Million-Dollar Contracts and Sweet Potatoes: Purpose Over Comfort

[00:00:11] Speaker A: Welcome to Life, Liberty and Equip Podcast. I'm Greg Davis, founder of NeoMag and a firm believer that life is worth living boldly. Liberty should be used for good. We all have a calling to be equipped to pursue it. Every week we explore what it means to live with intention and carry the tools and mindset that prepare us for whatever comes. We'll dive into topics around the freedoms we cherish, the gear we trust, and the skills that equip us. This is more than a podcast. It's a mission. Life, Liberty and equipped to pursue it. Let's get started. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Such good theme music. [00:00:44] Speaker A: I like it. [00:00:44] Speaker B: We're doing good. [00:00:46] Speaker A: We're coming to you live on the NeoMag YouTube channel, Instagram and Facebook accounts and we'll be bringing your live comments into the conversation today. If you're listening to the recorded podcast, you can catch us every Wednesday at 1pm Eastern and be a part of the live. We have multiple ways to get involved. You can get involved with us on our Discord server. Nate's putting a link in the chat. I'll have it in the show Notes on the on the podcast for that Discord. You can join us on there. If you're part of the NeoMag Insiders club, we'll have a discount code ready for you later in the show. When we get to the Equip segment, Insiders Club is free to join and you'll get access to exclusive episodes. We have one coming next week to be which kind of cool we're excited about. And you're going to get access to discounts and more. You can sign up using the pop up on our website when you go to thenomag.com also hosting with me today is Nate Hills, right here in the blue shirt to My left is Mr. Michael Billings and joining us on the other screen is our friend Tiberius Giblin. How you guys doing today? [00:01:49] Speaker C: Doing fantastic. [00:01:50] Speaker B: It's a good day. [00:01:50] Speaker C: It's a good day. What's going on, Everybody? Can't complain, Mr. Bartlett. Welcome to the YouTube chats. We got Jay Bata saying hello from Instagram. Hey, Jbata, what's going on everybody? [00:02:06] Speaker A: Hey. So the three of us kind of introduced ourselves last week. Tib, do you want to give a quick intro? Obviously we just said your name but what do you do here at NeoMag and where are you now? [00:02:18] Speaker D: So I my title is business Development Executive. Fancy, fancy. [00:02:23] Speaker C: So fancy. [00:02:26] Speaker D: I do a lot of dealer sales. I do Amazon sales and everything that goes along with dealer and Amazon sales. Would Be the short description of my. Of my job. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Very short. It's a lot more. A lot more to it. To those things. A lot of people just do one of those things. You've got your hands full doing those things. You also kind of get shows. If we go to shows and stuff. You kind of get those things organized and booked and all that stuff. And now I've also thrown on podcast. Podcast host onto that resume. [00:03:09] Speaker B: YouTube famous. [00:03:10] Speaker A: But yeah, really the biggest thing is he's YouTube famous. [00:03:13] Speaker C: Go check out his YouTube. Tiberius Giblin. He is YouTube famous. If you didn't know. [00:03:18] Speaker D: Best zealous. You best Z list guntuber. You know well. [00:03:23] Speaker C: And unfortunately, Tib can't see this. We can. John evil twin asked, why is he talking funny? And if we. If you're curious, we know who John is. John may or may not work here. Yes. Yes, he did. What, do you do that on Instagram? No, Facebook. Hi, John. Hope you're doing well today, bud. [00:03:44] Speaker B: That's funny. [00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Tib is coming to us from the very small Knot island of Rhode Island. [00:03:51] Speaker C: It's not even a peninsula. [00:03:52] Speaker A: It's. It's ridiculous. Rhode Island's just ridiculous in so many ways. [00:03:56] Speaker D: Terrible roads, terrible drivers. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Terrible drivers, terrible alls. Amazing lobster rolls, though. [00:04:04] Speaker D: Mm, yeah, that's true. [00:04:06] Speaker C: Just amazing seafood in general. [00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So good. [00:04:09] Speaker C: My mic is so low. You can move it up, but can I. It's. It's hiding things. I have to move it up. [00:04:16] Speaker A: This is uncomfortable. Yeah, we gotta have good posture. All right, so I actually have some segues this week. We're gonna. These might change as we go along. If you guys have suggestions on things that go along with these segments. The first segment is life. I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy die. Nice. All right. [00:04:44] Speaker C: We're so fancy. [00:04:45] Speaker A: So fancy. So you guys know a movie that's from. [00:04:48] Speaker C: Well, I do now. [00:04:49] Speaker A: I just told Nate before this I do now tape. You know what movie the movie that's from? [00:04:54] Speaker D: I forgot. [00:04:55] Speaker C: You already forgot. [00:04:57] Speaker A: Michael, do you know what movie that's from? [00:04:58] Speaker B: Nope. [00:04:59] Speaker A: You forgot. To Shawshank Redemption. One of the greatest movies. [00:05:02] Speaker C: Classic. [00:05:03] Speaker B: We were busy. [00:05:04] Speaker C: If you're curious, that was filmed just south of us. Yeah, a little bit at the Mansfield Reformatory. They now do tours and that kind of stuff. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Haunted houses. [00:05:14] Speaker C: It's weird from here. So great. [00:05:16] Speaker A: Great movie. If you haven't seen it. [00:05:17] Speaker C: Fantastic. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Still holds up. It's great. [00:05:19] Speaker C: Morgan Freeman's in it. [00:05:20] Speaker A: So I was just trying to think. Yeah, I was. I Was trying to think of. Trying to think of any clip that has life. I was not very picky. What was going to be in that. Just something that has a word, life in it or living in this case. Our first segment is about life. So our mission statement is life, liberty and equipped to pursue it. And so each podcast we have a segment based on each of those things in the mission statement. So yeah, just as far as life. What's. What's going on with you guys? Anything? [00:05:55] Speaker C: My lawnmower broke this week, so I found out. [00:05:58] Speaker A: So like the money just bought last year. [00:06:00] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's not like an engine thing. So I found out. I mowed on Sunday. So we got back from. Or we had like a bunch of. I had a bunch of yard work stuff to do. And there's. I have a large mower, I have a lot of yard to mow, a couple acres and I have a large mower. So I have a. I think it's a 64 inch deck, three large blades on it. So it's not small. And there's three bolts in the top of the spindles that come up from the bottom of the blades. Right. And I've had ones that have gotten loose in the past. You know, it's a big spinning thing with just a bolt on the top of it. It gets loose and I knew the one had been loose. So I open it up, tighten it down before I started. And I'd been mowing in the yard and made some more noise. So I got. I opened it back up and I tightened it down and I mowed it my entire yard. Went back to my dad's house, dropped it off because my dad's storing it in his barn. I don't have a barn on the property yet. And he texted me yesterday or the day or Monday. I can't remember which day. Sent me a picture and. And the bolt head is gone entirely sheared off the top. [00:07:13] Speaker A: Nice. [00:07:15] Speaker C: He had tried to mow because we're sharing it. He can mow as well. And I found out. I went and found a couple of the parts from the top. The bolt headed sheared off. There's a plate sits between the bolt and the top of that spindle that came up and I basically mowed my entire yard with that broken off is what I found out. So I got to call the folks that we bought it from. They've got a full shop and everything, see if I can't get a replacement spindle. Hopefully hoping that I can just get a replacement part. I don't need to bring it into them because I can, I think I can replace it. I just need to get the part. It is a commercial mower though, so I don't think I can just like they have to order the part. It's not going to be just easily picked up anywhere. [00:08:04] Speaker A: But like, I'm at your local tsc. [00:08:06] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:08:07] Speaker B: But did the yard look good? [00:08:08] Speaker C: Oh, yard looks great. Even with it broken off, it's still mowed. Mowed great. You had no idea. But it was a bummer. So. [00:08:16] Speaker A: So I have a lawnmower story go mine. My push mower died the other week. [00:08:21] Speaker C: Which stupid. [00:08:22] Speaker A: It is stupid. I have a pretty small front yard, so I. I usually have one of my kids push mow the front yard while I hop on my zero turn and I ride and mow the backyard. And so my son was. He was. He started up the other day and like, you know when you, when you first start up a gas engine, it's kind of loping. It's kind of like. It doesn't sound real good, but usually kind of spools up and goes. Well, it just kind of kept sounding like it was trying to get. Trying to get started. So I run up to the front yard and I'm like, hey, this doesn't sound right. But he had mowed like half the yard with it by then. Like, all right. It was kind of sputtering smoke. And what I realized was, so I've had that mower. I bought it when we bought our last house. I had that thing for probably at least 15 or more years. I don't think I ever once added oil. Changed oil. Yeah, that'll do it, dude. Did anything. No maintenance to it. It had a hole in the deck that would shoot stuff out of it. [00:09:22] Speaker C: Oh, good. [00:09:23] Speaker A: So usually what you let happen is that the grass would just kind of clog it up. Oh yeah, perfect. That's perfect. You could see the blades through the hole and it was shooting stuff of it. So maybe it's a good thing that it died. [00:09:33] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure that's. That's could be considered child like neglect by having your kid mow with it. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Never showed. Shot anything. It never shot anything at you. It was on the, in the mower there. [00:09:45] Speaker D: What could go wrong though? [00:09:46] Speaker A: But hey, just if, if you have gas powered things, change the oil, change oil, add oil, anything would have been. [00:09:54] Speaker C: Would have been any maintenance, any maintenance. [00:09:56] Speaker A: At all would have been good. [00:09:57] Speaker C: Any of that stuff. [00:09:58] Speaker B: That's funny. We put gas in it. We did. We put gas oh, yeah. [00:10:00] Speaker A: Always put gas in it. [00:10:01] Speaker B: Always put gas in it. [00:10:02] Speaker D: Ain't got no gas. [00:10:04] Speaker C: I know what's wrong with it. Ain't got no gas in it. [00:10:09] Speaker B: Oh, man. So the zero turns. I have a little quick story with the. [00:10:13] Speaker A: With the lawnmower chat today. [00:10:16] Speaker B: So we had a landscaping business, you know, dad, I was child, child service. Labor laws didn't matter. We were cutting grass, Right. But the zero turn, you know, if you start to turn and you just nudge that one tire forward, you'll spin that back tire. [00:10:30] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:10:31] Speaker B: Every time the grass. And I'd be hot dogging it fast, trying to get the yard done and spinning a tire. Leave a little tire, right? No, my dad would pop a top. You know, it's one of those things. It's like, no, you're gonna stop, back up on the concrete, turn around, and then go forward. [00:10:46] Speaker C: Always be gentle. Always be gentle. You can't. Can't spin real fast because you always leave a tire rut. Always a thing. [00:10:52] Speaker B: But I know both of you have popped a wheelie with your lawnmower. [00:10:56] Speaker C: Oh, I can lift my whole back. My lawnmower's got enough power in it because I can mow it like 17 miles an hour. [00:11:05] Speaker D: Wow. [00:11:05] Speaker C: Oh, it's got. It's got some good get up and go. If I go from just sitting still to full blast blast, the whole thing will lift up and you'll see all three blades spinning. It's terrifying. [00:11:18] Speaker D: It's kind of scary. [00:11:19] Speaker C: It is. It's fun, but it's terrifying. [00:11:23] Speaker B: That's actually pretty funny. [00:11:24] Speaker C: It's. I've. I have done it on accident. I've only done it once, but I've done it on accident for sure. [00:11:28] Speaker B: It's a good thing my dad's not listening to podcasts because I may or may not have, you know, reverse. Put it forward popularly. [00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Hey, Bob. [00:11:34] Speaker A: It's fine if he hasn't talked, though. That's. [00:11:36] Speaker B: He's got two now, so he's just in case one has a hole in it or he doesn't do any maintenance. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Ask if he puts oil in it. Make sure he puts oil in it. [00:11:46] Speaker C: I'm sure he did. I think that's an exclusively you thing, buddy. [00:11:51] Speaker A: That was laziness is what that was. Speaking of, not lazy. So this last week has been crazy for me. So our church does a youth program at a church camp about almost an hour away. It's like 50 some minutes, odd minutes down there. And so they've been down there all week. I'VE been driving down every evening since Sunday, and I will through Friday, going down and playing guitar, singing, doing worship in the band for them. And so it's. Honestly, it's a beautiful drive down there. Nate's been down there. It's a beautiful drive. [00:12:25] Speaker C: It's an amazing spot. [00:12:26] Speaker A: I don't. I don't mind the drive at all. It's opportunities to put on music or a podcast or whatever and kind of catch up and zone out a little bit and then get down there and I get to worship with, like, I don't know, 100 some very energetic middle schoolers, which is. Which is a lot of fun, and then drive back. I don't get back home till, like 11 something. By the time I shower, wind down and all that. It's been later, so I've been coming in a little bit later this week too, but. But, man, it's. It's. It's been really amazing just to go down and kind of catch up with them. I just kind of catch. I literally catch like an hour of their whole day. You know, they're doing. They're doing programming the whole day, and it kind of like leads up to this big moment in the evening for the service. I get to kind of be there and catch that. So that's really cool. I'm also getting ready to go on vacation next week, which I'm looking forward to. So this week's just been busy because I'm trying to get caught up. We ended up deciding yesterday to delay a product launch. We were going to do this week to next week. [00:13:28] Speaker C: Be on the lookout for next week. [00:13:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So next week we have a new product launch, and it's going to be a party. [00:13:35] Speaker D: Greg not here, by the way. [00:13:36] Speaker C: Oh, of course. [00:13:37] Speaker A: I hope so. For sure. [00:13:38] Speaker C: Strobes, you know, clubbing, music, all that stuff. I'll be in charge of the soundboard. [00:13:45] Speaker D: Techno. Well, for you it'd be like emo techno. [00:13:48] Speaker C: Of course. [00:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah. That'd be like video game technical techno. Like, take video games. Like, like, you love these mashup things. No. Yeah, like, you love these mashup things. Like, you'll take, like, Christmas music and like, turn it techno. You'll take video game soundtracks and, like, turn it techno. [00:14:08] Speaker C: He's not wrong. [00:14:09] Speaker A: And yeah, like, it's fun. You'll take a genre and you mash it with a different genre. I don't say anything's wrong with it. [00:14:14] Speaker C: But yeah, it's good. [00:14:15] Speaker A: Sounds like something you do. [00:14:16] Speaker B: That's exactly right. We need lasers. [00:14:19] Speaker A: Lasers. [00:14:20] Speaker C: Laser beams. Sharks and lasers. [00:14:22] Speaker B: Lasers, yeah. [00:14:25] Speaker A: Mike, what's going on with you? [00:14:26] Speaker B: Um, yeah, so we kind of talked about this pre show, but it was like, what am I doing in life right now? And I guess the big focus is kind of shifting back to. I've been shooting a lot this year was kind of a big focus, trying to push for masterclass. And we have been busy. We have been on the range shooting. We've been on the range training. But a lot of times for us it is. It's work, you know, it's not so much that we get the time to train and shoot. So getting to shoot these matches was great. I got my first major in, did exceptionally well for leveling up in my class, and now it's getting ready for the next major. I went ahead and bit the bullet this morning, signed up for my next major next weekend in Michigan. Super excited about that one. There's going to be some amazing shooters out there, some of our close friends too, that I'm super excited about. Just shooting amongst good people. And the fellowship aspect of it, that's one thing I guess I don't touch on enough or I guess this is a good platform to do that is the shooting matches. Like it's a fellowship. Like you become friends with people at these local matches that extend so much further out. And I love that aspect of it. Not just the shooting part. This past weekend I shot exceptionally well, super well. But I had more fun hanging out with the guys. Like we were laughing, joking around, Like I was going up to the stage as the ro. They're like, hey, do you want a couple extra minutes to walk the stage? I was like, I'm good. I'm just gonna shoot it, you know. And that part of it was just like, even if I missed through a mic or hit a double tap, the no chute, it was fine. Like, it was like rubbed it off, kept going, the guys had a good time and I really love that aspect of it. So I'm gonna go into the majors. Not doubling tap a nose shoot, not. Not throwing a mic or hitting the blacks, but I'm going to go there. And then the last part of it was skydiving. I have been skydiving now for many years and when I moved here to Ohio, it was a cold welcome, not so much a warm welcome. And there was. [00:16:15] Speaker C: He's talking about the weather, not his welcome. [00:16:20] Speaker B: To. Literally, to rephrase that, the welcome with NeoMag was great. Absolutely. They fed me tacos, I had tacos for lunch, but it was a cold welcome to the environment from Florida. So I wasn't able to skydive, and life just got busy. So now getting to get back in the plane, get out this weekend, I've got two guys, their birthdays, they've never skydived. They want to skydive. So I'm getting friends to jump out of the plane. So I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be a fun part of fellowship as well. And maybe somebody will pee their pants or throw up. We'll see. Not me, though. [00:16:48] Speaker A: I'm good. [00:16:49] Speaker B: I'm set. But let's see. [00:16:50] Speaker C: I like that. That's the goal. [00:16:51] Speaker B: Let's see how maybe both at the. [00:16:53] Speaker D: Same time people do people often pee their pants when they skydive? [00:16:55] Speaker B: I. I don't know, but I'm kind of curious to see, like, I'm hoping, like, I can psych these guys out on the way and be like, yeah, you know, you only. You only fall once, you know, like, if the shoot doesn't deploy, just kind of startle them up a little bit. So I've been giving them a hard time this week to trying to prep their. Their souls for jumping out of plane at 14,000ft. [00:17:12] Speaker A: That sounds fun. [00:17:13] Speaker C: Very, very high. Nope, you've already jumped. [00:17:16] Speaker A: You've jumped out of planes. Yeah. [00:17:17] Speaker B: You gotta do it. [00:17:18] Speaker C: But now I've fallen out of a plane. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Well, that's kind of what this works at. [00:17:21] Speaker C: A thousand feet? Yeah, a thousand feet is much closer to the ground than 14,000. [00:17:26] Speaker A: I think that would make me more nervous. [00:17:28] Speaker C: You're in the air for, like, 60 seconds. It's not. It's if. If that. And then it's so quick. [00:17:33] Speaker A: Yeah. It's either you do or you die. Listen, you're at 14. At least. I don't know. [00:17:38] Speaker B: I got some time. [00:17:38] Speaker A: At least maybe you have some time to try to figure things out. [00:17:40] Speaker B: I can find a pod. [00:17:41] Speaker C: You're out of the plane. By the time you're like, I'm in the air. You're like, oh, I'm in the ground. It's done. [00:17:46] Speaker A: It's. [00:17:47] Speaker B: But literally, like, smack in the ground, right? [00:17:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:50] Speaker C: I mean, it's not a big deal. [00:17:50] Speaker B: At least with these, you don't have to hit so hard, you know, you just come jump again. [00:17:54] Speaker C: Nope. You can. Good. I'm good. [00:17:57] Speaker B: Tips. [00:17:57] Speaker A: What are you saying? Yeah. [00:17:59] Speaker D: I've never done it. I'd love to. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Yes. Next trip to Ohio, sign me up. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Next time you're out here. [00:18:03] Speaker C: All right. [00:18:03] Speaker A: At Christmas time. [00:18:04] Speaker B: Hey, we're going to get Greg to jump too. [00:18:05] Speaker C: You guys should definitely do that. Sounds fun for you. Jump. [00:18:08] Speaker A: We can jump with the snow. [00:18:12] Speaker B: It's kind of cold. [00:18:13] Speaker D: September, October. [00:18:15] Speaker C: Tib, you can dress up like Santa Claus. [00:18:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:18:19] Speaker C: Santa jumper costumes are allowed. [00:18:22] Speaker D: Ugly Santa, ugly sweater. [00:18:25] Speaker A: Anything going on with YouTube? [00:18:29] Speaker D: Mostly this week just kind of catch up. So. I was lucky and blessed enough to go on a beautiful vacation last week with my wonderful family and it was absolutely lovely. One of the best vacations we've ever had. So this week for me, nothing too exciting. More just catching up. And then. You guys remember that cart? Ever see that cartoon where the person's digging a hole and the dirt's going back in the hole? [00:18:54] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:18:55] Speaker D: As they dig. That's how I feel this week. I'm like. And you know, not catching up. But I'm getting there. I'm getting there. [00:19:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:03] Speaker D: And then my daughter's getting her license tomorrow, which is absolutely terrifying. Exciting. I'm happy for her. It's a one of those major milestones in a kid's life. But yeah, it's just scary, you know? [00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:21] Speaker C: She's got it, man. Yeah. It's no big deal. She's a responsible kid. [00:19:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:27] Speaker D: I'm not, I'm not so much worried about like the drinking and driving and that side of it. I'm definitely not worried about that with her. It's just more, you know, inexperienced driver. You, you, there's a lot of things you're still learning and just, you just want them to be safe and that's all. [00:19:42] Speaker A: You know. [00:19:43] Speaker C: That's fair. That's fair. [00:19:45] Speaker B: It's all the other drivers out there nowadays. And the turn doesn't help. [00:19:49] Speaker C: Well, especially in all of our jokes. Rhode island does truly, if you look up at the statistics, have like what? I think it's the second worst drivers in the US Is it Tib? [00:19:57] Speaker A: Right. [00:19:58] Speaker D: It depends on what, where you look at the ranking. But we're always in the bottom three to five. [00:20:03] Speaker A: Always. [00:20:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's the other drivers in Rhode island more so than Kinsey, that you have to worry about. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:11] Speaker B: Ty Boomer says driving is a completely different sport. Sorry. Tip. [00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:20:18] Speaker D: And we are in a tourist town, so there's always a lot of people coming and going and on vacation and so. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool. Well, always lots going on and we're, we're kind of, kind of starting to wrap up the summer here. I try to get some last minute vacations in and don't say that. I know I'm ready for fall. I'm, I'm already thinking about hunting. I'm thinking about cooler weathers. [00:20:44] Speaker C: I mean, I'm hunting. [00:20:45] Speaker B: Sounds great. [00:20:46] Speaker A: Think about football. Hockey. Hockey. I love falling. [00:20:51] Speaker C: I mean, I love the fall. Don't get me wrong, I love the fall, but I've been enjoying this summer quite a bit. We just got a new patio set. My grandmother in law. Yeah, that would be right. My grandmother in law just moved up here to a. It's not technically assisted living. You know, one of those where she lives in an apartment. She doesn't actually need help really, but there's help available to her up here. And she just got a new patio set last summer. Ours we just realized was like at the tail end. Bethany sat down and it was kind of a weaved material and it kind of started to separate in the center. So we're like, okay, this is. We're at the tail end of that. And she's like, oh well, you can just have the one I bought last summer. I was like, sweet. And it's basically a couch and everything. It's super nice. So that just got to our house this past weekend and it's really nice. So I've been sitting on the back patio every single night with that. [00:21:48] Speaker A: It's been awesome. I tried to do it the other night. Well, I. So I did. I have been sitting outside, but I tried to the other night I was like, I'm gonna start a fire. Like I, I was too hot for a fire, dude. I started that fire and I was like, I was like 15ft away from it. It's too hot. And I was. And I was just sweating and I'm like, I'm gonna stick it next to this fire. I'm gonna enjoy this fire. Me and Libby, I mean she was 10ft away. Cuz she's a little bit more of a freeze baby than me. But we're. I think she was sweating too. I'm like 15ft away from this fire. Honestly, by the time it got like dark dark, I was able to be within eight feet of it. Yeah. But I just, that's why I can't wait for fall. I can't wait to start a fire and actually be able to sit next to the fire because it was way too hot. [00:22:30] Speaker B: Yeah, the hiking outdoors right now is just. You're drenching sweat. You want to go back? [00:22:35] Speaker A: I've been trying to mountain bike more and it's just, it's nasty. [00:22:37] Speaker C: Our friend Stephen on YouTube says fall for the win. He agrees with you. [00:22:40] Speaker A: Yes. [00:22:40] Speaker B: I like the fall, just not the. [00:22:41] Speaker C: Way I mean, I love that. I do. I love the fall. The fall is great. [00:22:44] Speaker A: Unfortunately, it's like days long. [00:22:47] Speaker C: Let's say our fall, I feel like, is never, it's never long. We have most years, September is still summer, like in terms of weather. And then we have October, like three weeks in October that are fall and November's hit or miss, whether it's fall or winter. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Well, and Christmas, you never know if it's going to still be fall or it can go later. Like, I think Christmas last, last year, Christmas wasn't like 60 degrees on Christmas last year. [00:23:15] Speaker D: Yeah, but we also like 60 something. [00:23:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:17] Speaker C: Yeah, but we had also already had winter because when I was hunting, the week of it was cold. [00:23:23] Speaker A: It rotates between winter and fall. [00:23:26] Speaker C: Yeah, because when I was hunting, it was 11 degrees outside when I was hunting, like I have a picture of my beard frozen, like icicles hanging off my beard. So it just depends all over the place, but. [00:23:40] Speaker A: All right, let's head into our next segment. [00:23:42] Speaker C: Do it. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Liberty. Give me liberty. Oh, give me death. Well said. [00:23:54] Speaker C: Two arms. [00:23:56] Speaker A: So, liberty segment here. I came across a story this last week about this, about a football player named Jason Brown. So Jason Brown was the highest paid center in NFL history, but in 2012, he walked away from a 37 and a half million dollar contract, a lot of money, after feeling called by God to start a farm in North Carolina with no farming experience. He taught himself using YouTube, which is awesome, and started First Fruits Farm, where he donates all of his crops to feed the hungry. In the first year alone, he gave away £130,000 of food. Jason believes true greatness comes from serving others. So we talked about last week maybe using some would you rather questions and I thought, would you rather question kind of based around the story. Would you rather have a life of comfort but never feel content or live out of your comfort zone and feel full contentment? [00:24:56] Speaker C: So it's an interesting question. Feeling non. Not so. I mean, my immediate answer is live out of my comfort zone and feel full contentment. Because not being content sucks. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:13] Speaker C: Like feeling not content with your circumstances or not content in life is just a lousy place to be. Um, I've been in a. I've been in that place a couple times where you're really just struggling to find contentment. You're just struggling. Everything just doesn't feel good. Which I would say is actually more out of comfort. Like, I don't know how. I actually, I almost feel like the question, how could you be comfortable? Yeah, I don't feel like you could be comfortable. [00:25:41] Speaker A: Well, so I think by comfort here I mean like financially. [00:25:44] Speaker C: Sure. [00:25:44] Speaker A: Right. So I mean, in Jason Brown's case, he walked away from, from 37 and a half million dollars. So clearly he has plenty of other money because he spent 25 million or so on this. On this. I don't think it was in the description there, but down the story, I think it says he spent like 25 million. [00:25:59] Speaker D: 25 million, yeah. [00:26:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And bought a farm. So clearly I doubt he emptied his bank. Bank account. But regardless. Well, still. [00:26:07] Speaker C: Right. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Like, you know, he could have stayed and lived the Gucci life in some mansion, having multiple mansions places and. Yeah. And make all this money, but he walked away from that. So clearly for him, we know his answer to this. But I think I want to agree with you and that I would choose, and I do think in some ways I do choose that I could definitely spend money on other creature comforts and stuff that I choose not to. And part of that is just because there's a lifestyle creep. Sure. That, you know, as, as we all get older, hopefully as we get older and more successful and that sort of thing, we, some of our comforts can, can increase. But one of the things I've always been concerned about just as a business owner is like, is that lifestyle creep where, you know, what I made when I first started the company is very different than what I make now. And so the lifestyle that I could, could have is very different. But I've also, I've also had in the back of my head like, well, if this all goes away, what job am I going to be able to go get? At what pay level am I going to be able to have this? You know, so that there's, there's all kind of that. Which is kind of a tangent. [00:27:24] Speaker B: But like, that's a good point though. I mean, how money does come into both being comfortable and having the contentness and how that lifestyle creep can come in. Up on you. Yeah, yeah, this is a very good point though. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Like you have to choose at some point, you have to choose. Okay, this is it. This is, this is the life that I want to live. You know, I'm content with this house, with these things, with, with this vacation, with, you know, like living this lifestyle. At some point you kind of decide, this is. This is it enough. Yeah, this is enough. Right. Because, you know, maybe it's financially driven. It might just be, this is all I can afford. So this is, this is where I stop. But then what happens when you make more Money. Do you know, do you allow that lifestyle to creep again or do you say enough? I don't know. Tip, what's your thoughts on this? [00:28:12] Speaker D: I think if you're not content, you're not going to be happy. So no matter how much comfort you have and how much money you have and whatever, creature comforts are kind of irrelevant at that point. I think the trouble is convincing yourself to make that leap that Jason Brown made. Like for his courage to walk away from 37 million doll and something he's done his whole life to jump into a farm because he felt called to do that when he's never been a farmer. That takes a major leap of faith. So it's very easy to stay in your comfort zone. So as much as I think most people would say they want to be content, I think it's harder to make that, that leap of faith than most people realize. I would say. [00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean especially that jump for him. Yeah. Like you said, he went from football player to farmer. It's not like he went from football player to like assistant coach or you know, an instructor, you know, a trainer, you know, something football tangent. He did as much of a 180 as I can think of, but he. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Could definitely move some hay barrels. [00:29:16] Speaker A: Oh yeah, he doesn't need some tractors or cows or horses. Like don't worry, I got this. Yeah, I just, it really obviously it's a really cool story to hear of somebody doing this especially, you know, he, he obviously felt, felt the calling loud and clear and found a found purpose outside of it because I think, I think we all need purpose as well, you know, and, and to find, find that purpose of, of just giving, you know, he's, he's turned, you know, because the other thing he could have done is bought a thousand acre farm or just thousand acres and just stuck a house in the middle of it and just enjoyed, yeah 100% the silence in the property and all that stuff like that. Yeah. [00:30:06] Speaker C: But he chose to give something back with it. [00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And, and in this article, and I can link the article, I'm trying to think if I had a handy, we can link the article later. But he, he basically gets a bunch of volunteers that said, said the first season of harvest, God sent hundreds of volunteers to collect 130000 pounds of sweet potatoes and cucumbers that were given to the hungry in their community. And that was just for year one. Brown has no regrets about walking away from fame and fortune for farming. He's passionate about using his new platform or field if you will, to share the love of Christ by fighting hunger in North Carolina. And yeah, so just he also is having a bunch of volunteers, a bunch of people come to his farm and help. So it's, you know, like we were talking about community earlier in the life segment. So. And that's kind of what that life segment is about someone. It's just, you know, what are we doing in our communities to be active and that sort of thing. So you know, Jason obviously is feeling that call to get back like that. So yeah, I think it's an important question for all of us to ask is sure is where is my level of contentment? At what point do I say this is it and how can I give from that? [00:31:33] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I get it and. [00:31:36] Speaker D: Think about a hundred and thirty 000 pounds of sweet potatoes and cucumbers. When I read that the first time, I kind of just glanced right past it. And then when you said it a second time. That's a lot of pounds. [00:31:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:31:50] Speaker D: 130, 000 pounds. That's. [00:31:52] Speaker C: It's a lot of food. I mean that is a lot of people that could be fed with that amount of food. [00:32:00] Speaker A: And this is me being picky too. Two of my least favorite things to eat. I love sweet potatoes. I don't love sweet potatoes. I like sweet potatoes especially at Thanksgiving when it's covered in the marshmallows. Marshmallows and like the brown sugar crust. [00:32:20] Speaker C: That goes back to straight sugar and. [00:32:23] Speaker A: It also goes back to fall is better. Oh Lord. [00:32:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So we're getting a couple comments that just kind of reflecting on what Jason Brown did. And a lot of the guys here in YouTube are saying like finding that kind of purpose would be amazing. One said, I can't take my money with me when I die. And he followed up with the legacy we leave for our grandchildren, grandchildren's children that is the most valuable than money. So I definitely agree with, with what he did to walk away from that style of comfort and that lifestyle is something I will in my lifetime probably never see in, in that value of a dollar sign for that type of contract. But I think he found his true purpose and he found that contentness in doing what he loved the most. And it's going to be profitable and money maybe not be what he's looking for in the end, but I think with like you said in this notes, the volunteers, the amount of food collected, the amount of people that are going to see and resonate with that, it's going to bring him a fruitful life, regardless of the product that it creates. You know, from money to, you know, to wealth to fame, whatever it may be. I think he's really focused on bringing happiness to other and I think that's a true content. Yeah, I love what you said though, how you can. Money can change the dynamic and you can have the lifestyle creep in and it could change who you are. And I think we see from this example, this is a perfect example of a person that didn't allow money to change who they were. It just allowed them the opportunity to go to the next step in their life and progress and find that comfort and content. So kudos to Jason. That's amazing. [00:34:07] Speaker A: And I think it's something just in the celebrity segment, Liberty being what are we doing with our freedom to love on others and give to others? And I think the question that we can all ask ourselves is, even though we might not be passing up 37.5 million and spending 25 million on our own scale, what can we pass on with our time, with our talents, with our treasures? What are things that we can pass on within each of those things to give back in some way and to use our freedom to help others? It's going to cost us something. It always does. And frankly, those are the things that ends up being the most impactful in your own life, too. When you give up and you serve, there's something that God does through you that just kind of. It changes you. So it's kind of my challenge for. For us all through this as well. All right, let's get equipped. [00:35:13] Speaker C: Equipped gun and a radio. [00:35:20] Speaker B: Not exactly Christmas, is it? [00:35:23] Speaker A: You expecting an exploding pen? [00:35:27] Speaker B: We don't really go in for that anymore. Good luck out there in the field. [00:35:33] Speaker A: And please return the equipment in one piece. Brave new world. Brave new world. Sky from one of the My favorite movie series ever. Nate's favorite movie of the series, John Wick. [00:35:51] Speaker D: No, no. [00:35:54] Speaker C: He's gonna fire you now. It was a total joke. Fired. Fired. [00:36:00] Speaker A: Clip from Skyfall James Bond. It's when. When he meets. Meets the new Q for the first time. Such a good one in an art gallery. That's such a good movie. [00:36:08] Speaker B: The exploding pen is still relevant. Just saying. [00:36:10] Speaker A: Who doesn't want an exploding pen? [00:36:12] Speaker B: I mean, just saying. They made an exploding. A gun. A pin out of a gun. [00:36:15] Speaker C: I will 100% agree that I would be disappointed if I was James Bond. I was handed a gun and a radio. Just saying. [00:36:24] Speaker A: Well, and the funny thing, it's so. It's a like it's handed a nine mil. [00:36:29] Speaker C: Walther. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Walther and gross. Which I'm glad It was nine mil because the original was a.380 little pocket pistol. PPQ. Yeah. [00:36:38] Speaker D: Is it a 32? [00:36:39] Speaker A: 32. It's not even. [00:36:41] Speaker C: It's not a 30. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not even 38 or 380. Yeah. So at least he was. At least he was handing a 9 mil. And I do kind of want one of those just because I love. I would love that. [00:36:50] Speaker D: And a shoulder holster. Yeah, give it to me. [00:36:53] Speaker A: But the funny thing is in that clip, if you go watch that clip, the radio is given. It was like. This isn't an old movie, but it was this tiny little thing and it had, it had the extendable antenna. It was like this. It was like a half inch long antenna. I just, I was. [00:37:07] Speaker C: Tiny little radio. [00:37:08] Speaker A: But I love, I love that the movie kind of stays true to some of the old tech. [00:37:12] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:37:13] Speaker A: And I love that they even kind of like what you expect an exploding pen. Because like they, they give them these, these very classic Bond things and then they also kind of like make fun of some of the past Bond things. [00:37:23] Speaker C: It was great. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Oh, it's so good. Well, we are in the. [00:37:27] Speaker D: That gun. [00:37:30] Speaker A: Go ahead, go ahead. No, no, go. [00:37:32] Speaker D: Dude, I was just gonna say that Gunpen company just went out of business actually. [00:37:35] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. [00:37:38] Speaker D: The other day that they're closing doors. Yeah. [00:37:40] Speaker C: Oh, that's sad. [00:37:41] Speaker B: We should have got one before they went out. Final blowout sale. [00:37:45] Speaker A: Well, hey, there's a new. There's a new door opened up in the industry. If you want to make a pen gun, a pen gun, go for it. Maybe you just need to make it better. I don't know. That's probably a reason why they went out of business. [00:37:58] Speaker B: But nobody wants a single shot anymore. [00:38:02] Speaker A: It's better than no shot. You gotta be able to shoot your shot. [00:38:05] Speaker B: Shoot your shot or shoot yourself in your body. [00:38:07] Speaker D: Caliber too was like. I don't even know what caliber it was. It was nothing. [00:38:12] Speaker B: I think it was a 22 caliber. [00:38:13] Speaker A: It's got to be a 22 or something. [00:38:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was a 22. [00:38:15] Speaker D: I think it was. [00:38:16] Speaker B: They had it at gold. It's pretty neat. [00:38:19] Speaker A: Well, it was 22 shorts, which they're. [00:38:23] Speaker C: Really hard to find actually. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah, they're. [00:38:24] Speaker C: They're difficult to find. We had. [00:38:28] Speaker B: I'm at all the shortage for 22s for a while there. [00:38:30] Speaker C: Well, I was gonna say, I. I don't remember if it's my father in. [00:38:33] Speaker A: Law that had it. [00:38:35] Speaker C: Somebody I know Has a revolver that only shoots 22 short. Hmm. It's this tiny little revolver, like a little, little thing. And we had it at the house. We got it all cleaned up. Got it actually like revolving again and doing all the things because it hadn't been used in so long. We got some ammo for it. It was one of those things we were like, I don't even know if I want to shoot it. Scared it's gonna explode. And the thing fired. But finding 22 short was really, really difficult. [00:39:02] Speaker A: It's just not out there. [00:39:03] Speaker C: I mean, you have to like special order it. [00:39:05] Speaker A: I think I have a box or two from like the 90s that I'm still holding on to. [00:39:09] Speaker C: It's hard to find. [00:39:10] Speaker A: So in our liberty or. Sorry, we moved on in our quit segment. Our focus here is just, is just looking at practical tools and skills and knowledge to empower us to in our pursuit of life and liberty. So we do have a discount code for our insiders. It is equip discount. One word, E, Q, U, I, P D, I, S, C, O U, N, T. It's going to put that in the, in the comments and that'll get you 20% off for approximately the next 36 hours or so. It'll expire Thursday at midnight, but only. [00:39:44] Speaker D: If you are an insider. [00:39:46] Speaker A: Only if you're insider log into your insider's account. If you're not an insider, you can make that account. [00:39:50] Speaker C: It's true. [00:39:51] Speaker A: I talked about that at the beginning of the episode. You can hit that pop up. That'll also give you a 15% off discount when you sign up for it. So you get two codes and those are pretty handy. So one of the things I recently got, actually I think a week ago today I'm wearing now I got one of those aura rings and something I've thought about for a long time. I'll be honest, the prime, prime day got me sucked them in. There's like 100 bucks off and I'm like, all right. Except I. I almost bought one at Black Friday last year, but I kind of hung. But I kind of. I was like, ah, I'm not gonna go. Go for it. I have an Apple watch. I have a. I have a love hate relationship with, with like Apple watches. I had one, I had one of the first ones and the initial thought of it I loved. But then it drove me crazy that I basically had. So I already live on my phone now I have a phone on my watch. But I also can't use that without the phone in my Pocket. So I'm like, why. Why do I have this on my wrist when I really. I really can't do much without having the phone anyway. And I'd rather use the phone on my watch. And so it became, if I sold that watch, eventually I got another one that I do keep, and I do keep my office, and I wear it when I work out or when I go mountain biking, that sort of thing. It's more of a fitness piece of equipment than anything. Yeah, there are some nice things I actually. A video that I've wanted to do at the range or like, ways to use your Apple watch at the range. I've got a couple. Couple things that are pretty cool with that, but. [00:41:28] Speaker B: Shoot it. [00:41:29] Speaker A: But what I liked. [00:41:30] Speaker C: Yeah, shoot your Apple watch. [00:41:32] Speaker A: So I just got this. I just got this aura ring. If you aren't familiar. It's a. It's wearable technology. And it's crazy how. How little it is. It literally, people wouldn't know that. It's. That it's like a fitness tracker, but it's just, just a ring. And it's. The battery lasts like eight days, which is crazy. It senses all sorts of things. I've got an app for it and tracking my sleep, tracking calories, heart rate, all sorts of things. And I've been getting kind of nerdy with it. And I know it's new, so I'm getting nerdy with it. And I probably won't be as obsessed with it as I've had it longer, but. But it's really opened up some new things for me. Nate, I know you track your sleep. I do. You wear an Apple watch. So talk about your experience with your. [00:42:20] Speaker C: So I've had my Apple watch. I'm going to say it's been three years, maybe four. Three or four years. There are some definite disadvantages to the Apple Watch. Some common things like, hey, battery life sucks. I mean, at this point, like, when I first got it, it would last almost two days. I could get away without charging it. Now I'm charging it every night or I charge it before I go to bed. So, like, I take it off towards the tail end of the day, throw it on the charger, and then I put it on. Because I do like to track. I don't track a lot for sleep, just a little bit, but track a little bit of my sleep stuff with it. But I, I. From a fitness and stuff perspective, I like being able to track my workouts with it. It communicates back with my phone. I like to track my sleep, which Primarily is like, my heart rate, what is my resting heart rate doing and all of that stuff. I like to be able to, you know, see my steps throughout the day. Everything. The calorie tracking. I don't think any wearable is great. If you look at any of them, they're not. [00:43:27] Speaker A: It's not gonna be perfect. [00:43:27] Speaker C: It's not perfect. [00:43:28] Speaker A: It gives you something. Gives you some kind of skill. [00:43:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it gives you a scale. It's not going to be perfect. It's just something to give me an idea of what's going on in terms of the technology. Like, it's nice to have, like, be able to read a message real quick on my wrist. Like, oh, is this something I need to get back to right now? Sure. If someone's calling me, do I need to pull my phone out and look? You know, those kind of things. I don't care so much about those at this point. They're fine. I use it for that. But that's not why I like it. I like it for all of those other features more is the health aspect of it is tracking the walking, tracking the workouts. One of the things. I don't have a gym membership at a place that has a pool anymore, but the Apple Watch in swimming was, like, the coolest thing. Doing swimming workouts with the Apple Watch, it could tell you what stroke you were doing. Like, I knew what stroke I was doing, but when I finished the workout, it would say, how many knew? Yeah, it knew what stroke I was doing, how many yards I did that stroke. It would tell me how many lengths of the pool I swam. Like, it did all sorts of tracking. I'm like, I don't know how it's knowing this. And it was fairly accurate to what I did. You know, it kept better track of how many lengths I swam than I did. Because at some point I'm just like, I don't remember how many times. I'm just trying to not drown. Not to drown. Right. Um, but that's what I like my Apple Watch for now, in theory, I could take it off and, like, you. Like, you only use yours for when you're working out. Primarily, I could take it off and only use it for those things. But it's also my watch. Like, I use it as my watch. Oh, what time is it? You know, 1:45. So I use it for the watch feature as well. But I like it for the health and tracking and all of that stuff. Health and fitness and all of that has become much more important to me in the last year. Year and a half than it has historically. So that's what I've been using the watch primarily for, is all of those features. [00:45:34] Speaker A: Tip. You said you soldiers. What was your catalyst? I never even asked you. I wanted to wait till we were recording. I had. [00:45:41] Speaker D: I had three early Apple watches, and I broke all three of them. So I got rid of them. I love the functionality. The battery life was terrible, and I broke them when they came out with the Ultra. I got the Ultra, and I loved the Ultra. It was bigger, it was more masculine. You could put a nice band on it. It looks good. Battery life is a little better, a lot more durable. But I became a slave to my watch. Like, no matter. No matter what I was doing, I could be doing something important with my kids, having a serious conversation with my wife. I could be in a super important meeting at work and my wrist would vibrate. And no matter what I was doing, this is the reaction. It just became ingrained in me. I felt something, and I did this. So I'm like, whatever I'm doing right now with my kids or this meeting or my wife is way more important than my watch. And even in church, be sitting in church and it'd be like, boom. [00:46:31] Speaker A: I'm like, that is my. [00:46:33] Speaker D: Forget about it. [00:46:34] Speaker A: That is my number one thing I hate about. About the Apple watch is hated. It is. And I don't mean to call you out, Nate, but, like, you and I will be talking and your. And your wrist will. Will vibrate and you'll take your eyes off our conversation and look at your watch. This isn't just you either. Yeah, like every. Everybody that has an Apple watch, I'll be mid conversation and it'll just stop. Like, people will stop mid sentence and look at their. Their watch. They will just take their. Their. Their attention away from me as I'm mid sentence to look at their watch. And I can. And I'll just stop because I can see that they're like. I can use to see their lips. Lips moving as they're reading. And it just. [00:47:12] Speaker B: How's it go again? [00:47:15] Speaker A: That drives me absolutely insane. And actually Pangolin, I think said it here. It said, the watch allows me to glance at my millions of messages I get rather than have to pull my phone out each time. So while I get that, I also want to be like, but do you need to read all your messages in real time as you get them? You know, should. Should people have that kind of immediate access to your. To your attention? [00:47:40] Speaker B: That is a whole podcast that is. [00:47:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that's Actually, that. That was not the tangent I was going to go on on all this. But yeah, that. But that's a real thing that you have to decide. And tip. I think it's cool that you decided like this is. This is. This is taking too much of my. My attention. I'm becoming a slave to it. So that's fair. Yeah, that's cool. You to do that. I was actually going to. Mike, do you have any, like, wearable technology or anything like that? [00:48:08] Speaker B: So I actually, I've had all the Apple watches. Had like, tip. I broke the last two. I still have them. Shattered screen and all. When I got the new phone, it came with the Apple watch, so I had the 5G so I could talk on my watch, which I'm deaf. So anytime my watch would ring and I'm. I'm looking like a goober, like hello and trying to stick it to my ear to hear. There was a lot of conveniences. But also, it's just we're constantly glued to technology. And I know coming from a guy that works in a professional field, that's behind phones technology. [00:48:38] Speaker A: And so what's even more reason to not want it? [00:48:40] Speaker B: It's one of those things, like you just want to disconnect. I like a good, nice watch now so I can tell the time and use it just for that purpose. But it is so nice when you can just completely disconnect. I think you guys have taught me that a lot in the last year and a half. Is like, hey, I'm on vacation. If you need me, I'm here. Yeah, but if it's of no relation, my focus is where it needs to be. And that's one thing. Now that I catch myself, if I can put it down, I'll put it away. Having it glued to you. No, but to. To Nate's point, I absolutely love the Apple Watch for swimming. I'm a big swimming person. I don't have a gym either that I can swim at. But when I swam like it did, it tracked everything for you. But to your point, we become. My phone's on silent all the time and it doesn't even vibrate anymore because I don't want to feel it. Like, I'll check it when I need to, but I don't want something that immediately pulls my attention. And that topic that we just mentioned, tangent aside, something we should definitely focus on because we are constantly glued to something or pulled away from what we should be in the present moment. [00:49:42] Speaker A: I'd actually turned off my Apple watch. Actually turned off. I Can't. Like, I don't get the messages coming to my. Coming to my watch, because honestly, it's also a pain. It goes back to one of the first things I said, like, okay, I can read it on there, and yeah, you can reply, but it's not great. So no matter what, I'm still pulling out my phone to deal with that message anyway. And I see some of the comments coming in here. There are people that. That. That kind of need to be on call. And so it's. It's definitely more convenient for it for that side of thing. But for those that aren't, that is kind of a concern. But actually, the. The reason I was. I was bringing this up, uh, so one of the reasons why I do love the ring is cause obviously there's no screen on it. It's not. It's not taking my attention away from me as I'm wearing it. It's literally just. Just tracking health and stuff. I have just. In this last week, I've already learned so much about. I. I never really understood sleep tracking. [00:50:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:50:34] Speaker A: I'm like, you just go to sleep, and then you wake up and you go, yep, I slept. Or, nope, I didn't. But one of the things that I have learned. So I've always known that it's not a great idea to eat before you go to bed, but I never totally understood why. Well, I have data now that when. On, like, the first three days that I had to watch. Which you're not watching the ring. The one night we went out with a bunch of friends, went to a brewery, you know, had a couple drinks, had had some really good food, and it was a later night. So I basically went to bed with a full stomach on a couple drinks. [00:51:08] Speaker C: Yep. [00:51:08] Speaker A: My heart rate never went below, like, 55. [00:51:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:51:13] Speaker A: And then it was kind of like that. There were a couple nights where it was like, high 40s, 48, 49, or something like that. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna try this. So the last three nights, I did not. So I didn't have any coffee after, like, two. I. You know, no drinks and did not eat again. And, you know, like, after dinner. And my heart. My resting heart rate at night has been like, the mid-40s. I think I hit, like, 44. Wow. [00:51:38] Speaker C: When my. When my diet is. That is on point. My resting heart rate at night is 44. [00:51:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:43] Speaker C: Beats per minute. That is my resting heart rate if my diet is on point. If I. Like when I was on vacation. And I'm not gonna lie and say that we weren't enjoying ourselves and all that stuff every single night. My resting heart rate was like 52, which is still not bad. Like, right. Like, it's still a good low heart rate, but in comparison to when you are eating well and all of that stuff, it's eight heartbeats more per minute. Which I know maybe people can laugh at it, but like you can tell a huge difference. [00:52:16] Speaker A: I can tell the next morning when I wake up. [00:52:18] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:52:18] Speaker A: And I see my sleep rating. And then the oura ring gives you. It gives you a readiness score. So it takes your sleep and your activity and I think it just averages them. Gives you a readiness score. Like last night I got a 92, I'm asleep, which is the best I've had yet. Yeah. I think my resting heart was like 44, which I think is the lowest I've seen yet. And so. And this morning when I woke up, which I also, like I said I slept in a little bit because I've been up late. But it's what's interesting now I'm also like, I kind of have to do what I have to do during the day regardless. I'm not going to just going to make it work. Take the one day. Then my ring was like, your readiness score is pretty low. You might want to take it easy, don't work out, rest today or whatever. I'm like, and I left because I think it was Sunday. I led worship in the night to be up early in the morning, led a couple services, then came home, was able to take a quick nap. But then I went back down to that camp, led worship that night, got back later, I just laughed. I'm like, sorry, ring, I have life to do. I got to do this. However, I do think now, now they kind of have some of this information knowing going into if I know, hey, tomorrow I got a long day. I know. Okay. [00:53:35] Speaker B: I need to not just appropriate message. [00:53:37] Speaker A: Not eat, drink or anything too close to bedtime, whatever, and just kind of maybe use a score a little bit. I'm not going to let it run my life. But it has brought. [00:53:49] Speaker C: It brings some clarity, some knowledge. I mean it's bringing. [00:53:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:52] Speaker D: Knowledge. [00:53:53] Speaker A: Yeah. It's data. [00:53:54] Speaker C: Right? It's just data like in. I don't use my, my Apple watches. I think the 3 Apple 3. So it's. It's old. Like I can't do all of the, the stuff that the more recent technology like the Ultra can do a lot more from a perspective of health tracking and all of that stuff. I Just haven't invested in a. A newer watch because they're expensive and this one is still trucking right along. So I don't need to buy something new. Right. But I know that there's more features that the Apple watch is capable of or Apple technology as an ecosystem in terms of health tracking is capable of that I am not currently using this to its or not this particular model like I said, but that they have capable of doing. So for me, I'm primarily using it for. I don't have the readiness score like that Aura does. I'm just doing it based on my heart rates and stuff like that. That's what when I say I track my sleep, quote unquote, track my sleep is I'm looking at my heart rate in comparison to stuff. So if I wake up and like, man, I had a really bad night of sleep, I can usually base that off of. All right, well I'm looking at my, my beats per minute and everything like, well, look, I wasn't clearly wasn't resting well, you know. And I've now gone through a couple sleep studies and that kind of stuff and I know within reason what is going on typically during sleep and that kind of stuff. So yeah, I can attribute to, hey, I ate poorly yesterday. I didn't do a lot of physical activity, didn't work out, didn't do whatever and that is contributing to poor sleep. Then there's other nights where it's just like, oh, my brain didn't shut off tonight. So I was up all night thinking. Which happens unfortunately. Frequent. [00:55:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't have a readiness score. It's just when I wake up, I'm like, all right, I'm ready. I'm not ready or I'm ready, but I'm here. [00:55:55] Speaker A: I can usually tell what as soon as I wake up, I put my feet on the floor. I'm like, I'm gonna need a nap today. [00:56:02] Speaker D: Yep, it's going to be a three. [00:56:04] Speaker A: Cup of coffee day. Yeah, it is. Today is going to be a rough one. But then which actually Stephen Bartlett said I usually wake up. So he said that the readiness score is scary. And I asked him what he meant by that. He said I usually wake up feeling relative good. And when I get a poor readiness score, it almost never fails. I'll feel it by mid afternoon. So yeah, like you can usually kind of tough through the first part of the day because you're mostly rested then, but as the day goes on you kind of start to feel that. So I think one of the reasons Why I wanted also kind of want to bring this up is a couple weeks ago, I had a friend and colleague passed away of a heart attack. We found out yesterday a friend of ours father had a massive heart attack. I've known several guys around my age in the last several years that have also had heart attacks. One passed away, one did not. Like, I'm 43, and I know I'm older, you guys. I'm not that much older than you guys, and I've. And I've known. [00:57:03] Speaker C: Way older than you. Super old, actually. [00:57:06] Speaker A: I'm not the oldest one here. Tibbs. The oldest one. [00:57:08] Speaker B: Oh, no, that's not true. [00:57:13] Speaker A: But like, heart attacks and stroke and there's so many things that. That you can deal with later in life that directly reflect what you're doing right now. [00:57:24] Speaker C: Yep. [00:57:24] Speaker A: Like, the cause of a heart attack started 20 years earlier. I'm not saying this every time, and I'm not. I'm not even trying to. Like, I really don't want this to come across as like, hey, these guys that I've known that had heart attacks. [00:57:34] Speaker C: You could have fixed it. [00:57:35] Speaker A: You could. Yeah, right. But could you have? You know, it's just. What. What can we be doing now to equip ourselves for five years, 10 years, 20 years from now? Because that heart attack you had probably could have started to be prevented 20 years ago. [00:57:50] Speaker C: Yep. [00:57:51] Speaker A: If we would have. I know. Start tracking your sleep, start tracking some calories. Get in the gym. Start punching other guys like Michael does, you know, like just so bad. [00:58:05] Speaker C: Beating people up. [00:58:06] Speaker A: He's just walking. [00:58:07] Speaker B: Jerk. I can't wait. That's why I'm tired. I need a nap. [00:58:10] Speaker A: It's all consensual. It's consensual punching. [00:58:12] Speaker C: Sounds so weird. [00:58:13] Speaker B: Please hit me. [00:58:15] Speaker C: Consensual punching. [00:58:16] Speaker A: Consensual punching. That's what boxing is. He asked. [00:58:18] Speaker D: He asked me to do it. [00:58:19] Speaker B: Sign the contract. [00:58:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:21] Speaker C: Well, you. [00:58:22] Speaker A: You signed the waiver. [00:58:27] Speaker D: Puff Daddy stuff do you guys have. [00:58:28] Speaker A: Going on man Central punching. [00:58:31] Speaker C: Consensual. [00:58:31] Speaker B: Consensual. We had the lighting for it, so it's perfect. [00:58:34] Speaker A: Yeah. But I just. I kind of want to kind of finish a segment on that. Is. Is. Is. Oh, what are we doing now to help ourselves later? Like that medication that you're gonna have to be on later probably could have been. Been Been prevented by lifestyle changes now. Yep. The best time. I love this quote. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best. Best day is today. [00:58:56] Speaker C: Yep. [00:58:57] Speaker A: So I want to encourage all you guys to and gals that are listening to. Yes. Think about that. Maybe it's a couple hundred dollars investment in some kind of technology that can help you with that. It definitely gives you something to keep, you know, it definitely keeps you accountable and a lot of us need that, so. [00:59:17] Speaker C: Or maybe it's a subscription to some fitness app or a gym membership or something like that. What is the thing? [00:59:23] Speaker B: Or just picking up a book and reading about it. You know, education is the most important tool in this. [00:59:28] Speaker C: Or it's listening to us talk about it. [00:59:30] Speaker A: A gym membership is way cheaper than a hospital visit. Yep. [00:59:35] Speaker C: Accurate. [00:59:36] Speaker D: Or even get some equipment and work out in your basement if you're motivated. [00:59:39] Speaker A: Enough to do it. Yeah, I struggle with it. [00:59:41] Speaker B: Consensual punching. [00:59:42] Speaker A: Consensual punching. And you know, like, as far as gym equipment goes, you can go on Facebook Marketplace and just get. Just get one thing at a time. Just get a couple kettlebells, just get. [00:59:54] Speaker D: Some weights, a bench. [00:59:55] Speaker A: Just get. You know, you don't have to buy a full gym all at once. [00:59:58] Speaker C: Nope. [00:59:58] Speaker A: You kind of piece things together throughout, you know, throughout a year or two and you'll end up with a. With a full setup. You can get some really good deals. [01:00:04] Speaker D: Exercises. [01:00:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Buy a jump rope and some stretchy bands and body weight. Do push and you will be. All right, let's head into our last segment here. [01:00:18] Speaker C: Faith, you've been walking for 30 years, right. [01:00:22] Speaker A: Hope you guys can hear this. Have you ever thought that maybe you were lost? No. Well, how do you know that you're. [01:00:27] Speaker C: Walking in the right direction? [01:00:28] Speaker A: Walk by, Faith, not by sight. What does that mean? [01:00:33] Speaker C: It means that you know something even if you don't know something. [01:00:37] Speaker A: It doesn't make any sense. Doesn't have to make sense. [01:00:39] Speaker C: It's fake. [01:00:39] Speaker A: It's fake. [01:00:40] Speaker C: It's the flower of light in the field of darkness. It's giving me the strength to carry on. [01:00:44] Speaker A: You understand? Yeah. Also from a fantastic movie. [01:00:48] Speaker C: Fantastic. [01:00:48] Speaker A: If nothing else from this episode, we've given you four great movies. [01:00:51] Speaker B: Good movie. [01:00:52] Speaker C: Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, Book of Eli and. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Is that the Liberty Death is the liberty of Death. [01:01:02] Speaker C: Thank you. [01:01:02] Speaker A: Is from John Adams. [01:01:04] Speaker C: I think it's John Adams. [01:01:06] Speaker A: You can find it on YouTube. That's where I found it. [01:01:08] Speaker C: Great movie. [01:01:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So go watch those. If it's going to be hot this weekend, go watch it. It's going to be rainy. Go watch them. Yeah. So Faith and Fuel. I'm actually going to. Actually brought my actual Bible in here today. [01:01:17] Speaker C: Look at that. [01:01:18] Speaker A: I've Got the. In our show notes. Nate, if you want to drop that, you can copy and paste that in the show notes if you want. [01:01:23] Speaker C: I got it. [01:01:24] Speaker A: All right. So faith and fuel reading out of Philippians chapter four. So a little background here is that Paul is writing to the church in Philippi. And Philippians, the church of Philippi is. [01:01:39] Speaker C: Actually. [01:01:41] Speaker A: One of the best churches that he writes to. He writes some letters that are pretty harsh, but in this section he's actually writing them and he's actually thanking them. So it sounds like they sent Paul some gifts to kind of provide for him. And they sent him probably some food, maybe some clothing and that sort of thing. And he picks up. I'm going to pick up in verse 11 here, actually, I'll start in 10 because it. So it says, I rejoice in the Lord greatly. That now at length you have. You have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Now that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I know you've heard that last verse used. That's been knit on many a pillow and hanging over many a door in homes. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. But I don't know if a lot of you. [01:02:44] Speaker D: Many tattoos. [01:02:45] Speaker A: Yeah, many tattoos. I don't know if many people really understand that the context of that verse is actually about being content. And the reason I chose this is because what we just talked about with the story about Jason Brown, of finding contentment and Paul. Paul's story is amazing. He's been shipwrecked. He's been snake bitten. He's been stoned. Not that kind of stone. He's actually been hit with stones several times. Been whipped. [01:03:17] Speaker B: It took me a second. [01:03:18] Speaker A: Many times. Yeah. When I said out loud, I was like. I was like, I need to clarify that he's been whipped one last shy of what would kill him many times. He has. He's experienced a lot of hard times. He's also experienced. So before this, Paul was actually one of the guys who was actually persecuting the church. He actually aided in killing Christians. In that time of his life. He had plenty. He was taken care of. He was very wealthy. He left all that behind. Here's some of the parallels with Jason Brown he left all that behind to, to, to search a mission of spreading the gospel. And with that has come a lot of hardship. And in that he has found the secret. And I, and I think it's funny that he uses the word secret. It said the secret, you know. But the secret is complete trust in God who gives, who gives him strength and strength to go after that mission. What's your guys thoughts on this? [01:04:25] Speaker D: I'll go first. I think big picture, I love how many sinners there are in the Bible who are called to do great things. And I think Paul's one of the greatest of all of them. Like you said, Saul was killing Christians and turned around to be a great Christian. And how many books in the Bible did he write? I don't know, but I don't know if you guys know the number, but lots of them. And I just, I love how God will call sometimes sinners to do great, great things in his name. [01:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm trying to think. A quote I heard the other night, one of the speakers at the camp I went down to said God does not call the qualified, he qualifies the called. [01:05:14] Speaker C: I mean that goes back to. [01:05:19] Speaker A: He. [01:05:19] Speaker C: Is going to give you the tools you need. When he calls you to go. He's not just going to call you because you're already equipped. There was, I went to a men's retreat. Well, I don't know if it's a retreat is the right word or not. It's the main camp thing I go to in the fall. And one of the things the speaker would talk about is that God gives us the tools we need to take the hill in front of us. But it's not that he's giving us that hill because he's already given us the tools. The tools or the hills in front of you to take. He always talks about it from a perspective of like a warrior. Right. If you think about it, he's had a retired army ranger come and talk a couple times at the main camp and they've always talked about it from the perspective of taking your hill like a battle, taking the battle, taking the hill. So from that perspective, if you're taking your hill, God has not given you the mission because you had the tools. He gave you the mission so he expects you to do it. And he's going to give you the tools along the way as you head towards it, not because you were equipped already to do it. He's going to give it to you as you go, go take the hill. And I think that's a Lot of what Paul is saying here is the secret is him. He's going to equip you. Go to him. He'll do it. He's not already equipped you. He's equipping you as you go. He's going to give you the. I'm not gonna. You're not gonna find comfort there, but you're gonna find contentment because he's gonna equip you with the things you need to do it. If you're waiting for the tools, that's not right. You can't wait. [01:07:01] Speaker A: Well, because. Well, because what you need is Him. Yeah. What you need is God. And a lot of times it's not taking the hill. That's that he wants you to experience. It's the trusting in him through that process. Because you may lose that battle. [01:07:16] Speaker C: He's not guaranteeing you that you're winning the battle. [01:07:18] Speaker A: Right. He's guaranteeing he will be there with you. [01:07:21] Speaker C: Correct. [01:07:21] Speaker A: During that battle. [01:07:22] Speaker C: Correct. And that's always the discussion. That's the discussion that we are warriors in a war. We don't always win the battle. That's not the discussion. Ultimately, God is going to win. That war that we are assured of is that he's going to win the war. We don't necessarily win the battle, but along the way, he'll give you the tools to fight that will happen. He doesn't necessarily give it to you before you start the fight, though, but he's going to give it to you. [01:07:55] Speaker B: So I think for this to. [01:07:59] Speaker A: You. [01:07:59] Speaker B: Know, Paul was a sinner before, and if you turn against God or if you, as my grandma used to always say, you backslide from God, he's gonna put those challenges in your life that are going to be those lessons that teach you the hard way of if you choose to turn your life away from me and turn your life to the world, I'm going to show you what the world's capable of. And it's not always beautiful. So I think what Paul said, the secret here was complete trust. And I think that's a hard, hard task for anybody, you know. Yeah. The truth. Thank you. To put all your trust into God, but he does give you strength. And I can be a living, a testament to that. That turning my back and as Grandma says, backsliding it only ended with my own detriment in the end. Because my worldly actions are the things that I needed of the world, weren't what God has planned for me in the end. So finding that trust and believing in him, like Nate says, taking the hill, it might not be a battle you win. You know, I wanted to win certain battles because I wanted them. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Right. [01:09:03] Speaker B: But it was a worldly possession or a worldly object when God said, that's not of the world or that's not of me for you. So having that trust in him can help guide you along the way up that hill. Even if it's the hill to overcome, you know, not even necessarily to win at the top of the, of the hill, but the, the hill to overcome is give the strength to him to have the, have the trust and he'll provide for you along the way. [01:09:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:31] Speaker C: Patriotic Pangolin said Proverbs 3, 5 through 8, which says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways. Submit to him and he will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. [01:09:47] Speaker A: That's one of my favorites. Mic drop. [01:09:51] Speaker C: Boom. I love, thank you, buddy. [01:09:53] Speaker A: Love some. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah, it's this, I could get teary eyed. Just, just, just kind of wrapping this into my year is, I've learned through some, some very stressful and anxiety how to trust God in a, in a way that I never have had to before, I think. And the only way I'm actually thankful and Paul actually talks about this, about rejoicing and trial and it's so hard to do that, especially like, you know, actually I think I just did a minute message on this somewhat recently of rejoice in those trials. You don't have to be happy about the trials themselves, but rejoice because you're experiencing them. You're going to have to, you don't have to. If you put your trust in God through those trials, you will experience a peace that only comes through surrender. What's that, Tim? [01:10:56] Speaker D: I said a peace and strength. [01:10:58] Speaker A: Peace and strength. Yeah. Yeah. Like it says here, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And those are all, I think and probably to put asterisk there is like I can do all what God wants me to do through God, not what I want to do through the things that I want. So, yeah, I, I, I thought it was kind of, it's a good way to kind of wrap up all the things that we talked about today. I think all kind of tie in together, you know, you know, that, that, that psalm, that was perfect way to end that too. That, you know. I'm sorry. Yeah. Proverbs, you know, that really talked about just how, like, it even says our health. And we talked about our health today as well, so. Yeah. So good. You guys have any other kind of final comments before we wrap up today? [01:11:49] Speaker C: No, sir. [01:11:51] Speaker A: Next week I will be out. So these guys are gonna. Are gonna take it over, which I'm looking forward to. I'm gonna try to still watch while I'm on vacation. [01:12:01] Speaker C: We're gonna block them. [01:12:02] Speaker A: You're gonna block me? Yeah. Don't do it. [01:12:04] Speaker D: It's good. No, you're not gonna approve. [01:12:06] Speaker B: Lasers. [01:12:07] Speaker C: Laser beams. [01:12:09] Speaker A: All right, well, outro. Hit the outro, boys. Here we go, guys. Thanks for turning into life, liberty and equipped. If today's conversation challenged you, encouraged you, or helped you to get more equipped to pursue your mission, Share with a friend. Friend. Drop a comment and leave us a review. Those reviews are so important for us to get found. Please, please, please do that and share it with some friends. [01:12:35] Speaker C: Don't forget, we go live on the NeoMag YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you can be part of the next live show. [01:12:43] Speaker B: And if you guys are not already part of the NeoMag Insiders club, now's the time. Gain early access to NeoMag gear, exclusive content and front row seat to everything we're building. [01:12:55] Speaker A: And until next time, live, boldly stand for liberty and stay equipped. We'll see you guys soon. [01:13:00] Speaker C: Thanks, guys. [01:13:01] Speaker B: Later.