Brandon Mantz| Discussion Combustion Podcast | #281

[00:00:00] We'll have this discussion. Discussion? What discussion? This is a discussion. Combustion. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, this is Discussion Combustion Podcast with your hosts Kevin Batstone and Arthur Rawe. Time flies when you're having fun and it's 2025. Welcome into Discussion Combustion. This is the People's Podcast episode 281. So excited to be back, Art. Good to see you. We've got a great guest joining us here. Brandon, thanks for coming down, man. Join the show. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's just a quick jaunt down.

[00:00:30] Kind of 285 for me. Okay, not too bad now. Easy to get over here, yeah. That's helpful because I know 5 p.m. on a Wednesday isn't always convenient in Denver, Colorado. Yeah, I didn't have to traverse I-25 or 70, so not too bad. Right on, man. Perfect. We play a game, Kevin and I do. The Over-Under. And it's called the Over-Under, and we always guess if the guest will be over late or if they're going to be under and early. We both took the under on you. We did. All right. And you were. And you were early. Yeah, we had a feeling. We had a feeling. Hit the under.

[00:00:59] Sure. So yeah, we always give people some leeway time to drive in traffic, you know, as long as people can travel safe. We're just recording and talking in here. Yeah.

[00:01:07] You know, it's fun. There's a lot of momentum behind this, but it's fun most of all.

[00:01:13] Yeah, I'm usually an on-time guy, and my wife is not so much.

[00:01:19] I think that's kind of a common thing amongst a lot of women.

[00:01:22] Oh, I'll say. But I do give her credit. I think she's gotten better over the last couple of years.

[00:01:26] Okay.

[00:01:27] Either that or I just have made the right calculations to give her enough buffer time, like, before we actually have to be somewhere.

[00:01:33] Oh, yeah. You add the buffer time.

[00:01:35] Yeah, add a little bit of buffer time in there.

[00:01:37] That's a pro move.

[00:01:38] So yeah, it's worked out a little bit better the last couple of years.

[00:01:42] That's good.

[00:01:42] Nice.

[00:01:43] Well, see, but you're all in that CrossFit.

[00:01:45] So, like, that's discipline. That's punctuality.

[00:01:46] It shows you've got to manage your time, let's get it done, and move on.

[00:01:50] That carries over to other parts of life.

[00:01:51] Yeah. Yeah, I've always been an athlete.

[00:01:54] So, like, I was throwing all kinds of balls as soon as I could walk and played three sports in high school, football, basketball, baseball.

[00:02:04] I played baseball in college.

[00:02:06] After college, I was trail running, doing half marathons, skiing, biking, hiking, all the outdoor things.

[00:02:18] On the move.

[00:02:19] Yeah, on the move.

[00:02:20] Now, are you a Colorado native?

[00:02:21] No, I'm from Wisconsin originally.

[00:02:24] So born and raised in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin.

[00:02:29] Okay.

[00:02:30] So I went through all my schooling there and then moved out to Colorado in 2018.

[00:02:36] Okay.

[00:02:37] So we're no transplants.

[00:02:38] And you should just get into the ski accident and, like, just kind of cover that, you know, because that's a crazy story.

[00:02:44] And you briefly were talking about that prior to hopping on here.

[00:02:47] Yeah.

[00:02:47] Yeah, I can get into that right away.

[00:02:49] So I have not always been in a wheelchair.

[00:02:53] Nice-looking chair.

[00:02:53] I got the snow tires on.

[00:02:55] Yeah, look at that.

[00:02:56] Prepared there.

[00:02:57] But, yeah, so I moved out to Denver in 2018, September of 2018.

[00:03:03] Okay.

[00:03:04] And then in December, my first ski day up in Breckenridge, I got into a crash.

[00:03:11] It was just a blue run, pretty fluke thing.

[00:03:15] And I don't remember it at all.

[00:03:17] But I have a couple of accounts from the guy that actually found me down.

[00:03:24] He came to visit me in the hospital.

[00:03:26] Oh, yeah.

[00:03:26] And so I got to hear, like, his account of, like, what happened.

[00:03:30] I got to meet with the Flight for Life crew, like, a year after.

[00:03:34] And so I got to get, like, some of their accounts.

[00:03:37] So with all of these pieces to piece together what happened, it was basically just where a run split two different ways.

[00:03:44] And there's a giant trail marker post.

[00:03:47] I must have carried, don't know what happened again, but carried pretty good speed into this trail marker post.

[00:03:54] And then I was just probably, like, pretty straight on, like, back tumbled into it, something like that.

[00:04:01] But, yeah.

[00:04:02] So I was down in the snow.

[00:04:03] My whole group was ahead of me that I was with.

[00:04:06] So nobody was there immediately to, like, say, like, oh, you're down.

[00:04:11] Are you okay?

[00:04:11] So your buddies didn't see it.

[00:04:12] Anything like that.

[00:04:13] None of my friends that I was with were there to see it.

[00:04:16] So they don't know what happened.

[00:04:17] But the first person that saw me down was a hand surgeon that was skiing with his son.

[00:04:23] And so he's a doctor.

[00:04:24] He started medical protocol right away.

[00:04:28] He said that I was conscious and responding.

[00:04:33] But you don't still remember any of that.

[00:04:35] I don't remember any of that.

[00:04:36] Wow.

[00:04:37] And I started spitting up blood, like, right away.

[00:04:41] And he was like, yeah.

[00:04:42] Oh, gosh.

[00:04:42] Yeah.

[00:04:42] We got to get him out of here.

[00:04:43] The only thing that I said was I can't feel my legs.

[00:04:46] And so he called ski patrol right away.

[00:04:50] They got there ASAP, called in the Flight for Life helicopter.

[00:04:55] And talking to the flight crew the year later, they said that there's about two days that they can actually,

[00:05:05] two days a year that they can actually pick somebody up from the mountain versus transporting down,

[00:05:10] going to a heli, like the nearest helipad in Breckenridge, and then transporting somebody.

[00:05:16] I have a video of it.

[00:05:18] They picked me up from the mountain.

[00:05:20] So they put me on a stretcher, loaded me up into the helicopter, and then took off and flew straight to Lakewood,

[00:05:28] to St. Anthony's Hospital, where they have a level one trauma center and started blood transfusions.

[00:05:33] I think they actually started the blood transfusions, like, in the helicopter.

[00:05:38] Yeah.

[00:05:38] Wow.

[00:05:39] And so if everything didn't happen like it did super fast, I would have bled out.

[00:05:45] Because the way it is, I had three liters of internal bleeding.

[00:05:49] Typically people don't make it if they have two liters.

[00:05:51] So I was a full liter past what you typically would die at.

[00:05:59] Yeah.

[00:06:00] Five broken ribs, broken shoulder, punctures to, like, my aorta, punctures to my lung.

[00:06:07] And so I was pretty messed up.

[00:06:11] Yeah.

[00:06:11] And so, yeah, lucky to be alive is really how I look at it.

[00:06:16] And there's a lot of shitty days, especially at the start while I was trying to learn everything from scratch,

[00:06:26] even just trying to figure out, like, what it meant to have a complete spinal cord injury.

[00:06:32] Wow.

[00:06:34] And kind of going through all of that was a big challenge.

[00:06:41] Oh, my gosh.

[00:06:41] I can imagine.

[00:06:42] Yeah.

[00:06:42] Have you seen that program, I Shouldn't Be Alive?

[00:06:44] Like, some of the stories on there.

[00:06:46] No, no.

[00:06:47] I mean, that would be a story for that program.

[00:06:49] They do, like, reenactments of it, right?

[00:06:51] Yeah.

[00:06:51] They'll say, you know, and show what happened or whatever.

[00:06:53] But that's wild, man.

[00:06:55] Yeah, yeah.

[00:06:55] So just, like, an athletic 25-year-old dude going, moving to a new state for the first time.

[00:07:03] Only been out here a couple of months.

[00:07:05] And life really just, like, flipped on its head.

[00:07:09] But, yeah.

[00:07:10] So I was three weeks in the ICU at St. Anthony's Hospital.

[00:07:14] Then I moved to Craig Hospital here in Denver, which is one of the top brain injury and spinal cord injury hospitals in the nation.

[00:07:23] Okay.

[00:07:23] And so that's a really awesome spot to get back on my feet, for lack of a better word.

[00:07:29] Sure.

[00:07:31] And learn, not only just get healthy, but learn how to live life, you know, in a wheelchair and be functional and, like, reenter my life and reenter society.

[00:07:40] So I was there at Craig for about eight weeks, then went home to my apartment.

[00:07:46] And that was, like, where the lowest of lows started.

[00:07:50] Because you're –

[00:07:51] Were you married still?

[00:07:52] Were you previously married prior?

[00:07:54] So I was dating my now wife at the time.

[00:07:58] So we had been dating for about a year when I got injured.

[00:08:01] But, yeah, I tried telling her in, like, the hospital that you should leave me.

[00:08:06] I'm paralyzed.

[00:08:07] We had all these plans for adventure and then this life together.

[00:08:11] And she put an end to it real quick.

[00:08:13] She said, you don't get to tell me how I feel.

[00:08:16] Yeah.

[00:08:17] Facts.

[00:08:17] And –

[00:08:18] That's true.

[00:08:19] That was the end of it.

[00:08:20] Wow.

[00:08:20] And you married her.

[00:08:21] And she's like, I don't see you any differently.

[00:08:23] This doesn't change anything for me.

[00:08:26] And so that was kind of the end of it.

[00:08:28] There was no question about it going forward.

[00:08:30] I proposed last weekend.

[00:08:33] So I'm like –

[00:08:35] I'm in this emotional place and just hearing that story, like, I'm like –

[00:08:38] I know.

[00:08:39] It's beautiful.

[00:08:40] That's heartfelt.

[00:08:40] Congrats.

[00:08:40] It is beautiful.

[00:08:41] It's exciting.

[00:08:42] But, man, to have somebody that can see through that, even not even being married at the time,

[00:08:49] like, and you gave her the out, like, that really speaks to your wife's character.

[00:08:54] Yeah.

[00:08:54] Yeah.

[00:08:54] We had a really special connection at that time.

[00:08:58] And part of the reason why I moved out to Denver was for her.

[00:09:03] She was living in Denver.

[00:09:05] Oh, okay.

[00:09:05] She's from Wisconsin originally, too.

[00:09:07] But she had – just before we met, she moved – she was moving in three weeks because

[00:09:12] she had already gotten the job.

[00:09:13] She's a nurse at Children's Hospital, which is another great hospital.

[00:09:18] And so she was leaving, like, three weeks after we met.

[00:09:22] So we went on, like, two dates.

[00:09:23] And so she moved out to Denver.

[00:09:26] We kept in touch.

[00:09:27] I came out to visit.

[00:09:28] We started FaceTiming all the time.

[00:09:30] And then I had gotten a promotion to be doing sales for the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

[00:09:35] And they're like, why don't you move out somewhere west?

[00:09:38] And I'm like, Denver?

[00:09:40] They're like, great.

[00:09:41] We'll pay you to do it.

[00:09:42] Wow, this couldn't be more perfect.

[00:09:44] So, yeah.

[00:09:45] About a year after we met, I moved out to Denver.

[00:09:50] And so, yeah, we were long-distance dating at the beginning, which I think was really good

[00:09:54] to be intentional about our communication and everything like that.

[00:09:59] So we really had to get to know each other and be intentional about that, just being so far apart.

[00:10:05] And so we did that at the start.

[00:10:08] I moved out.

[00:10:09] And then, you know, things were riding high.

[00:10:12] And, you know, a couple months later, then life took a pretty crazy turn.

[00:10:18] So then, yeah, after I went home, I was still in, like, outpatient rehab stuff.

[00:10:26] I was in a back brace.

[00:10:29] Well, I was supposed to be wearing a back brace for, like, up to six months after my injury.

[00:10:35] But I got cleared, like, three or four months out to stop wearing it.

[00:10:39] But there was a while there where, yeah, I was just trying to navigate my old apartment

[00:10:46] and trying to figure out, like, how to do things in a wheelchair,

[00:10:50] how to drive again with hand controls, which is actually one of the easier things to adjust to.

[00:10:56] Oh, okay.

[00:10:58] Why doesn't everybody do this?

[00:10:59] Like, why doesn't everybody drive?

[00:11:00] So the gas and brake are on the?

[00:11:02] There's a little lever off of, like, the left side of my steering wheel.

[00:11:06] And there's a couple of different setups that you can get.

[00:11:07] But this is just the one that I liked.

[00:11:09] And you just, like, rock it towards you for gas.

[00:11:11] It's, like, pressure sensitive.

[00:11:13] It's hooked into the vehicle system.

[00:11:17] And then you just press the lever for brake.

[00:11:21] Okay.

[00:11:21] So I can throw my arm up on the window.

[00:11:25] Okay, nice.

[00:11:26] Gas brake.

[00:11:26] Oh, nice.

[00:11:27] Do your wheel.

[00:11:27] Cruising away.

[00:11:28] Yeah, yeah.

[00:11:29] It's pretty simple.

[00:11:30] He's a car guy.

[00:11:30] I knew he was going to ask.

[00:11:33] Yeah.

[00:11:33] Like, how you're riding.

[00:11:34] Is your ride here?

[00:11:35] Yeah.

[00:11:35] I'll have to go look at it once we're done recording.

[00:11:37] Yeah.

[00:11:38] I got a pickup truck.

[00:11:39] So I also have a lift in the bed of the truck that swings around to the side.

[00:11:43] So once I get in, I just carabiner hook it to the lift.

[00:11:46] And it rides in the bed of the truck while I'm driving.

[00:11:49] Okay.

[00:11:49] That's a pretty sweet setup.

[00:11:50] Yeah.

[00:11:50] It is.

[00:11:51] Yeah.

[00:11:51] And then I also have portable hand controls, which are a little bit more sketchy.

[00:11:55] They're, like, $200 on Amazon.

[00:11:57] Portable.

[00:11:57] Yeah.

[00:11:58] It's just, so I've traveled a lot.

[00:12:00] And so I do, I've rented a ton of different types of rental cars.

[00:12:04] But it's just basically, like, two sticks that wingnut around the brake.

[00:12:09] On a wingnut?

[00:12:09] Wingnut onto the gas in the brake.

[00:12:13] And then it's just, like, two stick, two metal sticks that you're pushing for the brake.

[00:12:16] And then, like, there's a thumb push to push the gas, like, basically, like, manually.

[00:12:21] You're just, like, pushing it.

[00:12:23] But I've used it on a ton of rental cars.

[00:12:25] Never had any problems.

[00:12:27] They only fell off once while I was driving.

[00:12:30] That's got to be concerning.

[00:12:31] I was in, like, the hills of, in, like, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

[00:12:35] Oh, wow.

[00:12:36] Because I used to work in, like, the outdoor industry.

[00:12:37] So it was this big overlanding expo out there.

[00:12:40] And then I had a rental car.

[00:12:42] And the gas fell off, which is better than the brakes.

[00:12:48] Yeah, the brakes.

[00:12:49] Because then I was just able to, like, pull over to the side, brake, and then put it in park.

[00:12:55] Like, adjust it back on.

[00:12:57] Okay.

[00:12:57] Make sure it was clamped on tight.

[00:13:00] Yeah.

[00:13:00] And then kept going.

[00:13:01] But that sketched me out a little bit.

[00:13:03] But other than that, out of all the times I've used them, I haven't had any issues.

[00:13:07] So the portable ones, you say, like, $200 and they're good to go?

[00:13:09] Yeah.

[00:13:10] Yeah.

[00:13:10] You think we can get one on a clutch pedal and get a wild shifting gears?

[00:13:14] Yeah.

[00:13:14] Three?

[00:13:14] That might be a challenge.

[00:13:16] Yeah.

[00:13:17] That is funny.

[00:13:18] So, yeah, great stuff there.

[00:13:20] And, look, obviously you're doing a lot of motivational things now.

[00:13:24] I do kind of want to dive in a little bit.

[00:13:28] The mentality it took for you to have your level of optimism now, right?

[00:13:33] Because you're talking, you got back to your place.

[00:13:35] That was like a dark spot.

[00:13:36] And a lot of people are living in these dark places right now.

[00:13:40] They might not be facing the same hills that you had to face.

[00:13:44] Yeah.

[00:13:44] You know, so what were some of the things that helped you see the light and continue to move forward?

[00:13:52] So you just didn't get stuck there on painkillers.

[00:13:55] I'm sure you had an opportunity to do that.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:57] Like, it seems like you're in a pretty good position right now.

[00:14:00] Yeah.

[00:14:00] Yeah.

[00:14:00] I was on oxys probably for about six months after I got injured and maybe a little bit less than that.

[00:14:10] But, I mean, there was nights where I was, like, messing with my sleep.

[00:14:13] I had different, like, leg spasms that would wake me up.

[00:14:18] A lot of different, like, nerve pain stuff that goes on in the body.

[00:14:23] Like, all this, like, back pain and stuff.

[00:14:26] And just, like, overall fatigue is, like, my body was trying to heal itself.

[00:14:30] And I was trying to build up, like, strength and stamina again.

[00:14:34] So, I mean, there was nights where it's, like, you know, I'm laying in bed and, like, you know, punching my legs.

[00:14:40] Like, why won't you fucking work?

[00:14:41] Like, it's the weirdest thing to try to explain to people what paralysis feels like.

[00:14:48] Like, the best analogy that I've heard or, like, kind of demonstration is if you make a fist and put it on, like, a flat surface and then put out your ring finger on that surface as well.

[00:15:05] Okay.

[00:15:06] And then try to lift up that ring finger without moving the rest of your hand.

[00:15:10] You can't do it.

[00:15:11] You can't do it.

[00:15:12] Yeah.

[00:15:12] It's, like, it doesn't move at all.

[00:15:14] You're trying – as much as, like, you're trying to do it, there's just, like –

[00:15:19] Yeah, it can move.

[00:15:19] You can't lift it.

[00:15:20] It's, like, the weirdest thing.

[00:15:21] So, it's, like, I'm looking at my legs.

[00:15:22] It's, like, why can't you walk?

[00:15:24] Why can't you move?

[00:15:25] Just something.

[00:15:26] But, yeah, complete spinal cord injury.

[00:15:30] There's – I have no feeling or movement there.

[00:15:33] So, like, I burnt to the top of my leg on just, like, hot stuff.

[00:15:37] Had no idea.

[00:15:37] Didn't even feel it.

[00:15:39] So, I took my – yeah, started blistering up.

[00:15:42] Yeah.

[00:15:44] And that's still at risk because you can't feel it, but you could still, like, get infected.

[00:15:47] Yeah.

[00:15:48] Oh, yeah.

[00:15:48] You know?

[00:15:48] So, like, you have to be paying attention.

[00:15:51] Yeah.

[00:15:51] Yeah.

[00:15:51] Yeah.

[00:15:52] Like, pressure wounds are a big one.

[00:15:54] So, like, I won't sit on any, like, hard surfaces for more than, like, 30 seconds or a minute.

[00:16:00] Like, I'll throw a cushion down.

[00:16:01] Okay.

[00:16:02] On it just because the loss, I have no feeling.

[00:16:06] And so, like, rubbing that bone on the bottom of your butt, like, that's –

[00:16:10] pressure sores is, like, one of the big reasons people with spinal cord injuries have to go back to the hospital.

[00:16:17] For pressure wounds?

[00:16:18] Yeah, for pressure sores, pressure wounds.

[00:16:20] So, that's something that, like, you have to be aware of.

[00:16:23] But, yeah, kind of going on a little bit of a tangent.

[00:16:27] That was perfect.

[00:16:28] Yeah.

[00:16:28] Going – yeah, just being in, like, a little bit of a dark spot.

[00:16:34] But –

[00:16:35] What was the – what was, like, the moment?

[00:16:37] Because I remember my moment with pills where I was just like, dog, fuck how I'm doing it right now.

[00:16:42] Yeah.

[00:16:42] You know?

[00:16:43] And, like, I quit on my complacency.

[00:16:45] Like, what – did you – can you recall, like, a moment where, like, something happened and you just – you're like, something switched?

[00:16:53] Yeah.

[00:16:54] Yeah.

[00:16:54] I don't know if it was a specific moment with, like, the pills.

[00:16:59] But with identifying myself as disabled as a wheelchair user now and, like, accepting that this is a permanent thing.

[00:17:08] This is not just like any other sports injury that I've had in the past that if I do the rehab, if I do the work, I'm going to get better.

[00:17:15] Like, I had Tommy John surgery on my elbow.

[00:17:17] I was a pitcher in college.

[00:17:19] And I had surgery.

[00:17:22] I couldn't throw for four months.

[00:17:24] My – I was in a big brace.

[00:17:26] But after that, I did all the rehab.

[00:17:27] I did all the band work.

[00:17:28] I did everything I needed to.

[00:17:30] And I came back and I was throwing harder than I did before I had surgery.

[00:17:35] So, it was – it took a little bit of a mental shift between accepting, like, that it wasn't just a short-term injury and, like, the permanence of it.

[00:17:53] So, it was actually right at six months.

[00:17:57] And I got – I had pretty just shortly started doing CrossFit and got introduced to the CrossFit gym that I still go to now.

[00:18:08] Awesome.

[00:18:09] And the owner of the gym is a paraplegic as well.

[00:18:13] So, he's, like, written the book on adaptive CrossFit.

[00:18:16] Interesting.

[00:18:16] So, that was, like, the perfect spot.

[00:18:18] Perfect place to go.

[00:18:19] And so, he taught me how to do, like, a floor transfer to go from the ground up to my wheelchair by myself because I didn't have the strength and technique to be able to do that.

[00:18:31] And so, just kind of gave me a little bit of, like, an athletic outlet.

[00:18:35] But I was then back to work.

[00:18:37] I was back at my sales job.

[00:18:40] I was working remotely when I moved out to Denver in 2018.

[00:18:44] So, that was somewhat of an easy process to then go back into my role.

[00:18:50] And I was traveling a lot.

[00:18:51] So, then I wasn't traveling once I came back to work for the first couple of months or year.

[00:18:57] So, that would have been, what, like, summer of 2019 if I'm following your timeline?

[00:19:00] Okay.

[00:19:00] Yep.

[00:19:01] Yep.

[00:19:01] So, summer of 2019.

[00:19:02] So, I worked from home.

[00:19:03] I went to the gym.

[00:19:05] I was driving back from the gym.

[00:19:07] I was going to shower up and then go meet a buddy at a brewery.

[00:19:11] And I had that realization as I was driving back home to my apartment that my day would have looked exactly the same whether I was disabled or not.

[00:19:23] And that was kind of like a breakthrough for me.

[00:19:25] I would have did the same exact thing.

[00:19:26] I would have worked.

[00:19:27] I would have went to the gym.

[00:19:28] I would have came home, showered up.

[00:19:30] I would have met my buddy out for a beer.

[00:19:33] And so.

[00:19:34] So, that's an exciting realization.

[00:19:36] Yeah.

[00:19:37] Yeah.

[00:19:37] Yeah.

[00:19:37] So, I kind of have, like, that normalcy back a little bit.

[00:19:42] And, yeah, once I kind of realized that I can still, it might look a little bit differently.

[00:19:47] Like, yeah, I'm driving with hand controls instead of whatever.

[00:19:50] I'm doing a seated workout instead of running.

[00:19:53] I'm doing things in a different way.

[00:19:55] But I can still do pretty much anything that I want to.

[00:19:59] And, like, once I had that realization that life can still be really great, that was, like, a huge unlock for me to kind of get back to pursuing some passions and things.

[00:20:14] And, um, so, I mean, the thing here, though, that I'm hearing between your story, which is an inspiring story for sure, is that you, you didn't quit on yourself, though.

[00:20:26] You still showed up to work.

[00:20:28] You were still looking for a physical outlet to, you know, stay healthy and keep moving and physically active.

[00:20:36] And by doing that, that helped you open up the mental mentality that, like, hey, like, actually, I'm still alive.

[00:20:45] Like, I'm still existing and I'm still doing.

[00:20:47] So, I think that's awesome to kind of break that down and be, like, you know, in this area where you could have got addicted to painkillers, where you could have quit your job and, like, maybe not wanted to pursue stuff or didn't see the worth in yourself.

[00:21:01] You continue to work.

[00:21:03] You continue to sell.

[00:21:04] You continue to, like, do stuff.

[00:21:06] And I feel like for anyone who is, feels like they're in a corner and it's dark and they're by themselves, like, you got to just start living.

[00:21:16] And you don't, and even me, like, I was living in the grave for so long.

[00:21:19] Like, I was kind of existing.

[00:21:21] But then all of a sudden I started to see the colors because I kept existing.

[00:21:26] I don't know.

[00:21:27] That's kind of, like, that's powerful.

[00:21:30] Yeah.

[00:21:30] That's really powerful.

[00:21:31] Yeah.

[00:21:32] I mean, I was going through, I'll call it going through the motions for a while.

[00:21:38] But it was, yeah, it being new year, first podcast of the year, good time for some resolutions and good time to start something.

[00:21:49] Sure.

[00:21:50] It is.

[00:21:50] Yeah.

[00:21:50] You really just got to start and, like, whatever it is, just start it.

[00:21:57] Like, I wasn't good at CrossFit when I started.

[00:22:00] I wasn't strong.

[00:22:01] I failed a lot.

[00:22:04] I wasn't good at a lot of, like, wheelchair skills or things when I first started.

[00:22:09] And, you know, it just takes practice.

[00:22:11] Repetitions is another skill.

[00:22:11] Yeah.

[00:22:12] Just like everything else.

[00:22:13] Yeah.

[00:22:13] It's just start.

[00:22:15] And now I'm in a position last couple of years where I don't feel like I have any limitations or barriers.

[00:22:24] Yeah.

[00:22:24] I run into stairs and it's frustrating when we're trying to do, like, trips with friends.

[00:22:29] And it's nearly impossible to find an Airbnb house that doesn't have stairs.

[00:22:35] And so there's – it's come a long way with, like, the ADA and being disabled in 2025 versus 10, 20, 30, 50 years ago.

[00:22:48] Sure.

[00:22:48] So I feel like I'm in a pretty lucky spot.

[00:22:51] There's still room for improvement, for things to get better.

[00:22:54] There's a lot of buildings that are grandfathered in that don't have to be accessible and some other workarounds.

[00:23:02] But for the most part, I feel like I don't really have any limitations to my life.

[00:23:09] My wife and I – I did a CrossFit competition a year and a half ago in Barcelona, Spain.

[00:23:15] Oh, nice.

[00:23:16] Oh, wow.

[00:23:16] Do you –

[00:23:16] ¿Tu hablas espanol?

[00:23:18] Un poquito.

[00:23:21] She speaks Spanish.

[00:23:22] Is your wife Latina?

[00:23:24] No.

[00:23:24] No, she's not.

[00:23:25] But she studied abroad in college in Madrid.

[00:23:32] That's fun.

[00:23:33] She uses it a lot in –

[00:23:35] That's good.

[00:23:36] And there's a big Latino population in Colorado.

[00:23:40] So in the medical field, she has a lot of – she speaks Spanish to a lot of patients and stuff like that.

[00:23:47] Good to be bilingual, for sure.

[00:23:48] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:23:50] She'll say she's not quite bilingual, but she's pretty good.

[00:23:52] So she got us around good over there.

[00:23:55] But, yeah, we were in Spain, France, Amsterdam, and, yeah, just navigating, wheeling around different cities.

[00:24:06] I was going to say, because those buildings are old, right?

[00:24:08] You talked about, like, old Grandfathered Inn.

[00:24:10] Like, is there a lot of accessibility in those?

[00:24:11] Yeah, so they –

[00:24:12] In the 1400s, when they were building buildings?

[00:24:15] Yeah.

[00:24:15] They don't have the ADA over there.

[00:24:17] That's got to be a little different.

[00:24:18] I had pretty good luck in most places.

[00:24:23] The hardest part is probably, like, finding a bathroom that's, like, big enough because a lot of their doorways are smaller.

[00:24:29] And a lot of, like, local, like, cafes and little restaurants and stuff like that.

[00:24:37] So it's, like, try to time it out to use different bathrooms.

[00:24:41] Yeah.

[00:24:42] Or you got to go down the block.

[00:24:46] Or, you know, pee in an alley.

[00:24:47] I've done that.

[00:24:48] Oh, yeah.

[00:24:48] That's fine.

[00:24:49] Hey, who has it?

[00:24:49] Whenever you need to.

[00:24:50] Who has it?

[00:24:50] Yeah.

[00:24:51] Yeah.

[00:24:51] Even the ladies.

[00:24:53] I mean, we're sitting here right now with the infamous Colfax crapper.

[00:24:56] Oh, yeah.

[00:24:57] Right now.

[00:24:58] So can we tell that story?

[00:24:59] We can tell that story again.

[00:25:00] Can I try to tell it?

[00:25:01] You can try it.

[00:25:01] I've told it on the podcast before.

[00:25:03] I know, but it's just a funny story.

[00:25:04] This was back when I was drinking heavily.

[00:25:06] Yeah.

[00:25:06] So he's at a Broncos game.

[00:25:07] It's freaking freezing out.

[00:25:09] Christmas Eve.

[00:25:09] It's Christmas Eve.

[00:25:10] 2023.

[00:25:11] So, like, nothing's open really.

[00:25:13] Right?

[00:25:13] And then so he finishes this game.

[00:25:15] He's, like, waiting on an Uber.

[00:25:17] You can't find – you have to – he had to go to the bathroom so bad.

[00:25:20] Had to take a shit.

[00:25:21] And I'll let you pick it up from here.

[00:25:22] Oh, no.

[00:25:23] You were doing great.

[00:25:23] Keep going.

[00:25:23] And so it's dire.

[00:25:25] Okay?

[00:25:26] He has layers of clothes on himself.

[00:25:29] And there's no public restrooms to be found.

[00:25:32] It's Christmas Eve.

[00:25:32] Everything was closed.

[00:25:33] And so he's off –

[00:25:35] Christmas Eve.

[00:25:35] Yeah.

[00:25:36] So he's off Colfax.

[00:25:37] Around 10, 30, 11 p.m.

[00:25:38] And, you know, he found an appropriate place.

[00:25:42] But if he got into the Uber, he was going to crap the Uber.

[00:25:45] You felt like that, right?

[00:25:46] Oh, yeah.

[00:25:47] It was a 38-minute ride home.

[00:25:48] There's no way I was making it.

[00:25:48] Like, it was breaching.

[00:25:50] This isn't – yeah, this isn't one you could hold.

[00:25:51] It needed to go immediately.

[00:25:52] And, like, that's the alcohol poops.

[00:25:53] That was the alcohol.

[00:25:54] Like, it's very fluid when you're drinking a lot.

[00:25:58] We're there.

[00:25:58] So my man, he had a couple pairs of socks on.

[00:26:02] A couple pairs of socks because it was cold that night.

[00:26:04] Yeah.

[00:26:04] I had some toasty toes.

[00:26:05] You know those things?

[00:26:06] You're from up north.

[00:26:07] You know those.

[00:26:08] Yeah.

[00:26:08] I had those, like, in my – I'm like, what do I have here for resources?

[00:26:10] Clean myself up.

[00:26:12] Yeah.

[00:26:12] And that was what was utilized on the side of Colfax on Christmas Eve 2023.

[00:26:15] Yeah.

[00:26:16] Wow.

[00:26:16] And so he gave me the name of the Colfax Crown.

[00:26:17] Yeah.

[00:26:18] I mean, that's a perfect name for that story.

[00:26:20] Yeah.

[00:26:20] True story.

[00:26:21] Hey, I love how you own that.

[00:26:23] I could say something embarrassing about myself.

[00:26:25] That's a true story.

[00:26:26] What embarrassing story could I tell?

[00:26:29] So I don't think I mentioned this one on the podcast.

[00:26:31] I like to rap.

[00:26:32] I like to try to freestyle and stuff.

[00:26:34] It's fun for me.

[00:26:35] It helps me release.

[00:26:36] Originally, that's what got me into entertainment.

[00:26:38] I was making music and all that stuff.

[00:26:40] So I take this trip to Sweden, and I'm out there with my brother.

[00:26:43] We're having a great time.

[00:26:45] We meet some locals.

[00:26:46] We're out at, like, a Swedish metal bar.

[00:26:49] I don't know if you told me this.

[00:26:50] And they are doing karaoke.

[00:26:54] Oh, I know where this is going.

[00:26:54] Yeah.

[00:26:55] So a lot of times I always, like, you know, I got a little tip on.

[00:26:58] I was having fun.

[00:26:59] I'm like, let me go freestyle over a Bob Marley beat.

[00:27:02] This is not as embarrassing as your story.

[00:27:04] But it was embarrassing for me at the moment.

[00:27:06] Well, no one saw me shitting, so.

[00:27:07] No one saw you shitting.

[00:27:08] I was on my own.

[00:27:09] Okay.

[00:27:09] Well, okay.

[00:27:10] So maybe it is more embarrassing for me then.

[00:27:12] So I like.

[00:27:13] That's a vulnerable place to be, though.

[00:27:15] It is.

[00:27:15] It is.

[00:27:16] On Colfax with your drawers down.

[00:27:19] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:19] I had eyes all around me for sure.

[00:27:21] And it was cold, so you can imagine the scene.

[00:27:23] If you had your wits about you, I wonder what was going through your head at that point.

[00:27:28] I was just highly intoxicated and needed to go bad.

[00:27:31] Yeah.

[00:27:32] So I was like, we got to do this.

[00:27:33] It was all about the business.

[00:27:35] All about the business.

[00:27:36] There's no shame in the game.

[00:27:37] No shame.

[00:27:38] And I walked like three miles trying to find an area to do this.

[00:27:40] Yeah.

[00:27:41] So.

[00:27:41] Just like a dog circling.

[00:27:42] That was probably like a nervous walk, too.

[00:27:45] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:45] And you're like desperate.

[00:27:46] He's like getting desperate.

[00:27:48] I wish I could have seen the desperation.

[00:27:50] Oh, it wasn't.

[00:27:50] In your face that night.

[00:27:51] The relief afterwards when I got in the Uber, I was like, thank God.

[00:27:54] Yeah.

[00:27:55] But anyway, continue your story.

[00:27:56] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:56] No, it's a.

[00:27:58] That's a hard one to compete with.

[00:27:59] So I like, I'm like, let me go up and rap over this Bob Marley at this.

[00:28:04] And I'm like up there and I'm like nervous.

[00:28:06] Even though I've done a thousand times, I still get nervous every time.

[00:28:08] And then the dude like hears me not singing Bob Marley.

[00:28:12] And he like slowly just turns down the mic and the music.

[00:28:17] And he's like, and like the owner's like, nah, nah.

[00:28:19] And so they kicked me off stage.

[00:28:21] And I'm pretty decent.

[00:28:23] Like I have a decent voice and like my flow's all right.

[00:28:25] And so like I'm confident in that.

[00:28:27] And they booted me off stage in Sweden, Stockholm.

[00:28:31] Like I'll always remember how like I just, I like went off stage and like the people, they're

[00:28:36] like, people were like, oh, I'm so sorry for you.

[00:28:38] And like, I was like, it's okay.

[00:28:41] It's okay.

[00:28:41] It was a cringe moment.

[00:28:43] Don't disrespect Bob like that.

[00:28:44] Yeah.

[00:28:45] It was just one of those moments.

[00:28:46] Like, I don't know.

[00:28:47] But that's, that's the thing is like, we all live this crazy life, like embarrassing things

[00:28:51] happen and you gotta, you gotta make fun of it.

[00:28:53] Like, cause what else do you got?

[00:28:55] Are you still freestyling?

[00:28:56] You still got it?

[00:28:57] Yeah.

[00:28:58] Yeah.

[00:28:58] You put stuff out?

[00:28:59] Sounds out?

[00:29:00] I am not a current rapper.

[00:29:02] I would say I'm more into rhythmic poetry because I use freestyles as a way to express my emotions

[00:29:08] and like get it off my chest.

[00:29:09] Um, there is a part of me that always like knows that I'm not doing everything I can with

[00:29:16] my life if I'm not making music.

[00:29:18] So I'm missing a part of myself and I haven't done music in a really long time, but I still

[00:29:25] actively freestyle.

[00:29:26] I still create with this, this kind of helps scratch that same creative itch.

[00:29:31] Cause for music me, for me, the lyrics like into rap and you, you have all these people

[00:29:36] that idolize like horrible lifestyles and like gangs and like stuff like this.

[00:29:41] So I was always looking at rap, like, you know, it's an art and I can talk about whatever

[00:29:46] I want.

[00:29:47] And I would always try to make really positive lyrics that could empower people.

[00:29:51] And so having these types of conversations and this open forum and having the, it kind

[00:29:57] of scratches the same itch, but it's not the same.

[00:29:59] I will, I have a mic tatted on my chest.

[00:30:01] I will forever be an MC.

[00:30:03] Um, it's just taken different forms in my life.

[00:30:06] Yeah.

[00:30:06] So, and Ken's a guitarist.

[00:30:09] Are you a musician at all?

[00:30:10] No, I'm not musically inclined at all, but there's something to be said about like creating

[00:30:14] versus consuming.

[00:30:16] It's true to that.

[00:30:17] I feel like a couple of years ago I was not in a great spot.

[00:30:19] It was kind of like having a rough time with like comparison, um, comparing myself to like

[00:30:26] people on social media, comparing my relationship with my wife to like able-bodied relationship.

[00:30:33] And it wasn't manifesting in like the, the best ways.

[00:30:36] Like I was drinking a little bit too much.

[00:30:38] Um, and it was kind of a, so I started going back to like therapy, uh, again, and that's

[00:30:46] also an interesting story.

[00:30:49] I saw a therapist while I was inpatient at Craig hospital and it's kind of like part of their,

[00:30:54] their standard protocol met with somebody, you know, two days a week just gets assigned.

[00:30:59] She was super great.

[00:31:00] Um, and that was the only time I'd ever done therapy.

[00:31:05] Okay.

[00:31:05] And so then a couple of years ago when I was like, my wife actually called me out and was

[00:31:11] like, Hey, I think you should go back to do therapy again.

[00:31:15] Like she saw like how these things were manifesting.

[00:31:18] I didn't seem like I'm like, I was myself.

[00:31:20] I was trying to mask like my identity.

[00:31:21] I was trying to, you know, fit in into certain situations.

[00:31:25] And so I'm like, I, I have no idea where to go.

[00:31:28] So I, I, I had no old emails.

[00:31:30] I had like the name of the therapist that I, that I saw and I just Googled it, um, to,

[00:31:36] to see if, you know, she would come up and she was just at a private practice, um, in Denver.

[00:31:42] Okay.

[00:31:42] And so I reached out and she was like, I totally remember you and talking with, you know, your

[00:31:47] wife and your family and, you know, I would love to work with you again.

[00:31:51] And so, um, that was pretty cool that she had the background of the whole accident, the

[00:31:58] whole injury.

[00:32:00] Cause then you're not going in there starting fresh, like trying to retell this.

[00:32:02] Yeah.

[00:32:03] Yeah, exactly.

[00:32:04] So that was, that was a cool connection to, to go back into that.

[00:32:09] Uh, we reconnected and, um, kind of did some more processing, uh, within that to like really

[00:32:16] accept myself as a, as a disabled person and, um, kind of reconfigure my identity and, and

[00:32:23] that kind of thing.

[00:32:25] But yeah, one of the learnings from that was like just consuming a lot, whether it's like

[00:32:31] social media or, you know, you know, shows and, um, consuming beverages and, you know,

[00:32:38] trying to consume, uh, be a consumer when it comes to buying things and having all of

[00:32:43] the nice things that I need.

[00:32:45] And it's like, I need to create, I need to create something.

[00:32:48] I think everybody, like whether it's music, whether it's art, whether it's, um, you know,

[00:32:53] I want to get into what you created.

[00:32:55] I do want to get into that, but quick side note during the pandemic, when people were working

[00:33:00] from home and had all this extra time, you noticed that there was a lot of more people

[00:33:05] doing art projects.

[00:33:06] There was a lot more people creating.

[00:33:07] And because for humans, we are, if, if we don't have society to live in, which we created,

[00:33:16] we are creators at our core, like artists, musicians, poets, you know, like sculptures,

[00:33:23] whatever.

[00:33:23] Like, so it's actually a human thing to like have an urge to create something.

[00:33:29] Like people want to create a family or something too.

[00:33:31] Like, so there's all this, there's all, I just wanted to touch on that little psychological,

[00:33:35] psychological point there on that.

[00:33:37] Yeah.

[00:33:38] Yeah.

[00:33:39] So I, I, I didn't, I'm, I've never been musically inclined.

[00:33:42] Um, I didn't create like anything specific, specifically, but, um, just started, uh, trying

[00:33:50] to do more.

[00:33:51] So like I, I volunteer with a youth group at a church in, in Denver, and I've been doing

[00:33:57] that for a couple of years now.

[00:33:58] So, um, even just like putting myself into a situation where, um, I can talk to, talk

[00:34:04] to kids about, and just like be myself there.

[00:34:07] They're, they're, um, you know, having conversations and, and, and small groups, uh, within that.

[00:34:13] And, um, so creating like community and just getting more involved in like the, the gym

[00:34:19] community that I'm in, I started like doing like competitions for CrossFit at that time

[00:34:24] and really like invest, like kind of doubling down rather than just like going to the gym,

[00:34:29] like, okay, I'm going to compete now.

[00:34:30] Mm-hmm . And, um, just having like more of those like outputs versus just consuming

[00:34:37] everything.

[00:34:38] It's always around us.

[00:34:39] And I think that is like helpful.

[00:34:41] And, um, I, I'm somebody that like needs to be stimulated.

[00:34:46] So it's like, I was always like reaching for the next thing and I like never knew like

[00:34:51] how to be like satisfied.

[00:34:52] Mm-hmm .

[00:34:53] And I still have like a lot of that.

[00:34:54] It's still in us.

[00:34:55] And so now it's just like, okay, how do I channel it?

[00:34:57] How do I channel that?

[00:34:57] Exactly.

[00:34:58] Mm-hmm .

[00:34:58] Yeah.

[00:34:58] You hit the nail on the head.

[00:34:59] In a better way.

[00:35:00] Because for me, like alcohol was always the center point of everything I did.

[00:35:04] Mm-hmm .

[00:35:05] Podcast night, getting drunk.

[00:35:06] Got done with work, let's get drunk.

[00:35:08] Concert night, let's get, everything revolved around the drink.

[00:35:10] You know, oh, we're going to Arts for barbecue, got to stop and get beer first.

[00:35:13] Like that was the focus.

[00:35:15] And so this past year for me is learning how to channel that energy has been interesting.

[00:35:18] Mm-hmm .

[00:35:19] You know, it is a battle for sure.

[00:35:20] Yeah.

[00:35:20] I'm fortunate to have projects to create, but doing it sober was, has been interesting,

[00:35:24] but it's been a blessing too.

[00:35:25] I haven't had a drink on the show since April and I just feel like it's, it's a better.

[00:35:29] It's been awesome.

[00:35:29] We've been putting out good content too.

[00:35:31] Great content, yeah.

[00:35:31] And I stopped drinking too on here.

[00:35:32] Yeah.

[00:35:33] Yeah.

[00:35:33] You wouldn't notice it per se, but I was, I wasn't being my, my true honest self on here.

[00:35:37] So, you know, going through that was definitely is still, I wouldn't say a battle so much.

[00:35:41] I think we're, we're making some ground here, but you know, about the creating community

[00:35:45] and just finding things that bring you joy and like purpose, finding that mission, drive

[00:35:49] and purpose.

[00:35:49] Like that is kind of what we're trying to encapsulate.

[00:35:52] I think so far with this entire conversation, right?

[00:35:54] Finding things that bring you joy, gets you excited, gets you out of bed.

[00:35:56] You can compete.

[00:35:57] You're helping the kids.

[00:35:58] Like that's, that's good stuff.

[00:36:00] Yeah.

[00:36:00] Yeah.

[00:36:01] It took a while to like find a purpose and like even going back to, okay, why me?

[00:36:05] Why did this happen to me?

[00:36:06] Um, I, I, I've, I've always been like an optimistic person and, and so I don't want to, I don't

[00:36:13] never had like a really like low, low, um, like, yeah, there's, there's bad times and

[00:36:19] bad days and bad seasons, but I'm always a person that's like looking forward and, and

[00:36:26] trying to see like the silver lining in things.

[00:36:29] So that's, that is kind of like my natural attitude, um, which sometimes is, is bad.

[00:36:35] Like I, I've had to do work and like therapy too, to like sit with the, sit with the shit,

[00:36:40] sit with like the bad feelings and not just try to like push those to the side.

[00:36:45] Um, so like I've had to do like some of that work, but, um, yeah, just the optimism and,

[00:36:55] but like finding my purpose then like through that a little bit more by, uh, uh, I've been

[00:37:01] doing a lot more like adapt, adaptive, uh, and accessibility consulting.

[00:37:05] Um, so I've connected with helping others get to like where you're at now.

[00:37:10] Yeah.

[00:37:11] Yeah.

[00:37:11] So a little bit of peer mentoring for people over at Craig hospital, but also, um, consulting

[00:37:18] with just like, uh, spaces.

[00:37:20] So like, uh, upswell, uh, studio, which is like a sauna, cold plunge, uh, recovery type studio.

[00:37:27] They have yoga classes and other types of classes.

[00:37:30] Um, they have two locations in, in Denver.

[00:37:34] Um, but, uh, I'd got to know the owners a little bit and say, they are like, we want

[00:37:40] to figure out how to make our space accessible for everybody.

[00:37:44] Cause, and, and so I went in, I talked with them.

[00:37:48] We came up with a whole plan of like different features of things.

[00:37:50] Like they're like, we've never thought of that, of like, um, having a bathroom mirror

[00:37:55] that extends down, like lower, like down towards the sink.

[00:37:58] Cause there's so many like bathroom mirrors you go into and it's like up here and nobody,

[00:38:04] yeah.

[00:38:04] Nobody in a wheelchair can, can see.

[00:38:06] And not that I always need to be looking at myself, but after you go to the bathroom,

[00:38:09] make sure I got nothing on my face, stuff like that.

[00:38:15] So it's just like, like those little, like nice to have things, um, uh, like cold plunges.

[00:38:21] A lot of times they're like the big, like tall tubs.

[00:38:23] So they're pretty like hard to get into for anybody.

[00:38:26] Um, so they built like a deck up to them.

[00:38:30] So they're like lower seated height that you can go over.

[00:38:33] Um, and just like other stuff like that.

[00:38:36] Um, uh, was talking a little bit before about some of the stuff I did in Colorado Springs

[00:38:40] with, uh, uh, adaptive adventures down there.

[00:38:44] Um, and an organization called wheel the world.

[00:38:47] So I went like fly fishing, um, the Olympic and Paralympic museum is, is down there, which

[00:38:53] is a really cool, uh, thing to go see.

[00:38:55] That's like fully accessible.

[00:38:57] Um, went to different like restaurants, did some stuff in like, uh, some of the area,

[00:39:01] like hotels.

[00:39:01] And I'm assuming they like pick these projects up and made these changes for the most part,

[00:39:07] maybe not a hundred percent close rate, but yeah.

[00:39:10] Yeah.

[00:39:10] So like, yeah, most of the, the, the stuff is, uh, yeah, they really like take to the advice.

[00:39:16] So trying to put myself in different positions to use my like lived experience to, um, make

[00:39:22] things better, uh, for, for everybody with mobility issues.

[00:39:26] And the way I look at it too, is it affects more than just like wheelchair users.

[00:39:30] Like when there's accessibility, when there's, when there is accessibility, no one notices

[00:39:35] it because it's just, everyone can experience it the same way.

[00:39:40] Um, like I've never gone to like this awesome, like steak dinner and this awesome restaurant.

[00:39:46] The vibes are immaculate.

[00:39:48] The, the wine pairing is, you know, just on point and you know, you leave and you're like,

[00:39:54] you know, I was really missing in that whole experience.

[00:39:57] I wish there was more stairs to get into that establishment.

[00:40:01] Like when, when, when something is accessible, like it's, it doesn't, you don't even think

[00:40:06] about it.

[00:40:06] It's out of mind.

[00:40:07] Yeah.

[00:40:07] So when you bake accessibility into an experience, it, it makes it equitable for, for everybody.

[00:40:15] So yeah, there's, there's a lot of like stuff, like I can like navigate like upstairs with

[00:40:20] like a couple of friends or, or whatever.

[00:40:22] I've, I've, um, had people like carry me upstairs and people hold my legs and I wheelbarrow up

[00:40:29] the stairs, whatever I need to do because I don't want to like lose the experience.

[00:40:32] But there's a lot of people with, you know, um, that are quadriplegics or other paraplegics

[00:40:39] or other mobility issues that even though I can do it, they can't do it.

[00:40:43] So it's really not accessible.

[00:40:44] Um, if, unless it's accessible for everybody.

[00:40:47] So it's like kind of like keeping that lens in mind, uh, for me and yeah, just now that

[00:40:53] I've been paralyzed for six years now, which is crazy to say, um, feels weird.

[00:41:00] It feels like it's yesterday, but also it feels, it feels like a long time ago.

[00:41:03] Yeah.

[00:41:04] Six years.

[00:41:04] I mean, you, you've done a lot in that six years, you know, like I'm saying, like it could

[00:41:08] have that, I do feel like you made the most of it and, um, and not everyone's going to

[00:41:15] do that, you know, to have that optimism and silver lining, you know, is really important.

[00:41:19] It is.

[00:41:19] And now that's cool.

[00:41:20] You're doing almost like accessibility consulting in a way, right?

[00:41:23] Like people are consulting you for like, well, how should this look?

[00:41:25] And you know, this would make this easier.

[00:41:27] You're that's cool too.

[00:41:28] Cause you know, you're, you've lived it.

[00:41:30] You can see it from, you know, the perspective and you go, this, this would make this establishment

[00:41:33] accessible for everybody.

[00:41:35] Yeah.

[00:41:35] Yeah.

[00:41:36] And I did, uh, I consulted with a camper van company in Southern California.

[00:41:41] And so they do custom, uh, Sprinter, Sprinter vans and tournament and camper vans.

[00:41:46] And yeah, the whole like van life craze took off during like COVID.

[00:41:50] Oh yeah.

[00:41:51] Um, but yeah, it kind of died out, didn't it?

[00:41:54] Um, a little bit, but it's still like a huge industry and even just like the RV industry,

[00:41:58] um, giving people access to the outdoors.

[00:42:02] Part of me still wants, cause I work remote.

[00:42:05] Yeah.

[00:42:05] Part of me just wants to go rogue and just like get rid of everything and just live van

[00:42:10] life for two years.

[00:42:11] Get some satellite internet.

[00:42:12] Yeah.

[00:42:12] Just go try it.

[00:42:13] Just like try it for a little bit.

[00:42:15] Yeah.

[00:42:16] Just get a Starlink.

[00:42:17] Yeah.

[00:42:17] They're pretty good now.

[00:42:19] Yeah.

[00:42:19] That's what I hear.

[00:42:19] Yeah.

[00:42:19] They're pretty good.

[00:42:20] So it's like interesting because like there's all these.

[00:42:24] Like expectations or societal norms of like how your life should progress and what's successful.

[00:42:34] Right.

[00:42:34] Like I didn't get a college degree and I'm like, and I'm at a point where I'm like helping

[00:42:40] direct major change for a multi-billion dollar company and the transportation industry like

[00:42:45] came off of opiates.

[00:42:46] Like you don't, you don't have to, you can make your own paths in life.

[00:42:50] Yeah.

[00:42:51] And sometimes, sometimes you're forced to be creative and make a new path that maybe hasn't

[00:42:55] existed.

[00:42:56] Maybe you've never seen it exist, you know?

[00:42:58] But like, I don't know all these norms, but one norm that I do like is the, the, like

[00:43:03] the new year norm of people making some resolutions.

[00:43:07] So since this is the first episode of 2025, we should just get into that a little bit.

[00:43:12] But I don't know, I don't know if you have, if you have any resolutions.

[00:43:18] I don't even know if you have any.

[00:43:19] Mine started in November when I started the grit movement.

[00:43:21] Yeah.

[00:43:21] Brandon, so the grit movement and you got the grit buddy.

[00:43:24] That's the guts, resilience, initiative, tenacity.

[00:43:26] Love it.

[00:43:27] So that's the grit.

[00:43:28] That was kind of, I would, I sort of a resolution.

[00:43:29] It was like an aha moment for me back in November when I thought about walking away from all of

[00:43:32] my projects and I recommitted to it with grit.

[00:43:35] That was kind of my new year's resolution.

[00:43:36] Okay.

[00:43:37] So for me, that was in November already.

[00:43:38] No, I like that.

[00:43:39] I like that.

[00:43:40] Cause one of our other friends, Clint, he said a new year, November.

[00:43:44] He like said that one time.

[00:43:45] He's like, I don't need new years to start now.

[00:43:48] So I will always stand behind that.

[00:43:51] How about, how about you?

[00:43:52] What did you, did you come up with anything you and your wife come up with anything together?

[00:43:55] No, yeah.

[00:43:56] We're not, we're not huge on, on like resolutions either.

[00:43:59] Like it's like start at any time.

[00:44:00] Yeah.

[00:44:01] Just, just do it.

[00:44:02] Just start it and commit to it.

[00:44:03] But I did just start a new job on Monday.

[00:44:07] So now I'm in like the digital accessibility world.

[00:44:10] So I've done a lot of stuff in like the physical accessibility world and done some consulting,

[00:44:15] but now I'm working for a tech company that does a learning management system.

[00:44:19] Oh wow.

[00:44:19] And it's the most digitally accessible learning management system platform that's

[00:44:25] out there on the market right now.

[00:44:27] So I'm their first salesperson that they, that they hired.

[00:44:30] It's a company of 15 people.

[00:44:32] Oh wow.

[00:44:32] So yeah, looking to, to kind of like ride the wave, ride the wave on that and see what

[00:44:38] we can do.

[00:44:38] They, they work with a lot of like vocational rehab departments for states and looking to

[00:44:46] expand into some, some different markets where there's like employee trainings, like

[00:44:50] certifications.

[00:44:51] Those are good things for like learning management system platforms.

[00:44:56] But yeah, a ton of accessibility features built in for not only people that are like blind

[00:45:03] or vision impaired, where it has a readout capabilities and interacts like really well

[00:45:09] with like screen readers and stuff like that.

[00:45:11] But also people with just like different learning styles and like folks with ADHD, there's like

[00:45:16] high contrast features that you can easily change and adapt so that the learning style,

[00:45:24] no matter what learning style you have, it's, it's easy, easily accessible.

[00:45:28] Well, I can, I can tell that you're going to be successful with it.

[00:45:31] There's passion about it.

[00:45:32] Yeah.

[00:45:32] That's what I was about to say.

[00:45:34] Yeah.

[00:45:34] I can tell you have a passion.

[00:45:36] Yeah.

[00:45:36] And it's easier to sell the things you're passionate about than like, here we go, sell this

[00:45:38] piece of shit.

[00:45:40] Yeah.

[00:45:41] Yeah, exactly.

[00:45:43] Yeah.

[00:45:43] I was, it's, it's kind of become a journey because before that I, I, I took a job in just

[00:45:51] digital marketing kind of away from doing sales.

[00:45:55] And so I was doing like influencer marketing for health and fitness companies.

[00:46:00] And so I'm still a little bit in that world on the side.

[00:46:04] Side hustle.

[00:46:04] I actually might be doing sponsorships and partnerships for the adaptive CrossFit games,

[00:46:10] which I compete in.

[00:46:12] I'm just trying to make sure that there's no conflict of interest that I can participate

[00:46:16] in that and still compete, which I think, which I think it's going to work out.

[00:46:20] So I can still use like those, those fitness brand connections and some of the, like the

[00:46:26] influencers that I've met to do the sponsorships and partnerships for, for that.

[00:46:32] But I'm excited to add to my, I call it like accessibility toolbox.

[00:46:37] So like I have like my own lived experience.

[00:46:40] Right.

[00:46:40] But then it's like, I've done a lot of work to connect with other people with different

[00:46:44] types of different disabilities and like accessibility, even going beyond just like disabilities.

[00:46:50] It's like the aging population, like my grandma and grandpa, they don't, they don't, they

[00:46:54] don't get around as good as they used to anymore.

[00:46:55] So it benefits the aging population.

[00:46:57] It benefits like young families that are trying to cart strollers around everywhere.

[00:47:02] Like if we have better accessibility.

[00:47:05] And so now I'm excited to kind of like build and add to that accessibility toolbox with like

[00:47:11] digital accessibility and figure out what, like learn more about like what that world

[00:47:15] is like.

[00:47:16] So.

[00:47:16] That's awesome.

[00:47:17] That's powerful.

[00:47:17] Eventually, I guess the goal is to just be like a, you know, one-stop shop, all in one

[00:47:23] accessibility expert and consultant, whether it's physical, digital, all sorts of disabilities

[00:47:30] and, you know, just be an advocate for, um, you know, equal opportunity for everybody.

[00:47:35] I like it.

[00:47:36] It's a strong, yeah, it's a strong mission, strong movement for sure.

[00:47:38] Have you ever heard of the carton arc?

[00:47:40] No.

[00:47:41] You know where I'm going with this.

[00:47:42] This guy is awesome.

[00:47:43] So if you haven't heard of the carton arc, now that we're talking about it, it'll probably

[00:47:46] start popping up in your feed.

[00:47:47] Not sure how that works.

[00:47:48] I still, it still creeps me out a little bit.

[00:47:50] They're listening.

[00:47:51] Somehow they're listening.

[00:47:51] So they're listening right now.

[00:47:53] His mission is to go around and make sure people put their shopping carts back correctly.

[00:47:57] Ah, okay.

[00:47:57] Back to the receptacle.

[00:47:58] And he gets very upset when there's a cart that is blocking an accessible parking spot.

[00:48:01] He's like, come on, man.

[00:48:02] The return's right here.

[00:48:04] You just blocked a spot, right?

[00:48:06] Like that's his mission.

[00:48:06] He goes out and just calls these people out and it gets ugly sometimes.

[00:48:09] People would rather spend 20 minutes arguing with him than just wheel their cart 20 feet.

[00:48:13] Yeah.

[00:48:14] Yeah.

[00:48:14] I always make a point to put it back.

[00:48:17] Good man.

[00:48:17] Yeah.

[00:48:19] And hopefully just by like active, like somebody seeing me do it, like they'll like.

[00:48:24] They'll do it too.

[00:48:25] They'll also do it.

[00:48:26] Yeah.

[00:48:26] Just like a lead by example.

[00:48:27] I don't, I don't like try to like call a lot of people out for it, but it is super annoying.

[00:48:32] Um, and I can, I'll show you my, I'll show you my truck.

[00:48:35] Yeah.

[00:48:36] I'll show you my truck after this.

[00:48:37] But like, I, I need the accessible parking spot to get out of my truck.

[00:48:44] Yeah.

[00:48:44] You need the space.

[00:48:45] Yeah.

[00:48:45] It's, it's the space issue.

[00:48:47] I don't care if like, if there was accessible parking spots at the back of the parking lot,

[00:48:50] like I would park there.

[00:48:51] Yeah.

[00:48:52] Um, and I do like if, if like the spots up front are taken, I go park in the back of

[00:48:58] the parking lot and like next to like a curb barrier and leave myself enough room to get

[00:49:02] out.

[00:49:03] And then nobody parks on that side because it's happened before.

[00:49:06] I try to, nobody is in a spot next to me.

[00:49:09] I parked there.

[00:49:10] I come back out and it's too close and I literally can't get into waiting for this person.

[00:49:14] And yeah, I just have to like wait for them to come out.

[00:49:16] And so, um, yeah, yeah.

[00:49:20] Yeah.

[00:49:20] The biggest thing is, yeah, just there's, there's people that need the spots, um, more

[00:49:23] from like a mobility side of things where, um, they need to be close to the establishment,

[00:49:28] which is great.

[00:49:30] Um, but also for those people, if there's close spots that you don't need the extra space to

[00:49:35] get in and out, like park there and leave the, the accessible spots open or just like

[00:49:40] everybody that like we'll park in those spots, like, uh, FedEx drivers will park right in front

[00:49:47] of them.

[00:49:47] I'm only here for three minutes, you know?

[00:49:49] Yeah.

[00:49:49] Different stuff like that.

[00:49:50] But I'm like, okay, no, like now you've compromised someone else's ability to, to park and get

[00:49:56] out and go do their thing.

[00:49:57] Yeah.

[00:49:57] That's the thing is it's, it's a selfish thing to do.

[00:49:59] I think to not put your cart away.

[00:50:00] Yeah.

[00:50:00] It just is.

[00:50:01] Cause they're like, Oh, someone else will deal with it.

[00:50:02] You know, it's like, we're not asking much of you.

[00:50:04] You just got to put it in the return.

[00:50:05] Yeah.

[00:50:06] You know, and they're all over the parking lot.

[00:50:08] Yeah.

[00:50:08] I got this sticker and I'm, I'm trying to figure out the best place to put it, but it says warning

[00:50:14] on it.

[00:50:15] Just like a warning, like sticker that you would see.

[00:50:17] It just says like warning, use common sense.

[00:50:20] Uh huh.

[00:50:20] I like it.

[00:50:21] That's a good one.

[00:50:22] I mean, that's like one of the, like, it's a fun insult.

[00:50:25] You could like, you like, don't want to be vulgar.

[00:50:29] Yeah.

[00:50:29] You're like, you seem like the type of person that doesn't put their cart away.

[00:50:34] You know, if, if, if you catch me saying that to you, like that's yeah, that's a, that's

[00:50:39] a major insult because it doesn't take any time.

[00:50:42] And like, what, what is it like?

[00:50:43] And like you said, they're so reluctant that they'd rather spend like arguing.

[00:50:47] Yeah.

[00:50:47] 20 minutes arguing in the parking lot would have taken 20 seconds to put the cart away.

[00:50:52] He does take it one step further.

[00:50:53] Like if they drive off, he'll put a magnet on their car that says, I don't return my

[00:50:56] shopping cart like a jerk.

[00:50:57] Yeah.

[00:50:57] And that's where it starts to get nasty.

[00:50:59] People are like, don't touch my car.

[00:51:00] Yeah.

[00:51:00] They lose their shit.

[00:51:01] And so that's like his whole YouTube channel.

[00:51:03] That's funny.

[00:51:04] It's pretty funny.

[00:51:04] I'll look it up.

[00:51:04] Yeah.

[00:51:04] You'll like that.

[00:51:05] Yeah.

[00:51:05] It's, it's some good stuff.

[00:51:07] Yup.

[00:51:07] But it's just, it's just being courteous.

[00:51:09] Like your hat says, you know, if you could just be a good person.

[00:51:11] Yeah.

[00:51:12] And I really do like that hat.

[00:51:13] Yeah.

[00:51:13] Local Denver company.

[00:51:15] If you haven't, uh, haven't heard of them.

[00:51:17] Is it be a good person?

[00:51:18] It's a good person is the brand.

[00:51:20] Oh, nice.

[00:51:20] It's just like lifestyle brand, uh, apparel, uh, clothing and stuff like that.

[00:51:25] But yeah, they've, they've done some collabs with like the Broncos.

[00:51:28] And so they have some, some merch there, but yeah, it's just like the most basic concept

[00:51:34] to be a good person.

[00:51:35] Yup.

[00:51:35] It really is.

[00:51:36] It really is.

[00:51:37] Yeah.

[00:51:37] I like to wear this at airports and I get some, some good comments because sometimes at

[00:51:42] airports, it's like the, the nastiest people.

[00:51:44] Oh yeah.

[00:51:44] You see everything at an airport.

[00:51:45] Yeah.

[00:51:46] I love getting there early and just people watching.

[00:51:48] Yeah.

[00:51:48] Get a little something to eat, get posted up.

[00:51:49] You see everyone coming up off the escalator.

[00:51:51] Some people are in a rush, you know, some people are pissed.

[00:51:53] You get it all at the airport.

[00:51:54] It's not my fault that you have horrible time management and you're fucking running late.

[00:51:59] Like when you're on time, people get it.

[00:52:02] You run early.

[00:52:04] You're never stressed out.

[00:52:05] Like I was even talking to my dad about this.

[00:52:07] I was like, I don't really get stressed driving.

[00:52:08] Cause I'm usually never in a rush.

[00:52:10] Like that's when you're stressed.

[00:52:11] That's when you're stressed.

[00:52:12] Yeah.

[00:52:12] What do you call me, Kevin?

[00:52:13] And if you're 10 minutes early, you're running late bat stone.

[00:52:16] Yeah.

[00:52:17] It was, it was something like that.

[00:52:18] Yeah.

[00:52:18] It was something like that.

[00:52:19] We get it.

[00:52:20] Punctuality is important.

[00:52:20] It is.

[00:52:21] Yeah.

[00:52:21] Shit happens, you know, get stuck in traffic, whatever.

[00:52:24] Yeah.

[00:52:24] I always like, I'm always stressed, like going to the airport.

[00:52:28] Oh yeah.

[00:52:29] But as soon as I get there and through security, then I'm good.

[00:52:33] Yeah.

[00:52:33] And it doesn't matter like how early I am.

[00:52:35] I can be six hours early going to the airport.

[00:52:38] I'll still be stressed.

[00:52:39] I think it's usually because I forget something like on every single trip.

[00:52:44] I forget one thing.

[00:52:45] Like a phone charger.

[00:52:46] Yeah.

[00:52:47] Yeah.

[00:52:47] And I just, I'm hoping, I'm hoping the thing that I forget is minimal.

[00:52:52] Yeah.

[00:52:52] But yeah, I forgot phone charger before.

[00:52:54] I've done that one a few times.

[00:52:55] I forgot like my accessible like parking placard.

[00:52:59] Okay.

[00:52:59] That's an important one.

[00:53:00] Which isn't like a huge, it's not a huge deal, but it's like a big inconvenience.

[00:53:03] Oh yeah.

[00:53:03] Like now, like I, like I don't have the, I don't have the, I don't have, yeah.

[00:53:07] So I can't park there.

[00:53:08] So I didn't like find regular spots on my, on my trip that I wasn't going to get parked

[00:53:13] in.

[00:53:15] But yeah, I just hope that it's like a minimal thing, but yeah, I'm always stressed going

[00:53:20] too.

[00:53:21] But once I, once I get there and the biggest hack I've gotten in the last, last year,

[00:53:25] you traveled a lot.

[00:53:26] Yeah.

[00:53:27] Quite a bit.

[00:53:28] Mostly domestically.

[00:53:29] I mean, I was traveling like every other week for my job.

[00:53:33] That's a lot.

[00:53:34] That's a lot.

[00:53:35] From once I was, well, after COVID.

[00:53:40] So probably I started traveling again in 2021 to like 2023.

[00:53:44] I was traveling like two weeks a month, uh, for my, for my job all over the country.

[00:53:49] 24 trips a year.

[00:53:50] That's quite a bit.

[00:53:50] Yeah.

[00:53:51] So I was, I was traveling a good amount.

[00:53:54] Um, so navigate the airport like pretty well.

[00:53:58] But, um, the biggest hack I got, the United credit card this last year.

[00:54:06] And so you could buy anything with that, right?

[00:54:09] With that.

[00:54:09] Yeah.

[00:54:09] Yeah.

[00:54:10] But you get like extra points.

[00:54:11] Oh, that's the way I have a Southwest one.

[00:54:13] Yeah.

[00:54:14] But I got the one where you get the lounge access.

[00:54:17] Wow.

[00:54:18] Because I used to be a Southwest guy.

[00:54:19] Okay.

[00:54:19] Now you're United.

[00:54:20] But yeah, now I'm, now I'm United and there's three lounge, United lounges at the Denver airport.

[00:54:26] Okay.

[00:54:26] Yeah.

[00:54:27] Um, big hub for them.

[00:54:28] Yeah.

[00:54:29] So big hub, you can fly anywhere, but going to the lounge before getting on a flight is

[00:54:35] like, that's, that's stress-free right there.

[00:54:37] It's like, what goes on in there?

[00:54:39] Um, I can't tell you because you don't have access.

[00:54:42] That's fucked up, man.

[00:54:44] No, it's like, there's free food.

[00:54:46] There's free food in there, you know, free drinks.

[00:54:48] Um, it's just like quiet.

[00:54:51] It's clean bathrooms.

[00:54:53] Um, peaceful.

[00:54:54] Yeah.

[00:54:54] Yeah.

[00:54:55] So we have been stopping in the lounge and then also.

[00:54:58] That sounds, that just sounds nice.

[00:55:00] I know.

[00:55:01] United over here.

[00:55:02] And then on your return flight or like when you're landing in a spot, you can, you can

[00:55:07] also go to the lounge.

[00:55:08] So there's been times where we've doubled up on the lounge.

[00:55:10] Like we flew to Phoenix and on our way back, we, we went to the United lounge in Phoenix

[00:55:17] for breakfast and then we landed in Denver, went to the United lounge, got lunch, uh, at

[00:55:23] the United lounge.

[00:55:24] But, um, so that's been like a huge, that sounds like a good hack.

[00:55:28] I've, I've gotten my money's worth.

[00:55:29] Like there is like the yearly fee for like the club card or whatever, but, um, I think

[00:55:35] it's, it's for sure worth it.

[00:55:36] We've been, I don't know how I go back like without the lounge now.

[00:55:40] It's one of those things.

[00:55:41] Just waiting out to waiting out by the gate.

[00:55:43] Where's that?

[00:55:43] Does that terminal B at DIA?

[00:55:45] They have one in A and they have two in B now.

[00:55:47] Okay.

[00:55:48] One is like kind of like an on the go thing where you can just like go in, grab, they have

[00:55:52] a bunch of stuff you can grab and go.

[00:55:54] Yeah.

[00:55:55] That's a step up my flying game.

[00:55:56] I'm out there in terminal C.

[00:55:57] Yeah.

[00:55:58] You know?

[00:55:59] Yeah.

[00:56:00] They did just update that though.

[00:56:02] No, it's, it's nice now.

[00:56:03] It looks really nice.

[00:56:04] The bathrooms are nice.

[00:56:05] Um, either, you know, they're fancy.

[00:56:08] DIA is.

[00:56:08] Or you could just go to the underground tunnels.

[00:56:10] Do you, do you think DIA has like the, do you think these conspiracies are, are true?

[00:56:15] Like, cause there's so many, have you seen?

[00:56:16] Well, there's definitely underground tunnels, but I think the conspiracy is what are they

[00:56:19] doing with it?

[00:56:20] Well, like that there's like a whole city underneath DIA.

[00:56:23] How about this conspiracy?

[00:56:24] Like there's this whole, there's like all these underground cities all across the United

[00:56:29] States.

[00:56:30] I could believe it with DIA.

[00:56:33] Um, I, I don't, I wouldn't say like I'm a big subscriber, but I'll listen to the conspiracy

[00:56:38] theories.

[00:56:38] They pull you in.

[00:56:39] They pull me in.

[00:56:40] And, uh, last, what was it?

[00:56:43] January 3rd, I had a wedding in California on January 4th.

[00:56:49] So flew to California on the 3rd by my house in Denver, completely blue, clear skies.

[00:56:55] It wasn't until you got like out by the actual airport that it was just like completely foggy,

[00:57:02] like all around.

[00:57:03] And I like, I'm not a meteorologist.

[00:57:05] I'm not a, not a weatherman, but it seemed weird.

[00:57:09] It seemed eerie.

[00:57:10] I drove in that fog.

[00:57:11] I know what you're talking about.

[00:57:12] Something else could be affecting that, uh.

[00:57:14] Man-made fog.

[00:57:15] Fog to cause some kind of delays or.

[00:57:17] Chemtrails.

[00:57:18] They covering something up over there.

[00:57:20] Interesting.

[00:57:20] It definitely gets people talking about it because it's like, this seems odd.

[00:57:23] And there's no question we've talked about like cloud seeding.

[00:57:25] And there's been a lot of reports of weather manipulation.

[00:57:28] That exists.

[00:57:29] That exists.

[00:57:29] Yes.

[00:57:30] And this video will probably get flagged and not aired as much because we talk about stuff.

[00:57:34] That's the crazy thing.

[00:57:36] Yeah, I got to do the disclaimer.

[00:57:37] We're not experts in anything.

[00:57:38] We're just three guys hanging out having fun.

[00:57:40] YouTube, please don't flag us.

[00:57:41] Yes.

[00:57:41] We're just having fun here.

[00:57:42] YouTube, we love you.

[00:57:43] Thank you so much.

[00:57:44] Great partner.

[00:57:44] Yes.

[00:57:45] Great partner.

[00:57:46] We've learned.

[00:57:47] We have learned.

[00:57:48] And it's, it's interesting though, um, because some people get so obsessed with conspiracies

[00:57:55] that they end up not trusting anything.

[00:57:58] And it's, it's like, what are you doing at that point?

[00:58:02] Like, it's like, what do you, what do you believe?

[00:58:04] And they believe in nothing almost.

[00:58:07] Yeah.

[00:58:07] In everything at the same time.

[00:58:09] Right.

[00:58:09] It's just a rabbit hole.

[00:58:10] A skeptic of everything.

[00:58:12] There's like a big trend right now in like the fitness industry with like raw milk.

[00:58:16] Okay.

[00:58:16] I haven't heard about this.

[00:58:17] Yeah.

[00:58:17] With non-pasteurized milk or something.

[00:58:19] Yeah.

[00:58:19] Raw milk is like the biggest like trend now.

[00:58:21] It's like, oh, you gotta, you gotta be on raw milk and, um, one of my buddies specifically

[00:58:27] is like, he works in the dairy industry and it's like all that pasteurization is, is heating

[00:58:36] it up to eliminate the bacterias and like cooling it back down.

[00:58:41] That's all it is.

[00:58:41] And like, that makes it a million times safer.

[00:58:45] You're not losing any nutrients.

[00:58:46] You're not like, you're not adding anything through, you know, no artificial additives

[00:58:50] or anything like that through pasteurization.

[00:58:52] Um, but like, yeah, it might work for some people.

[00:58:56] Um, if you have like a good source, like you're close to the farm or whatever, but for

[00:59:00] the general population, like it's not feasible to have raw milk.

[00:59:05] Yeah.

[00:59:05] Everybody's going to be getting sick.

[00:59:06] Like that's what happened before, before we had pasteurization.

[00:59:10] Yeah.

[00:59:10] Like that is what happened.

[00:59:12] And homogenization too.

[00:59:13] Cause you think raw milk, when you'd have the fat sitting at the top of the bottle,

[00:59:16] he'll milkman and deliver it.

[00:59:17] Homogenizing is when they spin the fat through the milk, right?

[00:59:19] At a high rate of speed.

[00:59:21] So it evenly distributes it.

[00:59:22] If you're drinking whole milk, my understanding of it.

[00:59:23] Yeah.

[00:59:24] Right.

[00:59:24] So I think it's funny.

[00:59:25] And I'm like the type of person that like, I will facetiously just like know about these

[00:59:30] conspiracy theories and then bring it up to, to folks.

[00:59:34] When they're least excited.

[00:59:35] When you think about this.

[00:59:35] Yeah.

[00:59:36] It's so fun.

[00:59:37] Makes you, kind of makes you think.

[00:59:39] Well, you can, you can read people a little bit too.

[00:59:41] You bring up some outlandish shit and see, see how they react.

[00:59:44] Yeah.

[00:59:45] And then you can see who you're sitting with.

[00:59:46] Yeah.

[00:59:47] You can like tell who you're sitting with.

[00:59:48] Right.

[00:59:48] I'm like almost never serious in, in conversations.

[00:59:51] No, that's good.

[00:59:52] Keep it fun.

[00:59:52] Yeah.

[00:59:53] Keep it mysterious.

[00:59:53] Gotta keep it, gotta keep it light.

[00:59:55] And then, and then we mix in some of the, uh, the real shit, the life lessons.

[00:59:59] Well, well, well, look at this man.

[01:00:01] Like talking with you, time is flying.

[01:00:03] Oh wow.

[01:00:03] You are definitely in the wheelhouse.

[01:00:06] So we want to get you back on.

[01:00:08] And it's always fun the second time.

[01:00:10] Cause we've talked about your story.

[01:00:11] We've gotten to know you and then, and it's really just cutting it up and shooting the shit.

[01:00:14] Yeah.

[01:00:15] But one thing that we really do like to ask, um, all of our guests is the same question.

[01:00:20] And that is, let's say that the whole world hears this podcast tomorrow.

[01:00:25] If you could give everybody one piece of advice so everyone can be better tomorrow, regardless

[01:00:30] if it's simple or complex, what would that piece of advice be?

[01:00:35] Yeah, we've talked about a couple of good things.

[01:00:37] I think like, uh, creating versus consuming, um, how accessibility can help everyone, not

[01:00:46] just like wheelchair users.

[01:00:48] Um, and a couple of different angles that, that come into play with accessibility, returning

[01:00:54] your, your cart, um, when you're at the shop.

[01:00:58] I was going to say, bring that one up.

[01:01:00] We covered a lot of growth.

[01:01:01] Um, we, we did cover quite a, quite a bit, but yeah, I mean, I guess maybe putting a bow

[01:01:11] on it is just like take an inner look on, on how you measure success.

[01:01:19] And like, I, I was on a linear path.

[01:01:22] Like I was going to college, I was getting a degree.

[01:01:26] I was going to, um, you know, work the corporate ladder, buy a house, start a family.

[01:01:34] And like, that is life.

[01:01:36] And like, that was success and kind of tracked side by side with like wealth and how much

[01:01:41] money you earn.

[01:01:42] And that would be like the definition of success.

[01:01:45] And I think that's a lot of how the country in the United States and in, you know, even

[01:01:49] the world tracks like the definition of success.

[01:01:52] Um, but after kind of almost dying, having a, uh, a totally new lease and perspective on

[01:02:02] life, um, success looks a lot differently.

[01:02:06] And it's still a word that I'm still trying to, to, to form a definition behind.

[01:02:13] And I'm, I don't think I'm quite there yet, but I think everybody should take a look at

[01:02:18] how they define success.

[01:02:19] Cause I think that drives a lot of how you interact with, with other people as, as well.

[01:02:26] So, um, like if wealth is your definition of, of success and that's what you're chasing after,

[01:02:32] like what kind of human value do you place on somebody that doesn't have that wealth and

[01:02:39] how do you interact with that person?

[01:02:40] So it's kind of like trying to maybe tie it all into one that breaks the mold.

[01:02:44] No, that's powerful.

[01:02:45] Be a good person, like interact with people with like, with disabilities the same you would

[01:02:50] interact like with anybody else, like treat everybody with a, like a baseline level that

[01:02:56] we're all humans on this earth.

[01:02:58] Yeah.

[01:02:58] We, we got to be here together.

[01:02:59] And so if you see somebody else as just another human and not like a conspiracy theorist or not

[01:03:07] a conspiracy theorist or what side of, uh, the political spectrum you're, you're on and

[01:03:12] just putting people into categories and labels like that.

[01:03:15] Um, and I think a lot of that is, is derived based off of how people define success.

[01:03:22] So my one thing would be take a look at how you define success and take a really good look

[01:03:28] at that.

[01:03:28] And, um, it might not always be a, uh, a straightforward answer.

[01:03:33] And sometimes throughout life that success can, can change and mold depending on the,

[01:03:37] the, the season.

[01:03:39] Um, but, uh, we might be a couple steps forward if we all take a look at that.

[01:03:45] I think that's good advice for sure.

[01:03:47] And it's good to read, like you said, reevaluate life changes every five, 10 years, reevaluate

[01:03:50] where you're at, where are you going, where you've been, you know, what's next?

[01:03:53] What's the, what's the next journey?

[01:03:54] You know, I think that's, that's great, great advice.

[01:03:56] Yeah.

[01:03:57] And, and the disabled community is, uh, really the only one that anybody can join at any time.

[01:04:06] Oh shit.

[01:04:07] And I learned it the hard way.

[01:04:08] And so like, if, if, if you're not being an advocate for, for accessibility, like just

[01:04:17] wait, you'll know some, you'll know somebody soon.

[01:04:19] And like, don't, don't wait till it impacts you.

[01:04:22] Like I, I had no idea about, um, accessibility or until I was like thrown into this world.

[01:04:30] Um, and so I wish I had the perspective without having to, to be in the chair for the rest of

[01:04:36] my life.

[01:04:36] Yeah.

[01:04:37] Powerful words, uh, well said as well, very well articulated.

[01:04:41] And I couldn't agree more, um, with that piece, especially like the consuming versus

[01:04:47] creating, like how are you creating in life?

[01:04:49] You don't want to just consume too much.

[01:04:51] And when you're consuming, overly consuming, you're comparing, and then essentially you're

[01:04:55] comparing your level of success with how other people's lifestyles are.

[01:05:00] And I've, I've, I thought I, that is, we, what is your definition of success?

[01:05:07] I've always thought that that was such a powerful question because I don't think most

[01:05:11] people even think about that.

[01:05:13] They just think, Oh, that's successful because they're money or they're successful because

[01:05:17] they're in good shape or like, because they have Instagram followers or whatever.

[01:05:20] People are, that's the consuming part.

[01:05:22] Yeah.

[01:05:22] So do too much of it.

[01:05:23] That's, that's great.

[01:05:24] That's great advice.

[01:05:25] Powerful for sure.

[01:05:25] And I'm glad we got to shed a lot of light on accessibility and stuff.

[01:05:28] Oh, for sure.

[01:05:28] And I hope that the viewers and listeners take something away from that.

[01:05:31] Put your cards away, be, you know, be courteous to your surroundings and, and, you know, like

[01:05:34] you said, treat everyone the same.

[01:05:36] Yeah.

[01:05:37] Yeah.

[01:05:37] And I'm, I'm pretty much an open book.

[01:05:38] So if, if you want to, uh, reach out to me on, on Instagram and send me a question.

[01:05:43] Oh yeah.

[01:05:43] Get your plugs in there.

[01:05:44] Yeah.

[01:05:44] Yeah.

[01:05:45] It's just brandon.mance.

[01:05:46] Um, send me a question.

[01:05:48] Uh, I can send some seated workouts, some seated tips, you know, people, if you've got a short

[01:05:53] term injury, you sprain your ankle or something like that.

[01:05:56] And you want to, want to stay active.

[01:05:58] I can, I can send some seated workouts over.

[01:06:00] You got a question about accessibility or, or something like that.

[01:06:03] Happy to, happy to interact.

[01:06:05] Oh yeah.

[01:06:05] Well, I couldn't think of a better way to bring in the first episode of discussion combustion

[01:06:10] in 2025 is with you.

[01:06:12] So people's podcast.

[01:06:14] One more time.

[01:06:15] We'll cheers to this and to a continued success moving forward.

[01:06:18] Gentlemen.

[01:06:19] Cheers.

[01:06:19] Much love.

[01:06:20] Let's make it a great year.

[01:06:20] Thanks again for having me.

[01:06:21] Yeah.

[01:06:21] Thanks for having me.

[01:06:22] I'm excited to go see your truck once we get down here.

[01:06:24] So viewers, we'll see you on happy Friday tomorrow.

[01:06:27] Be good to yourselves.

[01:06:28] You deserve it.

[01:06:29] Right on.