Real Life Investing With Jason & Rachel Wagner
“Real Life Investing” with Jason and Rachel Wagner is a multifaceted podcast that blends insights from real estate, entrepreneurship, family life, and political discussions. Known for their candid and engaging style, the Wagner’s explore how their conservative values shape their approach to both business and life. They often discuss their personal journeys in real estate, offering practical tips on topics like how to buy a house or investment property while navigating a challenging housing market.
In addition to real estate, the show frequently delves into entrepreneurial lessons, highlighting the importance of mindset, perseverance, and staying focused on long-term goals. They are open about the challenges they’ve faced and provide valuable advice for anyone looking to head into entrepreneurship or seek the best version of themselves.
Dinner table conversations are central to the podcast. The Wagner’s discuss their experiences balancing various topics that families face, while often featuring guests who share similar journeys. Political conversations are explored from a conservative perspective, particularly when they touch on how these beliefs influence their business decisions and personal growth.
With a blend of relatable stories and expert advice, “Real Life Investing” is a show that appeals to a wide audience, from aspiring entrepreneurs and real estate investors, to those seeking inspiration in their personal lives.
Real Life Investing With Jason & Rachel Wagner
47. Faith, Family, and Freedom with Dave & Amanda Lee
Join us for a deep engaging conversation around faith, family, and freedom with our dear friends, Dave and Amanda Lee. A truly inspiring episode that will leave you feeling energized to take on anything life throws your way.
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Life Investing Podcast with Jason and Rachel Wagner. So our show is Dinner Table Conversations. We're sitting at the dinner table of our good friends who are actually one of our first guests on our show. Dave and Amanda Lee are back, and this time we don't really know where we're going to take this show tonight, but we're just going to go after it. We have a lot of shared common interests, actually both pretty successful. I'm actually interested in kind of talking about your success, dave, and we're 35 and we're kind of like hitting a good stride, yeah, and I think it's kind of interesting to kind of like talk about like what are some of those pieces that have really like started to click for you? I think we have some similarities there, but then at the same time, we also kind of all like we think alike. We are in the same politics. You have a Trump flag that is flying in your backyard right now.
Jason Wagner:I have a Trump flag that is flying flying to my front yard Dude, those are bold statements, yeah. And you have a Trump flag that is flying into my front yard Dude, those are bold statements, yeah. And you have a career, like what?
Dave Lee:the hell are you thinking? Yeah, so we we put that up after the assassination attempt. Yeah, Just in support. You know, we just felt there was no reason to hide behind our beliefs.
Dave Lee:You know we've been a supporter for a long time. You know I think that just in general, like we've always kind of leaned that way, like I don't really identify with a lot of what's going on the other side of the aisle and I just love this country and everything that it represents and all the opportunities that we have. And you know you've mentioned like some moderate success.
Dave Lee:We feel like we've both had like I mean, that's because of everything this country is and it inspires me, like, honestly, like I'm so proud to be from this country and represent this country, and so, yeah, no shame. And you know, I probably wouldn't have hung it before, if I'm being honest.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, I think I finally said I was like freaking, hang it up, Like after he almost got shot. I was like I'm done being scared.
Dave Lee:Yeah, I mean it was. That was really just. I mean, come on, they tried to kill a I mean they, this guy, and we don't know all the details. And then there's a lot of unanswered questions. There was no doubt about that. Obviously, as we're talking here, the secret service director just resigned. So yeah, there's so many unanswered questions and it's been I don't know what a week or two since then. I think it's a little unfair that we're not getting those answers, because you know, he got shot in the ear and here the director of the FBI came out and said it was shrapnel, and now they confirmed that it was a bullet, and I don't know. There's just there's just a lot of weird circumstances from that particular event and I don't know that I have never been so stirred inside as seeing the video of Trump standing up with his fist in the air and yelling fight, and I mean I don't know how you guys felt, but like that made me want to run through a brick wall. Yeah.
Dave Lee:That was like a football moment, like a pregame. You get some speech from you know, coach Jim. Barnes uh, that fires you up and you're ready to go, and that was one of those moments. It was like, wow, this, that was so real. I mean, that was the most authentic thing I've ever seen. There was zero inauthenticity to that. That was pure reactionary gut. That's what's in that man, and I admire that a lot.
Jason Wagner:He's incredibly brave and he's courageous, and what I just heard is that he's actually going to have another rally in Butler, pennsylvania, and he's going to go back.
Dave Lee:Yeah.
Jason Wagner:Like dude, this man does not give up. No, and I think there's something that is in all of us. You know, we've kind of gone through a lot of the 75 hard stuff together and there is just kind of like this mentality that like you just don't give up, you just don't stop trying. And Andy Frisella is a big proponent of all of that. But to see it out of how old is trump? 78, a 78 year old man who's already checked all the boxes right. There's so many things he's accomplished and and to still have that in his gut, that is very true and authentic in my opinion. I mean, that is, that's a true leader, like I don't. I don't know any stronger leader than that guy?
Dave Lee:You know, what I really wonder is because I don't think Trump would ever admit this, because you know, trump does have a huge ego, like there's no getting around that, like that's who he is. But I would really want to know if he ever questions himself, like behind closed doors, like with Melania, with his family, you know. Does he have moments where he's like why am I doing this? You know, there's everything stacked against me. I'm getting sued left and right. I'm paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees for these things that I don't feel like are fair. Why do I continue to fight? Like I think he has to have some sort of deep-rooted mission to this, which obviously it's, I think and it all boils down to the why.
Jason Wagner:Right, I think we've we've talked about this before is what the why is? And you know, this man has determined that his why is saving the country, because he knows the shenanigans that is actually going on and we are just on a really bad track and he feels like he's the only one that can do it.
Amanda Lee:Well life would be easier for him if he didn't do it, like he didn't have to do this. He was a billionaire before and could could just like, step away and live his life and live a very happy, famous life, like he lived before he ever took presidency in the first place, and I think that's why I admire him so much too, because he, like he didn't have to do this. He was not in politics Like all these old people that have like just been in it since, like to get rich and whatever and to steal from everybody else. He did it truly as like a businessman who loved his country and wanted to see it change but isn't that an interesting thought, though, to like go back to that.
Dave Lee:Does he ever question himself like I don't know about you, but I mean, have you ever questioned yourself in your business and you know your entrepreneurship journey?
Jason Wagner:oh, yeah, yeah, I think you always do, you know, I think you always I would.
Jason Wagner:I would love to know if trump does yeah, I, I think you always do, but it's the practice of just remembering why the hell you're doing it right, when you know why you're doing this day in and day out, it becomes easy to wake up and still have the energy because there's an ultimate goal that you have determined that is way bigger than what you could ever imagine. But you, you feel that you're taking process steps and progress steps very strategically to get yourself there or to get a whole country there. I just think he, like he, he knows exactly what he's doing, like where he wants to go.
Dave Lee:I think it'd be a fascinating book. I've read a couple of his books and I would just love to hear his behind the scenes mental side of the game that he's been going through the last eight years Because it's just a complete battle.
Dave Lee:And, yeah, I personally like find it incredibly admirable just the fight that he has within him and and that commitment to the mission, like you said, like it's uh, I'm fascinated by that because I don't know of any other bigger obstacle that anybody could really go through. And a bigger mission Like our mission, you know, is, you know is usually for most people our age, it's our family and that's what we're doing it for maybe financial freedom, things of that nature but he's doing it for an entire country and a lot of people that hate him. At the same time. He's doing it for them too.
Jason Wagner:Now Rachel says this all the time. She was kind of afraid to put those symbols out front. Why are you afraid of some of those?
Rachel Wagner:at least if somebody like putting a trump sign outside of their front door well, I I said before, I mean I think it's it's retaliation, it's fear, right, it's fear of people physically harming us, I think, at this point, or vandalizing our home, mean, like we've talked about this before. I was like why is being a Trump supporter become such a symbol of, like, hate and angst that it makes people not want to show their support for him? And I think what we saw through his first campaign and then his presidency, and then what happened, you know, four years ago, is people like literally equate him to some of the worst things in the world. And so the media and, you know, the far left have deemed MAGA supporters. As you know, we've got to be deprogrammed according to the Clintons and you know we are, you know, not for democracy and we're the biggest threat to this nation and like they're not just saying Donald Trump, they're saying anyone who supports him.
Rachel Wagner:And so if people actually believe that which we know that there's people out there who do you know they're now viewing us as a very public threat and I think that's a risk for us and our family, I think it's a risk for you guys, and obviously I agreed that it was time to take that risk and show the support for him, because enough was enough and I don't know, I hope that there's a ripple effect and that there's some, some strength and numbers that come out. But yeah, I mean it's, it's fear. You know, what are people going to do to us? What are they going to do to our house, our family? I mean, let's be honest, somebody did actually like run through the corner of our yard. We have yet to know if that was on purpose or an accident, but it didn't happen before we had the flag it's, it's true it's true, and you asked the.
Rachel Wagner:So we've got a delivery guy that we see regularly. We're always getting packages at our house and and he's like, oh yeah, I love your flag and you know I'm going to be right there in November, you know, voting with you guys. And so, jason, you know, strike up a conversation with them.
Jason Wagner:No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He struck up a conversation with me. Okay, whatever, okay, because this is important, right, this is, he's delivering a package to us and he says I am going to be there, right with you. Brother, I appreciate these flags and I think what's so cool about having a symbol out in your front yard is that it opens the conversation for somebody that you would have never, ever thought that you could have a deep relationship with that person.
Rachel Wagner:Yes, but what did he tell you? This was where I was getting to. My point is that there was another person in Arlington Heights who has a big, huge Trump flag out in their front yard and he struck up a conversation with that guy as well and said you know, have you ever seen like any retaliation or anything? And's like, oh yeah, you know, every now and then you know something will happen and you know, one time somebody put dog shit in my mailbox, you know, so I gotta deal with that, like obviously that's not like harmful or anything, it's just kind of like a prank, but it's a realization that there are people out there where we live who are unhappy about those things so.
Jason Wagner:So that's why, sure, I think, yeah, there's, there's that risk, but it's just like with anything. I think a lot of people don't like to share on social media because they're afraid of what people will think of them. But in reality, when you start sharing a lot more, there's a lot more people that you impact and you get a lot more positive comments than you will negative comments, like this happens in a lot of things. So this is just another one of those examples of like look, we have a symbol, you guys have a symbol in your backyard, but you're going to get a lot more positive comments than you actually will negative comments, and you're going to gotten any comments oh, I'm only positive only positive, really okay yeah but it's in our backyard, like fronting the lake
Dave Lee:yeah, so a lot of people vote by.
Jason Wagner:We don't know what they say right yeah, but at the end of the day, the positive ones are going to outweigh any negative. Like you're still you're, you can't avoid the negatives. Okay, but you the positive. Look, half the country voted for this guy, right? You have a 50 50 chance that the person walking down your street or driving a boat in your back lake is a trump supporter, like, like that's a pretty good chance, but we're in illinois, you're 100 correct and I actually believe that more than half the country voted for him and will again.
Jason Wagner:But not where we live well, I mean, but you go into the suburbs, though the suburbs are very different than where, like chicago is right, chicago is very liberal. I understand I I probably wouldn't be doing this if we still lived in the city no, we would definitely not be well, you would, you would just be very the fear.
Dave Lee:The fear would just be like do you think you'd get vandalized if you're in the city?
Rachel Wagner:yeah or worse, I mean honestly no, in reality.
Jason Wagner:No, I don't think that where we had lived, that we would have a problem, but I think the build-up we wouldn't know because we wouldn't do it. Let's put it that way well, yeah, yeah sure, the build-up in your own mind is amplified when you're in a city center, versus being a little bit more secluded in the suburbs how do you feel living in the suburbs now, rachel?
Amanda Lee:oh god I love so much, living your best life so isn't that long ago.
Dave Lee:What's it been?
Rachel Wagner:almost a year almost a year yeah, we closed on the house about a year ago. Yeah, and then we moved in.
Jason Wagner:Yeah.
Rachel Wagner:End of August.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, I think it might have been like literally a year today.
Rachel Wagner:Oh, look at that. Yeah, what do you think, jason?
Jason Wagner:Yeah, like the suburbs or the city, and I can just say I can keep my garage door open and nobody's gonna steal my shit. You know what I mean.
Rachel Wagner:So and and we've done that a number of times- yeah, I came to this realization when I was living in the city about how important like environment mattered.
Rachel Wagner:It took me a while to like figure that out. Like I knew I didn't like it but I wasn't like as like as aware of how much it was impacting like my day to day. And now being out of it and still going back to the city, like I went back to the city almost every single week this last year and we just went to the city last night and I told Jason as we were driving through, just like the surroundings and environment for me is just not enjoyable. Like I just I've reached a point where I don't want to be that and congested of an area with like that many people. I just it's a, it's anxiety for me. I don't enjoy it and I feel it the closer and closer and closer we get to the city. So how do I love it? I I love the suburbs. My parenting has improved, my day to day is so much better, like at ease, you know, so it's great the environment is actually a really important topic.
Jason Wagner:Being placed in the right environment is a is a massive um thing that we've been talking about lately just with our kids and then also hearing what other people you know prefer to do.
Rachel Wagner:I know what you're thinking.
Jason Wagner:Well, I kind of think about it as it was James Clear and Atomic Habits, and he talks about how people with addiction, you need to remove them from the environment, and so a lot of times when you have an addiction, they'll send them to a rehab center. It removes them from the environment, but then when they go back home they all of a sudden relapse. It's so easy because their environment is still similar to what they were doing before. But the cure for addiction, at least according to James Clear, was removing them from their environment altogether. So go to rehab center but then go move somewhere else, right, not back to where they came from. And that's you kind of take that same concept of like your environment really matters and what I recognized when we were living in the city it didn't matter what house we lived in. We lived in a beautiful home. I thought it was a dream home, but it was the environment that I could not change and it wouldn't impact. There was nothing that I could do literally in that house to make you feel more comfortable. Yeah.
Jason Wagner:And so we had to change the environment, and just that happened to be 35 minutes away.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, location Right yeah.
Dave Lee:So environment, I mean we've talked so much about this over the past year. So we just moved on to Lake Springfield a year ago and that was a long process of talking about environment. Before that we were kind of in the same situation. We just lived in a cookie-cutter neighborhood. It was our first home. It was great. We made a lot of memories there, brought our first daughter home there. But me personally I can't speak for you, but my environment score so I'm in this real estate mastermind that they also, you know, talk about all areas of life and kind of rate each area one to 10. And environment, like your actual surroundings, your home, your car, just your general environment, is one of them. That's kind of how they categorize it. You know, friends, family, career, money, those are some other ones. Environment was like my lowest score because I just yeah.
Dave Lee:And part of that is, you know, living in Springfield is my hometown. I love it, but at the same time there's some negatives of not being in like a large metro area. That kind of weighs on me a little bit and some of that is really environment related. Like like-minded people like you guys and a lot of our friends kind of tend to live in larger Metro areas, so that's something. But the physical like home we lived in just wasn't doing it for me anymore and just the surrounding people and neighbors, all that stuff you just described too. And the big thing for me was I grew up in Springfield but there's this nice lake here that I always wanted to live on, grew up on the side of town. I didn't really have any friends that lived on the lake. It was kind of a foreign thing, but it was something that I always idolized and it was like, you know, that would be really fun to live on water and that's something that we both really enjoyed.
Dave Lee:So I, you know, journaled and stuff, like I've talked to you guys about this before, but I wrote for years honestly in a journal like I could go into my office right now and pull out the journals and say I live on the lake. Like that was one of the things that I would write like well before I lived on the lake. And there's actually this house. We'll show it to you tomorrow when we're out on the boat. It's on the street and that was like my vision board house and it's this awesome house. From the, from the water view. It's, you know, like kind of got this Tiki hut pool situation, beautiful home. It was new build not that long ago.
Amanda Lee:Well, we would. We had a boat before we ever lived on the lake, and so we would boat around and pick our favorite houses out. And he always told me which one is the house because he's like for my dream, like I need to for for my goals, like I have to see the end product to know, work backwards to get there.
Dave Lee:And so I picked out that house and he was like I agree yeah, we were like, we were like we love that house so that was the one that I was like literally doing like visualizations, for I was like thinking of that house. It was you know kind of. I had a picture on my phone. It wasn't necessarily like on a vision board like you've done, but I would look at that house all the time. I would boat by there, I would sit outside their house.
Dave Lee:I remember telling my buddy John and Kegel, like we were sitting on the boat one time and I was like I'm going to own this house someday, blah, blah, blah, you know. So then, through this mastermind thing where I was kind of getting pushed to you know change some of those scores, and environment was like my lowest one. So I was like, okay, I need to do something about this and I just started cold calling people that lived on the lake like just as much as I could.
Amanda Lee:And we were kind of researching.
Dave Lee:Yeah, and it was a little bit of time I don't know if it was quite two years, but caught, talked to a lot of people and a lot of people just told me to you know they had no interest at all and didn't really appreciate the call and asking if they're going to sell, Cause it was right. I mean, what was it? 2021 to 22.
Dave Lee:And yeah, the hottest market it's ever been. And in this area the Lake was very hot at the time because of COVID. People wanted to move out to the Lake and have outdoor activities because everything was shut down. So I ended up talking to this lady that lived on this lane where we're at now, and she wasn't going to sell at the time, but she, you know, I would always tell those people, you know, if you hear anything, keep me in mind, like reach out to me or whatever. Nobody ever did, but she actually did.
Dave Lee:She texted me a month later and said, hey, my best friend on the street, his neighbor is, is going to be selling and nobody knows about it yet. And I was like, oh, my God, give me that guy's number right now. And so I called the friend of hers who is the neighbor of the guy who is selling and it's my now neighbor. He's like 87 years old and he kind of gave me the lowdown and I showed up. So then I got in contact with the owner and I showed up with a letter of intent in my back pocket, like I kind of knew from zillow pictures what it was going to be like and I was like I was like this is it.
Jason Wagner:And so, before you even toured it, you had a letter of.
Dave Lee:I had a letter of intent because I did not want him to reach the market. I didn't want him to go to the market because I thought that he was really undervaluing it and I know just how hard these are to come across these homes, especially on this particular street, on the lake. It's pretty desirable. So, yeah, so we got the house and it's been amazing. But going back to that manifestation kind of story, the people that the house that we were dreaming about and manifesting, they owned this house.
Amanda Lee:that we now live in.
Dave Lee:It was the house that they owned before they knocked down a house and built that new one. Wow yeah, we just met him recently too.
Jason Wagner:I don't know if I ever told you guys that. No, I did not know that side of the story.
Amanda Lee:So they actually planned on making this their forever home. So they have the plan still. We just met him Dave probably met him a couple months ago and he's like I still have the architectural plans, because he was like we were going to make this our forever home and then that opportunity came up for him, so so they sold this and then built that. But we just thought that was kind of like a full circle moment of like.
Dave Lee:I want to connect with him.
Amanda Lee:He's still here.
Dave Lee:Yeah, had the chance, but we were out in our circle driveway, Romina was like driving her a little you know remote control or I was driving her car through the remote control thing and they were just walking, their kids are, you know, and like in college now they're like 50 years old and they were just kind of slowly walking by and like really watching us and looking and just kind of like looking happy and stuff, like reminiscing, and I was like, oh my God, I think that's the guy that used to own this house. So I went out and talked to him and we had a great conversation and I still haven't told him that story.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, I told him. We need to tell him that story. I don't know him at all.
Dave Lee:I would love to tell him that story someday.
Amanda Lee:He's towards the front.
Rachel Wagner:I have to ask if they were to go on the market or if they were to want to sell, what would you do?
Dave Lee:I don't think it was the particular home. It was like everything that the home represented.
Rachel Wagner:Okay.
Dave Lee:You know, it is like newer than ours, I guess, so maybe we would look at it but, no, it's. I'm so happy in this spot and just like in this. There's so many things I love about this property, even more than that one too, without even seeing it, but yeah, it was more what it represented than, like, the actual home itself I want to.
Jason Wagner:I want to stay on this. What is it about this house and what does it do to you Like? Because being in real estate, real estate is very emotional and there's a lot of things and memories and you know, stuff that can come from a home. What, what is it that you're experiencing by being on the lake and having this view every night?
Dave Lee:Do you want to answer that, go for it, go for it, go for it. I just like I really want to provide an experience for my daughters and you know, obviously, amanda and I and my other you know family that lives here and that it's a really big deal to me to be able to provide that, and I never thought that I would live on the lake. It's just something that provides a lot of fun and a lot of memory building. I think we've already. It's a thing for me. Yeah, I mean, we've only been here a year and how many just amazing nights like we just had tonight, I mean it was amazing sunset.
Dave Lee:We were boating back and you know our daughters are all dancing together. They're holding hands like it was beautiful, right, it's like makes me emotional thinking about it their first boat ride.
Dave Lee:Yeah, yeah, first boat ride we love providing and that's something that, like you know, not that springfield's not a great place to live, because I do love living here, but I was like, if I'm gonna live in springfield, I want to live on the lake, like that's the only place I want to maximize my because in my opinion, of how I thought about it, it just that was the place that provided the best experience, the best environment in this area, and you know it's already exceeded that.
Dave Lee:Like that environment score that I was talking about, like it's one of the top scores that I would say now like it's a nine or a 10, you know it's never. I don't know if I would ever rate anything a 10, cause it's just not my style.
Jason Wagner:But I want. I want to ask you this question because you guys obviously do well and you know this. The home that you purchased was within the market is probably pretty expensive, right, comparative to kind of the median sale price of what kind of goes on in Springfield. If money was more of a factor for you when you were deciding and this opportunity came up, I think this is a really good question because I'm asking it so just prefacing it about, I really think that this is going to be a baller question, all right, but what I'm trying to say here is is it worth stretching, in your opinion, stretching on a budget to have the experience 100%?
Dave Lee:Yeah, so you know, I don't know if you want to. I'm talking a lot about this, so I want you to be involved too, you're more articulate than I am. I almost I don't want to say almost backed out, but I was really freaking out and not rationally.
Amanda Lee:Not at this one, cause we, we, almost. It was more on the other one that we almost went under.
Dave Lee:I feel like you got more confident yeah, no, I did get more confident with this because to give a more context.
Amanda Lee:We had been looking for a few years on the lake and there was one we almost went under contract we were under contract but there was a inspection that we didn't like and yeah, there was a few that we looked at that we highly considered around the same value and you were like freaking out about that number, like even just the year before, like the number scared him.
Dave Lee:I did freak out about those other ones, especially because they might've been a lower purchase price but they would have been just as much renovation, like they would have been heavier renovations. But this one there was just kind of a number in my head that I never thought I would go over for a payment. Just growing up in this area and knowing that like I don't know what the median sale price is Maybe you know that you have the data now but like it's probably like two, 30 or something.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, I don't know, does that sound right? Yeah?
Dave Lee:So just that there was this for no reason, just this arbitrary number that I just the payment was slightly over that, like $200 over that, and I just didn't like that. I couldn't, you know, and I had more confidence this time to be like you know what, screw it, like I mean there's no reason why that number should scare me.
Dave Lee:Me like based on, you know, percentage of income and all these things, like if you just look at the numbers only, there's no reason to have any problems with that. There was purely emotional. It was just something that was kind of, you know, maybe some small-minded thinking and just kind of you know, I don't know, just being uh just some previous probably yeah, I don't know old school mindset, probably from like back in the day, like just like I mean because I come up from a very
Dave Lee:security mindset security, focused family and just very conservative in spending fiscally all that stuff. And this was, you know, like I said, with my situation, not necessarily a huge stretch at all, but you know, just it just was. It was hard for me and you know this house, this home, what it was going to provide, like it. I, after kind of talking I think I talked to you about this- yeah.
Dave Lee:Yeah, yeah, I think you were one of two people that I talked to and, yeah, I think you were like what are you? I mean you're. I got to take what you say with a grain of salt because you know you just want to sell homes, even though it wasn't your sale. It's just like just keep the market Buy buy, buy, buy.
Jason Wagner:Keep the market. Zero commission on us, it's always a good time to buy. I gave you my real perspective. And was my perspective wrong.
Dave Lee:I think you considered taking a cut, though, or charging me a fee. Oh, get out of here, get out of here. But no, that was it. It was a great conversation to have, just to push me over the edge to be like, yeah, it is totally worth it and is more than proven to be. That Like I would, it would have been the biggest mistake of my life.
Amanda Lee:Oh my God, maybe we would have not doing this.
Dave Lee:We always said, like, is it? It would have been the one that got away. It feels like we've been here so much longer in the year. We built so many memories, love it so much, like there's this. There's something about that environment that we were just talking about and, you know, waking up with a water view, sunsets, I don't know, all these things that we can, that we do out here just makes us really happy I totally agree yeah, so there there is something where like you know,
Jason Wagner:money does buy a certain amount of happiness, right. It kind of gets you into a spot that does provide those experiences. That's really the happiness where it comes from, but without without the cash or without the ability to just swallow it and be like, look, this is for the sake of the family and like all of the things that are going to come from here, and I'm confident that I can take this on and moving forward with that. There's a lot of people that struggle with breaking through that wall. Rachel, would you kind of compare this a little bit to our pool situation? We bought a house with a above-ground pool.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, when you said that you're living somewhere that's creating experiences, I did think about our pool, because we've had amazing experiences in our house and we've kind of become like the summer hosting house and I never wanted a pool Again. Fear, right, like, scared me. I'm like if I have kids, I'm not going to have a pool because the whole drowning risk You're going to fall in and drown.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, worst case scenario Right, think about living on the lake. Yeah, right, exactly, I love having a pool, I love having it, the kids love it and it's created so many experiences and so much more outside time and bonding time. And, yeah, I wouldn't change that for the world. It's so funny. I love it.
Jason Wagner:I have so many people that ask oh, how do you like the pool and their immediate. The first thing they go to is like oh, I always remember the maintenance and just all the negative parts of owning a pool. And I'll be honest with you, I know nothing about owning a pool and I hire a pool guy to do it because I don't really want to spend the time to do all the maintenance.
Jason Wagner:But every once in a while I'll go out there, I'll skim it, you know, and do you know, pull some stuff out of it, but I don't do any of the chemicals and whatnot.
Jason Wagner:But but the funny thing, I I always just immediately just revert it back to like, yeah, there's maintenance yeah you know when we're running the pump and we're running the heater, like, like, my electrical bill is $500 because we have an electric heater for the pool and that's a tough pill to swallow but I just I look at it and I'm just like dude. But look at how much fun we are having every single weekend and sometimes during the week.
Rachel Wagner:It's so much fun. There's so many nights where we're like we'll just go hop in the pool for 30 minutes.
Amanda Lee:It's an activity to do it yeah.
Jason Wagner:It's so much fun. We were like we'll just go hop in the pool for 30 minutes. It is so much fun and that outweighs the cost, the monetary costs of you know some of these things, because the experiences and it's not just for Rachel and I, but it's really like you just get it when you have kids and friends and family involved.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, I think that's been a big thing for us too is providing the experiences for friends and family involved. Yeah, yeah, I think that's been a big thing for us too is providing the experiences for friends and family, like you were saying it.
Amanda Lee:When you were talking about that, it made me think of how, like your sisters come over now to just fish with the kids and like we've been able to bond with our nieces and nephews more, just because, like not because, but just because we've been able to have these memories and experiences of catching, like when charlotte, yeah, my five-year-old niece uh caught her first fish, but also it was like a 20 or 30 pound catfish it was humongous, right it was. Wow, right out here, it was our fishing or our dog.
Dave Lee:Awesome, a lot of fish, yeah like it was such a fun experience.
Amanda Lee:We were all there was like 10 of us out there we were going nuts because we were catching.
Dave Lee:There's kind of a little honey hole right off the dock here. There's just there's obviously a bunch of fish down there. I don't know why we catch a fish. Like every time we drop down a line we can do it later, you know tomorrow or something, but like we were catching a lot of little sunfish, you know they're four inches and then she just catches this monster catfish and we see it flopping in the water and run to get a net. It was just an amazing experience. We're all going nuts, we're screaming, you know, and she's having the time of her life because she's catching this huge fish and has been talking about it like all summer since.
Dave Lee:So, yeah, I want to say one other thing, though, about, like, the stretching you know that you were talking about. So I think it's important, though, like for us at least. You know we really lived below our means for a long time before we did that. Yeah.
Dave Lee:You know. So while we, you know, kind of jumped into what we always thought we would be in, there was a lot of years of living below means too, yeah, so I think that's like important to note that you know that we were really setting ourselves up for those kind of wins happening by doing that.
Jason Wagner:I think that's a brilliant point. Yeah, and by no means do I advise anything of like you know, if you have a hard time right now budgeting, you know keeping up with the bills and stuff, like yeah, yeah, Like you got to figure that stuff out and like figure out how to get below your means, I'm glad you brought that up that up.
Dave Lee:Like you, you gotta go. Like so many people are in survival mode, right, and you can't do anything. Whether it's like you know relationships or your workplace or whatever, when you're in survival mode that's just not a good, that's fight or flight, that's just not a good place to be. So like you have to build margin into your life.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, financially, spiritually, you know time how did, how did you, how did you guys do that? Let's, let's talk through that how did we build margin?
Dave Lee:yeah, or like how do we set ourselves up for that? Yeah, what would you say?
Amanda Lee:I've been talking too much no, I want you to keep going. You're very articulate and can explain better than I can well, I think first, like financially.
Dave Lee:So you know, we bought it in the first home. We bought, like I, literally what, what do?
Amanda Lee:you know, Because I know what you're going to say no, just say it no.
Dave Lee:I know what you're going to say. I just I'm laughing career I'm in and I took out a second mortgage to buy that house Cause I like knew that I was there, was. You know, I'm a hundred percent commission in that role and I had commissions coming to me but I just didn't have them yet and I paid it off in like a month or two or whatever. But I like literally had to take like a second mortgage when I bought that home, which is like embarrassing to say now it was like a $240,000 home, nice home, great starter home for us.
Dave Lee:But then you know, now looking back, like the payment was incredibly. Is that what?
Amanda Lee:you thought I was going to say, that's what I was like yeah, that whole. Thing.
Dave Lee:That's what I thought you were going to say and that was probably what 2017? Yeah, yeah 2016, 2017. 2017. Right Beginning of 2017.
Dave Lee:But yeah so, but then that turned out to really be, you know, a place where we could build a lot of margin, like financially, and then kind of sprinkled in some real estate investments. But I don't know what else would you say about margin. Like I also think it's important to one thing I'm dealing with right now. I don't know where this conversation is going to go, but like I feel like I've really struggling to put margin in my life right now because, being a father having two young girls under two, having a career, having real estate investments, having you know, I'm on the, I'm the treasurer of downtown Springfield board I have like real commitments and you know real problems, real.
Dave Lee:You know debt on properties, all this stuff Like life's real, now that I'm not 35 yet You're not either but you're, you're closer than me.
Dave Lee:Oh, it's just me, I'm 35. But that's one of the things that is hard to like have margin. It's something that honestly with my dad, it's one of the things I admire about him the most, because he really simplifies what a simple lifestyle like he. He doesn't have to have a simple lifestyle, but he chooses that because I think he really understands like having margin in your life and just kind of mentally what that does for you and that's something I've always admired about him.
Dave Lee:We're very different, I would say, and he would say the same thing if he was sitting here. I think he would say I'm more driven, more ambitious, more of a risk taker. But you know, when we've kind of settled our scores in my twenties here, when we didn't really understand each other, you know he his wife passed away, you know his high school sweetheart and he had three kids at home. Like he had to batten the hatches, like he had to like become security minded because you know, a crisis hit and for me, like seeing that made me want to take more risk, like life is short, like we had a completely different experience with it. Right, and we didn't really settle that with each other until, you know, I was probably mid twenties or something when we had some deep conversations Like we just he had never seen it from my perspective and you know, obviously I probably wasn't seeing his in the same way. But that's something I admire about him is he's he can live a simple lifestyle and be happy with it too, and that's good sometimes too.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, yeah, I think it's all about your life situation. You know, to that, to that point, it was crisis and three kids at home. If that were to happen for, like you now, right, crisis, two kids, like all of a sudden, your mindset totally changes, right, totally, totally, you know, is the yeah and it's it's. It's really hard to think about that stuff, but but yeah, I mean, life throws you a lot of curve balls.
Dave Lee:Well, that's why, you know, for me, I want to invest in real estate and do some things that don't necessarily I mean they require my time, especially on the front end, acquiring the properties, doing the analysis, all that stuff. But you know, my sales job 100% requires my time. It's only only me, I'm the only one who can do that. I need to hire a virtual assistant like you. That would be helpful, but but still I'm the only one who can talk to the customers right, and do everything. And with real estate that's not exactly the case like I can. It's more passive, quote unquote, even though you know it's still pretty active.
Jason Wagner:But it's one of those.
Dave Lee:It's that's the security thing for me, like even though I am more, you know, take more risks like that's the security that I'm looking for, though yeah you know real estate well, my mind kind of provides that well.
Jason Wagner:I mean, you know, you kind of take that example a little bit here too, because if you're the only one that can do that, right, right, you're the only one working in your family right now. Right, what happens if you break a leg and like or like you have a? You have a serious problem, right, and you can't be selling. Yeah, there is a big crisis mode that happens. I think about that kind of often too. It's like what happens if I stopped selling homes and helping people. What's going to help us? And it is the passive income, the real estate stuff that has totally really played out for our life within just a short period of time five years where are you guys at with that now, like how many units and uh, we have.
Jason Wagner:We have 19 properties, excuse me, 19 units over a mixture of like five, five. Six, and how far are you guys from your?
Amanda Lee:passive income like first goal, like big goal of it, I think, because I think we've talked about that before, right, about the number you guys would want to hit per month.
Jason Wagner:Yeah Well, I mean right now we bring in close to $8,000 a month.
Amanda Lee:So you're close because wasn't the first hurdle 10? 10. Yeah, close to $8,000 a month. So you're close because it wasn't the first hurdle to unten. Yeah, that was yeah.
Jason Wagner:That's awesome.
Amanda Lee:You guys are right there.
Jason Wagner:But it's like well, there's still a lot of stuff that goes into that where it's. You know we manage the properties. You know it's not free lunch. Right, there was nothing free to it. There was a lot of headache and there was a lot of investment into it. There free to it. There was a lot of headache and there was a lot of investment into it.
Amanda Lee:There's a lot of money that has been put into those that's why passive income? Really isn't passive. Brandon Turner always says that in the beginning it's not really passive.
Jason Wagner:Right, it's not. It certainly provided us with an income source where now we can say, yeah, we live in our home for free, and it's amazing because all I have to worry about is just making enough money to cover what we do on the spending side, and so that makes it easier. Right, that makes it easier for me. But what real estate does is it's really the wealth building part of it, which is because we're in such a favorable real estate residential market right now. People that have bought over the last five years are really really benefiting, like just dramatically, and I think it's going to continue that way, and my big fear right now is that I actually think that real estate will be shut off for a lot of people. I don't think the average person is going to be able to buy a home in the near future. Prices are just too expensive and if we can't get lending to be affordable again, I don't know how. You know you're going to have a permanent renter society and I don't know if it's by design. You know if that's something that they want. Know if it's by design, you know if that's something that they want, but it's.
Jason Wagner:But it actually troubles me a lot, because I you know when I think of what we were talking about. Like you love this country so much and everything that it's done for you. Real estate is the American dream and I think it's slowly being taken away from us. And I don't say it as like okay, we have, like okay, that may sound like a lot and I'm very thankful for where, where we are.
Jason Wagner:I truly do feel for the person that is. Like we've been renting for the last eight years and we've been trying to save and then we can't because inflation is just like out of fucking control and we'll, we can't, we can't own anymore and honestly, that does give me a lot of heartburn, because I think it's such an easy fix that politicians can do and all they have to do is flood the market with more inventory and give incentives to builders and just cut regulations. And then, all of a sudden, you're going to have a lot more people that are wanting to build real estate and it's going to soften prices, just naturally. But why don't? Why don't they do that? Like?
Dave Lee:I just don't get it. Inflation is so infuriating from for anyone, like no matter what your financial situation, whether you're the richest person or, you know, just barely scraping by, like it is the ultimate hidden tax and it's so wrong. And that really goes into a lot of conversations about our monetary system. And you know just what's happened over the last four years with COVID relief. You know, really blew up the inflation obviously. And yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying, that you know, I mean everybody's feeling it like every poll that I see not necessarily you know.
Dave Lee:I mean everybody's feeling it Like every poll that I see. Not necessarily you know a Gallup poll or something official, but I see people polling on their Instagram, like I saw a buddy of mine who's a fitness trainer but he sent a poll out on his Instagram saying you know what's the most important issue and he listed four things and inflation was like 90% of the votes.
Dave Lee:Everybody's feeling inflation. Everybody's feeling their grocery bill going up gas, you know just the things to sustain themselves and obviously earnings are are not pacing at that same rate except for the politicians pockets. So yeah, I think it's a huge problem.
Dave Lee:I think it's the number one issue in my opinion, and just the economy in general, and it's uh criminal really it is our tax system and you know just the way that we can print money like that and all the policy that goes around that. You know just it. It doesn't have the interest of the common person and uh, I see that firsthand all the time and it just it really like upsets me honestly.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, I completely agree.
Dave Lee:And you know what you said with real estate, like you know, that was what your comments were very real estate focused, with people being priced out and and not and I agree with that too Like I could definitely see that scenario, you know, I just think of, like my grandma built her house, this tiny house, for like $25,000, you know, and she probably sold it for in 1990, something for I don't know 80 or something, who knows. But like those kinds of things are just it's just non-existent. You can't build anymore. It's so expensive. The only homes that are being built in this area are, you know, the higher end homes, because that's probably the only thing that has any margin. There's no quote unquote affordable homes. So yeah, it's a it's a huge, complicated problem. I mean, you made it sound pretty simple of how you'd solve it. That certainly could be done and I think that would make a dent.
Dave Lee:But inflation as a whole, you know it's just it's rampant. You know they're talking about the metrics they use and how they. That's what's really criminal too is the way they report it. You know it's it's just not transparent. So it's up 2% now. That, I think, was the most recent one hovering around the fed target rate of 2%. That's 2% from you know the prior year's month of the month we're in. So if it's up from you know, july 2023 to July 2024, 2%, well, what's it up from May 2020 to you know? Now, it's probably, you know, depending on the items that you list in the consumer price index or whatever, I mean 40, 50, 60 percent, probably maybe over 100. And that's obviously not reported.
Jason Wagner:Right, yeah, yeah, how much it's cumulative. How much it's cumulative over time, these prices have really changed. Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's a great point because, oh yeah, we've gotten inflation under control, dude? No, we haven't. Yeah, it's only up. I actually think it's at three. The Fed target is supposed to be a two, so we're still slightly above. But to your point, yeah, it's like dude 2019, we were feeling great. A lot of people were feeling great and actually wages were going up pretty dramatically. I remember talking to a lot of people were feeling great and actually wages were going up pretty dramatically. I remember talking to a lot of people. They were like, wow, I just got this, like a big bonus at work and I just got a big raise, and, and things were still.
Amanda Lee:Trump baby.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, well, that's true, right, that's true. Before COVID hit, right, Everything was, everything was really hit right, everything was everything was really really fantastic before covet hit biggest scam of our lifetime.
Dave Lee:Oh, let's go into a new topic.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, wow, what a shift. Yeah, that is the biggest scamdemic of our lifetime. Yeah, you know what?
Rachel Wagner:I want to give you a lot of credit for that, because march of 2020, you were calling that out as a scamdemic and we've talked before, like Jason and I, we flip-flopped so many times but really for that first several months we were scared and we were totally bought in and like, dude, I can't believe Amanda's saying this is scamdemic. I can't believe Amanda's celebrating.
Amanda Lee:Like St.
Rachel Wagner:Patrick's Day. What is she thinking? This is crazy. You were spot on. You were spot on. You were spot on right away from the very beginning. And I guess I want to know, like, why? Like, share your background, share what you knew, what you were hearing, and like what people were saying. How did you know so early on, like this is a scam.
Amanda Lee:Well, I think, for first off, we live in Springfield, so Chicago was a totally different mindset in the very beginning, I feel like, than Springfield was. They were talking about it here and preparing for it, but it was not as like in your face and intense as like the big cities were doing, and Chicago was a big one. Seeing everything on the news. I it's weird because I'm so I'm a nurse in healthcare nurse practitioner, I should say and at the time I was in nurse practitioner school, I was actually finishing my last year and I was working in primary care for all my clinicals and everything Last year for your doctorate, right Last year for my doctorate, correct. And so when all this was happening, when all this was happening, a lot of people in healthcare at least where I was, where I'm working in at the time we're not that rattled yet because it's like we we've seen we were through the swine flu and Ebola.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, you were freaked out by Ebola.
Jason Wagner:I worked in the.
Amanda Lee:ICU during Ebola and it's always so dramatized by the media, Whereas like we're on the front lines in the ICUs, in the ERs, and you're not seeing anything like this come in, Like it's all over the news, but like you're just like, is it happening just in New York city or somewhere? Because it's not happening in our rural communities, and so when you're in the front lines you kind of see a different picture than what's being portrayed in the world and so or like on the news especially. So I feel like you're kind of maybe in a box mindset of like where you work, but at the time like people were coming in with the common cold and flu and we're testing for COVID, but the symptoms, what was the difference? Like that's where I was like just dumbfounded by because at the time they would come in with the cold or the fever, cough, runny nose, and I'm. My thought process at that time was like I mean, this could be one of millions of viruses.
Amanda Lee:And I worked on the pediatrics floor as a nurse for I don't know, five years total maybe in my career between the pediatric pediatrics floors, and COVID was actually one of the things we tested for. No, maybe not COVID-19, but it was one of. It was on the same RSV or rapid strep test as, like, RSV, COVID, rhinovirus enterovirus. They test for all these viruses, and so COVID was on there, and so again, I'm just thinking like this is just another virus that they're just activating to be, you know, probably worse than what it is is, and so I was kind of like let's just hold our breath and actually see what happens and see if it lines up, because I was not fooled by the ebola virus or the swine flu that hit when obama was in office, and so I didn't necessarily connect it to a political thing, but just more of a health care thing of like what I was seeing on the front lines, and it didn't line up.
Dave Lee:Well, I think you know, from my non-medical standpoint, like it was the response to it. That was the issue. Looking back, obviously, even more so, you know. I mean COVID-19 was a real thing that impacted some people differently, obviously. Now we know the majority of it was very mild, but not for everyone, right, I mean there were some severe cases and deaths and all that, but the response to it was really the problem, like the government take over.
Dave Lee:you know the ability for governors to sign or not do anything with the regular legislative process and just say we're taking complete control, we can do whatever we want. We can shut down anything.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, that emergency, yeah, we can jail you.
Dave Lee:You know, we can arrest you for opening your business Like we've all heard the stories around the country of those sorts of things and I mean, that's really where, and you know now we can look back in question where what the real story of COVID-19 is, which I think there's some very legitimate questions on. But yeah, it was really that response to it.
Amanda Lee:Yeah yeah, exactly like it was a very real thing and people were getting sick, but what was the percentage of it? And it was the response of how we were acting about it. We've never shut down workforces before, we've never stood six feet apart with tape on the ground in grocery stores, which then it became a very political thing for me, because why was McDonald's open and Walmart open, but the small mom and pop shop down the down the road, the restaurants weren't open, but like the big name and big box stores could be open, like that was like the biggest scam and fraudulent thing to me of of like why. You know just the way it was responded to that's a.
Rachel Wagner:That's actually a really great point is like big corpse they never shut down. We're all allowed to be open, but the small businesses that were owned by your, your American the. American dream. Those are the ones that were getting impacted. And another thing that I think we've talked about a lot too is the gyms. Right. So, like you point out, like why is McDonald's open but the gym was closed? Yes, you know, like goes against everything you learn about preventative health care, right, 100%, it doesn't make any sense at all. Yep.
Amanda Lee:Exactly, and I think, like I right, 100 doesn't make any sense at all. Yep, exactly, and I think, like I think, that. And then in illinois, I know that the red states weren't this way, but we had, I mean, we had lockdowns. For how many weeks, was it three? Oh, we were. We were in lockdowns for months yeah yeah, so
Rachel Wagner:like we were locked down.
Rachel Wagner:We got sent home like march 17th, 18th, something like that mid-march and my work was actually late, so people were sent home before that. And then it was like it was through easter, I feel like it was through mother's day. We were still at home mother's day. And then we kind of had that brief opening in the summer because people yeah, it was kind of like oh, like mass weren't a thing yet, it was just like the lockdowns and the what were they calling it, slow the spread or whatever. And there was like a brief opening in the summer. And then it was like september, october if you see your grandma at christmas, she's gonna die, oh, I know. Like it was like this, like very abrupt, like shame on you for going to the beach, no, no, you're all gonna die.
Dave Lee:Like it was like which led into how they treated vaccinations right yes, how they talked about this.
Rachel Wagner:Go there too.
Dave Lee:Yeah, which was just you know and I'd love to hear what you say medically about this, but like nothing about it of the history of vaccinations was lining up with what they were saying. You won't get it if you're vaccinated. You won't give it to anybody if you're vaccinated like.
Rachel Wagner:That's just not true yeah, and then the whole fear around the people who weren't vaccinated. It's like, well, hold on a second. If you are vaccinated, why do you need to be so fearful of those?
Amanda Lee:who aren't?
Rachel Wagner:because if you've got the vaccine right, you're supposed to be protective because you can't spread it, you can't get it, which, of course, none of that was any true.
Amanda Lee:But then it came out that, oh, it doesn't 100% protect you. It doesn't 100% protect you, but the unvaccinated were deemed to be literally domestic terrorists. I remember we were kind of murderers.
Rachel Wagner:We got kicked out of activities with our children. We had to test to go into events. We were publicly shamed outside. They wouldn't let us inside. It was, when I think about it now, like I was telling Jason the other day like so we were in Chicago at the time like they literally put chains around the playgrounds in our neighborhood.
Rachel Wagner:Chains and caution tape, like I don't know why that memory came back to me. I told you that anxiety of like, like driving into the city, right, like it was all like just pouring back to me. They had chains fenced around children's playgrounds, caution tape, and I remember, like at the one park we would go to, like people would cut it up.
Amanda Lee:And they would come back in and they'd wrap it, cut it. So there are plenty of people around who are like say no, but like you couldn't go to the playground with your baby, your toddler you know they let people like what the hell have funerals without family being able to go, or dying people, people in the hospital dying alone not from covid, but from cancer, from anything, honestly and they had to die alone.
Amanda Lee:We had weddings, canceled, birthday celebrations, like christmas events, times where your grandma was in her last couple of years of life at that time, and I feel so badly for the people in assisted livings and the elderly. They were so programmed to be so scared to see anybody that they like. What a sad last couple of years of like in general, for like those ages of people because they're already isolated as elderly people, enough as it is, but then to be like totally cut off from society because you're so scared you could die when really like I mean it just had to be the most lonely feeling ever and it like makes me sick to think about that. They, they totally impose this on everyone. Like I mean it. It it's really sick, like it's probably like the sickest, it's the most criminal thing I've seen in a long time and my entire life statistics didn't line up with anything any of the actions they were taking or any of the mandates they were making.
Dave Lee:Like we knew that 97 to 99.8 or whatever the stats were like 99.8 of the time, percent of the time, like you're recovering, like everybody was okay and it was like so we're gonna, you know, shut down everything and make everybody take this vaccine for 0.02.
Rachel Wagner:Nothing about it made sense medically and that was why I, you know, made the decision personally not to take the vaccine yeah, which was an intense decision for you and I was incredibly intense away from losing your job yeah, I remember having this conversation with you we were walking through our lockdown park and we had you on speaker both talking about this and it was like a personal health choice versus being able to have an income, maintain your job and you know provide.
Dave Lee:Yeah, I mean not only just like the social pressure in the everyday environments that everybody was putting on yeah.
Dave Lee:Everyone, yeah. But then, yeah, the job thing and the only thing, like I mean I was kind of the point where I was maybe you're gonna have to take it because, like, yeah, I mean I was down to like the last two weeks but then that supreme court decision came down right around Christmas time of whatever year, because they had like a January 3rd or January 6th deadline that you had to take it and I was like, what am I gonna do, like to do to provide for my family? Like this job is going really well, I love it, making good income, like why would I mess that up just for this stupid? But I'm so proud that I didn't get it and I didn't want to.
Rachel Wagner:So what were your thoughts on vaccines before that Like? Were you like an annual flu shot person?
Dave Lee:Um, no, well, I had to once again. Had had to when I was a rep, going into the hospital, like when I was working the ors. There was a system called rep tracks. It was basically like an entry access system into the hospital. You had to check in.
Dave Lee:You had to have vaccination records to do that, so I had to get a flu shot every year those like six years that I was in the OR and then after that, no, I didn't get the flu shot because, like, why I'm 27 years old, completely healthy, why would I need it, like the flu doesn't?
Rachel Wagner:impact me right so. I have a question I want to come back to later on down the road to this. Help me remember. Okay, so you had done this before, where you had to get shots to continue your job. Why, like, why was this one different?
Dave Lee:I think seeing well, first of all, like when you read the who it could impact, uh, the vaccinations, the code it. You know my age group was called out specifically as having like one of the worst Help me out here, help me out here.
Amanda Lee:Men from like 30 to 50. Yeah, like healthy men.
Dave Lee:Yeah, we're seeing myocarditis and heart issues. And you know my dad had a stent when he was 50. Like it's just something that's always I'm mindful of, like hey, you know, I'd probably need to watch my heart over my life. You know we have some heart disease history in my family. So just hearing that and then hearing that, you know I'm extremely likely 99.8% chance to survive if I get it or whatever. And then of course, the transmission thing was a complete fluke. You know that was totally false about. Like that prevents transmission. So why would I get this? There's no reason. Like, just looking at it from an objective, take out all the pressure. Now the pressure was very strong, right. But like take that all out, there's no reason for me to get this.
Amanda Lee:Right the. The risk outweighed the benefit, in this case 100%. And looking back, now they're pumping it out so fast.
Dave Lee:I'm incredibly glad that I didn't. It scares me to think of what could have happened, and nothing may you know. Nothing might not have happened.
Amanda Lee:But once again, the risk outweighed the benefit.
Dave Lee:There was zero benefit. The only benefit was me keeping my job. Right. And to be put in that position, just as an American you know, really upset me obviously, and that's part of why I was holding out. I was talking to a couple of people you know, in confidentiality, I would never say who I was talking to or whatever but like another other couple other people in my position that felt the same way.
Dave Lee:And you know we were planning like what are we going to do? How are we going to get out of this? What legal implications. You know what legal routes can we take exemptions, blah, blah, blah. But you know, working for a fortune to earn company, you know you also feel like you have an elephant that can sit on you and just completely outweigh anything you would do. So yeah, it was very scary because you felt helpless, but you were just trying to ride it out for as long as possible and luckily that worked.
Rachel Wagner:And you guys are in such a unique position because we leaned on you guys a lot for like recommendations and what you were hearing, just because you were both like in the healthcare realm.
Amanda Lee:And.
Rachel Wagner:I know, you see, like no calling out names, of course but there were several people who are also in the healthcare system who were also saying this is a scam and I wouldn't get this. And obviously, in some places they didn't have a choice and people had to and went against their will or were totally coerced into it. But in more private settings that was not the case, right? And so this is what was so fascinating to me. It's like we were in Chicago, everything was intense, everyone was, you know, thinking the same way, and we had a lot of that social pressure too and family pressure too. But it was like I'm talking to people who are in health care and people who are living in different areas and it's a totally different world, and so like, can you share a little bit about that too? Like it wasn't just you guys thinking this, like there were plenty of people who were saying the same things.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, yeah, and at the time I was at this point, I was a nurse practitioner in the field when the vaccines actually rolled out and we were supposed to get them, and there were so many physicians that I worked with that said this is incredibly fast for this to come out, and I'm nervous about the risk. A lot of them, though, still complied and got it, while saying behind the scenes it's one of those virtue signaling of like let's just do our due diligence. We're like the face of health care, like we'll do it, but do we think it's necessary? Like not at all, but is it necessarily harmful either? Like we get the flu shot every year, how could this be as bad?
Amanda Lee:So I feel like that was a lot of their mindsets. There was also a few doctors that I talked to in confidence, and PAs or NPs or whoever other colleagues, that absolutely had the same thoughts that I was having in the sense of like higher ups than me, that were like this is which opens up a whole nother can of can of worms of them. Like when I started questioning myself of like well, if they did this for COVID, what have I been giving? What have we been giving our children our entire life?
Dave Lee:Okay, before we go there, let me just say one other thing, cause that's a whole nother conversation that we can go to. But you know, I remember when you were, the conversations you were having and the physicians in the group you were working in were having and you were in those conversations. People don't like to be inconvenienced, like that's what it came down to for all the American public and physicians and healthcare providers included. There were physicians in that group that you know. If they, if the government is telling people that they're going to shut them down, if a certain percent of their you know workforce doesn't have the vaccines and or whatever the situation is, and it inconveniences them, which means they can't do surgeries, which means they can't make money, and blah, blah, blah, the whole circle, then they just wanted to. They didn't feel strongly about the vaccine itself for its medical reasoning. They felt strongly of they didn't want their whole life interrupted which was very upsetting to hear, which was upsetting to hear, because it had nothing to do with the medical implications.
Dave Lee:And then, of course, people then would tout well, oh, all these doctors are recommending it. Well, they were recommending it because they just wanted to be two weeks to slow the spread and then be done, because that was of course they wanted surgeries to start back up.
Amanda Lee:They wanted money. Cause you're losing money. You're losing money. That you're keeping.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, you're keeping a lot of businesses. Thought, too, is like yeah everybody vaccinated, so I can open up again 100%.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, I mean I think yeah, yeah, so corrupt, yeah, you back people into a corner so they don't have a choice, or you make them feel like we always have a choice. That's the thing. But I think they made you feel like you didn't have a choice, especially where I worked, especially at the time you didn't I mean, it was your job or access to but they're protected. When you do get it like they're protected legally, Like that's what's crazy.
Jason Wagner:So I mean it's fascinating because literally what we're talking about here is that fear and the if you can strip somebody from their income source, you've got them. Like you've totally got control, and like let's kind of talk about like all right, if that happens again, dave, like you're still the main breadwinner, right, you're still in that field. And if the bird flu becomes a thing, and now there's a vaccine, and then you are forced to get that thing or you're going to lose your job, like what are you going to do in that situation? Well, now I have more confidence that you know.
Dave Lee:First of all, I've built passive income through real estate, so I would feel more confident in that. But yeah, like I I don't know it would be very hard. Like I feel like I would be confident enough to make the decision that I would want to independently do what I felt like was best for me and I know I would do that now. But you know, losing my primary income would change everything Totally, you know it would.
Amanda Lee:So yeah, I think that's why we can't rely on W-2 jobs.
Dave Lee:Exactly, I mean.
Amanda Lee:that's why we can't rely on the government on w-2 jobs. Exactly that's why. That's why we can't rely on the government. I think there's a lot of arguments going to the stay-at-home mom life of why they want women at work too. I mean that's another, that's another tax benefit for the government.
Dave Lee:Keep women out of the homes before we go on all these, oh yeah, because there's so many the thing that I'm proud of during the like 2020 to 2024 time, during all that manipulation and everything that happened was like the 75 hard stuff, yeah, like I feel like mentally fortified from all those experiences of replenishing my mind and body and spirit and everything Like throughout those times when everybody else was getting worse, was going in fear, was sinking back, you guys, us, you know, some other people we know, and everything like we charge forward, we took ground, like we were capturing land. We were taking ground like while everybody else was not doing anything and that's why there's such a wealth disparity, like that sort of thing. Like during that time, because people like us, who didn't sink back, didn't, you know, live in fear, hide all that stuff, like we were out selling, still moving our bodies and bettering ourselves and our minds and all those things, and really to the you know nth degree, because we were doing an extreme program personal development.
Dave Lee:Yeah, like I felt, like I grow. I grew the most in my entire life during that period.
Amanda Lee:That much better.
Dave Lee:So when you ask me next time, like I feel like I have the the skills and the capability, especially mentally, to get through that, so like I'm confident that I would make the appropriate decision.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, and that's that's so like I'm confident that I would, yeah, did an appropriate decision. Yeah, and that's that's so like all of a sudden, you just feel so much better about what can come your way when you're at that like mindset and most people just they they can't ever get there because they haven't done that work and that soul searching and really challenged themselves because, oh shit you're talking about I'm going to lose my job. What am I going to do for my family? I got a mortgage to pay. I've got all these bills.
Amanda Lee:And I would say that's majority of Americans.
Jason Wagner:It's majority we are at yeah, you can't bite the hand that feeds. It's so hard. I wish that there was so much more of a push on like you need to learn entrepreneurship and you need to learn how to be self-sustainable and not just rely on one employer or somebody to pay you, but actually figure out how you can make money and generate an income not by somebody paying you for doing work for them, but it's like you actually have like a customer or something.
Amanda Lee:Well, they don't want you to know that. They don't want you to know that you should think outside for them, because they want you to be an employee for them for the rest of their life. That's more money in their pockets. I mean, it's a very corrupt system.
Jason Wagner:That's how you control a population, exactly, right, yeah.
Amanda Lee:I mean that goes deep, deep into like school systems and just starting from a young age of how women out of the home and like. I mean you can go down so many avenues with that and I think, that's why Andy Frisella has a real point that I love that he makes that personal excellence truly is the ultimate rebellion to these people. Yeah, I love that that he makes that personal excellence truly is the ultimate rebellion to these people because I love that you.
Amanda Lee:It is a weapon that, like any of us have access to, it's free, you know, if you do the work. But I would say 90 of people don't think about that stuff like they don't. They don't think, they're just stuck, like you said, like just thinking about the next bill to pay. They're just like living in survival mode instead of like taking life by the handles, and like just making something of it themselves instead of like thinking about surviving.
Jason Wagner:I guess I don't know Well a lot of times it takes, you know it takes a number of years of sacrifice.
Amanda Lee:It does.
Jason Wagner:And I don't think people are willing to sacrifice as much as they need to. They probably think that they sacrifice you know, everybody probably thinks that they sacrifice but do you really sacrifice? Do you have you really cut your main living expense, which is your rent payment? Have you really gone from paying $2,500 a month down to $1,200 a month, like? Have you actually made that massive jump and said this is only going to be for a year so that we could or move back in with your parents?
Amanda Lee:Yeah, or cut the materialistic things in your life. Right yeah. Actually sacrificed. Some of like I won't say the poorest, but some of like the people that flash like they have money with the nicest and highest, most high end things, I should say, are often the people that I know are living paycheck to paycheck, but they like to look a certain way.
Dave Lee:There's too many people living paycheck to paycheck that make a really good wage.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, that's true too.
Dave Lee:I mean I just, know some personally, absolutely. They make plenty of money, especially being dual-income earners yeah, they should never be paycheck to paycheck. No, no, totally not.
Amanda Lee:But what you spend your money on. I mean looking a certain way, I think yeah plays a huge factor to that Instead of the sacrifice, instead of sacrificing some of those things for some time like materialistic things.
Jason Wagner:It all just kind of plays into this whole, like what you were talking about was like the margin and like dude, what happens if we do have another pandemic that hits our son that comes in the next three months?
Rachel Wagner:as we get to the fucking election like nothing's perfect what happens if world war three is literally going to, you know, be started tomorrow.
Jason Wagner:yeah, like we're so fucking close and what are you gonna do? And so, like you know, do we need the doomsday prep? Maybe yes, but no, but like, but like it's just starting, like shit. These are things that have actually recently happened, that were very impactful in majority of the world, and how do we learn from those situations and come out way stronger and ready for whatever is coming next? Because something will happen next and you know there needs to be such a focus on the personal excellence.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, 100%. And not being a focus on the personal excellence. Yeah, a hundred percent.
Jason Wagner:And not being reliant on the government or somebody saving you, because nobody's going to. Nobody's going to save you.
Amanda Lee:That's like the thing. Did you see what I posted, cody Sanchez?
Jason Wagner:Oh yeah, yeah, I did see that.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, it doesn't as much as I love Trump, and I do think he could flip this country compared to what we have endured the last four years. At the end of the day, I think what she said is very true Like no matter who you're voting for, like nobody will save you. Like it is all about building your own life. Like that's important. It starts with you, first and foremost. I think Andy Frisella says that all the time too. What are you doing in your own home and in your community? Like I just think there is like a strong, a strong value in that to me personally.
Dave Lee:I was going to say something earlier. It just didn't quite fit in and it probably doesn't fit in now either, but I wish this is kind of a random comment, but I wish that and this is a faith thing. So sorry if this totally moves a different direction, but I wish people saw themselves the way that God sees them, like they were created in his image. Every life is special. Every person has unique story and people. You know, we're kind of talking about people in survival mode and everything. And can they buy, can they create margin in their life? They're living in survival mode and if they knew that they had that power in them like they have. I don't know, this is a faith thing for me, like I believe that we are all created in God's image and like we have that power inside of us.
Dave Lee:And that's incredibly freeing because you can do whatever you want. We have free will and there's such limiting beliefs and all these things that they go into crappy situations that people are in and I just wish they saw themselves how god sees them like. He's like I made you perfectly. There's nothing wrong with you. You can do whatever you want. Stop living in fear, live in power, live in faith. Like go forward with whatever dream you have, because I know you can do it, because I created you and it's probably already done. It's probably already written in the plan he has for us.
Dave Lee:But people just have so much fear. I don't know. It's just something that you know, I think about, like when I'm kind of working to evangelize more in my life. It's something I'm not necessarily strong in, but I'm working at more. That's something I try to put confidence in. People is from that creator story of man like you have so much, you have so much in you. Like I try to encourage people like you can do it, man Like you can do it, and here's why, and whatever their situation is, but kind of thrown in the faith component of that yeah, god makes no mistakes.
Dave Lee:Yeah.
Rachel Wagner:So I found something that you said there too, something that's been on my mind a lot, and going back to where we started talking about other stuff in healthcare is when I started questioning some of the vaccine stuff, is when I started questioning some of the vaccine stuff I was thinking about. Why are we trying to inject or alter fresh newborn babies that were created completely perfectly from the moment they come out of the womb, right, like you said, like God created you perfectly and like that's been something that was like ringing so much in my head of as I was like unraveling, like all this health care stuff. I'm like god, like we're like altering people the moment they come onto this earth. Yeah, why? Because for for years and generations, like everything was fine and don't know, I'm going down a weird tangent.
Dave Lee:It's a it's a very good question and I mean there's certain things that, of course, I think did help. There was high child morbidity back in the day, whether how far back you go, but yeah, there's certainly a lot of things. Now that you look at that, you're like why are they getting pumped full of Tdap vaccines and stuff where?
Amanda Lee:fill me in here like there's a lot of a lot of these things.
Dave Lee:That was it elon musk, or somebody that just said the schedule looks like a horse like vaccine tranquilizers schedule because it's just so much like it's so aggressive it's those trump, was it trump, that's? It. He said that on the call with rfk.
Amanda Lee:Oh yeah, on the call with RFK, rfk Jr, which I'm so glad that's been. My one qualm with him is like I'm glad he's coming around on this stuff. Yeah, because that's what I appreciate about RFK.
Dave Lee:You know, all these things that we've been talking about, go into free thinking, yeah Like. So that's something where you began to think freely outside the system, the system would tell you just do what we're telling you to do. And you said, hey, this doesn't seem right.
Rachel Wagner:Like these babies You're attacked for that I had for you guys too is like we all went through well, actually we didn't all go through a public school system. You guys are both private school people in elementary school, right.
Dave Lee:Yeah, through fifth grade.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, right, yeah, through fifth grade. Yeah, I guess I wanted to ask like kind of the group, like what do you think it was for you guys that allowed you to think beyond what you were being told to do? Like what was it? Was it faith, was it upbringing, was it your parents, was it a mentor? Or like where, where did that root come from?
Dave Lee:I actually think that I incredibly stunted, or that the system and the home environment, everything you know not a blame game, but I think it stunted my thinking tremendously.
Amanda Lee:I think it was naturally there.
Dave Lee:Yeah, I think that I hid some ambition competitiveness Free thinking.
Dave Lee:You know things that were, for you know, longer story than just for here. But no, I don't think that the public school system or anything that was involved in those days really did me any good service for that. Personally, I think it was my time after, in my twenties that I realized that like, okay, I to, I know what I want to get out of life and I'm not there. And I started listening to podcasts, reading books, doing the personal development journey. That's when my mindset changed. It was certainly was not back in high school, if that's what you're getting at.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, I mean, I'm just curious, like what gave you the ability to question what you were?
Amanda Lee:being told yeah.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, yeah, where'd that come from?
Amanda Lee:That is a great question because I don't know where it came from. For me, honestly, maybe part of it is faith and just a gut feeling, and Following your instincts is a huge thing.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, I think that's what it is.
Amanda Lee:Jason, it's following. Yeah, it's just like an instinct, like that gut feeling tucker tucker talks about this all the time.
Jason Wagner:If you listen to his show, he says I just follow my instincts yeah, and it makes so much my instincts were telling me this is wrong and I don't like it and I'm not gonna listen to you like I love tucker like sometimes we don't have to overthink things, we just have to go with what our gut says Exactly. Yeah. And I bet you that majority of people actually had their gut telling them like yo. This isn't right.
Amanda Lee:It's so true. And actually I just had this kind of story with one of our other friends who we'll see this weekend. We were talking about the vaccine conversation and we saw, like we were talking about a SIDS case that just happened with a baby somewhere in a nearby town of people. We don't really know, but we saw it going around on Facebook and it was, I want to say, a two month old, I can't remember and so we were looking up different things because obviously we have a lot of feelings about we're all kind of knee deep now in this research of like is it the right thing to do? And we were to get long story short. I told our friend I was like you know, I had a gut feeling after when I first had Romina and I gave her two month vaccines. That's when it all stopped for me and she got her two month vaccinations, stopped for me and she got her two month vaccinations and that night she spiked.
Amanda Lee:I will never forget. She spiked a fever, a decently high one, and as a medical professional I was okay with keeping her at home because I'm a nurse practitioner, but I remember it still made me very cautious. And then she was very lethargic, or, as we would say, very drowsy, like abnormally so, as like a newborn. And I remember just like in my feeling that night. I watched her all night because I was so freaked out that something was going to happen to her. Like it was a gut feeling of like okay, I know what to do with the temperature, I know that this can happen post-vaccination, Like they tell us this it's textbook. You can spike a fever afterwards, you can get very drowsy.
Amanda Lee:But something in my gut with that felt very scary and very off, despite everything I I've known with my medical education. And that gut feeling that night was the epitome of like I'm stopping all of this until I figure this out for myself. Because, like her getting dosed with four or five vaccines that day, like in that reaction, didn't sit right with me, even though everything in my medical understanding should have told me otherwise. But it was just a gut, it was just a mom feeling in that moment, Like take the nurse, practitioner and everything I've learned aside, something feels very off with this. That's what led me down to I was questioning it before that happened. But once that really happened I had told him I'm not giving any more until I researched this because, because I was so freaked out that night that she would go to sleep and not wake up. That was my biggest fear about it that SIDS would happen Truly.
Jason Wagner:Is it just me, or does it feel like Dave, you might be able to help answer this? Like I never would have questioned any, I never would have questioned. Oh, you know, scarlet had a fever. Oh, there was all of a sudden this crazy thing of diarrhea. I never would have even thought that it was a a side effect of something that was being injected by the doctor, because I thought the doctor was always right and that these were. There were no side effects. For some reason, like I don't know, is was it wrong for me to think that that was a thing I would?
Dave Lee:agree with you just like you're talking about, like the motherly instinct that we just don't have. There's a reason that we have genders and different things and different skills that each gender has, and you're right, like I wouldn't, probably wouldn't have either. Yeah, honestly, I mean, I would, you know, heavily rely on Amanda having, you know, a doctorate, a medical knowledge, like I, rely on her and trust her completely. And you know, I looked into this. You know, when she would show me research and stuff like that, I would look into it too and we would obviously have conversations as a family. But yeah, I, I wouldn't have looked at it the same way. I don't think many dads probably would have. Yeah, I don't know, I mean was there anything?
Jason Wagner:Yeah, I think what we're really learning is that the side effects of a lot of these, especially the COVID vaccine the COVID vaccine unveiled the curtain that there are side effects and that the side effects are actually pretty risky and the risk doesn't necessarily outweigh the benefit.
Jason Wagner:But the benefit doesn't outweigh the risk, it's actually the risk is super high and the benefit is likely temporary, for a short period of time, because what we're talking about is like the efficacy of these vaccines you were immune for a little bit and then you weren't, and then actually you were more contagious and that's why they said you need to get more boosters, but then the risk of getting those boosters was ridiculous. Yeah, instead of saying like, oh, this is just a one-off, because it was COVID, you know, we did it super fast. Oh, no, it's. Oh, this is what you've been doing all this time. This is what you've been doing all this time. It's just that it finally became so obvious to us that now we see it, it's kind of like the Trump assassination attempt.
Jason Wagner:I was just going to say that, oh, this is what you've been doing all this time and now it's been so fucking obvious that you take a poll right now. Does anybody think that that was a lone gunman acting on his own? I bet you majority of people are going to say this was an inside job. And it's not crazy to think that, because it's so damn obvious.
Dave Lee:Of all of these, things Video footage from people's phone and social media. He was up there for six minutes, yeah, and I think totally different game than you know, the 1960s or whatever it was a. They could say different things then. Yeah.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, yeah, the media is a blessing in a, or I should say, technology. The media, all of it, is a blessing and a curse in this day and age, because while it is very corrupt and it's biased, it also reveals a lot of flaws too. Because would we have ever known to question anything after COVID? I never would have, especially being a medical professional, would have never thought twice about it until COVID happened. Like you said, it was, the curtain was totally unveiled for a lot of people.
Dave Lee:Yeah, yeah, so does that mean that some of this that we can pull some good out of? You know, because look at the last four years, all these people that have changed their mindsets on so many massive issues in their life You're talking medical decisions, politics, personal development, health, finances I know for us, our lives have skyrocketed since 2020.
Rachel Wagner:And you see this across the nation, so it's actually maybe not all bad oh yeah, I I'm actually so grateful for it having happened which sounds crazy, because I actually complain about it a lot, but I've told you so many times, like, had that not happened, there's so many events that wouldn't have followed, right Like being home with Scarlett made me realize how much I was missing it made me realize how different of a person I was, being at work right, and how I didn't want that.
Rachel Wagner:And then we made the decision to grow our family, and being pregnant is what made me hesitate on the vaccine. Otherwise I would have gotten it. I know I would have, cause I was pro vaccine all across the board. Right, I was so. And it had I not been pregnant, I would have just gone along with it, but I was, and like I truly believe that was for a reason Right.
Rachel Wagner:And then the events that followed that, with the motherly instinct. Like I, I'm actually mad at myself because I had a motherly instinct right around that 12 week period. It was the rotavirus one that you briefly mentioned, but like I ignored it. I questioned it in the moment and then I ignored it, and then I questioned it again a little bit later and I ignored it. But, like, all of those things ended up leading me to making medical decisions that were different and stopping, and I full-heartedly believe that had we not made the decision to stop vaccinating our oldest, I actually think that she would be autistic, because that's where we were going, that's the progression that was happening, and so, while so much of what happened sucks, I'm so grateful.
Rachel Wagner:I'm so grateful because we were just talking last night with the people who were podcasting. Then, like after the podcast, we were talking more personally about like our relationship. But like you and I, I don't know if we would have made it the route that we were going and it was like that series of events that occurred, that like rerouted and corrected.
Jason Wagner:That yeah you know, yeah yeah, we talked about that pretty openly because we were just on a different path. Right, you were let's let's kind of go back to when I quit my job. When you quit your job, you go from you having a salary to nothing. That's very obvious. But you think that it's going to happen really quickly and things just don't materialize Like it takes time, effort and just. You know all the classic slogans blood, sweat and tears. And you know, you were, you were really thriving, you were really thriving and I was in a confident mode, but then I wasn't, and then I just tumbled and I tumbled pretty far and we got to the point where then we were having a child, and that was a surprise and I was like we were just talking about this the other day.
Jason Wagner:That's why I'll never forget that I called one guy and it was dave yeah and I'm like, like and you're like sit down and I'm sitting, I'm sitting.
Amanda Lee:I don't think I even know this story I was in the coffee shop with Dave when you called. I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it.
Jason Wagner:Oh really I'll never forget it Right before the Europe trip I was, I was working, I was working on the fucking baseboards and I'm cutting them with this and I'm just, I'm literally there by myself and I'm like I have to do everything I can to get this fucking house sold and, like, get this job done. And I was just having so many problems with contractors and bullshit and, like you know, the inspectors and whatnot anything. Everything just went horribly wrong for me. Then we found out we were going to have a child and then I'm like I have no income. I'm actually making negative dollars per hour right now and now I have to have a child that is going to be dependent on me.
Jason Wagner:Like we're hardly even skating by at this point and she's got a decent salary but like, just you know, the investment we were making, her salary turned into like nothing because we were putting any extra money into getting this job done and I was extremely fearful of what was about to come, because I was like, okay, well, here goes my entrepreneur spirit. Like all of a sudden, I have to go back to this W2 and I'm going to be handcuffed and I'm going to be at the throat of somebody else, yeah.
Jason Wagner:And very miserable, because that's what I was before and I called you. I probably said all that.
Dave Lee:So I want to follow up that story with our trip to Miami beach that we did as a foursome. When was that A couple of?
Amanda Lee:years ago I was pregnant with Romina, so two years ago now obviously we've been very close and everything.
Dave Lee:We take these trips as couples and I mean I just love that moment. You guys all know what I'm talking about where we went out to the brunch or whatever, and so you were more established at this point right Like you were, you were probably really turning the corner, yeah.
Amanda Lee:I would say probably you were killing it at this point. Yeah, you were killing it. Rachel had left her job. You're doing well in real estate.
Dave Lee:You know we had, you know, these awesome pool party conversations and everything at the pool at this amazing hotel. We're staying at right on the beach, like those are the kind of trips that you're just. You know, you're visioning, you're doing all that and we go out to this brunch and we meet this lady that was tommy hill figures sister or whatever, and she heard us talk about trump actually yeah, that was what connected us to her yeah, we were just sitting at the the bar waiting for our seat and hit trump.
Dave Lee:Yeah, that's what connected us to her and she ended up being a huge deal and she was a nationally acclaimed public speaker I talked about her on our last podcast yeah, we did, I think we did, but, but I'll never forget that moment, though, and I want to give you credit for this, because she, I think, asked you what, why you're doing what you're doing and you said, like how much Rachel sacrificed for you at your beginnings. And you know, we've witnessed all this, so I'm not saying that you guys don't know, or that we don't know and then you, you were crying, because you said like I yeah, I think we all were you were saying, like you know, she made so many sacrifices for her and I just so badly want to make the the same thing for her.
Dave Lee:Like I want to give her everything she wants. I want to, like you said, like the marriage was probably got two young kids, you're trying to get it financially, get in the right place. You guys were building things and trying to work through challenges and I'll just never forget that and I want to give you credit for that, because obviously you're doing it.
Amanda Lee:And you were doing it then I remember because you had just left, but you could see the why.
Dave Lee:You could see the why. There was zero question what the why was in that moment. So committed we all felt that that was just like. I can't believe I'm making this comparison, but that was just like the trump raising his fist and saying fight. After getting shot in the ear. We saw the me crying. He cried at the bar. He's equivalent to trump raising the bar through his ear you buying, crying at the bar with the mimosa in your hand. Paint the picture of the in miami, we all were.
Amanda Lee:I remember that moment just like it was yesterday. Guys, that's what I think I love most about you too, though. Like we've seen you guys through a lot of different seasons, and just and just to see where you are like right now, even just this last year, like just the connection and the growth and the elevation. I'm not surprised by it, like I expected it, but just to see it is like such an honor and a privilege to be your guys' best friends, because it like pushes us and we say so much every day like how we're like God, we love Springfield, we've made a lot of community here and we have friends of like all the fitness friends, faith friends, church friends, whatever, like all these different groups, but we're like we just like don't have like that couple. That's just like we so bad. That's why we're trying to sell you the house next door.
Rachel Wagner:But like we want, like, I'll add it to the vision board.
Amanda Lee:It's been working, yes, but like all that encompasses and that's like what we feel about the Wagners and just like what you mean to us, you inspire us and like so we wish, when we have these trips together and just these times that we connect in a year, like a couple of times a year, it just leaves us feeling so energized and inspired and I feel like just imagine if we could like bottle that up and have it every day, like being near you guys. This would be awesome.
Rachel Wagner:I want to reciprocate that to you guys, because we talk about that all the time too, and I wish we were so much closer to you guys because this is so awesome, this conversation this weekend, like every time I get together with you guys, it's, it's a growth experience, Like I will always remember that. That Miami trip that was. Or Fort Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale trip Like it was monumental. I feel like in like that next six months for us after that was just so energized and so fun. Like that was the year I went and auditioned right Like that was like right after that, was making a big change.
Rachel Wagner:And even the Napa trip I'm gonna bring this up a little bit because that trip got very uncomfortable for me and when I reflected on it a few months afterwards I told Jason. I said it was very uncomfortable at a certain point, like at the dinner, and we don't need to go into the details of it, but it was such a growth moment for me, actually you, it was such a growth moment for me actually. That's what makes you guys such great friends is you're not afraid to push when it's appropriate. And even though it was uncomfortable in the moment, what came after that was a lot of growth and a lot of confidence and what I wanted and being able to verbalize that and share it and make it happen. So it's just really special. I just wanted to reciprocate to you.
Jason Wagner:What was so uncomfortable? What are you talking about? Oh, I remember it. Yeah.
Dave Lee:I remember it too.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, so at dinner we started talking about.
Amanda Lee:That like Italian restaurant, right yeah At the Italian restaurant.
Rachel Wagner:For whatever reason, we just started talking about me. There was so much like question and push on me and the business, and like where you're like where? Like am I helping you? Am I where I'm at with you and graystone?
Dave Lee:and do you want to?
Rachel Wagner:help. What do you? Yeah? And it was just like this very clear realization that like I still very much wasn't living my most authentic life and like you had said something to me, amanda, that like pissed me off at the time, where you were like, yeah, you still, you just haven't figured it out, you haven't figured out your purpose yet. And like it was just like a lighthearted, like feeling. But in the moment I was like, well, what the fuck? Yeah, I have. Like I figured out my purpose. Like I was like I had this chip on my shoulder of like no, that's not it. Like I was so mad and reflectively, that was spot on. Like I hadn't figured it out and the reality was I was still living somebody else's vision of me.
Rachel Wagner:And like you just made this comment of like, oh, you were doing so great and you were like trajecting in your career and like, yeah, I was, but I wasn't doing great. Like I was on the surface and I was doing what you know working women in America are supposed to be doing and I was climbing the corporate ladder. That isn't me, that isn't what I wanted. I can be successful in that, but that is not my best self. That's actually a very angry, aggressive version of myself that I don't want to be. I can be, it Sure, and so many people have said, oh, you'd be so great at this, you'd be great in attorney, like sure, I could do those things, but I'm very unhappy doing them. And so in that conversation it was a lot about, like, what I'm doing with Greystone, and it was after that where I stopped doing a lot with Greystone. I help when it makes sense, but the realization was I don't want to work with Jason. It's very stressful to work with Jason. I don't actually enjoy working with.
Rachel Wagner:Jason.
Jason Wagner:It's okay. Rissell really likes my VA, really likes working with me, and at least I have somebody that does, so that's good.
Rachel Wagner:And we found, like what does work right, like there's certain things that I can step in on and be a part of and enjoy, and we found, like what does work right, Like there's certain things that I can step in on and be a part of and enjoy, and we're both like in a good place on it. But I wasn't there then and it wasn't until that conversation pushing me and like figuring that out, that I found that myself and I still have to catch myself in that a lot and I don't know if we want to dive into that whole, like women working in America, but like there's so much around like what people think you should do and how you should be and what the expectation is, and I have to catch myself a lot of like is this really what I want or is this what somebody else wants for me? And I just think it's a good idea. You know, like I think about that all the time. Yeah, like I don't know.
Jason Wagner:I'm going on a tangent now, I mean, you probably get that a lot. You were just a nurse practitioner.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, I get it all the time.
Jason Wagner:Got your doctorate, yeah, oh like when are you going back Right All the time? How many times have people asked you that question?
Amanda Lee:Yeah, it's crazy, you guys, because I feel like when, at home mom, I was embarrassed to answer that question, like extremely embarrassed to answer it and I would actually hesitate to answer what I do I'd always say like, oh, like I'm staying home now, but like I'd be quick to be like but if I don't like it, like I could go back, Like I'm a nurse practitioner, I'm just going to stay home for this X amount of time I've gotten to. I still have like my insecure moments, like behind closed doors at times not often as I did. Like behind closed doors at times not often as I did. But I, every time somebody asked me, somebody just asked me this weekend, do you miss it, do you want to go back? I'm like hell. No, like I really don't like, and I can confidently, confidently step into that and say like I own being a stay at home mom, a character, ceo, engineer of my kids is what I like to say. But I totally own it and I love it and it is the hardest thing I've ever done and it's harder than my job ever was as a nurse practitioner. It may not seem as valuable to society like typical society right now, but it is like I totally own it and I don't think I was there even a year and a half ago and I have a community of moms.
Amanda Lee:I think it's all about also surrounding yourself. It goes back to surrounding yourself with people who are like-minded, and I've actually had a lot of powerful women in my life that have empowered me in that tone. And I have one of my really good friends that I've developed a relationship with. They actually co-own a couple of businesses, her and her husband together, and she runs them a lot. But anytime anybody asks what she does I know she runs those two businesses she says I'm a stay at home mom and she just owns it because she's like that is my most, that's my purpose in life and like I'm like I, it inspired me to just own it too, because I do feel like that that's my purpose right now.
Amanda Lee:Do I think it's going to be forever? I don't know. I mean I don't have to figure that out right now and I'm okay with not figuring that out, but I have just loved getting to raise my daughters. The view now makes it like pretty easy to just stay home with them and but you know we have an agenda and we do a lot of play dates and different things. We go to the gym and we do a lot of fun things together, but I just have loved being able to witness this season of life that I feel like I would have been personally. I know it's not for everybody, but I personally would have felt so robbed of had I been in the mindset of a career woman to work my nine to five for somebody else instead of being home with my children.
Rachel Wagner:I was so inspired, Like when we did the podcast, when we were in Napa, listening to you talk about being Romina's mom Vienna wasn't born at the time and being the matriarch of the home, and like the pride that you took in that actually really like inspired me, Like. So it was like I had this really like great inspiring moment and then I had the push moment when.
Rachel Wagner:I went home and like soaked it all in, like it really helped, like I was really inspired by the way you talked about that and the pride that you took in and being her mom and and taking that on as your role. I think it's great well.
Amanda Lee:I appreciate that, yeah.
Jason Wagner:I vividly remember that too, and I commented that to Rachel and I said, wow, I've never heard anybody talk about their role as a stay-at-home mom like that. Um, and if you're interested in listening to that episode, it's number seven deepening. Deepening friendships with dave and amanda lee.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, well, and it was. It was just so different from everything that we knew about you too, like because you were so driven I mean, you got your doctorate, you know. So it was just like wow, like this is monumental for for your path. Yeah.
Amanda Lee:It's crazy to think about. It's been a long time coming. I feel like to make this full circle moment because I feel like a lot of my friends always say that too that you're the last person I thought that would ever be. A stay at home, mom. Yeah, and that used to offend me, honestly, because then I'm like what am I doing? Why am I staying home Like I was meant to be?
Dave Lee:this way, rachel, can I ask you? So you mentioned and I think this probably goes for everybody, but you specifically said how did you?
Rachel Wagner:word it.
Dave Lee:You said I was living somebody else's path, or whatever.
Rachel Wagner:Whose path was it? It depends on which moment. I think so I think, early on in life. Well, we were talking about this last night too. Like I think my upbringing kind of came from a scarcity mindset and so the focus was very much like get a good job. You know just how you get there, get a good job. And so, like I was so focused on getting a good job, make more money, make more money, make more money.
Rachel Wagner:And then, you know, fast forward a little bit, I think I felt I felt pressure from peers, family and friends of like oh, it's going to be so cool for you guys to work in business together and do it together. Like I think people had like this HGTV, like image and this expectation of just like I would, I would support him and that's what makes the most sense, so that's what you should do. So when it came to that, you know, stepping into the business, I think there was pressure there. And I will also say I felt an immense amount of pressure when I went into that first year of auditions of like not having a professional role, because there's such an emphasis now on like not looking or not, like not being just a cheerleader, right, like they want you to have professionalism, and so I had just left my job and I felt this pressure. I can't just tell them I'm a stay-at-home mom. That's not acceptable, that's not what they want.
Rachel Wagner:So I need to make sure that I emphasize like I have a degree and I have an MBA and I have this, I have that, and that was, I think, probably the pressure of giving me a title in the business. It was kind of like multifolds and I still like think about this a lot. I don't what exactly it is or what it was that allowed me to get so disconnected from, like my authentic self. But I feel like there's been so many moments in my life that I haven't been living for myself, but I've been living for what other people thought I should do, like career moves and personal, like life choices and like dance stuff, Like it was not really always me, it was like serving somebody else, you know. Does that answer your question?
Amanda Lee:So it's fascinating I wanted to follow up with. What is your next move now? Like post dancing, hold on before, before we get there.
Jason Wagner:I want to say that you help a lot in the business and it's not the way that people think. And the way that you help is you're a sounding board for me literally daily, and even though you don't specifically do tasks like, this is Rachel's job. When you have this come up, you go to Rachel. You don't have a specific task, but you are the sounding board for me and I talk to you about literally everything that's kind of going on.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Wagner:And that's the job is to be that person. It's important that is listening, yeah, and then giving me critical feedback.
Jason Wagner:And wisdom and that's exactly what you're doing and that is a huge role that very few people can actually fulfill. So you're crushing your role, but to your point. It's very hard to explain that type of position to somebody who's just like oh well, why aren't you bringing in business and like, why aren't you out meeting clients? And like, because that's not what she wants to do. Yeah, she wants to talk to me, but I want to talk to her about literally everything that's going on in my day and I want to hear what she has to say about it. And that's the amazing feedback that we have as a team that people just need to understand a little bit better yeah, thank you for that.
Rachel Wagner:I appreciate that. That is like the hardest thing is like it doesn't feel hard until somebody asks you. You know, it's like things work really really well, but then when somebody is like, well, what do you do? It's like I stay at home but I also help with the business, but I'm also like doing this and I do that Like I don't know.
Amanda Lee:I don't know, what do you do?
Rachel Wagner:Like I get so uncomfortable, Like well, there's not a title right. Like there's like this expectation of like you work for this place and you have this job and this is what it is, and like that's not my life at all.
Dave Lee:That's not your life. Yeah, it's hard to explain value.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah.
Dave Lee:Which is what you just described. Yeah, you just described how valuable Rachel is, despite a title, despite a task or whatever like her value.
Rachel Wagner:Well, that's why I loved Matriarch of the Home Like.
Amanda Lee:I.
Rachel Wagner:I loved that. I was like that is great. I felt like encompassed what I'm trying to describe to people you know yeah.
Amanda Lee:And I think who I actually heard that from originally was Jesse Sullivan's wife. Really I remember her telling me when she was struggling to figure out what to do and this was during his campaign and I would go to some of their events and I met her and she's amazing. Stay at home.
Rachel Wagner:She homeschools actually I know I was gonna say, I was just thinking about her, because she homeschools like five. You should message her five or six kids and she's.
Amanda Lee:She's a fascinating person.
Amanda Lee:But I remember her telling me when it was time she got her master's and everything, and then when she thought about staying home, she was like God is really calling me to be an extraordinary wife and mother right now.
Amanda Lee:And I have never looked back from that and I remember that was like so freeing to me because she was like I've done all these things, I have my master's, I've been told to be a career woman but, like I know God is calling me to be an extraordinary mom and wife and I am at peace with that and I feel purpose in that. And I remember when I was struggling with this whole like should I go back to work, should I not? I remember thinking like that's exactly what I needed to hear, to be like the matriarch of the family, like that's enough too, like that there's a lot of importance and value in that. And no, in like her words just like were really meaningful to me about that, because she was like I like admired her as a person before I even knew like she struggled with this stuff too, and so I just feel like it's because society. I think it's shifting honestly now. But I think like it's because society I think it's shifting honestly now.
Amanda Lee:But I think, because it's always been one way I grew up, like you, where I feel like a lot of people told me what I should do with with with my life, and I feel like so my mindset was just like you're supposed to be driven, you're supposed to be ambitious, you're supposed to be, and there's nothing wrong with those things.
Amanda Lee:Like I have a lot of friends that they really do feel called to be that, but like also of friends that they really do feel called to be that. But like also once again for me personally, listening to that mom intuition of once I had a child, like everything changed for me in that aspect and knowing that that was okay too and that there's like purpose and gifts in that, that I feel like going back to the faith thing of like I feel like this is what God's calling me to do in this season of life.
Rachel Wagner:It does feel like a calling. It is it hasn't been until recently that I've reconnected with faith. It's been a really, really long hiatus for me, but I feel like it is a calling. I can't explain why I'm making all these decisions that we're making. They're so far beyond what I ever thought life would look like or how I would want our raising our family to be, but I'm just putting full faith in it, like there's there's a reason it's coming to me.
Rachel Wagner:There's a reason why homeschool is such a hot topic right now. Right, like I kid you not like all of a sudden, half a dozen people in a very short period of time I was meeting and they were homeschooling and meeting in their homeschool consultants, and I'm just like whoa, like they felt like signs. You know, like you need to explore this. There's a sign, there's something pushing you here.
Amanda Lee:I don't know, just trying to lean into that, yeah, and I think a lot of times God confirms exactly what we're feeling, you know. So, like those things happen, and it gives confirmation to feel like I feel like I'm just doing the right thing right now, like I'm leaning into it, and I'd love that. I want to hear more eventually about the homeschool stuff, because I was going to say, like you said this about me with the matriarch and now I feel like you're taking another level where I'm like inspired by you, because I'm like now I need to know.
Amanda Lee:You've taken it next level with it and I love it like it's great. I I'm really excited to hear about that and your latest podcast. What podcast episode was that?
Jason Wagner:uh, that one, that one was this is going to be number 47 this is the trump, the trump presidency year or the 47 president. I, you, you talk about faith a lot. I want to go back to this bullet that almost went into this guy's head. Was that not like the biggest, most televised version of an act of God?
Amanda Lee:That was divine intervention. That's what I would say. Yeah, absolutely.
Jason Wagner:I don't think we've seen anything, anything like that.
Amanda Lee:He acknowledged that in his speech. Yeah, yeah. It was the grace of God.
Dave Lee:There's something happening, I mean just in this country. It's not. It's more than Trump, obviously. That exemplified it.
Rachel Wagner:You know, that was a an example of it.
Dave Lee:But, man, there's, there's something happening in this country where, like, people are waking up, like we said, like people are changing habits and changing everything all their paces of what they knew and I think a lot of it's backfiring on, you know, some of the people that are doing these things that are, you know, we could kind of call evil in certain ways. So, yeah, I, I do think that I mean that that was unbelievable, like to turn your head at the right time and, you know, get shot in the ear, like in half inch away from the brain and all that stuff. It. I mean that was truly I have a question.
Amanda Lee:I want to ask jason after I make this statement, though, but so I'll get back to that question. But thinking of trump, like that divine intervention moment I saw, saw something that I'm like. It made me think isn't it crazy that it was all televised his rally when they never really are? Yeah, I saw somebody, so that was an inside. I mean I'm like it lines up with an inside job.
Jason Wagner:I mean, if you're really getting into the conspiracies because they're never televised.
Amanda Lee:You know so it's like you know. You know so it like you know. There's clips that will be shown from later, but it was live television when he shot.
Jason Wagner:I think it's CNN is never televised. I've seen televised ones.
Amanda Lee:So Fox does do it. Yeah, okay, like live. Yes, oh, okay, that makes sense.
Jason Wagner:But I think it's really more. The liberal, left-leaning news organizations don't usually televise that.
Rachel Wagner:And from my understanding.
Jason Wagner:I don't know this for sure. I have to fact check it. I hate using that term. I should not use it. It's just so stupid.
Rachel Wagner:All the misinformation you're spreading.
Jason Wagner:I have to double check to see if CNN was actually live streaming it, but I think that is what. I saw. I think that's what I saw. And so to your point, we should forget the fucking word conspiracy theory, because conspiracy analysts.
Amanda Lee:They're just, they're just questions.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, they're literally just questions, yeah and the experts right, and the easiest way to write someone off is to say that you spread misinformation, you're a conspiracy theorist. No, fuck you, that is not. That is the easiest cop out to just say that I don't agree with you and shut up right. These are questions and I think at this point in age, all questions are on the table, all questions.
Amanda Lee:I do have a question for you. Okay, give it to me Since we're talking on this divine intervention with Trump and everything in general. Where is your thoughts on God and divine intervention, and just God as a whole, I guess, or faith and religion? Not really religion? Religion is separate from Jesus is included in religion. But just on your thoughts on faith in God.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, well, I think that was a very obvious moment. That was a huge moment. I don't think there's any other way to explain it. Like, how else do you explain it? Have you ever put your hand up and just brushed your ear, like you know how close that is, and for you to just move just the tiniest little slight? I mean, this guy was dead and he wasn't. There's no other way to explain it. Right, and our kids go to. How would you describe Christian Liberty, christian school?
Jason Wagner:Christian school, yeah, and I see what the teachings there have really done to our kids, which is really sweet. It's really sweet, and scarlet tonight was actually singing, you know, a jesus song yeah, scarlet is very I think, in touch with her faith?
Rachel Wagner:I think very much, so what's?
Jason Wagner:really interesting is that she I think it's my kids that are gonna like bring me there interesting you know, love it.
Amanda Lee:I think it's my kids.
Jason Wagner:They're gonna bring me there and it's not something that's going to that. I'm going to be there like, oh, because of you, know something that happened to me. I think it's going to be that, oh, look at what's like what's happening with my children, who I care so much about, yeah, and I'm just kind of going to like ride that and kind of see where it takes me. Yeah, I love that.
Dave Lee:Yeah, that's good. I bet there's a lot of other people before you that you don't even know about that are bringing you there too, by the way, not just you kids, I'm certain, I'm certain yeah. Yeah.
Jason Wagner:They're the ones that are like are very much impactful for me right now at this season season of life that you that you say there certainly have been other moments. Are you open to sharing one of them? That happened, well, my, my godfather. He passed away and what was really interesting is that I think it was the day, the night that I found out, or something, or the night before. Yeah, I don't exactly remember the time. I don't remember the timing. I actually wrote it down.
Jason Wagner:I wrote it down and I gave it to my aunt because it was her husband and he passed away. But I had a vision that happened to me. It was really a dream. It was like I was in a field and he was off in the distance and he was just rising to the heavens, which was just. It was just like. He was like being, you know, taken by aliens you know just rising. It was like beams being abducted.
Dave Lee:Right right.
Jason Wagner:And that's kind of. But it wasn't that, it wasn't this green beam, you know, pulling this guy up in a very dramatic fashion. It was just like he was levitating, you know, chest up and just like body limp and like almost like he was being welcomed, and I just saw him rising. It was just like a very fascinating, very clear moment. And then I just shared that with my aunt, who had just lost her husband, and she found a lot of comfort in that. Actually, and I don't know, like being the godfather, you know, maybe he was showing me something, right.
Rachel Wagner:I need to be witness, yeah.
Jason Wagner:And wanting me to be a witness. Um so I so I don't want to say that that was totally a moment too right there's like an added detail to that story too what am I missing?
Rachel Wagner:if you remember, but in all of your life, as far as I believe he had, he was in a boating accident very early in life and had parkinson's, I believe, towards the end of his his life and I don't believe you had known him in your memory of being in a healthy state, is that?
Jason Wagner:right, right. Yeah, it was a dream go ahead.
Rachel Wagner:It's your story in the dream, the dream he was, he was perfect, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, so you had never actually known him in your life as being prior to the voting accident right, because I wasn't. I wasn't old enough, I didn't yeah yeah, but in the dream he was younger, healthy version of him yeah, exactly, yeah, that's.
Jason Wagner:That's a great point. Thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, so I'm beautiful.
Amanda Lee:That is, yeah, that's.
Jason Wagner:I'm shook, honestly yeah, so I I think that there are two, I'm sure.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, tell me that story for a couple of days. He didn't tell me until he came back from the funeral. After you told your aunt you told her first and they were very religious and very close to their faith.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, my aunt, I believe she was a nun. She actually wasn't on, yeah, so so, yeah, it gave her a lot of comfort. And she and she said, jason, I want you to write this story down. And I sat there and I wrote, I wrote it down.
Amanda Lee:Do you believe in God?
Jason Wagner:Such a like hard question to like I'm sure, I'm sure I do. I think that's a really hard question to say like oh, Of course I do, but I'm sure I do.
Amanda Lee:What makes you sure of it? Just the feeling you have.
Jason Wagner:Oh, yeah, yeah, I would say so yeah, how else would you explain the Trump moving his head Like that was a moment. That was a moment. We're in a really bad spot if that bullet connects. Yeah, I think it sets off.
Amanda Lee:It gives me chills to think it's.
Rachel Wagner:It sets off an uprising that many, many people maybe wouldn't have happened, but I just feel that that's the start of the end after that happened I had, like this weird parallel that I was feeling between I'm almost hesitant to say this, but but between Trump and Jesus. I don't know a lot of Bible stories because I'm still early in like reconnecting with my faith, but one of the stories that I've reread with Scarlett over and over and over again is the Easter story.
Rachel Wagner:right, and we watched Passion of the Christ and we were texting you guys through that, just asking a ton of questions, right, and one of the parallels that for some reason just came to me after the attempted assassination was like this man has been attacked in every possible way that they could attack him right In character, in finances, finances and silencing his family and trying to get him in jail.
Rachel Wagner:And now literally, quite literally, an attack on his life. And I just felt like this man is willingly and knowingly putting himself out there, knowing very well that he could die and is very much okay with it. And that was clear in his moment of standing up and saying fight. Like they literally just tried to put a bullet through his head and he stood up and was like fight. And I just felt like it displayed such a willingness of him to die for what he believes in and die for america and die for us as americans. And I couldn help but just see like a little bit of parallel of just like it's okay, they might take me, they might like let me go, and like you were just saying what will happen if he does, and I think he's willing to do that in the same way that that Jesus was willing to let them take him.
Dave Lee:You said in a truth social thing that it was his great honor to take a bullet for oh my god, I read it to dave out loud, because so it was my great honor.
Amanda Lee:He said it was my great honor to take the bullet I mean it's incredible.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, it is absolutely incredible have you seen dana white's? Sorry, one one, one question how many leaders do you know that would actually die right for their country right how many leaders that are in congress right now, that would actually die for so many people saw that moment.
Dave Lee:I mean you just you look at x twitter, like you look at whatever news source you you take in, and there's so many people after that moment saying, like, that is a leader, yeah, like you. That moment was just so authentic. You cannot fake that, you cannot produce that. Right. That was real. That was his gut reaction of this is what I stand for, this is who I am, this is the mission I'm on, and that just came out of him in that moment.
Amanda Lee:Well, that's what Dana White was saying in his video or speech or something he did. I just saw it is that he was like you know, I knew somebody who almost died Like he was like that close to a bullet or dying or something and he's like he was mentally never well after that, like he was mentally not okay, like has never been right since and he's like, and for trump to like for that bullet to just half an inch miss him and almost die and for him in that moment to just be able to stand up and pump his fist is just like truly the most badass and like leader, yeah like he called him, the ultimate american badass yeah, because he was like I agree because he's like, there's not.
Amanda Lee:Most of us probably wouldn't be able to do that.
Dave Lee:You'd be so shaken in the moment, let alone afterwards, and he has still, just like, been just a force of nature through it all, like just this is why what I said at the beginning, like I would love to hear what's going on in trump's mind in these moments, like it's just fascinating from, like a psychological, and he's also 78.
Amanda Lee:So maybe, like at this point, maybe, yeah, I'm sure he's had.
Rachel Wagner:I think he's willing to do that, why, why?
Amanda Lee:me, or like why, like, why am I doing this to myself? I'm sure he's had those moments, but like at 78 now he's probably like dude, this is yeah, this is my mission. Like I am on mission at this point, like there's no stopping me, like I have to do this. It's good versus evil type stuff, you know, like he's so committed to the mission, like you were kind of saying. You were saying like he, like that I. I mean I'm sure there's been question, but I don't. I mean, if you're like I, it was my great honor to take this bullet for civilization.
Jason Wagner:Because he knows his, why he literally knows he's so connected to like the bigger purpose. He's created the biggest movement of all time and everything is working for him as of now, and they are so afraid of him that they have to kill him to stop him.
Amanda Lee:And they didn't kill him and they didn't and they missed and him to stop him and they didn't kill him and they didn't and they missed it and they missed, and now they can't do it again no, they, no, they will.
Jason Wagner:Oh yeah, they will I think they'll try.
Rachel Wagner:I think it'll be like a poisoning or something you know, because like how could what do? You think the what?
Jason Wagner:do you think? I mean, I mean, how could they? Because, like, look at, everybody will know look at what happened. They would have taken out Trump and then next weekend they took out Biden. Literally all problems are fixed in two weeks. We haven't even talked about Biden, yet In somebody's mind.
Amanda Lee:Have you seen him look six inches taller in the? Videos. I was like you know I'm not on the Q train always, but seeing that I'm like, yeah, that felt very unexplainable. I was, I went back looking at pictures to him and jill, and like her face comes up to, like his cheek or something, like they're not that far apart, he was towering over her yeah, yeah it's.
Dave Lee:It's weird, you guys, and then ai freaks me out with some of this stuff, though I mean well, here's the thing is like okay, you talk to somebody that's like a boomer or something and they're like you're crazy for saying stuff like that.
Dave Lee:But the president of the united states was iterating over and over and over. I'm gonna run, I'm good blah. He said it right before he resigned from the position, and to do it via a Twitter post with a signature, not on a presidential seal, and the signature looked different than every other signature he's done. How could you not question that Like?
Dave Lee:we're not saying we know, you know what actually happened. Is biden alive? Is what's happening here? Was there a total coup behind the scenes? I'm not saying I know, I don't think you guys are either, but how like?
Dave Lee:once again the critical thinking yeah how can you look at that and not say, okay, this is extremely odd. Yeah that he was so adamant that he was still running and then all of a sudden, he disappears for six days, puts out a Twitter post, isn't his signature, isn't on the presidential seal, and then he's out. I mean that just. You owe the.
Amanda Lee:American people, you owe the American people.
Dave Lee:How about her saying Joe, I'm glad you're on the recording, I mean on the call.
Amanda Lee:That was so fake. I mean you see stuff like that, you're just like.
Dave Lee:Okay, like, are you guys?
Jason Wagner:come on, it's so obvious, everything is just so obvious. Yeah, and this is why all questions are on the table. You can't, you can't just say, oh, come on, amanda, like he doesn't have a stunt double. You're crazy. No, all questions are on the table.
Amanda Lee:Well they are. But to that other, I mean, people do think you're crazy if you ask those questions. That's too far for people in their comfort zone. You know, what was crazy to me is there were literally.
Rachel Wagner:Was it Lindsey Bo Barrett? I think I'm not sure.
Dave Lee:I don't know, exactly who Bo Barrett.
Rachel Wagner:Yes, who was like like I want proof of life by 5 pm. So like it wasn't like just people on social media asking this, but like literally somebody in Congress who's like proof of life by 5 pm. Okay, and maybe that sounds totally crazy, but if you're the president or somebody on that side, it should be a very simple proof of life moment. And instead they come out with this bizarre phone call that seems to be like a recording is, you know, deemed as a recording by Kamala, and then like there's clapping and they're speaking to and it's like okay, we're asking for proof of life, where are you?
Amanda Lee:Like because everyone knows AI can come out with a voice.
Dave Lee:Did you guys see the Joe Rogan thing that I sent you?
Rachel Wagner:Yeah.
Dave Lee:Joe Rogan on his show said you know, they did the AI thing and it said that is a 98% probability of being AI.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, that phone call yeah.
Dave Lee:And then they recorded his conversation just live on the podcast and it said 2% probability that it was AI. Yeah. It was like okay, basically that was 100% AI, and this is the thing about the internet and the technology these days.
Amanda Lee:You can't fold it anymore, and that's why the questions are on the table. Andy Frisella goes down that hole about why they created AI for this time To set it up for all this stuff with Joe. I mean it has other purposes too, but he talks about that all the time Because you can hide stuff. You can also I don't know, it's going to get dicey in the future with AI. It's a good thing and a horrible thing, I think yeah.
Dave Lee:It's kind of like anything else. Yeah, that's true.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, the truth needs to surface.
Dave Lee:We need some truths, man. There are too many questions. The truth needs to surface.
Jason Wagner:And so like how do you find the truth?
Amanda Lee:That's a great question. Like.
Jason Wagner:Tucker is a very inspirational person right now. Tucker Carlson.
Amanda Lee:I low-key wish well, let's get into this after. I low-key wish he was like the vice president, even though he has no political affiliation yeah right, but I do want to get into talking about JD Vance because I have a few thoughts.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, yeah, I don't have enough thoughts. Yeah, yeah, I don't have enough. I was really hoping for an rfk.
Jason Wagner:I don't have enough, uh background on jd to have a really good critical thought on it, but but going back to tucker real quick was okay yeah, going back to tucker real quick, I love his, what his mission is right now, because he's just a truth seeker and, uh, he just wants to get down to the real truth. And yeah, no, we are able to handle the truth. And you guys have just been lying to us over and over and over again. And if you think that if you just keep lying, that eventually that becomes truth, well, that's worked before, but it's not going to happen anymore. It's not anymore, right, and he's been very monumental, I feel like, in having that type of movement. But so is Robert Kennedy too, because he, I love him too. But it's amazing, because people would just say, like Robert Kennedy is crazy, right, is he cool?
Jason Wagner:Like again it's the same thing, but he's just another person that's just so close to so many things that you have to take what he says and really think hard about it.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, really think hard about it.
Jason Wagner:Yeah.
Amanda Lee:I really love him. Did you see that Tucker's podcast surpassed Joe?
Rachel Wagner:Rogan's. Yeah, joe Rogan's, that's huge.
Amanda Lee:And Joe is a truth seeker too. Yeah, I've always thought that he's turned into one. He's turned into one, he's turned into one. He is like the truth seeker, but like Tucker. To pass him is like, I agree, like he's monumental in it Because that was a very quick turnaround.
Jason Wagner:People want it too. Yeah, Like, why do you think that type of movement? He just got fired from Fox Fox like a year ago. He hasn't been on his own that long and he's all of a sudden now he's got one of the best podcasts in the world.
Amanda Lee:Who from CNN is trying to be like Tucker and it's failing?
Jason Wagner:yeah, it's, oh yeah, elon. Elon went on that yes, and it was so funny. It was very uncomfortable to watch that. It was horrible. Well, I mean, another Elon Musk is just oh, love him. He's another person that if he didn't buy Twitter $45 million a month.
Amanda Lee:He's coming to Trump's campaign.
Jason Wagner:That's insane. Then all of a sudden he just said that that was fiction. Yeah, he hasn't confirmed that.
Dave Lee:That actually just came out yesterday that that was fiction. Yeah, he hasn't confirmed that. Like that actually just came out, like to like yesterday. Yeah, that that was fiction. Okay, which, which is interesting, so like what the fuck he?
Amanda Lee:confirmed that he was donating to trump, but not necessarily 45 million per month. Gotcha, yeah, not the amount he didn't confirm the amount?
Dave Lee:yeah, so one of tucker's. He just posted a clip I believe it was tucker's podcast of somebody he interviewed and that guy I can see his face. He had curly hair. I don't remember his name, but he was talking about how.
Rachel Wagner:Brett Weinstein.
Dave Lee:I think that sounds right.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, the Dark Horse podcast yes, yeah.
Dave Lee:And he was talking about how, you know, they really messed up with all this because they created a dream team, like, if you wanted to wake everybody up, oh, like, who would you want on? You know, it was like the joe rogan's tuckers, all these people, like the whole.
Dave Lee:you know deep state whoever it is that's coordinating all the stuff that we think is, you know, just evil and whatever, like they. There's something that's working against them with all this because, like, look at what we're talking about here, like Trump's on a mission. You know these people that were uh, joe was the biggest. Bernie Sanders, socialist supporter in 2016.
Dave Lee:And where is he now? You know all these people because of what's happened, like we talked about even in our own lives, how our lives have changed. You know, you were a staunch vaxxer before this stuff, all these different things. Everything's changed in the last four years. And so it ultimately could be a good thing.
Amanda Lee:But you'll say aren't you glad to have been the original Trumper from day one? I'm just saying he goes. I never were wavered yeah.
Jason Wagner:Dave and I, dave and I, we were talking about that he goes.
Amanda Lee:he said that to me, he goes. Even you and Rachel. We just talked about this two days ago. He was like you guys were all about RFK and I was like we were, but like we never said we would vote for him over Trump.
Jason Wagner:You were about Ron DeSantis.
Rachel Wagner:You were about.
Jason Wagner:Ron DeSantis.
Amanda Lee:What a flop. What a flop, great governor, and you guys saying that RFK was going to be the VP candidate.
Rachel Wagner:I mean, I was listening to you guys and I was like what a bipartisan statement for them. That was never going to happen.
Amanda Lee:And I told David I was like I wouldn't but like to have Robert F Kennedy as a Democratic candidate. Of course I want to see Trump win, but like if he lost to him, like at least that is best case scenario for the second choice. You know what I mean.
Jason Wagner:Like he's not with the system, he's not with the system's, not with the system. They hate him too yeah well, they kicked him out of the democratic party like, and that was because of course they did, because, look at, they didn't give him security, the incumbent just dropped out until the assassination attempt on trump oh, and then they get it.
Dave Lee:Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah, which is just candy was pulling, second of all the candidates next to biden, yeah, so he gets so like if they would have redone this once biden dropped out like kennedy probably should have gotten it.
Amanda Lee:He should. That's what I was saying. Well, it's not a done deal yet they haven't gone to the convention, so but they're gonna.
Dave Lee:I mean they're gonna no, she's, she's gonna be the. Yeah, she's gonna be the nominee. Yeah, in which?
Amanda Lee:well, I don't believe. I actually don't know if she will be. Like she is now, but they every everybody's saying they're going to pull something at the DNC.
Rachel Wagner:Like it's going to be a Hillary or a.
Amanda Lee:Newsom or somebody like Michelle Obama.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, or they're going to stack her ticket with, like Barack, as her vice.
Amanda Lee:He apparently can't do it.
Rachel Wagner:Why.
Amanda Lee:Something Isn't there with something. Michelle could can't do it. Why something isn't there with something? Michelle could something with him, and isn't there something like I read about that? My dad was telling me something with what? Because he's turned out as a president because he turned out and so he can't go back to be a vp for four years now. If he had only served four I guess he could. But like, if you're a vp you can go try to be a president, but like something about it working backwards, you can't. He can't do it or something.
Amanda Lee:Okay, hearsay, I don't know if that's truth.
Dave Lee:I mean that would make sense because he'd be one step away from being a president after he'd termed out.
Amanda Lee:So maybe that's why? Yeah, there was something with his background, that he couldn't do it, but Michelle could. It's going to, but michelle, could? It's gonna be a crazy couple months, that's all we know. Okay, so what are you going back? I don't know much about jd vance either, but I was reading something that trump and now this was from outlets that were not biased either like they're like free press and some of the other ones I read that trump was kind of regretting his decision oh, really.
Rachel Wagner:Well, I think, like my initial reaction to that choice was not positive and I wasn't, like it was very early in his speech at the rnc that I was like I'm not, like I'm not even listening to this guy, like I can't listen to polished politicians anymore, like I just glaze over and can't focus, like I I don't want to hear somebody talking to me like that, like I want it to be more candid. So my initial reaction of him was not positive. But we watched his, I guess I watched it.
Amanda Lee:You didn't quite finish.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, we watched the movie. I just bought his book. I will say the movie like made me think a little differently about him, but I wouldn't say like I'm fully on board, but like it made sense why Trump would choose someone like him because of his background.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, you know what I was getting.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, what I, the little I know about him but I feel like I I don't have a lot of like trust there yet with, with, with JD fans. And. I don't like that. There's such a there with JD Vance and I don't like that. There's such a. There was a history of him hating on Trump so much, because all the mainstream media is doing is like replaying that over and over and over again and it's just like it's too easy for them to.
Amanda Lee:I don't love it either, to be honest.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah but I like that he's young.
Jason Wagner:He's only 39.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, that's nice and refreshing that I'm like.
Amanda Lee:Why didn't you pick vivek? Yeah, right, that's right, killing me like that's what's good. I'm like if you were gonna do and he's ohio's if you needed a swing state, like yeah, why did you not just pick the back and he would have been?
Amanda Lee:I don't know I heard some of the things I'm reading. My dad was telling me the same thing that, like insiders were saying that he is second guessing his choice and it was coming to a potential head that of course trump won't let him go as the choice because it would look very poorly on trump and I think it would still look poorly if jd stepped down but that insiders were saying they're hoping he will take one for the team and say, like I've just figured out I can't do this, so he can pick another person. And now I didn't see that. I think that would be very bad if that happens.
Rachel Wagner:That's what I said too, I told my dad.
Amanda Lee:I was like I think that's bad either way, but he was like that's what I read and I was like it's weird that you say that, because I just read that he was second guessing his choice, but not that he was that they were even considering picking a second person I don't think that's bad at all if you look trump fires people.
Jason Wagner:It'd be very trump fires people and if you're not performing, I have no problem with him removing somebody like I have no problem with that. If that is a thing I have no problem with, that can I also offer.
Dave Lee:Is there any possibility that that is planted?
Rachel Wagner:Potentially. Oh yeah, I think you've got to question that with everything now.
Dave Lee:Right, yeah, I don't know.
Amanda Lee:I haven't read anything about that you mean, oh, like the media is spewing that Maybe. Yeah, absolutely.
Dave Lee:I mean, it's a possibility.
Amanda Lee:Yeah.
Dave Lee:But who knows?
Jason Wagner:All right, now you're really a conspiracy theorist, just kidding. All questions are on the table, all questions are on the table.
Amanda Lee:I do think he was a random choice but I guess I was like maybe I'm not. I guess I was thinking lots of people before that guy.
Jason Wagner:I don't have enough info, honestly, to make a critical decision on him, so I'm not really off of that. Same, yeah, but I think, at the end of the day, I think that trump will do the appropriate thing and I think he's smart enough to recognize that. You know, this time around, if he gets an office, he's going to be very wary of literally everybody that is in his corner oh, yeah, yeah, of course I mean maybe that's all it is.
Jason Wagner:Maybe that's what the speculation is I mean he totally trump, totally fucked up on on covid totally.
Amanda Lee:Oh, huge, I want him to walk it back. Yeah, it sounds like he's starting to yeah. I would like him to Walk it back. Trump, Like, admit you didn't know you weren't given good intel by your professional people that were in power and now you know what you know and just say I apologize because I did not do right by the American people, but I did the best I could with what I had at the time.
Rachel Wagner:Basically, and I think that's a very respectable thing.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, I think people will totally respect it. I think he's getting there. That leaked call with Robert Kennedy was a good start. I think that was a good start too. It was a good start and I hope regardless he has Kennedy at some point.
Jason Wagner:Who would you guys have liked to see, as I know who you would who would you have liked to see as a vp? Because dave's choice was not kennedy? Yeah, no, I really liked I'm trying to think of the other people, but I'm I really followed vivek and I just like, I was like dude that guy is uh, he's a firecracker man. Well, he just, you know, he came out with allegiance right away, like how I think he had the best, the best speech at the rnc of all of them besides trump, trump's was really good, but he was electric.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, he was, he's fiery yeah he's very captivating, yeah and he's very authentic and he's very brilliant like he's. He's quick on his so like the things he can just spew off he's done.
Amanda Lee:He's done something with his life too yes businessman another the only thing I don't like him too about him is he has been on pharmaceutical like he's been on the fda and stuff like that so like I didn't know that about him, he was andy, kind of quizzed him because he came on andy for sales podcast that's right yeah he kind of avoided the questions about the covid stuff because he's been on pharmaceutical campaign or like something within those administrations. So that's a little bit of a red flag but, like you know, maybe it's business.
Jason Wagner:So yeah, no, I, I like, I would have chosen, I would have chosen him over like a marco rubio like, I like, I like marco he's kind of gotten better, I do.
Rachel Wagner:He's gotten a lot better. He's gotten better, he's gotten better.
Jason Wagner:He's gotten amazingly better.
Amanda Lee:I would have taken Rubio over DeSantis any day, like for that job. Desantis really fell down yeah he really did.
Rachel Wagner:It's a bummer. He should never have Tulsi Gabbard wasn't a bad option.
Amanda Lee:She was a dem before, though. Yeah, she's an interesting choice. She was interesting. Yeah, I'm glad it wasn't Nikki Haley, I'll say that.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, what a disappointment. I used to really like her. Yeah, warmonger, very warmonger.
Amanda Lee:Sorry to get off on a tangent politics-wise.
Jason Wagner:Well, we're going on almost two hours and 40 minutes. This is going on, uh, almost two hours and 40 minutes our longest podcast.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, this is. This was a long one. I was anticipating this was go down all the. We haven't even gone.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, I was anticipating this was gonna be a joe rogan style open table dinner table conversation I love joe rogan.
Amanda Lee:His podcasts are so long, but you get some really good guests yeah, you guys ever listened to the riley gains one yes, yeah, that was really good, oh my gosh.
Rachel Wagner:That was so good yeah.
Amanda Lee:Talk about raising girls in this world with that going on. That's another topic for another day.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, that stuff scares me, Me too.
Amanda Lee:And terrifyingly so.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, yeah, that stuff scares me a lot.
Jason Wagner:But yeah, you appreciate Riley Gaines and like what she says and you appreciate Riley Gaines and like what she says, and you know again, just a very confident woman, you know, at like 25, yeah, yeah, yeah, she was so articulate too incredibly impressive.
Amanda Lee:Imagine being her dad when all that went down. But she said her dad would be in prison had she let him. Yeah, I can't imagine that like that, like a grown man in your locker room.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, and just watching you know your kid win, but not win. You know, like just that heartbreak of knowing like what led up to that. And how unfair. Like yeah, it's all. Yeah, I think I would have been in jail. Yeah.
Amanda Lee:Seriously, I think what spooked me most about her conversation with Joe is just how, like everybody just let it happen yeah, every parent, every coach, yeah, every official college administrators. And how it was just like this is just the way it is now. Like so apathetic, yeah, like we've gotten so apathetic as a country to not, to not rock the boat, like to have everybody's included, like what happened, to just like facts and truth and you know reality that's what I feel like this trump assassination attempt.
Dave Lee:Like something was different with this.
Amanda Lee:Like, yes, we, we have been in that doom loop of that, but now people are like no, like this is, this is across the line, like this, we're gonna stand up now like we're gonna say something we're gonna hang a flag we're gonna our friend said last weekend he was like and I don't necessarily know if he was a trump fan before that happened, but like he was like when we told him we put our trump flag up and stuff, he was like, and I said I was scared to do that beforehand and then I was like, forget it, like do it, like after you know, that kind of ignited the fire in us but he was like you know, I I think there's a movement now where it doesn't matter if you put it up.
Amanda Lee:Like there, people are like all about it now. Like it's not, it's not crazy If you, you know more so than ever. It's not crazy. If you, you know more so than ever, it's not crazy anymore. Like you're not the weirdos, like you're not the terrorists, like it's. There's a movement now where, like, everybody's like, put them all up.
Dave Lee:It's because, like, the truth prevails, like I mean, look at the persecution this guy has gone through and the court cases, and if you follow any of this stuff, you see that it's complete bullshit, if you follow it at all. So I mean, of course there's gonna be people who don't, but I think, like most people are seeing through, like okay, there's two tiers of justice. There's the people that are in the system, the people that aren't, and trump somehow, being a billionaire from manhattan, has put himself in like the everyday guy camp that like he's the people's warrior and yeah, it's changing people.
Jason Wagner:I mean think about what just happened tonight. We went out to eat. I was wearing my make america great again hat. I asked you before we went to that restaurant I said, is it okay if I wear this? And uh, you're like, yeah, no problem. And I got how many high fives? Probably four or five. It was awesome. It was awesome. Well, it's more than high fives.
Dave Lee:Oh, the lady was taking picture with our families, acting like she was the grandmother.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah.
Dave Lee:Honestly, that is how it went.
Jason Wagner:That is how it went.
Dave Lee:You talk about deepening connections with somebody you've never met. I mean, there was an instant connection, instant, yeah.
Jason Wagner:Instant. There is such a moment that occurred to your point, there's such a moment that occurred with this assassination attempt, that people are not afraid anymore. They're not afraid to associate with that person that has the Trump paraphernalia. They're not afraid because they agree and they want you to know about it. And instant connection, Literally. This woman said can I take a picture with you? I felt like I was a celebrity. I was like hell, yeah, let's do it that was really funny, it was like incredible. We had our whole family in there. That was.
Dave Lee:it was amazing, but amazing but yeah, I mean there is something different about this and it it sucks that it, you know, takes getting to that point for all of us, myself included to, you know, kind of wake up, stand up, get a little motivation to to do something about it. But there is, there's something palpable, I truly believe about this.
Jason Wagner:There was something I wanted to share here, because I wrote this down. I think I tweeted it. What?
Dave Lee:Oh, just laughing at you rolling through your Twitter or whatever you're doing.
Jason Wagner:Apparently, I tweet a lot. I can't find this.
Rachel Wagner:This isn't really like an on-the-podcast question, but back when we lived in Davinport. Okay, you want to go back to that?
Jason Wagner:Okay, Well, yeah, yeah, All right. So this is what I saw somebody share the other day, and it's a picture that says I don't wear rainbow items to tell you who's in my bed. I wear rainbow trans so that the family across the street knows they are safe, so that the couple in the restaurant knows they aren't alone. So the boy who sees me notice him looking at dresses knows I won't judge. I wear pride because you make them hide. And I was just like this is very interesting. Think about it from that perspective. And so I rewrote it. I said I don't wear Trump items to tell you who I am voting for. I wear Trump so that the family across the street knows they are safe, so that the couple in the restaurant knows they aren't alone. So the boy who sees me notice him looking at MAGA hats knows I won't judge. I wear Trump because you make them hide. It is the same exact thing.
Dave Lee:Did you tweet that?
Jason Wagner:I did. It's out there, yeah, oh, that's good.
Dave Lee:I mean that kind of encapsulates like the difference of the left versus normal society. All right, it's good.
Jason Wagner:I endorse that tweet you were gonna ask a question, rachel was.
Amanda Lee:Oh, rachel, you forgot there was.
Rachel Wagner:Oh yeah, I don't know if this is like a on the podcast question, but it came to me as we were like talking about vaccines. I remembered back when we lived in Davenport you had like a weird heart, like head thing happen to you, right? What time of year was that?
Dave Lee:Do you know what time of year Fall? Probably it was fall.
Rachel Wagner:And the reason why I know it was fall because I was still in school yeah, it was my last semester, yeah so the reason I ask is so obviously like I've been doing all this research on like vaccine stuff all the time and I remembered we've got a friend who had like bell's palsy one time. It just like came out of nowhere and I was just at that moment recently reading about the h1N1 flu shot having a very strong correlation to like Bell's palsy and so, and when we were talking about like your jobs and everything and you getting like the flu shot all the time, it made me wonder what the timeline was to the H1N1 flu shot that was out at that time and that experience that you had.
Dave Lee:I'm sure you can't remember, but I just like I mean that would be the time, but that would be the time frame because you have to get it.
Amanda Lee:You have to get it anywhere from like august, like october 1st is when they start giving them.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, right, so it's right on the never made that correlation, but yeah, I mean, I hadn't for anything either and I'm I'm reading the vaccine facts book by rfk and it's it's not even like a book, it's just like all these studies you know, and it's just like the wow chances of things happening after you get these shots. And the flu shot is a really long, long chapter and they talk specifically about the h1n1 shot and I'm like we know somebody who got bills palsy. When did he have that? What's the correlation to when you guys got the flu shot at your job? And then when you said that, I was like holy shit, maybe it's the same thing.
Dave Lee:Yeah, yeah, I mean, all that was completely unexplained.
Rachel Wagner:Right, it's always unexplained and like.
Dave Lee:I was uh, you know I had the event like in the weight room where I like collapsed you know the you're probably referencing. And then, because I was working with orthopedic surgeons, like in the OR I was sitting in the you know the changing room or whatever with one of the guys that I was one of the orthopedic surgeons I was really close with and tell them about that and some of the other experiences I'd had, and he's like man like you can go to the ER right now. And if it wasn't for that, but I mean, of course they found nothing. You know, nothing was wrong and I was like 24 years old, completely healthy and nothing else going on.
Dave Lee:So yeah, that's an interesting observation.
Rachel Wagner:Well, there's somebody else we know I won't call them out here, but there's somebody else we know who was on a heart monitor during that exact same time, unexplained having like weird things going on, and they had a heart monitor tracking them. And I've never asked that question to them. I don't know, like, what the details were, but nothing came of that either. It was just an unexplained weird thing and it's the exact same time how many?
Rachel Wagner:what's the percentage of like unexplained things lately, right like well, that's the thing like when you start thinking about it like this was like when I was talking earlier about the like parental instinct, the mother instinct and stuff, and like how I ignored it scarlet had so many reactions to vaccines that I didn't put together for such a long time and then when I went back and I looked, and I looked at the timeline and I looked at what happened, and then I look at data that's supporting the studies, I was like what the fuck?
Rachel Wagner:You know? It's like we're just so accustomed to think like, well, these, these things just happen sometimes things. Yeah, how many times you hear people be like sometimes things just happen and there's no like you just don't know why. You know, things just go wrong and they just happen. And it's like, yes, but they don't just happen. There's some sort of stimulus that is causing them to happen and we've just been so accustomed and trained to not ask why and not dig deeper why. You know anyways, you don't need to go back on that topic.
Amanda Lee:No, I was like again, I think it goes back to I don't think God designed us to have broken bodies. Now I do think bad stuff happens sometimes, like, but like a lot of things with cancer and other things, like there's a lot like there's a lot of things that I think go into that with environment and food and you know, just all these different like there's. So because I guess, like I mean, this is getting into the weeds, but like we all have cancer cells in us. It's just what wakes them up.
Amanda Lee:And you know, for certain people it's different triggers than others, and so it's just like. Again, I don't think we're designed to like, I think we're perfectly made in his image. And I'm not saying that, you know, bad things don't happen to people because I think they do. I think that's just the life we live in. But, like, I do think, why don't we try to find the root cause, as when it comes to like health, bad things that happen, what went wrong, like because there should be an explanation?
Dave Lee:it's really disappointing, like our country being you know it's such at the forefront of everything and being a place of personal excellence and leading the world. Like our food system, our water, all this stuff is such poor quality. I mean, you just look at all these things compared to. You know, everybody makes the comparison to Europe and you see the same products in Europe and then in the United States. They're manufactured by the same company. They're just in two different places and then completely different ingredients. Yeah, and it's worse.
Rachel Wagner:How messed up is that they're banned in those countries they have an ingredients ban and there worse.
Dave Lee:There's so many examples like that that you're just like what's going on Like why?
Amanda Lee:Why is this? This is?
Dave Lee:disappointing. We're supposed to be at the forefront. That is the disappointment about America, though is.
Amanda Lee:We are so money driven, though that's where it gets ugly, because we're all about, like, just pumping out products. Like we don't care how bad it is for anybody, it's all about mass production and money. Like we don't care how bad it is for anybody, it's all about mass production and money. Like we don't care if we're poisoning our own people. Like we don't. And we don't care if, like, our healthcare system is so broken in the sense that, like healthcare is made for sick people, like sick people are in hospitals. So how do you get sick people in the hospitals? Well, you find ways to make them sick. Like you know ways to make them sick. Like you know it's a revolving door of like you get them on meds for life instead of T, instead of treating the preventative medicine side of like natural immunity and like or just doing the things.
Amanda Lee:Like modern medicine has its place. Like I am the first person to say that I believe in it place Like I am the first person to say that I believe in it. I'm for it. There's a lot of good that modern medicine does, but what I'm like baffled by is that why do we not teach the preventative measures first of like exercise, diet, you know, doing hard things to stimulate your mental health, like all of the getting vitamin D, getting in sunlight, like movement, like we don't teach the bare minimum of like looking at vitamin deficiencies. Like teaching the bare minimum of like natural living before just. Like prescribing anything just to get a patient for life, like that's what they always say is like a prescribed patient of one drug, is like a patient for life, like because it's so hard to get off a medication once you're on it.
Rachel Wagner:Yeah, truly. And even just that one medication means you come back at least annually, yeah, if not every six months. Exactly, exactly, yes, exactly.
Amanda Lee:And then sometimes that causes a side effect that makes you get onto another medication, and then it's a revolving door of being on tons that end up like contradicting each other anyways with a bunch of things. It's just it's a bad cycle to go down for sure. Yeah, bad, bad. It's like I mean, have you guys, did you guys ever listen to that podcast I sent you with dana white and gary brucca?
Amanda Lee:yes, and how he got and he got how he got him off all of his medications and his 85 year old mother-in-law off of all of hers.
Jason Wagner:It was just like diet and exercise. I guess how we wrap these up is that you know you give your biggest takeaway from this three-hour conversation. And I'll go first. I guess I think it just really boils down to personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion. I love what Amanda said. It comes from Andy Frisella Boy, critical thinking and just questioning anything and everything. I think is so important right now, and the only way to really get to the truth is to continue to question, and so I think there's a lot of self-development that happens and like you have to, you know, really encourage yourself to get to that point. Ultimately, I think that's where everything kind of falls. But what about you, rach? What was your biggest takeaway here?
Rachel Wagner:Oh my gosh, I don't know.
Jason Wagner:There's a lot. There's so much, there's so much.
Rachel Wagner:I mean, the thing that came to mind first was the environment stuff, like when we were talking about how important that was. And then I would take it a step further and like who you're surrounding yourself with. These conversations are so energizing and they're therapeutic and fueling and just they feel good. And we've been talking about this so much with, like you reaching out to people and like trying to have deeper conversations with people and how hungry everybody is to have that type of connection, like this meaningful, deeper communication with people. And I don't know where I'm going with that. I guess it's just seek it out and find it, because it's great.
Dave Lee:Nice, that's good, dave, biggest takeaway man once again. So much covered, so many good takeaways. Honestly, I could name 10 that were highlights. But I think right like I think that you know not to get too faith driven here, but I think that there's something going on in the world that's like an awakening and I do think that it's really interesting to watch. You know, I I kind of have a faith that I think is pretty firm, but you know, I think about you guys all the time with that and it's kind of cool to see some things evolve with you guys in your faith, because we talk about that all the time and we pray for you guys too.
Dave Lee:So one of my biggest takeaways is like seeing that in the world and seeing you know, through all these bad things, like there still can be good, you know, and some of the actually really transformative and good things and come out of that and and also, you know, just with you guys in particular, I think you guys are on an awesome path and you know, I see those like seeds being planted in your lives and I think they're really doing something. So that's that's probably my biggest takeaway. But, like gosh, I mean, where do you, where do you start with like the 10 other takeaways of everything we talked about? There's so many good ones, so yeah, so I'll pass it to Amanda for her biggest takeaway.
Jason Wagner:Yeah, we're doing the wrap-up. You missed it.
Amanda Lee:Will somebody else go first? You're the last.
Dave Lee:That's why I passed it. Yeah, you're the last one.
Amanda Lee:Okay, my biggest takeaway yeah, oh, man, that's really putting me on the spot, I don't know.
Amanda Lee:I think for me it it's just like knowing how important it is to have strong relationships in our life.
Amanda Lee:Like, I think that's the key to a lot of things is like deepening relationships and building community, and I think that's what we have with you guys, and so I think that goes into the bigger picture of what America is lacking to is just like those trustworthy relationships and people that can build you up and pour into you, inspire you to grow and go after the dream and help you build the life that's meant for you.
Amanda Lee:I think a lot of us, I think majority of people are very lonely out there and don't have a lot of deep relationships or friends or family that really pour into them in that way, and so I think that's a really key component to just success in life, and so I feel like, in general, a big takeaway for me is just how much I value your guys' friendship and what you guys mean to us, and how we can have these open and honest conversations, push each other to be better and to ask the hard questions of ourselves too and our own marriages and relationships and just everything in life and our careers, and and then in these politics, and just being able to have people that you can discuss these topics with in general, because I feel like there's not a lot of people that can do that. So, yeah, that was really good.
Jason Wagner:We would say the same about you guys.
Amanda Lee:Yeah, for sure, that's why we do this right.
Jason Wagner:I know, yeah, that's great, that's great, that's guys. Yeah, for sure, that's why we do this right. I know, yeah, that's great, that's great, that's awesome.
Amanda Lee:Well, dave and Amanda, thanks for coming on the show for a second time. Yeah, I hope we're on here for a third. Hell, yeah, you will.
Jason Wagner:All right guys. Thanks for listening to this one. If you found any value I know you did, I know you did Please share it.
Amanda Lee:This is a Joe Rogan level. I know, yeah, I know you did. Please share it. This is a Joe Rogan level podcast.
Jason Wagner:I know, yeah, please share it. These guys are awesome, so much to learn from and we'd really appreciate it if you did share the show. Thanks again, and we'll catch you on the next one.