Silvercore Podcast Ep. 175 - The Explosives Expert Who Refuses to Live a Small Life

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[00:00:00] Speaker: Growing up, kids have dreams of what they'd like to be when they get older. Now, what would it look like if you had the courage to know deep in your heart what that dream was and to never deviate despite overwhelming lives? That's exactly what my guest today has done, and he's made a living in the unlikely world of high explosives.

He's been showcased on Discovery Channel, Mr. Beast, and works with government agencies across the United States. Welcome to the Silvercore Podcast, Matt Barnett.

[00:00:41] Speaker 2: Howdy.

[00:00:42] Speaker: Thanks for having me on. Okay, I got a question growing up. I didn't know anybody who didn't like fireworks watching control demolitions, seeing things explode.

What is it in the human nature? That is so intrigued, myself included by [00:01:00] things that go boom.

[00:01:01] Speaker 2: You know, I really, I've thought about that before. My dad is a creator and, and he would build, he would put all the work into building something electronically, and then I would blow things up and I would see all those little bits of circuit boards laying around.

And I was kind of sad because I thought, you know, I put a lot of work into making explosives, but look what it did to the work that my dad spent all this time building. And I think it's the, the night and day of the human experience. On one hand we like to put order to everything, but we're also fascinated by chaos and destruction.

And when you combine those two and you can put order to the chaos and destruction and call it upon, uh, or to, to use it at your command, there's something, uh, intoxicating about that. You know, it's, it's portrayed in every movie we ever watch. People wanna have their finger on the button.

[00:01:51] Speaker: Totally. Well, you know, growing up I would play war in the backyard.

I had my little green Army man, and I was [00:02:00] allowed to have firecrackers and fireworks and gunpowder. But I wasn't allowed to have a lighter or matches. I was given a, um, a punk and Oh yeah. So my parents would light the punk. And when that punk burns out, that's it for the fun, right? So I'd make my little gunpowder trails and they'd go over top of the firecrackers and the fireworks and place them between the little army men and it'll burn down and things are going off and a little bit of gas on something and it's up in flames.

And I mean, to me, that's what playing war as a kid was all about. And I loved it. It was, um, uh, it was something that I thought in my heart. I would be doing for the rest of my life. There'd be some sort of, uh, uh, explosive component to my career. And I guess in a way, there is, and you know, I got into, uh, chemistry when I was younger and in grade four, I, I really didn't fit in with the, uh, the class structure in any of the grades.

Um, A DHD, uh, [00:03:00] highest dosage of Ritalin for the province on an experimental run. And the, uh, the teacher says, well, Trav, he likes his chemistry. Um, why don't you set up your chemistry set in the back of the class? And to me, chemistry meant, and visible ink, disappearing ink and making things blow up. If it's gotta have some sort of endothermic, exothermic reaction, then that's chemistry, right?

Otherwise, you're not really doing chemistry. It sounds to me like you had kind of a similar upbringing.

[00:03:27] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, when I was seven, my dad taught me how to make black powder. Mm-hmm. And it was, it was pretty straightforward. He always was teaching me different things. He'd show me how to use a camera. Uh, he'd, you know, take me on picnics and hikes and tell me stories, historical stuff.

But one day he started talking about the rockets he used to make as a kid back in the fifties. He made these homemade rockets and he'd launch 'em up and most of the time they'd blow up. But he showed me how to make black powder, the basics of it. And that kind of stuck. [00:04:00] And then I had this thing, I don't know, it's, uh, I don't know, it kind of haunts me to this day, but I can't, I don't like the idea of just having something one time in a finite amount.

I want to have the knowledge to recreate it anytime I want. Unlimited, right?

[00:04:18] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. And

[00:04:19] Speaker 2: so when it came to making black powder, I was like, well, where do you get the charcoal from? And he told me, you know, and then I realized, oh, I can make charcoal. Well, where do you get the sulfur from? So I started researching where I could get sulfur from in nature.

Then where do you get potassium nitrate from? And I started researching that, and I started going down the road of chemistry. And so my, my love for chemistry was all about being able to take the natural world around you and create whatever you want at your command as much as you want, so that it could never be taken.

Because I didn't like the idea of stuff sitting around getting old or being used up, and then it's gone, and then you're relying on something else. And you know, it, it's kind of a [00:05:00] theme throughout my life when I, I received a bunch of, uh, 50 caliber ammunition once, and so I thought, well, I need to get a belt fed 50 caliber to shoot this.

And then I thought, well, I don't want to just go shoot it in a dirt pile, I wanna get a big ranch so I can air it out. And that was one of the, you know, it seems insane, but that was one of the motivators that if I were to plot out reasons for buying, you know, over a thousand acres of land, it's just so I can peacefully go shoot my 50 cal into a mountainside.

And

[00:05:31] Speaker: that doesn't, that doesn't sound insane to me. That sounds perfectly rational.

[00:05:34] Speaker 2: Yeah. Right. But a lot of people just wouldn't get it. But that, so that's my chemistry route. It, it was all about what you, you have, you have wood, wood's always gonna be around air, water, and geology. And from that I wanna be able to make all the explosives that I want.

And so it just sent me off on this, on this tangent of following chemistry. And so when it went, when I went to school to [00:06:00] college, it was like, that was the only thing that made sense because that was the only thing I was truly interested in. You know, kinda like what you were saying.

[00:06:07] Speaker: Yeah. You know, for me it opened up doors to all these other areas that, uh, probably wouldn't have opened up.

Like I learned about electronics because I wanted to detonate a rocket remotely. Uh, I learned about, uh, electronic ignitions make my own circuit boards and soldering and, and so, you know, kind of hacking away at it. And then you learn a little bit about, uh, construction and welding and, um, uh, fabricating and some woodwork.

And then you're thinking about, uh, chemical ignitions or delay ignitions or mechanical or, um, and it's just a massive, for an A DHD brain, you can invent to your heart's content and you start thinking like, yeah, you, you, you can make anything into something that goes boom. Right? Uh, really as you, as you put your, your head to it, I read through those old booby trap books that the, uh, old US army [00:07:00] manuals as a kid.

And my favorite one, which is, uh. The, the Anarchist Cookbook and everyone's like, oh, you've got the anarchist cookbook. And like, just dangerous, dangerous literature with very, very minimal information, enough to kind of get it done, but a lot to kind of get you hurt. Yeah. But for me it was, it was the, the inventing process that, uh, uh, that really drove me.

And, and I gotta think like your dad, he was into it. He was into rockets and stuff, and generations. Now, I always figured nine 11 was the, um, the Thumbtack in the, in the timeline that really, uh, turned the chemical enthusiast, the rocket engineer enthusiast into the person who can't talk about it to anyone anymore.

Like they had Oklahoma City, they had, uh, uh, they had a, the UNA bomber. But, and then after nine 11, it's like, oh man, like we gotta, like, is this a hobby? Am I allowed to talk about this? Is this something that's, uh, or am [00:08:00] I gonna get a label associated with this?

[00:08:03] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a slippery slope, and that's a dangerous world to go into because once you start censoring, uh, you, you, it just, it doesn't stop.

Mm-hmm. The censorship just continues on down the road until it's ludicrous. So, a free world is not a safe world. A free world is quite dangerous, but you have the means to defend yourself in it. And, uh, I don't think that knowledge is something that ever should be, uh, squished just because somebody deems it as dangerous.

I mean, we're down to the fundamentals here and we're talking about mathematics, physics, and chemistry. If you are gonna say that somebody who goes to a chemistry class is going to learn the basics of what's behind explosives, and therefore we can't teach chemistry, you're gutting your country, uh, and your future.

Mm. I mean, yes, you're gonna have people that are gonna misuse that, that's never changed.

[00:08:57] Speaker 3: Sure. And

[00:08:58] Speaker 2: you're gonna have people that are gonna do a lot of good with it [00:09:00] too. So. To try to, to try to curtail the, the bad people by limiting knowledge is gotta be the worst way about it. I mean, that's, you have so many inventors and creators out there that are being stunted because they can't get where they need to go.

Uh, just because you don't want to, uh, you, you don't want some bad guy to half a chance come across some knowledge that honestly is in an Encyclopedia Britannica, you know?

[00:09:29] Speaker: Well, that's it. I I was gonna bring out some of my old techno techno chemical receipt books and, uh, I don't know if you've seen those old books, but they have, uh, they're put out for, so people could make their own soap and they could make their own Yeah.

Like different ways of doing common things. Just like you said, like, I don't want to be without, and they're over a hundred years old and their need old books. And I'd go through them and, and I felt like I was a mad scientist, but I was, I was, yeah. Creating things. I thought that was pretty cool. And [00:10:00] the, then you come out of the blue on my radar, actually, you popped in when, uh, uh, the Collective Cha Sean and Chance had you on the collective, and I saw you on this panel forum.

I'm like, here's a guy who's got a lot more to say that what the panel forum will allow 'em to say. So, uh, which is why I reached out. But you've got a Instagram account and a social media account, which just celebrates the knowledge. You recognize the fact that these things are dangerous and it's a safe way to be able to deal with it, but it's also there's an intrigue or an interest, and you don't shy away from, uh, uh, from sharing that.

And I, I thought that was rather refreshing.

[00:10:41] Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I guess I never gave it a thought. You know, some people make comments on their, why are you putting this information out there? And I'm like, well, first of all. I'm not saying go down to Walmart and buy a a and B and c and mix 'em together this way and make that I'm, I'm not putting that out [00:11:00] there and I'm, I'm demonstrating principles of physics and chemistry with commercially produced material that most people with Illit intent will never get and have no access to.

Uh, you could argue on the other side of the world though, you know, in a war zone people use this, but I'm not showing anything groundbreaking. What I'm, what I'm doing is basically introducing a primer into the information and the knowledge on my social media channels such that, uh, twofold. One, it inspires those that are coming up that have an interest in the energetics industry as well as help those who are transitioning out of a military life into a civilian life.

And they wanna know if they can continue this line of work. They absolutely can. And. You know that that's the purpose of it, is to help people out there.

[00:11:49] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. And then

[00:11:50] Speaker 2: show that, yeah, this stuff is, is actually tools. I was never in the military. Uh, nothing I've shown is, is a weapon per se. It could be used as such, [00:12:00] but our use of it is actually quite the opposite.

Every shape charge that I use is, is designed and used for destroying other ordinance so that when we come across a live round that needs to be safely removed. Uh, these are the techniques we use to neutralize it. Now, if I was pouring ball bearings and a sleeve and doing all that, that's, that's another thing.

Now, I have shown some hand grenades, but the purpose of that was to demonstrate the danger of it. So, I mean, everything I'm doing has a legitimate purpose, but I, I never, it never crossed my mind, you know, to not put that up because. I didn't see it as reckless or dangerous. I, I would think it would be reckless if I took some household chemicals and without a context or without vetting who could see it, put it out there for a 8-year-old kid when their parents aren't home to go try it in the kitchen and hurt themselves.

And I would never wanna do that, but an eight yearold kid is not gonna go out in the backyard and grab a block of C four and blasting caps because something far beyond me has failed [00:13:00] at that point. If he can do that. Mm-hmm.

[00:13:01] Speaker: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a good point. Well, you know, I, growing up, playing around with this sort of stuff, always interested about it, has some mishaps.

Um, a fellow I went to cadet camp with and he ended up losing his middle finger and index finger and his thumb. And, uh, he ran one of our local gun stores here for a while and was able to shoot and do everything he should do. But, um, he was just using a homemade fuse and a, uh. And a little device that he, he shouldn't have been playing with.

And he thought, oh, I know I'll, I'll light this thing while we're driving down and so I can throw it out the window and uh, uh, we can get away from it. And of course, a flame caught and the homemade fuse didn't work as well as he thought it would. And one thing led to another, right? And so there's, there's close calls that I've experienced to other people.

I burnt off my, my eyebrows and my hairline when I was about six, seven [00:14:00] years old. And I learned the difference between black powder and smokeless powder. And, uh, that was, that was a good learning experience. 'cause I didn't realize there was the two types. And when I played in the backyard, I was always given smokeless.

And, um, I decided my parents are gone. I wonder what'll happen if I just take an entire container of this gunpowder, oh man, and I, and I'm gonna light it with this magnifying glass. And I'm thinking like, I know this isn't smart. Even in my childhood. Head. I knew it wasn't smart. I'm like, if it doesn't go off as I drag the magnifying glass away, I'm gonna make a trail to this.

And sure enough, it went off and couldn't really see anything. My brother comes out telling me he's got a towel over his face. 'cause he says the burning hair stunk so much and, but Oh, bet. Yeah. Yeah. And it just looked like I had a bad sunburn and it hurt. And when I could finally see more than a big red.in front of my face, I, middle of summer, I had to hide it by putting a two on and, uh, using the jiffy marker on my eyebrows to try and make it look like I had proper eyebrows again.

But, [00:15:00] um, you know, I had a, I never had anything. I, I guess the last one would've been, uh, with, with iodine in a friend's house and, uh, we're drying out the little iodine thing, make it little devil popper snappers. And someone walked through the solution and walked through his mom's brand new carpet and had red iodine dots through.

And man, we were. We were sweating bricks and looking at cutting pits out of the, um, uh, out of the closet so that we could try and patch up the parts of the, the, uh, the carpet. And it wasn't until about an hour before his parents came back into town that, uh, I realized on some bulletin board somewhere, they said, sodium thio sulfate will, uh, uh, get rid of iodine stains.

Which, which it did. And, uh, we were, the carpets were so and wet and, uh, the parents were upset about that, but none the wiser. But those were, those were a few of my close calls. I [00:16:00] understand you had something a little bit more scary as a close call.

[00:16:04] Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yeah. It wasn't even so much a close call. I just blew my hand up and, uh, yeah.

Yeah, that, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't all on my game that day and I was 14 years old too. And I had a wooden paintbrush and I was loading that copper tube with, uh, an organic peroxide, primary high explosive. And when they're dry, they're, they're very sensitive. And it had dried out. And, and I didn't, I wasn't aware of that.

And it, uh, it, it probably was only maybe a third or a half a gram. It wasn't much, but it was contained in that copper tube. And so when it's laid out that, that copper is what ripped up my hand and, you know, messed my thumb up and my index finger and my middle finger, but then I had this big piece of copper stuck right between my eyes.

And it, it's, it [00:17:00] was weird, you know, I was working with it and I had the thought that, what if this blew up? Mm-hmm. And then I realized I couldn't hear the radio anymore. I couldn't really see, there was this weird smell and there, there was blood all over my leg. So I went in the bathroom and that's when I saw the piece of copper in my eyes and I saw my tendons and the bones.

And

[00:17:22] Speaker 3: it was

[00:17:23] Speaker 2: a strange experience because at that time, you know, you talk about, earlier you said that playing war was fun and little green army man and everything. Up until this point, I, I had read about manufacturing explosives and, and I also would play with the little green Army men and it was all sort of a game.

And that was the first time I got introduced to the carnage that it produces. And then I started thinking after that about warfare, what a bullet will do, not, you know, I had deer hunt and stuff like that, so I know what happens to an animal, but then I saw it to me, a human being and then it just [00:18:00] soured the whole thing.

And so then on one hand I was intrigued to go deeper. I wanna understand how do I safely do this? How is this done in industry? 'cause this is an industry staple, the blasting cap number one, they don't use that compound. But there are safe ways to do this. On the other hand, the Peter Pan magic of it was gone.

And so that's why I never fantasize about warfare or make it into something that it's not, because it's, it's, uh, it's an awful thing that happens on this planet. You know, the, the way one man will chew another man up, and I know how they can do that. And so it was a, it was a great experience, you know?

Mm-hmm. And it, it's a great experience because I live through it and I, I filed it away as information to use to make my tomorrow better than my today. Mm-hmm. Uh, and I use it every day. And so I'm grateful for the way that it turned out. I was [00:19:00] very fortunate and I believe it would be a, a vast waste of an experience if I were to just chalk that up as an accident.

And this is dangerous and don't ever go there again. I, that, to me, that would've been the wrong move. I needed to go deeper.

[00:19:14] Speaker: Hmm. So you, I'm guessing you're probably y young adult at that time. Teenager. How, how old were you when that happened? I was 14. Okay. 14. And you didn't have parents and teachers saying, what the hell are you doing?

Like, stop, stop playing with this? Yeah.

[00:19:35] Speaker 2: No, no. I did. I had, uh, so I had one teacher that wouldn't give me anything, and I had another teacher that would give me stuff on the side, like some glassware, you know, from my lab.

[00:19:45] Speaker: You're right.

[00:19:46] Speaker 2: And my dad supported me in everything I did. But the thing is, I, my knowledge outgrew my fathers.

He, he knew about black powder and a little bit about smokeless, but he didn't know anything in the realm of high explosives. [00:20:00] And so when I was experimenting in my la my, my little home laboratory, I was making things that was beyond their understanding. So that's what, you know, you gotta be careful of is when your kids outrun you and they're understanding you gotta play catch up and make sure they're being safe.

Mm-hmm. Now, I mean, they did, uh, they did buy me dynamite and then we did buy blasting caps. And my dad, is that after Just go with me? Is that after the accident? Uh,

[00:20:28] Speaker: or

[00:20:29] Speaker 2: before? So I got the dynamite first. Okay. And, and, and I got some blasting caps, but they were expensive. And remember, I'm, I'm mowing Yards and everything, paying for this.

Mm-hmm. So my parent, my dad would just sign the paperwork. Um, so it was, it was in an attempt, just like I said before, I don't like the idea of something being finite. I wanted to be able to create this and make it from as little raw material as possible.

[00:20:54] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[00:20:54] Speaker 2: And so, yeah, this was after that so that I could make caps for my dynamite.

I eventually did, I made, [00:21:00] I made a nice, safe loading bench that we had a, an incident where as the deal blew up on it and all the safeties were in place and everything was perfectly fine. Then I did end up making some good blasting caps for my dynamite that were at almost ze. Well, zero cost, you know.

[00:21:15] Speaker: Nice, nice. Um, what about, so you've got one kid or two kids? I got four kids. You have four kids? Okay. So are they following in your footsteps?

[00:21:28] Speaker 2: Uh, to a degree. My, my 15-year-old is leaning more towards business.

[00:21:36] Speaker 3: Okay.

[00:21:37] Speaker 2: Uh, he does enjoy, you know, he, he's made some black powder with me

[00:21:42] Speaker 3: mm-hmm.

[00:21:42] Speaker 2: Under my careful watch.

And, uh, we, we do it together. And he's worked on some rockets and smoke bombs. And of course he is always been there with me when I'm blasting. Uh, but he, he really enjoys flying, he likes piloting, uh, airplanes. And so he's, he's gonna [00:22:00] probably have his license by the time he is 16 or 17. And then I think, I don't know if it's 16 or 17, when they can legally get it.

He can take off flying land an airplane right now. Good for him. And so that's good. And then Max the next down. He definitely is more in the engineering mindset and way more involved with technology than I ever was or even am now. And my daughter's in dance and takes it serious, like really serious. And then Nathaniel's four years old and he's just, uh, he's just a ham bone right now.

[00:22:32] Speaker: Hmm. So, uh, would you want to see your kids following your footsteps to be making a business in such a, I mean, it, it, I don't know what it's like in the States, but in Canada you'd be considered an extremely niche industry, uh, where your business is built. Uh, are you pretty niche where you're at?

[00:22:53] Speaker 2: We are because we, we do what others don't want to do.

I, I always say we solve, we solve [00:23:00] explosive problems. And so if, if a member in the oil and gas industry has a an issue, we try to step in and help 'em. Whether that's a storage issue or, uh, somebody that needs a place to test something or a DOT classification on some material. You know, I ended up being at the center of a spider web, and so I have contacts in the entertainment industry and then in the military side, and then the mining and in the research and development, and it's all these different industries don't necessarily know of the other one.

Right? Hmm. And so one company will come to me and say, Hey, we got all these explosives. We wanna get rid of 'em, we can't use them. And I'll take 'em, and then I'll know another industry that can use them, but for a slightly different use, but still, you know, very much a legitimate use of explosive. And I'll bridge that gap and then everybody's a winner, you know?

Sure. Uh, and as far as my kids being in it, I'm gonna be happiest when they're happiest. So if, if they have zero interest in [00:24:00] it, well then they have zero interest in it. But I do believe that my oldest. Is interested in the business and wants to, while he'll still, you know, he'll get his pilot's license, but it looks like he's gonna have a part to play in it.

And believe it or not, my daughter is making a lot of noise about joining me as well. And she would be great because she is the extrovert, the person with a lot of confidence and people love her even at nine years old. So when she's, you know, 25, 28 years old, she could probably grab this thing by the horns and, and take it to new levels on a social level that, that I nor my, my boys ever would.

[00:24:41] Speaker: How much of your business is that social media side, the YouTube and Instagram side of things?

[00:24:48] Speaker 2: Uh, not even. Not even 1%. It's, it's a funny thing. It's the only thing that gets me notoriety. 99% of my work is [00:25:00] word of mouth. And continuing contracts. So I'll fulfill a, a contract for one company. A new company will come in, they'll just say, how did you do this?

X, Y, Z? And they're like, well, we used Benetti. And so they just, you know, wash and rinse and repeat.

[00:25:16] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. And

[00:25:16] Speaker 2: so that, that's how we do it. Well, we started a project a couple years ago with avalanche control and avalanche control industry, you know, has a lot of these, we, I call 'em snow bros. Guy that Mm.

Snow ski around and throw the charges and, and they're a fun bunch of folks and they're usually on the, the younger side. And so my partner said, look, you need to get a, a social media presence. And he's like, I, I've been hanging out with you for a year. And he said, uh, I don't know anybody like you. He said, you, you drive a tank one day and you know, you go to your island and you go to the Caribbean, you know, and then you go to your West Texas place and then you're making explosives or machine guns, and then you're doing stuff with like Mr.

Beast. He said, it's, it's not a normal life you have. Mm. He said, why don't we get you a [00:26:00] social media presence and then, and then what you can do is you'll get a return on investment from that. He said, but then ideally when we go to these mountains, you'll have a presence that precedes you and people will know who you are before we show up.

And I was like, yeah, whatever. So he found a manager for me and I pay a monthly, uh, salary and, and she gave me a phone. And I just take that phone and, and it's really like today we have a truck coming to pick stuff up. We have, uh, or orders that are needing to be fulfilled and we have product that's coming in all in one day.

Right. So I don't have time to do a lot of social media stuff. So what I'll do is I'll just see something and I'll grab that phone and I'll talk about it just for a little bit, and then I'll see a little extra explosive that I, I might wanna blow up, be like, you know what, let's make a video with this. So I'll take it and set it up and demonstrate something real quick, and then I go lay that in my lab and it goes to the cloud and she gets it and edits it later and I don't think [00:27:00] about it again.

Mm. So I am not putting hours and hours of thought into this stuff. It is very fast. It is a pain in the rear. Uh, but then it happened to blow up, no pun intended, with, you know, 246,000 followers and you know, next thing you know, I'm getting $1,200 to talk about a watch. So that, I mean, that's pretty cool.

That's not bad.

[00:27:23] Speaker: It's not bad. Yeah. So do you find that difficult to talk in front of the camera and do your thing? Or is it just gonna come natural for you?

[00:27:32] Speaker 2: No. When my, when I was a little kid, my dad used to set me in front of a camera on purpose and, and he would make me talk to the camera. And, uh, we would have, uh, we'd have picnics and he would record it and he would record it for posterity.

You know, he, he would say, Hey, one day you're gonna be a grown man. What do you wanna say to yourself? And so I would talk to myself as a grown man, as a little kid. And so little by little, he was always getting me used to the camera and

[00:27:57] Speaker 3: mm-hmm.

[00:27:57] Speaker 2: I, I didn't know it would go anywhere. I, I [00:28:00] didn't really didn't think about it, you know, it's just that later in life when the cameras came out, I'm like, well, I've been here before.

[00:28:06] Speaker: Interesting. So that's a curious question. So you were asked to opine on what you'd wanna say to your older self as a young kid. What would you say to your, your younger self now? Buckle up.

[00:28:22] Speaker 2: Yeah. I'd say, uh, I'd say you did it. You did it.

[00:28:24] Speaker 3: Yeah.

[00:28:25] Speaker 2: If, if, if I was talking to my younger self, I'd say, uh, you did it. And if I was talking to my older self now. I say, I hope I'm gonna do it. You know, different set of goals there.

[00:28:36] Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. You know, I gotta imagine that having a business like yours is going to come with a heck of a lot of, uh, regulatory red tape, and it's gonna have a lot of, uh, a lot of rules and regulations that you gotta figure out a lot of personalities that you probably have to deal with like this.

This isn't a business for the [00:29:00] faint of heart. What were some of the challenges you had in starting a business like this?

[00:29:07] Speaker 2: You know, yes, the regulations are the most difficult part for me. That being said, the playbook is laid out. So in, in, for instance, in Texas, there's no requirement for a state blaster license.

So the state of Texas looks at you and goes, Hey, whatever the feds say, I. As far as the federal government goes, there's the a TF and they're very plainly lay out what the rules and regulations are and what they call the orange book. And so if you take the time to read that book and study those rules and regulations, it, it leaves you a lot of room to get your job done.

Mm. As long as you meet those parameters. And I've always seen those parameters as as very fair actually. And their inspections, while they can be a, [00:30:00] you know, an inconvenience, they're not, they're, they're not anything to worry about. So long as you're, you know, crossing your T's and dotting your i's and it comes down to control your material.

Mm-hmm. Because remember, you are the explosive expert. The government is there to regulate it such that it doesn't become a hazard to the community at large. So if you're regulating yourself and you're doing your due diligence and you have control of your materials and you're ensuring that you're not releasing material to somebody who can't have it or shouldn't have it, or you have any reason to believe they shouldn't have it, as long as you're not giving physical material to someone, uh, you generally don't have a problem with the A TF.

They come in and do their inspection. Your books all line up. Obviously everything is controlled and accounted for, uh, either by count or weight or length in the case of debtor and time fuse. And so as long as you [00:31:00] manage all of that, it really hasn't been the biggest hurdle. Uh, private businesses that are too big for their own good tend to be where the biggest hurdle is.

Mm-hmm. It's, uh, it's companies that are so large that no one wants to take responsibility. No one wants to take the chance. No one will take a risk. And so they become paralyzed. And in doing so, they can paralyze you or even bring you down to your detriment because, uh, they, they won't move, you know, because they're gonna get a bonus and they're gonna have a job next year, whether this project goes through or not.

Mm-hmm. But they look at it like, if there's risk associated and we have a problem, I might lose my job or not get a bonus. So it's better to just do nothing than to move. But as a small business owner, that's never an option. You have to move, you have to keep moving all the time. And you have to be comfortable with calculated risk.

And if, if the [00:32:00] risk to reward ratio is off by too much, then you don't do it. And if the, if the reward outweighs the risk and like, Hey, it goes as bad as it can possibly go and you're gonna survive, uh, then move on. You know, you, you will recover.

[00:32:16] Speaker: I found that in, in my business anyways, in the firearms world, it's probably not too dissimilar in the States, as in Canada.

Mind you, we've got, we've, we've both got, depending on what states you're in and what area you're at, everyone's gonna have different ideas and different rules. And Canada, that's done federally, but. There are a lot of policies that can be made and you start dealing with individuals as opposed to actual rules.

The rules are easy, they're cut and dry. And a industrious individual, there's a gunsmith around the corner here, and he is always thought of new ways to comply with the rules and provide a product to the, to the public that's rule compliant, but maybe it's not something that the, uh, the firearms program wants to see out there.

[00:33:00] So he, he finds himself butting heads all the time, doing the right thing, pushing business forward, but still encountering roadblocks. And then the other one would be, uh, low beed entry, uh, industries where people get in and their ambitions will exceed their ethics and, uh, the, uh, the sniping and infighting and the trying to tear someone else's building down to make their building look larger.

Those are the two areas that I've found in business that have been. The biggest challenges, and I had to learn the difference between being right and, uh, and winning because, and being rich. There you go. How do I win? How do I get to where I want to be? I already know I'm right. I know I'm doing everything properly, but how do I deal, let's say, with, uh, a civil servant who has the ability to tie this all up, maybe in a similar way that, uh, a private enterprise has the ability to be risk adverse and, and tie the [00:34:00] things up.

How do I deal with them in a way where they get the win, I get the win, and we can move forward without just being right and be the loser in that, that that's, that was my large, uh, growing hurdle that I encountered. How do you find those wins for yourself when you reach those, reach those, uh, I start button heads or those roadblocks where private industry wants to dig their heels and be being risk adverse.

[00:34:26] Speaker 2: Uh, well, I mean, it's, it's, for me, it's pretty straightforward. If it's not critical to the mission, I just say, yes sir, yes ma'am. And just make a change. And if it is critical, then uh, we go back to the black and white and, and usually it goes up the chain, but there's only one instance where they said something and I was like, well, you know, I disagree with that because I did it by the book.

And so you can't just arbitrarily say something. But at the same time, [00:35:00] at that time, it was so far out of my scope that I'm like, we can come back to this later. You know, if I need to cross this bridge at a later date, then I'm gonna go back to you and I'll pull the book up and say, please check these numbers and compare, uh, because I believe that by your own writing, uh, I'm in this category versus, you know, this other one.

And, and that's the way I just go at it. And, but also. I've made some great contacts in that industry because, I don't know, I just used to be very open about what you wanna do and if you wanna do something you're not, you're not, uh, used to or it's something different, uh, reach out first and say, look, this is what I wanna do.

Tell me how I can do it now. As long as the end goal is what I need, I, I don't care about the pathway to it. And I've never really had a time where they didn't work with me. Now, there may be some laborious ways to go about it, you know, more work than I wanted to, [00:36:00] but there was always a pathway. I mean, if I wanted to get an F 16 and mount some missiles on it and fly it over my ranch and shoot at a target, there's a way for that as me, a civilian.

And I know there is, uh, I, I, I already have the licenses. I have the same license that Boeing has or Raytheon. And those are private industries, so it may be public traded, but, but a lot of these defense contractors, they're private and they're making ordinance, they're making the stuff that's going to the military.

So I also am a company with the same licensing and the same ability. And so there's no reason I can't do it too. Uh, but I have to, for me, it has to make sense. Like, why would I wanna do this? Why am I making money doing this? And if I'm making money and it's a legitimate, then we'll find a way there. And that's, it is talk to a very, very open communication.

That's my answer.

[00:36:54] Speaker: So during all of this, it's become extremely apparent to me that I'm operating business in the [00:37:00] wrong country, because that idea of being able to reach out and ask the, the regulatory body, which is there to make sure that you're meeting the regulations and, you know, what's the path forward?

Here's what I want to do, what do I have to proceed with? Uh, it doesn't really exist in a, in a similar fashion in Canada. It's, uh, it's a real, uh, chicken and the egg sort of argument that happens. They say, well, first you have to show us the contracts that you have in place, and then we'll tell you if they're, uh, they're permissible.

And I'm, I'm just going back to actual correspondence that I've had back and forth before. I said, hold on a second. You're asking me to get into legally binding contracts to do something that I'm otherwise not legally allowed to do. Like, that's entrapment. You can't do that. Right? All of a sudden, communication slowed down and then the lawyers are involved and, but it's, um, uh, it's a very different culture here in Canada.

And I'm thinking that, uh, uh, I [00:38:00] think I'm having a little bit of a light bulb moment as we're talking right now. So interesting. I like the, I like that approach.

[00:38:06] Speaker 2: Well, either the government is there to serve the people or the people are there to serve the government. I mean, the, the government is there to, uh, to assist you as a free citizen to conduct your business.

And so you're not going and asking permission. You're going and saying, look, this is my goal. This is what I want to do. How do I do it within the parameters of the law? Their job is to assist you. I mean, they even tell me, the the inspectors I have are great. They tell me all the time. They're like, we work for you.

We're here to help you get done what you need to get done, uh, and make sure it's legal and safe.

[00:38:44] Speaker: That makes sense. That totally makes sense. Everyone's on the same song sheet. You're educated, you're doing things the way they want to, you're doing things properly. Ev everyone's happy. Right? They're doing things well by you.

Yeah. We've got a, we have a system of denial [00:39:00] by, um, lack of. Refusal in Canada, we're not refusing you, we're just not gonna do it. And so your recourse on that then is not to, you go through a reference hearing. I remember I was involved with one, it was on a, uh, type 97, a firearm, and I was asked to be a subject matter expert because this company was importing these guns into Canada.

And the firearms program said, no, we can't have these here. Those are gonna be illegal because they're too easy to make full auto. And we apply the hassle wander case to it and a and a couple others. So I was called in to look at this gun and opine as to how easy or hard it was to make it go full auto.

So I'd never seen one before and I get my hands on it. The police give me a, a, um, access to one and I mean, I'm there as a subject matter expert for the courts, not for one side or the other. Despite who's paying you, you're there to give your honest impression to the courts. And my honest impression was it's really damn easy to make it go full auto.

And, [00:40:00] um, so. It real, all it required was a, a screwdriver in one spot that looked like it was specially put there to make a go fall auto. And you just give a flick and the thing goes right. And almost as if it was designed to be that way, really, really easy. Met all of the requirements, all the rest. Anyways, uh, it go through this hearing and I give my two bits.

I was the first guy to give information. The, um, Murray the other fellow goes up and gives his, he was crown's, um, expert witness. And in my opinion, what's the, uh, nice legal way of saying, entirely misrepresented the truth when he was up there and he didn't need to, had he been privy to seeing my testimony?

'cause he had just said, oh yeah, what Trav said, right? I came up with this whole song and dance and I'm like, oh man, I mean, this guy's gonna get called down for sure, for, for lying his face off. And what I learned at the end of it, it really didn't matter if. What, who was right or who was wrong. The only recourse that the business had in all of this was [00:41:00] this reference hearing, which analyzed whether the right steps were taken, uh, to arrive at the decision.

The decision could be erroneous. But if you follow step one, step two, step three, and you came to a completely erroneous decision, that's okay. That erroneous decision stands 'cause a legal recourse didn't allow to challenge the decision. The legal recourse is, allows you to challenge, did you follow the steps to arrive at it?

So it was a massive eye-opener and it, in Canada, that's how I've seen, uh, a lot of these policies being enacted as if their law, as if their regulation and, uh, people say, well, I'm gonna get a lawyer and challenge it. And that's the wrong approach because all you do is you start setting bad precedent and sure enough, they will have followed the right steps regardless of whatever the decision they arrive at.

So it's a very, it's a different culture here in Canada. Yeah.

[00:41:53] Speaker 2: Sounds like it.

[00:41:55] Speaker: That's my ramp cross. I drove

[00:41:56] Speaker 2: through once.

[00:41:59] Speaker: [00:42:00] Yeah, that's, you drove through once, did you?

[00:42:02] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I drove, uh, from here to Anchorage, Alaska.

[00:42:06] Speaker: Okay.

[00:42:07] Speaker 2: And, uh, yeah, it was a pretty good haul and yeah, went through Calgary and then on the Alcan Road.

And it's interesting, I, I, at the entrance coming in, my kids were laughing because there's a sign that says, you know, no firearms, no BB guns, no slingshots or something like that. My kids are just rolling laughing. I mean, no key

[00:42:29] Speaker: shooters.

[00:42:30] Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, my kid, the arsenal that my kids get to play with, and then they look and they're like, you can't have a slingshot.

Yeah. And then, yeah. What was the other thing it was, oh, when we got up to the Yukon territory? Yeah. Uh, I stopped, we went through, uh, Whitefish and then. I saw, I saw a gun shop there actually, and it was pretty well stocked. This was several years ago, but, uh, I was impressed. And then [00:43:00] I was talking to somebody and he said that you guys in, in rural areas like that, y'all have Mounties, right?

[00:43:09] Speaker: Yeah, yeah, we do.

[00:43:10] Speaker 2: Yeah. So Mounties are the ones that in, they're like a sheriff or they do, they they enforce the law. They're like the, the top of the line, or what are they?

[00:43:18] Speaker: Yeah, they're, they're like the federal police force. So they're the ones that are, it's one federal, although they'll run provincially in different areas.

They're, they're like your FBI, I guess.

[00:43:32] Speaker 2: Okay. Well, he said that, you know, they had all these rules that were choking 'em out out there. And I said, man, you live in the middle of nowhere. I said, why do you have any gun laws at all? I said, you guys are in the most remote place I've ever been. I said, you could have a full auto 50 cal out here and nobody would be the wiser.

Like it doesn't matter. Hmm.

[00:43:50] Speaker 3: And

[00:43:50] Speaker 2: he said that, uh, because the laws aren't made locally, you know, here we have a sheriff and our sheriff has the ability to trump anything [00:44:00] else.

[00:44:00] Speaker 4: And so

[00:44:01] Speaker 2: if something comes down and it's unjust and it doesn't work for your local people where, you know, you govern each other, uh, the sheriff has a lot more authority than people are aware of.

And I like that system because what a law you make for Chicago is not gonna work for us out here. And, and a law that we make over here is not gonna work for them over there. I get it. It's different, but it's not, it's not wise to do a blanket law for a land as vast as yours or mine. And expect that it's gonna land the same way in every area because we're not the same at all.

[00:44:36] Speaker: Yeah. That, that sounds like common sense to me. And, uh, I mean, I'm the choir here. You're preaching to it. I, I, I gotta wonder what the path forward for us, if there is one that's available. I know Alberta's making some rumblings right now, and, uh, I think, uh, Trump's made a couple offers about a 51st state, but, uh, I don't know what the, uh, the true path forward for Canada is.

But yeah, there's [00:45:00] um, there's some challenges for sure,

[00:45:04] Speaker 2: Rob, probably, I think a more locally controlled government where the people you're, you're dealing with know you, because there's a lot to be said for that. Yeah. When you're in these smaller communities and, and your law enforcement and everybody around knows exactly who you are.

Um. That you, to me, that's the best way to govern when you know your community versus just this blind assumption of the way people are, versus my grandmother grew up with his grandmother and we know them and they want to do this, uh, still, or they want to start in a powder plant or whatever.

[00:45:40] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

[00:45:41] Speaker 2: Okay.

I know them. I trust them, number one. And then number two, what, where are your safety parameters? Uh, what laws are you gonna wanna follow? You know, what are we following here to give this some guidance? I'm not saying it should be the wild, wild West. What I'm saying is, is that it should have a more human approach to it, as opposed to this [00:46:00] just blanket deal that just doesn't work on, on lands as vast as ours.

[00:46:05] Speaker: Amen. Brother. I'm, I'm with you on that one. I, um, I'd love to see that implemented in Canada. I, we'll, we'll see what, uh, we'll see what the future holds. I, I got a, um, off the politics side. I got two questions. One, Benetti, where did that word come from?

[00:46:27] Speaker 2: Well, that's, that's my real name. Okay. So my, uh, my grandfather is Fred Rico.

Vinno. Benetti. Okay. And then he changed it in the thirties to Barnett.

[00:46:36] Speaker: Okay. Uh, and then the other one was, uh, Reio. Was it

[00:46:43] Speaker 2: Impresario?

[00:46:44] Speaker: Impresario. There you go. That's my dyslexia and a DHC kicking in when I read stuff too quickly. Impresario. Can you tell me about that?

[00:46:53] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's, uh, so when I started my, my ranch out in West Texas, I wanted to do a leadership camp out [00:47:00] there, and I wanted it to be, I looked up the word entrepreneur in Italian.

[00:47:06] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[00:47:06] Speaker 2: And, and it's impresario with an eye. Now impresario with an e is a Spanish word for a landowner who, who acquires massive amounts of land and then sells them off. And so in the early days of Texas, back when it was belong, when it belonged to Mexico, we had impresarios down here and they would acquire large, vast sections of land and they would sell it off to these settlers that were coming in to settle that area of Texas.

But I like the Italian word because it's too, it's, it's a per, it's the organizer of a performance and it's with an I and it's the Italian word. And so everything about that camp from the insignia, the symbols, the emblems, every single thing about it has a meaning. And the whole idea was, is that you [00:48:00] are the performance master of your life.

You are the impresario of your story. And so that's why I named it that.

[00:48:07] Speaker: That's a bit of a difference from working in the energetics industry to leadership and, uh, motivation. And the, that's, uh, what, what made I, I, and I see how you can bridge the two of them, but what sparked that?

[00:48:25] Speaker 2: Well, I enjoy blowing things up. Yeah. See if there's somebody coming up the steps here. I, I don't, the door's not opening, so I don't know, but I heard 'em. Um, I enjoy blowing things up, but I enjoy working with people a lot as well. And actually once it seems to come really natural. And so I asked somebody, I said, what, what do I do?

Well? And as far as I can tell, the only thing that I do well is [00:49:00] motivate and encourage people. Hmm. I, I don't think I'm a great chemist. Uh, the world of explosives is so vast that, you know, I, I'm fascinated by it, but I am by no means a master of all things explosive. My business has done good, but I'm not, uh, I'm not Jeff Bezos, you know, so what am I really good at?

And I, I know that I've learned to listen to people and I've been able to ref take what they're saying and then put it back to 'em in a, in a gentle way, such that they don't see it as an attack, but it's information they can use to make their, their lives better. Huh.

[00:49:50] Speaker: Have you, have you run many of these?

[00:49:53] Speaker 2: I ran one for a defense contractor, but.

I didn't know how to pitch it, so it was like [00:50:00] a leadership camp, you know?

[00:50:01] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[00:50:02] Speaker 2: And then I ended up talking about chasing your dreams and their head guy quit and went and started a company. And then one of my employees, one of my employees then left to go work for his company, which we're all still friends.

Like it was an, but you know, it's kind of like no big company is gonna send their people to me when I tell them that the clock is ticking and the sun will set on their life one day. What do you want your legacy to be? And it's not gonna be sitting in traffic to go to the office. On the other hand, the people that need to hear that message can't afford the kind of class I put on.

I had four ex-military instructors. I had 18 wheelers bring our army tank out there. I mean, we're talking $10,000 per head cost to this. Sure. And, and a lot of times the people that need that message, they don't have the money for that. So what we've started to run out there have been, uh, ladies retreats and, uh.

Light in corporate events. And anytime I get a chance to give a talk, I [00:51:00] do. And I'm hoping that through my social media presence, that a spinoff of that is more entities coming to me saying, Hey, we wanna do an event out there. We want you to be a guest speaker and bring out some other speakers and, you know, let's have a good time.

But, you know, don't run off our employees. I'm sure it's just, it's just an odd thing, you know? It's like if you walk into the factory and you have a hundred factory workers and you tell 'em why they could be doing more, all your factory workers are gonna leave. Sure. So nobody's gonna send them to me. So, I don't know.

I, I don't know. But here I am and wherever I get called to go, that's where I'll ride.

[00:51:39] Speaker: Interesting. Yeah. Maybe it's not the corporations that should be footing the bill for this. Maybe it's like the, uh, the Tony Robbins approach where he charges an arm and a leg for people to come. And he says, I don't need the money.

I only charge that much money. Just to know that they're gonna be serious and they're gonna actually, yeah, they're not wasting my time and they're going to, they're gonna do something and, uh, [00:52:00] yeah. May, maybe that's, uh, more the approach, but I, I'm sure he probably has some of the same hurdles as well. Yeah.

You can be anything you wanna be, and really people can within, within reasons, geography, ability, in intellect, uh, physicality, all the rest. There are gonna be some limiters on there, but, uh, an ent, an industrious individual will be able to find ways to, uh, oh yeah. To overcome that. Um, oh yeah. So I, I'm guessing you spent some time thinking about what your legacy, what you want that to be.

[00:52:34] Speaker 2: Yeah. It, well, my legacy is, is gonna be my children. Yeah. I mean, they're, they're not, they're not just potatoes. Those guys are movers and shakers. So my company exists today because I exist. There are problems being solved today because I was a little boy that wanted to do this.

[00:52:53] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[00:52:53] Speaker 2: There are people whose lives have been possibly saved and, and possibly some that [00:53:00] have been taken.

You know, because, because I exist, I, I all, I am as a player on a stage of life and my play part has left its mark and it looks like it's gonna continue to leave a mark. But the greatest contribution will be children that are that love and are conscientious, that, that take that torch. And it may, it may move completely away from the world of energetics.

It may go into aviation of the arts or engineering with Max, I don't know. But to love your children is like putting money in a bank, and the generation after me is the one that'll receive the dividend.

[00:53:39] Speaker: You know, a lot of people say that. A lot of people say, well, you know, it's my kids. They're my generation. But not a lot of people put that effort in. That's required. You homeschool, you and your wife, you homeschool your kids, don't you?

[00:53:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, we do. We, we homeschool, but also we have a very real relationship with our children.

It's not [00:54:00] the, so I don't have a schedule, do I make time to be with my kids?

[00:54:05] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[00:54:05] Speaker 2: My kids are always with me and the kids were born into a life in motion already, so life didn't stop and revolve around them. They're like little ticks stuck on the side while we're in motion. And so that's the difference.

The relationship that I'm building with them is already as if they're adults. They're just small right now. So when I'm going to the demo range and my four year old's butt naked, I'll grab his little butt and throw him in the truck and you know, I'll let him steer and we talk. And he gets to watch stuff blow up and he knows that's what dad does and he's already, it's just becoming a way of life.

You know? You, you think back or you think about now, you know, firearm safety, let's say there's a lot of families out there. There's no way in hell they should have a firearm out. You know, where the kid could reach it. I get it. I understand that [00:55:00] reasoning. But let's go way back to the frontier days. The rifle stayed locked right over the door.

And if dad was gone from home, the oldest son knew that I might have to grab that to defend the household. Mm-hmm.

[00:55:12] Speaker 3: And

[00:55:12] Speaker 2: everybody walked by that rifle every day and the wife knew how to shoot it. Everybody knew how to shoot that gun as soon as they could hold it, they were taught to use it. Right. So that's the way I've been brazing my children up.

Mm-hmm. Like, it's interesting, if they want to shoot, they know, all they have to do is ask their father, we're gonna make time and go shoot the guns. They don't wanna sneak around and go sneak up to them. They're, they're a tool, they're a part of life. It's like electrical sockets. Mm-hmm. They know not to stick forks in them.

Mm-hmm. And they're there, but they're all over your

[00:55:45] Speaker: house. Yeah.

[00:55:46] Speaker 2: All over the house. And we teach kids to drive cars and the only thing separating you and another car at 70 miles an hour in your face is a yellow line. And you paying attention.

[00:55:56] Speaker: Yeah.

[00:55:56] Speaker 2: So, yeah. Pretty damn sure that we can teach kids about firearms [00:56:00] and live harmoniously.

We, we have forever.

[00:56:02] Speaker: Mm-hmm.

[00:56:02] Speaker 2: Are, are there gonna be exact accidents? Yes. People are gonna have car accidents. People are gonna get electrocuted and people are gonna get shot. And if you don't want that, go live in a foam house and let the state take care of you. But that's not what the human experience calls us to do.

It's a, it's a dangerous adventure we're on and there's calculated risks and bad things happen and it sucks. And we should work to mitigate those, but not at the cost of quenching the human spirit. You know, at the heart of it is art. An artist is not a safe person. Shouldn't be here. The art's gonna suck.

[00:56:38] Speaker: That's right.

[00:56:39] Speaker 2: Yeah. Uh, so you are living art and, and it does not call you to safety. It calls you to be brave.

[00:56:50] Speaker: I, I think a lot of people can use that reminder because so many people, they put the bubble wrap on and they wanna live a safe life, man, I wanna live a real [00:57:00] life. I wanna live a life that's, that brings me excitement, that gets my heart racing. And that doesn't happen in a safe place that happens with controlled risk.

And if I don't, if I don't have a level of controlled risk in my life, I don't feel like I'm, I don't feel like I'm growing. And it's actually rather depressing for me. I've always needed that level of. Uh, danger to be present in my life, whether I'm going out on adventure, camping, climbing, whatever, mountaineering, like, there has to be some element of like, I have to have my wits about me or else I could be seriously injured or, or hurt in order for that to be a strong, memorable moving experience for me.

I don't know if that's what most people are like, but I've recognized that in myself.

[00:57:46] Speaker 2: Alright. Oh, I absolutely think that at the core, most people are that way. I think all people are, but you know, it, there's a, there's an element of fear and it, it wins. It wins a lot of times and you gotta talk [00:58:00] about when it doesn't work out, right?

Mm-hmm. So I was in the hospital for three months, spina bifida complications, and a can't pee, still can't pee. You gotta use a catheter every day. And so for many, many days on end, I would lay flat on my back, watch a clock on a wall. And so one of the things that runs through my mind is because I always hear the critic, the critic is always in my mind.

And when you say, well, I wanna live, you know, a life of danger, of calculated risk, there's a critic back there going Yeah. Until you're 90% burned up in a chair and you don't, you know, but that's, they're saying that because they won't do it,

[00:58:37] Speaker 3: they

[00:58:37] Speaker 2: themselves won't go out and do it. But what they are saying, instead of you retaliating, it should give you cre.

It should, you should give it credence and give it time to think and process that. And understand, because I've been there in the hospital bed, I've had neighbors in my hospital room ward that were there for a year. You know, there's people living lives [00:59:00] that are very much different than what you're experiencing.

[00:59:02] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:03] Speaker 2: And I have to consider if the choices I make today put me in that position, you know, was it worth it?

And it, it's a question that only you can answer. Uh, and I ask myself that a lot because if it's not, then whatever task you're about to do, you might need to modify it. Uh, however, you could have the best intentions and have your morning coffee get out on the road in a truck, T-bones, you, and there you are stuck in a hospital bed forever, and you were not on a grand adventure.

You were just going to your eight, nine to five job every day. Mm-hmm. So I would say that as long as there's breath in your lungs and awareness in your mind, the human experience goes on and you were built to make the best of that. And I am saying that from someone who was laying in a hospital bed. I don't wanna sound callous, I don't have a perfect life.

I can't, I [01:00:00] can't go to the bathroom. Um, man, that was of no choice of mine. That was a, a born defect. But, but it doesn't matter. Um, I know that the spirit goes on. The spirit goes on, and I've learned so much from someone. Think about Helen Keller.

[01:00:16] Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.

[01:00:16] Speaker 2: Good Lord. What that woman did. I mean, look at the people she's inspired.

[01:00:23] Speaker: Yeah. It was, eh, h Chapin, he had that quote outta suffering of emerged Strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars. I gotta wonder if you didn't have that suffering as a youth, uh, dealing with these, the, the medical issues, do you think you'd have the same outlook now? Or do you think it's because of that suffering that you're able to, uh, to see the other side and have this outlook?

[01:00:54] Speaker 2: Well, I think I've always had it.

[01:00:56] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[01:00:56] Speaker 2: I just drew it, it, it made it come home. You [01:01:00] know, I remember my sister, she asked me, how'd you get through it? And, and I was 26 years old. Okay.

[01:01:07] Speaker 3: No, I was

[01:01:07] Speaker 2: 27. I was 27 when I started losing all the feeling in my toes and issues started happening. Then I went into all those surgeries, then they got infections and pseudomona and staph, and then meningitis and

[01:01:19] Speaker 3: just,

[01:01:19] Speaker 2: it snowballed.

It was just a, a, a myriad of things, one after another. And I, I told her, I said, well, turtles got me through it. She, I mean, I know she was expecting me to say God, but the thing is, I was always good with God the whole time through.

[01:01:32] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[01:01:33] Speaker 2: I never, I never said, why this or how could you that I, I didn't ask to come here.

As far as I know, and I'm here and, and I'm not, it's not on my timeline to leave. So God gets a pass on all that. As far as my little puny ego goes, I'm not in, I'm not interested in, in, in even going there. Uh, what I'm interested in is, is working on myself. And so, um, because God's been good to me, so [01:02:00] I said turtles because whenever I dive in the ocean.

I saw a turtle that a third of his butt was gone, missing a leg too, a chomp mark. It took, you know, right out of it. And that turtle was not laying around feeling sorry for itself. It was eating coral or jellyfish and swimming around, and it was just as normal as could be missing his ass. And I thought, well then it's up to you to continue to go until it's not your job.

And so that's what got me through it. It's like if you wake up and you see that clock on the wall, keep thinking thoughts. And then the thought that got me through it was, I pictured a movie in my mind, right? So I'm laying there, I've lost all my muscle mass and it's just, it's just not looking good. And I pictured a warm summer day when the camera is down low to the [01:03:00] ground.

So picture a horizon. It's a field of grass. It's short grass. It's only maybe two, three inches tall, you know, some little white flowers in there. It's a wild meadow and the camera's low looking out. And then from behind the camera comes me in boots running, and I would be, I was running away and I pictured that scene again and again of me running one day in my boots, you know?

[01:03:26] Speaker 3: Hmm.

[01:03:27] Speaker 2: Well that happened. I can run, I run in my boots. So, you know, I don't, I think that encouraged me and I, by just picturing that movie over and over and over, I knew that would happen.

[01:03:39] Speaker: That's amazing. Yeah. There, there's a lot to be said for the power of visualization and it's, it's more than just you, you gotta feel it just like you, just like you articulated this picture, I could feel myself there.

You were feeling yourself there. I'm gonna go out in a limb and say that you were visualizing in your head what exactly what that looked like, and [01:04:00] yeah, it's, it's funny how that becomes reality. You did it as a kid with the explosives, you did it as a, in your twenties in the hospital there. Yeah. What do you, what are you visualizing now?

What does the future look like?

[01:04:16] Speaker 2: Well,

I'm picturing a mountain home. I, and, uh, a lot of hot springs coffee in the morning and a laboratory where, uh, where I experiment a lot on, on the chemistry that I, I have questions about in my mind, good friends and loving family around me. And a lot of land, a lot of land to leave to my kids because while we're so concerned about, and we should be about habitat for endangered species animals.

[01:05:00] The most endangered animal I can tell is the man on fire. There's no place for him. We're, we're vastly killing that, that territory for that creature to live. We're confining it. We're restricting it. We're regulating it, we're tying it down. And if there's a salvation for mankind, it's that kind of man. And he needs a place to roam.

And it's not always public land where there's rules and regulation. It's private land, it's 30,000 acres. We're in the middle of it. You can do where the hell you want and nobody's there.

[01:05:36] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.

[01:05:37] Speaker 2: And, uh, we need that as, as a, as a planet. We need that. We need those people. That's the endangered species. So I'm gonna build a refuge for that endangered species.

[01:05:50] Speaker: I knew there was more to you, there is more spark to you than what was, uh, being led out in the collective podcast, Sarah, and I'm so glad we've had this opportunity. Is is there [01:06:00] anything that we haven't talked about that we should be talking about?

[01:06:06] Speaker 2: Well, I don't really know, you know, I don't know who all's watching this, but, but everybody that's watching it, I, I would just encourage everybody to, to take stock and look at their life. And, and one thing that I've started saying lately is that we have two ears, two eyes, two hands, two feet and one mouth.

And, and the reason for that, and maybe there's no reason, right, but this is what I take from that, is that you should be taking in and doing twice as much as what you're saying so that when you're saying something, it has weight and meaning bound by experience. Right? And I would say to everybody out there.

Not just love your neighbors and love your, the people in your life, but to learn to listen to them. And at the same time, listen to [01:07:00] yourself. So watch what you've been doing in your life and ask yourself, what does it serve? Where is it headed? And look at it from a third point of view so that you can kind of see how it play out.

Because you easily can look at somebody and say, oh, they're not headed anywhere. Good, right? We always point the finger all around. Mm. But look in the mirror and ask yourself if you were that third person, and, and be bold enough to look at the darkest side too, and confront that and work on yourself.

Because if every human being, were loving their neighbor simultaneously working on themselves and greeting their neighbor with compassion and forgiveness because they've seen the inside of themselves. Uh, that would be the first step to making this place a hell of a lot better. And when it comes to government, you wouldn't need a whole lot of government with the people that govern themselves that way.

Mm-hmm. That would be the future of government where there are some guidelines and we self-regulate, but, uh, probably a pipe dream, [01:08:00] but, but just like cream separates and milk, maybe one day everything will just kind of settle out. That's what nature does.

[01:08:06] Speaker: It tends to Yeah. That would be, or, or destroys itself, one or the other.

You know, one big explosive, second big bang of the world. Um, yeah. For the universe there. Well, Matt, I'm gonna have links in the description where people can find more about you. I really enjoyed our conversation and, uh, you know, we chatted a little bit before. I'm going, uh. I'm going to, uh, pick your brain a little bit more afterwards, but uh, I'd love to come down and, uh, visit with you on the rant someday and, uh, see what kind of value I can bring to you out there as well.

'cause this has been a very valuable podcast to me and I'm sure to the audience as well.

[01:08:45] Speaker 2: Well, that's great. Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate [01:09:00] it.