June 28, 2024

TRUE Word, Faith for LIFE! with Dr. Shawn Greener

TRUE Word, Faith for LIFE! with Dr. Shawn Greener
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Season 2 Hampstead Religious

Have you ever wondered how to find the strength to carry on after a life-changing accident or event? Well, get ready to be inspired. Today, we are speaking with Dr. Shawn Greener, the host of the TRUE Word, Faith for Life! podcast. Dr. Greener's incredible journey includes a distinguished career in the US Navy, law enforcement, CIA, and leading an executive protection firm. He is an expert in terrorism, counterterrorism, personal protection, survival, and high-level threat assessment. But his life took a dramatic turn when he survived a head-on collision at 91 mph! He now lives with a life-threatening aortic aneurysm that no surgeon can correct, constant pain, and numerous other health challenges, yet he continues to inspire through his testimony, podcast, books, and teachings. 

Email: smgreener@gmail.com
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You can also find BEAUTIFUL nature photography by Dr. Greener at https://shawnm-greener.pixels.com/.

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Thanks - I’ll see you around Topsail!

00:00 - Topsail Insider Intro and What’s Coming Up!

01:00 - Sponsor - Saltwater Resort & Suites

01:56 - Sponsor - Surf City Line

03:00 - Introduction to Dr. Shawn Greener

04:51 - Choosing to Join the US Navy

08:13 - Exceptional Brain & Eyesight

14:03 - Recruited by “The Agency” and Protecting Family by Lying to Them

16:04 - Darkness in the World and the Ultimate Challenge

18:43 - Recruited for Eyesight, Ability to Accept Pain, Language-Learning

24:10 - Stint as a Police Officer

27:35 - Hostile Repatriation and High-Risk Executive Protection

30:20 - Empathy and Respect for Police Officers

33:07 - Executive Protection Team, Navy Seals, and Clear Missions

34:40 - Multiple Theology Degrees and the “Drug” Problem

37:58 - Why Theology? and the Impact of Visiting Holocaust Concentration Camps

49:07 - The Accident

01:02:35 - This Guys’s Alive!

01:07:38 - Shattered Body, Brain Injury, and Financial Plunge

01:17:37 - Books and Radio Show

01:20:19 - Never Going to Get Better, Only Going to Get Worse

01:29:37 - "It’s Easter Sunday and I’m Not in Church?"

01:33:47 - God and Country: the Collision of Faith and Politics and Sundays with Dr. Shawn

01:40:51 - Belgium Ladies and their Athiest Book Group

01:42:52 - Negative Reactions to First Book, "Excellence Killed the Church!: How Mediocrity is Destroying America"

01:45:48 - Second Book, “The Bible Summary for Real People”

01:46:53 - Hosting the TRUE Word, Faith for LIFE! with Dr. Shawn - Podcasting on the Cliff’s Edge

01:48:55 - Met with the Undertaker and “Homegoing” is Planned

01:50:31 - Future Plans - Rewriting “Bible Summary for Real People” and Publishing Options

01:54:43 - Exciting Novel Losely Based on Dr. Greener’s Life - Gritty Murder Mystery

01:56:27 - Final Thoughts

02:03:05 - Contact Information

02:04:36 - Topsail Insider Closing

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Welcome to Topsail Insider, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns in the greater Topsail area of North Carolina.

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Coming up, I have the honor and privilege of speaking with Dr Reverend Sean Greener.

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He's a man who was pronounced dead at the scene of a horrific car accident and, although he lives with a life-threatening condition as a result, he has defied all odds.

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His journey has been nothing short of miraculous.

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From serving in the US Navy and law enforcement to founding an elite executive protection firm, dr Greener's life took an unimaginable turn.

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Yet today he continues to inspire and impact lives through his books, podcast and public speaking.

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You don't want to miss this extraordinary, profound tale of survival and strength on today's episode of experience.

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Hello everyone and welcome to Topsail Insider.

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My name is Krista and I am your host.

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Today we are talking to Dr Reverend Sean Greener, a resident of Hampstead.

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He is the host of True Word, faith for Life podcast and author of two books Excellence Killed the Church how Mediocrity is Destroying America.

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That was in 2012.

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And he's also written the Bible Summary for Real People.

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Welcome, dr Greener.

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Thank you for joining me today.

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Well, thanks for inviting me.

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I've been waiting for this for a long time, actually, because how I met you and I'll be brief with this I met Dr Greener when I was starting this podcast and I was looking for some equipment and he posted on Marketplace.

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So I asked him, because I was looking for some equipment and he posted on Marketplace.

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So I asked him because I was being nosy.

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I was like, well, why are you giving up podcasting?

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And he did inform me at that time that he was very ill and I got the feeling that I just needed to stop asking questions.

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And so he told me that he had some more podcast equipment coming up.

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So I was following him, I was looking to see what else he might be selling and, lo and behold, I noticed he has a podcast up.

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I'm like you did not quit podcasting, what's going on?

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And so I reached back out and I'm so glad to have you at this table today.

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Thank you so much.

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Oh, it's my pleasure.

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You were military law enforcement and a private protection firm, which I find completely fascinating, and I know that I can't ask you any questions about it.

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I'm going to ask a little bit.

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And you can tell me what you're allowed to say.

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You are a disabled US Navy veteran and a former Newcastle County police officer and an expert on terrorism, counterterrorism, personal protection, survival and high-level threat assessment.

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Fascinating.

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I sound like somebody, don't I?

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Yeah, that's a pretty exciting life.

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What led you to join the Navy first of all, and can you just talk about the progression to law enforcement and to eventually founding your company, the Executive Protection Team?

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First of all, thank you very much for having me.

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I'm honored to be here and I'm excited for this podcast what a cool podcast.

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And your reasons in our conversation before, your reasons for doing this.

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I love them.

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I love your motivation.

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I love your why.

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You know the Navy.

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My uncles had all been in World War II and my favorite uncle.

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They're all deceased, but my favorite uncle was in the entire World War II, except for 30 some days the whole war and he spoke with such love about his service and his why.

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And he had a rough upbringing.

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He was a really tough upbringing.

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Why?

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And he had a rough upbringing.

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He was really tough upbringing and he married my mother's eldest sister and he came from really the wrong side of the tracks, if you will, but he served heroically, just with great honor and valor, and no big deal to him.

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He thought, well, this is what you do.

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And so I looked at that as a model and I thought, okay, my older brother, who was two years ahead of me.

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He went into the Navy and for me I had scholarship officers.

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I had three full scholarship officers.

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I played soccer, I did art and martial arts, and so I had options, but one day it was maybe 6, 6.30 in the morning and my parents were early risers and I was an early riser because I ran.

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I would do a lot of the fitness training and all these things.

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I was still in high school, but I would do a lot of that stuff early in the morning.

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There was no sleeping in at my house, that wasn't a thing, and so at that time the pans were 150 years old.

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Big old cast iron pans were 150 years old.

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Big old cast iron pan 150 years old.

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I'm just standing there and I'm looking like what is my life about?

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What is my contribution?

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And this was in my junior year and I was just thinking to myself okay, what am I going to do here?

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Because I knew that I could play soccer at really great division North Carolina was one of them.

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I knew that I could go to art school, to really great schools, and I knew I had options that maybe other people in my family hadn't had.

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But I looked at what am I contributing?

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Where am I making my mark?

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And I'm saying, okay, this is my country, but what have I done for it?

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And then I made the connection okay, my physical body will never be more fit than it is now.

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And the Navy said hold my beer.

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Oh, is that correct?

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Was that what you think?

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So I just decided, right there standing there, I walked into my parents.

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They were sitting on the porch and I said I'm joining the Navy.

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And my dad said is that a question or a statement?

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What?

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What are you telling me here?

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I said I need somebody to sign for me because I was young.

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They said, okay, what are you going to do?

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I said I'm not sure, I don't know.

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But you knew it was the Navy.

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I knew it was the Navy.

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The reason I knew it was the Navy was because several of my uncles were in the Navy.

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Now my favorite uncle was in the Army, but I knew that the ASVABs.

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I had aced the ASVAB.

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The ASVAB test is the test that everybody takes to see what your level of intelligence, your employability, Specifically for the Navy or across all military branches?

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For all military, but it's basically an assessment, but I took it and I aced it.

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I don't know how.

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It's not something that I know of that you could study for.

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I don't know how.

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I just had a weird brain then that I could.

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Well, you were a literal genius, am I right?

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You were a literal genius, am I?

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Am.

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I right, you were.

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Okay, We'll get.

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I want to talk about that a little more.

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My wife will say not anymore.

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We're going to get Colleen here one day she's going to give you all the dirt.

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So you were saying you passed that test, so I had to take it again, because if you, if everything, if it's, I guess, the way way they measure it 100%, they say okay, well, what's the deal with this guy?

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Something went wrong, something's fishy here, and so I had to take it again with a proctor as close as you and I are sitting.

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Oh, interesting yeah.

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So I took it again and I had seen it and I had this brain where, if I would look at something just for a second, like, for instance, a book, and this is nothing I taught myself, it's a gift, it was a gift and I didn't appreciate it, and I guess as we go on, we'll see just how much I didn't realize the gift that I had until I lost it.

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Would you say it's a photographic memory?

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Photographic is about the third level down from the memory that I had.

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Yeah, so so I would goodness.

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Yeah, it was a weird situation.

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I could actually read.

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This is this was a fun party trick.

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My wife didn't believe I could do it until she goes.

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Okay, fine, so I could read two different books side by side at the same time really you could quiz me about it.

00:10:02.711 --> 00:10:05.032
so my wife goes you know we're, we were dating at the time, show me, and I you could quiz me about it.

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So my wife goes you know we were dating at the time, show me.

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And I did it.

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And she was like, oh okay.

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That's incredible, that's kind of weird, yeah, but I didn't know.

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I thought everybody.

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I literally grew up thinking everybody had the brain I had Incredible.

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And everybody had the eyesight I had.

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Oh wait, what about your eyesight?

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I?

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had crazy eyesight Really.

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Yeah, the best they could measure it was 25.

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They didn't go any higher than that.

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When you go in and your doctor's office, you stand on line read the lowest line you can read.

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Well, I could read the copyright at the bottom yeah, oh, my gosh, yeah.

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But so the thing is I had all these assets that I didn't.

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First of all, I didn't realize that everybody didn't have.

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I knew some people didn't utilize their capacity, they didn't go to capacity, but in my case I had teachers on my case all the time.

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I had my English lit teacher, god bless him.

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He actually cussed me out after class one day and he said you are wasting a gift that, trust me, not even 1%.

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So your teachers were aware of this gift and they knew that you were not utilizing it fully.

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Some were what kind of student were you?

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I was okay.

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I was okay.

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Were you bored.

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Very bored.

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Yeah, I felt like it was a lot of wasted time.

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I didn't have the capacity to deal with the people talking back, the people interrupting the people.

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The other students just weren't paying attention, yeah, and I figured we're only here for this little bit of time Now.

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I hadn't put together the whole idea of put this is your career, this is your high school career, then it's going to be your college career, right, I didn't look at it that way.

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I was into sports and art.

00:11:47.951 --> 00:11:52.140
You said soccer, any other sports besides?

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soccer In high school, only soccer.

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I only played soccer, but I did martial arts.

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What style of martial arts did you do?

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Well, that's what's interesting.

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I started with Aikido, which is really a flowing, was designed to disarm swordsmen when you don't have a sword and then I think my husband took that yeah, no good yeah, it's not a popular.

00:12:12.034 --> 00:12:31.250
It's not a popular style it's more about mindset, uh and exchange of energy transferring yes so there's a lot of rolling and all that, and I was I was really really good at that, but I was also very, very good at striking, so I fought competitively in full contact karate.

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Okay.

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And so I excelled in that area, but I was a really skinny kid, but I was really really fast and I was very strong, and so my thought was okay, I don't think my body's, my capacity, my strength, my quickness, any of those things, I don't think I'm going to be better and faster, and my mental acuity?

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it's never going to be better than now as a young man, and so I just I made the decision while I was making.

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I still remember what I was making.

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I can't remember what I ate this morning, but I remember I was making scrambled eggs in a 150-year-old pan, that's really cool.

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So for the Navy, when you go to boot camp, I had never been on a plane, except for recruiting.

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So no college.

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You went straight from high school to Navy.

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Much to the chagrin of a lot of my teachers.

00:13:16.826 --> 00:13:18.429
Right, yeah, I bet yeah.

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I think I would have wasted the scholarship money in fairness In the military a lot of the schools, depending on what you do.

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I had a very nondescript job really, but I was fascinated by the military training and as I progressed I had opportunities presented to me because different people saw capabilities and I loved the Navy.

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So I was married.

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I got married young and this is my second marriage 21 years.

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Oh that's right my second marriage, but my first marriage I was too young.

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I was too young and I was far less of, probably far less of a husband and definitely far less of a father than I could have been and should have been.

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So, that being said, I didn't stay in the navy.

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I had been recruited by the agency the agency oh really so I was recruited twice and on two separate kind of two areas of attack they flanked me okay, but you're gonna have to go back.

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So what were they seeing that they're like.

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We need you on our team.

00:14:26.561 --> 00:14:28.048
At the time I didn't know I was being recruited.

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First of all I had no idea.

00:14:29.826 --> 00:14:35.011
And let's just dispense of the movies portray.

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Hollywood portrays that kind of life romantically.

00:14:39.500 --> 00:14:41.164
You know, that's what I'm tapping into right now.

00:14:41.567 --> 00:14:42.951
Yeah, it's really not.

00:14:42.951 --> 00:14:44.546
It's super, super hard.

00:14:44.546 --> 00:14:45.248
It's a hard life.

00:14:45.248 --> 00:14:49.410
You lie to everyone, including your family, all the people that are closest to you.

00:14:49.410 --> 00:14:59.543
My parents didn't know until shortly before my father died I shared it with him Really and my mother.

00:14:59.702 --> 00:15:03.613
After my father had died, I ended up protecting some very high profile people.

00:15:03.613 --> 00:15:07.400
Father had died.

00:15:07.400 --> 00:15:13.783
I ended up protecting some very high profile people and we were on CNN and usually if you're on a protection team, your objective is to stay out of the camera shot, and that was always my goal.

00:15:13.783 --> 00:15:20.527
But in these particular cases there was so much press around these people that you could.

00:15:20.527 --> 00:15:28.767
There was no way to effectively protect them, and so I would get calls when the wee hours of the morning my mother she would be up late.

00:15:28.767 --> 00:15:42.928
Sean, I'm watching television and I'm seeing you on television and you're with this person and she knew who they would be and it looks like you're a bodyguard.

00:15:42.928 --> 00:15:45.207
Is this you, or is this someone who looks like you?

00:15:45.207 --> 00:15:49.490
And a lot of my friends and different people who had no idea they were seeing it.

00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:50.302
They were seeing it too.

00:15:50.302 --> 00:15:54.504
So all of a sudden I'm getting these calls and so finally I said oh no, mom, that's just a doppelganger.

00:15:54.504 --> 00:16:02.687
People have said that before because I didn't want her to worry, obviously, and so there's an element of you protect your family by lying to them.

00:16:02.687 --> 00:16:16.552
There is a truth to that, because when you share certain things that are very difficult to hear, the darkness that exists in the world is too dark for most people to handle.

00:16:16.552 --> 00:16:17.754
Right, I can see that.

00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:19.546
It's just like with combat.

00:16:19.546 --> 00:16:22.509
Combat is there's a very high level.

00:16:22.509 --> 00:16:28.823
It's not just an adrenaline rush, but you're competing at the highest level life or death, life or death.

00:16:28.823 --> 00:16:30.707
And so there is a.

00:16:30.707 --> 00:16:42.205
I'm going to use the word thrill, but really thrill has a negative connotation in this space, but in reality it's the challenge, it's the ultimate challenge, and you lose when you die.

00:16:43.408 --> 00:16:47.815
The challenge is live and win or die, which is not the case really.

00:16:47.815 --> 00:16:58.951
There are lots of heroic men and women who have died in combat and they died heroes not just because they died, but they died doing heroic things beyond our imagination.

00:16:58.951 --> 00:17:25.594
But that world is extremely dark, and when you enter into the space of international intelligence in the clandestine I was in the clandestine service you see an experience and are privy to things that are sickeningly terrible and evil, and so at the same time, as a younger person, it's thrilling.

00:17:25.594 --> 00:17:27.455
Right, I get it, I totally get it.

00:17:28.701 --> 00:17:33.333
So it challenges your intellect, challenges your physical abilities, challenges your ability to think on your feet.

00:17:33.333 --> 00:17:35.607
And the problem is, stress is good.

00:17:35.607 --> 00:17:41.393
Dr Jim Lohr in his book Stress for Success a book was out, I don't know, 20 years ago.

00:17:41.393 --> 00:17:50.588
It's still the best book on using stress to your advantage, and he talks about linear stress versus oscillating stress.

00:17:50.588 --> 00:17:53.160
Oscillating stress is okay.

00:17:53.200 --> 00:18:00.684
I'm going into this really difficult situation, and so then you ramp up, ramp up, ramp up, and that loop is going higher and higher and higher.

00:18:00.684 --> 00:18:21.534
And that pinnacle is that moment where higher and higher and higher, and that pinnacle is that moment where, whatever it is you're dealing with, whatever you're engaging, coming out victorious and then taking that deep breath on the downside of it and catching your breath and letting all that adrenaline flow out of you.

00:18:21.534 --> 00:18:24.265
And so that's oscillating stress and that's good for us.

00:18:24.265 --> 00:18:26.431
Just like lifting weights right?

00:18:26.431 --> 00:18:30.602
If you lifted a weight and you just held it up all the time, that's linear stress on your body.

00:18:30.602 --> 00:18:38.634
Lifting weights, weight-resistant training, is really the fountain of youth, but if you do it every day, all day, it's going to wreck you.

00:18:38.634 --> 00:18:46.894
So you have to oscillate, you have to rest, and so that's the way the stress is, for whatever reason, I had an uncanny ability.

00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:48.286
I was recruited for several reasons.

00:18:48.286 --> 00:18:52.210
My eyesight was off the charts, literally off the charts.

00:18:52.210 --> 00:18:57.951
I could see no kidding, as long as it was within the line of sight.

00:18:57.951 --> 00:19:00.656
I could read street signs from almost a mile away.

00:19:00.656 --> 00:19:01.038
That's incredible.

00:19:01.038 --> 00:19:01.318
It was insane.

00:19:01.318 --> 00:19:01.920
From almost a mile away.

00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:02.961
That's incredible.

00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:14.291
Well, here's what I learned is, that's great, but the issue that made that good and bad was my perception of everything.

00:19:14.291 --> 00:19:19.890
Was on fire, so I was seeing little movements and I had a.

00:19:19.890 --> 00:19:26.951
My peripheral vision was greater than normal, so I could see very clearly what's way out here.

00:19:28.281 --> 00:19:29.926
So this is a hyper-stimulation.

00:19:29.926 --> 00:19:32.086
It is it's hyper-awareness.

00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:36.971
Great for executive protection in areas where you're, you know, great for that.

00:19:36.971 --> 00:19:37.551
But guess what?

00:19:37.551 --> 00:19:38.805
That doesn't shut off.

00:19:38.805 --> 00:19:40.602
And so what?

00:19:40.602 --> 00:19:41.962
A lot of people with that?

00:19:41.962 --> 00:19:50.934
There aren't many people with that, but the people that have it among that group they tend to drink or do drugs to try to shut that off.

00:19:50.934 --> 00:19:51.556
Yeah, yeah.

00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:56.372
Because, it's exasperating because you hear and you see everything, all the movement.

00:19:56.372 --> 00:19:57.967
You're always paying close attention to it.

00:19:57.967 --> 00:20:00.464
So all of that either eyesight.

00:20:00.464 --> 00:20:04.773
But what became evident was my ability to accept pain.

00:20:04.773 --> 00:20:09.203
Now people will use a word or a phrase called pain tolerance.

00:20:09.203 --> 00:20:12.132
Pain tolerance and pain acceptance are two different things.

00:20:12.132 --> 00:20:23.045
So pain acceptance is the ability to feel pain, intense, terrible pain, and still function at an optimal level.

00:20:23.045 --> 00:20:25.050
Mental acuity is still high.

00:20:25.050 --> 00:20:30.333
Physical ability is still high despite severe pain impairment.

00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:32.825
Did you have that naturally?

00:20:32.924 --> 00:20:33.246
or is that?

00:20:33.266 --> 00:20:34.107
something you trained?

00:20:34.107 --> 00:20:35.451
No, you had it naturally.

00:20:35.612 --> 00:20:36.333
Very naturally.

00:20:37.019 --> 00:20:38.202
Because I figured in the military.

00:20:38.202 --> 00:20:42.413
They would probably train you to accept pain to some degree.

00:20:42.579 --> 00:20:53.912
They do some of it and then, as training advanced in my post-military life, it becomes more of a psychological study of okay, this is a real situation.

00:20:53.912 --> 00:20:58.826
You may be hurt very badly, but pain is a feeling.

00:20:58.826 --> 00:21:03.323
And you either pay a lot of attention to it or you segment it.

00:21:03.323 --> 00:21:07.584
You fragment it, you compartmentalize it, you put it over here and you say okay.

00:21:07.584 --> 00:21:10.791
I'm feeling pain, but I still have something to do.

00:21:10.791 --> 00:21:17.032
Okay, and if I don't do that something, if I succumb to this pain, then I get killed.

00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:23.691
Okay, you know or or tortured or whatever the case may be, or that may be, part of the process of pain.

00:21:23.691 --> 00:21:25.815
The cause of the pain might be torture.

00:21:27.942 --> 00:21:34.273
So you were naturally built already to do the CIA type work right.

00:21:34.493 --> 00:21:35.301
Yeah, and it was.

00:21:35.301 --> 00:21:42.951
I will tell you it wasn't a lovely existence, but the other part of I think I failed Spanish in high school.

00:21:42.951 --> 00:21:44.786
I think her name was mrs huff.

00:21:44.786 --> 00:21:50.902
God rest her soul.

00:21:50.902 --> 00:21:51.663
She was old when she was.

00:21:51.663 --> 00:21:52.405
She was good land.

00:21:52.405 --> 00:21:56.636
She was really really old when she was our teacher, but I don't know were you not applying yourself?

00:21:57.178 --> 00:21:59.343
because how many languages did you end up picking up?

00:21:59.503 --> 00:22:02.450
five, I spoke five, I could go into the country.

00:22:02.450 --> 00:22:11.513
And here's the interesting thing if you just learn a language because you want to go visit and you want to be able to talk to people, that's one form of language learning.

00:22:11.513 --> 00:22:15.636
I was a polyglot so I could speak.

00:22:15.636 --> 00:22:18.567
For whatever reasons, I could learn other languages really quickly.

00:22:18.941 --> 00:22:21.746
And I don't know why, it was just my weird brain.

00:22:21.746 --> 00:22:26.510
I could pick it up, but my fascination wasn't just with that.

00:22:26.510 --> 00:22:28.183
Like I said, that's great.

00:22:28.183 --> 00:22:31.763
If you want to go visit the country, you can converse, you can order a pastry.

00:22:32.125 --> 00:22:33.028
Where's the bathroom?

00:22:33.028 --> 00:22:33.951
You know type of deal.

00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:46.982
But my fascination was the deeper level, which was the cultural appropriation Understanding how they wear their belts in this country, how they button their shirts.

00:22:46.982 --> 00:22:50.150
Do they button from the bottom up or the top down?

00:22:50.150 --> 00:22:51.621
How do they wear their watch?

00:22:51.621 --> 00:22:52.663
Do they wear their watch?

00:22:52.663 --> 00:22:53.605
Do they wear watches?

00:22:53.605 --> 00:22:56.131
How do they count?

00:22:56.131 --> 00:22:59.586
There's a great movie, Inglourious Bastards.

00:22:59.586 --> 00:23:00.730
I don't know if you've ever heard of it.

00:23:00.890 --> 00:23:02.342
I've heard of it, but I have not seen it.

00:23:02.422 --> 00:23:18.792
There's a scene in that movie which it's going to totally wreck the movie for people who haven't seen it but there's a scene in it where one of the undercover, pretending to be German soldiers, he holds up his fingers to show I think it was three, the number three.

00:23:18.792 --> 00:23:22.144
And there are many ways to show three, there's three, three, three.

00:23:22.144 --> 00:23:23.287
To show three, there's three, three, three.

00:23:23.287 --> 00:23:27.394
There's so many different ways that you can show that.

00:23:27.394 --> 00:23:38.828
Well, in the movie, this officer, this actual german officer, could tell that, okay, this is not, this is.

00:23:38.848 --> 00:23:39.733
It was a small thing, it was so insignificant.

00:23:39.733 --> 00:23:44.464
But little things don't mean a lot, they mean everything, and so they can cost you your life and and in that movie they did.

00:23:44.464 --> 00:23:49.292
So I enjoyed learning those things and I would go in and come out.

00:23:49.292 --> 00:23:53.867
I didn't go in and stay, I would go in, do what needed to be done and come out.

00:23:53.867 --> 00:23:56.781
So that that was a great advantage for me.

00:23:56.781 --> 00:23:59.488
And again, 90% of my family had no idea.

00:23:59.488 --> 00:24:07.413
Most of my friends, except for two, two really good friends they knew that they were good for it because they had top secret clearances anyway because of what they did yeah.

00:24:07.920 --> 00:24:10.930
And so, anyway, I did that for a time.

00:24:11.820 --> 00:24:13.146
When did you become a police officer?

00:24:13.941 --> 00:24:18.079
Well, I said you know what, I think I'm done with the Navy, so I'm going to go be a police officer.

00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:25.490
And so there was a time frame in between Navy agency and there was wedged in.

00:24:25.490 --> 00:24:30.588
There was time to become a police officer, so I applied for it in the state.

00:24:30.700 --> 00:24:31.664
How did you like that work?

00:24:31.664 --> 00:24:34.346
Well, you didn't stay in it very long, did you?

00:24:34.346 --> 00:24:36.263
Five or six years.

00:24:36.263 --> 00:24:37.528
I think that's a good length.

00:24:39.824 --> 00:24:47.989
And this was the early days of anti-police, the anti-police attitude Early days of it.

00:24:48.780 --> 00:24:53.425
I loved most of the people that I worked with and for I worked for some great people.

00:24:53.425 --> 00:25:07.141
It was a very restricted job, so you knew what needed to be done, but you couldn't do that, and the only reason you couldn't do that was because of perception I don't think we had.

00:25:07.141 --> 00:25:09.445
We didn't have any body cameras or anything like that.

00:25:09.445 --> 00:25:11.730
Maybe dash cams were coming in.

00:25:11.730 --> 00:25:12.961
I doubt it, though.

00:25:12.961 --> 00:25:15.230
I don't have any recollection of that part at all.

00:25:15.230 --> 00:25:18.340
But what I do know is it just felt very restricted.

00:25:18.340 --> 00:25:33.502
It felt stupidly restricted, very politically driven, and it was a large police department and served a huge county, much of which was urban and suburban, so it wasn't like the county that we're in, where everything is spread out.

00:25:33.502 --> 00:25:34.548
It was a lot of people.

00:25:35.412 --> 00:25:37.339
And it just was exasperating.

00:25:37.721 --> 00:25:46.028
Maybe because I'm from small towns, I can't imagine it being as adrenaline rush oriented as what you were doing prior.

00:25:46.680 --> 00:25:48.006
Yeah, it's a tricky business.

00:25:49.142 --> 00:25:50.607
I mean, I almost feel like you would be bored.

00:25:51.401 --> 00:26:01.229
I was a little bored, but the reason I left was I had gotten hurt a couple of times and we didn't know this then.

00:26:01.229 --> 00:26:02.505
Obviously we know this now.

00:26:02.505 --> 00:26:07.352
But I had what was called arterial venal malformation, AVM.

00:26:07.352 --> 00:26:23.811
I had an AVM and so I passed out, you know, and they put me in the hospital for a week, lost a ton of blood internally, and so they put me in the hospital and they say, hey, you've got a massive tumor and that's frightening.

00:26:23.811 --> 00:26:24.753
You're going to check out.

00:26:24.753 --> 00:26:25.943
This is bad deal here.

00:26:25.963 --> 00:26:26.907
Oh, my goodness yeah.

00:26:27.059 --> 00:26:28.286
So yeah, it was crazy.

00:26:28.286 --> 00:26:31.950
But then they did doctor, medicine, surgery, stuff.

00:26:31.950 --> 00:26:34.612
They said, ok, what this is this calcification?

00:26:34.612 --> 00:26:36.359
It's not actually a tumor.

00:26:36.359 --> 00:26:39.931
It looks like a tumor on imaging but it's not actually a tumor.

00:26:39.931 --> 00:26:41.902
So they used sound, which is fascinating, to break it up.

00:26:41.922 --> 00:26:43.483
So they used sound, which is fascinating to break it up.

00:26:43.483 --> 00:26:44.204
I've heard of that.

00:26:44.204 --> 00:26:45.366
That's really cool.

00:26:45.366 --> 00:26:46.228
It was wild.

00:26:46.327 --> 00:26:47.750
And it's wild to experience it.

00:26:47.750 --> 00:26:51.693
But during the course of all that they said look, you have an AVM.

00:26:52.015 --> 00:26:52.796
What is that?

00:26:54.519 --> 00:26:55.722
Arterial, venal malformation.

00:26:55.722 --> 00:27:03.780
Think of it as the intersection of your arteries and your veins, where they come together.

00:27:03.780 --> 00:27:06.903
There's a weakness and it bulges and becomes an aneurysm.

00:27:06.903 --> 00:27:10.946
Oh Well, you know, fast forwarding all the way to today.

00:27:10.946 --> 00:27:12.788
Right, I now have a massive aneurysm.

00:27:12.788 --> 00:27:13.269
Right.

00:27:13.269 --> 00:27:19.335
And of all the things that are trying to take my life, the aneurysm is the worst thing, because I now have an aortic.

00:27:20.055 --> 00:27:22.196
Descending correct Descending aortic aneurysm yeah.

00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:27.604
And so the cardiologists all say it's in the worst possible place.

00:27:27.624 --> 00:27:29.027
It's bad and there's nothing we can do for you.

00:27:29.027 --> 00:27:30.810
So anyway, that is what it is.

00:27:30.810 --> 00:27:33.803
So I have to get out of that, create a new life.

00:27:33.803 --> 00:27:49.666
Well then, I you know, there were opportunities to work as a I use the word contractor, it's overused, but as a consultant really and then, in essence, a contractor getting to go and do jobs because of my past and I did and I liked it.

00:27:49.666 --> 00:27:50.169
It was fun.

00:27:50.169 --> 00:27:54.791
But one of the things that I liked more than anything else was hostile repatriation.

00:27:56.763 --> 00:27:58.308
And I like hostile repatriation.

00:27:58.619 --> 00:28:00.183
So what that is?

00:28:00.183 --> 00:28:03.471
Someone is somewhere they don't want to be Hiding.

00:28:03.471 --> 00:28:06.384
They're not there of their own volition, oh gotcha.

00:28:07.099 --> 00:28:11.125
They're being held, they're taken, they're being held Okay and interest Okay.

00:28:11.125 --> 00:28:17.316
Of our government says, hey, we need those people back for myriad reasons.

00:28:17.316 --> 00:28:19.445
Who knows what the reasons are.

00:28:19.445 --> 00:28:21.050
Those were never my.

00:28:21.050 --> 00:28:23.557
I didn't have to really think about what the reasons were.

00:28:23.557 --> 00:28:30.467
The government, the agency, couldn't go get them themselves, so they needed a private contractor to do that.

00:28:30.467 --> 00:28:31.387
I loved it.

00:28:31.387 --> 00:28:47.673
I had a team of guys who range from SEALs, delta guys, secret Service, cia protection group Great, great people, extraordinarily capable people, and so periodically we would have these jobs and no one would ever hear about it.

00:28:47.673 --> 00:29:09.568
They just get reunited with their families and a liaison would say, hey, we've got them, they're safe, we're bringing them back to wherever the meeting point would be, which usually would be either the United States, or, if they had bad medical issues, they would go to the next best place that were friendly to us, get well enough to travel the United States and continue healing.

00:29:09.588 --> 00:29:09.950
Gotcha.

00:29:10.130 --> 00:29:10.912
So I like that.

00:29:10.912 --> 00:29:15.451
And then I also really loved very high risk executive production.

00:29:15.451 --> 00:29:17.096
Loved it, loved it, loved it.

00:29:17.164 --> 00:29:18.410
You are a thrill seeker.

00:29:18.932 --> 00:29:26.330
You know what I never really thought of myself, but the whole notion of jumping out of an airplane never bothered me, it never crossed my mind.

00:29:26.330 --> 00:29:28.917
I thought to myself yeah, okay, when can we go?

00:29:28.917 --> 00:29:29.501
Can we go now?

00:29:29.501 --> 00:29:29.943
That's amazing.

00:29:29.943 --> 00:29:32.667
Can you teach me on the way up how to do it?

00:29:32.667 --> 00:29:35.691
Maybe jump out, be next to me and just tell me what to do on the way?

00:29:35.691 --> 00:29:36.711
I loved it.

00:29:36.951 --> 00:29:38.433
I absolutely loved it no fear.

00:29:38.993 --> 00:29:40.115
Well, I don't know that.

00:29:40.115 --> 00:29:41.938
It's no fear, but it's just.

00:29:42.278 --> 00:29:53.913
I had life in a different perspective then, which maybe wasn't the best perspective quite honestly, because I beat my body to death doing these things, and so I loved it.

00:29:53.913 --> 00:29:57.982
I really, really loved, I loved serving.

00:29:57.982 --> 00:30:05.157
My thrill was looking somebody in the eye and saying we're here to help you, we're going to help you.

00:30:05.157 --> 00:30:15.069
That's the thing that thrilled me was being able to change somebody's worst day or worst experience into one of the greatest experiences they've ever had.

00:30:15.069 --> 00:30:19.717
I love that, and I felt like there's a certain type of person who is to be in that role.

00:30:19.717 --> 00:30:25.818
Now I want to go back to law enforcement and just say that I don't demean what they do.

00:30:25.818 --> 00:30:37.131
Their jobs are so different now than even the little bit of time that I served, and so for me I greatly appreciate great law enforcement.

00:30:37.131 --> 00:30:49.419
In fact, I do counseling now high trauma counseling, which is acute situations, usually with people that can't go to a normal psychiatrist or psychologist or therapist or counselor.

00:30:49.419 --> 00:30:51.410
They can't do it because of their job.

00:30:51.410 --> 00:31:13.712
They do that, they lose their job, and so helping people through this acute situation to get them through and my wife can tell you if she ever comes on there are, there have been phone calls at 3 30 in the morning where there's gunfire in the background and so this person is locked up, for whatever reason, their brain is not moving forward and yeah, I

00:31:13.752 --> 00:31:17.405
get calls from the weirdest numbers, and so I love helping in that regard.

00:31:17.405 --> 00:31:20.010
So for me, the thrill is really that.

00:31:20.010 --> 00:31:23.479
But law enforcement, now they really have it tough.

00:31:23.479 --> 00:31:30.707
In the case of police officers now suiting up and going out, there's all this extra gear that they have to carry.

00:31:30.707 --> 00:31:38.556
I mean, in addition to this big vest, which I encourage every police officer out there, wear your body armor, wear your body armor.

00:31:38.556 --> 00:31:48.252
I know it's hot, but I'd rather sweat than bleed, but they've got to wear all this other gear which is designed for nothing other than to minimize litigation against the police department.

00:31:48.252 --> 00:31:52.228
That's what it's for, and you may have comments that say, well, you know, I've run into more bad cops than I have good cops.

00:31:52.228 --> 00:31:55.332
Comments that say, well, you know, I've run into more bad cops than I have good cops.

00:31:55.332 --> 00:32:11.419
Look, I've talked to literally tens of thousands of police officers all across this country and I can tell you, the amount of bad cops is minuscule.

00:32:11.499 --> 00:32:12.625
It's minuscule by comparison.

00:32:12.625 --> 00:32:12.785
They are.

00:32:12.785 --> 00:32:13.507
They're up against it.

00:32:13.507 --> 00:32:24.573
The recruiting went through a phase where they stopped looking for ex-military men and women and they started looking for well, we just want a college graduate, maybe with humanities or criminal justice or whatever.

00:32:24.573 --> 00:32:26.189
That's not the.

00:32:26.189 --> 00:32:30.472
It's not a bad thing to have, but if that's all you have, you're in trouble.

00:32:30.653 --> 00:32:30.835
Yeah.

00:32:31.305 --> 00:32:35.848
Because if you've never been punched in the face, everybody's got a big plan until they get punched in the face.

00:32:35.848 --> 00:32:38.211
Because if you've never been punched in the face, everybody's got a big plan until they get punched in the face.

00:32:38.211 --> 00:32:43.236
And if you are fighting for your life and you've never fought for your life it's way different than people realize.

00:32:43.236 --> 00:32:49.761
I guess to sum it up is I have great empathy for law enforcement out there.

00:32:49.761 --> 00:33:03.252
The whole desire to help people was always strong there and what I learned was you spend 90% of your time dealing with the same people over and over and over.

00:33:03.693 --> 00:33:06.446
And so you don't get the opportunity to really really help people.

00:33:06.446 --> 00:33:10.334
My prior life was very specific.

00:33:10.334 --> 00:33:14.951
Here is the problem you develop a plan to solve the problem, go do it.

00:33:14.951 --> 00:33:19.051
We don't really care how you do it, but go do it and try to bring them back.

00:33:19.051 --> 00:33:26.477
And in the case of executive protection, when I formed executive protection team, our tagline was when it's your life, we're your team.

00:33:26.477 --> 00:33:32.798
We were actually, we were hired when the Navy SEALs were outed for the bin Laden raid.

00:33:33.125 --> 00:33:33.688
Oh, that's right.

00:33:33.708 --> 00:33:55.637
I remember that was a lot of a lot of navy seals and military people speaking up while their lives were at risk significant risk right well, we were the company that was hired to protect them wow, okay, not all of them, just a few of them, and so we always make a joke of that, like when the navy seals need somebody to protect them, we're the ones that get called, and so that's a very specific thing.

00:33:55.718 --> 00:33:58.769
So you can see, you can help with that, and I enjoy that.

00:33:58.769 --> 00:34:01.094
That, to me, is the mission.

00:34:01.094 --> 00:34:02.016
Is it clear?

00:34:02.016 --> 00:34:07.275
And I know we didn't plan on getting into this whole mission creep and all that stuff, but it is.

00:34:07.275 --> 00:34:08.317
It's that way in life.

00:34:08.317 --> 00:34:09.748
People have a mission.

00:34:09.748 --> 00:34:15.931
They start off with this thing you can talk about weight loss, you can talk about I want to learn to do this, I'm going to learn to do this, I'm going to learn to do that.

00:34:15.931 --> 00:34:21.371
And then you're all hyped up, you get all the tools, you get all the stuff, and then it's not as easy.

00:34:21.371 --> 00:34:21.833
Yeah.

00:34:22.204 --> 00:34:26.983
It's not as easy as you thought it was going to be Right, wow, maybe I won't do that anymore.

00:34:26.983 --> 00:34:28.449
You just don't do it anymore.

00:34:28.449 --> 00:34:38.706
You stop doing it, saying that I haven't because I have.

00:34:38.766 --> 00:34:39.367
Yeah for sure.

00:34:39.367 --> 00:34:41.126
But then the crash.

00:34:41.126 --> 00:34:50.931
Okay, you have multiple theology degrees, you have an undergrad in biblical counseling, but you do counseling now, right, I do some, some.

00:34:50.931 --> 00:34:54.153
You have a master's in theology Hebrew worldview.

00:34:54.153 --> 00:35:02.478
You've got a doctorate in theology Hebrew worldview as well, and a doctorate in practical theology, Timeline-wise.

00:35:02.478 --> 00:35:08.400
So you've got this incredible life of intrigue.

00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:12.362
When did you fit in all of this theology education?

00:35:13.764 --> 00:35:14.226
That's a great question.

00:35:14.226 --> 00:35:18.047
I may have been a really intelligent guy at one point in time, but really stupid.

00:35:18.047 --> 00:35:34.775
I had an opportunity to go to many great schools for free and instead I decided well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to be in a business and I'm going to go to school in all this spare time that I allegedly have, and I'm going to pay for it all myself.

00:35:34.775 --> 00:35:35.958
You know why not?

00:35:35.958 --> 00:35:45.018
And so I did that, and I was a person who I wanted to be part of the family, so I set up my desk in the living room.

00:35:45.018 --> 00:35:54.690
What was weird is, before the crash, that television could be on, but I could be focused on my schoolwork, no problem.

00:35:55.211 --> 00:35:56.534
So you're no longer doing.

00:35:56.534 --> 00:35:59.059
This is after the protection.

00:35:59.059 --> 00:36:00.869
Oh no, I was still doing some of it.

00:36:00.909 --> 00:36:08.239
I had another business, but because that business doesn't come in regularly enough to provide it.

00:36:08.619 --> 00:36:16.655
So I had another little business and I was doing that and working crazy hours and really hard, but I still was capable of learning.

00:36:16.655 --> 00:36:21.911
I had a high interest in learning and the topics were fascinating to me.

00:36:21.911 --> 00:36:25.679
So what I did was just total immersion.

00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:31.103
Great professors, great admin staff just they were the most wonderful people.

00:36:31.103 --> 00:36:37.181
They were fantastic and they kind of saw how I was and who I was.

00:36:37.181 --> 00:36:39.586
So they let me go at a higher rate of speed.

00:36:39.586 --> 00:36:41.152
I think, than others.

00:36:42.054 --> 00:36:49.572
So the undergrad, grad and one doctorate was prior to the crash, and yeah, then everything changed.

00:36:49.833 --> 00:36:52.038
Well, you grew up in the church, am I?

00:36:52.077 --> 00:36:52.806
right, I did.

00:36:52.806 --> 00:37:00.811
I grew up in an independent fundamental right haircut, right clothing, right shoes, kjv only.

00:37:00.811 --> 00:37:03.498
Nothing against the KJV, only crowd not throwing rocks.

00:37:03.498 --> 00:37:08.224
I'm just saying it was the authorized version because Jesus, that's the one Jesus carried.

00:37:08.224 --> 00:37:10.530
That was their thought and that's how they operated.

00:37:10.530 --> 00:37:14.947
And so very, very strict, very incongruent upbringing.

00:37:14.947 --> 00:37:22.251
My dad was not a person of faith for much of my childhood, most of my childhood.

00:37:22.751 --> 00:37:24.516
Your mom taking you to and from church?

00:37:24.764 --> 00:37:28.576
Yeah, but he always supported that, and they're both been gone a little while now.

00:37:28.784 --> 00:37:29.588
Did you have siblings?

00:37:29.989 --> 00:37:30.230
I did.

00:37:30.230 --> 00:37:31.784
I'm the youngest of five, youngest of five.

00:37:31.804 --> 00:37:32.925
Okay, and all five were taken to church every Sunday.

00:37:32.925 --> 00:37:35.188
Youngest of five, okay, and all five were taken to church every Sunday.

00:37:35.907 --> 00:37:37.708
We had a drug problem in our family.

00:37:37.708 --> 00:37:42.211
Mom drug us to church on Sunday night.

00:37:42.211 --> 00:37:44.014
She drug us to a WANA.

00:37:44.014 --> 00:37:46.635
She drug us to Wednesday prayer meeting.

00:37:47.215 --> 00:37:48.177
Oh yeah, that's funny.

00:37:48.177 --> 00:37:49.597
That was our drug problem.00:37:49.597 --> 00:37:50.117


I like it.00:37:50.358 --> 00:37:59.567


So, yeah, that was really a strong influence, but it took with me, it didn't take with the others, not everyone it really took with me.00:37:59.586 --> 00:38:03.376


What was it that made you decide when you were going to get an education?00:38:03.376 --> 00:38:05.472


What made you decide theology?00:38:05.472 --> 00:38:06.690


What was the spark there?00:38:08.045 --> 00:38:21.047


So, okay, what had happened was I and I try to get through this without crying I was.00:38:21.047 --> 00:38:26.338


I had a high school problems of democracy civics teacher.00:38:26.338 --> 00:38:28.490


He was my favorite teacher of all.00:38:28.490 --> 00:38:53.231


My whole life he's been my favorite teacher and he used to go away to all these far-flung countries every summer and he would take all of these amazing photos and record these little videos and a lot of what we would do is study those countries where he went and he would explain to us about their systems of government and the upside, the downside and and all of these things, the difference in the people.00:38:53.231 --> 00:38:54.313


Oh, wonderful.00:38:54.753 --> 00:38:57.920


Until he got to teaching about the Holocaust.00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:04.358


When he taught about the Holocaust, I couldn't believe my ears.00:39:04.358 --> 00:39:06.612


I was appalled.00:39:06.612 --> 00:39:11.190


I just couldn't understand it and I'd always been fascinated.00:39:11.190 --> 00:39:17.333


Why did God have jesus yeshua?00:39:17.333 --> 00:39:25.324


Why did he plop him down in the hebrew land among the hebrew people?00:39:25.324 --> 00:39:26.005


Why did that happen?00:39:26.005 --> 00:39:27.530


That was always a fascination.00:39:27.530 --> 00:39:30.496


As a little kid, I know I read weird books.00:39:30.496 --> 00:39:31.565


Grown-up books.00:39:31.565 --> 00:39:35.112


When I was just a little kid uh, I would read books that were.00:39:35.112 --> 00:39:38.706


You know, I read the PDR, I think.00:39:38.766 --> 00:39:40.871


I was physician's desk reference.00:39:40.871 --> 00:39:53.996


Okay, my mom would go to yard sales and she'd give me a budget and I'd spend it all on books grownup books like a physician was retiring and originally my thought in my head was you know, I want to be the doctor that cures cancer.00:39:53.996 --> 00:39:55.425


And so how your brain?00:39:55.360 --> 00:39:55.659


works.00:39:55.659 --> 00:39:55.864


It was weird.00:39:55.864 --> 00:39:55.809


I was a.00:39:55.809 --> 00:39:57.085


Be the doctor that cures cancer, and so how your brain works.00:39:57.021 --> 00:39:58.815


It was weird, I was a weird kid, let me tell you.00:39:58.815 --> 00:40:02.335


And but the thing is is I didn't say any of this stuff out loud.00:40:02.335 --> 00:40:07.295


It was all going in in my head because I thought people are going to think I'm weird, which they did.00:40:07.295 --> 00:40:08.338


I find out in retrospect.00:40:08.338 --> 00:40:18.092


And so, when it came to the Holocaust, I said why the Jews?00:40:18.092 --> 00:40:18.876


How did this happen?00:40:18.936 --> 00:40:20.121


And I started really, really studying it.00:40:20.121 --> 00:40:20.965


It's a wonderful question, yeah.00:40:21.766 --> 00:40:23.327


And what became?00:40:23.327 --> 00:40:32.239


As a young adult, I had the idea of writing a PhD dissertation on the Holocaust.00:40:32.239 --> 00:40:40.586


What it really was, how exactly did it happen, and can it happen again?00:40:40.606 --> 00:40:41.168


And how do we stop it?00:40:41.168 --> 00:40:47.070


That was going to be my thing and I said, well, I've got to go and talk to the people, I don't want to just read about it.00:40:47.070 --> 00:40:51.527


So I had the opportunity to travel to five of the concentration camps.00:40:51.527 --> 00:40:54.695


I was able to secure private tours, and so it was horrible.00:40:54.695 --> 00:40:55.418


It was.00:40:55.418 --> 00:40:58.987


It was I'd seen a lot of evil in my lifetime.00:40:58.987 --> 00:41:01.632


I'm telling you that broke my soul.00:41:01.632 --> 00:41:10.418


It, it, it violated, and and I, you know, even at that point in my life I had little faith in the humanity of man.00:41:10.418 --> 00:41:13.632


I thought, oh, we're in deep trouble more and more and more.00:41:13.632 --> 00:41:16.056


I really just didn't love it.00:41:16.056 --> 00:41:19.889


But then, when I was there, it broke your soul.00:41:19.990 --> 00:41:21.195


Broke my soul, that's so.00:41:21.195 --> 00:41:22.289


It literally broke my soul.00:41:23.507 --> 00:41:27.838


So you were just saying, I'm just intrigued by what you're talking about.00:41:27.838 --> 00:41:36.019


So, looking upon mankind, you were disheartened about what we are as a species.00:41:40.045 --> 00:41:41.226


Just not the best creatures.00:41:41.226 --> 00:41:49.579


How depraved, how utterly horrible one segment of humanity could be toward a specific segment.00:41:49.579 --> 00:42:00.231


Now it wasn't just the jews, it was anybody handicapped, it was any down syndrome, all of that, and they were killed immediately unless there was some scientific benefit they could find.00:42:00.231 --> 00:42:07.873


But when I went to auschwitz I the part that got me was again I.00:42:07.873 --> 00:42:24.476


I was because of my background, I was, I had some back channels and I could get private tours oh, right, yeah so there was a one-on-one with an interpreter and as we come out at the end of the day, I was devastated.00:42:24.777 --> 00:42:25.257


I wept.00:42:25.257 --> 00:43:02.456


Even now I wept harder than I've wept my entire life and I looked out at the people that were going through these different exhibits and displays and then seeing the horrific things and the remnants of them, and everybody was pretty quiet but I could see they didn't quite get it and I remember walking out of there and as I came out there was these two tiny elderly people and I'd always had a heart for the elderly.00:43:02.976 --> 00:43:03.498


Same yeah.00:43:03.905 --> 00:43:14.876


I love old folks, and we didn't speak the same language, by the way, wasn't one of the languages that I knew but they saw me and they said, come, come, come.00:43:14.876 --> 00:43:17.159


And so I was there.00:43:17.159 --> 00:43:18.987


They took me to their little.00:43:18.987 --> 00:43:23.655


Their whole house, I kid you not, was maybe slightly larger than this room.00:43:24.056 --> 00:43:24.416


Oh, wow.00:43:24.597 --> 00:43:25.719


Okay, yeah, it was small.00:43:25.824 --> 00:43:27.150


They invited you into their home.00:43:27.445 --> 00:43:28.449


Brought me right into their house.00:43:28.449 --> 00:43:31.932


Yeah, crazy, and they didn't know me at all.00:43:32.746 --> 00:43:33.871


What did they want to show you?00:43:33.871 --> 00:43:35.327


What were they inviting you to?00:43:35.327 --> 00:43:36.248


They saw me hurt.00:43:36.588 --> 00:43:40.693


They saw the hurt in my soul and they and they wanted to invite me in.00:43:40.693 --> 00:43:57.135


So I don't know if you know, but Polish people make their own liquor and they did and and we drank that and we communicated and it ended up being a whole evening into the next morning.00:43:57.135 --> 00:44:04.005


Oh wow, but that whole time, I said because they would explain different things to me and it was difficult.00:44:04.005 --> 00:44:08.217


But I always say let your sincerity be your own best interpreter.00:44:08.217 --> 00:44:10.813


So they're sincerely trying to communicate with you.00:44:10.813 --> 00:44:12.492


I'm sincerely trying to connect with them.00:44:12.492 --> 00:44:16.490


You'll work it out, you'll work it out You'll work it out, and so we did.00:44:17.085 --> 00:44:27.878


And at the end, when I was getting ready to leave and I gave them hugs, they tried to give me food and I remember I forgot to ask how did you two meet?00:44:27.878 --> 00:44:29.788


How did you two?00:44:29.788 --> 00:44:30.771


How did you meet?00:44:30.771 --> 00:44:31.208


How did you?00:44:31.208 --> 00:44:31.936


Do you have family?00:44:31.936 --> 00:44:32.016


How?00:44:32.016 --> 00:44:32.380


Did you meet?00:44:32.380 --> 00:44:35.538


Do you have family?00:44:35.538 --> 00:44:41.610


I didn't even ask because the questions were all, and so they do the come back in sign.00:44:41.610 --> 00:44:46.115


I go back in and we sit down and they pull their sleeves up.00:44:46.476 --> 00:44:49.219


Oh, yeah, they met in a camp.00:44:49.880 --> 00:44:50.561


They met in a camp.00:44:50.561 --> 00:44:52.007


They didn't know each other.00:44:52.007 --> 00:44:53.273


They met in a camp as they met in a camp.00:44:53.273 --> 00:44:53.896


They didn't know each other.00:44:53.896 --> 00:44:55.505


They actually they met in a camp as they were being liberated Okay.00:44:55.505 --> 00:44:59.175


His family, his entire family, died in that camp.00:44:59.175 --> 00:45:07.693


Every single person in his lineage that was alive died in that camp, almost all but one of her family.00:45:07.693 --> 00:45:10.052


They didn't know each other outside of there.00:45:10.425 --> 00:45:11.891


They had no connection whatsoever.00:45:11.891 --> 00:45:19.536


And she was slightly younger than him and as they're being liberated, you know they were young, they were very, very young.00:45:19.536 --> 00:45:33.077


They kind of clung to one another and then through medical care and different things they would bump into each other and eventually they were married very, very young, extremely young, probably legally way too young.00:45:33.077 --> 00:45:37.855


But they both survived the camp and none of their family did, and that bonded them.00:45:38.135 --> 00:45:39.559


So sad yeah, yeah.00:45:39.744 --> 00:45:45.467


Sort of thick and in the process of thinking about writing that dissertation I thought, well, I'm not doing this.00:45:45.809 --> 00:45:46.771


I can't do this justice.00:45:46.771 --> 00:45:47.795


Oh, you chose not to.00:45:48.565 --> 00:45:54.498


No, I wrote 120 pages and then I just said whether I would fancy myself to be a good writer or not.00:45:54.498 --> 00:45:57.764


There is no way I can do this topic justice.00:45:57.764 --> 00:46:19.893


No way, and there were so many PhD dissertations out there where they touched on the Holocaust or different aspects of it, my approach was going to be a different way, through a more personal way, and I'd even talked to he wasn't a guard, but he was a policeman at one of the camps- yeah yeah, how did you?00:46:20.894 --> 00:46:22.036


how do you justify this?00:46:22.036 --> 00:46:23.385


Why aren't you in jail?00:46:23.385 --> 00:46:24.668


I was real in his family.00:46:24.688 --> 00:46:30.344


Bold yes and we have all the discussion about well, what did the families know?00:46:30.344 --> 00:46:41.490


I, I held a great animus towards Germany and Austria for a very, very long time because I thought how could you have allowed this to happen, how could you have allowed this to happen?00:46:41.490 --> 00:46:43.657


And I still, to a great degree, that generation.00:46:43.657 --> 00:46:48.355


I don't excuse it, I don't give them a pass, because those officers came home.00:46:48.355 --> 00:46:57.688


They came home at night, they had families, so their families knew what was going on, just like when the atom bomb was being created.00:46:57.688 --> 00:47:03.067


Everybody's there and they have families and then they go home.00:47:04.389 --> 00:47:07.157


Well, do we think that they didn't have conversations with their wives?00:47:07.157 --> 00:47:23.152


Come on, that's unrealistic and we've found through research that, yeah, that did in fact happen and many of them wanted it to happen, and many of them don't express any regret at all, no remorse at all, even until their death.00:47:23.284 --> 00:47:27.144


Are you talking now about the making of the atomic bomb, or are you talking about Auschwitz?00:47:27.365 --> 00:47:36.038


No, no, I'm talking about the Holocaust Right, okay, yeah, the families were like that's how it was, that's what happened, it's okay.00:47:36.784 --> 00:47:46.760


I do think that the generations that followed they still, probably to this day, feel a great amount of guilt on some level for what happened.00:47:47.445 --> 00:47:50.612


I think there is some, but it's making a nasty resurgence.00:47:50.612 --> 00:47:51.514


Is it really?00:47:51.514 --> 00:47:51.914


It is?00:47:51.914 --> 00:47:53.217


Yeah, it really is.00:47:53.217 --> 00:47:54.751


It's a huge movement.00:47:54.751 --> 00:48:00.208


It started very much as an underground movement, but now it's pretty bold Because people know.00:48:00.208 --> 00:48:01.572


Now I can say what I want to say.00:48:01.572 --> 00:48:04.152


I'll say what I want to say and I'll do what I want to do.00:48:04.324 --> 00:48:19.413


I did not know that, yeah it's big, it's unfortunate and what's interesting is I rode BMW motorcycles for many years and I struggled with the choice of brand because of that.00:48:19.413 --> 00:48:23.876


They were a supplier to the third rank and there were a lot of companies.00:48:23.876 --> 00:48:31.561


Where I learned to let go of that was I learned the United States had a lot of complicity.00:48:31.561 --> 00:48:36.503


Before we really connected with what was happening, we had a lot of complicity.00:48:36.623 --> 00:48:38.344


Before we really connected with what was happening.00:48:38.344 --> 00:48:47.311


We had a lot of complicity and a lot of the stolen art, the antiquities, the massive wealth still sits in bank vaults in the United States.00:48:47.311 --> 00:48:55.146


Much of it has never been given back, and so I don't know that we can say that we've taken the high road.00:48:55.146 --> 00:49:03.067


And given my past, I can tell you that many times we have not taken the high road, we have not done the best.00:49:07.974 --> 00:49:10.557


So let's go ahead and get to that accident.00:49:10.958 --> 00:49:15.612


All of the different things that have tried to kill me over the years, the life that I had led.00:49:15.612 --> 00:49:35.958


One would never think that a 19-year-old high school senior in a borrowed car with state minimum insurance, with his other high school senior buddies, would be driving 109 miles an hour, lose control, jump a 40-something foot median and hit me head-on at 92 miles per hour.00:49:35.958 --> 00:49:38.773


Nobody would think that that's how I would go out.00:49:39.686 --> 00:49:42.195


It's an unbelievable story.00:49:42.195 --> 00:49:46.416


If you don't mind and I know you've done this before- yeah, it doesn't bother me.00:49:46.416 --> 00:49:49.675


Would you please just take us through that day.00:49:50.706 --> 00:49:53.706


It was a relatively normal day, were you at work?00:49:53.706 --> 00:49:58.431


Well, so I'm pretty much always at work doing different things.00:49:58.431 --> 00:50:19.380


I had so many different things going, but one of the protection vehicles that we used was a Suburban and I was to protect two very prominent people who, for whatever reason, people wanted to kill them and they had very, very significant and actionable threats on their lives.00:50:19.380 --> 00:50:29.119


And what ends up happening is I dropped the vehicle off at the detailer because I had a specific detailer who I knew was trustworthy to be in the car Just cleaning the car.00:50:29.525 --> 00:50:31.112


Make it like brand new.00:50:31.112 --> 00:50:34.213


Okay, that's always how I rolled was brand new.00:50:34.364 --> 00:50:38.195


And you're traveling with high level dignitaries and so forth.00:50:38.344 --> 00:50:40.373


Everything's set up three different newspapers.00:50:40.373 --> 00:50:41.889


They would have drinks.00:50:41.889 --> 00:50:46.704


I wasn't their chauffeur, I was their protector, but I liked everything to be top shelf.00:50:46.704 --> 00:51:02.905


Anyway, headed home, looking forward to dinner, and I was crossing a bridge and it was down to one lane and on the south side of the bridge was only maybe six minutes from my house where is in delaware?00:51:03.085 --> 00:51:08.677


delaware, okay, middletown delaware and on the downside of the bridge it goes back to two lanes.00:51:08.677 --> 00:51:17.019


So I went from the left lane, which was the only lane I could do on the bridge, over to the right lane and I was going around 51 miles per hour at impact.00:51:17.019 --> 00:51:21.157


There's a start of a big double loop curve.00:51:21.157 --> 00:51:23.523


You would call it an S curve, but it was huge.00:51:23.523 --> 00:51:27.894


It was a huge curve and they were, like I said, they had spent the day.00:51:27.894 --> 00:51:29.945


The driver had borrowed his uncle's car.00:51:29.945 --> 00:51:38.320


It was a big SUV and these guys were all friends of his from the high school which, ironically, my son went to the high school.00:51:39.786 --> 00:51:41.090


How many were in the vehicle with him?00:51:41.130 --> 00:51:50.291


I think five, oh my gosh, I think five total in the vehicle, four occupants, and I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure that was the number and it was four or five.00:51:50.505 --> 00:51:51.445


Were they drinking or on drugs?00:51:51.485 --> 00:51:53.708


Nope, there the number and it was four or five.00:51:53.708 --> 00:51:55.009


Were they drinking or on drugs?00:51:55.009 --> 00:51:55.309


Nope.00:51:55.329 --> 00:51:58.132


There was no drinking, no drugs, I was just speeding speeding all day long.00:51:58.452 --> 00:52:06.481


He was driving like a crazy person all day long and in fact the one fellow that died turns out the fellow that died I knew very well.00:52:06.601 --> 00:52:07.041


Oh no.00:52:08.184 --> 00:52:11.246


In fact my son was his backup on the football team.00:52:11.246 --> 00:52:13.889


They used to go to a football practice together a lot.00:52:13.889 --> 00:52:18.213


They would sometimes get rides home because he was our neighbor.00:52:19.014 --> 00:52:19.853


Oh yeah.00:52:19.853 --> 00:52:20.594


I'm sorry.00:52:21.114 --> 00:52:22.155


Thank you, it was horrible.00:52:22.155 --> 00:52:24.358


It happened so fast.00:52:24.378 --> 00:52:27.039


I can't even believe that Amazing.00:52:27.579 --> 00:52:34.516


Not next door, but just across the fairway there this house was, and a lovely guy, we know him well, smiling Andre.00:52:34.516 --> 00:52:36.110


He was amazing.00:52:36.110 --> 00:52:41.197


What's interesting is I've had the best training in the world.00:52:41.197 --> 00:52:55.197


My driving training is extraordinary and I knew once I came to realize anything, I knew, wow, if I couldn't avoid this, this was high speed.00:52:55.197 --> 00:52:57.572


I knew that I was in terrible pain.00:52:57.572 --> 00:52:59.291


I knew that I was struggling to breathe.00:52:59.291 --> 00:53:03.554


I knew that I couldn't move.00:53:03.554 --> 00:53:08.255


Those were all imminent reality.00:53:08.255 --> 00:53:10.512


I mean, it was right there, acutely in my face.00:53:10.512 --> 00:53:11.871


So I said three prayers.00:53:11.871 --> 00:53:16.672


When I air quotes came to, I said three prayers and I'll explain why the air quotes here in a second.00:53:16.672 --> 00:53:19.434


When I came to, I prayed three prayers.00:53:19.434 --> 00:53:32.451


I prayed a prayer of contrition because I said, if I couldn't avoid this very high speed, I know the pain that I'm in, I know that I'm not breathing.00:53:32.451 --> 00:53:35.572


Well, I'm probably not going to make it out of this.00:53:35.572 --> 00:53:40.277


So asking for forgiveness of my sins my hurts habits and hangups.00:53:40.864 --> 00:53:45.898


Then I prayed a prayer of petition for whoever's in the other vehicle.00:53:45.898 --> 00:53:48.831


They're probably in as bad a shape.00:53:48.831 --> 00:53:52.956


Little did I know that most of them, other than the one boy that was killed.00:53:52.956 --> 00:53:55.050


The worst injury was a broken arm.00:53:55.811 --> 00:53:56.974


Okay, okay, that's amazing.00:53:56.974 --> 00:53:59.688


It is amazing, I mean, I did not expect to hear that.00:53:59.829 --> 00:54:23.693


I'm sorry, go ahead so then I prayed a prayer of petition for them and then I prayed a prayer of gratitude that neither my dog, who was my shadow everybody knew me me and buckeye rode together always, but because I was getting it detailed, she was a blonde dog, so she wasn't allowed in the black car when daddy gets a detail so but she was always my companion and so-.00:54:24.748 --> 00:54:27.000


You were just thankful that she wasn't with you at that time.00:54:27.144 --> 00:54:28.728


My family wasn't in the car.00:54:28.728 --> 00:54:34.878


I prayed for that and I felt like, oh, it's my time, I was convinced of it.00:54:35.105 --> 00:54:36.592


This car was going how fast.00:54:37.264 --> 00:54:37.927


At impact.00:54:37.927 --> 00:54:41.534


Well, when they crossed the median, they were going 109.00:54:41.534 --> 00:54:44.047


When they hit me, they were going 92.00:54:44.047 --> 00:54:45.871


And I was going 51 head on.00:54:45.871 --> 00:54:47.336


Driver's side head on.00:54:50.065 --> 00:54:50.947


Did you ever find out?00:54:50.947 --> 00:54:58.396


I mean, it could have been just the speed that he was going and he lost control of the vehicle, or was there something more to it that made him lose control?00:54:59.244 --> 00:55:00.748


Well, the crazy part of the story.00:55:00.748 --> 00:55:03.436


I mean there's about nine different crazy parts to this story.00:55:03.436 --> 00:55:04.650


But they had borrowed this car.00:55:04.650 --> 00:55:10.867


It was a particularly warm day for spring break and they'd gone down to the beach, rode with the beach.00:55:10.867 --> 00:55:12.489


They'd had a great day.00:55:12.489 --> 00:55:15.090


But he had been driving crazy all day long.00:55:15.090 --> 00:55:27.076


Just he was showing out for his buddies and trying to be cool and he had just been stopped just a couple minutes, literally a couple minutes before.00:55:27.536 --> 00:55:29.036


For speeding, for reckless driving.00:55:30.197 --> 00:55:36.860


He received a ticket for reckless driving and passing on the right and something else I can't remember.00:55:36.860 --> 00:55:51.817


I think it was two or three tickets, just literally a minute and a half, two minutes before, and it didn't slow him down, they had texted, just got stopped, not texted, tweeted, just got stopped by a racist white cop for DWB Driving while black.00:55:51.817 --> 00:55:54.572


That wasn't what happened at all.00:55:54.572 --> 00:55:57.855


The guy was, he was driving crazy.00:55:57.855 --> 00:56:09.588


And this particular police officer who felt terrible about what happened to me because I knew him, you know, if I had delayed him a little longer, who knows?00:56:09.588 --> 00:56:17.576


But he didn't learn anything because he ran, I think, nine cars off the road Once the police officer got out of view, just drove crazy again.00:56:17.576 --> 00:56:27.771


And none of the boys had the cojones to say, hey, stop this car, stop this car, stop driving like an idiot.00:56:27.771 --> 00:56:29.972


And they regretted it later.00:56:30.965 --> 00:56:33.554


But, andre, they had stopped at his house.00:56:33.554 --> 00:56:42.177


His little brother was in the car for the whole first part of the day and he said, hey, they had to go on to another place to drop the other guys off.00:56:42.177 --> 00:56:44.532


Hey, drop off my little brother.00:56:44.532 --> 00:56:46.987


And the reason.00:56:46.987 --> 00:56:52.914


And his little brother said I want to go, I want to go, I want to go and he was like no, no, get out of the car.00:56:52.914 --> 00:56:54.987


And he's like no, no, get out of the car.00:56:54.987 --> 00:56:56.190


And he saved his life yes.00:56:56.590 --> 00:56:58.074


Saved his life, oh my goodness.00:56:58.074 --> 00:57:05.038


Yeah, and what was also crazy is we were the only me and Andre were the only two believers in the crash.00:57:05.038 --> 00:57:11.637


Yeah, so what happened in the crash was it was astounding.00:57:11.637 --> 00:57:16.586


Crash was it was astounding.00:57:16.586 --> 00:57:20.173


We didn't know for two years later that I had died in the crash, until we talked to the head paramedic, or head.00:57:20.193 --> 00:57:31.059


EMT and EMT fireman, and him and his buddy, who was his deputy, had both run my vitals and marked me dead and walked away from the car.00:57:31.059 --> 00:57:34.552


And so I remember I don't have any.00:57:34.552 --> 00:57:38.737


I didn't have a near-death experience that I can recall, which is interesting.00:57:38.737 --> 00:57:43.271


I'm a person of faith, you would think, but I did not have that experience.00:57:43.271 --> 00:57:54.039


I remember I didn't realize it at the time that I was trapped, but I remember being in intense pain and I had experienced horrific pain in my life.00:57:54.039 --> 00:57:56.150


This was the worst.00:57:56.150 --> 00:57:58.793


This was easily the worst pain that I felt.00:57:58.793 --> 00:58:03.434


My left side was shattered, my face was wrecked.00:58:03.434 --> 00:58:06.856


You're probably good thing it's not a video audience.00:58:06.856 --> 00:58:08.949


They'd be saying, well, why didn't they fix it?00:58:08.949 --> 00:58:10.795


It lands.00:58:11.365 --> 00:58:12.891


There's nothing wrong with his face.00:58:14.128 --> 00:58:16.074


They can do things with plastic surgery.00:58:16.074 --> 00:58:19.268


These days I have to say, like on True Word, faith for Life.00:58:19.268 --> 00:58:24.318


My YouTube channel I always joke and I tell people I said my half a year probably watching out of pity.00:58:24.318 --> 00:58:32.204


But the fact of the matter of it is I knew I was not breathing.00:58:32.204 --> 00:58:40.411


I mean I was just taking like that little sips of air, were you actively trying to get a breath.00:58:40.431 --> 00:58:41.313


Oh yeah, you were forcing it.00:58:41.313 --> 00:58:44.179


I couldn't breathe in, I could not breathe in, I could not breathe out.00:58:45.585 --> 00:58:50.954


I had massive thoracic damage, and so I just couldn't breathe.00:58:50.954 --> 00:58:53.353


I could not breathe and I said okay.00:58:53.585 --> 00:58:54.951


So they walked away from you.00:58:54.951 --> 00:58:57.472


This man is no longer with us.00:58:57.472 --> 00:59:00.273


Let's go take care of the other car.00:59:01.126 --> 00:59:04.829


So the other car was on fire and so the fire department was.00:59:04.829 --> 00:59:08.777


They'd gotten everybody out of the car including Andre.00:59:08.777 --> 00:59:11.974


But they were actively trying to put the fire out.00:59:11.974 --> 00:59:12.666


And it was.00:59:12.666 --> 00:59:19.717


The car burnt to the rails, but I was so close to it that I had red on my arm.00:59:19.717 --> 00:59:21.811


I could feel the heat of the fire.00:59:21.811 --> 00:59:22.574


It was intense.00:59:22.744 --> 00:59:26.115


And no one is there taking care of you, trying to remove you from the vehicle.00:59:26.264 --> 00:59:31.086


No, they figured he's gone, and so we didn't learn this until two years later, when he comes in and goes.00:59:31.086 --> 00:59:32.947


He was a friend of my daughter's.00:59:32.947 --> 00:59:39.612


We were at my daughter's birthday party and he said I thought I was going to have to tell your daughter that your dad was gone.00:59:39.612 --> 00:59:44.115


And so, yeah, we were like what, excuse me, my son.00:59:44.195 --> 00:59:46.336


That was your first time hearing it two years later.00:59:46.336 --> 00:59:47.637


Yeah, two years, okay.00:59:47.818 --> 00:59:50.579


Yeah, crazy, crazy, crazy.00:59:50.579 --> 00:59:51.079


And I was nuts.00:59:51.079 --> 00:59:52.961


He said did you not know that?00:59:52.961 --> 00:59:54.643


I said no, we had no idea.00:59:54.643 --> 01:00:01.686


No one told us, so we didn't know.01:00:01.686 --> 01:00:06.235


And so I remember being in the car and I said those three prayers and I said it's okay, it's okay, God, I'm already with it.01:00:06.235 --> 01:00:20.936


You've given me a way better life than I've ever deserved, truthfully, truthfully, and I was very thankful and I was very thankful that my family and my dog wasn't in the car and I just, I just remember thinking.01:00:20.936 --> 01:00:29.018


Once I came to they did tell me it was a bunch of high school boys and I said are they?01:00:29.018 --> 01:00:30.929


Because the helicopter was coming in?01:00:30.929 --> 01:00:35.978


And I said to the lady working on me heroic, heroic, paramedic.01:00:35.978 --> 01:00:38.132


She was an advanced life support paramedic.01:00:38.132 --> 01:00:49.739


She had climbed through the back, they had peeled open the door and she had climbed through metal and glass and everything to work in between the front seats to work on me.01:00:51.085 --> 01:00:53.173


Well, when did they realize that you were not dead?01:00:53.173 --> 01:00:55.369


Well at some point.01:00:55.369 --> 01:00:56.327


How long were you lying there?01:00:56.327 --> 01:00:56.708


I don't know.01:00:58.146 --> 01:01:02.775


I don't know what the time frame was, but I know that the roof had collapsed, and on my head.01:01:02.775 --> 01:01:10.092


Now I'm six foot four, and so my spine was in an S shape and my head was crushed down.01:01:10.092 --> 01:01:16.893


It actually crushed down the headrest, if you can imagine how low a headrest is.01:01:16.893 --> 01:01:21.650


It had actually crushed the headrest down and so oh, my goodness yeah it was brutal.01:01:22.166 --> 01:01:23.932


It was a gruesome position to be in.01:01:23.932 --> 01:01:29.353


My feet were facing the door, my knees were facing the passenger side door.01:01:29.353 --> 01:01:32.253


My gosh, I was trapped in eight inches of space front to back.01:01:32.253 --> 01:01:38.014


This body Now I was in way better shape then, but this body was trapped in that kind of space.01:01:38.273 --> 01:01:39.195


I just can't imagine.01:01:39.336 --> 01:01:40.398


It was gruesome yeah.01:01:41.105 --> 01:01:45.394


Tell me about how your body physically altered the vehicle.01:01:45.394 --> 01:01:46.456


Your body.01:01:46.998 --> 01:01:49.291


Yeah, I bent the steering wheel with my mouth.01:01:49.291 --> 01:01:52.414


I broke the windshield.01:01:52.414 --> 01:02:03.726


What they tell me is my mouth, just below my bottom lip, hit the steering wheel, bent it and glanced up and my forehead hit the windshield.01:02:03.726 --> 01:02:06.731


The seatbelt stretched eight inches.01:02:06.731 --> 01:02:09.436


The metal tang stretched.01:02:09.436 --> 01:02:14.775


They're designed to stretch just a micro amount because it helped.01:02:15.016 --> 01:02:16.025


I didn't even know they could.01:02:16.106 --> 01:02:19.615


Yeah, honestly and all the engineers that have looked at the car since.01:02:19.615 --> 01:02:22.070


They said there's no way anybody survived this.01:02:22.070 --> 01:02:27.822


The airbags they did deploy, but what use are they?01:02:27.822 --> 01:02:32.652


They deployed and then blew out right instantaneously the.01:02:32.652 --> 01:02:38.755


The impact speed was just so great and so who discovered that you were indeed alive.01:02:38.965 --> 01:02:51.018


There was a young lady I describe her this way, the way I remember her she had long, straight, mid-length, maybe to the just below her shoulders in the back.01:02:51.018 --> 01:03:03.489


She was slender, she had a little diamond stud in her nose, she had beautiful eyes, she was crying profusely and she had walked up.01:03:03.489 --> 01:03:15.835


And I remembered and I don't know if she actually had on a white top, but what I saw was a white top and she had walked up and she was walking to like a three-quarter view of me.01:03:15.835 --> 01:03:23.532


And then I remember and I opened my eyes because periodically I was closing my eyes because they hurt, they hurt.01:03:24.001 --> 01:03:38.652


They physically hurt, and I just was able to open my eyes and look this way to the left with my perfect, because I couldn't move my head, and she starts screaming oh my God, oh my God, this guy's alive, this guy's alive.01:03:38.652 --> 01:03:43.144


And so that's when they started working on me and that's when the lady went crawling through the back.01:03:43.226 --> 01:03:46.012


The advanced life support person got there and she crawled through.01:03:46.012 --> 01:03:51.168


She immediately started speaking with me and they did an assessment.01:03:51.168 --> 01:03:52.030


I was real familiar.01:03:52.030 --> 01:03:55.045


She could see and it's too bad I didn't have it on.01:03:55.045 --> 01:03:56.565


It would have been great if I had it on.01:03:56.565 --> 01:04:04.068


But body armor helps to attenuate chest trauma, so it would have been great if I'd had that on but, I didn't.01:04:04.469 --> 01:04:05.190


You were headed home.01:04:05.251 --> 01:04:05.771


I was headed home.01:04:05.771 --> 01:04:08.068


So that was in the back.01:04:08.068 --> 01:04:11.809


She could see firearms-related things.01:04:11.809 --> 01:04:18.971


She could see that I was wearing a firearm, so she says it's a black SUV.01:04:18.971 --> 01:04:21.427


She asked me are you Secret Service?01:04:21.427 --> 01:04:24.148


And I said no, ma'am, but I do work with them.01:04:24.760 --> 01:04:24.880


Okay.01:04:24.880 --> 01:04:26.786


So she wasn't frightened by what she was seeing.01:04:26.786 --> 01:04:28.170


She was already familiar with it.01:04:28.170 --> 01:04:29.806


She made the connection.01:04:30.260 --> 01:04:38.902


And I said if you're worried about my firearm, I can't move my arm, but if I can tell you how to take it out, I can make it safe she goes.01:04:38.902 --> 01:04:40.965


No, for now, let's leave it there.01:04:40.965 --> 01:04:42.288


Let's just keep it there.01:04:42.768 --> 01:04:47.775


And in fact the, the medic or the police officer at the hospital, the trauma center.01:04:47.775 --> 01:04:49.827


He's the one that took it out.01:04:49.827 --> 01:04:57.005


I heard the helicopter and I knew by having been a police officer and having different experiences in my life.01:04:57.005 --> 01:05:08.846


I said, look, if that helicopter is for me, I've lived a good life, god's been better than me and I deserve Take whoever's hurt worse in that vehicle because they're young.01:05:08.846 --> 01:05:13.983


And she said to me distinctly you don't get to make that decision, we make that decision.01:05:13.983 --> 01:05:15.847


I was like, okay, yes, ma'am.01:05:18.291 --> 01:05:19.353


Was it still the same lady?01:05:19.353 --> 01:05:20.181


Who was Same lady?01:05:20.201 --> 01:05:30.476


She was with me in the car the whole time and in fact, a man had walked up and you could tell he was a person, carried himself like military.01:05:30.476 --> 01:05:40.403


And he had walked up and he stood right in front of the car and he said I want you to look at this point on your windshield, don't try to turn your head.01:05:40.403 --> 01:05:45.481


I'm going to come around to your passenger side and I'm going to talk to you.01:05:45.481 --> 01:05:47.003


Don't turn your head.01:05:47.003 --> 01:05:53.344


Okay, so he comes around to my passenger side and he says listen, mr, you're hurt real bad.01:05:53.344 --> 01:05:55.688


Is there anybody I can call for you?01:05:55.688 --> 01:06:07.528


And I said, yes, I explained that my wife, she, doesn't like the phone, so you're going to have to keep calling and keep calling and keep calling, because if she sees your number she barely answers for me.01:06:07.528 --> 01:06:09.860


You're going to have to keep on calling.01:06:09.860 --> 01:06:11.547


And so he did.01:06:11.547 --> 01:06:18.748


And she was on a treadmill at our house and my son says Mom, you've got to answer this phone.01:06:18.748 --> 01:06:21.706


They keep calling, and sure enough, you know.01:06:21.706 --> 01:06:24.068


So they were able to get to the scene.01:06:24.960 --> 01:06:26.186


While you were still in the car.01:06:26.400 --> 01:06:27.806


Yeah, they were cutting me out of the car.01:06:27.806 --> 01:06:33.327


Took them 40 minutes to cut me out of the car, but that's traumatic in itself.01:06:33.327 --> 01:06:33.788


Yeah.01:06:34.340 --> 01:06:37.150


Walking up and seeing you in that state.01:06:37.619 --> 01:06:41.851


I had been training, as you might imagine, I had been training my family for years, with my background.01:06:41.851 --> 01:06:44.565


I trained, trained, trained, train, practice, practice, practice.01:06:44.565 --> 01:06:52.286


And one thing I drilled into them is losing your composure in a traumatic event makes it worse.01:06:52.286 --> 01:07:03.289


Be calm, take deep breaths, think things through TTT, think things through, survive the next 30, 30 seconds, 30 minutes, 30 hours, 30 days.01:07:03.289 --> 01:07:06.775


Just keep surviving, keep in that mode.01:07:06.775 --> 01:07:08.905


And so they were very calm.01:07:08.905 --> 01:07:09.588


They did great.01:07:09.588 --> 01:07:10.469


They did great.01:07:11.121 --> 01:07:12.768


I feel like I need to start training my children.01:07:14.240 --> 01:07:14.922


You know it's.01:07:14.922 --> 01:07:19.070


You always hope people say, oh, you're so paranoid.01:07:19.070 --> 01:07:20.740


I'm not the least bit paranoid.01:07:20.740 --> 01:07:24.150


I'm still, to this day, armed wherever I go.01:07:24.150 --> 01:07:32.668


Still, to this day, I teach people how to survive terrible things, and it comes when you least expect it.01:07:32.668 --> 01:07:38.072


It's that event, that life-changing event, comes when you least expect it.01:07:38.072 --> 01:07:43.231


Now, the problem for us was I was 90% of the income self-employed.01:07:43.802 --> 01:07:44.525


I'm the business.01:07:46.623 --> 01:07:47.547


Which is not to demean my wife.01:07:47.547 --> 01:07:51.670


She worked very, very hard, but she worked in a business that didn't generate and we were buying over the business.01:07:51.690 --> 01:07:52.612


She was working at the time.01:07:52.612 --> 01:07:54.567


She wasn't a stay-at-home mom, she was working.01:07:54.567 --> 01:07:54.807


No, no.01:07:55.280 --> 01:07:58.130


She had her own business and did that and she did great at it.01:07:58.130 --> 01:08:02.648


She did a great job, job, but all of a sudden the income stops that's why.01:08:02.648 --> 01:08:16.250


I tell people you have absolutely got to get disability insurance, get as much as you can afford, because I will tell you it took years, years for the disability to come in many years.01:08:16.250 --> 01:08:21.463


I was stubborn when I got home from the hospital how long were you in the hospital?01:08:21.463 --> 01:08:25.322


A day, basically yeah basically a day.01:08:25.983 --> 01:08:26.625


Yeah, I was crazy.01:08:26.625 --> 01:08:38.206


I got sent home with a shattered left side, massive thoracic injury, twisted aorta which turns out it was not a twisted a order, it was an aneurysm.01:08:38.206 --> 01:08:41.939


Yeah, it was a mess, but I did not receive the best care.01:08:41.939 --> 01:08:45.667


And so things we started to learn as time went on.01:08:45.667 --> 01:08:50.920


Going to different specialists, they were like why, why in the world you should have been left there in the hospital.01:08:50.960 --> 01:08:53.368


Was your facial bones crushed.01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:54.925


I broke 10 teeth.01:08:54.925 --> 01:08:57.729


My jaw moved back up into my skull.01:08:58.220 --> 01:09:00.926


Is that the brain injury and the brain injury yeah, or was it just a collision with?01:09:00.926 --> 01:09:01.167


The.01:09:04.479 --> 01:09:05.280


That was just a physical trauma.01:09:05.280 --> 01:09:05.721


Yeah, the brain injury.01:09:05.721 --> 01:09:10.871


We started to realize that I had a substantial brain injury.01:09:10.871 --> 01:09:16.113


I couldn't remember anything, in fact, I didn't know that I spoke multiple languages.01:09:16.132 --> 01:09:19.923


I had no after the accident you had no idea, no recollection of it at all.01:09:20.565 --> 01:09:24.520


and people they were, they were very nice, they came over and would read to me.01:09:24.520 --> 01:09:28.851


They asked my wife, what can we do to help you other than bring food, what can we do to help you?01:09:28.851 --> 01:09:32.671


And so she would say well, sean loves to read, but he can't read right now.01:09:32.880 --> 01:09:34.546


You had quite the library too, right?01:09:34.546 --> 01:09:35.027


Yes, yeah.01:09:35.167 --> 01:09:36.051


Thousands of books.01:09:36.051 --> 01:09:42.224


Yeah, yeah, I love books, much to my wife's chagrin.01:09:42.344 --> 01:09:42.704


Wait a minute.01:09:42.704 --> 01:09:45.186


How many times did you read the Bible front to back?01:09:45.667 --> 01:09:49.569


At that point it was 33 and three quarters times.01:09:49.569 --> 01:09:50.390


That's incredible.01:09:50.430 --> 01:09:53.313


I'm at 38 now and I learn something new every time.01:09:53.313 --> 01:09:55.073


I bet Honestly every time.01:09:55.073 --> 01:09:56.055


Okay.01:09:56.055 --> 01:09:59.717


So, avid reader, you're in there and your friends are coming over to read for you.01:10:04.039 --> 01:10:04.521


Sorry, I interrupt a lot.01:10:04.521 --> 01:10:11.707


So she comes over and she was dear and sweet and wonderful and I still remember the lady's husband was one of my dearest friends and so she's like, well, what would you like me to read?01:10:11.707 --> 01:10:13.315


I said, just pick something off the bookshelf.01:10:13.315 --> 01:10:16.087


And everything was gobbledygook to her.01:10:16.087 --> 01:10:24.271


And so finally she pulls something off and then there's a handwritten notebook next to it, spiral bound notebook, and I said what's that you have there?01:10:24.271 --> 01:10:27.587


And she shows it to me and I was like what's that?01:10:27.587 --> 01:10:34.158


And she goes it's your handwriting and it looks like Hebrew, Hebrew or Russian, I can't remember which.01:10:34.198 --> 01:10:36.060


It was you spoke both Hebrew and Russian.01:10:36.121 --> 01:10:36.322


Yes.01:10:36.622 --> 01:10:37.221


Wow Okay.01:10:37.221 --> 01:10:41.305


Yeah, yeah, I don't think we talked about these specific languages that you did know.01:10:41.445 --> 01:10:52.054


Yeah, the primaries were Hebrew, Russian, arabic and different dialects within that, so related dialects that you would be proximal.01:10:52.054 --> 01:10:54.195


Those areas that would be proximal, you have to learn those.01:10:54.195 --> 01:10:58.944


So it was one of those languages and I said well, whose handwriting is that?01:10:58.944 --> 01:11:00.109


She told me it's your handwriting.01:11:00.109 --> 01:11:11.072


She thought I was kidding, she thought I was joking, because she pulled it around in front of the hospital bed and showed it to me and I was like that's really nice handwriting in a weird sort of language.01:11:11.072 --> 01:11:13.488


I kind of had an idea it might be Hebrew.01:11:13.488 --> 01:11:20.712


And she goes you don't remember that you speak these and write these.01:11:20.712 --> 01:11:23.421


And I'm like nope, I didn't know that at all.01:11:23.421 --> 01:11:24.402


How long after the accident was this realization?01:11:24.421 --> 01:11:26.244


don't remember that you speak these and write these and I'm like I didn't know that at all.01:11:26.244 --> 01:11:28.688


How, how, how long after the accident was this realization?01:11:29.529 --> 01:11:30.730


Probably two or three weeks.01:11:31.351 --> 01:11:32.113


Okay, yeah.01:11:32.233 --> 01:11:33.855


Okay, two or three weeks, maybe a little more.01:11:33.855 --> 01:11:41.462


I had a surgery that I had to have two, I think about two weeks.01:11:41.462 --> 01:11:43.305


They said the reason they couldn't do the surgery is the inflammation was just so massive.01:11:43.305 --> 01:11:56.333


And when they did the surgery to put my shoulder back together, they found pieces of my collarbone was completely shattered and they found pieces of it inside at the bottom of where my rib cage was, at the bottom rib.01:11:56.699 --> 01:11:59.189


Which blows my mind, because they sent you home.01:11:59.189 --> 01:12:02.846


Yeah, the pain that you must have been in.01:12:03.148 --> 01:12:03.649


It was brutal.01:12:03.649 --> 01:12:06.261


I can tell you it was awful.01:12:06.261 --> 01:12:06.962


It, yeah, it was a, it was a.01:12:06.962 --> 01:12:07.423


You must've been in.01:12:07.423 --> 01:12:08.145


It was brutal it was.01:12:08.145 --> 01:12:12.661


I can tell you it was awful, it was horrific, never ending pain and it was the worst pain that I've ever experienced.01:12:12.680 --> 01:12:14.970


What kind of pain do you experience today?01:12:14.970 --> 01:12:17.841


I would imagine there's so it's intractable pain.01:12:17.940 --> 01:12:19.582


It's there's no really for it.01:12:19.582 --> 01:12:21.787


I could take drugs for it.01:12:21.787 --> 01:12:27.335


I'm offered you name it the Veterans Administration in Wilmington.01:12:27.335 --> 01:12:29.384


I cannot sing their praises enough.01:12:29.384 --> 01:12:30.345


I love them.01:12:30.345 --> 01:12:31.127


That's so good to hear.01:12:31.127 --> 01:12:33.172


Oh my gosh, these are the best people.01:12:33.172 --> 01:12:53.041


The physical therapist, dr Walker, dr Jude Miller, my audiologists, dr Oster, my neurologist all of them, all of the ones, the specialists that take care of every part of my body, are utterly amazing people, and there are so many there.01:12:53.041 --> 01:13:00.301


I know I'm forgetting names and I feel bad about that, but I'm going to tell you they were and they are.01:13:00.301 --> 01:13:03.292


I'm there between one and three times a week.01:13:03.292 --> 01:13:07.326


Four years I'm there and I still go.01:13:07.466 --> 01:13:10.314


I just came from one of the off-site treatment centers.01:13:10.314 --> 01:13:12.061


They're angels on earth, in my opinion.01:13:12.061 --> 01:13:15.810


I understand that not every va is that way.01:13:15.810 --> 01:13:19.739


Mine is, and I'm blessed beyond deserving.01:13:19.739 --> 01:13:21.969


So they work on me all the time.01:13:21.969 --> 01:13:27.706


Oh, and dr and Dr Fountain and her people, all the nurses also that take care of me Unreal.01:13:27.706 --> 01:13:29.229


They're just beautiful people.01:13:29.229 --> 01:13:32.805


It's probably I don't know that it ever goes below a six.01:13:32.805 --> 01:13:34.913


They say the one to 10 scale?01:13:35.114 --> 01:13:36.841


I don't know that it ever goes below a six.01:13:36.841 --> 01:13:38.421


It's brutal.01:13:39.262 --> 01:13:40.845


But you don't wear it.01:13:41.645 --> 01:13:43.068


I try not to, and I'll tell you why.01:13:43.068 --> 01:13:52.083


One thing I taught my family is that your pain and your suffering is no one else's problem, no matter what the cause of it is.01:13:52.083 --> 01:13:55.072


You can't think of it as someone else's problem.01:13:55.072 --> 01:13:56.907


You can't make it about them.01:13:56.907 --> 01:13:58.864


I'm totally handicapped now.01:13:58.864 --> 01:14:00.029


I'm 100% disabled.01:14:00.029 --> 01:14:04.792


I will tell you that I've learned some very interesting things.01:14:04.792 --> 01:14:06.641


I remember when I was a police officer.01:14:06.641 --> 01:14:16.615


One of the things that I would do is if I drove by and saw a car with non-handicapped tags and no hang tag, I would wait for the driver.01:14:16.615 --> 01:14:20.030


The driver would come out and I'd ask them hey, are you handicapped?01:14:20.030 --> 01:14:21.606


No, no, I was just going in there for a minute.01:14:21.606 --> 01:14:23.185


No, no, no, are you handicapped?01:14:23.185 --> 01:14:27.721


They go, no, I was just going in there for a minute.01:14:27.721 --> 01:14:28.764


No, no, no, are you handicapped?01:14:28.764 --> 01:14:28.923


They go?01:14:28.923 --> 01:14:29.605


No, would you like to be?01:14:29.626 --> 01:14:41.935


It ticked me off worse than anything, so I had a sensitivity toward handicapped, accessibility, just what they have to deal with, what people, blind, people, amputees, all of these things.01:14:41.935 --> 01:14:44.688


I had a real heart for them and then I became one.01:14:44.688 --> 01:14:47.643


It's mind boggling.01:14:47.643 --> 01:14:56.006


And so people who go into that career, where that's who they deal with, what angels on earth they are.01:14:56.006 --> 01:15:06.322


So I would say, yeah, I'm in a pretty substantial pain and the system because of my brain injury, injury the systems of my body aren't working properly.01:15:06.322 --> 01:15:10.291


So you have an autonomic system and a parasympathetic system.01:15:10.291 --> 01:15:16.560


They do things like blink your eyes, right, you blink your eyes, you don't even think about it, it's just a well, I have to think about it.01:15:16.560 --> 01:15:24.055


The the process of breathing, the all of the different body processes, organs.01:15:24.055 --> 01:15:26.608


I'm now insulin-dependent diabetic.01:15:27.622 --> 01:15:29.429


You were not prior to that, no.01:15:29.659 --> 01:15:31.404


I was in phenomenal health.01:15:31.404 --> 01:15:36.229


Phenomenal health, Great eyesight All of this now I wear corrective lenses.01:15:36.229 --> 01:15:40.502


I use a cane, a walker and crutches.01:15:40.502 --> 01:15:43.185


That's what I do, that's my life now, in fact, the cane to my right, that's my life now.01:15:43.185 --> 01:15:49.429


Yeah, In fact, the cane to my right was made by my dear friend Doug Allen.01:15:50.170 --> 01:15:51.610


It is a beautiful cane by the way.01:15:51.610 --> 01:15:54.113


I noticed it as soon as I saw you at the front door.01:15:54.512 --> 01:15:57.034


Handmade from a branch that fell off a tree in his yard.01:15:57.194 --> 01:15:59.417


Incredible Yep and he made it to the perfect time.01:15:59.476 --> 01:16:00.097


Oh, he's amazing.01:16:00.097 --> 01:16:16.161


He's amazing.01:16:16.161 --> 01:16:16.440


He's amazing.01:16:16.440 --> 01:16:17.122


I'm telling you that.01:16:17.122 --> 01:16:19.105


The church family that I have, grace Community, topsail I've spoken all across.01:16:19.105 --> 01:16:28.469


When I did my book tour it became this big thing Five months and speaking and doing that, be on the radio and people say you need to have your own radio show Because I was much better then physically and mentally.01:16:28.469 --> 01:16:33.306


My mental acuity then was much better than that it is now and it will get worse.01:16:33.306 --> 01:16:35.152


Everything will continue to degrade.01:16:39.780 --> 01:16:45.220


So you've had the accident, you are in a state of recovery, you're learning things about yourself.01:16:45.220 --> 01:16:49.725


Now tell me how you got into radio and where were you living now?01:16:49.725 --> 01:16:50.783


Are you still in Delaware?01:16:50.783 --> 01:16:52.269


At this time yeah, we were in Delaware.01:16:52.269 --> 01:17:00.490


So what made you decide you want to do a radio show and reach out to someone in Texas Like how, tell me about how that came to fruition?01:17:01.981 --> 01:17:08.494


So I was on a bunch of different radio and all over the country and then some TV shows.01:17:09.081 --> 01:17:10.206


Speaking about your book.01:17:10.206 --> 01:17:15.658


Yeah, I wrote the book mostly before the crash it was like almost 90% done, right?01:17:15.658 --> 01:17:17.025


Yeah, it was almost 90% finished.01:17:17.025 --> 01:17:23.828


So after the accident you do use some technology to help you finish the book, the last 10% of the book, Something called Dragon.01:17:23.828 --> 01:17:25.805


Yeah Right, so if you buy that book.01:17:25.904 --> 01:17:26.729


Excellence Killed the Church.01:17:26.729 --> 01:17:31.427


If you buy that book, it's not great because it's brain injury.01:17:31.427 --> 01:17:37.469


Boy trying to talk into a microphone that's converting to speech which is really not where it is now.01:17:37.588 --> 01:17:39.993


Right, this was back in 2012.01:17:40.014 --> 01:17:40.859


2012, right.01:17:41.060 --> 01:17:42.024


So you finished the book.01:17:42.024 --> 01:17:44.989


It's now published and it's getting some publicity.01:17:44.989 --> 01:17:47.845


Yes, well, I hired a publicist.01:17:47.845 --> 01:17:48.266


You did.01:17:48.426 --> 01:17:49.710


So here's my bright idea.01:17:49.710 --> 01:17:50.712


This is advice.01:17:50.712 --> 01:17:51.842


This is free.01:17:51.842 --> 01:17:54.094


You're listeners, you don't have to pay anything for this.01:17:54.094 --> 01:17:55.720


But think of the money you'll save.01:17:55.720 --> 01:18:01.509


Unless you write a bestseller, you're not going to make a ton of money selling books.01:18:01.509 --> 01:18:13.552


So I wrote a book I was a prolific writer prior to the crash a book of over 120 poems that I wrote songs, hymns, you name it.01:18:13.592 --> 01:18:14.213


I didn't know that.01:18:14.279 --> 01:18:15.202


Yeah, yeah, a whole bunch.01:18:15.202 --> 01:18:23.206


I have another book, a novel, that I'm working on that I'm hoping that I can finish it and publish it.01:18:23.206 --> 01:18:26.932


So I'd written an awful lot, but I wasn't finished with this book.01:18:26.932 --> 01:18:28.523


Excellence Killed the Church.01:18:28.523 --> 01:18:30.489


How Mediocrity is Destroying America.01:18:30.489 --> 01:18:36.632


But it was such a controversial book I thought, wow, I'll hire a publicist and we'll do all this.01:18:36.632 --> 01:18:40.029


So we took the money, thinking I'm going to go back to work.01:18:40.029 --> 01:18:43.466


This is Sean Greener thinking here In my mind oh, I'm go back to work.01:18:43.466 --> 01:18:45.078


This is Sean Greener thinking here In my mind oh, I'm going back to work.01:18:45.078 --> 01:18:53.948


I've been hurt, real bad, lots of times before I'm going back to work, okay, and I'm going to make the money and so we live, thank God.01:18:54.087 --> 01:19:11.877


We put food away, my wife, I remember she was always great about it and I went to her one day I said, look, we need to be putting food back prior to the crash and we had whole big things of food that we did, thank God, and people didn't know it until years after the crash, that's what we ate.01:19:13.462 --> 01:19:18.432


Okay, because the income it had completely stopped, and so now you were just relying on what you'd stored away.01:19:18.920 --> 01:19:30.867


I had no concept in my head, even though once we started receiving the appropriate medical care, the doctors all would say you are never going to get better, you're only going to get worse.01:19:30.867 --> 01:19:39.574


And it was only until Dr Hopwood, a neuropsychologist, tested me for two straight days solid.01:19:39.574 --> 01:19:41.846


They're the hardest two days of my life.01:19:41.846 --> 01:19:44.054


I've had lots of very tough training.01:19:44.054 --> 01:19:46.203


I've been through lots of tough experiences.01:19:46.203 --> 01:19:59.414


I was literally sweating trying to put together a children's puzzle of the United States where it says what the state is, the shape, the color, all those things.01:19:59.414 --> 01:20:01.002


And I still couldn't do it.01:20:01.462 --> 01:20:04.606


Did you realize, while you were taking the test, that it was not going well?01:20:04.606 --> 01:20:05.908


Yeah, you did.01:20:06.168 --> 01:20:12.429


Yeah, yeah, it was awful Cause I was in a total state of delusion up until those moments.01:20:12.429 --> 01:20:14.819


I told my wife after the first day I don't know, I'm not going back.01:20:14.819 --> 01:20:16.923


And she said no, you're going back.01:20:16.923 --> 01:20:23.975


People need to understand how bad this is, because I had always been a workaround guy.01:20:23.975 --> 01:20:33.190


My process of thinking and doing was keep moving the next 30, survive, the next 30, keep moving, keep adapting.01:20:33.190 --> 01:20:36.502


All of these things were great for my life.01:20:36.502 --> 01:20:38.987


The problem was it wasn't great Like when doctors would ask me how are you doing?01:20:38.987 --> 01:20:39.667


How are you feeling Great?01:20:39.667 --> 01:20:43.876


I'm doing great Because in my mind, I wasn't great, like when doctors would ask me how are you doing?01:20:43.876 --> 01:20:44.756


How are you feeling Great?01:20:44.756 --> 01:20:47.466


I'm doing great Because in my mind, I am doing great.01:20:47.466 --> 01:20:51.199


My benchmark of great is way different than most people's great.01:20:51.860 --> 01:20:55.791


And so, yes, I'm in terrible pain, but you know what I'm blessed?01:20:55.791 --> 01:21:01.988


I'm blessed to be here, and that was the worst thing I could do, because they couldn't, they hadn't experienced anybody like me.01:21:01.988 --> 01:21:04.673


It's just not what you.01:21:06.480 --> 01:21:07.324


Were you fooling them?01:21:08.480 --> 01:21:10.162


I think some of them I was Some of them.01:21:10.162 --> 01:21:12.569


They're busy and they weren't engaged.01:21:12.569 --> 01:21:14.765


But there was no fooling Dr Hopwood.01:21:14.765 --> 01:21:17.988


Let me tell you what she was amazing.01:21:17.988 --> 01:21:20.108


She was a godsend.01:21:20.108 --> 01:21:27.734


She had talked to professors of mine, the president of my seminary, dr Ford.01:21:27.734 --> 01:21:31.835


She had talked to these people because she wanted to get an idea, okay, what was before like.01:21:31.835 --> 01:21:34.622


And she talked to my wife and all this.01:21:34.622 --> 01:21:36.507


But you know, wives they're biased, hopefully.01:21:36.507 --> 01:21:39.881


And so she wanted to get a broader view.01:21:39.881 --> 01:21:50.788


She was amazing, and at different points in time I could see tears coming down her face because I was so frustrated.01:21:51.289 --> 01:21:53.573


Why can't I do this stupid simple thing?01:21:53.573 --> 01:21:55.663


Why can't I tie my shoes?01:21:55.663 --> 01:21:58.368


Why can't I button my shirt?01:21:58.368 --> 01:22:00.814


What's going on here?01:22:00.814 --> 01:22:07.702


How come I can hold a conversation with you but I can't do stupid simple things?01:22:07.702 --> 01:22:09.265


How come I can't remember anything?01:22:09.265 --> 01:22:13.514


My memory was shot and all of these things.01:22:13.514 --> 01:22:18.470


I knew that I had to have lived a better life than I had remembered.01:22:18.470 --> 01:22:42.792


And so she looked me right in the eye the second day we're about to finish up and she said Dr Greener, I am sorry to tell you you are not only never going to get better, you are going to get a lot worse and it's going to be a hard road for you, and she had a conversation with me and my wife about getting our affairs in order.01:22:43.780 --> 01:22:50.149


Several doctors had that same conversation and then you were even on hospice at one point were you not.01:22:50.409 --> 01:22:54.865


Yeah, yeah yeah, I could still be on it now if I wanted to be.01:22:54.865 --> 01:23:01.467


But that's why I'm back in the podcasting, because I had at a certain point I couldn't do it anymore.01:23:01.467 --> 01:23:03.853


I couldn't sit up anymore.01:23:03.853 --> 01:23:08.631


I have a special what's called a TLSO brace and it helps hold me up.01:23:08.631 --> 01:23:12.911


It's got a metal bar and a padding system here.01:23:12.911 --> 01:23:16.911


It comes down and it mounts at my waist and that helps me.01:23:16.911 --> 01:23:18.605


But you can't wear that all the time.01:23:18.746 --> 01:23:18.926


Yeah.01:23:19.199 --> 01:23:28.890


Because if you do wear it all the time, you won't be able to hold yourself up at all, except for when you have that on, and even then it won't work anymore.01:23:29.109 --> 01:23:31.653


Tell me about the aortic aneurysm.01:23:31.653 --> 01:23:35.697


And this is a life-threatening condition that you live with now, correct?01:23:36.979 --> 01:23:37.479


Yep, yep, yep, yep.01:23:37.479 --> 01:23:38.900


So it's called a 5+, so it's 5 or bigger.01:23:38.900 --> 01:23:40.561


So it's five or bigger.01:23:40.561 --> 01:23:44.484


The risk of MRIs for me seems.01:23:44.484 --> 01:23:50.186


I had 30 some MRIs prior to developing this massive claustrophobia.01:23:50.186 --> 01:24:02.012


I was never claustrophobic before and I didn't know that I was claustrophobic, until they're pushing me into the thing and it's like, yeah, this is.01:24:02.012 --> 01:24:03.974


She was like you said you've had these before.01:24:03.974 --> 01:24:06.255


I said, yeah, I have, and I loved them.01:24:06.255 --> 01:24:07.315


They were great.01:24:07.456 --> 01:24:09.277


But you were compacted in that car.01:24:09.277 --> 01:24:11.278


Is that triggered this whole?01:24:11.278 --> 01:24:11.837


It was yeah.01:24:12.579 --> 01:24:20.654


Different psychologists have said that they think probably that subconscious event where you don't want to be trapped in there Because I could not move.01:24:20.654 --> 01:24:23.347


There was no moving in that car at all.01:24:23.860 --> 01:24:29.770


I had no option to move and I didn't have the concept of being able to move.01:24:29.770 --> 01:24:35.453


It was not even in my head, because everything was collapsed around me.01:24:35.453 --> 01:24:44.765


When you're in that position for such a long period of time, you can't move Mind-bending Involuntarily.01:24:44.765 --> 01:24:50.150


Now, if you're sitting still because you're trying to avoid getting shot or being detected, that's one thing.01:24:50.150 --> 01:24:51.592


You're doing that voluntarily.01:24:51.672 --> 01:24:56.056


Still not easy, but I just can't imagine Crazy.01:24:56.256 --> 01:24:56.556


I can't.01:24:56.556 --> 01:25:01.682


So she told me.01:25:01.682 --> 01:25:03.411


She said you need to apply for disability right away.01:25:03.411 --> 01:25:04.274


And I still fought it.01:25:04.274 --> 01:25:08.206


I want to say it was four years before we ever applied or looked into it.01:25:08.206 --> 01:25:10.552


I left there saying I will prove you wrong.01:25:10.552 --> 01:25:14.944


I have defeated everything in my life the odds.01:25:14.944 --> 01:25:16.527


I was two and a half months premature.01:25:16.527 --> 01:25:18.350


I was 2.6 pounds at birth.01:25:18.350 --> 01:25:21.222


Oh my goodness, at that point in time I was the youngest.01:25:21.222 --> 01:25:25.252


I was the smallest baby in my state to have ever survived.01:25:25.252 --> 01:25:26.173


Wow yeah.01:25:26.300 --> 01:25:29.945


And I said I've been overcoming my whole life long, I am not going to stop now.01:25:29.945 --> 01:25:33.970


And so went a considerable period longer.01:25:33.970 --> 01:25:35.033


Of course, what does that do?01:25:35.033 --> 01:25:36.234


That drains your finances.01:25:36.234 --> 01:25:36.619


Yeah.01:25:36.619 --> 01:25:41.693


So we had spent everything that we had saved in our marriage up until that point.01:25:41.693 --> 01:25:47.024


Every dime was all gone in our marriage up until that point every dime was all gone.01:25:47.045 --> 01:25:51.039


Most of our credit cards were charged up because I'm being forceful with my wife and saying no, no, no, no, no, no.01:25:51.039 --> 01:25:53.587


We're where I'm going back to work.01:25:53.587 --> 01:25:58.747


I knew what kind of money I could make and I'll make up for lost time and all of this.01:25:58.747 --> 01:26:02.682


And it cost us and that's that's on me, now, what I've learned.01:26:02.682 --> 01:26:09.336


You have a brain injury, like, for instance, the trauma doctors said did you ever lose consciousness?01:26:09.336 --> 01:26:12.444


As I'm being wheeled into trauma, did you ever lose consciousness?01:26:12.444 --> 01:26:15.212


Well, that question in and of itself is malpractice.01:26:15.212 --> 01:26:19.395


We've learned this, since when you're unconscious, guess what?01:26:19.395 --> 01:26:24.210


You don't know that you were unconscious, that you were unconscious, and so, yeah, they were.01:26:24.210 --> 01:26:28.150


They kept asking me and I kept going nope, nope, sure wasn't, which hurt us.01:26:28.592 --> 01:26:29.716


It hurt us in the long run.01:26:29.716 --> 01:26:33.667


Yeah, it was an assessment that you desperately needed to be correct.01:26:34.007 --> 01:26:43.087


Yeah, and it wasn't yeah, exactly okay so suffice it to say brutal, brutal reality hit us.01:26:43.087 --> 01:26:49.355


When one day I just said to my wife, I said I don't think I can do it.01:26:49.355 --> 01:26:52.188


I tried several times.01:26:52.188 --> 01:27:03.587


I passed out in people's homes, fell down basement steps, broke out in a sweat and passed out when they were there bringing me.01:27:03.587 --> 01:27:06.140


They knew who I was locally.01:27:06.140 --> 01:27:08.228


They knew who I was because it was national news.01:27:08.228 --> 01:27:15.063


The crash was national news and um, I just remember saying I don't think I can do it.01:27:15.082 --> 01:27:17.570


Um, I'm going to step back.01:27:17.570 --> 01:27:21.246


The aortic aneurysm you talk to what?01:27:21.246 --> 01:27:25.162


Five or six different surgeons and they're like we're not touching this right.01:27:25.162 --> 01:27:27.327


It is what it is and it's what it's going to be.01:27:27.747 --> 01:27:35.774


So my, my wonderful, wonderful, I love him, my, my cardiologist, now unbelievable guy.01:27:35.774 --> 01:27:36.737


I asked him.01:27:36.737 --> 01:27:43.810


I said, after he looked at all my records and all my imaging and everything, I said, so, okay, so what, what would you do?01:27:43.810 --> 01:27:46.354


What would you do?01:27:46.354 --> 01:27:52.271


And he goes well, if you were my father and I'm like, whoa, hey, why do we have to go to father?01:27:52.271 --> 01:27:53.461


Why can't I be your?01:27:53.480 --> 01:27:54.023


brother.01:27:54.283 --> 01:27:55.988


How about your distinguished older brother?01:27:55.988 --> 01:27:56.710


Maybe that?01:27:56.710 --> 01:27:57.612


How about your?01:27:57.612 --> 01:27:58.801


I mean your dad?01:27:58.801 --> 01:28:02.806


I got to be your dad all of a sudden, and so we had a good laugh about that.01:28:02.806 --> 01:28:11.485


And then he said look, if you're my dad, if you present it to me at the ER and I'm just, I've got to try to save your life.01:28:11.485 --> 01:28:14.653


I'm going to try, but you'll be dead in three minutes.01:28:14.653 --> 01:28:19.088


He said I have a great team, our team is phenomenal, but I'm not operating on you.01:28:19.088 --> 01:28:24.972


And he was in a long line of cardiologists that said oh no, okay, yeah.01:28:25.720 --> 01:28:29.890


So this is what you live with on the daily, or do you just pretend it's a non-issue?01:28:29.890 --> 01:28:35.136


At this point, you appear to be living your life with not much thought to that.01:28:35.136 --> 01:28:36.380


That's the outside appearance.01:28:36.380 --> 01:28:38.167


What's going on in your head and your heart?01:28:39.960 --> 01:28:42.305


So my faith is.01:28:42.305 --> 01:28:46.033


I remember we'll go back to the Navy for just a minute.01:28:46.033 --> 01:28:54.470


I remember getting back from this long trip back to the States I'd been in the air for a gazillion hours.01:28:54.470 --> 01:28:58.604


I hadn't slept in a gazillion hours, so I slept.01:28:58.604 --> 01:29:06.747


I mean, I don't know how long I slept, it was a long time and I was staying on a military base.01:29:07.149 --> 01:29:22.447


I woke up I realized it's Easter Sunday and I had kind of fallen not fallen away from my faith, but I wasn't really practicing it because I was focusing on all this darkness in the world, you know, and I was like Easter Sunday and I'm not in church.01:29:22.447 --> 01:29:22.913


What's wrong with me?01:29:22.913 --> 01:29:23.988


And I put that Easter Sunday and I'm not in church, what's wrong with me?01:29:23.988 --> 01:29:31.166


And I put that quickly out of my head, say hey, buddy, you're super tired, you've got to do your laundry, you've, you know?01:29:31.166 --> 01:29:31.747


Blah, blah, blah.01:29:31.747 --> 01:29:41.751


So I put it out of my head, walked to the chow hall and I saw this God awful ugly, hand-painted, look like blue and white bus, with this little tiny.01:29:41.751 --> 01:29:55.774


It was all at the far end of the parking lot of the chow hall, this dear little old man doing this, the come here sign, come here, come here.01:29:55.774 --> 01:29:57.567


So he started walking toward me.01:29:57.567 --> 01:29:58.885


I started walking towards him.01:29:58.885 --> 01:30:01.085


We met in the middle and he told me.01:30:01.085 --> 01:30:03.110


He said hey, my name is Jewel Martin.01:30:03.110 --> 01:30:04.542


This is in Memphis, tennessee.01:30:04.542 --> 01:30:10.426


And he commenced to tell me he's from church and he said you know how do you like to go to church with us today?01:30:10.426 --> 01:30:11.789


We'll carry you there and carry you back.01:30:12.739 --> 01:30:16.164


I said, well, sir, I certainly appreciate that invitation Absolutely.01:30:16.164 --> 01:30:20.451


But I said no, I got to get in here and eat, I don't want to miss chow.01:30:20.451 --> 01:30:27.537


And then you know, I've got to eat lunch, I've got to come back here for chow, and then I've got a bunch of duties to do later this afternoon.01:30:27.537 --> 01:30:29.398


So I do appreciate it Absolutely.01:30:29.398 --> 01:30:31.980


But no, thank you, I appreciate it, he goes.01:30:31.980 --> 01:30:33.025


Well, guess what we have?01:30:33.025 --> 01:30:37.492


We have a full kitchen and Southern ladies and they know how to cook.01:30:37.492 --> 01:30:40.911


We have a whole kitchen, a dining area.01:30:43.880 --> 01:30:47.809


I said, well, sir, I appreciate that, that sounds really good, but I've got to work out, I have to stay very fit.01:30:47.809 --> 01:30:49.512


And he said well, guess what we have.01:30:49.512 --> 01:31:03.304


We have a big old gym with a full-size basketball court and we got glass backboards and we got volleyball and we got all kinds of people your age and there's other military fellows that are in there eating breakfast right now.01:31:03.304 --> 01:31:04.829


You won't go in there and eat breakfast.01:31:04.829 --> 01:31:06.787


You'd come right on out after you're done in breakfast.01:31:06.787 --> 01:31:08.886


I'll carry you right on in there, carry you right back.01:31:08.886 --> 01:31:17.969


You'll get here in time for chow this evening, if not before, but in the meantime we'll feed you a good lunch, you can do your exercises and all that.01:31:17.969 --> 01:31:21.703


And I said okay, well, he's got me, he's got me.01:31:21.722 --> 01:31:24.666


You were not getting out of that I got no more and dear.01:31:25.166 --> 01:31:26.686


he's long since gone to his reward.01:31:26.686 --> 01:31:29.609


But I went to church and I was very moved by the church.01:31:29.609 --> 01:31:31.992


I was also under massive conviction.01:31:31.992 --> 01:31:37.496


Why did I not even think of church, especially on Easter?01:31:37.496 --> 01:31:37.976


What am?01:31:37.976 --> 01:31:46.573


I thinking so yes, that got me back into going to church and that's actually where I met my first wife and who gave me a beautiful, amazing daughter.01:31:47.300 --> 01:31:52.180


That's who got you back into church and back into religion, joel.01:31:52.201 --> 01:31:55.207


Martin did when I was in the Navy, yeah, but I had stayed with it.01:31:55.207 --> 01:31:59.087


I had stayed with it after that and I was always fascinated with it.01:31:59.087 --> 01:32:04.827


The scriptures fascinated me and I thought, wouldn't it be neat if I could read these in the original language?01:32:05.127 --> 01:32:06.990


Wouldn't that be a fun thing?01:32:06.990 --> 01:32:08.514


That's why you went to Hebrew.01:32:08.779 --> 01:32:11.046


Yeah, I did Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.01:32:11.185 --> 01:32:13.612


Can you still read those languages at all?01:32:13.612 --> 01:32:14.921


I can do some Some.01:32:14.921 --> 01:32:20.033


You had a great many, a large part of the scripture memorized in your head.01:32:20.033 --> 01:32:22.326


You could recite them without the Bible in front of you.01:32:22.326 --> 01:32:23.007


Is that right?01:32:23.007 --> 01:32:23.869


Am I getting that right?01:32:24.511 --> 01:32:28.061


Yeah, and that was the weird thing, I didn't realize other people couldn't do that.01:32:28.061 --> 01:32:36.488


I used to like to do these dramatic readings act out what was happening, make it dramatic and exciting and make it come to life.01:32:36.488 --> 01:32:45.854


And so I did that and it was just easy peasy for me to remember entire books of the Bible and gone.01:32:50.820 --> 01:32:52.104


Tell me about the radio show.01:32:52.104 --> 01:32:56.922


This was a very popular radio show that you were doing the radio thing was crazy.01:32:57.163 --> 01:33:03.970


I contacted this company that produces radio shows because somebody kept giving me their names, like call these people.01:33:03.970 --> 01:33:12.020


And so I took money from our savings and I didn't know the first thing about monetizing.01:33:12.020 --> 01:33:17.313


And within a short period of time we debuted at 114,000 listeners.01:33:17.313 --> 01:33:30.213


And when I get a call right after the show ends, I get a call from Texas, from the CEO of this company, and he says well, hey, dr Sean, listen, I'm just calling you up to congratulate you 114.01:33:30.213 --> 01:33:33.809


He said we've never had that, we've never hit that number on a debut.01:33:33.809 --> 01:33:41.764


He says, man, you must know a lot of people and I said that probably counts for my family, maybe, and some friends and some people.01:33:41.764 --> 01:33:45.301


In pity, I don't think I have 114 people that would listen.01:33:45.301 --> 01:33:49.168


He says no, 114,000.01:33:50.471 --> 01:33:52.944


This was your debut, my debut, yeah, first time.01:33:52.944 --> 01:33:54.287


I didn't know anything about it.01:33:54.287 --> 01:33:56.773


So they produced the show for a year.01:33:56.773 --> 01:33:58.564


They were wonderful, yeah 5.01:33:58.564 --> 01:34:03.662


Some million subscribers to my website at that time, and I loved it, though.01:34:03.662 --> 01:34:05.943


I love teaching God and Country.01:34:05.943 --> 01:34:08.069


The Collision of Faith and Politics was the name of the show.01:34:08.069 --> 01:34:09.884


Eventually it was carried on multiple platforms.01:34:10.003 --> 01:34:11.087


You're doing this radio show.01:34:11.087 --> 01:34:13.802


It Is Religion and Politics Colliding.01:34:13.802 --> 01:34:20.240


So to get that kind of reaction from the public listening to you, what do you attribute that to?01:34:20.240 --> 01:34:25.952


Because usually mixing religion and politics does not work, you know what's funny is I hear that a lot.01:34:26.172 --> 01:34:30.127


I hear that a lot and my show True Word, faith for Life.01:34:30.127 --> 01:34:42.974


What I'm doing now much less in the area of politics, maybe one-tenth of one percent, but I can tell you that they are inexorably connected religion and politics.01:34:42.974 --> 01:34:54.100


Because if you don't pay attention to politics, you will lose your religion, your ability to practice your faith with freedom and the liberty as intended, as the founders intended.01:34:54.100 --> 01:35:05.412


You'll lose it because it's on the chopping block at any given time, and so I tried to illustrate active applied civics.01:35:05.412 --> 01:35:17.112


A dear friend of mine, mark Herr, founded Center for Self-Governance and it's an applied civics project really, and it teaches people how to get involved in government and to be plugged in.01:35:17.112 --> 01:35:22.292


One of the crossovers is our founders were people of faith.01:35:22.292 --> 01:35:28.233


They can diminish them all they want because that's within their agenda.01:35:28.233 --> 01:35:35.453


Hey, I don't want to believe that Judeo-Christian values were at the center of our founding.01:35:36.581 --> 01:35:37.805


But that's the case.01:35:37.966 --> 01:35:38.328


They were.01:35:38.328 --> 01:35:40.060


That's a whole show in and of itself.01:35:40.060 --> 01:35:43.050


But I had a unique perspective.01:35:43.050 --> 01:35:44.645


I taught a class.01:35:44.645 --> 01:35:51.966


I had started teaching the class before the crash at a church that I was attending and we were bursting at the seams.01:35:51.966 --> 01:35:53.947


The people were really interested in this.01:35:53.947 --> 01:35:57.810


So every week I would come back and we'd have to put chairs outside the room.01:35:57.810 --> 01:36:06.106


And there were chairs outside and people were leaning in and standing looking through the two windows, and it just grew and grew and grew because people were hungry for that kind of knowledge.01:36:06.106 --> 01:36:20.086


And when I came back from the crash which it was a, it was a while and it was tough I thought I could do it a lot easier than I could, but I was sweating profusely from just so much pain.01:36:20.105 --> 01:36:23.010


You never be, in that kind of pain where you're just drenched with sweat.01:36:23.010 --> 01:36:29.378


But when we did the show it was the radio show.01:36:29.378 --> 01:36:31.788


The radio show God and Country Collision of Faith and Politics.01:36:31.788 --> 01:36:39.765


When I did that, people were looking for somebody to explain to them what's really happening happen.01:36:39.765 --> 01:36:53.756


Somebody that knows, somebody that has friends that he can call and say, hey, person in the administration or a person at high levels of agency and otherwise.01:36:53.756 --> 01:37:00.934


Would you be on my show and they would explain what was happening and I could explain things that were happening.01:37:00.953 --> 01:37:01.256


I have access.01:37:01.256 --> 01:37:01.960


Then they were guests on your show.01:37:02.702 --> 01:37:04.467


Some of them were Okay, the ones that could.01:37:04.689 --> 01:37:04.949


Yeah.01:37:05.520 --> 01:37:22.666


But I had access to information and I was still kind of in touch with that community and so as a result of that I don't know, it just was crazy it took off and I was doing, I think, three hours a week and then eventually, what did the numbers grow to?01:37:22.666 --> 01:37:26.492


5.6 million, yeah, yeah.01:37:26.492 --> 01:37:26.939


If, if.01:37:26.939 --> 01:37:32.372


I converted all of those subscribers to my website that came from the radio show.01:37:32.372 --> 01:37:34.765


If I can was if I had a business head.01:37:34.765 --> 01:37:38.980


I could have converted them and would have made millions of dollars.01:37:39.180 --> 01:37:42.889


But as it was, what did you make from the radio show?01:37:42.889 --> 01:37:43.350


I mean?01:37:43.550 --> 01:37:45.613


Zero, zero, yeah, not a dime.01:37:45.613 --> 01:37:54.453


And so on Sundays, the class had grown to such an extent where we needed more space.01:37:54.453 --> 01:38:02.765


So, there were some deer folks, the Stableys, and they had a room that could accommodate a hundred people in their house.01:38:03.087 --> 01:38:03.829


That's a big house.01:38:05.261 --> 01:38:06.546


The room was pretty amazing.01:38:06.828 --> 01:38:07.168


Oh really.01:38:07.380 --> 01:38:09.264


And yeah, it was pretty amazing.01:38:09.264 --> 01:38:32.060


And I had this idea of kehalah, which in Greek, ekklesia, a lot of pastors will refer to church as ekklesia, the Greek word ekklesia but really it doesn't have a religious connotation, it's a gathering, it's more secular than it is anything else, whereas Kehalah is Hebrew and it is.01:38:32.060 --> 01:38:46.706


It's the gather, it's like the home church, right Meeting in people's homes, and you meet, you have a meal, you worship, you do music and then you do the learning, you learn have a meal, you worship, you do music and then you do the learning, you learn.01:38:46.706 --> 01:38:55.193


And so I had a thought of doing that, and so I talked to Mr and Mrs Stabley Mrs Stabley has gone on to her reward, but they welcomed all of us crazy people into their home and that grew and grew and grew.01:38:55.193 --> 01:38:58.890


So they said, how about doing a broadcast on Sundays, sundays with Dr Sean?01:38:58.890 --> 01:39:00.402


So I did, and that grew.01:39:00.662 --> 01:39:02.149


That's also a radio show.01:39:02.149 --> 01:39:03.555


Are you podcasting at this point?01:39:03.615 --> 01:39:13.201


it was a radio and facebook live okay video at facebook live and a couple other places, and it went all around the world.01:39:13.201 --> 01:39:17.430


And what here's what's crazy is you don't know who's listening.01:39:17.430 --> 01:39:47.895


You have no idea who's hearing the message, and what I tried to do on sundays was try to teach the Bible and the character and nature of God, what being a follower of the way means and what Yeshua was all about and what he is all about, and my goal always was to teach in such a way that seconds after you go out the door you can apply the things that I taught.01:39:47.895 --> 01:39:52.904


And I wanted to be in a very real way, real life, and so that grew.01:39:52.904 --> 01:40:00.952


In fact, we had a group of ladies from Belgium who they were an atheist book group.01:40:01.493 --> 01:40:01.872


Really.01:40:02.474 --> 01:40:04.846


Atheist, Actually atheist, we say it.01:40:04.846 --> 01:40:05.850


We say it incorrectly.01:40:05.850 --> 01:40:10.331


It's atheist, which literally means against God.01:40:10.551 --> 01:40:10.832


Okay.01:40:11.421 --> 01:40:15.431


And so they were an atheist book group, all ladies.01:40:15.431 --> 01:40:19.168


Somehow they got a copy of my book.01:40:19.168 --> 01:40:22.364


I remember back then the company that sold the books.01:40:22.364 --> 01:40:28.114


I went on the website and I found I could see that all these books went to Belgium.01:40:28.114 --> 01:40:29.865


I thought, well, that's interesting.01:40:29.865 --> 01:40:36.872


And they started listening to the show because I had embedded links to the show.01:40:36.872 --> 01:40:45.447


So this group of ladies it gets me every time One by one came to Christ.01:40:45.447 --> 01:40:56.007


One by one, they placed their faith in Christ, yep, and then they became a Christian book club.01:40:56.007 --> 01:40:56.970


Really.01:40:57.270 --> 01:41:02.069


Yeah, yeah, if I do nothing else in my life that made it worth it.01:41:02.069 --> 01:41:03.967


That made it worth it.01:41:03.988 --> 01:41:04.637


That made it worth it.01:41:04.637 --> 01:41:10.846


That's why you survived that crash 13 people, I guess.01:41:10.846 --> 01:41:12.805


I would imagine it's more.01:41:13.286 --> 01:41:13.688


Who knows?01:41:14.229 --> 01:41:14.730


Who knows?01:41:15.060 --> 01:41:19.565


Yeah, but it's, all of us have this mission in life and I was so moved by it.01:41:19.565 --> 01:41:20.228


I couldn't believe it.01:41:20.228 --> 01:41:26.907


I couldn't believe it when they started writing to me and they say we all listen to your show.01:41:26.907 --> 01:41:40.430


We gather at this weird hour here and we listen to your show and they subscribe to do all the different things and they were listening it blew my mind, it was wonderful that's something to be so proud of well it's.01:41:40.891 --> 01:41:43.765


That's a god thing, that's not me, that's somehow or another.01:41:43.765 --> 01:42:00.592


They saw through this goofiness and somehow another could connect with god, and so that's what my goal was for that, and this is the first book, correct, first book, yeah, okay which was nothing great by the way.01:42:00.592 --> 01:42:01.234


This is.01:42:01.234 --> 01:42:02.402


This is not a great book.01:42:02.402 --> 01:42:03.603


If you buy my book.01:42:04.524 --> 01:42:06.506


I did it is bold, it's real bold.01:42:06.506 --> 01:42:13.216


You don't mince words in this book Did you have negative feedback where people were like you are wrong.01:42:14.859 --> 01:42:15.561


I will tell you a story about that.01:42:15.561 --> 01:42:17.686


What's interesting you asked about was the book well received?01:42:17.686 --> 01:42:28.425


Yes, but in some cases, yes, very much so, and a lot of times I would hear well, I'm glad somebody finally said it, which I appreciated.01:42:28.425 --> 01:42:50.358


I appreciate all that, but my wife and my son and I were in Ocala, florida, and there was a chance that I was going to be senior pastor of a huge church there and we were in the early talking phases of it, so much so that my family, we went and looked at houses and neighborhood and looked at building.01:42:50.358 --> 01:42:53.342


What kind of house do we want to build?01:42:53.342 --> 01:42:57.323


We met with the builder and figured out which exact one we wanted it was.01:42:57.845 --> 01:43:11.225


At that point, I have to tell you, we were having dinner and in walks this very famous and I'm not going to say his name because it wouldn't be fair to him, but he walks in with his posse.01:43:11.225 --> 01:43:19.805


He's famous Big time preacher, tv guy, author, and I pointed out to my wife and son.01:43:19.805 --> 01:43:20.828


I said man, can you believe that?01:43:20.828 --> 01:43:24.068


Look at that, he's in here and I happen to have an extra copy of my book.01:43:24.068 --> 01:43:32.813


So I autographed the book and wrote an inscription to him and thank you for all you do and for the great work in the kingdom and all this stuff.01:43:32.813 --> 01:43:38.672


I'd only known the work that he had done and what appeared to be the fruits of it.01:43:38.672 --> 01:43:46.373


So I walk over to him and I say, listen, I don't want to interrupt you, I just want to give you this book as a gift from me to you.01:43:46.373 --> 01:43:49.985


I appreciate what you do and I don't want to interrupt.01:43:49.985 --> 01:43:51.225


I just want to give you this book.01:43:52.341 --> 01:43:55.150


He looked at the book and goes excellence, killed the church.01:43:55.150 --> 01:43:58.922


He didn't even read the second part of it, which is how mediocrity is destroying America.01:43:58.922 --> 01:44:03.345


And he looked at that and he threw the book at me, threw the book literally at me.01:44:03.345 --> 01:44:06.769


He goes the church ain't dead, I don't need this book.01:44:06.769 --> 01:44:08.550


I said, oh okay.01:44:08.550 --> 01:44:09.871


I said, well, here's the thing.01:44:09.871 --> 01:44:15.175


What I always tell people is the book is either for you or it's about you.01:44:15.175 --> 01:44:17.697


This one, apparently, is about you.01:44:17.697 --> 01:44:18.797


Oh, my goodness yeah.01:44:20.779 --> 01:44:22.966


I was so glad that I thought of it so pre-crash.01:44:22.966 --> 01:44:30.509


I would have never had a problem thinking of that, but I was so glad that post-crash came right to mind and I don't think it had any effect on him because he's still doing what he's doing.01:44:30.509 --> 01:44:33.890


And I went back to the table and they were like what happened and I explained.01:44:33.890 --> 01:44:35.283


They were like well that's disappointing.01:44:36.207 --> 01:44:39.842


So yeah, but the point of it is is how he received it received it.01:44:39.842 --> 01:44:43.467


He just looked at the cover and read the first part of the title.01:44:43.467 --> 01:44:47.274


Yeah, yeah so yeah, it's an unfortunate thing.01:44:47.274 --> 01:44:48.775


That's how the world is.01:44:54.979 --> 01:44:55.944


Okay, yeah, you have a second book.01:44:55.944 --> 01:44:57.208


Actually, there's two others I want to mention.01:44:57.208 --> 01:44:58.172


You have the Bible Summary for Real People.01:44:58.172 --> 01:44:58.996


How did that one go?01:45:00.039 --> 01:45:00.921


That one went well.01:45:00.921 --> 01:45:06.333


Unfortunately, I signed up with a publisher who took all of the royalties.01:45:06.333 --> 01:45:17.108


I didn't get a dime from that, yeah, and where most people buy their books I'm not saying the name because I don't want to give them any press.01:45:17.108 --> 01:45:19.773


It took years to get them to take the book down.01:45:19.773 --> 01:45:25.208


I said these people are ripping me off, they're taking the money, they're not paying me and that book sold well.01:45:25.208 --> 01:45:29.604


That book outsold the first book by a long shot, not a dime, not a dime.01:45:29.625 --> 01:45:31.530


Still not gotten a dime to this day, and I never will.01:45:31.819 --> 01:45:33.988


Well, I mean, can you republish it?01:45:34.060 --> 01:45:34.761


I'm rewriting it.01:45:34.761 --> 01:45:37.006


I'm almost finished.01:45:37.006 --> 01:45:40.052


I'm about 98% finished that book.01:45:40.279 --> 01:45:41.881


These are some expensive lessons.01:45:41.881 --> 01:45:44.243


They are that you've learned over the years.01:45:44.243 --> 01:45:45.104


You know what I'm not good at.01:45:45.545 --> 01:45:45.845


Business.01:45:45.845 --> 01:45:47.987


I am not a good business person.01:45:47.987 --> 01:45:53.011


I'm not a good tech person, not a good tech person and I'm not a good business person.01:45:53.292 --> 01:45:55.734


I gotcha, I'll admit it, all right.01:45:55.734 --> 01:45:58.037


So what is the name of this podcast?01:45:58.037 --> 01:45:58.961


You said it before.01:45:58.980 --> 01:46:02.432


I just want to drive it home the True Word Faith for Life with Dr Sean.01:46:02.432 --> 01:46:03.778


It's on YouTube.01:46:03.778 --> 01:46:06.266


It's a video podcast, so I apologize in advance.01:46:06.868 --> 01:46:11.747


I have been, I watched it and it's very good, and you're doing it live, which is impressive.01:46:11.806 --> 01:46:13.353


It's something I'm not brave enough to do.01:46:13.353 --> 01:46:14.738


Most of it is live.01:46:14.738 --> 01:46:18.122


I tell you, I like doing that because it's kind of like having church.01:46:18.122 --> 01:46:20.225


It's very small, we just got started.01:46:20.225 --> 01:46:24.871


And how that started was a friend of mine that I've known almost all of his life.01:46:24.871 --> 01:46:31.402


He and a guy he knew founded a podcast and it was very successful very quickly.01:46:31.402 --> 01:46:32.184


And he asked me.01:46:32.184 --> 01:46:36.313


He said, hey, would you mind being a guest on our show?01:46:36.313 --> 01:46:39.850


And I said sure, so I was a guest on the show.01:46:40.161 --> 01:46:41.083


Oh, this is watchful.01:46:41.083 --> 01:46:42.028


Is this watchful?01:46:42.319 --> 01:46:43.604


Watchful and Christopher yeah.01:46:43.845 --> 01:46:45.363


Okay, yeah, I saw that one.01:46:45.564 --> 01:46:48.770


Yeah, so that episode was particularly successful, I guess.01:46:48.770 --> 01:46:52.247


And they said hey, how'd you like to come back and be a regular guest?01:46:52.546 --> 01:46:53.609


on our show Like every week.01:46:54.251 --> 01:46:55.353


Every week, Every week.01:46:55.353 --> 01:47:07.801


So every Monday at 10, I'm on their show, but that's a much bigger show than mine.01:47:07.801 --> 01:47:09.747


But the reason that I'm back doing podcasting was I figured I'm not dead yet.01:47:09.747 --> 01:47:17.770


I was supposed to be dead a long time ago and they always remind us hey, listen, you got to understand because there's a lot of other stuff wrong Advanced heart failure.01:47:18.520 --> 01:47:22.331


Oh, beyond the aortic aneurysm, there's other things happening, okay.01:47:22.880 --> 01:47:24.265


Way, way more than that.01:47:24.265 --> 01:47:32.498


I presented at the emergency room with a thousand blood sugar and 12, 12 A1C maybe a little higher than that.01:47:32.498 --> 01:47:32.920


Yeah.01:47:33.060 --> 01:47:36.175


So I was lucky to have survived that because my pancreas is failing.01:47:36.175 --> 01:47:41.649


So, as I said, the different things just stop working and sometimes they just turn off like a switch, and that's how it is.01:47:41.649 --> 01:47:45.791


My doctors in Delaware refer to it as a cliff death.01:47:45.791 --> 01:47:54.724


So one minute you're alive, animated, next minute you're off, just like that, depending on how I die.01:47:54.724 --> 01:47:56.270


Which system fails first.01:47:56.270 --> 01:48:00.671


To give you an idea of where we are with it we've already met with the undertaker.01:48:00.671 --> 01:48:02.166


We've already got everything laid out On my phone.01:48:02.166 --> 01:48:02.685


Everybody that's super important to me.01:48:02.685 --> 01:48:02.869


That's going to be a part of it.01:48:02.869 --> 01:48:03.467


We've already met with the undertaker.01:48:03.467 --> 01:48:04.117


We've already got everything laid out on my phone.01:48:04.117 --> 01:48:06.648


Everybody that's super important to me.01:48:06.648 --> 01:48:07.972


That's going to be a part of it.01:48:08.975 --> 01:48:12.164


My funeral is planned out to when this song is played.01:48:12.164 --> 01:48:15.452


When that song is played, what type of message do I want?01:48:15.452 --> 01:48:25.835


I want it to be a very strong, evangelical, positive event and I want it to be uplifting and I want it to be a home going.01:48:25.835 --> 01:48:29.069


So you know, we met right up the road.01:48:29.069 --> 01:48:37.480


Yeah, is the people is going to lay me out, and I felt like I've tried to do as much of the planning in advance as I can, because I don't want my family to have to do that.01:48:37.501 --> 01:48:40.506


That's why I always say have a trust, have an estate plan.01:48:40.506 --> 01:48:42.069


It's not just for wealthy people.01:48:42.069 --> 01:48:44.734


Have all of your important documents together.01:48:44.734 --> 01:48:47.288


If you have life insurance, have it all together.01:48:47.288 --> 01:48:51.270


If you have any insurance at all, have it together.01:48:51.270 --> 01:49:03.764


You have to make it as easy for your family as you possibly can, because when the time comes, it's going to be a devastating thing, a devastating thing, and so you don't want to put them through that, so help them with it.01:49:03.764 --> 01:49:04.953


And so you don't want to put them through that, so help them with it.01:49:04.953 --> 01:49:09.186


And so we did that, and periodically we modify it.01:49:09.186 --> 01:49:10.069


It's three pages.01:49:10.069 --> 01:49:14.967


My funeral, it's a three-page event, but it's not going to be long.01:49:14.967 --> 01:49:24.233


It's not going to be super long because my pastor at Grace Community, topsail, is going to be the one preaching it, and I've already said hey, man, don't make people squirm in their seats.01:49:24.233 --> 01:49:27.764


Make them squirm in their seats from conviction.01:49:27.804 --> 01:49:29.688


But don't make them squirm in their seats from sitting in there.01:49:29.688 --> 01:49:32.273


That's funny, but anyway, no, he's a great guy, he'll do a great job.01:49:32.713 --> 01:49:32.974


All right.01:49:32.974 --> 01:49:34.104


Well, we're going to wrap this up.01:49:34.104 --> 01:49:34.365


Now.01:49:34.365 --> 01:49:37.469


Let's talk about future plans.01:49:44.122 --> 01:49:45.609


There was a novel that you were working on, or did you complete that?01:49:45.609 --> 01:49:47.340


I mean, it's a good ways along, but I need there's a lot of work.01:49:47.340 --> 01:49:54.293


There's probably, if I have a year of life left in me, there's a year of getting it where it needs to be.01:49:54.293 --> 01:50:02.765


My biggest thing is rewriting the Bible summary for real people, and I've added about 85% content.01:50:02.765 --> 01:50:03.586


I need a publisher.01:50:03.586 --> 01:50:05.429


Okay, and I'm not going to publish it.01:50:05.429 --> 01:50:07.292


I'll end up giving it away.01:50:07.292 --> 01:50:08.333


Self-publish.01:50:13.840 --> 01:50:15.104


Well, you got to understand self-publishing is very expensive.01:50:15.104 --> 01:50:19.621


So I could go to that company that I mentioned, that I don't give them any business because they're not really ethical people.01:50:19.621 --> 01:50:26.152


I could go to that big company where everybody buys books and you can do a self-publishing thing right through them for very little money.01:50:26.773 --> 01:50:30.264


I could do that route, but that really and truly is.01:50:30.264 --> 01:50:32.529


Your book will never be seen.01:50:32.529 --> 01:50:35.841


It's a way for them to make money, it's not a way for you.01:50:35.841 --> 01:50:39.930


So I'm on a very small fixed income.01:50:39.930 --> 01:50:41.393


It's a very fixed income.01:50:41.393 --> 01:50:44.985


So the resources that I used to have I don't have anymore.01:50:44.985 --> 01:50:48.572


So it has to and I don't need an advance.01:50:48.572 --> 01:50:50.560


I just need them to cover all the costs.01:50:50.560 --> 01:51:04.051


I can't pay six or seven or eight or $10,000 anymore to do the hybrid publishing or shared publishing, whatever they have, all kinds of buzzwords for it.01:51:04.500 --> 01:51:06.003


It has to be a traditional publisher.01:51:06.003 --> 01:51:16.033


I prefer a Christian publishing company just because they'll, they'll get it, they get it, but I just don't have the money to co-publish it.01:51:16.220 --> 01:51:39.805


Right, I do know that there are some people in our community that have published their own books, so if there's anyone out there listening who can guide Dr Greener in a way to get that thing published where he can actually make money off of it this time that'd be great information to have I contacted a company that turns completed manuscripts into eBooks?01:51:40.287 --> 01:51:40.447


And.01:51:40.447 --> 01:51:54.326


I thought, if there was a way now it's costly, it's very costly to do If there was a way to do that, have it converted into an eBook for a download and then you pay what you can If you can pay, great.01:51:54.326 --> 01:52:01.747


If you can't, that's okay, and if maybe you can afford to pay for three or four other people's books, pay it forward that would be okay with me.01:52:02.189 --> 01:52:08.087


I'm almost to that point, because if I die before it gets published, then it just sits.01:52:08.087 --> 01:52:10.591


Nobody's getting anything from it.01:52:10.591 --> 01:52:13.083


That one is the one I'm most proud of.01:52:13.083 --> 01:52:14.729


That one is the one that's-.01:52:14.960 --> 01:52:16.265


The Bible summary for real people.01:52:16.520 --> 01:52:18.490


I'm not sure what I'm going to call this version.01:52:18.490 --> 01:52:22.425


It's not going to be a second edition, even though I own the copyright to the first edition.01:52:22.425 --> 01:52:26.073


It's so much more of a book now.01:52:26.073 --> 01:52:31.239


Okay, I'm super proud of that one and I would love for that to be in people's hands.01:52:31.239 --> 01:52:38.054


If you think my first book, excellence, killed the Church, if you think that is gritty, oof.01:52:38.054 --> 01:52:39.277


Oh really.01:52:39.277 --> 01:52:40.800


Oh yeah, this one's much more.01:52:40.819 --> 01:52:42.346


Oh see, I didn't expect that at all.01:52:43.939 --> 01:52:44.381


Much more in your face.01:52:44.381 --> 01:52:48.692


Okay, Because when you have a death sentence, when you're told hey, don't buy any green bananas.01:52:48.692 --> 01:52:51.283


That's one thing I've learned.01:52:51.283 --> 01:52:57.875


Being terminally ill is that whole thing of the what do they call it Filter.01:52:57.875 --> 01:52:59.583


I didn't get one.01:52:59.583 --> 01:53:00.427


You didn't get one.01:53:00.680 --> 01:53:03.800


Yeah, or it broke in the crash, because I don't have it anymore.01:53:03.800 --> 01:53:08.226


I figure I've only got a certain amount of time to tell people about.01:53:08.226 --> 01:53:10.511


Jesus, the real story about Jesus.01:53:10.511 --> 01:53:13.414


The real story about God, the real story about faith.01:53:13.414 --> 01:53:26.595


I've only got a certain amount of time to help people understand how all these moving pieces in the world work and why it's critical that you get it, and you get it quickly.01:53:27.261 --> 01:53:29.688


You don't need a couple doctorates in theology.01:53:29.688 --> 01:53:33.106


You don't need that, not with the resources that are available today.01:53:33.106 --> 01:53:38.011


But in that book I really get gritty to the faith.01:53:38.159 --> 01:53:41.009


Well, I do hope you get that book published.01:53:41.009 --> 01:53:41.610


I really do.01:53:41.610 --> 01:53:44.868


I would love to read the new edition of that book.01:53:45.430 --> 01:53:45.692


Yeah.01:53:45.819 --> 01:53:47.404


The genre of the Other, the novel.01:53:47.404 --> 01:53:49.050


What's the genre of that book?01:53:50.082 --> 01:54:03.780


So that was intended to be the first in a series of books somewhat based loosely on my life and the like other life, the other life, the intrigue yeah there's pieces of that, but that one is probably.01:54:03.780 --> 01:54:07.922


I've been told by test readers and they said this is the book that's going to.01:54:07.922 --> 01:54:08.823


This is the one.01:54:08.823 --> 01:54:09.804


Publish this one.01:54:10.024 --> 01:54:11.444


Well, I hope you get that one published too.01:54:11.623 --> 01:54:15.886


But I thought that one's not going to bring anybody to Christ, that's not going to change anybody's life.01:54:15.985 --> 01:54:17.386


Probably not.01:54:17.407 --> 01:54:31.072


And it's a book that really it's gritty, but it's a book of you could be maybe 10th grade and up.01:54:31.072 --> 01:54:34.993


You don't want your young kids reading it because it's really gritty.01:54:35.453 --> 01:54:36.274


Okay.01:54:36.673 --> 01:54:40.155


But it's clean, where there's not a bunch of profanity.01:54:40.155 --> 01:54:51.940


My goal was to create which look, hey look, I was a sailor, the mouth came along with it, and anybody that knows me.01:54:51.940 --> 01:55:01.954


I'm not a perfect man by any stretch, but I wanted to have a book, a novel, an exciting thing to read, where there weren't things in it that you wouldn't feel comfortable giving your older teen.01:55:01.954 --> 01:55:11.970


I want them to be able to read that, and so that's how it was written, and I've got substantially more to do on it, just because of the times have changed.01:55:11.970 --> 01:55:13.813


There've been a lot of changes, but it's a man.01:55:14.054 --> 01:55:17.506


Yeah, it's a murder mystery and it's gritty.01:55:17.506 --> 01:55:23.427


It is gritty and it touches on some very, very third rail issues.01:55:23.769 --> 01:55:26.345


Okay, I'll be a test reader for you.01:55:26.425 --> 01:55:27.587


There you go.01:55:28.390 --> 01:55:30.988


All right, let's finish up here with some final thoughts.01:55:30.988 --> 01:55:35.859


What is the final message that you want the listeners to take away from this conversation today?01:55:36.280 --> 01:55:45.932


You know, I know it's easy for people to think I have held the hand of people as they were breathing their last.01:55:45.932 --> 01:55:53.353


I've literally, as a police officer, I've watched the car crash.01:55:53.353 --> 01:55:58.729


I was that close to it and gotten to the car as they were.01:55:58.729 --> 01:56:02.710


I remember one lady said, one young lady said she was 23 years old.01:56:02.710 --> 01:56:06.050


She said, mister, am I going to die?01:56:06.050 --> 01:56:11.371


And they always train you to say no, you're going to be fine, Hang with me, Stay with me.01:56:11.430 --> 01:56:11.931


Stay with me.01:56:12.780 --> 01:56:21.524


But I refused to do that and I said to her yes, you are going to die, you're not going to make it through this.01:56:21.524 --> 01:56:25.427


And I felt like honesty at that point.01:56:25.427 --> 01:56:26.331


What's the objective?01:56:26.331 --> 01:56:28.146


Well, they'll give up on living.01:56:28.146 --> 01:56:29.505


No, no, she knew she was dying.01:56:29.505 --> 01:56:34.171


Her chest cavity was wrapped around her steering wheel.01:56:34.171 --> 01:56:36.868


She was most assuredly dying.01:56:36.868 --> 01:56:38.766


But I've been with other people who were shot.01:56:38.766 --> 01:56:44.289


I've been with other people who were different experiences in their life where it's bad.01:56:44.430 --> 01:56:46.453


It's a bad situation and, yes, we're sick.01:56:46.453 --> 01:56:50.331


I've been with lots of people who asked me am I going to die?01:56:50.331 --> 01:56:57.765


And there have been times where I said I have a dear friend named Pam who she asked me if she was going to die and I said no, you're going to make it.01:56:57.765 --> 01:56:58.829


You're going to live and not die.01:56:58.829 --> 01:57:01.588


You're going to go through hell to get there.01:57:01.588 --> 01:57:08.225


It you're going to go through hell to get there.01:57:08.225 --> 01:57:08.975


It's going to be super, super tough, but you're the one to do it.01:57:08.975 --> 01:57:10.275


You're going to do this and you're going to have a family and you're going to.01:57:10.275 --> 01:57:12.462


You're going to look back on this and you're going to wow, holy moly, that happened.01:57:12.462 --> 01:57:16.212


But then there were others where you don't and we, you never know.01:57:16.212 --> 01:57:20.407


You never really know, even the terribly sick people.01:57:21.028 --> 01:57:25.967


I always hear this term, people say it a lot at funerals Somebody had cancer or some dreaded disease.01:57:25.967 --> 01:57:28.426


Well, they were a fighter, they fought.01:57:28.426 --> 01:57:30.105


They fought so hard.01:57:30.105 --> 01:57:33.064


As a believer, what am I fighting against?01:57:33.064 --> 01:57:34.850


I'm trying to live.01:57:34.850 --> 01:57:39.649


I have a grandbaby, I have a wonderful daughter and son.01:57:39.649 --> 01:57:40.692


I adore them.01:57:40.692 --> 01:57:58.703


I have a great son-in-law, an amazing son-in-law and, by the way, I have an amazing, unbelievably cool and great grandson, who is amazing and awesome and sweet and I want to see as much of his life as God wills me to see.01:57:58.722 --> 01:57:59.283


Of course, of course.01:57:59.283 --> 01:58:12.573


But we all are functioning within life with this notion that that picky thing, that dumb thing that we're fussing about, that thing we cannot change.01:58:12.573 --> 01:58:15.395


We can't change how other people live their lives.01:58:15.395 --> 01:58:18.176


But we get all spooled up, all jacked up over it.01:58:18.176 --> 01:58:26.324


That thing that's going on at work, that thing that's fix your family, fix it.01:58:26.324 --> 01:58:27.648


Those are the only people you got.01:58:27.648 --> 01:58:28.671


Fix it.01:58:28.671 --> 01:58:32.143


If you're the problem, fix you.01:58:32.143 --> 01:58:33.045


There's resources.01:58:33.045 --> 01:58:35.730


There's no reason to be all jacked up in.01:58:35.730 --> 01:58:43.033


Today you say, well, it's a tough way to live and everything is so bad and all of these things.01:58:43.033 --> 01:58:43.978


I say all the more reason to get it together.01:58:43.997 --> 01:58:52.860


Jack or Jill or Schmuckatelli whichever your last name is, I don't know Get it together because tick-tock, tick-tock.01:58:52.860 --> 01:58:58.372


The clock is ticking and this beating heart inside you one day will stop.01:58:58.372 --> 01:59:02.104


Get right with God, get it figured out.01:59:02.104 --> 01:59:05.600


You don't have to know all the answers, you do not have to know.01:59:05.600 --> 01:59:16.887


Look, I have decades of doctorate level theological work in the biblical languages and all of these things and I don't have it all figured out.01:59:17.349 --> 01:59:26.485


But I'm going to tell you this I know in whom I have believed and I know he's able, and I know that when I placed my faith in him, I was not guaranteed an easy life.01:59:26.485 --> 01:59:30.636


Exhibit A my busted up, broken up body.01:59:30.636 --> 01:59:43.429


But I can tell you this you will never be happier than when you're loving Jesus and you're letting Jesus love you.01:59:43.429 --> 01:59:47.811


Your mama may not have loved you, your daddy may not have loved you.01:59:47.811 --> 01:59:54.978


You may have had terrible things happen in your life, in your own family, maybe in your own community.01:59:54.978 --> 01:59:58.984


All of those things can absolutely be true, but you know what?01:59:58.984 --> 02:00:01.207


God isn't them.02:00:01.207 --> 02:00:09.533


Jesus wants to change your life and he can and will do it if you let him.02:00:09.533 --> 02:00:13.104


It's so much simpler than people make it.02:00:13.104 --> 02:00:34.907


But don't wait around, don't sit on the fence, because I'm telling you, as a guy who knows I have been at death's door so many times, you, as a guy who knows I have been at death's door so many times, so many times I mean, call the family in type of deal you don't know.02:00:34.907 --> 02:00:47.895


You don't know when it's going to be, and not only for that reason it's not an insurance policy, but also, don't you want to live knowing who the creator is?02:00:47.895 --> 02:00:50.082


Don't you want to know him?02:00:50.082 --> 02:00:53.109


Don't you want to know why you're here?02:00:53.109 --> 02:00:56.400


It's not just to take up space or time.02:00:56.400 --> 02:01:00.163


I love ice cream too, but I'm not here just to eat ice cream.02:01:01.585 --> 02:01:16.157


And the fact of the matter of it is that I think if I could encourage anybody is don't look at churches or the people in churches and say, oh well, those people, I don't go there because those people are hypocrites.02:01:16.157 --> 02:01:20.543


We are all hypocrites, from the pastor on down.02:01:20.543 --> 02:01:23.841


Hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite, sinner, sinner, sinner, sinner, hurt.02:01:23.841 --> 02:01:25.613


Have it hang up, hurt, hypocrite, sinner, sinner, sinner, sinner, hurt habit.02:01:25.613 --> 02:01:26.560


Hang up, hurt, habit, hang up, I have them.02:01:26.560 --> 02:01:31.765


I'm as jacked up as anybody you'll ever see in your life, but God loves me.02:01:31.765 --> 02:01:38.613


It took me almost a lifetime to figure that out and to accept it.02:01:38.613 --> 02:01:40.444


It's time you start accepting it.02:01:40.966 --> 02:01:41.951


Thank you so much.02:01:42.594 --> 02:01:43.155


The honor is mine.02:01:43.360 --> 02:01:44.284


I don't know how to thank you.02:01:44.284 --> 02:01:59.056


It just means the world to me that you're coming here and you're so open and you're willing to share your story and your life with us and to share your love for Christ and trying to lead people to Christ, like those Belgian women.02:01:59.358 --> 02:01:59.997


Ain't that something?02:01:59.997 --> 02:02:01.359


Yes, ain't that something.02:02:01.359 --> 02:02:02.622


I can't imagine Blessing of a something.02:02:02.622 --> 02:02:06.070


Yes, ain't that something Well, I can't imagine Blessing of a lifetime.02:02:06.752 --> 02:02:08.587


Okay, let's give out your contact information.02:02:08.587 --> 02:02:18.511


So, listeners, you know that I will have all of the links and the socials in the show notes and there'll be hot links that you can click on for easy access.02:02:18.720 --> 02:02:23.712


The easiest way to get a hold of me is smgreener at gmailcom.02:02:23.712 --> 02:02:25.726


S as in Sean M as in Michael.02:02:25.726 --> 02:02:27.484


Greener as in the grass is always greener.02:02:27.484 --> 02:02:29.230


Okay, at gmailcom.02:02:29.230 --> 02:02:31.988


Or contact me through the show on YouTube.02:02:31.988 --> 02:02:34.328


You can leave messages there.02:02:34.328 --> 02:02:38.527


I'm on Quora Q-U-O-R-A.02:02:38.527 --> 02:02:40.792


4.1 million views.02:02:41.172 --> 02:02:41.654


Amazing.02:02:41.654 --> 02:02:43.030


Yeah, I do see you on Quora a lot.02:02:43.030 --> 02:02:43.636


Yeah, I do see you on Quora.02:02:43.636 --> 02:02:43.979


It's crazy yeah.02:02:44.761 --> 02:02:48.511


I write about certain specific things on there, but there's a messaging platform there.02:02:48.511 --> 02:02:52.010


Facebook is an easy way to get me Facebook Messenger.02:02:52.010 --> 02:02:56.840


Those are probably the easiest ways to get me Okay.02:02:56.840 --> 02:02:59.587


I almost never check my Instagram messages.02:02:59.668 --> 02:03:02.967


Oh, really Okay, which is terrible, because I forget that they have messages.02:03:02.967 --> 02:03:03.449


Yeah.02:03:04.340 --> 02:03:07.846


But whatever way works for you, that I'm on, feel free, okay.02:03:09.149 --> 02:03:09.390


All right.02:03:09.390 --> 02:03:11.661


Thank you, listeners, for joining us today.02:03:11.661 --> 02:03:15.087


I just hope that you enjoyed that as much as as I have.02:03:15.087 --> 02:03:23.783


And thank you, dr Greener, for being on Topsail Insider and sharing your story with your Topsail friends and neighbors on Topsail Insider and sharing your story with your Topsail friends and neighbors.02:03:24.123 --> 02:03:27.407


This is the prettiest studio I've ever been in.02:03:27.407 --> 02:03:28.466


You win.02:03:29.127 --> 02:03:29.887


Thank you so much.02:03:29.887 --> 02:03:31.729


It's just my converted dining room.02:03:31.789 --> 02:03:33.671


Wow, it's lovely we're going to work on it some more.02:03:33.671 --> 02:03:35.072


We got a ways to go.02:03:35.072 --> 02:03:36.193


All right.02:03:36.193 --> 02:03:37.132


Thank you, you bet.02:03:37.132 --> 02:03:46.319


Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode of Topsail Insider, please show your support by clicking the follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast listening platform.02:03:46.319 --> 02:03:51.171


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