541 | Brad Taylor | Author of SHADOW STRIKE

The ticking clock. The pressure to keep sprinting like you're 30. The moment you realize your resume isn't your identity. Brad and I get into all of it — legacy as parents, discipline that shifts from external rules to internal standards, and what it actually means to build a creative career that depends on self-direction.

We also get honest about fitness after 50: staying consistent, adapting, and respecting recovery when old injuries stop bouncing back overnight.

Plus — what younger people are chasing that deserves a warning label, the hardest parts of raising kids when you've seen what the world can do, and a practical reset for anyone who feels stuck but not broken: protect time for something that's only yours, no audience required.

We wrap with Japan travel picks for teenagers and a deep tease of Brad's new Pike Logan thriller, Shadow Strike.

Transcript

Welcome Back And New Format

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey, welcome back to the Protectors. The Protectors Podcast is back. We are back for 2026, and we now have a different format when it comes to talking to authors. We're going to do a 10 question format, and it's going to be a little bit different questions than what people are normally accustomed to when it comes to podcasts. And what better feature to start this with than with Brad Taylor? Longtime guest, longtime guest. Jeez, I don't even remember the first time he came on. I'd have been probably one of the first to come on one of my first guests. 2019, probably at least 2019. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

I'm really looking forward to the new uh format here. We'll see what happens.

What The Second Half Is For

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Okay, you know what? Um, Brad, you and I, I like to consider it to be in the second phase of our life. The second half, maybe they call it. I think anything over 50 is like that. So think our our bodies change. Our mind has definitely changed since when we were 20 years old or 30, even 40. And I remember, you know, especially like gosh, remember when you were like 20 something years old and you put the uniform on, you're like, oh wow, I'm fit. I could run a couple miles. PT test, let's do this. And now you're like, oh, okay, let's do this. It's a little bit different. Absolutely. Now, you know, these you know, questions aren't that bad, but they're more focused along the lines of this, you know, I uh with me in podcasting and everything, I always wanted to learn something from someone. Anybody. Everybody has something, some sort of knowledge that they've gained over the years. So your first question, Brad Taylor, and what do most men and even women get completely wrong about what the second half of life is actually for?

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Uh I think that uh for the second half of life, and I I I would say I get this wrong as well, is that uh you don't realize that your your clock is ticking and you're still generating income and you're still doing everything for uh you know, in the first half of your life, you're running at full speed, not thinking about the end state. And I still want to be running like I'm 30 years old and the rest of my life's ahead of me. And what I should be doing, if I was smart, was thinking about, you know, time on earth is limited. Maybe you ought to start figuring out what it is you want to accomplish. And I don't mean accomplish as in, you know, medals on the wall or widgets or things like that, but uh, what is it that would truly make you happy?

Letting Go Of Resume Identity

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, and I think that some of that comes into legacy for not legacy for other people, but you know, especially you and I as being fathers is like legacy for our kids. Yeah. That's a big one. And that kind of gets me into the question number two. This is something I struggled with until probably around 40, 41. It was I was doing everything in the world to build my resume. Degrees, certificates, certifications, blah, blah, blah, you know, really working towards that professional resume, being like, oh yeah, I got to build this incredible resume so I can get to that next phase. But the question is this when did you stop letting your resume define you? And then what filled that space? Now, for you, it's gonna be a little bit different because you know, you had your military career. That was like, you know, your kind of resume, but now you have your other career is, you know, kind of melded into that, which is New York Times bestselling author. But when did you stop letting your resume define you and what filled that space?

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Well, I mean, you basically you just nailed it. Um, I mean, for me, it was joining the army, everything in the army was a stepping stone. So, you know, I went in the infantry, so go to airborne school, go to ranger school, become a platoon leader. What's the best thing you could do in a battalion? Oh, I want to be scout platoon leader. What's that, you know, what after that? Well, I'm gonna go special forces and you're an ODA commander. Um, and then I was looking at about 10 years into my career where all the cool guy stuff was done. So I was gonna leave the army, but there's this one other unit out there that I can try out for. Um, and I went to special mission unit selection, one more step on the you know, the pyramid, so to speak. Uh, and then I served there for you know a decade. Um, and then when I got out of the military, it was that resume was what I was using as contracting. So I was a wanted known quantity. I didn't actually put my resume out to anybody, it was all word of mouth, you know, hey Brad, do you want to do this? Hey, Brad, you want to do that? And uh I didn't want to be on that roller coaster anymore. I was kind of sick of all the you know, the deployments and the pressures and and you know, all of that just piled on. And when I came to Charleston at my last assignment, I was teaching at the Citadel, you don't realize the stress you're under. I mean, everybody's in the same stress pit. You're all living, your entire circle is doing exactly what you're doing. Uh, and then you get out of that and you're like, this is how the rest of the world lives. I mean, people driving around, don't they realize there's a war going on? Uh, and so I when I became a writer, that was a complete shift. And I didn't I don't chase really anything now. I mean, obviously, you know, you want to sell the book and you want to write the best book you can and things like that. And I still do national security consulting and things like that, but it's all on my terms. It's not uh I see nothing that I feel like I really need to do that.

Internal Discipline After The Military

SPEAKER_00 5:37

That's a that's a perfect response with that one. And it also kind of brings us in and says other things because you brought up the military and you brought up how that was really a a a huge portion of your life. I mean, one of them three quarters of your life, you know. And in the military, you have discipline, and you had to have discipline to go from you know infantry to SMU to everything you've done in the military. But now that you're out, the third question is this what does discipline look like for you now versus it look like for you at 40? Because 40 is kind of like you know, that transition space when you're getting out.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yeah, I uh I would say I was lucky being in a special mission unit uh because you're inculcated to have uh discipline, internal discipline. I mean the army's based, you know, from basic training, it's external discipline. You will be at this formation at this time, you will do PT at this time, you will do by the time you uh when you get to special mission unit, it's your own, you will be in this shape, period. I'm not gonna tell you to be here at this time to show you you're in shape, but you will be in that shape. Uh, you will, you know, everything you need to do, you will know the enemy inside and out. You will know everything there is to know about X weapon system. You will, but they're not nobody saying, hey, everybody be in the classroom, we got a test we're gonna give. Uh so I had um when you get bred along that lines, you develop a huge amount of internal discipline. This is I I need I know what I need to do, I know when it needs to be done, and I'll get it done, which serves very well for being a writer because you could spend all day just staring out the window if you wanted to. Um, and you know, trying to write a book in three days when the deadline's due. Uh so uh I would say my discipline, it wasn't a clean break from military super discipline, now uh no discipline. It was more of a gradual thing. By the time I left the military, I had the internal discipline I needed.

The Long Transition To Civilian Life

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Yeah, that brings us into the next thing is like when you left the military, how long did it take you to transition to becoming a civilian?

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Well, once again, that was it's kind of the same thing. Um, I mean, I read a lot of stories about guys that left the military and then all of a sudden they're like, Well, I have no meaning in my life and everything's left me. Well, when I was in the military for the last 10 years of my life, uh, I mean, I never wore a uniform. I wore a uniform, I changed into my assault stuff at work, wore civilian clothes home, nobody knew where I worked. I didn't tell anybody I was in the military, I didn't have stickers on my cars. My when I went to the Citadel, I was lucky enough to be able to take my daughter to school for the first time. And uh at Citadel, of course, I wore full ACUs with, you know, patches and badges and all that. And my daughter said, you know, why do you why are you wearing a costume? I mean, that's a literal quote. And I said, Well, this is actually my uniform. This is what I wear. And she said, I've never seen you in that. Uh and so when I left the military, uh, number one, I'd kind of already left the, you know, basic training military as it was. I didn't spend a lot of time. It's been about 10 years since I'd done any of that. Uh, and then when I left, I also, because writing wasn't paying the bills, I did a ton of security contracting. So I was still in the military, really, uh, civilian job. But uh the people I were working with, like I said, it was word of mouth. So they were all my friends. Uh, you know, somebody'd call up and say he'd rattle off a list of names. We're gonna be at this contract, and the guy dropped out. Do you want to pick it up? Yeah, I'll do that. And I'd go do it. So it was a kind of a gradual transition away from military to pure civilian.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

I I hear you. When I when I so I was a civilian for a while, and I was a special agent for a while. But you know, when you're an officer, obviously I'm not you know this, but a lot of people don't realize that your commission is indefinite until you resign. So I was a special agent working drugs, San Diego, and then I got that letter in the mail, recalled to active duty, and to try to go from civilian back to military back to civilian. It's it's an interesting transition. And yeah, that's one of the things I I try to explain to some people sometime. Like, I don't really, I didn't really have the mentality, and I had to snap right back into it real quick.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yeah, that would probably happen. Well, I guarantee that would happen to me. Uh, because the uh, you know, when I in my last deployment cycle, the uh I mean you're working 20 hours a day. I mean, if I had to snap back to that now, I'd be like, you guys lost your damn mind.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Oh, you see what Charleston's like? I'm going to bed.

Daily Fitness With Real Limits

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Oh my God. Uh yeah, Charleston. That's another story. We could have I could have a whole conversation about how much I love Charleston. Okay, question number five. What do you still do every single day, no matter what, and why that thing?

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Uh well, I would say every single day, but it doesn't. I'm getting so old now, it's breaking down, but it's working out. Uh every day I try to work out every day, but uh there's something, for instance, I was supposed to lift today, but believe it or not, I went to the range the other day, I shot so much, I did something to my shoulder shooting pistol. And it and because I'm older now, in my younger days, I'd say slap it off and go lift. And I knew today if I went and lifted on it, I'd I would wake up tomorrow and I wouldn't be able to lift for three weeks. So today I'm like, okay, take that off. But uh if I, you know, my uh running is I have an artificial knee, uh, my other knee's going down now. Uh so I do a lot of biking. Uh every day I try to do something physical every day, even if it's just something as simple as uh, you know, when um uh Lane needs something that you know in the front of the neighborhood. Well, I'll take the bike and go do that. Uh try to do something every single day physical.

Recovery Takes Longer Now

SPEAKER_00 11:15

That actually like leads right into number six. And I'm glad you brought it up too, because I've noticed my body is like, hey, you know what? You need a break. When you're grinding and grinding and grinding, your body tells you, hey, you know what, you have to listen to it. When I was a kid, I wouldn't listen to it often. Yeah, whatever. Who cares? But number six is this what does recovery mean to you now versus grinding through everything at like 35 years old?

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah, it takes a lot longer. I mean, it takes me, uh, even on a hard workout where uh um like I biked for an hour and a half the other day at a really hard pace. Uh hard for me, don't get me wrong, I'm not a Lance Armstrong. Um, but the next day I woke up and I was like, man, you really shredded yourself. And then, but I you know, it feels good. But then you wake up the next day and you're like, you're still sore? I mean, that never would have happened in the past. And uh injuries take a lot longer to recover from, too. I have uh um, like I said, my shoulder, uh, I mean I've I've had steroid injections, rotator cuff surgery, all kinds of stuff on my shoulder. Uh, and I used to be able to just push through that, just say, you know, it'll get better in a week, and you could do whatever you want to do. Now it's just it takes forever for any injury to uh heal itself. I know just okay, now you got to start putting heat. You know, now it's you I've got an icing. I'm doing this all the time on both shoulders, no matter if they hurt or not. Uh same for my knees. I can't uh uh especially my artificial knee. I got the patello on that's going down. I just saw the ortho about that, and then he's you know, he's basically saying there's nothing you can do about it. You can live with the pain. I'm like, okay, thanks, Doc. I got a steroid injection in my knee, still riding the bike and everything, but it's just that everything takes forever to recover. But we do recover eventually. Eventually. But the other thing too is you see the uh um when you don't do something for a while, and then you uh uh you remember how you used to do it. And so when it comes down to like my daughter wanted to do something, she ran the bridge run the other day. And uh, so you know, I'm running with her, and I'm like, holy molly, this is a hell a lot harder I remember it being, you know, used to run seven minute miles and just be, you know, drinking a beer along the way.

The Social Media Trap

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah, that is one thing you and I have in common with the daughter and running because my my daughter's 15 and she's into 5K's now, 10 K's, track, soccer, everything. And she's like, Dad, let's go run this, let's go run that. I'm like, okay. I'll meet you at the finish line. You go ahead. I'm gonna be a turtle running. Oh, she's fast, man. Me, I'm just like, yeah, I'll meet you, I'll I'll beat you there, okay? Just be careful, just wait for me at the end. But uh, yeah. Number seven, what's the thing younger people are chasing that you'd quiet quietly warn them about?

SPEAKER_02 14:01

For me, it would be social media. I mean, everybody's chasing for recognition, accolades, uh um self-worth over social media. And uh, I I just think that's just social media is a bane of existence, bane of civilization.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

It it's self self-glorification. And I I find myself doing that like a lot of times, like I'll track my running and stuff like that, and I'll put it on there, and then I have like a little self-realization, be like, why am I posting that? But then once in a while I'll get people on and be like, Hey, you know what? You motivated me to do it.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

But it's yeah, that's a good thing. I just, you know, like TikTok, I the daughters are always sending me something. Look at this funny thing on TikTok. And generally it is funny, but I think to myself, did you look at that screen for two hours until you hit that to send it to me? I mean, there's something better you could be doing.

Raising Kids Without Cynicism

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Oh, my biggest thing now is with with my kids is like Instagram versus reality. Especially when you go on vacations. It's like, uh, you know, look at this, it's not gonna look like that. It's not gonna look like TikTok when we go there. Uh here's the you know, this kind of runs right into number eight. What's the hardest part of raising kids when you've seen what the world is actually capable of?

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Oh, that's a tough question. A metaphysical question. I think the uh I would say that it's not the hardest part, but maybe it is.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

I guess it's not being cynical. You want to raise your kids with joy, you want to give them hope. You want them to have the same hope you had when you were young. Um, so it I guess the hardest part would be not downplaying everything or being cynical about everything. When somebody, your daughter comes in with some kind of great idea, and you know that idea is never gonna work, and the people it just won't happen. Uh, don't crush them with it and just say that's a you know, that's ridiculous. That's not how the real world works. A real world is like this. I think it would be keeping uh cynicism for myself personally, anyway, keeping the cynicism down.

The Fastest Way To Get Unstuck

SPEAKER_00 16:00

No, that's that's absolutely the same way I look at it too. Especially, you know, coming from the military law enforcement world where things are just not as Oh, yeah, definitely law enforcement. It's different. It's just uh it there's a lot of lessons I'm still learning about raising kids, and I got teens, like late teens now. And I'm I'm gonna continue learning. That's like my only goal in life right now, is just hey, you know what, be it be a good dad. So and this kind of brings us into our worlds. And this isn't just our worlds anymore. It's not just the military, it's not just the the law enforcement world, it's just generally the world. If people listening right now are stuck, not broken, just stuck, what's the first thing you tell them? Stuck as in how? You know, like mentally stuck, they're they're just going through a rough patch and they just can't get through it.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

I you know, I would say is uh uh find something you enjoy, find something that brings you joy, no matter what that is, and then carve out time for that. It's very easy, and I do this myself. I mean, I enjoy shooting, I enjoy building guns, and uh it's very easy to uh get wrapped up into whatever book research that I'm doing for the next book or or watching TV or whatever it is. Uh, and then uh and not until I, you know, a week will go by and I'll break out like I'm building a six arc right now. My wife won a uh vanilla 556 at a raffle, just straight up vanilla 556, uh all mill spec, and it's been sitting in my locker forever. And I just said, you know, um ought to just sell that thing. And I thought, you know what? I think I'll build this into a six-arc sharpshooter. And so I'm taking the barrel apart and I'm, you know, bring removing the gas tube and researching. Next thing you know, I'm having a great time. And I'm like, I forgot how much I enjoy this. Uh, and if you carve out a little bit of time each day to do something you really enjoy and make that your time, whatever it is. It could be, you know, shooting baskets, it could be whatever you that you really enjoy. Um, and make time, you know, you know, if you can't do it every day, at least make time every week. This is something that I'm gonna do that I really enjoy. Uh and I I lost that for a long time. I um had quit shooting, I quit doing anything with weapons. Uh, and then uh I decided that actually when I built the Rooster Cogburn, you got me hooked up with uh Henry Rifles. I built that thing, a Rooster Cogburn assault rifle. You know, it's got a all kind of modern furniture on it. Went out and shot it, really enjoyed that. I decided to build a long-range precision rifle. Next thing you know, I'm building guns all over the place. Pistols, you name it. Uh, and I I've forgotten how much I enjoyed that. And I'm now I'm I'd say to myself, when I finish one project, I'm gonna find another one and I'm gonna carve some time out just to do that. Right. I don't have to worry about writing, I don't have to worry about the bills, I don't have to worry about anything. This is my time.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

And the key word is mine, I for you. You're not it you need your own solo time. You need your own solo thing to keep your mind clear because then you can help everybody else in your life.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

You're not doing it for anybody else, you're not trying to please anybody else, it's all you. Uh, I mean, it could be bonsai trees, whatever it is, it's you. That's what I mean. We just came back from Japan on a research trip, and that's what they do. The only guy grows a bonsai tree. I was fascinated. In fact, I have a bonsai tree. My wife got it for Christmas because I thought they were so cool. I mean, they sit there and snip, snip a little thing off the bonsai tree 30 minutes a day. That's what they do. It's off of their garden, and nobody else, it's not for anybody to come see, it's for themselves.

unknown 19:33

Okay.

Japan Picks For Teenagers

SPEAKER_00 19:34

I'm I I'm changing my my tenth question now. Absolutely have to change it now. I if you're taking teenagers to Japan, this is question number 10. Three key locations you would bring kids with. Teenagers? Yeah, like late teens, you know, and very eye-open. They're not cynical, they're just kind of like, hey, I want to see the world.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

So they but they could uh are you really going to Japan?

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Yeah, we are this summer. That's my son's graduating college. I mean, not college, but high school, and that's like his trip is Japan.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah. So the uh if they can walk, that's what I reason I asked for teenagers, because it's oh yeah, 15 kids, I'd say. Yeah. Uh uh, well, obviously you're gonna go. I would go to uh Tokyo and well, do they like hiking and stuff?

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

So Nagano, uh so I'd go to Nagano, and there's a town outside of Tokyo, Kawasawa, something like that. It's an hour-long bullet train ride, and they've got trails and and waterfalls and things like that. Nagano's got that's where the snow monkeys are, you can hike all the way up to see those guys. Uh right south of Nagano's uh Matsumoto, which has got the Matsumoto Castle, which is all kinds of stuff to see there. And then you have to hit Tokyo, there's all kinds of places in Tokyo to look at. Um the teenagers would like. There's uh a bunch of um uh um artsy kind of crafts stuff you can walk through, or you can go see, you know, the um Golden Guys, uh the bar area you would might want to go to. I don't know how old your kids are, but you go there's all the bars are about the size of a closet. They're like straight in. There's like 200 of them, and it's one place. Used to be the black market for the Yakuza. Now it's just a bunch of bars, it's a really cool place. And uh Cabuchicho is the entertainment district there. Uh, you definitely have to go see that.

Shadow Strike And Ripped Headlines

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Uh, can't wait. Cannot wait. Brad. The last thing we need to talk about is Shadow Strike. Shadow Strike. Here we go. Best book ever written. It is the best. This is the 20th book, right? It is a 20th book. 20th book. I remember back, I remember in the original days. What is Pike Logan up to now? Give us the theory.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Yeah, Pike's headed down to uh this book is when they say ripped from the headlines, it is ripped from the headlines. It's so ripped from the headlines that uh I had to rewrite the book. So after uh October 7th, when Hamas took over, you know, slaughtered everybody and Israel. We were all looking at the threats, Victor, and what's the matrix? What's going to go on now here? Hamas is this. And well, Hezbollah was a big threat. Everybody's looking at, and Hezbollah's got a global reach. And so if they take it to Hezbollah, there's going to be repercussions. And then started looking at it. And it turns out that the biggest population of Hezbollah, the largest presence of Hezbollah outside of Lebanon is in the tri-border region, South America. There's more Lebanese in Brazil, if you don't count if you know second generation in Brazil than there are in Lebanon. And they have a they did a terrorist attack in 94. The largest terrorist attack against Israel up until Hamas was in Buenos Aires. And so I started building a story on that. And uh right before I finished the book, we Israel attacked Iran, and we did Midnight Hammer, and it ruined my book. And so I told my publisher, I'm like, God, I got to rewrite this thing. So I rewrote the ending, and it wasn't too bad. So it was kind of like uh most of the story is all in South America, and it was it was like my publisher was freaking out, and I said, Look, this is kind of like if I wrote a story about Bigfoot. The entire story is the hunt for Bigfoot, and at the very end, as the writer, I realized Bigfoot doesn't exist. Well, the hunt's still there, I just got to find a different animal to attack. And that's kind of what I had to do with this book. Well, then, you know, I obviously the book's in production and everything, and then we went ahead and attacked Iran again. I was like, if you guys waited a month, I'd look like Nostradamos. So it's about an Iranian um terror plot, uh, both a large terror plot. You know, they're talking about the uh 900 pounds of uh enriched uranium they're trying to find. Well, I know where it is in my book anyway. So that it involves West Bank uh attacking America and uh down in Argentina.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

I love it. Brad, I appreciate you coming on the show, and I appreciate you you joining me for the first 10 questions. Yeah. Glad to be the guinea pig. Good to be on. Hey, hopefully, it wasn't that bad, it wasn't it. It wasn't like