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The Gabe Molina Podcast
The Gabe Molina Podcast
GMP Ep 119 Gabriel Gallegos
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Gabriel Gallegos is a Senior Leader in the United States Military and the creator of the Comfort In Chaos podcast.
If I was a father of a son going into that situation, I would want you to send as many people as we need, as much equipment, so we can get in there and get the fuck out. You know? Twenty years, th 25 years, whatever. I get that there's money to be made. But at the same time, like I want my kid there as short a period of time as possible.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06You know, so again, I don't know I don't want you to put yourself in a pickle answering these questions, but I'm curious what's your opinion on that stuff.
SPEAKER_04No, that's uh that's actually an excellent point. And uh I do get that. Uh I've I've gotten that a few times, actually. Um you know, obviously, you know, I have a son, you know, and he's a preteen now, you know. And I know I guess it comes down to control what you can't control, you know. Uh that's that's what that's where I focus on being, you know, and as far as my role in the military, because I'll tell you straight up, there's a lot of guys who I came in with, you know, good leaders, outstanding warriors, out did incredible things. And they immediately, you know, even during like the last administration, are like, I'm retiring, I'm done with this, man. It's they're just they're just they're done. And they're like, hey, I don't need this stress, I don't need this, I'm out, you know, I'm out. And hey, you know what? Power to them, go do that. But at the same time, though, I saw it from a different perspective. I saw it where, okay, if the good leaders are leaving, then what are you left with?
SPEAKER_00You're listening to the Gabe Molina podcast.
SPEAKER_06Uh I I usually man, uh you probably shouldn't take as many of these as I do, the whole as minis. But uh man, the only thing that keeps me from coughing now. Uh allergies like crazy. And then with all the rain, oh dude, yeah. I think it's the mold, right?
SPEAKER_04I did I just did yard work today. And every time what what are the they call the sagebushes? The Texas sagebus. The Texas sagebushes, the ones with the yellow flowers. Is that the one that's purple flowers that only come out when the rain yes, yeah. Well, and every single time. I don't have bad allergies, but every time I cut those down, I have allergies. Every single I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_06You know, I think God's getting me back because when I was younger, my mom's allergic to everything under the sun. And when I was younger, I used to make fun of her. And uh she'd go into these coughing fits where she couldn't stop, uh, sneezing fits, and I would always just rag on her and make fun of her and say, you know, you know, just being a jerk. Now I'm the same way.
SPEAKER_04Hey, you know, Mexicans aren't supposed to have allergies.
SPEAKER_06Oh no, we got we we have tons of allergies and diabetes.
SPEAKER_03Shout out to our moms, children that we don't raise. All right, are we ready to do this? We're already recording.
SPEAKER_06What are you talking about? Oh, I'm gonna leave that all there.
SPEAKER_04All right, hey, welcome everybody to the Game Molina Podcast.
SPEAKER_06Keep telling them while I cough.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna go ahead and knock out this intro for him.
SPEAKER_06Let's do it.
SPEAKER_04Hey, everybody. Hey, thanks for tuning in to the Gay Molina podcast. If you're brand new to the channel, hey, uh, we appreciate you guys. And there's power and presence, so thanks for being present. Uh hey, if you want to know more, scroll down, check out the videos, man. We've Gabe Molina is one of those dudes that helps find common sense in an uncommon world by talking to some of the coolest people who have a common sense perspective. So uh make sure to hit that subscribe button because there's gonna be more to come.
SPEAKER_06Thanks everybody for listening.
SPEAKER_04That's all we need, man.
SPEAKER_03That's all we need. Hey, thanks for tuning in, guys.
SPEAKER_04I'll see you on the next video.
SPEAKER_03So I got a problem with you, man. Uh-oh. Send it. Get in line, though.
SPEAKER_06You know what? You know what?
SPEAKER_04I will say get in line.
SPEAKER_06I feel like I took you for granted.
SPEAKER_04No.
SPEAKER_06Because we could have hung out and done things more.
SPEAKER_04Now you sound like my dad.
SPEAKER_06I feel like I'm losing you to the East Coast, man. So what's what's going on there? Oh, dude. Why are you listening to what the military tells you to do?
SPEAKER_04I know, right? I don't know. You know, sometimes I ask myself that every morning.
SPEAKER_06So you're getting uh stationed elevator in Florida?
SPEAKER_04So the time has come where so it's a bittersweet, I'll say. Um in the military, obviously, you every every duty station has a don't say duty.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_04Every uh assignment, all right, uh has an end date. And because there's career progression, now you could you could do what you can. I know a lot of soldiers that literally I've seen soldiers stay at one place for like six years. You know, I've seen soldiers stay at eight years, but when it comes to career progression, they don't they're not really competing against your peers. And in the military, you're competing against your peers if you want to make it a career. Um, and that the army will always support that. And now they put me in the position where I made the promotional list, and now they see me better fit over here for this mission set or in this place, you know. So they basically send me an email. Hey, it's time for you to go. You made the list, it's time for you to go. You've been here for a good amount of time. Uh, we see you better fit in these following places. So pick which one's your best one. You know, they give you an option. They they do that to kind of, I would say, you know, and if any of you guys know what I'm talking about, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But they give you that as kind of like a little word of encouragement, you know. It's kind of like whenever you take your if you work for a company and they give you that, hey, how are you at work from a scale of one to ten? Do you extremely like your job?
SPEAKER_06Do you you know I just filled one of those out like two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. But do you you probably tell yourself, like, do they really even care like what I put here? You know, is somebody really doing this, or do they have to do it? Well, in that sense, yeah, they I feel like it's just one of those formalities where it's like, here you go, here's these stations, rack and stack your top three. Okay, here's what it is. I I'll I said, hey, well, there's obviously I want to be closer to my son and family. Here's where I do. No, they're on New Mexico.
SPEAKER_06Oh, hell.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so what do they do? The army sends me the exact opposite direction, you know. But uh, I get to retire in six years. So it's it's a bittersweet moment. Unfortunately, it is part of the game. And as you know, dude, you know, I'm sure you're watching the news. This world is shifting, man. Every day there's something new. Every day there's a new tweet, every day there's a new post, and it's like, dude, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_06You know, I feel like every time I get to you in here, I ask you the same question, I'm gonna ask you again. And I I mean this with all due respect. Uh but I feel like a guy like you that's been in a long time, I've got some Pete friends who have retired. We've talked about uh military being a good career path before. And I agree, I think it is, but I feel like our leadership in the past, I don't know, 20 years, if not a little bit longer, isn't it? I didn't have kids, but I feel like our leadership the past 20 years isn't necessarily the type of leadership that I would want to send my child to go work underneath, right? Yeah. And so like I sit there and I go, okay, well what makes you guys so committed? And everybody I talk to says, well, each other, right? We do what we're assigned to do, but we're in it for each other. Is this probably isn't a good question, we might have to cut it out, but like do you ever foresee a time where you would maybe discourage your son from inlistening? Just because I feel like, and you know, as time goes on and and we get older and we look back in hindsight's 2020, we go, we always feel like we were the great the good guys, right? Yeah, and at a certain point it's like you get older and you start looking at things and and more information starts coming out, you start learning things, and you go, okay, well, uh, we were still the good guys, but we did some bad stuff, right? But we still were the good guys. And then more time goes by and you go, oh, we're still the good guys. You know, I hope I hope we are. I want to be, I want us to be the good guys. But sometimes I sit there and go, and I always use this example. I remember the first time we went into Iraq, uh, they were asking, I guess, uh military officials, how many people do we need? And I'm I'm pulling these numbers out of my ass at this point. But I think they remember they were saying something like 500, we need 500,000. And the politician said, Meh, that feels like uh an invasion. We'll send you, we'll send 50,000. You know? And it was one of those things where it's like, okay, now we can get in there, we can kick some people's ass, but we can't hold these places, so we end up fighting them when we come back. Yeah. Right? And I sit there and go, okay, if I if I was a father of a son going into that situation, I would want you to send as many people as we need, as much equipment, so we can get in there and get the fuck out. You know, 20 years, 25 years, whatever. I get that there's money to be made. But at the same time, like I want my kid there as short a period of time as possible.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06You know, so again, I don't know I don't want you put yourself in a pickle answering these questions, but I'm curious what's your opinion on that stuff.
SPEAKER_04No, that's uh that's actually an excellent point. And uh I do get that. Uh I've I've gotten that a few times, actually. Um, you know, obviously, you know, I have a son, you know, and he's a pre-teen now, you know. And I know I guess it comes down to control what you can't control. You know, uh that's that's what that's where I focus on being, you know, and as far as my role in the military, because I'll tell you straight up, there's a lot of guys who I came in with, you know, good leaders, outstanding warriors, outs did incredible things. And they immediately, you know, even during like the last administration, are like, I'm retiring, I'm done with this, man. It's they're just they're just they're done. And they're like, hey, I don't need this stress, I don't need this, I'm out, you know, I'm out. And hey, you know what? Power to them, go do that. But at the same time, though, I saw it from a different perspective. I saw it where, okay, if the good leaders are leaving, then what are you left with? So there needs to be a presence of a good leader still to hold the front, hold the front, you know, own their role. I'll and as a first sergeant, I would always say that to my soldiers and all my NCOs and all my leaders. I say, guys, most importantly, always just own your role, own your responsibilities, and control what you can't control. The rest of that, don't even worry about it. But right now, if you have a role and responsibility, if I have a role and responsibility over 104 soldiers, well, guess what? That is my priority. You know, I'm gonna do whatever I can to safeguard them. I'm gonna do whatever I can to it to their families to make sure that, hey, if they go anywhere, I'm bringing them back. I make sure they're trained, they are ready, both medically, financially, physically, mentally, everything, they are ready. I owe that it's my role, it's my responsibility. And I know that I have gotten all that, I've gotten that way. I've become this this type of man because of the military, not because who's in office, not because who's in charge, not because of that, but it is that firm root grounding that I've gotten that. I have now been this way because of that. And if if if my son were to ask, hey, I want to, I want to enlist, I want to join, I would be like, all right, let me make sure you know what you're getting into. I'm not gonna say no, and I'm not gonna say yes. That is your life, it is your choosing. If that is your path, that's your path. But I want to make sure that you know what you're getting into because I want you to own it. If that's your decision, okay, own it. And that means you got to own the failures and own the success, but own it. And that's how I see it, you know. And right now, yeah, it is shaky times. I mean, we get on social media, literally, you know, I have soldiers, I have young soldiers, you know, who are I know are looking at, they're scrolling and they're confused and they're like, what's going on? I mean, we see it in the news all the time. We see all these soldiers getting in trouble for posting this and doing this and doing this, and you're just like, dude, so that can cause some confusion within the ranks, you know, within my formation, that can cause confusion. So I have to make sure that I have to keep them dialed in and they have that leader and that mentor and that guide to fall back on. So, hey, if there's ever a time, if I were to tell you, hey, private Molina, if you're feeling discouraged, come to my office, we're gonna talk.
SPEAKER_06So, do you do you feel that you're having those conversations more frequently now than you did 10 years ago?
SPEAKER_04I will definitely say yes. I will definitely say that is uh your approach different? Yes, um, but you have to, dude. I'll I'll I'll tell you this, man. As you know, as a leader, you have to be adaptive. You have to adapt because it is generations of change and there's different. But so your leadership has to adapt. And I I harp on all my leaders in my formation. I would tell them, guys, if you want to make this a career, your old ways, dude, put them behind you. Use them, learn from them, but understand that your leadership is gonna have to be adaptive. You know, watch your approach. You know, how how I correct person A is gonna be different, how I correct person B now. Sure. Because they have two different upbringings. Somebody grew up with a family and a father, blah, blah, blah. This person grew up with no father, no family, and was raised in the streets. So they may take and receive that differently. So I have to make sure I tailor my leadership style and my approach differently to meet the same common end state that we're all in tune to meet, you know.
SPEAKER_06You know, you you posted a clip, and granted it was a clip out of probably a longer video, so and if I'm being honest, I just saw the clip. But you were talking about brutal honesty.
SPEAKER_00You know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I need to go back and watch your full deal. But out of that clip, I want people, in my opinion, I want people to understand that brutal honesty is important, but as a person giving that brutal honesty, you have to, you can't in my and and this isn't this is new Gabe. Old Gabe was like, fuck him, just you know, put rub their face in the poop in the carpet, you know. That was that was kind of my mentality toward everything, especially when I was younger and I worked at jail. But now it's kind of like, okay, I think brutal honesty is important. But if you're gonna give brutal honesty to somebody, you have to follow it with a path. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. You can't just approach somebody and say, Hey, uh, you know, you're uh you're you have you don't communicate well with people and everybody can't stand you. You know, but you've got to be able to say, hey, you don't communicate well and everybody can't stand you, but this is what you can do differently, and I'll help you learn how to do those things. You know, I I had a conversation years ago with a family member. I won't say her name because I've said it a hundred times, but uh it was like she was complaining about the younger kids, right? And I had to explain her it was kind of like she was complaining because my nephew was uh maybe not doing things he needed to do. And he was already 18. And she goes, uh I said, Listen, this is this is what you gotta remember. I said, our father, when he was eighteen, he was a grown man for 10 years. Yeah, his dad left him, he was providing for his sisters and his mother. I said, So at 18, he'd been a grown man for 10 years. He said, Times are different, things are different. I said, So the nephew, he still plays video games and you know, plays with Pokemon cards and all kinds of because he doesn't have that life that like you say.
SPEAKER_03Hold on, let me put up my Pokemon cards.
SPEAKER_06Don't pull them out because I'm putting them away right now. Because then we're gonna end up having to pause this so we can see if you had any any worth money.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, hey, we got a pack we can open after this. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_06But but you know, I I think people need to realize when they want to give brutal honesty, a lot of times they forget to follow up with a path to where you're trying to lead them.
SPEAKER_04You're absolutely right. And uh I always tail it as in bring a solution. If you're gonna come up to me, same thing I'll tell my soldiers. So, like when you asked me earlier if I'm approachable, I'll tell you, my door is always open, and I have a soldier who's gonna come to me, you know, a grown man or a grown woman. And I say, You're an adult, okay. What's the issue? They're gonna tell me the issue. Okay, what is your solution to this issue? Because we're gonna leave here, we're gonna come up with a solution. But what is the solution? First, first before, and I would tell them and I'll say, Hey, I know the solution. I know a solution in my head. I have one already, but I want to hear your solution because that's how I know you're gonna own it. If you give me your solution to this problem or this issue, I know you're gonna own it. If you give me that solution, if we agree with it, okay, let's do it. And so you're absolutely right. If you're gonna be brutally honest, okay, you need to, I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, and I'll tell you, all right, hey, here's what here's what I see an issue with right now. I want to hear your thoughts, but I promise you we're not leaving here until we come up with a solution. All right, because there is a solution here, and it's funny that you say that, man, because I made that video um because of the fact that literally you're seeing we're seeing it now in in our world, in our government, in everywhere, everywhere. And my thing is I'm not smart, I'm not super educated.
SPEAKER_06You don't have to be because you're extremely handsome.
SPEAKER_04I'm not extremely handsome either.
SPEAKER_06That's uh you're like me, the better looking we are, the less we gotta know.
SPEAKER_04Hey, we're both gays, man. Hey, cheers to both gapes. You know, it's a gape thing. It's a gay thing. We're both handsome, dude. You're handsome too.
SPEAKER_06But uh one of us is doing a little bit better.
SPEAKER_04But the reality is, as I said, dude, there's an issue. And the issue is there's no more, or uh we're at a lack of personal leadership, you know, and that's how I evaluate somebody. If you're gonna be in a role with a responsibility, if you're a congressman, a senator, a politic, you have you have a role and a responsibility. So I'm gonna hold you accountable to it because I'm a leader. You know, I'm a senior leader in the United States military, so I know everything. I've gone to schools to be a leader every single time I promoted. So that's how I'm gonna, that's how I'm gonna evaluate you. I'm not gonna evaluate you on what your beliefs are ethnicity or race or blah, blah, blah. I'm not gonna do that. No, I'm gonna evaluate you more on your decision making and how you when issues come up, how do you handle them? Because that's what leaders do. You know, you're gonna be a leader in the good times and the bad, not just a good time leader. Because if you're gonna be that, be brutally honest. Let us know. Let us know. If you're gonna, if I'm gonna run for office, I'm gonna tell you, hey, do vote for me, but I'm gonna tell you this. When shit hits a fan, I'm not the guy. I'm being brutally honest. Why? Because I can't work under stress. I mean, you, I mean, if you're uh an employer for a company and you're hiring an employee, you're doing an interview and you tell them, hey, how good are you working under stress? And if they brutally honest with you and say, Man, I can't work under stress, to be honest with you. I've never had that opportunity. I don't know how I'm gonna thrive in that. I don't know how I'm gonna perform. Wouldn't you refer that than them just saying, Oh, I do really good, sir. I do really good in stress. I'm a good fit for the team. And then when that stressful time comes, they're nowhere to be found.
SPEAKER_06You know what's funny is like uh I've I've done a lot of podcasts with people where they've given some great advice, and the advice they were giving was contradictory to the way I live my life. And I was like, oh, I'm the bad example. But you know what's funny is now that I've gotten older, because I think when I was younger, I'd be the guy, oh yeah, I'll I'll do whatever. And it's it's funny because like uh I find myself in that same position these days we're talking about you know being super busy. But my dad was the kind of guy that was always um he never told anybody no. Even if he had to go without or he had to do something, you know, that was extra. I never said no. So I find myself kind of being in the same boat, right? And uh uh but as I've gotten older now when I get asked that question, I'll tell him I'm like, look, man, I'll work late. I'll put in extra hours. I know that that's part of what we do. But I'm also not 25 anymore. Yeah, I'm not trying to do that every friggin'.
SPEAKER_04And you're being honest, right?
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And and that's part of it too, is is I guess being honest when even when it's a negative, right? But but uh you can approach that in a way of like I just said, hey, I know it has to happen. I know we gotta we gotta go through some shit, and I'll do it with you. But I need you to manage these problems. Projects better to where it's not every friggin' time we do a job. You know what I'm saying? I had a conversation. I had a conversation with uh my manager uh this week or yeah, I think it was earlier this week. And uh they're a little bummed out because I put in a ton of hours on one project. Uh it's kind of my new my my fray and uh the grocery industry again. I haven't done it in forever. Uh a super particular project, not very big, but super particular. And uh uh there was a lot of things I didn't know, right? I know how to and it was funny because uh we had a conversation and and sometimes I just I'm talking while I'm thinking. And I said, well, on this one project, I said that allows me to be more of a designer, right? Yeah, there there's fewer restrictions and and prototypical things. So I approach that as a designer. So this other one, I gotta figure out what's going on because I've never done that before, and it has to be done a certain way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So the problem was, and then this is where I normally would leave stuff like this out, but now I'm like, you know, I need to tell them everything. I said, but this time we had three people reviewing, and all three of you do it differently.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I said, so every time one of you would review, you would put me on a different direction. I'd take off in that direction, get done, somebody else would review it, and they had a new direction. I said, You guys need to be more consistent with that, you know. I explained to them those things, and he was he was very understanding, you know. Uh but I also told him, I said, this is the other problem. You can't be stacking deadlines, man. You know, you can't tell me I got a 90% deadline on a on one project on a Monday and a 90% deadline uh two days later. Yep. You can't do that. No, you know, and I get that we were busy and it was swamped, and that's one of those things that we just deal with. I said, but you can't, I need it's I feel like those dogs that they take hog hunting, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06The dog's gonna chase that fucking pig. It's gonna hold on, it's gonna fight, that pig's gonna tear the dog up, but the dog's gonna stay in the fight. But the dog needs you to show up with the fucking knife and stab the hog. Yeah. And I'm the same way.
SPEAKER_01Like, do your part.
SPEAKER_06I'm gonna do everything you want me to do, and I'm gonna do it to the best of my ability, but I need you to manage this better.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. You know, absolutely, man. That's uh that's uh that's a and that goes to kind of like what I'm saying, man. It's just it's sad because we live in a time now, and this is just my opinion, team. You know, hey, don't hold this against me, all right, guys. But this is just from my own observation because I am a senior leader in the United States military, and I know the characteristics needed, you know, to fill that role. And right now, just throughout society, we're lacking, we're in a pandemic of lacking personal leadership. You know, people just are so quick to point fingers and not quick to just own it and be honest.
SPEAKER_06Do you think Gen X fucked up as parents?
SPEAKER_04You know, it's funny you say that because a lot of people like to point the blame at Gen Z. You know, they always point the blame and like, yo, dude. I mean, I I did a video too not too long ago. I did a video because like it studies came out that yo, Gen Z is like the dumbest generation, you know. That was like the article, like it's the only generation where everything went backwards, you know, as far as you know, their intellectuality, you know, and understanding and critical thinking skills. And I get it, but it's like, okay, but my question is as a leader, you know, my the type of leader I am, okay, if that's the end state, what led to that end state?
SPEAKER_06Right.
SPEAKER_04Let's go to that.
SPEAKER_06That's how my mind works, too.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and that's awesome, dude. And I'm glad you have that mindset because a lot of people just see that bumper sticker and they're just like, oh, Gen Z, jokes on you guys. Good luck, you know. No, man, who were who are the parents? You know, who what was their upbringing like? Who were the leaders in charge of that generation? Because as a leader, your resume is who you lead. That's the product. You know, their failures are your failures, their successes are your successes. Like, that's what it should be, you know. And that mindset is like that's what I mean by uh there's a pandemic of or just lacking personal leadership. You know, no one's really truly owning their roles anymore.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. You know, it's interesting because I I know a lot of uh Gen X parents that are did a great job. And I know a few that were like treated their children like uh uh, especially the first child, like a buddy, right?
SPEAKER_03And I've seen it, dude. I know. I know.
SPEAKER_06My dad would tell me I am not your friend. He would tell me that regularly. You treat me with respect, you talk to me with respect, I'm not your friend. I know exactly what you mean. And it was it was funny because even I grew up in a small town, so even if I was out and about, the the big thing was when you leave this house, you you represent the family. So be respectful because what you do is a reflection on all of us in this house. And it was funny because when I went to Buddy's house and I acted up and I got in trouble, I was the last motherfucker my dad believed. You know, I would sit there and go, no, they're lying, Dad. And it was like, oh, you're calling Miss Moffat a liar? And all of a sudden I was getting spankings for calling Miss Moffat a liar now, you know. But you know, it's funny because I tell people, it wasn't until I was like, I think I was 26 that it dawned on me. Everything. My dad, I told everybody when I was a kid, in my opinion, dad was just the guy that showed up at the end of the day and spanked me. Yeah. You know, we didn't have a great relationship, we didn't go fishing, we didn't do any of those things. He worked his ass off, and when he got home, he was a disciplinary. And in hindsight, I'm sure he would have loved to just come home and chill and hang out and throw the ball, right? Oh yeah. No, he had asshole kids that he had to come disciplined because they didn't listen when he was gone. Uh we were we were somewhat fearful of him, but at the same time, we knew that he loved us and and so we respected him, you know, uh for the fact that he was just her father. But like I've had I've heard people say uh my kid doesn't have to respect anybody who he doesn't respect him. And I'm like, this motherfucker's three. Dude, you know what I'm saying? And so like to me, it's kind of like that was the carp before the horse mentality, you know? It's like, no, they need to learn to be respectful of other people and elders and all that other good stuff, right?
SPEAKER_04But absolutely, man. And it's sad, and like honestly, it just breaks my heart because it's like, dude, what are you doing? You know, we're we're going backwards. Like, but it's you don't understand that like you gotta stop pointing the finger at everybody, like just fucking own it, dude. I mean, freaking own it, dude. Sorry, I didn't mean to curse.
SPEAKER_06Hey, I'm sorry, real quick, and I'm terrible with names, but what was her name? Erin?
SPEAKER_04That's our producer.
SPEAKER_06Erin's amazing, but I just want to tell you we did here he flushed the toilet. Anyway, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no. I'm I'm just uh picking on you. She's super cute, by the way.
SPEAKER_04I know you got a great I didn't know you have a producer now. You got a whole production team at the end. You brought everything guys, but you guys don't know. There's literally like 10 people behind the cameras right now. I haven't seen you know Gabe is doing good because literally, when I first came here, it was just him. Now there's like 10 people. Is that Perrier water? I'll take one of those. Yeah, it is actually Perrier. I'll take some one of those, please.
SPEAKER_06No, this is all Gabe's doing, and the only thing I brought to the table was a fat guy. So that's me. But yeah, it's very interesting that I feel like we need to let me ask you that, dude.
SPEAKER_04Do you think do you think people just like not owning shit anymore? Like, I I honestly, like, that's just what it comes down to. It's like because I mean I've seen a lot of episodes that you've done. You've talked to a lot of amazing people, man, and they all talk about like they it's uh there's always an issue or something that applied, like at least some episodes that you've talked to.
SPEAKER_06You know, I think uh I think that there is a sense of ownership for a lot of folks after they've already hit rock bottom, right? And and I think that a lot of times, I think a lot of times, like, and I'm guilty of it too, man. I love to blame everybody but me. Uh but it but it isn't, I don't get to this to the root of the problem till I start looking at myself. Bro. Right? And when I start looking at myself, I go, Oh, I could have done this differently, I could have done that differently. You know, I we had that we had all that stuff going on in Minnesota, and the chick tried to run over the cop and he shot her, and you know, all these things happen, right? And I sit there and I go, everybody, everybody throws their hands in the air, right? Oh my god, look what just happened.
SPEAKER_03Always.
SPEAKER_06And there's a few uh politicians, one is uh running for uh Congress out of South Texas. Uh I've been watching him too because initially he he made some sense to me, and now I feel like he's gone all in and he's just doing qu taking the path that you're supposed to take. But but like a lot of these things that happen, I sit there and I go, I go, okay. I go way back. You know what I'm saying? Do it. I I well I had You're a smart man. I'll give you an example, and I I've talked about this a couple times already. That little boy in the cute little bunny ears who uh you know ice picked up his dad and took him because the dad took off running, so ice picked him up and the mom wanted to come get him. And so he ended up in Dilli, it was a whole thing, and it was interesting because I was having a conversation with a buddy and he goes, What do you think about that? And I said, In all honesty, I said, I don't care. I said, Because this boy is in a detention center in Dilli. I said, But he's he's warm, he's fed, he's safe, he's actually with his dad, the guy that left him in the street. I said, uh, he's doing pretty good. You know? I said, what about these kids and and if you pay But you won't hear about that?
SPEAKER_04Well you're not gonna hear. You had to do your own research, or you know, or you know people, but you're not gonna hear that with that bumper sticker story.
SPEAKER_06Well, that's that's what I see when I see pictures of him at the detention center. Yeah. Because I've also seen pictures and videos of Coyotes in Arizona in the wintertime dropping kids over the fence. Exactly. You know, I've seen No one ever talks about that. I've seen the stories of the Coyotes dropping the kids in the river so that the Border Patrol agent goes save the kid and they can get away.
SPEAKER_03Exactly.
SPEAKER_06And so a lot of these people that are up in arms about those things, I'm like, well, where were you when this other stuff was happening?
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_06You know, when when the uh I always use my sister as an example on this too, like with the stuff going on in uh Minnesota, right? I did podcasts with several folks when that was first happening, and I said, This is how simple I keep it. I said, I got a I got uh uh old lesbian sister on you know out in the country in South Texas. Now she's gotta carry a gun on her hip everywhere she goes at her own house, on her own property, because there's illegals running on all over the place. And this is the thing that I would ask. When you had an illegal come in, what were they doing? They're going straight to Border Patrol, turn themselves in, get processed, get shipped wherever they want to go. If it's that easy, who are the people that are running from the cops and running through ranches? You know, it's like who are those people? Those are the people that at and this is what irritated me. I said, the government isn't doing their job in protecting the border, and there's gonna be a potential that this old lesbian out in the middle of the country is gonna find herself in a position where she has to defend herself with her firearm and it's gonna change her life because you didn't do your job. Yeah, you know, one thing people forget, and it's funny because like I find myself with way more liberal friends than I ever thought I had. But uh it's interesting because in the very beginning, after this the second round of Trump's administration, Tom Holman said uh which he happened to be the border guy under Obama too, but he said, uh let us come to the to the sanctuary cities, let us come to your town, let us come get these criminal illegals out of the jail. I'll send one or two cops, one or two agents, go pull them out of the jail, we're gonna send them back. He said, if you don't do that, we gotta send a team into the neighborhood to go get this guy. And he and he even said back then in the very beginning, if we do that, we're gonna take everybody we find. So let us come get them out of the jail.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_06And all these sanctuary cities said, no, no, no. They didn't play, they didn't we're not gonna play that game, right? This is the problem. When you're running a city like that, or you're a governor of a state, it's your job to take care of your people. Own your role, own your responsibility. Own your role. What you did by not taking responsibility and working with you know ICE to come get these guys out of jail, and you're sending two cops only, what you did was you put, much like this old lesbian lady, you put these people in a position that they wouldn't have to be in had you allowed that to happen.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_06You know what I'm saying? And and everybody points fingers, but it's like, what did you do to stop this from action?
SPEAKER_04Exactly. And they're pointing their fingers at the wrong people. Sure. Because it's funny that you said that, man, because I actually did a video on that.
SPEAKER_06Oh, did you?
SPEAKER_04I did. I did a I did a small little short little video.
SPEAKER_06You're making me sound like I don't watch your stuff. And I do, and I'm not sure. It's totally fine.
SPEAKER_04It's totally fine, guys. Hey, comfort and chaos, check it out, guys.
SPEAKER_06Check it out. Um, the production is off i chain.
SPEAKER_04I did a video on that because it was to the point where I'm tired of, as a leader, once again, I'm tired of what you call selective outrage. Sure. We live in a time where standards are now selective and no one's just owning their role, owning responsibility. Because if you owned your role, then we know exactly who to have that outrage at. And now I also mind you, in that situation, that Minnesota situation, I looked at it from both sides. I did. As a as someone with tactical experience, I looked at it from that side, from the mission team and how they operated. And then I looked at it, okay, from the other side, from the governor's side, from the local politicians, the ones who have the role and the responsibility. And I said, okay, first things first. All right, let's look at it from the governor's perspective. Dude, your job are the people who put you in that office. That is your job, their safety, their security. You look out for that team. That is your platoon, and you're the platoon sergeant. You know, that is who you protect. So if I were you, don't go over there and start pointing fingers, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I would have been like, look, guys, I'm working this issue. I'm hearing you guys, I hear you. I'm working it from my end. But what I need you guys to do, your safety and security is my priority. That is my primary concern. So right now, get out of their way. I'm working it. All right. I'm working it. We're going through meetings. I'm on video chats, on video calls, I'm working it. All right. But right now, your safety and security is my priority. I don't want no one getting hurt. Get out of the way. Don't put yourself in a risk where elevated risk is now elevated. He did the exact opposite. Oh, exactly. But that's what I how I would handle it. Please stay out of their way. From the other side, okay, let's go now to the I side. If I'm that tactical team leader, you gotta be like, look, guys, check it out. We are not police officers. We're not. It's not our job. We're not there. So I need to make sure you guys know what you're getting into because the uh the environment is different than what you guys are trained for. Our job was to just transport.
SPEAKER_06We well, that was the that was the other thing, is even during all that going on, uh the governor and I think even the mayor weren't allowing local law enforcement to participate at all.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. So they're having to do both, they're trying to do everything because local law enforcement isn't even helping them. So they have no support. So now they're having to pull all these extra shifts or job roles that are not even what they're trained for. Their job is HVT, high-value target operations. That's what they do. They know a target, they get the their job is to go pick up the target, take them to be judicial handled. That's it. That's all they do. And so, in this sense, I'm like, okay, if I was on that tactical side, when I'm getting that mission, I would be telling that chief or whoever's giving me that mission, be like, hey sir, I get it. But before I take my team out, can I make this recommendation? Because it's it's crazy out there. Can we do this op, say at three o'clock in the morning? Can we do this op at night, late at night? Because you're having us out there in the middle of the day when people are out and just going through their lives, and we're getting it just the risk is elevated for my team, and not only that for civilian casualties. And I don't want to mitigate that. So, sir, is there a way we can adjust the timeline for this op for 0-3 when everyone's asleep, the majority of the people are asleep, we can go in, we'll pick up the target, and boom, before the sun's up, he's already detained. You know what I'm saying? So there's different protocols, there's different when it comes to that leadership, you know, you know, hey, I know my team, I know the capability, I know the environment. Here's what we can do to handle that. The governor and politician side, hey, I know my team, I know my people, I know my role, let me handle this, you know. But there's none of that.
SPEAKER_06But you know, the also the monkey wrench in that, the the the X factor, so to speak, are the uh protesters being paid and bust in. You know, exactly. It's like you've got you've got a cat and mouse game.
SPEAKER_04But I'll tell you what, how many protesters do you see at three o'clock in the morning?
SPEAKER_06Well, there was a time there that they were they were staying at the hotels where they thought the uh agents were staying to make noise all night.
SPEAKER_04I'd rather let them stay at the hotels and make noise than in the middle of convoys and stopping convoys in the middle of the street.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the other thing. It's kind of like had they done that, I'm sure tactics would have still changed for even the the uh paid protesters.
SPEAKER_04But I mean that's that's the But that's one way you can mitigate. That's how you can filter out, okay, hey, you're a father of three, and you're out here protesting at three in the morning with your kids? Where's where's the real issue here? Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Unless you're paid. What why are you out here protesting at three in the morning while my guys are out there operating? Like, that makes zero sense.
SPEAKER_06And you know, one thing that bothers the shit out of me as just a Joe Public, John Q public, is and you go back to Ferguson, you go back to uh uh that kid that you know was beating up the guy who was like the local neighborhood security guy. You go to you go to you know, even George Floyd, you go to all these different things. And it's interesting because I sit there and I go, You got played, man. Everybody. You're a political, you're a political tool for other people.
SPEAKER_04That's what happens when you have a selective standard. Yes, you're playable.
SPEAKER_06And yeah, that's the problem, is a lot of people, I don't know if they realize that. It's like when they're done with you, they don't give a shit that you got shot in the street. They don't care. They don't care. Politicians don't care. Your family will sit there and mourn you for the rest of their life, and those people that you know were handing out, you know, uh uh uh you know, protesting signs, they're fucking gone. They're they're going to the next thing. And it's like the only ones left are the people who loved you, and now you're fucking gone. You played that we used your name.
SPEAKER_04And that's it. We use your name, we use your photo. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_06Which is just like this kid with the fucking bunny ears, right? You know, you don't I I was I told my buddy, I said, if he was a fucking 15-year-old pimpled face kid trying to fuck girls, they wouldn't give a shit about him. But he's a cute little boy with bunny ears, you know, and he's like five. So let he's again, we're getting used.
SPEAKER_04There was um there was a You remember the kid from freaking Cuba many, many years ago?
SPEAKER_06I remember him. Remember that kid? Nobody pays attention. No one does. Leon Garcia, that's right.
SPEAKER_04And remember, there was that whole big old thing, and where is that?
SPEAKER_06No, nobody cares. Nobody cares. You know, you know, it's it's funny because uh uh I was talking to somebody the other day and we're talking about that that same thing. Uh it wasn't the Ilion kid, but it's like so many times you sit there and you think that, hey, I'm I'm gonna do something, right? This is I hear people say all that this is historic and we need to be a part of it. I I have a friend, and again, I won't use names because I hate editing that shit. But uh uh she showed up at one of the protests, one of the ice protests downtown. And they went with uh her friend and her friend's little girl who was like 11 and her friend's father who was like 90. And I said, I was like, you need to go home, man. Because what's gonna happen when somebody throws a brick at an ice agent and they start throwing gas and everybody takes off scrambling and they run over the old man and they stomp the little girl. That little girl's gonna grow up the rest of her life going, I hate ice, you know, because of what happened. And it's like you let me this is one thing that I I would tell people, even even with the stuff in Minnesota. If you want to go protest something and you want to give them hell, that's your right as a citizen. Go do it. But you might get fucked up. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04So understand the risk you are taking.
SPEAKER_06There was one guy that took a rubber pellet to the eye, and I saw a post. He had they put, he said, I'm gonna, I'm I lost my eye forever. Listen, man, you got involved, which is great. You're right, but you might get fucked up, and you gotta be mindful of that. If you're not prepared for that, keep your ass at home. You know? Now now the frosty side of me goes, Well, who's to say that all that won't flip one day and the other side's gonna want to protest?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know.
SPEAKER_06I sit there and I think about like uh I think about how if something irritated me and let's say a lot of Texans and we decided we weren't didn't want to participate with whatever the federal government was trying to do. Anything. I'm just making this up. It's like what can you really do about it? And I keep fall I I slowly keep coming back to nothing, right? Because before you know it, you're Ruby Ridge, you're Waco, you know, uh you're you know January 6th, you're uh George Floyd, you know, they they paint you however they want to paint you and then they arrest you if they need to, you know, or you know, you're Charlie Kirk and now you're dead, right? Or you you you keep going back, we talked about earlier about all these situations and things that happen, and it's like, okay, well, I I don't want to get all I love conspiracy theories, but I love them so much I try and stay out of them. You know, but it slowly starts to get to like this is the thing is like slowly it's like, man, maybe maybe the whole purpose of a conspiracy theory is the fact that hey, I'm doing something, I'm doing a psy-op, and I need you to think that everybody who thinks that what I'm doing is crazy. I need you to think that they're crazy that I'm doing what I'm actually doing. Yeah. You know, and it you slowly find yourself going, man, you you you know, you you find out about like uh uh you know uh the shit that went down in South America with them, you know, taking guns down there and drugs, and it's like again, it goes back to what I said earlier, where it's like sometimes I feel like I want to say that we're always the good guys, even when we're doing bad. But like, what is the byproduct of that? You know? Uh even like with the Venezuela stuff. You know, I had Jeffrey Anacott in and he's super sharp guy on that stuff. And I sit there and I go, everything that's been happening, and this is just in my mind, right? I sit there and go, everything that's been happening is because Trump feels like he needs to get this done before the midterms, right? And it goes all the way back to uh Venezuela, right? And it's it's controlling that oil, it's controlling, it's limiting China and Russia's access to certain oil, even though yes, Russia does have some. But then it was like, okay, what's the next move? What's it's a slow, I feel like it's a it's a a chess game.
SPEAKER_04It's like a game of chess.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and I think he's playing the long game, which I'm smart. I sit there and I go, okay, I was watching, uh fuck, I'll use his name. Well, I'll not use his name, but the guy who's running for Congress in South Texas. It's funny because when I see a lot of these politicians talk about what's going on, they do it on a surface level, and it reminds me of that fucking kid with the bunny ears. It's like, yeah, you're you're looking at this thing, going, why are we going to Iran? And it's like, it's a long-term game. Do I think it's a great idea? Maybe. Because this is another thing that we run into, and people people sit there and go, Well, you know, why are we doing that? And it's like, you don't realize that China and Russia were already influencing Venezuela. Yeah. You know, do you really want them controlling that crude?
SPEAKER_04Because they're playing the long game too. They are too. So you gotta understand, too, yeah, they're everyone's trying to play a long game here, you know, and it's like, okay, and that's smart for you to think that way because not a lot of people.
SPEAKER_06Say it again, nobody calls me smart.
SPEAKER_04Well, you are very smart for thinking that way. You know, it must be a gabe thing. Yeah, you know, but uh no, you're absolutely right, man.
SPEAKER_06Keep keep drinking, keep drinking. You're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_04Um, but uh that the long game factor is really what is played. But it's just a matter of like how it's handled, you know, and and we all we all see it. Like you can hire some kid to cut your grass or do your do your yard work for you, and you can hire a different kid.
SPEAKER_06Maybe not these days, but anyway, go ahead.
SPEAKER_04I know, not these days, you know. But I guarantee you, no matter who you hire, if you hire two different people, they're gonna find a different way to get it done. Yeah, and you may not, it may not be one a way to that you like it. Maybe one person can get it done in a day. Next person probably takes three days, you know. But either way, they're gonna achieve that end state, but because that's what the goal is. Now, are you gonna get mad at every single per or every single one that you hired? Some people do, you know, and that's the problem though. And it goes back to like what we said. So we are in a time where it's selective outrage. That's what it is, and when you have a selective standard, guess what you have? Guess what comes with that? As a leader, if you have a selective standard, you know, you have somebody or you're in charge of your employees, you have two employees. Let's just put it this way you have two employees. Well, apparently there's 10. Well, yeah, you have 10 people here, you know.
SPEAKER_06But only one's pretty.
SPEAKER_04Thank you. Um, anyways, but uh no, so you have that if you have a selective standard, you have two employees, one person shows up late. How do you handle that? And you're gonna handle that in a way that you're gonna enforce for your organization, for the success of the organization. Now you have your favorite employee of the two who shows up late. Are you gonna treat him to hold him to the same standard, even though you've known him for years and he's worked there longer? Or are you gonna keep the same standard across the board? Because if not, if you're gonna handle them differently, now you have what's called a selective standard. And now the rest of the organization is gonna see that, and now you just compromise the integrity of that organization.
SPEAKER_06You just made my stomach hurt. I was gonna ask you a minute, though, and I don't want to I don't want to change your your deal, but since we're right there at that point, like I've been that guy, I've been the late guy. Um, I've been the guy who's the favorite. And and I was gonna ask you this earlier, and I I that I guess that's why I kind of stopped you because uh it was back in my head. What is your take on um perception is reality? Because I'll tell you what, what happens to what has happened to me. Now I'm great. Now I I work from home and so I literally roll out of bed and start working. Uh like you. My entire life though, I was fucking late every single day. And and this is this is the thing that that I always thought was interesting was I was late every day at every job I've ever been at, ever. But when shit was bad, I was the guy who stayed the latest. Okay. I was the guy that worked the hardest. I'm the one that did all the stuff nobody else wanted to do, I was that guy. So there were times, man, I've had in my life, I've slept in parking lots for an hour to start working the next day. So like it was always interesting to me because like when and I get it, man. I I mean, and this is where I kind of go, well, fuck perception is reality. Is the reality was when shit was bad, I was your guy.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_06But then things would happen where work would slow down, all of a sudden we're just working 40 hour weeks, maybe it's a 40-hour week and we're probably doing like 30 hours of work now, you know what I'm saying? And now it turned into a problem, right? And I was like, man, you're late, you're late. And I was and and it would be years into you know working at a place. And it was funny because like that's when I was like, okay, I need to start getting it on time because it's a problem, right? Okay, but when I was putting in 50, 60 hours, it's cool, right? It's like you slept, you stayed here till 11 o'clock at night, and uh you got here at nine, so okay. You know, and it was funny because like that was where I'd sit there and it would irritate the fuck out of me because I was kind of like, okay, when I was your bitch, we were cool, right? But now it's not. And so everybody I would hear over and over, perception's reality, Gabe. Perception's reality. And I understand that, but I'm kind of like, okay, where was that perception when everybody would go home and me and one or two other guys were here until two o'clock in the morning? Exactly. You know, I've had a boss who almost worked with again, but uh I remember one, we were we had two projects, it was two deadlines. Me and my buddy, everybody went home. Me and my buddy stayed all night. At seven o'clock, I went to my car, I took an hour and a nap for an hour, and I came back inside and we started working. At nine o'clock, the bosses started rolling in. And I remember him going, You're not done yet? And I was like, in my mind, I I played it cool because it's a small world. But in my mind, I was like, Where were you, motherfucker? You were home in bed. Yeah, you know, you were with your wife having dinner. Yeah. While me and this other guy stayed here all motherfucking night and I slept in the in the in the parking lot. Absolutely. Like the fuck your perception is reality. That's how it feels sometimes.
SPEAKER_04And I I I understand that. And I understand from that perspective. So I will tell you this. All right, that right there is uh a failure, I would say, on uh multiple levels. Okay. One, first things first, like we're talking about ownership. All right. You're gonna if you're gonna own your role, own your responsibility, you know, you know that, hey, okay, if I gotta be here at 08, I'm gonna be here at 08. I hate when you do that. I know, I I know, I know.
SPEAKER_06Even though you did come late today, but I think that's because getting up there in age.
SPEAKER_04Let me tell you this, though. Like, it it's one of those things where if if if if that is what the expectation is, like it's laid out, you know. Hey, welcome to the team, Gabe. Appreciate you coming on board. We're looking forward to working with you. Here, here's the expectations going forward. Okay. Now, if you had that, now I'm not saying if you did or not, I don't know, because that failure also is on the leadership part. You know, they got to own their role, own the responsibility. They got to be the example, they got to keep hold on to accountability, they got to enforce that, you know, because that the work doesn't stop on that. And it's like, hey Gabe, welcome to the team. All right, hey, we operate here from 0.8 to uh 4 o'clock. So 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock, 4 p.m. All right, we try to get everybody out of here by 4, by 4, 10 after 4, I'm walking around and I'm I'm doing my rounds checking to see what why you're still here. So if you if you need to stay late, let me know. But I'm trying to get everybody out of here by 4. Why? Because I always get you time to go and have some time to rewind and recharge and spend time with your families and be ready to be back here the next day. So by 8.05, if I'm walking around, I'm like, hey, where's Gabe at? Oh, he's he's running late. Okay. Okay, maybe something happened. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Next day. Yeah, I was asleep.
SPEAKER_04Next day comes, it's 8 10. Hey, where's Gabe at? Oh, he's uh he's running late. He's coming. Okay, you know what? This is two days in a row. I need to talk with him. When he gets here, send him to my office. Okay, you know, and then we have that conversation. Hey Gabe, what's going on? That's two days in a row. You know, you're running late. Is there something wrong with your alarm clock or or what's up? Like, do you just not care about this job? Like, let me know, you know, because at least I need to know who I'm working with. Because I need to know. Everybody else is here able to do this. Why can't you do it? I need to know what's what's the issue? Is it something that I need to do, or is it something that we need to do? Let's come up with a solution. Let's figure this out. You know, do you do I need to call you at seven o'clock to make sure you're up? You know, and then hey, I know, Gabe, I noticed you're staying late. You're sleeping in the car. That's not cool, man. You need to be home with your family. What are you doing? It's not life, limb, or eyesight. Hey, let me know. If you feel like you're gonna stay a bit late like that, not on my watch. Let's figure this out. Let's figure this out because your wife needs you, your family needs you. You know, this job, yeah, I get it. Projects come, but we can figure out a plan on that. You know, if you're gonna stay late, then I'll tell you what, let's compensate. You come in later. You know, come in at 10. That way you can stay if you're gonna stay later, you know. Let's figure something out.
SPEAKER_06Which I think it, which I think was always the rub, right? Because the rub was always like, hey man, uh, you're getting here late. You know, but there was never the hey, you stayed late. You know, it was when it was time to stay late, it was like, hey, we're gonna need people to work late. It's like okay.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. And sometimes that's where leaders come in and know who they're leading. And then it's like, hey, man, let me figure this out. I noticed you've been coming in late. Is it because you're just having a hard time sleeping or waking up? But I also notice you're staying late. Do we need to adjust? Do I need to talk to the bosses and figure out adjusting your timeline? Is will that help you, you know, or is this project dependent? Whatever it is, let's let's come up with a solution because it's not sustainable. Why? Because the whole organization sees that and it's gonna reflect negatively on me and the rest of the organization. So I need to know, let's come up with a solution.
SPEAKER_06Let me ask you this, because I have another thought. Is uh and maybe maybe it's me being ignorant, which is a high likelihood, man. I ain't gonna lie. There's times where I go, how does management not know what the current workload is? Because there's times where it's like, like we'll have a conversation, you know, the conversation we had this week. What's going on? Hey man, you can't stack deadlines like that. You're the guy making the deadlines.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06It's like, why am I telling you the problem when you're responsible for the outcome of what's going on?
SPEAKER_04You know what I'm saying? Then you'll see that. And this goes back to, like I said, man, we're in a pandemic of personal leadership lacking.
SPEAKER_06Is that what it is? Or do they legitimately not sometimes go, oh man, we didn't see that?
SPEAKER_04And that's that's usually what it is because of the fact that they're human, you know, we're all human, you know. And sometimes people get put in positions not knowing full on what the role and responsibility is in that position. And if I'm a team leader, you know, and I'm or I'm a task manager and I'm managing all these tasks, then I should know my team's capability. You know, I need to know what are they capable of, how many tasks are they managing are capable of handling because I don't want to saturate my team because I'm only as effective as my team, you know. And I want to make sure that so if I'm getting those tasks and I'm managing those tasks, I'm gonna be like, okay, we need to prioritize. Hey, these three are gonna be on the back burner for next quarter. These ones are priority. Let me get with my team. Hey guys, all right, here's what's coming down the pipe. We have these three tasks up. All right, I need to know. I need that buy-in from you guys. Is this something we can do? Because here's the deadline. Now, what do we need to do to get these tasks completed? And I know you guys are fully capable. I know I'm like, Gabe, I know your capability, man. You come in here and you grind, and I know your capability. What can you do to help us meet this mark? Is this something doable?
SPEAKER_06And I guess this is where I get I get a little feelings hurt. Uh-oh. Is uh like I feel like at a lot of places that I've worked, we make this eye contact where I go, amen. I am a self-described motherfucker, right? And now, granted, this isn't the military, this is an engineering firm, right?
SPEAKER_04That's a good name for a uh podcast episode.
SPEAKER_06Oh, uh I got a great uh album.
SPEAKER_03Self-described motherfucker.
SPEAKER_06I I uh I tell people I'm like uh I'm the guy who who when it's time to get dirty, and now granted it's engineering, it's not the military something serious like, but to me, it's like when it's time to get dirty, I'm gonna get the dirtiest with you. You know? But the flip side of that is when things chill out, I'm gonna take a little bit back, right? I'm gonna stay, I'm gonna sleep a little bit later, right? I'm gonna, you know, you know what? We'll slow down a little bit, I'm gonna take a little time off, you know. I'm going to uh you know, maybe take some PTO, maybe put some appointments that I've been meaning to have. I'm gonna put them in that area, you know, what because I'm paying attention, this is where we're slowing down time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But when it's time to get dirty, I'm gonna get dirty with you. But that's where it's almost like that's where I fuck myself. Because I get to the point where it's like uh that agreement's okay when when we got a lot of work to do.
SPEAKER_04So I'll ask you this is that communicated?
SPEAKER_06No, not very well because like I said, it's the it's the it's me and it's me and my father-in-law looking at each other in the bathroom going, what are we doing here? You know, are we on the same page without talking about it?
SPEAKER_04But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what though, you you probably, as you're and your father-in-law, you probably respect when it's communicated what the insta like what are we trying to do here? Yeah, what's the plan here? If it's communicated, you're probably gonna take it a little bit more easier than if you're blindsided.
SPEAKER_06And I do that better than that as I've gotten older. You know, we talked about aging and stuff, but like now I'm at the point where I I'm like, you know what? When I talk to people, one thing I like I do a lot of is uh uh underpromise, over deliver. That's kind of what I like to do, right? You know what I get it to you in five days, but in the reality I'll get it to you in three. Um, you know, that's good.
SPEAKER_04And as long as that's communicated, right? You you communicate that to you.
SPEAKER_06You try not to communicate that because then they're gonna be like, oh, you can get it done in three, can you do it in two? You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04No, but you don't have to say the time, you can just be like, hey, this is this is my work ethic. This is how I perform. Here's my performance. You know, just know this.
SPEAKER_06Well, I I do a better job of uh of communicating times, dates, expectations. Hey, I need X, Y, and Z by Friday at two o'clock. You know, and and it's like I do that now, and I notice people are more receptive to that. Oh, yeah. But here's another problem that we have in the engineering industry it's a lot of autism, man. And I I'm serious. Like, it sounds funny, but guys who are autistic, even in hair, they do real well in engineering because it's it's mathematics. You know what I'm saying? It's linear lines, it's there's not I can never do that shit.
SPEAKER_03There's not enough room for thank you for your service.
SPEAKER_06Well, you know what's funny is I've worked at places where uh because I have a super charming personality. Yeah, you do. I've worked at places where they won't let certain guys make phone calls to architects and owners. I believe they'll have me do it. I believe they're like, I don't want him calling. You call them. Yeah. And so I'll call, I'll get the information, and I'll hand it over to this guy. Because if he called, it would not go well. You know, I believe it. But uh, yeah, man, I'm sorry for taking you off on a tandem.
SPEAKER_04No, no, dude. No, man, and you're absolutely right. And it's it that comes just down to like, hey, you gotta know your team, you gotta know who you lead, you know. And I and it's funny, though, communication is key. We say that all the time. You'll hear that every every soldier in the military. They that's one thing they teach you from basic training. Communication is key. I'll never forget one time I went to when I was in basic training, we had a guy who uh who messed up in our platoon. So we all had to do push-ups, and the drill sergeant's like, everybody hit the ground right now. So we're all hitting the ground, and we're like, uh-oh, what happened? Like, this is this is weird. He literally, we're just chilling by our bunks, and the drill sergeant walks in and says, Everybody hit the ground right now. And we're just like, oh shoot. So we roll over, everyone's in the front lane rest. You know, a front lane rest is where you're in a push-up position, but your arms are just up. And he says, All right, when I say down, you guys are gonna go down, and you're gonna say, and you're gonna come back up. When I say up, you come up, and you're gonna say communication is key. Ready? Down, up, and we're like, communication is key. Down, up, communication is key, you know, and then he he was his way of teaching us like guys, communication is key. Don't blindside your drill start, don't blindside your leadership, don't blindside your leaders. Because as a team, communication is key. You know, if you know this, say it. Come up on the net. If you don't know it, come up on the net. You know, let us know. Communication is key. And it's funny because even as a first sergeant, I would always tell my my soldiers, and I'll tell my NCOs, guys, overcommunicate the no-communicate. So if you send a message out, if you send a text message out or whatever, and you didn't get a response, well, guess what? Send another message out to someone else or a call or whatever. Overcommunicate. Because if you over-communicate up, then it's gonna mitigate the issue when that communication comes down. Because if it comes down, now it's already too late. Now you're no longer proactive, now you're reactive. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Like you work with a lot of different people, and communication being as critical as it is, how do you get a word in with a Puerto Rican? I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking.
SPEAKER_04It's funny because one of my good friends, one of my golfing buddies, too. He's Puerto Rican. We always go to town all the time, and sometimes I joke around, you know, because we're in the military, we joke around all the time. Yeah, and he'll come to my office and he'll talk, and I'll be like, hold up, bro. I'm waiting for the subtitles to finish.
SPEAKER_06You know what's funny is is uh uh the over-communicating thing. I love it. Because and sometimes I feel like people get irritated by it because they don't communicate very often. Because they're not used to it. I like too. I tell people like, I tell you everything because I'm not only telling you what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and whatnot. Sometimes I'm telling you something, I don't need feedback from you, but it's an opportunity for you to go, oh, hey, we're not doing that after all. You know, this project got put on hold, or hey, we're not doing that anymore, or somebody else. So actually communicating that to somebody isn't always me asking somebody, hey, am I doing right? Which is kind of hard because a lot of times people feel like this motherfucker doesn't know what he's doing. He's always asking questions. But it's like it's not so much that, it's more of I'm giving you an opportunity to know what I'm doing. So if you know, if you have information that I don't, this is your chance to interject that information and redirect me or stop me or whatever. But if you don't, I'm gonna keep going, you know.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely, man. And that's that is key. Communication is key. So when you have Your own firm here in a couple years and you hire in your own staff, let them know hey guys, no porter communication is key. Okay, okay. No Puerto Ricans, subtitles required.
SPEAKER_06Subtitles. You know what's funny is I used to work at the jail in George West.
SPEAKER_04And uh that's I I know you've told me that before. So you were a corrections officer.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, for it was for about a year. I was right out of high school, and basically I just went there and wore a badge and then ate uh frozen chicken.
SPEAKER_04Dude, that's the that's not an easy job.
SPEAKER_06You know what's funny if people ask me, they they would say, uh, what's your favorite part about that job? Or what's your least favorite part about the job? Or no, they say that's what's the favorite. And I would say my favorite part about the job is when the shit hit the fan, it was my job to take care of it. My least favorite part about that job was when the shit hit the fan, I was the one to take care of it. You know, and so it was one of those things where it was like, whatever mood you were in, right? Am I in a mood to do this tonight? Yeah, let's fucking do it. If I'm not, oh, it's the worst, man.
SPEAKER_04You know, it's funny too. I I just saw uh I just saw this clip on social media. He's a big influencer. What's his name?
SPEAKER_06Gabe Molina?
SPEAKER_04No, not Gabe. The next guy. I know that guy's big, but Mr. Beast. It's uh Charleston White.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that dude's hilarious.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, right? Charleston White. I think that's his name, right? Yeah, I think that's his name. Your production team, black dude with a glass eye. Yeah, so black dude with a glass eye. Now, this guy, he just he keeps it real. This guy just keeps it real. He's he's from the streets and he keeps it real. And he's funny because he said the other day, he's talking about he's a man, all these people protesting cops and all that stuff. You know, he always says you hear all you see, all these black people protesting cops and all this stuff. He said, Ain't nobody protesting correction officers. And he said, They're the worst, too. He said, they are the worst. He said, You go in there, they are the worst. They're beating you. They're doing, I mean, they are way worse than what the cops are doing on the outside. They can be. And he no, but he was literally being real, and he brought up a good point. I said, Yeah, man, it's actually true. Like, no one ever knows what goes on in the inside. And all those killers, all those thugs, all those people, like, you know, who are getting put and locked up, and it's like, dude, they're being handled, you know, they're being escorted, they're being guarded, they're being secured, and it's just like, damn, no one ever talks about that.
SPEAKER_06You know, I I I've always used, and this is one thing that I learned from there is, and I tell people one thing I learned from working at the jail was I can influence your behavior by my behavior. And so there was a few times where that paid off. There was one guy I remember in particular, he's this huge, tall Mexican dude. He'd gotten arrested uh earlier in the day because he was drunk with his brother and his cousins. They stopped in the nearby town to pee on the side of the road. Something happened, they all got in a fight, he beat them all up and drove off with a truck. They arrested him, brought him in drunk. And it was funny because I've always been cocky. I've been like, I always tell everybody for being fat and unattractive. I have too much self-esteem. But uh, I remember I showed up and they said, Hey, we got one in the drunk tank, but he's dangerous. Be careful. And so uh uh I was trying to impress the chicks there. So I was like, I'll take care of it, I'll go book them, right? It was just a sheet of paper. You get some.
SPEAKER_04Oh, there's chicks in the correction facility, or what?
SPEAKER_06Well, they were uh uh dispatchers and stuff like that. Oh, okay. And then other deals. They're trying to flex. I was trying to flex. But it's just literally one sheet of paper, right? So uh uh they're like, you know, told me what happened, why he was arrested, and they're like, he's being real aggressive and won't let us book him. And I said, All right, I'll take care of it. I said, I got it, I'll handle it. And so uh we had this big cabinet with all kinds of chains and handcuffs and uh leg irons and belly chains, and we had a strait jacket. Oh, yeah. But the strait jacket was missing the crotch piece, so like you could pull it off, you know. So I I took I got as much as I could carry, and I went down there, and uh, it's just tall, it's tight little hallway, and uh there's a steel door. We had the air conditioning crank down real low so they'd freeze them out. And uh so I go in there and I uh I take the key, it's this big brass key, and I slam it in the door, turn it, and I open it. And I never make eye contact with a guy because he's huge. But I walk in and I got this little manila envelope with one sheet of paper in it, and he's standing there, and I take all these chains and the straitjacket and I just drop it in there, and he makes this loud echoing noise. And uh I said, Mr. You know, Gallegos, I don't know. I said, uh I understand that you didn't let anybody book you. I said, uh you can allow me to book you. And that's when I looked up at him, and uh he's sitting down kind of squat and he's staring at the chains and the straitjacket, and he's like, What's that for? And I said, Don't worry about that. I said, uh, are you gonna allow me to book you? And he says, Well, what is that for? And I said, Well, if you let me book you, we don't have to worry about what this stuff's for. In reality, he would have whipped my ass and put me in all that shit.
SPEAKER_03Oh, smart dude, okay.
SPEAKER_06So the guy goes, So I said, You can let me book you, and he's like, uh, yeah. So he gets up, he walks out, we go in a little thing, uh, a little booking room, and so I ask a bunch of you know, handful of questions and take them back in and put them in there, pull the chains out. And it's funny because I closed the door and I locked it, I looked at everybody, I was like, holy shit, that dude's big. But you know, stuff like that happened all the time, man. I believe it, dude. It it was uh it was a it was a lot of fun. But like I said, it was it was interesting because when shit was good, it was good. When it was bad, it was bad.
SPEAKER_04You know, it's funny because when my father, you know, when I was growing up, my father used to always say, like, correction officers, you know, were a special breed.
SPEAKER_06He always he used to always say He's like they couldn't be real cops, so they had to do it.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no. He used to, my dad used to always say, you know, when this was when I was a little kid, he used to always because I used to tell my dad, like, I want to be uh cop or military or corrections or something. And uh my dad used to always say that corrections officers uh never had a heart. It's hard to, man. You have to literally block out emotion, like you do. So it's hard for you to go home, and those long-term effects of just dealing with the day-to-day, and the side effect of that is just being emotionless, you know. Even you know, you see you see a dog get hit by a car, you're just like, oh, get that dog out of the way, you know, like because of the fact that you just you're so hard because you have to, you know, you're working with criminals and you have to harden your heart, you know, because they're gonna give you every side story, every sob story, they're gonna make you try to feel something because that's how they know they got you, you know, that's how they hook you, you know, and they hook you into it. And I'm sure you've read and you've heard all these inmates that escape because you know, a guard helped them or whatever, and you're just like, wow, they had to like groom that guard, you know, they had to like wheel that guard in, you know, to feel something.
SPEAKER_06Well, this is what people don't understand is like if a cop arrests you, right? You shot somebody, they come in and they arrest you. They probably spent 30 minutes with you. Yeah, I gotta spend eight hours with you. You know what I'm saying? Exactly. And it's like exactly you're the same scumbag that murdered somebody in the street, but you got dropped off. And now I gotta feed you, I gotta clothe you, I gotta listen to you complain, I gotta hear you about you know that probably explains your sense of humor because you have a really good sense of humor.
SPEAKER_04It's a very blunt, I really forward, upfront sense of humor. And we've always had that relation because of the fact that like I have a very blunt, same, same one, but in the military, you know, being deployed multiple times and just like you develop a sense of humor that you just kind of just gotta laugh at it, you know. That's the only way you just process it, just laugh at it.
SPEAKER_06Well, you know, I have this stupid thing, and I even tell myself, like verbally, like I'll say, laugh or cry, dude. You know, what you're gonna do. And it's funny because like I've I've talked to somebody about this, and I don't know it's a uh mental defect or something, but like when I'm uh super stressed, I'm sure there's been times where like I kind of fall apart. I'm I'm sure, I'm certain I have. But the majority of the time when I hit like my peak stress, I start to find it comical. And like I don't get like where I go in the corner and freak out, and you know, I I have I have had anxiety attacks before, but like usually it's like it gets to the point where like you know, the sh the shit's piled too tall, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't matter when it was manageable. I was stressed out, but now it's no longer manageable, so this is stupid.
SPEAKER_03Let's just keep going.
SPEAKER_06And and I just keep going. I have this mentality of uh I always call it referred to it as chopping down a tree, right? When I get real busy with work or real busy or stressed out about something, I always I always equate it to cutting a tree down. And it's like if if I look at the forest, it's overwhelming, right? But if I just look at where I'm swinging and I just keep swinging and I just focus on that, eventually the tree will fall, and then I go to the next one. But you have to, at a certain point, you gotta quit looking at everything around you because it's gonna overwhelm you, right? So now let's just focus on our immediate issue. The same thing with Nina, you know, we have these conversations all the time. Like sometimes Nina will call me in and I try I'm not very good at it. I wish I was better, but she'll call me and she'll be stressed out about something, right? And to me, I'm like, I I need to I I've even had this conversation with my nephew. I need you to cut 80% of this out. What's the 20% that's the important part? Yeah, exactly. What did you say a minute ago? If you're if you're not bleeding, if it's not broken.
SPEAKER_03Life limb or eyesight.
SPEAKER_06Right. It's like, okay, that's the line we're at right now.
SPEAKER_03That's how you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_06When we have more free time and when there's more of us to give to a problem, let's go look down the road and see what we can figure out early. But right now, the shit's hitting the fan. What's in front of us? Exactly. And uh a lot of times it's it's hard for people to kind of focus on that. I know Nina does. Nina likes to when she hits that stressful point, it's overwhelming, and all of a sudden she's talking about things that don't matter right now. It's like that's that's tomorrow's problem.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's today's problem. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06And I've actually I've gotten better at that. I I'm not great at it, but I've gotten better at it.
SPEAKER_04No, that's good, man. That's actually a skill that we all need, you know. That is a skill everybody should have is to be able to kind of prioritize. Okay, hey, what really matters? You know, because I feel like even now we live in a time where literally you can pick up your phone, start scrolling, and all of a sudden there's a new anxiety or stress that you're about to absorb. Like, oh yeah, oh what? Oh my gosh, and now I'm stressing this. I just read this article, now I'm stressing it now. Oh, that just really gets my bows. Even though it's like, dude, does that really affect you? Do you have any control over that? No, so why now are you gonna make that stress your stress? Why are you gonna make that anxiety your anxiety when you have your own shit to worry about? You have your own bills to pay, your own family, your own kids to get homework done and worry about, but you're gonna yet scroll this and you're gonna make that now your stress on top of whatever you have, and it's just gonna make you just get discombobulated, and you're just like, dude, what's going on? You know? Like, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_06I think it's gonna get worse, but people really gotta put effort into detaching. The other day I was with my father.
SPEAKER_04Oh, dude, yeah, you're absolutely right.
SPEAKER_06I was with my father-in-law, and he turned uh he was watching like on demand, and you know, it was like animals or baby animals or something. He likes that kind of stuff. He went to the the news, right? It was the six o'clock news or whatever, uh, national. And I was sitting in the room next to him working, and he was in the living room watching it. The six top stories somebody got murdered, somebody died, a bombing happened, a plane crashed.
SPEAKER_03Of course.
SPEAKER_06And I got up and I walked I walked in the living room and I looked at him and I said, Is all I got is bad news? And he looked at me and he's like, shook his head, like unbelievable. And and it's it's funny because it's like even when I'm I I got a bad habit of scrolling TikTok, man. But there comes a point where I'm not even looking at anything. It's like, that's stupid, that's stupid, that's terrible, that's terrible. And I start doing this thing and then I just put it down.
SPEAKER_04That's when it's like fucking yeah, you know, or that's where it's gotten to, though. Yeah, it's it's gotten to that now. It's almost like I challenge somebody to create their own social media app or it's just nothing but good news. Yeah, like good shit that's going on in the world that no one's talking about. That not even the media thing.
SPEAKER_06There's one on Instagram. I think it's called good news movement or something.
SPEAKER_04There is that, but I mean a whole platform. Yeah, just imagine a whole platform dedicated, or even just a whole news media outlet where it's just like, dude, we're here to give you some good news today. You know, just that's it. No bias, no propaganda, no nothing, no left, no right, no nothing. Let me tell you, dude. Let me tell you about uh they just found the cure for this in Japan. They just did this over here, you know. They these these 13 kids got saved in Africa for doing this, you know, and it's just like, dude, let's hear about that.
SPEAKER_06I think about that. I think people would love that because I think I feel like we've gotten to a point where everybody's so desensitized to so much that like the world's black and white, right? And it's like if you if you go and you put a fucking stroke of pink in that black and white, like everybody's gonna gravitate to that. And the color is the good stuff, right? But what I I hate to uh he probably won't listen to this, but my nephew was staying with me for a while, and it was interesting because like I learned like this generation is very focused on, and I'm not trying to poke you a little bit, but very focused on like online stuff. Everything is online, the gaming, the hanging out, everything. And I remember one night, and I told a buddy this the other day. I said, Um I talked to friends, they're like, Oh, my kids like that too. My kids like that too. But it was interesting because I told him one day, I said, Hey, uh, we both like UFC, right? I said, Hey, there's gonna be a huge fight. Why don't you call your friends, tell them to come over to the house? One of them is my godson. I said, Have him come over, let's barbecue, let's order food, whatever, let's watch fights. And he's like, Okay, I'll let you know, I'm gonna go to work. So he went to work on his way back. I said, Hey man, are we barbecuing tonight? What are we doing? Oh, no, no. Uh um, he said, we we found a uh chat room that we're all gonna watch the fights in, and uh, so we're just gonna watch the fights in this chat room. And I was like, I I get that it's a different world, but it's like, yeah, it's like you can't do that, man. And it's so acceptable now, you know, and not just with him, with a whole bunch of them.
SPEAKER_04No, you're absolutely right, dude. And I know, I know.
SPEAKER_06I tell Nina, I said, you Nina goes, what did you do in a small town growing up? I said, you know what my favorite things were to do? I had three of them. One was I'd wake up in the morning, I'd have a buddy or two at the house already. We lived in a very small town. I said, we'd walk around town all, you know, half the morning. We'd go to each buddy's house, pick them up, get our ball, our glove, our bats, yeah, hook every grab everybody, come back to Little League, and we'd play baseball all day. Yeah. I said, the other thing we would do is we would take rocks and we'd hit them, we'd throw them at stop signs.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And you would hear that. Just throw dirt clogs. Yeah. Just throw dirt clogs.
SPEAKER_06You hear that that bing, you know, when it hit. I said, the other thing was I'd hang out with my buddy Bo out at his ranch. We'd sit on the back of the truck and we'd watch the wind blow through the plains grass.
SPEAKER_03And she's like, What? No, that's some that's some broke back mountain stuff right there.
SPEAKER_06Best thing you would do. And it's like we've we've detached from nature, we've detached from just sitting in silence with each other. No, you're absolutely right. Like, like, I don't we don't have to talk.
SPEAKER_04We've turned the screens.
SPEAKER_06We've turned the screens, man. That's it. We've turned the screen. It's never gonna stop.
SPEAKER_04No, it's not gonna stop, man. But I'll tell you what, one thing that is is shitty is uh I was thinking about this the other day, and I even I I mentioned it in the last video I posted, but I saw it. Oh, yeah? Well, thank you for your.
SPEAKER_06Tell us anyway.
SPEAKER_04No, but I mentioned that because of the fact that it's like, dude, you're absolutely right that we've we've become so sanitized over screens that we're seeing the effect. And what the effect is, is it's division. You know, it is division, and and I like to think, and I'm not trying to put my tinfoil hat on or put it on, man. But uh I like to think that obviously it's like, dude, when you have division, when you have confusion, when you have division, then you don't have unity, then you don't have strength. You have it's perfectly done. You know, you have weakness. And the reality is it's like I think of the movie, I saw this movie the other day, and it I'm sure you remember this movie, it was a Pixar movie called Bug's Life. Great movie. Yeah, great movie, right? So I watched Bugs Life the other day randomly. All right, and it's so weird. I know, I know. I'm a weird guy.
SPEAKER_06No, what's weird is when we watch them now, they make so much more sense.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. So if you remember the movie Bug's Life, I'm pretty sure your staff here, you guys remember the movie Bugs Life? So Bugs Life. Okay, do you remember there were a bunch of ants who basically had to like all of a sudden these grasshoppers, you know, come over and they're like, hey, you need to get us this food by this time, and blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, those grasshoppers go back to their place and they're gonna come back, you know, to collect. And those grasshoppers are all saying, Hey, why don't we just let those dudes just chill out? Why do we let the ants just chill out? Are you kidding me? We gotta let them chill out. Do you know that they outnumber us, blah, blah, blah? Like they have all the power, you know, they have all the power. So we have to keep doing this because when they recognize they have all the power, then it's gonna be a different story. That I just summed it up though. I know I'm not going into the full lines, but that is the storyline. And then all of a sudden they come back, and then the ants realize, wow, we do have all the power, you know, and then they they unified, they united, you know, there was no more division because the whole time there's division. Oh, let's do this. No, we gotta feed them. No, we don't want to feed them. No, we gotta do this. Hey, we're we're pressure for time. We gotta, you know, they're stressing themselves out, they're working and everything. And in the end, they had the power the whole time. Because literally they forced that power, that hierarchy of the grasshoppers was forced to move, and they all just get depleted. And that's kind of like how I see what's going on now in my mind. I saw that and I'm like, dude, that is that is the US right now. Why? Because we're so divided, and everyone just so out selective outrage is literally everywhere. We pick up these screens that there's no unity, and when there's unity, you have strength. If there's and I had the, I thought the example the other day, I was like, dude, Netflix literally was like people are talking about, oh, they're gonna up their price, blah, blah, blah. Well, imagine if the whole United States just unified and said, okay, delete. In just 48 hours, what do you think that board meeting? There's gonna be an emergency board meeting in Netflix is saying we literally just had every subscription deleted in the United States. Like 80% of our subscriptions were just deleted. What are we gonna do? Oh, well, let's go back to our normal price. Okay, let's do it. And then all of a sudden, who has the power? You know, price of eggs goes up. Okay, everybody, don't buy eggs. Don't, don't, don't do it. Hey, what what what's uh give me another example? Oh uh, I mean, literally, it could be anything. And if you just united and said, Oh, hey, you know what? Instagram, social media, okay, you know what, everybody, just delete your Instagram for 48 hours. Let's see what happens. Everybody, whole United States, delete. Boop, delete.
SPEAKER_06I saw you post that. I saw you post about what happened if it all went away. And it was funny because I watched it and I went, good. No, exactly. I'm addicted, fucking take it.
SPEAKER_04No, and imagine though, like if you think about it, we don't like to think about what would that outcome would be. Think about it. Just literally think about it, you know, all these apps, all these stocks, everything. Everything is just right now, it's literally using that division and that selective outrage, those selective standards, everything that just demoralizes us, but they're capitalizing on it. Literally, capitalizing on it.
SPEAKER_06You know what, you know what's funny is I had a conversation with a guy the other day, and and I won't give you that whole conversation, but I will utilize some of it. Like, if you came to me and said, hey, we're pulling your podcast, we're shutting it down, we're gonna take your phone, you've got no more social media and your apps are gone. I'd fucking say, Good. Take it. Fuck it. I don't care. I I've I know what life is when I didn't have this stuff. The problem is we've got a whole generation of people now who've never lived without this.
SPEAKER_03But get this though. They're also probably died.
SPEAKER_04But get this though, they're also the uh that's only a percentage though.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you would still see it's growing. It is growing, but it you could still see a large chunk of the percentage, though. Like I just said though, you would see a difference.
SPEAKER_02You know?
SPEAKER_06Well, it's like it's uh the conversation I had with the guy was AI, right? And it's interesting because like uh I spent some time with my nephew Tommy today. He's 12. He's always on his phone.
SPEAKER_03Shout out Tommy.
SPEAKER_06Shout out Tommy, he's uh he's a chess nerd and uh he's a chick out there he likes, so he's working that angle. Oh good luck, good luck, Tommy. I won't use names because I did figure it out earlier. But uh uh but this is the thing is the conversation I had with the other gentleman was like we have a back history of life prior to artificial intelligence. We know we know you know the stove gets hot, we know uh how to change a tire, we know what it feels like when you drive a car and it starts shaking or making a certain noise. We know those things, right? Yeah, because we have lived experiences. But in the there's a generation. Of kids coming up who don't have so many lived experiences, and I think progressively it'll get worse. And before they know it, like we have a database of information that we've lived through, and that's kind of how we go when we when we see something AI, we go, ah, that's that's bullshit, right? We can call bullshit still. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of kids in the future that can't call bullshit because all they know is what they've seen off of AI. You know, I had a conversation and what did a podcast with some buddies the other day we're talking about AI taking over and it's going to, man. It's it's going to. Uh whatever that looks like, I think, I think through robotics and artificial intelligence, they'll be able to do whatever they want to do. It just depends on it just depends on like what do they want to go towards. Even my job.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it depends on who's managing it.
SPEAKER_06Well, this is like my job, for example, right? It's in the engineering industry, it's it's computers. You know, even today, like the architects in the background, it's made of parts and pieces that are actual parts and pieces. We do the same. So I think if somebody wanted to put an effort into generating an AI software that could do my job, it'd be done easy. It's coming. Uh, but this is the other thing is like we started talking about AI and things that AI does, but I I think there's gonna be a group of people in the world that will always have an influence on AI, right? So so there's never gonna be a hey, AI took over completely, and we're we can't affect it. There's always gonna be somebody else in the back door putting it on. Someone has to have the controls. There's gonna be they're never gonna let that go. You know. So I I was I was thinking the other day, I was like, will we turn into a communist country? You know, will we get to the point where like all of a sudden, you know, who doesn't love the idea of uh, you know, uh a set income for everybody that way they can live because now AI and robotics have taken everybody's jobs. You know, so it's like all of a sudden you don't have a choice now, right? We don't need you anymore. You know, we can send these we can send these soldiers into uh uh a booth and have them input things that are on their mind, and here are your best three options, right? And they they can even click on it and we will enroll them in classes and they'll go to another AI. You know, so it's like okay, once that happens and these jobs aren't required, well, how are people gonna live? You know, I I think Elon was talking about like a hundred thousand dollars per person. And it's like to me, I sit there and go, dude, you can make it a million dollars per person, but all you're gonna do is increase the price of bread. No, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04All you're gonna do, prices, everything's gonna go up. Price you say that because California just launched the first. In California just launched the first fast food restaurant that is all automated.
SPEAKER_06Is it a McDonald's or what is it?
SPEAKER_04No, it's uh it is a burger joint, but it's like uh it's like its own burger joint, it's not a franchise. But they are launching the full encamp, but there's not a single employee there. It's all automated. Yeah, the moment you walk in, it's being cooked, prepped, food, everything, it's all automated. And that I saw that and I'm like, oh, do you know what that means? It's only a matter of time before you see companies like McDonald's, you know, Whataburger, everything where it's literally they can save money by not having a whole staff running shifts and everything, and a payroll, and they just have two automated managers that just run two shifts, and that's it. And all they do is make sure that the wheels and gears are all working, lubed, and ready to go, and that's it. Well, this is what people people are, I think, are kind of hitting. I don't mean to interrupt, but real quick. What that's gonna do is guess what? All those high schoolers, all those people who are working those part-time jobs to get to high school or whatever, or provide ends meet to their family, whatever, what jobs are they gonna get when all of those jobs that they would normally get are now automated? Waiters, waitresses, everything, it's all automated. So what are they gonna do?
SPEAKER_06And then that's when the that's when the politicians come in again and go, hey, we'll take care of you. You know, we'll give you a basic income. You know, we'll give you, we'll put you on the uh Medicaid enrollment.
SPEAKER_04Which then takes your power more away, increases your dependency, decreases your independency.
SPEAKER_06That's where I that's where I get so frustrated with people, man. Oh, because YouTube, man. They want to be taken care of. And and it's like you can't have anything. When I give you everything you get, you only get what I give you. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? And it's like why would you want to there's pee I have family members that live that way. It's like, why would you want to fucking live that way? Why would you want somebody to dictate when you can go to the grocery? Because that's what's coming, right?
SPEAKER_04But because guess what? There's no unity. If you have unity, you don't that it's a you're shifting the whole conversation now. It all shifts. Because imagine if Walmart increased their prices, okay, everybody in the United States, let's not go to Walmart for a week.
SPEAKER_06But they won't.
SPEAKER_04No, but imagine what that effect would have.
SPEAKER_06Oh, it would. It would be amazing.
SPEAKER_04Nobody went to Walmart for a whole week. Oh my gosh, you went everywhere else but Walmart. Why? Because their prices are going up. Okay. See what happens to their, see what meetings they're having, emergency board meetings they're having when they see, wow, we've had zero sales for a seven day straight. That is a loss in profits for this quarter. A huge loss. Huge. We need to fix something and we need to fix something fast. Just imagine that. You know, same thing with AI. Imagine if everyone just said, okay, I'm not using AI for a week. We're doing an AI strike for a week. Why? Because we can get by without it. Here we can we can get by without it.
SPEAKER_06I just don't ever see that happening.
SPEAKER_04No, man, and and and you don't. The last time we saw that, honestly, is like, dude, you're not. Last time we saw that was the Boston Tea Party. You know, think about it. Oh, I don't even want to get it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Don't even get me into the Revolutionary War.
SPEAKER_04I know, but think about it.
SPEAKER_06I know we went to, and I don't want to say for a what 2% tax on tea? And we went to war. Think about all the taxes we pay now. And and when you see when we paid taxes this, you know, a couple weeks ago. Oh my gosh, yeah. And then you see all the fraud that happens around the country. But zero accountability.
SPEAKER_04Fuck you. Zero ownership, zero accountability. Once again, lack of personal leadership. Like, dude, be brutally honest. I'd rather you come up to my face and be like, hey, look, dude, we're taxing the crap out of you. Why? Because here's where your money's going. It's going to this company and this organization or this country. That's where it's going. I'm just sorry to say that's the way the system is. I'm put in charge right now. I'm just going to be transparent and let you know.
SPEAKER_06I'm going to pay taxes because I'm not trying to go to jail. But dude, do you know how I've always we've always been.
SPEAKER_04I want to know the stat. I want to like to know the stat. Jamie, can we look this up? Uh, what is the statistic right now? It's a hymen. Hey, Jayman. Hey, I want I'm curious to know what is the stat? How many people went to jail in 2025 for not paying taxes?
SPEAKER_06I just got a I just got a text that's none.
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay. Like, I'm seriously curious. You're not seeing that data reported. No, like you see people going to jail for like tax fraud, but how many went to jail for not paying their taxes? I'm I'm curious to know in the state of Texas, how many civilians you know who would go to jail? Fucking me and you. No, but I I am curious because, like I said, this goes back to who holds the real power in this country. That's what we need to realize. Like, that is where we need to realize. This is Imagine if everybody just said, I'm not paying property tax. The whole state of Texas said, I'm not paying property tax.
SPEAKER_06I don't think I'll be around for this. I don't think I'll be around for this, but this is one thing where I go, at a certain point, it's like uh it's like my sense of humor, right? When the shit gets deep enough, I don't fucking care anymore. It's funny to me. Same thing in this case. When when the people like to look at politics as left wing and right wing, that's all it is. And it's more of a horizontal divide. Bro. It's it's the people who run everything, and the rest of you motherfuckers who pay for it. You know? And I I wonder, will we ever get to the point where there's so much bullshit and there's so much fraud that everybody knows about, but nobody gives a shit because nobody's gonna do anything about it. And the rest of us sit there and go, dude, what the fuck are we doing?
SPEAKER_04You're absolutely right. And that's why I look at that shit. Like the Minnesota shit, all this selective outrage, Minnesota, dude. No one gave a shit about no one, there was no one protesting when that girl got executed on the train. No, straight up executed. Yeah, legit. She just sit there, just chilling there, innocent bystander on the other. The motherfucker was arrested 14 times. Exactly. No protest. So then that's how I know. I'm like, dude, your shit, your standards are selective, so therefore, there's no grounding behind it. There's zero grounding. Uh, we just had the Grammys the other day. I did an episode on this too. We did have the Grammys. Billy Alish goes up there and just says, She's got some big old boobs. Yeah, she does. Hey, shout out, Billy Alish boobs. Anyways, um, oh yeah. She went up there, obviously, and this was so dumb because I was just like, why would you say this? She said something like, Hey, there's no, you can't, there's no uh you can't enforce immigration on stolen land. And I was just like, Oh my god. That's one of my favorites. Are we do we have a history class at all? Let me tell you, look at I was a history major in college, so let me tell you this. What land in this world history major?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, dude. I love history. Anyway, go ahead. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04What land in this world was not either conquered, settled, or purchased? Literally, the whole world. Every square inch. Thank you. I was like, you're gonna get mad. You're gonna say that stolen land. Mexico. Let's look at the history of Mexico. You know, you know the story of the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Spanish, the conquistadors? Have you looked that up? You might want to look that up.
SPEAKER_06Well, you know what's it was funny is is uh during the heat of the protests about a year ago, I guess, there was this heavy set, uh, really light complicated make gunna uh in California saying the land, a stolen land thing. And I'm like, bitch, you're from Spain. You got more Spain blood in you than you do Inca or Mayan or African.
SPEAKER_04And that's what I'm talking about. When you have this selective outrage, there's zero grounding behind it. I would respect you if you came up and said, hey guys, look at it. Instead of coming up and saying that, I would respect Billy Ashley. She just said, look, guys, I don't know too much about this. I just don't feel it's right because the way it's being performed, I don't know about that. But understand this, yeah, what land in this world is not stolen.
SPEAKER_06She's lucky, she's lucky I wasn't there because I would have requested her to jump up and down. Yeah, no, I know, I know because that would have made more sense in her complaint.
SPEAKER_04No, but like that just goes back like what I was saying, dude. It's just like, dude, you we live in a time where our outrageous selective, but it has no grounding. And it's still a point, like you said, dude, at this point, just look at it and be like, dude, what the fuck? Okay, it's not gonna be your problem. Well, what's gonna happen in two weeks? It's gonna be something else, and then a week after that, it's gonna be something else. What and then you're gonna look back and be like, nothing happened. There's zero accountability, nothing happened. All this fraud, all this stuff, what happened? Nothing. Epstein files, nothing. What's gonna happen? Not a damn thing, not a damn thing.
SPEAKER_06You know, there's a movie that stuck out in my brain from the 90s. I think it was Steven Segull. But I kind of mentioned it to Mr. Brown the other day. We were talking about, we saw this negative stuff on TV. But I think it's a Stephen Segull movie, and he talks about he's talking to somebody and they're like, What do we do? All the police are up, blah, blah, blah. And he says, Stay out of it. He said, Worry about your friends and your family. And when it comes yo. He says, when it comes for you, cut its head off. Exactly. And it's interesting because like I was talking to Mr. Brown and we were talking about things, and and I said, you know what? Uh I said, I don't pay attention to that stuff. I I try to. I want to stay informed. You know, with a podcast, I try to stay somewhat informed. I said, but you know what? I got a job. I got a podcast to edit. I got a father-in-law who needs help. I got a mother who needs help. I said, by the time I hit all those points, I'm my plate's full. You know, exactly.
SPEAKER_04But he's right though. You control what you can't control.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That's literally what that's what I always talk about in comfort and chaos. I'm like, dude, I'm gonna bring a common sense perspective to an uncommon world. And that is, I hold I wholeheartedly to it because it's like, dude, yes, here's what they're wanting you to focus on, but dude, in reality, it doesn't even matter. Focus on this. Why? Because you can control that. Focus on what you can control, your families and all this. Until it comes knocking on your door, don't even worry about it. Yeah, don't fall for these bumper stickers because that's literally what they are. It's bumper stickers. You know, when you're driving down the road and you read this car that is past you, you're just like, wait, what the heck? Let me see who's driving that car, let me speed up, you know, because that's what it is. We we live in a time where it's bumper sticker media, they're not giving you the full context, no, because if they did that, it can compromise the integrity of their narrative, you know, and it's not going to. And so therefore, it's like, okay, dude, why why let that anxiety be your anxiety? Don't let it. It's not you can't control it. Why worry about it?
SPEAKER_06You know, it's funny because I think it was um I think it was 50 Cent said the other day, and it kind of applies in in the multiple places, but I think it was 50 Cent. He was saying uh depression's a privilege. And I think sometimes outrage is a privilege as well, right? Because it's kind of like and you know, a lot of the people who are big on therapy, and I think therapy is important, some people do really need it. But it's like it's like when we we talk about um 50's point was when you're the single mom who's got two or three kids and you're trying to feed them and you're working two jobs and you're trying to raise the kids right and you're helping them with homework and feeding them, you don't have time to be depressed. You might be depressed, but there's no time for it. Absolutely and it's funny because the times that I know that I've been depressed, it's been because Nina was carrying more weight than what she normally did for us. Yeah, right? She was she was giving me an opportunity to lay in the bed in the bedroom for three days and not come out, right? When I'm in a position where I don't have that option, my depression's gotta stop gotta go on the back burner, you know? And I think the same thing for outrage. It's like if you have time to be outraged over everything and post everything on social media, you need more shit to do.
SPEAKER_04No, absolutely, absolutely, man. And that's that is gosh, dude. Shout out 50, man. Shout out 50 because that's the reality. Just dude, focus on what you can't control. You don't have time. Why worry about that? Yeah, why?
SPEAKER_06And if you got too much time to fucking worry about it, which I know a few people, you need more shit on your plate. Exactly. Gabe, uh, before we wrap this up, I want to tell you a fucking funny story from the jail.
SPEAKER_00Ooh.
SPEAKER_06I wanted to tell you earlier, but then we kind of got sidetracked. But uh I'll make it quick. It's a little long, but I'll make it quick.
SPEAKER_04Can I go pee real quick? You know, pause.
SPEAKER_03Go pee. Let's go pee because I want to hear the story. All right, man. All right, jail house story.
SPEAKER_06Now that you've peed all over the seat, I gotta go clean it in a bit. Oh, guys. So again, I can't. Nature calls, nature calls. You should have sat down. I did. So I was gonna tell you this funny story from the jail. So my buddy uh Laredo, we call him Laredo, he had a heavy set friend that he wanted to hook up with one of his buddies, so it was down to me and my buddy Lewis. Lewis Juan, uh, luckily for me. But uh, so Lewis goes out on a date with her and he calls me, and we both worked the jail together, and he's like, uh, hey, I'm running late. I need you to go uh start my shift for me. And it was uh Christmas Eve, and I was like, motherfucker. I was like, fine, but you need to hurry up. I don't want to be here all night. I'm off. So I go and I'm you know, I got my gear on, but I'm it's all sloppy. I was like, I'm not getting you know, tucking in, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So we're sitting there and I'm there with uh one of the other jailers, I think it was a female jailer, I can't remember which one, but um uh you're over the dispatch. There's a cop in the town over who's getting in a fight with a guy, the guy's drunk. And every time they come on the radio, like they're getting down, like they're throwing down. You can hear them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And uh, so cops, DPS, you know, city police, county police, they all go over there, they arrest the guy, throw him in the guy's car, and he's like, I need a jailer outside when I get there. And so I go outside, I got gloves on, and I'm waiting. And uh he pulls up, he parks at the first spot. There's probably six or eight cars behind him, other cop cars. And uh, so I walk out there and I'm kind of like, you know, I'm gonna put this guy in the drunk tank till Lewis gets here and I ain't doing shit with him. So he reaches in, he grabs the guy by the cuffs, he's cuffing behind, and he drags him out and throws him in the in the drive in the parking lot. So I go to grab the guy and he's face down. I go to grab him, he gets up and he looks at me and he just gives a brring tears and boogers and blood all over his face. And I was like, what the fuck? So I grab him and he's just screaming because they maced him. And so uh I take him, I put him in the drunk tank, and I uncuff him, and I'm like, leave him there till Lewis gets here. I ain't fucking with him. And so uh I go upstairs and you can hear boom, boom, boom, dispatch calls me. You need to come get this guy because I can't hear the police over the radio, right? He's making too much noise. I was like, fuck, all right, let me go over there. And uh I told my partner, I said, Hey, I'm just gonna go yell at him, but I ain't fucking with until Lewis gets here. So I go down there and and uh I we have this little window in the drug tank door, and I'm like, hey, I had to call him by his name, hey, turn around and get on your knees. And so he turns around, but he won't get on his knees. I'm like, fuck man. And so all these cops are still there because they're still talking about the fight, right? Yeah. So they're all in this, we're in this narrow corridor and everybody's got their can of mace out, you know. And uh I look and I'm like, put your mace away, uh, you're gonna mace me. Like, we're all gonna be maced if you eight other cops are got their mace out. So the guy won't nail down. I open the door and I look in there, and there's probably two inches of shit water all over the floor. He flooded the toilet. Oh my gosh. He had been head, he had been hitting his head on the drunk tank door. So now he's got this cut on his forehead and blood running down his face and shit water everywhere. And uh at this point, I've been to the jail long enough to become a germaphobe. So I'm like, hey man, back up to me, and he's got socks on, so they're waterlogged with shit water. So I'm like, uh I'm like, hey man, back up to me. And he's drunk, by the way. I cuff him and I take him upstairs to the the men's cells. You know, he he's got these cute little uh shitwater duck feet print because of his socks all the way, you know, up to the cells. Yeah. You see him in the hallway. So I get him up there and uh I get him clothes and I put them in this one cell that's next to another cell, but it's only a shower. And I'm like, hey man, go take a shower. When you get out, we'll get you fresh clothes. Yeah. So I call and I get the helpers, you know, I get them out. Hey, I need y'all mop this stuff. And so while I'm getting the helpers down there, I hear screaming upstairs. So I go up there and uh this dude's naked with shit and shower water all over the place. And he's reaching through the bars and he's choking another inmate. And the other inmate is reaching through the bars and choking him. I don't know what started it. But anyway, I go in there and I break it up and uh I pull him out and I I get him dressed, you know. I write all this, I'm writing all this stuff as it's happening. So I tell the helpers, they come up from mop in, I say, Hey, if I put this guy in your cell, uh, you know, will you guys be cool and just collar at me if you need it? Yeah. And they're like, Yeah. So finally I tell her, you know, tell for the fifth or sixth time, I'm like, I'm not fucking with him until Lewis gets here. So finally he goes in the cell with the trustees or whatever, and he ends up falling asleep. I write the other guy up. I gotta put him in a different cell. You know, we've got to clean all the shit water. I'm done with everything, I'm writing it down in the book, and then I hear the elevator go bing. It's my fucking buddy Lewis, three hours late. Oh. And he's like, hey, what's up, dog? And I'm like, you motherfucker. He's like, What? I said, read this. And I threw the fucking logbook at him. And he was looking at it, he's like, damn, you had a rough night. I said, Yeah. So he he ends up marrying this girl and uh they get divorced and she made him miserable. But that was one of the worst fucking nights at the jail. So, like I said, when shit went down, it was your job whether you liked it or not. Dude. But uh and you owned it. Oh, you know what's funny? And you owned it, is and I I think I got this from dad, and I've said this before at other jobs. If this is gonna suck, I hope it sucks worse than any other day we've ever had because I want to be able to brag that we got through it.
SPEAKER_04So dude, you would honestly, man, like I know you probably never thought about this, but you would have done well in the military.
SPEAKER_06You might know what's funny, you would have done well. The Marine Corps uh was recruiting in my high school. Yeah, and I was behind my buddy Trey. Uh Trey Moffitt was you know, I've been behind him my entire life. Because he's Moffitt, I'm Molina. Yeah. And so I get a phone call, and uh, it's the recruiter. And I know it's the army recruiter. And so uh he's like, Is Trey Moffitt there? And I was like, No, sir. And he's like, Who am I speaking? Speaking with, I see gay Molina. And he goes, uh, oh, he says, You're next on the list. I said, list for what? He said, I'm an army recruiter and uh uh I want to see if uh you'd be interested in enlisting. He goes, What do you and it's funny because he goes, What are you gonna do the rest of your life? I said, dude, uh I don't know. You know, I'm fucking in high school and I graduate in a week. Yeah, you know, and he's like, Of course you're not gonna know.
SPEAKER_04That's how they always get you. Like, dude, what do you you're in high school? What do you oh you what do you do the rest of your life? That's a big question to ask a high schooler.
SPEAKER_06Well, this is the funny part is he goes, Are you tired of being a burden on your parents? Oh and I was like, You've been talking to my dad? And he's like, uh he's like, Well, I mean, you know, you can go into the army and make some money and alleviate some of their financial stress. And I I was like, uh, I was like, I'm not going to the army, man. I said, and I but I was like, are you gonna are you gonna give me a gun? He's like, yeah, we'll get you a gun. I said, are you gonna make me run? And he's like, I mean, a little bit. I said, I tell you what, man. I knew my buddy Trey, I Trey and I have been friends since we were four years old. And Trey was going to college to play football in Morningside, Iowa. And I said, I tell you what, man, me and Trey are best friends. I said, we've do everything together. I said, if you can get him to join the army, I'll join the army.
SPEAKER_04That's right.
SPEAKER_06And he's like, for real? I said, Yep. I knew Trey wouldn't go because he's going to college, right? He's gonna go play football. And uh I said, uh, I said, yeah. I said, call me back. I said, let me know what he says. And so I hang up, and literally, like 30 seconds, the phone rings, and I'm like, fuck. And I answer the phone, I'm like, hello. And it's my buddy Trey, he's like, you motherfucker. We said, Why'd you tell the army guy that we were two for one and we were both dead. I said, Man, I told her, I said, I know you wouldn't go, you're going to college, and you don't get play football or whatever. But anyway, that's that's why we didn't end up going. And and then I got a buddy of mine, uh Loreto Laredo. Uh Laredo joined the army. And so he ended up, it was interesting because his parents had just moved to Arkansas. Okay. So he asked, hey, then, you know, the thing, Harry, where do you want to go after uh basic training? After basic training. And so he's like, I'd like to be in Little Rock, you know, or or wherever it is in Arkansas. I think it's where they send him. Well, it was funny because he went to uh Fort Bragg for basic, and uh he never left Fort Bragg. And and it was funny because I remember the recruiter talking to him, and it was the same guy that called me, and he's he tells him, Man, you're gonna see the world, uh, you're gonna go in the government dime, you're gonna do all kinds of things. And he's like, and we can we can get you in Arkansas for sure, you know, get you close to your family and and uh car salesman, right? And so it was funny because when he went to uh Fort Bragg, he calls me and he's like, I was like, dude, where are you going? I was like, You want to Germany? Where are you going? And he's like, dude, I packed my shit in the bag and I walked across the street. He's like, I'm gonna be here for four years. So I would I was going to community college, uh probably 20 minutes away. And I would see that guy at the college, you know, trying to recruit, and I'd look at him and he'd he'd make eye contact and he'd smile and I'd just shake my head. I'd like, I like when's he going to Arkansas, man? And he's like, Oh, that's that's not in my hands anymore.
SPEAKER_04You know, it's not, it's not in his hands anymore. Nor was it. It's HRC's hands, you know. But it's funny you say that, but I know that you just knowing from what I know about you, man, and what I've known you and and your sense of humor, the way you carry yourself, uh, your decision making, the way you analyze things, like I don't say this lightly, but I know you would have done well.
SPEAKER_06I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_04You would have done well if you if if if if you ever if in the past life you decided that was your path, maybe not doing 20 years, you know, making a career, but you would have successfully served your time or done a good tour.
SPEAKER_06Well, let me let me tell you something, and this is for a I think a lot of people who are on the fence with joining the military. I have my reservations, like I talked about earlier, you know, with leadership as far as like politicians go.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_06But my mother-in-law, about I think 2012, 2014, she died, she died of cancer. Uh my father-in-law is 92, and he's he's in the victory lab, man. Yeah. I will say he with himself, with my mother-in-law, him having put in the time he did in the military and the benefits that he receives uh after you know retiring from the military, it saved them, especially with my mother-in-law going to the cancer treatment in Houston. Yeah, like it saved them financially. Oh, yeah. Like, I I I don't know that and I'm I'm sure other people have been able to do it. Um, you know, several people do it. There's a lot of funding out there, but he wasn't the type of guy that would take funding. He paid for everything himself. Yeah, you know, and it was interesting because she would go for trials, man, and she would go, I think every three weeks, and she would stay there a week. And when you sit there and you kind of ballpark it, it's probably anywhere between one and two grand every time they went because they've got to get a hotel room for a week. There's eating, there's you know, whatever else goes with the gas. And it was like, I I don't know how anybody else could do it. Yeah, you know, even with him and he gets bills benefits. Nina works on his bills, and it's like he gets I forget what they call it, but it's that it's that paperwork where it talks about what they covered, you know. Yeah, and it's all covered, man. And he still gets, I think he gets his a couple of retirement checks. He gets one for Agent Orange. It's funny because he said uh uh he said, yeah, they pay me for getting Agent Orange. He goes, and I told they said it was gonna be. He was in Vietnam. Yeah, he said uh he said that he told me they would give it to me for the rest of my life. Yeah, he said, I told him I'm gonna live as long as possible, so you motherfuckers have to pay me for that, Agent Orange.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, exactly, man. Exactly. And it's funny that you say that because I said that I had this conversation the other day, and I said, you know what, dude, people don't realize that uh joining the military, you're they're setting you up for they're setting you up for a future. And it's to the point, and this is one thing that recruiters don't even talk about, and I'm like, dude, they should they should even include this. But from a first sergeant perspective, I can tell you that I've seen it firsthand, I've seen it, that in the military, even the worst soldiers, the ones you consider the the the low performers, you know, the ones that don't even make the cut are still set up for success in the outside just by them doing that contract in the military. And that can be a good selling point, too. That literally, that's how good it sets you up for success. That even the low performers get out and successfully have a good trajectory to succeed in life and are set up to succeed in life, you know. And I've seen it, I've seen soldiers who get chaptered out, don't even make their full contract, they get kicked out, but yet then they get out and they're thriving in the civilian sector. Well, you know what because of the benefits.
SPEAKER_06We talked like an hour before we got started over like medical stuff and in sick old folks, and it's funny because like uh we sit there and we talk about and this is something that I'm just learning, you know. But we sit there and we talk about um saving for college, going to college, getting a degree, we sending your kids to college, and it's like I I don't know that college is the answer anymore, and I maybe it never was, right? Because we see the way things are now.
SPEAKER_04It's fading out.
SPEAKER_06But it's like I was talking to Nina the other day, I'm like, you know what nobody tells you about? And they talk about, yeah, they talk about saving for retirement, but when they tell you that, it's like, hey, you don't want to work forever, right? You want to you want to be able to retire and enjoy your golden years. But nobody tells you about the medical expenses that you're gonna incur at the end of your life and how much that shit costs. Exactly. And it's like to me, just a doctor's visit now. It's like, dude. It's like to me, it's like that's something people need to talk about, not just saving for college. Save for that medical uh helper that comes, you know, we talked about that comes three or four times a week to come out.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no one thinks about that.
SPEAKER_06Like that shit's out of pocket, you know? And and it's like my father-in-law's very blessed that he has my wife because she does a lot, man. We talked about it earlier, she does a lot. But at the same time, it's like he's in a position to where now I will say this, he's saved a lot of money because he doesn't he never spent that money. So now that he's older, he still has that mentality, right? Yeah, but now a lot of money's going out for medical expenses, so it's kind of tough. I mean, he does it and he doesn't complain about it, but it's kind of tough for him to see that money going out because that never happened before. He didn't allow that to happen. That's why he's got money in the bank. But at the same time, it's like he did everything he was supposed to do. Yeah, he lived modestly, he didn't get crazy with stuff, he put money away, you know, he never had the best of everything. He just did had had things that he liked and he took care of what he needed to. The rest went to the bank. Most people don't do that, man. No. The rest of us that don't live that way were fucked.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06You know, and it's like that's something that people really need to start telling young folks early on is you know what, you want to go to college. Uh there's some things I think you can learn on the job training, but there's some things you really need to go to college for. Oh, exactly. But it's like if those are if that's a route you want to go, consider that. But also consider that that end-of-life thing. You know, when that money's going out, and all of a sudden I had a I had a God smack uh several years ago. I've been always been the guy that goes, hey man, I see this guy asking for money on the corner, but he looks physically capable. If I was him, I would do the X, Y, and Z, right? I I'd figure something out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And I remember I had that mentality. Even with a food bank, I was like, oh, okay, whatever. One day we uh we designed a food bank in New Brunswick's. Uh, we all went to go volunteer in my little department. And it was interesting because I had this kind of attitude toward like people who utilize the food bank, right? And it wasn't a positive attitude, it was me being a little bit of an asshole, right? But it was funny because the first shift of people, people come in in waves, right? I think they get uh so so many people get like times to come in so that it's not overwhelmed. And it was interesting because that first wave, I'm sitting there and we're filling the freezers and I'm looking through the doors, and it's a lot of fucking old people. And so I asked the manager that runs a place, I said, Hey, yeah, I said, you know what, I've kind of always had this shitty attitude about you know the people that utilize this, and and uh I'm seeing a lot of old people. And she goes, This is their supplement, this is supplemental to their income, their food. She goes, a lot of people when they get to that older age, a lot of their money goes to medical expenses and all kinds of things. She goes, they can't afford that, you know. Yeah, maybe they can get a food stamps, but some of them can't. She goes, So this is the alternative, this is where they come get their vegetables and their bread and some meats and stuff like that. That's crazy. And you know, I saw that, and it was funny because even before I asked the question, I saw this older couple looking through the freezer doors, and I saw my parents, right? And all of a sudden it wasn't funny anymore. It was never funny, but it all of a sudden it wasn't it wasn't me going, who needs a food man? All of a sudden, it's like I saw my parents out there, you know, and all of a sudden it would it made me it was like this place is important, yeah. It's a reality, and and I and again, not to harp on this kind of stuff, but it's important to think about the I haven't done it, right? I don't have money put aside for that shit.
SPEAKER_03I hope none of us think that.
SPEAKER_06I hope my 401k kicks in and all that other good stuff. You know, I hope things that we've done preemptively as far as like putting money away is is gonna be there. You get a pension?
SPEAKER_04Well no, see, that's but that's the thing. That's that's the thing no one teaches anymore. It's like, hey dude, if you're gonna get a job, all right, you're gonna lay down this career path. Key words that should stand in your mind, pension. Think that. You know, yeah, it's a union, you get a pension or whatever, you know. Some those that's what you want to think about. And no one teaches that, dude. You know, I got it.
SPEAKER_06You're not teaching kids that I got a buddy who's my age, we're 49, and uh he just retired from federal prison. No way. And I'm like, motherfucker, you retired. No, my cardiologist says I'm 109. Damn! But but in reality, I think it's something folks need to think about. You know, absolutely. So, I mean, in that aspect, there's plenty of good in the military. And one thing that I think is good about the military nowadays, it maybe wasn't the case back in my father-in-law's days. So many more women are enlisted.
SPEAKER_04Okay, maybe it's a good thing you didn't join the military because we would be teaching classes because of some incident or something that maybe you did.
SPEAKER_06Funny story, my and uh we'll we'll wrap this up shortly. But uh father-in-law almost got court-martialed. Oh because UCMJ'd he had written down uh who he thought his father was on his paperwork. His mother always told him, This man's your father. He wrote on the paperwork. Uh they found out that guy was not his father. So he almost got court-martialed for lying on the paperwork. And it was funny because that's kind of okay. It's funny because he said uh he said, Everybody in that damn town knew who my daddy was but me. He said, even the guy at the grocery store he said we had one grocery store and he knew who my dad was. But his dad was white, dude. His mom was black, his dad was white. And so when he went to his mom and said, Hey, why did you lie to me about who my father was? She said, It was the 30s. She said, They would have killed you, they would have killed me, and they would have killed him. She said, So I told you who your dad was because I was trying to keep everybody safe. But super interesting story, man.
SPEAKER_04Dude, that is crazy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Damn, you just led into another episode. Stay tuned, guys, for part two.
SPEAKER_06All right, man. Let's wrap this up. You got something else you want to share? No, I have to do that. You've had an opener, close it out, man.
SPEAKER_04No, dude. Hey, I appreciate you. Uh, you had mentioned earlier, you know, um, just uh because you know I'm I'm I'm leaving soon.
SPEAKER_06Um I'm not a fan of that, buddy.
SPEAKER_04I know, I know. You know, and it's sad, it's you know, the sad reality is us as men, there's one thing, you know, for us as men, you know, and I'm speaking for all of us men out there, but there is a harsh reality that we have when it comes to learning. And for us men, we're so in tune physically and mentally that we never realize what we have until we lose it. You know, that's just the harsh reality of men, you know. For you boys out there, that's something that's a reality you gotta face when you grow up to be a man. That that we we get so in tune that we never know what we really had until we lose it, you know. And I have always cherished my relationship with you, man. You are a very genuine and authentic individual, and that is rare in this time and age. And I want to know uh I appreciate you, I appreciate our experiences, our memories, and opportunities. You know, I still remember the first time I met you at Trivia Night, man, and I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_06But um just literally It's just us and a bunch of women.
SPEAKER_04I know it was. It was us and a bunch of women, you know, and we carried that too. Like God intended, you know, we carried that to you. But uh, and no, it just I I just I I I seriously do, man. I'm a big fan of you and what you do, and uh the the the the platform doesn't give you the credit you deserve because you put yourself out there, you put you apply a lot of time and energy, and that speaks a lot about you as a man, and I appreciate that. And I I encourage you, carry on, man. Consistency is key, you know. Be disciplined, be consistent, regardless.
SPEAKER_06Hey, you're just moving, you're not dying, right? Am I fucking dying?
SPEAKER_04No, I'm moving, man. I'm I'm I'm I'm moving, but it's just the the the opportunities like this to come in here and and and sit down with you. You know, I remember the first time we sat down, dude. You were in here, we're cutting ham and and getting drunk, you know, and talking. And you put us out this fancy knife.
SPEAKER_06Oh, my ankles were so swollen when we were done.
SPEAKER_04I know, man, but I'll never forget that, obviously. Like till this day, it's still in my mind because I'll never forget that.
SPEAKER_06And um Well, you know what one thing with this podcast, man, and I I've told people this even recently, uh, you know, I would love to have millions of views and do this 100% full time. But I've told people before, I doubt that'll happen because I'm not trying, I'm not trying the gotcha my guests. My intent is to build relationships, right?
SPEAKER_03There you go.
SPEAKER_06And one day we'll we'll do what you and I do where we circle back and we do it multiple times. You know, I tell people, you know, I might introduce you to somebody, or you might introduce me to somebody. You know, and it's like to me, it's it's it's a it's a it's a networking, it's us building relationships. And you know what? Motherfuckers watch great. If they don't, we'll do another one. That's right. Life goes on, man.
SPEAKER_04Life goes on. You know, I like to always say, what you're doing is you're leaving uh like what I do, you're leaving a digital footprint. Yeah, you know, the cavemen used to go through these big battles, big hunts, and whatever, and they would mark the cave walls. And till this day, we still whoa, and these archaeologists would go and they can see a whole story just put on this line of these cave walls. Well, now this is your cave wall. You know, your channel, your platform, that is your cave wall. That you're everyone in the future, you know, and even for me, that's how I see. I see my grandkids, my future grandkids who never ever will meet me years down the road will know, and they have they can just click and be like, dude, that was great, great, great grandpa right there. That's his cave wall right there. Look how he lived. Look what he was saying, look what he was talking about. That's his footprint that he left on this world, and uh, that's what you're leaving. So I appreciate that and I encourage you, man. Continue, fight the good fight, and uh please don't lose my number.
SPEAKER_06No, man. And you always got a place to stay when you come to town.
SPEAKER_04Okay, I remember you said, hey guys, comment down below. Comment down below.
SPEAKER_06Remember, I already told you my wife moved in with her dad. I'm the only one at the house.
SPEAKER_04Remember, he said that because I'm still gonna have a house I gotta come back here and check on. Bring groceries.
SPEAKER_06Bring groceries, bring girls. Is that what he said? You can bring girls too, but bring groceries because right now all I have is uh ham and pudding in the refrigerator. So there you go.
SPEAKER_04Tequila and cereal. I got it.
SPEAKER_06Gabe, I appreciate you, man. No, thanks, man. It's been a pleasure. I've always enjoyed uh having you on, and even like our friendship, like I said, uh uh, you know, it we we uh I don't think that I don't you you made it sound really fucking scary, but uh nah man. We'll still hang out, we'll still do things with that's right. You know, it might be long long distance, uh it might be if you get come to San Antonio for paperwork. This is a good thing. Okay, we're gonna test to see how good you handle long distance relationships. Let me tell you something. I am the guy that checks on everybody all the fucking time. Okay, you said that. I really do do that. And uh who knows, man, I might find myself in Florida, you know, let's go with a red and no place to go.
SPEAKER_04So let's go. Let's go. Guys, if you haven't already, follow him on Instagram. He posts some of the coolest pictures and the coolest memes. He literally makes them himself. You'll see the same face on the city.
SPEAKER_06And I apologize for my sexist, racist comments uh now in the past and in the future.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I appreciate that, man.
SPEAKER_06Hey, appreciate you, man. All right, appreciate you. Thanks everybody for listening.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to the Game Mom in a podcast.
SPEAKER_06Yo, Barry.