E{emum} | Why This Former Marine Leader Started Over as an Apprentice

I called the Marine recruiter.

I was like, what's it take to get my ASVAB score?

He's like one signature.

I said, where are you?

I look through my rearview mirror, driving right behind me.

I'm 28 years old.

Step one apprentice.

And you know there's guys out there that are doing it for 40 years.

They don't know me from anyone.

No.

And I don't know anything.

So I'm like, oh, I was in charge yesterday when I was in the Marine Corps and I am now.

I'm not.

Like, I am at the bottom again.

This is easy.

All I gotta do is build.

I overbooked myself.

I had to finish this job.

And I sat in the hot tub.

I was looking at all the kids plan.

I'm like, I'm going to sell it.

Like, what is he, Is he going to care if even if I made it a multi million dollar company, you think he's going to care whether I'm there or here?

He's going to care if I'm here.

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Today I am super excited to have a good friend of mine and someone I look up to with everything that he's done, continues to do.

But Johnny Rogers on the podcast, little bit about Johnny.

And we're going to talk a lot about Johnny today.

But he's a Marine veteran, head wrestling coach for Escanaba.

Journeyman lineman, entrepreneur.

Did I miss anything?

Still in the National Guard.

That's a ball.

Still in the National Guard as well.

All right.

So, yeah.

So no.

And you know, you look at kind of your story and everything that you've got to do and where I really want to begin is, is in the Marines because that was right after high school.

Right.

Tell me about your thought process.

Did you always want to get into the military and why the Marines?

So it was always the military.

My dad had talked to me about going in the Coast Guard because there was a war going on.

Right.

So nobody wants their son.

No, exactly.

And I like water.

So I was like, oh, okay.

And then that kind of just fell through like almost perfectly.

You know, I went and took a test.

I took my ASVAB in Kingsford, and then I had a minor indiscretion with the recruiter when I called him, I got the score he told me to get.

And then he was like, ah, it's no good.

You're gonna wait six months.

And you, you're from this town.

If you wait six months, you might just, you know, you might not do what you plan on doing.

So I was like, well, I don't have six months, man.

I need to leave now or I'm gonna get a full time job and I'm not gonna pursue this.

Exactly.

So I called the Marine recruiter.

I was like, what's it take to get my ASVAB score?

He's like, one signature.

I said, where are you?

He said, right behind me.

I looked through my rearview mirror, he's driving right behind me.

No.

Swear to God.

Come on.

I called my dad.

I said, I'm joining the Marine Corps.

My dad, just like a movie, met me on the, Met me on the highway coming out of our house.

And I was like, you sure?

I'm like, I'm sure.

No, he comes storming out like, you know, there's a war going on.

What about the Coast Guard?

Like, weird, your mind, your mind changed.

Would you pull off the side of the road and sign the paperwork straight then and then?

No.

I went to his office.

I passed my dad's house.

My dad followed me.

He's like, you sure about this?

I'm pretty sure about this.

So that's how I ended up there.

Wow.

Was, was.

So he was really nervous for, I guess, as any father would be.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's something to look into.

But I mean, I felt like going if you were going to go.

At the time, I wanted to go with the best.

And obviously the Marine Corps has a, has a habit of calling themselves the best.

And from what I could see, I'm like, I'm going with the best.

I'm going with the best.

Absolutely.

So what does, you know, having gone through, take me right into like boot camp.

Because I've heard of guys going and guys dropping out.

What was your experience of boot camp?

So I got told like a small white lie that I was going to be out.

Like, the wrestling team was easy to get to.

And I'm like, oh, well, I'll just join the Marine Corps, go through boot camp, find the wrestling team.

Turns out that's not that easy.

But it didn't really matter.

Boot camp.

Honestly, the only issues I had with it, again, stemmed from.

Because of wrestling.

I say it every day.

There's no harder place than a wrestling room.

So when I got to Boot camp.

The only thing I had a problem with was like missing family because, you know, I gotta, I got a really big, really close knit family.

Obviously our, our families are kind of intertwined.

We've known each other, you know, I've known your wife since childhood, forever.

So probably before I knew her.

Yeah, since we were kids.

And so that was the hardest part, that no cell phone, only writing letters.

You know, I hate, I've read my letters and I'm like, wow.

There was no cell phones.

No, not at all.

And so it was just snail mail.

Just snail mail.

And yeah, you, you really see your emotions when you write.

You write one this Friday and then by the next week you're, you know, you're further into boot camp and like you read them after and you're like, wow, like, it's impact.

Yeah.

It almost reminds me of Survivor, right?

When they get the letters and they break down because it's so emotional hearing back from family but you haven't heard from in weeks or a month.

Well, like, you know, snail mail, like it gets mixed up and like you're writing another letter.

Like, why haven't I got a letter?

Do you guys, I just left.

You don't care about me.

And then you get 10 letters at once.

You're like, duh, I'm going to look like an idiot in about two days.

Like, well, and then you kind of feel like you're on an island at that point.

And yeah, I mean, that's, it's kind of funny because anywhere you go in the military, like boot camps, the first one, you get a bunch of guys or girls and you make plans.

You know, when we get out of here, man, we're gonna be friends forever.

We're going to do this, this, this.

And it's so, it's such the tip of the spear what your career is going to be.

It's fun at the time, but you know, looking back, I mean, I think I ran into two guys from boot camp after that, hung out with them.

Like all the plans we made were just plans.

Oh yeah, exactly.

Well, and life changes.

Life changes.

I think of like since, since I started having kids and my core friend group, we don't, we don't get together but a couple times a year, I mean, it's just, if that.

Right.

It just, it's.

Life changes and you know, things are not the same when you got kids.

And now, now how many kids do you have again?

Three.

Three kids, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, so you got your, you got your hands full as well.

And and all that.

So how many.

How many years were you in the Marines for?

I did eight.

Eight years.

Okay.

You see, eight's kind of interesting.

So I see a lot of guys that do four years, four in and out, or that go the full 20.

Where.

Why the eight?

So eight happened?

Well, Carrie was in school, so the original plan was to join the Marine Corps, get a trade.

I wanted to, like, get a welding trade or something.

Right.

Get something from the military and take it out and come back, make money.

I ended up getting in.

I was in the artillery field, and then I got two in my unit, and we were slated for a deployment to Afghanistan.

Well, all that stuff, you know, the wrestling team and all of the ideas, like, it went out the door because now you've been like, you kind of trained for combat, and you're out training for combat.

I mean, they always say they want to bring the troops home, but, like, imagine training.

Like, you do line.

You know, your line school.

You do your line school for six months and never touching a power line.

Like, you're like, yeah, I want to go to combat.

Like, yeah.

And that was my plan, was to.

To get what?

Basically, I wanted to do a combat deployment and a mew.

Because the mew is called the.

Like, the 911 of the world.

Yeah.

We have ships everywhere.

Yeah.

And you go on ship, you go to a lot of places.

You do, like, training with other countries or humanitarian stuff if something happens.

And just where you see a lot, Right?

Absolutely.

Now, is there specific places you would go to?

Or literally, you could be all over the world.

So the muse are numbered.

Right.

So I was on the 31st Mew, and it's based out of Okinawa, Japan.

And so you fly to Okinawa, and depending on the rotation, you spend a little more time on the island than you'd really want to, depending on which rotation you're on.

But then, like, you know, we went to Korea, did like, a. Wow.

A big amphibious, like, assault on South Korea.

Like a Mach 1.

Like, really with South Korea.

Like, kind of kind of flexing on North Korea a little bit, showing what we're still capable of.

And, yeah, it's a big picture.

I didn't see the big picture until, like, after the fact.

Right.

I was just doing my job, my part, whatever I was supposed to do.

And then you look at it after, and you're like, wow, that was huge.

Like, yeah, we had.

We were side by side with, you know, 20 other ships rolling in.

Like, you know, it was pretty cool.

And, like, a literally mock attack.

Yeah.

Training, but also.

And you were training with South Koreans as well?

Yep, we trained with South Koreans.

Trained a lot of.

A lot of militaries.

A lot.

Most of the US Military to include, like, currently the National Guard unit out of Gladstone right now is in Latvia training with Latvians.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

I'll be darn.

So.

So even after the eight years, you still.

Why into the National Guard?

Is it.

So my first four flew by so fast.

Right.

And Carrie wasn't quite.

She's done with school.

I had orders to Quantico, Virginia.

And then looking at the national capital region, she's in accounting.

We're like, wow, you could probably get into some, like, big name places that.

Oh, yeah.

When we move back to the Midwest, we'll hold a lot of weight for interviews.

So.

Okay.

My buddy was in Quantico.

I called him.

He's like, it's the greatest place.

You just train.

You train brand new lieutenants on everything.

War fighting.

So from a machine gun range to shooting lab artillery, you do it all.

Wow.

And I mean, it was a lot of fun.

We did that.

We hunted and fished and Carrie got a lot of experience.

And then at 8, it's like, well, if we continue to go, we're going to 28's a good number.

You're still young, you know, even at 20, you're really still young.

Yeah, absolutely.

So that was.

That was kind of the plan and that's how I got into line works, actually.

Funny.

I don't know if it was your last podcast, but Mike Domrowski.

Yep.

So he was going to be in the Marine Corps.

Mike was.

Was 100% joining.

I. I still have the Facebook message.

No, come on.

He was all about it.

He was stepped in.

He was going to do all this stuff.

He was training.

He was telling me he's going to the gym.

I'm just enough older than him where like, oh, yeah.

You know, he's watching me and seeing my pictures and then he's like, I think I'm gonna try this lineman thing.

I was like, well, Marine Corps is not going anywhere, man, if it doesn't work out.

Still here?

Yeah, it's still here.

You can still do that.

My, you know, MySpace or Facebook or whatever it was at the time, you know, my pictures were cool.

And then all of a sudden, like, I'm kind of in a training, you know, world where I could take pictures, but they're not that cool to me anymore.

And all of a sudden, Mike starts putting pictures up and videos up and I'm like, that looks cool.

So then I asked him about it, and then I started doing research on it, and that's kind of how I fell into the line work side of it.

So you got him all excited about the Marines and he got you excited about potentially line work?

100%.

Get the Heck out of here.

And then I saw the benefits package, you know, and that's really how it, that's how it went.

I, my, my post, they do like a post interview, like, set you up for success type thing because they, you know, they failed.

The military has failed that for many years.

Oh, yeah.

So they, they do a pretty good job.

But a lot of kids are like, I want to be an entrepreneur.

I want to own something.

I'm, I'm never working for anyone.

And you're like, what are you going to do?

They're like, well, I don't know.

Well, you have no idea.

Exactly.

Like, you have a skill set that doesn't really transfer and to the civilian life.

And you need to have skill sets.

You got to have something to offer.

You need something of value.

You go to this course and you write out this huge thing.

They want to see your, basically what your plan is when you exit.

And I literally just handed them an East Coast IBW lineman benefits package.

And they were like, they were like, this isn't real.

My God, this is definitely.

I'd make that tomorrow.

And like Dominion Power showed up and I was like, they were like, here's your package right off the get go.

And the people that were putting the class on were like, whoa.

I'm like, there's a lot here.

Yeah, you're not kidding.

Now, what about, what about the line trade attracted you?

Because I'm thinking of, you know, when you, when you were talking about wrestling.

We're talking about the Marines talking about line work.

We're talking about kind of intense, dangerous type things here.

What, what was it about with the line work that attracted you?

Honestly, he was, at the time, he was long lining under helicopters, put up a video, long lining under a helicopter.

And I was like, if that's my office every day, I could do that.

I have no idea what line work is.

I know nothing.

Ground zero.

Like, but that looks cool.

But that looks cool.

And it's like, no, this, this really jives to other things that you've done.

And yeah, kind of it, it all.

There's a, there's definitely a pattern.

Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely.

Wow.

No, I just, I think that's amazing.

When you look at, look at kind of where you, where you were marines for eight years.

And then after the Marines, did you get right into the IBW or what did that process look like?

Well, the National Guard kind of slipped up because when you're in the military you have Tricare.

It's called great insurance.

It's really good insurance.

You know, everybody's covered, families covered, like minimum CO pays at best, which is huge nowadays.

Exactly.

I mean, it's huge.

I mean, and you turn 26 and you have, you can't be under your parents insurance anymore.

And it's like, okay, now you're on your own.

And that's.

So I got out and I'd already kind of threw the idea around.

I basically spent a month of like, well, let's see what this is about.

And I called the National Guard recruiter and it can't be that bad, man.

I just want, I really, I didn't want anything more than insurance.

Like I'll do the bare minimum I have to do, which I don't know.

I know you and you know me.

Like the bare minimum.

You might come in there with that idea.

Oh yeah.

A day later it's different.

No, exactly, exactly.

You, I think anything you do, and I think everyone in the community really, really sees that.

I mean, not only do you have an amazing reputation for yourself, but when you do something you give it 110%.

Like see it just the coaching and the, and the commitment that you have to the players, to the team, to getting everything set up, the organization, it's, it's amazing.

You know, ask my wife how amazing.

She's, I mean, she's a saint obviously, but yeah, it's.

Well, and she's gotta be.

But it's kind of like that teamwork.

But you're doing something that honestly not a lot of guys, young guys are doing.

Right.

And that's one thing.

I'm a part of a few different organizations that I help volunteer for.

And I'll tell you what, it's.

Hopefully my wife doesn't listen to this, but it's an argue at home because she's like, oh, you're volunteering for this?

Volunteer for this.

I got four kids.

And it's like, but it's one thing that I really do believe that we have to give back.

Right.

And, and you look at, you know, I know if I ask this question, you can answer it probably pretty quick, but who was the biggest kind of mentor or coach for you that really helped change your trajectory in life?

So I had, you know, I was blessed with having extremely good coaches all the way through.

So there's not a singular one.

Kind of like for linemen, there's not a singular lineman who I, like, emulated, you know, but there's a ton of.

So for coaches, I mean, I had Terry Duvall, Jamie Sikorski, and Dan Flynn, you know, all legendary in their own right.

Yeah.

For all certain things in Escanaba, you know, Dan Flynn's still involved.

He's on the school board all the time.

Yeah.

I just got an email about him trying to update the, like, the football facilities, the igloo.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

And he's reaching out to, you know, a bunch of alumni.

And, you know, I got guys I haven't talked to since high school.

Wow.

In an email chain, this happened like, two days ago, you know.

That's awesome.

And Terry Duvall, he's the one.

Terry Duvall is the one who made me know that, like, your body's capable of anything as long as your mind's there.

I mean, the guy could motivate you to run through a concrete wall.

Really?

By the time you're done after a five minute conversation, like, I can run through that wall 100, like, not even doubt yourself now.

I don't know.

Terry.

What.

What.

What was he.

What did he coach?

So he was the varsity wrestling coach for a while.

He was.

Okay.

Jamie before Sigorsky.

Yep.

Okay.

And then he was the assistant for.

For Jamie for a while.

He was the varsity track coach.

I don't know if he was ever up at varsity football, but he's a JV football coach.

Excellent.

You know, and just could produce.

I mean, there's.

There's a million people, like, with.

Making a long story short, I have the best wrestler in the nation coming here for a camp.

And how I got him was his.

So Terry helped J build a guy named Jim Peltier.

Jim Peltier went and wrestled for Drake.

He wrestled with John Messenbrink.

John Messenbrink is now a absolute legendary coach in Wisconsin.

Wow.

And that's Mitchell's dad.

So that's how I made the connection.

To get, you know, a guy that.

In Podunk, Escanaba.

Yeah.

To get the best wrestler, you know, winner.

Through my coach in high school, who I consider a mentor and a friend.

It just.

It's wild to.

To have those kind of people.

You're not kidding.

Yep.

And Jim messaged me, and Jim remembered it.

He said, what What Terry gave me, I will do my absolute best to give back to the sport.

Wow.

Which is.

That's.

I mean.

And that's a testament to the sport.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, it's interesting because I look at my wrestling coaches and I would say.

I would say out of all the teachers, mentors, coaches, call them what you want.

You know, people that change your life positively for whatever reason.

It's the wrestling coaches that probably did more so than anything.

Why is that?

I think it's the physicality of the sport, plus the mental.

I think it's the really.

It's the mental side.

You're walking out on the mat to fight another human by yourself.

There's not, you know, 11 guys, you know, 10 other guys on a football field that you can blame.

A quarterback messed up.

The fullback missed it.

That guy missed his block.

Exactly.

You know, it's.

It's you and you.

And that's it.

And that's it.

In front of the whole gym.

You know, I mean, you come to.

And everyone's watching you come to the duels.

And you see, I mean, I got kids out there that have never wrestled in their life.

And I told them, you know, you're.

You're tougher than a lot.

You know, I would say 99% of people just walking out on the mat, like, yeah, it's really fun.

No, it is.

It is.

And it's, you know, to people out there that are, you know, having their kids thinking about wrestling or maybe they're too nervous to wrestle, whatever, you know, just to echo, what Johnny said is, it's.

In my opinion, it's one of the.

One of the hardest, if not the hardest sport out there.

And I did baseball and football and everything else, but it's the mental side and it's how you break through those barriers.

I'll never forget my first day.

We had a bunch of football guys that joined the wrestling team.

And Coach is like, man, we gotta.

I gotta lean some people out here.

Like, let's just start running until someone throws up.

And he was dead serious.

Like, it was just.

He said so nonchalant.

And we're running and, like, I'm like, you know, somebody put your fingers down your throat or something, like, because it was.

It was terrible.

It was gruesome, but.

And the football guy's like, is this normal?

Like, I've never done that.

And I was like, yeah, this.

Unfortunately.

Yeah.

Trying to figure you guys out.

Trying to figure you out.

Yeah.

See, if you're going to.

If you're going to push and.

And you're going to.

You're going to get to that point.

But that's.

That's where, you know, wrestling for me, you know, has done.

Has done a lot.

And so it's one of those things I encourage everyone.

Get your kids into wrestling.

You know what they're going to learn from the coaches, what, what they're going to learn mentally, physically, it's.

It's huge.

It's huge.

I mean, it.

Yeah, it gave me everything.

So, yeah, that's kind of why I'm so heavy on it, is because, like, you know, the Marine Corps physically was a breeze.

You know, there's some mental sides to it.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Physically, I had, you know, there's a.

Lot of people I. I have talked to that would not agree, but do you think that.

So the wrestling really set you up for the Marines?

100%.

Yeah.

Like, you know, I didn't.

I didn't go MARSOC or anything.

You know, I was artillery.

Like, if you can't bringing with a truck.

But a lot of heavy lifting.

Absolutely.

And then, you know, rolling forward everywhere I've been, you know, like, getting into the trade, like, the trade's hard, but it's easy.

It was easy to fall in line.

Like, you know, when you get somewhere and you're a brand new apprentice.

I'm 28 years old.

I'm a step one apprentice.

And, you know, I'm.

There's guys out there that been doing it for 40 years.

They don't know me from anyone.

No.

And I don't know anything.

So I'm like, oh, I was in charge yesterday when I was in the Marine Corps, and I am now.

I'm not like, I am at the bottom again.

This is easy.

I.

All I got to do is build, to start building, and it takes.

Takes time.

And that's where you first get there.

And you like me personally, I got there.

I'm like, I'm going to build the world.

I'm going to build every power line known to man.

And I can't remember who it was.

I want to say it was Mike Dombrowski was talking to me.

He's like, how are you liking it?

And I was like, here's my plan.

I'm going to build this.

You know, I'm going to go.

And then I want to do this, this.

And he's like, oh, you're gonna be a super lineman.

You know, be a super lineman.

And I sure am.

And here I am doing it all.

Years later, I end up working with Mike, at the city, as a lineman, you know, with.

Once you have kids and all this stuff, like, in my head at the time, though, I'm all in.

Yeah, like, same thing, 110 in online work and yeah, it was.

I would take it away from the world.

It's fun out there, but, like, I happen to fall into a pretty good spot, you know, being able to work in town, being able to coach, be able to do all the things I do.

Absolutely.

You know, there's less money, but money's not everything.

No.

Especially when you have family, so.

Well, especially when you have a family and especially when you want to give back and coach and stuff like that.

And the fact of the matter is there's.

There's such a need for that right now.

But I want to go back because that I, I think for a lot of people starting over at 28, essentially going from essentially to the top to the bottom.

How was that?

Like, that's, I mean, mentally, like, oh, that.

That could really negatively impact a lot of people and be tough.

Well, and there's guys that, you know, I met Foreman that were really brash right off the get go.

And then I work with them and they're like, well, you changed my mind, Mike.

What do you mean?

He said he'd get military guys who come in with a chip on their shoulder because, you know, I did all this and, you know, no offense, not to take anything away from you, but, you know, who cares?

Like, yes, you did, but we're not in the setting to sit here and rest on your laurels.

We're in a setting to, you know, become alignment.

Like, so you have to.

You can't dwell on things you did, otherwise you're just going to sit in that.

Like, wow, interesting.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

It kind of going back to wrestling a little bit like that, one on one and, you know, it prepared you for that and like that conversation, knowing that you don't have any.

A lot of people don't realize that in wrestling, yeah, you have a team, but it's just you against that other player and you're beating the hell out of each other.

I was the best at taking second, and honestly, I really was.

I was not some stud, you know, I was not a very technical wrestler.

I've always been just a physical guy.

Once I realized that I wasn't super technical, I just spent a lot of time in the gym getting a lot stronger than most, but I just.

It was second place all the time.

The up.

Second place.

Second place.

And it just put a chip on my shoulder.

Yeah.

And then I got in the Marine Corps.

I got something to prove.

I got in the Marine Corps.

And I'm like, I will never lose.

And so anything it was, I still do it to this day, like PT test for the National Guard.

I instantly just make it a competition.

And other guys are like, it's not a competition.

I'm like, yeah, it is.

Yeah, it is.

Like, are you faster than me?

Then I'm going to beat you.

That's.

Will I.

Maybe, maybe not.

But like, I'm gonna.

My goal is to beat the fastest guy there or do more push ups and whoever.

And it's just, it's a ridiculous mindset, but it's, it works.

Okay.

Where did that mentality come from?

That come from wrestling too?

From taking second place.

Like, I can't stand.

I could not stand it.

I got out of wrestling.

I wrestled my whole life.

And like, it was actually perfect for me.

It put me in a setting, you know, and then the best part is like, I take over the team, right?

First year, we go to ups, we had no business even like making a run at a UP championship.

Amazing.

Amazing.

And we made a run.

I mean, the other team had to have a perfect day and they did.

So my first time coaching a team at ups, we took second place.

And I literally was like, never again.

I'm either not going to be in the running or I'm winning.

I know, exactly.

No, if I'm going to get there, I want it all.

Yeah.

Plain and, plain and simple.

But you know, if you were winning all the time, that wouldn't be any fun because there'd be nothing to achieve.

Right.

Nothing higher.

So, you know, you got to have, you got to have that goal.

And, you know, I know when you get.

I mean, that was my biggest motivation in wrestling is I, I just got sick and tired of getting beat the hell out of on the mat before, where a guy would come out, they used me like a rag doll.

Like, you got to walk off.

No, exactly.

Shake his hand, you know?

Yeah, like, here we, Here we go.

But from, from setting yourself up to, in, in life, you know, it's funny how like, wrestling has done that for you your whole life.

And you know, when you don't, when you really don't have a team behind you in real life, it's really you and you're responsible for yourself, you're responsible for your family.

And I think wrestling really does teach you a lot of those things that in a roundabout way, a lot more, A lot more real life.

Type stuff, you know.

So, you know, talking about the coaching and I, you know, I just.

There's such a huge need for coaching and volunteers out there.

Why is that important to you now?

How do I put that into words?

Because there's.

There's just a lot of kids, especially in wrestling, right?

We don't get.

Generally, we, you know, most of the really good athletes are a football player, hockey player, and it's not, you know, I have very good athletes, but generally it's like the tough, different kids.

And like, a lot of them don't have good home lives.

A lot of them don't have a lot of things handed to them.

A lot of them have, you know, they're not confident.

And like, you know, my team was made up of just a hodgepodge of crazy kids this year.

Like, and I would say over half of them never wrestled before.

And, like, over half of them brand new.

In high school.

In high school.

Oh, wow.

And then a young team, and that's.

Takes years to build up one.

And just like, the, I don't know, I guess the mentorship that even if I'm giving it or not, like, you know, they see me walk in and I'm covered head to toe.

You know, I'm in high vis.

I'm beat up, I'm tired, and I go in the coach's room, I come out and I'm in shorts and a T shirt.

I might have, you know, shotgun a monster in there real quick.

But I come out, I'm ready to go, and I'm ready to give them everything I have and try to pull everything out of them.

And I've, you know, I've sat in a lot of meetings now with teachers.

Teachers that I had, like, were the same, like, office I sat in, getting told I was not acting right.

And the kids, you know, they request, they're like, I love wrestling.

And I'm like, you just started wrestling, like, this year, you know, and like you said, cutting, trimming the fat, right?

So that always happens.

So the month, first month this year, I'm like, we got like 35 kids.

I'm like, I'll be lucky to have a lineup when we get there, but we'll get there.

Yep.

Month two I walked in, I'm like, you guys are either tough or stupid.

They're still here and still here.

They're still coming in the summer.

I have a lot of parents that kind of figured out, like, you know, what I'm about, and, like, I will answer my phone, I will text the kid I will talk to them.

I'm not really in it just for wrestling.

I like to develop.

Yeah, it's just cool.

Like it's.

Yeah, no, it's, it's huge.

But you're, you know, and you're, you're right on.

When it comes to wrestling, I think a lot of guys I wrestle with and it's not, it's not a sexy sport, right?

It's not a sport that's like, oh, yeah, like I'm a wrestler.

And it's like, it's not like football or hockey or even baseball.

I mean, it's not walking around school you're all beating.

Exactly.

You know what people say, you're in a leotard.

You know what I mean?

It's a singlet, by the way.

All right.

And they're actually pretty cool.

They're actually pretty comfortable.

Not bad.

You gotta have some confidence to walk out.

Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely.

But yeah, no, I see what you've done with that program and I see the kind of motivation and inspiration that you give these kids.

And you know, the other thing that I feel like a lot of younger people struggle with nowadays is, is overcoming obstacles and, and failure and they don't know how to fail.

You know how, you know, how do you instill, how do you instill that in a kid on, on how to overcome their failures in life?

Honestly, you know, currently I got, you know, I got one of the best athletes in the school is one of my wrestlers and he, he just can't put it together on the mat.

Like, he's just, he just had a walk off home run to, to win the, the district for baseball.

Right?

Come on.

Absolute stud.

If he does track, he's a stud football player, he's a stud wrestling, gets hammered on.

But, you know, there's a lot, there's a light there and I'm like, just keep going, man.

Like, it's gonna click the day it clicks for you.

And like, he's never not been good.

You can tell.

And it's really angering him.

So it's like really tapping into, like his actual grit.

Like, wow, for the first time he's challenged.

He's challenged and he's ma.

And he shows up and he shows up and he shows up and you know, there's him who's natural athlete, then there's a kid who, you know, he stepped on his own toes.

Like, he's not athletic and, you know, he's just pumped to be there, be part of a team.

They all have what they want out of it.

And one of the things I do is like I'll sit them all down in the beginning of the year, ask what they want out of the sport.

You know, I want to be a national champion in Division 1.

Okay, well, it's going to be a lot of dark rooms for you with nobody in it.

Like, you know, I don't, you know, I don't have.

That's going to sound bad, but I don't have the ability to get you there.

But I can put a bunch of people together that do.

And there's a lot, there's a lot going on right now in the U.P.

Entirely.

You know, there's fresh coaches at Gladstone, fresh coaches at Nagani, Fresh coast in Kingsford.

And we all have a different mindset.

You know, back in the day it was, you know, blood in, blood out, up on up.

Now we get to go downstate, we get to get to these big schools, get to go to the state tournament.

We couldn't do that until I was a junior in high school.

Really?

Okay.

I didn't know that we only had UPS was our state.

So you're wrestling against some big schools downstate and big individual tournaments and everything.

Well, they just have a way bigger circle to wrestle outside of the season or.

Yeah, they want extra training, you know, and it's just taking a lot.

There's a lot going on up here.

There's a lot of guys who do a lot for a lot of kids.

You know, I, I'm one of them.

But I wouldn't say I'm like the top dog.

There's, you know, there, there's guys that, you know, there's a guy that was in Battle Creek last weekend with a group of like 10 wrestlers out of the up, not all his.

I think two were his last weekend.

In the still springtime summertime freestyle Greco.

So that's one thing that's gotten bigger and wrestling the extra styles kind of gets you into folk style and yeah, there's a lot to it.

Now is, is college more of that Greco Freestyle?

No, college is still folk style but they keep changing the rules.

So it's getting closer to freestyle.

Oh yeah.

Last time I was at the ESCOM meet, I'm like, oh yeah, new, new rules with the point system and, and take down and I mean it's getting there.

It's changed a little bit and it's.

Well, it's funny when you said entrepreneur.

So like you remember I bought that piece of equipment and I was running that.

Yes, well, I was thinking of some of the real estate.

Oh, yeah, that too.

Yeah.

So I sold that too.

Yes.

I sold that piece of equipment because I had to miss one of my son's wrestling tournaments.

Wow.

So I went down there and I was.

There was two.

We were doing back to back Saturday, Sunday.

And I got down there on Saturday after.

You know, I like, I overbooked myself.

I had to finish this job.

And I sat in the hot tub.

I was looking at all the kids playing.

I'm like, I'm gonna sell it.

Like, what is he.

Is he going to care if even if I made it a multi million dollar company, you think he's gonna care whether I'm there or here?

He's gonna care if I'm here.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I say I traded, you know, I traded what could have been as lucrative as I drove it to.

Definitely not making any money.

Probably being in the hole at the.

End of the year coaching.

But, you know, if I was gonna give advice, like, if it's.

If it's something you love, just go with it.

Like, I have way more fun, you know, that.

That was cool.

I said, oh, that's funny that I said it.

I said, when I got out of the military, right, I'm done with civil service.

I'm gonna.

Somebody's gonna pay me by the hour and I'm gonna make millions.

Right.

I'm gonna work.

I know, because that's one thing that the military teach you.

It's long days, it's long nights, you know, especially like combat deployments.

Like, you learn what you really can do as far as your body goes.

Absolutely.

How much you can do without any sleep and things like that.

And I was like, man, when somebody pays me by the hour, like, I'm gonna bankrupt companies.

Exactly.

I'm not gonna stop.

I'm like, I'm done with civil service.

All nighters all the time.

One month later, I'm in the National Guard.

I'm like, okay, I'll be a little civil service.

And then a couple years later, like full time coaching, basically.

Not, you know, still working, but full, you know, coaching almost year round.

I ended up coaching football.

Like, I really.

Yeah.

Oh, eighth grade football.

And like, luckily I had some guys that.

Some good guys around me that.

And even then I like, this is.

Going on 20 years.

But it was a lot of fun.

I mean, I had a riot and honestly, I recruited a bunch of wrestlers.

Yeah, absolutely.

But yeah, I mean, got out of the Marine Corps I had no idea.

You know, I don't know.

I got kids.

I'm getting a job.

I know that.

Yeah.

Mine works where I want to go.

Exactly.

Figured out the steps.

Luckily, I had somebody like Mike who had already done that, you know, and then.

Well, the first step, actually was your school cdl.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that was my fail safe, because, Adam, that was a lot of fun.

I enjoyed hanging out with you even.

If I didn't want to be a lineman.

At a minimum, I'm like, I can.

I can drive stuff.

Like, at a minimum, I can make a living doing this.

So that kind of.

It was always just like, every move I made was just to make sure that I had something in my pocket.

Like, so you were gonna.

You're gonna be able to be taken care of for your families regardless.

Regardless of what happened.

Well, and I'll tell you what, we work with a ton of veterans, and, I mean, you've sent a lot of veterans.

I recruited a lot.

I mean, there's more than once I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah.

Referred by Johnny Rogers.

I'm like, oh, thanks, Johnny.

You know?

Well, it's.

I mean, you guys are really good with it.

You guys are.

You're dialed in.

As far as the paperwork side goes, I'm sure that's a testament to your girls out there.

Oh, yeah, no, they're.

They're amazing.

And.

And you know what?

Dealing with it, because there's.

There's a handful of, you know, schools like that that don't accept the GI Bill because it can be a pain in the butt, but, yeah, at the end of the day, you earned it, you worked for it, you sacrificed your life for it.

And so, okay, if we got to handle a little more paperwork to make that happen, like, it's.

It's worth it, you know, and there's.

A way to pave it now, you know, like, so Ron Portillo, obviously, you don't know him yet, but you will.

Yeah.

So he's in boot camp right now.

Our basic training for the.

The guard.

Yep.

His original plan.

He's graduating again.

Wrestlers, in the beginning, you're asking what they want to do.

And then I was like, hey, what are you doing after high school?

He's a senior.

I had a stud group of seniors, and he's like, I don't really know.

I kind of need some guidance.

Okay, well, what are you trying to do?

I think I want to be a lineman.

I was like, well, duh.

Like, I can help there.

You probably helped motivate him on that.

Well, what really motivates these young kids is like they're, they dangle like the money out there, they don't know really the work behind it.

But at face value, like the trade's.

Like, okay, okay, yeah, I can, I can do that well.

And you know, it's funny how kind of going back to the wrestling side, but we've had a lot of wrestlers, a lot of wrestlers, previous wrestlers come through the line program and those are a lot of times your most successful people because it is intense.

There's a ton of climbing.

It's.

You're using a lot of muscles you don't normally use.

And not to mention for whatever reason, why is it wrestlers can get over fears easier than other people?

I've noticed that.

I don't know, I mean I, I didn't think I was afraid of heights either.

So like, you know, you didn't have line school at the time.

Northern did.

Yeah, and I went there.

I was only there for like a week and a half.

Remember?

Tell me that story.

And literally you went, got the call.

All right, I'm going to, I'm going to Hell week.

Well, I got my CDL first, right.

Because they offered through the school and stuff.

And I was basically trying to do as least time in Northern as I could.

I wasn't a traditional student, you know, I was at home.

I'm driving up there every day.

And you had a family at this point too.

So you wanted, you wanted to be in and out as quickly as possible.

So it made the most sense to use my GI Bill like right away, you know, get into, get into lines or I'll get into CDL school.

Got my cdl plus I think they were doing like a B or something up there.

And I'm like, no, I want a full A just in case.

No restrictions.

Yeah, it doesn't pan out.

I want to be able to do something, you know.

So then I went up there for line school and yeah, they veterans preference is how I got bumped to the head of the line from o'.

Valley.

So a lot of places like you know, Al Bat does like a home or helmets to hard hats.

There's, there's a bunch of really little small niches that these kids can use.

Like.

So that's what Ron's doing, right?

That's his plan.

Plans change but, but it's a great,.

It's a great plan, you know, and it minimizes his out of pocket cost too.

I mean that was a big thing.

Like I, I know like we work a lot of veterans and they, they just love it doesn't.

It doesn't cost them anything, per se.

You know what I mean?

And yet they're able to hit the ground running in a relatively short amount of time.

Because a lot of them.

And a lot of them tell me the same thing, you know, they're.

They're 24, 25, 26, whatever.

And it's like the last thing I want to do is go to university with a bunch of 18 year olds.

I got to class and I was like, oh boy.

And then like two of the kids that I roll with, you know, they're young, they're 18, they think they know, you know, oh, geez.

And you're.

And like I'm riding up there with them.

Like I pick up.

You feel like the old guy.

And I'm like, okay, I just have to do this.

Like, this has got to get done.

It's part of the steps.

Like, whatever.

I just focus staying on it.

Yeah.

And then that really fell into my lap.

I actually.

We were doing something in class and I sent in my application while sitting on the computer in class and they emailed me right back, Send me your DD214.

I sent that.

And then they just started that direct entry thing because they had a big job fire up.

They need a lot of apprentices and they sent me back a date.

Like, you're.

We're running.

Come on, running back.

This new boot camp thing next Friday.

Get to Indianola, Iowa.

No.

And I was like, okay.

Like I need to ask questions.

So like.

Because they don't really.

They're great down there, but not when you're not in their program, right?

They're not call down there.

Like they got a thousand apprentices they're dealing with.

They don't really.

Exactly.

So I went over to my instructors and I was like, hey.

Like, this is like, I'm gonna go.

And you know, one of them worked for the school.

He's a great guy.

Great guy.

Did a lot for a lot of people.

I mean, I still get texts from him when jobs fire up.

About like, do you know anyone who wants to do fiber?

Whatever?

Oh yeah, he's still in it.

That's awesome.

And then the other guy was like, was it indentured?

And I'm like, yeah.

He's like, well then go.

And he's like, I'll tell you what, I'll stay after class.

I'll teach you pull top.

That's all you're going to need.

He's like, whatever else that boot camp thing I don't know about that, but just.

You just wrestler Marines.

Yeah, basically.

You're going to be fine on that part.

Well, and then again, I got down there and we started it and there was another marine there.

He hadn't even seen a pair of climbers in his life.

He just showed.

No, just showed up.

And then there was a third.

Actually blows me away.

Third Marine there.

And he came from like, Washington and he made sure everybody there knew he was a marine.

So the other guy I knew, we were both wearing a hoodie that like, oh, you in the Corps?

You know, the other guy's like, I am a Marine.

And we're like, well, bro, they start the boot camp side of it.

And a lot of these guys been line school.

School, right?

A lot of them been line school.

They did, you know, or, and, or work non union or.

And I'm like, whatever, I'll just.

So they knew how to climb.

They, they, they went through the hell week exercises.

But the climbing doesn't matter, you know, right away.

No, you know, so it's just that boot camp thing.

And I'm like, boot camp, I can do this.

Like, and I'm 28, so I'm like, I'm not losing to anyone.

No, same thing.

I'm like, same thing.

You got to carry the pole chunk.

Second place is not an option.

I will win this.

All I can see on the pole carry.

Just, just speed walking.

I mean, we were digging the pole holes and like the, the other, the Marine that was next to me, that guy ended up being a good buddy of mine.

He.

It rained.

His pole hole was like literal soup.

Like.

And I'm like, almost done.

And he's like, there's no way I'm getting this done.

I was like, I don't think that's the point, man.

I think the point is just like, don't quit.

He's like, I'm not stopping, but like, you know, And I'm like, all right, well mine's done.

So I went over and started helping him and like, the instructor walks me like, what are you doing?

I don't know.

He can't get his hole.

And he's like.

And then the other marine quit and he walked out.

And as he's walking out, you know, we're like, what are you doing?

And he's like, I'm done with this, man.

This isn't for me.

Which is why it's there, right?

That is kind of the point of hell weekend.

It filters out people that, that realize that's not the Trade for them.

Unfortunately, unrelainable.

But, like, as a Marine, we got some arrogance there.

Like, quit after the physical stuff.

Like, quit.

Was it the physical part of why he quit or just.

Yeah, he didn't do the tower or anything yet.

Really.

I asked that.

Was it a.

Fewer heights, maybe, or.

It could have been, but we weren't going high yet.

We were on the ground.

Interesting.

So we.

I mean, we started saying some choice words and, you know, the instructor.

Actually, imagine Paul has passed away since then.

But he was big bearded guy, you know, and he's like, why are we yelling at him?

Like, well, he was a Marine, you know, so we got it.

I mean, sit here, tell everybody you're a Marine and then quit.

No, exactly.

And he's like, marines don't quit.

I think you two are going to be fine in this trade, you know?

Like, and it worked out.

I did the hell week, and I literally.

I was working.

Working for a contractor the next week.

Wow.

Wow.

No, that's.

That's an amazing story.

And that's.

I. I think you're.

You're part of, like, less than 1% of people that I know that have done that.

Like, that's.

That's very, very slim.

But, you know, even back in the day, you had to have your CDL to apply, right?

Yeah.

So you.

So that.

That helped you with that part anyway, you know.

Well, no, I think I'm.

I'm pretty positive it was Nabrowski who's like, step one, get your cdl At a minimum, man.

Go get your cdl.

I mean, it just happened.

Start there.

Just happened that, like, I just got a Marine Corps.

Didn't have a job.

He's running a tree service, and I'm getting a cdl.

It might work out.

Yeah.

No, exactly.

But, like, so you knew you had.

You know, there's something else there that you had as well.

So I did carpentry for a little while with another, you know, Sankovich.

We all know him.

Oh, yeah.

And I'm just not a carpenter.

Like, I have zero love for it.

Yeah.

I have zero ability.

You gotta love it.

If you want to see something built wrong, have me build it.

Yeah.

Unless it's a power line, you know.

You know, when I got the trade and they measured, they're like, this is six inches.

This is six feet.

I'm like, perfect.

That's how I measure.

There's no 16th in here.

We're good.

Exactly plumb bob.

All right.

Give me a string with a weight on it.

I can do this.

I Can do this six inches.

This is easy, you know.

Oh, my God.

I remember talking to Kyle about that.

Like, literally the latest and greatest technology, like plumb.

And that's.

That's actually probably one of my favorite things about the trade is at its core, right?

So you can have all the equipment in the world.

You know, you see MJ show up over here and they're tough.

It's insane.

They are a great company.

You know, they have a ton of equipment, but there's times where I've been with them and the only thing you can do is do it the oldest way possible.

Yep.

You could get.

I mean, other than like a horse and buggy.

Right.

You're in on a four wheeler, but side by side.

Yeah, but you drag the pole into the swamp and you set it with pike poles and like, you're climbing it and like, there's no.

Everything is rudimentary.

Everything's the oldest.

You're using the same grip that they've been using since they built the first power line.

You know, it's kind of, kind of amazing.

But.

But yeah.

And you see, and you see that.

I've heard that from a lot of linemen, like those, those backyard transformers that you can't get equipment in there.

You can't do anything.

You got to do it the old fashioned way.

I don't remember the year I used.

To bring up pulleys and stuff.

The pole gin was made like in the beginning of line work.

Yeah, like a.

Just a pull gin that you hang off and it's got a.

You know, it gives you like a 4.4 to 1 by the time it's down.

But yeah, like, that's, that's day one stuff.

Yeah, we got every crane in the world.

But if you can't get the crane in there, Gotta do it.

It's useless.

You gotta.

You gotta do it the old fashioned way.

Well, you know, I wanna be respectful of your time because, Chani, you're clearly a super busy guy.

You know, the one thing I wanna give some motivation to younger people out there, you know, kind of, kind of in our age that maybe don't do a lot of volunteering or coaching.

And what advice would you give them to?

Because I hear it from all these organizations that I'm a part of and different things, that there's just no young people that want to get involved in stuff.

What's your advice to those young people to get involved and volunteer, help out, coach.

I think we live in a generation now where, where you think you're Doing something because you're sharing it on Facebook or you're pushing it on Facebook or Instagram or whatever.

So, like, it may make you think you're doing your part, you know, but there's a.

There's a physical side to everything.

Every time you go somewhere and you see those, you know, those older guys that are there, it's not because they're retired.

They've been doing it since they were 20, you know, and I guess the motivation behind it is, like, for me, it's just.

I get a lot out of it mentally for doing anything.

Right?

It's.

You can spend your Saturday sitting on the beach, you know, with a cold one in your hand, you know, sounds great, and we're all good.

I've seen you at the lake before.

I have my fun.

But, like, what a lot of these organizations do for.

For everything for people is getting so.

Like, they're getting so few and far between.

Like, if you don't have them, what.

What is it anymore?

Like, yeah, you're not going to get the Lions Club to show up if you're not part of it.

Yeah, absolutely.

Mine happens to be coaching, and I come from youth wrestling.

And you've been there?

Oh, yeah, It's.

Oh, it's.

That's awesome.

I got to help Danny a handful of times this.

And I. I was blown away by how many kids showed up.

You know, my.

My son was really nervous at first.

You know, we didn't go any meets, but we just did the practice, and.

And he loved it.

And I said.

And I.

In the back of my mind, I'm like, well, you're not getting a choice, you know, as you get older.

But there's a whole.

But, yeah, it's awesome.

There's a whole group of people there that.

That, like, our board have been doing it for 20 some years.

Wow.

And, like, we.

I mean, we have some of us that will step in, but, like, it's just, you know, they're reluctant because they've seen people come and go that.

That, you know, they'll give five years, which is fine.

Like, if that's all you can give, that's okay.

But, like, you can't run very successful, big things if you don't have the.

If you don't put the real time in.

And volunteering at the smallest level or the biggest level is what it's about.

Like.

Like, if your kid's in a sport, like, I say it now, actually.

So I coached, and, like, I've said it a million times.

I'm like, why.

Why am I the coach?

Like, like, you know, there's.

There's, like.

There's gotta be, like, 10 dads here.

Like.

Yeah.

Where are they?

Like, I don't know any more than them.

I just.

Not for, I mean, wrestling.

I don't even know that much for wrestling, but, like, for, like, football.

And I'm like, you know, there was a group of, like, five the one year.

Where is everybody else?

Where are they?

Yeah.

Even if you don't know, like, hold the pad, you know, I guarantee you, you know more than you think about anything you're doing.

Like, exactly.

That's really the motivation.

Like, I think people just get scared because they don't know about it.

And it's really easy to say, like, oh, I shared that, or I did that.

You know, I, I. I pushed that, or I donated to it.

That's a big one.

And yes, donations are great.

They're great.

But.

But, you know, money and time.

Time is by far the most value of anything that you can give.

There are some giant families in this town that I will say make sure, you know, like, at a minimum, make sure things are funded, you know, but, like, hit, you know, throwing $5 in a bucket versus standing there for an entire day and then collecting that money.

Yeah, it's so different, you know?

Totally different, you know, so.

No, I appreciate that, and I definitely, definitely echo that.

That's just important.

I was actually telling this, I was talking about this class because I just emceed up whitetails here, the spring banquet.

And I was like, you know, just out of curiosity, when's the last time any of you guys did any volunteering?

You know?

And literally, one guy raised his hand, and I'm like, I'm like, man, you guys are 18, 19, 20 years old.

I was like, you know what?

It feels good.

And you're complaining that you have nothing to do on the weekends.

I was like, give back to somebody else.

Help coach.

Help.

Go to St. Vincent de Paul.

Go.

Something like, you know, there is something about helping other people in your community.

And then you start making those connections.

Say the other one is networking.

Yes.

Huge.

You know, I know you have a good voice for.

For microphone.

And I was, well, thank you.

Trying to, you know, while I'm trying to dress up, you know, like, I can't announce the kids coming in and coach wrestling, right?

And I want to make it an event for them.

I want to make it big.

Like, I want to make the Elks have a huge, you know, and that's another organization.

Does a Ton deal.

Yeah, but their tournament.

I want to make a big finals.

I want it to be a big deal.

I want, you know, and then build.

Up that energy and that.

So the beginning was reaching out to you.

And, you know, I know you're a busy guy and you're like, absolutely, but,.

Yeah, no, but I love stuff like that.

And you're literally talking about my number one sport, my favorite sport, which was wrestling.

Like, you perhaps, I took a lot of second places.

You know what I mean?

You know, none of that matters.

No, it doesn't.

But.

But I really believe it made me who I am today.

And it's something that I push on my kids and I push for everybody because I know the benefits of it.

And there's not a sport that you're going to want to quit more than.

Wrestling, but you're going to want to quit everything.

Like, you're going to come.

Even Lion School, you know, you're going to come here.

There's going to be days where it's hard, it's tough.

You're going to a test.

You're going to.

Everything's going to test you.

Everything.

Absolutely.

Like, again, volunteering will get you into some situations you never knew you were even capable.

No.

You know, and sometimes it's not even volunteering, or sometimes it's got monetary value to it.

Like, hey, I saw you were really good at this while you were volunteering at the whatever, church picnic.

Like, you seem like you had a niche there.

I really need somebody, you know, oh, by the way, I can build a wall.

Like, oh, I need a wall built.

You know what I mean?

Perfect.

Like, it's how it works out.

Like, my, you know, I have a neighbor.

He.

He can.

He knows a lot.

And, like, he's a very volunteer guy.

Almost two volunteer guy.

Like, you know, too many people show up like, hey, I need.

Can you do my breaks?

Oh, abso.

And I'm like, yeah, you should probably give him some money.

Yeah.

Can you do my friends, like, whatever.

It is, you know?

And he's.

He's just always like, I know how to do that, you know?

And, like, how do you know how to do that?

And he's like, well, be perfectly honest.

I grew up, you know, we're calling somebody to do it.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

No, I love that.

I love that.

And like, yeah, the networking and the connections, you never know.

You know, Jim Rohn says this is embrace all conversations.

You never know when one is going to turn everything on.

And it's so true.

It's so true.

And you look at and so really be willing to put yourself out there and be able to try new things and get out there and help and volunteer.

I think there's such a huge need for it, to say the least.

So the last question that I'm curious is if you could sit down with your 18 year old self for 5 minutes, what would you tell him?

I know, it's a, that's a hard one.

It is.

So like I accomplished essentially everything I set out to do, whether that was at 18 or not.

And I don't, I said it before, I don't necessarily regret joining the Marine Corps.

It was the greatest thing I've ever done by far.

Set me up for everything.

The only thing I regretted is like when I started making a paycheck doing line work, I was like, I'm 28, man.

I was 18.

I could, you know that I could.

Be living high on the summer way.

Yeah.

Over last 10 years I could be so far ahead.

But then I look at it and I'm like, no, actually I gave this advice to a kid and this is advice that I would have given myself because I, I chose to run down a lot of paths, like get yourself in a position where it's not hurting you to like walk the path.

Path, you know, and I use analogies, right?

So if you're walking, if you run down a path, you're just out for a run on a woods path, you're not going to notice the blueberries here or the raspberries there or this there.

You're just running.

Okay.

You're getting to the goal.

Got to the goal.

Got it.

Okay.

Now it's the next goal.

So I've been, I'm pretty big for that.

I, I get a goal and I just shoot for it.

Shoot for the moon.

Shoot for the moon.

And I've learned now that I should slow down because there's a lot of opportunity, a lot of different things, A lot of things you don't see because you're sprinting down the path.

So when you're 18 years old, you have your whole life ahead of you.

A lot of kids, they go to college and that's the big thing.

If kids don't go to college, they think, they think they're losing already and you're not.

Especially if you're, you know, you deal with a lot of kids that are in the trades like 100%, you will catch them, you will pass them, you know, quickly.

But don't run there.

Just, just walk, learn everything you can Meet everyone.

You can volunteer.

Yeah, you know, make.

Make a lot.

Make a spider web because you're gonna tap them.

I got buddies in every state, so it's super fun.

Whether line work, Marine Corps, National Guard.

I got someone I can meet everywhere.

You know, I got guys that does everything from a diesel mechanic to, like a nurse practitioner, you know, trauma nurse practitioner.

No, I think that that's.

That's amazing.

It's like, enjoy the journey, not the destination.

And I think that's a good advice for everybody.

I'm going to take that advice, you know, because I'm like, you were just running, Running.

It's like, you know, enjoy.

Enjoy the moments that are right in front of you right here, right now.

Because there's.

I forget who says it, but they say, you know, every time you step in the river, you step in at a completely different place, and it's true.

Right.

And so enjoy the journey.

Not necessarily the destination, of course.

You got to have goals and dreams, but enjoy the journey that you're on.

Yeah, just don't.

Don't sprint it.

Walk it.

Yeah, you're gonna get there.

Just walk.

Just walk.

There's times to run, you know, there's times where it's.

Where you can put it on a little bit and you can gain a lot, you know, if it's gonna gain you, like, a substantial amount, well, then, yeah, obviously.

Right, sure.

Don't walk when it's time to run.

You know, make hay when the sun shines.

But like, yes, just relax.

I mean, and then what you put in, there's another big one.

I feel.

My buddy kind of taught me this.

What you put in, you will get back.

It might not be right away.

It might not even be tangible for a long time, but, like, energy you put into people, energy you put into things, you will get it back.

It's definitely a big.

It's a big network.

Everything's a big network.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Well, Johnny, I really appreciate it.

I mean, absolutely amazing talking to you, as always, and I really appreciate you being on with me today.