SPEAKER_06 0:00

Yeah, it's hard because one day you're at home with your family and then you leave and they're still living life, which when you're deployed, all you focus on is the things that are in front of you, right?

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Could you turn that switch like you off on? Like when you're there, you're just focused.

SPEAKER_06 0:16

You have to.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 0:18

When you're deployed for, you know, four months at a time and you hit the ground and you're sprinting for four months until you leave.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

What's up, everybody? I'm sure a lot of you are traveling on your way to whatever beautiful destination it is in this amazing country that we have because July 4th is upon us. We're going to be celebrating 250 years of America. So I thought it would be fitting to have a veteran come on the show just before the 4th of July. Our 4th July episode, so to speak. This gentleman goes by the name of Chris Stroop. He created this amazing company called Stroop Knives. It is one of the biggest knife companies in the country. He has done so much for this country, but more importantly, since he's got back, the company he has built has become a home to veterans who have also come back and are finding their purpose again. Please welcome to the show. Mr. Christian.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Welcome to the AJ, but the show don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Chris, it's it's uh it's great to finally have you on the show. I know last week we uh did a power outage here in South Carolina. You're up in North Carolina. So you did you guys get hit with that storm?

SPEAKER_06 1:51

It was a little windy and dark, but it was never too bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

It's so crazy. The weathermen down here never can get anything right. They they're so vague, they're like, there's gonna be a tropical storm somewhere. And then the schools and everything will shut down, which is awesome and trying it sometimes. But uh it it I I I always crack up with when they give like the when you watch that weather map of the clouds coming in. Because at first I thought that was like a real thing that like that's real cloud, but that's just they're just kind of guessing where it will go, the anticipation of things like if it's green, you're in trouble. And it's then it's over a house. I'm like, it's green, and then it moves in another direction, and it's completely, you know, but God bless the weather, man, because every once in a while they get it right. There's absolutely nothing better after a hard day is putting your face in a pillow and drifting off to Dreamland. I'm telling you right now, there is not a better bed on the market. Six months ago, I got a Split King hybrid luxe, and my life completely changed. For the first time in I don't know how long, I actually could sleep. There's a zero gravity button, there's a massage button, either side of the bed can go up or down. Your wife has their own controls, so there's no bickering. Happy life, happy wife. Good sleep, happy days. Go check out ghostbed.com forward slash buckley. Code word buckley. B-U-C-K-L-E-Y. Sleep is so good, it's supernatural. 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. So I'm really excited to have you on the show. Um, your name has come up so many times amongst other friends. We did meet in Vegas that one time. You had really long hair. I like the new lettuce, it looks good. Your beard game is strong.

SPEAKER_06 4:01

I had so much hair.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Yeah, you did.

SPEAKER_06 4:04

Everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

What was that like cutting it for the first time?

SPEAKER_06 4:06

Oh, I was excited. Yeah, it was annoying. My hair just grows out and up and everywhere. Curly? Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

What's your background, like nationality-wise? German and Polish. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_06 4:17

So I've got really thick hair and so much of it, and there's no way to tame it.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Are you one of those guys that'll never lose hair and just can grow a really good beard? I hope so. Wow, that's that's the I have I can grow a really good beard, but I feel like over the years it just started to thin. And I'm like, man. Mine's just turning gray. Yeah, mine, same too. I got the grays. They would dye it on the show. They would dye my hair black on the show. So, and because Max Terriot and I, uh, which is a big compliment to to me, obviously, because Max played um uh clay, and when we had our nods and and everything on, the studio was like, Oh, uh you guys look too similar. I'm like, fuck yeah, we do. I was like, we need to dye your your hair or your beard darker so people can tell you apart. I'm like, Max is probably like this fucking potato does not look like me. But uh it's crazy, but you know, I I was very excited. I I ran with that for a very long time for many seasons. But um, so before the the military and before um the knives and the family and um all that stuff, where where where were where did you grow up and where did the journey begin?

SPEAKER_06 5:25

Pretty much the opposite of what I'm doing now. I grew up in Sacramento, California.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_06 5:30

So the opposite side of the country, because we're in North Carolina now. It's almost like a direct parallel, like yeah, yeah, in every way possible.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_06 5:39

My mom was scared of me getting hurt with anything. So I she didn't let me play football or do wrestling, or I found my way to skateboarding eventually. And then I just wanted to jump off the biggest, highest, farthest things I could.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:54

Which was really dumb.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

I think with my boys and you with your sons, I'm sure the same thing. It's like I I always say, like, I feel like I'm on suicide watch with my kids, with with boys, because they constantly they don't know they're trying to kill themselves, but they're literally like they just run towards something, or they like grab a uh like a screwdriver and they stick it in like a wall, and you're like, Dad, what's this to? You know, like Ranger once, when I came home from uh I was coming back from the show, and I walk into the kitchen, I was gonna surprise them, and we just put up the lights up um that were in the kitchen upstairs, and they had these two little bars, and they were about four at the time. And Ranger and Bodhi were both trying to, they were convincing each other that we should jump up and swing on the light and swing to the other one. Did you do it first or what? No, I was just like, I was like, I was like, I was listening because I was gonna walk in. I was like, just want to hear what they're saying. And then Ranger's like, you should do it first, Bodie. Swing from that to there. And like it, I'm like, but that's just what boys do, they just push each other to there. So so after um um but high school, you're playing any sports or anything like that, or no, I grew up skateboarding and playing drums. Oh, nice. Yeah, and then from from there, what where were you heading from?

SPEAKER_06 7:09

I started, I worked at Lowe's for a while. Yeah, I get bored with things, I have to be challenged. Yeah, so I worked at Carl's Junior fast food place, Hardy's on this side of the country. Yeah, and they wanted to make me a manager the day I turned 18, and I was like, I'm leaving, you guys are lame. So I got a job at Lowe's, which was kind of cool. Yeah, and then within about a year, I was a department manager. So I was a 19-year-old or so, and I was in charge of all these adults. I don't know why they let me be in charge of anything. Yeah, it was. I worked in the hardware department, so I got to play with all the tools. And before that, I was in lumber, so I got to drive forklifts. And yeah, that's fun. I like driving forklifts.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

Yeah, the the the thing about Lowe's is you don't know who you're gonna get when you go down aisle five. You some you get somebody that really knows where stuff is, and then you'll meet run into somebody who's like, Did I I I really don't even want to be here? And you know, when you're about to say, excuse me, sir, can you help me? Like he'll he has you know he has nothing to do, but he's like, I I'm gonna I'll be right. I'm helping this other customer. I'm like, there's no other customers around, bro. He's just walking around in circles.

SPEAKER_06 8:17

I've got the skill where I can pretend like I'm really good at everything, and so I was really good at helping people solve their problems, even if I had no idea. We're just we'll figure this out as we go, it'll be fine. Yeah, and so it was fun. Lowe's was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

And then when when did you at in your career, when did you head to the military? What year was was that?

SPEAKER_06 8:36

2009. I was 22.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

22.

SPEAKER_06 8:40

Yeah, so I'd already had some experience. I was in after Lowe's, I got bored with that, so I went in and started doing construction. I helped do some room editions and then I did solar panels and a couple other things. It was fun, and I was on the path to a really good career in construction, but it was kind of the same thing, you know. We go to this house, put solar panels on this roof. Okay, tomorrow we go to another house and put solar panels on the roof.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:06

Where where's the challenge? You know, I figured this out. Next thing. So I thought joining the army would be hard.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:13

Like, look, this seems cool. I see them, you know, the TV show, right? Yeah. SEAL team that are like blowing stuff up and doing army stuff all the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:20

So I go to basic training and I'm like, man, these people are lame. Or most people couldn't work in terrible shape, and I'd been working out. My mom worked out my whole life, so I grew up just it was normal. We're just gonna work out. It's what we do.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:34

So I get to basic training, and people are kind of lame. And I was a combo guy, right? So the you know, the RTO that makes all the radio calls on Target and fix all the communication stuff. So a lot of those people are nerds and really out of shape. So I went to AIT, like the school to learn the combo stuff. And it was even worse. Like nobody wanted to be there, nobody wanted to learn anything. Like, man, this is what we're doing. Let's this is cool. Yeah, let's learn our job the best we can because we might have to do this for real. Like, this is disappointing, you know? I just thought everybody was like me.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Where did you get the work ethic from?

SPEAKER_06 10:11

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Just was there.

SPEAKER_06 10:13

Yeah, it just I don't know. I just let's figure it out and do it. Yeah. It's more fun when you're good at things.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

Yeah, that's true. It's amazing though, too. It's like what I I find a common thread with people that have chose to go to the military. Because it's so, you know, in the the little experience that I had with the show, it's it's gotta be something that you you can't be half in, half out. Like you you you you to to get to to be at to be doing anything in life and to be really enjoying it or be want to be the best at it, you have to commit 100%. And it's like the military to me, just as like a civilian, and and getting to see it from you know, the way I got to see it, it is such it's I I really I truly believe this, and I've said this before, it's like I just feel people on this earth are born warriors. Like you just have it's like it's in your blood, like it's just it's just part of something because when I the stuff that I was learning about and stuff like that, I was like, I don't know how in it the most intense situations, how to just stay calm, like and just be able to actively, you know, problem solve, adapt and overcome and do all the things that you're supposed to do within these high stretches. I'd shit my fucking pants. You know, like I would fucking I would fail. Like I'm thank god they wrote a great character for me who wasn't that character, so I was really acting. But uh it really always blew me away just how how the the ability to hit that switch and to stay calm in the chaos. Was that a learned skill for you, or was that something that you just felt natural?

SPEAKER_06 12:02

I've always been a little more laid back and able to be calm, but definitely being around people that that's how you're expected to act. There was one time on one of my last deployments, it was maybe our first week, and we're out doing army crap, yeah, and everything is going wild, and the team leader starts screaming at people, and we get through the thing, and then one of the other guys on the team pulls us all together and we're like, hey, look, that's not how we do things. We're gonna figure this out, we're gonna do it calm, and we're gonna talk to each other, and we'll make it through it, but we're not screaming at each other. Yeah, and this was a lower guy on the team telling everybody a team leader was like, Hey, you're right, I messed that up. So that's the environment. Even when we had people that weren't part of our organization that worked with us, that's how we did things. Yeah, you get through things a lot better when you can all just take a breath, figure out, okay, this is not good. Let's go that way, you know, or whatever the thing is that needs to be next, but what's the next best thing to do?

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, and in in that, and I think just in life in general, just if like you know, you get in in certain people's cars and you're like, this guy is so like someone cuts them off, they're like, you're like, bro, like you adjust, and you know, I've had I've had moments in my life where you just but that ability just to be able to be like, okay, how do we figure this out? You know, the the nowadays I feel like people get so so emotional so quick, and it's everything's led by emotion as opposed to like just figuring it out. Like take a beat, like you said, take a breath and how do we solve this problem? It's really not that difficult when you step back, or if you see somebody losing their shit and you're on the outside, you're like, bro, this guy's this this guy's got a problem.

SPEAKER_06 13:42

Absolutely. So I try real hard to teach that to my kids and all of our employees. Hey, whatever the problem is, let's just sit down and solve this. There's a solution.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah. Within within the military itself and and going there, was there was there a point. I bet you this is Melic. You gotta turn this off. That's not I forgot to turn it off. Sorry. Sorry, my heading is working. Um within the military itself, the thing that I've always been blown away by is that under those stressful situations, the guys that, you know, is like there would just be like regular conversations, like jokes would be being cracked, and like, you know, and again, I I when I one of the first times I was reading my lines and I was yelling, I'm like, well God, they're like, why do you this isn't Rambo, bro? You're just talking into the anything. I'm like, really? And there's like, no, that's just you just are able to, like, the heart rate is brought down, and there's that like adrenaline dump and all of those different experiences that you know, like where they say, you know, the fighters that the UFC they walk out to the ring for the first time and they're under the big lights. And it there's the people that can perform under that pressure and perform at a superstar level, or there's the people that completely shit the bed and can't handle that that that pressure and that sort of an earned it's like the ring rust or whatever that is. And I think that in life in general, too, it's like in business or whatever you do, there's the people that have this ability to while it's chaotic in in any sense of the word, to be able to just steer the ship and be like, oh, we're gonna go this way.

SPEAKER_06 15:41

Where on your journey after the military, getting out of the military was was that one of the toughest things for you and finding purpose again, or so I got med-boarded, medically discharged, however you want to put it, because I messed up both my knees. So I can't run, I can't, you know, do army junk anymore. During that, I also got divorced. I came home from a trip from military work, a whole bunch of them back to back, and figured out that it was time to go. So I grabbed my wet clothes out of the washing machine, put them in a duffel bag, and it was time to go. So I went from having, you know, a stable life with a wife and kids and all the stuff and a job and a purpose to holy crap, I'm living on a friend's couch and I'm gonna be out of the army soon.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

How old were you at this time?

SPEAKER_06 16:34

Mid-30s? So a little not young anymore. So at that point, I'd been making knives just in the garage for a couple years and had no idea. I was in the middle of an army leadership school too, when I was figuring out all these things are happening. So I'm in Georgia. Like, what do I do? Where am I gonna live? What's next? And I'm talking to the army people back at work, trying to coordinate when I'm getting out and how that's all gonna work, and what my disability is gonna look like. And it's just a lot of unknowns, and that's scary. So it's worked out pretty well, so there's a lot between now and then that have happened, but in when you're going through something like a divorce and and that that post-military stuff, all that's all happening at one time for you?

SPEAKER_05 17:29

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

What what was sort of the thing that you think that got got you through that?

SPEAKER_06 17:36

I think the challenge. Yeah, I like a challenge. I'm in a really crappy spot, but I don't want to be.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

You're like, fuck the military. This is a challenge. This is a divorce. It's like, how long were you guys married? 11 years. 11 years?

SPEAKER_06 17:51

Yep. And we've got three boys together.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 17:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Yeah. So it was a lot. And was she with you while you were deployed and stuff?

SPEAKER_06 18:01

Yeah, she was with me pretty much my entire military career.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah. Now, within that, because a lot of a lot of people, and I always talk about this on the show, and what I learned too, it's like when our guys go overseas, and even you know, some women that go overseas, there's so much that people don't understand like what the family is like what what that what's taxing on the family, like just that, like maintaining just the the day-to-day, and how do you you know, you get you know, people are asked so much in the military to do so much, but then the people at home are asked to to do so much. And balancing that dynamic is from my knowledge of just seeing it through the show and hearing stories, it is it seems like one of the hardest uh asks the biggest sacrifice is that part of it because you've signed up to do something that for the country, but yet the journey of that there's things that happen along the way. What what do you what did you find was the biggest struggle for you while you're deployed to maintain that?

SPEAKER_06 19:13

Because one day you're at home with your family and then you leave and they're still living life, which when you're deployed, all you focus on is the things that are in front of you, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Could you turn that switch like you off on, like when you're there, you're just focused?

SPEAKER_06 19:28

You have to.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:30

When you're deployed for you know four months at a time and you hit the ground and you're sprinting for four months until you leave, and that's you have to be focused on what you're doing because you're working generally really long days and you're working every day. So in those four months, you don't get a day off.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:47

You don't, if your family call you're like, you don't just stop what you're doing. Yeah. Even if you're on the base, you're probably prepping to go do something or you're getting ready for a handover or whatever. There's a million things. So you're focused on, you know, I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna eat a meal, and then I'm gonna go to the gym, and then I'm gonna go do today's missions or whatever we're doing, and then we're gonna reset and we'll do it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:08

Or we're gonna go camping across the desert for a week. What do I, all the things? And then there's always so you have to be focused, and you can never, you just have to expect that there's gonna be more. We were out for four or five days one time, and I walked into my room and stood my pants up, you know, because they're so dirty and gross and sweaty. And then I showered, and some guy knocks on the door, and they're like, Hey man, we need you to lead a convoy to go recover this thing that happened. And it's in the middle of the night. Like, all right, I just jumped into my pants that are standing up in the middle of the room, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Your pants are having your cigarette in the corner. Oh, we're going over second.

SPEAKER_06 20:44

Yeah. So then you have to, and then we drove for like 12 hours straight after being up for days, mostly up.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

So it's that's where you have to be focused. It's not always that crazy, but almost the whole time it is. So it's hard to balance, and then you go home and you're here doing all these things, and you forget that they're also at home doing all those things without you. So they've established now a new pattern of life, and they have got their own routines and their own way of doing things, and you have to realize that hey, I can't just come home and smash. Like I can't make it back to the way it was before I left because they've been moving forward just like I have. And you have to figure out how to reintegrate, and that's not easy.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

And that's the thing, too, where I realize it's like it's it's no one's fault in a sense, because it's like you're both figuring this out, you know, and as a dad, you know, I I in my own exploration as a dad the times where I've been like stuck in a way, or or or was afraid, I I would realize that I'm just winging it. And there's other dads that I've that I I'll talk to, and I'm like, they're as freaked out and terrified too, because you know, if there's no book that's written that dad's like. This is how you follow, even if it is, it's their experience, it's nothing like yours. And there's nothing, there's no experience within that that someone can be like, Hey, when you go home, like you know, it's completely different. But like I go to a movie and I'd come back, and my wife has got everything on lock and stuff like that, and then I would just sort of you know come in and you know, again, it's not completely different, but similar, it's the same, you're gone for a long time. But I was wearing focus. I was wearing makeup. I had a spray tan, bro. But you know, but there is that like adjusting of like because there's such a schedule where you're filming, you have a bit pickup and this, and you get back, you're like, okay, well, what are we doing? And it takes a second to to do that. And I I I feel did you feel did you feel in a sense that the the understanding of like they're not they don't understand what what I've been through, or or or vice versa, like your your family, like it was a little getting to know each other again in those those first days back.

SPEAKER_06 23:03

Yeah, especially with little kids. Yeah. Because they're growing and changing so fast, you know? Like, hey, this was a two and a half year old when I left, and now it's a three-year-old, and he's doing all the things that he wasn't when I left, or and then the house is rearranged, and like everything is different. So you have to, it's hard to realize that it's okay, it's different.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:23

Yeah, it's it wasn't easy.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:26

And then the kids are also the same, they're growing and learning and experimenting.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

And boys too. I mean, boys, it's so different between my like what my boys do and how my girl processes. Like, I really got to understand like bo like boys and girls, like that they're just like how they process emotion, how they how they just communicate. Like, boys are just like everything's like, whoa. And Willow is just more internal and more emotional and more wants to talk it out.

SPEAKER_06 23:54

My boys are really calm, but that's how I've kind of taught them the whole way through of everything.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:01

And then we've got a daughter, she's 11 also. Yeah. So I've got a girl going on 16. Yeah, at least. Yeah. I've got an 11-year-old girl, 11-year-old boy. The girl is my wife's from her previous marriage. And then we've got three boys, 11, 13, and 15. My oldest had his wisdom teeth pulled on Monday, all four of them.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Did he do did he get on the stuff that makes him like you always see those YouTube videos where kids are like it was it was kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah. I video I videotaped my kids on it and like have it for like later on when they get married. It's gonna be awesome. He just kept asking me how he got here.

SPEAKER_06 24:35

We're in the truck driving. And he's like, We were in the dentist, and now we're in the truck. Where are we, Dad? Yeah, what are we and his mouth is full of goss. He's like, rah, rah, rah. And I'm like, what are you saying? Yeah. We had a 45-minute drive home of me trying to figure out what and then he'd point to something and he's like, Why is there two screens now? I'm like, no, it's just one still.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

He's like, This is fun. So through that, through getting through that divorce and sort of going out on your own, was it once that door was sort of shut on that chapter? Did you feel like, all right, now I've got to like what was your next sort of move from there? Because you're you've just re-entered, you've been medically retired. So, in a sense, you you would have, if it wasn't for your injury, you would have still stayed in?

SPEAKER_06 25:21

Yeah, definitely. I loved what I did. Yeah. I loved the people, I loved all of it.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Was that a frustrating thing to get like the call that like you can't?

SPEAKER_06 25:29

Yeah, I was I remember sitting in, you know, the doc's office and we had MRIs, because I was deployed and my knee was not good, and the doctor would be out to our base sometimes, and he's like, Look, man, we've done everything we can. There's something wrong with this thing. What exactly was I have a in this one? I have a hole in the cartilage, about like the size of a quarter.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Whoa.

SPEAKER_06 25:51

Yeah, it's giant. They said it would have been from some kind of traumatic impact, but I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:56

And then I have a chronically torn meniscus in the left one. So it's kind of dead all around where the tear is, so they can't repair it. So they're both. They could have taken like part of my butt cheek or something back there and put it in my knee. You're gonna put your butt in your knee? It's something weird, huh? That sounds awesome. Or can have her butt. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I could have some other guy in me.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

That sounded weird.

SPEAKER_06 26:20

Not on purpose at all. But they said it's like repairing a pothole. Like it's gonna come out eventually, and it was a year recovery. Like, you tell me I gotta sit in a chair for a year. So it was the choice of I could probably limp through the rest of my army career. And you were in a lot of pain then, too, yeah. Oh, it was terrible. Yeah, it was miserable.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:42

Um, so I could either do that, fill the pothole, which is like a band-aid, a really painful band-aid for a lot of time, and I could probably make it to 20 years and do the things. But then I'm gonna be useless. Yeah. Like you're gonna be in so much pain, and then every five years you have to have a surgery that takes a year to recover from. Yeah. That sounds stupid. You're like, or you just go with what you got, we'll do a whole bunch of physical therapy and treat it the best we can, and you'll be mostly functional, and you'll probably still be functional about the same level when you're 80 or whatever. I was like, I'd rather do that because I want to be able to play with my grandkids.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

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SPEAKER_06 27:59

The military is really cool and I love it, but there's more to life than just this military thing for the next five or ten years. So I tried to look at the long picture. It was that was one of the hardest choices I ever made.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

I mean, if you think that's I mean, wow, that's a that's intense. So medically discharged early, going through divorce, and then just transitioning back into usually it's like one or the other one at a time. You just decide like, let's just get it over with now. Let's just do it all of it. Yeah. Why exactly? It's like getting the surgery. I don't want you to like to drag this out every year. Let's just do it all. Put it on the plate. I'll totally stay calm and we'll push through it.

SPEAKER_06 28:35

Yeah. That last trip that I came home from when I moved out, it was six weeks in Florida to do physical therapy. It was like the coolest thing in the world, too. In this fancy gym, and there's athletes professional, NFL and college athletes training around us.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Were you running in that water thing, that water treadmill? Yeah. That thing's awesome. That's hard. It's really hard.

SPEAKER_06 28:54

But it gives you that, it allows the they can change the depth of it too, and all the cameras and then like you can't pee in the water though.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

That's the too late. Did you pee in the water? Oh, but I don't know. Like you like, you tell the guy like you gotta use this one. This one's the best. Water's really warm. Water really warm. Kind of yellow, but smells like asparagus. I didn't have it last night. I don't know who did. No, um, yeah, it's a it's it's it's crazy how when the body just decides, like, you know. And I it's it's also too though, it's like, is it the body or is it some sort of divine intervention in some sort of way that's saying, hey, you know, I want to take you on a different journey.

SPEAKER_06 29:34

And mind, your mind. It's like, hey, probably time for a change.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Yeah, like going back to what you said, like you're like, all right, you know, that constant sort of pattern of like, oh wait, let's let's go explore something else.

SPEAKER_06 29:46

I was gone at least half of the 11 years I was in the army.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:50

Kind of more, probably more than half, probably 60%. So my kids growing up, it was mostly without me.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

So what age were they when you got out?

SPEAKER_06 30:00

I got out, I think I got out in 2020 or 2021. 2020.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

So pre-just as just as COVID was having.

SPEAKER_06 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Oh fuck.

SPEAKER_06 30:10

Yeah, so I got no man. When I got out the day I finally signed my leaf form and stuff, it was probably 7:30 in the morning. And I walked straight into human resources, you know, and I signed my leaf form, and then I thought I'd get to go and say bye to people. He's like, all right, cool, give me your badge. Like, oh, oh shit. So I gave him my badge and got escorted out of the building. Yeah, that was that was my getting out of the army. That there was no like I got no ceremony. I got to say I didn't get to say bye to anybody. Why? Because I that's just the process. Once you sign your leave form, you don't work there anymore. So you turn your badge in and now you don't work there.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

I mean, at least buy you a beer or something.

SPEAKER_06 30:52

I got my getting out of the army award in a dollar general parking lot. I made a knife for my plaque. I still don't have it.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Are you serious?

SPEAKER_06 31:04

Like it's it's in the mail. People tell me about it. They're like, oh dude, I saw the plaque with your name on it. It looks really cool. Where is it? It's still at work.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

They don't want to send it.

SPEAKER_06 31:14

I don't know. Every now and then they're like, oh, I'm gonna bring it to you. I need to come see your shop anyways, and then that's that is bananas.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

So did you did you I always with the the guys that came on the show? What was great about our show, I felt, is they became storytellers. They they f they found a tribe. They they were like, oh, the I can transition from what my skill set was in the military to the movies. And a lot of people that have had success in the military for some reason are great storytellers. And they were able to transition. Also, too, I think it would always crack me up when guy even like guys like Tyler, you know, they when they were get a chance to direct, they were so calm because they were just used to like they're like, this isn't stress, like we're this is totally good. So the ability to communicate as director, you're in charge of like 300 people. So you had these these guys, you know, um and all these, you know, uh guys that were at a really high level that came to our show and just found sort of a new chapter. And some guys, when they came, you could tell they were lost, like they were they didn't know what was going on. And when they found it and it clicked for them, it was like this like light came back into them, like, oh, I know where I'm gonna go. Was was there fear in you that because you had such a kick-ass job and a dream job in a sense, you didn't want to leave that. How am I ever gonna find that that passion again?

SPEAKER_06 32:45

So I so I did an internship with the real estate company for the last six months when I was in the army. I had a really great leadership team, and I found this internship that I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 32:55

And I asked about it, and they were like, Absolutely. Do you want to start tomorrow? Basically. You've taken care of the army for the last 11 years, now we're gonna take care of you. Like, holy crap. So I'd interned at this real estate company, and it was a lot of veterans, veteran ran, and they worked with mostly investors. So I'd help find these distressed properties and an investor. And then like a week after I got out of the army, they put me in charge of the real estate team. So I'd been a real estate agent for a couple months.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:29

And now I'm in charge of all these experienced real estate agents. Again, I'm good at pretending like I know what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Dude, like Carl Jr., they were gonna make you a crew chief. What was it? It was Carl Jr. you said you were gonna do, and then he like it's like Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:43

So I'm still learning, and now I've got all these people I'm in charge of mentoring and teaching them. I'm like, hold on, let me how do I do this? Why do you why do you think that is? I I think it just goes down to caring. I want to do well.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:00

There was, and at one point I had like 15 houses under contract.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 34:05

There's new real estate agents that won't sell one or two houses in first year. That's a big deal. And that's at once.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Well, you're like, you're like uh like Skywalker. You're not the droids we're looking for. You will buy this house.

SPEAKER_06 34:17

I don't know. I just found a whole bunch of investors that wanted things, and then I would find really good deals for them and I would do all the legwork. Yeah, hey, I've got a contractor, he said it's gonna cost this much. Here's how much all of these things are gonna cost, how long it should take, and how much you can rent it or sell it for. And then if it made sense, they would buy it. Like oh, this is makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Yeah. And how long were you at that for?

SPEAKER_06 34:41

Probably a year total.

unknown 34:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:43

But as the real estate thing was growing, it was super stressful.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:46

Like it never ends. Hey, this house pops up, you have to go right now to look at it, and then you have to put in the offer, and then everybody's stressed about everything. And you're like, it's not that big of a deal, man. Chill out.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 34:56

You don't need to call and scream at me at nine o'clock on Saturday. If there's nothing I could do about it on the weekend, I promise.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:02

Chill out.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Do we would it crack you up how or not crack you up, but like perspective of like what people who haven't been who haven't served and what they freak out about with the little things that irritate them compared to what you know.

SPEAKER_06 35:18

Really compare things like that.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:20

I don't know. I try and just focus on what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Fair enough, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:23

But it's like, what you know, the air conditioner doesn't work. Okay, cool. What am I gonna do about it on a Saturday night?

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:28

You're flipping this property. Like, yeah, come on, man, we could do this next week. I find those people will just be upset about it. They're just they freak out about it.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

No matter what.

SPEAKER_06 35:37

I had there was one client, and she was the hugest pain in my butt, and she's the one of the main reasons I got out of real estate. And she would call and just berape me. I'm like, would you call your doctor and do this? Because I'm a real estate professional. Is this how you would talk to your doctor that's trying to help you with something? Because I'm trying to help you, and you're doing dumb things that are gonna get you sued.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:58

And you're involving me, and I have want no part in this. And eventually I yelled at her one night. I was like, This is too much. You're not gonna talk to me like this anymore. Did she stop? Uh they I was able to pawn her off on somebody else.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

I was like, this is like, buddy, I got the best client for you. She is awesome. She's totally calm. She was a nightmare. Yeah. There's some people that just live in chaos, and and this, and we've I'm sure we've all had those people that just constantly it's like they cannot fun when it's and I there's friends of mine that I've had to distance myself from, but it's like unless it's completely like nuts, they don't feel good. Like they have to it has to be nuts all the time in some sort of way. I've had employees like that, they don't last long. Yeah, it's a it's an it's an odd thing how that that it is, and like even I've had girlfriends like that too, where it's like they're just there always has to be a fight. There always had to I think I met my wife who's just the complete opposite, you know, and you learn a lot from people that are like, no, it's not it's not like that. Like you don't have to, you know, you're like, oh you're right, like what am I freaking out about? You don't have to do that. Yeah. So how did from from then the real estate thing were you like, hey, I'm I'm done with this, and then you got into the So the real estate firm that I was in kind of imploded.

SPEAKER_06 37:22

The lady tried to start another branch and didn't manage any of it, and it kind of fell apart. And then I went and started working at another firm with a guy I really liked, but our knife company was growing. We probably had three employees at the time, and I was not able to keep up with both things at the same time. So we decided the guy running the real estate company was that one that's actually like, dude, you should just make knives.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 37:46

I think that's gonna be a lot more fun.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

What were what were some of the big first big challenges that you went through with the knife company that you're like, ooh, I don't know if this is if I'm making the right decision? Because it's I mean it's it's like I've your knives are insane. And it's it's such an art form in a sense. Like it's not like you're you're you know, you're making kitchen knives, you know, at at the you know, for bed bath and beyond. You know, like you're making these these are art pieces. So we brought you a knife.

SPEAKER_06 38:17

I did.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

No way.

SPEAKER_06 38:18

No way, really. Wrapping myself up in this court. Here you go. Look at the other side.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Oh, dude, are you serious, man?

SPEAKER_06 38:27

No.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Oh man, this is so cool.

SPEAKER_06 38:31

So we made you a knife. That's that's Justin Melnick's favorite model, so we went with that one.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

Oh, it says born of this bro. Dude, thank you so much. Yeah.

unknown 38:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

I'll give you a hug after.

SPEAKER_06 38:41

Yeah, and here's the sheath for it.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Oh my gosh, dude, this is man, this means so much.

SPEAKER_06 38:47

Yeah, so that's what we do. I like sharing what we do with people.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

Dude, thank you so so much, man. This you have no idea how much this means. I'm dude, I really that thank you.

SPEAKER_06 38:57

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

This is so cool.

SPEAKER_06 38:59

Happy to do it. When you put it in the sheath, just push kind of hard, it'll click in. You'll hear a click.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

Oh, dude. I already have this everywhere with me. I'm taking my kids camping together.

SPEAKER_06 39:11

I'll show you how to use the belt clip after. It's easy, but it's kind of tricky.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Dude, thank you, man. Yeah, happy to do it. I love it. Um that's so awesome. Um, so like what so when you're man, I'm so pumped about that. Um when you're when you decide like, hey, I'm gonna go, I'm all in and making knives. I'm not doing the real estate. Um I've been through the divorce. I'm like, this is my path. Was it something that you were like this is for the first time I found it? Like, is it like there's everything else is like so it's hard charging and doing all this sort of stuff. This is like so still in a sense, like to to make these, there's such a stillness in this art form that you have. Like, it's the polar opposite of everything else that you've been doing, in a sense, right? Like, how is it that you're like, I love this? This is this is what I I have, this is what I want to commit to, this is the company I want to build out that just seems so different than everything else.

SPEAKER_06 40:13

I think a lot of it's not even the knife making itself, it's the whole our whole business. Because we find a lot of veterans that are lost. And selfishly I get to hire them and have friends to hang out with.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:26

So we're kind of building our own community of of purpose, a place where we all belong. So the knives are cool, and the knives are absolutely, you know, the business. But the more important part is that I get to hire people to make knives with me.

SPEAKER_03 40:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:40

So people that are, an example, John is our shop foreman now. He did his internship with us. So his last six months of retiring from the army after 20 years, he was just an intern doing, you know, basic things in the shop. Clean this, learn how to do that. We just teach the interns the basic things, and then we find somewhere they're good and we put them there. And then if they're staying local, we normally hire them. So he was on the fence. He's like, Man, I did 20 years in the army now. I just want to chill. Right, hey, cool, we're here. You know, let us know what you want to do. So he worked for us for a little while, and he's like, you know, I'm just gonna take some time off and do nothing. Like, all right, we'll see you soon, I'm sure. And he came back after a while, and he's like, I need something to do, man. I have to have a purpose.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 41:26

So now he's our shop foreman and he runs the circus and he's in charge of the people and production. And he's like, after I went to SHOT Show and saw what this is to the world, it is the coolest thing in the world. And now he loves coming to work. So that's what we're building is a place that people love coming to work. And we work with a lot of nonprofits and just do a lot of cool things in the entire community because of the knives that we make.

SPEAKER_02 41:51

Did you in the finding few people's purpose, and then was there a light that went off for you that was like, I I know where these guys, where they're hurting, I know how to, I know how to approach them, or I know how to without without being super vocal about it, but like but just being like, I know how to communicate and talk to them in a way that like this is a place that you can use your talents, or you can come and and find that that fire again, find that that community. Because I feel like it is, and correct me if I'm wrong, like when you're in, like you've got a community, like you have people with you every day. You're doing a mission, there's there's absolutely you're getting up and you're getting after it. And then when you're out, it's like it's gone.

SPEAKER_06 42:38

They're still on the train going a thousand miles that way, and you're off of it.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Yeah. So it's can you see those guys? Can you know do you know what's happening to them when they're going through that?

SPEAKER_06 42:47

The guys that work for us?

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Yeah, like when you first meet them, you can see it right away.

SPEAKER_06 42:51

I can now. We didn't, I didn't do this on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

I didn't set out to that's the crazy part though. It's like not doing it on purpose, but then it's part of your purpose now. It's like Yeah. You recognize something that you've been through and could identify with that, and then just being the man that you are been like, hey, I'm gonna this is gonna be part of the community I'm building. But what was that singular thing that you could you could you were just able to recognize what the men were going through?

SPEAKER_06 43:17

So during COVID, when it was at its worst, we had a few employees, and my wife got COVID, and our house is right next to our shop. So we shut the shop down for you know the two-week quarantine period, and my wife was locked in the bedroom, and I was in the living room sleeping on a mattress, and the kids were somewhere else for those couple weeks. And that was also when the whole Afghanistan withdrawal thing was going on, and I had a bunch of friends over there. So it was kind of like all these big stressors, and I had a really hard time seeing my buddies over there, and I'd gotten out not too long before that was happening. I was like, man, that's that's I would be with those dudes doing the thing over there right now, but I'm not, I'm at home doing nothing, it seems like. Was that a helpless feeling? It sucked, man. Yeah. Like seeing all your buddies. Because I had they were supposed to come over for dinner and then they were gone. I was like, what the hell? They just flaked on me, and I'm like, oh, I know where they are.

SPEAKER_01 44:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:12

So it's it's it's hard being at home and your buddies are still out there doing it. And it took me a while to realize like that's not what I'm doing anymore. There's nothing I can do about it. So try not to focus on that. But I think that was a big like, hey, I need I need a purpose. We gotta figure this out. So that's when we really started during that and after it, growing the company, hiring is pretty much any veteran we find that needs a home, we try and hire them. As long as we can afford it and make it work, which generally we can.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

What was the first night knife that you made that you're like, oh this is this is this is badass, besides my one.

SPEAKER_06 44:52

So I made a first knife was completely by hand with hand files. Me and my oldest, I think he was seven. We made this little fixture in the garage, and it was literally just dragging a file on a piece of metal.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:04

And it took seven million thousand years, and it was kind of fun, but it kind of sucked. And then we bought a $40 or so grinder at Harbor Freight, this little underpowered just piece of crap, and you're just sitting there like forever, you know?

SPEAKER_01 45:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:19

And it it was fun. And the third knife I ever made, I took to work, and it was the first sheath I made. And I showed the guys the sheath, and they're like, dude, this knife is really cool. Where'd you buy it? Like, ah, I made it. Suckers. Like, whoa, people actually think the knife is cool too.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:36

And it was still pretty basic, you know, it was a knife-shaped thing. It was kind of sharp. And then as fast as we could make them, mostly me, but my kid helped kids helped a little bit, people would buy them out of the team room. I would just make knives and carry them in, and then I'd go on deployment and come home with a million orders and try and make them all. So it was just this crazy holy cow, I'm just kind of winging this. And then I was supporting a thing at work, and I was able to bring my knife making stuff. So when I wasn't helping with the thing we were doing, I was out in the shop, which was kind of where they repaired the vehicles and did some other things. And I had got to bring my knife grinder. So I'm making knives, and people were so interested in everything I was doing. Like, holy cow, this is really cool. There's there's something to this.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Do you ever geek out on on like what they used way back, like you know, like with William Wallace and all these guys, like with the just the weapons and how they the tools that they would have used to make these same insane swords and weapons, these massive you know, pieces of metal to run into a field and you know get a killed. Do you ever do you ever lose your mind on that when you see that stuff? Uh um on how that process is compared to like how it's changed.

SPEAKER_06 46:57

Obviously, they're the pieces are a lot bigger, but no, but I couldn't even imagine making that now with all of our resources.

SPEAKER_02 47:03

So that's that's a crazy. I I got to see William Wallace's sword, and it was the thing did not look light.

SPEAKER_06 47:12

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. And they have to be durable because you're staking and you're hitting body armor.

SPEAKER_02 47:17

Oh, yeah. And you're and you're running and swinging it for how like just in insane, you know. Um, and then there's also then like with the samurai and like their stuff, like yeah, um, just some of that stuff. I always see them on like National Geographic or one of the shows where they like have to pull it out and they chop that like giant rope or whatever.

SPEAKER_06 47:36

Yeah, the big pieces of bamboo, too.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Oh yeah. And it's supposed to be like one strike where it goes in. Like, what does it take to what what is what are those the the those swords called?

SPEAKER_06 47:46

Katana.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Katana.

SPEAKER_06 47:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

So the the craftsmanship that goes into that, what is that process? It just like a whole that's a lot.

SPEAKER_06 47:54

There's a lot that goes into those. That's kind of the opposite of what we do. So in knife making, there's you know, really expensive high-end handmade knives, and then there's factory, you know, think benchmade, Gerber, big, huge machines everywhere. And to me, those don't have a soul in them.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:11

And we're in the middle. We I haven't found another company that's doing what we do because we make a lot of knives.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:19

But we do it almost all by hand. So I've got people standing at grinders grinding knives all day, and they're shaping the handles. We see and see out the handle, like if you look at the handle scales, yeah, they're contoured like 3D, the little ups and downs. That's done on a CNC machine, but we make them oversized because it's bigger than the knife itself, and then we shape everything by hand around the edges, and then we round over everything.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

This is so badass, bro.

SPEAKER_06 48:46

And then we make the sheath by hand and we do all the sharpening. So it's a lot of people making it. So it's people's input with their hands, you know, and their craftsmanship that goes into that.

SPEAKER_02 48:57

Was there a mentor or anybody in this thing, or was this your own journey?

SPEAKER_06 49:01

Yeah, so when I first started making knives, this guy named Darren Saroyce with TCT knives, I don't know how much knife making he does these days, but he started working right down the hall from me. And he was an amazing resource to be able to just bring him a thing and say, hey, this is what I wanted it to do, but this is what it did. How do I make it do what I want it to do? Or what piece of equipment can I buy to make this step faster? Or where do I get abrasives from? Or there's so many things that go into all the details of a knife, and he kind of helped guide me through all that. How do you find customers? What do you Instagram is something I've never even been on? What do I do with it?

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Yeah.

unknown 49:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:41

How do I build a this thing?

SPEAKER_02 49:43

How do I take a selfie?

SPEAKER_06 49:45

Yeah. Because for years in the army, we were. If there's a camera, you look the other way.

SPEAKER_02 49:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 49:51

Nobody needs to know that I was in this place at this time.

SPEAKER_02 49:54

Unless you're just Dustin Melnick.

SPEAKER_06 49:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Where's the camera? Wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_06 50:00

So for a long time it was, if there's a camera, I'm looking at, you know, everybody's kind of walking a different way, sunglasses, hat. So it's it took a bunch of people to help me realize that that's not what I need to do anymore.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:13

I need to be the one in the camera talking on the microphone with the lights and all the crap.

SPEAKER_01 50:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:18

Which still isn't natural to me. It's still weird.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

In a sense of just being sort of the face of the company, or just like I'm an introvert. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:30

A million percent. So if I'm at a public gathering, I'm playing with the dog, yeah, I'm holding somebody's kid, I'm helping make the food, I'm doing something in the background. I'm there.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:42

But like, I'm not in the middle of it. I'm off to the edge.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:45

And the more our company grows, the harder that is to do because now I go places and people know me. Yeah. Hey man, how's the blah blah blah? Or you know, it's so cool to see what you guys did with the boys on that one thing.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

Yeah. But it's like everything I feel like that you've been put put through, like it's everything's a challenge to you. Like, I gotta get good at this.

SPEAKER_06 51:03

Yes, exactly. Like I wanna the first podcast I ever did, I was like nervous as shit, you know, like oh man, what do I say? I'm like, now you just sit here and talk to people. I know how to do that.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Yeah. It is it is a crazy thing. Like, even when I look back to like the first podcast I ever did, and and then just it's figuring out the rhythm of the other person and and finding that journey. Even like just doing a podcast, it's like, why is anybody gonna like who wants to listen to what I have to say? But it's like, no, you're listening, it's listening to the other person, and it's finding those things that are curious about. But I I do love you know, sort of uh hearing this sort of pattern that you put yourself in, you're always putting yourself in these places where you're uncomfortable and trying to work the problem and like figure it out and how to get good at this. Yeah, it's fun. Doesn't ever until it's perfect, until it's sharp, you're constantly grinding at it and working at it until like what's the piece look like when it starts?

SPEAKER_06 51:59

It's knife-shaped. Yeah. We get them water jet cut, so they squirt water and abrasive, so it's big.

SPEAKER_02 52:05

That's crazy. I saw that live once. The water cutting through that's insane.

SPEAKER_06 52:10

Yeah, now they have lasers that do it too.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

Really?

SPEAKER_06 52:12

Just a laser beam that goes and it goes really fast. It takes like eight seconds to cut.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

See, that's what I feel like. That's what I feel like the aliens are gonna have is like some fucking they'll just like be able to.

SPEAKER_06 52:22

But it's probably gonna be way way more advanced than we ever thought, right? Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 52:26

There'll be no smoke.

unknown 52:27

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 52:28

You can't even see it. It's not even a red beam. It's just no, you your dick falls off.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

The guy next to you has no foot, except then you're like Well, it's totally cool. It's just no bleeding. No, it's um it it is uh it's a it's an art form within itself, but with within that and with your kids, and this is something that you guys do daily, because you I remember you you were saying to me that you homeschool your kids.

SPEAKER_06 52:53

Yeah, yeah. We've two years now.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

How's that been?

SPEAKER_06 52:57

It was rough at first. Yeah, it was because we're figuring it out, you know, we're winging it. Like, what what are we doing? And then we realized, what are we doing? We're doing whatever we want. Yeah, this is our this is our game, you know? Yeah, like we could do whatever we want. The rules for homeschooling are pretty loose. We have they have to learn things, yeah. And that's it. So they have an online program they follow, and it takes them anywhere between 30 minutes and three hours every day. And they just get up in the morning, hang out, eat breakfast, and then at 8 a.m. they do school on the couch together.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

That's great.

SPEAKER_06 53:31

They just put their headphones on, their laptop in their lap, and they're comfortable in their pajamas still. When they're done, they have to do music every day.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:39

So every day they gotta do music for at least 20 minutes. We've got a giant drum set that we've got about six months ago. I've played drums all my life.

SPEAKER_02 53:47

I played the djembe. That's the one in the back place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:49

Heck yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

Jembe and Timbale's were my jam, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:54

I've always wanted a giant double bass drum set.

SPEAKER_02 53:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:57

And I was watching Facebook Marketplace for probably a year.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

That's my crack right there. Facebook Marketplace. Are you kidding me? So yeah, like I end up having 45-minute poops because I mean they're like, whoa, whoa, this is this. I'm always looking at jet boats and go-karts.

SPEAKER_06 54:10

It's like I look at home gym stuff and drum stuff.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

Yeah, home gyms as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:15

Oh, yeah.

unknown 54:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:16

But we got the drum set, two of the boys play it, and then the girl plays the keyboard. So we've got a keyboard in the garage, and then we've got a bass. My middle.

SPEAKER_02 54:26

Are you guys turning up like are you gonna have like a family band?

SPEAKER_06 54:28

Death metal, yeah. I'm hoping. Oh yeah. Yeah. We went to a metal show in Charlotte.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

No way.

SPEAKER_06 54:38

Maybe a month ago. Yeah. A band called Body Snatcher. Oh, yeah. My buddy Kyle's the lead singer.

SPEAKER_02 54:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:44

So we went and hung out with him before the show, and then my kids are young, right? Did they go on the mosh fit? Absolutely. Absolutely. And this, I mean, this was like a rowdy like metal, you know?

SPEAKER_01 54:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 54:58

And they're crowd surfing. My 11-year-old is crowd surfing.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_06 55:02

My kids are crazy. Yeah. Like, but I was right there with them, you know?

unknown 55:06

Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_06 55:07

And Kyle, the lead singer, in the middle of one of the songs, shouted us out. He's like, hey, I just want to thank Chris Stroop and his kids for being here. And my kids are the only ones there. So everybody looks at my kids and they're like, Holy crap, you guys know him? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

It was the coolest thing in the world. Do you have moments in that where you're like, I'm supposed to be exactly where I am right now? Like when you get to spend that, when you get to see your kids on the couch doing school or go to a mosh pit, or you're at home and you're working the knife with your son, you're teaching him a skill. Do you have a sort of moment where you sit back and you're like, you're like, wow, thank God, like I'm I'm here and I'm thank God for my knee here. Thank God for it's it's pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_06 55:51

Yeah. Just to I think I really realize it when my kids say something like the other day I was taking my son to get his wisdom teeth out, and he was talking about how maybe one day he'll join the military. Well, hey, that's an option. You know, I've you can talk to all the people that we know that are involved in that and make a choice. He's like, it's so hard because you have putting all these opportunities in front of me, and I can literally do anything.

SPEAKER_01 56:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:13

Holy crap.

unknown 56:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:15

He he realizes all the hard work I'm doing to set him up for his life. And it's just crazy that he's 15 and he realizes that the world is his because of the things that I've done to help him.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:27

Like, holy crap, that's cool. Yeah, it's seeing them just how they interact with people and what they're just the nicest, most helpful, but they'll beat you up. They'll outshoot you.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:39

They will go to shooting matches and they'll outshoot special forces guys and cops. My 11-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

That's a proud moment right there.

SPEAKER_06 56:45

Holy crap.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:47

Yeah. I'm like, this is my life.

SPEAKER_02 56:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:50

Like we make knives, we listen to heavy metal, play music, do jujitsu, and shoot guns.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

What was that? What was that movie that uh Eric Banna did, and it was the young girl uh that he trained. And she was like a kid that was like this uh oh man, what was it? Like Cyrus Ronin was the girl you know what I'm talking about, Sean?

unknown 57:08

Eric.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

Eric Bana and the girl. The actress was Cyrus Ronan. It's awesome. But it's basically like he raises this girl to just like be to understand the world. And I think something happens to him and she she be just like this savage. And uh um do you have it there? Sean's our Jamie. You can be like, bam. Um but I mean i in a sense it's like you always have those for me as a dad, like I I didn't really cry before I had kids. Are you talking about Hannah? Hannah Hannah. Yeah. Have you seen any Hannah? I haven't. You gotta watch it though. Watch it with your kids. Yeah. Yeah, you guys be like, uh, it's it's pretty awesome. Because I watched it with my daughter. My daughter was doing jujitsu for a long time, and uh um she she had to choose between lacrosse and volleyball. She was doing lacrosse, volleyball, and jujitsu. Oh, yeah. And it was just a lot. Um so she stuck with uh lacrosse and volleyball. But my boys do jujitsu. Yeah, and it's uh there's such a a stillness to that as well. It's like, you know, get again, it it kind of falls into your whole journey of like in that chaos of everything, staying calm.

SPEAKER_06 58:26

Jiu-jitsu is we found it maybe a year and a half ago, kind of in a roundabout way. My buddy who I met through real estate was like, hey, my daughter, who his daughter's a savage. Yeah, the sweetest little girl, but man, she wrecks people.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 58:40

And he asked me to sponsor one of their events they were having. I didn't, of course, whatever, just send me the, you know, how do I pay? That's fine. We'll sponsor it happily. And then he invited us to it, and we watched it, and it's just chaos. Like the gym we train at, it's decent size, you know, and there's probably four different mats where people are going at it, and it's mostly little kids, and it's just savages everywhere, and it's chaos, and it's loud, and just yeah, the it's not an established, you know, like they start here, but then they move, and they can move, and the crowd moves with it, and everybody's cheering. Like, dude, this is the coolest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01 59:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:17

So, because of this random thing that my friend asked me to sponsor, a few weeks later, we went and did a trial class, which was a Monday, and Mondays at our gym. Did you train martial arts at all? Like in the army, we did combatives, but nothing like this.

SPEAKER_02 59:32

It's a beautiful sport.

SPEAKER_06 59:33

Yeah, combatives is like the basic level, like just to get it done. Yeah, it's like there's a couple positions in jujitsu, it's a million times more than that.

SPEAKER_02 59:44

It's a chess match, it's like this beautiful chess match.

SPEAKER_06 59:47

Setting traps and doing all these different things, and staying calm when you have a 230-pound dude on top of you, sweating into your mouth. Oh, yeah, yeah, don't you love that? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

Just give me that sweat.

SPEAKER_06 59:58

Yeah, but our first class, my body, I was my back was so messed up, and I it was rough. Like pick up your partner and drive, and all these crazy things. And the lights are low, and there's loud music. You know, it's just crazy. And I hurt my back. Yeah, so then I didn't do it for a while. And there's a chiropractor that trains there, and I started seeing Corey, and he helped me. And now my body feels better than it ever has. I still can't run, and I know what I can and can't do. Yeah, but jujitsu is hilarious, man. Yeah, there I was training with this girl the other night, and she's rowdy, she's still kind of new, and she's got way more energy than me, and just way more go, go, go, and she's almost my size. And I had her face down, like her arms were stuck under her belly, yeah. And she couldn't move. I was, you know, kind of gentle because I'm bigger than her by a little bit. And I went to smother her, which is when you cover their nose and mouth, and I just touched it and then let go. And I laughed, and I was like, I wouldn't actually do that to you. And she's like, Yeah, because you can't. It's like, oh I and her arms are pinned under her body, her leg, like she is completely stuck. So I just grab her nose and mouth, and she's like, All right, you win, you can actually do it. I'm like, it's just the funniest thing in the world to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:12

Yeah, there's there's with my boys, what uh what the when they had their very first competition, what I was blown away by, and and their coaches, they go to Gracie Baja, and uh um when they were training for the tournament, they wanted it to be really loud because they want my sons to be able to listen to what the coach is saying.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:35

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:36

And I was like, man, that is the coolest skill to learn in at such a young age to hear all this, the adrenaline been going. And like we went out there and I like I was I was freaking out. Like, because I never like I did marsh a little martial arts when I was younger and I had tournaments, but it wasn't like this. This was like it was part of the um what's the uh it's the uh not the Abu Dhabi, but the it's the tour that they maybe uh ADCC. Yeah, so what was one of those ones? One of our the instructors, yeah, uh Enrique, he he ran that. Um he was so he got it to come to Charleston. So it was a big event. So people flew in from all over the country to be a part of it. And you had some badasses. And no joke, the the who's like the second match, the kid, one of the guys, this little Brazilian kid, threw did a flying armbar on my kid like out of the gates. And I was like, okay, there are levels to this game. It was like, and then I was like, and then my son had my my other son had made it uh he won his match, so he was facing him in the finals, and I was like, You gotta avenge your brother. You mind your brother, and he's like, Okay, I'll go do it. He goes up there and does the same thing again. I'm like, all right, whatever. But it was just like this humbly thing, and my boys just to see them, they were so terrified that moment of walking out in the mat, and then to see their face after, and they they placed third, second and third. And um it was just a really like proud moment, but I remember their coach training for that moment of find my voice, listen to my voice, and it I saw it happen in the match when he was telling to like how he was moving, like to Broko put his guard up, and like, and he I saw my son look and it clicked. He like turned and saw his coach, and then I could see him like go. Okay, and for that like three or four seconds, he was like connected to something that is a really tough skill to do. That as a man, like in that thing, just trying to find the voice in that was impossible, but it's all about just staying calm, which is such a great life skill in general.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:44

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:45

And your boys are competing?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:47

Oh, yeah, they love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:48

They're addicted.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:49

Oh, yeah. I can't compete because my knee a lot of jujitsu is like attacking you knees and ankles. So I just avoid all that because I gotta be able to go to work. I want to be able to go do all the fun things, so I don't compete.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:00

But what we can you can roll and stuff though. Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:03

I'm now that I've been doing it for a while, I know what I can and can't do and who I can and can't go with.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:09

So I'm just a little bit picky of who I roll with and what I'll do and not do. But now I know if I'm getting into a position I don't like to be in.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

Just to happen.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:17

I'll just or I can just switch. Yeah. If I'll give up a good position if something hurts to be in a worse position just to get my knee to not hurt, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

Yeah. I I really love how it's taken like with um who's that big guy, the blonde guy that's always winning.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:31

Uh oh, uh Gordon Ryan.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:34

Yeah. I mean, what's that tournament called that he they're the main one, like which live with the no-gee ones that they do?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:39

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:40

Maybe IBJ J it's all it's always televised, but like that, it would it just exploded on a another level of like and again, you watching these guys and it's insane.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:53

You're like, how, and you think you're like, oh no, he's gonna, and then again, it's like a trap or something. They bait them in and it's just this with the level of skill, yeah, and the exhaustion, and they're not even like breathing hard, and like they just to be at that level, to be moving, and these guys are like what he's probably like 240 pounds. Like he's a big dude.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:12

He's a big dude, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:14

No, yeah, to be able to push through that and then you know, again, with sweat, some dude dripping sweat into your into your mouth, which is that that in itself would freak me out. I'd be like, yeah, I'm out.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:24

And then with the pretending that I know how to do everything, I volunteer to ref whenever they were doing in-house competitions, which sometimes there's hundreds of people there. So I get to ref the matches, which is so much fun, but it's really hard. Yeah, you have to be so laser focused, especially with the little kids.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:40

Because they don't always know what's safe and what's not safe. So if somebody's going for an arm bar, you got to be ready to because I mean, with the little kids, they might just rip that thing. And if you let them go all the way to the ground, they might break that arm without even knowing. So you have to be right there when it's so cool just being involved in that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

With with being a dad and with having to sort of Circle of being being present now and being in there. What is a thing with them when they get older that they'd like to say about their dad that you would hope they say about their dad?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:12

I guess just that I was present that I gave them everything that I had.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:16

Mostly I believe in leading by example. So I don't tell them to work out and try hard at things. Like I set our time at 1 p.m. today so that I could work out before I came here.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:28

So I'm trying to show them that it's important to take care of your health, mental and physical. It's important to be nice. You know, open the door for your wife. If somebody's carrying some shit, you help them carry it. Don't ask them if they need help or you just go grab the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:42

That's normal. So I'm trying to model these things for them. So I hope that that carries to their kids and their you know, friends and their kids' kids. Like, let's do the things that seem so normal that we should do that most people don't.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

Yeah. And it's crazy, it's just it's the little things. It's teaching the little things, like like you say, just it's being thoughtful and being selfless. You know, I think is a big thing with with so many kids nowadays because they're face, and we we've got rules at our house with the screens and time, like we have strict time limits, like you have 30 minutes for the week, and if you want to bank it on the weekend, that's great. But you're like, it's not because I'm like, I know my brain, and that it messes me up. Like it's not good. And just seeing that, how much that like because there was a time where I was like, Oh, it's it's fine, but it was messing them up. Like it was just they're they were short circuiting after. I was like, Oh, this is not good. Um, but then getting them outside and getting them jiu-jitsu and just doing being kids because we were kids, like we said, we'd go out in the woods, we'd be gone for hours, we would just do whatever we wanted. There was no screens, and then of course, Donkey Kong and the Atari and stuff, all this sort of stuff came in and it was great within that time frame, but you have to be a kid, you have to go explore and get dirty and you know, absolutely build forts and let your imagination run wild. In your life, who would you say your North Star has been?

SPEAKER_06 1:08:11

I don't know, I don't really have one.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:13

I'm just kind of winging it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:15

Is there's been like uh like a role model or something that you've always look up to, or or even a uh a book or a philosopher or something that you have ever not really. Oh, I like it.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:29

Yeah, I don't know. I just pick out little things from all kinds of different things. My stepdad treats my mom really well. There was I got it on camera too at my old house, but it's pouring down rain, and they were leaving to go home because they lived in Florida. And he walks over and opens the door for my mom in the pouring rain. Nobody's watching.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:48

But that was the right thing to do. I'm like, holy crap.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:52

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

Yeah, just the little things.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:54

The little things, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:55

Is there a quote that you live by?

SPEAKER_06 1:08:58

Just similar to yours, of yeah, you know, except for the pain of discipline or regret.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

Yeah. Yeah, that that was that was literally something my dad would always say. He's like, pain from regret or pain from discipline, son. He's like they both suck.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:10

He's like, but regret is is will haunt you. Um and you never say, and he always said, you never want to say I shoulda or I could've. You know.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:20

That makes sense, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

And he he always he showed me this example once he was like, um because I was like, I I was going through this I was younger, and I was like, I tried to do that. He's like, oh yeah, he's like, Can you do me a favor? He's can you can you pick up this here? Can you try and pick up that right there? And I picked it up. He goes, No, no, I want you to try and pick it up. And I go pick it up, and then he no no, I want to try try and try and do that. I'd pick I'm like, Adam, trying. He goes, No, no, no, no, that's doing it. And I was like, trying means you're not you're making an excuse. I was like, Oh, there's no such thing as you either do it or you don't. And that's you have to just decide what that is. And it's not like that, I still struggle with it because I'll be like, Did I try? You know, because you do try, but it's a thing that you and I'll say to my kids, and I never I want, like you said, I want them to find things on their own. And I always wonder, it's like, am I being hard on them or or or is this the right thing to do? But I think what you said there's a great sort of way to approach is like just you do it and show them what it is as opposed to like being hard on them about not doing it, you know? Yeah, because they'll see through that.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:36

I'll give them challenges because we do a lot of things together, they're pretty much my wingman's all the time. So I'll give them a challenge if we're building a thing, like, hey, design this thing for me, and then we'll build it. A shooting rest or whatever, you know, whatever the thing is.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:50

Or this wall. It needs the studs need to be 16 inches on center, and we need a door. Here's the door, go measure it. Draw me a picture. Let's figure out how much materials we need.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:59

Yeah, that's cool, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:00

Eleven-year-olds shouldn't be able to do that, and I know that, but I want to see him try.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:04

What does he what does he do? What does he draw? How does he where does it start?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:09

And then you give them a little change. Hey, 16 inches on center, man, not like whatever this is. And you make it a joke. You don't, hey, you suck at this. It's like, hey, it's really close, but you know, here's two or three different ways you could look at this problem. Yeah. And then you walk away.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:27

And then they bring it back, and you're like, whoa.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:30

It's crazy, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:11:31

You shouldn't have been able to do this. Yeah. I that's better than I could have done it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

And because the way they see the world is they're they're getting a different look at it. They're like, hey, this could actually make it better. Or like, even sometimes with my son, Odie yesterday was building this Lego thing. He's like, Dad, I built this. He's super crafty. And he built this like little gun thing, and he he put like a uh put a rubber band in it and like set it up on a track. And I was like, and this was just pieces that he ran on pieces that he put together. It wasn't like a that's cool. And I was like, dude, this is he's like, yeah, and check this out. He like goes and it fires up in there. I was like, bro, that would I was like, that's really freaking cool, man.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:11

But if you let him be on a screen, he wouldn't have done that.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

No, no, it would have been would have figured it out for him.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:17

Yeah, or he would have just been staring at the screen. Yeah. Doing nothing.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:20

Nothing. Well, well, Chris, I mean, I I really appreciate you coming down on this podcast. And I and I and I anything that you're ever doing, or if there's ever any of your foundations that you're involved in, um, and you this is a place I want people to be able to come and promote and and promote their companies. And if there's anything you ever need me to do to help or with any of the raising money or whatever it is, I mean, please use this place as as as much as you want. It's an open door uh uh policy. I'm I'm I'm such a big fan of of your work from afar. Um, and I'm you have no idea how much that knife means to me. Uh, I really am moved by that. And uh thanks for driving down. And uh I'm so glad Justin Millick met you and he's your buddy, and he connected us. And uh I love just we love you, Justin Millick, even though you didn't call us back.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:12

Yeah, dick.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:12

Yeah, what a dick. But uh thanks for coming on the show, man. And if people want to find you, where do they go?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:18

Uh Stroop Knives on Instagram, s t-o-up.knives. Make sure it's the real one. There's a whole bunch of fake ones.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:25

Oh no, really?

SPEAKER_06 1:13:26

Yeah, Instagram doesn't care either, they just let them be. Yeah, so we have over 40,000 followers, 40, I don't know. Yeah, close to 50. All the rest of them have just a few hundred. So make sure it's the real one. We I try and post pretty often on there of the things we're doing and look at this cool knife and look at what I'm doing with the kids. Uh, our website is just stroopnives.com. You can sign up for our email list. I don't send very many things on there because oh, I just don't have time.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:52

But the Instagram is we try and be pretty active on there.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:56

And we'll post a link to this podcast on there for sure, so you guys can keep up with all those kind of things.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:00

Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:01

We've got a new knife coming out with uh the FBI hostage rescue team association. So they support the hostage rescue team. We don't officially do it with the FBI, but with their nonprofit.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:14

But we got to go to their graduation up in Virginia.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:17

Oh, how was that?

SPEAKER_06 1:14:18

Oh, dude, it was the coolest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:21

That was last week or the week before. But we were, I brought the kids and my wife were there also, and they gave us a tour of their compound. We got to see all their shooting ranges and their gym and all their stuff. That these are just the dudes, you know? Like these are the guys when there's a problem that needs solving, you call FBI HRT. They are the top hostage rescue team in the world. And they're just so nice and friendly, and they treated us like we were somebody important.

unknown 1:14:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:50

It's like, holy crap, you guys are being nice to my kids, and you're happy to see us.

unknown 1:14:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:54

We got to sit right in the front at the graduation and watch these dudes graduate this really hard long course. And then they got their knives and their faces just light up.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:03

Like we made all you made all of them for them.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:06

Yeah, we so everyone that graduates their course now we're donating a knife. So at their graduation, they get one with their number on it.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:13

Oh, teacher.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:13

Because they each have their assigned number, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:16

And then we offered it for sale to all the FBI HRT operators at a you know, the homie price.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:22

And we're about to release a civilian one at a regular price to help fund being able to do all that for them. And then we're going to donate money back to the hostage rescue team association, which is their nonprofit.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:35

But it was the coolest thing to be able to take my kids to this and just see the culmination of all the hard work of these awesome dudes and kind of get a look at what they do and how the best in the world operate.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:47

And how they're all super calm and just normal dudes.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:52

This is what the best is. They're humble, they're nice. They they're excited you're here.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:57

They're not like, look at me, I'm the coolest dude in the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:00

But they are the coolest dudes in the world, you know? They're the top dog in law enforcement.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:05

My kids got to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:07

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:08

We're gonna do jujitsu with them next time we're up there.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:10

Oh, nice. Are any of them badasses?

SPEAKER_06 1:16:13

I I haven't rolled with them any of them yet, but they have a pretty robust program there that they teach themselves. They've got some really high-level jujitsu guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:21

So I would imagine they're really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:23

Yeah. Maybe one of your sons will tap them out and that'll be a good story. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. That is awesome. Well, I appreciate you making the drive down here, man. And uh, like I said, anytime you've got anything going on, I I'm I'm more than happy to promote it. And uh, I appreciate you sharing your story with us. And uh I again I can't thank you enough for that knife, brother. Thanks for having me. Yeah, this was fun. This was really fun. There you go. Thank you for watching another episode of the AJ Buckley Show. See you next week. Well, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the AJ Buckley Show with Mr. Chris Troop. Um, I'm I'm really moved by um my gift. That was uh it was incredibly special and uh it meant a lot. So, Chris, thank you for that. It uh it means a lot. So I appreciate you. I appreciate all that you've done. Um, and thank you for being so honest and sharing your story and uh just being a leader, being a dad that's there and present. And um, I know your kids appreciate it, and I know there's a lot of other men out there that have been on a journey and um are back home and have heard your story and will get a lot of inspiration out of it. So, to everybody that's traveling for this holiday weekend to celebrate this amazing country that we live in, 250 years of freedom. Uh, be safe out there. And this Friday, July 3rd, we're having a very special edition of Unfiltered Friday, the top 10 most American things that we've ever done on Unfiltered Friday. It's gonna be a dizzy. And just for that one, Sean said, nope, he he literally he literally texted me this morning. He said, I'm gonna get the Star Spangled Banner tattooed on the butt. I was like, that's excessive. It's for America, AJ. I'm American, you're not. I was like, oh it's easy, pal. Okay. All right. So tune in live. Sean is going to be getting that done live on camera on the AJ Buckley Show. I'm super excited about it. And we're not using clean needles. It's gonna be fun. So thanks again for listening. Let the spirit lead you. Have a great week. See you Friday.