Speaker 1: I got a team. It's Harps at Stiffanie and Cook.
Speaker 1: It is Justin Renn. I don't know what his middle
Speaker 1: name is. I will find out very quickly. Justin Renn.
Speaker 1: It's us at You. It's the Bloody You Project. We'll
Speaker 1: start with tiff Hi tiv Hi Harps. Well, now I
Speaker 1: want to know his middle name, and you make me wait.
Speaker 1: We'll find out in a minute. But now everyone knows
Speaker 1: that tiff is a pugilist. She loves punching other women
Speaker 1: in the face and periodically some men in the face.
Speaker 1: So you've got you've got You've got another warrior, Christopher,
Speaker 1: it's Christopher. You've got another warrior on the show with you.
Speaker 1: Justin Christopher Wren. That kind of rolls off the tongue,
Speaker 1: don't you think it's good? Tiffany and Cook, Craig, Anthony Harper,
Speaker 1: Justin Christopher Wren. Anyway, Hey mate, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hey, thank you so much for having me. I'm grateful
Speaker 2: to be here with both of you all, and especially
Speaker 2: if Tiffany is a warrior, I'm excited to hear all
Speaker 2: about this too.
Speaker 1: No, she punches girls in the face, mate, she's boys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do yeah, but you don't actually think competition.
Speaker 3: I don't compete against boys. No, no, you just boys
Speaker 3: in the now speaking. Oh no, I can't digress. You
Speaker 3: know the bloke that you punch in the face, that
Speaker 3: wrote a song about you. Yeah, he's singing at the
Speaker 3: Grand Final sure is yeah wow yeah. Justin's like, I
Speaker 3: don't know about what that is.
Speaker 2: I want to hear the song. I want to hear
Speaker 2: this one.
Speaker 4: There's a veryous there's a very there's a very famous
Speaker 4: Australian musician called Mark Seymour and Tiff coaches him and
Speaker 4: punches him in the face.
Speaker 1: And he's just released a new album called The Boxer
Speaker 1: and it's got to her picture on the front and
Speaker 1: the song was written about her. So she thinks she's
Speaker 1: a big deal now. So it's going to be a
Speaker 1: nightmare for the next few months.
Speaker 2: I'm this is virtual, so punch me in the face.
Speaker 1: Hey, Justin, thanks for coming on the You project. Tell
Speaker 1: us where are you at the moment? In the States?
Speaker 1: Where are you and what.
Speaker 2: Time in the Austin Texas. In Austin, Texas, it's about
Speaker 2: four thirty seven pm my time. I guess I'm speaking
Speaker 2: to you all. You otherdear ahead, right, So.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're in the future. We're literally in the future.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the future. Thank you if you want.
Speaker 1: If you want to know what, how is it?
Speaker 2: Well? Is it all harmony?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Friday? That well, we make it to Friday, the
Speaker 1: fifteenth of September. But I cannot guarantee the sixteenth. I mean,
Speaker 1: the world's pretty precarious at the moment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, true, But uh, I think part of my story
Speaker 2: is I've been through big ups, big downs. The fighting
Speaker 2: lifestyle is kind of a roller coaster ride for sure,
Speaker 2: but through that like a surgery, addiction, depression, to suicide attempts.
Speaker 2: But man, what I've what I've found now is like
Speaker 2: I went from fighting against people to fighting for people
Speaker 2: and that really trans transformed my life. And it's been
Speaker 2: a fun transition of really trying to do community community empowerment,
Speaker 2: so not just commune development, but giving them opportunity and
Speaker 2: the people that I know that I'll become my second family,
Speaker 2: that they adopted me in that their tribe, the Pigmy
Speaker 2: people in Africa, the central Central Africa, the Congo bes
Speaker 2: and rainforest and Congo and you Ganda. Men they are
Speaker 2: up against in many ways insurmountable odds, but the way
Speaker 2: they do it together is beautiful. It's incredible, and they
Speaker 2: overcome basically any challenge because they do it together.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm going to try really hard this conversation not
Speaker 1: to reference Rogan too much, but who doesn't love Rogan? Right?
Speaker 1: And I've listened to I reckon fifteen hundred of these episodes,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that's where I met you. I met you
Speaker 1: on Rogan so to speak, and I just love the
Speaker 1: almost the dichotomy of this big, terrifying, strong, violent, in
Speaker 1: a controlled violence way human being, who can you know,
Speaker 1: hurt people for sport and money and well, you know,
Speaker 1: for sport trying not to hurt at them but twe
Speaker 1: I guess, But also at the same time, this big
Speaker 1: compassionate guy that just loves humans and just wants to
Speaker 1: serve and wants to give and wants to protect and
Speaker 1: wants to uplift. It's a real kind of dichotomy. Tell
Speaker 1: us about how you ended up in Uganda and you
Speaker 1: ended up meeting the pygmies and you ended up being
Speaker 1: part of their family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I guess to just hit on the fighting
Speaker 2: a little bit, was I grew up getting very heavily bullied,
Speaker 2: and so they probably just call the Pygmy people some
Speaker 2: of the most oppressed, if not the most oppressed people
Speaker 2: on Earth. So that's a form of bullying, and for me,
Speaker 2: I know what that feels like on a different kind
Speaker 2: of level, but in a relentless kind of way to
Speaker 2: where when I found MMA, I found UFC two through
Speaker 2: eleven at a used VHS store. Actually it was a
Speaker 2: flea market, as we say here in the US, where
Speaker 2: to trash and stolen stuff, and and the VHS tape
Speaker 2: store also sold knives and BB guns and flying squirrels
Speaker 2: and iguanas. So I didn't never really know what I
Speaker 2: walked into. But when I found UFC two through eleven,
Speaker 2: I was like, these guys don't get bullied, and I thought,
Speaker 2: that's what I'm going to do. That's it's funny. I
Speaker 2: wasn't going to show this, but I have. I'm drinking
Speaker 2: from a teenage mutant Ninja turtles.
Speaker 1: Right now, and what is what is in? What is
Speaker 1: in that?
Speaker 2: Oh it's the hard stuff. No, I'm just kidding, I'm sober.
Speaker 2: It's water. It's water, but uh, it's it's tall. So
Speaker 2: that's why I grabbed that when I was looking for
Speaker 2: my water bottle, can find it and the for me,
Speaker 2: like I saw a ninja Turtles and I enjoyed that.
Speaker 2: I loved martial arts. I bought the black Belt magazines
Speaker 2: and recently I got to be on the cover black
Speaker 2: Belt magazine and adducted in the Hall of Fame there,
Speaker 2: which is Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris and those types.
Speaker 2: And yeah, So when I found MMA, I thought, this
Speaker 2: is it, this is this is what I have to do.
Speaker 2: This is my now, it's my identity. If I could
Speaker 2: transform into that, and I won't be bullied or I'll
Speaker 2: have purpose or significant So it was my outlet, my
Speaker 2: original outlet and purpose and passion. But it got to
Speaker 2: a point where I was national champion wrestling getting my
Speaker 2: hand raised, and MMA had wrestled in Moscow, Kickbox in Amsterdam,
Speaker 2: fought at you know, the Hard Rock in Las Vegas
Speaker 2: as the main event and other other places and it
Speaker 2: was all cool and it was good. But for me,
Speaker 2: some reason, I get my hand raised that I think
Speaker 2: is this it is that all? And I just felt
Speaker 2: like there had to be something more, And so that
Speaker 2: was that transition from finance. People are fighting for people.
Speaker 2: I started small, just I believe no active kindness, no
Speaker 2: matter how small. Ever, goe was wasted and I started
Speaker 2: with what was right in front of me, and that
Speaker 2: was a children's hospital I got invited to and it
Speaker 2: was a kid that was injured, but him and his
Speaker 2: family were fight fans and he watched me on The
Speaker 2: Ultimate Fighter. So started there, became an official volunteer, did
Speaker 2: that for a year, started the rescue mission for the
Speaker 2: homeless in Denver. Then it was at Risk Youth group,
Speaker 2: like kind of inner city at risk Youth. Start showing
Speaker 2: him some martial arts, and then I would say about
Speaker 2: a year after sacrificing fighting, I left on a wind
Speaker 2: streak and I said, I need to get my life
Speaker 2: right because the suicide attempt, the addiction. I need to
Speaker 2: live a different kind of life. I'm not proud of
Speaker 2: what I was doing or how I was living. And
Speaker 2: it was like there was no joy. The addiction for
Speaker 2: me felt like I was in a rear naked choke.
Speaker 2: And Tiffany would get this, but there's a body triangle
Speaker 2: where your one arms down and you need two hands
Speaker 2: to fight one hand on a rear naked but if
Speaker 2: they trap your arm in a body triangle and it's
Speaker 2: down by your waist and you only have one hand
Speaker 2: on two arms, it's almost impossible to get out of.
Speaker 2: But addiction felt like there's a body triangle with both
Speaker 2: arms and I couldn't fight at all, and I tried
Speaker 2: everything I could and there's no other way out. And
Speaker 2: for me, man, it was it was purpose through service
Speaker 2: that I would say freed me. And so to get
Speaker 2: to the story of how I got there, Man, I'm
Speaker 2: not very religious, but I said a prayer, God, will
Speaker 2: what do you want me to do with my life?
Speaker 2: And I was saying it to the universe or whatever,
Speaker 2: and I didn't expect the clouds to part or to
Speaker 2: hear anything. But I can compare it to visualization in sports.
Speaker 2: At the Olympic Training Center for wrestling, we had sports
Speaker 2: psychologists taking us through visualization drills. Before my fights. I'd
Speaker 2: go into a float tank and I would spend at
Speaker 2: least ninety minutes in there, sometimes two hours, and I
Speaker 2: would see the fight in my mind a hundred different
Speaker 2: times before I get up, and sometimes it happened just
Speaker 2: like it in a fight. And so, but this was
Speaker 2: not trying to go to a place to visualize anything.
Speaker 2: Wasn't he conjuring anything up. It wasn't like I had
Speaker 2: some preconceived notion in my mind of anything. And I
Speaker 2: saw myself a movie in my mind. I'm in the forest.
Speaker 2: I'm walking down a footpath. I'm clearing vines and thickets
Speaker 2: out of the way. I'm walking and I hear drumming,
Speaker 2: and I'm curious, and I keep walking and I hear
Speaker 2: the singing that's kind of tonal or very unlike anything
Speaker 2: I've ever heard before. And I keep walking and I
Speaker 2: come into a clearing and I see these twiggan leaf
Speaker 2: huts that are in the shape of domes, and they
Speaker 2: have leaves laid over them. And I meet these people
Speaker 2: and we don't talk, but we acknowledge each other. And
Speaker 2: the first guy, I see his coughing and I can
Speaker 2: see his ribs, meaning like almost like a skeleton with
Speaker 2: skin on, and I know that. But he's hungry, thirsty, poor, sick,
Speaker 2: oppressed and slaved that he called someone else's master. And
Speaker 2: I came out of that vision and I felt forgotten,
Speaker 2: Like the word forgotten came to me, like these people
Speaker 2: feel forgotten or that's their identity, whatever it is. When
Speaker 2: I wrote it down, on a piece of paper, and
Speaker 2: I cried unlike I've ever cried at any funeral where
Speaker 2: all the funerals combined, or any heartbreak, and I was
Speaker 2: crying for these people to know who they were, where
Speaker 2: they were, And I thought, this is weird? Am I crazy?
Speaker 2: I've done most every psychedelic ayahuasca and psilocybin and buffo
Speaker 2: and DMT and the list goes on and on, doctor
Speaker 2: guided most of the time, or ketamine therapy, all these things,
Speaker 2: and for me those were good or profound and sometimes spiritual.
Speaker 2: But sometimes I was chasing that in a way of
Speaker 2: like hoping to get some sort of experience, or maybe
Speaker 2: I'd even just say it was in some sense, in
Speaker 2: some way, even in the slightest it was it was manufactured,
Speaker 2: it was chemically induced or whatever. This wasn't so my
Speaker 2: rational mind is like, did you just have some sort
Speaker 2: of psychotic episode or did you just have some sort
Speaker 2: of psychedelic reactivation? Did what's going on? How did that happen?
Speaker 2: And then who are they? Where are they? And I
Speaker 2: wrote it down and then I kind of locked it up,
Speaker 2: saying I'm not going to tell anybody this because they're anything.
Speaker 2: I'm crazy. It would be easier to tell them if
Speaker 2: I was on mushrooms, right. And so when I I
Speaker 2: went to this event and some guy was speaking and
Speaker 2: he shared his story and he had lived with the
Speaker 2: Mossie tribe, the hunted lions, he lived with the Vanawatsu tribe,
Speaker 2: invented bungee jumping, he was friends with bear grills, and
Speaker 2: did survival training all around the world. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: this guy's cool and he's different and I'm never going
Speaker 2: to see him again. He's going to a different state.
Speaker 2: I'm going to a different state, a different place in
Speaker 2: the US, so I can maybe tell him. And there
Speaker 2: was a lion for him, so I said never mind.
Speaker 2: I got a car with my friend. He started up
Speaker 2: the car and then I go, wait, I got to
Speaker 2: go tell this guy something, at least his number, or
Speaker 2: give him mine. And I walked back in and people
Speaker 2: have kind of faded out, and I go up to him, like, hey,
Speaker 2: may can I give you my number? I'd love to
Speaker 2: talk to you sometimes, and he goes, whit you got
Speaker 2: somebody to tell me? Tell me now, and I'm like, uh,
Speaker 2: I don't know, and he's like, no, I've got time
Speaker 2: tell me. And so I started telling the vision, and
Speaker 2: before I'm even at the finish of it, he goes,
Speaker 2: I know who they are and I said what, and
Speaker 2: he goes, they're they're the Pygmy people. And I said who.
Speaker 2: And he goes, they're in the Congo Basin rainforest and
Speaker 2: you've gone to Congo eight or nine African nations and
Speaker 2: I'm like where. And then he goes, I'm going in
Speaker 2: three and a half weeks and you should come with me.
Speaker 2: And I was like what. He goes, I got my
Speaker 2: plane booked, but my team three days ago. This is
Speaker 2: the same day I have the vision. He said, they
Speaker 2: canceled their trip. Well, the rebels took over the airport.
Speaker 2: There was no flights into it anymore. The US State
Speaker 2: Department said no one go there for any reason. People
Speaker 2: were being killed, all sorts of much worse things than that.
Speaker 2: And I was like, hey, maybe we don't need to
Speaker 2: go now. Maybe we can push it back. Maybe maybe
Speaker 2: do this in a year from now when things calm down.
Speaker 2: And he's like, you know what you need it, you
Speaker 2: need to come and tell my wife. And so I
Speaker 2: met his wife. She was pregnant, she had a I
Speaker 2: would say a toddler as well. And I tell her
Speaker 2: and she tells me she told Caleb if he didn't
Speaker 2: get a sign, he wasn't going alone. Wow, And she goes,
Speaker 2: this is that, Caleb, you got to take this guy.
Speaker 2: And I was like, whoa. And then I'm trying to
Speaker 2: tell him wait, let's wait. You're pregnant. You know it's
Speaker 2: not safe over there. And then they started coaching me
Speaker 2: killed and Jess said, if you don't go, you'll never know.
Speaker 2: You always wonder I could have, would have, should have happen?
Speaker 2: And if I wouldn't have taken him up on that
Speaker 2: I can try to sum up the story was saying
Speaker 2: one hundred percent of that vision came true with Caleb
Speaker 2: and another friend named Colin. Wow. They were grabbing me saying,
Speaker 2: this is your vision. It was so surreal. I had
Speaker 2: to take a knee because I was weak in the
Speaker 2: knees looking out at the same exact thing.
Speaker 1: And so you got there justin and you saw physically
Speaker 1: what you'd seen in your vision.
Speaker 2: We were walking down a footpath after we got off
Speaker 2: the planes and drove and slept in a motel that
Speaker 2: had bullet holes in it, and kept driving gotten a
Speaker 2: motorcycle through the rainforest for probably over an hour, probably
Speaker 2: an hour and a half, got a dugout canoe. Its
Speaker 2: crocodile's hippos like, we keep walking, clearing vines and thickets
Speaker 2: out of the way. We hear drumming, keep walking, we
Speaker 2: hear singing, keep walking, come into a clearing first guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can count every rip and he's coughing.
Speaker 2: He's got tuberculosis. Wow, And I just get weakened knees.
Speaker 2: I see the huts, I see the same people. I
Speaker 2: take a knee, and I'm like, this is a I
Speaker 2: know it sounds weird to share, but it doesn't make
Speaker 2: sense to me in my rational mind. But it happened.
Speaker 2: It happened.
Speaker 1: It sounds amazing.
Speaker 2: Do you like?
Speaker 1: In that first A couple of things. Sorry to interrupt, erupt,
Speaker 1: I just so your friends so four weeks ago you
Speaker 1: just justin the dude, right, and then in a few
Speaker 1: weeks lay to you sign your friends, Hi, everyone just
Speaker 1: heading off to the congo check you what? Like, what
Speaker 1: the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 4: Dude?
Speaker 1: Relaxed, You're like, oh, no, it's okay. I had a
Speaker 1: vision and I met these people.
Speaker 2: They're like, no, I didn't tell people the vision, but
Speaker 2: I did make a post on Facebook, and I don't
Speaker 2: even think that would account exist anymore. But I put
Speaker 2: a post saying, Hey, I'm going on this scout trip
Speaker 2: to see if there's any way to help, and I
Speaker 2: made a post about the story I saw. I think
Speaker 2: there's thirty four confirm counts of cannibalism against the Pygmy
Speaker 2: people from the rebel groups and this is awful, awful.
Speaker 2: They're drinking from their skulls before they go into battle,
Speaker 2: thinking that their bullets fly right through them, and all
Speaker 2: sorts of stuff. And I don't know if I posted
Speaker 2: that article or another one, but the guy that called
Speaker 2: me and said he would pay for my flight was
Speaker 2: a heavyweight that I had fought previously. It was my
Speaker 2: fight right before I went, and I had knocked him out. Wow.
Speaker 2: And he calls me with his wife and says, we're
Speaker 2: gonna pay for your trip to go.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what just crazy stuff happened? That lined up?
Speaker 2: My passport was messed up, and I went, I googled
Speaker 2: it and there's only like three or four or five
Speaker 2: places in the US that like print your pass support there,
Speaker 2: but then they always mail it to you. I walk
Speaker 2: in and the lady says, what are you doing? Why
Speaker 2: do you need this? It looks like you need a
Speaker 2: quick turnaround. I do need a quick turnaround. And I said,
Speaker 2: I'm just going on this trip, and I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm supposed to go. She said, I go sit over there,
Speaker 2: and she brings it to me warm like thirty minutes later,
Speaker 2: here's your passport. I'm like, what is this all kind
Speaker 2: of lining up and happening. And so I'll tell you
Speaker 2: the part that I really I normally don't even share
Speaker 2: this part on shows or podcasts, but this one I
Speaker 2: don't know if I've ever shared.
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 2: Told Caleb on one of the last days because we
Speaker 2: met slave master saying, what are you here doing with
Speaker 2: my property? I own these people. Or we saw people
Speaker 2: that were really sick and dying, didn't have clean water
Speaker 2: and all sorts of stuff, and we asked what they need?
Speaker 2: It was land, water, food, freedom, housing, education, healthcare, all
Speaker 2: the stuff that I'm a fighter, What am I going
Speaker 2: to do? This problem is huge. I'm small. I'm a
Speaker 2: big guy, but I'm small compared to the problem, right,
Speaker 2: And so I told Caleb, I go, dude, I don't
Speaker 2: think I can do anything. Here is it, but you
Speaker 2: had a vision. I'm like, man, I don't know. You know,
Speaker 2: if they can give me one thing practical, one thing
Speaker 2: that's sustainable, one thing that I can actually do, maybe
Speaker 2: I'll do it. And I'm like, but I need a
Speaker 2: sign of some sort. And he goes, are you are
Speaker 2: you crazy? You had a vision and it came true.
Speaker 2: What more do you need exactly? And I said, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I go, I'll tell you the visual I get.
Speaker 2: Anyone I don't care who they are, could try to
Speaker 2: dedicate their whole life to this thing and it would
Speaker 2: be like empting the ocean with an eye dropper, And
Speaker 2: you know, would it ever make a difference? Would they
Speaker 2: ever notice? Would I ever notic? Would anybody ever notice?
Speaker 2: And he changed my perspective real quick, He said, bro,
Speaker 2: you have the wrong perspective. He said you Every single
Speaker 2: one of those drops represents a human heart and a
Speaker 2: human soul in a human life. So yeah, it matters.
Speaker 2: Every single one matters. And I was just like, WHOA.
Speaker 2: So I said, okay, but man, if it would be
Speaker 2: really helpful, I she just got like one more thing
Speaker 2: to hang on to. And he still thought I was
Speaker 2: it's crazy and kind of got frustrated with me, and
Speaker 2: the last day we were saying bye, and the chief
Speaker 2: pulls us over to the side and he said, everyone
Speaker 2: else calls us the forest people, but we call ourselves
Speaker 2: the forgotten. Same thing I wrote down on a piece
Speaker 2: of paper that's in my backpack. We call ourselves the forgotten.
Speaker 2: We don't have a voice? Can you help us have one?
Speaker 2: And then I thought I'm a special guy at all.
Speaker 2: But he specifically asked me, and you brought up Rogan.
Speaker 2: I knew Rogan. I thought I have some sort of
Speaker 2: platform in a Western nation, we have free speech. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I can do that.
Speaker 1: And that's interesting, dude, Like you've literally you've told the world.
Speaker 1: I mean you've told the world. You've opened this door
Speaker 1: that wasn't open. You've brought all this awareness, all this insight,
Speaker 1: all this compassion, and on a practical level, all this money,
Speaker 1: you know, to help these people on a practical, fundamental level,
Speaker 1: it's you don't. You don't. You didn't. You just needed
Speaker 1: to open the door. You just needed to bring awareness.
Speaker 1: And it's fucking amazing. I feel like that vision of yours,
Speaker 1: that was a responsibility that you were given. You know,
Speaker 1: that's like wow, Like, if that is what it is,
Speaker 1: whatever we want to call that, wherever that came from,
Speaker 1: if that's from God, if that's some spiritual download, if
Speaker 1: that's whatever that is man that is that is a
Speaker 1: It's kind of a gift and a burden all at
Speaker 1: the same time.
Speaker 2: Well, I tried never to think of it as a burden.
Speaker 2: There's been hard times, for sure, but it's the gift
Speaker 2: that keeps on giving. Yeah, in way that when I
Speaker 2: had malaria the first time, I'm a mama's boy, my
Speaker 2: mom got scared. I'm on a sat phone, I'm sleeping
Speaker 2: on the dirt, I'm under a four foot tall roof
Speaker 2: that's tweeting leaves. I'm throwing up red and green, it's
Speaker 2: blood and bio, it's it's uh. I'm losing my perifield vision.
Speaker 2: It's just tunnel vision, and that's completely blurry. I hear
Speaker 2: the sound of a bees hive in my ears. They
Speaker 2: can't get any I did go to a clinic that
Speaker 2: was down the street, but there wasn't even a bed,
Speaker 2: and they're trying to get IVS in me. They can't
Speaker 2: do it. All my veins are collapsing. They misdiagnosed me
Speaker 2: three times thought I had typhoid and instead I had malaria,
Speaker 2: where I might have had both, but my mom was like,
Speaker 2: come home. We got this whatever insurance or whatever it costs,
Speaker 2: like just come home. Like there's good doctors here. But
Speaker 2: the thing I went directly back to was the vision.
Speaker 2: Like I had a vision, it came true. Now I'm here.
Speaker 2: Now am I going to run? And doctors in the
Speaker 2: Western world or the US at least, they don't know
Speaker 2: how to treat malaria very well? These people go through
Speaker 2: it every day, and so I'm gonna have a better
Speaker 2: shot here. So there's been times where yeah, we've raised
Speaker 2: quite a bit of money, but also like we're small nonprofit.
Speaker 2: We have two people stateside and we have a team
Speaker 2: in Africa. But you know, whenever there's been one time
Speaker 2: and I don't think i've shared this egither that the
Speaker 2: board of directors they all love me, support me everything,
Speaker 2: but we have a big mouthpiece. But we didn't have
Speaker 2: like a full bank account, right, it was like almost nothing,
Speaker 2: and they're like, we might need to hand this thing off,
Speaker 2: or we might need to shut this thing down. They're
Speaker 2: just like we had a vision. I had a vision,
Speaker 2: and whether we have to do two point zero in
Speaker 2: the organization, like we'll do two point oh, we'll start
Speaker 2: something else if we have to, or I will. And
Speaker 2: I think they needed to hear that because things are moving.
Speaker 2: Were trying to get our monthly donors up so we
Speaker 2: can plan budget scale because our biggest project ever's happening now.
Speaker 2: And just to say the vision part, the original vision
Speaker 2: of actual work was thirty acres of land on two
Speaker 2: in two water wells, So two water wells and thirty
Speaker 2: acres of land. It has now become more than three
Speaker 2: thousand acres of land. Wow, that they legally own. It's
Speaker 2: eighty three water wells with eighty fourth being drilled right now.
Speaker 2: It's six hundred and fifty one people that have transitioned
Speaker 2: out of a literal life of slavery and into freedom.
Speaker 2: But it's over fifty two thousand people that have gained
Speaker 2: access to clean water because they have access to the tools,
Speaker 2: and they have the education now the knowledge in their mind,
Speaker 2: and they've been empowered to be the change in their
Speaker 2: own community. So they drill the wells, they maintenance the wells.
Speaker 2: It's their business. And that's been job creation through sustainable
Speaker 2: agriculture and starting up farms and building thirty five family homes.
Speaker 2: But it's those families that built them for themselves. And
Speaker 2: then now it's growing into a health center and a
Speaker 2: school and a community hub. And my meeting earlier today
Speaker 2: was about the sustainable fish pond with catfish and bee keeping.
Speaker 2: The beehives are on their way. It's just it's blossomed.
Speaker 2: It's really been cool.
Speaker 1: Hey, mate, I wanted to that is so good in
Speaker 1: congratulations and I know you don't more congratulations, but obviously
Speaker 1: you were embraced understandably by the pygmies and within the
Speaker 1: tribe and the culture, and they love you, of course.
Speaker 1: What about externally? What about the government? What about the
Speaker 1: other tribes?
Speaker 2: What about.
Speaker 1: Was there any resistance for what you were doing outside
Speaker 1: of the tribe.
Speaker 2: Sure, yes, I've been held at gunpoint twice. I've taken
Speaker 2: numerous women to the hospital after being getting raped and
Speaker 2: terrible things. Well, there's been there's been resistance, there's been corruption.
Speaker 2: But I think and I really believe this over the
Speaker 2: last twelve years, doing this consistently and not being a
Speaker 2: fly and fly out organization, yeah, but being one that
Speaker 2: everybody we can trust, meaning we don't help one side
Speaker 2: and hurt the other, or help one side and neglect
Speaker 2: the other, love one side and hate the other's. We
Speaker 2: this is a community project for building better lives for
Speaker 2: the Pigmy people and their neighbors. And so the clean water.
Speaker 2: I've been to the funeral at least five children under
Speaker 2: the age of five that were just because of water
Speaker 2: borne disease that were the slave master tripes. So they're
Speaker 2: living on about a dollar to a dollar fifty a day,
Speaker 2: dollar to a dollar twenty five per day, and so
Speaker 2: they're facing extreme poverty when they can't send a child
Speaker 2: to school because that child has to collect clean water
Speaker 2: during the day or dirty water, but walking six miles
Speaker 2: for it or six kilometers let me say that instead.
Speaker 2: But because that's the actual fact. But when the wife
Speaker 2: can't go to work in they're single income family, yeah,
Speaker 2: because she has to collect water. Or let's go even
Speaker 2: deeper into it. We've done studies or little surveys whenever
Speaker 2: you're a single income family, because the life has to
Speaker 2: go collect water. But now the breadwinner has to spend
Speaker 2: half of their annual income to treat the family. This
Speaker 2: is about a dollar one hundred and sixty five dollars
Speaker 2: a year on water borne disease treatment just to keep
Speaker 2: on survived, Like, this isn't to thrive. This is to survive.
Speaker 2: You're taking the pills and you're washing it down with
Speaker 2: dirty water, which is going to make you sick again.
Speaker 2: So now you've got double income family and you're keeping
Speaker 2: it all. Yeah, because you have access to clean water
Speaker 2: and you can buy the medication to get the parasites
Speaker 2: or whatever out of your system.
Speaker 1: That's amizing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wanted to know on a tangent. We'll come back
Speaker 1: to that.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're great.
Speaker 1: I wanted to know how's your body holding up? Has
Speaker 1: what do you like, thirty five or six? Now thirty
Speaker 1: six has a body? Dude?
Speaker 2: You know it's it's a challenge. I went last time
Speaker 2: and I couldn't believe it. It was one of my
Speaker 2: shortest trips ever. And I started it with malaria and
Speaker 2: finished it with malaria. So started with it and brought
Speaker 2: it home and so the plane ride back wasn't fun.
Speaker 2: But that was my That was I guess total five
Speaker 2: times having it and that's over the course of twelve years, right,
Speaker 2: so it's not really that that many times, but that
Speaker 2: has you know, I'm doing a lot of things. I
Speaker 2: could point my camera outside and you could see my
Speaker 2: my ice bath right there. You know. The theory, at
Speaker 2: least from whim Hoff is is a tropical disease. Get
Speaker 2: as cold as you can, as much as you can, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and as long as you can. And so I tend
Speaker 2: to think it's it's helping. It helps my mental health,
Speaker 2: it helps my body, it helps everything. I think I
Speaker 2: just got out of it not too long ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my spars are great, I mean physiologically, psychologically, great
Speaker 1: for your brain, great for inflammation, they're great for energy.
Speaker 1: Do you ever feel do you ever feel like the
Speaker 1: weight of responsibility? Does that get to you like with
Speaker 1: or is that more like a responsibility that you enjoy
Speaker 1: or is it is it peaks and trust for you
Speaker 1: in terms of the management and the growth and the
Speaker 1: kind of the building of the awareness around your your organization.
Speaker 2: It'd see, great question. I haven't been asked this before,
Speaker 2: and so thank you. I would say. At first, being young,
Speaker 2: right like twenty three years old or twenty four years
Speaker 2: old starting this out three, it was it was a
Speaker 2: it was a joy like that that was really fun. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and then whenever addiction actually creeped back up, So I
Speaker 2: think it probably had something to do with malaria and
Speaker 2: another surgery. I had cerebral malaria, so I had to
Speaker 2: take these pills that can mimic PTSD and so I
Speaker 2: had to basically poison my brain to kill the parasites
Speaker 2: in my brain, and then a shoulder surgery back on
Speaker 2: oxy again. I think I really felt the weight and responsibility,
Speaker 2: like I was failing them whenever I when I sunk
Speaker 2: back into addiction, and so that I would say added
Speaker 2: onto like shame and condemnation and other things like you
Speaker 2: have purpose now, how could you ever struggle with this again?
Speaker 2: And you have something to live for? And they changed
Speaker 2: your life and basically they saved your life the first time?
Speaker 2: How could you ever let them down like this? So
Speaker 2: I've gotten to a much healthier place where like it's
Speaker 2: not on me, it's on all of us. And there's
Speaker 2: there's wa Healy proverb. If you want to go fast,
Speaker 2: go alone, If you want to go far, go together.
Speaker 2: It's like this takes it. I get to be the mouthpiece,
Speaker 2: and I do get to be boots on the ground,
Speaker 2: and I get to be the fundraiser and founder and CEO.
Speaker 2: So there's there's a way of responsibility and make sure
Speaker 2: things go. But it's a it's a it's a real pleasure.
Speaker 2: So my thing with overcoming the process of overcoming addiction,
Speaker 2: I think is a daily one. But I've gotten to
Speaker 2: a place where I feel like I don't want to
Speaker 2: be in a Dangerson saying I'm good, But I've gotten
Speaker 2: to a place where it feels good to feel good.
Speaker 2: And it feels different this time, honestly. So the mind
Speaker 2: process there was like, hey, you can't just always give
Speaker 2: it away. Yes, you also have to take some for yourself,
Speaker 2: fill your tank or be connected to the source. So
Speaker 2: whatever that source is, source of love or whatever, like,
Speaker 2: don't you just give it away allow some of that
Speaker 2: self love to come in itself. Really, I had to
Speaker 2: learn to love myself like my life depends on it
Speaker 2: why because it does. And then to face it all,
Speaker 2: feel it all, because that's where magic happens. And I
Speaker 2: think that's the birthplace of miracles. And at least in
Speaker 2: your own life is like facing it all, feeling it
Speaker 2: all because you can. I think I saw probably a
Speaker 2: cheesy poster at rehabit right, it's like fear face or
Speaker 2: fear everything and run or face everything and Russ, you know,
Speaker 2: and you can take that as cheesy, but it's something
Speaker 2: to me at that time, and it's like, I've got
Speaker 2: to tackle this thing to become the man I want
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: And also, you know, the thing is that if you can't,
Speaker 1: if you can't manage you like you need to look
Speaker 1: after you first, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, socially, whatever that
Speaker 1: means for you. Because if you're in a great place,
Speaker 1: you know, if justin is well and healthy and somewhat
Speaker 1: optimal for your capacity, then you can go and do
Speaker 1: the things that you need to do. But if you
Speaker 1: get out of bed and you're a two out of
Speaker 1: ten before you start the day, you can't be a
Speaker 1: great leader. You can't be a great mentor or facilitator
Speaker 1: or whatever the role is. Yeah, that's why. And I
Speaker 1: think some people who are like you, that are compassionate
Speaker 1: and giving and you have a purpose bigger than yourself,
Speaker 1: sometimes feel guilty to look after yourself first, but you're
Speaker 1: actually looking after everyone else as well, because if you
Speaker 1: can show up and you're in a great space literally
Speaker 1: and metaphorically and physiologically emotionally, then you can serve optimally
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: That's a great way to think about it. I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got to be filmfish to be generous, dude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I love that because I think I probably
Speaker 2: had some default probably becomes a self worth and other
Speaker 2: things that was like, that's an excuse or that can
Speaker 2: be other people's excuse, but it's not to be mine.
Speaker 2: But because of that outlook, like that's whenever the crash
Speaker 2: and burn would happen and burnout or compassion fatigue. And
Speaker 2: I don't really think I got compassion fatigue, but I
Speaker 2: definitely got burned out. But it was it's been such
Speaker 2: a fun journey to look back on and go, wow,
Speaker 2: it's still going. Like when COVID happened, I was able
Speaker 2: to be boots on the ground. I wasn't able to
Speaker 2: go for two years. They're basically shut down two years,
Speaker 2: and well, are you kidding? This is like going into
Speaker 2: the rainforest or the mountains, Like how can I not
Speaker 2: come into the country. But it was it was an
Speaker 2: opportunity for the team to show that they can thrive
Speaker 2: and still accomplish goals, and they made great strides, strides
Speaker 2: that whenever I went back, I was blown away at
Speaker 2: how much progress had been made, both physically like the
Speaker 2: structures and the water towers and solar and everything else.
Speaker 2: How they made progress like together and emotionally and as
Speaker 2: a tea, and how they gelled and became even stronger
Speaker 2: through it all. I was like, as a means, I.
Speaker 1: Want to know a little bit about how the bullying
Speaker 1: led into the wrestling. Where did the addiction start?
Speaker 2: Like, was that.
Speaker 1: I've never used I've never been drunk, I've never used drugs.
Speaker 1: Like I'm the most boring person on the planet, but.
Speaker 2: It's actually pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's just my background. I didn't grow
Speaker 1: up with access to that, which is probably good for
Speaker 1: me because I probably would have been a world champion alcoholic,
Speaker 1: I assume, because I'm a bit manic with things. But
Speaker 1: was opening that door? Was that part of getting out
Speaker 1: of pain? Was that part of avoiding the the emotional
Speaker 1: angst around bullying or some kind of other pain in
Speaker 1: your life? Like where did that start?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I would I would say that that not not
Speaker 2: everyone with trauma becomes an addict, because we all have trauma,
Speaker 2: but every addict has trauma. Yeah, So I would say that, yes,
Speaker 2: I could lead back to that for sure, but I
Speaker 2: would say that I was straight laced through my wrestling
Speaker 2: career where I had a goal and I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: take a sip of alcohol until I won a national championship.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Then when I won that national championship, it was a
Speaker 2: it was a it was a big championship like cup
Speaker 2: where you could fill it vodka. So well, I thought
Speaker 2: I thought I had thirty shots of vodka, but the
Speaker 2: adults all around, like there were the people that had
Speaker 2: drank much more than me, filled the bottle with water
Speaker 2: after that, after fifteen. So probably from the very get go,
Speaker 2: I was an alcoholic, but I would say the addiction
Speaker 2: didn't set in until surgery and I got caught in
Speaker 2: the opioid epidemic where I had three doctors given me
Speaker 2: hundreds of oxy cotton at a time. Well, and so
Speaker 2: one would let me make sure that's correct, but I
Speaker 2: had one that would give me ninety one. They give
Speaker 2: me one hundred and twenty and one. Yeah, they'd give
Speaker 2: me a hundred and eighty. It's not on hundreds, but
Speaker 2: I would in a month, I would have a few hundred.
Speaker 2: And it was I was told it wasn't addictive and
Speaker 2: I could operate a lot better than drinking. I was like, whoa,
Speaker 2: there's no hangover. And since I had a serious surgery
Speaker 2: and there was only a thirty percent chance I ever
Speaker 2: compete again. And this happened before my fight career. I
Speaker 2: was living athletic training center. I just you know, it
Speaker 2: takes eight or nine days to get hooked on that stuff,
Speaker 2: and I had it for at least eight weeks or
Speaker 2: three months post surgery, and then they just kept giving
Speaker 2: it to me. They never they never backed it down.
Speaker 2: So I became both I liked it because of the
Speaker 2: way it made me feel, but I also became chemically
Speaker 2: dependent and actually physically needed it in my system because
Speaker 2: when I didn't, I went through horrific withdrawals, meaning I
Speaker 2: was laying in bed, I felt like I was going
Speaker 2: to shake. I would have to move the mattress back
Speaker 2: on the buck springs because of how much I was shaking,
Speaker 2: or I was sweating almost through the mattress, and I
Speaker 2: was eating a salad like good would fall off the
Speaker 2: fork because of how much I was shaking.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy that they like not only I mean,
Speaker 1: they told you it's not addictive, that you can't get addicted,
Speaker 1: but not only is that not true, it's the opposite.
Speaker 1: It's possibly the most addictive comp pound in the world.
Speaker 2: Right, I don't watch that new thing that came out.
Speaker 2: I forget what it was called.
Speaker 1: Yeah it's on Netflix, and yeah.
Speaker 2: Frederick or something, and yeah, yeah, that means my stomach
Speaker 2: durre in every episode, and said, I think I.
Speaker 1: Heard Rogan the other day too. I think they said
Speaker 1: it's like they know that, is it? More than six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand people have died due to addiction, you know.
Speaker 2: I think it's over three hundred thousand a year, LEAs
Speaker 2: over three undred thousand a year through like prescriptions, and
Speaker 2: so it's it's it's gnarly. Yeah, I would say, let's
Speaker 2: give him the benefit of doubt. One one or two
Speaker 2: doctor says it's the least addictive, and the one or
Speaker 2: two of them told me it is not addictive. So
Speaker 2: I had one kind of as a voice of reason
Speaker 2: at least. But I didn't hear that. I heard it's
Speaker 2: not addictive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know it's crazy. Hey, we know you've got it,
Speaker 1: probably heaps to do, so we won't keep you for
Speaker 1: too much longer. But I listened to you chatting recently
Speaker 1: with another podcast. I'm not sure of his name, but
Speaker 1: I heard you just I would love you to share
Speaker 1: this story if you could briefly about so last time
Speaker 1: you went on Rogan, you reached out to him, correct
Speaker 1: me if I fuck any of this up, But you
Speaker 1: reached out to him and you went, I've got a
Speaker 1: story I haven't shared, and he went, come on, and
Speaker 1: you wanted to talk about your suicide attempt or you
Speaker 1: wanted to open that door around that suicide conversation and
Speaker 1: kind of got into the show with him, and you're
Speaker 1: sitting there, and then you went, do I really want
Speaker 1: to open this door? Do I really want to have
Speaker 1: this conversation? And you said he was kind of throwing
Speaker 1: you the softballs, and you were kind of ducking and
Speaker 1: weaving and asking him stuff and just talking about shit
Speaker 1: that you didn't actually go on to talk about, and
Speaker 1: like you had kind of some level of hesitation, and
Speaker 1: then he essentially went, dude, what do you want to
Speaker 1: talk about? And then out of that the Brooklyn Bridge
Speaker 1: guy and all of that. If you could, I just
Speaker 1: love that I sat there. I was blown away by
Speaker 1: that story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I will let's see, I probably can't pull
Speaker 2: up the picture but he's a friend now and Chris, right,
Speaker 2: what's that? Chris? Chris, Chris, And so anyways I went
Speaker 2: into the show and probably nine days before, a week
Speaker 2: before I Texas Joe and so come on. And so
Speaker 2: when I got in there, though, this is ill part
Speaker 2: of the pandemic, and at least the tail end, and
Speaker 2: someone in the studio tested positive that shouldn't have been around, probably,
Speaker 2: And so Joe got a little flustered, not flustered at down,
Speaker 2: He's just like, hey, his wife was going to bring
Speaker 2: him a care package. They're going to take care of
Speaker 2: them all this stuff, but like, hey, be be careful
Speaker 2: because like we've got guests and things. So right when
Speaker 2: that happened, I started going aboard some reason, some reason
Speaker 2: that triggered. It wasn't anything big at all, It wasn't
Speaker 2: anything big, but for me it was like, you know
Speaker 2: what what am I doing? Am I really going to
Speaker 2: share this in front of the whole world and in
Speaker 2: front of Joe? And as a founder of a nonprofit
Speaker 2: like am I going to lose faith and trust and donors?
Speaker 2: And are they going to think I'm not the right guy?
Speaker 2: And so I literally started going through highlight reels but
Speaker 2: I'd already been on the show eight times. This is
Speaker 2: my ninth time, and I'm like all the stories in
Speaker 2: my head in that moment, like we're all blending together.
Speaker 2: I think I did share that one. Yeah, I shared
Speaker 2: this one at that one And what do we gotten
Speaker 2: new in the tank? And where's the highlight reel I
Speaker 2: can just pull out of my ass basically, yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And we sat down and I wouldn't do it. I
Speaker 2: was determined to become the interviewer. Hey, I'm starting a
Speaker 2: podcast anyways, I'm going to interview Joe or something and
Speaker 2: and yeah. It then the thought came in my mind
Speaker 2: when Joe said, come on, man, because I was I
Speaker 2: think he could tell I was like sweat and that
Speaker 2: wasn't myself, And it was like, if it just helps
Speaker 2: one person, do it, you know, it's just for one
Speaker 2: do it just.
Speaker 1: Quickly, just quickly. What was your hesitation? What was the
Speaker 1: fear was it? Was it that you would basically damage
Speaker 1: the organization? Is it that you would.
Speaker 2: Well, sure, I mean I think probably at every for
Speaker 2: the most part, human beings can have just a fear
Speaker 2: of man, what are people going to think?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What the added to it is is knowing how to
Speaker 2: donate anymore. I didn't clear this with my board of directors,
Speaker 2: which they're great, they're super supportive, but at the same time, like,
Speaker 2: if I fuck up on that large of a scale,
Speaker 2: is this gonna is this going to come back and
Speaker 2: bite me in the organization? By me sharing the stories
Speaker 2: are going to hurt people and so so I I
Speaker 2: was like, now if I'm not doing it, then it
Speaker 2: was like it's going to help one person. Go ahead,
Speaker 2: and I shared and I got off there and I
Speaker 2: thought all I could replay was I bombed, I bombed,
Speaker 2: it sucked, I'm never going to go.
Speaker 1: Back again, or whatever, the biggest in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, And I went in. I went in deep
Speaker 2: about my suicide attempt and when where I was, how
Speaker 2: I did it and then trying to get help out
Speaker 2: of it. And I don't think I was fully I
Speaker 2: believed what I was saying, But now I believe it
Speaker 2: a whole lot more so if I shared it now,
Speaker 2: I think that story is much different, framed differently. Yeah,
Speaker 2: But that day I got a text message or an
Speaker 2: Instagram message. It was January twenty seventh, and I missed
Speaker 2: it because it was on Instagram and after a Rogan episode.
Speaker 2: Your request box it only holds ninety nine. It doesn't
Speaker 2: do a ninety nine plus thing. So you check it
Speaker 2: every hour and it's just like whoo and check it
Speaker 2: in and it's all new ones. Yeah. So I completely
Speaker 2: missed it until he was going to message me back again.
Speaker 2: And months go by. I go to the Conor McGregor,
Speaker 2: Dustin poort a fight. Dustin's raising funds for US. Manny
Speaker 2: Pack was there. He's raising funds for a Fight for
Speaker 2: the Forgotten. And I go live on Instagram and they say, hey,
Speaker 2: scroll through here, You've got to see this message, and
Speaker 2: so all of the comments were, go read this one comment.
Speaker 2: So I scrolled up, looked at it, and it was
Speaker 2: this guy that said, on January twenty seventh, I was
Speaker 2: walking to the Brooklyn Bridge to jump off and take
Speaker 2: my life. But I got a notification on my phone
Speaker 2: Jor Organ dropped a new episode. I listened, thank you
Speaker 2: for sharing your story. It stopped me from jumping and
Speaker 2: I was like, WHOA. So I read that told him
Speaker 2: to reach out. I would I would love to talk
Speaker 2: to you someday. He reached out and I saw the
Speaker 2: old message and I was like, holy smokes. So he
Speaker 2: connected once or twice months go by again and I'm
Speaker 2: on it. It's a gym here in the US and
Speaker 2: in Austin, and I'm working out and I'm leaving to
Speaker 2: go to jiu jitsu and I bled a little early
Speaker 2: and I hear footsteps running up on me and I
Speaker 2: turn around and I get bear hugged and it's a guy.
Speaker 2: It goes, I'm the guy, I'm the guy, and it's
Speaker 2: a sweaty hug. And I came in helped me out.
Speaker 2: What's that mean? And he said the Brooklyn Bridge And
Speaker 2: I just grabbed him and pulled him back even tighter,
Speaker 2: even sweat air, and just hugged him. And we took
Speaker 2: a picture of me raising his hands. And he's a champ.
Speaker 2: And what's crazy about that is you know he was
Speaker 2: in New York. He used to work on Wall Street.
Speaker 2: Pandemic hits, he ends up relapsing, He ends up going
Speaker 2: from Wall Street to homeless and Harlem.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Then he gets attacked in Harlem and he gets hit
Speaker 2: with four metal baseball bat or a metal baseball bat
Speaker 2: four times.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: There's like seven guys like that jump to me that
Speaker 2: he can remember. And so he was an ICU, and
Speaker 2: when he got out of ICU, he just was walking
Speaker 2: from one hundred and first to the Brooklyn Bridge, so
Speaker 2: like an hour hour and a half. And he said,
Speaker 2: right whenever his feet hit the like wooden planks at
Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Bridge, Joe's asking me, you know, come on, man,
Speaker 2: would you would you come here to share? Yeah, and
Speaker 2: then go into it right whenever he's on the bridge.
Speaker 2: And so he said he was listening to it just
Speaker 2: to drown out his dark, dark thoughts because he knew
Speaker 2: what he was going to do. So him and I
Speaker 2: connect The next day, I speak out of rehab a
Speaker 2: treatment center. I share a little bit of my story.
Speaker 2: I see that he messaged me on Instagram again. I
Speaker 2: check it and he says, can you send me that
Speaker 2: picture of us together? I send it to him. But
Speaker 2: then I start talking and the young man the first
Speaker 2: question in the Q and A says, yesterday we heard
Speaker 2: about vulnerability. Today we heard about synchronicity. Now I've wanted
Speaker 2: to be he said. He has always wanted to share
Speaker 2: that he wanted to be an MMA fighter, and now
Speaker 2: there's a MMA fighter who's being vulnerable sitting right in
Speaker 2: front of him in a rehab where he thought he
Speaker 2: was going to be like punished and stuff. So I'm like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: you want to talk about synchronicity and vulnerability, Like I
Speaker 2: got vulnerable and I said it was just for one.
Speaker 2: Well guess what, yesterday I met my one and that
Speaker 2: synchronicity it happens. So then I'm walking out to the
Speaker 2: car and this guy runs up on me and i'd
Speaker 2: shared I shared one moment just because he had messaged me,
Speaker 2: and he said, ah, man, I'm embarrassed about my teeth.
Speaker 2: Nineteen teeth were damaged or missing and from the baseball bat.
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, hey man, you know teeth
Speaker 2: or small potatoes. We can figure that out. There's emplay,
Speaker 2: there's there's other stuff that can happen. I just messaging that.
Speaker 2: I get to the car and a guy runs up
Speaker 2: on me and he goes, hey, synchronicity, I'm going to
Speaker 2: be vulnerable with you. Yesterday I was hired by a
Speaker 2: dentist who wants to restore people's smiles. Uh. He asked
Speaker 2: me to find the first guy. Chris might be the guy,
Speaker 2: and I'm like what, So we drive, I get in
Speaker 2: hit his car. We drive to the dentist office and
Speaker 2: we tell him the story. He's the highest rated dentist
Speaker 2: in Austin five thousand and five stars or something like that,
Speaker 2: and he treats Hollywood people and we tell him the story,
Speaker 2: and he goes, I'm gonna fix this guy's teeth. He
Speaker 2: happened to be a triathlete. So I bring him to
Speaker 2: on it and we're working out, and I pair Chris
Speaker 2: and him and me together. So Chris is holding the
Speaker 2: dentist's feet while he's doing push ups. They're they're they're
Speaker 2: working out together, and we have this big surprise platform
Speaker 2: right afterwards. And so right after he goes gets in
Speaker 2: the dentist chair, we celebrate, We throw him over our shoulders.
Speaker 2: We'd go that dude was a warrior. The next two
Speaker 2: days he sat in the dentist chair for ten hours straight.
Speaker 2: It was like a NASCAR pit crew changing tires and
Speaker 2: changing teeth and it was insane. You hat like a
Speaker 2: brand new smile that costs over one hundred thousand dollars,
Speaker 2: And that wasn't That wasn't the finishing part of the story.
Speaker 2: Like I get invited by Teddy Atlas to go to
Speaker 2: New York days later and I'm like, Teddy, can I
Speaker 2: bring a friend? He goes yeah. So I'm like, Chris,
Speaker 2: if you want to go back to New York, like,
Speaker 2: what did the Brooklyn Bridge used to mean to you? Oh?
Speaker 2: It's iconic, it's home, it's it's our symbol as New
Speaker 2: Parker's I'm like, well, you want to go take back
Speaker 2: that ground because what does it mean to you now?
Speaker 2: He's like, it's the darkest place in my history. I'm like,
Speaker 2: let's go take back that ground and write a new story.
Speaker 2: And so we flew up there. We did the same walk,
Speaker 2: we went to the same hospital, we did the walk,
Speaker 2: and while we're on the bridge, you know, he's a
Speaker 2: little bit of trembling, but hey, man, face it, I'll
Speaker 2: feel it all. That's where the magic happens and good
Speaker 2: stuff's going on from here. This is in your past.
Speaker 2: You know you got a new future. A guy stops
Speaker 2: us and ask Chris, is that justin Rinn from Joe
Speaker 2: Rogan's show. I got something to tell him And he's
Speaker 2: like yeah. So he starts telling me the story. I
Speaker 2: won't use his name. He was in the US military,
Speaker 2: served with like Jocko Willink and some other guys and
Speaker 2: he tells me the story. On January twenty seventh, he
Speaker 2: was in Mexico, same exact town as me, and was
Speaker 2: getting ready to take his life, but since I named
Speaker 2: that place, he decided not to do it. Wow, And
Speaker 2: Chris just grabs him by the shoulders and goes, I
Speaker 2: was right here, right here. Yeah, And I'm looking at
Speaker 2: these two guys because I'm like, well, Chris was my one,
Speaker 2: but you're the other one, and like, what you know,
Speaker 2: how does this stuff happen?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fucking unbelievable. Is is that a I mean,
Speaker 1: how does that work in with your fight? Do you
Speaker 1: believe that's a God thing? Do you believe that? What
Speaker 1: do you think about that?
Speaker 2: It's a good question. I think there's good things and
Speaker 2: there's God things. And for me, I can do a
Speaker 2: lot of good but sometimes there's stuff that I can't do.
Speaker 2: And that's got how to be the God stuff, the
Speaker 2: good stuff and the God stuff, and so like that
Speaker 2: that right there, Like I could I could share the story.
Speaker 2: I could share the story like that's a good thing
Speaker 2: to do. I guess it could have also been a
Speaker 2: bad thing to do, but it was a good thing
Speaker 2: to do. But like for the story to impact Chris
Speaker 2: and the way it did like that took something else
Speaker 2: like that that moment Chris has asked me, he goes,
Speaker 2: what if there was a technical difficulty and it came
Speaker 2: out the next day? What if you were the guests
Speaker 2: the day before and they had someone else that day?
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, whoa. And and then to be on
Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Bridge at the same exact time with the
Speaker 2: guy from that did tried it in Mexico, the same
Speaker 2: place I tried it where Chris was going to try it, Like,
Speaker 2: it's just too many things to happen. So for me,
Speaker 2: I think God is love, and that was something really loving,
Speaker 2: a loving force, a force to be reckoned with, and
Speaker 2: a force to like change the course of my history
Speaker 2: and Chris's history and that other gentleman's history, like change
Speaker 2: the trajectory of our lives.
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask a somewhat personal question, mate, not
Speaker 1: too personal, butter how are you? How are you now?
Speaker 1: How are you mentally? Emotionally, physically? Has you has your health?
Speaker 2: Thank you? Mentally, I'd say I've been tired the last
Speaker 2: few days because I've been fighting something off, had a
Speaker 2: bit of a fever and some other stuff going on.
Speaker 2: But mentally, physically, emotion emotionally, I'm doing better than I
Speaker 2: ever have. I'm fired like life's good, life's great. And
Speaker 2: I woke up this morning and actually, before Amy went upstairs,
Speaker 2: she's the love of my life. I told her, I'm
Speaker 2: just so grateful for the breath of my life. I'm
Speaker 2: just so grateful for the beating heart of my chest.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm in a place of like tons and
Speaker 2: tons and tons of gratitude. Physically, We'll see if I
Speaker 2: ever get the fight again. I had a you know,
Speaker 2: comeback plans and gotten some stuff happened, got an injury,
Speaker 2: and uh, it might not be in the cards. And
Speaker 2: I'm okay with that because there's life after fighting.
Speaker 1: You're still training, Yeah, yeah, what are you doing mostly?
Speaker 1: What's uh? TIFFs is prick up? What do you what
Speaker 1: are you mostly doing?
Speaker 2: What are you?
Speaker 1: Are you rawling?
Speaker 2: Mostly doing jiu jitsu. It's been a little bit since
Speaker 2: I've been in there with the heavy haders like Gordon
Speaker 2: Ryan and John Danaher and Nicholas Maregali.
Speaker 1: And my wife from Golden Ryan. Dude, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: He's fun, he's fun to train with. Uh, And but
Speaker 2: I've been going to morning classes like Hens with Gracie Austin,
Speaker 2: Nicholas Maraghali and the Gee, been going to audits for
Speaker 2: for streaming, conditioning and so. And I've been doing boxing
Speaker 2: two or three times a week. That's been good.
Speaker 1: Have you ever rolled with Rogan?
Speaker 2: No, we haven't been on the mats together. We've we've
Speaker 2: we've been in the same gym. He would pop in
Speaker 2: a same place I would go to in Austin and
Speaker 2: get a workout in and get a workout in with
Speaker 2: his daughter and is a beautiful thing to watch like that.
Speaker 2: Dude's so busy, had so much stuff going on, but yeah,
Speaker 2: he's got time for his family for sure. And he's
Speaker 2: a good dad. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know how he does it, but he seems.
Speaker 1: He seems to be the real deal. And I love that.
Speaker 1: How do people support you and support fight for Fight
Speaker 1: for the Forgotten? Where do we go? How do we donate?
Speaker 1: Tell us all about that place?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, I would say we just had a board
Speaker 2: meeting and the strategy is now is like we we
Speaker 2: would love a tribe of supporters supporting the tribe we love,
Speaker 2: and so let's Fight for the Forgotten dot org and
Speaker 2: you can give monthly there. And so we do have
Speaker 2: a fundraising campaign right now called Compassion and Action. It's
Speaker 2: on the header I give that sort will go to
Speaker 2: And we have a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars
Speaker 2: matching gift Wow, So that means if someone gives five bucks,
Speaker 2: it becomes ten bucks. If someone decides to give forty
Speaker 2: dollars a month, that will be doubled. So we're we're
Speaker 2: hoping to find people that can find a sweet spot
Speaker 2: between twenty five to forty dollars a month. And if
Speaker 2: we get one thousand, ten thousand people like that, we're
Speaker 2: not there yet at a thousand, so we'd love to
Speaker 2: get that number up and we'll be able to scale
Speaker 2: and grow. And if I showed you what the plans
Speaker 2: of the place we're going to build, it's going to
Speaker 2: be one of the coolest spots in Uganda. And it's beautiful.
Speaker 2: It's beautiful And.
Speaker 4: What is it?
Speaker 1: What does it give us? The one minute?
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 1: Is that a Is that a treatment facility?
Speaker 2: Is it? It's a whole community hub? So I would
Speaker 2: call it community empowerment and community development. So we're empowering
Speaker 2: the community. That's been left behind in many ways, like
Speaker 2: the traditional way of life ripped away from them. So
Speaker 2: it is it is land, water, food, healthcare, education. So
Speaker 2: they're going to go to school for the first time.
Speaker 2: They're going to have healthcare. Last time I was there
Speaker 2: and I had malaria and I went down the mountain.
Speaker 2: I had the only vehicle right, and so it's a
Speaker 2: two to two and a half hour walk to the
Speaker 2: health clinic. A mother with our baby went into labor early.
Speaker 2: The baby was turned the wrong way. We lost both
Speaker 2: the mother and the child. So they need a maternity
Speaker 2: ward there and that's what we're building. Turnity ward will
Speaker 2: also treat water borne disease in malaria. We have a
Speaker 2: nurse that goes up there three times a week already.
Speaker 2: Now she'll build We're going to build her a staff house. Actually,
Speaker 2: there's gonna be multiple staff houses for the doctors, the nurses.
Speaker 2: And it's been beautiful. Man. We have the founder of
Speaker 2: Engineers Without Borders that's on our board of directors, but
Speaker 2: he is our director of Engineering and he's helping us
Speaker 2: do what he calls his legacy project, the thing that's
Speaker 2: his favorite things ever done.
Speaker 1: Wow, dude, you're a superstar. Have you been. Have you
Speaker 1: been to Australia, mate, I'd like to come on. I'll
Speaker 1: run the I'll run the Australian Chapter of Thought for
Speaker 1: the Forgotten Man.
Speaker 2: That would be incredible. I I almost got the opportunity
Speaker 2: to come for y'all's tomorrow. Tony Robbins is there at
Speaker 2: the Big Arena. Yeah, and I almost got invited to
Speaker 2: come speak there. So my buddy got it. But I uh,
Speaker 2: I'm trying to do the speaking thing too, because what
Speaker 2: I think is going to be beautiful is sharing the
Speaker 2: story my own story of overcoming adversity. But how basically
Speaker 2: purpose plus performance equals impact and when you hope those
Speaker 2: things like, it's a beautiful combination. And anyways, it's maybe
Speaker 2: I'll get over there for a speaking engagement sometime. And
Speaker 2: I've seen some nonprofit founders do it from stage and
Speaker 2: they get all these opportunities with like big corporate giving.
Speaker 2: We've never really had that. We've we've survived off one
Speaker 2: time donors and that's been awesome. But now it's like,
Speaker 2: how can we do everything that's good?
Speaker 1: You'd open a new door, go go where you can grow. Hey,
Speaker 1: well say goodbye off air. But for the moment Justin,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for chatting with us on the new project.
Speaker 1: It's been great