SPEAKER_03 0:00

What's up, guys? Before we start the show, I just wanted to ask one little thing. So the force that you guys have shown up to watch and listen the show, however you watch it, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, wherever you uh uh listen or watch this show, I'm so grateful for. Our analytics, our AI program that ran through basically said we have more people watching the show than are subscribed. And all I'm asking, just a little favor for daddy. Could you just go right ahead right now? Wherever you are, if you're driving in your car, wait till you're stopped. If you're on the bus, on a train, or if you're taking a dump, just press subscribe, a little follow, a little like, a little share, tell your mama, tell your friends. Really appreciate it. It really helps what we're doing here, and it means the world. It really does. And the more you comment, the more I comment back. That's actually me. You'll know it's me because my my in my uh my words, I can't I'm not good at typing. I can't even good at speaking. Why am I doing a podcast? I don't know. But, anyways, I love you. I appreciate you. Enjoy the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

You know, people out there that are like, oh, I didn't do what he did, I didn't see what he saw. Trauma's fucking trauma. Trauma's trauma is.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Yeah, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

The way that you filter it, the way I filter it can be completely different. You can see a cat get run over, yeah, and it could end your day. Yeah. I could see someone get blown up in a truck with body parts everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

It's the same thing. My opinion is the whole entire medical system in this country is fucked. Here's the reality. We surround ourselves with people that we do business with and people that we love.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Sometimes those people are in both categories. Those are the people I want to spend time here with you.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Welcome back, you filthy animals. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I know I did. My next guest is Mr. Sidney Gordon. We recorded this podcast about five weeks ago or so. We had to wait because there was some stuff that had to be taken care of before this big announcement. And Sydney has chosen the AJ Bucket show to make this big announcement. Let me give you some context on Sydney. Sidney grew up in a small town just outside of Boston. He had a very troubled childhood. He took the long way and learned some incredibly hard lessons along that way. And what he's been able to accomplish in this moment right here is really something special. He started a company called Core Medical Group. It is one of the biggest hormone replacement companies in the country. He treats he can treat anybody, but he really has turned a ship to help our veterans and first responders. He doesn't just treat the symptoms, he gets the core and treats the problem. Um I met Sydney a couple years ago at uh uh one of his veteran events in South Carolina. Became fast friends. Um my dad always said, Show me your friends and I'll tell you who you are. And Sydney, I've met a a lot of studs through Sydney, and and they all love the guy, and I understand why. So I'm incredibly honored to call him a friend. It's a huge honor to have him on the show. I'm so grateful that he used this show to help make this announcement. And so please give a warm welcome, the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Sydney Going.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

He's totally kidding. Mr. Serious. Welcome to the AJ.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

It's great to have you here, man. Thanks to you. I'm like pumped to be on again. It is really crazy. And I was I was I was thinking about this morning too. I'm like, how did we how do we actually come in contact with each other? And it was years ago through Instagram because of South Carolina. Yeah. Your feed came up was when you were first doing a core medical. I DM'd you. Yeah. And then it wasn't until like a year later, yeah, um, Colton reached out to me.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Yeah. Well, I I I said, you know, you got a better chance of getting him there than I do, Colton. You're got a pretty cool pretty cool pedigree. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that dude has been just amazing. He's he's he's the best, bro.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

What what I got what I gotta say though, and and and I really mean this, and um, and I I'm sure you you understand this with the the weight of what you have sort of set out to do.

SPEAKER_04 4:29

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

It's really refreshing when you're out and about and your name is brought up, and the amount of guys at a very high level that have done so much for this country will turn to you and and say, you know, core medical has changed my life. Core medical is a brotherhood, is it's a there's a real support group there. And I didn't really, I didn't understand it until I went to the event and then flew out to Florida and saw you. Just saw the community and how much everyone is really there. It's like it's it's sort of a place I feel like that guys after service have now found this purpose.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yeah, I mean, that's that's really the mission, right? Because like, you know, as we get older, think about how many people that you know get married, start self-hibernating, and have no friends anymore. Yeah. And it's just that's just not what we're built to do. We're built to be a tribe.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

And like, you know, everyone's like, why is your why are your kids so well behaved? Why are they so played? Well, because I surround them by great people.

SPEAKER_04 5:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

And, you know, I have a saying, if my kid can't come to your house for dinner, I'm not coming. Yeah, I take my kids everywhere. Me too, yeah. And it's that they like, oh, it's just it's just the adults. Well, sorry. You know, I travel so much, you know, when I'm home, I'm with my kids. Yeah, that's the most important thing to me in the world, you know. And um it's it's really important to have them experience so much. And you know, the community around me has grown my children. Like these, these men that I surround myself with are just inspirational to me.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, you know. Now the road to get decor medical, just at the time that I chatted with you when we were in Florida that time and we were just kind of getting to know each other. Like, take me back to like the early days of you, who you were, because from what we talked about, we both have ADD and we're all over the place. We got a thousand ideas, and you know, bing, bing, bing. But you know, we always seem to be surrounded by these great people.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

Um, or end up, you know. My my my wife or my mom will call me Winnie the Pooh. I'll just kind of end up in places and find the honey, and you know, life will be good. But for you, I mean, it's not like you came from this like background of like, this is, you know. As an actor, there is nothing worse than showing up to work on set when you got to play some sort of action here and you've had no sleep. Since I've got a ghost bed, I can go to work and look like a badass. A serious badass because I got my sleep. I'm telling you right now, you want to sleep through the night, show up to work and absolutely dominate. Dominate. Get yourself a ghost bed. You're gonna sleep like a baby and show up like a champ at work and crush all your goals. Go get it. Go to ghostbed.com forward slash buckley. Code word buckley at checkout. Start feeling like a champ. Three pillars of discipline: spirit, mind, body. In that order. That right there is the foundation of a company I started called Born of Discipline. It's incredibly important to me. This company incorporates my faith, the lessons I learned from my father on discipline, pain from regret, or pain from discipline is something my dad always said to me. And I've incorporated that into my life, and I want to share it with you. Go check it out at bornofdiscipline.com. Get your merch. It's it's great stuff. Go get it now. Get it while it's good.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Dude, I mean, I'll tell you right now, I'm an outlier. Like I and I have no problem celebrating my success, not to brag, but to let people know that it's if I can do it, anyone can do it, right? Um, so I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, right outside the city, small town, uh, Newton, Massachusetts.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

It's full of the Irish, that's why it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And uh, and you know, my grandmother bought the house in 1972 for like $17,000. And, you know, it was uh I had a a rough childhood. Um, you know, my my my father was a professional scam artist. Um and uh I was away, I was a professional skier, uh, inverted aerials and moguls, and I was away at a ski academy. I I had a uh from what I knew up to this point, I had a great childhood because I didn't know what was going on. But I get a phone call um while I'm there, and my mom calls me and says that my dad took off and took everything from the house and left his mother with my mother. So I had no choice but to come back from the ski academy and turned from this innocent kid into a street kid, like immediately selling drugs and getting in a lot of trouble. And um around uh 20 years old, um did something pretty bad and uh had to leave Boston and move to Florida and uh you know went down there. I was stunt riding bikes and selling motorcycles and kind of do you have brothers and sisters? Only child. Yep. And uh my mother was in label for about 70 hours, and after that she had her tubes tied. She's like, I'm done. Wow, yeah, yeah. So um moved to Florida, man, and uh my mother had it with me. My stepdad had it with me, my friends have had it with me. Like I just was I was a mess, you know. Moved to Florida, and when I got to Florida, I was like, you know, I can't be this guy that's changing demographics constantly and hiding from my problems. And I just turned over a brand new leaf when I got there, and it was just a blessing. I don't know what happened, it just boom, it happened. And um, you know, I was working at Delray Power Sports, selling bikes, um, sport bikes, and um, this guy comes in, Tim Malloy. Um, if you're watching, can you reach out? Because I've been trying to find you for the last eight years. Um, actually, the last 20. Um, and he comes in to service his bike, and I sell him a new motorcycle while his bike's in service. Help him get it in the truck, he drives it home, comes back 45 minutes later in a 430 Spider Ferrari. He goes, get hop in the car, you're no longer working here. I said, Dude, I'm making like 600 bucks a week. I'm not leaving this place. He's like, You're gonna make that a day. Get in the car. Yeah, taught me the entire mortgage business. Um, and I worked uh in for um him and the guy Scott Shaw for about seven months, eight months, and just crushed it. My first month, I made like 25,000 bucks. It's just the peak of the business. This is 2001.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

And um, those guys ended up, I think, picking up a little bit of a bad habit, and I I decided to leave and open up my own company. Um, and uh but you had no like no background and I didn't really like it. College education. Yeah, me same with me.

SPEAKER_03 10:57

I didn't I barely graduated.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah, I mean, I college to me is a you you don't want to get into that subject if you're a college supporter. Yeah. Other than being a doctor, an attorney, yeah, you know, something like that. I just the only thing I see from it is is a bill. Yeah, unless you grew up in a small town, you're trying to find your way or something like that. I can I can kind of understand, but that's it's an expensive way to understand the world.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Don't you find though like people that come out of college the everything instead of going like reading the room, they're they're like like be like the their ability to sense their room of like when to be good in business or when to say something, when to be quiet, they're always like applying like the theory that they were taught out of a book as opposed to like keeping your eyes up and and and seeing what's happening and communicating properly.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

It's like I have a I have a saying that I'd rather hire a bag boy at uh publics than a guy that just got out of college. To say that again, I'd rather hire a guy at a grocery store bagging groceries than a dude that just got out of college.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Because they have interaction with people.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

It's it's funny, my mom, we ran a treatment facility for kids, and my mom, like they would have people that would come and they'd get credits for working at the home.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

And there was a friend of mine, his name is Moose, and he was just working at the house for the summer. Um, help my dad build these stairs outside the group home. But these these people would come all the time, and my mom would always be like, take this book, throw it out the window, it means nothing. If you gotta talk to a kid, you have to connect with them as like you know, get them laughing, but to connect, they're not gonna trust you by some book that you've you've taught. And Moose had this breakthrough with one of these kids that had never spoken before. Uh-huh. He was non-verbal autistic. And yeah, every day he was out there helping Moose uh uh build the stairs. And Moose just spoke to him like he's if you know, he knew he wasn't gonna answer, but spoke the whole thing. At the end of the summer, he said, Here's your hammer. And he hadn't spoken his entire life. And my mom always went up, it was like that Moose knew nothing other than how to just talk to a human being and just treated him like that. That's beautiful. And so these kids that come out of school, they're like, Well, I've got this degree, and it's like I just feel like the whole education system, the whole approach of, and there's more stories like yours of guys that come up with no education that just are educated in a different sort of way.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Um, I mean, I would not take back my childhood, my stupidity as a child because I put myself in horrible situations that I had to get out of.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

And no, and there's no textbook for that stuff. Like, and I I believe those bad situations really polished me as a human, young. Um I mean, the the like the verbal and physical abuse polished me. Like I'm grateful for it now.

SPEAKER_03 13:50

Yeah, it was horrible then, but you know, I'm grateful for it. Is it something that you had to because a lot of people I find that are are stuck or don't grow, they're they're always putting blame on why they haven't succeeded because of something that's happened, right? Then they're not like, oh, I didn't do this because of the way I grew up, right? Like, did you have this moment like I'm letting it go and I'm well or just used it?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

The the the thing is, is I mean, I have I have no room in my life for the poor me human being because we we all have a fair shot, right? Yeah, I agree. And um I I've been, you know, the I've I've I've played that card before. Yeah. And my life didn't get any better. Yeah. Right. And then once I took responsibility for my actions and understood like that, you know, my dad, mom didn't know any better, and they grew up in abusive homes too. And that's just, you know, it's that ripple effect is tremendous.

SPEAKER_04 14:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Um I just accepted the fact that that was my journey. And and I and I and I'm I'm grateful for it. And and I just as soon as that happened, man, my whole life, like like no one's no one wants to fucking save you. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Am I allowed to swear on here? Of course you can. Okay, good. It's an Irish podcast. Okay, good. Um, and uh like there's there's there's no one that's gonna bang on your door and say, follow me.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:10

You have to get after it. And if you're not of that mentality, yeah, you're you're you're fucked, dude. Like that's the that's the bottom line, especially I I wasn't a lucky sperm cell.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Yeah, like I grew up broke, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

And I grew up in a a town that a lot of people had a lot of money. And the only way that I could keep up with the Joneses is by doing illegal shit.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

And I mean, that's just my it's just a journey.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

And then that from the mortgage stuff where you Yeah, so I was in that business for eight years.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Um, and then uh the bottom fell out, obviously. Yeah, and uh just got married, had a had a had a baby. Um at this time, I'm uh twenty-nine, yeah, thirty, um, and uh stepson Jordan um and uh shit in my pants, man. I was like sitting in this huge home, like you know, come off, you know, making a million bucks a year and then nothing. Yeah, right. And then uh I'm sitting there and I called a good buddy of mine and he said, I just want you to go in the backyard, sit down and pray, yeah, and ask God to help you reinvent yourself.

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yeah. And uh were you religious growing up or no?

SPEAKER_02 16:20

No, I found God like when I was like 24 years old. Wow. And then I was in and out, in and out, and then a Mel Chansey was put into my life, and now I'm on the mission. Yeah. Um, and uh I'll talk about it in a bit, but I had an IB again experience, and if anybody questions if God exists, I can 100% prove it to you by doing IBogain. But yeah, um, so I uh I'm saying to myself, well, all these people I did mortgages for, I have great relationships with, and they're probably all hurting. So I opened up a company called Debt One USA, it was a national debt consolidation company. Took everyone that was working for the mortgage business, just rolled it right in a debt consolidation, did that for two years. And the way that business works is how did you even see that in the marketplace? Well, I I had all the data of people that were doing mortgages, so I knew who who has high high credit, yeah, you know, the whole nine yards, and I uh just we we we killed it. I mean, it was just it was amazing. We helped a lot of people. Um, you know, there's a stigma behind that business, um, and there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. I had attorneys the whole nine yards, and it was very successful. And um, but it was uh that rinse and repeat, you know what I mean? Like starting from scratch, and so I did that for about two years and just had this overwhelming feeling to like get into a business that was I was at service to others, and I didn't know how that was gonna transition into being where we are now, right? I just wanted to pay my bills and help people, right? And uh so I I met with a guy named Bill Falun who owns the largest supplementation company in the world. It's called the Life Extension. And Suzanne Summers is their spokesperson, and uh I met with him. I was just taking very wealthy people out to eat all the time, trying to figure out where I should go, right? Yeah, and he says, Sid, the hormone business is gonna be gigantic in the next five to ten years. If you can weather the storm now and the stigma, you will pioneer it.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Yeah. So I was like, man. Did you know what that was at the time? Like well, I've sold illegal steroids my whole life.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

So it needs to transition.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

A little bit of D Ball.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

So what I did was I went to uh a doctor in uh a lot of D Ball when I was kidding. Hence my one and only time in prison. Um D Ball and Trent. I have a reel that went viral. It says you can't read what it says on the side, but what it says is you want to kill everyone you know and sleep with your 90-year-old neighborhood. It's oh trend, it's oh true, it's oh trend sweats, it's oh so um, anyways, I guess I don't know who invented that stuff, but it's fucking vicious, bro.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

Um but you get gains, you get gains, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:04

You get gains and lost a life. Um and uh so I I uh go to see a doctor that is actually prescribing testosterone. I go in, I see him follow this entire like kind of patient journey, and then all of a sudden the next day, testosterone shows up at my house. I'm like, dude, this is wild.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

So started Because this is before like the hymns and all the delivery.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

This is 18 years ago. Oh wow, wow 18 years this year, yep. Wow. Yeah, so there was no I well, this is the crazy part. I I haven't really got too deep into this before, but I'm gonna do it now. Uh so I start and I have enough money to survive, right? So I thought for about two years, right? Um, that ended up turning up into about 17 months because of my ex-wife, thanks. Um, but uh I was like, we really gotta buckle down right now. We can't spend any money. Yeah. And she's like hiding LV bags in the trunk of her car, waiting for me to go to bed to bring up the stairs and shit, you know. Um, but uh so I start in the industry. The only other HRT clinics that were in the area at the time that were big were um South Beach Rejuvenation, Palm Beach Rejuvenation, these big, big HRT clinics, but it was like a sushi menu. They'd send you out a list of meds, you check what you wanted, put your credit card on the bottom, fax it back into them, and they'd ship the medication you no blood work, no physical, nothing. Well, it turns out, I don't know if you've seen the documentary on the George brothers, the pill mills in Florida.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

I know the I know of it, but I haven't.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

So it turns out that uh those guys own like the majority of the HRT clinics.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

And um they also owned all the pill mills in Florida.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Yep. So I'm like 18 months into this thing, legitimately like 12 grand left in the bank. Wow. Um shitting my pants. My I I'm in the middle of starting a divorce. Um have this beautiful baby at home, massive depression because I'm going to bed at night without my kid in the house. You know, it's just it's the worst thing in the world. I mean, it was so I I tried to make it work, I just just it couldn't happen. And um, it was uh a good decision because uh I love my wife now, she's amazing. You get to meet Jackson. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and um have a a beautiful uh six-year-old now with her and who's surrounded by a bunch of killers.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

She has no idea her security detail. Dude, it's she's like painting their nails, like all these team jobs.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

How many people have killed her?

SPEAKER_03 21:37

They're all like that's the cutest little thing. She's like, hey, we'll go on Colt, she's got he's got like sparkly ears and like all these guys are just like the biggest teddy bears.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

And that's how you can tell when those guys have put the work in after you know that that uh aggression and anger and just being a scary human. I mean, that's what keeps them alive, yeah. But then they transition out and It's it's uh they you know the guys that put in the work are just that they have that harnessed beast inside of them, but they're just the sweetest people in the world.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

So from that moment there 18 years ago, and with core medical had you formed core medical.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

18 months in, yeah. I can't keep up with the competition because they make it so easy for everybody just to get it however that they wanted to. And then all of a sudden I wake up one morning and see on the news that there was a massive sting in Florida. A DA came in and just wiped out all at once every pill mill in the entire state, like gone in like freaking three days.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

And I'm like, shit, that's that might be good news. And then all of a sudden you see every HRT clinic closing down within a week.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

So from month 18 to month 21, I went from like negative 20 grand a month to positive 30. So you were the only game in the Statute of Limitations is up on it, but I went around and bribed all the receptionists that worked at the HRT clinics and got all their databases. And then right at that time, the boom texting was just starting, like they like the big text platform stuff. So every day I'd load like 300 names in, sign up like 15, 20 people a day. We went from legitimately 60 patients in 18 months to like 1,500 12 months later.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

And it was just insane. And but we were doing it right. You had to do your blood work. So a lot of people we spoke to just wanted the yeah to make it easy. We we uh and I you know I just wanted to do it right, and I had an I had you know over 80,000 names in this database.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

So and I you know something crazy. I don't think that you would have had that vision had you had your life been different and you'd gone to college and you you were you you you didn't wasn't you didn't see things from a certain way the first time with your history of how you were doing it before, you were able to read plays and see things that a no book would ever teach you, uh-huh. Which is fascinating. It's like the path that you're on, as you said, like I you know you you don't regret anything that happened to you because look where it got you. Over 85% of people that go to college work for someone their whole life. So true. Yeah. And it's almost set up that way.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

That it's like you know, I mean, what my parents were like, you go to high school, you go to college, and you work for someone, you get a pension, you retire, and then you die five years later. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 24:20

Like that entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial, like that America was really founded on is it seemed to that that the essence of that has seemed to be just sort of ripped out of exactly right. Do you have did you have like a a North Star or somebody that you like Yeah, uh we feel the clock ticking, don't we? It's almost summertime, which means pool parties, beach, all of the madness. You've taken the foot off of gas a little bit because you haven't had to rip the shirt off in front of anybody, right? You don't want to be the dad in the neighborhood that's goddamn old titties. No, no, no. You want to be jacked. So, what I would recommend is you go see my friends at PRX. Now, as a listener of the AJ Buckley show, get a little gift. If you go to aj.prx.co, you get 50% off your labs out of the gates. They'll dial you in. They know everything about hormone replacement, all the stuff just in time for summer for you to get absolutely shredded. Go to aj.prx.co, get your beach body on for daddy. If you get a truck or you do off-roading, do any sort of add-ons to some sort of pavement princess that you might have. I highly recommend going to Total Off-Road. I go to the one here in Charleston and I go see Dan and TJ and the rest of the crew there. They are the best people in the world to do anything, any modifications, any build on your four-wheeler that you have. We all work really hard for our money, and what we want at the end of the day is quality service. It's a huge honor to have them, one of the sponsors of the show. I'm forever grateful for all the work that they do. Go check out Total Off-Road. They are all across the country. Anything to do with off-roading, those are your guys.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

So James Pastori and Jimmy Redgate, um, both those guys. Uh, my business mentor for JP's been my business mentor for about uh 16 years. Um he's responsible for the majority of my success. I met him on the Jits Mat.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Um, and he's like, Did he just see something in you that you didn't see you?

SPEAKER_02 26:30

No, I well. So he he's taught me a lot of lessons. And um, the first one was he was a stranger, and I did had no idea of how successful he was. He's very, very, very successful, and he's an amazing human.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

And uh And that's and that's rare to say some people are super successful, it's very rare that they're amazing.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

This guy's this guy's the best dude ever. Um, he's an absolute stud. Um, it just his story's amazing, and and he just comes up to me one day, he's like, Hey, you started that core business, right? I said, Yeah. He goes, Call me on Monday. Here's my here's my phone number. I'm like, who the fuck's this guy? And uh, and I think he heard me talking about my business to somebody is that is how it's stimulated, and he's like, I'm gonna tell you something now. You're onto something big and you have no fucking idea what you're doing. And I said, Okay, he's like, You're not allowed to spend $3,000 without calling me for the next year and us discussing if it's worth the spend or not. Anything over three grand you can't spend. Whoa. And I'm like, dude, who are you? And he's like, I'm worth a Google, you know, Google me. So uh, anyways, no, he he he's you know, he's he's he's awesome, not arrogant at all. Yeah, and he's like, I pick one dude a year to business mentor and it's your turn. And he's been my he's been my business mentor now for well 17 years, 16 years.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Have you found along the way people that remind you of yourself that you've put under your wing?

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Oh yeah, I mentor a lot of people. Like I'm um, it's mandatory for me to have him and his life that I pass it down.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

Um, you know, I I he's he schooled me real hard, AJ, like real hard. Like I was when I started to make like ridiculous money, yeah. I was buying Ferraris and Range Rovers and watches, and yeah, I just got divorced, and I'm have a different girl every night. And I'm like, it's like, dude, and he's like, he calls me to his office, he's like, come in. I was like, so I go in, he's like, oh man, you're killing it on. I'm like, yeah, I'm doing pretty well. And he's like, dude, you have a Ferrari and a Range Rover and 300 grand in watches, and he's like, sell all of it in the next 30 days, or don't ever call me again. What? It's like you heard me get the fuck out of my office. It's like you you look like a douchebag. And I was like, Oh, okay. And uh, I sold it all. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 28:44

So he was he in a sense, was he was he almost like a father figure to you?

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:49

Um he he is.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

I mean, I I call him Pops. I mean, yeah, I mean, we're we're we're super close. Like I could I could call him now and he'd be here in four or five.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

Like he's just uh he's was that something you felt you were missing a little bit, like I mean everyone is missing a mentor if they don't have one.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

100%. I mean, if if you are not if you are not engaging with someone who's smarter than you, yeah, you're just you're just you know, you're just cocky.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

I remember you you actually said that to me after we had that breakfast and we were walking back, uh, I know we were walking on that side street or whatever, um, and you said that you're like my success has come because I've put smarter people around me. Yep. You know, and and and it it it's true though, it's like if you look at the some of the greats, there's they they have the the idea, but the execution is they they bring in the best of the best that will know we'll they'll like will get what's in your head and we'll implement it with with that through through that time. Did you have because when you're building something so big that is successful, you have those other people that want that do not want your success.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

Oh dude, I mean I I went 13 years with the cleanest track record of no problems internally in my office. My average staff member's been with me for over nine years. Yeah. Within 20 within the last 24 months, I've had someone embezzle 400 grand. I've had someone steal my database, I've had someone try to internally sabotage me in at core. Yep. And two of them were like my best friends. Um yes. Whoa, yep. Um they'll be in debt for the rest of their life now. Yeah. Because I devastated them. Yeah. But that's the it's the first time I've ever had a lawsuit in my life. Whoa. Never been sued, never sued anybody. And it is the worst thing that you could possibly deal with because the only people that win are the attorneys. And it's that negative energy that just holds you down every day you wake up, you get an email about the lawsuit, you're going to court, you're, you know. And the the the sad part is that, like, you know, these people have wives, they have kids, and they'll never get out of debt now.

SPEAKER_04 31:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

You know, and it's it's but it's just what has to happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

And because if if it didn't, they'd go on to the next. They well listen to the next.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

What would happen is the rest of my staff would think that it was okay. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I had to make some very, very serious um examples out of out of these men, you know. And I mean, you almost wish it was like the 70s where you could just go beat the brakes off the dude. But unfortunately, you know, they would have won there too, you know, with the lawsuit.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

With with core there was a a real turning point for you, though, where you you decided that, okay, with our our guys coming home, so hormone imbalance. Hormones are causing suicides. Suicides, like, but you were sort of ahead of the curve of that. Everyone was sort of pointing different directions and stuff. What how what was the moment where you're like, I'm gonna, you know, just what you've done in the veteran community? I don't think anybody has like people have talked the talk, but you've like made this sort of a life calling for you now with or with all the the guys that are coming, men and women of what you've done for their family. So, so how did you then see this this shift of like, oh, I can really help here?

SPEAKER_02 32:18

Well, so um I get a lot of shit from from a lot of people in the community being like, oh, he's you know, it's just this smoke and mares of you know, suicide, you know, no one knows really that my father killed himself. Yeah, right. Well and the ripple effect of suicide is is brutal. I mean, it's a selfish act. I was driving in the car with my six-year-old about three months ago, and she says, Hey dad, I said, What's up, babe? She goes, Why don't I have a grandfather on your side? I'm like, Well, you do, you have Dean. No, no, but that's your stepdad. 23 years later, I'm still talking about my father killing himself. So my six-year-old. So I told her, well, you know, you know, I told her, I'm very honest with my kids. I don't believe hiding things from your kids. Like, you know, I agree. You know, we put a dog down the other day in the house and the dog was on our lap and we put him to sleep. Like, that's the type of things I think children need to understand, you know. This life is precious.

SPEAKER_00 33:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

And, you know, and those lessons are important, even when you're six years old, because you're a sponge, you know what I mean? And um so I've been passionate about people and very, very try to be as understanding and be at service. I've I've been like that for the last 23 years of anybody that deals with a suicide. Whether I barely know you or know you well, I'm calling you if someone, you know, in your life passes away from their own actions. And um, so what happened was is um Mel introduced me to a woman named Melissa Jarbo, whose uh whose husband um was actually uh, in my belief, was was killed by the VA. Um he was dropped out of bed after being blown up, and uh he was on the floor for like 30 minutes in there and then came back and the machines were all and it was pretty bad. But at the same time of her bringing um, she came to my home, she brought a bunch of people from her foundation, they were all in the military, Vince Vargas. Yeah, um, and Vince was inspirational. Yeah, I was trying for years to get my foot in the door with the military, and it's not an easy task. Yeah, it is a very, very tough community to get your foot in the door with. Like if you didn't have your success from SEAL team and were surrounded by those guys and they gave you the time of day because of how amazing of a job you did on that show.

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Um, like it's not it's easy, it's not like you just call and say, Hey, dude, can you help me out? It's just it doesn't work like that. Yeah, and I uh Vince signed off on me, yeah, and then Nick Kumulatis, and then Cody Alford, and then you know, Ray Cash, and now Chad Roshar.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

I love Ray. Yeah, he's cool, too. Ray, and and and then and I just saw Cody getting baptized at your event. Mel baptized them at my event. Man, what a special experience. It was unbelievable. That was like I just got goosebumps to be able to beautiful. It was such a cool because you could tell how emotional it was for everybody. I had 300 people on my dock, everyone crying. Yeah, it was I I got choked up watching it. And it was just like it's such a powerful it was beautiful, yeah. And again, that just goes back to this this sort of community that you you you you have started, but so you have so you have this this moment with Vargas and then and then all of a sudden he's like, This guy's the real deal.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

And um, so we I started uh I got my foot in the door, and when Nick came aboard, it was a game changer. Um he had a big footprint on social media, he's a marketing expert, he's taught me so much. And you know, and he from there, once Nick kind of signed off on it, it was just like boom, like you know, he's I think he signed up 1,500 people his first year with me. Wow. Insane. Yeah, and then Cody and then Ray, and then now we just signed two Lim. Yeah, who's I just got back from Colorado with him, unbelievable man, unbelievable, and then Chad, yeah, and uh who's also amazing. Um Blake Cook, you know, these guys are just I mean, to sit here right now and be like, these guys are like putting their name on my company is like insane because they're all super successful.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

I I actually don't think it's as insane as you think it is, because I see that I've gotten to know you and just see how much you care. It's not this is not a uh like you were saying that people break your balls about it or whatever, it's a suicide. It's it's it's actually not like it it's it's yes, there's success in that, but the success is led by you're helping people first. The byproduct of the success is is success. But your mission has always been I'm gonna help these guys. And to to see guys that haven't been on hormone therapy, especially what happens with them with their TBI and the invisible wounds of war, that half the guys, as you know this, when they get injured overseas, they don't complain, they don't talk about it, and it's not documented. So therefore, when they go to the VA, there's nothing for them, they don't get their 100% that they need, they're completely ass fucked. And then they're given these pills that they end up addicted to that has nothing to do with helping them that forces them down a fucking hole of suicide.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Well, actually, yeah, kills them. Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna drop some stats for you on this that we just finished. Yeah. Um, so I just want to go back. Um, so once once the floodgates started to open, I was trying to get my foot in with the VA, and it was it was brutal. They just would not give me the time of day. And so I'm like, guys, listen, I don't even care. Let me just educate you guys on this. And no one wanted to hear it. This is about seven years ago, and since then I've been working on getting my foot in the door with the VA, um, which we'll get to in a minute. But so it was mind-blowing to me was this. We'll we'll use a Green Beret as an example, okay? Um Colton Hill, Matt Spaulding. These guys are, they both work for me. They run my outreach and foundation, amazing dudes, Jordan Jones, amazing guys. All three of those men, including almost every G bet that I know, Dave Cosinati, all those guys that I know could have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a pro athlete. Yeah, none of them went into the military with a drug addiction at all.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Okay? So this is gonna blow your mind. First three or four years of their career, they're they're young, they're full of piss and vinegar, ready to go, deploying, getting after it. Then they start to get broken down. And then the VA gives them a taste, or the or TriCare gives them a taste and says, here, take this Adderall, here, take this Valium, take this new visual, yeah, take this ambient. And guess what? They give you a supply for 60 days, but you're deployed for six months. So what do they do? They're taking methamphetamines off the people they're killing and starting with in taking their meth overseas. That that that that the people that they shoot are are on, right? Yeah. Because number one, when you take Adderall, right? And then and you deploy on Adderall and then it runs out, that's not too pretty, right? Keeping in mind all those drugs that I just named are class three. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 39:17

And what's a class three for people that don't know?

SPEAKER_02 39:19

A class three drug, you have one, two, and three. One's your oxycottin, yeah, fentanyl, you know, and then two and then three. So those are class three drugs. Guess what else is a class three drug?

SPEAKER_04 39:30

What?

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Testosterone. Same category as Xanax Valium per It is. It is. So if if we were younger, crazy, right? I'd say, hey, let's why don't you take 30 Xanax and I'll and and I'll shoot a 10 a 10 ml bottle of testosterone. Let's see who's doing better in 30 minutes. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

Right?

SPEAKER_02 39:52

And you know, that happened because of a study that came from Cleveland Clinic um about 30 years ago that says they have a black box warning label on testosterone that says if you take this drug, you will die of a heart attack or stroke.

SPEAKER_03 40:04

And that's recently been dismissed as a completely dismissed.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

It's off the it's off the bottle, male and female hormones. And the same place came up with a study that says if you do not take testosterone, your heart is a muscle, it attributes like your bicep, you have an 80% chance of all mortality death at an earlier age.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Right? And those studies are out there. Um something else that's really interesting is is um I got my hands on it and um it was mind-blowing. Matt Spaulding found it. Last year, the VA did a study on females that were on testosterone in hormone replacement therapy, 15,000 females versus 15,000 females that were not on. The 15,000 females that were on had a 47% depreciation in suicide, and the ones that weren't, 68% increase in suicide.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

So females taking testosterone.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

All hormone replacement therapy. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

All military females. And what people don't understand is they they're at a high rate of suicide, too.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

Yeah, that's that's a because the it's always, you know, our guys coming back that are all at the forefront, but there is a big female population that's come back and have have taken the lives that we don't hear about it as much. Well, I mean, you have fighter pilot females now, yeah. Um, you have you know interpreters, you have people that are on the front line now that I mean that's and even if with our first responders, too, all those guys, those cops, they've got it's bad, man.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Yeah. I mean, the only person that the only line of work that commits more suicide is farmers. They have the highest rate of suicide in the country.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

Well, yeah, and and what are the correlations between like TBI and hormone and and that's just stresses that the great question.

SPEAKER_02 41:44

So, what what happened was is I I learned that the VA wasn't gonna cooperate. So I started a foundation, and 100% of the proceeds, even the staff get paid from my for-profit, 100% of the proceeds each year go to veterans that cannot afford hormones. Right now, if you guys are watching, we have 400 spots open right now for this year for free TRT for any veteran that cannot afford it.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 42:08

Yeah, we're put up all the yeah, please, yeah, and um just DM me and I'll get you hooked up. Um and so basically um I started the foundation, we started to raise money. We do a you know the big event each year. Yeah. And this year was very successful. Yeah, um, we had some massive donations from Black Rifle Coffee and some private donors. And basically I said, you know what, if the VA is not gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. So having the community outreach of the strategic partners that I have, it was easy.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

So for the last five years, we've been paying for between three and five hundred people a year to be on TRT. About 1,400 people in the last five years, not one suicide. Wow, not one suicide, and we survey all of them, we stay on top of it. Yeah, and 70% of those people can afford TRT the next year.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

Wow, because they're because it changes their entire dynamic.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

So, what happens when from a TBI and like there that are like, oh, I didn't do what he did, I didn't see what he saw. Trauma's fucking trauma's trauma. The way that you filter it, the way I filter it could be completely different. You can see a cat get run over, yeah, and it could end your day. I could see someone get blown up in a truck with body parts everywhere. Yeah, it's the same thing, right? So I I uh started to see like these guys would just they're just like they you could just look at these guys, look at them like three years before, then look at them like a year out of being in the military, and just like, dude, what happened to you?

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Yeah, the endocrine system, cord is on. You can always see like when you look in their eyes, right when they're back, just it's like their pupils are just yeah, or it's just you could do you can just tell they're like there's a stare that they have, and you're like, Whoa, something's something's off. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:51

And you know that the you know the visceral fat is common pretty quickly, and then the hibernation.

SPEAKER_03 43:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:58

So what Lot of people don't understand is that estrogen dominance in a male is worse than being testosterone deficient.

SPEAKER_03 44:05

How do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02 44:06

So when a male has too much estrogen, yeah, and not enough testosterone, their body isn't a man anymore. Yeah. You know, they're they they're crying on commercials, they're very emotional, very angry. Yeah, and I would argue that 70 to 80 percent of people being diagnosed with like roid rage, yeah, it's not roid rage, it's estrogen dominance.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

Really?

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, because people can be on hormone replacement therapy at a clinic and not get an estrogen blocker. Yeah, and they're still miserable on testosterone.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Is that once you go in, there's a balance that you have to?

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Yes. So whatever your body doesn't convert to testosterone converts to estrogen in your body. And it can cause sensitation in the breast area, like the whole nine yards, your bones can hurt, you know, your high blood pressure. So it's really important to make sure that you're balancing the entire picture. So a great example is the VA only tests for total testosterone, which quite frankly is useless. It's a reserve tank. Free testosterone is your bioavailable testosterone.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:10

They also aren't checking sexome binding globulins. Which is what? Which it which is basically something that allows your body to absorb the testosterone, right? So think of like a sponge that's dry on the countertop, right? If your SHBG is too high, your body's not absorbing that TRT or converting as well. Um, and we have a great method to lower those so you can really absorb that that testosterone and get the full benefit of it. So by just testing your total testosterone, that just sits there for your body to call on. Your free testosterone says, hey, I need more tests. Your total converts, boom, but it absorbs into your cells as a protein and then converts to free testosterone. Um, and by not testing the entire LH, FSH, estrogen, SHBG, free and total test, yeah. You're you're you can't prescribe properly. So that's why the VA doesn't do it.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

It's almost like a they just they just do it so broad and they're they give you a shot every 14 days and that's it.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

What? It's like this. They don't do any estrogen blockers, nothing for the youngsters to keep their body stimulated in case they want to have kids or that they have to come off. Um, we don't shut off the light, we use HCG to make sure that you know you're still producing and you're not getting atrophy and you still have good volume of semen and stuff like that. So um, but I mean at the end of the day, they just don't know what they don't know. I mean, and and you you know, my opinion is the whole entire medical system in this country is fucked. Yeah, the only thing we're good at is fucking trauma medicine. We're the best, yeah. Like the best. Yeah, but you know, you look at uh a blood panel, right? From like 10 15 years ago, LDL, HDL, that range was like zero to 300. Yeah, guess what it is now? What zero to 199? Guess why? Why they want to prescribe statins as much as you want to do that?

SPEAKER_03 47:00

I just literally listened to a podcast where talking about statins, how those are like the dude, the worst things you could be on.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Like, I'd the majority of people that are on a statin could be using a high vote, a high dose vitamin C and get the same exact result.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

Whoa. Is that just big five?

SPEAKER_02 47:16

A thousand milligrams for every decade your life.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

Yeah, because it's almost like in these smaller towns and and places in America where people are overweight or this, it's just like it's the one, two, three, like get a statins. And then once they're on statins for a while, then there's another medicine that you have to start getting on, and it's like you you're basically accelerating the the mortality of uh or the increasing the conditions because it's not really doing anything for like the statins. I mean, it's it's a real rough drug. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

Um, it's a real rough drug. And I mean, you you you touch base on these small communities, like that's how oxycottin became. Yeah, because these people are the people aren't taking their own health into their hands, right? So going back to what I was saying about these Green Berets and SF guys, right? You know, how I said that, you know, they could run a Fortune 500 company or be a a pro athlete. So just think about this process, AJ, of like you deploying them, giving you a taste of Adderall, giving you ambient asleep, this, that, and the other. And now, and now you've for the last 15, 20 years of your life, you've been doing what you've been told to do. You have a regimen for everything. Someone is in control of what you do on a daily basis. There's no free time, right? Being on those teams. Well, there's free time, but you're you're basically very scheduled and you're listening to your higher ups. So, what happens when they come out and go to the VA? And the doctor says, Here, you need to take all of these medications.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 48:38

You take them. And now all of a sudden, that pro athlete, that Fortune 500 owner, that that that Green Beret, that seal, is now a drug addict. Yeah. And it happens. They're dude, they're it's so, so, so freaking sad. These guys have given this country the best years of their life, and the best thing we can do is make them hibernate.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Have have you done like the uh saw this thing they were talking about with like like for the indentations of the for the from the uh TBI? Yeah, like the the brain scans?

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Yeah, and they so we we send everyone that really needs it to this place in Texas for um about a week for um for brain health and it's it turning on that frontal uh cortex. Yes, yep, yeah, yeah. Um and it's amazing what that place does. But so what what happens from being in these burn pits, getting blown up, getting shot at, seeing friends die, right? Is your endocrine system really gets compromised, some cortisol increases and so on and so forth. And it and you're constantly in that that that state of like, shit, I I could die here. You know what I mean? It's not a pretty place, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm a I've uh I'm a civilian and I I you know really, really honor those guys. I mean, it's just it's just to think about them sacrificing all that time, you know, they they just love it. And um, we just don't do them justice.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

And and it, you know, so we spend all this money on turning them into these warriors, and we spend zero to none on turning that switch off. And and and it's like that, like having a you know, you'd rather have a warrior in a gardener than a gardener in in a war. But we we have these warriors that are in the garden that we haven't turned told to turn off the switch. Like we haven't, we there's nothing which blew me when I was doing SEAL team. When you'd find out stories guys coming back, I'm like, oh, so they're like there's help for you when you're like no, you're on your own. Like, especially if you got injured and you you're out, like they're like going going to the VA if they had any certain type of surgery stuff done. Uh-huh. And what they were like from Delatted to all this sort of stuff that they're on, they get out and they're given more of that stuff, and then now they're an addict. You know, and then they're struggling to find jobs, they're struggling with like just communicating and finding that tribe.

SPEAKER_04 50:55

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

It's it's it's it's mind-blowing that that is it's it's such a big fight that guys like yourself are up against because there's so there's been so much damage that's been done over the years to these guys, and it's in the masses, and it's like, you know, even the amount of people that you have helped, there's so many more that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Well, dude, I'll tell you something that's wild. How about the the wives of those of those men? The husbands of, you know, the females of I mean you have a 10-year-old son, right? You know, you're and you're enlisted during that period of time, you're gone six months a year. Colton told me the other day that he's never been home for his wife's birthday. Never. Well, I'm like, dude. And uh so he's John's combatative um and uh for Spider-Man and Punisher, um, Colton's in the Punisher, so isn't Nick, so isn't Cody. Wait till you see Cody's scene, bro.

SPEAKER_03 52:00

Is it awesome? Really?

SPEAKER_02 52:02

It's so sick. Really? It's so so when they were doing it, John's like, Cody, I want you to really freaking toss me and throw me across this bar and beat the shit out of me. And and uh Cody's like, Are you sure? And he's like, Yeah. So because John was gonna fight back, and John's like, Well, the first take didn't go so well for me. I thought I was strong enough to manhandle him, and I wasn't close, and John legitimately went head over heels over the bar, like they, you know, and but that the it's and then John kills him with a big pen. It was pretty sick. Yeah, but the the whole entire you know, it's it's a I got to see it, and it's unbelievable. That it is John, some of John's best work by far.

SPEAKER_03 52:41

Now, being that he's your b brother-in-law, yeah. Um, and he he was already active in the military stuff prior to as well, right?

SPEAKER_02 52:51

It's so crazy. He's the hugest Marine supporter, yeah. The biggest it's just dude. He if he sees someone that he can tell as of the Marine, he will beeline it to that person and spend five minutes to talk to.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

So, was it like that like the step brother started things? Like, do we need to become a best friend?

SPEAKER_02 53:05

We have a lot in common. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The wives don't like it too much when we get together. It's not pretty. Um, it's yeah, but uh no.

SPEAKER_03 53:15

Um I mean it's it's like just from afar looking at like you always look at there's there's the actors that show up for the photo ops, and like it's always funny, like at a construction site, they'll stick the shovel in, and then as soon as the cameras are gone, they get in the car and they drive home. Yeah, and just you know, uh, you know, I don't know John personally, but just from the work that he's done outside of it's never about the camera, it's just about the work that's doing there. And it's and I feel like you two combining forces.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

Yeah, he he's been very inspirational. His brother, actually, Tom Bernthal, has been uh another mentor of mine um and has his has helped me tremendously with what I'm working on right now with the VA. Tom married Cheryl Sandberg, the CEO of Facebook. Um, they just named the new submarine from the Navy after her. Whoa. Yep. It's bad. It was in Boston. They went up and toured it and they placed her name on the side of it for her success.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 54:07

And what she's done for communities. She pays for 20 kids a year to go to college that can't afford it. 20 kids a year.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

Wow. It's it's it's you get around people that you know you you feel like you're you're doing a good job, and then you meet people out there and they're like, like, fuck they're like you know that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

I mean, you know, that's you know, millions of dollars.

SPEAKER_03 54:30

I work a lot with uh Gary Sinise and he's just going back to the Gold Star Wives. Yep. I went down to uh he has the uh Snowball Express that he does every year, where he brings over a thousand first responders um for the first week, the uh the families um of a fallen first responder. And then the second week he'll bring out a thousand of um civilian special special oper special operations at the best. But it's the community of that really opened my eyes to it as well, where the family itself, like when when Pops is off at war with the the mom has to deal with the kids are then falling behind in school because they're worried about their dad, especially with the guys that we know they they go dark for they can't say where they're at, you don't know.

SPEAKER_02 55:18

You don't hear from them.

SPEAKER_03 55:19

Yeah, so it's just and there's so much that they have to carry, and then when unfortunately with some of these guys get killed in action, what they're left with, and that that inability to like you've got you gotta raise these young men, these young kids.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

The resentment the kids carry because they just they they don't understand until they're older, then they're acting out. I mean, every single situation.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

I mean, it's there was uh one of the guys told a story um and it got me all choked up was um was two years ago at your thing where he got up and was talking about just like how much uh when you came in and helped, like hit his family spoke and like Caleb.

SPEAKER_02 55:59

Yes, yeah, I was just with him yesterday. Yeah from Tennessee.

SPEAKER_03 56:04

It got me so choked up because it was just about like and that's where I really saw at your at your com the community that you formed, is how much it's focused on the family.

SPEAKER_02 56:16

What happened with Caleb was crazy. He was in fifth group and had a serious career. Yeah. You know, he was a Bravo, senior Bravo. Um came back, and I'll you know, he'll tell the story when he's on here, but imagine being in multiple deployments, multiple missions, attached to Delta, the whole nine yards, gets comes back, and a year later, someone's trying to rob your car in the driveway, and he tries to yell at the window, and they open fire. Yeah, and he gets shot in his house covering his newborn baby. And if he didn't cover the baby, the baby would have been hit. Took a bullet in the spine, it's still in his back, and he was teammates with Matt Spaulding. And Matt calls me up, he's like, dude, one of my really good friends just got shot after retiring, and you know, the foundation was all hands-on deck. We got him stem cell, $15,000, you know, full uh donation. He was a home builder, he was in the middle of three projects, they all had to stop all that carrying cost. Um, and you know, Caleb's like one of my we speak every week. Like, I love him to death now. Like, and the thing is, is that like without helping people and engaging with strangers and not being completely turned off by all the by all the bad things that have happened to me in the last two years and saying, you know, screw you, like I'm not gonna open up the world anymore to any other people. I mean, I keep my circle really tight now, yeah. But you know, engaging and helping others is really how we build a community.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

Yeah. I feel like when you're really helping people and you're really doing good in the world, I feel like when it starts starts to on a spiritual side, I feel like the devil, in a sense, in a in a metaphorical sense, more things try to throw you off track to distract you from. It's like it's like things will be going and such and you have this accelerated growth, but then these detractors will like of people or whatever will just try and knock you off what you're doing. 100%. And it it's it's being sort of a consistent thing, what I what I've seen that's either happen to me or just seen people, and it's like, and um, and the more that I've gotten back in my faith, it's like I feel like when you're really doing something good, or or it's something that is is gonna help people in some sort of way, or that you're taking care of yourself and you're being, you know, you're you're reflecting and and you know, admitting your flaws and and just trying to improve your life. I feel like there's this energy that happens from other people that try to either bring you back to the dark side or I mean I'll tell you right now, I've struggled with lust. Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_02 58:47

What's the worst thing on a marriage? Yeah, someone straying, that's the devil right there, bro. Like, yeah, it's it's it's the devil 100%. And and every time things are going great in my marriage, I'll find myself, you know, looking a little bit too hard or doing some stupid shit, you know. And I mean, it's just the way it goes. And and I mean, that's a battle, and it's a constant battle. It's and it and within legitimately right now, the reason why I, you know, a good reason why I was so attracted to you and your and just your persona, yeah, it was your blue eyes and your six pack. Um is you got to you came to my house, right? And like it's gonna sound weird, but you came right in. You you you walked into the house, you were just in engaged with everybody. Um, my buddy Mike Bastett was like over there jerking off over he's like around John Brad Pitt because he's with John the whole night. He's like, I don't care about any of these guys. I just like sunny. Dude, he's he's a great dude. He is like so freaking AJ Buckley trailer, dude. It's it was so funny at that dinner. I was like, yeah, that guy would swallow your baby. Swallow your babies. So anyway, he's gonna get a pick out of that.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:08

But um, yeah, that's gonna be the trailer for this podcast. He'll swallow your baby.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

But that, I mean, that dude's amazing, but you know, so like you like you just you just engage, yeah, right? And you don't you you know you're gonna be bothered everywhere you go every single day you get up because you know of your success, but you don't care, right? You don't change your dynamic. You go to your kids' games, you're not hiding from general population, you're engaging yourself, and that's really important, especially as you know, as popular as you become as successful, because by you engaging with people, that's inspiring. Yeah, it's very inspiring. That's why, like before I was always like, Oh, I want this humility, I'm not gonna tell people how good I'm doing this, that, and the other. Fuck that, dude. Celebrate your wins so other people exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:52

And the people that are you're in your crew will celebrate with you. It helps you weed out the correct people. Yeah, because when people go quiet when you're on your success, you're like, right away, you're like, that's that was weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

Yeah, you know, it's like or or I mean this has probably happened to you quite a bit, but every week, yeah, I I get, hey, dude, can you check out this GoFundMe account? It's like some girl that's pregnant that wants money for their baby. I'm like, dude, I'm dealing with my best friend in the world, son with neuroblastoma cancer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And veterans that are trying to kill themselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Be be happy that you're having a baby and figure it the fuck out. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:23

Like, well, my my wife came into my life, and I'm very grateful for that. Uh she was like, We came home after it and we'd be dated for like a month or to two months, and she's like, Hey, I'm just gonna point this out. A lot of your people that are around you have T-Rex arms. And I was like, What do you mean? She's like, Paying for nobody take, like you're always picking up a tab. And she's like, Yeah, I'm like, but I I I want to. She's like, I she's like, I understand that, but like she goes, just watch this on this next one, dinner, don't pull out your credit card, watch what happens. And I was like, No, no, no, that's weird. I'm like, so I I did that, and people got so uncomfortable at the table. And she's like, the people that didn't were like your friends that like were like, oh yeah, yeah, like just throw it in. But it wasn't, and I was like, man, and I and I just thought, because I didn't come from money, and when I it's a sort of first started mate, I was like, oh, cool, I got you, man. This is my like my treat. But then on the flip side, when I kind of stumbled, um, and I I was in a bad spot, none of those people were were there. But it wasn't for my wife to be like, she's like, it, she's like, I can't I can't be with you if you're gonna allow these people around. Like it's just it they're just and I was like, Are you married to my wife? Yeah, like a strong woman that was like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

So my wife legitimately within five minutes can tell me if the person is is on good behavior or not. Yeah. Immediately.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:57

It's so funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

My wife's and I freaking, I mean, and Lou Velozzi, he's pretty good at it too. Yeah, um, he's back there with his fingers in the air. Um, so I'll tell you this, which is crazy, bro. My wife has pointed out so many people. Yeah like when I say so many, like five or six people, that she's like, that's not gonna end well. I'm like, no, I'll be fine. It'll be don't worry, he's a good person, he just needs some help. Yeah, she's right every time. Yeah. Every freaking time. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:26

And I would get mad. I'm like, what come on? Why you gotta think that about everybody? And then sure enough, it would like it would come out. But it's true, like you, and I hate, I hate the even uh I hate that you that you have to sort of like keep your the circle small, or you have to like you want to out of the gates, just like give me a reason not to trust you, right? Like, like it's just like out of the gates, you're okay. I got it. Like there's no there's no sign, but my radar would be so off because my wife wouldn't be seeing the angle that they're trying to play or whatever, whatever it is. So again, it was again it like what you've done is put really great people around you that sort of have your back because you're such a giving person that are like, hey, let's well I've eliminated the majority.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

Like I I don't um I think I'm I've cleaned up the the closet pretty well.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:12

Did that did that like on a person? How much did that hurt when that stuff happened?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

I went on a retreat. Yeah, and I went on a retreat with Cody Alfred. Yeah, it was uh OPL operation uh lighthouse. Tried it. It was a uh crucible, and Cody and I spent some time and we had he had me really thinking and like forward thinking in these crazy directions. And I just I came back from that retreat and eliminated like seven people. I called them up immediately. Just this overwhelming feeling, just hey man, don't wish you any bad harm, but don't ever call me again. Yeah, the best thing I ever did. Yeah, like because here's the reality we surround ourselves with people that we do business with and people that we love. Yeah, sometimes those people are in both categories, yeah. Those are the people I want to spend time with. 100%, right? If I can't say, bro, I love you, yeah, I'm not buying you fucking dinner, dude. Yeah, like I I don't, I don't, I don't even want you around because it's you're you're in question. You're questioning your your like a friend.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:19

And like you should not have to question your friends. And it's such and the amount of time that we have on this earth, but the amount of time that you have with your family, which is like we work so much that when I you get the time with your family, it's so it's so important, especially the the young years that we have with our kids, you know, because once they're they're gone, I heard this person say this once. She was like, You you you the saddest part about being a father is is realizing that you're raising your kids to be to live without you, to be independent. And I was like, oh I'm like, that's like but it's you have to raise them in a certain way so that they're okay on their own. And when I realized, I was like, The time that I have with my kids when I'm not working, it's it's so it's so important that I'm like phones down, I'm 100% in what they're doing because I've I'll miss chunks of the time. But it it even pisses you off more. I'm sure that you're the same boat when like you spend time with a group of people that you're like, I could be with my kids. And then you just have to be like, can't do it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:24

No, I totally get it. I mean, when you call me and you're like, hey, I'm gonna hang out with my kids, I can't make it to the event.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

It's yeah, it's like I get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

Yeah, and the the the other side of it too is like I'm this is like I I just stumbled upon this like the other day when I was when I was just kind of doing some uh journaling. I was like morning pages, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:43

I I have a really strict routine in the morning. Like the I d that changed my life. I do like uh uh my my one of my best friends, godfather of my kids, uh him and his his wife Sarah, Artie Baxter. I uh went through a tough time, and he's like, You have turned into a negative person every morning before you start up. He's like, I want you to name 10 things that you're grateful about. And he goes, You cannot touch your phone, you can't do anything, but you have to start off the day, and then he goes, Now go to 20 things, now I want you to write them down. I do that every single morning now. And it literally and the times that I don't do it, I can feel off. I gotta like, but like he's like, I don't care if you say that I'm grateful for the grass, I'm grateful for the roof, I'm grateful for whatever. And to start that off, it it does, man. Not to to change something.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:24

No, I mean that that I mean look, when we here's the difference. Uh well let me finish this the statement. Like, how many people have have called you, have like called you four or five times, you haven't returned their phone call, and then you get them on the phone, like, dude, what the fuck? Why can't you call me back? Well, I'm really, really busy with my family and I'm working really hard. My friends are the ones I don't have to talk to for two months. We pick up right where we left off.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:48

I was gonna say that those your those are your boys because they understand they get it, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

And I can there's there's uh you know, talking about our kids and stuff too. I'll tell you something that that I that that happened to me when I about a year ago. I was at another retreat and the guy was talking because you have to be careful with people, you know, telling you how to properly parent your kids, even people that are professionals, right? Oh, yeah. Because listen to how this backfired on me. You're gonna like this. Um, I remember from Jordan being four and Jada being one, I neglected them tremendously. Every time I'd pick them up at school, as soon as they got the car, put them in the car seat, I'm right on my phone back to work.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:30

And I lost precious time with those kids not engaging and having those fun conversations with a four-year-old in the backseat of my car. After this retreat, I come back and I'm in uh Mexico, about to get uh married after being engaged for nine years, and uh some commitment problems. And um, and uh and I wanted to clean some stuff up with my kids, you know, before that. And so I took them for a walk. I said, Jordan, Jada, like I want to apologize for me, you know, really neglecting you, especially in the car and some other situations. You know what my son said to me? What are you talking about? You know how much I learned from that? Yeah, and he's super successful. Yeah, like and it's in, and I was like, wow, you know, so there are two sides of that sometimes that you know, and that's why engaging. I mean, I don't suggest you neglect your kids, but I'm just saying, like there, there, there, there are some situations where there is where there's some good that comes out of stuff like that. And that was, and you know, you hear him on the phones, he sounds identical to me. He engages in me. Oh, dude, he's it's not yeah. I mean, he wasn't my kid kid, but he's my kid. Yeah, and he's I'm very, very proud of him. Like I'm I'm not more proud of anyone else, I don't think. He's just really amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:39

So, was this your treat you did with Cody? Was that the IBGame thing?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:43

No, no, no, no, that was just two weeks ago. I just got back from we talk about the IBG? Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:47

So I watched the documentary recently with uh with Marcus with uh Latrell.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

No, it was um uh not Buggers.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:55

It was GBRS. It was uh GBRS. Yep, and uh it it and I I'd I'd never seen it in I've heard people talking about it. I've heard guys, I know some guys that were on our show, two guys that went and do it, done it, and like it how much it changed.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

The best thing that I've ever done in my entire life.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:12

It was the whole thing, yeah. Um so were you scared to go? Petrified. Okay, good, because I'm terrified.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:19

Okay, well, you can come with us in January. Okay. Um it'll be you puke and shit all over yourself? No. Okay. Nope. You purge your stomach's empty, so it's air coming out, but it's the it's the best feeling throw up you've ever had in your life of of per of purging.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:32

You totally sold me.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:33

Dude, I'm telling you right now, yeah, I only purge twice, the woman beside me 70 times.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:38

Um, I I'll tell you what my experience is. And the first thing that everyone should understand, you know how people are like, well, I want to know the why. I want to know the why. Remove that. Yeah, go there. You're never gonna know why what happens to you happens to you. Yeah. I went to Ambiolite in Mexico, Tijuana. Show up to this place. I went with uh uh a good buddy of mine who's a GB, um, worked for the agency. He's a very successful guy. He was going through it hard. And I was like, dude, let's go down there together. Let's just do it. Like, and uh he's like, ah, I'm like, dude, I'm going. And if you let me go to Mexico right now by myself, you're not my friend. And he's like, fuck you, bro. Yeah, and he's like, I'm going. All right. So you you get picked up in in San Diego over the border. By the way, if you're a fugitive, it's really easy to go that way right now. They didn't even stop us, they just let us drive right through. It was wild. Yeah. Um, and uh get to this house on the side of a cliff, 20,000 square foot house. You have your own suite twice the size of the room we're sitting in right now. Gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:47

Staff, impeccable. Food, amazing. And the first thing that you do is you go to this house in the middle of nowhere and do a sweat lodge.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

And like the traditional ones, like a real soil lodge.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:04

Oh, yeah, those are legit. Bro, yeah. I saw Jesus. I was fetal position on my ground, on the ground, staring at my buddy with like 30 minutes in this thing was 45 minutes. 220 degrees with steam, lava rocks, 13 rocks, and insane, dude. And I was just about to pass out and the door opened. I was like, oh my God. It's like air. It was insane. Um, I lost a lot of weight. And that that's prep getting your body ready. There's a lot of prep. They do about five IVs in the first two days. Because there's because there's I began in ayahuasca. Yeah. Um ayahuasca is the grandmother. Right. I begin's the grandfather.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:46

So these are all ingredients from the Amazon jungle. Uh it's a tree. A tree. Yep. Yeah. And it is, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:58

The you basically prep for this. Uh I got there on a Monday, Tuesday evening. It you you uh take a pill. The scientific studies behind this are amazing. Um all the data is there. Any man over the age of 30 should do this.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:21

Because I would venture to say 99% of the country is walking around with childhood trauma.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:30

Mine's gone. I've been carrying it for 47 years. Yeah. I didn't realize I had a pit in my stomach 24-7. I didn't realize that my forward thinking wasn't engaged. I didn't like my ability to think right now is insane. Like, I was already on it. Yeah. I'm on it now. Like the shit I've done in the last two weeks is night and day. Um, so you basically do a ceremony. You take one pill every 15 minutes, four pills in total. By 10 o'clock, you start to feel a little warm. You go downstairs to this beautiful treatment room. You have this huge mattress with pillows everywhere. There's a big mare in front of you with a maracca, and you sit down and they start playing some amazing. It's the best music I've ever heard. Like IntSync.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

It's InSync or Baxtery Boys.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:18

No, it's it's not Baxtery Boys, it's African tribal music. Oh wow. It's unreal. Yeah. Um, and the Ibigain kicks in with music. So you start shaking the maracca, and it like wakes it up. It wakes it up. And uh they told me if you're lucky, you get to see the a bogey, which is like the like the uh the mascot for the tree. The first thing I saw was this big, huge tree. I'm staring at myself in the mirror. I disappear, and there's a big tree, and this guy pops out. Black dude, sunken in eyes, huge cheeks, and he pops up and goes back. And then a tree pops up over there, and he and he he's over there. I'm like, oh shit, it's just fucking real. Meanwhile, there's a blazing inferno behind me. I can hear everyone in the room talking. There's no one speaking. Um, you lose all your fine motor skills. I put my a blindfold on. They have these like amazing, like great blindfolds, and then you just lie back. As soon as you put the blindfold on and open your eyes, you're gone.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

Really? Yep. And like gone is in like you're do you remember the whole thing?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:25

I remember, but I I I only was in it for four hours and then fell asleep and woke up six hours later. Still, you you you're you're in it for about 24 hours. Really? You're seeing trails, you're you're having visions when you're sleeping. It's very, very intense. So uh from the documentary, so you go back and you relive the things that have happened and you see it it can't it it gives you the ability to have something called, in my this is what I would brand it as parallel thinking. I remember being in my father's first thing that came into my brain was being in my father's Delta 88 when I was really young, and he I was acting up and he pulled over and beat the brakes off me.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:08

And you hadn't thought about this in forever.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:11

Then right immediately after that, it was me screaming at my daughter in the backseat of the scar the car five months ago. And I just fucking started crying. Oh, and that and that's when I purged. Oh and whoa, dude, it was it was wild. Um and then I went into a very scary place um from some other trauma that I had when I was young and um relived it like it was happening, and it legitimately gave me every solution I needed.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:45

Was it forgiveness or was it?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:47

It it was journey. It was it was like God gives you all of this for a reason, whether it's to help someone that el that has gone through it as well. Because just think about it, right? If I wasn't abused, if I wasn't, if I didn't deal with these bad decisions in my life, and I meet somebody, I can provide hope. Yeah. If we if we didn't have bad situations and you're the only person walking around with this trauma, how what's where's the hope? Like, where's the success out of it, right? So we teach others. Like I learn from others, I don't watch YouTube because it can't talk back to you. If I want to learn how to be a great actor, I'm saying, hey, AJ, can we go out to eat? Can I can I talk to you about your career? Can I understand it because we can engage? Yeah. Texting, it's a side, it's ridiculous. My kids aren't allowed to text me. Yeah, you can't catch a tone through a text. How many fights have you been with your wife over a text message that you didn't even mean what she felt? You know, it's it's insane. So I'm a big fan of engaging with people. So this journey was amazing, and I got went to a really scary place, and then all of a sudden, this woman comes out and grabs me by the by the wrist, walks me through this door, and I'm in Africa on the ground beside a fire. I'm like, what am I doing here? She's like, You're here for a ceremony. I'm like, Whose ceremony is? It's yours. And I went through an entire Ibogaine ceremony in Africa for about an hour and a half. And it was And you could describe having like the people who you saw as it was. I could tell you everything, dude. It was vivid as my short-term memory is horrible too. Yeah. And now it's like turned on. The craziest part was this. Well, there was two crazy parts. When I was done, you go right to a Reiki massage.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:25

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:26

I've had one of those before. This, well, after I began it's funny, yeah. But it they're amazing, and I'm a big believer in the in that process. The first, so I don't know if you're aware, but I um flipped a bunch of discs in my neck, they were gonna fuse my neck. I went and got stem cell, it healed it up really well. I'm in great shape now, but I was like, it was paralyzing. I was peeing myself, it was horrible. That's how bad the pain was. The first thing the woman does is starts to work on my neck. Never told her about my injury. Then went to my right knee. She could just tell where you then went to both my shoulders and then told me. Then she says, Do you have any problems with your stomach? And I'm like, She's like, You, I can feel the energy of anxiety tremendous. And I'm like, Yeah, I do. And she started to push all this pressure into my stomach, and it felt like I couldn't breathe. She goes, Take a deep breath. And I'm like, gagging for air, and she pushed this energy out of my body that felt like a quart coming out of a bottle. It was in and I was back to I wasn't in outer space anymore. It's just like real, like this is me like 12 hours later. And then I went upstairs, went to sleep, and got up. And uh I was reading, um I was uh reading my I Bible and uh I realized I didn't have my readers on. Oh whoa. Dude, I can see close again. Whoa. It's fucking wild.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:46

Wow. Like it's it is crazy, and then there's I know there's so much stuff going on with like like with parliament and stuff, and a lot of guys are trying to uh um it it's it's it's it's the realest thing that I've ever experienced. Yeah, it's it's like you feel like that now too, you can even more so with the guys that you work with and the people coming in to give you give you more clarity on so one of the biggest things is um I'm I'm trying not to think about that right now because I'm still unpacking a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:15

Like I wrote 24 pages in a journal in 12 hours. Well, like it was a lot. And if the funny part was is you have a nurse and you have like a concierge beside you to help you get back and forth to the bathroom because you can't really walk. As soon as you take the blindfold off and open your eyes, trip's gone, but you're still really wheezy. Put the blindfold back on, open your eyes, trip's back on. It's crazy. I was lying there and I'm trying to get to my notebook, but I can't move. So I raise my hand and the guy taps me on my shoulder, and I said, Hey, would you do me a favor? Can you grab my notebook and take some notes for me? And the guy looks at me like, What the fuck are you talking about? No one's ever asked me to do that before. I'm not your personal assistant, you know? And uh man, it was just unbelievable. And then you uh kind of unpack your life because the stuff that you remember, it is so valuable to relive that stuff and not run from it. And I've been running from it for 47 years.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:11

Yeah, I I think even in my life, too. I can I can relate to what you're saying there, like even with getting back into God and stuff, and I'd gone on like this hike with my church, and just the gentleman that I've I've I've I this group of guys that we hang out from the church, and one of the things was that I really took from it was we're all we're all we're all winging it, you know, and we're all trying to figure, we're trying to put our best foot forward, but we don't realize how much of this stuff that we've kept inside and harbored or anger towards people. If you once you let that go or just for like be like, whatever, I'm just gonna forgive that person and just let it go out of my system. That's it. It's crazy how much weight you and when I was on this one or cheetah, there was some things that happened to me in my life when I was young, and I I I just had to rather than holding on to it, I was like, I just had to give forgiveness to it. I had to forgive whatever that was in that moment happened. And I still I still I'm a flawed man, I've still got work to do, but it it it lifted so much of a weight off me because I I instead of being angry about it, I was like, I gotta let it go. Well, I have a saying, resentment is a prison sentence. Oh, I like that. It is true. It's a prison sentence. You're in they're occupying your mind the entire time. They won. Yeah, I've never looked at it that way. They won right away.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:30

I'm like, dude, I I mean, I'll tell you now, like, I have no I I speak my mind. I've always spoken my mind. Yeah, um, I'm a take it or leave it kind of guy. Yeah, right. And if you're bothering me, I I communicate with you. If you can't handle the communication, sorry. But uh at the end of the day, man, uh like for me to sit in resentment or frustration and anger, especially with the amount of staff I have, yeah, the amount of people that I'm surrounded by, if I want you to know what I'm thinking, not trying to wonder what I'm thinking, because it also builds very good relationships with the people that are important.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:03

You actually gave me that advice that you and I were talking one morning. I think you were in a sauna, and I randomly called you in the morning. You're like, you're all right. And I'm like, I'm gonna, you know, just having I was going through some stuff and and and you were like, dude, you just gotta like communicate that. Just say exactly what you're going through. And as you were like, as dudes be holding in, but just let them know this is where you're going through and this is what you're thinking. And I was like, Yeah, and I'm like, all right, I'll go and I'll go talk to my wife and just well, and it actually was like, because we assume that people know what's happened, what our process, and you're just like, they don't know what I'm going through. Well, obviously, they don't know what you're going through because you're not telling me the fuck about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:40

Well, the thing is, too, people have this characteristic in everyone, especially men, especially type A men, you know, protectors, people that are at service to others, good dads. When a situation occurs and you're wondering, where's your mind go? To the worst place you might be possible. Right? I remember from my eye beginning experience, um, me being brought back to eighth grade when I was I had my first girlfriend who was, she was like the hutest girl in eighth grade, and she didn't answer my phone call for like a day. And I'm like, oh, she's breaking up with me. I'm fucking cold like 90 times. I'm like, shit, she's like, uh, I was I was on a hike with my family in New Hampshire. Now I'm breaking up with you because you're a fucking psycho. You know what I mean? And uh I learned that lesson real quick, you know what I mean? And and it's like that's what happens in all situations, and the other side of it too, when you when people wonder about you, their mind goes to like the worst place, right? And then now they're making up shit that doesn't even exist, that might not even be the case. So just lay it out, right? So the next day you're kind of in a cocoon, like trying to get back to life because you're you're drained, you're never that exhausted in your entire life. And then on Thursday, I experienced the uh five MeO DMT, which is a frog venom that you smoke out of a crack pipe. Um whoa. And uh that polishes because D DMT is what you see. Your brain releases when you die. I died, I died on that journey. It was I was I was out for about nine minutes, felt like eternity. The first two minutes from what I I had my friend beside me. Um and uh originally I I went there for him, as I said before, and I want and he went first, and there was seven other people, you know, five that had to go after me. And uh I wanted him to experience my journey because it was good for him to see what I went through, and he had a beautiful experience. Mine was not beautiful, yeah. Um, it started off beautiful, and then I get thrown against a wall and got like real life, real pain, I got gutted. And I ripped my intenses out, my stomach out, and then these hands went in and grabbed my heart, and when they ripped my heart out, I screamed the loudest scream anyone's ever heard in their life. And then I floated upside of my body and I went back to this most beautiful place. Anyone that's scared of dying, don't be scared because it's a beautiful thing. Whoa. I was floating over my my you know corpse, just looking down, being like, wow, if God takes me today, I'm good with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:16

Do they walk you through what all that means though? Or is that for your own? There's no why. Yeah, oh there's no why take it out and uh you understand it, but you just can't say you there's no way to explain DH.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:26

You cannot explain it to somebody else. It's it's it's impossible. But what that did was like just cleanse me. After that, I was just like, wow, because what like we're all in such a rush. Yeah, I'm guilty of I am the freaking fastest muttering human. No one in my company can keep up with my brain, my body. And you know what, dude? I hate crowds too. And I went, I came home and took my kids to this extreme action park with freaking hoodlums running around everywhere. They have a wand, I can't have my gun on me. I'm like, this is fucking bad, you know. Yeah, and uh I sat there in peace with my kids and just watched them play for like three hours. I was like, dude, this is wild. And my wife was like, what's going on with you? And I'm like, I don't know. Yeah, sat there and like engaged with her, like the first real engagement I think I've ever had.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:14

Wow, yeah, man, that's that's crazy. And for for those who listen, where was the place that you went to?

SPEAKER_02 1:27:19

Uh Ambio, life in Tijuana.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:22

Okay, we'll put that in our in our show notes.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:24

Anyone that wants to DM me and talk about it, you know, I'm I'm gonna wait like another by the time this airs, you know. But uh man, that that five MEO was just like I see you you sit there after, and I sat with my friend on this chair for like 30 minutes after and just cried. And you know, my buddy is a a very, very, very aggressive, quite frankly, scary. And um he cried and he told me he hasn't cried in 25 years. Wow. He hasn't had emotion in 25 years. He hasn't been happy in 25 years. And we both sat there just like holding each other, crying our eyes out. And it was just like amazing. Like I get emotional thinking about it right now. It's just it was the most amazing. Like it really, really was a life-changing uh event for me. And and and for me, I I wanna I want everyone to be as good as they can be, right? I'm not the I'm definitely not a hater. Like, you know, I have friends in the same industry, yeah. And when they have big wins, I like to celebrate it with them, you know. And it was just a life-changing event, highly suggested.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:35

Yeah. So what's next for with that sort of experience and then sort of applying it back to core medical? Like, what's the I know you there's some big stuff?

SPEAKER_02 1:28:44

No such thing as coincidences. I'll tell you that. Yeah, I got back and get a phone call. Um, this will air what in about a month or so?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:51

Yeah, like three weeks, four weeks, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

So I get back and uh I've been working for the last five years aggressively trying to get my foot in the door with the VA um because these veterans are in dire need of hormones. I mean, it it's like the these statistics that I have are incredible, right? So I I ran I've been doing these surveys for the last five years and the stats are all there. And I I spoke at with Ray at at DDS for Vets and Mike Stodard was there, who is the uh he's under Doug Collins. And I'm I got a phone call and I'm gonna be at the VA on the 28th, and uh I'm gonna get a community care contract so veterans won't have to pay for their hormones ever again.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:32

Dude.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:32

Big, big deal. Yeah, it's it's it's my biggest.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:36

It's a big deal, man. That's seven years of of of pounding the pavement. Pounding it and but I also think it goes back like you've you've proven you've shown proof of concept, you've shown what they where they're where their inability to see what like even like what a proper hormone panel is. It's like now, you know, and they're they're they're big wigs and the the good idea fairies at the VI VA, you know, you showing that you've had 1400 people come through your thing, it's helped with there's no suicide. Um sorry, not at all, but beautiful editing.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:13

Um sorry, but that's like having being able to because a lot of people just give up because I get you're never gonna get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:20

Yeah, I mean, we we were Mel turned to me one day because he's been inspirational this as well. He's like, dude, this isn't gonna work out. I'm like, fuck that, we'll do it ourselves. And then it it it happened. And the crazy part is me getting back from that and then getting that phone call was like, man, it's a good thing this didn't happen five years ago. Number one, you weren't ready for it. I dude, within two days, I figured out a way to onboard 5,000 people a week with help of my brother. That's what they're giving. Yeah, wow, and um my brother-in-law's uh a brother Tom Bernthal solved a problem for me immediately. He just invested in a company called Open Loop. They have 26,000 practitioners, they do 50,000 telehealth visits a week. Wow. And uh they white labeled their company for me and gave me all their providers. And I'm gonna be training about 5,000 of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:12

Yep. And they'll be 24-7 around-the-clock telehealth visits. Um, I'm building a customer service division to handle to help the veterans get all their paperwork because it's tough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:22

I built an that's the craziest part because that we get people getting their 100%, which is the which when I found that part, but anyone that needs a hundred percent that doesn't have it, call me.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:31

I have an attorney with a hundred percent success success rate.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:33

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:34

It's Cody's guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:35

I've sent probably 150 people that that moment you have when that was explained to me, I was like, what? Like, I well, I don't have a hundred percent. I'm like, what the fuck is the hundred percent?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:42

Dude, it's it's the difference of thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:45

Yeah. Um and or suicide, because exactly correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:49

And um, so uh you know what's even crazier is is you know, I and then I sit there, I'm like, you know what, we gotta figure out a way to streamline this for all these practitioners. So I built an AI software which is gonna launch uh next week that basically you upload, you do a a questionnaire in the beginning of it, then you upload all the blood work you've ever had in your possession, and then we do a 110-panel poll on you. Um, the company I'm working with is covering 50% of the cost so that I can build VA less, which is the goal, right? A little bit of money for a long time. You don't want to piss those guys off, right? Yeah, and the AI software spits out an entire peptide and TRT protocol for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:32

Based on my past medical history of all my of all my patients, we know we've we've treated over 80,000 people the last 18 years. We're in 47 states, so we have a lot of demographic differences. We have a lot of different walks of life. We have everyone from Fortune 500 CEO to famous actors to you know, you know, first responders. And it's so it's so diversified that we had all the data. So basically, before the instead of the doctor having to do it, it spits it out for them, they review it, and boom, it's done. So we can actually increase uh the bandwidth tremendously through the process we put together. And that all happened. I put that all together in one week after coming back from that trip.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:10

I'm gonna get hype again. Dude, yeah, no, that that that that that is, I mean, and again, it goes back to that this is all without a college education or anything, it's just straight hustle and putting great people around you, which open-mindedness, yeah, not not not being jack of all trades master or nothing. Yeah, it's it's phenomenal. My dad had this quote, he'd always say, Show me your friends and I'll tell you the man that you are. And I have to say to you, man, like I've met a ton of your friends and what you represent and who you are. I mean it, you you have you've done so much good for people, and I don't think you've slowed down to actually like smell the roses. Well, I just did last week. Well, you did, you did, but uh up until till then, but you've helped a lot of people, man, and and you've done it with such humility and uh with the ability to uh um uh see a gap in a marketplace that waiting uh you've done it with a the ability to to to see a gap in the marketplace where guys aren't getting the help that they're needed. You're seeing a place that there wasn't uh community for people, and you did it with a genuine uh your genuine intention. The the the group, I think, of core medical, what I was so blown away by is is not just this place you give hormone change. It's guys that are coming back that have this haven't had this brotherhood, haven't had this foundation, and it's a family, the kids and everybody running around. And um it just what you've done, man. I mean it's it's super commendable. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're you're inspiring so many people, you're giving a uh a home and a brotherhood to so many people that that need it. Uh it's a true honor to call you a friend. Thank you so much. And and and um I'm just great so grateful that uh you came on the show today. Thanks for having me on. I and I hope you gotta come back. I mean, I want to know more. Maybe after I go to on the airport.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:03

Well, you're you're actually the reason why I'm on this podcast tour over the next, you know, I'm I'm going to Chad's and then back to Sean's and Patrick McDavid, and then I'm gonna pull the Joe Rogan card from John. Um, but this will be the first podcast that is talking about the community care contract. So if you're a veteran out there and you are in need of TRT, male or female, we have an entire female division, DM me now, start to follow us, and we'll take you through the entire process, and you'll never pay for your hormones again, hopefully, here shortly.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:32

So yeah, and and it's it's like just from my experience, I've never seen a group of people, a community that is so welcoming, and people that are battered and bruised and hurting and have had those suicidal thoughts, and that there is a community of people at Core Medical that have all been through it, and that the proof is in the pudding of what you're doing there. So I encourage everybody to to to DM you and uh slide into your DMs. Slide in. I slid into yours. You did. You did that's all I get is no dick picks. Um I appreciate it though, man. And I the doors open always open here and so much for having me on. Thank thank you for for inviting me down to your core medical things and anything I always can never do with with your foundation and stuff like that. Um I'm in. So thank you so much. I appreciate it, brother. Thank you. Awesome. Um, well, that's it. Another amazing episode of the AJ Buckley Show. Don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe, all that stuff. Tell a friend, tell your mama. Um appreciate you, brother. Thanks for coming on the show. Until next time, thanks so much.