[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Diagnose the situation, the threat, the concern, the challenge, and then run a 32 principles diagnostic. Now for a large part of my life, this was unconscious effort. It was just the natural way I operated because jujitsu was my DNA.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now that I've classified these 32 principles with my brother and created this published curriculum and they all have names,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I looked back and I went, holy cow, the extent to which these 32 principles played a part in that milestone, in that negotiation, in that victory, in that invention. It became so clear that that's when I became very committed to the process of saying, man, I think I could teach people these principles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then give them the context personally and professionally where they could be applied and let them have my operating system without having to spend 30 plus years doing jiu-jitsu. I think it'd be a great service. The big challenge in all of this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that Jujitsu is something so physical and so visual.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when I first contemplated writing the book, I felt limited by ink on paper and I went, I don't know, dude, to communicate the detachment principle with written word on paper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I asked the publisher, I said, look, I only want to do this if you'll allow me to add a QR code at the beginning of every chapter so that the reader can scan the QR code before reading the chapter


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And visually and auditorily hear and experience the principle in combat as demonstrated by myself and my brother. Uh, and it's like a five to seven minute video explaining a technique or two that encapsulates that particular principle of interest for that chapter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they can understand conceptually that physical application of that principle,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, the, the, the soil is fertile for me to then take them into the ink on paper in the chapter and communicate the, the personal and professional application of the same principle, you know, in life and business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I was happy to do it and this is the result and, you know, I'm very happy with it and I think it's a completely different experience for a reader than what they're used to because by the time they're done with this book, they will not only


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Understand how these principles apply to life and business, but they'll also learn several jiu-jitsu techniques and these principles in a combat application. And even if you're not a practitioner, by the time with this book,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're gonna walk a little bit taller, you're gonna understand some concepts of, of personal protection and self-defense that could effectively save your life in a fight. Not that you have the muscle memory in their movements, but you'll know about distance, you'll know about timing, you'll know about leverage in so many different ways as communicated in these 32 micro-principles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] BraceyUniversity.com is the example I talk about in the book.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? I broke my back, I want to reach the world with jiu-jitsu, and I use these different tools to not only connect myself with the world, but connect them with each other. And in jiu-jitsu, like I mentioned about the Swiss army knife, right? Our body is a tool, and it's capable of much more than we imagine. We have really 32 different distinct body parts that we've counted thus far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Calf, knee, ankle, instep, toes, all of these are little tools in jujitsu, right? But normal humans don't use all those. So this is the idea that in life, are you optimizing all the tools available to you to connect with people and the world, uhm, to optimize your effectiveness? So really, are you, are you optimizing what's available?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think everyone can relate to that, right? Like it's, it's a pretty universal life principle, but in Jujitsu, right? How common is that? Where,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, with my brother, I was going for the armbar, he's pulling out, and because I let go of the armbar, he ripped it out and threw himself into a triangle. So that's the detachment principle. I tell the story of my mom's, you know, untimely passing a couple years ago, and how,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, lo and behold, a couple days passed, she goes over, gets some scans, gets some things. A couple weeks passed, she thought it was gallstones, you know, let it pass. She finally goes and gets the scans, and she has bile duct cancer. Like a really rare and very aggressive form.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm like, holy cow, so a massive and rapid decline in her health in a matter of the next couple of months. And what's interesting is, of course, what we, we all, as problem solvers, we all go into save mode, right? Like, let's protect, let's save, let's go. And everyone's thinking of every, going to Chipsa in Mexico and do this alternative therapy and everyone kicks into gear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my mom, she's really rapid decline and real discomfort.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She comes in and talks to me and my siblings. She says, you know, you guys have had a really good life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the type of love and support that she needed at that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't the love and connection, it was the detachment. And the hardest was her, uhm, her husband, my stepfather in that case.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who equally was so committed, no, no, no, no, we gotta do everything with her. And as long as he needed her, she would not let go. So to the talk with him to say, Hey Mark, what she really needs is the freedom from us right now. She's made that clear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this was like, and he eventually came around and said okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and, and stepped back in his desire to offer go-go and so proactive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was the most significant use of the detachment principle in everyday life. And once he stepped back, then she was able to pass away and she did so peacefully and we were all there and, of course, timing couldn't have been worse in general. She was still, you know, 60, mid-60s, 67, 65 years old. But uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was so interesting to realize, holy cow, we're doing it not for her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But for us, and when she made clear that she was okay, I'm good, you guys. I saw my grandbabies, spent so much good time with them, I'm okay. Then I went, wow, we gotta shift everything to now support her the way she needs to be supported, not the way we want to support. And the attachment principle made that possible because so many times in Jiu Jitsu, letting go when I didn't think it was the right play was the right play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jiu-jitsu? This is the one. Right? As we say, we change the distance from which fights are fought in America and around the world when UFC one hit. And this is true in relationships as well. Right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You got to be careful because in a fight, the way we explain it is jiu-jitsu strategy. You want to be all the way out or you want to be all the way in. And.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're not careful, you end up in what's called the red zone in a street fight or in an altercation where the red zone is where you're not all the way in, you're not all the way out and you're punchable, it's the tip of the punch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in life, this exists as well, right? You want to be either in relationships that are close and meaningful and rich where you're all the way in and you're invested in that relationship, or you want to be all the way out where, uhm, any wrongdoings of the other person in the relationship don't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] profoundly affect you in a negative way that you had no control over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because if you exist in the red zone where you're in, but you're not all the way in, then you expose yourself to that relationship red zone where damage can be done. Serious damage can be done. And I tell a story about relationships where my failure to manage the distance effectively caused, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To do damage, irreparable damage that I, I, I, you know, I, I, to some degree,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, take some ownership of, even though I had nothing to do with it, the fact that this person used our reputation and the fact that there was a relationship, but the fact that we weren't close enough to mitigate the damage and to prevent it from, from furthering, uhm, I have some sense of ownership of that. So it was a chapter where I talk about a failure to manage the distance effectively and the price I paid as a result.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, a hundred percent. And in Jujitsu, right, we talk about this concept of you want to be first and you want to be third.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. You know, so this idea of deliberate targeted actions to get the reaction from the opponent that you're looking for and then capitalizing on that, uhm, that reaction of theirs and it's, it's a, it's a powerful concept there and it's a powerful concept in life and business as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bro, the example in the book was marriage. Yeaah. Right? So, so for me, it was uhm, you know, I tell the story about my wife and I, my now wife, then girlfriend, and the struggle that we had.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My mom, she's like, her mom was like, ICE, right, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, attorney, like a federal ICE attorney, high level, like a senior attorney at ICE in Colorado. Her dad's a psychologist. Her sister's a psychologist. Her brother is a, is a scientist, right, a biologist.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All successful family, everyone's successful. And she says, well, all I saw was my mom work 40, 50, 60 hours a week, every week of my life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I had nothing but admiration and that's all I grew up with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we're perfectly healthy and we grew up and all of us are successful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm over here thinking my mom didn't work at all, she's in the house because she had to be and she's cleaning and she's mopping and she's doing this and they divorced after 12 years or 13, 14, 15 years and her parents are still married after 50 years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fair to say, I tapped out. And the result is now evident. I have a wife who not only works, but she's integral, running the whole Gracie University Chief of Operations, sorry Chief of Staff there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Acceptance principle. Saved my marriage. Big time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're fast, always fast, you're predictable. If you're always slow, you're predictable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, it's the velocity principle is a constant changing of our operational speed to disrupt our opponent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this is the idea of, you know, knowing when to go, knowing when not to go. And I used the example of sleeper hold, this pillow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Launch, don't launch, launch, don't launch. And there were so many factors coming into the public launch of this pillow that, uhm, Covid came in and then we stopped and then I planned on going and then Kenny, my marketing director, who actually trains here with you guys, he lives in San Diego, Kenny Wang.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was like, Hannah, no we can't launch right now because it's the wrong month and timing of when to go and when to, and when you go, go. But when you're not, when it's not time to go,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pull, right, and just being able to be flexible in the velocity, and in jiu-jitsu we do so much of the changing of our pacing. Uhm, and I talk about that in great length there. And it's a critical principle, and it comes into the clock principle, which is the kind of the other side of the timing principles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The clock principle, right? Recognizing that the right move at the wrong time is the wrong move. And the clock principle also talks about disrupting the other person against you. So if you're going to do a technique and you have your anticipated timing, my job is to disrupt your anticipated timing of your move to throw the whole thing off. And.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there was a psychologist who trained with us and called in and said, I have a kid who had suffered from the most severe case of social anxiety I've ever seen, right? He vomits profusely in any type of social encounter. Going to school, he vomits every morning before school, it was crazy. I think he would love jiu jitsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we set it up for a Thursday and I set it up for a time where I knew Nolan would be in the building so that he wouldn't feel this anxiety. So at four o'clock class, it's like four, five, four, 10 and the mom calls me from the parking lot and says, Henner, we're not going to make it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said, what do you mean? She says, well, we're outside parked in front of the building, but he's not coming to the class. We tried and we want to thank you for allocating the time and I'm sorry. I said, you're outside my building right now? Can I come out and say hi?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She says, of course. So I walk out in my gi, I walk out and I hear the most abdominally enforced cry I've ever heard in my life. Screaming cry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mom is standing outside the car, passenger side on the curb. He's sitting in the passenger side back seat. Mom is outside. I say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like I kinda mouth it to her and I go around the passenger, the driver's side, I get in the car and I sit down. And he's crying, you guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a situation like jiu-jitsu, I don't have the technique, I don't know the answer, the move for this submission that this guy has me in. So I sit down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're open to it, I'd like to give you a tour of the facility. Beautiful mats. Beautiful facility. I think you really enjoyed it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We walk out, we go in there, empty building, just the reception is high, we walk by, tour the format, all I'm thinking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Zero, because the chance that I get it back a second time is zero of zero. So there's no way. So I'm walking and I'm nervous because how am I gonna get this guy on the mat and not cause a vomiting fit in the middle of this building?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm giving him the tour. We go to the locker room. We come back by the private rooms right there. Room number one. I open the door to the private room. I walk in and I step on the mats and I say, Shane, these mats are so soft. Take off your shoes so you can feel them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He walks in with his shoes off, mom walks in, goes to the side, small room, this exact size right here, green mats on every wall, looks like an insane asylum, padded walls, padded floor, no, nothing else, no exit. He walks in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The classic 10 minute intro of Gracie Jujitsu. I mount on top of him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I say, how, we're bros now, I said, how would you escape? Well, I push you off. I said, go give it a go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow, that was awesome. Do it again. I'd do it the other way. Oh man, you lay down, you do it. He does it. He does it. Two, three. Six techniques, one hour later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mom doesn't say one word throughout this whole time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I look over in the corner and she's crying. Silent tears falling on her face. And me and Shane are all in. I don't even think he noticed. But I was seeing that. We're having the best time doing these techniques. We wrap it up. Amazing job bro. We get up. We go out. I'll see you guys on Tuesday. On Tuesday it only takes 15 minutes to get him out of the corner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the next class he comes in, after the Tuesday class, we do the whole routine again, we train, we're all good. The next class he comes in, Henner, I need you to use the restroom. He goes, he throws up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So he's dealing with this, couldn't be more grateful, the mom can't believe he graduates high school, earns his blue belt eventually, goes to college, lives a normal life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Shane in that moment, but I depleted his resources in the car by patiently waiting, and then when we got to the actual door and I opened it, and I said, now's the time, I'm gonna call him in, I'm gonna shut the door, we're friends, he's gonna trust me, this is gonna work.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jiu Jitsu worked in that situation. I had faith, I threw my, my chance, I threw my opportunity, I mounted on him, I didn't know what reaction it was gonna be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And today he's a different man because of it. And the doctor cannot believe it who referred him. Henry, I've never seen this before. This type of transformation on this type of social anxiety. It's almost incurable because it's so pronounced and it's so deep. Jujitsu saved him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Muscular strength with skeletal structure everywhere we can. It's helpful to be strong, right? It's never a liability, really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's there, it's added, it's an asset. But what strength we have has limitations in how far it'll take us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when you substitute your skeletal structure, which doesn't require the physical, muscular strength,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can accomplish more with less. It's efficiency at its finest.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My grandfather loved this principle and I talk about this idea of operationally in a business, for example, how changing the operational framework of a business can drastically increase your effectiveness, right? In terms of what you get out of your human resources, what you get out of your mechanical resources.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I discussed some examples for Gracie University of how changing the structure of the business, changing the framework of the business just exponentially grew our potential and our impact in the world. Uhm, and it's one that again, found it's, it's, it's rooted on the mats, but is equally effective in life and business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, so the kuzush, uh, seeking first to understand, then to be understood. That's the life application of the kuzushi principle, uh, that I, my kind of definition that I gave it. For jujitsu, this is the kuzushi, the, the, the term kuzushi is literally the breaking of balance, right? It's a known principle in judo and jujitsu. And,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Every sweep, every trap and roll, every takedown, you're breaking the balance and then you're driving their way in a direction where they don't have the appendage to balance themselves. So when you talk about the pyramid principle, you talk about base. When you talk about the Kazushi principle, you're essentially breaking the pyramid of the opponent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the life application of this, and remember, as I'm writing this book, I'm really reflecting on my life, and I'm saying, okay, where in my life did I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What does breaking balance have to do with dealing with people and businesses and family and relationships? And then I realized, well, you can't break the balance that you don't first understand. I need to know the pillars on which you stand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To then be able to isolate and defeat a pillar and then off balance you in the direction I wanna take you. So that's where I gave it the life application and entrepreneurial definition of seeking first to understand then to be understood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was an example here where I, we, one day someone emails me and says, Hannah, we have a one-star Yelp review. Disaster.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uhm, I say, find me the phone number for who this is. And what the Yelp review says is, I had my daughter go to her first class.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Give me the phone number. I'm gonna call. And I called my managers into the room. And I got her on the phone on speaker. And the mom's name was Myra.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I didn't teach the class. It was another instructor of mine. I said, tell me everything. She went, boom, took her time explaining everything I just told you. And I said, you know what? I said, first of all, I'm really sorry this happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I said, there's no excuse. And know that steps will be taken so that no other student ever experiences what Miranda experienced, her daughter. I said, but that's not good enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Miranda never got the introduction to jiu-jitsu that she should have gotten. And that she deserves.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what I'd like to do is offer her a private class with myself, and I want you to come with her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that you can also be introduced to Jiu Jitsu the way it should be done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said, great, let's do it. So I set up the class with Bobby, one of our female, amazing female instructors, me, Bobby, and then Myra and Miranda. We do this private class.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Howard on class, boom, just having fun. Gracie games for the girl, techniques for the mom, they're having the best time. Class ends and I said, look, I don't want to go just there. I also want to sponsor a whole month of private classes with Bobby.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're gonna love her, she's one of our best instructors. She's gonna take care of you guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then we'd love to have you back in group classes or whatever you want. But to me, what matters most is that Miranda gets the introduction to jiu-jitsu that you knew was possible and that you were hoping for when you brought her that first time. She was robbed and we're going to make it right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is amazing. And then they did the first, second class with Bobby. The review disappeared, turned into a five-star review. Raving fans and students for lifelong. Now they're training with us. He had another son. He has a baby, newborn baby. He's gonna come in. It's all good. And in all of the situation, it started with, where are you at?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where are you at? Calling her up and not saying, hey, why'd you write that? That's not true. But instead, tell me everything so this can never happen again. So if you're in a business where it's customer service, where it's, and sometimes the customers are the employees. As we know, the most important customers are our employees in an organization. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. This is true in business and in personal relationships.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And jiu-jitsu, right, we always aim to create dilemmas for our opponents such that if they choose A,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the whole game, right? It's trapped everywhere. And then I'm thinking, well, in life, I'm not trying to trap you and trap you and trap you. So in reflecting how this principle has played out in my life, it became more a matter of recognizing that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The most successful organizations and relationships are ones where all the stakeholders are winning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] True win wins. And you have to understand that coming from a family where the entire reputation


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In order for the Gracie family to win, someone had to lose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you have a karate practitioner, they have to suck in order for us to be good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so that's called a win-lose, right? And I'm not speaking out against that per se, but I'm just kind of letting you guys know and sharing the fact that that's the DNA that I was given. Someone has to lose for someone else to win, and if both people are winning, nobody's winning. That's what I was brought up in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it didn't limit itself to the Gracie Challenge matches. I have to say that some of the entrepreneurial influence of previous generations leaned on this idea in the workplace where, no, no, no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It has to be disproportionately favorable for us in order for us to be in this relationship at all. And that's when I saw how many relationships fell through.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In my previous generations of Gracie family members, how many opportunities were lost, how many relationships were soured, how many partnerships failed as a result of one party seeking that win-lose because eventually all win-loses become lose-loses.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I have some very good mentors. I was privileged at 17, 18, 19 years old to be teaching very successful entrepreneurs in every field, right? You can imagine. So I'm asking, I'm learning and I'm always inquiring like, yo, what's your secret? And he says,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Treat your people very good, and this is on more than one occasion, but take care of your people. Create win-wins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the irony of it all is that by being trusting, sharing, and considerate of other people's needs, we've now grown an organization with 250 schools around the world sharing, they're making money, we're making money, we're changing lives every step of the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in all these cases, the irony of it all is the partners in this win-win, in this particular example of sharing Jutsu with the world,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are the very people who were the losers on the Gracie Challenge matches so long ago, right? Those arts and all the other traditional martial artists now are our biggest allies in sharing jutsu with the world. But in order to get to that point, I had to apply the fork principle in pursuing those win-wins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That DNA, when I became the leader in the business, and deciding how I wanted to operate it, and that's where Eve came in and go, no, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It can be like this too. You can share and you can do this and you can allow other people to win with us and I think we'll go further. And we went from a single school with four employees to now


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 250 schools and a headquarters with 50 employees in Torrance who work full time there all because everyone's winning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other people that are drinking, Eve not so much, and there's a guy who's having a little too much to drink, very known wrestler that people know the name of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he starts getting a little, oh, he's even only been training for like three months, four months, right? Basic beginner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And in the moment, her eye starts to throb and swell up. Black eye on the road. And she's a backstage reporter who has to be on camera.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's freaking walking away, laughing. She runs up, she jumps on his back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She inserts both hooks and sinks the rear naked standing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He starts to grab at her arm and starting to just stumble to the right, stumble to the left.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because after she choked him out, I'm not on tour with him and like all the guys were on notice and like everyone was like, yo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very predictable and the less training they have, the more predictable they become.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that can be used to your advantage in a massive way when you just know how humans behave and in the life and business application, we had a situation where.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were running a beautiful business with, uh, tons of students who were having a great time and phones started disappearing from the locker room. Cell phones, smart phones. And one time it happened, oh, that's interesting. A second one happened a week later. I'm like, holy cow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is now becoming a pattern. A third phone goes missing on a Saturday morning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The third phone was the phone of, uh, Billy Graziade, who is a biohazard, uh, the biohazard lead singer. Yeah, amazing guy, black belt Billy. So Billy's phone was the third phone missing. So what I did, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm like, alright, let me cross-reference the people who attended both those classes. When a third phone was gone, there was only one name on all three lists.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A 17, 16 or 17 year old boy named Daniel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that Saturday Billy said, Henry, my phone is gone. I said, bro, I looked at the roster. I said, I got you. I called.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The dad. I got the number from the emergency contact information. I said, Hey, you know, Mr. Andrade, I want to come over and say hi. I need to talk about something. What's going on? I go to the house. Daniel's there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mom is there, the little sister is there and Daniel's older brother who's like 23, 24, you know, and we all sit at the dinner table.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Daniel, did you? No, I didn't, I don't know what you're talking about, huh? I said, well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We either need to find those phones, or you're never going to train at Gracie University again. Silence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, interesting, before he walked away, his brother said, when he was denying it initially, his brother said,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know older brother. I know my brother. He didn't take the phone. So like his brother's denial got doubled down by the older brother. So they were like backing each other up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we didn't have that relationship. The older brother was just, you know, low stud.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he says, Henry, if he says he didn't take it, he didn't take it. I say, bro, I respect the brotherliness. But he took the phones. But I appreciate the support you're giving him. And I said, we either find those phones or you never train with us again. He stood up, he walked away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So now we know the answer. It's one more. Even though he was denying the third one a big time. And then he said, yeah, I sold the other one already.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Disastrous effect is had on the culture of the school where there's nothing but trust. From the locker room to the arm bars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trust is the core value amongst all students and teachers here, and you broke that. I said so. We only have two options.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You either return the phones, pay for them, and never train again, or...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to help me repair what was taken in the form of trust.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said, you guys can think about it. Monday night is class at 6.30. If you're there...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I said, you guys, if you'll have him back. I said to everyone, if you'll have him back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man, no, Billy, the other guys, hey bro, don't worry about it man. We all made mistakes for sure. It's all good, it's all good, it's all good. The guy never stole again, continued training.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and he is in the book, they interview him for the book. My co-author Paul interviewed a bunch of other people to bring in other stories and he interviewed Daniel and said, yea, how have you been? Bro, that was, I was mixed up with the wrong people, doing the wrong things, needing money for the wrong reasons, sell a phone for 500 bucks, get the cash. Terrible idea, I never stole again after that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the fact that Henner brought me back in and let me do that and let me make it right, I was very scared.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But man, it changed my life and I'm so grateful for that. This is the buoyancy principle because predictability of human behavior was what allowed me to catch him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, and let basically it play out. And after three phones and cross referencing those rosters, we got him. We got that rear naked joke. And then it turns out it was just a major life lesson that ultimately benefited him in the long run, which I'm grateful for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it is. I've never been to that, uh, group or discussion, but I've heard it just in passing and I'm like, that's, cause in jujitsu, right, how often are we stuck in a position where the opponent is immovable?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We move ourselves, right? And that's something so heavily reinforced every day that, yo, it's all good. This doesn't move, I can move relative to it and I can still make my effectiveness as a result of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you can accomplish so much more. So I, I yielded to the state's requirements in many ways. And as a result, the impact has been exponential on the other side of that. So I just wish I was more mobile sooner, yield sooner to the reality of things. And here we are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That uh, we think we know, you know, and this is just a constant reminder of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, using the principles to constantly evolve in every way possible. And I just, as we were kind of documenting these principles, we got to the end and I had 31 principles documented and I'm like, 31 is not a good number to end on. Swear, this is exactly what happened. I was in the shower and I'm like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do you end a book with, not a book, but even the original 32, the 32 principles video course that was intended to share these with the world. I'm like, all right, we got 31 solid principles that are micro principles and all very actionable in Jujitsu. Um, long before the book was contemplated. We need a 32nd principle, eight times four is 32.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm like, but it can't just be another principle. It has to be one principle that encapsulates all the principles and their continuous and constant deployment in every aspect of our, or in this case in Jujitsu, essentially always using the principles.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To constantly refine your deployment of the principles in every single way. And I thought, yes, that's what it is. It's the everything principle and that we had to just pay homage and call it the grand master principle because that's what he embodied.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He had all these, he didn't label them all like we did, but he embodied all of them his entire life and we benefit today from the amazing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Art of Jujitsu because of his constant and never ending deployment of these principles to evolve the art that we all now love so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, at the end of the day, I feel like, you know, the computer is only as good as the operating system, right? And we all have an operating system.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is a result of our upbringing, right? All of your history, all of your past is who you are today. Same is for you. Same is for me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the way I look at it is that there are many people out there who are not particularly


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, thrilled about their operating system, about how they react and how they respond to adversity, right, personal and professional.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my thought was, I'm very proud of the operating system that I have. It took a long time to develop this operating system. I'm very, uh, I'm very proud of how it's applied, not just in jiu-jitsu, but in every aspect of my life. And now that I've.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Observed and kind of catalogued how these principles have applied in so many areas of my life. I thought, man, it would be cool if


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People around the world who have, if you do jiu-jitsu,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's very likely that you aren't even aware.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The extent to which these principles can improve your personal and professional life outside of the training on the mats, right? So there's one population where I felt like they just need to be told and given permission to apply jiu-jitsu to everything. That's the people who do jiu-jitsu. Then there's the people who don't do jiu-jitsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who are not particularly proud of their operating systems and their way of dealing with adversity.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And since we deal with adversity every minute of every day in jiu-jitsu and we develop very healthy, uhm, you know, operating systems as it pertains to dealing with adversity, I would like to give my operating system


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Particularly as it pertains to adversity. And that is what the kind of, certainly ambitious attempt of this book is. Hey, you don't do jujitsu, but guess what? Let me show you some videos in every chapter where you'll understand what it is. So you're absolutely clear on the physical application. And then let me explain the personal and professional application. And if this type of, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fluid and, and, and effective, uhm, efficient way of living and dealing with adversity sounds intriguing to you and it sounds, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] attractive to you, then adopt it as your own. It's here. Read about it, learn about it, and become about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like I said in the beginning, I think that people who will read this book


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, if they were on the fence of like, should I try jiu-jitsu or should I not?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the time they read this, they're gonna go, holy cow, like this isn't even about fighting, right? Like we always talk about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Emboldened by our techniques and our skill sets. But let's be honest, we're not worried about a fight, right? Like we're capable, we're ready, something happens, even if it's someone else, we go put out the fire if we need to, we're very proud of that ability. And to do so without hurting someone is amazingly humanizing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and allows us to be compassionate souls that we are in a violent physical altercation, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For most people, it's not even about the fight. It really is. People start jiu-jitsu for self-defense. But they stay with jiu-jitsu because it makes them better people. And everyone knows that, but no one has really ever


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some people can benefit from this. Uhm, and if they end up trying a class at the end of all of this, they find a local school and go give it a shot. I hope it's a good school. I hope they take care of them. I hope they don't break them on the first day. You know, that's my only hope in all this. I'm like, I'm gonna attract some people to jiu-jitsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't promise that the school you go to is gonna do things in a safe and structured and a contextually relevant way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But my hope is that uhm, you know, through more educating and discussions like this, jiu-jitsu schools around the world also make improvements, right? They also make changes that ultimately protect the beginners. Because,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The guy who's had a school for 17 years and has 112 students, I don't think he wants that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think he wants to have 500, 600, 700 students because besides the financial benefit of having a successful growing business where you actually retain your students,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's also a community service component to this, which is imagine the level of fulfillment that we feel by servicing the community in such a profound and vast way in terms of just the sheer numbers of people that we're impacting, whether it's children, women or men.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, for all those reasons, I hope that people continue to, in the wild wild west that is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu right now, I hope that people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, really try to take the steps that we took so many years ago to improve that student experience so that jujitsu, as popular as it is, is more sustainable and is more retentive of these students who are giving it a chance than it historically has been.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Great advice, good, very good advice. It's a, it's a real relationship and that's what I always say. If I don't have a, if I have a school there, I can tell you what they're going to teach you and I can tell you what curriculum they're going to do and what the safety protocols are. Doesn't mean it's the best school for you, it just means I can promise that. Uhm, if you,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I don't have a school there, my advice is always this. Do not sign an agreement. Do a class, and even before doing a class, I say watch a class. And if as you watch, you cannot see yourself doing that thing, or you cannot make sense of the thing that you're witnessing,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then once you do that two, three, four schools, then you make your decision who makes you feel the best, who speaks about jujitsu in a context that makes sense to you and to your objectives. Because some want competition from day one, some want fitness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The vast majority want self-defense, at least in the beginning, to feel safer in their own skin, right? Who don't have that confidence to protect themselves and their family. And if they don't speak to those needs and wants that you have when you show up,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't expect it to change in 60 days or 6 years. They are, that school's identity is what you see on day one. So be very careful what you trust because if they say yeaah, you're going to learn those things later.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're going to learn self-defense down the line. When do we learn how to block a punch between two standing people in a violent verbal altercation that turns physical? Where is that encounter discussed? And if they can't give you a straight answer,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On Tuesday at 7.30pm, we're gonna talk about that. Be careful because they're making promises that they can't keep. And then when you sign that year agreement, now you're financially stuck, which I've seen so many of. Dude, gotcha. Gotcha for the year. So just be careful what you sign.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, they've heard enough of your podcast, enough recommendation to try jiu-jitsu. They're still not showing up at a school because they're scared, like we talked about in the beginning. They don't believe they can do it. My recommendation is go to GracieUniversity.com. Watch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two, three, four free lessons. And if you can't immediately say, wow, that only makes sense what they're saying, I could see myself doing that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, then, then, you didn't pay anything, so it's all good, it was free. Uhm, but if you see it and you go, man, I totally see myself doing this, go find a school, whether it's one of ours or any school, start learning jiu-jitsu, and if there's no school that you like, start at Gracie Garage or find one near you, or just find a person online and just start practicing, going through these techniques, learning these skills.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way I look at it and the way it's kind of communicated in the Gracie family is you need to learn how to, you know, read and write.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You need to learn how to ride a bike. You need to learn how to swim in the ocean. And you need to learn how to fight. Like, when you're a kid in this family, there's some basic skills you have to learn. And back in the day, it was horse riding too. Uhm, not so much anymore. But the point is, you just have to know some things as a human being. And the fact that so many parents allow their kids to grow up in a world,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where they teach them how to swim in a pool, but they never teach them how to swim in a fight. And you can drown in a street fight, in a bullying encounter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, these are skills that are real, that everyone should have growing up, uhm, and the fact that some parents unleashed their kids on the world without the ability to protect what's theirs, even if that means their space.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Their, their, their state of mind, their physical possessions, when someone's gonna take something from you, you should be able to say no. You're not gonna take this. And if you attempt, it's gonna be a bad day for you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Simple conversation, but you can't say that unless you can back it up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, you don't understand. All the biggest lovers are on the mats right now. Because if you get into a fight, let's say without Jiu Jitsu, either one of you studs, with your athleticism, how much of a liability are you to yourself and to the person that you fight?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're an absolute atomic bomb of liability because you're gonna overaggress, like any police officer who's untrained. You're gonna go absolutely violent on this guy, punch his face into the pavement, brutalize his skull, break your hand, everyone goes to the hospital and you get a lawsuit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, if that's what lovers do, then I don't want to be a lover. Instead, if you learn jiu-jitsu, no no no no, you can attack me, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm going to tie you up. He don't go so far as to say, if I get into a street fight, it shouldn't be called a fight. It's the wrong classification.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because there aren't two violent people trying to hurt each other. There's one aggressor who's a mental case, and the other person is physically de-escalating that encounter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what my fight should be called, the physical demonstration of deescalation. And that's what it actually is. So when you think of it that way, the biggest lovers should learn jiu jitsu. So if you're a lover, not a fighter, you need to learn jiu jitsu because if not, you're the biggest liability to yourself. So grace university.com, quickflipapparel.com for quick flips are great, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any organizations, any, anyone out there who wants to do quick flips for the whole team, we're happy to do that. We can sample one, show it to the team, see if you guys like it. And then sleeperhold is, uhm, travel pillows, right? sleeperhold.com.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you travel on a semi-regular basis for work and you suffer from bobblehead in the flight,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the best thing you're gonna ever have in your life. I sleep for two and a half hours straight on commercial flights. Economy. Just strap in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Full head support, I'm gone. And then there's optional patches you can put on the forehead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, anyways, so that's what's going down. And then of course on social media at Henner Gracie Everywhere. And uhm, stoked, yeaah. Thank you guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's the one that started it all. And like those breakdowns really are the driver of traffic and awareness to everything else that we're doing in jiu-jitsu.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One day it was like, hey, uh, Guy Valente called me, he's like, Henner, Dan Hardy, GSP. Armbar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why didn't the arm break? People don't know why Dan Hardy's arm wasn't broken when GSP caught him. You guys should do a breakdown, Guy said, and explained that. I'm like, cool, easy work. Like, let's call it the Gracie breakdown. And we did one, got like, I don't know, 10, 20, 30 thousand views.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You went to the fight? Yeah, I was there. Dude, that was the best. I did that breakdown on a Sunday. By Wednesday it has, you know, three, four hundred thousand views. I'm like, people like this. They like understanding what the beauty of Jujitsu application in MMA where it's kind of chaotic, but they can understand and dissect.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then send them to the website at the end of that. GracieUniversity.com. If you want to learn what we just explained and it just became that funnel for us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I created a video where I explained the pant tie and people loved those and uhm, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Very innovative. We were just making random videos, people just gravitated in just before you know it and then you do a Conor McGregor, Habib Nomaga-Madoff breakdown and it gets, you know, 2 million views overnight because people want to know like what happened and they see and so we just kind of, and we talk about the momentum principle in the book and how that led to that. Then we started doing street fight breakdowns.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a bullying incident in Indiana and a kid gets beat up in the locker bay at his school. We see the video and then I was just like, yo, I'm going to reach out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, we saw you tried to reach out to our attorney that you want to train this one and the other. I said, listen, this is what we do. Your son, Austin, uh, sorry that happened. We want to fly you, the mom, the dad, and the son, all of you guys, to California.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To train him for a week, please let me do this. We brought Austin to California, 12 year old, just overweight, like just this big kind of like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 12 year old kid who just got annihilated at school and I got him in there, trained him for a week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bootcamped him and then we sent him back and we posted that video. 3, 4, 5 million views on different platforms and now people are like this is amazing and then basically because we did that, every bowling video that goes online, they're sending it to us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bullying the challenge is if you don't take steps to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, to address the challenges that these kids are facing, it's like a balloon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If kids getting harassed every day, verbal, physical, psychological, cyber, if they're getting harassed, it's like air being injected into a balloon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] indefinitely and continuously over time for that same child. And unless they build their confidence and start to deflate that balloon and like get back to a normal state, it just keeps going. And then eventually it pops. We don't know when, we don't know where, we don't know what that looks like. And every kid is different. Sometimes the pop is a Columbine. Sometimes the pop is a suicide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sometimes the pop is any range between those two extremes, but almost always, what do you see? It's tied back to incessant bullying that was unchecked and uncommunicated and they leave a note and now you know, oh my gosh, this is why he was doing this. These kids were making fun of him, he didn't have an outlet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In many cases, poor cop. They didn't get the training that they needed. They're a victim as much as they are the culprit here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Three weeks, three weeks. So I make these videos hoping that other parents go, man, my kid's getting bullied. Let's open up the discussion, get them the training that they need and-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All of this is momentum from the UFC and from awareness about MMA and the Gracie breakdown, and then using that as much as we can for good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doing these breakdowns, changing lives with these jujitsu transformations, so that people on the outside go, alright, you know, it's one thing to talk about jujitsu, another for people to see, problem, transformation, new human being. This guy Austin, that was like eight to ten years ago.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Went back, never had a problem with that bully or any other bully again. Graduated high school, enlisted in the Marines immediately after, shredded up, full stud.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Went to the Marines, 100% good to go. I think he's now transitioning to the army or another military branch. And he's fully good to go. And they interview him for the book and his dad as well about the reservations they had in coming to California.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Austin, where he's at now, just the pivotal role that played, he's just like, yo, that was the beginning of the rest of my life, was to be told that I can look at someone and say, don't take one more step. I didn't know that, no one taught me that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, there's certain skills that we expect people and kids in the world to know, but unless they're taught, unless it's talked about, it's largely, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Video here and not being able to put the mask down and actually show. I mean of course you practicing it, people love seeing those videos as well, but thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was a great scene and I remember that particular scene when he was filming, he was like, yo, this is the alligator pad. I think it's the name they called it, which is what he wears on his body underneath his shirt to get slammed in the glass. And it was like this really thin, but very durable thing. And I'm like, oh, that's bad. I was like, I don't know, 12, 13, 14. And I'm like, dude, you're gonna be in a movie. That's cool. Awesome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any closing thoughts? No, I uhm, just what an honor and thank you guys for helping us increase the awareness about not just jiu-jitsu but the life application of it and uhm, I appreciate you guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is Jocko Podcast number 416 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening Echo. Good evening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Bronze Star Medal to Naval Special Warfare Operator Second Class C. Air Land Robert A. Holland for service as set forth in the following citation for heroic achievement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A connection with combat operations against the enemy as naval special warfare task unit bruiser, combat advisor, and machine gunner in direct support of Operation Iraqi Freedom on 17 June 2006.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Petty Officer Holland displayed exceptional courage under fire as automatic weapons gunner during a daytime presence patrol. While patrolling a narrow street in a dangerous insurgent controlled neighborhood, his element came under heavy enemy fire.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After departing the residence, the element began to fire and maneuver back toward the vicinity of a US Army combat outpost. As they executed the maneuver,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He was wounded by shrapnel in the leg, but continued to provide cover for his teammates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By his extraordinary guidance, zealous initiative, and total dedication to duty, Petty Officer Holland reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of United States Naval Service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the President, J.D. Kernan, Rear Admiral, United States Navy, Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that right there is the citation from one of the awards for Robert Holland or Bobby Holland. In one of the situations when he stepped up and led.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he did this over and over again on that deployment and throughout his career. And you've probably heard me talk about how the squad leader makes a difference. That's the Marine Corps. Professional way of saying it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the teams, you've heard me talk about the E5 Mafia. These are the guys that run the platoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These are the guys that navigate to the targets, they set the breaching charges, they prepare the radios, the vehicles, the crew surf weapons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which was written while Bobby was still on active duty. In that book, Leif refers to Bobby as one of his most trusted SEAL enlisted leaders. Cause Bobby was in Charlie Platoon, tasking a bruiser. Where he was known as Lead Bob.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he was called lead bob because in the SEAL teams, whoever leads some aspect of a mission or some part of the platoon is known as the lead. So it's lead sniper, lead breacher, lead climber, lead navigator.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, Bob seemed to kinda lead everything. So he just became Lead Bob. Based on his ability to step up and make things happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And lead Bob eventually moved out of the E5 Mafia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Leading Petty Officer of Oplatoon as the Chief of Oplatoon eventually became a Warrant Officer in the SEAL Teams and he spent 21 years there, deployed all over the world, including both Iraq and Afghanistan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it's an honor to have him with us here tonight to share his experiences and lessons learned. Lead Bob, Bobby. Thanks for joining us, bro.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's do it. Yeah, let's go. Uh, lead Bob, there's more nicknames we'll uncover. There's more, there's more things out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's a few. Uh, alright, let's start at the beginning. Let's jump into this. You're born in, you're a California kid.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Frogman style. Frogman style. Yeah, yeah. And then what was up with your dad? What'd your dad do? Or did your mom work?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then what was your dad doing for work?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Try and keep that low profile. So what are you into when you're growing up? Like you're in your childhood.


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[Assistant] And to sports. And then what's up with your parents? Are your parents like, I mean, it sounds like your mom's coming from a little bit of a rough background. Your mom, your dad's coming from a little bit of a rough background. How are they getting along? How was, how was all that? Like the home life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What, what uhm, like guardrails did you push up against with your parents? Like what were you getting into that was, where they were like, alright we just gotta let this go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thick. That happens to boys when they're getting ready to grow. Yeaah. Like that age of maybe 9, 10, 11, they get a little bit thick, we'll say. Yeaah. And then when they grow, usually they lean out a little bit.


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[Assistant] And the reason I bring up Tyler is cause, well, we actually all know him, cause he ended up in the SEAL teams as well, and I'm sure we'll get to that. But that was 7th, 8th grade, you met him, you started running with him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. And you get in high school, or do you keep wrestling?


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[Assistant] He wins every fight. If you're 11, 12 years old and you wrestled for 4 years, you're winning every fight just on that. I mean, and a nice roundhouse kick apparently.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All in on football. And what, what did you make? Like are you playing freshman team, varsity team, JV team? Like how'd that go? What'd your career look like?


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[Assistant] Is that by the time you got to your senior year?


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[Assistant] So how far did you make it like your senior year in football?


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[Assistant] With Ricky Rapman? Ricky Rapman? Remember that? Yeaah. The headbanger's ball with Ricky Rapman. Yeaah. They'd play songs that weren't appropriate for the daytime MTV. Remember when MTV had music on it? Yeaah. That was an interesting thing. So as you're doing all this shit, do you have a plan for your future?


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[Assistant] So are people like, applying to colleges and this kind of stuff? And what are you doing?


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[Assistant] Okay, yeaah. I know this because I did the Aikido pack. Oh damn, look it all comes out. The only thing I know about Aikido is I bought my first gi ever from an Aikido school in Ocean Beach. And it was cheap, it was $40, it was called unbleached, so there was like a white one.


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[Assistant] Yeah, and it felt a little bit softer, but that was like $48 and the one that I got was $40 Okay, and it was unbleached. So it was real rough and it was like a yellowish kind of gnarly looking color Yeah, and it lasted like three weeks because they didn't know what we were about to do with these things because we were turning the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then I had to go back, I had to go get like a real jujitsu gi. But that's only, so the only the high level people wear that weird outfit in Aikido.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this is your senior year of high school? Senior year. And then it carries into when you go to, uh, community college? Yep. You keep training?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what, so how'd you find out about the teams? Just straight, the movie Navy Seals?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's like, oh yea, Top Gun came out, and he's like, okay, that's what I'm gonna do. So, was that where you first heard of the derbs?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trying to get ready. Trying to get ready. Was that like that all that time? Was it because you were thinking, oh, this is going to be so hard. Like I'm not ready yet. I need to get ready. Was it one of those things?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just really dumb stuff, so. Just for everyone that's listening, one up, one down, man. When you're working in the water, you're doing breath holds, you're doing drown-proofing, anything like that. One guy on the top.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The other guy can do breath holds. Don't be competing against each other cause you, you can, you can definitely both pass out and die and it's terrible. So one up, one down is the rule for that stuff. If you're listening and you're a freaking knuckle headed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Young man between the ages of 13 and 24. And you and your buddy decide you're gonna go and you're like, we need to put breath holds just one up one down. That's the rule.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, so you guys are running, you guys are swimming, you guys are doing drown proofing, and you're getting ready. What, uhm, you finally go to the recruiter, was it a hard process?


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[Assistant] I know there's a depth perception test that I've known kids that have failed and they, you don't, you can't go.


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[Assistant] And it's a weird thing, it's like one out of every hundred people or something, they can't see depth, and that's one of the few.


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[Assistant] And it's a bummer. I was talking to one of the master chiefs that's like sort of in the team still and he's actually trying to push for some of these things to change because you have kids that they fail the depth perception test, but they like played


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what I mean? Where obviously you have depth perception if you can play baseball. And there's just a weird thing. I don't really remember the test, the depth. It's like dots, you're looking at dots or you're looking at a house or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you have to see is this dot in front of the house, behind the house, and some people just can do it and some people can't. So, I don't know, maybe you failed that thing.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so uhm, it's weird too when you're going in the military if you, like, if you don't know people that were in the military.


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[Assistant] You just think you're, that's it. Like I know when I joined the Navy, I was basically like saying goodbye to my friends for the last time. I was like, you know, it's been nice knowing you, I'm out, like I'll never see you again. That's how I felt. And part of that was kinda good. But I didn't have any, like if you grew up, let's say you grew up in San Diego, you'd see military people everywhere and you'd be like, oh, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you go into school and there'd be like, oh, some dad that's there that's in uniform picking up his kid. You're like, oh, it's kind of a norm- there's a normal side to it. If you- like I grew up in a little town in Connecticut, dude, there's no military people. So I thought-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, there's no military people because when you join the military, you're gone. That's it. You're in some other world. So yeah, you get that attitude like it's over. You know, all your, all your old friends, they're out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Girlfriend's gone. Doesn't matter. Parents, good luck. Thank you, goodbye. We're carrying on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you swam with these things? Like, what, like they were in the same lake or swamp or you were interacting with them?


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[Assistant] So, so you show up to Bud's and how's that welcome aboard?


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[Assistant] How was, so first phase, you kick off first phase. What's going on? Is it hard for you? You feeling like, was your knee healed enough? Anything kick you in the ass?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, uh. So you weren't like the towering over the other Smurfs? Cause normally like the Smurfs are like 5'5, 5'6 maybe?


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[Assistant] If you take two rocks and you rub them together, I could hear my neck doing that during Hell Week. And, like, literally that noise. I was like, mmm, this is fucking probably not good. Uhm, so, yeaah, be careful of that. Uh, so then you make it through Hell Week. Anything crazy happen in Hell Week?


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[Assistant] Did uh, was there anyone that shocked you that they quit? Any of these like...


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[Assistant] Isn't that freaking crazy? You're the freaking quarterback at Notre Dame. You're like, you know what? I'm gonna be a SEAL. And you tell all your friends, and you tell your mom and dad, and you tell your girlfriend, and you show up and you freaking quit.


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[Assistant] Yeah, there's this whole thing, I did a few podcasts about the psychology of military incompetence, and it's this whole thing about, it's written by a guy that was in World War II who became a psychologist, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He like talks about how people that are like super orderly and, and like highly


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[Assistant] Authoritarian, kind of things that you're talking about, like hey, you need to square yourself away. They like things to be followed, and then you get into hell week and it's just like total mayhem. And their brains can't handle it. And they just quit. That's it. Game over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yea, me neither. I hear guys that everyone thinks about quitting, I'm like 100%. Not just me, I know all kinds of guys that didn't think about quitting. I guess maybe a lot of guys do, but a lot of guys don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just not happening. So then you go from, you make it through how weak, now it's first, second phase, diving, and what, you hurt your eardrum? Is that what you said?


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[Assistant] And just the reason I bring that up is because I know you guys became, uh, you know, super close and everything, and when we were together, you guys were freakin'... You guys were all tight. Yeah, man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you get rolled, and now you're in 2, 3, 4. And this is the one with the freaking documentary. So what was that like?


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[Assistant] So wait, you got through pool week all first time every time, including pool comp?


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[Assistant] Oh, so they really did have cameras flowing the whole time. Oh, come on. I'm just saying, bruh.


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[Assistant] Oh yeaah. Yeah, luckily they won't PID. Just time myself out. And so now you're going to third phase, all good there, no factor, good times at SCI?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where were you at when September 11th happens? Cause you must have been in training still. Were you in SQT or in Buds?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On 912. You know what man? From SQT.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that's one of those things. I've had that conversation with a few people over the years. Uh, the first time I had it was talking to some woman who wanted me to meet with her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And her son wanted to be a seal type thing and she was like, oh, I'd really like to meet and I was, he was like a friend of a friend of a friend. So I was like, yeah, this is like probably 10 years ago. I was like, okay, yeah. And I meet with the kids like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They hadn't even, they hadn't considered that part of the job, you know what I mean? And that is, that is actually the job.


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[Assistant] The job is, you're gonna kill people and you're, you're gonna put being harmed's way for you and your friends to get wounded and killed. That's what the job is. That's actually what the job is. Everything else is, is whatever. It's training, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, getting ready, but the actual job is you can kill people and you're gonna be in a position where you and your friends could get wounded and killed. And if that's not in the front of your mind, it's not a good job for you. You know, any other reason, any other thing, any other fantasy or vision that you might have, that's not what the job is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The job is you're gonna kill people and you're gonna be in a situation where you and your friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can get killed or wounded, and that's the way it is. So, yeaah, probably a good call for that guy to freakin' bail. Yeaah, no doubt. At that juncture. Uhm, so it was team three. And when you got to team three, did you go into a workup? Did you get thrown into a platoon? How'd that go down?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, was that you guys? Well there's a couple slow incidents along there. There was one where the guys went up and got in a fight with like Tim Kennedy and a bunch of- Chocoladel. Chocoladel and a bunch of actual UFC guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and so now you're with Chris? We are, yep. So this is Chris Kyle. Chris Kyle's in, in, in this platoon. Is Jeremy in there too?


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[Assistant] Just, you're a new guy. What's, you know, so I talk about like, oh, your job is to, uh, kill people and be in positions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let me tell you about the other part of the job. When you're a new guy, an enlisted guy in the SEAL teams, it's a freaking blue collar job, right? You're building pallets, you're moving gear, you're fixing gear, you're fixing motors, you're cleaning gear, you're cleaning motors. It's like a blue collar, hard work, freaking job. That's what it is. And that's what you're doing. When you're a new guy, you're getting like extra.


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[Assistant] Extra of that. Uh, what did you get? What was your job in the platoon? Pig gunner? Yep. Straight up.


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[Assistant] You could sell that sounding so cool, like when we were in the Intel department, like I can imagine you and Chris as new guys in the quote Intel department. It's like laminate these maps, you freaking meatballs. Yep, that was it. There was no Jason Bourne going on there? No, no, not that.


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[Assistant] And so you guys, you guys go through your work up. How's it work up?


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[Assistant] I mean at least they used to. They used to like want you to think you're probably gonna get shit camped. Like that was always kind of a little bit, little bit over your head of like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so also, at this point, like, you guys must have known you were going to war. I mean, it's like a different work-up than it was four months ago. Cause four months ago, and I did a bunch of work-ups where there's no war going on, and look, you take it seriously, you do your best, and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's always like there's a chance, there's some slim chance that you're gonna get the big mission of whatever that might be. But for you guys, must have been thinking, oh we're 100% going to war.


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[Assistant] Half inch, half inch nylon freaking magnet you are.


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[Assistant] When did you get there? So the war hasn't kicked off yet. No, but they're staged.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pirate ship. Just running around the, what do they call it? The nag. Do you remember that term? Northern Arabian Gulf. The sag and the nag. The sag and the nag. Running around the nag and the sag in


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Our boats and helicopters, other boats, and going and hitting ships and taking them down and getting control of them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So these are, they're dune buggies. They're like high speed dune buggies that people drive around out at Glamis and there's some kind of racing protocol with those things. There's like a whole group that races like those kind of vehicles, but we had them in the SEAL teams for a while. We don't have them anymore.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't have them anymore because for a bunch of reasons, the number one reason is they're, they're a racing vehicle, which means they have high standards and


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[Assistant] On top of that, if you break down anywhere in the world and you need let's say a tire or a gasket or a freaking


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Weapons with a different type of ammunition. You know, like where are you going to get your ammo from? So that was kind of the deal with the DPVs. They looked freaking cool. They always put them in highlight Navy SEAL videos. They put those DPVs everywhere.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's right. They make them super heavy because they're made to store. They're not four wheel drive. They're not four wheel drive. So they're made to be light and float over the sand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then you had a plan of what you guys were going to execute when the war kicked off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and it's complete unknown. Uhm, the first Gulf War that went down, it was like, I was watching the news and they were like, oh, there's going to be 40,000 casualties in the first 24 hours or 40 hours, something like this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, the unknown is way worse than the known. And so like, that's a perfect example.


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[Assistant] We hadn't, you know, he fast forwards three months, even if you fast forward like four days, you're like, okay, they don't really have the capability that they, we thought they may have had, but you're a freaking, a new guy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you just described being in that DPV strapped into that gunner seat inside of a 53 when that thing is strapped in there.


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[Assistant] You are doomed. Like, doomed. This thing, even if that thing successfully crash-landed and was on fire, you're never getting out. Like, you are, you are freaking dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's my overwhelming feeling as a military human, like anytime I'm in a aircraft, airplane, helicopter, uh, vehicle, tank,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bradley, Humvee, I don't like it. I want to be on the ground, I want to be on my feet, I want to be with my platoon, like that's it, that's what I want. I'm just, the whole time I'm just waiting so I can be on my feet, because then I feel like we can control what's gonna happen to us. All that other stuff is just in the hands of fate, and it's not a good feeling. For me, it was never a good feeling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's a worse feeling than I ever had in any of those situations. Like, I've flown into places, driven into places. What you just described, I never had that feeling before. I'm trying to think if I have. No, I've never had it that bad before. There's been a couple times, like, going into a couple places where I was like, oh, we're gonna get ID'd. But, not quite, I always feel like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do awesome, kick ass, right? That's in my little stupid brain. But if you're in a helicopter, that's not happening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're strapped into a helicopter, if you're strapped into a DPV in a helicopter that's strapped into the helicopter, bro, good times.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what was the mission, by the way? So what did you guys do? You guys hit the ground, launched the DPVs, what are you guys going to do?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dude's surrendering, dude's dead, what'd you find? Both. Both? Yeaah.


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[Assistant] Did it seem like that the war was going to be over pretty quick?


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[Assistant] That's a great, like, you're very lucky, right? You're a new guy, you're going into war in your first deployment. Did you realize how cool that was?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and to do AH mission, any mission at the time was like, you're freakin' stoked. So...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you, uh, was there anything that you personally, like, lesson learned that really stuck with you from that first work? I mean, I know there's like a thousand little ones, any major ones that you're like, I, I need to make sure I do this, that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, obviously you had your guy that was sort of like your see daddy in first lieutenant, who kind of passed on the way of the frog man to you. Uhm, anything else in that first deployment?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah. It's, uh, the learning curve in your first platoon is freakin' steep. It's, you can't get ahead of it. Like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No new guy's gonna get ahead of the power curve when you're a new guy in your first ploom. It's just not, it's not possible. There's too much to know and too much to learn. But...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Once you're in your second platoon, like, it's so much easier. It's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Infinitely easier in your second platoon. It's hard to be behind the power curve in your second platoon. So in your first platoon, you got guys like, there'll be like two, one or two new guys that like, bro are these guys even gonna make it through workup? All the other guys are kinda like fighting to get through workup. And then you have, I guess you can have one or two guys that are like, yea they're pretty squared away. But by your second platoon, no, no one's doing bad.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Generally speaking, maybe one out of a hundred is doing bad in their second platoon. Like they made it through their first platoon, you get your second platoon, you're generally speaking, you should be pretty good. You don't have any responsibilities. You don't, you know, you're not really in charge of anything in your second platoon. Or you're not in charge of like leadership. So you can, your second platoon, you should be, you should be a solid team guy in your second platoon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come back from that deployment, you're fired up, roll right into your second platoon because that's what you do in the team. You go right into your next freaking platoon. Freaking awesome. Uhm, what, so what's up with your next platoon? Do you get any schools?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean if that had been a live, uh, explosion, I mean with a full breaching charge on there, who knows what would have happened to Jeremy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, how's this platoon? So you're still together with Chris, you, and Jeremy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This, I keep bringing this up because you guys were such a prominent piece in Charlie Pattoon and Tasking a Bruiser, like the three of you, you freaking knuckleheads were just like such a...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, cornerstone of the, of the task unit. You guys, I think, well, Jeremy was an E, E6 at the time, but you guys were like kind of the E5 mafia, the E dogs making shit happen. And so you guys are, you guys are together in this platoon. You got, your platoon commander at this time is Rob.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who's freaking just, just freaking outstanding. Uhm, just a maniac, awesome frogman team guy. And your platoon is, it's kind of mayhem. So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I know this because like I, obviously you guys rolled into tasking a bruiser and so I got to see and hear about what your previous deployment was like, but also just knowing you guys and knowing Rob like, and hearing stories from all of you guys. So this was like mayhem. You guys were, you guys were freaking going, going hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like we had guys that had been in Grenada.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I never had a guy in a platoon that was in Panama, but I had a guy in a platoon that was in Grenada and I had some guys that were in the first Gulf War.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] By the way, the combined combat operation time of both of those was like three days of everyone. But like you're saying, it was like hey they had combat and we didn't. And it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You just don't know what you don't know and you just have to think that this thing is this elevated thing and what's it gonna be like and what it was like and they went through it and so now basically everyone's looking at you guys with that attitude.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you guys, did you guys get a, did you guys not get in trouble?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, there's no doubt that you have something. Look, when you're skydiving and diving and shooting live fire and blowing things up all the time, even in the 90s, even when you have that feeling in the back of your head, like, you know, and like, we're


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jumping or we're doing whatever on Monday, and it's Friday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Freak, let's rock and roll man, let's go. Like, you're not thinking long term, you're thinking like, let's, let's enjoy this gig that we're on. So now when the war kicks off, 2001, you're like, you got that, but now it's amplified and intensified by quite a bit, cause you're going into combat, and people are trying to kill you. So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's like you, you add that to the testosterone. You add that to the freaking, like the friendship brotherhood. You add that to the shenanigans and the good times and you're out, just go out and do something hard.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, just go out and, you know, go out and go into the desert and spend whatever, four weeks in the desert, out there, out all day, up and down, hot, dehydrated and all that stuff, hard training. You get back, it's like, oh we're gonna go rock and roll, that's what's gonna happen. So all these things combined together, this is you get the life of a frog man. And that's what you guys are doing, getting after it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So at this point, they were taking guys, and you would basically do three months in the Pacific, and then three months in Iraq. And they were, look, in my opinion, they were doing that, it was kinda like the fair fairy had showed up, and it was like, hey, we wanna make sure everyone gets combat, we wanna make sure everyone gets to go to war.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And hey, what we'll do is we'll send, cause we didn't, no one knew these freakin' wars were gonna last for 20 years. Right? So they're saying, oh, let's, we'll put you over there for three months, then send the other guys for three months, so that's what you guys did on deployment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But if we would have known that the war was going to last 20 years, which eventually once they figured out the war was going to last 20 years, they're like, yeah, you can just, you're going on it. Cause it's a big, just the logistics of taking guys. So expensive. Yeah, it's so expensive and such a pain. And, and really in three months, like you're just getting up to speed. So why are we going home? Let's keep, or why are we going to this other AO? Let's keep going. Uh, so your typical exercises and stuff over in the Pacific.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So after this, you know, uh, first breaching little fiasco, at least over the wall, so what was your op tempo like?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like 45 minutes, bro. It's like, you know what I mean? It's such immediate gratification and with such limited, like, downside, you know? Like, it's just good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good. Uh, come home from that deployment and now you roll into, so now it's 2005 I guess. 2004 you might have gotten home, but it's 2005 when we form up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, were you already done? No, cause we went, we went to desert like almost immediately, so you guys had already done Pro Dev. So you probably got home in 2004.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Check. Uhm, what's cool is you still are with Chris and Jeremy. So, and I, I, I, the triumvirate. So, do you know what that means?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it means three people. It does. So I, once I was like, you know, cause Leif used to say it all the time, he's like, oh it's triumvirate. And I kind of was like, finally, yesterday I was thinking about that and I go, what does this even mean? Where does this come from? And it's like some,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Roman term for three people that are in a position of power and they had like a bunch of examples, you know, Caesar and this guy and this guy. And so that 100% came from Leif, you know. Leif would only, only Leif at that time had the historical knowledge to come up with triumvirate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, so you guys roll in to now, it's your third platoon together.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, Tony's, VTF Tony comes in as the platoon chief. I was thinking about this too, you guys must have been bummed that freaking Rob wasn't gonna be your tasking commander and you were getting some freaking random guy you never heard of me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you're calling me a caveman and you're comparing me to Rob, like these are the options. There's a lot of Neanderthal activity going on between us two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but you guys must have been like damn a little bit bummed out because you guys were bros with Rob You just did a deployment with him And it's kind of normal that he would just fleet up in the same troop and just take over I don't know why that I don't know why it happened the way it did


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, uhm, so, I show up as to you commander, Leif shows up as the platoon commander, BTF Tony is your platoon chief, that's kinda, uh, new headshed coming in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the cool thing is, Jeremy steps us up as the LPO.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, that's one set of quals. Uhm, and you guys roll in there, and it's cool, you know, that's always a question I get asked a lot about is like, stepping up from being a peer to being a leadership position. How'd Jeremy handle that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And maybe, I'm sure Jeremy will come on the podcast at some point, but how Jeremy handled that from your perspective.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm just wondering, that's how we got it, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he's freaking stepped right up, but that's a question I get asked all the time, like, oh, I'm getting elevate and you can go, you can go too hard or you can go too soft. You can be like, that's right. I'm in charge now. Or you can be like, oh, I guess I'm in charge. Like, I don't know. And he did a right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The right balance of like, hey, you know what, I'm in charge now, I don't know everything, but I gotta make a call and this is what we're doing. You know, like, you just did a good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And our first trip was straight out to land warfare and it was just freaking awesome. Yea. I mean like everybody was just kicking ass.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeaah. Yeaah. That was a rough one. Uhm, especially for guys that maybe didn't take things as seriously as they should have. So,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We get told, uhm, that we're gonna do a shakeout patrol. Shakeout patrol's like, oh, we're gonna go make sure our gear feels good, make sure that, you know, our equipment's riding right, and walk around, you know, probably be acting half an hour, maybe 45 minutes, something like that. This is day one. Yea, this is day one. We just show up out there. So like, hey, we're gonna do a shakeout. They literally say, we're gonna do a shakeout patrol.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a common thing, shakeout patrol. The original idea is, hey, make sure your gear's not making any noise. So it's like go out there, shake it out a little bit, make sure you don't have


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's even less than that. It's less than that. It's like, it's like just a shakeout. I'm trying to think of a way that if you were, uh, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a school play. And they were like, just walk through where you're gonna go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you literally shouldn't break a sweat. You shouldn't break a sweat. You should just be, hey we're cruising.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I'm like, okay, shakeout patrol, what does that mean? Like, I get all my gear totally squared away, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Water, everything that I'm gonna be carrying, I'm carrying, like I just do what I'm supposed to do as a good freaking frogman. Not everyone did that, including Leif Babin had had his freaking, he had had his water in his canteens since SQT.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so he, he had water in like the first sip he took.