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Speaker 1: It's not often in my life and all the things

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Speaker 1: I've seen in all the places I've gone and the

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Speaker 1: different kinds of worlds I've lived in from special operations

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Speaker 1: to the Intel world, to working with professional athletes and companies,

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Speaker 1: that I end up seeing something that really lifts me up,

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Speaker 1: that really brings hope to my heart that the collective,

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Speaker 1: if you will, or the American spirit and a direct

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Speaker 1: representation of a group of people will come together and

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Speaker 1: elicit something really powerful, something meaningful. And what I was

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Speaker 1: able to witness in the over the last several months

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Speaker 1: through a friend of mine, new friend, Braxton McCoy, and

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Speaker 1: what he and his initiative was able to do in

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Speaker 1: order to get that atrocity pulled out of the One

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Speaker 1: Big Beautiful Bill, which was the proposed land sale of

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Speaker 1: seven million eight of our nationally preserved lands, and his

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Speaker 1: initiative along with his friends, to be able to remove

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Speaker 1: that man that was awe inspiring. And so what resulted

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Speaker 1: is out of that was an initiative that needs to

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Speaker 1: continue and has continued through the Sagebrush Institute. And so

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Speaker 1: today we're incredibly happy to bring on the executive director,

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Speaker 1: Philip to talk about Sage Brush and to talk about

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Speaker 1: what they're doing in order to inspire you to really

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Speaker 1: come to grips and recognize the true importance of what

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Speaker 1: it means to protect the American homeland. So, ladies and gentlemen,

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Speaker 1: it is a privilege and honor to introduce Philip Reiker,

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Speaker 1: executive director of the Sage Brush Institute. Philip, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show man.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, David.

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Speaker 3: We really appreciate the opportunity to come on and tell

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Speaker 3: our story and obviously communicate with people allies in the community.

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Speaker 4: Well, and that's interesting, I mean, it really is.

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Speaker 1: I think now in modern you know, for the lack

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Speaker 1: of a better term, activism, right, and I think over

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Speaker 1: the last ten years or so, activism because of the

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Speaker 1: substantial nature of of you know, radical progressive activism. You know,

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Speaker 1: we've seen like if you're an activist, there's some underlining

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Speaker 1: component of oh you're an activist.

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Speaker 4: That's lame.

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Speaker 1: But but activism is there. It's imperative in every aspect

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Speaker 1: of our lives. In particular, I think this, I think

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Speaker 1: this issue has really enlightened brought people to recognize, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, American public lanes there they could be in jeopardy, right,

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Speaker 1: and so you know, could you just talk to me

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Speaker 1: a little talk to us a little bit about how

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Speaker 1: you and Braxt came together and then you know, the

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Speaker 1: whole lead up to where we're at right now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Well, I'll start by saying, obviously Brax and I have

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Speaker 3: been friends for a little while and obviously very aligned

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Speaker 3: on this issue. But hats off to him, he and

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Speaker 3: a few other I would call them champions or influencers,

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Speaker 3: whatever you want to say, we're very instrumental in this process.

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Speaker 1: Can I just interrupt and yeah, when you made when

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Speaker 1: you I'm sorry you were cooking when you said hats off, man,

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Speaker 1: did you see the Brax and McCoy memes with the.

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Speaker 3: Hat The side that has the best memes is probably

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Speaker 3: going to win. And from that alone, I am one

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Speaker 3: hundred percent certain that we are going to win. I mean,

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Speaker 3: we say it anyway. First thing, first thing I do

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Speaker 3: when I wake up in the morning is text Brax

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Speaker 3: and Hey, we're going to win.

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Speaker 2: But with with with the hat memes on our side,

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Speaker 2: there's not a chance, not a chance, indomitable.

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Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, And that's also a good sign of who

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Speaker 3: has the best people. You know, the people who are

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Speaker 3: most interested in the most ever, they're the ones, you know.

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Speaker 3: The reply section is cooking with Braxton, and good good

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Speaker 3: on him for embracing.

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Speaker 2: It a little bit.

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Speaker 3: Some people may not love that sort of thing, but

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Speaker 3: I don't think he takes himself very seriously, so, you know.

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Speaker 4: And that's who you want to be in partnership with them.

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Speaker 4: So sorry to interrupt you. I just had to bring

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Speaker 4: it up yet.

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Speaker 3: No, no, I mean to your point about activism.

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Speaker 2: It's it's true you almost don't want to be.

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Speaker 3: An activist, and there are negative connotations to being an activist,

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Speaker 3: but you know, that is how things get achieved here

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Speaker 3: in the United States, especially in twenty twenty five. So

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Speaker 3: we Braxton and I were aligned on this and you know,

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Speaker 3: through the grace of God, the provision was withdrawn and

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Speaker 3: it was one of the best political wins I think

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Speaker 3: for a lot of people that they've seen, you know,

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Speaker 3: one of the first things where they feel genuinely like

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Speaker 3: to some extent posting on Twitter, they actually made a difference.

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Speaker 3: Some people, you know, don't feel like they can make

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Speaker 3: a difference whatsoever. And that is with a lot of

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Speaker 3: exis existing organizations that you know, activate people. You know,

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Speaker 3: there's a huge ecosystem of that sort of thing. So

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Speaker 3: people are you know, they have a pretty negative opinion

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Speaker 3: on activism now. But I told Braxton and it was

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Speaker 3: a mutual conversation, but shortly after he went on Sean

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Speaker 3: and it was withdrawn. I told him, you know, well,

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Speaker 3: first I said, you know, you're basically contractually obligated at

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Speaker 3: this point to start an organization like that.

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Speaker 2: You just got to do it. It's not I'm just

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Speaker 2: telling you professionally speaking, you've got to do it.

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Speaker 3: But the root of that argument is is not you know,

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Speaker 3: arrogance or anything like that, especially because you know, I

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Speaker 3: wouldn't say that to somebody who I had any any

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Speaker 3: you know, indication that they were pursuing this for political

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Speaker 3: gain or financial gain or prestige anything like that. So

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Speaker 3: I knew, I know Braxton is the right person to

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Speaker 3: lead this movement. But I told him, you know, if

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Speaker 3: we do something like this, and he was immediately receptive

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Speaker 3: and has had some some very well thought out and

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Speaker 3: I think long standing opinions on this is you know,

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Speaker 3: it can't be like every other organization that exists, right,

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Speaker 3: I mean, how many activist groups are there out there

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Speaker 3: that you know, take money, and you know I have

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Speaker 3: been He has been a part of some some in

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Speaker 3: the past. I have been a part of some in

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Speaker 3: the past. Both of us are adjacent to politics, and

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Speaker 3: a lot of it, I feel like, is just a

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Speaker 3: way for people to you know, get paid pretty well

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Speaker 3: and and have a fancy title and maybe write some

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Speaker 3: op eds and you know, that's that's that's how America works.

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Speaker 2: I get that.

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Speaker 3: But we didn't want to do that, you know, we

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Speaker 3: didn't want to start something. Uh if that was all

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Speaker 3: it was going to be.

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Speaker 2: But there was the there there's always.

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Speaker 4: There's sorry about that.

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Speaker 1: But there's like in my mind, you know, growing up,

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Speaker 1: you know, in the eighties where really you know, I

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Speaker 1: mean obviously you have the count Cold Revolution activists of

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Speaker 1: lateteen sixties day anti war movement, but then all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, like I remember seeing Green Piece people like,

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Speaker 1: you know, getting in front of monster whaling.

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Speaker 4: Ships or.

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Speaker 1: Right, it was a TV show, and then you like,

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Speaker 1: I remember this one woman, I think it was eighties

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Speaker 1: or nineties, but she climbed to a top of a

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Speaker 1: tree out in Oregon and she lived in a tree

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Speaker 1: for like seven hundred days, and you know, and you

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Speaker 1: have green peace and all, you know, and it's so

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Speaker 1: it's like that when you think about ecological activism, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're thinking about those things. But it wasn't until my

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Speaker 1: best friend who grew up hunting right, you know, really began.

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Speaker 1: And then I have another real close friend, Evan Hafer,

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Speaker 1: who runs Black Rifle Coffee, who's a intense conservationalist and activist,

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Speaker 1: like I didn't even know. Oh, there's this whole other

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Speaker 1: part of it too, you know, and when you really

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Speaker 1: dig into those organizations, there are a little bit different, right,

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Speaker 1: There's a different underlying mindset about that, that context of

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Speaker 1: how you're going to interact and what you're gonna do.

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Speaker 1: And I think, you know, you guys have tapped into

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Speaker 1: that in a really meaningful way. And how what was

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Speaker 1: it like trying to decide what it was going to

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Speaker 1: look like? Well?

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Speaker 3: I think I think it helps when when you have

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Speaker 3: some serious people and you know, not to say that

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Speaker 3: we don't joke around or anything like that, but you know,

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Speaker 3: regardless of of left or right, there are groups that

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Speaker 3: are performative.

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Speaker 2: What is it?

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Speaker 3: Climate defiance is one of the new ones on the

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Speaker 3: left that everyone likes to dunk on and they should.

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Speaker 3: And then you have groups that are serious. And the

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Speaker 3: serious groups can either be the most productive if they're

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Speaker 3: aligned with you, or they can also be, in my opinion,

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Speaker 3: the most damaging to your cause, because you know, if

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Speaker 3: somebody takes it seriously, then the much higher chance I think,

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Speaker 3: of getting.

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Speaker 2: What they want done.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we obviously he wanted to be serious, but

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Speaker 3: we want to be different from from the groups that

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Speaker 3: exist today. And I think that it had to be

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Speaker 3: that way, not only because there is you know, a

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Speaker 3: glut of just what I would call even if they're

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Speaker 3: not performative in the same way that climate defiance are.

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Speaker 3: They don't they don't pursue an objective with their entire being.

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Speaker 3: They are not they are not in pursuit of that.

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Speaker 3: They are just you know, participating in the in the

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Speaker 3: ecosystem that exists, and maybe they get some wins here,

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Speaker 3: maybe they get some losses there, but the primary drive

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Speaker 3: for them is just to exist and to pay the

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Speaker 3: salaries and to you know.

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Speaker 2: Go to the galleys and stuff like that.

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Speaker 3: So we didn't want to do that, and that required

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Speaker 3: I think a lot of heavy lifting on Braxton's part,

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Speaker 3: because you know, Braxton from the beginning of land advocacy

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Speaker 3: and basically anything that he cares about, He's never done

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Speaker 3: it for ulterior reasons. He's always just done it because

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Speaker 3: that's what he cares about. And to assemble a team

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Speaker 3: of people that are doing some thing for free, purely

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Speaker 3: because they care about it, and you know, to impose

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Speaker 3: limitations on your effectiveness as an organization to maintain purity,

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Speaker 3: that's not easy and that required him, you know, finding

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Speaker 3: the right people for that.

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Speaker 1: And were you the first one that he contacted and why? So,

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Speaker 1: you know, how did your relationship initiate?

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Speaker 2: So I didn't know.

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Speaker 3: That he was seriously considering it until he was seriously

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Speaker 3: considering it. Yeah, I told him he had to do it,

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Speaker 3: and I think he said at one point to me,

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Speaker 3: he was like, Oh, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna

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Speaker 3: need to like actually start a nonprofit and like all

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Speaker 3: this stuff. And I was like, that's not an obstacle,

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Speaker 3: Like that's not the hard part. So he was like interesting.

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Speaker 3: And then I think within a week he had he

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Speaker 3: had he'd lined up a board and all of these things.

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Speaker 2: Well, so that's the.

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Speaker 4: Thing too, Philip.

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Speaker 1: I mean I went to your board and you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean just the doctor Kelly.

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Speaker 4: Is it Heber or Herbert Hebber?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean she I look at her resume and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, holy gosh, that was brilliant.

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Speaker 3: Yeah stuff, And she's she's in she's out on field

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Speaker 3: work with Trout right now. So you know, studied political

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Speaker 3: science and undergrad and went to MIT and she's out

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Speaker 3: in the mountains doing field work studying Trout. Kids nowadays,

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Speaker 3: especially political science dudits, they don't even know.

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Speaker 2: That they can do that.

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Speaker 3: Wow, they don't even know that there's a whole you know,

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Speaker 3: academic ecosystem of people studying nature.

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Speaker 2: They think, oh, I got to go into finance or

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Speaker 2: I got to go into engineering or something.

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Speaker 3: So that was I think that was well. It was

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Speaker 3: first a good get by Braxton to to get Kelly

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Speaker 3: on the board. The second it was important to have

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Speaker 3: people that have at a minimum and understanding of what

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Speaker 3: is out there, people who have lived in the Mountain West,

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Speaker 3: people participated actively in the outdoors in some way. I

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Speaker 3: think our board is like eighty percent veteran too, which

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Speaker 3: wasn't a requirement, but that certainly helps because everyone has

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Speaker 3: presumably made some sacrifice for that. So you know that

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Speaker 3: I think sets us apart from a lot of other

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Speaker 3: people too. But that was just the board, you know,

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Speaker 3: that wasn't high laws or anything like that.

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Speaker 1: And so I obviously, I mean, I've grown up around.

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Speaker 1: A component of acts is certainly charity development. I watched

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Speaker 1: my parents start four or five charities as a kid.

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Speaker 1: They were always involved in local charities, preservation of where

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Speaker 1: I grew up in the town of this, you know,

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Speaker 1: all these different things. And and you know, and I

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Speaker 1: recently started our first charity, which was called the Operating Yeah,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much. We worked on it for like

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Speaker 1: two years, and you know it's still in the developmental

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Speaker 1: phase three in year three and and it's hard. It's

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Speaker 1: not easy, you know, And but the real kicker comes

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Speaker 1: and what that mission focus is, right, and when you

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Speaker 1: know specifically all right, this, this is what we have

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Speaker 1: to rally around. Like I mean, you know, you are

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Speaker 1: in a military. You understand if you don't have a

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Speaker 1: mission focus, you you know, you got a bunch of

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Speaker 1: people kind of sitting.

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Speaker 4: Around like what are we doing and why are we

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Speaker 4: doing this?

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Speaker 1: But you guys had a very clear initiative and that was,

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Speaker 1: you know, a derivative of what emerged out of this

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Speaker 1: insanity of selling seven million acres? You know, the one

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Speaker 1: thing that I think typically happens when I see organism,

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Speaker 1: you know, a nonprofit start, They come out with a bang,

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Speaker 1: and then they realize, oh wow, this.

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Speaker 4: Fight is a lot more intense than we imagine.

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Speaker 1: What are some of those facets that you believe you're

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Speaker 1: you're going to have to confront? Because I guarantee you

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Speaker 1: there's This is not the end of land sales, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, real estate speculators have been a component of

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Speaker 1: American history since day one. Hell uh, the ultimate uh

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Speaker 1: realtor is our president right now.

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Speaker 2: That's right.

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Speaker 4: So you know this isn't going away. So what are

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Speaker 4: you guys preparing for in the fight?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think creating this organization in the aftermath of

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Speaker 3: the victory was very important, and in fact, I think

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Speaker 3: if we had waited even a little bit, the obstacles

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Speaker 3: to doing so would have been even more incredible.

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Speaker 2: But it was. It was all about.

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Speaker 3: This was a grassroots victory for sure, and there were

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Speaker 3: champions of it like Braxton, but it was by and

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Speaker 3: large an organic grassroots victory. But the people that were

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Speaker 3: fighting they are not grassroots. They're the opposite of grassroots.

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Speaker 3: It's moneyed interest it's lobbyists, it's big corporations, politicians who

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Speaker 3: have been you know, in the political system for decades,

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Speaker 3: and then interest groups. All of these all of these

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Speaker 3: groups and all of these individuals, they don't work like

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Speaker 3: like we do, and it is not guaranteed that an

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Speaker 3: organic grassroots effort against them in the future would work.

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Speaker 3: So what we felt was in most paramount is creating

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Speaker 3: something that's bigger than any one person that can you know,

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Speaker 3: marshal support against something. And that's going to be very difficult.

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Speaker 3: Like you said, it's it's a lot of work. A

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Speaker 3: lot of them start off very quickly. I like to

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Speaker 3: think we're starting slowly and scaling to to a point

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Speaker 3: that you know, we can make a difference. But as

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Speaker 3: soon as we as soon as we announce, man, we

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Speaker 3: had thousands of people sign up. Wow, And I think

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Speaker 3: we've got a little over twenty five hundred people already

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Speaker 3: and we've only existed publicly for a couple of weeks

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Speaker 3: and existed privately for maybe an extra day or two.

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Speaker 3: So you know, that's fantastic, that's huge, and it's it's

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Speaker 3: super important because like if if we rely on Braxton

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Speaker 3: or whomever to to win these fights for us in

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Speaker 3: the future. We could lose and and he will, you know,

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Speaker 3: people like Braxton, people like the Board will always fight

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Speaker 3: for this. But you know, all it takes is one

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Speaker 3: loss and then it's incremental destruction of of what we

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Speaker 3: hold dear for the future.

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Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And that's why I just love your

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Speaker 1: mission statement, which is advanced conservative stewardship of America's lands

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Speaker 1: through principled advocacy, practical policy solutions, and grass roots membership

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Speaker 1: that puts America first.

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Speaker 4: And you know, you know, when you think.

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Speaker 1: About who is that, I mean, the obvious collective is

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Speaker 1: our hunters, right, cattlemen, you know, farmers, you know.

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Speaker 4: People that.

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Speaker 1: Are you know, ecologists or people botanists or you know.

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Speaker 1: But then you know that's the easy, I think, the

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Speaker 1: easiest way to evaluate. But now all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you take a step back and you look for the

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Speaker 1: advocacy that emerged out of this, and you know it's

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Speaker 1: it's people that have been grown up their whole lives,

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Speaker 1: taking people to your kids and your family to these

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Speaker 1: places and experiencing what we have exactly what you know,

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Speaker 1: Teddy Roosevelt acknowledged that we needed to preserve which is

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Speaker 1: which is the essence of America, and that's these vast open,

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Speaker 1: you know, divine, miraculous places that we can go and

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Speaker 1: walk through. I mean, you know, I've been going out

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Speaker 1: to Colorado since I was a little kid. My parents

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Speaker 1: used to have a place in Snowmasks for twenty two years,

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Speaker 1: and my favorite thing was I'd go visit them. Man,

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Speaker 1: I'd go get my backpack and i'd you know, walk

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Speaker 1: up behind maroon bells. I'd go camp out and you know,

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Speaker 1: the above tree line pastures.

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Speaker 4: I'd wake up and there'd be a hundred elk next

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Speaker 4: to me.

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Speaker 1: And you can't experience that in any other way and

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Speaker 1: in any other place. And so I you know the

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Speaker 1: fact that you balloon to twenty five hundred members or

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Speaker 1: people that are in are involved or inches, that's a

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Speaker 1: staggering number to me. But I think it's testament to

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Speaker 1: what people want. They want to know these places are

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Speaker 1: safe for their family, for their future, for their businesses,

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Speaker 1: and like for Bracks and the thing that just kills me.

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Speaker 4: I mean, he's a sixth generation cowboy.

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Speaker 1: Like that's that's more. That's that's the DNA of who

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Speaker 1: you are socially. So when when you're getting contacted by

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Speaker 1: these people that.

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Speaker 4: Are funny, what are you hearing like, what is.

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Speaker 1: The the the emphasis behind you and what do they want?

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Speaker 1: Are you getting directed like we Hey, I'm I'm in

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Speaker 1: Idaho and this.

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Speaker 4: Is happening here. We need your help here.

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Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about what you're seeing from

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Speaker 1: the rapid response and rise and what are they what

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Speaker 1: do they want from you guys right now?

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Speaker 3: Well, so the first thing I'll say is, I think

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Speaker 3: think the rapid adoption of our platform and our organization

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Speaker 3: just speaks to how underrepresented people felt by the existing

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Speaker 3: groups in the space. They felt like that we are

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Speaker 3: something that closely resembles what they believe in. So that

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Speaker 3: wasn't limited obviously to the Mountain West or people who

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Speaker 3: live with access to public land. As you know, obviously

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Speaker 3: Texas has people think of Texas as a pretty natural state,

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Speaker 3: but it doesn't have a lot of public land. And

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Speaker 3: I personally am from North Florida and I'm very far away.

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Speaker 3: Yeah go tell hassee. But you know, my my personal

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Speaker 3: experience with with public land for the first time is

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Speaker 3: when I was stationed in Colorado Springs and I went

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Speaker 3: out into Pike National Forest and I would just I

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Speaker 3: would just pick a mountain and walk up it, you know,

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Speaker 3: and you get to the top and you're like, this

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Speaker 3: is this is America, this is what we what we

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Speaker 3: fight for.

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Speaker 2: So people can have that perspective wherever they are, and

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Speaker 2: they do.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 3: Our largest membership is is Texas, obviously, and we have

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Speaker 3: a ton of people in the Mountain West, but we

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Speaker 3: have we have members double digit members in every state.

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Speaker 3: So people, I think having a spokesman who can really

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Speaker 3: speak to the blood connection.

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Speaker 2: To the land is really helpful.

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Speaker 4: Oh that's brilliant. That's just powerful statement right there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Braxton is the guy for it too.

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Speaker 1: About it, you know, you know, and dude, like I remember,

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Speaker 1: you know, in our in our interview obviously through you

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Speaker 1: know online, and you know, you know, he was you know,

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Speaker 1: he was you could feel the intensity just admitting in

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Speaker 1: his his descriptions and all, and like it just sucked

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Speaker 1: me in. And then you know when he went on

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Speaker 1: Sean's show, Dude, there were moments where I was like

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Speaker 1: I was freaking tearing up watching this dude, and I'm like, God,

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Speaker 1: this guy, like he he you feel it. And and

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Speaker 1: what's interesting is is we just got back my fam

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Speaker 1: My wife and her family are from Maine, a little

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Speaker 1: seeny little town and and Maine has that too.

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Speaker 2: Right, it does.

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Speaker 1: It does like you go up to I mean people

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Speaker 1: think that, you know, you know, Maine is just a

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Speaker 1: teeny little state.

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Speaker 4: It's a massive state.

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Speaker 1: And it's mostly forest, right and it's and so you know,

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Speaker 1: every time we go up there, man, we we do

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Speaker 1: we we try and do this one heike called the

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Speaker 1: tunnel down Mountain Height, and you know, it's a two

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Speaker 1: and a half hour hike. I take my daughters all

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Speaker 1: the way up. And you know, our first time up

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Speaker 1: to this, it was this plateau lake. We're sitting there,

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Speaker 1: everybody's exhausted, and this moose walks out of the the

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Speaker 1: wilderness and and goes for a swim and you know.

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Speaker 2: Flies, yeah, yeah right, it wanted to exactly.

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Speaker 4: But it's like my kids are like, you know, they couldn't.

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Speaker 1: Even move because those are the only ways we are

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Speaker 1: able to connect to the intimacy. You know, for me,

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Speaker 1: it's down in South Florida. It's protecting our reefs and

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Speaker 1: protecting our ocean, and you know, there's a great veteran's

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Speaker 1: charity called Blue Force, and they go down and they

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Speaker 1: clean up the reefs and the keys and all that,

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Speaker 1: and they're wonderful guys.

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Speaker 4: Rudy Ray is one of the guys that down there.

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Speaker 1: And and you know, and so for me it's always

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Speaker 1: been that ecological support of our reef systems and our oceans.

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Speaker 1: And because I grew up in the water, but to

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Speaker 1: and so my kids from the moment they could walk,

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Speaker 1: they're in had masks and they do that. And so

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Speaker 1: I think, there is this what it's something like this.

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Speaker 1: Our greatest sense of connection to Mother Earth only comes

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Speaker 1: when we're integrated with Mother Earth, where it goes beyond

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Speaker 1: what what we have control of, where where we're not

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Speaker 1: the dominant controlling factor of the tools and objects we're

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Speaker 1: integrating with.

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Speaker 4: Because you're you're you're out of place like you're in

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Speaker 4: you're in that that place, and I think, you know,

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Speaker 4: that's so powerful.

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Speaker 1: So how do you start to continue the messaging. One

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Speaker 1: of the things that I really love about here it

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Speaker 1: was policy advocacy, right and to be able to write

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Speaker 1: policy for particular, whether state politicians, municipal politicians.

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Speaker 4: Or whatever. To be able to lean on.

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Speaker 1: You know, I've done, you know, work with the Heritage

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Speaker 1: Foundation before, with a firm i'm with, and you know

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Speaker 1: the biggies out there and you we now we know

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Speaker 1: how corrupt they all are. So to really have you

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Speaker 1: guys lean in. So what are some of the first

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00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:47,400
Speaker 1: kind of policy things or specific hunting things or contrivt

440
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 1: what what specific tasks are on your guys radar right now?

441
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the most important thing, and this does get

442
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:56,399
Speaker 3: into a little bit of what you were talking about,

443
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,880
Speaker 3: you know, we wanted to make sure that the people

444
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 3: who were most heavily involved with us and the people

445
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,639
Speaker 3: that we are working for as an organization are the

446
00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,159
Speaker 3: people who are, like you said, in nature and a

447
00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:12,000
Speaker 3: part of that, and they have that perspective because I

448
00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:16,200
Speaker 3: think that ultimately, if there is policy, I mean, first

449
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 3: of all, I believe that a lot of our problems

450
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 3: should be solved at the lowest possible level, which is

451
00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 3: it's a common sentiment among you know, the political right,

452
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 3: but they don't really espouse that. Like I think the

453
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:31,159
Speaker 3: most meaningful thing you can do is go fix your

454
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 3: local and then you maybe fix your state, and then

455
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 3: you look to the national. So the most important thing

456
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:39,280
Speaker 3: for us to do from a policy perspective, was first

457
00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 3: acknowledged that our state chapters are going to be on

458
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 3: the ground first developing what is best for their state,

459
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 3: because you know, nobody wants somebody from DC coming in

460
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:56,800
Speaker 3: and telling them what works for them, and I think

461
00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 3: that applies everywhere. So even if even if we have

462
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 3: the best of intentions, if we adopt like a broad

463
00:25:03,440 --> 00:25:06,879
Speaker 3: sweeping national platform, that all sounds great, and there are

464
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,159
Speaker 3: lots of organizations that have a national platform that you

465
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:11,879
Speaker 3: look at it and it looks on paper like all

466
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 3: the right things, how is that involving people? You know,

467
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,440
Speaker 3: all political power and political influence in this country should

468
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 3: come from the citizen, and so we believe our platform

469
00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 3: should also come from our citizens. So the first thing

470
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,359
Speaker 3: that we wanted to do was to go out create

471
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:30,880
Speaker 3: these state chapters, of which we have several so far,

472
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:35,640
Speaker 3: and begin the process of allowing them to determine what's

473
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 3: important to them. And like our platform is through a

474
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 3: C four, we do have a C three which is

475
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,919
Speaker 3: going to be you know, repair in projects, since the

476
00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:46,640
Speaker 3: kind of thing that you wouldn't expect a DC organization

477
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 3: to even know about and do.

478
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:49,320
Speaker 2: But the important thing.

479
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,120
Speaker 3: For us is the money, the policy, All of that

480
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 3: comes from the people and goes to the people.

481
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:57,200
Speaker 2: So we are we are the.

482
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 3: Framework for that guy and I to get involved and

483
00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 3: make a difference. We are not mandating anything now. We

484
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,280
Speaker 3: have a specific focus.

485
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:06,879
Speaker 2: We're not going to.

486
00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:09,959
Speaker 3: Get involved with with issues that are outside of our scope.

487
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:12,680
Speaker 3: And I think it's very important to limit yourself where

488
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 3: you can.

489
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 2: We do that.

490
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 3: We limit how we get money, and we limit you know,

491
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 3: how private we are with who we get money from

492
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,879
Speaker 3: and all of those things. But we don't want to

493
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 3: We want to focus exclusively on what matters to those people.

494
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 1: I love that mentality, and you know that's always the

495
00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 1: great challenge, right you you tap into the the deep

496
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:38,479
Speaker 1: nerve of the social consciousness of the time, and you know,

497
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 1: things can move so fast, so rapidly, and in particularly,

498
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:47,120
Speaker 1: you know, you get somebody from I don't know, some

499
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:51,119
Speaker 1: big foundation or you know whatever, and they have a

500
00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:53,080
Speaker 1: lot of money and they're like, oh, look at this

501
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:54,960
Speaker 1: little up and coming foundation.

502
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 4: I'm going to give you two hundred thousand dollars.

503
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,800
Speaker 1: And then you know that we're supporting and this, and

504
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,119
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you know, you get the emails. Listen,

505
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 1: we have an issue in this place right here. We

506
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 1: need you to bring attention and write a little bike

507
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: paper or buy you know.

508
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 4: And you're like, wait, what, Yeah.

509
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 2: That's the norm.

510
00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: You know.

511
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:14,920
Speaker 2: It's it's so, it's it's shameful.

512
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:19,160
Speaker 3: I get it. And I've seen this so many times

513
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:24,640
Speaker 3: up close. I maybe they agree with you, Maybe these donors,

514
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,359
Speaker 3: you share their position, maybe you put them on your board,

515
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 3: maybe you take their money. But at a certain point,

516
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 3: what if you don't agree?

517
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 2: What are you going to do? Then? What are you

518
00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:33,920
Speaker 2: going to do when you.

519
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 3: Have a million and a half dollars or whatever from

520
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 3: this organization and they're telling you what to believe? Oh,

521
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 3: suddenly they're on your board. Suddenly they are the ones

522
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,720
Speaker 3: who determine whether you can make payroll. And of course

523
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 3: your payroll is hundreds of thousands of dollars a year

524
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,680
Speaker 3: for each executive in DC, so you need that money.

525
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,639
Speaker 3: You very quickly lose whatever independence you have. So we

526
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:59,400
Speaker 3: want to avoid that completely financially and proximity to DC.

527
00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:01,120
Speaker 3: We just want we don't want to go to DC

528
00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 3: ever never ever, ever.

529
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:04,840
Speaker 4: Well, I don't think you need to. I mean I

530
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:05,640
Speaker 4: think so either.

531
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 1: I think the real what we're starting to really you know,

532
00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,159
Speaker 1: once you I mean obviously you saw you begin to

533
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:17,640
Speaker 1: collapse the corrupt network of NGOs in DC and how

534
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: they're affiliated with the State, Department, Homeland, whatever government agency

535
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 1: is fund siphoning off you know, millions and in some

536
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: cases billions of dollars to you know, random you know,

537
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 1: nonprofits that start up depending upon what type who's in

538
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 1: the office.

539
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 4: They're right both.

540
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,320
Speaker 1: Sides, and all of a sudden they get funded to

541
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 1: twenty million dollars and like my favorite one, what's my

542
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: favorite one lately and brand new was the concert they

543
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 1: did for the Pacific Palisades fires, right, they raised one

544
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars, and now we found out that less

545
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:58,560
Speaker 1: than five percent has even gotten remotely close to those people.

546
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:01,760
Speaker 2: That's why I think it's so important, man.

547
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 3: I mean, if people are giving you money, obviously they're

548
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,360
Speaker 3: gonna want to They're gonna want to know where it goes.

549
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 3: So if there's like everyday working class people giving you money,

550
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 3: Like for us and our C four, which is our

551
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 3: main entity, this is membership money. If people give us

552
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,760
Speaker 3: a certain amount of money, we make them members of

553
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,600
Speaker 3: the corporation. They're basically on a board, and you know

554
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 3: they should have a say and where that money goes.

555
00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 3: So giving one hundred million dollars to fix this crisis,

556
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 3: as soon as you get nothing out of that, people's

557
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:35,800
Speaker 3: trust in these institutions just drop dramatically. And it's not

558
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:36,840
Speaker 3: like we had any to begin with.

559
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: I disagree as long as you got Braxton McCoy's name.

560
00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,600
Speaker 3: Oh of course, days Rus is different. Obviously everyone trusts

561
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 3: us know.

562
00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 4: What a burden it is on you all too?

563
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 1: Right, That's what people don't quite understand, right, And I

564
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 1: think I think they do, but it's it's not something

565
00:29:56,800 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: they want to openly talk about because it's it's it's

566
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,840
Speaker 1: indicative of what they're afraid of. Right, Activism requires in

567
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:10,280
Speaker 1: some context conflict. Right, You're identifying a crisis, a problem,

568
00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: an enemy if you will, and what do you do.

569
00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 4: You have to.

570
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,479
Speaker 1: Either address it, fight it, stop it, confront it whatever,

571
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: or it just keeps growing. And I think a lot

572
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,680
Speaker 1: of people, in particular since COVID, I think a lot

573
00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:28,640
Speaker 1: of people have a tremendous amount of fatigue and they're

574
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 1: like kind of over all.

575
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:31,360
Speaker 4: Of the problems and issues.

576
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:33,560
Speaker 1: And I mean, if I had a dollar I mean

577
00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 1: because I travel around the country every year, I talk

578
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: to thousands of people with you know, my.

579
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,600
Speaker 4: Other job, and a lot of that.

580
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: Is in the financial industry, and so I'm you know,

581
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,680
Speaker 1: talking about people who they are trying to figure out

582
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,840
Speaker 1: what charity their clients are going to invest fifty million

583
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,120
Speaker 1: dollars in or whatever, you know. So I'm kind of

584
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:56,560
Speaker 1: haphadedly getting access to that sub ecosystem of filling a

585
00:30:56,560 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 1: lot of philanthropic endeavors, you know. And it's like, man,

586
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: I'm more and more. I'm like, oh, it's about you know,

587
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: a tax write off or it's whatever, and yeah, and

588
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:09,520
Speaker 1: I'm just like, wait a minute.

589
00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 4: This is where it gets confusing. One, there's a group

590
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,640
Speaker 4: of people who don't want to be activists.

591
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 1: Because they're afraid of the public whatever that might the

592
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 1: reciprocation or the cause and effect of them being outed

593
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 1: or public or whatever. And then the other is it's

594
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,240
Speaker 1: not really about that. It's about you know, uh, a

595
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: tax exemption, like you know, to you know, do that

596
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 1: and so to see you guys. And this is no

597
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 1: small fight, man. I mean when you start like, dude,

598
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: perfect example, perfect example.

599
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 4: Phil and then I'm going to let you.

600
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:46,720
Speaker 1: You just kind of tell me a little bit about

601
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,479
Speaker 1: you and how you grew up and why this kind

602
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:51,880
Speaker 1: of thing came in your life. But dude, in my

603
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: hometown right now, the city council and I'm Bogertone, Florida,

604
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 1: the city council, everybody but one person. They have this

605
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:06,880
Speaker 1: beautiful acreage in downtown Boco where they have the ball fields.

606
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: I grew up playing flag tag and t ball on

607
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 1: our local tennis courts. There a nice city hall, these

608
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 1: beautiful banyon trees and old house that's been in in

609
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 1: Bocus since the nineteen early nineteen hundreds called Singing Bonds. Well,

610
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 1: the majority of board has just decided, oh, we're going

611
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: to strike a deal with these New York developers. We're

612
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: going to lease this land, knock it down, and they're

613
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,000
Speaker 1: going to build two giant high rises. Kind of ins

614
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: and nobody in Bokhre Toad knows what's going on now.

615
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 4: And so my mom's like out there banging on.

616
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: It's like put the sign in your front yard and

617
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 1: will you interview these So like I'm just getting boned up,

618
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: but I'm going to have this.

619
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 4: You know, these guys. One of the guys's who's going

620
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 4: against and on.

621
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what you're saying, right, It's like it

622
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 1: has you have to have the courage to be able

623
00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 1: to step what once more onto the breach right and

624
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:05,560
Speaker 1: put yourself on the front line for what you believe

625
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 1: in and what matters most to you. And it's just

626
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:10,680
Speaker 1: so admirable what you're doing. Tell us a little bit

627
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 1: of Philip about you and how you've gotten to this point.

628
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:17,720
Speaker 1: Why is this a big issue? And you know your

629
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,200
Speaker 1: background and where why you're in this this spot right now.

630
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 3: Well, I think beyond me, the whole board, it speaks

631
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 3: exactly to what you're saying, once more into the breach. Obviously,

632
00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 3: Braxton will charge at Windmills however long they let him.

633
00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 3: You know, as long as they have horses.

634
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,000
Speaker 2: In Idaho, he'll be he'll be riding one.

635
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 3: And you know, for all of us it was it

636
00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 3: was very important for us to to beat this forever.

637
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 3: And obviously you're not going to beat it forever, but

638
00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 3: you can at least create the thing that can that

639
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 3: can do that. I can't speak to everyone's you know,

640
00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 3: childhood and stuff like that, but me personally, I grew

641
00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,440
Speaker 3: up North Florida, you know it's Florida, but it's not

642
00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 3: really Florida.

643
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:05,320
Speaker 2: Were Florida.

644
00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, that's and you know I grew up,

645
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 3: you know, shooting birds in the woods and we played

646
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:15,280
Speaker 3: outside and and that was that was what I thought.

647
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 2: Everything was.

648
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 3: That's what I thought, you know, you were supposed to do.

649
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,200
Speaker 3: And uh, I I you know, graduated, went to college.

650
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:23,960
Speaker 3: I only made it a year. I wanted to join

651
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 3: the military since I think I could conceive of anything

652
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 3: just because I it was probably I thought it was

653
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:31,600
Speaker 3: the most honorable thing somebody could do. You know, we

654
00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,400
Speaker 3: we all believe in America, and being a soldier and

655
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,480
Speaker 3: willing to die for America's is the epitome. So I

656
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 3: made it a year at at you went to u

657
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 3: c F for my freshman year. I made it a

658
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 3: year before I dropped out and I went went into

659
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 3: the military. And I remember sitting down with my dad

660
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 3: and I wanted to go be an eleven bravo. I

661
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 3: wanted to do it right, you know, I wanted to

662
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 3: have the experience that everyone had. Although Braxton was signal

663
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 3: all right, yeah, you gotta you gotta remember that.

664
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, the war hero was a guy.

665
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 3: That's why my dad convinced me that I should do

666
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,959
Speaker 3: something smart and be intelligence. So I did that and

667
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,200
Speaker 3: I agreed. I joined as an intelligence channelst. I got

668
00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 3: to do really cool things. Not as many cool things

669
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:15,520
Speaker 3: as you would expect a recruiter to say, but probably

670
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 3: more than the average person who gets a three year enlistment.

671
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 3: And you know, when I, when I was growing up,

672
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,560
Speaker 3: I had wanted desperately to go to the United States

673
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 3: Military Academy at West Point, you know, because you see

674
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 3: it on the military channel and you just you just

675
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:32,400
Speaker 3: think that this is the coolest fucking thing anyone's ever seen. Absolutely,

676
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:36,200
Speaker 3: and Mike actually my first sergeant at the time. But

677
00:35:36,239 --> 00:35:38,720
Speaker 3: eventually my commander said, we're going to send you because

678
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:40,799
Speaker 3: we think it's a great place for you to be.

679
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:44,839
Speaker 3: And I really thought about not doing it. I was like, man,

680
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,399
Speaker 3: I've seen what an officer does. You know, I don't

681
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:49,239
Speaker 3: want to go work staff. I don't want to I'm

682
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:50,680
Speaker 3: not going to be like I'm not going to be

683
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:53,200
Speaker 3: doing anything. And this also you have to understand, this

684
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 3: was a twenty eighteen ish. Yeah, we were drawing down,

685
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:58,960
Speaker 3: you know, we had pretty much decided to be died

686
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,400
Speaker 3: in the Middle East, so I was like, I'm not

687
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:06,040
Speaker 3: going to do it. And my my battalion commander, my

688
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,359
Speaker 3: brigade commander, my company commander will walk into a room

689
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,359
Speaker 3: when I'm giving a briefing during an exercise and they

690
00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 3: pulled me out like you just got into West Point.

691
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,840
Speaker 3: We're taking you over to yoga like tell that. I

692
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,839
Speaker 3: was like, oh, man, you know, wow, what I did?

693
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: Go?

694
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:25,440
Speaker 2: I was going to do it? I think, what was it?

695
00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 2: I was going to do it?

696
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 4: What was that moment?

697
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:27,839
Speaker 2: Light?

698
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:28,279
Speaker 1: Man?

699
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:31,280
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's it's wild, it's it's the culmination

700
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 3: of a dream that I never thought I would have,

701
00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:34,920
Speaker 3: and I never would have admitted to myself that I

702
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:35,319
Speaker 3: would have.

703
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, it's like that's it.

704
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 1: Like those the moments that encapsulate the whole build up

705
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 1: as a kid, the whole right, the ideation of this

706
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 1: this thing that's that's bigger than anything else. And then

707
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,560
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, you know, because of

708
00:36:55,600 --> 00:37:00,320
Speaker 1: the quality of soldier you were, this opportunity just comes

709
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:01,520
Speaker 1: to you and that you get it.

710
00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:02,719
Speaker 4: Man, that that.

711
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:05,920
Speaker 2: Must that's precisely it. Yeah, I mean I didn't. I

712
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 2: didn't have a great experience at West Point. I didn't.

713
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,280
Speaker 2: I'll summarize it. I feel less.

714
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:14,840
Speaker 3: Strongly about it now being removed from it. But in

715
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,120
Speaker 3: the year that I was there, I didn't develop as

716
00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 3: a soldier, which was important to me. I didn't really

717
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,319
Speaker 3: develop as a student, which was also really important to

718
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:23,799
Speaker 3: me because I was like, I'm I'm an idiot. Man,

719
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:25,359
Speaker 3: I've been in the Army. I dropped out of college

720
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 3: to join the Army. I don't know anything about calculus. Yeah,

721
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 3: And then I didn't really develop as a person very much.

722
00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,920
Speaker 3: So with that in mind, and knowing that I was

723
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 3: going to go work staff and probably just go to

724
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 3: some ntcs, I was like, man, I can go to

725
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 3: an Ivy League school right now, And.

726
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:42,359
Speaker 2: So I did that.

727
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:44,000
Speaker 4: Oh cool, where'd you go?

728
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:46,440
Speaker 2: I went to Columbia, which was actually a mistake.

729
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:51,520
Speaker 1: Oh well, you don't know, right, because you know, again,

730
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:58,239
Speaker 1: opportunities hit us, and they hit us in such a right.

731
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 1: There's so much emotional expectation that builds up in what

732
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:06,520
Speaker 1: you imagined something to be, and then you hit it

733
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 1: and then you're like WHOA, and I you know, I

734
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:11,600
Speaker 1: mean I had that in the teams a little bit.

735
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,360
Speaker 1: I had it work in agency a little bit, and

736
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:16,239
Speaker 1: every place I've ever gone or done.

737
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 4: There's a component of that, right, but it.

738
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:21,480
Speaker 2: Really is this precisely when I realized. I'm glad you

739
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:22,280
Speaker 2: mentioned agency.

740
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 3: Precisely when I realized I was beginning to piece together

741
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 3: the trend because I had when I was in I

742
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,600
Speaker 3: was at a strategic element in Korea. I worked with

743
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:34,200
Speaker 3: some CIA analysts briefly. And then obviously, you go to

744
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 3: West Point and that's supposed to be the pinnacle. And

745
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:38,600
Speaker 3: then I went to Columbia, which is supposed to be

746
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 3: one of the most you know, prestigious places to be,

747
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 3: and I basically realized that you know, people are people,

748
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:49,160
Speaker 3: and you can find you can find amazing people anywhere.

749
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 3: And Braxton, I think, is a perfect example of this.

750
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,359
Speaker 3: I Wantick Braxton over anyone in any of those institutions

751
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:56,279
Speaker 3: nine times out of ten.

752
00:38:56,680 --> 00:38:57,640
Speaker 4: Oh same with me.

753
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: But you don't know that, right, You're not sure where

754
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 1: life is going, especially as a kid. That's right, But

755
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:06,759
Speaker 1: what do you do? You say, all right, I'm going

756
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 1: to try it and see for myself. I'm going to

757
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 1: try it and see for myself. And the more times

758
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: you do that, the more courage you develop, and the

759
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 1: more you recognize you know that this, you know, blessed

760
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:26,360
Speaker 1: crazy ride between your birthdate and your death date? Like

761
00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:31,040
Speaker 1: how you how you utilize that it can It's really

762
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,880
Speaker 1: on you and what you choose to do. So after

763
00:39:35,040 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: those experiences, you know, what'd you do and where'd you

764
00:39:39,200 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 1: get and how'd you ultimately get to where you are now? Sure?

765
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:47,879
Speaker 3: Well I met my wife at Columbia and COVID was awesome. Yeah,

766
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:49,880
Speaker 3: that was that's as you know, as good as a

767
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 3: experience you can ask for, right, But COVID hit and

768
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 3: I was paying I think seventy two grand a year

769
00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:02,919
Speaker 3: before Gibill to go to Columbia. And like, the very

770
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 3: difficult thing for a veteran, especially a veteran with like

771
00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:09,239
Speaker 3: a intelligence background, is you can go get a job, dude, you.

772
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,719
Speaker 2: Can go work anyway. And yeah, and so I did.

773
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 3: We My wife was like, man, I don't like she

774
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 3: was working on Wall Street. She had already graduated, and

775
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:18,400
Speaker 3: she's like, I hate this. And I was like, I

776
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:20,719
Speaker 3: could could told you that. I could have told you

777
00:40:20,719 --> 00:40:22,759
Speaker 3: you'd hate it. So we went to Wyoming. We lived

778
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,320
Speaker 3: in Wyoming for a year. She was doing personal banking.

779
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,920
Speaker 3: I was contracting for Space Force there and then we

780
00:40:28,960 --> 00:40:31,520
Speaker 3: moved to Denver. I kept contracting for the Space Force,

781
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:33,480
Speaker 3: so that was my second and third times in the

782
00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 3: Mountain West, and she wanted to do her PhD. So

783
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 3: we came back to New York and I had to

784
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:39,759
Speaker 3: find something to do.

785
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:41,439
Speaker 2: I was gonna. I was like, maybe I'll just go.

786
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 3: Work at McLean yep, or find something outside of this

787
00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 3: realm to do that I can do indefinitely into the future.

788
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,040
Speaker 2: And I ended up working for Fox News.

789
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 3: That was my first experience with media and politics, and

790
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 3: believe it or not, as an intelligence contractor and soldier,

791
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:02,440
Speaker 3: I tried to be a political which is something that

792
00:41:02,520 --> 00:41:04,600
Speaker 3: I guess is difficult for people. I did not know

793
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:07,719
Speaker 3: that at the time, but I tried to do that.

794
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:10,719
Speaker 3: And so my first experience was at Fox News and

795
00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:12,120
Speaker 3: it was actually great.

796
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 4: Cool, that's really cool.

797
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:18,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, I you know, I I my friend. You know

798
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:22,400
Speaker 1: the oh, I'm underneath the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton network.

799
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:25,880
Speaker 1: I've gotten clothes with Clay and Clay's wife used to

800
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:30,080
Speaker 1: be a producer for Tucker and she talks about her

801
00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:33,799
Speaker 1: time there is really amazing and really just wonderful, and

802
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:36,960
Speaker 1: so you know, I, I I think I think a

803
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: lot of it, as it always is, is the people

804
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: you surround yourself with, right, and the people that you

805
00:41:41,880 --> 00:41:43,719
Speaker 1: you know, And there be people that you work with

806
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: or around that maybe stink and some who are great.

807
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 4: And so it's again what you make of it.

808
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's precisely that you know you have you

809
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:55,279
Speaker 3: either have a good team or a bad team. Even

810
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 3: on a bad team, you can find the good people.

811
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 3: And it was just it was an introduction to all

812
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:01,000
Speaker 3: of this, right, It was an introduction to how the

813
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 3: world works, how media works, how politics works. You know,

814
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 3: you start, you're just producing, like basically arranging stuff on

815
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 3: the screen, But eventually you're people are emailing you asking

816
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:13,360
Speaker 3: to come on the show, and you're assisting with booking,

817
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,719
Speaker 3: and you're paying attention to the news trends, and it

818
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:22,080
Speaker 3: really just becomes this whole enterprise that most of us

819
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:24,040
Speaker 3: on Twitter are participating in unknowingly but.

820
00:42:28,560 --> 00:42:30,919
Speaker 2: Or knowingly, right or no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

821
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:33,279
Speaker 3: The best thing you can do to I mean, if

822
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 3: you want to be a producer or something, the best

823
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 3: thing you can do to be aware of what's.

824
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:39,360
Speaker 2: Going on is just to have a Twitter account. Really honestly, I.

825
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:44,160
Speaker 1: Mean, I was in front of a really successful group

826
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:48,920
Speaker 1: of out in the Midwest two nights ago, you know,

827
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:52,279
Speaker 1: talking for about three hours, you know, and there was

828
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:54,840
Speaker 1: stuff I was talking about that they had no idea

829
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: what was going on.

830
00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 4: And you know, we talked about the land saying.

831
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:03,359
Speaker 1: We talked about you know, we talked about the fact

832
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,680
Speaker 1: that America was funding the taleband forty million dollars a week.

833
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 4: You know, there's another big show Sean.

834
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:12,799
Speaker 1: Broke and you know, talking about terrorist threats internally, and

835
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,319
Speaker 1: you know, these people are looking at me, like what

836
00:43:15,480 --> 00:43:16,879
Speaker 1: are you talking about.

837
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 4: I'm like afterwards, I go to the wholesales with.

838
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:22,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, man, you know, these people are really successful,

839
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:26,480
Speaker 1: but they don't know anything. And and I think for me,

840
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 1: that's a challenge, right, because it almost is if there's

841
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 1: so many things to choose from or to pay attention to,

842
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:41,239
Speaker 1: that it overwhelms people psychologically and then they begin to

843
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 1: push away when actually the most gratifying component is you

844
00:43:46,680 --> 00:43:49,520
Speaker 1: lean in, right and you see where it leads you

845
00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:50,839
Speaker 1: and like, look at you.

846
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:51,440
Speaker 4: The next thing.

847
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: You know, man, you're the executive director of this age

848
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:55,120
Speaker 1: Brush Institute.

849
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:59,680
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, and that's and that's that's exactly how it goes, right,

850
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,680
Speaker 3: I mean it starts at Fox. But at Fox, all

851
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 3: we were doing is reading Twitter, and you know, I

852
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 3: got I was booking guests. The Ukraine War kicked off,

853
00:44:08,239 --> 00:44:10,560
Speaker 3: and I was that was the army guy for that,

854
00:44:10,640 --> 00:44:13,360
Speaker 3: so every military segment had to be me, you know,

855
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 3: I was finding Ukrainian leaders off of Twitter and putting

856
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 3: them on the show.

857
00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:17,560
Speaker 2: Right.

858
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:21,919
Speaker 3: That's and it's such a powerful platform. Honestly, I don't

859
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,839
Speaker 3: like to gass it up too much just to do it,

860
00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,799
Speaker 3: but it really is. If you take like a week

861
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 3: off of Twitter, it's like almost having one eye closed.

862
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going on in the world.

863
00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:33,360
Speaker 2: That's right.

864
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:34,759
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I don't know.

865
00:44:34,760 --> 00:44:36,799
Speaker 1: If you saw it just yesterday it hit its number

866
00:44:36,840 --> 00:44:38,359
Speaker 1: one app in American app yep.

867
00:44:38,719 --> 00:44:40,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it just I think it should be.

868
00:44:41,280 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 4: And it's just getting started.

869
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,279
Speaker 1: Once they figure out video, once they figure out crock

870
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:49,480
Speaker 1: video production, once they figure out how to fix algorithms,

871
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 1: and then once they get the advertising piecet, you know,

872
00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,600
Speaker 1: to where content creators can actually make some some some

873
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,919
Speaker 1: relatively decent money, you know, there will be no other app,

874
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:01,920
Speaker 1: you know, And I think that was his intention from

875
00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:02,719
Speaker 1: the beginning, you know.

876
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:04,760
Speaker 4: So it was to be the all in one app.

877
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:07,160
Speaker 3: Well, the whole context that I created for myself for

878
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:11,080
Speaker 3: my professional career, going from you know, military to to

879
00:45:11,560 --> 00:45:15,200
Speaker 3: basically the military, but contracting to Fox, and then you know,

880
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,520
Speaker 3: going down in scope. After Fox, I worked for another

881
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 3: national nonprofit and then after that I was like, well,

882
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 3: maybe I need to get more local, and I went

883
00:45:23,600 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 3: to state.

884
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,760
Speaker 2: I would work the State House in Texas.

885
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 3: Most recently and right now, my day job is I'm

886
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 3: the editor and executive director of a local media outlet

887
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:33,560
Speaker 3: in San Antonio.

888
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:36,439
Speaker 2: And that's called Thrive, right, Thrive.

889
00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:40,319
Speaker 3: We might be rebranding, Okay, it's it's called Thrive. And

890
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,080
Speaker 3: you know, I think the most important thing I think

891
00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:44,800
Speaker 3: that people can do who want to make a difference

892
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 3: is to get as local as possible in your MS.

893
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 3: That's where it's easiest, its cheapest, your effort goes the

894
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:53,320
Speaker 3: furthest and that's been my thesis.

895
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 2: I've been I've been doing that. You know, it's very

896
00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 2: easy to go. I want to. I'm gonna go work

897
00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:59,680
Speaker 2: in DC and I'm gonna have a VP title and

898
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 2: I'm gon to do this.

899
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:03,120
Speaker 3: But I don't think people should do that. I think

900
00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 3: most of our problems in this country could be solved.

901
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 3: All of the people who were moving to DC, New

902
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:09,160
Speaker 3: York and Los Angeles for the.

903
00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 2: Prestige stayed in their communities.

904
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:14,360
Speaker 3: And found a cause that they could tackle at the

905
00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 3: local level with all of their effort. And you know

906
00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,400
Speaker 3: that all of that is inculcated into Sagebrush.

907
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:20,600
Speaker 2: Man.

908
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:23,919
Speaker 3: That's why we go local with our platform. That's why

909
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:27,360
Speaker 3: we are just trying to engage and activate local people

910
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:30,719
Speaker 3: to do local things. And I think that not enough

911
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:34,440
Speaker 3: people do that, not enough organizations in the space do that,

912
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 3: and they need to.

913
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:41,960
Speaker 1: I agree wholeheartedly, all right, So where can people find

914
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 1: sage Brush will contribute keep up the speed, newsletters, the

915
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:49,319
Speaker 1: whole thing tell us that.

916
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:53,839
Speaker 3: So recommend either following our Twitter account or going to

917
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 3: Sagebrush Institute dot org and signing up. You can do both.

918
00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:00,920
Speaker 3: I recommend you do both. And yeah, we we try it.

919
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:03,439
Speaker 3: It's a delicate balance between pushing out all the things

920
00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:05,240
Speaker 3: that's happening and not spamming people.

921
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 2: I think we're navigating that very well right now.

922
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:08,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.

923
00:47:08,200 --> 00:47:10,680
Speaker 3: And you know it's it's gonna be it's gonna be

924
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 3: a wild ride. So much as we're trying to take

925
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:15,080
Speaker 3: it slow. We really are, but so much opportunity is

926
00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:18,359
Speaker 3: out there, and you know, we're trying not to raise

927
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 3: money and people are giving us money, and we're trying

928
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,440
Speaker 3: not to grow too fast, and we're growing too fast.

929
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:25,719
Speaker 3: So there are going to be opportunities wherever you are

930
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,520
Speaker 3: very soon with us, and we're going to publicize all

931
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:31,279
Speaker 3: of it, and we're going to be directly involved with

932
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,319
Speaker 3: them every step of the way. Like Braxton is a

933
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:36,200
Speaker 3: perfect example. You know, he'll talk to you on Twitter,

934
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:38,719
Speaker 3: He'll he'll reply to you, he'll he'll engage with you,

935
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:40,640
Speaker 3: and the whole board is the same way. We want

936
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 3: to be advocates for people in their communities.

937
00:47:44,400 --> 00:47:45,320
Speaker 4: Well that's beautiful.

938
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,399
Speaker 1: And listen if you're listening this, if you're in your

939
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:51,239
Speaker 1: car right now, or you're at your dinner table, you're

940
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:54,080
Speaker 1: working out, or wherever you are, and you can hear

941
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 1: my voice or see my face.

942
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,360
Speaker 4: I want to tell you something. Just think about that moment.

943
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:02,520
Speaker 1: You know, my early moment memory my whole life was

944
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:06,160
Speaker 1: being out in Yosemite with my father and going for

945
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:09,719
Speaker 1: a hike and having he just remember him putting me

946
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:12,680
Speaker 1: on his shoulders and it was like I was in

947
00:48:12,719 --> 00:48:16,920
Speaker 1: the trees and you're going around, you're seeing those sequoias,

948
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:20,280
Speaker 1: and you're seeing you get to the top of that mountain,

949
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:25,520
Speaker 1: you look over that valley and it's transformational, and you

950
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:28,880
Speaker 1: each one of you has that memory, each one of

951
00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:32,759
Speaker 1: you has hopefully kept that going in some capacity. Maybe

952
00:48:32,760 --> 00:48:35,560
Speaker 1: it's where you do your run every day, you know,

953
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:38,160
Speaker 1: after work, or maybe you know you get out of

954
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:40,680
Speaker 1: the city and you drive out to some beautiful park,

955
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 1: or you know, that's where you actually medicate, vacation, you

956
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:48,279
Speaker 1: dedicate yourself. And I hope you just you're listening to

957
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,480
Speaker 1: what Philip is saying and you recognize the power of

958
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: this organization and you say, hey, listen, I think this

959
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,399
Speaker 1: is the type of people that I believe in. These

960
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 1: are the type of people I want to be the

961
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: custodians for my advocacy. And you know, go visit their site,

962
00:49:05,719 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 1: start following.

963
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,680
Speaker 4: Them on on on.

964
00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:11,319
Speaker 1: Ex or Twitter, and then don't be afraid, man, you know,

965
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 1: give them a hundred bucks, give them two hundred bucks.

966
00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:18,800
Speaker 1: And every little piece matters in organizations like this, because

967
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:21,759
Speaker 1: before you know it, there's gonna be something near you

968
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:24,840
Speaker 1: you're gonna care deeply about. And this is an organization

969
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 1: that might be able to help assist you. So, Philip Man,

970
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,239
Speaker 1: you're just such an impressive guy. I really have just

971
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:36,920
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of respect for you, and as I've

972
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:41,920
Speaker 1: already stated, you know I'd follow Braxton into any army

973
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: of will Windmills any day of the week and twice

974
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:45,480
Speaker 1: on Sundays.

975
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,320
Speaker 2: And so here we are.

976
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:50,400
Speaker 4: Amen. Well, thank you so much, sir. God bless you,

977
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 4: and God bless.

978
00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:53,960
Speaker 2: God, bless you. Thank you, thank you,