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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.
Growing up, kids have dreams of what
they'd like to be when they get older.
Now, what would it look like if you
had the courage to know deep in your
heart what that dream was and to never
deviate despite overwhelming lives?
That's exactly what my guest today
has done, and he's made a living in
the unlikely world of high explosives.
He's been showcased on Discovery Channel,
Mr. Beast, and works with government
agencies across the United States.
Welcome to the Silvercore
Podcast, Matt Barnett.
Howdy.
Thanks for having me on.
Okay, I got a question growing up.
I didn't know anybody who didn't
like fireworks watching control
demolitions, seeing things explode.
What is it in the human nature?
That is so intrigued, myself
included by things that go boom.
You know, I really, I've
thought about that before.
My dad is a creator and, and he would
build, he would put all the work into
building something electronically,
and then I would blow things up and
I would see all those little bits
of circuit boards laying around.
And I was kind of sad because I
thought, you know, I put a lot of
work into making explosives, but
look what it did to the work that
my dad spent all this time building.
And I think it's the, the night
and day of the human experience.
On one hand we like to put order
to everything, but we're also
fascinated by chaos and destruction.
And when you combine those two and
you can put order to the chaos and
destruction and call it upon, uh, or
to, to use it at your command, there's
something, uh, intoxicating about that.
You know, it's, it's portrayed
in every movie we ever watch.
People wanna have their
finger on the button.
Totally.
Well, you know, growing up I
would play war in the backyard.
I had my little green Army man, and
I was allowed to have firecrackers
and fireworks and gunpowder.
But I wasn't allowed to
have a lighter or matches.
I was given a, um, a punk and Oh yeah.
So my parents would light the punk.
And when that punk burns out,
that's it for the fun, right?
So I'd make my little gunpowder trails and
they'd go over top of the firecrackers and
the fireworks and place them between the
little army men and it'll burn down and
things are going off and a little bit of
gas on something and it's up in flames.
And I mean, to me, that's what
playing war as a kid was all about.
And I loved it.
It was, um, uh, it was something
that I thought in my heart.
I would be doing for the rest of my life.
There'd be some sort of, uh, uh,
explosive component to my career.
And I guess in a way, there is, and you
know, I got into, uh, chemistry when
I was younger and in grade four, I, I
really didn't fit in with the, uh, the
class structure in any of the grades.
Um, A DHD, uh, highest dosage of Ritalin
for the province on an experimental run.
And the, uh, the teacher says,
well, Trav, he likes his chemistry.
Um, why don't you set up your
chemistry set in the back of the class?
And to me, chemistry meant,
and visible ink, disappearing
ink and making things blow up.
If it's gotta have some sort of
endothermic, exothermic reaction,
then that's chemistry, right?
Otherwise, you're not
really doing chemistry.
It sounds to me like you had
kind of a similar upbringing.
Yeah, well, when I was seven, my dad
taught me how to make black powder.
Mm-hmm.
And it was, it was pretty straightforward.
He always was teaching
me different things.
He'd show me how to use a camera.
Uh, he'd, you know, take me
on picnics and hikes and tell
me stories, historical stuff.
But one day he started talking
about the rockets he used to make
as a kid back in the fifties.
He made these homemade rockets
and he'd launch 'em up and most
of the time they'd blow up.
But he showed me how to make
black powder, the basics of it.
And that kind of stuck.
And then I had this thing, I don't
know, it's, uh, I don't know, it kind
of haunts me to this day, but I can't,
I don't like the idea of just having
something one time in a finite amount.
I want to have the knowledge
to recreate it anytime I want.
Unlimited, right?
Mm-hmm.
And
so when it came to making black
powder, I was like, well, where
do you get the charcoal from?
And he told me, you know, and then
I realized, oh, I can make charcoal.
Well, where do you get the sulfur from?
So I started researching where I
could get sulfur from in nature.
Then where do you get
potassium nitrate from?
And I started researching that, and I
started going down the road of chemistry.
And so my, my love for chemistry was
all about being able to take the natural
world around you and create whatever
you want at your command as much as you
want, so that it could never be taken.
Because I didn't like the idea of
stuff sitting around getting old or
being used up, and then it's gone, and
then you're relying on something else.
And you know, it, it's kind of a theme
throughout my life when I, I received
a bunch of, uh, 50 caliber ammunition
once, and so I thought, well, I need to
get a belt fed 50 caliber to shoot this.
And then I thought, well, I don't want
to just go shoot it in a dirt pile, I
wanna get a big ranch so I can air it out.
And that was one of the, you know,
it seems insane, but that was one
of the motivators that if I were
to plot out reasons for buying, you
know, over a thousand acres of land,
it's just so I can peacefully go
shoot my 50 cal into a mountainside.
And
that doesn't, that doesn't
sound insane to me.
That sounds perfectly rational.
Yeah.
Right.
But a lot of people just wouldn't get it.
But that, so that's my chemistry route.
It, it was all about what you, you
have, you have wood, wood's always
gonna be around air, water, and geology.
And from that I wanna be able to
make all the explosives that I want.
And so it just sent me off on this, on
this tangent of following chemistry.
And so when it went, when I went to school
to college, it was like, that was the only
thing that made sense because that was
the only thing I was truly interested in.
You know, kinda like what you were saying.
Yeah.
You know, for me it opened up doors
to all these other areas that, uh,
probably wouldn't have opened up.
Like I learned about electronics because
I wanted to detonate a rocket remotely.
Uh, I learned about, uh, electronic
ignitions make my own circuit boards
and soldering and, and so, you
know, kind of hacking away at it.
And then you learn a little bit about,
uh, construction and welding and, um,
uh, fabricating and some woodwork.
And then you're thinking about, uh,
chemical ignitions or delay ignitions
or mechanical or, um, and it's just
a massive, for an A DHD brain, you
can invent to your heart's content
and you start thinking like, yeah,
you, you, you can make anything
into something that goes boom.
Right?
Uh, really as you, as you put your,
your head to it, I read through
those old booby trap books that the,
uh, old US army manuals as a kid.
And my favorite one, which is, uh.
The, the Anarchist Cookbook
and everyone's like, oh, you've
got the anarchist cookbook.
And like, just dangerous, dangerous
literature with very, very minimal
information, enough to kind of get it
done, but a lot to kind of get you hurt.
Yeah.
But for me it was, it was the,
the inventing process that,
uh, uh, that really drove me.
And, and I gotta think like
your dad, he was into it.
He was into rockets and
stuff, and generations.
Now, I always figured nine 11 was
the, um, the Thumbtack in the, in
the timeline that really, uh, turned
the chemical enthusiast, the rocket
engineer enthusiast into the person who
can't talk about it to anyone anymore.
Like they had Oklahoma City, they had,
uh, uh, they had a, the UNA bomber.
But, and then after nine 11, it's like, oh
man, like we gotta, like, is this a hobby?
Am I allowed to talk about this?
Is this something that's, uh, or am I
gonna get a label associated with this?
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's a slippery slope,
and that's a dangerous world to go into
because once you start censoring, uh,
you, you, it just, it doesn't stop.
Mm-hmm.
The censorship just continues on
down the road until it's ludicrous.
So, a free world is not a safe world.
A free world is quite dangerous, but you
have the means to defend yourself in it.
And, uh, I don't think that
knowledge is something that ever
should be, uh, squished just because
somebody deems it as dangerous.
I mean, we're down to the fundamentals
here and we're talking about
mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
If you are gonna say that somebody
who goes to a chemistry class is
going to learn the basics of what's
behind explosives, and therefore we
can't teach chemistry, you're gutting
your country, uh, and your future.
Mm. I mean, yes, you're gonna
have people that are gonna misuse
that, that's never changed.
Sure.
And
you're gonna have people that are
gonna do a lot of good with it too.
So.
To try to, to try to curtail the,
the bad people by limiting knowledge
is gotta be the worst way about it.
I mean, that's, you have so many
inventors and creators out there
that are being stunted because they
can't get where they need to go.
Uh, just because you don't want to,
uh, you, you don't want some bad guy
to half a chance come across some
knowledge that honestly is in an
Encyclopedia Britannica, you know?
Well, that's it.
I I was gonna bring out some of my old
techno techno chemical receipt books and,
uh, I don't know if you've seen those
old books, but they have, uh, they're put
out for, so people could make their own
soap and they could make their own Yeah.
Like different ways of
doing common things.
Just like you said, like, I don't want
to be without, and they're over a hundred
years old and their need old books.
And I'd go through them and,
and I felt like I was a mad
scientist, but I was, I was, yeah.
Creating things.
I thought that was pretty cool.
And the, then you come out of the blue
on my radar, actually, you popped in
when, uh, uh, the Collective Cha Sean
and Chance had you on the collective,
and I saw you on this panel forum.
I'm like, here's a guy who's got
a lot more to say that what the
panel forum will allow 'em to say.
So, uh, which is why I reached out.
But you've got a Instagram account
and a social media account, which
just celebrates the knowledge.
You recognize the fact that these
things are dangerous and it's a safe
way to be able to deal with it, but
it's also there's an intrigue or
an interest, and you don't shy away
from, uh, uh, from sharing that.
And I, I thought that
was rather refreshing.
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that.
I guess I never gave it a thought.
You know, some people make comments
on their, why are you putting
this information out there?
And I'm like, well, first of all.
I'm not saying go down to Walmart and buy
a a and B and c and mix 'em together this
way and make that I'm, I'm not putting
that out there and I'm, I'm demonstrating
principles of physics and chemistry
with commercially produced material
that most people with Illit intent
will never get and have no access to.
Uh, you could argue on the other side
of the world though, you know, in
a war zone people use this, but I'm
not showing anything groundbreaking.
What I'm, what I'm doing is basically
introducing a primer into the information
and the knowledge on my social media
channels such that, uh, twofold.
One, it inspires those that are
coming up that have an interest in the
energetics industry as well as help
those who are transitioning out of a
military life into a civilian life.
And they wanna know if they
can continue this line of work.
They absolutely can.
And.
You know that that's the purpose
of it, is to help people out there.
Mm-hmm.
And then
show that, yeah, this stuff
is, is actually tools.
I was never in the military.
Uh, nothing I've shown
is, is a weapon per se.
It could be used as such, but our use
of it is actually quite the opposite.
Every shape charge that I use
is, is designed and used for
destroying other ordinance so that
when we come across a live round
that needs to be safely removed.
Uh, these are the techniques
we use to neutralize it.
Now, if I was pouring ball bearings
and a sleeve and doing all that,
that's, that's another thing.
Now, I have shown some hand grenades,
but the purpose of that was to
demonstrate the danger of it.
So, I mean, everything I'm doing
has a legitimate purpose, but I, I
never, it never crossed my mind, you
know, to not put that up because.
I didn't see it as reckless or dangerous.
I, I would think it would be reckless if I
took some household chemicals and without
a context or without vetting who could
see it, put it out there for a 8-year-old
kid when their parents aren't home to go
try it in the kitchen and hurt themselves.
And I would never wanna do that, but an
eight yearold kid is not gonna go out
in the backyard and grab a block of C
four and blasting caps because something
far beyond me has failed at that point.
If he can do that.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Well, you know, I, growing up, playing
around with this sort of stuff, always
interested about it, has some mishaps.
Um, a fellow I went to cadet camp
with and he ended up losing his middle
finger and index finger and his thumb.
And, uh, he ran one of our local gun
stores here for a while and was able to
shoot and do everything he should do.
But, um, he was just using
a homemade fuse and a, uh.
And a little device that he, he
shouldn't have been playing with.
And he thought, oh, I know I'll, I'll
light this thing while we're driving
down and so I can throw it out the window
and uh, uh, we can get away from it.
And of course, a flame caught
and the homemade fuse didn't work
as well as he thought it would.
And one thing led to another, right?
And so there's, there's close calls
that I've experienced to other people.
I burnt off my, my eyebrows
and my hairline when I was
about six, seven years old.
And I learned the difference between
black powder and smokeless powder.
And, uh, that was, that was
a good learning experience.
'cause I didn't realize
there was the two types.
And when I played in the backyard,
I was always given smokeless.
And, um, I decided my parents are gone.
I wonder what'll happen if I just
take an entire container of this
gunpowder, oh man, and I, and I'm gonna
light it with this magnifying glass.
And I'm thinking like,
I know this isn't smart.
Even in my childhood.
Head.
I knew it wasn't smart.
I'm like, if it doesn't go off as
I drag the magnifying glass away,
I'm gonna make a trail to this.
And sure enough, it went off and
couldn't really see anything.
My brother comes out telling me
he's got a towel over his face.
'cause he says the burning hair
stunk so much and, but Oh, bet.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it just looked like I had
a bad sunburn and it hurt.
And when I could finally see more than
a big red.in front of my face, I, middle
of summer, I had to hide it by putting
a two on and, uh, using the jiffy
marker on my eyebrows to try and make it
look like I had proper eyebrows again.
But, um, you know, I had
a, I never had anything.
I, I guess the last one would've
been, uh, with, with iodine in a
friend's house and, uh, we're drying
out the little iodine thing, make
it little devil popper snappers.
And someone walked through the solution
and walked through his mom's brand new
carpet and had red iodine dots through.
And man, we were.
We were sweating bricks and looking at
cutting pits out of the, um, uh, out of
the closet so that we could try and patch
up the parts of the, the, uh, the carpet.
And it wasn't until about an hour before
his parents came back into town that,
uh, I realized on some bulletin board
somewhere, they said, sodium thio sulfate
will, uh, uh, get rid of iodine stains.
Which, which it did.
And, uh, we were, the carpets were
so and wet and, uh, the parents were
upset about that, but none the wiser.
But those were, those were
a few of my close calls.
I understand you had something a
little bit more scary as a close call.
Yeah, well, yeah.
It wasn't even so much a close call.
I just blew my hand up and, uh, yeah.
Yeah, that, you know, I wasn't,
I wasn't all on my game that
day and I was 14 years old too.
And I had a wooden paintbrush and I was
loading that copper tube with, uh, an
organic peroxide, primary high explosive.
And when they're dry, they're,
they're very sensitive.
And it had dried out.
And, and I didn't, I wasn't aware of that.
And it, uh, it, it probably was
only maybe a third or a half a gram.
It wasn't much, but it was
contained in that copper tube.
And so when it's laid out that, that
copper is what ripped up my hand and,
you know, messed my thumb up and my
index finger and my middle finger,
but then I had this big piece of
copper stuck right between my eyes.
And it, it's, it was weird, you know,
I was working with it and I had the
thought that, what if this blew up?
Mm-hmm.
And then I realized I couldn't
hear the radio anymore.
I couldn't really see, there
was this weird smell and there,
there was blood all over my leg.
So I went in the bathroom and that's
when I saw the piece of copper in my
eyes and I saw my tendons and the bones.
And
it was
a strange experience because at that
time, you know, you talk about, earlier
you said that playing war was fun and
little green army man and everything.
Up until this point, I, I had read about
manufacturing explosives and, and I
also would play with the little green
Army men and it was all sort of a game.
And that was the first time
I got introduced to the
carnage that it produces.
And then I started thinking after that
about warfare, what a bullet will do, not,
you know, I had deer hunt and stuff like
that, so I know what happens to an animal,
but then I saw it to me, a human being
and then it just soured the whole thing.
And so then on one hand I
was intrigued to go deeper.
I wanna understand how
do I safely do this?
How is this done in industry?
'cause this is an industry staple,
the blasting cap number one,
they don't use that compound.
But there are safe ways to do this.
On the other hand, the Peter
Pan magic of it was gone.
And so that's why I never fantasize about
warfare or make it into something that
it's not, because it's, it's, uh, it's an
awful thing that happens on this planet.
You know, the, the way one man
will chew another man up, and
I know how they can do that.
And so it was a, it was a
great experience, you know?
Mm-hmm.
And it, it's a great experience because
I live through it and I, I filed it
away as information to use to make
my tomorrow better than my today.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, and I use it every day.
And so I'm grateful for
the way that it turned out.
I was very fortunate and I believe
it would be a, a vast waste of
an experience if I were to just
chalk that up as an accident.
And this is dangerous and
don't ever go there again.
I, that, to me, that
would've been the wrong move.
I needed to go deeper.
Hmm.
So you, I'm guessing you're
probably y young adult at that time.
Teenager.
How, how old were you when that happened?
I was 14.
Okay.
14. And you didn't have
parents and teachers saying,
what the hell are you doing?
Like, stop, stop playing with this?
Yeah.
No, no.
I did.
I had, uh, so I had one teacher
that wouldn't give me anything, and
I had another teacher that would
give me stuff on the side, like some
glassware, you know, from my lab.
You're right.
And my dad supported
me in everything I did.
But the thing is, I, my
knowledge outgrew my fathers.
He, he knew about black powder
and a little bit about smokeless,
but he didn't know anything in
the realm of high explosives.
And so when I was experimenting
in my la my, my little home
laboratory, I was making things
that was beyond their understanding.
So that's what, you know, you gotta be
careful of is when your kids outrun you
and they're understanding you gotta play
catch up and make sure they're being safe.
Mm-hmm.
Now, I mean, they did, uh,
they did buy me dynamite and
then we did buy blasting caps.
And my dad, is that after Just go with me?
Is that after the accident?
Uh,
or
before?
So I got the dynamite first.
Okay.
And, and, and I got some blasting
caps, but they were expensive.
And remember, I'm, I'm mowing Yards
and everything, paying for this.
Mm-hmm.
So my parent, my dad would
just sign the paperwork.
Um, so it was, it was in an attempt,
just like I said before, I don't like
the idea of something being finite.
I wanted to be able to create
this and make it from as little
raw material as possible.
Hmm.
And so, yeah, this was after that so
that I could make caps for my dynamite.
I eventually did, I made, I made a
nice, safe loading bench that we had
a, an incident where as the deal blew
up on it and all the safeties were in
place and everything was perfectly fine.
Then I did end up making some
good blasting caps for my
dynamite that were at almost ze.
Well, zero cost, you know.
Nice, nice.
Um, what about, so you've
got one kid or two kids?
I got four kids.
You have four kids?
Okay.
So are they following in your footsteps?
Uh, to a degree.
My, my 15-year-old is leaning
more towards business.
Okay.
Uh, he does enjoy, you know, he,
he's made some black powder with me
mm-hmm.
Under my careful watch.
And, uh, we, we do it together.
And he's worked on some
rockets and smoke bombs.
And of course he is always been
there with me when I'm blasting.
Uh, but he, he really enjoys flying,
he likes piloting, uh, airplanes.
And so he's, he's gonna probably have
his license by the time he is 16 or 17.
And then I think, I don't know if it's
16 or 17, when they can legally get it.
He can take off flying
land an airplane right now.
Good for him.
And so that's good.
And then Max the next down.
He definitely is more in the engineering
mindset and way more involved with
technology than I ever was or even am now.
And my daughter's in dance and takes
it serious, like really serious.
And then Nathaniel's four years
old and he's just, uh, he's
just a ham bone right now.
Hmm.
So, uh, would you want to see your
kids following your footsteps to be
making a business in such a, I mean,
it, it, I don't know what it's like
in the States, but in Canada you'd be
considered an extremely niche industry,
uh, where your business is built.
Uh, are you pretty niche where you're at?
We are because we, we do
what others don't want to do.
I, I always say we solve,
we solve explosive problems.
And so if, if a member in the oil
and gas industry has a an issue,
we try to step in and help 'em.
Whether that's a storage issue
or, uh, somebody that needs a
place to test something or a DOT
classification on some material.
You know, I ended up being at the center
of a spider web, and so I have contacts
in the entertainment industry and then
in the military side, and then the mining
and in the research and development,
and it's all these different industries
don't necessarily know of the other one.
Right?
Hmm.
And so one company will come to me and
say, Hey, we got all these explosives.
We wanna get rid of
'em, we can't use them.
And I'll take 'em, and then I'll
know another industry that can use
them, but for a slightly different
use, but still, you know, very
much a legitimate use of explosive.
And I'll bridge that gap and then
everybody's a winner, you know?
Sure.
Uh, and as far as my kids being in it, I'm
gonna be happiest when they're happiest.
So if, if they have zero interest in it,
well then they have zero interest in it.
But I do believe that my oldest.
Is interested in the business and wants
to, while he'll still, you know, he'll
get his pilot's license, but it looks
like he's gonna have a part to play in it.
And believe it or not, my
daughter is making a lot of
noise about joining me as well.
And she would be great because she
is the extrovert, the person with
a lot of confidence and people
love her even at nine years old.
So when she's, you know, 25, 28 years
old, she could probably grab this
thing by the horns and, and take it
to new levels on a social level that,
that I nor my, my boys ever would.
How much of your business is that
social media side, the YouTube
and Instagram side of things?
Uh, not even.
Not even 1%.
It's, it's a funny thing.
It's the only thing
that gets me notoriety.
99% of my work is word of mouth.
And continuing contracts.
So I'll fulfill a, a
contract for one company.
A new company will come in, they'll
just say, how did you do this?
X, Y, Z?
And they're like, well, we used Benetti.
And so they just, you know,
wash and rinse and repeat.
Mm-hmm.
And
so that, that's how we do it.
Well, we started a project a couple
years ago with avalanche control
and avalanche control industry,
you know, has a lot of these, we,
I call 'em snow bros. Guy that Mm.
Snow ski around and throw the charges
and, and they're a fun bunch of folks and
they're usually on the, the younger side.
And so my partner said, look, you need
to get a, a social media presence.
And he's like, I, I've been
hanging out with you for a year.
And he said, uh, I don't
know anybody like you.
He said, you, you drive a tank one day and
you know, you go to your island and you
go to the Caribbean, you know, and then
you go to your West Texas place and then
you're making explosives or machine guns,
and then you're doing stuff with like Mr.
Beast.
He said, it's, it's not
a normal life you have.
Mm. He said, why don't we get you a
social media presence and then, and
then what you can do is you'll get
a return on investment from that.
He said, but then ideally when we
go to these mountains, you'll have a
presence that precedes you and people
will know who you are before we show up.
And I was like, yeah, whatever.
So he found a manager for me
and I pay a monthly, uh, salary
and, and she gave me a phone.
And I just take that phone and,
and it's really like today we have
a truck coming to pick stuff up.
We have, uh, or orders that are needing
to be fulfilled and we have product
that's coming in all in one day.
Right.
So I don't have time to do
a lot of social media stuff.
So what I'll do is I'll just see something
and I'll grab that phone and I'll talk
about it just for a little bit, and then
I'll see a little extra explosive that
I, I might wanna blow up, be like, you
know what, let's make a video with this.
So I'll take it and set it up and
demonstrate something real quick, and
then I go lay that in my lab and it goes
to the cloud and she gets it and edits it
later and I don't think about it again.
Mm. So I am not putting hours and
hours of thought into this stuff.
It is very fast.
It is a pain in the rear.
Uh, but then it happened to blow
up, no pun intended, with, you know,
246,000 followers and you know,
next thing you know, I'm getting
$1,200 to talk about a watch.
So that, I mean, that's pretty cool.
That's not bad.
It's not bad.
Yeah.
So do you find that difficult to talk in
front of the camera and do your thing?
Or is it just gonna come natural for you?
No.
When my, when I was a little kid,
my dad used to set me in front of
a camera on purpose and, and he
would make me talk to the camera.
And, uh, we would have, uh, we'd have
picnics and he would record it and
he would record it for posterity.
You know, he, he would say, Hey,
one day you're gonna be a grown man.
What do you wanna say to yourself?
And so I would talk to myself
as a grown man, as a little kid.
And so little by little, he was always
getting me used to the camera and
mm-hmm.
I, I didn't know it would go anywhere.
I, I didn't really didn't think about
it, you know, it's just that later in
life when the cameras came out, I'm
like, well, I've been here before.
Interesting.
So that's a curious question.
So you were asked to opine on
what you'd wanna say to your
older self as a young kid.
What would you say to your,
your younger self now?
Buckle up.
Yeah.
I'd say, uh, I'd say you did it.
You did it.
Yeah.
If, if, if I was talking to my
younger self, I'd say, uh, you did it.
And if I was talking to my older self now.
I say, I hope I'm gonna do it.
You know, different set of goals there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I guess so.
You know, I gotta imagine that having
a business like yours is going to
come with a heck of a lot of, uh,
regulatory red tape, and it's gonna
have a lot of, uh, a lot of rules
and regulations that you gotta figure
out a lot of personalities that you
probably have to deal with like this.
This isn't a business
for the faint of heart.
What were some of the challenges you
had in starting a business like this?
You know, yes, the regulations are
the most difficult part for me.
That being said, the playbook is laid out.
So in, in, for instance, in
Texas, there's no requirement
for a state blaster license.
So the state of Texas looks at you and
goes, Hey, whatever the feds say, I.
As far as the federal government goes,
there's the a TF and they're very plainly
lay out what the rules and regulations
are and what they call the orange book.
And so if you take the time to read
that book and study those rules and
regulations, it, it leaves you a
lot of room to get your job done.
Mm. As long as you meet those parameters.
And I've always seen those
parameters as as very fair actually.
And their inspections, while they
can be a, you know, an inconvenience,
they're not, they're, they're
not anything to worry about.
So long as you're, you know, crossing
your T's and dotting your i's and it
comes down to control your material.
Mm-hmm.
Because remember, you
are the explosive expert.
The government is there to regulate
it such that it doesn't become a
hazard to the community at large.
So if you're regulating yourself and
you're doing your due diligence and
you have control of your materials and
you're ensuring that you're not releasing
material to somebody who can't have it
or shouldn't have it, or you have any
reason to believe they shouldn't have
it, as long as you're not giving physical
material to someone, uh, you generally
don't have a problem with the A TF.
They come in and do their inspection.
Your books all line up.
Obviously everything is controlled
and accounted for, uh, either by
count or weight or length in the
case of debtor and time fuse.
And so as long as you manage all of that,
it really hasn't been the biggest hurdle.
Uh, private businesses that are
too big for their own good tend
to be where the biggest hurdle is.
Mm-hmm.
It's, uh, it's companies that are so large
that no one wants to take responsibility.
No one wants to take the chance.
No one will take a risk.
And so they become paralyzed.
And in doing so, they can paralyze you
or even bring you down to your detriment
because, uh, they, they won't move, you
know, because they're gonna get a bonus
and they're gonna have a job next year,
whether this project goes through or not.
Mm-hmm.
But they look at it like, if there's
risk associated and we have a problem,
I might lose my job or not get a bonus.
So it's better to just
do nothing than to move.
But as a small business
owner, that's never an option.
You have to move, you have
to keep moving all the time.
And you have to be comfortable
with calculated risk.
And if, if the risk to reward ratio is
off by too much, then you don't do it.
And if the, if the reward outweighs
the risk and like, Hey, it goes as
bad as it can possibly go and you're
gonna survive, uh, then move on.
You know, you, you will recover.
I found that in, in my business
anyways, in the firearms world,
it's probably not too dissimilar
in the States, as in Canada.
Mind you, we've got, we've, we've both
got, depending on what states you're in
and what area you're at, everyone's gonna
have different ideas and different rules.
And Canada, that's done federally, but.
There are a lot of policies that can
be made and you start dealing with
individuals as opposed to actual rules.
The rules are easy, they're cut and dry.
And a industrious individual, there's a
gunsmith around the corner here, and he is
always thought of new ways to comply with
the rules and provide a product to the,
to the public that's rule compliant, but
maybe it's not something that the, uh, the
firearms program wants to see out there.
So he, he finds himself butting
heads all the time, doing the right
thing, pushing business forward,
but still encountering roadblocks.
And then the other one would be, uh,
low beed entry, uh, industries where
people get in and their ambitions will
exceed their ethics and, uh, the, uh,
the sniping and infighting and the
trying to tear someone else's building
down to make their building look larger.
Those are the two areas that I've
found in business that have been.
The biggest challenges, and I had to learn
the difference between being right and,
uh, and winning because, and being rich.
There you go.
How do I win?
How do I get to where I want to be?
I already know I'm right.
I know I'm doing everything properly,
but how do I deal, let's say, with,
uh, a civil servant who has the
ability to tie this all up, maybe
in a similar way that, uh, a private
enterprise has the ability to be risk
adverse and, and tie the things up.
How do I deal with them in a way
where they get the win, I get the win,
and we can move forward without just
being right and be the loser in that,
that that's, that was my large, uh,
growing hurdle that I encountered.
How do you find those wins for yourself
when you reach those, reach those, uh,
I start button heads or those roadblocks
where private industry wants to dig
their heels and be being risk adverse.
Uh, well, I mean, it's, it's, for
me, it's pretty straightforward.
If it's not critical to the mission,
I just say, yes sir, yes ma'am.
And just make a change.
And if it is critical, then uh, we go back
to the black and white and, and usually
it goes up the chain, but there's only
one instance where they said something
and I was like, well, you know, I disagree
with that because I did it by the book.
And so you can't just
arbitrarily say something.
But at the same time, at that time,
it was so far out of my scope that I'm
like, we can come back to this later.
You know, if I need to cross this
bridge at a later date, then I'm gonna
go back to you and I'll pull the book
up and say, please check these numbers
and compare, uh, because I believe that
by your own writing, uh, I'm in this
category versus, you know, this other one.
And, and that's the way I just go at it.
And, but also.
I've made some great contacts in that
industry because, I don't know, I just
used to be very open about what you wanna
do and if you wanna do something you're
not, you're not, uh, used to or it's
something different, uh, reach out first
and say, look, this is what I wanna do.
Tell me how I can do it now.
As long as the end goal is what I need,
I, I don't care about the pathway to it.
And I've never really had a time
where they didn't work with me.
Now, there may be some laborious ways to
go about it, you know, more work than I
wanted to, but there was always a pathway.
I mean, if I wanted to get an F 16 and
mount some missiles on it and fly it
over my ranch and shoot at a target,
there's a way for that as me, a civilian.
And I know there is, uh, I, I,
I already have the licenses.
I have the same license
that Boeing has or Raytheon.
And those are private industries,
so it may be public traded, but, but
a lot of these defense contractors,
they're private and they're making
ordinance, they're making the
stuff that's going to the military.
So I also am a company with the
same licensing and the same ability.
And so there's no reason
I can't do it too.
Uh, but I have to, for
me, it has to make sense.
Like, why would I wanna do this?
Why am I making money doing this?
And if I'm making money and it's a
legitimate, then we'll find a way there.
And that's, it is talk to a
very, very open communication.
That's my answer.
So during all of this, it's become
extremely apparent to me that I'm
operating business in the wrong country,
because that idea of being able to
reach out and ask the, the regulatory
body, which is there to make sure that
you're meeting the regulations and,
you know, what's the path forward?
Here's what I want to do, what
do I have to proceed with?
Uh, it doesn't really exist in a,
in a similar fashion in Canada.
It's, uh, it's a real, uh, chicken and
the egg sort of argument that happens.
They say, well, first you have to
show us the contracts that you have
in place, and then we'll tell you
if they're, uh, they're permissible.
And I'm, I'm just going back
to actual correspondence that
I've had back and forth before.
I said, hold on a second.
You're asking me to get into legally
binding contracts to do something that
I'm otherwise not legally allowed to do.
Like, that's entrapment.
You can't do that.
Right?
All of a sudden, communication slowed
down and then the lawyers are involved
and, but it's, um, uh, it's a very
different culture here in Canada.
And I'm thinking that, uh, uh, I think
I'm having a little bit of a light
bulb moment as we're talking right now.
So interesting.
I like the, I like that approach.
Well, either the government is there
to serve the people or the people
are there to serve the government.
I mean, the, the government is there
to, uh, to assist you as a free
citizen to conduct your business.
And so you're not going
and asking permission.
You're going and saying,
look, this is my goal.
This is what I want to do.
How do I do it within the
parameters of the law?
Their job is to assist you.
I mean, they even tell me, the
the inspectors I have are great.
They tell me all the time.
They're like, we work for you.
We're here to help you get done
what you need to get done, uh,
and make sure it's legal and safe.
That makes sense.
That totally makes sense.
Everyone's on the same song sheet.
You're educated, you're doing
things the way they want to,
you're doing things properly.
Ev everyone's happy.
Right?
They're doing things well by you.
Yeah.
We've got a, we have a system
of denial by, um, lack of.
Refusal in Canada, we're not refusing
you, we're just not gonna do it.
And so your recourse on that then is not
to, you go through a reference hearing.
I remember I was involved with one,
it was on a, uh, type 97, a firearm,
and I was asked to be a subject
matter expert because this company
was importing these guns into Canada.
And the firearms program said,
no, we can't have these here.
Those are gonna be illegal because
they're too easy to make full auto.
And we apply the hassle wander case
to it and a and a couple others.
So I was called in to look at this
gun and opine as to how easy or
hard it was to make it go full auto.
So I'd never seen one before
and I get my hands on it.
The police give me a, a, um, access
to one and I mean, I'm there as a
subject matter expert for the courts,
not for one side or the other.
Despite who's paying you, you're there to
give your honest impression to the courts.
And my honest impression was it's really
damn easy to make it go full auto.
And, um, so.
It real, all it required was a,
a screwdriver in one spot that
looked like it was specially put
there to make a go fall auto.
And you just give a flick
and the thing goes right.
And almost as if it was designed to
be that way, really, really easy.
Met all of the requirements, all the rest.
Anyways, uh, it go through this
hearing and I give my two bits.
I was the first guy to give information.
The, um, Murray the other fellow
goes up and gives his, he was
crown's, um, expert witness.
And in my opinion, what's the, uh,
nice legal way of saying, entirely
misrepresented the truth when he was
up there and he didn't need to, had
he been privy to seeing my testimony?
'cause he had just said, oh
yeah, what Trav said, right?
I came up with this whole song and
dance and I'm like, oh man, I mean,
this guy's gonna get called down for
sure, for, for lying his face off.
And what I learned at the end of
it, it really didn't matter if.
What, who was right or who was wrong.
The only recourse that the business had
in all of this was this reference hearing,
which analyzed whether the right steps
were taken, uh, to arrive at the decision.
The decision could be erroneous.
But if you follow step one, step two,
step three, and you came to a completely
erroneous decision, that's okay.
That erroneous decision stands
'cause a legal recourse didn't
allow to challenge the decision.
The legal recourse is, allows
you to challenge, did you follow
the steps to arrive at it?
So it was a massive eye-opener and
it, in Canada, that's how I've seen,
uh, a lot of these policies being
enacted as if their law, as if their
regulation and, uh, people say, well,
I'm gonna get a lawyer and challenge it.
And that's the wrong approach because
all you do is you start setting bad
precedent and sure enough, they will have
followed the right steps regardless of
whatever the decision they arrive at.
So it's a very, it's a different
culture here in Canada.
Yeah.
Sounds like it.
That's my ramp cross.
I drove
through once.
Yeah, that's, you drove
through once, did you?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I drove, uh, from here
to Anchorage, Alaska.
Okay.
And, uh, yeah, it was a pretty
good haul and yeah, went through
Calgary and then on the Alcan Road.
And it's interesting, I, I, at the
entrance coming in, my kids were
laughing because there's a sign that
says, you know, no firearms, no BB guns,
no slingshots or something like that.
My kids are just rolling laughing.
I mean, no key
shooters.
Yeah.
I mean, my kid, the arsenal that my kids
get to play with, and then they look and
they're like, you can't have a slingshot.
Yeah.
And then, yeah.
What was the other thing it was, oh,
when we got up to the Yukon territory?
Yeah.
Uh, I stopped, we went through,
uh, Whitefish and then.
I saw, I saw a gun shop there actually,
and it was pretty well stocked.
This was several years ago,
but, uh, I was impressed.
And then I was talking to somebody and
he said that you guys in, in rural areas
like that, y'all have Mounties, right?
Yeah, yeah, we do.
Yeah.
So Mounties are the ones that in,
they're like a sheriff or they
do, they they enforce the law.
They're like the, the top of
the line, or what are they?
Yeah, they're, they're like
the federal police force.
So they're the ones that are, it's
one federal, although they'll run
provincially in different areas.
They're, they're like your FBI, I guess.
Okay.
Well, he said that, you know,
they had all these rules that
were choking 'em out out there.
And I said, man, you live
in the middle of nowhere.
I said, why do you have
any gun laws at all?
I said, you guys are in the most
remote place I've ever been.
I said, you could have a full auto 50 cal
out here and nobody would be the wiser.
Like it doesn't matter.
Hmm.
And
he said that, uh, because the laws
aren't made locally, you know, here
we have a sheriff and our sheriff has
the ability to trump anything else.
And so
if something comes down and it's unjust
and it doesn't work for your local
people where, you know, you govern each
other, uh, the sheriff has a lot more
authority than people are aware of.
And I like that system because
what a law you make for Chicago
is not gonna work for us out here.
And, and a law that we make over here
is not gonna work for them over there.
I get it.
It's different, but it's not, it's
not wise to do a blanket law for
a land as vast as yours or mine.
And expect that it's gonna
land the same way in every area
because we're not the same at all.
Yeah.
That, that sounds like common sense to me.
And, uh, I mean, I'm the choir here.
You're preaching to it.
I, I, I gotta wonder what the path forward
for us, if there is one that's available.
I know Alberta's making some rumblings
right now, and, uh, I think, uh, Trump's
made a couple offers about a 51st state,
but, uh, I don't know what the, uh,
the true path forward for Canada is.
But yeah, there's um, there's
some challenges for sure,
Rob, probably, I think a more locally
controlled government where the people
you're, you're dealing with know you,
because there's a lot to be said for that.
Yeah.
When you're in these smaller
communities and, and your law
enforcement and everybody around
knows exactly who you are.
Um.
That you, to me, that's the best way
to govern when you know your community
versus just this blind assumption
of the way people are, versus my
grandmother grew up with his grandmother
and we know them and they want to
do this, uh, still, or they want to
start in a powder plant or whatever.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
I know them.
I trust them, number one.
And then number two, what, where
are your safety parameters?
Uh, what laws are you gonna wanna follow?
You know, what are we following
here to give this some guidance?
I'm not saying it should
be the wild, wild West.
What I'm saying is, is that it should have
a more human approach to it, as opposed
to this just blanket deal that just
doesn't work on, on lands as vast as ours.
Amen.
Brother.
I'm, I'm with you on that one.
I, um, I'd love to see
that implemented in Canada.
I, we'll, we'll see what, uh,
we'll see what the future holds.
I, I got a, um, off the politics side.
I got two questions.
One, Benetti, where did
that word come from?
Well, that's, that's my real name.
Okay.
So my, uh, my grandfather is Fred Rico.
Vinno.
Benetti.
Okay.
And then he changed it in
the thirties to Barnett.
Okay.
Uh, and then the other one was, uh, Reio.
Was it
Impresario?
Impresario.
There you go.
That's my dyslexia and a DHC kicking
in when I read stuff too quickly.
Impresario.
Can you tell me about that?
Yeah, that's, uh, so when I started
my, my ranch out in West Texas, I
wanted to do a leadership camp out
there, and I wanted it to be, I looked
up the word entrepreneur in Italian.
Hmm.
And, and it's impresario with an eye.
Now impresario with an e is a Spanish word
for a landowner who, who acquires massive
amounts of land and then sells them off.
And so in the early days of Texas, back
when it was belong, when it belonged
to Mexico, we had impresarios down
here and they would acquire large,
vast sections of land and they would
sell it off to these settlers that were
coming in to settle that area of Texas.
But I like the Italian word because
it's too, it's, it's a per, it's the
organizer of a performance and it's
with an I and it's the Italian word.
And so everything about that camp from
the insignia, the symbols, the emblems,
every single thing about it has a meaning.
And the whole idea was, is that you are
the performance master of your life.
You are the impresario of your story.
And so that's why I named it that.
That's a bit of a difference from
working in the energetics industry
to leadership and, uh, motivation.
And the, that's, uh, what, what made
I, I, and I see how you can bridge the
two of them, but what sparked that?
Well, I enjoy blowing things up.
Yeah.
See if there's somebody
coming up the steps here.
I, I don't, the door's not opening,
so I don't know, but I heard 'em.
Um, I enjoy blowing things up, but I
enjoy working with people a lot as well.
And actually once it seems
to come really natural.
And so I asked somebody, I
said, what, what do I do?
Well?
And as far as I can tell, the
only thing that I do well is
motivate and encourage people.
Hmm.
I, I don't think I'm a great chemist.
Uh, the world of explosives is
so vast that, you know, I, I'm
fascinated by it, but I am by no means
a master of all things explosive.
My business has done good, but I'm
not, uh, I'm not Jeff Bezos, you
know, so what am I really good at?
And I, I know that I've learned to
listen to people and I've been able to
ref take what they're saying and then
put it back to 'em in a, in a gentle
way, such that they don't see it as an
attack, but it's information they can
use to make their, their lives better.
Huh.
Have you, have you run many of these?
I ran one for a defense contractor, but.
I didn't know how to pitch it, so it
was like a leadership camp, you know?
Hmm.
And then I ended up talking about
chasing your dreams and their head guy
quit and went and started a company.
And then one of my employees, one of my
employees then left to go work for his
company, which we're all still friends.
Like it was an, but you know, it's
kind of like no big company is gonna
send their people to me when I tell
them that the clock is ticking and the
sun will set on their life one day.
What do you want your legacy to be?
And it's not gonna be sitting
in traffic to go to the office.
On the other hand, the people that
need to hear that message can't
afford the kind of class I put on.
I had four ex-military instructors.
I had 18 wheelers bring
our army tank out there.
I mean, we're talking $10,000
per head cost to this.
Sure.
And, and a lot of times the people
that need that message, they
don't have the money for that.
So what we've started to run out there
have been, uh, ladies retreats and, uh.
Light in corporate events.
And anytime I get a chance
to give a talk, I do.
And I'm hoping that through my social
media presence, that a spinoff of that
is more entities coming to me saying,
Hey, we wanna do an event out there.
We want you to be a guest speaker and
bring out some other speakers and,
you know, let's have a good time.
But, you know, don't
run off our employees.
I'm sure it's just, it's
just an odd thing, you know?
It's like if you walk into the factory
and you have a hundred factory workers and
you tell 'em why they could be doing more,
all your factory workers are gonna leave.
Sure.
So nobody's gonna send them to me.
So, I don't know.
I, I don't know.
But here I am and wherever I get
called to go, that's where I'll ride.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Maybe it's not the corporations that
should be footing the bill for this.
Maybe it's like the, uh, the Tony
Robbins approach where he charges
an arm and a leg for people to come.
And he says, I don't need the money.
I only charge that much money.
Just to know that they're gonna be serious
and they're gonna actually, yeah, they're
not wasting my time and they're going to,
they're gonna do something and, uh, yeah.
May, maybe that's, uh, more the
approach, but I, I'm sure he probably
has some of the same hurdles as well.
Yeah.
You can be anything you wanna be,
and really people can within, within
reasons, geography, ability, in
intellect, uh, physicality, all the rest.
There are gonna be some limiters on there,
but, uh, an ent, an industrious individual
will be able to find ways to, uh, oh yeah.
To overcome that.
Um, oh yeah.
So I, I'm guessing you spent some
time thinking about what your
legacy, what you want that to be.
Yeah.
It, well, my legacy is,
is gonna be my children.
Yeah.
I mean, they're, they're not,
they're not just potatoes.
Those guys are movers and shakers.
So my company exists
today because I exist.
There are problems being solved
today because I was a little
boy that wanted to do this.
Hmm.
There are people whose lives
have been possibly saved and, and
possibly some that have been taken.
You know, because, because I exist,
I, I all, I am as a player on a
stage of life and my play part has
left its mark and it looks like
it's gonna continue to leave a mark.
But the greatest contribution will be
children that are that love and are
conscientious, that, that take that torch.
And it may, it may move completely
away from the world of energetics.
It may go into aviation of the arts
or engineering with Max, I don't know.
But to love your children is like
putting money in a bank, and the
generation after me is the one
that'll receive the dividend.
You know, a lot of people say that.
A lot of people say, well,
you know, it's my kids.
They're my generation.
But not a lot of people
put that effort in.
That's required.
You homeschool, you and your wife,
you homeschool your kids, don't you?
Yeah, we do.
We, we homeschool, but also we have a
very real relationship with our children.
It's not the, so I don't have a schedule,
do I make time to be with my kids?
Hmm.
My kids are always with me and
the kids were born into a life
in motion already, so life didn't
stop and revolve around them.
They're like little ticks stuck
on the side while we're in motion.
And so that's the difference.
The relationship that I'm building with
them is already as if they're adults.
They're just small right now.
So when I'm going to the demo range and my
four year old's butt naked, I'll grab his
little butt and throw him in the truck and
you know, I'll let him steer and we talk.
And he gets to watch stuff blow up and
he knows that's what dad does and he's
already, it's just becoming a way of life.
You know?
You, you think back or you think about
now, you know, firearm safety, let's
say there's a lot of families out there.
There's no way in hell they
should have a firearm out.
You know, where the kid could reach it.
I get it.
I understand that reasoning.
But let's go way back
to the frontier days.
The rifle stayed locked
right over the door.
And if dad was gone from home, the
oldest son knew that I might have to
grab that to defend the household.
Mm-hmm.
And
everybody walked by that rifle every
day and the wife knew how to shoot it.
Everybody knew how to shoot that
gun as soon as they could hold
it, they were taught to use it.
Right.
So that's the way I've been
brazing my children up.
Mm-hmm.
Like, it's interesting, if they want
to shoot, they know, all they have to
do is ask their father, we're gonna
make time and go shoot the guns.
They don't wanna sneak around
and go sneak up to them.
They're, they're a tool,
they're a part of life.
It's like electrical sockets.
Mm-hmm.
They know not to stick forks in them.
Mm-hmm.
And they're there, but
they're all over your
house.
Yeah.
All over the house.
And we teach kids to drive cars
and the only thing separating you
and another car at 70 miles an
hour in your face is a yellow line.
And you paying attention.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
Pretty damn sure that we can teach kids
about firearms and live harmoniously.
We, we have forever.
Mm-hmm.
Are, are there gonna be exact accidents?
Yes.
People are gonna have car accidents.
People are gonna get electrocuted
and people are gonna get shot.
And if you don't want that, go
live in a foam house and let
the state take care of you.
But that's not what the human
experience calls us to do.
It's a, it's a dangerous adventure
we're on and there's calculated risks
and bad things happen and it sucks.
And we should work to mitigate
those, but not at the cost of
quenching the human spirit.
You know, at the heart of it is art.
An artist is not a safe person.
Shouldn't be here.
The art's gonna suck.
That's right.
Yeah.
Uh, so you are living art and, and
it does not call you to safety.
It calls you to be brave.
I, I think a lot of people can use that
reminder because so many people, they put
the bubble wrap on and they wanna live a
safe life, man, I wanna live a real life.
I wanna live a life that's, that brings
me excitement, that gets my heart racing.
And that doesn't happen in a safe place
that happens with controlled risk.
And if I don't, if I don't have a level of
controlled risk in my life, I don't feel
like I'm, I don't feel like I'm growing.
And it's actually rather
depressing for me.
I've always needed that level of.
Uh, danger to be present in my life,
whether I'm going out on adventure,
camping, climbing, whatever,
mountaineering, like, there has to
be some element of like, I have to
have my wits about me or else I could
be seriously injured or, or hurt
in order for that to be a strong,
memorable moving experience for me.
I don't know if that's what
most people are like, but I've
recognized that in myself.
Alright.
Oh, I absolutely think that at the
core, most people are that way.
I think all people are, but you
know, it, there's a, there's an
element of fear and it, it wins.
It wins a lot of times and you gotta talk
about when it doesn't work out, right?
Mm-hmm.
So I was in the hospital for three
months, spina bifida complications,
and a can't pee, still can't pee.
You gotta use a catheter every day.
And so for many, many days on
end, I would lay flat on my
back, watch a clock on a wall.
And so one of the things that runs through
my mind is because I always hear the
critic, the critic is always in my mind.
And when you say, well, I wanna
live, you know, a life of danger,
of calculated risk, there's a
critic back there going Yeah.
Until you're 90% burned up in a chair and
you don't, you know, but that's, they're
saying that because they won't do it,
they
themselves won't go out and do it.
But what they are saying, instead of
you retaliating, it should give you cre.
It should, you should give it credence and
give it time to think and process that.
And understand, because I've been
there in the hospital bed, I've
had neighbors in my hospital room
ward that were there for a year.
You know, there's people living
lives that are very much different
than what you're experiencing.
Mm-hmm.
And I have to consider if the
choices I make today put me in that
position, you know, was it worth it?
And it, it's a question
that only you can answer.
Uh, and I ask myself that a lot because
if it's not, then whatever task you're
about to do, you might need to modify it.
Uh, however, you could have the best
intentions and have your morning
coffee get out on the road in a
truck, T-bones, you, and there you
are stuck in a hospital bed forever,
and you were not on a grand adventure.
You were just going to your
eight, nine to five job every day.
Mm-hmm.
So I would say that as long as there's
breath in your lungs and awareness in your
mind, the human experience goes on and
you were built to make the best of that.
And I am saying that from someone
who was laying in a hospital bed.
I don't wanna sound callous,
I don't have a perfect life.
I can't, I can't go to the bathroom.
Um, man, that was of no choice of mine.
That was a, a born defect.
But, but it doesn't matter.
Um, I know that the spirit goes on.
The spirit goes on, and I've
learned so much from someone.
Think about Helen Keller.
Mm-hmm.
Good Lord.
What that woman did.
I mean, look at the people she's inspired.
Yeah.
It was, eh, h Chapin, he had
that quote outta suffering
of emerged Strongest souls.
The most massive characters
are seared with scars.
I gotta wonder if you didn't have that
suffering as a youth, uh, dealing with
these, the, the medical issues, do you
think you'd have the same outlook now?
Or do you think it's because of that
suffering that you're able to, uh, to
see the other side and have this outlook?
Well, I think I've always had it.
Hmm.
I just drew it, it, it made it come home.
You know, I remember my sister, she
asked me, how'd you get through it?
And, and I was 26 years old.
Okay.
No, I was
27. I was 27 when I started
losing all the feeling in my toes
and issues started happening.
Then I went into all those surgeries,
then they got infections and pseudomona
and staph, and then meningitis and
just,
it snowballed.
It was just a, a, a myriad
of things, one after another.
And I, I told her, I said,
well, turtles got me through it.
She, I mean, I know she was expecting me
to say God, but the thing is, I was always
good with God the whole time through.
Hmm.
I never, I never said, why
this or how could you that
I, I didn't ask to come here.
As far as I know, and I'm here and, and
I'm not, it's not on my timeline to leave.
So God gets a pass on all that.
As far as my little puny ego goes,
I'm not in, I'm not interested
in, in, in even going there.
Uh, what I'm interested in
is, is working on myself.
And so, um, because God's been good
to me, so I said turtles because
whenever I dive in the ocean.
I saw a turtle that a third of his butt
was gone, missing a leg too, a chomp mark.
It took, you know, right out of it.
And that turtle was not laying
around feeling sorry for itself.
It was eating coral or jellyfish and
swimming around, and it was just as
normal as could be missing his ass.
And I thought, well then it's up to you
to continue to go until it's not your job.
And so that's what got me through it.
It's like if you wake up and you see that
clock on the wall, keep thinking thoughts.
And then the thought that got
me through it was, I pictured
a movie in my mind, right?
So I'm laying there, I've lost
all my muscle mass and it's
just, it's just not looking good.
And I pictured a warm summer day when
the camera is down low to the ground.
So picture a horizon.
It's a field of grass.
It's short grass.
It's only maybe two, three
inches tall, you know, some
little white flowers in there.
It's a wild meadow and the
camera's low looking out.
And then from behind the camera comes
me in boots running, and I would be,
I was running away and I pictured
that scene again and again of me
running one day in my boots, you know?
Hmm.
Well that happened.
I can run, I run in my boots.
So, you know, I don't, I think
that encouraged me and I, by just
picturing that movie over and over
and over, I knew that would happen.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
There, there's a lot to be said for the
power of visualization and it's, it's
more than just you, you gotta feel it
just like you, just like you articulated
this picture, I could feel myself there.
You were feeling yourself there.
I'm gonna go out in a limb and say that
you were visualizing in your head what
exactly what that looked like, and yeah,
it's, it's funny how that becomes reality.
You did it as a kid with the
explosives, you did it as a, in
your twenties in the hospital there.
Yeah.
What do you, what are you visualizing now?
What does the future look like?
Well,
I'm picturing a mountain home.
I, and, uh, a lot of hot springs
coffee in the morning and a laboratory
where, uh, where I experiment a lot
on, on the chemistry that I, I have
questions about in my mind, good
friends and loving family around me.
And a lot of land, a lot of land to
leave to my kids because while we're so
concerned about, and we should be about
habitat for endangered species animals.
The most endangered animal I
can tell is the man on fire.
There's no place for him.
We're, we're vastly killing that, that
territory for that creature to live.
We're confining it.
We're restricting it.
We're regulating it, we're tying it down.
And if there's a salvation for
mankind, it's that kind of man.
And he needs a place to roam.
And it's not always public land
where there's rules and regulation.
It's private land, it's 30,000 acres.
We're in the middle of it.
You can do where the hell
you want and nobody's there.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, we need that
as, as a, as a planet.
We need that.
We need those people.
That's the endangered species.
So I'm gonna build a refuge
for that endangered species.
I knew there was more to you,
there is more spark to you than
what was, uh, being led out in the
collective podcast, Sarah, and I'm
so glad we've had this opportunity.
Is is there anything that
we haven't talked about that
we should be talking about?
Well, I don't really know, you know,
I don't know who all's watching this,
but, but everybody that's watching it,
I, I would just encourage everybody to,
to take stock and look at their life.
And, and one thing that I've
started saying lately is that
we have two ears, two eyes, two
hands, two feet and one mouth.
And, and the reason for that, and maybe
there's no reason, right, but this
is what I take from that, is that you
should be taking in and doing twice
as much as what you're saying so that
when you're saying something, it has
weight and meaning bound by experience.
Right?
And I would say to everybody out there.
Not just love your neighbors and
love your, the people in your life,
but to learn to listen to them.
And at the same time, listen to yourself.
So watch what you've been doing in your
life and ask yourself, what does it serve?
Where is it headed?
And look at it from a third
point of view so that you can
kind of see how it play out.
Because you easily can look at somebody
and say, oh, they're not headed anywhere.
Good, right?
We always point the finger all around.
Mm. But look in the mirror and ask
yourself if you were that third
person, and, and be bold enough to
look at the darkest side too, and
confront that and work on yourself.
Because if every human being, were loving
their neighbor simultaneously working on
themselves and greeting their neighbor
with compassion and forgiveness because
they've seen the inside of themselves.
Uh, that would be the first step to
making this place a hell of a lot better.
And when it comes to government,
you wouldn't need a whole lot
of government with the people
that govern themselves that way.
Mm-hmm.
That would be the future of government
where there are some guidelines and
we self-regulate, but, uh, probably a
pipe dream, but, but just like cream
separates and milk, maybe one day
everything will just kind of settle out.
That's what nature does.
It tends to Yeah.
That would be, or, or destroys
itself, one or the other.
You know, one big explosive,
second big bang of the world.
Um, yeah.
For the universe there.
Well, Matt, I'm gonna have
links in the description where
people can find more about you.
I really enjoyed our conversation and, uh,
you know, we chatted a little bit before.
I'm going, uh.
I'm going to, uh, pick your brain
a little bit more afterwards, but
uh, I'd love to come down and, uh,
visit with you on the rant someday
and, uh, see what kind of value I
can bring to you out there as well.
'cause this has been a very
valuable podcast to me and I'm
sure to the audience as well.
Well, that's great.
Thank you very much for having me.
I appreciate it.