Ep. 138: From Combat Boots to Flip Flops: Matthew Griffin’s Mission to Change Lives

In this powerful episode of the Silvercore Podcast, host Travis Bader sits down with Matthew Griffin, a former Army Ranger turned entrepreneur, who has embarked on a mission to change the world one step at a time. As the founder of Combat Flip Flops, Griff shares his incredible journey from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq to creating a company that turns conflict zones into thriving communities.

Griff opens up about the pivotal moments that led him from military life to entrepreneurship, the challenges of starting a business in a war-torn country, and the philosophy that drives him to empower others. Discover how his commitment to creating jobs and funding education in conflict zones has transformed lives and inspired a new generation of socially conscious entrepreneurs.

This episode is filled with riveting stories of resilience, failure, and triumph, offering insights into the power of turning adversity into opportunity. Whether you're interested in entrepreneurship, social impact, or simply a good story of grit and determination, this conversation with Matthew Griffin will leave you inspired.

 

http://www.combatflipflops.com/
http://www.beabetterhuman.com/

https://www.instagram.com/combatflipflops

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Silvercore Club - https://bit.ly/2RiREb4
Online Training - https://bit.ly/3nJKx7U
Other Training & Services - https://bit.ly/3vw6kSU
Merchandise - https://bit.ly/3ecyvk9
Blog Page - https://bit.ly/3nEHs8W

Host Instagram - @Bader.Trav https://www.instagram.com/bader.trav
Silvercore Instagram - @SilvercoreOutdoors https://www.instagram.com/silvercoreoutdoors

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00:00 The Power of Connection 00:18 A Hilarious Marketing Encounter 00:32 Networking in Hawaii 00:42 Lessons from Serendipity 01:40 Silvercore Club Benefits 02:16 Introducing the Extraordinary Guest 02:21 Matthew Griffin's Background 06:46 The Ranger Journey Begins 10:23 Facing the Realities of War 12:32 Transition to Civilian Life 27:59 Founding Combat Flip Flops 38:19 Shark Tank Experience 40:28 The Rock-Paper-Scissors Showdown 41:07 The Scariest Six Months 42:18 A Game-Changing Decision 42:53 The Shark Tank Miracle 46:22 The Power of a Mission Statement 47:45 Challenges and Triumphs in Afghanistan 48:54 Expanding to the Canadian Market 51:31 Hunting Adventures and Lessons 01:04:06 The Joy of Fishing 01:14:07 Supporting Veterans and Future Plans

 

 

What is The Silvercore Podcast with Travis Bader?

Travis Bader, host of The Silvercore Podcast, discusses matters related to hunting, firearms, hiking, outdoor adventure, success, health and more with the people and businesses that comprise the community all from a uniquely Canadian perspective.

Kind: captions
Language: en-GB

Travis Bader: I can't seem to shake
this feeling that, in some way

or another, we are all connected.

Kind of like in that game
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

I saw the funniest commercial
show up on my social media feed.

It was for a company
called combat flip flops.

If you're into creative marketing,
I highly recommend go check it out.

Google it up.

You won't be disappointed.

Hilarious commercials.

I reached out to the
owner of this company.

He lives on the big Island over in Hawaii.

And we chatted about Canadian
distribution of his products.

And I put him in touch with a
company that I know will serve him.

Well, fast forward a week and I'm
chatting with a friend of mine.

Telling her about this, not only does she
know the owner well, but she's able to

provide me with background and backstory
and prep work for this podcast here.

There are a couple things
that I take from this.

First, mind your P's and Q's.

Comport yourself in the best
possible way, especially when

you feel that nobody is watching.

To treat everybody as if
there's a possibility that

you are somehow connected.

Because if you look hard enough,
there's a good chance you likely are.

And to be good to one another, because
what goes around, comes around.

I've got a warehouse, I can
handle distribution, but

that's not what fuels me.

Instead, I called somebody who
I knew, would do a good job with

this, and I made that connection.

A rising tide.

Finally, nothing says summer
like flip flops and shades.

Silvercore club members get 25 percent
off all products at Combat Flip

Flops, and they get 15 percent off
precision eyewear from Fortnite Optics.

That basically covers the cost of
your membership right there, and

you still get all the free courses,
the extensive discounts from other

brand partners, The insurance and,
oh yeah, meets RCMP club requirements

if that's something that you require.

If you find value to the Silvercore
Podcast, please consider subscribing

and sharing it with others.

It means a great deal to us and it
helps us more than you likely know.

Without further ado, Let's get
this podcast rolling today.

We have an extraordinary guest who
embodies the spirit of resilience and

innovation, former army Ranger and founder
of combat flip flops joins us to share his

remarkable journey from the battlefields
of Afghanistan and Iraq to the

boardrooms of a groundbreaking business.

He's dedicated his life to empowering
communities in conflict zones.

His story is one of turning
adversity into opportunity, using

entrepreneurship to create jobs and
fund education in war torn areas.

He's a West Point graduate,
a Henry Crown fellow.

Welcome to the Silvercore podcast.

Matthew Griff.

Griffin.

Matthew Griffin: Thank
you very much, Travis.

I think I'm going to hire
you as a professional.

I think that was the best intro.

Everybody's well done.

Travis Bader: Hey, I got
no problem hyping you up.

You've done some pretty amazing things.

I've researched on the internet,
looking at different things you've done.

And by chance, you know, you
and I were chatting a little

bit and a friend was over here.

We're doing a couple of things.

I just mentioned to her, Oh, you
know, I'm chatting with this guy Griff

and she says, you know, I know him.

And so she starts going into backstory,
man, the amount of cool things that

you've done that I've heard from
other people or read about, I know

this is going to be a fun podcast.

Matthew Griffin: I hope so.

I live by the mantra.

I just want to do gangster
shit with my friends.

I love that.

And, uh, it, it, it just
adds up over the years.

And it's funny cause every, you know,
every now and then somebody says,

Hey, remember that time we did this
and you totally forgot about it.

Like, yeah, that was,

Travis Bader: I actually
get that a fair bit.

I've, you know, most of my youth,
is this a great big question, Mark.

I've, I don't know if I've
intentionally blocked most of that

out or what, but people will come
up that I haven't seen in years.

And like, remember when you
did ABC and like, actually,

I don't really remember it.

Like, no, no, it was pretty impactful.

You did.

And they get into it.

Um, it's fun.

It's fun though, to lead a life like that,
where you can actually forget certain

things that were, were pretty amazing.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

Well, I mean, on the other side
of it too, is like with it comes

a little bit of responsibility.

Yeah.

Because people can start asking you
questions and they just come up to

you on an off day or whatever You
just have some random conversation

A couple of years later, like,
remember when you gave me this advice?

I was like, no, I don't.

I'm so sorry.

Sounds like something I'd.

Yeah.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

No, it was a good advice that yes.

Yes.

That's me.

Was it bad advice?

No, I think you got it mixed up.

Yeah, I had a guy reach out recently.

He's like, I don't know if you remember,
but we're chatting, we're in the hospital.

Your daughter was getting stitched up and
I was the guy hit my head on the plane.

I'm like, of course I remember you.

But when he brings it up,
of course I remember that.

Um, it's interesting, the impact
that we can have on people's lives

and not even know it and not even
know the extent of that impact.

And when I look at some of the things
that you've been doing, I mean, holy

crow, you've been having an impact on
people's lives all All around the world.

I want to kind of talk about that.

I want to get into it, but I think we
would be doing that a disservice if

we didn't rewind a little bit to get a
little bit of a flavor of who you are,

what you're about and you know, what
made you want to be all you can be.

Matthew Griffin: Uh, . It's funny,
I I usually use that tagline.

It's like, you know, I grew
up in the eighties, right?

And I know kids can sing this song along
with me if you're a Gen Xer, but be Oh.

But you can be, get an
edge on life in the Army.

Me, and, uh, you know, I
grew up with that slogan.

Slogan and, you know, Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Commando and Rambo.

Mm-Hmm.

. It was the eighties, right?

It's just the 18 every bit about it.

And so, you know, every young male
wanted to join the military and then

my dad was in the military, but my
grandfathers were on old war too.

So it just happened to
be one of those things.

And, um, where it was like, where
it was a foregone conclusion.

And yeah, I would say I'm
from, I was a military brat.

I bounced around a lot, but I say
that's where I went to high school.

Uh, it was just great place
to be from great experience.

I'm super thankful to have spent
some significant time there because

it taught me how to work hard.

How to be a part of a community and really
put your head down and just do good for

others And I ended up, uh, you know having
to face the option of graduating high

school was getting a scholarship You know
getting a job or joining the military.

So I did all three.

Uh, I applied to west point I got
in Graduated the class of 2001.

So June of 2001, thinking I was
going to go to Fort Lewis and

just drink IPA, you know, in the
Northwest and fight fake wars.

And then four months later, September
11th, um, I was already on the path

to go to ranger school, but this
increased my resolve, like, Hey, I'm

going to go to the ranger regiment.

I'm going to be a ranger
fire support officer.

And.

There's only at any one point in
time in the world, there's only

nine of those guys in existence.

And so it's, it's a really hard
job to get to qualifications,

even get there to qualify.

And, uh, I had to go to a conventional
unit first, which was at Fort Lewis,

five 20 infantry, uh, was there for
nine months and, you know, and then I

applied to go to the regiment, went down
through selection and I made it to be a.

Ranger company fire support officer
with second range of battalion.

Travis Bader: What are they looking for?

Matthew Griffin: That that was

well, first of all, you need to
be an artillery officer, right?

So artillery officers
are pull string go boom.

And so there's very few Artillery
officers that are fire supporters

So fire supporters are the guys you
see on the movie the dude on the

radio calls and then all of a sudden
Your artillery starts coming in or

a plane drops that as a fire support
officer or a forward observer, right?

So the normally most guys when they
join the military, if you're artillery

officer, you have to go serve six to
nine months in an infantry unit as

a fire support officer before you go
back to a battery and learn how to do

all the weird math to Shoot artillery
rounds and smoke and illumination.

Um, but I liked staying with the infantry.

I wanted to be in the action.

So I, the, the best fire support officer
job in the army is with a Ranger battalion

where you get essentially every play
toy that you could see in the movies

are at your disposal on the radio.

And I was like, yeah, I, I want that job.

Um, so I got there in July of 2003,
deployed to my first deployment to

Afghanistan in 2000, November, 2003,
uh, which was operation winter strike.

And if anybody is in a ranger battalion
and they hear this, they immediately

start freezing, like you get cold
to your bones, so, and somebody's.

Infinite wisdom.

This is the second year of
fighting the war in Afghanistan.

They said, well, we know these
Taliban fighters are going to

these super high altitude villages
where we can't get to them.

And they hang out there all winter, lick
their wounds, hang out with their wives.

And then when the spring comes back,
you know, the warm weather comes

up, they call it fighting season.

And like all the guys come out of
the mountains and they fight again.

So in somebody's infinite wisdom in
the Pentagon, they said, we're going

to deny them their winter vacation.

And we're going to send Three Ranger
battalions from sea level up to

10, 000 feet of elevation to go
hunt them down through the winter.

Um, so we, we did real rangering.

We were the first, I think, looking
back on the timeline, I think we were

the first guys to really push past the
Korongal Valley, if you're familiar

with that Valley, we lived in villages.

We slaughtered sheep for dinner.

We did the whole thing, man.

It was legit rangering and then came
back, uh, did another deployment to

Afghanistan that following spring.

Came back for a month, went
back, did another deployment to

Afghanistan that summer, came back
for six months, and then I did six

months in Iraq, in northern Iraq.

You know, by then, um,
it was time for me to go.

I'd already been at the Ranger Battalion
for a couple years, which was a

really long stay for a company fire
support officer, but they knew that I

didn't, you know, Want to go anywhere.

So they just kind of kept

Travis Bader: it up and
I was good at my job.

Matthew Griffin: Um, and then, you know,
and then by the, by the last deployment,

I really started to see the, the M immoral
side of the war on terror kind of evil by

Travis Bader: that, like, I have an
idea, but what do you mean by that?

Matthew Griffin: So I went
to the Academy 1997 to 2001.

So that's on like, you know, people are
still getting out of windows 95, right?

So this is when they were looking at
their force projection and they just

started coming up with UAVs and they would
bring in all these military leaders and

had to say, and it was a big discussion
when I was there for four years.

And autonomous warfare was a
major subject of discussion.

And I sat in all of these lectures
for four years and not one military

leader, philosopher, moral standard.

Anybody could justify shooting kinetic
weapons off of an unarmed area.

They couldn't do it.

So that's why you had guys like
me, we would get a mission brief.

We would jump out of an airplane,
climb over a mountain, sit in

a hole for a week if we had to.

You know, to verify minimal civilian
casualties, identify the target.

And then we would do an airstrike on them.

That's that was my whole job.

That was it.

And I recall like on the tail end
of the Iraq deployment, there was

some guy we were, we were chasing.

He was up there in the food chain.

And, uh, we found out that he was
staying in a place outside of town.

And, um, like, okay, like, so
we're going to go get him tonight.

Right.

Like, let's go get him.

And like, no, they're
just going to drone it.

And, uh, and then we started seeing
like the negative ramifications.

Oh, there were women and kids there,
you know, and like that just went

on, but it all just kept getting
washed under the rug in the warfare.

And, uh, I just was like, you
know, I just, I don't want

to play this game anymore.

I saw it in 2005 and it's, it
just continued to get worse.

Um, so I was like, all right, I'm just
going to get out and be a civilian.

Just like that.

It's fine by me.

Okay.

Just like that.

Yeah.

Uh, took a job building the homes
in, um, the Northwest for a major

home builder called syntax homes.

So I went from knowing nothing
about construction to managing.

Like 20 homes a month, like getting
finished out and sold to customers,

to executives at Microsoft and Amazon.

So that was a, a major shift, you
know, going from the military to,

you know, working with trades to
dealing with tech millionaires.

That was a, that was a pivotal time in
life, but you know, like everybody's

getting out, you're still struggling
with the stuff and then 2008 happened.

Um, I lost my job because I was a
homebuilder and then I went to work

for a company called remote medical
international and they're a a company

that supplies doctors, paramedics, EMTs
to people working in difficult areas.

So offshore oil rigs, seismic research
vessels, Antarctic research facilities.

If you need a medic and a clinic,
you know, they would provide all

that stuff, ship it there and then
service the organization with medical.

Travis Bader: What drew you to that job?

Matthew Griffin: And then
that's just Okay, fair enough.

Yeah.

And I mean, I, I was the company
headquarters platoon leader at

a range of a time, which means I
had the medics underneath me, but.

And then when I was down range, whenever
we got into a gunfight and we had to call

for a casualty evacuation, I had to shut
down all of my air operations, you know,

dropping bombs and shooting bullets to
get a helicopter in to pull a guy out and

then, you know, to get them in and out.

So I wanted that one to be as efficient
as possible to increase their.

their save rate, but to like,
so we can get back to the war.

And, um, I just, that was just part
of our protocols and part of my job.

And I, I learned enough from the
medics and I knew enough about military

medicine to lie my way into the job.

And I became the director
of military operations for

remote medical international.

And I spent the next couple of years
bouncing around the world, you know,

Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia.

Uh, the Middle East putting in clinics
and supplying, uh, government contracting

agencies that are working in these
areas for the wars, uh, with medics

and medical services and equipment.

And, uh, I feel like I'm talking.

Oh, you're good.

You're good.

I, I

Travis Bader: Honestly, I'll interrupt you
when I've, when the ADHD kicks in and I

want to hear something, but I, uh, I want
to hear this background because, you know,

you've done a lot for people around the
world, like putting yourself as an army

Ranger, you're putting yourself to serve
even that job in the medical world there.

That's you're, you're helping people
again, what you've been doing with

combat flip flops, you're helping people.

You know, there's a bit of, in the
back of my head, that's wondering.

What drives a person to always want to
be out there helping other people like

this to the point where you're putting
your life and your livelihood on the

line in order to ensure that other people
are, are, are living well and, uh, and

just trying to get a bit of a flavor for
that because not everybody is like that.

And although you probably look around
and would say, yeah, yeah, that's normal.

That's what somebody would do.

Not everybody's like that.

Matthew Griffin: I mean, I
guess it's just faith, karma,

whatever you decide to call it.

You know, I was given a certain
set of skills in this machine and

like all of the bits and parts and
pieces that are made me and like.

The things that are most fulfilling are
these adventures, helping other people.

And I got no reason to stop
because it's really fun.

And it just, every time, every time you
go somewhere, you learn something, you

get better at it and it only amplifies.

I

Travis Bader: subscribe to that a lot.

And I look at people quite often.

I've heard the analogy.

Okay.

You got to put your oxygen mask
on before you help other people.

You got to take care of you before
you can take care of other people.

And I guess, you know, in certain
circumstances, that's going to be true.

But I found personally for
myself, I've gotten way more.

Myself out of helping other people,
helping other people succeed in their

business, helping other people, uh, when
they need it at, at pivotal moments,

at inflection points within their life.

I find that fuels me and, uh, I'm
getting the sense that you're probably

kind of the same in that respect.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah, I,
uh, It does fuel me, right?

And I was actually thinking about this
this morning randomly just totally

unrelated, but everybody sits around and
bitches about the state of the world.

Oh, this is going wrong and that's
happening and this is, oh, ah, ah, and

they just complain, complain, complain.

Like, well, what are you doing?

And we're not saying you got to run
for president or you have to start

some nonprofit or do these other
things, but if you helped your elderly

neighbor, Take the garbage out.

If there was a struggling single mom
that's struggling to feed her kid, like

drop off some finished meals to make
life easier on her and get that kid food.

Like, does a kid need a
ride to a sports team?

Cause his mom doesn't have a car.

All of those other things are things
that every single human being can do

to improve the life in your community.

And that's how this stuff starts, man.

That's how all of these
adventures started.

They just started as dumb little
things, trying to help somebody else.

And then they just snowball
into helping more people and.

I really wish more people
have had that mentality.

Travis Bader: I learned when
you're talking about, you know,

a lot of people want to complain.

There seems to be a learned victim
hood, victimness amongst people where

I like, I look at our society and kind
of how it's set up here in Canada.

Let's talk about like, I'm, I'm in the
gun industry, I'm in the gun world and.

And people are always complaining
about gun control and they say,

you know, when, when seconds
count, the police are minutes away.

Like the government says, don't
worry, we'll take care of you.

Okay.

So we will set up police.

You give us your tax money.

We'll set up police.

Don't worry.

We'll set up hospitals.

We'll take care of you.

Don't worry.

We'll, and I think a lot of people
buy into this idea that there's always

going to be someone out there that's
going to be able to take care of them.

And if it's not being taken
care of properly, Well, who

do I complain to, right?

As opposed to where's my
personal agency that I can.

Take upon myself to be
able to make that change.

And I found that compounded with, you
know, the fear of failure that seems to

be being bred into younger generations.

Don't worry.

You came in eighth place, but
you get the purple ribbon, right?

Or you get the black ribbon.

Everyone's a winner.

Well, no, not everybody's a winner.

There's going to be winners.

There's going to be losers.

And guess what?

It's awesome that you lost, learn how
to lose in a way where you can then

get up again and try and lose and try
and lose, and finally you succeed.

And I, and I find from my
observations, and maybe I'm being

optimistic about it, but I think
there's a change that's happening.

Where people are starting to get
fed up of, um, that lack of personal

agency and realizing that they can
actually affect things around them,

fed up of their fear of failure and
realizing that failure is not fatal.

I think there's a change that's happening.

I don't know if you're
seeing anything like that.

Matthew Griffin: You know, I hope so.

Like I'm starting to see more positive
movement in, in agency, right?

I think people, my, my buddy from
runs a company called 30 seconds

out Navy seal guy, Sean evangelista.

But he's got a patch.

He's got a flag, everything else.

He's got a t shirt.

It says, no one is coming to see you.

No one is coming.

It's it's up to you.

I think that's the line and and maybe I
learned that just from growing up like

I was a You know kid, you know pretty
much a latchkey kid and no one was coming

to like help me out when I fell off my
bicycle in the middle of Nowhere, you

know get home and figure out how to get
blood stains out of my clothes, right?

because mama just bought me these jeans
and fixed my own bike and and and like

we had a bunch of agency and I think
that Maybe over the last 20 or 30 years,

we've seen a lot of that taken away.

And it's, it starts when they're
young, you know, we, we, you

get these kids dependent on
everybody else for everything.

And so now that you've got these 20
or 30 year olds that are just expect

somebody else to take care of something.

And, um, conversely.

They're also the same YouTube generation
where they have more information at

their fingertips and do any skill
they want to in their entire life.

So if they just take like one further
step and start using that side of it

versus everybody gives me everything.

I think we're going to be in a much

Travis Bader: better spot.

Yeah.

YouTube, man, you can learn anything.

You can do anything.

You can be the guy who says.

Just like you said earlier, I knew enough
to kind of lie my way into the job.

They bought it.

We're good, but you
didn't disappoint them.

You're able to succeed.

You don't need to have certificates
behind your name in order

to be able to do something.

And I think that's another
place where I see a lot of

people have a stumbling block.

I can't do X, Y, Z because
I never went to school.

I can't do X, Y, Z.

Cause I don't have my red seal
in, in whatever it might be.

Like, I'm not going to, uh, I'm not going
to name, uh, The company, and I won't,

uh, uh, out myself too much, but I'll tell
you this much, uh, 20 something years ago,

Photoshop sure helped me out to get some,
some different job opportunities that I

otherwise wouldn't have been able to get.

And, and I killed it.

I did an awesome job at that without
having the, the actual piece of paper.

Matthew Griffin: I would rather take
somebody without paper that is coachable

and dependable than somebody with
a piece of paper every single day.

Every day, I would rather take somebody
that is coachable and dependable.

A hundred percent.

If you can learn, yep, I will
take the time to train you, I

will train you how to do it right.

The standard is you need to
be better and faster than me.

And then you know that you
can move on to the next thing.

I would, I would rather do that.

And then, uh, the line that always
bounces, I heard this like a decade ago.

I don't know where I heard it,
but it says the master is not

the one with the most students.

The master is not the master is the
one, the one with the most students.

The master is the one that
creates the most masters.

Travis Bader: Oh, I like that.

I like that a lot.

Yeah.

Cause you don't need a bunch of.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah,

Travis Bader: you don't need in a
bunch of number twos, a friend of

mine, he's a, um, he's in his eighties
now, um, ex strategist for, uh,

uh, a large Canadian rail company.

Uh, quite, quite a smart individual.

And, uh, but he had it saying that he'd
always say to me and he says, you know,

a number, One person hires a number
one person to do a number one job.

A number two person hires
number three person to make them

feel like a number one person.

And that, you know, it's always
kind of stuck in my head.

Don't hire.

Don't don't have a bunch of students
around you so that you can feel like

a master, have a bunch of people
that can do way better than you.

And that rising tide will float all boats.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

Like being pushed as a good, and
it's like, and we were discussing

it earlier about failure.

And people always ask me, I did all these,
I did a lot of fun stuff in the military.

People ask me, what's the one
thing you learned in the military?

It's like the military
taught me how to fail.

I like that.

It literally taught me how to fail.

And then they're like, what do you mean?

It's like, well, you think we learned
how to do all of these like cool guy

tricks and we just get it right the first
time and then it's just muscle memory.

We do it like we're breathing.

Like now they beat it into you
over months and years, right?

And you'd be like, you know, I I can
still remember this i've like behind the

bush some like ranger getting smoked in
the florida phase You know, or I said,

you know how people learn son ranger.

He's like, uh fear pain humiliation
repetition You're getting a mix of all

of them right now and It it It really
made me think, but like, you know,

how do you really learn something?

And it's like, I either
scared myself to death.

I'm not going to do that again.

I hurt myself so badly.

I'm not going to do that again.

I got humiliated so badly.

I'm not going to do it again.

Or I repeated it to the point
where I couldn't get it wrong.

Those are like the inherent, like
your body will not physically like

let you go back to the old ways.

Because you had one of those four
mechanisms and um, And just learning

how to fail is is critical to being
successful Like you will take beatings

along the entire way like, you know,
washington for the united states was

left less than a 50 success rate But
he did that right across the delaware.

I mean he I think he was like three to one
losses or four to one losses You know u.

s.

Colonials versus the the british that
dude knew how to fail, you know Like

and like It's what you gotta learn.

You gotta learn how to fail.

But again, that was a great
digression from the story.

And I appreciate the
multiple little divergence.

Thank you very much

Travis Bader: for that.

Anytime you need a little
bit of ADHD divergence, you

just, you just point at me.

Matthew Griffin: Oh, I'm
just getting a swirl out now.

Um, yeah, so going, going back to
the story, I was at a remote medical

intern and I started flying around
to these areas, but I didn't have a

Ranger platoon with me, I didn't have.

You know, 30 to a hundred heavy hitting
dudes and machine guns and armor and

hand grenades and rocket launchers.

I didn't have any of that.

I had a passport, a visa, some cash, a
backpack and a laptop and a Berger phone.

And I had to get my job done and I had
to get home to my family and being a,

being a map guy, an artillery dude,
and we get the nightly briefings, but

like, if you're down in range in combat
and you're working in an area, they.

Pull up a brief every day.

I'm like, all right, here's where all
the gunfights and explosions were, right?

Here's the overlay over the one
month and the three month calendar.

So you start to see nodes and clusters of
areas that are, More violent than others

and you know, just safety sake says, well,
I'm just not going to go to those areas.

Travis Bader: Yeah

Matthew Griffin: Really?

Yeah, the statistic says if I stay out
of these areas I'm more than likely

going to be safe and I did that and I
found the the three areas are typically

around military compounds and convoys
uh embassies and reporters if you stay

away from those three You're generally
going to be safe and I found that the

areas that were flourishing with small
businesses You Local small businesses

with the ones that were not having any
security issues because those business

owners know if anything happens on
the street It's bad for business.

It's bad for family.

They don't let it go down and
it's like right now So I'm

gonna stay at the grocery store.

I'm gonna stay in the local hotel.

I'm gonna have the local driver fixer
And everywhere I went, it was the same

story, whether it was Africa, Southeast
Asia, wherever I went, it was the

area that was flourishing with local
small business was the safest place.

And the thought kept like getting
shoved in my face by the universe.

It says, why aren't we investing
more in this, in a country for?

Less than the price of one MRAP
we could turn around like multiple

city blocks in a developing nation.

Yeah

Yeah, and and one day I walked into a
combat boot factory in Kabul, Afghanistan.

I saw a combat boot outsole with a flip
flop thong punch through it and Words

combat and flip flops came together
and there's a few other details in

there you can read about it in our
book, but there was so there might

have been some expletives or swearing
but You know for three or four hours

later Yeah, I called my ranger buddy
who I served in the Rangers with.

I, you know, he'd done some online work.

He'd worked for a shoe company before.

And I said, Hey man, let's start
making flip flops on a combat

boot factory in Afghanistan.

And he said, let's do it.

And I said, it's combat flip flops.

com available on GoDaddy and GoFigure.

Nobody ever put those together
in the history of the internet.

Yeah.

So for two 99, we got combat flip flops.

com and that's how our business.

Awesome.

What year was that?

Yeah,

Travis Bader: 2000 and.

2009.

Okay.

So 2008, everything's crashing, 2009,
things are just still kind of not in

the greatest world and you're like,
okay, let's, let's start up a business.

Let's make combat flip flops.

But you went a little further than that.

You had a bit of an ethos
behind doing combat flip flops.

You wanted to be able to help the
communities and help the, uh, help,

uh, help other people with it.

Or did that start right from square one?

Matthew Griffin: Yeah, it's,
uh, you know, it, it did.

Um, you know, our, our main thing
was just putting food on tables.

The, you know, when you're an army
Ranger or a Navy SEAL or a green

beret, you snatch a lot of bad guys.

We snatched a lot of bad
guys over the last 20 years.

And every night, you know, we'd
unload them off the trucks.

They'd go into the detainment facility.

They'd get pushed in their interviews.

And as a young soldier, if you want to see
what's going on, you can literally go sit

in the interviews with the interrogators.

Yeah.

And you'll ask, and you'll hear
the interrogators ask these

guys, why are you doing it?

Is there some ideology?

Do you believe in this mission?

And they go, no, we're hungry.

We have to feed our families.

There is no other jobs here.

What else are we going to do?

Some guy gave me a few hundred
bucks to shoot at you dudes.

I'm going to take that and I'm going
to buy groceries for my family.

So our first mission was really
like, if we just create jobs,

each one of these factory members
has five to 13 family members.

So in the 300 person factory that
we were looking at, that's 4, 500

people that we would be supporting.

By keeping one, like you just,
you just see those numbers.

I don't equate our products to profit.

I equate our products to impact.

I always have.

Travis Bader: I like that.

Matthew Griffin: I guess
we create X, this happens.

Um, and you know, eventually we really
started, uh, we started growing.

We started doing well in 2013.

I got, I reached out to you by a
woman named Hasina Sherjhan, who

was running an organization called
Aid Afghanistan for education,

and And her view is that educated
families are harder to radicalize.

If you educate a girl, you will educate
a family and educated mother will not

allow her children to go uneducated, nor
will they allow them to be radicalized.

So.

If we really want to get on the long game
We have to start educating the young girls

right now so we can solve the problem.

Yeah Just how I agree with that.

That's that's it.

Yeah, and her logic made a lot of sense
to me So I said hey for every product we

sell How about we'll just donate to put a
girl in school for a day in afghanistan?

and Between 2013 to 2021.

Um, actually the, the summer of 21, we got
our first comma and we, we put a thousand

girls in school for a year in Afghanistan

Travis Bader: in the summer of,

Matthew Griffin: and then 21.

Yeah.

Right before everything fell
apart, like we were running our

math and everything, and I had a
personal goal of a hundred thousand.

And we got our first comma and that
was a big deal for us, you know,

getting a comma, you know, and you,
when you think it's just 1, 000

little girls, if you were to line
them up, then you had to be the range.

And so when you, when you, when
you just look at like numbers

like that, you're like, all
right, you're really starting to.

You're making an impact little by little.

And it didn't start with a thousand.

It started with a couple of guys having
a stupid idea at a few hundred bucks.

Cause I sold some guns to
make a shoe company, right?

That's, that's how it started.

Like, like you never know
how it's going to go.

If you're listening to this, like
I literally started my company by

selling the guns my grandfather gave
me and a motorcycle to pay for samples.

I had no cash to do
this and look at us now.

We're, you know, we're on a
multimillion dollar business.

We're, you know, we're
operating in multiple countries.

We're doing great partnerships.

We're sponsoring veteran surfers.

We're clearing landmines.

We're doing all these other things
just because you had a dumb idea.

And I still have the napkin that we had.

I literally have it.

I have it.

Yeah.

You got a, you got

Travis Bader: a framed or something.

You're just sitting in the door.

Matthew Griffin: Uh, it's,
it's, it's in plastic and a file

folder, but I have it, you know?

So it's like, those are
the things that matter.

Yeah.

You have this dumb idea next
thing you know, like, you know,

we could manufacture footwear in
Afghanistan, just logistically.

It doesn't work.

They don't have any rubber
trees, leather tanneries.

So we started making
textiles in Afghanistan.

We shifted our footwear
production to Bogota, Columbia.

We have worked with a
jewelry company making.

Landmines in Laos who print
all of our stuff here in the U.

S.

We've made knit beanies in
Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon.

We've, I mean, we've done like
weird stuff all over the world.

You know, just do doing our best to put
food on tables and honestly represent

America and Americans positively,
because our government has not been.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you know, in our government
too, um, I think there's some,

I think there's a lot to that.

Like I remember when I was younger,
trying different business ideas and

looking at different areas that I
could, I could build a business.

Am I, right?

My concept was never to be rich.

I just wanted to build a business
because I wanted to be able to have fun.

Time is your most precious commodity.

So I wanted to be able to do something
that would provide me more time.

Essentially.

And we'd sit around at the pub, having a
few beers and, you know, everyone's got

great ideas after you've had a few beers,
but I noticed there's a trend the next

day, nobody did anything with those ideas.

And so I'd bring a little notebook with
me, or at one point, my, um, my girlfriend

at the time, now my wife or sister
gave me a state of the art palm pilot,

and, uh, I would write this stuff down.

Matthew Griffin: I love those things.

I miss them so much.

Travis Bader: I'd write it down.

Matthew Griffin: The little shorthand
you had and everything else on there for

Travis Bader: that.

So I'd, I'd write all these notes
down and buddy would have an idea.

And I'm like, that's a great idea.

Are you going to do anything with it?

Uh, probably not.

Okay.

Do you mind if I do something with that?

Yeah, no, go nuts.

Okay.

Next day I'd go out and I'd
start putting it into action.

And maybe by the end of the day, I'm
like, yeah, that was a dumb idea.

Maybe by the end of the week,
I'm like, okay, I don't know if

this is going to work too well.

Okay.

Oftentimes, what I would find is
you can basically make anything work

if you're not making profits, your
primary concern and profits are very

often the natural by product of the
hard work and effort that you put in.

And it's a crazy ideas that people
have, the ones that everybody says

aren't going to work, that tend to be
the ones that later on, everyone says.

Oh, I knew it'd work.

Oh yeah.

I mean, you just got lucky because
of ABC or whatever it might be.

Cause it, those crazy ideas offer a
niche where other people aren't playing.

And I've built my business around,
uh, not looking at the money.

Cause I feel if I'm trying to chase some
money, I'm always going to be behind it.

But if I can chase a quality product
or a product quality service.

That the money will come so far.

It's worked.

Matthew Griffin: Well, maybe
you're better at it than I am.

Right.

Uh,

Travis Bader: I feel,

Matthew Griffin: I feel
a lot too for, yeah.

And then that, that whole thing,
I'm like, oh, I'm going to start

a business, so I have more time.

It doesn't work.

That's a total fat lie that
Timothy Ferris can go, you know,

um, that four hour workweek thing.

That's what totally sold me
and got me started on this.

And.

It's a total lie.

It's a lie,

Travis Bader: but the work that you're
putting in, you enjoy and you want to

be there because I worked at jobs that I
got up in the morning and I was like, I

don't want to go to work, but here we go.

Cause I have to, and I'm like, I
don't want to live my life like this.

If I'm spending eight hours sleeping,
hopefully eight hours a day working.

And then the rest of my time I'm
doing what driving back and forth,

commuting and trying to get things done.

Matthew Griffin: Washing dishes
and doing laundry and oil

changes and everything else.

Travis Bader: Is that a good life to live?

I would rather live in a cardboard
box and enjoy what I'm doing

than live in opulence and be just
plugging away every single day.

No,

Matthew Griffin: I agree.

You got, yeah, but I mean, eventually
you'll get there, like, you

don't, you, it never gets easier.

You just get better as
one of our other lines,

it never gets easier.

You just get better.

Like the.

You know, something that like
somebody will say, Oh, we

missed a shipment of this.

Like five years ago, I
would have lost my mind.

Now I'm okay.

Call this guy, call that dude.

Like, let's figure out like how
we can get stuff moved around.

How do we make this work?

It, it, you just get better at it.

There's nothing you can do to solve
the problem other than solve it.

And you find

Travis Bader: tomorrow still comes.

And what you felt was the end of the
world when you're younger is like.

Okay.

Well, we'll do better next time.

We're going to put these things in place.

So hopefully it doesn't
happen again, but here we go.

Next piece.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

Often it feels like that meme
about that dude cracking a beer,

sitting on a burning couch.

That's what most
entrepreneurship feels like.

That's what it's often.

Yeah.

I know everybody's seen that meme,
but that's honestly what it feels

Travis Bader: like.

Yeah.

I can relate to that.

You were on Shark Tank as well, and
that's kind of a cool experience.

What was that like?

Matthew Griffin: It was super fun.

We treated it like a ranger mission.

You know, we watched all the episodes.

We profiled all the sharks.

We, we took the measurements.

We saw how many paces the guys
would have to take back and forth

between the first door and the second
door, the second door and the mark.

Uh, luckily, you know, I was
in the veteran community.

So there's a bunch of other
veterans that are on there.

So I just.

I'm relentless when it comes
to running people down.

And, uh, maybe the Rangers taught
me that it's like, you know, we're,

we're just going to find you and we're
going to get ahold of you, but now I

get to do it in a more peaceful way.

And I called all of the businesses
that I saw on shark tank.

I just got their contact information
and I got ahold of a few of them.

And Eli crane, who's now
a U S congressman, he was

running bottle breacher.

He was.

Really helpful in responding and
talking me through the process and

we trained up for it for months We
dropped our sales all of our marketing.

That's all we did for two straight
months was trained for short tank

Travis Bader: I like that

Matthew Griffin: and we we set our
left and our right limits and uh,

just funny story You can read about
it in the book But the producers are

always trying to mess with you for
entertainment's sake And we were going

in on the very high end of reasonable
on our valuation We were going at it.

I think a 1.

5 million dollar valuation And he
wanted us to go for like three, right?

Which, which would have caused a lot
of drama, but Lee and I and Andy,

we'd already made our business plans.

We knew our numbers, we knew our
acceptable, unacceptable, everything

that like, you know, we were, we
were ready to do, we were set.

And, um, the producer comes up, he's like,
Hey man, I really want you to do that.

The 3 million valuation.

It's like, well, I'll paper, rock,
scissors, you for it right now.

And literally the woman is like
blotting makeup on my face.

And I'm talking to the producer right
here as I'm like looking at her.

And she's like, what?

I was like, All right.

You're the rep ready?

And I lost,

I lost

producer looks old.

I think, I think I chose
scissors and yeah, trusty

Travis Bader: old rock.

Matthew Griffin: And, uh, he's
like, do you want to do three?

I was like, nah, dude, we do this.

We do it live.

We go one, one and done.

We're over.

And, uh, so he gets all giddy and
jumps up and like runs back to

wherever the producers hang out.

And then, you know, we're getting ready.

Like we're standing there,
like, look over at lead.

He's like, what are we going to do?

It's like, we're going to
execute the fucking plan, man.

Let's go.

Same as always.

Let's go.

Let's let her rip.

And, uh, a three sharp deal,
more than our minimum metric

that we had set for ourselves.

And, uh, we got in, we got what we needed.

We got out like true ranger fashion.

We're gone.

And then that turned into
probably one of the scariest

six months to a year of my life.

Why?

Yeah, we, cause we filmed in June
expecting to be on the, um, they

usually air the veterans episode
around veterans day would make sense.

So we went and we
leveraged all of our cash.

We'd given up our sales from the season.

We came back in June, had to catch
up on production and everything else.

We stacked.

As we borrowed as much money as we could,
we put as much inventory on the deck

as possible for this new Veterans Day
episode, November 11th, November 11th

came, November 11th went, no episode.

So now bills are due, no sales, no cash.

It was tough.

Like, what were we going to do?

And we had based our pricing on
standard wholesale, thinking that

stores would pick us up, but nobody was.

It's just, you know, 2000.

15.

This is like the, really the golden age
of social media and online e commerce.

This is the wild, wild west.

This is a ramp up and it's like, screw it.

Let's just change our
pricing to be competitive.

Let's drop wholesalers.

We're not going to sell
through any stores.

Let's just go direct overnight.

Our volume tripled, all the
lights went green across the

dashboard, and then we sold through
everything through the holidays.

Wondering what we're going to do, you
know, January, I go down to shot show.

I'm helping, uh, a nonprofit organization
called team five foundation, where

we send special operations medics to
developing nations, new clinic and

aid work, and literally standing at a
fundraiser as the MC and my phone rings.

And it's a producer from shark
tank that says, Hey, you're going

to be on shark tank in two weeks.

Literally, I had no cash.

Thinking I was going to put
my company under, all of the

inventory that I own would sit on
my very small desk to my right.

Sorry, my pup is, uh,
is bothering me here.

Long in this interview.

Oh, good.

Kiko, you want to give
a little appearance?

Yeah, come on in.

There you go.

There's a nice pop.

There's the Kiko little
Catahoula Catahoula blue healer.

He's a good boy.

First dog was follow him on Instagram as

Travis Bader: a blue
healer and border Collie.

That's my first dog.

But your dog's got an Instagram account.

Matthew Griffin: Kilo Niner dot Kiko.

Yeah, you can follow him.

Um, so, you know, I'm, I'm standing
there, I got to finish this fundraiser

and I got two weeks until the
largest retail event any American

small business could ever have,

which then goes into, okay, I'm going
to call every rich individual I know.

And like I said, I'm relentless about
running people down if I miss something.

And I won't come after you
like selfishly, it's like, Hey,

we're going to do something fun.

It's going to be good.

You'll be smiling at the And, uh,
I, I, there was a ranger buddy who I

knew was doing well and I called him.

I was like, dude, I
need 50 grand right now.

He's like, what?

I need 50, 000 transferred
into my account right now.

I know your CFO is sitting
in the next office over.

I want you to yell at him
after I get done talking.

And I want you to tell
him to wire me 50 grand.

I'll give you 10 percent back in 30 days.

Like this will be a good return for you.

Let's do it.

And um, and he's like, no, no, I
was like, look, man, if you don't

do this, I'm going to get in my car.

I'm going to drive to my office
and I'm not going to leave until

like, and he was good for it.

And he ended up hosting, he ended up
hosting the shark tank debut in his office

headquarters, you know, and, uh, ta group.

Um, John Syracuse, the guy's name.

And then, you know, we have all the
dashboards, it was set up like a

command center, but we had our Google
analytics, uh, you know, everybody

like long table with rows of laptops.

And we had 50 grand written on the
board because that was the only

number that I was worried about was
taking care of what I owed somebody

Travis Bader: else.

Matthew Griffin: That number
came, came and it went right.

Like we wiped that number off the board
when the sales hit, we popped bottles of

champagne and Yeah, it was, it was good.

It was fun.

Um, and then, you know, we back ordered,
we aired February 6th or seventh.

We backorder on the initial night.

We back ordered it full
production to the end of May.

Then they rerun us at the end of May, and
then we backorder till the end of August.

So we had tens of thousands of
orders that we had to get out and.

I did my best.

We were still fulfilling out
of my garage behind my kitchen.

Wow.

Like literally Trucks would roll in with
boxes We'd break everything down inventory

at all hit the print button All the pick
tickets would come out everything would

go into boxes Truck would roll by four
hours later ship out and we'd stand there

at the end of the day And y'all look
that's five little girls going to school.

That's so cool.

That is so cool You know, every day, you
know, getting to have that satisfaction

and like looking at the team and it's
not, Oh, like, Hey, we did all this work.

It's like, that's five little girls.

Going to school for you.

Yeah, right.

And like everybody kept coming back day
after day, and I think they really get it.

If you work for us or with us, you'll
understand this is a real intent.

Like our, our operations have an impact,
you know, and I often talk to people

about our And they go, that was the
first thing we ever did as a company.

Like we help entrepreneurs
affected by conflict.

You know, we empower the mindful consumer
to manufacture peace through trade.

And there's a few other things in
there, but persistence, creativity,

and respect, you know, through
persistent creativity and respect,

we empower the mindful consumer to
manufacture peace through trade and.

The reason the mission statement is so
important and why I explain this to other

people that are thinking about writing
a mission statement for their business

is eventually you're going to have them
and your employee at some point in the

future is going to be unsupervised out
of contact and needs to make a decision.

Do they have a binary statement that's
in there that goes, does this help?

Does this decision drive us
closer to the mission goal?

Or does it not yes or no, any decision,
whether it's a marketing photograph,

whether it's production, whether
it's, you know, logistics or finance,

anybody on any one of my teams can
read our mission statement and go,

does this help them make the mission?

Does this make the mission happen?

Right.

And that's, and that's what we do is we
just, we just kept doing that and like

people get it and they, we just been
driving on, like just chip away at that

Travis Bader: North star

Matthew Griffin: without the help
of, yeah, without the help of the

U S government, any aid agencies.

It has been a debacle, like, and I've
spoken at the Afghan embassy multiple

times, I've spoken, you know, with heads
of Department of State, I mean, like,

congressmen, representatives, senators.

Nada.

We are the most successful business
that has come out of this operation

and we still continue to be the
only Finnish cashmere maker in

Afghanistan and we cannot get
any support from any aid agency.

It's been really frustrating.

That's crazy.

But the soulless in that.

Right.

The big middle finger to the man is
that all of this impact has been created

because of the faith and the support
of people like yourself, you know, like

anything that we have done, it's not us.

It's our customers that
have made this happen.

And we're so thankful for the people that
support our mission, where our product.

And encourage others to do
so, you know, so we're, we're

having a good time with it.

Right.

And we just got more
for your gangster show.

I

Travis Bader: love it.

And I think you might have
a Canadian distributor now.

Matthew Griffin: We do DS tactical.

Those guys up there, they, uh, just
waiting on their opening order.

So maybe you just give them a buzz
and tell them to shoot over that PO.

That is the, the Canadian market has
been really understanding of the mission.

It's it's interesting except
with the exception of the french.

Travis Bader: Oh, yeah.

Well, don't get me started.

I will get

Matthew Griffin: on and I

I'll tell if any french canadians listen
to this like don't be such a dick on

social media right like I'm gonna tell you
like stop being a dick in the comments.

Nobody enjoys it Um, but the
generally the Canadians they've for

years, they purchased stuff from
us at a severe detriment to them

because it's more expensive to get
the product because of the taxes.

They, they've got, you know, all
the shipping and since 2020, the

shipping to Canada is just gotten.

Stupid expenses.

Yeah.

And then we, uh, so we're really
thankful we get double hose too, because

Travis Bader: we have brokerage
fees like on UPS and FedEx and the

brokerage fee has got nothing to do.

Like you can ship a refrigerator for
$1 and they'll charge you a brokerage

fee on the dollar or a diamond
ring at 10 grand and the brokerage

fee will be based on the 10 grand.

It's got nothing to do with the
size, weight, or whatever it is.

And really, it's got
nothing to do with any.

Any, uh, government, uh, taxes.

It's just the company saying,
we want a bit more money.

So that's, uh, that's a tough
one when we're buying stuff.

And when you and I first started
talking, you're like, Hey,

you want to be a distributor?

And I'm like, I don't even
know what a distributor does.

Right.

It's super easy.

All you need is a warehouse and like,
well, I got a warehouse, actually,

this is in the warehouse that I've
converted into a studio part of it.

And, uh, yeah.

But I said, you know, I know somebody
that I texted Martin from a DS tactical.

And right away he said, yeah, he'd do it.

But I didn't tell you that.

He said, yeah, right away.

Cause I didn't want to speak for him.

I didn't want to, who knows
what was going to go happen.

But, um, I said, this guy's
Griff, you got to talk with him.

He's amazing guy.

He's got a great product.

He's got a great thing going.

And, uh, so.

On day one, when I contacted
them, you had the green light.

So I was just holding my breath, making
sure that nothing happened in between

that was going to, uh, to jinx that one.

But that's awesome.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

Well, they, they should be shipping
here soon, fingers crossed, but I will

tell my Canadian brothers and sisters.

Before winter comes, when we ship
our cashmere, buy the cashmere.

It is the best cold
weather product that I own.

I'm telling you, buy two because
your wife is going to steal one.

It is a great product,
you're going to love it.

Travis Bader: Well, you know a bit about
cold weather because you lived in the

Pacific Northwest for a while, right?

Matthew Griffin: Yeah, I did.

I lived in the Seattle
area for the Northwest.

I was one of the first guys to ski, uh,
ski off the tallest mountain in Iraq.

I've summited Mount Rainier.

I'm a, I'm a, I'm a mountain
guy in cold weather.

So I get it.

I do a lot of archery, hunting,
all these other things.

And that one piece that has been uniformed
throughout all of those adventures

has been my cashmere, my cashmere,

Travis Bader: it

Matthew Griffin: goes with me every order

Travis Bader: that one.

Matthew Griffin: I'm telling you
guys, if, if you buy one of these

things and you listen to this podcast
again and think that I'm lying to

you, you would be the first person.

They are phenomenal.

You will really enjoy it.

Travis Bader: Well, Rainier, that's
a bit more of a technical mountain.

That's, uh, that's, that's
kind of a sketchy mountain.

Matthew Griffin: Uh, I did it
with veterans adventure group.

So they're a group that helps,
uh, veterans do more positive

activities in the outdoors.

So they do mountain climbs,
they do skydiving and.

They sponsored me to get my, uh,
AFF certification for skydiving.

So they helped me learn how to skydive
and I felt the need to repay them.

And so I led a, uh, led a climb on
Rainier for them, I think in 2017 or 2018.

I let it climb for them.

And we did it in early June, which
I would have to say if I were going

to do Rainier again, I would do it
as early season as I possibly could.

Uh, just, there's not as many
crevasses, the path is shorter.

Um, there's usually less tourists,
you know, and, uh, the summer climbers

that are there, so, you know, we
just had a, a group of veterans and

I trained this, uh, a friend of mine,
one of my mentors, actually a business

partner, uh, She turned 50 that year.

She's like, I don't want
to climb right here.

So we trained for months and I'll
tell you what, she absolutely

went out and put the wood.

To those other veterans.

Like she was like the first
one up to the base camp.

She didn't bitch or complain all day.

She did.

She managed her, her lines.

Well, she just straight up crush it.

And I like really made me
proud as a coach, right.

To see here, this 50 year old
female veteran, just go out

and just kill these young guys.

It was awesome.

I loved it.

That is

Travis Bader: really good.

That the group that you were, you're
working with there, they deal with

veterans and mental health as well.

Don't they?

Matthew Griffin: Uh, veterans
adventure group, uh, not so much.

I think just their primary
focus is getting guys, you

know, outside that is mental

Travis Bader: health

Matthew Griffin: is being outside.

Travis Bader: That's my mental
health in a nutshell is just get

out, get out in the ocean, get
out in the mountains, get outside.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

I mean, every great article that
I've written or done or anything

creative like that has always been.

Outside

Travis Bader: who was

Matthew Griffin: my ted talk.

I wrote while cattle hunting here on
the big island, you know All I just

sit down you got time to think about
nothing while you're waiting around.

Yeah Yeah, all that's when
all the thoughts I didn't

Travis Bader: catch your ted talk.

How did I miss your ted talk?

Tell me about that

Matthew Griffin: uh I was at nike at
a veterans advocacy group And I just

happened to sit down around a table
and this guy sitting next to me goes.

Hey, man, i'm You know, I'm, uh, I'm
doing this Ted talk, uh, in Tacoma.

Would you like to be a part of it?

All right, cool.

Like we'll hire you a professional
speaking coach and you can talk about it.

And, uh, I was like, how long is it?

You got a couple of months.

I'm like, it's fine.

And you know, then I typical range, right?

Deep dive into the science of a Ted talk.

I look at all the graphs
and the best ones that work.

And then I start like
penciling mine all out.

And when the coach showed up, I had my.

My sign wave and graph on the
board with my talking points on it.

And he's like, you'd really
thought about this one, huh?

And I'm like, yeah.

And then, uh, they ended up making me
the closer for the event, which is cool.

And it's just a great piece of,
uh, of content because it holds

true today as it ever did, right?

Like I still feel the same
way I do about Afghanistan.

I still feel the same way
I do about our mission.

I really think if.

If we're all creative, respectful
and persistent, you know, we're going

to make it through a lot of these
challenges that we face, whatever

they may be today in this world.

Travis Bader: So,

Matthew Griffin: and we're
just an example of that.

Travis Bader: Archery is something that
you're passionate about and it's something

that I'm just kind of learning about.

I grew up a gun guy, rifle
guy, and I picked up a

Matthew's bow not too long ago.

I've been practicing with it.

You turned me on to, what was it?

Slick trick.

Slick

tricks.

Got some of those.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

Slick trick broadheads.

Yeah.

Have you got to put them to use?

No,

Travis Bader: no, I just got the,
well, I think they just came in

the mail, the slick tricks, uh,
about a couple of weeks ago.

And I, uh, then I was out of town.

I was in Nova Scotia and
then over to Toronto.

So I haven't played, played with them
yet, but, uh, I'm looking forward

to the, uh, the fall when I can
see if I can get close enough to an

animal and, uh, do my work with it.

That'll be, uh, it'll be interesting.

I might have to talk to
you about, uh, not if,

Matthew Griffin: not if,

Travis Bader: all right, when, when, you
know, I got a draw for moose this year.

So we'll be doing a moose hunt.

I think that, I think
that'll be a rifle hunt.

Uh, but I'll be bringing
the bow just in case.

Uh, we've got a, uh, son got a deer
draw and then we've got a couple other

hunts that we've got kind of lined up.

But you do a fair bit of hunting
over there on where you're at right

now on the big island, don't you?

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

We've been, um, we've been
hunting a lot lately actually.

And that's one of the major reasons
I moved here is because you have

the majority of animals here are
invasive and they want them gone.

So the, the hunting tags are non existent.

You just go out and hunt, you know,
you have your limits per area, but

it's every day of the year, you
can always go hunting out here.

And I really just, I enjoy it.

So we've, uh, you know, last couple
of weeks you brought down, you know, a

turkey, a couple of pigs, a few cattle.

You know, i'm still after a big
old mouflon sheep here, which I

haven't had the opportunity to
get yet But that'll come here.

Just need to spend spend
some more time outside.

You have a lot of the

Travis Bader: mouflon.

Matthew Griffin: Uh, there's a lot Yeah,
they're they're an invasive species so

much So are they like every couple years
they have to shoot a few thousand of them?

Travis Bader: Okay

Matthew Griffin: Like they just,
they, they tear up the environment.

They hang out at high altitude, you
know, six to 10, 000 feet of elevation.

So it's, it's hard for hunters to get
up there to, to, you know, keep them in.

Travis Bader: And

Matthew Griffin: there's
no natural predators.

Travis Bader: And you don't have
access to your, on that island, do you?

Matthew Griffin: We do not know.

And there are another
super invasive species.

But I am looking forward
to getting over on Molokai.

Going and getting some of those.

Cause I, I hear they're really.

Travis Bader: Yeah, they're fantastic.

I was over last year on Molokai
there and got some access to here.

That was actually my
first out of country hunt.

And it wasn't at all what I was
expecting in the way of a hunt.

And, um, like I, I don't do
the guided thing, although

I'm sure I could learn a lot.

Naive Josh.

Gone out and learn myself or
talk to more experienced people.

And so I, I did my recce.

I'm going around.

I'm checking the places out where the
deer are at a few days ahead of time.

They're kind of neat.

When you sneak up on
them, they'll bark at you.

That's, um, I haven't had deer bark at
me before, but that was, that was neat.

So I, uh, meet up there's a, I think
there's a couple of companies, but

there's one company over there,
really nice family owned company.

Great guy.

And, um, Anyways, they get you in a little
side by side and they drive you around.

I'm like, okay, we get out here
and we hike over the next mountain.

Do we, no, no, no, we'll,
we'll drive you over there.

I'm like, well, I kind of want
to get out and move around.

Right.

I kind of want to put some work in
and I guess they're used to just

driving people up, sitting down.

There's a deer, go ahead and shoot them.

So, uh,

Matthew Griffin: there is something
to be said for those types of hunts.

Um,

Where, you know, like, you know, we're
going to do a service like that out here.

I'm helping another veteran
started guide service.

And a lot of people are just intimidated
by hunting and they want to get into the

sport, but they don't have anybody to.

You know, take them out to a safe
area, know they're going to get a shot

and then walk through the process.

The part of hunting that nobody ever talks
about is how do you break down an animal?

Travis Bader: Well, that's pretty huge.

Matthew Griffin: Like, how
do you feel dressing it?

Yeah, and like everybody just
focuses on the gun side of it.

And Now, this is the part of hunting
that nobody talks about is when you're,

you're all sitting around and get done
taking photos and you're just laughing.

You got the tailgate down, got some music
on, drink a cup of coffee, you know, you

get the knives out and the meat bags and
you're just, you're there for an hour

or two, just hanging about, you know,
just getting ready, everything ready.

And then you go home and then
you have to debone everything.

If you don't debone it in the woods
and you got to get the silver skin

off, and then you got to cut up
all your fillets and steaks, then

you got to vacuum seal everything.

Like If you take down an animal,
there is another 10 to 15 hours

of work for a newbie, maybe three
to four for an experienced guy.

And the ability to go on one of
these guided hunts, where they

teach you how to do that will only
encourage you to be out in the, in

the outside more, which I'm, I'm a

Travis Bader: fan.

I can see a lot of value to that.

Um, I did end up getting out and saying,
look, I'm going to just go through this

valley here, I'm going to hike on through.

And we got some game in
there, which is amazing.

And the guide said, Hey,
that was a pretty neat trick.

We haven't had somebody do that before.

I think we'll try it again
because we had some, some decent

sized ones bedded down in there.

Um, you know, for somebody, if you've
never done that before, I mean, that's,

there's massive value to learning with
somebody over your shoulder and if

you're putting it in, if you're doing
it the hard way, I mean, you're just

reducing your odds of actually finding
something and being able to get, to

learn those other pieces of the puzzle.

Tell me about this business
that your friend's setting up.

I want to learn more about this and I want
to know how I can get involved with that.

Matthew Griffin: Uh, so, um, he's a
native Hawaiian, uh, Marine veteran.

Who loves being outside and
he hates his current job.

All right, so you know you hang
out with me enough I will like keep

seeding like oh, you maybe you should
do this for a business or maybe you

should do that Or here's how the
math works out and people run it.

Well, we don't have any land to hunt
Well, i've got a friend who's got 60

acres private acres here And he's got
tons of pigs on the property that he

wants off his property you know if
we just go out there and clear down

some brush and set up some shooting
lanes and cut him a commission like We

now have 60 acres of private hunting
land Then we can safely go and bring

people to, you know, off a gravel road.

You'll pull your car out.

We'll either give you a ride out to the
blind, or you can walk out to the blind.

Yeah.

We'll, we'll know where the animals are
and we can shoot one, bring it down, take

all the photos and somebody can go back
and have their vacation with their family.

They go snorkeling at the beach.

They can, you know, go cruise around,
do the hikes, go to the observatory.

And then all of a sudden at your
hotel, you're going to get a cooler

full of vacuum sealed, frozen
stuff to fly home with, right?

So you guys can enjoy
this trip for, you know.

So, you know, so you just keep
reliving that and that's the

experience you want to provide.

Travis Bader: So he's
going to do well with that.

That's going to be a popular, are
there a lot of other companies

over there that are doing that?

Matthew Griffin: Uh, there are a lot
of other guide companies out here,

but they're typically the higher
end ranch hunts where you're paying

1500 to 2000, they go out and shoot
a big, big ram or, you know, a big

goat on somebody else's property.

But, you know, I'm more aimed toward the
father, son, father, daughter, you know,

a woman who wants to learn how to hunt.

You know, creating that kind of
teaching experience where it's not

one of those fancy hunts, but it's
something where you're going to

get a good animal, a tasty animal.

You're going to learn a lot
and hopefully you'll come back

and recommend other friends.

That's cool.

Travis Bader: Well, we'll get links
to that up when the business is up

and going, we'll get links to that,
we'll throw it in this podcast.

Anybody listening and watching, we'll
be able to see what that's all about.

And, uh, you know, maybe I'll just
fly over there and take a few pictures

myself and see what we can do.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah, we'll have
to do a podcast from the wine.

I think.

So get that done.

Yeah, that'll happen.

Yeah.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

I've got the, uh, the full remote kit
that I've, uh, I was just, uh, back

east with it and I was supposed to
be doing a podcast in Nova Scotia.

Uh, the individual got a little
shy and so we didn't do it there.

That's fair enough.

Uh, had a fantastic time.

All you can eat lobster and,
um, smallmouth bass fishing.

I'd never done that before,
so that was, uh, kind of neat.

.
Matthew Griffin: Smallmouth or fun?

My favorite freshwater fish to fish.

Yeah.

They're so aggressive.

Are, are they ever, they hit so hard.

Travis Bader: Well, we head out.

Okay, so this fellow, he.

Uh, owns a company called
ATI armament technology.

They make wicked scopes.

People have probably heard of them.

They do Tenebrex scope covers
and they got tangent theta and

SAI and really cool company.

Very family oriented, which
I like very core values.

And so out at the, the owner's cottage,
we go in the boat and it was me and him

and my wife is with, with his partner.

And.

Uh, she comes over and
hands a little book.

Like, what's this for?

Oh, you got to keep track.

She says, what do you mean?

You say, well, how do
we know who's won here?

Who's got the most?

I'm like, okay, so this
is a new thing for me.

You, I, I don't go out and keep track
of how many, man, the bite was on.

We're doing pretty good over there.

It was, um, uh, pickerel.

Of course, we've got a bunch
of those, uh, smallmouth bass.

They're an aggressive fish.

I mean, they're invasive from what
I understand in our, in our waters.

But, um, at least over here in
the West, but they're a fun one.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah, they're super fun.

Yeah.

My, uh, my favorite like family
oriented fishing is pink.

Okay.

That's.

Just the little garbage ones.

Travis Bader: I like pinks, you
know, every, every odd year they'll

run on inside or outside, even
years inside, odd years outside.

Right.

And so right around the corner from
this location, when he used to be our

office, I got a new office, uh, in
Ladner for people who know the area.

But, uh, I've got fishing rods in
the, uh, in the next room over here.

And when they're running, man, we
just go out there right on the river.

You can cast from the side and
you go home with a few pinks,

throw them in the smoker.

They're fatty.

They're, they're a
fantastic fish to smoke up.

Matthew Griffin: I like saltwater fishing,
you know, I like, I've had them out of

freshwater, but when the first time I did
it, I think it was like 2015 or 2017, but

we had a 14 foot Zodiac with a, I think
a 15 horsepower motor on it on the back.

And, you know, we saw him out jumping
and it's like, I know they hit buzz

bombs and we had a couple bass rods.

So we just, you could see the
school skim in the top of the water.

So we just ripped right in front
of the school, toss them in.

And next thing you know, the whole
boat is erupting and laughter and, you

know, just, just, you know, there's
four fish on at a time with four people

in a 14 foot Zodiac and everybody's
tried to do everything and get them in.

Right.

And then once we get them all in and
like in the bottom of the boat and

they're like, there's schools over
there and you're like a Navy SEAL team

with all your fishing rods, everybody's
strapped to the bottom of that boat.

And I was literally out there
with like, you know, little girls

and my, you know, my friends.

And just these kids and like they knew
for the next three days that we were up

in the San Juan Islands But like they
knew where the tide changes were like

when's tide change And like they were
ready and like standing by the boat with

their fishing rods and their buzz bombs
ready to go Because we were gonna go

out and kill it It was just such a fun
little experience and then We'd go out

and we hit our limit every day And then
we'd have salmon for months and every

time you break one of those things out
of the freezer you laugh about the story

that you had when you were out fishing
and reminiscing and pulling up the

photos and You I just think it's a much
better way to live and to consume your

meat is to have that connection to it.

Yeah.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

I think people would do a lot
better to, you know, I, I get, I

get the idea behind veganism, the
people who don't want to eat meat.

Sure.

I get where they're at, but, um, if
you're going to consume meat, having

a more intimate connection with.

The cycle, the life cycle,
it sure makes a difference in

my life and my family's life.

I can tell you that much, you
know, like my kids, we, at a young

age, brought them up friends farm.

They were there for everything
except for shooting the thing in

the head, the Berkshire pig, drag
it around the corner through the

snow, hang the thing up, butchering
it, um, They're there for all of it.

And I think like appreciation that this
animal was alive and now it's dead and

you were a part of that process makes
them appreciate their own life better.

It makes them appreciate, I'm not going
to waste this food that's on here.

And yeah, I know it's not for everybody,
but I think that, uh, people should

at least experience a portion of that.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

I mean, I think I just, I honestly
think it's more ecologically friendly.

You know, the math never pays
out kids like guys, you can lie

to your wife and say, Hey, no,
I'm going to shoot this moose.

It's going to generate X amount of weight.

Right.

And if you go to the store and try to
buy this, it's, it's, it's a 4, 000

worth of meat versus if I go hunting
and the trip's only two grand, like you

never, the math never works out guys.

Like I understand this lie, go for it.

Like it's a little light one.

I want you guys to be out there in the
woods, but, uh, It never works out, but

you know, we, when we take our animals
here, you know, we use everything, right?

The, the heads get saved.

They get turned into art, you know,
all the neck meat and all the off cuts

of meat gets turned into dog food,
all the steaks and everything else.

They get to go into the human consumption.

All the silver skin goes into a broth for
the dog to go over the top of their food

and grind up the organs for the dogs.

Like we try to use.

As much of the animal as possible.

And you know, you're not getting
that in with store bought stuff.

Travis Bader: No.

Matthew Griffin: So I

Travis Bader: feel better.

Yeah, no, we've, I've
heard the horror stories.

We've had some professional butchers
on the show here before talking

about, uh, some of the horror stories.

Um, yeah, being a part of the,
the process and, uh, actually.

You know, like you're saying,
you're doing all your own butchery.

I think that's another piece of the puzzle
that people should, uh, should experience.

You don't just go out and harvest
an animal, shoot your animal,

and then drop it off at the
butcher and come pick it up later.

The butchery process is
a big part of that too.

Matthew Griffin: I'm going
to say there is nothing wrong

Travis Bader: with dropping it.

Matthew Griffin: If that still
gets you outside and it, it, it.

Gets you providing clean,
organic meat to your family.

I think there's nothing wrong with it.

I just, I just enjoy the whole process.

Travis Bader: I'm not going to
begrudge somebody for it, but I do

think they should experience that.

And they might find it's not as
difficult as maybe they thought it was.

And, you know, I'd like, we've,
I've been on group hunts, um, we

had a moose group hunt and they
wanted to bring it to a butcher.

Fair enough.

And we had the backstraps and around
the campfire, and then we'd go to the

butcher and pick up all our stuff.

We've got our backstraps again.

I'm like, how'd that work out?

It's gotta be somebody else's.

So there's, uh, more control over what
you have and it's a good experience.

I'm not saying everyone's got to do
it, but it's, if you haven't done

it, it's a good thing to experience.

Matthew Griffin: Agreed.

Yeah.

And again, this just goes back to YouTube.

I remember there was this
English guy talking about like

a gourmet butchering a deer.

And he had this 30 minute tutorial
about him taking apart a whole deer

and explaining what the cuts look like.

And, um, I have that video saved.

And if I ever have a question,
I want to make a neat cut.

I just literally got the phone
or the laptop up in the kitchen.

You know, play that section, right?

This is how I do it.

And you ended up coming up with
professional looking stuff and your

first couple of animals are going to
look like garbage, your fillets and

your cuts are not going to look good.

So just get used to it.

It just forces you to go out and

Travis Bader: do it.

I was a little bit lucky as far as
my wife's a red seal chef and has

done professional butchery courses.

So she's better at it than I am.

I always lean on her for that one.

But the one thing I did learn on
the hunt over in Molokai He would

dress the deer out, the axes,
deer, uh, the gutless method.

And I thought, okay,
that's kind of interesting.

And, um, uh, so he went through
here, the thing dressed out in no

time flat, obviously he's done a
lot of them and, uh, there is like

very minimal wastage on the animal.

So that was kind of an
interesting way to do it.

I thought that was a good learning point.

Matthew Griffin: I still haven't
figured out how to get the tenderloins

out with the gutless method, which
rib I got to go through and how I got

to get that thing separated out and
going from the I filmed them doing

Travis Bader: it.

Um, I

Matthew Griffin: haven't, I haven't
figured that out yet, but, uh, no,

it's, it's a, it's a great method.

I generally will do that.

I will at least save the gut pile for
last, you know, so I'll take all the

quarters, backstraps, all the brisket
and I'll take everything off the animal.

So I'll have the carcass
there and just less it.

And then I'll, you know, quick, get
the, you know, open up the cavity.

you know, grab the esophagus, pull
everything down, like pull it out

the back, go get the tenderloin.

So at least I've got the, like
the intestines and all the parts

that we're not using up there.

They're just connected in one thing.

So it's some animals not going to
drag off the bones and the intestines.

So you're not going to make a mess
if you're Near anywhere residential,

Travis Bader: you know, that was the
other thing I saw the animals, how

quickly they, um, break down over in
your heat over in Hawaii wheat, there's

a, um, a deer that was hit by a vehicle.

And I'm sure there's tons of them on
Molokai that would get hit by vehicles,

but scroll by one day, there's,
there's one on the side of the road.

It was hit.

And I think by day two or three, you'd
barely know there's anything there.

I mean, the, the heat and the bugs
and everything, it was just gone.

Matthew Griffin: Oh, it's.

Yeah.

It's, it's primarily the pigs,
the pigs will eat everything.

We, we, we, we shot a, a cow, uh,
about two weeks ago and we were,

you know, just being really quiet
and we were butchering everything.

And all of a sudden this 70 pound
hog, you know, she was downwind of

us, like walks up, smells, thinks
she's going to go get dinner.

And then she ended up being dinner for

Travis Bader: us.

Matthew Griffin: So

Travis Bader: good dinner.

So is there anything that
we haven't talked about that

we should be talking about?

Matthew Griffin: See here, we talk
about Afghanistan, the story, just to

reiterate guys, like we make stuff cool
shit in dangerous places We do that with

the intention of representing America,
Americans, the Western culture well In

areas in which we typically haven't,
or we put people to work, put food on

tables, we create a great product and
we haven't talked about our lifetime

warranty, but any product you buy of
ours, if it breaks a manufacturing,

some manufacturing issue, we replace it.

Like we, we literally have, you
know, very similar to vortex.

If you're in the gun industry,
the zero questions asked policy.

If we did something wrong, we will fix it.

We promise.

Um, so we try to add a great
value on our products and.

You know, we still continue to help.

We're, you know, I was on a call
this morning talking about, you know,

educating girls in Afghanistan that
are forbidden from going to school.

So we get them computers and an
internet connection and they learn at

home, you know, under the guise of the
current government, we still help, you

know, organization clear landmines.

We work with one more way of a non veteran
nonprofit, which helps wounded veterans

get in the water and surf further.

That's cool.

The guys who lost some, some appendages.

You see, you see all those cool photos
of the guys with the cool prosthetics.

You don't think about it, but
those prosthetics will punch holes

on the top of normal surfboards.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

Good point.

Matthew Griffin: So they
have to have Kevlar line.

They have to have Kevlar Leo fiber across
the top of their boards for a line.

And we've got a guy who's got a left arm.

He's a Marine veteran, Jose, and
all he has is a left arm and he's

flying all over the world, winning
world adaptive surf competitions.

He's really, and it's a
great community of people.

Yeah, they're, they're awesome.

You guys should check
them out one more way.

Travis Bader: Yeah,
we'll check that one out.

Yeah.

Matthew Griffin: Uh, and other than
that, like we're living the life

here, good flip flops, slippers, as
I say, here in Ireland, getting some

hunting and fishing done and looking
forward to hosting more folks out here.

Uh, once you come on out and do
the initial podcast from the blind.

Travis Bader: Well, we'll
definitely do that one.

And if people haven't checked out
your ads yet, do yourself a favor.

Go on social media, check
out combat flip flop ads.

They're fricking hilarious.

I do like those ones.

Griff.

Matthew Griffin: Yeah, there's,
there's a new one coming out,

which I am Really excited about.

And all I will say is slow mo revolver.

That's, that's, that's,
that's the only two.

That's the only teaser I'm
giving you slow mo revolver.

Travis Bader: Do you ever worry about
these things getting pulled or flagged

by, uh, cause I mean, you'll show
guns and stuff in your, uh, your ads.

Meta doesn't seem to like that, or
at least the AI doesn't like it.

Does that ever happen?

Matthew Griffin: You know, we,
Oh, it happens to us all the time.

We had to change the name of our AK
47 flip flop, which was our number one

selling flip flop to the AK because
they thought we were selling guns.

You know, our, our shoe, our first
shoe that we came out with, we did

in 2019, we called it the Mark 19.

And those who familiar with what a mark 19
is it's a 40 millimeter automatic grenade

launcher and facebook thought we were
selling 40 millimeter automatic grenade

launchers because it was a mark 19.

It's so dumb.

It really is Um, but that being said
like our most recent ones with robert and

tacticon And a few of those other guys
they've just They've gone really well.

They've got guns in them.

And I think the community is
responding, which makes us happy.

Travis Bader: Griff, thank you
so much for being on the podcast.

I really enjoyed talking to
you and I'm looking forward

to chat with you in the blind.

Matthew Griffin: Travis,
looking forward to it.

See you, buddy.