Bedtime Stories, Part 4

Troy Gent talks about what he has done for work after separating from the Marine Corps a second time. This episode is hosted by Troy Gent's daughter Rebecca who also edits and publishes the podcast.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Troy Gent

Troy Gent is the Host of The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast. He served a total of eight years as an infantryman in the US Marine Corps.

Editor

Rebecca Gent

Rebecca is the editor and publisher of The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast.

What is The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast?

The Ghost Turd Stories Podcast was born out of a place of grief. Having lost my best friend from the Marine Corps in the early hours of 2023, I realized that this feeling was all too familiar. I wanted to do something, not only for the loss I felt, but for the loss I knew many families were enduring day to day.

We believe that a major way to relieve the stressors of life is to talk, laugh, cry, and share our experiences without fear of offense. We hope to attract veterans and first responders as well as anyone who is interested in knowing more about what it’s like to be in our shoes while we wear or wore those shoes.

Hello everyone, and welcome

to Ghost Turd Stories. I'm your host, Troy Gent. Ghost Turd Stories mission is using humorous and challenging stories from veterans and first responders to reduce the burden of families whose veteran or first responder took their own life. Ghost Turd Stories vision is to use humorous and challenging stories to prevent suicide within our ranks.

and reduce the burden of families whose veteran or first responder took their own life. We hope to attract veterans and first responders as well as those interested in knowing more about what it's like to be in our shoes while we wear or wore those shoes.

At Ghost Turd Stories, we tell and write the stories of veterans and first responders for their families and friends. We love storytelling and believe there is nothing more inspiring and nothing that gets people to take action like a great story. Families and friends want to know the sacrifices we made, the services we rendered, and the people we lifted, so they can be inspired and learn about the legacy we left.

Our podcast is the face of our company. But we want every family who cares to know about the experiences their veteran and or first responder went through for them. We interview veterans and first responders, collect pictures, write their stories, and compile them in a book for their families and friends to enjoy.

Oftentimes, it's difficult for us to talk to our loved ones about what we did, saw, and heard. At Ghost Turd Stories, we bridge the gap. For pricing, visit linktr. ee forward slash ghost turd stories and click on the second tab directly under the podcast link called Let Us Write Your Story. That's L I N K E R.

TR E slash G-H-O-S-T-T-U-R-D-S-T-O-R-I-E-S.

Welcome back to the Ghost Herd Stories podcast. This is Rebecca Gent. We're speaking with Troy Gent about some of his experiences in the military, as well as outside his service. I want to start by asking you what you've done occupationally since you've separated. From the Marine Corps your second time.

I didn't know what to do. I knew I was going to get out. We still had a house that we owned in Utah and we had debated whether or not we should move to Flagstaff or something like that, but we haven't had any luck on renting it effectively. No one, no one will pay us any rent. So. We thought, well, I don't want to pay for two houses, so let's move back to Utah.

And I thought, well, I'll just ask my boss at UPS if there's any job openings. And he said, well, let me check. I think there's a, a law enacted by Congress that will allow you to get your job at UPS back and you'll be able to keep seniority. And you'll advance and pay as if you had been here the whole time.

Uh, that included vacation and benefits. So he checked in it and then sure enough, there was a law that said, well, whether you intended to or not, if you served on active duty military, you get your job back with all the seniority. I left that job, I think getting paid 1650 an hour. And when I came back, it was up to 29 or 30 an hour.

Wow. Yeah, it was a huge blessing and unexpected. Why was the pay so high compared to years prior? Yeah. So the, the Teamsters union, the agreement was when you start as a driver, you get paid 1650. It's a lot higher now when you start, but. Back then it was 16. 50 and then within two and a half years, I think, you'll be up to full pay, which at that time full pay was 30 an hour and some change or something.

So when I left, uh, it was like I never left. Like they basically could put me back to where I was originally in seniority. So initially that made a few people, a few drivers angry, but my approach to it was, I'll just serve them the best that I can and I'll be a team player as a driver. And I was that, and everybody actually ended up really appreciating me being back.

Cause I took a lot of work from people and I picked up some slack from people and within a few months I went from. Being, uh, looked at as if I was an intruder to someone that was an asset for everybody, so. Uh, I did that for three more years and then we decided that, uh, we wanted to live another adventure and so I quit UPS and we moved to Hawaii and I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Didn't know what I was doing. I was going to sell life insurance and I got certified as a life insurance agent, but didn't have a good mentor. And so that ended up being a disaster. Who is your mentor? My uncle had been a life insurance agent for a long time, but he was retired. And so I was trying to go at it alone.

I didn't have a mentor, basically. He gave me a few tips, but I didn't have an agency or anything to be part of. Life insurance is tough to sell when you have a mentor or an agency to be part of. And I suck as a traditional salesman anyway, so. I was trying to go at it alone and I thought, man, I'm not good at this.

I'm good at manual labor. So I'm going to get involved in cutting grass and cleaning up yards and stuff. This is in Hawaii. And so I started doing what I was good at that way. And I, it developed into junk removal and some moving, dealing with people's crap, basically. And so when we moved back to Utah, two years after moving to Hawaii, I just started a junk removal and moving labor company.

And I do some demolition with that as well. A little bit of assembly. And so in 2016, I started that and it's provided for the family and enabled us to go on a lot of trips and do a lot of fun things. And so it's, it pays for everything, which is a huge blessing. And right now you and I are trying to start this.

Ghost turds business, ghost turd stories business, and it's developing and Evolving as we go and we're learning a lot as we go. So that's where I'm at occupationally right now Backtracking, um, I think you mentioned briefly once that you might have been doing something with UPS or some other shipping company like and it was like the You Midnight shift when we were living in Hawaii and you can understand your co workers very well Would you mind telling us a little bit more about that?

Yeah, so I when we first got to Hawaii I was all about, you know, I got to bring in what I can bring in financially and so life insurance was Ugly and I didn't really know what to do I mean we had plenty in savings, but I was super paranoid and stressed out about providing You Looking back, I should have just relaxed and given myself, you know, a whole year to focus on just being an entrepreneur instead of being worried about bringing in extra income.

Lessons learned. So I, I got a job on the midnight shift, like a four hour shift. I think it went from 10 o'clock at night to two o'clock in the morning. And Basically, it was with UPS, so I basically got my old job back in Hawaii with no seniority and I was loading packages instead of being a parcel delivery driver.

And so, that's what I started doing, I only did it for a little while because I realized what am I doing? I don't, I don't want to be back at UPS, I don't want to be here and, I mean, we had people looking at pornography while we were on the job and stuff. It was just And the language was awful. And so I was like, man, I am, I do not want to be in this environment.

So I left UPS after only being there about a month in Hawaii and you know, the benefits are really good. And so I was trying to pursue UPS to get those benefits back, but I realized this just isn't worth it to me. So I left again and haven't gone back since. So not that you need it now either though. No.

Yeah. We don't need it now. Mentally, psychologically, I was just stuck in job mode. Like I gotta have a job, I gotta have a job, but I mean, I fought it for five years and I was, I had a couple odds and end jobs here and there, but it was amazing how hard it was to pull away from that psychologically. It was, it was a nightmare for me.

And it was just like three years after moving back to Utah, like something happened, like a huge energy shift. I still, from time to time, have, have that desire or insecurity, but it's a lot more manageable now. I just put the thought away when it comes versus entertaining it so much. Not that we need to talk about me, but I kind of get that on a smaller level, like I'm working as a nanny and working for you.

And I've tried DoorDash a couple of different times, but. About a month ago, I was like, I need to do DoorDash again so that I can, I can earn more money and I'm already working like over 40 hours a week, most week, weeks, but I kid you not, without fail, every time I've tried DoorDash, I've forgotten a charger and my phone has died.

In the middle of me trying to deliver something and it is terrible and it's just nerve wracking and I'm like, why am I back in this situation? Like, it's so not fun. It's amazing how we put ourselves back in the various situations that we just are trying so hard to pull ourselves out of. It's so true.

Yeah. Get on a baby level, but no, thanks for sharing that. That's great. I'm going back to when you first Started or not first first started with UPS, but after getting out the second time Do you have any experiences from that time that you would like to share with us? Yeah I got a couple of stories that I think are hilarious There was a whole a whole bunch of stories that happened, but two of them came to mind and so So, one thing about being a UPS driver, USPS driver, FedEx, whatever, is dealing with dogs.

It's like you're trying not to show fear, but you're also trying to prepare yourself for any surprises, because I can't tell you how many times in five years as a UPS driver, how many times a dog came out of nowhere. And, and so you're, you're constantly on guard, but. I mean, being a junk guy now and moving labor, I get along with all the dogs that I go, I encounter.

Like, there's just no Do you have a theory why that is? Well, I've learned if you, if you face them and then you just hold still until they have their chance to sniff you. I've had a couple dogs nip my shoes and stuff. This just happened, I guess it was like last week I had a dog nip my ankle, a little ankle biter.

And the owner yelled at it, and it like, got scared of the owner, you know, and backed off, but Now, if I just stand my ground and let them sniff me, I don't put my hand up to their face until they show that they want to be my friend. Because the most common dog bite Is on the hand, because everybody that I see, when they meet a dog, they put their hand down to let the dog sniff their hand, and it's a terrible idea, but I just let them sniff my legs.

When they show that they want to be my friend, then I'll, I love dogs, so I'll I'll get, get them excited and play with them and stuff. And it usually works out. But at UPS, you just never know when a dog's going to rush out the door. Cause there's some owners, they just, they just fling the door open when you're halfway back to your truck.

And the dog just runs as fast as it can towards you. And you go to face it and it's just barking, barking, barking. And when it's running full speed at you like that, then, cause you're always in a hurry. Like I dropped the package and the start walking back to your truck. Whereas what I do now, I ring the doorbell.

And I wait for the owner to open the door. So I'm not walking back to my vehicle or trying to get away from the house. So the dog doesn't have a chance to like chase me down. So UPS, the dog and it never fails. The owner's like, Oh, they won't bite you. They won't bite you. I'm like, it's a dog. Like, you don't know if your dog's going to bite me or not.

It depends on how I'm acting, how much fear I'm showing. If I'm running, if I'm facing it, if I have an aggressive posture, they think that they can read the dog's mind, but they can't. So anyway. As a UPS driver, you're always scanning. When you pull up, you honk the horn. Honking the horn alerts the customer that you're there.

It alerts any dogs that you're there. So it gets the initial shock out of the system and the initial fear out of the system for the dog instead of just surprising the dog. So I rolled up, I honked, I went in the back, got the package, and I came out, I went down the steps and I'm scanning for dogs, right?

Scanning for dogs. I get halfway to the door and this house is a junk house. There's junk, broken down cars, junk all over the yard. And I've got a package, probably the size of maybe like an X Box box or something, probably double the size of a shoe box or something. And it's, it's probably 20 pounds or something.

Walking up and this pit bull jets out from under this car out of nowhere Didn't tell me by barking or anything that it was hiding. It was just wait It was almost like it was waiting for me, right? So it comes out and I I am NOT shy with dogs like I'll kick a dog I'll freaking scream at it. So it comes out of nowhere And it just comes right after me.

And I just, I cocked my leg back. I started screaming and I kicked that thing so hard, right in the, in the throat, right, kicked it right in the throat. And the owner is in the window. And she's banging on the window going, no, no, like that. Right? Like, don't kick my dog. I just, she, I don't know if she's screaming at me or screaming at her dog.

She's, she's looking at me. So I think she's pissed at me that she saw me kick her dog in the throat. When I did that, the dog kind of flipped back and took off to the backyard. And I'm like, okay, well, the dog's gone. I can hurry up and put this package on the porch and get, get out of here. So. I get up to the porch.

People already know that I'm there, so I don't have to ring the doorbell or nothing. Lady is screaming at me through the window. I put the package down. I start walking back and the dog comes out from behind the backyard and comes after me again. I cock back. No. You know, I have to back up just a little bit because I had the package.

So after I kicked the dog on the throat, it backed up a little bit, yiped, and then it came after me again and I took the package and I threw the package as hard as I could at its head and it hit the dog in the head and the lady's screaming at me this whole time. The dog takes off to the backyard. I pick the package up and I'm yelling at the dog, you know, the whole time too.

I put the package on the porch. I start walking off and the door flings open but the lady that was screaming at me through the window. Upstairs is still banging on the window screaming at me and her daughter comes out the front door and And the dog comes back from around the house and starts running full speed at me again.

And the daughter starts screaming at the dog, going, no, no, back off, right? But the mom's screaming at me still, the daughter's screaming at the dog, at least the daughter had some common sense. And then the dog comes after me, I cock back, I went to kick, and I missed, I missed its head. But the swing of my boot and leg scared it, so it took off.

And then it came after me one more time, I think, and I made connection, like, right in the ribs or something. I kicked it in the ribs, and then I was able to get back in my truck, and the lady's still screaming at me, right? From the window, like, Yarrr! Yarrr! Yarrr! Hiding off the crazy lady. And so, I take off and, and finish my day, but Oh, yeah, I think I laughed about that for hours after that.

I think the rest of my route that day, I just laughed and laughed and laughed. Yeah, that was the wildest dog encounter I had. I mean, I think I kicked half a dozen dogs in the head, you know, when they came after me. But that one was the wildest. The other scenario I was delivering a package and each house has some sort of weird acreage.

You know, one house has maybe like four acres. The other house has 2. 33 acres, like, and they're all weird, awkward lots. And so a lot of times in neighborhoods like that, the person that lives at a house doesn't even know the address of their own house, like the number on their house might be two, three, three.

Three South and actually it's two, three, five, five South, but they just like, well, I'll just put this on the package and it'll get close enough kind of a thing, right? That's really annoying. But when you, when you get used to a route, you start getting used to names. But before you that happens, you, you know, you get stressed out because you're required to deliver the package at the right house.

Otherwise you get, hey, you know, you delivered at the wrong house. You got to go back tomorrow and fix it and you don't get credit for it and stuff. So. Anyway, these lots and this neighborhood was like that. It was just kind of janky. So the package, let's say it says two, three, three, three on it, and there's four houses and all of them have numbers, but there's no house right there.

This is two, three, three, three. There's two, three, three, five, or two, three, three, six or something. And so there's a few numbers off. And so I knock on the door of the house that I think it belongs to, no one answers the door. So I'm like, uh, I don't want to take this package back. I don't want to miss deliver it.

Cause then I have to come back tomorrow and fix it. So a lot of times I would go and ask a neighbor and most of the time the neighbors, Oh yeah, that's John Johnson or whatever. So I knock on this house next door and the door swings open and it's like this 60 ish year old dude. That has long hair, but it's balding severely, like extremely thin hair, but he wants to be a woman and he's transgender, right?

So he's got lipstick on, he's missing half of his teeth. He's got this really long, thin, thin balding hair. I don't know if he has fake eyelashes on. He's got. Eyeshadow. He's in this dress, and he's in high heels, right? So I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. And so I go, I go, good morning. I didn't say sir, ma'am.

I just, I just said it was afternoon. I said, I said, good afternoon. And he's like, huh? And I go, I was like, hey. And being a UPS driver, I don't beat around the bush, right? I'm always in a hurry. So I'm like, whatever, if you don't hear the first thing, I'm not going to try to repeat myself. I'm just, I'm getting straight to the point.

So I'm like, okay, this package has John Johnson's name on it. The address is wrong. I just need to know, do you know who lives next door? Is that John Johnson lives right there? And he goes, and I go, what I was like, Oh crap. This dude. Is deaf, right? He can't hear. So like, is, does John Johnson live next door?

Huh? I go, okay, this is out of control. I'm going to totally play with this guy. So I go, does John Johnson live next door? And he goes, huh? And I go, does John Johnson live next door?

He just keeps doing it, right? He just keeps doing it and I keep screaming as loud as I can, right back in his face. And he just keeps going, and I said, nevermind, dude, after about 30 seconds to 45 seconds is back and forth. I just, we're just screaming back and forth at each other. And I'm like, nevermind, dude.

And I just turn around and walk away, get my truck and drive off. Oh my gosh. That was one of the best, best moments of my UPS career right there. I took the package back and I said, listen, I checked four houses right in the vicinity, their numbers wrong. And I think they gave it back to me the next day and said, Oh yeah, it was four numbers off or something like that.

Moving on to your business. When you first initially started it in Hawaii, what was it like starting it? I know we. We started with the recycling, because you could recycle bottles and cans in Hawaii and get money from it. And so that was kind of a fun job for us girls, but I know that it's hard. That's not, that wasn't everything you started with either cause I mean, bottles and cans isn't enough money to bring in a full income.

Sure. So the first kind of gigs that I got with my, my yard cleanup was through a property preservation company. Okay. Yes. I remember this. Yeah. So they would pay you a, you know, a certain fee to keep a yard. It was, you know, uh, repossessed properties. Foreclosed properties, so I started with folding up the lawnmower and putting it in the trunk of the car With a weed whacker at the same as well, and then within you know a month I think I bought a truck, so that's how I got started was through property preservation I had found BNI business networking international and so I switched over my yard cleanup to that representing myself as a business in that organization with the, uh, I think landscaping classification, but it soon switched over to recycling.

And so I would basically just set up accounts where I would get paid, you know, they, I would either do it by bi monthly or weekly, lots of vacation rentals in Hawaii. And so a lot of environmentally conscious. People, they like the old. Yeah, and I think a lot of, sorry. Go ahead. I'm just realizing this. Like, probably a lot of richer people.

that have vacation rentals there that, you know, typically want their stuff recycled. And yeah, they could afford what they wanted to pay for. They could afford to set up a recycling account. And I mean, it's kind of messy, uh, in Hawaii, it's a lot of maggots. And so it's funny that A lot of people thought you could recycle food.

I don't, they would throw their food bags and stuff in with the recycling. And I thought, well, couldn't you just throw the food in the garbage can? Well, in Hawaii too, there's a lot of areas that don't have garbage pickup. So they got to take their garbage themselves to like, uh, what'd they call them? They were like these stations where you could dump off garbage, tires, bottles, cans, uh, all your stuff that you want to donate for like thrift, that kind of thing.

So yeah, I was surprised at how many people just would throw their food in them or through recycling. And so I was dealing with maggots and stuff a lot. It was gross. You develop. Yeah, you develop a stomach for it. I tell people all the time. I'm like, I've been desensitized for the longest time. Like, they're like, how can you suck that down?

Or like, how can you, I'm like, I can do anything at this point. Yeah. Me and mom, you know, went back a year ago and I just, I was looking around. I thought, man, if I would have stayed here. And kept up my recycling business. I'd have done really good. I just had that feeling that if I would stay consistent with it for that long, and we were actually, before we moved back, we were starting to roll.

It was really having, uh, getting a lot of clients, a lot of accounts, and it almost made me sad that thinking about how I dropped all those, but, uh, a lot of vacation rentals I had, I actually would haul off the garbage for him too. So I did the garbage and the recycling and. One of the perks of that was I charged full price to show up whenever they wanted.

And this also started developing my junk removal business. So like we started having a lot of yard sales with all the junk we were getting and a charge full price for the recycling and the junk removal. And then whatever perks we got and whatever creativity we developed afterward with the stuff, it was just extra income for us.

It was just fun money. And so I created a side business for you girls and I paid you a percentage based on your age. And so All the bottles, glass bottles, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, steel cans. Every time someone buys a drink, they tax that person on that container. And so in Utah, they don't do that.

That's the only thing in Utah. I thought, well, it might not be a good thing politically, but I sure miss it. I sure miss the tax that we benefited from by returning the bottles and cans. And so we created that side business. We had a great. Side yard, or it was actually a, an inner courtyard, I guess, but a really cool looking house.

It was like in the shape of a 90 degree U shape with a courtyard in the middle. I had tons of containers like barrels and these cool, uh, you know, those in restaurants, they stack cups and those cup racks, and then they, they sent them to the dishwasher. Well, I had gotten a ton of those. I saw them in the, in the garbage can, like in the recycling bin one day when I was dumping off bottles and cans.

And I thought, man, I could create like these big barrels out of these things. So I got like four of them. I got enough of those glass racks to create four barrels, about 60 to 70 gallons type of, I just cut the insides out and then clipped those glass dishwashing racks together and it made barrels basically.

And so I would bring all the bottles and cans to the middle courtyard and then you were 10 and so from the age of 10, 10 and a half until you were 12. So I was paying you 12% Of what we got when we turned the bottles and cans in, I was paying Emma 8 percent and Amy Grace 4%. So you and Emma basically fought over who was in charge, you know, back and forth here and there.

But you three girls, I said, okay, it's time to sort. And you three girls will go back there and you would sort, it was, it was messy. You had gloves. It was kind of stinky, sticky, a lot of centipedes, but neither one, none of you ever got bit by a centipede amazingly. And so. If I took in a truckload of bottles and cans.

This is just a regular size, you know, six foot bed stacked with barrels full of bottles. And if I got 300, you know, 10 percent of 300 is 30 bucks. And so, you know, you get 30, 35 bucks for that load. Emma would get, you know, a little less and Amy Grace a little less, but it was a good side gig and you girls made some pretty good money.

You had a lot of spending money and it was a lot of fun actually. Two situations where we were. Living in an apartment complex. So this is before we had the house with the courtyard, but we were getting into recycling because man, if, if we wanted some money, we could just go look for bottles and cans in the garbage cans.

And I mean, the homeless guys were doing this. So we were like, so I got my, I got my girls out there. All three of my girls acting like homeless people, digging in garbage cans for bottles and cans. But I mean, you think of it, it's like picking up six and a half cents. Every time you pick up a bottle, the average was about six and a half cents.

You pick up 20, 20 bottles or cans and in Hawaii, they're just all over the place because so many people just drink it's whether it's alcohol or just sodas or whatever. It's just drink, drink, drink, water, water bottles are the same. You know, you get a buck's worth in a matter of 30 seconds if you have a garbage can that has, you know, so.

I wonder if we ever smell like beer. To other people, like, did anyone ever make comments about that? I don't know. I mean, then again, like, I'm sure that wasn't too unusual, especially in Hawaii, but I'm just, like, thinking about that. Like, when we went to church. Oh, well, we were taking a shower and stuff, but In the apartment complex, and the apartment complex had recycling bins, and they were locked up and stuff, but you could You could reach in there with your arms.

So you girls had skinny arms. So you could, as far as you could reach, you could just pull out bottles and cans. And that one night we were, we were going around taking these bottles and cans out of this, these recycling bins and some, some HOA Nazi saw us doing it. And they like ran up with another guy like, we're going to arrest you.

You're stealing bottles and cans from the trash can. I remember being mortified. HAHAHAHA HAHAHAHA You got your, uh, how old was I then? Let's see, it was 8 years ago, so We left about eight years ago. So I was 47, 37 when we left. So you got your 36 year old dad out there with, coaxing his young daughters, put your arms in there, get the bottles and cans.

And they're like, drop, drop the bottles and cans. Drop the bottles and cans, you're going to get arrested. Yeah. Yeah, it was funny. And then that one night, Amy Grace, we were doing it. And, uh, there was that six pack, there was like a six pack of bottles. They'd all been drank, but they were in their containers and they had the handle in the middle, you know, the cardboard container.

I said, Amy Grace, pick it up. We're going to take a picture of you. She's four or five. She picks it up and it's at nighttime. I take a picture with a flash, you know, and, and she's smiling like a cheesy smile, like I'm going to go home and drink a six pack. That's, that's what it looked like. Like, I'm going to sneak this six pack or something.

We get home and I showed mom, Hey babe, look at this picture. We took a baby grace and she lit into me. She was so angry. She's like, I can't believe you would expose her to that.

Oh boy. Oh, and then we would go and, uh, mom was an MC at the Luau, uh, a few different Luau's. Big, beautiful resorts and this big resort, the Hilton. I mean, there's just people everywhere, beautiful place. And we would walk around the poolside, sneak in the pools while mom was working and ride the tram and all that stuff.

And I just be walking around, taking beer cans, putting them in bags, like a, like a bum invaded the Hilton resort and it was like collecting beer cans. There was so many beer bottles, I could, you know, I could get ten bucks in a matter of five minutes just by, just by walking around with a bag. It was crazy.

Yeah. It was always a family outing. It was like Either going out to get bottles and cans or, like, dumpster dive, or, like, go walk around the Nelson, or go watch Mom at the luau at the other poolside. We were just boys together, you know? We always had a lot of fun, didn't we? We moved to St. George. What was it like starting up your business in a new location?

If it wasn't for the Marine Corps, I would not have the resilience to go through what I went through mentally to quit UPS, to start my own business, to have so many problems, getting it going in Hawaii, and then finally, Starting something that was starting to roll and then having to shut it down and move to Utah and not knowing how it was going to work out.

I didn't have the recycling anymore because here, you know, there's no, no one's going to pay for recycling. So I didn't know what to do, but I knew that I had basically burnt my bridges, burnt my boats. And so I knew I had to start a business because. He was either that or go back to work for 15 an hour, which is an impossibility for us financially.

So I thought, well, we're just going to come to Utah and I'm going to start a junk removal business and I'll just take what I can get while I can get it. And it was hard because the money was starting to get kind of easy in Hawaii. It was just really starting to benefit us with the business and things.

And I had found moving help. is a U Haul affiliate. They provide a platform for customers of U Haul to find moving help to load and unload their trucks. And so that was a real savior for, for the business. And I still, it's my biggest source of, of income overall, the biggest source of revenue. So that was immediately bringing us in some income.

And then I joined my BNI group again, my networking group, and that was helping. And being in business for myself is, there's a lot of faith required, but I'm starting to thrive on uncertainty and been learning a whole lot about myself and a lot of resilience built. And, uh, I was loading a U Haul truck with a bunch of junk.

I rented a U Haul because it was so much junk in this house that I thought, I'm just going to rent a 26 foot U Haul, fill it up as quick as I can, so that'll put a huge dent in this job, and then I can go back with my trailers and finish up. And I was loading this chair, and my mom was there with me, and I says, you know why I like this junk removal business?

And I wasn't pissed off at the particular moment. I was just Telling a story and showing her an example. And she says, why? I says, cause I can take a chair like this and I can do this with it. And I threw it as hard as I could into the U Haul truck. I says, I get rid of my aggression. If I'm frustrated or something, and I'm on a junk job, I can basically take a sledgehammer to a washer and a dryer that I'm picking up or a sledgehammer to a couch and completely destroy it if I want to, or it feels pretty good sometimes.

I don't do it very often, but. When I need to, I do. That's pretty rare for a job. Like, you know, have many occupations where that you have that sort of liberty where you can just destroy something. Well, I do some demolition too. So that always helps. I, I like, I like the demo cause I can break stuff. I really like manual labor.

So I've had people suggest, why don't you hire people to do the job for you? I'm like, well, that would be boring that I have to sit at home and wonder what I was going to do. Right. I really, really like the manual labor that I do. And. It's brings me a lot of satisfaction. So as far as moving goes, I know we've talked about this before, but what are your favorite things to move and what are your least favorite things to move?

Well, I absolutely hate office chairs. They just don't go anywhere. They don't belong anywhere. They just. To pack them and move them, it's just, really, I mean, moving them from house to truck's pretty easy, usually, because they're on wheels. As far as packing them goes, I hate them. Every once in a while there's an item.

That I try to stack six times and it doesn't stack anywhere and I keep putting it off to the side and then I get I'm like, oh, maybe I could stack it there and I pick it up and I try to stack it and I can't So I got to put it off the side again. Like oh my gosh You're still here. You're still here. Just I want you to go somewhere.

You won't go anywhere Yeah, once in a while or something like that my favorite things With moving labor, you're basically subject to To the packing motivation of the customer. So you might show up to a job and it's complete chaos and it's just crap everywhere. And you might show up to a job that everything's packed nicely, wrapped nicely.

And I'll wrap things and stuff if they want me to, but sometimes I have literally filled. Okay. So I'll give you an example. So I had this lady, she's moving her stuff to Vegas. I showed up, she had a 26 foot U Haul backed up and the house was just enveloped. Inside of the house was just enveloped in a cloud of ammonia.

Like it was just dog piss residue, right? It was, it was disgusting. And so. If I tried to breathe walking through the house, I thought I was going to pass out. It was really, really bad. Most of the stuff was in the garage and totes. And most of it was like Halloween decorations, like a whole 26 foot U Haul.

Worth of Halloween decorations. It was crazy, but I had to walk to the backyard through the house several times to get stuff off the back patio. And so I would take a huge deep breath at the front door. Well, I had to do it about 20 steps before the front door. Cause as you got to about 20 steps, you started smelling the ammonia.

It was really bad outside to that close. And then I would hold my breath all the way through the house, get to the back, back of the house and like let out this huge relief. And then I would have to repeat. For the back to the front of the house. I did that several times, but some people's, some people's lives are just in complete chaos.

And you can tell a lot about the condition of someone's life. A lot of times it's, it's pretty heartbreaking. So in this particular scenario, like her husband had had an affair, multiple affairs, and the condition of the belongings. Was evidence of the condition of their lives. So, it was really sad. But I've literally loaded trucks full of junk.

Like, in my view, it was like, this isn't garbage. It was garbage. But they wanted it. It was their garbage. And they wanted to keep their garbage. So, I'm not anybody to tell them, you know, this is garbage. I'm not loading this. I'm just there to do a job, whatever. But, I always appreciate someone that has a Has things packed up nicely in boxes and, uh, things are wrapped like they care about their things, you know, like the things that they do have.

I really care about this. And a truck loads or unloads based on the way the belongings are packed, typically. And so, even if it's complete chaos, I try to stack okay, and I try to treat their belongings nicely. Even though when I'm touching it, I'm like, this is garbage. I've had trucks I've loaded that it looked like just a pile of dump heap.

It was crazy. Ha ha ha. Cause, cause you can't stack it. Like, you can't effectively stack trash. It's amazing. But So I, yeah, to answer your question, it was nicely packed stuff is my favorite. So I got this kid that helps me. He wants to be a doctor, engineer, and he's just really smart. Scored like a 29 on the ACT the first time he took it.

Like he's just, he comes from kind of a chaotic life. And so every time he goes to a job, that's a disaster and it's funny because it's almost like the jobs that he goes with me on are disaster jobs. So it's like the world trying to tell him you're never going to get away from this. But he's like, I'm.

I'm gonna get away from this, right? He's, he's, he's, he's determined, but there's been a couple of times He'll finish the job and he'll say that was the worst experience of my entire life Well, you did good man, you did good I've had people ask me before about like why I Try to lead like a quote unquote minimalist lifestyle and I grew up a scavenger like You The rest of you guys, you know, like I found somebody about the times in California when we would literally go to the thrift stores when they were open to grab all of the things that were waiting outside as donations and then like take what we want and then just take the rest back.

And then the dumpster diving and your business like, yeah, we're not hoarders. You would think by our stories that we'd be hoarders, but We're not hoarders at all and it's, it's just fun. It's just something fun to do. Yeah, we take what we know we want and then we let the rest go. But I just told him, I was like, you know, I've been around so much stuff.

Like it just, it doesn't phase me anymore. And like, I don't need it. I don't need more than what I have. I tell people all the time, like, Being around people and their stuff, it teaches you a new kind of empathy. It's an interesting way to be. Intimate with your customer because like you really can see how they lead their lives based on how they treat their stuff.

Yeah, you're, they're really, they're really letting you into their lives. It's really interesting because they can't do it themselves. Most of them can't. Some people can, they just want to pay someone to do it, which is totally fine with me. Like I understand, but it's like we're going to let you into our lives and you're going to see almost everything.

And uh, I mean, I had this customer, I was taking apart their king size bed underneath the king size bed was a box full of romance novels with, you know, lazy titles and everything. And I said, uh, I won't say his, his name, but I says, Hey, I knew him. He hired me. He knew me and stuff. But I says, Hey, I hope these aren't yours.

Just messing around with them. He's like, Oh yeah. He says, that's my wife's guilty pleasure. Yeah, you really do see a lot. Yeah, the amount of older women that come off as like the goody goody that I've seen with like stacks of romance novels, that's pretty funny. Yeah, I had this kid, he helped me for a little while, then he got busted for drugs and he went to juvie and stuff, but he helped me a few times and he looked at me one day and he says, man, he says, this job makes you not want it.

Anything in life. Like I don't want any material possessions. 📍 Yeah. And I, that's what it did to you girls. Like all three of you girls are pretty, pretty slim pickings on your possessions. You just don't have much by choice,

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what types of lessons from your military experience? Have you been able to apply to your life as a civilian?

Yeah. So I mentioned already the resilience that has developed in me to push through really, really hard things. Things that I, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and no idea what I was going to do or how to even do anything regarding a few of these things. And I just, I was able to, to gut it out and learn when I needed to learn to find some success.

So first and foremost, that's probably been the biggest benefit for me. I've gotten used to Letting my personality be my personality and in front of whoever I'm talking to or wherever I'm at in my business networking group and my interactions with other people, I just, I'm not afraid anymore to let my personality shine.

And part of my personality is eight years in the Marine Corps infantry. And so I don't fit inside a box very well. I'm a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. A Mormon is the nickname. I'm a Mormon. For anybody, anybody out there that doesn't know what the, uh, the church of Jesus Christ is, but I don't drink, I don't do drugs, but a lot of people will say, you don't remind me of a person that is a Mormon.

Like I wouldn't think of you as a Mormon, just by the way you carry yourself, just by the way you do things. And it's just because I don't fit in a typical box. Like I don't, I don't fit in anywhere. But the good thing about that is I not fitting in anywhere. I get to embrace my God given personality, and that can shine for people, and I don't think that it's healthy to try to put on a facade or fit inside a box.

I think, I think my God given personality can be a huge blessing to other people if I'm not afraid to just let me, let myself be myself, you know? Where would you say you're at now, like, mentally, physically, emotionally? In your business, occupationally, like, do you feel like you're in a good place, like, where you have momentum, or do you feel stuck in some sense, or kind of where are you at now?

Yeah, I think to some degree I feel stuck with this new Ghost Turd Stories business. In certain areas, I really like doing the podcast, it's great. It's trying to figure out some other things moving forward with one idea or another. And so, there's some sticking points there. With Pack Rats, I'm starting to give some responsibility to a kid.

Him and another kid did a job on Friday, and I was out of town. Worked out great. And I'm working on another job for him to do with the other kid again, this Friday, I'll be out of town again. And so I'm giving some responsibility that way. Uh, start making money while I'm actually not on a job. And, uh, I'm looking forward to, to relinquishing some responsibility that way, with what I do with pack rats and the area that I live in without expanding out, it's limited as far as growth goes.

But at the same time, I'm happy with it because I don't want the stress of trying to manage a whole bunch of employees and growing in a big city and doing all those kinds of things. I just don't really have a craving or a desire to do it. I want to be able to have my business without having the unhealthy stress of, of growth.

I don't have a ton of passion for it. I love doing it. I just don't have a ton of passion to do it to the point of Trying to grow very much with it. So I'm pretty happy as far as pack rats goes. One more question or two really kind of comes in two parts. Would you say you are satisfied with your military experience overall?

Yeah, you know, I'll probably have a little bit of survivor's guilt the rest of my life. It's very manageable. I realized that I can't do anything about it now. And I've turned a lot of, Of that over to God. The one thing that I regret, well, I wouldn't say I regret it. I fulfilled my regrets the second time I joined.

And I, I really feel like I, I got rid of some doubts that I had by joining again. I don't regret getting out what we're doing with this podcast. I'm connecting with Marines and other military personnel. I've heard you say in the past, you don't necessarily miss the Marine Corps, but you miss the Marines.

And I think. This has been great. You get to fulfill that part where you get to speak with other Marines, but you don't necessarily have to be in the same situation with them. There's one thing. So when I came back from Afghanistan, I was an advisor over there and I I was a platoon commander and an advisor to the Afghan police unit.

If I would have been able to go back for one more deployment, I'm pretty sure they would have teamed me up with a gunnery sergeant or a staff sergeant in the Marines, and we would have mentored and advised an Afghan army platoon, which would have been anywhere from 30 to 40 Afghan soldiers. And I think about how crazy and fun that would have been.

I've read some amazing stories and heard some amazing stories about, it would have been so cool because I would have been, I'd have been a first lieutenant. I'd have had a gunnery sergeant that had several years of service and we would have worked together to basically teach, advise, and fight alongside A wild, crazy 40 man Afghan army unit.

And it would have been, I just imagined in my head, based on what I've read and what I've, I've heard, it had been crazy dangerous, but it would have been, it would have been so much fun, I think. And so I just think sometimes how much fun that would have been. So, but that's, that's neither here nor there. So that's, that's okay.

Yeah. The second part of the question is. Especially if we're viewing those bigger times in our lives, like, for you, one of those was the Marine Corps, like, as just one part in the grand scheme of things. Would you say you're satisfied with your life's progression thus far? Yeah, you know what? Personally, I know who I am.

I know I'm a child of God. I love myself, and I love who I'm becoming. Life always has challenges, and I have my fair share of challenges right now, but As far as what I think of myself, uh, I think pretty highly of myself, not in an egotistical, self righteous, or cocky kind of a way. It's more of a, I'm just, I'm satisfied with the path, uh, God's put me on, and what I'm becoming.

I, I want other things. I want to work for other things. By no means do I feel content or feel like I've arrived, because I have plenty of work to do on myself and, uh, in my businesses and I'm only 45, so based on current life trajectory and my current lifestyle, I could live pretty easily till 90 to 100 years old, so I've got a lot of life left in me, as long as I, you know, don't die in a crash or something, but, we'll see what happens, but, uh, I'm grateful, grateful to be who God's creating me to be.

Well, thanks for joining me, again. It's always a pleasure. 📍 I'm glad I'm your daughter, so, it's not, it's not too hard to get a hold of you, so. Well, I'm proud to be your father. I love you. I love you, too. Thank you for listening. Please tell your friends and family so that we can bring more joy and awareness to those struggling with suicide ideation

and the families who desperately need help after the loss of someone they love to suicide.