Speaker 1: Welcome to Stories of Special Forces Operators podcast. Listen to
Speaker 1: some of the bravest and toughest people on the planet
Speaker 1: share their stories, Sit back and enjoy.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everybody. Today we have a great guest, Guy Smith,
Speaker 2: Special Operations Veterans Swick. Also you can find more about him.
Speaker 2: He's a performance and mindset coach. You can find him
Speaker 2: a Guy Smith Underscore IFBB pro Guy Smith Underscore IFBB pro.
Speaker 2: He also does preparation training for individuals who want to
Speaker 2: become a seal, SWICH, Special Forces and SWAT. He helps
Speaker 2: with the selection process. So you definitely want to go
Speaker 2: check out Guy Smith Underscore ifbb pro before we get
Speaker 2: started and talk to Guy about his career and Special
Speaker 2: Forces and a whole lot more. You know what to do, share, subscribe,
Speaker 2: hit that like, and you know we like it. It's
Speaker 2: not wasting any more time working on the show, mister Smith.
Speaker 3: Welcome sir, Hey doctor Carlos, thanks for having.
Speaker 2: Me, Thank you for being here. Now. I always start
Speaker 2: off with the first same question and everybody probably get
Speaker 2: sick of it, but I don't know if they do
Speaker 2: or not. My question is what motivated you to get
Speaker 2: into Special Forces? A lot of guys that I've interviewed,
Speaker 2: some say Navy Seal movie, it's been how young you are,
Speaker 2: and then they go back to Green Berets, Rambo, things
Speaker 2: of that nature. Was it a movie, was it a parent?
Speaker 2: What was it for you?
Speaker 3: You know what? I think we all kind of have this.
Speaker 3: You know, we're kind of cut from the same cloth, right,
Speaker 3: Guys that are very much attracted to the action, to
Speaker 3: doing something very different. That's always been me. I'm no different.
Speaker 3: I loved all the movies as well. I grew up
Speaker 3: in south central Los Angeles. You know, I was surrounded
Speaker 3: by you know, gang violence, gangs, you name it. I've
Speaker 3: seen drug addicts all over the place, and that was
Speaker 3: just something that I did not want to be a
Speaker 3: part of. You know, I had an uncle that was
Speaker 3: in the LA Sheriffs too, so he was very much
Speaker 3: an instrumental figure in my life. And so I looked
Speaker 3: up to those kind of men. I looked up to
Speaker 3: the brave warriors, the soldiers, the commandos, and that's what
Speaker 3: I wanted to be since I was as far back
Speaker 3: as I could remember.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes it actually, if I can ask you, you
Speaker 2: don't mind what part of LA what city?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I grew up in Watts So that's pretty much
Speaker 3: the heart of South Central, right there between Century and
Speaker 3: Central Avenue, now right across from will Rogers Park. I
Speaker 3: think now it's called Ted Watkins Park, but you know,
Speaker 3: I grew up in the heart of it during the
Speaker 3: you know, mid nineties, early nineties, right until I was
Speaker 3: about fourteen. I left South Central in two thousand and
Speaker 3: so I saw quite a bit, you know, lived through
Speaker 3: the Rodney King riots. You know, watched my city burn
Speaker 3: to the ground during that time. You know, chaos in
Speaker 3: the streets, you name it. I'm not just painting that
Speaker 3: kind of picture, but that's just the way it was, right.
Speaker 3: But also I had an incredibly awesome and diverse of
Speaker 3: bringing too. You know, there was a lot of Latino
Speaker 3: families that lived in my community too, and so I
Speaker 3: grew up with you know, the Latin culture as well.
Speaker 3: You know, I had some great families in my community.
Speaker 3: But unfortunately, you know, there was just a little bit
Speaker 3: of that negativity that we had with the gangs and
Speaker 3: so that just random mock. But you know, fortunately I
Speaker 3: had an incredible family that looked out for me and
Speaker 3: kept me out of those things, always pushed me to
Speaker 3: do better right. Education was really big and valued in
Speaker 3: my home, and staying out of the street life was
Speaker 3: incredibly valued impressed upon me, you know, at an early age.
Speaker 3: And so, like I said, I never wanted to necessarily
Speaker 3: be a gang member partake in that kind of life.
Speaker 3: You know, I always set my goals high, and like
Speaker 3: I said, I always wanted to be a commander. Since
Speaker 3: they won.
Speaker 2: As you know, as we talked before the interview a
Speaker 2: few weeks ago, our show is a little different as
Speaker 2: we kind of look at the Special Forces psychologically a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you kind of answered the question I was
Speaker 2: going to ask, which was what made you not join
Speaker 2: the gangs. I have a couple of friends that were
Speaker 2: LAPD and LA sheriffs, Fred Reynolds and Wayne Caffey. Wayne
Speaker 2: Caffey worked in the gang unit, and he said, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: I had cousins and brothers that were in gangs, but
Speaker 2: my mom. I was more scared of my mom and
Speaker 2: dad than I was about the gangster. You made an
Speaker 2: interesting comment. I wonder if you encountered this. He said,
Speaker 2: when some of my cousins, when I contemplated for a
Speaker 2: second to join the gangs, they told me no, you
Speaker 2: have it together. You got people that love you. Don't
Speaker 2: get into this world. Did you ever encounter that by chance?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I did. I did very much. And I'd say
Speaker 3: it was mostly from the older guys, you know, the
Speaker 3: so called ogs right in the neighborhood. They knew my
Speaker 3: family very well. I think my family was well respected
Speaker 3: because they knew that we weren't a part of that
Speaker 3: kind of life. And so there were times where I
Speaker 3: would kind of go outside with some of the neighborhood
Speaker 3: kids and you know, I'd try to walk down the
Speaker 3: street with them, and you know, a few houses down
Speaker 3: was kind of like this really pivotabal, you know, really
Speaker 3: instrumental family in the community, the rock Childs pay Out.
Speaker 3: Don't mean to throw their name out there like that,
Speaker 3: but man, there they were heavy into the gangs, right,
Speaker 3: And I'm walking down the street and I would hear
Speaker 3: one of the uncles from the house.
Speaker 4: Guy, boy, you better get back inside the house. You know,
Speaker 4: you're not supposed to be out there hanging out these boys.
Speaker 4: Get your ass back in the house, right. And so
Speaker 4: that was kind of interesting, you know, where like I said,
Speaker 4: the older guys really looked out and they were like, no, right,
Speaker 4: they understood because I think they just came from a
Speaker 4: different era where it was a little bit different.
Speaker 3: Back then. It wasn't so much all the gang violence
Speaker 3: back when they were coming up in like the early sixties,
Speaker 3: and you know, the mid sixties through the seventies, I
Speaker 3: think things started to change a little bit. So they
Speaker 3: were coming from a different breed, and so I think
Speaker 3: they saw where my family was going and saw, I guess,
Speaker 3: maybe the potential that I could have and would not
Speaker 3: allow that at all. Whereas the younger guys coming up,
Speaker 3: it was a little bit more about trying to you know,
Speaker 3: a doctrin eight guides into the gang and you know,
Speaker 3: build it out. And they said the violence had peach tremendously,
Speaker 3: especially when I was coming up with my preteens, and so,
Speaker 3: you know, besides just the neighborhood older guys, but you know,
Speaker 3: my household, my grandmother, like I said, she was definitely
Speaker 3: more terrifying than anything else that I would encounter out
Speaker 3: in the streets, you know. Same for my mother, same
Speaker 3: for my sister. And a group with three women in
Speaker 3: the house that were just really on me, you know,
Speaker 3: and I was very much like themand of the house
Speaker 3: and so they all kind of played a critical role
Speaker 3: in guiding me and steering me and raising me, you know,
Speaker 3: to just think different and just being better and take
Speaker 3: on that role of being the man of the house.
Speaker 2: They did a wonderful job. That's great, great testimony to them.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting you mentioned that because I know I've
Speaker 2: talked to some gang experts and they have changed over
Speaker 2: the years of the last several decades there. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: level of respect is gone out the window. They don't
Speaker 2: really care. It's really bizarre. It's unfortunate. Yeah times we live.
Speaker 3: In Yeah it is, Yeah, it is. You know, I
Speaker 3: just for this day, I still don't like to go
Speaker 3: down to la at all, you know, for that reason. Right,
Speaker 3: It just there's something lost there. You know, when I
Speaker 3: was coming up, you did have the older people in
Speaker 3: the community, there still was you know, you showed that deference,
Speaker 3: you showed that respect to the elders U and I
Speaker 3: think just has those people died on and you were
Speaker 3: kind of just left with the newer generation and now
Speaker 3: they're older. They kind of weren't brought up in that
Speaker 3: world of showing respect, and now it's just all about
Speaker 3: you know, clout and you know murder, and I mean
Speaker 3: it's insane. Man. It's a whole different environment now.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I continue to profile another Special Forces guy. You
Speaker 2: do you have any siblings?
Speaker 3: I do, Yeah, I'm gonna you know. I have a
Speaker 3: half brother and half sister. You know, I don't keep
Speaker 3: up with them very much, unfortunately. You know, our lives
Speaker 3: win in different directions. But you know, I've been to
Speaker 3: the middle, the middle.
Speaker 2: Baby, You're okay. We're always trying to look as I know,
Speaker 2: the overwhelming majority so far has been either the onlies
Speaker 2: or the oldest is what we kind of see. And
Speaker 2: if there's a five year gap or bigger than you
Speaker 2: becoming only again. So we did have a few youngest,
Speaker 2: but they were like five or seven years apart. I
Speaker 2: think we only have one anomaly. But everybody seems to
Speaker 2: be fitting right into the criteria. Yeah, yeah, so okay,
Speaker 2: so nobody in your family. You just always wanted something
Speaker 2: of excitement. Did you look for Special Forces while in
Speaker 2: high school? Is that something you were saying, this is
Speaker 2: what I'm going to do when I get out of
Speaker 2: here or how did that go?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting the trajectory of my wife, right, you know,
Speaker 3: growing up I was always kind of under the illusion
Speaker 3: that I had asthma, that I was a sickly kind
Speaker 3: of kid, right, and so I it was kind of
Speaker 3: a pipe dream for me. Right, always kind of looked
Speaker 3: up to those commandos. Always read the books. I always
Speaker 3: watched the movies and documentaries on Navy sales, Special four,
Speaker 3: the Sweat Guys, you name it. And so what I
Speaker 3: looked to do was kind of uphold those values, those
Speaker 3: standards of being physically prepared, being mentally tough. And so
Speaker 3: moving forward, you know, I got into martial arts. I
Speaker 3: love martial arts. I loved wrestling, you know, jiu jitsu
Speaker 3: was starting to come up to UFC was starting to
Speaker 3: come up in the early days, and so I'd go,
Speaker 3: you know, to like Blockbuster and the video stores and
Speaker 3: go to the back special interest section, man and I
Speaker 3: do watch in the UFC, And that just captured my heart.
Speaker 3: I knew it that that was the thing that I
Speaker 3: was gonna do. Right, If I couldn't be a special operator,
Speaker 3: I wanted to be a fighter warrior, you know. So
Speaker 3: I looked up to like the Kevin Randolman, the Mark Coleman's,
Speaker 3: you know, the Mark kerrz Ken Shamrocks, you name it,
Speaker 3: Don Fry, Like, those guys were the people that I
Speaker 3: looked up to. I love boxing too, so obviously Mike
Speaker 3: Tyson was a hero of mine, and so it was
Speaker 3: always I've always been attracted to that warrior spirit, that
Speaker 3: warrior culture. Fast forward to high school, I'd get into wrestling,
Speaker 3: and then I really get my first taste of what
Speaker 3: it's like to really put out, to really train hard,
Speaker 3: to really have to dig mentally tough, to push yourself
Speaker 3: through the major major physicalood mental adversity like that. I
Speaker 3: had a great coach in my life that really kind
Speaker 3: of took on a father figure type of role mentor
Speaker 3: for me, showed me what a like a family man,
Speaker 3: a real man is supposed to be and how to
Speaker 3: you know, deal with loss, you know, how to win
Speaker 3: with grace and excellence discipline. I'm and then fast forward
Speaker 3: out of high school, I maintained by connection with the
Speaker 3: wrestling community, got really into jiu jitsu and coaching wrestling,
Speaker 3: and I guess that's where the story picks up. You know, obviously,
Speaker 3: you know I moved out down to San Diego. You know,
Speaker 3: met my wife there, met my you know, started my
Speaker 3: family there, but I got into wrestling and coaching h
Speaker 3: MMA guys because when I went down there, there wasn't
Speaker 3: a lot of wrestling going on. Everybody was in the
Speaker 3: jiu jitsu kind of the movie TI stuff, but to
Speaker 3: find a really high quality, high level wrestling just wasn't there.
Speaker 3: So I met some great friends, got in with like
Speaker 3: the Marine Corp Wrestling team and anyway guys that would
Speaker 3: come into our gym turned out to be Navy seals,
Speaker 3: right and special ops guys. And then man, it just
Speaker 3: kind of blossomed from there. Right. I just was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm training with these guys. I'm working out
Speaker 3: with these guys in front of these guys, and they
Speaker 3: would tell me, man, like, you should just try it.
Speaker 3: You know, you're out here training eight hours a day.
Speaker 3: You're kicking our ass, Like he want you, just go
Speaker 3: for it. And I ended up watching a video back
Speaker 3: in the old MySpace days. Right, the buddy of mine
Speaker 3: that was in high school with I just kidd was
Speaker 3: not the biggest toughest guy. He was much younger than
Speaker 3: I was, you know, by the time I graduated. I
Speaker 3: think maybe he was like a sophomore or something like that.
Speaker 3: But Anyway, I'm looking at pictures of him, and he's like,
Speaker 3: each week he's like getting prepared for my business trip,
Speaker 3: and his beard would get bigger and bigger and bigger, bigger,
Speaker 3: look tough, looks strong, look muscular. What the hell's going on?
Speaker 3: And then he's post a picture or a video of
Speaker 3: himself jumping out of an airplay and I hit him
Speaker 3: up and he's like, yeah, man, you know, I'm a
Speaker 3: Navy seal, and I'm like, holy shit, this kid can
Speaker 3: do it. Then I need to go out there and
Speaker 3: try it. And so that's kind of how it led
Speaker 3: into me, you know, get into special operations, man, I
Speaker 3: mean my life, just the trajectory I was on just
Speaker 3: kind of constantly put me in front of those kind
Speaker 3: of people. And so God will and I made it.
Speaker 2: That's fascinating. I guess I love wrestling. I love jiu jitsu.
Speaker 2: I think wrestling is a great discipline for guys angirls,
Speaker 2: especially for self defens Queer's question for you is, since
Speaker 2: you are involved in selection prep for a lot of
Speaker 2: these different areas, would wrestling be something you'd recommend to
Speaker 2: high schoolers or middle schoolers that say this could give
Speaker 2: you the mental toughness that you're going to probably need.
Speaker 3: You know what, one hundred percent, but it's not for everybody.
Speaker 3: You know, you're going to really find what you're made of,
Speaker 3: you know, especially when you're in a fight, when you
Speaker 3: have to put your physical well being and life everything
Speaker 3: on the line. That's when you really find out what
Speaker 3: you're made of. Man, and wrestling is going to pull
Speaker 3: that out of you. And you know, it's not surprising
Speaker 3: that a lot of the most successful team guys I know, uh,
Speaker 3: we're former wrestlers, man, or former fighters or former boxers,
Speaker 3: no doubt about it. So if it's you know, in
Speaker 3: special operations law enforcement is a track that you want
Speaker 3: to go into, then yeah, I would definitely recommend at
Speaker 3: least learning how to fight, you know, and I mean
Speaker 3: really not just being a street warrior tough guy that
Speaker 3: certainly helps with grit and toughness, but to really, you know,
Speaker 3: understand the discipline of martial arts and how to push yourself. Absolutely, man,
Speaker 3: it's going to pay dividends, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: I have to give this a caveyat because I have
Speaker 2: to start off at a different level here, because you're
Speaker 2: obviously an extremely big guy, now.
Speaker 3: Thank you. There's a lot of bigger dudes.
Speaker 2: Prior to that. When I've interviewed other seals or special ops.
Speaker 2: I know you're in Swick as well, but when I've
Speaker 2: interviewed them, they said, you know, I looked at these
Speaker 2: guys and they were like six three and two hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety pounds, and they were lifting trees and throwing
Speaker 2: them around, and I thought for sure they were going
Speaker 2: to make it, but they were gone the first two weeks.
Speaker 2: I don't think you look like this going through the
Speaker 2: Navy Seals or the Swick program, the Special Forces program.
Speaker 2: Did you were you really small? Did you feel the
Speaker 2: same thing? Did you feel like these guys, there's some
Speaker 2: guys here that like, you know, they're going to run
Speaker 2: me over like the fridge, William Perry whatever, or what
Speaker 2: was your thought process on that? Did you think you
Speaker 2: had to be bigger and stronger or not.
Speaker 3: You know, I've always been a bigger guy, bigger than
Speaker 3: I guess most I would. I don't know. I'm only
Speaker 3: six foot tall, but I've always had a muscular frame,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, in my mind I thought that that
Speaker 3: would be great, right, I thought it would be super beneficial.
Speaker 3: Fast forward I'd get to the beach right in Cordnado
Speaker 3: for training and you got to mix bag. You got big, tall,
Speaker 3: strong football players, former MLB guys, former whatever, and then
Speaker 3: you've got these tiny, scrowny pencil neck geeks too, and
Speaker 3: you would be surprised. You would think it'd be the big, strong,
Speaker 3: grambo looking guy that's going to crush it. And note man,
Speaker 3: I mean those would often be the guys that are
Speaker 3: out and so obviously kind of an anomaly of being
Speaker 3: one of the bigger guys to make it through. And
Speaker 3: I think it just has something to do. You know,
Speaker 3: obviously it's very physical, but it's quite mental too, right,
Speaker 3: And you know, you can't put a percentage it's fifty
Speaker 3: to fifty. It's you've got to have that combination of
Speaker 3: both that right, synergy of both physical toughness and grit
Speaker 3: and mental toughness. And I think when guys are really
Speaker 3: big and they come in and you know, they kind
Speaker 3: of maybe dominated their way through sports because their physical
Speaker 3: prowess and they really didn't meet any adversity when they
Speaker 3: come to the selection course. Like that's the whole point
Speaker 3: of the course. It's an attrition course. It's designed to
Speaker 3: break you down. So if you haven't really developed that adversity,
Speaker 3: that ability to overcome adversity, or you haven't faced a
Speaker 3: lot of it because you're just physically large and intimidating
Speaker 3: and you just kind of pumble through people in the
Speaker 3: high school or whatever, that's not going to farewell for
Speaker 3: you out on the beach man. You're going to get exposed,
Speaker 3: you know. So it has to be deeper than that.
Speaker 3: The can't just be all about size and muscle. So,
Speaker 3: very very long answer. I took a short question.
Speaker 2: No, that's great. Is it actually reminded me a little bit?
Speaker 2: Is it somewhat similar to jiu jitsu what you probably
Speaker 2: found too. There's a lot of guys are they can
Speaker 2: muscle their way through and it doesn't happen.
Speaker 3: Yell for them. Oh yeah, yeah. I've definitely had my
Speaker 3: fair share of ass kicking, it's for sure, and I
Speaker 3: appreciate it. And that's what I'm talking about right there,
Speaker 3: because it does you know, like you know, Mike Tice
Speaker 3: of Fantasy said, everybody's got a plane until they get
Speaker 3: hit in the face, right, And it's the same with
Speaker 3: jiu jitsu. Right, every every wrestler is going to go
Speaker 3: in until they get ankle locked right, and so you
Speaker 3: either adapt and overcome or you know you're gonna get
Speaker 3: jacked up. And so that's where you know, fighting comes
Speaker 3: into play. It really brings that out of you. You
Speaker 3: really learn how to think, underfeed and overcome adversity. You
Speaker 3: had to dig deep, man, when you get that feeling
Speaker 3: and you gut like you've got a puke and oh
Speaker 3: my god. You know, I thought I was stronger than
Speaker 3: this guy and he's like a tiny hundred fifty pound guy.
Speaker 3: You're two hundred fifty pound guy. But you can't break them, like,
Speaker 3: you got to go somewhere else mentally there. You can't
Speaker 3: just rely all on your strength. You know, you got
Speaker 3: to develop that middle toughness aspect too. You know, you
Speaker 3: got to be able to think on your feet, got
Speaker 3: to be dynamic. So that's what the selection of course
Speaker 3: will do. You got to have that right combination of
Speaker 3: physical toughness midtal toughness, you know, to make it through.
Speaker 2: And I know we'll talk a little bit more about
Speaker 2: that a little later on as well as we get
Speaker 2: to your program and to figure that out as well
Speaker 2: as performance and mindset. Again, folks, you can find more
Speaker 2: about Guy Smith over at Guy Smith Underscore IFBB Pro
Speaker 2: Guy Smith Underscore IFBB Pro on Instagram. It's I don't
Speaker 2: think I've shared this story on Special Forces before, but
Speaker 2: it's kind of funny. That reminds me of my first
Speaker 2: jiu jitsu experience. At the time. I was about the
Speaker 2: same height as you, about two ten at the time,
Speaker 2: like to work out, and I remember winning going and
Speaker 2: going into the jiu jitsu studio. The head guy was
Speaker 2: a friend of my brothers, and he said, well, you're
Speaker 2: going to train with my assistant, who was about one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty pounds five six And I thought, really,
Speaker 2: come on, And the assistant kneeled on the ground, turn
Speaker 2: his back to me and said, do whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Your goal is to get me on the ground and submit.
Speaker 2: I said, well, this guy is going to be a
Speaker 2: cake walk. I remember grabbing him and all I remember
Speaker 2: is somehow he got me in an armbar. I lifted
Speaker 2: him up in the air and held him up in
Speaker 2: the air and he looks at me and he goes,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna do? So I said, well, I
Speaker 2: can slam you. He goes, if you slam me, I
Speaker 2: break your arm. So I said oh, well I can
Speaker 2: do this. Well, I'll break your arm. I said, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna put you down gently. That was my lesson. I
Speaker 2: couldn't muscle my way through that one. We obviously became buddies.
Speaker 3: But oh yeah, that's that's the other thing too about
Speaker 3: jiu jitsu, man, is like I'm I'll probably sell of
Speaker 3: my closest friendships or relationships to that community. You always
Speaker 3: going to meet a bunch of diverse, great people. Like
Speaker 3: I said, I mean, I wouldn't be where I am
Speaker 3: now if I wasn't for jiu jitsu and wrestling, you know,
Speaker 3: in the relationships I made out of that. But yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, into if you are a smaller guy, that's
Speaker 3: not a disadvantage either. You know, like I said, your
Speaker 3: your heart and mental toughness and courage, that all has
Speaker 3: to be conditioned and cultivated, you know, over overcoming adversity
Speaker 3: throughout your life. You know, you're not just born with that.
Speaker 3: You know, you've got to really really develop yourself as
Speaker 3: an individual be able to push through times. And so
Speaker 3: if you you know, whether you were born into tough
Speaker 3: times or you kind of need to have life kick
Speaker 3: your ass a little bit and you need to find
Speaker 3: some balance jiu jitsu martial arts. Refly, you're absolutely going
Speaker 3: to You're going to get it there, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: It's funny as a psychologist, I recommend that a lot of
Speaker 2: my male clients if you haven't anticipated in it, because
Speaker 2: you hit the nail on the head when you do
Speaker 2: jiu jitsu. You're in a room with guys, a bunch
Speaker 2: of guys. Typically sometimes there's females there, but a lot
Speaker 2: of guys. And it doesn't matter what religion you are,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what color you are, doesn't matter what your
Speaker 2: job is or lawyers there, there were cops there, there
Speaker 2: were teachers there, and everybody just is equal and just
Speaker 2: practicing and doing jiu jitsu. That's pretty much it. It
Speaker 2: was the most amazing experience. You do develop some interesting
Speaker 2: friendships out of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt about it, no doubt about it. And
Speaker 3: you know for people that are concerned about it too, uh.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can talk about jiu jitsu all day
Speaker 3: and combat sports. I just love this stuff. But you know,
Speaker 3: you always hear that, oh, you know, it's a bunch
Speaker 3: of tough guys or a bunch of thugs and hooligins
Speaker 3: and it's like absolutely not. Like you know, if you're
Speaker 3: a parent on the fence about putting your kid in
Speaker 3: martial arts, like get off the fence and just go
Speaker 3: try of course, And yeah, you know all schools are
Speaker 3: created equal, but you're going to get quite the opposite.
Speaker 3: You know, that tough guy stuff that goes away and
Speaker 3: it really becomes sportified with then you, like you said,
Speaker 3: your kid, if they have confidence issues, there's no greater
Speaker 3: way to build your confidence then knowing how to fight,
Speaker 3: knowing how to take care of yourself, being physically fit.
Speaker 3: If your kid has a EHD or you know they're
Speaker 3: hyperactive or whatever you want to call. I put heavy
Speaker 3: quotes on that because you always want to medicalize things
Speaker 3: and give everything a name. It's like, listen to kid
Speaker 3: might need an outlet, right and creative outlet to disperse
Speaker 3: some energy. So therefore, put them in some jiu jitsu,
Speaker 3: put them in some martial arts. They're going to learn discipline,
Speaker 3: no doubt about it. Especially if you have a great destructor.
Speaker 3: You know they're gonna have to listen, They're gonna have
Speaker 3: to pay attention. Otherwise, you know, the outcomes aren't going
Speaker 3: to be so great. So It's just a great place
Speaker 3: if you're on the fence as a parent, or if
Speaker 3: you're just looking for something to get your kid active
Speaker 3: and involved in, or you're just an individual you've never
Speaker 3: played sports and you want to get physically active. You
Speaker 3: hate the gym, but you want to do something. Man,
Speaker 3: martial arts, jiu jitsu, rest like that is my go to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if he was actually diagnosed with it or not,
Speaker 2: or if he's mentioned it, I know there's speculation of
Speaker 2: this individual having Paul be on the low end of autism.
Speaker 2: Is Mikey Lussa mecI if you know him.
Speaker 3: I've heard that name before. It remind me he's.
Speaker 2: A great grand Now he's he's become a huge name
Speaker 2: of jiu jitsu. He was really big. Yeah, one one championship.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. Man, Look I could be that kid
Speaker 3: back in the day. I'm the one bouncing off the walls,
Speaker 3: no doubt about it. Uh And yeah absolutely, man, Jess's
Speaker 3: gonna pull it in and it's very analytical. You know.
Speaker 3: It's like chess, man, mental chess, physical chess. You can't
Speaker 3: go in there too aggressive, and if you are that
Speaker 3: kind of person, it's gonna it's gonna give you balance.
Speaker 3: If you're a passive type of person, it's gonna teach
Speaker 3: you how to become more aggressively. It's the ultimate balancing
Speaker 3: instead of just the equation for yourself as a human being.
Speaker 3: Man like you putting yourself in adversity, pushing yourself, getting
Speaker 3: that physical exertion out, getting that frustration out too. I mean, man,
Speaker 3: just sometimes going in there and going up against somebody,
Speaker 3: if you've got a rough ass day, it's again gonna
Speaker 3: give you some right balance, man, and just great tools
Speaker 3: for life. So I'm a huge advocate for it, huge
Speaker 3: advocate for jiu jitsu. Whether you try to be a
Speaker 3: special ops guy or you're a female executive, I don't care.
Speaker 3: Get in there and try it. Won't lose it, won't
Speaker 3: it won't. You won't regret it. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2: I completely agree, completely agreed, and I guess I will
Speaker 2: change gears a little bit now.
Speaker 3: I mean you could be here, old dude, Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 2: With this, but I'm switching gears.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: During your time at SWICH Special Operations, what anything that
Speaker 2: stood out? This is probably the toughest question for most
Speaker 2: operators that I ask, is anything that stood out in
Speaker 2: the sense of any missions, deployments that were either scary, funny, bizarre,
Speaker 2: anything that you want to share, and you're like, what
Speaker 2: the hell just happened here? Anything that all that pops
Speaker 2: up to mind, I go, it's always the toughest question.
Speaker 2: I'll just reiterate everybody's contact where you're thinking, Guy Smith Underscore,
Speaker 2: IFBB Pro, it's guys Smith Underscore, I f BB Pro.
Speaker 2: You can find them over there on Instagram. Go check
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I really appreciate the question too. I think
Speaker 3: about this all the time, man, I think about the
Speaker 3: team's daily and it's a short answer here, all the above, man,
Speaker 3: nothing but funny times, nothing but bizarre times, extreme situations.
Speaker 3: When I think about the thing that stands out the
Speaker 3: most though, and you know, I don't know, it's the guys, man.
Speaker 3: It's the passion, the patriotism, the dedication to excellence that
Speaker 3: I love the most. Like, if you want to be
Speaker 3: a part of an outstanding team, I mean the experience
Speaker 3: that I had my experience, and not everybody has the
Speaker 3: same experience. I just want to put a covey out
Speaker 3: to that. There's a lot of guys that have horrible
Speaker 3: experiences because like have phenomenal experience. I haven't had all
Speaker 3: the greatest experiences either in the community, and that's a
Speaker 3: whole different story. But when it comes down to the
Speaker 3: guys themselves and your teammates, like the brotherhood, the friendships,
Speaker 3: the bonds that you make, it's deeper than anything that
Speaker 3: you see in the movies. And when I think about,
Speaker 3: you know, just some incredible moments, right, is when I
Speaker 3: got to work with the Tier one level guys. Right,
Speaker 3: it's a whole different ball game when it comes to
Speaker 3: precision and accuracy and dedication to the mission and to
Speaker 3: the guys and to getting the job done. And I
Speaker 3: don't think I've ever seen any level of synergy and
Speaker 3: coordination and precision and the type communication the movement that
Speaker 3: I did when I was working with Tier one elements. Man,
Speaker 3: I mean, it just takes what you think of as
Speaker 3: a standard special operator and then you go to that level.
Speaker 3: And what that really means is the level of mission
Speaker 3: is the face are so high, right, Like, there's no
Speaker 3: fail criteria there. The mission has to get done because
Speaker 3: it directly affects national security, and so that elevates the mindset,
Speaker 3: that elevates the movement that elevates, you know, your action,
Speaker 3: the way you think, the way you speak, the way
Speaker 3: you conduct yourself to a whole different level that you know,
Speaker 3: you don't really know that you can tap into until
Speaker 3: you're put into that kind of level of pressure, you know.
Speaker 3: And so to work with those guys you know you're
Speaker 3: in day in and day out, you know, from multiple deployments,
Speaker 3: I mean that just it blew my mind to the
Speaker 3: capabilities that we have as a fighting for us as
Speaker 3: a country and just what individuals, super motivated group of
Speaker 3: small small group of super motivated guys can can pull off. Man,
Speaker 3: the most extreme circumstances, just tremendous.
Speaker 2: Were you deployed around the world as well.
Speaker 3: Most of the times in the Middle East, man, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of kind of all over different areas there. You know, Man,
Speaker 3: I would love to talk about a lot of stuff
Speaker 3: and write a book about things, but there's some things
Speaker 3: that are just still classified that out or declassified. I
Speaker 3: don't want to get in a lot of trouble because
Speaker 3: I will tell you this, man, the stuff that you
Speaker 3: know you hear out there. I think we've been hearing
Speaker 3: a lot of the same stories over the years, right.
Speaker 3: But then there's stuff man, where you get sat in
Speaker 3: the room and you know, you sit down in front
Speaker 3: of some lawyers and you get a sign paperwork and
Speaker 3: they tell you talk about this you have to go
Speaker 3: to jail. But yeah, I got to do some incredible operations, man,
Speaker 3: Like I said, with some amazing individuals at the tier
Speaker 3: one level, and like I said, man, there was a
Speaker 3: hell of the ride to be able to be a
Speaker 3: part of that's tremendous.
Speaker 2: Let me explore that aspect of it. Yeah, I know
Speaker 2: I've talked to I'm sure you're I think you're familiar
Speaker 2: with Tom Sadurley. Yeah, Delta Force guy from Blackcock Down.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: He was one of the unique ones in the sense
Speaker 2: that he brought his wife with him And I think
Speaker 2: were you married during your days this week?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Okay, it's hard time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess. The question I have is I've asked
Speaker 2: a few guys. It seems to always be Delta guess
Speaker 2: for some reason. But anyway, Yeah, was that a challenge?
Speaker 2: In other words, you come home, you can't say anything,
Speaker 2: you can't express what's going on. Something traumatic, that's classified
Speaker 2: too because it's part of that deal. There is nothing
Speaker 2: you can say. How was that for you. Was that
Speaker 2: a challenge?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it's an extreme challenge because you really
Speaker 3: are living in two different worlds, man, multiple different worlds,
Speaker 3: you know, and so when you come home, it's like
Speaker 3: the timer stops for you right wherever you left. Oh,
Speaker 3: you hit the pause button. But life for them is
Speaker 3: still going on, and there's all kinds of things happening
Speaker 3: in their world. And then for you, Yeah, like you said,
Speaker 3: your timer stops. You got a snapshot of what life
Speaker 3: was like in that moment, and then you're off doing
Speaker 3: this crazy extreme shit and then you hit the timer
Speaker 3: the pause button on that world, and it doesn't matter
Speaker 3: what happened the day before, hour before, minute before. It
Speaker 3: stops right there. And then you got to come back
Speaker 3: and try to pick up basketball where you left off, Okay,
Speaker 3: And that's that could be difficult, man. It was. I
Speaker 3: found that in the moment you're in it, and you know,
Speaker 3: you're kind of stuck on that combat, you know, deployment
Speaker 3: kind of mindset where everything's moving had one hundred miles
Speaker 3: a minute, and sometimes that's really difficult I think for
Speaker 3: both sides to adjust to. You know, I would certainly
Speaker 3: be a little bit more Kurt or snappy or edge
Speaker 3: of or want to move or want to you know,
Speaker 3: kind of everything is just on on. Meanwhile, you know,
Speaker 3: they've kind of adjusted to you being gone. You know,
Speaker 3: things are still happening at their pace. The kids still
Speaker 3: got to get to school, you know, the wife's still
Speaker 3: got to do what she's got to do. You know,
Speaker 3: the kids have parties and things that you hey, they
Speaker 3: want you to be there and they want to show
Speaker 3: up their dad. But meanwhile, you know, you're kind of
Speaker 3: still in this wild mode man, and so that would
Speaker 3: take a lot of time to adjust. Before our guys, man,
Speaker 3: you know, our temple was so high that it was like, man,
Speaker 3: right when you were about to adjust, it kind of
Speaker 3: just settled down. It was like, damn were outdoor gat
Speaker 3: So pretty much for you know, for straight four and
Speaker 3: a half straight years, it was just NonStop deployment after deployment,
Speaker 3: after deployment. You know, it'd be three months, six months,
Speaker 3: you know, two months, come back for a week, go again.
Speaker 3: I mean it was just, you know, like I said,
Speaker 3: at certain levels, you don't just have a normal cycle.
Speaker 3: It's kind of you're just on or you're not. And
Speaker 3: so for me, man, I mean, our whole time was
Speaker 3: just on and so justin was very difficult, very difficult.
Speaker 2: Now if I get to you personal again, you.
Speaker 3: Can just no, it's all right, man. I'm an open book,
Speaker 3: you know. I think it's important to get this kind
Speaker 3: of stuff out. It's important, right It helps people make
Speaker 3: decisions or hopefully there's you know, something that resonates with
Speaker 3: a guy that are transitioning. I think that's my ultimate goal, anyway,
Speaker 3: to help people.
Speaker 2: Now I know, I interviewed a guy, Bob Killer. You
Speaker 2: can follow this interview folks owhere in Delta. We got
Speaker 2: into an interesting area because his wife came into the
Speaker 2: interview for a minute and then took off. But it
Speaker 2: was interesting because he mentioned something, so I'm curious to
Speaker 2: see if you experienced the same thing. One of the
Speaker 2: things he said initially it was hard for him to
Speaker 2: look at the problems that his wife and family were
Speaker 2: having compared to the problems he was trying to solve.
Speaker 2: In other words, that wasn't epic of a deal. What
Speaker 2: are you? What are you complaining about? You didn't just
Speaker 2: try to get you almost got killed out. I almost
Speaker 2: got killed out, and I had to wipe out this assassin.
Speaker 2: And you're talking about car doesn't have enough gas. But
Speaker 2: then he realized eventually that that is important to her,
Speaker 2: so it had to be important to him. Did you
Speaker 2: encounter that same situation.
Speaker 3: One hundred one hundred percent. Well, my wife and I
Speaker 3: made jokes about it to this day, you know, and
Speaker 3: you do you know now, I think fortunately we're in
Speaker 3: a better place where you can kind of laugh and
Speaker 3: joke about things and talk about things. But yeah, I'd
Speaker 3: come home all the time and that would be one
Speaker 3: of my first gripes, like, wait, what are you complaining about?
Speaker 3: Like this has to have but we got to do
Speaker 3: this or that. I'm like, well, wait a minute, you know,
Speaker 3: but it's true, you kind of dot I don't want
Speaker 3: to saying that they're in max sorry, So you know,
Speaker 3: you kind of forget, like I said, that they have
Speaker 3: their world and their life too, and so you get
Speaker 3: so kind of self absorbed into what you're doing. And
Speaker 3: that's really what it is. It almost because of becomes
Speaker 3: its kind of self centeredness. And I don't know if
Speaker 3: that's the right word or not, but it is, that's
Speaker 3: what it is. Because you're so used to dealing with
Speaker 3: these really what you think are these really high level
Speaker 3: issues uh, And you don't have to go grocery shopping,
Speaker 3: you don't have to go put gas in the car,
Speaker 3: you don't have to fix it. You've got a team
Speaker 3: of people that can kind of do those things. And
Speaker 3: you kind of forget that too, that you know, you've
Speaker 3: got a whole group of people supporting you. It's not
Speaker 3: just you out there, but for them, like it is
Speaker 3: kind of just them out there, especially if they don't
Speaker 3: have any family, you know, and so yeah, when you
Speaker 3: come home and you're like, well, you know, you got
Speaker 3: to go grocery shopping or all, I forgot this, and
Speaker 3: they're a little frustrated, it's like, well, yeah, you got
Speaker 3: to think about all the things that they have to
Speaker 3: deal with the kids, you know, getting to work on time, Yeah,
Speaker 3: that is a big deal. If the kids don't have
Speaker 3: something for Roger, they don't have the air and the tire,
Speaker 3: how they get a flat and all these things. So
Speaker 3: you know, you don't see those as big deals. But absolutely, man,
Speaker 3: they have their own world that they live into, and
Speaker 3: so we just kind of forget that. And I think
Speaker 3: that's where things get disconnected with the families and the guys.
Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, what we're dealing with is extremely important.
Speaker 3: It is life and death. But in their world that's
Speaker 3: just not how things work. It's just a little bit different,
Speaker 3: you know, and so you know, I wish there was
Speaker 3: a way to smooth that over, but unfortunately, man, it
Speaker 3: is the way the business. It just it is tough,
Speaker 3: it is crazy, and these worlds don't necessarily work together.
Speaker 3: They don't, and that's why it is what it is.
Speaker 3: That's why the military is separated and totally different life
Speaker 3: compared to a civiliate life. You know.
Speaker 2: It's almost like you need a marriage guide for the
Speaker 2: wives to kind of get prepared what's going to happen
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 3: You know what. I think there could be a lot
Speaker 3: more done at the command level to prepare the families
Speaker 3: and to prepare the guys too, especially before and post
Speaker 3: coming home. And what that is exactly, I don't know,
Speaker 3: but I think we need to do a little bit
Speaker 3: more when it comes to the communication piece, the counseling,
Speaker 3: to understanding of the psychology, the dynamics of how things
Speaker 3: are when these guys come back, because ultimately, I think
Speaker 3: would help the warfighter. It would it would help the
Speaker 3: warfighter if the families had a better understanding of what's
Speaker 3: going on. Yet it's scary to know, and obviously they
Speaker 3: can't know everything, but at least to be better prepared
Speaker 3: for some of the things, you know, to be able
Speaker 3: to talk to someone that's familiar with combat stress and
Speaker 3: post dramatic stress and those types of things that could
Speaker 3: compare the family. Okay, hey, you know, your war fighter
Speaker 3: may come home, it may be a little bit edgy,
Speaker 3: that may be a little bit of type. Maybe you
Speaker 3: kind of had to kind of navigate things a little
Speaker 3: bit more gently, conder or whatever, and vice versa, right,
Speaker 3: talking to the war fighter. Hey, look, man, you know
Speaker 3: we've been you know you've been through this. We know
Speaker 3: you guys have been this high level of tempo. Listen,
Speaker 3: here's some of the things that you can possibly expect,
Speaker 3: and maybe have someone mediating between the families at least
Speaker 3: to help bridge that gap so that way it's not
Speaker 3: just such a shock for everybody, because it does take time. Man,
Speaker 3: Like I said, it's not just the war fighter coming
Speaker 3: home that hass to adjust. It's the family or the
Speaker 3: wife or whoever, the mom, dad, whoever has to adjust
Speaker 3: now to the forour fighter coming home too, because life
Speaker 3: has gone on for them as well. And so that's
Speaker 3: like I said, Man, I think you know, at the
Speaker 3: command level, whatever that may be, each command is different.
Speaker 3: I think there could be a lot more dunk on
Speaker 3: that end to bridge the gap between the families.
Speaker 2: When you come back from deployment, you said, you have
Speaker 2: some gap, sometimes a week, sometimes a little longer. Do
Speaker 2: they do any kind of psyche now when you're done
Speaker 2: for nondeployment do when you arrive back home to the
Speaker 2: US and they say, okay, guy, let's go ahead and
Speaker 2: meet with the psychologist for an hour? Nothing.
Speaker 3: You know, when I was in Man that that wasn't
Speaker 3: really a thing obviously. I think when when higher level
Speaker 3: situations happened, yeah, there's that opportunity to kind of talk
Speaker 3: to somebody. But when I was coming up Man, it
Speaker 3: really wasn't available like that. That didn't really come around
Speaker 3: into the very end. And you know, like I said,
Speaker 3: this is my experience with it. So you know, right
Speaker 3: around maybe twenty sixteen, I think things started to change
Speaker 3: a little bit and you started having more psychologists and
Speaker 3: whatnot on deck that you can go and speak to.
Speaker 3: But then there's also a huge stigma there too. It's
Speaker 3: not like he is even now. You know, back then
Speaker 3: it wasn't about you know, you didn't want to expose that,
Speaker 3: you know that you maybe were having psychological issues, you know,
Speaker 3: from being deployed for so long. You know a lot
Speaker 3: of guys too, you know, I think it's wrong. It
Speaker 3: just stigmatized that, you know, just the war and the
Speaker 3: combat and the you know, the visceral nature of war
Speaker 3: is the only thing that affects people. You know, some
Speaker 3: guys also are affected budgets, being away from their loved ones.
Speaker 3: Maybe they're having issues with their children, they have a
Speaker 3: sick kid or something like that. You know, that can
Speaker 3: take a dramatic toll. Guys that are you know, unable
Speaker 3: to be there for their kids being born and now
Speaker 3: they've missed out whole years of their kids' lives. Like,
Speaker 3: those kinds of things can affect people. Guys that have
Speaker 3: had families prior to and now are separated, you know,
Speaker 3: due to war and all these types of things. Man,
Speaker 3: I mean, these these have dramatic psychological effects on kids,
Speaker 3: on the spouses, intimacy, you know, closeness to bonds, like
Speaker 3: all those things kind of get ripped apart or stretched
Speaker 3: due to that separation and all the things that happened
Speaker 3: in between, you know. So it's I think there could
Speaker 3: be a lot more done, like I said, at the
Speaker 3: command level as a whole, to help bridge the gap
Speaker 3: for our war fighters and the families. You know.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. I know I was doing some research on
Speaker 2: PTSD and reading some books and interviewing some people, and
Speaker 2: that's fascinating because I think a lot of people have
Speaker 2: misunderstanding that everybody who goes to deployment against PTSD, and
Speaker 2: it was actually a smaller percentage. I think it was
Speaker 2: like twenty percent, and the high percentage of those individuals
Speaker 2: tended to have trauma early on in their lives, whether
Speaker 2: it's some kind of abuse or whatever it may be,
Speaker 2: that made them a little bit more susceptible possibly to
Speaker 2: it or vulnerable to it. It was really interesting because
Speaker 2: I know there's been several that came out about the military.
Speaker 2: Even nine to eleven, there was an interesting study on
Speaker 2: PTSD in the local community when they did an evaluation
Speaker 2: two weeks after nine to eleven attack. They found I
Speaker 2: think about fifty or sixty percent of people in New
Speaker 2: York in that area had PTSD, but whether it six
Speaker 2: months had dropped to thirty. Within another six months, it
Speaker 2: dropped ten and they were stunned. They're like, well, wait
Speaker 2: a minute, that isn't what we know because PTSD only
Speaker 2: gets diagnosed after four weeks, so it was kind of
Speaker 2: an odd thing when it dropped like that. And it's
Speaker 2: the same thing with the military. I think people think
Speaker 2: everybody who goes to deployment gets PTSD, but it's not
Speaker 2: the case.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would totally agree with that, man, I don't
Speaker 3: think so, you know, I think, yeah, it's just take
Speaker 3: in my case, right, I grew up with a lot
Speaker 3: of abuse and gang bondnce and seeing people murdered at
Speaker 3: a very early age. You know, I grew up every
Speaker 3: day hearing gunfire and helicopters and having lights shone and
Speaker 3: flashed into my neighborhood in my house, and you know,
Speaker 3: hearing mama's screaming crying because their kids got killed overnight.
Speaker 3: I mean, that was like an everyday thing. I shoot
Speaker 3: you not. I mean, through the first fourteen years of
Speaker 3: my life, sexual abuse, I've seen drug abuse. I mean
Speaker 3: it was just right in your face all the time.
Speaker 3: And what I found the military gave me a lot
Speaker 3: of balance. It almost like stripped a lot of the
Speaker 3: negative things that I felt in my life, any of
Speaker 3: the I don't know whatever behavioral things that I might
Speaker 3: have had to kind of stripped it. Man. And so
Speaker 3: I think for people too that don't experience any kind
Speaker 3: of trauma and they do, that has like the same
Speaker 3: kind of effect, right they get a little but then
Speaker 3: over time you just kind of get a little bit
Speaker 3: sensitized to it. Plus, the structure of the military kind
Speaker 3: of cultivates that environment, so it works both ways. I
Speaker 3: think if you deal with a lot of trauma and
Speaker 3: you're having a lot of issues earlier in life, the
Speaker 3: military can be a great tool to kind of help
Speaker 3: leverage that and balance that and even use some of
Speaker 3: that negative energy because you are doing good things out
Speaker 3: in the world, mostly helping people. Uh. And then if
Speaker 3: you're in and you're having issues, I think if you
Speaker 3: are able to have a healthier relationship and talk about
Speaker 3: these things and just kind of get it out of
Speaker 3: the way, then you can move past a little bit better.
Speaker 3: Right now, that doesn't speak to grief and things like that.
Speaker 3: I think those are very different things. If you had
Speaker 3: someone close to you that was killed or you know,
Speaker 3: even if there's going to live or being in a
Speaker 3: very traumatic situation. I think, you know, it's very degreees
Speaker 3: to that, but I think we're all affected, you know,
Speaker 3: differently now and it isn't always negative. You know, a
Speaker 3: lot of the guys I talk to, I try to
Speaker 3: tell them, like, don't feel bad about your service and
Speaker 3: what you have to do your life on the line.
Speaker 3: You have to save your life, you have to save
Speaker 3: the life of your friends, and if you had to
Speaker 3: take someone's life to do that, don't feel bad about that.
Speaker 3: That's what was asked of you, and you did it
Speaker 3: and you have to and now you can move past it,
Speaker 3: you know, get yourself into a different frame of life.
Speaker 3: Life's about perspectives, So start doing more positive things for
Speaker 3: yourself to get out of that. Get moving again, you know,
Speaker 3: get back to what made you that that mighty warrior
Speaker 3: to begin with. These are guys that're talking about to
Speaker 3: come out of have a rough transition, that get caught
Speaker 3: up in alcoholism or drug addiction, sex addiction, crazy things
Speaker 3: like that. I'm like, look, man, you know you have
Speaker 3: to continue to press forward, push yourself, get back into
Speaker 3: the discipline, and that's how you get back on the
Speaker 3: train to I guess standardy and you know, get your
Speaker 3: sobriety and get your mental health in the right order.
Speaker 3: But yeah, when it comes to PTSD, I think it
Speaker 3: affects us differently. It just does. Yeah, I'll believe it
Speaker 3: at that very well.
Speaker 2: So it actually kind of reminds me of an interview
Speaker 2: I did with a mcvee sag. Yeah, he brought it up.
Speaker 2: I didn't bring it up because I hadn't thought about
Speaker 2: it at the time. I've asked people about it after that,
Speaker 2: but he was reminding me when his very first deployment
Speaker 2: to Laos and he was he's not a hell yeah,
Speaker 2: those guys are amazing. You see the helicopter like apocalypse
Speaker 2: now and he's looking down. I said, well, how old
Speaker 2: were you and he said I was twenty two. I
Speaker 2: was like twenty two forgots, and he goes, you know,
Speaker 2: the first thought I had as we're getting ready to
Speaker 2: land was it's okay to shoot these people. I said, well,
Speaker 2: that's an interesting question. He goes, I have to ask.
Speaker 2: I had to let them myself know that it was okay.
Speaker 2: They're going to try to kill me and I have
Speaker 2: to stop them. And within about I don't know, he said,
Speaker 2: like a minute or two right after that was it.
Speaker 2: It was the first guy he had to take out.
Speaker 2: I think the helicopter was landing in the middle of
Speaker 2: the field and it was he was about six or
Speaker 2: ten feet from landing. The whole jungle opened up, he said,
Speaker 2: and he was surrounded. Was an ambush, and the guy
Speaker 2: popped up in the in the tree. And that was
Speaker 2: the first guy he took out. But it was an
Speaker 2: interesting question to tackle early on. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 2: gonna leave it there. If you want to explore that,
Speaker 2: that's fine, but I'm gonna ask you another question, and
Speaker 2: you have to take it at one. Yeah, I know,
Speaker 2: we're starting to run out of time, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to switch gears to your performance and mindset. I can
Speaker 2: see it ready by a lot of your answers today.
Speaker 2: You have a lot of insight, You have a lot
Speaker 2: of knowledge in this area. You understand human nature quite
Speaker 2: well and human personality. So I guess tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about what is performance and mindset coaching. Is
Speaker 2: that the same as selection prepping or is it separate
Speaker 2: or in urch wine? What's going on here?
Speaker 3: You know, I kind of run down two different branches,
Speaker 3: but they kind of run parallel. You know, some of
Speaker 3: my clients are executives, their CEOs, you know, entrepreneurs, or
Speaker 3: some of them are family people too. They just want
Speaker 3: to get their lives in order, and so that's where
Speaker 3: the performance and mindset coaching comes into play. You know,
Speaker 3: I work with each individual and I treat them as
Speaker 3: such where we're all different. There's no one size hits
Speaker 3: all solution. But what I do apply is that formula
Speaker 3: of you know, discipline and having a sound plan a
Speaker 3: structure to how we're going to tackle whatever issue or
Speaker 3: goal that you want to accomplish in life. That's how
Speaker 3: we do it in the community. I think that's how
Speaker 3: the most successful people rant it. You've got to have
Speaker 3: a plan and a structure now you're going to do things.
Speaker 3: And so that's what I provide for my performance and
Speaker 3: mindset coaching clients. I get a lot of people that
Speaker 3: have health issues, high lipids, high blood sugar, you name it.
Speaker 3: I worked in the biotech space for a very long time.
Speaker 3: I've been a coach for twenty years, and so I
Speaker 3: applied the knowledge that I've gained over the years and
Speaker 3: even working in the special operations community, helping our guys
Speaker 3: improve their health and mitigate injuries and get stronger. I
Speaker 3: apply a lot of those concepts for my clients, you know.
Speaker 3: So I get them on a diet plan, I get
Speaker 3: them on a solid, subtle the regiment. You know. I've
Speaker 3: taken people who's had you know, triglycerides into the four hundred,
Speaker 3: five hundreds, and I'll bring them down into the fifties,
Speaker 3: you know, into optimal territory in a very short time,
Speaker 3: all through diet and exercise and just you know, instituting
Speaker 3: some healthy lifestyle choices. And now when it comes to
Speaker 3: my special operations guys or guys that want to you know,
Speaker 3: move into SWAT or higher level you know, tactical elements
Speaker 3: within their jobs, what I do for them is very similar. Right.
Speaker 3: We identify goals and then I go ahead and put
Speaker 3: together a plan and a structure to help get them
Speaker 3: in shape, get them in comfortable shape. If my goals
Speaker 3: always try to make someone at the level of a
Speaker 3: tier one. And so if that's the route that you
Speaker 3: want to go, or if you're looking to get into
Speaker 3: special operations, or if you're looking to go into slot
Speaker 3: or a tactical unit, you're I'm quite sure how to
Speaker 3: put it together. Reach out.
Speaker 2: Again, folks. You can find more information about them at
Speaker 2: guy Smith under another part of your life, which was
Speaker 2: now that I fdb pro turn into a bodybuilder? Or
Speaker 2: you see his website or his instagram. I mean you'll
Speaker 2: see a lot. You see what I'm talking about? What
Speaker 2: got you over there?
Speaker 3: Now? Oh? Man? Uh? You know what? Listen. I went
Speaker 3: through my own little transition in life here wasn't always rosy.
Speaker 3: There was a period there, especially post COVID, where I
Speaker 3: really need to make some adjustments to my own my
Speaker 3: own health, my mental health. And I took my own
Speaker 3: advice and got back on the discipline of eating healthy,
Speaker 3: you know, waking up early training, and I decided to
Speaker 3: set a very high goal for myself. And my wife
Speaker 3: was already kind of getting into bodybuilding as well, and
Speaker 3: I really wasn't thinking about jumping into it, but that
Speaker 3: was kind of a goal that she'd set for herself.
Speaker 3: And she wanted to do a bodybuilding competition right before
Speaker 3: she where she turned fifty. But I'm going to do
Speaker 3: a bodybuilding competition, and she said you should try it
Speaker 3: to and I'm like, I don't know if I want
Speaker 3: to get on stage and you know, wear this short.
Speaker 3: She's like, well, no, look at this. You know, these
Speaker 3: guys are wearing shorts and you've got a great physique.
Speaker 3: You can do it. And she's like, listen, there's a
Speaker 3: there's a show coming up in two weeks. And I'm like,
Speaker 3: in two weeks. She's like, yeah, come on, you can
Speaker 3: do it. And I was like, all right, you know what,
Speaker 3: let's do it. You know, I was already starting to
Speaker 3: getting shade by his training. I was conditioning and getting
Speaker 3: back into it. Really just dedicated myself to the discipline.
Speaker 3: And I was like, all right. She had a great trainer,
Speaker 3: a great friend of mine, Andy Belchi. She's out my
Speaker 3: Instagram quite a bit, big, big old guy beer that
Speaker 3: I trained with, and man, he put a diet playing
Speaker 3: together for me. And I went out and knocked out
Speaker 3: my very first bodybuilding competition. It was the Ja Cutler
Speaker 3: Desert Classic, and I want it. You know. I won
Speaker 3: everything that I competed in, and I was like, man,
Speaker 3: I got the itch. It just kind of scratched that
Speaker 3: dich for competition, and then it just truly further developed
Speaker 3: my knowledge on what bodybuilding really is. I've always been
Speaker 3: a fan of it, you know, like I said back
Speaker 3: in the dad I love UFC and all that, but
Speaker 3: I love bodybuilding too, man, Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler
Speaker 3: and all those guys, all the classic badass guys we
Speaker 3: used to watch, And so I didn't really understand though,
Speaker 3: the science of it and the discipline of it until
Speaker 3: I got into it myself, and man, it really blew
Speaker 3: my mind on just how dedicated you have to be
Speaker 3: to be at the highest level of this thing. And
Speaker 3: it just has taken off from there. You know, ended
Speaker 3: up getting my pro card in less than a year competition,
Speaker 3: we ended up getting twelve straight you know gold. You know,
Speaker 3: we just crushed it from the start of this thing,
Speaker 3: so I could plan on continuing. Man, I love it.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we've heard a lot going on.
Speaker 2: No, it's interesting. I'm trying to think who I interviewed.
Speaker 2: I interview two bodybuilders. Oh, I forgot her name. She
Speaker 2: was a famous black body Aldert. Oh, I can't remember
Speaker 2: her name, Williams. I have to dig it up because
Speaker 2: I know I interviewed her than rich Casperino. She was
Speaker 2: like a seven time Olympian champion and Rich Gasperino you
Speaker 2: probably know too. Yeah, but I remember asking her it
Speaker 2: was hard to date. She said it was really hard
Speaker 2: because a lot of guys got in dominated. Oh yeah, imagine.
Speaker 3: Man, and he caned out anywhere. You can't eat anything, man,
Speaker 3: I don't eat out. I'm very rigid, very u disciplined
Speaker 3: with the diet. I mean you'd be surprised. Man. You know,
Speaker 3: everybody's like, oh, how much do you lift? And this
Speaker 3: and that. I'm like, listen, I probably do more, you know,
Speaker 3: risk girls and lifting force up in my face. Man.
Speaker 3: I mean really, at the end of the day, the
Speaker 3: dieting is such a crucial aspect to the bodybuilding game.
Speaker 3: So it really does, man. I mean when you're serious
Speaker 3: with it, you know, you don't You're not hanging out
Speaker 3: on the weekends, you're not drinking alcohol, You're not doing
Speaker 3: a bunch of nonsense. It's like to win at the
Speaker 3: highest levels. To be great at it, you got to
Speaker 3: be one dedicated. You cannot devigate every little ounce matters,
Speaker 3: you know. So yeah, it's difficult. It's definitely a difficult life.
Speaker 2: I remember I did a little bit, not bodybuilding, but
Speaker 2: I did I try to get a six pack. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you have to weigh every dang thing all the time.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh.
Speaker 2: Rest you underestimates so easily. It's it's pathetic, no doubt.
Speaker 2: This is my last question. This is a new one.
Speaker 2: You'd be the first to get it. Why I just
Speaker 2: dawned on me for some reason over the last few weeks.
Speaker 2: But I'm kind of curious what what I'll get eventually
Speaker 2: over time when I keep asking special officers. I think
Speaker 2: I have another guy today. Did you have a favorite
Speaker 2: gi Joe.
Speaker 3: Hard Man, I was a big snake eyes, got.
Speaker 2: Snake eyes guy, straight up?
Speaker 3: Man, that was all about snake guys.
Speaker 2: That's a I think I've only asked once before all
Speaker 2: the interviews. I think I got a flint out of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's his name, right, snake guys. If I'm making
Speaker 3: that up, I'm not making that up right. Well, the
Speaker 3: guy in the dark, all black, plad it out, that's it.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that was all about it.
Speaker 2: The other guy was, uh, snow or white or something.
Speaker 3: Something like that. I remember. Yeah, snake guys, is where
Speaker 3: it's at. That's it. That was all about it.
Speaker 2: Whatever you may be, we got one snake guys. Well,
Speaker 2: I'll have to keep a chart on this.
Speaker 3: There we go, There we go again.
Speaker 2: Folks, Guy Smith Underscore I f BB pro. Guy Smith
Speaker 2: Underscore I f BB pro. You're thinking about becoming a
Speaker 2: Navy Seal or special Forces or working in SWAT, we
Speaker 2: just want to get your life in order. Definitely go
Speaker 2: to Guy Smith Underscoore I f B B pro and
Speaker 2: get some assistance there. Thank you so much Guy again
Speaker 2: for doing this.
Speaker 3: Hey, Mike, we thank you du Calls for having me on.
Speaker 3: I very much appreciate our time together here.
Speaker 2: Thank you everyone for listening. Hey, you know what to do, Share,
Speaker 2: subscribe and hit that I like button. You know we
Speaker 2: like it, And hey, why don't you put in the
Speaker 2: comments who your favorite g I Joe is