August 20, 2025 • 59 mins
What is it REALLY like to go on The Shawn Ryan Show? In this episode of The David Rutherford Show, Navy SEAL veteran David Rutherford pulls back the curtain and shares his full reaction and behind-the-scenes experience after sitting in Shawn’s infamous leather chair for a marathon 7-hour interview.
From the lead-up to the recording, to stepping into Shawn’s brand-new, world-class podcast studio, to seeing firsthand how Shawn and his team operate at the highest level, this is the inside story you won’t hear anywhere else.
📍Limited Time Shawn Ryan Show Sale - Froglogic Training Curriculum 3-For-1 Sale: www.davidrutherford.com
📍Pre-Order David's upcoming novel, The Poet Warrior: https://www.ballastbooks.com/ballast-bookstore/the-poet-warrior
👉 In this video, David breaks down:
-
What it feels like to share your deepest stories on The Shawn Ryan Show
-
How Shawn Ryan’s studio and production team create one of the most cinematic podcasts in the world
-
The emotional toll and transformation of sitting in Shawn’s chair for 7+ hours
-
Why Shawn Ryan is called the “Oprah for Operators”
-
What makes Shawn’s interviews so powerful, raw, and unforgettable
For years, The Shawn Ryan Show has set the standard for long-form storytelling, featuring elite military operators, intelligence officers, politicians, and people with life-changing stories. But very few know what it’s like behind the cameras—the nerves, the preparation, the energy of Shawn’s team, and the feeling of baring your soul to millions of viewers.
David takes you inside that journey, offering a rare and personal reaction to what many call the most intense and moving podcast platform in the world.
If you’ve ever wondered:
-
What happens before and after a Shawn Ryan interview?
-
What makes Shawn Ryan different from every other podcast host?
-
How does his team capture and produce such powerful stories?
…then this video is your inside look.
⚡ Watch the full conversation now and discover the truth behind The Shawn Ryan Show.
👉 Watch David’s full Shawn Ryan interview here: [link]
👉 Learn more about David’s courses and training at davidrutherford.com
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Shawn’s New Studio
04:26 - Getting The Invite
10:12 - How Shawn Crafts His Podcast
23:12 - The Nerves Leading Up To The Show
33:28 - The Day of The Recording
44:18 - The Emotional Experience of Recording The Podcast
52:50 - What Happened After The Show
#ShawnRyanShow #DavidRutherford #PodcastBehindTheScenes #NavySEAL #Reaction #Podcasting
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Sean Ryan effect is real, and the effect it
had on me was significant. Today I'm the David Rutherford Show.
Welcome to the show, everybody. David Rutherford here coming off
of what can only be construed as profound And I
know a lot of people hate that that term, but
(00:22):
that's what it was. That's what it is. I'm still
in the midst of it, and it's not something that
you go through and you you talk about that those
types of things that I shared on his show and
then the response that comes from it is overwhelming, to
(00:43):
say the least. So today, what I, Jordy and I
thought might be interesting for everybody is is to just
talk about the lead up to it, the experience of
going on it on his show, and then you know,
the feelings and kind of the ability to look back
(01:03):
on on on what it was like and and you
know what's come out of it. I mean, uh, to
sit in that chair for seven plus hours was was
was definitely an ultra marathon, so to speak, of emotions
and you know, come to think of it, I mean,
Jordy and I were laughing. Uh. You know, if you
(01:26):
if you look at the timeline we you know, we
got all the way my childhood in college and uh,
the first part of the teams, you know, post nine
to eleven that that, you know, the challenging combat deployment.
I had a little bit of blackwater, definitely some of
my time at the Central Intelligence Agency. Uh. And then
(01:47):
you know, absolutely my my beautiful bride and and my wife, Johnna,
and and our family and our children. But you know,
there was kind of kind of wild and Jordy and
Johnna both brought this up afterwards, they're like, you know,
damn man, you you essentially didn't even talk about winning
a world series and working with all the teams and
(02:09):
all the different companies you've worked with and experiences you've
had with athletes and other people you've mentored, and and
you know that that whole thing didn't even come out.
So you know, I I I But again you have
to keep for me, it's always just about keeping in context, uh,
what it was all about. And that was the experience
(02:31):
of being with my best friend who has become one
of the top you know, podcaster or news show whatever
you want to say in the entire world. And then
his graciousness and his uh desire to want to give
me the opportunity in his brand new unbelievable studio. That
(02:54):
really is I've never seen anything like I'm you know,
it's got to be one of the top in the
entire industry no matter where you go, and whether it's
New York or LA. You know this this, you know,
I'm sure he'll he and his crew will take the
Pepsi challenge against anybody. And and I'm sure you're gonna
hear a lot more people who come out of that
(03:15):
place and and and really express the just the magnificence
of it, you know, and in the understated presence of
it as well too, is just unbelievable. It's really about,
you know, two best friends and being on this journey
for a long time together and and and the space
(03:35):
that Sean as he does you know, for so many people.
It's funny. For years I joked and I called him,
you know, the Oprah for operators. And next thing, you know,
I'm I'm I'm on the proverbial couch or the great
and infamous leather chair. And in that and and and
(03:56):
delivering you know, my most challenged gene and deepest uh
experiences and emotions in my life, and I'm doing so
in such a powerful way that he just really is Uh.
He just creates that space and there for to do
(04:17):
it and to feel supported and loved and comforted, uh
in a way that I simply have never experienced or
felt before. So I you know, when if you're processing
it at that that level, it's it. It really was
exciting now, you know, one of the one of the
interesting things. And you know, people don't understand really how
(04:41):
it works, but you know they they are constantly driving,
uh to find the most significant stories or people in
their live story, their life stories that they can find.
And that's from operators to politicians to conspiracy theory is
to people in in the religious world and everything in between,
(05:06):
and and so uh back uh, I want to say
it was jeez, I forget when it was. It was
around I think back in spring break or sometime around
around then, wasn't it, JORDI, Yeah, it was spring, Yeah,
it was. It was it was like late spring. I
remember I was down in in Miami. We took a little,
(05:29):
you know, kind of staycation thing down in Miami with
me and and and the girls and and uh we
were in a hotel and he gave me a call
and you know, it's always great getting those calls because
we have just, uh, you know, the greatest conversations about
what's going on in our lives and the complexities and
helping each other.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And he's like, you just thought it was a phone call.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, I just yeah, I was just like, all right,
let's just you know, hang out and shoot the ship.
And and you know, towards the middle of it, he's like, hey, listen, uh,
we were thinking about it in the team and we
just would really love for you to be the first
guest in the new studio. And and I remember it
hit me like a ton of bricks, because you know,
(06:16):
there's been a lot of a lot of back and
forth over the years and uh wish Sean and him
asking me to come on, and and for many, many,
many many years, I just I felt like I One,
I was honored obviously. Two, I didn't want to go
(06:37):
on and and and you know, I felt like I
didn't have much to say initially, you know, I didn't
have a story that was comparative to some of the
other you know titans that he's having on there. I mean, Eddie,
the Blackwater guys, DJ, you know, all of these Jason Redman.
(07:01):
I mean all of these amazing human beings that I
really admire and and really respect at a high level.
And and so I always kind of felt like, man,
I don't rate to be on your show, first off.
Second of off, I never wanted him to think, well,
let me come on your show so I can promote
this thing or that thing or whatever. And you know,
(07:23):
because as you can all imagine, he is inundated around
the clock with people wanting something from him, wanting him to,
you know, provide them with this opportunity or launch them
or go into business with them, or for him to
post something about them. And it's it's really, you know,
it's for anybody that that hasn't ever been in that
(07:45):
that level of fame or that level of importance, or
that level of responsibility, if you will, that's a profound
burden to carry on your shoulders. And I always just
loved the fact that I could be supportive to him
and without that just just to be the guy for
(08:06):
him to call and just to be supportive and if
he wanted my advice, I'd give my advice. And if
he wanted to just talk about nothing, which we often do, uh,
but we we certainly talk a lot about what drives
us nuts every day in the world, as you can imagine,
and I just wanted to be that friend for him.
(08:26):
I didn't want him ever to think I wanted anything
from him. And so when when he asked me that,
you know, to be the first guest, it was overwhelming.
I mean definitely, the emotions were flooding me and just
felt just just beyond honor to do that. And and
(08:47):
so then it starts going, and you you know, it's like,
all right, you know, I think I called I think
I called you Georady right afterwards and was like, hey man,
you know, guess what and all right, what do we
need to do to prepare for this?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And can I just say real quick, first of all,
I think just the fact I think that whole thing
says a lot about who Sean is, how he runs
his podcast and his team and everything. Because you know,
no offense to you or him or anybody, but he
could have had the first guest in his brand new,
beautiful studio be anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
It could have been some partnership with the big.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Advertiser to really try to help out some deal they've got.
It could have been some guests like the president could
have gotten Donald Trump on there just you know, imagine
the views on that thing, right, But he was able
to despite being probably inundated with requests and even in
his own brain like what should I do?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
What should I do?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
He's like, know what, I'm going to forget all that
I want my best friend to be on and that
just that kind of level of genuine, genuineness and artistic approach.
You can feel it throughout everything that he does. That
was kind of min pression and that just just asking
you his best friend to be on the first episode
(10:04):
of the New Studio, I think just kind of shows
the whole picture in a way.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, I appreciate you acknowledging that. You know, I mean
from from the first you know time that I ever
met Sean, you know, he always just had that different approach,
that little, you know, that thing in his eye that
was different. And then as you know, as we reconnected
at the agency and then reconnected in Boca, and then
(10:29):
you know, and then really kind of developed the friendship
when we were in the midst of our really most
you know, difficult times, what he was going through leaving contract,
what I was going through through my divorce, we just
bonded in a way that it became so much deeper
than even what you know, we had had carrying a
gun next to each other, and that's pretty deep, and
(10:53):
it just it just intensified. And I remember, you know,
there was a story where you know, he was really
doing a lot of training and teaching and he you know,
he had this this dream, you know that he shared
with me to really build something unique, a place for
(11:14):
for us and our generation. And he wasn't sure what
it was going to be. Whether it was going to
be like a modern day American Legion or VFW, or
it was going to be you know, a space that
people could come and share, and he wasn't really sure.
And then it was really uh you know when he
(11:35):
was just like, hey, I'm going to start you know,
doing videos and stuff, and that you know, that goes
back to the earliest days when uh the frod Melvern
forget he was teaching a course. He asked me to
come up and just you know, have fun with these guys.
And at the end of it, they were like, you
two needed you know, competitive challenge together, and so we
did this, you know, sprint one hundred meters Presidente Walking
(12:02):
you know, sitting steel knocked out and then one long
like twenty five meter head shot, and man, I think
I went first and kind of hilarious, you know, me
limping down the hundred meters. That did well in all
the shooting. And then and then he goes and he
as he comes into the l Presidente, he does this
(12:26):
thing called the ninja slide, right, and he ninja slides
in and he like slides pops up pink pink goes
and he and he had a mag mag change problem
and kind of was shaking it, pulled it and then
finishes and walked through and and uh and I beat
him by just like a second or two. But it was,
you know, if he had not had the mag stick,
(12:46):
you know, and he'd been just doing a whole course
with his pistol, so obviously had some carbon build up.
And but I was able to be like, yeah, I won,
you know.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
And you guys had a little bit of a shooting
friendly competition at the at the podcast.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
You had quite the shot at one point.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, it was. It was. That was the luckiest shot
I've ever made in my life, you know, offhand, single hand,
one hundred meters. I don't think I've ever made that shot,
and I don't think I'll ever make that shot again.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So it was the side so for the people listening.
So they went out and they were shooting this new
gun that Sean gifted. David and a lot of us
were inside looking out these big glass doors out to
this this where they were shooting, and they were going.
You could see they're doing, you know, just normal shots,
(13:40):
and then they're switching hands, trying to do one hand
and then we see him from the inside like go
on their off hand shot, so you know, Sean tries
his with his right hand no sorry, with his left hand,
one hand, and then I don't even think he hits it.
He takes like five shots or something like that, and
then we just see David like okay, I'll try and
grabs his right hand one arm and goes ping on
that deal and everybody is I was just like, no
(14:03):
freaking way, dude, that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
It's best because I'm in my shirt and tie right
without my suit code on. If I had had the
suit code on, it would have been the absolute perfect
right it had been that John Wick stuff, David Rutherford,
my best friend, Welcome to the show, Sean, thank you
for having me. It's an honor to be here. What's Up? Team?
(14:27):
I recently had the incredible honor of joining my best
friend Sean Ryan on his show, and as a token
of my appreciation for him and his audience, I want
to do something special for you. For thirty years, I've
been helping individuals and teams to discover how to utilize
pain and suffering to propel their performance. From the World
(14:48):
Series champions the Boston Red Sox to elite operators, top
entrepreneurs and business owners, I want to offer the first
three foundational Frog Logic courses that I've been developed being
for the past decade. Embrace Fear, Forging, self Confidence, and
Team Life. These courses come straight from the painful stories
(15:09):
and lessons learned I talked about on Shawn's podcast, and
they also emerged from the thousands of people I've instructed. Normally,
these courses are two hundred dollars each, but until September fifteenth,
you can get all three for just two hundred dollars.
That's three courses for the price of one, and if
you sign up by Friday, August twenty second, you'll also
(15:30):
get an invite to a live group chat Q and
A with me, where I'll answer your questions and help
you get back to forging your life the way you
were meant to live. Please go to David Rutherford dot
com or click the link in the description to get
the bundle. Thank you very much. Who Yah, and God's
been Yeah, I was, it's anyway, so you know, and
(15:56):
then we you know, we went on and did a
bunch of great video and he just because there was
something really creative about Sean that just is separated him
from I think everybody else, and is what's really allowed
him to emerge is to you know, his his deliverable
is so different, so polished, so creative, so precise, so
(16:18):
immaculate in his delivery. And that's the visual aspect much
less his his his the the the commonality, that's not
the right word, but he asked the questions that everybody's
thinking in their mind. And you know, he he you know,
he said that one time on Tucker and and he
was just like, you know what, you know, people will
(16:40):
say things and I'm not sure what they mean, and
I'll be like, well what does that mean? And and
he goes, you know, I never wanted to be or
pretend something to be I'm not, and that's who he is.
And he always kind of was unique in his approach.
So I remember we had him on Team Never Quit
towards the end when I was out there, and it
(17:01):
was cool because we we had had Rob on and
then Sean on the next day, and Sean had asked, Hey,
can I bring a film crew out? And I was like, absolutely,
we'd love that for sure. And so he brings this
film crew out, he films the whole thing, and then
he comes up with the idea, Hey, let's do this.
You know, this this what you McCall it, this fireside chat,
(17:27):
which was to me, the most brilliant thing we could
have ever done. And you know, we went out and
you know, Marcus's backyard and we had this great fire
pit and we just sat around and told little bud
stories and it was me, Marcus, Rob, Sean the Wizard
and me just laughing and telling and that thing just
blew up. And I mean, I don't even know how
(17:49):
many views it had on it, but it was just
team guys being team guys and telling stories and just
there was no ego and no nothing, and it was
just fun. And that what he had always envisioned was was,
you know, just if you can get a team guy,
you know, in the right spot and in the right moment,
(18:09):
and you know, just be funny and be light and
then also you know every now and then pulling a
good story. That was that's the secret sauce. And I
remember we also did this hilarious funny video where you know,
Marcus is one of his favorite things is to drive
around on his mower. That's his piece. That's where he finds,
you know, his relaxation on his property. And we made
(18:32):
a funny video like we were running from m and
he's trying to mow us down. We did one coming
out of the water and then another chat there and
he's just really creative and in all of those things,
I just knew, like, man, he approaches it differently. And
then finally he just started doing the show in nineteen
(18:54):
on Christmas, we released that first show with just him
and Katie and right from the get going and again
he did this first show in his addict of his home,
and I just that was the moment where I was like,
holy shit, there's something really unique that you're going to deliver.
And then he just kept going and going and I remember,
(19:17):
you know, it's always hard to get started in this
business because again, you know, at that time, it had
really you know, I started in twenty thirteen. My first
show was Navy Seal Radio, and there was nobody doing it.
I mean there was I think Mark Devine was doing
something with it, but that was it. There was nothing else.
(19:39):
And then by you know, sixteen, when we started T ANDQ,
it was picking up. More guys were doing more things,
and by nineteen the whole it was saturated with people
doing it. But he came out of the masses with
this really beautiful, thoughtful space to deliver are the most
(20:00):
intense experiences that that people could have and and really
the secret sauce are are the is the humanization of
the of elite guys, elite warriors, and their ability to
put into perspective all of the normal emotions that everybody
has is in all their times. And he was able
(20:23):
to encapsulate that in that very in that perfect space
that he built, and it's been overwhelming to watch. I remember,
you know, two years ago, uh, in my firm, you know,
I worked for a large asset management firm my day job,
and and I'm like, all the way on the other
side of country, and you know it is around a
(20:44):
bunch of the wholesalers, all great young guys, just getting
after it, and I remember them, you know, being like,
hey man, you know I just watched this episode on
this guy the Sean Ryan Show. Do you know who
he is? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know him
pretty good. And then they're like, get out of here.
(21:05):
And that's when I was like, oh my god, this
is humongous, Like it's massive. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Can tell that he's kept that artistic vision as the
root and the north star of everything that he does.
I mean, it sounds like he had it from the
very beginning and even up to the episode that you
just did with him. You could just tell he really
cares about his artistic vision of it and just having
the most honest, genuine conversation he can possibly have, and
(21:35):
it kind of seems like he doesn't care about anything else,
Like maybe he's just he's just stubborn enough where he's like, Nope,
we're gonna make the best thing that I can even
possibly fathom and what my vision is and just go
for the maximumly you know, honest interview as possible, and
that's gonna be what it is, we'll see what happens.
(21:56):
Like that's what he cares about, and that's it.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
That's all he's been it, That's who he is. Like
he's the most meticulous, detail oriented guy almost I've ever
met in my life, in particular in this creative aspect
of it too, which is very unique. You know, I
think a lot of times team guys or or operators,
however you want to describe as you know, they they
(22:21):
there's a they're they're incredibly creative in their tactical sense
and their abilities. But when it comes to this artistic
endeavor and there's artistic nature, I think it's unfulfilled and
a lot That's why I love to see former operators
move into their their art space or their they're deliverable.
My friend Derek Natalini becoming a musician. You know, there's
(22:44):
other guys, uh, Leo Jenkins, was it Leo Jacob? I
forget Leo, I forget what his name, but he writes
a bunch of books and poetry. He's amazing. You know.
You see these guys who make furniture, triedent woodworks. You
see these people out there and they're they're really taking
(23:07):
these experiences and they're converting them into a vision you said,
like this artistic vision for me the whole Like the
magnitude of this process getting ready and coming up to
this show really, you know, became like the power of it.
Because I remember when he was like, hey, dude, I'm
(23:28):
gonna I think I'm gonna build my own studio. And
I was like, awesome, you know, and you think that,
and You're like, all right, what's it going to be?
And and then I went up for fourth of July
to spend time with them, our family, their family and
some others, and and that the night before we got
to go see the studio for the first time. And
(23:49):
I remember because he had he'd driven me out there
when he purchased the land for it, and I was
just like, you know, you're and he's kind of telling
me the vision and I'm I'm I'm pretty good at
being able to imagine anything, you know, as an artist myself.
I'm all about the vision. It's you know, and what
can it can become. And he's like this, and I'm like, yeah,
(24:09):
I see it, I see it, you know, but you can't.
I mean, first off, don't ever try and get in
Sean's mind, because it's it's a unique place to be.
I'm sure you know, certainly, it's it's as complex as
anything anybody I've ever met. And I think that's another
real amazing thing about my friendship with him, is that,
(24:29):
you know, he has such a unique approach to how
he looks at the world, and that's what it's always.
I'm never I'm never at a space where I'm like, oh,
I know what he's thinking or I know this. He's
always surprising me. And that's a that's a really healthy
place to be when you're when you're you know you're
that close with somebody, is that they're always emerging and
developing and growing. And that's the type of people you
(24:50):
want to have in your life, right. You don't want
to be with people that are stagnant, that are complacent
or not willing to take a risk in terms of
developing a dream. And that's something that I've always sought
out in friendships. I want to be around people who
really have a quest to explore their potential and their capability.
And Shawn's one of those guys. And so when we
(25:12):
showed up at this thing, and it was funny because
Katie myself and Johnna. You went in and we're sitting
outside and he's flipping all the lights on, and then
we go in and it's just magnificent. This this place
is it's first off, it's understated. It's not like you
don't drive in and you're not like like, it's not
(25:35):
in your face grandiose.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It's golding building like.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
You know, a giant V red V out front, you know,
and like a billboard, you know, standing seven hundred feet
above or it's nothing like that. It's completely subdued. You'd
never notice it was even there. And that's the point
of him. That's his style and Katie's style. And you
walk in and it's just gorgeous. It's absolutely magnificent. Everything
(26:03):
is just beautifully done, very subdued, very clean. You know,
they're you know, they they love clean lines, they love
they're not flashy, they're none of that. It's just everything
creates that very chill, very precise experience. And so we
went in and then we went downstairs and showed me
(26:25):
all the engineering and you know, the amazing thing about
the engineering room is, you know, and this gets to
the contact of a team. And I'll talk about the
team just one second. And he had asked his main engineers,
you know, if you whatever your office could look like,
what would it look like? And they sent him a
picture and he built that for them, right, And that
that that's who he is, and that's what the people
(26:47):
who work with him and the people he cares about.
That's how he takes care of the people in his life.
It's it's it's really beautiful. That's how he takes care
of me in that context. And so we went through it,
and then I got to go into the studio where
it was undone, not anything like you know, everything was
empty when as what you just saw on the show,
and and you could just feel it. It just felt
(27:11):
the the magnificence of it, you know, and that and
not magnificence in terms of uh, like I said, it's
it's not not the furniture. No, No, it's the space. No,
it's the space. It's it's it's it's the space that
it's created that naturally came together with with what he built,
(27:36):
what he created, and and it's like, oh my god.
Well then you're in there and now this sudden you're like,
holy shit, I'm going to come into this space and
I'm going to sit down and I'm going to talk
about the most difficult things in my life. And and
that's when the nerves started really hitting, for sure, and
(28:00):
you just wanna so really we started really thinking about,
oh my god, all right, how are we going to
do this? What's the timeline, what are the things? And
we really started John and I started doing the deep
dive into all right, what's poignant? What are the messages?
You know, what are the stories I want to tell?
And and what's you do you do if you wanna,
(28:21):
if you want to, because you know, here it is
is someone achieves a dream or component of the dream
and because of their hard work and I mean Sean lives, eats, sleeps,
breathes the Sean Ryan Show, and that's the why he's
so successful. I call it a focused obsession. You know,
(28:43):
regular obsessions are detrimental in nature. It's not how you
want to live. I mean, an obsession can be, you know,
really detrimental. And I'm not saying that a focused obsession can't.
But there's a more genuine positive influence or intentness or
that's right, thank you. There's a purpose behind a focused obsession.
(29:04):
And I actually teach a little class about that and
hopefully we'll get a course up in the next six
to eight months about focused obsession. And so you're seeing
this all come to fruition, this timeline that I've been
with him and watched the growth and felt it and
talked to him through the whole thing, and now all
(29:25):
right here, this is what it is. This is the
result of the effort I have put forth, and I
want you to be in there with me on the
first one, almost christen it if you will, And man
like I felt a duty to make sure that the
(29:45):
analysis of my life was not only you know, going
to be sincere and genuine and the delivery, but also
that there would be a poignant message that hopefully could
help just one person. You know, Jordi and I think
about this on a regular basis. We think, you know,
if there's just one person, one person that listens to
(30:06):
you know, our show, that listens to my story on
Sean's show, listens to my videos, or takes a course
or reads the book, if there's just one person that
has positively impact, then then we're we're good. And that's
what I like.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
The way you said it even better, you would say
this to me all the time you'd say just one soul.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, I think that's even better.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
It is well, I mean this, you always are worried
about talking to your audience and getting a little bit
too metaphysical or theological or whatever, and so thank you brother.
It is about the soul, right, the whole thing is
about our soul. And when you go into a space
(30:49):
where you're willing to bear your soul, you know, in
the context of your best friend his dream coming true
through his hard work, like, it's a powerful, powerful experience.
The other component that really made the massive difference for me,
and and John and Jordi. We all were invited up
(31:10):
to go to this thing. It made a huge, huge
It was so important to have John and Jordy there
with me. I can't even begin to tell you the
what you all don't see is the magnitude of work
that they put in. Not only do they put into,
you know, supporting me, but what Jeordi does with the show,
(31:30):
what Jordy does with our marketing. With Jordy, I mean,
he does it all himself. He is he is a
master at what he does. And we could not do this.
I couldn't even do this if I wanted to in
the way that you're able to experience what we're trying
to do for you. It's Jordy is the the machine
behind that. And then obviously my beautiful wife is the
(31:53):
heartbeat behind it. And but she's also in there writing curriculum,
you know, correcting curriculum, managing that uh and starting emails,
responding to customer service. We are, you know, a small
unit right now, and we're just we're a family. And
so what you know what I've always heard from day one,
the first person that you know that ever worked with
(32:17):
Sean and all the way, especially up to where he
is now, this is my family. These are the people
that I care most about because this is my life.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
You can feel that in their team.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah. Well, I mean I from the first time I
met his CEOO and his head producer and how they
welcomed me, and how they greeted me, and how wonderful
they were when I met them over fourth of July
and their families. These are solid human beings, I mean,
really amazing, incredible human beings. And what's nuts is you know,
(32:49):
his producer Jeremy was actually roommates with another good team guy,
Buddy Mine Pete Scobell at the Academy and you know,
just to hear that connection was another weird connection that
you know in our lives. And Pete is one of
the best people I've I've ever known and just an
amazing human being. And you know, his son is one
of the biggest child actors in the world right now,
(33:11):
and you know, to see and talk to him about
coaching him and the inspiration that Pete is and you know,
he's a beautiful artist himself. There's another one of those
artists you know in terms of his his music and
if you ever get an opportunity to go check out
Pete Scobell and his music, he's just he's so talented
and so amazing. And then fast forward on the day.
(33:32):
You know, we we come in a day early. We
had this wonderful time the day before, and then we
show up the day of and you know, they come
out the front door and they're there to greet me,
and Sean's assistant and and and Jeremy, and then I
start meeting everybody who's on the team, and you know,
(33:53):
I'm not sure whether or not they want me to
say their names or not, probably not, but uh, these
are I mean, it's you know, it'd be too cliche
to say a well oiled machine. I mean, these are
people who are emotionally invested in what they do, you know,
and the stories of each one of them, and how
(34:15):
graceful and how gracious they were to all three of us,
and in particular for me, I mean, you know, I
mean obviously the nerves. You know, you can cut the
tension in my mind with a you know, with a
my blade because of the nerves of like, oh my god,
now's the time, Now I'm going on, now I'm doing it.
(34:37):
We're here now. And they couldn't have been better, from
you know, the gentleman who manages their Patreon, to their
main social guy and there, to the guy who does
their clips and their videos and manages that, to their
engineers and to his assistant, and obviously to you know,
to Eric and Jeremy, and everybody was just I mean, Jordy,
(35:00):
I feel like every it was such they were so
welcoming and they were so but there was a professional
I think, yes, they were all excited that it was
me and we of how close our relationship, but I
think this is the way they are, no matter what
what's up. Team. I've been writing for over forty years. Finally,
(35:22):
I've decided to bring to life a character that has
been on my heart since my experiences of carrying a
gun for a living. If you recently watched my episode
with my best friend on his show, The Sean Ryan Show,
you heard some of my real world experiences that shape
this character and the story of The Poet Warrior. Can
a poet's soul survive the crucible of war? The Poet
(35:45):
Warrior follows Adam Ferguson, a reclusive teenage artist haunted by
his father's early death, as he transforms into a battle
scarred Navy seal. Through the chaos of combat in the
shadow of nine to eleven, Adam grapples with the raw
truth of mortality. His journey is a searing odyssey of heartbreak, failure,
(36:05):
and the relentless search for identity amidst the ruins of
lost loved ones, set against the turbulent dawn of the
global War on Terror. This is a story of a
young man torn between his poetic heart and the hard
and warrior he's become. If this sounds like a story
that might pull you in, please visit my website at
David Rutherford dot com or click the link in the
(36:28):
description below and if you pre order now, your signed
copy will be delivered before the holidays. Thank you very
much and godspeed.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Well you can tell that Shawn's vision and his passion
for what he does, because first of all, I just
say it one more time. I can't understand it enough.
And it's like you can tell Sean, his entire mind
is just on, let me, how can we make the
most beautiful and best and most honest conversation possible. Like
that's his entire mind, not about you know, the little
(37:06):
stuff or the business around it, or the building or
the wires or the micro Like he's just so focused
on the best artistic product possible to come out of this, right,
and that bleeds into his team because you imagine, like
I don't know, you go into some mainstream news studio
(37:27):
they have a guest on that's just another number going
through the factory, right, like, just get him in, get
the mic on, do the questions, get him out. Right,
it's just like a well it's a well lowled machine,
but with kind of no soul to it.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
But these guys they brought you in and it was
it kind of felt like we were going over to
visit him, like they invited us over to their house.
That kind of was the feeling that you had. And
then the professionalism was unmatched. I mean, the people kept
asking me, you know, how was it? What you think
all these things? And I've been producing podcasts and around
that world for a long time now, and I just
(38:01):
kept saying the word it's incomparable.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
There's not really another.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Thing you can say, oh, yeah, his show and his
team instead of like it's kind of like this thing
over here. I actually don't know of an example of
what to compare it to. Like there's other people and
then there's the Sean Ryan experience, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
The way they all acted. It was like.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
It's like I don't know a football team where at
halftime they all finally get together and they're all in
the same sheet of music and they all go out
there and you can tell when they just like gel
together and they're all working together towards the same mission.
There's a magic that happens on the field. It kind
of felt like that to me.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
So that was my well. I mean I've worked with,
you know, some championship teams. I've worked with some elite
operators and businesses, you know, some of the biggest businesses
in the world. And you're right, that's what it was.
It was a real the team, but like that deeper level,
not just the let's be a great team corny stuff
(39:02):
like these people, you know, they all eight slept and
they bleed srs right, And and that's why, like you said,
that's why the content is so pure, it is so good,
it is so meaningful for so many millions of people
because they feel that translates into it from their trailers,
(39:22):
which are, in my mind, the best in the business.
Nobody makes unmatched. They're just spectacular. They're better than like,
you know, one hundred and two hundred million dollar movie trailers.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
And now who did that?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Said that he had this whole artistic vision of you know,
whenever I see a new TV show drop or a
movie or a new series on Netflix, there's always like
a really cool intro trailer that happens. It's always iconic
and you remember it. And I was like, well, why
can't we do that for a podcast? And he's talented
enough that he actually did it. But just to even
(39:56):
ask that question is is unique.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I had an opportunity in my life to talk to
a guy who runs a company out in la who
does that, Like he's one of the top in the
business to make movie trailers. And you know, the way
he talks about it is like he's you know, the
trailer is the thing that makes you emotionally invested to
move forward, right, And if you think about the shows
(40:21):
that all the fifteen million podcasts that are in the world,
how many shows make you feel something so deeply emotional
in the preview that they pull you in for a
six four hour, seven hour, seven and a half hour show.
And it's because of that, It's because of his gift
(40:44):
and his ability and his desire to want to give
you that when you watch this. So it's like that's
the thing. And all the way from post production, I mean,
they're editing in real time. You know. That was the
other thing that just blew me away.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Can I say that you get?
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah? You were in there.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, I was in the editing room and I was
talking to all the editors, so obviously we got to
talk shop a little bit, right, And just to comment
on the last thing, really quick, little inside baseball for
podcast producer world. Some people don't know that producing a
trailer like that, you think, oh, we'll do the podcast
and maybe we'll like we'll make a trailer. We'll cut
a trailer real quick after that, so you know, kind
(41:23):
of hype up the episode. You know, the trailer takes
way longer than editing that whole episode. Like the amount
of time they have to spend to add on a
trailer like that is it might be double what it
takes to actually just produce the whole episode itself. That
trailer takes a lot of thought and time and energy
(41:46):
and creativity. And the fact that they do that for
every single episode. They don't have to do that. They
could just release the episode, right, they choose to put
that much effort just into the trailer. It shows so much.
But Yeah, the coolest thing that I saw in terms
of nerdy tech stuff is the way they're editing it.
So while that podcast is being recorded, those files are
(42:08):
being saved on a computer that's you know, SYNCD up
with their editing software, and that those files are getting
fed into Premiere Pro and they're editing software.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
In real time.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
And man, this dude on his team, he was a
trooper for that entire day. That guy was editing your
conversation with Sean the entire time just locked in And
I mean you guys went for it was probably ten
hours total with the breaks, right, and so this guy
was just locked in that whole time. But just think
about they have the soul and the heart, but they
(42:41):
also have that well oiled machine where they can crank
out this stuff so quickly.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
That's what makes it unique. They have both of those things.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, I agree totally. And so when you hear us
talk about this, you know, this is what you know
you're is all around you. So the intensity and the
commitment level of of all these people that are you know,
completely on board to help fulfill Sean's vision of all
(43:07):
these interviews, like that's the engine behind it. And so
you know, you go into that that experience and you
step in those doors and you know you probably felt
a little bit of that tension if you watched it
between he and I when we started and you know,
I mean we did this. You know, Sean is very
(43:29):
gracious and gives the right amount of space prior to
the right amount of prep the right amount of guidance,
the right amount of everything. You know, he realizes what's coming,
he knows he's been in hundreds of those so far,
the most intimate, you know, deepest moments of anyone's life,
they're about ready to share with him in front of
(43:49):
millions of people. And he knows that, and he's gracious
about it, and he provided and then particular for me,
you know, us being as close as we are, you know,
he made sure I felt that for him. And there's
no amount of gratitude or thanks that I could ever
even articulate, uh to Sean for that and the and
(44:10):
the gratitude I felt for his team to give me
that that runway to move into that room. But certainly
once you step in that room, man, it's it's on.
And obviously you can go watch the show. Uh, it
would be wonderful if if you did, We would appreciate it,
(44:31):
you know, support them, support the show. Uh. And but
really what it what it is is, it's it's a transformation.
It's a it's not only a cathartic experience in order
to be able to delve into those those darkest recesses
of your soul and your experience, but it's also U
it brings immeasurable levity. Uh. I was able to illuminate
(44:55):
so much about my experience and how it shaped who
I was and what I believe and who I am
as as you know, as a Christian, as a husband
and a father, as a friend, as a son, you know,
all these things, but also as an artist, as an operator,
(45:16):
as an author, as a mentor, as a coach. You know,
all of those things are able to be laid out
in a way that really is is unique and and
and and you know, not that my story is any
better than anybody else's, but Sean creates the space where
(45:38):
he really makes you feel like, you know, to be
proud of of where you come from, regardless of the
anguish and the suffering and the pain that we experience.
And that's really the gift, the gift of of what
Sean Ryan does for all of us is Sean gives
us access uh and humanizes the thing that unites us.
(45:58):
Regardless of of our our gender, our race, our backgrounds,
our socioeconomic status, our nationalities. We're all unified in our
collective understanding of pain and suffering. And and he believes
that that is a tool to heal others. If you
saw kind of his video that that you know said
(46:20):
goodbye to the old studio he says that, you know,
my my goal was to help plant the seed of
of resilience and recovery and healing to anybody who's gracious
enough to spend their time watching what he produces and
what he what he offers, and and and you feel
that in the midst of it, Like, I mean, I've
(46:42):
never once spoken publicly about that experience in Afghanistan. And
there was a reason because it was the most painful
thing in my life. Uh, you know that I've gone through,
and the fact that he was able to give me
that strength and to like because you could look, you
(47:03):
look at my my best friend in the eyes as
I'm like right on the precipice of delivering you know,
all of this stuff, and he's just like, I got you.
I got you. Don't worry, I got you. You're good
and I love you, and it's okay, You'll be fine.
And man, I've never experienced that before. And I don't
even know. I mean, I've done you know myself. I
(47:25):
think I'm up around three hundred podcasts or something like that.
You know, I've been on dozens of podcasts myself. But
you know that that that that gift is is as
powerful gift as anything I've ever been given, and and
(47:46):
just it's it's a remarkable experience, certainly after you come
out in between the breaks, when you take the breaks. Uh,
you know, our first break, we did the shooting thing
and that was a lot of fun that really you know,
put some tension. Then we go back in, we do
the next section, then we come back out. We went
in and then we went in for the heavy stuff
the next one, and then I think we took one
more and then finished. And what was crazy was you know,
(48:10):
I you know this in marathon Ultra marathon interview and
as it ended, you know, I essentially really didn't even
talk about what I've been doing professionally since I left
the agency. I mean, we touched on it a little bit,
but you know, it was more about those experiences and
(48:31):
it was you know, it was awesome, and you know,
and one of the things you just you trust is
that you know, the audience is going to get the
pieces that they need to get about me and who
I was, and hopefully they can take those away. So
you know, it's like, all right, now we have this,
you know, from two thousand, you know, eleven into twenty
(48:55):
twelve to twenty twenty five. You know, I essentially talk
about anything I've been doing professionally. That and that was
you know, we we laughed afterwards, and both Jordie and
johnn and you know, I've come out. I'm exhausted, and
I'm just like, what do you think, you know, if
you want to know? And they're like, it was perfect.
It couldn't have been better. And they were so wonderful. Jordy,
(49:17):
you were such an amazing friend and I'm so blessed
to have your support and all this. And because you
don't know, like you're just freaked out, you just exposed,
you got naked. Like that was funny.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Because it was funny because you know, you go into
this and people, for people who don't know, there's no
guidance on like how long is this interview going to be?
Speaker 3 (49:38):
No one knows how long the interview is going to be.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
So you just walk in and just you just start
right And it was so funny because so first of all,
me and John are the edge of our seats watching
and watching in the editing room, right because from the
first five minutes, you know, you can feel the tension,
not in a bad way, but in a good way,
because I mean, there's a lot of guests on the show,
but you don't have many best friends in the world, right,
and so you can feel that tension of those two,
(50:02):
these two guys in the room that have been through
so much together. And the first five minutes, I feel
like you guys were just kind of like, well, here
we go, Like what's about to happen? But anyway, you
got through the first break and me and JOHNO were
wondering how long this is going to go? And when
you when you took the first break, we're an hour
and a half, two hours in and you hadn't even
(50:23):
gotten to wanting to go to the military yet in
your life story, and we were like, oh, okay, it's
going to be like that. And that was the That
was the craziest part. And people who watch you're gonna
feel that that that tension that's very unique between the
two best friends.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
Oh thank you Jordy for saying that. You know, I mean,
I speak professionally for a living. Just a couple of
weeks before the show, I was out with a new
a good friend of mine now Jamie, out in Missouri
in Iowa doing some events out there, and one day
I spoke for like seven hours the clients, and then
(50:59):
we talked for two hours in the you know, in
the car on the way to the next city. And
you know, thank god, I do that for a living
and I speak that much, so I was able to
have the composure or the stamina is really the better word,
to be able to manage that endurance feet of that
ultra marathon interview. But it was, you know that, That's
(51:21):
the thing, Like you, I never once got to the
space where it's like I want this to end because
it's too much. I'm overwhelmed because of what they are
Shawn and his team are able to create, you know,
and if if you ever have the you know, grand fortune,
the blessing of getting an opportunity to go on his show,
(51:43):
you'll experience this in some way, shape or form. And
it's it's unlike anything I've ever experienced in any way,
you know. And I've been on some really amazing shows
of people's shows that have had me on people I
really love. But there's just something about it because everything
that anybody who's come before you, they built that room.
(52:07):
Their stories built that room there. Their their heartache, their pain,
their suffering, they built that room. And so you know,
not only do I want to pay tribute to everybody
in my life that had an impact to help me
get through my life that was there for me who
in every way, shape or form, but it's also all
(52:30):
the other people who came before. And so you like,
in my mind, it's like, I want to contribute. I
want to also, uh help that space. I want to
be a part. I want to participate in it and
be and I want to you know, give whatever God
wants me to give in that moment as well too.
And so it's it's a really really amazing thing. But
(52:51):
I'll tell you what. When we finished at the ad Man,
uh it was. It was. It was quite the experience
for sure. And uh, I just you know, it was
so amazing because you know, you leave and you know
you're saying, everybody's exhausted, You're exhausting. You go back and
we went back to our little airbnb that we the
three of us were in, and this is Sean. Sean's like,
(53:13):
hey man, I'm going to stop by, and he came
over and he came over for what another two hours
almost yeh two hours, sitting with us, asking question more
questions us asking him questions and.
Speaker 3 (53:26):
And this was an all day shoot, dude.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
He got in there, he was in there like eight
thirty in the more eight eight something in eight thirty.
Speaker 3 (53:36):
Hour day of shooting and then go visit and.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Then come and spend time with with me and and
my family and and that's who he is. And it's
just uh an amazing, unbelievable experience, you know. And you know,
one of the one of the things that you know,
we try and do and and you try I think
a lot of people try to do is you know,
(54:01):
you always try and end the show being like, all right, well,
what do you got going now? And what are you
doing now? And all this stuff now. And obviously, Jordi
and I and John have been crushing ourselves over the
last four months to get all this new content available,
not only in the Dave Rudford Show, but to really
refine and develop our online training at the Frog Logic Institute.
(54:25):
You know, the three courses that we've built out Embrace, Fear, Forging,
self Confidence, Live a Team Life, and I mean what
we we shot and edited close to eighty videos in
all those in something it's I mean, Jordy was working
around o'clock, all while his wife's pregnant, he's about ready
to have his new kid, and we're just like, we're
(54:46):
shooting five videos a day, you know, for weeks on end,
and he's just grinding through it. And you know, then changes,
that's right, that's right through diper change. And then you know,
I've been working on this books since the last November,
and you know, we're we're we're pushing hard to wrap
this thing up and we're gonna we're going to get
(55:06):
it out to you know people before the holidays, you know,
and and you know, we so we have this book
to offer, you know, this pre order book of this
book I've been working on that's been in my head
for seven years, these characters and these ideas, and and
you know, it was weird because you know, November last year,
my life was completely different. I was pretty much only
(55:29):
doing you know the stuff with with my the asset
management firm, and that was it. I had stopped my show.
I wasn't really online, I wasn't creating, I wasn't writing,
I wasn't doing anything. And and you know, I've got
this amazing therapist with this organization, uh, the Soft Network
that we use with an operator Centrome Foundation for the guys,
(55:51):
our pilot guys and me. I use when I used,
I work with this incredible human being. And I remember
our second meeting, She's like, you know, what are you
doing to fulfill that create the creative need? And so
I started writing this book and lo and behold, next thing,
you know, the show comes, next thing comes. Then Sean
Ryan's showed coming, and so we had all this stuff
(56:12):
and and thank god, you know, Sean didn't go down
that path and and cheap it in it with with
some type of infomercial for me at the end, and uh,
it was just such a blessing regardless. And you know,
we're we're recording this, uh and we're not really you know,
quite sure what's going to happen. It's it's uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
It was recorded after the recording but before the release
of the show.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so we were not one hundred percent
sure what everything's going to look at And and you
know that one of the beautiful things that Seawan always says,
and he says to me, is like, you know, just
you know, don't have expectations, just trust your faith, believe
in God, believe in Christ. And and it'll come back. You'll, it'll, it'll, it'll.
God will pay you what you do deserve in the
(57:00):
right time, in God's time. And he was able to
really uh say that to us. So you know, we're
just overwhelmed with the opportunity and the gratitude and and
so you know, we really Johanna, Jordie and I really
just wanted to pay tribute to Shawn's team all of you.
(57:22):
Thank you so much. You are absolutely incredible. You're the
best in the business. We appreciate everything that you did
for us and well do and have done for us.
I really look forward us continuing our friendships and and
we just were we we're grateful for you guys. And
then uh, you know, to to Katie, you know, thank you, uh,
(57:45):
your hospitality, your grace and your loving supportive of my
best friend is overwhelming. And and the kids, we just
love y'all so much. Uh And then Sean Man, thank you.
I just uh just thank you. I love you. I
(58:07):
really appreciate what you who you are, you and my
life and for this opportunity, I'm just I'm grateful, so
thank you so much. All Right, there you have it.
There's the recap. Of the experience the Sean Ryan effect
and what it does and the impact it had on me,
(58:28):
it had on Geordie, it had on Johnna, and we're
just I'm just praying that if you listen to it,
uh and you hear it, you just realize, you know,
what our intention is and what we we run to
do in our life is similar to Sean We we
just want to bring some goodness, we want to expose
(58:50):
some bad things, but more importantly, we just want to
be able to lift people up a little bit and
let you know, Uh, we're going to get through it.
We're going to get through it together. We're going to
get through it with our faith, We're going to get
through it with our friendships, and we're certainly going to
get through it. Uh. If we all believe that, we
are so thank you all so much, godspeed who we
(59:12):
are
The Sean Ryan effect is real, and the effect it
had on me was significant. Today I'm the David Rutherford Show.
Welcome to the show, everybody. David Rutherford here coming off
of what can only be construed as profound And I
know a lot of people hate that that term, but
(00:22):
that's what it was. That's what it is. I'm still
in the midst of it, and it's not something that
you go through and you you talk about that those
types of things that I shared on his show and
then the response that comes from it is overwhelming, to
(00:43):
say the least. So today, what I, Jordy and I
thought might be interesting for everybody is is to just
talk about the lead up to it, the experience of
going on it on his show, and then you know,
the feelings and kind of the ability to look back
(01:03):
on on on what it was like and and you
know what's come out of it. I mean, uh, to
sit in that chair for seven plus hours was was
was definitely an ultra marathon, so to speak, of emotions
and you know, come to think of it, I mean,
Jordy and I were laughing. Uh. You know, if you
(01:26):
if you look at the timeline we you know, we
got all the way my childhood in college and uh,
the first part of the teams, you know, post nine
to eleven that that, you know, the challenging combat deployment.
I had a little bit of blackwater, definitely some of
my time at the Central Intelligence Agency. Uh. And then
(01:47):
you know, absolutely my my beautiful bride and and my wife, Johnna,
and and our family and our children. But you know,
there was kind of kind of wild and Jordy and
Johnna both brought this up afterwards, they're like, you know,
damn man, you you essentially didn't even talk about winning
a world series and working with all the teams and
(02:09):
all the different companies you've worked with and experiences you've
had with athletes and other people you've mentored, and and
you know that that whole thing didn't even come out.
So you know, I I I But again you have
to keep for me, it's always just about keeping in context, uh,
what it was all about. And that was the experience
(02:31):
of being with my best friend who has become one
of the top you know, podcaster or news show whatever
you want to say in the entire world. And then
his graciousness and his uh desire to want to give
me the opportunity in his brand new unbelievable studio. That
(02:54):
really is I've never seen anything like I'm you know,
it's got to be one of the top in the
entire industry no matter where you go, and whether it's
New York or LA. You know this this, you know,
I'm sure he'll he and his crew will take the
Pepsi challenge against anybody. And and I'm sure you're gonna
hear a lot more people who come out of that
(03:15):
place and and and really express the just the magnificence
of it, you know, and in the understated presence of
it as well too, is just unbelievable. It's really about,
you know, two best friends and being on this journey
for a long time together and and and the space
(03:35):
that Sean as he does you know, for so many people.
It's funny. For years I joked and I called him,
you know, the Oprah for operators. And next thing, you know,
I'm I'm I'm on the proverbial couch or the great
and infamous leather chair. And in that and and and
(03:56):
delivering you know, my most challenged gene and deepest uh
experiences and emotions in my life, and I'm doing so
in such a powerful way that he just really is Uh.
He just creates that space and there for to do
(04:17):
it and to feel supported and loved and comforted, uh
in a way that I simply have never experienced or
felt before. So I you know, when if you're processing
it at that that level, it's it. It really was
exciting now, you know, one of the one of the
interesting things. And you know, people don't understand really how
(04:41):
it works, but you know they they are constantly driving,
uh to find the most significant stories or people in
their live story, their life stories that they can find.
And that's from operators to politicians to conspiracy theory is
to people in in the religious world and everything in between,
(05:06):
and and so uh back uh, I want to say
it was jeez, I forget when it was. It was
around I think back in spring break or sometime around
around then, wasn't it, JORDI, Yeah, it was spring, Yeah,
it was. It was it was like late spring. I
remember I was down in in Miami. We took a little,
(05:29):
you know, kind of staycation thing down in Miami with
me and and and the girls and and uh we
were in a hotel and he gave me a call
and you know, it's always great getting those calls because
we have just, uh, you know, the greatest conversations about
what's going on in our lives and the complexities and
helping each other.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And he's like, you just thought it was a phone call.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, I just yeah, I was just like, all right,
let's just you know, hang out and shoot the ship.
And and you know, towards the middle of it, he's like, hey, listen, uh,
we were thinking about it in the team and we
just would really love for you to be the first
guest in the new studio. And and I remember it
hit me like a ton of bricks, because you know,
(06:16):
there's been a lot of a lot of back and
forth over the years and uh wish Sean and him
asking me to come on, and and for many, many,
many many years, I just I felt like I One,
I was honored obviously. Two, I didn't want to go
(06:37):
on and and and you know, I felt like I
didn't have much to say initially, you know, I didn't
have a story that was comparative to some of the
other you know titans that he's having on there. I mean, Eddie,
the Blackwater guys, DJ, you know, all of these Jason Redman.
(07:01):
I mean all of these amazing human beings that I
really admire and and really respect at a high level.
And and so I always kind of felt like, man,
I don't rate to be on your show, first off.
Second of off, I never wanted him to think, well,
let me come on your show so I can promote
this thing or that thing or whatever. And you know,
(07:23):
because as you can all imagine, he is inundated around
the clock with people wanting something from him, wanting him to,
you know, provide them with this opportunity or launch them
or go into business with them, or for him to
post something about them. And it's it's really, you know,
it's for anybody that that hasn't ever been in that
(07:45):
that level of fame or that level of importance, or
that level of responsibility, if you will, that's a profound
burden to carry on your shoulders. And I always just
loved the fact that I could be supportive to him
and without that just just to be the guy for
(08:06):
him to call and just to be supportive and if
he wanted my advice, I'd give my advice. And if
he wanted to just talk about nothing, which we often do, uh,
but we we certainly talk a lot about what drives
us nuts every day in the world, as you can imagine,
and I just wanted to be that friend for him.
(08:26):
I didn't want him ever to think I wanted anything
from him. And so when when he asked me that,
you know, to be the first guest, it was overwhelming.
I mean definitely, the emotions were flooding me and just
felt just just beyond honor to do that. And and
(08:47):
so then it starts going, and you you know, it's like,
all right, you know, I think I called I think
I called you Georady right afterwards and was like, hey man,
you know, guess what and all right, what do we
need to do to prepare for this?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And can I just say real quick, first of all,
I think just the fact I think that whole thing
says a lot about who Sean is, how he runs
his podcast and his team and everything. Because you know,
no offense to you or him or anybody, but he
could have had the first guest in his brand new,
beautiful studio be anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
It could have been some partnership with the big.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Advertiser to really try to help out some deal they've got.
It could have been some guests like the president could
have gotten Donald Trump on there just you know, imagine
the views on that thing, right, But he was able
to despite being probably inundated with requests and even in
his own brain like what should I do?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
What should I do?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
He's like, know what, I'm going to forget all that
I want my best friend to be on and that
just that kind of level of genuine, genuineness and artistic approach.
You can feel it throughout everything that he does. That
was kind of min pression and that just just asking
you his best friend to be on the first episode
(10:04):
of the New Studio, I think just kind of shows
the whole picture in a way.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, I appreciate you acknowledging that. You know, I mean
from from the first you know time that I ever
met Sean, you know, he always just had that different approach,
that little, you know, that thing in his eye that
was different. And then as you know, as we reconnected
at the agency and then reconnected in Boca, and then
(10:29):
you know, and then really kind of developed the friendship
when we were in the midst of our really most
you know, difficult times, what he was going through leaving contract,
what I was going through through my divorce, we just
bonded in a way that it became so much deeper
than even what you know, we had had carrying a
gun next to each other, and that's pretty deep, and
(10:53):
it just it just intensified. And I remember, you know,
there was a story where you know, he was really
doing a lot of training and teaching and he you know,
he had this this dream, you know that he shared
with me to really build something unique, a place for
(11:14):
for us and our generation. And he wasn't sure what
it was going to be. Whether it was going to
be like a modern day American Legion or VFW, or
it was going to be you know, a space that
people could come and share, and he wasn't really sure.
And then it was really uh you know when he
(11:35):
was just like, hey, I'm going to start you know,
doing videos and stuff, and that you know, that goes
back to the earliest days when uh the frod Melvern
forget he was teaching a course. He asked me to
come up and just you know, have fun with these guys.
And at the end of it, they were like, you
two needed you know, competitive challenge together, and so we
did this, you know, sprint one hundred meters Presidente Walking
(12:02):
you know, sitting steel knocked out and then one long
like twenty five meter head shot, and man, I think
I went first and kind of hilarious, you know, me
limping down the hundred meters. That did well in all
the shooting. And then and then he goes and he
as he comes into the l Presidente, he does this
(12:26):
thing called the ninja slide, right, and he ninja slides
in and he like slides pops up pink pink goes
and he and he had a mag mag change problem
and kind of was shaking it, pulled it and then
finishes and walked through and and uh and I beat
him by just like a second or two. But it was,
you know, if he had not had the mag stick,
(12:46):
you know, and he'd been just doing a whole course
with his pistol, so obviously had some carbon build up.
And but I was able to be like, yeah, I won,
you know.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
And you guys had a little bit of a shooting
friendly competition at the at the podcast.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
You had quite the shot at one point.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, it was. It was. That was the luckiest shot
I've ever made in my life, you know, offhand, single hand,
one hundred meters. I don't think I've ever made that shot,
and I don't think I'll ever make that shot again.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So it was the side so for the people listening.
So they went out and they were shooting this new
gun that Sean gifted. David and a lot of us
were inside looking out these big glass doors out to
this this where they were shooting, and they were going.
You could see they're doing, you know, just normal shots,
(13:40):
and then they're switching hands, trying to do one hand
and then we see him from the inside like go
on their off hand shot, so you know, Sean tries
his with his right hand no sorry, with his left hand,
one hand, and then I don't even think he hits it.
He takes like five shots or something like that, and
then we just see David like okay, I'll try and
grabs his right hand one arm and goes ping on
that deal and everybody is I was just like, no
(14:03):
freaking way, dude, that's pretty.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
It's best because I'm in my shirt and tie right
without my suit code on. If I had had the
suit code on, it would have been the absolute perfect
right it had been that John Wick stuff, David Rutherford,
my best friend, Welcome to the show, Sean, thank you
for having me. It's an honor to be here. What's Up? Team?
(14:27):
I recently had the incredible honor of joining my best
friend Sean Ryan on his show, and as a token
of my appreciation for him and his audience, I want
to do something special for you. For thirty years, I've
been helping individuals and teams to discover how to utilize
pain and suffering to propel their performance. From the World
(14:48):
Series champions the Boston Red Sox to elite operators, top
entrepreneurs and business owners, I want to offer the first
three foundational Frog Logic courses that I've been developed being
for the past decade. Embrace Fear, Forging, self Confidence, and
Team Life. These courses come straight from the painful stories
(15:09):
and lessons learned I talked about on Shawn's podcast, and
they also emerged from the thousands of people I've instructed. Normally,
these courses are two hundred dollars each, but until September fifteenth,
you can get all three for just two hundred dollars.
That's three courses for the price of one, and if
you sign up by Friday, August twenty second, you'll also
(15:30):
get an invite to a live group chat Q and
A with me, where I'll answer your questions and help
you get back to forging your life the way you
were meant to live. Please go to David Rutherford dot
com or click the link in the description to get
the bundle. Thank you very much. Who Yah, and God's
been Yeah, I was, it's anyway, so you know, and
(15:56):
then we you know, we went on and did a
bunch of great video and he just because there was
something really creative about Sean that just is separated him
from I think everybody else, and is what's really allowed
him to emerge is to you know, his his deliverable
is so different, so polished, so creative, so precise, so
(16:18):
immaculate in his delivery. And that's the visual aspect much
less his his his the the the commonality, that's not
the right word, but he asked the questions that everybody's
thinking in their mind. And you know, he he you know,
he said that one time on Tucker and and he
was just like, you know what, you know, people will
(16:40):
say things and I'm not sure what they mean, and
I'll be like, well what does that mean? And and
he goes, you know, I never wanted to be or
pretend something to be I'm not, and that's who he is.
And he always kind of was unique in his approach.
So I remember we had him on Team Never Quit
towards the end when I was out there, and it
(17:01):
was cool because we we had had Rob on and
then Sean on the next day, and Sean had asked, Hey,
can I bring a film crew out? And I was like, absolutely,
we'd love that for sure. And so he brings this
film crew out, he films the whole thing, and then
he comes up with the idea, Hey, let's do this.
You know, this this what you McCall it, this fireside chat,
(17:27):
which was to me, the most brilliant thing we could
have ever done. And you know, we went out and
you know, Marcus's backyard and we had this great fire
pit and we just sat around and told little bud
stories and it was me, Marcus, Rob, Sean the Wizard
and me just laughing and telling and that thing just
blew up. And I mean, I don't even know how
(17:49):
many views it had on it, but it was just
team guys being team guys and telling stories and just
there was no ego and no nothing, and it was
just fun. And that what he had always envisioned was was,
you know, just if you can get a team guy,
you know, in the right spot and in the right moment,
(18:09):
and you know, just be funny and be light and
then also you know every now and then pulling a
good story. That was that's the secret sauce. And I
remember we also did this hilarious funny video where you know,
Marcus is one of his favorite things is to drive
around on his mower. That's his piece. That's where he finds,
you know, his relaxation on his property. And we made
(18:32):
a funny video like we were running from m and
he's trying to mow us down. We did one coming
out of the water and then another chat there and
he's just really creative and in all of those things,
I just knew, like, man, he approaches it differently. And
then finally he just started doing the show in nineteen
(18:54):
on Christmas, we released that first show with just him
and Katie and right from the get going and again
he did this first show in his addict of his home,
and I just that was the moment where I was like,
holy shit, there's something really unique that you're going to deliver.
And then he just kept going and going and I remember,
(19:17):
you know, it's always hard to get started in this
business because again, you know, at that time, it had
really you know, I started in twenty thirteen. My first
show was Navy Seal Radio, and there was nobody doing it.
I mean there was I think Mark Devine was doing
something with it, but that was it. There was nothing else.
(19:39):
And then by you know, sixteen, when we started T ANDQ,
it was picking up. More guys were doing more things,
and by nineteen the whole it was saturated with people
doing it. But he came out of the masses with
this really beautiful, thoughtful space to deliver are the most
(20:00):
intense experiences that that people could have and and really
the secret sauce are are the is the humanization of
the of elite guys, elite warriors, and their ability to
put into perspective all of the normal emotions that everybody
has is in all their times. And he was able
(20:23):
to encapsulate that in that very in that perfect space
that he built, and it's been overwhelming to watch. I remember,
you know, two years ago, uh, in my firm, you know,
I worked for a large asset management firm my day job,
and and I'm like, all the way on the other
side of country, and you know it is around a
(20:44):
bunch of the wholesalers, all great young guys, just getting
after it, and I remember them, you know, being like,
hey man, you know I just watched this episode on
this guy the Sean Ryan Show. Do you know who
he is? And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know him
pretty good. And then they're like, get out of here.
(21:05):
And that's when I was like, oh my god, this
is humongous, Like it's massive. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Can tell that he's kept that artistic vision as the
root and the north star of everything that he does.
I mean, it sounds like he had it from the
very beginning and even up to the episode that you
just did with him. You could just tell he really
cares about his artistic vision of it and just having
the most honest, genuine conversation he can possibly have, and
(21:35):
it kind of seems like he doesn't care about anything else,
Like maybe he's just he's just stubborn enough where he's like, Nope,
we're gonna make the best thing that I can even
possibly fathom and what my vision is and just go
for the maximumly you know, honest interview as possible, and
that's gonna be what it is, we'll see what happens.
(21:56):
Like that's what he cares about, and that's it.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
That's all he's been it, That's who he is. Like
he's the most meticulous, detail oriented guy almost I've ever
met in my life, in particular in this creative aspect
of it too, which is very unique. You know, I
think a lot of times team guys or or operators,
however you want to describe as you know, they they
(22:21):
there's a they're they're incredibly creative in their tactical sense
and their abilities. But when it comes to this artistic
endeavor and there's artistic nature, I think it's unfulfilled and
a lot That's why I love to see former operators
move into their their art space or their they're deliverable.
My friend Derek Natalini becoming a musician. You know, there's
(22:44):
other guys, uh, Leo Jenkins, was it Leo Jacob? I
forget Leo, I forget what his name, but he writes
a bunch of books and poetry. He's amazing. You know.
You see these guys who make furniture, triedent woodworks. You
see these people out there and they're they're really taking
(23:07):
these experiences and they're converting them into a vision you said,
like this artistic vision for me the whole Like the
magnitude of this process getting ready and coming up to
this show really, you know, became like the power of it.
Because I remember when he was like, hey, dude, I'm
(23:28):
gonna I think I'm gonna build my own studio. And
I was like, awesome, you know, and you think that,
and You're like, all right, what's it going to be?
And and then I went up for fourth of July
to spend time with them, our family, their family and
some others, and and that the night before we got
to go see the studio for the first time. And
(23:49):
I remember because he had he'd driven me out there
when he purchased the land for it, and I was
just like, you know, you're and he's kind of telling
me the vision and I'm I'm I'm pretty good at
being able to imagine anything, you know, as an artist myself.
I'm all about the vision. It's you know, and what
can it can become. And he's like this, and I'm like, yeah,
(24:09):
I see it, I see it, you know, but you can't.
I mean, first off, don't ever try and get in
Sean's mind, because it's it's a unique place to be.
I'm sure you know, certainly, it's it's as complex as
anything anybody I've ever met. And I think that's another
real amazing thing about my friendship with him, is that,
(24:29):
you know, he has such a unique approach to how
he looks at the world, and that's what it's always.
I'm never I'm never at a space where I'm like, oh,
I know what he's thinking or I know this. He's
always surprising me. And that's a that's a really healthy
place to be when you're when you're you know you're
that close with somebody, is that they're always emerging and
developing and growing. And that's the type of people you
(24:50):
want to have in your life, right. You don't want
to be with people that are stagnant, that are complacent
or not willing to take a risk in terms of
developing a dream. And that's something that I've always sought
out in friendships. I want to be around people who
really have a quest to explore their potential and their capability.
And Shawn's one of those guys. And so when we
(25:12):
showed up at this thing, and it was funny because
Katie myself and Johnna. You went in and we're sitting
outside and he's flipping all the lights on, and then
we go in and it's just magnificent. This this place
is it's first off, it's understated. It's not like you
don't drive in and you're not like like, it's not
(25:35):
in your face grandiose.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
It's golding building like.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
You know, a giant V red V out front, you know,
and like a billboard, you know, standing seven hundred feet
above or it's nothing like that. It's completely subdued. You'd
never notice it was even there. And that's the point
of him. That's his style and Katie's style. And you
walk in and it's just gorgeous. It's absolutely magnificent. Everything
(26:03):
is just beautifully done, very subdued, very clean. You know,
they're you know, they they love clean lines, they love
they're not flashy, they're none of that. It's just everything
creates that very chill, very precise experience. And so we
went in and then we went downstairs and showed me
(26:25):
all the engineering and you know, the amazing thing about
the engineering room is, you know, and this gets to
the contact of a team. And I'll talk about the
team just one second. And he had asked his main engineers,
you know, if you whatever your office could look like,
what would it look like? And they sent him a
picture and he built that for them, right, And that
that that's who he is, and that's what the people
(26:47):
who work with him and the people he cares about.
That's how he takes care of the people in his life.
It's it's it's really beautiful. That's how he takes care
of me in that context. And so we went through it,
and then I got to go into the studio where
it was undone, not anything like you know, everything was
empty when as what you just saw on the show,
and and you could just feel it. It just felt
(27:11):
the the magnificence of it, you know, and that and
not magnificence in terms of uh, like I said, it's
it's not not the furniture. No, No, it's the space. No,
it's the space. It's it's it's it's the space that
it's created that naturally came together with with what he built,
(27:36):
what he created, and and it's like, oh my god.
Well then you're in there and now this sudden you're like,
holy shit, I'm going to come into this space and
I'm going to sit down and I'm going to talk
about the most difficult things in my life. And and
that's when the nerves started really hitting, for sure, and
(28:00):
you just wanna so really we started really thinking about,
oh my god, all right, how are we going to
do this? What's the timeline, what are the things? And
we really started John and I started doing the deep
dive into all right, what's poignant? What are the messages?
You know, what are the stories I want to tell?
And and what's you do you do if you wanna,
(28:21):
if you want to, because you know, here it is
is someone achieves a dream or component of the dream
and because of their hard work and I mean Sean lives, eats, sleeps,
breathes the Sean Ryan Show, and that's the why he's
so successful. I call it a focused obsession. You know,
(28:43):
regular obsessions are detrimental in nature. It's not how you
want to live. I mean, an obsession can be, you know,
really detrimental. And I'm not saying that a focused obsession can't.
But there's a more genuine positive influence or intentness or
that's right, thank you. There's a purpose behind a focused obsession.
(29:04):
And I actually teach a little class about that and
hopefully we'll get a course up in the next six
to eight months about focused obsession. And so you're seeing
this all come to fruition, this timeline that I've been
with him and watched the growth and felt it and
talked to him through the whole thing, and now all
(29:25):
right here, this is what it is. This is the
result of the effort I have put forth, and I
want you to be in there with me on the
first one, almost christen it if you will, And man
like I felt a duty to make sure that the
(29:45):
analysis of my life was not only you know, going
to be sincere and genuine and the delivery, but also
that there would be a poignant message that hopefully could
help just one person. You know, Jordi and I think
about this on a regular basis. We think, you know,
if there's just one person, one person that listens to
(30:06):
you know, our show, that listens to my story on
Sean's show, listens to my videos, or takes a course
or reads the book, if there's just one person that
has positively impact, then then we're we're good. And that's
what I like.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
The way you said it even better, you would say
this to me all the time you'd say just one soul.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, I think that's even better.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
It is well, I mean this, you always are worried
about talking to your audience and getting a little bit
too metaphysical or theological or whatever, and so thank you brother.
It is about the soul, right, the whole thing is
about our soul. And when you go into a space
(30:49):
where you're willing to bear your soul, you know, in
the context of your best friend his dream coming true
through his hard work, like, it's a powerful, powerful experience.
The other component that really made the massive difference for me,
and and John and Jordi. We all were invited up
(31:10):
to go to this thing. It made a huge, huge
It was so important to have John and Jordy there
with me. I can't even begin to tell you the
what you all don't see is the magnitude of work
that they put in. Not only do they put into,
you know, supporting me, but what Jeordi does with the show,
(31:30):
what Jordy does with our marketing. With Jordy, I mean,
he does it all himself. He is he is a
master at what he does. And we could not do this.
I couldn't even do this if I wanted to in
the way that you're able to experience what we're trying
to do for you. It's Jordy is the the machine
behind that. And then obviously my beautiful wife is the
(31:53):
heartbeat behind it. And but she's also in there writing curriculum,
you know, correcting curriculum, managing that uh and starting emails,
responding to customer service. We are, you know, a small
unit right now, and we're just we're a family. And
so what you know what I've always heard from day one,
the first person that you know that ever worked with
(32:17):
Sean and all the way, especially up to where he
is now, this is my family. These are the people
that I care most about because this is my life.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
You can feel that in their team.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Yeah. Well, I mean I from the first time I
met his CEOO and his head producer and how they
welcomed me, and how they greeted me, and how wonderful
they were when I met them over fourth of July
and their families. These are solid human beings, I mean,
really amazing, incredible human beings. And what's nuts is you know,
(32:49):
his producer Jeremy was actually roommates with another good team guy,
Buddy Mine Pete Scobell at the Academy and you know,
just to hear that connection was another weird connection that
you know in our lives. And Pete is one of
the best people I've I've ever known and just an
amazing human being. And you know, his son is one
of the biggest child actors in the world right now,
(33:11):
and you know, to see and talk to him about
coaching him and the inspiration that Pete is and you know,
he's a beautiful artist himself. There's another one of those
artists you know in terms of his his music and
if you ever get an opportunity to go check out
Pete Scobell and his music, he's just he's so talented
and so amazing. And then fast forward on the day.
(33:32):
You know, we we come in a day early. We
had this wonderful time the day before, and then we
show up the day of and you know, they come
out the front door and they're there to greet me,
and Sean's assistant and and and Jeremy, and then I
start meeting everybody who's on the team, and you know,
(33:53):
I'm not sure whether or not they want me to
say their names or not, probably not, but uh, these
are I mean, it's you know, it'd be too cliche
to say a well oiled machine. I mean, these are
people who are emotionally invested in what they do, you know,
and the stories of each one of them, and how
(34:15):
graceful and how gracious they were to all three of us,
and in particular for me, I mean, you know, I
mean obviously the nerves. You know, you can cut the
tension in my mind with a you know, with a
my blade because of the nerves of like, oh my god,
now's the time, Now I'm going on, now I'm doing it.
(34:37):
We're here now. And they couldn't have been better, from
you know, the gentleman who manages their Patreon, to their
main social guy and there, to the guy who does
their clips and their videos and manages that, to their
engineers and to his assistant, and obviously to you know,
to Eric and Jeremy, and everybody was just I mean, Jordy,
(35:00):
I feel like every it was such they were so
welcoming and they were so but there was a professional
I think, yes, they were all excited that it was
me and we of how close our relationship, but I
think this is the way they are, no matter what
what's up. Team. I've been writing for over forty years. Finally,
(35:22):
I've decided to bring to life a character that has
been on my heart since my experiences of carrying a
gun for a living. If you recently watched my episode
with my best friend on his show, The Sean Ryan Show,
you heard some of my real world experiences that shape
this character and the story of The Poet Warrior. Can
a poet's soul survive the crucible of war? The Poet
(35:45):
Warrior follows Adam Ferguson, a reclusive teenage artist haunted by
his father's early death, as he transforms into a battle
scarred Navy seal. Through the chaos of combat in the
shadow of nine to eleven, Adam grapples with the raw
truth of mortality. His journey is a searing odyssey of heartbreak, failure,
(36:05):
and the relentless search for identity amidst the ruins of
lost loved ones, set against the turbulent dawn of the
global War on Terror. This is a story of a
young man torn between his poetic heart and the hard
and warrior he's become. If this sounds like a story
that might pull you in, please visit my website at
David Rutherford dot com or click the link in the
(36:28):
description below and if you pre order now, your signed
copy will be delivered before the holidays. Thank you very
much and godspeed.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Well you can tell that Shawn's vision and his passion
for what he does, because first of all, I just
say it one more time. I can't understand it enough.
And it's like you can tell Sean, his entire mind
is just on, let me, how can we make the
most beautiful and best and most honest conversation possible. Like
that's his entire mind, not about you know, the little
(37:06):
stuff or the business around it, or the building or
the wires or the micro Like he's just so focused
on the best artistic product possible to come out of this, right,
and that bleeds into his team because you imagine, like
I don't know, you go into some mainstream news studio
(37:27):
they have a guest on that's just another number going
through the factory, right, like, just get him in, get
the mic on, do the questions, get him out. Right,
it's just like a well it's a well lowled machine,
but with kind of no soul to it.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
But these guys they brought you in and it was
it kind of felt like we were going over to
visit him, like they invited us over to their house.
That kind of was the feeling that you had. And
then the professionalism was unmatched. I mean, the people kept
asking me, you know, how was it? What you think
all these things? And I've been producing podcasts and around
that world for a long time now, and I just
(38:01):
kept saying the word it's incomparable.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
There's not really another.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Thing you can say, oh, yeah, his show and his
team instead of like it's kind of like this thing
over here. I actually don't know of an example of
what to compare it to. Like there's other people and
then there's the Sean Ryan experience, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
The way they all acted. It was like.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
It's like I don't know a football team where at
halftime they all finally get together and they're all in
the same sheet of music and they all go out
there and you can tell when they just like gel
together and they're all working together towards the same mission.
There's a magic that happens on the field. It kind
of felt like that to me.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
So that was my well. I mean I've worked with,
you know, some championship teams. I've worked with some elite
operators and businesses, you know, some of the biggest businesses
in the world. And you're right, that's what it was.
It was a real the team, but like that deeper level,
not just the let's be a great team corny stuff
(39:02):
like these people, you know, they all eight slept and
they bleed srs right, And and that's why, like you said,
that's why the content is so pure, it is so good,
it is so meaningful for so many millions of people
because they feel that translates into it from their trailers,
(39:22):
which are, in my mind, the best in the business.
Nobody makes unmatched. They're just spectacular. They're better than like,
you know, one hundred and two hundred million dollar movie trailers.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
And now who did that?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Said that he had this whole artistic vision of you know,
whenever I see a new TV show drop or a
movie or a new series on Netflix, there's always like
a really cool intro trailer that happens. It's always iconic
and you remember it. And I was like, well, why
can't we do that for a podcast? And he's talented
enough that he actually did it. But just to even
(39:56):
ask that question is is unique.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I had an opportunity in my life to talk to
a guy who runs a company out in la who
does that, Like he's one of the top in the
business to make movie trailers. And you know, the way
he talks about it is like he's you know, the
trailer is the thing that makes you emotionally invested to
move forward, right, And if you think about the shows
(40:21):
that all the fifteen million podcasts that are in the world,
how many shows make you feel something so deeply emotional
in the preview that they pull you in for a
six four hour, seven hour, seven and a half hour show.
And it's because of that, It's because of his gift
(40:44):
and his ability and his desire to want to give
you that when you watch this. So it's like that's
the thing. And all the way from post production, I mean,
they're editing in real time. You know. That was the
other thing that just blew me away.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Can I say that you get?
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah? You were in there.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, I was in the editing room and I was
talking to all the editors, so obviously we got to
talk shop a little bit, right, And just to comment
on the last thing, really quick, little inside baseball for
podcast producer world. Some people don't know that producing a
trailer like that, you think, oh, we'll do the podcast
and maybe we'll like we'll make a trailer. We'll cut
a trailer real quick after that, so you know, kind
(41:23):
of hype up the episode. You know, the trailer takes
way longer than editing that whole episode. Like the amount
of time they have to spend to add on a
trailer like that is it might be double what it
takes to actually just produce the whole episode itself. That
trailer takes a lot of thought and time and energy
(41:46):
and creativity. And the fact that they do that for
every single episode. They don't have to do that. They
could just release the episode, right, they choose to put
that much effort just into the trailer. It shows so much.
But Yeah, the coolest thing that I saw in terms
of nerdy tech stuff is the way they're editing it.
So while that podcast is being recorded, those files are
(42:08):
being saved on a computer that's you know, SYNCD up
with their editing software, and that those files are getting
fed into Premiere Pro and they're editing software.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
In real time.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
And man, this dude on his team, he was a
trooper for that entire day. That guy was editing your
conversation with Sean the entire time just locked in And
I mean you guys went for it was probably ten
hours total with the breaks, right, and so this guy
was just locked in that whole time. But just think
about they have the soul and the heart, but they
(42:41):
also have that well oiled machine where they can crank
out this stuff so quickly.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
That's what makes it unique. They have both of those things.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Yeah, I agree totally. And so when you hear us
talk about this, you know, this is what you know
you're is all around you. So the intensity and the
commitment level of of all these people that are you know,
completely on board to help fulfill Sean's vision of all
(43:07):
these interviews, like that's the engine behind it. And so
you know, you go into that that experience and you
step in those doors and you know you probably felt
a little bit of that tension if you watched it
between he and I when we started and you know,
I mean we did this. You know, Sean is very
(43:29):
gracious and gives the right amount of space prior to
the right amount of prep the right amount of guidance,
the right amount of everything. You know, he realizes what's coming,
he knows he's been in hundreds of those so far,
the most intimate, you know, deepest moments of anyone's life,
they're about ready to share with him in front of
(43:49):
millions of people. And he knows that, and he's gracious
about it, and he provided and then particular for me,
you know, us being as close as we are, you know,
he made sure I felt that for him. And there's
no amount of gratitude or thanks that I could ever
even articulate, uh to Sean for that and the and
(44:10):
the gratitude I felt for his team to give me
that that runway to move into that room. But certainly
once you step in that room, man, it's it's on.
And obviously you can go watch the show. Uh, it
would be wonderful if if you did, We would appreciate it,
(44:31):
you know, support them, support the show. Uh. And but
really what it what it is is, it's it's a transformation.
It's a it's not only a cathartic experience in order
to be able to delve into those those darkest recesses
of your soul and your experience, but it's also U
it brings immeasurable levity. Uh. I was able to illuminate
(44:55):
so much about my experience and how it shaped who
I was and what I believe and who I am
as as you know, as a Christian, as a husband
and a father, as a friend, as a son, you know,
all these things, but also as an artist, as an operator,
(45:16):
as an author, as a mentor, as a coach. You know,
all of those things are able to be laid out
in a way that really is is unique and and
and and you know, not that my story is any
better than anybody else's, but Sean creates the space where
(45:38):
he really makes you feel like, you know, to be
proud of of where you come from, regardless of the
anguish and the suffering and the pain that we experience.
And that's really the gift, the gift of of what
Sean Ryan does for all of us is Sean gives
us access uh and humanizes the thing that unites us.
(45:58):
Regardless of of our our gender, our race, our backgrounds,
our socioeconomic status, our nationalities. We're all unified in our
collective understanding of pain and suffering. And and he believes
that that is a tool to heal others. If you
saw kind of his video that that you know said
(46:20):
goodbye to the old studio he says that, you know,
my my goal was to help plant the seed of
of resilience and recovery and healing to anybody who's gracious
enough to spend their time watching what he produces and
what he what he offers, and and and you feel
that in the midst of it, Like, I mean, I've
(46:42):
never once spoken publicly about that experience in Afghanistan. And
there was a reason because it was the most painful
thing in my life. Uh, you know that I've gone through,
and the fact that he was able to give me
that strength and to like because you could look, you
(47:03):
look at my my best friend in the eyes as
I'm like right on the precipice of delivering you know,
all of this stuff, and he's just like, I got you.
I got you. Don't worry, I got you. You're good
and I love you, and it's okay, You'll be fine.
And man, I've never experienced that before. And I don't
even know. I mean, I've done you know myself. I
(47:25):
think I'm up around three hundred podcasts or something like that.
You know, I've been on dozens of podcasts myself. But
you know that that that that gift is is as
powerful gift as anything I've ever been given, and and
(47:46):
just it's it's a remarkable experience, certainly after you come
out in between the breaks, when you take the breaks. Uh,
you know, our first break, we did the shooting thing
and that was a lot of fun that really you know,
put some tension. Then we go back in, we do
the next section, then we come back out. We went
in and then we went in for the heavy stuff
the next one, and then I think we took one
more and then finished. And what was crazy was you know,
(48:10):
I you know this in marathon Ultra marathon interview and
as it ended, you know, I essentially really didn't even
talk about what I've been doing professionally since I left
the agency. I mean, we touched on it a little bit,
but you know, it was more about those experiences and
(48:31):
it was you know, it was awesome, and you know,
and one of the things you just you trust is
that you know, the audience is going to get the
pieces that they need to get about me and who
I was, and hopefully they can take those away. So
you know, it's like, all right, now we have this,
you know, from two thousand, you know, eleven into twenty
(48:55):
twelve to twenty twenty five. You know, I essentially talk
about anything I've been doing professionally. That and that was
you know, we we laughed afterwards, and both Jordie and
johnn and you know, I've come out. I'm exhausted, and
I'm just like, what do you think, you know, if
you want to know? And they're like, it was perfect.
It couldn't have been better. And they were so wonderful. Jordy,
(49:17):
you were such an amazing friend and I'm so blessed
to have your support and all this. And because you
don't know, like you're just freaked out, you just exposed,
you got naked. Like that was funny.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Because it was funny because you know, you go into
this and people, for people who don't know, there's no
guidance on like how long is this interview going to be?
Speaker 3 (49:38):
No one knows how long the interview is going to be.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
So you just walk in and just you just start
right And it was so funny because so first of all,
me and John are the edge of our seats watching
and watching in the editing room, right because from the
first five minutes, you know, you can feel the tension,
not in a bad way, but in a good way,
because I mean, there's a lot of guests on the show,
but you don't have many best friends in the world, right,
and so you can feel that tension of those two,
(50:02):
these two guys in the room that have been through
so much together. And the first five minutes, I feel
like you guys were just kind of like, well, here
we go, Like what's about to happen? But anyway, you
got through the first break and me and JOHNO were
wondering how long this is going to go? And when
you when you took the first break, we're an hour
and a half, two hours in and you hadn't even
(50:23):
gotten to wanting to go to the military yet in
your life story, and we were like, oh, okay, it's
going to be like that. And that was the That
was the craziest part. And people who watch you're gonna
feel that that that tension that's very unique between the
two best friends.
Speaker 1 (50:39):
Oh thank you Jordy for saying that. You know, I mean,
I speak professionally for a living. Just a couple of
weeks before the show, I was out with a new
a good friend of mine now Jamie, out in Missouri
in Iowa doing some events out there, and one day
I spoke for like seven hours the clients, and then
(50:59):
we talked for two hours in the you know, in
the car on the way to the next city. And
you know, thank god, I do that for a living
and I speak that much, so I was able to
have the composure or the stamina is really the better word,
to be able to manage that endurance feet of that
ultra marathon interview. But it was, you know that, That's
(51:21):
the thing, Like you, I never once got to the
space where it's like I want this to end because
it's too much. I'm overwhelmed because of what they are
Shawn and his team are able to create, you know,
and if if you ever have the you know, grand fortune,
the blessing of getting an opportunity to go on his show,
(51:43):
you'll experience this in some way, shape or form. And
it's it's unlike anything I've ever experienced in any way,
you know. And I've been on some really amazing shows
of people's shows that have had me on people I
really love. But there's just something about it because everything
that anybody who's come before you, they built that room.
(52:07):
Their stories built that room there. Their their heartache, their pain,
their suffering, they built that room. And so you know,
not only do I want to pay tribute to everybody
in my life that had an impact to help me
get through my life that was there for me who
in every way, shape or form, but it's also all
(52:30):
the other people who came before. And so you like,
in my mind, it's like, I want to contribute. I
want to also, uh help that space. I want to
be a part. I want to participate in it and
be and I want to you know, give whatever God
wants me to give in that moment as well too.
And so it's it's a really really amazing thing. But
(52:51):
I'll tell you what. When we finished at the ad Man,
uh it was. It was. It was quite the experience
for sure. And uh, I just you know, it was
so amazing because you know, you leave and you know
you're saying, everybody's exhausted, You're exhausting. You go back and
we went back to our little airbnb that we the
three of us were in, and this is Sean. Sean's like,
(53:13):
hey man, I'm going to stop by, and he came
over and he came over for what another two hours
almost yeh two hours, sitting with us, asking question more
questions us asking him questions and.
Speaker 3 (53:26):
And this was an all day shoot, dude.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
He got in there, he was in there like eight
thirty in the more eight eight something in eight thirty.
Speaker 3 (53:36):
Hour day of shooting and then go visit and.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Then come and spend time with with me and and
my family and and that's who he is. And it's
just uh an amazing, unbelievable experience, you know. And you know,
one of the one of the things that you know,
we try and do and and you try I think
a lot of people try to do is you know,
(54:01):
you always try and end the show being like, all right, well,
what do you got going now? And what are you
doing now? And all this stuff now. And obviously, Jordi
and I and John have been crushing ourselves over the
last four months to get all this new content available,
not only in the Dave Rudford Show, but to really
refine and develop our online training at the Frog Logic Institute.
(54:25):
You know, the three courses that we've built out Embrace, Fear, Forging,
self Confidence, Live a Team Life, and I mean what
we we shot and edited close to eighty videos in
all those in something it's I mean, Jordy was working
around o'clock, all while his wife's pregnant, he's about ready
to have his new kid, and we're just like, we're
(54:46):
shooting five videos a day, you know, for weeks on end,
and he's just grinding through it. And you know, then changes,
that's right, that's right through diper change. And then you know,
I've been working on this books since the last November,
and you know, we're we're we're pushing hard to wrap
this thing up and we're gonna we're going to get
(55:06):
it out to you know people before the holidays, you know,
and and you know, we so we have this book
to offer, you know, this pre order book of this
book I've been working on that's been in my head
for seven years, these characters and these ideas, and and
you know, it was weird because you know, November last year,
my life was completely different. I was pretty much only
(55:29):
doing you know the stuff with with my the asset
management firm, and that was it. I had stopped my show.
I wasn't really online, I wasn't creating, I wasn't writing,
I wasn't doing anything. And and you know, I've got
this amazing therapist with this organization, uh, the Soft Network
that we use with an operator Centrome Foundation for the guys,
(55:51):
our pilot guys and me. I use when I used,
I work with this incredible human being. And I remember
our second meeting, She's like, you know, what are you
doing to fulfill that create the creative need? And so
I started writing this book and lo and behold, next thing,
you know, the show comes, next thing comes. Then Sean
Ryan's showed coming, and so we had all this stuff
(56:12):
and and thank god, you know, Sean didn't go down
that path and and cheap it in it with with
some type of infomercial for me at the end, and uh,
it was just such a blessing regardless. And you know,
we're we're recording this, uh and we're not really you know,
quite sure what's going to happen. It's it's uh, you know.
Speaker 2 (56:35):
It was recorded after the recording but before the release
of the show.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so we were not one hundred percent
sure what everything's going to look at And and you
know that one of the beautiful things that Seawan always says,
and he says to me, is like, you know, just
you know, don't have expectations, just trust your faith, believe
in God, believe in Christ. And and it'll come back. You'll, it'll, it'll, it'll.
God will pay you what you do deserve in the
(57:00):
right time, in God's time. And he was able to
really uh say that to us. So you know, we're
just overwhelmed with the opportunity and the gratitude and and
so you know, we really Johanna, Jordie and I really
just wanted to pay tribute to Shawn's team all of you.
(57:22):
Thank you so much. You are absolutely incredible. You're the
best in the business. We appreciate everything that you did
for us and well do and have done for us.
I really look forward us continuing our friendships and and
we just were we we're grateful for you guys. And
then uh, you know, to to Katie, you know, thank you, uh,
(57:45):
your hospitality, your grace and your loving supportive of my
best friend is overwhelming. And and the kids, we just
love y'all so much. Uh And then Sean Man, thank you.
I just uh just thank you. I love you. I
(58:07):
really appreciate what you who you are, you and my
life and for this opportunity, I'm just I'm grateful, so
thank you so much. All Right, there you have it.
There's the recap. Of the experience the Sean Ryan effect
and what it does and the impact it had on me,
(58:28):
it had on Geordie, it had on Johnna, and we're
just I'm just praying that if you listen to it,
uh and you hear it, you just realize, you know,
what our intention is and what we we run to
do in our life is similar to Sean We we
just want to bring some goodness, we want to expose
(58:50):
some bad things, but more importantly, we just want to
be able to lift people up a little bit and
let you know, Uh, we're going to get through it.
We're going to get through it together. We're going to
get through it with our faith, We're going to get
through it with our friendships, and we're certainly going to
get through it. Uh. If we all believe that, we
are so thank you all so much, godspeed who we
(59:12):
are
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!