Episode 008 - Men-torship with Damon Vincent, featuring Brian Melancon

On today’s Men-torship episode, Brent sits down with Damon Vincent and return guest, Brian Melancon, to discuss all things “man”.  Damon is the owner and CEO of Train Unique, a Lafayette, Louisiana first of its kind gym that caters to adaptive and intellectual athletes with special needs. He’s also a retired professional MMA fighter and most importantly a husband and father of four.  Together, they take you through an authentically raw and honest discussion about fatherhood, faith, family, entrepreneurship and everything in between. 


Be sure to follow/support Damon at https://www.instagram.com/damon_vee/
and his business, https://www.instagram.com/wetrainunique/.


You can also connect with Brian Melancon at https://www.instagram.com/c620nutrition/  and check out Episode 003 to listen to his Men-torship wisdom. 

-B + L 

Transcript

Lindsey: 0:01

We are Brent and Lindsey Goodyear, husband and wife duo, here to share our unfiltered thoughts on marriage, parenting, faith, family, and everything in between.

Brent: 0:11

We promise to ask the hard questions and share perspective as we navigate life in all its unexpected curveball filled glory.

Lindsey: 0:18

So here's the authenticity, here's to growth, and here's to embracing the Goodyears. And cut! Yes! Masterpiece! Slammed

0:28

it!

Brent: 0:32

So Brian Malonso is on the podcast too. So we got Damon Vincent here. Is it Vincent or Vincent? Depends on where you're from. I know if you're from Kaplan, it's Vincent. But you're not Kaplan. I'm not Kaplan. You're like in between though. From me and

Damon: 0:42

Parrish though. That's right. Technically it's Vincent. Yeah. So many times of, you know, how do you spell your name on a phone, you know, they mess all that like, how do you spell that? Yeah, yeah, I'm with you. So if I'm on the phone, it's

Brent: 0:53

Vincent. Yeah, I'm with you, man I know anytime I say my name on the phone It's I say Brent but it kind of the way it comes out with my accent They're like Grant and I'm like, no, they're like Brynn my topic be like after I'm like Overly accentuated Brent. So we, we went to, um,

Brian: 1:10

Brent just wants to be part of the weird name lab. That's right. It's like, include me guys. That's like

Brent: 1:15

the most like, white bread name. It's simple, but it's, it's the way that I say it. Cause I'm, my voice will be like, It's not muffled. I'm trying to think how to say, I speak fast. I can't help it. I'm coming from my back, you know, that

Damon: 1:28

video that Lindsey posted. Are you ordering that steak?

Brent: 1:30

Dude, you ought to see the hate on that thing, bro. People are like, you don't even have an accent. I

Damon: 1:35

was dying. Dude, you have an accent for sure. I do. And if you don't force it, you know, force there. Sometimes

Brent: 1:41

particular video, we reenacted it, right. Because it was happening and the, the waitress was like, sir, I don't. I don't understand what you're saying. I'm like, so I'm like, I would like a ribeye, like I had to throw it down. And she was like, got it. You know? So I told Lindsay, I was like, let's just reenact it. And bro, the hate on that video, the internet is not a place you go to feel good, but

Damon: 2:03

it was on, it was Romanian parish home brand. Oh yeah,

Brent: 2:05

no doubt. No doubt. So it was fun. I mean, it was, uh, it was interesting to see how people are like, Like really trying hard to listen, like what, what, you know, but the, the more I drink, the worse it gets, dude. Like that's whenever, like the coach O starts coming out in me and it's bad, dude. It's bad. So, um, anyway, bro, look. Damon, I'm glad to have you, man. Brian sitting in with us, dude. So I'm, uh, I'm excited. Brad's going to be, it's going to be good. But, um, they, we've been knowing each other for a while, man. I always, uh, something I thought about whenever I invited you on, I said, I'm gonna bring this up. Um, so, um, I guess day for those of you who don't know, Damon's a professional MMA fighter, right? That's one of the. 5, 000 things that he's good at. Right. So, uh, we were training one day whenever I used to train in head kicks and I caught you one time with like a switch, right? And look, I'm going with it until the day that I die. I hit him with it and I was like, all right, calm down bro, at least don't whip up on me. But whenever I caught him with it, I was like, Ooh, I'm stamping out in my brain. I got it. Got him. I got it on that professional fighter. I caught him with a trick.

Damon: 3:10

I know I'm just trying to train and vibe over here.

Brian: 3:14

Does that keep you up at night? The one time he blocked it out. Cause I don't think it happened. It

Brent: 3:19

was probably like, I let him have that one, you know, but dude, give like a little quick introduction on yourself.

Damon: 3:25

Yeah. So, um, I'm from more East Louisiana. I'm 28 years old. Um, yeah, it's been a really fun last few years. Uh, I actually, my last fight was, that was my last one that we just had back in uh, Dude, that's so crazy, man. Yeah. So what,

Brent: 3:40

what made you, what led you to that decision for it to be like your last one? So Cause you had a pretty successful career. Yeah, I

Damon: 3:45

did. I, I've been really, really at 28. It's wild that. I've found what God wants me to do in my rear, my real career at train unique, you know, which is our gym for special needs and unique athletes. And with my family, like, I mean, I have four kids and a beautiful wife and like, it sounds crazy whenever you, you think about, you know, having a successful business and a successful pro fight career and a family because it is crazy. It's wild. I feel much older than that. But like when you compare what it's like to have a family. that needs you and loves you and the, the gym, which is my real like purpose on this earth, fighting just can't, can't compare. And it's funny because years ago, like, I don't know if you remember that conversation we had, Brian, like I'm talking, what is it? Six or probably six years ago, I had found, tracked Brian down and I was like, I think I was about to graduate from UL. And I was like, look, this is what I want to do. Trying to figure it all out and Brian was like go get your CSCS Because that is like the best certification you can get and I did that and then he was we were kind of talking I was kind of talking about the fighting thing and the train unique thing and Brian kind of looked at me He's like, I think you know Like what's really up? He's like, I think, you know, where you're really supposed to be. Well, Brian drops that wisdom sometimes, dude, I'm

Brent: 5:12

telling

Damon: 5:12

you, man, sometimes you got to be careful around him.

Brent: 5:14

He's going to call you out on some stuff.

Damon: 5:16

I think about that all still, and like, that was one of the things that went into the decision was like, and you know, I still kept on fighting six years, but like, I, I got it to a spot, you know, I did, uh, five amateur fights and then I did seven pro fights and I got to a point where I feel like. I developed so much as a, as a man, as a person, as a father, as a business owner, there's a lot of beautiful things that fighting could teach you. And I felt like I was at that point where I had learned those things and to keep going and force my family to sacrifice me and force the business to sacrifice for my own personal goals of just getting to the UFC. I felt like it was super selfish. So

Brian: 5:55

that's one thing I was about to ask you, man. It's like, uh, I imagine, you know, in the fight game, it's, uh, You know, uh, the, the, the prep portion is so selfish and so intense that the risk to reward, you know, like, okay, like what could my name in UFC, like actually do for my business? Cause then, you know, there is the business aspect of fighting, but also too, it's like, you know, if God's called you to something, but then, you know, we also have our own desires. It's like. There is a point where it's like when we, when we pursue something, it almost becomes a vain pursuit and it starts taking away from what God's called us to do. And then when we turn around and obey, we see the, the blessing explodes. Like, Oh man, like, like, man, I actually wasn't getting any benefit out of fighting, you know?

Damon: 6:34

Right. And that that's exactly where it got to be, you know? And cause fighting is dude, especially at the pro level that I was at, I mean, I was fighting dudes who are. Full-time fighters. Yeah. Like these dudes are warriors. They're not, that's all

Brent: 6:46

they do all day long. Exactly. They don't got a business and you got family business. Exactly. And it's like,

Damon: 6:50

it's crazy. I mean, I'm, I'm thankful that like I got some wins against these dudes. You know, like I'm, I'm, I'm thankful that I got to the level, but like the end of the day, the athletes that I'm working with, you know, I think that certifications are cool and a fight career is cool, but, and you gotta know your, you gotta know it and you gotta walk it and you gotta talk it. Don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, those athletes don't care if I was in UFC. Like it's cool, but they care about. That I care about them. Yeah, that's what they care about. And they care about, you know, where they're going. They care about being part of something great. Um, and I don't think that the risk versus reward for the fight game. I mean, we're talking three hours a day, the minimum, like the, the, the best, you know, the guys to compete, to be competitive, to get up there three to four hours a day, two trainings a day for sure. And then that's the mental aspect that it takes. I mean, I'd be home with the family, but like not home. I'm like, dude, there's a dude. training right now to destroy me. It's really hard to be at your kid's birthday party when you know

Brent: 7:52

so much anxiety, like, Oh man, am I doing enough to be able to compete with these guys? But you were, you were crazy successful though. I mean, weren't you the, um, your weight class, you were the professional champion in your weight class. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was crazy.

Damon: 8:04

Yeah. I got the amateur. Champion and in the professional championship again. And I mean, I interviewed for the ultimate fighter. Yeah. Uh, yeah, I did the, I did the interview with the producers and I mean, I was close for that. And, uh, probably another couple wins and I'd have been in the UFC, but it's like, like what Brian was just saying, like, now that I'm on the other side of it, I'm like, man, this is what it's like. We're like, I'm thankful. And because honestly, if I wouldn't have done it, yeah. I wouldn't have been as appreciative as I where I am now, you know, because I was putting my body and my soul through absolute hell for years. And so now only I can appreciate it. But, uh, but yeah, now that I've, I've let it go and I'm actually able to be present at the gym, present with my family. It's, you know, life is definitely different.

Brian: 8:50

Let me, let me ask you something, man. Cause one thing I've admired about you for years, bro, is, uh, is your train unique concept, uh, because like working with special needs people, it's a calling, like it's, it, it isn't a niche market, you know, so my business mind. Automatically goes to like, Oh yeah. Like anytime there's a niche market there, there's money that follows. But bro, I remember when you started up, it's like, it wasn't, you know, it's like all things start small. And so it's like, this was truly a passion project that you had in a truly a calling because, and the reason why I say it has to be a calling is because it's like, there has to be such a level of, of patience that you have to have to deal with, uh, individuals that have, um, disabilities and I'll let you go into that. So if you don't mind, man, could you tell us like how this got started and like when did the Lord put on your heart that, that your calling was to, to love on these individuals? And so can you just tell us all about train unique and the origin of it?

Damon: 9:45

Yeah. So 10 years ago, um, actually this coming Monday 10th year anniversary of running, uh, camp unique, the fitness portion for camp unique. So 10 years ago, I don't know if you guys remember the UFC gym. And Lafayette, back in Ambassador. So I was working there, going to college, and they, the Dreams Foundation of Acadiana, which is one of the best non profits in the area, for kids and adults with disabilities and special needs, they run a big summer camp. And so they do art, they asked us to do fitness, they do science, karaoke, the whole nine yards. And so we go, I run it, it's cool, I was like, man, this is really fun. They approached us after the camp, and they were like, would you guys want to start doing a boxing class? And For our, our, uh, campers, you know, or our students, whatever. And it was a disaster. Can you imagine 18 year old Damon? Like we've got like 15, 16, you know, kids and adults with special needs. I'm trying to teach them boxing combos, horrible. So I was like, and, and as horrible, as bad of an experience as I thought it was, They were like, that was the best thing in my life. They loved it. And I was like, okay, exactly. And so I was like, man, like these guys are starving for something physical and something fun and something that empowers them. Right.

Brent: 11:04

And so

Damon: 11:04

I was like, okay, let's change it to fitness. So we changed it to fitness. We started incorporating more like, Gross motor skill type movements, you know, med ball stuff and crawls and jumps and athletic style. Gross motor skill stuff turned into a thing. Every Friday afternoon, we would have a class. This is back in, um, 2014. Then UFC gym shut down. I moved to head kicks on johnson street And we opened up a second class because that friday class got like 20 people. So I put up a second class Tuesday morning that class grows open up a third class wednesday morning that class class grows people start asking Hey, we want to do personal training, you know that grows and dude it just Blossomed into something that I could not have ever imagined but I guess just of how You Don't get me wrong. There were some really hard times of us like having to figure it out, but also just how organic it was and how God driven it was like from us, you know, always having a home at head kicks, like Aaron opened up his space to us to do that too. Then when we got our first location, we kind of happened upon it. We're talking, we opened up our own location, like officially when unique fitness opened up. In COVID, it was August, 2020, the fact that like we flourished through COVID. And then after we grew out of that space and we got to do the partnership with gladiators and Claire with ignite again, it just happened. And so there was so many divine intervention things that like now you can't convince me otherwise that this is not what I was put here for. Yeah.

Brian: 12:41

Did you, did you have to, uh, grow in like, uh, impatience and, or, or did, do you feel like it was just like, this was just like who you were called to serve. And it was almost, almost natural. Cause I don't think I could do what you, you do, you know?

Damon: 12:56

Yeah. I don't, the patience thing, uh, that's just kind of part of who I am, obviously, which is, which is weird, but like, you know, like, like we talked about people are put on this earth for certain things. And I think that this is what I was put on this earth for. So that wasn't the struggle. It was honestly more of the marrying Um, I know that this is, this needs to be a thing for these athletes, but also I am a dad and a husband and have to provide for my family. So like that was where the most of the growth that has come from it has been more on the business side. Interesting. Um, on the, on the training side, like dude all day long, I mean, it's just a blast. Yeah. Like these guys come in. Um, you know, and you know from working with general pop and you know, bodybuilders and stuff like that, that like those little things that get in the way of some of our general pop and athletic pop athletes do not get in the way for a special needs athlete. Interesting. Like they are coming. Yeah. They got an appointment. You better be there because they're going to be there and they're going to be there 15, 20 minutes early and they're gonna be ready to work. No excuses. No excuses. And so like those things are a blast. Right. And there are some athletes that we have to, uh, Kind of hold their hand and walk them through when they struggle with self esteem stuff for sure. Um, and that that's part of the game, but as far as the patience goes, there's There's a lot less of that required than you would think because they're ready to go, you know? And so, uh, yeah, man, it's the, the, the training side and the working with the athlete side is just a blast. And honestly, once you work with unique athletes, it's really hard to go back. Uh, it's really, yeah, yeah. It's like, I love, I mean, I love working with guys and love, I love training people and I still do some military, you know, work, but. But like once you work with some badass train, unique athletes, no going back.

Brent: 14:38

Well, I can't imagine. I would imagine that working with people who really want it is something that's got to be really fulfilling because like, like Brian, as a bodybuilding coach, anybody that comes to you, you want them to be, to be taken incredibly, or you want them to take it incredibly seriously.

Brian: 14:53

Yeah. Like I can't want it more than they want it for themselves. So that's right. Never work.

Brent: 14:57

That's right. You just, so you don't want to bring Goodyears out there. I worked with Brian one time and I told him, I said, dude, I've never had pizza cravings so bad in my life. And I just gave in one day. I was like, that's it. Pizza almost every day. Oh yeah. But he told him, he was like, you got to be ready to be uncomfortable. But it's, uh, it was just things like that. I couldn't, I wasn't prepared for like the, how much. Uh, I don't even want to call what I was doing. It wasn't even suffering. It was just like, um, changing of lifestyle, you know, but these guys to understand to for them to want it so bad where they're early every time, which in this culture, bro, people are not early to anything, right? So for them that they're early, that whenever they get there, they're like, all right, coach, let's go like ready to go. And they never miss. It's crazy. It is,

Damon: 15:40

man. And just like the little things that, you know, That bother, you know, uh, I was late, family this, or I'm tired, or, you know, like, that just doesn't exist, you know. There are other issues that we deal with that are things that make it a little more ministry, of a ministry aspect sometimes. Like, for example, I have an athlete, spinal cord injury athlete, who has, you know, some bladder issues, so he has a urine bag, right? So like, Sometimes that stuff gets on the mat, you know, he, cause, cause we get our athletes. It's not just like adaptive wheelchair fitness. Like we get them out on the mat. He's getting out of his chair, doing pushups on the floor, doing bear crawls on the crawls. Right. And like, sometimes, I mean, it's serious. Yeah. And so it's like, sometimes we're cleaning up, right. Or like sometimes somebody needs help transferring in the bathroom. Yeah. Right. So like, There's aspects like that, that I'd love and I appreciate because truly serving, right?

Brent: 16:34

I like how you put it where you said it's true, like ministry. It's a little more of a ministry. And

Damon: 16:37

if you, you know, one of the things that is amazing about being a coach and a trainer and having a gym, as you guys know, is the relationship aspect. Like you really get to walk alongside somebody and especially with. unique athletes like you really get to walk alongside people. You know, like we have an athlete right now who is going through bunches of medical issues. She has a rod in her back that broke a long time ago. Um, she has a shunt. And so like she's going to these different appointments everywhere and she's like updating us. You know, she's like, yeah, my rod broke. But my doctor was so glad that I was moving because if I wouldn't have been moving the calcium and scar tissue builds up and it's more painful. So it's just like we got to keep moving, you know, like that's walking with somebody that's, that's truly something that's making a difference, you know? And so, uh, I love that. And you know, it's like we were talking about the affiliate program a while ago and as we teach other gym owners how to do that, it's going to be really fun. And challenging to get them to understand that This is a little different than regular, you know different challenges, but sometimes it's going to get personal with these athletes, you know Um, and so i'm looking forward to that

Brent: 17:43

dude. That's awesome, man Like as we were talking about the affiliate programs i'm like i'm thinking of some gym owners and and i'll i'll I find myself just like really like just sitting quiet listening to you because these are just things I've never had to think of before, you know, like to hear what some of these people are going through, but it doesn't matter. They're showing up, bro, no matter what. And then I think about like, Being an imperfect man. The excuses that I make sometimes and I'm like, oh, you're soft dude. Soft, soft, soft bro. We really are, bro. I'm just walking in this, in this world. Just made a jello, man, you know? So I'm like, man,'cause my neighbor, uh, Travis. So he trained with you for a while? Yeah. Had Travis, he droves. Yeah. Yeah. And he loved it. Brian, he lost a bunch of weight to it.'cause Travis, um. What's his diagnosis? Is he, uh, like autistic or autism? Yeah. So, um, he stays inside a lot, you know, he'll come outside every now and then, but, um, can't, can't care for himself. Right. But to see him lose so much weight just from being like, uh, at least a little bit active, it was so good to see. So we'd go outside sometimes and I'd take out the trash and he always takes out their trash. Right. And he'd be like, Hey Brent, it's, uh, it's, uh, Saturday or Saturday's coming up. And he's like, I lost 20 pounds or whatever. I'm like, Oh, cool, man. He's like, yeah, yeah. You know, and I was like, well, look, me and me and Mr. Damon, we friends, you know, and he was like, okay, okay. But he was always, he was always excited to tell me like, like what was going on and how much weight he lost or whatever, you know, he's, he's real big on, um, on like stats, you know, like, bro, he knows so much about like what day is coming up, what the weather's going to be, that kind of stuff. But it was like, it's just funny to hear him, you know, but he's like, you know, In it, bro. But whenever he was training with you, you could tell, like, there was a difference, you know, so it was really cool to see, man, that somebody like him could actually, uh, go to a place where they, they challenge him.

Damon: 19:29

Yeah. And it's a quality of life thing. The fitness is obviously important, but getting these guys off the couch. Right. Getting these guys moving, getting these guys having something to look forward to, you know, having a community to be around, you know, having somebody ask them if they drink water that day, you know, having somebody ask them if they ate breakfast that day. Like that's, that's what it's all about. And it's a, it's super, super cool, man. Yeah.

Brent: 19:51

I can't wait to see it in more of these, uh, affiliate programs with other like gym owners. I'm like, boy, that's gonna, that's gonna call some hearts to soft and big time. I think about like the CrossFit gyms, like whenever we used to CrossFit, like it wasn't. The gym owners were always great, you know, especially where we where we win. We went to a shout out raging Raging fitness with jeremy and those guys man. They were they were awesome. We loved them. They've always been great Yeah, and they they got soft hearts already, but I know some of those crossfit gyms out there Some of those guys are like intense, you know So i'm like i'd love to see one of those really intense gyms like partner with you for one of their affiliate programs And let those athletes come into the gym and just watch that team That perspective change and even for the members over there to, to, uh, to be exposed to that, to see there's no excuses from these guys. They're showing up early. They hear every time. Um, uh, bro, that, that perspective shift, like I could see it making a difference, man. Like I really, not just in the lives of the people who are doing it, but the, um, how, how would you say that? Like, uh, Just the absorption from the people around them, you know, how that light, yeah, that perspective, how that light could just shine out outside of just what y'all are doing. Right?

Damon: 20:57

Yeah. And it's, it, it can be, it's a, as far as like feeling grateful, like sometimes it takes, and that's, that's what's so, that's what's frustrating for me sometimes is like, why does it take us to watch other people in a worse position to make us feel grateful? Yeah. Like we should be grateful. All the time. Yeah. But sometimes you don't realize how blessed you are until you see somebody else struggling. Yeah, right. And that's, that's our own fault. But that is truly what happens sometimes, you know, and I think that's what's going to be another blessing of these affiliate programs is like, yeah, somebody, you know, some mom or dad comes in and, Don't get me wrong. Family life is stressful, right? But if you're stressed about getting your healthy kid to school on time your healthy kid to private school on time Yeah, like what why are you bitching? Why are you complaining and so it's like sometimes for you my mom just to see you know One of those athletes coming in who had a spinal cord injury or a traumatic brain injury or cerebral palsy or whatever it is It's going to be boom, like it's going to be a light bulb go off and it's going to really impact a lot of people.

Brian: 22:00

So I think y'all were talking about the affiliate program, uh, uh, before we actually started recording. So, uh, tell us a little bit about that just to backtrack a little bit.

Damon: 22:08

Yeah. So train unique is a brand new concept. Like we, there's a couple other gyms in the country who do what we do, but nobody who does it to the size and scale that we do it to. And so we've had eight to nine gym owners from all over the country reach out to us and be like, dude, this is really cool. How do I do this? And so we've been helping them out as we go. But as we, as we, you know, grow, we realized that this is a real thing, that all gyms, a gym owner who has a gym and trainers and, you know, functioning business, can buy from us and plug in to their community. Essentially franchising. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. But instead of asking them to go and take out, you know, a bunch of debt and equipment and start from ground zero and learn exactly and open up a whole new gym, we're gonna, we're targeting already successful gym owners.

Brian: 23:00

Interesting.

Damon: 23:01

And so they can buy this affiliate program, buy the license from us. We're going to certify them. We're creating a certification for the different, uh, intellectual athletes, adaptive athletes, et cetera. They can get certified from us and then we're gonna teach them how to add this program to their services. Yeah. Yeah, and so this number one makes it Uh, accessible to athletes all over the place because I'm, I've thought about the franchise thing, but asking somebody to come up with 30, 50 grand just for the franchise fee, plus the equipment, all the stuff like, I just don't feel like that's the, the best way to get this out to everybody. I feel like if we go find some successful Jeremy Oli's in Houston and say, look, you know, five to 800 a month. Oh, certification, five to 800 a month. Here's everything you need to be successful. Opened up a train unique program. Go.

Brian: 23:53

Yeah.

Damon: 23:53

Right. And then we can start plugging these things in all over the country. Right. And we may do some private location stuff in Louisiana. We got some Medicaid stuff rolling, which I'm super, super pumped about. Um, that's gonna hopefully allow training to be paid for in Louisiana by Medicaid for all our athletes. Oh yeah. So I went to Baton Rouge. Yeah. Went to Baton Rouge. Like a month ago and spoke to the, the waiver people about out there. And that was, that's going to be an uphill battle

Brent: 24:20

for

Damon: 24:20

sure. Yeah. But it's, it's, it's a worth a worthy one for these athletes. Like they have these Medicaid and waiver services that pay for caretakers that pay for medical supplies that pay for all kinds of stuff. Why is fitness not being paid for? Like, that's insane. It's one of the most basic needs of some of a person and not to mention the money is going to save the state.

Brent: 24:41

That's what I was about to say. I was like, I wonder if they would actually Save a ton of money from how these people be

Damon: 24:45

viewed as, as, as healthcare, you know, preventative healthcare. But they're now seeing it like, like we've made enough noise to where like the people are like seeing it and now they like kind of can't run from it anymore. Like the families are asking them, like, let's get this on the waiver program, you know? And so like, it's going to increase access to every person has a developmental disability in Louisiana. no matter their budget, no matter what, like they can train and that's going to be a huge impact for our athletes, not to mention for training because of business. Yeah. Um, but yeah, so we may do some private location stuff in Louisiana, but the affiliate stuff, uh, I was telling him, we got super blessed with one of our athletes drew plushie. He's a spinal cord injury athlete from Lafayette. Um, trains five days a week. He's a savage and he's like, I want to like get this to all adaptive athletes around the country. Like, how do we do it? And then we, uh, got hooked up with like the best neuro physical therapist in the area. And it was Lauren young. Um, and so the three of us are going to partner together, uh, myself from the gym owner side, drew from the athlete side and then Lauren from the physical therapist side. And we're going to create this affiliate program together. And then we're going to, you know, create a certification and start blasting it out. So we can get this thing to gym owners. We can get this thing to just a trainer at say club four who wants to work with adaptive athletes, physical therapy clinics who want to start like wellness programs after hours, right? Um, physical therapist, maybe want to start it in a clinic and rent. Right. So, um, hospitals, like when a hospital discharges somebody with a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury, they need, Information and resources is in the athlete's home with so they continue to get better. We can provide that we can work with pharmaceutical companies who Provide drugs for these athletes if we are helping the drug help the athlete Then insurance will continue to pay for it.

Brent: 26:41

Oh, wow.

Damon: 26:41

Right. So there's just tons of that's, that's the thing about this is like, nobody's really doing this. Oh yeah. I was about to say about

Brian: 26:48

your trend setting right now. Uh, and man, hopefully, uh, you know, some, some lawyers may hear this and listen to podcasts and they pull on their heart string and want to donate some time to you. You know, it's like a, cause it's going to take a team. It's going to take a team to, you know, cause this is going to have to, this is going to go all the way up the chain. Yeah.

Damon: 27:05

And that's, that's what's. Like when you going back to the fighting thing, like we were talking, I were talking like, what made you like, why, you know, people ask me like, why did you stop fighting? Like I had a couple like that night, this last one, I mean, I, I beat a dude. It was tough. It was a tough fight. And this dude was tough. And they were like, dude, you can't retire. You just beat, you know, beat this guy. And I was like, we would be training at, you know, 7, 8 PM at night. And I would think about literally just having to go through two more fight camps. And I was like, dude, I don't want to, but whenever I think about this battle, With medicaid and lawyers and you said an uphill battle probably gonna take years. I don't care. No problem. I don't care. Like we're going to do it.

Brent: 27:45

Cause that's where your passion is now. Yeah, your purpose. Exactly. And you don't want to put effort into something that you aren't really passionate about. Right. And it's like, it's

Damon: 27:51

not that I wasn't passionate about fighting, but it's just like not what God wants from me or needs from me rather. And it was like, it's just crazy. Like probably another year I could have been in the UFC. This battle might take five, 10 years. I don't care. Like we're going to get it done. And it's just weird to feel those two things. Like, but whenever something is like when you're really walking where you're supposed to be God, like it's not going to stop you. You know, it's a weird feeling. Yeah. This is a life purpose, you

Brian: 28:18

know?

Brent: 28:18

Yeah, for sure. I feel like I got to sit on that one a little bit. I'm like, that's good, man. It's really good, dude. And that, as you talk about, you know, that transition, man, from, From being a fighter, do you find that you're almost having to let go of part of your identity, man, because you've been fighting for so long and especially when it's something you're really good at, do you find that you're like, all right, I'm having to kind of let this part of me go. Like how, how has that transition from, uh, what, what are your brown belt or black brown belt, brown belt, brown belt, uh, professional, what would you call it? Consider yourself MMA. Yeah. So a professional MMA fighter. And then now you're having, uh, you're probably still going to train, I'm sure you're still training, but now it's just, you're just a practitioner now, you know, not really like trying to fight. So how are you, how's that transition from something that you're crazy good at better than what 99 percent of the population had with, with an opportunity to even go into the UFC, which would be the, the life's everyone who wants to be an MMA fighter, their life's work. What's that transition like of being like, okay. This is now behind me. I'm now, uh, I'm now more of a line where I sleep all day, you know, how lines, how they say lying, sleep all day and they know when they got to get riled up, you know, to go make their kill. But now you're more of like, uh, okay, so now I'm a family man. Now I'm a businessman, but my, my business and my heart caters to people who have special needs and that sort of thing. You know, how do you go from being a. Almost like a wild animal to be like, all right, now I'm, I'm, I'm calming all this down right now.

Damon: 29:44

It's definitely been a struggle because like, I've, I've been, you know, fight camp, like you're saying, like, it's, I mean, it's serious and you, it's, it's a weird, that's the thing about fighting is there's really nothing like it. And I get why people get addicted to drugs because it's like, dude, you're talking like a drug of like, dude, you're about to get in the cage. And the guy's trying to kill you. And we're about to scrap. And it's like, it's such an amazing feeling. The face off the night before is my favorite part. Like, we both just cut a bunch of weight. And we're both dehydrated, hungry, haven't had food in 24 hours. And like, we're just staring into each other's soul, just like feeling it. Like, that's an amazing feeling. That doesn't sound amazing. None of that sounds amazing. I mean, you've been stripped of everything, you know, and you're just like, we're just staring each other down. And that I'm super thankful that I got to feel that. And so to, to come from that, to yeah, being a family man and having to bathe my kids at night and deal with that chaos is been tough. It really has, uh, just be it. Not so much. as an identity thing, more of like wanting to feel the thunder kind of thing. You know what I mean? Just like, once you get, once you get that high and that high level of like, let's go having to come down from that is tough. Like there's not that many things that, that you can feel that from, you know, but I'm learning that you have to take that same, you know, desire to feel the and move it into The things that you're supposed to be doing like, okay I had a desire to be great and do that and get after it, you know and I think the thing is about just giving it your all

Brent: 31:22

and

Damon: 31:23

Being like when you're staring somebody down the thing about it That's so amazing is there's nothing else that exists on the planet besides that Like you cannot think about anything else besides that dude, right? And so it's just about taking that same intensity and And moving it into family life, like it's hard to like relate family life and intensity, but it's just about being all in. Like if I'm bathing my kids, I'm bathing my kids. If I'm, you know, playing with my kids, I'm playing with my kids, you know? And so moving that over I think is been key, you know, but I definitely have struggled with trying to like down regulate my nervous system.

Brent: 32:00

That's exactly what I was about to ask. Cause I was like, you know, For me personally, obviously I've never fought professionally or anything. I fought in a smoker one time and the dude worked me over. It was great,

Brian: 32:12

but

Brent: 32:12

it was the most humbling thing. I was like, bro, I'm so good at this. And then this guy comes from Houston and worked me over. And I was like, I'm so not good at this at all, at all. I'm so

Brian: 32:24

bad. I'm a lover.

Brent: 32:27

It was crazy. But, um, But I think about like myself, right? So, um, something I've had to work on since, especially since becoming a father, like prior to becoming a dad, I would say that my emotional control was solid, dude. There was nothing somebody could tell me, do to me, to get me worked up. It was almost impossible because my I was just never in fight mode It was always just like cool calm collected Brent. No problem, right? We had a kid I'm in fight mode all the time all the time, dude Like I can't and by fight mode, I mean like fight or flight, right? Yeah, like my I couldn't regulate to just be calm because the second our baby Jackson would start crying, dude, it was like, I was like freaked out and I, and it was something new I had to learn. Right. So like for you going into being a father of four, you know, and now you're not fighting anymore. Like to me, it'd be able to get that, uh, that energy out training. But now that you're not, do you find that you're having to make like those adjustments with your kids? Like if things get frustrating, do you find yourself wanting to get, Worked up because you aren't able to work it out. Or do you find that it's that you're still able to kind of cope pretty well?

Damon: 33:32

Yeah. So both like whenever you have, that's one of the superpowers of having fought before. Like you see guys who if they can switch from being an MMA fighter to whatever they are next, they're usually really successful. And I think one of that reason is like from stress was resilience, right? It's like once you've, we just talked about once you've stared somebody down, right? I walked out, got in a cage and fought somebody, you know, in your underwear. There's not a whole lot that can really stress you out after that. Right. So it's like my kids are freaking out, stuff's gone wrong. I'm just kind of like, it's all good. It could be worse. I'm not fighting somebody. Someone could be trying to kill me right now. Trying to hurt me. It's all good. And so that's how it works. But if I don't Have that outlet and I don't take care of myself if I don't train extremely hard whether that's weights Jiu jitsu running whatever if I don't Uh, you know exhaust myself then I do get agitated a lot quicker Yeah, you know We like like trying to put the kids to bed and they're they're getting up and stuff like that If I I notice that about myself, like i'm still got that You need me a little bit frustrated and if I don't exhaust it if I don't push You know training wise It'll get there, but that's just part of kind of learn, like, or both trying to get better at that, but also realizing it's part of who I am still and like I have to push hard. Or it's going to affect my mood if I don't,

Brent: 34:58

yeah, I actually heard that for the first time on Joe Rogan's podcast where he said that he's like, if I don't exhaust myself at least once during the day, he said, I have too much energy at night. So he's like, I can't sleep. Um, I'm short. Um, when it comes to like my temper, that kind of stuff. And I was like, I never, I never thought of that, you know? So then, uh, I compared it to me, like, okay. Um, you know, now that we have two kids, I was like, man, am I doing enough to make sure that like, I wonder if, if sometimes I'm short because I haven't really exhausted myself. So I would go to CrossFit and like kill myself. And it got to a point where like, I was so tired when I came home, I couldn't get worked up. I was like so exhausted that I'd get home and the kids would be crying. And I'm just like, I just don't have the energy. To get worked up. So it was just like super calm. So now we aren't doing CrossFit anymore, but we're, we're lifting, um, at Apex. Oh, nice. But whenever we go, dude, I like, I push hard, like really, really hard. And I find that it's almost enough, you know, I still have to like, me and Lindsay still have to get out the house, go walk a little bit. Like I just have to be busy throughout the day to just kind of keep some movement going. But with that, it at least helps, you know? So, uh, To those people, listen, who maybe are like, man, I can't figure out why I get so worked up all the time, bro, go run, go run until the point where you're exhausted. And then let's see if that makes a difference or train, go do something physical

Damon: 36:23

or intuitive, you know, but I think it's, I think it's a stress, like a stress level reset, you know, like people's people are so like, not to say soft, but like kinda like if you don't know what stress really is, Then you don't know what to be stressed about or what not to be stressed about, you know? So it's like you have to have a baseline of what real stress is and so that the the mundane stuff really does It is mundane and you can actually react to it in a mundane way And not get all worked up about it because you just put yourself through something challenging

Brent: 36:57

Yeah, i'm i'm going to try to figure out how to go with this thought but it the The concept of the hardest thing you've ever done is still the hardest thing you've ever done whether that's um uh Go to a nine to five or I'm saying whether you're a trust fund kid and you've really never had anything hard done to you And your credit card declines, uh, I can see that still being upsetting if that's the hardest thing that's ever happened to you or if you're a an mma fighter who's trained like you have for years and years and been through the the most stressful parts of probably what life can give you, you know, where, where you're actively fighting almost for your life against someone else, you know? Um, so, um, I guess it just depends on how hard are you pushing yourself to really, um, to really not, not see what you can do, but to, to, to regulate, you know, your, your emotions and whatnot, you know, cause that, that's made a big difference for me. It was trying to make sure that whenever I'm, whenever I come home, I'm like, I don't have that big energy spike where I'm ready to like, man, I just got to get this out because if my kids are having a hard day and I'm prepared to get any energy out the idea, it's way easier for me to almost want to take it out on them, even though it's not their fault, you know, but it's harder to regulate that. than it is to, to come home where I've worked out, maybe went for a run. Um, got some energy out and I have, I have, um, space in my cup before it starts overflowing. You know what I mean? If, if I come home with a, with a cup that's filled up, it's going to be a rough day. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough, man.

Damon: 38:25

And that's, that's, that's what I'm trying to figure out to like getting home. Like I want my kids to live an active lifestyle and I want, and my wife does an amazing job of like. food activity. Like our kids are, our kids are healthy. Our kids are fit, you know, but like trying to figure, figure out that balance of like, you know, I'm, I can go all day, you know what I mean? And like I'll get home at, you know, four or five, six o'clock. Sometimes my kids are like wore out and I'm like, why are you so tired? What are you so tired from? You're a kid. So I'm like, let's go. You know, mom

Brent: 39:00

has had us on the treadmill all day. We're so tired

Brian: 39:03

dad.

Brent: 39:04

Thank God you're home. Yeah. I was chasing

Damon: 39:05

them chickens around. I'm like. I'm like, let's go do something. And I'm like, okay, if they just want to lay around for an afternoon, like it's all good, you know, but like, I'm having to like, when you talk about like, has it been hard to transition from a fighter? Like that stuff is hard. You know, like I. I stopped fighting so that I could be home with my family at night and help with bath time or help or do whatever. And like, they just want to like lay around for an afternoon. I'm like, I did not stop fighting for this. I could be training right now, you know, and so I'm working through that stuff, you know what I mean? But it's a fine line of like, you, you want your kids to be, you know, awesome, healthy, thriving kids, but you also don't want to force you. You don't want to force them or push them too hard. You know what I mean? So that's, that's a, that's a fun one.

Brent: 39:49

Yeah. That's, uh, the, the pushing the kids things, the interesting topic, man. It really is. Cause especially whenever. that I've, that I've been told before, like, as we were having kids, they were always like, man, let them just let them be whoever they want to be. And that's, I hear that from like much people older than us, right? Much wiser people than me. And they're like, let them, let them be who they want to be. And I agree with that to some point, but there's still some times where you have to like, you want to influence them into to pick up the healthy things that you've learned along the way, the lessons that you've learned. Um, but I do find that sometimes, and I'm, I know of a few, some dads who maybe didn't reach their potential, so they're pushing hard on their kids, almost living vicariously through their kids to be like, Hey, I wasn't able to get here, but you're going to get here and I'm going to make sure you get there. And part of that, man, sometimes it's like hitting baseballs at 10 o'clock at night, you know, like making it where it's not even enjoyable for them. Cause. I remember when I was playing sports growing up, the best I ever did at sports was when I was having the most fun and it took me a long time to learn that, where I was just able to relax and be like, you know what? Who cares if we win or lose, we just gonna go out and have fun. And dude, that was the best performances I've ever put on for me personally, right? So whenever I think about that, I think about my kids and I'm like, okay. Um, like Jackson's three, and he always wants to go outside and play baseball, so I'm like, all right, so we go outside and play baseball, and some days we'll play for an hour where I toss the ball to him and he hits it and we, he runs the bases and we make it a big deal. Or it's fun. Some days I throw the ball twice. And we're out there for a minute and he's like, I don't want to do it anymore. And that's frustrating for me sometimes. I'm like, no, you want to play, let's play. But, but I have to be like, no, I'm not going to force you. We're going to, we're going to do it. I'm like, I want it to be where you want to do it. Right. Right. Not where dad's like, Hey, we're going to train. Right. You know, now there's going to be times where I'm going to have to, um, not force them, but, uh, try to influence them a little more for certain things. But those times will come. My

Damon: 41:42

dad did the most amazing job at that looking back, which is wild. Like I remember. A super core memory was so went to North million, right? And I'd hear that at that time it was seven through 12 all in the same school. And so you could go as a seventh grader and work out during the summer workouts with the varsity and high schoolers. And so I'm like, Not even 13 yet. I was young for my class and I'm, you know, doing these brutal summer workouts with all the high schoolers, whatever did made it through the summer and then During school like the the junior high and freshman they had first our Athletic PE and we had Daniel Lotef as our high school football coach shout out coach Lotef Rough guy and so first our PE I'd like to be this dude had us in full pads geared up at seven 30 in the morning out in the field. It's all wet. The dew is still on the ground and we're just going after it. Right? Seven 30 in the morning. So he'd let us out like five minutes before the bell. No time to shower, no time to clean up. I was kind of chubby. So I mean, I'm just like, I'm having the worst time, dude. I'm sitting in second hour and my butt is sticking to the seat. I mean, my clothes, it was terrible. Second hour. And I'm like, dad, this. I want to quit. And he's like, you can quit once the season's over. He's like, you're going to finish the season. And then if you don't want to do it again, you don't have to do it again. And I was so mad, dude, finished out the season. And I was like, I guess I could do it again next year. And we did that for like three years, every year from seventh, eighth and ninth grade, I wanted to quit, but I finished and I started again next year. And it's like, if he wouldn't have handled it like that, like, imagine if I wouldn't have. done athletics in high school. If I wouldn't have done football and wrestling and track, I probably wouldn't have started coaching. Probably wouldn't be a fitness professional. I wouldn't have trained unique. I would have never met my wife, which is who I met her. Like, it's crazy. Like that one decision that he made impacted my entire life. It's crazy. It's crazy. And I remember it so, so vividly, but I think, I think that's what it's about. It's like you, when you're fostering like love for an activity, you know, or a sport, like it has to be their idea and it has to be something that they want to do. And it's just up to us to like when they're, when they're feeling down, you know, and like that's whenever we have to show them like what discipline is, you know, and like, but it's really, really important about the timing. I think. I

Brent: 44:16

can see

Damon: 44:16

that.

Brian: 44:16

That's gotta, that's gotta, I mean, I don't have kids, but that's gotta be one of the toughest parts about parenting is, uh, trying to teach a kid long suffering, you know, um, Because in the social climate that we're in right now, it's like if you can teach a kid to be long suffering and most importantly, delayed gratification, it's like that is going to put them light years ahead of other people. Um, because we don't know how to wait well anymore, you know. We live in a culture of just instant gratification. You get everything you want. And it's like, we have a generation of people that don't like truly know how to, how to work hard and things are only going to get harder. You know, it's like, implement, you know, uh, you know, inflation's only going up, the dollar value is only going to go down. So it's like that they, they're going to have to have long suffering to have a good earning potential. And it's like, like seeing your kids grow up in this age, it's like, it must be super scary for y'all too, you know? And so there has to be, it just must be so difficult. It's like, Hey, when do I push and not allow them to quit versus like, when do I allow them to quit? And like, you know, When do I teach them, like, hey, like, we as Goodyears or we as Vincennes, it's like, we, we do hard things, even when we don't want to, so it's like, that, that's gotta be so tough, and, uh, learning, learning, learning to walk that fine line, and

Damon: 45:24

For us, we're gonna do, so, like, kids are gonna do sports and stuff like that, like, so, like, martial, I do think that there's a difference, like, martial arts, for example, my kids, will do martial arts until they're eight years old. They don't have a choice. You're not gonna be a victim. Like you're going to know how to defend yourself. And you're going to do that until eight, no matter we want to or not. After eight, if you don't want to do it anymore, and you want to go try some other sports, you can't. Right. And so I think that so like martial arts, non negotiable, baseball, soccer. Yeah, like whatever you wanna do that's negotiable, but you will do something.

Brent: 46:01

Yeah.

Damon: 46:01

So it's like that's the non-negotiable for us. It's like you will not sit at home. Yeah, you're gonna do an activity, but you get to choose activity. I'm probably gonna have to hire somebody to help us shuttle all these kids around. Eventually But like, so it's like figuring out what the non-negotiables are. The negotiables are. And then I think too, like I, I think that we tend, when we think about like teaching a kid to be disciplined and have those good characteristics, we tend to think about sports. But I don't, I think that there's a lot of other ways to do that besides sports. I think that sports can be like baseball, for example, I'm not a baseball hater, but I don't think that baseball teaches you the same things that martial arts do. I don't think that they're comparable, right? So it's like non negotiable martial arts. You're going to develop to be that type of person. Baseball is a fun sport that you play cause you enjoy it. Right. But if you're playing baseball, which is a fun sport, you're going to do other things. To develop the things that you just talked about late gratification stuff Like we're gonna go on family hikes or family runs or family bikes or we're gonna do stuff to make sure that those things are built without Spoiling baseball, you know, that's why I think we'll go wrong It's like we take something that's supposed to be fun and we take it so serious and we try and make it We try and make a man out of an eight year old baseball player and then it ruins baseball Yeah, you know, it's just like let baseball be what baseball is a fun sport and then do other things to instill Yeah, you know whatever it is that you want to do

Brian: 47:25

because even with you now man It's like if if you didn't have the the core values that you do and if you didn't understand the concept of delayed gratification long suffering um You you wouldn't have this assignment because like I says like with what you're trying to do with like health care And and health care reform Dude, this this may be a 10 20 year battle, right? And like you're coming from a place of where you do like you win You win a big fight and you have hundreds of people telling you how great you are on social media hundreds of likes all this stuff and do that stuff inflates your ego, but if you didn't have the the the the wherewithal to say like Okay, like I like I appreciate that But like my purpose is this like if you had to just go from high to high to high, right? You trouble you wouldn't be able to handle this assignment, you know, right? Yeah, because when all the lights fade it's like dude and all the attention goes down cuz like I'm sure you see it all the Time it's like, you know, you get a ton of social media attention from winning a fight or like yeah a unique athlete does really well, right and it's like but the the space between is where and the space in Silence is where all the work is done. So if you didn't have the the If you didn't have the long suffering to be like, no, this is my purpose. And even if I'm not being cheered for, if I'm not getting hundreds of likes, it's like, I'm still pursuing this because it's the calling of my life to serve these individuals. It's like, uh, I don't think I would have given you this assignment if you didn't have the, the, the long suffering. And, and being able to see the, the end goal from where you are now, you know? Right. Yeah. And that's something you learned from a, from a kid that wasn't developed at 27. Yeah. Yeah.

Damon: 48:56

And that's, you're right. Like that's, that's what I'm super grateful for. And it's like, I think my dad did a good job of it. So now I was just figuring out how, how do we recreate that for our kids, you know, without, like we talked about earlier, like over correcting, you know, like, and I, and I, I think that, One of the reasons I kept on fighting was because I didn't want, my wife and I had tons of conversations. It was like, I don't want to lay awake at night when I'm 50 wondering what could have been. It's just like, I found out I fought some dudes, found out what I was made of. And like, now I know, you know, and I don't have to feel like I have to force that on my kids, you know? So it's like, how do you, Make your kids do that without crushing them.

Brent: 49:33

I like what you said about martial arts because Jackson just started jiu jitsu like, uh, Heck yes,

Damon: 49:37

all right.

Brent: 49:38

Yeah, head kicks probably, I don't know, a couple months ago, three, four months ago, something like that. And we used to go to the gym for like the flower sale and all that stuff and he'd go inside and we'd go run around in the octagon, you know, and just kind of play. You know, Aaron and them are super good about that. And, um, Jackson would call it. They hit each other, Jim, because we'd go there to go pick up like milk from charity or whatever it was, you know, and there'd be all these kids training and he would just be like, his eyes would be so big. Like, what is this? You know, and being that I've been exposed to the MMA world only for like, I think I trained for like two or three years, something like that. But I learned a lot about myself, you know, because, and you, you could probably speak to this is that as you, as you learn to be able to handle yourself, you get less. afraid of conflict. Right. Right. Because you're just kind of like, well, if, if it escalates physically, then okay. Like I'm, I'm prepared for that. So what that helped me with was anytime I would get into a heated conversation, there was never a reason for me to get height, like my energy to get heightened. Right. Because if it got physical, I was like, so be it. This is going to be a bad day for you. You know? But I was just like, I was able to keep it so calm and never want, Did it get into any kind of physical altercation? And I mean like in a bar where people had been drinking. Now, this is a long time ago, not recently. You know, this is when I was, I'll say this was whenever I was boxed. This was last weekend. Yeah, this was, this was this morning. Wow. So

Brian: 51:07

coolie. Um,

Brent: 51:12

no, I mean, that's whenever I was boxing like 18, 19 years old, you know, but it was like a similar concept. Whenever you feel like you can handle yourself, you actually have more confidence to stay calm. I find it's the, it's the people who are afraid of things getting physical where they start chirping real loud because they're trying to make a big presence to scare you off to back down where people who train and know how to handle themselves I don't find that they typically get as worked up quickly. They kind of just chill and they're like, okay, if it gets physical, so be it, you know? Right. So for, for Jackson, whenever I explained to Lindsay that I felt like it was important that we provide a good foundation for them, it was the exact same thing. Just like you said, it was, We're not going to raise a family of victims because now that I have a daughter I told Lindsay I was like she too is gonna do jiu jitsu for a while And I was like the reason why is because if a man ever puts her on her back and she doesn't want to be there I want I want broken appendages because she's gonna be comfortable on her back if she's if she's decent at jiu jitsu I was like, I want broken appendages That way she can say, Hey, dad, I broke his arm. And then I can go to Lords and be like, Hey, who over here has a broken arm? And I'll kill him myself. But I want her to be able to, I don't want our kids to be in positions that they can't get out of. Cause when I was growing up, I was in positions and I couldn't get out of them. And the only way it would have been for it to get physical. And I wasn't that guy at the time. Like I hadn't, my dad wasn't around enough to teach me how to handle myself. Yeah. Or how to get myself out of situations without injuring myself or, or hurting somebody else. So it had just been crazy, you know, so I think it's so important to lay that foundation of, Hey, this is how you take care of yourself. That way, if you ever get into a position where you have no other choice, but to get out of it physically. At least you have the option to do it. But as a, somebody who has a career in sales, I find it's just helped me learn how to speak to people, you know, where, um, something I always say, like whenever conversations get really heated, I'm like, Hey, it's not, this isn't personal. This is just business. It's just not personal. And that tends to, uh, deflate things sometimes, you know, where they're like, people take things personally. And I'm like, Hey, look, no, like I like you. Does that happen at work for you? It happened. Two months ago. Really? So complicated. It was just really complicated situation where, where one of our customers, our company and one of our customers, we were butting heads big time on something like, like the situation we're in is eventually we're not going to work together anymore, which is okay. You know, not every partnership is right, but we were trying to work through an issue and it was a big one. And, um, I mentioned something to the guy that he really didn't like, and he got, Like all worked up on the phone. And I said, Hey man, this isn't personal. Like this isn't personal. Just remember that. And he goes, you're right. You're right. You're right. That's not personal. And then he mentioned something about us having an argument. I'm like, we're not having an argument. We're just having a conversation. Like this is no argument. We're just, we're just talking, right. And sometimes it's hard to talk it out, but when you frame it like that, I find that it kind of like deflates everyone. But I learned that through being able to speak. intelligently or speak well through being able to stay really, really calm, even in intense situations. Because sometimes I'll feel it like wanting to come up, but I'm like, um, like me wanting to get like real worked up. And I'm like, no, no. Like, what is that? Yeah. What is that?

Damon: 54:31

That goes back to the stress resiliency thing we were talking about earlier. Sure. Sure. That there's a, there's a threshold that we all have. And the higher your threshold is the better, right? Because then you can really. Take, you know, take account of what a real situation is in real time, you know, but if you just react to it immediately It's emotional. If you're making

Brent: 54:49

emotional, you really can't think clearly. Yeah, and I

Damon: 54:52

actually gave a Presence at South Star Urgent Care They end up getting bought out by coastal care partners but they did a retreat for like all of their area managers in Louisiana and I went and I talked about like stress management tactics because stress as you know, Brian is like Us one of the most important physiological aspects, psychological aspects that, that you can pay attention to talking about from everything from body composition to how you interact with people, how you parent, like everything. I think it's fascinating. I have actually a, um, adrenal gland disorder called congenital adrenal hyperplasia. You remember that? And so like, I've, you know, been on all these different experimental stress steroids and medication and stuff like that, but being able to manage your own stress levels. Like in a real time and also like in a biofeedback sense like over a long period of time is a superpower like a hundred percent Like if you can you can recognize when it's coming you can take some deep breaths. You can control those cortisol levels whenever you're in a business situation, whatever superpower, if you can maintain a relatively low level of stress over a long period of time, keep body fat levels low, keep anabolic hormones high, you know, digestive system, sleep, all those things, you're healthier than 99 percent of the population. I'm like, kind of obsessed with, with stress. Yeah, stress will literally kill you. It can, yeah.

Brian: 56:20

Yeah, it does all kind of bad things. It can definitely increase your risk of like type 1 diabetes, you know It's like when your cortisol is super high, right? Your bloodstream is gonna be full of sugar all the time You know, if you have chronically high blood sugar, you're gonna have low insulin sensitivity. It's like it There, there is snowball effect. The only time you want, the only time you want stress is around training. Right, right, yeah. You know, cause that, that's the good type of stress. Right. Uh, you, you want, uh, higher stress hormones during, uh, really aggressive weight lifting or really aggressive martial arts training. But aside from that, man, it's like, uh, you really want to watch your, your stress levels in your, your, and especially inflammatory markers,

Damon: 56:57

right?

Brian: 56:57

Because all autoimmune disorders are, are a byproduct of high inflammatory markers in your system, you know? And it's like, and you know, and, uh, so all the disease we see like, you know, uh, Hashimoto's, Crohn's, um, all these, all these, uh, different diseases, they have a root cause of inflammation, you know? Wow. So.

Damon: 57:16

It's just, it's just huge.

Brian: 57:17

Yeah, it is. And

Damon: 57:18

so it's like, that's, that's what we're talking about with like martial arts training or whatever it is. Like, I, I think martial arts is one of the best ones. And that's, that's like you talked about transition. Like now I'm, I'm still doing jujitsu and I'm still kickboxing. I'm kickboxing because it's a great way to stay in shape and athletic. And I'm doing jujitsu because I want to always be able to defend myself and I want to get a black belt one day. But it's like, I don't think that martial arts has to be like super serious. You know what I mean? Like, I think it's a great, I think if you combine three days, one, I do think all men should be weightlifting three days a week. At least. I think three days is perfect. I think Monday, Wednesday, Friday is perfect.

Brent: 57:56

That's what we do.

Damon: 57:57

Yeah. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, martial arts. Perfect, right? You can find two day a week memberships at plenty gyms and then Saturday, Sunday run or family activities that are active like that. And to me is like the perfect schedule. Right? And so I think like that combination of things, because, because, you know, stress, like you talked about in training, super important. Um, but you got to manage it too, which is one of the problems we know with CrossFit people doing CrossFit five days a week, a little bit of a lot, right? Like that's what we started to get. injuries, exhaustion, stress levels too high, start putting on, you know, so I think like that combination of hard weights, hard martial arts, some easy long distance, slow runs, you know, some outside runs that we get the sun, the vitamin D, you know, like I think that combination is like the perfect kind of formula.

Brent: 58:47

Yeah. And I'm, I'm really hopeful that, uh, Marlowe kind of take to it. Cause I don't, Lindsay hates the idea of none of them doing it, but she's like, yeah, well she's like, this is what she says. She's like Brent. This is what I'm scared of. I'm scared of them being like you in the sense that they're going to get good at and they're going to say, all right, I want to compete because, because I'm just a competitive guy overall, play sports my whole life. And I just had, I just love if you're going to learn, if I want to learn something, I want to test it. You know, that's why I fought in that smoker, uh, again, learned that I'm not as good as what I thought I was, but it was fun. It was fun on the nonetheless. By the way, that guy, like kicked me at the end. Oh, My

Damon: 59:26

kicks are so deceiving,

Brent: 59:27

bro. You see him on, you see him like on TV and you're like, I ain't no big deals, dude. I almost couldn't walk out the octagon. Almost couldn't walk out. It was, it was bad. But, um, is this smoke around video by chance? It's on YouTube. We can unfortunately watch it out there.

Brian: 59:42

I'm watching right now.

Brent: 59:43

Here's how it starts. It starts with me getting knee in the face for five minutes.

Brian: 59:47

Do I just type in Britain? Good year. It gets to me. Speed up.

Brent: 59:50

Oh, good. That would be close enough. I don't, I don't know where we'd have to find it, but it's on the, it's gonna be on the head takes channel. The page. Yeah. Oh, bro. It was bad, dude. That's, it was bad. It was embarrassing. So

Damon: 59:57

why is she like, not, why would she not be open to them competing?

Brent: 1:00:00

So she doesn't want them to compete? I think she just doesn't want the um, I mean, moms

Damon: 1:00:04

don't want their kids

Brent: 1:00:04

to get, they don't want'em to get hurt. They don't want'em to get hurt. You know? I like the idea of like. If Jackson ends up taking to jujitsu, which I could think, I think he would, cause his mind is kind of similar to mine. Um, we like to figure things out. We like to understand why not just what, you know, he likes, he likes to understand why things are working. The chess aspect of it. Yeah. So I could see like jujitsu being a good outlet for him being like, okay, well, if I can't do this, well, I can't do this. Let me maybe get a couple moves ahead of him and get there. You know, such

Damon: 1:00:30

a great sport for thinkers. Yeah,

Brent: 1:00:32

it really is. I could see him liking that. I mean, I trained you just to for like four days and whenever I did it, um, I had a good time. I just, I just. Couldn't commit to it long enough to where I could really start to think it was just survive, right? Me and my no stripe white belt. So It was literally I'd go up against like a one stripe white belt Which is like the next little bitty jump up and they could have their way with me So the levels did you jitsu are so crazy so huge and that's so that's why whenever I told Lindsey But I want to get Marlo into it I was like, I just need her to get to a blue belt because I was like, if a girl can get to a blue belt, she could do anything she wanted to almost any guy who doesn't really have to experience. Would you agree to that? I would agree with that. Yeah. Cause

Damon: 1:01:18

I'm like, bro, a blue belt in jujitsu is a mastery of the fundamentals. That's really what blue belt is like blue belts are. ahead of probably 95, 96 percent of the population. And how many years of

Brent: 1:01:29

training of average training for it to get to a blue belt? Like a year, maybe a little longer. It's about

Damon: 1:01:33

two years, two years from like an adult. Yeah. So like a kid. So let's say she's doing Jitsu now or one, she wouldn't be able to get a blue belt till she's 15 or 16. Sure. Right. So like she'd have to train, but like the equivalent of a blue belt and the youth scenario in my mind is probably like five to six years, you know? So like that's for me. That's like, that's why the eight to nine year old rule one. Cause that's like the normal like age of reasoning, right? A kid cannot make a decision for themselves when he's five years old or six years old. Like they got seven or eight, you know, is the age where there can kind of start thinking for themselves with the

Brian: 1:02:05

radical left.

Damon: 1:02:06

No, none of that. Maybe when you're eight, you can change your gender. Not so great. Yeah. So, um, but yeah, in my mind I would say like five or six years. So if you start them at, you know, three or four years old. By the time they're eight or nine, they, and they've been doing Jiu Jitsu consistently and in competitions. So I, I would say, Lindsay, I know you're gonna listen to this. Jiu Jitsu is one of the safest sports that a kid can do. 100%. So we grew up playing football, right? And you guys play football. One of the funnest sports ever so dangerous

Brent: 1:02:40

at practice. So they used to just say, okay, y'all play tackle me with the football. The whole football team,

Damon: 1:02:44

we chase each other around like crazy kids thinking about like the drills that we used to do. And I, again, I started like with the high schools, like seventh or eighth grade as a practice dummy, dude, I mean, just getting the crap beat out of us. Some head to head contact football, super dangerous. There's a lot of sports out there that are way more dangerous than Jiu Jitsu. It's actually one of, because there's, you know, so many different levels, like different sports, right? Like, um, Soccer, for example, like, I think that's a really good one to keep a kid fit and healthy and develop athletic potential, but also pretty safe. I think once again, baseball doesn't really develop a whole lot. Of course, some hand eye coordination and stuff like that. But as far as like physical conditioning, Athletic development. I don't think baseball does a lot of right now. Um, I've

Brent: 1:03:31

seen some pretty hefty pictures out there. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying I'm catchers boy.

Damon: 1:03:37

So like, if you want to talk about a sport that develops the kids, I know we don't have video for this podcast, but I know what we're saying. So like you talk about a sport that develops kids, athletically, develops kids emotionally, characteristics wise, like the, you know, the things that we talked about, like suffering, you know, long suffering, and it's also safe. There's not a lot of sports out there like that. And jujitsu is one of them. They can develop strength, conditioning, resiliency, all those things and not get hurt. That's, that's a rare, a rare sport. And I think the

Brent: 1:04:17

confidence is probably one of the biggest ones of it. I mean, cause that, that's what changed my perspective. Like I said, that story, whenever I said we started boxing, I found myself looking at myself differently, you know, and to, to have the confidence, especially for a young man to be like, you know, if, if things got tough, I could, I can handle myself. If I had to get out of a situation, I could like, it never, it never encouraged me to go out because. A good friend of mine, um, he was looking at starting his kids into jiu jitsu and he was like, well, I just don't want them to go out and bully other kids. And I said, man, think about it like this. It's the exact opposite. The kids who do the bullying are the ones who are scared. They're the ones, they're the ones who do it

Damon: 1:04:58

or they're the ones who want to test themselves.

Brent: 1:05:01

Okay, sure.

Damon: 1:05:02

And so that's, that's a big thing is like. Talking about a kid doing competition, right? So like, you know, your boy wants to do a competition. He goes out Let's say he loses the first one. Okay, he found out in a bad way, but he did he did, you know Fuck around and find out. Yeah So literally he found out that's but he's gonna Want to compete again because dad's gonna be like dude, what do we do when we lose we try again?

Brent: 1:05:25

Yeah, so

Damon: 1:05:25

eventually he's gonna win a competition and then he's gonna know inside You I can do this. I can do this. And so he's not going to want to go and test himself on the playground against some random kids. Yeah.

Brent: 1:05:37

Cause you know, cause you know, I know, you know, yeah, I know

Damon: 1:05:39

I can handle these guys. That's what the competition is really about. It's like finding out what's really real, you know, and then not having to go out and test it. Which is why you talk about like men who have actually been in some violent scenarios in their lives. They really try and avoid those scenarios as much as possible because they know what it's really. They know what's real and they know that it's not all really fun and games, right? But it's like it's the people who have never been in those scenarios that want to know and want to test themselves Those are the guys that you find picking fights.

Brent: 1:06:09

Yeah, and those are the ones you really got to worry about, right? They're real

Damon: 1:06:12

crazy. Right, right And so it's like the more competition a kid is exposed to and the more real life he gets the experience I think the less he desires that experience in out in in the real world. Yeah, I agree with that What's what we're trying to do.

Brent: 1:06:24

That's right. You're trying to train him for the for the real world, right?

Damon: 1:06:26

Right?

Brent: 1:06:27

Yeah, I heard Um Joe Rogan say this one time, and the only reason I bring him up is because, again, he's, he's a specialist in, in MMA, you know, he's like the, the most, uh, spoken person about this type of subject, I would, I would say, but I heard him say, he said, if, if I ever get into, um, he said he trains because he's like, if I ever get into a situation where I do have to defend myself, I want to be the one to control it because if I control it, nobody gets hurt, he said, if someone who doesn't know what they're doing controls it, He's like, not only do I get hurt, but they might get hurt too, but also they might kill me. So he's like, as long as I can control, no one gets hurt. Everybody walks away. Nobody gets hurt. Cause he's like, I know I'm not going to hurt them. I'll just put them in a position where I'm like, okay, like now, now I win. Can you, can you calm down? Yeah. Can we just move on and like suck up your ego? Let's let's go our separate ways. And, um, and I just worry about, you know, So that's what we're gonna be talking about in this episode. So I'm gonna be talking about our children, whenever that, whenever they grow up, that they don't have that capacity, not only to defend themselves, but to control situations, um, as they come up. Cause I'm sure y'all remember being 18, 19, 20 years old. Those situations are gonna come up. Um, especially if them or people around them have been drinking. Right. dumb kid stuff, you know, and I need them to have the tool set to be able to deal with it. And I'm going to feel like a failure as a father in some aspect where if they go somewhere and they don't have the tools in their toolbox to, to manage a situation like that. Right. You know, so that's why it's been so important to me. Jackson started at three and the way that they started was They put a belt down on the ground and they jump the river.

Damon: 1:08:06

I'm a big jump the river fan. Jump the river, dude. We do that at Train Unique, actually. It's

Brent: 1:08:11

lit. It's so funny, dude. You just make like a little thing and they go jump over it and they jump through the hula hoops and they walk on like the little balance beam and stuff. And then now they teach them wrestling. Now they're starting to wrestle. And bro, poor Jackson, dude, he's, he's got his, his dad's heart so bad where he's just like, I just hope everybody has fun, bro. So they'll put him wrestling with somebody. And he's looking at us, all the parents on the side laughing the whole time while this kid is actively trying to Mount him. I think I'm like, tackle him. You're supposed to tackle him. And he's just laughing, you know, and then he does this thing where it's like this dramatic fall down, like, Oh, I fell down. And then the guy just gets on top of him. And I'm like, Like every time he comes back, I'm like, buddy, you're doing so good. I'm so proud of

Damon: 1:08:52

you. You know, dude, one of the dads, bro. One of the dads tried to call me out like a couple weeks ago. He was like, dude, you know, you're like fighting and stuff. You know, cause my, my boy, Bruce. Kind of like, kind of like you, like, he's just fun kid. Like super social, like not taking it too serious. Like Bruce can scrap, like there was a strong and athletic and like, but like, dude, we're in a three and four year old jujitsu class. Like, it's all good. Yeah. They just having fun. His dad was like, dude, you think, you know, that like, since you're like fighting and stuff that like Bruce would be like, you know, working these kids over and I was like, He's for relax, I can work you over. Don't worry. It's not like one day he'll

Brent: 1:09:30

get there. But as of right now, he's just having fun,

Damon: 1:09:33

dude. And it's like, that's like going back to that conversation or like, it's a really important that is that, you know, like they're getting what they need to get, you know, when it really, really comes down to it, if they ever need, they'll turn it on, but like, it's supposed to be fun, you know? And like, I think. That's why there's a lot of guys not doing martial arts is because they think if they do martial arts, like, like Brian, like you could go do two days of jujitsu or kickboxing as for fun, for recreational activity. Like people think that if they go do martial arts, it's gotta be so serious. You gotta do it. And it's not like that. Like, yes, eventually you should take it seriously, of course, but like you can do it as a workout. You can do it to learn self defense. You can do it. People do it as a social club, like jujitsu has kind of turned into that for like a lot of like people like the cure to male loneliness is jujitsu, you know, and it's like, like run clubs or the new dating app, the dating app. Yeah. I think it's like, I hate running. Why don't you

Brian: 1:10:38

meet the girls at the finish line? Good

Damon: 1:10:40

run guys. Good job. Hate running more than I like women for sure. I'll be alone. Yeah. So it's like, but like that, that's the thing, like the community aspect, it's going to be fun. It can be a workout and like, same thing for kids. Like it can be another sport that they play, you know, and if a kid does Jiu Jitsu for five years, even if they don't take it super seriously, they're going to be able to turn it on. whenever it comes down to it.

Brent: 1:11:06

Yeah. I remember showing up. So. Whenever we were training at Head Kicks, we would train at like 530, I think is when our class would start, something like that. And right before us was like the kids class. I remember Hosea and then we're in it. And, um, no, not right before us, two, it was like two hours before us. And sometimes I would show up early cause it takes me a while to like loosen my legs up. So if I wanted to get those high kicks, And those head kicks, I had to really loosen up the hamstrings. So I'd get there early. And I remember one time I saw Hosea and, um, another kid and they were just like playing in the, in the octagon together. And I was like watching them. And I was like, dude, there's something methodical about like what they were doing, dude, they were probably. Two and a half or three years old, they were just having fun, but they were like taking each other's back and you like how they say, uh, what do they call it? Like the, like lock the books or something. Seatbelt. That's right. Seatbelt. And they were doing like all these things that you could see adults doing in Jiu Jitsu, but they were doing it almost intuitively. So I remember watching that being like, dude, they're like two and a half or three years old. They don't really understand Jiu Jitsu yet. But here they are like just having fun wrestling and using, uh, techniques that they've obviously picked up from being around the gym or maybe even training a little bit, but it was really eyeopening to like how soon they can pick some of that stuff up and how quickly they use it into play. So I'm hopeful that. Jackson's having a good enough time where, you know, he, he loves to wrestle, bro. Like we have a, my cousin has a five year old and bro, they get after it, dude. So I love it. Cause he's a lot bigger than Jackson is and Jackson loves wrestling with him. So I'm, I can't wait to see it where one day some of those things he's learned just kind of starts kicking in and he starts doing like little things. I'm like, Oh, okay, now we're getting somewhere. So when are you going to get back into it? Man, I. Me and Lindsey talk about it all the time. Cause I know I miss it. I, I totally agree, dude. And I wish you wouldn't call me out on my own podcast. No, but you know, it's all good. But like for real though, you are right. I do have to lead from the front and, um, take from the back. Yeah,

Brian: 1:13:19

I

Brent: 1:13:26

really, I really do want to get back into it, man. Cause I did, I did like it. I trained Jiu Jitsu for a while. A couple months and then I just found like it was just really difficult for our schedules to continue to do it. So now that we have two kids, I think just where we're at in life, I just don't have the time to even commit to going to classes twice a week. Cause the only time that I get to work out, which is three days a week is Monday, Tuesday at noon, Friday at noon. Right? So Lindsay works out. Monday, Tuesday, 5 a. m. and Friday at noon with me, something like that. We do a couple's

Damon: 1:14:06

workout on Monday too. Oh yeah? The couple's workouts are the freaking best.

Brent: 1:14:09

They are. They are fun. I do enjoy it. I flirt with her the whole time. She's

Damon: 1:14:13

like,

Brian: 1:14:13

leave me alone. Oh, my wife's like, leave me alone, please.

Brent: 1:14:17

I'll put it on Lindsay Good during our couple's workouts. I'm always flirting with her, but um, uh, anyway, um, so, but that other, outside of that. Um, Um, Tuesday, no, she goes, let's see, Monday morning at five, Tuesday at noon, Friday at noon. So that leaves Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, and Thursday morning open, right? And let's say Friday morning, sometime like this morning, she went early. So Tuesday morning, I go to Bible study. Right. Right, so I have like that part of like my spiritual fulfillment, you know, um, that week. So I could go Wednesday morning, but normally we're like taking a chance to at least like get the kids ready together. Right. Because having a three year old and a one year old, it is, Chaos in the morning, right? I'm aware. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you get it, So it's just, it's just kind of crazy. So we kind of take Wednesday as like, okay, let's, let's get everybody ready together.

Damon: 1:15:15

Yeah.

Brent: 1:15:15

And then, uh, we can kind of get everybody out. And then at least one morning during the week, I'm leaving really early to go to work somewhere. Like if I gotta drive to New Orleans or Baton Rouge or something. Okay. Yeah. I leave early. So the only time I would have would be after work, which right now in the season that we're in is like. Not happening. You gotta be home helping out. Yeah. The kids go to bed at 6. 30. Like Wednesday afternoons, uh, we do Bible study, um, men's group. And um, so I have. My Tuesday morning and my Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, we always go out to dinner. Nice. Go eat something, something casual,

Damon: 1:15:47

you know. Check out the new, uh, Superior Grill last night. Oh, yeah, yeah, dude. Good. Good reviews. So, okay, food. A little diversion real quick. Food was very mediocre. Okay. The drinks, bro. Dog. I had one skinny margarita. Skinny margarita. Yeah, I was feeling it. No way. What did they put in these margarita? You know, they're lightweight. I'd never drink Yeah, so but yeah drinks high quality food. Yeah,

Brent: 1:16:09

you know, they're trying the LaFonda's thing They're gonna try to get you drunk the way you don't taste how bad the food

Damon: 1:16:13

is. Honestly, that's the vibes I was getting. Bro, if

Brent: 1:16:16

you ever had LaFonda's Food, it's trash. It's trash. But the

Damon: 1:16:19

drinks are

Brent: 1:16:19

world renowned. They're fantastic.

Brian: 1:16:22

They bring that pitcher of margarita out. Oh, yeah. Nobody cares.

Brent: 1:16:24

No one cares. Bro, the fried rabbit's not that good, okay? I

Damon: 1:16:27

hate to tell you. Kath was like, I thought it was great. I was like, yeah, because you had two margaritas and a basket of chips and salsa, like, you don't care. But you weren't even tasting the food. Yeah. You didn't even know. Yeah. So, so you have, and this is, this is me thinking out loud. Yeah. So you do the. Tuesday morning Bible study. Yep, and you do the Wednesday evening men's group. Yep. Both of those things are amazing Do you not feel like? two Activities like that per week might be a little much.

Brent: 1:17:04

I don't believe so. And the reason I say that is because they, they both catered to different things for me. Right. So the Tuesday morning Bible study is led by, um, Pastor Jacob at Our Savior's Church. So, um, he's very, um, educated in the Bible and whatnot, and I've never had somebody, Um, ever sit down with me and say, okay, let's go through, um, this chat, this section of the Bible and I'm gonna explain to you exactly what it means. So we've been doing that for two years now, you know, every Tuesday morning. Wow. And what that's been great for me is it's helping me understand the Bible a lot more, right? So that's, that's helping with, um, you know, we're just having an understanding of how the Bible works. Um, how the, the structure maybe of faith works, you know, and then my men's group is just more fellowship, you know, like Bible study, we talk a little bit, but it's more of like us being educated men's group is more like fellowship, like, Hey, um, man, let's, let's talk about these seasons that we're in, compare them, you know, um, what are you struggling with? Um, um, you know, we do a little bit of like right now we're doing, um, Uh, what's it called? The Pursuit of Holiness. We're doing that right now, which is like, uh, what is it? 12 chapters? 12 weeks. Yeah, 12 weeks. That's been really good, you know, kind of trying to, it's, it's a book that basically kind of checks you a little bit on like, hey, are you truly trying to, to walk with God? Or are you just, or how many, how much concessions do you really make, you know? Um, and so far I've found out I make more concessions than I should, you know, so it's. I think it just caters to two different things. And I noticed that if I only do one, I don't feel that, um, like as fulfilled. If I do both, I find it's like, okay, I feel, I feel almost complete, I guess is how you could say it. I don't, I don't know. Like, I feel like it lasts, that connection with, for me, lasts longer. Yeah. Now there's, there's work I have to do outside of that, right? I need to stay in the Word. I need to pray. Of course. Um, I need to have that personal relationship with myself. But, um, but I find that both of them have been really helpful for me and they just cater to different, maybe different parts of my spirit, you know, which is why I've been, how long we've been doing men's group for, you think, Brian? You remember me? With me? At least two years, huh? Oh, yeah,

Brian: 1:19:22

yeah,

Brent: 1:19:23

yeah. At least two years, I would say. A year and a half, 18

Brian: 1:19:24

months. Yeah,

Brent: 1:19:25

and I've been doing Bible study right at the same time. Wow. So, so I could let one of them go if I wanted to. Right. But I just, I just, I find, like, right now. being that I'm only probably two years into my serious walk with God, I find like, they're too, those two things are too important for me to let go right now. Really? You know, yeah. So you said two

Damon: 1:19:44

years into, so like that was, you had like a more serious conversion. Oh,

Brent: 1:19:49

I was completely saved for sure. For sure. Like grew up, I grew up Catholic, you know, but I was never, I never understood what that personal relationship was like, you know, I mean, I went to Malcolm or VC, you know, Catholic school. And, um, even whenever we left, I was still Catholic, but I stopped going to church as an adult, but there was like little things that happened throughout my lifetime, mainly as an adult where I can look back. And I was like, there was like little seeds that were planted. I feel like God planted a couple of seeds for me. That just kept me interested enough to where I totally did not believe because I find, um, Really believing almost isn't logical, you know, like if you let your logical mind take over sometimes It's like but that none of this makes sense, right? But when you hear God speak to you, you know Like and it's to me. It's loud, you know, and I know that he's spoken to me so It doesn't sound logical to somebody who's never had that experience, but I know what I heard, you know? So, um, at one point I would say, like, let's just say two and a half years ago, it was like the end of 2022, I want to say, maybe middle, I started feeling like this pressure that like this big life change was coming. And it was like really heavy on me. And I'm like, dude, what is this? And it was right at a point where I could say, I probably didn't believe, like maybe, like, I was like, uh, maybe. Things have happened in my life, so I know something weird's going on that I don't understand, but I wouldn't say like I'm a, I wouldn't say like I'm a full believer for sure, you know. And, um, I just started feeling like this pressure of this big life change was coming, huge life change. And then we got, um, invited to a, um, couple's, um, I guess it was like a a couple's group, um, with Pastor Jacob Ramsey and his wife that Lindsay just, made a cold call to them and they were just like, Hey, look, why don't y'all start coming to this group? And then come to find out there was some other people in the group that we had great relationships with. And, um, through that group, and we were doing that every Monday night and we, you know, we would talk about how important it was to have a godly marriage and that sort of thing. Right. And, um, At the same time, I started coming to men's group. Like I just said, yes, I was like, okay, let's do it. Like Brian posted on Facebook. I was like, all right, what's your address? I'm coming. And then through those two things, I would say mainly men's group. I realized that, um, I wasn't, I wasn't completely giving myself to God because I didn't, I was trying to go through churches to get to him. Right. And so, like, I didn't, I kind of left the Catholic Church just because there was just things I just didn't, just didn't make sense to me, you know, things I just didn't feel like, I just didn't feel like it spoke to me that well. Like, I just, I couldn't feel the connection, you know, and then we started going to our saviors and I found like the information was a lot better, but I still couldn't quite get there fully. And that's whenever really Brian and like you and Jay's actually said around the same time where. They were like, man, why are you trying to go through the church to get into a relationship with God? Why aren't you just going direct? You can do that. And I remember sitting there for a second being like, bro, that's exactly what I'm doing. Like exactly what I'm doing, trying to go through. You want to let them

Damon: 1:22:56

do it for you kind of thing. Yeah,

Brent: 1:22:57

almost going like through an imperfect means to get to something that's perfect. Right. And I remember driving home after that men's group and I was like, literally like, Yelling at God, being like, fine, I will give in, I give in, you got me, you got me, I'm going to stop fighting it, I give in, and then it's like from there, dude, I'd feel, I could feel his presence so often, it was like, he was after me for a long time and then he got me, he got me, it was crazy, it was a total transformation, um, It changed my frame of mind towards it, my attitude towards it. And then when I started to feel his presence so heavy on me, then I started learning about obedience and trying to learn what that means and how, when, what those prompts are. That's a hard one. Yeah. And the responsibility that comes with it, it's tough. I mean, I left a really good job out of obedience, you know, which was the most I say most terrifying, it was scary, but it was just crazy. Like the, some of the decisions I made just because I feel like God was putting it on my heart. And it's, it's been pretty eyeopening that, uh, that has never existed in my life before anything like that. And now to just be aware of that, it's been, it's been weird, man. Wow. Not weird, but it's been, it's been unique. It's unique, you know,

Damon: 1:24:15

like two years in like you're at that.

Brent: 1:24:17

I'm always saying I'm a spiritual baby, bro. Yeah. But also

Damon: 1:24:20

like you're, You're at a really, really cool point where, like, you're not brand new in it, right? But it's still new enough, right, to where, like, you still remember what it was like before. Yeah. You know? So it's like you can, you still have fresh enough memories to be like, man, thank God I'm here now. But also you're more educated now and you have a close relationship with God so you can really start diving in, in deep. And I, I, I had a more serious conversion when I was like 19 or 20 at UL.

Brent: 1:24:48

Okay. Yeah.

Damon: 1:24:49

And, um. I remember that like exact thing. Like I remember like what it was like to kind of despise like earthly things, you know, like I was just like, man, like, why, like, why do we have to eat? Why do we have to waste of time, you

Brian: 1:25:09

know, like

Damon: 1:25:09

I remember that like red pill feeling and it was really, really, it was, it was awesome. You know? And like, now. Like now that I'm, I'm going further in it, it's, it's almost like a relationship with your wife. It's like, I'm kind of out of the honeymoon phase of my faith life, you know? And it's like, I've been in it for so long that I'm thankful that I have a strong enough foundation to keep me in between the lines, but at the same time you can take that for granted and you can just kind of get comfortable, you know? And so it's like the Catholic church and all its, you know, wisdom doesn't have the best It's, Men's, that doesn't have the best community aspect of it. You know, and they are trying. Like, they really are. And I've done, um, we've done a couple like, men's stuff. Like we did uh, Exodus 90. Have you guys heard of Exodus 90? It's a 90 day journey through Lent, right? So you start before Lent and you go all the way through Lent and then it ends on Easter Sunday and it's to prepare you for Easter. Right. Um, and so I've done that and I've done a few different things. Have you done an

Brent: 1:26:08

axe retreat yet?

Damon: 1:26:09

I haven't done an axe Cursio.

Brent: 1:26:11

I heard they're great.

Damon: 1:26:11

Yeah. I did Cursio, which is what axe, axe is, you know, basically a little bit more watered down version of Cursio. Oh really? Yeah. Cursio is

Brent: 1:26:20

pretty intense.

Damon: 1:26:21

Cursio is, More. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Axe came from Cursillo. Oh, okay. So Cursillo, like, you know, not everybody's Made for that, you know, it doesn't fit everybody's cup of tea and basically what was happening with Crisio was They were trying to get new, you know converts into Crisio and it was just way too much Yeah, and they were like this is way too much and so they kind of started another version of it Acts to be a little more welcoming. Yeah, you know to the new car, which is necessary. It's like a little bit

Brent: 1:26:50

wider net Yeah, kind of bring

Damon: 1:26:52

people in exactly which is supposed to be a progression You know what? I mean? and that's another thing that the catholic church doesn't do amazing on is like throw there's Catholic church is so broad and so deep and sometimes we overwhelm people Um from the beginning, you know, but uh, but yeah, it's like that's that's kind of where i'm at now You And my faith life is like, wanting to figure out like, how do we get some men's stuff going? You know what I'm saying? Uh, for our community. Cause I think we all crave that, you know? Um, without like, you know. Maybe running through a church, you know, like you said, it can be organic. Yeah, it doesn't have to be sponsored by a church. Yeah. It can be organic. God will

Brent: 1:27:32

find you anywhere. Yeah, for sure. He's going to

Damon: 1:27:34

track you down. He

Brent: 1:27:36

was after me, bro. He was after me. He caught me.

Damon: 1:27:39

So yeah. And so it's like, like, I don't know, man, it's weird. Like last night. So we went to Superior Grill and then after that we went to Adoration at St. Pius and, um, Amazing. Like that is the date night of all date nights. Dude,

Brent: 1:27:52

that's awesome that y'all do that together.

Damon: 1:27:53

Mexican food and then adoration, right? Sweet. And so, man, it's just like the longer I get in my faith life, and this is just me talking out loud. It's like figuring out how to keep that relationship. But like I said, I've been in it so long. Like when I just, when I go to adoration, sometimes I just hear like, when I'm like, what, what do you need for me? It just feels like God's asking me to be. More, more disciplined, which like sounds kind of cliche or sounds kind of weird because I'm pretty disciplined, but like the little things, it's like, he's asking me to like get rid of the little things that take me away from where he needs me to be more disciplined with screen time. Yeah. You know, more like the Bible

Brian: 1:28:34

says it's, it's the little foxes that ruined the vineyard, you know? Right. And so it's like, uh, everything about the Lord is, is wired for intimacy, you know? And like we say at men's group all the time, it's like. Community is amazing, church is amazing, but if you're, if you're using those medians to, to be your weekly encounter to fill you up with God, it's like you'll never grow in a relationship. And so, yeah, I mean, it's like everything about the Lord is like intimacy based and it's like, and the more you pursue him and the more time you spend in quiet and the more you learn his character, the more you fall in love with him. And then that's the more revelation you have, the easier it is to hear his voice. And so everything we do, it's like, it should, I got to the guys at men's group, like if you're coming for, for me or for entertainment, you're going to leave disappointed. Like the goal of this is to push you to pursue God more in your quiet time, you know? Yeah. And it's like, you know, so you feel the Lord calling you to, to, to, to more spiritual discipline. It's like, it's like, man, it's like, it's not even maybe that the things that you're doing are wrong, but it's like, the Lord's like, Hey, like, I have, I have such, I want, I want more of Damon, you know, trim, trim the fat. And so it's like, yeah, so it's like, it's like the Bible says the little foxes that ruin the menu, you know, it's like, it's the little things, it's the small compromises that lead to deception, you know? Right,

Damon: 1:29:45

right. And I think that's what's happening. It's like, I have a little more time on my hands than I did, you know? And so it's like, I'll find myself instead of filling that time with things that were my purposes, either some sort of spiritual formation or with my family or with my community. I'll fill it with screen time, you know, or I'll do this or I'll do that. And it's like, that's, that's the next step for me, you know?

Brent: 1:30:07

Yeah. Uh, I find that like, I heard you mentioned the, the, the honeymoon phase, you know, I would say that, um, I get, um, I'll go, I kind of haven't flowed through it, you know, like there was one point I remember, like six months ago where I flew out to West Texas. And anytime I'm flying out, I always bring my Bible with me, open my Bible, start reading. And every single time it prompts conversation with somebody next to me, the flight attendant at one time was a pastor. And he was like standing next to me, like we were kind of talking, you know, and it was just like random things. I had this, this one guy who, uh, straight out of the hood of Houston, dude, straight. And he was telling me, he was like, I come from a family of pastors, but I just, I don't believe like they do, you know, and then, but you could tell he was, he was telling the truth cause he had, he knew it, he knew the Bible, you know, but we were just kind of talking and. Um, it was just crazy how like just bringing it out, how it prompts people to, I think people are curious, man. I think they're naturally curious because I think people want more, you know, out of this life in general. And I think sometimes they just don't know where to go to find it. But I remember I was flying out and I was like, When I got to Midland, um, I had checked like into my hotel room and I was like, just feeling off. I'm like, man, what's going on? And I felt like, um, I don't even know how to really explain. Like, I think this is kind of how I felt almost like God's presence had left me. Like I had done something that I don't know. And his presence almost like had left me. And I just didn't feel like that. Um, I guess you can call it like that high of like that really closeness that um, that was a had been accompanying me for a while, you know, so I don't know if that was just like the newness of it or I struggle

Damon: 1:31:47

whenever I travel too. What do you do? Like it's weird that you say that like I'll check into a hotel room and I'm like feel this like bleak And I think it's because I've never heard of your hotel

Brian: 1:31:59

rooms, man. You don't you don't know what's going on there before you I think yeah, that could be that's part of it. I think that there's

Damon: 1:32:03

actually in Midland, bro And like when you're like away from your wife and your family, yeah, which is like, you know, we Encounter God the closest through our wife and our kids right now. Like that is, you know, the closest thing we're going to get to, to heaven right now. And so I think when we take that away, I think that's part of it. Like you're away from what your, your real purpose is. But I think the other thing too, is just like maybe that little temptation as men of like being away from your wife and kids in a random, random town. Yeah. You know, like, like it or not, he's after

Brent: 1:32:34

you, you know, I

Damon: 1:32:36

think that that's, that's part of it, you know, for, for men too, but yeah,

Brent: 1:32:40

it was weird. And now remember that time it kind of like, it felt like it wore off. And I remember coming back and just being like, Like heavy and thought of being like, dude, what, what happened, you know, but then not long after that I'm, I'm laying bricks. I had my. Ear pods in and I'm, we were getting ready to tear up our back deck and I'm just pulling up, um, all these concrete blocks that we had that were under the deck. I'm just kind of pulling them out, setting them on my truck and it took me like three or four hours to do, you know, so just good work, slow work for a couple of hours. Felt good. Hell yeah. And I was listening to some praise and worship and I found myself like at one point I'm like, uh, Like, I remember thinking like, dude, if Lindsay was looking out the back door, she'd have been like, what is going on? And I'm standing there with my hands open like this with my eyes. So this guy was sunny. I remember I could feel the warmth of the sun on my face. And I was just like, praising God, just being like, man, like I just felt, I felt his presence just so heavy on me. While I'm picking up bricks outside. Like these big

Damon: 1:33:32

concrete, uh, pavers, you know. That's one thing the church does do well. The Catholic church does do well. It's like we have these religious communities. Actually, one of my best friends was a part of them for a long time. I discerned priesthood and religious life for a while. Yeah. Before Kath and I. Before I finally gave in, uh, to Catherine. You saw her

Brent: 1:33:49

and you were like, Oh, that's a shorty. I got resistance a lot. Yeah, I got, I was weak.

Damon: 1:33:53

And so, uh, but like the, the religious communities, like we have one in St. Martinville community of Jesus crucified with St. Oh, with, uh, Father Champon. And. That dude is, that dude, he, you can't understand him outside of Louisiana, bro. Really? He did the, he married Catherine and I, and he did the homily, and I had some, uh, New subtitles, huh? Some family from out of town, literally from like East Baton Rouge, and they were like, dude, we couldn't understand him at all.

Brent: 1:34:17

Like,

Damon: 1:34:17

thick, bro. He looked,

Brent: 1:34:18

he looked like he knew what he was doing. We don't know what he said. Thick, bro.

Damon: 1:34:21

Um, but anyway, like the religious life, especially for the men, but it's aura and labora, right? Work and prayer. Like work and prayer and like, that's their whole life is, you know, praying for the world and themselves and serving the community through work, physical labor, you know, tearing down somebody's house and rebuilding it for them. Right. Go on and do these missions and stuff like that. And it's just like simple manual labor. And it's amazing what like, uh, being outside and sweating, um, And working with your hands will do for your spirit. Yeah. It really is incredible.

Brent: 1:34:59

I, I agree with that, man. I, I, I don't know if it was just like the, the coincidence, like what we're talking about, just like the work that I was putting in and listening to my praise and worship. And I just felt his presence so heavy on me where I was just like, okay, I just got to stand here. I just need to stand here for a little while and just be like, uh, like, uh, oftentimes I'll say like, I invite the Holy Spirit and I'll be like, come Holy Spirit, like, be with me. Like, let me feel your presence, be here with me. And, uh, dude, sometimes it's like so intense. All I can do is stand there, you know, like it's weird. Like, but once you feel it, you understand, you're like, Oh dude, okay. Something's going on. You know, that's

Damon: 1:35:32

why. men, whether or not they admit it. I think that's why men are so drawn to hunting and fishing is because like, whether or not you know it, like you're with God and you're in creation in its purest form, especially like, that's kind of why I've kind of switched from, you know, I grew up duck hunting and I love duck hunting, but I've kind of switched to deer hunting a little bit. Dude, just being out there by myself, quiet and peaceful. Dude, like that's everything you know, like, yeah, of course we have to go. To church, you know, and we got to fulfill our obligations, but Sometimes, like, I'd rather just be hunting, you know, and just, like, soaking it up.

Brent: 1:36:11

I do find myself, uh, which, it's funny you say that, because I had this thought as you were saying it, and I was like, the times that I do really feel God's presence is like in the wintertime, sunshine, and I'm in my gator tail driving out into the marsh, going out to the camp in the marsh, it's just like a 15 minute ride, I have my headphones on, and, like, nothing's planned, it's just like. Just to deaden the sound of the motor. And I'm like, man, just kind of like looking around and just being like, like, you just feel it. Like, I feel like I could just feel it out there. There's something peaceful. There's something beautiful about being out there, man. And I just feel like it's so. It just quiets my soul so much just being out like out in that marsh, you know,

Brian: 1:36:50

and I think that's really what it is man, it's like, uh, it's the the quieting of of your mind, you know, and the quieting of your mind, you know One thing I kind of want to touch on is uh, you know, we talked about like the quote unquote honeymoon phase and uh, Uh, we I think I think everyone experienced that like, you know, you first get saved and you're so excited But then it's like you're like on fire the stress of life comms and you know, you let your fire die and stuff but the the thing is it's like, um That the the the hard truth if we're gonna talk about like actually maturing as men is like that's on us You know It's like the Lord's presence is with us always and they're maturing in maturing in Christ is knowing that whether we feel Physically feel the manifest presence of the Lord or whether we don't his biblical promises that like lo I am with you always You know And so it's like maturing in Christ is like, okay, even if I don't physically feel him right now, like I don't feel the manifest presence of the Lord. I know he's with me. Um, but also too, it's like, man, the, the honeymoon, honeymoon phase dying of the, or the excitement of knowing him, like that's on us, man, because like we serve a God that is Infinite in what we can know about him and know about his character and about his nature and about his heart for people And I and I i'll go through that too where it's like it's that phase where i'm like just on fire for the lord It's like praying for people in public every day. And then there's other phases where like I get caught up in me Yeah, or I mess up and I start on my downward spiral of like, oh like, you know Like I messed up last night. Like I can't pray for someone today, you know, right? It's like it's on it's on us man, but it's like the the joy of knowing him. I think is the Is the quote unquote euphoric feeling like the the joy of knowing him and man that's on us And so I think that a hundred percent just has to do with our perspective Yeah, and and and and and right thinking of man I like the joy of my salvation is what pushes me to to do these things in public because like I know that they need to experience it, you know, and then it doesn't become about us and it's just about serving

Damon: 1:38:46

I also think too that the The, that's where the formation comes into effect too, because it's like, if you know in your mind that this is truth and you know in your mind that this is goodness and this is, this is really what it's about, then even whenever you don't feel it, you have that to fall back on. Yeah. Like the intellectual formation for me has been, you know, super important because like, you know, especially as men too, like we are, we are intellectual beings, right? We like reason. Right. And so whenever you form your mind over a long period of time and you have like so many different layers. To fall back on if you're not feeling that euphoric feeling where you still have This and then after even if you're like kind of second guessing on a formation level you at the end of the day still have Like your discipline like your your personal and spiritual disciplines to keep you, you know in between the lines yeah,

Brent: 1:39:34

I find that whenever I get caught up in uh ego things like um Since I would since i've been saved. I can remember like the biggest You One of the biggest parts I've found is like the killing of my ego, right? Because none of this is about me, right? None of it. So, until I can consistently realize that, I have to kill that ego constantly. And anytime that ego naturally, again, as men, you know, we, I know I've said this before, especially on this podcast, that Man, our identity is tied up in, in what we can provide. Right. Which is an ego thing, you know, like we're, we're only as valuable as the things that we can do, you know, but if you don't, if you, if you kill that, uh, the reason I say this because a lot of men's, Identities tied up in the, with their ego. So the killing of it is almost like the killing of themselves. They're n they're never gonna be willing to do it, but it's something I've had to learn of, like, okay, none of this is about me. Um, the places that I've been, especially, um, in life, the experiences I've had are definitely God given. So how can I say that I've done any of this? You know what I mean? So anytime that I feel like I start to lose that connection. Kind of like what you're saying, like it's our responsibility to make sure that we're being intellectually honest. And I know for me, it's, it's anytime I allow that ego to come back where I'm like, man, I'm pretty good at this, but I'm like, but, but God put me in this position and God gave me all the tools that I'm like, it's not me. Like he's the one who's, who's given me the toolbox to do whatever I'm trying to do, especially when it comes to work. I took this job that I'm at. I took it out of obedience. And then like not long ago, I was like, man, I'm, I'm pretty good at this. And I was like, well, wait, God put me in this position. What am I doing? Here's my ego trying to come back. I need to, I need to kill that and be like, Hey God, look, man, thank you. Thank you for these opportunities. You know, I'm, I'm grateful. I know this is you working. I know this is not me, you know, and, and, and as I consistently realized that I find that. It's like, okay, he's almost like, all right, Brent, you're learning, you're learning little infant child, like shallow thing. I think about that

Damon: 1:41:40

all the time, dude. It's like, so like in business, especially at work, like we think, oh, like we're, we're pretty good at this, you know, or like, like I've had that same thought so many times and I have to go back and look at the journey that I've been on and realize that 99 percent of that was God and it just happened. Right.

Brent: 1:41:58

You just stump bumbling around and around. And

Damon: 1:42:00

so it's like, but. But it almost frustrates me though, you know, like it's almost, and that's a hundred percent my ego, but it's like, okay, there's a lot of successful athletes and businessmen out there who weren't faith driven men. And so it's like, why, why do I like, why do I credit this to God? Why can't I credit this to myself? You know? Or like, what would I be? Would I be good at this? If. I didn't have faith, you know, like those are the thoughts that kind of run. I feel Brian

Brent: 1:42:30

getting ready to come in with some heavy stuff right here. I could just feel it. Brian's like, Oh, I got this. I'm all over this topic.

Brian: 1:42:36

You know, man, the, the, the simple answer is like, uh, you know, he, he could choose anyone, you know, and it's like, we all have different, uh, skill sets. We all have different callings. And just because someone isn't, uh, especially like business, you know, uh, you, you see a ton of people in business doing very well that aren't godly, you know, just because someone isn't godly doesn't mean that biblical principles don't still stand of sowing and reaping. And so like, there's still just like there's natural laws of gravity and thermodynamics and stuff. It's like, there's still natural principles that God doesn't violate, you know, and so there's still laws of sowing and So people can still be and crushing and fighting because of principles of sowing and reaping. And sometimes we just have to know that like, Hey, there's other people that are just better than us. And like, even though they may not believe in God now, God still loves them. God still has a calling on their life and God is still playing chess. You know, Satan plays checkers, God's plays chess. So God still sees the entire picture of the scope of our life at once. And so it's like, you know, sometimes we want to take the credit of like, Oh man, like, well, why do I have to give God the credit? It's like, You don't have to but you'll just be entrusted with less, you know, right? And so the the scope of what god has for you is like sure maybe you know, uh, the the ego parts in like man Why wasn't why wasn't my calling to be? Uh the number one pound for pound fighter in the world Well, it's like well when you get to heaven I think god will answer that for you and like sure that would be a career driven all about damon making millions of dollars Just for you Uh, signing lots of autographs, probably, uh, not being faithful to your wife at some point, if you're the number one fighter in the world, you know, like Conor McGregor and stuff. Right. Yeah. Um, but God has allowed you to take a passion in your heart that he put in you. He lets you get to a certain level to teach you something. And now he's taking you and he's going to use you to bless thousands of people and create a legacy that will outlive you and your children and bless people. And it's going to, he's giving you a platform you. to have kingdom purpose, uh, to introduce the gospel to thousands of people, because you can integrate the gospel into, into your program and the thing that you're building out. And so you have kingdom purpose now, whereas this dream that your flesh may have wanted only glorified Damon as a fighter in the singular aspect where God has allowed you to still have the passions of your heart,

Brent: 1:44:54

but

Brian: 1:44:55

he's also taking in like, Hey, we're also going to grow and we're going to crush hell through the things that I've called you to do because you can be entrusted with this because you willfully chose to lay aside your ego, you know? And so remember, just remembering that it's like, man, you know, In the seasons of life where we don't understand what's going on It's like god is looking at he sees the end from the beginning, you know, right? and so it's like in that and that's one thing that's brought me so much peace is like because like i've gotten so many like Prophetic words over my life about certain things and you know that haven't come to pass i'm like, okay Well when god chose to release that word and what I believe like god's put on my life for business and stuff It's like he sees the end goal in mind and he still chose and he has seen all my mistakes as well over the course of my life And he still chose to call me when he could have put this mantle on anybody. But I think about that all the time. I'm like, man, like, why, why did my mom have to work three or four jobs and have a single, single mom and go through, you know, my mom had to go through the heartache of, you know, divorce and infidelity and all that stuff. And, and I had guilt for a while when I started making six figures, um, when I was younger, I felt so guilty for doing well because like I grew up with a mom that had to work two, three jobs, you know, teacher, tutoring, all this stuff. And I felt so guilty for doing well because I felt like I didn't struggle enough for it And uh, and you know, and so it's like but it's like man this is this is the path that god has called me to and I can choose to either use his path to Try and glorify god and spread the kingdom or I can use his path to just inflate my own ego But when I, and when I turn to inflating my own ego, and that's something that I do struggle with, you know, it's like, uh, Uh, I, I noticed that everything else starts to spiral downward and then it's like the Lord will allow me to scrape my knees and He picks me back up again. He's like, all right, let's try again, but he sees the end result of the character He's developing now like God is not surprised that of the things I struggle with right now. He's like, okay He knew that in this season that this is where he was developing character to create the man that can be entrusted with much in This season to ultimately glorify his purposes. And so it's like, um in these hard times, it's like manlord Thank you for choosing me, even though I don't have all the answers and I don't know why. Thank you for choosing me because my life path could have been completely different. You know, like a different sperm could have hit, could have hit the egg and my life wouldn't exist. You know, it's like, and I could have been born with a, with a, uh, uh, you know, a defect, you know, and, um, or something like that. And so it, it, it brings me back to thankfulness. So even sure. It's like. Do I want to be the next Alex Hormozy in business? Hundred percent.

Damon: 1:47:30

Love me some Alex Hormozy. But also

Brian: 1:47:32

too, man, it's like, it's like, man, the scope of my life, it's like, I, I could be doing something way different as well and not have all the blessings that, that I have now. You know?

Brent: 1:47:42

Yeah. No, it's well put, man. Well put. Um, I feel like, I feel like I almost got to sit on that for a little bit, man. It's like you covered a lot. It's a lot of knowledge, man. A lot of, um, A lot of killing of the ego, dude. Yeah, that's the, that's

Brian: 1:47:56

the foundation. It really is. And that's the

Brent: 1:47:58

hardest, for man, that's the hardest. Death to self. Yeah, death to the self. For man, that's the hardest thing too, man. Because again, we, our identity is so tied up in, in us. You know, what, what we can do, because that's how the world values us. But that's, that's irrelevant. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, um, we do, there is money that we have to make to provide, you know, there are things that we have to have to, to provide for our families. But when you get, whenever your whole identity is tied up in those things, it's, it's all ego, man. And, and when the world can give you whatever the world can give you, it can take away, you know? So if your identity is tied up in what the world can give you, It'll, it'll take it away. And then what's left, what's left of you. So you have to build that identity up in things that, um, are not of this world. And that is, um, you know, God's love for you, your identity and who God made you to be, that your love, that you're a bloodwashed, uh, born again, child of God, you know, um, Pastor Jacob would kill me if I didn't say that for sure. But, uh, but no, I mean, it's, it's true, man. And, and, and part of that is, you know, To get there, you have to kill the ego, man. It's, it's, it's not about us. It's not, you know?

Damon: 1:49:15

Yeah, I can't imagine I can imagine that it's harder to live this life without a wife and kids Like honestly, sometimes that's what's, that's what's keeping me so So grounded. Oh, sure, you know and I could imagine how much easier it would be to be Selfish without having those things. Yeah.

Brent: 1:49:37

Yeah. Well, you ever heard the story of men who are rich They have these big houses and no one to fill them with no one to share it with right? It's just these men who just Have um have chosen themselves over everything else And now they, uh, they sit alone, old age with a billion dollars in the bank and no one, no one to truly share it with. And, um, you know, family is, you know, connection, you know, um, men's community, you know, who, whomever it is that's around you that I think those are the true relationships really. Yeah. Or the, the true value of this world. And that's stuff you can't buy, you know, that has to be earned. Um, a lot of times it's, it's God given, you know, and, um, yeah. Man, again, you can't, it's not about you, bro. It's, you know, what, what can you, what can you do for others? And, um, what has God called you to do? And you got to figure that out because it's not, it's not you. It's not about us, you know? So I'm glad we covered that, man. That's good stuff. But well, look, bro, we're at almost two hours, my boy, almost two hours on this one, an hour and 53 minutes. So let's, um, Let's go ahead and wrap it up, bro. We'll have you back on. We'll have both of y'all really back on. I like, uh, I felt like that was easy, man. That was a blast. Yeah. Where

Damon: 1:50:51

can people find you? Yep. Um, on Instagram, Damon underscore V, uh, Facebook, Damon, Vincent, um, we train unique. com is our website, YouTube, Damon, Vincent forever.

Brent: 1:51:03

So we Brian, where they found you.

Brian: 1:51:05

At C620nutrition. com, baby, Instagram at C620nutrition. Actually don't go to the website. I'm never on there. Just find me on Instagram. It's coming back next year. God willing, God willing in the Creek. Don't rise. That's right. It will

Damon: 1:51:19

rise. That's right. It's

Brian: 1:51:20

rising

Damon: 1:51:21

quickly.

Brent: 1:51:21

Yeah. Uh, well, look, man, appreciate y'all tuning in. This is, uh, the good years podcast. I'm a Brent Goodyear. Uh, you can find us at, uh, on, Instagram at, I think it's the, the good underscore years. I don't know. Lindsay does all this. So I don't really know.

Brian: 1:51:37

But that was a solid outro until just now.

Brent: 1:51:40

I think it's the good underscore years. We're on YouTube as the good years. Uh, Facebook has the good years and you can find me on Instagram is at Brent Goodyear, J R abbreviation for junior. So, um, man, rate us on Apple, rate us on Spotify, all that stuff helps kind of get the word out and, uh, we just appreciate y'all checking in. So, uh, Damon, Brian, appreciate y'all, man. Thanks. See y'all next time. All right, fellas.

Lindsey: 1:52:06

This podcast is sponsored by Great Harvest Bread Company. Oh yes, oh my gosh, their Bayou Bars are the best. I mean, you guys, just picture this like ooey gooey oatmeal bar topped with fruit. It is like the most decadent indulgence, I think, in town. I know, I get them for clients probably a couple of times a week and they go crazy when I bring them in. It pulls them all out of their offices. They love them. Um, and as a bread and carb expert, I can tell you that they have the best fresh baked bread in Lafayette. I'm telling you, it's so good. Um, for every holiday, I'm in charge of bringing the bread because again, I am an expert and I get the potato rolls. I'll get whatever, 20, 30 of them, put them in the oven. Uh, whenever we get where we got to go and, uh, whenever we pull them out, they're gone in no time, they're so good. And, uh, I gotta say, uh, great harvest is owned by probably the most handsome man in Lafayette, Mr. Brian Malonso. He is a stud. So if you, So seriously, on a real note, the people there that work there, they are so kind and so warm and so welcoming when you come in, they really treat you like you're, I mean, just so important as a customer and everything you'd expect from like a, a warm and cozy bakery, like local bakery kind of vibe. So, um, you guys be sure to check them out. Um, if you're local in the area, we highly, highly recommend them. Yep. 854 College Saloon Road in Lafayette. That's it. Tell them we sent you. Yep. The good years.