Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Official Hector Bravo Podcast
Hector Bravo UNHINGED
Taylor Cavanaugh From Dark Times to a Purposeful Life
What happens when the life of a former French Foreign Legion Navy SEAL spirals into chaos and then transforms into a story of redemption and empowerment? Join us as we sit down with Taylor Cavanaugh, who takes us on a raw and unfiltered journey through the highs and lows of his extraordinary life. From facing the psychological challenges of leaving an elite military unit to eventually finding his voice as a popular YouTuber, Taylor’s story is not only remarkable but profoundly inspiring.
Taylor’s candid reflections offer a window into the darker corners of his past, grappling with legal troubles, substance abuse, and the internal struggle for self-worth. We explore how he confronted these demons head-on, even while on a military mission in Iraq under felony bail. Driven to the brink, Taylor recounts how a powerful moment of clarity shifted his focus from self-pity to a life of purpose, leading him back to the French Foreign Legion and ultimately toward personal redemption.
Throughout our conversation, Taylor emphasizes the crucial importance of mindset, authenticity, and accountability in overcoming adversity. His experiences in the multicultural environment of the Legion, including rigorous training and operations, provide valuable insights into personal growth and resilience. Whether you’re a military veteran searching for hope or someone seeking inspiration for personal transformation, this episode offers powerful lessons on building a life of meaning and empowerment.
Hector Bravo Unhinged.
Speaker 2:Chaos is now in session.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of Unhinged. Today we have another special guest, Taylor Cavanaugh, who was a French Foreign Legion Navy SEAL, a physical fitness instructor and, overall, just a badass man. I'm excited to have you here, Taylor, Thank you. Thanks, man, I appreciate it, bro. What's up, dude? So yeah, man, I asked you outside when did you come on scene, bro?
Speaker 2:Because you just started blowing up dude, Dude, I launched my YouTube when I realized, dude, I was at a suicidal state before and then now, over years, it took me years in that, in that French foreign Legion barracks room, to where I was like, man, I'm having good days every day now, right, and that that was last year, like this exact time last year, and I just got back in the country in December and, uh, yeah, man, we've been rocking and rolling since. You've been hitting it nonstop, dude, like a chop in the wood man. I just, I approached this like anything else. Yeah, like like like a chop in the wood man. I just I approach this like anything else, yeah, like like a job. I take it seriously, man. Every day I'm up doing this thing and you know, as you know, man, it's about that diligent, that diligence is the only way I know how to work.
Speaker 1:That's what's up, dude. So you were in the united states military?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I was a seal and I was at seal team seven for about seven years before I had some problems and I got kicked out and I failed a steroid test but I had some other things that brought some heat on me. To actually bring that heat on me, I was no victim man, you know, and so I brought the heat on me and I took it on the chin and I took a general discharge and got out and then worked in the civilian world for a little bit. Down at Jula Vista actually, we were building a sky building, a whole kind of near the amphitheater. Out there we were building a big residential community, Nice. So that's where I started doing it. Where's SEAL Team 7, based out of Coronado? So right here down in San Diego at the SEAL compound down there. I think they moved down to IB, but they were up in Coronado at the time.
Speaker 1:So did you always have that dry? Were you always like that hyper kid that you had to get yourself doing stuff?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say probably I don't like labels, I don't like the ADD and stuff, but I'm sure I'm on that type of spectrum at some point and I was always out. I would get in trouble in school. I was always pretty good at school, though pretty smart, but I played sports and but gotten a lot of trouble too.
Speaker 1:So when you saw the navy seals or the navy in general that's, you were attracted to that man, dude, when I realized that you could be a soldier.
Speaker 2:Just in general, I think probably a lot of us when we're at like seven, some kids they're playing. You know they play for like us. We're playing for real. Yeah, we're like training, we're out in the canyons and shit and we're like out in the desert, dude, you're playing for real and better at it than most right, and so I think I had an aptitude for it and I knew I found out about seals and so I kind of latched on to that. You know, in our era, our time, it was kind of man we grew up it was like schwarzenegger and stallone, it was like the jungle and that whole that how old are you, dude?
Speaker 1:I'm 39, 39. Yeah, we're the same age, bro. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:so I was like we're our age that time bracket it was man. It was like man, shit, commando, shit Right. It was like okay, that's the job, I'll go try that.
Speaker 1:We're going to bring it back, bro. This fucking country went too far in one direction, man.
Speaker 2:I think the pendulum I think we're starting to see it kind of swing back. Yeah, see, kind of a. I was talking with my fiance about the. It's kind of starting to be cool again to have traditional values. I started to see that in like high school and shit Like they're like I, traditional values are coming back. Thank God, right, because I think people started to see that things started to get really illogical and dangerous and didn't make sense and man, it's eroding the morality of what made this country great man, hard work, accountability, what made this country great? Man, hard work, accountability those things are man it's. It's the pillars that make any community, business, family work. Why would we think it? Our country is any different I like that dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you hit the nail on the head. So after the military you went into some civilian work. How long was that space in that civilian work until you? How the hell did the french foreign Legion come to mind? That's a good question man.
Speaker 2:And um it, the French foreign Legion came on my radar when I was a kid. At some point I found out about them but I'm like oh, that's kind of weird foreign fighter unit. But got shelved. And then when I was getting out of, I went to college. It took me a bunch of years to go to college but I ended up getting a degree and but I had a bunch of misdemeanors that I had DUI, driving on a Spenad and some fightings and just a bunch of things that had stacked. So, getting in the military, I had to go to jail. So I went to jail for six months to to commute my probation, to have the opportunity to even talk to a recruiter.
Speaker 1:Is that what the recruiters had told you? Was that one of the? No, that's what I that's what I knew.
Speaker 2:Because, okay, I on any type of probation they're like dude, you can't enlist. So I said, okay, well, I just went to a lawyer and said what do I got to do? And they said, well, and the judge said you will, you could serve some time. So I said, all right, let's rock and roll. So I went on like a lockdown facility up in like santa cruz county on misdemeanors, up there with felons you know about to go, they're shipping up state dude. I'm like what am I doing in here?
Speaker 2:But it was actually, you know, I felt good about it because finally I could go into my purpose. But coming out of that, when I was realizing the administrative hurdle that I was about to go through, going man dude, the Marines turned me down for tattoos, army turned me down for criminal background and that's so navy took me. But in that process I was like, well, if I get turned down from everybody, what are my options? And so that's when I started to come on my radar about the foreign legion. So it was when I was in my early 20s, like very early 20s.
Speaker 2:I like your style man, I like your style, dude, just just a wild wild dude, bro man, just you know, and I, I, it felt, systematic though I just I'm like, I'm gonna find and I'm sure you're like this hector, it's bro I'm gonna keep pushing until I get an absolute no like correct. And I think a lot of people stop when they just hit friction or an obstacle, when and that path of least resistance leaves rivers crooked man, a lot of people don't even start. They don't even start. They don't even start because they project the problems and they go. Or if they get some friction, they're like they take it as a sign I go, no.
Speaker 1:The sign's much further than that, dude. Would you agree that the whole crabs in the bucket mentality discourages a lot of people from doing what they want to?
Speaker 2:do. You cannot listen to anybody who's not in a position that you're trying to be in. So family is some of the worst. At that, man.
Speaker 1:No they are the worst, bro.
Speaker 2:No disrespect. Yeah, family is some of the worst at that. And just because somebody is coming from a position of love does not mean they're right. And that is where people are mistaken. They go well, they love me. They must be. No, they're operating out of fear, a lot of fear, man. They're operating from what want to keep you safe and what they know and in their realm, when, if you have a bigger vision man, you have a bigger vision like. Take Schwarzenegger, for example right, if he would have listened to his family, he'd have been living in some town in Austria, dude, for the rest of his life and been a police officer. And like listening to that internal voice. I call it god man, but people call it what they want, but that authentic voice, it whispers at you, it doesn't shout, and so you got to listen to it and you got to quiet the noise to hear it.
Speaker 1:Dude that's awesome to hear, man. Yeah, we think the same exact way, dude yeah and it's.
Speaker 2:And then it's execution and relentlessness. And so when you latch on like a pit bull man on a on a tire, hold on man, stick to it, run it to ground. I was riding my bike to the recruiters dude, they were telling me no, and I was, you know, sitting on my mom's couch. I was stacking boxes at home depot man at night trying to figure out what I was gonna do and just kept going until I got the right answer what about failing?
Speaker 1:failing, yeah, how do you view that? Because I view that as a. I love it, bro, because I know that's where the growth is going to happen.
Speaker 2:Dude, failure, failure is the best teacher. And failure also means right failure. Right, there's been fucking up and failure. I like that which I've done. A lot of fucking up, but then I've also had real and true failure is, man is when you're striving and pushing and hitting that line and then, okay, now you can reset. How do I approach it a little differently, a little better.
Speaker 2:My first seal screening test, I failed, and a lot of people like, oh you, dude, you must be so, so, like you done, silly dude, I'm not particularly that like good of an athlete. I'm not, I'm a terrible runner. Dude, I'm not particularly that like good of an athlete, I'm not, I'm a terrible runner, like I'm a. I have a lot of things that I had to work past to actually get and achieve some of the things I did. But, dude, I failed. And there's a difference between defeat and failure, and that's where I think people need to understand the difference. Bro, if you're defeated, you're done. Right failure man. You could lose some battles, bro, and still win the war. So, dude, keep chugging bro.
Speaker 1:That's what's up. Man, when you were in the SEAL teams, is there anything you particularly like? Like maybe the camaraderie, the teamwork, or maybe what did you like about it? You got to shoot guns.
Speaker 2:What did you like? What I really liked about the SEAL teams is it wasn't too formal, which I really liked. Like you're not saluting your officers, you're very. You go through the same training as your officers, so there's a tight cohesion and there's a lot of responsibility and autonomy. They give you plenty of rope to hang yourself with. I mean, dude, as a new guy showing up, man, you're starting to book your own training trips by yourself, renting Tahoe's, going places and having to perform. And you get to these places. You can leave a school failing man. It ain't cool in the seal teams. And also there's no group PTs, there's no group runs. They're like, dude, the only way you're if you show up at a training site and land warfare and you can't get down, bro, you're getting your bird pulled. It's as simple as that. They they're like oh, oh, you can't later. Like you obviously aren't meant to be here. So I really liked the, the responsibility that was placed on you. It's just big boy rules man, like from day one, which that's what I really liked about it.
Speaker 1:I like that dude yeah, now what about structure versus authority? Do you have a problem with authority?
Speaker 2:oh man, man, authority man. I still have to check myself. I don't even like when. When the security guard in Walmart tells me something, right, I have a real proclivity to push back against authority. I don't want somebody to tell me to put my fucking seatbelt on, man or put a helmet on.
Speaker 2:I don't see the need for government to get in my Wheaties about keeping me safe or anything of the sort for that matter. But structure, man, is required for any type of clarity, and structure can be self-imposed. It also, man, I found a lot of benefit from having structure in sports. You know, if you played, you know football or whatever growing up man, that saved me for a lot of years and a lot of pain. And when that was removed at the beginning, bro, when I lost sports, I had some struggles, some transitional period struggles drugs and alcohol and car accidents and things like that, and then gaining that structure back in the military, it was nice because now I had a reason to be structured, wake up early. And then when that was removed, again, maybe what you experienced, hector, getting out when that's rug is kind of pulled out from you man, then you your own devices. And that's when I started taking adderall, xanax, weed. I was doing taking fentanyl every fucking day, man, not during the day, because I was, like you know, prescribed or not prescribed prescribed.
Speaker 2:You know, that's part of the reason. That's how I could lie to myself oh my god, it's chill, man, it's from a doctor. Or I'm not doing it during, I'm not drinking at work, or I'm not doing this, but I'm sipping vodka at the gym, right.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know in the evening I'm like, oh, I'm done with work, man, it's all good, take the edge off and that's that. Those habits, those habits I'm disciplined with shit and I'm also disciplined when it's bad I'm going to stay structured with. So I'm very careful about the, the daily things I do, cause I'll structure in. If it's going to be bad, it's going to be good. Well, you just described insanity. Yeah, insanity, doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. Do you have an addictive personality? Yeah, I'd say I have a habitual personality, like I can shed things quick, but if I, I gotta be very careful, because when I find something that works or I like, I'll stick with it. Breakfast training, whatever it can be good or bad. But if I'm like, oh, this works in my day, it's locked in, and so I got to be real careful about what I lock in Nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when you left the Navy SEALs, did you feel, like you'd said earlier, the pull, the rug pulled from underneath you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was because, man, I didn't want to get out, wasn't okay, it was hard because, dude, I wanted to stay in a career I want us going to try to go to that next level. And I gave it away, right, I fucked up and so I was getting out earlier than I really wanted and I had to go back to jail, serve a little time not a long time, but, like you know, a few weeks to clear up some shit. And then I was signed on my DD two, 14 cleared, and that's when I was like, what's my identity? Dude? I was, I was a seal. That's how I, I, I, my whole identity was wrapped around. It's all I ever wanted to do was my dream. Now, what was I? So that I didn't even, I didn't even process that. I shelved it and was just like, well, I'm just going to go work and then go a thousand miles an hour in this direction and you can only bend reality so long before it came crashing down.
Speaker 1:Damn. So what emotions were you feeling when you got kicked out of the Navy? Shame, guilt, remorse. What were you?
Speaker 2:feeling man, all those, all those Hector, that's the. The worst was like the self-loathing. I had this like self-loathing at the beginning because I was dude. I had federal marshals here in a van trying to extradite me about out of state. It was. It was complicated. I was getting sued by a guy for a half a million dollars. I had three lawyers in two States hemorrhaging cash. I had a military attorney, three civil attorneys.
Speaker 2:It was mayhem and a violation of probation. They're calling me that. My phone's blowing up, taking drug tests. I'm still doing cocaine, selling cocaine at this time to pay for lawyer. It was insanity in every chaos, in every direction. And so what I was feeling was so stressed man, I don't wish that level. I don't even know how I was feeling was so stressed man. I don't wish that level. I don't even know how I was standing, looking back. I don't know how I was operating on a day-to-day basis, but I was like going to the gym trying to like walk through quicksand is the only way I could describe it, but I was definitely stressed the fuck out.
Speaker 1:Damn dude. I would fucking feel stressed just hearing that man.
Speaker 2:That was a lot dude yeah, it was a lot, man. And when, when that got all cleared up, dude, it was weird because I realized, oh my god, dude, wow, this feels great. I I hadn't realized that I had years of like all these cases and stress and things on me. I mean, I was in iraq facing on bail and facing a jury trial for facing six years in prison. When I got back, oh bro, I never heard of that Dude. I was like the only person who ever happened to do.
Speaker 2:The court approved me to leave the country and the team to leave and go to Iraq on bail. I was on a felony bail trial. It was like all right, and I was on a helicopter from Baghdad flying up to like South of Mizzou, going thank God, or like getting shot at and I'm going. Oh man, I was so close. I was like at least I don't got to deal with that shit. Man, it was seriously it felt like a gift just being on that bird. But that was a time that I was. I volunteered to stay over there, man. I was thought about joining the Kurdish Peshmerga. Dude, I was like I'll just stay over here and go AWOL. I thought about it, bro, because I was that not wanting to come home and deal with the reality of what I was facing.
Speaker 1:So it makes sense now, how? Because I was like how did this dude get involved with the French Foreign Legion? Like it seems to me so far, like, far out, like a choice, and it makes sense now, dude, you know it got worse.
Speaker 2:And so, even through that and I cleared it up, and then I was like achieving some measures of success but stacking those bad habits, hector. And then it all came crashing down. I did a line of fentanyl, smashed my head on the table, cut my face open. It was like the venture cat I used to work in this, this high rise, right here, so it feels like full circle victory lap. Dude. Coming back here, it was like my whole world had just when you know something's done, it's done. It was like that moment and, man, I left.
Speaker 2:I went to the big Island of Hawaii and was just trying to like, okay, I'm going to let some things cool down and then we'll figure it out, and was kind of waiting for that next opportunity call that always came. No, no, call came. Then I ran out of money and next thing I know I'm homeless. In my truck I have a sawed off shotgun next to me and I'm going all right. Well, I was like well, this is how it happens. I remember turning the key off on my truck and I just everything went quiet. I remember this moment. It was like dead quiet in the jungle, like deep jungle man. I was parked way out there kind of near where the volcano was erupting, and I just remember being like, oh, this is how it sneaks up. I had no money, no gas, no anything. I go, oh, I'm tired, bro. I was like I just, I don't, I'm just, I don't know how to climb out of this one. I don't want to. That was a.
Speaker 2:I spent that for a few days pondering that, and that's when I I started to have that. I had that moment of that authentic voice of God speaking to me and being like sack the fuck up, dude. Like you have a sister, a mom. Like, dude, you're not think about, think about somebody else, but yourself for one second. Like, play the dialogue. And this is for anybody man, if you're in a bad state. And this was very helpful for me when I had this kind of realization, or when this realization was showed to me. It was dude, play your inner dialogue to yourself out loud.
Speaker 2:What if you recorded it and played it back to you? What would it sound like? And if I did that, it was me, me, me, yeah, I, I, I, why me? I'm sad, I it was, it was all about me. And so that's when I go, you know what, fuck it, I'm going to join the french foreign legion. I got one more push to like see, to just sack up, and I was like if, if they send me, I was like if I die over there, I die, but at least I'm gonna do it with my boots on sweet. I was like I'm not gonna do it in here by my own hand, like a you know, you know bitch made that and that and then I just organized my affairs, man, and pretty much you know about two weeks later I was in France.
Speaker 1:Let me back up real quick. So you strike me as a good guy, bro, a guy with a good heart. Now you talked about doing coke, selling coke, steroids. What do you know? Look in hindsight, where was that coming from, that behavior?
Speaker 2:Dude, I think I just was used to living in chaos or I had this criminal mind or something. And I'm like, well, what's the best way to make money, what's the fastest way to do this? And I was looking for these quick fixes for a lot of ways and what's the quick way to do this? And a lot of it, if I really get down to it, is ego based. It's like, oh, I want to be the man. Oh, okay, if I'm not going to be a SEAL, then I'm not gonna be a seal, that I'm gonna be the best fucking coke dealer in town, like it's like status, it was all status and that was, uh, maybe what I tried for seals. I had to, like, make these big goals.
Speaker 2:French horn and that's what I ended up finding, which we'll kind of probably get into later, is when I was in that French horn Legion barracks from a few years in, going, oh shit, there's nothing else, like, where do I go? And that's when I had to start looking internal and and realize that man, there's no external validation. That's going to make me feel good. That's not it, that's, that's the fault. First of all, can you take it away from you? I don't care if it's a job dude, even, even people's family or whatever dude. The truth is anything exterior of you. If you're not good with yourself, you're not good for anybody else. So in in self and work out, and then you're, then it's solid I'm glad you said that, man.
Speaker 1:That's something that I had to identify too, man, the title sergeant, lieutenant, yeah, cert commander. You know it's like fuck dude. Until you find inner peace and inner happiness, you're gonna be fucking miserable chasing something that doesn't exist man, and I'm sure you, I'm sure you saw it, man, being a prison guard and stuff.
Speaker 2:It's like the rank, you get one more up, you get a little bit more, get a bit more clout in the military. It's like, oh, I get a little bit more ass behind the more brass, you know, and it's a little bit more authority, and it's it's just status man. I think men in general were pushed, were status pushed, and that's a dang. It's endless, it's never going to end. And we see a lot of people all over who aren't happy because they've never addressed the actual foundational principle of them, their daily, their mindset, their whatever. They're not into, you know, reading Stoic philosophy or scripture. They're not taking any time to reflect on self. They're completely looking external to fix an internal problem. Facts, dude, I'm glad you're saying all this stuff. It's a never-ending abyss. It's just like a drug man. It's a drug Damn. No, you're right.
Speaker 1:No, what is the process to join the French Foreign Legion? Is it an online application? Is it an online application? Is it a paper application? Do you get on a toll-free line?
Speaker 2:What do you do, man? Man, this is such a weird thing because it's like a. It doesn't sound real, but there's no application, there's nowhere to call. There's one way to do it and it's. There's two places Oban and Paris, the headquarter regiment, or out in Paris where you just go knock on the door. Man, you knock on this iron door with a bag, a dude will open it.
Speaker 2:I had a Mexican dude with a green beret. He was from Mexico, foreign legionnaire with a FAMAS, and he just told me to take off my fucking hat and hand me his, give him my passport, man, and I didn't see that passport again for two and a half years. And from that point on, man, I just went into the belt, the gallows of this like medieval structure. If, if anybody like they could google it or you could maybe show a picture. It's a just a big brick, looks like a medieval castle with ironwood gates since la legion and trangere over the top, foreign legion. And you just go bang on the door like wizard of oz or some shit.
Speaker 2:Man, dude, did you go to the one in paris? Yeah, there's one on the outskirts of paris, it's called fort nojent, but is that the one you went to the one I went to because I thought it was a little bit more poetic. But and also, man, it was like down in the headquarter regiment. I heard it was a little more hectic. There's just a lot more going on, and I heard it's a little bit more like chill of a process for the pre-selection. Now these are pre-selection centers, so you're still in civilian clothes for like the first couple weeks. They're not like throwing you right into a military, they're not yelling at you yet before we jump right into that whole thing, how many selection stages are there?
Speaker 2:so you start, there's a pre-selection, okay, then you go into selection and all most of that is a little bit of physical, but it's mostly psychological interviews, medical screenings, teeth and IQ tests, so that's usually what they do. And the but the interviews and the Interpol background checks and all that are pretty hardcore too, because they don't want sex offenders or anybody who's got serious issues with with like arms trafficking or drugs trafficking. Those are pretty much the only things that will really clip you up.
Speaker 1:What kind of individuals are they looking for? Gung ho individuals? Or do they want some fucking thinkers too?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I they. The foreign Legion is a very interesting institution because, first of all, it's ancient man Anybody that know. It's a 200 year old institution that was started by an old king to get foreigners out of the bars and out of his streets back onto the battlefield with the carrot of French citizenship. And it's modeled after the old Roman legions. So you serve your time, ok, and then we'll, and so that was the premise.
Speaker 2:So they have a lot of tough individuals from different countries, some with military experience, some with not, and also it's a one-stop shop for France. So, to answer your question specifically, they need them all. They need thinkers. They also need guys who are about to charge the machine gun nest. Right, they got guys crawling out of holes in Russia. You know just monsters. And then you got dudes from India with like glasses. You know that they need to push the paper because they have their own cavalry parachute. India with like glasses you know that they need to push the paper because they have their own cavalry parachute regiment. They have their own infantry engineering regiments, mountain regiments, like where I was at they have. It's a one stop shop. They don't outsource anything kind of like the Marine Corps in that way they have their own medical admin, cooks, everything, 7000 dudes and they're spread all kind of around the world.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. Dude, I had no freaking idea.
Speaker 2:It's a one-stop shop for France and they like it because and they fought in every war, from Algeria in the 1800s to Afghanistan, every single war for France. And there's no political pressure of French citizens coming back in body bags, they're just foreigners, oh shit. So there's no. Okay, it's not a French cast, not a French flag raped over the casket Right. You also don't swear allegiance to France, you swear allegiance to the Legion. It's very unique. It's like it's a branch of the military, so it's formalized, but it's kind of like the Marine Corps in the sense of the strict military bearing nature of it. But they will take anybody as long as you fit the parameters of the physical side and then you're not a complete idiot. They don't want you thinking too much. It's not that type of place, it's not like thinking shooter place. They want you to shut the fuck up. More often than not and they say that a lot. They're like don't ask questions, shut up and just go.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's very interesting, bro. Now you gave me a little brief history. Is history lessons part of the training?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, the tradition in the Legion is massively pushed. It's one of probably the most important things you got to remember. First of all, you're not going back home for a couple of years. They don't give you your passport, so I didn't get to leave the country for like the first two, two and a half years. That's part of the system, and they give you a fake name.
Speaker 2:So they gave me, they give you a fake name, fake French past identity, not French identity, but a European identity with social security number. So mine was Trent Clayson, and so they give you the same initials and they just move your birth date around and your birth city and that's you, man, and that's how everybody calls you. Nobody knows your real name, nothing. And you could keep that name forever. You could get French citizenship and just live on that name for the rest of your life if you wanted. It's very, very bizarre. Or you do what I did and after a few years you put in some paperwork called regularization, situation, military, and they'll route some additional paperwork, do some additional backgrounds and they'll send you your passport and they'll give you all your name back. They'll change your name, tapes and all that.
Speaker 1:Damn dude, Is it like the United States military where you're contracted, locked in, you can't leave or you'll be AWOL?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so it's pretty much like that. So five years, seven years To get naturalized. It's about seven years, but five years is kind of the minimum contract to how they go, how it goes in and you were ready and available to sign up for that man.
Speaker 2:I had nowhere else to go. So that was the situation, because the actual interviews for me were really hardcore because I came with my dd214 okay, so I wanted him to know who I was. But I and I wasn't really lying about my past, which was nice, because the foreign legion man dude, they got guys showing up with fucking face tattoos, heads blasted they don't care about tattoo regs and and your background can be checkered. That's designed. There's no boy Scouts there. So it's kind of refreshing in that sense. It's like you go to maps and you're like, yeah, they're like okay later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're out.
Speaker 2:They're like they want you to be more honest because they want the known evil. They want to make sure if you are who you say you are, okay, we can deal with that. They don't want like the guy that's doing weird shit sketchy, shit, sketchy shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so those guys that do the interviews, man, are like masters at body language. They speak like five languages. They're pretty high ranking enlisted guys, super experienced, from all over the world, and they read you, man, they're called Gestapo, they call them the Gestapo interviews, and mine was like eight hours. They were like look, man, what the fuck are you doing here? Why is the Navy seal here? Right, you were a special operation, because the foreign legion is not special operations.
Speaker 1:Is it a panel of numerous?
Speaker 2:individuals or one on one, so some one-on-one but some panel, because they're like dude, you're going back to infantry. This is an infantry unit, right, highly trained infantry. You're going to be fucking shark shit on the bottom of the ocean. Are you ready for that? And I was like, look man, I ruined my fucking life and I need a second chance, right. And they're like all right, that makes sense. Like it's not like that far out, it checks out of the sanity check. So that was, I got accepted and I got picked. It's about one out of 15 guys that come to the door that actually will be given that like opportunity. And then you go to bootcamp Wow, so that's the process. That whole process is about five weeks. Months can be a little bit longer.
Speaker 2:Are you staying in barracks? Yeah, so at the beginning we're like in a. You're in a barracks but you're in civilian clothes. So it's what you brought. You're up, but just you're on a military timeline. Now, now you're shaving. Now they're, you know, kind of whistling you around, but you're in civilian clothes. Then, when you get to this selection phase where you're down in the headquarter regiment now, now, like now you're running around you got a little like guard belt, like that lame shit, yeah. But now they're kind of, but you're sitting at tables burning time for the most part and then sleeping in barracks rooms, sleeping in bunks, barracks rooms where you're up making your bed and doing all that shit. So then once you're selected, then you're in a uniform and now you're getting kind of indoctrinated into the process.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, consider becoming a patron, where you will get first exclusive dibs on the video before it airs to the public and you'll get to ask this guest special questions that you have in mind. So that's also another way to support the channel. Thank you, guys. Appreciate all of you. Keep pushing forward. Make sure you hit that link in description below.
Speaker 2:While there's other individuals from other countries there also, and everybody's in the same room. Man, it's a trip because there's no americans. Bro, you have a couple americans, triple in, triple trickle, in most of the countries. The biggest percentage is brazilians, colombians, south africans. You have a ton of ukrainians, nepalese, some m Mongolians and then you got all the other. You know bunch of Africans, nations, thai and some scattered Western cultures, australia, but that's very few, maybe a couple from Japan or something like that. Some.
Speaker 1:Chinese During that timeframe had the war in Ukraine already kicked off.
Speaker 2:So this was in 2019 where I'm talking about this, but I was. I was in the Legion when that kicked off. So that was interesting because 10% of the Ukrainians so they were leaving to go fight temple, you know a bunch left to go fight. Some, I know, are still over there fighting some Bella Bella guys from Belarus. So, very interesting, the dynamic is we also had guys from Russia. So sitting, you know, very, very weird to be in that dynamic, but, man, you're sitting in a room and hearing like 15 languages being spoken. It's very, very odd. I can't think of another place in the world maybe the olympics or something where you might be able to hear something like that. You're right, but it opened up my scope, man. It really did open up my scope of the world and how people grew up.
Speaker 2:And there's some tough motherfuckers out there, man right, with some experience, and a lot of them come to the Legion because of three reasons, kind of like, go back on your question. Like who? Who are these fucking guys that join? There's like the romantic guy that's like oh, my girlfriend broke up with me and I'm going to go in the Legion and be, you know, fight war. And I had one guy from like Tunisia or something, and he was sitting this was in the pre-selection. He goes, he goes, he goes. You know, like love and war they are like this, they're one in the same.
Speaker 2:And I and I looked at the dude, I was like this dude doesn't stand a fucking chance and he got, you know, getting smoked out. Yeah, I was like, yeah, so you have those types. And then you have the pragmatic guy that's like I want the citizenship and the money because they get paid way more than their home countries, sometimes triple right, so they're making it rain when they go back to brazil, they're, they're crushing it as foreign legionnaires. And then you have the machine of war, the guy that like wants to get after it. Right, you have some of those. I'm probably like a mix of like the last two, right, I'm like, oh, it kind of I was there for kind of a pragmatic reason and also, you know, I kind of want to. If they, we can mix it up, but we'll do it, but yeah, that's that's the three styles of dude oh, that's cool, man.
Speaker 1:Thank you for um breaking that down, dude. Was the leadership of the french foreign legion pumping like pumping guys up about the war in ukraine? Like hey, you guys are going to be partaking in this, or they kind of you know what's?
Speaker 2:weird about the foreign legion is there's like very little dissemination of information really. It's very top down and it never gets down. No way, dude, dude, I would be on ops and shit. I had no idea where I was fucking going. No way, dead serious, no idea. The target, nothing, no, no idea. They're just like hey man, here's the gun, we're gonna be out here, we're coming back this time and so, and a lot of it is, I think, the culture, cause you have French officers. Most of them are officers from France who went to their academy, so they're like academy French guys and they're like these guys don't fucking understand the French anyway, cause everything's in French. Man, so like, and none of us know French, you know, so you do learn French slowly but surely, but it's really rudimentary French. So there's some of that. And also just it's the culture of you know this is a unit where you just do what you fucking are told. So is it a whole lot of?
Speaker 1:pointing Like, hey, you get the fuck over there.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of pointing, and there's a lot of looking at the dudes who know French, you know it's like what's this guy do?
Speaker 2:All right, so, but they'll show maps and they'll show, you know, inserts or infills and things like that. So you have a kind of understanding. But like the actual overarching strategic approach you're like not really tracking on really what that is for the most part, but it was. It's a cool institution because it's tough man right. They're probably the least funded out of the French military, you're the least fed, and so you're.
Speaker 1:it's just grimy man, it sounds tough, dude. It sounds tough from an outsider, it sounds fucking horrible from an outsider right. Is it like fucking, like straight, like bashing you like the marine corps. You know they sound tough.
Speaker 2:The boot camp is this straight smoke sessions, dude, it's a lot of smoke sessions and it's a lot of fuck, fuck games, is it? Oh, yeah, it's a lot, dude. They'll be like a lot of hazing and it's like, oh, put your fucking dress uniform on, then go get in the fucking shower, you know, and you better be ready by tomorrow. That type of shit. Did you learn any cool hazing tricks while you were there? I hate hazing, man, dude. They make me drink these casks that are packed with like all who the fuck knows, man, and like it's crawling in the snow because we were out way up in the mountains it freezing your balls off that. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2:I was marching, not good, and I stick out, bro, and the colonel sees me and he goes and he calls the company and he's like the american he marched, he marches like shit. They're like, fucking, handle it. So that was a huge deal. Because a colonel called and they're like, hey, american, what the fuck did you do? So they made me go outside and I had to stack a pyramid with rocks. For three days there's no rocks. So they're like, hey, there needs to be a pyramid as tall as you. You know, we don't care. And it's fucking blizzard, snow, snow, storm, fucking blizzard. Snow, snowstorm, rain, snow in december way up in the mountains. And so I'm walking like 10 minutes to go, put three rocks in my backpack 10 minutes back, stocking for like 19 hours a day for like three days straight, just because I was marching back I love it.
Speaker 1:You know it's like they can't break me.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking I like it, bro the wind's hitting my face, I'm like like they can't break me. I like it, dude. Yeah, I was like fuck it, dude. But there's a lot of that, a lot of like, hey, navy seal, come clean this fucking toilet. You know there's a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 2:But, like anywhere else man, you put on a little rank, right, you get a little experience and you don't budge and and real, recognize real at some point, like they know the deal, dude, and they, I pull out a, an hk, dude, and I'll light the range up. Right, you can't. All that experience doesn't go away. So my weapons manipulation, my understanding of tactics is good, and so that all kind of came to light over time and they're like all right, this dude, yeah, you're an asset bro, yeah. And they're like hey, dude, and deployments right, you facetime. I deployed the jungle in south america with them. I was doing interdiction of illegal gold mining, dude, deep jungle operations, dude, for like months. And then, uh, when we went to estonia, we also did some internal work in france for like anti-terrorism domestic missions.
Speaker 2:So you get facetime with people, you know how it is you deploy and then dude, now there's new guys coming in and now you're the older guy, perfect you know. So it's like uh, I wasn't much of a hazer. Just because I was dude, I got shit to do, like I want to lift and stuff. But you know you tune dudes up if you know if they're disrespectful and shit.
Speaker 1:So in 20. Let's back up to this the hazing in 2024. Man, we can both agree that america has gotten soft, the world has gotten soft, yeah, right. Um, what is your take on? And I hate to use the word hazing? People think hazing is a bad thing. Yeah, right, but do you agree? That my extra military doesn't it build character, though? Wouldn't you agree that some of it is a necessary evil?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think that there's also. There's unit cohesion right there and there's bonding. So there are some things I did in the seal teams, man, that would be considered hazing man, they were fun, like looking back, man, they were, they're sucked man, you're kind of bummed out, but man, it's like it's kind of a cool memory and we did some stuff. Nothing was super dangerous, but I do think, yeah, people drinking too much and like hazing can go another where it breaks unit cohesion. So I'm like, if it also teaches a lesson, it's good Facts.
Speaker 2:So people, getting tuned up man, for being disrespectful or dangerous is fucking necessary, correct, right, it's 100% necessary. And guess what, if you don't fuck up and you're not dangerous, you're not getting tuned up. Right, I'm going to clip that, bro. It's fucking perfect, it's facts. And so I didn't have a problem in the SEAL teams regarding that because, dude, I was locked on, I took pride in being prepared and being on time, knowing what the fuck I was doing, so I never had any issues with it. And so guys that weren't that way or just didn't have the aptitude or were just not putting in the extra work, man, you bring on the heat.
Speaker 1:A lot of similarities between the military and prison. Bro, If you fuck up, you're going to get fucked up.
Speaker 2:Dude, I could see that, I mean I can imagine over the years. You're like seeing guys come in process. You're like this is going to be fine and this is going to have a lot of issues, and I'm sure you're like this dude understands the flow and this dude's going to go.
Speaker 1:Literally dude, literally, dude, literally, bro. So you did multiple operations with the French War Legion, yeah so we did two big deployments.
Speaker 2:The first one was down in South America and the other one was with NATO on the Russian border. When the Ukraine war kicked off. Now we weren't in Ukraine but we were with the Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group, they called it, which there was three stage. There's still are one in estonia, one in lithuania and one in poland, maybe one in germany, I think too. But it was with the uk, the danish, the french and the estonians. So we were kind of the french foreign legion contingent tank movements, a lot of just flexing. So so that was like more exercise, building relationships with countries Now down in South America.
Speaker 2:That was a wild west down there, man, because I didn't know. France has territory in South America. That was news to me, figuring that on the way over there, right, friends for leisure, they're like you're going to South America, I'm like Googling shit on the way over there. But it's a country right next to Suriname, north of Brazil, west East of Venezuela, jungle, dense, amazon jungle. So it's an old penal colony of France.
Speaker 2:And, dude, there's a movie out with, like Dustin Hoffman, it's an old movie that they do the movie on that. I forget what it's called, but it's bad-ass. They do it on french, guillen guillen, francais, and the french call it linferver, which means green hell, and it is exactly that it deep jungle operations. And I didn't realize how much gold's down there, man it the. There's legal gold mining that france has their piggies in, right, they're getting paid taxes and stuff, and then there's a lot of illegal gold mining and that is what they send the french foreign legion down there to patrol and break up is that when they use children like the movie blood dining or all that stuff, man, we would patrol 14 days in some days and hit gold mines every day, new ones every fucking day, break up all their shit.
Speaker 2:They have structures, the whole towns, man, for the most part, and they would have all the men would run and there'd be like kids and wives and like grandmas out there. You're like man, what are we doing? They have weapons, dude. Some of them have weapons. They're running. We weren't taking rounds. Some of the legal guys were one got shot in the neck and some other things were happening because, right, they're robbing them, right. So there's like bandits out there that are robbing these guys that are dude. They're pulling out like 750 grand a week in gold and some of these spots, legal spots, and like six guys running an operation, right, and they're getting on a dirt bike, a dude's in the back with like a the gun dude. It's like like the gauntlet, yeah it's fucking wild.
Speaker 1:Did you actually see any gold? Oh dude, were they like nuggets?
Speaker 2:were they like big, it's raw, but there's so much gold in this one place it was like an island. There's this spot interior that's a bunch of small little islands in french guienne, and so we took these boats out to this one island. Would run all guys off, but I mean they had the full on like gold, like wagons going into the like built like that. We brought a bunch of demo, blew it all up. But on the beaches of these places, man, you'd put your hand out, dude, all gold flakes, like in your hands, just laying on the ground. Obviously, you know so small flakes, it's not something you're like putting your pocket, but you can see it.
Speaker 2:You guys would blow up the gold. We'd blow up the whole gold, mine blow up everything and we're like, you know you gotta process the gold and stuff, but we just blow it up and they leave. I'm sure french units would come in and do something or, yeah, you know, whatever mining organizations they have. But, dude, there's so much of it that I mean I've started to get hit up. After I I came back with like guys with companies going, hey, what's going on down there? And now they also found oil off the coast of the thing. So billions of dollars from the United States are getting funneled down there to build infrastructure.
Speaker 2:It's it's hugely popping right now, but it's bringing a lot of problems too, man, because dude the what it looks like coming up to these places and you can look at satellite imagery of these places. You're like, hey, illegal gold mines, it's crazy what they do. They dig these massive pits and they dump mercury in it and that's how they kind of pull the raw material out and sift it. But dude, these things like glow in the dark, bro, and they would have me jump in and pull these fucking engines out Mercury.
Speaker 1:That's the shit that they put in the. Oh, bro, I like glow in the dark now bro, it ain't good for they.
Speaker 2:Hey, navy seal, go, you can swim. They're like go get the dead serious. So I was swimming in this shit, pulling these diesel engines out. We'd break them up, blow them up, run the people off, burn the shit down, man, so damn, not just structures and then go on to the next one and we just sleep in, sleep in the jungle and drink water out of the water purification tablets, and just that's how we were getting down with all the elements?
Speaker 1:you've been in man, with the beaches of san diego as a seal, the south america. How are you with elements and the different changes in the climates? Which one do you despise the most? The cold cold man yeah, dude. I mean, we're from fucking southern cali, bro. I was stationed in germany, all is fucking miserable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, the cold bro is like I the unescapable, because there's a difference between cold and military cold, and people who any military guy watching this will be like yep, because in military colds it's unescapable it's not like when you're cold in the civilian world and you're like, yeah, I'm a little cold, oh, I'm just going to go inside or go in the car.
Speaker 2:It's like, nah, bro, you're staying out here and it's fucking going to be all day or all night, or weeks, weeks, months or whatever. You're staying out here and not being able to escape it. So there was a lot of that in in the farm. They call it the farm. That's the first initial boot camp phase, where they just kick you in the dick and it's in the french pyrenees. So, dude, it was middle of winter. Dude, no way and no do.
Speaker 2:We had kids from like tahiti, and shit, bro, that never, ever saw snow and they were fucking freezing. Got kids from like chad, dude, they're like. I saw this kid from chad, bro, he had never been like in any temperature, like you know, under super hot, and he's like, he's like sitting there like this, and he's like he didn't have, he had, he never had, he didn't put his thermal pants on and so, like for like two days. He's like, and I'm like, bro, you good, he's like, and I saw him. I'm like, bro, you gotta put those thermal pants on. Dude, he's like, oh shit like I'm like bro, he's paying the man.
Speaker 1:Dude was tough though man. You guys have any like hypothermia casualties or cold weather casualties.
Speaker 2:We had some guys go down we had some guys go down like uh, but they keep you running for the most part, you know. So you're not, you're not super, you know, can't, that doesn't happen. But, man, cold on a different level, because also you're sleeping in cots and they just they're not giving you the gear yet too, when I got in the into the mountain regiment which I don't know why I fucking chose that fucking thing. So I went to the glutton for punishment. They, they at least gave you good gear. So our gear was better.
Speaker 2:But, dude, we were sleeping in fucking igloos in the alps. No way, dude, we were making igloos for like underground, for like 30, 40 dudes. Are those effective? Oh, dude, at least puts it at zero degrees celsius. So it's like you know, yeah, manageable, and so we dig these little coffins in. And, dude, but it was cool, man, because you have guys from like norway and shit who like know how to get down in the cold, and so I'd have, you know, you have watch, or you got to stay up, you know, and it's security, and I'd go down in the igloo, like be seeing, like if everyone's good, and like I just see, like I'd come into this guy's like little like room and he'd be sitting there like this, like a kid from norway. He's got like hot tea and like just chilling chilling bro and I'm like what's up, dude?
Speaker 2:he goes want some tea. You know, like fucking god bless, these dudes like that know how to get down in the snow. But I but I say the snow is probably the worst for me because you can't escape it if it's cold, but I like the jungle the best.
Speaker 1:Explain to me the jungle, bro, because I've never been to Amazon or anything like that. What do you see, dude? Like big-ass spiders fucking snakes. What do you see, bro? It's like.
Speaker 2:Avatar. What do you see, dude? It's like Hunger Games down there, dude, is it? It's pretty wild, because what it sounds like too, I had some audio too after I could play it for you. It's like all night. What is that? It's howler monkeys mixed with other things, and they call it I think that's what they call it green hell. But you just hear it in the abyss.
Speaker 2:And, dude, I got attacked by these things, things they're called fire flies, but they ain't like our fireflies here, they're like real fireflies. And we came across a nest of them, dude, and I swear it was like that scene from hunger games where those fucking bees come out. It was like are they similar to bees, bro? They are, they are bees, but they're like flies. They're some kind of weird alien and a worthy meanest fucking things there was. You couldn't run far enough. They're coming at, dude.
Speaker 2:Once they picked up on you, me and this kid from Madagascar, dude, to paid the man on these things and got bit by a lot of stuff. There's a lot of ticks too, so you'd have to really be careful about the ticks. Um, piranhas, crocodiles that came in, crocodiles and shit, because we were bathing in the river too, man, we didn't have showers and stuff, so we were washing our clothes in the river and stuff and they have came in crocodiles really damn. You could eat those things, though, man. We had guys that were killing the crocodiles and eating them. How did that taste? It tastes like. It tastes like kind of like a chicken, kind of like a grimier chicken.
Speaker 1:How much of that impacted the mission. You know the animals, the climate, the environment.
Speaker 2:I would say the climate more than anything, because you can't really patrol too far from water, even though it sounds like you're in the rainforest. So you'd have a lot of water and you did, but when it rained, man, we didn't waste it. We'd put tarps up and like fill our bottles up and shit. But but dude you, you pound, you're always wet, so you pound it, it's you're. You're not even pissing, you just constantly drinking and never pissing. Yeah, just you cannot. And if you get too far from that, I got pretty close. I went Winchester on water and I was like not wanting to say anything because I was still a new guy and and I look over, and this guy from nepal is just like bone dry, like totally chill, those dudes are hard bro and I'm like dude, are you not sweating?
Speaker 2:dude? I'm like, he's like. No, I'm good bro, can I have some of your water dude? I was dying dude and so I have a. I've had a couple close calls like that, but I think the more anything, it's the terrain than the animals.
Speaker 1:Damn dude. So did you find the fulfillment that you were looking for while you joined?
Speaker 2:I. I would say what I really went in for was I needed it some time to just fucking get my head right. I was like I knew I was wrong, I was still living wrong. I was still immature. I wanted to be get correct, but I didn't know how, and so I knew I needed just a space to figure that out. So it provided me that. So I didn't even really care what I did operationally. I didn't go. I didn't think I was going to get better experience in the seals. I knew I wasn't going to get go to like Iraq or something. I was just like look, if I go do some cool shit, they give me a gun cool. But as long as I get some time to like use it as a vehicle of self-development, that will be. And that's exactly what I got. So that's awesome, dude. Yeah, I was grateful for that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, bro. So, as it came to an end, as it was winding down, um how many years did you do so?
Speaker 2:four and a half. Four and a half yeah, I ended up doing four and a half is there a exit ceremony?
Speaker 1:do you get a form, a DD two, 14 type of?
Speaker 2:well, my exit ceremony was a little bit different because, like, so I'm sitting in this barracks room and I'm done now, right, I'm. So I'm like cruise control. So I'm like moving trucks and stuff, like on my twilight tour Cause I wasn't going to re up and um, so I'm like dude. But I, I was like at this point now, where I was man feeling good about myself, I was like man, what am I going to do? After I was like, well, you know, I'm going to use I would love to share some of my, because I had no social media or anything. I wasn't like doing any of that stuff. And so I was like man, dude, I want to share some of my story and talk about where I've been. And I dude, I was suicidal and now I'm like very happy, I'm happy in the foreign Legion, like having good days. If I could be happy here, I think I could be happy anywhere, right? So I was like I want to share some of my story.
Speaker 2:So I'm in my barracks room and I just put out a video and that video popped hard. I just told my story about stream of consciousness. No, ed, it's just kind of talking about drugs, you know, being in this and that and that was fine, but until it got big enough and then the legion, like ncis, was like, hey, take all this shit down. Oh, are you serious? Yeah, they came at me hard and I said but I was already getting a lot of them, like, dude, your veterans from your roar, your for your whole push. Like, hey, dude, I was about to kill myself, bro, like straight gun in hand. I saw your video, dude, and I fucking thank you.
Speaker 2:And I was like I was getting the chills because I was getting hundreds of those hundreds Cause I'd put my email up there. Like, dude, if you're having a problem, hit me up. Yeah, cause I w I've been there. I promise you it gets better if you just put one foot in front of the other. And, dude, I was getting flooded and so I really felt like I was on. Maybe it's, maybe it's not correct, but I was hearing messages from God like hey, man, you got to stay the course here, fuck what anybody says. And so they're like take it down. I was like I'm not taking it down, I'm not taking shit down. Let me tell you I didn't say it like that, but I was pretty much denying order from the general, because they were like that fucking American and Navy SEAL. He put his thing up and they were fine with it until it got really big and of thousands of views. But I was. I got bad respect for the Legion. I never, I've never, uttered one bad word.
Speaker 2:I never would but they didn't know what I would say. So I understand their side of it. I said, look, let's do this. If this is an administrative battle, let's do it. So I got a lawyer. I got a French lawyer. I said, right, if we're going to do this, let's do it.
Speaker 2:So I tried to fight the case. You know, and you know that you can only fight an ancient institution for so long. And I was doing it for a couple of months. I wanted to stay and finish it out. I was like dude, I just want to leave on good terms, you know. And they said look, if you don't take it down, we're going to put you in jail for four straight months on, like food discipline, until you take it down, and then we're, or we're just going to kick you out after the four months. And I said, well, that sounds like a shit deal.
Speaker 2:And I talked to my lawyer and he goes dude, you're not even a citizen here, man. He goes dude, they'll totally, it's totally legally gray. They can do whatever they want. They'll lock you on the base, which is technically illegal, but you're not a citizen. So you're, they're like you should probably just beat feet. So I tried to. We broke the contract, man. And they're like all right, we, we said our goodbyes and I was done, broke the contract. What contract? Yeah, there's no, there's no contract anymore. I was like, hey, man, I'm leaving. And they're like all right, if you're going to leave, then you're done here. Right, you never took it down, no, I never took, you just bounce and I left. Yeah, the lawyer's like dude, you're no, you're done here, like you can't do anything, they're not going to change and if you go back to the regiment, they're going to put you in fucking jail.
Speaker 1:That's good, though I don't see that as a loss, bro. I mean, I see it as what it is, Dude.
Speaker 2:I wanted to leave things on good terms. I didn't really try it. I go. Am I right? Maybe not, I go, but I truly think I am right on on my divine path and the proof is it's like you only know if it's a good call in retrospect and I go. Man, now I'm engaged. I got a baby on the way. Six business has been massively successful and, dude, I've been happening, helping people every single day. My, my purpose, man, is showing people where I was and recording my whole life of dude. You can get yourself right by changing your daily habits and thought process, so you said you came on scene in December.
Speaker 1:When did you leave the French Four Legion?
Speaker 2:So technically my contract broke in January, january yeah, so technically. But I was back in the United States December 17th but I had done, like, all the legal paperwork. I had a doctor and they said here's the thing too. They said, all right, you can leave, but you're going to have to claim PTSD and then we're going to have to go through this psychological process. I said I'm not doing that. I said I'm not going to go make. Some said look man, I'm going to do this on my terms and I'm not going to like play this game, man, and lie about some shit to try to get the paperwork. I was like dude, I don't, I'm good. So that was the call I made and that's the call, I'm all standby.
Speaker 1:That's good, dude, that's badass.
Speaker 2:And you came back to California, yeah, and I came which was weird, because we had met and started talking and I'm like, well, I'm going to go back to my home. My mom met and um started talking and I'm like, well, I'm gonna go back to my home because my mom lives in poway. I hadn't seen my mom in years, bro, you know, and I was like just wanting to come back home and she happened to live in tabecula and so it was kind of interesting how things happen. Yeah, so I was came right back here, bro, direct here.
Speaker 1:So what a lot of people don't understand is that you had already gotten your mind right, your daily habits, your good, positive habits, and then you barely started filming yourself, dude here's the thing, hector, and I think a lot of people are doing this now.
Speaker 2:They're trying to be known without being worth knowing, correct?
Speaker 1:so you got all these people who've never done shit correct, trying to be known, trying to sell something that they haven't even done yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go, dude, how are you going to teach me about, or anybody, about, hardship and overcoming, when you've done neither yeah, or experience none? And so I say, dude, first get yourself correct, get yourself on a good process, achieve some things, have some social proof, have some experience, man, and then, when you know, you can open your mouth and actually have something to fucking say and the world will show you if it's worth listening to or not.
Speaker 1:Like the proof's in the pudding man, the market will tell you yeah, dude, um, I and I've been in those dark places that you've been, bro, like I wouldn't say I was suicidal, but I definitely did not want to live.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was doing everything in my power to get everything, my power to get killed, bro, yeah yeah, so yeah, and that's uh, dude, that's a powerful place and I think a lot of guys who have been there, dude, you know, bro, that is such a terrible place to be. It is fucking dark, it's dude, inescapable, all consuming. And also, man, you can't I get the chills. Chills, man, because I I remember it so thick that it's like every day I just never want to go back there. And so I tell guys, dude, if you're in that, let's start making some moves, start making getting some momentum, making some shifts and getting a little space between that feeling and that next step, man, and that, in that gap, is where you're going to learn quite a bit, man, and see, see a little bit of that light. And it's not, it's no way to live, man, because you can't build anything, you can't build a relationship, you can't sustain or let, you can't build a life, you can't build a business in that dark place. It's impossible.
Speaker 1:Are you good at identifying where people are at in their stage of growth?
Speaker 2:I ask a lot of questions. So most guys I work with, I it's like a holistic approach, like fitness is a piece, but it's like with you it's like fitness isn't my life bro, it's a piece. Man, it's like a fraction of what, but I think it's mandatory for mental clarity. So I ask a lot of questions. Some guys need it's glaring that the fitness is where we need to start, right? Some guys are pretty well developed and they just are like man, I'm still experiencing some. I'm just not happy man.
Speaker 2:And so some it might be habits. They might have some weird vice that's pulling them Dude. They might be porn addicted or this or that and they can't really see that that's what's holding them back or something. Right? I'm not saying people need to be a monk, that's not my whole approach but I'm like man, start taking active things to pull things away and make yourself a little better. Just one small thing here, one small thing there. The Japanese call it Kaizen, which I really like. It's small, incremental adjustments, right, most people don't need massive course corrections. Some do, but most need small adjustments over time, just consistently, man. And then one day they're like oh fuck, dude, I feel pretty damn good and it happens like that they don't even realize what's changed until they look back and everything's changed.
Speaker 1:Now would you say, this journey of self growth is a marathon or a sprint.
Speaker 2:Oh dude it's a marathon baby, it's a marathon Dude. Flash in the pan. Shit, it doesn't last. First off. And success it glows, it doesn't flash. True success is like I look at it like a nuclear reactor like that. That is how I view it. Visualize success to me. So I'm for me. I'm like I look at it like a nuclear reactor like that. That is how I view it. Visualize success to me. So I'm for me.
Speaker 2:I'm like chop the wood, make the post, hit the workout. Nothing flow state, nothing sporadic, nothing dramatic, just. And I've tried to work that in my emotional state too. It's like that, that walking meditation. So I mean, I'm turnt up a little bit, man, but you can be high energy and still be fucking calm, right, you can send it and still be, still be grounded, and so that's. I always try to try to view things, man, and that you know a lot of Greek philosophy and things. What it's, what is this thing teaching me? A lot of all these stories is our life's one big story. What's that guy who just cut you off, flipping you in traffic? What's he there to teach you? You don't need to get worked up, we go, man. Thank God for that guy. It taught me a little. It taught me a little patience. You know it's like man.
Speaker 1:I hope that guy.
Speaker 2:I hope that I pray for that guy, man, I hope the guy who falls in love with the process is going to smoke check. The guy who wants the results, the guy who's just in it for the abs or whatever is going to get, is going to fall off if it doesn't happen fast enough or he's got a bad or he gets injured right. The guy who just does it, for he just wants to feel better and loves to, loves to just feel proud of himself. Man, I just want to wake up early and hit my workout or make the correct moral decision, this and just because I want to feel better, Just the process of that man is the aggregate exponentially that stacked over time. Dude, because if you're just doing it because you want the dollar amount or this or that, dude, it's, it's, it's going to be futile because, especially when you get there, it's going to feel hollow when, dude, I, it's like dude, I love this whole base. The whole base is what I'm into, not the top.
Speaker 2:How important is mindset? The mindset is the entire lens. It's your entire lens on the world. That optimistic lens sees opportunity, right? So if you're in that closed-minded, low vibrational state, which is that mindset right that low vibrational mind. That low vibrational mind is pleasure seeking. That low vibrational mind is pleasure driven, not purpose driven. It's also very negative. So your mindset, man, think about when you come home in like a low vibrational state and in your relationship or whatever, or work and you're, you take things personally that you normally wouldn't. When nothing's changed and you might hear that same thing and nothing's changed except your internal state, your mindset's just different. So you're now you're interpreting external information differently. So it's changing your life. Changing mindset is the entire game. It's the entire game. It's gonna make sure you go to the gym. It's gonna make sure you you see the opportunity, you communicate correctly, you actually operate at your highest capacity. Man, I can't think of a more important thing than than maintaining an accurate and correct mindset.
Speaker 1:You're right, no you're right and taking that calculated risk when you need to, oh absolutely yeah.
Speaker 2:And having the balls and the clarity to know when to make that call, like that risk you're like, okay, I see what's going on, dude, if you're in a weak mindset, you're going to fucking let that opportunity pass. You're going to be scared, fear-driven man. It's. I'm sure you've seen a lot of this man, military and off, and this people who are driven by fear, man are, are a slave of it for their whole life and they're going to miss so many opportunities they're also going to miss, they're going to miss a high, high quality of life. Right, if you're scared to try, scared, scared to launch the podcast, scared to man, what if it doesn't work? What if it all for nothing? Bro, that's fear, it's limiting beliefs, it's all these things that these terms that we say. But it's man, it's everything, bro.
Speaker 1:and for the record, and, for the record, I was scared to launch this podcast, bro, because I mean I'm human, I'm normal, so it's like fuck the what ifs how am I going to figure out?
Speaker 2:man? It's so complicated, man'm normal, so it's like fuck the what ifs, how am I going to figure out man? It's so complicated, man, so many things, and it's like, dude, joe Rogan didn't know what he was doing, right, right, at some point. These guys nobody knows. And I think that a lot of people are waiting for permission, waiting for permission or some thing to drag them. Dude, it's not coming. Elaborate more on that, dude. So a lot of people are like, okay, I'm going to wait till I'm sure, or that there's some sure thing into that next step. What, dude? Nobody is coming sliding that bad-ass life under the door. It's not coming. It's fucking, just accept it.
Speaker 2:Once you accept it, then you're like all right, well, let's, let's make it happen. Then let's go do it, let's try it, let's figure it the fuck out. Right, it don't, nobody's gonna come and grab you by the hand and give you permission. Hey, man, come start this podcast actor, it's gonna work out really well. And uh, you're like, okay, and let me. No, dude, you gotta make the connections, you gotta reach to reach out, you got to, you got to show up, you got to do this and push it, man, and ask the right questions and be in the correct mindset to link up Dude it's facts, build the connections in the network. It's not happening for you. You got to be valuable and you got to. You got to be willing to get yourself into circles that push you and make you fucking scared and feel inferior. Man, that's the only way.
Speaker 1:What are some misconceptions that people have of successful people Like, hey, maybe they were born into riches, or what are some misconceptions?
Speaker 2:Well, you know a lot of people think that you know wealth is. A lot of wealth is inherited people. Most wealth in this country is actually self-made people, and the term self-made is a little not not necessarily correct, because nobody's self-made, right, everybody has help along the way, um, but it's, it's a cop-out. It's a cop-out for people to to point out why they don't have it. I'm like man, that guy might have just worked way fucking harder, right, dude? Do you think? Think when your shit pops and people look at you and they go, oh, you just handed it. Yeah, hector, yeah Dude, nobody knows you.
Speaker 2:You went to fucking war and enlisted in the military and did all these grind.
Speaker 2:Nobody's going to know all that backstory and they're not going to see it because they don't want to see it.
Speaker 2:They don't want to see it because then the haters online, the people that throw shade, they want a reason that they could sit in their mom's basement say, oh dude, I wasn't given the opportunity. It's like, bro, I was raised by a single mom dude, right, I'm ready by a single mom, joined the military man, took loans out to go to college and shit paid a lot of debt back, like, made a lot of mistakes along the way you know, but making it happen, going to jail this and that, talking to the right people, figuring it the fuck out, riding my bike around, you know and I'm not saying my situation was the hardest, I'm just giving you an example that that there's a lot of pathways to the top of the mountain and everybody's given some type of benefit, opportunities or talents that they can take advantage of, and it's them capitalizing on it, man, and and maximizing your life. Play the hand you're dealt to, play the hand you're dealt to, the go all in. So you only got one hand, so why not go all the fuck in?
Speaker 1:Right, there's only got one option how important is network networking with the right people versus network, versus hanging out with the gossipers, the Debbie Downers, the toxic people? How important is?
Speaker 2:network. You said two words there that I like that are very important to differentiate. There's hanging out and there's networking. Hanging out is wasting time. We don't have time to hang out anymore. I'm sure, growing up in up and for a season there might be a time where you're hanging out when you're younger dude, but at some point you go. It's time to get serious. It's time to get serious about our life. Dude, hang it out is for the birds.
Speaker 2:So networking man, I only want to be around people that I most most of the people, if not all the dude are in better shape than me, more money than me, more more experience in a war than me, more this or more I look up to. I like to look up to the people I'm around. Facts I'm like man. I'm impressed by this guy's business aptitude or man I I feel inferior in a lot of rooms that I walk into. Really, yeah, man, I feel I feel like man. Dude, I gotta prove myself here and I think that, man, if you're walking into a room thinking man, a fucking, I don't gotta, don't got to do shit here, bro, you ain't valuable dude, you got to be.
Speaker 2:Any group I walk into, I want to prove myself to like man. If I want to prove myself worthy, man, we're on this. I want to prove that I'm that you've. You're glad to have me on this podcast, man. Like all these things, man, I maybe that's from a rooted childhood thing of me not feeling worthy enough, or something, who knows where it comes from but I always feel that I wake up with that every day, dude. I wake up and I feel fat and broke and like you know, damn, dude, dude, every day, man, and so I pop up out of bed and I go I gotta, I'm gonna work this feeling away until I go back to the next night, do it?
Speaker 1:again. No, I'm glad you said that, bro. Reason being is no homo bro. There's very few people that I think are more badass, right, and you're one of them. Dude, it's like fucking. This is a badass dude, bro. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Well, dude, I look up to you, man, dude, I know where you've been, and so I got mad props because. But, dude, I don't feel that way at all, and I think that that's part of my talent is I never, ever, felt like that I was the shit. I always felt confident. Man Always felt confident and you should feel confident about, like, but I earned my confidence, right, I make sure that I wake up, I get my clarity, good Times that I haven't been confident when I've on drugs or hungover or this, or that I feel like dog shit because I haven't earned it. Man, I'm burning karmic debt, I deserve to feel like shit. And when I'm proud of what I've done in the day, man and I'm like dude, that's. I feel confident, my energy's right, and so I've earned it right. Inner peace and clarity are the two of the most coveted states on the planet. They're not free, right? People think they should wake up and feel, dude, I haven't done anything yet. Dude, we got to earn it.
Speaker 1:Earlier, we spoke on ego.
Speaker 2:How would you describe being selfish versus being selfless man? So, man, there's a piece of being selfish I think is important in that. I think, just like those masks dropping up out of the out of the airplane, you know, they say put your mask on first, dude. I think you have got to be good first. I see a lot of people I think women experience this a lot too is they try to be everything to everyone and then they end up smoke checking themselves. And men do it too. Man, try to be providers and never complain and like I'll just be stuck, and then they're dying inside. Correct, I go, bro, invest in yourself a little bit. It's not selfish to go to the gym, dude, for 30, 45 minutes an hour. Get your shit straight, right. Then you come home and you're miserable piece of shit for the whole day. No, go get your correct, feel good about yourself, eat, eat some good food. That's not being selfish, right? And any, any person, or in a relationship you know the opposite, the spouse if they're pushing back on that stuff. That's something you got to check.
Speaker 2:Hey, jim Rohn I don't know if you know Jim Rohn Jim Rohn's like a real old time famous, like motivational guy. He said something good, he goes. I used to say, hey, take care of me and I'll take care of you, he goes. I learned the faulty of that statement. He says how about now I say this he goes, I'll take care of me for you if you take care of you for me. I like that dude. Start with this with a little bit, a little bit selfish, so that they can be selfless, correctly, right, they can come, they. Now you can take care of everybody else, correct, man? When you're not, hollow.
Speaker 1:So what is it that you're doing now, bro? After you've been through the gates of hell, you got all these fucking experiences, man, good and bad. What is it that you're doing now?
Speaker 2:dude, I do all online one-on-one coaching. It's all I do so. So I got elite programs, I got mid-level. The whole thing is I take that holistic approach Right. So I go ask a lot of questions man, mind, body, soul, that's what I focus on. Man, let's get your I'll show you a blueprint, what I do.
Speaker 2:I built this blueprint over years like fucking up and to where I a nice daily battle with them. Let's get you your wake up times, your supplements, workout program. Here's what food to eat. Right, here's how you do it. Man, here's where's your weight goals. All right, let's get your body good.
Speaker 2:Then let's start working on what literature to read. Now, what? How should you be thinking? Let's work on mindset and visualization. Training, on zooms. How should you be approaching your morning process? Getting a good, clean morning process? That's not some like two hour biohacking bullshit where you got to stand on your head and in a red dot you know something simple that you can do in a hotel room or, and that's, I think, is foundational, and so that's all I do, man, and I'm writing a book now that should come out, you know, next week maybe we do a book to movie kind of thing that they're looking at. So I got some work to do on that.
Speaker 2:But my whole focus, man, is speaking engagements. And then in my coaching, man, where can people find you, dude? Everybody can always get me on my website, taylorcavenacom. That contact form goes right to me. I don't outsource and I don't do AI, so that contact form goes right to my personal email. It has some pictures and some more of the story. Or on my Instagram, tcavov official, where, once again, I always answer my DM. So hit me up and I'll. I'll hit you right back up. And TCAV TV, youtube, where we dive into some of those deeper principles. I do stream of consciousness videos a couple of times a week, just no edits, no, no stopping the camera. And I post that first video always. And I do gym sessions, man seals, you know famous people, man. I travel around and we go to different gyms and we just talk about business, family, faith, finance, all that stuff. Man, that's fucking badass bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been catching your stuff dude your Instagram reels, your YouTube channel. Yeah, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah dude, I'm stoked to be connected with you. The door, You're like what's up. I'm like dude, you can always tell somebody that's been through that's like stacked, you know. You can always tell somebody that's like had some weight on their shoulders. You know what I mean. It's very obvious. It's like how you can tell just square jaw, you know thick, thick, broad shoulders, man, it shows.
Speaker 1:It always shows no to give back to the world, bro. We're like, hey, we're offering this to you guys. Man, just fucking take it, take our hand and we'll lead you to the fucking promised land, or not, or fucking stay there, but we can tell you what the results will be.
Speaker 2:It's a free country man, you don't have to do anything, I say but here's this Michael Jordan had a coach. I have mentors I'm sure you've had continue to do outside of killed abilities Very helpful, like, let's be quite honest, it's 10% information, 90% accountability, cause we're not splitting the atom here. But hey, what? There's? Analysis, paralysis. Most people don't do shit because they're like is it keto, is it this, is it that? Is it fucking fruit Watermelon diet? I'm like, bro, how about we show you a clean blueprint, something that works? You see somebody that works. Do they have a lifestyle mindset? You want approach, have some similarities? Cool, and then, okay, let's make a change, because nothing's going to change if you don't change.
Speaker 1:Just facts, facts, dude. Is there anything you want to end? Last closing words.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all in your power. If my mission is boiled down to one thing, it's empowerment. I say, dude, I don't care if you reach out to me, reach out to somebody, make a change, make the decision. I say, man, it takes one moment to decide and then a lifetime to prove it. A lifetime to prove what you're all about Never stops. Once you make that decision, you're like I'm going to be a. My purpose is being a badass motherfucker. That's it. Taking care of my family, showing up, having people around me, being like that's my fucking dad. That's my proud to point and be like. If you're not that, look yourself in the mirror and say why. And then why won't you make the change?
Speaker 1:That's it, and stop blaming other motherfuckers too in the process, man.
Speaker 2:The minute I pointed all the fingers at back of myself was the moment I started to make some changes for the better. Facts dude.
Speaker 1:Well, taylor dude, thanks for fucking coming on, bro. I was blown away by this episode bro.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I really appreciate it, hector. Thanks, man, this is solid.
Speaker 1:I'm glad to meet you, dude. This shit's awesome. We've got a network for sure bro yeah, we're linked up, man, definitely. Well, there you guys have it, folks. Holy shit, man. A lot of fucking knowledge, wisdom for you guys. Man, you can't get the shit anywhere else. Thank you guys for tuning in. Make sure you hit that subscribe button on the bottom. Love you guys, keep pushing forward you've been listening to hector, bravo unhinged follow for more.
