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Okay, I got the red smoke. Sun runs north and south west of the smoke. West of the smoke. Okay, copy. West of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. Oh, wait a minute. Give it to me. I mean, it cleared hot. Copy cleared hot. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. If you hear a little raspiness in my voice, well, that is because I just spent the last three days, about four to five, maybe five and a half hours a day, finishing up the audiobook. I didn't read it out of this book, by the way, because times have evolved, and apparently they used to have to take just reams of paper in and then have to go back and manually remove the sound of the pages flipping. So I got to go off an iPad, which. Which I found to be a far superior experience. But it's done up until the point where they have to come back and they do pickups. I'm really happy I got to at least get the opportunity to read my own book that I wrote, essentially accidentally, where I was tricked into it. That's a better term. Glover and I are gonna discuss that in a few weeks when he comes back on the show. But it's over. I don't know what's left to do before the book comes out. I think I've actually met all the obligations as far as a production side. The writing is obviously done. Book itself, the audiobook has been done. Feeling a little raspy, like I said, as you can hear. So let's just wind out the week. This is me. Good. This has got the last thing I need to do this week before I can just go take it easy a little bit for the weekend. So it is brought to you by Fabric by Gerber Life. It's the beginning of 2026. It's a new year. Every year, I try to think about things that I can do, improvements I can make. I don't think I'm alone in that. I think a lot of people are taking stock of their life and thinking about what are the most valuable things that I have and what can I do to protect them. If you've been putting off getting life insurance, there's no better time to do it than now. 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Apply today in just minutes@meatfabric.com ClearedHot that's meatfabric.com ClearedHot M E E T fabric.com Cleared hot policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Policy not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. Back to the show. You'll never guess. No one will ever be able to guess what the number one question people have been bombarding me with. You ready for this? Is it going to come as a shock? Minneapolis, Minneapolis, and specifically ice. And it goes broader than that. Immigration, ICE policy, ICE training, tactics, techniques, procedures, uniform lack thereof, facial coverings, all of these things. When I say bombarded, I mean kind of bombarded. It's really interesting the aggressive nature that people will approach when it comes to topics like this or any topic that they're passionate about. I understand that the baseline motivation is that they are passionate. But some people get to the point of demanding that I say something or I need to create content addressing this issue. And I'll tell you right now the reason that I don't, because what I see right now is that almost nobody is listening but a lot of people are yelling at each other back and forth and that's not helping anything at all. There is a lot of misinformation that is being spread around. And I'm going to go try to at least go through some of this because I knew I was going to talk about this. And there are some very interesting misconceptions that although are sticky, are being thrown around as if they are fact. And I actually think that to be quite dangerous. So we'll talk about that in a minute too. But the overall reality is this. I reserve the right to not have an opinion on everything. I'm just me. I don't have some deep and nuanced understanding of. Let's start at the very top. Immigration policy inside of the United States, let alone where ICE falls into that in their enforcement role, the specific laws that boundary their behavior, the left and right limits of what they are able to do. And I also realize, because I have fallen for this many times in my life that more often than not, the first information that is put out or the information that comes out in the closest proximity to the event itself is almost always the least accurate. But it is amazing to see how it trends. So for the people out there demanding that you need to know my opinion or I need to make content, go find somebody else that is making that content for you or that you want to see at the velocity you want to, because I reserve the right again, to not hold a deep opinion on this stuff until I can develop at least a better understanding and do some of my own research. So here we go. Minneapolis. There was a fatal shooting involving ICE agents, a woman. I believe it was a minivan or it was like a suv. I didn't look at the video that many times and actually when I did look at it, I wasn't looking at the make and model of the vehicle tied to immigration enforcement actions. So let's go broad umbrella to the tactical level, the 30,000 foot view to the boots on the ground. We'll work our way there. Again, I'm going to say this as a disclaimer. I am not an expert on immigration policy of the United States. But as I'm sitting back and I am watching this play itself out, I keep having a question come to the surface in my mind. Are people reacting the way that they do because of the optics or the objective? The optics being, of course, what it looks like, what it could be perceived like not only to Americans, but to the world, or is it the objective which is to enforce immigration policy in the United States? My personal opinion, Andy stumps opinion that counts for nothing other than my opinion. Feel free to ignore if you want to, is that our country cannot survive without laws. And if we're going to have laws, we are going to have to have people that enforce those laws. Without that, I don't see how we exist. I also think that it is essential that we have immigration. I believe it is my personal belief that the United States of America is and can continue to be a beacon for the rest of the world. There is a reason that people will risk everything and leave everything they have to try to make a better life here. So I understand that and I think immigration is essential, but it cannot be uncontrolled. And I will also say this part of the immigration process, in my opinion, that if you are unwilling to participate in this particular process, that you likely have no business staying here. Is the assimilation portion. If it is your goal to leave wherever you came from to come to the United States to recreate the exact same environment that you feel the need to leave or felt the need to leave. I have a problem with that. And. And that, left unchecked, will destroy our country because our country will become something that it is not, or it will become flavors and versions of another country, which, by the way, let's not forget, people are risking life, limb and family to escape for the people who want to come to this country. I struggle to find anyone, absent a very small group of people that have probably other much bigger issues upstairs that, that would argue against immigration, like, at all. Like, it should be a hard stop. No, nobody ever. I don't really encounter those people, and I don't actually even really encounter a lot of people who would argue for illegal immigration. They understand why people are coming here. They understand that there's a process in place or conceptually there should be, and they have no issue with people following that. So I think that, like that baseline template, if we start there, I think most people, reasonable people, would say, yeah, that makes sense. The assimilation piece is a big piece to me. If you come to the United States and it is your goal to burden our social systems and again, create the environment from which you fled, I don't have time for that. And I don't think that should be allowed because it's a threat to our country and our morals and our values and who we are. If you're on the other side of that coin and you want to assimilate and become an American and live your life to the fullest of opportunities and freedoms. And yes, I know America is not the only free country that has opportunities, but I am talking about the people who are choosing to move here. If you want to do that, like two thumbs up, go through the process, get it done. Immigrants, by the way, people I know who have taken their time and come here and gone through the process are some of the most patriotic, awesome people that I've ever known. And I think a lot of people would agree with that. But I don't think it can be an unchecked policy. We cannot have people rapidly pouring in unchecked, unvetted. If you do that, I don't see how that's anything other than a recipe for disaster. So, again, broad immigration policy, and it seems like inside of that there are two enforcement windows. And again, I'm not an ICE person or immigration expert, but it seems like there is a chance to apprehend people at the borders, north and south. I'm going to roll them into one. So you have Border operations, and then you have interior operations. It makes sense to me that the more secure the border is, the more focus there is going to be on interior operations, which seems to be. Which is happening right now. People can argue left, right and center about whether the border was wide open or not under the previous administration's reign. You can argue about it. I would suggest you go to black and white math and look at the actual numbers versus then and now. It seems like the vast majority of enforcements from an immigration policy perspective were happening at the border when in the unlikely event, it actually was happening. So it seems like now the borders, and I will say I think the southern border is far more secure than the northern. I live 60 miles from the northern border. It would shock most people how porous and easy it is to cross. And I'm not trying to give anybody ideas, but anybody in the government listening to this, please do me a favor and pay a little bit more attention to that if you're going to pay attention to the borders. With that action removed or not removed decreased. Yeah, we're going to have a little bit more focus on the interior now. Pie in the sky. How would Andy love to see this play itself down? If we're going to use like a wedding cake that's, you know, small up top and cascades down, or a pyramid, the apex of the pyramid. Here's what I would like to see targeted for immigration enforcement. The people that are in this country who are members of, let's say, trend, which for people who don't know, is a Venezuelan gang that has its hooks into the last reporting that I saw on it or conversation I had, I think it was 16 different states to include the state I live in in Bozeman. And I have people have had people reach out to me directly who have confirmed this and interfaced with this. So what are we talking about, like, the most? And those are. TDA is an example. Let's just put the top layer of the cake or the apex of the pyramid as the most dangerous people who have the most ability or willingness to do harm to citizens or the country. I absolutely want those people targeted and removed. Now people will say, why isn't ICE only focusing on that? Or our immigration policy? Why isn't it only focusing on that? I don't know the last time you checked in with the criminal underworld, but the last time that I did, which was never, by the way. I don't think they go to a clubhouse and put a map up like in the coffee shop. We have a U.S. map. And we have people put pins into the board where they're from because it's a really cool representation of where they come to visit. I don't really know any criminal organizations that would do that because guess what you're doing? You're giving people a roadmap to where to start looking to come find you. In my experience, I mean, there's a couple versions of criminals. There's the bottom level, the dum dums, and then there's the top level. Pretty sophisticated. And I can make an analogy on the people we used to look for overseas. The dum dums are not hard to find because they're out in broad daylight doing dum dum stuff. Sophisticated people who are savvy, electronically savvy, surveillance savvy, they're just operating at a different plane than the dum dums. Guess what? They're really hard to find because they know they need to operate in the opposite of plain sight. They need to be behind the curtains. So, yeah, I'm sure that our agencies would love to actually start at the apex of that pyramid. And I do think that they are doing that. Whether or not they are able to find enough actionable intelligence is probably the difference there. But in my mind, it's like, let's start right there. Do I want anybody in this country that is here illegally? Conceptually, I don't. But that's a really black and white answer to something that is incredibly gray and far more nuanced than that because people will bring up situations like this. What if it's a child that's illegally brought into the country with no say whatsoever from parents? And then those parents, by the way, also enter into the workforce. They pay taxes, they pay into our social systems, and they are a net benefit positive add to this country from an economic perspective. But that child, should that child be deported? Those are hard conversations. And these are places where I'm not an expert and I don't even know if I'm qualified to express my opinion on that. But I think societies need laws to be able to function, sustain themselves, and grow into the future. If you're on the other side of that law, well, there are consequences to actions. Now, having said that, there is if you keep with the pyramid. I mean, maybe the bottom layer of the pyramid is the child that is brought into the country as an infant who has no say in it. Like, and they don't have any desire to destroy the US and for their entire life they lived and expressed their best ability as somebody who would be A citizen of this country, like I'll put them at the bottom. People willingly coming across and let's say maybe they are illegal aliens in the country and are facilitating drugs or in crime. Right. Like, then we start to climb up the pyramid. In a perfect world, we would work our way down. We don't live in a perfect world. So what I really like to see the news leading with all those hardened people, the criminals, the threats, the danger. Yes, absolutely. But that's not a reality. Because the reality is I actually think that tier, that apex of the pyramid is mathematically a very, very small number in comparison to the total number of people who are in this country illegally. Now, even a really small number, if you multiply that a percentage by how many are in the country, which was actually hard to find a definitive number online. So I'm not even going to put one out there. It's a large number though. It's in the tens of millions. You multiply even a small number by that, it ends up being a number that, especially when you look at it through the lens of like risk and danger, it's not awesome, but I understand the difficulty associated with that. There is more than that in this country then. I mean just those apex, we'll call them apex predators. So in the absence of being able to find those people, what are you left with? You're left with these agencies enforcing the law. And this is where I come back to, is it an optic issue or an objective issue? Because I'm going to run through some stats here. Let's just talk about deportations or formal removals. And it's, you know, I went through multiple AI platforms. Let me be very clear where I got this information. And I asked them all to do deep research, to compare and contrast and to start spitting out numbers. The numbers can be skewed depending on the terminology that you're using, whether it's a formal removal, a deportation, Does a deportation equal a removal plus a return? Was it ice, Was it dhs? It's anything but crystal clear. But I think we can get some wave top numbers here. I don't know, I don't personally know of anybody arguing for unchecked illegal immigration. Perhaps they're out there. But the reason I bring up the objective, which is enforcement policy of the immigration laws in this country is let's just go back from Obama to Trump one to Biden to Trump to people being deported from this country is not a new thing by any stretch. So Obama between 2009 to 2017, we're going to put it at approximately 2.7 million formal removals. That's a lot of people. Now that's split over eight years. Okay, Trump won 2017 to 2021, approximately 1.5 million. And this one says deportations. And again, this is where the language gets. You can really move things around on a chart when you start playing with the language. But let's just assume that all these stats are relatively in line. 2.7 million from Obama. Also with the 2.7 million from Obama. Before I lose my train of thought here, where were the people who were rallying and protesting against that? I'm not going to claim that I was deeply paying attention to it, but I don't remember seeing any. And I think we'll get to what the difference is here in a second. My point in this is what's happening now from an optic perspective is definitely different, but from an objective perspective, it's not. So Obama to Trump won 1.5 million. Biden 2021 to 2025 approximately 1.1 million Trump 2 from 2025 to present, approximately 605,000 since January 20, 2025. So are we seeing anything different in the desire for the United States to enforce its immigration policy? Not from an objective perspective. From what I can tell now, the optic there's a conversation to be had around that Weight Watchers now offers access to affordable GLP1s. Weight Watchers has everything I need from weight loss medications to nutrition support and help with my side effects. With our program, our members are losing more weight with expert nutrition and side effects support weight watchers prescribing GLP1 medications. It's been life changing. Better results, expert support, lose more weight, make it last, get started today for as low as $25@weightwatchers.com the and this is where I First off, I have no access to any insider spit or information. I have traditional media sources. I have social media of what I can read. I have tv, radio, podcasts, all those things I get. I have no inside beta information. So I'll assume that the information or that I'm at least exposed to is relatively similar to what anybody else could be exposed to. I probably see a little bit more mini dachshund content than most because I interface with it, because I have one. And he's amazing in every respect. The most handsome dog ever. But I digress. So other than that, I'm going to assume that I have kind of the same template of information that everybody else has and I am seeing some wild stuff fly around the Internet. So some of it I didn't understand. And this, this goes to the optic, the optic of how this policy is now being implemented. And we're working our way slowly towards Minneapolis here. So one of the things I'm seeing on social media is people posting that ICE officers, or agents, as they are referred to, are not law enforcement, that ICE agents cannot arrest you, and that you don't have to comply with anything that they say. That's a wild claim and it is spreading like wildfire. And the reason I believe it's spreading like wildfire is that aligns with how people feel, not the actual truth. And on that note, I think one of the biggest differences probably now between the Obama administration or the Biden administration is that for better or worse, the person currently sitting in the Oval Office has this innate ability to inspire loyalists and whatever the word would be on the other side of that. And they are pitted against each other. And I think a lot of the people arguing against or rallying for or protesting it has more to do with the person in office than it does with the objective or even the optic. But let's, let's go ahead here and cut through a little bit of the BS that I am constantly seeing online. Okay. Are ICE agents law enforcement officers? Again, I went through three different AI sources, so there is a chance that this information is wrong. However, it did spit me out nearly identical answers. So here's what I'm going to read. Yes, ICE agents are federal law enforcement officers with arrest powers. So anybody out there promoting this information that they do not is incorrect and irresponsible in pushing that information to other people. And we'll get a little deeper into that in a second. But they focus on immigration violations and work under homeland Security, not local police. They are distinct from local police but may partner with them. And their identification as police can be confusing, but is generally permitted. They enforce immigration laws, conduct investigations, and can make arrests, but operate under specific immigration statutes, not general criminal law. Like local police, ICE officers have statute statutory authority under section 287 of the Immigration and Nationality act to arrest individuals for civil immigration violations without a judicial warrant. On the subject of warrants for entering private residences, ICE generally needs a judicial warrant, unlike their authority in public spaces or workplaces. So whether you like it or not, they are law enforcement officers with arrest authority. So then I've seen this social media thing take another turn. They can only arrest you for an immigration related issue. Well, let's take a look at that. Yes, ICE agents can arrest people for criminal activity, especially if the crime relates to immigration violations or if the individual is a noncitizen in the country unlawfully. Let's go even farther. Can ICE agents arrest someone for criminal activity not associated with immigration? Yes. ICE agents, Immigration and Custom Enforcement, Customs Enforcement can arrest individuals for general crimes, drugs, not just immigration violations, especially if the crime is committed in their presence, involves threat to public safety like gangs and firearms or is a felony. But their primary role remains immigration enforcement. So yeah, that's their primary job. But I hope somebody out there can encounter this small section of piece of content where they have been getting fed this information, where it is so sticky and split spreading through social media that ICE isn't law enforcement and ICE has no arrest authority. And here's what's wild. I'm literally watching people. This is what you can do to an ICE agent and you cannot be arrested for or they don't have authority to do this, this, this and this. And, and people are literally providing checklists and step by step guidance on how to be agitators. And I bet I have no data to support this at all. But here's what I bet the people who are the most guilty of putting that BS out there are the least likely people to go out there and do it themselves. And that's one of the downsides of the world that we live in. You can be this digital agitator from your grandmother's basement with Cheeto stained fingers and not actually have to go do anything. But you can make yourself just seem like you were just this tower and pinnacle of information. So. So for people out there who think that ICE agents have no arrest authorities and they are not law enforcement officers, please don't take my word for it. Spend five minutes researching this yourself, please. Okay, now the optic. Why do people think that ICE agents were not wearing masks back when Obama was president from 2009 to 2017? I can think of a few good reasons. The main one is we weren't living in a world where people would dox you and put your family at risk. I don't think personally that it is a great look to have masked law enforcement agents of any kind doing any type of enforcement unless they need to wear that protection, like hazardous equipment, stuff like that. There's, there is a time and place to protect yourself. Whether it's exposure to fire fume, you know, whatever it may be. There are exceptions to that. But as a general rule I agree it's not a great optic. But what's the other option? Require them to do their job to the best of their ability and then have an entire community of people pushing out their personal information as far and as wide as possible in the hopes that somebody does something about it or ruining their life. That's not viable either. And then there's a comment, people say, well, they shouldn't do that job in the first place. And this is a real interesting conversation point. When I do encounter people who say that illegal aliens being removed from this country, unless they're a criminal, we should just let them be. I flip this and I say, okay, you're in France, you decide to go over to France for whatever reason. You're on a 90 day visa, you're not a criminal. You're traveling through. Maybe you're, you know, maybe you decide that you want to stay and maybe you don't even realize you overstay your visa, which is of course these are two different issues. But the point is you have now reached a place where you are no longer legally in that country. I'll ask them if you encountered the French authorities, just to use France as an example, which again, I'm not an expert on that either. Pick your country. If you were to encounter an official from France who was responsibilities around immigration and immigration control, what do you expect that they would do? I can't think of anybody who has said anything when I posed them that question other than yeah, they would make me leave. It's like, okay, what are we talking about? Then again, is this an optic issue or an objective issue? Because it's really getting blended. You're saying in the US that we should allow people to stay because you don't like the way the cops look or the law enforcement federal agents look and what they're wearing, but you don't actually disagree with the objective. We are now in a circular logic spiral to the middle of nowhere and I don't know how we get out of that. And that's one of the reasons why I don't feel incredibly motivated to throw my hat into the ring because I don't think people are actually educating themselves or listening. I don't know what to do when we live in a world where people can get doxed to that degree. And I don't know if this country would survive if we didn't have people willing to do that job. So where does that lead us? I don't know. It's wild to see on social media people, well, I wouldn't, you know, I'm not going to do anything either of a masked man with or woman with no identification and a gun shows up. And, I mean, I see the same images as well. Their badges are out. It says police, it says Sheriff, it says Agent. Their last name is almost always on there. I mean, come on, are we really. Do we really care about our team and hate the other team politically so much that we are going to be blind and just outright lie? Because that's what it certainly looks like. And I don't know if that helps anything or anybody. Okay, let's get closer to Minneapolis. I am not going to tactically dissect what happened in the vehicle. Now, for people who aren't aware, a woman lost her life. I don't know exactly what led her to having that interaction with the ICE agents. It terminated in her losing her life. An agent shot through the windshield. There is two conflicting narratives. One is that she was trying to drive away. The other one is that she was trying to hit the agent. Why she was there seems a little bit. I don't want to say gray. There are a good amount of reports that she was there intentionally, perhaps aligned with a group called ICE Watch, whose volunteer organization has literally somehow empowered themselves with civilian oversight of ICE than their enforcement of our immigration policy. I've heard people say that she just happened to accidentally be there and kind of everything in between. None of that changes the outcome. So tactics are dictated by the situation. I have done a good amount of vehicle interdiction work in my life, and I'm not going to Monday morning quarterback what happened there? The vast majority of the time that I trained to be involved with this type of stuff, we would approach from the side and the rear, and that's as into the tactic as I will get. However, like I said, situation determines tactic. And maybe that situation on the ground did not allow for that. Maybe they were moving at the time. Maybe. So there's a lot of variables there. It terminated in a woman who lost her life. And I bet if we could rewind the time machine to, let's say, the morning that that happened, and you could show that woman a video of later in the day of what was going to happen from her voluntary choice to go and be a part of what was happening in the Minneapolis area, would she make the same decision? My guess would be no. And what I'm seeing even from that situation is people taking that situation and inflaming it and throwing more gas on the fire in the hopes of getting more people to show up and to interfere with these ICE activities. Now, what is that going to do if that happens? Is that going to escalate or de escalate the type of interactions that these agents are having. And don't get me wrong, I've seen some stuff that is absolutely idiotic. People being shoved to the ground. I'll call it some reckless cowboy behavior. I'm saying that broadly, not specifically. I understand how agents, especially when constantly being. What would be the word, I don't want to say harass, because I don't necessarily know that that's their motivation. Even though it could be constantly interfacing with people in this antagonistic role, it escalates. But every time they have an interaction like that, it grows because it gives the other side fire. But the more the other side brings people and increases those number of interactions, the more those things are going to happen. And this is what I'm talking about, this escalating J. Jacob's ladder. I understand how some of those things end up happening. For the uniformed sworn agents who are on the wrong side of that, pull your heads out of your asses and actually do me a favor. The leadership who may be listening, talk to your boys and girls, right? Your job is hard enough. Every single time one of those things happens, you know what's gonna be done with it? It's going to be weaponized and pushed on social media with the goal of getting more people to be there to do those things in the hopes that that. And up and up and up and up and up. And that, I feel like, is where we are now. And I don't know what to do about it. I mean, I guess I'll close on this topic with what I opened with. We can't be a country without laws, and laws are going to require people to enforce them. I don't know how we've gotten to this place. I actually think that it has almost nothing to do with the optic or the objective. It has to do with the hatred for the person that they consider to be responsible, which is the current sitting President of the United States. Where do we go from there? I don't have the answer to that, but it seems like it is escalating, not de escalating. And all I would ask for anybody receiving this type of information. You make your life choices right, and choices have consequences, both good and bad. Before you go out and try to flex the powers that you think you have or exploit the powers that you think others don't have, educate yourself, please. We live in a super complicated society. We are incredibly divided, it seems right now in small sections. But I tell you where I don't see that in my day to day life. I also don't live in Minneapolis, so I can't speak to. Maybe if something like this happened where I live in Kalispell, it would erupt into something like that. I'm not sure. But in my day to day life, the more I have removed myself, I'm almost two weeks now from trying to really reduce my screen time. And I mean, I think I've spent seven or eight minutes on social media, social media this week. This is Thursday. The better I feel, the more face to face interactions I'm having, the less separated I actually feel from the people. Even on the other side of the political aisle, I think that's kind of the way. So it's beauty that we can be interconnected. And I'm rambling here a little bit, I know because. But all of these things are so tied in. I don't have a solution. I don't have an answer. And that's why I generally don't throw my hat in the ring to create content around this stuff. So I know what I want it to look like. I know what I want our country to be. I am not educated enough or experienced enough to know whether or not we're going to get there. But both sides of this have a lot of improvement that they could do. And for somebody who believes that there should be no immigration policy at all, please reach out to me because I am actually interested in having this conversation. How would that work? How does a nation survive? Because I don't think that it can. And absent that, we have to figure out a way to enforce the laws that we have. And there's a whole other conversation around this. Why weren't they enforced to a higher degree previously than this? I don't have enough room on my SIM card to work my way through that one. So we'll just end it before I lose my complete train of thought. That's my thoughts on immigration and ice. And the only thought I have about Minneapolis really at the end of the day is it's an absolute catastrophe. It's a horrendous loss of life that I don't think needed to happen. 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AG1 has over 50,000 verified 5 star reviews and comes with a 90 day money back guarantee. Go to drinkag1.com Cleared Hot to get their best offer. Get a free AG1 flavor sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavors plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's drinkag1.com Cleared hot drink ag1.com ClearedHot Back to the show My question today is focused on your mentality when it came to going through BUDS Basic Underwater Demolition Seal Green Team, which is what they called. I think it's selection and training now at Development Group or any other selection process you attended. The question did you ever feel truly ready for any of these selection processes? Would that be selection process? I I feel that no matter how hard I train in the classroom, in the gym, or how hard I hit the books, I feel that I am still not close to ready for the challenges to come. I feel it is important to go into these selection processes with a good level of confidence due to the fact that a lot of people tend to fall into the mistake of self selecting themselves due to their own insecurities. I also understand the importance of not making these selection processes out to be an impossible task, but I struggle with the idea of me being being the one to make it out of all people. I am curious if you felt these same feelings and pressures when going through selection processes and if there was a way that you helped build your confidence before, during and after the selection process. Thanks again for what you do and taking the time to read and or answer my question. This is a great question. Short answer to a longer question is no. I never felt truly ready for any of the selection processes. The two you mentioned when I went through buds there was very little information that was available about it. Same thing when I went through Green Team. So there was one Always an informational gap. Do I know everything that I'm going to be challenged with and if I don't, how could I possibly prepare for it? Right. I totally get that headspace that you're talking about. I personally think it is a good thing that you feel this way now that can be taken too far. And like you said, you can talk yourself into this self selection out of these process and that you definitely need to fight because the curriculum of whatever process you're going through is designed to do the job of the curriculum which if it's a selection course or a crucible that is to select for people or to wash people out. Right. You don't need to bring any additional stuff into that. But the fact you are second guessing yourself, and I don't mean to a crippling anxiety degree, I mean to the degree that in the back of your mind you're asking yourself, have I done enough? Can I do more? I think those are super healthy questions. I think those are the keys to success. I have had imposter syndrome and have imposter syndrome about everything that I do to include sitting here answering this question, staring at an inanimate object of the camera in front of me. I don't feel like I'm qualified. I struggle to not define myself by my mistakes or where I have fallen short. And when it comes to getting ready those, you know, if I look back on how I felt before I went through BUDS or let's call it the night before and we're looking in the way back time machine here at this point, a couple decades, if I had to pick a word and again, this is only me and this is only my word. I don't know about anybody else, my word would be fear. Probably fear of the unknown would be the best description of it. Fear of the unknown of what they were going to ask us to do. Fear of the unknown as to whether or not I was capable of doing what they asked of me. And I trained as hard as I could, but I just didn't know. And I think that's okay. The most confident people that I saw, the ones that were like, yeah, no problem, got this. Most of the time their helmets were underneath the bell. I'm sure there was an outlier from time to time, but the machismo and the bravado and those people, they were the first to go in my memory. I think the quieter, more curious, more willing to ask questions specifically of themselves, those people, I think they do better in selection processes like this. Now having said that, train your ass off, whether it's physical book knowledge, skill requirements, any of those things. Train your ass off and listen to that voice, but don't let it crush you. Is there more that I can do? I don't know, analyze it. Is there? Or are you doing everything that you can also be careful of? Over training, right? Over training. I look back specifically when I was a BUDS instructor, people would show up well trained and then some would show up over trained. Over training. The program itself is probably going to create injuries. Most people are nursing one, if not a variety of injuries kind of through one phase of the program, if not all of them. You go into that overtrained and your body's going to fail you. Right? So listen to it and let it use that as motivation, but don't let it actually push you to a place where you're overdone, you're overcooked, a little bit too long in the oven, if you will. I don't think insecurities are bad things. Again, as long as I'm not crippling you with anxiety. I think insecurities, if you view them healthy or from a healthy perspective, kind of give you a roadmap on the things you could benefit from as a person. If you listen right. What are you insecure about? Maybe that's how strong you are. Maybe it's how you look to a degree. How you look, I mean, like you have your facial structure and I guess you could go get some weird Colombian drug lord face surgery. I don't want you to do that. But if it's a weight issue, you can handle that. If it's a strength issue, you can handle that. Cardio, stamina, strength, endurance, all those things, you can handle all those things. And if you have a healthy relationship with that, maybe check in with yourself. Like, that's weird. Why is that one hitting me? Why do I keep thinking about that? Is it healthy? Is it rational or irrational? Can I use that to do something positive in my life? Most of the time you can. If it gets to be the point of being unhealthy, I would reach to a higher level of care and talk to somebody about that. And I say that as somebody who has had my insecurities get to a point where they needed a higher level of care in their life. So. But I also now use them like, huh, why do I keep thinking about that? Let's have a healthy relationship and healthy boundary with this thought. But I think it might be the roadmap. So I felt the same feelings, exactly the same pressure, building my confidence. How did I do this? By controlling what I could and what I will say Is this. Take this thought out of your mind. Let me see if I can find it first. Here it is. I struggle with the idea of me being the one to make it out of all people. How is that helping you? How is that thought serving you? That one I would put into a category of an insecurity that is not beneficial in any way unless it drives you to do more. But of course, respecting the limit of over training, get rid of that thought. Whether people want to hear this or not, this is a true statement and this one actually really sucks. Nobody can make you quit. And I have heard, I have watched who. I want to say thousands, but it's probably safer to say hundreds. I've seen hundreds of people physically been there when hundreds of people have surrendered the goal that they would tell you they've had for their entire life, that nobody would ever be able to change their mind about that they would give every penny of the money that they have and every ounce of their net worth to be able to achieve, and they give it up. Helmet goes down on the ground. Ding da ding ding, ding. Actually, the bell usually goes first. It's a symphony. And right after that they start saying things like instructor so and so made me quit. I couldn't be fill in the blank for that long. This happened, so I had to do that. And that's all an excuse. There is no instructor in the world that can make you quit unless he were to physically take your hand and put it on the rope on the bell and shake your hand, which by the way, probably wouldn't even administratively fly. So that's out of the question. I was in the cold water for so long, I didn't have a choice. I had to quit. No, you did have a choice. And the choice that you made was that you quit because you got to a boundary that you put for yourself. You encountered an obstacle that you built mentally. Instead of going through it, around it, under it, over it, fill in the blank. It stopped you in its tracks. Somebody did this, so I had to. No, somebody did this, so you chose to. And that sucks. I mean, I get it. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I'm not a bastion of success over here. And it is so much easier to point fingers out in an external direction. Be like, this happened because of that and this and this and that and that. And yeah, that's not generally the case, if not ever the case, because nobody can make you do anything, especially in the world when it comes to giving up. So you need to bring all of your energy and focus onto what you can control and cut away all of the BS associated with like, well, how could I be the special person? How could I do it if they can't, who cares? Let other people be on their journey. When you go into a selection process, the best way, in my opinion, to build your confidence is to take control over the things you have control over, which is yourself, your training, your preparation, your hydration, your food, your recovery. God, recovery is left out as so many of those things, all of those things. And you sharpen the blade to the point where you cannot sharpen it anymore for who you are and given the time that you have allotted. And then you put everything else aside and you use that blade to the best of your ability. And you refuse to surrender to the insecurities or any thoughts that you may have about giving up because you realize that nobody can make you quit and nothing can last forever, especially a selection course or a crucible program. So by focusing on you, that's the way you build your confidence. When should you be confident? When you've put in the work? When, if you're going through a selection course or a program. I know in the modern era, almost everyone in every training pipeline, whether it's military, law enforcement, whatever, go on the Internet, you're going to be able to find the testing standards I know this exists for first, second and third phase for buds. Make sure that you can pass those on your worst day. What does that show you? That you've put in the work, that you're trained, that you're prepared and you should be confident. It doesn't remove risk from injury and things like that, or sickness or just life happening, losing a parent, whatever it may be. But then you know you've done the work and you're measuring it against that. How do you do those things though? How do you get to that point? You cut out the bs, don't think about other people, think about yourself. Focus and prepare for that. And realize it's good that you're scared. That means you're doing something that is important. That means you're doing something that matters. I don't mean like terrified and paralyzed with fear, but a level of uncertainty. God, am I good enough to do this? Do I have what it takes? That is what I'm talking about. That's an awesome goal. I don't know about anybody else, but if I think about myself, if, if my goal is, oh, I'm just, I'm gonna get out of bed at 8 o' clock this morning and I'm gonna get into my card, I'm gonna go do whatever. I'm gonna go on a two mile hike around a soccer complex. And this is a really weird example. I don't even know where I'm going with this or how I'm coming up with the soccer example. I will lose no sleep over that. I will not train for that. And I will have no doubt whatsoever whether or not I'm capable of completing those things. But if I set a goal for myself, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go navigate through the Bob Marshall wilderness from north to south, self sustained. And I'm gonna do it in under a week. And I'm only gonna have the things that I have on my back and my knowledge and skillset to get me through that. Whew, now we're talking about something else. There's a physiological difference in those two goals. I like the latter goal. The ones to me that don't get your heart rate up at all. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everything in your life should be the one that you're, like, sweating, but have at least one of those in your life. If everything in your life, like, yep, got it, no problem, no need. Like, it's all gonna be fine. I don't think you're aiming high enough your life to live. You choose the trajectory of the goals that you want. But for me, I'm gonna crank that thing up at least once in a while. The triple seven. Seven continents, seven jumps, seven days. Again, not like, physically like, man. I don't know if I'm physically capable to test gravity seven times, which I am. But it's like, who? We might mess this up. We might waste a lot of people's money on this. We might fail totally publicly, or the wingsuit record I attempted back in 2015, or selection courses or starting jiu jitsu, or trying to get your black belt or fill in the blank. If it gets your heart going, pay attention to it, man. I think that's an interesting spot for. It's an interesting sweet spot for some goals because you know it has gravity, because you care, because you're curious, because you're uncertain. And I think, personally, that's where individual greatness can come from. Don't make the mistake of comparing your greatness with somebody else's, because comparison will become the thief of joy. And just like, it doesn't matter. How could I be the only person out of all the many? Let them be on their journey. Celebrate your successes and your excellence and let them worry about theirs. And honestly, I've been at it for almost an hour. So we went, like, super dark Minneapolis, I guess, at least a little bit. Hopefully, this is a little bit out and helping people pick a goal that maybe lights the fire underneath them again. And that's actually another reason, I think, to pick those goals that make you wonder whether or not you have it. Because if it doesn't, it's so easy to slide into laziness. And that's not how I want to live my life. And that's not how I want you to live your life either. See you all on Monday.