From Childhood Trauma to Triumph – Stories to Unleash Your Limitless Potential

Overcome Obstacles and Unleash Your Full Potential | with Steve Bacon

Michael: Growing up like you, the only thing I witnessed was violence, suffering, pain, hurt, abuse, buy here, pay here places, repos working at f*cking Taco Bell getting fired, bill collectors calling, getting kicked out, being evicted, living with 30 different fam like you just and I'm witnessing this and so many people who are listening right now, they have been through that as well. But when you are faced with becoming who you are, everything must become different, but you're programmed to be the version of the person that you were. How did you step through that? 

Steve: To give you even more context on that, he introduced me to network marketing and network marketing they said it's a compensation plan with a personal development program with a compensation plan attached to it. So changing myself for the sake of changing myself was never the goal. I wanted to get rich because I didn't want to do manual labor. I'm telling you, bro, that was the motivation, the reasons, the reason. Right. So, I'm in this conference in Las Vegas for this company, this network marketing company and this guy gets on stage and he tells these rags to rich's story. And I'm like, that's possible, like that was the light bulb moment for me. I'm like, that's possible. And they said, the size of your business will be determined by the size of the man or woman you become. And then he starts introducing me to Jim Rome and Jim Rome's like, work harder on yourself than you do your job. Spend more time working on you than you do whatever it is that you're doing. So, I was just naive enough to believe what they were saying. They said, in order to get to this mountaintop, to multiple six figures a year, seven figures a year, it's about who you become as a person. I was just dumb enough to believe that. So, I became magnificently obsessed with personal development. I read and I really couldn't read. I mean, even up until last year, my wife had to sit down and really teach me how to read. So, yeah, I'm a 38-year-old man who just learned how to really read last year.

So, people say, well, Steve, how'd you go through so many books, audio books? I have thousands of audio books that I would just devour through, and I've literally spent, I've probably invested anywhere between a half a million to a million dollars in myself over the last 20 years. Every dime I have ever made, I put back into myself or into my business because again, reading personal development, what was it? The Benjamin Franklin. You pour your money into your mind and your mind will pour your purse into your mind and your mind will pour into your purse, all these little sayings that they had, I was just dumb enough to believe them. So I just kept going and kept going and kept going. And I would get so far until I got introduced to really deep work. 

Michael: It makes me think of the law of the lid from John Maxwell. And it's like, you can only go so far on your own. You can only go so far with specific mentors. You can only go so far with specific information and education. You have to be willing to go to the next level. And for me, the same dude, it's so wild like I have invested more money, more time, more energy into personal development, into self-education, into growth than anything else to be honest with you, most days I'm still like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Right? And so, what came to mind as you were saying that is it's brainwashing, right? You're effectively being indoctrinated into a shift, into possibility. There's something that people don't talk about enough though, about conferences and events. I believe that when you are in those rooms, you are being exposed to possibility. People who hesitate, they're like, I don't wanna spend $97, I'm like, that'll be the worst decision you've ever made in your life. Right. You don't wanna spend a thousand. Okay, I get that, that's a scary amount. But what if I told you could turn that into a hundred thousand. You don't wanna spend 10,000. Well now you're just crazy, why would you not want to spend 10,000? If somebody sat across from me, Steve, when I was 14 and they said that one day you're going to be sitting across from a guy like you, but the only way that I'll ever be sitting across from that guy like you is I'm gonna have to invest in myself I'd been like, go f*ck yourself. 

Steve: Did we just have to invest a million dollars in ourselves to meet each other basically?

Michael: Basically, but it's so true because like if you're unwilling, nothing changes, right? And like, thank God you have a Hank. But there's a lot of people who don't. Right. And I fear that for a lot of people hearing this go, well, I don't have a Hank.

Steve: 100000% disagree with you on that. Because Think Unbroken is their Hank. You are millions of other people's Hank, 

Michael: That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, I factor that, I guess in my mind I was thinking like the physical representation of the hank in the courtroom.

Steve: No, it wasn't Hank's physical presence, it was his constant, Hank never allowed me to hold a small thought about myself. That's why our relationship was really contentious. We didn't talk for 17 years because I was that little pissed off kid that this guy's trying to manipulate me, this, that, and the other. But it really was, he would never allow me to hold a small thought about myself and I didn't know how to take that. 

Michael: What is it? Okay, so here's an interesting question. What is it like you, what is it like for you to love yourself?

Steve: To never hold a small thought about me.

Michael: What is that feeling though? And the reason I'm asking this question is because I think from an analytical perspective, we can say that. Right? But what does it feel like? Because I know I'm gonna put words in your mouth. I try to never do this, but like I'm basically talking to myself right now, so I have the feeling that you were probably an asshole to yourself for a long time. And so I'm trying to understand what it's like to not be that anymore. 

Steve: The true honest word is grace. It's just grace. It's not feeling like I'm supposed to be anywhere, that every day is new and it's not just the same old sh*t every day, every day is new and every day is an opportunity for me to choose who I want to be. When I started to really understand do have because that's a concept in personal development, but most people don't probably recognize that that is the most important concept ever written ever, ever.

Michael: Let's break that down. What is it?

Steve: So, who you're being determines what you do and what you do determines what you have? Well, the way most people approach it is, if I have it then I'll be it, then I'll do it. Or if I have it, then I'll do it, then I'll be it. Or if I do it, then I'll have it, then I'll be it. Right. Or if I do it, then I'll be it then I'll have it. And it's always the effect, trying to change the cause but being is the cause. Right. So, for instance, if I were to say I am a runner, what do runners do? They run, if I am a boxer, what do boxers do? They box. Well, if I say I am a meat eater, I'm a carnivore, but I'm going on this vegetable diet, that creates cognitive dissonance with your self-image and your brain doesn't like to be in that confused cognitive dissonance state.

Michael: That's right. And a confused mind will always fail. 

Steve: Absolutely. And so, before you know it, you're stuffing meat in your mouth again, and you have no idea why that's because you tried to do something outside of yourself image and your brain will always correct that. So we have to change how we see ourselves in order to change what we do permanently. There are six levels to change. First one's environmental, second one's emotional, third one's physiological, fourth one's behavioral those first four are all temporary.  And most environments we go into only talk about those first four because they get the quickest result and you feel great when you leave out of there, but if we don't change our belief system and our self-image, then we will always revert back to doing what we were doing. So, for me, not becoming the asshole was first choosing to be grace. 

Embracing Fear for Greater Confidence and Courage | with Vash Tomanec

Michael: And the more that I get deep into just understanding life is, it's just about this present moment, right? The past is over. Like there's nothing we can do about it. But the future, it hasn't happened yet. I don't even know what we're gonna talk about in 30 seconds, you know what I mean? And it's like, right now, here we are together, but people are so terrified of this moment and they lack gratitude, they lack self-awareness, they lack the understanding like this is it. It's not the cars and the clothes and the houses, but there's also something about, you know, like you mentioned, like you didn't grow up rich, you didn't grow up wealthy. I would argue the vast majority of the people listening to this show did not. And many of us come through this tremendous amount of childhood trauma, tremendous amount of abuse, neglect, heartbreak, devastation, and it's like, you feel the fear, you feel the pain, you feel the need to create change, but so many people still often will not. What do you think is one of the first things that people need to do to face their fear?

Vash: Yes. This is such a great question because any time we start feeling something difficult, the human nature is to escape and everybody has different escapes. Maybe somebody start feeling fear, they go on social media, somebody start feeling fear, they go play sport, somebody start feeling fear instead of facing the fear, he will go towards Netflix. So, the human tendency is to escape the moment. You know, the human tendency is, okay, this situation triggered fear, I don't want to feel it so let me do something else. Let me distract myself so I don't need to kind of sit with it, but almost the biggest, biggest thing I can share with the listener is I urge you to sit with the feeling because it seems so scary, it seems so scary, but the moment you sit with it, it's like a crying baby, all it wants is attention. And once you give it the attention, it stops crying, and that's the easiest metaphor I can give. So almost when I start feeling fear, I start feeling overwhelmed, I start feeling stress, what I do, Michael, instead of escaping to Netflix as I did, even unfortunately to porn as I used to do, what I do instead is basically I just sit with it like I had a baby, I would just be breathing deeply into my belly. I would just kind of listen, whatever is coming, whatever needs to be felt I feel it. And almost sometimes after a minute, after five minutes, the feeling go away and what comes is almost like a courage. And this is what I do now anytime I feel fear, and I urge you everybody to do that. And I tell people that if you fight fear, it will fight back what you resist, persist. So I want you make your fear friend because fear is great like if you go to some strange alley in the evening, you better feel fear so you don't go there. But we have now, 99% of our fears are irrational. Meaning you are afraid what other people will think of you, you're afraid of getting, no, you're afraid of losing something, which is not even that important. So, these are irrational fears, but I don't want to fight them because they both fight back. What I do instead, when I start feeling fear, I do what I describe, plus I say the small sentence that always helps, and I just say, “Hey, fear, welcome back.” I've thank you for coming back. Thank you for protecting me. I know you have my best interest at heart and you just try to serve me. But this situation, I've got this. So just go sit on the bench and watch me how I will pull it off. And even though it might sound funny, if you do it, I guarantee that you will pursue whatever it is with more confidence with more courage. Then if you start escaping the fear and you won't kind of face it front off. 

Michael: That level of discomfort that we feel is necessary for growth. Right. And I think that we'd be hard pressed to sit here and give everybody the five steps because at this point, we're, you know, over 600 episodes of this show we've talked about all the way someone's changed their life. What I'm curious about, and because I know your story, I wanna go deeper into something, because you and I had this really fascinating conversation about heartbreak and there is something about the journey of heartbreak and loss, especially in relationships that can actually elicit a tremendous amount of fear in this way that keeps people stuck where you're talking about 20 years later, they're still stuck, they haven't moved on, they haven't gone another date, they haven't pursued their dreams, they haven't pursued their ambitions. The pain of that moment of stuckness has produced so much fear that now they're paralyzed and what you just said, in an analytical sense, makes a lot of sense, right? Because you're sitting here, you're looking at it, you're like, okay, cool, thanks, fear, go sit on the bench. I got it, blah, blah, blah. But there's also the reality, right? And I know that you had this, this massive, massive heartbreak, and I want you to talk about that because I think it's important because I don't want people to perceive you as, oh, this guy faces his fear, so life is good. It's like, yes, and this dude's been through some shit also.

Vash: Yes, a hundred percent. Because I believe, as you said, Michael, so many people get caught up in the story and you meet them 20 years later and they're still caught up in the story. And what I believe the story gives them excuse from changing because yes, change is difficult. Change is scary. Why? Because it's unknown. Any change is unknown. And if you, we look at evolution. If I have two paths, one is no one is unknown, of course I'm going to choose the known path because that's dangerous. So, from evolution, change is always uncomfortable. Change is always scary. That's why people make excuses or create, in this case, stories to excuse themselves from changing. So, they use the old relationship, the old job, the old boss, the old trauma as an excuse from changing and what was it for me was this. Imagine that I'm living like kind of 2000 miles away from back then my girlfriend studying. So every time I'm leaving here to go back to University, I'm like seeing her crying, I want to cry, and I'm like, man, I want to make this business work so I can have this freedom to be with her, provide for her the life I want. So that was giving me fire fuel as well. So, I'm working on my business, I'm consistent, I'm getting no after, no after, no after, no. And then what start happening? I start getting, yes, I start achieving my goals. I start becoming really, really close to my goals and I achieve them and the moment I achieve my biggest goal, we break up. So in that moment, I know what could happen, in that moment I could connect the moment I get successful, something bad happens and I could sabotage my success. And now we wouldn't have this conversation because I would be in a very different position. So that was for me, it was like such a challenge back then because I was pursuing something so badly to give or create life for both of us and the moment I hit it, we break. So, in that moment, I was devastated, I was like I failed the tendency that was the worst I failed the tendency to sabotage. I failed the tendency to start, stop doing the actions that made me successful. I stopped doing the behaviors or the habits that got me where I was, and I felt a tendency, and that was the moment that I had to make a decision that I need to change this, I cannot use the story. I cannot use the past to determine my future. I know Michael, if I didn't do certain things, I wouldn't be here today because I would probably feel so much sorry for myself, blame her or blame just circumstances, and as a result, I would be victim and then I would be in different position.

Unlock Your True Potential | Discover How to Pursue Your True Calling | with Dylan Vanas

Michael: You have that experience in Vancouver looking, feeling like there's nothing else here for me, most people stay.

The vast majority of people on planet Earth, and I'm talking about like 78%, this is a stat that I saw, I want to say was the Huffington Post. Don't butcher me if I'm wrong, by the way, cuz it might be 70%, I don't know. But I am saying that the vast majority of all human beings live in this world right now within 10 miles of where they grew up. And I think to myself all the time, like there is something about the exploration of discovery and who you are by packing up your sh*t and walking into the unknown, that's going to give you the ability to really find yourself. So, I'm curious, how did you know you were reaching the ceiling in Vancouver, and then how did you know that you needed to make a different decision?

Dylan: I was ready for more, like there's like deep within myself this yearning. It's like there's something more I want for my life and look like, there's a million things I could have done in Vancouver, but for some reason I was drawn elsewhere. I started the business when I was in my third year of college and that business, the nature of it was effectively traveling so I was traveling around doing sales. And so, I started the business and then, you know, I basically was in a different city every weekend for the next like two years, the business actually became pretty successful quickly. So, I just dropped outta college and I had one year left and dropped out and I said, my dad didn't talk to me. He's like, dude, you're not gonna be a dentist now, what's the future of the family business? And I was like, gimme a year to become like financially independent, like, then let's talk and if not, I'll go back to school. Well, I didn't go back to the school actually, I did go back, I went online to finish it off to make him happy, and then it took too much of my time, so I dropped out a second time, I figured I'd piss him off even again if I could. But it was that search for war right deep within the fire inside me that was like, dude, I gotta do something else, I did it. I found the vehicle and then it just became like what you said is if you're not like breaking, moving, for me, I believe the same thing. I hate to tell someone that I work with like move ‘cuz like my mom, her heart was broken when I left. And then like my family, I barely see them like they're getting older, I've had one of my grandparents pass away during Covid that I didn't get to see and all this stuff but also this is like, this is my journey. This is my omens. This is my alchemist. But when you leave your situation, when I left my situation, all of a sudden, the stories I was telling myself that were being reinforced by the people, my parents, my family, my friends, those all went away. And I'm not having these stories be reinforced cuz all of a sudden, I'm have new stories that new people are telling me based on the new version of myself. See I wanna become someone new and someone better. Let me go create that somewhere else and then build a life where the people around me are reinforcing that and then I can become that. Right? It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it's not the fake it till you make it thing. It's like, just go be someone different and you'll attract those friends in those social circles and I'm like, it's way different. But I don't think my social circle and the people I surround myself and my network would be as high level if I stayed in Vancouver, because I would've been hanging out with the guys I went to the bar with, I would've been hanging out with my old friends like that would've been my circle and it would've stayed that way. But when I came out here, all of a sudden, I'm a high level person, I'm running businesses, and I just find the people that were doing the same thing, and then through that one thing happens that's positive and we just keep stacking the positive traits.

Michael: This is now probably close to 25th City I've lived in around the world in the last 10 years, from all over Asia to South America, to the West Coast, to the Midwest, and everywhere in between because I'm constantly in seeking of the thing that I know is out there. And I think people get caught up because it's like you're and I'm curious if your father really truly stopped talking to you over that because people get stuck in this idea of creating and fulfilling the prophecy that's predetermined from other people, and that feels so dangerous to me. And maybe I'm contrarian, maybe it's also because I had absented parents and I was out in the streets when I was eight years old doing crazy sh*t. But part of me really, truly feels like the stories, you said that a moment ago; the stories that we hear from our community, our family, the people closest to us, like, dude, these are stories they tell us to protect us. But all they're doing is stopping us, it's fascinating to me when I really look back and think about how many people in the world are dentists right now, and they hate themselves, they hate their lives, they're always living into the dreams of other people. Maybe it's their father, and that's a level of combat, like emotional combat that is painful, it is cutting, it gets you in this way where you can't even really understand how to navigate the world. But yet for some, you said, I still am going to do this. So, I'm wondering what was that like for you, like navigating that experience, removing effectively the lineage, the family, business, the legacy of your grandfather and so forth, how do you navigate that not only a man, but as a human being to be like, this is where I'm going and I understand that you don't like it?

Dylan: Yeah. Well, my dad's amazing. I would say him and I both think that we have a really strong relationship now, but did I have daddy issues? I mean, maybe, you know, like I guess dude, everyone has shit going on. But I was seeking for something and I wanted that from him and he was seeking for something from me, and he wanted that from me, and we just were out of alignment and that was it. Not that either one of us was wrong, it was just like he wanted the studious, you know, whatever and I was like the opposite. So, I went and did my own thing and then I went through a period of time where I was really trying to hone in on the relationship with my dad's like, how can I make this better and build to foster this connection? Cause I know it's important.

One of my mentors at the time, like literally my dad would send me a message and my instinct would be like, cool. And like my dad would send me like a nice little paragraph, whatever, explaining life and whatever's happening with the family. And he would sit there and he's like, no, dude, like write this and he would like, we put together like a better paragraph and send it then my dad would engage. But what I saw is like I was putting all this effort to try to build this relationship with him, and it wasn't working until something changed. And what changed was I said, let me just live my life, let me live for me, let me be my best self and live in my joy. And I kind of, I accepted my dad as doing his thing and I can't change that, he can't change me. Well, about 12 months later, I heard through proxy from someone else that my dad had told some of the people at his office. He said, in my next life, I wanna be Dylan because what had happened is I was living my journey, I was happy, I was doing what I wanted to do, not what I was told through the system. And all of a sudden, my dad looks at me and he's beyond proud in fact, he's some element of envious of like me going on my journey. And I know these things, had my dad not gone the path of being a dentist, like I probably wouldn't be here right now, but he would be doing something that he really loved. Dentists have the number one, I think it's the number one rate of suicide in professions, which is crazy. But now it's like he looks at me as a spark of inspiration. He came down here to visit me, my mom and my dad a few months back and I had a book by a friend of mine, John Gordon, I think it was positive thinking. I mean, he's written like 50 books. Him and his wife Catherine are awesome. Catherine actually sent me the books, it was sitting there and my dad just picked it up, was like, oh, this is cool. And he read through it, finished it in like a day and his whole thing is like, every time he's faced with the situation, he's like, how would he literally told me this? He's like, he thinks, how would Dylan handle it? Because he sees me as a light of optimism and positivity when he has more pessimism and or realism, you know, and that's pretty cool.

How FAILURE Can TRANSFORM Your Life | WATCH This! | with Josi Young

Michael: When you go back and you look at that those moments and those experience of not wanting to do it, falling under the peer pressure, like was this pressure from your father too, or was it just the community and you felt like, man, I wanna live into being this thing that maybe you didn't see but other people saw in you?

Josi: You know, I will say that my dad was always supportive of whatever I wanted to do. He never pressured me into doing that, it was more so community pressure in that instance. Both my parents are very hardworking people, my dad still to this day is the hardest working person that I know with that being said, I feel like he can work smarter in some instances. And so that's where it's coming full circle, is I'm able to learn this stuff from my entrepreneurship and like the connections that I've made to kind of relay the message to him of how to make things easier in his older age. But at that point in time, you know, my parents were willing to do whatever it took. You know, I played baseball, I played football, played a little bit of basketball and they were willing to take me anywhere I wanted to go. But it's like we had limited funds to do that, like I remember in the rodeo career, like there's people that it's expensive to rodeo because you got livestock, right? You've got equipment and stuff like that, it's not like, If you wanna go play basketball, go buy a basketball and some sneakers and some shorts and stuff like that and try to find a crew to hang out with and learn from and then work your way up the ladder like rodeo. I mean, a bareback rig costs 500 bucks chaps cost well I just bought my, it's different now. I just bought my son a new pair of chaps and that it costs $2,500. I mean, it's ridiculous, just for a pair of chaps a vest is 500 bucks. And the stuff that try to like keep 'em somewhat safe. It's like stuff that you need, but they were willing to do whatever it took, you know? I remember when I was rodeoing, I was 13 years old and I was at a rodeo in show in Idaho that my parents took me to and I actually got hurt in the, I wasn't riding bulls yet or anything, I was riding steers and they had some wild steers there. And I actually got bucked off and the steer hit me with his head and the side when I was coming off and I broke. At the time it happened so quickly you couldn't see it, you didn't know what happened. Like if we've got it on video, actually still this day, but it just happened so quickly he didn't really know. And I come from a tough background. My dad was raised very tough, and my dad, I said, man, I'm hurt. And he says, well, toughen up. He says, you got a couple more events to work today. He's like, gather your stuff up. Let's go. And I was on the back of the bucking shoots and I couldn't get my air and I had the worst side I've ever had in my life. And I put my gear away I mean, I'm 13 years old, right? I'm putting my gear away and I just, it just felt like I could not get my air. And like, I'm starting to, like, I'm starting to like, feel dizzy and I was afraid to tell my dad that I didn't want to do anymore events, like I'm done for the day. And my dad was raised tough and so immediately that background of his was coming through with me a little bit. I think with every generation it gets a little lighter, you know? They lighten up a little bit, but he was still raised very tough, so I was getting some of that too and he says, let's go. He is like, get your horse saddled like, let's go. You gotta rope here in a little bit. And I told my mom, I was like, I'm like, I don't feel very good mom and she ended up having a conversation with my dad, and there's a little fight, you know, like mama bear was like telling dad like, no, it's done like, let's go home. And of course, my dad was upset and we gather the horses up and we're headed back home, and I'm lying in the backseat, and I had the worst side act I've ever had in my life, and I start feeling lightheaded and my mouth was getting dry and my mom was getting nervous and her sister was a nurse, an ER nurse here in Las Vegas actually. So, we live up in Iowa, my mom’s from Las Vegas, so all of her family lives in Las Vegas. She called her sister, on the way back to our house. And told her what happened and kind of telling the symptoms of what was going on. And she says, you need to get him to the hospital immediately. She says, what does he look like? And my dad and my mom looked in the backseat and I was just pale as I could be, my eyes were rolling back of my head and I was about to pass out, and they took me to the er and I had broken three ribs and I'd run one of my ribs through my spleen, completely ruptured my spleen and I was bleeding out internally. That's just the way I was raised, that's the way we were all raised, you know, in that area. And so, the doctor said, man, if you'd been here 30 minutes later, he had been dead. He had lost so much blood that that's wild, it was just, you know, so from a young age, like I started gaining that pain threshold. And that grit, you know, I spent a week in the hospital there and they took half my spleen out. On the other note, they were gonna take my whole spleen out but my parents, my dad was the one that was started, the company that I'm in right now, and it's a health business. My grandma's a naturepath for people. And so, he always questioned the doctors when everything was going on, you know, and they were gonna take my whole spleen out and my dad actually started asking the questions and they was able, he says, well, what if you just took the half out that was damaged, would the other half still work? And they're like, well, yeah, I guess it would. And so, he ended up ha actually saving the half that the doctors were gonna take out. So fortunate, like I was glad that my dad was there to actually, you know, have the balls to say, to question the doctors on this deal because they were gonna take my whole spleen out. But now I still have a half a spleen, which actually works as good as my whole spleen. So it's like a catch 22 there a little bit but that was my first experience with adversity in that industry.

Michael: Yeah. You know, it makes me think, I remember I had this high school football coach, and he would always ask us this question. He'd be like, are you hurt or are you injured? And man, in all fairness, like I don't have children, I will never let them play football like if I do, never, because dude, I remember one time I was playing, and it was our senior homecoming game, we were getting stomped. My friend Sam played for the opposing team; they end up winning a state championship. And Sam, to this day, I still talk to people, I love this guy. Smokes me, blindsides me, like, dude, and I'm seeing stars. I'm upside down. I'm like, about to throw up in my mouth 100%, all the signs for a concussion, right? Come outta the game for one play, get some water, coach goes, are you hurt? Are you injured? I go, I don't even know what day it is, dude. What you talking about? And we go right back into the game. I finished that game and I mean, who knows how many injuries, concussions, broken fingers, broken feet, toes, the whole nine. And it's like, you know, there's interesting you say that ‘cuz there's something about that, I don't know what it is, but there's something about having that grit to tough through that physical pain, that it changes you. I don't know what it is. And I don't wish it on people, I don't want people to get hurt like, it sucks. I mean, you know, it happens all the time where humans were going to get hurt. But there's something that creates resiliency in you.

Josi: It's engaging a piece of your mind that you've never engaged before, I truly believe that. There's a lot of people in this world that have never had to go to that depth, you know? It's crazy, you know, like, I don't know what it is, I have a lot of friends that are, I've never been in the military, but I have like a lot of friends that are ex-military guys, and it's just like, they're like, dude, and they're like, you're one of the guys that we connect with that has never been in the military. And I think it's some of the same mindset is because like, if you're out in war and you're getting shot at or you get an injury like you can't just be like, Hey, time out like I'm gonna get off the field, you gotta finish your job. Right? And the same in rodeo, like if you get hurt and you're in the middle of a war, or you're in the middle of a fight, nobody blows a whistle and says, Hey everybody stop, you gotta get out of the fight before you get some relief. And so it's kind of the same mindset a little bit but that was one of the first things that sculpted me.

I had in high school I was riding bucking horses and I had a horse throw me past my riggin and broke my wrist off, and my hand didn't come outta my r and wrapped my arm around my r and I was stuck to him.

Michael: Is the riggin the thing you hold on rig, like you put your hand underneath it? 

Josi: Yeah. So, they're fitted to our hands, so they're tight, it's hard to get 'em out. Right. And so, I broke my wrist off there and I end up coming back the next day and roping, I had a cast on and I put the reins of my horses ranged through the crotch of my arm and come back and I just figured it out, you know? I was like, man, I'm not gonna not rope. I can't ride bucking horses, but I'm gonna rope. and it's just that mindset of like figuring stuff out. And then, that was like the first things that come, like these little injuries along the way is what creates the mindset of fortification for business of figuring sh*t out.