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Language: en-GB

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

00:00:12.549 --> 00:00:14.889
or another, we are all connected.

00:00:15.229 --> 00:00:17.750
Kind of like in that game
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

00:00:18.470 --> 00:00:21.380
I saw the funniest commercial
show up on my social media feed.

00:00:21.689 --> 00:00:23.790
It was for a company
called combat flip flops.

00:00:24.409 --> 00:00:28.290
If you're into creative marketing,
I highly recommend go check it out.

00:00:28.380 --> 00:00:29.240
Google it up.

00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:30.400
You won't be disappointed.

00:00:30.650 --> 00:00:31.979
Hilarious commercials.

00:00:32.419 --> 00:00:34.139
I reached out to the
owner of this company.

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He lives on the big Island over in Hawaii.

00:00:36.550 --> 00:00:39.819
And we chatted about Canadian
distribution of his products.

00:00:39.819 --> 00:00:42.820
And I put him in touch with a
company that I know will serve him.

00:00:42.820 --> 00:00:46.330
Well, fast forward a week and I'm
chatting with a friend of mine.

00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:51.360
Telling her about this, not only does she
know the owner well, but she's able to

00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:56.119
provide me with background and backstory
and prep work for this podcast here.

00:00:56.720 --> 00:00:58.720
There are a couple things
that I take from this.

00:00:59.179 --> 00:01:02.219
First, mind your P's and Q's.

00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:06.159
Comport yourself in the best
possible way, especially when

00:01:06.160 --> 00:01:08.149
you feel that nobody is watching.

00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:11.260
To treat everybody as if
there's a possibility that

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you are somehow connected.

00:01:13.345 --> 00:01:17.574
Because if you look hard enough,
there's a good chance you likely are.

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

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

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that's not what fuels me.

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

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this, and I made that connection.

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A rising tide.

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Finally, nothing says summer
like flip flops and shades.

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

00:01:44.895 --> 00:01:49.815
Flops, and they get 15 percent off
precision eyewear from Fortnite Optics.

00:01:50.175 --> 00:01:53.734
That basically covers the cost of
your membership right there, and

00:01:53.754 --> 00:01:57.945
you still get all the free courses,
the extensive discounts from other

00:01:57.945 --> 00:02:03.195
brand partners, The insurance and,
oh yeah, meets RCMP club requirements

00:02:03.195 --> 00:02:04.985
if that's something that you require.

00:02:05.735 --> 00:02:10.655
If you find value to the Silvercore
Podcast, please consider subscribing

00:02:10.915 --> 00:02:12.244
and sharing it with others.

00:02:12.524 --> 00:02:16.374
It means a great deal to us and it
helps us more than you likely know.

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

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

00:02:25.135 --> 00:02:29.664
innovation, former army Ranger and founder
of combat flip flops joins us to share his

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remarkable journey from the battlefields
of Afghanistan and Iraq to the

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boardrooms of a groundbreaking business.

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

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His story is one of turning
adversity into opportunity, using

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

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

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Welcome to the Silvercore podcast.

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Matthew Griff.

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Griffin.

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Matthew Griffin: Thank
you very much, Travis.

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

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I think that was the best intro.

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Everybody's well done.

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

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You've done some pretty amazing things.

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

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

00:03:11.729 --> 00:03:15.320
bit and a friend was over here.

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We're doing a couple of things.

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

00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:23.430
and she says, you know, I know him.

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

00:03:27.150 --> 00:03:32.050
you've done that I've heard from
other people or read about, I know

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this is going to be a fun podcast.

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Matthew Griffin: I hope so.

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I live by the mantra.

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I just want to do gangster
shit with my friends.

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I love that.

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

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

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

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Like, yeah, that was,

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Travis Bader: I actually
get that a fair bit.

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

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

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

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

00:04:04.850 --> 00:04:06.080
I don't really remember it.

00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:07.600
Like, no, no, it was pretty impactful.

00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:08.050
You did.

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And they get into it.

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Um, it's fun.

00:04:12.150 --> 00:04:15.009
It's fun though, to lead a life like that,
where you can actually forget certain

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things that were, were pretty amazing.

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Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

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

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a little bit of responsibility.

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Yeah.

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

00:04:27.205 --> 00:04:30.385
you on an off day or whatever You
just have some random conversation

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

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I was like, no, I don't.

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I'm so sorry.

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Sounds like something I'd.

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Yeah.

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Travis Bader: Yeah.

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No, it was a good advice that yes.

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Yes.

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That's me.

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Was it bad advice?

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No, I think you got it mixed up.

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Yeah, I had a guy reach out recently.

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

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

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I'm like, of course I remember you.

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

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

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

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

00:05:14.634 --> 00:05:18.835
crow, you've been having an impact on
people's lives all All around the world.

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I want to kind of talk about that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mm-Hmm.

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. It was the eighties, right?

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It's just the 18 every bit about it.

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

00:06:03.805 --> 00:06:07.054
my dad was in the military, but my
grandfathers were on old war too.

00:06:07.734 --> 00:06:09.524
So it just happened to
be one of those things.

00:06:09.524 --> 00:06:13.184
And, um, where it was like, where
it was a foregone conclusion.

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

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

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

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

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it taught me how to work hard.

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

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

00:06:39.684 --> 00:06:44.724
school was getting a scholarship You know
getting a job or joining the military.

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So I did all three.

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

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

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

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

00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:07.919
to go to ranger school, but this
increased my resolve, like, Hey, I'm

00:07:07.919 --> 00:07:09.180
going to go to the ranger regiment.

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

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And.

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

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nine of those guys in existence.

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

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even get there to qualify.

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

00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:30.520
five 20 infantry, uh, was there for
nine months and, you know, and then I

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

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Ranger company fire support officer
with second range of battalion.

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Travis Bader: What are they looking for?

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Matthew Griffin: That that was

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

00:07:45.475 --> 00:07:47.745
So artillery officers
are pull string go boom.

00:07:47.745 --> 00:07:53.155
And so there's very few Artillery
officers that are fire supporters

00:07:53.164 --> 00:07:56.065
So fire supporters are the guys you
see on the movie the dude on the

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

00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:04.730
a plane drops that as a fire support
officer or a forward observer, right?

00:08:04.730 --> 00:08:09.240
So the normally most guys when they
join the military, if you're artillery

00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:12.809
officer, you have to go serve six to
nine months in an infantry unit as

00:08:12.810 --> 00:08:16.089
a fire support officer before you go
back to a battery and learn how to do

00:08:16.089 --> 00:08:20.870
all the weird math to Shoot artillery
rounds and smoke and illumination.

00:08:21.670 --> 00:08:24.110
Um, but I liked staying with the infantry.

00:08:24.110 --> 00:08:25.750
I wanted to be in the action.

00:08:26.310 --> 00:08:31.680
So I, the, the best fire support officer
job in the army is with a Ranger battalion

00:08:32.179 --> 00:08:35.780
where you get essentially every play
toy that you could see in the movies

00:08:35.929 --> 00:08:37.600
are at your disposal on the radio.

00:08:37.710 --> 00:08:40.530
And I was like, yeah, I, I want that job.

00:08:41.339 --> 00:08:46.650
Um, so I got there in July of 2003,
deployed to my first deployment to

00:08:46.650 --> 00:08:52.669
Afghanistan in 2000, November, 2003,
uh, which was operation winter strike.

00:08:52.670 --> 00:08:56.089
And if anybody is in a ranger battalion
and they hear this, they immediately

00:08:56.089 --> 00:08:59.330
start freezing, like you get cold
to your bones, so, and somebody's.

00:09:00.395 --> 00:09:01.624
Infinite wisdom.

00:09:02.285 --> 00:09:04.665
This is the second year of
fighting the war in Afghanistan.

00:09:04.665 --> 00:09:08.215
They said, well, we know these
Taliban fighters are going to

00:09:08.215 --> 00:09:11.535
these super high altitude villages
where we can't get to them.

00:09:12.615 --> 00:09:15.634
And they hang out there all winter, lick
their wounds, hang out with their wives.

00:09:15.635 --> 00:09:18.464
And then when the spring comes back,
you know, the warm weather comes

00:09:18.464 --> 00:09:19.645
up, they call it fighting season.

00:09:19.645 --> 00:09:21.655
And like all the guys come out of
the mountains and they fight again.

00:09:22.485 --> 00:09:25.194
So in somebody's infinite wisdom in
the Pentagon, they said, we're going

00:09:25.194 --> 00:09:27.025
to deny them their winter vacation.

00:09:27.025 --> 00:09:31.480
And we're going to send Three Ranger
battalions from sea level up to

00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:35.170
10, 000 feet of elevation to go
hunt them down through the winter.

00:09:35.770 --> 00:09:38.340
Um, so we, we did real rangering.

00:09:38.370 --> 00:09:42.949
We were the first, I think, looking
back on the timeline, I think we were

00:09:42.949 --> 00:09:46.500
the first guys to really push past the
Korongal Valley, if you're familiar

00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:48.480
with that Valley, we lived in villages.

00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:50.140
We slaughtered sheep for dinner.

00:09:50.160 --> 00:09:52.030
We did the whole thing, man.

00:09:52.040 --> 00:09:56.810
It was legit rangering and then came
back, uh, did another deployment to

00:09:56.810 --> 00:09:58.820
Afghanistan that following spring.

00:09:59.445 --> 00:10:01.705
Came back for a month, went
back, did another deployment to

00:10:01.705 --> 00:10:05.085
Afghanistan that summer, came back
for six months, and then I did six

00:10:05.085 --> 00:10:06.435
months in Iraq, in northern Iraq.

00:10:07.724 --> 00:10:11.024
You know, by then, um,
it was time for me to go.

00:10:11.024 --> 00:10:13.915
I'd already been at the Ranger Battalion
for a couple years, which was a

00:10:13.915 --> 00:10:17.634
really long stay for a company fire
support officer, but they knew that I

00:10:17.634 --> 00:10:19.865
didn't, you know, Want to go anywhere.

00:10:19.885 --> 00:10:20.715
So they just kind of kept

00:10:20.945 --> 00:10:22.605
Travis Bader: it up and
I was good at my job.

00:10:23.205 --> 00:10:26.235
Matthew Griffin: Um, and then, you know,
and then by the, by the last deployment,

00:10:26.235 --> 00:10:34.725
I really started to see the, the M immoral
side of the war on terror kind of evil by

00:10:34.745 --> 00:10:36.975
Travis Bader: that, like, I have an
idea, but what do you mean by that?

00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:45.239
Matthew Griffin: So I went
to the Academy 1997 to 2001.

00:10:45.249 --> 00:10:49.820
So that's on like, you know, people are
still getting out of windows 95, right?

00:10:49.820 --> 00:10:52.370
So this is when they were looking at
their force projection and they just

00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:56.969
started coming up with UAVs and they would
bring in all these military leaders and

00:10:56.980 --> 00:10:59.910
had to say, and it was a big discussion
when I was there for four years.

00:11:00.520 --> 00:11:04.510
And autonomous warfare was a
major subject of discussion.

00:11:05.380 --> 00:11:10.039
And I sat in all of these lectures
for four years and not one military

00:11:10.039 --> 00:11:12.160
leader, philosopher, moral standard.

00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:17.749
Anybody could justify shooting kinetic
weapons off of an unarmed area.

00:11:18.479 --> 00:11:19.170
They couldn't do it.

00:11:21.290 --> 00:11:25.040
So that's why you had guys like
me, we would get a mission brief.

00:11:25.040 --> 00:11:27.839
We would jump out of an airplane,
climb over a mountain, sit in

00:11:27.839 --> 00:11:29.720
a hole for a week if we had to.

00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:34.870
You know, to verify minimal civilian
casualties, identify the target.

00:11:34.910 --> 00:11:36.520
And then we would do an airstrike on them.

00:11:38.310 --> 00:11:39.790
That's that was my whole job.

00:11:40.219 --> 00:11:40.760
That was it.

00:11:40.969 --> 00:11:44.600
And I recall like on the tail end
of the Iraq deployment, there was

00:11:44.600 --> 00:11:46.230
some guy we were, we were chasing.

00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:47.800
He was up there in the food chain.

00:11:48.670 --> 00:11:52.130
And, uh, we found out that he was
staying in a place outside of town.

00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.430
And, um, like, okay, like, so
we're going to go get him tonight.

00:11:56.430 --> 00:11:56.720
Right.

00:11:56.770 --> 00:11:58.329
Like, let's go get him.

00:11:58.329 --> 00:11:59.610
And like, no, they're
just going to drone it.

00:12:04.735 --> 00:12:09.315
And, uh, and then we started seeing
like the negative ramifications.

00:12:09.375 --> 00:12:13.254
Oh, there were women and kids there,
you know, and like that just went

00:12:13.254 --> 00:12:17.255
on, but it all just kept getting
washed under the rug in the warfare.

00:12:17.285 --> 00:12:19.794
And, uh, I just was like, you
know, I just, I don't want

00:12:19.794 --> 00:12:20.775
to play this game anymore.

00:12:20.775 --> 00:12:24.065
I saw it in 2005 and it's, it
just continued to get worse.

00:12:25.015 --> 00:12:28.135
Um, so I was like, all right, I'm just
going to get out and be a civilian.

00:12:28.315 --> 00:12:28.925
Just like that.

00:12:29.275 --> 00:12:29.735
It's fine by me.

00:12:29.735 --> 00:12:30.095
Okay.

00:12:30.855 --> 00:12:31.595
Just like that.

00:12:32.365 --> 00:12:32.685
Yeah.

00:12:32.735 --> 00:12:39.075
Uh, took a job building the homes
in, um, the Northwest for a major

00:12:39.075 --> 00:12:40.484
home builder called syntax homes.

00:12:40.495 --> 00:12:43.684
So I went from knowing nothing
about construction to managing.

00:12:43.975 --> 00:12:47.175
Like 20 homes a month, like getting
finished out and sold to customers,

00:12:47.175 --> 00:12:50.285
to executives at Microsoft and Amazon.

00:12:50.285 --> 00:12:56.155
So that was a, a major shift, you
know, going from the military to,

00:12:56.495 --> 00:13:00.134
you know, working with trades to
dealing with tech millionaires.

00:13:00.215 --> 00:13:04.495
That was a, that was a pivotal time in
life, but you know, like everybody's

00:13:04.495 --> 00:13:07.655
getting out, you're still struggling
with the stuff and then 2008 happened.

00:13:08.595 --> 00:13:13.745
Um, I lost my job because I was a
homebuilder and then I went to work

00:13:13.745 --> 00:13:18.875
for a company called remote medical
international and they're a a company

00:13:18.875 --> 00:13:25.035
that supplies doctors, paramedics, EMTs
to people working in difficult areas.

00:13:25.045 --> 00:13:29.494
So offshore oil rigs, seismic research
vessels, Antarctic research facilities.

00:13:30.105 --> 00:13:33.704
If you need a medic and a clinic,
you know, they would provide all

00:13:33.715 --> 00:13:37.265
that stuff, ship it there and then
service the organization with medical.

00:13:37.275 --> 00:13:38.595
Travis Bader: What drew you to that job?

00:13:38.744 --> 00:13:42.910
Matthew Griffin: And then
that's just Okay, fair enough.

00:13:45.100 --> 00:13:45.370
Yeah.

00:13:45.410 --> 00:13:49.630
And I mean, I, I was the company
headquarters platoon leader at

00:13:49.630 --> 00:13:52.670
a range of a time, which means I
had the medics underneath me, but.

00:13:53.270 --> 00:13:57.860
And then when I was down range, whenever
we got into a gunfight and we had to call

00:13:57.860 --> 00:14:03.089
for a casualty evacuation, I had to shut
down all of my air operations, you know,

00:14:03.089 --> 00:14:07.899
dropping bombs and shooting bullets to
get a helicopter in to pull a guy out and

00:14:07.900 --> 00:14:09.089
then, you know, to get them in and out.

00:14:09.089 --> 00:14:12.099
So I wanted that one to be as efficient
as possible to increase their.

00:14:12.685 --> 00:14:15.535
their save rate, but to like,
so we can get back to the war.

00:14:16.385 --> 00:14:20.095
And, um, I just, that was just part
of our protocols and part of my job.

00:14:20.095 --> 00:14:24.155
And I, I learned enough from the
medics and I knew enough about military

00:14:24.155 --> 00:14:26.324
medicine to lie my way into the job.

00:14:26.395 --> 00:14:30.545
And I became the director
of military operations for

00:14:30.545 --> 00:14:31.785
remote medical international.

00:14:32.045 --> 00:14:35.665
And I spent the next couple of years
bouncing around the world, you know,

00:14:35.685 --> 00:14:38.705
Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia.

00:14:39.360 --> 00:14:43.690
Uh, the Middle East putting in clinics
and supplying, uh, government contracting

00:14:43.690 --> 00:14:47.510
agencies that are working in these
areas for the wars, uh, with medics

00:14:47.510 --> 00:14:49.110
and medical services and equipment.

00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:53.289
And, uh, I feel like I'm talking.

00:14:54.710 --> 00:14:55.630
Oh, you're good.

00:14:55.630 --> 00:14:56.170
You're good.

00:14:56.170 --> 00:14:56.719
I, I

00:14:56.930 --> 00:15:00.470
Travis Bader: Honestly, I'll interrupt you
when I've, when the ADHD kicks in and I

00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:05.610
want to hear something, but I, uh, I want
to hear this background because, you know,

00:15:07.270 --> 00:15:12.130
you've done a lot for people around the
world, like putting yourself as an army

00:15:12.130 --> 00:15:17.529
Ranger, you're putting yourself to serve
even that job in the medical world there.

00:15:17.529 --> 00:15:20.110
That's you're, you're helping people
again, what you've been doing with

00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.280
combat flip flops, you're helping people.

00:15:22.660 --> 00:15:25.430
You know, there's a bit of, in the
back of my head, that's wondering.

00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:29.330
What drives a person to always want to
be out there helping other people like

00:15:29.330 --> 00:15:32.650
this to the point where you're putting
your life and your livelihood on the

00:15:32.650 --> 00:15:37.500
line in order to ensure that other people
are, are, are living well and, uh, and

00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:40.689
just trying to get a bit of a flavor for
that because not everybody is like that.

00:15:40.730 --> 00:15:43.640
And although you probably look around
and would say, yeah, yeah, that's normal.

00:15:43.640 --> 00:15:44.580
That's what somebody would do.

00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:45.830
Not everybody's like that.

00:15:48.060 --> 00:15:50.610
Matthew Griffin: I mean, I
guess it's just faith, karma,

00:15:50.640 --> 00:15:51.900
whatever you decide to call it.

00:15:52.050 --> 00:15:56.550
You know, I was given a certain
set of skills in this machine and

00:15:56.579 --> 00:15:59.520
like all of the bits and parts and
pieces that are made me and like.

00:16:00.910 --> 00:16:04.170
The things that are most fulfilling are
these adventures, helping other people.

00:16:04.449 --> 00:16:06.920
And I got no reason to stop
because it's really fun.

00:16:08.220 --> 00:16:11.099
And it just, every time, every time you
go somewhere, you learn something, you

00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:13.210
get better at it and it only amplifies.

00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:13.630
I

00:16:13.660 --> 00:16:14.750
Travis Bader: subscribe to that a lot.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:16.869
And I look at people quite often.

00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:18.090
I've heard the analogy.

00:16:18.139 --> 00:16:18.709
Okay.

00:16:19.029 --> 00:16:22.300
You got to put your oxygen mask
on before you help other people.

00:16:22.300 --> 00:16:25.160
You got to take care of you before
you can take care of other people.

00:16:26.050 --> 00:16:28.780
And I guess, you know, in certain
circumstances, that's going to be true.

00:16:28.780 --> 00:16:32.949
But I found personally for
myself, I've gotten way more.

00:16:33.615 --> 00:16:37.195
Myself out of helping other people,
helping other people succeed in their

00:16:37.195 --> 00:16:41.335
business, helping other people, uh, when
they need it at, at pivotal moments,

00:16:41.335 --> 00:16:43.165
at inflection points within their life.

00:16:43.725 --> 00:16:49.454
I find that fuels me and, uh, I'm
getting the sense that you're probably

00:16:49.454 --> 00:16:50.984
kind of the same in that respect.

00:16:53.404 --> 00:16:56.880
Matthew Griffin: Yeah, I,
uh, It does fuel me, right?

00:16:56.880 --> 00:17:00.000
And I was actually thinking about this
this morning randomly just totally

00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:04.040
unrelated, but everybody sits around and
bitches about the state of the world.

00:17:04.460 --> 00:17:08.829
Oh, this is going wrong and that's
happening and this is, oh, ah, ah, and

00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:10.649
they just complain, complain, complain.

00:17:10.649 --> 00:17:13.020
Like, well, what are you doing?

00:17:14.770 --> 00:17:19.220
And we're not saying you got to run
for president or you have to start

00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:23.010
some nonprofit or do these other
things, but if you helped your elderly

00:17:23.030 --> 00:17:25.194
neighbor, Take the garbage out.

00:17:25.204 --> 00:17:29.235
If there was a struggling single mom
that's struggling to feed her kid, like

00:17:29.305 --> 00:17:33.265
drop off some finished meals to make
life easier on her and get that kid food.

00:17:33.275 --> 00:17:35.574
Like, does a kid need a
ride to a sports team?

00:17:35.915 --> 00:17:37.155
Cause his mom doesn't have a car.

00:17:37.185 --> 00:17:40.985
All of those other things are things
that every single human being can do

00:17:41.635 --> 00:17:43.595
to improve the life in your community.

00:17:43.645 --> 00:17:45.995
And that's how this stuff starts, man.

00:17:45.995 --> 00:17:47.605
That's how all of these
adventures started.

00:17:47.605 --> 00:17:50.165
They just started as dumb little
things, trying to help somebody else.

00:17:50.165 --> 00:17:53.595
And then they just snowball
into helping more people and.

00:17:54.350 --> 00:17:56.430
I really wish more people
have had that mentality.

00:17:57.430 --> 00:18:00.340
Travis Bader: I learned when
you're talking about, you know,

00:18:00.340 --> 00:18:01.540
a lot of people want to complain.

00:18:01.570 --> 00:18:07.449
There seems to be a learned victim
hood, victimness amongst people where

00:18:08.420 --> 00:18:13.570
I like, I look at our society and kind
of how it's set up here in Canada.

00:18:13.970 --> 00:18:17.400
Let's talk about like, I'm, I'm in the
gun industry, I'm in the gun world and.

00:18:18.125 --> 00:18:21.014
And people are always complaining
about gun control and they say,

00:18:21.014 --> 00:18:24.735
you know, when, when seconds
count, the police are minutes away.

00:18:24.835 --> 00:18:28.205
Like the government says, don't
worry, we'll take care of you.

00:18:28.355 --> 00:18:28.845
Okay.

00:18:28.855 --> 00:18:30.065
So we will set up police.

00:18:30.085 --> 00:18:31.025
You give us your tax money.

00:18:31.025 --> 00:18:31.685
We'll set up police.

00:18:31.685 --> 00:18:32.044
Don't worry.

00:18:32.044 --> 00:18:32.955
We'll set up hospitals.

00:18:32.955 --> 00:18:33.584
We'll take care of you.

00:18:33.584 --> 00:18:34.064
Don't worry.

00:18:34.065 --> 00:18:39.054
We'll, and I think a lot of people
buy into this idea that there's always

00:18:39.054 --> 00:18:41.384
going to be someone out there that's
going to be able to take care of them.

00:18:41.384 --> 00:18:45.125
And if it's not being taken
care of properly, Well, who

00:18:45.125 --> 00:18:46.475
do I complain to, right?

00:18:46.504 --> 00:18:50.335
As opposed to where's my
personal agency that I can.

00:18:50.870 --> 00:18:54.150
Take upon myself to be
able to make that change.

00:18:54.340 --> 00:19:02.000
And I found that compounded with, you
know, the fear of failure that seems to

00:19:02.010 --> 00:19:05.210
be being bred into younger generations.

00:19:05.249 --> 00:19:05.870
Don't worry.

00:19:05.999 --> 00:19:09.739
You came in eighth place, but
you get the purple ribbon, right?

00:19:09.740 --> 00:19:11.370
Or you get the black ribbon.

00:19:11.710 --> 00:19:12.770
Everyone's a winner.

00:19:12.780 --> 00:19:14.450
Well, no, not everybody's a winner.

00:19:14.645 --> 00:19:15.495
There's going to be winners.

00:19:15.495 --> 00:19:16.304
There's going to be losers.

00:19:16.304 --> 00:19:16.955
And guess what?

00:19:16.965 --> 00:19:21.644
It's awesome that you lost, learn how
to lose in a way where you can then

00:19:21.654 --> 00:19:25.954
get up again and try and lose and try
and lose, and finally you succeed.

00:19:26.194 --> 00:19:30.044
And I, and I find from my
observations, and maybe I'm being

00:19:30.044 --> 00:19:33.654
optimistic about it, but I think
there's a change that's happening.

00:19:33.909 --> 00:19:39.130
Where people are starting to get
fed up of, um, that lack of personal

00:19:39.130 --> 00:19:42.660
agency and realizing that they can
actually affect things around them,

00:19:42.850 --> 00:19:46.980
fed up of their fear of failure and
realizing that failure is not fatal.

00:19:47.860 --> 00:19:49.659
I think there's a change that's happening.

00:19:49.689 --> 00:19:51.289
I don't know if you're
seeing anything like that.

00:19:53.560 --> 00:19:54.620
Matthew Griffin: You know, I hope so.

00:19:54.659 --> 00:19:58.530
Like I'm starting to see more positive
movement in, in agency, right?

00:19:58.530 --> 00:20:02.570
I think people, my, my buddy from
runs a company called 30 seconds

00:20:02.570 --> 00:20:05.110
out Navy seal guy, Sean evangelista.

00:20:05.810 --> 00:20:06.710
But he's got a patch.

00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:07.920
He's got a flag, everything else.

00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:08.610
He's got a t shirt.

00:20:08.620 --> 00:20:11.409
It says, no one is coming to see you.

00:20:11.969 --> 00:20:12.889
No one is coming.

00:20:12.980 --> 00:20:14.219
It's it's up to you.

00:20:14.629 --> 00:20:19.719
I think that's the line and and maybe I
learned that just from growing up like

00:20:19.719 --> 00:20:24.970
I was a You know kid, you know pretty
much a latchkey kid and no one was coming

00:20:24.970 --> 00:20:29.339
to like help me out when I fell off my
bicycle in the middle of Nowhere, you

00:20:29.340 --> 00:20:32.560
know get home and figure out how to get
blood stains out of my clothes, right?

00:20:32.560 --> 00:20:37.110
because mama just bought me these jeans
and fixed my own bike and and and like

00:20:37.110 --> 00:20:42.050
we had a bunch of agency and I think
that Maybe over the last 20 or 30 years,

00:20:42.050 --> 00:20:43.810
we've seen a lot of that taken away.

00:20:43.820 --> 00:20:47.779
And it's, it starts when they're
young, you know, we, we, you

00:20:47.779 --> 00:20:50.480
get these kids dependent on
everybody else for everything.

00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:53.540
And so now that you've got these 20
or 30 year olds that are just expect

00:20:53.549 --> 00:20:54.969
somebody else to take care of something.

00:20:56.399 --> 00:20:59.970
And, um, conversely.

00:21:00.555 --> 00:21:04.525
They're also the same YouTube generation
where they have more information at

00:21:04.525 --> 00:21:07.575
their fingertips and do any skill
they want to in their entire life.

00:21:07.575 --> 00:21:13.625
So if they just take like one further
step and start using that side of it

00:21:13.634 --> 00:21:15.284
versus everybody gives me everything.

00:21:15.304 --> 00:21:16.325
I think we're going to be in a much

00:21:16.384 --> 00:21:16.495
Travis Bader: better spot.

00:21:16.495 --> 00:21:17.329
Yeah.

00:21:17.329 --> 00:21:19.674
YouTube, man, you can learn anything.

00:21:19.794 --> 00:21:20.705
You can do anything.

00:21:21.015 --> 00:21:22.335
You can be the guy who says.

00:21:22.610 --> 00:21:25.960
Just like you said earlier, I knew enough
to kind of lie my way into the job.

00:21:25.970 --> 00:21:26.440
They bought it.

00:21:26.440 --> 00:21:28.930
We're good, but you
didn't disappoint them.

00:21:29.080 --> 00:21:30.150
You're able to succeed.

00:21:30.850 --> 00:21:33.469
You don't need to have certificates
behind your name in order

00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:34.700
to be able to do something.

00:21:34.760 --> 00:21:36.810
And I think that's another
place where I see a lot of

00:21:36.820 --> 00:21:39.060
people have a stumbling block.

00:21:39.130 --> 00:21:42.520
I can't do X, Y, Z because
I never went to school.

00:21:42.520 --> 00:21:43.770
I can't do X, Y, Z.

00:21:43.790 --> 00:21:47.080
Cause I don't have my red seal
in, in whatever it might be.

00:21:47.610 --> 00:21:51.350
Like, I'm not going to, uh, I'm not going
to name, uh, The company, and I won't,

00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:57.060
uh, uh, out myself too much, but I'll tell
you this much, uh, 20 something years ago,

00:21:57.100 --> 00:22:02.929
Photoshop sure helped me out to get some,
some different job opportunities that I

00:22:02.969 --> 00:22:04.560
otherwise wouldn't have been able to get.

00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:05.769
And, and I killed it.

00:22:05.789 --> 00:22:10.239
I did an awesome job at that without
having the, the actual piece of paper.

00:22:12.659 --> 00:22:16.340
Matthew Griffin: I would rather take
somebody without paper that is coachable

00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:20.899
and dependable than somebody with
a piece of paper every single day.

00:22:22.165 --> 00:22:24.915
Every day, I would rather take somebody
that is coachable and dependable.

00:22:24.915 --> 00:22:25.554
A hundred percent.

00:22:25.674 --> 00:22:30.725
If you can learn, yep, I will
take the time to train you, I

00:22:30.725 --> 00:22:31.995
will train you how to do it right.

00:22:32.004 --> 00:22:34.345
The standard is you need to
be better and faster than me.

00:22:34.804 --> 00:22:37.354
And then you know that you
can move on to the next thing.

00:22:38.595 --> 00:22:40.624
I would, I would rather do that.

00:22:40.664 --> 00:22:44.215
And then, uh, the line that always
bounces, I heard this like a decade ago.

00:22:44.745 --> 00:22:47.185
I don't know where I heard it,
but it says the master is not

00:22:47.185 --> 00:22:48.365
the one with the most students.

00:22:48.785 --> 00:22:53.565
The master is not the master is the
one, the one with the most students.

00:22:54.465 --> 00:22:56.675
The master is the one that
creates the most masters.

00:22:56.885 --> 00:22:58.205
Travis Bader: Oh, I like that.

00:22:58.505 --> 00:22:59.525
I like that a lot.

00:23:00.285 --> 00:23:00.645
Yeah.

00:23:00.764 --> 00:23:01.924
Cause you don't need a bunch of.

00:23:02.280 --> 00:23:02.580
Matthew Griffin: Yeah,

00:23:02.700 --> 00:23:06.090
Travis Bader: you don't need in a
bunch of number twos, a friend of

00:23:06.090 --> 00:23:12.240
mine, he's a, um, he's in his eighties
now, um, ex strategist for, uh,

00:23:12.680 --> 00:23:15.380
uh, a large Canadian rail company.

00:23:16.100 --> 00:23:19.509
Uh, quite, quite a smart individual.

00:23:19.600 --> 00:23:22.920
And, uh, but he had it saying that he'd
always say to me and he says, you know,

00:23:22.970 --> 00:23:27.670
a number, One person hires a number
one person to do a number one job.

00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:30.880
A number two person hires
number three person to make them

00:23:30.890 --> 00:23:32.400
feel like a number one person.

00:23:32.980 --> 00:23:37.230
And that, you know, it's always
kind of stuck in my head.

00:23:37.780 --> 00:23:38.449
Don't hire.

00:23:38.450 --> 00:23:42.139
Don't don't have a bunch of students
around you so that you can feel like

00:23:42.139 --> 00:23:45.450
a master, have a bunch of people
that can do way better than you.

00:23:45.700 --> 00:23:48.230
And that rising tide will float all boats.

00:23:50.210 --> 00:23:50.560
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:55.579
Like being pushed as a good, and
it's like, and we were discussing

00:23:55.580 --> 00:23:56.810
it earlier about failure.

00:23:57.614 --> 00:24:00.885
And people always ask me, I did all these,
I did a lot of fun stuff in the military.

00:24:00.885 --> 00:24:02.885
People ask me, what's the one
thing you learned in the military?

00:24:03.054 --> 00:24:04.954
It's like the military
taught me how to fail.

00:24:06.935 --> 00:24:07.415
I like that.

00:24:07.655 --> 00:24:09.575
It literally taught me how to fail.

00:24:09.744 --> 00:24:10.624
And then they're like, what do you mean?

00:24:10.624 --> 00:24:14.234
It's like, well, you think we learned
how to do all of these like cool guy

00:24:14.235 --> 00:24:17.185
tricks and we just get it right the first
time and then it's just muscle memory.

00:24:17.324 --> 00:24:18.334
We do it like we're breathing.

00:24:19.215 --> 00:24:23.335
Like now they beat it into you
over months and years, right?

00:24:23.335 --> 00:24:27.774
And you'd be like, you know, I I can
still remember this i've like behind the

00:24:27.774 --> 00:24:31.704
bush some like ranger getting smoked in
the florida phase You know, or I said,

00:24:31.704 --> 00:24:33.825
you know how people learn son ranger.

00:24:33.875 --> 00:24:39.195
He's like, uh fear pain humiliation
repetition You're getting a mix of all

00:24:39.215 --> 00:24:44.570
of them right now and It it It really
made me think, but like, you know,

00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:46.200
how do you really learn something?

00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:48.370
And it's like, I either
scared myself to death.

00:24:48.370 --> 00:24:49.560
I'm not going to do that again.

00:24:49.629 --> 00:24:50.930
I hurt myself so badly.

00:24:50.930 --> 00:24:52.110
I'm not going to do that again.

00:24:52.189 --> 00:24:53.870
I got humiliated so badly.

00:24:53.870 --> 00:24:54.810
I'm not going to do it again.

00:24:54.830 --> 00:24:58.029
Or I repeated it to the point
where I couldn't get it wrong.

00:24:58.740 --> 00:25:02.819
Those are like the inherent, like
your body will not physically like

00:25:02.829 --> 00:25:04.910
let you go back to the old ways.

00:25:05.355 --> 00:25:11.115
Because you had one of those four
mechanisms and um, And just learning

00:25:11.115 --> 00:25:16.135
how to fail is is critical to being
successful Like you will take beatings

00:25:16.135 --> 00:25:20.214
along the entire way like, you know,
washington for the united states was

00:25:20.215 --> 00:25:24.535
left less than a 50 success rate But
he did that right across the delaware.

00:25:24.545 --> 00:25:29.185
I mean he I think he was like three to one
losses or four to one losses You know u.

00:25:29.185 --> 00:25:29.415
s.

00:25:29.415 --> 00:25:35.145
Colonials versus the the british that
dude knew how to fail, you know Like

00:25:35.595 --> 00:25:37.080
and like It's what you gotta learn.

00:25:37.080 --> 00:25:37.840
You gotta learn how to fail.

00:25:37.890 --> 00:25:40.840
But again, that was a great
digression from the story.

00:25:40.840 --> 00:25:42.810
And I appreciate the
multiple little divergence.

00:25:44.270 --> 00:25:44.869
Thank you very much

00:25:44.870 --> 00:25:46.659
Travis Bader: for that.

00:25:46.660 --> 00:25:48.679
Anytime you need a little
bit of ADHD divergence, you

00:25:48.680 --> 00:25:49.750
just, you just point at me.

00:25:51.819 --> 00:25:53.669
Matthew Griffin: Oh, I'm
just getting a swirl out now.

00:25:55.919 --> 00:26:00.249
Um, yeah, so going, going back to
the story, I was at a remote medical

00:26:00.249 --> 00:26:05.249
intern and I started flying around
to these areas, but I didn't have a

00:26:05.249 --> 00:26:07.099
Ranger platoon with me, I didn't have.

00:26:08.110 --> 00:26:11.730
You know, 30 to a hundred heavy hitting
dudes and machine guns and armor and

00:26:11.730 --> 00:26:13.159
hand grenades and rocket launchers.

00:26:13.179 --> 00:26:14.020
I didn't have any of that.

00:26:14.110 --> 00:26:20.750
I had a passport, a visa, some cash, a
backpack and a laptop and a Berger phone.

00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:26.259
And I had to get my job done and I had
to get home to my family and being a,

00:26:26.290 --> 00:26:29.919
being a map guy, an artillery dude,
and we get the nightly briefings, but

00:26:29.919 --> 00:26:32.919
like, if you're down in range in combat
and you're working in an area, they.

00:26:33.510 --> 00:26:34.580
Pull up a brief every day.

00:26:34.580 --> 00:26:37.770
I'm like, all right, here's where all
the gunfights and explosions were, right?

00:26:37.770 --> 00:26:40.700
Here's the overlay over the one
month and the three month calendar.

00:26:40.700 --> 00:26:44.995
So you start to see nodes and clusters of
areas that are, More violent than others

00:26:46.035 --> 00:26:51.365
and you know, just safety sake says, well,
I'm just not going to go to those areas.

00:26:52.705 --> 00:26:53.025
Travis Bader: Yeah

00:26:54.265 --> 00:26:54.495
Matthew Griffin: Really?

00:26:54.495 --> 00:26:58.215
Yeah, the statistic says if I stay out
of these areas I'm more than likely

00:26:58.215 --> 00:27:02.034
going to be safe and I did that and I
found the the three areas are typically

00:27:02.035 --> 00:27:07.135
around military compounds and convoys
uh embassies and reporters if you stay

00:27:07.135 --> 00:27:12.475
away from those three You're generally
going to be safe and I found that the

00:27:12.475 --> 00:27:16.795
areas that were flourishing with small
businesses You Local small businesses

00:27:16.795 --> 00:27:20.115
with the ones that were not having any
security issues because those business

00:27:20.115 --> 00:27:22.875
owners know if anything happens on
the street It's bad for business.

00:27:23.115 --> 00:27:24.115
It's bad for family.

00:27:24.654 --> 00:27:28.324
They don't let it go down and
it's like right now So I'm

00:27:28.324 --> 00:27:30.324
gonna stay at the grocery store.

00:27:30.324 --> 00:27:32.074
I'm gonna stay in the local hotel.

00:27:32.105 --> 00:27:37.330
I'm gonna have the local driver fixer
And everywhere I went, it was the same

00:27:37.330 --> 00:27:41.199
story, whether it was Africa, Southeast
Asia, wherever I went, it was the

00:27:41.199 --> 00:27:45.850
area that was flourishing with local
small business was the safest place.

00:27:45.899 --> 00:27:50.469
And the thought kept like getting
shoved in my face by the universe.

00:27:51.169 --> 00:27:54.179
It says, why aren't we investing
more in this, in a country for?

00:27:54.550 --> 00:27:57.640
Less than the price of one MRAP
we could turn around like multiple

00:27:57.650 --> 00:27:59.530
city blocks in a developing nation.

00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:00.040
Yeah

00:28:02.410 --> 00:28:06.719
Yeah, and and one day I walked into a
combat boot factory in Kabul, Afghanistan.

00:28:06.750 --> 00:28:14.190
I saw a combat boot outsole with a flip
flop thong punch through it and Words

00:28:14.190 --> 00:28:17.370
combat and flip flops came together
and there's a few other details in

00:28:17.370 --> 00:28:19.640
there you can read about it in our
book, but there was so there might

00:28:19.640 --> 00:28:24.330
have been some expletives or swearing
but You know for three or four hours

00:28:24.330 --> 00:28:28.820
later Yeah, I called my ranger buddy
who I served in the Rangers with.

00:28:28.820 --> 00:28:30.420
I, you know, he'd done some online work.

00:28:30.420 --> 00:28:32.130
He'd worked for a shoe company before.

00:28:32.884 --> 00:28:35.514
And I said, Hey man, let's start
making flip flops on a combat

00:28:35.514 --> 00:28:36.725
boot factory in Afghanistan.

00:28:36.725 --> 00:28:37.784
And he said, let's do it.

00:28:38.065 --> 00:28:39.284
And I said, it's combat flip flops.

00:28:39.475 --> 00:28:42.534
com available on GoDaddy and GoFigure.

00:28:42.554 --> 00:28:45.255
Nobody ever put those together
in the history of the internet.

00:28:45.835 --> 00:28:46.154
Yeah.

00:28:46.154 --> 00:28:48.815
So for two 99, we got combat flip flops.

00:28:49.014 --> 00:28:50.074
com and that's how our business.

00:28:50.154 --> 00:28:50.744
Awesome.

00:28:51.045 --> 00:28:51.745
What year was that?

00:28:52.890 --> 00:28:53.040
Yeah,

00:28:54.170 --> 00:28:55.520
Travis Bader: 2000 and.

00:28:55.550 --> 00:28:56.160
2009.

00:28:56.180 --> 00:28:56.620
Okay.

00:28:56.700 --> 00:29:02.739
So 2008, everything's crashing, 2009,
things are just still kind of not in

00:29:02.750 --> 00:29:06.140
the greatest world and you're like,
okay, let's, let's start up a business.

00:29:06.160 --> 00:29:07.990
Let's make combat flip flops.

00:29:08.499 --> 00:29:09.779
But you went a little further than that.

00:29:09.780 --> 00:29:12.990
You had a bit of an ethos
behind doing combat flip flops.

00:29:13.210 --> 00:29:17.620
You wanted to be able to help the
communities and help the, uh, help,

00:29:17.660 --> 00:29:19.340
uh, help other people with it.

00:29:19.740 --> 00:29:21.390
Or did that start right from square one?

00:29:21.490 --> 00:29:25.660
Matthew Griffin: Yeah, it's,
uh, you know, it, it did.

00:29:26.040 --> 00:29:30.679
Um, you know, our, our main thing
was just putting food on tables.

00:29:31.800 --> 00:29:36.089
The, you know, when you're an army
Ranger or a Navy SEAL or a green

00:29:36.089 --> 00:29:38.390
beret, you snatch a lot of bad guys.

00:29:38.440 --> 00:29:40.739
We snatched a lot of bad
guys over the last 20 years.

00:29:41.720 --> 00:29:43.850
And every night, you know, we'd
unload them off the trucks.

00:29:43.860 --> 00:29:45.680
They'd go into the detainment facility.

00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:47.330
They'd get pushed in their interviews.

00:29:47.330 --> 00:29:52.010
And as a young soldier, if you want to see
what's going on, you can literally go sit

00:29:52.089 --> 00:29:53.220
in the interviews with the interrogators.

00:29:53.310 --> 00:29:53.550
Yeah.

00:29:54.430 --> 00:29:56.680
And you'll ask, and you'll hear
the interrogators ask these

00:29:56.680 --> 00:29:57.690
guys, why are you doing it?

00:29:57.730 --> 00:29:58.950
Is there some ideology?

00:29:59.000 --> 00:29:59.990
Do you believe in this mission?

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:01.090
And they go, no, we're hungry.

00:30:01.280 --> 00:30:01.880
We have to feed our families.

00:30:02.830 --> 00:30:04.070
There is no other jobs here.

00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:06.040
What else are we going to do?

00:30:06.069 --> 00:30:08.379
Some guy gave me a few hundred
bucks to shoot at you dudes.

00:30:09.015 --> 00:30:11.175
I'm going to take that and I'm going
to buy groceries for my family.

00:30:13.135 --> 00:30:16.885
So our first mission was really
like, if we just create jobs,

00:30:16.885 --> 00:30:20.975
each one of these factory members
has five to 13 family members.

00:30:21.595 --> 00:30:25.284
So in the 300 person factory that
we were looking at, that's 4, 500

00:30:25.284 --> 00:30:26.345
people that we would be supporting.

00:30:27.795 --> 00:30:30.455
By keeping one, like you just,
you just see those numbers.

00:30:30.455 --> 00:30:32.585
I don't equate our products to profit.

00:30:32.585 --> 00:30:34.255
I equate our products to impact.

00:30:34.275 --> 00:30:34.715
I always have.

00:30:35.165 --> 00:30:35.885
Travis Bader: I like that.

00:30:36.035 --> 00:30:39.295
Matthew Griffin: I guess
we create X, this happens.

00:30:39.975 --> 00:30:47.234
Um, and you know, eventually we really
started, uh, we started growing.

00:30:47.235 --> 00:30:49.375
We started doing well in 2013.

00:30:49.455 --> 00:30:53.145
I got, I reached out to you by a
woman named Hasina Sherjhan, who

00:30:53.145 --> 00:30:56.135
was running an organization called
Aid Afghanistan for education,

00:30:56.135 --> 00:31:00.735
and And her view is that educated
families are harder to radicalize.

00:31:01.595 --> 00:31:06.504
If you educate a girl, you will educate
a family and educated mother will not

00:31:06.524 --> 00:31:09.775
allow her children to go uneducated, nor
will they allow them to be radicalized.

00:31:10.024 --> 00:31:10.044
So.

00:31:11.080 --> 00:31:15.490
If we really want to get on the long game
We have to start educating the young girls

00:31:15.490 --> 00:31:17.380
right now so we can solve the problem.

00:31:18.610 --> 00:31:21.050
Yeah Just how I agree with that.

00:31:21.080 --> 00:31:21.830
That's that's it.

00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:27.659
Yeah, and her logic made a lot of sense
to me So I said hey for every product we

00:31:27.659 --> 00:31:32.010
sell How about we'll just donate to put a
girl in school for a day in afghanistan?

00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:37.625
and Between 2013 to 2021.

00:31:37.715 --> 00:31:43.635
Um, actually the, the summer of 21, we got
our first comma and we, we put a thousand

00:31:43.635 --> 00:31:45.795
girls in school for a year in Afghanistan

00:31:45.855 --> 00:31:46.725
Travis Bader: in the summer of,

00:31:47.665 --> 00:31:49.635
Matthew Griffin: and then 21.

00:31:49.665 --> 00:31:49.905
Yeah.

00:31:49.905 --> 00:31:52.305
Right before everything fell
apart, like we were running our

00:31:52.305 --> 00:31:55.425
math and everything, and I had a
personal goal of a hundred thousand.

00:31:56.765 --> 00:32:00.445
And we got our first comma and that
was a big deal for us, you know,

00:32:00.465 --> 00:32:05.204
getting a comma, you know, and you,
when you think it's just 1, 000

00:32:05.204 --> 00:32:07.375
little girls, if you were to line
them up, then you had to be the range.

00:32:08.835 --> 00:32:12.085
And so when you, when you, when
you just look at like numbers

00:32:12.085 --> 00:32:14.279
like that, you're like, all
right, you're really starting to.

00:32:14.780 --> 00:32:16.460
You're making an impact little by little.

00:32:16.460 --> 00:32:18.760
And it didn't start with a thousand.

00:32:18.760 --> 00:32:22.180
It started with a couple of guys having
a stupid idea at a few hundred bucks.

00:32:22.190 --> 00:32:25.250
Cause I sold some guns to
make a shoe company, right?

00:32:25.260 --> 00:32:26.620
That's, that's how it started.

00:32:26.860 --> 00:32:29.100
Like, like you never know
how it's going to go.

00:32:29.100 --> 00:32:32.379
If you're listening to this, like
I literally started my company by

00:32:32.390 --> 00:32:36.870
selling the guns my grandfather gave
me and a motorcycle to pay for samples.

00:32:37.335 --> 00:32:39.985
I had no cash to do
this and look at us now.

00:32:39.985 --> 00:32:42.695
We're, you know, we're on a
multimillion dollar business.

00:32:42.705 --> 00:32:45.714
We're, you know, we're
operating in multiple countries.

00:32:45.714 --> 00:32:47.415
We're doing great partnerships.

00:32:47.415 --> 00:32:50.365
We're sponsoring veteran surfers.

00:32:50.395 --> 00:32:52.495
We're clearing landmines.

00:32:52.495 --> 00:32:55.014
We're doing all these other things
just because you had a dumb idea.

00:32:55.145 --> 00:32:57.245
And I still have the napkin that we had.

00:32:57.245 --> 00:32:58.785
I literally have it.

00:32:59.640 --> 00:33:00.180
I have it.

00:33:00.180 --> 00:33:00.360
Yeah.

00:33:00.370 --> 00:33:01.050
You got a, you got

00:33:01.050 --> 00:33:01.890
Travis Bader: a framed or something.

00:33:01.890 --> 00:33:02.980
You're just sitting in the door.

00:33:03.770 --> 00:33:06.850
Matthew Griffin: Uh, it's,
it's, it's in plastic and a file

00:33:06.860 --> 00:33:08.630
folder, but I have it, you know?

00:33:08.689 --> 00:33:10.510
So it's like, those are
the things that matter.

00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:11.139
Yeah.

00:33:11.140 --> 00:33:13.740
You have this dumb idea next
thing you know, like, you know,

00:33:13.749 --> 00:33:19.319
we could manufacture footwear in
Afghanistan, just logistically.

00:33:19.320 --> 00:33:20.090
It doesn't work.

00:33:20.730 --> 00:33:22.840
They don't have any rubber
trees, leather tanneries.

00:33:22.860 --> 00:33:24.920
So we started making
textiles in Afghanistan.

00:33:24.930 --> 00:33:27.250
We shifted our footwear
production to Bogota, Columbia.

00:33:27.280 --> 00:33:29.179
We have worked with a
jewelry company making.

00:33:29.745 --> 00:33:32.395
Landmines in Laos who print
all of our stuff here in the U.

00:33:32.395 --> 00:33:32.705
S.

00:33:32.725 --> 00:33:37.645
We've made knit beanies in
Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon.

00:33:37.655 --> 00:33:40.565
We've, I mean, we've done like
weird stuff all over the world.

00:33:41.115 --> 00:33:46.105
You know, just do doing our best to put
food on tables and honestly represent

00:33:46.165 --> 00:33:50.375
America and Americans positively,
because our government has not been.

00:33:50.385 --> 00:33:50.955
Travis Bader: Yeah.

00:33:51.255 --> 00:33:51.514
Yeah.

00:33:51.514 --> 00:33:55.915
Well, you know, in our government
too, um, I think there's some,

00:33:56.235 --> 00:33:57.575
I think there's a lot to that.

00:33:57.585 --> 00:34:01.225
Like I remember when I was younger,
trying different business ideas and

00:34:01.235 --> 00:34:04.295
looking at different areas that I
could, I could build a business.

00:34:04.295 --> 00:34:04.625
Am I, right?

00:34:05.335 --> 00:34:07.945
My concept was never to be rich.

00:34:07.975 --> 00:34:11.675
I just wanted to build a business
because I wanted to be able to have fun.

00:34:11.775 --> 00:34:13.705
Time is your most precious commodity.

00:34:13.935 --> 00:34:17.285
So I wanted to be able to do something
that would provide me more time.

00:34:17.620 --> 00:34:18.140
Essentially.

00:34:18.140 --> 00:34:22.880
And we'd sit around at the pub, having a
few beers and, you know, everyone's got

00:34:22.890 --> 00:34:26.479
great ideas after you've had a few beers,
but I noticed there's a trend the next

00:34:26.479 --> 00:34:29.080
day, nobody did anything with those ideas.

00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:33.409
And so I'd bring a little notebook with
me, or at one point, my, um, my girlfriend

00:34:33.410 --> 00:34:37.649
at the time, now my wife or sister
gave me a state of the art palm pilot,

00:34:37.650 --> 00:34:40.000
and, uh, I would write this stuff down.

00:34:40.430 --> 00:34:41.400
Matthew Griffin: I love those things.

00:34:41.680 --> 00:34:42.760
I miss them so much.

00:34:42.830 --> 00:34:43.224
Travis Bader: I'd write it down.

00:34:43.605 --> 00:34:46.505
Matthew Griffin: The little shorthand
you had and everything else on there for

00:34:46.505 --> 00:34:48.914
Travis Bader: that.

00:34:48.915 --> 00:34:51.565
So I'd, I'd write all these notes
down and buddy would have an idea.

00:34:51.565 --> 00:34:52.685
And I'm like, that's a great idea.

00:34:52.695 --> 00:34:53.894
Are you going to do anything with it?

00:34:54.044 --> 00:34:55.205
Uh, probably not.

00:34:55.355 --> 00:34:55.915
Okay.

00:34:55.995 --> 00:34:57.895
Do you mind if I do something with that?

00:34:58.175 --> 00:34:59.195
Yeah, no, go nuts.

00:34:59.214 --> 00:34:59.574
Okay.

00:34:59.635 --> 00:35:02.914
Next day I'd go out and I'd
start putting it into action.

00:35:03.334 --> 00:35:06.445
And maybe by the end of the day, I'm
like, yeah, that was a dumb idea.

00:35:06.905 --> 00:35:09.875
Maybe by the end of the week,
I'm like, okay, I don't know if

00:35:09.875 --> 00:35:10.965
this is going to work too well.

00:35:10.965 --> 00:35:10.979
Okay.

00:35:13.150 --> 00:35:18.130
Oftentimes, what I would find is
you can basically make anything work

00:35:18.410 --> 00:35:24.230
if you're not making profits, your
primary concern and profits are very

00:35:24.259 --> 00:35:27.920
often the natural by product of the
hard work and effort that you put in.

00:35:28.270 --> 00:35:32.259
And it's a crazy ideas that people
have, the ones that everybody says

00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:36.509
aren't going to work, that tend to be
the ones that later on, everyone says.

00:35:37.035 --> 00:35:37.905
Oh, I knew it'd work.

00:35:37.945 --> 00:35:38.345
Oh yeah.

00:35:38.345 --> 00:35:42.155
I mean, you just got lucky because
of ABC or whatever it might be.

00:35:42.335 --> 00:35:46.785
Cause it, those crazy ideas offer a
niche where other people aren't playing.

00:35:47.365 --> 00:35:53.625
And I've built my business around,
uh, not looking at the money.

00:35:53.705 --> 00:35:57.464
Cause I feel if I'm trying to chase some
money, I'm always going to be behind it.

00:35:57.875 --> 00:36:01.705
But if I can chase a quality product
or a product quality service.

00:36:02.175 --> 00:36:04.535
That the money will come so far.

00:36:04.535 --> 00:36:05.015
It's worked.

00:36:07.425 --> 00:36:09.695
Matthew Griffin: Well, maybe
you're better at it than I am.

00:36:10.185 --> 00:36:10.575
Right.

00:36:10.635 --> 00:36:11.015
Uh,

00:36:11.575 --> 00:36:11.905
Travis Bader: I feel,

00:36:11.945 --> 00:36:15.345
Matthew Griffin: I feel
a lot too for, yeah.

00:36:17.615 --> 00:36:19.394
And then that, that whole thing,
I'm like, oh, I'm going to start

00:36:19.395 --> 00:36:20.655
a business, so I have more time.

00:36:20.695 --> 00:36:21.455
It doesn't work.

00:36:23.454 --> 00:36:29.585
That's a total fat lie that
Timothy Ferris can go, you know,

00:36:30.255 --> 00:36:32.955
um, that four hour workweek thing.

00:36:32.955 --> 00:36:35.275
That's what totally sold me
and got me started on this.

00:36:35.334 --> 00:36:35.504
And.

00:36:36.240 --> 00:36:37.160
It's a total lie.

00:36:37.240 --> 00:36:38.200
It's a lie,

00:36:38.770 --> 00:36:41.800
Travis Bader: but the work that you're
putting in, you enjoy and you want to

00:36:41.810 --> 00:36:46.530
be there because I worked at jobs that I
got up in the morning and I was like, I

00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:48.809
don't want to go to work, but here we go.

00:36:48.830 --> 00:36:52.350
Cause I have to, and I'm like, I
don't want to live my life like this.

00:36:52.439 --> 00:36:56.720
If I'm spending eight hours sleeping,
hopefully eight hours a day working.

00:36:56.720 --> 00:36:59.580
And then the rest of my time I'm
doing what driving back and forth,

00:36:59.580 --> 00:37:01.400
commuting and trying to get things done.

00:37:02.560 --> 00:37:05.210
Matthew Griffin: Washing dishes
and doing laundry and oil

00:37:05.210 --> 00:37:06.350
changes and everything else.

00:37:06.460 --> 00:37:07.840
Travis Bader: Is that a good life to live?

00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:11.590
I would rather live in a cardboard
box and enjoy what I'm doing

00:37:12.020 --> 00:37:16.809
than live in opulence and be just
plugging away every single day.

00:37:19.030 --> 00:37:19.280
No,

00:37:20.950 --> 00:37:22.260
Matthew Griffin: I agree.

00:37:22.260 --> 00:37:25.400
You got, yeah, but I mean, eventually
you'll get there, like, you

00:37:25.460 --> 00:37:26.900
don't, you, it never gets easier.

00:37:26.900 --> 00:37:28.890
You just get better as
one of our other lines,

00:37:31.050 --> 00:37:32.210
it never gets easier.

00:37:32.210 --> 00:37:33.050
You just get better.

00:37:33.050 --> 00:37:33.529
Like the.

00:37:34.300 --> 00:37:36.290
You know, something that like
somebody will say, Oh, we

00:37:36.290 --> 00:37:37.300
missed a shipment of this.

00:37:37.300 --> 00:37:39.270
Like five years ago, I
would have lost my mind.

00:37:39.270 --> 00:37:39.950
Now I'm okay.

00:37:40.130 --> 00:37:41.700
Call this guy, call that dude.

00:37:41.710 --> 00:37:44.450
Like, let's figure out like how
we can get stuff moved around.

00:37:45.030 --> 00:37:46.089
How do we make this work?

00:37:46.170 --> 00:37:47.960
It, it, you just get better at it.

00:37:47.990 --> 00:37:50.729
There's nothing you can do to solve
the problem other than solve it.

00:37:50.729 --> 00:37:51.220
And you find

00:37:51.220 --> 00:37:52.550
Travis Bader: tomorrow still comes.

00:37:52.790 --> 00:37:56.880
And what you felt was the end of the
world when you're younger is like.

00:37:57.780 --> 00:37:58.200
Okay.

00:37:58.230 --> 00:37:59.370
Well, we'll do better next time.

00:37:59.370 --> 00:38:00.450
We're going to put these things in place.

00:38:00.460 --> 00:38:03.650
So hopefully it doesn't
happen again, but here we go.

00:38:03.890 --> 00:38:04.540
Next piece.

00:38:06.140 --> 00:38:06.190
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

00:38:06.550 --> 00:38:09.160
Often it feels like that meme
about that dude cracking a beer,

00:38:09.170 --> 00:38:10.989
sitting on a burning couch.

00:38:10.990 --> 00:38:13.840
That's what most
entrepreneurship feels like.

00:38:13.890 --> 00:38:15.050
That's what it's often.

00:38:15.109 --> 00:38:15.129
Yeah.

00:38:15.410 --> 00:38:17.949
I know everybody's seen that meme,
but that's honestly what it feels

00:38:17.950 --> 00:38:18.070
Travis Bader: like.

00:38:18.070 --> 00:38:18.200
Yeah.

00:38:18.200 --> 00:38:18.990
I can relate to that.

00:38:19.500 --> 00:38:23.820
You were on Shark Tank as well, and
that's kind of a cool experience.

00:38:23.820 --> 00:38:24.600
What was that like?

00:38:27.685 --> 00:38:29.005
Matthew Griffin: It was super fun.

00:38:29.015 --> 00:38:31.435
We treated it like a ranger mission.

00:38:31.525 --> 00:38:33.785
You know, we watched all the episodes.

00:38:33.815 --> 00:38:35.724
We profiled all the sharks.

00:38:35.745 --> 00:38:38.515
We, we took the measurements.

00:38:38.515 --> 00:38:41.425
We saw how many paces the guys
would have to take back and forth

00:38:41.425 --> 00:38:44.355
between the first door and the second
door, the second door and the mark.

00:38:44.854 --> 00:38:46.955
Uh, luckily, you know, I was
in the veteran community.

00:38:46.955 --> 00:38:48.725
So there's a bunch of other
veterans that are on there.

00:38:48.745 --> 00:38:49.185
So I just.

00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:52.040
I'm relentless when it comes
to running people down.

00:38:53.110 --> 00:38:55.940
And, uh, maybe the Rangers taught
me that it's like, you know, we're,

00:38:55.960 --> 00:38:58.680
we're just going to find you and we're
going to get ahold of you, but now I

00:38:58.680 --> 00:39:00.080
get to do it in a more peaceful way.

00:39:00.080 --> 00:39:03.080
And I called all of the businesses
that I saw on shark tank.

00:39:03.080 --> 00:39:06.429
I just got their contact information
and I got ahold of a few of them.

00:39:06.429 --> 00:39:10.289
And Eli crane, who's now
a U S congressman, he was

00:39:10.290 --> 00:39:11.210
running bottle breacher.

00:39:11.210 --> 00:39:11.780
He was.

00:39:12.500 --> 00:39:15.650
Really helpful in responding and
talking me through the process and

00:39:15.650 --> 00:39:19.390
we trained up for it for months We
dropped our sales all of our marketing.

00:39:19.400 --> 00:39:23.760
That's all we did for two straight
months was trained for short tank

00:39:23.870 --> 00:39:24.690
Travis Bader: I like that

00:39:25.810 --> 00:39:28.910
Matthew Griffin: and we we set our
left and our right limits and uh,

00:39:28.930 --> 00:39:32.499
just funny story You can read about
it in the book But the producers are

00:39:32.499 --> 00:39:36.780
always trying to mess with you for
entertainment's sake And we were going

00:39:36.840 --> 00:39:41.280
in on the very high end of reasonable
on our valuation We were going at it.

00:39:41.280 --> 00:39:42.350
I think a 1.

00:39:42.350 --> 00:39:47.105
5 million dollar valuation And he
wanted us to go for like three, right?

00:39:47.105 --> 00:39:51.315
Which, which would have caused a lot
of drama, but Lee and I and Andy,

00:39:51.315 --> 00:39:52.765
we'd already made our business plans.

00:39:52.785 --> 00:39:56.955
We knew our numbers, we knew our
acceptable, unacceptable, everything

00:39:56.955 --> 00:39:59.895
that like, you know, we were, we
were ready to do, we were set.

00:39:59.955 --> 00:40:03.614
And, um, the producer comes up, he's like,
Hey man, I really want you to do that.

00:40:04.365 --> 00:40:06.015
The 3 million valuation.

00:40:06.015 --> 00:40:08.165
It's like, well, I'll paper, rock,
scissors, you for it right now.

00:40:09.135 --> 00:40:12.365
And literally the woman is like
blotting makeup on my face.

00:40:12.365 --> 00:40:15.245
And I'm talking to the producer right
here as I'm like looking at her.

00:40:15.284 --> 00:40:16.005
And she's like, what?

00:40:16.045 --> 00:40:16.880
I was like, All right.

00:40:16.880 --> 00:40:17.880
You're the rep ready?

00:40:18.290 --> 00:40:19.360
And I lost,

00:40:22.560 --> 00:40:23.360
I lost

00:40:25.610 --> 00:40:26.550
producer looks old.

00:40:28.450 --> 00:40:30.500
I think, I think I chose
scissors and yeah, trusty

00:40:31.460 --> 00:40:31.929
Travis Bader: old rock.

00:40:31.949 --> 00:40:34.839
Matthew Griffin: And, uh, he's
like, do you want to do three?

00:40:34.839 --> 00:40:35.899
I was like, nah, dude, we do this.

00:40:36.210 --> 00:40:36.810
We do it live.

00:40:37.030 --> 00:40:38.230
We go one, one and done.

00:40:38.370 --> 00:40:38.850
We're over.

00:40:38.920 --> 00:40:42.460
And, uh, so he gets all giddy and
jumps up and like runs back to

00:40:42.460 --> 00:40:43.810
wherever the producers hang out.

00:40:43.880 --> 00:40:45.120
And then, you know, we're getting ready.

00:40:45.120 --> 00:40:47.070
Like we're standing there,
like, look over at lead.

00:40:47.070 --> 00:40:47.780
He's like, what are we going to do?

00:40:47.780 --> 00:40:49.729
It's like, we're going to
execute the fucking plan, man.

00:40:50.049 --> 00:40:50.389
Let's go.

00:40:51.200 --> 00:40:52.190
Same as always.

00:40:52.240 --> 00:40:52.899
Let's go.

00:40:52.910 --> 00:40:53.670
Let's let her rip.

00:40:54.169 --> 00:40:58.540
And, uh, a three sharp deal,
more than our minimum metric

00:40:58.540 --> 00:41:00.060
that we had set for ourselves.

00:41:00.770 --> 00:41:02.830
And, uh, we got in, we got what we needed.

00:41:02.850 --> 00:41:04.830
We got out like true ranger fashion.

00:41:05.980 --> 00:41:06.460
We're gone.

00:41:07.100 --> 00:41:11.050
And then that turned into
probably one of the scariest

00:41:12.990 --> 00:41:14.710
six months to a year of my life.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:15.410
Why?

00:41:16.730 --> 00:41:23.519
Yeah, we, cause we filmed in June
expecting to be on the, um, they

00:41:23.520 --> 00:41:26.420
usually air the veterans episode
around veterans day would make sense.

00:41:29.250 --> 00:41:31.700
So we went and we
leveraged all of our cash.

00:41:31.700 --> 00:41:33.100
We'd given up our sales from the season.

00:41:33.230 --> 00:41:36.480
We came back in June, had to catch
up on production and everything else.

00:41:36.490 --> 00:41:37.269
We stacked.

00:41:37.925 --> 00:41:41.155
As we borrowed as much money as we could,
we put as much inventory on the deck

00:41:41.155 --> 00:41:46.405
as possible for this new Veterans Day
episode, November 11th, November 11th

00:41:46.425 --> 00:41:50.664
came, November 11th went, no episode.

00:41:53.374 --> 00:41:57.424
So now bills are due, no sales, no cash.

00:41:58.504 --> 00:41:59.074
It was tough.

00:41:59.144 --> 00:42:00.375
Like, what were we going to do?

00:42:00.375 --> 00:42:05.865
And we had based our pricing on
standard wholesale, thinking that

00:42:05.865 --> 00:42:07.575
stores would pick us up, but nobody was.

00:42:07.575 --> 00:42:10.079
It's just, you know, 2000.

00:42:10.880 --> 00:42:11.210
15.

00:42:11.230 --> 00:42:15.670
This is like the, really the golden age
of social media and online e commerce.

00:42:16.620 --> 00:42:18.290
This is the wild, wild west.

00:42:18.330 --> 00:42:21.670
This is a ramp up and it's like, screw it.

00:42:21.670 --> 00:42:23.540
Let's just change our
pricing to be competitive.

00:42:23.540 --> 00:42:24.570
Let's drop wholesalers.

00:42:24.570 --> 00:42:25.730
We're not going to sell
through any stores.

00:42:25.740 --> 00:42:28.790
Let's just go direct overnight.

00:42:28.830 --> 00:42:31.500
Our volume tripled, all the
lights went green across the

00:42:31.500 --> 00:42:35.340
dashboard, and then we sold through
everything through the holidays.

00:42:36.375 --> 00:42:40.325
Wondering what we're going to do, you
know, January, I go down to shot show.

00:42:40.325 --> 00:42:44.165
I'm helping, uh, a nonprofit organization
called team five foundation, where

00:42:44.165 --> 00:42:47.375
we send special operations medics to
developing nations, new clinic and

00:42:47.405 --> 00:42:53.314
aid work, and literally standing at a
fundraiser as the MC and my phone rings.

00:42:53.335 --> 00:42:55.464
And it's a producer from shark
tank that says, Hey, you're going

00:42:55.464 --> 00:42:56.755
to be on shark tank in two weeks.

00:42:59.425 --> 00:43:01.365
Literally, I had no cash.

00:43:01.965 --> 00:43:04.075
Thinking I was going to put
my company under, all of the

00:43:04.075 --> 00:43:07.405
inventory that I own would sit on
my very small desk to my right.

00:43:07.874 --> 00:43:10.125
Sorry, my pup is, uh,
is bothering me here.

00:43:10.225 --> 00:43:11.125
Long in this interview.

00:43:11.164 --> 00:43:11.635
Oh, good.

00:43:12.185 --> 00:43:13.345
Kiko, you want to give
a little appearance?

00:43:13.345 --> 00:43:13.635
Yeah, come on in.

00:43:13.885 --> 00:43:14.675
There you go.

00:43:15.325 --> 00:43:16.445
There's a nice pop.

00:43:16.635 --> 00:43:20.895
There's the Kiko little
Catahoula Catahoula blue healer.

00:43:20.975 --> 00:43:21.515
He's a good boy.

00:43:21.525 --> 00:43:23.714
First dog was follow him on Instagram as

00:43:23.715 --> 00:43:25.634
Travis Bader: a blue
healer and border Collie.

00:43:25.635 --> 00:43:26.315
That's my first dog.

00:43:26.434 --> 00:43:27.755
But your dog's got an Instagram account.

00:43:29.895 --> 00:43:31.604
Matthew Griffin: Kilo Niner dot Kiko.

00:43:32.034 --> 00:43:32.755
Yeah, you can follow him.

00:43:34.495 --> 00:43:39.745
Um, so, you know, I'm, I'm standing
there, I got to finish this fundraiser

00:43:39.745 --> 00:43:43.175
and I got two weeks until the
largest retail event any American

00:43:43.175 --> 00:43:44.115
small business could ever have,

00:43:46.655 --> 00:43:50.284
which then goes into, okay, I'm going
to call every rich individual I know.

00:43:50.284 --> 00:43:53.275
And like I said, I'm relentless about
running people down if I miss something.

00:43:54.085 --> 00:43:56.545
And I won't come after you
like selfishly, it's like, Hey,

00:43:56.554 --> 00:43:57.435
we're going to do something fun.

00:43:57.435 --> 00:43:58.195
It's going to be good.

00:43:58.215 --> 00:44:04.420
You'll be smiling at the And, uh,
I, I, there was a ranger buddy who I

00:44:04.420 --> 00:44:05.750
knew was doing well and I called him.

00:44:05.750 --> 00:44:07.040
I was like, dude, I
need 50 grand right now.

00:44:08.440 --> 00:44:08.880
He's like, what?

00:44:09.040 --> 00:44:12.270
I need 50, 000 transferred
into my account right now.

00:44:12.340 --> 00:44:14.960
I know your CFO is sitting
in the next office over.

00:44:14.960 --> 00:44:18.250
I want you to yell at him
after I get done talking.

00:44:18.250 --> 00:44:20.049
And I want you to tell
him to wire me 50 grand.

00:44:20.709 --> 00:44:22.719
I'll give you 10 percent back in 30 days.

00:44:23.360 --> 00:44:24.930
Like this will be a good return for you.

00:44:25.180 --> 00:44:25.520
Let's do it.

00:44:26.280 --> 00:44:31.020
And um, and he's like, no, no, I
was like, look, man, if you don't

00:44:31.020 --> 00:44:33.040
do this, I'm going to get in my car.

00:44:33.100 --> 00:44:35.980
I'm going to drive to my office
and I'm not going to leave until

00:44:35.990 --> 00:44:39.409
like, and he was good for it.

00:44:39.470 --> 00:44:43.919
And he ended up hosting, he ended up
hosting the shark tank debut in his office

00:44:44.010 --> 00:44:46.940
headquarters, you know, and, uh, ta group.

00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:48.800
Um, John Syracuse, the guy's name.

00:44:49.390 --> 00:44:52.410
And then, you know, we have all the
dashboards, it was set up like a

00:44:52.410 --> 00:44:55.710
command center, but we had our Google
analytics, uh, you know, everybody

00:44:55.710 --> 00:44:57.840
like long table with rows of laptops.

00:44:57.840 --> 00:45:02.300
And we had 50 grand written on the
board because that was the only

00:45:02.300 --> 00:45:05.190
number that I was worried about was
taking care of what I owed somebody

00:45:05.190 --> 00:45:05.889
Travis Bader: else.

00:45:05.890 --> 00:45:09.460
Matthew Griffin: That number
came, came and it went right.

00:45:09.510 --> 00:45:13.700
Like we wiped that number off the board
when the sales hit, we popped bottles of

00:45:13.700 --> 00:45:16.850
champagne and Yeah, it was, it was good.

00:45:16.850 --> 00:45:17.450
It was fun.

00:45:17.540 --> 00:45:23.350
Um, and then, you know, we back ordered,
we aired February 6th or seventh.

00:45:24.190 --> 00:45:25.360
We backorder on the initial night.

00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:27.610
We back ordered it full
production to the end of May.

00:45:27.610 --> 00:45:31.210
Then they rerun us at the end of May, and
then we backorder till the end of August.

00:45:31.730 --> 00:45:35.690
So we had tens of thousands of
orders that we had to get out and.

00:45:36.800 --> 00:45:37.500
I did my best.

00:45:37.610 --> 00:45:40.150
We were still fulfilling out
of my garage behind my kitchen.

00:45:40.320 --> 00:45:40.950
Wow.

00:45:41.810 --> 00:45:46.620
Like literally Trucks would roll in with
boxes We'd break everything down inventory

00:45:46.620 --> 00:45:49.519
at all hit the print button All the pick
tickets would come out everything would

00:45:49.520 --> 00:45:54.260
go into boxes Truck would roll by four
hours later ship out and we'd stand there

00:45:54.260 --> 00:45:58.529
at the end of the day And y'all look
that's five little girls going to school.

00:45:58.529 --> 00:45:59.499
That's so cool.

00:45:59.789 --> 00:46:05.375
That is so cool You know, every day, you
know, getting to have that satisfaction

00:46:05.375 --> 00:46:08.675
and like looking at the team and it's
not, Oh, like, Hey, we did all this work.

00:46:08.675 --> 00:46:10.444
It's like, that's five little girls.

00:46:11.165 --> 00:46:13.365
Going to school for you.

00:46:13.365 --> 00:46:14.715
Yeah, right.

00:46:14.715 --> 00:46:18.805
And like everybody kept coming back day
after day, and I think they really get it.

00:46:18.805 --> 00:46:21.894
If you work for us or with us, you'll
understand this is a real intent.

00:46:22.135 --> 00:46:29.175
Like our, our operations have an impact,
you know, and I often talk to people

00:46:29.175 --> 00:46:33.440
about our And they go, that was the
first thing we ever did as a company.

00:46:34.410 --> 00:46:36.830
Like we help entrepreneurs
affected by conflict.

00:46:37.430 --> 00:46:40.819
You know, we empower the mindful consumer
to manufacture peace through trade.

00:46:40.819 --> 00:46:44.050
And there's a few other things in
there, but persistence, creativity,

00:46:44.050 --> 00:46:47.399
and respect, you know, through
persistent creativity and respect,

00:46:47.399 --> 00:46:50.460
we empower the mindful consumer to
manufacture peace through trade and.

00:46:51.290 --> 00:46:56.140
The reason the mission statement is so
important and why I explain this to other

00:46:56.140 --> 00:46:58.590
people that are thinking about writing
a mission statement for their business

00:46:58.650 --> 00:47:03.830
is eventually you're going to have them
and your employee at some point in the

00:47:03.830 --> 00:47:08.270
future is going to be unsupervised out
of contact and needs to make a decision.

00:47:09.869 --> 00:47:14.390
Do they have a binary statement that's
in there that goes, does this help?

00:47:14.500 --> 00:47:18.640
Does this decision drive us
closer to the mission goal?

00:47:19.275 --> 00:47:25.325
Or does it not yes or no, any decision,
whether it's a marketing photograph,

00:47:25.375 --> 00:47:28.795
whether it's production, whether
it's, you know, logistics or finance,

00:47:29.315 --> 00:47:32.074
anybody on any one of my teams can
read our mission statement and go,

00:47:32.185 --> 00:47:33.414
does this help them make the mission?

00:47:33.424 --> 00:47:34.554
Does this make the mission happen?

00:47:36.045 --> 00:47:36.244
Right.

00:47:36.244 --> 00:47:39.815
And that's, and that's what we do is we
just, we just kept doing that and like

00:47:39.865 --> 00:47:44.715
people get it and they, we just been
driving on, like just chip away at that

00:47:44.725 --> 00:47:45.445
Travis Bader: North star

00:47:45.485 --> 00:47:48.855
Matthew Griffin: without the help
of, yeah, without the help of the

00:47:48.855 --> 00:47:51.735
U S government, any aid agencies.

00:47:51.795 --> 00:47:57.695
It has been a debacle, like, and I've
spoken at the Afghan embassy multiple

00:47:57.705 --> 00:48:01.225
times, I've spoken, you know, with heads
of Department of State, I mean, like,

00:48:01.424 --> 00:48:04.085
congressmen, representatives, senators.

00:48:04.860 --> 00:48:05.350
Nada.

00:48:05.990 --> 00:48:10.000
We are the most successful business
that has come out of this operation

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:12.780
and we still continue to be the
only Finnish cashmere maker in

00:48:12.940 --> 00:48:17.430
Afghanistan and we cannot get
any support from any aid agency.

00:48:17.440 --> 00:48:18.659
It's been really frustrating.

00:48:18.660 --> 00:48:19.169
That's crazy.

00:48:19.450 --> 00:48:22.670
But the soulless in that.

00:48:23.545 --> 00:48:23.925
Right.

00:48:23.995 --> 00:48:29.925
The big middle finger to the man is
that all of this impact has been created

00:48:29.925 --> 00:48:34.615
because of the faith and the support
of people like yourself, you know, like

00:48:34.654 --> 00:48:36.495
anything that we have done, it's not us.

00:48:36.534 --> 00:48:38.394
It's our customers that
have made this happen.

00:48:38.404 --> 00:48:41.474
And we're so thankful for the people that
support our mission, where our product.

00:48:42.295 --> 00:48:45.775
And encourage others to do
so, you know, so we're, we're

00:48:45.775 --> 00:48:46.635
having a good time with it.

00:48:47.065 --> 00:48:47.305
Right.

00:48:47.305 --> 00:48:49.165
And we just got more
for your gangster show.

00:48:49.345 --> 00:48:49.415
I

00:48:49.415 --> 00:48:49.725
Travis Bader: love it.

00:48:49.765 --> 00:48:52.205
And I think you might have
a Canadian distributor now.

00:48:54.574 --> 00:48:56.074
Matthew Griffin: We do DS tactical.

00:48:56.074 --> 00:48:59.794
Those guys up there, they, uh, just
waiting on their opening order.

00:48:59.794 --> 00:49:03.294
So maybe you just give them a buzz
and tell them to shoot over that PO.

00:49:03.574 --> 00:49:07.614
That is the, the Canadian market has
been really understanding of the mission.

00:49:08.345 --> 00:49:11.285
It's it's interesting except
with the exception of the french.

00:49:11.765 --> 00:49:12.115
Travis Bader: Oh, yeah.

00:49:12.115 --> 00:49:12.785
Well, don't get me started.

00:49:13.145 --> 00:49:13.545
I will get

00:49:13.545 --> 00:49:13.975
Matthew Griffin: on and I

00:49:17.045 --> 00:49:20.145
I'll tell if any french canadians listen
to this like don't be such a dick on

00:49:20.145 --> 00:49:25.254
social media right like I'm gonna tell you
like stop being a dick in the comments.

00:49:25.264 --> 00:49:30.240
Nobody enjoys it Um, but the
generally the Canadians they've for

00:49:30.250 --> 00:49:33.450
years, they purchased stuff from
us at a severe detriment to them

00:49:33.450 --> 00:49:37.120
because it's more expensive to get
the product because of the taxes.

00:49:37.120 --> 00:49:40.510
They, they've got, you know, all
the shipping and since 2020, the

00:49:40.510 --> 00:49:42.070
shipping to Canada is just gotten.

00:49:42.690 --> 00:49:43.800
Stupid expenses.

00:49:43.800 --> 00:49:43.860
Yeah.

00:49:43.860 --> 00:49:46.860
And then we, uh, so we're really
thankful we get double hose too, because

00:49:46.860 --> 00:49:49.890
Travis Bader: we have brokerage
fees like on UPS and FedEx and the

00:49:49.890 --> 00:49:51.450
brokerage fee has got nothing to do.

00:49:51.450 --> 00:49:54.690
Like you can ship a refrigerator for
$1 and they'll charge you a brokerage

00:49:54.690 --> 00:49:57.840
fee on the dollar or a diamond
ring at 10 grand and the brokerage

00:49:57.840 --> 00:49:59.960
fee will be based on the 10 grand.

00:49:59.960 --> 00:50:02.870
It's got nothing to do with the
size, weight, or whatever it is.

00:50:03.390 --> 00:50:05.880
And really, it's got
nothing to do with any.

00:50:06.155 --> 00:50:09.435
Any, uh, government, uh, taxes.

00:50:09.445 --> 00:50:12.335
It's just the company saying,
we want a bit more money.

00:50:13.135 --> 00:50:16.345
So that's, uh, that's a tough
one when we're buying stuff.

00:50:16.345 --> 00:50:18.234
And when you and I first started
talking, you're like, Hey,

00:50:18.234 --> 00:50:19.384
you want to be a distributor?

00:50:19.415 --> 00:50:22.134
And I'm like, I don't even
know what a distributor does.

00:50:22.135 --> 00:50:22.295
Right.

00:50:22.335 --> 00:50:23.265
It's super easy.

00:50:23.275 --> 00:50:26.505
All you need is a warehouse and like,
well, I got a warehouse, actually,

00:50:26.735 --> 00:50:30.845
this is in the warehouse that I've
converted into a studio part of it.

00:50:31.565 --> 00:50:32.325
And, uh, yeah.

00:50:33.280 --> 00:50:40.620
But I said, you know, I know somebody
that I texted Martin from a DS tactical.

00:50:40.620 --> 00:50:42.309
And right away he said, yeah, he'd do it.

00:50:42.310 --> 00:50:43.710
But I didn't tell you that.

00:50:43.710 --> 00:50:44.710
He said, yeah, right away.

00:50:44.750 --> 00:50:46.259
Cause I didn't want to speak for him.

00:50:46.259 --> 00:50:49.080
I didn't want to, who knows
what was going to go happen.

00:50:49.080 --> 00:50:52.439
But, um, I said, this guy's
Griff, you got to talk with him.

00:50:52.439 --> 00:50:53.409
He's amazing guy.

00:50:53.419 --> 00:50:54.420
He's got a great product.

00:50:54.420 --> 00:50:55.550
He's got a great thing going.

00:50:55.550 --> 00:50:56.870
And, uh, so.

00:50:57.135 --> 00:51:01.175
On day one, when I contacted
them, you had the green light.

00:51:01.365 --> 00:51:04.855
So I was just holding my breath, making
sure that nothing happened in between

00:51:05.125 --> 00:51:06.925
that was going to, uh, to jinx that one.

00:51:06.925 --> 00:51:08.185
But that's awesome.

00:51:09.245 --> 00:51:09.405
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

00:51:09.434 --> 00:51:12.744
Well, they, they should be shipping
here soon, fingers crossed, but I will

00:51:12.745 --> 00:51:14.844
tell my Canadian brothers and sisters.

00:51:16.425 --> 00:51:20.775
Before winter comes, when we ship
our cashmere, buy the cashmere.

00:51:20.805 --> 00:51:23.695
It is the best cold
weather product that I own.

00:51:24.935 --> 00:51:28.695
I'm telling you, buy two because
your wife is going to steal one.

00:51:29.415 --> 00:51:31.075
It is a great product,
you're going to love it.

00:51:31.084 --> 00:51:33.405
Travis Bader: Well, you know a bit about
cold weather because you lived in the

00:51:33.405 --> 00:51:35.984
Pacific Northwest for a while, right?

00:51:37.824 --> 00:51:38.255
Matthew Griffin: Yeah, I did.

00:51:38.255 --> 00:51:41.325
I lived in the Seattle
area for the Northwest.

00:51:41.840 --> 00:51:46.160
I was one of the first guys to ski, uh,
ski off the tallest mountain in Iraq.

00:51:46.160 --> 00:51:47.590
I've summited Mount Rainier.

00:51:47.590 --> 00:51:50.600
I'm a, I'm a, I'm a mountain
guy in cold weather.

00:51:50.600 --> 00:51:51.500
So I get it.

00:51:51.500 --> 00:51:54.199
I do a lot of archery, hunting,
all these other things.

00:51:54.199 --> 00:51:57.800
And that one piece that has been uniformed
throughout all of those adventures

00:51:58.530 --> 00:52:00.640
has been my cashmere, my cashmere,

00:52:00.640 --> 00:52:01.649
Travis Bader: it

00:52:01.830 --> 00:52:02.870
Matthew Griffin: goes with me every order

00:52:02.870 --> 00:52:03.330
Travis Bader: that one.

00:52:04.330 --> 00:52:07.400
Matthew Griffin: I'm telling you
guys, if, if you buy one of these

00:52:07.400 --> 00:52:10.629
things and you listen to this podcast
again and think that I'm lying to

00:52:10.629 --> 00:52:11.660
you, you would be the first person.

00:52:12.355 --> 00:52:13.315
They are phenomenal.

00:52:13.535 --> 00:52:14.575
You will really enjoy it.

00:52:14.675 --> 00:52:17.135
Travis Bader: Well, Rainier, that's
a bit more of a technical mountain.

00:52:17.195 --> 00:52:19.555
That's, uh, that's, that's
kind of a sketchy mountain.

00:52:22.155 --> 00:52:24.495
Matthew Griffin: Uh, I did it
with veterans adventure group.

00:52:24.635 --> 00:52:29.265
So they're a group that helps,
uh, veterans do more positive

00:52:29.265 --> 00:52:30.485
activities in the outdoors.

00:52:30.485 --> 00:52:33.685
So they do mountain climbs,
they do skydiving and.

00:52:34.310 --> 00:52:37.880
They sponsored me to get my, uh,
AFF certification for skydiving.

00:52:37.880 --> 00:52:41.930
So they helped me learn how to skydive
and I felt the need to repay them.

00:52:42.050 --> 00:52:46.969
And so I led a, uh, led a climb on
Rainier for them, I think in 2017 or 2018.

00:52:48.170 --> 00:52:48.990
I let it climb for them.

00:52:48.990 --> 00:52:52.220
And we did it in early June, which
I would have to say if I were going

00:52:52.220 --> 00:52:56.460
to do Rainier again, I would do it
as early season as I possibly could.

00:52:57.050 --> 00:53:00.850
Uh, just, there's not as many
crevasses, the path is shorter.

00:53:01.230 --> 00:53:06.099
Um, there's usually less tourists,
you know, and, uh, the summer climbers

00:53:06.100 --> 00:53:10.019
that are there, so, you know, we
just had a, a group of veterans and

00:53:10.020 --> 00:53:13.460
I trained this, uh, a friend of mine,
one of my mentors, actually a business

00:53:13.460 --> 00:53:15.695
partner, uh, She turned 50 that year.

00:53:15.695 --> 00:53:16.925
She's like, I don't want
to climb right here.

00:53:16.945 --> 00:53:20.065
So we trained for months and I'll
tell you what, she absolutely

00:53:20.065 --> 00:53:21.845
went out and put the wood.

00:53:22.455 --> 00:53:23.525
To those other veterans.

00:53:23.525 --> 00:53:26.635
Like she was like the first
one up to the base camp.

00:53:26.635 --> 00:53:28.525
She didn't bitch or complain all day.

00:53:28.935 --> 00:53:29.295
She did.

00:53:29.305 --> 00:53:30.904
She managed her, her lines.

00:53:30.904 --> 00:53:32.625
Well, she just straight up crush it.

00:53:32.635 --> 00:53:35.375
And I like really made me
proud as a coach, right.

00:53:35.375 --> 00:53:38.715
To see here, this 50 year old
female veteran, just go out

00:53:38.715 --> 00:53:40.405
and just kill these young guys.

00:53:40.475 --> 00:53:41.355
It was awesome.

00:53:41.504 --> 00:53:41.994
I loved it.

00:53:42.054 --> 00:53:42.324
That is

00:53:42.544 --> 00:53:42.984
Travis Bader: really good.

00:53:43.704 --> 00:53:47.285
That the group that you were, you're
working with there, they deal with

00:53:47.285 --> 00:53:49.845
veterans and mental health as well.

00:53:49.845 --> 00:53:50.275
Don't they?

00:53:52.940 --> 00:53:57.050
Matthew Griffin: Uh, veterans
adventure group, uh, not so much.

00:53:57.070 --> 00:53:59.650
I think just their primary
focus is getting guys, you

00:53:59.650 --> 00:54:01.050
know, outside that is mental

00:54:01.059 --> 00:54:01.429
Travis Bader: health

00:54:01.840 --> 00:54:02.669
Matthew Griffin: is being outside.

00:54:03.410 --> 00:54:05.529
Travis Bader: That's my mental
health in a nutshell is just get

00:54:05.529 --> 00:54:08.010
out, get out in the ocean, get
out in the mountains, get outside.

00:54:10.799 --> 00:54:10.949
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

00:54:10.999 --> 00:54:14.980
I mean, every great article that
I've written or done or anything

00:54:14.980 --> 00:54:16.380
creative like that has always been.

00:54:17.505 --> 00:54:17.985
Outside

00:54:18.635 --> 00:54:19.015
Travis Bader: who was

00:54:19.475 --> 00:54:20.285
Matthew Griffin: my ted talk.

00:54:20.285 --> 00:54:23.795
I wrote while cattle hunting here on
the big island, you know All I just

00:54:24.405 --> 00:54:26.635
sit down you got time to think about
nothing while you're waiting around.

00:54:26.645 --> 00:54:30.465
Yeah Yeah, all that's when
all the thoughts I didn't

00:54:30.465 --> 00:54:31.405
Travis Bader: catch your ted talk.

00:54:31.415 --> 00:54:32.915
How did I miss your ted talk?

00:54:32.945 --> 00:54:33.705
Tell me about that

00:54:36.034 --> 00:54:41.925
Matthew Griffin: uh I was at nike at
a veterans advocacy group And I just

00:54:42.065 --> 00:54:44.515
happened to sit down around a table
and this guy sitting next to me goes.

00:54:44.525 --> 00:54:51.315
Hey, man, i'm You know, I'm, uh, I'm
doing this Ted talk, uh, in Tacoma.

00:54:51.325 --> 00:54:52.585
Would you like to be a part of it?

00:54:53.095 --> 00:54:53.735
All right, cool.

00:54:54.755 --> 00:54:58.945
Like we'll hire you a professional
speaking coach and you can talk about it.

00:54:58.974 --> 00:55:00.765
And, uh, I was like, how long is it?

00:55:00.825 --> 00:55:01.624
You got a couple of months.

00:55:01.625 --> 00:55:02.485
I'm like, it's fine.

00:55:03.255 --> 00:55:06.225
And you know, then I typical range, right?

00:55:06.225 --> 00:55:08.515
Deep dive into the science of a Ted talk.

00:55:08.515 --> 00:55:10.715
I look at all the graphs
and the best ones that work.

00:55:10.715 --> 00:55:12.725
And then I start like
penciling mine all out.

00:55:12.735 --> 00:55:14.365
And when the coach showed up, I had my.

00:55:14.955 --> 00:55:18.555
My sign wave and graph on the
board with my talking points on it.

00:55:18.555 --> 00:55:21.205
And he's like, you'd really
thought about this one, huh?

00:55:21.205 --> 00:55:21.785
And I'm like, yeah.

00:55:21.785 --> 00:55:25.115
And then, uh, they ended up making me
the closer for the event, which is cool.

00:55:25.115 --> 00:55:31.325
And it's just a great piece of,
uh, of content because it holds

00:55:31.325 --> 00:55:33.005
true today as it ever did, right?

00:55:33.005 --> 00:55:35.765
Like I still feel the same
way I do about Afghanistan.

00:55:35.765 --> 00:55:37.554
I still feel the same way
I do about our mission.

00:55:37.584 --> 00:55:38.409
I really think if.

00:55:39.400 --> 00:55:43.190
If we're all creative, respectful
and persistent, you know, we're going

00:55:43.190 --> 00:55:46.390
to make it through a lot of these
challenges that we face, whatever

00:55:46.390 --> 00:55:47.910
they may be today in this world.

00:55:48.560 --> 00:55:49.000
Travis Bader: So,

00:55:49.679 --> 00:55:50.989
Matthew Griffin: and we're
just an example of that.

00:55:52.850 --> 00:55:55.610
Travis Bader: Archery is something that
you're passionate about and it's something

00:55:55.610 --> 00:55:57.060
that I'm just kind of learning about.

00:55:57.060 --> 00:56:00.359
I grew up a gun guy, rifle
guy, and I picked up a

00:56:00.360 --> 00:56:02.790
Matthew's bow not too long ago.

00:56:02.800 --> 00:56:03.900
I've been practicing with it.

00:56:04.430 --> 00:56:06.060
You turned me on to, what was it?

00:56:06.070 --> 00:56:07.100
Slick trick.

00:56:07.180 --> 00:56:07.570
Slick

00:56:09.630 --> 00:56:09.880
tricks.

00:56:09.880 --> 00:56:10.790
Got some of those.

00:56:11.005 --> 00:56:11.165
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

00:56:11.165 --> 00:56:12.225
Slick trick broadheads.

00:56:12.245 --> 00:56:12.575
Yeah.

00:56:13.475 --> 00:56:14.595
Have you got to put them to use?

00:56:14.625 --> 00:56:14.995
No,

00:56:15.115 --> 00:56:17.505
Travis Bader: no, I just got the,
well, I think they just came in

00:56:17.515 --> 00:56:21.195
the mail, the slick tricks, uh,
about a couple of weeks ago.

00:56:21.195 --> 00:56:22.754
And I, uh, then I was out of town.

00:56:22.755 --> 00:56:24.554
I was in Nova Scotia and
then over to Toronto.

00:56:24.554 --> 00:56:29.494
So I haven't played, played with them
yet, but, uh, I'm looking forward

00:56:29.495 --> 00:56:33.285
to the, uh, the fall when I can
see if I can get close enough to an

00:56:33.295 --> 00:56:35.695
animal and, uh, do my work with it.

00:56:36.215 --> 00:56:38.745
That'll be, uh, it'll be interesting.

00:56:39.105 --> 00:56:42.095
I might have to talk to
you about, uh, not if,

00:56:42.545 --> 00:56:42.905
Matthew Griffin: not if,

00:56:43.195 --> 00:56:48.735
Travis Bader: all right, when, when, you
know, I got a draw for moose this year.

00:56:48.735 --> 00:56:50.045
So we'll be doing a moose hunt.

00:56:50.814 --> 00:56:52.825
I think that, I think
that'll be a rifle hunt.

00:56:53.295 --> 00:56:55.574
Uh, but I'll be bringing
the bow just in case.

00:56:56.265 --> 00:57:00.394
Uh, we've got a, uh, son got a deer
draw and then we've got a couple other

00:57:00.395 --> 00:57:01.795
hunts that we've got kind of lined up.

00:57:02.240 --> 00:57:05.070
But you do a fair bit of hunting
over there on where you're at right

00:57:05.070 --> 00:57:06.190
now on the big island, don't you?

00:57:08.210 --> 00:57:08.490
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

00:57:08.490 --> 00:57:11.460
We've been, um, we've been
hunting a lot lately actually.

00:57:11.490 --> 00:57:14.730
And that's one of the major reasons
I moved here is because you have

00:57:14.750 --> 00:57:17.410
the majority of animals here are
invasive and they want them gone.

00:57:17.430 --> 00:57:20.309
So the, the hunting tags are non existent.

00:57:20.310 --> 00:57:23.440
You just go out and hunt, you know,
you have your limits per area, but

00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:26.220
it's every day of the year, you
can always go hunting out here.

00:57:26.220 --> 00:57:27.640
And I really just, I enjoy it.

00:57:27.660 --> 00:57:31.489
So we've, uh, you know, last couple
of weeks you brought down, you know, a

00:57:31.489 --> 00:57:33.350
turkey, a couple of pigs, a few cattle.

00:57:34.055 --> 00:57:36.735
You know, i'm still after a big
old mouflon sheep here, which I

00:57:36.735 --> 00:57:39.265
haven't had the opportunity to
get yet But that'll come here.

00:57:39.485 --> 00:57:41.135
Just need to spend spend
some more time outside.

00:57:41.135 --> 00:57:41.645
You have a lot of the

00:57:41.645 --> 00:57:42.105
Travis Bader: mouflon.

00:57:44.935 --> 00:57:48.745
Matthew Griffin: Uh, there's a lot Yeah,
they're they're an invasive species so

00:57:48.745 --> 00:57:51.465
much So are they like every couple years
they have to shoot a few thousand of them?

00:57:51.644 --> 00:57:51.964
Travis Bader: Okay

00:57:53.010 --> 00:57:55.060
Matthew Griffin: Like they just,
they, they tear up the environment.

00:57:55.060 --> 00:57:58.950
They hang out at high altitude, you
know, six to 10, 000 feet of elevation.

00:57:58.950 --> 00:58:03.649
So it's, it's hard for hunters to get
up there to, to, you know, keep them in.

00:58:03.650 --> 00:58:04.919
Travis Bader: And

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:06.110
Matthew Griffin: there's
no natural predators.

00:58:06.640 --> 00:58:08.540
Travis Bader: And you don't have
access to your, on that island, do you?

00:58:10.490 --> 00:58:11.370
Matthew Griffin: We do not know.

00:58:11.370 --> 00:58:13.779
And there are another
super invasive species.

00:58:14.135 --> 00:58:16.784
But I am looking forward
to getting over on Molokai.

00:58:16.865 --> 00:58:18.145
Going and getting some of those.

00:58:18.145 --> 00:58:20.054
Cause I, I hear they're really.

00:58:20.055 --> 00:58:21.305
Travis Bader: Yeah, they're fantastic.

00:58:21.305 --> 00:58:24.755
I was over last year on Molokai
there and got some access to here.

00:58:24.755 --> 00:58:27.435
That was actually my
first out of country hunt.

00:58:28.075 --> 00:58:30.954
And it wasn't at all what I was
expecting in the way of a hunt.

00:58:31.074 --> 00:58:34.675
And, um, like I, I don't do
the guided thing, although

00:58:34.675 --> 00:58:35.815
I'm sure I could learn a lot.

00:58:35.865 --> 00:58:36.695
Naive Josh.

00:58:37.120 --> 00:58:39.910
Gone out and learn myself or
talk to more experienced people.

00:58:39.910 --> 00:58:42.540
And so I, I did my recce.

00:58:42.540 --> 00:58:43.260
I'm going around.

00:58:43.260 --> 00:58:46.400
I'm checking the places out where the
deer are at a few days ahead of time.

00:58:46.400 --> 00:58:47.029
They're kind of neat.

00:58:47.029 --> 00:58:48.739
When you sneak up on
them, they'll bark at you.

00:58:48.840 --> 00:58:53.180
That's, um, I haven't had deer bark at
me before, but that was, that was neat.

00:58:53.910 --> 00:58:57.020
So I, uh, meet up there's a, I think
there's a couple of companies, but

00:58:57.020 --> 00:58:59.779
there's one company over there,
really nice family owned company.

00:58:59.779 --> 00:59:00.409
Great guy.

00:59:00.580 --> 00:59:05.170
And, um, Anyways, they get you in a little
side by side and they drive you around.

00:59:05.170 --> 00:59:09.170
I'm like, okay, we get out here
and we hike over the next mountain.

00:59:09.190 --> 00:59:11.380
Do we, no, no, no, we'll,
we'll drive you over there.

00:59:11.380 --> 00:59:13.500
I'm like, well, I kind of want
to get out and move around.

00:59:13.500 --> 00:59:13.690
Right.

00:59:13.690 --> 00:59:17.810
I kind of want to put some work in
and I guess they're used to just

00:59:17.810 --> 00:59:19.480
driving people up, sitting down.

00:59:19.690 --> 00:59:21.220
There's a deer, go ahead and shoot them.

00:59:21.769 --> 00:59:22.470
So, uh,

00:59:24.510 --> 00:59:26.860
Matthew Griffin: there is something
to be said for those types of hunts.

00:59:27.380 --> 00:59:28.010
Um,

00:59:30.505 --> 00:59:33.235
Where, you know, like, you know, we're
going to do a service like that out here.

00:59:33.235 --> 00:59:35.335
I'm helping another veteran
started guide service.

00:59:35.375 --> 00:59:38.464
And a lot of people are just intimidated
by hunting and they want to get into the

00:59:38.465 --> 00:59:39.985
sport, but they don't have anybody to.

00:59:41.445 --> 00:59:44.465
You know, take them out to a safe
area, know they're going to get a shot

00:59:44.465 --> 00:59:45.665
and then walk through the process.

00:59:45.685 --> 00:59:48.525
The part of hunting that nobody ever talks
about is how do you break down an animal?

00:59:48.735 --> 00:59:49.715
Travis Bader: Well, that's pretty huge.

00:59:49.775 --> 00:59:51.325
Matthew Griffin: Like, how
do you feel dressing it?

00:59:51.605 --> 00:59:54.225
Yeah, and like everybody just
focuses on the gun side of it.

00:59:54.225 --> 00:59:57.965
And Now, this is the part of hunting
that nobody talks about is when you're,

00:59:58.565 --> 01:00:01.765
you're all sitting around and get done
taking photos and you're just laughing.

01:00:01.775 --> 01:00:06.225
You got the tailgate down, got some music
on, drink a cup of coffee, you know, you

01:00:06.225 --> 01:00:09.545
get the knives out and the meat bags and
you're just, you're there for an hour

01:00:09.545 --> 01:00:12.615
or two, just hanging about, you know,
just getting ready, everything ready.

01:00:12.615 --> 01:00:16.065
And then you go home and then
you have to debone everything.

01:00:16.065 --> 01:00:18.655
If you don't debone it in the woods
and you got to get the silver skin

01:00:18.655 --> 01:00:21.245
off, and then you got to cut up
all your fillets and steaks, then

01:00:21.245 --> 01:00:22.845
you got to vacuum seal everything.

01:00:22.845 --> 01:00:26.920
Like If you take down an animal,
there is another 10 to 15 hours

01:00:26.920 --> 01:00:31.240
of work for a newbie, maybe three
to four for an experienced guy.

01:00:31.250 --> 01:00:33.890
And the ability to go on one of
these guided hunts, where they

01:00:33.960 --> 01:00:37.970
teach you how to do that will only
encourage you to be out in the, in

01:00:37.970 --> 01:00:40.240
the outside more, which I'm, I'm a

01:00:40.240 --> 01:00:40.719
Travis Bader: fan.

01:00:40.720 --> 01:00:42.340
I can see a lot of value to that.

01:00:42.690 --> 01:00:46.940
Um, I did end up getting out and saying,
look, I'm going to just go through this

01:00:46.940 --> 01:00:48.790
valley here, I'm going to hike on through.

01:00:49.765 --> 01:00:51.795
And we got some game in
there, which is amazing.

01:00:51.795 --> 01:00:55.195
And the guide said, Hey,
that was a pretty neat trick.

01:00:55.255 --> 01:00:57.075
We haven't had somebody do that before.

01:00:57.145 --> 01:00:59.735
I think we'll try it again
because we had some, some decent

01:00:59.735 --> 01:01:01.485
sized ones bedded down in there.

01:01:02.105 --> 01:01:06.275
Um, you know, for somebody, if you've
never done that before, I mean, that's,

01:01:06.305 --> 01:01:10.765
there's massive value to learning with
somebody over your shoulder and if

01:01:10.765 --> 01:01:14.805
you're putting it in, if you're doing
it the hard way, I mean, you're just

01:01:14.805 --> 01:01:18.285
reducing your odds of actually finding
something and being able to get, to

01:01:18.285 --> 01:01:19.625
learn those other pieces of the puzzle.

01:01:20.450 --> 01:01:23.690
Tell me about this business
that your friend's setting up.

01:01:23.690 --> 01:01:27.230
I want to learn more about this and I want
to know how I can get involved with that.

01:01:29.780 --> 01:01:34.810
Matthew Griffin: Uh, so, um, he's a
native Hawaiian, uh, Marine veteran.

01:01:35.275 --> 01:01:38.135
Who loves being outside and
he hates his current job.

01:01:38.135 --> 01:01:43.635
All right, so you know you hang
out with me enough I will like keep

01:01:43.635 --> 01:01:46.325
seeding like oh, you maybe you should
do this for a business or maybe you

01:01:46.325 --> 01:01:48.945
should do that Or here's how the
math works out and people run it.

01:01:48.945 --> 01:01:52.925
Well, we don't have any land to hunt
Well, i've got a friend who's got 60

01:01:52.925 --> 01:01:56.135
acres private acres here And he's got
tons of pigs on the property that he

01:01:56.135 --> 01:01:59.605
wants off his property you know if
we just go out there and clear down

01:01:59.605 --> 01:02:03.205
some brush and set up some shooting
lanes and cut him a commission like We

01:02:03.205 --> 01:02:07.245
now have 60 acres of private hunting
land Then we can safely go and bring

01:02:07.245 --> 01:02:09.765
people to, you know, off a gravel road.

01:02:09.765 --> 01:02:10.915
You'll pull your car out.

01:02:10.915 --> 01:02:13.855
We'll either give you a ride out to the
blind, or you can walk out to the blind.

01:02:14.745 --> 01:02:14.965
Yeah.

01:02:14.965 --> 01:02:18.555
We'll, we'll know where the animals are
and we can shoot one, bring it down, take

01:02:18.555 --> 01:02:21.935
all the photos and somebody can go back
and have their vacation with their family.

01:02:21.935 --> 01:02:23.295
They go snorkeling at the beach.

01:02:23.335 --> 01:02:27.245
They can, you know, go cruise around,
do the hikes, go to the observatory.

01:02:27.245 --> 01:02:30.825
And then all of a sudden at your
hotel, you're going to get a cooler

01:02:30.825 --> 01:02:34.205
full of vacuum sealed, frozen
stuff to fly home with, right?

01:02:34.205 --> 01:02:37.645
So you guys can enjoy
this trip for, you know.

01:02:38.865 --> 01:02:41.735
So, you know, so you just keep
reliving that and that's the

01:02:41.805 --> 01:02:43.055
experience you want to provide.

01:02:43.135 --> 01:02:44.545
Travis Bader: So he's
going to do well with that.

01:02:44.675 --> 01:02:47.375
That's going to be a popular, are
there a lot of other companies

01:02:47.375 --> 01:02:48.505
over there that are doing that?

01:02:50.625 --> 01:02:52.405
Matthew Griffin: Uh, there are a lot
of other guide companies out here,

01:02:52.405 --> 01:02:55.395
but they're typically the higher
end ranch hunts where you're paying

01:02:56.055 --> 01:03:00.305
1500 to 2000, they go out and shoot
a big, big ram or, you know, a big

01:03:00.305 --> 01:03:01.755
goat on somebody else's property.

01:03:01.755 --> 01:03:06.205
But, you know, I'm more aimed toward the
father, son, father, daughter, you know,

01:03:06.205 --> 01:03:07.985
a woman who wants to learn how to hunt.

01:03:08.695 --> 01:03:12.245
You know, creating that kind of
teaching experience where it's not

01:03:12.245 --> 01:03:14.575
one of those fancy hunts, but it's
something where you're going to

01:03:14.575 --> 01:03:17.485
get a good animal, a tasty animal.

01:03:17.485 --> 01:03:20.065
You're going to learn a lot
and hopefully you'll come back

01:03:20.065 --> 01:03:20.995
and recommend other friends.

01:03:21.005 --> 01:03:21.525
That's cool.

01:03:21.565 --> 01:03:24.265
Travis Bader: Well, we'll get links
to that up when the business is up

01:03:24.265 --> 01:03:27.115
and going, we'll get links to that,
we'll throw it in this podcast.

01:03:27.115 --> 01:03:30.855
Anybody listening and watching, we'll
be able to see what that's all about.

01:03:31.815 --> 01:03:34.745
And, uh, you know, maybe I'll just
fly over there and take a few pictures

01:03:34.745 --> 01:03:36.115
myself and see what we can do.

01:03:38.180 --> 01:03:39.800
Matthew Griffin: Yeah, we'll have
to do a podcast from the wine.

01:03:39.800 --> 01:03:40.280
I think.

01:03:41.160 --> 01:03:41.880
So get that done.

01:03:42.030 --> 01:03:42.815
Yeah, that'll happen.

01:03:42.815 --> 01:03:43.095
Yeah.

01:03:43.320 --> 01:03:43.620
Travis Bader: Yeah.

01:03:43.620 --> 01:03:48.260
I've got the, uh, the full remote kit
that I've, uh, I was just, uh, back

01:03:48.260 --> 01:03:51.560
east with it and I was supposed to
be doing a podcast in Nova Scotia.

01:03:52.180 --> 01:03:55.780
Uh, the individual got a little
shy and so we didn't do it there.

01:03:55.780 --> 01:03:56.620
That's fair enough.

01:03:56.970 --> 01:03:58.410
Uh, had a fantastic time.

01:03:58.410 --> 01:04:02.390
All you can eat lobster and,
um, smallmouth bass fishing.

01:04:02.390 --> 01:04:04.880
I'd never done that before,
so that was, uh, kind of neat.

01:04:06.100 --> 01:04:07.450
. 
Matthew Griffin: Smallmouth or fun?

01:04:07.450 --> 01:04:09.055
My favorite freshwater fish to fish.

01:04:09.055 --> 01:04:09.056
Yeah.

01:04:09.460 --> 01:04:10.335
They're so aggressive.

01:04:10.335 --> 01:04:12.520
Are, are they ever, they hit so hard.

01:04:13.710 --> 01:04:14.550
Travis Bader: Well, we head out.

01:04:14.640 --> 01:04:16.710
Okay, so this fellow, he.

01:04:17.450 --> 01:04:21.250
Uh, owns a company called
ATI armament technology.

01:04:21.250 --> 01:04:22.550
They make wicked scopes.

01:04:22.550 --> 01:04:24.170
People have probably heard of them.

01:04:24.170 --> 01:04:27.510
They do Tenebrex scope covers
and they got tangent theta and

01:04:27.510 --> 01:04:29.650
SAI and really cool company.

01:04:29.650 --> 01:04:33.650
Very family oriented, which
I like very core values.

01:04:34.230 --> 01:04:39.270
And so out at the, the owner's cottage,
we go in the boat and it was me and him

01:04:39.270 --> 01:04:41.930
and my wife is with, with his partner.

01:04:41.960 --> 01:04:42.590
And.

01:04:42.670 --> 01:04:46.530
Uh, she comes over and
hands a little book.

01:04:46.590 --> 01:04:47.500
Like, what's this for?

01:04:47.720 --> 01:04:48.470
Oh, you got to keep track.

01:04:48.470 --> 01:04:50.610
She says, what do you mean?

01:04:50.900 --> 01:04:52.830
You say, well, how do
we know who's won here?

01:04:52.840 --> 01:04:53.730
Who's got the most?

01:04:53.730 --> 01:04:55.970
I'm like, okay, so this
is a new thing for me.

01:04:55.980 --> 01:05:00.220
You, I, I don't go out and keep track
of how many, man, the bite was on.

01:05:00.230 --> 01:05:01.410
We're doing pretty good over there.

01:05:01.460 --> 01:05:03.740
It was, um, uh, pickerel.

01:05:03.770 --> 01:05:06.320
Of course, we've got a bunch
of those, uh, smallmouth bass.

01:05:07.310 --> 01:05:08.660
They're an aggressive fish.

01:05:10.050 --> 01:05:13.710
I mean, they're invasive from what
I understand in our, in our waters.

01:05:14.215 --> 01:05:18.265
But, um, at least over here in
the West, but they're a fun one.

01:05:20.385 --> 01:05:21.345
Matthew Griffin: Yeah, they're super fun.

01:05:21.395 --> 01:05:21.645
Yeah.

01:05:21.645 --> 01:05:26.655
My, uh, my favorite like family
oriented fishing is pink.

01:05:26.785 --> 01:05:27.185
Okay.

01:05:27.225 --> 01:05:27.505
That's.

01:05:27.920 --> 01:05:29.010
Just the little garbage ones.

01:05:29.040 --> 01:05:33.910
Travis Bader: I like pinks, you
know, every, every odd year they'll

01:05:33.910 --> 01:05:37.180
run on inside or outside, even
years inside, odd years outside.

01:05:37.180 --> 01:05:37.350
Right.

01:05:37.350 --> 01:05:41.840
And so right around the corner from
this location, when he used to be our

01:05:41.840 --> 01:05:47.030
office, I got a new office, uh, in
Ladner for people who know the area.

01:05:47.455 --> 01:05:52.055
But, uh, I've got fishing rods in
the, uh, in the next room over here.

01:05:52.055 --> 01:05:54.895
And when they're running, man, we
just go out there right on the river.

01:05:54.895 --> 01:06:00.235
You can cast from the side and
you go home with a few pinks,

01:06:00.245 --> 01:06:01.485
throw them in the smoker.

01:06:01.495 --> 01:06:02.435
They're fatty.

01:06:02.435 --> 01:06:04.745
They're, they're a
fantastic fish to smoke up.

01:06:06.980 --> 01:06:10.110
Matthew Griffin: I like saltwater fishing,
you know, I like, I've had them out of

01:06:10.110 --> 01:06:15.500
freshwater, but when the first time I did
it, I think it was like 2015 or 2017, but

01:06:15.510 --> 01:06:20.060
we had a 14 foot Zodiac with a, I think
a 15 horsepower motor on it on the back.

01:06:20.800 --> 01:06:23.950
And, you know, we saw him out jumping
and it's like, I know they hit buzz

01:06:23.950 --> 01:06:25.470
bombs and we had a couple bass rods.

01:06:25.470 --> 01:06:28.700
So we just, you could see the
school skim in the top of the water.

01:06:28.700 --> 01:06:31.380
So we just ripped right in front
of the school, toss them in.

01:06:32.070 --> 01:06:36.080
And next thing you know, the whole
boat is erupting and laughter and, you

01:06:36.080 --> 01:06:39.560
know, just, just, you know, there's
four fish on at a time with four people

01:06:39.560 --> 01:06:43.400
in a 14 foot Zodiac and everybody's
tried to do everything and get them in.

01:06:43.900 --> 01:06:44.150
Right.

01:06:44.150 --> 01:06:46.580
And then once we get them all in and
like in the bottom of the boat and

01:06:46.580 --> 01:06:49.988
they're like, there's schools over
there and you're like a Navy SEAL team

01:06:49.988 --> 01:06:53.230
with all your fishing rods, everybody's
strapped to the bottom of that boat.

01:06:53.260 --> 01:06:56.220
And I was literally out there
with like, you know, little girls

01:06:56.220 --> 01:06:57.760
and my, you know, my friends.

01:06:58.495 --> 01:07:01.485
And just these kids and like they knew
for the next three days that we were up

01:07:01.485 --> 01:07:04.655
in the San Juan Islands But like they
knew where the tide changes were like

01:07:04.665 --> 01:07:09.745
when's tide change And like they were
ready and like standing by the boat with

01:07:09.745 --> 01:07:12.705
their fishing rods and their buzz bombs
ready to go Because we were gonna go

01:07:12.705 --> 01:07:16.675
out and kill it It was just such a fun
little experience and then We'd go out

01:07:16.675 --> 01:07:20.405
and we hit our limit every day And then
we'd have salmon for months and every

01:07:20.405 --> 01:07:23.325
time you break one of those things out
of the freezer you laugh about the story

01:07:23.325 --> 01:07:26.075
that you had when you were out fishing
and reminiscing and pulling up the

01:07:26.075 --> 01:07:32.200
photos and You I just think it's a much
better way to live and to consume your

01:07:32.200 --> 01:07:33.610
meat is to have that connection to it.

01:07:33.610 --> 01:07:34.010
Yeah.

01:07:34.190 --> 01:07:34.470
Travis Bader: Yeah.

01:07:34.470 --> 01:07:38.510
I think people would do a lot
better to, you know, I, I get, I

01:07:38.510 --> 01:07:41.930
get the idea behind veganism, the
people who don't want to eat meat.

01:07:42.090 --> 01:07:42.560
Sure.

01:07:42.740 --> 01:07:47.640
I get where they're at, but, um, if
you're going to consume meat, having

01:07:47.720 --> 01:07:49.350
a more intimate connection with.

01:07:49.875 --> 01:07:54.395
The cycle, the life cycle,
it sure makes a difference in

01:07:54.395 --> 01:07:56.045
my life and my family's life.

01:07:56.095 --> 01:08:00.285
I can tell you that much, you
know, like my kids, we, at a young

01:08:00.285 --> 01:08:02.695
age, brought them up friends farm.

01:08:03.425 --> 01:08:06.085
They were there for everything
except for shooting the thing in

01:08:06.085 --> 01:08:10.145
the head, the Berkshire pig, drag
it around the corner through the

01:08:10.145 --> 01:08:14.760
snow, hang the thing up, butchering
it, um, They're there for all of it.

01:08:14.790 --> 01:08:20.130
And I think like appreciation that this
animal was alive and now it's dead and

01:08:20.140 --> 01:08:24.300
you were a part of that process makes
them appreciate their own life better.

01:08:24.460 --> 01:08:28.600
It makes them appreciate, I'm not going
to waste this food that's on here.

01:08:28.600 --> 01:08:34.360
And yeah, I know it's not for everybody,
but I think that, uh, people should

01:08:35.200 --> 01:08:36.870
at least experience a portion of that.

01:08:39.005 --> 01:08:39.235
Matthew Griffin: Yeah.

01:08:39.715 --> 01:08:44.985
I mean, I think I just, I honestly
think it's more ecologically friendly.

01:08:45.205 --> 01:08:48.475
You know, the math never pays
out kids like guys, you can lie

01:08:48.475 --> 01:08:50.735
to your wife and say, Hey, no,
I'm going to shoot this moose.

01:08:50.765 --> 01:08:52.225
It's going to generate X amount of weight.

01:08:52.985 --> 01:08:53.305
Right.

01:08:53.345 --> 01:08:56.845
And if you go to the store and try to
buy this, it's, it's, it's a 4, 000

01:08:56.845 --> 01:08:59.995
worth of meat versus if I go hunting
and the trip's only two grand, like you

01:08:59.995 --> 01:09:02.385
never, the math never works out guys.

01:09:02.415 --> 01:09:05.275
Like I understand this lie, go for it.

01:09:05.275 --> 01:09:06.615
Like it's a little light one.

01:09:06.615 --> 01:09:10.940
I want you guys to be out there in the
woods, but, uh, It never works out, but

01:09:10.940 --> 01:09:16.150
you know, we, when we take our animals
here, you know, we use everything, right?

01:09:16.160 --> 01:09:18.010
The, the heads get saved.

01:09:18.020 --> 01:09:21.330
They get turned into art, you know,
all the neck meat and all the off cuts

01:09:21.330 --> 01:09:25.500
of meat gets turned into dog food,
all the steaks and everything else.

01:09:25.500 --> 01:09:28.190
They get to go into the human consumption.

01:09:28.190 --> 01:09:32.200
All the silver skin goes into a broth for
the dog to go over the top of their food

01:09:32.210 --> 01:09:33.870
and grind up the organs for the dogs.

01:09:33.870 --> 01:09:35.010
Like we try to use.

01:09:35.970 --> 01:09:37.930
As much of the animal as possible.

01:09:37.990 --> 01:09:41.130
And you know, you're not getting
that in with store bought stuff.

01:09:41.170 --> 01:09:41.790
Travis Bader: No.

01:09:42.170 --> 01:09:42.700
Matthew Griffin: So I

01:09:42.740 --> 01:09:43.180
Travis Bader: feel better.

01:09:43.900 --> 01:09:45.790
Yeah, no, we've, I've
heard the horror stories.

01:09:45.790 --> 01:09:48.550
We've had some professional butchers
on the show here before talking

01:09:48.550 --> 01:09:50.910
about, uh, some of the horror stories.

01:09:51.630 --> 01:09:55.700
Um, yeah, being a part of the,
the process and, uh, actually.

01:09:56.960 --> 01:09:59.080
You know, like you're saying,
you're doing all your own butchery.

01:09:59.270 --> 01:10:03.840
I think that's another piece of the puzzle
that people should, uh, should experience.

01:10:03.850 --> 01:10:07.530
You don't just go out and harvest
an animal, shoot your animal,

01:10:07.530 --> 01:10:10.120
and then drop it off at the
butcher and come pick it up later.

01:10:10.540 --> 01:10:13.000
The butchery process is
a big part of that too.

01:10:15.130 --> 01:10:16.600
Matthew Griffin: I'm going
to say there is nothing wrong

01:10:16.900 --> 01:10:17.470
Travis Bader: with dropping it.

01:10:17.550 --> 01:10:20.464
Matthew Griffin: If that still
gets you outside and it, it, it.

01:10:20.625 --> 01:10:22.935
Gets you providing clean,
organic meat to your family.

01:10:22.935 --> 01:10:24.475
I think there's nothing wrong with it.

01:10:25.685 --> 01:10:27.655
I just, I just enjoy the whole process.

01:10:27.965 --> 01:10:30.185
Travis Bader: I'm not going to
begrudge somebody for it, but I do

01:10:30.215 --> 01:10:31.835
think they should experience that.

01:10:32.145 --> 01:10:35.955
And they might find it's not as
difficult as maybe they thought it was.

01:10:36.400 --> 01:10:41.580
And, you know, I'd like, we've,
I've been on group hunts, um, we

01:10:41.580 --> 01:10:44.460
had a moose group hunt and they
wanted to bring it to a butcher.

01:10:44.460 --> 01:10:45.080
Fair enough.

01:10:45.090 --> 01:10:49.430
And we had the backstraps and around
the campfire, and then we'd go to the

01:10:49.440 --> 01:10:50.850
butcher and pick up all our stuff.

01:10:50.850 --> 01:10:52.100
We've got our backstraps again.

01:10:52.140 --> 01:10:53.760
I'm like, how'd that work out?

01:10:54.220 --> 01:10:55.680
It's gotta be somebody else's.

01:10:56.110 --> 01:11:02.670
So there's, uh, more control over what
you have and it's a good experience.

01:11:02.670 --> 01:11:05.540
I'm not saying everyone's got to do
it, but it's, if you haven't done

01:11:05.540 --> 01:11:06.770
it, it's a good thing to experience.

01:11:09.445 --> 01:11:09.795
Matthew Griffin: Agreed.

01:11:10.315 --> 01:11:10.535
Yeah.

01:11:10.895 --> 01:11:12.515
And again, this just goes back to YouTube.

01:11:12.515 --> 01:11:15.045
I remember there was this
English guy talking about like

01:11:15.065 --> 01:11:17.185
a gourmet butchering a deer.

01:11:18.165 --> 01:11:22.095
And he had this 30 minute tutorial
about him taking apart a whole deer

01:11:22.095 --> 01:11:24.375
and explaining what the cuts look like.

01:11:24.375 --> 01:11:26.475
And, um, I have that video saved.

01:11:26.475 --> 01:11:28.535
And if I ever have a question,
I want to make a neat cut.

01:11:28.605 --> 01:11:31.455
I just literally got the phone
or the laptop up in the kitchen.

01:11:32.655 --> 01:11:34.365
You know, play that section, right?

01:11:34.365 --> 01:11:35.155
This is how I do it.

01:11:35.185 --> 01:11:38.915
And you ended up coming up with
professional looking stuff and your

01:11:38.915 --> 01:11:41.955
first couple of animals are going to
look like garbage, your fillets and

01:11:41.955 --> 01:11:43.365
your cuts are not going to look good.

01:11:43.395 --> 01:11:44.255
So just get used to it.

01:11:44.255 --> 01:11:45.638
It just forces you to go out and

01:11:45.638 --> 01:11:45.964
Travis Bader: do it.

01:11:45.965 --> 01:11:50.205
I was a little bit lucky as far as
my wife's a red seal chef and has

01:11:50.205 --> 01:11:51.705
done professional butchery courses.

01:11:51.705 --> 01:11:54.035
So she's better at it than I am.

01:11:54.175 --> 01:11:55.855
I always lean on her for that one.

01:11:56.155 --> 01:12:00.685
But the one thing I did learn on
the hunt over in Molokai He would

01:12:00.695 --> 01:12:04.495
dress the deer out, the axes,
deer, uh, the gutless method.

01:12:05.275 --> 01:12:06.975
And I thought, okay,
that's kind of interesting.

01:12:07.015 --> 01:12:11.405
And, um, uh, so he went through
here, the thing dressed out in no

01:12:11.405 --> 01:12:16.165
time flat, obviously he's done a
lot of them and, uh, there is like

01:12:16.185 --> 01:12:19.355
very minimal wastage on the animal.

01:12:19.355 --> 01:12:21.185
So that was kind of an
interesting way to do it.

01:12:21.275 --> 01:12:23.015
I thought that was a good learning point.

01:12:24.785 --> 01:12:26.925
Matthew Griffin: I still haven't
figured out how to get the tenderloins

01:12:27.005 --> 01:12:30.315
out with the gutless method, which
rib I got to go through and how I got

01:12:30.315 --> 01:12:33.145
to get that thing separated out and
going from the I filmed them doing

01:12:33.145 --> 01:12:33.265
Travis Bader: it.

01:12:33.665 --> 01:12:35.554
Um, I

01:12:35.555 --> 01:12:39.185
Matthew Griffin: haven't, I haven't
figured that out yet, but, uh, no,

01:12:39.185 --> 01:12:40.885
it's, it's a, it's a great method.

01:12:40.885 --> 01:12:42.345
I generally will do that.

01:12:42.395 --> 01:12:46.365
I will at least save the gut pile for
last, you know, so I'll take all the

01:12:46.365 --> 01:12:50.005
quarters, backstraps, all the brisket
and I'll take everything off the animal.

01:12:50.015 --> 01:12:51.945
So I'll have the carcass
there and just less it.

01:12:52.005 --> 01:12:57.505
And then I'll, you know, quick, get
the, you know, open up the cavity.

01:12:58.205 --> 01:13:01.065
you know, grab the esophagus, pull
everything down, like pull it out

01:13:01.065 --> 01:13:02.595
the back, go get the tenderloin.

01:13:02.625 --> 01:13:04.715
So at least I've got the, like
the intestines and all the parts

01:13:04.715 --> 01:13:05.515
that we're not using up there.

01:13:05.555 --> 01:13:07.365
They're just connected in one thing.

01:13:07.365 --> 01:13:10.895
So it's some animals not going to
drag off the bones and the intestines.

01:13:10.905 --> 01:13:14.520
So you're not going to make a mess
if you're Near anywhere residential,

01:13:15.020 --> 01:13:17.590
Travis Bader: you know, that was the
other thing I saw the animals, how

01:13:17.680 --> 01:13:22.810
quickly they, um, break down over in
your heat over in Hawaii wheat, there's

01:13:22.810 --> 01:13:25.470
a, um, a deer that was hit by a vehicle.

01:13:25.470 --> 01:13:29.020
And I'm sure there's tons of them on
Molokai that would get hit by vehicles,

01:13:29.020 --> 01:13:33.740
but scroll by one day, there's,
there's one on the side of the road.

01:13:33.750 --> 01:13:34.240
It was hit.

01:13:34.250 --> 01:13:37.450
And I think by day two or three, you'd
barely know there's anything there.

01:13:37.450 --> 01:13:40.520
I mean, the, the heat and the bugs
and everything, it was just gone.

01:13:41.420 --> 01:13:41.700
Matthew Griffin: Oh, it's.

01:13:41.700 --> 01:13:41.910
Yeah.

01:13:42.140 --> 01:13:46.350
It's, it's primarily the pigs,
the pigs will eat everything.

01:13:46.350 --> 01:13:53.380
We, we, we, we shot a, a cow, uh,
about two weeks ago and we were,

01:13:53.460 --> 01:13:55.770
you know, just being really quiet
and we were butchering everything.

01:13:55.770 --> 01:13:59.460
And all of a sudden this 70 pound
hog, you know, she was downwind of

01:13:59.460 --> 01:14:01.860
us, like walks up, smells, thinks
she's going to go get dinner.

01:14:01.860 --> 01:14:04.781
And then she ended up being dinner for

01:14:04.781 --> 01:14:05.488
Travis Bader: us.

01:14:05.488 --> 01:14:06.195
Matthew Griffin: So

01:14:06.195 --> 01:14:07.609
Travis Bader: good dinner.

01:14:07.890 --> 01:14:10.370
So is there anything that
we haven't talked about that

01:14:10.370 --> 01:14:11.200
we should be talking about?

01:14:16.375 --> 01:14:18.835
Matthew Griffin: See here, we talk
about Afghanistan, the story, just to

01:14:18.835 --> 01:14:22.585
reiterate guys, like we make stuff cool
shit in dangerous places We do that with

01:14:22.605 --> 01:14:26.855
the intention of representing America,
Americans, the Western culture well In

01:14:26.855 --> 01:14:31.645
areas in which we typically haven't,
or we put people to work, put food on

01:14:31.645 --> 01:14:34.935
tables, we create a great product and
we haven't talked about our lifetime

01:14:34.935 --> 01:14:38.395
warranty, but any product you buy of
ours, if it breaks a manufacturing,

01:14:38.765 --> 01:14:41.365
some manufacturing issue, we replace it.

01:14:41.555 --> 01:14:44.635
Like we, we literally have, you
know, very similar to vortex.

01:14:44.635 --> 01:14:46.885
If you're in the gun industry,
the zero questions asked policy.

01:14:46.885 --> 01:14:49.635
If we did something wrong, we will fix it.

01:14:49.765 --> 01:14:50.335
We promise.

01:14:51.005 --> 01:14:54.145
Um, so we try to add a great
value on our products and.

01:14:55.640 --> 01:14:57.120
You know, we still continue to help.

01:14:57.120 --> 01:15:00.890
We're, you know, I was on a call
this morning talking about, you know,

01:15:01.030 --> 01:15:05.400
educating girls in Afghanistan that
are forbidden from going to school.

01:15:05.420 --> 01:15:08.860
So we get them computers and an
internet connection and they learn at

01:15:08.860 --> 01:15:14.210
home, you know, under the guise of the
current government, we still help, you

01:15:14.210 --> 01:15:15.790
know, organization clear landmines.

01:15:15.830 --> 01:15:20.920
We work with one more way of a non veteran
nonprofit, which helps wounded veterans

01:15:20.920 --> 01:15:22.660
get in the water and surf further.

01:15:23.440 --> 01:15:24.290
That's cool.

01:15:24.740 --> 01:15:27.080
The guys who lost some, some appendages.

01:15:27.225 --> 01:15:30.335
You see, you see all those cool photos
of the guys with the cool prosthetics.

01:15:30.335 --> 01:15:32.845
You don't think about it, but
those prosthetics will punch holes

01:15:32.845 --> 01:15:34.145
on the top of normal surfboards.

01:15:34.285 --> 01:15:34.545
Travis Bader: Yeah.

01:15:34.545 --> 01:15:35.065
Good point.

01:15:35.245 --> 01:15:36.885
Matthew Griffin: So they
have to have Kevlar line.

01:15:37.455 --> 01:15:41.685
They have to have Kevlar Leo fiber across
the top of their boards for a line.

01:15:41.685 --> 01:15:43.265
And we've got a guy who's got a left arm.

01:15:43.315 --> 01:15:47.275
He's a Marine veteran, Jose, and
all he has is a left arm and he's

01:15:47.375 --> 01:15:50.835
flying all over the world, winning
world adaptive surf competitions.

01:15:50.885 --> 01:15:54.055
He's really, and it's a
great community of people.

01:15:54.055 --> 01:15:55.005
Yeah, they're, they're awesome.

01:15:55.005 --> 01:15:56.145
You guys should check
them out one more way.

01:15:56.675 --> 01:15:57.675
Travis Bader: Yeah,
we'll check that one out.

01:15:57.725 --> 01:15:57.895
Yeah.

01:15:59.960 --> 01:16:03.520
Matthew Griffin: Uh, and other than
that, like we're living the life

01:16:03.520 --> 01:16:07.090
here, good flip flops, slippers, as
I say, here in Ireland, getting some

01:16:07.090 --> 01:16:10.690
hunting and fishing done and looking
forward to hosting more folks out here.

01:16:10.890 --> 01:16:14.000
Uh, once you come on out and do
the initial podcast from the blind.

01:16:14.050 --> 01:16:15.600
Travis Bader: Well, we'll
definitely do that one.

01:16:15.640 --> 01:16:19.430
And if people haven't checked out
your ads yet, do yourself a favor.

01:16:19.430 --> 01:16:22.550
Go on social media, check
out combat flip flop ads.

01:16:22.550 --> 01:16:24.060
They're fricking hilarious.

01:16:24.960 --> 01:16:26.040
I do like those ones.

01:16:26.830 --> 01:16:27.300
Griff.

01:16:28.530 --> 01:16:30.560
Matthew Griffin: Yeah, there's,
there's a new one coming out,

01:16:30.560 --> 01:16:33.595
which I am Really excited about.

01:16:33.625 --> 01:16:36.855
And all I will say is slow mo revolver.

01:16:36.855 --> 01:16:40.425
That's, that's, that's,
that's the only two.

01:16:40.425 --> 01:16:43.775
That's the only teaser I'm
giving you slow mo revolver.

01:16:45.505 --> 01:16:48.075
Travis Bader: Do you ever worry about
these things getting pulled or flagged

01:16:48.115 --> 01:16:52.265
by, uh, cause I mean, you'll show
guns and stuff in your, uh, your ads.

01:16:52.265 --> 01:16:54.925
Meta doesn't seem to like that, or
at least the AI doesn't like it.

01:16:55.295 --> 01:16:56.019
Does that ever happen?

01:16:57.000 --> 01:16:59.770
Matthew Griffin: You know, we,
Oh, it happens to us all the time.

01:16:59.770 --> 01:17:02.930
We had to change the name of our AK
47 flip flop, which was our number one

01:17:03.120 --> 01:17:07.250
selling flip flop to the AK because
they thought we were selling guns.

01:17:07.690 --> 01:17:11.200
You know, our, our shoe, our first
shoe that we came out with, we did

01:17:11.200 --> 01:17:13.170
in 2019, we called it the Mark 19.

01:17:14.270 --> 01:17:18.350
And those who familiar with what a mark 19
is it's a 40 millimeter automatic grenade

01:17:18.360 --> 01:17:24.210
launcher and facebook thought we were
selling 40 millimeter automatic grenade

01:17:24.210 --> 01:17:25.670
launchers because it was a mark 19.

01:17:26.200 --> 01:17:27.150
It's so dumb.

01:17:27.250 --> 01:17:31.860
It really is Um, but that being said
like our most recent ones with robert and

01:17:31.860 --> 01:17:36.615
tacticon And a few of those other guys
they've just They've gone really well.

01:17:36.615 --> 01:17:37.485
They've got guns in them.

01:17:37.485 --> 01:17:39.885
And I think the community is
responding, which makes us happy.

01:17:41.125 --> 01:17:43.495
Travis Bader: Griff, thank you
so much for being on the podcast.

01:17:43.495 --> 01:17:45.745
I really enjoyed talking to
you and I'm looking forward

01:17:45.745 --> 01:17:46.705
to chat with you in the blind.

01:17:47.395 --> 01:17:48.430
Matthew Griffin: Travis,
looking forward to it.

01:17:48.430 --> 01:17:48.955
See you, buddy.