Episode 395 - Taylor Cavanaugh - Navy SEAL and the French Foreign Legion

Summary

Podcast Summary: Cleared Hot
Episode 395 - Taylor Cavanaugh: Navy SEAL and the French Foreign Legion
Released on July 7, 2025

In Episode 395 of Cleared Hot, host Andy Stumpf engages in a profound and candid conversation with Taylor Cavanaugh, a seasoned Navy SEAL and veteran of the French Foreign Legion. The episode delves deep into Taylor's multifaceted military career, his personal battles with addiction, and the invaluable lessons he's learned about ownership, accountability, and personal transformation.

---

1. Introduction to Taylor Cavanaugh’s Military Journey

Andy begins by setting the stage with an intense military scenario, immersing listeners into the high-stakes environment that Taylor has navigated throughout his career.

• [00:20] Unknown SEAL: "I knew where we're gonna start. How's that changed your perspective on life?"

2. Transition from the French Foreign Legion to the U.S. Navy SEALs

Taylor shares his return to the United States after 18 months with the French Foreign Legion, detailing the rapid changes in his personal life and the heightened standards he now upholds.

• [00:40] Andy Stumpf: "Now I got to be much more strategic financially. It just kind of up the level, I gotta hold myself to a higher standard."

3. The Harsh Realities of Military Life and Personal Accountability

The conversation takes a raw turn as Taylor recounts a pivotal moment that reshaped his understanding of personal responsibility. He describes a bar incident that nearly cost him his SEAL trident and how embracing "extreme ownership" altered his life's trajectory.

• [05:42] Taylor Cavanaugh: "That moment in my life changed how I thought about myself."

• [10:46] Taylor Cavanaugh: "I'm not gonna kill myself because, dude, I thought of my mom, my sister. I was like, I'm not gonna do that to them."

4. Struggles with Addiction and the Path to Recovery

Taylor opens up about his descent into addiction following his time in the military. He discusses the allure of opiates and fentanyl, the chaos it brought into his life, and the eventual breaking point that led him to seek solace in the French Foreign Legion.

• [32:00] Andy Stumpf: "Now I'm finding myself pretty much homeless in my truck..."

• [34:19] Taylor Cavanaugh: "I didn't give myself time to even think about it, really. I was completely..."

5. Experiences and Lessons from the French Foreign Legion

Immersed in the life of the French Foreign Legion, Taylor describes the rigorous selection processes, the camaraderie among diverse individuals, and the disciplined structure that contrasts sharply with his previous military experiences.

• [105:12] Taylor Cavanaugh: "In hindsight, I think the technical term was being an idiot because I didn't have a plan B of any kind."

• [111:27] Andy Stumpf: "There was a lot of guys coming from all over the world..."

6. Navigating Cultural Differences and Institutional Challenges

The dialogue explores the cultural disparities between the Navy SEALs and the French Foreign Legion, highlighting issues like ownership philosophies and adaptability within different military institutions.

• [13:57] Andy Stumpf: "There's a zero ownership. There's a lot of saving face..."

7. Personal Growth, Mentorship, and Moving Forward

Reflecting on his tumultuous journey, Taylor emphasizes the importance of mentoring others, maintaining personal discipline, and the continuous pursuit of self-improvement despite past mistakes.

• [132:00] Andy Stumpf: "There was just nothing else to do, you know, other than take it down, get my pushed in, and then finish it up."

• [160:05] Andy Stumpf: "If you don't know what you want, start turning yourself into a beast. Wake up earlier, eat better, work out harder."

8. Final Reflections and Advice for Listeners

As the episode concludes, Taylor imparts wisdom on overcoming personal demons, the significance of deliberate action, and the role of faith and open-mindedness in personal transformation.

• [168:17] Andy Stumpf: "I'm happy to be here, man. And, you know, end. Anybody wants to get better, reach out to me."

• [172:00] Andy Stumpf: "It's a powerful tool. You can use it for good or bad."

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Key Takeaways

• Extreme Ownership: Embracing full responsibility for one's actions can dramatically alter life outcomes.

• Resilience Through Adversity: Struggles with addiction and personal failures can be transformative when met with accountability and a desire for change.

• Cultural Adaptability: Different military institutions have unique philosophies and structures that require adaptability and understanding.

• Mentorship Matters: Guiding others through their challenges fosters a sense of purpose and contributes to their personal growth.

• Continuous Self-Improvement: Maintaining discipline in daily habits, seeking personal growth, and simplifying life can lead to sustained well-being.

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Notable Quotes

• Taylor Cavanaugh ([05:42]): "That moment in my life changed how I thought about myself."

• Andy Stumpf ([00:40]): "Now I got to be much more strategic financially. It just kind of up the level, I gotta hold myself to a higher standard."

• Taylor Cavanaugh ([10:46]): "I'm not gonna kill myself because, dude, I thought of my mom, my sister. I was like, I'm not gonna do that to them."

• Andy Stumpf ([160:05]): "If you don't know what you want, start turning yourself into a beast. Wake up earlier, eat better, work out harder."

• Taylor Cavanaugh ([168:17]): "I'm happy to be here, man. And, you know, end. Anybody wants to get better, reach out to me."

---

Conclusion

Episode 395 of Cleared Hot offers listeners an unfiltered glimpse into the life of Taylor Cavanaugh, highlighting the complexities of military life, the depths of personal struggle, and the triumphant journey towards self-ownership and redemption. Through Taylor's honest storytelling, the episode serves as both a cautionary tale and an inspirational roadmap for those seeking to overcome their own challenges and redefine their purpose.

Transcript

[Andy Stumpf]

Okay, I got the red smoke. Sun runs north or south. West of the smoke. West of the smoke.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay, copy.

[Andy Stumpf]

West of the smoke.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm looking at danger close now.

[Andy Stumpf]

Come on with it, baby. Give it to me. I need it.

[Unknown SEAL]

You're clean hot. Can't be cleared hot first kid you just had.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I knew where we're gonna start.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

How's that changed your perspective on life?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, it. Well, it was crazy because, dude, I mean, I got back from the Legion 18 months ago, so I got back in the country. Yeah. December and then that happened pretty fast, dude. I met my fiance, we had her, and I'm like, you know, it was good timing though, because I'm almost 40, so, you know, I had a good run. But it. It may. It ups the game. It's. It's. Now I got to be much more strategic financially. More strategic. It just kind of. It. It ups the level of I gotta hold myself to a higher standard. There's no up. There's no more slipping and falling and rebuilding.

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, we don't have enough cover. The number of things I up since my kids were born.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I started having kids. Well, I. Technically I was involved in the process, but didn't have the kids, obviously.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Let's see. Riley is getting ready to be 22. So I was 25. A different era.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

Pros and cons, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

You were right in, like, right in the Dev groove. Just getting there and having kids at the same time.

[Unknown SEAL]

I went through selection in 2002. My son was born in October of 2003. In between.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn, bro. Yeah, but also it was a busy time for you.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. I left there with two kids, and then my daughter was born in San Diego.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it was also. I mean, I was still a kid.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

At 40.

[Unknown SEAL]

I think for men, you should be maturing to about the age of 16 internally. So we're doing like. You're getting there. Even though I'm. I'm 47 now and I still feel like I'm 18 years old, but it's. I don't know how I didn't mess my kids up at the age of 25. I look back at who I was at 25.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm lucky to be alive.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

The job aside, just being a complete idiot.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You don't strike me as that, man. You seem fucking squared away as fuck, dude. You know, what gives you that approach?

[Unknown SEAL]

Let's remember what you see on social.

[Andy Stumpf]

Media is selective, you know? Well, I was going to ask because I know I was thinking about this today in the shower. No, no homo.

[Unknown SEAL]

But I was thinking about this starting off.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. You know, I was thinking, dude, you got in the teams right out of high school, which is rare, you know, and so I'm thinking, you know, it's not super common, I should say, right. Right out the gate. And then today's episode is brought to.

[Unknown SEAL]

You by Montana Knife Company. If you followed the show for the last year or even before that, you've heard me talk about this brand founded by Josh Smith, the youngest master bladesmith, at least in the US I don't know if that's a global thing. Frenchtown, Montana, which is just on the western border of Missoula, moving into a fantastic, large facility. And if you're into going and seeing how things are made, he's going to have a full experience, an ability to do tour. He's going to have a black raffle coffee shop right there up in front. I believe it's going to be done later this year. A great way to go see how this brand is evolving and growing. When I first met Josh, he was in his garage and now a building on his property and growing to that bigger facility, bringing jobs back to Montana. American made, American assembled, American finished. A spectacular return policy. Lifetime sharpening. These knives are very hard to get. If you go over to montanaknifecompany.com, which is what I recommend you do, make buy a T shirt or a sticker or something like that so you can have your payment information saved. They drop knives Thursdays and Saturdays, thousands of knives. And it's not uncommon that those knives are gone in a matter of minutes, if not under a minute. I've seen some drops go. They make chef's knives, tactical knives, knives for people who work on ranches, people who work in restaurants, filleting, caping, skinning, you name it, they make it. They have some that are in stock and some that are going to be released on regular intervals. But I just don't know, actually, the rotation of that amazing apparel. They have really cool designed T shirts, hats, stickers, patches, all of that. So people ask me all the time, what's the best way they can give back to the podcast. To support the podcast, it's by supporting brands like Montana Knife Company and what they stand for. So head over there, montanaknifecompany.com somewhere in the checkout portal, they're going to ask you how you heard about their company. Hit Andy Stumpf or the Cleared Hot podcast or both. You know, explore the Space. I'm not going to tell you how to live and enjoy the product that shows up at your house because it's great stuff.

[Andy Stumpf]

Back to the show, that whole process. New guy and drinking in the teams and, you know, navigating that and then going to the next level and being probably one of the younger guys going through selection, I'm assuming.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Andy Stumpf]

Then managing that whole career. Dude, that's a lot of partying. You know, it's a lot of just straightforward. It's a lot of navigating things. You know, I mean, it's a hard charging fucking group, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm not as squared away as you think. I lost my trident six weeks after I got it.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Pulling a knife on a dude in a bar.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Okay.

[Unknown SEAL]

Technically, it was outside of the bar.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was not even 21.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Not even fucking 21. And when the skipper slides the scissors across the desk, because we were. We had to switch to the patch.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I thought. I thought I was like, done, done, though. He didn't strip my nec. He just wouldn't let me wear it.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But I had just had those camis pressed, so as soon as I took it off, people are like, what? So what was that patch you used to have there?

[Andy Stumpf]

I'm like, dude, that's powerful. Unfortunately, I've had that experience and I had to do it in the car and it was fucking. Oh, it's rough, dude. I don't think much. Many things compare. It's a very unique. I didn't feel like my life was. But it was really kind of a poignant moment. I was going, wow, did it.

[Unknown SEAL]

So let me ask you this. That moment in my life changed how I thought about myself.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it did change the trajectory. I haven't always. Trust me, we could. We could literally get in for hours onto him. Far less squared away than you think.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

People need to remember that what you see online is.

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, that makes me feel better.

[Unknown SEAL]

People think I have a architecture to the things I've done in my life. And I consistently and constantly have said that I have stumbled my way into almost everything that I've done. I didn't have this grand plan of this step, then that step, then this step, and then all three of those are. No, it's like, yeah, well, I got this offer and I don't know where it's going to lead. I'm going to take that and then it off, like. So it has been very hodgepodge. But that day, it actually wasn't the day that he took My trident from me. Because first we had to go through a chief's mass.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it was.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's fun.

[Unknown SEAL]

My CEO's name was Captain Morgan.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And you know, when you're talking about the partying, it was. I have heard that the seal community is actually shifting away from the drinking culture that it once was, which I think is a very good thing. I do too, because I now have quite a few friends that have killed himself. And one of the things that was a very common denominator and all of that was alcohol.

[Andy Stumpf]

Absolutely.

[Unknown SEAL]

If not, shit faced in the moment where they made that decision.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I agree. So, yeah, I get the chills when you say it, dude. Because there's a lot of. A lot of guys that we know, man, that.

[Unknown SEAL]

That I'm talking guys found surrounded by beer bottles and fucking.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, man, I'm getting the chills all over just cause that.

[Unknown SEAL]

But so Captain Morgan, though, I remember the speeches they used to give us. It's like, hey, Friday speech, we're gonna do a run, swim run. Of course, it was team five. So volleyball. This was the old compound before. This is like the old compound. It's like volleyball. Afterwards, of course, at noon, the kegger will be opened.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Preceding this, though, like the evolution brief was like, hey, guys, you know, you really shouldn't drink and drive. You guys really need to be responsible.

[Andy Stumpf]

And then the kegs, then it's like, run, swim, run.

[Unknown SEAL]

There's going to be a kegger. And the EXO&CO would look at the group and be like, hey, you guys better be the last people here. Yeah, motherfucker. I drove to work.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

You just told me to be responsible, but I have to be the last guy at the keg.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Topping it off.

[Unknown SEAL]

And meanwhile, the opso is like on his fifth dy.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's still the. The monike the teams of like, hey, you can't make E7. You've had a couple. So it was rough.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

For me, it never got its hooks into me. I was always able to turn it on and off. But, dude, that moment, I mean, but it wasn't. So before the fucking captain's mast, there was XO mast. Before exo mast, there was a chief board. And it was hilarious because three quarters of the platoon was standing outside of the conference room waiting to go in individually to be interviewed by the Chiefs.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And the XL comes out. He's like, oh, it looks like a great time for a platoon photo.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'm just like, what the fuck, man?

[Unknown SEAL]

Meanwhile, I'm Sitting there, brand new guy. Just had my sweat and balls. Dude just had.

[Andy Stumpf]

Nervous as shit.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yes.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I actually had a shift in who I was before I went into that chief's mast. Because before that. And this is many years in the rearview mirror, but I remember I was looking at ways to explain what had happened through the lens of it was somebody else's fault.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I only did this because this person made me.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I realized if I did that, I was gonna be fucked.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I just flipped it on its head and just accepted the fact, like, you really fucked up. This is completely your fault. You shouldn't have been there. You probably could have stopped. I wasn't even directly involved in the fight, but I sat there and I watched one of the older dudes. And you remember this being a new guy. If they would have told you to crawl on coals.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You'd have done it.

[Unknown SEAL]

How far? Hey, we're gonna go rob a bank this weekend. Be like, sweet, can I be on the roof with the 60? Anything they said was gonna go. And I knew what was happening was fucked up, and I didn't do anything to stop it. And then I got myself involved. Ran from the cops, which years later got this awesome email from one of the cops that arrested me.

[Andy Stumpf]

He heard me.

[Unknown SEAL]

He heard me talking about on a podcast.

[Andy Stumpf]

No way. He's like, that was all this dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

He was like, dude, that was a legendary story for years in Tucson pd. He goes, we still laugh about that.

[Andy Stumpf]

You guys were in Tucson?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was at an Irish bar that she'll remain nameless. That's where it started. Then I evaded the cops and went across the street to another bar and drank for hours as they were looking for me. But I just went there to the cheese board, and I was like. And they started asking questions. I'm like, this is what happened. This is why I did it. I'm like, listen, I thought I was doing the right thing.

[Andy Stumpf]

Just owned it.

[Unknown SEAL]

Owned all of it. Same thing with the xo, Same thing with the co. And then my OIC was in the room with me with the CEO, and he looked at my oic. He's like, what do you think we should do? He's like, he's a fucking good kid.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

We should give him another chance. He goes, okay. Fucking opened his desk drawer and slid out a pair of scissors. And I thought that was the end of it. He goes, I'm going to hold onto this for you, and you'll get it back when you Are deserving of.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn, that's heavy.

[Unknown SEAL]

But that. From that moment on, it's like there is nothing that happens. It's not my fault.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Right?

[Andy Stumpf]

Like, I'm not gonna say that's a good paradigm shift.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm not gonna say I invented extreme ownership before Jocko. I'm just saying that happened before the book came out. No, but it helps. And, dude, it changed the trajectory of my life. I'm curious. When you lost your bird, did it have the same impact? Cause I think it depends on who you are, your experience, and where you are in your life. Cause I. I actually had the experience of taking a couple people's bird later in my career, which sucked, by the way. And you could tell for some of them, it was going to be the beginning of a fucking downward spiral.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And for others, they were going to be okay.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

They were going to move past it.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude, it was. It was actually, you know, I did it in the car, and I had a. Interesting kind of a thought, and I. Because I said, oh, I got to go in there, and I technically don't have my. You know, and I see. Or whatever it was. But they did it kind of quietly. So the master chief and the CEO was like, hey, dude, you're gonna be good. And I'm not gonna name, but he was. He was a good dude. And he goes. And I said, you know what? He was like, what are you gonna do? And he said, meaning, like, the master chief was actually from. From development group. And he was there, and he goes, what are you gonna be good? And I said, I think I'm just gonna do what I've been doing, man, and just put my shoulder back, my head up, and just fucking keep going. He's like. And he kind of, like, teared up, man. And I kind of teared up. I said, it is what it is, you know, And. And when I cut it off in the car, in the truck, I just had this moment where I was like, you know, I did it. It's. This is just a symbol, you know, it didn't really change what I've done. It just kind of changed what my title is now. And so that was the moment I. I kind of was like, I'm all right, you know, it sucks. And I'm, you know, walk around without this thing for a few months, but that was it. It was it. And. But the ownership piece, I'll say, because I've had two boards, and they were a couple years apart, but the first one was just from a bar fight.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

In Idaho, you know, And. And it was all the chiefs in there, some big names guys that we know were in there. And they're like. They watched it on the fucking Jumbotron. They're like, oh, they're like video evidence. Video evidence.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was drawing mine up on a whiteboard with a Sharpie.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, then I went over this fence.

[Andy Stumpf]

And they want to see one of.

[Unknown SEAL]

The fucking asshole chiefs. He's like, why don't you draw the fence for us?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And he's like, well, it was a barbed wire.

[Andy Stumpf]

Hate the scene.

[Unknown SEAL]

He's like, was it barbed wire or Constantino wire? Yeah, I was like, it was Constantino wire, Chief. He's like, get that on there?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

What'd you do? What direction were you coming? What'd you do when you got. I'm like, I jumped up on top of a Conex box and then climbed a tree. He's like, let's. It's like he was Bob Ross. He's like, let's get that on there.

[Andy Stumpf]

Just make him. Make them happy trees. I'm convinced there's no board. Like, a SEAL board with a bunch of SEAL guys on it. It's powerful, but there's also, like, this. There's an intensity and also, like, this, like, underlying humor sometimes. Yeah, but it's. There's this a guy that one of the senior chiefs walked outside of my first board, and he said, dude, I wish we would have had that on fucking camera. He's like, because that's how you own a board, dude. Because I walked in and I was like, dude, I was fucked up. I should have left. I didn't. You see what happened. And it just. There was no getting out of it. But the ownership piece in the teams, I think military, any. Any fucking institution, organization, owning, it's the best way to go.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's the only way to go.

[Andy Stumpf]

There's no other. From the top down. And I'll tell you what I saw in France, which was a little different, which was. People ask me sometimes what the two differences are. The French officers. There's zero ownership. There's a lot of saving face. It's a completely different philosophy than I came from in the teams, which was.

[Unknown SEAL]

Where does that come from in the Legion?

[Andy Stumpf]

I think it comes from the fact that you have the officers from the St. Cyr, their academy, and it's kind of a prestigious thing. They're officers, but they're dealing with foreigners. So I think there's that old tradition of, like, they're just fucking foreigners. The language isn't good, but they save face. There's not a lot of pass down information of like what was fucked up on an exercise or an operation. Nothing. There's no trickle down of any of that. I didn't see any of that. Maybe they had them. Sure they had their own meetings. But it was never bred down versus in the teams where you'll have a debrief and you'll have from the top down go, hey, this is what I up. This is what I up. No I that up sir. That wasn't you. It was like goes all the way down. It was a completely different philosophy and it was very kind of frustrating because you don't know. You can't learn anything that way. Wasn't all the time, wasn't every guy. But generally as an institution, that's how they roll.

[Unknown SEAL]

How do you evolve as an institution if you don't?

[Andy Stumpf]

I think they're kind of slow to move. I think they're slow to move and I think that there's, it's, they're not a lot of overlapping SOPs. It's, it's elements pockets. Like you'll have good sergeants and maybe a good officer and then they'll be kind of their own unit. But there's no cross decking of like hey, this is how we do in aar. This is how we do this across the institution. So it's, it's just luck of the draw if you get in a good troop or something. It was frustrating man, because you know, you don't get a lot of information. You don't, they don't change tactics. They're not, they're not as quick to move on that type of shit. It's a little bit different of an organization.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, the chiefs board. Fuck. It is funny what you remember and what you don't. I remember to this day. So there was the Bob Ross dude when you. And they would take turns because of course each of them has fucking commentary. And I don't know, I was never a chief so I never got to sit in there. I don't know if they actually just knew the deal and how they were going to work the questions or they pre gamed it. But they're fucking hammering me on my decisions and one guy was being very like, I am the fucking. Just like you're a fucking idiot piece of shit. And I'm still just owning it. But all the other chiefs, when I'm answering, they're just like, yes, yes. And then the next guy would answer and his fucking mood would shift. To like, you're a piece of shift. And the guy who was just eating my lunch was just like, yes, yes. And by the end, I had an entire. It was the fucking size of that TV of whiteboard. And then they're like, well, what were you thinking in this moment? I'm like, I was fucking drunk. Like, one of the last things. I was hanging off the side of a building, covered up by a tree. Cause I thought if the cops followed me on the roof, they wouldn't be able to see my hands. So I'm fucking hanging there. And then I'm like, fuck, dude. I'm too tired to climb back up. So I just let go and I fell through the tree, landed on the concrete right in front of my platoon.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Who picked me up, switched out my shirt, and we went across the street.

[Andy Stumpf]

No way.

[Unknown SEAL]

They must have asked me. They're like, what do you mean you just fell? Right? I'm like, listen, I fucking fell through a tree. I had time to roll up the windows, flat on my back. Didn't hurt myself because I was so fucking drunk.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Just softly in front of the, like.

[Unknown SEAL]

All of my mentors and people I thought walked on water. They picked me up, they switched my shirt out, and we went and kept drinking.

[Andy Stumpf]

What were you guys doing in Tucson? What was it? What's out in Tucson?

[Unknown SEAL]

Close Air support. We were working with, I think. What was it? Probably the time. F16s and A10s from Davis Monthan.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And the last day of training, we were supposed to have canceled. Squadron had something to do, so we went to a strip club at like 10am yeah, of course it started that day.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Unknown SEAL]

And again, I'm underage, so a dude in the platoon just picked me up on his shoulder and just walked in the door and nobody said anything. I'm like, yeah, it was. It was insane. And then it got a lot more serious with the XO and co. Yeah, they.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, but Team 5, dude, I mean, that was all Team 5, right?

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, Team 5's got its reputation.

[Unknown SEAL]

That was Team 598.

[Andy Stumpf]

It had a fucking reputation, man. I mean, they still. They still got a reputation. And it's, you know, tough. Tough on new guys. Tough. You know, train hard, fight hard, fucking party hard. It's a, you know, the tough team, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

It wears on you.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, we were right next door. I was at 7. So, you know, we got a little bit of that bleed over. I was like, damn, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

Were you guys in the new building?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it was like seven probably combined. Oh, six. Yeah, it was. Team five and seven were right next to each other in that new building.

[Unknown SEAL]

Kind of which they built in like basically where we used to play volleyball at.

[Andy Stumpf]

It just used to be that old.

[Unknown SEAL]

Out ring of buildings.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I don't think the culture, the culture in the west coast, I mean, is awesome. I mean just the location. Yeah. Tra. Get to go run on the beach. The shirt off. You, you, you're. You're doing all your gear with a shirt off.

[Unknown SEAL]

The, the East Coasters think that, you know, they're better because their weather sucks and so they don't have those opportunities. It's like, listen, you know, randomly you got assigned the team you went to because I put 2, 4 and 8 on my dream list. I got fucking team 5. So. Because I was from the west coast, Santa Cruz, like we talked about, I'm like, I've never spent time on the east coast. They're telling me this is a fucking dream sheet in second phase. 2, 4, 8. And we're out on the island getting hammered because God forbid, not like we actually did drink later that night, different story. But we were getting remediated on the beach and we couldn't figure out why. And they put us all into little pockets and then they told you, hey, your pocket is going to whatever team. And they're like, you're going to team five. I'm like, but that's not what I put.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

They're like, yeah, man. You ended up coming back to three. You ended up coming back to three. And you're also an instructor out on the island at some point. Right? Did I hear that right?

[Unknown SEAL]

No. So I went team five screened after my second platoon at team five out to the east coast, came back, was a buds instructor from mid 06 to September 30th of 08 when I got commissioned.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Over to team 10 and then finished as an ops guy at trade it afterwards.

[Andy Stumpf]

Okay.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. So a little bit of bouncing back.

[Andy Stumpf]

What's that like coming back? I always, I never really got a chance to like ask somebody. You know, you dev group cats like coming back as an instructor after really, you know, operating at the pinnacle, you know, in terms of funding and all this stuff. And now you're coming back to teach, you know, at really rudimentary levels. It's got to be.

[Unknown SEAL]

The funding was dope.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I mean, that's what I'm saying. I mean it's got, it's got to be kind of an interesting. Not to mention your, your, your Your deployment fucking pace, you know, and then coming back. And now you're instructing kids coming through and teams, you know, just younger guys with.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's not what I wanted to do.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask if, like, what. How does that go down? Or they're like, hey, where you're being volunteered to go get back.

[Unknown SEAL]

I get injured in February of 2005. And for clarity, I spent the minimum. You were. You are obligated to four years after selection. I spent the minimum amount. Guys who have spent a decade plus. There are two decades. Those guys, like we're talking two dozen deployments. Yeah. Like I did in comparison to those guys. And into most people, I didn't do a fuck all. I did my minimum requirement there. And in 2005, I got injured and we had had two kids at that point. So I come back, I remember, God, it was so fast too. So I got injured. Flown to Balad in a helicopter to Germany on a medevac airplane full to the gills.

[Andy Stumpf]

You took a. Took a round shot. Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

That medevac flight from Balad to Germany, that aircraft was neck to tail, side to side. Multiple people high in stretchers.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude. Damn.

[Unknown SEAL]

That was. And they were.

[Andy Stumpf]

Holy. Was that because of. It was just Fallujah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And that was the collection point from anywhere in that country. That was.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow, dude, that's heavy.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I think like 100 people, like 80, 70, something like a 50 maybe.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was experimenting with heavy narcotics at the time.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Not really tracking on.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, no. Because me and another guy who a lot of people recognize as Tyler Gray.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

He was on the.

[Andy Stumpf]

At the unit.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, I was on a deployment with them.

[Andy Stumpf]

Okay. You guys were linked up.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. And hopefully I'm going to have him.

[Andy Stumpf]

On soon because that'd be cool. People are like, that's got to be so weird. People don't talk to him.

[Unknown SEAL]

Don't realize that we know each other and have known each other for years and stay in contact. Like, that's why you need to talk to this guy. I think he. He was on target. I'm like, yeah, I shared a fucking.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. You're like, I know him, dude.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So it was me and him and a JSOC doctor.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was getting all the good juice.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I just said to the doc, can you put me the out? Because a lot of those people were very awake and in a lot of pain.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yelling.

[Unknown SEAL]

And if you can hear that over the fucking the.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's loud. Fuck, dude. That sucks.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well, you land at the airport and then it's a school bus modified to hold stretchers.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Over a bumpy road to the hospital. And we're talking people that have, like erector sets and shit, holding stuff together.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, just ratchet all. They're all banged up and they're getting.

[Unknown SEAL]

They're getting lifted out of stretchers, and people are doing the best jobs that they can. And we ended up. Yeah, we ended up at our own wing, me and Tyler. God, that guy is a fucking. He had nurses giving him massages and fucking eating Jello. I'm just like, what the fuck? Good on him. And I checked myself out and got on a Delta flight and came home.

[Andy Stumpf]

Really?

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. And then had the command's aircraft, I think it was New York is where I. I didn't even go to fucking customs. I got out of the airplane on the gangway, like the sky bridge. There were two people waiting for me. They're like, sir, come with us. Got down, got into a command aircraft, flew into Naval Air Station Oceana. Wheels come down or the. The stairs come down. And my wife at the time is there with one child in a stroller, pregnant with our second kid, who was born about six months later. So there was some family issues and the recovery sucked. And I basically had worked a deal with the current master chief. I'm like, can you guys just give me a fucking year off to just rehab. I'll go down to the airloft because I fell in love with jumping. I'll go help out here. I'll do whatever I can do. Just give me a year off and I'll come back and I'll stay for as long as I wait.

[Andy Stumpf]

Let me get the family, my body. Let me get some shit set.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well, as you've probably experienced, there was a change in leadership at the fucking E9 level.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's. That was the old deal.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So he tells me that. The guy tells me that. And I remember crutching up to his office and he's sitting there in his khakis, which you and I. But you can get a visual snapshot of kind of like the salad of what people have and what they've done. I'm like, I get your rank. I get that. I'm looking at the other stuff. And in the course of the conversation, he basically says, you haven't done enough to deserve some time off.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I remember looking at him and I said, well, looking at your rack, damn. It seems to me like I've done a fucking Hell of a lot more than you have. In my limited, I had orders out of the command shortly thereafter.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

As the E6, you lose that battle with the E9.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So, yeah, they let me pick and the options were limited and second phase instructor was where I ended up going. But to answer your question about what it was like, it took some getting used to.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's a completely different environment. But I look back on it, I'm glad I had that time. It gave me time to get my head right. And it was actually. It was probably the place that I didn't want to go. It was the single most rewarding duty station I had in 17.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow, that's saying a lot. What. What was it about? What was it a. You seem like you'd be a brutal instructor, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was fair.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But the standard. No, I was fair. Like, the standard is the standard, though.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's just everything that didn't make sense when you went through. You go back and it makes total sense and you actually, you can see, you can see that you actually have a hand in molding what the future of the community is going to look like.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, I like that.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's just cool. It's really cool. It is a break. You can kind of like explore and do other things. Can kind of just.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I take breathe for a minute.

[Unknown SEAL]

Take a breath. Be like a groundhog. Pick your head up a little bit. Like, fuck. You know, like, what are you gonna do next?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I could see because, dude, your. Your rhythm is. Was the wave. I mean, you're screening right after 9 11, and just because I checked, I just kind of scoping on the timeline going, damn, trying to get a little information on you. And I was like, holy, he's green. And put, you know, in October 01, then hitting. And so that you almost had a.

[Unknown SEAL]

Green team early to start deploying.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

That high speed train, dude. I mean, you're literally in the train from 1 to 5.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, I can't imagine the. The rhythm and the deployment cycle and the training cycle and all that.

[Unknown SEAL]

Awesome.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And then. But I can see how that could be, dude. I don't know how dudes do it with family and kids and stuff.

[Unknown SEAL]

The divorce rate isn't what it is.

[Andy Stumpf]

Because, well, they say it's like 135, including second marriages, you know, but you know, getting back, it had to be. What did you. You live in like Coronado or down in Silver Strand?

[Unknown SEAL]

Eventually we did live in base housing, which.

[Andy Stumpf]

God, that is a What'd you think about that? Is there any positives to it?

[Unknown SEAL]

Doesn't cost you anything. I mean, here's the thing.

[Andy Stumpf]

Like, easy, convenient.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was cool. I had three young kids, so my daughter was born in La Jolla. We were. We sold our house in Virginia beach as the market was peaking.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And we bought our house in where Santee was, where we bought our first house coming back, I think the day before the market crashed. So immediately underwater. That was spectacular. So we had to rent that out for 10 years to even break. I think I wrote a check on that when we sold it.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I put in for base housing and we got it when I was an instructor. The commute to work was short. Dude, you're on the beach. It was cool.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I don't know. It's a. It's a little. It's like you're a little nucleus of just. Only military, though.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I do. I think it's good for people to constantly have a foot in both.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I agree. You get stuck in this echo chamber.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. I don't think it's good in the long run.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. And I think that the guys in the team, specifically, probably any military unit, definitely soft units. You're stuck in this. You go to work, you come back, you're hanging out with your people, same people all the time, and then never ever getting anything in the civilian sector other than a bar or fucking whatever else.

[Unknown SEAL]

But you're at the bar with your same people. So you go to work and you talk about work, you come home and you end up talking about work with the same people you were at work with. It's. I've seen it. I'm sure you have, too. People get lost in that career. It's just a job.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Probably the same thing with the Legion, too. I mean, you're only the second legionnaire I've ever talked to. The other guy was Joel Strothers. But. Yeah, I mean, if you stay in anything too long, it can define you. I've seen that with people who do real estate or doctors or lawyers or bankers. It's. I don't know, man. I'd rather just have it be what I did, who I am.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's a powerful thing. And that's something that. I mean, somebody said to me the other day. I forget it was online or something. They're like, man, Andy seems like he did, you know, had a pretty smooth transition. And so. Well. Well, that's why. I don't know. This is just something somebody said to me me. Because they're seeing it from like, you know, the professional things. Things have you done. And I'll tell you, I'll start posting.

[Unknown SEAL]

Pictures of me crying on the toilet.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. You know, and that's. And that's something I had. My first transition out of the teams was colossal failure. And I. And I had to go back in. And so the second time I got to do it. The first time, man, I got out, I did a pretty good lateral step because I, you know, it was like the. The train was coming and I knew I was getting out. I actually failed a PED test. That's what I ended up getting kicked out for. What were you taking was all the stuff? Pretty much. I think I lit it up like a Christmas tree. And I was like, man, they, you know. And so Navy Jack sent it to Olympic testing center, but that's really what I got.

[Unknown SEAL]

How did they highlight you, though? Because I had always.

[Andy Stumpf]

Because I got in a fight and so they saw the police report. I had pulled out some tasers and fought off a dog. And they're like, he's definitely on performance enhancing. They didn't read well, let me just say, at a Jimmy Buffett concert. And so it was a whole thing.

[Unknown SEAL]

We're going to go ahead and you're going to tell a little bit of that story because don't think you're going to avoid golf cart, tasers and dog.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah. It was.

[Unknown SEAL]

Dude, it was while you were in.

[Andy Stumpf]

It was. I was in. And I had just gotten. I had just got back from Iraq. We had just. We were south of Missoul doing prepping for that whole offensive. Had a pretty good deployment, but was coming back to a jury trial for that old.

[Unknown SEAL]

The bar.

[Andy Stumpf]

The bar thing, which was like 2 years old at this point. Getting sued for half a million dollars on this. It was just a whole colossal shit. But on the military side, I had cleaned up. Now they're just kind of waiting. Ended up clearing that up, getting misdemeanors, staying in, get busted down. But things are good. I have a stretch. I up again. And then I'm, you know, I'm. I'm really on the chopping block. The team's like, they were good with me. They're like, dude, we just.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

You.

[Andy Stumpf]

We have no more room. Yep. So I was getting my affairs together, but now Navy JAG's like this, dude, I have a top secret clearance and all this. They're like, this is we're going to get them. But I. But those charges all got washed away because they all got dropped and stuff. They're like, no, we're getting them for something. And they drug tested me. Pass. No issues. But they're like, all right, well you're steroid testing. And I had this moment where I had a fake dick in my locker and I was like for Saturday nights?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

No.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I go, but I had this.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because I. Michael was immediately parking, you.

[Andy Stumpf]

Know, and he was over there drawing pictures. Yeah. What? Yeah, man. And I had this. And you know, maybe I shouldn't have but you know.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it was this for your analysis?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, well it was for. Because I. I had heard they might steroid test and so I had this thing prepped and I had this moment. I went, you know what, dude? I made this bed, I'm gonna charge this machine gun nest. I was like it. And I put it down and I went and took the test, man, and failed. And I, I remember it being like a really like pinnacle moment of like, dude, I'm just gonna own this thing and see how fate goes. And I'm really glad I did actually. But that was. So now I'm getting out, right? And so I get out and I did a lateral step look pretty good into on the. For a private residential development on the largest project down in sky down in Chula Vista. 750 million dollar project. I'm like the number two guy doing well construction. You went teams to construction teams to like supervising construction. Because I was interested in real estate development. I've always been interested in it and I used some contacts, guys from you know, country clubs and things I had met and just ended up working out. Had a really good year. But dude, I had no governor now. And so I. I started taking Adderall, Xanax. Just that, just all these bad habits. Started stacking which I never had done in the teams. Right. Because you know you're training. It just wasn't. I'm like, oh, I'm off, I can work better. And then now I'm drinking at night every day. Could take the edge off. And now I'm at the gym at 5pm still going to the gym, still doing all this so I could lie to myself, you know, I'm like disciplined ish and that. And you my world, you know, just. You can't bend reality like that. Yeah. And my world came crashing down, man. I had the nice house and the girlfriend by the beach. All world came crushing down. Now I'm find myself pretty much Homeless in my truck, man. I'm on the big island of Hawaii because I just popped smoke because I'd stacked on a fentanyl habit in between all this.

[Unknown SEAL]

How did you get started?

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, I was taking opiates. I was taking opiates and then, then I found out fentanyl is stronger. And so I'm like snorting this at night, doing work emails all night. Not like off, but I'm like doing this while writing work emails at three in the morning and then raising capital for multiple businesses and actually having a lot of success in a high rise now downtown and working for a venture capitalist. And then it all came crashing down. I was just running a. So two years to the day almost from when I get out of the teams to this point. I'm homeless in my car after everything had fallen apart. Sawed off, shotgun on the passenger seat, sitting there going, dude, I'm just tired, man. I was like, dude, I can't do this anymore.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was gonna ask you, so. And I. Don't interrupt yourself. I want to know in the middle of all that, when you were doing all that, how did you feel about yourself when you looked at yourself in the mirror in the morning?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I didn't give myself time. I didn't give myself time to even think about it, really. I was completely.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was just always on to the next thing.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's how I think I shelved it. I didn't take any time to process me losing my entire fucking dream, which I had since I was 7. I didn't give any time to process, okay, I'm doing this or my relationships or. Or all the chaos that starts to happen when you're not living aligned. And so if I did have some moments, I really don't even remember having that. That's how much I lack self awareness. I was so it was immaturity paired with fucking lack of self awareness paired with selfishness. It was like a trifecta of shit, dude. That's what I was dealing with. And then it all kind of came crashing down. And then I had no title, no money, realized, you know, I had sold my shares in the company that we had started. There was like a cannabis distribution company. We had started out in Palm Springs and building out facilities and doing all this stuff, man. And I just. Now it was all gone. And I realized I dropped. I actually dropped Jimmy off at the airport because he was there running from the feds. I have like ATF and DA up my ass with no money. And I dropped, you know, I dropped him off at the airport. And I literally drove from dropping him off at the airport, he was there for a week to like let some shit cool down. And I drove into the jungle, man, right near where the volcanoes are erupting on the big island, way out in the world. Because I was like, I just need some time to think for a minute, like admit that that phone call always comes, you know, at the 11th hour, right? And the phone call didn't come. It was dead quiet. And I sat there and I went, oh man, dude, this is all me. I had this moment that was going back to your ownership part. I. Everything was somebody else's fault. I got here, or this or the girlfriend or that, or, you know, it was. And then this moment, I had nobody else to point to. There's nobody else there, man. And I fucking had this moment where I went, well, I'm not gonna fucking kill myself because, dude, I thought of my mom, my sister. I was like, I'm not leaving that damage for them. Like, I was raised pretty, you know, pretty much by a single mom. You know, my dad had his struggles after getting out of the Marine Corps and stuff. I grew up on a Chinook base in Tustin. Is like what actually brought us out there. But I, I was like, dude, I'm not gonna do that to them. So if that's the case, I was like, if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna do, do it with my boots on at least. I was like, maybe they're go me back over. So I fucking, eight days later, I fucking was in the. I took two fast cash, $500 loans out to get a one way ticket to France, man. And that's how I ended up knocking on the French born Legion door.

[Unknown SEAL]

Before we get into the Legion, where does one source a fake dick?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, you'd be shocked what you can find on Google, man. Just Google fake dick.

[Unknown SEAL]

Let's, as I'm listening to your story, I'm like, there's some very key things we have to come back to.

[Andy Stumpf]

Like the straps, man, it was doing too much, bro. It was like a whole thing. Dude, dude, I heard a funny story. I. I won't say which unit and I won't say where and I won't say who told me. But they're like this big black dude, he was in one of these, in one of these units and they were doing a piss test and he's like, damn it. And the dude busts out, he's like, I don't give a. He's like, give me that fake dick, man. He's like, dude, it's white. He goes, I don't care. He's doing the ma. He busted out. The ma is like, what the. He's like, don't say. You ain't gonna say nothing. Oh God.

[Unknown SEAL]

If people understood how up we were the military, they would never trust us with machine guns.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude. It's amazing, right? That's that, that the two sided coin to a lot of guys. It's like, I'm sure you've seen a ton. There's like guys that you're like, this guy is a loose cannon. And then you'll see him clear a house or shoot or something and just absolute focus and just professionalism on a. It's. It's pretty impressive.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's impressive. But I come back to the question, would you rather have a guy that could perform at 90% of that dude but his life was squared away or do you keep the guy who's a rock star on target and manage the juggling grenades? Dude, like what it comes down to.

[Andy Stumpf]

You got better experience with that? I don't know, you tell me. I mean the longevity wise. I mean you see like in my case man, I didn't have the long. You know, I was in the teams for seven years and some change, you know and it got cut short because I fucking the off. It's like some good football player stud. But off the field, if you it up now, you're not on the field.

[Unknown SEAL]

So that's where I land on I think for the health and welfare of both the community. But more importantly the guy afterwards. I'd rather take the guy who's slightly less tactically competent.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But isn't in his fourth marriage, in credit card debt with a drinking problem and an affinity for strippers named Destiny.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know that catches up. You like it will. Can't bend reality that long. It's only. It's got a fucking timeline, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well. And people have to remember whether you, whether you and I like it or not, the job titles that we had will carry with us for the rest of our lives.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I can try to do everything I can to not distance myself from it, but to try to be more than that. But I guarantee you if I were to ever make national news.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's the first thing that would be 100 fucking. That's a really good point. Is you're representing more than you carries.

[Unknown SEAL]

With you whether you want it to or not. So the guy who is and I worked with with quite a few of these Guys who were like literally juggling grenades with a pin three quarter out.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I mean, well, there's a reason why, you know, ex Navy SEALs are SEALs and we make the news.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Jimmy's a good example. It's generally a pretty big story.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not half ass.

[Unknown SEAL]

Speaking of a mutual friend, it's like we go nuclear.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And that has cascading consequences and in a ripple effect. And at that point they're no longer, like, they're not beholden to the SEAL community anymore, but the reality is that that name will travel with them.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Trails.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'd rather have the guy that is B B plus.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But a solid human being than A plus on target and a fucking D minus as a person.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's sustainability. Yeah, yeah, it's sustainability. And also what I would. Which is something that I failed at that, that I had to take a look at later, is now you're allocating resources to dealing with your shit, managing the fucking paperwork and the admin and, and this and that. It's guys who could be training and doing something else now you're taken away from that. And that's something that I, you know, I had failed to see what, you know, these consequences lead to. And now, you know, they're down a qual and now, you know, you're about to go out the door. And I'm sure you've seen that a lot throughout your career.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was interesting being on the other side of the board. It was a lot more enjoyable than being the guy. Way less sweat inducing.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, fuck.

[Unknown SEAL]

When you're just standing there trying not to like fucking move around too much. But every person I saw, it goes back to the ownership piece. Every person that I saw. And this is gonna depend on the severity of what you're there for, because there are things like right now, an alcohol related incident, you're gonna get ejected whether you own it or not. But for things outside of that, everything I. Every time I saw somebody come in there and take the path that you took or the path that I tried to take with the chiefs and the XO and then the CEO and. And just owned it. They survived.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

The people who come in there and start pointing fingers, they start sliding shit across the table.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it's not. I agree. And it's not a guarantee because like I said, if you're in there for.

[Andy Stumpf]

Certain things, I don't know.

[Unknown SEAL]

Allegedly a guy I might have served with at team 5 who was selling guns to gang bangers, it's not A big deal, right? Take the serial number off first. Actually, this fucking idiot. Remember, did you ever get issued a Sig that had had your platoon number on it, like a six or like a five? Yeah, well, when that's fucking found in the commencement of a crime in Los Angeles.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Fuck.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn.

[Unknown SEAL]

Why is there a seven on this fucking Sig? P226 with the serial number on it can be traced directly back to the dude in armory, which then terminated in maybe a search warrant in his house. That led to other things.

[Andy Stumpf]

Led to a lot of shit.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

To go bang.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn. Fuck.

[Unknown SEAL]

This is all late 90s.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Good times.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, he's still doing time for that, I bet. Fuck.

[Unknown SEAL]

I would have to look it up. And I don't want to give Michael his name, even though I remember it, because.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, well, I get it, man. But, dude, it is wild, you know? And sometimes you think you're like, man, I'm in here for some bad. And then you hear some shit like that. You're like, you know what? You know, I made a mistake. But at least it wasn't that.

[Unknown SEAL]

Dude, the honor man in my BUDS class is still in prison. Dude, I think I saw you on.

[Andy Stumpf]

Rogan talking about this. Holy. What the was up with that dude?

[Unknown SEAL]

I don't know, but he has mandatory parole in a few years. I might try to sit down with him. Question one. Hey, man.

[Andy Stumpf]

What the. What is. What the Was going on? Like, how is that a hobby? It's just strange, man. And what was weird about that was. Wasn't his chick involved too?

[Unknown SEAL]

Yes, that.

[Andy Stumpf]

That to me, is probably the weirdest part. I can get a guy being fucking weird. Like, I don't understand it, but I can. I can get it. Yeah, but then to meet somebody else.

[Unknown SEAL]

That fucked up to carve people up, put them into garbage bags and dump them in a variety of grocery store garbage cans, dumpsters. Because he used to work at grocery stores and he knew the velocity with which they switched them out. Did you hear about how they got caught? It's the best.

[Andy Stumpf]

No, What. What. How'd they get. That was a. That's a fucking crazy story.

[Unknown SEAL]

So they're real. Jason and Janet, born couple. Ben Seyfried and whatever the fuck is they're divorced by the marriage didn't last.

[Andy Stumpf]

Until it didn't last. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Spoiler alert for everybody.

[Andy Stumpf]

Fuck.

[Unknown SEAL]

They were stealing T shirts from a Hooters.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, my God.

[Unknown SEAL]

In the middle of the night, I think the alarm went off. Like a sound alarm. So Police responded to them stealing T shirts. I want to say they were in like a fucking Jeep Wrangler or some shit.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

In her purse was a Spyderco that had human flesh and hair on it. And the fucking driver's licenses of the two victims.

[Andy Stumpf]

Jesus, bro. That's like divine intervention. Or, you know, of. Of like, hey, these people need to be brought up.

[Unknown SEAL]

Hooters.

[Andy Stumpf]

What the.

[Unknown SEAL]

What do you do with shirts that you steal?

[Andy Stumpf]

They were just. They just needed to do weird. They were just weirdos.

[Unknown SEAL]

They were definitely into butt play.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, they were.

[Andy Stumpf]

They were doing some weird.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, you had to pegged on the regular.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, sure.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean. I mean, they're just like people that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

That.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's just odd, man. It's very odd for those two people to meet, to be that spun out together.

[Unknown SEAL]

Think about it even deeper, right? You're in a relationship. I'm on my second marriage. I share everything with my wife.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

How would you like if you were to pitch to your girlfriend? Are you guys married now?

[Andy Stumpf]

Almost.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Gates, we're going to call her your wife.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

How would you pitch to your wife? Hey, I have a fantasy that I haven't told you about yet. Hoping you're into this too.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Let's cut people up in a bathtub.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

How would you do that? Would you. That a morning coffee thing or would you do that?

[Andy Stumpf]

That's what I think about. Like, when did it come up? And then it goes. Yeah, it's fucking weird.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do you catch them? You're making coffee in the morning and you see them and they're on the computer and the website's like, whatever. Or they're watching a YouTube video of like an unsolved mystery, and you're like.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, what if we did that?

[Unknown SEAL]

Or like, oh, does that interest you? How the fuck.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

How does that do you get to.

[Unknown SEAL]

Cause they. They. The couple, they.

[Andy Stumpf]

They were down Tijuana or something.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Huh?

[Unknown SEAL]

No.

[Andy Stumpf]

Or they.

[Unknown SEAL]

And they were on the East Coast. Michael, look this up, wasn't it?

[Andy Stumpf]

I remember. I remember there also being a team guy that was going down to TJ or some, killing people. That was another thing that wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

So.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's crazy, man. It's insane. Worcester County, Maryland.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay. Maryland. So they. They brought the couple. They were at a bar, and they got them back to their apartment.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So there was like such a level of premeditation. How do you have those conversations that leads to that.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn. I didn't realize it was that. I didn't Realize they were like in the United States.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yes. So if you were to pitch.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's crazy that they'd even got away with it a few, a handful of times.

[Unknown SEAL]

I think it was only that one time or once. But still, if I pitched that idea to my wife, I would expect her to go to the cops.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, any normal person would or would leave.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Be like I'm with a complete psychopath. But. And that's why it's strange that that somebody would be receptive to that. That is the most weird part of the stories because the percentages of people. The percentages of people that would be receptive to that are way, way, way low. Zero point something.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well, I was talking to. I had a guy on recently. We haven't let the episode out, but he was the head of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit. He was a profiler.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I had always heard there's between, you know, 12 to 18 serial killers active in the U.S. yeah. He goes, nah, probably 50.

[Andy Stumpf]

So we're talking one per state.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay. That number.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Should. It should probably make people at least check their front. Front door.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. But it's slow. But it's low.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's low.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

What are the odds?

[Andy Stumpf]

Not that those two people meet.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yes.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's crazy because I remember you telling that story on Rogan. I'm going, how the did they meet?

[Unknown SEAL]

I was in selection at green team walking by a like a pin up board where they would put like the daily schedule. And I caught the title and it just, it stopped me in my tracks.

[Andy Stumpf]

Damn.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like a record scratch. And I backed up and I read it and you're like, that's the honor man of my bud's class.

[Andy Stumpf]

Man. So he was just that psych. That much of a sociopath that he was like squared away sailor.

[Unknown SEAL]

I don't know about your class. I remember the instructor saying basically they. It was the guy who failed the fewest evolutions in the course. You can attest to this. People think that buds is this like finishing CIA program come out crafted as a weapon. You have sore hip flexors from doing flutter kicks and a good set of abs for being in a caloric deficit.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You're not, you're not.

[Unknown SEAL]

Not Jason Bourne coming out of there. So it's not, it wasn't this monumental feat.

[Andy Stumpf]

Cool.

[Unknown SEAL]

But.

[Andy Stumpf]

But he was just. He had the ability to hone in and get shit and pass shit.

[Unknown SEAL]

He was weird.

[Andy Stumpf]

I remember that's what I was going to say. What was he like?

[Unknown SEAL]

Quiet.

[Andy Stumpf]

He was quieter I bet he was. Yeah, he's thinking about his next wearing.

[Unknown SEAL]

People'S skin like a Leotardo 618.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, he's. He's tugging his dick on it puts the lotion on its skin.

[Unknown SEAL]

Dude, where I up is, I tell my wife these things, like these inside thoughts that I have about him. I'll tell her and she just looks at me like, she's like, dude, what the is wrong with you?

[Andy Stumpf]

Where you, where'd you meet your wife?

[Unknown SEAL]

Jiu Jitsu.

[Andy Stumpf]

Really?

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, She's a worldclass jiu jitsu athlete and she's the main kids coach.

[Andy Stumpf]

How long did it take you to get Your black belt?

[Unknown SEAL]

5 and a half years, I think.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Damn.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's pretty quick though.

[Unknown SEAL]

I had more time to devote to it, people. Well, there's two ways you can look.

[Andy Stumpf]

At the time, cuz would you started while in the teams or.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, I found it when I was 40.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, yeah, the timing aspect. Most people say 10 years to a black belt and I've talked to a lot of coaches about this. This is somebody who comes like Tuesday, Thursday. Yeah, every week for 10 years. Yeah, I could go twice a day for five to six days a week.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, you were just going, you were going a lot. And if you actually, that's your personality too. You're like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do.

[Unknown SEAL]

Also my schedule, it allowed me to do that. So if you add up those two buckets of time, they actually end up being the same thing.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I could see that.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, it pisses people off and it shouldn't, but it's like.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's like how many, many classes are you going to? Yeah, how many sessions? Yeah, that makes sense.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, so I met her there and yeah, I think it was about once every month. When we first got married, she'd ask me what's wrong with me and then it was like once a week. It's about every day now.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, man, that's pretty cold, man. You had any. Have you had any knee injuries or anything with it?

[Unknown SEAL]

No, wow.

[Andy Stumpf]

I have.

[Unknown SEAL]

I tore my pec on my right hand side a little bit. Rolling with a 15 year old.

[Andy Stumpf]

Really?

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, they tell you to relax and I'm here to tell you you can relax too much. It was the last roll of the day. We had been on the mats with.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow, you can relax too much. Yeah, well, I wasn't really.

[Unknown SEAL]

I wasn't myself. Yeah, I had just been rolling with an out for an hour with just savage black belts like Fighting for your life.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it was my buddy's son. One more role. And I was letting him work and he got a hold of my arm and he. And he didn't.

[Andy Stumpf]

You were just like. And he just.

[Unknown SEAL]

And he heard it go, and I heard it go. And I went into the bathroom to like, go change and I came out and he was just white and sweating. I'm like, dude, dude, it is not your fault. Yeah, like, because I was worried he was gonna have like a negative association with it. He's fine. But that's about. That is about it. No knee issues, nothing like that.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I had a. I was up in Santa Cruz, Claudio Franco, Brazilian Jiu jitsu. And I, dude, I. I was in a white belt tournament with another obviously white belt wrestler.

[Unknown SEAL]

The most dangerous.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude. And I had done Muay Thai. Not like super good or anything, but I. I've done Muay Thai, had done some stand up. I was like, I'm gonna get up on the jiu jitsu match. Like, let's do this. And dude, I had pretty much just started with a couple months or something. I was in this little match and dude, I had him and he had me in closed guard, and I was standing up and just kind of like pushing. He was pulling on one way and I had a. I heard my little subluxation of the patella. And dude, I was like crutching around Santa Cruz campus, which, as you know, they were riding me around in the short bus to class. But I just. And I had a lateral release. It was fine. You know, structure of the, of the muscles a little different. But I, Yeah, I went back on the mat after just to kind of shake the fear. But I still have some fear wrapped up in Jiu jitsu. You. Because of that.

[Unknown SEAL]

My wife has had two knee surgeries. She has rolled, though almost exclusively with men because it's a male dominated sport. I believe her injuries have both come from rolling with men. It's interesting to see what happens when a woman will out technique a man and they'll go back to their attributes and that's how some of those injuries can occur.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, meaning strength, like just strength or.

[Unknown SEAL]

Just torquing something like the knee joint, you know, it's designed to bend in one direction and especially with that lateral, like top, bottom, y. So she's had two knee surgeries? I. I don't know. Michael, how are your knees? You've been at it for five years.

[Andy Stumpf]

My left knee, actually.

[Unknown SEAL]

You have had a knee injury?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, a couple, but that's all from judo, which is why I don't do judo anymore.

[Unknown SEAL]

That's what I'm talking about.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I could see how the throws and stuff would be a lot of.

[Unknown SEAL]

As you get your weight underneath them. And was. Were your knee injuries from like an entanglement?

[Andy Stumpf]

No. So it was from. Originally I would. I had.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do not say a Japanese word, cuz, you know, I don't know what the.

[Andy Stumpf]

It means. For this throw, you have to.

[Unknown SEAL]

He was about to say a Japanese word. What was the word you were about to say?

[Andy Stumpf]

It's. It's ashi gami yourself. But for this throw, you have to. You really extend your leg outward.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oh, did it come down on top?

[Andy Stumpf]

It came down, yeah. And I think it. Yeah, I think it was my patella. The same thing you had where it was a pop pop. Yep. And what a feelings.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's just that awkward. I never had a problem with it buds and, you know, with the lunges, but I still notice it.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's probably pretty linear.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, it's. I notice it just in the strength. Like, I just. I'm aware of it.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, you can trade. It's about finding the right training partners. Like, dude.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm way closer to 50 than I am 40 at this point. Find the right training partners. And the culture of the gym too. Like, fortunately, where we train, it's a super chill culture.

[Andy Stumpf]

Culture.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I mean, I'm not. I'm a hobbyist. Right.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

People get pissed. You know, you shouldn't be able to get a. I'm like, who gives a A, by the way? Because I'm a aggressive hobby.

[Andy Stumpf]

Why would they. Why. What would they be their reasoning for. What's their argument based on? Them.

[Unknown SEAL]

It is based on, like, they think it was too. Their own velocity.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's their.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's the.

[Andy Stumpf]

Their. Their own frame of reference and they're projecting it out like. Well, it's. It's that. Yeah, I see what you're saying.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. So, yeah. Don't worry about other people's journeys.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

People.

[Andy Stumpf]

You're like, you know, dude, I do more work than you. I've just focused.

[Unknown SEAL]

Kalispell has an airport. The gym allows for open mat. Come get some.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Do you do. Do you do, like, tournaments and.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, I'm an aggressive hobbyist.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's. I'm curious, like, how. How does that work?

[Unknown SEAL]

I competed once as a white belt and once as a purple belt. I did it as a purple belt because my wife was going there to coach and I was like, it all set up.

[Andy Stumpf]

What do you think the difference is between a purple belt and a black belt?

[Unknown SEAL]

Other than the belt.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, other than the belt. But like, in terms of like, how much, how much better can a. A black belt be than a purple belt?

[Unknown SEAL]

I have black belts that I roll with where I question whether or not we're playing the same sport.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's like that they me up so bad.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

That I start laughing.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, my one guy I trained with consistently, his name is Henry Akins, he will get me into positions where I literally start laughing. And then he starts laughing. I'm like, bro, I don't know what the you want me to do.

[Andy Stumpf]

I am so trapped.

[Unknown SEAL]

And then he'll show me and then the will keep rolling. He'll keep funneling me into that same spot until I recognize how to get out of it. Which, by the way, when I do and he traps me in some other.

[Andy Stumpf]

And he's good enough to get you into that same. Even though you know what's coming, it's like, why?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

How?

[Unknown SEAL]

I actually think that every time I train with him, like sometime later in the day, he has a moment of quiet reflection. He just says, I work with retards. Like, he's so far ahead.

[Andy Stumpf]

How good, how good somebody can be.

[Unknown SEAL]

So. And I've heard really high level coaches talk about this. They, most of them will say there's more deviation at the black belt level than in every other belt.

[Andy Stumpf]

Which is. Oh, that's interesting because it makes sense because you can be a black belt for fucking once you get your black belt.

[Unknown SEAL]

And this is one thing I would say to people too. Don't be in a rush because once you get it, that's the belt you have for the rest of your life. And use that like, hey, what's the next thing? In three years you get a piece of tape. And that doesn't change. Purple belt and black belt. I'm not a coach, by the way, so I would say you have a much more refined sense of what your personal game is. And you probably have stripped away a lot of stuff.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, the ego and all the other stuff.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, I mean like technique.

[Andy Stumpf]

Okay.

[Unknown SEAL]

A lot of black belts have something that they like, a pathway that they like to go down. Like have an A, B and C game. At purple belt, I think you're still just like drinking from, from A. And then at brown belt, you're trying to. You are refining your personal game. And then at black belt, I would say you have it pretty well refined. But my jiu jitsu is super simple. I don't do any complicated, like, multi step movement stuff. I mean, Michael can tell you my favorite thing to do. I just lay on people.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Because I remember, I remember reading a thing that Chuck Liddell was saying, because I know he came from a wrestling background and I remember him saying something in an article about he, you know, he got to purple belt and then he was like, you know, and he might have just not wanted to. He was like, I pretty much learned what I needed to learn for his fighting game, you know, And I was like, that makes sense. I could see you're like, okay, I'm just going to pull these. You're going to have focus on other pieces.

[Unknown SEAL]

You're going to have been exposed to probably every technique that you would be exposed to at black belt. You would just have less time in the saddle.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But that doesn't mean you can't go get that time in the saddle on your own.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, I don't, I don't. I mean, it may be different pathways or a little bit of, you know, put your hand here or apply pressure there, but you have a pretty good idea of the general concepts.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Are you, what's your, Your, like training rather than rolling, like, are you. Obviously you're lifting weights and like, what's your diet and looking like, really, you're not lifting weights at all.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I worked for CrossFit for almost 10 years.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I actually have come to the realization that it was amazing. And I was working out super hard and I was. But I was always near the competitive athletes, like the CrossFit Games athletes. And it was like, it was. I fell into the trap of comparing my performance to theirs.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And you just get destroyed. You're like, how are you moving that weight? So I'll go heavier. I just kind of got, got like barbell fatigue.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I get.

[Unknown SEAL]

Not like, yeah. In the workout, but like, I just want some time away from it.

[Andy Stumpf]

CrossFit does that to me in general. It's hard. Yeah. And it's especially. There's freaking natures out there. And I totally get it. We're all competitive. And you're like, dude, I don't know if I've just the flexibility's not there or what. It is the power, man. Some of these.

[Unknown SEAL]

But you go hard until you kind of fall apart.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I was trying to do both when I first started doing Jiu jitsu, you know, because people would say one of the keys to Jiu Jitsu is relaxing. I'm like, all Right. I'll crush myself in the gym before class.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because then I won't have a choice but to relax.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And then I was just sick because I was. I was just destroying.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And then I finally put it down a couple years ago. I need to get back into it because you do need to have a strength and conditioning aspect to it. But most of the time, dude, I just roll. I mean, I turn in a roll.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, you look. You look pretty dialed. That's why when I saw you, it looked like you had put on some muscle. Like even from other things that you had done with the trt. Yeah, well, I mean, it's. I mean, it's. I mean, it looked. It looked athletic. That's why I was asking if you're.

[Unknown SEAL]

Doing, like I say, super, super busy. I mean, I pick up, but, like, no weights and stuff like that. I need to get back into it.

[Andy Stumpf]

Though, because they got good. Any gyms here in Kalispell. Start a black rifle coffee gym, bro.

[Unknown SEAL]

That.

[Andy Stumpf]

Get it.

[Unknown SEAL]

I want to start another business.

[Andy Stumpf]

No shirts allowed.

[Unknown SEAL]

I want another hole in my head. I'm trying to manage the ones that I currently do have. There's a couple good places to work out. But again, at this point, I'm in into it for. My issue is this. I am my own worst enemy. Because if I get in there, I will have to throttle myself back. Because at this point, for me, it's longevity. I want to have the most impactful, effective life. And it would be so easy for me to get in there and just destroy myself.

[Andy Stumpf]

Do some, like, flight bodybuilding, man. Dude, I'm all about, like, the 15 reps, just. Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, you don't got to wear the speedo, man, but you could just be jacked, but be. But light, like muscle contraction time under tension, man, and just get in there and like, fucking have fun moving shit around. Doesn't. You don't got to be, you know, go full retard.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yes, I do. When I see somebody lifting more weight.

[Andy Stumpf]

To me, you immediately elbow them out.

[Unknown SEAL]

Of the way and pick up a bigger.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, I mean, you know, just straighten the tendons up. But maybe it's not good for jiu jitsu, you know, to be more muscled up. It might, it seem, might be a pros and cons.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, pros and cons. Muscle requires oxygen whether you're using it or not.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So usually what I actually will do with bigger guys is we'll. I'll pace it up a little bit.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Just to get a taste. To see how their cardio is doing. If you can tell. And if you can tell, like, oh, yeah, yeah, Daddy's carrying a little extra weight in the trunk.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Then you just cardio them out, and then eventually they're just like it.

[Andy Stumpf]

How was your running in? But how was your running in buds and stuff? Like, are you a natural runner? Are you. Are you a natural runner?

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, no.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, I was £150 in buds. If you can't run when you're £150, I don't know what to tell you.

[Andy Stumpf]

You should be able. Can you run now? Like, are you a. I have nerve.

[Unknown SEAL]

Damage from getting shot.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So classic. Yeah. And I. I think running promotes cowardice.

[Andy Stumpf]

So I should run. But.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, I don't. It's literally outside activities, being outside. I mean, Montana offers four seasons to do you want to do, whether it's snowboarding or backcountry hunting or dual sport motorcycle riding, all that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I say super active, but it is one of the things I know I have to bring back for sure.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, I mean, what's your. What's your food look like?

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, not as good as it could be.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. I try to eat whole foods and like that. You're like.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

You're not.

[Andy Stumpf]

Not tracking or nothing like that. No, just kind of.

[Unknown SEAL]

If I can eat food that doesn't come out of a box, that's just natural food. My body responds really well.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. And you almost can't go wrong with that. Yeah. But the other stuff, especially rolling that much. Yeah. I mean, you probably burn three. Over 3,000 calories a day. I don't know.

[Unknown SEAL]

I've gone. I've worn the whoop strap. I used to have one that went on my arm and it's heart rate monitor.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

It.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's. I don't trust the numbers.

[Andy Stumpf]

Your maintenance has got to be at least three.

[Unknown SEAL]

I don't know, man. I don't trust the numbers.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

They always overestimate the numbers. Yeah, for sure. But I would bet you're. You're at least 2500 maintenance 3. I mean, that's a. I don't know.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Rolling. Rolling is exhausting.

[Unknown SEAL]

It actually gets easier the more you do it, unfortunately.

[Andy Stumpf]

Really?

[Unknown SEAL]

Because you'd be more efficient.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. That's one of the things.

[Andy Stumpf]

You're not leaving drenched.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oh, I'm leaving drenched because people try to absolutely take my head off and I'm an idiot.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

So.

[Unknown SEAL]

So give it right back to him. But I can tell. I mean, Michael, you. Do you notice a difference in your output when I'm.

[Andy Stumpf]

When I've eaten?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Is that what you're talking about?

[Unknown SEAL]

You. So you're just sitting over there, not paying attention to the conversation clearly?

[Andy Stumpf]

No, I am.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. When you're rolling, do you notice that you are using, like, if you did a solid hour open mat when you first started, how wrecked you were versus.

[Andy Stumpf]

Like, oh, as you got better, has your level of dropped? Especially with, you know, certain people, It's. It's just like, I'm not even breaking a sweat, really.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, the efficiencies are unbelievable.

[Andy Stumpf]

You just get better and better at it.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's. A lot of it is timing so you can get ahead of people. The best is when you're not working and somebody else is dying.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that was me all the time, bro. Maybe that's why it was so hard.

[Unknown SEAL]

Look at them, and they're like panicked mouth breathing, and you're just casually breathing out of your nose.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's frustrating as.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Dude, that's.

[Andy Stumpf]

That is frustrating as.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it's also. I look at that when people like, Henry does that to me. My God. Damn it. It is like drowning.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

On land, at least. I know that that's possible. I don't think it's possible for me.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it is really cool to see that that level of ability is possible.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, you see guys going in there. There are decades and decades, and dude, you know it. I can't imagine the repetition and the. And the. The. The reps that you get at just being better and better and better and better.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. Like I said, it. It'll never be me, but it is cool to know that if you were to do it that long or you had that level of aptitude, you could potentially get there. It's pretty sweet, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

You got a bunch of hobbies, man. Because, dude, what's with this helicopter treasure hunt and stuff? Like, what am I, dude, you've been popping them all on my feed, dude. Dude, it's all been. I was like, treasure hunting helicopters, bro. It been on my. My YouTube a ton, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I wanted to. I was at an event in Salt Lake, and obviously I've been in the back of helicopters, so what.

[Andy Stumpf]

What's going on in the helicopter world? I was going to ask you about that. Like, how did it start?

[Unknown SEAL]

So I was at this event in Salt Lake, and a guy had an. A star helicopter in his front yard, and he's like, hey, do you want to go for a flight? I'm like, sure. And Like I said, thousands of hours of sitting in the back of helicopter, never had any understanding or desire to understand what was going on up front.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Front. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I sit up in the front left seat. The guy, you know, turns the thing on. I'm like casually paying attention. I've had my fixed wing license since 2007.

[Andy Stumpf]

Okay.

[Unknown SEAL]

And a couple thousand hours of fixed wing time. So aviation wasn't new to me. But sitting up in front of a helicopter was. Gets the thing going, he takes it off and we're flying a little bit over Salt Lake and goes, hey, do you want to fly? I'm like, of course.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But also, you should probably keep. But also maybe keep your hands on the controls too. Maybe let me pretend like I'm flying, you know, because I don't want it.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it was just cool. And it kind of reignited a passion for. That wasn't a passion at that point. It reignited an interest in aviation again.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I just got back up here and started researching helicopter schools. There was one Red Eagle Aviation here not far from where we're at. Kind of dove into that. And I just love learning new stuff.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I actually think it's the key to staying young.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, well, you got, you sparked my fucking interest because, because, dude, I, I, I always have been interested in helicopters, but just never really I was doing. But now f, you know, stability and things are building and I'm like, I'm kind of looking around going, all right, man. I'm like looking into like, you know, where you live.

[Unknown SEAL]

You have world class flight schools.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I'm all over the place.

[Andy Stumpf]

What's the cost associated with like, like, what's the path of earning a helicopter license? And what does that look like? So, like 100 grand or something?

[Unknown SEAL]

No, no, no, no.

[Andy Stumpf]

It will in time and all this shit.

[Unknown SEAL]

It could be. It's going to be largely based off of the helicopter that you learn in the hourly rate of the helicopter. So you're probably going to have access to either a Schweitzer or a Robinson. What is the other one? A Cambria, Something like that. I've never.

[Andy Stumpf]

You kind of can choose what the, what the platform is and the price.

[Unknown SEAL]

The. I think the last two, I believe it's called a Cambria. The Cambria and the Robinson are going to be similar price. You'll probably spend 25 to 30 grand.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's not bad, though.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's not bad. But then from there, what do you want to do? It's, you know, do you want to continue to fly, because then you'd have to rent an aircraft from somebody. I was able to basically align with black rifle coffee on what I wanted to do with the helicopter. So was able to source it other than me having to write a check for it. But up here, just to create content, which is where the treasure hunt idea comes from.

[Andy Stumpf]

Fucking awesome, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm just exploring Montana in a helicopter.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude, this is a trip, dude. You pop it up on my YouTube. My fiance was checking it out. Dude, I'm like the guy you're gonna talk about.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. We have three more. So we dropped one of the Pelican Kids cases, which was amazing because we're like, we're out there and I find this little island. I'm just hovering right off the island as people are climbing in and out, going to hide it. The next ones are going to be out in the mountains. But it's just cool, man.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I don't know, again, I don't know how to do any of this stuff, but I'm figuring it out as I go. And I just love that learning process.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because I can tell you right now, just like Jiu jitsu, I can't. I will never be able to master it. Aviation is exactly the same thing. Just about the time you think you know what's going on, you're just going to get. Get an uppercut and you're gonna have to recalibrate.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. So, like, say those guys that do, say, you know, charters in Hawaii or something. Right. Those, like, what type of license and what type of experience are those guys that are actually contracting for those companies? You know, I mean, they gotta have.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Commercial license at a minimum, probably. And this is me totally talking out of my ass because I've never looked into it, but probably. Today's episode is brought to you by Element. If this is the first time you're hearing me talk about this, you are late to the electrolyte game. Element is a zero sugar electrolyte drink mix which comes in this packet right here. And it says right on here what you get? A thousand milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, 60 milligrams of magnesium. Now, this used to be the only way that you could get a hold of their electrolyte mix. But now as we move along here in the read, it's the sparkling electrolyte water. Exactly the same thing on the side of this can, 1260. And that's of sodium, potassium and magnesium. Respect. And those levels are born from the Growing body of research revealing that optimal health outcomes occur at sodium levels that are two to three times government recommendations. Each stick pack or sparkling water is going to deliver a meaningful dose of electrolytes free of sugar, artificial colors or other dodgy ingredients. Element is formulated for anyone on a mission to restore health through hydration and is perfectly suited for athletes, folks who are fasting, or those on a keto, low carb, whole food or paleo diet. Who uses this type of of stuff? Olympians, professional athletes, special forces, or I should say special operations. For those who don't know, special forces specifically means green beret. I'm talking about special operations, the blanket that talks about all of the communities, health experts, business leaders and people like you and me everyday. Hobbyist activists. I'm an aggressive hobbyist when it comes to jiu jitsu. This is my absolute go to after every class, especially when I'm drenched in sweat. And it's. I've said this before, this isn't like a medical claim, but it feels like you can feel feel energy coursing back through your veins when you're putting back in those electrolytes that you lose after two hours on the mat. So the difference in my recovery on the days that I have an element versus the days that I don't are palpable. In the summer months, they have a new lemonade flavor. It is by far my favorite flavor. I used to say watermelon, but lemonade, this thing is my go to every morning with the drink I have in the morning. So tasty. I was a fan of lemonade growing up. It tastes so good but like I said earlier, it's not full of any dodgy ingredients. Audience. If you head over to drinklmnt.com clearedhot that is drink normal spelling lima mike november tango.com cleared hot. You're going to get a free sample pack with any purchase. And don't forget to try the new sparkling, which is again the same as the pack. 1,000 milligrams sodium, 200 milligrams potassium, 60 milligrams magnesium. A variety of flavors. I like them really, really cold and I still cut it with a little bit of extra water so I get some additional hydration. Go check them out. You won't be doing disappointed. 600 to 800 hours.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, something like that. Like kind of baseline. Just entry like you might be able to.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

For the confidence piece.

[Unknown SEAL]

A lot of people will go, you get your private license as a student, then you can rent an aircraft and build hours until you can get Your commercial and then they become a flight instructor.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And they start teaching others. That's a way to gain hours because you can actually.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, yeah. Because you gain a lot of hours while you're instructing.

[Unknown SEAL]

The hours while you're instructing.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, that makes sense. And now you're not burning cash while you're doing it. You're making.

[Unknown SEAL]

Actually paying you. Yeah, yeah. Not a lot. You're not pay.

[Andy Stumpf]

At least you're not.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. I could give you probably two or three airports to go to near where you live if you're interested. You have world class aviation instruction.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

A drive away from where you live, man.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's cool, man. You started sparking my interest. I was like, it's fun because I've always been interested in helicopters.

[Unknown SEAL]

I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I do. Yeah, it's pretty goddamn cool. And airplanes I'm used to, but it's very linear. You're looking for.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's what I was going to say. Like, do what. What's more interesting to fly the helicopter. Yeah, that's what I would think. You've got a little bit more maneuverability.

[Unknown SEAL]

And you can land almost anywhere you want to. Land the thing in my house.

[Andy Stumpf]

It just seems like your actual perspective and what you're doing is a little bit more froggy.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oh, you're in it.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

You're. If you, if you wad that thing up, you're gonna get fucking 8k video of that shit coming right at you.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, you're in it for sure. Airplanes, if you trim them out, you could kind of let go. I would not let go of any of the controls in a helicopter.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Because if it's going, it's. It's not getting it back.

[Unknown SEAL]

It might not bite you immediately, but it's certainly probably not going to fly straight and level for you.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, it's been, it's been, it's been cool, man. I would, I would highly suggest it if you have any interest in aviation. For sure.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's. It started to kind of swing my wheels. So, like, man, I've always kind of like been interested. Planes that didn't really interest me. Yeah. They're as much.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's. It's a lot more linear though. It's a lot of rectangles and squares.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And because that's just the consistent flight environment you're going to be in again, though, like, I learned to fly in Santee and in. At Montgomery Field in San Diego.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Unknown SEAL]

Hard airspace to learn it. But once you. Once you master those airspaces, you can fly anywhere in the world.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I still live by Montgomery, man. I used to live in Sara Mesa kind of when I was younger.

[Unknown SEAL]

A few of the 911 hijackers traded there.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, man. Yeah, absolutely.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do you think in hindsight, the people at the simulator feel bad when they had. Dude, I bet people saying, hey, we're not really interested in the landing. We just want to learn how to fly this.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. He's like, hey, man, cool. You're paying, right?

[Unknown SEAL]

Skip the takeoff and landing phase. How would one fly this?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, man, because they were probably training there. I don't know how long they were at Montgomery Field, but while I was living right next to it, man, I saw a plane crash one time when I was a little kid up there.

[Unknown SEAL]

Really?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I saw it go down. It. I didn't see it actually hit the ground, but I saw it right. The house was in the way. And I was looking. I was like, huh, that looks weird. I was like, oh, maybe he was just taking a dive. And then I was like, damn, dude. The dude crashed. Crashed.

[Unknown SEAL]

General aviation accidents happen more than people would, actually.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Especially the small. The small ones, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's. It happens more than people would. Would like to believe or care to believe for sure.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean. I mean, helicopters are dangerous, you know, as you well know.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Ish.

[Unknown SEAL]

I don't know. I don't tell my wife that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, you're flying around here in Montana. There can't be a better way to get around.

[Unknown SEAL]

It shortens journeys.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, you got to see some cool ass back country that you just can't get to. You just can't get to it, man. I mean, you're not gonna hike this.

[Unknown SEAL]

Distances, and you could if you were a psychopath.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, well, you ain't doing that. I ain't doing.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm not doing that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

There are psychopaths out there right now doing that.

[Andy Stumpf]

But there's got to be some cool stuff back there, you see? Oh, especially in the winter.

[Unknown SEAL]

In the winter, but even in the summer, when all the animals are out, like, at this point, I'm seeing elk herds. I've seen longhorn sheep. Like, it's crazy.

[Andy Stumpf]

You hunt?

[Unknown SEAL]

I do, yeah. It's one of the things I got into when I moved up here.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask, man. I mean, I. I never. I didn't hunt. I didn't.

[Unknown SEAL]

Elk heads in the coffee shop are mine.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, really? I mean, I. Growing up in California like we did. I mean, hunting wasn't really big in my world. It just wasn't a thing. You know, I wasn't shooting and hunting. I wasn't like a country boy like that. So then as I'm kind of poking up in Idaho and looking around Coeur d', Alene, which, you know, we're thinking, like we were talking about moving up here. I'm like, you know what? Maybe it's, you know, you're out in the woods. You're out in my. You're up there. Might as well start you hunting with a gun or a bow? Both.

[Unknown SEAL]

If I'm really limited on time. I'll take a rifle out. Just because bow hunting is. It's awesome. But you have to get really close to the animals.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I try to eat. You want to talk about a protein source. A clean protein source. Holy. And elk is, like, the most delicious. So if I'm on limited time and I want to feel freezer. The boomstick comes out.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

It makes sense.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You're actually harvesting.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You're not just out there for the sport of it.

[Unknown SEAL]

Both.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it's really tasty.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Tasty, tasty.

[Unknown SEAL]

I've had days where I've hunted 10 days straight with a bow, and you just. No opportunities or 10 hours with a rifle. And your freezer's full.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I'll take the. Because it feeds you all year long.

[Andy Stumpf]

What's. How does that work up here with tags, you get, like, how many elk a season?

[Unknown SEAL]

1. You'll get a guaranteed tag for deer and elk. Your general license. And then you can start putting in for draws. Like, you can get cow tags. So female elk, but there's antelope, there's whitetail, there's muleys, there's all sorts of shit. You get bear tags up here, too Black.

[Andy Stumpf]

Really?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Andy Stumpf]

So that's a lottery, though, the bear or you can actually just buy them.

[Unknown SEAL]

That's a good question. Michael. Do you know.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'm looking it up right now.

[Unknown SEAL]

I know you put in for the tag. I don't know if it's a guaranteed tag, though, behind all of the tagging, to my understanding, fishing game. They're out there surveying the.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And they're like, how many they can get.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

To make it. The numbers balance. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But, like, spring bear just ended, and I think I could have gotten a tag, but I didn't.

[Andy Stumpf]

What's going on with the wolves up here? I mean, reading some shit in the news of, you know, I don't know.

[Unknown SEAL]

Other than the population is growing.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's what I've been hearing. Like they're having issues with the farmers or that wolves killing.

[Unknown SEAL]

So you can't hunt them.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's the issue.

[Unknown SEAL]

They don't have a natural predator. So it seems as if the areas where they are being introduced, the population grows to the point where they start. Start moving other things out of their natural habitat. And then people say, oh, we should hunt them. And then it becomes this argument of, like, intervention into nature.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Unknown SEAL]

Which historically, humans don't have a great track record.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So how did you end up in Santa Cruz of all places?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I was in. I. Well, coming out of. Out of high school, I lost some scholarships, gotten some car. I just was not focused, man. And so I moved back east where I was actually born. My in Boston area. Glossed. Gloss the Mass, dude. And just went to junior college and trained and did that for a couple years and tried to go back to California where I had. My dad's a, you know, injured vet. So we had, you know, some better tuition money or whatever. So I was like, okay, well, I guess I'm gonna do this.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

And.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I didn't. It was uc second choice, man. I didn't. UCLA said no. And. And Berkeley, which I tried. Berkeley, dude. My grades were okay after, you know, the first, second, third try.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, and then I got into Santa Cruz, so that's. I. Where. Where I went.

[Unknown SEAL]

What did you think of Santa Cruz?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude? It was, you know, I mean, as a campus. As a campus, it's got to be one of the most beautiful campuses up on the hill. Yeah, I mean, they had the new gym and they had built a bunch of new buildings. I don't know if you've been up there recently, dude. I mean, what they had built, it had. Other than Malibu or. Or Pepperdine, I think Playboy had it as the best view of any gym of any college in the United States. It was overlooking Monterey Bay. Really cool facilities. They had Jiu Jitsu stuff there.

[Unknown SEAL]

Really?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, man. Because Claudio Franco had a satellite gym out there. So it was cool walking through the redwoods and the ferns. I really liked it. But I know I was. I was just checking a box to get out of there, go in the military. Because my. My. You know, my grandpa was a captain. He was a. He was Nixon's advisor and a nuclear. Worked in the Pentagon. My mom was like, you're not. You're not gonna be an officer. You fucking serious? You know, it was like that. So I Just was checking the box. Was never gonna be a fucking officer with my track record. But I. So I was just trying to graduate and that's how I ended up there. So when I was telling people, they're like, what are you doing for your internship or postgraduate? I'm like, I'm going to the fucking SEAL teams. That's why I told them. They're like, the look like I got a dick growing out of my forehead, you know, at Santa Cruz.

[Unknown SEAL]

That's also the response that I got.

[Andy Stumpf]

I bet you coming out of Santa Cruz, bro, it's, it's pretty laugh telling.

[Unknown SEAL]

My high school people. I tell people Santa Cruz is so far on the left, it ends up on the right somehow.

[Andy Stumpf]

And also it goes in a big circ, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like also live your life however you want to, but it is a bastion of liberalism for sure. And I say that without and, and focused.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's concentrated up there.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's wild.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I was a politics major and so you can imagine, I mean it was, I was writing papers on like evolution of the M16 assault rifle. You know, I was writing interesting papers and I was getting, you know, they were just, my professors were like this guy, you know, constitutional law stuff. It was really like a pre law major, but.

[Unknown SEAL]

And you knew you weren't going to go the officer path. You were just satisfied.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, I tried. So I got out and dude, I had to go to jail in Santa Cruz for six months. I did six months in county.

[Unknown SEAL]

What did you do?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I got a dy. I had a dui. A few drunken publics. Just being in Santa Cruz, in Santa.

[Unknown SEAL]

Cruz, man, you gotta try pretty hard for that.

[Andy Stumpf]

I was pretty drunk. Yeah, so, so I was just walk, you know, just, just not causing problems, but just getting picked up, walking home. The cops like, you this dumb motherfucker, you know, I had a driving license. So the, so the, so I, when I tried to get out and I was going, I went back San Diego and I went, talked to Marine Corps. They're like, dude, you're on a. I went to the Marines first because I was like terrified of failing SEAL training and ending up on a boat. It was like terrifying to me. And so they said, dude, you're on probation, dude, and you have pending court cases. There's no way we can talk to you. And I'm like, that dumb. I'm like, oh, I thought you guys can just swipe it. And they're like, no, dude. So I went, talked to a judge up in Santa Cruz and he's like dude, I'm not just going to commute this thing. I'll commute it. It was three years of probation. He's like, you give six months in lockdown county.

[Unknown SEAL]

Santa do six and he'll wipe.

[Andy Stumpf]

So I said off?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

So I said, all right. They're like, my lawyer's like, whoa, six months for misdemeanors and this. And then I was like dude, I don't care bro, let's do it. And so they gave me four and I went, I did four straight months in 23 lockdown. Dude, in the insane. I didn't see the sun for four months.

[Unknown SEAL]

What do you do in jail?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, it sucked. I mean I they had a little outdoor thing. It was all chain linked in the though. And so I did like dips and burpees and I volunteered to do jail laundry. And so dude, the things you see in there with the observation pods and people poo painting and coming in there on meth and it was a. And people waiting to go up to trials on serious crimes. They were all dudes going back up to prison for years on. So it was like a weird mixed pot in there. Santa Cruz had a, is a, is a. I mean it's just solid People that don't know Santa Cruz, it's got a dark side, you know as you well know that people that who are watching it. Santa Cruz is like a deep as a dark drug side. A lot of it's really close to bay. So it gets all that trickle and so dude, there was a lot of guys in there, people getting deported, you know, Mexican gangs and so there was a lot of that in there. But yeah man, I did my four and I walked out and the CEO goes, what are you going to do? I walked out the day after Christmas. They let me go at midnight. This was 0808, dude. And I go, I'm going to go be a Navy seal. And he goes, just fucking looked at me, he goes, this motherfucker just laughed at me. But looking back it was delusional. But that's what I was like, yeah dude, I'm going to fucking be a Navy seal. And it was a long process to get waivers and fucking I had to go. I found was like, who, who signs? Who gives the contracts in San Diego? He's like, well this guy, this retired SEAL lieutenant commander and this active duty senior chief. They, they run training programs up in Pendleton and this and that. I said fine. So I was stacking boxes at Home Depot at night and just going to find these Guys and training with them in the day for like nine months. I lost like £40 just puking and running. I and I, you know, just training my ass off and they kicked the out of me. But sure enough that by the end, you know, taking screening tests every week for about nine months and they, you know, down at the Naval Amphibious Base. So it was actually super helpful because I was in the pool school like over at the. I was at the neighborhood NAB Coronado. Nab. That's where we trained. That's where I trained with the just I was in delayed entrance processing and so I was not in the Navy. I was a civilian field advantage. That's bro. It was, it was the reason I passed. I. It was. I would have not passed buds that how I did if I hadn't done that. It was, you know, half mile sprints to an hour and a half of running. Then an hour and a half in the pool and hanging on the bar. Don't drop. It was all the we would have been doing but it was like five, six, seven guys showing up. It wasn't like a lot of dudes. It was just, you know, it was so helpful. Yeah, it was so helpful.

[Unknown SEAL]

God, I didn't realize they let people who.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I don't even think they do it anymore. They called it SEAL motivator and you might have heard about it or maybe, but they had a SEAL motivator. This retired lieutenant commander and an ACT duty senior chief you probably. You probably know. But he ran Vegas, LA and San Diego and he would do the. This like triangle but his home was San Diego and that's what I did, man. And that was really helpful. So any guys out there who are thinking about, you know, trying to find a group. It was. I needed that external peer pressure to like push me harder.

[Unknown SEAL]

All the beta is out there. It to me people who show up unprepared at this point given the amount of information available on the Internet. Like do your homework.

[Andy Stumpf]

Do your homework.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And. And what I always tell people too is overtraining is actually a real thing. There's actually so much information.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

We found this when we were instructors. There's a website that shows every evolution of every day of buds.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow. Who the fuck wrote that?

[Unknown SEAL]

Some students, you know, over time it's an aggregation just zero impact on graduation rate.

[Andy Stumpf]

Wow.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because there's pros and cons.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So when I went through, I. In hindsight I think the technical term was being an idiot because I didn't have a plan B of any kind yeah. And I also didn't know what was happening every day. So every day was like a journey of exploration.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Unknown SEAL]

If I had known every evolution.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like if you start off in the morning and you're having a day.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it you check the website and you know there's 15 evolutions, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

I. I would did not want to know Exactly.

[Unknown SEAL]

Right. And so at first the instructor were like we got to take this down. We landed on. Not that we would have had the power to do so. Like actually. Actually leave that thing up there.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Because it terrifying it.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's taking care of the people who can't compartmentalize and focus on the task at hand.

[Andy Stumpf]

They're like that's way too much.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. They're like oh man. It's only 7am and this on the training schedule. Looks like it's going till 9:00 o'clock tonight.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I have a better idea. Where's that bell? Because that thing sounds pretty dope right now.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

The ignorance was 100 bliss I said this for. Dude. I went through one time right. I was one of the original guys like. Like you were. And I say I had to. I don't think I would have had the fucking momentum. I needed the momentum and the ignorance. I needed to go all the way through with my head down to. Because I don't think I could have stopped lost my momentum and then. And then known I just knew that about myself. I was like I. I can't stop, dude. I need to keep going and not know what's coming. I just need to put my head down down and do the right.

[Unknown SEAL]

What was it about the. The seals that was a draw for you?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I saw that. I know the moment.

[Unknown SEAL]

I know that say Charlie Sheen.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. No, dude. When he told me he skydove right with the dragger. Dude. It was the most accurate team guy movie of all time.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Damn. That movie is so good. Yeah, not too long.

[Andy Stumpf]

It is good.

[Unknown SEAL]

Didn't age well, but it's still a masterpiece.

[Andy Stumpf]

I might watch it later. So I. Dude, I was on in Point Loma or something and I was with my dad or and I was saw glow lights in the bay and I'm like what the. That it was seven. It was 10-92-man. I remember exactly when it was and. And he was like oh, those are seals training. I now know they were you know probably students but Flo and but that moment I was like what there's out there in the water. Like then I was in the library and. And watching you know, men with green faces. I just got obsessed with. With it. Not like in a romantic sense. I really never was this like had this Rambo idea of. I just was like fascinated with the dudes in jeans hopping in Vietnam with no radio. Like that was just like, who the are these? That totally. I knew what it was then and I just kind of stayed on that track. It got shelf with distraction. I'm like, oh, I gotta go play sports in school and. But I always knew that's where I wanted to go. And I, I appreciated that the. I don't want to say relaxed culture, but it was, it was like operationally focused.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was relaxed from the outside. People don't understand it's highly disciplined. But yeah, we just look like.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it was. Well, it was 100. Well, the professionalism on the training people ask me about Legion and this is a good. People ask me about, oh, what was harder, SEALS or Legion? I go SEAL teams way harder. The selection's harder, the pressure's harder. It just. There's some psychology, psychological problems on the, on the Foreign Legion. But it's mostly isolation and loneliness. And that part the SEAL teams is like, dude, it's. It's performance based every day, all the time. If you don't show up, like nobody's following you around, making sure you're in shape. Like, I'm sure you've come across. You know, there's dude, if you can't do it, you're. And so there was always this pressure of like, dude, I gotta be real ready because I don't know what's coming. And also you just have this like ownership of being proud of where you're at. And I always appreciated too the relationships between officers and the SEAL teams and enlisted. And it's very bottom up. You know, you have from a new guys people that aren't aware is from very your very first day you, dude, you're planning missions and doing actions on and PowerPoint slides and getting up and briefing and talking and being graded in front of 70 seals feels you public speaking. There's that whole piece was yeah so important and beneficial. Now it. That is a whole world that a lot of people aren't aware of is just how professional it was. And guys who I saw, you know, showing up with tattoos and think, dude, they're pulling out their notebooks, taking notes, debriefing you extremely professionally even though you're a new guy. You know that part the professionalism is, you know, but they're like, yeah, we don't care if your hair's A little bit longer. You don't salute there was that because it was like, yeah, because we under and coming through. You guys set the pace. Your generation set up interesting pace. And you know, your instructors were from Nam and you know, and then you guys coming through.

[Unknown SEAL]

Even mine were the generation after.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh really?

[Unknown SEAL]

Everybody who taught me everything that I went to war with came from peacetime.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, it was crazy coming from your guys's for us coming through because you all, you are just coming back from Afghanistan or Iraq.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

So there was like a lot less focus on like hey dude. It was like, hey, attention to detail because people might will die. Like this is why your knife has to be sharp. It's not because we give a if it's you need. We didn't know you pay attention when shit's easy, you know. And it's like I understood that this and you were coming back guys banged up with silver stars and arms hanging off and they're telling you, you know, at sniper school because you went sniper. I had an interesting path. We had a similar path. I volunteered for comm school, then I went to sniper school back.

[Unknown SEAL]

I did not volunteer for comm school. I came into work one day and they're like, hey, the next three weeks.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, it's so that was my first new guy. Yeah, we, we had that similar path which was really helpful career wise, you know, but that piece. When I was at sniper school, we had a bunch of guys coming from development group and they were, you know, they're doing guys you definitely know, you know, hey, sit down, we're going to touch you, teach you about hide sites and you know, almost in tears because they've had guys die because they didn't black out a room. Right. Or, or, or didn't approach it and nothing more serious. When they're telling you something and you're. They're coming just coming back from overseas. It was a, there was a seriousness to every course of instruction which I really appreciated going through. It was like, dude, we're not going to play patty cake here.

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, you were asking me about buds and why it was so rewarding. I mean, how many times did you stand there, you know, before a swim? Mondays were the four mile run. Wednesdays were usually the obstacle course.

[Andy Stumpf]

Was it Tuesdays and Thursdays?

[Unknown SEAL]

Tuesdays and Thursdays, yeah. So you're fucking standing there and you have your CO2 cartridge and you have your knife.

[Andy Stumpf]

God, I forgot, I could forgot about that, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

But you know, as a student, I'm going through and I'm 18 years old and, you know, CO2 cartridge. You gotta make sure there's no rust on it. There's just threads. Knife. The instructor is going to try to cut hair on his arm. And as a student you're like, am I going to get in a knife fight with the shark? Like, why is this so important? You go back as an instructor after a tour on the east coast and you have the ability to tell the student who can clearly tell. You can look at them and you can see in their eyes like, this is so fucking stupid. And you can say to him, like, hey, guess what? This is stupid. But this isn't about you getting into a fucking knife fight with a shark. This is about regardless of how tired you are, you do what the fuck is required. Required in your job. This is the standard that is expected and you either meet it or you're out of here.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's.

[Unknown SEAL]

That was the difference.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

All of that. That didn't make sense when I was a student because it wasn't supposed to. You go back as an instructor, like, oh my God.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

This curriculum is actually amazing.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it, it's amazing. And it has like. Pool comp. Has nothing to do with diving.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I used to give the pool comp brief and for. In the class when they were graduating, like, hey, by the way, if idiots.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do not go out this weekend and rent scuba gear because you're going to die. You know nothing about scuba diving. No one is ever going to attack you underwater and tie knots into your. It's about can you strip everything else away and follow procedure.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Regardless of what's happening in the world around you.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It has nothing to do with diving.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Can you, can you have stress management or manage your stress in a. Not being able to breathe?

[Unknown SEAL]

Breathe.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. It's like in the most stressful environment.

[Unknown SEAL]

Under a pressure cooker, under a stopwatch, on a one to one ratio where the instructor's just sitting there right in front of your face, waiting for you to freak out.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Can you tune all that out? And as much as you think you want to breathe and bolt to the surface, work your way through a problem.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because that's what it's like overseas. It made so much more sense going back.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I could see too. And then you have all the. This real life experience and you're coming and then that upper. Upper levels of training and then coming back and you have this ability to kind of see it from the outside in. It's got to be kind of a power I never got a chance to be an instructor. And I'm actually. I actually. I regret it or I just. I feel like I really would have liked that because you get this, like, other frame of, like, you're just talking about.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was the single most rewarding. 18 months at my 17 years.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Wow.

[Unknown SEAL]

To have that ability to. And then I got my commission there without a college degree, which is awesome. So I became an officer. I skipped your college step. GPA in high school was about a 1.8. I think there was, like, the bar. And I was like, oh, whoopsie. I checked right underneath it. But I ended up serving a team three with a bunch of dudes I had put through training.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And then they're looking at me overseas like, hey, what should we do here? Like, man, like, you want to talk about feeling responsible?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, I bet.

[Andy Stumpf]

But you.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

You.

[Andy Stumpf]

But, you know, at that point, not all times exactly. Well, but you have a really educated guess. You have a good hypothesis of. Of. Of the way forward. Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

What was the teams. What you thought it was going to be because you came in. In wartime. For me, I came in in PeaceTime. I had five years almost before 9 11. So I got to see the SEAL teams pre 9 11. I got to see the evolution. And I think now, not that conflict is gone away way, but it was interesting to see the kinetic velocity slow down.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And how that impacted the guys who thought they were coming in only to play Call of Duty. For real. We don't. What is this admin we have to do? And what do you mean? We're not deploying to Afghanistan. We're going somewhere else. And I saw that beforehand. I'm like, oh, I recognize this.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude. I had a. You know, Andy, I had a. I loved being in the team so much. I love. Loved all the pieces of it. I really. I love being there early. I love being working out before anybody got there. And with the gear. I really. I loved it. That's why losing it was so terrible. Was my whole identity. I really loved it. So it's like, oh, we need to go. Do I, you know, some admin? I'm like, all right. Like, I just. I didn't mind any of it. Like, you were talking about PSD missions or. My first deployment wasn't like, super kinetic. It was in Yemen. And so I was in Yemen growing a beard, getting weird on, like, a small little thing. But we were doing PSD elements from.

[Unknown SEAL]

The ambassador, which is our security detail. What are they? Personal security detail.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. Or whatever. Whatever. Personal security psd.

[Unknown SEAL]

I guarantee the acronym has changed. Anyway, think of military guys doing Secret Service type stuff.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Essentially.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And it was, you know, sweat and ball. You know, exactly what it is. And it's just. But I liked it, man. It wasn't. I liked the mission set. I just like, work working. I just like, you said something on. You were talking to Mike. You're like, dude, I got grenades on my belt. I got my. My mag in and you know, can. That's. That was. That was exactly. It was like the first time in my life I just felt exactly where I was supposed to be. I don't know how else to really describe it. Even if the mission set sucked, I really just didn't give a. I just like being out with my boys doing this. And Iraq was a different situation. Right. And it. But I just really liked being there. And then as, you know, know, as. As careers progress, things get more complicated. Life gets more complicated. Personal relate. You know, just things get more complex and. And then it, you know, that simplicity of that first one kind of went away as we start to stack all that, all the on. But it was a. I really. I really. To answer your question specifically, it was. But I. I can understand. And here's one other piece that if I can say I regret something. I had just started to do my paperwork for screening. Just started when I really put the ax down on me. Not that I would have gotten accepted or whatever. That might not have been the psychological profile for it.

[Unknown SEAL]

You would have had a few questions at the interview phase.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. And. And, you know, and. But rightfully so, I wasn't responsible enough for that. Obviously it showed. And. But I regret not experiencing that level training because from what I've heard, you know, they're like, obviously, you know, the team. Teams.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

My.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know, I got a lot. A lot of homies there and stuff. It's just a different level, you know, of training. And you're testing.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, you're testing on different things. And their up cycle has decreased too. You know what I mean? Their up cycle is reflective of the world that is around them.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

The off cycle we were on was 90 days over 180 days back. 90 days over 180 days back. Just unless people needed to be searched. And then that time back, 90 of that was on standby. So all you're doing is the kill house from fucking sunup to sundown, local training within an hour page range. And the rest of the training is like, you got to go work with the 160th. You got to go get mountain skills, you got to go out to Dugway and it's like, dude, it was.

[Andy Stumpf]

You ever. Do you ever do any of that big wave surf passage that they're doing out in Hawaii? That. Dude, I. I saw some team guys and they're talking about big wave surf passage. We were talking to the homies. I was like, what.

[Unknown SEAL]

I feel like that's mission only for sdv.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude. That sounds. Sounds gnarly.

[Unknown SEAL]

STV is already in Hawaii.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Anything that involves big wave surf, you have.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, I get. It's a good deal trip, dude. You know, you're out there on the.

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, until you're in pipeline swimming.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

With a rucksack.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'm like, damn, dude. Because that's when gets real. I almost died in. In Mexico doing a thing for Obama in the team suit. It was the closest I've ever come to dying was in the water. We were doing. It was. Oh, it was 2012. He was down there for the G20 summit, and we pulled the short straw. Team 8 was on land doing the. Their overwatch for their secret service. They're worried about the cartels. And when he was transiting and Team 7 through a small element, I was a brand new guy. Hadn't even done a full workup yet. I have. I have a. A comms, jtac, qual. So as a new guy. And so I'm. They're like, hey, dude, you're going. And we're on a weather deck of an LCU towing a r. Towing a. Towing a RIB with Zodiacs on it. So we have a couple sweat guys with us. And anytime he was transited, we were kitted up on the RIB just out in the water. Out in the water. Two miles out off of his thing. We were doing for a week, we went down on a LL lha. Yep. Towed down. Then for. For a week, we were on this weather deck sleeping in cots. Tow, go towing back and forth.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay, so he had a land element and you guys were kitted up in a rib, which. Rigid hull inflatable boat, if people want to look that up.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

What.

[Unknown SEAL]

And what were you supposed to do? Interdict pirates?

[Andy Stumpf]

So. So if he. If they needed a maritime extraction force because he had a house right on the beach.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay.

[Andy Stumpf]

That was how to way we could get in. If they. If he was in transit, they needed to kind of beat feet and needed to go to and pull him out of the ocean. And so I was like, all right, well, here we are. And I'm thinking Cabo Mexico, it's fucking June. And so I Dude, this was. This what taught me a lesson from this point on that you don't get ready, you stay ready. I had my fucking water wing one. I fucking. No flotation for people listening is a.

[Unknown SEAL]

Flotation device that you have to activate.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I'm in. It's just not thinking anything's going down. It's like good weather, summertime, thinking a huge fucking storm comes in. Massive, huge swells. The LCU's pitch. I mean the. Yeah, the LCU is pitching the ribs slamming up against the side which is getting towed, which we needed for comms because the omnidirectional. And I'm going, holy, dude. They're like, we need to like get in land. We need to go harbor and shore because we need to get these ribs. They can't be towed. They're getting smashed up. So they called the approvals. We're coming in on the ocean with machine guns. So all it has to go all the way up and down. And I'm like, I'm going first new guy. I'm like, I put my thing on now. I full radio, radio man pack six, seven mags, M4 wired in. I got no, there's no way. I was like, dude, I'm. As a new guy, I'm fucking going down with this thing.

[Unknown SEAL]

Of course you dip tested all this gear, right?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And that's truly bl.

[Andy Stumpf]

That was the thing I fucking did. I mean I think guys probably dip tested. If I did, I did a half ass job, right? Yeah, I might have had a. And just this was, this was me. This was me realizing this was big boy rules now. And it was. It was not up to anybody else to keep me alive. It was me. And I learned the fucking hard way this night. I almost died side and I. So I jump as it's pitching. I hit the side. I'm in Solomon's. So my feet slip immediately. I'm in like track Solomons. And I hit the side. I go right in the drink. Night vision helmet, full kit. I got like a kick wired just everything pistol. And I'm going. And I'm treading water, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

And do you have fins?

[Andy Stumpf]

I got nothing on just. And I'm excellent. And I'm treading. I'm going, dude, I'm. I'm sinking. And I was probably treading water. And it's 2:30 in the morning, 3 in the morning. Getting away from the props. They're trying to sign a flash. They lose me in the dark. And I'm. It's going to. And I'm going, dude, I'm going hyper. I get hypercapnia. I'm seeing yellow exertion. And I'm going, dude, I'm a die. I go, this is how it ends. Didn't see this coming. And I'm going down, dude. And I see. I was like, the hand of God. It was my oic. And he. And he grabs me like the movie.

[Unknown SEAL]

Hand coming into the water.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. And he grabs me, man, and he goes. Pulls me up and I'm like. And he goes, wanna lift? That's what he says to me, dude, I'm about to die. And I crawled up on the. On the thing, dude. And this was. This was got to be the beauty of the teams. There's an older guy, he's. He's like a MENSA member, but he's got a country accent. Big Jack, dude. And he goes, hey, man. And he gets on the boat all nice and easy. He's got. And he goes. He goes, hey, I'm shivering, dude. I'm freezing. He goes, you got a beanie? And I said, no. He goes. And he pulls it out of his thing. He goes. He puts it on himself and he goes, yahweh's gotta have a beanie, man. And I go, we slept under the pier. We ended up going in ashore, and we slept under the dock in Cabo. Hiding all the gun. We slept under the dock, man.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

That.

[Andy Stumpf]

That was. That was the closest I ever come to dying. It was. It was as a new guy, but it. That taught me from that moment. Moment. Glad it happened then. I never forgot the. The. That anything's coming. And so I was just always very, very cautious of, like, weather and my kit and my. And just being like, what could go wrong here? It taught me really early.

[Unknown SEAL]

Fast water will kill you, man.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it was a humbling experience.

[Unknown SEAL]

Look at the two guys who drown off Somalia.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, man.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I mean, I. I don't know if the investigation is finished on that, and I don't have any back channels, but I heard that there was very test done for buoyancy. And, I mean, they're doing a hook and climb, but it's like, people like, why can't they tread water? It's very similar to what you described. And they're not wearing fins, you know, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

Anyway, you got gear on it and you're trying to tread water.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

I don't give a.

[Andy Stumpf]

How good a good of a swimmer you are, dude. You. You only have so much juice in the tank, man. Yeah, that's it.

[Unknown SEAL]

And that stuff is not easy off gear.

[Andy Stumpf]

No. And there was. There was no way I could in the even they're like, why didn't you deploy, bro? Of course it slides to the back. There was no. I was surviving. There was no me. Like if I took a break to try to like stop, there was just not happening. Then I learned like, dude, your has to be accessible. And if you think it's accessible, it's not going to be when you need it. So make sure it's accessible. Just all. All the things, man. But that was a. That was a humbling experience. And I realized that this is right before I jumped. I had this moment and remember it as clear as day. And I remember things pitching. I just remember going, holy, this is real now. Like it was. There's no more bumpers. There's no more. This is real life. This is happening. There's absolutely no handbook for this.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like seals die in the water not every year, but often enough. And it's supposed to be our core competency. It just doesn't care, man.

[Andy Stumpf]

The water doesn't give a. Dude, it's. I still have a very humbling like even around in the ocean, man. I'm just very aware of how quick things can go.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, for sure. How did you. You said you were in Hawaii and you made the decision really quick for the Legion.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

How did you come upon that decision?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I found out about. I probably knew about the Legion just in my like, you know, being a young kid and being fascinated with that world. When I got out of college and I was getting turned because I got turned down by the marines for my tattoos, army for my background. And that's when I ended up going of the Navy. He was my last hail Mary. It was just. It was the only place I could go. So I. It was just path, man. You know. So I went into the Navy because of that. But the. That's when I started looking into the Foreign Legion. When I. When I was like depressed about getting turned down by all these branches going dude, what the am I gonna do? I was like, holy the decisions I made. The all the dumb I did actually matters, you know. And now it's time to pay the piper. Even though they were. I thought they were small, but it's not how it works. So anybody in that Bob be smart man. But that's when. And so it was seed was planted then. Then even going through who I got a good homie. He's a. A team lead up at up at Blue. But he said, he goes, dude, I remember we were in boot camp, man. He goes, he goes, you were like, dude, if anything goes down, I'm going in the Ford Legion. And I said, I said that. I was like, I said, I shouldn't have telegraphed that, bro. Or, or manifested that. But then when it all kind of fell apart and I'm, I'm like, you know, kind of living in my truck and I go, holy. I remember that idea. I was like, I remember that. I go, I got no kids. I got nothing holding me back. I had always. I hadn't gone after the teams because I had a girlfriend and a good job and all that stuff that keeps you planted.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And then all that was gone. And I had realized that, dude, I got no nothing tethering me to the pier here. I was like, this is the time time to do it. That's. And that's why.

[Unknown SEAL]

How'd you know where to go, dude?

[Andy Stumpf]

I had, I got on some threads and did some Reddits or whatever and I'm like, where do you go? And then, you know, I kind of found to the grapevine, you just show up and it's like a very. People that don't know it's a 200 year old institution. The French Foreign Legion is. And it was started by an old king to kind of funnel, you know, people get foreigners out of his bars back onto the battlefield. Modeled after the Roman legions to give you, you know, citizenship. If you serve your time, if you want it with no political pressure. A French coming back in body bags, it's a pretty good deal. And so that's why it was started in the, in 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, you can go and knock on this door like the wizard of Oz and there's no calling ahead, there's no application. You just go knock on the door. I handed him my passport, I said a little prayer right before I went in. I say, I hand him my passport and he said, all right, take your hat off. He said, left on Chapeau, you know, and you know, you got to learn to speak French. Which I, you know, I did after some years. But then he said, get up on the pole bar. That was my path in, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

It was like, how soon from door opening do you own a pull up bar?

[Andy Stumpf]

Five minutes.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay. They're not around.

[Andy Stumpf]

No. And dudes fail it, and dudes fail that. And you're talking about knowing the information this you can Google on open source. Like what Are they going to do. Yeah, pull ups is the first fucking test. Pull ups and then IQ test. A very rudimentary IQ test. The pull ups man are right in the middle of the hallway at the Fort Nogent base. It's like an old medieval castle on the outskirts of Paris. I took a train there from a hostel. I had no money left, nothing. I was just like a black bag. Like 34 too, dude, I was 34. Knocking on this door.

[Unknown SEAL]

Is that traditionally older than most?

[Andy Stumpf]

So you have till 39 and a half. So you have guys all the way up till that time. 17 and a half to 39 and a half is your window hard cut. Okay, so you have no exceptions beyond no exceptions. I mean it's hard line. They'll tell you to turn around. But you know that their pull ups are going to be a thing. And you're probably going to have some dude yelling at you in French with a Russian accent because like, you know, which is most of a lot of eastern block guys telling you to do pull ups. So you better be able to do them because it's oh, that didn't count, you know, another one dead hangs, you know that whole game. So you better be able to do a bunch extra more than you think you need to do.

[Unknown SEAL]

Are they looking for a number? Are they looking for just max?

[Andy Stumpf]

It's probably, probably like six, right? Dead hangs. But you know, that didn't count. That didn't count. Next thing you know you're at 10, you know that type of thing. 30 later, 30 later, dudes will be in some South American village and take a boat to a train, to a bus, to a plane to a get there, fail the pull ups on the leave. I'm like, I'm like, bro, their whole life savings. And they show up and they can't do the pull ups. And I'm going, can they come back back that a lot of times for that they'll be like, hey, come back in three months.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay?

[Andy Stumpf]

But when you go through the pre selection, it's called you're in civilian clothes. And when I went in the barracks, dude, I'm going, what the am I doing, bro? Like I'm having these moments of, of like, you know, reflection. And I'm in there with a guy from Chad, Ukraine, Belarus, Thailand, Lithuania, the whole spread in this one barracks room. So it's pretty fast. Fascinating. And I'm sitting in there, I'm the only American. And they're talking and they're talking and. But you're going through medical evaluations, interpol background checks, initial psychological screeners and then your physical checks. But all that stuff in your IQ test, that's like one week. That's pre selection. Then they'll send you the guys who get that. That's usually they'll chop about 30 of guys from that. Most of it's medical and dental.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay.

[Andy Stumpf]

Very little on physical at the beginning.

[Unknown SEAL]

Would they think about your background?

[Andy Stumpf]

So I brought my DD214.

[Unknown SEAL]

What they think about the criminal background?

[Andy Stumpf]

They were fine with it. They're like, oh, because I don't have any felonies, right. I don't have any. I have some dumb. And I told them about most of it, you know. But this ain't the boy scouts. You got guys. You got guys coming. It was created for thieves and robbers and guys. I mean they, that's why the whole unit was created was it's with fucking criminals is really what it was.

[Unknown SEAL]

Is it a portal in essence? Not in essence, but in some way. Is it a portal from somebody who has a checkered back background to serve and do their time and come out of that? Yes, clean if you will.

[Andy Stumpf]

They give you, they'll give you a whole. They gave me a fake name. I operated on a fake name for three years. They gave me a friend. I had a. I have a picture French official passport with a completely fake name with my. It was Trent Clayson. They give you your same initials and they change your, your birth date. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah. And then you pass through additional paperwork, work some all. And then they give you your real name and your passport back. But I didn't see my passport for three years. Didn't leave France. They didn't give me my passport or my real name back for three years until I got that additional paperwork screened through. But yes, some guys stick with that fake name will do their time, maybe a whole career. Get out, have a pension, be a French citizen with a whole fake name.

[Unknown SEAL]

Damn.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I mean you got guys coming back out of like who look like they just got out of a Russian gulag. I mean face tats, head tattoos may.

[Unknown SEAL]

Have gotten out of a Russian.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. I mean if you see guys in full uniform, face tats. Head tats in the Foreign Legion because they got no tattoo regulations and, and, but your hair better be cut. I'm telling you it. Dude, they are fucking worse than Marine Corps. I mean you're coming out if your hair is not perfect, if your uniform is not perfect, they'll put you in jail, in jail. There they have a small little jail at each Regiment. The jail there is not like. It's like ah. I got sent to. They call it toll. I got sent to toll again. Dudes will be in toll all the time. You walk across the grassro, but all you be doing is hard manual labor all day. So. And when you start your day, you pick up a. Like a 10 kilo ro. Rock. There's a. You just find a rock and they'll make you run like a 10k circle around the regiment, then stack it, then stack it in front of the regiment. And you. The Legion's renowned for, you gotta stack pyramids. They stack rocks into pyramids as like a punishment, but also just to burn time. And so every Legion base, if you pull in, there'll be pyramids and it's from guys in toll running and stacking it looks like. Yeah, it's. It's a very unique institution. Fusion man. God.

[Unknown SEAL]

So what did you think you were gonna get into there?

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, what was, what was the per. What was the mission?

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, the mission, but also what did you want to get?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, what did I want?

[Unknown SEAL]

You just not done with military type stuff.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'll tell you exactly what. There's three types. I'll tell you what I wanted and I'll tell you the types of guys that go in. Okay, there's the. The romantic. Like there's the guy that's like, oh, I'm gonna go to war and I might. I just. My long lost love. We. You know, and they. Those guys get smoked. They get burned out pretty quick. Then you have the practical guy who's. Who's come from a nation, needs the passport and the money. You have that guy. Guys from eastern block countries. And also then you have the machines of war, machine deare. You have the guys that want to get after it and they're from countries that don't do external operations. Yeah, and I mean we had one. I'll give you an example. We had a guy from Belarus who's been fighting in Ukraine for a really long time. He ended up leaving the Legion and going in a fight. But he's been over there for a long time. I talked to him recently, but he. He was a. In their special operations in Belarus and as a captain, as an officer. And so he was jumping and doing other. And dude, he got paid 900 bucks a month. You know, he doubled his salary just by going to the Legion at base pay, you know. And you have Brazilians and those guys. Me, I went. I needed to burn some time. I needed some time to think. Think. And and be doing something I was proud of and just do something interesting. I'd never heard of a Navy SEAL going to be there. So I was like, let me go see what this is about. And I always knew about it. Pick the pen back up and write my story. I kind of felt like I had lost a little bit of my path and my mojo and. And I needed to burn some karmic debt off, you know. And so that really gave me that time to have a roof over my head, gun in my hands, running, and. And just cut out the whole fucking world, you know, and that. And that's. I got. I used it as a vehicle of self development. And I was like, maybe I'll deploy. And they ended up deploying. I went to South America, French ganded jungle operations down there. And then we did. When Ukraine kicked off, we were with the enhanced Ford presence battle group with NATO up in. On the. On Estonian border with Russia with the. Which was cool. Working with the guys from uk, that was fucking cool. Cause they'd be going through the woods and they'd see my French flag and they're like, oh. And I'm like, nah, dude, it's good, dude. And they're like, what the fuck are you doing doing out here, dude? I'm like, I don't know. I took a hard left somewhere, bro. They're like this. But, dude, we were rolling out on exercises. It wasn't kinetic, but just a lot of exercises and trying to figure out how to work these units together. Yeah, right. French and different language. And only we'd roll out with 82 T82 tanks, bro. Like $3 million just in diesel on like two, three days. Just rose rows. And I'm like, I've never seen movements like that, you know, just tanks like that. T82s shoes just lined up as far as you can see. And I'm like. And we were like the French element kind of in the. In the front kind of doing some stuff.

[Unknown SEAL]

Did you enjoy it?

[Andy Stumpf]

No. I would say, you know, I was talking to Marcus Lutrell. I was talking to Latrell about this, man. And he goes, man, he goes, that must have been like apples and cement. Like, it was too. It was no autonomy. I mean, no autonomy. You're checking into the building, checking out, you're getting searched, drug tests coming back in. You have very little. Just thumb on. Navy seal. Come clean this toilet, man. I. I was cleaning toilets and doing for years until I got some rank, you know. And then it eased up a little bit, but it was Hard at first. It was. There was cool moments. I would say it wasn't. I didn't enjoy it, but it was interesting, if I could say it. I'm sure you can.

[Unknown SEAL]

That's fair.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

If I know exactly what you're talking about.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. It wasn't fun.

[Unknown SEAL]

Type 2 fun.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. Type 2 fun. Yeah, it was. I'm glad, looking back at it. Yeah. I'm glad it's over. But I mean, you're cold as. I was cold there so much because I was also. I requested the. I was guided by Legion leadership to go one of the commando groups. So they have a mountain commando group and a parachute commando group. I ended up failing the run. I was invited to go after a few years, but I ended up failing one of their runs and during their selection and I just. I was 37 and I was going to need to sign a five year additional and just. I was like. I was. I knew it was done.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And. And so. But I was at the. Their mountain regiment. So I was in the Alps fucking doing the French. One thing they know how to do is do Alpine shit.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And the Foreign Legion mountain regiment was tough, man. I mean, I was getting my fucking dick pushed in on some of these fucking. Out of Mount Blanc. We were on the French Alps on the Italian border, just skiing, living in igloos and doing that shit in the winter. And then in the summer it was all that shit. And it was humbling, man. Cause I was 10%, probably 15% of that regiment's guys from DePaul who failed the Gurkha selection. And then they go there and, dude, they're just smoking cigarettes like walking up the fucking hill.

[Unknown SEAL]

Times the red blood count that we have, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I'm like, dude, how are you fucking doing this? So I was. It was hard for me. It was very challenging. Cool moments, powerful moments. But I was very. I was glad I was done.

[Unknown SEAL]

What's it like when you decide to leave? Do you just tell them what, like, hey, by the way, I'm done at the end of my enlistment or whatever it is.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, well, you know, I had a little bit of a friction. I had a kind of a unique situation because I was getting out at about six months left. Getting out. And I'm like, dude, I gotta. What the am I gonna do, right? I mean, like. And I was like, dude, I'm having good days. I had really, really locked on my, like, daily schedule. Like, I was out of need really to kind of pull some control because I was pretty not Depressed but like hurting for a couple years through that process because I was. I didn't tell anybody. I. I was there. It's cut off. My mom and my family knew, but that was about it. And I'm like, dude, I want to tell my story because I was suicidal in my car. But now I'm having pretty good days even here, making fifteen hundred dollars a month. 38, living in a barracks, right? I'm like, man, I'm gonna tell my story. So I told my story thinking it was. And there's guys, Legion guys with, you know, YouTubes and stuff.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay, so you told it on YouTube.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. And so there's legion guys with YouTubes and stuff. Even the legion has their YouTube and it's not an issue. But the fucking problem was is my shit blew up on my first post. I got fucking million views on my first upload. And so it fucking blew up.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do they have a generic policy on that?

[Andy Stumpf]

So they had to create one for me.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oh, interesting.

[Andy Stumpf]

So they had to create one for me. They don't give a shit about it until it gets big. And I never have said anything negative about the Legion. I never would. I actually really appreciate the institution, but they don't know that. And they're like, dude, this guy's every. I did a few posts and it was like 600,000 million, 2 million fucking views on like long form.

[Unknown SEAL]

Wouldn't that be good for them though?

[Andy Stumpf]

It's an old institution, man. They're not moving at the times. And it was actually a ton because I told about. I got honest man about being suicidal. Former Navy SEAL here. I use this as a vehicle of self development. It's been great. It's been very, you know, I was actually very, you know, stoked on the situation and very proud and pushed that good tradition of the Legion. But they didn't like that. And so they're pretty much their like NCIS or whatever it is. It was like take the down. And by this time it had been like two weeks, man. I mean, not a long time. And I'm on the back nine of my. I'm getting out. I'm moving trucks around the base. That's all I'm doing. And so I'm like just buying time. And they're like, I'm not re upping. They know I'm not, I'm not causing any problems, but they don't know if I can just start spouting off at the mouth. They don't want that. So I said, well, I'm getting all these emails from former Marines guy, guys from all over the world going, dude, I was in my truck. They're like, dude, I was in my car with my gun in my mouth and your YouTube popped up. And I decided not to kill myself. Not like one or two, like hundreds of emails. And I'm like, damn, dude. They're like, thank you for sharing that, right? It gave me like, like just not to go to the Legion, but just to hold off and maybe shit'll get better if I just start being better, grabbing my nuts type thing. And I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, dude, I'm not taking it down, not taking it down. And they're like, well, stand the by. And they made my life a living hell, man. And they tried to put me in jail. I got a lawyer and by chance I had tore my medial calf muscle on a thing. And this is just how things, things happen. They sent me to a hospital and they sent me to a hospital right before this happened, right before they called, I should say. So I'm in this hospital when they called me. So I'm not at the base, mind you. I had my pat. I have all my stuff. And they're like, dude, if you don't take it down, we're gonna put you in Back to back 30 day jails in the lot and in the breaking big rocks into small rocks until we kick you out. Because you can't be more in jail for until. And then we're gonna force you, get you out. And I said, well, what is the rule here? And so I got a French lawyer, you know, so thank God I wasn't there. I would. They would have just wrapped me up like hard.

[Unknown SEAL]

You happen to be out of their grasp.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah, I would, yeah. So they. I'm in an apartment, I had a girlfriend at the time in France. And so I'm like, do. I'm trying to. I'm playing an admin battle with them. They're like, well, you're technically. The doctor wanted me there. So I was under TDY at the hospital and so I wasn't breaking any record rules by not being there. So there was this interesting battle and this lawyer goes, dude, you're not a French citizen. It's a very weird. It's actually very gray. There's no rules here. They can take you, do whatever they want with you, but because you're not anybody, you don't have. You're not even a resident, you nothing. So you have no legal protections here. You're pretty much here technically illegally, but not really, because you're in the Legion. It's a very weird thing going on. So I said, well, what the do I do, man? They're like, dude, we're like, you just tell me breaking your contract because that's all you can do. And I said, okay. Well, I told myself, did they advise.

[Unknown SEAL]

You to get the hell out of the country, too?

[Andy Stumpf]

They said, you got to leave, man. They said. I said, well. And so I talked to my commanding officer, said, look what's going to happen here because it's not coming. I'm not taking it down. I'm not losing the momentum on this. I actually felt like my people say what a. It might put an asterisk on my name, but I felt like a really deep purpose in what I was doing. I really did, man. And I go, dude, this is. Just makes sense. I. I just. I'm not taking this down right now to go back and have to go to jail anyway. So he said, dude, you just call him, tell him you're breaking your contract, and f. And that. So I did. And they said, right, if you don't cause any problems for us, we're not going to cause any problems from you. That was pretty much it.

[Unknown SEAL]

What a wild ending.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I. So I pretty much can't go back to France. People get kicked out of bars. Have you been kicked out of a country, man? You know, I don't think so, no. So technically, I mean, technically, man. And so it was. It was unfortunate because it's not how I wanted it to go. Yeah. And I just. Dude, I. There was just nothing else. There was nothing else to do, you know, other than take it down, get my pushed in, and then finish it up. But I really was like, dude, it just didn't feel right.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well, all you would. If you'd have taken it down, finished up your time with your Legion, all you would have done is put it right back up again anyway when you left.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I would have put it right back up. But the. There was. There was a momentum piece.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. Were you shocked at the response that you got?

[Andy Stumpf]

I was surprised because I was very championing. Dude, how many guys joined the Legion after I post my. Dude, how many guys hit me up going, hey, I'm a prior Marine and I've been dinosaur because. But I got an re2 and dude, they got flooded with badass soldiers, dude, of like, guys with combat experience. I mean, I got a call because, dude, I still talk to a lot of my Legion buddies. They. They. And in the Legion, they. Everybody who's in the Legion. A lot of them understood, especially the guys who, who saw what was going down, you know, and they're like, damn, dude, you made the right call. Because it just, they understood. But that, that whole piece is, they got. I knew a guy in recruiting, he goes, dude, we got a ton of badass marines and guys who were just like, you know, just felt like they had the itch still and wanted to go back in and serve but couldn't get in the United States. And so, you know, it was what it was. It was, you know, 18 months ago and there wasn't any issues, but kind of sucks, but I, I would have liked to just ride out into the sunset, but I would say, dude, it's life ain't no fucking fairy tale, man. A lot of times as you know, think about how many guys we know in the military, very few get out scot free with things in like perfect scenarios. It's just not a lot, dude. It's usually there's, I don't know of any.

[Unknown SEAL]

If you're going to attach the word perfect scenarios to it. Yeah, I don't know any.

[Andy Stumpf]

I. So many guys that I respect and you've talked to on platforms, it's just like things get complex. They get, it's like those people say about marriage. It's like irreconcilable differences, man. At some point just, it's just not working out anymore. And yeah, we, yeah, you took, sometimes you just, it's just not going to continue. And that was my scenario.

[Unknown SEAL]

You still have the itch though.

[Andy Stumpf]

No, I know, I mean guys, out of you, I, I, I don't feel the itch of. Because I feel really locked into my purpose. Success is there, things are going really well. Got the family. Sure. There's all, there's always that, you know, I wish I would have scratched the surface higher. There's that piece of me. Like I wish I would have, you know, screened and done that process and seen what that see, seen how I stack up. If you know, that was. There's always that piece in me that I think I'll always kind of have a regret about, about not being disciplined enough to make follow through with that. But as of right now, I'm like, as we see the state of the world is going to ask what you thought about what's going on now, man. It's like maybe, maybe I got to dust this off, bro. Maybe I got to dust this off at my pelican case, bro.

[Unknown SEAL]

I don't know. And honestly, even if it came to that at some point we have to pass the torch on anyway.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You know what I mean?

[Unknown SEAL]

It's. And I, I struggle with this in myself but I see it in other people. There is a point in time. Time where we will no longer be the most dangerous person in the room.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Regardless of who you are, you time out you have to pass it to the younger generation. And I think for people who define their life through their capacity at violence and specifically those terms in that occupation, it's going to get real tough.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like I don't think we need to see 60 year olds wearing their gwat kit.

[Andy Stumpf]

No.

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, charging Iran.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I also didn't think I'd ever see a priority president getting ready to get on a helicopter saying about two other countries they don't know what the they're doing on national tv.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, wild.

[Unknown SEAL]

Granted I agree with the sentiment but I just never thought I would see somebody say that. Dude. It's wild. I don't know. I'm not a geopolitical expert on what's going on over there but I all. I am a student of history enough to know that there's never been a time since human beings have around that we haven't been fighting each other.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So at the end think it's ever going to stop?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

There's just too many people with divergent views. There's the Western view. People who haven't gone over there have a really hard time understanding how differently that portion of the world specifically views the world. Y. I don't have the vocabulary to bridge that gap for other than to say that it's different.

[Andy Stumpf]

I don't think you can.

[Unknown SEAL]

You have to see it and you have to, you have to immerse yourself in it and go oh yeah, we're not changing that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

There's no but going. There's no supplying anybody more information than going oh yeah, they're not gonna have.

[Unknown SEAL]

A ding, a light bulb moment that goes off that shifts their culture. That has been what it has been for thousands of years.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And what I don't want to see is any boots on the ground. And I. And Iran though.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

That much.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

There's no, there's no need for that, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

I hope not.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, we, we. There's a, there's a point where I'm not in isolation but I think if you look at history, you know you have like China back in the day and all these different. There's a period where we kind of have to go into this isolationist most like let's pour our resources internal. Let's make ourselves strong from the inside out. There's so many issues, man, and I understand there needs to be preemptive things and not reactivity all the time, but there's so many issues we need to handle internal, man. But. But to answer you, no, I don't feel that. That I'm good. I feel. I feel good about my path, focus on my family, my business, my daily flows, my, you know, building myself and those other qualifications and doing things that. Because that torch, dude, I feel. I see being able to mentor some guys and, you know, hit me up like, hey, dude, I'm trying to go on the teams. I'm like, hey, dude. Well, good, solid. You see, like that. Yeah, I. That energy. And I'm like, yeah, like there. There's good dudes coming up, man. And it's like, you know, if you see. Is like some NFL player, you see these dudes that are like the cream of the crop and then. Then you look, you look and you see them on the sideline at some team, 15 years later, they're still in the league. And I'm like, bro, you know, but it happens to everybody. I don't care how good you. I remember seeing Junior Sal one time, man, to. When he was on the sideline at. For the Patriots, right. And I remember seeing him and I'm like, damn, dude, that dude. Dude was like MVP of the league. And now he's like, second string. Yeah, right. Still. Still balling, still stud. But it was. It was just an interesting moment. I think about that when, you know, you. Time out, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

You can hang the kid up, but you can still pass on the knowledge. I think that's how you can. I don't. I was going to say relevance, but I mean, the things change and you wouldn't necessarily be up to speed on tactics, but you can help prepare other people to go into that pipeline.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And pass the torch onto them. And I think if people can make that. That jump, they're going to be okay. It's the ones that. That feel like they have to be the one to wear the kit and run into the burning building, dude. At some point, you just can't.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, there's a confidence piece and there's an alignment piece and a faith piece and a purpose piece and a understanding yourself and. And being okay with turning that chapter. I had a homie, man. He's a Green Beret for, you know, a lot of years. And. And he goes, dude, you. He goes, you have to be understanding and okay with, with the fact that you're never going to find a job that's going to fulfill that, that you're not gonna skydive into a unknown DZ and be doing all this. And then he goes, that's not happening. So don't seek the same fulfillment. I really appreciated how he said, he goes, don't seek this because you're not gonna find it. He goes, put a period at the end of it and turn the page. And I go, I like that, man. And just go, you know what? I'm, I'm not gonna cry because it's over. I'm gonna smile because I. Because it happened. I'm great grateful that I got to hit some of those wickets and do some things and you know, luck and things and destiny and things came together. And I'm grateful, but I'm okay with it being done.

[Unknown SEAL]

Not going to cry because it's over. I'm going to smile because that's awesome.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I like it.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, I'm 100. Stealing that and making it my own.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, you should.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'll change a word in there and.

[Andy Stumpf]

Say I came up with this it up, you know.

[Unknown SEAL]

So how old are you now?

[Andy Stumpf]

39.

[Unknown SEAL]

39.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'll be 40 in August.

[Unknown SEAL]

Death is close.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's clum. I'm, I'm, I'm way over halfway.

[Unknown SEAL]

I look at my age and my driver's license, I'm like, how the did this happen?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, your skin looks great, man. What are you doing? You moisturizing every day, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

Michael can tell a secret.

[Andy Stumpf]

What's your heritage? What's your heritage?

[Unknown SEAL]

German.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

So all like pretty much a lot of percentage, I think so.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm afraid of doing 23andMe because I feel like I'm educating the skynet somewhere on my DNA.

[Andy Stumpf]

Right.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like I don't know know where it gets.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, that's getting stocked somewhere.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oh yeah, dude. Actually in 23andMe. God, we're off on a tangent now. I think it just got sold really. So everybody's personal information and data.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Is going to become the possession of somebody else and who knows where that's going to go.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's probably some foreign government.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. It's like China's over there like making robots out of our crisper DNA. Who bought 23 of me? Michael, thank God.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I saw, I saw a thing. A guy, a seven year old man or a old guy got arrested by. Because somebody in his family did a 23 in me and it fucking went into the system. And it pinged him as being a relative. I don't know how it all fucking happened. And they fucking went to his house and arrested him on an old cold case. And I was like, damn, it's coming. Yeah, it's coming. It's coming, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

What'd you find, Michael?

[Andy Stumpf]

TAM Research Institute. So China. That was just a.

[Unknown SEAL]

That sounds a little Beijing ish to me. I mean, dude, that is people's. Whether it's Beijing or not, whoever is going to buy that data is genetic makeup, personal information.

[Andy Stumpf]

I know there's birthdays, probably socials, phone numbers.

[Unknown SEAL]

People are everything rushing to just gag this swab and send it off to somebody in a trench coat somewhere.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it's pretty wild, dude. It's a. It's a great pitch too. They're like, tam. It's an acronym. I don't know what it stands for.

[Unknown SEAL]

Stands for C H I N. A.

[Andy Stumpf]

Stands for Kung Pao Chicken.

[Unknown SEAL]

Did it actually go through?

[Andy Stumpf]

What's that?

[Unknown SEAL]

Did the sale go through?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, no, it's a nonprofit, which is kind of promising, but I don't know.

[Unknown SEAL]

Makes that promising.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah. It just seems. Sounds better than.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, oh my.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, it's definitely a. I want to hear for profit. I'd feel more trustworthy.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well, people think that nonprofits don't make money. They just don't show a profit at the end of the year. You can get fantastically wealthy running a 500.

[Andy Stumpf]

As we saw it was coming out.

[Unknown SEAL]

Tax structures are a little bit different. My God. Okay, so you're almost 40, going to the fourth decade. Like, what's next?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I really. I really like getting on stage and telling my story. I've, I've. I spoke in some prisons. I actually did a. A couple, man.

[Unknown SEAL]

And do you think they want to hear you or are they just bored?

[Andy Stumpf]

No, it's a mix of both. I was gonna say it's a mix of both.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm either in my cell or listening.

[Andy Stumpf]

I mean, the prisoners, dude, they. They're like, dude, I was. I will say this. They're like, dude, I wasn't gonna stay. I just sign out to get out of the fucking thing. They're like, but you start talking and. And they're like. Because I talk shit and I make it fun, you know, And I'll talk to business guys too. But dude, my. What I really appreciate doing what I really get a lot of purpose out of. I do a lot of one on one coaching and I. Dude, I do like six hours of zooms a day with just one. You know, one client at a time and just restructuring daily habits. It's all it is. It's. It's just getting people some fucking momentum. You and I both, both know and I tell them there's no perfect workout plan. There's no food plan. Get some framework, some. That works. Let's get some. Some moving and then get the momentum going.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do you see any consistent patterns with people who are stuck?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like things that are stumbling blocks that a lot of people are encountering a lot of vices.

[Andy Stumpf]

Right. Alcohol, like we talked about. That's going to be a lot of them. You'll have relationship issues. But all that's stemming from bad habits generally. And usually it's. It's. They're just bit. Getting accountable. They're. That's the. That's why they kind of reach out. They've just come to the point where they go, it's my fault. I gotta make myself better. The only answer whether I got a divorce going on or my business partner me, or I'm starting to feel speed wobbles or just losing the momentum. That mojo, which I'm sure we all have and guys watching, we've all. All gotten a. A little bit off the path. You just don't feel vigor anymore. Like just what the ups and downs.

[Unknown SEAL]

Man got called the sign wave of life.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Days and bad. Problem is when social media people focus on the peaks.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Not necessarily the valleys.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And that's the thing where it can appear. God. There's some fascinating documentaries too about people at the apex who end up blowing their brains out. But everything they post is positive.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And success. And I've even seen.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's an interesting study.

[Unknown SEAL]

I've even seen it a few times too on these documentaries where you can see they talk themselves into this elevated, like, happy Persona. The camera comes on and then afterwards the real person comes out and you're like, oh my God.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

They're living the saddest, most miserable life. And that's not as a judgment. But I actually feel so bad for how bad they actually feel.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

That balancing back and forth. I mean, I get it.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Fuck. It's. I wish.

[Andy Stumpf]

People.

[Unknown SEAL]

People. What sucks though is I don't think the Valley sells as well as the peak.

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, and here's. And that's what I. A lot of times I'll turn the camera on and I'll do stuff when I'm in a low vibrational state and it's really.

[Unknown SEAL]

Hold on, hold on. Did you just use the term vibrational state? I have A buddy, Greg Anderson. Have you ever met him?

[Andy Stumpf]

No.

[Unknown SEAL]

Okay. He likes crystals. I feel like at this point you guys get along because he sends me crystals, which my wife put next to a plant. And we're at dinner, she's like, oh, yeah, the plant's growing. He's like, it's a crystal.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'm like, yeah, I'm not a crystal guy. And I, you know, I don't know if the plants grow faster with, you know, Mozart going on. But I do know when I walk out of a gym or I've gotten some sun, I feel better versus a real one.

[Unknown SEAL]

Vitamin D3.

[Andy Stumpf]

So I push. I push. Daily sunlight, movement. Fucking mindful thought. I'm really big fan of morning process too. Like, not just take it easy, huberman now not waking up and. But not, not, not so structured in the sense that, dude, I don. Feel. I. I talk about like tides, dude. It's just like the ties. Everything's rhythmic. You have to feel bad, you have to feel good. It has to happen both. So it's. It's what you're doing with both states. Are you taking that bad thing and then on your family, right, because you're feeling like you're a piece of. So you're sent projecting out. That's the accountability piece. It's like, dude, get yourself correct. Understand, you don't have to feel good all the time. And this is kind of what my whole. The whole thing is. It's just whether you're low, high, shit's going bad or good, keep your daily flow pretty much the same. Don't change it, and don't stack on karmic debt by making immoral choices. As men, dude, we have desires of the flesh. And that pulls us in all these different directions and how many great men have been taken down. And I my life up with desires. And we all. So it's like, dude, stay in that course, man. It's not easy. Anybody tells you that it is, is. It's full of. Understand that desire never goes away. All these temptations that I heard a great say said, dude, opportunity knocks, but temptation leans on the doorbell. And that is a truth, man, that is powerfully accurate. Yeah, it's always there. And as you get better and more money and things and opportunities, they just. It gets more and more complex. And so my whole thing is just simplify what the you want, know what you want want, and. And then start working towards it. Simple.

[Unknown SEAL]

You think looking back on your life, if, if you were to pull yourself aside at 20, that you would have ever Been able to convince your 20 year old self this is what you'd be doing it for?

[Andy Stumpf]

No, I wouldn't. And, and if I, and they go, what, what advice would you have given your. I wouldn't have taken the fucking advice.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's like I would have ignored my future self. Like, you're an idiot. My life's gonna be totally different. Yeah, you're like, no, no, I, I lived your life. I'm trying to help you.

[Andy Stumpf]

Like fuck you nerd.

[Unknown SEAL]

You don't know me. But no, no, no, I am you. Like, not me, I'm different.

[Andy Stumpf]

You vibrational. Oh yeah, that sounds pretty crystal.

[Unknown SEAL]

And shove it up your ass.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah. I needed those lessons and some people do, you know, and so it's, you can't steal somebody their lessons. Sometimes they need to go through it and maybe just guide them.

[Unknown SEAL]

What do you think you'll focus on now? Being a father that you would want differently for your child as opposed to you growing up?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I mean, I know my dad, you know, he's still going through it. We talk and stuff. You know, he's still going through his stuff. But I want, it's, I have a daughter, so it's so important that relationship. She's going to measure a lot of men off me and herself.

[Unknown SEAL]

All men.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And her self worth and so, and you know, my anger, you know, anger and how I treat her mother and things like that. And I want her to feel confident, I want her to understand her worth and also just financial security and things like that, which I didn't really have growing up. And, and it really, I think it pushes a lot of my ambition is I want her to feel stable, safe and have, you know, opportunities and be able to like exercise, you know, her interests and with, in a safe place.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do you have a number that would make you feel safe?

[Andy Stumpf]

I, I, I kind of do have a number. Yeah, I, I kind of do have a number in my, my head that is, would probably take some of the edge off.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Some of you're talking about like you log on to B of A and you see that number, you're like, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I, yeah, exact. I have that number in my head.

[Unknown SEAL]

Multiple millions.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Double digit millions.

[Andy Stumpf]

No, not that high. No. Yeah, it's, I would say even if I, I would say a good solid one, cash, liquid. I feel good. Well, I'm getting there, I'm getting there. Not there yet, yo, but I feel.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like that'd be dope.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there. Getting close.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Close.

[Andy Stumpf]

But you know, solid that after taxes of ship. Ship paid off, house paid off.

[Unknown SEAL]

So make two to have one. Thanks, gov. Remember we started the Revolutionary War on.

[Andy Stumpf]

3% tax, you know, but, you know, I, I, you know, I always, I, I know that I'm just gonna stay in it and that meter will move. But one thing I'm very cognizant of, because I've had money lost money. Had money lost money. I'm sure a lot of us have. But I, I'm not gonna swell my lifestyle. That's the mistake I've made before. And I just don't know. Not interested in it. I don't, I don't have this huge desire to have a bunch of. I want, I like a couple nice cars. I want the house paid off. I want some land.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And that's really all I care about, man. I want to be. Have a nice gym and dude, there's. I care about, man. It's really.

[Unknown SEAL]

Fight Club is an amazing movie for so many reasons, but Brad Pitt's line where the things you own end up owning you a thousand percent. Dude, I have made such dumb decisions with most.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yep.

[Unknown SEAL]

And it's that weird excitement where you're like, I'm gonna. I don't know if I should get this.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And then you get it. And a month later you forget you had it.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Or give a. Or.

[Unknown SEAL]

And you have a full closet of things. One of my favorite things to do.

[Andy Stumpf]

Get rid of shit.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. From my wife's closet when she's not home. Dude, I made the mistake I've had her on a few times. I was, I had told her. Well, somebody in the comments was like, either you tell her or we're going to. I was like. So I told her, and she goes, yeah, but my secret is I go into the garbage and I get it back out. I'm like, checkmate.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude, we're in a. We're in a year of simplification. I did that with my fiance. I'm like, isn't it beautiful?

[Unknown SEAL]

I feel good.

[Andy Stumpf]

I.

[Unknown SEAL]

And if, If I can. One of my favorite things to do is to just give to people. But here, take this. Like, for me, people send me a ton of jiu jitsu. Jesus. First off, for any jiu jitsu player, you know the deal. Laundry becomes a totally real thing. Especially if you're doing more than one class at day. Like, why am I doing laundry every day?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I have a stack of gi's that would take me a month to wear, and my wife's like, don't give them away. I'm like, I wear the same one over and over and over again. So I give them away. And it's awesome to see other people take value out of something that's not valueless to me. It just doesn't mean as much to.

[Andy Stumpf]

Me as it would mean thousand percent.

[Unknown SEAL]

It feels so good to walk into your. Wherever you live. You're like, I can see every corner. But you know what? It's going to look even better when I get rid of that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Sophistication. Simplicity is the highest form of sophistication to look at like architecture. When things get more complex, things start to simplify. Look at technology, what's happening? Things are simplified. And I'm like, dude, why am I not doing that with my life? And that's another thing I teach. I'm like, bro, clean out your drawers. Clean out your closet. All it's taking up subconscious space. That miscellaneous drawer. Your mind knows it's there. It might be low on the totem pole. Clean it the out out. Yeah, I pelican cases and gear and.

[Unknown SEAL]

Six month rule is what I've been. It's what I go and stings sometimes.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because you'll find things. You're like, well, this is only five and a half months. I'll talk, I'll have these conversations.

[Andy Stumpf]

I might use this. But it's actually a really. It's a letting go.

[Unknown SEAL]

Get let.

[Andy Stumpf]

Let it go, let go or be dragged. Right. That old Zen proverb. And it's been great. My fiance's got on board she bags and bags of clothes, getting rid of stuff. And I'm like, doesn't it feel good? Doesn't it feel good? And so that's our phase right now. And I want to continue that with my life. My man. It's like here. Another thing is I want to keep my overhead low. I want to be able to pivot on things if I need to. Also, you know, now having a kid, dude, I can't. I don't want to stretch the line too thin and stack unnecessary stress on me, which I've done before and I'm not going to do it now with the ch. With other people involved. And so this has been a process for me of going, what do I really want? And that's the other piece is being confident and good about your daily habits and your interests that don't require buying to fill some, some fucking endless void.

[Unknown SEAL]

I just want time. I don't, I don't really have a number. I do Think a million bucks in an account would be dope.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And then I'd probably find something I would want to buy. Like. Well, I need 1.1 because this thing looks awesome. I want to be able to say no to anything that I want to. To do with whomever I want to. Whatever I want that to me is. Would be. Even though I'm pretty sure it'd be amazing to be Bezos and also have a 15 million foot long yacht.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Whatever. He's having currently a foam party that. I just saw a picture. Why I saw that picture, I don't know. He's having a like a 19 day wedding extravagance. I feel like being a billionaire would have its potential upsides.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But I do know a couple billionaires and the downsides almost seem like it could rival the upside. They don't know who to trust. They don't know who to have in their social circle. They think everybody wants something from them. Shockingly enough because most people do want something from them. Them. I just want to be like, I don't know how much time I have left. You and I have both ridden our combat chassis pretty hard.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, polluted it over the years. I just want to do this. Like the helicopter.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Does it make financial sense? No.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do I give a no.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because I'm off having an adventure.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

And I've flown all of my kids in it. I've flown my wife. I flew my son down to Bozeman to pick up the keys to his first apartment.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's cool.

[Unknown SEAL]

We put some shit in the back and we landed at one of the FBOs and they have a car that you. And he's just like, this is amazing. And.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's cool. Experiences.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. We go get breakfast. Like, oh, I forgot my wallet. I'm like, sure you did.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But like that story. He'll tell his kids that story. There's no amount of money.

[Andy Stumpf]

No.

[Unknown SEAL]

There's no gift. Like he's not going to tell his kids a story about anything I gave him. But he'll remember that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So. Yeah. The number's not huge in the bank account.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

But the experience equity is high.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's not going to change your quality of life. Like at some certain point, if you're immediate need needs are met. Dude, that's. I just want my family to be, you know, feel secure. I want, I want to be not stressed. The out, you know, and business partners and things and keeping who I bring into my life very specific.

[Unknown SEAL]

Good Luck with that. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And you know, and the stress part. Not, you know, and the stress part. It's, it's, it's, you know, stress mitigation by not doing dumb unnecessarily. There's always going to be so many things that are going to come. Yeah. Just by the nature of how we live and, and pushing the old and, and so I'm just going to try to mitigate that as much as possible.

[Unknown SEAL]

You going to have more kids?

[Andy Stumpf]

We'll see.

[Unknown SEAL]

You know, do you want to, you.

[Andy Stumpf]

Know, I'm not, I'm not, for me, I'm not like, once again, I'm not going to try to stack complexity unnecessarily. So I'm, we're rolling with this one and we'll see.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Not somebody who has three kids. There is some complexity between one and two, but your life will be over when you have three. They just know.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's zone defense.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

They just know, dude.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Two boys and a girl. My, they're so different. My kids are so fantastically different. And it's amazing.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's cool.

[Unknown SEAL]

Same genetics, you know, baseline genetics. But the expression of that.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

The desires, the way they communicate, even just watching how they communicate with each other.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Is enough to just dry fire a gun in your mouth.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's a fast. It's been a fascinating thing. She's started laughing. She's six months old. Yeah. Pretty much today. And so it's been a just humbling experience, man. Because it's, I, I just never saw it for myself. I thought in the someday maybe, but I just never, it wasn't something in my world that I even, I wasn't sure I was gonna make it this long, let alone, you know, now I'm in this position. I feel very so fortunate to have a good partner and you know, peaceful, not combative. And she's awesome. And having the baby healthy and I just feel super grateful.

[Unknown SEAL]

What do you guys have planned wedding wise? You going to go big? Small. Simple.

[Andy Stumpf]

Small. Small. I, I, she wants to do it up in like quarter lane. Whether, you know, do it by the lake and just have family around, man. Rent a big house. Everybody stays at the same spot. That's how we'll do. I want to keep it small.

[Unknown SEAL]

I think that is the way I have. The first time I got married was at the courthouse.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

My current wife comes from an Italian family. I was trying to position that I would stand up there by myself. She had 13 bridesmaids. Cause she was involved in all of their weddings. She threatened to put half of them on my side.

[Andy Stumpf]

So I was like, legitimately?

[Unknown SEAL]

That's how it went down. I'm like, I'll just be by myself. It'll be amazing pictures. She's like, yeah, until I slide half. I'm like, fuck. So we had a huge wedding, which was also. It was so much fun. My dad married us. I think he skipped a page in what he was supposed to read, so it was like, the fastest wedding ever. We were straight over. Over to the bar. I mean, no speeches, nothing. Just a total celebration. But it's. It's. There's a lot of stress in that because it almost. It becomes this balance of. Is this wedding about the people or about the party you're having for everybody else? Yeah, small is a lot easier.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Probably just invite a few people. Keep it. That's what I want. That's what she wants.

[Unknown SEAL]

Airbnb in Coeur d'. Alene.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's what she. That's what she wants, too. So it's like, more. I have zero desire to have some big shenanigans, man. And some want to. I don't want to spend the money on it, really. I mean, it's not just about the money, but I don't see the need to. I'd rather go to Hawaii for two weeks after, you know for sure.

[Unknown SEAL]

When you're talking with the people in their. Their vices, how do you get them to put down booze? How do you.

[Andy Stumpf]

I don't tell them to put down it.

[Unknown SEAL]

I was gonna say, how do you talk around that?

[Andy Stumpf]

I don't tell them. I say, let's start focusing on the greater, and the lesser will start falling away. I go. Once you start, I go. Because I'm not the be a monk guy. It's not how I live. I'm not. I don't promote that. But I say day. But you. Let's start feeling better, working out, eating a little bit better, getting the body looking better. And then next thing you know, you're like. I'm like, also start tracking your calories on the booze. Dudes will just be like, holy. I'm trying to work out, but I'm drinking a thousand calories a day, dude. That's. That's. That's actually helped. That's what helped me.

[Unknown SEAL]

Starbucks in a single beverage.

[Andy Stumpf]

Thousand percent. I go track all the beverages, man. I go. And then you really start fitting in. You go, damn, dude. There's so many good substitutions that you can do. And. And then you Figure out what works for you, and then you start feeling better. It's really that once you start feeling better, you want to do better. Yeah. And then you. That's. That's pretty much how I approach it. Hard drugs. And someone's like, got a real bad cocaine problem, which I got guys that. I'm like, dude, you gotta. We gotta cut that. Because there's no riding off. And then sunset with a. With a huge cocaine problem.

[Unknown SEAL]

The Colombian marching powder is a tough issue. You're gonna have to deal with hard.

[Andy Stumpf]

Opiates, stuff like that. I go, dude, we gotta. We gotta. We gotta taper it. You know, if it's definitely the opiates. I go, so I put guys on a taper program.

[Unknown SEAL]

How'd you get yourself off of it?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I white knuckled it, dude. I. When I left, I go, dude, I gotta leave. So I'm not around any contacts. That's why I left.

[Unknown SEAL]

Is this when you went to Hawaii?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I did. I was like. And I went. And I. Day one, man, and I was like, well, I'm okay. This is.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

I.

[Andy Stumpf]

And then day two, day three, I didn't sleep. I could not sleep. I felt like I was crawling out of my skin, dude. I was like, it's as bad as.

[Unknown SEAL]

They say it was.

[Andy Stumpf]

It was bad. And then it got to day four and five, and I was like. And my joints are starting to swell. And so I took myself the emergency room, which, you know, guys like us, we got to be. Yeah, I went to the e. To the. Not emergency room, but, like, the urgent care. And I said, dude, I'm a former Navy seal. I'm not here, like, to try to get drugs, whatever, but I know sleep deprivation. I'm like, like, on the. I need something to put me to sleep or. Or. So they hit me with some Benadryl. Didn't really work, but then. And I didn't want anything narcotic because I just wasn't trying to. So he gave me some. Whatever that stuff. It starts with an A. They would give us the sleep.

[Unknown SEAL]

Ambien ambient.

[Andy Stumpf]

They gave me some Ambien that worked. I went to sleep, and I woke up, dude, and I felt like I had come out of a fog.

[Unknown SEAL]

Really?

[Andy Stumpf]

That next day, I felt fine. It was like five, six days of just. And then I felt fine. And then I was like, okay. I was in the sauna. Sauna. Helped hydration. A little bit of just sweating it out and through that process was helpful.

[Unknown SEAL]

What were you getting from the opiates while you were on them. Was it.

[Andy Stumpf]

It was. Dude, it felt great. And that was the problem. Dude, is it.

[Unknown SEAL]

It.

[Andy Stumpf]

It made me, like, pretty focused and.

[Unknown SEAL]

It made you focus.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, it made me pretty focused. I wasn't like. But I could think and it was. It was maybe a little bit of an antidepressant. I was kind of going through a breakup and some things were going on, and so I started. Probably is people. Some people will say, oh, I got in a car. I wasn't doing it for the pain, you know, I did. I didn't get caught up with that. I was doing it because I was trying to get high, you know, and. And it just took the edge off of what? Maybe some emotional pain or something that I was going through.

[Unknown SEAL]

How did you find the fentanyl when you went down that path?

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, I just, you know, growing up in San Diego, I got a lot of contacts and just in drug game and all, I just know. Knew a lot of people. And then that stuff. Stuff came on board. This was like 2018. Yeah, stuff started coming. The drug dealer was like, bro, this much. He's like this much. It was my heels, dude. Not more than that.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, you'll die.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I went tits up like two, three times, man. Smash my face on the table, man. Yeah, and like two, three times. And here's how up I was. I would just wake up, be like, bleeding. I got scars on my face, man, a couple times, and just go get stitched up and just start my day just like. Like normal. Just like, bam. I would wake up, like, bleeding, and I go. And I drop myself, get stitched up, and just back on. Back on driving and doing stuff. It was just looking back, it was just like chaos, man, Chaos. And I could. Couldn't. Everybody could see it except me, right? You're always the last one to know.

[Unknown SEAL]

Outside of the business stuff you're doing, what else you like to do, dude? Recreational hobbies.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude, I. I play chess. Chess is a big one, but outside stuff, man. Dude, I love the beach, so I always try to get down. Down.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do you play chess online?

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, not. I play chess online, you know, I play blitz.

[Unknown SEAL]

He used to work security for us at the coffee shop.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Air quotes for those of you just listening. I would occasionally, he would not see me coming. He'd either be laying on the couch, playing chess, standing next to where they serve the drinks, playing chess. Because he's under the security camera and our manager's like, zooming in, critiquing. He's just like, rook, tonight for what.

[Andy Stumpf]

A You know like.

[Unknown SEAL]

So if you like online chess, here's a guy.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah dude.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. I've been playing since I was like five. So I, I, I really got into that. But man, I'm like dude, I love going to the gym man. And I love a good daily flow spending time with the family. Now I try to split up my day. I start really early like start working on zooms early just cuz I got guys east coast different places and then all you go to bed. I go to bed probably like eight or nine. Nine.

[Unknown SEAL]

Talking about.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I go to bed pretty early and I don't mind it at all. It's good for the baby and stuff now too. Yeah, it's just the timing works great. And my fiance likes going to bed that time too. And then I take the middle of the day and I go work out with her. She. We can, we have a gym that we can bring the baby to and she goes outside workout facility and so she can work out. I can work out for a couple hours, get some sun and in Temecula it's great. We work outside. Work out outside and then back and I'll do finish up some work and write a little bit. They. They've had an interest to kind of. Not that every SEAL has a book but I. I'm going to write a they I have an interest to do a book to series adapt. So I'm kind of polishing up my book where it's. I don't talk about anything in the SEAL teams really. It's like a sentence like I was here. It starts with me going in the Legion. And so it's like just it just.

[Unknown SEAL]

How will the Legion like that or. I mean obviously it doesn't really matter but how do you think they'll remain respond to it?

[Andy Stumpf]

Fine. Because I'm. I'm not going to rip on it at all. I'm just. I'm more talking about. The book is more about the guys in the Legion. The characters you come across like who the are these people, what countries. Like the backstories are fascinating. I'll just give one example. A guy from Kenya. Kenya, which I don't know if anybody's tried if you're African. But to get a visa into the you're into Europe from an African nation is extremely difficult. So he could not get there. So what he did being Kenyan, he's like well I'm gonna start. What do we do? We run marathons. So he started running marathons and he got really good and he fucking. He wanted to go in the Foreign Legion. And he's like, just figured out a race that he could get to France. And he fucking goes. And just said later, didn't do the fucking race. But he trained for three years, got his ranking up, got to France on a fucking thing and just went into the Legion.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, my man's gonna be just fine.

[Andy Stumpf]

And he fucking. Dude humbling. Running some of the test with this guy, dude, that's what I'm saying.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, my man is going to be just fine. Put in that type of effort with a carrot that far down the road, savage.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I heard another guy, he walked, no passport from Romania to France. Walked. They go, how did you get here? He showed up to the Legion gates, no passport. And they go, what, what, what are we going to do? And they said, they go, dude, this guy got all the way from Romania with no passport. He's probably going to be a good legionnaire. So he got to at least give a shot. They kept him just the store. The backstories are fascinating. So that's more what I'm focused on is actually like, not the operational shit, you know, but actually the stories of the guys. And then what it did for me.

[Unknown SEAL]

I would be fascinated. It would be tough to get them to tell their stories, but also their life after the Legion. Yeah, they did, you know, because whatever that huge funnel that brought them to the Legion, and they can come out a different person, literally and metaphorically. They may not want people to know what they had done on the big end of that funnel leading them to the Legion, but that would be fascinating as well. Did they just disappear into society peacefully, quietly? Like, what did they do?

[Andy Stumpf]

Some guys do. And that's why I keep in contact with a lot of these guys. And it's fascinating, man. It's really fascinating. Obviously, a lot of the guys that I talked to in Ukraine, a lot of them went back to fight. And so they're dealing with that stuff. And that's a whole complex thing. And it's. It's some guys the Legion turns into not the best person. It's a very tough environment. It's can get people kind of jaded. And then some people come out, you know, in much like me, much more appreciative of a lot of simple things. Like I washed my socks in the sink for four years, right? So it's. It puts a different kind of spin on stuff that. And it. It really helped me simple, simplify what I needed. Because I came back, I wore. I had like the same pair of shoes and like five shirts for like five years, you know, and so we.

[Unknown SEAL]

Said about the SEAL teams or the military in general, it can be transformative for a lot of people. And for others, it, you know, not the best.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And so that there's some of that story. It's a really good idea. Kind of think about like the, the post stuff.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'd be just fascinated to know, especially those who were le. And this is why I think it'd be hard, is they probably wouldn't want to if they wanted to. Their origin story was somewhere like, hey, I really want to change my trajectory and be something else. You might have a hard time getting them to open up about the origin story or connect the two.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because after that, Portal of the Legion, if you get a different name, it's like you can go be that person.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And some guys origin stories just, they just want something more, you know, they just, it's not necessarily something bad. They're not running from something. They just want something more.

[Unknown SEAL]

I think that's true.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Probably most men.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

That desire and then it's that action, right?

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. Yeah. I think what's missing for a lot of people is they don't know where to put that energy. Like, they know they want to do more. They know they want to grind and work towards something, but they don't know where to, like, throw a dart.

[Andy Stumpf]

And here's what I say to that, always. If you don't know what, start working on the who. What if you don't know what you want to do, start turning yourself into a beast. Right. Wake up earlier, eat better, work out harder. Start there and then. Then the path illuminates as you walk it. Like you said in your career, like, I didn't really have. Have a plan. You didn't need to. Dude, just start and then the path illuminates, man, when you're walking on it.

[Unknown SEAL]

I, I, I try to be so blatantly obvious about the choices I've made in my life and how I never thought I was going to start a podcast. This was not my idea.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I didn't know how to do any of this. It started with like a little Zoom HD6 recorder and two microphones that were held down by Rogue 5 pound plates. Yeah, that a sponsor that I was working with 511 tactical bought for me that grew to. I forget what I had after that was probably similar to that board that's over there, but a smaller version and like a single Sony Handycam that I probably used to use for fucking Skydiving Yeah, with like a fingerprint or like a scrape right down the middle and then other cameras and slowly. I used to do it at my house at the pandemic. And I was like, this is weird because people come over that I don't know. So maybe that's also not safe. Like, if you're ever gonna have a woman on, it's like, hey, meet me at my house in the woods in Montana. Like, that's weird.

[Andy Stumpf]

So how many years was this? How many years was it you've been doing, I think, this podcast?

[Unknown SEAL]

Eight or nine.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. So, interesting story is I get into the Legion, and there was an Israeli guy from Israel was in the Foreign Legion in my. In my combat company. And he goes, hey, he could speak great English, and he was fascinated with seals and that whole fucking world. Read a lot of books. He showed me your podcast.

[Unknown SEAL]

No way.

[Andy Stumpf]

Straight up, dude. A guy from fucking Israel in the Foreign Legion in a barracuda room. So this is why coming. This is why coming here was very surreal for me.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Because I'm glad you reached out.

[Andy Stumpf]

He was one of the first people that I talked to in the Legion, like, in my combat company who wasn't a dick, who was just like, he was almost done, and. And he just, you know, wanted to be in the Foreign Legion. And he goes, hey, man, do you know? He goes, you. Because he found out I was a seal. He goes, here. He was in a seal. He started this podcast and he's showing. He was showing me your podcast. So that coming here now, I was like. I was outside. I was going, dude, I mean, Annie Stumpf at his podcast. And I remember being in this low doubt. Just felt a million miles away alone. It felt like you felt like you were on enougher planet. Right? And then being here outside, I was going, what the. What a crazy life thing, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

Well, it's weird. It's the same thing as the videos that you put up where people reach out. It changed the decision that they were going to make. It's so odd to just hit upload. I have no control. Like, I would have never guessed in a million, dude that a dude from a million years that a dude from Israel while you were in the fucking Legion would be like, hey, do you know this dude? Because for people not in the seal community, they're like, hey, do you know Bob?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah, I've gotten to play.

[Unknown SEAL]

Like, yeah, he's awesome, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

Bob's a savage.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, he's fucking stud with top 10 for sure. Because I don't fucking Know Bob because they think that we all know everybody. It's a small community, but very large. But you hit that upload button, you have no idea where it goes.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Or the impact it can have or where somebody can find it in their life.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

The connectivity and the timing, it, it's wild. I, I, I think that there's like, maybe you do too. There's a lot more orchestrating than this be meets the eye. And just in my life I've experienced that and I continue to, man. And, and this is just one of those moments, man. So I appreciate you, you know, you having me out, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm glad that you reached out. Did you find faith along the way? Were you, were you a religious person?

[Andy Stumpf]

You know what? I wouldn't call myself religious, you know, spiritual, you know, as people say it. But I, I've always kind of felt this like guiding force. I've always kind of felt protected and, and like I just, I wasn't raised in the church or anything like that. No, I wasn't raised, I was actually experienced. I was exposed to quite a few religions. My mom, you know, we went to meditation things and Buddha. She was just kind of open minded in that capacity. But I would call myself Christian if I could call myself anything. But I definitely feel like there's, there's universal laws and principles at, at play here with, with everything. And, and Jimmy says a great quote man. He goes, a man that doesn't believe in destiny doesn't have one. And I, I really, I feel like I have a destiny and everybody should and then that there's a guiding force for that.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, I'm not, I, I would describe myself as agnostic. I, I just, I don't know.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And, and I respect agnostics because I, I always think atheist is kind of a thing is I always think somebody.

[Unknown SEAL]

That you're very certain about something that's uncertain.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

The certainty is what, what I, I go, bro, who the knows? I go, I think it's very fair and reasonable to go, you know what? I'm not sure. There's a great P I, I love debates and I'll see. And this one guy did this great debate. He was, it was like hardcore Christian against atheists. I just find those facts fascinating.

[Unknown SEAL]

We call that clickbait.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I love it, I love it. Click on, I'm gonna click on this. Let's get through the picture. And he said, all right, explain to me. He goes, this is the knowledge, all the knowledge in the world that can be known. Everything he Goes draw. How much of a percentage you think you know?

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Oh, that's, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I go, and this dude, pro, you know, he drew a pie graph way too big. You know, could you, could you would drew a line, it would be too fat.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, I would draw.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, A dot. All of us, you know. Yeah. And, and he goes, so you're saying something can exist in this massive piece that you don't know. And I fucking think is a great argument. And so I think open mindedness is the best approach.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. There have been so many odd things younger in my life. I tried to be very rigid and control outcome through steps that I thought I could control along the way. And again, I'm not a religious person and people, it's funny, people reach out to me all the time like, oh, you need to find God. I'm like, listen, I'm not saying that I'm not open to the idea. I'm just being honest that it hasn't grabbed me.

[Andy Stumpf]

I don't like when people reach out. Some of the most closed minded people that smash on me and I, I have, I have some faith and people go, you got to find Jesus. And I go, I go, bro, you don't even know what I believe. I go, dude, the fact the, here's what I say to some people. I go, the fact that you're putting that out there shows how elementary you are in your understanding standing of faith. The fact that you would say that.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I go, dude, I go, the best thing to do is shut the up and watch, right? Just, just watch and be man. Live it, be it don't need to stand on a podium, right? And I say it's an attractive quality, man, faith and, and be a good dude. Good shit'll happen. Think good thoughts, do good deeds and start there.

[Unknown SEAL]

The less I have tried to, you know, going back to the architecture I tried to set for myself, the more I have actually not let go of the reins, but loosened it a little bit and you know, because everybody has like, hey, I have to. This is your baseline standard from an economic perspective. I have to make this much, man. I'm at a place where I know it's going to kind of sort itself out probably because I'm willing to do whatever I need. I know that I am willing to do if I have a chance, I can do whatever I need to to survive. And kind of accepting that. And this is probably not the best explanation for people, but it lets you kind of just relax and let things come at you as opposed to trying to Control every single variable. The more I release pressure on the reins, it's almost as if more opportunities present themselves. And I don't know if that's a religious thing or a faith thing. And again, it's like, I don't fucking know. But I feel less stress by saying, maybe you could say God will sort that out or the universe will sort that or whatever the in between those two things works for you. It has worked for me.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Let go and let God. There's a great. I like Zen proverbs and stuff, too. I think there's a lot to be learned from just like those simple phrases they say, you know, I. I found all the answers when I stopped asking all the questions. Yeah.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

And I. I really like that, man. I go, you know what? And that's that simplification, man. You're going to simplify the closets. How about we simplify what we're trying to. Trying to do?

[Unknown SEAL]

God, subtraction is way more powerful than the dish.

[Andy Stumpf]

Subtraction is the key to success.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. Don't tell your wife, though, if she likes her stuff.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I go, you know, you're out there busting out Zen Klushik, honey. Subtraction is the key.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

She me up. I didn't know she was taking the.

[Andy Stumpf]

Stuff out of the truck. Dude. I tell you, I always tell it was a battle. I go. I go, you know, am. Babe. I was like, you know, Amazon doesn't have to come here every day. It's not like it's an endless river. Amazon pack packages.

[Unknown SEAL]

So you're in the trenches with me.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, dude. Every. And I see all these reels and guys, it's like, you know, gotta. It must be this prolific problem, man. And, dude.

[Unknown SEAL]

So, dude, when you get a package.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do you open it that day?

[Andy Stumpf]

No.

[Unknown SEAL]

What the Is wrong with you?

[Andy Stumpf]

Well, I do if I ordered something.

[Unknown SEAL]

No, that's what I'm saying.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's not. If it's mail. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna order it.

[Unknown SEAL]

I order something. Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

I'm gonna open it.

[Unknown SEAL]

If I get a package, I open it.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I will generally go out. We live in a. We're renting a townhouse in town, and we have one of those mailbox towers.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

So I'll go out there. I get the mail. Sometimes there's boxes for her and boxes for me.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

I put them both on the table. I separate them. I'm doing the work for her. I open mine around with whatever thing that I'll probably lose interest in shortly Throw the box away. I swear to God, Michael, you can attest to this. You've seen it. There's a lot of boxes on the table. Why aren't you opening the box? It drives me nuts. Like, don't you want to know what's in there? Didn't you fucking order that?

[Andy Stumpf]

They don't. They don't know what they ordered.

[Unknown SEAL]

But it's like, if it's important, why.

[Andy Stumpf]

Aren'T you opening it? Wasn't important. I heard. I heard this chick say something hilarious. She goes. She goes, don't men realize we're gatherers? She goes, we're gathering. And she goes, sometimes we go and shop. She goes, we'll put stuff in the cart, and we don't even buy it yet. We just have stuff in the cart.

[Unknown SEAL]

My wife does this because she believes, and actually she might be correct in this, that if you leave something in the cart and don't buy it, that there's software on the back end from the company that will eventually offer you a coupon. I think she might be right.

[Andy Stumpf]

She's probably right, because if you are a smart. They're like, hey, let's get them to buy this.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah, she'll wait.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's smart.

[Unknown SEAL]

I have. I.

[Andy Stumpf]

That's hilarious.

[Unknown SEAL]

On the couch. I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, I'm shopping. I'm like, for what? Don't worry, I'm not gonna buy anything. And I'll say, I clearly, with my own eyes, just saw you hit add to cart. Yeah, I'm not gonna buy it. Then what the.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, they're gatherers, bro. They're gathering.

[Unknown SEAL]

I mean, that is a business in itself. Get. Go to these companies, develop for them software that tracks specifically women's shopping. And I'm sure this has already been done. Items left in the cart. Yeah, here's your 15% off. Your conversion rate is going to be through the.

[Andy Stumpf]

Oh, yeah, it's smart. If it's not there. She goes, we. I have to buy it now.

[Unknown SEAL]

That is what she'll say. And then, you know, she'll say, savings.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, I saved 600 bucks. I go, no, you spent 1800, but.

[Unknown SEAL]

It would have been 24. I'm like, no, no, no. That doesn't mean you didn't spend the other 18.

[Andy Stumpf]

They call it girl math. They go. And I heard they go, boy math is spending 120 grand on a car. So you save 40 on taxes. You know, they go, that's boy math.

[Unknown SEAL]

My daughter used to work at the coffee shop. You know in their cash tips. And she would just blow through it. I'm like, julia, what are you doing? She's like, money's not real. Cash isn't real. Only what I see in my bank account is. And I don't deposit my cash. It's girl math. I'm just like. I'm like, you know, you can put your cash into the account. She's like, who does that? Just freaking. Just rolling it out there.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah, we're all in it.

[Unknown SEAL]

Fuck, dude. We've been at it for three hours, dude.

[Andy Stumpf]

I love it.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. What do you want to close it out with? What do you want people to.

[Andy Stumpf]

Dude, just. I'm happy to be here, man. And, you know, end. Anybody wants to get better, reach out to me. My. My website's the best place to get me. Taylor Kavanaugh dot com. All the contact forms. Everything I do, it goes to me. I don't outsource anything. No AI, no teams. All zooms with me. Everything. All comms are with me. And yeah, my YouTube Taylor Kavanaugh and my Instagram TCAV official.

[Unknown SEAL]

Sweet.

[Andy Stumpf]

And we do workout videos. I do gym sessions with guys. If you're ever in SoCal, show up. We do negative. We. We. We'll get. We'll get you on the weights, man, get you on that weight pile.

[Unknown SEAL]

Oil you guys up, I guess, on some baby oil.

[Andy Stumpf]

Yeah. Well, we'll get out there. But really, it's just a podcast standing up. And so it's just about. We just talk about God's pass. I got cartel members, gang members, just fitness guys, but military guys and all in between.

[Unknown SEAL]

It's such a cool time. We live where you. With such low barrier to entries. You have portals into people's lives that you would. I didn't. I mean, I remember the first time I used a computer when I was in high school. It was a senior year.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Within two classes. I was searching for titties, but if I'm being honest, but as were many other men in the class. And men are just complete pigs and savages. But especially at the age of probably 17 point. I never in a million years thought that you'd have the. You can connect with anybody.

[Andy Stumpf]

The knowledge transfer and the energy exchange now is un. Unbeatable. Ignorance now is a decision, man. It.

[Unknown SEAL]

It really is. I have watched my children probably learn as much out of traditional school than in it by going to YouTube and just starting with. How do you.

[Andy Stumpf]

How. It's amazing.

[Unknown SEAL]

Start a business.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Unknown SEAL]

Do something technical. It's. It's insane.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

It's. It's impressive, man. I mean, it connected us and it's like, you can use it. It's like a weapon system. It's a powerful tool.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

You can use. Use it for good or bad.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. Or you can become addicted to it too. I think that's the struggle.

[Andy Stumpf]

Absolutely.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. The struggle is making sure you're using it and it's not using you.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Yeah.

[Andy Stumpf]

Setting it down. Be deliberate. I'm all about that deliberate action. I'm sure you are too. It's like, be deliberate and strategic about all the you're doing.

[Unknown SEAL]

Yeah. And the best way for people to check that is to put their screen time notifications on their phone.

[Andy Stumpf]

I do not want to see that. I'm working.

[Unknown SEAL]

I'm working on it. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm working on it.

[Unknown Legionnaire]

Cool.

[Unknown SEAL]

All right, man, let's get you because you fly out here in a couple hours.

[Andy Stumpf]

Appreciate you, bro.

[Unknown SEAL]

All right, man.

[Andy Stumpf]

Thanks, man. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L, I B S Y N ads.com today.