Episode 180 | "I've Been To One of Your Rodeos" (Feat. NC1 Alex Sewell)

The following views expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent the views of DOD Arts components. Pay attention, because you are now listening to Permission to Speak Freely. I'm sorry, I want my do better, man. My do better today is Aaron. I got something about you that I saved you. I saved you from the Miley smoke. Like, people hit me up about that Miley smoke. What about Miley? People ain't like what you were saying, man. So, yeah, I saved you from that. Yeah, don't say you. No, I had to. Remember, I stopped it. I stopped the conversation. Yeah, I don't care about Hannah Montana, son. I don't care. No, I don't do that. Oh, not Hannah. Hey, stop it. Miley might have made an album in damn every genre. Miley is incredible bro she's a really good artist she's got talent but you know she can go away man go away they go away they go away oh my goodness so my do better for Aaron is this it's like a joint do better so the only time we ever talked about Jesse Jackson on our podcast was the You Not a Brother episode, where we introduced the episode, what happened when the Reverend Jesse Jackson was in Ferguson, right? And that wasn't his greatest moment, right? That was a while, like Ferguson was emotional. They were reacting to just how they felt at the time. And I feel like PTSF, well, I feel like Jesse Jackson deserves a little bit more than what ptsf gave our only documented conversation about reverend jesse jackson was that right my smoke is for aaron because aaron like in my opinion like should be the resident jesse jackson dude like like like i shouldn't have to ask aaron to talk about reverend jesse jackson man you're the activist of the podcast i'm not I'm an activist fan? Yeah, man. What books are behind you? What's the books behind you? All right. Morta Valor. All right. What's Morta Valor about? You know what it's about. What's it about? It's about the fight of how you had the honor for these guys who were just denied. And it took. What was next? That's history That's facts What's the next one? Code of the Warrior Explore warrior values fast and present Activist What's the next one? Quiet The power of introverts In a world that can't stop talking She gave me that That's activism for introverts Yeah Okay, man. So, Jesse Jackson, man. You act like I'm Alan Payne's TV for... I'm black, y'all. And I'm black, y'all. And I'm black, y'all. What are you saying? I ain't necessarily saying you're a black activist. I'm just saying you're an activist. Nah, I'm allergic to dump shit. Like, if people were being wrong done at the commissary, like, you would be the guy to step up for them. Yeah. That's just who we kind of lean into. Okay, so... I'll own it. I'll own it. Okay, fine. And you're going to start off with fuck that. No, fuck that. So Jesse Jackson, man. B. I can't put you on the spot too. I'm sorry. Jesse Jackson, a renowned civil rights leader, not just in America, but also abroad. Recently passed. he was I think the first black person I gotta double check to have serious consideration for a democratic nominee for president many people consider him the bridge there was no Jesse Jackson there would be no President Obama as far as in the political sphere of influence culturally he was referenced you can see him on all your favorite 90s TV shows different world Sesame Street everything you look at him holistically he probably took some hits in recent years but a lot of times the youth kind of hold their elders in a different regard sometimes so going back to your point about Ferguson maybe his style of activism maybe it was getting kind of dated and we all got different controversies but he was an icon and we wouldn't be here without people like him carrying the weight, blazing the trail, paving the way. So rest in peace to Reverend Jesse Jackson. Yeah, rest in peace. Hey, let me add something like everything that Aaron said, right? And also I want to add, man, if you didn't hear him say anything and we went back and we just seen some of the pictures he's in. Bro, he's in a picture with Martin Luther King. He's in a picture with big time people back in the day that like you just see iconic moments of people there in the background you seen freaking Reverend Jackson in there man a lot of times you go back man that's one of the things when I was looking back and they were showing pictures and showing things they were talking about him on TV man and they were showing some of the pictures back in the day I was like damn he was back during that time? it was kind of crazy man he walked on and on with Martin Luther King man to be a mc of Martin Luther King then trying to see the fruition that he came to I think wherever Martin was at, he's smiling down just to see the overall picture in that journey that he's been on. That's powerful, to be one of Martin Luther King's mentors, mentees, and then you see what he grew into. That's dope. Yeah, and I heard somebody else talk about this, so I ain't going to lean too heavy on it, but did not let 1968 break you, or did not let the late 60s break you. losing Bobby, losing JFK, losing Malcolm, losing Martin, and just still going to not let all of that break you. So yeah, rest well to Reverend Jesse Jackson and prayers to his family. Another loss, but not necessarily loss of life, but another loss I do want to talk about is I want to give a shout out to Will Foster from the Don't Give Up the Shit podcast, who recently announced that he'd be stepping down as host of Don't Give Up the Shit, and he'll be turning over with Ariana, who I'm going to talk about in a second. But before that, I want to give my flowers to Will, who in the real world, at this point, I would call a friend. In the power world, At this point, I would call a brother. When we first started our podcast and I was doing heavy research and just learning about different podcasters and just wondering if anybody in the Navy did this, I stumbled across Don't Give Up the Ship. When I stumbled across Don't Give Up the Ship, of course, it was the senior chief sub guy who didn't show his face, who had these conversations that were on the level and actually felt like... very like humble from the standpoint, but also felt like, Hey, I got the water and I'm giving it to the village. Right. That was kind of how a lot of that conversation that, um, that you would hear on the D Gus podcast. And I remember when we first reached out, uh, yeah, I think I reached, I forgot how that happened, but I remember when we were first kind of gazing and like doing his show. Cause I think we did that first and he, you know, he got us to some of our episodes and I just remembered the feeling of, of like, yo, like just that checkpoint, like I'm checking to make sure. And it wasn't like a gatekeeping kind of thing, but it was like, are these guys authentic? You know, like, are they doing it for the right reasons, man? And I think after a few different, he might not even had that, but I kind of felt that like, man, like, you know, and I think after we did a couple of things and he saw the passion we have for like just talking to sellers uh you know we got closer and closer connected uh through podcasts and all those other things and and i know he's been retired and probably losing steam with active duty topics and all that stuff man but i just appreciate that man for kind of bringing us into his world too um because that was one of the earlier guest spots that damon and i did man so I do I want to give my flowers to Will Foster from Don't Give Up The Shit for being an independent Navy podcaster when that shit just wasn't known at all kind of like blazed a trail in that regard a lot of people call us trailblazers but he definitely was here before us so definitely I just want to give some applause to him real quick shout out shout out shout out shout out Yeah, shout out Will. And then I also want to give a shout out to his relief, who's taking over the Don't Give Up The Shit podcast, Ariana. I'm not going to jack up your last name. So I'm not even going to say it. We just worked together, too, recently in Annapolis. But shout out to Ariana, who is pretty much the woman version of Will. So she's going to take over. She's a woman version of the latter version of Will. So she's as research. She's as nerdy, but not in like a, of course, offensive way. Right. She's as angry. Impassioned. Impassioned. She everything will is. And little little insider for like people. When Tish first left, I reached out to Ariana to see if she would jump on permission to speak freely every now and then. And she got life and kids and stuff like that, and she was willing to, but we just never circled back in that conversation. But I'm glad she found the spot. I was listening to her Trash Panda podcast, too. So I'm glad she found the spot, and I'm glad Will turned it over to somebody that's going to keep up what he's been doing. So, again, shout-out to Will and Ariana. Yeah. Hey, I'm going to give a shout-out to Will also, man, while we on there real quick, man. Hey, one of the most educated Will's spoken, man, and prepared, guys. probably we didn't have it on the pod, man. This guy, and then he wasn't scared to speak his mind. If it came up and he thought it was an issue, he thought it needed to be spoke on, he spoke on it, man. So, shouts out to him and what he got going on in his future and everything, man. I'm looking forward to see what he got going on next, man. So, big shouts out to you, Will. And thanks for coming on our pod and we came on your pod, so thanks. Yeah, that sounds crazy. He's a person I wish I could have faced with. I like the way he's just, you know, to it. They're both, yeah, that type of energy. Yeah, you listen to the podcast. You were a listener at times, right? Yeah. The last one I listened to is when he had Mick Pond, Russ Smith on there. I was afraid of length and you get a good conversation. Yeah. You ever heard of the podcast, Alex? I have not, but I wrote it down, so I'm going to definitely go back and check out some of it out. Yeah, you're going to be going back, man. You got a lot of episodes. He survived the podcast wave He's legit For the people that don't know If you're listening It's another voice here we joined by NC1 Used to be AF1 AWF AWF1 Who we thought was AWF1 When he came up for it But he cross-rated recently Alex Sule Yes sir Thank you for having me I'm doing good. Thank y'all for having me on. This is dope. I'm honored. I'm nervous as well, but I'm excited to chop it up with y'all, learn from y'all. This is dope. Thank y'all. Ain't no reason to be nervous, man. We don't know what we're doing either, man. You know what I'm saying? Maybe you can speak to this, right? It's been a recent change, and I know it's going kind of quick, but it's been a recent change with the NCs as far as the promotion and advancement, right? You know anything about that new change? As far as from second class to first class? Yeah. Yep. I read it. I don't remember off the top of my head, though. That's good. Yeah, I'm not supposed to remember off the top of my head. That's good. They did change it. I don't remember off the top of my head. Not even going to lie. Okay, and they also changed the advancement instruction, advancement manual, and all that stuff recently, too. And I guess that's where I kind of land at. It was a time when I felt like these changes and all of these things were better announced. am i tripping well you're not tripping dumbo um i think we are using the fact that we're having it's going to be some changes on how we do things right so it's kind of like stated it's out there then all of a sudden they just hit us across the head with it you know what i'm saying like it's normally like we you're right though it's normally it's announced better and it's out and then they say okay this is gonna happen they're gonna give us three months we're gonna have a year to this kick off now it's like hey it's been happening it's starting in a month 30 days like it's happening real quick i think that's one of the biggest differences dumbo is like this shit is happening now yeah and i'm not specifically talking about the advancement manual as i'm as much as i'm talking about the uh that c-cell letter that's going around right the one that um signed by CNO. But it's been that and things like that. When Fleet Compton did the speech and things were traveling, it seemed like information was traveling up through WhatsApp groups or through social media. I know that it's frustrating to some leadership because they're getting this info. Hopefully, you can speak to some of this too, Alex. I know it's frustrating to some leadership because they're getting this info before they have a chance to like filter and not necessarily filter things out but just filter it themselves and understand what they even looking at are talking about right um you know um and the example is and i'm not going to speak on that c-cell uh i'm i'm not going uh like keyboard or internet warrior or whatever on that new c-cell policy if one of y'all want to talk to what y'all can but i'm not but like even with that like you got first classes and junior and chiefs or senior chiefs and all that getting that before some cmc's you know i think like some fleets and and forces read all that shit in real time with everybody else so now yeah so now you can't even you know you can't even figure out what to say. Are you figuring out in real time? Are y'all learning together? It's been like that more often than not. Any forces out there in fleets? I mean, I know you guys are part of this unique group. So, if you guys are getting this shit real time, man, it's crazy. They're getting it real time, bro. That's crazy. It's real time, bro. It's, um, so you say you don't want, I'll touch on the C-cell thing. So to suitcase it, um, every Master Chief is going to be required to qualify as a C-cell, as a senior leader, especially to the, uh, Echelon 5 commands. Echelon 5, if I'm not mistaken, that's going to be Destroyer, um, squadron yeah in my case for military treatment facility mtf um the 05 and some 06 towards to try to keep it more of the uh stove piped rated experienced people for for the s15 and then moving up you have some people who do the fleet and force jobs but everyone's going to be a command master chief not the the designator of fleet and forces is not going to be on there there's It's going to be more towards the position that you're at. But the way it came out, it came out fast. I don't know. I think, like, the clips and J. Cole and Marvel got better rollout plans than some messages right now, man. It's like it's coming out slow, boom, boom, and then it hits it, you know. I think we're operating speed of sound, speed of light. We just can't control it. Like CMZ. these Beyonce drops bro like these changes is like Beyonce albums bro this shit is yeah I know that I'm in a couple distro groups for TCC and it be a little overwhelming some of the instruction changes you did just kind of messages that come out and then like you send them out to the distros so fellow first classes fellow chiefs mess and what not by the time I finish hitting send I'm there asking me like you know what's the big changes what's the takeaways from it I'm like bro I'm still on chapter one myself like I spent another two hours or something like I'm still trying to digest it just like you I'm I was trying to pass on not be the small man with information so we could talk about it later together but like yeah I get what you're saying when talks about like it's coming out quick and like I don't know where it's coming from but it's not being passed down it's kind of just we just gonna disseminate it to everybody at the same time we got some chatty patties up there man we You're going to figure it out together. Yeah, people be on Facebook just asking all the questions. You just made me laugh, though, because I know you're an NCC. I got an NCC, man. And I remember something came out recently. I'm like, yo, you going to push this out to the team? And he was like, man, I got to dig through it first and read it. Yeah. And I'm in my head like, what? You shouldn't read it? Push this shit out. He pushed that shit out, Chachi. Hey, so I want to dig, like, so since we got you here, you were first class and an MC, right? And I ain't going to say that again, but Aaron had an opinion last week that I kind of stepped on. And I apologize for stepping on it because I was asking about, I had a question. So I kind of stepped on his opinion and I felt like his opinion was golden and we didn't let him get it. Like, so you were talking about package rodeos, right? yeah I don't like what they've become what they are I don't like them uh huh let me elaborate okay so before I benefited from that when I was you know trying to what I don't like is that people some people are prone to just going to their package reviews I was going to package reviews and not seeking people out yeah The package review, in my opinion, should be something that supplements the knowledge you have already. Like, they, NPC, they already put out that PowerPoint and briefed how to scrub your record. Right? You got local chiefs at your command that know how to get selected because they got selected. So you should know how to review your stuff. you go to the package I'm gonna go over here and I saw people like mom and pop I saw someone uh last we did one and this person sat four boards yeah to include the most recent one and they was like hey you know what I think you're here for whom I think you need to you know I I won't be wrong but I don't think you have a good shot you know build your resume I don't know to me you don't know that person just had all that knowledge I'm like if you got the answer then why you can come and ask so the reason why I don't like some of these rodeos now is because they use it as a primary not to supplement the stuff they should know already and the environment is excessive entitlement I feel we should avail ourselves I support them I put myself out there but don't go out there thinking I ain't doing nothing tell me what I gotta do No, you go figure this out and then come ask. Yeah. What do you think about that? I kind of don't like the rodeos either for different reasons. The reason I don't like the rodeos is because most of the ones that I've been to, all they do is just read that PowerPoint from my Navy HR. And once you do that like once or twice, this will be my, I'm not eligible for cheap this year, but next year I will be so this is really like my sixth year up for T and so like after you do that you kind of know the powerpoint yourself after a while and the big thing like I kind of take from going to the rodeos for me personally is that I try to find it's hard to find AWF T's anyway but or AWF Master T's anyway but I want to find people that sit the panel that aren't my rate to review my package just so I can kind of see how the outside looks at my AWF package previously so that's what I kind of that's what I took from going to those rodeos and what not but as far as the actual just like sitting through the powerpoint maybe if you're like up to the first couple of times and you just like kind of I don't know what to do but after a while not really I don't really find them beneficial until I think when you actually review the packages I also want to add something when I participate in rodeos I stress more about enclosures asking this your enclosure why do you want to send this enclosure or how are you going to communicate to the board you're going to put a narrative there that's what i'll focus on i think the rodeos should be some of those things not to just review things that you should know as a season first class i've been to one of your rodeos at pax river um it was the one by the theater the I guess it's a library. I think the biggest thing I took from you was I didn't really abide by it until next year. You kind of said, don't let this define you. And I just remember you said that? Yeah. You said, don't let this define you. Making chief define you. Okay. I know. I know. I know. It's at New Orleans. That same cycle, I didn't make it. And looking back, I don't know why I was so hurt by it. Like, looking back at it, you can see my patch really wasn't that strong. But, like, I don't know. In my mind, I thought I had a chance to make it. And, like, I went into, like, a deep, dark place. And, like, I was fighting depression with that. Like, I just, like, and my validation, like, damn, am I good enough? And then, like, I just kind of remember, like, don't let that define you. Like, you still dope. You still got, you know, your chief support. Your junior sailors are cheering you on. And I was like, oh, you were cheating in my eyes and whatnot. They're like, cool, I appreciate that. And that means I'm doing something right. And that matters to me. So that stood out to me. I still stick with that today. And now it's harder than ever. Just don't let this define you. This isn't your defining moment. Yo, it's not. And I hate to veer off, but you brought me here, right? It's not, right? And I don't normally post shit from my personal page, but I was going to post earlier this week. I didn't, but you just gave me the perfect, like, I was about to say land and strip, right? But that ain't the right word. You gave me the perfect spot to land with this thing, right? I was talking to somebody, a chief, and he was telling me, like, he lost his fire, right? He was saying, like, the last time he had it was when he was trying to make chief, right? And Chief was a goal Right Chief was a goal Chief was something he looked at with high regard But he made Chief kind of lost his fire Right And it made me think about People that's looking at That rank Not necessarily him but it made me think about People that's looking at that rank Like the pinnacle That's the W It's not It's access To more responsibility, right? Access to a higher level of responsibility. So you make chief now, you now could get in rooms that you probably couldn't get in as a first class, or your voice might carry a little bit more in those rooms. You make senior chief, right? Same, more than before. You make master chief, same more than before. These are not the destinations. They're merely like the launch pads for what you can do next and then whatever you could do next should, in my opinion, is for the sellers, right? Even if you're a maintenance master chief, in my opinion, and some maintenance master chiefs could, you know, cuss me out, but the higher rank you get, like, I just believe that, like, it's for the sellers, right? So, like, somebody came and talked to me recently in my office and they were like, because I was explaining to him that I hadn't had a moment. So like I was looking at an instruction and I was telling him I hadn't had a moment to look at it. I was like, so this conversation we, we have, and it's probably going to be shorter than expected because I do want to look at this. And he was like, nah, you know, mission first. And I'm like, mission first is you, you know, like, I'm like, you're mission first. Like you, like my, a hundred percent of my job today is the seller. at the command like it's not like 92 to 8 it's a hundred month job is the sellers you know and i think that's the natural progression so and i'm saying that and some of that stuff might sound scattered but it's like when you start looking at like these like higher levels of rank as like higher levels of access to do more with what you have it gets a little different right because then it's not like that's the win that ain't the fucking win that's the next step in order to you know in order to carry on more and more and more um so you know you just made me think of that though so and then we just got that culture damon that i think people put and we talk about this on a podcast for the last six years but people put way too much in making that right man like way too much and you kind of forget like you always in my opinion like like from from third class up you know and from e1 up like you've always had that goal in mind but from like e5 and up like man i've been leading seven you know i just got more and more and more and more and more um i also had a moment when i thought i was gonna make chief and i didn't make chief first time up but then from And then on any other rank I made, man, I happened to make it. Like, I wasn't like, shit, I ain't make senior chief. I ain't make fucking, like, them other ranks, man. You know, it kind of was what it was, man. My job set was not changing. I was taking care of myself. I was leading self. I tell you, man, boy, when Delmo, you was just talking about, like, killing the fire, man. Like, that's, man, I look at that in a light that's so different, man, because I feel like ain't nobody or nothing killing my fire. That's just my personal thing. Like, you start killing my fire, right? But I'll tell you this, man. A lot of times when something kills your fire, normally something happens, right? Something happens. Like, you can become a chief and you find out real quick there's other motherfuckers in this mess that's pretty good too, right? And you may not get what you think you deserve sometimes and you get, oh, man, you might be a P in there. I mean, I should be an MP or EP, but no, I mean, some people out there may be doing something better than you. Then you kind of lose like, man, I'm not even getting the knowledge. Ain't nobody even listening to my voice. So it kind of maybe kind of kill your fire. But I say, I say this to all of that, man. If you taking care of sailors, right, and you come in there with the right energy and bring the right stuff every time, your evaluations and everything that that old to you is going to come your way. Right. It's going to come your way. And I want to dive right back real quick. I hate to change this subject real quick, but I want to go back to the rodeo thing real quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, please don't. Yeah. So on the rodeo thing, why I like it in a sense, not saying it's all be all, but I like it in a sense because I think it's more to it when it comes to first classes coming over there and getting a package reviewed. I think it's a mentor side of that, too, that I think is great. Right. I think coming over there, talking to people in your rating or outside your rating and you having these great conversations, not like you can't have it anyway. Right. But that's one of those things that I think is great. And a lot of times we don't get the chance to do that because it's scheduled. And I'm big on if it ain't scheduled, it ain't happened. Right. So if I feel like that's a good time to have those conversations. and um also i like the reviews and rodeos because putting more eyes on something you may have missed man like little dates little numbers little whatever you could have missed that uh by having just you looking through your stuff right what i mean by the like evals and you may have missed a week or two weeks or three or whatever the case may be so i think that's that's good for it also but the rodeo thing man like I kind of see where you guys coming from but I kind of like it because I like talking to sailors and I like more than just your package though to our brother's point man you said you said you like it when you get someone outside of your rate to look at your package right? yes the year I made it the best advice I got was from a quorum in Mass Chief and just the way that I should have not put an enclosure in and just the way that I wrote and spoke about the uniqueness of my seashore flow. What she gave me, it was the one bit of advice that I really used and put forward and I got selected that year. And I really think that was what got me over the hump, the way that I articulated the circumstance of my seashore rotation. Yeah I agree with Aaron about Don't Don't just depend on it Like don't only Do the rodeo I also Agree with Alex about Like You ain't gotta do the powerpoint every time I also agree Agree with Damon about just having a place of a place to get together, right? Just a place to kind of have people come together, congregate or whatever. I'm neutral about it. I prefer, me personally, I prefer sitting with somebody one-on-one and looking through that record, right? That's what I prefer. Like us two on a computer shop, Maybe we got, I'm not a coffee dude, but that's the easiest thing I can use as an example, right? You know, maybe we got some coffee, chilling, you know, I probably got a coconut water or something. And we just looking through your record, finding things, you know, or you dropped off some stuff to me and I got some time and then you're going to come back and we're going to chop it up and talk about it. That's the way I like, that's the way I prefer doing it. But I'm not, I don't have any issues with the rodeos. I haven't, to be honest with you, I haven't been to many of them, you know, but I've looked at many a record, you know, I've looked at many a record, but I haven't been to many, many rodeos. You can come to ours. It'll be one in Bethesda. So we look forward to seeing you, C&C. Okay. Can you just volunteer yourself? Well, hey, Alex has something on me. Okay. No, I just think the best advice, not to change titles, the best advice I've gotten is when I've reached out to that board membership and just kind of had those one-on-one interviews via email. Sometimes they'll hit me up, like, hey, hit me up on teams. And then they'll bust it down for you. And that kind of the best advice I got But like you kind of said about the rodeos as well some of the best part is just networking You waiting in line to get this master chief to look at your package and talking to the person behind you like, hey, what you got? I got this. Oh, shit, I ain't got that. Damn. That's some of the best advice you get too as well. Let me take a look at your career summary letter. You got a career summary letter? Nah, somebody told me don't do this. Well, I got one. You got one. Let me see what you got on there. All right, cool. And I think about putting that on there Yeah you should put that on there Like some of them just like you said Some of the simple networking that you can get That beneficial as well Yeah you just dropped another jewel man You'd be dropping the hidden jewels you know Another hidden jewel here is Reach out to people Schedule time with them Right get on their calendar So they can create Space for you Right I think That's vital in getting the help you need from people uh i get and the reason why i guess it's coming from a personal standpoint because i get hit up a lot about things and a lot of times when i get hit up i think people don't factor time man like like like yo i got work to do i got family i got other things happening in my life you know i would love to like stop everything and like you know focus on you and what you got going on unfortunately i can't you know so it's good to work with people and i i'm really bad at scheduling too like i'm just so busy like my shit be so busy but um yeah just you know get with people and stuff like that what i wanted to do though what you was what made you cross rate um it was a multitude of things that happened at the same time which is really rare in the navy um so i was a prior awf on the c2s um shout out to the c2s they are the last c2 is getting decommissioned c2 squadron is getting decommissioned in september i believe so um my previous command i was on c2s talked to the detail i was like yo send me back to the east coast i was in san diego at the time he's like no you don't go to v22s i I was like, all right. Regardless of what you heard about the V-22s or the stories, the accidents, it's a very safe plane. Some of the incidents that have happened kind of not make it seem like it's worse than it, but it's a very safe plane. So I went to FRS in San Diego, got sent out to HX-21. Going there, I realized, like, the V-22 is really not for me. and a part of it is just kind of me being at the time I was 13, 14 years in and I've been doing C2s for those 13, 14 years so like you're kind of an old guy stepping old ways trying to learn new tricks and like why I got to do this, why I got to do that and then at the same time when I checked into that squad and they checked 21 I was a new guy on board, I had a fresh 36 there's only 36 enlisted sailors there so we didn't have a uh and seeing that you know command career counselor as a collateral so i was a new guy there they handed me that position master chief lee um and i didn't know anything about that program at all like all i knew was just sign here for my re-enlistment that's the extent i knew about command career counselors um but the more i got into it like i loved it like you mean i just get to take care of sailors and then just like the intrinsic rewards you was getting from that just like and it's crazy because like all you're doing is just kind of like putting together 13 or 16 for sailors and submitting it and like they came up to you oh thank you for the help man i really appreciate it like bro all i just really did is just submit this for you like you did most of the work and um but the intrinsic rewards from that was just like i don't know it filled my cup and it overfilled my cup and um so while that was going on i like i just grow in love for helping sailors out i'm flying i'm not really flying i started having issues with my back uh make a long story short the flight doc told me basically if i have to go two months without having any back pains which wasn't going to happen so i was like yeah that's not going to happen so i'm gonna go ahead and drop this package so it all kind of happened at the same time with me not enjoying flying having back issues and just my love for like helping sailors and just like career development, sailorization. So I just dropped the package and cross rated. So, you know, kind of not, I don't know, being 15 years in now, cross rating, I was kind of, I felt like I was kind of had everything I needed just from speaking to previous Master Chiefs to be where I need to be for Chiefs. But I don't know, like, this is where I'm kind of like, I feel like I'm letting go of all that and just kind of focusing on just doing what I love now, like not chasing the rank or not, not chasing the rank or anything. So, and just enjoying helping sailors. That's my primary duty now. So I love that. Wanted to do it full time. Yeah. Well, you, you grow as a leader, right? And you, and you, you, uh, your returns change. And that's another conversation I was having with stats about what the fire, with the Damon about hold, like, the fire goes out. It's like, maybe you need to shift where you're getting your returns from. You know? When I was an EM3, my returns came from fixing equipment. When I was an EMC, my returns came from watching my people fix equipment and achieve things. As an EM senior chief, it came from like watching the department and the ship, you know, get better. As a CMC, the returns come from every advance that the command makes you know so you grow as a leader and your returns uh change and you gotta know that you've worn out that last return you know what i mean and that's another shout out to diga who've learned that hey i'm done here let me produce a podcast and see how far you know we could take it with ariana um i shout out to aviation, but aviation got a lot of acronyms, man. Aviation don't play by the back of them, dog. It'd be like, I was on HTX over at VSP. I had to learn when I was down at PAX, I had like a little binder of all these acronyms and it was getting added. And I'm like, man, we did a DRB on that. DRB, what are you talking about? Nah, not that kind of DRB. I'm like, what? show you man yeah hey hey dumb old baby killing me bro they be killing me but i but i would throw this out there i will say this though about all the acronyms and things man my co and xo saved me man i don't know if they was thinking about me when i said they saved me but they did so we they we having all these briefs and stuff you know with with um with all the equipment and everything that goes on they have briefs and if they throw an acronym out my co was like what's that after them? He don't know how much he was helping me by saying that because I didn't know what the hell still don't know what the hell he was saying Yeah, I did that shit when I got to my last command some people was tight over there y'all got to go through everything I could we ain't doing this so you dropped another jewel Alex another jewel you dropped was the new, we have never talked about this yet, right? but an unsung hero at every command is the new guy A lady, right? There's no dangerous sex we can put on this. The new guy dump. The new guy dump is clown sick at every command. Like, we got a BFC coming already. We got a BFC coming. He ain't here yet. He don't know this yet. He got about two collados. He already on the 1301. He got about two collados already. He's like, damn, we do need another a dapper hey alex i just texted the person who ducks you massively he's like that's my guy he up next i bet he is you gave my damn command with a fire piece we got you a heavy collateral with the command you're gonna be the dapper right but then we also need a opsec coordinator we gonna throw you there NWR need a new whatever we gonna play I got a new chief coming that's second he about to be second man he don't even know it yeah he got a TS oh yeah we in there baby he was really saying it too like when they talking like what we gonna do shit BMC man you don't even know dude's situation right at least that stuff is real he was over there he could do it and one other thing about the new guy is is that that can make and break your career if you get in there you be hit by two clandering duties and you kick ass you good the rest of your three years but hey yo hey David you real welcome boy pee my ass nah bro nah nah nah nah you the new guy you don't really want to say No, you're trying to make a good place for places You're banging You know what I got to do I got you Hey y'all, I'm here Happy to be here man Let me know if you did anything Hey How about when they try to hit you with that If you need me to do it, I'll do it I didn't call you while you was on house hunting Because I didn't need you The new guy And the guy retiring, we'll say that I had a guy who baptized like yo man please don't ask me to do anything but you know I'm going to do it but please don't ask me please don't people retiring be here they be trying to the only like voice of reason for the new guy be like their spouse right like three months into it dude's like yo my wife man you know it's true hey what else we got man I don't even got to elaborate because y'all know what that is. I was like, I just said too quick. We got a note about the VA disability discussion that's happening. I got some notes consolidated to run through. That's the kind of serious pivot. But we could talk about it because it does affect us. I got a question for you. Something came out about this a couple days ago. Was this updated like a day or two after? Was it like an update, like an updated change? It was the VA. Well, I'll go through. The VA said effective this month, excuse me, February, these changes are going to start to go into effect. Yeah. I saw somebody posted like, because before you go, I want to make sure we straight. I saw somebody posted like an update from the VA of whatever the recently announced change was. And they under what they wrote was like, they heard us and took action. They paused because the veteran community, the organizations, nonprofits, influencers, politicians, everybody's like, hey, nah, this is not. That's what caused it to pause. Okay, you know anything about this, Alex? No, I just know the changes and I've been, you know, just scouring the social media as I've been seeing everybody. kind of in a little uproar about that changing ratings and whatnot. So things might be getting changed. I'm going to jump in. I'll pause if I'm going too long. So the VA disability ratings 2026 updates. So the middle of this month, February, the VA published an interim final rule that would have allowed examiners to reduce disability ratings if medication successfully manages a veteran's symptoms. So I'll say it again, right? So they're saying that if you are prescribed something and it's working, that could affect your day disability percentage. The rules say if medication lowers the level of functional impairment, the ratings should reflect the improved state rather than the baseline severity without drugs. So they're saying if the medication of what you're prescribed is helping you, then you should not get the same initial rating you got. So if you got 50% of something and you prescribe whatever medication because of that, and it helps to improve your day-to-day condition, you know what? Okay, we could go from 50% to 10%. The current status. So after various veteran service organizations and members of Congress, The VA announced on the 19th that it would not enforce the new rule now or in the future. So for right now, the ratings remain protected from reductions based solely on the effectiveness of medication. So it's just, it came to a standstill. But the main discussion point for that was that if you were prescribed something and it improved your day-to-day condition, not cured it but improved your day-to-day condition it could have been grounds for an examiner to adjust your VA disability rate i have more but let's i'll just anchor it with your thoughts on that right there oh yeah it's it's kind of a lot more man like they talking about it like things that if you you can be like if you had 10 20 you can freaking not have VA no more It talked about Paxing the VA disability Then it talked about The age Which I thought was huge Once you get to a certain age You start drawing social security They may take your Your VA disability That was being It's been thrown around So I can tell you Alex you got anything you want to drop on that bro This ain't my special thing I ain't gonna lie MC I'm a real opponent Damo you got anything? Yeah just two things One My overall thought right Damo Leave vets alone We served the country We did what we had to do right But then my second thing is this A lot of people been A lot of people been scamming To get some fucking VA money I got you bro They been full of shit yeah a lot of people always been abusing with that shit and finding secrets to get it and it's like the the VA joint to me is like the what's the training we gotta do senior JPME PPME I'm looking at VA like PPME bro like y'all gonna kill us right now bro who really the best rapper since Big ain't here oh man I'm looking at like PPMV to be honest. I mean, and the thing is, my first point was like, leave Vets alone. Like, let us take advantage of the system. Like, let us pass around the PPMV cheat sheet. You know what I mean? Yeah, man. I'm just saying that because it's true. Like, a lot of people don't do PPMV, bro. Don't put it wrong for the right reason. Everybody can't be like me. I'm a dork. Hey, I like discussing dime and Like, everybody don't want to do that, bro. I'm going to jump in some more with some of the discussion about overhauls to ratings. So the VA did try to finalize long-awaited updates on the schedule for rating disabilities, or VASRD, for specific body systems. So of note, mental health. New five-function domains, quote-unquote, models replacing the old occupational and social impairment standard. The minimum rating will be 10% Eliminating 0% ratings And it will be easier to reach 70% or 100% Without proving total inability to work So Layman's terms It's hard to quantify Tangibly what affects mental health So I don't want to say it's an Honor system but they're taking more Into account of what's reported Rather than trying to dive into things Cognitively Yeah, am I tripping or does it sound like it'd be kind of easier to get a rating, a little faster to get a rating than it's been in the past? Am I tripping or is that what you just said? That's money. Yeah. Okay. Money. Sleep apnea is an amazing one. Let's go. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm so late. Look, I'm not the one you think I need, bro. I was having 20 years of the military And beat your ass And I put that on MFAS, DFAS, and your mama ass There we go, sleep apnea Let's go, where we at? Man, this curveball I'm going to throw him, it's going to be so bad Alright, here we go Here we go, man Hey, cue the mace, I want to respect you, John Just wait and hold that, okay? Okay, in the back Alright, sleep apnea Ratings will likely shift to be based on responsiveness to treatment Under proposed rules A veteran whose symptoms are Well managed by a CPAP Might see their 50% Rating drop to 10% Or 0% for future claims I don't respect him at all I'll shake the room before I shake his hand bro I want to respect you But I can't And I'm going to tell you why What are we talking about? They're crazy What are we talking about? I told you to curveball. It was real. That was curveball, man. Hey, Alex. That's a lot of people. That's fun. Wow. That's fun. Yeah. I'm looking at my CPAP right now that I need to use, you know, for more consistency. You better start using it. Right. It don't matter because you sleep better. Like, I'm not. I don't want you to three masks. I have the nose joint, the Darth Vader. I can't. Yeah. What are your thoughts, Damo? You look like somebody punched you in the stomach, man What's up, yo? I just read up on my CPAP Brand new, fresh CPAP equipment, man Ready to break it out, get better sleep Yeah, when you break up your new CPAP equipment Like, you know you about to get a good joint that night Like, it's about to be a good eight The fresh, clean tank The brand new hose Is that Amari making noise? Like, it's a kid in the background of our podcast Did I hear it? That's an entire I'm one of them I'm sorry but I'm one of them like cross the bridge when I get there kind of people like it is what it is kind of people like I don't really complain about much like it's just the way the world kind of happens and it just happens when I happen to get fucking yeah How do they know if you're getting better or not? Is there some data linked to the machine? Or you even got to go and tell them? No, machine got everything. Snitching, snitching. You went two weeks on, two weeks off. What you doing there, CMC Paul? Don't let the weather be changing. That shit be sweating inside the CPAP, man. I'm dealing with that right now. Hey, I tell you this, man. I went back probably about three weeks ago and talked to my daughter. Hey, this shit ain't helping me, man. I'm still not sleeping. I'm still sleeping three, four hours or whatever. She sends me back. I goes back over there and I shit you not. This lady put my mask on for me. She put it all on, tied it up because she wanted to see my pressure. She wanted to check my pressure. I think it's a pressure issue because I can feel my chest be hurting. after I wake up and shit. Like, I feel like the pressure's too high. But, bro, she put this thing on my head and she tightened everything up. And I promise you, she said, you don't have to adjust this no more. Right? And since she did that, I know shit, it don't come off my face, bro. It don't do none of that stuff no more like it normally do. But guess what happened, Dumbo? I got all the new equipment, switched it out, and now I got leaks all over the place again, bro. Like, it's crazy. Where do you get distilled water? Right on the floor? Right there? I'm looking at mine right now. He's staring at me. I got some more. This might go more to Alex. Tinnitus. The VA has promoted eliminating tinnitus as a standalone 10% rating. Instead, treating it as a symptom of an underlying hearing loss condition. UAW bro I know you're hearing copy Jack absolutely I don't know if I can say this but it's not just tendonitis but make sure you have like secondaries with your tendonitis as well like you get anxiety the ringing in your ear is just constant all day it causes migraines like you get anxiety about going to sleep because it wakes you up in the middle of your sleep so yeah they're getting a little too nice but make sure you're also documenting those secondaries that's the big heavy hitters when it comes to your raisins that's the good thing about being NC like when these people come back for their medical appointments and examinations yo I'll be writing that stuff down like yo what you said what they gave you like so I'm gonna start getting a little playbook and a little cheatbook and just pass that along that's gonna be about like my turnover like hey that's why they're changing the game like right on top of the right PP and Eno that's right yeah man But there's a lot. There's also some things talking about, like Daniel was talking about, taxing, cost of living, TACOLA, federal income tax changes, disability. You know, we can go down all this. I will recommend this. I looked up things, and then I consolidated, and then I bounced it in AI. So for AI For listeners Just go up on Gemini or chat Pull up relevant stories About veterans disability percentages being affected And then Follow up that question With What I put And just what are the potential effects To the PACT Act And cost of living taxation And you'll go from there But it's a lot and you know Donald got a sneaky look on his face he typed something I just wanted to throw one more thing in there about how much money you make though it says something about if you get your VA and then you make a certain amount of money can affect how much you get back also yeah they got well summary of major 2026 tax exemptions. It was Georgia, California, Virginia, Illinois. The whole bunch of stuff. I got smoked for Damo, man. Because anytime I talk to Damo about politics, he's like, yeah, man, I ain't listening to that, man. And I always say, if you don't do politics, politics don't do you. So I'm just saying, just you be up to date, man. You just don't like doing the activist thing, but you gotta You got to stay plugged in. Aaron said. Aaron couldn't just say he ran it through chat GPT, man. He had to say, hey, I looked it up. Damn right. I was dated it. Didn't I? Bounced it off chat GPT. Yep. Aaron ain't playing with y'all. I just tried to tell you. Aaron ain't playing with y'all. He throwing that shit off at chat GPT, dog. I ran it through chat GPT. Then I bounced it. I went to congress.gov Right? I look up on C-Stand I told y'all, then I start going Yeah, I went to the AI Yeah We actually talked through this I gotta get back to a couple more things About you, Alex Before that, though Did any of y'all see, and y'all probably didn't But did any of y'all see this video? It was on X and it was like The cops they went into a frat house while these guys were getting hazed. None of y'all saw this? I didn't see it. You did? You saw it? Unless my daughter says to me, I don't be up to date, man. Listen, I don't know why this is a thing, right? You know what I'm saying? The cops go in this frat house, bro, and these dudes, they in like a room look like a basement or something. It's about 20, 25 dudes, somewhere between 15 and 20 dudes in this room. They all quiet, look like they got like They covered in some oil or ketchup. People were saying it was hard to see what they were covered in, but. Hey, yo. I mean, it was a very old moment. Yeah, it was wild. Initiation is like frat shit, right? So the cops, they telling the dudes to leave. Like, yo, get out of here. The dudes ain't moving, bro. Scared straight. Scared straight. So then the cops go upstairs and get who I guess. And I don't know frat speak or college speak, but I guess they get like the dudes that's already been initiated or whatever the dudes that's upstairs, them dudes come down and the cops like, yo do y'all know what's going on? Them dudes like, we don't know what's going on. We don't know who to talk to. This ain't our house. We don't got the dude number who house it is. Meanwhile, the dudes in the room they never leaving. I'm like, yo, them frat boys don't play, bro. I'm sure somebody got arrested that day. They had all the type of shit on them though, man. That part was wild. That shit like out of the movies, man. Like how they were standing in that room, in that corner, and how they was like standing up like that i think some of them were like blindfolded and shit too it was crazy and and um but you know what you know my biggest question is dumbo is this for alex man like like i know why i saw the video right i know why i looked it up right yeah i want to know how alex looked it up but i looked it up because dumbo you you posted it you put it that's why i looked at it but alex why the hell you look at that how you find that video uh i'm in a fraternity so uh it shows up on my algorithm yeah got you every now and then it shows up on my algorithm yeah but I'm in uh Alpha Phi as a non-hazing organization I just want to put that out there you know well uh um me and Alpha you know those guys were probably scared straight uh I never went through anything like that somebody told them don't ever leave that room and uh they knew that it probably was going to be consequences if they left the room but uh that's just what I'm assuming So that's why we did not leave that room But yeah I'm sure that was a non-hating organization too Oh yeah I don't know I don't know many fraternities that still hate you Yeah I can only speak for Al Pfei Fraternity Incorporated That's nicely played brother I can only speak for So when did you What's the name of it? Yeah, when did you pledge? Spring 2007 Southern University Okay alright so you're holding it down That ain't just a shirt Oh yeah yeah absolutely Okay You did college Before the Navy Yes I did I did four years at Southern I got my degree in secondary education And concentration in biology I taught school for two years And I absolutely hated it I realized managing other people's kids. 10th grade biology, high school. Cool. 10th grade is what age? 16. Yeah, 16. Okay. So I want to do what you don't want to do when I retire. Damn, all right. Well. No, craziest moment. Craziest moment at school. Like, student moment. Bro, they don't respect nothing. There ain't no single crazy moment. And I can imagine how it is today with the evolution of the cell phone and whatnot. And back in 2008, 2009 time frame, like most 15 year olds didn't have a cell phone, like maybe one or two, but like all of them got it now. And Lord have mercy, if you try to take that cell phone away from your mom and dad coming down. You saw the video where the teacher tried to take the girl's cell phone and she pepper sprayed his eyes? Yeah, I can imagine that. You pepper sprayed him like three times. Yeah. He's sitting there in the middle of the hallway. I can't imagine. Well, Alex, were you teaching in the waters? Nah, I started teaching anything, huh? In the waters? Yeah. That's the problem right there. Nah, nah. Nah, nah. The school is if you look, you're teaching in New Orleans, Philadelphia, Oakland. Yo, man, nah, yo. maryland baltimore he's in patented no disrespect yeah i got a baltimore taking care of two of my children right now but the baltimore mayor you seen that clip about the community i found a clip where the dude was like he's a he's like he's talking about going to the community we don't condone you for that work last people try to judge him we don't condone you for that work but yeah that's not that video teaching 14 15 year old children back in 07 um so what so going from that to awf okay what was was like navy like did you have like a damon kind of said it early do you have like an activist air moment like a fuck it moment and just air in moments like yo fuck it i'm done with this shit i'm going to military like what made you choose the military i had a friend that was in the military um they were a ma and you know we kept in contact or whatnot and um they just kind of sold it to me like ah why don't you try the military and I was like alright cool uh the AWF aspect I wanted to be an MA as well I didn't really know much about the jobs I just know MA that just sounds popular and trendy um when I went to MEPS they told me it was gonna be 18 months before I leave I was like nah I'm really trying to get out here a little sooner he just like asked me I don't know if he asked me because of my race but he's like can you swim I was like yeah and he's like can you run your mile and a half? I was like, yeah. Cool, I'm going to give you this AWF job. I was like, okay, what's the AWF? He's like, yeah, you're going to be assisting with flying the planes. Absolute lie. But I was like, yeah, you can get out here in two months. I was like, cool, I'll take it. So that's how I got AWF. I didn't really know what I was going to be doing. I just knew I would kind of be flying on something. How was the culture shock? How was the culture shock when you saw? You know exactly what Coach of Shock don't talk about there, Alex? The community, you know what I'm saying? It's a very close-knit community. Yeah, it's a tight, close-knit community. So it was interesting. Kind of learned things. You put me on the spot, bro. You learned how to navigate your lane and deal with certain things. It was interesting. I got a question for you in that same vein Right So Damon joined the Navy straight out of Like high school right Aaron joined the Navy Pretty much straight out of high school too Right Aaron am I off on that I joined the Navy not too I graduated high school I could kind of throw that in there I graduated high school early so I ain't joined straight out of high school It took me a couple years but I was like 19 Right We don't get I don't think we've had the perspective Or the thought process of The seller that Went to college Had a career job And then joined the Navy to become a fucking E1 Or whatever it was Went to boot camp and was treated like everybody else at boot camp Like I was just a teacher Two months ago I had a career, I graduated college I'm a part of a frat What's your brain How's your brain working when you're getting into this new military environment When you've already accomplished a little bit of like life and whatever we deem to be the American dream um so like going into boot camp like you just I didn't know anything about it like I didn't have any friends or family that like I like to have organic experiences so I don't want to be influenced by a lot of people so I wasn't like doing my research and went there I went to boot camp I didn't know like any rank or anything like that like I was mad fresh and just like clean slate blank canvas so um Bootcamp wasn't that bad. Like I think for me being older it was kind of being in the room with the 18 and 19 year olds that was a little older That was a little annoying I was 25 I believe My RDCs they were kind of chill with me I think they could spot out who's the older people in the group. So they kind of lean on them to be section leaders and all that other stuff. Like what not? And R-Pac and all that. But I don't know. Just being older, coming in, working with younger generations. like you just be like that's for the bullshit that's about it you know but um you know just kind of always just do what you told kind of mentality and just kind of keep your head down that's what everybody like that's one thing that my crew just told me just do what your head down put your head down grind it out and you'll do all right so that's kind of mentality i've kept throughout my co-career and it's kind of it's worked out a little bit yeah you because you didn't have to come of age in the military like we all know no no we we came and i'm speaking for all of us because i'm because they joined at young ages but we came of age we were like 19 20 21 22 23 like we learned about like who we were as men and about life and this thing and you kind of came in already you went boot camp across from some 18 year old who never had a job you know in their life you know you go to your first command and you a new report and you might be getting um led by a third class or second class or whatever that is younger than you and way less experienced at life than you as well and for me that got to be a humbling thing yeah it was humbling but um i don't mind it like i know about having deference just respect for those who came before you whether it's just time age rank rate like that so i'm always i'm a huge person on deference so that never really bothered me and i'm gonna i always try to be like a fun just kind of soak up information from everybody so whether you're junior you're senior we're equal we're peers so i never had that problem so i always kind of try to soak up things yeah do you see yourself stopping at 20 or going past 20 uh i was like that's like a cdb no no no no because i've recently like i've been pretty adamant about i'm not doing more than 20 but i've recently kind of just changed I've kind of bought into drinking the juice of the Navy and whatnot and pause my bad so I think I will go past 20 if I can see a path for me to be a CMC that's the goal for me right now I want to be a CMC. And... I gotta make TV first, right? You gonna make it first time up. I'm calling right now. That's the goal. That's what's gonna happen. That's what's gonna happen. If I can see a viable path or not, like, just a possibility of a path, then I'll probably stay in past 20. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's kind of like a recent change for me in my life. I don't know. I just had some very dynamic CMCs My tour at HX21 With Massachusetts Lee, Massachusetts Lampasona And they like They changed like My outlook on the Navy And just I got so much Are you talking about the Lampasona? Yeah Lampasona, that's my doom, bro That's my God, man That's broke Yeah Yeah, I know he put some good I know he got some good I got a notebook for the gyms and one-liners that he said Hey, you lucked out Because going from Lee to Lampasona that's like calm chill then you got it's almost more like the five brimstones yeah yeah so you you seen what the ride looks like and even got you know I still right down the street got mentioned by Massey Woodall as well so man I had some I wouldn't put too much on what he'd be talking you said you got a notebook of gems right yeah is it like right there where you are Is it right? No, no, no, it's not. It's packed up in a box, but yeah. Pogus, high up, can't give a shit. Yeah, that was his favorite. Yep. Ain't that crazy how you could be thinking one way and then just get around the good vibes and that shit could just change everything. I feel like those two were the first time I had true mentors in my Navy career. 14 years in, I think my problem was I had friends that were just ranked higher than me, and I would call them mentors. But they really weren't. But it's like those two people were somebody who kind of poured into me. They coached me. They developed me. They mentored me. And they did a lot of correcting on me. But yeah, they definitely changed my outlook of how I view the Navy and what I want to be in the Navy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and the special thing about some special people like that is it's intentional. Like they on a mission to be that person. You know what I mean? And I don't knock people like that. Like that's just intentionally on a mission to be that person. I mean, I don't know how you approach, you know, the thing, Damon, but I know like every opportunity now and I have, you know, it's an opportunity to impart something on somebody so that, you know, we could push this thing further. and further. Yeah. You know what, man? Alex said something earlier, man, that I want to hit on, but we kind of like moved on from it, man. When you said that you like doing what you're doing now, right? We don't know how, like I know how important it is to want to come to work every day. Right? That's the big difference, man. When you want to come to work and do your job at a high level, man, that's going to work itself out. Right? I love getting up. I know I'm going to talk to some sailors today and I know we're going to do this and do that. I got some CDBs going on. That gets me going. Right? So when I come in the building, I'm going to put my... We learned about life. If you like doing something, you're going to put your best foot forward every time because you like doing it. Right? So now I think when you cross rating, you're doing the things you're doing now, you like doing it so I can see you putting your best foot forward every time you step into the building, man. So keep that shit going and everything else is going to pay its way, man. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, Damon. The battle must be fought anew every day. Right? That's the quote that I had on the last one. Let me write that one down. The battle must be fought anew every day. The battle must be fought anew every day. Okay. Right. I'm going to take a break in this conversation and talk about expectation politics. This is the last time I want to talk about expectation politics, though. So we posted a clip on TikTok. The last clip we posted, it was from our last episode where we were talking about making, what were we talking about? If you let people see your charge book in your vestment, right? Yeah. And somebody jumped on here. And shout out to this person. No hate, no discontent or nothing like that. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. but I just want to talk about expectation plastic so somebody posted on there they said of all the conversations to be had you guys are talking about if you allow the lower enlisted to look inside your box the first thing that I want to say before I even get into like the conversation we had was um we it never was about lower enlisted so that person kind of just so you know you cherry picked lower enlisted from a conversation that it wasn't. It was just about non-chiefs. The question was about non-chiefs. But your sentiment is still the same, right? Of all conversations we had, you guys talk about this, right? So, you know, my initial response there was pretty much... Shit. Oh, my initial response was, we are a Navy Lifestyle Podcast. We talk about our entire experience as sellers. You know, I asked the person, like, have you ever listened to an entire episode? Or have you just been able to catch the clips on socials? And then they pretty much it was a longer conversation. Oh, no, no. My first response was you do listen to our podcast and know we talk about everything. Right. Like we it's not like just this thing. And then the person said, my bad, I thought this was a celebration focused podcast and touched on things that could make a positive impact in the naval environment. Belay my last. Right. And then, you know, then that's when I said, no, we're Navy Lifestyle Podcast. We talk about our entire experience as salvage. You know, have you ever listened to a entire episode or have you just been able to catch the clips? No judge is asking. And then that response was no. When I listen to podcasts, it's more self-help or politics. but what clips you choose to promote your podcast still speaks values, right? So that's basically it. And then I said, damn, we just got a varied eclipse. We reviewed the new J. Cole album on this episode. I definitely consider that up too. I hope that all of our listeners still pull some good stuff from the episodes though. Appreciate your feedback too. And this has been kind of brewing in me for a little bit. I kind of touched on it last week and I ain't going to stick here too much. But the expectation politics are like what you think this should be or what you think like we should be talking about. Just because this shit hits your algorithm this week in this conversation does not discount the six years of this that we've been doing. And in all of this, we normally start out asking each other how we doing and we talk about everything. like this is meant to feel like the way me and Damon kind of started it it always felt like just we down in CCS on watch and we just talking you know movies come up uh the shit that happened in the world come up books come up and Navy should come up and we get a chance to mentor and we get a chance to help people out uh we've been having some good like water cooler kind of conversations uh since Aaron been on our podcast uh and some good debates in that regard too and they create good conversations on social media too. So it's also a part of this that I think is a feel-good part. Somebody hit me up the other day and was like, yo, when y'all ain't drop on Monday, I was mad. And for the record, this ain't drop. Well, for the record, next week, we're not going to have an episode, y'all, next week. We're going to take a break. But yeah, I was mad at y'all. So we serve a lot of different things, But the biggest one is just, hey, we're getting on here. We are letting younger sellers know that we've been through the same shit as them. We're humans who, though leaders, we're also human. And we go through real life experiences. And some of that stuff, Jews do get dropped, you know, and maybe a lot. And I'm sure a lot of people have learned lessons from this and all of that. And that's what we are, and that's what we're going to be. We are never ever Going to register as The bullet by bullet by bullet By bullet Leadership informative show We're not Me personally I don't want to do that much research To be honest with y'all I'm not trying to We had a conversation about Just some insider We had a conversation about What Aaron was just talking about With the veterans benefits and all that stuff, right? And in our conversation, we were adamant about making sure that we stick to the facts, we get good sources, and we do it the right way, right? I'm not trying to do that for... We're on episode 180. We've been doing this for six years. I'm not doing that. I got work to do, man. I got to reset for work, man. I got to sell it, man. I'm not doing that. You know, like, we get in here, we have some fun, we have those topics, we bring guests on, And we do those kind of things. There are other sources, right? We shout out other people all the time. Like I said, we ain't shouting out my guy, but he knows he does it. Lee Gus was doing it. I'm sure Ariana going to do it. It's mad other people that get on and do them like them tidbits where they're giving you bullet by bullet by bullet by bullet of facts. And we don't hate those people. It's just not us. And it's okay if, you know, that's not what you want. If you live your life and you want everything you consume to be this informational tablet of Navy stuff for your entire life, and that's the only reason why you're going to be on social media, okay. And it's okay to not watch our clip about do you let non-chiefs look at your vessel in your charge book. And 30 other people told us it was a good topic. But that's that. And maybe I shouldn't even be harping on that. But I just wanted to say that one last time, man. This is not a leadership podcast. It's not a, like, total, it's a lifestyle podcast, Navy lifestyle podcast. Could I add on to that, man? Yes, please. This is a lifestyle podcast, and like you said, it's to give the feeling of a conversation that y'all have in CCS, or if we had a mess or if I saw somebody and we chopped it up at the end of the child line or on the smoke pit. I don't smoke, but I'll go out there and chop it up. It's to emulate that, right? We do know that we're tenured people and we have a pretty good reach and we're leaders. So because we're leaders, our voices will carry a different amount of weight. And we think about that all the time. it's a privilege and it's a burden and it's added it's a warranted burden to know that your voice can influence people so we do try to make sure that like you said before we talked about the gay disability thing we're not trying to go left right it's just what is it and talk about it you know you can't be on this podcast and not understand that we have opinions everybody knows where I lean on on majority of things, right? But just understand that we take it very heavy that we understand that our voices carry. Damon is the mayor of the people. Damon says stuff in a comment. Everybody, I agree with what he said. You know what I'm saying? People, they know that it carries weight. So that goes in the conversation, so. You know, Aaron, Dumbo, Alex, you know, it's one of those things for me is that negativity draws all the attention, right? When someone said something negative, is always draws a lot of attention. My only take is, and my only thing, and I know Domo, and let me tell you guys something, Domo reads every freaking comment almost, man. Like, he really does, right? And I know I don't. I'll be honest. I don't read every one of them, right? Not on Facebook, bro. Not on Facebook, bro. I read a couple right now, but that PT one. Yeah. But I will say this, though, man. Like, even with the comments on things you don't like or you, man, have a point, though. like we love it we everybody's not gonna agree with us we understand and we know that but just being negative to be negative that's kind of gets me man like if you be negative about somebody and you have a what you're trying to be negative about i like that like i love that because it's like a debate it's like an argument it's like okay i love it but just to say some negative shit with nothing to back it and that's why it gets me at yeah and like i said that person i'm not like don't think was intentionally negative. I think it was like just expectation policy. Politics like, hey, we expect you to be like this. You know, it was another one before where it was like, oh my God, the CMCs are talking about this. I remember that one. It was a while ago. Yeah, so that's that and, you know, it kind of is what it is. Hey, Damon, can you do something for AWF1? I want you to bring back an old question that you used to ask about the LPOs, but it's from way back in the day. A hot running LPO and then a brand new LPO. Oh, yeah. Hey, yeah. What's your take? That's a good question. I love asking this question too, man. So what is your take on say you got a five-year LPO, right? You've been in five years, you're kicking ass, shit hot, good to go. Then you got an LPO, you got a first class that's coming in, right? Say he's just coming on board the ship or whatever, but he's been in, like, say, 14, 15 years. But we already got this shit hot guy that's doing his thing, but now we got the LPO coming in. What's your take on that? Should he become the 15 year of the LPO? Hey, before you go, I meant to say NC1. I'm sorry. Who? Um... no i don't think he should automatically just because he's been in 14 years um he should automatically be the lpo um at the same time those two should be working together like you got 14 years 15 years if my math is correct that's a nine-year gap so there's a lot that they can learn from each other like he can teach him the old ways i can teach you the new ways i'm more closer to the younger generation of how to deal with these sailors this new generation of sailors but um i don't think just because he's been in 14 years he should be like grandfathered into lpo when i got this guy that's already been here he's already been kicking ass and he's already the lpo like i'm gonna rock with him now at the same time at any given time like you underperforming now i got this guy i got this big joke in the bag i can put out this 14 year old back and put him in Yeah. I think Alex, my thought was like, OK, after about say four or five months goes by and it's 15 year guys just as good. Right. And what he does right now, I'm not trying to persuade you anyway, but let me tell you what I think. my thought process anyway my thought process is that this guy or girl that's been in 4 or 5 years got to the command and was probably a 3rd class or a 2nd class and just got up there right they came up real quick also when that guy come in 14, 15 years old what he coming to the command to do to be probably the LPO right probably the LPO he's probably trying to make chief I just want, and I'm not going to try to persuade a conversation, but I want that to be a thought process is that that person is coming to the command to fill a first class building and probably the LPO when they get to the command. That's my only other thought. I just want to throw that in there, you know? So it's just something. And then you're right. But I tell you, it happened to me before. And I, after about, what, three or four months, the person ended up taking over LPO. that happened to me it happened like that but that was how I was looking at things and whatever but yeah so yeah that's all I got done what would you do Aaron like back in the day when you asked this question I had a different thought now I got my thought changed but what would you do Aaron it's tough that's a good question well I'm thinking about one thing so this is what I'm thinking about My question would be Who Does the decision or lack thereof Hurt more I just I think I got some consideration To that Who doesn't hurt more I don't think LPO is needed but I think LPO Is I'm going to use a corny word It's valued too much man I'm a person That I've made rank and I never had LPO on my eval. Career counselor, I had alpha, but career counselor and department of career counselor was the biggest thing I showed in my leadership. I don't like my answer. No, no, no, it's not that, right? It's just that I was going to ask you, do you think that? It's not that, right? But I'm listening to you talk as a listener, right? And as a listener, I just heard you say that shit. and I'm like, do you think you're the exception or do you think that that's the norm? Exception, I answer for one. I am the exception because I have the career counselor at Alpo and then me doing RDC duty added to me being the exception. Yeah and the reason why I ask that Cause some people listen I'm sorry Aaron I'm gonna shut up in a second The reason why I ask that is cause some people listen to us And then they get in our comments and be like Yo y'all don't know how Shit is at commands outside of y'all's Commands Like the way y'all look at Shit is different than the way It's looked at other places Man If they come with that shit Look I ain't saying that I've seen all of it or you've seen All of it we've seen a good amount Of it we're not here by accident Man and we got people That give us relevance that are in Those business so when they say Y'all ain't around it we got people that's In it shut I'll be Professional so this is basically what they saying Though Aaron they saying like you Might not like Weigh the LPO banner As heavy if you got a first class that's kicking ass right you might see that first class kicking ass and being like no i don't it don't matter if they're lp or not i might too because i understand like all the other holes that this person fills damon might too because he understands all the other holes that this person we also choose we also chose to make a podcast and talk about navy shit and share our experience in that manner some of these people are saying that's not the experiences that they're seeing and their general Navy experience? Man, I would try to answer this the best way I can. I think cats need to get up off the LPO narcotic. Like, everyone cannot be LPO the entire time. You get there, you have it for a little bit, and then it turns over. You know everyone can't be LPO all the time. You're going to lead how you lead, get your turn, whether it's a young person, the less-tenured person being supported by the older guy, or person or vice versa. I don't know any other way for me to answer that question, excluding my personal experience. But I've seen it now where I had four first classes on my destroyer and they all are on khakis right now. And of the four of them, only two of them were the LPOs. they rotate, they show so many different ways one picked up khakis two times over being chief and then now he's a mustang yeah sorry if I'm like not if I'm not really giving a tangible answer but that's the best way I can put it I agree with you but people listen to us sometimes and like say that we're like some of our shit ain't if they got the answers man i hope they're the right ones you understand what i'm saying damon and i want them to understand hear me clear if y'all got all the goddamn answers i hope they're the right ones well i don't well this is this is the thing aaron this is what you you could be you know i kind of agree with you saying also but at the same time but at the same time that is what the navy is we are built on right now we got ladders and shit that says lpo at sea and we got all this stuff so sailors are coming there they they wanna they go they're gonna want that lpo at sea now it's for us as leaders like you said that's why i agree with you at aaron like even with my conversation i had earlier i didn't say this though i the the guy that had lpo or the guy that had lpo before they already had it on the evaluation and all that i didn't say that earlier but they already had all that stuff too it was already done evaluation and then the turnover was much easier for me to do but what i'm getting at is what i was trying to get at is that hey this person is coming in right pumped up motivated to be wanted to go to lpo this like it's almost like i've been doing it's like say you go to short duty right they go to short duty they cannot wait to get back out to see them to feel that role as lpo at sea when they get there they say nah you know i mean you ain't doing this, you're going to be the work center supervisor, right? Blah, blah, blah. Now, what I didn't say is, though, it's just a turnover thing and all that stuff, but I just want to know the thought process behind it. But, Aaron, the LPO thing, man, like, in order for us to get on the other side of it, like, and say, not put much weight on it, the Navy has to not put much weight on it, because the Navy right now, I feel like we're putting a lot of weight on it. You know what I mean? I mean, rightfully so. Yeah, you should be leading at C, like leading at the pinnacle or at the tip of the spear, 100%. But in our conversation, our being leadership, make it known, yo, everybody cannot be LPO all the time. They have so many times, man. Communicate it, you know, hey, communicate that and you're there to the board. Hey, I was previously LPO and CEO over here. I came, a succession plan was in place, and I'm leading to the best of my ability, supporting my division. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. So for an example, right, I'm going to read a comment that somebody said on LinkedIn, right? They said, and we were talking to Madison about how Madison was kind of explaining to us that, like, our opinion about how a command or an experience, and I mentioned some of your thoughts on this too, Alex. But she was talking about how our opinion about how a command can't change your willingness to stay in or impact your willingness to stay in or whatever. You got to be kind of self-sufficient and have that drive. And then my response was like, go up. Go up and up and up and up and get something done if you were in this toxic work environment until you do get to your CMC and your CMC do something about it. And this is a comment that somebody said, and I'm interested in your thoughts, and this don't got nothing to do with the commenter. but he said, you gave a great point of view, but the situation doesn't always seem to be like that. And that's the point I'm trying to make to you, Aaron, too. Then he said, not all CMCs are approachable, nor even able to hold a conversation with the seller. Most of the CMC don't even know that half of the crew they were supposed, don't even know half of the crew they're supposed to advocate for. On the ship, most chiefs are mission focused and forget the human aspect of the job. Like this is what somebody posted. Do you think they, do you think with their, and I'm not giving my point of view on any of it. I know some really great CMCs. I know some really great chiefs. Do you think this person is bullshit in their experience? No, I don't. I don't. I think it's spot on, man. It happens. It happens. And probably in the aviation community, probably more than any because it's all about flying. It's all about maintenance. Right? That's all it's about, flying. So I can see where that conversation is going. Even for me. I've been in command now since September if I sit in and tell you I knew all those sailors by name I don't have I spoke to them have I talked to them and whatever yes because I talk to every pay grade and I walk around and I do all this stuff but do I know every one of them names no but I guarantee I'm willing to help any of them that got an issue you know what I'm saying but yeah that's Domo back to you Domo and he made a great point I like it and that speaks to Alex's Point earlier how Alex was like yo All I'm doing is filling out 1306s Right like that's all I'm Doing you know and you might Be dealing with sellers who dealt with Career counselors who Didn't even do that Like you know and And that's the point that some of these Sellers are making because I think about that shit all the time Like when somebody Say like yo you changed I took like what Commander Desmond Walker said when he was like, hey, I want when people talk to me to feel like they're the only person in the Navy, right? Or somebody said that about him or something like that. So I took that and I'm like, hey, that's how I want people to feel. Not everybody wants people to feel like that. You know what I mean? So now when people are dealing with you and they're having a unique experience. So I think when we get on here sometime and we talk and we talk about what we would do and things we would do, it's from our brain And I think we have expectations about how leaders should be. But when you look at the field, and I'm not calling anybody outright, this ain't one of those kind of rants. But when you look at the fields, I don't think our assessment of how leaders should be is necessarily in line with the field at all times. I think some of our intentions is to hopefully land on some younger people so that they couldn't become whatever the field is. So when people come back and retort comments like that to us, they're telling us like, yo, my experience is not like what you guys are saying. And that's the only thing I'm saying. And I agree with everything you said. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? Right. I mean, like, that's like, that's not like a, yeah, that ain't like a defensive thing. That's just more like. I'm with it. I don't like the phrase. They say the phrase. I was in your shoes. I don't like saying that because I'm so far removed from being in your shoes right I was a first class I ain't been a first class since 2016 yeah yeah yeah check them checks bro bro that's facts bro I said the thing on the pod before about the first class check me about saying when I used to say all the time this is how I did it right and I got check the same thing man like to make the same we do things the same they we we we think differently all this stuff so yeah yeah and i i mean i would say i was unorthodox i would say that every day like i i know that uh like i don't want to be cookie cutter or normal or whatever you want i don't want to like land where everybody else lands like it's just the way it is you know yeah Hey, NC1, what's some of your grounding kind of motivational things that keep you going and stuff like that? I think, not to sound like corny or trendy, but I really do love helping sailors out. So that's something that keeps me motivated. Something that keeps me grounded is my family. like um just them being along with me after this journey and helping me uh navigate through this conversion process navigating through my development as well and just their support and whatnot that definitely helps keep me grounded but like and of course they motivate me as well but like just like helping out these sailors is everything to me and uh like i said like my cup run us over now just like being able to do this on a daily basis a daily full-time basis so that's kind of what motivates me just like gets me happy and excited to go to work so what's one thing that you wish people understood about NC's our career counselors period I'll give an example like I feel no way about I don't want nobody to think I feel no way about this if my door is open and my office is empty I probably somebody probably just walked out of there so if you walk in there just know somebody else probably just walked out like I said that's not like a negative thing or not it's just something that I want people to consider like if my shit opened and nobody in there I probably just finished with somebody you know that's but what's something you got anything like that I just think damn it's not like I'm capable of admin and I always like I always hated this cause you remind me about my door open policy like Those admin office hours, I know a lot of people just be thinking like, oh, they don't be doing nothing. They open from 8 to 11 and they close from 12 to 1. Yo, that is so much needed now that I've seen like what happens behind that closed door. Because you just got like, think about it. You got a command of 300, 400 people and how many of those people come to admin during those office hours. When do you expect that work to get done? If I constantly got somebody coming in, like, you know, open door posse, come in, we'll take care of you. but like I need a break from y'all coming in here to actually get your work done and like that's something that a lot of people don't realize they just see the office hours posted and just think oh they're on lunch they're just chilling nah we in there yes we eating but we're doing the work that y'all submitted for us to do um so that's something I definitely think that um I learned myself because I was one of those people like damn having always clothes and uh that's something I definitely learned I wish that to convey to other people as well. Yeah, taking care of sellers, yeah, all good stuff, right? So a question for you is this. How long have you been doing the NC thing? Actually since March of 24 Okay So it been a little bit It been a good little minute It's been a nice journey One thing I love about the NC community Is when you hit the Facebook pages up It's a very tight community You know like I got NC Master Chiefs in my phone Like I try not to use that too often That's my get out of jail free cards as I like to call it But um And, you know, there's a very tight community that Facebook page, the group page is like, man, you just learn. You didn't even got to post on that. You can just sit there and read the comments, read the questions, read the comments. And you can just sit there, take notes and just learn. But it's a very tight community. So I've definitely grown since then a lot. I remember the day I took over, I had to do somebody's retirement paperwork. And I told them, well, I honestly have never done this before and I do not know what I'm doing. but I just told him like yo I like to read I'm gonna read up on this and I'm not gonna fuck over you I promise you that I give you that my word as a man on that and uh well he hasn't called me since he got out so everything must have been good so um now looking back on it that was just kind of the growth and journey has been great for that and I'm still learning I can't wait to go to my first tour as an MC and just kind of get into the things that I don't really get to do at my command now as far as just like Seaway first term sailors, pack sailors so I'm excited about that so here's my messy question messy? yeah my messy question I gotta have a messy question officers, chiefs, junior enlisted who do you have the hardest time who gives you the hardest time? first class and it's probably because of my expectation of what I think my peers should be but I've had like more than one first class ask me like what's the difference between EAOS and soft EAOS. And I was just like, I was dumbfounded that I didn't know it. So, I don't know. The kind of way that I came up to it is soft EAOS has more letters, so that's going to be the bigger date. That's just the easiest way to remember that. But you'd be surprised just how many first classes don't know simple. Well, I don't know if they're simple because you do this on like a daily basis, but I guess if you're in an LPO position or in a position where you should be leading sailors, I feel like they should be kind of general knowledge But you'd be surprised Not to show anybody about how many people don't know Hey you know Hey you know what Hey first I know what I was thinking about then I was about to talk about earlier I'm going to get back to this right here in a minute though But I heard I wanted to talk about those hours You talked about the admin hours I really didn't realize none of that stuff Until I probably achieved man Really? Like how important those admin hours was man Like when you start getting behind it So I really think about, man, no, they need those hours. For real, for real. But yeah, man, that's kind of, damn. Go ahead, I just got my train of thought. All I was going to say was at my command, admin didn't have those hours. I like told them to have hours. Like, yo, y'all need training hours. Y'all need hours where y'all are not doing customer service. Right. Like you have to have it. You know what I mean? Yeah. I know you're from Aaron with us because you listen to us so you got a do better? Yeah so my do better since I'm in the process I just PCS my do better is to the people that need to be hiring for these movers and packers the guys finished we had a three bedroom we put everything that we wanted to take with us putting our calls in the third bedroom the smallest bedroom and I just kind of stayed in there I was like, yo, don't touch anything in here. Everything else got to go. Guy comes. Like, yo, we finished. Comes in his walk around. Yo, I walk in my master bedroom. They got the mattress flipped up. I'm like, yo, you going to pack up the mattress? He's like, oh, you want to take that with you? I'm like, yeah, I want to take my mattress with me. Like, it was just a lot of things like that. And I appreciate the work that they be doing, but, man, they left the other place trash. It's like I've tape on the ground, the rolls, the little empty tape rolls everywhere and whatnot. Like, they got to be better. I hear that New Orleans accent. I hear that New Orleans accent. When I'm getting the most, I'm getting the most. I mean it. I mean it. I mean it. What's that? What's that? I told you. But yeah, like, I get they doing their job and whatnot, and they throwing the tape around, but y'all can do a little tidying up, a little something, something. I got to do extra work. Yeah. So that's why I do better. Alex, that's only the beginning of it, man. where do they bring their shit? Hey, they don't want to put nothing together. They come in your room and say, hey, do you want to put this together? Yes, I want you to put that shit together. Yeah. The thing is like, when you sign in the paper, that dude who drive the truck, the movers be kind of like lingering around. I know you're like, lingering around to see if I'm going to get a tip. I'm like, bro, I had to tell you to pack my bed up. You ain't getting no tip if I had to tell you to pack my mattress up. Like, you can go ahead and roll it out, partner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not tipping off military man that's it you may if I'm someone who got some hot dogs I may give you a hot dog or I may have some water I may have some water but you need to get no tip hey so question it's Mardi Gra week right it's Mardi Gra week this week Mardi Gra was Tuesday Shia LaBeouf was acting ass out there wow he look at you guys like he got beat up about three times out there got arrested got released went back to the party like now all you know sensitivity he is most likely done with some real other you know mental stuff right not to kind of serious it out but how much do you miss the ones um i miss these moments like I love and hate seeing people have so much fun on Instagram at Mardi Gras while I'm at work. You know, everywhere else is just another Tuesday. You see that post a million times, and now I'm another Tuesday person. So, but you know, you miss like things just like the festivals, you know, French Quarter Fest, just things like that. but like it's kind of now it's gotten to the point where like when I come home it is the festival so like moms the family come through we got the cookouts and what not but uh yeah I do miss it I miss the culture man I miss the culture more than anything you cook? yeah absolutely yeah come on what kind of question is that? come on I don't know that's what I mean disrespect right? hey man so I don't have a do better though Y'all doing? I got one Aaron. My do better is quick though, man. My do better is for Lamar Bass. I almost ran over like three people, man. This lighting got to be fixed, man. Like we got to do something, man. They got a little... And for the sailors too, you guys need to do better too. Because they do got a button you can push for the little lights to light up on the ground, right? These sailors ain't hitting this button. They crossing this street, man. I'm going to have to jam on break. Ain't no lighting right there at the crosswalk. Yeah. Oh, about three times. So we need to do better. But it's been a talk of conversation, but they better have been fixed and we're going to have an accident on the base, man. I'm telling you. Oh, man. So I got my... All right. You got one, Damo? Or you still got one smoke for me? Damo don't have one. My dude better It's a little different man Connected with somebody the other day You know we talking It's cool you know right And they said something that was like Disgusting man I'm trying to resolve this In my mind And that's my dude better Stop doing weird stuff For sugar They said they put sugar in their grits man And they put sugar and butter on rice. That's disgusting to me. Do better. Don't be putting weird shit in your grips, man. Sugar don't go on grips, man. Just salt, pepper, cheese, man. Stop being weird, bro. That's why I do better. Come on, Aaron. They're going to be in the comments. Them people love that shit in the grits. Give me the comments. Right here. I'm with you too, Dumb. I'm with you right here. I am What? Man, I agree Hey, look I don't do it as much as I'm at Damon, don't say it Damon, don't do it Bro, don't do it Please tell me You know one of them weird people, man I am not The biggest fan now Of grits Like I used to When I was young Because I grew up on it And kind of burnt me out Because I hated so much, right? But I used to tap a little Little sugar In them grits, man I used to Get some That for real Oh, my God I used to hit it with a little bit, but then I throw some jelly in there too. And I throw my bacon in there, my sauce, all that stuff, my grits, man. Eggs, I mix it all up together, man. That's some Mr. Speedy stuff there, man. Well, let's go to Philadelphia. First, let me say this first. I've never really been a big fan of cheese and grits, honestly. Right? I had some cheesy grits I like, but I've never been a big fan of cheese and grits. I have put sugar in grits. But I don't even want to talk about the sugar in the grits. I like sugar and grits I haven't really put sugar and grits recently but I would I want to talk about I want to talk about butter, hold up, I want to ask you a question first, have you ever put butter and sugar in white rice, jasmine rice or sticky rice? No, yes, try it and then let's talk let's talk after you try it have you done this monstrosity? hold on, hold on and then you just eat the rice? like with butter and sugar you don't put nothing on it butter butter and sugar i'm not sugar jasmine white rice so white rice either the jasmine or the sticky butter and sugar and you tell me yeah i don't i don't do it no more because i'm i'm probably gonna be a diabetic in the future but back in the day yo back in the day though i used to freaking do it man i used to do it it was good as hell i ain't gonna lie how could it not be good it's butter and sugar yes it's rice butter and sugar how can you know of that rice you talking about some Uncle Ben's rice long grain it has to be jasmine or any of it you can go any my recommendation is jasmine sticky jasmine or sticky rice it could be Uncle Ben's the white rice whatever but what are we doing in 2026 man do you like rice yeah I'm Caribbean and grew up in the world Yes, of course. Do you like butter? You're not about to triangulate me, bro. Answer the questions, bro. Don't contrarian Aaron needs. Do you like butter? You got it, bro. You got it. Answer the question. Do you like butter? Answer the question, Aaron. Do I use butter? Do you like sugar? answer okay so how could the three go wrong I don't think the three go wrong alright hey do you like marinara spaghetti sauce yeah I guess do you like peanut butter yes wow peanut butter spaghetti noodles do you like no food these are desperation tactics right here man you know what i'm saying desperation tactics this would be a clip right here your argument was no hey you do you like this well what can go wrong if you like all three parties all of these things sugar and butter are complimentary items to a lot of things peanut butter is not peanut butter don't go with everything man you know it's like if somebody was like yo try avocado and bacon and your rice I never had it but I'm sure it's probably not bad because avocado is good with everything and bacon is good with everything butter and sugar and rice bro all I'm saying is less like we could film this shit together bro I put on my metal glasses you gotta find reasons to where you're making I mean I gotta get up with you to go to the spot anyway one day oh yeah so by there it's like it's a spot like two two spots away they got rice but whatever let's one day let's do it man get rice throw some butter and sugar and that shit you tell me bro yeah i don't even i don't even want to tell you hey we'll do it you got a little do you get your medical glasses and hey this is the pts ptsf live hey aaron's about to vomit after eating Butter Sugar Rice It doesn't sound right That shit good as fuck That shit good boy Keep me on the watch Keep it going bro Keep you on the throne People might look at you funny Sneak that sugar in there Them packets You gotta grab two at a time You think it's one They think you got three You really got six How much sugar is enough I just made Kool-Aid this weekend, man. And it was, so this is what I did, yo. Now, listen, I don't even be cooking that much, David. So look, this is my pride and joy right here. I got this, it's a rum, it's called Coco Haven. It's made with coconut water, right? It's a little healthier than whatever. But I used a Simply Lemonade. I poured a whole thing of Simply Lemonade into one of them containers with the spout Simply Lemonade then I threw the grape Kool-Aid on it it's lemon and grape it's already a ground you from Philly you know what I'm talking about and I bought the Kool-Aid I ain't had Kool-Aid in about 20 years I bought the Kool-Aid just to do this then I put the Rum Haven in that joint then I put sugar in there Alex same like you saying Oh, no. Just like regular Kool-Aid. Just like regular Kool-Aid. That was your free workout? Nah, that was my Saturday, bro. That was my Saturday, man. I drank that shit. My wife was like, yeah, that's too tangy. I was like, cool. Cool, I'm on it. I drank it with me. Yeah, that was me, though. Hey, I got a pick of the week. I know we got a couple other topics. I got a pick of the week, man. Let me go ahead and put the air horns out. Two months later, 44 chapters, 44 hours down. You know what I mean? I am finally, right? I am pleased to announce to the listeners, I am finally finished reading or listening to the audio book of It by Stephen King, right? I'm going to talk a little bit about it Because It's a piece of my life now You know Two months of my life And the way this book is written Is It covers life It covers like these kids Seven kids From childhood to adulthood Right None of the movies None of the I'm not talking about Welcome to Derry None of the like, uh, interpolations of the it book does this book any fucking justice, right? The book is way better in every scale than anything we've ever seen on TV that like kind of represents this book. Um, I'll say that, um, what I like about the book is the duality of trauma with these kids, right? I was into the Welcome to Dairy podcast And they were talking about just how Childhood is traumatic in itself Right it's an aspect of all of this Where Pennywise feeds off of Fears and stuff like that The book explains what fears Like do for Pennywise Is appetite and like It's kind of like salt to the Body or to like It kind of like seasons the The meat or whatever that's kind of how Pennywise explains it and it's more pure in children than it is in adults because adults have now learned that the two fairy doesn't exist they've now learned that santa doesn't exist whatever uh but the the entity of course has the whole dairy under like a cast right like none of the adults are aware of anything um out of the you know uh it entities control um a lot of things in the in the book that like the entity Is pregnant with like So in the book like a Major reason Why they like Like a major like Story element when they're back Is that the entity is pregnant With like kids Um and the entity Is like in the form of a spider so it's like Thousands of kids so if they Don't kill this shit and the kids Is gonna be worse You know so that's one that's one part Of it uh the the books the movies never talked about the turtle however the show does uh but the movies never talked about the turtle the book talks about the turtle um and how they how they fight the entity it is not the same in the movies are the books uh it's just so many it's also like just so everybody know um it's also a controversial scene in a book it's like the kids have sex so that's a controversial all of them like with one girl they call it like orgy um but that's a controversial scene in that book. But what I want to say about the book is just the duality of the trauma. So you got a kid struggling with weight. That's one of the characters. And if y'all remember from the movies, it's like Ben Hanson. He's struggling with his weight. Then you got the black kid that's dealing with racism. Then you got the girl that's dealing with an abusive father. You got Bill that stutters, but he's also dealing with guilt of his brother getting killed and rejection. You got somebody who mom makes him, and I always mess this word up, it's called like Machalhoun syndrome or something like that, but his mom make him think that he's sick when he's not. You got another dude that's like a germaphobe, then you got Richie who kind of just uses humor as a shield for anything. I can't really figure out what Richie's real trauma is, but they all have traumas. So the clown kind of feeds off these vulnerable children or whatever like that, and of course it's not a clown, it's a shapeshifter and all of these things, right? But not to get too deep into the book, even though like, man, the book bounces from the childhood to the adulthood, to the childhood, to the adulthood, unlike the movies are the, the miniseries does, right? The movie kind of went all kids, all adults. One of the things that the book that, so the book is, it's a five out of five, man. It's a really good book. Like Stephen King does a great job. And not only like narrating like the story of the kids and the story of the It entity, he also got interludes in this book that breaks down the story of Derry, like the town. The town is very much a character in this book, more than anything else. The town is a character. Even after It is killed at the end of the book, a part of the town is destroyed, which is also not in any of the interpolations of this thing. One of the things It was one thing I wanted to say That I think I'm forgetting now But like I said One of the things that Stephen King does in this book He got like 11 chapters In a row where he He's bouncing back from childhood to adulthood But he's ending He's ending the damn And I don't know what this is called But he ends the chapter Without saying like a word like so he might end a chapter with like uh he grabbed the knife and he went for her but then he don't he don't say the word then the next chapter starts and it'd be like throat but then it's about like when they were like a kid he'd do that shit like 10 times straight like not necessarily non-linear because he's stitching words together from in a non-linear pattern so for instance like he might say uh like it like like when they were young they might say oh my god look at him he's and then he don't finish it right so then the next chapter is when they oh and it'll be like running was my favorite thing to do or whatever he does that shit like 11 chapters straight so he's even like flexing like literary like his chops as a writer too it took four years to write this book um and i could see somebody taking four years to read this shit you know dude it's a journey it's a journey man and um at the end of it like i'm to be honest with y'all at the end of it i gave angeline like a very long kiss and and it wasn't because nothing had to do with the book it's just the way the book ends it ends uh kind of reminding you about childhood right it's about just childhood and how you're not going to be young forever and just and and how meaningful those moments in life were when you were a kid and the friends you made and all of that shit because not everybody lives when they go fight the the clown you know um well not the clown the spider or whatever they think it is uh but yeah it's interesting for anybody that like is a fan of that of the lore um it's definitely interesting and it was it was really really good i'm gonna read more stephen king but it's gonna take me like four years to get another fucking 44 hour audio book from Stephen King but definitely a five out of five classic yeah that's guys that's crazy man my pick of the week gonna be simple this time man I just I just need I just need people like to start doing stuff you like to do man like I'm big in golfing right now man so from I can go from videos to books to whatever I want to do, but I am focused on that because I'm trying to be better at it. So anything that you're trying to be better at or you're trying to do, grab that stuff, man, and do what you need to do to be great, man, at whatever you want to do. It could be leadership. It could be whatever you want to do, man. Being better at it, what it does is it's giving you the confidence to talk about it, not just be it, not just do it, but to talk about it. it gives you the confidence to share it with other people. And then in a manner that you know what the hell you're talking about, right? Like you can tell somebody, when you're talking about anything you want to talk about, you say, yeah, your backing is, I looked at this, this, this. It means something to the listener, right? It means something who you're trying to convey it to. So whatever that is for you, go out there and grab something, man, that you'd like to do. A lot of times we do a lot of things in life, man. We do it because we want more money. we do it because we want to X, Y, and Z, but we don't do it because we like it. Try something that you like to do and educate yourself on it and love it. You got a pick of the week, Alex? Any book recommendation or something that moves you? My pick of the week would be a quick read. It's called Unlearn by Humboldt, the poet. It's basically just like it sounds like. It's a book about kind of unlearning your environmental biases as you grow as an adult. So I think it would be beneficial. I recommend it to a lot of my sailors. Just kind of, hey, sometimes we come into this thing with our biases and we don't even realize we have them. So this book kind of guides you and helps you realize those biases that you don't even realize that you have subconsciously. And it helps you how to overcome those and defeat those. So it's a definitely good book. Definitely my pick of the week. Unlearned by Humble the Poet. you can read in one city it might be about 250 pages it's a quick read an easy read oh and it ain't like it ain't like no you'll be finished in a day if that okay yeah yeah don't worry some money on all this but you can knock it out quick yeah it's a quick one though hey hey shout out to the while we talk about books shout out to the liby app that i finally downloaded and finally got it right yeah I finally did it right. I got the Coretta book. That's probably the first joint I'm going to read. Still Black History Month. I think I'm going to knock that Coretta book out. You got any picks for the weekend? I got two. On Netflix, it's been in my queue for a long time. I started it. I didn't finish it. It's an anime series. Dota, the Dragon's Blood. I forgot the name of the actor who played Candyman I can't remember his name but he's one of the main voice actors of one of the dragons real high science fiction animated joint I'm enjoying it for two seasons he passed away this year right? he passed away it jumped on my timeline again that was some of his last work and then I stick with that That's my main pick man Watching that series Netflix will have something good And they can't get it after two seasons But I'm going to hop on that for a little bit So Dota Dragon's Blood The anime folks out there Yeah his name Tony Todd Yeah Did y'all see the America's Next Top Model I haven't I've been seeing like little previews Yeah So tiring Yeah, some of the stories are being Debunked already Yeah, yeah It's a story about sexual assault that's being Debunked right now The world that's already been debunked So I'd be interested in how all of this Like we two episodes in I'd be interested in how everything kind of falls out from that Yeah But it just made me think about Like Next time I was on for like 22 seasons or something. It was a long time. 24 seasons. But it got back very popular in 2020 during COVID. People was watching it. So it was like COVID, people in the house, and TikTok. And the new way people see things. And I'm not saying that the new way people see things is wrong. But this shit was on for 24 years. And like nobody was like, well even if they did it didn't make as much noise as the new wave of social media like nah this shit ain't right that ain't right like they wearing meat you know they in blackface and like some of the other things that they were they were doing on um next top model it's just interesting that like like today's time right and i'm not like again i'm not judging it or not and i'm just it's just interesting to see how today's time could influence things that are things from the past and and like hold um people accountable for things that we didn't look at the way we look at now you know um and that's probably gonna be a thing forever like we might need to be careful you know we might be saying something now that in 24 years you know somebody gonna be looking at like what we said like now that's you know you know now some of these things that they did was generally like just wrong you know what i mean like they did a shoot like a death a death shoot Like you got shot Like they kind of put the makeup on like you were dead Laying in the street Like why y'all doing that Because at some point they were battling against Fear Factor And all these other outrageous Reality shows Like nobody was going to watch Next Top Model If it was just a straight up Modeling show In that period of time When it was going up against all these other outrageous reality shows You know So they had to kind of turn up And this is their point of view right not mine but they had to kind of turn up the antics you know I did see that another seller was we lost a seller in Great Lakes I saw that and I know one of y'all kind of put that in our notes and I don't know if y'all wanted to touch on that well I want to touch on it a little bit I mean it caught my attention Domo and the reason why it caught my attention first of all let me go back yeah it is a Stephen Apprentice Jones condoses to his to his family but what caught my attention is at the end of the news release it said suicide is not suspected right that what caught my attention like wanting to know what happened to this sailor if it wasn't suicide I don't think nobody talked about it I haven't heard no more about it I think it happened February 8th I think it said something like that we haven't heard anything else about it but I'm sure it's under investigation and things like that, but condolences to the family. Condolences, right? Thoughts and prayers. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this life is hard, period. I would say this military life is hard. Life is hard, period. Alex, what you got, man? You got any last thoughts, anything that you want to make sure you lay on to the listeners before we get up out of here, man? Kind of going back to Picks of the Week. And y'all watching the night of the seven kingdoms Yeah Yeah I'm caught up I'm caught up man I don't like this whole like Viewer bombing shit But like You know what I'm talking about the viewer bombing shit Yeah With the whole like The IMD ratings and like Like 10.0 perfect and Now people breaking bad people are mad Yeah yeah the review bomb So then they went back And they review bombed Breaking Bad Like highest episodes Which could be lower This shit is just crazy nowadays But the Night of the Seven Kingdoms is on point Yeah That last episode was Crazy man Crazy Last two yeah were crazy And then the last episode Come out this Sunday the final episode of the season and the craziest thing was you know when House of the Dragon came out I was looking at that like that was about to be like really good and this Night of the Seven Kingdom I was like almost like I might not even watch this you know what I mean that Night of the Seven Kingdom shit is better than House of the Dragon because that first episode or two was slow as shit I was like ah I don't know I don't know and then Domo told me keep going That's the LK shit Yeah that shit I'm bad He got tired man Boy man I think we might have just talked about this last week Yeah I was about this on the podcast You not watching in there? Nah not yet I'll get to the vision Yeah it's good No doubt I'm a thrones person but I'm a good to the vision Paradise come back Monday paradise good too paradise is fire you guys I'm still slow burning terminalist dark wolf I just watched the last episode of cross I just be like nickel and diamond series man I heard cross I heard cross ain't what it was this is pretty good there's a reason why I can tell you offline what some people ain't liking this I'll tell you why yeah me too I think we're on the same page Activists The reason why I ain't taking the bait But the reason why they bugging out They tripping So they chill out Leave my man Cross alone man Leave him alone It's a good episode Alright well look I said my wife's sick So I'm a slide If y'all still hang out I wanted to ask Alex Some NC stuff We got the mentors in the region And all that stuff I'm pretty sure you plugged into your community Yeah absolutely For sure Hey Mississippi Stand up Hey Alex man thanks for hanging out with us Thank y'all for having me on Anytime you want to come Yeah Okay. All right. Definitely.