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The Protectors® Podcast
Welcome to The Protectors® Podcast, where the valor meets the storyteller. Hosted by Jason Piccolo, a seasoned veteran and retired special agent, this series is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the courage and tales of those who pledge to protect us. Beyond the front-line stories of bravery and dedication, this podcast goes a step further, weaving in the perspectives of those who bolster and narrate the protector's journey—featuring a remarkable lineup including New York Times Best Sellers and acclaimed Hollywood actors.
The Protectors® Podcast offers a diverse array of voices, from those who wear the uniform to the authors and entertainers who amplify their stories. It's a unique blend that highlights not only the raw realities faced by our protectors but also how their sacrifices inspire the narratives we cherish in literature and film. Each episode is a testament to the interconnected worlds of service and support, bringing listeners an unmatched depth of insight.
Dr. Jason Piccolo is a retired federal agent, former U.S. Army Infantry Captain (Iraq 2006), and author.
Past Guests Include:- Sean Patrick Flanery - Andrews & Wilson- Mark Greaney- Stephen Hunter- Remi Adeleke - Florent Groberg - Clint Emerson - Travis Mills
The Protectors® Podcast
#460 | Ron Holmes |Empowering Individuals: Firearms Training, Personal Development, and Outdoor Education Programs
Ever wondered how empowering it can be to handle firearms with confidence and precision? Strap in, as we dive deep into a profound exploration of firearms and personal protection training. From working with everyday folks to seasoned veterans, we adapt a safe, realistic, and aggressive teaching approach, ensuring everyone understands their capabilities and develops security in their abilities.
Make sure to check out Jason on IG @drjasonpiccolo
You know that's one thing we do with the protectors podcast is we change our voice when we hit record.
Speaker 2:What's going on, brother? How you doing man Good how are you?
Speaker 1:I'm sitting in Ron's casa and this is kind of I love doing in person podcast. It's something different than jumping on zoom and streaming and all the other ones. It's really cool to chat and talk, man this is it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've done a few.
Speaker 1:Yeah, first in person, one First in person.
Speaker 2:We've seen each other a bunch all over the place, but yeah, this is cool.
Speaker 1:I keep thinking like this might be like my third or fourth in person interview and I just I enjoy, you know, the mobile set up so you can pretty much just come and go where you're at Like right now we're in your kitchen, we have good sound. Hopefully it comes out as good sound. But yeah, man, I appreciate your hospitality and thanks for having me over.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:The biggest reason I want to talk to you today is about and this is one of the things that I just did a podcast the other day in person about was training for everyone. Yeah, you have a military background, I have an LAO military background and a lot of our friends and associates all have a military and LAO background, but that's just such a small percentage of the people out there who are now vested into the firearms community, into the protector community, into protecting their house and to protecting their families, that there's not enough resources for them to get I like to call it kind training, not where you're going to get, like you know, hey, pay me 15 grand and we're going to rip your ass out. No, like, this is what you need to learn and this is how we're going to do it, and this is some things you should look at. So was that, what was your thoughts when you first started up these training programs?
Speaker 2:I think a lot of things I figured out just as I've moved down the road. And you know there's no shortage of amazing instructors out there across the country with solid backgrounds, who put on really great packages. And I've been doing private instruction for about 15 years, you know. I think one of the cool things, I guess, that what I've learned is I'll have a lot of guys who will get out or retire out of, you know, right down the road on Camp Lejeune, from the Raiders or, you know, forch Recon, and they'll be like, hey, man, I want to do this.
Speaker 2:When I go home, how do I do it? And I was like well, the first thing is you're not training Marines. I was like they're coming to you for education, not a qualification. So it's a very different mindset and you have to approach every single person with finesse. The moment you flip out like how we were flipped out on our training packages, you're going to lose the entire class. So now it becomes you just made everybody on the range, you know, very paranoid, very afraid, and you now run the risk for some type of safety incident. So, having that finesse and having the ability to, I guess, adjust on the fly you know I run open enrollment courses, so.
Speaker 1:I do want to backtrack for you. One thing you brought up was training to qualification. I just clicked on me because, with our backgrounds and with a lot of people's backgrounds, you're training for that qualification Okay, I need to get expert, I need to get this, I need to pass or this. But when you're training a civilian, when you're doing a civilian course, is you're really just training them to survive. So, yeah, brother, is that all right? Yeah, brother, that's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know I'll get people that will you know, and I don't really advertise training and people like, hey, I got your number from so-and-so you know the, you know the qualification and education, and so when I run these open enrollment courses, people just get my information, word of mouth, and so I give them the time I get their email, I shoot them all the course information, basically what we're going to do, their, you know, their gear list, all all these things, and I don't particularly that that's my vetting process and I know there's dudes out there that do a very good job vetting their clients. But majority of my clients are like soccer moms, are, you know, families, are people who are not necessarily, you know, neither side of the political spectrum, but are realizing they're seeing the rapid, like constant, change in our country and security posture and or lack of, you know, concern for the citizens and people are becoming very self self aware, which is, I think, is a good thing, and so I never know who's showing up at the gate at my range. So I have to be, you know, very flexible and we, you know and I say we because I have a handful of really good instructors who work with me and have worked with me quite a bit. But we have to. You know, we bring everybody in and we, everything is safe, it is aggressive, it is realistic, but we can tell her everything, like I've had. We've posted pictures and we've had people like well, you know why, you know why are they holding, why have them holding the pistol that way? That's not correct. Well, here's the thing is that that is not correct how you were taught. That is not correct how it works for you. But when I have a 73 year old grandmother who's concerned right now and her hands are full of arthritis, she's not going to be able to get full arm extension and and parallel thumb. So you have to find that balance and that's one of the things that we do. We work with people.
Speaker 2:Another thing that I do and I don't know, like I don't know if other people are doing this, but I do this and it's it works and I know it works because my wife was my test bed years ago. My wife is right-handed, left-eyed, dominant and for you she you know, for years, thousands of rounds we could shooting the pistol. We could not get her center consistent group low and left, low and left, low and left, like what is going on, couldn't figure it out. She wakes up one day she's like I know it is, my left arm is stronger. And I was like and then I realized, after like I don't know a year and a half of shooting, as I never checked her dominant, I, we checked her dominant, she's left-eyed, dominant, put the pistol in her left hand, bullseye, boom, boom, boom, blow in the center out. So she's right-handed, left-eyed, dominant, shoots rifle, pistol, bow, all left-handed.
Speaker 2:So I have people come out to the range with your left-handed, right-eyed dominant and your accuracy is consistently off. You're not there, I'm shoot few rounds. I was like humor me. Put the pistol in her other hand, have him come on out and every single time dead center pulls them right back in and they're like why? And I was like this just you're listening to your body and some people don't really agree with that.
Speaker 2:But like in, I remember in. I remember in boot camp, in Marine Corps boot camp. I don't know how was you know for you guys, but when you had somebody who had like a stigmatism or a problem with their eye, they wouldn't. If they didn't, we never did dominate, I in and I was 1989, so who knows what they're doing now, but they would just put an eye patch over the eye so you could be left-handed but right-eyed dominant.
Speaker 2:Now you're not, you know, and then these people were barely qualifying, you know. So I think that a lot of the things that I like to do is it's also like well, one reason why I invented the grip, I just see in again, being left-handed is my superpower. So I see things different and I approach them differently and I try to like find a different way to make it, you know, easier for you, because you know shooting and training stuff like that's hard, but it also should be fun. You should want to do it. You should not feel like you know you should be like you should be like nervous back going to the range, yeah, and you shouldn't be like, oh god, I got it.
Speaker 2:No, you should be like, oh man, I haven't trained like you know, so I don't know. There's just some things that I do and a lot of that has tailored because I have like I we say we train soccer, moms of special operators and everyone in between but that's what I like.
Speaker 1:What you're talking about too is like a lot of people are talking, hey, I need to take a CCW course, concealed carry course, ccp, whatever your state calls it, or they're going to be carrying for duty.
Speaker 1:A lot of people want a gun, they want firearms, they want training for their house, their Casa, their, their Domino's out of their castle, their, their stronghold.
Speaker 1:They want to be able to pick up the gun and if it's a 70 or 80 year old lady who has arthritis and be able to engage whatever is in front of her to stop the threat. So when you're talking about, well, you know, this person says you should do it this way, or this person train them to where they're going to be able to effectively stop the threat. Because when we're talking about nowadays, with such a shortage in law enforcement or first responders or anybody, when everything happens within seconds and they're talking, like you know, leos, now police and these small jurisdictions, you can be looking like 30, 40 minutes before you get a response, and that's the truth. So what are you going to do between now and then? So you have to have some sort of training. It's great to have the tool, but if you don't have a baseline of training that you could work on your SOL mm-hmm, yeah, so I like to do foundations and everything builds off of that.
Speaker 2:So in in North Carolina we we recognize concealed carry permit holders from 48 states. The only state that North Carolina doesn't recognize as Vermont and I haven't really researched that, but I I believe Vermont is constitutional carry only that they don't have a concealed carry permit, and I could be wrong on that. However, if you have a concealed carry permit in Texas, florida, south Carolina, you know anywhere and you move to North Carolina, parent permits do not transfer and you have to take a state, require a course. The state gives you a minimum of requirement on how you have to teach the course and it's up to it says it right in there In their training manner. It's up to the individual instructor to adhere to a higher standard. I do that In my class.
Speaker 2:People actually learn how to shoot. We do an hour of dry fire. We do an hour of pistol presentation out of the holster. We do in. That includes, you know, dry firing with magazines and getting very comfortable and in confident with the equipment before they ever fire a live round. And I've been doing it that way for 15 years and it's been very successful. I've had, I've had multiple people who've never shot a gun in their life before, who go and take the not very difficult 30 round Qualification and they blow the center of the target out. I've had anti gunners who've come out to the class and Been like I just woke up one day and realized I hate something I know nothing about and I want to come try this out. And Every single anti gunner who has come through my class, at the end of the class they've also the same thing. This is the best thing I've ever done. I cannot believe I've wasted this much of my life hating this. This was awesome and it's a presentation. It's how. It's how you present it to people. You know, I understand the fears, I understand the hesitations.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things that actually helped me with that was my wife. My wife is not from her family, wasn't, you know, big into firearms, and when we were first dating and she would come over, I have my little table where I would like, you know, gun, take apex out, you know, put wallet keys down on a table. And she she said and I didn't realize this until she had said it, but she said when she would walk in the house, she would like walk close to the wall because she didn't want to stand next to it and and and, and I just kind of like thought about that a lot and it's just like, hmm, so, and I never forced it on her it's like when you're ready to shoot, you know let's go. And then she wakes up one day she's like, hey, I want you to teach me how to shoot. And Then we went, and now she's pistol pack a mom and she, she talks a lot of shit.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing is misconception. Like you said about someone who's anti gun or somebody's like. It used to be like when I was a kid if you saw guns like it was just automatically Exploded go off if you just looked at it Because nobody knew.
Speaker 1:You know, I didn't grow up in a family with guns. I was the first one to had a firearm. I think it was 12 or 13 when I got 22. My dad never handled firearms or brothers 22 the shotgun, and then you know. But the rest is history, because now I love guns. But the thing is the misconception and not knowing that it's a tool. But it could also not be used to take a life, but also for sport. When you start looking at sports like A competition, shooting to me is like one of the. I'm finally at a point in my life I'm like I'll go into competition as it feels like I'm back in high school playing football or something, because you're competing against other people, whether or not it's pistol, rifle, shotgun or whatever.
Speaker 1:There's such a sport out there that you could do. Air guns 22 is anything to where it's. It's not just a tool anymore, it's like it's just a mechanism of fun and competition. So I love, I love shooting sports man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I.
Speaker 1:I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I.
Speaker 2:I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. We don't have to do a full day because he in thing is is that, you know, for my son, if he was in a regular classroom he'd probably be labeled the problem. But he's on a whole nother level of the stuff, that how we teach him. So he and I will go out and we'll spend four hours on the woods trying to figure out how to track, trying to learn all these things, teaching him how to navigate.
Speaker 2:So when his friends would come over and you know, my niece and my nephew come over and we're I'm doing all this stuff with them, and so people were just like, dude, you should run a camp. Like seriously, like my kid came home, they're like do it. Look, mr Rontos, also start fires. Look, he gave me this compass, he learned how to do this and everything. It was like you need to do a camp and I'm like it's the last thing I want to do. I don't want to do a camp. I don't want to do with parents. I'm like I'm gonna say something. I was like something's gonna happen. The Marines gonna come out. I'm gonna, I'm gonna cuss some little like eight-year-old out and it's gonna be bad, and I'm like I'm just not dealing with that so.
Speaker 2:I believe, I know.
Speaker 1:I was taking pictures around where I'm doing this. If you know him, he is a Marine, but I there's no way.
Speaker 2:I've seen the videos of him and his son and I'm like there's no way he's gonna be cussing kids out and make them do the Harley-Davidson where they get against the wall but so my last November my dad passed away and and it's you know, it's it's difficult because now I'm having to navigate losing a parent and raising my son, who just lost a grand parent, and I got to you through it all. My son was a champ. He was there for every part of it and was the one who was going around picking everybody up. And that was like you know, because my wife and I were like we, you don't know what, you don't know, and we have to, and we didn't want to shield him from it. So I just sat there and we went through that stuff and I think it was probably I don't know, I just it was probably right before shot show last year, it's like January and I just woke up one day and I feel that God said hey, bro, you're doing a camp, figure it out, deuces. I'm like, okay, I just woke up and I started writing out an idea for a schedule, putting together all the things that I've done with Riker so far and then putting together things that we're gonna do. So sit around and I'm like, okay, I got to do this and and start talking to people. I'm like I'm gonna do a camp, I'm gonna do a pilot just to, because I got to figure it out, but a while my can't to be different.
Speaker 2:So then February comes and I do this event every February with Sornex, called Winner strong. And this is. This is my new year, this is this year will be the sixth year, and it is. It is. It is just the most amazing time and one of the presenters this year didn't really show up and to kick the whole weekend off, bert had asked me like hey, ron, why don't you come up, tell everybody how you do stuff? And I, just, like, from the hip, did a 50 minute presentation on preparedness and throughout the whole weekend had, you know, 350 people there. I had half the people come up like, hey, what's your website? Which I'm like for what? I sell weapons accessories and I do training.
Speaker 2:But I was like for what they're like all that stuff he's talked about, like, oh man, that's just how we live. We just call that like Monday morning, like Thursday night, like that's just how it is in our house. And they're like can you teach me? So then, after that, my real good friend, don Verity, who's founder, owner of clean eats, he's like hey, man, we talk, and he's like what he's like I know you did a whole bunch of stuff. He goes. I didn't know you did that. He goes. He's like tell me more.
Speaker 2:And I was like well, I'm actually gonna run a pilot summer camp for kids this year. And he's like tell me about that. And I told him no whole plan and he's like we're gonna do this is like my house and he's like how big your yard. I was like I don't know three-quarter acre and he's like how's a hundred ninety sound? And I'm like awesome. And he's like, well, a year ago, yvonne and I started the clean eats foundation and their whole thing was they bought this big property and it's they're renovating right now. It's got pool, we're gonna be camping out there. It's got horse paddock, everything they wanted to run camps for kids, to provide nutrition classes and come back childhood obesity and get kids outside. And I was like so Don was instrumental in my success for the camp this summer and we've partnered with the clean eats. So I started my company, which is the life skills Academy, and that's skills with the Z because clean eats, and so I want to pay respect because and carry on that, that kind of theme, and so our camp is.
Speaker 2:It's pretty simple. It's God, family country. We start every day with a prayer, we start every day with pledge allegiance and then everything has a mission throughout the day. The entire week is focused on situational awareness for kids. I presented this to my veterans organization and so we said you know, god, family country, and we're going to. The whole concept was situation awareness, so each day had a theme focused on that.
Speaker 2:When I spoke at my veteran part of the veterans business collective here, we've been around about almost three years and it's started. It's just all veteran organizations. We meet once a month. It's actually tomorrow night. If you're going to be here, it'd be great to have you come, but we meet once a month and it's just an amazing network opportunity. It's an olive branch for dudes who are getting out or dudes who are struggling or just need some type of advice. It's a really good environment.
Speaker 2:So I did a member spotlight to talk about the camp and I stood up there and have my notebook and I was like that was like we have failed. We have failed as veterans, we have failed as parents, we have failed as leaders of industry. We have failed to properly guide and lead the next generation. We have allowed the government to hijack our children and to hijack the way that they are taught and developed. And I say in the military, we are taught don't come at me with a problem unless you have a solution. And I said the solution is we are going to raise victors out of victimhood. We are going to create assets. At six years old, we are going to take these children, who are traditionally looked at as liabilities, until they're about 15 years old and we are going to make them the assistant team leader in the house. We are going to make them the most valuable person in the house. And I said I have an idea, I have a plan.
Speaker 2:And then everybody's like what's the website? And I'm like I'm like guys, this is ground zero. I was like this notebook, this is the website, this is the Instagram page, this is this is it? And everybody's like I'm in. I'm in. I had more. I had more volunteers than I knew what to do with. I had that night. I had people. I had two people make financial donations Like I don't want anything back. This is amazing. This needs to happen. So now I'm like oh man, now I have to, I have to do this. And so I started going around. I have my schedule and things just kind of like fell in place.
Speaker 2:So we did a day of we started out with situation, we're in a self-defense, so we're not teaching it. We're not teaching the kids any skill, we're teaching them when if someone big came up, tried to kidnap you and human traffic, can we talk about that stuff lightly, but not not to freak them out, right, keep it light hearted. But we teach them soft. You know soft targets and everything like this. And we actually worked them up to like where they were on the ground and they had to like fight, fight, fight shrimp away. So now you got that heart rate up. But once they got away, like yeah, I'm like, well, you're not done. I took a bunch of my son's toys and hit him around the room. I'm like go find a Tyrannosaurus rex. So now I'm hitting him cognitively. So now I'm training them to stay in the fight.
Speaker 2:Now they went from something big or trying to find something small, exit, phone, another adult, a hard point, something like that. Then we went to get a nutrition class with clean eats, talked about proper things to eat, proper snacks and stuff like that, ate at their restaurant and then we went to canine service to teach the kids the importance about volunteering and doing something for someone else that's done so much for you that you'll never meet and that you're they're doing something for you that they'll never meet you. And then they all became professional dog walkers and that organization, which is cool. We all walk the dogs and they learn the commands and stuff. Then we came back here to the house and my buddy, who's a Marine and a flight medic, and I tapped into my veteran network as much as I could had the ambulance at the house. So the kids are in Ammus Now.
Speaker 2:We started their medical training this day. We started practicing how to clean wounds and we were doing splints arm and leg splints. All the kids got to do it and that was day one. Day two we went to the 911 call center, which I always like to tell. A story is like you know, I tell these kids I was like look, I was like when you guys were born, you've always had 911. You've always had us. You've already known what a cell phone is. You've always had flat screen TVs Like you've always had the Internet. I was like those are all those things. None of those existed when I was your age. I was like 911 was started as a test in I think like 1969. And I don't think it went online officially across the country until about 1976.
Speaker 2:The first time I actually had to use 911, it took a dime, you had to put it down.
Speaker 2:It wasn't free, you had to put a dime in the pay phone and it was busy.
Speaker 2:I tried on three phones and it was busy. And so I tell the kids this so we go there and like I geeked out this 911 call center. I had no idea like how intense this was and I was extremely impressed, and I have, because the big thing is is we want these kids to be empowered. Like what happens if you're at home and you know your mom, your dad, you know, hits their head and they're unconscious, what do you do? Do you get a neighbor? Do you call 911? How do you call 911?
Speaker 2:So that was the whole concept. It was to teach them how to be self you know, self resilient, to be that person. The difference maker here I am send me, and so after we did that with, the cool thing about that one was there was actually a robbery that happened. So we're back there and you see the lady and she's just like number one with your emergency. So she's talking to the person calling in this year and this year she's talking to, you know, the sheriff's department or WPD, and she's like, okay, hold. And she's like, yes, I have robbery in progress at this address, but while super calm and everything, it's like Mr Rob, mr Ron, oh, my God, you're supposed to rob in something right now in town.
Speaker 2:It was like and it was so cool. So then we went to the sheriff, went over to the, went over to the SWAT guys and the ERT guys had all their stuff laid out and the kids were like, loving that, call through the, the airmrap, playing on the jet skis, playing the forklift. The forklift was a huge hit. Then we went to the fire department at Wrightsville Beach, because Wrightsville Beach also does ocean rescue, so they're it's not just a regular fire department, they're doing a little bit more. And the kids got to shoot fire extinguishers, which to me was one of the things that I wanted to happen. The next day we had worked with Freedom Sailing, which is a marine nonprofit nonprofit and he has a trimer in and what he does is he takes veterans and their families out and takes them sailing, teaches them how to sail. So the day before they just learned how to call 911. Well, we went down and coordinated we had coordinated with our Coast Guard station on South End of Rightsville Beach and they were like yes, please, this is going to be awesome. So we went in, they gave us a tour of the facility, they gave us a class on the radios on how to talk to Maritime 911 and is how we're calling it, because a lot of these we live at the beach, so a lot of our stuff we need, we have to have that water safety in there. We had to have that thing in there. So the kids would go out on the. We broke them into three teams of his 10 kids, boys and girls. So our pilot camp was six to 12 years old and team one went out on the Triamoram. So what he was doing they would get out there and they were working on knots, because that's one of the things that they learned was knots. They were working on knots. But then he's like okay, you're on the boat with your, your dad, and he hit his head and it's unconscious. How do you? How do you get help? And they're like well, you pick up the radio and you're like Coast Guard, coast Guard, just tell them what name your boat is. And then they were like well, where are you at? So what are some things? Situation awareness, why my channel marker, or this and the other? Well, this is stuff that we've been doing with Riker since, cause we have a house in my in-laws live down on on the coast, down in South Topsail, and so we're on the boat all summer long. So we've been doing it.
Speaker 2:And so Josh was steering a boat. He goes, okay, dad's unconscious, he goes, pick up the radio, where are we? And Riker's like, oh, we're at, we're at channel marker number seven. And they're like he's like the guy's like and he's like, okay, who's going to call the radio. And Riker's, like I just said, and he's like, and he didn't hear him, but so he's always paying attention. So then team two was on the Coast Guard boat. All the kids got to drive this. So these were 90, 90 minute rotations. So they took the Coast Guard boat out into the ocean and they're like, okay, drive. And the kids were like full throttle.
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh my God, this is so cool, Like I was geeking out. And then the other, the 13, was on the beach learning how to throw cast nets. So again now we're making that self-sufficient right, being able to like getting that provider mindset in there. And the cool thing on that one was when everybody all the three teams went through in their rotation, we let them hang out and play for like 45 minutes in there, like this cute, these private little beach the Coast Guard has. And I sat back and we looked out. I looked out in the water and there's, there's.
Speaker 2:There's things that you can't write into a business plan. When we started the grip and we put the grip into, you know, people's hands, like Kyle Carpenter, took him out to the range, put the, put the rifle in his hand and he hasn't been able to shoot because of his injuries. He doesn't have risk mobility. He doesn't have a lot of strength in his in his arm to hold the rifle up. He shot a mag. He turns around. Can I shoot some more? We put a chest rig on him and he was shooting, doing his reloads on his own. He turns around and he's like fellas. He's like as I stand here today as I am, he goes. I could go back to Afghanistan right now with this grip.
Speaker 2:My one partner up in Alaska was like he goes. If we went out of business today, he goes. We are a successful company because we just gave somebody back something that they thought they lost. You can't write that in a business plan. I looked out at the beach and I watched these kids and six to 12 years old and I had a tribe and these kids were just like everybody was intermingling. It was just. It was like holy crap.
Speaker 1:The social skills too, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was just like it was. The kids were doing what they're supposed to do. They're supposed to be outside, they're supposed to be just like having a blast. So the fourth day we went down to extreme outfitters in Jacksonville, north Carolina, which is my bow shop indoor 30 meter range. They run youth camps all the time. So I told them what I was doing and I was like hey, I want to come down for a day of archery camp. So we did that.
Speaker 2:I know that that day was one of the best days of the week because at 2.30 came for us to come back, I was physically grabbing the kids arm and ripping the bow out of their hand. They did not want to leave. And the funny thing is, too, is when we had the bullseye targets up, they were like okay, okay, we went. We broke from lunch, we came back, they had all the 3D targets out there and these kids were hooked. But the funny thing was is they were all shooting them in the butt and they're like is that good? And I'm like did you aim for the button? And they're like yeah.
Speaker 1:And I said did you hit the button and?
Speaker 2:they're like, yeah, and I'm like, then you're good. The fourth, the fifth day we had already pre-planned gone out. This was a really unique. This was like the culminating event. So we did land, nav and vehicle work. So we broke them into half, so each kids were in teams of two and they had an adult. So we taught cardinal direction with a compass, right, walk into you, see this color, this is your color, walk. When they got there, they had a skill they had to perform that they learned this week. They didn't get their next checkpoint until they both performed the skill Field expedient, backpack, strap tourniquet, splint, clean a womb, tie three knots, you know, start a fire with the Blackbeard fire system. And the other team was in, we had rented a car, was in the garage learning how to change a tire, so jacking the car up, changing a tire, which came in handy because, riker, we had a lady broke down on the side of road right in front of our house the other two days ago and we went out and helped her, not to give us a flower. She came back and gave us those moms, but so they were doing that.
Speaker 2:Then, when everybody had did those things, we brought them together. We used painter's tape. We taught them how to break out of restraints Again going to keep them with the theme of situation awareness. Then we taped their hands and feet and we put them in the trunk of the car. Now we're teaching them how to break out of the restraints and then how to exit out of the trunk. And then rescue me was another rescue seat belt cutter. So it was another one American made company reached out to him. They hit me back right away. So I bought seat belt webbing. We put the kids in the front seat, we had the adults in the back. We cut the webbing, tighten them down and we said when you feel it get tight, pop it off and cut it. So we cut it and then we were holding like a book, you know, near the thing so they could practice doing the glass punch and then break and rake and then climb off the window and then turn around and then say, okay, what would you do now? Now, if I had a phone, or I would look for somebody to help, or I would see you know this, that and the other. And then we talked about things that you guys can do.
Speaker 2:Now the other thing, backing up this wasn't a camper. You show up and you get a t-shirt. These kids showed up and they got like $300 worth of kit. Like they got a backpack and it won't. This isn't like Walmart stuff. Like they got black diamond headlamps, they had a military off the show Military, the door jam. They had the black beard fire, that starters kit. They had the rescue me, the whole water bottle, everything from clean eats, a little field of a cook set, a knot tying book, a sling rope, a can of rapid rope and like a Deeter detour I can't. I say it incorrect but it's a myoneering they make a junior size backpack, so it was a kid backpack. Backpacks had whistles on the chest wrap so I gave them. My whole concept of this camp is it is a more expensive camp but they're getting life skills. So when these kids see that pack and they go to leave their house, they know if I have that pack, that's my superpower. My family is going to be okay if I have that pack. So that was the pilot. We learned a lot. The mom's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:My schedule was very ambitious as far as time I had. The drop off was 745, pickup was four o'clock. That is my thing is, as I value the parents time and money. I wanted to make sure I was given. Yeah, I was getting maxing it out for them. They were like you know we'd be good with, like like the kids would be good like nine to three or eight to two, and I'm like, okay, they're like that's what most camps are. I'm like, okay, this is, this is good to know I can do everything in there. So it was, it was, it wasn't difficult, everything kind of, because again, I rehearsed, I pre-planned and Multiple, like new days of coordination and everything, final coordination and all this and everything went. It is repeatable.
Speaker 2:So then I started sitting at Don and I sat down and that's when he was like, dude, I'm all in. He's like we're gonna make this thing big. And I was like, well, I want to try to do nine camps next year. So Camp one, first week, is gonna be 6 to 9 years old. Camp 2 is going to be 10 to 12. Camp 3 is gonna be 13 to 15. Now each camp is going to follow kind of the same guidelines but more advanced, right, so we want to get to the land navigation and the archery combined. So now the kids are gonna land navigate with their bow, learn how to be quiet. See a 3d target in the woods they're going to. You know, shoot until they hit and then, when I go up the retriever arrows and There'll be a 20 pound sandbag there that they now have to pick up. And now they have to navigate back.
Speaker 2:To the camp and then they're gonna learn how to cook. Then we're gonna have hamburgers or something like that, or steak or whatever, and now they're gonna learn how to cook. So, simulating, yeah, I went and killed and now I hiked it back, yeah, right. So again that, that, that resiliency and that that ability to be self-sustaining and Understand, like planting that seed of survivability, by planting that seed of being a provider and, you know, being the asset, being the one everybody's gonna look to, like you, what do we do? All right, so we're gonna add on to stuff like that. We're, you know, we're going to do for the older camps, we're gonna do all the municipality stuff in the first two days and then the next three days is actually gonna be overnight. Oh, okay, so we're gonna camp out there, cuz it's gonna be a pool. So we'll, we'll put, we'll, we'll do a mission. Yeah, so we're, we want to. You know, the kids will do an event, they'll have a task, They'll have a mission, they're gonna learn it, and then we'll, then we'll play, then we'll have a game of kickball. We'll, you know, go swimming to pool for a little bit. We're gonna do pool work, we're going to do survival stuff in the pool, teaching them and there's there's no reason why we should not be teaching our kids how to do these things. There's no reason why we should wait and let them figure it out when they're a team. You know, if you look at the state of the world right like right now what happened this week in in Israel and you look at so it's a state of the world and you look at how kids and I know you, you know you've seen this and I know all the stuff that you have you know you do with the human trafficking and all that stuff and you look at how kids around the world are are Developed and you look at how our kids are like we don't have a video game in our house, you know. And he'd ask he's like, oh, was like we ever gonna have a video game? Is like, no, like you have a bow, you have, you have BB guns, you have nerve guns, you have a real rifle. We're gonna go to the range, we're going to go hunt, we're going to go do these things. We're going to learn things. I guess he gets older. He's already asked about like Forging and making knife. I was like I know plenty of guys in industry. We're gonna go when he's a little older, we're gonna go spend a week and we're gonna learn how to forge together. So this is these are things that we get to do, but it's we need to start teaching these kids.
Speaker 2:It's. He's known, you know. It's like the rescue me seat belt cutters. I went with that brand because we had tested a couple one that are out there and that was the one that he could manipulate at four years old. So Now, on all of our vehicles and all of our family's cars, we all have the seat belt cutter. It's we have velcroed in the middle of the seat so everybody could get it. When you see these ads for the seat belt cutters, everybody's like oh yeah, keep it in your glovebox. That's awesome what happens when you're inverted. Yeah, you know you're not getting in that glovebox. So we put one on every seat. They're inexpensive and I put a video up not too long ago on the life skills Instagram and on the instructor one Instagram. So that's like, that's the camp.
Speaker 2:I want to. I want to change, I want to correct the course, I want to get kids being kids, I want to get him, I want to make that next generation of of American, of Patriot, of leader of Christian. You know, soldier, I also. We also want to advance the camp to where we're doing family stuff. So you know, going back to the firearm stuff, I have this idea, stuff I want to do, but how, how do I start? Where do I begin? Here, sign up for our camp, just show up here's. Here's what you have to bring, here's what's provided. This is what's in the package.
Speaker 2:Teach you how to pack your ruck. Then we teach you how to plan a course. You go and then we teach you how to set up your camp. Can't wake up the next morning. We do some Mobility. You got to get that. You know the body circulating, everything like this, because you're gonna be doing a movement. So we're teaching them how to essentially survive. You know, in worst case scenario, cook your breakfast, pack up camp, pick your new route, go to the next place. So we do, we do to start on a Friday, finish Sunday afternoon, and you know so, stuff like that. And then we're gonna do other like levels of camps.
Speaker 2:But my ultimate goal with these camps is to get the kids who have gone through two, three seasons of the camp that once they finish that, that third, that third phase, I'm gonna be over that. Hey, you want a job? Yeah, and then they're gonna be the camp counselors, they're gonna be my assistants, because I want again that grow your own. Now I'm kind of I don't want to go level one, level two, though three, and I know you're gonna appreciate this. I'm my buddy, my, my buddy, danny Dreher, who is pretty much been my right-hand man with the firearms instruction for the last few years.
Speaker 2:I was like dude, I'm trying to come up with a name. He goes, he goes, do what do they do? He goes, what are they doing? Like in Star Wars, and I was like, ooh, I was like we could do Padawan, apprentice Jedi. I was like, or we could do fountaine, apprentice Mandalorian. I'm like man. Now I'm even more confused, but we want to do something like that, so, where they can earn it.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, we are gonna do t-shirts and we'll have colors, like kind of like identifiers. Like in marine reconnaissance. You wear a rope and rope identifies you as a student. Now it also makes you a target to get you know, to have the opportunity to get stronger, improve your worth, I will say, but it identifies, it's a, it's a visual way of communicating. So now we can see, you know camps, you know who's here, because eventually we're gonna get to where we want to get to, where we're running, instead of one camp a week, we're gonna be running three camps a week for all the ages. So, but the potentials there, we're creating the website now, we've got the business model and we're building it as we go. So, yeah, that was a lot.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we got to talk about the camp, we got to talk about the training and everything else. Like that. Man and I got a lot of really good things going on, brother, mm-hmm. Well, you know we usually do around 30 40 minutes. But, man, you get you could talk. But I look forward to this summer and checking out these camps and coming by and see what you got going on brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so there are. Our website will actually be up. My goals to have it up by November 1st and it's gonna be it's life skills USA, um, calm and life skills academy, and again, skills is with a Z and that's so. That's where all the information is gonna flow on the camp. We're gonna start a YouTube, you know, channel with that to the videos and all that, but really I just want to, I want to reach kids differently, you know, and and Our we're not, we're not budging.
Speaker 2:Our values are God, family, country, and this is what we want, you know, and we understand that this isn't for every everybody's cup of tea, but you know that, that we and we respect that, we get it. And if that our camp isn't camp for you, then that's fine, but we really I don't know we got to start investing better than our kids. So the other thing, too, is, a lot of the families are like, hey, you are, you guys gonna teach firearms. And I was just like, do you want me to? And they're like, yes, and I'm like, and I started thinking about this and I'm like I can't even imagine how much the insurance policy for a youth camp it would be for firearms training and I'm just like I can't do that and I'm saying start this. Oh my god, airsoft. Yeah, so we're gonna do airsoft for the older kids, to the point where we're working them up to teach them how to fight from their house. So not going to, obviously, for you know pictures and promo stuff on that, but but yeah, those are so, those are. So we have a lot of things in the work.
Speaker 2:I'll be running a camp in South Carolina. One of the camps this summer is gonna be in South Carolina. That's gonna be a combined age age camp because it's it's gonna be our first remote one and Potentially going to be running one in Ohio at the end of the summer. So, with another Another Marine brother up there who's he was like Dude, he was me, my buddy have been talking about doing this and I was like you know, we can make it happen. So I will tell you that there's a, there's a need. Everybody that supported the camp thanked us immensely. It was like Any time you need this, I don't care if it's every single day our doors open. So yeah, so.
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