Mans Land.
"Men are born to be leaders. Good or bad, every man leads — his family, his business, his body, and his home as the spiritual head.
But in today’s world, that truth feels alien. Taboo. And as we’ve drifted from it, we’ve seen the results: fractured families, broken communities, men uncertain of who they are and what they’re for.
On the land, the challenge is clear — tame the soil, raise the stock, grow the crops. But the hardest battles aren’t in the paddocks. They’re in the pressure cooker of unhappy families, poor seasons, banks at the door, and a body breaking down. That’s when chaos reigns, and the question rises: ‘What’s it all for?’
Too many men try to answer that question without God. But He is the only certainty beyond what we can control.
This is Man’s Land — where we talk about the struggles, the victories, and what it means to lead as men under God’s design."
Mans Land.
Tell the Truth and Ask for Help
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What happens when a successful entrepreneur loses everything that matters? Blake Bork's journey takes us from college football star to millionaire by 22, bankrupt by 24, and then into the darkest valley imaginable—losing his twin daughters shortly after their premature birth.
Unable to process his grief, Blake descended into opioid addiction while maintaining the appearance of a successful banker in a suit and tie. "I wasn't picking it up mentally," he reveals, explaining how he escalated from modest pain medication to 180mg of oxycodone daily—cancer patient levels—while his marriage crumbled silently around him.
The turning point came through an unexpected toxicology test and a nurse who cared enough to confront him. "My options were limited," Blake shares with disarming honesty. "Go buy heroin or get clean." This stark choice led him and his wife Jenny to medical detox and the beginning of a years-long transformation.
Blake's attempt to find meaning by building a toxicology laboratory to help others battling addiction grew into a multi-million dollar business with 175 employees. Yet this noble venture became another idol: "I made my business my child," he admits, explaining how his redemption project left his wife "fixing herself by herself."
Everything changed when they adopted their daughter Violet. For the first time, Blake had a true priority—forcing him to recognize how his obsession with work threatened what mattered most. Through programs like Warrior Week and reconnecting with faith, he learned that "money don't fix your problems" and that being a good man means balancing body, spirit, family, and business.
This conversation offers more than a story of addiction and recovery—it's about what happens when men finally stop lying to themselves. If you're feeling lost, Blake's parting wisdom cuts straight to the heart: "Tell the truth and ask for help."
For more conversations about the real struggles men face, subscribe to Man's Land or reach out to learn about Warrior Week Australia at manslandpodcast@gmail.com.
Introduction to Blake Bork
Speaker 1Hi, I'm Joshua Borowski, and welcome to Man's Land, a podcast dedicated to the struggles and celebrations of men of the land, whether you're in a truck, tractor, ute or just kicking back at home. Buckle up, as Steph and I act as a married duo to cover some deep conversations across farming, family, faith and fitness, cultivating some challenging discussions that are essential for the men of this day. G'day everybody, and welcome to another episode of Man's Land. And right now. You wouldn't believe it, but I have got George Clooney on the show. It really is an honour. It's not george. It's not george, it looks like george. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1If you're watching you, you understand why it's just younger, younger, taller, a little bit more husky vastly, vastly more, more handsome uh version of george clooney, especially especially with a salubrious beard, which I wish I had If handsome is lots of body hair, then yes, we've got a deck going on. Yes, If you're very handsome, put me in that game coach.
Speaker 1You are blessed. You are blessed in the hair department, man, when you were coming, when you were shooting that text, I'm just fixing my hair. I'm like, and it's taken a while, that's a lot of hair, that's a lot of hair. So, ladies and gents, listeners, who I have here as a special guest today is my brother from Warrior Week, all the way from the blessed state of Louisiana in the US of A Blake Bork. Now, he's a very dear friend, he's a brother of mine.
Speaker 1We have known each other for years now and he has a fascinating story and something that I think that is super important and something that really aligns with the message that we really want to communicate here inside of Man's Land, which is this real recognizing where we're at as men, what we are as men, um, and where we you know, where we all desire to, to sort of like, look, to go to, because there's a, there's a drive in us, there's a desire in us to, to, to, to build, to grow to, to fight, and I I think that a lot of us find ourselves in this sort of real pit and it can feel all consuming.
Speaker 1So I'm just really excited to have you here, blake, because yours is a really interesting story. You've done a lot of lessons here and I think that it really does touch on what a lot of men go through but are not prepared to talk about or face in themselves or reflect on, because it's just too damn painful. And that's why I see and I think we all see so many issues inside of the family in particular, so much chaos. I mean, you're a family man, you know. You're passionate about your kids, you're passionate about your family and I think family, from what I know of you, has played a massive part along with food, but family, you know. So I mean Blake.
Speaker 2All the apps. All the apps family, food, faith, football, all of them.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, If you, if you, if you ever met Blake, you'd be a good. I reckon it'd be a good number right In rugby.
Speaker 2Yeah, Definitely got the, definitely got the legs and the and the length in him to really push him One of my biggest regrets, man, is I never got a chance to get on the pitch and actually show it whenever I was young because I was a fullback in college.
Speaker 1So, yes, yeah, put me in the scrum for sure, yeah, yeah, Well, yeah, fullback in rugby is a totally different position, and so I wouldn't put you there at all, but you'd be in the grind, mate. Look, honestly, I think, like bar out buddy, Like you're, how old are you? 45. You're 45. Like you've got heaps in you. Definitely, Jenny, you'd love it. Jenny, you'd love to see you there, just like splitting an eyebrow.
From College Football to Bankruptcy
Speaker 1I'm down, I'm down yeah yeah, okay, cool, I'll just throw you in there. Um so anyway, like kick us off, bro, like like when, when? Um like through this sort of story of of restoration, of of transformation, like take us through basically you know where you were at around round one before you came to warrior because, like you're saying, like you've done this, you've done a lot. Yeah, give us a little bit of an idea.
Speaker 2I'm a slow learner, you know. One of the things kind of the setup for the background of my story is that I was born in Louisiana, I played college football, american football and was very entrepreneurial from very young. I got out and, like a rocket ship, right after playing football I knew I never was going to play in the NFL. I went into business for myself and, kind of the way I say it is, I made my first million when I was 22. I spent a million, three when I was 23. And by 24, I was basically declaring bankruptcy. And on my 25th birthday I just met my now wife and we met in March, my birthday's in May, and so we met on her birthday Our first kiss. She told me she was going to marry me and be my wife and have my kids and I asked her in that order. You know I wasn't sure, but that's, that was the order. And then we I filed bankruptcy on my birthday as kind of like a mile marker and I didn't.
Speaker 2I didn't really look at it like it was a, a failure. I looked at it as an opportunity to be able to kind of get better. Um, but there was some some drug addiction issues that were that were in my life that I hadn't yet realized. I didn't realize my patterns around, uh, drinking around, uh, smoking pot, um, painkillers, because I because I did play football I had a lot of spine pain, a lot of hip pain, a lot of lower back pain and and I didn't realize it was, we had a. It was a different culture back then, man, like there was before the opioid epidemic, even like methamphetamines and stuff like that, we experimented with it in college. We didn't know that it was, it was what it was going to be, you know. And so those, those, those like sedation type of habits that that really weren't detrimental to me, I wasn't picking them up mentally. They kind of haunted me for a really long time, right, and I never, I never really clued in on it being the thing, right, and so I go on, I get married and um, and I never.
Speaker 2We didn't really have a tragedy in our family, okay, so a lot of families can just kind of skate through. Man, we had no real deaths, we had no divorces. Large family my wife comes from six um, I have nine cousins. We're all like brothers and sisters. There's five of us. We're super, super close, um, and jenny was pregnant, we had some fertility issues. We uh, we had one ivi, one, uh, four IUIs and one IVF. So for anybody who's having fertility issues out there, I've kind of been there.
Losing Twin Daughters and Addiction
Speaker 2Um, when she got pregnant, it was it was like a celebration. But we were in the hospital with another kind of abdominal thing that she was going through when we found out and, um, in the middle of the night one night she was just kind of like something's wrong and we rushed her to the hospital and the doctor, um, is examining her and he looks at me and he's like the baby's head is crowning and we had like, all of a sudden, we go from like we're we're going to have twin girls to she's at 24 and a half weeks or 23 and a half weeks and we're delivering twins. So we deliver Sophia, we deliver Charlotte, and we have Sophia for 12 hours, charlotte for 72 hours, and then we're at a funeral and it was a very, very short period of time. I'm like speaking at my daughter's funerals and it was like I remember thinking like my life wasn't, this isn't what it was supposed to be. Why, why did what happened? You know, I go from literally everything I ever wanted to do. I got a chance to do and even when I failed, I still looked for opportunities. But this was like what? What did I do wrong? And I was. I was really angry at God for a very long time and because I was depressed. Dependence plus depression equals addiction. So from that point it was, I was full on, full on addict. I had access to pain meds. I was a banker. So for six years during this period, I was a private banker. I worked for two really great banking institutions and I just masked my pain. I just sedated. I masked my pain. It was a blur, josh, For two years after losing the girls from 2009, I was 29 years old to um 2011, when a toxicology test, an actual laboratory test and a nurse who cared uh, I think, saved my life um, I walked into the doctor's office for kind of like a routine deal.
Speaker 2The nurse who was there knew something was wrong with me. She wasn't stupid. She knew that I was the pain medicine. I'd gone from like 20 milligrams of hydrocodone a day to 180 milligrams of oxycodone a day and for anybody who wants to know that, it's like six, 30 milligram, uh, uh, roxie's. Um, if, if, if. You know what those are that? That's? That's a lot of meds, that's like cancer meds and it wasn't helping.
Speaker 2And that's the thing is that inside of this, it wasn't like I was like, oh, I need to get this medicine because I want to be an addict. I was doing yoga, I was doing traction, I was doing I was doing traction, I was going to the chiropractor, I was going to the physical therapist, I was trying to get my back pain better. What I didn't realize is all of the repressed grief and me hiding behind my actual feelings and manifesting this pain inside of my lower back. My wife was manifesting her pain inside of her stomach, right, and so neither one of us had really worked through the fact that we had lost our daughters and and I, um, we, we, we, we basically were codependents, we, we were, we were, we were addicts together inside of it.
Speaker 1How old were you when this went down, Like like this time right now? How old were you?
Speaker 2I was 31. So we got married at 27. We had the girls when I was 29. And then for two years legitimately.
Speaker 1So by the time you were 31,. This is when you had the toxicology report.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was sort of like a real knock on the door moment for you.
Speaker 2Yeah, because I failed the test for basically passing it. She was like okay, so this isn't supposed to be there. This isn't supposed to be there. This isn't supposed to be there. Like you're not supposed to have six of these medications, we're not prescribing you in your system, like it was it was serious, man.
Speaker 2She was like blake, you really need to get some help. Mind you, I'm in a suit and tie. I got a sweater vest on. You know, I mean, like I am, I'm a guy who's going to committee meetings and I'm a part of the community. Um, I am. I am 100% Like no, no one knows this is going on.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2My parents don't know, her family doesn't know. The only person who knows this is going on is actually my wife, and it's because she's right there with me and we both. We're both paddling like, okay, what are we going to do this month? Oh, we're about to run out of medicine. What were you gonna do? Like it's always like trying to chase, like how are we gonna save it?
Speaker 1keep tapering, you know what was it, what was the? What was some of the ways that you were seeing it affecting Jenny?
Speaker 2um, it was just just wallowing in in dying man dying like it. It was different for her because, because she felt extremely alone um, she didn't she, because I went to work, I got to interact with people. She pretty much stayed home during that time and so it was uh, it was a very, very hard, hard time for her and really we were together in that we went to. When we went to, we had to go to a medical detox facility. Look at anybody out there who's got an employee, who's suffering from addiction. When they walk in your office and they sit down in front of you, do it like my boss did.
Speaker 2My boss, jerry Prejean, was probably one of the best men I've ever worked for. I sat down and said I'll open the door, sat down in front of him and I said that's a Jerry, we got a problem. He was like oh man, you're not quitting, or you? I was like no, I'm not quitting, but I'm an addict and I need some help. I said I have to. I have to get some help. I said I've been taking copious amounts of medication.
Speaker 2I found a place that'll take me and Ginny, we can go together. You can sleep in the same bed. We can go through treatment together. And uh, he was like, what do you need? And I was like I need to be able to take vacation now because I've got flights and I only have a week of vacation so I need more time. He said let's go to hr and talk to him. We went to hr. They set me up, I put me on family medical leave act. Um, I was. They went and helped me process an emergency from my 401k so that way I can get money to pay for the deductible we get in there. And it was just super cool and never judged me through the entire process and to this day you know. So people, when people ask for help, give them help.
Speaker 2Yeah, cause you don't have a chance, you know, and they definitely don't need need to be pushed down, but we were on a flight that day.
Speaker 1That's how I think I think I think, like just on that though, like, like, like just stopping on on that alone for for a man to have the empathy and the desire to want to help his, his neighbor, like that, like when people ask for help, it's like you never know where people are at. Like to actually be someone who's asking for help, like that means like well, it's time to move. Like there's got to be a state of compassion, because I think a lot of people get caught up in their own crap so much that they just don't have anything left in the tank, and when that happens, it's like like oh, you're burdening me with this and I think there's like you know, that's a real exposure of the heart, and for your boss to do that, that's a, that's a massive thing. Um, on the flip side of that, for you to go like to to truly make the move and to put your hand up and ask is something that majority of men don't do.
Speaker 2Well, like it was kind of simple, it got really simple. My options were limited, all right. So it was like go buy heroin or get clean. You know what I mean. Like honestly, like a lot of men don't want to make the right decision for them, but when your options, god takes the options away. I didn't have a lot of other options. It to make the right decision for them, but when your options, god takes the options away. I didn't have a lot of other options.
Speaker 2It was like I'm either going to continue to play this game and I'm now going to go pro, which is not what I. It wasn't what I wanted. I at least had that instinct to say okay, this is what do you want. I don't want to be a drug addict Like I did not want that for my life. But what do you want? I don't want to be a drug addict Like I did not want that for my life.
Speaker 2But all of a sudden, I'm looking in the mirror and that's exactly what is going on. It's like this is not. This is not what was intended and it's not making me better. I'm not healing my back anyway, right? So yeah, man, if a man is having a hard time with making a decision and is having a hard time asking for help. Asking for help just with them, and what do you want? And just limit your options, cause sometimes it's just the abundance of chaos. It's like hey, man, I'm either doing this or that pick, because that's kind of what it comes down to. Nine times out of 10 men are going to overcomplicate the situation. They're going to try to, you know, procrastinate it. They're going to try to prophesize over it. They're going to try to get somebody else to do it for them. They're going to try to delegate it.
Speaker 2They're going to pay somebody else to do it and justify yeah, and then and then are sedate against it with a bottle of beer or pill, you know, or or whatever. So was blessed to have the good people in my life that cared about me and that allowed me to do that we did. It was two weeks of misery. That's the setup. Now you can't sedate, now you're sober and now the feelings come back. And I wasn't trained then, all right.
The Path to Recovery
Speaker 2So all of a sudden you wake up and you have this flush of feelings that you haven't really felt, you haven't really processed, anytime they've come up. You've taken a pill Anytime they come up. You drank, you smoked Like you don't have. You haven't built the muscle yet to be able to deal with your grief. These waves that come, they, they don't, they don't, they don't stop. Right, they never stopped. That was almost 17 years ago and I still watch a commercial to hear something and cry. We had an incident with us, uh, just recently, where we, you know, a little girl commits suicide and you know, I, I know what that parent feels, right, so it's still. It's still there, um, but uh. But being still there, um, but uh. But being being able to then know with my mind okay, so that happened. I used to hate this. Everything happens for a reason. People would say you know, everything happens for a reason and I was like shut the fuck up like it's like, no, like it's
Speaker 2god didn't. You know I had with. So God killed my daughters. Tell me, in God's plan, taking my daughters away was part of his plan. And I'd literally say things out loud and to myself and I don't want that guy it was. It was I was at, I was at odds at, I was at odds. So instead of god's will be done, I took the path mistakenly. Blake's will will be done.
Speaker 2I started a toxicology laboratory. Um, we started doing drug testing for patients on their behalf and we set up addiction networks. Now this is all good work. We help doctors understand the difference between this moving target of when you don't know when a patient's going to lose their life or a loved one excuse me, you don't know when they're going to get divorced, when they're going to have money problems, when their depression and their dependence turns into addiction. So we set up a toxicology laboratory and we went from no employees to about 175 across the country, which was a pretty good sized company in America. We were doing about 10,000 patient samples a month and at the end of the day, it was about 187,000 patients that we did reporting on. So that's 187,000 opportunities that doctors had to have. The conversation that I had with that nurse wow how many of them turned into my story?
Speaker 2I I like to think a hand. You know more than a handful of them. You know you got a couple hundred thousand people that got a report. When we ran analytics, 36 of them were inconsistent, meaning that there was something that they were being not prescribed that was actually on their medication. Could be cocaine, could be heroin, could be THC, it could be an extra pain medicine or it could be something they prescribed that they weren't taking. And so when I got into healthcare Josh, and so when I got into healthcare Josh, all of a sudden I had this real high moral mission. Everything became like, okay, the reason why my daughters died is because of this. But again, the mistake was I made my business my baby, I made it my child. Some people say like, hey, it's my baby. But it's business my baby, I made it my child.
Speaker 1Some people say like hey, it's my baby, but it's not my child, like I made my business my child. So it was a real idol moment where you were setting up you were really setting up an idol to really really start sacrificing time, energy, focus and in such a moral and ethical like. I mean, like what you're saying, blake, it's like, yeah, that is like you said, it's good work, it's good work, but the prelude to this is, you know, not his will be done, blake's will be done and I will go and pursue something. I think this is like. I think this is one of the more misunderstood aspects of humanity, and what we do is that we look to justify and we look to redeem ourselves. It's this game of self-redemption through good works.
Speaker 2And that might be the cover of my book. It's always been Like, it's always been so it's always been, and the shitty part about it is is who was who was left all alone? Was Jenny back home? Yeah, because I built a business with people and friends and they were the most important things to me and the patients were the most important. The doctors were the most important things to me and the patients were the most important. The doctors were the most important and and Jenny was basically fixing herself by herself and I didn't.
Speaker 2And, dude, my body was going downhill, man, like I ballooned up to 260 pounds. I um, I normally walk around, I should walk around 240. I normally walk around 245, but then I was 260 and a fat 260. I was drinking a bottle of scotch a night. I wasn't taking pain meds anymore, but I live in Louisiana. We drink, so it was a drinking culture and we made a lot of money.
Speaker 2And I can tell you right now money don't fix your problems. I'm telling you, if you're an asshole before you got money, you're going to be an asshole, bigger asshole after you've got money. Money don't fix your problems. Money's not going to fix that pain that's inside of your heart right. A better job ain't what you need if you're suffering and if you haven't figured out yet how to process the grief and the pain and the trauma. Like if you're injured, you are injured, you're injured with a million dollars, you're injured with a million dollars, it doesn't fucking matter, period, you know. And so like you have to fix the injury. And there's just a lot of injured men out there that don't know they're bleeding. We can see it, especially when you're trained. But the guy's bleeding all over the place. He's bleeding all over other relationships. He hasn't figured out yet that he's the cause. He's wounded and he's bringing everybody else in his family down because he's not a big enough man to fix himself.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2To say, hey, look, humble yourself, I need some help, I really need some help. And so God has a way of pruning you.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And that's what happened, all that beautiful business. The united states government has a good way of changing their healthcare regulations between november and january and if you don't know it's coming and it's your first time you'll go from the top of the mountain to the valley in about I don't know how long does it take you to spend $10 million? Because that's what we did.
Speaker 1We just ran out of cash.
Speaker 2I went from 170-something employees to just me.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 2Yeah, in a year's time, in a year's time, just letting people go redoing the budget, living off of savings, trying to make it work, trying to figure it out, and still blake's will be done. I haven't got it yet. I still haven't got it. It's five years before I get it, by the way. So I keep screwing, I keep screwing shit up, man, I keep screwing shit up it's just.
Speaker 1It's just.
Speaker 1It's like, like, like, looking at where you are up to at this point in your story, like it's like, you know, you've gone from addiction, from like an escape of your grief, in addiction with meds that you've already had a problem with, to the point of entirely numbing yourself, to recognizing that if you keep doing that're basically going to go, there's a fork in the road.
Speaker 1Like you said, you're going to be a heroin addict or you're going to.
Speaker 1You know you're going to have to do something to pull up um, and and you, so you know, but with this, you know this, you know core, you know I suppose leading north star, which is will blakes, will be done, that power within that, you know I can make it happen, which is, but I will make it a noble cause so that I can, you know, I can justify whatever um, and in that justification you're basically laying your, your relationship, your marriage, your wife, um, your body at the altar of this um, and and it's burning, it's burning up and and it's uh, and now you're at this point, like that's, that's huge, like it's a huge.
Speaker 1First of all, thanks for the honesty, like if you're listening to this. I just want everyone to recognize this. This is such a deeply honest conversation, um, and such an exposing thing, um. But to go from such success and such heights and and I think that's where a lot of men get very damn well stuck in their success, that um, that they, they can sedate and justify just about anything away, yeah, just about anything you know, bankrupt to banker, grieving father to adopted father, drug addict to toxicology, lab owner, like it's.
Speaker 2That's why you nailed it when you was like it's this arc of redemption, the redemption story. At this point I don't want to wake up in the morning and read my Bible, teach it to my daughter and to my son, love my wife, work out in the gym as hard as I can in the morning. So because I got a three year old, I'm 45 years old. I want to run a good, clean business with good people. I want to pray openly in my work. I just want to be a good man.
Speaker 2And being a good man isn't making a bunch of money only because that's all I was doing during that time, or when I played football, being an athlete only because that's all I was doing during that time. You know, being a good man is being good at those four pillars of your body your spirit, your family and your business. So that way you can steward what God has given us. And I tell you, man, it took me so long to figure that out, even in 2016, when we adopted Violet. Like my turning point of realizing that I needed somebody to teach me how to be a man. We adopted Violet. Our adoption story is absolutely unbelievable.
Speaker 1Yeah, talk, tell them I was going to ask about that because you're sort of like, yeah, now you've got two beautiful kids and they're adopted like Bruce and Violet.
Building and Losing a Business
Speaker 2It's like tell them about me. I'm the one who looks like they're adopted in my family. My kids look blonde hair, one's got blue eyes, one's got green eyes.
Speaker 2My daughter, my wife, is gorgeous, a 10 out of 10 human being inside and out and um, and when we, when we adopted violet we we had, but Jenny unfortunately had to have a hysterectomy it was the right. It was the right thing to do. She's had so much scar tissue from the girl's birth and from like. She had like 13 abdominal surgeries while while we were trying to get pregnant and then after so I mean we, we spent the first year of our marriage. We spent like four months in the hospital, like it was, it was wild, and so she had her own battles for her to deal with. That's why she's one of the strongest people I've ever met.
Speaker 2When we, when we adopted Violet, we had 24 hours notice. It took us two years for us to get through the process, mainly because we weren't aligned with what exactly we wanted. But once we knew what we wanted, we went live. It was about a six-week waiting period and I was in Chicago on my last business deal and I got a phone call from a, the adoption agency we use, a company called American adoptions, and they said hey, mr Bork, we just want to let you know we have a, you have an adoption opportunity. It's about uh, it's a little bit above your budget. Do you want to hear about it and I was like, yes, um, please keep going. They said, well, birth mom picked you because you're a raging Cajun fan, you're a Saints fan. You were at the same jazz festival in New Orleans. You were at the same French Quarter Festival in New Orleans and in your video you were cooking her favorite food croffle che tu fais.
Speaker 2I was like, are you? You just say, I got picked because I'm a Saints fan and New Orleans Saints for all y'allsies. And who dat? Uh, and yeah, one more thing her daughter can't be a dallas cowboys fan or not a daughter. She had no prenatal care. So my birth mom, pearson, kept this, the baby, a secret. Her father didn't know, her own mother didn't know who she lived with. She kept it a secret from everyone.
Speaker 2And when she picked us on September 28th and delivered on September 29th, she called her own ambulance, had the ambulance pick her up from her mom's house and drive her to the hospital that her mom works at, her mom's in the oncology unit. Pearson's giving birth in the birthing room underneath Jane Doe delivers violet. The adoption agency knows they call us and they basically call me at seven o'clock that morning and say Mr Bork, if you want to drive to Austin, texas, you can go pick up your baby girl. I was like what it was, like I say 24 hours, it was like 12 hours maybe between when I got the call that we got picked and then when they were like you go pick up your baby girl, and so it was about a 10-hour drive. We were there in I don't know nine hours and 15 minutes and so it was about a 10 hour drive. We were there and I don't know nine hours and 15 minutes and uh and Pearson had set it up where we were.
Speaker 2We were um the first to hold Violet as parents, and so then we held her, and then Pearson held her, and then Pearson gave her to us and then that was that was it. Violet was ours. We stayed in Texas for two weeks and when we came back home and when we came back home I still had this business that was in flames. But now my baby wasn't my child anymore. I actually had my child and I had a priority, because once you have a number one, I never had a priority before. I just did it all whatever I wanted.
Speaker 1Once you have, a priority once you have a number one.
Speaker 2I never had a priority before, I just did it all whatever I wanted. Once you have a priority, you have a number one and you have a number two and a number three and a number four and number five. And you start looking at your list and you're like man, I have been making number eight and nine and 10, my number one ahead of my wife. And you start looking and saying, like man, how all these things are a threat. Actually, seven, eight, nine and ten are a threat to number one and two, jenny and violet, and so, once a man gets clarity around, there are things that are threatening his family, there are things that are threatening his way of life that are going to get in the way of their safety and their security. If that's the way you're wired which is how we we're wired you, you eradicate that shit.
Speaker 2So I just went to town, I started cutting things off, shutting things down, ruined some relationships and and some relationships needed to be deleted, some of the relationships I've cherished, like my best friends that I started that business with, um, one of them was the best man in my wedding, or was actually walked in my wedding, and we're father, godfathers for each other, children.
Speaker 2We haven't talked since 2017 because of the fallout from it. So I mean we lost relationships in the in the burning of the business. And the last conversation, the last conversation that I had with my business partners, I had my corporate council at a table and I had my two business partners who I still love, uh at the table and I was going through um, I was going through what, what, what happened? They wanted to buy me out. They had an outside person was coming to buy me out and they were acting like they didn't know what was going on. But I had their emails so I knew they were lying to me and I forgive them for it now, but at the time I was very hot and I just remember screaming at them stop fucking lying.
Speaker 2And the meeting ended because we were going to come to blows because neither one of those were like we were linebackers on the same high school football team, so we were going to fight. It wasn't going to be a fight, it wasn't going to be like I was going to bully them. They were going to fight back. It wasn't going to be a deal.
Speaker 2We were locked in a room so it would be hard to walk out that room. When locked in a room, so it would be hard to walk out that room. So when, when, um, everybody leaves, I'm by myself. I got my head down. I'm just like what happened? Same feeling I had at the funeral. It's done like the relationships are over. This is done why this happened and my, uh, my one of my best friends now, darren vale, sent me a text message and it said he said something like how's the king doing? And I thought it was weird king, and why is he telling me?
Speaker 2king only king, but uh, and he sent me a video of garrett white with uh, with wake up warrior. And he was like watch this video and then text me back and let me know I want you to come with me to california. And I got to like a minute 26 in the video and Garrett White was on stage and he was giving a speech and he said the number one thing businessmen can do in America today is to stop fucking lying. And I texted him back and I was like I'm all in before I knew what all in was. You know, I it was a, it was a person who was on who was in front of people with just this rawness of honesty. As far as what I thought of him, then you know what I mean and it attracted me to him, but it was also like that guy knows my pain.
Speaker 2Because, when he was telling his story, I was like that's what I need, I need someone who understands my pain, who can teach me a way for me to weaponize my business so that way I can screw over my business partners? Like that's where my brain went. I was like, oh, back and it wasn't. Oh, my god, it wasn't that at all.
Speaker 1I was just like I was just it's like, like it's. It's fascinating because when you that, like when you were in the room with your partners and who are your friends, and you were saying that, I thought, oh, he got that from Garrett Jay White, so remember that. That's absolutely like. That's key lines.
Speaker 2I didn't know who Garrett was before that, bro. It happened in seconds man.
Speaker 1So it's like it's basically where you were. It's incredible basically where you were. Just it's incredible like you, you've come from this.
Speaker 2I didn't like I always say I didn't find warrior, warrior found me yeah, yeah, I didn't. I honestly I didn't find that that text message came to me at the right time, the right moment and and I was in I I didn't care, I was in and I yeah started watching all their videos.
Speaker 2I, uh, I signed up before I was even going to Warrior Con. I contacted coach Sam and signed up for Warrior Week and so I was going to Warrior Week 37, which is that's the. That's the picture up there of of my crew. Um, back in 37. I hope to get another one with 73 soon. And um, but, um, yeah, yeah, man, it was, it fit me at the time.
Speaker 2But I mean, I remember sitting down and answering the questions of my body, you know, and writing where I was at and not being happy about my weight and my back. I just had surgery, so my back was feeling better. So when I had back surgery, that was a big deal. I had back surgery because of my daughter, because I couldn't hold her anymore. But when I went to Warrior Con I think it was like in April of 2017, when I got to balance and started writing about Jenny and what my marriage was. Writing about Jenny and what my marriage was like, I, I, I can't tell you how like the deep, like the tears, you know the, the, the emotions that just came Cause it was. It was one of those things where I was like I just want to be able to seduce my wife again. Yeah, I don't care about my business anymore. You know, like I, just I want to be able to have a connection with my wife. I haven't had a connection with my wife through this whole business thing, this whole pain thing. I just miss my wife.
Adoption Story and New Priorities
Speaker 2And um, I remember, whenever I came, I came back home from California, I had signed up for warrior week. I'd signed up for certified trainer. It was $10,000 for warrior week, it was $25,000 for certified trainer. Somehow they gave us a deal in there I'm not sure where it was, but I got a deal and, um and uh I'm not telling Jenny about the certified trainer piece yet, I just had the courage to tell her about the $10,000 for the warrior week. And and, uh, we were in the kitchen and I told her. I was like, no, listen, it's okay Cause, look, it's a group. They're going to help me work out every day, and then we're going to talk about our spirituality and a connection with God, and they're okay with all kinds of different gods. But you know, like that, I have a connection with God and you and I with all kinds of different gods. But you know, like that, I have a connection with God and you and I were going to go. We're going to and I'm a journal and then we're going to go on date nights and and we're gonna make sure that we're going on date nights and I'm write you love notes and and in business, they're going to teach me how to like really stay on task and stay on target.
Speaker 2She was like how much are they going to charge you? And I was like $10,000. She said what? I was like $10,000. She was like so you're telling me? I've been doing yoga for free. I got a journal for $9 from Walgreens. I've been praying to God for you and everybody else by myself and I have figured out how to run this whole household without you and you're going to pay some other man $10,000 to do that for you. And I was like baby.
Speaker 2I was like it's not about that. It's about a group of men who understand me and get me so that way I can figure out what's wrong with me. And she said if you do this and she didn't know what all in was either. She said if you do this, you better go all in, because if I open up, I'm going to cry. She said if I open up my wounds. If I open up my wounds again and you leave me hanging, we're done.
Speaker 2And that was about us again. I didn't have any options, josh. I limited my options like it wasn't like okay, cool, let me figure it out. It was like well, there's one path forward, bro, forward. You know, like it's it, I, I'd have to fix my marriage. Everything became about that and and and I don't it. It it's. It hurts me today to see a man that I see the excuses that they make and I see the lies that they're telling and I know I was them and it's like, dude, it's like I would spend that 10 grand all over again. And I have cause. I went through it twice. I went through it, I did the whole thing and then stopped doing what was working and then built another business and made another couple of million dollars and then burn that shit down and then did it again. So a really, really slow learner.
Speaker 2But this last chapter, man, since I met you two years ago, it was all about God. It was all about God. I went because I was tired. It was funny. At one point it was like I got to fix my back, and funny At one point it was like I got to fix my back and then the other part it was like I got to fix my marriage and the other part was I got to fix my business. This last time it was like I just want to have a conversation with God Because I know when I go to warrior week, I know when I get on top of that mountain, I know I'm going to have a conversation with God. Conversation with God, and it's never let me down, not one time. I know I'm going to look at the Pacific Ocean, I'm going to look out there, I'm going to have a conversation with God. And you know, the first book in the Bible I ever read was 2 Timothy, and that was the random book that I pulled.
Speaker 1Oh, it was.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was a random book and it it was like it could have been written to warrior week yep you know, it could have been, it could have been written straight to us.
Speaker 2It was beautiful and I just hadn't stopped reading it. I hadn't stopped reading the bible and and it's it that that it. For me it's priceless, it's and I've done a lot of self-development. I I did mark divine. I loved mark and what I learned from mark divine with the tip of the, for me it's priceless and I've done a lot of self-development. I did Mark Devine, I loved Mark and what I learned from Mark Devine.
Speaker 2The tip of the spear program the Navy SEALs. I've challenged my body since Warrior. I went from not being able to swim to doing a half Ironman. I've done a 24-hour Navy SEAL endurance challenge, ran a half marathon, spartan races, a lot of great physical stuff. And we've done some really cool spiritual stuff and we've traveled all over the country as a family, keeping us all together, and I would not have been able to do it without Sam Filsafi.
Speaker 2I would not have been able to do it without Sam Fusafi. I would not have been able to do it without Coach Brian Q Davis. I would not have been able to do it without Coach Max. I wouldn't have been able to do it without Coach David and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the men of 73. Just to be able to have people that can mirror you, that really know you and trust you. There's not a monetary amount that you can put on that once you have it in your hand, because otherwise I'm alone and I go back to the same patterns and behaviors that I did the last 43 years.
Speaker 1That always got me to the same spot, back to I think that that's a really important point, like like, I know this, you know um, like we know this, coming through the training, going through the, the, you know the, the confusion associated with asking the question what did I do wrong, what am I supposed to do? Or what is my purpose in this or that um, a lot of guys find themselves at the doorstep of that um and go chasing the next idol, whether the idol is the body, or whether the idol is the, the corporate business or whatever um, or whether the idol is, you know, even even inside the family, like I, you know it has to be important. There you find yourself doing things that are not in alignment with what is honest and true and good, because you're terrified of what it'll mean to impact the family, that just, you're trying to know the idea of a family, how?
Speaker 2How crazy is this? How crazy is this and I see this all the time. It's nuts. We have men throughout the entire world that will stand buck ass naked in front of their wife after a cold shower, looking in the eye, and have a normal conversation, but are afraid to talk about their finances or hide money shit from them. Yeah, or hide money, shit from them. Yeah, they've seen every single crack and crevice of us, seen all our ugly faces, our stinky breath pooped, with the door wide open. Right, won't talk about our feelings.
Speaker 1No.
Speaker 2You got to hide that from them right. It's like God puts you with a partner, a person who understands you, gets you, can support you and is strong enough to be able to deal with you, and the only thing they're waiting for you to do is to stop lying and tell them the truth so that way they can help your dumb ass fix yourself. If I would have just did what Jenny said, we wouldn't have had any problems, like if I would have just listened to my wife this entire time. But it took. It took me getting around other men and it took coach David teaching the frame of the husband Right and I was like, oh my God, I've been yes, a thousand percent, like what it's.
Speaker 1it's. It's like when I was talking about this, actually, with my mother-in-law last night, we were just sitting around the kitchen table and, you know, we were talking about marriage and we were talking about the. We've been having this conversation quite a bit in regards to marriage in particular and this relationship between the wife and the husband, and we, you know, men. It was not good for men to be alone, so God made a helper, okay, and it's incredible how women have this almost subconscious ability to reflect to their husbands what it is that they're either doing or not doing. And it is for the man. If the man is weak, he runs, he lies, he hides Okay, Like you're just saying, and he'll hide to extreme capacity.
Speaker 1It comes out at some point, everything will be exposed at some point, but that's in the face of the storm and the chaos that they know is waiting on the other side.
Speaker 1We know that it's waiting on the other side of revealing and being exposed as the cheating, lying, lying, thieving son of a bitch that we are, and in the face of what we're supposed to be protecting, covering and and providing for.
Speaker 1And. But it's like, like you said, if, if you had just done. Well, if I could rephrase that, if I had just responded with strength to the way that my wife was challenging me, was mirroring me, then I wouldn't have the problems, because I actually would have accepted the gift of the helper that God created specifically for me and could join to me through the sanctity of marriage, something that that we, I think inside of today's western society in particular, have thrown out the window so fast. But it requires man the man to lead in, being brave enough and not being such a little bitch to actually set up, sit up and go. We have to sit up and go. She's got something here. I need to look at what she's talking about and not get as defensive and and passive, aggressive and bullshit hiding like, like so many tend to do we want to solve her problems.
Finding Warrior Week and Marriage Revival
Speaker 2We don't want to admit we have any problems. So we're stuck in the knowing mode instead of being in a learning mode. Like, the reason why I stopped drinking is because when I would drink, my wife's face would trigger me, because I would say stuff and she'd make a face and it was that mirror that was reflecting back at me and it would trigger me, and then we'd get in an argument and so, like I was like I love my wife's face, I don't know why am I drinking then? So I've been sober for five years because drinking wasn't helping me. It wasn't helping me connect with my wife, it wasn't helping me get had more sex, it wasn't helping me be smarter at work, it wasn't helping me solve any of my problems whatsoever I'd be hung over and have to apologize. My problems whatsoever I'd be hung over and have to apologize.
Speaker 2So it comes back to like what did did? Did God put me here for me to get drunk? So my kids can see their father have Coors Light or Miller Lite in the refrigerator every day and have to come home and drink a beer because his day sucks so bad Cause, that's not the story either. So, like you, you, you start to kind of dissect these things, but it was jenny's face triggering me and me when, when I realized that my job is to provide security, which means that I have to figure out my insecurities, instead of me distancing myself from her and not wanting to connect from her because I'm afraid to engage, I need, I need, I need to close proximity and actually I asked for her help. Now, you know like I asked for her help, like she was, she was there for all of it, bro.
Speaker 2She was there for all of them I mean, I took her to all the business meetings. I took her to every single, every single major employee that we hired. Still to this day, I bring her on interviews and she's like my truth stone. That's my ride or die, that's my, that's my business partner, that's my life partner, other mother of my children, and you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's more than when you, when you, when you bring it up to Christ level, when you bring it up to the fact that that is the person on this earth that God I know for a fact.
Speaker 2That's the person on this earth that God put me here for, and that union and that unity, that's the sanctimony of marriage, that's when things aren't broken, you know. If you don't believe in that, though, then it's easy to get a divorce 100, it's easy it's easy to break the contract yeah, yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1This is the crazy thing, blake. We have lost the understanding of what marriage is. We have defiled it with saying it's whatever you want it to be. Ceremonies are no longer um, are no longer the the extremely important um action, um of of a father who's covering his daughter, who is his first, who is the first love you handing that responsibility over to another man? That's huge. You've got a daughter, I've got daughters. The day will come. What kind of a man are you going to hand your daughter over to be covered by?
Speaker 2Good luck to that. What kind of a man.
Speaker 1Good luck to that dude, john. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Like he better be on point.
Speaker 2Dude. Look bro, my daughter is going to be a weaponized human being and she likes nice things, josh, when she plays Barbies, she plays room service. You know what I mean. Like she plays airport and she plays room service. You know what I mean. Like she does it like she plays airport and she plays room service. So, like her favorite foods sashimi, filet, mignon and crap. Uh, ginny asked her well, baby, that's very some expensive foods and she says not as expensive as caviar. She's nine.
Speaker 2That dude better bring something to the table you know, what she may marry a farmer, she, you know what I mean. Farmer a lot of farmers here what you say.
Speaker 1You sound like you're from boston when you say that a lot of farmers here, a lot of farmers got a lot of farmers here no man, I, I, I, man.
Speaker 2That's the stage we're in right now. You know the part of my day that I probably cherish most. I wake up in the morning and I've been open with you about this Like Old Testament was freaking me out, man, because there was a lot of violence and a lot of sexual violence and a lot of adult language. I wasn't expecting, because I had not read. I grew up Catholic, which means this book is not a book that we read very much. This is the Bible. We didn't read it a lot and so now that I'm reading it, I'm like you know what we're going to do a Bible study every day. I started this last year when Bible was in second grade, and we do an audio version. There's this really good version on the Bible app, where the narrator has a Shakespearean-like voice.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's on Spotify.
Speaker 2Oh, I love it, dude.
Speaker 1I love it. Yeah, I give it to him.
Speaker 2So we put it on, we listened to it and I remember we were listening to Joshua.
Speaker 2This was during your time and we're listening to Joshua and he's saying's saying stuff like uh, when you're I think it was Joshua he was like you know, when, um, when your women, it's like if you, if you kill the husband of uh, of a woman, and in war, and when you take the woman, when you take all the women back to your tribe, you shave their heads and put them in white, let them mourn for a month and then you can marry them, but if you like, take advantage of them and then get rid of them, and that that's bad, right, okay, I'm clearly paraphrasing, but that's pretty much what it says. Yeah, I remember looking at the back of violets in her car seat and she's like dad, what's going on? This is like we're talking about shaving women's heads and killing their husbands and not defiling them. And you know, um, this morning we're listening to exodus and he's like you know, the exodus, chapter 22 um, don't have sex with animals, you know yeah, and like so, like that they.
Speaker 2he needed to. He needed to say that because don't have sex with animals, you know, yeah, so he needed to say that because it happened.
Speaker 1It's a good point, good point. Wisdom in that listeners, wisdom in that you know.
Speaker 2So that used to catch me off guard. But you told me you were like hey look, it's a good opportunity to be able to open up conversation about what healthy sex is or what those relations are at her level. So I took your advice. So now I listen to the chapter twice. I'll read it myself here in this desk. I listen to it because I'm a better listener than I am a reader. I know that about myself. I do our drop, the normal thing. I write my message, I do my prayer, and now I've spoken it once because of the drop, and I've read it and I've written about it. And now I have my hands around the material. So we're in the car, we listen to it again. Now I get to teach it to her Instead of me being reactive. Now I'm ahead of it, and so now I'll stop and be like.
Speaker 2He had to say that because that was happening, because people were animals, they were a different culture, they're different times, different people. So God had to bring in these rules and these laws. And he's bringing in the characteristics of his self inside of this. He's bringing in accountability, you know, and he's he's bringing in the characteristics of his self inside of this. He's bringing in accountability, you know, and he's bringing in order. And then Jesus amplifies it.
Speaker 2Chapter 22 in Exodus is a really cool chapter because you get in 20, you get, I think, the Ten Commandments. Then you start getting some of like the how you're going to be holy and clean yourself to be able to worship, and now we're getting more into like the basis of liability and law, and then and and and inside of that there's there's like three key points. Here it's like treat foreigners um, like you know, like you, like you would want to be treated because you were once foreigners in egypt. And jesus says you know, love thy neighbor as yourself. Similar kind of context. And and when you read the new testament without having read the old testament which I do believe is a good order to do I think it's good to read like john first, and then go from there, read the four gospels, then read all the other supporting you know, go to acts, then read, you know, paul's prison epistles, all everything else, like read the whole new testament, but then go back and read the old testament and then go back and read the new testament again, because now you're going to have the sub-context of the things that jesus is actually saying.
Speaker 2And that's kind of where I'm at right now, where I am. I am cross-referencing now what I know in the, because I'll read in the Old Testament. I'm like, oh wow, I think that was in. I used to chat GPT a lot. I think that was in James or I think that was in Acts and sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong. That was in Matthew and it ends up being in Matthew, mark and Luke three of them. But I cherish that time, dude.
Speaker 2And we've done it every Monday through Friday, bro. We every monday through friday, bro, we don't listen to music until we do a bible study, and I got about a 30 minute drive to to school with violet and those 30 minutes for the first 20 of it. We're talking about god and and the statistics on that are off the charts, on the quality of the man that she's gonna pick, the job she's gonna have when she's gonna have sex, when she's going to pick the job she's going to have when she's going to have sex, when she's actually going to get who she's going to marry. You know, like all of that, her seeing her father respect the lord, our god, and and and and then to him but also like, teach her and talk to her about god and care about what she says. Like, bro, I don, I don't, I don't care what I'm here for, bro, that's my main priority.
Leading as a Spiritual Father
Speaker 1A hundred percent and I think that's like what you're describing there, like and I think this is something that like it's it's the most important message as being a, as being the spiritual leader of your house, like being that spiritual leader, like and learning how to discern, and learning how to recognize the way you do it. Like it's not easy, it's like you know, you know, like you were saying, you know, start off by just like discovering it with your child in the backseat.
Speaker 1And then in the midst of that it's like well, I don't discern what the heck is actually being said here. I don't know how to communicate the context, okay, and so this could get really warpy in a child's mind pretty damn quick or get the wrong idea, which is what I think. Everybody's a child when they're first reading the words, especially in the Old Testament, you know whether you're in Numbers or Joshua or whatnot, and you see the sheer scale of destruction and judgment. Like last couple of firesides in church we've been talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and the conversations around that. We're talking about incest. We're talking about all sorts of things like that.
Speaker 2We're talking about this, these guys tried to have sex with an angel. Bring those men out so we can have sex with them. That's a quote from the Bible.
Speaker 1Yeah, massively controversial conversations, but the fruit is that we hold these conversations in a holy space, a space where we lead them and it is submitted to God. And it is good because there's a grounding in that it's not icky. There's no such thing as icky. It's nothing to be ashamed of, it is a reality. The world is the way the world is, recognizing and discerning what they see around them, and to know what to partake in and what definitely to avoid and to be aware of, then to lead them inside of the word and arm them with that discernment. Hard thing to do, but if you don't get started and if you don't start taking this on as a part of a duty that we have been given to steward, time ticks by fast, stakes are high, it will go and before you know it you will have issues on your hands that you had never thought was coming around the corner. It's there.
Speaker 2You know, when our conference, me and Bob, this conversation was really cool this morning I just had came home and told, told uh jenny about it and she interrupted me. She was, like you know, one of my favorite um, you know, parts of the bible is when, um, she says mary magdalene because that's a big thing in the calvary church she was like when you know, jesus stopped everybody from stoning mary magdalene, and and he says he who has not sinned cast the first stone. And she was explaining kind of her point of view around it. And I've heard other preachers say this and it's relevant to what you're saying right now, because it's also like it's maybe not a badge of honor, but it is definitely can be a reframe on who you are as a man. Okay, so I am a sinner and in my life I have sinned a lot. These hands are very dirty, all right. And so Romans eight one says there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. So now these hands are clean, but these hands remember the dirt and in that story Jesus goes down and he starts drawing in the dirt, actually in scripture. And, and I'm imagining he starts drawing in the dirt actually in scripture and and I'm imagining he's picks up the dirt. He probably plays with the dirt a little bit, he comes back up and he preaches to them, he tells them for you that have not sinned and cast the first stone. But he's meeting them where they are and I feel like as a as a father, if you're not honest with your children about who you were and and are at least able to kind of channel that when you're seeing them, you can't be completely blind to who they are.
Speaker 2You know, I mean, my heart goes out to any parent that loses a child, especially for suicide. My heart goes out to any parent that loses a child because of gun violence. My heart goes to any child, these parents of these school shootings that happen in. I don't know if they happen in Australia, but brother in California and in Texas they've had these school shootings that happen in. I don't know if they happen in Australia, but brother in California and in Texas they've had 300 school shootings in each state. So I don't know if they prescribe SSRIs and and and attention medicine disorder. You know, I don't know if we're like you have that popping pills in Australia like they are in the US.
Speaker 2Something's going on, yeah, yeah, and I have to think it could be connected to the fact that parents are not having conversations with their children about god and they're not in the home caring and having conversations with their kids, because it's not their fucking priority. Yes, you know, because they've lost their priority. The men in our culture think that they got to go make the money, and then if the mom's working too, then the mom's making the money, and so we got two ATM machines and then they try to check in an hour a day to figure out where we're going to take Johnny to baseball or who's going to pick him up or who's going to go to dancing, and so their part-time job now is being chauffeurs and butlers, and there's no emotional development of these kids. And these kids now are getting taught by the algorithms and the bots inside of this phone. It's not even real people anymore. They're on Facebook and Instagram, arguing with bots, with an algorithm that sets up an environment that is made to drive their feelings and incense them.
Speaker 2Ai is not a good thing for humanity. I use it every day. Jenny thinks it's the devil. I agree with her. It's probably going to destroy the world, but it's going to destroy your children first.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Right and so, like those are real things and and it's not like, and I promise you, if you, if you, if you go through the lens here with any of the world's problems for children, there's an answer in here for all of it. And so my world got really simple really fast Once I. Once I came to realize that I'm actually not in charge of it. It's not my will be done, it's God's will be done, and I just pray to stay on that path.
Speaker 1Amen, quiet life.
Speaker 2I love you brother.
Speaker 1I love you too, man. I love you so much, man. I love this conversation, Like I just.
Speaker 2What a world that we live in, though, where you can be in Lafayette, louisiana, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1Yeah, man, we have this kind of connection.
Speaker 1Yeah, it is so good, but it's like it doesn't matter where you're at, like this is the thing I mean. The frame on this is faith. I mean the frame on on on this is you know, faith, family farming and fitness. But you know, it doesn't matter what you're doing, it doesn't matter where you're at, where you're from, it just matters that you know, you come to recognize what you are um and where you're at, and and be honest, you know you take the first step. You know um ask the question. Like, yeah, some people, some of us, have to ask the question more than once.
Speaker 1Um, okay, blake book, but you know, we all, we're all subject to to constantly, you know, constantly repeating the, the, the patterns and loops, because we're still grabbing and clinging on onto this desire for control and having our own sovereignty, and we're taught it. We're taught it um. So I think I think, like, thank you so much for for talking and speaking so honestly, like for sharing your story so openly, um, for putting yourself on display. It's a brave thing. I know it's not. I know it's something that you do willingly and openly because you're at peace with where you're at and where you've come from, and I see that I know you. I just think-.
Speaker 2It's different, though, because it's one thing to do it inside of the confines of the secrecy or warrior and the trust that's built inside of, that's easy. It's easy to be somebody who's, who's willing to to, to share it all. When, when there is that, that, that very spoken rule that you know, we, we, we're going to protect each other, you know it, it's good. Um, it's another thing to come on a podcast and say it and and and the. The reason for it is because I know that there's a man out there that needs to hear it 100, you know. I mean, that's the thing it's like. If you can't, if you can't like you think god pulled me through all that, that trial, that and that, and every single one of those fires and all those lessons for me to keep it a secret charlie kirk's charlie kirkks assassination.
Final Message: Tell the Truth
Speaker 2I wrote a post about this this morning. It did not did not make me want to shut my mouth. It made me want to talk more, but not from a a right-wing standpoint. I grew up as a republican. I vote mainly as a republican. I consider myself a fiscally responsible conservative republican, but I'm disgusted by what some of the republicans are saying and I'm disgusted by what some of the Republicans are saying, and I'm disgusted by what some of the Democrats are saying, and I feel like I'm very much in the middle and nobody represents me right now, and but I think the majority of people out there feel the exact same way, and it's because nobody's out there trying to figure out how to unify. Everybody wants to get clicks and divide, and that's the algorithm. You know, it's what they're learning from social media. It's their dopamine, right? They're looking and saying if I say something salacious, I'm going to get a lot of views.
Speaker 2Oh that's good, and views aren't vote, you know, and they're definitely not helping people and helping citizens. So I appreciate you for your platform. One thing I can say as far as the farming connection my wife's family owns one of the oldest sugarcane farming operations in the country, which is pretty cool. Um, all the way since the like 18. Well, their people came over in the 1700s to america, but like the same form since like 1835, which is really, really cool, and farming is a big part of louisiana's culture. We form sugarcane rice, crawfish, soybean, alfalfa, but around where I live it's sugarcane forest, sugarcane farms and crawfish farms, as far as I can see yeah, yeah it's a big.
Speaker 2It's a big big part of uh of our life down here as well yeah, no, no, that'd be awesome to come visit my one day.
Speaker 1We're we're coming over, so uh crockfish in australia.
Speaker 2Oh, I saw that flood you had. That's what I thought I was like bro we can do that.
Speaker 1Yeah, he's my. Yeah, he's a little bit, a little bit different, but yeah, uh, all right, bro. Well, look, I want you just to leave us with one more thing, mate. If you could just sort of sum up one thing to leave with our listeners, what would it be? If you're speaking to men who are currently in the pain of where you were in that pit? What would you say to them now?
Speaker 2Tell the truth and ask for help. Tell the truth and ask for help. It all, it all starts there. It's an honest conversation with those who love you, an honest conversation with yourself, and if you, if you don't, if you don't get, or if you're not yet ready for that, have an honest conversation with Josh and ask for help. And it's the first part of any of the processes is admitting you have a problem, tell the truth and ask for help.
Speaker 1I'm going to make that the title of this episode Tell the truth and ask for help. Beautiful, beautiful brother. Thanks, mate, thank you so much, and we'll call it quits there, brother. And yeah, man, god bless, I love you brother, I love you man, and we'll call it there. Folks, if you enjoyed that chat, or even if you didn't, and you have a suggestion, a story or some feedback, shoot us an email at manslandpodcast at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you. And if you're curious about Warrior Week Australia, please reach out. Let's sort out a time to chat about where you're at. Thanks for listening and until next time we'll catch you around the traps.
