Ep. 102 - Green Beret, Chris Lee

Feeling dissatisfied with his life, Christopher Lee left his cushy job with a prestigious hotel to pursue a career as a special forces Green Beret Medical Sergeant.  Now, Chris uses everything he has learned from pushing himself to the extreme to help others achieve success in their lives through his company Top Tier Performance Coaching. 

 

Listen as Chris distils his experiences and hard earned life lessons in Silvercore Podcast 101.

 

 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/coach_chris.lee

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@coach_chris.lee

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-lee-b6190923b/

Email - [e-mail] 

 

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

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

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What is The Silvercore Podcast with Travis Bader?

The Silvercore Podcast explores the mindset and skills that build capable people. Host Travis Bader speaks with hunters, adventurers, soldiers, athletes, craftsmen, and founders about competence, integrity, and the pursuit of mastery, in the wild and in daily life. Hit follow and step into conversations that sharpen your edge.

Kind: captions
Language: en-GB

Travis Bader: I'm Travis Bader,
and this is the Silvercore Podcast.

Silvercore has been providing its
members with the skills and knowledge

necessary to be confident and proficient
in the outdoors for over 20 years, and

we make it easier for people to deepen
their connection to the natural world.

If you enjoy the positive and educational
content we provide, please let others

know by sharing, commenting and
following so that you can join in on

everything that Silvercore stands for.

If you'd like to learn more
about becoming a member of the

Silvercore Club and community,
visit our website at Silvercore.ca

navy Seal turned entrepreneur,
founder of Half Face Blades, war Paw

Wine and Apparel Company, and an.

Ammunition company starring in
Hollywood blockbusters like Logan

and Transformers, and when he isn't
doing all of that, he'll find him in

the back country hunting and fishing.

Welcome to the Silvercore
podcast, Andrew Arrabito.

Great to be here, brother.

I've been looking forward
to this one for a while.

I do research before every single podcast,
and I want to know what's gonna bring

the maximum value to the audience and
to my guest and doing research on you.

I came to the very quick realization
that there is no possible way in a

single podcast that will come close to
conveying the positive and inspirational

lessons that give you learned from
your life experience thus far.

So I'll gonna take my best stab at it.

You got a pretty storied
history so far in life.

Damn excited to see where

Andrew Arrabito: it goes.

Uh, good to be here brother.

Let me know.

Uh, you ask the questions and I'll answer
them and I'll probably go on a few,

uh, sidebars, which I generally do in
podcasts and catch myself and come back.

So,

Travis Bader: well, I was having
a hard time thinking of where

do we even start this thing?

And I finally came down cuz I
wanted, I tried to have things in

somewhat of an organized fashion
because I'm like, you, I'll go on

sidebars all over the place and yeah.

It's kind of hard for people to keep up.

So, uh, I thought I would start
with your tattoo, your recent tattoo

you got in your back, the lion.

Andrew Arrabito: Ah, yeah,
that was a painful one.

It's massive.

Yeah.

And you know, I kept my back open
kind of specifically for getting that

tattoo and I wanted to for a long time.

Mm-hmm.

But, uh, you know how painful they
are and once you start, you kind of

like, oh man, like, why'd I start this?

This is horrible, this pain.

But, uh, I got, uh, the, I'm gonna.

Go back in on the 27th, 28th of this
month and do another, you know, seven

or eight hours, just fine tuning
and making it darker and putting

myself through a little more misery.

Travis Bader: Well, there's some special
significance that you've been very public

about on that tattoo, which is why I'm
figured this is a place to start it,

otherwise I probably wouldn't bring it up.

But, uh, that was, uh, you come from a
family with an artistic background and

that was a, if I'm not mistaken, the.

Derived from a drawing and a
painting that, uh, your father did?

Yeah.

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah.

We've had it in my home for, I mean,
since actually I'm not, you know, when

I was seven, I'm trying to remember if
it was on a house then, or if somebody

else had it and after my father died, it
may have been gifted back to my family.

Mm, I would assume so.

Cause a lot of the early on
paintings he did, you know, he sold

for minor amounts or probably gave
to friends here and there, but,

uh, it probably was gifted back.

So it's Ben Andrew's my home and my mom's
home in Northern California for a long

time and it's a pretty big painting.

It's probably.

You know, close to three feet wide,
you know, and three and a half

to four feet tall in my house.

And it's just a big, big lion's head.

It's a really beautiful painting
and I've always, you know, grew up

looking at it and I wanted to kind
of give that, that honor back and

that owed back and to my father.

Um, and kind of the significance of
what Allian does mean, um, as well.

Travis Bader: Did it take you a while to
find the right artist to draw this one?

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah, I'd been looking
kind of all over and some, you know,

some artists were just good at different
things and I had, uh, chosen a few

different artists and just trying to
line up the timing didn't work and I

was like, eh, generally the artists I
found were in a different state, so it

was about me trying to take the time
to go fly somewhere and get it done.

And I was really wanting to find somebody
here in San Diego so I could just

really put those hours and that time in.

So I found a guy actually
really interesting with him.

He lived in multiple countries.

Um, From Germany to, I don't know, Turkey.

And, and, uh, he was living here.

I contacted him and we lined it up and I
went in and I had to cancel one day and

the lady actually canceled all the days.

And so I was like, disappointed.

And I contacted another guy cause I was
like, oh, you know, I, I had prepped, I

like mentally prepped to have these, you
know, 20 plus hours on my backup pain.

And once he mentally prepped and I got in
there and like ordered burritos went in.

You know, I took, you know, one
of the, the copies of the image to

the guy, and he is like, uh, and
somebody else was in the, in the

tattoo shop, like, no, it's my turn.

I was like, oh, no, dude, it's my turn.

And they're like, oh, oh, we're
sorry we canceled your days.

And I was like, okay, I'm
gonna find someone else.

You don't get to do this.

You know, and, and a piece like
that, you know, guys are really

good artists, really look forward
to doing pieces like that mm-hmm.

For people and really,
um, show expressing.

They're the, they're the artists, right.

Expressing what they can do and, and
showing people what they can do and how

good of, um, a tattooing they can do.

So, uh, I was like, all right.

And I, I had actually ordered like food
for the guy too, like to get dropped

off and I laughed before the food
got there, so he had hit me up, you

know, a few hours later he was like,
there's all this food here, you know?

Um, and I was like, just eat it
and give it away to the guys, and

yeah, I'm gonna find somebody else.

And he.

Oh man.

So he kept hitting me
up and he was like, Hey.

And he moved.

Okay.

He used to Colorado and I was
like, I'll find somebody else.

And he kept hitting me up and he was
like, man, I'd really like to do it.

I'm coming back to town to San Diego
for a month, you know, can, can I do it?

And I was like, yeah, let's do it, man.

Wow.

Met up with him and we did five
hours one day, seven hours the next

day, and then four more days late,
five hour, four more days later.

Five hours,

Travis Bader: man.

And you just got a bit of touch up now?

Left hour.

Yeah.

Andrew Arrabito: It's,
you know, it's all done.

I'm gonna go, I'm, I'm
gonna do more than that.

I'm gonna, I like, I want it really dark
and I want, you know, that shading, so

I'll probably do, you know, I'd like to
do an hour, that'd be really awesome,

but I probably do four or five, six
hours just getting, getting after it.

Travis Bader: So I'm just trying to get a,
uh, a grasp on, What builds a fire within

an in, within an individual to achieve a
fraction of the things that you've been

able to achieve in your life so far.

And I, I think after doing my
research, I have a bit of an idea

of some of the driving factors.

Um, I figured since you've openly talked
about it in the past about, uh, losing

your father and your brothers on a plane
crash when you're, was it seven years old?

Yeah.

And they were heading to Alaska.

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah, they were coming
back, but they had, my dad had gone

up there a few times interviewing, uh,
these, these people that lived in this

little village and why they lived longer.

My dad was really one into the outdoors.

He was an artist, uh, he was a
minister, um, real outdoors family.

We were always, you know,
camping, backpacking.

And my older brothers loved the
outdoors, obviously as well.

And, uh, he want them to just
see how incredible Alaska was.

So on that second or third, fourth
trip, he had taken them up there.

So they, they'd run around the woods
and do some fishing as well as while he

was out there interviewing these people

Travis Bader: as a minister.

I guess it was a faith played a
big part of your, your upbringing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Does it still?

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah, I mean, uh, I
mean, I don't go to church as, as much

as my mom would like me to, but, uh,
I still, uh, I'm still a believer.

Fair enough.

Absolutely.

I think the amount of times I've, you
know, I've been saved overseas or, um, You

know, and buddies been saved and, I don't
know, just all the ups and downs in life.

I think, um, I've got a good base
of, of faith and, and value and

good morals and, uh, good people
and how I want to run my life.

Travis Bader: I find that's a common
thread in people who are high achievers.

They seem to have a strong grounding
and whatever their background of faith

might be, but they, uh, they have some
sort of a guiding light within them

that they can, uh, look towards, I
guess when things get tougher to kind

of keep 'em on this, on a straight and

Andrew Arrabito: narrow on the path.

Well, I mean, yeah, along with,
with that, I know it's like kind of

living for others as well, so you,
you know, you can better yourself

and, and your immediate surroundings.

And that's a big goal is, is,
uh, people that you love and

people, uh, you care about a lot.

You wanna support them and see them
do well and see them prosper and

career development and see them
loved and know they're cared for

and, Um, and not look inward as much.

And obviously in the long
run, that helps you out too.

Travis Bader: Yeah, I find that to be a
bit of a, a life hack, honestly, the more

you're able to be of service to others,
the more you're surrounding yourself

with positive people and the more that
you'll see residual, um, benefits from

that, either directly or indirectly.

Sure.
Absolutely.

So you were a youngster.

You get a book, workout
book on Navy Seals and Yeah.

How old were you when that happened?

Oh
Andrew Arrabito: man.

Probably somewhere between sixth
and seventh grade timeframe.

My mom's cousin, Ethan, uh, I
don't know what drove him to do it.

I don't know why he got that book.

I, I think it was just
interesting to him too.

And, uh, he was like,
oh, Andy would enjoy.

Travis Bader: So I guess seventh
grade were you, uh, you're going

to, uh, Catholic school at the time?

Andrew Arrabito: It wasn't, it was
a Christian, uh, Christian school.

Yeah, it was a Christian, small Christian
private school up in Northern California.

Travis Bader: And was this one that,
uh, you were able to see through

the completion or did you Uh,

Andrew Arrabito: I didn't get kicked
out of element of any elementary

schools, just high schools.

Travis Bader: I'm cur I got kicked out of
a couple high schools myself and a couple

of them were, uh, what Christian Brothers
of Ireland high schools I went to.

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah,
man, those, there was some.

You know, they think some of those
schools were just a bit too strict for me.

I wasn't, you know, I
wasn't ever a bad kid.

Just, you know, sneaking out was a lot
of fun and, uh, BB gun wars, you know,

you're getting a few fist fights here and
there and I guess, uh, they don't like

Travis Bader: that.
Yeah.

I think, uh, first one was because
it wasn't based on what I did, it was

based on the fact that, uh, apparently
I had an us against them mentality

Andrew Arrabito: and,
uh, didn't like authority

Travis Bader: perhaps.

And, uh, I learned how to pick locks when
I was in grade four, and That's awesome.

So when I just looked
at locks as a puzzle.

Right.
And same with, uh, it's challenging.

It is, it's a challenge, right.

And it's, it's not that I
want to do something nefarious

once I'm in there, it's Right.

It's just, it's a puzzle.

Right.

Andrew Arrabito: New block,
Travis Bader: new puzzle.

And, um, same with computers.

I was interested in that and
I learned how to get into the

back end of their, their system.

And anyways, I made a master key to
the school and, um, I and I sold a

couple copies of it to other people who
wanted to be able to get into wherever.

I don't know.

Sure.

I don't think anyone really
did anything nefarious.

Yeah.

And, um, I changed some grades never
for myself, but for other people.

And then, um, was very kind
of you, very kind of me, very

Andrew Arrabito: magnanimous
think a good Samaritan.

Travis Bader: Totally.

I mean, really they should be, I
should be rewarded for such efforts.

That's what I'm thinking.

And, um, well, up until I locked them
out of their own system and they had to

back everything up off of tape drives or,
sorry, take it back off of tape drives and

make up for several months worth of grades
that, uh, they said none of that would've

really mattered if it wasn't for my in.

Like, I, they wanted to know why I sold
the keys to, and I wouldn't tell 'em.

And uh, and so that's even.

Andrew Arrabito: Right.

So, and then you, you show
your, your loyalty very young.

Travis Bader: Well, they said you've
got an US against EM mentality.

And since the brothers lived
upstairs and they felt that their

security was threatened and all
the rest, and anyways, so, uh,

Andrew Arrabito: they've gotten suspended
for not giving up names as, as well.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh

Travis Bader: yeah.

I, um, I was looking at a number of things
that kind of happened in your childhood.

Yeah.

I was, you know, there's a couple of
similarities all up until you go off

into deciding that you want to be
a Navy seal, which is, um, a little

different path in myself and most people.

Uh, what was, what was
sort of driving you there?

Like when I'm looking at the
difficulties and troubles that

you must have been encountering
as a youngster, both with the.

Loss of your family members as well as,
um, perhaps a little bit of oppositional

defiance sort of, uh, mentality that seems
to come out in the research I've done.

I don't know if anybody has
ever accused you of having adhd,

but, uh Oh yeah, absolutely.

When, when you talk about, uh,
the artistic gene in your family,

uh, being able to put pen to
paper and your penmanship looks

like you can barely read it.

Like there's a lot of similarities
in here that, that I can see that

perhaps makes a person very well
suited in a sort of contrary sort

of way to the military environment.

Like why would somebody who's
sort of oppositional defiant a h

d go into a system of very strict,
regimented structure and thrive?

Yeah.

And that, that was sort of an
interesting piece for me on all of this.

Do you have thoughts on

Andrew Arrabito: that?

Um, I mean, I think that the challenge
side of it, obviously there's

that, that you, you have right?

Challenging yourself.

Um, being able to do what special
operations do obviously requires, um, a

lot to get there, which is a challenge.

And then it's also a lot of fun.

Mm-hmm.

So I was like, well, I don't
mind somebody telling me what

to do if it's for a reason.

And once I do that and I accomplish what
they're demanding of me or asking of me

to do, I can hit certain qualification
levels and become better and better,

better at some, at a goal, at a job.

And being, having that end goal, being
a protector, having that end goal

going in and taking out bad dudes.

And the end goal also being with a
really good brotherhood, um, is amazing.

Did you have that?

I knew
Travis Bader: there was an end goal.

Did you have that feeling
of brotherhood grow?

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, yeah.

You know, my, my older brother's
best friend, Steve Hamilton,

really incredible dude.

He became a youth pastor
and he's a pastor now.

Um, he, you know, became
one of my older brothers.

There was another guy, Scott Davis,
who had, um, lived close to us, older

fella, and he loved a rock climb.

And, uh, he was an old sea and diver
in Abilene, diver in Mendocino,

which is a tough, tough dude.

And, um, did tree working and he kind
of looked out for me and I used to

rock climb with him growing up after my
brothers died all over the United States.

And I had a lot of really good.

Uh, older buddies that,
that looked out for me.

Mm.
You know,

Travis Bader: you still climbing,

Andrew Arrabito: you
know, not, not very much.

In a while I climbed a bit when I was
in the SEAL teams and now Joshua Tree

and it helped start a, another league
climbing school on the west coast

here for guys that just with the right
gear one, um, doing rock type stuff.

And a lot of it was urban climbing
and oil platform takeover climbing.

Travis Bader: If you didn't decide
to go the the military route, you

didn't decide to go into seals.

Uh, what do you think?

Where was your life
trajectory prior to that?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, I probably wouldn't
have, uh, I grew up skateboarding, BMXing.

I probably would've continued
down the route of skateboarding

and tried to go pro.

Yeah.

At some point.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, I think that
probably would've been, I was good.

Good at skateboarding.

Travis Bader: It's kind of neat that
whatever it is that you're looking at,

you're looking at pro level anyways.

Like that's in your sights for
a lot of people that never even

crosses their mind as being

Andrew Arrabito: something that it's
gotta be, you know, you're gonna

be good at something, you gotta
be better at it than other people.

And, and why not?

Like, be the best at something,

Travis Bader: you know, I was in Army
Cadets as a youngster and you know,

ADHD goofing around, you'd spend your
whole summers off at a, uh, at a, um,

an old base doing kid Army Cade stuff.

And I remember a, uh, a captain
came up to me once and he says, look

at, you're, you're coming up here.

You're spending, you get off
school, you spend two months up

here and then you go back to school.

You basically don't have a, have a break.

Why would you come up here to goof
around and not to your best or something?

Right?

And you know, everyone says, do
your best, take it seriously.

Right?

Andrew Arrabito: But if you're
forced to, that's a little different

Travis Bader: story, you know?

Right.
And I'm like, okay, good point.

He said, so wouldn't it suck if you
went, threw this whole thing and fail.

And then you just wasted
your entire summer.

I'm like, yeah, it totally suck.

So if you're not gonna
fail, why not be the best?

I thought, huh?

I don't wanna get as much

Andrew Arrabito: out of it as possible.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

And for whatever reason that clicked
with me, despite it being the same thing

that everyone tends to say, um, what was,
what was seal tr uh, I mean, everyone

talks about selection, even though that's
just like the very first part of things.

I, I've heard you refer
to that as enjoyable.

Andrew Arrabito: I mean, it's, it's
like misery loves company, right?

So you meet such incredible, uh,
guys going through the same training

and you build these friendships
and it's like, I'm not gonna quit.

You're gonna quit.

And it's like competition,
you know what I mean?

And yeah, not is it competition when
you're both just so miserable and you're

just like, like, I'm not quitting.

You're not quit.

Like, all right dude, let's, let's roll.

You know what I mean?

It's, it's, it's rad.

It's a lot of fun training.

Travis Bader: What's the attrition
lake on attrition rate on that?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, you
know, it varies per class and

depends kind of a little bit.

Summer, winter class, winter classes, they
use the cold more just crushes people.

And during the summer class
they, you know, physical

beat downs is, is a bit more.

And, um, you know, there's
a class recently and it also

depends the time of war.

And if there's a lot going on,
they really need team guys.

The classes are a lot
bigger, so you have, mm-hmm.

I think our class started, um, the class 2
46 and started like a hundred eighty five,

a hundred eighty six, and there's like 22
original guys that graduate that class.

Wow.

And, uh, there's some, there's a
recent class, I'm not sure how many

guys started, but thinking there
was like eight guys after hell week.

Wow.

So not that, you know, they could have
been a little smaller class, could have

just, you know, some of the instructors
just a little bit more mean or miserable

or, you know, it's hard to tell.

Maybe they just didn't get the
quality of guys that, my belief

also is the last 10 years, the
quality of guys coming through is.

Yeah.
You know, um, or tourists especially.

Yeah.

Guys who, it became such a cool guy
job with every movie and every book

that every kid wanted to go do it.

And, and that's a great thing
for, um, you know, the purpose of

getting more people to training.

But with that, they got, you
know, they had to get more, I

wouldn't say streamlined, but,
um, more structured at training.

And so it was like, there was somebody
who wrote a book like How to Beat

Buds and stupid stuff like that.

And they explained like on Fridays,
they can only beat you till, you know,

6:00 PM and they have to do paperwork if
they, the class screws up more and they

wanna beat you in the surfer longer.

And so with this information, it's
hard to break someone's, uh, break

someone's mind to the point where
one, their only option is not to quit.

If you already know that in three
hours, they can't, they can't do

anything more after three hours.

Like you just hold.

You know, instead of getting to the
point where it's like, I'm just not

gonna quit, um, they just hold out
for those three hours, you know?

So I think the quality of
guys went down for a while.

Now that there's not a lot going
on, operational tempo is down.

Um, well, I think the more recent couple
years there probably is a, a push to get

more guys, uh, with what the future holds.

But there was a timeframe where it was,
um, you know, a bit of a timeframe where

they were like, Hey, you know, guys
aren't going a lot, a ton of missions.

We don't need a ton of seals.

So they were willing to kind of not push
classes, maybe not push classes as hard.

So more guys went through and
then now it's like, Hey, you know,

let, we can push really hard and
only the best guys get through.

Maybe.

I think there's something to do in
there, you know, it's not strict

like that, like I said, but.

Travis Bader: I'm wondering about
the mindset when you went in, did you

know that you're gonna come out, like
in the gut, you're just like, yeah,

there, there's no way I'm failing.

And were you able to look around
and identify other people?

You're like, yeah, that,
that person's not making it.

I can tell.

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, a few.

Not everybody, you know, there's
definitely a few guys that, uh, you meet.

They, they're just, they're there for the
right reasons and they joined for reasons.

Like, I didn't know any Navy Seals
before, you know, I've watched one

or two, you know, you know, I've read
some old books and stuff like that.

But, um, you know, I, I didn't look at it
like, like a pass or fail kind of thing.

I looked at it like, it was just training.

Like you ha you had to do it to
become here, you know, to get here,

you had to go through all this stuff.

You had to do it.

It was told you had to put out,
you had, you just had to do it.

And that's kind of a mentality.

I know a lot of the guys had.

It wasn't like a quitting.

I don't know.

I, it's kind of, people say
quitting wasn't an option,

but that's really what it was.

It was, you just gotta do it.

And luckily, you know, in high school
I ran all the time and I, you know,

was in cold water all the time and
was very outdoorsman all the time.

And I was lean, you know, and, um, strong.

And I think, you know, if you go
into training more physically fit,

your body doesn't break down as
faster and your body heals faster.

Right.

So in training a lot of it is just,
they break you down so physically

that all you have left is your mental.

And I think you can, if you have
both, it's gonna be easier on you.

Mm-hmm.

Easier on your body, you know what I mean?

So if guys are recovering and
you don't have time to recover,

your body just breaks down.

And then one, you're either failing,
uh, time stuff and that paperwork can

stack up and then you just get the boot.

Yeah.

You know, or your body
breaks down and you have an.

Then they get the boot or get rolled.

So going into it really physically fit
with the right, obviously mental mentality

you have just that, that much better.

A lot of guys younger, you know, the
younger guys in classes quit more.

And then one I, my belief is they
haven't had as much life experience of

ups and downs that they've been through.

They have been a bit crushing whether,
you know, physically or just emotional,

you know, putting out and pushing
through lack of sleep, whether it's,

you know, getting through stuff in
college or just family stuff or whatever.

So in general, younger guys end up
quitting more because at that moment

of time it's just they're in anguish.

They're physically and mentally, you
know, just so beat down that they

just make that, you know, that that
kind of irrational decision to quit.

And then there's obviously after
that, so bummed didn't wanna come

back in two years or whatever.

Yeah.

Um, you know, a lot of guys are
like, well, it just wasn't for.

Okay, fair enough.

You know, I, I quit a, i, you know,
after I quit, after hell week, or, you

know, the, the excuse, there's a reason
you, the excuses you hear are like,

well, you know, they didn't realize
that, you know, my legs were too, the

stretch rashes were just too much.

Like, if you have stretch
fractures, they'll pull you out.

They check you, and if they're,
they're bad, you get rolled.

If you're a good dude, you get rolled.

They heal, go through again.

So, mm, you, I've heard
every excuse in the

Travis Bader: book.

Yeah.

It's funny, the, um, you're,
you're talking about the younger

folk, the pain is so relative.

If you've never felt pain and you
all of a sudden feel some, that's

the worse than they were life.

So
Andrew Arrabito: far.

Yeah.

And then after they quit, they're,
they're, you know, the pain of

telling their dad they quit, or their
family and disappointment, they're

like, Ugh, we gotta live with that.

Yeah.

And there's guys who go to the
point where their legs are, you

know, they have stress fracture in
their femurs, not quitting, and they

can't walk and they get pulled out.

Mm-hmm.

They're, the instructors are
like, that's what we wanna see.

Not these injuries, but this can heal
like your non equipt mentality that

you're gonna accomplish it and be a
part of the team is what we wanna see.

Totally.

I

Travis Bader: remember reading the,
I, I forget what it was in, it was.

Popular mechanics or something like this.

It, it was a weird place for it to be in.

But I think they're talking
about, um, the psychology of

individuals during World War ii.

And they would have these old guys
out there and with the young guys

and in situations, let's say they're
out at sea and they're without food

and water for a bit of time, and
they figured, you know, logically

the young guys are gonna do better.

They're younger, they're
healthier, they're stronger.

But by and large, in all of
these, uh, arduous situations, the

old guys were, were prevailing.

And these are people who'd already
seen a war before and sure, maybe

their last divorce was worse than
what they're going through right now.

Right.
Through

Andrew Arrabito: a lot of stress,
you know, mental stress and

physical stress and just outlast,

Travis Bader: there's a saying,
everyone's heard it, that which

doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

Well, all of that stress, I mean,
some people will say, well, except

for radiation poisoning, right?

Andrew Arrabito: I mean, there's
some exceptions there, but Right.

Overall,

Travis Bader: Finding a way to
frame that stress in a positive

fashion, I think is interesting.

What would you do in order to be able to
operate through these stressful situations

and then come back in, in a healthy way?

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, like training
stuff or now, you know what I mean?

What's, uh,

Travis Bader: you know, do you employ,
there's different, a different structure.

Andrew Arrabito: I don't, yeah, I
think now, well, let's go back to then,

you know, through those tough times.

Then let's, let's say training.

Um, and then let's encompass
that into the SEAL teams and your

training in the SEAL teams as well.

Then you have, you have
an end goal, right?

You have an end goal and a lot of that.

You know, it's such a team oriented
thing, and they make sure that they

make sure there's individually based
tests and then there's team oriented

tests, and they want the mentality
of you versus them in training too.

So you build that camaraderie with
your buddies and work with them to

like, not undermine the instructors.

But there's little things like, you
know, we have like a 10 mile run

and they were like, Hey, you can't
put, um, you can't put, you know,

padding on your, on your ruck sacks.

So the guys we like cut, um, cut some
old wet suits up and taped them on

our bodies, you know what I mean?

So at the end, end of the run, we're
doing pushups and they're like,

everybody take their shirts up and
they take, and there's like five or

six of us in the class, you know, and
they're like, they lose their minds.

They make us get wet.

They call us back and they realized,
they never said, you're not allowed

to put patting on your bodies.

That's right.

So they took us aside and they were
like, you guys, you, you got us.

Okay, you're good.

You guys can go.

You know what I mean?

So I love that thinking.

And they like, they like that, think
outta the box, think a different way.

You know, they, they appreciate that those
instructors think about how if I was an

instructor going back and teaching those,
I'd be like, oh, you got one up on it.

You know, that's really cool.

And they like that.

So then, you know, back then it's
really about your, your buddy

next to you and your teammate.

And if you quit, what if they're
gonna be put in such a stressful

situation that they can't handle it?

Possibly.

And what if your mentality flows over
to theirs and you know, for a fact that

their mentality is flowing over to you?

You know, obviously you're
stronger as a team, um, and

you want your buddy to succeed.

Wow.

You know?

Travis Bader: Yeah.

Yeah.
That's a very strong way of looking at it.

As much they, as much as they try and
build you up as a team and break you

down as an individual, the more you
just lean into that team mentality.

Yeah.
And you're part

Andrew Arrabito: of it.

You, you, you know, you don't
realize how big an impact you know,

you have on your buddies then.

Right, and I've thought about it
now, and that really comes into

now as well and how much of an
impact you have on your friends.

And I don't realize a lot of
people don't realize the impact

you have on other individuals.

Um, and I've, I've come to a few points
in my, in my life where I kind of just,

you know, saw, um, the impact that such
incredible impact that not only like

growing up, you know, my buddies growing
up, looking out for me before I was in,

my buddies that were in that are out now.

Um, guys like Dan Luna, uh, guys,
seal team buddies, Ryan Bates.

Um, thinking about my mom, thinking about
some of my very close friends that have

been in, you know, such an impact in me
that I wouldn't be the guy I am today.

I wouldn't be the man I am today.

I wouldn't have, I would've given
up before, maybe not worked as

hard or something could have
possibly a different path.

And I, I've, you know, come to some,
some pretty huge points in my life

where I just like, It really blew my
mind, the level of love that I've been

given, the level of faith that people
have given and put on me faith in me.

Mm-hmm.

Um, that I'm like, uh, I've just gotta
be so blessed and I, I should always

try to recognize it and give that back
and hope and like, hope that I can be

the level in which I've, you know, feel
blessed by the people I love that I

could, I, I want to spend the rest of my
life trying to show them that I can be

that for them too, and hopefully I can.

Travis Bader: I think that's
a really key concept too.

Victor Frank called the Father Modern
Logo Therapy, wrote a book, man's Search

for Easy Man's Search for Meaning, and he
says, uh, there is meaning in suffering

and there's ways to find meaning in
suffering, which people look at, look

at how terrible things are for me.

Uh, there is no reason for all of
this suffering, but your ability,

your ability to identify that.

And I think, uh, one of the, uh,
research things I looked at, it

says, uh, it was you, you said,
if, if you can use adversity

correctly, you can do great things.

And that kind of struck with me
is basically the exact same thing

that Victor Frankls saying, sing,
find a way to use that adversity.

How do you use adversity correctly?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, well my, you
know, one of my, one of my beliefs

is, uh, you know, bad things happen
to good and bad people alike, and

sometimes there's no good reason.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and a lot of
people search for a reason.

Not that you can't, like we're talking
about take adversity and, you know,

whether it gives you drive or just you're
like, Hey, that's really disappointing.

That really sucks.

That's really heartbreaking.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I don't need a reason, you
know, I don't have to understand

that bad things happen to good
people and bad people alike.

But, uh, there can always be a
lesson to teach yourself out of it.

You know,

Travis Bader: so you got, what
was the most difficult part

of your, uh, your seal career?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, I mean, losing
buddies has gotta be the most difficult,

you know, uh, physical difficult.

I mean, you can always, you know,
work out, you know, work out more,

be stronger, um, study harder.

You can always do those things,
but sometimes you, obviously

you would save your friends if
you could, and you, you cannot.

Mm-hmm.

It's one of those, those things
in life where you can't bring

people back from the dead.

You can be the best absolute, you could
be the most stellar operator in the world,

and you're still gonna lose close friends.

That's, that's what war does.

There's, you just can't
save everybody, obviously.

Um, the most, you know, it's
gotta be the most rewarding.

Rewarding job in the world and all the,
and also the most heartbreaking, you

know, and that's the value of the value
of extremes, I guess, and the value of

love and the value of friendship and the
value of growth and the value of meaning.

You know, you live a, a gray life
that you don't have a lot of extremes.

I mean, what do you compare?

How do you compare that?

You know, how do you
compare that level of love?

How do you compare that
level of hard work?

You know, if you've been surrounded by
people who don't work super hard and,

and, uh, then you go to the next job
and they're like, and you, or, but they

think they work hard and you go to the
next job and these people are like,

you're, you know, this guy doesn't work
hard and you think you do well, maybe

that whole group you're surrounded, were
yourself with just doesn't work hard.

And there's, and this
next group really does.

And I've had some of these
not quite arguments with guys.

I'm like, guys, like, you know,
I've worked hard my whole life.

Like, I'm, I Well, you haven't
worked, you haven't worked

with the guys I know, right?

You know, there's another
level of hard Yeah.

You know,

Travis Bader: that's, I think
it was Elon and, uh, whoever

the, the new CEO of Apple is.

There was an article I read a
while ago, and they're talking

about individuals who come into a
high performing, uh, environment.

They hire a new person in, they come
from a low performing environment.

They're now in a high performing
environment, and how quickly

that person will adapt to the
culture of high performance.

And likewise, that high performing
individual who prides himself on their

high performance when put into a low
performing environment in workplace,

how that person will just fit in with a
low performing crowd unless they leave.

If they, if they get on
their Well, I mean, or you

Andrew Arrabito: have.
Yeah.

I mean, have you ever heard of guys that,
you know, a new guy comes into work and

he crushes it and the other guys are mad?

You know, that's a union thing they're
making, they're making us look bad.

That guy's making us look bad.

Right.

Oh man.

Step your game up or something.

Right.
You know?

Cause some people just have, some people
aren't there just for the nine to five.

Some people really love their
job, some people are good at it,

some people have natural ability.

Mm-hmm.

You know, versus just, just,
you know, some have this, some

people just have a talent for it.

Whether it's a physical attribute
or a mental attribute growing up.

Cause we all grew up different
and I've heard it many times.

Oh, that guy's making us look bad.

Well, well you better up your game.

You know, that guy got a raise in three
months and I didn't get one for eight.

Well, I mean, try to sit there and
recognize what they're doing different.

You know, like maybe they
just want to perform.

Maybe they're being held
back by everybody else.

Um, I, I, it's a good thing to
emulate those people, obviously.

Maybe it's just the sad sacks
that don't wanna work harder.

Um, not that, listen,
people get overlooked.

There's, there's people who
work hard, they get a little

overlooked here and there.

Whether it comes to financial gain, uh,
maybe there's not a position somebody

can hop in a leadership position or a
responsibility position in a business.

Hmm.
Um, that they deserve.

Just that position doesn't exist yet.

Um, there are people
that can perform better.

Finding those individuals and putting
'em in the right positions where

they are challenged so they can
keep going up is, is really ideal.

Some people don't want, you know,
they, they want what somebody else

has, but they didn't, they don't wanna
put the time and effort in to get it.

Travis Bader: That that
is very often the case.

People will look at the whole
grass is greener on the other side.

Right.
Well, look at what you.

How do I get there, man?

This is a lot of work.

How do I just emulate you?

Steal from you cheeks.

How can I be better?

How can I shortcut it?

Quite often you see those people who
don't want to put that work in Right.

To try and shortcut

Andrew Arrabito: it over and, and even
if you get overlooked, you know, like,

like I was saying, like sometimes you
put the effort in and it doesn't happen.

Hmm.

It doesn't mean you say, you
know, you throw your arms up.

It doesn't mean you give up on
working that, doing that extra,

you know, going that extra mile.

Like what, where's the
self pride in your own?

That's it.

Your own, your own growth.

Where's the self pride in
your own career development?

Where's the self pride in your own
mental capacity and drive and honor or

Travis Bader: integrity?

So I, I remember as an 18 year old,
uh, got a union job, was working for an

armored car company and it was one of,
at the time, one of the, one of, if not

the youngest individuals hired by an
armored car company up here in Canada.

Now how much they pay the armor car
workers, uh, If they didn't have young

people coming into the game, they
wouldn't have people working for 'em.

And it was a really weird mindset
because I would hustle and I look at

this, I'm like, well, Jesus, if I put
an eight hour shift in, but I finish it

in four, then I go to the beach right
then, then I'm out doing something

else, and I get the same, same pay.

And they would say, oh, slow down.

This eight hour shift can
be turned into 10 hours.

We make overtime.

This is where we make our money.

Right.

I ended up starting other jobs
in the time that I had off.

Uh, so I'd do my four hours and I'd
look for something else I could do.

I started welding.

I started, uh, uh, gunsmith things
and doing, doing other things.

Andrew Arrabito: So, so
good career development.

Your own, your, your, your own personal.

Right.

And you, you are the one who drove your
own personal growth, which is awesome.

You can have individuals greater than you
that just have more life experience, that

have that same drive that push you there.

But not all the individuals have that.

That's where you have guys like
Jocko come in and he, you know, and

he speaks on this all the time, and
he is like, your individual growth.

You're not gonna always have
somebody there cracking the whip.

Mm-hmm.

Showing you how to be better
or saying this is, you know, do

this, that you have to do it.

And it's very easy to become a
little bit slack on it if you don't

have those people driving you.

Mm-hmm.

You know, that's for you.

I mean, that's really, that's excellent.

Travis Bader: Well, you know, one
thing I've always kind of just, and

I, and I haven't figured out the
answer quite yet, but you hear a lot

of people just saying, go out and
crush it, keep driving, keep going.

Right.

You can always work harder and it
doesn't matter how hard you work in one.

The parter you work in one area, the less
attention you're putting to another area.

We all need rest, right?

We all need to recover.

Yeah.

We all need physical and emotional
and spiritual, and we have to

somehow balance these things.

But, uh, the mantra that seems
to be pushed out is you have to

work harder than the next person.

You gotta keep pushing and pushing.

And I don't know if that's
a, a sustainable sort of

Andrew Arrabito: model.

Maybe the work isn't always the best
word to put it, you know, growth,

maybe a better way to put it.

And growth isn't always just physical
labor growth isn't always just, um,

you know, more hours at work either.

You know, growth can be, well
obviously your mental growth and

learning capacity, whether it's, you
know, listening to books on tape or

I guess they're not on tape anymore,
you just download 'em on the phone.

But, um, how old are we?

I'm, I'm getting up there.

Um, you know what I mean?

Um, totally.

No, a lot of that have
relationship growth.

You know, what I, um, um, spiritual
growth, that's all part of that work

harder, I guess work isn't always
the best, maybe term for it, but

Travis Bader: find finding that balance
and always striving for betterment.

Yeah.

Andrew Arrabito: Um, you,
mental health, mental health,

betterment, you know, not just work

Travis Bader: effort.

What do you do for the mental health side?

Because I have a feeling you do
what I do and that's go outside.

Yeah.

Andrew Arrabito: I love it, man.

I, you know, I.

I kind of have a thumb roll.

Don't say no to any good new adventure.

Yeah.

I try to live, live by that and
uh, I've been really blessed.

This business itself.

Growing this has, has been obviously a
blessing with, uh, mental health wise,

as you know, starting this kind of,
you know, for fun, starting the knives.

Like I was gonna make knives for my
seal buddies and that kind of grew and

hired my roommate, hired my other buddy,
my one roommate, you know, was, you

know, parking cars, um, civilian guy.

And I was like, Hey, like, I need help,
you know, and I think he probably took

a pay cut and he just started working
in my backyard and hired my other buddy,

hired my buddy I grew up in since ninth
grade and he's my, my manager now.

And both the other guys
lived with me for 10 years.

They both work here.

I created a little, you know, it was
kind of back in the platoon was awesome.

You're with your good close
buddies all the time, so

getting out that kind of sucks.

So everybody's, you know, everywhere
out in the world with their families

and their businesses and their, their
careers and you miss your buddies

and you try to spend time with them.

But, you know, creating a little shop
here and having your close friends

around you, that is good mental health.

You would run together
and we hike together.

We have, I mean, even now, like I've been
looking for a bigger shop for a while.

I wanna build a little gym in my new shop,
put a skate ramp in the back of it Nice.

So we can skate together
and guys can lift together.

And we have, we have like a whole ton
of guys who like to camp and hike and

kind of create a whole hiking crew.

And we like, okay, let's find in this
new hike this weekend is 20 miles.

Oh, who's in?

You know?

And guys are like, oh, we're in,
we have at five in the morning go

do a big hike, a bunch of the crew.

And it's really created a cool little
environment that's mentally healthy.

Um, for myself even personally.

You know, and outside of that,
this job affords the time and

for me to go hunt and fish.

And I have such an incredible
team, uh, that I spend a lot of

time, you know, in the outdoors.

Travis Bader: I've seen people who come
from a military background and they're

ambitious individuals and they're doing
a similar thing to what you're doing.

And basically they're recreating
their platoon within their business

and they got their buddies coming in.

And quite often it's gonna be in
something that's in an area that they

have an interest in or they know about.

So I often see it in security fields
and I've seen a lot of relationships

go, Aw ride, because they are trying
to recreate what they've found

in the military structure without
having that same military structure.

And one of them tries to assume a
more superior role and maybe someone

gets their knows how to join.

Have you experienced much of that?

Andrew Arrabito: No, I
don't micromanage and.

I kind of, you know, put guys in
in positions where they're capable.

And I do have an expectation
of just working hard.

And, um, I haven't had, I've been blessed
to not have I got outta the military,

you know, a hundred percent through the
va, disabled, you know, from injuries.

And I would've stayed in, you know, had
there been the war kicking off and ISIS

kicked off, I probably would've stayed in.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I kind of, when guys get out of the
military and they go right back into

something outside of that for a little
more money with the same structure,

I'm always like, why not just stay
with the boys with the best group ever?

Mm-hmm.

You know what I mean?

So I didn't, I didn't want, I didn't
want to be in that same structure,

the same environment, you know, the
environment, the awesome part of it

with your buddies all time is great.

I don't wanna be in that same kind of,
I don't know if it's too structured

or, you know, it's not too structured.

I think you just get a lot.

You know, uh, politics
and stuff like that.

So yeah, you don't really have politics in

Travis Bader: my shop.

So you used sustained a few injuries
actually, and that was, you ended

up leaving on a hundred percent
disability, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah.

Andrew Arrabito: My, I was, you
know, supposed to do mad board

and I ended up just doing my e
o s and not doing the mad board.

So I went to try to do the med
board again after I got out and they

were like, no, you're already out.

So I have all my paperwork for my medical
retirement's been in for years, and it's

just, you know, the Navy has to go, like,
VA paperwork has to go back to the Navy

and then they have to look at it and be
like, oh yeah, we should have med boarded.

You, we were going to, but we
didn't for, you know, so it's

just a, it's a long process.

Travis Bader: What were those injuries?

I know you held up your hand there,
but you had more than one, didn't you?

Yeah, I
Andrew Arrabito: mean, I mean, from.

I dunno.

Falling off roofs and breaking my nose and
broken my left leg and you know, my, all

my fingers got smashed in the steel ship
hatch the wind from a blackhawk caught

the door and slammed me and I got my leg
out the door, put my hand on the wall,

pulled my leg outta the door as I was
slamming and caught all my fingers in the

hinge sign, broke all those, and damn,
I broken these fingers on my right hand.

Just, you know, I used to fight
probably a little too much.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

That was something else I
picked up, it looked like.

Uh, and that's where I started tweaking
into the possible O D d, oppositional

defiance, 80 ADHD sort of thing.

Um, that fight's great when
you're a seal, uh, doesn't jive as

well when you're outside, right?

The civilian

Andrew Arrabito: environment.
Yeah.

You get, you get in trouble a
bit more when you're in, in the

teams here and there, you know.

But it really depends, depends
when and how you're fighting.

You're not going out drunk just picking
fights at the bars, you know what I mean?

Generally, if you're out, you know,
somewhere, four or five people, people

really, you know, if they find out, if
you're on trip and they find out you're.

You know, a team guy of some sort, they
end up getting chips on their shoulders

and guys like to test their might.

Yeah, I hear

Travis Bader: ya.
It's funny.

Funny how that works.

Well, you're a tough guy, huh?

Well I bet you if I can, if I can take
you on, that must make me a tough guy.

Andrew Arrabito: You're like, okay buddy.

Travis Bader: See how this goes.

Um, There is something about,
uh, a beehive or bee stings.

What was this one about?

Oh, man,

Andrew Arrabito: I got, I got
blown off this roof in Afghanistan

and, uh, come flying off a
roof, like kind of half with it.

I have my gun in my hand, but I'm kind
of angled out into the compound and I

pretty much, in my mind, I don't know, for
a split second, thinking maybe if I run

with my legs like this and I hit, I can
run it out like a cartoon or something.

It didn't happen.

I just remember hitting and my gun hit and
I just, and pulled my arms down like that.

So my face went forward and I hit
like this little pile of logs and,

you know, cut my face open here, like,
broke my nose again and got knocked

out, but my gear slid up my back.

So my blur back was showing and
there's these bumblebees, there's

just monster bumblebees that live in
the walls over there, and they just

attacked my back too while I was knocked
out and just stung my back a bunch.

So it took a minute and my buddies
were like, all right, well I'm not

getting stung, so I'm just gonna
wait till Beto wakes up, you know?

So pretty soon that I kind of get
nudged and I start getting up and

uh, um, hi Curl and uh, Brad Cameron
was like, Hey dude, you good?

I'm like, yeah, man, I'm good.

Uh, man, something.

I broke my, my back, man.

My back hurts really bad.

He was like, no, man.

You should have seen the amount
of bees on there though, you know?

I was like, oh, okay.

It's just bee sting.

He's like, yeah.

He's like, you're allergic.

I'm like, I don't, I don't think so.

I don't never been stung by these monster
bumble bees in the walls and Afghanistan.

I was like, yeah, I'll be all right.

So, yeah, get a little quick
little cleanup and back at it.

Travis Bader: God, love
your maid chair, huh?

He'll be okay.

I'm not going in there
getting those bees off him.

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah, he was like,
you know, he was like leaning back like

this, like pushing me with his foot.

You good dude?

Like still bees around?

He is like, no.

I was like, you could have just.

But, you know, woke me up normal.

Travis Bader: That's funny.

So you're out and you decide, hey, I
want to, I want to be a businessman.

I want to be an entrepreneur.

He just took a stab at it.

Or if you had a little bit of background.

Um, there's

Andrew Arrabito: another,
another team guy that wanted

start a brewery and distillery.

Uh, and I, he was getting out around
the same time and I was like, cool man.

And interesting enough, before when I
hurt my hand, I was, you know, about nine

months before my end of active service.

And my, I had just had to do all this
physical therapy and stuff, so my master

chief was like, well, you're gonna, you
know, make a lot of your own schedule.

And I was like, man, you know, I
was like, distilling would be cool.

So he, you know, he was like, cool,
you know, you have all this leave

saved up, so you wanna take leave
and start going to distilling school.

So I went to Chicago and, um, I
forgot where else I went to some, you

know, two week distilling courses.

So another guy wanted to do a brewery.

So I was like, all right,
well let's combine forces.

So immediately when I got out, I
went into doing that and, uh, ended

up having some really dishonest.

Uh, business partners there that,
uh, just, you know, really dishonest

people and, uh, eventually just pulled
away from that and spent a long time

in court, uh, with that whole thing.

But was worst doing work?

Worst?
Oh man, it's crazy.

Like, you know, you get, you trust
people so much in the SEAL teams and

you get out and like these people Yep.

Just once they, I don't know.

Travis Bader: And then you're
stuck in the legal battle and

that's a whole different ballpark.

Yes.

You gotta, and that's not a game where
you can just reach out and punch them.

Andrew Arrabito: No, that'd be,
I mean, that, that'd be ideal.

Punching in the least.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, but um, yeah, so dealing with
that and then I've, you know, met some

good people up in LA and I was doing some
military advising and stuff like that.

And while I was doing that, I met a guy,
Garrett Warren, he's a stunt director,

uh, and second unit director as well.

Did Avatar Logan at the first hour time.

I mean, his, his, uh, work up there as a
stunt man, a stunt director, and, and, and

director is like absolutely incredible.

So made really good, good friends
with him, one of my best friends.

So when stuff came up,
I'd go work up there.

It's not something I want to, um, I
didn't wanna live in la I didn't wanna

hustle like that just for a penny.

That you gotta spend 90%
of that penny, you know?

Yeah.

Living in the city.

So that's, but I did enjoy
working with good people up there.

So that's, I was kind of doing
that and then I was like, man, you

know, to get back in the outdoors,
I started kind of hunting again and

getting into that and I was like,
man, like, you know, I know knives.

I made some knives to my older brothers.

I grew up with knives using them, you
know, wilderness survival stuff, and

uh, the knives and the teams and I
was like, man, I should just make some

knives for my buddies that are still
active duty and some of my friends.

And so I just started studying and,
you know, want the best steel nowadays

for what purpose, you know, looking
at grinders, just doing that whole

process and, um, kind of just, you
know, got what I needed and started

doing stuff under the awning in my
backyard and, Um, just grew from there.

What kind of

Travis Bader: grinders are you using?

Just
Andrew Arrabito: personal.

Oh man.

I mean, I have a couple.

My first, my first grinder
was just a Beaumont Kmg.

Yeah.
And I still have it.

It's in back.

They're good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good little grinder.

I, I have two of those
that we do a lot of.

We still hand grind probably
40% of our knives, so, um, wow.

That, and I have a lot of Travis Wetz.

Uh, I

Travis Bader: was gonna ask about them.

Andrew Arrabito: They're pretty good.

Yeah.
I have about six or seven.

They amazing.

Yeah.
And Travis is a good guy, man.

Yeah.

Like, he's like this engineer minded.

He's just a, he's very intelligent guy.

So I have a bunch of those
and I forgot what else.

I have two others.

I forgot what their names are.

Any beaters?

No.
Nope.

Nope.

I beaters They all, they all get,
they all get a lot of work on them.

Yeah.

Travis Bader: I was looking at a debater
only cuz that shares my same last name.

But the Travis works, they've
had some back and forth with

him and I mean, they look good.

I maybe off air.

I'll pick your brain a little bit.

Debaters are good.
Andrew Arrabito: Yeah.

Yeah.

Those, I mean, they're
supposed to be good.

There's a lot of, a lot of
good machines out there.

Travis Bader: So what did you, what
was sort of the biggest takeaway

from the first business venture
that didn't quite go out the way you

wanted, that you've been able to apply
to your future business ventures?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, you know,
one of the biggest things I saw

originally when I, when of the Brewer
distillery, is people just paying

themselves before we are successful.

Mm.
You know what I mean?

And, um, like, what are you doing?

Like money needs to go
back in that business.

There's no, there's no promise
you're gonna be successful.

There's no promise that you're not gonna,
um, you know, you're gonna make the best.

There's no prob.

There's always people better.

There's always people, you know.

It's good to have good ideas
and bounce those ideas off

smarter people and better people.

And then you gotta really enjoy what
you do and you want to learn everything

about it and do really good at it.

You know, you can't just be like,
well, this is the best thing.

It's gonna, it's gonna take off,
it's gonna do good no matter what.

Like, and then, you know, Like I said,
like we're talking about, one of the

biggest things take back was keep
that money in the business, you know?

Mm.

Keep growing it.

Keep just putting that back in,
putting that back in, putting it into

a team, putting into your buddies.

You know, even to this day, uh,
we have a few cool little programs

we do in my shop where we work on
some just really beautiful one-off,

you know, originally, so we take
custom orders obviously, um mm-hmm.

People email and they talk to
Kelsey and they, what do you want?

Blah, blah, blah.

We get into it and they, but we don't, we
used to do these really incredible one-off

pieces for people and then we'd see six
or months later, a year later, two years

later, they'd go for 20, 30,000 bucks.

And I was like, wow, I
sold that for two grand.

You know what I mean?

And that's awesome for them.

I'm really happy for them.

But it kind of came to a point, where're
like, Hey, we need to do these ones

in-house and we need to fair out a
way, whether we auction it or do that

limitation sticker and a giveaway where
that money can come back into the guys,

um, and, and make these guys lives better.

Obviously if somebody, if, you know, we
sold a hundred dollars sticker, you know,

All those stickers are worth more now too.

So not only can you resell that
sticker for a hundred bucks, you

can make 20 bucks off or 40 bucks.

Mm-hmm.
Off or 50 bucks off it.

And the one person who got that
Tom Hawk can make 25,000 off it.

So everybody wins in the end
and that money comes back.

So when we do these one-offs and I
have my main top guys, we say, Hey,

let's do, let's do another project.

Let's work on this.

So those guys will work on
stuff throughout, while we're

working on everything else.

You know, let's say it goes for
25 grand, take 10% of that, and I

pull cash out and, you know, hook
the guys up, they've worked on it.

Cool little thing there.

And then we take 20% for charities
from there, and then the rasco into

account and we pay for bonuses.

Pay half of everybody's
healthcare in the shop with that.

Nice.

Um, you know, a movie comes out, we
went to theater out and everybody

goes and watches a movie together.

Uh, we have money put aside for, you
know, if somebody gets in a little car

wreck and needs help there, a new vehicle.

And we need to help somebody
get a little down payment to

get a better interest rate.

You know, we, I want that going
back to the guys and put value, more

value than just their paycheck into
the business they're working in.

You know,

Travis Bader: that's pretty amazing.

Like you've, you've done a lot to
create a, a strong team culture within

your company, and it seems like, uh,
you have a bit of a guiding light.

And I, I look at people who have
businesses that don't kind of know

what their value proposition is.

They can't say it in a very short
and succinct way, or they don't have

something that, uh, they can use
to measure whether they, like, for

example, if, if your guiding light is
to provide, uh, top quality and this

type of knife or whatever it might
be, anything that doesn't meet that

threshold, you don't even have to look at.

It's easy.

It's out.

You have a very clear kind of path.

What is your sort of north
star with, with half face?

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, honestly providing,
provide, you know, uh, Outside of

the obvious of, of providing, you
know, quality tools, um, to people

and things that, you know, and tools
that are really meaningful, you know,

like using people's ashes and stuff.

But as an overall arching, you
know, company, I wanna provide, uh,

I wanna provide a good life, you
know, for these guys who work here.

I wanna provide a good life for myself.

I wanna provide a good life for
my fans, my friends and my family,

and my mother and my sister, and be
able to be, uh, a huge asset in the

people I love, uh, in their lives.

And I want these guys to be able,
I want these guys to be able to,

you know, career development.

You know, there's, there's not a
lot of positions right now for guys

to step up in, in, in the shop.

They, I still want them.

So even in my shop career development
wise, if guy, you know, somewhere in

the teams I went to, like free running
schools and cool stuff like that.

And it was like, Hey, if this school
is gonna help you be better at your

job in here, I'm like, you know, go
take a class and we'll pay for it.

You know, like you guys, you
know, some of the guys, you

know, wanna learn scuba diving.

So I'm like, all right, cool.

Let's, I'll pay for you
to learn scuba diving.

And that's even outside work.

It's not making better work, but it's,
it's really, uh, personal growth.

Yeah.

You know, and what's it cost, you know,
a thousand bucks to, you know, here's

a thousand dollars bonus, I'm gonna
pay for you to go to scuba diving.

That's if guys wanna do that.

Awesome.

Guys, you know, that's amazing
too, guys to enjoy life.

Yeah.

You know, I don't wanna just,
some, some, you know, it's an,

it's an already an awesome shot.

What more can you do, you know, to
be happy and develop your own, own

self and enjoy life outside of work?

Travis Bader: You know, they
oftentimes it's quoted that

money is the root of all evil.

And I think the correct quote
was, uh, the coves love of

money is the, uh, root of evil.

I
Andrew Arrabito: am an agreement.

I think money can buy
time to an extent, right?

Mm-hmm.

So I have time, you know,
these guys have time.

Um, with that money that we work, uh, we
work and make, goes back in the business.

We have a team.

I am able to, you know,
support my mom a little more.

I'm able to go on these hunting trips.

I'm able to buy some time
with those I love the most.

So I'm not stuck, you know, driving
two and a half hours to work eight

hours, two and a half hours home,
like in LA for that extra buck.

But where's my time in the gym?

Where's my time outside?

Where's my time with my kids?

Where's my time with my family?

You know, stuff like that.

So, How old are your kids?

I'm, I'm saying my kids as
in general, I don't have any.

Okay, okay.

Travis Bader: Cause I didn't
think I was like, oh, no,

Andrew Arrabito: no, no, no, bing.

I'm just, you know, overall
arching of Gotcha, gotcha.

People to look at, you know, time
with those you love has gotta be

the most valuable thing we have.

Travis Bader: I, I see that as the thing
that I, I really respect in people who can

identify that as their number one driver.

Uh, I've always had that as a driver
for myself and in my businesses.

I don't care about the money.

Money will come if you provide a good
quality product and you're providing a

good service and it's desirable by people.

Yep.

I care about the adventure of building
it and the ability to spend my days

and my time in a way that's going
to be enjoyable and Absolutely.

And those people around

Andrew Arrabito: look, put that, you
know, look at, look, we talked about,

um, how you don't quite underst.

Uh, what you do for others and
impression you have on others.

Like just with half face alone,
it's a tool at the end of the

day, for me, it's a tool and we've
built so many cool friendships and

relationships through just knives.

You know what I mean?

Uh, with the Hfv enthusiast group gets
together and they hunt every year and they

bring guys in and help them learn how to
shoot and cut up animals and like, uh, the

fishing and these guys have built outside.

They've just supported half
us have so much gratitude.

That's the other thing you gotta have.

They have so much gratitude and
they're like, look what you've done.

And I'm like, me, look what you guys done.

You've valued this company so much and
put much effort and time and money,

and you've built, you know, you've
built friendships with other people

that you share in common with that love
this brand that support this band too.

And look at what you're doing
for the guys in my shop.

So we have so much g.

It's so cool to see this, this, this
second, you know, this second group of

people that support the brand, becoming
friends and raising money for people

and raising money for foundations.

Wow.

And a guy gets in trouble, they help
him, A guy can't get a knife and they

give him a knife and they buy and sell
and trade and create this, um, you know,

this whole other group of excellence
and friendship and, and just, just

from a, a tool company, how did Half

Travis Bader: Face,

Andrew Arrabito: oh, go on.

Sorry.

No, I was just saying like, I gotta
have so much gratitude for that and

Travis Bader: for that.
Yeah, totally.

How, how did you come up with
the name Half Face Blades?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, well I used to paint
my face half black and a few ops overseas.

Um, and then, uh, you know, speak
softly and carry a big stick and then

see another that's your other half.

Gotcha.

Might not be a big stick, you know,
but a lot of people, when you first

get to know somebody, you know
just a little bit of them and you

get to know their other half and.

You know, not that it's a
bad half or a violent half.

Doesn't have to be that, but you
know, that's what he, the duality.

Travis Bader: Correct.

Yes sir.

The yin, the yang love the big stick one.

Would Dr.

Seuss say, I've heard there's
troubles of more than one kind.

Some come from a head,
some come from behind.

But I've got a big stick.

I'm already, you see now many troubles
are gonna have troubles with me.

I dunno.

That's always gonna so good.

Stuck with me.

So good.

Um, so you just came
back from a fishing trip.

I'm curious about that one.

I came back from hunting my, my first
hunt for access deer in, in the States.

Oh yeah.

And, uh, did a little
bit of spear fishing.

I wanna hear about your spear.

Andrew Arrabito: That was a great trip.

There's a, a company,
kinetic spear fishing.

Uh, a guy is still active duty.

Uh, him and another guy just got
out, moved to, uh, Montana, and they

build really, really cool, really
killer fishing, uh, spear guns.

Mm-hmm.

And, and the guy himself is like a really,
really credible, I mean, you know, if

I'm spear fishing for a while, I get
some good dives in for some good time.

But, uh, I mean, this trip he was
diving, you know, 70, 80 feet.

Yeah.

You know, down.

And I, I think my longest, my
deepest dive was probably 45 or so.

And I did.
That's good.

I did like a 43 for a minute.

My longest one, I did like a 20 foot for
two minutes and nine seconds, you know.

That's good.

But, uh, the bigger an, you know,
the bigger fish are a little deeper.

Um, really incredible trip.

You know, there's another guy.

He retired, another team
guy went on the trip.

Um, there was some random guys that at
Spearfished that the guy Blake knows from

around the country from Texas, another
guy from here, uh, that, the guy from

Northern California as well that flew in.

We met and flew down to
Panama, off of Panama.

There's little islands.

There's, uh, koa, which is a, a
state, well, it's a protected area.

That's, we didn't dive there.

Obviously it's not allowed.

Right.

But you go past that way out
to uh, uh, a little island.

Tiny, tiny little island.

No one lives there whatsoever.

It's, I don't know how many acres,
but you can drive around at,

you know, in about 30 minutes.

Um, sweet.

Such an incredible place.

And, you know, we went out there, they
had a whole, whole crew, three boats,

you know, the, the locals that drove
the boats and the, they, some of those

guys dive and we catch the fish during
the day or dive for lobster and cook 'em

at night and start again the next day.

Wow.

Incredible.

Saw, you know, saw a bunch of sharks.

They were all small ones.

One of the guys was diving and he,
I guess he just kind of felt like

something was looking at him and he
was down at like 30 feet and turning.

There was a 12 foot, uh, hammer
head, and it was kind of following.

And it came, it turned, went by him.

It turned, came straight toward
him, then took off and went away.

And, uh, I was diving over my buddy
and uh, maybe a four and a half at, uh,

white tip was following him and it was
getting a little close, so I went and

poked it on the head and it took off.

And, but I mean, I diving, you know, I
don't dive a whole lot here, but getting

out and diving again, I've done it quite
a bit in the past, which I really loved.

Like diving in Fiji and diving in
Moray a little island off Tahiti.

Uh, man, that it's something I dove
vehicle in Collibra off of Puerto Rico.

Why?
Incredible.

Like I fall in love with it again.

Every time I go, you know, man, but I
am scared of sharks the entire time.

Are you really?

Absolutely.

Travis Bader: Yeah.

Always in the back of the head
looking over your shoulder

every time you go down there.

Andrew Arrabito: Always
like every two seconds

Travis Bader: just watch a clip of
somebody, uh, jumping in the water.

And I think it was a great white
just came out and they're Oh, yeah.

Coming up back of the boat.

Yeah, you saw that one, eh?

Yeah.

Andrew Arrabito: But no thanks.

Yeah,

Travis Bader: no, I, I just turned my
brain off when I'm down there about

the sharks and I just assumed that if
it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen.

It's kinda like

Andrew Arrabito: bears.

I'd assume it's gonna
happen to somebody else.

Travis Bader: And you know what?

With that mindset, whatever it
is, it usually does, doesn't it?

I don't know what it is.

You put that vibe out there.

Andrew Arrabito: Yeah.
I don't know, man.

It's, yeah.

I mean, I'd rather be out, like
I'm more comfortable with a rifle

out in the middle of bear country.

Yeah.

You know, a spear gun.

With an animal that weighs
way more than a bear.

And that's all you got, like mm-hmm.

One shot with a spear gun just pisses
off at least with a good shot with

a big rifle, he is going down with

Travis Bader: a bear.

Yep.
You know what I mean?

You got any hunts lined up this year?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, yeah.

Caribou in the fall with my buddy
Matt DeLuca, lives in Anchorage.

Just incredible outdoors man.

One of my best friends now last two
years, been going up to Alaska with

him and going out and, and, uh,
hunting nine, 10 days out and just way

back Countrying, the Alaskan range.

Really incredible man.

It's Alaska's one of my
favorite places on earth.

Travis Bader: Thinking about the
Alaska one, it kind of brings

us full circle to where we're
talking about at the beginning.

Uh, if I understand correctly, there
was a fellow in a villager that

was having dreams and he was, yeah.

Did you ever find out what those dreams
were about or what, what he was, uh,

Andrew Arrabito: So the guy was, uh,
Mank and um, that's who my dad was

up there interviewing that village.

I don't think he was alive when I
think he had died, probably previous,

before my dad went up there.

But he was having these visions of
just how to live better and healthier.

And that village was living,
you know, 20 years longer.

And that was kind of a
interesting thing up there.

Why, you know, well all these villages,
you know, I'm not sure what the mortality

rate was, or not mortality, but, you know,
old age dying rate, that's mortality rate.

I can't think.

But it was like, um, you know,
50 to sixties and these people

were, you know, 70 to eighties.

I wanna do a little documentary on that,
which was kind of cool, but I haven't

been out there, out in the middle of
nowhere where that little village was.

Hmm.
It's up on the coast somewhere.

You know, one, one of the biggest goals I
have, which I wanted to do it, you know,

last year wasn't able to, uh, this year.

Sorry about that.

Of course.

Okay.
All good.

Um, this year, I'm not sure if I'll have
time, um, but I wanna get the prop off

the airplane that's up in the mountains,
which would be really cool to do.

Still up there, eh?

Yeah, still up there.

I went up there, uh, I go up in June.

There's a really good, uh, it's a five
one three now called Arctic Guardian.

Mm.

This guy James Drayton runs out.

I go up, uh, they invited me up last year
and kind of help set up a Carine course.

So all the guys like law enforcement, fbi,
swat, you know, the Army guys up there.

It's uh, they're all
invited for this one day.

And there's, we set up some sniper stuff,
carbing and Pistol, and it's competition.

And there's a bunch of companies
get involved and give away gear to

winners and everybody involved and
it supports all those guys up there.

So we're, we do that every year.

Wow.
It's called the Arctic, Arctic Guardian.

If guys wanna look it up.

Really cool.

Um, they always need as much support as.

Totally.

So I'm going up there again.

That's in June.

We went last June and we went out
to see if we could see the crash

that it was still covered in snow.

So I think I'm gonna have
to go later in the year.

Try to get that.

Well, I'll get

Travis Bader: some links up of course,
to your business and your company and

social where people can find out more.

And Arctic Guardian, I'm gonna have
to look that up and see what opened.

Some really

Andrew Arrabito: good, really good guys.

Really good people.

And it, it's just a good program.

Travis Bader: I know we kind of jumped
around a little bit here, but is

there anything that we haven't talked
about that we should talk about?

Andrew Arrabito: I don't know, man.

You know, as long as we're having
fun business life business, yeah.

I mean we got, you know, I got the ammo
company with my very close friend, Ryan.

Ryan Bats really good.

Just one of my best friends ever.

Uh, working on that.

Working on a new, with another
guy Bill Cant retired, team guy.

And Johnny Leblanc, another retired
team guy working on a new, um, Kind

of a search engine for ammo as well.

That's kind of, there's a, you know,
there's manufacturers and there's buying

groups, and then there's two middlemen,
and then there's a wholesaler and

retailers, and there's just, people always
want their cut and people at the end

of the day don't get the best pricing.

And so we're working on a
way to get people closer to a

manufacturer and better pricing.

Travis Bader: Oh, that's brilliant.

That's sort of like the, the Shark
Tank guy who did it with, uh, medicine.

Have you heard of that one?

Uh, uh, I, so somebody here, I'm sure will
correct me if I get this totally off base,

but from my understanding, one of the guys
from Shark Tank, uh, has set up a, um,

pharmaceutical supply company where they
have relationships with the manufacturers

and they only charge whatever that
drug is, plus whatever percent.

It's like plus 4%, right?

Whatever It is incredible for
people, massive for the world.

Massive in absolutely

Andrew Arrabito: the buried entry.

And that's how it should be.

That's how it should be like.

You know, not that, you know, there's
whole series and retailers, they gotta

have something, you know, and you gotta
have, there's just been, you know, with

the ammo company we've had just, you
know, from manufacturers, and there's

certain people that only have those
relationships and they keep them.

And they'll come into with six,
seven, 8 million bucks, and then

they'll hold it and they'll release
some, and then they'll really just

control, try to control everything.

And they're, and you have, and then
you have the guys selling, you have

like four people between these to
the, even the retailer that want

their, you know, 2 cents to 5 cents.

And now the retailer is the one
with the brick and mortar, with

the insurance, with the employees.

And now he needs really to make, you
know, you know, 10, 15 cents around.

And, and now he can't charge that
because the, the customer itself,

the guy needing the ammo to shoot
it is like, I can't pay that much.

Right.

You know, so we, we are working on
this, this way that guys get to skip

a few middlemen, greedy middlemen,

Travis Bader: you know, I, I was
hearing you talk about, and it was,

it was an interesting perspective.

If you own your own business, you're
gonna have people with their handout

and people are always gonna be
like, well, what can you do for us?

We've got a charity, we've got this,
we've got whatever it might be.

We've got a special interest group.

And you started to take a little bit
of a different approach, at least

at the beginning of your, of your
business and how you dealt with this.

Can you tell me a bit about that?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, are you talking about
like, wow, like every other day starting

out like foundations just wanted free
stuff, which Listen, I, I'm not blaming

foundations because that's what they do.

They get product auction it and it
raises, you know, for good cause.

But it was like, you know, it did seem
a lot that no one cared about the person

trying to start their own business or, you
know, when it comes to my background being

a veteran, you know, disabled veteran 10,
11 years, starting their own business.

Everybody wanted free stuff.

And I was like, what about the guys like
me are out there getting out, you know,

all over the military that are trying to
start something, you know, support 'em.

Um, So I won.

I mean, I just start saying no.

Mm.

And then, you know, some of them
that I was really close to with

close buddies, I did what they could.

And then I was doing
like, you know, 50% off.

And then some of those, you know, good,
good guys who had those foundations like,

no, we want, we wanna pay full price
because the knives are going for two

or three times the full price anyway.

Mm.

You know, when they Oxygen, I'm
gonna go to foundation events.

So a lot of those, you know, people
like, um, you know, whether seal,

future Foundation, stuff like that,
and I, I'm in a position I don't

want people to be like, oh, that's,
you know, I'm kind of messed up.

But I'm in a position now when the
business has grown that I'm able to

support a lot more foundations and donate,
you know, free stuff here and there.

Um, but you know, People like, uh, folds
of honor, they'll, you know, generally

they're buying 50 knives a year of
really beautiful customs, and they're

like, no, we wanna play full price.

So it, it comes back to the business, you
know, like a little bit of profit on it.

But you gotta think of all the, I
have half my guys are veterans, right.

You know, like, take care
of the businesses, buy two.

Right.

You know, don't ask for a discount,
you know, and I do that, like people,

people hit me up and offer like,
Hey, I wanna send you some hats and

shirts or, or something like that.

I'm like, dude, chill.

Like, how about this?

Like, I'll get on and I'll order stuff.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and, and that just doesn't
just mean veteran owned businesses.

Like these are just other
small businesses in general.

I'm like, the other day there's, there's,
um, a couple that's bought eyes before

and they have some businesses out east
and, um, She makes sourdough bread, and

actually it reminds me of another buddy in
northern California makes sourdough bread

and a couple times a year, like I'll see
the Instagram pop up and I'm like, cool.

Hey, can I order 35 loaves of sourdough?

And, uh, like, I don't care.

Shipping don't care the cost.

Like, you know, if he makes some money,
I'm happy and, you know, we'll get a bunch

of boxes of sourdough here and two days
later and handle lofa bread out to all

the guys in the shop to eat that weekend.

You know what I mean?

It's, I, it's fun to be able to
give that back and support those

small businesses, uh, financially.

Know I,

Travis Bader: there, there's a number of
things here that I'm looking at that I

see in other successful entrepreneurs,
and if you're to try to distill it, um,

you know, it's a passion for what you do.

It's clear, it comes out
in what you're doing here.

Um, your, the office will often say,
you know what, Trav, I, I know when,

uh, I know who, who your friends
are and who they aren't, right?

I'm like, oh yeah, how's that?

Because people will call up and
they say, Hey, I'm Travis's friend

and I'm looking for a discount.

Right?

And, uh, And the office says, well,
why don't you just call Travis?

Right?

And they say, okay, I,
I know your friends.

Because they'll show up on the back
end and they just, they just pay

full price and they buy things.

Yeah.

I would give it to 'em for free,
but they never ask of that.

Right.
Andrew Arrabito: Yeah.

You know, I, I have a problem with that.

I'm always like, oh, man.

Like I don't, I know I don't
deal with the money side of the

business cuz I don't like that.

That feels like I'm taking,
you know what I mean?

Right.
I don't want to give so much.

Right.

You know, but I, I got some pit
bulls here at work, you know,

like Kelsey that runs the office
here, she's a, she's like, no way.

And she, I mean, to the point
where we'll make a knife in the

back or I'll make a knife and I'm
like, oh, I'm gonna keep this.

And she's like, no, you're not.

You're son.

You know what I mean?
Oh.

She's like, I'm the
one who pays the bills.

Well, oh dang.

Okay, well gotta sell it, you know,
but, Yeah, I, I, I mean, I create

discounts now that we're, you know,
I didn't do a, didn't really do a

discount right in the beginning because
I wanted my business to flourish.

Mm-hmm.

And the more my businesses
flourishes, I can do more for others.

And one, one of my big things I've
told guys, you know, Mac Belt, he's

another team guy, really good guy.

Um, you know, you know, at the
beginning he's like, man, I want to,

and he would extend knives, like,
stop giving stuff away for free.

Hmm.

Like, listen, if someone's you, if
someone's gonna, you know, talk about

you on a podcast or something like
that, and you wanna hook 'em up, okay?

But like, do one or two here.

That's it.

And if any of your buddies want
discounts, that's not your buddy.

I've said, that's it.

Listen, that's it.

I should buy two.

Right.

You know, I'm gonna come to you
and I'm gonna buy two, I'm gonna

put an order in, you know, for 30
of 'em, for my guys in the shop.

Or, you know, I, I, that's how you
support other businesses, whether you.

It doesn't need to be a law enforcement,
first responder, military veteran-owned

business, just small business.

Mm-hmm.

You want people to succeed.

We want our economy to succeed.

We want 'em there to, to succeed.

You know what I mean?

And yeah, those people want to create a
business, something they enjoy and, and,

uh, they got, you know, their kids' mouths
to feed and you can't eat ramen every day.

So,

Travis Bader: you know, I
know my kids would like that.

At least one of 'em would True.

Loves his Robin.

Um, and but you're also surrounding
yourself with people who, uh, Compliment

or they make up for your deficiencies.

You're like, I, I don't
want to deal with the money.

I'll find someone, I'll find Kelsey.

Kelsey can

Andrew Arrabito: deal with the money.

That's like, good team.

And some people are just better
at some things than others.

Mm-hmm.

You know?

Oh, and you're also given the, you know,
one of the things with, you know, that

leadership is you're always learning
leadership, but you're also seeing, you're

empowering them and not micromanaging.

So you're empowering them to
get, be better at their job.

And you're also saying,
I got faith in you.

Mm-hmm.

You know, you're good at this.

I expect a lot from you.

You're gonna get, you know, the better
you do, the more you get paid, and

the more we flourish as a business.

Um, but I do expect you
to do your job well.

And here's where I think
you might be lacking.

Here's what you missed.

Um, I can't do what you do.

I wouldn't en wouldn't enjoy what you do.

So I want to give you the faith
that you, you can do it well

and grow in your own aspect.

Uh,

Travis Bader: one of my coworkers at,
um, he worked with me for a number

of years and then moved on to another
job and we've become good friends.

Uh, when he was, uh, working with me, he
says, Uh, there's a Chinese, uh, curse

that says, I wish you so much success that
you have many employees and, uh, because

the management of all of that, all of
a sudden you're no longer dealing with.

What was that you first started that you
really loved and now you're trying to

deal with all these different personality
types and have you had difficult, I I

mean, Gary Vanerchuk will say, don't
get good at hiring, get good at firing.

Right.

Just find a nice way where you can
let somebody go who isn't working

up to standard and assist them
to get onto something that maybe

another job or connection you have.

Or what are your thoughts
on, on those things?

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, I mean, we,
turnover would really suck for

us cuz it takes a while to teach
somebody, you know what I mean?

So, and it takes away from the time
of my, my guys who've been here a

long time to teach somebody new.

Mm.
Um, so we don't like turnover, obviously.

Hmm.

Um, takes six months, seven,
eight months for guys to get.

Okay.

And then, you know, good year, year and
a half, our guys are very proficient.

Hmm.

And I do let the guys, when guys hit a
certain level here in the shop, I let 'em

get pretty damn creative on their own.

Yeah.
Within reason.

Yeah.
And then guys really enjoyed that.

You know, I wanna see, yeah.

You know, I could take five guys,
give 'em all the same knife design,

say these are the three handle
materials you're each gonna use.

And all the knives would end up
different, you know, which is really cool.

That is cool.

So want guys to be creative in their
own way and, and see where they're, you

know, they flourish, which I really like.

Travis Bader: What's your
favorite knife for hunting?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, I
mean, I ran my crow Jr.

Probably more than anything else.

Yeah.

Um, I used that little feather
light a lot when I was in Alaska.

I used, uh, like a full size crow and a
feather light pretty much for everything.

And I took a, I took a Skinner with me,
um, which I love those two little new

little Skinner, so it kind of depends.

Um, You know that feather line is a really
killer little blade for almost everything.

It's just a little small
for doing big, big game.

Mm-hmm.

It's great for Caping for
parts of big game obviously.

Uh, but you know, I did a buffalo,
almost a buffalo with the Skinner Jr.

Did, uh, oryx.

We've done obviously multiple Elk mm-hmm.

With Mike Crow, Jr.

There's multiple, there's multiple

Travis Bader: knives.

Having the background of being
able to look at a problem from a

different angle, and I find perhaps
that's an ADHD thing as well.

You just, you look at something completely
different than somebody else would.

You didn't say, you can't
put padding under my shirt.

Right, right, right.

Um, massive benefit to having a business
cuz you can find all the areas that need

servicing that other people aren't because
they just haven't looked at it yet.

Sure.

Andrew Arrabito: Or they learned a
certain way and the way they learned.

They've only thought about that way.

Travis Bader: Do you find there's
people copying your style and like,

or just blatantly ripping off Hfp?

It's insane.

Yeah.

How do you protect that?

I.

No,

Andrew Arrabito: no, I mean,
there's, there's, obviously, there's

patents you can do, like, on a
certain knife, a certain thing

like the, you know, the wave.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, like Emerson did, like he can
protect, there's certain patents,

uh, that people have, like a
certain thing, a certain design on

a knife that does a certain thing.

So you, that's, that's pretty
much all you can protect, um,

obviously within the industry.

Like, you're not supposed to copy people.

That's, that's a big no-no.

Um, So what people do is they
get really close with the design

and then they copy the handle.

Almost exact.

And, and our aesthetics have been
copied heavily last, you know, three

years, three years, four years,
very heavily aesthetic copying.

Um, you know, there's a level in which
people like, well, it's flattery.

And I'm like, well, you know, there's a
point where it detracts, it does detract

right from our business and what we did.

And I didn't see any split materials
like we did before, and we made that up.

Mm.
You know what I mean?

Um, I'm, I'm so stoked if we can be a
good influence on either knife making,

and I've had people that I look up
to and look up to in the industry

that are really incredible knife
makers and bladesmiths that, um, uh,

are amazing and do incredible stuff
and, and we're all a bit different.

Um, so seeing people that they aren't
original, um, I'm like, you can be.

You know, but, you know, does somebody
want a real, you know, somebody

you want to knock off of something?

Mm-hmm.
No, it doesn't hold value, so.

Mm-hmm.

Plus it's challenging when people,
you know, try to rip our stuff off.

They're like, all right,
well, what can we do better?

What can we challenge ourselves to
change or make new or, um, and just do

Travis Bader: better?

I always wonder how much attention,
because I'm a similar mindset.

Someone wants a copy.

That's great.

I'll pivot.

They're already behind me, right?

They're already.

But on the same breath, if you've
got something that's really popular

that people are liking and it's gonna
devalue your brand in the way that

they're trying to copy it, because
people start associating you with

perhaps an inferior quality product,
how much of your attention do you

put towards protecting the brand as
opposed to, um, innovating and pivoting?

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, minimal on
the, protecting the brand side cuz

you can't, one, you can't do a lot.

And two, we've built such a
good, uh, loyal group of, um,

of follow, good following.

Um, you know, obviously it's
a business, their product and

who's behind the business.

So we've built such a good, loyal group
of people that know, uh, know the projects

that know us and have built personal
relationships with, so, Hmm, excuse me.

Yep.

It's on them to protect the brand as well.

And we've had these conversations with,
you know, HSE enthusiast group or somebody

is, you know, rehandling taking knives
and rehandling 'em and trying to sell 'em

and, and then, you know, contacting them
and they'll be like, Well, why I'm letting

the person know that I'm selling it too,
that I rehanded it and those little, you

know, taking a production knife, unbolting
the handle and doing another handle on it.

If you did, if they had their own
style in totally different grip Hmm.

I, I'd still think that's a little shady.

Like go out and be selling it.

Yeah.

Like, like it's a, you know, they're
always like, oh no, it's not a half face.

I did the handle.

Well, why are you selling as much as one
of the custom Our customs would be, right.

Because you know someone, and here's
the deal, let's say the first person

knows that that person rehandle the
knife, but it's a half face weights bag.

Well the second guy, he may not sell that
to cuz he wants to get 1500 bucks for it.

Mm-hmm.

Or whatever, or, you know, and then
that guy gets a knife and he is like,

well this handle's kind of whack
this, it's not lined up properly.

This, this off.

If there's still scratches
on it, we'll look at.

Look at now their first impression
of a half face blade's knife.

Right.

So having this, you know, having these
conversations with guys who've have

put a lot of money and invested a
lot into half face, and having these

good conversations of like, listen,
it behooves you to protect this brand

because of your investment in it.

Mm-hmm.

And you want the knives to remain
valuable forever or in gain, in value.

Mm-hmm.

So be careful of letting you know, or
supporting other brands that are copying

our stuff and knocking our stuff off.

Because if it devalues our, you
know, the half face in any way, it's

devaluing your investment in this brand.

So it's on everybody.

Protect a brand.

Travis Bader: That's such
a good way of looking

Andrew Arrabito: at it.

But you know, again, like I said, I
don't spend a whole lot of time on it.

Um, it's kind, you know, like people are
gonna do it and they know it's dishonest.

Um, well, what you've done

Travis Bader: is you've made a very
clear and concise way to help mobilize

other people to spend time on it.

Correct.

That's brilliant.

Why?

Why, why do you need to put
your attention there when it's

gonna take you off the eye?

Your, the prize that you're looking at.

Correct.

Just that's, uh, that's a, a
valuable trait in a leader is to be

able to, oh, it's leadership, the
art of influencing human behavior.

So it's accomplish a mission in the
manner, so desired by the leader.

Right.

But you can, if you can distill
that down and have others just

pick up the slack and go with it.

Right.

Andrew Arrabito: Individual based.

And we, you know, like I said, we've
built those good relationships and we

wanna make the best stuff for people.

And there's so many people who have,
who, you know, buy, selling, trading.

They've made a lot of good money
off of buying, selling, and trading.

And I think they have gratitude as well.

And we have so much gratitude
for that, that values the brand.

So protecting it is a,
is a, it's a protecting.

It's really big.

Yeah.

Uh, I don't spend a whole lot of my,
my time on that, my personal time.

I expect people to have invested in, in
the business and built these relationships

with us here at the shop personally
and the brand itself to, to do that.

Where's responsibility?

Travis Bader: Where's the
most of your time spent?

Andrew Arrabito: Uh, I'm working on
my own projects and, you know, working

on up and coming collaborations and
new designs and refining old stuff.

Um, and building those friendships, man,
and, and you know, spending time with

my guys in the shop, in and outta work.

That's

Travis Bader: ticket.

I love it.

Well, uh, should we wrap things up there?

Is there anything else we should
plug before we re before we do?

Andrew Arrabito: Um, I mean, I guess
we did talk about War Paw a little bit.

Just, I grew up up in Napa Valley and
it's kind of my ode to, to, uh, the wine

country and I really wanted to do it for
a long time and I'd come up with some, you

know, ideas and, and name stuff and what,
you know, what I wanted to add into that.

And I ran into a guy, uh, GW Luci and
he has his own wine and he joined the

Army and he got out and married a woman
up in Napa Valley that I knew and became

a wine maker and has his own label.

And he became my wine maker.

And it kind of like, Just fell into
place and he's, I was talking to him

and he was like, yeah, I'm making wine.

I have my own label.

And I was like, Hey, you know,
would you consider, you know,

managing and making wine with me?

And, you know, and I put my trust in
him and yeah, we go and find, you know,

vineyards with good grapes and walk
those vineyards and get those contracts

and buy the barrels and, and make wine.

So that's small and it's growing.

It's a cool side project I really
love, um, if you get a chance, people

can go there and there's only, you
know, two, uh, two varietals, two

uh, wines up right now on the site.

And then I have a pinot noir that's
dropping in the fall, but read the back

of the, read the back of the bottle.

People really like that.

Yeah.

The meanings, the symbols, there's,
there's little symbols on the back

and each symbol stands for, stands for
something that I think people really jive.

Really cool.

I have to
Travis Bader: check that out next time.

It's been a few years I've been in Napa.

The

Andrew Arrabito: lion, the lion is one of
the lo little logos on the back as well.

There you go.

You know, for, you know, the, you know,
the lion provides and he protects his,

he protects his family and his tribe
and he protects the land he grew up on.

So,

Travis Bader: and it's war and
they, well they ship to Canada.

If I don't make it down to Napa, I don't

Andrew Arrabito: think so.

Yeah, I don't think so either.

Might have now as of figure something out.

You know, it's all, I have it, you
know, stored up at a spa in Napa

Valley and a place called Veno
Shipper ships it cause they have the

licensing for the different states.

Okay.
So it's all direct.

Um, there's, you know, I just need
to be really proactive with it,

with my limited time and um, there's
some really nice restaurants that

have asked for it that just haven't
been able to get it to him yet.

But I have, my cab cab will be
two and a half more years till

the Cabernet gets released.

Um, Pinot Navarro will be this year,
next year, another Shein Blanc.

Next year I'm working with
the guy Mario Cullo up there.

He's got some really amazing wines.

So working with him and
I have some good mentors.

Very cool for the outside of the fence.

Travis Bader: I might have a couple
connections in that area as well that

might be able to assist with exposure.

So we can talk, uh, always appreciate it.

Talk off, off air here.

Um, Andrew, thank you so very much
for being on the Silvercore podcast.

Really enjoyed talking with you.

Hey,

Andrew Arrabito: did we not
talk about our own project?

We didn't, did

Travis Bader: we?
Let's, let's talk about that one really.

Yeah.

Oh, that's exciting.

Yeah.
How, how can I miss that one?

Right?

Uh, so yeah, we've got some, uh, half
face blades coming out with, uh, special

limited edition run for Silvercore.

And we're gonna have, once those
are up and ready, anybody who's,

uh, uh, interested in seeing that,
we'll have links in the mailer

and through social media and you
can check it out through, uh, half

Andrew Arrabito: face plates.

So we'll have, uh, the, the
first five done today, they're

probably done right now.

We're going gonna get 'em up to you to
start getting some, uh, photography.

And as the other ones get done, we'll
get some photography and stuff down here.

We'll get all the, the specs and,
you know, we'll, we'll find a date

and time where you wanna release
them and we'll put that out.

Uh, we'll put that out as well.

Date and time and images
and all the specs.

And it's a really cool, it's one
of my favorite little blades, you

know, outdoor blades, so, mm-hmm.

Travis Bader: I'm so stoked for that one.

It's, um, Yeah, and like it's been
said a few times by yourself, but very

grateful for the connections and being
introduced to you and what you do.

I'm sure we'll be talking
more in the future.

I'm actually looking forward to
coming down and checking out your

Andrew Arrabito: shop.
Absolutely, man.

Always welcome.

So

Travis Bader: we'll have all
of that up on social media and

of course sir Mueller as well.

Andrew, thanks so

Andrew Arrabito: much.
Absolutely, man.

It's been a pleasure to be here.

It's, that's, uh, I'm glad we connected
and we could work together and get to.