they just they were fast and they
were consistent. And then Speedy showedup and just blew the doors off.
I remember just watching the NFR andhe watched him and it was like that
was so stinking fast and with thegrain, like I've never seen that.
I don't think the time anyone everseen that, right, I mean I
still remember the first day when heshowed up. And man, when I

(15:52):
was a kid, my dad alwaystold me when you when you're riding the
box, you always turned towards thesteer. Yep, Why, well you
gotta the horse has got to keeptheir eye on the steer. And that
was like back then, that waslike that's how it was done. Oh,
I was questioned to this day.I was like, didn't makes sense,
because as soon as you turn themturn the other way. Yeah,

(16:12):
exactly and then Speedy showed up andturned away from the steer, and I
remember sitting watching the score in frontof all the top guys in the world
were watching the bar start and Speedycomes in and turns his horse the opposite
way, and everyone went, hedoesn't even know how to turn his horse
the right way in the box.And then he went eight world titles later

(16:33):
than everyone turns his or horses awayfrom the box. Right. It was
just it was kind of funny becausethat was Speedy. He literally came in
and just changed the whole game.Yeah, yeah, I mean it was
fun to watch. You know,it would have been cool to be like
cognizant really of that sort of thingback then. Yeah, really young,
but I mean eight world titles ina row in a row. It's hard

(16:56):
enough to make the NFR eight timesin a row. And then that guy
him and him and Rich just itwas it was fast, It was it
was amazing to watch. It wasthat one of the most inspirational things that
you probably witnessed that that set youwhere you were going to go, do
you think or man? What whatwhat got me was when when I was

(17:17):
a kid, I lived twenty twentymiles from Saint Paul, Oregon, well
town called Canby Oregan, and mydad wrote pretty good trained horses good,
Um, he was training rope horses. No, he just his own.
He had a job. He wasthen nobody. I mean you didn't train
events, specific courses. Really.Yeah, he just he he loved he

(17:38):
was a team rope and fan.He was probably even to this day,
I would say he's probably one ofthe biggest team rope and fans I ever
knew. Yeah, loved it,loved them guys. Well, he's really
good friends with Mike Beers. Andso my my stepmom would go and she
would film all the team Ropen runsand we were one of the few people
that hadn't at an arena at thatin that round those areas and stuff like
that. And so the guy wouldgo to slack at Saint Paul that morning

(18:02):
and then they you know, theywould hear that we had all the videos,
and then she would cook and thenwe had steers. Well, the
team ropers. I mean that's likeyou know, going to a jackpot and
having rubber beer and Copenhagen and yourrig or you're gonna have friends, yep.
And so they all just come andhang out at the house, and
so I got to I got towatch guys like Jake and Clay Rope and
they stayed at the house, andLeo Camarrio got turned steers for him as

(18:23):
a young kid, you know,So that just molded me into a fan.
But the biggest thing was one MikeBeers. He would try to make
them the purf from Malala to SaintPaul. They have him staggered over the
top of each other, so youcan make both of them. Well,
then he would always kind of testthe balance. He would see if he
can make the calf rope putting inthe team. Roping at Saint Paul and
and Malala, Well, he wasin my stepmom's car and we'd jump in

(18:45):
there. As soon as he wouldrope. We would just I mean,
oh what I'm telling when I'm talkingabout passing people on the right hand side
over the crosswalk to then the mediancrossing people and just pat you know,
slamming on the brakes and sliding inand just matching that car as fast as
it would go on a straight stretch, passing people right there and come sliding
into the rodeo at Saint Paul jumpsover the fences. They're calling his name

(19:07):
with a horse sitting right there,jumps on it, goes, it,
wins around and takes a victory lap. Why would anybody else want to do
anything? Else? Would be acowboy. That's one of the coolest things
ever saw. Yeah, yeah,I mean you really became a product of
your environment. Yea, it wasjust it's hard enough to be a fan
when you see that much adrenaline andsuccess and you know, things like that.
And my dad grew mean to beyou know, he always wanted me

(19:30):
to be a roper and he lovedit and stuff. So really yeah,
something but then just after that andjust learning how to put it together.
Yeah yeah, I mean what doyou what do you think? What do
you think the biggest it's out ofeverything. There's talent, there's there's discipline,
there's hard work, there's timing,there's all these different things you have
to put together to be unique orspecial if you want to use that phrase,

(19:53):
and whatever your chosen thing is.But if you had to set down
and you had to put things ina bucket, right, You've got these
buckets you have to put all thesethings, and what when would you put
the most stones in. As faras that bucket go, I have to
say work ethic, Yeah, youknow, work ethic would have to come
along. There's got to be someattitude in there too. Talent doesn't always
have to be the common denominator.That's where a lot of guys end up

(20:15):
having that talent, but then theydon't work at it because they're relying on
the talent. But you know,hard work coming along with some good attitude
thrown in there and the right outlookon life, You're gonna be successful in
or out of the arena, doesn'tmatter what you're doing, in my opinion,
Yeah, no, I agree,Yeah, I mean your attitude and
being able to do the work,which is a hard thing for people to
do right now. There's so manydistractions. Yeah, it makes you wonder

(20:36):
what, you know, what thesport's gonna look like in twenty years?
I agree, what's the next stepwith these things? I mean, you
you're gonna be on this phone intwenty years. You know there's a big
gath cricker. You're way behind.But but like I mean, what I
mean, you got kids? Whatwhat do you think is going to happen
with your kids? When it's theirtime. I agree. I agree,
you know with my wife breakaway andstuff. You know, our little girl,

(21:00):
I can I can already see herand my daughter Cadence as well.
You know, the path is lookingreal bright for the breakaway future, I
feel. And that's what I'm Jackie, and I've sat and broke it down.
I'm like, how much longer doyou think it's going to be before?
First of all, who decided tomeasure the ropes and the breakaway?

(21:22):
You know what what standard is?Is that because that's as far as you
call can reach? Or is thatwhere it breaks in position? Because how
much longer is it going to bebefore someone starts have a little bit longer
rope and throwing faster? You know, It's like I've always thought, I've
always thought about that. You know, who's who's actually making sure that there's
a standard for that, because likemy overanalytical career, you know, my

(21:45):
last NFR is I have a speedtrainer at home, and so I have
a smarty at home, and soI would actually break the neck rope with
a Smarty and I'd ride my horseup to where the barrier was at the
house and I would measure from mysaddle horn to where the neck rope broke,
and so then that way, ifthe wind was blowing or it's two
wet to rope or stea the horseneed a break, I'd just set up
a speed trainer and the dummy rightthere to where at least I could get

(22:08):
reps to where I knew the steer. If I got a good start,
that's where the steer is going tobe. You know, So if I
wanted to throw it the line,which I really did, but if I
needed to, at least I knewwhat the gauge was for the amount of
ropes to let go. And Istarted telling her, I said, how
much longer before I think that's goingto start happening to the breakaway? Yeah,
you know, why not have twocoals right there where you can throw

(22:29):
it the line if you know howfar that cast is going to be,
if you've got a good start.That's where I think when somebody figures out
out being fast, it's going tobe stupid fast. I think it's already
getting fast as it is. Butyeah, yeah, I mean, if
you can break it down, andthat's a really unique thing like I and
I'm sure other guys do it.But I've not ever sat down or been
around people were they're coming at itfrom that scientific of a perspective. So,

(22:52):
I mean, I enjoyed the memberin football when you'd watch ESPN and
they would have the science where Italked the velocity of the ball was coming
into a certain trajectory at a certainspeed, and it was it was coolest
to watch how the breakdown was infootball. Yeah, And uh, it's
like ole Man, how could aguy kind of not overdo it but still
keep it simple and kind of scientificallyfigure out where's the measurements on where these

(23:17):
things are at to where you cankind of still at least practice on the
ground and where it's a little morereligissic than just roping nonchalantly, you know.
Yeah. So I liked Michael Jordan. He talked about that last shot
that he made as a as apro as know as Chicagle Bull, when
he when he drained that last shotagainst the Utah Jazz, and he said,

(23:38):
I'd practice that shot so many times. He says, when I stole
the ball and got that ball inback in my hands, I knew exactly
what shot I was fixing to make. He said, I made that shot
so many times in the practice,He goes, all that was now is
it's execute? Yeah, and sopractice has to be a lot like that.
Otherwise guy can sit and overthink alot. Yeah. Yeah, I
mean, how how does one especiallyyou're clearly extremely analytical. It's not surprising

(24:02):
that you might get along with Clintonlike you had and similar But how do
you when you have an active mindlike that and you speak like somebody who
has an active mind because I'm nothaving to drag words out of you like
a lot of people who wrote fora living, but you know what I'm
talking about. But uh yeah,I mean, how how have you done
that? As far as in competitiongoes? Whe're able to quiet your mind

(24:23):
and and actually utilize those reps.That's what gave me the confidence. Yeah,
you know that I put in thework. I put in the practice,
so then that way I could turnit off. Because what I wanted
to know is I wanted to makesure that I was prepared enough when I
got there that now, once Inod in my head, I can just
react to whatever steer I have drawedthat I put myself in that situation,
and that's how I felt confident.Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

(24:45):
You're kind of moving into a newphase of your life, right, And
I remember, I don't remember youcall me six months ago or something kind
of told me what you were doing. I think it was before you even
had your consultation. But you've decidedthat maybe you're not going to continue to
go down the road. Oh yeah, I retired in twenty twenty. That
was my last inflow. I gotto I got to do that was my

(25:08):
dream. I mean, obviously Iwanted to win the world, but I
put in the time, I putin the effort. I made it way
longer than ever ever would have dreamedthat I could have dreamed that I could
have made it that many times.And you know, Jackie was pregnant with
Journey at the time, and Breakawaywas taken off, and and it wasn't
that heart of a decision. Butat that point in time, I literally

(25:29):
had the best horses that ever hadin my life, right, one of
the best partners that fit me sogood that I've ever had. But the
same sense, it is like yougot to know when that whistles being blown.
In my opinion, because the onething I wanted to truly make sure
in my career was that I knewwhere the line was and that I knew

(25:52):
who I wanted to be. UmI wanted to be a good husband,
I wanted to be a good father, and for Jackie to kind of be
able to take off right there anddo what she want to do, her
stuff was taken off for both ofus to be doing that, I just
didn't see that being a fit thatwas going to be good for our family
at all. And the main thingI wanted to truly make sure that I
remembered was Rodeo and was what Idid. It's not who I was,

(26:15):
and who I want to be andwhat I want to be was completely different.
So I was always able to makesure that I did not want to
let Rodeo define me, because inBiblical terms, you know, talk about
false idles. Rodeo can truly bea false idle if if you ain't careful,
in my opinion, because the winin the buckles, the crowd,
the rush, you know, allthe things that go along with Rodeo is
a pretty good drug if but itcan turn into a drug if you let

(26:38):
it. And so when I decidedto back off, it was a pretty
easy decision. I didn't know exactlywhat I wanted to do. I knew
I did good with clinics, andI rode horse was pretty good, and
I thought that'd be a good wayto start another career and stuff because I've
already did it. And then whenI sold my horses and when I was

(27:02):
done rodeo and I invested into thatin rentals, and so that I figured
that was probably going to be theonly retirement that I'll probably will be to
create for myself, because they createa retirement rodeo, and it's pretty pretty
tough. If anyone's ever done that, it's kind of a sad story.
It is usually how that ends.And so that's where I went that route
as soon as as soon as Iwas done and I got all those complete,

(27:22):
I think I got six rentals nowand and but man, the military
deal that I've been doing is ismy way of like, all right,
I got to compete for forty they'lltill I was forty two, made ten
nfrs and after a while, likeit's exhausting that everything's about me. You
know, every time that I goto a rodeo, I have to make

(27:44):
sure all my stuff loaded. Youknow, I can't go to Jackie's deal
because I have to do this.I can't do all these things. I
can't be sometimes a friend that Iwanted to be because I can't because I
have to do get ready for theNFR, you know, whatever it was,
it's just kind of nice and I'llstep away from that. And the
military guys is something that me andJackie decided in twenty fourteen. We end

(28:04):
up buying a group of guys.Military guys was sitting next to us.
We bought them lunch one time,and we were sitting there driving around.
Always kind of started a brainstorming,like, man, what could we do
for guys like this? Whould trulymake it to where we get to experience
everything we ever wanted to. Becauseof these guys, people forget what their
freedom is, especially is getting worsenow. I feel. I'm sure my

(28:26):
dad said the same thing when he'sin my age, but it feel truly
feels worse now, and I guaranteewhen he was bitching about it. But
yeah, and so we decided toat least just put on some clinics.
They're at the house just for militaryanyone who's ever served. It was free,
free, two day clinic, freeplug in, freestalls, and just
one of those things to where it'slike, man, let's if the government

(28:47):
ain't gonna help take care of theseguys and hell with it, do it
myself. And so we started justtrying to find ways and kind of help
make them at least have a weekendwhere you know, they felt like there
was getting something out of it,but mostly just feel appreciated. And so
we started doing that and by twotwenty the thing just blew up. We
were getting hundreds of phone calls forthis fifteen or thirty guy clinics who did

(29:11):
at the head and the healing.And when I stepped away from Rodeo,
I'm like, well, at leastfinally now I can do something for some
for other people. And my opinion, what better way to do it than
with these guys. Yeah, Andso in twenty twenty, Trade Johnson had
helped me do this clinic probably fiveyears before that, and he's really the
one that truly did help this thingkind of get where it was more than

(29:33):
a clinic because he was the teamwrote really well and he's an ordained minister
and he's one of my best friends. When of the greatest guys I've ever
met. And he started helping alot of these guys that were struggling with
PTSD, and he started also helpinga lot of these guys that were struggling
spiritually. And I don't know howmany guys together their lives to the Christ
through this clinic just from him helpinghim kind of understand sometimes what their meaning

(29:57):
was. And so it turned intomore than just a clinic for too long,
and it was old school marketing.I mean like I put a post
on my social media, Hey aboutthat time for that military clinic. That
was about it. Yeah. Sothe rest of it was this word of
mouth and so by twenty twenty weregetting hundreds of phone calls for it.
And then guys would call and askme and said, hey, man,

(30:17):
you're a thought about having an openAnd then the only downfall was I was
my last NFR. I was like, man, I just want to make
sure I'm ready for the NFR,my last one. I want to be
a good one. That was theonly flaw other than that, It was
just like that was the only conI had. It was just kind of
got my mind going, kind ofget my work. Could I do it?
Oh? My gosh, I coulddo this. I could do that.
And so that first year, Ithink I had it with thirty days
prep ended up having a military ropeand where the guys got to rope with

(30:41):
each other, included the first responders, and then had a mill pro where
the military guys got rope with theguys who going in the NFR that year,
and then we had an NFAR rodeothat night were five full rounds of
the top fifteen guys who are goingthe NFR that year accept the exact same
measurements as the finals and Texas atthat time, and so the guy's never
seen the NFR, they got towatch it live and Cowboy Channel was there,

(31:03):
and I think we end up raisingalmost fifty thousand that nine for building
homes for heroes. End up findinga remodel for a lady that was one
hundred percent disabled from the war threeweeks from me and evicted with eight kids,
and was able to get her athome. And I was able to
do that in thirty days. Man, give me three hundred sixty five days.
And so then that was last yearand we just we blew it out

(31:23):
of the water. I think lastyear was raised over one hundred and fifteen
thousand people were donating food. Weended up feeding over fifty families, military
and first responders that were in need, and and it was just it was
amazing. But last year was theamount of guys that come up there and
this is kind of a slap inthe face for me a little bit.
This is one of the things thatI kind of truly needed at the time.

(31:47):
In twenty and twenty was after wedid it, the amount of guys
that come up and said that wasthe best day of their life, and
wives crying in tears coming to mesaying that they haven't seen their husband this
happy since they came back. Andtruly it truly grounded me right then and
there. I was like, man, we get to do this, like
I get to rope for a living. I had. All I did was

(32:07):
I showed these guys what I getto do every day and it was the
best day of their lives. AndI was like, gosh, dang,
you talk about somebody needs a neededto hear that and be appreciative of what
I get to do every day.And and then amount of guys man that
come and told me this is goingto keep alive another year. You know,
we've had a lot of guys rightthere that had had the gun in
their mouth and trying to find areason to live. And we end up

(32:30):
having last year, had had apolice officer that was in Ferguson that said
this would keep her alive for anotheryear. And you know, it doesn't
take too long right there to wereman, this thing got bigger than me.
This thing got bigger than all ofus. And the fact that like
when I would me and Jackie wassitting there eating lunch trying to figure out

(32:51):
what we could do for these guys. And then by two and twenty two
seeing what we did, it wasjust amazing to see God kind of lead
it and guide it to a wayto where you know, we're home.
We're given homes for people, feedingsome of these guys, giving them experiences
that they never would have thought.So last year I end up having we

(33:15):
built the NFR arena in the NRSand so on, had an NFR showdown.
We had twenty thousand out of themilitary first respond to open there before
when the rodeo started, we letthe guys right behind their branch flags in
the arena, just like the NFRwhen the guys when we got to ride
behind our state flags, they gotripped on their branch flags. And I
had the short round in between thesecond third round the NFR showdown, and

(33:37):
so they literally got to feel whatit was like to rope with the Thomas
and Mac same box, the samesetting, had bleachers hauled in. It
was live on the X Factor.This year's live on the Cowboy Channel.
But they got to feel what itwas like to open that size of arena
for twenty thousand, which is morethan a lot of these guys I've every
probably wrote for and then especially fora military function, and we had fully

(33:59):
tooled addles, big checks, buckles, so they got like for me,
it was like, all right,what can I show these guys that I
got to experience while they're fighting formy freedom? And so like they literally
fifteen teams got to feel with liketroupe the NFR, and so, like
I said, it sparked a lotof my creativity to where it's like,
man, let me show you someof the cool stuff. We had a

(34:19):
branding with these guys when they gotto go gather some cattle and sword them
and brand them and vaccinate them andjust some of the best memories I remember
as a kid, and so it'sbeen fun to be able to let introduce
these guys to the Western industry.This is a great industry. I tell
them all the time as men is. I think the other sports of shiit
on you guys enough to where allthe kneeling and bullcrap that it was going
out and welcome to the Western industry. We don't do that. We pray

(34:42):
before every rodeo, we take ourhats off. We stand for our national
anthem and the only one that Nate'sstand is either crippled or about to be.
So it's not like the NFL orsome of them other things. That's
why I don't watch those sports anymore. I'm right there with you. Yeah.
Yeah, it's either a combat sportor its rodeo. So the only
ones who didn't do that, yeahI can think of, they do it
in hockey. No, I thinkhockey is still pretty legit. Yeah,

(35:06):
but it's not as exciting, atleast not for me to watch. And
some people like it. But hey, el Son, if you're not wearing
rock and roll Denham, then youain't no cowboy. I'm Dale Brisbee,
the greatest boy rider ever to liveand I'm known for keeping it ninety and
I keep it ninety because I'm wearingrock and Roll Denham with a reflex technology.
They give me the flexibility I needto get that knee up. My

(35:29):
biggest problem is I get an earachebecause I get my knee up so high
and kick myself in the year.That's why I'm the greatest of all time.
It's because of rock and roll.Denim all Son get you. So
it's interesting like hearing you talk aboutthat and the transition and then going from
self to service for others, whichis what we're all called to do.

(35:50):
I think we always we all failat that, don't we know? When
I watched when I watched American Sniper, I truly became a Chris Kyle fan.
And when he kept going out ontours and they kept asking him why,
He's like, well, I gottafight for this country, and I
said, I'll stee all these guysin here. I think there's plenty of
fighting you could do for them,guys all right here, your own right
here, there's plenty of people thatneed help. And you could tell it

(36:14):
kind of blew his mind a littlebit, and we started taking those guys
out there shooting, and when theguys kept saying, man, I feel
like that my ball's back again,and I was like, man, you
want to get your balls back again, let me show you what A sliked
her up to Thomas mac That'll getyour blood rolling. Yeah, And so
it kind of, like I said, some of my information inspiration kind of

(36:35):
came from watching how selfless that guywas and what he did for his guys,
and it's like, I can dothat. Obviously it's not at what
level he did, but I coulddo it with my event. I felt
like, I mean, yeah,I think it's a brilliant idea. I
mean when you were telling me aboutit and then saying, you know,
I know it's coming up and whathave you. But it's something special and

(36:57):
it's that's one of the reasons Ibring some any military personnel on this show
and have since we started it,and for whatever reason, people they won't
support. I mean, we hadMark guys who was literally the Secrets of
Benghazi guy on this Colorado Springs.One's really really badass guy, and you
know, and for whatever reason,it's really hard to get people to support

(37:19):
military. We can bring and Imean, we're not just bringing on,
you know, a marine off thestreets. We're bringing in Tim Kennedy's and
Mark guys and like real celebrity militaryheroes. And it is so difficult to
get people to support that stuff.Why do you think that is? Why
do you think it is that peopledon't want to look that in the eye.
I think a lot of it isthat they're taught that in college.

(37:39):
You know, I think some ofthe stuff has been been taught to our
kids to hate America. What Imean, that's to me that that turn
political to where now it's a talkingpoint to to hate where this the best
country in the world. We're themost free. We get to do anything
we want, We get to pickwho we choose to marry, we get
to pick what job we want.You know, We've got so much freedom

(38:00):
right here. It's just amazing.If you few to put these guys in
some of the places that they thinkis the greatest place, they'd be back
within weeks. And so it's it'sit's sad that, like I said,
my dad was a marine, andI remember to this day when I was
at a rodeo in Redman and thecircuit finals and they let us all come

(38:20):
in and walk in the middle ofthe arena for the national anthem, and
me and one of my buddies wasjacking around and during the national anthem,
and I'm sure we were talking aboutsomething really productive, like where we were
headed after the rodeo, and Iturned my back to the flag jacking with
one of my buddies. Was Iwas walking out. My dad come walking
down there, and he kind ofhad that march to him like something would
either wrong or I was there introuble already and come down there. He

(38:44):
gave me the whole finger point andthing come where. I said, don't
you ever turn your back to thatflag again. Don't you ever do that.
That's the most disrespectful thing you cando to this country. And it's
like I did do that, andit truly right then kind of grounded me
as a fact that I didn't payattention to that and realize what that stood

(39:06):
for. And luckily I had adad that didn't chew my ass right there
and did line me out. Becausewhat's hard for rodeo is because you go
to one hundred some on rodeo ayear, and you know, performances and
stuff like that, and you getnumb to the national anthem because it's everywhere
you go. And so after while, you kind of you almost get saturated
a little bit with the fact thatdoesn't mean as much because it because it

(39:30):
comes to you all the time.And then after that and more of that,
like I don't care where I'm at, I'm standing, I'm trying to
find the flag to face it.And you know, so at least I
got that patriotic bone from my dadand he instilled that in me. It's
just sad that that's not taught asmuch anymore. Yeah, I mean,
it truly is. The opposite istaught, and it's it's a strange kind

(39:53):
of thing. When you've got oppositesides of whatever spectrum, it doesn't really
matter. And they for whatever reasoninherently just despise the thing that they benefit
from. But the whole cut offyour nose despite your face things. It

(40:14):
is such a and you almost can'tblame them, right because it's just the
most human thing to do. Youknow. You see people who don't prioritize
their family and they prioritize everybody outsideof their family, or people who won't
prioritize their health even though it's oneof the only things they've gotten. I
think it's just one of those inherenthuman things, and we're witnessing it play

(40:37):
out in real time geopolitically where Imean, do you ever get caught down
the loople watching the kind of thevideos where the interviewer will go ask these
real simple questions about American history orworld history, or they'll even just make
up something real silly to see ifthey can get people to go along with
it. We're all numb, We'reall so numb to what's going on because

(40:59):
we're so fixated on this thing ofself that you can't even you don't even
know what year the Declaration of Independencewas signed, almost like your average person.
You don't know how many stripes areon the flag. You don't know
like there's this one to watch theother day. Because the thing has been
like Christopher Columbus is an atrocity andall this, and it's like, well,

(41:19):
maybe, but so was everybody backthen, right, You can't hold
them to the twenty twenty two standard. They were they were shooting in the
woods and didn't they didn't even realizethat the sun and the moon and the
planets were what they are. Theywere, they were building it, they
were helping get us to where we'reat at this point in time. And
yeah, so, I mean itjust the way that people's minds work is

(41:42):
and I think the issue is theydon't work any different than they used to
back then. You remember when someonewas a mathematician, a woman was a
mathematician, she got burned as awitch, right, something like that.
I mean that might not be exactlyit, but something to that effect.
Or gosh, who was it wasworking out? How grad he worked and
they were shunned, right, oryou name it. I mean people have

(42:04):
always done this to some degree.We're no different than in Cristopher Columbus's eras
as far as our brains work.We just think we're better because we wipe
our asses and we have electricity.Yeah. Well, I think too is
we have to be careful. Ithink of what our kids learn in school
because I think this is what's happeningin my opinion, is you know,
fathers back in the day, youknow, obviously worked and then you know

(42:28):
weekends took kids out on trips andwe got to go brand cattle, and
we got to take care of ourhorses. We had responsibilities, and I
think now it's it's so much worknow the mom works and the dad's work,
and this very few times right therewe're able to kind of mold our
children a little bit, to kindof bleeve these things. We're almost letting
the public system do it. AndI just you know, that's where I'm

(42:49):
looking at it. To where Isee it now is like I just don't
think that's a very reliable way tomold your kids. Work. They understand
the things that we went through andwhat this country stands for and what freedom
truly is and the opportunities we get, you know, everything now is just
it seems like they're molding these kidsto be disrespectful and you know, just

(43:15):
entitlement is unbelievable. Well, Imean, if you want to implement and
I mean, you could get downsome serious rabbit holes and this sort of
thing, and that doesn't take toolong to get down and really see why
or maybe how these things are realin this era that we're living in where
a couple of years ago, likeyou could you couldn't get me to jump

(43:35):
on a conspiracy for nothing. Idon't know about you, but I was
just like, Nope. Now Ithink Trump truly did kind of wake a
lot of us up to see whatis going on. Yeah, with all
this stuff, and you know,like I said, it scares the crap
out of me having kids. AndKen Bray said it best. He told
me, he told my kids onetime. He says, it ain't hard

(43:57):
to be extraordinary these days. Soreally, just you know, and the
and these guys, these military guysthat I get to be around, and
man, you get to see somesome self discipline and you know, some
of the stuff that these guys andjust how they coordinate with how they would
do missions and stuff like that,and you just look at it and how
you could apply it in your everydaylife and you apply it in business and

(44:17):
all these different things, and howto structure your kids and help them understand
it. And you know, it'sit's it's a great way to uh,
it's I've I've told everyone, youknow what I've I've I've been out this
thing for a few years now andit's kind of taken over a little bit
of my life. But I alwayssay that, you know, it's a
pretty good trade offer. Want toget to help some of the baddest mother
efforts in the world. And thensecond is, um man, I'm getting

(44:40):
a college education throughout all this,learning how to market and learn how to
sell, learning how business works Ufive oh one C three when I was
rodeo, and I thought that wasC three people's brother from Star Wars.
Like they're telling me all these thingsand I'm needing to do and get and
I'm gonna have got no idea whatthey're talking about. And so just the
the things that I've and learn throughoutall this that um, you know,

(45:02):
a team roper making far doesn't thinkabout. And so it's been a crazy
path that I've been on since I'veretired. Yeah, well, and we
have, we have so many thingsthat our fingertips that even if we're on
a hard grind, we can,Like my current schedule right now is out
of control, Like it's like afour thirty to nine pm thing every day,

(45:22):
But from four thirty to five thirtyor whatever, I'm able to like
listen to a part of a book. And then the even I can listen
to a book and all if I'mon a good nut, like a safe
horse, I can listen to somethingon the staphors and like you can do
all these different things because those thoseare EarPods so handy. Now, yeah,
you could ride in AirPods and youcan, like you can continually be

(45:44):
getting better as a human being andpreparing yourself for the next steps, or
or getting good mindsets. And wehave a lot of opportunity to be better.
I agree. You know, ifyou're Rodeo and you've got unlimited time
to educate yourself in between the amountof the amount of time he's spending that
rig, it's crazy. It's that'sthat's time to learn. Absolutely. I

(46:07):
mean, anytime you're driving behind thewheels, if you're just listening to music,
I feel like you're wasting your freakinglife. Yeah. Yeah, my
music now is to keep me awake. Yeah, because when you get to
that point, there's only so muchsomebody talking to me after a while.
But if I'm not to stay awake, that kid Ross coming on. Man,
it's coming in hot and loud.But other than that, like say,
if you're hitting that spot right therewhere you're wide awake and man,
yeah, I still enjoy the longdrives, Like I love coming and flying

(46:30):
in with Jackie and put my EarPodsin and you know, I've got all
these books that I listened to andresearch on about how the mind works or
you know. I shoot, I'veeven been on Tony Robbins stuff right there
and had some year of coaching rightthere just to learn more about the mental
game and business and things like that. And so, yeah, you said
it perfectly. There's so many thingsright there out there that if you really

(46:51):
wanted to, there's grow. It'sthere's a free resource for everything. And
it's funny when I was like reallyyoung, like nineteen twenty, because I
mean I've always done some form ofselling, whether it be myself to make
something like this happen, or aproduct in a business or whatever. It's
like I used to listen to thatGrant card own way back in the day
and enjoy him his like, ifyou want to learn how to invest in

(47:12):
real estate, like there's no one. I thought it was really good too,
to where I've always thought about that. I'm like, man, these
guys, you could put them onthe street and change your name and do
all this stuff and take the reasonsI promised you. Within a few years,
they're going to be back, andI guarantee they'll blow right by me
because they know And and then Ithink he did it. Yeah, he
did. It was fascinating. Heliterally did that and figured out how to.

(47:36):
I think he hit a certain numberof many millions he would have in
a certain amount of time where hehad no resource, there's no nothing,
and had to do it. Andman, it's like, say, if
a guys want to be a millionaire, that's a pretty good mentor right there
to be able to get in frontof Yeah, no it is, and
that's there's just a really you haveto find a spot to do it in

(47:57):
and like and figure out whatever itis you want, whether that be team
roping or what have you. Butthen you also have to think about the
fact. And it pains me becausethere's people that I love who have had
illustrious careers who didn't plan and man, it doesn't matter that they want anything.
How their life is, it's notgreat. And it's what I've seen
a lot of times too. Iswhat made him great in the arena,

(48:21):
it's the same thing it held themback out of the arena. Yeah,
you know it. It was crazyto see that's what made him great.
But then it's not, Yeah,it's it's you learn a lot. Like
I said, I've learned a lotrodeo. And I've always said too that
I've also learned a lot what notto do, which is all still learning.
And you know, when I've seenguys go down that path and made
sure I learned from it and didanother way, you know, and stuff

(48:44):
just like learning what to do withyour money when you're done, and learned
to live off too much credit.And it's like my first year I made
the NFR about my first piece ofland. I took all that money and
I bought land. And the secondyear I built a barn. Third year
I built a house, you know, but I didn't do it until I
had the money right because I wasso scared of credit and losing everything.
And so now I've learned how touse credit to also make more money too.

(49:07):
So but yeah, yeah, Imean it's it is, and you
can leverage things totally different if youlisten to the right guy. They can
show you how to do it,but you have to have some of those
assets to leverage before you can utilizethe credit. Yeah, it's tricky.
Life is. Life is really tricky, And that's one of the reasons that
the show is so important to meand making it go as close to mainstream

(49:30):
as something from the Western world canThat's always been the goal. That's why
I bring those other people on becauseI think there's so much value under a
cowboy hat that the rest of theworld needs. That that's you know,
there's no difference between me sitting herewith you or if I were to sit
here with a with a Michael Jordan. You know, he might be more
brooding, more intense, and ifwe you know, made some type of

(49:52):
a bet, I might get hit, but you know that's Michael Jordan.
But there's there's so much value undera cowboy hat that that I think the
world needs. And for me,I think it's one one of those things
that is get a combat this badthat we've been talking about that's going on.
Is the more people with the mindsetsthat you have, the principles that
you have, that are out therein the world actually doing something that's not

(50:15):
just self serving. I think Ithink that's what saves us well. And
I tell you what you're doing thisshow that I truly enjoy is do you
know what I like? I said, I listened to this podcast with Clinton
on there and just hearing a different, a different perspective from a guy like
that in the Western industry because itis as hard. You know, love

(50:37):
and drinking fighting cowboys was the mottowhen I first started rodeo and now it's
turned into a business, and sostill some of the business is still there's
I think they're still kind of learninga little bit. But you know the
way the way Clinton and you guysbroke that down, that that got my
wheel spinning. That was a greatpodcast. And so I love what you
guys are doing with this, andyou know, getting different perspectives in here

(50:58):
to get just some creativity sparked withsomebody. And you know, like these
Rodeo guys, they get plenty oftime to listen, so this is great.
It gives them something to listen toand get perspective of so many different
ways. And so you guys,you guys are blazing a great path.
I think you guys are doing agreat job. Well thank you. Yeah,
I mean I think the same forwhat you're doing, the the whole
selfless pursuit thing and doing things becausenobody takes care of our guys. When

(51:21):
I say our guys, I meanour military personnel. You know, a
kind of a bad son of abitch. You have to be to be
a Green Beret and Navy Seal,Army Ranger, to be any SF Special
Forces guy, even just so justa marine. Just research the training that
you have to do just to makeit through the training. At least we
even get at least what it usedto be. Did you see the thing
about the Navy Seals, how theywere calling it like trying to get rid

(51:43):
of the standard that the Seals havefor their training. And all these Seals
come out and say, fucker,that's what made us exactly right, that's
not torture. That's that's what hadto be done you when you get put
in those those and like I said, I'm speaking from these guys telling me
the things that you have to learnhow to endure in war. You have
to be at a high level andyou can't dumb the training down. That's

(52:05):
the reason why we've at this pointin time still some of the baddest countries
and baddest people were like, fightingfor us is the training? Yeah,
you're training these guys be ready forany situation that happens. And you dumb
that down. And man, that'sa scary, scary place to put our
situation in. As a country.But we're letting we're letting the wrong people.
I mean, think about the focusand the time and the attentiveness that

(52:28):
it must have taken people to createthose training programs, to create the strategies
of war and the way that weimplement them, to build the machines that
we used to keep this country safe. After that first year, I had
the AMC event. Some of myguys they they'd sent me some because I
was driving Cadence around because I wasretiring, so I was tell us hauling
her around the rodeos and some ofthe bigger opens, and they would they

(52:51):
would send me war on your trip, watch this and watch that, and
that way you kind of an understandinga little bit of like the World War
two guys or the Vietnam guys.And one of them was a Band of
Brothers. That was a great movie. There's a good movie, a great
movie, and and just the youcould see how when these guys come back,
they missed that camaraderie that they hadwhen you're literally fighting beside someone that's

(53:13):
literally watching you're back and you're watchingtheirs. And then they get out here
and you know that it's different.Um, because I've I've had some military
guys that I've known for a longtime, did even know they're in the
military, and then they showed upin my rope. I'm like, I
didn't even know you were military.It's not interesting that you know. It's
not everybody, but we tend totry to lead with whatever accomplishment we have,

(53:35):
right because we have these fragile egosas people. You know, you
know what I mean. It's likeyou almost feel like you have to tell
people what you're married is when youmeet them, you know, I mean,
I something I used to struggle with. There's an insecurity, like I
gotta tell you that I'm actually somebodyand somebody valuable, so you know,
so you'll talk to me or youknow. It's a it's a childish mindset,
but it's something that I used tocarry, and I see it in
a lot of people. Or likethe rich guy who always have to lead

(53:58):
that he's a rich guy in security, the military guys. I've met so
many of them at the highest leveldown to just just regular guys. I
mean untold numbers of them, andI've never once had one do that.
They just don't well. When Iend up having these guys. And like
I said, when I've seen thisguy that I knew for a long time,
I didn't even know he's in themilitary, and he's roping with the

(54:19):
guys like I didn't you know yourmilitary this that's awesome. And what was
weird was I've known this guy andwhen I seen him around his guys,
completely different guy. Really, I'venever seen that side of him. And
I guess it's probably a little bitof you know, I guess if I
was throwing the corporate world for longenough and then I got to see the
guys that I used to rope withor my buddies again, you're gonna throw

(54:40):
me probably in a different environment.But it was cool to see that environment
that they were comfortable being around.Yeah, and you're right, a lot
of me to say. My dadwas a marine and you couldn't hardly couldn't
hardly even get anything out of him. But I never really pressed much.
But when they had me so thatthe Band of Brothers was more on the
war, I think in Europe,UM gets the Nazis and stuff like that.

(55:01):
And then they had me watch amovie called The Pacific and it was
more of the Marines. Um Ithink, uh, you know in Japan
that one was gruesome. That wasa gruesome war. That was a gruesome
over there. And I think theycalled the desks there when them guys would
come back, and they was literallylike like you tell, I think you're
looking straight, like nobody was home. But was so interesting as I wished

(55:22):
my I wished I wish my dadwas still Dad was still alive, because
when I watched that, he talkedabout a lot of those places. He
never broke anything down obviously, butyou know, being in Okinawa and where
your station and I think Camp Pendletonand um, you know, I was
it was awesome because I was allthe places they talked about he had been

(55:43):
at a certain points I kind oftalking about like when the places he had
been, and uh, I waslike, man, I'd have been awesome
to be able to watch that withhim and kind of get to know some
of the spot places he had beenand when that time was. Um.
But yeah, so it was Itwas great to be able to see like
a little bit more about our history, you know, with what these wards
they fought and and what some ofthese guys that got to see. You

(56:06):
know, some of these guys havebeen the struggle with the PTSDs. You
know, they don't I think someof them don't trust themselves when they're sleeping
around their families because something takes overand they can't. They don't trust themselves
and they end up shooting themselves.Yeah, you know, and that's sad.
I mean, we lost two Navyseals are supposed to come to our
branding this year and killed themselves,and you know, so that's when we

(56:30):
kind of started thinking, you know, what could we do for these guys
almost quarterly to just kind of givethem something to look forward to. Didn't
even as that be an event,but just something where we can appreciate them
and get their minds off this stuff. Yeah, it's I think it's one
of the greatest failures of our countrythat there's not a brilliant infrastructure set up

(56:50):
for our military. It's because wehave the wrong people in charge. And
for a great time we allow thewrong people in charge. And that's why
somebody like the Santies doing he's beena stud and I think he was Navy.
Wasn't he a Navy seal? Hewas a seal. He was a
seal. Yeah, And you know, if you're a super democratic person like

(57:12):
you can set your politics aside andappreciate like what what that takes, and
then to step into a government leadershipwhen you're planning exactly what you learned and
it works. It's a very effectiveHe's one of the best governors we have.
I mean that n from South Dakota. Those guys are rock stars.
I think it works. And ifwe could get this bureaucracy in this this

(57:35):
disgusting money thing, you know,it's in human history, but this,
if we could somehow in this perfectreally utopian world, not this not this
liberal neo communist utopian world, butbut a real one where people who serve
our country have somewhere to be,somewhere to go, something set up,
not just a half baked education andeight dollars an hour. Yeah, you

(57:58):
know what I mean. And peopledon't even like the higher military people.
That makes no sense. It doesn'tmake any sense because if I'm telling some
of these guys, man, theythere, there's some of the sharpest guys
who obviously disciplined, you know.Was what you were kind of touching on
too, was like I said,I kind of did this. I've got
no idea what I'm doing I mean, I'm still as a cowboy in a
roper. And I said, whenI panicked last year and raised over one

(58:21):
hundred and fifteen thousand, I panicked, this thing's taken off. It's bigger
than me limited amount of education.Here, I'm still as a cowboy.
And so some of the guys tellme about a board and things like that,
and so I did. I panicked. I called Ken Brays, a
man, I need your help.I need a guy to help, and
uh, I called Keith Munday withAmerican hats. That got them on a

(58:42):
board. We got four star generalGeneral Moseley, had another marine buddy of
mine that helped me kind of coordinatethis stuff, and a real good friend
of mine that um pretty high upon the JP Morgan Chase banking system,
where somebody knows money, somebody knowshow to represent the military guys, and
then some of those industries. Yeah, and so that way, I kind
of like, all right, makesure that I'm guide me in the correct

(59:05):
ways, because I've built this thingto where it was this a way to
say thank you. But then allof a sudden got five one C three's
and taxes and all this other stuff, and so that that helped me out
a lot because one of the corethings this thing's real and I don't want
to lose that. Like some ofthe guys that kept coming to me even
as during my clinics that I wasdoing in my backyard, said man,

(59:28):
this is this is real. Sowell, I appreciate that. He goes,
it's not corporate, So I don'tknow what that means. You don't
have to explain to me what doyou mean by corporate and said, well,
there's so many things that like peopletry to help us, and people
try to give us these things thatwe can go do and these trips warrior
programs. Yeah, and he sayslike, well, we'll pay for our
own money and go out there andget a photo shoot with the guys who

(59:50):
donated all the money for somebody elseis getting it and they just want us
to kind of be there for basicallya photo shoot where they can talk about
all the good things they've done thatwe don't even know who this guy is,
where the money's going, And it'sbasically we'd pay our own money and
drive over. You're gonna get aphotoshoot with this guy so we can take
credit for and leave ye and Iwas like, Okay, I get that.
He's like, man, you youdedicate your time like you truly care

(01:00:10):
for us, like we can seeit, and uh, you know,
I mean you donate your whole placeand your time, and it's like that's
that means a lot to us andlike we can truly feel that, like
you're doing it for a good reason. And they had a saying I forgot
what it was called, but theysaid, you're truly an American worth fighting
for it. I said, andthat's what. If there's a job title

(01:00:31):
that I would love to say,then that would be that one. So
that was pretty cool. That's prettyawesome. Yeah, I mean I think
it's a fantastic event, and uh, you know, we're called to serve
our fellow man, and when you'rea cowboy and an a steam cowboy,
that's one hell of a way todo it. So it's it's something and
this year is gonna be gonna bea lot of fun too. We get

(01:00:52):
we're able to take it to theCowtown Call to sum this year, so
we've been partnered with them, SoNFR showdown'll be at the Cowtown Coliseum.
The military guys are going to getto do their their grand entry behind the
branch flags feel a lot better therethan it'll be pretty tight. It'll be
pretty tightum. And then we've alsoadded a ranch rodeo this year because trying

(01:01:14):
to contain these guys and teaching themhow to rope is kind of almost like
trying to get a bodybuilder to makea six foot put. It's not really
the same wiring. That makes sense, because when you get a horse going
and they got adrenaline gets it going, it's hard to pull them off.
Yeah, and so we got aranch rodeo form this year. We went
up stray gathering, trying to geta four man team, two military guys
and two pro guys and just somethingfun when they get to go chase something

(01:01:38):
and so that'll that'll be fun.We'll take the two fastest times from NRS
into that as well, and thatway there's a little bit more entertainment to
it. Kind of just a teamreopen and then yeah, building building homes
for heroes to come in and we'llpresent a home. We've also reached out
and partnered up with Brotherhood for theFallen, so it's law enforcement and so
they helped take care of families thatif you're a police officer, you've been

(01:02:00):
murdered on the job, And soI think there's quite a bit of time
after they've been killed to where thatit actually comes in and starts helping them
benefit the family. I think Iheard like six months. Yeah, so
like funeral cost rent, Like Ithink everything's frozen. So if the wife
doesn't work and the police officer gotkilled, like there's no more income coming

(01:02:20):
a little bit. And so thisthis these guys coming in and had to
help to make sure that groceries aretaken care of and the family's taken care
of him. Because that was mybiggest That was one of the biggest things
that that hit me personally, wasman, if someone's ever happened to me,
just to make sure my family's takencare of. And that's why I
wanted to partner with building homes forhere. It was just, man,

(01:02:42):
make sure these guys have a home. You know, we raise one hundred
fifteen thousand last year and was ableto help an army specialist, I think
Jonathan Merchant. We helped build hima home. And you know, they
can do a lot of things.You can fare a lot of different ways
to make money. But at leastif you have a home, your family
stating care of ye. And sothat's that's something that I would know if
I died that I believe the Westernindustry would make sure that my family and

(01:03:06):
kids they can they can make money. But as long as that homema't take
from that makes me feel a lotbetter. Absolutely, where we try to
step in and make sure that theseguys are taken care of. Like I
said that the government gonna do it. I ain't gonna go try to be
a Navy seal at my age andI got way too many skeletons in my
closet. Run for governor, andso that's the only way I know how
to kind of make an impact.Yeah, yeah, I mean that being

(01:03:28):
said, I mean I said beensaying this for like two three years now,
But I mean I want people fromthe rodeo industry or the Western industry
who have the merit of education andthe right voice to run for office.
Get in there, Get get inat the local level, do things like
if you want change, you can'tjust bitch about it. You gotta be
about it. You gotta do there'sno different the rodeo and you want to
freaking change something. You can't sitin the trailer and pitch about it.
Nope. And you know, Ithink I love what you're saying, Like

(01:03:51):
the Santists and stuff like that.Getting more military guys in an office.
They are disciplined to know how thiscountry works. And um but man,
just like I said, be ableto get the Cowtown Colliseum and then Pam
and Billy Minnick they've stepped in andhelped me a little bit with it too,
So they're gonna we're gonna help kindof structure at gala that night after
the rodeo. That'd be awesome.They're at that eighty one club. Yeah,

(01:04:11):
and we've got a bunch of auctionitems we've got to I think Acufier
through in a bunch of high poweredscopes and one's even night vision. And
then also a lesson with Tim Kilnerand another guy with two most prolific snipers
I think under Chris Kyle. Soyou get a lesson with those guys I'm
shooting, and then I think ahall gun. That night, we got
like ten or twelve auction items likeat that level, they're just, uh,

(01:04:32):
you can get on a NASCAR sowe don't eat a deal, we
can go up the text Motor Speedwayand drive a NASCAR So we've got some
cool stuff right there. And mygoal this year has blowed two hundred thousand
out of the water. So andthen, like I said, I usually
always like starting with long coles andkind of work my way smaller, but
you know, I think it's agood year three goal. Eventually, you

(01:04:53):
know, we'd love to get tofive hundred thousand and work our way where
we outgrow Cowtown and keep getting biggerand bigger and raise more awareness. But
to be live on the Cowboy Channel, I think this year is gonna where
a lot of guys can see thisand just hopefully we can capture the emotion
of what it is for these guyswhen they're there. Last year just watching
the millpro or the military guys gotto rope with the pro guys. I

(01:05:14):
mean it was you know, you'vewatched steer wrestling before and slack where everyone's
rooting for each other. We don'tsee that in team rope and quite like
the bulldog and does. And itwas literally like a bulldog in there.
Man, everybody was hooping in Holland. Was somebody caught or whoever? Won
the rope, and it was itwas just it was just you could feel
that this was more than just arope at that point in time, and

(01:05:35):
it's a it's a it's a greatevent. So absolutely so do people donate?
Is that? So? Where canpeople go? So American Military Celebration
dot com. There's ways right thereyou can donate. There's ways you can
see where the auction items are at. We have our silent auction items will
be online and then, like Isaid, it'll be live on the Cowboy
Channel, or you can buy ticketsand come and watch it there at the

(01:05:57):
Cowtown Coliseum November fifth at one pm. So I don't think us on your
website, and I really get totake us from the website. The galis
on the website. So the moreinformation on that. Absolutely Well, Charlie,
I'm we're talking about doing this fora long time and getting you in
here, and uh well, AndI felt bad for calling you because I'm
not some of you calls and like, hey, come listen to this,
but I'm like, I want you. I want I want the world be

(01:06:17):
able to see what we can dofor these guys and what I think you've
done with this podcast. Is it'sextraordinary. And I was like, I
think I can speak for these guyson your on your show and be able
to get in front of a lotof people, and you've done a good
job with your show, and Ithought it'd be fun to be able to
come in and see you guys andmeet you guys too. Hell yeah,
no, I'm so glad you did. And uh, I mean, if

(01:06:38):
it has to do with help themilitary people, I think anybody who watched
this knows I'm gonna jump feed firstinto using any platform we've got to to
help with that. And yeah,I mean I'm super excited about it.
And uh, and I'm sure it'sgoing to be one of the biggest things
going for a really long time.So you're the right guy to do that.
I can tell. Thank you.I appreciate it, Thanks for coming
in. Charging enjoyed meeting us absolutely. This has been The Gauge hosted by

(01:07:11):
me Chance Canardo, produced and editedby our guy Ty Yeager. Shout out
to the executive producers, Dustin Pointerand Cody Denton. Marketing and content produced
by Riley Chone. Make sure torate and review this podcast, as well
as follow the Gauge on Twitter,Instagram and Facebook, and make sure to
subscribe to The Gauge wherever you getyour podcast. We'll see you guys next time.