Tactical Living- Warrior Mindset Training for Modern Men with Mark Booher

What does it really mean to have a warrior mindset in today’s world?  In this powerful and informative episode, Tony dives deep with Mark Booher—military vet and security pro—on mental toughness, the state of America's masculine culture, and why tactical living isn’t just for the battlefield.
Tap in and train your mind like a warrior.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our foundering fathers here in this country brought about the
only true revolution that has ever taken place in man's history.
Evolved the idea that you and I have within ourselves,
the god given right and the ability to determine our
own destiny.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
The United States of America the greatest nation in history,
ordained by our founders to be guided by divine providence,
but today we are witnessing the orchestrated disintegration of America.
Take a few seconds and take a look around your town,
your state, look at your country and your world, and

(00:39):
boldly ask what in the hell is going on?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.
The only way they can inherit the freedom we have
known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it,
and then hand it to them with the well taught
lessons of how are they in their lifetime? Let's do
the same.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Welcome to the podcast Project Third Eye Opened, where we
dare to question with boldness the events that are unfolding
around us that others won't. At the end of the day,
it is we the people who will decide the destiny
of the Nation. Now introducing your host, Tony el.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Greedys Greedy is Greetings everyone, This is Tony all and
this is another very special podcast Prisentation interview with a
very very interesting young man. His name is Mark Boor Yeah, yeah, excellent.
He's a veteran infantry man. He is into intelligence. He's

(01:55):
intelligence professional and attorney's He specializes in discussing about security matters.
He somem arkanstar and a former assistant d A. But
he definitely leans on the side of security and as
well as what he called the warrior mindset, so diffinitely

(02:19):
and he has does a business, Pro snap Tactical, and
he will tell everybody about that and about him.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
How you doing, Mark, Hey, I'm good Tony, thanks for
having me on.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
Excellent. Tell people about you on what you do and
what makes you so interesting.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
Well, I don't know about how interesting, but I'll tell
you a little bit about myself.

Speaker 4 (02:43):
My name is Mark. I run.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
I did a couple of different things, but one of
the things my biggest project right now is I'm the
host of my own podcast, which is Pro snap Tactical.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
I've got about thirteen going on thirteen years in the army,
and not split between the active duty component and National
Guard component. And during that time I worked in the
intelligence field and also in the infantry field, and so
everything from team leaders, squad leader, riflemen to an infantry instructor.

(03:15):
I had a big break in service, and during that
time I finished my undergrad degree and went on to
law school and it's spent six years as a deputy
district attorney here where I live, and then around twenty
thirteen kind of decided I still had some running and
gun and left in me. So I started Barredis Defense,

(03:35):
which is a security training and consulting company, and I've
done work for Department of Defense, Department of Justice, fortune
five hundred companies I probably taught at. This isn't an
exact number, but pretty close to about sixty police departments
around the country focus in on security and intelligence operations.
We did a lot of farms training as well with

(03:57):
civilians and law enforcement. So kind of dabble in a
lot of things. But that's that's kind of me in
a nutshell.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Essen. Well, you've probably seen the world from more than
one perspective. I can imagine that you've seen things that
a lot of people don't never want to see, but
you also see the country from a different perspective than
the majority of people do. Sure, so explaining people, explaining

(04:28):
to people, what is the war your mindset?

Speaker 5 (04:32):
So, man, Well, we start first with the word right,
And I don't know if I wouldn't say that I
have the monopoly on the meaning of that word. I
think that word can mean different things for different people.
But for me, I could just tell you what it
means for me, and the type of message we try
to put out on our podcasts and on our trainings

(04:54):
is for me, a warrior mindset really goes into a
worldview in a way of approaching the world and life
in a way that's kind of been lost in modernity,
and I think we're suffering because of that.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
But I would go back to antiquity.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
I would go back to the time when my ancestors
and your ancestors, wherever they're from, where it was the
role of the man, no matter what his stage of
life was in He could be a farmer, he could
be a fisherman, but you go far enough, there was
a warrior component to his life. He had to in
order to protect his village, to protect his family from

(05:33):
other raiding tribes or whatever. And it's something that we
see in antiquity that's pervasive across old cultures. And so
this warrior mindset really is an approach to life. And
I guess I would call it like a heroic approach
to life would be another way of saying it, other

(05:54):
than warrior mindset. And so it's something where you see
that struggle and suffering to a certain degree is a
necessary integral part of life. And instead of in today's
age where in modernity we are obsessed with comfort and
safety and avoiding any type of pain, right, that in

(06:15):
antiquity suffering was endemic and live, and that you you
approach suffering or struggle, I should say, as a catalyst
for your own growth, for your own becoming.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Right.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
And so their view on you.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
Know, you go back to the Iliad, you go back
to Beowulf, and especially I kind of focus more on
the Western civilization because that's that's where I hail from, right,
But you'll find this in other cultures, you know. Uh,
you certainly see it in the East, in the Orient,
you see it in African cultures. I mean, it doesn't
matter where you go. You you kind of see this

(06:51):
through line.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
But it's just the.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
Idea that struggle is is part of life. It's not
necessarily something to be avoided. It's something to overcome, to
be transcended. And there's these values and these virtual virtues
that I think we've kind of lost. And if you
go back to these classics like the Beowulf and the

(07:13):
Iliad and everything like that, you'll see where these poets
try to enshrine some of these virtues, and they and
in these stories, they build a template for life, how
you can approach life and your problems and your struggles
in life as a template for action. It's not necessarily
a recipe, a step by step this is how you conquer,

(07:36):
you know, your adversity, but it gives you a template,
it gives you a guide in order to do that.
And I think that's been lost in the modern era
quite a bit. And so part of our project with
Pearl Snap tactical tactical side being, Yeah, there's topics there
about training and self defense and stuff like that, but
I really am on a move to try to revalorize

(07:58):
those martial virtues that we've lost, particularly among men, and
you know, so that we can aid that in our
own becoming so to say.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah, definitely a different definitely agree, but just in a
side I'm always curious to ask this question to military man.
Does it bother you when people who you don't know
come up to you and say thank you for your service?

Speaker 4 (08:30):
It doesn't.

Speaker 5 (08:31):
It doesn't bother me because I understand the sentiment and
I appreciate the sentiment. So I had a big break
in service, I mean, let me go back. The short
answer is no, it doesn't bother me. I do feel
weird sometimes because I don't spend a lot of time
trying to question people's intentions, you know, in their motives.

(08:55):
I tend to at first take people at their word
until they show otherwise. Right, So if someone wants to
thank me and everything that, I just say, yeah, thank you,
you know, I appreciate that or whatever, or thank you
for your support or things like that. But you know,
there's also people that kind of say it as a
I don't want to say in a patronizing way. But

(09:15):
it's become the thing that in vogue that sometimes I
think people say it because they feel like they need to,
because it's in the zeitgeist, you know, without getting political.
You know, you know, when you when you swear your
oath right when you first come in. You swear an
oath to the Constitution, to the to the Republic that

(09:36):
you're going to safeguard the Constitution against all enemies, foreign
and domestic. And you know, you look at the what
what does the Constitution in shrine right? So you've got
the Bill of Rights, which is freedom of speech, freedom
of assembly, freedom of religion, you know, among other things.
And so you know, when I come back to my

(09:58):
country and I see people, certain segments of people protesting
against free speech, people that are participating in cancel culture
with people that they don't agree with. I mean, that's
the antithesis of the Constitution. That's the antithesis of Western society.
And so when someone who you know on one side

(10:20):
wants to ban certain people that they don't agree with
and then will turn around and say thank you for
your service and fighting for our freedoms, I'm like fighting
for what you know what I mean and the Second
Men And you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't
mention the Second Amendment, which is very unique here in
American society. And when people want to overregulate that or

(10:43):
ban it altogether and then turn around and thank me
for my service. I'm like, I just feel like there's
a disconnect there. And obviously not to say that everybody does.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
That, because it's kind of like somebody you stop at
a gas station whatever, and they say, have a good day.
You know, it's there's something to say, you know, yeah, right,
I mean you know there's stuffing.

Speaker 5 (11:07):
Yes, yeah, or someone's like, hey, how's it going, and
they walking past because they don't really.

Speaker 3 (11:13):
Want you, we don't care.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
Yeah, it's become it's become or it has the uh,
the opportunity to just become a pleasantry that we exchange.

Speaker 4 (11:22):
And so I see some of that.

Speaker 5 (11:24):
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it
or getting hot that.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, I mentioned in one of my podcasts with me,
I just irritates me because from my point of view,
your main function, but particularly when you go ashore O
C's and to protect the man at the six at
your left, and you're right, yeah, that's it, And as

(11:54):
far as my rights are concerned, that's my responsibility. M
As you kind of alleviated to you got people out
there on one hand, either wishing to surrender their rights
or want me to to surrender.

Speaker 4 (12:10):
Mind yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, so that's a disconnect. That's a disconnect there.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
So at the end of the day, the Constitution is
a document that codifies what my god given rights are, hmm.
But it's up to me to defend them. That's when
I hear people say I have constitutional rights. No you don't.
You have protected rights. That's the difference. And who is

(12:41):
the final judgment who protects them? It's you, you know,
that's a and the Second Amendment gives me that force
mhm to protect my rights against and domestic my nighbor
or the person you know across the ocean. Yeah, so
I get irritated. Come up, my dad was he tied army?

(13:05):
You know? So I get irritated knowing that you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, you don't know what that means.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
Right, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
Yeah. So that's how always curious to see when you
when people do that, do you like stop stop it? Yeah? Yeah,
what's my name?

Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yah?

Speaker 5 (13:26):
Yeah, that's a really that's a really good point.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
I think, well, all things like in nature, right, they
give way to the law of entropy.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
Right.

Speaker 5 (13:36):
It's it's the further you get away from the sore,
the more diluted that it becomes right. So living in
America today, we're so far removed. I think that if
the Founding Fathers were to resurrect and take a look
around at what society has become, I don't think they
would recognize it.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
I mean, in my from from from twenty years ago.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
Yah. Yeah, And so things change.

Speaker 5 (14:01):
And so it's like, you know, how many people have
even read the founding documents of what this country's based upon.
You know, these politicians, Yeah, these politicians will get up
on their soapboxes and talk about our republic and about
you know, our institutions and things like that.

Speaker 4 (14:19):
But how many people.

Speaker 5 (14:20):
Have read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and really
know what that means and some of the other documents
that were written at the time.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
You know.

Speaker 5 (14:32):
But that's but that is a natural cycle things, right,
I mean things russ Things give, like I said, give
way to entropy the farther you get away from the source,
and and yeah, it's just a natural cycle. So it's
it's up to us, those of us who care about
our way of life, you know, to try to maintain

(14:52):
some kind of connection to those to those things.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, I agree, I agree. I was just curious. I
just want to ask a uh, a guy who's who
actually wore water colors? H what do you think about
men today?

Speaker 4 (15:10):
Hm?

Speaker 5 (15:11):
Hmmm, Uh, be a little bit more specific when.

Speaker 3 (15:16):
Okay, when you say the warrior mindset and you mentioned
men boys being masculine, I guess, I guess your warrior
mindset don't have to be well, the warrior mindset is
a masculine trade if you just have it, but it's
a mass trade. Yes, So when you look at men

(15:37):
today compared to your father's, your your father's father, your
father's father's father's mhm, do you have hope? Oh? Man,
how do you see that? I mean, are you okay
with men today? Uh? Do you wish that they were
more like your father, your father as farther as men?

Speaker 4 (15:57):
Yeah? For sure, for sure? Uh the latter like yeah.

Speaker 5 (16:01):
I think you know again, we're going we're we're moving
into a cycle of you know, postmodernity, right where technological
advances have alleviated a lot of the burdens of life.
And when that happens, right, you know, it gets back
to that obsession with safety and comfort, you know, and

(16:21):
aversion to pain, a version to struggle, which is the
crucible that is needed in order to test yourself, in
order to grow and everything like that, and so everything
in modern society wants to get you away from that,
for men and women, right and and so yeah, it's
definitely a problem. I think many people have recognized and

(16:44):
have recognized that, and you have people out there in
the in the interwebs and and talking heads, you know,
trying to address it in different ways, some ways that
maybe I agree with and others that I don't.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
But so yeah, I do.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
I do see the again, entropy of what is masculine,
what is manhood. It's vilified in some circles, celebrated in others.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
Do I have hope about that?

Speaker 5 (17:13):
Well, you know, I try to style myself as an optimist,
but I really, if I was gonna be honest with myself,
I tend to be more pessimistic in that because again,
it's just the way of nature cycle. So everything gives
law rise to the law of entropy. Right, So we
are definitely in that entropic cycle where the degradation of

(17:35):
masculinity is very much present. Will it return, I think,
but it'll take some kind of cataclysm. I mean, you've
seen this in society, right, You've seen this and the
Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, you know, uh empires in
the in the Middle Ages and things like that, where
you know, every society we don't even have to say empire,

(17:57):
we can just say society. And civilization has its birth
sile a life cycle, just like a human being, does
you know? It is born often as a result of struggle,
a war, you know, calamity, and then it rises through that,
it transcends it. It rises from the ashes of that
conflict or whatever that event or series.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
Of events was, and then it grows.

Speaker 5 (18:21):
It acquires power and strength, virility, and it becomes strong
and it reaches its zenith the power, right, and then
it begins to degrade, just like human beings.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
Do you know?

Speaker 5 (18:32):
You and I were once in our twenties and we
were strong and veri ale, But then we reach middle age,
and then we enter elderhood, right, and then finally we die, right,
and then next generation takes over. And so I think
the issues that we have and maybe a lot of
people don't like to I would like to admit this,

(18:52):
but I think this is just bared out in history,
is that that's.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
What it will there will need to be.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
I hate to use this word reset because it's become
kind of a politicized and weaponized term. But there will
need to be a type of reset, right, And what
that looks like, I don't know, but I think that's
where we're headed, because that's where all societies go. Yeah,
no society lasted, lasts indefinitely. So there will still be

(19:19):
in America, right, There will still be this land mass.
There will still be people, yeah, or by a different name,
who knows, but I mean our ancestors or our our legacy, right,
will will be here. But what how that's organized, what
their values are, who knows, But from that whatever.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
I agree with that. I think that there was I
forget his whole name, but I think it was Tyler
where he said that empires have or civilizations have a
cycle where if it's basically, when don't have nothing, you

(20:00):
discover religion, then score prosperity. Yeah, and then you become apathetic. Yeah,
and then you become I guess we call cyclists, and
then you lose it, you go back into bonders again. Yeah,
it suckles back around, you know, And I definitely do

(20:22):
see us at the apathetic park, you know, where as
you mentioned, they forget the struggles that our forefounders have
bought brought us here and to think and to and
and to realize that our constitution and our former government
has been around over to over two hundred years and
typical uh Empire on the last two hundred years. So

(20:44):
many say that we're on Bard time, and the fact
that our constitutions are oldest ever standing again, we say
we're on Bard time. You know, we steps into the rule.
So I definitely do to agree with with your statement.
You've been all over the world and I heard I

(21:05):
saw this video of interview of a former Green Beret,
a Special Forces guy. I can't see greenberray or whatever
it was, asked the question in regards to China against
the United States, and he just have been thinking, said China,
because men are men there and men here aren't men.

(21:32):
And most of them who are in the military, they're
only in the military for a check. It's not like
back in the day where we had a mechanism going
through our veins for the most part. And that man
wanting to defend our country because they're defending athene ideology,
you know all Yeah, said Hitler's bad because we know

(21:56):
people a supposed to be free. Yeah, thing, and his
thing was like that in the case no more, Yeah, take.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
On that, yeah, I mean yeah, I mean kind of
goes back to what we said. I mean, it's the
life cycle of the empire, right, It's you get to
a point where you know, right now, I think I
think the latest trends are that recruitment is on the
rise among the forces. But for a long time they

(22:26):
had problems getting people in, at least the army did.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
And but even even if the numbers going up, what's
behind that? Or people really want to defend the country
or they just want that check or yeah, or have
they been given a choice by the judge said, either
going to join the infantry or you're gonna spend six
years a here you know the infantry?

Speaker 4 (22:51):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
It's to come from why are they there? Are they
there for the country's sick or their sake?

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (23:00):
Well, I think in the military, of all places, is
a really good kind of Petri dish or a sample
of your country's population, right. I mean, when I'm in
the service still I'm in a kind of a reserve status,
but I still participate.

Speaker 4 (23:16):
On that level.

Speaker 5 (23:17):
And there's all kinds right, there's all kinds of ethnic
ethnicities in the military, and you have with that a
wide variety of motivations of why people join. And so
there definitely are still people that join out of patriotism
because they.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Want to serve.

Speaker 5 (23:37):
There's some people who they just want the college money
and they want the incentives you.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
Know that are there.

Speaker 5 (23:44):
And I think, you know, human beings are complex creatures.
I think you can have more than one motivation, you know.
For me, I think it was when I first joined
back when I was nineteen, it was I was patriotic.
I love my country, still do, and so there was
that part of it. It was a tradition in my
family that particularly the males or several of the males

(24:06):
would go into either the military or law enforcement or
things like that. There was also the the the need
and desire for adventure, you know, to just leave my
hometown and to go out and see the world and
to see what I was made of and what how
I could grow as a person.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
You know.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
So I think there's several there can be several motivations
at the same time. But I think you, like you said,
you definitely see all of that. You see the kids
that are just coming in for the money. You see
the kids that are coming in because they don't have
any direction. The military can provide that direction. It did
that for me, so you know. And then the patriotism. Yeah,

(24:46):
I see all of that.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Okay, how do you see the military as a whole
when you go to other countries and you see their
culture where the family is very important, structure is important. Yeah,
it's important. And you see I mean, I'm not gonna

(25:09):
put in your mouth, but you see what's coming over
the horizon at some at some point, the bull the
woods gotta be challenged.

Speaker 4 (25:19):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Where do you see us? Do you uh? Looking at
all of that, how do you see the US favoring?

Speaker 5 (25:30):
Boy, that's a man, that's that's a question that might
be above my pay grade, but I'll take.

Speaker 4 (25:36):
A shot out opinion.

Speaker 5 (25:38):
Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, So you know understand from
my point of view as being a you know, an
infantry rifleman. Right, so I'm on what would be like
a platoon, you know, squad platoon, company level, you know.
So I don't see the big I'm not as it's

(25:59):
sconce than the strategic picture. But I watched the news
and things like that, and so you know, I think
not being a spokesman for the Department of Defense, and
again just going to my my opinion of it is
that again, you know, America has been you know, the
military force is in a rebuilding phase right now. We're

(26:19):
trying to figure out what is the next conflict that
we need to be prepared for. You know, the ever
changing complexity of technological advances. You know, we're looking at
the things that are going on in Ukraine with drone warfare.

Speaker 4 (26:34):
That's added.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
I mean, we've had drones in the inventory for some time,
but now you know, before when drones first started out,
they were coming online basically when I first got in
about one hundred years ago, they they were more of
an intelligence platform, you know, a way to have eyes skin. Yeah,
and now they're taking more of an offensive you know,

(26:57):
measures like weaponize.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
What's a shot like or we're almost hundred and fifteen
and into Ukraim just the other day.

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Yeah, so they're definitely weaponized now. And so that's that's
we have. I mean, the book has yet to be
written on you know what that's gonna look like, how
that's going to impact a peer to peer struggle like
if we a com peer to peer conflict. You know,
the Army has been spending the last twenty five years,

(27:29):
you know, now that we're we're coming out of that
twenty twenty five years bogged down in Afghanistan and a
rag to encounterinsurgency, dealing with people, you know, uh, insurgent
forces that were not equipped like we were. And so
you know, you take the good and bad with that.
I mean, yeah, we're technologically advanced, but they had workarounds,

(27:52):
you know, and obviously you can look at the Vietnam
conflict and just some of the ways that we struggled
to bring that technology to bear against you know what
what some people would turn backwards people, but that nevertheless
gave us a run for our money, right as far
as you know, uh, you know, entering into conflict with them.

(28:15):
So now that we are, the military is realizing, Hey,
our next conflict is to be what's deemed as a
peer to peer struggle, someone who is on praiority with
us technologically to a certain extent. And what that's going
to look like, you know, I don't know. In our
current structure. You know, we've got a lot of equipment

(28:37):
that is dated it's not. It needs to be repaired,
it needs to be modernized, it needs to be updated.
Some of the training is again you know, they always
say that the military is fighting the last war, you know,
so it's probably going to take another conflict for us
to figure out, you know, how do we do war
fighting now?

Speaker 4 (28:58):
You know, because the way we were doing it.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
You know, we're going to take some of those lessons
learned and apply some of those, but some of those
lessons aren't aren't going to be applicable, you know when
you're dealing with an insurgency versus a peer or near
peer force. So how that's going to look? You know,
the patriot in me says, hey, we're America. We've always
figured it out and we'll figure it out in the future.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
But you know, I don't I don't know.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
I don't think anybody really knows, because no one has
a crystal ball. But there's definitely challenges on the horizon.
I mean you can definitely see that.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
Yeah, definitely in regards to what you term as the
security minded citizen, based on what all we talked about
in regards to what's happening offshore and what's happening domestically
and the diminishment of the masculine ego I called a

(29:53):
masculine ego or this masculinity. You know, where does the
security minded citizen fit and how does one become security minded?

Speaker 5 (30:05):
So I think it kind of goes back to something
you said earlier where you were like, yeah, I have
rights that are enshrined or at least acknowledged in the
Bill of Rights, right, but they're up there, up to
me to safeguard. They are up to me to protect
the individual. I think we've lived very comfortably for a

(30:25):
long time under the false sense of security that we
could just outsource that. You know that we were separated
by oceans on both sides, and you know, the biggest
threat that we had to worry about was someone was
really if we sent people overseas, and and that's really changed, right,
we have again without getting into the politics of it,

(30:47):
but this is open record, you know we have we
have security issues here in this country. You know, we
have a very vulnerable grid structure. We have an integrated
grid infrastructure, right that is very vulnerable, and it would
not take much to take to compromise that. When that did,

(31:07):
I think in a very short order you would find
things in this country very chaotic and you know, you're
probably unrecognizable. You know, you're the way you live, the
way you obtain water, food supplies, and things like that
could be you know, without gloom and dooming everybody. I mean,
I just those things. Well, we saw that, you know,

(31:28):
with the pandemic just years ago, was supply chain issues
and everything, and that was a very tame version of
what things could look like. But you did see disruption
and supply chains and just being able to buy toilet paper,
being able to buy food. You know, many of the
shelves were empty, and that that was, like I said,

(31:49):
a very a very soft run you know at what
something that could look like if if those infrastructures became
compromised on a grander scale, you know, then yeah, you
could find the way you live, you're you're having to
adapt to a new way of life. So and that
then that leads to your next question, is, you know,

(32:10):
understanding the internal security threats that we have here, what
what does the citizen?

Speaker 4 (32:17):
What is their response?

Speaker 5 (32:18):
And I think it's to go back to the values
and the mindset that our ancestors had, that of becoming
security minded, right, whether you're a fisherman, whether you're a
banker or a construction guy or where a lawyer, wherever
you work, is that there's a it's a reponsibility of
you as a man to take on some self reliance skills, right,

(32:44):
whether that is to how you sustain yourself with food, water,
your resources, but then also your protective skills. You know,
I'm not saying everybody's got to become John Wick or anything,
but to have a familiarity of how to protect yourself
and your family. That that's something that I think as
we get further on down the timeline, that's going to

(33:06):
be a non negotiable right if you if you want
to survive and if you want to flourish, you know,
for the health of your sake of your family, that's
not a negotiable thing anymore. That's that's going to become
man determined.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
That again, I mean, I know you don't want to politics.
Everything's politics to me. When you look at our culture today.
Now you're in the South, I'm in the South. We're
different from the North. Yeah, and when you saw what
happened to during COVID, where you had the North freedom

(33:42):
much give everything the government it protect me, protect me. Yeah, yeah,
you know, and then you get mad when you don't.
That happened diwy in the South.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
I think the mindsets they've been different, more of a
security minded because security mind you got to say I
got this. Yeah, it's what I mean? You know, uh,
because security minded is an individual thing. It's not collective.
It can be collective, but of the individual. You have
a group of like minded individuals get together, you know,

(34:17):
your neighbor in particular as the same mindset, you know,
and gotta stash you know, of supplies for I say
three months, you know, so we are here to get
it as a group. But the visually with your experience
and your your interaction with individuals with different cultures southern, northern,

(34:41):
or just they were not raised around masculine mens, so
they don't know what that looks like or how to
break that into their lives. What's what's what's your take
on that? How? How how do you have you seen that?
And if you have, how difficult is it to bring
that infant in and in the mindset of being a

(35:04):
masculine mind security mind individual? And do they make it
through the training to ask I get it now? I'm
ready to go. I'm not ramble, but at least I
have an idea that this is what I need to
do to protect me and mine because I didn't before
I met you.

Speaker 5 (35:23):
Yeah, I think, yeah, man, that's a that's a big topic.
Let me let me start out.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
Like this is.

Speaker 5 (35:29):
Yeah, you did see a little bit more self reliance
in the South. I mean, and obviously we're we're painting
this with broad stroke, right, I mean you can look up.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, yeah, there were certain.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Places that that's pockets or northern California, different California, the
different pockets, Northern New York, Yeah, different from the the
city totally.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
Yeah, And I think I think that's the key ticket
right there. I think in the in the Southern States,
you still have most of your states are well really
all of them with the exception of the major cities
like Atlanta or something like that. Are those states are
still very rural states.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Like I mean, I know my state.

Speaker 5 (36:13):
You know, you could put that inside of Atlanta probably
as far as population goes and stuff, you know, in
the metro area and stuff like that. So I think,
you know, you're in the South, like you and me,
we might live in town, right, but we're not far
removed from you know, my my grandparents had farms, right

(36:34):
my my, my extended relatives were all farmers everybody, and
so I grew up around that. I grew up in
a rural area and where self reliance, doing things for yourself,
being more independent is definitely is just more in the culture,
I think. And then, like you said, like northern California

(36:56):
or northern New York, some of those areas that are
kind of more removed from the urban centers.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
I think you find that too. I think the unfortunate
part for.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
Those folks is that they are surrounded by more urban
centers than they are rural. You know, as far as
the culture and so like, I go up to Pennsylvania
a lot to do trainings and stuff like that, and
so Pennsylvania has a big rural has a big kind
of a redneck streak, if you will. You know, where

(37:24):
people are are definitely self reliant, They're very independent. They
don't want to be dependent on the government and things
like that. But the problem with a place like Pennsylvania
is they are ruled by Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. You know,
those are your major population centers, and and so they
steer the state. You know what I mean, and so

(37:47):
I think a's and you're going to find that even
in America right too, is the trend is towards urbanization.
You know, people are leaving the rural areas and they
are urbanizing. And as that happens, then that's going to
change your culture. That uh forces people or incentivizes people
to become more reliant on government services.

Speaker 4 (38:09):
And when you do that, you then begin you know, you.

Speaker 5 (38:13):
You become a slave to the nanny state, you know,
in a sense where you look to the state to
solve all your problems, right, because you're in a you're
in a position almost where you have to right versus
when you're in a rural place where you're growing your
own food. You know, you've got a relationship with your
local butcher and you know, things like that, and so
it's it can even revert very easily to a barter.

Speaker 4 (38:34):
Economy, you know, if the economy goes down.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
And stuff like that, because people know how to swing
a hammer, people know how to hang drywall, and people
could trade goods for services and things like that that
you don't have to to the same extent that you
have in an urbanized city. So I don't I don't.
I kind of forgot lost my place. I don't know
if I trusted your question.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
That's why when when you uh interactive of people, those
who may not have yeah no, no, no, no relationship
to a real man or or how how how how
does being security minded work? And when you see that
present and they are entering your program, how do you

(39:17):
look when they do they make it through your program?
How many people say I can't handle this, I'll tap out?
And those who do make it? How stark? It's a transformation.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
Yeah. So yeah, I've I've been very fortunate.

Speaker 5 (39:32):
That's probably one of the blessings of doing what I
do is to watch growth and transformation among people. So
and a lot of our classes, I would say, the
majority of people. And it's not that I designed it
that way, it just happened that way.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
Uh. The majority of the people that.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
Come to our classes and our trainings, they have some
kind of experience. Not I'm not saying that they were
in law enforcement or military, but they have some experience
with firearms or self defense or some you know, they're
kind of in that already.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
They've already adopted.

Speaker 5 (40:04):
That mindset, and so they're coming to get more of that,
they want to go deeper into that. But I, like,
I have trained everybody from grandma's who've never touched a
gun before, to airborne troops you know, coming out of
Afghanistan and everybody in between.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
And so yeah, there there.

Speaker 5 (40:22):
Have been people that have come where they're like, hey,
I just bought this, that's all I I mean, I
knew how to purchase it, and that's it. And so yeah,
and so you know, I don't I don't have a
cookie cutter program.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
You know.

Speaker 5 (40:35):
I take people as they come, and so if you
are some guy that's been on the SWAT team, you know,
we assess where you're at and then we we try
to take you farther and deeper with that. If you
are coming with none of that, then we take you
from where you are and try to develop you there
at your own pace. And so yeah, it's been really

(40:57):
exciting to see the transformation of people who come to
realize and recognize the value of being self reliant, of
being able to protect themselves, of being able to develop
a real world skill set. Yeah, there's been a couple
of people, and I could probably name it on one hand,

(41:17):
you know, where people said, ah, no, this isn't just
this isn't for me, and we don't hear from them.

Speaker 4 (41:22):
But that's that's been very rare. It's been very rare, rare.

Speaker 5 (41:26):
So to answer the other part of your question about
you know, how does that work for someone who that
security mindset, for someone who doesn't have a background, well,
I would say at some point, none of us had
a background, right, nobody's born knowing how to do this stuff.
Nobody's born I don't think with a security mindset. You know,

(41:48):
people may have certain instincts that are better developed than
other people, but for the whole as far as the
technical ability, we all had to learn that. So it's
coming to a place where you recognize that this is
something that's valuable, this is something that's needed, and this
is something that I have to do or I want
to do, And that's where it starts. And then seeking

(42:12):
out people who are further along doesn't have to be
Jason Bourne or James Bond type people. You know, just
someone who's qualified, who's a little bit further along the path,
who's willing to mentor you and reach out, you know,
just like I have been. I've been very lucky and
fortunate to have people in my life, you know, personally

(42:33):
and professionally, who mentored me, who coached me, who taught
me how to do things, you know, within the tactical space.
And I just try to share that with anybody else
who's interested.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
So what does that look like for a person who
may be concerned about where this feature is headed? Where
they viewed what happened some five years ago during COVID,
and they don't know what to do, but they feel
they need to do something. They may have another family,

(43:06):
there may be a female and they see crimes is
on an uptake and they and they keep seeing people
walking around and vandamizing personal property just just because you know,
and they want they come to you and say, so,
what's the basic when someone comes to you, what's the ABC's. Yeah,

(43:26):
it's a security minded Uh the game maybe notization born
or a safe room developing in your home, but what
are the basis going out? Because I always always try
to tell my girl, I mean, if you got keys,
know how to put them between your fingers and bought
the fists at the simplest thing, something that that you
always have at your disposal, other than just being aware

(43:49):
of your surroundings.

Speaker 5 (43:51):
Yeah, So I approach this maybe different than most people.
If you look at other guys that are instructing and
you know that are in this for a living, you
know you're gonna you're gonna maybe get a different approach.
But for me, I'm I'm looking at things more than
just stuff that's happening on your street. I'm looking at,

(44:11):
you know, how where society is taking us. I'm looking
at how we are indoctrinated and propagandized by the media
and stuff like that. So I want I want to
have I want to flourish in my life, right, I
want to have a well rounded life. I want to
to grow as a person, to become stronger. And so

(44:31):
I kind of divide that into three buckets, I guess
if you will, And surprisingly enough, I would start with
the spiritual part of it and with with.

Speaker 4 (44:45):
They and what I mean.

Speaker 5 (44:46):
And I'm not talking about just being religious or being
you know, or this, but I'm I'm talking about what
are your spiritual values because though and what are you
anchored to spiritually? Because that that that is what I mean.
For instance, going back to the pandemic, I mean, you
could have been the best guy with the gun in
the world, but if you're on a lockdown in a

(45:11):
totalitarian style, you know, even if it's a soft totalitarian style,
you know, government where you're looking at. I mean that
can I think that that lockdown did.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
A number on people. Man, it almost did a number
on me.

Speaker 5 (45:24):
I mean, I just remember, even living in the South
where we were not as restricted, just finding just seeing
the way that people were acting in the media space,
on social media, just even going into town and doing things.
I mean, after a while, just this dark cloud that
almost at certain times became overwhelming. And I think that

(45:45):
was true for most people, probably everyone, if they were
honest to admit.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
It, especially in like you, I'm outside of Atlanta, but
so I going into Atlanta is like totally different, Yeah,
as opposed to going up up in the mountains away
from atlands or different minds of different people with different culture.
But the cities, the cities, I think, like even Athens,
you know, totally props.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah, it was just really really crazy, and you might
have that same experience when you go into the major cities. Yeah,
everybody is like, you know, on lockdown, as you mean,
but when yeah, outside of the cities and footage away
from the major cities with the same people are everything's different.

Speaker 5 (46:29):
Yeah, So I would start there, And I mean, I'm
not going to endorse a certain religion or certain you know,
spirituality for folks, but I would say this that there
would need to be like for me, I look back
at again, going back to my ancient ancestors, and the
one thing that I see that's a through line for

(46:49):
all warrior cultures, and again this is global, right, is
that there's some spiritual component to that, there's some connection
to the divine.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
And I would say that whatever your your milieu that.

Speaker 5 (47:02):
You're coming from, if it's not something that's making you
excuse me, if it's not something that's making you stronger, right,
that's making you more self reliant, that's not helping you
overcome obstacles in your path, then I would get away
from that. I would gravitate to something that is cultivating

(47:26):
your will. That's to me, that's the base of a
spiritual life of a truly you know, not something that's
keeping you as a slave or a servant or you know,
as a you know, on a bottom wrong recipient of
spiritual lessons, but something that is actually pushing you forward,

(47:46):
making you strong, cultivating your will and your inner being,
whatever that is, then that's to me as a healthy thing, right,
It's a healthy thing. So that that in the reason
why that's so important to me is I've seen a
lot of guys, even let's just take in the military, right,

(48:08):
that were materialistic, right, secularists. You know, when I say materialistic,
I don't mean that they just want cars and booze
and you know women while Women's song, you know, I
don't mean that. I'm talking about just materialists and there
is nothing beyond this life type type thing. And you know,
they go off to war, they see the horrors of war,

(48:32):
and they come back unable to win the battle of life,
you know. Or you can see that in law enforcement
you can see that. And again everyone is different because
I know people who are atheists that have been exposed
to those things and they come back fine.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
Right.

Speaker 5 (48:52):
So again, I can't say this is one hundred percent
of people one hundred percent of the time, but I
think the numbers, yeah, but the numbers are that you're
you need to be grounded something into something that's bigger
than yourself, so that when strife, when society breaks down,
you have something that is eternal, that you can lock into.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
So that's that's number one. You got to get that
straight right.

Speaker 5 (49:21):
It's also because and I'll say one more thing about that,
because all of the spiritual disciplines will have some type
of of template for how you handle death right, your
own mortality right. And I find that people that have
that squared away are truly able to live. I mean,

(49:42):
I don't think you can really live, if live your life,
if if you you're not really ready to live, if
you're not ready to die, you know.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
What I mean.

Speaker 5 (49:50):
I think and I and I and I saw that
even like with the lockdown and it just the people
who had nothing, you know, those were the people who
were the most scared. Those were the that I saw,
Those were the people that were most those were the
most Those are the people that were the most willing
to accept whatever was being pushed out by the media,

(50:11):
you know, without.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
Need that it.

Speaker 5 (50:13):
They would they would cling onto anything because they weren't
grounded and just something eternal, right, that was something that
was transcendent. So that's number one. So you got to
have the spiritual component. Then from there, and I'm not
saying you have to do these one at a time.
You can do these simultaneously. Then there needs to be

(50:33):
some type of mental training, right, a way to discipline
your mind, uh, some type of creative outlets, you know,
and things like that. And you're like, what does that
have to do with protecting yourself. It's it has to
do with living a full life, right, which is why
you protect yourself.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Right. If you don't have a life that's worth living,
then what are you protected?

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Right?

Speaker 4 (50:55):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (50:56):
So, but then if you get down to what probably
more more people are like, yeah, yeah, I get all that,
but like.

Speaker 4 (51:03):
What about my protective skills?

Speaker 5 (51:04):
Well, you have the firearm is something for us, at
least in America, right, that is under the Second Amendment,
that is protected that.

Speaker 4 (51:15):
You can avail yourself.

Speaker 5 (51:17):
You need to pursue training with that responsibly in a
safe manner. And you could do that, which you're probably
gonna need help. If you don't, you need somebody in
your life that knows what they're doing that can help
you with that. And there's all kinds of ways you
can do that. If you say you don't know anybody,
there's plenty of qualified instructors out there that are putting

(51:40):
classes on weekend. Just take a take a pistol one
on one course, take a beginner's handgun course. If you
have experience, then maybe you can level that up and
go to a more advanced course. But those things are available,
and then you know, people will be like, well, but
that costs money, and I don't have money.

Speaker 4 (52:01):
You have, you have.

Speaker 5 (52:03):
Most people have it. It's where they're prioritizing their resources.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
You know.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
The people always say, well, I don't have money to
come to your class or something like that. I bet
if we did an audit, we would find a bunch
of Netflix. Well, you probably would have so many subscription
services that you forgot you even had that if you
just canceled those and put that money away in a
coffee can each week, right the proverbial coffee you know,

(52:28):
the coffee can unit had grown up, you know where
you throw your change in at the end of the way.
You know every day, that stuff would add up enough
for you to pay for that, and then you could
go and practice those things and hone your skills and
add them to there. I mean, most people here in
America have it, it's just where they're prioritizing it. You know,

(52:50):
if you absolutely don't have it, like your destitute living
on the street. Then obviously you got bigger problems. You know,
your survive. Where you start with your survival is at
a different place. All right, I'm not that, but for
most people they can swing it if they really want to.

Speaker 4 (53:04):
Right. And then.

Speaker 5 (53:07):
You know, so you your your weapon skilled, but not
everything can be handled with a weapon, right, or should
be handled with the weapon, right. So that's where you
go into your empty hands. Right, you should have you
don't have to be a black belt, you know, and
devote you know, your entire life to that pursuit. But
you can have some type of skills. Again, there's there's
weekend courses, and the best way to do this is

(53:30):
to really have somebody in your life that can do
it with you.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Right.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
It's very hard to practice any type of combatives by yourself. So, uh,
even if you don't have the money to afford going
to a you know, an MMA or what you fill
in the blank type of martial art place, right, you
can go to a couple of seminars, get some knowledge

(53:54):
and then work that out with a buddy.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Right, you can work it out and develop.

Speaker 5 (54:00):
That on your own and really experiences your best teacher.
I know, a lot of people. Some people would think, oh, well,
you can't be self taught in that, But you can.

Speaker 4 (54:12):
It just takes longer and it's harder.

Speaker 5 (54:14):
But some of the lessons you learn are I think
in some some respects more I don't know how to
say it, Like, you can learn it deeper, right without
someone just spoon feeding you. So that gets back to
I know some people who have gone to a few
seminars and then they get with a buddy and they,

(54:37):
you know, they start practicing this stuff and they're like, ah,
that's not working, we might not be doing it right,
and they just keep experimenting until one time it clicks
and they're like, oh, that's how you do it. That's
that's what he was talking about. And yeah, it may
take you longer, but if those are where your resources
are at, you can allocate them in that way. But
when you get it, man, you can arguably, in some

(54:59):
respects maybe get those lessons even deeper than if you
were just having somebody spoon feed it to you, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Sure, sure, but I also look look at when when
when I hear stories of people leaving their doors unlocked,
oh yeah, oh yeah, rather rather it's it's your car
or your home, and particular when it comes to the car,
and people would be surprised that all this stuff is gone.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, didn't like your car.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
Uh there's a lot of that, yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:32):
Or your home. This the the complacency. Yeah, it's kind
of is the antithesis of a security minded person.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
Or that's a great point. That's a great point point just.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
Not being aware of your surroundings people just walking.

Speaker 5 (55:49):
You know, and well, you know that's a great point too.
So much of so many problems can be avoided if
you'll just operate some common sense, locking your doors, being
aware of your surroundings, like when you pull into a
parking lot. You know, I always tell people if we're
doing a situational awareness seminar or something like that, I

(56:12):
always tell people about this number five and twenty five.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
I always tell people remember.

Speaker 5 (56:16):
Your fives, your fives and twenty fives. And what that
means is when you pull let's just say you pull
into a parking lot and you're going into a store.
So as you pull in and you put your drive
your car and drive right before you get out of
your car, you should do a three sixty scan of

(56:37):
five meters or five yards around your immediate vicinity. And
that is looking out your windshield, looking in your rear
view mirrors, getting a full panoramic view. And it only
takes a couple seconds of five meter five yards. And
you're just looking for anything shady, anything out of sorts, anything.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
That raises your suspicion.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
You know, some shady dude that's kind of eyeballing you,
you know, or what anything like that. If that's clear,
then you push that scan out twenty five meters or
twenty five yards. Right, if everything is clear, now get
out of your car, and then as you make your
approach to the building or wherever you're going, keep that
scan going looking five yards ahead of you because you're

(57:20):
gonna be coming around cars, trash binds other obstacles and
obstructions to your vision. Right as you push that scan
out five and twenty five, you're always keeping that and
it's like a sensor. And what that does is it
creates a certain amount of distance between you and then
coming into contact with someone who may mean ill.

Speaker 4 (57:42):
Harmed to you.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
And if you can see it as a distance, distance
buys you time, and time gives you the ability to
spawd react, formulate a plan. So, for instance, when I
was working in law enforcement, you know, if you had
someone who robbed you know, if you had a robbery
victim or a mugging victim or something like that, you know,

(58:06):
oftentimes the person the assailant wouldn't just charge it the
person and attack them. They would get into their space, right,
and they would usually have some kind of a ploy.
They would they would say hi to them, they would
try to get their guard off, or they might come
up to them and ask for directions, or they might
ask for a light or something like something that allows

(58:27):
them to get into the person's space, lower their guard
and then boom, they attack them, take their wallet or worse. Right,
and so when you and oftentimes in these cases, what
I found is that these folks would get caught flat footed. Right,
they got their face and their phone, they're thinking about
something else, and then the next thing you know, this
person's within five you know, ten to five, Now they're

(58:52):
three feet you know.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
Then all they got the headphones on, listen to music.

Speaker 5 (58:56):
Exactly exactly, and so it's almost like this person appeared
out of thin air. And when that happens, you're behind
time and your decision making. And so what happens is
the assailant is setting the tempo of the engagement. And
that's not where you want to be. You're behind time.
You want to be equal and ahead of time. You
want to be ahead of his move right. And so

(59:19):
what I mean by that is about, you know, setting
distance that buys you time. It is yeah, if that
person is going to walk into your space, because some
people do need help, some people are just asking for
directions and things like that. But the point is, if
someone comes into my space, I want to receive them

(59:39):
on my terms, right. I want to see them coming
out of distance. I want to acknowledge it, and I
want to decide how far they're going to get to me.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
And I want to.

Speaker 5 (59:49):
Control that space instead of they do it. And that's
what the fives and twenty fives allow.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
If you see it person coming, you're looking at them,
you're checking them out, you're seeing how they look as
he approach you, as opposed to if they's coming quote
unquote out of nowhere, and now you don't have no
no judgment capability to ask exactly did this person is
a threat? Yes? But here's he come from? Yeah, where's

(01:00:20):
where's their car at that the opposers got lost or whatever.
You're making all of these calculations in your mind as
the approach, so when they get in front of you,
you can say stop, yeah, yeah, something like that. But
if you don't see them even coming because you're off
in la la lands, it's a problem.

Speaker 4 (01:00:37):
Yeah yeah, you hit it on the head.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
So you know, just again, just some simple common sense
and some simple awareness will will get you a long
way in protecting yourself. And then just to finish that out,
you go into your store, you conduct your business. Now,
when I'm going out of the store, I'm starting that
five to twenty five scan again. Right, I'm looking, I'm

(01:01:00):
looking around, I'm moving to my car.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
I've got my key in hand.

Speaker 5 (01:01:05):
You know, I'm not dilly dallioned by my car because
that's that's a very vulnerable spot. You know, someone follows
you to your car, they get behind you. Now you're
pinned up between your car and them. You know, so again,
no one who's behind you, know one who's around you,
at what distance they are. Then once you get into
your car, and this is something I see all the time.

(01:01:26):
When you get into your car, Now, it's time to
drive away.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
It's time. It's time to go move on.

Speaker 5 (01:01:32):
Like, that's not the time to start checking your phone,
checking your messages, right, because now you're the the value
of the of the motor vehicle is it's mobility, right,
That's that you know, we say something in the army
that speed is security. Right, Your ability to move, Okay,

(01:01:52):
that offers a type of security. So if I got
someone who's wanting to rob me or mug me or
target me, if I'm in my car and.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
Away, right, I've got the advantage.

Speaker 5 (01:02:02):
Right, I can get out of there very quickly, and
it's very hard for someone on foot to you know,
execute that kind of attack.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:02:10):
But if I'm just gonna dealey dowly in my car,
right or when I roll in, not to pick on
the ladies, but I can't tell you how many times
that I've seen makeup getting put on and stuff like that.
Right again, and then just stepping out of the car, right,
you you've robbed yourself of all the advantages that you
have and of all your ability.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
To see trouble come in. Right.

Speaker 5 (01:02:32):
And so again, just some common sense and some security
will go a long way.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
Basically that all arounds and to stay attentive, you know
of your surroundings, don't be distracted. And for whatever reason
you think it's that gonda happen to me, Yeah, there is.
That's what happens to you when you you tell yourself
that could happen to me.

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
Yeah, there are plenty of places that are appropriate where
you can doom scroll on your phone or listen to
your music. You know, you can save that for your house,
you can save that for your gym, you can listen
to music while you're driving in your car. But there's
certain times where you know, God gave you your.

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Senses right to protect you. Right, that is a gift
from nature.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
And when you silence those gifts, right, when you rob
yourself of those gifts, that's where people get into trouble.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
Every case that I had.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
Where someone was jumped by somebody else, it was into attentiveness, right,
or you know that type of thing. And then lastly,
again going back to common sense, we all know you know,
it's like your mama always said, nothing good happens after midnight, right,
And so I'm in my house, dude, I mean boy,

(01:03:52):
and I'm very I'm very confident in my skills to
protect myself. But I don't put myself.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
In positions right right.

Speaker 5 (01:03:59):
You know, needlessly right now. So yeah, I'll just leave
it at that. I mean, yeah, I don't know what.

Speaker 3 (01:04:08):
I'm not I'm saying because I used I used to
be a driver. I mean, I want to say bodyguard
like you, but I was. I was out late night.
You know, I can tell you nothing really happens good
after at the one o'clock. I say, one o'clock. I
give you a great p of an hour. You're right,
I mean, and people when you hear things go crazy

(01:04:28):
sideways for people, it's usually one o'clock. Yeah, oh yeah,
Why are you out at the water clock? What do
you do.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
There?

Speaker 3 (01:04:40):
Why are you out at water clock at night? I
mean you're partying, okay, So then now you got alcohol
and distractions, and now you're abated, so your your senses
are very very muddle. So I mean those things you
did to yourself.

Speaker 5 (01:04:56):
Yeah, And it's like that song said back in the day,
what the freaks come out at now?

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:05:00):
I mean we know that's right.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
I mean it's true, it's true, it's true out yeah,
And so we know it's so a timing issue. And
then a place issue. We know where the bad parts
of town are, right, So it's not obviously you can
be robbed in Beverly Hills, I understand that, But statistically, right,
there are some places that are more dangerous for you

(01:05:24):
to be than not. So why just stack the deck
in your favor? Again, you can't avoid life is a
risk every time you walk out the door.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Life.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
There's a certain bit of a gambling you're doing, right,
Nobody knows for one hundred percent that you're not going
to become victimized to something. But it's all about risk management.
It's all about stacking the deck in your favor. And
some of the ways that I can stack the deck
in my favor is being aware, making common sense, good
decisions right that that goes. That's half the battle right there. Now,

(01:06:00):
if I add a little bit of protective capability, now,
now the statistics rise in my favor.

Speaker 4 (01:06:08):
Now.

Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
And here's another thing that I didn't mention that I
think it's all part and parcel of this is having
a certain level of fitness.

Speaker 3 (01:06:16):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:06:16):
If I'm physically strong, right, I'll have to be Arnold
Schwarzenegger or some cross fit athlete. But if I have
a uh some type of cardiovascular health and strength. Now
I've I'm it's just I'm constantly stacking in the deck
in my favor because it doesn't do What.

Speaker 3 (01:06:34):
Do you think about posture? Because because back in the
day when when I was in different life, people people
who look for people to think advantage of Marx, they
call them Marx. They said they can spot on mark
by their posture, how they carry themselves, how they're walking,

(01:06:55):
how they're standing. You know, if they're standing with their
bast against the wall, all they looking around, all they're
walking with confidence. You know, they leave those people because
because bullies, they don't want to mess with people that
mean fit calm on them them At the most, the
weakest target, as you say, someone who's not paying attention,
rather someone who's in a park at seven o'clock in

(01:07:18):
the morning at dusk with headphone Z one and nothing else.
You know, if there's any kind of weapons or anything,
they running and totally zone out. That's a mark, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:07:28):
Absolutely much posture.

Speaker 5 (01:07:31):
Yeah, yeah, so I mean, just look at look at
the nature the lessons nature teaches us, right, So take
the line or the wolf or something when they're when
they go hunting. I mean a line. I mean a
line can bring down a buff flow, right, he can.
I mean he has a strength to do that. He
has a strength to amazing strength. But they don't go

(01:07:54):
after the full grown animals. They go after the young,
the babies. They go after the sick, you know, those
that are that are lame, those that can't move as
fast with the rest of the herd, something that is easier.
They have the strength and the prowess to bring down
something bigger, but it's not as easy and it takes
more energy.

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
And it's the same thing with.

Speaker 5 (01:08:15):
Your crew exactly. It's the same thing with your criminal predator.
They have a predator mindset. So they're like you said,
they're not looking to take a shot at the title, right,
they're not. They're not looking there to knock over Mark Tyson,
you know what I mean, Like it's more trouble than
it's worth. They're looking for someone who's isolated, who's weak

(01:08:35):
or perceived as weak, and like you said, someone who's
not paying attention, someone who's got their hands in their pockets,
looking down on the ground with their airbods in that
are anywhere other than now, right, they're not present in
the now.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
That's what they're looking for. So do the opposite of that.

Speaker 5 (01:08:55):
Head up, looking around, being aware, being the most fit
that you can, right, being strong, having a strong presence
about you. You know, those are the best things that
you can do. And again, it's just add it's just
stacking the deck in your favor. The more of those
things you can add and you just incorporate in your lifestyle,

(01:09:16):
right because the worst thing I would do, I don't
want to lay a burden on someone and saying, oh,
you got to do this, you got to do this,
you got to do this, and it's like, oh, man,
I just want to stay home and watch Netflix. Well,
then stay home and watch Netflix. But if you want
to stack the deck in your favor, if you will
add these things to your life, create it as part
of your lifestyle. Well it's not only just that you're

(01:09:38):
going to protect yourself, you're actually gonna have a more
enjoyable life. Life is better when you are healthy, Like
life is better when you feel good. Life is better
when yeah, when you're getting enough sleep and rest and
you're eating the right things. Right now, I'm not saying, dude,
I will crush you know, chocolate cake or frozen custard

(01:10:00):
something as much as the next guy.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
But I eat.

Speaker 5 (01:10:03):
Healthy, I get sleep, I try to take care of myself.
I make sure I'm hydrated. You know all these things,
and it's not a burden to me. I enjoy living
like this. So if you can make this part of
your lifestyle to where you enjoy it, then you will
have a richer life. And most of it doesn't really
cost anything, right, it's just making good choices.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
I agree. Well, as you wrap up, what can you
tell people how to stay in contact with you, get
in contact with you, how to find you, communicate with you,
or whichever.

Speaker 5 (01:10:37):
So the best the best way to find what we're
doing is through the podcast or Pearl Snap Tactical podcast.
It's on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, it's on all those things.
But if you really want to connect, if you want
to hit me up or something, you can go to
our substack page. That is the that is the web

(01:10:58):
page for our podcast, so all the podcasts are there.
You can send us a message, you can reach out
to us, you can there's also a scheduled events tab
at the top of the podcast page that shows you
on our live events wherever we're at. So That's where
you'll get all the information right there in one place

(01:11:18):
is just look up Pearl Snap Tactical Substack and you
do a Google search.

Speaker 4 (01:11:23):
You're going to find us.

Speaker 3 (01:11:26):
Well, hey, Mark, this this this has been a pleasure. Definitely.
Like I said, I rarely get the opportunity to pick
their brain on astro fighting. Man. I mean I've done
interviews with people who were in the military, but someone
who actually carried a weapon, you know, is very It's
very interest in how y'all see things in life and

(01:11:47):
experiences that you've had, and how you're able to talk
to the talk about those experiences and apply them to
Cuvilian life. Is always an interest in conversation. Uh, I
definitely appreciate it. So definitely, if if you have anything
else to come up, come up in the future, different
feel hesitant to reach out to me, let me know
and maybe I could I could be on on your

(01:12:10):
podcast one time or out of.

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
The Yeah, man, yeah, that'd be fun share something.

Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
Definitely. Definitely, Well, thank you for everything. People. Definitely, we
start to Mark he has a lot more to talk
about than he had that that he shared with you.
More on the may be more interesting. But we started
to them and see definitely appreciate you and everything. Be blessed,
be good, be free.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
Thanks Tony, thanks for listening to today's show, and don't
forget to like and subscribe to this podcast and look
for Project third and I Open on your favorite social

(01:12:58):
media platforms on our web page at projectthirdiyopen dot com
and that's third I with the letter I projectthirdiopen dot com.
Drop us a note at tonyel at Projectthirdiopen dot com.
That's tonyel at projectthirdiyopen dot com. As you wait for

(01:13:19):
our next podcast to drop, don't take anything we've satisfact. Instead,
do your own homework, make up your own mind, then
take action until next time. Be blessed, be good, and
be free,