Kawa Mawlayee - 2Alpha Training Group

Join hosts Chris and Ike as they sit down with Kawa Mawlayee from 2Alpha Training Group to discuss his remarkable journey from Afghanistan to the U.S. Special Forces. Kawa shares insights on tactical training, his experiences in the military, and his current ventures in the firearms industry.

Timeline:
00:00:00 - Introduction and casual conversation
00:05:00 - Kawa's background and immigration from Afghanistan
00:12:00 - Joining the Marine Corps and deployments to Iraq
00:16:00 - Transition to Army Special Forces
00:23:00 - Experience as a Special Forces instructor
00:27:00 - Current projects and partnerships in the firearms industry
00:39:00 - Discussion on movie consulting work
00:47:00 - Insights on firearms companies and product endorsements
00:52:00 - Upcoming charity golf tournament
00:58:00 - Where to find Kawa and 2Alpha Training Group online

Find out all the information about this episode and more here! https://www.bigtexordnance.com/bto-podcast-097-kawa-mawlayee-2alpha-training-group/

Find out more about Big Tex Ordnance at bigtexordnance.com

Transcript

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and more than likely I say yes, because it's just like a nice break away from everything else. Um, and so when I did like the Covenant, uh, Guy Ritchie's movie, that, like, that was a costume designer that basically just did my name in the hat, you know, that I worked with on some others. So, when Guy Ritchie, when Guy Ritchie's people reach out to me and say, Hey, we're doing this movie. And I was like, wait, who's the director? He's like Guy Ritchie. But, I mean, Guy Ritchie is like my favorite director, man. I love all his movies. Um, and so when I was like, dude, this is his first military movie. And it's about Green Berets in Afghanistan. And I was like, That's me, man. Yes, please. You know, so, so yeah. Yeah, I'm down. Four dudes, one room. I'm here for it. Three cameras. Three cameras. Some lighting, some sound equipment. And, uh. Yeah, I'm tired though. Yeah, dude, the kid, the middle child was up all last night. He had a cough. He's had a fever and cough the past couple of days. So like I was up five times last night throughout the, throughout the night. So I'm dragging a little. Yeah. He's got, he's got three. I've got two, two of ours are both, I mean, pretty much the same age. Yeah. Elson Emerson are on the same class. They're like sitting at the same table. Charlie's just a great, great a headache. Yeah, but should be in Grayson's class. Yeah. And then he's got, you got a little, little, little three year old building that team early. Oh yeah. Yeah. They, uh, it's funny. Uh, I've got a, I've got like an old PBS, uh, 14 that has a huge blend in the middle that I picked up for like 600 bucks a couple of years ago. And, uh, they run around the house and, uh, do hide and seek with the night vision. That's hilarious. Yeah. They love it. Even the three year old, like the, the helmet weighs more than she does. Yeah. Uh, she's running around. It's chasing the, chasing her brothers in the dark. That's funny. They love it. And we have the modlite wars. Oh yeah. The tactical flashlights. Yeah, they're always grabbing our handhelds and stuff and they're out like, shining each other's eyes and stuff all over the house. Yeah, it's, it's fun. Kids are fun. Yeah, yeah. Ever seen someone stop talking about how Elsa gets to shoot a BB gun? Oh, sorry. No, no, no, it's good. He doesn't want to, he's like, guns are dangerous. No, it's okay, as long as you're like safe with them. And like, we've been dry handling them and stuff. And he's like, yeah, Elsa gets a BB gun. But she can only shoot it when she goes over to, I guess, Grandma's. Yeah, Grandma's house or whatever. Yeah, it's a lot of fun, man. We're about to start him on a 22 probably at the range. Start him off with that. Yeah. The full auto 22, right? Yeah. Yeah. And we got a Ruger 10 22 that's full auto. It's crazy. It's like a little sewing machine. It's like It's suppressed too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, my kids started shooting at a, at an early age. My girls were My oldest girl was five. I took her out to the range and, uh, I held her hands on a 22 and had her pull the trigger. And then she was like, she was having fun after that. So then now she's, now she'll shoot. She shot my staccato XC last time I went to the range. Oh yeah. She's, she, both my girls love to shoot. The boys are like, I think kind of over it cause I mean, they're teenagers, like they're doing their thing, but yeah, my girls love to shoot. That makes, that like warms my heart, you know? Yeah. But yeah, like I started them off very early because a lot of people like asked me like, what's the, what's the best age to like start your kid off. With, with training. And I say, as you know, I think it's as early as you feel that they could have the comprehension to understand what you're saying and be safe. Uh, but like my kids grew up around my guns, you know, that goes back to like exposure to guns, you know, people are like, how do you do that? I'm like, well, I just desensitize them to it. You know, I don't keep a taboo at my house. Yeah. Yeah. If you kind of take some of the mystery out of it, they're not as like, it's not as like, I guess, intriguing to them. Yeah. Yeah, because I mean, we don't keep like knives taboo. We don't keep hammers taboo, you know, so with guns, then we make this unicorn item where they're like, then it's curiosity just builds and builds and builds. Otherwise, if you're like breaking down your guns to clean them and they're like in diapers or toddlers or whatever, then let them play with it because eventually it's just a. Piece of metal that makes no noise, has no lights and they get bored. And then even if you give them like a complete, you know, pistol upper at one point, they're just going to be like, okay, it's still boring. Yeah. And that curiosity leaves until you begin the education part of their training. Then there's like, Oh, this thing's cool again. Right. So this is kind of like this thing of, of safety that you have to, or building that safe environment for them. But yeah, like people, especially like in California, a lot of my liberal friends are like, Well, I'm scared of guns because I got kids. I'm like, okay, but like, let's think about this from a logical, you know, like perspective and I just go through this whole spiel and I think it makes sense to them then because they just look at a gun, like this thing's super dangerous. Right. I'm like, that nail gun is more dangerous than that, than that actual gun. That stapler is more dangerous than that actual gun. Cause like more people spit on it. stab themselves with a stapler than shoot themselves with guns. And I, it's just, you know, it's an ongoing conversation that I have, not just with friends in California, but also like family members who also don't understand much about guns yet. Um, Anyway, I kind of went on a tangent. No, you're good. It's, it's good. It's a good point to, you know, I'm, I'm the same way with the exposure to the, to guns in the house. I think I'm more strict on no running in the kitchen when I'm cooking than I am like, No running in the house with guns, right? It's not going to just go off right nobody's gonna get hurt but like I think a couple weeks ago we were doing something right before the girls went back to school and We'd been there before and of course, they have the big no gun sign. And so I My oldest is like, okay, are we going tomorrow? I'm like, yeah, she's like, daddy, you're taking your gun, right? It's like, yes. She's like, you know, the signs there. I said, I do know the signs there, but what do we do about the sign? So we don't talk about our gun while we're there. It's exactly right. So, yeah, not, I mean, it's a zoo, right? Yeah. And there's, there's so many ways to skin that cat. But again, it just, you know, people that don't live that life or even comprehend that life just. You know, they're just, they're just so against it that it's, they almost make it seem like it's, it's, you know, I don't know, but, but then like, once they, once they get into it, once they shoot a gun for the first time and they understand like that, that some of that fear is gone, it's like a whole mind shift. Yeah. You know, so just instant, you know, and just, I think more people need to shoot guns. Yeah. Like our biggest thing with the kids is like teaching them to respect it. And you know, like know that they're not supposed to mess with it if we're not there, you know, that kind of stuff. And then, you know, keeping it locked up and everything, but they know that they're not supposed to touch it, but then they're also, it's not like it's some crazy like unicorn thing. Like you said, you know, we have a range, you know, so they're, they're always around guns, but the, they have a healthy respect for them and then we keep them, you know, properly secured and all that. That way the curiosity isn't there. It's just like, Oh, it's just another gun. You know, I'm not trying to go, you know, because I think if you like put it on the pedestal or, you know, make it unaccessible, then it's like, Oh, they're always curious about it. Then they're going to get in there and start messing with it. You know, when you're not around, you know, cause kids will get into anything. Like, um, And then that's how they got a lot of accidents happen is, you know, they're not around it enough to Kids are always like Yeah 100 percent and I think and I think like we can even go like Apply that to the toy guns that we buy our kids because a lot of the boys, you know, we grew up on that stuff So that's like a perfect opportunity to start giving them some some education on You know, we're not the point that gun and yeah, like with the Nerf we do. It's like, you know, even it's a Nerf gun, we're like, don't point it in somebody's face, you know? And like, obviously they're going to shoot each other, but it's like, Hey, you know, we use that as like a way to like a kind of an entry thing of the first lesson. Get your finger off the trigger. Yeah, exactly. Quit running around with your finger on the trigger. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, man. Yeah, for sure, for sure. I think, I think we forgot the intro. Yeah, I was gonna say, uh, before we get too far in, um, welcome to the Big Tech Soreness podcast. Uh, we've got Chris, I'm Ike, Ian's over there in the corner, just doing his thing. And our guest today is Kawa from, uh, 2Alpha Training Group. Yes, sir. Thank you for having me. Yeah, you're somewhat local to us, a little bit down the road. Katie, yeah, about an hour, hour ten. Yeah. Or three hours, depending on traffic. Depending on traffic, yeah, yeah. Could be worse. That's true. Yeah, get out of here before like four or five, otherwise it'll be like a parking lot going back. Well, that's what I like about Houston in general, is just that you don't really have to leave your neighborhood. Because everything is there, you know, but then like, because we, the business just due to the nature of our business, we're just all over God's green earth. Like between Dallas Fort Worth and San Antonio. Like I went to Fredericksburg just, you know, a couple of months ago. I never, I've never driven more than since I've been here in the last two years. And stayed in one state. It's crazy. Yeah, it's, it's insane. Yeah. Yeah, cause it's, it's really nothing when you think about it for us to be like, you know, I'm going to drive an hour and a half to go do something. And still be in town. I went to College Station yesterday and that was like an hour and fifteen. And it was just like, yeah, we're just going to go pop in real quick, you know. Yeah, I mean, I have friends that live down in Katy and we go get lunch on the weekend and I'm like, drive an hour to go get a pizza and hang out with a buddy for, you know, two hours. Two hours and then drive home. It's like, it's kind of normal now. It's kind of cool living in Houston or Katie, you know, cause like, um, you're close to everything you're closest, you know, you can give three or four hours. You're in Dallas three hours. You're in San Antonio, uh, Austin, Fredericksburg, Waco. You know, you've got a whole. You can get to a lot of different places in like three or four hours. Yeah, I've, I've like, I've kind of figured that the four hour is like the magic number. Yeah. Is it four hours to Fort Worth, four hours to San Antonio, two and a half to Austin. But then, you know, everything's, but that to me, four hours is like nothing because, well, either you grew up in Texas or you grew up like in California somewhere where also four hours is really not a big deal. Especially like people go to Vegas for a quick weekend. That's a four and a half, five hour drive, six hours depending on traffic. Mhm. People still take it. So, but then people in the Midwest at 45 minutes, 30 minutes, way too much. No, no. That place is way too far. Yeah. I was reading something the other day, like people like in England and Europe and stuff like, uh, these, like. They're talking about like how they don't see their relatives because they're like an hour and a half away Like they'll be they'll go years without seeing relatives or whatever just because they're like an hour and a half away And it's too far to like to commute. Yeah, like man, that's I'll go get dinner, you know or lunch Yeah, Ian's going to get a pizza Yeah, and drive in an hour and a half and they can't go see you know, grandma because she's yeah It's just like I think it was my culture shock moving here was like driving Ian's from Canada. Yeah, basically. I'm from Buffalo, New York, originally. So, Canada. But yeah, I mean, it's like 10 minutes to get into the city, 10 minutes to go somewhere. Like, God forbid you hit 11 minutes of traffic and you're like, day's ruined. I'm like, I'm done for the day. Like my grandma lives an hour and a half away and that was always like a huge ordeal. Like, all right, we're going to grandma's house and now it like, well, you know, I'm actually going, going back home tomorrow and we'll go see grandma and it's an hour and a half. I'm like. Yeah. Cool. All right. We're, we're here already. Like that was, it's a normal drive. Like I live 20 miles away and it takes me an hour and a half to get home sometimes. Like if school's out on the first week and you leave at four o'clock and whatever. But yeah. So any, or go ahead. No, you were, you were going to ask the question. I was go for it. So I guess tell us a little bit about yourself, kind of your background and how you got started and you know, what, what two alpha is all about. Yeah, um, well, so, I'm, I wasn't originally born in the U. S. I was born in Afghanistan in Kabul. So I guess I should start there. Um, my family's from Kabul. Uh, we left Kabul during the Soviet invasion. So like, I think we actually left in eight, late, late 80 or 81 is when we left Afghanistan. Uh, the 79. So I think when they got closer to Kabul, uh, that's when it was like, okay, we got to go. Um, and for people that had the memes they left, a lot of like, And I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but like here in the U S the Afghan network here, like the community is still very tight. Like they're like, yeah, we lived across the street from this family. And so it was very tight knit here. But so, uh, we left in 81. We had to go to like Pakistan for a few months cause we had put in the paperwork to come to America. So we, all the immigration paperwork was put in and now we're just kind of playing the waiting game. Uh, so we went to Pakistan for, for three months. And then after that was approved, we. Came to America, but we went to Nebraska, Lincoln. Oh, wow What a huge difference. Yeah, that always gets a reaction That so the reason we went there is because my oldest uncle was a foreign exchange student He was going to the University of Creighton, I believe in Omaha and he's like, you know, it's just a nice Nice small town, you know, safe, and so he obviously talked about it, so everybody agreed. Then I guess, you know, if that's a safe place, let's go there. So I spent most of my childhood in Lincoln, and How old were you when you, when you, uh, when y'all left? I was, um, I think four or five by the time I got, we got to the U. S. Um, so it was, yeah. And then my sister was pretty much a newborn. Um, and the, the reason we left, so kind of, we had plans on leaving Kabul anyway, but then what, something happened that made us like, just, you know, skip a bunch of stuff and leave. And that's when my father got killed, uh, by Russian soldiers. And so when that happened, that just kind of expedited everything. We were like, we're getting out of here now, you know, so that's like a whole story within itself. But, um, Yeah, I went to Lincoln, Nebraska and grew up there. I went to college there. I wanted to join the Marine Corps out of high school and then that, my mom was like, nope, like I'm going to disown you if you do. Like I just, she just wanted me to go to college, finish that and then do whatever I wanted. So I went and did that, but then I went into the Marine Corps anyway. And, um, I just wanted to be like, I didn't know too much about the military, but like growing up in America and getting to an age where I like understood and appreciated why we were here, like where we came from, the reason behind, like, I, I grew a lot of admiration for the country, but I also just grew a lot of, uh, I felt grateful. So I felt like I had to give back and I felt like I just needed to do something to, you know, kind of show my gratitude because I mean, we could have grew up in Afghanistan during that time. And who knows if we would have been alive or now we're in Lincoln, Nebraska. Which is not people's first choice, but it, you know, I mean, for us, it was great cause it was safe and we had a new chance at a new life and immediately like our quality of life skyrocketed. Right. So, so all that, so there's a lot of gratitude. And so when I wanted to join the military, I just decided I wanted to do be part of the best. And, you know, I want it to be part of the Marine Corps. And then I went to the infantry and, and did that. I went into the Marine Corps, uh, in 2000, yeah, in 2000. And did a MEU, went to Japan, did all that before 9 11, and then after 9 11 did two deployments to Iraq, one for the invasion, the second one was for Fallujah, Operation Phantom Fury in 04. I was a squad leader, um, during that deployment. And then after that deployment is when I decided I wanted to do bigger and better things. Cause that deployment was probably the hardest and, and like most real deployment I've ever had. Um, it was just all urban warfare stuff. Doing CQB at a Marine Corps infantry level. That was in the thick of it too. Yeah. And, and so like, we're not CQB guys, right? I mean, we trained some kind of CQB in the Marine Corps, but like, it's not like anything that is even a standard now. So we're just trying to do our best to go building the building and like, you know, we're, we're getting into these little firefights with these guys and stuff, and that was a very real experience for all of us. A lot of us just like really grew up during that one. Like the invasion was kind of where we all popped our cherries and stuff, but like Fallujah is where a lot of us, like, we're like. Had a vision of where we wanted to go. Cause a lot of my buddies in my peer group went to special operations after that. Some guys went to the seals, some guys came, but came to a special forces like I did. And then we have guys that are like, went straight to like, you know, green and orange. And so like, I have all these Marine Corps friends that are in all these different units that like, we're all just, you know, we're all still pretty tight, but. That deployment is where I decided I wanted to leave the Marine Corps and go try out for the Green Berets because I just kind of did my research. A lot of us work with SEALs, you know, like in Fallujah, we worked with Chris Kyle's team and you know, while he was out doing his thing, like the rest of his team was broken down between my buddy Romero and my squad. And so it was kind of a cool dynamic that we had with those guys, but a lot of, a lot of Marines take that route. But when I did the research of what I wanted to do, And I looked into the type of warfare and the scope of work that these units have, like, like green berets were like the guys that I wanted, like guerrilla warfare and like unconventional warfare in general. That was like, yes, let's, let's do that. Especially with my background. So then I went in, I left the Marine Corps in 2005 and I had a small little break in service because I was just kind of enjoying life post Marine Corps and uh, yeah, it just, you know, decompression, man, it was good. Uh, but then I, I got, I got my shit together and I decided I'm going to just, you know, go sign my name on the dotted line and go try out for special forces. So I wouldn't, I signed up in, in, in late 05 and, um, went to Fort Stewart, Georgia, where I was part of a mechanized infantry unit. Um, and that was my first taste of the army. I had no idea where I was like, where I was going, but like, I knew that when I got there, I was going to go to the SF recruiters office and immediately like sign my volunteer statement to go to selection. So that's what I did when I showed up to my army unit. Um, the first Sergeant was like, Sergeant Malay, like, you know, great to have you here. We're getting ready to deploy to Iraq and we need more like leadership like you. And I was like, that's great for Sergeant, but I didn't come here to deploy to Iraq with you guys. And this dude's looking at me like, what? Like, are you not like an 11 Bravo? Like, yeah, but I'm not, that's not my purpose here. And so I gave him my volunteer statement for SF, for SFAS. And he hated me from that moment on. He would always put me on duty. He was like, you know, like I'm on CQ. So like I'm standing, I'm spending the night at the headquarters pulling, pulling duty. He's like, and his justification was, well, these guys are getting ready to deploy. So you guys, you can, you can do this. And I'm like, you know, I just ate it. I was like, cool. Like in three months, I'm not going to be here. Cause I'm going to go do better things. But the problem was that I made a lot of friends in the, in the short three months that I was in that unit. I made a lot of really good friends. In fact, One of them, I'm going to his wedding at the end of September, we're still, he, he came from one, the 173rd LERS unit out of Vincenza, like a very respectful, like infantry unit. And, uh, and him and I just hit it off because we both looked at this mechanized unit and we were like, what dirtbags, these guys, you know, like I'm not shitting on all mechanized units, but I'm just saying that particular mechanized unit that I was a part of were turds. Um, so there's some funny stories there. I came in with like a Marine Corps mentality and it was just like, it was not the right answer for this, for this first Sergeant he was, he did not want me to like, put like lock dudes up at parade rest if they're fucked up. He didn't want me to smoke guys on the spot. All the things that I could do in the Marine Corps as an E5. He was like, he would come out and yell at me in front of everybody. He's like, God damn it, Maule. This is not the goddamn Marine Corps. You can't go around smoking other people's Joes. These, these dudes that I smoked belong to another battalion. But like in the Marine Corps, nobody gives a shit. You know, if you're a Marine, you're a fucking Marine. I don't care what battalion you belong to. I'm going to lock your ass up in the army. No, I can't even talk to other dudes and other platoons, let alone other battalions. So I learned the hard way and I eventually told him right before I left. I said, you know what? First time, like I was here, like, like, you know, I came in from the Marine Corps with my leadership mindset. And like, I came here and I see your guys leadership mindset. And I was like, if you don't give a shit, if your Joes are fucked up, then I don't give a shit either. Like, why would I care? You know? So I'm leaving anyway. Good luck on your deployment. This guy also is the same guy that wrote himself up for a purple heart during that very deployment that they went on, that he was trying to lock me into. And, uh, and every, like everybody was like, dude, what a turd, man. Yeah. I'll never forget his name. I didn't know that was even a thing. Yeah, supposedly he took shrapnel in his ass cheek and he rolled himself up for a purple heart. So, which I guess technically you can, but Come on, man, you know, um, so I left, I left that, you know, I went to SFAS and I, I went to selection and, uh, it was a very humbling experience. Um, but like mentally I was ready. Cause the one thing that I enjoyed about that mechanized unit is that the platoon commander there, or sorry, the platoon leader there basically gave me like free reign in the mornings. He was like, dude, go do your own PT, get ready for selection. Don't, don't come PT with us. Just do whatever you need to. So while they're out like running and stuff, I would go, I'd throw like 80 pounds on my back and just go ruck, you know, go ruck as long as I could in those two hours and then come back or I go on a little run or whatever. But so, so I think like, because of his, like, because of like his permission is why I was in such good shape going to selection. Um, I was also a little bit older than most of the guys that went to selection. So I was like, Oh, I'm 28 now. And like, these kids are like 22, 23, you know? So, but, um, Selection, I mean, went to the Q course after I got selected. 160 of us got selected out of that class. And then we got dumped with another class. And I think we were like just over, um, over 250 going through Q course. Um, the Q course is about a year and a half to two years, depending on what MOS you choose. So if you're like 18 Bravo, 18 Charlie or 18, um, Echo. So if you're like weapons engineer or commo. That's really about a year and a half is what it takes. But if you're like Delta, which is a medic, this is an extra six months cause you do three. three month rotations at different hospitals and you're like, you're getting real life experience with like, you know, gunshot wounds and stabbings. And so like all the things that a medic adult that needs to know. So they have an extra six months of schooling, but those guys are legit by the time they get to a team, they know what they're doing and like good and, and their career progression is really good for them because Delta's are rare commodity. Uh, in, in the, in the, in the special forces, but I chose 18 Bravo just because I was always like this gun hoe kid, man. I love guns. That's why I became a grunt and then I loved guns even more after I was a grunt. So then of course I was going to be a weapons sergeant, you know? Um, so that's that's what I chose and then I chose fifth group for my, for my group as where I wanted to go. Cause they always ask you like, what do you want your MOS to be? What do you want? What group do you want? What language do you want? And so I chose Arabic for my language, which meant I should go to fifth group. The thing was because I'm Afghan and I already know enough Afghan Dari. They were trying to like, They wouldn't give me Arabic. They're like, no, we're just going to skip you through language. We're just going to test you out. And as long as you get like a zero plus zero plus you're good. I was like, but I'm going to fifth group. Like then our entire area of operation is they speaks Arabic. Like I don't speak Arabic. I want to learn, you know, they're like, no, you're Afghan. We're not going to, I was like, geez, dude. So that's what I did. I took like two weeks of Farsi or Dari. And then I tested out, and then I basically skipped like a whole class, um, cause that saved me like two months. Ended up going to fifth group, got there in, uh, later 06, and, um, I was at fifth group for, um, From 06 to, uh, eight, late 18. And so I was there for quite a few, I went through like three teams. Um, and then I, I ended fifth, my fifth group career at, uh, as a phallic. So Sephawik is Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat course. And it's considered kind of like the unofficial, like second highest shooting school of special operations with the first one being at Bragg, um, at range 37 is where they teach Sephardic. And so, you know, as a Sephawik instructor, you need to be Sephardic qualified. Um, so I went and taught at Sephawik for a few years and then I left after that. Um, and that was like, um, that was when I. Was also going through a lot of personal stuff and I was like, man, I gotta get my shit in order So I had to kind of prioritize on what I wanted to do But I left I left group and I went straight to like 19th group after that But while I was doing 19th group I also started to offer training group and to have a training group was just me Teaching like, you know, my first class was in El Paso of all places. I had like eight dudes And I did some stuff on Instagram. In fact, when I was teaching a safari, I would shoot like little Instagram videos, like just 15 second long videos. Cause we had like a plethora of targets. I was like, just, you know, like, so I just, I shot these little videos and I put them on Instagram, but I kept my page private for like a long time, cause I mean, I was still operational and I could go back to a team if I wanted to at some point. Uh, so I kept it private, but I just kept posting it on there. And, and then when I decided I was leaving active duty, that's when I made the page public. And by then it was just too awful to quit because I was like, this is, it's just a cheesy social media page. It's not going to go anywhere. But once I made it public, it like got a lot of attention and just kind of grew overnight. And this was like 2015, 2016. So, you know, like that's when Instagram was good. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you could actually grow, you know, and, and they weren't doing all the shadow banning stuff. And so it just kind of like just skyrocketed. And of course with that came opportunity and more exposure. And now, now in 2024, um, I have six other instructors. That teach for me in different places, um, or with me and we teach, we used to teach a lot of open enrollment courses to the public, but you know, obviously the economy sucks and, and we can't, I can't put a course on somewhere in Florida and then only five people show up. Like, it just doesn't make sense to anybody. Um, so we've cut down on open enrollment and, and for now, but we also have been part of a lot of programs as well. Um, and, We teach, we, we have some contracts with le I also teach at some of the, like O ot, OAS and T tpo, OAS and stuff like that. I haven't taught a tt, POA, I'm not claiming that. But I, I did teach at OTOA. Um, we do other programs with like Warrior Women's International. I don't know if you guys have heard of them at or at all, but they are outta San Antonio. And this is an all women's organization that are basically just like-minded females that want to train, but they don't want to just train. They wanna live the lifestyle. So it's not just life fired. Or excuse me, like, you know, guns and stuff, but it's medical. It's also a little bit of situational awareness type stuff. Conceal, conceal, carry type stuff. And they also have retreats. So they are, they have like villages all over the country. It started in San Antonio, but now they have like 60 villages. Um, so I'm in charge of the Tennessee, the SoCal and the Texas network. So I kind of bounce around there. Um, but I also am part of the American Legion. And I work closely with those guys. In fact, we're creating a, an official shooting team for the American Legion. Um, and waiting for that to get green lit, which it's going to, it's just little things, but once that gets green lit, that is there's 12, 000 posts for the American Legion across the country. And they want to take this concept on the national level to their convention later in the year. So we're hoping that this kind of just blows up. And now the American Legion has an official shooting team at different places because their, their main objective is to recruit younger veterans into the organization. Cause these are old dinosaurs with a lot of money and they're dying and they don't know the first thing about marketing or they don't care, you know, it takes younger guys to come in and, and. And do that for them. So they've really made that a main objective. They got Josh and I to sign up at, uh, at NRA. We were right next to them. They're like, you guys are joining. So, uh, Josh and I are, are life members of the, uh, NRA or not the NRA, the, uh, American Legion. Yeah, yeah, they were right next to us. They've been doing a good job lately. I know they've got that. What's the one guy he's still, I think he's still active duty a bit. Yeah. or Fort hood, whatever they call it now. Uh, but he's been doing commercials for him on posts for them on Instagram and stuff. So they're definitely trying to recruit like, yeah. Our peer group. Yeah. And the shooting company, the shooting team was my idea. And I said, if you want, if this is your mission, then we need to create programs that draw younger people like shooting, like the gaming industry. So now they're also looking at the creating, creating a gaming team. Yeah, so they want to create an e gaming team where they can basically sponsor these, this team to go to different tournaments around the country and possibly the world depending on how well it does, you know. But it's programs like that that are going to draw younger people, not the things that they're doing now, which is like the Catalina wine mixer type stuff that they do. It's not, man. You know, and that's what they love to do. Our post commander, is that like a paid job? Position post commanders and stuff like that. Dude, that's a really good question. Um, I think it would have to be. Yeah? Yeah. Interesting. Can you fix this? Oh, did it shut off? Yeah. Oh. Can you fix this? Did you, did you message him? Yeah. Uh, you could hear it beep? I didn't even hear it. Yeah, I didn't even notice until, until he creepily opened the door. That's why we have three cameras. Yeah. We'll keep you around. Good job. You earned your keep for another week. Yeah, because, you know, my exposure to the American Legion, like growing up was that was like the only place. In our dry county that you could, or one of the only places you could go drink. And that's where my grandpa would always go drink. Cause he was a member of the legion. Was your grandpa, my grandpa? Cause that was my grandpa's thing. Go hanging out at the American Legion. That's like, I guess the, probably the stigma that everybody kind of has of it is just a smoky old bar where everybody's going, but you know, what's, what's crazy about the American Legion is that they're a very powerful like organization. They have a lot of influence in DC. Um, yeah. And a lot of people don't know this about the American legion is if it wasn't for them, soldiers and veterans wouldn't have the Montgomery GI bill, you know, they were the ones that pushed Congress to pass that. So, and, and so they, they, they did a lot of things like that, but because of how old they are, you know, they, they have a lot of influence in Congress and they, and they bat for veterans all the time. Uh, but again, these guys are like dying off and there's no one to replace them. You know, and so you have this multi billion dollar organization with really good influence in DC that could good do good things for veterans, but there's no lineage there. Um, so it's kind of, it's kind of concerning, but at the same time, I'm, I'm, you know, I'm proud to like take this all the way to a national level and hopefully it takes off, you know, and they create funding for it. That's really cool. Um, so it's little programs like that, that just keep us busy, man. Now that are consulting. I do a lot of consulting, you know, like I work for cobalt kinetics. We do a lot of cool things together. Um, I work with some other companies as well. And then some of that consulting also turns into like content creation and there's some overlap there. Um, you know, but I definitely just, the companies that I work with, man, I. I truly stand behind like I'll never I'll never like chill out for a company just because they pay good money I think that's not the right answer um And and so the companies that I work with, you know, it's Like cobalt kinetics, like the only reason, like, if you had asked me to work with cobalt kinetics, like five years ago, it'd be like, no, no, like, and that's no, no offense to them, but they just weren't the type of like rifle that I was looking for. These are like super high end competition rifles. Yeah, totally different use case. Their shooters are winning championships. They're very eccentric looking seven ports. I'm like, what? I didn't even know what seven port of seven port break was till I saw one of those. But it's so, but when they changed ownership. Um, and I understood where they wanted to go, and I got introduced to them. I s I kinda saw that vision, but I also was thinking like, Okay, these guys make super dope rifles. It's like, now we're going to go to an AR, like it's a lot of that stuff is going to transfer that performance that, you know, um, the efficiency and the parts and the components and everything like a lot of that's going to transfer. So I was really excited about it. I was like, dude, we're going to have a badass, like we'd have a badass, like combat style AR that is still performs well. Yeah. And that's why I joined up with them. And, and, uh. And then we started doing great things together, like the RCB break, like Aaron and I developed that together and now it has like all these different versions and stuff. And, and some of their, some of their proprietary components are also pretty cool, um, that I get really excited about. And I know we're kind of skipping ahead. I know. Oh, you're good. No, no, no, no. You're good. You're the, the, we've, we did a whole. Rifle build with Aaron last year, uh, over here at the range and just the little details that are in, like how you assemble the lower, how that upper comes, you know, is put together. And like, man, I tell you that barrel nuts going nowhere. What's once you put that barrel nut on jam nut, what you put that barrel on, on the proper twerk. I mean, it's got what, two and a half inches of thread, something like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We made sure that Yeah, it came all the way out. Yeah. And plus it has that inverted threading on the inside, so it's, it's double. They're smooth shooters too. They're smooth. Yeah. I can't, yeah. Put my buffer, my a five buffer spring in mine today. The, the CK one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a, uh, a parts BLI rifle that I was nice enough to acquire parts for. I'm pretty, pretty excited about Yeah. That, that, that, that, um. A5CK buffer that we did with, with Veltor is pretty cool, right? Like who would have thought just a simple little dimple in there would just make it perform better because you lose a lot of that. That little teetering and, you know, that it does and stuff on the way back. So it's just little things like that, that get me excited about working with Cobalt and this direction that we're headed in. But, um, anyway, so that again, it just, it's either some consulting or, or a little bit of content creation, you know, just to. Stay relevant, I guess, these days in the social media world, because that's, I mean, if you're not doing content, it's like, who are you? It's kind of hard, you know? Um, but every once in a while I'll get like a, a movie gig, you know, that I consult for. Oh, nice. Just because of the connections that I had in LA for all those years that I was there as well. And then doing that, um, my name gets kind of thrown in the hat for some stuff. And more than likely I say yes, cause it's just like a nice break away from everything else. Um, yeah. And so when I did like the Covenant, uh, Guy Ritchie's movie, that, like, that was a costume designer that basically just threw my name in the hat, you know, that I worked with on some other. So when Guy's Ritchie, when Guy Ritchie's people reach out to me and say, Hey, we're doing this movie. And I was like, wait, who's the director, you say Guy Ritchie, but I mean, Guy Ritchie is like my favorite director, man. I love all his movies. Um, and so when I was like, dude, this is his first military movie and it's about green berets in Afghanistan. And I was like, that's me, man. Yes, please. You know? So, so yeah, it's like, I'll jump on that, but you know, it's fun to do that. I don't pursue that industry. It's a very kind of cutthroat industry guy. Richie just so happened to need somebody because he doesn't have a military guy cause he doesn't do military movies. Right. It's all a bunch of like, like his movies are all very like, just. It's like, well, how do I describe it? But it's just a lot of gunplay, a lot of sexy gunplay that there's no considerations for like realism there, but. What was cool is that he gave me a lot of flexibility on that, on that project to make it as authentic as we could get it. And of course there's moments of Hollywood that you sit in there because they just, some realism doesn't look good on camera. Yeah, they got to make it. Yeah. So, and I learned that the hard way when I was doing this thing for a Navy SEAL show and we were moving through this hallway and I was like, well, this is how we would move. And he was like, That looks super boring. Gotta make it sexy. Can we make these guys run? I was like, no, we can't run through this hallway, but we can move faster. And like, so now we're like moving way faster than we would ever, but it looks great on camera and that's all they care about. Yeah. Even the grenades just don't look good on camera. Like a real grenades. Just kind of like, Oh, is that it? I was expecting more fire. Yeah. Yeah. It's not really. Yeah. System. Yeah, it really is. Yeah, there's no fire nothing. That's cool, man. I didn't even know that Yeah, so just that's just kind of like here and there man if it But again, I don't pursue it. A lot of big directors have their guys, you know, like I'm going to say, I guess once you're in, you, you kind of, they kind of got their guy and that's like, and then like, you know, I told Guy Ritchie, I was like, if you ever do anything else, military, dude, bring me in happy to help obviously. But you know, like he's going to eventually probably need his guy if he does more military or just action movies with a lot of guns, but you know, the way he does it now, it's just very fantasy to him. Everything, everything just has to look cool on the camera. So, um, But his movies are still good. Yeah, you know, we love his movies. His, uh, he did, he directed Snatch, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah, that's one of my favorite movies of all time. Yeah, iconic movie. Yeah, and Lock, Stock, Two Smoking Barrels before that. Yeah. Yeah, like Dex. Yeah. Do you like Dex? I don't know if I've ever seen it. Dex. Oh my god. You got homework now. You like Dags? Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen it. You've never seen Snatch? No. Oh my god. Alright, you've got to watch Snatch. Yeah, you need to watch Snatch. Like after this, we can just go in your office. We'll just close my door. Take your shoes off, guys. Just leave. Kick your shoes off, throw your feet up. Just leave. It's good. It's a very funny movie. And then, so, this is funny, Instagram, the other day, popped up with your Howitzer clothing line, right, with your t shirts and stuff from Howitzer. And that's why I texted you. I was like, oh, okay, let me get back in touch because we've been playing. You know, phone tag, phone tag for months, months and back and forth on Instagram. Be like, Oh, I didn't see your message. I didn't see your message. And then like messaging from two accounts. I'm like, I don't know who I'm messaging from, whether it's big techs or BTO gear or Chris. I don't know who I am today on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How is it? The Hauser thing was cool. Um, Eric is a really good dude. He. Like, I like, I like his mission, you know, so obviously he owns that apparel company and they have some other stuff, but his blue line project and how he basically is putting on free training for these LA guys. Uh, it's something that I'm, I'm really like proud to now be a part of, uh, the, the t shirt was just like your initiation and, you know, and, and he even said it that way. He was like, you need your own shirt. You got to have your own shirt. And then after that, and so I was excited about that because if you look at, if you look at how it's her and who also belongs or is a part of how it's her, but also really just a blue line project, then it's like top tier instructors, man. And it's, it's, I'm honored to be a part of that. So. That was kind of a no brainer. Plus there's so many mutual friends there in that circle. It's like, why would I say no to this? Um, but yeah, so we did a cool thing with Genesis shotgun for that whole shoot. So. They came out from Idaho and brought all their cool shotguns and their, their John Wick one and all that. So it was just cool, fun range day, man, with some, some cool content that came out of that and partnerships. I'm supposed to get a Huxworks can because you said Hux, Huxworks earlier. And I was like, I'm supposed to get that Huxworks can for that Genesis. Now I'm excited. Yeah. I want to suppress that shotgun. Yeah. Um, that's going to be cool. The Gen 12 is sick. The G12. Yeah, the Gen 12. Yeah. Yeah, that's, um, the guy shot it at Shot Show at Range Day and they were like, yeah, that thing is Money. The shotgun? Yeah. I've never messed with one, but the guys really liked it a lot. Man, they're just, they're, I've shot so many different rounds through mine now that I'm just sold on it. Like, for a mag fed A magfed, you know, shotgun like that. It's, I mean, the continuity of the AR is there, you know, and so all the features and functions are there, but then. I haven't really had any jams. In fact, I only had one jam, but that's because I try to, I try to take a, I try to take a buckshot and make it into a slug, like a field expedient slug. Oh, doing that. Yeah. So I did the cuts on both sides. And I, I cut it a little too short, so I caused my own jam, but, but man, that's a good shooting shotgun dude. Like that's a good, like people say home defense, I would say that would probably be the one that I go. I mean, you got 10, 10 plus rounds in it. You're not walking through that wall. Yeah. What other, um, so you're shooting cobalt ARs. You're shooting staccato pistols? Not officially. Oh, officially? Yeah, just have a good partnership, a good relationship with those guys. Um, I mean, I would love to take it to an official place. But that, that, and that's something that they're aware of. But I also, I'm going to them with bigger stuff too. Like, I really want them to, you know, Sponsor the, the shooting team for the legion. I would love for all shooters to have a staccato and then have staccato somewhere on their kit. Cause like, this is like a legit shooting team. It's not like, you know, like a little club. It's like, these guys want to compete one day. They want to compete at like high levels of USPSA and the pool that they're pulling from just to create these, this team is phenomenal shooters. These guys are already like out there doing USPSA. So. There's a lot of potential here. And, and look at all the dudes that you can get out of the, uh, army marksmanship unit. Yeah. AMU. Yeah. AMU. Like all those dudes that come out of that and then they go into. Professional shooting. Yeah, I mean the Shane Coley's and the Max Michelle's like Phenomenal shooters, man. Yeah. Yeah, so that's good, you know, just high hopes but the X Takato. I love there's XC I when I when I got that XC, I just wanted like a cool range gun like nothing else just a solid range gun Yeah And so I went with that gun and man, I, it's hard to put it down, you know, especially now that I've broken it in after thousands of rounds. And in fact, it's that staccato now getting, getting tuned up. They're like, your plunger broke. And I was like, what? I didn't even know. And so they're, they're tuning it up for me. And I, and I was like, so I'm going to go pick it up. But otherwise, uh, I don't really, I don't really like have an official exclusive relationship with a lot of companies. I don't pigeon hole myself that way. Cobalt's a little different, but even with Cobalt, for the sake of content, I'll pick up other guns from PSA or whoever and shoot them for content. Like, there's no, you know, there's no kind of conflict of interest there. So, um, I think Cobalt's probably the most exclusive just because I'm like part of their family now because his youngest daughter put me in their family portrait with crayon, like a drawing. So now we're bonded, you know? And I told him, I was like, dude, I'm the seventh member of your family. Like it's official now. Um, yeah, but I do have some cool relationships in the industry. I just keep them open. Cause I don't, um, I don't necessarily want to lock myself in. I say that, but then like WileyX is probably exclusive for me too. I don't, I'm not going to wear any other iPro. Because I love their history, so I, I boast about WileyX all the time. Um, their facility is up north, if you guys ever get a chance to go to Fort Worth. Oh, okay. In Frisco. Uh, and dude, they'll, they'll give you a tour of their entire test, their little torture chamber. Of all the different tests that they do on these glasses and you guys would be like what the fuck Like they do some really cool tests, man And and I mean they've had that that military contract for so long. It's because their shit works Yeah, but like I used to tell people that when I would wear wiley x's as a young pfc lance corporal malay I was like, dude, we look like fucking nerds, like these names look stupid, but then like they would work. Cause like, you know, all the sandstorms in Southern Iraq, like dirty invasion, like they fuck, they fucked us up, man. Like, and those goggles, like my eyes were good and the rest of my face was just sandblasted, you know, but. So this stuff works. It's just aesthetically, it just looked like Could pop your lenses out and then you had the huge black like Terminator lenses. Yeah, exactly. I was like, man, no enemies gonna be afraid of us. We look like dorks, you know? They're laughing at you. But now you look at Wily X and it's like, holy shit, dude, these are like really slick designs. And it's because they brought in some very creative people. And so But they still, man, they keep their You know, uh, the reputation as what they're known for is definitely the standard still. Because it's still family run, so. But yeah, uh, you know, the purpose of like working with these companies is not to be exclusive with them anyway. It's that you believe in one of their, one of a couple of their products and you think they're a good company just reputation wise. So now you want to be like, well, I'm a good person. You're a good company. Let's find a way to like. You know, collaborate together, you know, um, and I tell like companies that I worked with in the past, I said, I'm not going to rep your whole line, dude. Like I just like one or two of your products and that's it. That doesn't mean you're going to send me all these lights or all these, whatever. I'm just going to push them out. Like I can't do that. So I see where that kind of gets you an industry. And I see that the industry is already saturated with that anyway. And I just don't want to put myself in that pool of people. But you get like some people who it's like, well, I've read for this company and that's the only one I'm going to talk about. This is the only thing that's good. Everything else is your trash trash. And then it kind of cuts your credibility down because it's like, well, I mean, you're pretending like there's nothing good else. Nothing else get out there. Yeah. And that's so unrealistic, man. And people see right through that, especially in our industry, because nobody reinvents the wheel in our industry. People just make little changes either aesthetically or functionally and it's like, Oh, this thing is the coolest, right? That's just the evolution of our stuff But yeah, like you can't sit there and be like this is the best they are or this is the best optic like this There's just no such thing these days. So it's just say, you know, just say that, look, this is the optic that I like. It's a, it's a solid optic. It's a good choice. It's not the most expensive. It's not the cheapest, but this is why I like them. And this is why I rep them. And then as long as you get that transparency, man, I think you're good. Like, but a lot of people just don't, you know, and it turns into this whole thing, toxic thing in our industry. Like I can't, I don't. The amount of different flashlights I have, or you, I mean, like, I'm not, I don't even have the near the flashlight collection that you do. I got to bring my, my habits into this. Cause it's, it's the truth. You have a lot of flashlights circle of trust, but like I have mod lights with surefire parts and surefires with mod light parts, and then mod lights with surefires with unity parts. You know, like, and it, and it works. People ask like, Oh, what, what flash? I'm like, dude, just what brand do you like? Are you, there's a lot of good ones. Yeah. I'm like, if you like cloud by a cloud, if you like mod light by a mod light, like they're, they're great. Yeah, it's like the either way you're getting a good flashlight hundred percent. It's like the laser gang It's like you got like the pack guys. Yeah, then you got like the mall guys, right? So you got like the d ball and pack style and you got these people that love that mall and swear by it Even though I think it's terrible and I'm not saying that the company is terrible I'm just saying that this particular product is not my favorite. You heard it here first the malls terrible I want to get my hands on one of the new, the Air Sokka DIRVs. Have you saw those? Those look pretty cool. I watched a video on those yesterday. It was like 45 minutes on it. I was like, that's pretty, pretty cool. That I mean, Air Sokka dudes are always putting out really innovative stuff, you know? Yeah. And so I'd like to get my hands on those. You know, there's another company that puts out like really innovative stuff is emissary development. Those, those young dudes over there are like doing some really cool things. Yeah. So like, I like plugging those guys too, man. Um, and I don't even really use most of their stuff. I just like their handbrake, their hand stop called handbrake. I just, I just love that thing. Um, There's, I mean, I liked, I liked the little companies, man. Cause I think it's the little companies that keep this industry going at the day. Cause like, obviously the bigger they get, they look more like. Government focused, contract focused. And then, you know, I feel like they start forgetting about the little people in the industry, the people that helped them come up in the first place. But then those government contracts run dry and they, you know, they run out and it's now they're like, Oh, like, do you alienated yourself? Yeah. Sorry. You pissed off all the normal people. I mean, look at H and K man. They did that for so long, you know? And then, and then look what happened to them. And I think it's because they fell in love with those government contracts and they've told everybody else to fuck off. Which is great. Well, that's the thing. But when they, when they dry up, you know, it's like, yeah, yeah. Cause then look at them, but I like the little companies because I think the little companies is what drives innovation. That's the thing. Like little companies are there. They don't have too much invested like in production and everything. And they're not afraid to make a change. It's not as big a deal to them, you know. Yeah, it's like kind of how mod light came up, you know, they were quick and nimble and able to like, You know rapidly change to the demands that the industry had and you've got like other behemoths that are so ingrained You know, it's it's hard for them to change because they're just so cumbersome and so so corporate, you know, like yeah Yeah, I feel like that's exactly where it is man. Like little companies look for gaps in the industry that they can fill And then the bigger you get the more kind of mainstream you become with your production and whatever right? So You And a lot of that innovation kind of goes away. So you'll have to show him some credo stuff. I didn't even talk about credo stuff. Yeah, we got some cool stuff coming. Yeah, you'll have to show them the sling mounts and the, my favorite new, I got a, I was lucky enough to receive a blim alignment rod from Mr credos himself the other day. Dang. Yeah. Yeah. It's at home right now in, in the suppressor, in the barrel right now. The bag rider should be out by the time this drops. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. So you heard it here. Second. Yeah. Sorry. I'll show that to you when we get out. That's cool. What else? So what else? What else you got coming up in the future, man? Uh, it's just, well, so this weekend, in fact, tomorrow morning, I fly out to North Carolina. I'm part of this, uh, charity golf tournament. So going out there, it's called Hope for the Warriors. And that's the name of the foundation or excuse me, organization. And this is their 15th annual one. So they do this every year in a little town outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. And it's just a three days of golf and like, it's like a veteran paired up with a celebrity paired up with a member of the organization. And then also one of the donating supporters, like, so it's kind of like they're this team of four and you're playing like these different. How's your golf game? It's not great. I enjoy it. I love golf, man. I, uh, but I'm not great at it. I can hit the ball, but like once I, the closer I get to the green, the worst, the worst I get. Let me just put it that way. Right. You can smack the shit out of that. I can smash the shit out of that ball. Yeah. Do you know who you're partnered up with this weekend? Um, actually I, they just emailed the list and I didn't recognize any of the names. It's not Tiger. It's Tiger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I've done a, I did a shotgun, a sporting clays one time, uh, it was, I think it was Chevron or something and a team red, white, team red, white, and blue, right? And it was a veteran's event and it was kind of like that. You were out there with one guy and then you were a couple of dudes from this company and you were just like the veteran on the team was like, I'm not very good at sporting clays, but here we go. Yeah. Yeah. It was fun. A lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I'm not a sporting clays guy. Like I've just not something I've ever dabbled in. And then we went to a place, um, in Dallas called the porch venue. It's, it's a cool little place that does like after dark clay shooting. Oh, cause it's all like the black lights and the lit up discs. And so like your shotgun has like night sights on it and everything. And I mean, they have over unders, they have a couple of different styles of shotguns and stuff, but. It's cool, man. So they just, they have these, I don't know, like eight or nine that are just on auto and they just go up and just randomly, and then they can set them up for like a little con contest or whatever. And I, that's when I realized that I am not a sporting clays guy, you know? So it's just, I think that I don't understand, like, I need to comprehend better the, the. Like the funnel of fire that I'm creating, plus like the speed and the lead. And I'm like, and then also just where I need to hold off for that, you know, a little more. And so it's just like, I'm not there yet, man, you know, but I mean, after doing it once or twice, you can't really expect your, but then, uh, The lady that I'm with, my woman friend that I'm with, she comes in there and she's just smoking it left and right. I'm just sitting here with the iPhone just like, what the fuck? Like, are you like, you know, so I don't know, man. Some people, she was like, no, I haven't done a lot of this either. And I was like, I don't believe you at all. Yeah, I don't believe you at all. But she swore. She was like, I haven't done a lot of this. And I was like, well, fuck, you're a natural. You need to maybe get into it because it's not my thing. I was watching it. It was, uh, I think it was highlights from the Olympics and they had like a. Shotgun camera where you could like, kind of see the, the aim down sights. And it was like, I didn't realize on a few of them, like how far we, I've done it probably twice in my life once was with you and we did, I did terrible. I'm using like grandpa's old fucking pump action shotgun. And like this dude was leading. It was so far. He was leading the thing. And I was like, dude, I never would have guessed you'd have had to lead that far for that. I mean, like Clay was here and he was like over here shooting. And I was like, Oh, Yeah. He hit that. Okay. That's not what I was expecting. That explains why I did terrible. I'm not leaving. And driving to the next target before his shot ever, at that level, the shot's not even hit the target before they're on to the next target because they know they've hit. Yeah. It was impressive. They're impressive. It's definitely, it's definitely like a speed thing, isn't it? Because what else are you engaging with a pistol or rifle that's moving that fast? You're not. So, but now at least you have like, you know, this, this, this, you have basically whatever load you use, but you have multiple, multiple like BBs going at this thing, but it's traveling at such a high rate, man. Like. You know, I guess they have different rates of speed. I'm not sure what the standards are, but for me, it's just a science of it all that I don't compute fast enough in my head. You know, what speed versus what lead out like I just, yeah, you got to calculate like how fast they go and how far do I have to lead and then like, there's some that are like coming in at you. Yeah. The drop. Yeah. There's some coming at you coming down. Yeah. It's, but you were shooting red wasps out of the air with a BB. Yeah. He's over here. That's true. I've gotten better in the warehouse. Yeah. We have a loss problem. So I've been. Ariel's gonna, you know, gunnery classes. He's got like a Lock 19 BB gun. Yeah. He's just popping them with. Wait till you pull the wrong one. Yeah. Chris, this morning I was packing orders and like the BB guns on the packing station. He's like, is that your gun? And he like, I was like, no, no, that's the BB gun. He grabs it and just shoots. And I was like, what if he just like ripped around through the wall? Like, yeah, I got you. It wasn't my Glock, idiot. Josh is in the armor. I checked it. I know, I know. I checked it. So where can, where can our audience find you now that they know a little bit more about you? Um, yeah, I mean, we have a website called twoalphatraininggroup. com Uh, it's the number two and then everything else, the words alphatraininggroup. com Um, so, That is on the website. You'll see, you'll see some open enrollment courses. Again, we pulled most of those because the other projects were part of, but you'll see the storefront there. You'll see some of the products that we carry, the apparel that we designed. Um, and then also a couple of like online type seminars that we have, um, like active citizen. And also we have like a land navigation online seminar where we teach map reading and we use a pretty cool program for that. So we, so we do little things like that. And, um, um, But then as far as like social media wise on Instagram, it's just kawa underscore M underscore official. And I think that's pretty much across the board for all the, I try to keep that continuity with all the different platforms. So if you just look up kawa dot underscore M underscore official, you'll see it on YouTube. It's two alpha training group is the page. Um, and that's a lot of, obviously our long form content, more educational, more comprehensive content. Um, and that's really about it. Otherwise, if you Google me, you'll just probably see a bunch of IMDB pop up pictures of me, like on the red carpet or some cheesy photo of me posing with a gun. Um, my, my, my kids are like, my girls, when they were younger, they're like eight or nine. They're like, daddy, you're famous. And she Googled my name. It's like all these little things pop up on the photos. And I'm like, no, I'm not famous. Honey, I just, I'm not famous. I just like, I just like, you know, I'm on all these platforms and so the pictures leak to the internet or whatever. Um, but yeah, otherwise that's really about it. So, 12 training groups accompany, um, as far as courses go. Next year we'll pick back up. Like, so if everything goes as planned next year, we'll pick back up on the open enrollment. Uh, otherwise, you know, it's, it's how much can I load onto my plate without completely like having a mental breakdown, I guess. Yeah. Cause I'm one of those guys. I'm sure you guys are too, man. Like we tend to overload our plates, but then we also kind of complain about it, but we also, I like that a little bit of chaos. So I don't know about you guys. Um, I like it a little chaotic. Oh yeah. Yeah. I haven't packed for my trip yet. And I'm leaving for a week, so I gotta go home and stuff a suitcase when I get home. When are you leaving? Tomorrow morning. Yeah. Yeah. 7am. We've started a whole new schedule. Like everything, like, dinner's on my Google calendar. Like, we've, my wife went totally, totally on board, but you know what, now we're working out. You know, now, like today, fix and go to lunch, something that we haven't done tomorrow. Like our day is like, okay, Hey, here, we're doing this. I'm here. You're taking this one to karate. Then we're doing this. And then we're doing this in the afternoon. So we're actually like getting time to spend together when we weren't. Cause we weren't making a priority. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. I mean, you get so busy and caught up in your day. That time flies. Like you're like, Oh shit. I forgot to eat lunch. You know, it's like, I have timers on my phone alarms, like breakfast, like snack one lunch snack to like dinner, one dinner, two. That is what my phone is set on every day, man. Um, but yeah, wait, you're leaving tomorrow morning. Are you flying out of Bush at 7. 00 AM? My flight's at 7. 00 AM. Who are you flying with? Uh, Delta. Delta. Oh shit, I might be on Delta or United, I forget which one they booked me on. Maybe I'll see you at the airport. Well dude, thanks for Thanks for coming up. We'll, we'll link up some more after this and I'll get you hooked up with the, the range to get you on schedule over there too, for sure. Yeah. Thanks man. I appreciate you having me appreciate like the professionalism here. Thank you. I'm glad you guys joined us. Obviously the more the merrier always makes for better conversation. So really cool setup. Yeah. But I'm glad that we finally made this happen and now we can just, you know, continue down the road, especially since I'm right there, man, we can plan some cool range days or something. You're a neighbor. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Especially when we go down to the ranch, you're actually closer to the ranch. Am I, am I a Texan now? Like how long do I have to be here before I call myself a Texan? I don't know. I've been here seven years. Do I qualify? I've been here like, well, like 20 something, but. When can I buy my boots and my cowboy boots? You can get my big old buckle. You can get your boots through the rodeo is coming next year. I got to go. If you've followed us this long, be sure to check out two alpha training, check them out on Instagram. All the links are on the comments. down below in the description. We really appreciate your time. Make sure you subscribe to both YouTube channels, Rumble, Instagram, Fankawa, Fine2AlphaTraining. We appreciate you. Do you have anything for the people? Uh, get your oil change in your car. Cause you probably haven't in a while and drink extra water today. Drink extra water. Yeah. Cheers. High five. Cheers. Appreciate it. Want a coffee? Yeah.