497 – Life’s challenges didn’t stop this vet from helping others: Tom interviews Caleb Blair

Episode 497 – Caleb Blair
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode four hundred and Ninety seven of Screw the Commute podcast. We're here finishing up Vetrepreneur Month and we've got a really great inspirational guy. Caleb Blair is here with us. He is a former airborne infantryman in the U.S. Army, and he's got a very cool thing going. He's got a dog Goliath that wakes him up from nightmares, and that's pretty cool. And he lays on his chest when he gets upset. So we have, of course, our Protection Dogs Elite Protection Dog Company here and we use German Shepherds, but he's got a great Belgian Malinois. I hope he tells us about this, this guy. All right. I hope you didn't miss episode four ninety six. It was one of our Monday training sessions. This was another ask me a question session where I covered this building retreat centers making your hobbies tax deductible, using signature files to speed up your work, Mac or PC for podcast recording, upselling and and a bunch of other stuff. So check that out. Episode four ninety six Anytime you want to get to it back episode just put Screwthecommute.com slash and then the episode number that was 496, and I'm sure you want to pass this one on to folks. Episode 497 for Caleb Blair. Now, how'd you like to make money referring me? Well, you hardly ever get returns because I take care of customers and have been doing so for forty four years.

[00:01:58] Twenty seven of it on the internet since the internet started. And we'd love to send you big checks because everybody, you know, for long term or for longevity in business, everybody's got to make money. You know, you're just not me and just not you, but everybody. And so we we have a very lucrative and generous referral program. So if you're interested in that? Email me at Tom@Screwthecommute.com and we'll give you details on it. All right, let's see what else. Make sure you grab a copy of our automation e-book. This e-book is allowed me to. The techniques in it have allowed me to handle up to one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers and sixty five thousand customers without pulling my hair out, and we actually figured it out a couple of years ago. Just one of the tips in the book has saved me seven and a half million keystrokes. All right and allows me to ethically steal customers from people too slow to get back to prospects. And we're just lightning fast around here. So grab a copy of that. We sell it for twenty seven bucks, but it's yours. Free for listening to the show at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And while you're over there, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app, where you can put us on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road. Now we're still going strong with our program in my school to give full scholarships to persons with disabilities.

[00:03:32] We have two blind people in the program. We have one that's got lots of physical problems and we have two more folks coming. We're going to put five people through this pilot program to get them trained in a highly in-demand field of internet and digital marketing, going to get them hired in great jobs and or get them started in their own business. And then my idea is to prove the concept and then roll it out really big with grants and foundation money so I can help tons of people and that's what we're doing. So check that out at IMTCVA.org/disabilities. Click on the Go Fund Me account. We'd love to have your help here. We're going to use some of the money to hire persons with disabilities to help run the program, and it's really something you can really be proud of. I know I'm really proud of what I'm going to be able to do for these people. All right, check that out.

[00:04:33] Let's get to the main event. Caleb Blair is here. He's a young serial entrepreneur that started in the construction industry and has transitioned into marketing after struggling most of his life with mental health issues. He found healing and understanding human behavior and psychology. He now operates projects ranging from mobile apps, digital marketing, finance and even wilderness retreats in Alaska. And he has a company called Monkey Wrench Marketing. He'll tell us about that. So, Caleb, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:05:14] Oh, it's my pleasure to have you on the very inspirational. A lot of other veterans referred you to me because they said he's so inspirational and overcoming the things you've run into in your young life and doing the great things that you're doing. So, so tell everybody what you're doing now. Then we'll take you back and also want to talk about Goliath. We got to hear about that guy.

[00:05:37] Well, thanks for having me, Tom. I'm super excited to be here, and I know that we will talk about Goliath. Probably way more than anything else, to be completely honest, because I could talk about that dude all day long. That's right. And so, so right now, I am currently the director of marketing for a bank and mortgage broker out of California. I manage and run Monkey Wrench Marketing, which is a full service marketing provider for home service organizations, specifically the construction industry. I am building a retreat business here in Alaska. We had our first men's retreat last month. Here we had a just under a dozen dozen business owners up here for six days, and I was just massively influential in my life and everybody else's. And so really trying to do something else with that and then also have a mobile app that we're building for security investors. So not just stocks, but crypto and forex and kind of everything in between. So that's the majority of what I got on my plate right now.

[00:06:43] Oh, that's not much, right? So, so so let's get this straight for everybody. So you're working a full time job, but you're also running your own businesses on the side and everything is remote, right?

[00:06:58] Yeah, that's correct. I mean, with the exception of their treat business, it's kind of location centric thing. But everything else I do remotely, all from home, that was that was why I got out of the construction industry honestly was. I really hated having to be tied to a location to be able to take care of my family. You know, like, it really takes a lot to get out of the business when it comes to the construction industry. And my passion wasn't there. And so, you know, at what level do you want to just grind out in misery for an end that you could achieve elsewhere and a happier pursuit?

[00:07:30] But still, you're able to help other people in that business market themselves better, even if if the actual work wasn't right for you anymore?

[00:07:39] 110 percent, man, I love the construction industry not really knowing what I was doing, though, you know, it was kind of like a leap of faith, right? Like, I know this isn't what I want. I don't really know what else is out there that I want to do. And so I really took like six months and went on a hitchhiking trip around the country had a pretty big spiritual awakening. You could say it was. Some people kind of look back on it. I had a few out there moments, but it was processing a lot of mental health stuff at the same time and kind of identity crisis and did a lot of projects from building investment, education communities to looking to get into import export businesses. And I mean, really just kind of like trying my toes in a bunch of different things, right? And seeing what clicked. But I kept coming back to just human behavior and interpreting it and influencing it. And so I found myself over and over in marketing projects and just absolutely loving it.

[00:08:30] Tell us about the wilderness retreat. So I mean, is this clear, you know, out living in in homemade tents or whatever?

[00:08:40] So I'm not sure what it's going to be. I appreciate it with that.

[00:08:44] You just said you had one.

[00:08:46] We did have one.

[00:08:48] Was it out in the woods or was it in a hotel or something?

[00:08:51] So we got an Airbnb for four nights that was about three hours out of Anchorage here where I live. And during there, we spent two nights out camping during it, but I spent two nights at the lodge as well. My dreams are I've already found a property that's on a remote island here in Alaska. It's a five bedroom lodge, but I'd love to be able to purchase property somewhere and be able to host quarterly, if not monthly, retreats. The premise is a lot of kind of that that backpacking, fishing, hunting like all of the the cliché Alaska things, right? And so essentially just having an operating base to just. Expose the rest of the world to the beauty here and just kind of the perspective that it provides, as well as the opportunity to grow and grow your networks, and it's all the things you would do at a normal business mastermind or with your treat or a couples retreat. But just in the setting of Alaska with the perspective that it provides

[00:09:50] So you still have discussions and talk about things or is it just all hunting and fishing and camping?

[00:09:56] So we woke up each morning and had breakfast and spent about two to four hours, kind of like a round table style where we it wasn't like a maybe a seminar, right where we didn't come with a presentation, but we had points of conversation. Each day is prepared. And what we did is we presented a topic and then went around the room and shared perspective on it, right? It was. I had a lot of humility coming into this, recognizing that I didn't want to be surrounded by people that had nothing to give me, that I was there to teach and only to teach, and that I wanted to surround myself with those that I could learn from as well. Right. And so really trying to get people that I respect and looked up to from all walks of life there that I could ask them questions, too, that we could all gain perspective from the communal audience, you know, for lack of better words. And so we did. We spent four hours each morning talking about masculinity as a whole. We talked about the first day it was kind of like perspective on what is masculinity to you and what is healthy masculinity kind of like the societal influence on it right now and how we define that and our roles as fathers and as husbands and as community leaders and business owners.

[00:11:06] Did the word toxic come up?

[00:11:08] It did, actually very heavily. We really dived into the actual construct of what that what that means and how it progresses in the chicken and the egg. Is masculinity inherently toxic? Is it not? Is it just? We all had different perspectives on this, right? So I'm not going to speak for the whole on the conclusion that we made, but it was really refreshing hearing all of these different men that all shared the same end goal of being the best men that they could be sharing their perspectives on these constructs that we hear talked about over and over and over, but never really dived into right. Like, we don't actually get past the fluff and get into the role. Ok, but why is it what has caused us to be this way? What can we do as fathers and as husbands and as leaders to improve this?

[00:11:50] Well, I'll bet you. I kind of bet you that all the people harping on toxic masculinity, if they were stuck out there in the wilderness with nothing to eat. I'll bet you they'd be wishing there were some masculine energy.

[00:12:05] You are not lying, man. And that was kind of a huge part of their trip was reinforcing this concept that that talk that masculinity cannot be inherently toxic, right? That masculinity is healthy and it is necessary and is needed in society also wouldn't exist, you know, culturally, like throughout the ages, undeniably without a single glaring exception to it. And the point is, is that, you know, my personal opinion here is that toxic masculinity can be better defined as. Unschooled masculinity on honed masculinity, untrained masculinity, right, it's raw masculinity with with no idea what to do with it, like being raised by Wolves.

[00:12:50] Right? Man, I mean, when you look at you, look at the rate of fatherless homes, you look at the amount of early education teachers that are female and you realize that we have the majority of our boys growing up with this subconscious value interpretation of themselves through the appeasement of women. And that's that's detrimental when you start looking at what women need for men, right? Like, they don't need our approval. They don't, they don't. They don't want us to be their puppy dog following them around all the time looking to please them. They want us to lead.

[00:13:21] And I heard recently or read I forget where I saw it, but a lot of millennial women are having trouble finding husbands, and it's not because there aren't loads of guys out there, it's just that, well, they like them as friends and and so forth, but they just don't want to marry them because they're not masculine.

[00:13:44] Yeah, I fell into a movement called the Order of Man about four or five years ago when I kind of really turned my life around and they were really influential and really helped me figure out how I came from a really early traumatic childhood with a very abusive father. And I also recently learned that I very well may be autistic. And so I kind of came into adulthood up and join the military at 17 and got kicked out of the army by the time I was 21, and it was just not on a great path. Someone to drugs and alcohol really bad and, you know, lost rights to my child and just all kinds of stuff, man. Like not stuff that I'm ever going to say that I'm proud of, but is a part of my story that I own. And I remember crying. You know, it's all going to be like, I just want to be better. But I don't know how you know, like, I don't know how to not be this person. I don't know how to not be this way. I've never known anything different. Um, and the order of man was like the first introduction I had and to like how to become a healthy man and the fact that it's possible to like change who you are. Right? This concept of self-improvement that we know of is is not just a sham, but like you can rewire your brain, you can recreate your personality, you can re become whoever you want to be, and you're not a victim to your to your trauma. You know, and and that was huge for me. There's there's a book called No More Mr. Nice Guy by Dr. Robert Glover that really talks a lot about kind of these things that I'm referencing here that. Help me understand why I behave the way I did, you know, it was really the first introduction I had into putting these pieces together and behavior, right, like why people do the things that they do. And that was really like my first kind of itch that I got for this marketing thing.

[00:15:33] Well, I'll tell you, I thank God that you didn't name Goliath fluffy, because that would just throw this whole thing down.

[00:15:45] It doesn't fit, man. So let me tell you how I got him. Yeah. So about two and a half years ago, I was really strong on this like growth path, right? I'd been on it for about a year and a half two years just in this personal recovery journey. And I was in a relationship that wasn't really happy with it was just getting bad. But I had severe abandonment issues that I hadn't worked through that I was aware of. But I hadn't processed yet, right? Like I knew they were there. I knew that they were going to be triggered and I knew it. That's why I had unless this relationship, but I didn't want to deal with it. And so I actually got Goliath because I knew I was going to break up with this girl and did. And so,

[00:16:29] You know, that does she know that?

[00:16:32] I don't know. Actually, I want to say that I might have gotten mad and informed her at the very end, but I got this dog because it's better than you. Like NASCAR, I've been planning this for two weeks. This isn't just a whim. No, but

[00:16:46] How do you think she feels when a dog is better than her?

[00:16:51] I would hope that it would give her some perspective on, you know, give her that book.

[00:16:55] Yeah. You know,

[00:16:58] She was I was at that point, I really recognized that I was in a relationship for the sake of being in relationships, you know, and not really like on the quality of a partner or even having a defining. I couldn't tell you what I was looking for in a partner or like what I wanted a wife to be for me. You know, and so all of those things that go into healthy relationships that I was just missing shows like I need some time alone, any exit relationship, and I know I can't be alone. So we'll just get a dog, right? And so I got after you.

[00:17:27] Is this after you lost your child?

[00:17:31] Yeah, this is this is about two years after. Ok. And so I tried to be alone and just, yeah, it wasn't good for me. It was really hard. And so I got Goliath and started taking him to dog training and stuff. And very quickly, I don't know, I have this habit of like thinking I can do things better than other people, right? Whether that's an employer or a dog trainer or whatever else, I'm just like, No, I feel like I can do this better. A little audacious. But here I am. And so I, we end up. I progressed better on my own with him than I do with the dog trainer, it's just not going to dog training, but I start looking into like what a service dog is and how they can help and stuff like that. And me and my dog really do have this bond that I can't explain or describe or anything else, but I got him as a rescue from a shepherd organization. His mom was a shepherd, Malcolm X, and they don't know what his dad was. And so. Got him from Texas. Five weeks old. And when I left the girl that I was living with, I also became homeless at the same time. So he and I lived with the first three months together in a van and while I ran my construction company and nobody knew about it, actually, it was like my little secret that I was living with my van, with my dog that came around with me everywhere. By the way, my clients love this puppy that I brought around. You, like best sales tactic I ever had was breeding a seven week old puppy with me, my god. And so we had a very strong bond and it made very easy to train him. And he's also like the most intellectual dog I've ever met. I had all the credit goes to him and his training. I really don't deserve him.

[00:19:24] Well, I mean, it's it's really is cool when your dog can do your taxes for you and stuff, you know?

[00:19:30] Yeah, man. I mean, like, I really feel like if I put enough effort in this, you could do it. He blows my mind away all the time like he does. And so just give you an idea like he does insane search work, like scent tracking with zero training. Like, I've never taught him to do anything, and he will spend two and a half hours searching for something in the middle of the woods and find it like a quarter mile away. Mm hmm. It's the drive man. And it's also the that that need to please that he has just being me and him forever. You know, the past two years just been me and him.

[00:19:59] Really tell me about him waking you up if you're having a nightmare.

[00:20:06] So that was something he just started to do, and that was kind of what triggered me into looking into what service dogs do because that's how I stopped having my night terrors is like when you train me out of them. I used to, like, have really, really bad night terrors that wouldn't wake me up, right? And so all night long, I would just continually be in this like half stayed awake, like talking in my sleep, kicking things like fighting, screaming or whatever, and like not waking up from it. And so like, he instinctively as a puppy, just like started like licking my face and like waking me up from them. And I was like, Oh, this is this is cool. Like, I could do something with this right? And so I started looking into it and I found a common one was decompression therapy. And so I at this point had already kind of learned that the easiest way to train a dog is you should associate yes and no, right? Teach them what yes and no are and then associate behavior with that. And so I got him to just learn to essentially lay on my chest. Right. That was where it started. So I lay on the ground, he'd come over and he'd lay on my chest and you just kind of cuddle with me, like full blown all the way on my chest, like full weight on me. Mm hmm. And then from there, we kind of like just progressed it incrementally to the point where he started to recognize when I would ask him to do it as when I was having anxiety attacks. And then he would just start to pull me down to the ground when I started to have an anxiety attack and we'd just lay on my chest without command. And I mean, like these smartest incredible dog that I've ever met in my entire life. Man, that's amazing.

[00:21:38] Yeah, the only problem I have with my dogs doing that is they take him out late at night, and if I don't catch one of them eating his own poop, then he come in and lick my face with me.

[00:21:51] I have a problem with that.

[00:21:56] Amazing. Yeah, these dogs are just great. People are non dog. People just don't get it. It's probably never going to get it and let tell you have that, that bond. And with with the dog, I had a dog, my first protection dog, Rubik's, and I had. I actually had a funeral for him and I built his own casket. And it's been seen on Facebook like fourteen thousand times the the memorial we had for him. But yeah, people, people don't get it. These dogs, I mean, they're teaching dogs now to to detect COVID. They're teaching dogs before to to sniff out cancer and things. I mean, just amazing the things that dogs will do.

[00:22:45] So I had dogs growing up, man, but I still didn't really get it, if that makes sense,

[00:22:50] Like, well, yeah, you had a lot of other stuff going on at the

[00:22:53] Time. Yeah, like, it's just a family dog and they're just there, but like. I don't know, I articulated this before, and I have another trial that I do have in my life now. And so I love my dog as much as a lot of my children. And that's a crazy concept to me because like three years ago, I looked at people that said that about their animals, like their psychotic man. Like, I was like, You have you have like severe trauma in your life that you have unresolved and you have attention to or, you know, attachment to animals that like you need to deal with? And no, I get it now. Or maybe I do. I don't know. I'll tell you what.

[00:23:33] You're not the only one because the dog industry people spend enormous amounts of money on their pets and they just go crazy of them. And I'm all for it because, you know, I contend that there wouldn't be any shelters if the dog owners weren't jerks. I know because a lot of them, you know, get dogs to be cool and then they don't want to take care of them. And that's how that happens. But it's real inspirational to see you. I don't want to say you've overcome this stuff because it's probably always a work in progress, but you're doing great things for the business world and running, you know, running companies. And, you know, so that's probably why all your buddies told me to have you on the show.

[00:24:22] I like to think that I've definitely grown. You know, it's a journey that there is no end state and there's always things that you want to work on and you want to improve and you recognize this falls within yourself. But I can without a doubt say that I'm not the man that I was five years ago, and I'm forever grateful for that man.

[00:24:40] Beautiful. And what's what's the name of that book? You said that kind of started your change to see that you don't have to be a victim?

[00:24:49] I'm going to give you three men and these were all three that I read at the same time, and I couldn't pick out one over the other. The one I mentioned was no more Mr. Nice Guy by Dr. Robert Robert Glauber. Mm hmm. The second one is Sovereignty by Ryan Michler. Ryan Michler is actually the founder of the Order of Man Movement. He has a podcast, Facebook group, and then that's his book. And then the third one is. It's a John Aldridge book, Give Me Two Seconds Wild at Heart by John Eldridge is the third one.

[00:25:23] And how did you how did you just pick those out of thin air to read these books?

[00:25:29] So I've always been a reader. Growing up, we didn't really have much access to like TV and internet and stuff like that. I was a Baptist pastor, a and so we were pretty old school Antion ways. And so we read we were home schooled, and that's kind of what I did to pass the time. I was kind of had a little joke, a little town famous because I read every book in our town library and it was on a call list whenever we got new books. And so I just like to read. It's one of my trauma responses, I guess, that I picked up as a kid and just never abandoned. It's just an escapism for me. But the trend of transition as an adult to I literally haven't touched in and fiction book, and I don't know how long, but it's it's how I've really been able to facilitate the growth that I have is by learning through reading.

[00:26:18] I say, Yeah, I've said for years. Books are your friends. If I have three libraries here at the retreat center, two massive ones and one half one. Yeah, I'm always in the books, but you you said that your dad was a Baptist preacher and abusive.

[00:26:37] Uh, he had his own unresolved trauma from his childhood that he didn't pass it on. Pretty much. I'm thankful that him and I actually have a relationship now. He has had his own life experiences since I was a child and has grown a lot, and I'm really thankful to see him grow as well. And it's it's actually been a struggle learning how to how to talk about it and how to be transparent about it and help other people that are growing through it. You know, while still forgiving my dad and loving him and having a relationship with him now.

[00:27:10] So these books for Christmas, you can read them as well. Now, you know, it's something that we really bonded over is in our growth and trauma recovery. His dad was was also extremely abusive. You know, it's just one of those things where it was the only thing that we knew and we both kind of broke the cycle together, I guess, for lack of words.

[00:27:31] And the main thing is this order of man thing like a cult. Is it real crazy? Do you like sacrifice lambs and stuff? What do you think, man?

[00:27:40] I actually heard that before, and it actually seriously. And no, it's it's a group of about a hundred thousand men that are just trying to become better husbands, fathers, community leaders, business owners. Ryan McLaren, his podcast Once a week interviews the top performing men in the world. Whether that's Elon Musk or, I mean, I could go on for days he's had his interview list is quite impressive. And just kind of like what it is about how they define masculinity and what it is to them and how they interpret the world around them and in the eyes of a men, you know, trying to reclaim what healthy masculinity is and re-instill it in society is is not something to be afraid of, but something to nurture and cherish. Just like femininity is and the opposite regard as they are the things that the opposites are bad at right. Like they, we complement each other in the ways that we shouldn't strive to be. Sorry, I messed up that phrasing a little bit. It's very similar to business owners, so we shouldn't strive to improve our weaknesses. We should instead hire our weaknesses and can capitalize on our strengths and femininity, and masculinity is no different.

[00:28:50] So now I remember I heard you say a minute ago that you've only read one, you know, haven't read fiction books and I haven't read I've only read one fiction book and at least 40 years. Okay. And the name of it? And where do you hear what it's about? My buddy. His name is Alan Barry. He's an ex-army sniper who's an attorney. He was the prosecutor. And so he wrote a book called Lost Conscience, where the main character is an ex-army sniper and a prosecutor, and goes around killing pedophiles, quote unquote. Yeah, right. Right? Oh yeah. And the guy drives the Dodge Durango, and so does he.

[00:29:52] I would read that. Yeah, I would absolutely read that. All right. So I mean, lost conscience. It's on my list.

[00:30:00] By Alain Burrese. And I thought the guy was a girl for years. He contacted me through email and his name is spelled Alain. And so for years, I thought it was some girl who contacted me about marketing and internet stuff, and it was of who he was until he said, Yeah, so we taught a brutal self-defense class together. He's like a fifth Dan and Hup Kato and pretty, pretty bad ass, but really, really nice guy. And he's an active shooter expert.

[00:30:39] As you know, I'm. It's just a party that'll never leave you when you leave the military just about this, like tactical nerdiness, you know, it doesn't matter how much you like, don't interface with it anymore. You'll always have an appreciation for cool guy shit for like.

[00:30:54] Yeah. And I thought I monetized stuff on your Facebook page. Are you into more time?

[00:31:00] I have been on and off into a bunch of different things.

[00:31:02] Yeah, me too. Yeah, that's

[00:31:04] My yes, I've done Krav Maga, I've done Muay Thai. I've done jiu jitsu. I did a lot of army combat. It was when I was in. I actually started up monkey wrench. When I got injured back in March, I broke my sternum and tore my rotator cuff in a snowboarding accident and was currently working at the time as a full time project manager for a commercial construction company in Boston. And I was like, well, I guess I got to pay my bills somehow, and I guess it's time to get back in entrepreneurship. But since then, I haven't really been able to get back into anything. I'm not supposed to do anything

[00:31:40] That supports my thing about how dangerous snowboarding is. You know what I hate about snowboarding is some three year old stops by to ask me if I'm all right.

[00:31:49] You know it's a big, fat man. That's a big fact. You have like a little six year olds that are just ripping and you're like eating snow every three feet. You know, like, this is fantastic. I've never been as insecure in my masculinity as I am right now.

[00:32:07] No, I understand you're looking for some videographers and marketing interns and stuff in the California area.

[00:32:15] Yeah, man, we we're swamped right now. So mortgage capital, it's the bank and we're broker that I work for. We're looking for brokers. We're looking for branch managers, division managers, we're looking for an entire marketing team. So marketing and turns marketing leads, graphic designers, videographers, videographers have to be local everybody else to promote within monkey range, from looking to hire personal assistants as well as assistants, architects and a web developer. And so I wish that I could say that we were looking to celebrate now, but we are definitely looking to be able to service more before we can open our doors to any more people. We're overwhelmed right now, man.

[00:32:56] Well, so how do people get a hold of you?

[00:32:58] Easiest way is going to be on Facebook. Caleb Blair My handle on everything is just real Caleb Blair a little little douchebag, but it's easy to remember and it's easy. Well, yeah, because

[00:33:07] There's some other Caleb Blair that's dominating. Like when I looked you up, I forget what it what he does, or if he's a

[00:33:17] From competition, huh? Yeah.

[00:33:19] But you're the real Caleb Blair.

[00:33:20] So, yeah. So you guys can also find us among your marketing. It's going to be the easiest ways. One Coherent marketing or Facebook app on marketing. Right. Great.

[00:33:30] Well, thanks so much for coming on. That's very inspirational on the stuff you've been through and and destroy the dog stuff, you know, like I say, we're just totally crazy about dogs. I rescued hundreds of dogs and and just loved.

[00:33:45] Do we have a little bit more time? I didn't get a chance to talk about something that I got going on, and I forgot to mention it crossed a line a few times, just waiting for the opportunity. So one of the projects that I'm working on right now, I got brought on to consult on a it is a not for profit right now. It's a dual for profit and not for profit organization that trains dogs out of Alabama, and they want to switch over the next few years entirely to a non-profit basis training service dogs for veterans. So one of the ventures that I came up with and initiatives to fund it is we're creating subscription boxes for high drive dogs with like a specific veteran focus, right? Like, we all have mentors, shepherds, dog shepherds that just like destroy every single toy we ever get them right. And so essentially subscription boxes specifically for those dogs, you know, the chewers, the Super Jewish with, you know, a really cool marketing package around it with like a newsletter talking about the dog and the better and the debt boxes.

[00:34:46] So you're saying it sends them a really, you know, tough Kong or something every so often or what?

[00:34:51] Yeah. So every month you would essentially get like, I'm working on being here in Alaska. I have some opportunities for antler sourcing. So where to get some pretty big moose antlers and stuff that they can chew on some big tongs? There's a few veteran owned small toy companies that are specifically making toys for these dogs. And so partnering with them. So essentially each month you get like four or five toys. We're looking at possibly doing some things, like for the for the handlers in there as well, keep those a little secret as we work on some surprises.

[00:35:19] Yeah, because I need something to chew on to Yemen.

[00:35:24] So I mean, so some of the things that we're rolling around with or like seed joints like just pure CBD joints. Mm hmm. And just including a box of those in the subscription box. And, you know, just some other ideas we're playing around with, like seeing what we can do. We want to target specific to the veteran community, right? Like take care of our own and we all have our own service dogs and our own dogs anyways. And so, hey, help another veteran.

[00:35:47] Where does where do they find that stuff?

[00:35:49] So this is brand new. The program is called technically the nonprofit, as it stands right now is I love my dog, but we're working on doing a secondary for this dedicated veteran venture. This is like a month old in the process, and we're launching sales next week for our first round of soups. Well, yeah.

[00:36:08] And then whatever you come up with, you can get in touch with us and we'll put it in, the show notes. Even if it's, you know, you know, these things have a long life.

[00:36:17] So yeah, absolutely. Man, we we're getting final outs. We've got our products picked out for the first round. We're getting our our boxes. We're looking at finding a vendor to print them for us. We want to do like a full custom print on it with like a picture of the veteran and the dog on the box and kind of all that stuff that goes into reaching hearts and minds and then being able to get our final marketing graphics all put together and stuff for our launch and then have a two week launch and then first boxes go out November 1st is the plan.

[00:36:48] There you go, man. Boy, you're living the good life, helping others and doing doing all kinds of great stuff

[00:36:53] All over the place. Man, I hate that title serial entrepreneur because it's so overused by people that are not. But I really do just chase happiness and try to pay my bills doing things I love, and that pushed my happy button.

[00:37:06] So that's what I've been doing my entire life. Man, that's what screw. That's how the name came about is I've never had a job, you know?

[00:37:12] And I'm all all that man. That's that's so inspirational and so inspirational. I think there's something to be said for being able to balance, you know, when you need to take a job and when it's that time and season and when it's not. But to be able to say that you did is definitely powerful.

[00:37:29] Yeah, I'm totally unemployable. I mean, I wouldn't let I get fired in two seconds anywhere because I mean, dude.

[00:37:36] So I didn't mention this is how I got into business. Ownership was because I couldn't find an employer that would deal with my bullshit. And then also after that, would it let me take time off to go to therapy? So I was like screwed. If I did, screwed if I didn't. And so I was like, You know what? Screw you, I can work for myself. Being a handyman, make thirty thousand a year, be happy and like, call it a day for right now. And then six months later, there I was running to cruise being like, Wow, I really like this.

[00:38:01] Yeah, that's right. That word screw can work in a lot of ways in your favor.

[00:38:07] Absolutely, man. Tom Thanks so much for having me on, dude.

[00:38:10] Yeah, my pleasure. And we'll be playing this shortly. And and a lot of people get inspired by your story, but

[00:38:20] I hope so, man. If my pain inspires somebody else and it was all worth it, right? That's the purpose of our trauma. And our pain is to be able to help others grow so.

[00:38:29] Don't waste it, man. All right, so everybody, check this out, pass this on episode 497 Caleb Blair. The Real Caleb Blair not just some hack Caleb. And we will get you on the next episode. This is part of Vetrepreneur month.

[00:38:48] Catch you later.
 
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