What happens when an Army Ranger's path takes a sharp detour towards entrepreneurship? Our guest Griff gives us an inside look into this unexpected journey. Griff, co-founder of Combat Flip Flops, started his military career in a bid to attend the Coast Guard Academy, but life had other plans. He ended up at West Point, aiming for the skies as a pilot until an injury grounded him. Instead, he found himself at Fort Bragg and then to Ranger school- a grueling journey that left him 44 pounds lighter but infinitely richer in respect for those who endure such extreme challenges.
In the second part of our conversation, we examine Griff's life after Ranger school and his transformation into an entrepreneur. His experiences in war-torn Iraq were instrumental in shaping his new venture, Combat Flip Flops. The company's mission? To create opportunities in war and post-war zones, offering a beacon of hope amidst chaos. Despite formidable obstacles like the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Griff has remained resilient, even launching a 100% Afghan Cashmere product amidst political turmoil.
Our exploration of Griff's journey doesn't stop at his professional accomplishments. We delve into the soul, discussing the healing and personal growth that often goes hand-in-hand with a military career. The concept of honor, deeply intertwined with violence in the military, is juxtaposed with societal norms. Griff shares a transformative experience in Costa Rica that enabled him to separate his strength from his anger and cultivate a sense of genuine gratitude. He discusses the incredible power of journaling for personal growth and trauma recovery. Griff's story is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of a soldier-turned-entrepreneur, offering our listeners profound insights and practical tools for personal and professional growth. So, tune in and discover Griff's extraordinary journey.
https://www.combatflipflops.com/
Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
What happens when an Army Ranger's path takes a sharp detour towards entrepreneurship? Our guest Griff gives us an inside look into this unexpected journey. Griff, co-founder of Combat Flip Flops, started his military career in a bid to attend the Coast Guard Academy, but life had other plans. He ended up at West Point, aiming for the skies as a pilot until an injury grounded him. Instead, he found himself at Fort Bragg and then to Ranger school- a grueling journey that left him 44 pounds lighter but infinitely richer in respect for those who endure such extreme challenges.
In the second part of our conversation, we examine Griff's life after Ranger school and his transformation into an entrepreneur. His experiences in war-torn Iraq were instrumental in shaping his new venture, Combat Flip Flops. The company's mission? To create opportunities in war and post-war zones, offering a beacon of hope amidst chaos. Despite formidable obstacles like the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Griff has remained resilient, even launching a 100% Afghan Cashmere product amidst political turmoil.
Our exploration of Griff's journey doesn't stop at his professional accomplishments. We delve into the soul, discussing the healing and personal growth that often goes hand-in-hand with a military career. The concept of honor, deeply intertwined with violence in the military, is juxtaposed with societal norms. Griff shares a transformative experience in Costa Rica that enabled him to separate his strength from his anger and cultivate a sense of genuine gratitude. He discusses the incredible power of journaling for personal growth and trauma recovery. Griff's story is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of a soldier-turned-entrepreneur, offering our listeners profound insights and practical tools for personal and professional growth. So, tune in and discover Griff's extraordinary journey.
https://www.combatflipflops.com/
Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to another episode. I'm here today with Griff, an Army Ranger and co-founder of Combat Fliplop. How are you doing, griff? I'm doing spectacular. Thanks for grabbing me today, dude, absolutely. I know we've been working on linking this one up for quite some time. I really appreciate you stepping out. I know you're out at your new place doing a bunch of work. I can see your awesome property in the background. Man, that's great. Thanks for doing this.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I've been feeling really guilty about the last couple of times we haven't been able to make it happen.
Speaker 1:It's glad to finally make this one go.
Speaker 1:That's all good. You've got a lot of stuff going on, super busy and doing some amazing stuff, so I'm just happy to be able to to squeeze in some time with you. I'd love to hear a little bit about your journey. Obviously, Combat Fliplop. I've got my Combat Fliplops right here. I bought them from, actually, One More Wave and so I'm a huge fan of what you do and before we jump into that, I'd love for people to get to know a little bit about what you did in the military and what made you join what you do in the military. If you could just give us a little bit of background on who you are.
Speaker 2:So I'm a military brat. So that's basically how my military career started. My dad was an instructor at West Point Someone. I was about three years old and I remember how much respect my parents had, even at a young age, for these kids that would come through the house and I thought to myself one of these days maybe I'll do that, and then that just kind of compounded throughout the years and then we're not a family of wealth. So it was either you get a job, you get a scholarship, or you join the military, or my three options at a high school. So I did all three and I decided to go to the academy. So I applied all the way through.
Speaker 2:Oddly enough, I wanted to get into the Coast Guard Academy. That was the one that I really wanted to go to and they turned me down for color blindness which I'm not colorblind. But after I was wrestling all winter and then they did my physical in the middle of the day, when I was used to getting up in the dark, going to work out, going to school all day, wrestling until the sun went down, and then I just wasn't used to light and they stuck me in a bright room in the middle of the day and I couldn't pass that little color blindness test, so they didn't allow me into the Coast Guard Academy. So therefore, I defaulted to West Point and entered there in the summer of 1997. And I always thought I was going to fly. I always wanted to be a pilot, yeah, and then I ended up breaking my shoulder.
Speaker 1:Is that why you wanted to do the Coast?
Speaker 2:Guard. That is why I wanted to do the Coast Guard. I wanted to be a rescue pilot, okay yeah.
Speaker 1:And then okay, and then you said I interrupted you, you broke your shoulder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I broke my shoulder my freshman year at West Point and I thought, oh, I'm never going to fly. I had to have surgery to put it all back together. Oh, they're never going to let me fly. So I just I didn't even do any research into it, I just made some assumptions on my own behalf. And then I ended up going to airborne school between my sophomore and junior year, which you could do at the Academy, I'll send you down to get skill qualifiers and then I really liked it. I thought it was fun, jumping out of airplanes was a good time I mean about as much of a good time as you could for the military. But then the next summer at West Point what they do is they send you out to the F2 leader in a regular army unit. And they sent me down to Fort Bragg because I was airborne, qualified to be a part of an airborne artillery unit, and I like math, I like blowing shit up, I like being the king of battle, right, which is all three artillery, and so I wanted to be an airborne artilleryman. I was like, okay.
Speaker 2:So I came back my senior year and I said I'm going to branch artillery and I'm going to go to a unit that's close to a Ranger battalion, so I can apply to be a Ranger fire support officer. That was my plan at the time, and then I graduated in June of 2001. And a few months later everything changed, which then solidified my path into special operations. What's it was that happened to me in the middle of my field artillery officer basic course, and meanwhile I was training up for Ranger school. So then we went to Ranger school in February of 2002, graduated in May of 2002. Luckily I went all the way through no recycles, thank God and I ended up at Fort Lewis, washington, at the first striker unit in the army, and you guys had those eight wheeled vehicles I can't what would you call them, the LRABS, or, you know, the Marines have those vehicles with eight wheels on them.
Speaker 1:I know what you're talking about. I don't know the names of them.
Speaker 2:Well, back then this is when the army was moving away from those and getting strikers, and I was a part of the first striker unit in the army, so we had the first four. So we were the poster children for general dynamics in the US Army and we got to travel all over the US and doing all these demonstrations and skills and tests and it was awesome. I really enjoyed it. I had Captain Tagmeier as my company commander. He learned later turned out to be Colonel Tagmeier, who was the commander of the Ranger regiment. So it was just a really great leadership experience to be there and they knew I wanted to go to the regiment.
Speaker 2:So nine months later, after I'd served my conventional time, they signed my packet I went to at the time they called it Rope Ranger orientation program. I did my two weeks down there, passed all the crazy interviews and psychological evaluations and physical tests, and then I went to Second Ranger Battalion. In July of 2003 is when I made it there and then after that I did three tours to Afghanistan and one tour to Iraq and in the middle of that I got married, had two kids. I just shoved it all into a really really, really tight timeline. That was my military background.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it. You did so. How long were you in for?
Speaker 2:I was in for five years. Yeah, the path of an airborne artillery Ranger qualified officer is tough because you, once you get to see that, like you never get to work with those kind of assets again as a young captain, being able to get on your radio and call anything you want out of the sky or at your disposal, you'll never really get that again. And so I was either forced with branch transferring to infantry with a hope seed and get back to Ranger Battalion, staying in artillery, which just didn't appeal to me, or go on to special forces, which would have been another couple of years away from my new family, and I just decided like now I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna call this one good. So I got out as a junior captain in 2006.
Speaker 1:That's a ton. I mean you, I know you mentioned it, but that's a ton to pack into five years. I mean four deployments, married, two kids. That is a very, very busy five year. Little stint and man. I want to circle back to something because I don't. I think it's pretty rare to talk to a Ranger or somebody that's actually been through Ranger school and I just want to ask you about that, just in general. I don't know it's because Rangers aren't as boisterous about having gone through Ranger school. What was it like going to Ranger school?
Speaker 2:It was. It was interesting because, like you, you, you before going to Ranger school, you see guys walking around with a Ranger tab and then you know, you hear these stories about infantry units. When somebody comes up and they meet you for the first time and they shake your hand, they grab your hand and then they look over at your left shoulder and it's an instant like litmus test of a person how they, how they judge somebody. And it's just interesting, like you put these guys up on a pedestal. They've been to Ranger school and you watch these guys do this like weird. You know shenanigans when they shake hands and how they judge one another. And so you, just you kind of have all these weird ideas about it and hear all the stories and they usually come from fresh Ranger school grads who over inflate everything.
Speaker 2:But I will tell you it was. It was hard. I went in at 194 pounds the best shape of my life and 60 something days later I weighed 150. So I lost 44 pounds in two months. I could barely do 10 pushups and it was, you know, two months of just walking and not really sleeping and not eating too much and just doing good old Ranger school stuff. But it's just one of those things where, as long as you're willing to not quit and just get up and keep going, you're, you're gonna do all right, but it's, it's just a grind. It just meant to where, where and grind out those who just don't have that intestinal fortitude, as they say in the Ranger Creed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's the. I know somebody that was. He was still pretty fresh out and he was a very lean, lean individual after having completed a Ranger school. I mean it was, but the time, one of the toughest dudes I've ever met in my life. I mean just would never mess with this guy. I've just heard nothing but, incredibly, the difficult things about it on the mental side of it. So that's, that's absolutely incredible. So thank you for sharing that and I know you're very humble. We're going to move past what's that it was just the funny part was I went in on 194, I came out right around 150.
Speaker 2:Two weeks after graduation I hopped on a scale. I was 215 pounds. I was eating everything in front of me. So that's the one thing about Ranger school grads is like they usually will eat whenever they have the opportunity to you, because you never know when you're going to get it next. And and I showed up in my first unit like pretty, pretty fat. And then when I started getting back in shape, you know I was losing so much weight so fast. You know my commander pulled me to the side and he goes Griff, are you okay? Like you have cancer or something? I'm like no sir, I just leave my baby, my baby Ranger weight. Like yeah, I just got to get that off of me. That was just pretty funny. It just happens to a lot of guys who get out.
Speaker 1:And just immediately just started chowing down. I could see this being a big thing, man, but it was. It was wild. What? What sparked this? Because I know Combat Flip Flop, I want to ask you about it. These are, if you could I don't want to mess it up you share? What is Combat Flip Flop? What's?
Speaker 2:combat.
Speaker 1:What gave you the idea and what is it in general?
Speaker 2:So Combat Flip Flops is a fashion and lifestyle company, or remake products in war zones or post war zones Okay, to create opportunity and entrepreneurship in these different countries. And I came to that conclusion After about five years of looking for an answer. I have to tell you there was one specific hit that we did in Iraq where we hit the wrong house and I will never forget the look of shock on that family's face, especially the kids, after you roll in with a Platoon of Rangers and the Iraqi special forces and just really remembering that like that's their first and probably only impression they're going to have of America. And we do that every day, nonstop, constantly. For years that's what we did in these cultures and they're just like that. That was a really pivotal moment for me because I thought to myself like well, if we keep acting in this way in these foreign countries, they're going to keep fighting back, because I know that's what I would do if people were doing that in my neighborhood. So maybe we have to change up how we work there. I didn't have an answer to it, but there was right around the same timeline that I was getting out of the military and that was just one of those questions that just kept grinding around on the back of the head for years.
Speaker 2:And in 2008, I got a job with a company called Remote Medical International and my job was to fly to foreign countries, developing nations and hotspots to put in medical clinics for government contractors. So I would import in all the medical equipment, all the medicines, immediate and brand new doctors and contracted staff to support operations. And when I went to these countries, I wasn't with a platoon of Rangers heavily armed to the teeth, wearing body armor, it was me in a T-shirt and a sport coat and a backpack, and I had to get in and out of places safely to get home, back home to my family. And what I found was that there's three areas that you don't go around if you want to stay safe. You stay away from government compounds, you stay away from the military, right, and then you stay away from reporters. If you stay away from those three, you're generally safe in these conflict areas. And then you look at the maps right, because I'm a map guy, I'm an artillery dude Like, where do bombings not happen? And they don't happen around areas that are flourishing with small business, where the locals have small businesses, flourishing. They don't let stuff go down on their corner, because if it's bad for business, it's bad for family, and I saw this happen in Afghanistan, I saw it happen throughout the Middle East, I saw this happen in Africa, I saw it happen in Southeast Asia and everywhere I went.
Speaker 2:When I went to these places, I would stay with a local, like above a grocery store or restaurant or whatever. I would hire their brother as my driver, my fixer, and I built relationships with these families because, one, I was safe. Two, was helping them out, and three, it really just enabled me to get my job done without a lot of hassle. And I kept thinking to myself like, why aren't we doing more of this as a nation? Why isn't America using our foreign assets to start building entrepreneurs and expanding out these areas of small business? Because it seems to me like that would be a lot more ethical, effective and cost effective to get done instead of just sending stupid multi-million dollar MRAPs that can't drive on the roads right. For the cost of one MRAP, you could literally turn square blocks of a city around.
Speaker 2:And one day I walked into a combat boot factory in Kabul, afghanistan, and I was dumbfounded. A guy invited me over to his factory for a cup of coffee and I said, hey, I'll take you up on that. And so I rolled over there and what I saw was they were taking illiterate, untrained people off the street, putting them through a training program teaching them how to be cobblers and how to be tailors, how to make clothing and gear and equipment, and then putting them in a work enough factory. And each one of those factory members supported five to 13 family members. So the social impact of this one small operation was just ginormous Like it really supported a nerve between 2000 to 4000 people, depending on how you looked at it, and it was the first positive thing I'd ever seen in my time in Afghanistan. Like I could never before then point to something that America had done and created a longstanding positive effect in Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:After all the sacrifice and loss that we put forward, I couldn't, up until that moment, I couldn't actually say with truth and honesty to somebody that we did a good thing there, and I was just so inspired. I was like, okay, this is, this is what was happening in the daylight while we were working. At night, people were coming in, they were building this economic opportunity and they were doing these things, but I just never got to see it. And I just asked the factory manager because you know, I'm a student of history and they make us read those books at West Point and I asked him you know what's going to happen when the war ends? What are you guys going to make, like, how are you guys going to be like Western Europe after World War II, how are you going to turn this around? And he says, oh no, man, we're not going to make anything, we're just going to shut the factory down. All these people are going to go out of work. Nobody's going to want to buy anything in Afghanistan from Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:And I went from inspiration to fury and about two breaths. It just, it's just amazing to see, like how we as a nation just continue to go to these countries, these developing nations there were militaries at them waste billions, if not trillions of dollars and then walk away from it. And this was in 2009. This happened not twenty twenty one, not with the trawl. This is twelve years ahead of people are calling it. So I was angry and I look down on the table and there's this combat boots soul, you know, very similar to this, with a flip flop phone, punch, threat and as like man that is ugly and cool, like it's like an american's and by the shit, that was like literally the first thought I went through my head.
Speaker 2:And then the job position of the words combat flip flops, which is, you know, a flip flop is a political term as well as a footwear is like somebody who argues A hundred and eighty degree stands change on a subject, while still saying they're both are necessary.
Speaker 2:I still think we need an amazing. I still think we need the best defense force in the world. I still think we should push all those things forward, but I think we should do it in ethical manner. But at the same time, I think that we should go and we should use our economic might, which is what America really has behind it, to go and help all these other nations, which would solve a lot of problems In a different way, in a much more sustainable way, which would be better for everybody in the long run. And so that's a combat flip flop is like you know, we used to Drop warheads on foreheads, as they say, but now we're saying, hey, man, we're just, we're gonna make a bad ass products, cool shit, dangerous places, and It'll work. You know, we've been supporting families in Afghanistan, columbia laws and here in the United States since two thousand twelve, and we put thousands of people to work all over the world. It's been a great opportunity that's Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love the. I did not know and I didn't piece it together, so I love how you you pointed out just the flip flop Nature of it and such a great name. I enjoyed the name prior to knowing that and now it just makes me love and respect even more.
Speaker 2:Thank you, and it was like available in two thousand and nine on daddy for two ninety nine. So that's how it worked out.
Speaker 1:Back then, when the vast majority of websites and domains that you wanted were probably At your fingertips, and so you build these all over and I Makes me want to ask what's been, because you mentioned this was before the takeover. What's happened to this Since the takeover? Is that impacted business for you and be able to do this?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, nearly crush this. People don't get it. They, you know, they just oh the war. Like, oh yeah, it's not we had like significant amounts of revenue. Is a small business in there and it's not like we have Huge amounts of capital. It's not like we're like a reefer and all the car are Nike. You know we're a small business. Really, do you have to grind to make it happen?
Speaker 2:There's like that, more of us that make all this work and we make flip flops, you know, spring through end of summer, and then we shipped over to making like our stars and textiles from Afghanistan through the winter and it happened right during our seasonal change ever. We literally had our winners inventory getting ready to ship from Afghanistan in August Because it would land in September, october. We would sell it out through the fall throughout the holiday. We'd be able to use that revenue to buy our footwear for the next spring, right? So it's a cash flow thing.
Speaker 2:And when all of that inventory got locked up and we couldn't make those sales in the end of twenty twenty one, it was a huge reduction in revenue for us, which then played out over the next two years of a lot of hunger, struggle and strife on behalf of not only us but our Our factories all over the world. Yeah, the downfall Afghanistan affected our columbian factories, affected our stuff in Laos, because it's a it's all a system that has to work together throughout the year and when a huge chunk of it went away For something that's completely out of our control, it really it hindered us in a substantial way.
Speaker 1:What is it like now? Is everything back to a good operating in Afghanistan? Is that all back in line?
Speaker 2:I have to say that we were on the first commercial shipment out, so we were actually pushing on the Taliban it team and their immigration department to get everything checked off right. So we so, two years later, are you set? A year and a half later, after Stuff got, you know, turned around in Afghanistan, the government turned around and they started running operations and have to support businesses in the first plane that came up the elbow to ship that stuff. That got held, it's shipped, and then that stuff sold, you know, immediately. So there's obviously the desire for the product and we're super thankful that customers are Smart enough to understand that the people are not their government. In the same way. It works the same way in America that doesn't have Afghanistan. Right, the administration's are administrations and people are people. Yeah, and thankfully, our customers recognize that real human beings are putting these products together and they're continuing to buy.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, right now we're working on developing some new products we're gonna launch. We just actually launch cashmere today, so that was something we were gonna launch back in 2021. But 100% Afghan cashmere. So Afghan goats, the hair cut off of them by Afghans, loomed on literally like Sleeping beauty, spinning wheel type technology, because they don't have power, so it's all manual de hearing and then they're dying and then they're running it across the hand, liam. So, yeah, this is a premium Afghan cashmere product. We had them for a few years earlier on and then we just were able to keep it up, but now we got the program back up and running. But the cashmere is if you're looking for a Christmas gift that won't disappoint, get one of these cashmiles.
Speaker 1:They're awesome, yeah all right, but I'm gonna go back as soon as this interview is done. I'm gonna go jump on and check it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then additionally.
Speaker 1:Say.
Speaker 2:No, I mean it's. I mean I say it with like rose colored glasses on right now. I just try. I want always people to see like the opportunity that's ahead of them. But it hasn't been without struggle and strife, like our factory manager you know had. Because he is a successful guy, because he does employ people, because when you say successful is like Afghan successful, you know he's got a piece of dirt, he got some factory. You know he's got people that he employs and people see that they want to go after him. Yet a bunch of guys that pose the Taliban that came into his house, mugged him, robbed him of everything. That's in the middle of him trying to keep our factory going. That's just one of the major stories of things that we've had to do and overcome in the middle of trying to get things up and running.
Speaker 1:Every purchase you make from us, especially from Afghanistan, it really does help people in a meaningful way when I'm leaving these places in a better spot than what previously would have been done For me. It was, honestly, I love flip flops. I don't need a pair of flip flops, but the moment I got introduced to them, there were just so many boxes that got checked for me. I was like, well, this is an auto, instant purchase. I'm buying these right now. Then say that I just didn't even need it. But it's just an easy purchase. It's easy to get behind and support it because it's doing so many good things. I absolutely love it. That's an incredible story, thank you. You've got this going on and you're also doing some other items that you had mentioned in the pre-show. You're doing some other things to help veterans get back on track to a lot of forget the terminology you tied to it. What specifically are you doing on this?
Speaker 2:other front. It's plant medicine. It's become hippogy now. Even Joe Rogan talks about it. If he talks about it, I could talk about it.
Speaker 2:There's a challenge with an art community that they send us off to work, have to redo things and see things that are normally human beings Shouldn't have to do or see in their entire lifetime. Then they give you a little out processing brief Chevy on a C17 in your home, sitting on your couch 48 hours later, with no ritual, no counseling, no, nothing. We're watching our community implode as a result of it. I hate the number. I hate even acknowledging the 22 a day thing. It just really frustrates the shit out of me because, oh, we need to bring awareness to this. We need to stop this. It's like well, let's just take a look at the root cause. People have been going to war since people were people. What is going on in the last 50 years that's causing us to have these challenges once we return home? The fact is, we're just not healing our soul. There's a bunch of different books on it. They call it like soul repair or a moral injury, whatever. The military tries to book it as post traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury. Those are things that you can. Honestly, you can work through, but it's really hard to work through a broken heart. Some of the things you see is some of the things you did. You might be able to clear it through your psychology, through your brain. Get in a good diet, do all those things help your traumatic brain injury. Recovering from a broken heart is really hard to do. Many veterans I struggled with a lot of stuff that I did and fortunately, another ranger and then some other friends they brought up ayahuasca in conversation. I'll try anything. I literally will. If I think it'll work and it's a hack, I'll try it.
Speaker 2:The way it was kind of brief to me is that this was the medicine that people have been using for thousands of years in the Amazon. This is how the Inkins built those monuments in the mountains that nobody knows how to do. This is the medicine that helped them figure that out. It was posed to me of. It's just really put you in a space of non-judgment and you're going to be able to work through your self-limiting behaviors. If you're not familiar with it, it's a brew that you drink. You sit in a circle with some special healers. They sing songs to you in the dark. You may or may not see colors and trip balls or do whatever you want to see it, but it really does force you to really look at the challenges you have within your own life without being harsh on yourself. That way, when you come out, it's called integration. That's where the real work is is that it takes years to figure it out, but then you start becoming a better human.
Speaker 2:I was introduced to it in 2017 and then I was fortunately got invited by Heroic Hearts as they started getting going. Heroic Hearts Project is the veteran leader for psychedelic therapy. They flew me down to a retreat center in Costa Rica and I'd have to say that was one of the more meaningful experiences of my life. It really helped me out in a really difficult time and I really felt like it helped me, so maybe I can help others with it. I've been directing people toward Heroic Hearts projects, leading and organizing groups to go out to these retreats.
Speaker 2:We just got back from Peru last month where we were building a new center where we're really focused on warriors. We sit down and we talk with the healers and the folks there and we specifically say we're dealing with moral injuries, broken hearts. This is what it is. The military says it's a post-traumatic stress and they say it's a brain injury. They're treating all of those and the problem still isn't going away. Maybe we should look at treating a different problem and see if it works. In combination with a few other people, we're building a really beautiful center in the middle of the jungle no cell phones. You got to take a boat to get there. You got to hike through the jungle. You're living in a Shepibo village in the middle of nowhere. It's a spiritual and beautiful experience if you're open to making that journey.
Speaker 1:It sounds incredible. I want to ask you, because you've mentioned it a few times, if you could just define what do you mean by a broken heart? I think I have some speculation, but I'm curious to know what is your definition of that. What does that mean to you when you say broken heart?
Speaker 2:Primarily, we grew up in a Judeo-Christian society. Don't lie, Don't kill, don't do those things. Then, within eight weeks of going through basic training, what makes the green grass grow? Blood makes the green grass grow. You go through all of the violence upon violence.
Speaker 2:Essentially, your honor is tied to how violent you can be in the military. Who's the most badass dude? Who's the best shot? Who's the best fighter? All of these other things? You're better at those things. It's more honorable lifestyle, at least how it's perceived. You go down range and you do these things that are in complete violation and contradiction to the rules that you grew up underneath. When you get out then you're shoved back into a society and forced to conform to those rules again. You knew those rules were the right ones from the beginning. At a sole level. You're very conflicted and broken about it. That's what I mean by a broken heart, as you have done things that you probably shouldn't have done or seen, things that you shouldn't have seen and that were in contradiction to the fundamental spiritual beliefs that you would have grown up in. Because you joined the military and you did these things, you forced yourself into an injury that it's here in the heart, not here in the head.
Speaker 1:Beautiful definition of it. I'm glad that I asked that. Thank you for sharing that. You also said in 2017, you said it was one of the most meaningful things that you had ever done, 2017. What was it about it that was so meaningful for you, and why was that one of the most important things, one of the most impactful things you've done?
Speaker 2:I'd have to say. A lot of people say that attitude or gratitude. I'm sure you've heard that I've lived a life of gratitude and, honestly, I faked it. I'm thankful for this, I'm thankful for that, but generally I was faking it. I didn't really feel it.
Speaker 2:I'd have to say, the first experience that I had down in Costa Rica this is another thing for veterans too is they fill us full of antibiotics, just tremendous amounts of antibiotics in the military, which wipes out your small and large intestine. That's why a lot of us have got issues sleeping issues, dreaming issues but the medicine takes up through your small intestine. First night, nothing happened. I sat there for six hours in the dark no experience. Last night, same thing, but I got to witness all of these people having just truly healing and meaningful experiences. I was just really starting to think about gratitude, about all the different communities that I was a part of, from the wrestling community to West Point, to the Rangers, to the skydiving community all these different communities I'm a part of. I'm a part of this community. That's when it switched on. I spent four hours just in a state of gratitude. I can say now that I really feel grateful for things. I'm not faking it. I really do mean it. Then I had to say the other one Is it? It Go ahead? No, I'm sorry, no, no.
Speaker 2:Then the second experience was I'm not going to get into the details of it, but what I will say is it enabled me to separate my strength from my anger. You don't see a jaguar rolling through the jungle, jumping down out of the trees and snatching a 200 pound K-man out of the Amazon, swimming to shore with it. He's not angry, he's just doing his job In the military. I'm sure if you grew up in the 90s whatever, anger is a gift, rage against the machine, all those other things we somehow we associate our strength with our anger. Those can be two totally different things. You can be strong without being angry. That was something that I really had a struggle with in my everyday life. In order to be strong, I had to be tough, but no, you can be a strong guy without being angry. I have to say that really, that changed my life in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1:I really did appreciate how you separated those two and I would say, from what I've seen it, I think it's tougher and it's more difficult to withstand the angers. Easy, anybody can fly off the handle. It's to maintain your composure. That's the toughest part, you know that's the easier thing is to be angry and to really fly off the handle with that. It's tougher to not. So my question that I was gonna ask is the attitude of gratitude. What is so important about gratitude to you, specifically being grateful?
Speaker 2:I think, especially in today's society, I gotta have, I have to consume, I have to. I'm so guilty of this in life and I always think about it all the time. If I have this truck, I'll be happy. If I have this house, I'll be happy. If I have this, I'll be happy. We all chase it and it never satisfies that need. What am I really thankful for? I'm really thankful that I woke up to a beautiful morning. I'm really thankful that my daughter got into college.
Speaker 2:I just try to find gratitude in the really small things, because those are meaningful to me. That's what matters, is what I, for lack of utter term, can control or really feel it's free. Why do I have to associate gratitude and being grateful and thankful for things associated with material wealth, when I could just be thankful for the things that are going on in my life and the people that are around me? When you're really thankful for every time you get to see a friend and you get to hug them and hang out, or when you get to take a nice beautiful walk, or even when it rains right, being thankful for everything that's out there, it'll really change your perspective and you'll find that those dark moments and those grinding thoughts that are in the back of your head slowly just like quiet down and grind away and you really find yourself being more thankful for the stuff that's happening around you.
Speaker 1:What was your separation point? I think you had made reference to prior to going that you had kind of had it but you were kind of faking it till you made it but never made it and then afterwards you had really gotten the essence of being grateful. What do you think that separation point was? Just so that maybe somebody could learn from it, without obviously hopefully they go and partake and really learn this in the same way that you did, but help us understand a little bit more about how we can step into that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what I do is I have a really like strict journaling process and every day I have a little thing what's my intent for the day? I, Coleman, it's my intent, QTC, quality cultivate. Like. What quality do I need to cultivate within myself to accomplish that intent? And then I put TF thankful for. So three things are people that I'm thankful for, and I write them down first thing in the morning and if it's a person, I'll usually snap a photo of my journal and I'll text them. The photos I hang in I'm thinking of yeah, thankful for you in my life. And then I put the next one is GTHT good things that happened today. And I used to leave like a line or two. Now I have to leave four or five.
Speaker 2:And it's like when you find that you're grateful for things and you're always looking for the good stuff that happens, which is like, for example, this new place right, Every morning there's this chicken that runs around here We've named her Gertie. Like okay, my first pet on the island is this new chicken named Gertie, right. And like that was a good thing that happened today. And then when you start looking at like little things that happened, like oh, that was good, that was good, that was good. Then your brain immediately starts focusing on all the things that are good and the gratitude that you have for those things happening in your life.
Speaker 2:I think that was really the pivot point is like what am I really focused on? What am I really looking at? What am I fixated on? And I found previously to that moment, I was always fixated on the problems. I was always fixated on the things that were going wrong. I was always fixated on the expectations that weren't met. Versus now, I'm gonna change my target focus and I'm gonna look over here at all the good things and it's so incredible.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love that you journal. Where did you get that from? Is that something you came up with? Or what gave you that idea of writing those things down every morning?
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I started it January 1st 2017. And I just really I found that like my life has just been chaotic I mean, I think you've learned a little bit of the pace of my life in which I've ran and I've ran that way since I was about 14 years old I've always just like doing a bunch of different things and I found that I was missing targets and missing goals and I was always chaos and I never felt stressed or settled in anything and I was like, all right, maybe I'll try one of these organizers and I didn't like it, and then I'll try a different organizer and I didn't like it, and I finally had like four or five different organizers and methods and I found the best pieces of which I like from each one. And then I just mashed them all together and sat down and I just buy a bulleted log journal every couple months and start at the front and go to the back and get a new one when that one runs out, and it just works. And I found that also journaling, especially for those that are dealing with traumatic brain injury stress is the ultimate killer of recovery from traumatic brain injury and if you have a TBI, the people who are listening to this will understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But, like when you forgot where you put your keys or you forgot what somebody said to you, then you get stressed out about not being able to remember it. And then you sit there and you grind on it, get stressed out, which creates more of that cortisol hormone in your brain which only makes it worse. Right, it's this downward cycle and journaling for 14 bucks. Every couple months, you know, I get a new journal and stuff happens. I literally just write it down and then I realized like I'm not going to forget it because if I just peel back to that page in the journal I know it's right there. It's what the psychologists call a compensatory technique. I don't care about it works and my life is a lot less stressful because of it. And then once you get on that producing the stress from your TBI with journaling or whatever else you do, and your brain starts to recover, then you don't have to do it as much.
Speaker 1:What a really amazing thing that you stepped into is. I've heard it referenced, I've seen it, a lot of people tied to it. I watched a woman do she had this. It was a course on happiness, on just how to be happier in life, and that was one of the things was just journaling and writing down things you're grateful for to start that upward spiral. You know you mentioned the downward spiral of that stress and unhappiness that the there's an upward spiral in what you kickstarted and I was just curious to know and it's amazing that you piece it all together all by yourself but not a surprise, because that's what you seem to do with every aspect of your life. You're like let's do this and get it done. It's incredible, man. The nice part about it is you referenced.
Speaker 2:No, it's like. He's like everybody has shitty days. Everybody has shitty days, Everybody does Right and it's so easy to like wind yourself down that spiral when you have a shitty day. But if you have that journal and you start paging back through all of those things or it says good things that happened today you quickly realize that there's a lot more good stuff going on in your life than the bad experience you had. Whatever it's five, 10, 15 minutes an hour ago. That's going to send you down a hole for a day and it allows you to recover from that state quickly.
Speaker 1:And you mentioned at the end of the when do you usually journal. I picked up that it was in the morning. Do you do it at a different time?
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I journal first thing in the morning. I sit down, you know, make up a coffee, I've got my goals listed out and just kind of like, make my plan for the day, and then, you know, as things happen through the day, I literally I feel like a stupidly tenant, right. But I've, literally, everywhere I go, I got my little journal with me and I got my little pen in there and, you know, if something happens, I just like quick pull it out. I have the little ribbon that's in there and I just scribble down whatever I need to and I go, and if I find something is meaningful enough to sit down and write my thoughts, I'll just take a couple of minutes and I'll write it down so I don't forget and I'll just move on. I've got, literally, if you stack them up, you know, side to side, they're probably up to my belly button.
Speaker 2:Now I've got that many journals that are just sitting in a trunk. But it's the last six years of my life, Right, if I need to recall what decision I made regarding a business meeting back in 2019. I'll just look at my calendar when it was, and I'll go find that journal and I'll crack it open to that day and I'll look at all the things that, like, led us to an outcome that we had now and go, okay, like that's why we're here. I recall these details now, all right, how do we do change things moving forward? It's just there's just so many benefits to doing it in your life. I really just encourage everybody to do it.
Speaker 1:That's incredible and you've seemed like you have dialed in and it's a pretty shallow question, but just selfishly, what journal did you find? That is because it seems like you have just one that you're go to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've gone through a bunch of different ones, like everybody wants to go to the moleskin, but I don't like the paper and the way the binder goes. But the CR Gibson bulleted log journal I find is the best one because it comes with a little ruler in the back. So if you're like drawing, you're sketching stuff out, it's all in graph paper style. So if you're like I do a lot of building and designing of things, so if I need to do stuff to scale, yeah I don't have to go to a separate book and do it, I can just do the design right in my journal. So not only is it the literary stuff and planning things, but I also have a spot for my creativity. So I have one space where I write everything down and then but the CR Gibson bulleted log journal. So I have a lot of stuff on great paper, great quality. Binder is awesome, tons of value.
Speaker 1:So cool. Thank you for sharing all of this. This is a very unexpected surprise that I absolutely love that you've shared with everybody. You mentioned something, too, that just some books, that and this is a little bit back in the conversation, but you mentioned a couple of books around the healing side of things with your mind. Are there any books that you recommend to people that stand out to you as just fantastic must reads?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like Joe Dispenza's Breaking the Habit of being Yourself. That is one of the best books I've ever read. It was gifted to me at a really pivotal time in my life and it really changed my game.
Speaker 1:What is it you like about the book?
Speaker 2:It combines the theory of meditation, quantum physics and manifestation all into one. I know it's going to sound hippie-dippy for a little bit of guys, but I got to the first 10 pages and read this story, this study they did in Israel, and it blew my mind. I couldn't put the book down. After that. I really like when you see the outcome of this study they did in Israel, you go, okay, this is how I can change my life now. Then I continued reading the book and I've made it a practice in my life. It's just a fantastic read.
Speaker 2:The way I came to the book is I was at a speaking engagement. After the engagement I was going to the dining area where we were all kind of eating and from across the dining area I could see this old guy on the other side of the dining area. I was like he looks really cool. There's something different about him. I'm going to go sit down next to this dude. I said, hey, can I have a seat and eat with you? He's like yeah, and he's turned it out to break, meet and exceed every expectation I had for this guy. I said to him I normally don't ask this of most guys when I first meet them, but do you want to go on a walk? He was like, yeah, sure, we were in California, in the Redwood Forest at this event and we got out away from everybody else. I was like, all right, man, there's something different about you. Tell me your secret. He says well, a couple of years ago somebody gave me this book and I read it and I followed the principles.
Speaker 2:That's basically it. I'll send you the book. It was Joe Dispenza's Breaking the Habit of being Yourself. I can't recommend that to enough people.
Speaker 1:I've got a list of things. I'd look at some cashmere right at the end of this recording and then I'm going to order this book immediately. That's great, thank you.
Speaker 2:There's so many books out like why we Sleep. That's a really good one. I can't remember who wrote that one, but it's the world's largest study on sleep, especially the military. Like oh, sleep's a crutch. There's been no study on human performance that shows a lack of sleep. It leads to increased performance. Zero, we all need to get your sleep if you're recovering from things. That's really changed my life. I'll think of another book here in a bit, but I just always catch it up on stuff all the time, I have to say the Breaking the Habit of being Yourself and the why we Sleep are probably the two biggest ones right to change my performance. They came back to back.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. I know I'm auto-ordering the just immediately the break. In the habit of being yourself, you're so passionate about it and I just got to see what's inside of it. Thank you so much for jumping on and just taking the time. I know you're outside. You're in the middle of a huge home renovation. You're doing all the work yourself. I really appreciate you taking the time. I know you've got a very, very busy schedule with all the things you're doing and I can't thank you enough. As we step out of here, I'd love to ask what's the best way for people to follow you? I know I follow you on Instagram, just kind of dabbling in what you're doing there, but what's the best way for people to follow you, to get in touch with your stuff and anything like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean honestly, the best way is Instagram CombatFloplopsgri, that's it, and then make sure you follow the CombatFloplops account. Our main game has been pretty fun lately and it's been interesting to see how that response to that stuff has gone. We've taken a little bit of a hiatus for the last month, but we're getting a reset, getting ready to roll into the fall, so we'll crank it back up, I promise.
Speaker 1:Nice, I definitely had one. I screen-shotted and sent it to my buddy just the other day not on Instagram. I was just like, well, that's pretty excellent, that's a great meme. So, dude, thank you so much, graf. I really appreciate it. Man, you're an incredible person doing some just amazing things all over the world, so thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you again, Thad. I appreciate you introducing me to your community and I'm glad we were finally able to put this one together.