Marine to Entrepreneur: Rob Martinez's Mission to Support Service Members

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Rob Martinez, founder of All Clear Gear, shares his powerful journey from Marine Corps veteran to entrepreneur creating solutions for transitioning service members by cleaning their gear to military standards.

• Left the Marine Corps in 2017 after not being selected for MARSOC despite passing assessment
• Struggled with purpose during his first 18 months as a civilian, working multiple jobs without satisfaction
• Experienced losing many fellow veterans to suicide during this difficult transition period
• Received a vision during prayer about cleaning military gear for transitioning service members
• Founded All Clear Gear to solve the problem of gear rejection at turn-in facilities, which occurs roughly 75% of the time
• Started by driving hours to clean single packs and evolved into a growing business with clear processes
• Plans to expand to military installations nationwide to help service members focus on their transitions
• Values integrity, positive attitude, and genuine care for both customers and team members
• Recommends building businesses around the "three P's": pain point, pleasure, and purpose
• Believes in remaining authentic and using social media to provide solutions rather than just build influence

If you're interested in learning more or using All Clear Gear's services, follow them on Instagram for daily updates, tips, and community engagement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
Joining us today is RobMartinez.
He's the founder of All ClearGear, a company on a mission to
protect the health and readinessof those who serve by
eliminating harmful bacterias,mold and odor from our everyday
equipment.
Rob, I want to thank you forjoining me on the podcast today.
Thank you so much, KP.

(00:20):
The honor's all mine.
Man, you know, honestly, it'shard to catch up with a man like
you.
You're running a business andyou're a dad, and I know you're
training jujitsu as well.
So thank you for giving me theopportunity to finally, you know
, get in front of you and get toknow you a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Likewise.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, I appreciate theopportunity.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So, rob, I just want to kick it off, man, and I want
to let you share a little bitabout your background and what
led you to start All Clear Gear.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, so just touching base real quick on how
busy we are, I mean, straightinto the podcast from soccer
practice.
So, coaching my son's firstyear, it's like I told my wife.
I was like, are you sure?
Are you sure I can take this onright now?
And it's one of those things,you know, opportunities come and
go and being able to take thatopportunity as a dad, you know,

(01:09):
and first year of coaching, likeyou know, first year playing
hour, it's one of those thingsthat families still can't
subside, you know.

(01:29):
They still have to become apriority.
The kids still have to be apriority.
So I just wanted to start withthat.
But yeah, so just jumpingstraight into it.
This is a part of the businessthat it's a heavy part.
It's a heavy aspect and it'stough for me to just dive into

(01:55):
and without glazing overanything, I got out of the
Marine Corps in 2017.
I was active duty, I wasstationed in 29 Palms with 1-7,
1st Battalion, 7th Marines.
Throughout my enlistment, youwould have thought that the
discipline and the structure andthe organization and everything

(02:18):
would have set in and thistransition would occur and I
would come out into the civiliansector and everything was boom,
boom, boom, ready to go.
You know, and unfortunatelythis wasn't the case, and I'm
not going to speak for everybody, but a lot of veterans that I
speak to on a weekly basis arein the same boat, and so for me

(02:41):
it took a year and a half toultimately rediscover purpose,
and when I transitioned, Itransitioned very abruptly.
So what that means for me iswhen I had gotten back to my
unit from Special ForcesSelection, from MARSOC, I had

(03:01):
passed the assessment selectionprogram but wasn't selected.
So before I had left, I told mygirlfriend at the time who's my
wife now, jenna?
I told her I said look, youknow, I left on her 21st
birthday.
I said if I don't get selected,because there's no, there's no
way I'm going to quit.
I'm just, that's just not in me.
If I don't get selected, I willget out all and end of active

(03:26):
duty service and we'll create alife.
And I didn't think that Iwasn't going to be selected.
So you know, anyone puts 110percent into anything and it's
not reciprocated into one way oranother.
And you're kind of left withall these questions.
Self-doubt rises up, yourself-confidence takes a little
bit of a ding and you start towonder like, okay, if this isn't

(03:50):
accepted here, where else hasit not been accepted to?
And so, for me, I got out witha million questions as to if I'm
one of the top performers in X,y and Z.
Where did I go wrong?
And you're just not givenanything, and sometimes just to
annotate.
That's life.

(04:11):
You know, like life isn'talways going to give you answers
.
Sometimes it takes weeks,months, even years before you
get a glimpse out.
Man, that's why that happened.
You know I was being protected,or, you know, being kept from
making a mistake too soon and itruining.
Or, for me, family had tried toassure me by telling me maybe
you would have died in atraining accident.

(04:32):
Think about our family andfriends.
Everyone's always scrolling.
And hey, this osprey went downover here in the ocean, this
CH-52 went down over, and it'slike these birds are dropping
left and right, dying intraining accidents, and it's
like you know that could havebeen.
It could have been something.
So, regardless, I chalked it upto not having been kind of more

(04:57):
diligent in my previous seasons.
What I mean by that is as amechanic, as a diesel mechanic
when I was in the Marine Corps,there were times where tasks
were asked of me instead of justshutting up and coloring like
you're supposed to do.
I always had an issue with thatauthority.
That didn't demand respect, itwas more so.
It's like hey, you know, shutup and shut up and do this.

(05:20):
And for me, I didn't want to bea mechanic when I went into the
Marine Corps, so I already hadthat going against me.

(05:50):
And when it came time to headback to my unit from assessment
selection was one day.
You know, I'm doing my checkoutprocess.
And there was one day where Iwas like you know, this one
doesn't close for a little whileI'm going to head to the office
isn't closed for a little whileI'm going to head to the office
and I get there and I'm likehey, just just curious, when

(06:15):
does my terminal?
Like when does terminal come up?
Sorry, one second.
I was like what, how muchterminal leave do I have saved
up?
Somebody told me that if I havea certain amount, I could sell
it back If I didn't make it intime.
You know how it goes.
And um, they ended up tellingme they're like you have the max
leave day saved up and I waslike and what is that?
Do you know?
I don't even remember.
It's like 60 days.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
I have no idea.
I certainly didn't have it.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
It's like, it's like too much, Dude, with how much I
took leave like every chance Icould, you know, back to Florida
, those $900 plane tickets, Um,but yeah.
So I got confirmation that Ihad max leave day saved up and I
was ready to bounce.
And I was like you're tellingme that I could get out today.
And they're like, well, youknow, well, uh, you know,

(06:59):
technically, yeah, you could.
And I'm like sign the paper,man.
And then somebody's alarm goesoff in the office and it's 1600.
And the guy's like, oh, like,sorry, dude, like you're just
going to have to come backtomorrow morning.
And that probably saves me fromsleeping on the street that
night.
Because I went back and packedup my room, I called my buddy

(07:21):
and my buddy, Jordan, who was a31 with Suicide Charlie, he's
like yeah, man, I'll come pickyou up in the morning and you
can stay with me in MorenoValley until you get on your
feet.
And I was like done, Like I hadmy motorcycle and I think I had
my Jeep at the time, butanyways, I was done.

(07:41):
I was gone the next day that Ifound out that I could go, and
so that's pretty abrupt.
I was gone the next day that Ifound out that I could go.
And so, um, that's prettyabrupt.
You know, I, I got out withoutany money saved up.
I got out with no plan.
You know I hear it all the time, yeah, yeah.
And so, um, fast forward.
You know, without giving toomuch detail, a year and a half

(08:02):
goes by, multiple jobs, and Ieven got to the point where I
was receiving pay raises Like Ireceived four pay raises in a
seven month period when I wasdoing construction and got into
a really cushy spot just stillgrinding, and I just didn't like

(08:22):
you couldn't pay me enough, andthat's where I'm at today is
like you can't pay me enough todo something that I don't want
to do.
So, with that being said, Ijust kept going from the next
thing to the next thing and inthis year and a half I had lost
a lot of people that I knew,Close friends, people that I

(08:43):
shook hands with at some pointin time, and the majority of it
was to suicide and some of themwere freak accidents.
You know people die caraccidents and whatnot, but the
number of people that year and ahalf, it like it's hard.
I don't even like saying it outloud and I got to the point

(09:04):
where the notifications werecoming through on my Facebook
feed and I wasn't even reachingback out to their families.
I kind of would just try toignore it.
And it was tough.
Because that year and a half,you know that's, that's one
person's too many, Right, let'sjust start right there.
One person is too many.
I have conversations with peoplenot often, but you know we talk

(09:29):
purpose and it's something thateverybody seems to struggle to
find to an extent, and it's allrooted in like hey, man, like
why'd you wake up today?
And if your question is likeand if your answer is because my
mom and my brother and my dadwould be sad if I didn't, that's

(09:49):
not good enough.
You got to find your own reasonto wake up and get after it.
So I told my wife, I said youknow, this was after, or this
was during, a week where I had acouple notifications come
through of people passing and Iwas just like this is, this is

(10:16):
crazy.
I'm literally like I, like Ican't.
I can't explain that feeling offrustration, sadness.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Kind of made you reflect, huh.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
It made me question if I was going to be another one
of these people, because Icouldn't catch on.
It was just this wheel supposedto have grooves, to catch on to
the system and to just get backinto society and to get
rotating again and to be acontributor, and no matter.

(10:50):
I was laying tile in themorning and I was doing security
at night and I wasn't makingenough money to barely.
I was barely paying my bills.
And you reach a point as a man.
You know where you're like.
I'm a provider and even after Idon't want to get ahead too
much, but even after four yearsit's been six years, but the

(11:13):
first four years in thisbusiness, the fact that I wasn't
the breadwinner, I wasn't theprovider for my family, I just
you feel it.
You feel it deep and it's likeman.
I wish I could feel it.
You feel it deep and it's likeman.
I wish I could be doing more.
I wish I could be doing more.
So, yeah, I went on a walk thisday with my wife and we just

(11:37):
need to get out of the house andwe're talking, and I was
getting emotional about it againand I asked my wife and she's
like well, have you prayed aboutit and I was like you know, you
know what a woman, or when yourspouse or when your wife tells
you to pray about something,they're being talked to,

(11:58):
somebody's talking to them,they're giving you the good word
.
And in that moment I didn'thesitate, I was just like God.
You know, like as one person.
What can I do to help set up myfriends, my brothers, for
success, so that when theytransition?
Going back to your reflectingpoint, they're not in my

(12:19):
position?
Because I feel like everybodyover this last year and a half
was experiencing what I was.
I just didn't know how to quit,like they did.
You know what I'm saying.
Yeah, and maybe that wasignorance on my end, like the
first four years of business, orGod just instilling in that

(12:43):
moment purpose for me, and whatI mean by that is, as soon as I
asked that question, I caughtthis 10-year vision KP, I'm not
even shitting you.
He downloaded something andlike, not even into my brain,
like it went straight to myheart and I had this vision of
Jesus washing the disciples'feet and, to be frank, like it

(13:08):
doesn't matter if you'rereligious or if any of the
viewers are, I had this visionof Jesus washing the disciples'
feet, and I saw in that momentthat if somebody of that stature
is able to get to this leveland to serve somebody in that
capacity, he didn't need to dothat.
He should have had that done tohim.

(13:29):
If you, if he could do it forthem, what could I, what level
could I get to to be able toserve to where it's so
fulfilling?
You know that reward of ofallowing somebody to focus on
themselves with any amount oftime, 30 minutes even, you know.
And so I was like God, you'retelling me you want me to clean

(13:54):
SIF gear for these guys that aretransitioning.
And I still geek out about itbecause it's like what, oh my
gosh.
So, yeah, I had that vision comethrough and I saw myself
scrubbing sift gear and it waslike I got fired up.
I was like I, you know it's.

(14:15):
It's one thing.
If you're like my birthday'scoming up, I can't wait to
celebrate, but if you're like Ijust saw the next 10 birthdays
and what I get, you're going tobe fired up.
You know what I'm saying.
That's exactly how I felt and Iwent straight home, got to
writing down we didn't have chatGPT yet Got to writing down.

(14:38):
You know as many legalities asI could, which, if you're an
entrepreneur and you're watchingthis, how many times have you
started something or startedsomething and you immediately
bought shirts, you bought hats,you bought stickers.
You just wanted to tell theworld no, don't do it, stop
wasting your money.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
I made the same mistake.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Everyone, everybody has.
Yes, and if you haven't, Idon't know, maybe we need to
haven't.
I don't know, maybe we need totalk offline.
You know, maybe I need to getsome advice from you.
But, um, yeah, I just wentstraight into okay, what could
screw me over?
How do I make money?
And I just thought because,marine, I thought driving to 29

(15:23):
palms, which is two and a halfhours, one way for one pack, and
back to clean it back at myhouse, was the way to go, when
in reality, pendleton was anhour from me.
And I did that for probablyfour months before I realized,
man, there's no money.

(15:43):
I was initially charging $150.
And that's gas, that's gas,they're back, they're back.
That's four times.
I mean, hands down, that's fuel.
And so if you could just imaginethe last four years or, I'm
sorry, the first four years ofbusiness was me somewhat

(16:08):
unknowingly because I wasn't abusiness guy Like like now, I, I
, I, I love business, like itmakes me tick.
But I was just doing it becauseone these guys need this done.
Somebody has to do it.
If your buddy wants to do it onthe weekend for beer money, and
this still applies if yourbuddy wants to do it for you on
the weekend for beer money andyou trust him not to screw up

(16:31):
your stuff, do it.
This is a matter of theresources being available and
the military, marine Corps,specifically in this scenario,
isn't doing it.
And don't get me wrong, sergeantMajor Ruiz, that man he
might've just been sent fromheaven just because of how much

(16:52):
he's doing, and I know he'sdoing a lot of publicity stuff.
Do your thing, kiss your babies, do your stuff.
He's doing a lot of work behindthe scenes, but the other day,
when he commented back to me onsocial media and he said that
they're working on the issuewith sif I, I commented back and
I said that's incredible.
I have an idea after six yearsof attacking this head on.

(17:14):
This is what I do.
I would love to have 30 minutesof your time to talk about
solutions.
You know what I'm saying.
Like who wouldn't bring insubject matter experts.
You know what?
I'm saying when you go to abrain doctor after getting an
MRI, I think that's what happensfor the brain.
You're not gonna go to go tosomebody who does dental stuff.

(17:35):
You know?
I'm saying you go to, you go tospecialists, and so I'm pretty
sure we got off topic there, butnonetheless, that's that's how
it goes, that's that's how itwas, that's how I was born, man
that was beautiful, honestly,that I was not expecting that.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
I was not expecting that story at all.
That's amazing.
This, this podcast, thispodcast and those past
conversations I've had and theconversation I'm having with you
right now, man, I mean becauseI haven't reached wherever I'm
going yet.
So I love doing these podcasts.
For this reason, I like hearingthe stories, I like hearing the

(18:14):
reasons why, I like to hear whyyou're doing this and whether
you're doing this for the rightreasons or not.
And I like hearing about peoplefalling on their face and then
getting back up again andbrushing yourself off and, you
know, driving on.
That's that's what I love.
That's what I love about allthis.
And I the curve ball that youtalk about in life like I tell a

(18:39):
lot of people that go into themilitary to be prepared.
The best place to be is to havethat lateral mobility to move
left and right and to manageyour career properly.
And you have the same storythat so many others have,
including myself too.
I mean, when I got out, I waslike you know I was.

(19:01):
I did four years enlisted uh,uh national guard.
Then I did four years activityas an officer, I resigned and I
could not get out of there fastenough.
I was like I just won out.
I don't want any.
What service connection?
I don't, what's that.
I don't even know what that is,I don't want it.
Just fucking sign my papers.
Like since I was an officer, Iwas able to walk through, like

(19:22):
when I, when I, on that last day, I was able to get everyone to
just sign my stuff like taps, itwas completely I didn't know
what the hell I was doing.
But you also mentioned, too,how your wife was with you.
Well, your girlfriend back then, but now your wife.
She was with you during thosetimes in the military, so she
saw the ups and downs and shehad to deal with things that

(19:42):
most spouses don't have to dealwith, which is you being away,
you having to make all thesehard sacrifices, and kudos to
her man for like supporting youand giving you that advice to
pray on this.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
She was with me the last seven months that I was in,
so she wasn't with me, myentire service and we we talk
about, you know, the time thatshe was with me.
Um, often, and it was some ofthe best times of both of our
lives Like he would come andshe'd I can say this now but she

(20:18):
would stay at the barracks withme Like it was our little hotel
.
You know what I'm saying Duty,duty, log book, what, yeah, yeah
, and um, no, I just without her.
You know anybody with a spousethat they're 100% committed to
and love with, like you'realways going to give that credit

(20:38):
to where it's due, and for meshe's been the rocks.
But I appreciate, I appreciatethe kind of words.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
You know, and another thing you mentioned too, too,
that really resonates with me isthe difference between I have
some siblings that aren't doingso well, they're older than me,
and I always tell people, Ialways tell family members,
friends, I know, like kids thatare coming up.
The only difference between meand them is that someone,

(21:05):
somewhere along the lines,somebody, told them that they
weren't good enough and theyagreed and they settled for
where they are now.
And I say that as aninspirational thing, because
there's so many times in ourlives we can just quit, hang it
up, fuck it.
Like this is way too much work,I'll just go get a nine to five
bucket.

(21:26):
Like this is way too much work,I'll just go get a nine to five
, it's too much.
And so I I that definitelyresonates with me.
And before we go on, man, I wantyou to talk about your business
, like what exactly is it thatyou do?
And talk about what, like?
What exactly inspired you to dothis?
Because why not a subway?
Why not something else?
Like, what challenges inspiredyou to create this business?
And talk about all clear gearso you know.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
You know now why the idea came to me, the concept,
the concept wouldn't be evenwhere it's at now for six years.
In that time, lots of trial anderror, lots of trial and error,
lots of money lost, blood,sweat, tear like actual blood,

(22:12):
sweat and tears.
When people talk about I put myblood, sweat and tears into
this.
You know what I'm saying.
We've got some blood, sweat andtears in this game and so okay.
So what we do here at all cleargear is essentially we take the
burden of you having to cleanyour own gear, your own tactical

(22:34):
gear.
If you're not in the military,I'm gonna explain this plainly
for you.
When you join the military,when you join the marine corps
specifically here, you're issuedout a set of gear.
After basic MCT or ITB, you getto your unit and you're issued
a set of gear.
This loadout is equivalent to$6,600 right now.
With that being said, you'reresponsible for maintaining that

(22:59):
equipment throughout theduration of your service.
Now, after four years, fiveyears, throughout the duration
of your service.
Now, after four years, fiveyears, however long they have
you with either that unit orbillet or whatever then you are
now responsible for cleaning andturning that gear into a
facility called SIF, now knownas IF Individual Issued Facility
, previously Central IssuedFacility.

(23:21):
This entity, this organization,organization, is contracted
outside of the government andthey dictate how clean an item
is when you go to transition.
And transitioning isn't justgetting out of the military,
it's also transitioning to yournext unit, your next four.

(23:42):
With that being said, there'sbeen an expectation, somewhere
set along the lines that isunrealistic beyond all measure,
from this entity that holds upMarines and sailors when it
comes time to make thattransition and to get that
signature on their checkoutsheet that says hey, this Marine

(24:03):
, this sailor has all their gearclean and accounted for and
it's in our possession now to goahead and turn it around next
to the next person that's comingin.
What I've done is I've createda system and a process and a
small team of individuals thatare crazy enough, like me, to

(24:25):
scrub for hours a week to beable to give you, whether it be
that three days, which is ourshortest turnaround right now,
or that seven days, to focus onyourself, focus on your
transition and everything elsethat needs to happen during that
time, such as the move acrosscountry, college, care for your

(24:48):
kids when you're moving, whetheryou're buying or renting a
property God forbid.
You have multiple propertiesand you have to figure out how
you're managing everything.
The list literally goes on.
But, to sum it up, we cleanthis gear so that you can focus
on your transition and,essentially, what we believe is
that, while you're in and you'reserving whether it be four

(25:10):
years, six years you areresponsible for maintaining your
equipment.
You're responsible foraccountability.
Everyone knows that leaders losetheir jobs, their careers,
because of a lack ofaccountability, whether it be
through a radio, a weapon system, a Marine.
You know like, accountabilityis very important, almost as

(25:31):
important as trigger disciplinein my eyes.
And so, with that being said,this gear that needs to be
turned in is often turned away,and the average turn away
rejection rate, I would say, isyou get rejected three out of

(25:51):
four times, and so I've got guysthat are coming to me every
week that it's not even just asimple case of like hey, I don't
want to clean it, here you go.
Of course we get that, you know, just because I don't want to
change the oil in my car, I takeit to Valvoline.
You know like, let's be honest,there's always going to be a
variation of the reasons whypeople use certain services.

(26:14):
But, with that being said, therejection rate is incredible and
it's almost like a double-edgedsword for us, because we clean
the gear so meticulously whereit spotlights any small stain,
and so it's almost like I said,that double-edged sword aspect
to where now, if these guysdecide to clean it on their own,

(26:35):
they're not doing a clean joblike all clear gear.
So in their eyes, they're like,oh, this could be cleaner.
And so it's almost like, hey,at what point is too clean?
Like a thing to where now wecould be damaging integrity of
materials.
You know what I'm saying.
What are we sacrificing here?

(26:57):
Ego or just simply clean gearLike we know what clean is,
especially after six years ofdoing it.
So we take that burden off ofyou.
We offer it.
I mean, I still work withpeople.
I'll get a text or a DM onInstagram at 10 o'clock tonight
A guy saying hey, man, I justfound out that I'm getting

(27:18):
histed and they told me that Igot 48 hours to figure it out
and my gear is not turned in.
I'm going to go out of my way.
We're at the point where westill can and I'm going to offer
every solution I can.
We're going to exhaust everysolution that we have to help
this individual, because that'swhat I would have wanted, that's

(27:38):
what I would have needed, andso it's never been about the
money.
It never will be about themoney, but what the money does
is it allows for us to scale andexpand and offer these services
everywhere that it's required,which are a lot of places right
now.
So the goal with the business,just keeping all that in mind is
to be on every militaryinstallation that requires

(28:03):
transitioning service members toturn in their gear 100% clean
and 100% accounted for.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
So if completely replaced CIF?

Speaker 2 (28:14):
right.
Somebody didn't like the C andput an I there.
I still don't understand whythey did that.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
I didn't realize that that was a well.
I don't know if was CIF aprivate business or was that
that was.
I had no idea.
I thought that was through themiddle.
I thought that was through themilitary.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Currently, I believe it's contracted out to a company
.
I don't think I want to statetheir name, but offline I could,
we could talk about it more.
I just don't want to draw anyexposure to them yeah, no,
that's.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
That's really interesting man, because I got
out in 2007.
It was different, differenttime war on outstationist
gofield barracks in hawaii, so alot of that red volcano, you
probably haven't you haven'tseen that.
Yeah, that clay.
You haven't seen that yet.
Have that clay.
You haven't seen that yet haveyou.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
I have on, I think, two packs, and one of them was
an army pack and it was adifferent tactic to clean that.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
You can't get that.
It's a different it's.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
It's different, for sure.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
Yeah, it stains everything.
Back when we had the ACUs,someone thought that was a great
idea.
It was like a gray pixelateduniform.
Thankfully, the army switchedover to something different.
Yeah, that was a digital age ofthe military.
I guess at the time we weretrying to experiment.
But yeah, that stuff got intoyour uniforms.
Man, it would turn you pink.
So it was.
It was definitely frustrating.

(29:32):
What.
What in your background yourmilitary background or in your
background in general influencesthe way that you currently run
your business.
It's a really good question.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
The way I run my business is through all of the
leadership techniques the lackof leadership techniques that I
picked up from the military,everything that they weren't
doing.
I realized I should probably bedoing this, you know, if I tell

(30:09):
my workers that we're going towork through chow so that we can
get off early, I'm going tostick to that promise, not run
them for four more hours afterthe fact.
You know, there was just lotsof disciplines, such as
accomplishing things Like for meas a diesel mechanic when I was
in I tried to do anything butturn wrenches and I just I

(30:31):
wanted initially to go in theMarine Corps and to fight bad
guys, like that's just what Iwanted to do.
But my uncle did in Iraq andAfghanistan and I just wanted to
follow his footsteps.
And, um, so the sniper section,you know, assessment and
selection, accomplishing thosetaught me.
That's, that's where I learnedmy experiences and and I learned

(30:52):
that I could do more than Ithought I could.
And so the first four years wasjust me pushing through, just
surviving, you know, just tryingto grasp that last breath to
get it to the next day, to getto the next hour, and so a lot
of it was just instilling in medetermination, grit,

(31:13):
perseverance.
I feel like a lot of that,mixed with being out and not
having that looming sense ofauthority, to where it's like,
okay, I'm going to do this andI'm going to do this for myself.
But going back to why I createdthis business, it was to serve
others, and once I realized thatthis piece of the system is

(31:37):
flawed and it's broken, there'sa pain point there.
I've unveiled so much moresince then and it's like there's
a lot of work here to do, andit goes beyond just SIF totally

(31:59):
see you expanding this out andbeyond and you've probably
learned getting into the nerdyside of this whole thing.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Learned a lot about cleaning products and things
like that and the science behindit.
So could you walk us through,like some of the things that
you've learned about, theeffectiveness and the science
behind cleaning these productswithout losing that integrity
that you're talking about?

Speaker 2 (32:22):
So, at the individual level, you cleaning your own
gear.
I'll tell you right now how youcan do it, because I made money
doing it for the first two anda half years of business this
way.
And what you need to do is youneed to find cold water.
If you soak in hot water or ifyou run a machine in hot water,

(32:45):
it's gonna set those stains andwithout diving into like laundry
books or stain removal, recipesfrom grandmas and everything
like that cold water soaking incold water, constantly
exchanging the water after everyfew hours, peas from grandmas
and everything like that Coldwater soaking in cold water,
constantly exchanging the waterafter every few hours but we're
looking at like a strongdetergent, live enzymes and

(33:06):
maybe a decreaser of some sort.
And then, hey, guess what?
Good old pressure washer.
And the thing is is people arelike just throw everything into
the barracks washing machineFirst off.
Don't do that.
I did that when I was in and itstill took me four tries.
But that pressure washer isgoing to be key in terms of

(33:26):
making it look how SIF wants itto look.
It helps remove those peskystains.
The issue is PSI.
If you're using more than 1100PSI pressure washer when you're
cleaning this gear, you guys,you're going to destroy the
integrity, the material, andthat's when you're going to get
those scars across the gear.

(33:46):
Um, for the first like threemonths, the scars were bad on
the gear that we were doing.
Luckily we still got away withit, uh.
But ever since then I had thatwe had to back it down.
You know?
Um, so good, soaking, lettingit dry outside in the heat.
Good, pressure washing, lettingit dry again, and I'm gonna put

(34:08):
you on some more game here.
Only disassemble and break down.
Everything sounds like a lot ofwork.
It's a lot of work.
It's's a lot of work.
It's all a lot of work.
You gotta do it right.
You gotta do it right, becauseif you don't, and something
doesn't get dry and it's wetstill, no, now it's wet.
It doesn't matter if it's clean, if there's a drop of water or

(34:31):
it's stopping wet.
They're going to treat you thesame way.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, that's got to to be real frustrating and I
could see where people wouldn'twant to have the time to break
everything down like what you'redescribing overall and it's.
I remember when I cleaned mygear I I had a.
Thankfully they took my, myvest, took the sappy plates out
and I didn't really have to evenclean it.

(34:56):
I think they just DX that part.
But you put a post up the otherday and it was a.
It was a picture of.
It was a picture of a of a vest.
I remember when I turned minein I felt like I turned in a big
part of me because that's whatI wore on my deployment.
It had a lot of stains on it, alot of dirt on it.
It was filthy.

(35:20):
Man, I really wish I hadpretended that I had lost that
piece of gear and just kept it.
Man, it's the one thing.
It's like a thing that I wish Ihad kept, and that sort of
resonated with me, man, when youposted that.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
So it's funny you say that because we have one item
specifically that we will notclean and that's your kill patch
, your flak patch that sits inthe center of your chest.
Because after all of thosedeployments, after all of those
trainings, after all of thatstuff, it doesn't matter if that
thing is going to go in ashadow box or if it's going to
go in your dresser, on yourunderwear drawer.

(35:52):
You want that thing.
You want to look at that thingand be like I have photos with
this patch looking this way, soat least you still have a piece
of it.
You know what I'm saying.
And so I get guys.
They're always coming throughhere with the cleanings and like
, do you want me to?
I didn't have a name tape, so Ijust left my flack patch on
there, like, oh, that's cool.
And then I tell them like we'renot going to clean the patch by

(36:13):
the way.
First off, you don't turn it in.
Second of all, it's thosememories that are trapped in
there through the sweat, theblood, the stains, 100%.
People are like what these guysdon't clean their gear for four
years?
And I'm like don't be surprised, Would you want?
Well, I guess it doesn't reallyapply in the Michelin

(36:37):
restaurants.
Those guys are all clean Causethey they know what they're
doing.
But you get what I'm sayingLike you got.
You got this guy that walks in.
He's gritty, he's dirty, he'slike, oh, this dude's seasoned.
You got a guy that's like tightand tight, showing up and
camelback on and I think somepeople don't realize the gravity

(36:57):
of that, like I didn't.

Speaker 1 (37:01):
I mean, at the time I felt it, but as the years have
gone on I'm like, wow, I reallywish I would have kept that, but
you're really washing away thesacrifice that you put forth to
this country, and some of thatgear and that kill patch you're
talking about is part of thatwhole thing, so that I some guys
may not even realize it.
You know they're giving you awash all of it.

(37:21):
Well, wait a second.
Like what about?
You know this?

Speaker 2 (37:25):
that's also why I want to turn the service into an
experience, too like I want youto walk into our facility.
Of course, the cleaningoperations are going to be going
on behind the scenes, but Iwant you to walk in and I want
you to recognize some of thecompanies that we've been
working with on social media.
I want you to see theirproducts in our store.
I want you to be able to takesomething.

(37:47):
I want you to be able to goover to the wall and you're
going to see, either based offof state or demographic or
whatever, there's going to beopportunities.
Maybe we'll just call it theopportunity board.
When you look behind you andyou're about to walk out the
door, that entire wall is goingto be felt and it's going to be.
Name tapes are going to be putall over it.

(38:09):
From when you take and pick upyour gear and you're heading out
for the last time, you slapyour name tape up on there and
you just you become a part ofwhat we're building.
And it's one of those things,man, like I had a guy ask me.
He said to me hey, man, likequestion for you, like you are
so eager to solve this problem,but you understand that once

(38:29):
this problem's solved, you'renot going to have a business
anymore.
What are you going to do?
And I was like, and I was likewe are going to rent a room in
Vegas and everybody that's evergot their gear cleaned by me is
going to come and we're going tojust, we're going to some, some
hotel, we're going to justparty, we're going to celebrate

(38:51):
and then we're going to figureit out like we always do.
But I will have the fullestheart, knowing that this has
been accomplished, and whetherthat's going to be in the next
year and we work something outwith the military to where we
give them the resources, theknowledge, the tools and we
enact a program under MCCS, orwe end up doing it all on our

(39:13):
own and we work with themilitary to be on every
installation, I will rest very,very easy knowing that I don't
have to scrub another packbecause we're still deep.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
I'm with you, man.
Like people ask me all the timetoo.
I started this, like almostthree years ago, this podcast.
I didn't know what the hell Iwas doing.
And then people have asked melike, well, everyone's starting
a podcast, even the Hawk to agirl has a podcast, right.
So it's like, yeah, that's,that's fine, but this is more
about the journey.
Like you're learning.
You've learned how to build abusiness, you've learned how to

(39:45):
hire people, how to put peoplein charge of things and
responsibility.
Man, like you're going to pivot.
That's the biggest thing.
Like when you leave themilitary.
You know, even in my intro Italk about that.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
I say you, you leave the military, you know even in
my intro I talk about that.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
I say you know what happens when the cadence fades
and you're no longer wearingthat uniform?
Who's going to tell?

Speaker 2 (40:05):
you how to pivot and when to pivot you know and
that's what you've taughtyourself.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
Like you know, as a business owner, no one's going
to tell you to get up in themorning, no one's going to tell
you to make the phone calls orhow to do the brand awareness
and everything you know, whichleaves me, man.
I've been really impressed withyour social media.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Thank you bro.

Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah, so how do you approach your marketing and
building your brand awareness inthis very niche business?
Because you've changed.
You went full in the paint man.
I can tell in the last severalmonths you've been doing really
well man.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, there's a couple of business leaders on
YouTube that I like to ingesttheir content.
I realized, once I startedtracking progress of kind of
what was working.
It's very niche what we'redoing.
We're not even doing anythingfor law enforcement, fire,

(40:59):
sports equipment, anything likethat, at least until much later
on.
But once I started trackingwhat was working, I realized
that, between word of mouth andsocial presence, I was building
this brand without consciouslyknowing that this was gonna be
how I get to speak to leaders,decision makers, and we live in

(41:20):
an era where there's pros andcons of tech.
But social media, you know asto be included, but the pros so
much outweigh the cons if youuse your platform correctly.
And side tangent, all of the brovets and all of these veteran
military influencers moment ofsilence for them, all right, you

(41:45):
see.
You see what I'm saying, though.
Um, you know, like, let's useour platforms for good, you know
, and?
And then you can build thebusiness around providing
solutions.
You know, if you're justsomebody else that's
regurgitating somebody else'scontent all the time, you know
I'm saying you might following,you might get paid for it, but
dude, you're still, you'returning that cam off and you're

(42:07):
like what now Where's my purpose?
You know what I'm saying.
So you're just prolonging it.
But anyways, the 10,000 followermark that we just crossed,
incredible milestone for me forAll Clear Gear, and I realized,
and why I put so much effortinto social media in the last

(42:29):
seven months, I'm glad younoticed is because I enjoy
content.
I love content and it's more sobeing able to one connect with
people, make people laugh anddrive my business in a way that,
you know, with it being niche,of course it's going to be a

(42:50):
smaller demographic that I reach, but those are my people, those
are my.
That's why I, why would I wantto go into a party where I don't
know anybody?
I want to, you know, justbecause it's a bigger, better
party, like no, I want to bewith the people that I know, you
know I want to.
I want to be around my guys, mybrothers, my sisters, and so
and I'm providing solutions tothat what about our law
enforcement?

(43:10):
What about fire They've had?
They have people that have beendoing that stuff for decades.
Them, when they have the bestprices, they've got processes
and systems, whereas here I'mpioneering and I'm establishing

(43:31):
a brand that's been recognizedfrom Okinawa, japan, to Fort
Leonard, like literallyeverywhere.
So to be able to be elsewhere.
It shows me through socialmedia where we're, where our
services are being requestedfrom, and it allows for me to
connect with people that arehaving issues.
Like I gave a guy the same, thesame how to, how to clean your

(43:52):
gear spiel, that's somewhere onthe East coast, that, because
our services aren't there.
He asked me politely.
He's like hey, man, like couldyou give me any tips?
I'm not going to close the dooron somebody you know, not for,
not for money, not for, uh, anyounce of influence.
You know what I'm saying.
Like I will forever.
Who you see here in this garagethat I've miraculously turned

(44:18):
into a full blown shop.
That's going to be me forever.
And that money that comes along, that reward at the 10 year
mark that I'm praying for, bro,everyone's gonna win.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
You know I'm saying yeah, so I'm super stuck I
totally love talking to peoplethat are genuine and authentic.
Man, nothing is more of adowner than meeting someone that
you follow on social media,meet them in person and they're
not who you thought they were,whether it be their personality
or the or the.
They're the thing that they'reposting, and I've met some very

(44:52):
genuine people, and that'sthat's part of why I love doing
this podcast.
Man is just interviewing,interviewing people like you,
talking about the whole socialmedia.
Uh, and and brand thing is doyou have any partnerships or
collaborations in the works?
That, uh, that we should bekeeping an eye on.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Yeah, yeah, I do and I'm super freaking excited.
Yeah, anything you can talk tous about today or we're in a
surprise or yeah, no, I mean I,the reason why I'm even on
camera is to talk about my story.
It's to let you know whetheryou're active duty, military,
veteran or civilian, orsupporter of the military or

(45:32):
somewhere lost on the far left.
We're praying for you guys.
I want to.
I want to bring everybodytogether through content, my
content creation while I'mproviding solutions to the
military, and it just kind ofall trickles down there.
But, um, I mean, um, thebranding I think was, was the

(45:53):
question, sorry, was thequestion regarding branding.
Any collaborations orpartnership?
Oh, collaborations, yes, okay,um, we have a protein oatmeal
company.
It's called misery and mayhemand, um, we've I've recently
done an unboxing video.
It's just just a a a fun way ofthem sending me product to

(46:14):
showcase to my audience.
The guy's also a Marine veteranScott, you're an incredible guy.
Uh, those uh, him and hispartner come from, uh, a small
company called Peloton and theydid some big things for that
company, and so I believe thattheir season ended there and
they stepped away and createdtheir own thing, and the protein

(46:36):
oatmeal is surprisingly verygood.
I will never promote somethingthat I don't believe in.
I will not be one of thosepeople, no matter how big the
check is, and they are planningon sponsoring some cleanings.
My way of collaborating isthose marketing dollars that you
would spend in us shooting avideo together is going to go
towards covering the cost ofsomebody's cleaning and in

(46:59):
return you're going to get atestimony video from that
individual saying, hey, shoutout to All Clear Gear for
cleaning the gear and a bigthanks to Misery and Mayhem for
covering the cost, I mean.
And then I'm gonna be like, oh,dude, awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
And, by the way, misery andMayhem wanted to set you up with
three days, three breakfasts,oatmeal or whatever.

(47:20):
You know something like that towhere now that business is
getting exposure, they'regetting their product out there,
they're helping our servicemembers the list kind of goes on
.
But misery mayhem super excitedto work with them, especially
as another veteran owned company, sinten.
Sinten is a company that has,like everyone knows, zen.
You're going to have your Zenpouches and your plastic can and

(47:43):
, uh, I think the guy yep, yep,and and I'll make sure to get
you one of our custom ones thatwe're collaborating on but, uh,
it's, it's a, it's a sickcontainer and it's like heavy
duty metal and it unscrewed it.
Uh, it seals, super nice and, um, the top of it's got a spot
where you can pull it off andyou can put your old ones and

(48:04):
cover it back up and then it'sjust super good quality.
So I found it because my buddyworks fire out in Vegas and his
stuff would dry out, it wouldget wet from the sweat being in
his pockets.
And he found that company and Iwas like bro, I was like let me
see this thing.
And I was like watch this.

(48:25):
And I reached out and two weekslater they were like hey, like
let's get on the phone.
And so, jordan, if you'rewatching this, you're incredible
and I'm I'm super excited tostart working with you and they
are really looking forward togetting this product into some
of at least some of CampPendleton's hands.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
I know I'm going to be getting a good amount from
them to just give away and letthese guys try and I'll I'll
make sure to get you on kp.
I appreciate that, man, hell,I'm I'm new to this zen game, so
I it's great because when I andI'm not promoting any of this
stuff, I'm just saying, like, atthe end of the day, like when I
was deployed, I spent a yearwith uh, just drinking coffee
and and skull, and that's whatkept me awake, that's what kept
me alert and I know it's, youknow, very taboo, you know you
can smell that right now.
Right, oh man it's terrible.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
I chewed Redman for probably about six, seven months
and then saw my gum linereceding and I was like no, no
more.
I'm ugly as it is.
I don't need to lose my teeth.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Me too, man.
I was like.
I was like I got to stop thisstuff.
So when I got back I quit.
But you do what you got to doat the time, right.

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Exactly.
Um, I also have a couple ofother podcasts that are going to
be released at the end of thismonth and the beginning of next
month.
So is it okay with you if I, ifI talk about that too, Of
course?
Yeah, certainly Okay, I didn'tknow if there was like a podcast
rivalry or no.
No, not here.
Cool yeah.
So the first one on March 30thit's going to be with Urban

(49:52):
Ballard.
I don't know if you've heard ofUrban Ballard.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Of course I have.
They're huge yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, uh, he's incredible, josh, and uh, yeah,
allowing for me to be on thatplatform and for it to be my
first one too, it was, uh, itwas an honor, definitely to sit
there and talk to him.
And you look at somebody acrossthe coffee table from you that
you're talking to and you canjust tell this person has heard
a lot of stories, you know, andyou just have to respect the

(50:20):
time that's been devoted tolistening to others.
For me, as you can probablytell, especially if you're a
viewer, I got a lot to say, andso when it comes time for me to,
you know, open up a podcast andbe the one on the listening
side of things, I will know thatI've done my share of talking.
And so, with that being said,that's where you know super good

(50:44):
, good lighting, super goodcamera angles.
Josh, let me speak for a couplehours and, uh, I think the
point will get across, but I waspretty nervous in my first ones
.
Um, the second one, a to bpodcast um, those, those guys
are legit too.
Albert is over there and, uh,that was a great experience.

(51:06):
Albert's a great host,definitely kept me on track, but
he gave.
I felt so comfortable in thatspace in that type of like how
we're doing right now.
I got a lot of my story inthere.
I wasn't like kind offorgetting things, you know I
did.
Hopefully he cuts, cuts it out.

(51:27):
But I ended up getting a littleemotional on it, uh, and I was
like I think I was like, hey,man, can you, can you cut that
out?
And I'm pretty sure the guybehind the camera's like shaking
his head, like sorry, bro, theworld's gonna see you, sob, it's
all right, man, it's all right.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
It's so that that that just tells me that you're
speaking from your heart,speaking from your soul.
There's nothing wrong with thatat all, man, and you know this.
This podcasting thing it is.
It is an art project.
I mean, it is freaking artwork,like you said the lighting, the
angles, having the right camera.
I mean I've been.
This is a journey for me, man,like I've, I've been teaching
myself how to do all this stuff,and Urban Valor does a great

(52:07):
job.
I'll have to check out A to Bpodcast too.
I I love connecting with otherpodcasts, with other folks out
there putting our stuff outthere, because we really just
are one community and peopleforget that less than 6% of the
U S population ever serve in themilitary, and so we got to
remember that, like we've got tobe in this together.

(52:27):
Just having you on, man, andhelping spread the awareness of
what you're doing, your journeyis what's most important to me,
and if anyone else is out therelistening right now and they're
thinking about getting intobusiness you mentioned earlier,
it's not about just buying theshirts and the stickers and all
that stuff, right?
What's one piece of advice thatyou'd give to someone looking

(52:50):
into starting their own business, especially when they're
transitioning out of themilitary.
Maybe they're a current veteran, right now that you've learned
over your time.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
I think what initially comes to my mind is
something that Alex Hermositaught me.
And you're finding yourbusiness through the three P's.
The first P is pain point.
Either there's a constraint insomething and you found a
solution that you can providefor money, pleasure you enjoy
doing it, or purpose and pain,pleasure, purpose Pretty sure,

(53:25):
that's three piece.
And if you have all three ofthose in your business concept,
in your business idea, then youare sitting on gold, not just in
terms of what people visualizeas success in the material world
, but in terms of purpose, andthat's what continues to drive

(53:47):
an incredible business.
I mean, you come into a shop ora facility or a store,
restaurant, and you can feel theenergy.
You can feel the energy fromthe staff that work there, from
the team that's helping you outwith your whatever it is, your
product, your service, and ifthere's a good leader there
that's gonna, you know, helpingyou out with your whatever it is

(54:08):
, your product, your service,and if there's a good leader
there, that's going to, that'sgoing to, you know, and it's
everyone's going to be filledwith that.
And so some of the advice thatI have is you're going to find
what you're being called to umthrough serving others.
I don't think that I was evercontent, no matter how much
money I was making originally ata nine to five or a W2, if you

(54:30):
will until I realized I'm notserving at my greatest capacity.
And once I made that mindsetshift, that's when the reward
was coming.
And I'm not talking material,because the material, if you do
decide to go that route, shouldbe way later on, after you've
had experiences with your familyas an individual.

(54:53):
You know things get withoutgetting too into it.
You know those three P's.
That's totally where I wouldstart.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
You know what, rob.
Actually I'm looking forward tothe Urban Valor conversation
that you had.
It sounds like they really gotin depth.
You said you were there for afew hours talking and you have a
lot to offer the community, man.
So I appreciate you having theguts to step out there and put
yourself out there, but thensharing your story as well and

(55:24):
it sounds like the synergy fromyour business really is what's
driving everything.
But what values do youprioritize in running your
company and working with yourteam?

Speaker 2 (55:37):
The first thing I want people to know is the
integrity behind what I'm doing,in everything that I do like
with All Clear Gear personallife I'm doing.
You know there's in everythingthat I do like with all clear
gear personal life I'm very.
What you see is what you get.
You know I'm very transparent,I'm open, I'm honest.
Integrity is one of the biggestones.

(55:58):
You know the fact that we'retaking on for less than $300,
$600 worth of gear.
We're promising to you thatyou're going to get it all back
spotless.
All accounted for the big riskon my end, especially as a small
business, that whole solepurpose is set around helping

(56:18):
these guys transition, helpingthem fight the machine.
So integrity is huge Attitude.
You know like this job sucksjust parts of it, just parts of
it.
It's very labor intensive.
You know what I'm saying.
Like yeah, you don't get donewith a day of shoveling shit and
you're like can't wait to do ittomorrow.
You know what I'm saying.
So, with that being said, I'vespoken to people like Trader

(56:44):
Joe's.
You know fast food restaurantsand how they work their staff in
a way to where it's likethey're ready to show up the
next day with a smile on theirface and do the same shit and a
lot of it's environment andthat's curated as a leader.
And even though we're a verysmall team right now it's I have
had the mindset of my facilityis going to operate like this as
a well team.

(57:04):
Right now, I have had themindset of my facility is gonna
operate like this as awell-oiled machine.
My employers are gonna show upeach day.
They're not gonna do the samething every single day, because
that's how one gets birthed out.
There's gonna be incentives.
You're gonna be bonused forperformance.
You're gonna be bonused forgive me a reason, give me a

(57:25):
reason to bonus you to send youhome with more money because
you're here, you're serving atthe greatest capacity and you're
on a winning team Like we're,we're, we're going for it.
So, um, the last thing that Iwant to say is anybody that's
ever come into contact with me,whether it be like hey, rob,
like and, if I can, if they wantto help you know, clean gear,

(57:47):
whatnot anyone that's ever comeinto the door, even when we were
in the general janitorialphases, the commercial cleaning
phases, before even getting myfoot into the door with the
military about the gearcleanings, I've always wanted
the best for anybody that I'vecome into contact, so anybody
that's come into All Clear Gearfor a season, a week, a month, a

(58:07):
year.
Everything that they'vecontributed has been incredible.
Like we talked previously aboutperspective, it's all about
everyone's perspective.
Everyone has something tocontribute, everyone has
something to offer.
And, with that being said, Itell them like, hey, no matter
how long your season is here, Ihope and I pray that you go on
to be successful in whatever itis that your definition of that

(58:30):
looks like.
And when I had the opportunity afew years ago to speak to a
couple of RSSs, it was like apooling event.
I was just praying to the HolySpirit and I was like man, like
what do I?
I'm nervous.
You know what should I even sayin front of these kids?

(58:56):
All their families are in theback.
And I remember telling him Isaid, hey, who's wearing a red
armband in here?
That signifies that you're asquad leader.
And like two, three guys raisedtheir hands and I'm like, okay,
put your hands down, who's not?
And everybody else raises theirhands.
And I was like I want you tounderstand something that just
because you're wearing that andthat's your billet, the people
that aren't wearing that itdoesn't mean you don't have the
same opportunity to lead and todevelop your leadership skills.

(59:20):
That red armband, being a squadleader or not, is not going to
separate the fact that when youtransition out of the military
one day, that you don't have thepotential to be a lawyer, to
play sports, to write a book,you don't need to go from
pulling triggers to pullingtriggers to pulling triggers.

(59:42):
There's so much more out there.
And what I tell the O3 guysthat are like, yeah, I'm
probably going to go lawenforcement First off.
Awesome, we need more peoplelike you serving.
You know what I'm saying.
But at the same point in time,like there's a lot more man,
like at some point you're goingto something's going to click

(01:00:02):
and you're like I need to workwith this more rather than that,
because a lot of us men wethink that sacrificing is done
physically, like we mustsacrifice physically in order to
you know.
That's why jujitsu isincredible.
You got to get out there, yougot to get broke off every once
in a while.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
I love that segue though, man, I love that segue,
Speaking of which, you justyou've been training jujitsu
over the years.
We talked about it before the,before the recording here.
I can tell you that, overall,man, I push a lot of people into
that sort of thing because ofthe, the team, the camaraderie,

(01:00:39):
the humbleness behind it.
I mean, I know you, you're onyour jujitsu journey now and you
shared with me earlier that youpromised your four-year-old
that you would be a black beltby the time she's what 18 or so,
right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
By the time she gets married, and so she'll be there
way before then.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
You'll be there way before then.
Don't worry about that For sure, man, it takes a lot of
commitment to do that, andyou're I mean, you're amazing
man and in this podcast, youknow, I I learned that, that
you're a leader.
You're a leader, um, but whatwas your rank when you got all
the Marines?

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
The corporal.
I was technically like two,three months from picking up
Sergeant.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
but yeah, man, and you know that's that's huge.
That's huge because even whatyou just said like you're, you
went from corporal to runningyour own business and making it
work, and people need to seebeyond their rank, beyond the
end of their street, and look atthe bigger picture, and I think
a lot of people have problemswith that sometimes and not

(01:01:39):
seeing themselves like theirname on the book authored by
this person.
So your statement there is huge, huge and, rob, I can really
appreciate the journey thatyou're on.
I'm on a journey, too, man, andI'm very fortunate to have you
and to learn more about yourauthenticity too, man, you
talking about being vulnerablesaying, hey, I was nervous and

(01:02:01):
all this stuff.
hell, I'm nervous all the time.
Every time I get in front ofthe camera I'm like nervous and
people they don see the takes,the hours, the frustration, that
pulling my hair out, you knowfor for for this type of podcast
.
So, rob, it's man, we're, we'rejust over an hour man and I
know that that you got a lotgoing on over there and I I

(01:02:22):
can't tell you how much I reallyvalued this conversation with
you, especially in the firstpart Talking about how you came
to start All Clear Gear.
Was there anything in thispodcast that you would like to
mention that I didn't talk about?

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
No, I think that there is so much out there for
everyone, there's so muchpotential for everyone.
There's so much potential,there's so much reward and
there's so much risk that iswaiting for you as the
individual to just jump withboth feet and to cry, and the

(01:02:58):
beauty of it is, like you weresaying the people, people will
remember you for getting up,getting knocked down, getting up
and trying again and tryingagain.
If you choose to stay down, youhave to understand that you've
just labeled yourself and whatyou want to go on the rest of

(01:03:19):
your life being labeled as is adirect reflection of your
experiences and what youultimately said no to.
You're hurting yourself.
I would say that if I leftanything out of this, it would
just be the fact that don't bescared to take risks, don't be
scared to seek counsel and don'tbe afraid to reach out yeah,

(01:03:47):
definitely, man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
Going circling back to what you talked about earlier
about the suicides, you know,um, that's something that's
really checkered our ourcommunity over the years.
You know, don't be afraid tostay in touch with your brothers
, your sisters out there, andthere's no reason today why you
can't stay in tune with thecommunity, especially with
social media.
When I got out of the military,all we had was MySpace.

(01:04:10):
Now you've got LinkedIn, you'vegot all these other ones out
there.
And which social medias are youon besides Instagram?

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
Instagram is you know where we conduct business,
where I keep people updateddaily with what's going on, and
you know whether it be youractive duty and I'm giving you
tips and advice.
What's the newest stuff thatSIF's accepting and not
accepting?
But we have YouTube, which, aswe progress in the business,
it's going to allow for me toput more people and more systems

(01:04:40):
in place, which is going toallow for me to get back into
more long form content, which Ithoroughly enjoy.
But also TikTok.
We do have a LinkedIn businesspage.
I'm working on transferringownership of that to one of my
guys to deal with, you know, interms of like, trying to land
more sponsored cleanings frompeople, businesses,
organizations.

(01:05:01):
But yeah, instagram is that'swhere we do the lives when we do
raffles.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
If you're listening to this out there and you're on
Instagram is that's where.
That's where we do the liveswhen we do raffles.
If you're listening to this outthere and you're on, you know
any of the podcasts.
Make sure you scroll down tothe bottom of the description
there and show notes.
You'll see the links where youcan follow Rob and all clear
gear.
I'll make sure I post all thosedown there.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
So, in terms of trying to stay connected, you
know a lot of the times it'slike, hey, there's plenty of
resources out there, just go getthose resources.
You know it's like I want to bemore direct and in terms of
being able to stay connectedwith our brothers and sisters
after transitioning or evenwhile you're active duty.
I met this guy Incredible heart, incredible experiences.

(01:05:47):
He was a Marine.
That was with one one, hisname's Kyle Hanson, and he
started this nonprofit.
It's called recycle forveterans, and it's a matter of
time before this goes nationwide.
But essentially it's bringingcamaraderie also through all
branches, all walks of life.
High school kids even come outtoo and we all clean up our
environments together, like thebeaches.

(01:06:08):
They do lots of beach cleanups,river jetty cleanups and just
making a difference that way.
But also while getting the funend of it too, while you're
BSing with the boys and catchingup about old times and then
afterwards grabbing a drink orgrabbing some lunch, you know
whatnot.
But that's an organization thatI believe is worth following,

(01:06:31):
that I believe is worth gettinginvolved in, and it's helped me
find even some of my bestworkers through that network.
And so, in terms of this lifeand what success looks like to
you.
At some aspects it's about whatyou know, but in this life I
feel like it's about who youknow, and that really is an
opportunity for veterans thatare lacking community, as well

(01:06:54):
as veterans that are thriving,to be able to pass on knowledge,
get more involved with thecommunities.
Veterans of America I'm almostpretty positive.
I don't want to spoil anything,but they're going to be getting
involved with the organizationtoo.
So it just making ripples inthe ocean.
You know what I'm saying, but Ijust wanted to plug, plug them
real quick.
He's incredible.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
So yeah, if you want man send me their, uh, their
Instagrams or whatever they'reon, I'll, I'll put them in the
show notes as well.
Rob, this has been a greatconversation, man.
This is not our lastconversation, but, um, I'll wrap
this up, since it's been justover an hour.
It's.
It's been quite a journey, man,so thank you for the uh for the
time or the Dude.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
Thank you, Really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
And for everyone else out there.
As always, I want you to staytuned, stay focused and stay
motivated.
Warriors fall out.