00:00:00
Speaker 1: I love one of the key lessons that I took away from sniper school. One of the instructors said to me, realize you're not going to hit every single shot. The key is, is you need to understand why you missed. As long as you understand why you missed, you can ensure a second round hit. I hate to use this example and throw him under the bus. I apologize to Tiger Woods, right? He's such a great example for all of us. So Tiger Woods was like the American superstar, the best golfer anyone's ever seen. And the thing that took him out from being number one, was not that he got bad at playing golf. He got lazy in his lifestyle. He got addicted to alcohol. He got addicted to drugs. He was committing adultery while he was traveling. And ultimately, the things that had nothing to do with the skill of playing golf is what took him out of being the number one golfer in the world. Guys in the SEAL teams, we see that it's guys don't get kicked out of the teams or get their bird pulled because they were bad at operating.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Do you know the Tiger Woods Navy SEAL connection? No. You've never heard this? Welcome back to the show, everybody. I'm your host, David Rutherford. And man, I'm super fired up to have a friend of mine, Rich Graham, back on the show from the Full Spectrum Warrior team. To talk about, we touched on it a little bit in his last interview, but we really talked about how he's getting screwed over by the government where he lives. But we hinted on a little bit about his, you know, the intense work he's been doing to really understand the different aspects of the human condition that provide a full spectrum lifestyle. And, and from, you know, physical health, emotional, mental health, and also, you know, just this idea to develop a great ethos in your life. And he's been working on a book that he's getting ready to release and we'll find more about it here. But what I really wanted to do is just dive into these lessons learned because as a person who's been doing similar things myself for the past 30 years, what I found is that there is an insatiable appetite from all of you that give some insight on what we learn going through training, what we learn, develop in our own training and what we've seen in, uh, our infinite pursuit of trying to be better every single day. So without further ado, rich, welcome back to the show, man.
00:02:34
Speaker 1: Thanks again for having me. I appreciate it. It's good to be back.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. All right. So let's just start with the idea of putting the book together. The inspiration of how that came on. Cause one of the things that, you know, obviously as team guys, we are going to get berated because what do we do? We write a book, we go on a podcast, we sell the whole thing. But the reality is, is that. I would say at least 80% of the books that I know that guys produce, like they invest a tremendous amount of time and effort. And they're not just telling war stories. They're trying to tell a story of what they've learned. And so just give us a framework of how long this book has been in development. And then what was the catalyst that really started you wanting to get on those keys and bang this thing out?
00:03:26
Speaker 1: I've been working on the book now, like physically writing it for about four years.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker 1: And it's just been one of those things where it's just like trying to carve out the time to sit down and write the book without using AI and stuff like that. And to legitimately go through the life lessons and things that I found are very important for my own personal development and and sharing those with you, but also after being a coach for 15 plus years running the Full Spectrum Warrior program. coming across lots of guys who are firefighters, first responders, police officers, businessmen, young athletes, just finding out more about their life stories, their strongholds, the things that took them out, the challenges that they're facing to try to achieve greatness, and basically analyzing that, finding the common thread of what are these guys doing going through and how do we solve these issues, right? And how do we try to do preemptive strikes to, like, if we understand what's going to happen along the way, like, how do we start setting ourself up for success before the issue happens, you know what I mean? So this was something that I had been doing with my students and with myself over the years, right? And Probably back around 2012, 2014 is when I had a group of firefighters I was working with in Orlando. They're like, hey, man. do you have like a book or something like a manual for this that we can like go back and, and track our progress. And, you know, like you covered a lot today, but I like, how, how do we remember all this? And I was like, yeah, you know, maybe I will make a book about it. Maybe I will put it down on, on paper or something. And then that was like right at the time where all the seals are coming out with books and I would go to places and I would meet new people and they'd be like, oh yeah, this is rich. He's a Navy seal. And they'd be like, oh yeah. How many books you've written? When's your next book coming out? And honestly, that was like one of those things that just, um, it actually deterred me from doing it because I didn't want to be the cliche, like stereotypical, um, Seal, who's trying to pimp his Trident and come out with a book. I'm not saying I think if you write a book, you're pimping your Trident, but this is just like the, you know, the negative feedback you get. So it kind of deterred me for a while. And, you know, I was still doing coaching and I was, you know, running a podcast for a little bit and running some events and speaking still. But then it just got to the point where it was like, you know what? This is this is guys. Guys need this. The men that I'm working with, they need to hear this. And I remember when I got out of the teams and I started working with like a like a business team trying to reinvent myself from like, crap, I'm not in the SEAL community anymore. What do I do? I started reading some books on. you know, cheesy self-help books, right. That I thought were cheesy. And then I'm reading and I'm like, why is this at, you know, 27, 28 years old? Why is this the first time I'm hearing this?
00:07:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Financial book.
00:07:05
Speaker 1: And I'm like, why am I just learning these finance skills right now at 30? How the hell didn't they teach this in high school? You know what I mean? And then so on and so forth. And as I was educating myself and just realizing like, dude, if I didn't know this stuff, there's a lot of people out there who definitely don't know this stuff. So that was kind of like where I started putting the pieces together. And then about four years ago, I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to sit down and start to write. And then it just was a process of carving out the time, running a business, running the ranch, starting a family. You know, my, my daughter's three years old. My second daughter's just turned six months. So through this whole process, you know, there's been a lot of things like we talked about on, on your last episode with me, with the things that are happening next door. So there's been like lawsuits and there's been life. It's we all have life.
00:08:08
Speaker 2: That's right.
00:08:09
Speaker 1: So just trying to carve out time. Um, and do a good job with all of the other things that was already filled, uh, you know, on my, on my schedule, my plate, you know, it was just, it was a process. So, but, uh, but thankfully we, we got to the point now where it's, the book's been printed. It's in transit now being shipped over. So, you know, the launch is set to happen in the next, uh, month or two.
00:08:34
Speaker 2: So it's good.
00:08:35
Speaker 1: We're excited.
00:08:36
Speaker 2: Good. I, you know, one of the interesting things is that, uh, you know, and I've, not only from my time in the teams, but at Blackwater working with guys from all the different units. And it definitely at the agency working with a ton of different guys from different places. I really, you know, Developed this very distinct appreciation for even if we all went through buds together, or they went through the Q course together, or if guys, you know, whatever shooting schools, sniper Sephardic or whatever. individuals are able to extrapolate the unique aspects that really made an impact on their development. And for those that really, you know, kind of geek out on that performance based mentality, like it becomes this deep passion to aggregate what the thousands of different pieces of information, maybe tens of thousands of little data points and skill sets that you aggregate constantly to get better and better and better. And then all of a sudden you start, if you're really paying attention, you start to see this framework of an overall lifestyle approach. Tell us how the full spectrum warrior, uh, developed and then lead us into how you frame the book out.
00:10:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So this, this actually started with me getting invited to go work with some police up in the Northeast. So working at, when I got out of the teams, I didn't know what I was going to do next. Um, I was applying for some like contractor work and, you know, looking at what the options were, if I was going to go back and like prior to going into the Navy, I had some scholarships for architecture and engineering. I was like, do I want to take that route and start that whole process? So I was like buying time. So I got a job at a gym. help but while i was working at the gym there was some police officers there and they had heard that i was a seal that i used to be a sniper so they asked me if i'd come out to one of their sniper courses and just see what they were doing see if i had any tips or just come hang out so i did that it went well then i got invited to to teach it was like between 30 and 40 officers for um the mid Atlantic tactical officers association. It's a mouthful. Um, and then basically this was up in Delaware and they had from the tri-state area, all these different police officers from SWAT guys, state troopers, uh, DEA, ATF, um, FBI guys. This was like guys from the organization, just huge melting pot of, of police officers. And I was going to do like a tactical pistol course. So, um, I was just doing like some warmup drills with the guys just to see how they were. And we're like, yeah, all right, we're going to do like standing. We're going to go to kneeling back to standing, go to kneeling supine, which is like laying on your back, you know, feet towards the target.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: Which blows people's minds. Right.
00:11:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I'm thinking this is like basic, you know, well, you guys are police officers, you're SWAT guys, you're, you know, ATF DEA, like, I'm thinking they're of the same mindset of what we were doing as a team. And guys, excuse me. When we went to go into the kneeling position, they could barely get into the kneeling position and they could barely stand up with their gear on. Some of these dudes were older, they were in their 40s. You should be able to do kneeling to standing in your 40s. But seeing the guys' limitations on their ability to move was like, wow, okay, we need to take a step back. You guys want to do tactical shooting, but if we can't move... Like, I don't I mean, we can teach you to shoot fast.
00:12:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:12:44
Speaker 1: And stand still.
00:12:45
Speaker 2: But that's it.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: Like a competition shooting kind of like, hey, we're going to do speed shooting drills.
00:12:50
Speaker 2: Right.
00:12:51
Speaker 1: But the reality is you look at every single police shooting next to a car. They don't stand still. There's movement involved. You watch guys trying to apprehend someone. They're wrestling, fighting and then trying to get to the gun or trying to maintain their gun. You know, I mean, like it's active. You have to move. And then that was like, OK, well, if you guys don't know how to fight with your hands, there's there's no middle ground for you. You're either going to pull your gun and shoot. Or you're going to get your ass kicked, right? You don't have a middle ground to go hands-on with anyone, right? So now, like, we started, like, reverse engineering and kind of, like, playing an op. What time do we need to be feet on the ground on target? How long does it take us to get to the target? How long is it in... You know what I mean? You reverse engineer.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: The planning process. Yeah, yeah. Genius.
00:13:37
Speaker 1: So I'm like... I start reverse engineering the planning process of, you guys want to run and gun, shoot, move, and communicate like a Navy SEAL, but... you think the technical skill of shooting fast is the answer. And it's like, that's the easiest part of this whole thing.
00:13:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:13:57
Speaker 1: It's a technical skill. Like I teach you the seven fundamentals.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:01
Speaker 1: And then with, with reps and training, it obviously like, you know, I'm simplifying this a little bit, but that's like the simplest portion of the process. So as we start reverse engineering that, you know, getting into, okay, well, You know, like I was saying, if we want to shoot before we're going to shoot, we need to be able to go hands on because we're probably hands on before we're in a shooting situation. If you look at most police officers, they arrest people every day. They don't shoot people every day. So my hands on skills got to be there. My hands on skills have to be backed up with, you know, fitness and strength because I might have good technique. But if I if I'm not strong and athletic. My technique only goes so far. Well, if I'm going to be strong and athletic, I need to back that up with discipline, right? And the discipline needs to be backed up with diet. And the diet needs to be backed up with, you know, planning and strategic thinking. Like this is a planned process. You're not just winging it. You know what I mean? So now this starts going into... lifestyle choices right now. This starts going into the psychology of, well, why are you depressed? Why aren't you motivated? Why can't you be disciplined? You know what I mean? Um, and it just like, as I was working further and further with these guys, uh, as cheesy as it sounds, like I was there to teach them how to shoot. But at the end of the day, this was winding up turning, like as we peeled back layers of the onion, we wind up going into life coaching role. You know what I mean? Because that was really where the issues lied. It wasn't what they were doing on the range. It was all the things in the background. And then this is paralleling with something like, I hate to use this example and throw them under the bus. So I apologize to Tiger Woods.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Right.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: I'm just going to use him because he's such a great example for for all of us.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: But it's like, so Tiger Woods was like the American superstar, the best golfer anyone's ever seen. He defied the odds because it was, you know, one was his skill to play golf, but the other was being mixed race in a predominantly white sport. He really stood out. You know what I mean? He was like the American sweetheart athlete. And the thing that took him out from being number one, Was not that he got bad at playing golf. It wasn't that he wasn't practicing enough. He didn't get lazy on the, on the course. He got lazy in his lifestyle. He got addicted to alcohol. He got addicted to drugs. He was committing adultery while he was traveling. And ultimately the things that had nothing to do with the skill of playing golf. is what took him out of being the number one golfer in the world. Had nothing to do with golf. Had everything to do with his personal decisions, his values, and what he was doing off the field. And we see that guys in the SEAL teams, we see that it's guys don't get kicked out of the teams or get their bird pulled because they were bad at operating. That's very rarely does ever happen that a guy was a bad operator and that's why they kick him out. It's usually because he was drunk driving. He did drugs at a party or something. He hit somebody or, you know, like there's lots of examples. The point being is it wasn't because he got bad at Operating. It's the stuff on the side.
00:17:38
Speaker 2: So, you know, do you know the, the tiger woods, Navy seal connection? Do you know that story too? No. You've never heard this.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: Uh, refresh my memory. Maybe, but I don't, not off the top of my head.
00:17:51
Speaker 2: So at the pinnacle of his, whatever, especially when we started gaining notoriety out there, he befriended a bunch of team guys and became obsessed with seals. And it got so significant that they actually invited him out to Nyland and he was doing training with platoons out at Nyland. They let him come out and get in the stack and do everything. And then he was training with a bunch of contract guys who were former team guys. And that's when he got huge. And apparently the story goes, he was doing some kind of CQB stuff with these guys somewhere at a private range or something and And he heard his back and that was the initiation of his back. And he was also partying with all the team guys, which that's what the theory is, is that exploded his. Now I've heard from other people that it was, he was already involved in that kind of lifestyle before, but it was the team guys that actually exacerbated it.
00:19:01
Speaker 1: I've never heard that. I didn't know that.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, it was actually in a couple articles and I know some of the guys that were that participated in that. It's just hilarious that you brought that up, but, but you're right. You're right. It's, it's the comprehensive, like it's the recognition that performance isn't just attributable to, uh, what, uh, an individual skillset. it's a derivative of the entire lifestyle for sure that that makes the skill set viable right i love that description too.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: So that's so the the the format of the book is basically um it's it on the the the sub little slogan here whatever that thing's called the subtitle it's an introspective guide to creating balanced long-term success. So the book isn't about me. There's some references to experiences and things like that. But it's really for the reader to go through and ask themselves a lot of really challenging questions. And identify where are they dropping the ball and where are the shortfalls in their life? You know what I mean? And where are they self-sabotaging? You know what I mean? For the exact thing like that. So maybe it's someone who's trying to climb the ladder currently. They're at rock bottom. They're trying to climb their way out or they're trying to achieve greatness. Well, what are the traps along the way to doing that? Maybe it's someone who's already achieved big things already. And now it's like, how do I maintain this and keep it from falling? Because you look at anyone who's a professional mixed martial artist, it's one thing getting the belt. It's a whole other thing defending it.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: Keep it. Yeah, man.
00:20:50
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And a lot of guys say it's harder to defend it. And it's kind of like the same thing with musicians.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: The first two albums for most bands are their best albums. And then once they're famous and they have all the spoils of.
00:21:08
Speaker 1: Being on top, their music gets watered down. They get influenced. They get distracted. There's all these little things. And it's not that they got bad at playing music. It's all the other life traps that come in and basically, you know, break the band apart, um, cause tension. They have more money than they ever had, but now they're more broke than they ever were kind of thing. So, um, so that's kind of like the, the premise of, you know, building a strong, solid foundation across a wide, uh, spectrum or a full spectrum of, you know, our, our different lifestyle, you know, um, focal points, like key areas in our life that we need to maintain and not ignore, right, to maintain that balance in our lifestyle.
00:22:05
Speaker 2: I just want to really talk about my incredible partnership with one of my best friends, and that's Evan Hafer and the boys over at Black Rifle Coffee. I'm so honored to be a part of their organization. And just really can't thank them enough for allowing me to participate. What I want you to do is go to BlackRifleCoffee.com, and I want to check out their new energy drinks. They have these incredible energy drinks that you can buy at all different kinds of stores, Walmarts. Bass Sports and others, or you can go online and order. And if you want to put in your little promo code FrogLogic20, there you get a little discount on stuff there. I highly recommend that. For me, it's my morning coffee. I am addicted to Black Rifle Coffee's Just Black. I think the Tiger Stripe Camo definitely reels me in. The other one I love is the AK Espresso. This one right here is phenomenal. Love these. But they have so many different things that you can get at Black Rifle Coffee. You will love it. Again, when you go over BlackRifleCoffee.com and you're checking out, type in FrogLogic20. Get your little discount code. and tell them already rut, rut sent you. So to all those folks out there who love coffee, like I do, please do yourself a favor and go over and check out my, my brothers at BRCC. I love that you from the beginning have, have called it full spectrum warrior. I mean, it's one of my favorite titles of all the guys that I know that are, are doing similar things and trying to help people develop. And I, you know, that comprehensive process for personal evaluation, right? And I love that in your subtitle, it's introspection, right? And I always say that, you know, people are like, what's your intent when you get up and speak? And my whole thing is that I can provoke introspection. Not any cataclysmic shift or change in behavioral patterns or anything, just start asking yourself those deeper questions, right? And that, that if you're sincere about it and you ask the right questions in the right process and you actually answer these things, you're going to fuck and come to some hard truths about your current existence that should inspire change. So how to take us through the first step in the book, right? How does, how does this process get going for people?
00:24:48
Speaker 1: So you're, you're right on, right on cue with how it basically starts. The first chapter is the, so each, so each, um, in this, this logo, it's more of a symbol. So each sword is a, each chapter represents a sword. And then there's the table, the swords are sitting on the shield, the lion, the cross, right? So the, the first chapter is the sword of, uh, ownership, honesty, and understanding. Awesome. Awesome. So if we can't, one, be honest with ourselves and our situation, then you might as well not even read the rest of the book because you're just lying to yourself, right? So you're going to waste your time. We have to get honest and not take offense. It's just, it is what it is. If I'm in a shit situation or if I'm doing bad things, making bad choices, it is what it is. And like, um, I love one of the key lessons that I took away from sniper school. One of the instructors said to me, um, cause a couple of us were getting frustrated, trying to meet, like missing, uh, this long shot. And he came over and sat down between the two shooting pairs, mine and the one next to me. And he was like, Hey guys, uh, realize you're not going to hit every single shot. It's impossible, right? Let it go. That shot's gone.
00:26:15
Speaker 2: Let it go.
00:26:17
Speaker 1: The key is, is you need to understand why you missed. As long as you understand why you missed, you can ensure a second round hit. The problem is, is when you guys can't figure out why it is you missed, then your next shot is simply a guess. You have no information to base a decision off of. And it was like, so in our life, we want to ensure second round hits.
00:26:43
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Love it.
00:26:46
Speaker 1: I can't ensure a second round hit if I can't even be honest to myself for why I missed. So we go into being honest, taking ownership of it. I'm the only one who can make this change, right? And understand why what's happening is happening. And now we can go into... establishing a game plan, which brings us into like the next chapter of getting a game plan of, of how we start fixing these issues. Um, and, and also it's in there and it's like, if you're reading this and every example or every topic we're talking about, you start going, oh yeah, the dude I work with, or, oh yeah, my ex-girlfriend or, oh yeah. Uh, and you're talking about, oh yeah. And everybody else, but yourself like stop, right? go back and read this over again because you're not taking ownership right we want to find out where am i doing this you know what i mean find an example of where you're doing this so that way we can address it if we're constantly looking at everyone else and we're not looking inward again you're going to read this whole book and at the end you're going to blame everyone else as an idiot And you have, then you got nothing wrong. The only reason I'm being held up where I am in my life is because everyone else is an idiot around me. And again, you can't change that. You can't fix that. I can't control what other people do.
00:28:16
Speaker 2: Right.
00:28:16
Speaker 1: So I have to find out where, where my shortcoming, where my shortfalls, um, where am I lying to myself? Where am I not taking accountability? So that way I can start making incremental changes in my life.
00:28:27
Speaker 2: Why, why do you think we as human beings, uh, have such a natural propensity for, uh, not being accountable. Why, where, where do you think that comes from? And then, you know, what have you seen, what certain topics or, or environments that either force or kind of open the door to that personal responsibility, right? Like, why do we lie to ourselves? And then what are the things that kind of break down that I think built in setting that I think we developed pretty early on in our, our, our childhood.
00:29:12
Speaker 1: I think the, the twofold on why we like to blame others and not take responsibility. One is the easier route. You know what I mean? Like if it's someone else's fault, I don't have to do anything. I don't have to change anything. I don't have to put any work. I don't have to put any effort. All you got to do is just point a finger like, hey, this guy, you know what I mean? Let them handle it. And I think the other thing has to do with uh, it could be pride a little bit, but more so like people really don't like to be embarrassed. That's why people fear like public speaking, people fear, you know, um, getting corrected in public and stuff like that, because the people don't like looking stupid or feeling embarrassed. And so you, you mix that with that insecurity. So It's really to be a bold leader, right? If you take ownership of something and just say, yeah, dude, that was my bad, won't happen again. You basically take away everyone's ammo who's trying to hammer you on something. Well, hey, dude, that was freaking stupid. Yeah, I understand. I recognize that. That was the wrong decision. Not going to happen again. I'm going to make an adjustment.
00:30:28
Speaker 2: Awesome.
00:30:29
Speaker 1: You just took away everyone's ammo for them to come in and harass you on it. It's it's honestly, when you don't take ownership, that starts talking trash and it testifies. Now people get frustrated with you like this dude's so full of crap. You know what I mean? Like, you know, and and it actually creates more. division and more tension in the environment, although it's scary to own up to it and take that accountability and throw it on your shoulder and carry it, it's actually the easier solution than trying to deflect, blame, and set yourself. It's like lying about something. When you lie about something, there's this huge baggage that comes with it because now you have to defend the lie. And now you have to build up like this whole little story and bring other people and you make this web and it gets them as you lie and then lie again to protect the lie. You create so much weight.
00:31:35
Speaker 2: Right.
00:31:35
Speaker 1: And then you have to do so much remembering of what did I say about that thing? And it's it's exhausting. You know, I mean, versus just it really is liberating just to. Own it. Be honest.
00:31:49
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:31:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, I screwed up. I'm going to share a second round hit. I'm going to make the correction. We're going to, we're going to get to this next one.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: I love the component of owning, owning your own fallibility, right? Owning your own pretense, whether you look at it from a religious context, your pretense, you're going to send no matter what. or performance, you're going to miss a shot no matter what, or with team dynamics, you're going to have bad days. You're going to bring in baggage, whatever it is. But that, that core honesty approach is such a, uh, it's like the defining characteristic, right? I think back when, you know, we're going through buds, you know, what was the thing, you know, that stuck in my mind more than anything in particular, when we're doing, you Right. Is like, like you hear certain guys like, dude, let's just fake, you know, doing the squats or let's just cheat. Let's cut this corner or whatever, you know? And you're all like, you know, in the time, cause you're in so much pain, you're like, yeah, yeah. Fuck. Yeah. Like if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying bullshit. Right. And, and then all of a sudden you get busted and then you take a, a beat down and That makes you want to quit for real. And you're like, why did we do this? And why did I go along? And why did I, you know, and you're right. I think it is, it is the, that, that personal evaluation that man, it's, it's an easier route in the sense it's counterintuitive to believe that the easier route actually leads to more pain, but that's the reality, right? That's the component of, of what you're trying to teach here. Let me ask, do you have, because what I see a lot of times with programs is guys, because you have to have a starting point, right? You have to have something that you can manage. A lot of guys will start with a small fitness endeavor because strong fitness, strong body leads to strong mind, strong emotion, whatever. Do you have a particular starting point once you get, uh, uh, uh, acclimatized to the, the shifting blame externally to internally bearing the burden of your own responsibility, not blaming yourself. So you, it's not a condemnation of, uh, you know, uh, maybe a bad habits per se, but it's more so like, all right, I accept now I want to change. Where do you find the best like ignition point to build on to those building blocks or foundations within the book?
00:34:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. So one of the things that, that one of the reasons why it took me four years to, to read it or to write it was normally when I do these conversations with police departments or You know, I've worked with some big companies, banks and, you know, pharmaceutical companies and stuff like that. And when I'm working in those environments, faith has to stay out of the conversation. So normally that was one of those things where I'm explaining the full spectrum where philosophy and when it comes to the what's really holding all this together is Is, you know, our faith and our moral compass, our integrity, our value system. And I just kind of leave it there as like a teaser, but I can't go into it because I'm not allowed to do that in that environment. And when I was originally sat down to write the book. I was like, okay, well, I can reach more people if I just write it the same way I do the speaking engagements. And I leave that there. And I prayed on it. And I was like, no, you know what? I got to invite God into this conversation. It's only right. If I'm being truthful and this is my cornerstone, I shouldn't be hiding this or afraid to speak on this topic. So I invited God into the conversation and Then what happened is I had to go through and make sure every single thing that I was saying and teaching in the book lined up with scripture. And I had to do like a really big gut check because I'm like, I can't bring God into the conversation when it's convenient. Either he's in the conversation and he's part of the program or he's not. You know what I mean? I can't pick and choose because then I'm just I'm I'm being like one of those people like, oh, yeah, you know, I just pick a little of everything that I like from all the religions. And it's like, well, you're taking what you like, which is not what you need.
00:36:32
Speaker 2: Right.
00:36:33
Speaker 1: All the things you need are inconvenient and you're leaving them out. So part of this, even if the book flops financially. one of the great things was, is it made me take a huge, uh, deep dive evaluation, uh, biblically and spiritually into what am I actually teaching people? And what am I communicating to people? And am I taking people on the wrong path or not? And it was, it got scary, you know, and there was some things that are like, okay, you know, I, I, I got to really reevaluate this. And one of, one of my buddies is a pastor. He just said to me when we were setting up, uh, that, that event that we do the protector summit once a year, which is basically like the book in action. Um, He was just like, hey, you got to be really careful. Like what you're doing with these guys is great. When you're bringing your coaches in and you guys are running these events and you're bringing you're invoking God into the conversation. You have to make sure that you're not picking and choosing pieces of scripture to fit your talk. but you have to make sure that your talk fits the scripture. Right. Because, and we've seen a lot of this, you see this happen with like the transgender movement in the church where they take fragments of scripture to argue a point. But if you read the entire scripture, like, you know, Jesus welcomes everybody and he loves everybody and he has grace for everybody. He wouldn't judge me. And it's like, Okay, well, if you actually read the second half of Jesus's scriptures, he forgives the prostitute or the, you know, the adulteress or, you know, the tax collector or whoever he's talking to. But then the follow-up statement is, now leave that and follow me and sin no more.
00:38:34
Speaker 2: Right?
00:38:34
Speaker 1: Like, you're forgiven, but you need to create change. Do not stay in the lifestyle that is creating separation between you and me. You know what I mean? So it was a great piece of advice. And basically, I went through and really had to deep dive into that. And if anything... it was worth it just to, to challenge myself to actually, again, going back to the, what we were just talking about, being honest with myself of, am I actually giving people good counseling or am I leading them in the wrong direction and doing what I feel is right, but scripturally is wrong. So that was a great challenge for me. But as we go into this, bringing in the spiritual warfare side of it, it's, Hey dude, When you do this self-reflection and you find things that are wrong in your life or things that you're doing wrong understand the world and the enemy is going to come in and now try to attack you on that and convince you that you're a And all these kind of things. And now you're going to start to identify this spiritual battle that's going on behind the scenes in every aspect of our life. And this goes right into the food we eat. You know what I mean? There's a spiritual battle in the world right now to poison us. You have the surface level conversation about diet.
00:40:12
Speaker 2: And then.
00:40:13
Speaker 1: you really get into it. And when you start going to deeper levels of, well, why are these things being created? Why are we being promoted? Why are we being force-fed crap that's horrible for us? Why are they misleading us on what a healthy diet truly looks like? And this all goes from a physical battle into a spiritual battle. So there's two parallel conversations happening one is in the physical and one is in the spiritual as we as we go through all this.
00:40:44
Speaker 2: God that and that's for those who've not i don't know force that that that level introspection and your faith it is a brutal thing it is a because you know it i mean there's there's a lot of hypocrisy out there with people who profess like you said, who pick and choose their, uh, their, their faith arrows. Right. Uh, but if, if, if you're going to test your resolve in this grander lifestyle guide guidebook, like man, to start with your spiritual strength, man, a lot of like, you know, that's, I think that's the hardest place to begin, right? The easiest place is, ah, if I, hit the gym and I, you know, clean up my diet and I don't drink as much, or I stopped drinking. I stopped whatever, you know, it's like, okay, this is all whatever, but that, that accountability piece on a deeper level in the totality of how you act morally, right. Both internally and externally, man, now you're talking about full spectrum. Like that's the real, that's where, you know, the boots hit the pavement, so to speak for sure.
00:42:05
Speaker 1: And then the conversations happen parallel. You know what I mean?
00:42:08
Speaker 2: So it's interesting. What do you mean by that?
00:42:12
Speaker 1: So here's an example. This one's probably going to piss a lot of people off.
00:42:16
Speaker 2: Right.
00:42:16
Speaker 1: But good. And again, I'm not, I'm not trying to attack anyone, but yeah, You look at all these women getting plastic surgery and lip fillers and and things and things of that nature. So the world tells us this makes you beautiful. And my question is, is who told you that you were not beautiful? Who's speaking to you? Who's speaking into your heart, right? Because I guarantee you, your husband, your boyfriend didn't say, hey, dude, your lips look like crap. You need to go get injections. Your boyfriend didn't say that.
00:42:58
Speaker 2: So who or what? Maybe down here where I live that happens.
00:43:05
Speaker 1: But who's speaking that into you? And do you recognize the voice of God versus the voice of the enemy? And this was, I mean, I could argue this, that you could throw this back on me and be like, well, Rich, you have a bunch of tattoos. Yeah, I do. And I don't think God was speaking to me when he was telling me that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I don't think God was communicating to me to get the tattoos that I was getting. You know what I mean? And when we look at.
00:43:43
Speaker 1: The devil is in battle with God, but the devil can't beat God. So what's the next best thing? God created us in his image, and now the devil wants to destroy the image bearer. So how does he destroy the image bearer? He does it in many ways, right? But when we start looking at these lifestyle practices that we have, that we're destroying ourselves in the process, but it's popular among the world, but it's counterproductive to our spiritual growth, we have to ask ourselves, whose words are, who's speaking into me? And sometimes, and this is like, when I started this process, when I got out of the Navy, I was telling Chad when I was on the Resilient podcast a few weeks ago.
00:44:34
Speaker 2: Dude, one of my favorite episodes he's ever done, man. I love Chad. Oh, really? You were spectacular on that, brother.
00:44:44
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I appreciate that.
00:44:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody go check that episode out. It is absolutely stellar.
00:44:52
Speaker 1: But that was the conversation. Chad was surprised. He was like, I told him I turned the radio off for seven years. I took the TV out of my house and I turned the radio off for seven years. When I started opening up those books, when I was in the SEAL teams, I wasn't spiritual. I wasn't walking with Christ or anything like that. Me too. If it was to be, it was up to me. I guess maybe I was agnostic. I don't know. But once I started having these... spiritual breakthroughs and I was reading some of these books and like the, the veil started to be like, like pulled back and things were being revealed to me. I was like, Oh my God, the, the things that I've been allowing to speak into my life, my view of the world, the decisions that I've been making, the path that I'm on, that my heart, the condition my heart is in right now, I've been letting all these things, broken people speak into me. I've been singing the songs of people who are not on the path that I want to be on. I'm watching the shows of the people who do not have my best interest in mind. You know what I mean? Like, and I just had to turn it all off. And I basically, I did like a mental and spiritual reset. And I just, I just dove in and I just took seven years off. And then finally, you know, my, my partner at the time was like, dude, can we just... could we just like watch a movie or something? Can we have a TV? I got a TV and it was just, we had a TV with a VCR and we'd go get like a red box or something. It was like, I'm not having TV on in the house all the time. And, um, you know, but I'm not saying that's, that's the solution. That's what everyone needs to do. That's just what I did at the time. But again, it's just one of those things where it's like, you know, we have this, you know, self-destructive happiness that we, that we play into. And, um, these things that the world has convinced us are good for us, when we go through and we break this down in the book, there's so many things that we're doing that are counterintuitive to our spiritual growth and to our true success you know because that that brings up the question like once i got into this whole process of identifying building a successful lifestyle well then the question came to me well what does it truly mean to be successful.
00:47:15
Speaker 2: That that's what just popped in my head with with with right now for you so like how do you begin to deconstruct that question.
00:47:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tricky. So it's like, I'm trying not to backhand someone like, boom, right off the bat with the Bible. Like, you know, so I'm trying to write this in a way that you could be where I was being agnostic and read the book and have a lot of good takeaways from a psychology standpoint. Or you could be on your spiritual walk and read between the lines and understand the that there's two battles happening, one of the physical, one of the spiritual, and they're happening side by side, parallel. So the challenge is, and I hope as you go through this process and you mature, right? Like, you know, that's what I was saying. Like, do you have these false summits? I made it to the SEAL team. I, you know, achieved things that, Everyone in my high school said I wouldn't be able to do. Family and friends said I wouldn't be able to do it. There's many men around the country who would dream of being a Navy SEAL and they can't do it or they don't do it. And it's like, here I am. I got to this spot, this pinnacle of success, only to realize that there was still this huge void in my heart. And I thought I had succeeded. But I truly didn't. I succeeded at a task, but I didn't succeed in my life. You know what I mean? And, you know, we have lots of guys that we know. And this isn't just for the SEAL teams. It's just in general. But if we're talking about the SEAL teams, we have lots of guys who have got to the team and then they're great. You're a Navy SEAL, but you don't know your kids. Your family's destroyed.
00:49:13
Speaker 2: Right.
00:49:14
Speaker 1: You've burnt lots of relationships. And some of that comes with the nature of being an military relationship where you're gone so much. But again, when we start just looking at the bigger picture of... Because I know some guys who maintain those relationships through their time in the teams had strong marriages, good relationships with their kids. But there's a lot of guys who didn't. You know what I mean? And that's not a jab at them. It's just, you know... Like I thought getting to the SEAL teams and being a SEAL, you'd be good. And my heart wasn't. So as we go through this process, by the time I was done self-reflecting all this stuff, my opinion on, well, what is it to be truly successful is that you're through the process, your heart changes, you're building a life that validates your relationship with Christ. And at the end of the day, the only way we'll truly know if we succeeded or not, there's two things is one, will we walk through the narrow gate at the very end? And the second thing is, did I set my family up in a way that I'm leading them to follow me through the gate if I'm so honored to be accepted through it? You know what I mean? But that's that's a hard thing to start on page one. You know what I mean? And that's that's that's. So I'm not hammering that necessarily as the definition of what it is to be successful. That's my personal takeaway after working on the project. But for you to reach goals, okay, you want to be a SEAL? Cool. Here's the process, not how to become an Navy SEAL. Here's the process of succeeding at a goal, something like that. That could be getting a master's degree. That could be moving up in the job. It doesn't matter. These things are interchangeable. The life skills, the life practices that's needed to be a team player, to be accountable, to be a leader, to be a good communicator, these things are interchangeable regardless of the topic that you want to apply it to. But the parallel conversation is we can help you get that corporate leadership role, but if you're still... committing adultery and destroying your family at home, are you really succeeding?
00:51:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:51:43
Speaker 1: We can help you get that, that job, you know, and it succeeded all this stuff. But when you look in the mirror, if you hate the person that you see in the mirror, that you need to change the way your face is constructed because you're not happy with yourself, then are we truly succeeding in our heart? You know what I mean? At the same time. So there's, There, there's, there's a, you know, winning of the heart and the spirit and there's winning in the physical, tangible aspects. So there's, there's these two parallel conversations that are happening through the entirety of the process of the book.
00:52:17
Speaker 2: I love it, man. This is, this is not your, for you all listening to this or watching, you know, this is not your typical self-help book. And I'm telling you right now, Rich Graham is not your typical self-help guru out there. All right. Um, I can vouch for, you know, paying attention to his growth and development for the last 15 years. And there are not many other people that are putting this much time and this much of their own introspection, uh, into something that will directly benefit you. This, this is a, um, what is, you know, so I just want to clarify for everybody, is there a component of this that has. an instructional guide or manual type feel to it at all.
00:53:10
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah so so the we're gonna have like a program that you can do after you read the book and basically do a deep dive into it but basically the way the the way the the the chapters start is basically they start more like, these are the things that we're going to try to achieve in this chapter. These are the things we want to do. And at the end of the chapter, there's questions of full spectrum warrior must ask themselves. So basically, you know, we have the meat and potatoes of the topic, but then we have questions that you should be asking yourself and, you know, having those real questions. introspective, you know, dialogues and, um, and basically have like some marching orders on what you can do to make those changes.
00:53:59
Speaker 2: Right.
00:54:00
Speaker 1: And then what I'll do is with that program, they're going to do on the side, um, there's a little QR code in the book and you can go to like our little online university thing. We can start having more of those conversations specifically with the readers. So if one person's trying to be a welder and the other dude's a college athlete and one person's having marital problems on the topic of strategic thinking and finances... that sword topic is going to be different for the college kid, for the dude who's trying to hold a marriage together to the dude who is working as a commercial welder. Like they're in three different portions, three different positions of that growth process. So, um, with the books already a little bit over 300 pages. So to not make it into like this huge encyclopedia, you know what I mean? Like we're, we're kind of, challenging you on each one of these topics. And honestly, there's hundreds, if not thousands of books that are written on each one of the chapter topics on those specific areas of your growth. I kind of took what I thought was relevant for a well-rounded lifestyle and put it in an organized fashion in an order that's easy to digest and break down. And then you can chase the rabbit as you need on any one of those topics that you need more work in. But we'll also do like an open forum Q & A. So if people have specific questions... based on the topics in the book, as it pertains to their lifestyle, and maybe other people have something similar going on, we can open up that dialogue and, and chase the rabbit in that, in that area, you know, or in regards to like something more specific. So the, the information in the book is a little bit more general, you know what I mean? Cause everyone has so many different lifestyles, so many different things going on. And there might be some things that I just be like, dude, that's a great, that's a great question. And maybe I bring in, you know, another coach who that is like, you know, cause I'm, I'm not claiming to be this guru who knows everything about everything. You know, it's just, there's, I know what I don't know also, you know what I mean? So maybe there's, maybe there's topics you're like, Hey dude, that's great. That's above my pay grade on this specific topic. I know that this is an important thing to evaluate and to have active in your lifestyle, you know, but you know, we need to talk to someone who's a little bit more educated on that. You know what I mean?
00:56:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that. I love the whole setup. I love the book is the trigger point. There'll be the post book curriculum that integrates with the process, the step-by-step open forums. And then I'm assuming you'll also provide uh, in, you know, personal coaching and they can come to the ranch and get training on it. Like, cause I mean, knowing you, it is a full spectrum approach to get people in the door with the book and then get them going on the overall idea. Is there, uh, is there, you know, kind of the way I, you know, I built my whole thing out is in kind of this two year span. Like that's the ideal in my mind, like two years to really, you know, set something up and get the process going and really, you know, figure it out over that time. Cause then you're like, all right, I'm, It's not two weeks and you're like, all right, what's the next thing I'm going to do? So is there a time orientation to this development? Is there, are there levels of mastery? How do you break that down?
00:57:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think, I think the, the, the level of mastery you're going to be able to gauge it on is, um, how are you doing with your relationships? Are your relationships falling apart? Is everywhere you go, is it always burnt bridges? Are your relationships solid? You know what I mean? Cause I know a lot of guys who everyone loves them and then everyone hates them. And it's just this, it's just roller coaster. And you're like, when you meet them and, and, um, you talk to people and it's like, Hey, last year they were around and everyone loved them. Now I don't work with this person anymore. Um, so like, how are your relationships doing? How are your finances doing? Are you progressing in the climbing at your company or in a team or whatever? Are you making forward headway? Are you having people that you're leading.
00:58:48
Speaker 1: But they're following you, even if you're not in the leadership position, because they respect who you are, they respect your values and what you're doing.
00:58:57
Speaker 2: Right.
00:58:57
Speaker 1: Or do you find yourself in a position where you have to threaten the people who are working underneath you because of your like using your rank or your position at the company to force them to do what it is that needs to be done? or will they do it because they want to work for you and they want you to be proud of them and they want you to respect the job that they did like these are being a leader versus a dictator like we see this a lot in corporate america we see this a lot in the military where you have to respect the rank not the person you know what i mean but um So I think these are good areas that we can look to to gauge how our success is progressing. My goal with the book, though, is it's not a book that you read once and then you're like, cool, that was good. You know, I think it's one of those ones that maybe you come back to once a year or once every two years. And, you know, when I read it the first time, it's kind of like when I open up the Bible and I read the Bible and I took away all these lessons and it was like, man, this is awesome. And then I go back maybe a year later and I read that same passage that I read. And it's like, I'm reading it for the first time.
01:00:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:00:13
Speaker 1: And it's speaking to me into a whole new way. And I'm like, I know the verse number is the same, but I feel like this is a completely new verse. Because the position that I'm in a year later is different. My life circumstances, my heart, my family, my roles, my responsibilities. I'm in a different position, so I'm reading this a new way. So the reality is, my goal for this would be that.
01:00:41
Speaker 1: You come back to it as you, you know, I read it as I was a college athlete. Now I graduated and now I'm going into corporate America. I need to read this again.
01:00:51
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:00:52
Speaker 1: I was the low guy in the totem pole. Now I'm middle rank. I need to read this again. Oh, I was dating some person, but now I'm engaged and I'm ready. I'm getting ready to be a husband. I should read this again. Oh my gosh. I'm a new father. You know what I mean? And I'm now in a leadership, not only in my home, but I'm a leadership position at my job. This what I when I read this as a college kid the things that were hammering me and calling me out and the things that pertain to me are different as a college kid who's trying to perform in sports because I have no responsibilities yet finances aren't as like. managing my finances, managing my time, being a leadership role, having people watch how I make my decisions wasn't as important when I was in college as it is as I'm now as a father and a leader in the organization that I'm working for. So the contents of the book will hit in a different way as you develop, you know what I mean? Because your takeaways from the book are going to be what's relevant to you currently and You know what I mean? And those are always going to be changing as your environment, as your position and responsibilities change. And really, that's a springboard into, I hope this is a catalyst for you to also open up your Bible and go through that, because that's really where we should be pulling the information from, not Rich Graham. I'm giving you tips. I'm, I'm challenging you. And the reality is, is you should then go, Hey, you know what? At the end of the day, I need to be digging into scripture a little bit for true guidance. You know what I mean?
01:02:33
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Rich, man, I cannot wait to read this thing, man. It's going to be amazing. Uh, I have, you know, again, so much respect for the, what the amount of time and effort that you've put into developing, uh, The Full Spectrum Warrior, this book itself. I recommend every single person, if you have any interest, not only in what operators think about performance, but more importantly, beyond that, as a more in-depth, as you've just heard Rich describe his intentions with your introspection. This is something that you can help cultivate a foundational approach to That really enhances you on a deeper, more spiritual level. So, Rich, where do they order the book and then how do they sign up for the other stuff and where can they follow you?
01:03:29
Speaker 1: Awesome. I appreciate it. So the book is right now ready for presale at FSW Lifestyle dot com. So Full Spectrum Warrior Lifestyle dot com FSW. Um, and then on there, what we have right now is we have a presale bundle. The, um, all the presales will be a hard cover and each one will be signed to the, to the person who's ordering it. Unless you want it to be to someone else, put that in the comment section. When you place the order, we have a cool thing. We're going to get a custom weather bound Bible with the emblem on it. Uh, challenge coin t-shirt in that presale bundle. So yeah, so it'd be really cool. And then, uh, Excuse me. Those should be shipped out roughly like the first week of November. And then the official launch will be December 1st is what it's set up for right now for the official launch. So between now and December, you'll get those pre-sale bundles that'll be the signed copies and then it'll just be normal, you know, commercial sales. And come December 1st, it'll be at local bookstores and on the amazon and all that stuff but if you get it right now it's at fsw lifestyle.com and then you can check us out our main pages on instagram at uh full spectrum warrior usa.
01:04:50
Speaker 2: Awesome rich i can't thank you enough brother you are uh a wise human being and you're you're you're really a unique person and i just uh i have so much respect for you and what you're doing in your life brother
01:05:06
Speaker 1: Thank you awesome i appreciate it thank you again Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I love one of the key lessons that I took away from sniper school. One of the instructors said to me, realize you're not going to hit every single shot. The key is, is you need to understand why you missed. As long as you understand why you missed, you can ensure a second round hit. I hate to use this example and throw him under the bus. I apologize to Tiger Woods, right? He's such a great example for all of us. So Tiger Woods was like the American superstar, the best golfer anyone's ever seen. And the thing that took him out from being number one, was not that he got bad at playing golf. He got lazy in his lifestyle. He got addicted to alcohol. He got addicted to drugs. He was committing adultery while he was traveling. And ultimately, the things that had nothing to do with the skill of playing golf is what took him out of being the number one golfer in the world. Guys in the SEAL teams, we see that it's guys don't get kicked out of the teams or get their bird pulled because they were bad at operating.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Do you know the Tiger Woods Navy SEAL connection? No. You've never heard this? Welcome back to the show, everybody. I'm your host, David Rutherford. And man, I'm super fired up to have a friend of mine, Rich Graham, back on the show from the Full Spectrum Warrior team. To talk about, we touched on it a little bit in his last interview, but we really talked about how he's getting screwed over by the government where he lives. But we hinted on a little bit about his, you know, the intense work he's been doing to really understand the different aspects of the human condition that provide a full spectrum lifestyle. And, and from, you know, physical health, emotional, mental health, and also, you know, just this idea to develop a great ethos in your life. And he's been working on a book that he's getting ready to release and we'll find more about it here. But what I really wanted to do is just dive into these lessons learned because as a person who's been doing similar things myself for the past 30 years, what I found is that there is an insatiable appetite from all of you that give some insight on what we learn going through training, what we learn, develop in our own training and what we've seen in, uh, our infinite pursuit of trying to be better every single day. So without further ado, rich, welcome back to the show, man.
00:02:34
Speaker 1: Thanks again for having me. I appreciate it. It's good to be back.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. All right. So let's just start with the idea of putting the book together. The inspiration of how that came on. Cause one of the things that, you know, obviously as team guys, we are going to get berated because what do we do? We write a book, we go on a podcast, we sell the whole thing. But the reality is, is that. I would say at least 80% of the books that I know that guys produce, like they invest a tremendous amount of time and effort. And they're not just telling war stories. They're trying to tell a story of what they've learned. And so just give us a framework of how long this book has been in development. And then what was the catalyst that really started you wanting to get on those keys and bang this thing out?
00:03:26
Speaker 1: I've been working on the book now, like physically writing it for about four years.
00:03:32
Speaker 2: Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker 1: And it's just been one of those things where it's just like trying to carve out the time to sit down and write the book without using AI and stuff like that. And to legitimately go through the life lessons and things that I found are very important for my own personal development and and sharing those with you, but also after being a coach for 15 plus years running the Full Spectrum Warrior program. coming across lots of guys who are firefighters, first responders, police officers, businessmen, young athletes, just finding out more about their life stories, their strongholds, the things that took them out, the challenges that they're facing to try to achieve greatness, and basically analyzing that, finding the common thread of what are these guys doing going through and how do we solve these issues, right? And how do we try to do preemptive strikes to, like, if we understand what's going to happen along the way, like, how do we start setting ourself up for success before the issue happens, you know what I mean? So this was something that I had been doing with my students and with myself over the years, right? And Probably back around 2012, 2014 is when I had a group of firefighters I was working with in Orlando. They're like, hey, man. do you have like a book or something like a manual for this that we can like go back and, and track our progress. And, you know, like you covered a lot today, but I like, how, how do we remember all this? And I was like, yeah, you know, maybe I will make a book about it. Maybe I will put it down on, on paper or something. And then that was like right at the time where all the seals are coming out with books and I would go to places and I would meet new people and they'd be like, oh yeah, this is rich. He's a Navy seal. And they'd be like, oh yeah. How many books you've written? When's your next book coming out? And honestly, that was like one of those things that just, um, it actually deterred me from doing it because I didn't want to be the cliche, like stereotypical, um, Seal, who's trying to pimp his Trident and come out with a book. I'm not saying I think if you write a book, you're pimping your Trident, but this is just like the, you know, the negative feedback you get. So it kind of deterred me for a while. And, you know, I was still doing coaching and I was, you know, running a podcast for a little bit and running some events and speaking still. But then it just got to the point where it was like, you know what? This is this is guys. Guys need this. The men that I'm working with, they need to hear this. And I remember when I got out of the teams and I started working with like a like a business team trying to reinvent myself from like, crap, I'm not in the SEAL community anymore. What do I do? I started reading some books on. you know, cheesy self-help books, right. That I thought were cheesy. And then I'm reading and I'm like, why is this at, you know, 27, 28 years old? Why is this the first time I'm hearing this?
00:07:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Financial book.
00:07:05
Speaker 1: And I'm like, why am I just learning these finance skills right now at 30? How the hell didn't they teach this in high school? You know what I mean? And then so on and so forth. And as I was educating myself and just realizing like, dude, if I didn't know this stuff, there's a lot of people out there who definitely don't know this stuff. So that was kind of like where I started putting the pieces together. And then about four years ago, I was just like, you know what? I'm just going to do it. I'm just going to sit down and start to write. And then it just was a process of carving out the time, running a business, running the ranch, starting a family. You know, my, my daughter's three years old. My second daughter's just turned six months. So through this whole process, you know, there's been a lot of things like we talked about on, on your last episode with me, with the things that are happening next door. So there's been like lawsuits and there's been life. It's we all have life.
00:08:08
Speaker 2: That's right.
00:08:09
Speaker 1: So just trying to carve out time. Um, and do a good job with all of the other things that was already filled, uh, you know, on my, on my schedule, my plate, you know, it was just, it was a process. So, but, uh, but thankfully we, we got to the point now where it's, the book's been printed. It's in transit now being shipped over. So, you know, the launch is set to happen in the next, uh, month or two.
00:08:34
Speaker 2: So it's good.
00:08:35
Speaker 1: We're excited.
00:08:36
Speaker 2: Good. I, you know, one of the interesting things is that, uh, you know, and I've, not only from my time in the teams, but at Blackwater working with guys from all the different units. And it definitely at the agency working with a ton of different guys from different places. I really, you know, Developed this very distinct appreciation for even if we all went through buds together, or they went through the Q course together, or if guys, you know, whatever shooting schools, sniper Sephardic or whatever. individuals are able to extrapolate the unique aspects that really made an impact on their development. And for those that really, you know, kind of geek out on that performance based mentality, like it becomes this deep passion to aggregate what the thousands of different pieces of information, maybe tens of thousands of little data points and skill sets that you aggregate constantly to get better and better and better. And then all of a sudden you start, if you're really paying attention, you start to see this framework of an overall lifestyle approach. Tell us how the full spectrum warrior, uh, developed and then lead us into how you frame the book out.
00:10:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So this, this actually started with me getting invited to go work with some police up in the Northeast. So working at, when I got out of the teams, I didn't know what I was going to do next. Um, I was applying for some like contractor work and, you know, looking at what the options were, if I was going to go back and like prior to going into the Navy, I had some scholarships for architecture and engineering. I was like, do I want to take that route and start that whole process? So I was like buying time. So I got a job at a gym. help but while i was working at the gym there was some police officers there and they had heard that i was a seal that i used to be a sniper so they asked me if i'd come out to one of their sniper courses and just see what they were doing see if i had any tips or just come hang out so i did that it went well then i got invited to to teach it was like between 30 and 40 officers for um the mid Atlantic tactical officers association. It's a mouthful. Um, and then basically this was up in Delaware and they had from the tri-state area, all these different police officers from SWAT guys, state troopers, uh, DEA, ATF, um, FBI guys. This was like guys from the organization, just huge melting pot of, of police officers. And I was going to do like a tactical pistol course. So, um, I was just doing like some warmup drills with the guys just to see how they were. And we're like, yeah, all right, we're going to do like standing. We're going to go to kneeling back to standing, go to kneeling supine, which is like laying on your back, you know, feet towards the target.
00:11:45
Speaker 2: Which blows people's minds. Right.
00:11:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I'm thinking this is like basic, you know, well, you guys are police officers, you're SWAT guys, you're, you know, ATF DEA, like, I'm thinking they're of the same mindset of what we were doing as a team. And guys, excuse me. When we went to go into the kneeling position, they could barely get into the kneeling position and they could barely stand up with their gear on. Some of these dudes were older, they were in their 40s. You should be able to do kneeling to standing in your 40s. But seeing the guys' limitations on their ability to move was like, wow, okay, we need to take a step back. You guys want to do tactical shooting, but if we can't move... Like, I don't I mean, we can teach you to shoot fast.
00:12:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:12:44
Speaker 1: And stand still.
00:12:45
Speaker 2: But that's it.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: Like a competition shooting kind of like, hey, we're going to do speed shooting drills.
00:12:50
Speaker 2: Right.
00:12:51
Speaker 1: But the reality is you look at every single police shooting next to a car. They don't stand still. There's movement involved. You watch guys trying to apprehend someone. They're wrestling, fighting and then trying to get to the gun or trying to maintain their gun. You know, I mean, like it's active. You have to move. And then that was like, OK, well, if you guys don't know how to fight with your hands, there's there's no middle ground for you. You're either going to pull your gun and shoot. Or you're going to get your ass kicked, right? You don't have a middle ground to go hands-on with anyone, right? So now, like, we started, like, reverse engineering and kind of, like, playing an op. What time do we need to be feet on the ground on target? How long does it take us to get to the target? How long is it in... You know what I mean? You reverse engineer.
00:13:35
Speaker 2: The planning process. Yeah, yeah. Genius.
00:13:37
Speaker 1: So I'm like... I start reverse engineering the planning process of, you guys want to run and gun, shoot, move, and communicate like a Navy SEAL, but... you think the technical skill of shooting fast is the answer. And it's like, that's the easiest part of this whole thing.
00:13:56
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:13:57
Speaker 1: It's a technical skill. Like I teach you the seven fundamentals.
00:14:00
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
00:14:01
Speaker 1: And then with, with reps and training, it obviously like, you know, I'm simplifying this a little bit, but that's like the simplest portion of the process. So as we start reverse engineering that, you know, getting into, okay, well, You know, like I was saying, if we want to shoot before we're going to shoot, we need to be able to go hands on because we're probably hands on before we're in a shooting situation. If you look at most police officers, they arrest people every day. They don't shoot people every day. So my hands on skills got to be there. My hands on skills have to be backed up with, you know, fitness and strength because I might have good technique. But if I if I'm not strong and athletic. My technique only goes so far. Well, if I'm going to be strong and athletic, I need to back that up with discipline, right? And the discipline needs to be backed up with diet. And the diet needs to be backed up with, you know, planning and strategic thinking. Like this is a planned process. You're not just winging it. You know what I mean? So now this starts going into... lifestyle choices right now. This starts going into the psychology of, well, why are you depressed? Why aren't you motivated? Why can't you be disciplined? You know what I mean? Um, and it just like, as I was working further and further with these guys, uh, as cheesy as it sounds, like I was there to teach them how to shoot. But at the end of the day, this was winding up turning, like as we peeled back layers of the onion, we wind up going into life coaching role. You know what I mean? Because that was really where the issues lied. It wasn't what they were doing on the range. It was all the things in the background. And then this is paralleling with something like, I hate to use this example and throw them under the bus. So I apologize to Tiger Woods.
00:15:55
Speaker 2: Right.
00:15:57
Speaker 1: I'm just going to use him because he's such a great example for for all of us.
00:16:03
Speaker 2: Right.
00:16:04
Speaker 1: But it's like, so Tiger Woods was like the American superstar, the best golfer anyone's ever seen. He defied the odds because it was, you know, one was his skill to play golf, but the other was being mixed race in a predominantly white sport. He really stood out. You know what I mean? He was like the American sweetheart athlete. And the thing that took him out from being number one, Was not that he got bad at playing golf. It wasn't that he wasn't practicing enough. He didn't get lazy on the, on the course. He got lazy in his lifestyle. He got addicted to alcohol. He got addicted to drugs. He was committing adultery while he was traveling. And ultimately the things that had nothing to do with the skill of playing golf. is what took him out of being the number one golfer in the world. Had nothing to do with golf. Had everything to do with his personal decisions, his values, and what he was doing off the field. And we see that guys in the SEAL teams, we see that it's guys don't get kicked out of the teams or get their bird pulled because they were bad at operating. That's very rarely does ever happen that a guy was a bad operator and that's why they kick him out. It's usually because he was drunk driving. He did drugs at a party or something. He hit somebody or, you know, like there's lots of examples. The point being is it wasn't because he got bad at Operating. It's the stuff on the side.
00:17:38
Speaker 2: So, you know, do you know the, the tiger woods, Navy seal connection? Do you know that story too? No. You've never heard this.
00:17:48
Speaker 1: Uh, refresh my memory. Maybe, but I don't, not off the top of my head.
00:17:51
Speaker 2: So at the pinnacle of his, whatever, especially when we started gaining notoriety out there, he befriended a bunch of team guys and became obsessed with seals. And it got so significant that they actually invited him out to Nyland and he was doing training with platoons out at Nyland. They let him come out and get in the stack and do everything. And then he was training with a bunch of contract guys who were former team guys. And that's when he got huge. And apparently the story goes, he was doing some kind of CQB stuff with these guys somewhere at a private range or something and And he heard his back and that was the initiation of his back. And he was also partying with all the team guys, which that's what the theory is, is that exploded his. Now I've heard from other people that it was, he was already involved in that kind of lifestyle before, but it was the team guys that actually exacerbated it.
00:19:01
Speaker 1: I've never heard that. I didn't know that.
00:19:03
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, it was actually in a couple articles and I know some of the guys that were that participated in that. It's just hilarious that you brought that up, but, but you're right. You're right. It's, it's the comprehensive, like it's the recognition that performance isn't just attributable to, uh, what, uh, an individual skillset. it's a derivative of the entire lifestyle for sure that that makes the skill set viable right i love that description too.
00:19:34
Speaker 1: So that's so the the the format of the book is basically um it's it on the the the sub little slogan here whatever that thing's called the subtitle it's an introspective guide to creating balanced long-term success. So the book isn't about me. There's some references to experiences and things like that. But it's really for the reader to go through and ask themselves a lot of really challenging questions. And identify where are they dropping the ball and where are the shortfalls in their life? You know what I mean? And where are they self-sabotaging? You know what I mean? For the exact thing like that. So maybe it's someone who's trying to climb the ladder currently. They're at rock bottom. They're trying to climb their way out or they're trying to achieve greatness. Well, what are the traps along the way to doing that? Maybe it's someone who's already achieved big things already. And now it's like, how do I maintain this and keep it from falling? Because you look at anyone who's a professional mixed martial artist, it's one thing getting the belt. It's a whole other thing defending it.
00:20:48
Speaker 2: Keep it. Yeah, man.
00:20:50
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? And a lot of guys say it's harder to defend it. And it's kind of like the same thing with musicians.
00:20:56
Speaker 2: Yep.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: The first two albums for most bands are their best albums. And then once they're famous and they have all the spoils of.
00:21:08
Speaker 1: Being on top, their music gets watered down. They get influenced. They get distracted. There's all these little things. And it's not that they got bad at playing music. It's all the other life traps that come in and basically, you know, break the band apart, um, cause tension. They have more money than they ever had, but now they're more broke than they ever were kind of thing. So, um, so that's kind of like the, the premise of, you know, building a strong, solid foundation across a wide, uh, spectrum or a full spectrum of, you know, our, our different lifestyle, you know, um, focal points, like key areas in our life that we need to maintain and not ignore, right, to maintain that balance in our lifestyle.
00:22:05
Speaker 2: I just want to really talk about my incredible partnership with one of my best friends, and that's Evan Hafer and the boys over at Black Rifle Coffee. I'm so honored to be a part of their organization. And just really can't thank them enough for allowing me to participate. What I want you to do is go to BlackRifleCoffee.com, and I want to check out their new energy drinks. They have these incredible energy drinks that you can buy at all different kinds of stores, Walmarts. Bass Sports and others, or you can go online and order. And if you want to put in your little promo code FrogLogic20, there you get a little discount on stuff there. I highly recommend that. For me, it's my morning coffee. I am addicted to Black Rifle Coffee's Just Black. I think the Tiger Stripe Camo definitely reels me in. The other one I love is the AK Espresso. This one right here is phenomenal. Love these. But they have so many different things that you can get at Black Rifle Coffee. You will love it. Again, when you go over BlackRifleCoffee.com and you're checking out, type in FrogLogic20. Get your little discount code. and tell them already rut, rut sent you. So to all those folks out there who love coffee, like I do, please do yourself a favor and go over and check out my, my brothers at BRCC. I love that you from the beginning have, have called it full spectrum warrior. I mean, it's one of my favorite titles of all the guys that I know that are, are doing similar things and trying to help people develop. And I, you know, that comprehensive process for personal evaluation, right? And I love that in your subtitle, it's introspection, right? And I always say that, you know, people are like, what's your intent when you get up and speak? And my whole thing is that I can provoke introspection. Not any cataclysmic shift or change in behavioral patterns or anything, just start asking yourself those deeper questions, right? And that, that if you're sincere about it and you ask the right questions in the right process and you actually answer these things, you're going to fuck and come to some hard truths about your current existence that should inspire change. So how to take us through the first step in the book, right? How does, how does this process get going for people?
00:24:48
Speaker 1: So you're, you're right on, right on cue with how it basically starts. The first chapter is the, so each, so each, um, in this, this logo, it's more of a symbol. So each sword is a, each chapter represents a sword. And then there's the table, the swords are sitting on the shield, the lion, the cross, right? So the, the first chapter is the sword of, uh, ownership, honesty, and understanding. Awesome. Awesome. So if we can't, one, be honest with ourselves and our situation, then you might as well not even read the rest of the book because you're just lying to yourself, right? So you're going to waste your time. We have to get honest and not take offense. It's just, it is what it is. If I'm in a shit situation or if I'm doing bad things, making bad choices, it is what it is. And like, um, I love one of the key lessons that I took away from sniper school. One of the instructors said to me, um, cause a couple of us were getting frustrated, trying to meet, like missing, uh, this long shot. And he came over and sat down between the two shooting pairs, mine and the one next to me. And he was like, Hey guys, uh, realize you're not going to hit every single shot. It's impossible, right? Let it go. That shot's gone.
00:26:15
Speaker 2: Let it go.
00:26:17
Speaker 1: The key is, is you need to understand why you missed. As long as you understand why you missed, you can ensure a second round hit. The problem is, is when you guys can't figure out why it is you missed, then your next shot is simply a guess. You have no information to base a decision off of. And it was like, so in our life, we want to ensure second round hits.
00:26:43
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Love it.
00:26:46
Speaker 1: I can't ensure a second round hit if I can't even be honest to myself for why I missed. So we go into being honest, taking ownership of it. I'm the only one who can make this change, right? And understand why what's happening is happening. And now we can go into... establishing a game plan, which brings us into like the next chapter of getting a game plan of, of how we start fixing these issues. Um, and, and also it's in there and it's like, if you're reading this and every example or every topic we're talking about, you start going, oh yeah, the dude I work with, or, oh yeah, my ex-girlfriend or, oh yeah. Uh, and you're talking about, oh yeah. And everybody else, but yourself like stop, right? go back and read this over again because you're not taking ownership right we want to find out where am i doing this you know what i mean find an example of where you're doing this so that way we can address it if we're constantly looking at everyone else and we're not looking inward again you're going to read this whole book and at the end you're going to blame everyone else as an idiot And you have, then you got nothing wrong. The only reason I'm being held up where I am in my life is because everyone else is an idiot around me. And again, you can't change that. You can't fix that. I can't control what other people do.
00:28:16
Speaker 2: Right.
00:28:16
Speaker 1: So I have to find out where, where my shortcoming, where my shortfalls, um, where am I lying to myself? Where am I not taking accountability? So that way I can start making incremental changes in my life.
00:28:27
Speaker 2: Why, why do you think we as human beings, uh, have such a natural propensity for, uh, not being accountable. Why, where, where do you think that comes from? And then, you know, what have you seen, what certain topics or, or environments that either force or kind of open the door to that personal responsibility, right? Like, why do we lie to ourselves? And then what are the things that kind of break down that I think built in setting that I think we developed pretty early on in our, our, our childhood.
00:29:12
Speaker 1: I think the, the twofold on why we like to blame others and not take responsibility. One is the easier route. You know what I mean? Like if it's someone else's fault, I don't have to do anything. I don't have to change anything. I don't have to put any work. I don't have to put any effort. All you got to do is just point a finger like, hey, this guy, you know what I mean? Let them handle it. And I think the other thing has to do with uh, it could be pride a little bit, but more so like people really don't like to be embarrassed. That's why people fear like public speaking, people fear, you know, um, getting corrected in public and stuff like that, because the people don't like looking stupid or feeling embarrassed. And so you, you mix that with that insecurity. So It's really to be a bold leader, right? If you take ownership of something and just say, yeah, dude, that was my bad, won't happen again. You basically take away everyone's ammo who's trying to hammer you on something. Well, hey, dude, that was freaking stupid. Yeah, I understand. I recognize that. That was the wrong decision. Not going to happen again. I'm going to make an adjustment.
00:30:28
Speaker 2: Awesome.
00:30:29
Speaker 1: You just took away everyone's ammo for them to come in and harass you on it. It's it's honestly, when you don't take ownership, that starts talking trash and it testifies. Now people get frustrated with you like this dude's so full of crap. You know what I mean? Like, you know, and and it actually creates more. division and more tension in the environment, although it's scary to own up to it and take that accountability and throw it on your shoulder and carry it, it's actually the easier solution than trying to deflect, blame, and set yourself. It's like lying about something. When you lie about something, there's this huge baggage that comes with it because now you have to defend the lie. And now you have to build up like this whole little story and bring other people and you make this web and it gets them as you lie and then lie again to protect the lie. You create so much weight.
00:31:35
Speaker 2: Right.
00:31:35
Speaker 1: And then you have to do so much remembering of what did I say about that thing? And it's it's exhausting. You know, I mean, versus just it really is liberating just to. Own it. Be honest.
00:31:49
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:31:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, I screwed up. I'm going to share a second round hit. I'm going to make the correction. We're going to, we're going to get to this next one.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: I love the component of owning, owning your own fallibility, right? Owning your own pretense, whether you look at it from a religious context, your pretense, you're going to send no matter what. or performance, you're going to miss a shot no matter what, or with team dynamics, you're going to have bad days. You're going to bring in baggage, whatever it is. But that, that core honesty approach is such a, uh, it's like the defining characteristic, right? I think back when, you know, we're going through buds, you know, what was the thing, you know, that stuck in my mind more than anything in particular, when we're doing, you Right. Is like, like you hear certain guys like, dude, let's just fake, you know, doing the squats or let's just cheat. Let's cut this corner or whatever, you know? And you're all like, you know, in the time, cause you're in so much pain, you're like, yeah, yeah. Fuck. Yeah. Like if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying bullshit. Right. And, and then all of a sudden you get busted and then you take a, a beat down and That makes you want to quit for real. And you're like, why did we do this? And why did I go along? And why did I, you know, and you're right. I think it is, it is the, that, that personal evaluation that man, it's, it's an easier route in the sense it's counterintuitive to believe that the easier route actually leads to more pain, but that's the reality, right? That's the component of, of what you're trying to teach here. Let me ask, do you have, because what I see a lot of times with programs is guys, because you have to have a starting point, right? You have to have something that you can manage. A lot of guys will start with a small fitness endeavor because strong fitness, strong body leads to strong mind, strong emotion, whatever. Do you have a particular starting point once you get, uh, uh, uh, acclimatized to the, the shifting blame externally to internally bearing the burden of your own responsibility, not blaming yourself. So you, it's not a condemnation of, uh, you know, uh, maybe a bad habits per se, but it's more so like, all right, I accept now I want to change. Where do you find the best like ignition point to build on to those building blocks or foundations within the book?
00:34:32
Speaker 1: Yeah. So one of the things that, that one of the reasons why it took me four years to, to read it or to write it was normally when I do these conversations with police departments or You know, I've worked with some big companies, banks and, you know, pharmaceutical companies and stuff like that. And when I'm working in those environments, faith has to stay out of the conversation. So normally that was one of those things where I'm explaining the full spectrum where philosophy and when it comes to the what's really holding all this together is Is, you know, our faith and our moral compass, our integrity, our value system. And I just kind of leave it there as like a teaser, but I can't go into it because I'm not allowed to do that in that environment. And when I was originally sat down to write the book. I was like, okay, well, I can reach more people if I just write it the same way I do the speaking engagements. And I leave that there. And I prayed on it. And I was like, no, you know what? I got to invite God into this conversation. It's only right. If I'm being truthful and this is my cornerstone, I shouldn't be hiding this or afraid to speak on this topic. So I invited God into the conversation and Then what happened is I had to go through and make sure every single thing that I was saying and teaching in the book lined up with scripture. And I had to do like a really big gut check because I'm like, I can't bring God into the conversation when it's convenient. Either he's in the conversation and he's part of the program or he's not. You know what I mean? I can't pick and choose because then I'm just I'm I'm being like one of those people like, oh, yeah, you know, I just pick a little of everything that I like from all the religions. And it's like, well, you're taking what you like, which is not what you need.
00:36:32
Speaker 2: Right.
00:36:33
Speaker 1: All the things you need are inconvenient and you're leaving them out. So part of this, even if the book flops financially. one of the great things was, is it made me take a huge, uh, deep dive evaluation, uh, biblically and spiritually into what am I actually teaching people? And what am I communicating to people? And am I taking people on the wrong path or not? And it was, it got scary, you know, and there was some things that are like, okay, you know, I, I, I got to really reevaluate this. And one of, one of my buddies is a pastor. He just said to me when we were setting up, uh, that, that event that we do the protector summit once a year, which is basically like the book in action. Um, He was just like, hey, you got to be really careful. Like what you're doing with these guys is great. When you're bringing your coaches in and you guys are running these events and you're bringing you're invoking God into the conversation. You have to make sure that you're not picking and choosing pieces of scripture to fit your talk. but you have to make sure that your talk fits the scripture. Right. Because, and we've seen a lot of this, you see this happen with like the transgender movement in the church where they take fragments of scripture to argue a point. But if you read the entire scripture, like, you know, Jesus welcomes everybody and he loves everybody and he has grace for everybody. He wouldn't judge me. And it's like, Okay, well, if you actually read the second half of Jesus's scriptures, he forgives the prostitute or the, you know, the adulteress or, you know, the tax collector or whoever he's talking to. But then the follow-up statement is, now leave that and follow me and sin no more.
00:38:34
Speaker 2: Right?
00:38:34
Speaker 1: Like, you're forgiven, but you need to create change. Do not stay in the lifestyle that is creating separation between you and me. You know what I mean? So it was a great piece of advice. And basically, I went through and really had to deep dive into that. And if anything... it was worth it just to, to challenge myself to actually, again, going back to the, what we were just talking about, being honest with myself of, am I actually giving people good counseling or am I leading them in the wrong direction and doing what I feel is right, but scripturally is wrong. So that was a great challenge for me. But as we go into this, bringing in the spiritual warfare side of it, it's, Hey dude, When you do this self-reflection and you find things that are wrong in your life or things that you're doing wrong understand the world and the enemy is going to come in and now try to attack you on that and convince you that you're a And all these kind of things. And now you're going to start to identify this spiritual battle that's going on behind the scenes in every aspect of our life. And this goes right into the food we eat. You know what I mean? There's a spiritual battle in the world right now to poison us. You have the surface level conversation about diet.
00:40:12
Speaker 2: And then.
00:40:13
Speaker 1: you really get into it. And when you start going to deeper levels of, well, why are these things being created? Why are we being promoted? Why are we being force-fed crap that's horrible for us? Why are they misleading us on what a healthy diet truly looks like? And this all goes from a physical battle into a spiritual battle. So there's two parallel conversations happening one is in the physical and one is in the spiritual as we as we go through all this.
00:40:44
Speaker 2: God that and that's for those who've not i don't know force that that that level introspection and your faith it is a brutal thing it is a because you know it i mean there's there's a lot of hypocrisy out there with people who profess like you said, who pick and choose their, uh, their, their faith arrows. Right. Uh, but if, if, if you're going to test your resolve in this grander lifestyle guide guidebook, like man, to start with your spiritual strength, man, a lot of like, you know, that's, I think that's the hardest place to begin, right? The easiest place is, ah, if I, hit the gym and I, you know, clean up my diet and I don't drink as much, or I stopped drinking. I stopped whatever, you know, it's like, okay, this is all whatever, but that, that accountability piece on a deeper level in the totality of how you act morally, right. Both internally and externally, man, now you're talking about full spectrum. Like that's the real, that's where, you know, the boots hit the pavement, so to speak for sure.
00:42:05
Speaker 1: And then the conversations happen parallel. You know what I mean?
00:42:08
Speaker 2: So it's interesting. What do you mean by that?
00:42:12
Speaker 1: So here's an example. This one's probably going to piss a lot of people off.
00:42:16
Speaker 2: Right.
00:42:16
Speaker 1: But good. And again, I'm not, I'm not trying to attack anyone, but yeah, You look at all these women getting plastic surgery and lip fillers and and things and things of that nature. So the world tells us this makes you beautiful. And my question is, is who told you that you were not beautiful? Who's speaking to you? Who's speaking into your heart, right? Because I guarantee you, your husband, your boyfriend didn't say, hey, dude, your lips look like crap. You need to go get injections. Your boyfriend didn't say that.
00:42:58
Speaker 2: So who or what? Maybe down here where I live that happens.
00:43:05
Speaker 1: But who's speaking that into you? And do you recognize the voice of God versus the voice of the enemy? And this was, I mean, I could argue this, that you could throw this back on me and be like, well, Rich, you have a bunch of tattoos. Yeah, I do. And I don't think God was speaking to me when he was telling me that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I don't think God was communicating to me to get the tattoos that I was getting. You know what I mean? And when we look at.
00:43:43
Speaker 1: The devil is in battle with God, but the devil can't beat God. So what's the next best thing? God created us in his image, and now the devil wants to destroy the image bearer. So how does he destroy the image bearer? He does it in many ways, right? But when we start looking at these lifestyle practices that we have, that we're destroying ourselves in the process, but it's popular among the world, but it's counterproductive to our spiritual growth, we have to ask ourselves, whose words are, who's speaking into me? And sometimes, and this is like, when I started this process, when I got out of the Navy, I was telling Chad when I was on the Resilient podcast a few weeks ago.
00:44:34
Speaker 2: Dude, one of my favorite episodes he's ever done, man. I love Chad. Oh, really? You were spectacular on that, brother.
00:44:44
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I appreciate that.
00:44:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody go check that episode out. It is absolutely stellar.
00:44:52
Speaker 1: But that was the conversation. Chad was surprised. He was like, I told him I turned the radio off for seven years. I took the TV out of my house and I turned the radio off for seven years. When I started opening up those books, when I was in the SEAL teams, I wasn't spiritual. I wasn't walking with Christ or anything like that. Me too. If it was to be, it was up to me. I guess maybe I was agnostic. I don't know. But once I started having these... spiritual breakthroughs and I was reading some of these books and like the, the veil started to be like, like pulled back and things were being revealed to me. I was like, Oh my God, the, the things that I've been allowing to speak into my life, my view of the world, the decisions that I've been making, the path that I'm on, that my heart, the condition my heart is in right now, I've been letting all these things, broken people speak into me. I've been singing the songs of people who are not on the path that I want to be on. I'm watching the shows of the people who do not have my best interest in mind. You know what I mean? Like, and I just had to turn it all off. And I basically, I did like a mental and spiritual reset. And I just, I just dove in and I just took seven years off. And then finally, you know, my, my partner at the time was like, dude, can we just... could we just like watch a movie or something? Can we have a TV? I got a TV and it was just, we had a TV with a VCR and we'd go get like a red box or something. It was like, I'm not having TV on in the house all the time. And, um, you know, but I'm not saying that's, that's the solution. That's what everyone needs to do. That's just what I did at the time. But again, it's just one of those things where it's like, you know, we have this, you know, self-destructive happiness that we, that we play into. And, um, these things that the world has convinced us are good for us, when we go through and we break this down in the book, there's so many things that we're doing that are counterintuitive to our spiritual growth and to our true success you know because that that brings up the question like once i got into this whole process of identifying building a successful lifestyle well then the question came to me well what does it truly mean to be successful.
00:47:15
Speaker 2: That that's what just popped in my head with with with right now for you so like how do you begin to deconstruct that question.
00:47:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tricky. So it's like, I'm trying not to backhand someone like, boom, right off the bat with the Bible. Like, you know, so I'm trying to write this in a way that you could be where I was being agnostic and read the book and have a lot of good takeaways from a psychology standpoint. Or you could be on your spiritual walk and read between the lines and understand the that there's two battles happening, one of the physical, one of the spiritual, and they're happening side by side, parallel. So the challenge is, and I hope as you go through this process and you mature, right? Like, you know, that's what I was saying. Like, do you have these false summits? I made it to the SEAL team. I, you know, achieved things that, Everyone in my high school said I wouldn't be able to do. Family and friends said I wouldn't be able to do it. There's many men around the country who would dream of being a Navy SEAL and they can't do it or they don't do it. And it's like, here I am. I got to this spot, this pinnacle of success, only to realize that there was still this huge void in my heart. And I thought I had succeeded. But I truly didn't. I succeeded at a task, but I didn't succeed in my life. You know what I mean? And, you know, we have lots of guys that we know. And this isn't just for the SEAL teams. It's just in general. But if we're talking about the SEAL teams, we have lots of guys who have got to the team and then they're great. You're a Navy SEAL, but you don't know your kids. Your family's destroyed.
00:49:13
Speaker 2: Right.
00:49:14
Speaker 1: You've burnt lots of relationships. And some of that comes with the nature of being an military relationship where you're gone so much. But again, when we start just looking at the bigger picture of... Because I know some guys who maintain those relationships through their time in the teams had strong marriages, good relationships with their kids. But there's a lot of guys who didn't. You know what I mean? And that's not a jab at them. It's just, you know... Like I thought getting to the SEAL teams and being a SEAL, you'd be good. And my heart wasn't. So as we go through this process, by the time I was done self-reflecting all this stuff, my opinion on, well, what is it to be truly successful is that you're through the process, your heart changes, you're building a life that validates your relationship with Christ. And at the end of the day, the only way we'll truly know if we succeeded or not, there's two things is one, will we walk through the narrow gate at the very end? And the second thing is, did I set my family up in a way that I'm leading them to follow me through the gate if I'm so honored to be accepted through it? You know what I mean? But that's that's a hard thing to start on page one. You know what I mean? And that's that's that's. So I'm not hammering that necessarily as the definition of what it is to be successful. That's my personal takeaway after working on the project. But for you to reach goals, okay, you want to be a SEAL? Cool. Here's the process, not how to become an Navy SEAL. Here's the process of succeeding at a goal, something like that. That could be getting a master's degree. That could be moving up in the job. It doesn't matter. These things are interchangeable. The life skills, the life practices that's needed to be a team player, to be accountable, to be a leader, to be a good communicator, these things are interchangeable regardless of the topic that you want to apply it to. But the parallel conversation is we can help you get that corporate leadership role, but if you're still... committing adultery and destroying your family at home, are you really succeeding?
00:51:42
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:51:43
Speaker 1: We can help you get that, that job, you know, and it succeeded all this stuff. But when you look in the mirror, if you hate the person that you see in the mirror, that you need to change the way your face is constructed because you're not happy with yourself, then are we truly succeeding in our heart? You know what I mean? At the same time. So there's, There, there's, there's a, you know, winning of the heart and the spirit and there's winning in the physical, tangible aspects. So there's, there's these two parallel conversations that are happening through the entirety of the process of the book.
00:52:17
Speaker 2: I love it, man. This is, this is not your, for you all listening to this or watching, you know, this is not your typical self-help book. And I'm telling you right now, Rich Graham is not your typical self-help guru out there. All right. Um, I can vouch for, you know, paying attention to his growth and development for the last 15 years. And there are not many other people that are putting this much time and this much of their own introspection, uh, into something that will directly benefit you. This, this is a, um, what is, you know, so I just want to clarify for everybody, is there a component of this that has. an instructional guide or manual type feel to it at all.
00:53:10
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah so so the we're gonna have like a program that you can do after you read the book and basically do a deep dive into it but basically the way the the way the the the chapters start is basically they start more like, these are the things that we're going to try to achieve in this chapter. These are the things we want to do. And at the end of the chapter, there's questions of full spectrum warrior must ask themselves. So basically, you know, we have the meat and potatoes of the topic, but then we have questions that you should be asking yourself and, you know, having those real questions. introspective, you know, dialogues and, um, and basically have like some marching orders on what you can do to make those changes.
00:53:59
Speaker 2: Right.
00:54:00
Speaker 1: And then what I'll do is with that program, they're going to do on the side, um, there's a little QR code in the book and you can go to like our little online university thing. We can start having more of those conversations specifically with the readers. So if one person's trying to be a welder and the other dude's a college athlete and one person's having marital problems on the topic of strategic thinking and finances... that sword topic is going to be different for the college kid, for the dude who's trying to hold a marriage together to the dude who is working as a commercial welder. Like they're in three different portions, three different positions of that growth process. So, um, with the books already a little bit over 300 pages. So to not make it into like this huge encyclopedia, you know what I mean? Like we're, we're kind of, challenging you on each one of these topics. And honestly, there's hundreds, if not thousands of books that are written on each one of the chapter topics on those specific areas of your growth. I kind of took what I thought was relevant for a well-rounded lifestyle and put it in an organized fashion in an order that's easy to digest and break down. And then you can chase the rabbit as you need on any one of those topics that you need more work in. But we'll also do like an open forum Q & A. So if people have specific questions... based on the topics in the book, as it pertains to their lifestyle, and maybe other people have something similar going on, we can open up that dialogue and, and chase the rabbit in that, in that area, you know, or in regards to like something more specific. So the, the information in the book is a little bit more general, you know what I mean? Cause everyone has so many different lifestyles, so many different things going on. And there might be some things that I just be like, dude, that's a great, that's a great question. And maybe I bring in, you know, another coach who that is like, you know, cause I'm, I'm not claiming to be this guru who knows everything about everything. You know, it's just, there's, I know what I don't know also, you know what I mean? So maybe there's, maybe there's topics you're like, Hey dude, that's great. That's above my pay grade on this specific topic. I know that this is an important thing to evaluate and to have active in your lifestyle, you know, but you know, we need to talk to someone who's a little bit more educated on that. You know what I mean?
00:56:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that. I love the whole setup. I love the book is the trigger point. There'll be the post book curriculum that integrates with the process, the step-by-step open forums. And then I'm assuming you'll also provide uh, in, you know, personal coaching and they can come to the ranch and get training on it. Like, cause I mean, knowing you, it is a full spectrum approach to get people in the door with the book and then get them going on the overall idea. Is there, uh, is there, you know, kind of the way I, you know, I built my whole thing out is in kind of this two year span. Like that's the ideal in my mind, like two years to really, you know, set something up and get the process going and really, you know, figure it out over that time. Cause then you're like, all right, I'm, It's not two weeks and you're like, all right, what's the next thing I'm going to do? So is there a time orientation to this development? Is there, are there levels of mastery? How do you break that down?
00:57:52
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I think, I think the, the, the level of mastery you're going to be able to gauge it on is, um, how are you doing with your relationships? Are your relationships falling apart? Is everywhere you go, is it always burnt bridges? Are your relationships solid? You know what I mean? Cause I know a lot of guys who everyone loves them and then everyone hates them. And it's just this, it's just roller coaster. And you're like, when you meet them and, and, um, you talk to people and it's like, Hey, last year they were around and everyone loved them. Now I don't work with this person anymore. Um, so like, how are your relationships doing? How are your finances doing? Are you progressing in the climbing at your company or in a team or whatever? Are you making forward headway? Are you having people that you're leading.
00:58:48
Speaker 1: But they're following you, even if you're not in the leadership position, because they respect who you are, they respect your values and what you're doing.
00:58:57
Speaker 2: Right.
00:58:57
Speaker 1: Or do you find yourself in a position where you have to threaten the people who are working underneath you because of your like using your rank or your position at the company to force them to do what it is that needs to be done? or will they do it because they want to work for you and they want you to be proud of them and they want you to respect the job that they did like these are being a leader versus a dictator like we see this a lot in corporate america we see this a lot in the military where you have to respect the rank not the person you know what i mean but um So I think these are good areas that we can look to to gauge how our success is progressing. My goal with the book, though, is it's not a book that you read once and then you're like, cool, that was good. You know, I think it's one of those ones that maybe you come back to once a year or once every two years. And, you know, when I read it the first time, it's kind of like when I open up the Bible and I read the Bible and I took away all these lessons and it was like, man, this is awesome. And then I go back maybe a year later and I read that same passage that I read. And it's like, I'm reading it for the first time.
01:00:11
Speaker 2: Yeah.
01:00:13
Speaker 1: And it's speaking to me into a whole new way. And I'm like, I know the verse number is the same, but I feel like this is a completely new verse. Because the position that I'm in a year later is different. My life circumstances, my heart, my family, my roles, my responsibilities. I'm in a different position, so I'm reading this a new way. So the reality is, my goal for this would be that.
01:00:41
Speaker 1: You come back to it as you, you know, I read it as I was a college athlete. Now I graduated and now I'm going into corporate America. I need to read this again.
01:00:51
Speaker 2: Okay.
01:00:52
Speaker 1: I was the low guy in the totem pole. Now I'm middle rank. I need to read this again. Oh, I was dating some person, but now I'm engaged and I'm ready. I'm getting ready to be a husband. I should read this again. Oh my gosh. I'm a new father. You know what I mean? And I'm now in a leadership, not only in my home, but I'm a leadership position at my job. This what I when I read this as a college kid the things that were hammering me and calling me out and the things that pertain to me are different as a college kid who's trying to perform in sports because I have no responsibilities yet finances aren't as like. managing my finances, managing my time, being a leadership role, having people watch how I make my decisions wasn't as important when I was in college as it is as I'm now as a father and a leader in the organization that I'm working for. So the contents of the book will hit in a different way as you develop, you know what I mean? Because your takeaways from the book are going to be what's relevant to you currently and You know what I mean? And those are always going to be changing as your environment, as your position and responsibilities change. And really, that's a springboard into, I hope this is a catalyst for you to also open up your Bible and go through that, because that's really where we should be pulling the information from, not Rich Graham. I'm giving you tips. I'm, I'm challenging you. And the reality is, is you should then go, Hey, you know what? At the end of the day, I need to be digging into scripture a little bit for true guidance. You know what I mean?
01:02:33
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Rich, man, I cannot wait to read this thing, man. It's going to be amazing. Uh, I have, you know, again, so much respect for the, what the amount of time and effort that you've put into developing, uh, The Full Spectrum Warrior, this book itself. I recommend every single person, if you have any interest, not only in what operators think about performance, but more importantly, beyond that, as a more in-depth, as you've just heard Rich describe his intentions with your introspection. This is something that you can help cultivate a foundational approach to That really enhances you on a deeper, more spiritual level. So, Rich, where do they order the book and then how do they sign up for the other stuff and where can they follow you?
01:03:29
Speaker 1: Awesome. I appreciate it. So the book is right now ready for presale at FSW Lifestyle dot com. So Full Spectrum Warrior Lifestyle dot com FSW. Um, and then on there, what we have right now is we have a presale bundle. The, um, all the presales will be a hard cover and each one will be signed to the, to the person who's ordering it. Unless you want it to be to someone else, put that in the comment section. When you place the order, we have a cool thing. We're going to get a custom weather bound Bible with the emblem on it. Uh, challenge coin t-shirt in that presale bundle. So yeah, so it'd be really cool. And then, uh, Excuse me. Those should be shipped out roughly like the first week of November. And then the official launch will be December 1st is what it's set up for right now for the official launch. So between now and December, you'll get those pre-sale bundles that'll be the signed copies and then it'll just be normal, you know, commercial sales. And come December 1st, it'll be at local bookstores and on the amazon and all that stuff but if you get it right now it's at fsw lifestyle.com and then you can check us out our main pages on instagram at uh full spectrum warrior usa.
01:04:50
Speaker 2: Awesome rich i can't thank you enough brother you are uh a wise human being and you're you're you're really a unique person and i just uh i have so much respect for you and what you're doing in your life brother
01:05:06
Speaker 1: Thank you awesome i appreciate it thank you again Absolutely.
