180 - How to Face your F.E.A.R. and Embrace Challenge

Mason is a holistic substance dealer, transformation artist, cult leader, successful entrepreneur, conquerer of life, and three time guest on The Captain's Lifestyle Podcast.

Check out his supplements (use code CAPTAIN): https://thestampedenetwork.com/?dt_id=401597

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, Hello, and welcome toanother episode of The Captain's Lifestyle Podcast.
It's been a while since I've recordedan episode. As you can see,
I'm in my new office set uphere and we've got a three peat guest
on today's show. This is Mason'sthird time being on The Captain's Lifestyle Podcast,

(00:24):
and for good reason, because justover two years ago, Mason was
living in his parents' basement and hassince built a multi million dollar holistic supplement
brand, the Stampede Network, andthat's what we're gonna be diving into today.
How he was able to build thatby facing his fear and deliberately putting

(00:49):
himself through challenges and learning as hegoes. Mason, Welcome to The Captain's
Life Style Podcast. I'm glad tobe here. Third times the charm.
Yeah, man, you've been fuckingcrushing it. Yeah, you've been living
on X games mode, dude,it's been Yeah. I took a little

(01:11):
time off from like business and businessand social media stuff to really just like
go experience some more. So it'sjust yeah, I've been doing some crazy
things, bro, going down toCosta Rica for the Ayahuasca, running all
the marathons in Colombia. Just gotback from killing Minjarrow a couple of days

(01:33):
ago, just doing it all.It's been wild. So I want to
start with your experience in Costa Ricasitting with ayahuasca, because we had a
call after after you had that experience, and your experience is with Iowa,

(02:00):
specifically with the panther experience, whichis what I want you to get into,
is I think that the secret thatpeople are missing in their lives because
when when people are faced with fear, most of the time they either ignore
it because they don't want to seeit, or they they shy away from
it, right, they don't wantto look directly at the fear. So

(02:24):
talk to us about your panther experience. Okay, man, we're to start.
Okay. So, yeah, whenI went down and did the ayahuasca
ceremony, we did two of them, right, and so you know Ari
right. Yeah. So it wasAri Malloy's retreat, good friend of mine,

(02:47):
another great dude in the holistic oneof space, but he was hosting
his retreat. This thing came upthe honestly, like the opportunity to do
ayahuasca'd come up probably like three fourtimes before. But I didn't feel called
to do it, and you reallydo need to feel called to do it,
like the plant calls you. AndI had a lot of fear and

(03:07):
resistance to it, but finally thisone came up and it's like, you
know, he's a good friend ofmine. We should go. You know,
let's just let's make the leap andjust go into it with some faith
and see what happens. And Facebeen like the one thing in my entire
life, especially the past few yearsthat's guided me the most as I've become

(03:27):
more conscious of it and what itactually is and how to live with faith
and just really following the breadcrumbs ofGod, right, and so it really
led me in that direction. Andso we had two ceremonies down there.
The first one. When I wentinto that one, it was it was
it was more of an experience oflike unconditional love. I went to so

(03:51):
many different realms and it's like it'sit's different to recall right now because I'm
not as fresh from it, right. And so it's like one of those
things where it's like when you wakeup from a dream and you remember it
and if you don't write it down, you forget it. But it's like
it was more real than a dream. It was more real than reality.

(04:12):
It was it was life itself.And so like this first ceremony I went
into basically, I'm sitting there andas I start to go into this meditation
and the DMT from the brain startsto kick in from the ayahuasca activating it.
It's almost like in the Avengers thatthing the testa ract that goes inside
of itself, you know, thatbig like cube. That's what happened,

(04:34):
right, So reality literally expanded outwardlyand it went from being this three D
plane where we have all these directionsaround us and up and down and all
that stuff. It was it waslike time became a new dimension or a
new plane that I could transverse.It's it's like an interstellar where he goes

(04:56):
in the wormhole, right, andso it's like he's going along all those
bookshelves and he can see different moments, moments of time. That's what it
was like. And so yeah,that first night, I go through this
this journey of basically experiencing the meaningof love and what my highest self was,
because that was my intent going intoit, right, And so the
way ayahuasca works is you go inwanting something, but it's one of those

(05:23):
things where it's like it's just reallywise teacher that you go in asking for
something and it says, no,I'm gonna find the deepest, darkest crevice
in your brain, or we're gonnawe're gonna go in here and you're gonna
look at it, and you're justsitting there like, oh God, no,
please don't take me there. It'slike, nah, you're gonna look,
right, And so that's that's reallywhat it was. But yeah,

(05:44):
again that my intention going into itwas like show me my highest, most
loving version of myself. And soit's like, Okay, you asked for
it, we're gonna give it toyou. All like give give you everything,
right, And so I go intothis, I'm traveling through different dimensions,
you know, I'm I'm seeing whatlove actually is, understanding the power

(06:05):
of Costa Rica. Like, ifyou know Costa Rica, they don't even
have a standing military. And Iwas kind of like contemplating that during the
experience. And when you're on ayahuasca, it's not really you're not thinking as
much as you are the mind,but you're also above the mind. It's
really hard to put into words becausewe can't comprehend it. But like even

(06:27):
Costa Rica itself, they don't havea military there, and it's like why,
Well, if you look at it, it's almost like the heart of
the world. Right. So there'sthis metaphysical concept in hermeticism. This is
called the law of correspondence, whichis as above so below. Most people
have heard that phrase before, andso it's saying we are the universe,
and the universes us basically right,and so you know the world, the

(06:51):
Earth is just like a big,bigger version of us. It has a
heart, it has a mouth,has a brain, right, and so
it's like our chakra system also correspondsto different places in the Earth, and
Costa Rica's the heart, right.And you look at the Amazon jungle down
there, it's just full of life. There's so much life down there.

(07:12):
It's so full of love energy,you can feel it. And I realized,
like, you know, even thatcountry itself, they don't have a
military because it literally repels all hateand lower vibrational you know, things like
lower frequencies. It keeps it awayjust by being the heart, being this
center of life and embodying what itmeans have love. I learned the lesson

(07:34):
of you know, when we consumesomething. That's why I make holistic products,
natural products, is you can tellthe difference between a fruit that's gmo
versus one that was just pulling offof a tree. You can feel the
love in it, you can feelyou taste it right, that tastes You're

(07:54):
like, oh my god, thistastes so good. It's the same fruit.
It's love. It's this energy thatwe can take bingeably feel and we
can also create it. You know. It's like when when a grandma makes
cookies versus some of you buying thestore. You taste the love in it
because it's actual intent put into it. And so like anyway, I go
through this first night, and itwas this whole journey of experiencing love,

(08:18):
right, And there's this visual thatI had at one point we're talking about
the jaguar now, is during thatfirst night, I was standing there in
this vision right inside a bow andarrow, and I'm aiming it between these
two trees in the in the jungleand between these two trees. Yeah there

(08:41):
you go. Yeah, I madethis visual on whatever AI And so between
these trees, this jaguar comes walkingout of nowhere, right, and I'm
aiming this bow at it. Andin this experience you can speak, but
it's not really words coming out.It's more of like a telepathy type of
thing. And so I look atthis jaguar and I go, can I

(09:01):
hunt? Can I hunt? You? Right? And so this thing looks
at me, dead in the eyesand just slowly nods. It goes right.
And so at that moment, Ireleased this arrow and I shoot this
jaguar and it like it dies andits energy becomes one with me. And
so I wrote that now on inmy notebook, like I went through this

(09:22):
whole ceremony. I'll cut like thefirst night short in the story, but
I wrote that down. I didn'tthink a ton about it. I really
I didn't know what it meant.Second night of ayahuasca, which was two
days later, because we have aday of integration, I go into this
and I'm thinking this. I'm like, this is gonna be a cake walk.

(09:43):
I came out of that last one. I was cracking up. I'm
like, oh, I discovered everythingI know the meaning of life. I
get love, blah blah blah,like all these good feelings. Right,
And so you know, after Itake the cup of ayahuasca, there's that
like forty five minute, you know, kicking period. And during this time,
like twenty five thirty minutes in,I was starting to feel a little

(10:07):
anxious, of starting to feel weird, kind of had this like energy coming
up over me. I didn't reallyknow what it was, and so it
just kind of it kept increasing increasingover and over. I was like,
why is this not going away?I was trying to change my thoughts,
trying to meditate myself out of it, but it was just getting stronger and
stronger, and so it got toa point it was so bad. Mario,

(10:30):
who's the shaman. I really wantedto like be like, hey,
Mario, come like can you comehelp me? And I just didn't say
anything. And at the moment,I was thinking about the other people in
the ceremony as like, if Icause like chaos right now while they're on
this substance, it could mess withthem and it could hurt hurt their experience.

(10:50):
So I'm just gonna, you know, do whatever. I'm gonna let
it run its course. I'm gonnago through whatever negativity happens, and I'm
gonna hopefully out on the other side. And so I'm in this meditation and
in front of me is another visualwhere there's like this concrete floor in front
of me, right, and soI have my eyes closed. You can

(11:13):
imagine like this concrete floor and theninfinite blackness going back like forever and ever.
Inside of this blackness, it's juststarting to get closer and closer to
me. There's less like concrete onthe floor. It's starting to cover that,
and it's just becoming more black.And every time it gets closer and
closer, I'm starting to get alot more scared, and I'm starting to

(11:35):
feel this feeling of fear anxiety justto an absolutely infinite degree. Right,
So it's like when you jump offof a bridge into a lake or something
like a river or whatever. Youhave that moment where it's like all that
energy stops and you hit and allof a sudden it's done. Right,
This was more like a skydive offeeling this fear where it's like you go

(12:00):
terminal velocity and it just increases constantly, like it just kept getting worse and
worse, to the feeling of likea panic attack where you have that feeling
of impending doom, right and sothat's that's what I was I was feeling
in this moment, and it's thisdarkness is getting closer to me. I
see this panther is like kind ofweaving in and out of the blackness,

(12:22):
right, and so this thing iskind of popping in and out of existence.
I'm sitting there literally accepting the factthat I'm gonna die, like I
actually had this feeling I am goingto die tonight. I'm gonna be gone
forever, right, And so thisenergy keeps getting closer and closer. I'm
like low key glitching out, liketrying not to feel it, and just

(12:43):
my whole central nervous system is goinglike fully electrified. Right, I'm feeling
every possible negative emotion that you canfeel. And so finally this panther thing
comes out of nowhere in this blackness. It opens its mouth and I get
encapsulated by this dark energy of justpure infinite fear. It was literally like

(13:05):
death like it was like what you'dimagine Satan is, like that's what it
was, right, And so Igot eaten by this energy, and all
of a sudden, there was thisglitch. Right, So it's like when
you see a TV gho static.That's what it was like in my brain.
And all I remember at that momentis I pop out and I'm gone.
I had an out body experience.I had an ego death in that

(13:28):
moment. But I shoot out ofmy body and I go to this realm
and I drew it here, pullit out. I brought the journal.
Dude, there's so many insights inthis. So I go to this realm
I called the realm of self,right. So I'm like this little point
of awareness, and all around mewere these eyes just going in different directions

(13:52):
in that like forty place where it'sjust like everything it's so hard to describe,
but it's just infinite eyes. Andso I was this awareness, and
I would go into each of theseeyes, and I would become a me,
right, So I'd become a Masonas soon as I go into one,
or I'd become a tailor or aTrish or an Ashley or literally like

(14:16):
anybody, right. And so Iwent through this experience of going into each
of these eyes, experiencing infinite love, infinite fear. Right. So I
experienced like what Jesus experienced. Iexperienced Hitler, and I was like,
oh my god, I've experienced literallyevery life being in this weird place where

(14:37):
time doesn't exist. And it wasn'tme saying this. It was just like
I was this point of eye right. And so it's literally like you see
these eyes, I was the eyebehind the eye. I was the I
am right. And so it's oneof my favorite phrases I've ever heard by
Myron Golden, who's an amazing speaker, one of the business geniuses I listened
to, is that God always introduceshimself before we do right. So it's

(15:03):
like when we say I am Mason, it's like I am as God.
I am that I am right.And so I was fully embody in the
in the I am that I am. I was the everything in that moment.
If you call it a moment,I don't even know what it was.
It was nothingness right. And soanyway, so many lessons and things

(15:28):
I went through that, uh,you know, that experience of dying.
But like when I came back thatnight, I was asking what happened because
I sat up, you know,finally after dying, I kind of sat
up and Mario came over to me. You know, I was like,
Mario, come over, here,comes over to me and I'm looking at
him. I'm just I'm so I'mshaking, like I'm horrified. I literally

(15:52):
had just died. I feel likeI just came into a body, like
in this flesh suit for the firsttime ever. So I'm looking at my
hands moving, I'm like, yo, I'm a human right now. It
was one of those movements, oneof those moments I was like, what
is going on? And I lookat Mario and it wasn't funny in the
moment I look at Mario, I'mlike, dude, I just felt so
much fear and I was like,help me. And so he like puts

(16:17):
his head to me, and Idon't shaman's are crazy, but he injects
like the energy of like love andcalmness into my mind and it like completely
settled my body right. And soit's like, it's what I imagine what
happens when you interact with the guru. If you've ever read like autobiography of
a Yogi, that's you know,that's a lot of what the experiences are
like. So I felt this energyof like calmness of you know, coming

(16:45):
back down to earth. I guessyou could call it. I didn't really
like go up from earth I was. I don't even know where I was.
But anyway, you know, Ithink back after this experience when I
died in that moment, I askedpeople what happened when I like glitched out,
And apparently in real life, Ishot out, like my arms resurrected

(17:10):
out, and when I left mybody in that experience, my body actually
shot back and I evacuated from mybody in this realm, and I smashed
my head on the floor. Rightthere's this wooden floor and I just brushed
my head on it. People thoughtI actually died, and that's when I
was like, oh my god,I actually had the experience of dying in

(17:30):
that moment, right, like mybody actually I evacuated my body and I
was gone. I was out.So I was like, I died like
for real that night, and Ifelt the experience of what it was like,
and was absolute fear and you know, complete chaos. But on the
other side of it, I realized, like I had the exact same feeling

(17:51):
as the first night. Once Ibroke through it, I felt infinite love
and infinite connection to everything and oneness. And so I look back at it
that second night with the panther.I realized the first night was my chance

(18:11):
to connect with like that spirit animalon a deeper level, and when I
hunted it, it was showing mehow to die honorably, Like it said,
yeah, you can kill me,you can use my energy. The
second night, I had to gothrough the experience of that jaguar and it
was my turn to die, right, so I had to give the energy

(18:32):
back to that thing, and itwas teaching me how to die with like,
with honor and love, and gothrough our fears that are in front
of us every single day, howto experience absolute fear and overcome it.
And I learned that the biggest lessonfrom it is the only way to beat
fear is to not try and fightit. It's not try not trying to

(18:52):
run from it. It's just feelingit fully and allowing it to kill you.
Because what fear really is is thatit's you know, false evidence appearing
real. But it's also like this, it's almost like this divine cleaner that
when you allow yourself to fuel fearfully, it sweeps away your ego, your

(19:14):
concept yourself, which is what allowsyour true essence to shine through. And
so it's like my ego knew thatthis illusion in front of me was about
to kill it. And so that'swhat creates that experience of fear. Right,
your ego knows when it's gonna die, because the ego knows it doesn't
exist in the first place. It'slike, if we think about our ego,

(19:37):
our perception of ourself, all ofa sudden, it disintegrates. It
doesn't even exist. It's something thatwe made up. It made itself up,
and it's like a shadow, right, and so it's like, as
soon as you inject this light intoit, this energy of love, it
goes away just like a shadow.As soon as the sun hits it,
it's gone, right. And soyou know what I I really learned from

(20:00):
that is fear is something that wehave to feel fully to beat it.
We have to learn to love itsnature and accept it for what it is,
because on the other side of itis the truth. It's who we're
meant to be, and it's absolutelove and its totality. And it really
helped me understand too. I cameback. I didn't grow up you know,

(20:23):
religious or anything. I mean,I was in a half Jewish,
half Lutheran home. So I experienceabout Judaism Christianity, but I was never
like a religious person. After thatexperience, I had a deeper understanding of
Christianity and even what you know,the message of Jesus Christ is and what

(20:45):
it was like and what it meansto die on the cross, to put
ourselves on the cross. And it'slike, no matter what religion you are,
your spirituality, there is something wecan all learn from the Bible and
the story of Jesus. This ishow to die on the cross and embody
unconditional, fearless love. Right.And so it's like in that moment,

(21:08):
I realize, Wow, when Jesusdied on the cross, it was fully
accepting the nature of death and infinitefear in front of us, right,
Because the ultimate fear is death itself, underlying every single fear we have,
the fear of judgment, the fearof failure, the fear of rejection,
whatever it is, it's the deathof the ego. Right, So debt

(21:30):
and death isn't even real. It'sonly a thing that ego experiences. That's
the craziest thing to put into wordsand to think about, and we can't
fully conceptualize it because it's a it'sa soul knowing thing where the only thing
that dies is the ego and thespirit is this eternal thing that lives on
forever. Right, So death isnot real in the first place. Death

(21:52):
only exists in the mind. Itonly exists to the ego and anyway,
Yeah, going through that experience,it showed me how to how to embody,
love, how to die, howto beat fear by embodying those truths
and learning to love the nature offear itself, because like, the only

(22:15):
way through, the only way tobeat it is through. That's it.
So you have to feel it fully, let it kill you, and that's
what takes you to the next level. One of my favorite quotes from Joseph
Campbell is any feeling felt all theway through is bliss. And you mentioned
the common acronym of fear false evidenceappearing real. I switched that in the

(22:41):
definition of what it means to livethe Captain's lifestyle to face. So when
faced with fear, we face everythingand ride the wave with courage. Because
you've been surfing before. If yousee a big wave coming and you just
stand there and like try to ignoreit, you're gonna get fucking crushed,

(23:04):
right, versus if you like embraceit and like go with the fear,
go into it, you can comeout on the other side having a wonderful
experience. So, uh, beforewe move on, I want to hear
more about your and this is thesame thing I asked you on on our

(23:25):
call together. What was your thoughtprocess as the panther aka just pure fear
was approaching you. You mentioned thatthere was that initial like wanting to avoid
it, to meditate your way outof it. What was your thought process
and what ultimately led you to thedecision to just accept it and to surrender

(23:48):
to it. Yeah, So,like I said, the one thing I
mentioned in the story too, iswhen I was feeling that, I also
started thinking about other people around me, right, And so when it comes
to fear, that's one of thebiggest things that can push us where we
need to go is having other peoplethat you know, can rely on us,

(24:11):
or you know, connections around uspurpose, you know, people we
do things for. That's what allowsus to really push through the other side.
Because it's like, at the endof the day, most people will
give up on themselves if it's justthem, you know, it's and that's
just the reality and it's like eventhe toughest, even the toughest people in
the world, they only push throughbecause they have someone else they're doing it

(24:34):
for. If they're the only personon Earth and they had to push through
some hard stuff, they'd be like, yeah, okay, this is finally.
They're like, finally I get togo. I don't have to be
the only person on Earth anymore.Right, So it's like when you have
other people around you, that's whatgives you purpose. And so in that
moment, like, yeah, Iwas scared, I didn't want to feel

(24:55):
it, and honestly like it helpedtoo that the fear was so paralyzing,
I didn't really have a choice butto accept it, and so, you
know, I just leading up toit, my thought process was more so
like I don't I don't want tobe feeling this, but I'm feeling it.
And then it got to the pointwhere the feeling just consumed me and

(25:18):
I wasn't thinking about anything else otherthan the fact that I am going to
die and I accept it. Inthat moment. I think there's like this
turning point right with fear where it'slike we can avoid it to a certain
point, but it's almost like ablack hole where once you get past a
certain point, you're going in andyou're gonna go past it. And it's

(25:38):
like it really is a teacher thatdrags you to where you need to go
if you allow it to and ifyou allow yourself to feel it fully consciously,
right, And so that's really whatthe moment was for me, is
I felt it so strongly and gotto the point where it consumed me whereas
like I have no other choice butto die right now, Like I have

(26:00):
no other choice but to go throughthis because there's no other way out,
like there was there was literally nothingelse I could do, and I couldn't
even speak right, Like I wasliterally paralyzed in fear. That was the
experience. Not to mention, I'vefreaking DMT going through my brain since like
all of a sudden, they're justlike frozen. But yeah, it was

(26:22):
like the biggest needle mover of thedecision of why I didn't sit there and
like freak out about it was there'sother people around me. I don't want
to ruin their experience for them,you know, I'm here to go through
it for me. So it's like, you know, maybe this is teaching
me something. Maybe there's something insideof this that I need to learn specifically,
and something I need to feel,and you know, looking back into

(26:45):
it, I mean, God,my intent was show me love and the
highest form. So I guess yougot to experience the opposite of something to
know something. Fully, we don'tknow. We don't know day without night,
we don't know light without dark,exactly. You can't help love without

(27:06):
fear, yeah, exactly. Sohow how is your life changed after that?
That was what just about a monthago? Yeah, it was like
this. I came back December seventh, Okay, definitely changed how I consume
things, It changed my intentionality.I definitely have more of an ease in

(27:27):
my energy. You probably noticed too, like since we've met, Like I'm
just I feel more grounded, right, And so it's like even in you
know, podcasts and stuff, it'sway more in my own presence and this
deeper knowing of my being and whoI am, right, and so it's

(27:47):
like for a month I was veryconscious of like this God perception when I
was coming back really tapped into soul. And it's like, over time,
you can't help coming back into themodern world and getting a little disconnected from
that space, Like you feel theenergy of the ems, you feel the
energy of the food, and youknow people around you who are not fully

(28:11):
conscious, right, It's like thatcan weigh you down and it will over
time. Like there's no one who'sperfect, who's able to stay in that
state forever unless they're in that specificenvironment and location for long durations of time
and able to constantly tap into it. But definitely reached enlightenment, yeah,

(28:32):
and it's like we don't even reachand what we're already enlightened. We just
it's more about getting rid of layersto allow ourselves to see it. Because
it's like enlightenment if you break downthe Latin roots of it, it means
in lit from within, right,So it's like we're lit from within.
There's nothing to find because it's insideof us. It's just like digging up
dirt. Yeah. So so goingthrough and like really coming face to face

(29:03):
with the things that you don't wantto look at and coming out on the
other side of those things is liketaking a blanket off of the inner light
that is within us. Yeah,would you say that's accurate? Yes,
It's like I love fear now becauseit's like once you learn, once you
go through it, it becomes yourcompass. It's literally the indicator that we

(29:27):
have to tell us where we needto go. There's so many you know,
I was like this too. It'slike you sit there and you meditate
and think all day, what's mypurpose? What do I need to do?
Where do I need to go?And it's like we try and think
our way there. It's the onlything you have to think about is like,
what is the thing that scares methe most? What is the thing

(29:47):
that scares me the What am Imost resistant to? One? Am I
procrastinating on? You know why?Asking yourself those questions? And when you
really get down to it, thethings we have void the most, or
what we need to do the most, and what we resist persists. Right.
And it's like if you're sitting theredaydreaming, thinking about a certain thing.

(30:08):
Maybe you want to sing, maybeyou want to act, maybe you
want to create a business, whateverit is. If you're sitting there thinking
about something over and over and overand over. And I'm sure some of
you here do that too, youknow, because it's like Taylor's someone who's
embodying these things. And you seethat in him. So there's something in
you that wants to feel more freeas well. Right, So it's like
that thing that you're sitting there thinkingabout all the time, when it's time

(30:32):
to do it, how you shoulddo it, that's what you are designed
and meant to do. It's literallythe compass telling you what you need to
do. The only reason it keepsshowing up is because it is right.
And so it's like it's less abouthow do you do it? If you're
ready to do it and just doingit right now, we're like, you've
already done it. Your soul hasdone it. That's why you desire it.

(30:56):
Like desire is a mental construct thatis trying to Desire is a mental
construct that is trying to convince youthat you don't already have what you're seeking.
Boom bro. Put that in areal Oh my god, that's going
to be fire, all right,But it's a massive illusion, Okay,

(31:18):
Like desire is telling us what wealready have inside of us, and so
that's like we're seeking outside of usas above, so below we're trying to
find something within. Stephen Pressfield saysin the War of Art, fear shows
us what we need to do anotherone of my favorite quotes, and I

(31:41):
have certainly found this to be thecase personally. Mason's story has certainly proved
that to be the case for him, and it for those of you who
are going through the Captain's Lifestyle programright now, you have experienced this as
well. Like the program is challenging, is designed to put you face to
face with fear with challenge, andthat shows us exactly as Stephn Pressfield says,

(32:10):
what we need to do. Whateverit is that you were most scared
of, that is the thing thatyou need to go do. Same thing,
like Mason mentioned, procrastination, whateverit is that you're procrastinating, that
becomes your priority. Like, that'sthe thing and I mentioned this today on
the program call is be mindful ofIf you find yourself inventing things to do

(32:39):
to avoid the important whatever that thingis that you're procrastinating, you will invent
things to do in the meantime tomake you feel like you're productive, when
in reality, you're just procrastinating thething that's most important. Dude, I
was going to say something like,right, we have the same consciousness up

(33:00):
right there, bro, we didit again. But like I was gonna
say, like our how to reallyknow if it's something you need to do
is you feel that, like soulpool to do it, but your mind
starts making up reasons and justifying whyyou can't do it. It's like as
soon as you start saying why youcan't do it, you should probably do

(33:21):
it, take out the probably,yeah, you should do it. And
it's like you have to be ableto identify too, you know, those
things that are actually meant for you. So it's like, for example,
and we'll get to it. Ijust got back from killing the jar and
my friend and it was like,you know, it was a great experience.
I know that I'm man enough nowor whatever after climbing me that crap.

(33:43):
But it's like, you know,he invited me to climb this mountain
Kopaxi and Ecuador, and I'm justlike I don't have a desire, you
know, after that one. Soit's like I know I could do it,
and that's the difference is like Iknow I can do it. I'm
not making up reasons is why Ican do it. I just literally don't
want to do it, and mysoul does not want to do it after

(34:05):
this experience because it was like I'vedone it, like, I'm good,
cross that one off the bucket list, you know. So it's like you
have to be able to identify thetwo. Yeah, and this also doesn't
have to be something like crazy scarylike quitting your job and you know,
doing doing the thing that is repeatingin your mind, which is absolutely something
that I encourage. This is howI created the Captain's Lifestyle brand, Like

(34:30):
I realized that I wasn't fulfilled doingwhat I was doing and that I wanted
to create a bigger impact to servemore people. And so I'm very much
a burn the ships at the shoretype of a person, like figure figure
it out as you go, likefuck around and find out jump and grow

(34:50):
wings on the way down. Likefear, Like, let's fucking go.
It's scary, and I know thatI'm going to figure it out as I
go because I've I've had reps ofthis, I've I've done this multiple time.
I trust myself, which is ahuge component of this. I trust
myself. I know who I am, So therefore, when faced with fear,
I know that, yes, thisis going to be scary, and

(35:13):
I know that on the other sideof this is growth, is learning is
personal development which has allowed you tobuild your personal brand, which we're going
to get into. But what Iwas going to say is it doesn't have
to be this monumental, like superscary thing. Even something like taking a
cold shower, right, people haveresistance to getting into the cold chower.

(35:35):
They're scared of feeling that cold,right, and that shows you what you
need to do. Like, forexample, yesterday finished working at about nine
pm and the last thing that Iwanted to do is wake up at four
am and get into the ice path. And I was like, Okay,
well i know what I'm doing tomorrowmorning. I'm setting my alarm for four

(35:55):
am and I'm going getting into theice bath. Like that's in compared to
what we're talking about, Like that'sa very small thing, but it just
goes to show you that fear showsus what we need to do. Or
discomfort, like facing discomfort, thatshould be something to be embraced, not
shy away from, especially when it'sespecially when it's societal. So it's like

(36:21):
if you catch yourself with any likesocietal beliefs saying like oh I can't do
it because like people don't do this, or you know someone says I shouldn't
do this or blah blah blah,like anything that has to do with other
people do it immediately. Well,let's talk about what happened in twenty twenty
in the years following, just peoplejust yeah doing whatever it is that the

(36:45):
government told them to to to lockdown, close your business, stay inside.
We are going to be god.We are going to tell you what
you can and cannot do. Youmust take this vaccination in order to continue
working, to continue living right.And so if you just go along with

(37:06):
that, then that's that's the oppositeof what we're talking about. Like you
have to be the outlier, likemy soul for example, and you like
we're we're the ones who are likegoing beyond questioning this, but like actively
actively going the complete opposite direction.Like society is all going this way.

(37:30):
We're we're the black sheep that's liketurning around and going the opposite direction.
And that's scary. Yeah, thatcan be we're creating a parallel society.
And it's like the whole issue isthe education system at the end of the
day, right, because it's likethat's where you're putting people in their first
seven years of life in the fateof brainwave state where they're learning, where

(37:52):
they're literally absorbing everything and not evenreally conscious. Right, It's like as
soon as you put them in there, and you put them in an environment
where teaches them, right when they'relearning how to think a little bit,
it teaches them what to think andnot how to think, and you start
giving them grades for just learning howto listen. You create a society of
people who get an A plus forputting on a mask, right, So

(38:15):
it's like, oh, yeah,get your shot or else you get an
F and then you get a fineF for fine. It's like you know
that about F for fuck you shoveyour back as I mean, that's literally
how it is. And it's justthat I'm never gonna send my kids in
school, Like if they're going tobe homeschooled and be taught actual fundamental principles

(38:37):
and knowledge about life and actionable things. You know, it's like, plus
you have AI to help with thatin the future. And we are going
into this parallel society where you donotice people like in Costa Rica, you
have all these communities building up,going into a decentralized type of setup with
bitcoin and going this non traditional wayof education and work and you know,

(39:01):
living out your passions being in communalsocieties, right, And it's like we're
not going to have this split ofsocieties. We're just kind of one here
and one here. And it's likethis one's going to have a ton of
control and surveillance and lack of soul, and this one's going to have more
nature, connection to each other,connection to the earth, and love,

(39:22):
truth and freedom at the end ofthe day. Speaking of the education system,
I love this metaphor of say you'vegot like a bird, a fish,
a squirrel, and a I don'tknow, like a snail in school,

(39:44):
and the lesson is on flying,right, So the bird is obviously
going to get an A plus inflying and the you know, the snail
is going to get an F.Right. It's like we're everything is so
what's the word like standardized? Yes, standardized. Everything is so standardized,

(40:08):
like you have to learn this way, like these are the things like and
that's not how human beings are,like we are so radically different, right,
right, So if you if youtry to teach a fish how to
fly, the fish can study forthe rest of its life, like it's
never going to learn how to flyright, So same thing with humans,

(40:29):
like and it can learn, it'sjust like, can't even do it because
if it goes, it would haveto one learn how to breathe oxygen too.
You know, there's no water upin the sky, you die exactly.
So I like the I like theyou know, learning method of exploring,

(40:50):
exploring what it is that you're curiousabout, like discovering who you are
like that. That's what learning reallyis, is discovering your superpower, which
is really just being your most authenticself at your highest level possible. And
for the topic of this podcast,facing fear and learning from those experiences is

(41:10):
how we grow and develop. Thereis no growth without overcoming challenges. There
is no growth without deliberately facing yourfear. So as if this ayahuasca experience
wasn't enough for you, you recentlyjust got back from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro,
talk to us about that experience,about having altitude sickness, having basically no

(41:35):
sleep and still getting to the top. I don't recommend a single I mean,
I actually I don't. I don'trecommend a single person here ever,
does it unless you get some altitudetraining before? It was like you know,
Ayahuasca was going on that mountain withinand this one was like doing the

(41:57):
complete opposite. Let's go, let'sgo on the highest standing mountain on Earth.
And so it's like that's it waskind of one of those things too,
where fear and faith led me thereat the same time, because it's
like fear, the opposite of fearis not love. The opposite of fear
is faith truth, And they're allsynonymous, right, So it's like truth

(42:20):
and love they are they are oneand the same. But anyway, so
my friend John, who's ex specopsfor the Swiss military, he invited me
out like a month and a halfago too. He's like, hey,
work, Yeah, a month anda half ago. He's like, hey,
we're climbing killing Majari when it come. So I'm like, of course,

(42:42):
obviously I'm gonna do that. Soyeah, it's like last minute thing.
I have a month to prepare.Uh yeah. I did some like
stareclimber for a month, you know, just doing doing what I could.
But yeah, dude, like thetrek was about to base camp and days
to get to base camp. Daytwo, I got altitude poisoning. I

(43:05):
was thrown up everywhere. Worst headachesI've ever felt in my life. Literally
thought I was gonna have aneurysm.Dude, oh my god. Yeah,
just laying there fraying for death again, like I'm gonna die. But it's
like, you know, just keepmoving forward. And there's a quote where

(43:27):
I read it the other day.It's basically like, you know, there's
not a peak we can't reach aslong as we just keep climbing, that's
it. And so it's like thatwas really like the mindset I had for
me. But yeah, like goingup, going up to Summit day,
the experience was crazy. So wehad like a six hour trek the day

(43:49):
going to Summit Day. And theway summit works is you have to climb
really late at night, and sowe got up at like ten pm,
and you have to climb late becauseat that time it's cold enough so that
gravel going up to the top freezes, right, so it creates a path
and you're not slipping around, andso you know, we get up at
like ten pm and it's like asix hour climb to the top, right.

(44:12):
So that day though, we hada six hour trek basically across the
desert to get there. Had nowater. Stomach was so messed up,
throwing up every fluid in my body. It was probably the worst. It
was the worst I've ever felt inmy life. Right, And so we
go six hours trekking. We getto this base camp called Keybow Huts at

(44:37):
probably two three pm. So weget there. No one really slept,
like maybe slept ten minutes max.We had some food. They brief us
and they're like, yeah, we'regonna have to summit at ten pm,
and so we already had people whowere like falling off of this whole thing.
Everyone was feeling horrible, everyone wassick from the altitude because we were

(45:00):
moving pretty fast, and you know, we start going my summit group because
there was two summit groups, mysummit group. Within probably thirty minutes,
it was down to three out ofsix people left, right, so three
people had to go back. Twoof them one of them had cerebral edema

(45:22):
starting, which is swelling of thebrain, and one had pulmonary edema and
fluid in the lungs right from allthe altitudes, so you know, they
had to go back to and theyhad helicopters coming to airlift them out of
here. So yeah, we're goingup to this mountain. We're going up
this mountain running on no sleep.I look up basically, like the peak

(45:44):
never gets closer. I look down. I looked down and it's just like
legit a mile drop basically, andI'm on a path with git like this
big right, so it's like Ilook down and it's a straight drop.
If if you fall off of this, you're gonna die. And you know,
we're all half asleep going up this. Like I stood in the back

(46:05):
of the group because I was theonly one who was kind of conscious.
I was still using my polls.But two of the people in the group,
like this one dude, Kevin,he was falling asleep and I had
to keep slapping him in the headbecause he was like starting to waddle a
little bit and I thought he's goingto fall off the side, So like
due, wake up, like wakeup. And then Liz, who was
in front of Kevin, was kindof like doing the same thing. It's

(46:27):
kind of like the Penguin walk,Right's like we're all going up super We're
all going up super slow. Imean beyond like maybe like half a mile
an hour, right, and sowe're going up super slow. People are
just falling asleep. You hear peoplethrowing up everywhere, headaches, people are
just complaining about him. But it'sit's like six hours of just torture and

(46:52):
pain. Like my heart's probably goingone hundred and forty bpm, right,
and so is I'm there at thataltitude. The body is not mensister at
that height, Like you are notmeant to be at that level. Because
kiliman jar is nineteen thousand, threehundred and forty one feet right, It's
like Denver, Colorado is five thousandfeet. Just put that in perspective.

(47:14):
Mount Everest is thirty thousand feet,right, which is just crazy to think
about. They have to use oxygen, but god, we're climbing. My
heart's going one hundred and forty beatsper minute and I bend over at one
point because I actually thought I wasgonna have a heart attack. I didn't
know if I was going to passout, like on the way up.
Honestly, it's like I'm standing thereand I look at my guide and I'm

(47:38):
like, I'm like, I can'tI can't breathe, Like my brain's not
functioning, don't have enough oxygen goingin, so I can barely communicate and
this dude has climbed the mountain threehundred times. Those shirpas are just on
another fucking level. It's like,dude, what the hell, it's just

(47:58):
something wrong with you to do that. He's like, yeah, there's nothing
else to do. I'm like,it's very in Tanzania. But he looks
at me and he's like, getup. We will make it to the
top. You are getting to thetop, and it's like it was one
of those moments where it's like itwas an Oscar Worthy moment. I was
like, doc, guy, Igot so much jet fuel, let's go.

(48:22):
I forget to the top. Andso another like hour later, right
of climbing, maybe it was maybefifty meters, it took like an hour
to get up right, because it'sjust it's so heavy up there, there's
no oxygen. It's so slow.You're climbing over rocks that are frozen and
ice. But you start to getexcited, right because it's like when you
start to see the rocks with iceon him, you know you're getting closer

(48:43):
to the top. It's like,thank god it is below freezing right now,
I'm about to be done. Andso we finally get up there,
and we get to this point.I'm gonna pull up a picture. Actually,
let me see. We get tothis point where I look out at
the sunrise. Oh my god,Yeah, it was absurd. So this

(49:05):
is like what I see, right, So, like that's clouds and you
have the mountains below me and allthat, and I'm looking down at Africa
and I'm standing there and I juststart crying because it's like, oh my
god, it was the most beautifulthing I've ever seen in my life.
But it's like, okay, Ifinally made it to the top two.
And then I look at my sherpaand he's saying, let's go. We

(49:30):
have the trek. I'm like whatHe's like, We're not at the top.
I'm like, are you kidding me? So we had like another thirty
minute trek over to the highest pointon the mountain. And so I'm following
this guy. I'm following one ofmy porters, another one of the guys,
and We're going across this really skinnyice path, right. And so

(49:51):
next to this ice path is thecrater of the volcano, because kilimanjar is
a volcano, right, and soI'm looking at this crater. It's as
big as multiple cities. It's thecraziest volcano I've ever seen in my life.
And if I fall off, I'mgonna die. But this porter is
going along the ice path and heslips and he wipes out, and he
starts to be like, yo,like take it easy here. He's pointing

(50:12):
to a spot the slipper. He'slike, be careful there. So I'm
going super slow. I'm taking mywalking poles, and I still hit that
spot anyway, and I slip,and I'm about to fall into the crater,
like literally like a foot away fromfalling in. I take one of
the ice picks and I jam itinto the ice and I catched myself from
falling in. I posted this onmy Instagram, a picture of my ice

(50:36):
pole is bent because this thing literallystopped me from I dude, I don't.
I probably would have fallen five thousandfeet and died like I would just
yeah boom gone. And so Iwipe out. The girl behind me wipes
out. She smashes the porter inthe face with her pole, so he's
getting like blood all over his faceand his lip. All this stuff.

(51:00):
We all regain our center and thenwe finally get back up he's bleeding.
It's a mess, but we makeit finally along this path and then we
get to the top of the world. It's like, okay, let's get
our picture and let's get off ofhere. And so we're walking back again
to go down this path and likepeople up there just can't even talk.

(51:20):
There's no there's no oxygen, Likeeveryone's just out of breath. Our camera
guy had to stop because his backgot blown out or some some shit like
that. I don't even know whatit was. But I'm walking back,
going towards this path to get usdown, and my fricking guide he grabs
my shoulder and he points in thedirection that we came He's like, they're
not this path. I was like, bro, what because there's an easier

(51:44):
path I was looking at. Buthe's like, no, we're gonna have
to go down the way we cameup, and I was like, oh
my god. So it's another liketwenty minute trek over to like where we
came up. The trek down tookabout three hours, and the sun came
up at that point, so itwas warmer. I'm going down the mountain.
There's like sand on the side ofthe mountain, because the gravel got

(52:05):
loose, So I'm like doing thislike sand skiing thing, coming down,
falling the porters. Three hours ofthat, finally get to base camp.
My girlfriend's there. She gets mesome water because she couldn't sum it.
She got so sick too. Shecame with me, and yeah, she
just she had to stay at camp. I wasn't gonna let her climb,
No one else was gonna let herclimb. She gets me water and then

(52:28):
yawn. For whatever reason, thatday scheduled a like five hour trek to
the next camp, so we hadlike an hour to sleep. So we
literally just gone on this like twentyfour hour bender of trekking right. It's
just literally like god, I don'teven know how many miles when I don't
even want to think about it,but it was. It was one of

(52:50):
those things where you just keep movingforward and your body's in the worst pain
you've ever felt. You feel horrible, but it's like why do we even
do this in the first place,Like why did why did I climb that
mountain in the first place? Andit's because like why you know, why
not? It's a it's the mountain, right, and it's it's that's really

(53:13):
what life is about. Is wedon't climb the mountain to get to the
top. We climb the mountain becauseof the journey to the top. You
know, once we get to thetop, it's cool for a minute,
but there's not much oxygen up thereand it's overrated, right, we want
to get back down, Like theviews pretty, but oxygen's a lot better
and there's not much to do.And so you know, it's really like

(53:36):
who you become on the journey up, which is what matters the most.
And so you know, I've doneit. I'm proud of myself for doing
it. I can cross that oneoff the list. I don't think I'll
ever be going a mountain higher thanthat. I say that now, but
I'm like, eh, I don'tknow, we'll see. It's just kind

(53:57):
of my personality to want to dothose things. Yeah, and maybe not
physical mountain, but this, thisis how this all applies to life and
to personal development and to growing yourbusiness. So like you get people who
reach their mountain, whether that's youknow, making it to the professional league

(54:19):
and whatever sport you play, orlike the guys who peaked in high school
and they like that was their mountainand they just never did anything else after
that. They just stay in thepast and they use that previous mountain as
like they're claim to fame. Butthe people who are successful in life in
business are the ones who continuously climbmountains, who face that fear and overcome

(54:45):
challenge over and over and over again. So before we give a shout out
to the Stampede network and tell peoplewhere they can find you, how has
overcoming challenges and face seeing fears ledyou to create a multimillion dollar brand?

(55:05):
How has that helped you? Imean, like that's that's the only reason
we're alive. And I think it'sbecause I've been at such a low point
in my life too that I knowwhat it's like to be rock bottom and
realizing like the only thing in frontof us that gives us meaning is challenge.

(55:28):
Otherwise we're just lost. Right.So it's like when you just change
your perception on it from like somethingthat's weighing you down to an opportunity to
grow, that's when things change,right, Because it's like stress is stress
can be good or it can bebad. It just depends on how you
see it. You know, thepeople that get smacked by stress. They

(55:49):
see the same thing as someone elsewho sees it as a good thing,
but they see it in a differentway, right, So it changes the
perception of reality and doing the hardthings, like the things that are not
easy upfront, they're usually easier onthe back end. Right. So it's
like most people want to do thething that's easy on the front end,

(56:10):
get rich quick, the body hacks, whatever it is. It's like,
you know, that's harder down theline. That's the funny thing about it,
is like if you do the hardthing up front, if you go
for the the path that most peoplearen't going up front, you get the
story two that nobody is talking abouton the back end, Like you get

(56:32):
to be the person who went throughand did something. At the end of
the day, it's like, allwe want to do is live a story
out and we want to share itwith the world. Right. That's the
best creation and contribution we can giveis having a unique story and a unique
path we went through where we overcamechallenges, and other people can look to
us and they can say, yeah, I want to be like them,

(56:55):
and I want to do that inmy own life, and I want to
climb my own mountains whatever they are, right, and so like that challenge
seeking challenge is literally the only thingthat we have to do in this life.
Because the funny thing is like wedon't have to try to fail,
Like failure in decay happens naturally,it's entropy right in the universe. Like,

(57:20):
the only thing we have to doto fail in decay is just neglect
our growth. That's literally it likeif we if we neglect a business for
months and months and months, it'sgoing to go down. If we neglect
our body for months and months andmonths, it's going to go down.
It's not like we're actively trying toruin it, right, it's it's going
to ruin itself because we just don'tput intention into growth. And that's the

(57:42):
only thing that really matters is havingthat focus in the intent and whatever you're
doing right, and that proves rightthere that focus and intent is the only
thing that creates our reality. Soit's like, you know, intend to
choose the challenging route and tend todo things that make us grow because at
the end of the day, that'sliterally the only thing that we're here to
do. And that's it. Dropthe camera on that one mic drop camera

(58:10):
drop. Yeah. I mean that'sthat's why I why challenge is one of
my personal core values because I experiencedthis in the Marine Corps. I've experienced
this in civilian life. Like,yes, challenge is the only way to
grow, and personal development is businessdevelopment. Okay, camera, you're gonna

(58:31):
be it. Okay, uh oh, let's let's get this situated. Okay,
there we go. All right,So we've been talking about your your
personal success which has led to thesuccess of the Stampede Network. Give a

(58:53):
give a shout out to the StampedeNetwork. What is it that that you
do? What what supplements you create? Yep? So the Stampede Network is
a movement around waking people up totheir full potential, mind, body,
and spirit. So basically what Idid on that mountain embodies the whole philosophy
of the brand. Right, Sowe're about spiritual empowerment. We're about healing

(59:15):
people from the inside out. Andthe reason I started it is because I
didn't actually like the supplement industry.I didn't want to do it when I
first came into it because they're fullof crap and they give people horrible foods,
chemicals, synthetic ingredients. They lie, there's no transparency in it.
So it's like if I do it, I'm going to do it the right

(59:36):
way. We're going to be ranby the three t's, which is truth,
trust, and transparency, and it'sgoing to actually stand for something.
It's going to be a movement thatpeople can get around. And so that's
really what the philosophy of it is. We started out with this product called
Spartan b Bread. You may ormay not have seen ads of it,
definitely heard me talk about it.Yeah, so you know, that was

(01:00:00):
like the first product. Still pumpingthat out, but it's a you know,
natural bee pollen and honey supplement forenergy, vitality, recovery, sleep,
you name it. But it's like, really this mark more than anything,
that's a representation of how we're actuallymeant to live in combining nature with

(01:00:21):
the modern world, ancient methods withmodern practices, right, and so just
bringing it together into a singular brandwhere we can help people wake up to
their full potential and mind, bodyand spirit rad and Yeah, in addition
to bee bread, you know,I also love awakening. This is the
only pre workout I'll consume. Youguys, also have Ashwagandha and a bunch

(01:00:46):
of other good supplements. You guyscan use code Captain for a discount on
anything from the Stampede Network. Highlyrecommend checking them out. Mason, thank
you for coming on The Captain's Lifestylepodcast. Work we find more about you.
Check me out at Mason Core,m A s O N k U
h R everywhere, Got Instagram,TikTok YouTube, I got my podcast too,

(01:01:14):
and then you can check out theStampede Network at the Stampede Network dot
com. We're also on Amazon uhTikTok shop now too, so we're everywhere
you'll find us. Sweet all right. Last question I asked every podcast guest,
what does thriving mean to you?I feel like every time you ask

(01:01:39):
me this, I change my definitionfor sure. Yeah, exactly. That's
that's what thriving means to me.It means to evolve. M It means
we're constantly growing, no decaying.I love that mentally, physically, spiritually,
emotionally, sir, always growing.Love it all right, Mason,

(01:02:05):
appreciate you coming on for the thirdtime sharing your wisdom about facing fear.
Remember fear shows us what we needto do and with that live the captain's
lifestyle, so together we can makethriving standard