Tactical Wealth: From Military to Money

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it's been the hardest, most stressful thing I've ever

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endured

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you went from one cage fight to another cage.

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my deployment to Afghanistan

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definitely had, a

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pretty big impact on

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kind of the way I view things.

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you've built from your t shirt company that you started in the sale teams, a multi multi-million dollar business,

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we've done over 13 million in sales.

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And then you have

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massive massive setback

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Kovid really just derailed us completely.

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But

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I also,

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screwed us and my company,

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like it felt like my house burned down,

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For too long, those that have worn the cloth of the country, that have fought and sacrificed for our nation have been left out of the greatest financial engine the world has ever seen. My service paved the way for my success, and that's true for so many venture partners. In fact, some of the greatest companies were created by veterans.

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I'm your host, Carson, and in each episode, we'll bring you the stories and the wisdom of those who have gone from boots on the ground to successful careers, from military to wealth and how they've done it. So you can apply those insights to your own mission and life. Welcome to tactical wealth, from military to money.

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All right. Welcome to another episode of Tactical Wealth. Today, I am honored to welcome one of my closest friends and an unbelievable guest, Mitch Aguilar. Now, Mitch is former Navy Seal whose career has been defined by pushing limits not just in combat zones, but also in entrepreneurship and fitness. Community service. After serving a decade with Seal team ten, Mitch transitioned his discipline and his resilience into founding Massive Supplements company dedicated to delivering premium fitness and wellness products designed for athletes warriors.

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Basically anybody who's striving for peak performance. He's also the visionary behind Violent Hippie, a bold lifestyle and apparel brand that champions individuality, strength and unapologetic self-expression beyond business. Mitch fights professionally as an MMA athlete known as Smashing Frog, bringing the same relentless drive to the cage as he did in service. In addition, he funded Adopt a Cop, a nonprofit BJJ focused on training for law enforcement officers in Brazilian jiu jitsu to enhance their safety, de-escalation skills, and community connections.

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Mitch, welcome to Tactical Wealth. It's an honor to have you. Thanks for having me. It's an honor to be here. Yeah. I can't wait to talk about all the things

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But before we do that, before we get tactical, let's just give me a quick answer.

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If you had to sum up your journey from Navy service to entrepreneurship in one sentence.

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What would it

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be?

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it's been the most frustrating and stressful and rewarding thing at the same time.

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Yeah. I would have said for you,

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you went from one cage fight to another cage.

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Yeah. Awesome.

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And is there a moment that sticks out from your time in the teams that shaped how you see the world?

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I would say

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my deployment to Afghanistan

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definitely had, a pretty big impact on kind of the way I view things.

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And,

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the world kind of made me start to question a little bit of the military industrial complex and, and all that. And then, you know, Covid kind of, solidified that. Yeah. Yeah. And I kind of think looking back at it afterwards, kind of, you know, things year, it made sense. Yeah. And I know you well enough to, to summarize that and say that the seeds of your questioning of conventional wisdom were sort of started in Afghanistan and then later on manifested themselves throughout your entrepreneurship journey.

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Yeah.

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Okay. But

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let's, scale back for a second and, like,

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where are you from? How did you come to the Seal teams? Give me a little bit about your service. From Virginia Beach, Virginia, originally, so actually born and raised there.

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Do you know what seals were growing up? No, I didn't.

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I mean, yeah, now my and my. That's crazy, because half of our Seal teams are in Virginia Beach. Well, what's even crazier than that was my mom and dad were both in the Navy, and my dad was a combat cameraman attached with the Seal teams. What? Yeah. I didn't know this.

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Okay, so you didn't know about the Seal teams? Nope. So how did you end up in the Seal team? You're one of those guys who went through Buds Young,

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right?

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Yeah, I went through right out of high school. And had no intentions of joining the military whatsoever. Was,

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my dad more so pushed me to, you know,

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hey, you should look at the military. You

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And I was just like, nah, nah, not interested,

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I didn't know what I wanted to do, honestly.

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I always enjoyed entrepreneurship, like, I, you know, at a very early age. You. In fifth grade, I was cutting grass, you know, going door to door, cutting grass. And I liked making money and, you know, making $100 a day as

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fifth

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grader. That's pretty good money, you know, very low overhead. So

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it's a it's very, cushy life and ice cream truck rolls around, you know, a dollar, a popsicle, get all your friends.

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That's just one yard. I can feed all my friends popsicles. And, you know, that was just. I really enjoyed that, that type of lifestyle from an early age. And, so I was always interested in making money. That was kind of when I, when I was more interested in my dad, you know, was in the military and was kind of always pushing that.

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Didn't want to do that. Fast forward. In high school, I had a couple different jobs. I was, a roofer on the weekends. I moved from Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then I also was a lifeguard at Kalahari, which is the world's largest indoor water park. And I was a surf instructor and the flow rider and, and, which is like the artificial from Santa Cruz.

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You don't call it surfing, but I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In Ohio that's, that's as good as it gets out there to in high school. That's where I was. And and then I also, helped my mom and my stepdad.

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They had, like a gas station, deli, convenience store. And I worked there as well.

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when I did graduate, high school, I did graduate.

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And, when I graduated, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Exactly. And, like I said, both of my parents were in the military, so I knew of that as an option. You know, I knew that there were benefits to joining the military and seeing the world and stuff like that. And I moved around a lot as a kid.

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I probably went to, you know, maybe 7 or 8 different schools. So I lived in now 3 or 4 different states. Which, which is a lot for, for a kid and, and but it, it made me very much used to, traveling it kind of got me, not afraid to of change, you know, and, and to go somewhere else and see new things and try new things and do new things, meet new people.

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Which, you know, is, is very good for the military, too. So, so I wasn't afraid of that aspect of it. And I was like, you know what? I'm kind of bored. I don't know what I want to do exactly and know for sure I don't want to go to college. So why don't I join the military and, you know, just give it a shot.

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And you picked Navy because you're that. Know a Navy recruiter happened to come in and to my mom's store one day when we were there working. And, he was like, hey, you look, you want to join the Navy? Yeah. And I was like, you know, and again, just graduated. Wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

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And

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You know, I still true today. Yeah. Yeah.

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And so, like, what was your eye like. Did you know. Yeah. No, no, I didn't wrestle.

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what buds class did you go through?

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Two, seven, three nights and you?

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First time straight through. No injuries?

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No, no, I started off with two seven, to 7 to 1 and then admin rolled to two, seven, two. Then got rolled in first phase 273 and then went through straight through. Yeah.

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And did you find you like did you attack buds the way you attack other things.

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Yeah. So after I watched like the two, three, four documentary, it was like, okay, this is a totally different beast, you know, and even that documentary, it's a six hour documentary. The majority of it spent on Hell Week. And, you know, there's so it's very sugarcoated is what I'm going to say, even though it gives you a very good idea of what to sort of expect.

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It's it's still like a monstrous Lee long school that's condensed down into a six hour documentary. So but it gives you a very good idea of kind of what to prep for somewhat or what to expect and hell week. For those that don't know, you know, especially you start on Sunday and Sunday afternoon and you go to the following Friday afternoon and you get a two hour nap on Wednesday, a one hour nap on Thursday.

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And other than that, you are balls to the wall going nonstop. You run over 100 miles. We have a 200 pound inflatable boat on your head that absolutely sucks and rubs your head bald. You do three three hour log pits, which is a telephone pole between you and, you know, 5 or 6 other guys. And, it's miserable.

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Yeah, it's just it's it's it's the hardest military training on the planet. So, you know, seeing that and kind of like watching people go through it and, and, and the documentary and everything and it was just wild, you know. So I had to really kind of obsess over it and go all in. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is like one of the, one of the things like, I love about you and which I find in in Elite Seals is like, you have a real ability to put the switch, like you have a killer instinct, like whether whether you're fighting, right, whether like, we're talking about a business idea, like you can flip

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the switch and you execute hard. Like,

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where does that come from? Was it present in buds? Was it present in the Seal teams?

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Yeah, it definitely was. And I think it's kind of, maybe like my A.D.D. almost or something, I don't know, because, like, if I'm not interested, I'm really not interested in if I'm interested, I'm very interested.

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And I get obsessive with things like, you know, we're working on this project

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and, like, I get excited thinking about it. I'm very much like a visionary. I love, I have tons of ideas, and I love to create them and bring them to life in that sense, but in like a challenge when it when it consumes my mind, it, you know, I, I just want to get it done.

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I want to go on doing any business. When you're in the Seal team, you have any side in the Seal team.

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You got any side? I

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started massive, apparel.

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You did start it when you're in the Seal

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team. Yes, but it wasn't supplements

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then. Nope. It was just apparel when I was in the teams. Okay.

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Why did you start that?

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Because I was fighting, And I was, you know, I was you

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started fighting in the team?

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Yeah, we started just. I was fighting just for fun on the weekends. Just because I've always enjoyed fighting, I've always enjoyed the the, competitiveness of it.

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And I've always been very protective, you know, growing up my whole life of my little brother. And then in the Seal teams that carried over to my brothers in the Seal teams, when we would go out, you know, I, I have everyone's back.

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Like, you don't have to worry if I'm with you for sure. And, so that was you know, I enjoyed that. I started, doing jujitsu and, you know, competing in jiu jitsu. And that led into MMA, started fighting competitively with that and then started, you know, quick, very quickly. I, you know, had a lot of success in MMA, started gaining a lot of popularity, became a champion very quickly.

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And then all of a sudden I had, opportunities to make money from sponsors. And I was like, oh, wow, that's cool. And then I figured out, well, you know, I can I can approach all these sponsors and say, hey, you know, if you give me X amount of money, I'll put your logo on 100 different shirts that I'm going to print as my walkout shirt, and that all my supporters can purchase and wear and to my fights and everything.

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And so it was a way I could kind of make money. I could, you know, get the money from the sponsorships, I could get money from selling the shirts. I could get money from selling my tickets to my fights. So as an amateur, I was making, you know, almost $5,000 a fight. Yeah. You know, so so then it became like a business on the side there.

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I was like, oh, well, yeah, I was fighting just for fun, but now I can actually make money on it. And then so once I started doing that, they had all these people buying the shirts from me and I was like, oh man, this is cool. Like, it's cool seeing that. And I started the Instagram, you know, as a way to also promote and give back to the sponsors and all that.

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So that was really your first marketing initiative?

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Yeah. Your Instagram. Yeah. Yeah.

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I think the genesis is really important. You started it while you're an active duty Navy Seal. Yeah. You're fighting on the weekends as an MMA fighter. One of the things that happens when people create businesses and stuff is they often see like a mark, a gap in the market, a hole in the market.

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It sounds like in this case, you didn't see a hole in the wall. No. Yeah. You just said like, hey, I'm monetizing my pictures now. I can supersize like, you know. Yeah. Well, so, you know, I it's, I was in credit card debt, when I was in the Seal teams because the the lifestyle's just very dangerous.

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You know, the job is very dangerous. And once I got in the Seal team, I was like, okay, well, I guess this is what I'm going to do now. I'm going to just do this for 20 years. And every four years or so you get, reenlistment bonus, the tax free big bonus. You know, at the time, it was a $90,000 or $100,000 bonus, and, that I had to essentially look forward to every four years.

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And I was like, okay, well, I'm just going to get a credit card and, you know, get whatever I want and live however I want. And what were you by now? You just whatever, like hardwood floors, whatever, you know, anything I wanted at the time, like I would just get on a credit card, put it on my credit card, and then eventually when I'd go, you know, I'd get my bonus.

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I'd just pay it off. Then. Not the greatest financial advice. No, but I was like, I could die in any day.

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I think there's a psychological thing with pinged around it with talking to different folks who have been in the military and stuff.

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And it's hard to explain a little bit, but there is this like culture at like maybe it's an internal feeling. You're like, fuck it like this. This could be the end. Like, yeah, I skydive three times a week that my parachute couldn't open. Like, I'm going around a lot of this, you know? Yeah, we're around a lot of death.

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And you, you some. It's hard to imagine your life past 35 because there is like, not an, not a zero probability that you're not going to make it. So I think and the culture is just more spending, more spendy than savvy. Oh for sure. I mean, for me, I mean, it was like literally like many times I had to tell myself, like, just don't be a pussy, like and just go, you know, and like, I'd rather die than be a pussy and jump out of the plane, or go through the door or whatever it is, you know, and yeah, we're around a lot of death.

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So, like, guys, we know, you know, that's like, I knew that guy, you know? And now he's dead. And so it's like, why do I care about saving money or not getting this thing that's going to bring me enjoyment. And I'm like, I'm all about like, living my life. I can't take anything with me when I go. I don't care if I die with $0 in my bank account, it's still to this day, I don't care.

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so here you are.

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You've built this budding business, and it's growing. And then ultimately you get out of this.

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The Seal team was the decision to get out of the Seal teams was to pursue massive full time.

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Yeah. So originally I didn't want to get out of the Seal teams. I didn't plan on it. I plan on staying in for 20.

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And I was, just fighting for fun on the weekends. But like I said, I gained a lot of popularity from it, and I was ranked number one on the East Coast in two different weight classes at the same time. So I was, yeah, ranked number one at 170 and 185. I was a champion at both and was getting a lot of attention.

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And my eye was selling a lot of shirts. And that's when I launched, my, actual apparel company. I was just selling the the Smash and Frog t shirts, but then I was like, you know what? Like, nobody's going to wear the shirts, like, every day, like, so why don't I put some, like, motivational stuff on a nice t shirt and I'm, like, kind of a t shirt snob myself.

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So I was like, man, I could just make some cool shirts and and I, I did, I made 30 shirts and just was like, I'm going to see how it goes. And I think at the time I only had like 5000 followers and they sold out instantly. And I was like, whoa, that's cool. And I was like, let me try that again.

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That got 60 shirts. Boom, all sold out right away.

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That's called product market fit. It means, essentially that there's massive demand for the thing that you have created.

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Right. And it's what you found ultimately, with smashing greens in the in the beginning, it's when there's a line outside your door, that people are customers are lining up to actually buy something. Product market fit. Yeah. Yeah. So

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and I was living paycheck to paycheck in the the Seal teams, like I was living paycheck to paycheck.

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I, you know, I did all the same. I bought a car, bought a motorcycle and I was in debt, you know, and and I was just like, I don't care. I have enough money to pay my bills. And like, in four years, I'll get a bonus and I'll pay off my credit cards and and I'll just keep doing that.

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You know, all of a sudden, your side hustles picking up. Yeah. You get out of the teams you're selling t shirts.

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How do you make this?

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Well, I didn't even get out of the teams. I was I was still selling t shirts. But then, like, I realized the power of the social media and, like, like I said, I made, you know, $25 for every shirt I sold.

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So when, you know, even I sold for sure today I'm making an extra $100 a day, which to me, I was like, well, that's pretty crazy. You know, I can just keep doing this. And I wanted to stay in the Seal teams and just keep doing what I was doing, keep fighting and all that. But it became like, a conflict because at that time that was like 2017, I want to say, and social media wasn't as acceptable or wasn't as like, you know, not everybody had it.

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And especially in the Seal teams. So, you know, I was getting a ton of hate from other seals and stuff, for having a social media, even though I wasn't posting anything like about, like, the job and like, operational, you know, or nothing about tactics. None of that. I was just posting like, my fighting and you know, who I was as a person outside of the Seal teams.

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I was also like, I never struggled with like my identity and stuff like that.

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So it was just like I was a seal, as was my job. I looked at it as a job and and like, it did define me. Yeah. You know,

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talk to me what happens when you get out and you decide to go all in on the business?

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Yeah. So ended up, you know, realizing how much potential was on the outside and how much money I could make on the outside of the Seal teams and like going all in with my business. So I was like, you know what? The Seal teams are holding me back. Essentially, I'm going to go get out and just go all in with this.

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And let's be clear, you did the job. You you did the platoon.

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Yeah. Like you did what

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I did ten, ten years. You did ten years in the team combat. So for me, I was like, I was like, I'm ready for a new chapter anyway. Like, you know, I could do this 20 years. But I'm also like, I realize there's a big world out there.

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And so you get out, there's this booming business. I want to get to the point where you go from t shirts to new product lines. Okay, so I was I was doing all the t shirts and stuff like that, and I did about 150,000 in sales and t shirt sales my first year. And I thought that was great.

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And like, you know, and I was like, wow, okay, I just want to keep making shirt designs, all that stuff. And, you know, what what had happened was I was really focusing on creating content every day and just trying to be consistent with that. And I didn't have anything to post one day. So I was just like looking around like, what can I post?

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And I posted my little concoction of my greens powders and and I was like, this is what I drink every morning.

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And I said, this is also what I do like. I fast with this to cut weight for my fights.

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And everybody was like, whoa, what are you doing? You know, like because I look, you know, my physique is like shredded and everything, and people are constantly asking me for workout advice or my diet and this and that. And I didn't think anything of it. I was just like, this is just something to post. Yeah. And people were like bombarding me with questions nonstop for like a year and a half.

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Right. And I and I didn't even think like to make it a business or anything. I just, you know, it was helping people lose weight and stuff. I listed all the products and said, like, made it as idiot proof as I could. And I said, here's all the products, go get it. Do one scoop of each, blah, blah, blah.

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No matter how much I explained it, it was still just questions nonstop. And I was like out of pure annoyance and frustration. I was like, you know, I'm just going to like go to a manufacturer or something and say, can you just take these seven different products and make it into one thing and have it be one scoop for a serving and just simplify it?

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is that many of the great businesses in the world start with this pain point, right? And your pain point was that you had to both cut weight for fighting in order to make weight, but still stay strong.

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So you came up with this like innovative widget, right? You're smashing greens

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powder. Yeah, right.

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In order to help solve this pain point. And then

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you found through market research, right. If we were going to academia is your journey you found through market research, i.e. DMs sliding into your DMs that all of a sudden there was a product market fit that people really cared about

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this? I really didn't even it didn't even dawn on me.

00:22:52:01 - 00:23:16:07

Even then. It was because it was taking up so much of my time answering people in their questions. And I and I really, like, really tried to answer as many people that wrote me and stuff, because I really appreciated people supporting me and my t shirt side, you know? So I was really trying to be active and, you know, responsive to people and their questions.

00:23:16:07 - 00:23:34:21

And, and I liked that it was helping people push themselves and lose weight. And, you know, I'm all about that. So so I was like, all right, I'm answering people's question. But it was taking a lot of my time, and I'm not sponsored by any of these companies. There's no way for me to monetize this. You know? So out of pure annoyance, I was like, you know, I'll make my own product.

00:23:34:23 - 00:23:53:14

And I was like, oh, cool, maybe I'll sell a couple. I didn't think anything of it. And then when I actually made them and Mike, Mike, my supporters were calling the concoction the Smash in greens because I was the smash and frog. So they had already named it, you know, and they were calling that the Smashing Greens.

00:23:53:14 - 00:24:22:18

And so. So then when I made the product, I didn't think anything of it, and I posted it and said here, the smashing greens are a thing, go buy them. And I thought, yeah, I'll sell a couple whatever. But then I, I had the idea to do the, the integrity challenge, which I, since I had done this so many times and I'd cut weight so many times using my greens, I knew that it would work, and I knew that everyone would probably have a similar experience.

00:24:22:20 - 00:25:01:04

Like if they could mentally handle it. And my whole thing was mindset is everything. Like my whole thing was pushing yourself and, you know, so I said, hey, I just made this challenge up. And I said, hey, if you go on my website, buy my products, which was $100 for the 30 servings of the greens, I said, if you go on my website, you buy my greens and you do a ten day fast using my greens, and you do a before picture and an after picture and daily weigh ins on your story so that I can see that you're consistently losing weight.

00:25:01:06 - 00:25:24:20

If you lose 15 pounds, I'll give you your money back for the product. I'll give you $100 cash and a $100 gift card to my website. And I said, so you have nothing to lose but weight. And I didn't put like a limit on it or anything. And at the time I had like 70,000 followers and and I remember I had like a thousand, like jugs of greens or whatever.

00:25:24:20 - 00:25:42:11

And and I remember, like my mom and everyone was like, freaking out, like, what are you doing? You can't afford that. Like. And I was like, listen, I was like, I hope everybody does it. And I was like, I. Because what I think is going to happen is it's going to show that it works. It works.

00:25:42:11 - 00:25:43:18

And how many more people are going to do it?

00:25:43:23 - 00:26:03:11

I don't remember, we did like 115,000 in sales in a week. That's insane. And I was like, oh my God, I hit the lottery because no one in my family comes. I don't come from money. No one in my family has money. Like, I lived in a single wide trailer with five people, you know, like no one in my family has any money.

00:26:03:11 - 00:26:13:15

So getting that like 115,000 was like, I literally just hit the lottery. Like, I don't even know what to do right now. That's crazy.

00:26:13:15 - 00:26:24:06

at its peak, how big did you scale this business? Our our best month. We did 550,000 in sales and sales. Huge.

00:26:24:06 - 00:26:28:07

you've built from your t shirt company that you started in the sale teams,

00:26:28:07 - 00:26:30:14

a multi multi-million dollar business,

00:26:30:14 - 00:26:31:16

a Deca million dollar business.

00:26:31:19 - 00:26:32:17

We've done

00:26:32:17 - 00:26:35:11

we've done over 13 million in sales.

00:26:35:11 - 00:26:38:09

And then you have a massive massive setback

00:26:38:09 - 00:26:40:03

from the peak to the trough.

00:26:40:03 - 00:26:49:06

Just tell me quickly what happened. Yeah. So, so basically during Covid, every everything was crashing.

00:26:49:06 - 00:26:50:05

We were doing great.

00:26:50:05 - 00:26:53:02

Kovid really just derailed us completely.

00:26:53:02 - 00:27:06:01

Not just Covid like Covid itself had, had derailed a lot of people because of supply chains and all that stuff. That was a major part of, of of the, derailing.

00:27:06:01 - 00:27:18:05

But myself, I also, you know, really screwed, screwed us and my company, because I took a stance, against the vaccine mandate.

00:27:18:05 - 00:27:22:02

So I had almost 400,000 followers at the time.

00:27:22:08 - 00:27:45:14

I had built my page from nothing, you know, organically. I had a very engaged audience. I had a very supportive audience, you know, all of my sales directly like, and to, to, to reiterate, like all the sales that we did, I paid $0 for marketing. It was all from my Instagram. It was all organic and a single marketing channel.

00:27:45:14 - 00:27:54:16

you come out with a very public and a very controversial position, at a time when people and you get did it that done drum roll, please.

00:27:54:21 - 00:27:57:13

Deplatformed. Yeah. Super deplatformed

00:27:57:13 - 00:28:16:16

Mark Zuckerberg deleted my Instagram and, yeah, it deleted my Instagram. And I mean, your sales over from over 90% of my sales, 95% of my sales came directly from my Instagram. Right. So you lost 90% of the, the the revenue in the company basically overnight. Yeah. Like

00:28:16:16 - 00:28:18:17

like it felt like my house burned down,

00:28:18:17 - 00:28:22:08

you know, like I just lost everything all.

00:28:22:10 - 00:28:32:04

And it was just wild. And I will tell the end of the story in the interest of time, the end of the story is then, like the fighter that you are,

00:28:32:04 - 00:28:39:06

you have been scrapping back for four years to win the decision, right?

00:28:39:06 - 00:28:43:02

Yeah. And and it's and it's been a cage fight. Right. To climb to crawl your way back.

00:28:43:02 - 00:28:47:13

it's been the hardest, most stressful thing I've ever and endured

00:28:47:13 - 00:28:48:02

for sure.

00:28:48:02 - 00:29:14:19

And like if I didn't have, you know, all of the experience, I would say in overcoming adversity or just enduring it. Yeah. I think I would have given up a long time ago. I mean, this is this is by far I was I was way, way less stressed in gunfights in Afghanistan and walking through minefields, you know, way less stress that that's a theme we hear.

00:29:14:19 - 00:29:37:11

after four long years, it's basically been four years since, you lost that marketing channel. You have sharpened the knife as a CEO and an entrepreneur, you have launched a new business line, right? We're drinking it right now, right? You watch energy drinks, right? You have diversified all of your marketing, channels.

00:29:37:13 - 00:29:47:22

You've done new strategic partnerships, you've taken on strategic investment, and you have rebuilt the business that you lost. Right. But I have I have two questions for you.

00:29:47:22 - 00:29:48:23

one,

00:29:48:23 - 00:29:59:20

like at at those low moments, like, what is it that, like, allowed you to keep going? Because, I mean, like, there's a point where you could have just folded the whole thing, right?

00:29:59:21 - 00:30:00:22

And walked away?

00:30:00:22 - 00:30:19:21

I don't know, I think just, stubbornness and and, like, just the will to fight, you know, like, I'm not I'm not a quitter. And I don't. It's just like, failure's not an option sort of thing. And just, like buds, you know, I don't care. I'm going to die trying. Yeah, yeah.

00:30:19:21 - 00:30:33:21

And, but failure is not an option. Doesn't mean necessarily that you keep doing the same thing and you keep charging the same hell. Right? It might mean that you pivot. Yeah. You know, you have to you

00:30:33:21 - 00:30:47:02

what are your lessons learned as a CEO from this incredible roller coaster that you've been on? Like for other CEOs, like, how do you feel now about taking a public stance about controversial positions?

00:30:47:02 - 00:31:04:13

Well, it's funny you say that because there are controversial, you know, things that I'm kind of staying out of. Because I saw what it got me that got me nowhere and didn't really, you know, I know it did help certain people.

00:31:04:13 - 00:31:37:08

Like, I've had people write me and say, you know it. Hey, you encouraged me or, you know, to stand up for myself or whatever. I didn't get the vaccine or I'm really happy about that or whatever it is, you know, which is great and all. But like, at the end of the day, I think I just hurt myself, you know, and, not saying I'm happy, I guess that I, that I said what I said, but I think, you know, there are issues right now that I'm just kind of like, you know, I don't need to voice my opinion.

00:31:37:08 - 00:31:44:18

There's lots of other people that are and maybe they're in a better place to. And so I'm just kind of be more tactical about it.

00:31:44:18 - 00:31:52:03

you're an unbelievable example of somebody who's really, like, walked through the fire, walked over the coals of entrepreneurship.

00:31:52:05 - 00:31:57:22

If there's other, you know, veterans or even active duty guys who are going to be transitioning out, who are thinking about starting a

00:31:57:22 - 00:31:59:10

business,

00:31:59:20 - 00:32:02:11

what's one thing you want them to know about, like how to start?

00:32:02:11 - 00:32:22:13

Well, I want I want you to have confidence in yourself. And like, one good thing about the military is it does put you in positions like the military forces you to have responsibility and do things where it's like, you can't just decide not to do it, you have to do it.

00:32:22:13 - 00:32:49:08

You have to do it. And you're used to that structure. You're used to that discipline of like just doing it. You can follow orders, get things done, whatever it it sets you up pretty well to work in the outside world in any job. So I would say if you're on the fence or thinking about, like, getting out, or am I going to be, you know, successful in the in the civilian world, I would say you absolutely are.

00:32:49:09 - 00:33:21:02

And you're going to absolutely have an advantage over a lot of civilians, that don't have that experience or that structure and aren't used to that stuff. And, especially especially seals, you I will just say you will absolutely excel in anything that you do just because you are used to giving so much more effort and your standards are so much higher than the civilian world is used to.

00:33:21:04 - 00:33:24:01

So don't be afraid to just get out and do it.

00:33:24:01 - 00:33:27:11

Well, thank you so much for sharing your journey.

00:33:27:16 - 00:33:57:16

You know, from the battlefield to the business world, from the cage to corporate offices, I do think that your story is a testament to perseverance, to grit, to the kind of person who would never, ever ring that bell. I have watched you, like, come back from the troughs of this, and as your as your friend, and just as an outside observer, it's extraordinary, to watch, like, all the blows.

00:33:57:16 - 00:34:22:19

It kind of reminds me of, like, when you went down and, fought Sean Strickland and sparred with him no matter how many times, you got hit. That's a great analogy for my entrepreneur life. It is. No matter how many times you got hit, you just kept going. So for everyone who's listening today, please, please, my friend Mitch is a stellar example of one of the strongest people I know.

00:34:22:19 - 00:34:40:05

Not just in his body, but in his mentality and his mindset. You stay true to your values. You use your gifts to make a real impact. You didn't get it from the podcast today. He's also one of the most generous people I know. It's an honor to call him a friend. Thank you, everybody, for locking in with us today.

00:34:40:07 - 00:34:47:17

We'll be back with another guest soon. And until then, stay tactical, stay driven and, smash the screens.

00:34:48:07 - 00:35:11:06

Hey, thanks again for walking in with us today. I hope this episode stimulated the old brain housing unit. Step one to becoming richer is becoming smarter, and I hope some of the lessons and ideas from today have sharpened your knife. As always, I hope you're taking notes and more importantly, that you're taking action. Thanks again to Siebert Bauer and Siebert Financial for the support.

00:35:11:08 - 00:35:21:15

And remember, stay tactical, stay driven. And don't forget to bang that subscribe button.

00:35:21:16 - 00:35:29:09

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00:35:29:11 - 00:35:39:17

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00:35:39:17 - 00:35:59:13

Tactical wealth is a Gabby, a media production brought to you by Siebert Valor, a military focused initiative from Siebert Financial. The Tactical Wealth Podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Siebert Financial. This podcast does not constitute investment advice or an offer to sell or solicitation to buy any securities.

00:35:59:15 - 00:36:05:23

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