Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Eric Gilgenast: Building Businesses with Integrity, Craftsmanship & Purpose
Let us know what you think! Text us!
Is your business built to last—or built to chase shortcuts?
In this powerful episode of the Security Halt! Podcast, we explore the soul of entrepreneurship through the lens of craftsmanship, integrity, and fair pricing.
Join host Deny Caballero as he uncovers the stories of skilled artisans and mission-driven business leaders who are redefining success—not by cutting corners, but by building with purpose. From hand-crafted quality to customer-first ethics, this episode breaks down how staying true to your values leads to sustainable growth, loyal customers, and long-term business wins.
Whether you're a new entrepreneur or a seasoned leader, this conversation offers practical takeaways on pricing, quality, and why doing the right thing is also good business.
🎯 Ready to build something that lasts?
🎧 Don’t miss this conversation with one of the most respected voices in the endurance world.
🔥 Tap into the mindset of ultra-success.
📲 Be sure to follow, like, share, and subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube to never miss an episode.
SPONSORED BY:
TITAN SARMS
Use code “CDENNY10”
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/titan_performance_llc/
Website: https://www.titansarms.com
PRECISION WELLNESS GROUP
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/precisionwellnessgroup/
Website: https://www.precisionwellnessgroup.com/
SPECIAL FORCES FOUNDATION
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/specialforcesfoundation_/
Website: https://specialforcesfoundation.org/
Request Help: https://specialforcesfoundation.org/get-support/
Looking for hand crafted, custom work, military memorabilia or need something laser engraved? Connect with my good friend Eric Gilgenast.
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main/
Website: https://www.hausgilgenastwoodworks.com/
Instagram: @securityhalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Follow Eric Today:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haus_gilgenast_woodworks_main/?hl=en
Website: https://www.hausgilgenastwoodworks.com/
Produced by Security Halt Media
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titans Arms. Head over to the episode description and check out Titans Arms today. I didn't realize that. You know, I grew up not being exposed to art. I didn't grow up thinking that that was something that was afforded to us, and that's a common thread in a lot of guys. But then they're exploring it through woodworking. So I want to dive into that, because we have some phenomenal frigging craftsmen and if you guys have been watching the show for a while, you've noticed when this popped up and today my guest is the man that gave me this and if you notice my episode description, I always have his name and Instagram handle as a reason for it, because he was awesome enough to give me this. So, eric, welcome to the show man. Thank you, the show man. Thank you. Yeah, dude, it's remarkable seeing your artwork. It's like it is. You are a craftsman, you're an artist, and how does it feel to have that moniker?
Speaker 2:It's been a struggle, to be honest with you, but it's also been an outlet and it's been soothing the way that a lot of this started. I've always liked woodwork. I grew up in a family of artisans. My dad was always big into building models and he liked to do woodwork himself. My grandfather was a woodworker, owned his own company and built beautiful homes, so it's kind of in the blood. I remember seeing that exact SF crest and I do want to tell the story. I think this is great because it's how I really came to be.
Speaker 2:I think in our community we have people that are afraid to ask for help and figuring some things out, and it's okay. It's okay to ask for help, it's okay to whatever it might be you know whether it's help moving a couch, whether it's help moving forward in life or whatever it is. But I was not shy about asking the guy who actually created and designed that schematic for that knife holder and his name is Wade Myers and he's here in Colorado Springs and he's a retired Command Star Major, 4th ID, been retired for a while and I had seen these things, and so finally I got a hold of him and I was like, hey, man, you know, can I come to your shop? Can you teach me how to make these things? And I was very decent with tools. I wouldn't say I was like phenomenal, like I am now, but, and I'm not, that's not me tooting my own horn no, no, you're, you really are.
Speaker 1:When you do something well and you've, you've put in the hours, it's okay to say like, hey, like, I'm not a beginner, I'm doing really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of my newer stuff. I think I like I don't want to give it away, because I look at it I'm like it's amazing. But Wade, the first time he was like, yeah, man, he's like I've had people come into the shop and they're there for a short time and then they leave and they never come back. I continuously, you know, repetitively came back and I made my own with Wade and then he kind of, you know, guided me in the pathway. It wasn't so much that he taught me the woodwork, he taught me the process to doing this. And then I really struggled at the beginning because you have to use a CAD program if you're doing it that way, in order to design the logo, but you're not CNCing or laser cutting it. This is all done on a scroll saw, and the way that previous scroll saw artists back in the day would do it is they either draw something on a piece of wood or they'd take a piece of paper and they'd slap it or glue it on a piece of wood and then cut out the pieces like that. And there's still artists out there that do that for bigger work. But for the purposes of this, all the designs that I make. I literally just I build a vector file and then I use a 30 watt CO2 laser from 2004. That's ancient in the world of lasers. It's from Epilogue, it's an American made company and I mean I've got I've got hundreds of designs that I've created and that laser marks it on the wood in a vectorization and then I just take it over to my scroll saw and everything is hand cut, handcrafted, but it's a ton of fun.
Speaker 2:The growth from when I started until now is dramatic. I mean I literally just wanted this to be a hobby. And it was a guy on my team when I was on the crypt that was like hey, man, can you make this? And he showed me a picture of a you know the, the dive logo, you know CDQC nothing like, nothing like divers. And I said, yeah, I'll give it a shot. And and my first design like don't get me wrong first design I finished it and I was like man, that's pretty cool. And then, as I grew and I look back on that design and what I'm making for a dive suit bubble or just a CDQC bubble right now is totally different. But I love those originals that I made. I mean, I look back on. I got one sitting up here and it's the original SF crest I made on my own and it's atrocious, but it took growth, you know.
Speaker 2:But I was not afraid to ask for help. I was not afraid to, you know, step into that ring and say, hey, this is what I want to do. And it's just exploded. And I've had great support from my brothers in the soft community. I mean, it's been great. And a lot of spouses reach out to me and they're like, hey, man, I really want to do this for my husband and, unfortunately, recently I went to NTC for two years and I was filling the position of the acting SOTD Sergeant Major and I was the Operation Sergeant before then and man, that put a whole new twist on things. I was living out of my camper, my family stayed here, I had to shut the shop down, and so now I'm just getting back into it, but it feels really good and I absolutely love it and it's something that I'm going to do when I get out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, man, there's, there's something to be said about diving into a pursuit that allows you to de, de stress and walk away from, like the job, like we don't a lot of us don't, don't figure that out, we don't develop those, those positive coping skills, those positive coping mechanisms. This, this seems ideal, man. This seems like something you can, literally, you know, do you find that when you look back in your journey, did you, did you find yourself diving into woodworking while you were dealing with something, while you were struggling?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've kind of taken after my dad and I love my dad to death. He'll always be my hero. But he did 34 years. He was a Blackhawk pilot. He retired as a CW5. And I actually enlisted in Grafenwoehr, Germany, and I graduated from Ansbach High School. So he was with 12th Aviation Brigade and I've just been around the military my entire life.
Speaker 2:But just the way that I was raised, I was just very straightforward, very blunt. The woodworking really helped. It kind of took my mind away from the Army. And once I realized that and that I had something more within woodwork and a future outside of the army when that time comes, I really started to see something different in myself and I was like I don't need to do this, I don't need to constantly be a slave to the army and there's more to life outside of the army. And I'd already been deployed several times at that point and I think I'd hit a turning point in my life where there was a level of maturity where it was like do I need to have somebody tell me what to do all the time? Most SF guys are go-getters, say it was kind of indifferent. I love my wife with all my heart. I met her when I was in sixth grade when we were both here in Colorado. She never grew up in a military family, but with the army and then tacking on my love of woodwork and the wood business that I was running for almost five years before I went to NTC was man.
Speaker 2:That changed a lot. Like a lot of stuff came to light and I had to really work through it the orders that I was getting, the amount of time that I was spending in the shop and then I was kind of putting my family on the back burner let's put my kids on the back burner, Like my wife was. It's like I was home but I wasn't home. I was like my head was in the army and and my, my objective was I have to, I have to finish this for the team guy. This guy is leaving the team. I have to finish this.
Speaker 2:Like outside of doing Prif stuff, I now have to go home and do this plaque and I was literally staying up until 11, 30, 12 o'clock, sometimes four o'clock in the morning, to finish some of these things on time, just because of the tight timelines that we had, and it really affected my wife, but that's also on me. It brought light my, my work ethic and just my drive. And then the realization that, like I have to slow down, I have to take time with family. I can't take all this work and this is like I need to refocus my you know, my, my yeah, it can't become.
Speaker 1:It can't become the next oda, it can't become the next of that, the next mission like that's. You'll burn yourself out and you'll get to the point where you can't, you're no longer in love with it. I think that's something that comes through. Whether you're forging blades, crafting something, you can really see the passion in it. But I've also been able to see friends that get to that point, get to that burnout phase where it's like I have to make 250 custom blades. You know who I'm talking to. I'm so glad you're not there anymore and you moved and you're doing better in life, but 250 fucking blades, that's a lot of blades.
Speaker 1:This dude was doing it. It's that same obsessive mentality of somebody sees value. They put in a huge order. I'm going to make these happen. It's like, fuck dude, you've got to be able to scale and go about it in the right process. If you burn it out, if you go too fucking hard in the paint, you're going to get to the point where your family's going to see the obsession. They're going to be like okay, who are we now? We're just the third fiddle now.
Speaker 2:Yeah and yeah. And to be honest with you, like, if you look around my house like I've got you know, the office that I'm in right now is now my wife's, but we shared it before and she since took everything down and, you know, reorganized it, rearranged it, got new furniture and stuff. But all of my team stuff that was on the wall not a single one of those was something that I made. Like I haven't made anything for myself other than like my cabinets in my shop because it's like order after order. After you know, there's a big part of me where it's like man, I want to build myself a really nice man cave and I just don't have it.
Speaker 1:You got to make. The time I remember seeing you made you made the post and it blew me away Cause I you hear or you see somebody here. Somebody described the guy I'm just going to make my cabinets, get my shop in order, and you think, yeah, a couple tables like you built out the one of the most impressive things I've ever seen the tables, the cabinets, the intricate drawer holy shit.
Speaker 2:Dude like this is shangri-la for any woodworker yeah, I'm having a blast doing it and and it's only getting better. The uh, the future of what I'm trying to do and and you know, I I think the community should hear this because there are a lot of people that come to me from the other groups and I get, I get orders daily on things that people want. Some. I turn down some. I take the uh, the days of me doing the arbor holders and the knife holders like dirt cheap. I mean I was killing myself in the shop.
Speaker 2:I was, I was a slave to the job. Not only was was I doing what the army wanted, but then coming home and just in my shop constantly, I'd literally get out of my truck, I'd walk straight in the shop. Six o'clock would come around, my wife would tell me dinner's ready, I'd eat dinner, I'd be right back in the shop. And it was like that for years. And seeing now what that turned me into, I have since looked at my time, what I'm doing, revamped my prices, looked at what my time is really worth and what my products are really worth, and then now I'm designing things that I really want to make and then push out to like the Green Beret Foundation, the Special Forces Foundation Green Beret Youth Initiative. As a matter of fact, one of the command star majors that I formerly worked for just picked up that Jedberg table that I made and I'd been trying to reach out to the GBF and the SFF and I got no responses from them. Travis Wilson, before he left the Green Beret Foundation, was actually talking with me and we were trying to get that table as a raffle to build some revenue.
Speaker 2:I don't know what happened, but it's not with the GBYI. They're going to take it, but I'm still going to continue to build more stuff and what I really want to do at the end of the day is just get things out there that really speak to the soft community. You know what, at the end of the day, you don't have to be soft to take one of my products If you are supporting the organization. And they put a raffle out there and I built this amazing coffee table or decanter set or something, and it's got an SF logo or something in it. It's there for the intent that the raffle, you know, is going to give back to that community, and so I don't care who it goes to, you know. But that's really what I want to do in the future is just design and make bigger and better things. Really nice custom things that will get raffled and give back to those communities.
Speaker 1:Now you have to. I learned it the hard way too, man. We are passionate and we find something that we're really good at, that we love doing. We love creating and we want to be able to jump on any jump with every customer and make their dreams come true and be able to say like, wow, I created something for you. There's always gonna be people that are like, hey, can we do it for this price? And I will tell you.
Speaker 1:If you're listening out there, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're diving into that world, stop, don't go into that mindset of you. Have to appease everybody with the prices and let people low ball you. Fuck that. The most most annoying fucking customers you will ever have are the guys that won't pay you your full rate. That's a full fucking stop, full fucking stop, full fucking stop.
Speaker 1:It is absolutely and I've made it a point when, if I'm reaching out for somebody like I wanted to do, like I'm a shit artist, just a god-awful artist. Hence why I'm always looking for a new artist to design t-shirts or do something, my logos and everything and I reach out and I'll always be like hey, man, like 100%, give me your rate, let me know what your rate is and if I can afford it 100%. I'm not going to lowball you or try to counter it. I'm going to pay you what you're worth because it's a respect thing. But also you have to understand that you have to be willing to pay what somebody is worth and what their product is worth. By all means. If the product isn't the 100%, it isn't the best out there, then you know you're paying for mid-tier product.
Speaker 1:But if you go over somebody and their artwork is 100% the best out in the market, don't be shocked when they come back with a rate that's 100% for the person that's out there creating the best things out in the market. Be willing to pay for it and then save out in the market. Be willing to pay for it and then save. Save your money up to be able to buy. Like it's the most frustrating thing. And I've folded over and and it gets my better judgment and said, yeah, you know I'll work with you on this project. And then the first ones to come back and be like, yeah, you know, it'd be really cool if you could use premium sound and these effects. And I'm like, first of all, that's going to take more money for me to get the rights for this premium music that you're sending me and for these effects I have to download it. Like it's ridiculous. They don't let somebody put you in a situation where you feel bad or obligated.
Speaker 2:No, if they respected you, if they really wanted to work with you, they'd pay you your full fucking rate yeah I, I had a guy, uh, reach out a while back and I wasn't trying to be rude to him, I think he just caught me at a bad time and former team guy. I wanted some work done and he was like, hey, man, can I get like three or four of these, and if I order four of them, can I get one for free? And I was just like no, and my response to him was how about I raise my prices 10% and give you a 5% discount? We'll both be happy. After saying that, it's kind of one of those things where it's like dude, I want people's business, but at the same time, as an entrepreneur and a business owner, you can't be pushed around by people that want to lowball you and you have to understand your worth. And I think that's one of my biggest hurdles that I've gone through is really understanding my worth. And that's why my price points have changed.
Speaker 2:Because I spent, you know, the last two years at NTC. I did nothing but stick my nose in woodworking books and look at joinery, look at how certain things you know go together and the types of woods, what their hardness is on the Janka hardness scale, what kind of woods they're good for you know, like everything that goes into woodworking, like I don't just want to be a plaque guy that that does nice stuff, like I want to be much more than that and do all aspects of woodwork. And so, uh, my way forward, my, my five-year goal from now is that, you know, when I retire in 2028, um, I want to go to a vocational school and it's actually in Denver and, um, I want to learn like some super fine woodworking. And it was already a lot of things that I know. But it's, it's those small nuances, those small things that really can make up a piece. I mean, anybody can build a box, but it's like, how are you trimming it out? What's your finish work? Look like Like what, what are you doing for the corners? Are you putting dovetails on those, or are you actually putting pieces of purple heart or bloodwood or yellow heart in there? What kind of accents are you really putting on this piece to make it what it is?
Speaker 2:But I've gotten jobs thus far. I know I'm on the right track because right before going to NTC, I had a guy that wanted me to build him a bar and I quoted him $150,000 to be able to build this bar and he was nowhere in the ballpark to be able to afford something like that. But that made me feel good, knowing that this guy was like, hey, man, I want a bar this big. And I was like, dude, the amount of custom work you want, that's 150K job minimum. I mean materials and all that stuff. I'm going to be out here with truckloads, I'm going to have to have people to help me and stuff, and it's nice to know that. But the way forward is definitely going to be to get an official certification. I know I can do that. I know I can do some phenomenal things and I think I've barely scratched the surface on my own capabilities. But I am going to get an official certification and have something to back me on that.
Speaker 1:So a ton of fun. Yeah, dude, you're, you're, you're hitting a lot of the milestones that most guys don't don't even start thinking about till they're all the way through the transition process. Which kind of that's that leads into that identity piece, that mission piece, that purpose piece, like leaning into this right now. And if you're listening and you're in the same boat, if you're, if you're a couple of years out, start leaning into what you're passionate about. Start leaning into this. You're passionate about Start leaning into this. Like I hate when guys get out and they're immediately like just reaching for the first job they can get their hands on. And I get it. You got to put food on the table, you got a wife, kids to take care of and they reach out for the first thing that's available and they're miserable, they're having a rough time and it just further compounds the difficulty of the whole mission set of transitioning to that chat and second chapter in life.
Speaker 1:Leaning into what you're passionate about is a bankable thing, dude. Like you can be very fucking successful in this world, going into this like a hundred percent. Dude, there's not that many people that take this approach and there's a thousand plaque shops. But you're evolving, you're growing into something different, dude the there's. There is a thousand plaque shops, but you're evolving. You're growing something different, dude the there's. There is a huge market for this and when you're, you're said you're going to denver. What's that? Uh, what's that program gonna be like?
Speaker 2:so there it's a. It's a program for fine woodworking. They do cabinetry, they do lutherie, which is repairing of instruments like you know violins, guitars. So I know there's like my, my focus when, when I talk about, you know, lutherie and stuff is like I mean that's the fine stuff. But to be able to build like an acoustic guitar, I think that's pretty neat. But then it also goes into building like an electric guitar. I mean I might be able to take a, a burl of of wood, which is, you know, a point that I mean the grains on this wood are beautiful. When you talk about about a burl or where a branch comes out of a tree, like there's just a different type of grain that comes from it, but also the root of the tree, you will just get top dollar people paying for that type of stuff. But in our community we have people that like to play guitars. You know there's a lot of team guys that like to go and jam out in their basement and I mean how cool would it be to build a guitar that is quilted maple of some kind or bird's eye maple and then you inlay a new Defion logo in it and this dude's just shredding in his basement. Like that's the type of stuff that I'm thinking of, and I want my woodwork to all be tailored towards some of that, and I'll always do custom stuff To your point, though, going back to having a plan getting out of the military, that's why I've pursued this so hard.
Speaker 2:I've always been pretty observant and I've always really listened to those that that mentored me. You know, there's always those Sergeant majors. They're like hey, you guys need to get a degree, you guys need to do this because it's going to help you on the outside. And it's like okay, if guys don't know what they want to do and you're not giving them a chance to explore it, you know, like, how do guys really know what they want? Like you have to take the time out of your out of your day, after hours, outside of work, to go really figure out what you want to do, and I think most guys can figure that out if they really just start taking that step. But you can't engulf yourself with the army 24 seven. Like you have to realize that you're a team guy when you need to be a team guy, and then you have to be a family member or a husband or a father and then give time to yourself and that's that's where I'm at is really just looking at the future of where I'm going to be outside of the military.
Speaker 2:Like I'm, I'm three to four years ahead already on on what I want my business to be, and I've thought about starting a program for myself just to help out dudes with PTSD, and I don't know how much I want to pursue that.
Speaker 2:It seems like a huge leap and I would need a lot of support.
Speaker 2:It'd be pretty expensive to get a warehouse with tools and all that other stuff, but I was going to call it Wood for Warriors and just have it be a location where guys could come out and like just be a shop, almost like an MWR wood shop on post, but you could come in and I could like hey, man, I have a bunch of these plans or you can draw something out and I can help you build it, and just something to get their mind off of what's happening in their lives.
Speaker 2:Just give them something to look forward to. Some of these projects can take an upwards of a week to 10 days or more. Projects can take an upwards of a week to 10 days or more, and I think having a place to go and, and just something to drive you and that final objective of creating something beautiful. So if you could look at me proud of, you know it would really help with some of those guys, cause it's helped me, you know. I mean I've I've drawn stuff out on paper and made it come to light and it's been amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, you're. You're not wrong, it's not a far stretch, it's actually a therapy modality. You go to programs like star and uh, that's one of the things they offer our, our community of guys, because they know how healing and restorative it is to get out there and work on something and create something. It's not for everybody. They offered it to me and I'm did I? I am the last person that wants to decompress by doing manual labor, grew up having to work. I that shit. I don't want to do that. I'm the guy who pays somebody to do it. That's not my thing, but there's a lot of guys that lean into it and it is a therapy modality.
Speaker 1:You know, basis used to have a community workshop. That was a thing. It used to exist. Community tool programs like you would go in, sign out the tools you needed. You you could work on woodworking, they would have stuff for working on cars.
Speaker 1:That's something that's missing, man. We need to build that. Not everybody's able to have that in their home or on post in their barracks room. Why not build that on the base? That seems like a feasible thing and, believe it or not, there are organizations that can help you If you decide to lean into that and figure that out. There are people in nonprofits that can help you figure that out, plot that way ahead and help build that. I think that's something that can really help. I think there's other programs like it. We can talk about it offline. I think I can point you in the right direction. Okay, yeah, but there's something to that man. There's a lot of dudes that don't feel comfortable sitting on a couch and talking to a provider and getting stuff out. But you get them working with their hands and around some other like-minded guys, more than likely they're willing to talk about some stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm doing it right now. I mean I have no shame in it at this point. One of the hardest things I had to do was go and self-report. I was kind of an asshole before going to Irwin and my wife had pretty much let me know. I mean she told me that I needed therapy, I needed help, I needed to calm down, I needed to let something go. So there was an incident that happened. I'm not going to elaborate on it right here, but I went and it had happened when I came home on leave from the SOTD and I had gotten back and I broke down in front of the guy that I I was I ended up replacing, and that guy's now a sergeant major and I just let him know I was like, dude, I can't keep doing this man.
Speaker 2:I was like my wife, like some of the things that I say, some of the things that I do. She is not somebody who grew up in a military family. She doesn't understand exactly why we are the way that we are, and I mean you get enough team guys in a in a team room talking about certain things. I mean you can say some heinous shit. I mean you can really like, I mean, it's dark humor, oh yeah, and but the way that that you know the perception of that to somebody who's never been in that community doesn't understand that. And so, um, I, I, I then realized that like okay, I should, I really need to do something about this. So I went back and I self-reported and then I I ended up coming home and getting put in a program in Cedar Springs for six weeks down in Colorado Springs, which they do have a psych ward where they they put veterans or people in a in a straitjacket and that's across.
Speaker 1:I was not in that one, so you know hey, that's okay, there's, there's no shame in that I I am a a graduate of laurel ridge. Uh, sometimes when you, when you fall, like, leave it to our community, like when we fall apart, we fall the fuck apart. It was. It was not pretty. Uh, the mask completely fell off and I had to go to that place. I had to go to a place where I wasn't allowed to have my, my shoelaces, my belt, and had to start from ground zero and figure my shit out. Yeah, but it saved my life, it it saved my life. It absolutely saved my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I, I mean I had to get steli ganglion blocks. I was. You know, my therapy went from nine o'clock in the morning until you know three or four o'clock in the afternoon, um, and then twice a week during that I would actually sit down with an individual counselor. Most of it was a group session with other military personnel, um, and other combat vets and whatnot. But I mean you have to take the step and you know there's people out there who are like, oh yeah, you know, like getting help is not a sign of weakness. I now understand that. And it's like when it's like they're saying it but it's not processing in your brain, it's like who the fuck is this guy? You look like you couldn't fight your way out of a wet paper bag, man, like you're old and your back hurts. And we see the way that you walk into work every day and you're telling me this and I'm never going to be that guy. And then you turn around and you're that guy and it's like, okay, we all hit that point, everyone hits that point.
Speaker 2:And while I was out at the Satdi and after I went through all that, one of my biggest things that I focused on was not necessarily the rotations. In my mind, the rotations that were going on at the SOTD came last. Even though it was my job, I focused primarily on making sure that my guys were taken care of, that their families were taken care of. Their families were number one in my book. My commander shared the sentiment and he was like, yes, absolutely, and that's how we focused it. And we believe that by taking care of your family and getting the time with your family and getting the help that you need was what's going to make you a better soldier at this point in your career. And so these guys, I gave them all the time off in the world. And then, when it came time for rotations, it was like, hey, it's go time, let's hit the ground running.
Speaker 2:But as soon as we were done, guys were getting after it with the family. They were going to San Diego, they were going to Disney, all sorts of stuff, and I think they really appreciated it. But that's like I just I didn't want to see guys crumble like I did. And and you know the divorce rate in our community is is no secret it's it's not a good one and luckily I'm still on my first marriage. I'm lucky. I'm super fortunate that my wife has has put up with my bullshit. I mean, so have my kids. But you know, like that that shouldn't happen in our community. And actually I was just talking about that CSM that you know, like I would love to see a much smaller divorce rate in our community. And and, and I think you know, letting the guys put family first and really just just taking care of them, you know, is important. There's a time to train, there's a time to go kick doors, there's a time to be a badass, but you also have to give that same amount of time to your family.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And we got to change the narrative when I was coming in. Family was not talked about, wasn't prioritized. Faith wasn't talked about, wasn't prioritized. Being a father wasn't. It was almost looked down upon. If you prioritize wife and kids and being at home, it wasn't the cool thing. The cool thing was to be the guy that burned it down, went to Red Door, rode around with the team. That was cool. Like, oh, you're going to go spend time with the family. Like, what a lame, what a lame asshole. Like, let's go drink, let's go party. No, no, that's not cool. Let me tell you what cool is.
Speaker 1:You come to work. You are the awesome, dependable teammate. You know your job inside and out. You're always dependable, always know what to do. Time to go home you go straight to your wife. You go straight to your kids. You're there for the games. You're there for Little League. You're there to help your wife with the daily life chores, the house stuff, and when she needs support, you're there for her. That's what's cool, because at the end of the day, this job ends for everybody. It will end for you.
Speaker 1:Who's going to take care of you? I know that the only person that was there for me was my wife, because the moment you leave that team room, you leave that team room they're not coming in and checking in on you. They're not going to be there at the hospital. They're not going to be there checking in and making sure your transition is good. They have a life and a job and a mission to do. The team will always be there when you check in on them and you take care of them, and when they sign out and when they leave, you're going to be there to help them out. But the one person that's going to always be there is your wife.
Speaker 1:Prioritize your marriage. Prioritize building her up, giving her support she needs and listening to her. Because I will tell you, they're the ones that know when shit's about to fall apart, and I say it all the time. If you hear your wife say, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells around you, that's your canary in a coal mine. That's when you say, oh fuck, the next thing is a divorce. The next thing is a catastrophic event. I got to start getting help and she needs help too. That's like one of the things I am super proud about being a part of Special Forces Foundation is that not only focus on you, the Green Beret, but they focus on your family. So if your wife is dealing with anxiety and stress from what you went through or just from the life that she leads because oftentimes our wives are high achievers and they have stressful, freaking lives they're taking care of the kids and they're trying to manage a business yeah, they're stressed out, yeah, they're going through some stuff Be willing to reach out to a nonprofit and not only help to get help for yourself, but get help for your, for your wife, and a lot of nonprofits are starting to understand that and they see that and they're offering dual treatment.
Speaker 1:This episode is brought to you by Titan SARMs. Head on over to titansarmscom and buy a stack today. Use my code, see Denny 10 to get your first stack. I recommend the lean stack to start living your best life. Titan SARMs recommend the lean stack to start living your best life. Tighten arms, no junk, no bullshit, just results. So if you're listening and you know you're struggling and you're having that moment of clarity with your wife where she says, okay, I think we both need help, reach out to special forces foundation. Reach out to a nonprofit. They can help. They can get you things like the ganglion block. So I got to tell you that changed my life, and how did it change yours, man?
Speaker 2:that's the moment I got the injection. I mean I was nervous and my brother is prior military too. We were actually in the Q course together. No way. Yeah, he got injured and I mean he still got his whiskey one certification, so he got the soft medic title, ended up going over to, I believe, uh, logical operations as a medic or CA as a medic for a short time and then he ended up getting out just due to his injuries and other other stuff. He was telling me about it and I'd heard about it, uh, through the SFF, through an event years ago, and he was like Eric, can you get yourself a block? And I was like man, like I.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, there's a lot of people out there selling snake oil. This is not the case with the SGB and, and you know that, the moment the injection hits it is like, oh my God, like it's. It's like you are mellow, you are calm, you get the eye droop no-transcript that just hang out in the left lane. It drives me nuts and I'm trying to get around. I used to have a huge problem with it and then just idiots on the road that were on their cell phones and they didn't care about people around them and that was one of the biggest triggers. I'd have care about people around them and that was one of the biggest triggers I'd have and where I'd feel the most rage. And going to California. Man, let me tell you something Everybody's in a Tesla and everybody's on their little remote control system that Elon has made in the left-hand lane going from Vegas to Barstow, to San Diego, and I was just losing it.
Speaker 2:So after I got that block, I mean I was in my truck. I don't listen to a lot of rap music, but I was in my truck listening to 50 Cent. I was coasting to work. Honestly, I didn't even care if I was five minutes late.
Speaker 2:After I got the block, I was like you know what Cool man? I walked in the next day and one of my guys was like dude, are you on drugs? And I was like no man, I just got a block. And he's like you are real mellow. And I I was like it's, it's part of the process, man, but you have to, you have to top that with therapy. You have to sit down and talk with somebody and go through the process. And I think that's key when you're getting that block, because you you start to be receptive. You're so mellow at that point that you just turn into like listening mode. You know, it's almost I don't know one of those movies where dudes are smoking weed and they're just sitting on the back of the couch and they're just like, yeah, man, like it's, it's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the reason why it works it actually gets you out of that fight or flight. It gets you down to that baseline of true zero and you're more receptive to doing things like engaging in talk therapy. That's why that's like the gateway thing and I just I can't recommend it enough. It is remarkable it's night or day and now there are centers I mean this, the Stelic Center down in, I think, there's one in Tampa, there's several, chicago, right, yeah, chicago, yeah, they are the premier place place. And literally once or twice and it's like, okay, this is true, baseline zero. I don't have to worry about having that exploit.
Speaker 1:And to this day, I used to have those moments of complete rage to the. The amount of times I've pulled a muscle because I've just flexed so hard and tense my own like neck and I'm like, oh fuck, now my next, my next fucked because you get so angry. You think that you just have to just fucking, just blow up. I'm happy to say that's not a reality, that's not something I deal with anymore. Yeah, I'd still get angry. Yeah, I'd still have my days, cause it's journey You're not going to get. Life's not about being perfect, but the days of losing my shit over the smallest inconvenience like no dude, this sucks, whatever you're going through in that moment. But trust me, the greatest thing you can learn is understand that everything dissipates. Whether it's money trouble, whether it's an issue at work, it's an issue with a client, everything dissipates. Your worst day literally is not it's an issue with a client. Everything dissipates. Your worst day literally is not it's locked in Afghanistan, it's locked in Iraq. You can overcome so much. I'm like, dude, this is not the worst day of my life. A cancellation, whatever it is. Whatever you're struggling or dealing with today, understand that it will dissipate. It will pass. Trust me, you don't have to give it so much power. And when you realize that that you're giving that power to it, you're allowing yourself to get so worked up versus you know what.
Speaker 1:I could sit here in my office. I could sit here in my garage, in my woodworking shop, and be pissed about this blade that broke, be pissed about this piece that I just destroyed, or I can leave it here. Take a break and go hang out with my kid. Go and go hang out with my kid, go hang out with my wife and and have them. I'm gonna order pizza. I'm gonna fucking have a great night with my kids and I'm gonna revisit this fucking insanely problematic situation later on down the road where I can see clearly and understand that, like whatever, I'm gonna overcome it.
Speaker 1:But I didn't always have that. I didn't have that clarity. The moment something went wrong, it was like, oh my god, the worst day ever. Like and and I think that's something that all of us in the military experience we we developed this mechanism somewhere along the throughout the course of our career where we have to just explode and be violent and be angry. It's dude, life's too short, and it'll lead it'll literally lead you to your grave, to an early grave hypertension heart issues. You don't want that like.
Speaker 2:You don't fucking need that one of the uh, one of the other things that's really really helped me too is, um, I have kind of removed myself from the military after hours and there is a cigar bar up here that I go to and I and I I have always loved cigars. I mean, even when I was in one road in afghanistan, that's really where I I started to acquire the, to acquire the taste buds, yeah, to take the notes out of those cigars. So I smoked a ton of cigars in the Kunar province and I was in the ACO 2503 for my first deployment, nice. Fast forward to now I'm kind of back on that cigar kick and it's like a hobby no different than bourbon or whiskey or wine.
Speaker 2:And the guys that go into this bar are guys that are oil drillers. There's EMT, firefighters, police, sheriff, just all sorts of just really hardworking guys. And one of those things that I really picked out was you know, some of these dudes have started to open up about their own traumas, their own issues they're dealing with, and we've essentially in this bar created a fellowship, without really saying that it's a fellowship, but like guys can come in there and vent and people just listen, people just listen, and it's right up here in Woodland Park and my buddy owns the bar and a phenomenal dude and it's a place of peace and like you can really just let stuff out and it's. It's nice to hear from a different perspective because, like, as team guys, you know I and you know there's guys who have done way hard, way more hardcore shit than I have. I don't consider myself, you know, hey, like I have this issue, but also understand and realize that other people have experienced this too.
Speaker 2:Like you can't just be a dick, like one of the dudes that's in there, like he was dealing with human trafficking and pedophiles and stuff, and to hear some of the stuff that he's talked about and it's just like, holy crap, dude, like if I saw something like that I would probably have killed that guy and he's like, yeah, he's like I got a badge, I can't just kill the guy. I got to call the guy up and take him in and interrogate him and pull the evidence and look at the evidence and and be exposed to that. And it's like that's a different level of trauma than than just blowing a dude in half, you know, or calling for fire on an objective and walking, you know, walking up to a bunch of dead bodies or, uh, you know, getting an RPG launched at you or or calling a nine line for your buddy, you know, like you're you're dealing with kids in his perspective and so it's like totally different twist. But that's that's really humbled me.
Speaker 2:A lot is sitting down with a lot of those guys and even firefighters. Like if you sit down with some firefighters and see, you know, when they have to, when they, when they've come up to a burning body or they have to carry somebody out of a building, you know it's a whole new twist on on just that trauma piece. Like we all deal with the drawing away. So that's really humbled me over the years. Yeah, man, I started going there and started my own, you know journey to fix myself.
Speaker 1:It's getting plugged into your warrior tribe, and the warrior tribe is vast and it incorporates so many different people, and that's something that all of us need to do Get outside of our little bubble with Green Berets, with veterans, and understand that there are EMTs out there, firefighters, police officers, rig workers those guys are fucking beasts and the amount of every single day is insane. So you can find commonalities, you can find friends that you can sit down with and share experiences and help each other go through it. This episode is also brought to you by Precision Wellness Group. Getting your hormones optimized shouldn't be a difficult task, and Dr Taylor Bosley has changed the game. Head on over to PrecisionWellnessGroupcom, enroll and become a patient today.
Speaker 1:We don't always need the conventional talk therapy model. Yes, I advocate for it, it's helped me greatly. But once you get your your bearings, once you're running, once you're able to go on your own journey, be willing to sit down and hold space for somebody you never know what you can do for somebody by sharing some of the tips, some of the things that you've learned along the way in your mental health journey Help, encourage them to go get help. That's one thing that we need to do more of. By being just a little bit, just a little bit of vulnerability and being willing to share, you can give somebody the courage to get help themselves and that makes our communities better.
Speaker 1:This whole divide, this sectionalism, like we want want to be squared. We want to just be in our little huddle in our little veteran echo chamber and be cordoned off from everybody. Like we need to defeat that. We need to break that myth that we can only find common ground with our veterans in our veteran space. Be willing to talk to people. Be willing to talk to the guy with pink and purple hair.
Speaker 1:Maybe he's not that much of a weirdo, maybe a marine you know, but it's, it's, it's important, man, like when you just described this, some of the old, that stuff's been going on for eons. It's like the barbershop guys you, you go in, you sit down, you talk, you go through your entire day, you talk about what's stressing you out, and then the old guy cutting your hair gives you some old-timer wisdom and you feel better. That stuff still exists, man, we need to be willing to try it. It's important, dude, it's really important. Kudos to you for figuring that out right now.
Speaker 1:Like you're, you're so far ahead of the journey that this is stuff that, literally, if you're, if you're able to hold a local town hall with the guys to be able to give this stuff forward, like this will help the next generation of guys while they're still in the team room, whether they're still seniors in that you know or juniors figuring their stuff out, because we need to prioritize.
Speaker 1:Like giving back the, the pdss of an entire well-lived career is important, it needs to be held, it needs to be done, like before you check out, before you walk out. Like there needs to be that that battalion wide sit down with like, hey, eric's leaving. Eric, give us your PDSS for your entire career and tell us some of the things that you've developed along the way. So I would tell you that's going to go by far. That's going to be more helpful, more influential than any taps class. Is that? That's the truth. We learn more from each other than we do from somebody that pretends to be a transition expert when in reality they were a conventional sergeant major that never held a job and just got a job as a contractor, and now telling you what civilian life's like when he still has a high and tight.
Speaker 2:I wish that, that we would, instead of pushing. You know the tuition assistance. You know college degree in X, y and Z, and then I think the military has done a great job supporting soldiers that want to go to college and really chase their degree and stuff. The tuition assistance is priceless, especially tacked onto a GI bill. If you spend that tuition assistance before you get out of the military and you sell your GI bill, kudos to you. I actually gave mine to both my daughters and I've been using tuition assistance throughout my career. Now I'm almost to the point of getting a degree.
Speaker 2:But to be honest with you, I don't even want to chase that degree because I want to go to a vocational school and I wish the Army this is my gripe with the Army and I brought this up is how come we can't send guys to a vocational school while they're still active? Like, hey, I want to do this six to eight week course and I want to go learn how to do this and get certified in this. Like that should be something that is on the table for anybody. Like you come back from a deployment and it's like, hey, we're going to take leave, we're going to come back. Does anybody want to do this, this, this or this.
Speaker 2:And I think that just this idea of, oh yeah, he's got a, he's got a degree in business administration is not the way to go, because not everybody wants a degree in business administration. Like, do I want to get better educated on my business? Yeah, but guess what? I want certifications in the trades. I want something that says like hey man, this guy is a certified woodworker, he knows exactly what he's doing. He should know how to do this, this, this and this. Hey man, this guy is a certified woodworker, he knows exactly what he's doing, he should know how to do this, this, this and this.
Speaker 2:There's no degree that you're going to get from Harvard or you know CU, where my wife went, or you know some other place that is going to be like, oh yeah, hey, cool, here you go and then like, magically, you just know how to work with your hands. Like there are people who work with their hands very chase those degrees. They want the vocational education and the certifications to go with it. So there's like I've started working on my diesel truck and I've even thought about using my vocational rehab to potentially go to, you know, a diesel mechanic school or a course or something just to just to get better on that, not necessarily meaning to work on other people's cars, but for my own knowledge base, you know. But I think we should offer more of that and we shouldn't hold guys feet to the fire when it comes to promotions and career advancement over a degree. You know from some, you know traditional college. So yeah, that's just my two cents on it it's so true and the trend.
Speaker 1:It's out there, the data shows and it I mean anybody can look it up right now. If you want to become a plumber, electrician, an hvac owner, business owner, you're gonna making money. The world doesn't need any more fucking, half-assed, fucking podcasters Like I'm telling you, like this is not the reality. What people need and what people want and what's going to make you really fucking wealthy if you are passionate about going into it, is trades. The guys are crushing it by buying up HVAC businesses and running them and being a plumber, being an electrician Like one of the most successful green berets we have out. There is a Bayshore plumber. Look them up. Great presence online, social media. The guy is killing it. Killing it as a business owner, as a fucking plumber, something that a lot of people look down upon. But this man built a fucking business that is going to always have customers, that's always going to be profitable and the proof's in the fucking pudding. You can reach out to this guy right now on Instagram, guaranteed he'll hit you back up and give you the pathway to success. Being a small business owner doesn't have to look like this. It doesn't have to look like the guy that that's producing podcasts. It Doesn't have to be the guy that's fucking doing online media stuff. It can be a fucking business owner where it's HVAC. Being an electrician, a handyman Like you can make money out there with your hands and there are resources out there.
Speaker 1:Vocational rehab Please look into it. It can help you out. It can be your pathway. I'm using it for, you know, conventional education because I have a passion for mental health and that's something that I'm going into. I'm on a PhD track, but that doesn't have to be your path. That doesn't have to be your fucking path.
Speaker 1:My path is different, because I found a passion in being able to advocate and talk about this shit because nobody was doing it when I was suffering and I realized that I'm not going to be the doctor. I'm in my forties and my wife's still active duty. We're not going to get stationed anywhere near a brick and mortar medical school. But you know what? I spent a lot of time learning how to manage systems and operations Damn right. I can have something to contribute in the field. So I'm going to go study and I'm going to work my ass off and I do enjoy it.
Speaker 1:That's why it makes sense for me, if it doesn't make sense for you, don't fucking follow it. Don't fall in that trap. Don't fall into the trap of the NBA. It's a great journey for a lot of people, but if you're not passionate about it, don't fucking pursue it. I've seen that more often than not, guys hear how successful others are doing it or are in that field by following and getting their MBA, so they just jump right into it and then a few years later, like I fucking hate this shit. I want to go do photography, I want to do video journalism. Like, take the time to explore what you like and what you're passionate about, then dive into figuring it out. I mean, it's not going to be too late, it's just your. Your path is going to take a little bit longer.
Speaker 2:I wish guys would really take the time to explore it, and I wish the Army would give them the time to explore it. Exactly, I was worried about coming back from Fort Irwin, based off of the, you know, after leaving into, my old Instagram account got zooked. Yeah, I was almost at, I think, 9,000 followers and I was pretty close to getting that. I really wanted to hit that 10 K mark, but the last four years has kind of contributed to why that account got zooked, which, hey, whatever, I'll restart, I'll keep going. But I was worried about, you know, coming back and not getting, not having any business because I'd just been gone for so long. And so there were people there are still people that are reaching out and they're like, hey, man, I was on your wait list, like, can you still do this? And the amount that I have made?
Speaker 2:My last month before I PCS to her when I was finishing stuff up my last three months, I was dwarfing my army paycheck three times over every month and so, like word to the wise for these guys who don't know what they want to do when they get out, like, you can make some serious money running your own business and really do something great for yourself. Don't be ashamed to try or to fail. Failure equates to growth. There's that saying in our community don't trust a man who's never failed.
Speaker 2:I've heard that so many times from warrant officers and first sergeant majors. You guys have to branch out, try something new and and fail once or twice to realize, okay, this isn't the way that this needs to go. Um, but even coming back, um, I mean this month alone or, I'm sorry, last month in july, I mean I, I made, I made 10k, even with a busted up wing, and I'm still trying to push through and make some of those smaller items that people have ordered, and and that's just like I stopped taking orders because I got to heal, like I gotta let my bicep heal. I had a full, I knew you were still working.
Speaker 1:I knew as soon as you sent me that info. I was like yeah, I know, this motherfucker is still doing work rather than just healing but it's soothing, honest to god, it is soothing and it and it feels good.
Speaker 2:You know I'm not lifting anything heavy. I'm taking just the small pieces of wood to make a yarborough holders, pretty much. You know all the all the regimental crests, but that's what I'm working on right now. Because it's a lightweight item, I can run it on my scroll saw. I'm not shoving sheets of plywood through my my table saw or anything. And you know, I, I just like I have the drive to do it, I want to do it.
Speaker 2:But you know, yeah, these guys like I mean they can make some serious money and there's, there's so many ideas. There's that quote I can't remember who said it, but it was like how many ideas go to the grave because people are too timid to step up and try to try to try something new. I mean there's doctors, lawyers, there's, there's people who could have changed the whole of society and they just were too scared to to take a chance, take a step and be something more than than what they are in their current position. Just to the guys out there, if you want to try to start a business or you need help with that, there's so many resources. Reach out to me. I'll tell you how I started it and how big the struggle was. But once you hit that point, I'm making good money on the side and it's a ton of fun. I'm not doing it for the money. I'm doing it because I love woodwork. I genuinely am passionate about woodwork. But yeah, that's what I got for that.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of work, man. I'll be honest, if I haven't, you'll have moments of I lean a lot on prayer. There's a lot of times where it's like, fuck man, like I just want to be able to get decent sleep. Can I just get a few more hours of sleep? But I tell you, the greatest thing, the greatest gift I ever had, was the ability to see.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes we see a door close and we think to ourselves fuck man, I failed again. But we don't realize that God's closing doors that aren't meant for us and we got to be grateful for that. So if you're out there and you're struggling and you feel like you're just a fucking underdog and you're just failing, maybe you're not failing man. Maybe it wasn't the right opportunity. Because I will tell you, it's okay to fail, it's okay to not get picked up for a job, it's okay to not get the next round of interviews. Man, I will tell you, I've had the same crisis, I've had the same issues. It's like, fuck man, I just wish this would work out and this work out. And then I stop. I've refocused, I come up off glass, I re, I look at the entire range fan and I realized, oh shit, I do have something good to be happy for and be grateful for. I've got all these things lined up and, in reality, this, what I thought would be an opportunity, that's going to that. Should that would probably be become an obsession or a hassle and that would take my eyes completely off the main mission and my main target. So, yeah, okay, maybe God was looking out for me. And then, just as soon as you start picking back upstream, I'm telling you another opportunity is going to come your way. You're going to be like oh shit, this is the thing, this is the thing I needed.
Speaker 1:It's society and social media warps it and we tend to think that everybody's fucking doing great and crushing it and they're way further than you are. Focus on your own race, focus on your own lane. If you need to block, delete, unfollow motherfuckers that you're just obsessing over, thinking that they're doing better than you, because, trust me, we all want to see you succeed. If you're a veteran out there, if you're in the trenches, I want you to succeed. I don't care if you succeed and make you're bigger than me. I want you to fucking hit that mark. I want you to get your wildest dreams and make them come true, like I am championing and rooting for all of you. If you're struggling, no, it's going to get better, man, it's going to get better. You just have to keep your head down. Just know that it's going to get better, man.
Speaker 2:Eric, go ahead, go ahead yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say that my career did not go the way that I wanted it to. There was a lot of things that I was reaching for, I was striving for and you know to the younger guys out there, like there are, there are going to be disappointments in your career that you know. You're going to have this mindset that you know, hey, I'm going to be this, this is the green beret that I'm going to be, or this is the soldier that I'm going to be, and you're, you're going to have disappointments, that you know. Like I wanted SOTAC, I mean, part of the reason that I wanted to become a Green Beret was because I was an RTO in Afghanistan and I had seen a couple SF operations happen and it was insane and I was like, oh my God, I want to be one of those guys and I thought when I earned my Green Beret that I was going to be sliding down a rope, kicking doors, shooting Terry Taliban in the face and just call of duty. And it ended up not the case at all and I don't think that that was disappointing.
Speaker 2:But I wanted to go on some awesome operations. I wanted to get certain schools and I didn't get to go back to Afghanistan, I didn't get to go to SOTAC and those were some of the big things that I was going for. Now I did get Sephardic and that was like one of the highlights of my career, but there's a lot of things that I wanted. So it's like if you're, if you're, engulfed in this idea that, like this is how my career is going to go, like you got to understand that, like you can't control your experiences and then finding that hobby outside of the militaries is absolutely going to help you. So that's, that's my, that's my last piece of advice.
Speaker 1:I think you were about to say that we're yeah, we're closing up here, but that was, that was perfect. That's exactly what I was going to ask you to share. Yeah, we're in sync, dude, awesome. Yeah, that's fucking perfect, man like it. It's when, if you're listening in your, you know the sun has set on my career years ago and the sun is rapidly approaching. You know the sun is setting on yours, eric, and for those of you and the sun is rapidly approaching, you know the sun is setting on yours, eric, and for those of you that the sun is rising on your career, understand that it's an incredible journey. You're going to have ups and downs. You're going to experience remarkable things, amazing things.
Speaker 1:Stop trying to live up to the experience that you read or saw in a movie or saw in a social media post by somebody that, come to find out, was just a complete fucking loser like. Your experience is yours. Be happy for it. Be willing to experience it as it's happening and unfolding. Man like, because if you're trying to live up to an expectation or hoping it's like a movie, you're gonna miss it on the greatest moments. You're going to miss it on those moments with your teammates where you're being brought into the fold, where you're no longer considered a new guy, now you're a senior. There's a thousand times, a thousand experiences I wasn't fucking present for and unfortunately now I'm just just now reliving. Experiencing like wow, that moment was great, I wasn't even present for it. And experiencing like wow, that moment was great, I wasn't even present for it.
Speaker 1:Don't be like countless Green Berets and service members that have come before you and are now trying to desperately decipher those memories. Be present, enjoy your journey and understand that your journey is yours. You don't have to, it doesn't have to be like anybody else's. You get to experience it right now, in this moment, every single day, when you put on that uniform, when you go to work, you get to have that moment of being that great leader, being that great NCO, being that great fucking Green Beret, ranger, paratrooper, whatever you are. Live it. Be thrilled that you're getting to have this opportunity, because at some point, the sun will set on your career too, because at some point, the sun will set on your career too. Eric, I can't thank you enough for being here, for being an amazing artisan and ambassador to other great green berets that are willing to dive into this field. If people want to check out your work, where can they go?
Speaker 2:So if you go to my Instagram page, house Gilganist Woodworks, maine, I have a link to my website. Or just go to housegilganistwoodworkscom. House is spelled German H-A-U-S. My family all comes from Germany so I figured it was fitting, especially being a woodworker. And then I am on Facebook. That's more of a personal type platform. But yeah, those two sites Instagram and my website are where you can do that, and if they do want to put it in order, please do it through the website. It's easier to track. It's actually a page that comes out from the website and you know that's that's where I can take the order. A lot of stuff gets mixed in the messages and Instagram and if you sent me a message and said you wanted something, I probably already lost it. So that's the unfortunate reality and I'll probably tell you to just go to my website. But yeah, that's that's where it's at Heck, yeah, for tech and you can pause right now.
Speaker 1:Go to episode description and all that information is right there for you. So go online, find some woodwork, some ideas, make them elaborate, make them insanely intricate and then send it to my man. He'll make it for you, but for a fair fucking price. Don't, little ball the man that's amateur hour. Be willing to pay for amazing artwork because that's what you're getting. Be willing to pay for amazing artwork because that's what you're getting. Be willing to pay, eric, thank you for being here to everybody listening. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1:I'm asking for one more favor head on over to spotify apple podcast. Leave us a five-star review, hit up the likes to share subscribes and, uh, let us know what you liked about this episode. Right now, if you're listening to it on spotify, you can click the new feature, or you can send me a text, tell me what you think of of Eric's awesome beard and his woodwork, or just say, hey, I don't like woodworking, I think you should pick up metalworking, I don't know. Whatever you want to do, whatever Doesn't matter, just send it to us. It helps me with the algorithm and I love reading and getting your feedback. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll see you all next time. Until then, take care.
