Control Your Thoughts & Turn Rejection Into Momentum | Stephen Steele

I actually learned to like nos. I love when a no hits my face right now. Like, no issue. You're the wrong person to talk to. Can you move out of the way, please? If you can control your thoughts, you can do anything. I try to keep my mind clear and positive as much as possible and stay resilient. The notion of open sourcing it to help people, right, is phenomenal. I've learned so much about prototyping and patents and lawyers and I would have loved me talking to me 20 years ago. I totally believe that we're here on this earth to help people. Yep. And I'm going to do more of that.

Steven Steel. Yes, sir. My man. Good to see you. Good to see you. Great to have you in. Pleasure. Pleasure. Yeah. So, by the way, we talked and I think you said your charity was going to be Make-A-Wish Foundation. Awesome. Yes. That's so great. You want to get into why that's—oh, yeah. So, I won't be the first one to cry on your show, but when I was 14 or 15, my little sister—she actually was my stepsister—was walking down the stairs and she fell. And then when she got up, she couldn't talk and we were like, "Whoa, concussion, what happened?" She had a tumor in her brain right in the middle, the size of a lime.

And my—we were—my dad was in the service. He's an army guy. And because it was her stepchild or stepdaughter, they wouldn't cover that. It was a weird thing. I don't think they were—I don't know what it was. I was young. I don't remember. But I do remember Ronald McDonald House took her in and the Make-A-Wish Foundation stepped in because she was dying and they gave her a wish. And—yes, see here I go. It always just chokes me up because they said, "Hey, your brother—your brother can't go with you to your wish because he's your stepbrother." And she said, "Well, I'm not going." And they said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Okay, fine. He can go."

Anyways, all-inclusive Hawaii trip. We were like luxury. And I just—it touches me. They're a great, great organization. So, she's alive today still. They actually gave her 6 months to live, I think, or something. And I told her, "Hey, don't listen to the doctors there. That's just their opinion. Don't let that get in your head, you know? Let's enjoy the trip. Don't—don't listen to doctors. Listen to doctors, but when it comes to how long you're going to live or timeline for your life, come on, man. They—they don't really know that. That's speculation, right?" Sure. Yeah. So, that's kind of my mentality, though, is like, you know, keep your mind clear, positive. That's how I roll. Yeah. Yeah. And you always have. I sure try. That's for sure.

Yeah. So, dude, we go back. Yes. I think the first time we ever really hung out was a charity poker tournament. That's right. That's right. We started off at the same table. That's right. And we wound up at the same table and we took all their money. That was fun. That was a really great time. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember what house that was, but that was a long time ago. I mean, there was like—that was almost, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago, something like that. I think so. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so you have a really interesting story and so, you know, in the show what we do is we go all the way back and kind of like figure out, you know, what's the sequence to this pathway to peak performance. So, let's talk about growing up and then all the way through to the Navy and then into the world of being a pretty big-time contractor. I mean, you know, I think what's really great about it is for people to—well, we'll get into that—but for people to really understand the progression, right, of your story, which is just super—it's just super cool.

Yeah. You know, it's funny. I was watching all your shows and the humble me was like, "Wait, I'm invited to this? What is there?" And I was like kind of looking at my whole life story and there's a lot of chapters that are kind of cool, you know, and it's made me who I am, all these chapters. I wouldn't change a damn thing. Um, and there's been struggles, but so to start out, you know, I grew up as an army brat. We moved around every three years and went to many schools. Oh my god. Sometimes two schools in a year. It taught me how to get to people real quick. Like, get in there and communicate and also be comfortable in a room, like a big room with people. Like, I don't allow people's opinions of me to bother me too much, you know, because it's rough moving from school to school to school and "Oh, look at this new kid," you know.

My dad, Lieutenant Colonel Green Beret Chaplain. He wasn't always that, though; when we were obviously he grew, his rank went up, but lived all over the world. Germany—name the states in the United States and I think there's only a couple I haven't been to. Ended up Fort Irwin, California. That was the longest I ever lived anywhere. That's out in the desert, which is a really boring place to live for a kid. What are you going to do, right? I got into motorcycles, though. It was really cool. My dad bought me a dirt bike and there's a dirt track where you go all day long. All day long.

Got into running when I was a freshman year because there's not much else to do. And I was actually telling the story to a friend of mine. Um, I won state my freshman year in California. I ran a 4:48 mile in the UCLA track. And I claim the fame of running fast because at night in Fort Irwin I would run around the base and I'd hear this toenail scratching. It's the coyotes behind me. They were like, "What is this thing?" And I remember vividly I would run as fast as I could around that five-mile track, right? Because the coyotes were chasing me. And once in a while I would stop and they'd disappear and then you'd hear them again. It was like, son of a gun. But yeah, that was my claim to fame, though. I hated running, though. It hurts. But I was good at it. Um, but yeah, running that fast is not fun. You know you're bored when you do something you hate doing. That's the right way to say it. I was bored. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. So, moved around, all that good stuff. Sister has the—major—that's a major thing. I mean, that's like—that'll tear a family apart, cause all sorts of, you know, people don't realize until—you know, a famous DJ once said to me, "No one cares about cancer until they have it," and like, you can't understand what it's like to go through that until you've actually been there, done that, which is just—I mean, that's hardcore. Yeah, that was just a really intense place to be at that Ronald McDonald House. There's a lot of kids there and it's pretty sad, man. It's—you know, it's funny. You don't appreciate life until you're sick. Right. Right. Oh, I feel that way. Like, you don't really know how great this is until you're sick. And then all those small things that bother you don't matter anymore. Nothing matters.

Well, and also I think—I would imagine, I think we're united in our thinking around this that it's sort of like, hey, any stuff that's like—there's just a bunch of nonsense around all the time and I'm just not buying into any of that stuff. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. All right, man. So, let's talk about going to boot camp. Oh my gosh, that's a funny story. And it's kind of—I'm a pretty simple guy. Like, I make up my mind quickly and I can change my mind real quickly, too. Especially about people, too. Like, sometime—whatever, I'm not interested in that person anymore.

But I was living with my mom my senior year in high school. My parents divorced when I was really young. And I finally had an opportunity to live with my mom. And my senior year, I was there with my mom and my stepdad in Minnesota, which was great. Um, I love fishing. And that's all you do in Minnesota. And there's 10,000 lakes there and the fishing's great. The weather sucks in the winter. They can have it. You think this is cold? Oh, the gas freezes in Minnesota. It really does. Your car won't start. Like, that's too cold. I don't know why people live there, except for the two months out of the year when the fishing in the boat lake is amazing.

Massive mosquitoes there, though. Oh, they're little birds. Yeah, they don't like me. They ate my wife up when I brought her there. They don't like me too. I don't know. Whatever. We're at the lake. It's my senior year. I'm getting ready to graduate. And my stepdad says—great man, love this guy—he goes, "Stephen, what are you going to do after high school? Have you thought about it?" And I was thinking military, maybe not, you know, and I kid you not, this is silly. A plane flies over us right as we're driving and it starts to get ready to land in the airport there and it had "Navy" on the side. It was a Navy plane. And I'm all, "I'm joining the Navy." And he goes, "Are you serious? You're joining the—" I'm all, "Yeah, I'm joining the Navy." I had a little thought about it. And that's what—I immediately the next day went down there and signed up.

And you know, these guys are all excited about getting their quota in. And I was thinking about joining the SEALs. I was thinking, you know, that sounds cool, right? Like, go shoot guns, jump out of airplanes. Didn't really think about the killing part too much, but thought about the adrenaline of jumping out of airplanes. I love guns. I love shooting guns. And he said, "Okay, you try out for the SEALs. Here you go." I'm like, "Yes." So then I start training. Like, I gotta get in shape because if I'm gonna try out for the SEALs. Did your recruiter give you a contract for BUD/S guaranteed or was it like, ah, you just touched it too? Because I found out the hard way. You touched it.

Learning life's lessons, right? Um, no. And it's called a—it's called a backup plan, right? If you break your leg then all that then you take—send you to school and—no, they didn't give me that little card. Dang. Uh, but I got in shape and I could do 200 push-ups, no problem. Climb walls, swim miles, all that. I would run to school, work out, run. I was ready to go and got to boot camp. And they would—they immediately asked, "Who's signing up for the SEALs right here?" They put you in a room and they said, "Okay, who has a—I don't remember what it's called—ASVAB backup or I don't even know what it was called, but a couple guys raised their hands."

And then he goes, "All right, if you don't have that, get the hell out of my room now." And I was like, "Wait, there goes my dream, right?" I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait." He goes, "Did you hear what I said?" He got in my face. He goes, "Do you have one?" I'm all, "No." He goes, "Out now." And I'm like, "What did I just get myself into?" And I wanted to say one more word, but I had a feeling this guy was about to—he was a big guy. Yeah. Not a good idea. Not a great idea. Shut the hell up and get out. So that was a hard day.

And so, you know, just was going through boot camp and the drill sergeants were like, you know, kind of picking on me because I smile a lot. Like, I'm all, "What are you laughing? What's up? Oh, you think this is—" this drill sergeant, I remember him. He's all, "Hey, Steel, you think this is funny?" I'm all, "No, sir, I don't." He goes, "I think you think it's funny, and this ain't—you're going to boot camp or marching party, which is after-hours working out with the SEALs." And I actually kind of liked it. Like, it was a punishment, but I enjoyed it because I wasn't in the barracks cleaning. I get to go work out with the SEALs, right?

And then I was thinking in my back of my head, maybe you'll see that I'm a good worker. You know, I can work out and—oh, I was having a great time. Except for your uniform starts to get a grass stain on the back of it. So, every inspection I would fail. "Look at your uniform. You're going to—" I'm all, "Let me guess. I'm going to marching party." I remember one of my buddies said, he goes, "You know, my last name is Steel." And he said, "You know, Steel, you're stainless." He goes, "You get yelled at, you get chewed out, and you come out with a smile. You're Stainless Steel." He was a good old brother from Tennessee and I would love that. I'm all, "I am stainless." That's funny. Yeah. But, you know, deep down inside I was like, "Man, no one's ever chewed my butt the way my old man did." Like, it's all good.

So, boot camp, yeah, it was easy. It's not a hard boot camp. But at the end of boot camp, they hand you this piece of paper and it says, "Where do you want to be stationed at?" Anywhere. And you know for sure you're not getting that. Oh, everyone's putting Hawaii or like all this stuff. Yeah, they're just—you just—and I put my first one San Francisco. And one of my buddies, "Why are you picking San Francisco?" And I said, "Well, there's a rumor that one of my bloodlines helped build the Golden Gate Bridge." Well, he was a welder or a peg welder or whatever. And I want to go see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Well, I got it. San Francisco and I got stationed to the USS Carl Vinson, huge aircraft carrier, CVN 70. Um, and then another lucky card is when I got on the ship, they were looking at all your testing scores, right? Or where they're going to put you. I didn't even take that test seriously. I was just whatever, because after I didn't get to be a SEAL, I was just like whatever, right? So that got me into the flight deck. They put me on the top of the Airdales and that is an intense place. Wow. Like, this aircraft carrier has 5,800 people on it. And the boat is so big. I got lost the first day I was on there. I didn't even know—I found an empty rack and went to bed and woke up the next day trying to find where the hell am I supposed to go? It's that big. It's huge.

I mean, there's three mess on there and two 7-Elevens. And if you run around the flight deck, I think it's one and a half or two times is a mile. Like, it's a big deal, right? So, I finally found where I was supposed to go. And they're like, "All right, the first 10 days you're going to stand up in the crow's nest, the top tower there, and just watch what's going on because it's insane." And I was watching. I'm like, "Man, there's no way in hell I'm going to walk out there on that. There's no way. It's so insane. Oh my. So dangerous. So dangerous."

And they also tell you like when the airplanes land sometimes that breaks. And what happens is it breaks, there's so much tension it runs around the tower. And your instincts is to jump. And they said if you jump you're dead. You want to hit the deck. So they keep pounding on your head: "Hit the deck. If you get scared, hit the deck." And they try to like tell us it's like getting shot at. You want to hit the deck, right? So, because your instincts is—now, that was paranoid. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy.

So, then they go into shadowing where somebody sticks with you and I'm just like, how the heck am I going to get used to this stuff? It's insane. And the jet blowing—oh my gosh, bro. Wow. What an intense job. Yeah. The coordination of that whole thing is just insane how—I mean, just like the sequencing and the timing of all of that to make it really work is just beyond it. It is. It is. And it's slowly I think you get desensitized to how crazy it is and you start getting comfortable.

And I ended up getting becoming a yellow shirt, which mean I was actually directing really quick. Like, I like challenges and I take them on. If I'm interested, I'm all in. If I'm not interested, forget about it, right? But I wanted to be a yellow shirt because they're like the—I don't know—they're the golden people on the ship. Like, you cut the line of food, you get up there, eat quick—like all this—you go, go. You know, we're up on top with the sun and plus you get to hang out with the pilots, and the pilots are super rad, you know, cool guys. Um, I got to meet a bunch of pilots and they actually became friends of mine, and it's kind of fraternization a little bit where hanging out with officers is not cool. You're not allowed to.

But I wasn't an enlisted; I was the guy that got them in safely and parked up and, you know, they have—there's a mutual respect, right? Like, "I got you, dude. Pay attention to me. We're going to get you all tied off or launched off." And then they go do their business and come back, especially in rough seas, man. Wow. And if you bump airplanes against each other, you're in big trouble. You're going to go see the captain because that's a $2 million mistake, right? Just a little crack. I mean, the skin on those—it's—oh, classified, right? Wow.

Yeah. So, I'm on the flight deck and becoming a yellow shirt and instantly a 19-year-old in charge of 20 guys and it was a great experience. Got around two tours over in the Persian Gulf, which is a crazy place. You can see stuff burning still from the oil rigs and sea snakes and dead like cows here and there, floating. I don't know why. Um, it was all, you know, just a job until I remember they had these old phones that you can call—you had a sign-up for it and you can call your loved ones or whatever. And I remember going to the phone—I had prepped in time, I'm going to talk to my wife—and I go and the guy's all, "Phones are closed today."

And I was like, son of a gun. I was going to call her and she was going to be waiting. He said, "Sorry." So I was like, "All right." I go to bed. This is after a long—I was so glad I was young, man. It was a long day. 20 hours is a normal day of working there. Like, that's just normal—18 to 20. I remember going to bed and then getting woken up really quickly—I don't think I had an hour's sleep—and he said, "Get on deck." I'm like, "What? What?" I get up on deck and all the planes are loaded with bombs. All of a sudden, I was like, "What's going on?" "Oh, we're going to war." And I was like, "All right, here we go. Snap out of it."

So, and then I think it was with the one with Saddam was saying when we bombed the heck out of him for like two days and then he—okay, they're serious—and we stopped, right? I think I—it's funny because my mind's spacing on it, but I think what happened is we pulled in the Gulf and they closed the—they closed it off and were playing trap with us or something. I should know more. I signed up, you know. I was just doing my job. And I relate to the military guys that, you know, a lot of people we don't have a choice. We just—we do what we're told to do. Yeah.

But that was a crazy experience. Um, non-stop. Yeah. I'll probably get in trouble for this or someone's going to say I'm full of it, but they actually put methamphetamines in the coffee, I believe, when you're in the war zone. And the reason why I say this is they never rationed coffee before. You go down and get it for free, bags of it. "Hey, have coffee. Whatever. Have coffee." But when we went to war, all of a sudden we had to go sign out coffee. And then they were watching how much you ate and drank. No one ever cared before about—and I wanted to work. Like, I was working. "I'll do that. I'll do this. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going for 24 hours straight." No problem.

And then all of a sudden these things came out way before everyone else—the Camelbaks. They were this new thing. "Hey, put these on. It has to be empty when you come off." Like, they were watching our water intake. Got to make sure. Yeah. Yeah. And how much coffee you had. No more. And it was just like—and then the coffee bags were smaller. We used to get pounds. It was like, who cares? So yeah, methamphetamine. That's for sure. Keep them working, right? The machine, which is really crazy. Now that I look back, I'm like, "Wow, that's crazy." Yeah. And you guys were just going non-stop, right? Non-stop. Just flying. Just non-stop. Yeah. Guys going out, coming back in, going out, coming back in. Right. Right. Right.

So, that must have been a really wild experience. Uh, it was—I look back to—there are so many stories. I could sit here and talk to you for hours. Like, the time our ship hit a whale and it stuck on the bow or like you're like, "What?" Oh, yeah. We had to stop. We hit a freaking whale and had to stop the whole—you know how long it takes to stop an aircraft carrier? I think like 30 minutes in reverse. Yeah. Literally. And then we were going reverse for like hours and it finally fell off. It's like, "Wow." You don't hear about those stories, do you? No. No. And they come up and take your cameras if you took pictures and—yeah. They don't want that. No. No. Yeah.

So, um, you're in the Navy. You're pushing it hard. Then your engagement ends, right? As you're starting to come close to that date, what's in your brain? You know, "Hey, I'm either going to re-enlist or I'm going to go do something else." I knew for a fact—I knew for a fact I wasn't going to re-enlist. Like, four years is great. I didn't want to get trapped like these old-school guys. Like, I didn't want that to be my whole life, constantly saying like—I was in the Navy for four years and two and a half of them I was out at sea. That's too much. Like, you know, I found a really, really great lady who I married who's my best friend. You know, I wouldn't be here right now without her. Like, we complement each other really well.

I wanted to be with her, right? Like, I want to sleep in my bed at night and not be gone. So yeah, there was a big pressure. They set you down: "Hey, there's no work out there." I'm all, "I already have a job lined up." "Where are you going to work at?" "I'm going to work in construction." "That's a dead-end job." I'm all, "No, no, it's not. Actually, it's what I want to do." You know, in my family history, there's I think four generations of military and four generations of contracting. So, I'm going to try the other one now. Right. And I had a job lined up and I got into a cool company and worked for this master craftsman who really loved having a Navy or a military dude working under him because—dude, he's dialed in. This guy is—I was like, "What do you got?" Organize stuff and—he was like, "I love this. I'm going to hire more of these if I can find them." Right. He's got methamphetamine in the coffee. Yeah. Yeah. methamphetamine here.

Uh, I remember getting raises like every two months because they were like, "I don't want to lose this guy." And I was learning because I was all in. And so I constantly was like learning and wanting and I had this guy who did everything. Like, we did everything: electrical, plumbing, framing, you name it. And he was good at it. He was really good at—I'm so blessed. Al Schmidt was a—is a good carpenter. I don't—I think he might have retired the last couple years. I'm not sure. I haven't seen him in a while. He lives here in Nevada, but I was blessed to be able to do something new and learn and be good at it.

So, coming out of the Navy and you're going into that, what's the level of excitement for you? Like, "Hey, it's a new thing and I've got my wife and, you know, you're—you know, like this is this incredible opportunity." You're on this new job. Like, we talk a lot about flow state in the show. So, going back to the Navy, there's definitely a flow state happening on a carrier deck, right? Oh, yeah. And it's an organizational flow state. Flawless. And you're in it. You're in your own flow state, especially when you got heavy action like what you're talking about. Yeah.

Um, you come out of this now, you're in this new kind of—it's this new energy. Did you feel like, "Okay, I've got kind of a new flow state happening here. I'm applying what I've learned in the Navy and now I'm taking it out and I'm actually applying it into this environment." Tell me about that. Absolutely. I definitely look at my experience in the Navy. That's modeled me for discipline, paying attention to detail, complacency—not allowing that to happen—and then staying focused because there's zero error on a flight deck. Zero. And it's easy to be tired and complacent.

Moving that towards construction, though, I feel like I had an edge on most because of the discipline that was already with me, right? Where a lot of kids just go out of high school or whatever and get into the trades or some go to college and then decide they want to do the trades. But it helped me. But also I lean on, you know, my childhood of—if I'm in, I'm focused. I'm want to do this. And so the trades were—it was a great transition. I was really excited about it to be able to have a camaraderie with guys and get up in the morning and also the pleasure of, when you're done building something, standing back and going, "I did that." Yeah. It's so satisfying.

Huge sense of accomplishment. Oh, and something I would never know anything about because—I mean, if I could hang a picture my wife would, you know. Hey, it takes everybody to make the world go around. That's true. And that's one of the things why it's so exciting to have you here because I think like you look at it and you go, you know, building a home, doing that kind of work is not something that I could do. I mean, I just don't think I'm geared for it, but I have such respect for it. And I think it's amazing, amazing to see everything that goes into it. And aren't you glad that you're right now in the construction business? I mean, holy smokes. Oh my gosh. Like, look at all this opportunity that exists today around this.

I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed in the position that I'm in right now and where I'm at in life. And I look at all the decisions that I've made up to this point. They all led me right to here, right? Like, and it's great. And you know, you're catching me at a new transition and in a really big opportunity in a place where I'm so thankful to wake up in the morning right now. Like, I'm like, "Yes, today's gonna be a great day." Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, it's nice.

Hey, before we get to that, so you're working with Schmidt. Yeah. You're doing that. You go on and you start building, you got your own construction company, right? All that stuff. But we got to talk about the Steel Mixer. Yeah. Great story. I went to go visit my grandfather. Um, we were going to have a wedding at his property—my sister was getting married. My grandfather was a contractor. He's built every house he's ever lived in since he was 24 or something. Just a stud. Solid guy. He's the kind of guy that would shake your hand and he can put you on your knees. Just a grip.

Right. I'm hanging out with the family and I look across the field over there by the barn. My grandfather's doing something using this tool I've never seen before. I'm like, "What the hell is he doing?" And then I see him dump it. And I was like, "Wait, is that concrete?" And I walk across the field and I said, "Grandpa, what the hell is this?" And he's a religious man. He looks over, "Watch your language." Like, scolds me. I'm all, "Sorry, sorry. What is this?" And he goes, "You don't know about your great-grandfather's invention." And I'm like, "What, everyone else does, not me? I'm the builder, right?"

And I spent the next hour and a half using this heart-shaped tool on a pendulum mixing concrete and my mind was spinning. I'm like, "This is amazing." So, I fly home and I can't stop thinking about it and I'm like, "Why are we poor?" All right, this tool—how long have they had—like, why isn't the Steel Mixer out? Like, where, what's going on? And so I call my dad and I was like, "Hey, Dad. Uh, can you ask grandpa if I can have that?" And he goes, "You go ahead. We're going to have another family reunion in 6 months. You ask it."

So I fly back and I say, "Hey—" I sit down. My heart's beating. I'm like nervous as heck. And I say, "Hey, Grandpa, can I have the Steel Mixer? Can I have grandpa's invention?" He said, "It's yours. Take, do whatever you want with it." And I was like, "Sweet." So I come back with it. And then I find out going to the patent attorneys that in 1952 a guy named Huitt patented this heart-shaped mixer and maybe buried it. I don't know. Have you ever seen one like that? I have never. No. And I was so bummed. I was so bummed. I'm like, "Hey, intelligent minds think alike, right?" I'm sure. So it's in the universe. People think about inventions and who knows? I don't know the story. I thought Huitt saw it. He probably did. He worked on it. I thought he saw it on the train. Stole it. He probably did. I can't prove that. I can't prove that.

But it's all good. You know, 3 days before Christmas after using my grandfather's mixer—my great-grandfather's mixer—a lot. It worked. But that was his prototype. I feel like he wasn't done yet. It still clumped up because it would just bloom, bloom. And I woke up in the middle of the morning or night. Bing. Wait a minute. If you separate that heart and put another trough in the middle, it'll create this disruptive eddy to really bust it all up. I couldn't sleep. I got up and then four months later, I finally built one because to me—bend metal and—there were all these ideas and aha.

And the minute I mixed my first bag with the Steel Mixer—my idea, my prototype—I think I cried, man. I think I—I was like, "This is it." And so I'm filing a patent for this. So I went into the patent attorney with prior art. Here's my great-grandfather's. That's my prior art. And then here's mine. I want to file for a patent. And he said, "You're never going to get a patent for this. You just added a middle trough. Come on." Like, and I'm all, "Oh, yes, I am. This isn't just adding a middle trough." Like, it does different motion, right?

So I got a fluidity guy that explained the motion. I did engineer testing on concrete, 19 turns each, proving that this thing mixes way faster and more efficient. They said no to my patent four times. Four times. Nope. Nope. I was fighting dishwashers. I was fighting gravel mixers. I was fighting all these things. And I'm like, "You guys, it's none of these things." Every time they said no, my wife had to pull out a checkbook and write a nice-sized check. And she was—God bless her—she could see my drive, though, like, I am going to get a patent. I know I'm going to get a patent.

And every time I saw a letter from them, I had to sit back and it's a no. Okay, let's go. I had to, you know, breathe in and let it out and—no, I'm not gonna—that's off the table now because I know I'm going to get it. So the fourth time they said no. My wife said, "Hey, this is the last time we're going to write a check because it is the last time that you get to fight it. You only get strike five, right?" The fifth one is yes or no. It's done. Go away. So I wrote an affidavit about how I came up with this new idea.

And it wasn't just putting a little trough in there. I wrote all about how hard it was for me bending the metal. I had to come up with a new way to bend the metal because making those three is not easy. If you take a half of a square and then you bend it this way, it creates that disruptive eddy. There's like this automat—and I came up with that in the middle and now I'm like, "Oh my god, I figured out how to bend the metal," which is a whole process. Anyways, I wrote the affidavit. My wife proofread it and put a little lawyer words in there. Sent it to the lawyer and a month later I got my patent. They read it and they're like, "Well, yeah, obviously because if the Huitt mixer really was a great idea, where the hell is it right now? And the world needs this mixer."

Yeah, it's great. So, you got a patent on—blocking the thing from that could really help people because you mix concrete in a wheelbarrow or in the ground, which makes it less stable. The other thing I think it was really interesting is that the way that you created that by changing that shape, you actually got a better output on the concrete 100%. So you mean—and I didn't know anything about concrete till you explained it all to me. I admittedly just didn't—that's not my game, right? But what I thought was so cool was like, "Hey, this pressurization or the density of the concrete, based on the way that you changed it, made it so much better." So, not only did it mix better, but it actually produced a better product. Correct. And I'm super stoked about that because it's really important to have properly mixed concrete for it to get it to its PSI. And I have all the testing. It really does work.

And now you got it in stores all over the place. I am. I'm in Tractor Supply, Amazon. Um, I'm in a couple of smaller stores that are just little specialty stores. I just got contacted by Walmart. They want to put it online. I also am—well, that's another story. I have a factory in China right now. I moved there maybe three years ago because of costs up here. Plastic cost, steel cost. It's all insane to build something in the United States. I remember that. I remember you like—you were adamant that it was getting built and made in the United States, right? Adamant. Adamant. Which I really respected. I thought, "You know what, dude, that is awesome, man." We had long discussions about that. Manufacturing here in the United States with people who really could be passionate about. And, you know, I love what your thought process was around like, hey, creating a company that really took care of the worker. I think you said something like you never have to unionize. You never have to be a union; you could just basically take care of these guys in a way like they could have a real—raise a family, all those types of things. But then the reality stuck in about costs and no one wants to spend $400 on a non-electric mixer.

Yeah. And that's a bummer. I wish it wasn't. So, I have a factory, which is a great factory. My Chinese factory, the guy's golden is his name. He's Brad. Super nice guy. Honest, great people that work for him. He took me around. It's not a sweat lodge, you know, like you hear—it actually is brilliant. He makes all kinds of tools there. Um, what I really loved about him is I sent him the drawings and he had a prototype the next day. Wow. That's what I said. And he's all, "How do you like this?" And I was like, "Wow." Like, uh, I had a wheelbarrow attachment. Done. "I want you to change this." "No problem. Done." Next day. "How do you like this?" I'm like, I love that responsiveness. It's like, wow. They really wanted the business. They do. They do.

I ran into a problem, though, is that I'm ready to start selling with the government going into FEMA and military. Nope. And I was like, okay. So, now I'm moving my factory to Brazil as we speak. In fact, when I get off the phone or off to this, I'm going to have a phone call about costs and prototypes and all that. And the government will buy from Brazil and all the tariffs, bro. Wow. We don't even have to get into that. I mean, like at this point in time with all of that, I wonder, like, is it actually feasible to get something into the United States? And is there—I'm looking, you know, because I just think that like economic development zones in the country. There's all sorts of things we could always talk about another time.

Well, maybe whoever is watching this if you want to contact me and I'm all ears for anything. Well, really, I can't imagine—I mean, like that is one of the things where I, you know, again, far be it for me to say how you would actually do it, but I just could see how that could be so successful and I think there's a real desire from so many people I talked to is like, "Oh, I just wish I want to buy an American-made product." I think the opportunity could be now. And that's really cool. What's really great about this story that I love the most is the fact that you persevered. You never gave up. It's like Walt Disney—I don't know, what was it, like 400 banks said no or some crazy thing like that? Edison tried how many times to make the light bulb? One of my heroes. Right. And we could go on and on and on. But taking that and saying, "Hey, I really believe—" I know, like it's an internal knowing. Your pathway to peak performance in that particular story was never giving up, but there had to be something that was on the inside where you just knew. If I stuck—it was like not wishful thinking; it was purposeful. You were intentional. You stayed on it.

Resilience, man. That's me in a nutshell. And I've learned that. I've learned that about myself through that whole process. And I'm just resilient. I truly believe that if you put your mind to it, a no is—I actually learn to like nos. I love when a no hits my face right now. Like, no is sweet. You're the wrong person to talk to. Can you move out of the way, please? I gotta love it. Like, I'm not afraid of no. It doesn't bother me. That's just an opinion, really. Like, get out of the way. I learned so much about nos and I've done a lot of reading since my dad died. We'll get into that. But with motivation—they're all saying the same stuff, man. They're all saying the same stuff. If you can control your thoughts, you can do anything because it's your mind that's going to mess you up, right? Like, it really is. I try to keep my mind clear and positive as much as possible and stay resilient.

That's so funny. Jeff sent me a video this morning, a Tony Robbins video. Oh, nice. And it was about getting triggered. Oh. And he said, "Nobody, whatever they say doesn't really trigger you. You trigger yourself." That's correct. And so what you're saying is—it's so funny that just moments ago—sometimes I feel like things are really clicking in like the same sort of—it's sort of weird how it all kind of comes together in the way that it does. Um, so you get that—you got that going—but then, you know, like a lot of people who are entrepreneurs and inventors and doing those types of things, you've got this whole other thing going on which is the construction business and some of the projects. I don't know how much you want to get into all of that or what you can really talk about, but some of these things are so big.

Yeah. So, I shut down my own company a year and a half right before COVID—maybe two years. My dad died in a car accident 5 years ago, which—there's always a blessing to everything I've learned and it's made me a better person. My dad's death, it ruined me for the first year. Like, it absolutely ruined—to get a phone call like that really wakes you up about what really matters in life. Like, what does really matter? Like, family, love, friends, right? All the other stuff is just stuff. I actually don't like stuff. Like, it's nice to have but it's not what the focus is about, right?

And I woke up realizing that I don't want to own my own company anymore right now. I don't want to have my wife and I doing the business, and we had a great company. We were doing really nice projects. Just grinding, though; keeping guys busy is a grind. And the next four years, you know, COVID hit too and I did a lot of soul-searching and picked up books, started reading. My dad was a big reader. I never really liked reading; now I love reading. I'm a book a month, easy. Just in the morning is my quiet time, my zen time. Making sure my thoughts are clear, right? Starting the day out solid.

And after COVID, I wanted to get back to work with someone and a team. My wife said, "Hey, go, you're a great pro site superintendent. You know everything about construction—almost everything, or learning still—but go work for a company, you know." And so I did. I started working for a company and really enjoyed the 8 to 5 or 8 to 4:30. That's awesome, you know, and I get to still be the guy and then I get to go home and not worry about anything. That's awesome. This is great. It's easy.

Then I get called from a good friend of mine, Jesse Denim, and he said—well, my wife and his wife are really good friends and they were at a party together and she was telling my wife that Jesse needs help on this really big project. The site superintendent is not doing well. And he asked, "What's Stephen doing?" She goes, "He's got a good gig going right now with this company." And she goes, "All right, well, I'll talk to him." And she sat me down at dinner and said, "Hey, Jesse needs help at this massive project. It's huge. One Shady Lane in Ross. It's beautiful." And I said, "Oh, really? Wow, that's a nice job." And then she told me about all the benefits and stuff. And I'm like, "Really? That's a nice company."

So I called them up. I said, "Hey, let me see the job." And I went out there and this property is huge and massive. 120 guys a day there. Just busy. Wow. And I said, "I'll take the job." And inside, at first, I was going, "Oh my gosh, this is a big job." I was a little bit, you know, my heart's racing. I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to pull my first safety meeting and I'm the guy all these people are looking at." And I lean into my military then, you know, of running it like the military. You get a lot of respect when you're not yelling. Yelling is just—you lose. You lose. There's no yelling on this—"This is a direct order. This is the chain of command. Let's get to work." Right? And this is how it works.

On this job here, there's this—I call it the dream team. We all—there were six of us and we all kind of were working together making sure every part of it was covered. Jesse's the project manager. I'm the superintendent. I got a layout king. I've got the foreman for the outside making sure. I've got my son now who just got out of college who's my assistant making sure head counts—like, we were just building this really, really controlled team there and we accomplished something that was supposedly impossible, which is building a house in less than two years without fines in Ross. Because after two years, you get fines big-time. And we did it. We nailed it.

And this place is huge—there's a house, a pool house, an ADU, gate house, a detached garage. It was a flat bare lot when it started and that's where Toss came in. After that job was done, we united a team together and we went in partnership together and I freaking love our team. We're so solid and all the years that I've worked in construction, I've never seen a team like we have and I'm so proud of it and I'm so excited about our future together. And you know, there's no stress with us. We're brothers and we're tight and we're really good at what we do and everyone has their own area. We don't—you know, it's a nice balance.

What's really cool about that, too, is your military training gave you the opportunity to understand the difference between a group and a team. Oh, amen. You know, so you got a group of guys working on something or now you have a team of guys that are working in unison and doing something together where it's like, "Oh, hey, I'm moving left, you're moving right. We're going up this way." You know, we're going to link up here. It's super nice and it's so empowering to have a team because I can't do it without them. And so they know that and it's awesome. It's awesome to have that. And our team is Brad Toss Builders. I'm excited. We're here in Belvedere right now working on a really nice project and it wakes me up in the morning smiling.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a pretty good view. I say that at least four times a day. Yeah. Wow. Your office definitely is prime time. I mean, that's—I sit at my desk and I look up and there's the Golden Gate Bridge. I'm like, "How can you not like this view?" Yeah, that's—wow. So, as you kind of contemplate, I mean, right now, you think about it, one of the guys I really like is Mike Rowe. You know, he always is talking about the trades and he's got the Rowe Works Foundation. And I think he's the only guy that's really ever come out—maybe other than union guys—but the only guy that's really been like a star that's really come along and been a champion of the trades. Just a phenomenal guy.

And you know, his point is like, "Hey, there are all these unfulfilled jobs and yet in this country there's like a huge push for people to go to college." Certainly, there's some value, but there's a lot of people that are like, "Oh, is there any value in college other than a bunch of debt?" So for the kid that is thinking today—I mean, you can start a company and you can go work and have a phenomenal life in the trades and highly unlikely you're going to be replaced by a robot anytime soon. Not happening. Yeah. I mean, dude, how is that going to work? AI might help you with plans and things of that nature. Absolutely. Absolutely it does. You know, doing bidding and all that, right? Counting and material lists, and I use it for that. It's awesome. Yeah. Sure. But at the end of the day, you gotta get out there and you gotta swing the hammer and make that stuff happen, right?

Um, so what do you—for a kid that's like, they're in high school and they're getting ready to graduate and they go, "Okay, I could go military. I could go into the trades. I could go to college and do whatever." If they're contemplating the trades, what are the things that they need to know? I think my son's a good example of this because Aiden went to college, got his two years' business done. I was over at one Shady Lane. And he's all, "Dad, I don't have any desire to go to college and waste your money or mine. Like, I got my two years done. I got my degree for that. I want to get in the trades. I want to do what you do."

And he did. And he's making really good money right now. And he's learning every day something. I'll show him how to do something. He's like, "How do you make that look so easy?" I'm all, "That's called experience." I mean, I'll make it look easy all day; that's called experience and eventually you will too, and you'll know how to build a house or you'll know how to do all this experience. And I guess what I would say is if you want to go to college and you have something that you want to do that requires a degree, good on you. If you want to try out college, go get your first two years out of the way. That would be great because then you can go to any college you want, right? And I just learned that; I didn't know that. They can't say no if you have your first two years out of the way, right? Your general whatever it is.

There's a lot of pride in being a contractor, a general contractor, a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician. Man, the union boys in the city—those electricians are making money and they're saving money. The union puts a lot of money in their bank account every hour. You know, their dues—they have dues—but the trades are great. I enjoy them. I take a lot of pride in knowing how to build this thing right here. You know, I could do this whole place with electrical, plumbing, and all that. No problem. Except for three-phase. That's a different story. That stuff's crazy.

But um, what is that? Uh, it's a commercial—three-phase is commercial electrical where you have big machinery and it uses different draws so you're not pulling. I don't know enough about it. Single-phase all day. I can talk to you about that. But it's a fun job, especially on some of the projects we're working on. And honestly, like, I just went to a Christmas party at one of the jobs we just finished there. And to walk around and look at everything that we built and how great it is, and to see everyone partying and that one little corner over there that I was tripping out on—"This is great, right?" It was a really great experience. And walking in with the lights and everyone has a cocktail and drinks and food, and to say we built this at the party all night—oh yeah, we did. I am Stephen; we built this. It was nice. It was nice. And you've created a space that people are going to enjoy for many, many, many years. True. And it's probably the first of many, many parties that will happen there.

Yeah. Um, so one of the things what I would like to go back and kind of talk about is like the rough moments and, you know, everybody experiences them. No one—I always say—no one gets out alive, right? Nobody gets out alive. It is. Oh my god. It's so true. It's—you know—you've got a punch date and it is what it is. Yeah. So in the rough moments, man, when things are tough, like, where do you go? How do you—like, you know, everybody has those times when it's like, "Man, I got to—I got to get through this." How do you do it?

Well, without crying. Um, honestly, when it's really, really rough, I take a deep breath. I remind myself that it's never as bad as you think it is. Or it's never going to be as bad as you think it's going to be either. It never is. It never is. And there—it goes back to the mind. Your mind will start messing you up when it's rough times, right? Because you start worrying about stuff that's going to happen or—oh my—you start having these conversations and I just take a deep breath and tell that mind to stop talking right now. Stop talking right now. Let's—let's see what it really is. And is it 911? Is it really 911? No. Because otherwise you're calling the police and the fire department, right?

So I just take a deep breath because we've had a lot of rough times where you're like, "Wow, I didn't expect that one this morning and it's Friday. Wow." Let's take a deep breath. No yelling. Let's keep it calm. And congratulations—you've made it through all your rough times. So has everybody else on this earth, right? Everybody has. We've all made it through. And I just try to remind myself of that because my grandfather said—he said, "It's always something. It's always something, Stephen." Well, until you die, it's always something. There's always something. Right.

Yeah. Uh, that's called life. Yeah. There are peaks and valleys and, being a peak performer, which you definitely are, man, you've got a streak, but there's nobody that hasn't had a tough time here and there. I mean, there are things that just come up that are just rough, like your dad dying, like whatever. And so you get to this point in time, you say, "Hey, peak performance is like being able to reach a sustainable level and getting to know yourself." And I think at this stage of the game, you know, it's pretty clear you know who you are. You know what you want to accomplish and you're excited about it.

Yeah. And that's what's really amazing and fun and cool, you know, and like, you know, I've known you a long time and you haven't changed. I mean, and like, I'm sure you've changed, right? But I get what you're saying. Your level of enthusiasm and energy has always remained constant. You know what I mean? You've always been, "I'm going to win. I'm going to make it happen." It's like you have this thing about you that a lot of people—if they could figure out exactly how to get that formula from you. I hope someday you'll write a book and lay that out.

Because inside of each person, that's what I try to get on the show is like—I try not to tell people what to think. No, think for yourself. Figure out what's going on by listening to what's happening for each person. Everybody's story is different, but inside of that there is some sort of formula and it's different for every single person. But yours is one of persistent positivity, persistence, and just saying, like, "Hey, if it gets really rough, I'm just going to take a pause and take a deep breath and let it work itself out because it's not as bad as I think it is."

It's not. And I have to believe that, you know, eventually I will succeed. I have to believe that way because why? When it's really hard, you got to remind yourself why you started, right? That dream you had—because no one's—I don't know anybody—you can go look at all these millionaires and billionaires or whatever and ask them, "Was it easy?" No one's going to say yes. And the people that got the money easy, like the lottery—look at the percentage—they didn't win, and that ruins their lives because they didn't earn it, right? They didn't earn it. And there's no pride.

I think what you're saying also is, too, is like—going back to what you talked about before about the building, right? You're talking about, "Hey, we built this." In order to have like an appreciation for these great moments—which I think I love your focus on family and sharing that time together because ultimately that is what is most important. And I was thinking about that this morning. Another thing I was just like, "Wow." You know what? Something hit me. You know, it was like there's a real appreciation for what's important in life. And I think that that's so cool, dude. I mean, that's—that's the pinnacle. Yeah. Because I mean, you're right. You can have all the money in the world and be one of the most miserable people ever. It doesn't—it doesn't matter. It's so true. It's so true.

Yeah. I think getting that phone call on a Thursday afternoon can change your perspective on life really easy. Yeah. So, Steel Mixer. Yes. There was another part of this story that I wanted to let you know is the Steel Mixer. I found out this guy—there's this off-grid guy and I gave him one of the mixers. I love organic advertising. I don't pay for advertising. I haven't. Eventually, I'm going to have to, but I just wanted to grow this business organically, you know, and you can get on YouTube and all that—you can buy views and all—I'm not interested. But I gave this one to this off-grid guy and he was using it. And one of his followers said, "Hey, that looks like that'd make a good washing machine." And he's all, "Wait a minute."

And so he put soap in there and he put his clothes and then he did this whole video and dumped it out and it works great as an off-grid washing machine. And I was like, "You got to be kidding me." So then I did it. My wife doesn't like all my old rags and stuff; she doesn't want it in the washing machine, right? So I used my—I used mine. I wrapped it over and I sat down, cracked a beer, and I'm here washing clothes. It's so easy. And then I dumped the old dirty water out. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." The island of Tonga—remember that tsunami? I started a GoFundMe and I sent a bunch of them over there so that they can wash their clothes and then rebuild with the mixer. So, it's dual-purpose. I'm just—I'm like, "Wow."

You know, the other thing that's cool about that is you kind of get a workout doing it. Well, you do with mixing concrete, but with washing clothes, no, a 2-year-old could do it. Really? It's almost zero gravity because it's on a pendulum. It starts kind of working. Back once you get it going, it starts going back and forth. And I just started touching this market, but I went online and I was looking at like what real big washing machines cost off-grid. And they're like 1,800 bucks. I was like, "Oh, we're going to have fun with this." So, I just started touching the market as we speak. I'm looking at off-grid shows and going to have a little fun time stepping into that market. Plus, you know, no power, right? Yeah.

That's one of the great things about it—any place that is susceptible to having, like, a power outage, if you don't have a generator, what are you going to do? A lot of people aren't really prepared for what could happen, right? Right. Like, you know, they're not preppers, right? Well, I mean, the preppers are on another level. They're up there, right? They're ready. Yeah. Um, but just the average day, average everyday person doesn't even think, like, to have enough food—they think, "Oh yeah, the supermarket's always going to be full. There's always going to be stuff like we're never going to have any kind of—" and we probably won't. I hope not. Yeah, I sure hope not. I mean, I'm a great hunter and I'm a great fisherman and so if it happens, come on over to my house. I also know how to make moonshine and whiskey, so I think I'm going to be just fine. Hanging out, eating deer, having some salmon and smoking—there you go.

Yeah, right. That's really exciting about the Steel Mixer being an off-grid washing machine. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I think so, too. Yeah. Well, exciting stuff coming up for you, dude. Doing some big—I'm obviously I'm not going to say anything about it. Um, we got a gentleman's NDA on that stuff, but yeah. Toss Builders will be around. You'll start seeing us pop up all over the place and we're really excited. Our team's ready for it. Yeah, that's great.

And then Steel Mixer. I mean, God, getting into—gosh, I mean, Walmart is, you know, that's—I'm shifting gears on that one, too. I feel like that one has just really gotten started, too. I look back at all the accomplishments and all the struggles that I've had through all of that and I'm just excited to keep moving forward. Yeah. You know, I'd say something to you and it's almost like—what I'm shocked about with that particular product is that it hasn't—like, Home Depot or a Lowe's. I just can't fathom why that isn't there. It just doesn't make sense to me when so many people are, you know, doing work on their homes or whatever. You always see these guys—handymen that are running around doing whatever they're doing—that every single company doesn't have. I mean, I think there's always some need to pour some concrete somewhere to do something with it. Is it the number one building material in the world? Concrete.

Yeah. Um, I feel like getting it to the right person is a massive struggle right now. Like, finding the right—they're so busy, dude. They're so busy with—I don't even know—it's such a market, you know? I'm eventually going to sell the product. I've already put out some feelers to, like, Black & Decker or DeWalt, you know; eventually, I'm going to sell the idea. I'm working on a trademark right now that's going to make it a nicer sale number. Um, that's kind of non-disclosure stuff after that. But then I have a couple other inventions I'm getting ready to patent.

You know, it's funny. You do have a couple other things. I do. I do. Yeah. Well, you know what? Maybe we come back and we could talk—yeah, sure. Sure. I actually have a—I plan on putting together a YouTube channel of helping people get their idea to market without losing all the profit, right? Because there's all these companies that'll run with your product and they come along to any inventor and they kind of like say, "Oh, we'll get you this, that, and the other thing." You wind up with nothing. Yeah.

And there's a couple—I feel like I have a lot to teach. I've learned so much about prototyping and the AI-generated software with this 3D modeling. You can check it. It's insane. And patents and lawyers and NDAs are huge, right? Like, I have this whole packet that I just want to give for free because I would have loved me talking to me 20 years ago or 15 years ago when it all started, right? You've been at that for a long time. Yeah. I think that's really great. And the notion of open sourcing it to help people, right, is phenomenal. That kind of level of—well, maybe some form of charity, I guess. I don't know, but what I would say is I think that's like amazing that, you know, instead you're not looking at it as like, "Hey, how can I make a bunch of money on this and sell this product to all these people?" Which is fine, right? I get it. That's a lot of work, too, though.

Yeah, right. It's probably easier to give it away. Right. Yeah. Isn't giving like the most selfless thing you can do, though? And it's so satisfying. Like, I really feel like just helping people or giving—it's not greedy. It's satisfying to help people. You know, I was just at the VA clinic yesterday or the day before and I saw this old vet out front, well-dressed, and I heard him talking to the guard: "I don't know how I'm going to get home. I just don't know. I'll figure it out. Don't worry." And then I go into the VA and get my checkup and then I walk out and he's still sitting there and it was cold. It's been cold here. He's sitting out there with his cane and I go hop in my truck and then the little voice said, "Hey, go ask him if he needs a ride."

And I had a really important meeting I had to get to, too. But I was like, "It doesn't matter, that." And I walk up and say, "Hey, sir, do you need a ride?" And he goes, "Who are you?" And I'm all, "Well, I'm a veteran. Do you need a ride?" And he said, "Well, if you're going that way—" I'm all, "Where you going?" He's all, "Sebastopol." And I'm like, "That's where I'm going, dude." Because I knew you'd say no. Right. And then I have a big truck and I grabbed his coffee and I said, "Can I help you climb up in there?" And he goes, "Don't touch me. I've climbed in tanks and planes my whole life." And I was like, "This is awesome."

And he struggled to get in. But he was very well respected. He wasn't going to have help getting in a truck even though he was really old. And he got in there and the stories we had about his whole career—way out of my way, but it felt so good, you know, and I ended up not being late for my meeting, but it didn't matter, right? It didn't matter. You know, you got to think God put you in that position, right? In that moment. Yeah. I believe that. I totally believe that we're here on this earth to help people. Yeah. And I'm going to do more of that.

And I hope everyone else—I feel like this world right now is so at odds with each other. It's so crazy. Not politically and I'm not just saying—there's so much trying to prove how different we are instead of trying to see how we're alike. Well, I don't know what's going on, but all I know is this: I believe most Americans have so much more in common together than they do. And there's some weird stuff that's trying to split us apart and destroy what we really stand for. Right. And the reality is that you know, that's sort of like the devil. Yeah. Right. The devil can't win. No. You can keep trying.

Yeah. But you know what? It has gotten to be one of those things where it is pretty insane. A lot of people are making a lot of money on that. And I just don't believe—I look at our children, their age. They're smart. They're not about that. They're not. It doesn't feel like they're going for it. You know what I mean? They're really heading in the right direction. And you know, it's kind of funny, dude, actually, to think about it. Your wife and my wife went to high school together. They did. They did. That's right. I was thinking about that. High school. We're getting old and I love it. I know. It is. It is a really—it's wild to think like how far back that goes. Right.

Oh, man. It's been great to have you in here. Thank you. I was—from that first time—that was great. We had so much fun just taking the money. Yeah. Yeah. That was a great charity poker tournament. I mean, I think that I look back on that one, I think that was the one that I love the most. It was the most super fun. Yeah. And we definitely galvanized a friendship in that night. And it's been that way. Every time I see you, we pick up right where we left off. It has never changed. I love it. I love it. All right, brother. Hell yeah. Thanks for coming in. Pleasure.

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