Justin's Podcast
Dive into the captivating world of extraordinary individuals with "Interesting People," the podcast where host Justin Wallin sits down with some of the most intriguing personalities from all walks of life. Each episode unravels the unique stories, challenges, and triumphs of guests who have made remarkable impacts in their fields or led fascinating lives. From trailblazing innovators and inspiring artists to unsung heroes and enigmatic personalities, Justin brings you candid conversations that reveal the human spirit's endless capacity for wonder and achievement. Tune in for thought-provoking interviews, surprising revelations, and a celebration of the diverse tapestry of human experience.
Justin's Podcast
Courage, Resilience, and Transformation with John Beltran
Retired Navy SEAL and entrepreneur John Beltran joins us on this captivating episode of Interesting People. We begin our journey in the San Fernando Valley, where John's close-knit family and involvement in sports laid the groundwork for a life defined by courage and commitment. Hear how a chance encounter with a Vietnam War SEAL captivated young John and set him on a path toward an extraordinary military career. As we reminisce about the evolution of youth sports, John provides a unique perspective on the shift from regional leagues to today's high-stakes national competitions.
John gives us an intimate look into the elite world of Navy SEALs, sharing the relentless drive and extraordinary resilience required to thrive in extreme conditions. He recounts the seismic impact of 9/11 on military training and deployment, offering vivid descriptions of the raw, unfiltered reality of early missions in Afghanistan. These personal stories reveal not only the harrowing trials faced but also the profound personal transformations borne out of such intense experiences.
Transitioning from the battlefield to civilian life, John discusses the parallels between military operations and everyday stressors. We explore the power of focusing on controllable elements to navigate life's challenges, drawing from John's innovative work with ballistic polyurethane and his ventures in military supply brokering. Finally, John shares how Muay Thai training helps him maintain a balanced, peaceful mindset, underscoring the importance of physical discipline in achieving mental well-being. This episode is packed with invaluable lessons on resilience, personal growth, and finding balance in life.
Welcome to Interesting People, the podcast where we delve into the lives and stories of fascinating individuals from all walks of life. I'm your host, justin Wallen. In each episode, we bring you inspiring, thought-provoking and sometimes surprising interviews of people who are making an impact in their fields and communities. There's only one common thread that the world is more interesting because of them. Get ready to be inspired, entertained and enlightened as we spotlight the extraordinary. Let's dive in All right. Today we are with John Beltran, my good friend and colleague. We've known each other for some years. Right now, john is one of America's heroes. He's a retired Navy SEAL. He is also an entrepreneur and a former student, which sounds kind of funny to say, but a million years ago I was teaching marketing classes and we had the good fortune to cross paths. So that's why we're here today. He's also a fellow Californian and it's just a pleasure to have you with me today, john.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. It's a pleasure to be here. It's always nice to re-engage with you and discuss. I think every time we do, we have some nice discussions about whatever it may be, whatever the topic is. It used to be business and marketing, now it just seems to go anywhere. I guess the podcast is. But it seems to go anywhere and it's nice.
Speaker 1:Bring us up to speed on kind of who you are and your brother's a SEAL as well, and you know we won't spend the whole 30 minutes talking about that, but it's interesting. You know, how'd you decide to do that, what was it like and where? Where did you end up really?
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll do the quick reader's digest version then. So, as you know, so you said fellow Californian, although I was raised in the San Fernando Valley, the northern part of it, I think it was Northridge, but how these things are? They changed their name.
Speaker 1:so the above- it's like area codes right In Southern California they just changed it Anything right above Chatsworth.
Speaker 2:they want to be called Porter Ranch now because Porter Ranch used to be above the 118 freeway. And that's actually funny being out here in Texas too, saying the then the sign of the freeway. Everybody out here says I or just the freeway, like you know in Virginia I-95 or 95. But when you say that 95, they look at you like you're weird.
Speaker 1:In California, freeways are like holy vessels, right they have to have the in front of me. What do you take?
Speaker 2:I'm taking the five yeah, nobody says i-95 out there in california. Yeah, imagine if you said that i-405, but um, yeah, so, so, yeah, so california grew up in the valley. Um, pretty decent upbringing. I always tell people I think I had a pretty fortunate upbringing, you know, um raised by my parents. Uh, mom met my dad, my, you know, when I was four, five, remarried, obviously, but that's who raised me. Um, uh, so my sister and I were, you know, we kind of mended that, and my dad and my mom had two subsequent kids. So we, you know, we had four of us in the house. It was a good upbringing, always playing sports Typical San Fernando Valley family Sports.
Speaker 1:Sister was a cheerleader Typical, I mean, the South Bay, I'm sure it was the same right, um, it was people everywhere it, southern california in the 70s and 80s um, it was real, and I think up into the 90s as well.
Speaker 2:There there was a a feel to it that was pretty consistent yeah, yeah, and it was because it was like your league, your sports, you your playing, you know, whatever that was all your friends associated with that too. So now it's weird when I see it. It's like not to get off on a tangent, but it's like travel ball and this ball, and, like my brother's or my niece, dougie's daughter she plays soccer, and his sons and my nephews play hockey, but they're all over the place. I mean, they go all over the country, different states, for tournaments so I don't remember doing all that.
Speaker 1:Me too, it's very regional. The biggest you did was go to state, you know, and that was the biggest yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's not not hop state lines, but it just seems to have, you know, morphed into this huge like junior scouting session. Yeah, no, it's really very much emulates what what professionals do, right? I mean, they're, you know, morphed into this huge like junior scouting session.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's. It's really very much emulates what, what professionals do, right? I mean, they're bouncing around different States, even different countries. Uh, I can't imagine that. It's a totally different experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, uh, so so it's. It's, it's weird, but not weird, it's, it's foreign to me, let's say that. But so again. So that was my life football, baseball, um brothers say that. But so again. So that was my life, football, baseball, um brothers. You know, going to different games and whatever. I think seventh grade I decided I wanted at least know about that's. When I found out about the seals, um, I think I'll save the audience the story. But let's just say my dad was working with a uh cop when he retired la pd. My mom was Valley County Sheriff's but he was working with a cop that was a seal in Vietnam. I just thought some of the stories were awesome. So that was seventh grade. And then the movie came out in the 90s with Charlie Sheen and Michael Bain, which I found out later. They weren't really acting when they're all going crazy, they were just being normal.
Speaker 1:I was same Charlie Sheen, the whole time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was pretty much you know, so I'll leave it at that. But some of the guys I know are doing technical advising, um, uh, stories about them at the red onion. I guess I'm too young to remember that place, but the red onion used to be like a big hangout and you know he'd go there with his full entourage. But so, yeah, it's just funny stuff. But anyway, yeah, we went to the, I went to the navy. That was spent my whole career, or my whole life was. You know, that's what I want to do for a career. Um, I kind of got sidetracked a little bit, like maybe I should go to the police academy first and start testing, and then I didn't go right to high school, I went to well, just junior college. But I got on the swim, started lifeguarding Anything I could do to get ready for buds, and I think that's the why I bring this up when you say get ready for what?
Speaker 1:Buds field training. That's what you hear about. Right? For those of us who are on the outside, that's the iconic thing where you see these guys just getting beaten down. I think the image is in the surf and you got guys barfing in the surf and, and you know, you got guys barfing in the surf from the exhaustion. It just looks, it looks hard. It's really hard, that's what I say.
Speaker 2:It's. It's not my, my background's not that interesting, it's just normal a middle class upbringing. But the fact that both of us my brother and I and everybody else I know makes that conscious decision somewhere in life and they just go what they want to do. So that was it. I kind of lost interest in sports, even though I still played. Um, I swam in college just to get, uh, I mean ready. I started lifeguarding all that and went in 99, uh, went to your navy base to train.
Speaker 2:I always tell everyone too, because you know buzz is supposed to be, for the time frame and you know, for that amount of time, mostly the hardest training in the world, because there's hell week and everything's a water evolution. You're always wet and sandy. There's schools that are longer and that's debatable, right, and every douche in the world will debate it. You know that the platform now. But for the time frame, given that there's hell week, um, it's, it's one of, if not the hardest school in the world, still, um, and again debatable. But that's what I was doing. So I was that kid you know, buying unity's from they didn't even have ebay back then or amazon, and I go ebay because that was the first one. They didn't have amazon or back then, or Amazon and I go eBay because that was the first one. They didn't have Amazon or any of these and I would go to the Army surplus store and buy those shorts and boots and run on the beach A total dork man.
Speaker 1:I saw my-. This is Southern California. Seeing some dude hustling down the beach in boots is unusual. I would make fun of myself if I saw that.
Speaker 2:But what I didn't know and I did it too, my brother did it too, I'm saying it, my brother did it too, I had friends do it too is when I actually got to a school after boot camp which is in the old Navy, because I'm dating myself here in 99, you went to a school that was a rate, that was seal source rated. Now everything's SO special operator. You know, eod goes to EOD, divers go to divers. But they made it for advancement purposes and other purposes. But you no longer compete with the regular Navy.
Speaker 2:So you really have no affiliation with the regular Navy anymore other than regular boot camp and that's even a specialized division. But again, everything's changed. So I'm just getting at that because or kind of alluding to all that because it's just the process has changed but the people haven't changed. The guys are still the same. It's a lot more streamlined, but everyone I talk to it's the same. They're trying to do scientific studies for the last 20 years and they can never get it right. Why do some people quit? Why do some people? It's? It's just one. I guess you know when you're doing for you, you would understand that probably better than most people with the market research. You know, uh, influence there you have, and background, um, some things you just can't figure out, you can't quantify by statistics right?
Speaker 1:I mean, that's that's our, our nature is. We want to. We want to clarify stuff. We want a solid answer. Whether it's prognostication, you know what's going to happen in the markets, what's going to happen here, you know. Is there God? You know that's a human condition. We want certainty, but there is no certainty about what being human is right and there's no certainty about what makes someone capable of that and and shine in the environment and someone else not.
Speaker 2:That just, it's very, very difficult to figure that out I think now, pushing forward in life and all the nonsense I've had to go through, I see that in every market, um, every area in life, every part of you know different business sectors or whatever there's always those guys who thrive under stress, or women strive under stress. They thrive under extreme environments. They thrive in that team atmospherics right when it's, you know, it's a team or even that could be one person that they're with, but they thrive in being in an elite status where people are better or as good as them. Right, where they're not the best, they don't go in there and walk over everyone and I think that's just the kind of individuals. When people ask what kind of guys are SEALs, are they this or that? No, it's just normal guys. Some guys are thin, some guys are tall, some guys are buff, some guys are short Buffs and there's a short, uh, my roommate, I won't say his name, but he was up in buds. He was on the Osama raid. Um, he was only five four.
Speaker 2:I ended up going to team six and you know he, yeah, he was five four, but he's fast. So, the kid from upstate, you know, I think somewhere up in the northeast, um, I don't remember exactly what state I want? Want to say New York, but it could have been Connecticut, one of his others. But he was just a little stud and good dude, great dude. Younger too, he was 18. So you know, it was just one of those things that I think people that thrive in that environment and don't want to get stuck in their own skin being comfortable, right, you always want to press yourself. I think those are the people that thrive in any environment, in any network.
Speaker 1:You in 99, right, the world stage was very different than what it would look like just a couple of years later. I mean, there's always conflict around the world and America is always involved in some way, shape or form, and especially kind of in the, in the, the service that you're doing, Um, but it changed dramatically in a couple of years and, uh, where'd that, where'd that land? You?
Speaker 2:That landed me in um. So after Bud's training I went to SEAL Team 1. Um, that was in 2000, 2001. I checked into um. It's like a year pipeline. I checked into SEAL Team 1 after SEAL qualification training. I think it was August. Right that that happened.
Speaker 2:We were out training in the desert and we saw the towers come down. So we ended up keeping training. Our platoon was supposed to deploy a little different as a different platoon, just the way we were, I guess, used and the way we were diversified for different types of organizations. But we ended up just going straight to our platoon. So not right away when we deployed and actually it still took two months to get there.
Speaker 2:Um, but it changed drastically because that, as you know, was the catalyst for my I call it the uh focal point, when things got real, real, real in my life. Being a SEAL was good enough, being in the military was good enough, but after getting wounded, that was definitely a shocker. So the war on terror is actually real, right, it's no longer just something you see on TV. One of my best friends was in the NYPD Academy when that happened and he had to go get dead bodies out.
Speaker 2:It's a very untalked about story and I won't say which organizations, because I won't do that to shine a dim light on any of them, but there were professional organizations looting what, yeah, yeah, yeah, not looting but running into stores and stuff, but seeing stuff on the ground and taking it for themselves, right, whether it was for souvenirs or not. But it was just one of those chaotic times in America and I don't know what it was. But then other organizations trying to stop them and it wasn't one, it was several different ones, right, but it was just. I guess everybody was very uncertain on what to do, so other people deemed it as how you were stealing. But my point is it was real as a fact. Like craziness is going on. I see it as a chance to go to combat and you know, frankly, kill bad guys and get some retribution and I end up getting wounded, you after a few ops.
Speaker 1:How long were you there in Afghanistan before you got wounded? Probably three months, three months.
Speaker 2:And what were the three months.
Speaker 1:Like I mean, you look forward to this your whole life. You train for it outside, you train for it in. It's been years and now you're doing a combination of everything you've been set up to do.
Speaker 2:I want to say you're a typical answer of an instructor. It was easier in the fact that you're actually doing stuff and you're now kind of the master of what happens in your environment. It's up to you to control your environment, whereas in a training environment they make it harder, right. So as you teaching courses, you try to make it harder than what the outside world is going to throw up, throw a mag at you, um. So I noticed that, like the actual first stop, I went everyone on with the vehicle Patrol. But the second one was, uh, eyes on Target, just special reconnaissance, and it was bad. It was like 110 pounds in my backpack, 140 pounds of gear, your gun, um, up a steep hill, it was like all the way and then trying to hide in the desert for three days. It's not going to happen, um.
Speaker 2:So I I guess I would say that I noticed that, like, even though the focus and everything seemed easier, so to speak, you didn't have the stressors of people yelling at you pass fail. The true pass fail was coming home alive, right. So it's like it's easier and it's not easier, right. It's like nobody's yelling and nobody's going to grade you and there's still people on your ass. If you're, you're done. You're done. Like if you you screw up, you know everyone's going to hammer you now you're probably really hammering you, you're gone and beat the crap out of you type thing.
Speaker 2:So I guess it's just easier because you're allowed to beat the crap out of you type thing. So I guess it's just easier because you're allowed to push the limits to what you want in a real environment. But you have to worry about you know and I don't think you ever think about that coming home. The only time I ever thought about that was where I no shit if anyone tells you they're not scared, they're out of their mind. It was always the two minute mark, whether it was in vehicles or helicopters on the insertion. So two minute mark, you, you know, um, you're two minute out. I would always get that part pounding like sweating, flush hand sweating, and you start thinking about everything in the world that you may not come home to Build this and that, what if somebody finds this? Just everything goes through your mind and then that's frankly this was also my first time, but it gets a little bit more streamlined as it goes on, but you still get those feelings. Then, at 30 seconds there's no time for that it usually goes away and then you give a one-minute, 30, 30 second mark and it's just boom, you're. You're back onto being you. You're locked on when you go.
Speaker 2:I even told my son the other day and I felt pretty bad about saying this I'm like, hey, you know there's. I feel bad. But even when I got wounded like nobody talks, nobody thinks about, like your kids, your wife, your family, and all that in a gunfight you think about staying, survival and staying in the fight, survival and coming home. Because if you think about all the other stuff you're done, it's like I hate. I don't mean to sound so blunt about it or so I guess I don't know, dry would be a good word. Just, you know, hey, this is how it is so brazen. He kind of looked at me like that's weird. I'm like it's not weird, because if you think about all the stuff, you're not coming home. So again, I tried to relate that to him.
Speaker 2:In the regular sector and private sector, he's a student, right, it's like you start thinking about all these other things going on at home. You, it's like you start thinking about all these other things going on at home. You're not going to do well in school. You're not going to do well in sports, you know, like it's no different. Just the job's a little bit more dynamic as you get shot at, but no different than a police officer, a fireman right into a building, no different than somebody you know meeting a huge deadline that they have to for a business transaction that if they don't perform they're done. So you know, I try to give them that context in life.
Speaker 1:It's a really good point. The reality is, most of us, the vast majority of us, are not operating in an environment where, you know things go wrong. People get seriously injured, lose their lives. You know serious ramifications, right, you have very, very high stakes. On the other hand, the stakes that we operate in they're big to us, right, our careers and our relationships and so on.
Speaker 1:And when I was really young, my old man and I would be thinking about all these other things. You know whether it's paying for college, how I'm doing that, how I'm buying the car. You know the three jobs you got to hold down as you're getting getting through school and and you know you're actually going to get a good grade. So all these little things that are just like kind of everyday person things, um, it's really easy to get tied up in that and get caught up in that. And as you get older, there's all the other things that kind of come along. You have to be safe enough for retirement and all these kinds of things. They can loom. They sound pedestrian and mundane, but all these things can loom.
Speaker 1:And he said one of about five things over the course of our relationship that I thought was profound. And, justin, these things don't matter. It's not that they don't matter, they do matter. All of them matter. They matter a lot, but they're external realities. What you can control is within this right. You can control that. So, to the best of your ability, exercise control over that which you have control over.
Speaker 2:And the other stuff is.
Speaker 1:You know it's sometimes going to flow your way, sometimes's not. You just don't control that.
Speaker 2:You got to let that go, manage it, manage the stress, but uh, you can't. You can't control certain things. Aspects of right, relationships, like you said, work. It's whenever there's two people there's conflicts, right, or at least there's some kind of and it doesn't always have to be negative conflict. There is just some sort of conflict where a disagreement happens and you have to manage that in such a way. Are you the type of person that can manage it on the fly, or do you have to think about it forever and manage it?
Speaker 2:So I don't think anymore. I've changed a lot. I'm not mad anymore. I'm not angry. I don't get mad when things are out of my control, I just accept them, especially after going up to the ringer after the same thing. So you know and I won't get into too much of it, but all the changes in the family, right. And then you know meeting some.
Speaker 2:You know some things that were temporary, and now, here with my girlfriend, it's everything seems to be on point, like it should be, and I think a lot of that, though, is me. Um, not that she's not wonderful, but it's me that's. If I was the same way, I don't think she would have given it a light of day. Right, you're an, I'm not talking to you so, but it's both. I mean, it's both of us, um, but yeah, I know for a fact that if I was that same way, she wouldn't have talked to me. Um, but yeah, I know for a fact that if I was that same way she wouldn't have talked to me. Um.
Speaker 2:So I think that it's important once you go through the ringer whether good or bad, it's because life's got its. You know ups and downs, it draws and peaks. But if you can't manage that to such a way where you understand, uh, whether being a seal, being in marketing, being a whatever, you cannot get through the simple things in life. Like you said, what you manage, what you don't manage, because everything else is going to snowball if you let things get to you. So I'm big on that, like now taking, and again, I'm not a master at it and I try to tell her and tell my kids I'm not a master at things. So I'm learning very quickly how to get through certain work, through problems, but I'm still not. And this is a big and I only bring that up because it's a big part of why I am.
Speaker 2:So I guess hesitant still is because a lot of the stuff I did was based on arrogance or based on just success, where I thought getting wounded was never, was never what I want to say. I thought getting wounded was the catalyst to everything and nothing could ever compete with that compare. So I would equate everything to getting shot and nothing as important as that, nothing as crazy as that. I'm not lying in a field dead or almost dead, bullets flying over this is just life. But when I learned to kind of have all those things correlate to just problems in life, I seem to get a little better, um, where everything is important.
Speaker 2:Now, everything may not be as important as getting wounded, but now I'm more hey, this happened. Okay, why is it important life? Why can I have to readjust it? Or why do I have to adjust on the fly, or how come I wasn't prepared for it, that type of thing. So I think before, whereas again I'm talking about when I was a SEAL, I was wounded, blah, blah, blah, just kind of cocky still I've learned to take that and manage that into the perspective of all life now for me and it seems to work.
Speaker 1:And a big part of that. Professionally. You came back and I know you've done things that are related. You've done high value protection and things like that on a private scale. But you've been entrepreneurial. You've started a couple of businesses. You have one right now, you have one right now and how was that transition and what do you really like about what you're doing now? That kind of feeds into who you are as a human being. That reflects you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was going to actually hit on that right now. So my brother and I started a couple of companies and then, with the whole COVID thing, things got put on hold and then I got into another market by just by chance, but it worked. So I'll kind of explain in detail, but that's just the gist of what happened. So we did, we started two companies because after contracting and doing that whole song and dance and you know the beltway area, I was like I'm never going to do that again. I put myself in that situation where I have to change my shirt. When everyone wins a two-year bid, one-year bid, five-year bid, you're always looking who am I going to end up with? What I didn't realize is I was like oh, I don't want to work for the man. Work for anyone when you work for yourself you're the ultimate slave of the man.
Speaker 1:Everyone's the man.
Speaker 2:Every customer is your boss yeah, every man, and I mean it's not a sound too politically correct, but you're the ultimate servant of the market, of the of the man like you are going to do whatever the market says. And if you try to buck that, I mean very few can do that and create trends, having to do it. The ones that do become as an uber rich, successful people, right, but most of us in the normal world we're not. You know, I'm asking, you know we don't have that much money in, uh, you know, brain power to throw at stuff.
Speaker 1:Uh, right here, right, I right, I mean, the reality is, I mean there are a few people who really knock it out of the park and there's all sorts in that mix, right. There's incredible talent, there's an always desire to be learning, you see all these things and then everybody gets lucky breaks and that's a beautiful thing. But it is special sauce, right? And to assume that sauce is gonna happen right.
Speaker 2:You can't assume that you just put your head down and go. And why I bring that up is because the two businesses we started one we were on the way of doing that one was the ammo company, which I still have it on my instagram handle. I'll bring that up later for you, but it's it's. You know it's not an active company anymore. I was thinking of bringing the ammo back just as a kind of a ploy, just to get things for fun, for the social media presence, but I don't really have the time, um. The second was the uh consulting company where we did the bulletproof which I talked to you in depth about when we started it.
Speaker 2:It was the multiple ballistic polyurethane, um, and you know as ballistic polyurethane and you know as it. I guess the biggest differential between that and your traditional Kevlar or ceramics is that stuff's pressed, and I always tell everyone, whatever you remember from high school chemistry you can't displace water. You can displace fabrics and all work. I'm not supposed to. You can press them where you take out, um, your mass and volume and all that and make them thin and thin with the same strength, but water you can't. So ours was awesome in this way that it was poured. We can do any shape we want for the mold, but you can only get it so thin with still that ballistic rain. Right, you would add catalyst and stuff like that to make it stronger, thicker, clear, whatever. Um, I think, a stronger, more pliable, more coated, you know, hard brittle, whatever you wanted to do, but there was nothing where it was a magic formula for everything. So as you press things in it, just they displaced. So that was my biggest thing when it was an awesome product. It is an awesome product.
Speaker 2:Um, we were on our way to go to two school districts in arkansas and I think I spoke with you. I spoke to people and, um, uh, shit, where was it? Um, for what school? It was sierra madre, one of those high schools up in la where, like lebron's kid goes um a friend of coach footballer. Everybody I spoke to gave me a thumbs up. Nobody said this is a stupid product, right?
Speaker 1:Madre, one of those high schools up in LA where LeBron's kid goes a friend of Coach Fulfiller Everybody I spoke to gave me a thumbs up. Nobody said this is a stupid product, right? Well, may I just clarify it real quickly, because when I think folks hear ballistic stuff, they're thinking about body armor and things like that protection, a ballistic gore, things along those lines, right, that are perfectly suited for schools. With the tragedies that seem to go on every year, someone walks into school and shoots it up. That's what this was really designed for at least one component of it, or at least one aspect of your business, right?
Speaker 2:That was the main. And where we did that was the door is going to have a core anyway. Right, so the core was going to be the ballistics. We put the door skin going to have a core anyway. Right, so the core was going to be the ballistics. We put the door skin on top.
Speaker 2:I won't give away my threat assessment to give it to somebody else, but what we were doing was very much tailored towards school security in the lowest common denominator. Right, because we could have done anything, but my thing was okay. How does a seven or eight-year-old we could have done anything, but my thing was okay. How does a seven or eight year old do the same thing as a 16, seven year old under stress and this time? Or a 30, 40 year old teacher? How do they all act when bullets are flying out? Or maybe they can hear bullets, or maybe not. Maybe they hear the active shooter, or whatever they call them these days. Um, uh, what? What do they do? How do they react and how do they simplify the most simplified way with still keeping everybody safe? So, was it whiteboards that roll? Was it whiteboards with handles? Again, a six, seven-year-old, two of them are going to get off a whiteboard thing with handles, a whiteboard that rolls.
Speaker 2:But again, a lot of stuff's evolved now. So that's just in the last three years since 21. So now I've been doing my homework and getting involved. Now I'm looking at partnering with the company I'm working with now and that's in the space of more brokering for ammo. Or I told you, right now we're doing black powder for projectiles, for artillery projectiles, and it's foreign government, of foreign government. So it's kind of cool because it's really on the international space and I tell everyone it's like is it that cool as the movies? No, it's not as cool. I imagine I start traveling more it will be, but it's nothing like that. It's a lot of on the phone, brokering, making sure things are compliant, making sure, uh, men are able to talk or women are able to talk to each other without getting stuck on their own.
Speaker 1:You know soapbox the challenge of, of getting people to behave well and play, play well it's hard.
Speaker 2:You have different personalities and both these individuals, especially if you're the broker. Um Brokers necessary? I used to think brokers were there's no point for a broker, but now it's like it's necessary because somebody has to advocate on behalf of both parties. Right, there's a point where the broker becomes irrelevant in the transaction. But again, so that guy that we're dealing with up in Canada, we're talking to him about doing this, taking on that blood sake project.
Speaker 2:If not I'll find somebody else because I'm not going to as I became a CEO and we're talking about here just, I guess, tenacity or perseverance in getting things done. That's my goal is to make sure that project gets done.
Speaker 2:You know, the way I used to say things is we'll save lives and make money there's people coming on the business side and say you can make a lot of money and save lives like. I don't see it that way. I see it as you know. I got jacked up for a while afterwards. Uh, not physically, I mean, I knew that was going to happen, um, but the mental aspect too.
Speaker 2:Um, so you're saving, you know, or somebody follows the story 60 minutes or whatever thoughts you pick your poison there, some story news is gonna follow the class 10 years later. What they follow usually is the physical ones. You know, follow the mental trauma. All these kids are hooked on Xanax, pills, whatever now drinking, a lot of problems, and it goes with the territory. Getting wounded or seeing your friends killed or almost being in that situation make you thrive, it'll definitely make you think different, but not everybody has the resources and the power to do that. So if I can shift that process to jewel the thought process without ever happening and saving kids, saving their lives from getting wounded I'm saying saving kids, saving their lives from getting wounded, I'm saying saving their minds, saving their mental lives I guess not the physical part of them, but the mental part then I think I did my job. So that's why I'll never stop that.
Speaker 1:It's a terrific product. I mean, it's an amazing product. It's an amazing. You can't call it an industry, but the need, you know the need's not going away and that's tragic in and of itself. But we, you know we can't mold reality to what we want it to be. It is what it is, but protecting those who are under threat in this way, it's a terrific product. It makes a lot of sense and you know, obviously, the protection of our most vulnerable. But also, you know, it works. It's moldable, it fits with an existing infrastructure, whether it's a door or something along those lines. It just fisterly makes sense. It's a terrific product. We're rounding up the end of it, but I wanted to talk a little bit about. Everybody's got something that they do, uh, that keeps them centered right, that keeps them uh from, from, uh like, like I say, climbing into the bell tower. And you've got a particular thing you do, uh, it's exercise related, but it's it's more to it than that.
Speaker 2:You talked to me about that a little bit yeah, yeah, I kind of alluded to that and we hit on it before, so I was going to try and I mentioned that to bring it. I'm glad you did much more eloquent way, but it's, it's very, uh see, you know, people can listen to this and say this doom and gloom. What am I talking about? You know, still talking about positivity, but how did I get all this way? There's really no substance if you don't know the catalyst to get there. Um, for me for a long time it was that self-destructive mode. I wasn't doing what I was supposed to. I was working out, getting those you know, physical running, this and that, and I knew I was. I mean, I've done this off and on for the last 20 years.
Speaker 2:But when I really got back into Thai boxing, like Muay Thai, I realized that after going through so many changes in life and again I started stand up back in 2004, jujitsu before that, but now I'm just focused on Muay Thai I get that level of peace that most people long for and the reason why I do, and I tell people people ask me do you do yoga or meditation at all? I cannot. My mind runs wild when I try to do those things and then I get more. You know, it's a greater feeling of not absence, but what's a good word. We're kind of disassociated from reality and thinking about everything at once. I think that was the clinical term for that. But that's where I get scatterbrained, so to speak. Where my mind's not there, disassociated with reality, I'm thinking about everything. When I kickbox, it gets very, and I'm not training for fights. I mean, yes, everything's training for a fight, but I try to gear up more towards what I've done, what I'm still doing. When I do security, part-time, like security work for these big waves or whatever, I try to gear everything towards a street couple stuff. So everything I do is now in the context of reality, of what I do for a living, what I'm going to do if I protect my kids, my girlfriend, my family. So that makes it even more in tune to I have to do this to live life. Now I go one step further and say, in order to achieve peace, I need to train for violence. And that doesn't mean I'm going out jumping people being a bully. It's quite the opposite. It means that I've done it my whole career, my whole, mostly adult life. I've trained for combat. I've trained for everything right.
Speaker 2:I always realized that while I was training for that, there was something internally within me that I couldn't shake. Well, I realized that I was manipulating myself, right? So you can't beat yourself in a fight on both sides, because you're going to manipulate yourself one way or another. You can if you're the good sides, you know a little bit better on the other side, but you're not ever going to go 50-50, right. You're always going to be able to manipulate. So what side do you want to manipulate? You the good side or the bad side? Do you want to use this for negativity and to go I'm going to, you know, go do this to people and be pissed off all the time, but now I'm can really have to do some damage. You're still carrying weapons on you, that's not no. Or you want to use it for good, positivity and this thing where you're focused in life and you have a particular skill set for me.
Speaker 2:I like it because I I've been training for that and now I don't go out and shoot guns anymore, but I try to train for the um, mental aspect of, and, I guess, the day-to-day aspect of warfare. Even though you don't call it warfare, it's a sport, it's training. I love it because it keeps me ready, it keeps me sharp and I know that if something happened again, I'm not going to go start a fight with you know five gangbangers because I think I can win. It's that last minute resource. Or if something happens, you kind of. I guess you carry yourself different. You can always tell somebody that you know, whether it's you walking into something for business and seeing that or just walking towards somebody. My brother likes to say he's not worried about the loudmouth in the bar, he's worried about the guy, two people back from him counting people that are your potential adversaries and counting exits, counting things that could be used as a weapon. So it lets you open up, but it lets you very. It lets you live in a very peaceful aspect where you don't have to think all the time about violence and stupidity and what to do or you're not acting like a tough guy. You're just there, you're training, you're getting a good mental workout as well because you have to push yourself daily.
Speaker 2:So for me, just because of what I've done in the past thai boxing or muay thai, um, I changed gym, my carl's back, carl's about kickboxing now and it's really awesome because it's only a? Uh, it's the only a muay thai gym there's, I think. Maybe one boxing class a couple times a week, but no boxing, no jiu-jitsu, just for more time. So when I end up moving here to texas, that's first thing I'll do is find a good Muay Thai gym. But it gives me peace, man it just, and it makes me want to work out more, do other things more and just be more in tune with life myself. I don't know why it's a snowball effect, but it's a good one and I'm not gonna question it.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna yeah, yeah, it's critical you got. You have to carve out the time, you have to carve out the energy, you have to carve out and say because the reality is, if you don't, there's a million other things, all of them important, which will take that spot in your day right, there's a thousand things that are just going to pour right in and you have to say now, this is, this is as important to me as breathing, and I'm going to do it, and boredom has always been my biggest nemesis, so if something else wouldn't have to fill it up, at least something was filling up when there's boredom that's always been like that's when construction happens.
Speaker 2:So it's like it's good because it keeps me. You know, even if I'm not doing anything for two which you know you should always be doing something, especially if you're working for yourself or working, um, you know, with kids or this or that, but, um, you should always have something to do. But if I'm not, which I'm guilty of, just like everyone else, going on youtube and wasting an hour, uh, you know, I'll watch more kickboxing videos rather than just stupid videos that pop up on your feed right like, oh, how do I do this? Do I do this move? Okay, so it just seems to be in tune. I know who I am now. I mean, I'm 46 now and I think I'm in pretty decent shape. But I know there's guys out there that you know hand me my lunch. There's guys out there definitely better in the operational side, guys that are much better business than me. But as long as I can keep in tune with, I can maintain a level that's keep beating it daily, or keep trying to strive to go daily better, better, better every day, then I can mentally hit that hurdle and go over it.
Speaker 2:When I don't yeah, I don't Some people get real edgy and real like when they don't eat. I'm that way. When I don't work out or physical activity whether it's a gym or kickboxing I'm just very, very grumpy, grouchy when I don't do that. So I know food I can go without three days. I know that. But I don't want to, but I know that's the standard. But when I have to I have to lift weights or do kickboxing, and kickboxing really is just some, like I said, crazy endorphins where you're ready to go and then you can get down ready to go, not to fight, ready to go like in life, and then you get down into that peaceful level, no-transcript From there. It's just one option. It goes back down to normal and, yeah, you can't walk around in that all day long. That's what separates kind of a special operations community, probably in the business world, than most of the military. We can achieve that level like that and then come down.
Speaker 2:Um, it's not always good for personal life, but you can make a big mess of your personal life by saying and doing things for 30 seconds. I'm the professional and what we need it for it's good. So it's tailoring all that again. Everything's in balance, man. Everything's a balance in life, it doesn't matter. So I just found muay thai to be my, my balance, to make me, you know, nice and equipped to handle life again. Um, that's fantastic. It yeah, it really is a video. That was a light video, I was just yeah, that was gnarly.
Speaker 1:There's nothing light about that, not not for, uh, not for the answer. I could talk for another four hours. It's Saturday. You've been kind enough to give me part of your Saturday morning and I know you've got loved ones who need you, so I'd love to have another conversation another time. We've got a million other things to talk about, but, my friend, it's been a genuine pleasure to be talking with you today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, thanks for thanks, for it's nice just to just kind of catch up see what you're doing.
Speaker 1:I truly appreciate it. Thank you for tuning in to Interesting People. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast on your favorite platform, and don't forget to follow us on social media for updates and behind the scenes content. I'm Justin Wallen, and until next time, remember that the world is more interesting with you in it.
